#furuui

Furuui

6. How do they make up/apologize after an argument?

Barely. On Koori's end just getting to throw his side of the story out is enough typically, but the annoying part is that Furuta tends to agree. Regardless of how sincere that is, it feels like a taunt, especially when this guy has said about 6 sincere sentences in the entirety of his weird little existence. But yeah, unfortunately he's just fine with allowing himself to be torn down if it helps get past the issue faster. He's usually the cause for disagreement anyways.

19. Do they wear each other’s clothes/jewelry?

Furuta would if he could, but while Koori is by no means frail he is canonically a twig of a man and any of his clothing that actually fits well, would not fit whatsoever for Furuta. His silly oversized coats are on the table though, even if Koori is quick to snatch them back as soon as he notices.

Koori lives in enough of a daze that he subconsciously grabs something of Furuta's on the way out of their office sometimes. He doesn't like that they're Furuta's, but he also doesn't care enough to return them until the opportunity offers itself.

20. How do they comfort each other when one of them is upset? Is this method of comfort effective?

They give each other something to do, distraction is the name of the game and whether that's slaughter, holding each other, a pointless discussion, or just something to chew on is irrelevant. It works. Will they still be thinking about it deep in the night and tearing themselves up over it? Yes. Have they been doing that their entire lives anyways? Yes.

Arieto (Disclaimer I don't understand either of their characters very well)

18. How do they care for each other when one of them is wounded/sick?

Arima's very stoic and respectful about it, giving Eto plenty of space to recover (and also because he's not really sure what to say because he knows she doesn't like being perceived as vulnerable.) Eto on the other hand is going to get him back on his feet with all the enthusiasm and affection necessary. They're both very practical about it.

20. How do they comfort each other when one of them is upset? Is this method of comfort effective?

Eto often prefers time by herself when bothered, but Arima's the exception. Just sitting around each other often makes her feel better, sometimes with a book or other token of good will. Eto tries to help him take his mind off whatever it is, to varying degrees of efficiency. He's very caught up in his own head as a byproduct of being very accustomed to not talking about anything.

36. How do they feel about having kids? Are they in agreement?

4. Who initiates affection? Why does the other not initiate affection as much?

It's not that much of a difference but typically, Koori starts it, Furuta keeps it going. Simply, Furuta's more inclined to poke and tease but he prefers to let Koori take initiative in the sense of "Sure we're doing this", and then he runs with it for as far as he wants. It tends to come of boredom, frustration, or sheer loneliness and desire to be close with someone. (Though the last one gets written off as one of the prior.)

14. Do they enjoy PDA, or are they more private with affection?

Not really. They have little interest in explaining this weird relationship to anyone else because that requires acknowledging it's a relationship. Furuta likes to test the limits of what can just be written off as "The Bureau Chief being weird again", though, much to Koori's lament.

18. How do they care for each other when one of them is wounded/sick?

Teasingly or irritably respectively, yet carefully for both. That's a lot of words that end with ly, anyways. As much as they're pains about it, they really don't want to lose virtually the only person they have left, even if said person isn't a good one, or doesn't deserve to be stuck with them.

21. Do they enjoy domestic life?

If they could sit down and try to obtain it instead of leaning full tilt into their doomed existences, yes I think they would. At the end of the day what they both wanted most was to live a normal life and to be loved, in a twisted way they found a glimpse of that in each other. They justify this relationship with a need to feel alive, that implies emphasis on the moments of brief violent emotion and while yes that excites them and sparks them out of their misery for a moment, it's the quiet ones after that actually bring them the most happiness. They'd hate to think that it wasn't just a result of the quiet though, or worse, that it's requited.

32. Do either of them drink? If so, who’s the lightweight, and how does their partner care for them?

Koori's the typical drinker, and we've seen how he acts in canon. He complains and wallows in his own misery for a little which... isn't happiness, but it's slightly better than bottling it all up. Furuta finds it charming, the honesty is good. He's happy to take him home and make sure he doesn't choke while listening amusedly to Koori's gripes with himself, Furuta, and just about everyone else.

Furuta likes the experience but he's weird about it. While it alleviates the stress of his constant performance for a time, he hates getting anything more than a little tipsy in front of people because if he's not in control of his own actions down to the finest detail his carefully crafted masks start melting into each other. You'd think his half-human nature would give him a high tolerance, but I think I've mentioned how his digestive system is kind of fucked, and that extends to his metabolism. If he ever felt compelled to allow himself to get drunk around Koori, Koori would probably just be occupied with not letting this idiot die and ignoring the weirdly genuine-feeling nature of certain comments mixed within his typical hysterics.

39. When and how did they admit that they loved each other? If they haven’t yet, why?

(I already did 33, so I'm throwing in this one because it allows me to explain a rather crucial point of their relationship for me, as long as it stays inside the time confines of their canonical collaboration. Also the friend I was going to ask for a number is asleep.)

Rather than having a fixed interpretation of them as a ship, I kind of shift around how much genuine affection and feeling they have for each other depending on how much I want them (and myself) to suffer! Between Koori's loss of Hairu and Arima, and Furuta's... everything, there's a lot of potential for one-sidedness, or even mutual projection of feeling. But personally I think the cruelest (and funniest) idea is genuine requited love, buried amidst miles of that projection and pretend and agreement to lie to each other. The only worse thing than loving someone else is to be loved, the world denied them happiness and they don't really fight against it. They accept it, and that willingness to accept demise goes directly against the idea of love. Their plans and goals do not work if they care for each other, so it's all just an idle way to pass time.

So no, they probably haven't, and if they do it'll be with their dying breaths because they simply don't have the time to work that out. Koori will always be chasing after a shadow of Furuta's siblings, looking for Hairu, and Furuta will never admit that he wants more. They're both going to die unfulfilled and it's delightful.

5. Do they argue often? If so, what do they argue about?

Yes, but not about what you might think. Furuta has committed enough moral atrocities at this point that, everyone's somewhat conditioned to it and he could loudly declare that he's going to burn down an orphanage but it's fine because there's a couple ghouls in there and everyone would... hesitantly go along with it because his numbers speak for themselves.

"No you can't wear the stupid glasses to another meeting, no one pays attention they just stare at you" and "That's the point!" and other such discussions are frequent matters of debate, though.

9. What do they dislike most about the other? Why?

I'm going to preface this with a little line of, they dislike themselves first and each other second.

Koori hates a lot about Furuta (understandably) but not in a particularly passionate way for most things, he's sort of just too tired to feel much of anything. Most specifically, Koori dislikes the way he pretends about the outcome. He doesn't really mind the fact that this is going to end in flames, as he says he's just looking for shelter. But he does dislike Furuta's inclination to pretend otherwise even if there's some reason. Most of all he dislikes that he feels any affection for him at all, because Furuta definitely doesn't deserve it but, he doesn't think he does either.

Furuta doesn't quite hate anything about Koori, but he does dislike how he doesn't really play the part he's come to expect from any of his "Lovers". Mostly because he tends to plan for that, luring them in and then sweeping the rug out from under their feet as they scream and claim they always knew. Koori does know (perhaps only to an extent but it's a hell of a lot more than ever before) and Furuta does not like that at all. He doesn't like how the lines between acting and genuine feeling blur, let alone in perhaps the only time that the idea that it's all just to serve a purpose was agreed upon. Also it's less of an issue, but he's got internalized homophobia six ways from sunday (thank the garden) and the thought that he might actually be attracted to a guy is upsetting.

38. Who’s got a quicker temper?

(Did the same thing as last time and let a different friend say a number between 33 and 40, she went with this one.)

Oh it's Koori. To be fair it'd be pretty difficult to beat a guy who lives his life "clowning" as it were, but still.

40. Do they have any regrets in their relationship?

8. What do they love most about the other? Why?

Subconsciously, the fact that the other cares whatsoever. They're incredibly accustomed to being unloved, and though they wouldn't admit that there's any genuine feeling to this (however sparse) they both like that part quite a lot. In a very fucked up way they keep each other going.

Consciously, they reason it out as the fact that the spontaneous nature of it makes them feel alive, in a time of otherwise just getting from point A (right now) to point B (death).

13. How do they keep in contact when they’re apart? Do they write letters, talk on the phone, or simply wait out the time?

(I already did 16 so, I asked my friend for a random number between 8 and 30, he gave me 13. Hopefully that's fine.)

They aren't apart very frequently due to their positions, but Koori doesn't actually care that much besides the vague repressed notion that his distraction is gone, and it feels worse. Furuta feels slightly bored and pesters him over the phone occasionally, sometimes with actual work stuff, but mostly with random bullshit. However, he's busy too so for the most part they wait it out. Calling each other just to talk implies they care, and as far as they'll acknowledge, they don't!

30. What are their respective love languages? Do their love languages work well together?

I know very little about love languages when it comes to trying to assign them to people (Mostly because mine is just "anything but touch unless we're really close" and I can't fathom preferring one), and it's complicated by the fact that Furuta's kind of just a bunch of layers of bullshit carefully painting over and piloting a person who's been dead for years. I can still try but I just wanted to provide an explanation.

Koori expresses mainly through acts of service, He likes receiving the same, along with physical touch. Furuta mostly just mirrors this back because that's what he's used to doing in relationships, he approaches them like an annoyingly advanced chatbot with a secret goal to tick you off. All the right answers and very little genuine personality until he feels like chipping at that person to see how long it takes them to be annoyed, but Koori tends to see through that to some extent actually and it bothers him. With time he probably leans more into simple spending time together and words of affirmation. It works out decently because, to put it bluntly, they don't care how their weird little imitation goes as long as they don't have to admit that any of it is genuine.

43. If they picked out outfits for each other, what would they look like?

"Date" is generous, they're busy all the time so the closest thing they came to that for a while, was making coffee in the break room at ungodly hours of the morning. The building was very dark and empty, because any rational person was sleeping or doing their job out in the streets. Koori was exhausted and doesn't remember much of it, except for that the coffee ended up kind of shitty, and Furuta was unanticipatedly relaxed about it all. Might've just been too tired to put on much of a show. Regardless it meant a lot more than any sort of dinner just because they both prefer the quiet to some extent, though it's a nuanced thing. Other "dates" include things like making a rough excuse for a meal with their mutually limited cooking knowledge at Koori's house, staying overnight in their stupidly oversized office to work and talk, and cooperative murder that they have the authority to assign themselves to. Sometimes they go on proper dinner dates, but not frequently because of aforementioned reasons and the fact that they have to take certain measures to not be recognized. Neither of them are really nervous about it, it's more an elaborate excuse to see what makes each other tick for a little without having to say much because they're eating.

16. Would they ever get matching tattoos? If yes, what would these look like?

I mean, probably not. They justify their relationship through the temporary nature of it, and their own lives. A permanent marking would be an actual acknowledgement of "I am devoted to you and this isn't just something to pass the time with." That's something they'll probably never realize in the span of time they spend together before Furuta dies.

BUT, I am an artist and I love denial of my own. So maybe they were looking for something particularly spontaneous to do way too late at night for their own good. Mockingbird wings.

Ignore my bad hand anatomy, probably not in this spot I just couldn't think of a better one. It's in the symbolism. (Find an actual list if you're curious, because the first search result will give the the symbolism of "To Kill a Mockingbird" not what mockingbirds themselves can represent.)

33. How do they flirt? Who’s the worse flirt?

Oh no.

Worse in terms of "Dear god please stop": Furuta. Shitty puns, stupid games, the worst part is that it works, and it's further horrific because he'll throw something actually flustering in the midst of the stupidity and it catches Koori completely off-guard. Worse in terms of "Bad at this": Koori. He's not good at it by nature, and a long time of having Hairu be completely oblivious to his feelings has screwed up his concept of how to flirt to a truly impressive degree. Not that he tries most days anyways, if he wants something he pulls Furuta aside and says it.