Title: Feeling for The Right Things
Fandom: Kamen Rider Gaim
Rating: T
Length: 539 words
Content notes: Mentions apocalyptic happenings (this is Gaim, it's not a cheery series). Also contains spoilers for the later half of the series, along with some speculation about the continued existence of two characters.
Author notes: This is Kazuraba Akira/Kureshima Takatora since for some reason my brain wants to explore how their relationship might be post-series.
Summary: Akira likes Takatora, but she's still figuring out if she wants to be a relationship with him.

It's a rather odd relationship, Akira thinks. She's an Office Lady, he's a former executive of a disgraced company. She's sure there are rules for such a thing, but she has no idea where to even start looking.

In the normal world, they would not be figuring out this relationship at all. He would have an arranged marriage, and she would probably find a good man in her social class. She's met his parents once, and while they aren't particularly enthusiastic, they know that with all that the family's done an Office Lady is about as respectable as they're going to get for a daughter in law. After all, when the company your family owns tried to kill sixth sevenths of the world's population and one might be facing trial for one's part in the scheme, one's marriage prospects tend to get a little slim.

She's not sure she wants to marry a possible criminal from a disgraced family, but she has to admit, Takatora is a good man that did a lot of things wrong in order to try to save everything. He's quiet, reserved, and gentle. He's learned not to be too stern, for that sternness was partially responsible for ending the world. She knows that Kouta encourages him to admit all his sins to her before they even think of being wed, for this is somewhat dangerous territory.

And yet, Kouta is the one that introduced them and is trying to get them to get married. He thinks that despite all of Takatora's wrongs, he'd be a good husband to Akira. She has to admit for all the difference in their social strata that they have a lot in common. They've both raised younger brothers on their own and tried to turn them into responsible adults. She succeeded while he failed; he raised a villain that almost destroyed the world, she raised the man who saved it.

It's sometimes awkward to talk about it, to say the least.

So they talk a lot. Not just about Micchy - Mitsuzane - and Kouta, but about art and beauty and the tough things. Sometimes she feels like she'd never be Takatora's equal, and then he reminds her that because of her, there is still a world to enjoy. Besides, he may owe her for starting the chain of events that turned Kouta into something Other.

They haven't gotten to holding hands yet. He doesn't want to drag her into what might happen to him, and she's agreed. Holding hands would say that they're in a romantic relationship, and neither of them is ready for that. Not while his future is so uncertain. She's agreed to take Mitsuzane in if Takatora goes to jail, adopt him into her family as a little brother. It makes Takatora smile in relief, and she likes that smile.

Maybe she's a little shallow, for she doesn't mind looking at him. He's certainly handsome enough, actor-handsome. But that doesn't a relationship make, she knows. It's hard work, cooperation, and getting along. Working together to raise a family.

It may not work out, despite Kouta's hopes. But she thinks that she and Takatora have enough in common to make it work, if they are lucky.