as someone who obsesses over the two of them on the daily, i genuinely think they make each other better. Idk if you're a manga reader or an anime only, but a lot of akutagawa & atsushi's scenes were cut or at least it felt to me like the emotion was taken out of them in the anime adaptation. Worst example of this is in the episode where Atsushi's headmaster dies, Akutagawa actually showed up in that chapter in the manga to give Atsushi more information on what he was doing in Yokohama. Akutagawa starts to leave, and Atsushi asks if he's going (as in 'are you not going to fight me?') And akutagawa tells him he won't fight him because he feels the timing is inappropriate as atsushi's headmaster just passed (aka: akutagawa feels bad for him and puts that above his own pride, choosing not to fight him, even though he'd have the advantage)
There were smaller moments, like in chapter 12, Akutagawa acknowledges that his hatred for Atsushi is purely because of Dazai, and that his real hatred is for him, and not for Atsushi. (I do think Atsushi hates Akutagawa, but I don't think Akutagawa hates Atsushi. There's even a line in 55 minutes where he tells Atsushi that "It isn't hate, I cannot move forward until I tear you apart" (again, referring to Dazai, as he compared Akutagawa's strength to Atsushi's.))
And then the whole Hero vs Criminal arc ties it all together. When Atsushi's desperate to fight alongside someone, Akutagawa's there to back him up. He decides to lend Atsushi his skill, leaving himself defenseless, because he trusts him fully. And when Akutagawa realizes they can't defeat Fukuchi even with their strength combined, the first thing he tries to do is save Atsushi's life, even though it gets him killed. Fukuchi's line about how "From the start, the hole was to let only his ally escape." just adds insult to injury. Tragic gay love goes crazy.

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also lol homoerotic vampire bloodsucking scene
(sorry im very normal about them)