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Kurusu Akira is not a man of many wishes. Throughout his life, he got used to taking what he can get without complaints, never asking for more. But that was before he got into this situation.
And what a situation it is.
Akira really likes Tokyo. He likes taking strolls in Inokashira Park, likes playing arcade games in Akihabara until evening, likes working at Leblanc, learning to make coffee and loves going through palaces and changing the hearts of evil people as the notorious Joker, leader of the Phantom Thieves.
He loves his friends too, after all, none of this would be possible without them. He loves buying stuff for Morgana, seeing him complain about Akira “treating him like a pet instead of a human” (which Akira honestly doubts he really is), yet enjoying playing around like a real cat anyway. He loves getting ramen with Ryuji and complaining about the people at school like they’re normal teenagers and not kids with too much power at their hands, and he loves listening to Yusuke talk about countless subjects of art and showing him his new works, as if he holds Akira’s opinion above anyone else’s, despite his lack of knowledge in the field.
Akira loves all of his confidants, as they are people who continue to help him every day, but he wouldn’t deny he has a strong bias about his female ones.
His female confidants who all seem to be attracted to him for some reason.
Normally this would be an ideal situation for a teenager. He knows most guys would love to be in his place, having girls throw themselves at him. Why would he complain about some cute girls wanting to spend time with him, giving him their undivided attention?
But Akira has his reasons for not being enthusiastic about any of this. One of them being that he is, unfortunately, very much gay. The other being that he feels like his popularity really doesn't make any sense.
Any way you look at it, Kurusu Akira is the epitome of a normal, plain, boring person. There are not a lot of things remarkable about him, nothing that would make seemingly every woman who so much as looks at him want him so badly. It felt like he was the main character of a harem game. A really shitty harem game.
Because of that, every day was hell for him, and all Akira wanted was for them to stop.
He wondered if there will ever come a day when he wouldn't be subjected to something that should only take place in a romance anime instead of real life. Walking in the school halls in late afternoon and catching the eye of one of the women who are obsessed with him for pretty much existing, he knows it won’t be today.
He pointedly looks in the other direction as Niijima Makoto walks up to him, looking at Akira as if just seeing him brightened her day. “Hello, Akira-kun.” she said as she pushed her hair behind an ear for no reason.
“Hi.” he answered, giving her a tiny smile. Makoto was a good friend and teammate of his, he didn’t want to be rude to her for no reason, but he would be lying if he said that a part of him wasn’t frustrated at the blush that appeared on her face at that.
Seriously, how can it be so easy? He barely had to do anything at all.
“Are you going home now?” Makoto asked him, blush still present. Oh no, was she about to ask him to walk home with her? He’d rather do another favour for the student council that anyone who was actually in said council refused to do. At least that won’t somehow get him into an embarrassing situation.
He should lie. He should say he already made plans with somebody else, or suggest going to Mementos with the rest of the team, seeing as the requests must have piled up since they last went in there a few weeks ago.
Akira decided to go for a half-lie. “I was going to help Sojiro out at the café today.” That should be a good enough excuse, right?
“Oh. Then, do you mind if I accompany you? It would be nice to spend some time at Leblanc.” she said as she gave him a radiant smile that would make most men give all mortal possessions to her if she would smile like that at them again, but was sadly ineffective in his case.
“Uhh.” Fuck, he should have known that wasn’t enough to make her leave him alone. “He said he needed help for something, it’s really important, and don’t you have your own work to do? I would just distract you.” There. He knows with how pragmatic she is that the idea of getting interrupted during her work would annoy her enough to drop the subject and stop bothering Akira.
“Oh, no. It’s fine. In fact…” and there she goes again pushing hair behind an ear for no reason “... I wouldn’t mind it if I could just watch you work. Not at all.”
...
Seems he doesn’t know her well enough. Or maybe whatever higher being decided to play a joke on Akira and make him a chick magnet simply decided Makoto was too smart to like him and needed to have her whole personality rewritten.
Before he could try to find another excuse, Morgana finally showed his presence. “Come on, Joker. You promised Sojiro to be there early, didn’t you? Hurry up and go!” he said rather unhelpfully. Traitor. Next time he asks for fatty tuna from Akira he’s getting dog food instead.
“Then it’s alright for me to come too, right?” When Morgana didn’t say anything that time, she took it as a yes and grabbed Akira’s hand. “Great! Let’s go then.”
Hell. Today was going to be another day in hell.
Luckily for him, he was indeed too busy helping Sojiro to spend any time alone with Makoto. The older man was a blessing, the best “coffee dad” as he liked to call him in his head, that Akira could ask for.
But the peace didn’t last. Because, apparently, someone decided that Akira being gay was the worst thing he could have done and he needed to be punished for it.
When Sojiro asked for Akira to watch the store as he went to do grocery shopping for dinner, Makoto finally broke the silence and asked him for a cup refill.
Okay. Alright. He can do this. She still seemed busy. Sojiro shouldn't be gone for long. Everything will be fine.
Nothing was fine, because when he turned around, Makoto moved from her place at the booth in the middle and into the counter seat right across where he was standing, staring at him as if his mere presence was the most fascinating thing ever.
"You know, Akira." she starts, and he doesn't miss how she dropped the honorific. "You're really good at this."
“At what? Breathing?” he wanted to ask. He wouldn't be surprised if his guess was correct.
"What do you mean?" he asked instead. Ugh, here he was hoping he could just work in peace while the girl in front of him pretended she wasn't stealing glances at him the whole time. Did she even get a bit of her work done?
Akira decided to make a cup for himself as well, seeing as this will go on for a while. Not the best way to deal with his problems, but at least the coffee was good.
"You're so diligent and hard-working, a real role model. Kids our age don’t care about studying or working, but not you. You are not like that at all. You’re really amazing” she said. Akira felt that the praise came out of nowhere, but couldn’t deny a part of him did enjoy hearing those words.
“Uh. Right. Thanks.” he said a bit awkwardly as he was pouring water for two cups, remembering the way Makoto likes her coffee with a bit of cream. The thought reminded him of another person who takes his coffee with cream and sugar, despite saying he doesn’t like sweets much.
He must have had that dopey smile on his face he usually has while thinking of the one person he would rather be with right now, because Makoto decided it would be a very good idea to slide her hand on the counter closer to where his sat. The typical and not at all subtle way to show that you want to hold hands with someone, but instead of taking their hand, you wait for them to do it, which Akira had no intention of doing.
Their coffee was done and he started adding cream to her cup when Makoto spoke again. “However, I know how stressful it must be for you, having to adjust to a new environment and all, especially one that treats you as cruelly as Shujin does. So don’t hesitate to come to me for help, okay? Maybe we should hold another study session soon. Just the two of us.” She blushed as she said the next words. “Maybe at my house this time? It would be more quiet than here. My sister doesn’t come back until late night as well, so we won’t be interrupted.”
Had he not known Makoto better, he’d think she wanted to help him “study” something not at all related to school, but the girl in front of him wasn’t as forward with such… ideas as some other friends of his. She wasn’t like Takemi who looked so pleased in seeing him shirtless that she’d ask him to stay like that at almost every session of theirs, even when not necessary. Or Ohya who would sometimes whisper stuff in his ear when she was drunk, having no memory of doing so when sober. Or Kawakami who would… ugh. He didn’t even want to think about that.
Makoto probably just wanted to bring him to her room, this sweet innocent girl. Though maybe he should take note from today's exchange with her and stop thinking he can predict her actions. Regardless, he had to refuse.
“Thank you, but it’s fine, I’m handling it. But another study session with the whole team would be nice.” Well, as nice as having Ann press herself against him, asking him to explain something that even Ryuji could do alone and dragging him out to get crêpes together afterwards could be, which frankly wasn’t much. But at least he enjoyed her company. Usually. And only in the platonic sense.
He felt a bit guilty seeing the disappointed expression on her face, so he slid her finished cup in front of her and took a sip from his own.
Hmm. Still needs a bit of work, but it was better than his last attempt.
He heard the chime of the door opening and was immediately filled with relief at the sight of his guardian. “Hey. Thanks for the help today. You can go and rest now. I’ll handle it from here.” Sojiro said and Akira almost jumped at the great news. Sojiro really was his saviour.
Akira immediately thanked him and took off his apron, hanging it to its place. He didn’t pay attention to what the brunette was doing, so he didn’t notice until he went back to the counter to retrieve his cup that Makoto was drinking from it instead of her own cup.
... And that she was drinking from the exact same place as he did.
What the fuck. Really, he shouldn’t be surprised at this point, but an indirect kiss? With Makoto? Just.
What the fuck.
At least Makoto had the decency to look embarrassed when he caught her eye, before she spoke. “Ah, sorry. I was curious about the taste, since it seems you like bitter, unlike me.” She then took another sip, once again from the same place, slightly grimacing.
That didn't really help Akira understand what was happening in any way. Not a bit. Rather, he felt like his brain was malfunctioning like an old computer, as the only thought that he could process was still just "whatthefuckwhatthefuckwhat-".
Was that a punishment for rejecting her offer? It had to be. Only getting her mad would bring this kind of reaction. Or maybe his previous personality change theory wasn't that far off the mark.
Well, this is still a better alternative than being alone with her in her room for a few hours, but Akira couldn’t help being frustrated at this whole thing.
What did he do to deserve all of this again? The girls from his hometown weren’t like this, why did it only start now?
Makoto started packing up her things, leaving some amount of money next to the two cups sitting there, before she addressed him. “Well then, good night, Akira-kun. I hope you will consider my offer.” She gave him a smile and then she was leaving.
Akira was standing still in the exact same spot for a while, very much tired after the events that just took place, when he heard Sojiro speak, definitely feeling as awkward as Akira was.
“Huh. And here I thought you and that detective kid were a thing.” Akira felt his face warm a bit at hearing that. So he suspected him? At least he wasn’t completely wrong there, even if Akira believed the other boy didn’t feel the same.
“I. I didn’t expect her to do that.” was the weak response he gave back. He sighed and decided it was too late to deal with this, even if he still had some time before Morgana would start pestering him about going to sleep.
He went up in his attic where said little shit who threw him in the lion’s den and left him to die was sleeping on his bed. He's lucky Akira loves him too much to be really mad at him for too long.
Still feeling way too tired and deeply craving the rest he knows he won't get, Akira laid down and checked his phone for the lack of anything better to do. Turns out he was right about the Mementos requests piling up. They really should go there soon, seeing as they were done with Futaba’s palace and had no target so far.
His phone buzzed and Akira looked at the notification bar, almost dropping his phone when he saw who was texting him.
Akechi Goro: Good evening, Kurusu-kun.
I happen to be free at the moment. It seems there will be a live singer at Jazz Jin tonight.
Would you like to accompany me?
[Right now]
Yes yes yes a million times YES. God, that’s exactly what he needed right now. Some quiet time with his favourite person.
He really shouldn’t be this happy at the idea of spending time alone with a possible murderer, but at least Akechi treated him like a normal person, unlike some people he knows. He really liked being with him, and had a feeling Akechi enjoyed Akira’s company as well, otherwise he wouldn’t waste his free time with him.
You: I’ll be there.
Maybe his evening won’t be so bad after all.