Minato Arisato had no problem with saying that, in his time spent in Port Island, he had met some interesting people and had gotten himself into some interesting situations. Then again... with all that's said and done, and the fact that he was looking at a possible apocalypse, interesting was a pretty liberal word to use in a situation like this.
For starters, he was one of the few people to be sensitive to a 25th hour of the day in which his high school transformed into a nightmarish skyscraper that contained the negative feelings of humanity incarnated into dark and twisted forms, and to combat those forms, he shot himself in the temple to summon his inner thoughts materialized into "personae", which tended to take the forms of various gods, kings, tyrants and beasts from various mythologies and religious pantheons.
He wasn't alone in this endeavor, oh no. For, you see, the dorm in which he had spent his time living in since his arrival was also filled with people with the same power he had. While they could only summon one Persona compared to the twelve he could, they were invaluable both as allies and as friends. Rounding out the cast of his adventures from Hell were several students from his high school- some juniors, some seniors. The juniors were Yukari Takeba, Junpei Iori, Fuuka Yamigishi and himself, and the seniors were Akihiko Sanada and Mitsuru Kirijo. Despite that, there were still others that weren't even human. There was Koromaru, a Shiba Inu with the capability to summon Cerberus… and then there was Aigis, a female robot with the power to summon Pallas Athena.
Aigis… To say that Aigis had always intrigued him would be an accurate statement. You see, Aigis was a mechanical maiden developed by the Kirijo Group roughly ten years ago for the sole purpose of fighting Shadows much akin to the ones that they fought nightly within the deep halls of Tartarus. In order to do so, the researchers gave her a humane appearance and mind- explaining her blue eyes and long blond hair. In short, she was created as an artificial human.
Aigis was created to be a human, but humanity, at least in Minato's eyes, was not something to be created mechanically like she was. When she was first introduced into the group, Aigis spoke in heavy monotone and felt nothing in the way of emotion. It was jarring to witness, but through more exposure to the world around her, including being sent to school, she began to change.
However, she had to be sent back to the lab where she was built for extensive repairs. One night, when the night seemed as dark as it could get, Aigis was severely injured and was put out of commission for around two weeks.
…In the time that she was gone, Minato could easily say that he missed her presence. The girl had a weird "malfunction" (as it was so easily written off as such) in her data that, for some unexplainable reasons, made her gravitate to him, saying that he was her "highest priority" and he "must be protected."
This personality quirk led to her doing some very strange things, such as breaking into his room while he slept (numeous times, mind you) to make sure he was still okay while he slept, demanding to be enrolled at school to keep a closer eye on him and constantly wishing to be part of the team in Tartarus so she can "actively and efficiently watch over him." (Hey, it was her words!)
Regardless, this never bothered Minato. He wasn't concerned with why she did that- instead, he found it to be endearing and loved her more for it. In fact, it would be easy to say that he was in love with Aigis- he loved every little personality quirk about her- from the way she adapted as he slowly taught her new things about the world, or the way that her cute blue eyes widened whenever he snuck up on her…
…Wait, loved? Was it possible to love something… someone, like her? But, why wouldn't it be? Even though she was a robot, she had started to act more and more like a normal teenage girl every day. And even the way he corrected himself whenever he called Aigis a thing… She was a girl, and there was no other way to put it. So there was no real reason for him to feel any negativity or problems that could-
"Minato-san?" He heard a voice call his name. He looked around to see that the lounge of the Iwatodai dorms was now quiet and empty, with the exception of one other person.
Aigis looked down at him, bright blue eyes blinking soft and her head tilted to the side.
"Aigis!" Minato replied, a little shocked to have been interrupted from his thoughts. "What are you doing here?" Aigis' expression of quizzical intrigue didn't change.
"It's late." She mused. "You've been down here on this couch for almost an hour. Junpei-san thought you fell asleep with your eyes open." Minato rolled his eyes."
"I didn't fall asleep." He told her. "I was just lost in thought." He shook his head. "Christ almighty though, it's weird if you've ever just stopped and thought about it."
"Thought about what?" Aigis had now taken her own initiative to sit next to Minato on the couch, and Minato sighed.
"Just… everything's that happened to us. When I came to Port Island in April, I thought that this was finally gonna be the year that everything's normal-I'd get through school with hardly any trouble, meet some new people to hang with and just get by without anyone or anything big happening and it'd be quiet until we'd all graduate and become seniors." Minato paused. "But now we've got the end of the world hanging over us just because we're all so special." Minato sighed and placed his head on her shoulder. "I guess it's just me being selfish and all, but it's still shitty that we have to deal with it."
Aigis was able to understand what he said, except for the last part. That part was blocked out by the sounds of her sensors and circuits going haywire at the newfound contact between her and Minato. This sort of thing was new to her, and her emotions were set ablaze by the rush of positive feelings that had now become prevalent in her circuitry.
On the surface, however, Aigis was able to hide this very well with a slight blush and a smile. The girl turned her head to the right side so that it rested on top of Minato's.
"Perhaps…" She began once she felt she was able to stop the butterflies in her stomach and able to make herself competent to speak again. "You can still have that? While it may seem dark now, the year after this could be much better than this."
"At this point, I can only hope." His eyes closed, and they sat in silence for a few moments. Neither of them spoke, but Aigis' processors continued to work internally. She was able to tell that Minato was not in a good state of mind. He was worried, confused…scared. A negative energy had permeated through the dorm ever since the revelation had come to light that the world would soon end.
Silently, Aigis moved one of her arms around his waist, and placed her hand on top of his.
"Aigis…?" Minato sounded confused as she made her fingers intertwine with his. "Are you okay?" Minato had never seen this girl act this way, and he wondered if maybe it was a side effect of the Papillion heart she was recently installed with.
"Your heartbeat…" She began. "It began to raise after you got worried… I thought this would be a good way to calm you down." His expression changed into a smirk as he wrapped his arm around her waist and brought her closer.
"This is perfect…right now." He whispered to her. I wouldn't want to change where I am for anything in the world." There was a slight pause as Aigis felt a sudden resurgence of that warm happiness that she felt earlier on. "Do you remember whenever you said that I was your highest priority?" Aigis nodded, and Minato looked like he was about to hesitate before cracking into a smile and watery eyes.
"I want you to know… you are my highest priority also. I love you, Aigis." The moment she heard those words, Aigis was almost afraid that she would start smoking at the rate that her processors were going. Love…? But, she was a machine… Could she really feel love like someone like Minato could…?
"Minato…" Just thinking about it brought tears to her eyes. Was she really worthy of love, because she was a robot…?
"Hey, don't cry." He remarked, bringing a finger up to her eye to wipe away the tears that were forming. "What's the matter?"
"…Should you really even love me? I'm just a machine, after all…" Minato climbed up from his spot on the couch and crouched down to stare directly into Aigis' watery eyes.
"Don't." He spoke in a commanding tone saved only for Tartarus visits. "Don't finish that sentence, and don't think like that anymore. It hurts me to see you're still like that, and that you still think of yourself as a machine." She stopped crying to look into his eyes, a pained frown on her face. "With all that's happened to us now, you've acted more human than some of the people I know. You laugh with us, you smile with us… for God's sake, you're crying right now. If that doesn't make you human… then I don't know what will."
Before Aigis could even start her response, Minato crushed his lips against hers in a display of passion and love. His lips met with hers in order to stifle any words that may have been on the verge of coming out. Instead, he replaced them with his love. The girl's arms had wrapped around his neck, and his around her waist as she now stood up from her spot as they both closed their eyes to experience the frenzied rush of euphoria they were both feeling.
When they parted, two pairs of blue eyes stared at each other, each feeling a new emotion. The dull blue pair was now filled with life and happiness from being pulled up from the darkness and apathy of an impending apocalypse, and the bright blue pair rejoiced with feelings of acceptance and purpose.
That still didn't stop her from crying into his shoulder. But this time, they were the tears of happiness felt from a bright new love blooming in a world of bleak grey. She clung to him for dear life, and he knew that right now, he'd never let her go for anything that this world could give him. Come hell or high water, he'd be here for her, and he'd love her no matter what.
"Give me your hand." Minato whispered into one of her headphones. She offered him one, and he placed it on the left side of his chest- where his heart was. "I have a human heart, but from now on, it'll beat for two souls- mine, and yours."
"…Stay with me." She whispered into his chest. "Stay with me tonight, and never let me go." Minato smiled and he placed a kiss into her blond hair.
He looked around and saw the big couch that was in the main room. Sure… there'd be a hell of a lot of explaining to do to everyone on the team, but he wasn't concerned with that… and he doubted that she was either. Putting them both down on the couch, the two of them slowly fell asleep to the sound of the other one's breathing.
A/N: Hoo, boy. More fluff for the summer months... Agh, it's so damn hot here.
I hope I don't have to explain myself on this one... but for those of you curious, I took a little break from Life, Death and Rebirth and The Rare Candy Files as exams hit, and I haven't really had time to update since. Nevertheless, I'm back now (yay!) and I come with another one-shot in tow. Uh... as for updates to the two stories... Whenever, really. I'm not going to try and stick to a schedule (especially for LDR), but they'll be more frequent then now.
Nevertheless, I'll see you in the next one. Fun fact of the night, this would've gotten published much quicker, but I ran into title block. Ugh.