Summary: Winter comes to an end and Spring rolls around. And flowers bloom, life stepping where once death walked.
Note: Things Happened (there was a discussion about genderbending in fics) and now this has been written. You can think of it as a fluffy parallel to As Each Page Turns (Meeting Anew).
Warnings: Hops Through The Multiverse, Genderbent, The Many Names Of Akechi (Goro | Mitsuki | Mitsue), Dramatic Summary Is Dramatic, Every Two Segments Directly Follow Up To Each Other Even Though They're Happening In Two Separate Worlds, Hellion Child Akechi Who Fites (And Bites).
Disclaimer: Don't own P5.
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[I]
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"H-hey…" Akira trails off, awkwardly waving as he tries to get the other boy's attention.
The other boy turns his head towards him with a scowl, blood dripping from his nose, "What do you want?" He snaps, and Akira flinches slightly. The other boy's scowl falters for a bit.
"Y-you, your nose is bleeding. We should do something about it. It's not… good… to…" Akira trails off as he sees the other boy is fixing him with an incredulous stare, "Is something wrong?" He mumbles, fiddling with a curl of his hair.
"You're too nice," The other boy says bluntly, and Akira tugs at the curl in his hand a bit more harshly than he intends to in frustration.
"It's not just being nice!" Akira drops both of his arms to his side to prop them on his hip as he puffs up his chest, "You're not supposed to let someone injured go without offering help! Even if it's a boy! Tha-"
"I'm a girl!" The other snaps, scowling at him again.
Akira blinks, "Yeah, and? Your nose is still bleeding."
The girl throws her hands in the air and groans, "Fine! Whatever!"
"Also." Akira blushes, "You got Sora good with that punch, how did you do it?"
The girl gives him a terrifying grin, and he shudders in fear, wishing he can turn his head away without insulting her so that she won't be able to punch him like she did with Sora.
If she has a bleeding nose, then Sora suffered worse.
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[II]
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Ren nervously chews on her lower lip as she accompanies the boy out of the playground to make sure he gets his nose taken care of.
The two are walking in awkward silence, but she doesn't know how to break it.
After a while, the boy sighs, "I don't bite."
Ren gives him a suspicious look; she had seen him bite someone else before. In fact, just the other day, he-
"Alright, fine, I know, I do bite!" The boy snaps, "But I'm not going to bite you. You're nice."
"Too nice?" She parrots the same words he said to her back at the park.
"Yes." The boy nods with absolute certainty, and she is miffed by his response.
"What? Why?"
The boy gives her a look like she's asking a stupid question, "Why else would you try to help the violent kid on the playground?"
She blinks back at him, "But you're only violent when they try to hurt you. And I heard them say bad things about you. If they did the same to me, I would do the same things you do."
The boy blinks at her slowly, "Wait… You actually pay attention to what they do and say to me?" His asks in wonder, and she blushes from shame.
"If I was really nice, I'd have tried to help you before."
The boy is quiet for a while, "It's- it's okay. I mean, everyone says things about me so you probably don't want to risk it."
"Is it?" She asks, "Okay, I mean? It doesn't look like it. In fact." She looks at him with determination burning in her eyes, "From now on, we're going to be friends!"
"Wait, what-?!"
"My name is Amamiya Ren, what's yours?"
He flounders for a while before he awkwardly ducks his head to hide the small smile forming on his face, "Akechi Goro."
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[III]
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"Akechi Mitsuki." Akira beams widely at Mitsuki, who sighs.
"Kurusu Akira." Mitsuki smiles wryly, "Why do we match?"
"Oh, this?" Akira gestures to her shoulder length hair, "Why should we not match?"
"Well, I don't know, it's not like your hair is too curly and messy to be in the same hairstyle as mine without putting in too much effort."
Akira pouts, "But you're worth the effort."
Mitsuki blushes, "Don't just say things like that out loud!"
"Oh?" Akira grins wickedly at Mitsuki, who wonders what happened to the shy, awkward Akira from their childhood, and where she disappeared to; now she has a devious friend with too wide and too sharp grins that make butterflies violently flap inside her stomach.
Mitsuki shakes her head fondly, denying the mere idea that she is experiencing the feelings her crush induced in her at age seventeen with the same intensity as she had experienced them at age eight, if not more.
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[IV]
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Ren allows the grin to drop in favor of pouting, "You're not blushing!"
"And why, pray tell, should I be blushing?" Goro ask dryly.
"But you always blush when I smile at you like that! Have I lost my touch? The horror!" Ren clutches his chest dramatically, and Goro hides a smile behind his fist.
"You're smiling!" Ren quickly recovers from his dramatic pose to smile at him fondly, and Goro's smile widens, a healthy blush staining his cheek.
Ren looks miffed, "Why are you blushing now?"
Goro coughs and tries to will his blush away, an endeavor he's sure he's spectacularly failed at, "Never you mind that, we have school to get to."
"Aw." Ren whines, "Why won't you tell me?"
"And give you more teasing ammunition? I think not."
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[V]
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Akira sleepily sips at his coffee as he watches his significant other flit about the apartment, trying to get ready in time for their job.
"Honey, your tie," Akira points out, "It's crooked."
Mitsue lets out a strangled sound as their hands fly to their tie to fix it blindly before they retrace their footsteps to the mirror to properly fix their tie.
"It's going to be okay, darling, you're going to do just fine."
Mitsue turns to look at him with frantic eyes, "I know!" Mitsue says, their hands going to their hair before they abort their movement lest they mess with their hair, "But-!"
"You still worry." Akira peels himself off his seat and drags himself to his significant other- coffee cup still in hand- to wrap them in a one-armed hug, "Here."
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[VI]
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Ren raises the cup of coffee in their hand to Mitsuki's lips and she indulges in a sip, relishing the taste as the hot beverage slides down her throat. Ren is a miracle worker when it comes to coffee.
She sighs blissfully, "I'll do my best."
"I know you will," Ren says, their dark eyes holding hers in an intense stare, "You're Akechi Mitsuki and you're made of Badass."
Mitsuki snorts, and Ren smiles at her.
"Right, before I forget." Ren hands her their cup and removes themself to head to the kitchen before returning with a thermos, "I made you some to take with you."
Mitsuki throws her head back as she laughs, "Oh my god, I can't believe you."
"Look, I'm not going to let my beloved go to her first day of work without a thermos full of coffee I made with absolute love, alright? I don't let our friends do that, how will I let you do it?"
"I guess." Mitsuki takes a second sip from the cup in her hand and walks towards Ren to take the thermos from them, "Thanks." She gives them back the cup and takes the thermos from them, pressing a quick kiss to Ren's lips while she's at it, "I love you."
"I love you, too. Now go and stun people through your sheer presence."
"You flatter me too much." Mitsuki waves as she heads to the entrance before she stops in place and bolts back to the bedroom, "Shit! This is your shirt, not mine! Oh my god I'm going to be late!"
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End