Naoki is the name of my protagonist.

Interlude

They stumbled more than walked into the next room of Tartarus, bruised, battered and exhausted despite the multiple Mediarahan they had used to keep each other alive and running in the past 45 minutes or so. They barely heard Fuuka babble on, and Naoki barely heard the now familiar voice in his head congratulate him on forging yet another unbreakable bond. It seemed... so unreal. In fact, he only began to realize it as Junpei bowled him over from behind and both of them ended up lying down on the floor next to a kneeling Akihiko.

"WE MADE IT! FUCK YEAH, WE MADE IT!" Junpei shouted before he burst into relieved laughter, and Akihiko, chuckling, let himself fall on top of the pile as Mitsuru looked on, shaking her head, but smiling.

The cold wind on Naoki's face could not lie. Beyond the blocked staircase was the outside. The roof of Tartarus.

They had finally made it.

As usual when Naoki came back down, he went off into the left corner of the lobby and proceeded to zone out for a while, so Junpei and Akihiko, who had been there for the whole run and were completely exhausted, decided to leave early while the others waited.

The crisp air of January helped to chase away the lethargy setting in their tired muscles, but soon, Junpei was buttoning his shirt and zipping his jacket all the way up as he walked closer to Akihiko, shivering a bit. He smiled as Akihiko acknowledged his presence with a light brush of his hand against his.

"You worked well tonight, Junpei."

Junpei's smile widened. "You too senpai. As usual." He took in a deep breath and looked up at the dark sky and its sickly, sinister-looking moon. "We made it," he said aloud, as if repeating it could make it more real, could make the Dark Hour recoil in fear.

Akihiko could have pointed out they still had to beat Nyx; instead, he kept walking, silently enjoying Junpei's presence at his side. Who knew for how long he would still be able to.

The stairs of Port Island station seemed even longer than usual as they laboriously climbed up - Junpei claimed that his house would either have only one floor or elevators - to finally let themselves fall seated onto one of the benches by the turnstiles.

"My legs are dead," Junpei declared as he slouched and rolled his head back, over the backrest of the bench, before letting his kendo carry case rest against said bench.

"Good thing school doesn't start again for a few days," Akihiko agreed, stretching out his long legs. After a minute of watching the little clouds of fog from his breath fade away, he glanced at Junpei and was surprised to see him looking up and smiling. "What are you looking at?" he asked, looking upward as well.

"The sky," Junpei answered, still smiling. "I never really realized you could see stars during the Dark Hour." Indeed, the sky was clear and, thanks to the blackout created by the Dark Hour, the Milky Way, along with billions of millions of stars, were clearly visible.

"Me neither..." After a moment, Akihiko looked back at Junpei, then, moved by a sudden urge, leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to Junpei's smile.

"Wh..." Junpei blinked, his attention abruptly shifting away from the stars. He looked at Akihiko, a little surprised by the bold move, but when Akihiko leaned in again, he pulled his cap off and mirrored the movement.

They kissed gently, tired as they were, lips parted, tongues brushing tentatively. For lack of a better thing to do with it, Junpei raised his hand to cup Akihiko's cheek. The contact of Junpei's cold skin against his made Akihiko gasp into the kiss, and he grabbed Junpei's hand to pull it off his cheek. He kept it close, though, and squeezed it lightly; a moment later, understanding, Junpei curled his fingers and squeezed back.

It shocked Junpei when Akihiko suddenly shoved him back with all his might and he nearly fell off the bench, but it was nothing compared to having both his stomach and his heart feel like they were trying to cram themselves in his throat.

Mitsuru Kirijo was standing at the top of the stairs, pretty eyes wide as saucers, staring at them.

As Akihiko stuttered behind him, trying to assure her that really, this wasn't what it looked like - and Junpei couldn't help but wonder if anyone ever fell for thathe realized he had no way of knowing how long she had been there. He didn't know if he should be relieved or terrified that she was the one to have walked in one them, and the only one as well.

Quickly, she regained her composure and raised a hand at Akihiko to silence him. "The others are right behind me," she simply said.

Junpei found swallowing was suddenly ridiculously difficult.

As Mitsuru had said, Yukari arrived a few seconds later, followed by Fuuka and Ken. She took in the scene, Mitsuru's frown and the boys' strangely guilty looks, and sighed heavily. "Lemme guess. Stupei said something stupid again."

"... y-yeah." If he took the fall, Yukari would probably drop it.

"Yeah, figures," she groaned just as the station revived.

He spent the monorail ride strangely silent, sitting between Naoki and Fuuka, carefully avoiding looking at Akihiko, who had put on his poker - boxer? - face and had sat beside Mitsuru without a word. Both boys feared they would not sleep well that night, but they were dead on his feet when they finally made it to their respective room. They both fell asleep the moment their head touched the pillow.

If Mitsuru was often the first one out of bed, and Akihiko the second, she did not expect him to come down any time soon that morning, not after last night. Since he knew her schedule, she fully expected him to wait and tiptoe his way to the kitchen behind her back when she'd left. Therefore, it came as a surprise that he did exactly the opposite of her expectations and came down only 15 minutes after her, in his PJs, legs still stiff from his Tarturus run. "Akihiko?"

Of course, his face flushed red immediately as he saw her. Or maybe it already was that way? "... hi."

"I thought you'd sleep in..."

"I... I don't feel so good," he admitted in a low voice, not lifting his gaze from the floor, not entering the kitchen either.

Mitsuru nodded, taking in his appearance. He had probably caught a cold... "Do you want coffee?"

"Yeah. Small one."

She nodded again, even if he wasn't looking at her. "Go sit."

He did just as told, sitting slowly and rubbing his arms. His skin was still warm from sleep, but he felt cold, and he shivered slightly. To make matters worse, he had known Mitsuru would be up, expected her to grill him about last night, but he had waited too long in bed for his sickly feeling to pass, so now he had to face her, or wait more and face her and everyone else. He hoped facing her alone was the lesser evil. He did not feel like explaining the whys and the hows and the whens, even less now that he felt rather miserable.

Mitsuru silently set down a steaming mug in front of him, then sat at the other side of the table's corner and watched him.

Akihiko nearly held his breath, both hands around the mug, waiting for the shoe to drop.

"Iori?" Mitsuru asked softly, and Akihiko nodded, ducking his head even more. Fortunately, she simply nodded and did not ask why. "Since when?"

Akihiko shrugged and shook his head. "I, I don't know," he mumbled. "We haven't... really discussed it or anything. I think it became sorta official maybe 3 weeks ago..."

The silence stretched on for a few minutes as Mitsuru seemed to be absorbing the news. "Are you happy?" she finally asked softly, startling Akihiko out of his daze.

"I-I..." he briefly chewed on his bottom lip. "I am," he admitted, genuinely surprised to only feel a tiny pang of guilt at that. Yes. He was happy with Junpei. He wouldn't forget Shinji, but... yes. He was moving on and he liked where he was going. And somehow along the way... he had fallen in love with Junpei.

Mitsuru briefly squeezed his arm as she smiled at him. "Then I'm happy for you."

Akihiko goofily smiled in a way Junpei would have been proud of as Mitsuru pulled him in so their foreheads touched, briefly, before she pulled back.

"You should go back to bed to break that fever though. Naoki wants us to explore the new door in Tartarus as soon as possible."

Akihiko nodded and blew some steam off his coffee, feeling better already, as Mitsuru rose and left, patting his shoulder before walking out of the lobby.