What happens when a spontaneous decision causes a ripple of emotions that can't be undone? She wasn't supposed to turn around, but she did. And that was all it took for a childhood friendship to become something more.
A miserable, pain-filled groan sounded out from underneath a spotlight nearby. Only one set of ears chose to hear the noise, and it was enough for her feet to subconsciously stop walking.
"Ann? What's wrong, why'd you stop?" the soft, delicate voice beside her asked.
"You guys go on ahead; I need to talk to him for a sec."
Turning quickly on her heel, Ann left the group of thieves behind and walked back to where they left their once dead, now undead, but beaten up teammate. Each of the remaining thieves looked at each other with a mix of confusion and intrigue, but an all-knowing Ren guided everyone along to give the two a moment of privacy. Morgana hesitated longer than everyone else, as usual, because the thought of Ryuji alone with Lady Ann was enough to make his fur stand on end.
"Hey, Ryuji," he could hear a familiar voice but it was fuzzy, seeing as he was nearly half asleep. "Ryuji, wake up!" The voice was louder the second time it spoke as if it had gotten closer. He let out another groan as his head rolled down, the cumulation of being almost blown up and then sequentially beaten up had made him much more exhausted than he realized. A pair of gentle hands held each of his cheeks and tilted his head up. Though they were unfocused, Ryuji forced his eyes open to see the blurry vision of the natural blonde teammate directly in front of him, holding up his head by his cheeks.
"Ann? The hell, I thought you were mad at me?" he grumbled out, voice thick with pain.
"I wasn't mad Ryuji. Well, when I slapped you I was, but that was because you didn't understand why we were upset. We thought you died! I thought you died..." Ann closed her eyes for a second to try and keep her tears locked away. At that moment, Ryuji's vision finally returned to normal. He saw a girl he'd practically grown up with kneeling down in front of him, trying her best to fight back crying as she held his face gingerly. Pushing up on his hands, Ryuji sat up just a little bit straighter against the light pole that kept him upright, careful not to hit her with his sprawled out legs.
"So you beat me up because I wasn't dead? That's some bullshit."
"I know. I'm so, so sorry Ryuji. Especially after all you've been through, we should never have done that," Ann finally let his face go, letting her hands ball up into fists on the little span of concrete that separated the two of them. Little droplets fell from her chin onto the sidewalk, leaving small dark circles all around her fists.
"Dammit..." he grumbled, entirely uncomfortable with this display of emotion taking place quite literally between his legs. Not only was he always unsure of what to do when girls cried, but now they were sitting here in a rather compromising position in front of a government building, of all places. "Ann, I get it. It's whatever. Can we go now? This sidewalk hurts my ass." He knew he should be consoling or comforting to her but honestly, he was pretty pissed. What kind of reaction to finding out someone lived through a heroic fiery explosion is beating the guy up? It shouldn't have, but it brought up some nasty feelings about his father and Kamoshida, and if he didn't get alone soon he worried he'd say something he would come to regret.
Continuing to look down at the ground, Ann wiped away her tears with the backs of her hands and nodded, mumbling out, "Yeah, let me help you get up." She pushed herself quickly up off the ground and held out her hands for him to take. Pride beset him and he refused, instead trying to push himself up off of the ground on his own. The strain from the evening was too much, however, and his arm gave out beneath him.
"Dammit, Ryuji just take my hands and let me help you for once."
Ann wasn't waiting politely anymore. She bent down, grabbed took both of his hands in hers, and pulled up with a firm grip, making Ryuji groan as he slowly got to his feet. Without a second thought, she immediately pulled his arm around her shoulder and wrapped her arm around his waist to support his weight. They walked in silence towards the train station for a while, but it wasn't uncomfortable. Ryuji's mind stirred at what to say, what to even think, but the main thought that kept popping back up was simply a question.
"Why'd you come back?"
"Huh? What do you mean?" Ann looked up at him but he refused to meet her gaze. His eyes were glued to the sidewalk, not even bothering to flick her way.
"First you girls beat the crap out of me, and then you talk about dinner. I saw all of you walk away. So why'd you come back?"
She opened her mouth like she was about to speak, but her words died in her throat. How could she explain that there was just something, some feeling that spontaneously appeared and nagged at her to go back to him? She couldn't explain it. She had no answer that would make sense for either of them. But she guessed that no answer was also an answer in itself.
"I- I don't know, Ryuji. I just felt like I had to. Maybe it's because I've known you for so long? Or maybe I felt bad for slapping you so hard..." she looked up at his face from the corner of her eye and could see the still pink mark gracing his skin. "Sorry about that..."
He didn't like her answer, but he didn't know why. The mixture of pain, anger, and frustration was confusing him and he couldn't figure out why her words weren't what he wanted to hear. "Will you stop apologizin' already? I don't know what to do when you're looking all sad and stuff."
"I won't stop until I feel like you understand how bad I feel."
"Fine, I understand. I forgive you. Cool?" Ann could hear the edge to his voice and knew he was putting up a wall.
"Clearly it's not cool. I can tell you're still upset."
"I've got a lot going on in my head and I don't know what to do with all of it. I'm not mad at you, I swear."
Ann stopped walking which also dragged Ryuji to a halt. The sudden movement finally made him turn and look at her, though his expression was one of confusion. "What'dja stop for? We're almost to the train station." He looked back in the direction they were walking and could see the entrance to the station. Ryuji so desperately wanted to just get on the train and go home, since it was somewhere he could be alone and not have to worry about pissing anyone else off.
"If I ask you to talk to me about whatever it is in that head of yours, would you?"
"I don't wanna dump all my childhood baggage on you," he said in a quiet, serious voice.
"What if I want you to?"
"You're not gonna let me go home, are ya?"
"Not if you'll let me keep you hostage."
Why? Why was she putting in so much effort into breaking down the wall that he put up just to make sure he didn't hurt her? When he got angry he knew his mouth ran without any control. He wanted to be alone to let everything out safely, but here Ann was doing whatever she could to make him talk. For the first time in a long time, Ryuji felt like someone truly wanted to hear what he had to say, no funny stuff involved. And that was enough for him.
"Alright, alright. You win. I'll talk, just not here on a damned sidewalk."
Ann gave him a happy grin and continued walking towards the train station. Confused, Ryuji looked down at her and wondered what she was planning. He thought she'd take him to some café or coffee shop, but either of those would be in an entirely different direction.
"Uhh, Ann? Where are we going?"
"My place."
The confused shriek Ryuji let out was deafening in Ann's ear, so much so that she recoiled to try and get away from the source.
"W-what? No way! Uh-uh, I am not going to back to your house! Let's just go to a fast food spot or something."
"What's wrong with my house?" Ann asked as she continued half-dragging him along to the train station, "It's not far from here and it's gonna be way more comfortable than anything around here!"
"Lots of things! Your parents are gonna flip when you bring a troublemaker like me home!"
Ann's determined look never wavered as she snickered, finding his panicked state very amusing. "My parents aren't home this month. They're back in Finland with family, so it's just me! Besides, I bet they'd like you. They like spunky types."
"Who the hell are you calling spunky?"
