Slight spoilers for Persona 5? very minor character stuff, mostly.

A Reason to Smile

Futaba Sakura watched as Akira Kurusu prepared curry for her. The young man had learned from Sojiro himself, and had even offered to prepare dinner for her after Sojiro got caught up with boring, adult stuff. Futaba watched Akira mix in ingredients and mutter to himself, but there was one detail that stood out to her. Her gaze sharpened as she stared at him, picking him apart like a stream of data. No matter how hard she stared at it, though, the anomaly only befuddled her more and more.

"Why are you always smiling?"

"Hm?" Akira looked away from the sizzling pots and pans and looked at Futaba. The young woman was sitting on a stool at the counter of Leblanc, staring at him through her glasses. Her eyes held no sparkle of joy or mirth, and her lips were turned into a halfway scowl that seemed unformed simply out of laziness. He met her frown with a smile on his lips.

"You always have this dumb smile on your face. Why? What are you so happy about? Do you have a game upstairs you're hogging to yourself or something...?" she accused, her eyes narrowing as she burrowed a hole in his head from her glare. Despite the metaphorical injury, his smile persisted.

"I have lots of reasons to smile, but that isn't one of them, I assure you, Futaba."

"So? What is it?" she asked.

"It's a secret."

Futaba didn't like that. It was one thing for there to be a secret she didn't know. It was another thing entirely for someone to lord the fact over her head. "I want to know!"

"Know what?"

"Why you're smiling so much! Tell me!" she pouted. She lifted her legs up from her seat and planted them on the ground, her cheek puffing as he mocked her, beaming at her pout.

"You have to say the magic word," he teased, wagging a finger in the air as she walked around the counter. She stood beside him as he cooked her dinner, watching as he cooked the curry.

"Hm... Open sesamae!"

Akira paused his cooking and glanced at her with a raised brow. His expression revealed his confusion. Futaba glared at him, but he could see the glimmer of happiness in her eyes. She was staring at him with those strange, strange eyes of her. They were hazel, but they seemed to have hints of violet in them. He'd never seen eyes like that before... Despite the frown on her face, her eyes glittered with small sparks of entertainment. Admit it or not, she enjoyed walking to her own beat, and one of the reasons she and Akira melded so well was because he was happy to play along.

"Heh. You got it." Akira admired Futaba's victorious grin as he picked up a spoonful of curry and gently blew on it for her. "Here, take a bite and I'll tell you."

Futaba's face glowed a scarlet shade, but she tried not to let him see it. She coughed into her fist for a moment and closed her eyes to help regain her composure. "A-alright." She opened her mouth and felt the older boy gently land the spoon on her tongue. She closed her lips around the plastic utensil and felt the spoon retreat away.

"Eep!" Futaba's eyes widened as electricity coursed over her tongue. With a choked gag, she spat the food onto Akira's apron and wiped her jacket's sleeve against her mouth. "That was awful! It tastes nothing like Sojiro's curry! Ack!" The young girl continued to spit onto her sleeve, gagging as she tried to wipe the horrid taste off of her tongue. "Gross gross gross gross!"

"I-is it really that bad?" Akira took a spoonful for himself and bit into it, chewing at the mix of rice and curry with curious eyes. The light quickly faded from them a painful stabbing sensation attacked his tongue, tears forming in the corners of his eyes. "Must. Swallow. For. Penance..." The young man forced himself through the agony, and after a river of tears fell, he swallowed the acidic slime. He gasped for air as he and Futaba raced for something to cleanse their palate.

"Water! Soda! Coffee! Anything!" Futaba stumbled forward, near falling over as she grabbed a jar of coffee beans.

"Futaba, no!"

"Futaba, yes!" The young girl popped open the lid and reached into it with her bare hand. She grabbed the contents and dropped it into her open maw as Akira watched in horror. The girl's reaction was to be expected as her eyes widened and she tried not to spit the beans all over the floor. "This... this is still better," she whimpered as the soft crack of ground coffee beans filled the air. Tears filled her eyes as she massaged her cheeks, trying not to vomit.

Akira stared at her, before sighing. He took the coffee beans from her and reached into the jar. He took out a handful of the beans, and without hesitation, dropped them into his own mouth. The reaction was almost immediate as he gagged, and placed his hands over his mouth. His eyes were watering again as Futaba stared at him.

"W-why did you do that?!" she coughed, her cheek puffed with coffee beans.

"B-because you're my friend! And I don't let my friends suffer alone! God, this is awful!" he cried. The two swallowed the bitter mush of beans down their throats, before falling onto the ground together. They leaned against the shelf of coffee beans and ingredients as they nursed their wounds. "It's so bitter..." He groaned in agony as he brought his knees up to his chest and rested his arms on them.

"Still better than your cooking," the girl muttered.

"Heh. No argument here." Akira didn't even realize it at first, but he felt something press against his shoulder. He turned his head to find the younger girl resting her head on him.

"Heh. Maybe I was safer in my room. Safe from your cooking, at least."

"Again, no argument here." The dark-haired boy was about to push himself up, only to stop as he glanced at Futaba again. She was leaning against him with a content smile on her face, eyes closed and mind oblivious to the fact they were touching. "Comfortable?"

"Huh? Uh..." The radiant-haired girl looked away and quickly sat up. "I-I'm okay!" She quickly leapt onto her feet. "See? One hundred percent!"

"Hmm. Okay." Akira followed her, lifting himself onto his feet before looking towards his work. "I'm going to go put the food away."

"Not in the fridge, I hope..." Futaba watched as the older boy took the pan off the stove and watched as he dumped it into the trash. She placed her hands together in mock prayer as she gave the curry a eulogy. "It's okay now, little curry. No more pain. RIP in peace."

"I don't suppose you know what else we could have for dinner, do you?" Futaba smirked at the question, before climbing over the counter of Leblanc. Akira watched her rummage behind the counter, before lifting up two styrofoam cups covered in plastic. "Instant noodles?" The young man smiled at her and lifted his hand to give her a thumbs up. "Sounds great! I'll prepare them for us!"

"No way! This is the last of my stash! I'll prepare it. You can pour us something to drink. I thirst," she commanded.

"As you wish." Akira nodded his head and did as he was asked, but he couldn't help but keep his eyes on her face. He saw the slight curve of her lip as she giggled to herself. He watched her grin nearly grow too large for her face as she filled the cups with hot water. "Something funny?"

"Just funny, I guess. You are... Er... All of this is. You're the leader of the Phantom Thieves, the trump card of our deck, the protagonist of our adventure, and your cooking level is in the negatives. You know, when I first heard about you and the other thieves, I thought you were all really cool..."

"I'm sorry to disappoint," the young man apologized.

"N-no. Don't be. I mean, I kind of like you like this too. You're human. You're not perfect, and you mess up sometimes. It's nice to know you're not that different from me..." Futaba placed the two cups on the counter and watched as they sat their, her cheeks almost as hot as the noodles within.

"Hey, Futaba?"

"Huh?" Somehow, when she hadn't been looking, Akira had walked around the corner to stand in front of over. He placed the two cups of juice on the wooden table and leaned over the counter, a smile on his face as their faces neared one another. Futaba froze up as his metallic eyes glimmered for a moment. "That is one reason why I smile so much. So I can see others smile too."

He leaned back and sat himself down, a enigmatic smile on his lips as he went on. "I believe life is what you put into it, so I always try to offer positivity and kindness to the other, and to other people. Even rotten ones like Kanoshida or Madarame. I guess... I just believe that a smile can do a lot for the world. Even more so when I see someone else's."

"Y-you totally don't fit the atmosphere of this story," the girl muttered, her face falling to stare at the ground. Her cheeks were ablaze with her blush.

"Maybe, but maybe this isn't your typical story. Maybe I'm not the protagonist this story was meant for. All the same, I'll do my best for all of us. Promise." He held up his pinkie to the younger girl, and she lifted her eyes to stare at it. Her eyes watched it with suspicion, before she lifted her own hand and extended her pinkie. The two fingers crossed and bent around one another as Akira smiled. "I pinkie promise. See? Now I can't go back on my word. I never break a promise."

"You're so weird..."

"Once more, no argument here," he laughed. His hand gently fell atop of her and she felt his fingers rub against her scalp and comb through her hairs. Her body went stiff, as if electricity coursed through her, but Akira was none the wiser. He walked away to put some dirty dishes away, leaving the girl to tremble in peace.

T-that felt totally different from my mom petting my head! W-what's with me?! What's with him...?

END

Sigh. It's been so long since I've written anything. I feel so freakin' rusty.

(Slaps face) Come on, me! Get back in the game! Get cha gameface on! RAAAAH! Write! Be better!

So yeah. I have no intention of writing a novelization of Persona 5. I'm still working on Persona 4's Just a Delinquent! But I do have my own interpretation of the protagonist, and here he is. I guess you could say he's meant to be in contrast to Delinquent Yu Narukami. He's sweet, he can't cook, and compared to the womanizing psychopath, he's kind of a dorky loser. But hey, he's still a hero! And he's popular with the ladies.

Haru, Makoto, and Futaba are all my favorite romantic partners in the game, so if I do write more of this character, it'll probably feature them. Not sure who he'll pick. Maybe it'll be a love square. Or polyamory! I don't know!

For now, this is just me trying to get back into the flow of things after my bad case of writer's block. Have a good day, everyone!