Ava Adore

Minato Arisato x Akihiko Sanada. Past Minato x Shinjiro Aragaki. After Shinji's death. Lot's of flashbacks, possible spoilers. Yaoi later. It's kinda PG for now.

Chapter 1: Of Loss and Letting Go

"Shinji!" Minato sat up shaking from the nightmare that was all too real. Shinji was dead. Killed by Strega. "Oh Shinji." He looks around the room pushing a still shaky hand through his hair. The world seemed dull, somewhat dimmer as it had since Shinji died. To his eyes everything had lost its shine. Minato gets dressed slowly not wanting to go to school but knowing he must. A knock on the door startles him.

"Minato-kun. Are you awake?" Yukari asks through the door.

"Yeah. Just a minute." Minato says opening the door. Yukari notices how lost he seems, unsure and shaky.

"I'm sorry." Yukari says unable to think of anything comforting to say. He shakes his head.

"He was at peace with it. He wouldn't want us to keep on like this." Minato says quietly not wanting to accept his own words. Yukari nods and they head to school.

There is an assembly for Shinji and Minato just sits there stunned at the comments of other students.

'Who the hell was this guy?'

'I heard he was a delinquent.'

'I heard he never came to school.'

'He hung out with some bad kids.'

'Why the hell should we care if he died. We didn't know him.'

Minato feels anger boiling over inside of him.

"My best friend died and none of you care. Fuck you all!" Akihiko yells standing up and glaring at everyone. "Arisato?" Akihiko says and Minato realizes that he had gotten up and put his hand on Akihiko's arm.

"I…I care." Minato says swallowing his anger.

"I know." Akihiko says calming down a little. Minato looks around to see Mitsuru, Yukari, Junpei and Aigis standing up nodding.

They get home and the others scurry off to their rooms leaving Minato and Akihiko standing there.

"You wanna talk or something?" Akihiko asks quietly.

"Sure." Minato says about to take his ear phones off.

"What are you listening to?" Akihiko asks.

"Smashing Pumpkins' Ava Adore. Here." Minato says handing him an earphone. Akihiko presses it to his ear.

without you there aren't reasons left to find
and I'll pull your crooked teeth
you'll be perfect just like me
you'll be a lover in my bed
and a gun to my head
we must never be apart
we must never be apart

Akihiko turns to him and smiles. "It's a good song for a Persona user. It fits."

They both lean forward, their lips touch. Minato's hands come up to grip Akihiko's shoulders. Just as suddenly as the kiss began it ends. They both pull away stunned.

"I'm sorry." Akihiko says. Minato gives him a guilty look and goes to his room. As soon as the door is shut he leans against it putting his face in his hands.

"I'm sorry Shinji, it just happened." Minato says softly feeling guilty for kissing Akihiko. "I'm so sorry." Minato slides down the door.

When the Dark Hour approaches Aigis knocks on his door. "Minato-san. The Dark Hour is here. Let us go."

Minato joins the others downstairs when he sees Akihiko their eyes meet and slide away guiltily.

The Shadow is tougher than the last one they fought, Minato knows they have to fight harder. He grabs his evoker, points it at his head and pulls the trigger summoning his Persona.

"Alice!" Minato calls out as the little girl shaped Persona appears. Seconds later he uses her Megiddo to chip away at the Shadow. He watches as Mitsuru, Akihiko and Ken summon their Persona's too. They quickly fell the Shadow and go home exhausted.

*Flashback*

Minato was mixing cake batter when Shinji came in.

"So you can cook. That's good." Shinji said smiling at him.

"Not very well. Teach me?" Minato asked.

"Sure. You got flour on your cheek." Shinji said reaching out and wiping it away.

"Thanks." Minato said blushing. Minutes later the cake was put in the oven and Shinji motioned for him to sit down. Minato did so.

"You're a quick learner. So, what's the cake for?" Shinji asked.

"For tomorrow." Minato answered.

"What's tomorrow?" Shinji asked.

"It's special but I can't tell you why. Not yet anyway." Minato said smiling.

"Alright. I'll just have to wait." Shinji said.

The next morning Minato knocked on Shinji's door. "Hey could you come downstairs for a minute?" Minato asked. The door opened and Shinji stepped out.
"Sure. What's up?" Shinji asked.

"You'll see." Minato said grabbing Shinji's hand and leading him downstairs.

"Happy birthday Shinjiro-senpai!" Everyone said and Shinji saw the cake Minato had been baking yesterday.

"How'd you know?" Shinji asked.

"I asked Akihiko-senpai. I told you it was for something special and that you would see." Minato says smiling.

*End Flashback*

TBC

For some reason I use Akihiko, Ken and Koromaru the most. As soon as I got Ken I stopped using Yukari as my healer and as soon as I got Koromaru I rarely used Junpei for Agi skills. Meh. Oh well. Hope you liked it. ^_^