Disclaimer: I don't own Persona.
Futaba was especially cheery today. She was humming and was almost too friendly to their customers (usually she'd just stay behind the counter while Sojiro takes care of the clientele). But today just so happens to be Halloween and the bespectacled girl can be seen wearing a witch's hat while decorating the café with fake cobwebs and spiders and paper bats. You can even hear her humming This is Halloween while taping the bats on the window.
"You seem to be extra happy today," Sojiro noted, peering over his newspaper. Futaba whipped around with a huge grin.
"Of course! It's Halloween~!" she said, singing the last word. "I was thinking of going either as Kiki from Kiki's Delivery Service or a skeleton. What do you think, Sojiro?"
The older man scratched his beard and shrugged, not knowing what to respond. Futaba didn't mind. She knew Sojiro wouldn't understand anyway. Besides, she could always ask Yusuke. Maybe she could even ask him to wear a matching costume! The girl snickered and continued decorating the café.
Once she was done, Futaba announced to the otherwise empty coffee shop that she would be going to Yusuke's apartment. She quickly grabbed her tote bag with little pumpkin designs (of course it's a Halloween-themed one) from behind the counter and skipped off to Yongen-Jaya station, all the while humming This is Halloween.
Yusuke was cooped up in his room, trying to finish his latest piece of art in time for the new art exhibit the art majors are organizing together with a professional art group. No amount of distraction could break his concentration as his brush made delicate strokes. It would be the best piece in that art exhibit, he thinks as his hand continues to move on its own.
Ren and Ryuji both invited him to go out, it is Halloween after all, and it would be fun to prowl the streets in costume, but Yusuke turned both of them down. He has no time for such childish acts, he told them. Besides, they live in Japan. They don't celebrate Halloween. Nonetheless his two friends are excited. Ryuji even donned a black studded outfit and a skull half mask that covers the upper half of his face. Even Ren was wearing a costume: a black suit, red gloves, and a white half mask like Ryuji.
"C'mon man!" Ryuji's raucous voice echoed inside his room. "Don't be such a downer. Let's go out and have fun!"
Yusuke scoffed at him.
"Unlike you, I have a magnum opus to finish." He could hear Ryuji whispering at Ren, asking what the hell a magnum opus is, and the corners of his lips turn upward into a smirk.
"Fine, whatever man," Ryuji said, sighing. "See you later."
"There's food in the fridge if you get hungry," Ren adds. "Just heat it up. See you later."
The two left him alone and he was able to completely focus on his work. So focused, in fact, that he didn't hear the loud shout of "Monaaaaaaaaaa~" an hour later. The owner of the voice banged his door open so loudly that Yusuke jumped out of his stool and almost made a mistake had he not been dripping the brush in his palette.
He turned around to scowl at the perpetrator and was met with the sight of his orange-haired girlfriend with a wide grin on her face, decked in her usual clothes with the addition of a wide witch's hat sitting comfortably on her head. A black tote bag is slung on one shoulder while her other arm cradles Ren's black cat.
"Hey, hey Inari! Trick or treaaaaaat~!" She singsongs, traipsing across his cluttered room. She brings the cat back down on the ground and takes the tote bag off her shoulder. Yusuke can see small orange pumpkins decorating the whole bag. He mentally slapped himself. How could he forget that his own girlfriend is a huge fan of Halloween?
"So, I brought two costumes today! One's a skeleton costume, while the other one's Kiki's costume from Kiki's Delivery Service," she tells him as she scrambles the contents of her bag, taking out the said costumes and laying them on his bed. "I actually wanted to ask your opinion about them but while I was in the train, I started thinking I should go for Kiki. So I guess that's what I'm going for!"
Yusuke nodded, trying his best not to look disinterested at her words, his eyes darting back to the canvass every now and then. He just doesn't have the heart to tell her that he doesn't share her passion for Halloween.
"Wait here. I'm gonna put on my costume! Let's go trick or treating after I come back!" She took the witch costume from his bed and skipped off to the bathroom, humming a tune under her breath.
Yusuke decided to make use of the time he was given as she changed into her costume and turned his attention to his art piece once again. Mona made a place for himself and snuggled between two discarded canvasses. He was regaining his inspiration and was happily putting his thoughts into pictures.
Futaba came back a few minutes later, wearing Kiki's black dress and pairing it with a pair of black flats. She opened her mouth to say something when she saw the glint in Yusuke's eyes. She's seen that look a dozen times before and she knows that her boyfriend is currently in the zone and she knows better than to distract him.
So the girl tiptoed to his bed, avoiding the clutter on the floor, and sat down to watch him. Futaba loved that look; it's one of the things she loves most about him. It always amazes her how he can create a beautiful something out of nothing at all. She can never make something like that on her own. She still remembers how he made her wonderfully beautiful, when she herself, thinks of herself as plain; not worthy of being painted at all. His hand dances across the canvass with amazing technique, it was hard to believe that this is the same person who can say the silliest things she has ever heard. It's almost hard to believe that she's actually dating him.
Of course, she'd never tell him these things. She's not one of those mushy gushy girls with their boyfriends. Besides, she doesn't want to inflate his ego. He will always be Inari. Her Inari. She heard Mona mewling, cutting her train of thought, and was reminded of the cat's existence. Her eyes scan Yusuke's bedroom to find the cat and make it stop mewling lest Yusuke loses his focus.
She finds him snuggled between two canvasses and picked him up, softly shushing him. As she makes her way back, her foot caught on one of the discarded canvasses on the ground and she lost her balance. Yelping, she grabbed the closest thing she could hold to stop her fall.
She drew a big breath and was about to fall back to the bed when her eyes drifted to her handhold and she lets out a huge gasp of shock as Yusuke's sleeved arm comes into view. Her gaze goes up to his face and she can see his purple eyes widening as he looks at the painting he was working on. Futaba whipped her head to look at it as well, her eyes widening in fear as she stares at the ugly black mark that now mars the otherwise beautiful landscape he was doing. Both her hands fall to her sides and Mona went back to his place.
"I-I'm sorry!" She squeaked out, scrambling to her feet. "I really didn't mean to!" She couldn't look at him, afraid of seeing his expression, so instead her eyes trained on her feet. He doesn't speak. Futaba's lips trembled. Her hands clutch her black dress.
"I-I'll just go…" She was about to grab her bag when he finally spoke.
"Stay." His voice is devoid of emotion and Futaba flinched. It was always scary when Yusuke starts speaking like that.
Futaba sat at the edge of the bed, far away from Yusuke so that she couldn't make the painting worse. From the corners of her eyes she could see Yusuke desperately trying to salvage the artwork, growing more frustrated as he finds himself unable to save what he's been working on for weeks.
Her sniffling only distracted him, and Yusuke turned around to tell her to be more quiet. His voice gets caught in his throat. The sight of his girlfriend trying hard to stifle her sobs so as not to distract him more pained him. The purple-haired man stood up and walked to her, stopping right in front of her and bending his knees so that they'd be on the same level.
His large hands cup her face and Futaba looked up at him, her hands rubbing her eyes, her glasses resting on the bed beside her. Her hands fall to her sides as Yusuke's thumbs wipe her tears away, whispering words of comfort.
"I'm sorry," she told him again, and this time, Yusuke gave her a small smile. He shook his head.
"It's fine. You don't have to worry."
"But you've been working hard on that one!"
"I can just make another one."
"But the art exhibit's near!"
"Who do you think you're talking to?" Yusuke asks with just a glint of cockiness. Futaba finally let out a watery laugh and Yusuke pressed his lips to her forehead. "Shall we go celebrate Halloween?" He asks as he pulls her up to stand. His eyes finally scan his girlfriend's costume and he grins. How could he miss this cute magnum opus standing right in front of him?
His little witch grinned at him. "Actually," she begins, taking her glasses off the bed and placing it back on her face. "I have a costume for you wear! I bet it will fit perfectly too!"
Yusuke gulped as Futaba took a black cat onesie out of her tote bag. Maybe it's still not too late to stay and paint.
A/N: I'm back with a new college au entry~! There will be four more drabbles that I hope you'd wait for them! This, as well as the four others that I'm going to post, aren't as long as the first five college au fics posted. This is because I feel like they shouldn't be as long as the first five because this new set is just a holiday special lol I hope you guys enjoyed reading! I was gonna upload this on Halloween but I may be busy working and stuff soooo… Happy early Halloween! lol Excuse the grammatical and spelling errors as this wasn't proofread. Also, shoutout to jokermans for hearing my senseless rambling and giving me feedback on a circus au I'm working on. The Mystic Messenger fic is also still going on lol I'm a busy person aren't I? Happy Halloween!
-olympicmayhem