Summary: They glimpse each other, time after time, until they truly meet.
Note: I started this when the first episode of P5A came out due to the idea of 'randomly noticing each other without actually meeting during daily life', and it was just reinforced after the Train Encounter. This idea actually spawned As Each Page Turns (Meeting Anew) as well. and here I am, a couple of weeks later, finished at last.
Warnings: Excessive Use Of The Word 'Stranger', Basically Random Encounters Y'all, Akira Working At Crossroads Because We All Thirst For That.
Disclaimer: Don't own P5.
.
Hair brown, eyes reddish, Akira first glimpses him while walking in Shibuya; the stranger stands in front of a bakery, contemplating the shop in front of him.
Akira blinks and goes on in his way.
.
Goro is looking for a place to discreetly escape into to avoid his fans; it's been a bad day, and he doesn't need to deal with the adoring public at the moment.
He spies a narrow path branching off into the areas with less traffic and hurries as much as he can to reach it before the rabid fans see him but not too much as to avoid attracting attention.
He ducks around the corner and almost collides with another passerby who appears to have been about to turn the same corner.
He catches sight of messy dark hair, shocked dark eyes under a pair of glasses.
He can hear the sound of stampeding fans from the main road and his attention shifts away from the stranger. A moment later, he is gone.
.
Akira catches sight of the same stranger again across the street; eyes intense and expression concentrated as he talks with someone on the phone.
The traffic light turns green and both Akira and the stranger start crossing, but Akira loses sight of him in the traffic.
.
Goro doesn't expect to find himself at a bar, but here he is, at a bar called Crossroads and looking for Ohya for information gathering purposes.
The bartender stares at him and he turns to give her a smile, she blinks back at him before she smiles slightly. There is something vaguely familiar about her dark eyes and messy dark hair, but he dismisses the feeling easily; he's famous and has met his share of people, so it's highly possible he's seen her or someone who resembles her before.
"Hey~" A cheery voice calls out, "Aki-chan! Do you know pretty boy here?" And so Ohya enters the scene, clearly drunk.
"I've seen him before," Aki-chan murmurs, her voice soft, "Can I get you anything, sir?"
"Just water." He smiles at her again and she bows her head before she heads off to go get him the water he asked for, her movement graceful despite the fancy kimono she's wearing.
"Now, what did you want, pretty boy?" Ohya leaned over the counter, tilting herself in his direction, "More info?"
.
Akira sees the stranger, the one Ohya had called 'pretty boy', at a bakery once again, this time at the train station. The 'Pretty Boy' is leaving the bakery with a bag in one hand, and a silver briefcase with the letter A emblazoned on it in the other.
Akira blinks as he watches the stranger walk away, and heads to the bakery himself to look at the selection available, curiosity filling him.
.
Dark eyes, messy dark hair, glasses. Goro blinks as his attention switches from his phone to the Shujin student walking past him in apparent hurry towards the staircase leading to the train station.
Goro purses his lips together in contemplation as he considers the stranger who has just disappeared from view; he'd been glimpsing the same mess of hair and dark eyes at random moments around Tokyo, and he wonders if it's some sort of strange coincide or if he's finally gone insane and is hallucinating.
(Or maybe, cliché as it sounds, it's some twist of fate leading the two towards each other?)
.
Akira is standing behind Leblanc's counter when the bell above the café's entrance chimes, indicating a new arrival, and he turns his head to the doorway to welcome the new customer.
"Welcome to Leblanc." His voice quiets down as he registers the appearance of the new presence.
Brown hair, reddish eyes, silver briefcase.
It's the same stranger.
"Oh, it's you," The stranger says, and Akira realizes he's not the only one to notice their continuous almost meetings. The stranger walks to the counter and takes a seat, putting his suitcase next to him.
"It seems we meet again." The stranger chuckles lightly and Akira nods.
"Indeed."
"Ah. I'm glad. For a moment there I thought I was the only one who noticed. My name is Akechi Goro. May I ask for your name?"
Akira huffs a laugh, "Kurusu Akira. It's nice to put a name to a face, stranger."
.
End
*Insert RE4 Merchant voice here* WELCOME! Got a selection of good things on sale, stranger~