Notes before I start:

- Rated M for shameless swearing, mentions of violence, mentions of death, mentions of blood, mentions of sexual themes, mentions of mental illness, mentions of homophobia and mentions of stupid shit college students who used to fight giant monsters do.

- I know I said the genre was humor/angst, but it also contains adventure, drama, romance and horror. Also, the "humor" part is really shitty.

- This happens in a close-to-canon AU where the three games happened at the same time in 2012.

- The protagonist from the games go with these names: Minato Arisato (P3), Yu Narukami (P4), Akira Kurusu (P5).

- Minato is alive and nothing will change that.

- No worries, the Female protagonist from Persona 3 Portable (I'll be using her name from the stage plays, Kotone Shiomi) is in there (which is why Shinjiro is also alive), but doesn't appear before a while.

- Minato, Yu and Akira are roomates, fairly friendly with each other (most of the time), almost consider each other brothers and have a lot of blackmail material on each other.

- They told each other not-quite true stories about what happened during their respective games: Minato told them about his situation as an orphan, the Apathy Syndrome and the rise of the cult of Nyx, Yu told them about the murders of Inaba and how most of his friends and his cousin were targets, and Akira told them about the fact that he was being watched closely by the police due to his criminal record and being a prime suspect in the Phantom Thieves affair. Of course, they didn't talk about the Midnight hour, TV World or Mementos.

- They are at their second year in college, and are 19 when the thing starts.

Minato... wake up...

The bluenette opened his eyes. Everything was dark. He was just able to see... someone. The person staring right back at him, standing, yet so small. It's eyes were a vibrant blue, and was lending him a pale hand. He took it, sitting up.

"Hi, Minato."

He recognized that person. It was Pharos. "Hi, Pharos."

"It's been long.

"Yeah... wait... is the Midnight hour back?"

"Oh, no. Don't worry about it, everything is fine. It's just that, well..."

"Well?"

"You might want to be careful right now, things are going to be shaken up soon."

"What are you talking about?"

"Nyx isn't the only god who posed a danger to humanity, back in 2012."

"What."

"Do not worry, other groups took care of it. Related to your two new friends, too. But unlike Nyx, they didn't go to rest."

Minato tilted his head, scratching the back of it. "Well, I wouldn't call Yu and Akira friends, more life friendly acquaintances and-wait." What little colors his face had drained. "You mean other beings like Nyx tried to destroy our world?! And that these two took care of them?!"

"Oh, no. Not like Nyx. Much less powerful than her. More emotional, too. Just aspects taken from humanity and turned up. They fought against them for numerous reason, but one of them is common to yours: to prove that humanity does not want what they think you all want."

"Fuckin' great."

"Don't worry, they won't act up for now. However, your Personas might be a different story. Now, I have to leave, Akira is going to wake you up."

"Wait, wha-"

"GET OUT OF YOUR BED, YOUR LAZY SHIT!"

"Everyday's great at your Junes~" Yu sang to no one in particular has he flipped another pancake. He's been feeling nostalgic lately, mainly considering his year at Inaba. Granted, he spent every long vacation there, back before he started college a year ago. Then, he was forced to focus all of his attention on his studies by his parents. He was lucky Yosuke was able to make it to the same school has him, but instead a sharing a dorm, his parent had helped him rent an apartment with two other roommates, probably in an attempt to remind him of their expectations by putting him with two other people who were completely unrelated with Inaba, and probably more academically driven than his partner, which would have tightened him up...

... if his roommates didn't happen to be Minato Arisato, an art student who spent more time sleeping than studying, doing art or contributing to their apartment life, and Akira Kurusu, who was a student in... he didn't really know, actually. All he knew was that, when he wasn't busy going to parties, working at one of his three part-time jobs or making innuendos, he was keeping himself updated with world's recent event, and he mentioned more than once that he didn't really know what to do beside doing something in politics or journalism. The only thing the three had in common was their initial stoicism toward each other, how none of them took shit from anyone (including each other) and their second high school year being... eventful.

But the stoicism melted away during the first few months, where Minato revealed he was a complete mess (Yu was saddened that he wouldn't be able to form a social link with him, he looked like he could use it), Akira that he was a partying activist and probably a criminal, and Yu himself slowly let down his walls around the two to essentially become the Mom Friend. As for the eventful year, Minato had to deal with the growing of an apparent cult in the city he was staying in, Akira with the fact that he had been falsely accused and put on probation, and he, well... he just told them that there had been murders back then, at Inaba, and numerous cases of missing persons. He felt bad about lying to them, but he knew it was a choice he had to deal with.

"GET OUT OF BED, YOU LAZY SHIT!"

Ah well. Here comes Minato being literally dragged out of bed by Akira, who always took an extra strong coffee to start his day up. Which also made him hyperactive for a good 4 hours

"Man, what the fuck?" The bluenette asked.

"Yu made pancakes."

"It's 10 am! And Sunday! None of us have classes Sunday! The pancakes can wait a little while I sleep a little more."

"Sweetie, with all the amount of sleep you do, someone could hire you to be the princess in a LGBT version of Sleeping Beauty."

"Akira, stop harassing Minato." Yu reprimanded. "Minato, stop complaining. You do need to get out more."

"Who do you think you are, my mom?"

"Seeing as I cook your food, do your laundry, buy groceries, do the dishes, clean most of the apartment on a daily basis and have to remind you to clean your room, I might as well be."

"Oh, BURN-"

"That also counts for you, Akira. Morgana is your cat and I'm the one who takes care of him."

The one with glasses immediately settled down at the table, his face not showing any emotions, while the art student quietly laughed at him, taking some pancakes. Yu took the opportunity to take of his apron and sit down to eat, too. He had made a lot of pancakes, as he calculated that, with Minato's insane appetite, plus Akira bringing food to some shelter once per month, plus Yosuke probably not having any food, plus Morgana inevitably stealing one of the pancake, he needed to make about twenty-five of those.

The three were eating in a comfortable silence when Minato, of all people, decided to strike up a conversation. "Guys?"

"What is it, Minato?"

"Do you have, like, really weird dreams related to what happened back in 2012?"

Akira leaned back into his chair, a look between bewilderment and someone having war flashbacks on his face. As for Yu, he dropped his fork in his plate, some of his weirdest dreams involving the TV world and the nightmare that was Nanako's kidnapping and Inaba's fog flashing in his mind.

"Ya know," started Akira as he regained his composure "there was some real trippy shit that happened in Tokyo, back then, what's with the Phantom Thieves and whatnot. So yeah, I have those, sometimes. I wasn't exactly involved with what was happening back at Port Tatsumi Island, but I think I understood that the rise of a cult involving the actual end of the World happened. And it wouldn't be the first time you have nightmares. Maybe you should talk to your therapist about it."

"Kane-san knows I have nightmare, but she's also aware I don't like talking about my dreams." Minato retorted. "I just tell her about them when they're really bad. My last dream wasn't bad, it was just weird, and that's what I asked you two: if you had weird dreams."

Yu straightened up, looking at the smaller one, trying to control his tone so it wouldn't seem aggressive. "Why are you asking us this? We all wake up sometimes, in the middle of the night due to a bad dream relating to our experiences back then. The fact that the cult at Tatsumi Island, the murders at Inaba and the Phantom Thieves at Tokyo all happened at the same time is probably just a coincidence." His face darkened. "After all, you have dysthimia relating to earlier event in your life, I have large amount of stress put on by my family, and Akira is being closely watched by the police due to assaulting someone. Weird and bad dreams aren't strangers to any of us, and I'm surprised we don't have more of those."

"Hey, I never assaulted anyone!" Akira retorted, a frown forming on his face as he made a dramatic gesture to Yu. "I actually tried to stop a sexual assault by pushing the man away from his victim, maybe a little too strongly. It just so happened that the guy I pushed was the most powerful and corrupt politician at the time: Masayoshi fuckin' Shido, who was president of the Diet building at the time and thus had the entire police under his thumb!"

Yu just shrugged, going back to his pancakes as Minato made a snide remark about how it explained Akira's aversion to law enforcers, and slowly, the heavy discussion became light banter, which Yu carefully avoided, as he thought about how he didn't dream of Tv, flatlines or fog last night, but of a friend of his flashing in a red-eyed goddess trying to warn him of something.

Akira made his way out of his apartment, a list of groceries given by Yu and a determined amount of cash in his pocket, and let his carefree facade down once he was far enough from the apartment. Why the hell did Minato bring his dreams up at the table?! Of course he had weird dreams, anyone who had gone through the same things he did would have weird or bad dreams related to 2012! Just ask the other Thieves. Even if last night, his dream hadn't been about when he he had been interrogated or the near death experiences of his teammates (+ one who actually died), but about Igor's -no, Yaldaboath's- laughter has he revealed his plans.

Akira shook his head in an attempt to chase away last night dream, which didn't work. He was also able to remember it more clearly than normal, as if his former ennemy was trying to communicate. And while he hadn't been able to decipher what he was saying, he had a distinct feeling it didn't have anything to do with what happened three years ago. He felt like the god of order was actually taunting him. He was gritting his teeth just thinking about him. After all, he won that cheater's game. Akira didn't die, Yaldaboath did. And even if gods couldn't exactly die, the crime rates at Tokyo had dropped severely after that. They had won. There was currently no need for the Phantom Thieves right now. It was what all the others kept repeating.

"Yeah right" Akira snorted to himself. "The day Phantom Thieves won't be necessary is when people realize everyone is equal and need the same thing. Until then, I'll guess doing something that involves me calling the world out on it's shit will have to suffice."

"Akira," he twisted his head at the source of the voice. Morgana was following him. "what are you talking about?"

"Why do you have a piece of pancake in your mouth?"

"I really like your roommate." The cat purred as his "owner" rolled his eyes. Or course. Yu may be Mister Perfect, but one of the few things that tipped Akira off to the silverhead's real nature was how he always stopped everything he was doing when he saw a cat just to pet it.

"But my question still stands: what are you talking about, you know we're not supposed to talk about the Phantom Thieves in public."

"Yeah, that's easy for you to say, me and the others are pretty much the only one who can hear you talk."

"Anyway, what were you babbling about?"

"How we are all pretending that the Phantom Thieves aren't necessary anymore."

The cat went silent after this. "Akira," he started "I know you miss those days, but we can't go back to them. Everyone in Tokyo thinks we disappeared after our last fight, and Mementos disappeared."

"I know all that, but..."

"But?"

"One can dream, right?"

"Hey, Partner!"

"YOSUKE-" The silverhead then proceeded to literally throw himself at his best friend, taking the occasion to give him a bone-crushing hug. Nevermind he was currently studying and still had some papers in hand, his partner was more important.

"Hey, careful! You took a lot of muscles lately."

"Oh, sorry." He took his arms of around Yosuke.

Indeed, Yu had another growth spurt some times after Inaba, and had started doing a lot of exercise in his free time to keep in shape, with growing his hair out. The result was that he was now 192 meters tall, built like a brick house and most of his hair (beside his bangs which he regularly trimmed) were now long enough to reach the end of his shoulder blades, which he kept the most part in a ponytail while his bangs (which still looked like a stupid bowl cut which still means he could pull that off successfully) hid over half of his eyes, covering them in a constant shadow.

Compared to his roommates Minato (who barely changed since high school besides his hair getting wilder and the circles under his eyes getting darker) and Akira (who did grow a little, but nothing compared to Yu's grow spurt, and that was overshadowed by his figure becoming somewhat androgynous in two years, the studded piercings that lined his ears and his stupidly beautiful eyelashes) and his best friend Yosuke (who had reached the end of his growth in both silhouette and height, but now sported shorter hair and a sleeve tattoo), that meant he was quite intimidating and had the strength to back up that appearance. And as far as Yu was concerned, it just meant he could lift his friends of the floor and that people showed at least respect when talking to him. Which was good.

"So, what brings you here?"

"Well, do you think I could have some pancakes?"

"Sure, there's some left in the fridge, you'll just have to heat them up."

Once in the kitchen, Yu sat down at the table, reading his notes, as his partner went to the fridge to pull out some of this morning's pancakes with the intention of putting them in the microwave. He quickly pulled them out when it started beeping, put a good dose of maple syrup on them, and sat down at the opposite end of the table, gulping them down. The two sat in a comfortable silence until...

"Chtill, it'ch a niche apawtment you guych hafe."

"Don't talk with your mouth full, Yosuke."

Gulp "I said you guys had a nice apartment. Seriously, three bedroom, a bathroom with a bathtub and a shower, a kitchen and large living room? Which one of you pays for all of that?"

"Minato." It would probably had been more convincing if he hadn't started snickering.

"Cut the crap, I don't know half of the time if he's dead or just sleeping."

"Okay, my parents pay for the entirety of it."

Yosuke stilled. "Your... parents?"

He said nothing, just nodded in confirmation. Yosuke's face twisted in confusion.

"Even Minato's and Akira's part?"

"Don't be ridiculous, they just pay the rent. They wanted me to find a part-time job at their company to pay for the rest, but I didn't and decided to focus on my studies. So the others have to pay for the electricity, cable, hot water, Internet and all that."

"Ah. So, who pays what?"

"Akira has three part-time jobs, and he pays for the hot water and the cable, something about needing a warm shower, and he's constantly running around the city texting his friends, so..."

"What about the electricity and the Internet?"

"Minato." His partner sent him a flat look. "No, I'm serious! Apparently, he has a rich as all hell friend who accepted to pay for the bills Akira can't pay or my parents wouldn't cover, and that's it."

"Wow. Minato's a weird guy."

"No, he's just met her in 2012, and apparently, the three of us all made important connections back then."

"Seriously?"

"You're an art student, right?"

"Well, I just started at the start of this semester, what's with quitting Economy Studies after a year.

"Then you might have heard of Yusuke Kitagawa."

"Dude, he's one of the most important artist in Japan and he's only 20! He was a pupil of fucking Madarame! And I know that most of his art was a fraud, but I've seen some of his early art, when he was still original, and holy shit! It's the dream of every art student to end up like Kitagawa!"

"Yeah, Akira is dating him."

"..."

"No I'm serious."

"..."

"Yosuke?"

"God I hate all of your fucking roommates."

"Why? Because they have connections we don't have or because at least one is dating a guy?"

"Can you not?"

He chuckled at his friend's distraught expression. "Sorry. I know you're making a lot of efforts to get over your homophobia, and I'm proud of you for that." Yosuke sent him a flat look. "No, really."

The brunette groaned. "Can we please change the subject?"

"You didn't answer my question about why you hate them, tho."

"I don't know? A lot of things I can't put a finger on?"

"I guess your talking about the combination of Minato sleeping 15 hours a day with his snark and utter nihilism, or how Akira is an unholy fusion of a pacifist activist, a in-your-face thespian and someone shady enough that you ask yourself half of the time if he's a criminal."

"Yeah!... wait, what's a thespian?"

"You're the art student there, you should know."

"AAARGH"

"Calm down! I'm just teasing you."

"No! You were bullying me, dude."

"Oh, I'll stop then."

As Yosuke returned to eating his pancakes, mumbling under his breath, Yu returned to his notes, but was unable to concentrate now, his thoughts from this morning coming back to haunt him.

"Yosuke?"

Gulp. "Yeah?"

"Do you ever miss Inaba?"

"Dude, you're the one who liked the country. I was bored out of my mind when you weren't there. So no, not really."

"I mean, do you ever think about it?"

"Of course! Did you forget all the weird shit that went down back here?" He shuddered. "I even have nightmares sometimes."

"No. I didn't forget." The silverhead looked at the brunette. "What kind of nightmares?"

"Most of them concern the TV World, like the reaper or everyone's shadow. Izanami also appears, sometimes."

Yu perked up. "How?"

"... did you forget how we all almost died with her final attack, or?..."

"Oh. Right."

Seeing his partner deflated look, Yosuke ate the last pieces of his pancakes, before getting up and walking over to the other end of the table, putting a hand on his shoulder once he sat down next to him. "Hey, it's alright. Your way of dealing with shit is to see the positive. Izanami accepted to back the fuck down and leave Marie alone, so you focus on that and shut the part about ending up in Yomi into a dark hole in your brain. Like you did the rest of all the traumatizing shit we went through back then."

Yu turned to look at his partner, frowning. "That... doesn't sound like a healthy coping mechanism."

"You also pet every cat you can. And cuss out everyone who doesn't shut up and listen to you when your patience reaches its limits."

"And I will not apologize for either of them."

Yosuke shrugged, a grin slowly etching itself onto his face, leaning against his partner. "Eh, it's part of your charm." Yu smiled, reassured. "Else," The brunette turned his head toward the silverhead, a concerned frown knitting his eyebrows "what about Izanami?"

"Oh, it's nothing. I just... ugh, I don't want to talk about it."

"You're sure?"

"No. Yes? I don't know, it's just she appeared in my dream last night and I didn't understand what she was trying to say."

"Ah. So... wanna go to my apartment and play video games?"

"I can't, I have to study-"

"Dude, the semester started a week ago. Studying can wait."

"... Yeah, you're right."

It's evening when Akira makes it back to the apartment. "Darlings, I'm home!"

"I'M NOT YOUR DARLING"

"Oh, you're up."

"Yes," Minato's head peeked out of his room, his eyes full of potent hatred for the one wearing glasses "because you WOKE ME UP"

"Where were you?" Yu walked down the small corridor separating the living room from the kitchen, holding a wooden spoon and dressed in a apron. He had taken everything in the fridge and cabinets to make enough curry for the three of them and still have leftovers, and just had put it in a pot to heat up. "I just sent you to buy groceries! And I know you don't have work on Sundays, strangely enough, seeing as it's the only day in the week where you don't have classes."

"Oh, right. I just got sidetracked a little and-"

"You went to Yusuke's didn't you?"

"Ryuji." Akira corrected. "I went to Ryuji's."

"Who's that?" Started Minato "your second boyfriend of the week?" The first boyfriend being Yusuke. You see, Akira was this type of person who fell in love very easily. It also means that he fells out of it very quickly too. He also didn't see what was the problem with having more than one lover. He loved everyone equally and more than one at the same time, and that's it! However...

"Dude, Ryuji's the first friend I made in Tokyo, back then." He started, his tone informal, and then switched to deadpan, turning toward the silverhead. "Unlike Yu, I don't have secret gay feelings for my bro."

"I- I-" Yu stammered a moment, trying to find his words has a blush crept onto his face. "I d-don't have feelings for Yos-"

"Yeah, no, you do" Minato started. "You cry over him when your drunk."

"I don't-"

"Dude, Akira mentioned his permanent boyfriend once when we were drunk and you started crying."

"Yeah, I remember that. In your defense, you were completely shitfaced. It's as if you were such a lightweight that you could get drunk on soda. Oh wait, you can."

"Can we please forget about this incident?"

"Not when this incident involves Mister Perfect downing 6 liters of soda after learning he passed the final exams with his not-boyfriend and then proceeded to drunkenly sing Disney songs for three hours straight together, no we can't." Akira started, his tone a mix of pissed and teasing. "And that's before inviting a white guy from a little rural town where Mister Perfect used to spend his vacations, which also happens to be in the in the middle of fucking nowhere. And it takes, like, half a day in a train to reach. The white guy showed up an hour later in our living room by probably climbing through the window because I never saw him going through the front door, so no, we can't forget this incident."

"Don't forget the part were he did this all of this after spending two weeks cussing both of his roommates out." Minato added as the frizzy-haired student took a pause to breath.

"The exams where stressing me out!"

"Well then, find ways to manage your stress!"

"Someone who sleeps half of his life away to avoid dealing with shit has no right to say this." Yu retorted back.

"In fact," continued Akira, need for breath clenched and back with his pissed-teasing tone "someone who freaks out when he can't find his headphones and his old-as-hell MP3 player, becomes angrier and angrier throughout the week, ends up fighting - and beating the shit out of - one of the worst Yankee on campus with a stick when said Yankee mentions stealing the headphones and music player of some nerd, only for him to find out it's Yu's not-boyfriend headphones and music player and fighting him - who actually succeeded in beating you, I'm impressed - for the rights of keeping it, only to find out at the end of the week that the headphones and MP3 he supposedly lost actually just fell from his nightstand when he was sleeping has no right to say to someone, especially not someone as well adjusted as Mister Perfect, that they need to find ways to manages his stress!"

Yu starred angrily to Akira, as embarrassment made itself clear on Minato's face. "At least he doesn't have an attempt to pierce his own nipples that ended up in the hospital on his record of stupid shit he did in college!"

The bluenette turned toward the silverhead, confusion having replaced embarrassment, as the glass-wearing student went rigid. "He tried to what."

"I don't know how you weren't woken up, but I'm just going to assume that you were asleep and had your headphones playing a relaxing tune at full volume when it happened. You see, that moron went to a party that night, and was brought back home completely drunk at 2 in the morning and probably high, too. The result? He went to the bathroom. I was talking on Skype with some friends when I heard he was back. I went to greet him and probably take him back to bed, but he just goes straight to the bathroom without saying a word. In my half-asleep mind, I just assume he's sick and went to throw up. 30 minutes later, I go to the bathroom to take a shower before going to bed, having assumed he finished throwing up and was now sleeping in his bed. And then, I find him passed out on the floor in a small pool of his own blood. I panic for a good minute, call an ambulance and wait until next morning to see if he will be okay, sleeping on a chair. Turns out, he decided that piercing his own nipples at 2 in the morning while drunk was a good idea, and fell asleep immediately after making the holes. The result is that he lost a pint of his blood, both wounds he made for said piercings got infected because he wasn't using proper material, he scared the shit out of me and he had to stay at the hospital for 2 days."

"Hold on, that's why he didn't go to the auditions for the amateur theater play near Christmas?"

"Yep. Why?"

"I don't know, I just assumed he got lost. Or that he stayed at his fancy artist boyfriend's loft modeling naked or other shit like that."

"I'm going to strangle the both of you in your sleep, you know that?"

Minato turned toward Akira, a sly smile on his face. "You brought back embarrassing shit we did to the surface, so Yu took you off your high horses."

Yu nodded in agreement. "It's only fair, since you've embarrassed the both of us. Now, we're even."

"Alright, fair enough." Answered the frizzy-haired one.

...

"Does it smell like something's burning to you?"

"MY CURRY-"

Well, that was a weird evening, thought Minato. Akira bringing back all of the stupid shit they did from last year, learning Akira's disastrous attempt at piercings from Yu, the last one's curry burning down half of the kitchen and it all ended with them watching a cheesy american movie from the eighties while eating pizza. Overall, a good, if eventful, way to pass the evening before going to bed.

Speaking of bed, his looked especially comfortable right now. No, it didn't matter if he had been sleeping not even two hours ago, he was still sleepy. Had been since beating Nyx. And the only way he could normally get dreams those days was by listening to his music when sleeping. Else, all he had was floating in a dark nothingness. He supposed it was a better alternative than Kotone's nightmare.

"Fuck." he said to no one in particular but himself. As if he needed a reminder that what had happened back then had been a nightmare for every single one of his friends, while he found himself unable to muster intense emotions about it like they did. All he felt about it was intense discomfort, some leftover stress (he remembered being way more stressed back then) about it and slight sadness that he wasn't able to save Ryoji.

There was also the fact that they had kind of fallen apart after high school, as they all went their own way. Kotone, Yukari and Junpei were the only one he was successfully able to keep contact with. He knew that Junpei had somehow kept contact with Fuuka, and that Yukari and Mitsuru had become close friends. It was because of her he was able to pay for his part of the apartment, so he was grateful for that. As for Kotone, she and Shinjiro had opened a bakery together in Iwatodai, and received daily visits from Ken, Koromaru, and Akihiko. She called him every week to check on him, so he guessed it was all good.

As for Aigis, he didn't really knew. Sometimes, he think he can catch glimpses her, around the city whiles hanging out with his roommates, but that's it.

The bluenette groaned, dropping on his mattress. He set his MP3 to play a random song, and he caught "Aria of the Soul" before going in a deep sleep.

There was a door. A dark blue, which emitted a faint light. They was drawn to it, unable to resist it.

One didn't care anymore, knowing it would happen sooner or later.

Another tried to reach it faster, impatient to see an old friend of his again.

The last one was scared, any memories of this place corrupted by an arrogant usurper.

The door opened, and they found themselves some kind of, four tables with two chairs each set in a square, three in which women, all looking similar in some way, were seated, a stage on the side, all draped in blue Velvet.

A bar was at the other end of the bistro.

An old man with a long nose sat behind the bar.

Igor lifted his head, and smiled at Minato, Yu and Akira has they made their way toward him.

"Welcome back to the Velvet Room, Wildcards."