Disclaimer: I do not own the Persona series.

A/N: Hey everyone! I started this story a couple years ago and had it posted here, but I decided to take it down and start over. It wasn't quite right the way that it was, so I'm trying to salvage it the best I can while also adding in some new plot elements.

Mitsuru has always fascinated me when playing the game, and I think it'd be interesting to see her meet another person with whom she could reasonably get along and who also is connected to her father's business. Not exactly sure where this is going yet, but please stick with it and let me know what you think! Thanks for reading, and Happy New Year!


Imprecise

o1.

It was becoming typical for him to be late. Of all things in the world, tardiness was a quality that Mitsuru absolutely loathed. Tapping her foot impatiently on the cool, uneven ground of Iwatodai Station, she thought about all of her classmates and club members who were usually late. She didn't care much for them. Quite frankly, it seemed that the late-comers would never amount to anything relatively important. How could they, if they never arrived on time? It may seem like a rather trivial matter, but at least to Mitsuru, one's punctuality says a lot about their character. And at the moment, it spoke negatively to Akihiko's.

"Excusez-moi, mademoiselle, mais… Mitsuru? Mitsuru Kirijo?"

Looking up, Mitsuru's eyes met the blue gaze of a tall, broad-shouldered blond wearing an onyx suit with a white leather bag draped casually over his shoulder. He grinned at her, his teeth more-or-less white while just a little bit crooked, and Mitsuru noticed a small French flag pinned to the hem of his bag.

"Parlez-vous français?" she asked, her curiosity getting the better of her. "Ou, êtes -vous français?"

"Oui," he said, his smile widening. "Je suis français. Je viens d'Angers, une petite ville près de la mer, mais maintenant j'habite à Paris. " Mitsuru didn't know any Frenchmen. How did this man know her, then? And how did he know that she spoke French?

"Je m'appelle Victor," he said, as if reading her mind, "et mon cousin est Bebe, qui va à Gekkokhaun avec vous. Vous le connaissez, oui?"

"I do know him," she answered in Japanese, starting to feel frustrated now, "but how do you know me?"

She didn't really care at this point. She'd had enough experiences of being hit on, if this was what was happening. These things always resulted in utter pain and misery for her pursuer, but Victor was foreign and a relative of one of her mentees in the French club. Mitsuru thus felt obligated to be gentler, but she still didn't care to engage in a real conversation with him. She really wished Akihiko would arrive.

At this he smiled again, moving to sit beside her on the bench. His leg brushed the end of Mitsuru's skirt as he did so, causing her to edge away. She didn't like people touching her, even if accidentally.

"Everyone knows who you are, Mitsuru." His Japanese was a bit rough now that she heard him say more than just her name, but she could understand him well enough. "Also, we met in the past as well. Remember that ball your family held last summer? My father and I attended since your company and ours are loosely affiliated. Ours is in Kyoto, and my father is an acquaintance of your father."

"Is that so?" Of course he had a connection to her father; of course now she couldn't afford to be rude.

"Yes. It is a small world, isn't it?" He laughed, and it was one of those light, infectious laughs that would encourage most people to start laughing themselves. It was warm, deep, and inviting, and his eyes crinkled and shone.

But Mitsuru was not most people. She simply watched him laugh and waited for him to finish. "I thought you looked familiar… Have you been coming to Kirijo Group meetings lately?" The more she looked at him, the more she did seem to recognize him. His hair was a very light shade of blond and his eyes were very blue, which were traits one didn't see every day in Japan. He was also rather stout and thickset. Not fat, but large, which again was a bit atypical for Asians. He actually did resemble Bebe quite a bit.

"Yes, I have been. My father is actually in Morocco right now, so he wants me to take over his participation here. My brother is in one of our headquarters in Quebec, and my mother is home in France."

"You have that many extensions?" Mitsuru asked, feeling impressed in spite of herself. She knew that the francophone culture was rather large and expansive, but she didn't expect such ties to stretch into Japan as well. The Kirijo Group was primarily a Japanese company, but Mitsuru knew that they had connections elsewhere. She also knew how tedious up-keeping everything was, and she wondered how Victor, who seemed rather laid-back and low-key, was able to handle such pressures.

"La francophonie has a lot of advantages, as I am sure you know. It is a hard thing to do, but we do it, and we do it well, I'd say."

"That's fascinating," she mused, making a mental note to ask her father the details on Victor's company. "How many total operations do you hav –"

"Hey, Mitsuru." With a flash of silver, Akihiko arrived, panting slightly. "Sorry I'm late. I had to talk to the team after practice, and it turned into a bit of a – Oh, hello. Who's this?"

He turned to look at Victor, who was now staring over at him. The Frenchman soon rose to shake his hand firmly. "I am Victor, a friend to you both. My family does business in this area, and I am also a relative of Bebe." Mitsuru watched as Akihiko stared blankly at him, probably trying to figure out who Bebe was. Mitsuru knew him through her connections with the French Club, but she knew Akihiko had the cultural diversity of a pea. "I saw Mitsuru and thought I would say hello. And now, I think I should be saying goodbye."

He shook Akihiko's hand once more and then took Mitsuru's, kissing the top with a slight brush of his lips. He looked into her eyes as he did so, and Mitsuru felt a rush of annoyance.

"Au revoir, mademoiselle. I hope to be seeing you again soon "

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"So, who was that earlier?" Mitsuru and Akihiko were watching TV on the couch in Mitsuru's room. She didn't care much for television and the cheap media it represented, but she tolerated it for Akihiko's sake. They were watching some American car movie – the Fast and Furious something? Akihiko was drawn to the muscle cars while Mitsuru distantly appreciated the meager plot points. They were all some sort of team racing together, much like how S.E.E.S fought shadows together. She didn't really understand why cars were such a big deal to the characters, but she could respect their teamwork. She could relate to it in a way.

"Victor?" Mitsuru asked, still focusing on the big muscled-man's monologue.

"Was that his name?" For some reason, Akihiko's voice was a little sharp. Mitsuru tore her gaze away from the television to look at him. His eyes were glued to the screen and his left hand was holding the popcorn bowl. They were sitting close together (though not touching), and there was a strange sort of tension in the air.

"Yes. As he told you, he's apparently related to Bebe and is also a business affiliate of my father's company."

"Oh." He still didn't look away from the screen, but Mitsuru could sense him relax a little, though he still looked tense.

It was so very strange between them. Very imprecise. Akihiko was a friend – a good friend. Mitsuru's best friend, actually. He knew what food she liked, he knew her every combat move, he knew her every weakness, and he knew her every strength. She enjoyed his company and felt sad when deprived of it for too long, but with all of this, there was something more teetering at the surface.

The truth was that Akihiko was probably in love with her. Mitsuru just had a feeling. It was apparent in the way he looked at her when she got dressed up, the way he reacted when she sustained a hit in battle, the way he grinned when their bodies would naturally brush when walking or sitting – it wasn't hard to figure out.

What was hard to figure out, though, was how Mitsuru felt. Again, she truly enjoyed his company. More so than anyone else in the dorm. She was happy when she was with him and worried about him when he went into battle, but was that love? What did it really mean to be in love with another person?

Mitsuru didn't know, and that troubled her. But she tucked it away and sealed it inside for another time. She didn't want to think about that just now as the end credits began playing on the screen. "So… do you want to watch the next installment?"

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"Mademoiselle! 'Allo!"

Turning from her perch by the window, Mitsuru turned to see Victor entering the coffee shop, smiling as he walked over to her. He'd been in town for a while now, and they'd been running into each fairly often. Perhaps a bit too often. Today he wore a white silk shirt tucked into sleek black pants darned with a gray scarf, his foreignness thus completely evident. The fact made her amused enough to smile, but she held it back.

"Hello, Victor," she said, a little surprised as he pulled up a chair to sit by her. "How are you?"

"Oh well, very well. Just came here to do a bit of reading. Is it fine if I join you?"

Mitsuru knew that there really wasn't any reason to object, so she let him, trying to ignore him as she finished crunching the numbers for the Student Counsel's budget. The treasurer had some sort of controversy surrounding her, so it was just easier if Mitsuru did it. Victor was quiet enough, letting out a light laugh from time to time as he read his book, so he didn't really bother her. She didn't know why he asked to join her when they both clearly had their own agendas to attend to, but it wasn't her problem.

When she finally finished, she put her papers back into their folders and then stood up, pausing to stare at Victor.

He too looked up, meeting her eyes and smiling. "Is that it, then? You are finished?"

"Yes," said Mitsuru, not sure where he was going with this. "Thank you for your company, but I have to go."

"But, you are not finished with your coffee." He tapped the top of her half-filled cup. "Won't you stay and finish it?"

"No, that's fine," she said absently, putting the last folder into her bag. It tasted awful anyway. She didn't know why she bought it or what she had expected from it.

"Ah, well, do you think you could still stay for just a little while longer?" She looked up from her bag to stare at him. He was still smiling. It seemed that all he ever did was smile. "I thought I could tell you more about my father's business. Would you like to chat with me about that?"

He had her there. She was extremely interested in how they managed all of their various headquarters. Father admitted he didn't know much about them except for the fact that their world image was renown and highly-respected, much like their own, so she would like to stay and hear about it. It would be in the firm's best interest.

But she was supposed to meet Akihiko back at the dorms for dinner…

"I suppose I can talk for a little while." She sat down across from him, pulling out her cellphone. She couldn't get a signal; she'd have to just tell Akihiko later. "So, how many branches do you have again? And in how many countries?"

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

She was late. Over an hour late.

It wasn't like Mitsuru to be late. She sure chided him enough for his own untimeliness, too. But it was after seven, she wasn't here, Akihiko was hungry, and his home cooked meal didn't feel so special anymore. Sighing, he grabbed his jacket and headed out the door, wondering where she was, what she was doing, and why he wasn't important enough to know.