This work is for the ppsecretsanta event on Tumblr. In particular this was written for my secret Santa: Serena (mystery-dungeon on Tumblr.) I couldn't find a beta reader in time, but I hope you enjoy this anyways (aka: ignore my poor grammar please.)
-December 1st-
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
Makishima Shogo rolled over, and reached out from the comfort of his white blankets to find his cellphone on the nightstand. After typing in his password, he noticed Akane Tsunemori had sent him a text message.
Akane-chan: Do you have some spare time today? I could really use some help on my book report for 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. :3'
Makishima grinned at his phone, when questioned about it he would instantly deny all claims, but in truth he had a small crush on Akane. He didn't know when it began exactly, but for a while now hes been trying to catch her eye.
Makishima swung his legs out of bed, instantly forgetting about his tired mind to sit up, and think about his reply. 'Maybe a short sure would work? No that would be way to short... How about sure I'll help. Yeah that sounds good, but what do I put after that? Oh crap its already been ten minutes!' After fidgeting with his phone for a few more minutes, he sent a reply.
Makishima: Sure I'll help, I have some free time after my nine o'clock class. I'll meet you at the library if that's okay?
Exhaling a sigh of relief, Makishima put his phone back on the nightstand. After some thought he didn't see the point in trying to go back to sleep, so he went to his closet to find some clothes for the day. Settling on a white long sleeved shirt, and a pair of light blue jeans, he went to the bathroom for a shower.
He pulled off his gray boxers, and threw them into the laundry basket. Then he pulled back the shower curtain to turn on the showers warm water. It was hard getting warm water in the winter time, because all of the other attendants in the dorms used it. Luckily Makishima was probably one of the few people up at this early hour, so the warm water came pretty quickly.
The warm water hit Makishima's cold skin making him flinch. Getting used to the water temperature pretty quickly though, he started letting his mind wonder. 'I wonder if I could use this chance to ask Akane on a real date? Maybe I could take her somewhere romantic for a Christmas present... Still I don't know if she likes me that way though... Maybe I should ask Kougami for his opinion on what I should do. He does seem closer to her.'
Pulling himself out of his thoughts, Makishima washed his white hair, and scrubbed the grim off his body. After finishing he turned off the water, and pulled back the curtain to step out. Using one of his blue towels on the rack, he dried himself off, and pulled on his clothes.
Exiting his bathroom to go back into the bedroom, Maksihima noticed his cat on the bed. "Spooky what are you doing on my bed?" Maksihima said to the white cat, treating it like a person capable of replying. He wasn't really a cat person, but Akane with the help of Kougami convinced him to buy this cat a couple months back when they where out shopping for textbooks.
The cat replied with a soft "meow," and stretched herself out on the bed. Makishima smiled at the cats antics, and walked over to give her belly a rub. The cat purred at Maksihima's affectionate touch, and slowly started drifting to sleep.
Noticing his work was done here, Makishima grabbed his phone, and walked out of the bedroom into the hallway connecting his room to the living room. On the hallway walls where paintings from varies artist Makishima enjoyed. Halting his walk for a moment, Makishima looked over one of his favorite paintings from a predominant illustrator known as Ouryou Rouichi, whose artwork fascinated him.
Continuing his walk, Makishima finally came into his apartments living room. Flipping on the light switch, he saw his whole room colored in white, the only color coming from the furnishings which where just some soft light blue couches, and curtains of the same color. Makishima liked the color pattern, because it consisted of his favorite colors, but some people found it very plain.
Shrugging off his thoughts, Makishima walked over to the small kitchen connected to the living room. He turned on the stove to heat up some water for tea, and then started looking around for the bread. After a moment he found the loaf in one of the cabinets, and pulled out a piece to put it into the toaster.
While waiting for his breakfast, Makishima went over to his bookshelf, and looked for his copy of 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.' After locating it, he took the book of the shelf, and went over to his couch to sit down. Opening the book up, he started to reread the first pages.
After a few minutes, he heard the kettle boiling, and went over to pour his tea. Then after that he grabbed his toast, and went back to lounge on the couch with his book.
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
Makishima pulled out his phone, and checked the new message.
Akane-chan: Sure, that would be great!
Smiling at the reply, Makishima put his phone back into his pocket, and continued to read while sipping his tea.
Hours passed, and finally it was time for Makishima to head out. First he put his empty tea cup into the sink, and then grabbed his gray beanie, and cyan coat from the loveseat. After making sure he had everything needed for the day, he left his apartment heeding towards the university.
He arrived at the university on time, and went to his first class of the day, psychology. The teacher loved to pointlessly rant a lot to the class, so Makishima used this time to continue rereading his book.
"I'm sort of glad I don't live in a world like this..." Maksihima thought to himself, while flipping threw the book.
After what felt like a short time it was already the end of class. Makishima collected his books, and then exited the class to head towards the library. He felt kind of nervous on his walk, and he knew the exact cause. He was going to be alone with Akane for a while. In his head he started to prepare possible outcomes for the situation, and each of them ended with him growing deeply embarrassed. 'What am I supposed to say to her? Hey I wanna take you on a date, because I've been imagining us together for a while now?' That just sounds creepy.'
Before Makishima realized it, he was in front of the library doors. "Keep it cool Makishima. Don't screw this up."He whispered to himself, while opening the doors.
Looking around the library for a moment, Makishima noticed Akane at a table in the corner, reading a book. Smiling, Makishima walked towards her. "Hello Tsunemori."
"You can just call me Akane, Makishima. We've been friends for a while now." Akane commented, looking up from her book to give a quick smile.
Makishima felt heat slowly coming to his face, "Of course, I'm sorry Akane."
"It's alright Makishima you don't have to apologize," Akane earnestly said, "You can sit here if you want." She added pointing to the chair in front of her.
"T-Thanks." Maksihima hesitantly replied, pulling out the chair to sit down.
Akane smiled a bit more, picking up on Makishima's unease, "Kougami should be joining us soon, I hope that's okay with you?"
"Oh, that's quite alright." Makishima replied, setting his book on the table. He took the moment to look over Akane's attire. She wore a cute little red trench coat with a pink scarf wrapped around her neck. Makishima thought she was absolutely drop dead adorable.
"Okay then, in the mean time can you help me write a introduction to my paper?" Akane questioned, "Usually this kind of stuff wouldn't be hard for me, but for some reason I can't write it."
Makishima smiled, it made him feel a bit good to be able to help Akane out. "Alright then let's start out with a thesis statement..."
Makishima grew anxious, and over the passing hours he also grew more nervous. Could he finally confess his feelings to Akane, or was he doomed to be just a close friend forever?
"That felt like it took forever!" Akane suddenly exclaimed, stretching her arms up over her head to stretch.
"It wasn't that long." Makishima replied, closing his book. 'It felt longer to me, because I couldn't stop staring, and thinking about you.' Makishima thought, instantly making another small blush appear on his face at the thought.
"Sorry I'm late." Kougami said, walking up to the pair positioned at the table. "My class ran a bit over today."
Makishima noticed Kougami was in a disheveled state as usual. His black suit was wrinkled all over, and his tie was a crooked mess. 'He was probably late going to class again, because he stayed up late watching those crime shows.'
Akane turned around to look at Kougami, "Hey Ko, it's alright we where just wrapping this up anyways."
Kougami nodded, "Okay then do you guys want to go get coffee or something?"
Makishima pulled out his phone to check the time, he didn't want to miss his next class for the day.
"Sure, I still have a while before my next class starts."
"Same here." Akane added, looking down at her own phone.
"Alright then, I know this little cafe down the road. They serve the best coffee, and biscuits around."
"Sounds amazing." Akane replied, while getting up from her chair to collect the scattered papers all around the table.
"Straight this way then." Kougami said, making his way back out the library's exit with Akane following closely right behind him.
Makishima followed them as well out of the library, and off the school campus. After checking the location on his phone, he agreed with Kougami, the cafe really wasn't that far away. A quick ten minute walk would get them there with time to spare.
"So Kougami how are your classes going?" Akane asked, still walking closely beside Kougami. 'Almost close enough to hold his hand.' Makishima noticed, instantly frowning at the thought.
"It's going alright. Professor Saiga is really good at what he does. Like today for example he didn't even smell me, and he could already tell I was smoking earlier."
"Wow that's amazing." Akane replied cheerfully, "He must really be a good analyst if he could tell that."
Kougami smirked a bit, "Yeah hes amazing." Looking over his shoulder, Kougami asked, "How about you, Makishima? How are classes going?"
"Fine." He simply replied, "Just the same old classes for me."
"Well simplicity is good sometimes." Akane said, looking back at Makishima with a smile.
Makishima noticed Akane looking directly at him, and started to blush a bit. "Y-yeah I guess so."
"We're here." Kougami announced, opening up the cafe's door for Akane.
Akane's smile brightened, "Thanks Ko."
"No problem." Kougami replied, giving a small smirk in return.
'I wish I could make her smile like that...' Makishima thought to himself, following just behind the pair into the building.
"We'll go get the coffee, Makishima. You can go grab us a place to sit down." Kougami said, while trying to pat Akane on the head for some strange reason.
"Hey don't pet me! I'm not a dog!" Akane grumbled, swatting off Kougami's hand, and giving him a frown.
Makishima raised a eyebrow at the strange interaction, but he quickly dismissed it. "Alright I'll go grab us a booth or something. I like my coffee with a lot of sugar and a bit of cinnamon by the way."
"We remember, Makishima." Akane replied, waving him off.
"I'm just making sure."
Makishima found a booth in a rather secluded spot in the back of the cafe. He liked being away from the noise of the other customers conversations. Looking around, Makishima noticed the whole room was decorated in Christmas lights with small decorated trees on each table. The cafe had this cheery relaxed atmosphere about it, which he really liked.
While waiting for Kougami, and Akane to get back, Makishima decided to mentally plan out a correct way to ask Akane out. 'Option one is to ask Kougami to help me out. Option two is just get her alone, and ask her myself. I don't know if I could pull off option 2 on my own though... But at the same time I don't want to bother Kougami by asking him... Ugh what should I do?!'
Makishima frowned, all this thinking was starting to give him a headache.
Akane noticed Makishima thinking away in the corner, so she walked over, and waved her hand in front of his face, "Earth to Makishima, hello?"
Makishima blinked, pulling himself back out of his over thinking mode again, "Oh sorry I was just spacing out for a minute there."
"It's okay, if you don't mind me asking though what where you thinking about?" Akane asked, taking a the seat in front of him.
"Oh um... It's nothing." Makishima replied, he could feel the heat coming to his face again from the embarrassment. 'When did I become a blushing little school girl?!'
Kougami walked up to the pair at the table, "Here's your coffee everyone." Kougami said, handing the cups out.
"Thank you." Makishima replied, taking his cup.
"No problem." Kougami replied, taking a seat next to Akane.
"Makishima we actually had a reason for dragging you out here today..." Akane started, fidgeting a bit under the table, "We wanted to discuss something with you."
Makishima took a quick sip of his coffee, "What is it?" He questioned, giving them a strange look. 'Oh please don't tell me this is a intervention of some sort,' Makishima mentally pleaded, 'I haven't done anything wrong lately.'
"Well... We wanted to tell you..." Akane stumbled to get out.
"We're dating." Kougami finished, wrapping his arm around Akane trying to give her some kind of comfort.
Makishima instantly froze, almost dropping his coffee in the process. "W-w-what?"
"We've been dating for a few weeks now, and since your one of our closest friends we wanted to tell you first." Kougami replied, looking down at Akane who was slouching down into her seat.
Makishima used all of his strength to keep himself from showing a negative reaction to the newly outed couple. He loved both of them as very precious friends, he didn't want to lose them over this. "Oh... Well then c-congrats to both of you."
"See Akane he didn't give us any kind of a negative reaction." Kougami said, trying to encourage his girlfriend to seem a little more happy about the situation.
Akane pulled herself out of her slumped form, "I just had this feeling you would feel... Bad if we told you..."
"No, not at all. I'm happy for both of you." Makishima replied, forcing a smile onto his face.
"Well thank you." Akane replied, while returning Kougami's small hug.
"That's our best friend for you." Kougami smirked, giving Makishima a thumbs up.
"Yeah, Best friend..." Makishima whispered, slouching down into his own seat a bit.
-December 20th -
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
Akane Tsunemori rolled over, and reached out from the comfort of her light green blankets to find her cellphone on the nightstand. After typing in her password, she noticed Makishima Shogo had sent her a text message.
Makishima-kun: "I was wondering if you where free today? I need to talk with you about something."
Akane rubbed her tired eyes, 'I wonder what he wants? He never texts me this early unless I text him first...' After tying out a quick message, Akane sent him a reply.
Akane: "Sure I'm free around three o'clock today if that's okay with you? :)"
Makishima-Kun: "Yeah that's okay with me, I'll see you at the cafe."
After reading the message, Akane tossed her phone back onto the nightstand, and went back to the oblivious feeling of sleep.
Makishima stood in front of the cafe, waiting on Akane to arrive. 'This was a bad idea. I shouldn't tell her.' He thought, looking down at his phone with a blank look on his face.
"Makishima!" Akane yelled, waving her hand to try and gain his attention from across the street.
'Can't back out now.' Makishima whispered to himself, watching Akane run over to greet him.
"Hello, Akane." Makishima flatly replied, opening the cafe door for her.
"Thanks." Akane smiled, walking into the cafe with Makishima following behind.
"I'll get us some coffee, while you find us place to sit." Makishima said, walking over to the counter to place a order.
Akane nodded in understanding, "Alright."
Akane took a seat at the same booth she sat in with Makishima, and Kougami a few weeks ago. Like Makishima, she liked the secluded feel this spot provided.
Makishima walked over to the table, and handed Akane her coffee, "Here's your coffee."
Akane looked up, "Thanks."
Makishima sat down into the seat in front of Akane, "No problem."
After taking a sip of his coffee, Makishima began to speak, "Your probably wondering why I called you here."
Akane took a sip of her own coffee, and then replied, "Yes."
Makishima took a deep breath, readying himself for this conversation. "Well I wanted to tell you something I've been meaning to tell you for a while now..."
Akane nodded in acknowledgment, while talking another sip of her drink.
Makishima let out a sigh, and forced himself to push it out. "I wanted to tell you I've liked you for a while now, and not in the friend way."
Akane nodded again, "I thought so."
Makishima nodded, and carried on, "I'm sorry- wait hold up you knew?"
Akane smiled, "I knew all along."
"H-how?"
"Do you really think I'm that dense, Makishima?"
Makishima didn't answer, instead he started drinking more of his coffee. 'She knew all along... How could she?'
Akane took a sip of her own coffee again, and then continued, "You may not noticed this but, you always get really deep in thought around me. Also, you blush a lot more often."
Makishima sadly smiled, "You noticed that, huh..."
Akane finished her coffee, and placed the cup back on the table. "Yes I did, and I'm still willing to remain just friends if you want."
Makishima stared down blankly at his coffee, "Okay."
Akane gave him a sympathetic smile trying to convey the feeling of 'your going to be okay.'
Makishima stood up from the table, and gave Akane a small bow, "I'm going to take my leave now, thank you for meeting me."
Akane gave a small nod, she understood Makishima needed some time, "Alright I'll see you again later."
Makishima walked away from the table and whispered, "See you later."
-December 25th-
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
Makishima shot up from his couch, wincing at the pain he suddenly felt in his head. "Dang hangovers,"He sneered. After letting the pain die down for a minute, he started fumbling around for his cellphone in the couch cushions. After finding it he typed in his password, and read the single message.
Akane-chan: "Merry Christmas, Makishima."
Makishima hadn't spoken to Akane in a few days, so seeing a message from her broke him a bit. A single small tear managed to slide down Makishimas face, and then he couldn't control his pinned up emotions any longer... He finally let himself cry.
A/N: Serena's headcanons where (and I'm quoting here) "Akane is secretly a goddess in disguise. Also, in an AU where everything is nice and happy and the Sibyl system doesn't exist, Makishima, Akane, and Kougami would totally be bffs." So how did I get this kind of love tale?
Well first, I didn't know what goddess was supposed to mean, so I guessed a good person. Akane was a good person in disguise, because she knew of Makishima's feelings and she tried to let him down as easily as she could. Makishima doesn't see that though, because he got his heart broke. SOOO goddess in disguise! :D?
"everything is nice and happy," oops. I couldn't just write a happy bff story... I had to add some kind of twist! Also, the ending was kind of unclear but I promise ya' the three of them are still friends. (True broship here even after getting friend-zoned'.)
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
-RoxyRoxas1313
p.s. Don't hate me because I gave you feels... I thought it was good feels. Kind of.