Subject: Call me when you're up!

From: Haru

looks good in an apron: Akiii (づ ̄ ³ ̄)づ

looks good in an apron: Call me once you're up! I have a favor to ask!

Akira's phone rang, scaring Morgana off his favorite spot on Akira's legs. Against his own will, Akira had become a morning person, as his cat became his jailor. Every time he'd try to walk downstairs, Morgana would insist he should get the most sleep possible, resulting in Akira rising (and shining) much earlier than a normal teenager. Surprisingly enough, it ended up in his favor, as Haru had more time to call in the mornings. The tired, morning chauffeurs were much nicer than the ones ready to retire for the night.

Kicking his legs out from under the booth, he returned the morning curry that was quietly bubbling on the stove. Cooking enough for four, AKA two normal appetites and a Ryuji, Morgana gently reminded him that he should call Haru. And so he did, Haru picking up in her usual cheerful tone. "Aki! I thought you'd still be sleeping, with the boys sleeping over!"

"Morning, beautiful. And no, I forgot to bring Star Forneus with me, so after we talked about girls we went straight to sleep."

Taking a beat, Aki instinctively smirked. "I can hear you blush… And now you're pouting."

"You better not have shared the bed with Ryuji again! That's our bed!" She grumbled. To be quite honest, Ryuji was there first. But every relationship needs its secrets.

"Babe, you're a coffee growing, grenade launching sweetheart. Plus, he doesn't even wear tights with cute little stars. Minus one."

"Speaking of coffee, can you check on the soil at Shujin? I tried to make sure somebody would take care of my sprouts, but Mishima-san isn't the most reliable person…" She trailed off, with an adorable melancholic tone. They had become her babies, and she tried to find a person to pass off the torch to that would handle them with just as much grace. Ann was busy, Ryuji didn't have grace, and Futaba would probably call them noobs, so she entrusted it to poor Mishima. Finding someone eccentric enough to love plants and creating soil but not eccentric enough to blow up her work phone every day with updates was difficult, and sadly Oga wasn't quite the compromise she was looking for.

After agreeing, exchanging "I love you"s, and begging Akira to warn Ryuji to not steal her man, Haru left Akira to tend to the giant pot of curry. As the honey began to join the smell wafting up to the attic, it was a short few seconds as the conversation upstairs was cut short and the two boys shot downstairs for their grub.

"How'd you two sleep?"

"Chair's more comfy than I remember."

"I must agree. The couch was the same homey hearth as when I left the 'Sayuri' here, but… There was a rather odd smell on the right cushion."

The other two shared a chuckle, and Morgana hopped shoulders to provide Yusuke what solace he could offer.

"I don't get it."

"Yusuke, you aren't the only one to have slept there."

"Ah, I remember Ann did on the hot pot day."

"No, slept."

"Unrelated, but with fervor, I demand we have the udon I was refused that day."

Realizing that ignorance is bliss, Ryuji propped open the dishwasher and took out four plates, as Morgana liked to take tiny dabs of the curry. Yusuke served the rice and slathered curry onto the plates, and Akira sat in the booth's corner to text Haru with the minimal privacy he had while hanging out with the guys. Unlike the poor furball, they hadn't learned to stop looking at his texts.

"So, a guy with a criminal record starts dating one of the richest girls in Tokyo and then gets locked up. She visits him every week in prison, paying off a shitton of the legal fees. Only you Akira, only you…" Punctuating his sentence with a mischievous laugh, he continued on. "She must have you whipped."

"Isn't Ann the one with the whip? Doesn't that mean you will be the whipped one?" Yusuke inquired. His bluntness knew no bounds, and Ryuji waved his spoon threateningly.

"Shut up, dude!"

Morgana finally chimed in. "Lady Ann is mine, you blond monkey!"

Tension rose and fall as breakfast progressed, and the four enjoyed their first meal together without the girls. Guy's nights were something else: they were more tight knit, not to mention they had no need to put on appearances. There wasn't a need to impress ladies or be the dominant guy, just some food and hilarious conversation.

"Maybe Ann would have been mine if Sensei didn't come home…"

"As if! We spent hours coming up with a plan just so she wouldn't have to strip for you!"

"Ah, but if I made something with the beauty of the 'Sayuri,' surely she would have fell in love with me."

Before offering his ever-present opposition to anything Morgana or Yusuke had to say, Ryuji checked his watch. His face fell forlorn, and excused himself from the table. "Heading out, thanks for the curry Akira!"

"Where are you going, buster? We still haven't settled who gets Ann!"

"Piss off, furball."

Ryuji disappeared in the morning crowd of Yongen, and the other three spent another hour in heated conversation about whether or not Morgana would be a cute girl if he wasn't some sworn guardian angel before heading out to take Yusuke to Shibuya station. "Igor's other servant was a beautiful young woman, and we have no reason to believe you would look any different."

"Are you asking me to steal your train fare?"

"You cannot steal what does not exist."

Akira sighed, and granted the holy gift of 1,000 yen onto Yusuke. He almost teared up, thanking his friend thoroughly before Akira almost forced him through the gate to make sure he used it on getting home. After Akira finally had some peace between himself and Morgana, he noticed he smelled like a teenage boy who hadn't been to the shower that day. If he was going to use a bathhouse he'd put his money on the one back in Yongen, so instead Akira decided to pay for a day at Protein Lovers.

The walk down Central was a blast of nostalgia. Each corner rich with memories of the last year. The back-alley of Untouchable with Iwai, the bookstore that helped him take Ohya out on a "date," the Big Bang Burger that his girlfriend now owned, and even the little shop where he bought his supplies for taking care of his houseplant. Tokyo was light years ahead of his hometown when it came to recreation, and Akira had something to do everyday. Most people his age would go home to do homework, maybe leave the house twice a week. Having an erudite education made classes trivial, so he spent every single day doing something.

The budget to support that lifestyle was incredibly high. The year prior, he could just appropriate Phantom Thieves funds for his own personal rock salt collection, bathing, and book collection. Without his lucrative profession, his attitude to never waste a day began to creep onto his wallet. Fortunately, Haru had more than enough money to treat him whenever they'd spend time together, so Akira unconsciously took advantage of Haru's thick wallet to enjoy every last bit of freedom he earned with his hands. Money didn't even come into the equation when his teenage mind began its tirade on her: all he could see was her smile. That smile could drive men to do insane things, such as surviving two months in prison without a single complaint.

"Hey, quit dreaming. You're about to walk into a pole." His thief reflexes rounded the pole easily, but Akira realized how out of touch with his surroundings he could be. He spent the whole day thinking about seeing her again, when he could be focussing on reconnecting with all his past links. Love was a strange thing.

Pushing past Protein Lover's door, Akira paid for a day at the gym. The brunette behind the counter smiled at him and innocuously pointed out, "Welcome back! You haven't come in with Sakamoto-kun in months!"

After explaining moving out to the country, the wonderful woman behind the counter seemed relieved. "I'm glad you two are still friends! He comes in a lot with the model, you'd never even know he had his leg injured!"

Draping the sweat towel across his neck, Akira let Morgana kill the short hour with his phone, refusing to lock the locker this time. Putting himself back on the treadmill, the long strides of a Phantom Thief came back to him, easily wrapping up a six kilometer run. As he stepped off the machine sweat shook from his body and rained down to the floor. It had been far too long since his last visit to a gym, and the runner's high had convinced him to become a regular again. Remembering the regimen that Ryuji drew up for him a few months ago, Akira decided leg day would be the easiest day to coax his body back into, and set up the squatting racks towards the front of the store.

Scaling walls and jumping up ridiculously high places took leg strength, his specialty. Setting up 90 kg on both ends, Akira carefully dropped his glasses next to his water and began the arduous process of moving heavy plates up and down. In the middle of his second set, a familiar face came through the doors.

"Akira!" Ann forgot about the check-in desk and ran over to her old friend. After a rather sweaty hug, Akira noticed the fruits of her labor. She said her goal was the slim down and tone her body, and she had done just that. Shedding her old workout pants and jacket, she threw on a rather American set of tight fitting pants and sports bra.

"Wipe. Your. Nose."

"Sorry."

Akira stained the loaned towel red, but he was sure any male employee would understand his plight. "You look great!" He stumbled out. Not a great recovery, but anything would be better than the awkward silence.

"Yeah, Ryuji and I come here together. It pushes me to work harder, that's for sure. Working through his limp to get ten kilometers done in one sitting was amazing to watch. He's my inspiration for sure!"

"Didn't come with you today?"

"Oh, cause he's at-" Ann silenced herself with a red face. "He's busy! He's busy."

Now they both made the conversation awkward. Telling her to check in, Akira finished his set of squats by himself, and did a light jog as Ann began her workout. She had no troubling pacing her breathing, and the tempo of her steps were well controlled. Ryuji had definitely put a lot of time into teaching her proper form, just as he did with Akira. Feeling just tad bit less special, he stopped his mild jog as Ann crossed her third kilometer.

"So what are you doing after this?" She inquired.

"Haru asked me to check up on her old plants, so I'll be heading out to Shujin." His mop head was getting full of salty water, so he definitely had to take a shower. Sadly forgetting to bring a change of clothes, Akira contemplated aloud about buying new clothes.

"You're in luck! I've got some sweatpants Ryuji gave to me. He always preaches to me about how putting on old underwear is a pain, so you can just put those on." Akira was taken slightly aback. Wow, they had become amazingly close, and she offered him what she does Ryuji. His character had definitely evolved in the last few months.

"Don't give them back though. I don't want Haru or Makoto getting any ideas…"

"Makoto?"

Ann's face painted red again, and continued on about some other rambling. "If you're going to visit Shujin, you better get going. Kawakami would let you in, and she's going to leave at 3 PM, okay?"

Wrapping his mind around the mention of Makoto, Akira tried his best to wait outside the women's changing room without looking like a stalker. Out came Ann, who gave him the gift of Ryuji's old sweatpants. Continuing on his journey to not-smelling-like-teenage-boy, Akira opened up Morgana's locker and explained the situation. Morgana was surprisingly understanding about sitting on his delicates and the sweatpants he used to workout, so Akira hopped in the shower - using a ton of shampoo to clean his hair, in case he saw Haru today because she really loved his hair - and took Ryuji's sage advice to never use the same underwear after the gym. Putting on his buddy's old sweatpants, Akira felt the breeze on his bare skin. Could be worse.

Tossing his bloody towel in the bin, Akira rolled up his sleeves, waved Ann goodbye, and walked to Shibuya Station. He didn't have anyone to impress except for Ms. Kawakami, who he paid 50,000 yen to clean his dusty old room, so he didn't feel a particular need to look presentable. City people usually didn't share the same belief, so he stuck out boarding the train, getting off the train, and every step of the way to Shujin, where he blended in awfully well.

Students his age were walking in and out of the school, without uniforms. During fall break. Never attending cram school himself, Akira thought there were only two people among their ranks: idiots who needed to make up credits, and people who wanted to leave school early. Ms. Kawakami could clear up any confusion, so he beelined it to his old classroom. The guard at the door didn't even think to ask him for his Shujin ID. So far, so good.

As he climbed up the stairs to the second floor, he spotted some familiar faces on their way down. Taking it rather slow as his hamstrings were begging him to stop, Akira made his way up the stairs at about 3:10 PM. She might already be gone, but it was worth a shot, especially since he had to check Haru's plants anyway.

Akira scrambled up to the closed door, but he could hear Ms. Kawakami's hushed voice through the awfully thin wood. "Sakamoto, you need to pass this one. If you fail this cram, you won't graduate on time. And would you really want to do that to your girlfriend?"
"Cmon, she's not my girlfriend! And I can do this, why don't you just believe in me?"

"I would believe in you if you didn't fail out of cram school last time, and didn't fail out of the normal English class. She's great at English, just ask her to help you."

"I do!"

"Sakamoto, you have to learn when she tutors you. Not do… teenager things."

"You're the one that fishes on the weekends!"

Akira contemplated leaving the two to their conversation, because clearly Ryuji was trying to hide going to cram school from him. But, as fate is always pulling the strings, Mishima was at the wrong place at the wrong time. "Akira Kurusu!" Mishima's innocent voice hollered from down the corridor, definitely loud enough for them to hear. "Are you waiting for Ryuji also? Or maybe you came back to Tokyo just to flirt with Master Kawakami?"

Akira sighed, and the door he had been eavesdropping on slid wide open. "Snooping as usual, Akira?" Ryuji's face went red, and cast his glance from side to side. Clearly contemplating jumping out the window to escape this awkward confrontation, Akira walked over to Ryuji and gave him a wide palm on the back. "How's it going? We have to go check on Haru's planter."

Mishima wandered his way into the room, and Ms. Kawakami greeted her face with her palm. "You're not checking any plants with Ryuji until I'm done with them. Maybe you can help him out."

Ryuji begged, "Even Mishima? Kick him out at least!"

"Come on Ryuji, I just want to help!"

Stopping the banter, Akira just offered solace to the about-to-pull-out-her-beautiful-hair Kawakami. "Of course, Ryuji's my best friend. I'll help him out." Morgana poked his head out to refute that, locking eyes with Kawakami.

"...Meow?"

Kawakami, disappointed as ever, refused to make a huge tirade out of the situation. "Sakamoto, your mother is worried about you. Since your bus ride out of Tokyo, she said you've been different around the house. It's been showing in your grades too: a solid C in your second year slowly turned back into 50 percent. If you plan on doing anything after Shujin, you need to fix whatever's going on."

Ryuji, for once in his life, had nothing to say.

"Akira, help him out. You're all he's talked about in the last week, you owe him that much."

"Of course, Becky."

Tension rose. No words were said, but the three boys knew Akira had accidentally crossed a line, and they had to leave as soon as possible. Hell has no wrath like a maid-teacher scorned.

"Err, Master."

"It'd be just as bad for you, you know."

"Text me if you need to. We're going to check on some plants."