Devon: Alright, I've taken a little longer with this update than I would have liked so hopefully its a little longer than the others to make up for it. :3
Warning: There is swearing. WooHoo. Um...perverted old men, suggestion of violence/fighting, and alcohol reference. Therefore, if you don't like it, don't read. :3 Oh right. AU, too. ;D
Disclaimer: I don't own anything Persona-series related. I only own the idea for this story and technically OCs like "creepy old man" who makes an appearance in this chapter.
Rating: T. And I see no reason why it should go higher.
Sweet Escapes in an Earthly Shop
Minako x Shinjiro/Akihiko x Mitsuru/I'm not really sure x On the other couples yet ;D
Chapter Four.
Shinjiro wondered briefly if he was a masochist. There really couldn't be a better explanation for what he was doing in an abandoned business complex at midnight.
It felt like they had been fighting off these monsters for hours, but barely thirty minutes had passed. To complicate matters even more, he was pretty sure he had broken something but his body was so sore he couldn't yet tell what was broken. On top of that, he had absolutely no clue where Akihiko or Mitsuru were. He was injured, in the dark, lugging around a huge ass battle-axe, his companions were missing, and he was covered in so much blood he wasn't sure what was his and what belonged to the shadows he had been fending off for the past thirty minutes. He had to be a masochist.
"I should be getting paid for this." Shinjiro muttered to himself, shrugging his shoulders and flexing his fingers around the handle of his axe. A metallic clanging noise echoed a few feet ahead of him as something traveled through the walls of the old building. His money was on it being a shadow. As the noise grew louder, Shinjiro raised himself to stay on the balls of his feet. These monsters were quick little buggers and he needed to be quicker.
A few seconds later, a panel of the wall flew across the hall and a large, dark shape tumbled out. Shinjiro raised his axe, ready to attack when the creature raised its head to pin him with grey eyes.
Shinjiro sighed and dropped his arm to let his axe swing gently at his side.
"Damn it Akihiko, would you be more careful?" He demanded, offering his friend a hand up. Akihiko took the offered hand gratefully, rising on unsteady legs. A long trail of blood started above his right eye and trailed down the side of his face. Shinjiro scowled as he pulled a ripped piece of cloth from his pocket and gave it to Akihiko to wipe the blood off his face. The same old wound seemed to open every single time they fought.
"The shadow just…disappeared." Akihiko explained to his childhood friend once his face was mostly cleaned off. "I spotted it the same time it saw me and it ran instead of attacking. I followed it down all these twisting, turning halls and right as we neared the end, I lunged for it but it disappeared right in front of me."
Shinjiro grit his teeth, looking away from his grey-haired comrade. A few shadows had disappeared into thin air in the past few nights and he wasn't sure why. Whatever was the cause, he didn't think it was good.
"Shinjiro answer me. Where the hell are you two?"
Shinjiro jumped at the sudden voice coming through the ear piece he had strapped to his head. Even Akihiko winced, hearing the young woman on the other side as clearly as his friend.
"Calm down Mitsuru, I just found Akihiko. We're two floors away from the roof." He replied once he was ninety-five percent positive his ear drum wasn't entirely busted. He could hear Mitsuru huff wherever she was.
"Come back down. I do not like the feelings I'm getting from this building. I think it may collapse. We're going home." Mitsuru told him after a few minutes, her voice back to a normal volume. Shinjiro was just about to relay the message when Mitsuru's voice filled his ear once more. "And tell Akihiko if he loses one more communication device I'm going to have one permanently implanted into that empty head of his."
Shinjiro looked over at his friend, who sure enough was missing his headset.
"Got it." He sighed in reply, grabbing Akihiko by the back of his jacket and heading back the way he had come. "Come on Sanada. We're done for the night."
Away from home, Aigis, and knowing her son was safe at home and not left alone in the cold, Minako let her mind wander to the worker at the coffee shop she had visited today. He had an awkward, angry outward demeanor like he was used to pushing people away and being alone. But she wanted to compare him to a big teddy-bear. He looked kind of cuddly.
Sighing as she wiped off the table in front of her, Minako imagined hugging the handsome man would be a warm, comforting act. She turned her head towards the bar in the middle of the room noting the one bartender in the whole establishment who was usually the only decent male in the bar and the sleazy people drinking away their problems and common sense with cheap beer and stale liquor. She would much rather spend time with the silent coffee shop attendant then with the perverts she was forced to interact with on a daily basis.
Minako decided the table was clean enough and moved to the next, unfortunately being a neighbor to one of the few tables with a customer seated there. An older man who had order dinner around four o'clock she was told after relieving Yukari Takeba from her shift five hours ago and had since then been drinking. Minako tried to suppress her shudder as she heard the man smack his lips together and place his beer back on the table.
"What's your name sweetheart?" The man called across the table, his voice hoarse. Minako figured it was only years and years of serious smoking that could ruin someone voice that much.
Ignore him, Minako. She told herself firmly. You're forced to be nice when serving someone. You're not forced to interact with completely hammered customers. Who was she kidding? Her boss would have her skinned alive and served as the next night's special if a single customer came to him with a complaint. And since most customers were aware of this fact, the female waitresses and bartenders were often forced to "suck it up and take one for the team."
"Can I get you anything, sir?" Minako asked sweetly, throwing the wet rag into the bucket and wiping her hands on the dry one she kept in her apron. A sleazy grin spread across the sagging face of the drunken man and Minako noted the three missing teeth and the distinct yellow coloring of the remaining crooked ones. The coffee-shop guy had straight, perfect white teeth. He had a slight over bite but it was kind of cute.
"Come over here and keep an old man company, sweet girl. Would you mind?" He was trying to play up the "helpless old man" act but Minako would fall for that act when Yukari laid down at Junpei Iori's feet and claimed he wasn't a pervert. The thought made her lips perk up in a small smile. She hadn't spent time with her friends in quite a long time. Their friendship was probably the only good thing that had come from her move to the big city.
"I'd love to, sir" Minako lied sweetly, picking up her bucket from the table. "But I'm working and I can't really take a break." Minako chewed on her bottom lip before taking a hesitant step closer. "Do you want another drink, sir?"
"Oh yes, thank you." He replied. Minako nodded, turning to leave when he called to her. "Do you mind taking this bottle back to the kitchen?"
The second Minako agreed, she knew what would happen and regretted her decision instantly. Reaching an arm out for the empty beer bottle, Minako watched as the man's bony, clammy hand clutched onto her wrist and squeezed tightly.
"Please do hurry bringing it back for me, dearest. It's getting late and I'd like to go home soon." The man's cloudy eyes watched her nervous face and slowly traveled down her thin neck and focused on the swell of her breasts through the open neck of her button-up blouse.
"Let her go."
Minako and the older man both turned to see where the mysterious voice had come from. It was the only other table that housed a customer. A booth in the back corner of the bar, shrouded almost completely in shadow. The man rose from the table and glowered at the older man from under his dark beanie. Minako watched the man, surprised, as his unruly brown hair brushed over broad, strong shoulders. The man's movements were made stiff by what Minako guessed was pain but he still looked graceful in her eyes.
"She needs to get back to work and I'm sure you've had more than enough to drink tonight." He added when the man didn't loosen his grip. Minako gaped at him.
It was the coffee shop guy!
Coffee shop guy took another step closer to the table and the older man instantly released Minako's wrist.
"You're probably right." He muttered, standing as fast as his aged body would allow and pulling money from his wallet. He left what looked like close to two hundred dollars on the table and shuffled his way out of the bar with no other comment.
Minako looked up from the table to her savior who had slumped back into his seat. Placing the bucket on the old man's abandoned table, Minako made her way to the back booth.
"Thank you for your help." She spoke softly, studying the man through squinted eyes in the bad lighting.
"I didn't do much." He replied, shifting his position with a pained grunt.
"Are you alright?" Minako asked softly, the man looked seriously injured.
"I'm fine. It's just sprained." He muttered through clenched teeth. The man's fists were clenched tightly.
"What is?"
A strained silence fell over the two. A tick started in the man's clenched jaw as Minako's strangely colored, warm eyes studied his pained face.
"I'm not exactly sure." He finally admitted.
Minako blinked a few times, letting the man's words sink in for a few minutes. Finally, she placed her hands on her hips and glared at him.
"It's after one in the morning. I get off in two and a half hours. Stay here and I'm taking you to the hospital when I'm done with work."
"I don't need to go to the hospital." The man argued, trying to sit up straight but the effort causing him too much pain.
"Bullshit." Minako muttered, turning away from the man to get back to work. "I'm Minako, by the way." She told him as a last thought. The man grimaced but Minako thought she might have seen the small ghost of a smile on his face.
"Shinjiro."
Replies to the Reviewers:
First of all, thank you all for reviewing:
Now then.
Twin Judge of Gemini: Yup, they do. And a little more in this chapter too but not much. Well...Pharos is actually supposed to be a little boy in this story so I don't think he should act that way. And that isn't how I interpret his character as I play through Persona 3 Portable honestly. As for the cooking, Minato hasn't met Shinjiro yet.
michelous: Unfortunately, I can't tell you that yet. It will be revealed eventually though. :3