A/N: Thanks to everyone who has reviewed. Review responses at the end of the chapter.
Lonely Boy X
Makoto Nijima and Ryuji Sakamoto stood at the gate to the stately home of Ann Takamaki. It was the morning after the night before where they'd seen Ann go from the happiest woman on Earth, in the arms of the man she loved. To a furious wreck when, well, they weren't entirely sure. Ryuji hadn't been able to get a word out of Ann that hadn't been swearing in English or questioning Akira's parentage.
Ryuji rubbed the back of his head taking a deep breath glancing at Makoto asking, "Are you sure about this, Ann was kinda… Pissed last night. I don't think she'll appreciate us rocking up to her place first thing in the morning."
"We have to try Ryuji. She's a friend in pain. They're friends in pain. I can't let this continue. I must help somehow. I can't do anything about the bastard trying to kill Akira, but I can do something about this."
"Well, I can't argue your logic there."
Makoto grinned at him replying, "Would you ever try to argue with my logic?"
"No ma'am," Ryuji replied with a grin as he pulled the gate open for Makoto.
The two walked up and knocked, a few minutes passed before Ann answered. Her hair was down and the bruises, which were just starting to heal, still marked her face making both her friends wince. Ann had dark rings under her eyes, and her mascara was running. Makoto guessed she'd spent the night crying and judging by the black singlet and shorts Ann hadn't been expecting company.
Ann's eyes moved slowly from Ryuji to Makoto. The stunning blondes face darkened her brilliant sapphire orbs lit up with burning anger as she slammed the door in their faces.
Ryuji blinked slowly turning to look at Makoto who appeared visibly shaken. She'd only seen anger like that twice from Ann. The second time had been several days ago when Akira retold the story of his return home. The first was when Ann scolded her for keeping Kamoshida's abuse secret. That had been the only other time other than today that anger had been directed at her. It hurt to know that she'd made Ann angry, they were friends, she cared deeply about Ann and to see that anger pained Makoto.
Ryuji stepped forward banging on the door with his fist saying, "Ann, open up. Come on Ann; we're not leaving until you talk to us. Just…"
The door opened again interrupting Ryuji. Ann glared at Makoto ignoring Ryuji as she spoke, "I'm talking to you, and I'm telling you to fuck off. Happy?"
Ann tried to slam the door shut but only succeeded in nearly crushing Ryuji's foot between the door and the door frame. Ryuji winced and bit down hard on his lower lip to avoid yelling in pain or withdrawing his foot. He met Ann's glare evenly saying, "Ann-chan, please, we're your friends, just let us in for five minutes. Then we'll leave you alone, ok?"
Ann nodded reluctantly opening the door relieving the pressure on Ryuji's foot. Makoto followed Ann into the lounge room while Ryuji hopped along behind them supporting himself on the bannister of the staircase. He sat down on the steps allowing a bit of distance between himself and Ann and Makoto as he inspected his foot for any lasting damage. He glanced through the entryway from where he was sitting. The entryway opened into a large reception room that was cut in two by the three-seater couch in the middle of the room that faced a pair of chairs with a coffee table in the middle. Behind the chairs was a large almost floor to ceiling picture window that showed off the Takamaki's finely manicured garden. On the other side of the couch was a dining table big enough to seat eight people.
"Ann, what happened last night, what did Akira say that made you so angry?" Makoto asked quietly.
Ann crossed her arms facing away from the brunette. She stared into the unused fireplace that flanked the chairs and couch trying to ignore her friend and wait out the five minutes.
"Ann, please, talk to me, tell me what's wrong, what happened…?"
"I don't…"
"Ann…"
"Please don't…" Ann pleaded as she felt Makoto's hand on her shoulder trying to pull her around to face the older girl. Ann didn't want to have this conversation; she'd been dreading it since last night. Ann was angry, at herself or Akira Ann wasn't entirely sure, but she was angry. Ann felt humiliated, she'd put all her courage into confessing to Akira, and within an hour Ann had been shot down spectacularly and told there were other women in Akira's heart.
"Ann, just tell me what's…"
"YOU'RE WHAT'S WRONG! AKIRA IS IN LOVE WITH YOU! You're in the fucking way of me getting to be with Akira, you and your perfect, super smart, stupidly beautiful sister! He doesn't want to be with me because he doesn't know what he feels for any of us and I feel like shit for hating one of my best friends! I'm not that kind of woman… I don't… I just wanted Akira to love me. I just, want things to be back the way they were." Ann sank to the floor in tears, Makoto was at her side in a flash cradling the sobbing blonde. "I want the old Akira back; I want this horrible nightmare to be over…" Ann whispered.
"I'm sorry Ann…" Makoto whispered.
"Wh-what? Why, you… you don't have anything to be sorry about. I'm the one who acted like a complete bitch to you and Akira is the stupid hormonal idiot…" Ann replied pulling back from Makoto to look into her beautiful brown orbs. The flecks of crimson gave the brunette an alluring look; Ann could understand why Akira would fall in love with Makoto. She hated it, but Ann couldn't deny the truth, Makoto was beautiful and smart. It was a dangerous combination, one that seemed to run in the Nijima family.
Makoto smiled softly brushing the hair out of Ann's face replying, "I… I want you to be with Akira. I didn't want to get in the way. I didn't even know… he had feelings for me. It's almost funny; I've always envied Sae-neesan. She's so beautiful and smart, she is amazing, and now she's competing for the affections of the boy we like. Now you know how I feel."
Ann sat on the couch as Makoto sat down beside her bringing her legs up to her chest wrapping her arms around them resting her chin on her knees. Ann considered her friend was asking, "What did you mean you didn't want to get in the way, I thought you liked Akira too?"
"I…" Makoto began hiding her eyes behind her bangs.
Ann took Makoto's hand squeezing it gently saying, "Makoto, we've been through so much. Don't lie to me now. We owe each other better than that."
Makoto nodded slowly replied, "I do like Akira. I just… I know Sae-neesan likes him too. How do I compete with Sae, she's smarter and more beautiful than I am. She always has been. I'm just the ice queen, former student council president. After we lost our Persona's, I just went back to being the prim little princess everyone expected me to be. Without Akira… without you guys, I just felt it all slip away. Eiko was the only person who I opened up too after Akira left."
Ryuji hopped over sitting on the floor beside the two girls running his fingers through his hair, "Man, we fucked up, didn't we… We're the fucking Phantom Thieves. We're supposed to stick together, always. No matter where we go or what happens we're always supposed to be able to reach out to each other. No one has seen the shit we have or do the shit we have. Allegedly. We should have taken one look at that hell hole we dropped Akira off in and dragged his ass back to Tokyo."
Ann and Makoto nodded in agreement. Ann put her arm around Makoto gently giving the brunette a gentle nudge saying, "Your right, your sister is ridiculously beautiful and talented. You know who else is ridiculously beautiful and talented, her little sister. If you weren't Akira wouldn't be infatuated with you. I mean, he only accepts the best, right?"
A small smile crossed Makoto's lips, "Thanks, Ann."
"No probs."
"So, what are you two going to do about Akira?" Ryuji asked.
"Kicking him in the nuts is probably a bad idea, right?" Ann asked looking at Makoto.
"No kicking him in the balls, for now." Makoto replied adding the last part with a small grin, "We'll talk it out, it's what friends do."
"Good, come on. We should go see if Akira is up." Ryuji responded climbing to his feet.
"You know, I could get used to this sage Ryuji who gives out inspiring speeches," Ann said with a smile accepting Ryuji's assistance to get up.
"Don't; I'm sure he'll say something stupid to screw it up eventually," Makoto replied.
"That hurts Makoto-senpai."
The orange haired little sister of Akira Kurusu groaned rolling over in her bed throwing a pillow over her head to keep the morning light that seeped into her room out. She'd been stirred into consciousness by something banging on the window. After another groan of frustration, Futaba Sakura threw the pillow against the wall and got up throwing the curtains aside to confront whoever was disturbing her sleep.
Futaba opened the window with a scowl on her face saying, "Kitty, it's way too early for play time. Go back to Akira-kun and sleep."
"I can't, this is an emergency, Akira is gone!" Morgana announced rapidly leaping into her Phoenix Featherman R action figure collection into Futaba's room.
"Gone? Where did he go in the middle of the night?!" Futaba demanded indignantly.
Morgana dipped his head flattening his ears in shame admitting, "Akira and I fought… I, um, I spent the night sleeping outside the café. When I got back this morning, he was gone…" Morgana looked up to find Futaba already dialling Akira's number, "Don't bother, he left his phone on the bed. Ryuji and Makoto have been calling him for the last half hour. Ms Nijima also tried to ring him."
"Damn it Akira… SOJIRO!" Futaba screamed running out of her room.
Morgana sat in the middle of the floor staring at the ground; he couldn't shake the sense of dread he felt for his best friend. Morgana hated himself for leaving Akira alone last night. The anger he felt from their argument boiled up from the pit of his stomach. Morgana did his best to push it back down; he knew that this wasn't the time. If Akira was in trouble, they had to save him.
For the second time in as many hours, Akira was awakened by the sensation of cold water covering his upper body. Naito Eizo had once again thrown a bucket of ice water over him the feeling made the wounds from his previous beatings ache. Akira seriously doubted he would get a reprieve now.
"Morning shithead. Time for the daily beating!" Eizo announced taking a leather belt off the table beside him. Unfurling the belt, Eizo proceeded to whip Akira's back as he'd done hours earlier. The bruises from the whipping were quickly turning into gashes.
Akira gritted his teeth refusing to scream in pain for Eizo's satisfaction as the whipping continued it got harder to keep the screams at bay. After thirty lashes Eizo finally dropped the belt back to the table breathing heavily from the exertion.
Akira grinned through the pain observing, "Out of… energy already Eizo-san? How did you ever win over Eriko with that kind of stamina?"
Eizo wheeled around kicking Akira in the gut making the teen gasp and descend into a coughing fit. Once he'd recovered he met the angry eyes of Eizo who grabbed the teen by the face stating, "That's your mother you're talking about shithead, show some respect."
Akira spat in Eizo's face making the man rear back and punch Akira across the mouth. Akira's jaw screamed in pain, but he merely spat the blood from his mouth returning his gaze to Eizo. "She hasn't been a mother to me in eighteen months. Not since she packed me off to Tokyo after your drunken boss got a little too handsy with one of his subordinates. You might as well kill me Eizo; I won't give you what you're looking for."
Eizo sneered at the raven-haired teen massaging his knuckles as he left locking the door on his way out. Akira slumped against the restraints that held him up allowing the pain of the whipping and the beating wash over him. His head swam partly from the beating he'd just received and from the concussion he'd suffered at the hands of Eizo's associates.
Akira felt like shit. Worse than he'd felt since he'd stepped foot back in Tokyo almost five months ago. He wasn't going to let it show. However, he had to keep up the façade for the sake of his friends. He had to poke and prod Eizo to keep him angry. The longer Akira kept Eizo angry, the longer his friends would be safe. Akira wished he still had his phone, but he'd deliberately left it on his bed just in case something like this occurred. Akira didn't need Eizo to get his hands on his friend's contact information or worse the contact information of those who'd helped him while he was a Phantom Thief.
Naito Eizo entered the apartment complex above the shed where he was keeping Akira. Stepping into one of the apartments he took a length of cloth from his bag and wrapped it around his knuckles. He cursed Akira for having a seemingly steel jaw.
The thirty-something woman who owned the apartment looked up from her book, "You seem quite busy suddenly Vince-san. Is everything ok?"
Eizo put on his best false smile, "Yes Eriko, everything is fine."
To Be Continued…
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Deliberatee: Hopefully this chapter cleared up why Akira left his phone behind. Yes, he's angry at his mother, but deep down he still loves her.
Well, more on the way soon, I hope. Two long weekends in a row to write in. I hope to take full advantage.