"Akira" Normal Speech

'Akechi' People's thoughts

"Persona" Other being's speech

'Velvet' Other being's thoughts

Disclaimer: You know the drill; Persona and the SMT franchise belong to our lord Atlus.

Fortune I

Rainy Times

"I'm so sorry for this…" she lamented just as she hung her head low with her shoulders dropped down.

"You do know you can't control the weather, right?" an amused response was the only thing she got as an answer.

"And I even went as far as to bother you to help me…" she continued with her laments almost as if she hadn't heard him, her blonde honey hair draping over her as she kept her defeated posture.

"I mean, it would be great if you could control it, but I don't see how this is your fault at all" he continued with his own words too, but a part of him knew they were just falling on deft ears.

"Sorry for making you waste your night…" besides their voices the only other sound that could be heard was the one of the falling droplets of water that had taken over not only their gaze but also their whole night, for calling the current weather just a small downpour would be an understatement.

It wasn't the first time that something like this had happened during her work hours of course, but normally she saw it coming with enough time to not actually get herself caught on it, and sometimes she even went as far as to use her craft to know if something like this would happen.

But of course today just so happened to be the day she hadn't done that, while also being the day that the downpour had simply came out of nowhere without even a second of warning.

She quite literally went from setting up her table to doing her best to not get herself and her cards completely soaked in the rain. She was more than sure that people passing by would have laughed at her if they hadn't been so focused on finding their own shelter.

Such was her shock that she had momentarily forgotten about the young man that she had called for help earlier, at least until she felt the droplets of water no longer hitting on the top of her head, and the reason for that became quite obvious once she had raised her head, her purple eyes meeting silver ones.

And that brought the current situation, with her still feeling more than a bit down about not only her whole night going to waste, since the rain didn't look like it would stop any time soon, but also about making her assistant come here just to get him caught in the rain like her.

Not like anyone would want to have their fortune read while they got soaked, so of course by now she had packed everything once more, her eyes glued to the empty, soaked streets that made her think that she would have been catching a cold by now if he hadn't appeared on time.

Sure, her hair got a bit wet, but the umbrella that he was currently holding above her head was enough to shield her from the rain. Now she most certainly regretted not having one of those.

"I didn't have anything else to do today anyway, so this is still better than nothing" he tried to cheer her up and for just a second he thought he did considering that she had finally reacted to his words.

But considering said reaction was her suddenly looking up and slightly glaring at him with what he could only describe as a pout on her face, he wasn't so sure his words got the result he had wanted.

"You are pretty much the busiest person I know!" she said with a decisive nod of her head that had her blonde hair moving with her action. She wasn't exaggerating mind you, because while it was true that she didn't know that many people in Tokyo, outside of her clients at least, from the ones that she knew there was no doubt in her mind that the teenager to her side was the busiest one.

This wasn't the first time she had called for his help through her work hours, but even as she did that at least once per week the amount of times he actually came to help her weren't that many.

Not that he blamed him or anything after all she knew just how busy a high school student could be sometimes, and add that to his, well, other job and you had plenty of reasons for him to not be able to come to help her every time she requested it.

And in theory she didn't actually need his help, and she knew she was being more than a bit selfish by making him come here with the excuse of her needing his assistance, but she just wanted to be close to him!

Was that so bad?

"I'm sure you're overreacting a bit…" sure, he knew he might be just a little bit more busy than your average highschooler, his duties as a Phantom Thief aside of course, but surely he wasn't that bad.

"I'm pretty sure you already spent all the money I gave you back in nothing but Affinity Readings and then some!" she said as she crossed her arms over her chest while her tone of voice made it sound as if she was stating the most obvious thing in the world "Somehow you even became my number one costumer"

At her words he could do nothing except chuckle a bit, knowing that she had him there and that denying anything would be futile, but surely he hadn't spent that much on just that.

Or at least that's what he would like to believe.

But for her it was something that both amazed her and had her in slight jealousy. Of course the money was always welcomed, although she had offered to help him for free since that was the least she could do, but he had been truly adamant about paying for her service.

It also gave her another reason to see him while she worked, and although those meetings were shorter than the rest he at least stayed for a bit after her job was done. It might be little but for her it was the little things that mattered right now.

However even then she couldn't deny that she found herself a bit…conflicted about the amount of friends he had, or at least she guessed they were friends if he was willing to spend money on their relationship like that.

Or to be more precise what had her on edge were the amount of obvious girls he apparently hanged out with, or at least that's what she got from their names. She wasn't that surprised that he was so popular, but no wonders he was busy all the time!

She didn't even have the guts to ask him if one of them was his girlfriend, although she had wanted for a while. It had taken all of her strength to just ask him if he liked older woman, any more than that and she was sure she would die of embarrassment.

But the thing that had her frowning just at the thought of it was the fact that, even though he obviously was more than willing to get her help with those relationships, not even once he had asked her for a reading between him and herself!

It was a petty thing that much she knew, but she just couldn't help but be a bit iffy about it. Even if she knew it was a bit of an embarrassing request when the other person was sitting right in front of you she couldn't even remember the last time she had seen him, well, embarrassed about anything!

"You're over thinking something, aren't you?" she was suddenly taken out of her thoughts by his voice with the sudden action being enough to catch her by surprise.

Had she really been that caught up in her memories?

"Pretty much…" he continued with a smile. Great, now he was reading her mind somehow "You always tend to frown cutely when you're like that"

Whatever complains she was about to give him died on her throat by his words, her gaze falling to her feet once more just as she felt the burning of her cheeks. She knew she was the older one of the two and that she shouldn't let that kind of things to affect her that much, but if there was one thing that she wasn't used to it was to honest to god compliments like those.

There were certainly none of those back at her home, and while the ones that she had received as the Maiden were good they would always be tainted by what she had done before she had met him, so hearing such honest words for him was enough to make her fidget a bit.

She really had to work on that, it just wasn't fair.

Her gaze once again moved towards him, her purple eyes inspecting the side of his face since the teen was too busy focusing on the road on the front. He slightly turned a few seconds later though, just as the feeling of someone watching him made itself present, and it was only thanks to his movements that she was able to notice something that she had missed up until that point.

"Akira-kun, you could get sick…" she said with worry just as she pointed to his shoulder, which he followed with his gaze, and true enough his shoulder, alongside most of the right side of his body and clothes, was pretty wet at the moment with even more droplets of water falling on it without missing a beat.

"The umbrella isn't exactly big enough" he explained to her with a shrug while his face showed that he wasn't really bothered by it "Don't worry, I'm sure it will stop at any second now"

The fact that somehow the rain became even fiercer just seemed to prove otherwise.

And for her part Chihaya bit her bottom lip as her purple eyes moved from the right side of her assistant to the umbrella above her. Sure enough it wasn't a particularly big one, and now she realized that the only reason she wasn't getting any water on her was because she was hogging most of it.

If she hadn't been feeling guilty before then now she most certainly did.

A small idea then popped on her head, one that had her shuffle on her spot in slight nervousness. Could she really do something that daring? Maybe it wasn't much for others but for her it was.

She might be the older of the two but most of the time it didn't really feel like that at all. How was she expecting things to progress when she couldn't even do something as simple as what she just thought off?

Especially when the only reason he was getting hit by the rain in the first place was because of her own fault.

She took a deep breath and without warning moved her right hand to grab the umbrella by herself. Her hand ended up brushing against his, which easily got his attention if the way his gaze focused on her was any indication.

She grabbed the umbrella tightly, and she could easily feel the lower side of her hand still touching his, but it wasn't something that would stop her now of course. She then moved slowly, inch by inch closer to the raven-haired man to her side while she slowly guided the umbrella so that it would cover the two, something that Akira was apparently happy to let happen.

She ended up with her back pressed firmly to his front with the umbrella now firmly planted above the two, although she still refused to let go in fear of something happening if she did.

She closed her eyes slightly with nothing but the sound of rain drops and her own beating heart meeting her ears. She just hoped he wasn't able to hear it too, but considering how close they were with one another she wouldn't be surprised if he did.

'He's warm…' she thought absentmindedly, and while the cold from before didn't really bothered her that much she had to admit that this was way better. He also felt firm onto her back and she had to wonder if he exercised in any way.

Realizing that thoughts like that did little to help her she did her best to calm herself with slow, steady breaths. It wouldn't do to act like a blushing mess in his presence. She had to take the lead here!

"I-is it better like this…?" she asked uncertainly since she wasn't able to see his reaction. Did he mind? Was he bothered by her approach? Or was he just as nervous as she was? A part of her would like to think so but it was pretty much impossible to tell by now.

At least until she felt his breath on her neck, something that was enough to send a shiver down her spine as she almost reacted in surprise.

"You didn't have to force yourself so much, you know…?" his words came without messing a heartbeat "Thank you though…"

It was once again his honest words that had her smiling in relief. Surely it was not a great, meaningful moment like those she sometimes saw on some dramas, but it was something and even if small it was still their moment.

And that was all it mattered to her.

P5P5P5P5P5P5P5P5P5P5P5P5P5

Alright I'm pretty sure it shows but I really just had little to no ideas for Chihaya, something that bothers me a lot since I actually like her a lot in design and personality. She will probably be the hardest part for me to write and for that I apologize to all of her fans.

Now the "older" girls are done for now and with this we inch closer to finish all off the girl's first chapters. Only two more to go and next one is a personal favorite (I did put her on the pairing for a reason)

Thank you all once again for reading this far!

Next Chapter: Star