I took a week off, gained some idea for what I could do with this AU, remembered that my copy of P4 Golden exists, and yet none of that helped me to get this chapter to be the length I wanted it to be (ie, much longer).
I think I work best when I just write short bursts of story. *shrugs*
Anyway, this chapter initially existed because I realized that if Sojiro was going to allow Yusuke temporarily stay in Leblanc, his Inner Dad would object to having a teenage boy and girl sleeping in the same room unsupervised. Yet he apparently trusts the cat to be on guard duty.
Magical Gentlewoman Phantom Thief Joker-chan
By Bilbo-sama
Chapter 14 - The Worst Sleepover Ever
-June 11, 20XX-
"Shouldn't you be going to sleep now?" asked Morgana as Yusuke scribbled in his sketchbook on the couch. Sakura-san allowed him to stay over for the night but didn't trust him and Akira to get up to 'shenanigans' while unsupervised. Akira packed up some clothes into her bag and followed Sakura-san to his residence an hour ago.
"It's 9:30 PM," said Yusuke while he continued to sketch.
"So?" challenged the cat.
"It's too early to go to bed," asserted Yusuke.
"No, it's not," argued Morgana, "sleep is good for you and you need to get up early if you - wait," the cat seemed to squint at Yusuke's head.
"Is something wrong?" the boy asked, at last looking up from his sketchbook.
"Nevermind," the cat shook his head.
One and a half hours later, Morgana spoke up again: "Are you going to bed now? It's getting late."
Meanwhile, in the Sakura residence, Akira had so many questions swirling in her mind as she laid on the guest room bed. Or perhaps, her new room. Or maybe it was supposed to be her room all along but Boss didn't want her to be a 'bad influence' on whoever owns that bed room with the many 'keep out' signs attached to the door. She would ask whose room it was but the grimace and the furrowed eyebrows that Boss had when she looked back at him as they passed that door made her rethink that idea.
They had entered some of equilibrium lately but the trust was still shaky. She didn't want to fuck it up and piss off the man who took her in even though he didn't have to. She didn't need to know 'how good' she's got. Akira is well aware that she could've ended up being Kamoshida's ward in some messed up alternate universe.
She shuddered and directed her mind to other things. Like, can she sleep without the weight of Morgana on her stomach?
Two hours later, the answer appeared to be 'no.' Fantastic.
She closed her eyes and focused on the familiar street noise outside. Maybe if she pretended to be in the attic, she'd fall asleep sooner.
Instead, she hears footsteps walking down the hallway that get quieter as its source passes her room. There's a faint sound of a refrigerator opening. Ah, that must be Boss getting a - she looks at her phone. It's 11 PM. - late night snack.
And then, a nearby door opens. Akira freezes as a new set of footsteps enter the kitchen. The other resident of the house is still awake too.
"Sojiro!" a girl loudly whispers, earning a starting yelp from Boss.
"Futaba, don't sneak up on me like that," scolds Boss halfheartedly.
"I will make no promises," if Akira was in the same room, she knew she could see a shit eating grin on whoever sneaked up to Boss.
"And please quiet down, we have a guest."
"You mean, your part-timer who sleeps in Leblanc's attic and sometimes talks to her cat at night?"
"How did you-"
"I bugged the cafe years ago."
Akira winces. Hopefully, this Futaba person will never tell Boss of the time the Phantom Thieves used the cafe as bait to lure out that gang.
Boss sighs.
"If it makes you feel any better, that Yusuke guy is currently in an argument with the cat about sleeping?"
Akira suppresses a snort. So, it's not just her Morgana will nag at?
It's 3 AM and Akira is finally in deep sleep. As such, she doesn't wake up when the door opens and a thin, large-headed figure slips into the room.
It approaches the sleeping teen on the bed and tilts its head down at her face. It seems to watch her for a minutes before losing interest.
It picks up the cell phone that rested on the night stand and quickly bypasses the security code, revealing the contents behind the lock. Lithe fingers tapped the screen repeatedly for five minutes. It then quietly made a triumphant sound before closing the phone's home screen and setting it back on the night stand.
Akira stirred. The figure froze.
Akira sleepily opened her eyes and noticed the figure. She froze as well.
The two stared at each other, one with a heart pounding in fright, the other's large head retaining its frozen expression.
Finally, Akira whispered, half awake, "Please don't eat me." The large headed figure stared and seemed to tilt it's head in confusion.
It then seemed to understand what was just said and slowly backed away from the bed and seemed to disappear into the darkness.
It took another half hour before Akira fell into an uneasy sleep.
The figure emerged from the closet, quietly sneaked out of the bed room, and closed the door.
Down the hallway, the door decorated with 'keep out' signs also closed.
[The next morning in Leblanc]
Sojiro Sakura watched as Yusuke sipped his cup of coffee. Next to him was his suit case.
"You know, you could always stay until you find a place," said Sojiro, hiding his surprise that the words just tumbled out without his say so. Damn kids keep wrecking his Hardass Old Man facade...
"Thank you," Yusuke replied, "But I'll return to the dorms. I realized something after talking to everyone last night: Perhaps it's due to my upbringing but I don't know much about the world, let alone other people. If I am going to depict people in art, I need to interact with others more often. I'll start over with the ones closest to me."
"I see," Sojiro rubbed his beard, "Well, good on you."
Yusuke shook his head, "There's no need to exaggerate. May-"
The cafe bell chimed as Akira entered the cafe, yawning.
"Morning," she said sleepily. At the sound of her voice, Morgana rushed down the stairs and stopped at the landing.
"Well, this is the latest I've seen you wake up at," Sojiro commented.
"Yeah, I know," yawned Akira again as she blearily sat down in one of the booths. Morgana trotted over to her and looked up.
"How was it?" he asked.
Sojiro watched as Yusuke seemed to side-eye the cat as it was lifted up and place next to her on the booth seat. He wondered if Futaba was right and that the cat kept him up all night.
"Ugh," groaned Akira, "had a hard time sleeping last night." She laid her head on the table dramatically. The cat meowed in response, unimpressed by the display.
The two teens, however, heard: "And that's why it's important to stick to the sleep schedule we had agreed on!"
Akira 'urghed' again in response. Sojiro sighed and prepared a plate of cat food. Couldn't she see that the little guy is hungry?
Yusuke waited until the can opener ceased its racket, "as I was saying, may I come again sometime to enjoy your coffee?"
"My doors are always open," said Sojiro as Morgana jumped out of the booth, ran over to Sojiro, and mewed excitedly around his ankles while he scooped out the can.
In the booth, Akira snored loudly.
When she woke up, Yusuke was gone and a pair of regulars tutted about 'kids today are always staying up late' when they noticed her stir.
And thus she misses out hearing Sojiro's reasons for taking her in. Eh, it felt like a good place to stop. *shrugs*
Anyway: LET'S INTRODUCE FUTABA EARLY YEEEAAAAH.
To be honest, I forget when exactly the Daybreakers OVA takes place but I do remember it's before Kaneshiro's bank palace. The Phantom Thieves did use Leblanc as bait in the OVA and I would be surprised if anime!Futaba never uses that fact to blackmail them.
And uh, lately, it's been sounding like a really good idea to me to take any future AU of an AU/what ifs that apply to this story and just give them their own collection fic thingy. And I guess some side stories that came up after I declared this story finished will go there too? *shrugs*
If I do ultimately decide on doing so, that collection will be updated less frequently than this one. Lower priority and all that.
Welp, see y'all next time.