8/5: Wednesday

"So you're really never played a video game before?"

Akira had stopped by Tae's clinic to pick up some medicine for a trip into Mementos tomorrow when the topic of their next date came up. Due to the nature of their relationship, they were limited with what they could do, but if they planned it out, they could meet up somewhere and play it off as happenstance.

He had brought up the Arcade as a potential place to meet up. It may not have been the most romantic setting in the world, but it was always good fun when he went with his friends. Why not share that with his girlfriend?
So it came as something of a surprise when she told him she'd never even touched a video game in her life.

"Never had the time," she said. "With being in the hospital for most of my childhood and then immediately being slammed with trying to get my doctorate, I always had something to do."

Akira hopped off the bed and stretched. "Well, I know what we're doing for our next date now."

"What's that?"

"You'll be coming to Leblanc and I'm going to show you how to play some games."

Tae leaned back in her chair and gave him a bemused look. The corner of her lip lifted up into a wry grin. "You want to spend our date playing video games in an attic? My my, you sure have a way with women, guinea pig."

"Hey, don't knock it 'till you try it," Akira argued with his own grin. "When me and Ryuji are up there, some serious sparks fly."

"Do I need to be concerned that he's going to steal my boyfriend?"

"Not if we go up there and make even more sparks fly."

Tae rolled her eyes and swiveled around in her chair to face her computer, but the smile never left her face. "I don't know how I keep falling for those corny lines of yours."

"Sooo…?"

"I'll be free this Saturday night. I can head on over as soon as Leblanc closes. My socks better be blown off."

"Hopefully that isn't the only thing blown." Akira's grin stretched from ear to ear.

Tae guffawed and tossed a pen at him.


10/8: Saturday

As soon as Sojro left for the day, Akira immediately texted Tae that the café was empty. He got the confirmation that she would close the store and head over.

He was in the middle of making two fresh cups of coffee when he heard the bell chime. He looked over and smiled when he saw Tae standing there, dressed in her blue spider-web dress and leather jacket.

Akira couldn't help but stare at her, smiling like an idiot the whole time.

She noticed the attention she was getting. She placed a hand on her hip and gave him a smile. "Careful, guinea pig. You're drooling."

His eyes widened and he raised his hand to wipe away any drool that might have occurred when Tae laughed.

"I'm joking," she said, walking over and taking a seat across from him at the bar. "So, where are these video games that I've heard so much about?"

"We'll get to the blowing off of the socks in a minute. Never game on an empty stomach," Akira assured her. He stopped abruptly before remembering her usual appearance. "Are you even wearing socks?"

"I'm wearing leggings," she said. "Those will have to do."

"But those…"

He trailed off as he saw Tae's expectant look.

Akira's face went bright red at the implication. "Oh."

Tae just smiled in response.

He coughed into his hands. "Noted."

After they ate some reheated curry, they headed up for the attic. Akira pulled out two chairs and set them next to each other across from the old TV he had. He dusted one of the chairs off and presented it to Tae.

"A seat for the lady," he said, bowing and putting on a haughty accent.

"Well, it seems the commonwealth still know how to treat a lady of status," Tae replied, taking the seat.

Akira grabbed a cartridge and held it out to her. "May the lady enjoy the finest of entertainment. 'Super Mario World'."

"Ah, I've heard my peers talking at length about this. I've heard even the king himself has ordained to witness it's beauty."

Akira laughed and slapped it into the system. He held out one of the controllers. "I present to you the honor of Player One." As Tae reached for it, he pulled it back and said, "This is not a responsibility I give lightly. Do you understand the power you are receiving?"

Tae held a hand to her chest. "Utterly."

They looked at each other before laughing together. Akira handed the controller to her and hit the power button. "Remember, press 'B' to jump."

"Okay," she said as the game started. It opened up to the overworld map. Mario sat in the middle of the map with two bright circles on both sides of him. "What do I do now?"

"Just pick one of the levels," Akira explained. "It doesn't matter which."

Tae picked the one on the left. It started up and immediately Tae was hit with the Koopa sliding down the platform. She sat there for a moment. "What?"

"You died."

"How? I just started the game!"

"They kill you in one hit if you don't have a powerup. You have to jump on them or avoid them," Akira said. "'B', remember?"

"That would have been nice to know," Tae grumbled. She restarted the level. This time she avoided the Koopa… only to get hit by the giant Bullet Bill. "Really? That's just not fair."

"He moves very slowly, you totally could have jumped on him."

"A plumber that small has no right jumping that high."

"It's a video game, physics don't apply."

"Was that a dinosaur I saw? There are dinosaurs in this game?"

"Yes, I do believe so."

As Tae grumbled and restarted the level for the third time, Akira grinned and adjusted his glasses. He had a feeling this would be a very entertaining evening.


"Why are all of these platforms moving? What is the point other than making this game harder than it already is?"

"That kind of is the point. It keeps you playing the game longer."

"That's just mean."


"These damn turtles better stop climbing and let me pass."

"Just think, the end is close. A few more minutes."

"Better be."


"I beat him! I beat the boss!"

"I'm so proud of you, babe!"

"In your face, you stupid game!"


"What do you mean there's another island?!"

"You didn't think this was the whole game, right? There's a lot more."


"I swear to God, if these mushrooms and turtles and dinosaurs kill me one more time, I'm going to flip a goddamn tit! I'll flip two! There won't be a limit to how many tits I will flip if these fucking mushrooms kill me!"

Akira couldn't respond because he was too busy laughing.

"I'm a human person! I should be able to stomp mushrooms and turtles with ease! It's science!"

He almost fell off his chair because he was laughing so hard.


"Fucking fuck fucker shit son of a fuck!"

Akira was laughing so hard that he almost didn't notice Tae rear her controller back. His eyes went wide as he scrambled over to her and caught her hand before she could rain down vengeance upon the poor game system.

"Okay, I think that's enough of Mario for one night," he said through his dying laughter as he placed the controller down.

Tonight had been enlightening for him.

For starters, Tae was a very sore loser. One could only imagine what would happen if there was an actual human person on the other end instead of a computer.

Secondly, she quickly lost her usual cool and calm demeanor, instead becoming loud and foul-mouthed.

Finally, she liked to resort to violence against computers.

None of these things were points against her, but they were certainly useful nuggets of information for the future.

The seething Tae growled, "Those bastards are out to get me, I know it."

"I mean, that is the point of the game," Akira gently assured her. "It's supposed to be hard."

"Why would you even do that to yourself? It's so… rrgh! It's so frustrating!"

"Hey, think of it this way, remember when you beat the first boss?" Akira said, reaching over and rubbing her shoulders.

She took several deep breaths. "Yes."

"It felt great, right?"

"It felt…" Her face started to dawn in realization. "...it felt good."

"See?" Akira said, a gentle smile on his face. "The challenge is what makes winning feel so much sweeter. Just like most things."

Tae's lip formed into a pout as she thought for a moment. Akira thought it was one of the cutest things he had ever seen.

"Was this a lesson?" she suddenly asked.

Akira blinked and took a step back. "A les-what?"

"You know, did you bring me up here because I needed to learn a lesson, or something?" Tae said, crossing her arms and shifting her weight. "Because there's easier ways to do that than making me mad."

"N-No, this wasn't a, a lesson in anything," Akira said, holding up his hands. "I just wanted to play some video games with my girlfriend."

"You're sure?" She still wasn't convinced. "All that stuff about 'the challenge'...?"

"Is what I like about video games," he explained. "I'm serious, this was supposed to be a nice relaxing night."

He rubbed the back of his neck and gave her an uneasy smile. "Sorry you didn't have fun."

She shook her head, stepped up to him, and gave him a light chop to the forehead.

It didn't actually hurt, but it was surprising enough to make him flinch backwards a bit.

"Akira, any day with you is a fun day," Tae said. Her tone was warm and genuine, gone was any of her usual sly and snarky demeanor.

She pulled in into a hug and placed a chaste kiss on his cheek. She had to stand on her toes to reach.

She pulled back and smiled at him. "Besides, I can see what you mean. It felt so good to kick that little bastard into the lava."

"You can be really bloodthirsty," Akira noted, his normal grin returning.

"What? Does it scare you?"

"Among other things," he muttered. The reaction from a certain part of his body was also another enlightening detail about tonight.

Tae patted his cheek before returning her attention back to the TV. "Enough of that emotional stuff. I have a game to beat."

His face fell. The last thing he wanted was for her to follow through on her threat to lodge a controller into his TV. "Uh, are you sure that's a good idea? It's getting kind of late-"

"I will beat this game."

Tae returned to her seat, the controller gripped in her hand, and a fire in her eyes.

"Even if it kills me."


Years Later…

In the years since Akira had moved into Tae's apartment, they had developed certain routines.

For example, whenever they woke up in the morning, she would give him a deep massage to work out any lingering pain from his days as a Phantom Thief. As a thanks, he would wake up and make some breakfast and coffee.

They would then enjoy the little bit of time they had together before they each had to go to work.

Another routine was that Akira would close up Leblanc for half an hour and come bring some lunches he had prepared to the clinic. This routine would be disrupted whenever Tae was working at the hospital, but he would make them both boxed lunches.

There was one other routine. Once every two weeks, they would have a game night. Sometimes they would get together with as many of the old Thieves as they could, but it was usually just the two of them in their joint apartment.

"Hah! Take that, Takemi! Eat shit and die !"

"Kurusu, you cheating little-I'm gonna-Stop! Fucking! Spamming!"

Sometimes it got a little heated.

They'd taken up to playing fighting games and Tae hadn't exactly gotten better at losing since that first attempt at Super Mario World. They'd often play Street Fighter, Akira's favorite, or BlazBlue, a game that Tae loved because of its visual appeal.

Sometimes, they played Mortal Kombat. That was where Akira's inner troll came out.

At the moment, he was repeatedly shooting her Kitana with his Erron Black. It was a very easy and very repeatable move to perform. Somehow, Tae had never developed a defense to the maneuver, so she was stuck in the corner.

Eventually, she lost the second round, allowing Akira to input the combination for the fatality. They both watched as Kitana was shot multiple times by Erron.

Tae stood up and launched into a tirade, gesticulating wildly and bringing up every swear word she could think of. Akira laughed.

Even after all these years, he couldn't help but find her outburst when she lost to be the cutest thing ever.

Soon, though, she grew quiet. Akira raised an eyebrow. This was not usual.

Normally she'd demand a rematch until she won a game. Never before had he seen her go completely and utterly silent.

"Tae," he said unevenly. "Are you okay?"

Tae turned to face him and pointed to their bedroom door.

"Bed."

Akira raised an eyebrow. "Huh?"

"Bed. Now. "

"What are-?"

Tae's voice got dangerously low. "I am very angry and the only non-violent stress relief I can think of right now is to fuck your brains out. So, shut up. Take off your pants. And GET ON THE DAMN BED!"

Akira sat there, wide-eyed… and more than a little turned-on. "Yes, ma'am."