I own nothing. Monika does.
"Exams are finally over… I'm so exhausted…" Ann drawled at the hideout a few days later. Everyone else seemed to agree with her, except for Sayori. This was because at first glance, it looked as if she had fallen asleep standing up. Everyone decided to take that as agreement based on principle, and began to chat. After a few minutes of Phantom Thief related conversation, concluded by Akira giving a rather inspiring speech, the conversation drifted over to the subject of the festival, and more importantly, Ann's new disturbing tendencies.
"I didn't actually think you were serious when you said you were goin' to get those two together by the end of break," Ryuji remarked, as he watched Ann make sure Yusuke didn't have the chance to run away. "What's worse, you're draggin' Yusuke into your hopelessness."
"I would like to help as much as I can, it's just the place we have to go today in order to make that happen… I already don't have that much money as it is," Yusuke replied, clearly intimidated by the model's plan.
"Well, you don't have to worry, because I've taken it upon myself to pay for everything we might buy anyway. I just need your eye for beauty, alright?" Ann assured, her death grip on his wrist making it clear he couldn't say otherwise.
"All of this… over a yukata…" Makoto remarked quietly. "Did Sayori even ask Akechi if he'd like to go to the festival with her? I know you told her to, but that's no confirmation that she actually did it…"
"She told me all about it yesterday, actually," Ann began to muse. "I bet it was so romantic…"
"G-Goro?" Sayori's face was as red as a flaming strawberry as she leaned over on her adored crush. The detective instinctively took her hand in his own, throwing the book he was reading to the side, all attentions on his beloved roommate.
"What is it, Sayori?" Akechi asked intensely, a blush also starting to bloom on his face.
The two stared at each other for a very long time, much longer than required for two friends, as Sayori slowly worked up the courage to ask her roommate out. As time went on, Sayori leaned in closer to the detective's chest. Akechi himself wasn't wearing his normal public attire, and instead was wearing a white button up shirt, the top three buttons undone. (This was most likely because it was very hot in the apartment, both of them were red in the face and sweating quite a lot, afterall.)
"Would you like to go to the festival with me?" Sayori finally whispered. She refused to meet his eyes, quite afraid of rejection. Except that when she looked up, she found Akechi had gotten a rose out of nowhere.
"Sayori…" Akechi said quietly, holding her quite tightly, "I would love too."
And then the two proceeded to probably get engaged, the detective gave up on finding the Phantom Thieves, and everyone lived happily ever after.
"Isn't it so romantic?" Ann said, swooning over the thought.
"There's no way that's how it happened," Akira insisted, cynical as always. "Those two are trapped in the friendzone. The ship that would have guided them to romance crashed into an iceberg and sank to the bottom of the sea when the Titanic movie was still popular."
"Um… Ann… can you please release me?" Yusuke suddenly asked, still being held in the deranged blonde shipper's vice-like grip. He tried for another two minutes to tug his way free. At this point, the only options he had were to either give up, or chew off his wrist. Neither of those ideas seemed pleasant. However, everyone seemed to be ignoring his pleas in favor of Ann and Akira's blooming debate.
"Akira, stop being such a cynic!" Ann demanded.
"Then stop telling us your fanfiction," Akira retaliated. "At least try to look at it with reason. If those two were really that mushy with each other, either they're idiots for not realizing they like each other sooner, or they're so shy that it doesn't matter how many dates they have!"
"Hey, best buddy!" Sayori shouted as she slammed the door to the apartment open. "You want to go to the festival with me?"
"And miss the opportunity to show the public what good friends we are? Of course I would love to!" Akechi replied, getting up to meet her excited gaze.
"It will be so fun! We'll get snacks, and watch the fireworks!" Sayori said happily.
"And instead of making any progress in our relationship, we'll continue to act aloof instead of communicating properly. This is because we are both fools!" Akechi predicted.
"Right you are, pal! You want to seal that deal with a handshake?" Sayori asked, holding out her hand expectantly.
"Would I?" The detective grasped met the girl's hand with his own, but because even a handshake seemed to be too intimate, instead the two high fived.
"Your version sounds ridiculous! You want to put your money where your mouth is?" Ann wagered angrily. The model was rather livid at this point, and her artistic hostage saw this.
"Now, Ann…" Yusuke tried to reason. "Before somebody gets hurt, could you please loosen your grip on my wrist? I can't feel my hand anymore, and I need it…"
"What are you willing to wager?" Akira asked cockily. The two started to bicker, while their friends watched in slight worry.
"I think Akira has a problem," Makoto whispered.
"What do you mean?" Ryuji whispered back.
Morgana quickly piped in, "Obviously, Ryuji, Makoto is trying to say that Akira is developing a problem with gambling his hard earned, stolen money on Sayori and Akechi's relationship."
"Speaking of which, should we wake Sayori up? Since we're talking about her, it would only be fair that she knows what we're saying," Makoto pondered, both intimidated and impressed by Sayori's ability to not only sleep while standing up, but somehow also sleep through all of the noise.
"It's a deal then!" Ann shouting, cutting through all nearby conversations. "I'll pay you with the however much money I spend on Sayori's clothes today if it turns out to be an uneventful night."
Akira nodded eagerly. "And if they make any baby steps forward, I'll pay you all of the money we make on our next trip through Mementos."
The two nodded, both with evil smirks on their faces. Ann suddenly turned around towards Sayori, shaking her shoulders and jolting her awake in the process. Thankfully, in this moment she also let go of Yusuke, who seemed about to cry silent tears of joy.
"Wha… Why are you shaking me, Goro?" Sayori muttered sleepily, not quite fully awake yet. She looked over and noticed it was in fact not her roommate shaking her awake, but Ann. "Ann!? What are you doing in my apartment!?"
"Sayori, wake up, we have to get to the mall before it closes!" The newly realized shipper began dragging her towards the subway trains, Yusuke nervously trailing at a distance.
"What? The mall? I thought we were all going home after meeting up! You never told me about this!" Sayori began to panic as Ann now refused to let go of her wrist.
The blonde smiled sheepishly. "Surprise, Sayori… Yusuke and I will make sure you look like the picture of perfection and beauty for your date with Goro. Trust me, okay?"
"I-it's not going to be a date, and you know that, Ann," Sayori tried to argue, the embarrassed blush forming on her face completely contradicting her words. "Besides, I don't really need a yukata… I have plenty of clothes!"
"Sayori, I'm not buying you a yukata out of the goodness of my heart anymore," Ann replied, a serious expression on her face as the group of three got on the subway train. "I'm buying this because it's a matter of my pride as a model!"
Sayori considered the model's words for a second, before looking helplessly at Yusuke. The artist looked at her in apology before walking over to stand by Ann's side. "I am in agreement with Ann. It would simply be a disgrace to myself if I can't help you with this, Sayori."
"How are either of you helping, right now?" Sayori cried desperately. The two looked at eachother, before simply shrugging.
"It should definitely be sparkly and holo," Ann commented as she held up a yukata to Sayori's frame. Yusuke was on the other side of the store, sorting through a row of floral patterned ones, only to look over at Ann and scowl.
"However right you may think you are, Ann, that shade of pink would look appalling on Sayori. She'll look like some sort of horrendous traffic sign!" the artist brought his own pick of the bunch, a light blue yukata, and shoved Ann's choice out of the way.
"I can already see where you're going with this Yusuke, and I couldn't disagree more!" Ann argued.
"It should match her eyes!"
"But it would clash with her hair!"
"And hot pink wouldn't?"
Sayori looked at the bickering pair in worry. They had only been here for a half hour, and already their friendly chatter over what she should wear was devolving into arguments. I haven't even gotten to try anything on yet. At this rate we aren't going to get anywhere. Taking a few small steps away from the two, Sayori began to look around on her own.
"The first thing Akechi-kun should be drawn too are her eyes, so the yukata should match," Yusuke defended stubbornly.
"I can agree on part of that," Ann pondered. "He should look into her eyes right away, but the yukata matching wouldn't make the eyes stand out, it would only make them blend in. What should happen is that everything else is pink, or red for her bow, which will make her eyes… pop, I guess you could say."
"Hm…" Yusuke looked over his choice again. "Perhaps you have something that could be considered a point. But the effect you are going for is rendered completely useless with that hue of pink… and the sparkles."
"Let's start looking again," Ann proposed. "We'll still keep these two choices though, and see what Sayori wants after we finish."
"That sounds reasonable… Still, while the yukata is mainly what we are looking for, we need to find other things to go with it as well," Yusuke agreed. They both went back to searching through the racks, chatting about what else they might need to get.
"We should probably get makeup then, and maybe some nice shoes," Ann proposed. "Do you think Sayori knows how to walk in heels? Actually, no. That's a dumb question. She trips over her own feet on a daily basis."
"Unless you want to do her makeup for her as well, you probably shouldn't plan to get anything other than lip gloss," Yusuke remarked. "That should probably be where the sparkles are."
The two continued searching for a yukata in silence, spending fifteen frustrating minutes of their time in vain. They checked the time nervously, noting with a slight desperation that the stores would all be closing soon. They hadn't even found the first thing on their growing list! Ann was the first to break, throwing down her large pile of clothes in frustration.
"I am so not happy about this. Maybe we should see what Sayori likes best, even if none of them are really fit for her," the blonde grumbled.
"I agree. I need to get going soon anyway," Yusuke responded dryly, looking at his smaller pile of clothes in dissatisfaction. The two turned towards a nearby waiting bench, where they figured Sayori would be waiting in boredom, only to find it void of their friend.
"Did she say where she was going when she left?" Ann tried to recall. Yusuke shook his head in ernest. Thoroughly panicked, the two began a desperate search of the room. The crashing sound near the back of the store a few minutes later set them on high alert. Barreling through the building at breakneck speeds, the two found Sayori, sprawled on the ground, with a large pile of yukatas piled on top of her.
"Sayori, what in the world happened?" Yusuke asked in alarm. Ann began to unbury the poor girl, only for Sayori to rub her head and stand up on her own, a few of the pieces of clothing draped over her shoulders like a mismatched cape.
"I was trying to take a really nice pink yukata off of this rack," Sayori pointed at a nearby lopsided metal monstrosity. "But when I did, it tipped over and spilled all of its stuff on me." The girl sat down on her knees and began sorting through the pile, a worried look on her face. "Oh… I don't think I can find it anymore, and I made this huge mess!" The poor childlike girl looked ready to cry.
"Describe it for us, Sayori," Yusuke responded calmly, sitting down to help sort. Ann wheeled over the bent rack and began to hang all of the ones that weren't pink back on it. The last thing they wanted was to get kicked out of the store when they were on the verge of a possible breakthrough, afterall.
"W-well, it was pretty plain, and a really light pink," Sayori tried to describe it the best she could for the artist. "It was sort of like a blush shade, I think…" A nearby store assistant walking by overheard them. Spotting the described piece of clothing a few feet behind the group, he quickly went to pick it up.
"I'm sorry, you guys… Going off on my own probably wasn't the best idea, especially since you two worry about me so much," Sayori looked down in slight shame, only for a blush pink fabric to be draped over her head. "Wha…?" voice slightly muffled by the clothing, Sayori took the clothing off of her head and examined it.
Ann and Yusuke looked at the yukata with admiring eyes, while Sayori's simply widened. Looking up slightly, she met the friendly gaze of the store attendant. "Ah, thank you for finding this, Mister. I'm sorry about the mess I made." The man simply shrugged, backing away from the odd little group and continuing on with his work.
"Sayori… It's perfect," Ann breathed, before a smirk lit up her face. "Akira is going to be eating his words by the end of your outing! Come on, let's finish up. I found some awesome hair bows when we were running over to you!"
"But I already have a bow," Sayori looked at the two in confusion. "Why are you two looking at me so smugly? Do you have something planned?" Her questions increased in speed and intensity as her friends turned around, failing to reply. "I can't be here all night! I need to go home and… Now you're just ignoring me!"
I pretty much set up for angst to happen last chapter, but I couldn't go through with it because some personal stuff happened this week. So if any of you noticed that pattern and expected angst, I should be writing it next chapter. For this week, I hope you at least appreciated the comedy. Anyway, please read, review, and I'll see you all next time.