Akira's consciousness comes back to him slowly, the exhaustion of saving the literal world only yesterday still there even after what he can say for sure is the best sleep of his life. He cracks an eye to the already sunlit attic he calls home to see the reason for him saying so, Ann Takamaki sleeping peacefully across from him. The memories of their shared Christmas Eve play lazily through his mind, each one growing his smile and perhaps his heart. He'd cherish the earmuffs she got him of course, but to sit side by side watching the snowfall, discussing everything and nothing at the same time until they passed out in each other's arms? That will live with him forever.
He reaches forward, pushing her hair behind her ear. She mutters softly, snuggling closer into his pillow. Akira smiles lightly. Just like when she crashed his and Ryuji's room back in the summer, she's a heavy sleeper. Akira tears himself from watching her to glance at the too-bright window. The corner of the neighboring roof he can see must have four inches of snow on it.
A White Christmas is nice... Maybe Sojiro will keep the cafe closed to spend Christmas with Futaba, and he and Ann can eat leftover cake with some coffee together in the empty shop... His daydreams of which beans would produce a coffee to compliment leftover Christmas cake are interrupted by sounds downstairs. So much for his little fantasy.
"You up yet? Your friends are here already!" Sojiro shouts softly from down below as if he didn't want to wake Akira if he was still asleep. Akira runs a hand through his hair. That's right, there was a last minute promise to an emotional Futaba to have everyone make their way to the cafe for a Christmas together. By now the headcount downstairs must include Ryuji and Makoto for sure, maybe Haru and probably A...nn...
Akira winces. There's only one entrance to the attic, unless Ann makes her way out the window. They hadn't... exactly advertised their relationship, with everything going on in the last month. Akira's positive Haru knows already, the girl's sharper than she looks, but it'll certainly be a shock for the rest to see Ann come down with him. Akira bites his lip and puts his metaphorical Joker mask on, trying to think of a way to get Ann downstairs without outting them to the gang prematurely.
Nothing comes to mind. He sighs and carefully stands from the bed. For the time being, he simply can't bear to interrupt his personal angel's sleep, so he decides he'll have to improvise something when he gets downstairs. He pads lightly over to his desk, not a single floorboard creaking as he writes a note to Ann explaining their awkward predicament and that he'll be downstairs looking for an opening. He places it beside her on the bed and grabs a shirt as he heads downstairs.
He doesn't notice the note flutter to the ground as a gentle wind blows through the open window.
-
Everyone is in the cafe already, much to Akira's surprise. Even Yusuke had managed to beat him to the cafe (though free food is a powerful motivator for the starving artist) and it provokes quite a few comments from Ryuji and Yusuke alike. Akira brushes them off and Makoto quickly jumps to his defense, reminding the boys that Akira had literally summoned Satan himself as a persona yesterday and if that requires oversleeping a little bit, it's a low price to pay. Ryuji and Yusuke are apologetic for about a third of a second before launching into recaps of the fight for the sake of a very confused Sojiro.
Things come together easily, as things do when surrounded by such good friends. Sojiro has Akira make the coffee, an impromptu quiz for the best choice. When Akira pulls the correct beans (Brazilian Bourbon), Sojiro quietly comments Akira could take over the shop at this point. Akira preens, just a little. Perhaps he'd be able to stick around over the summer too, work for Sojiro full time. It's better than anything he has waiting back 'home', at any rate.
Food fills their usual booth as Akira brews the coffee. He settles into the peaceful moment of it all, surrounded by his friends and surrogate family, and almost manages to forget about his and Ann's issue until Makoto comments
"Odd, Ann isn't here yet." Akira nearly drops a mug.
"It must be the snow," he quickly comments.
"Oh yeah, our district is barely functioning. Her station might be having issues," Ryuji nods emphatically on the barstool before him. Akira silently thanks the blonde, since Makoto appears to take that at face value.
"I'm sure she'll be along soon," Akira adds. "Coffee?" Makoto smiles and takes it. It was at that moment Akira's quick thinking went to shit. There's a creaking from the attic stairs and padding down in socks, sans her letterman jacket comes Ann. She's yawning, stretching her arms up over her head, and gets to the bottom of the stairs before she properly takes in the room and the eight pairs of eyes staring at her. She flushes scarlet (it's adorable, though it's not the time to point that out) and fails to stammer out even a hello.
A variety of things happened in response to Ann's arrival. Sojiro elbows Akira with a sly grin and chuckle. Ryuji shouts 'for real' at the top of his lungs, leaping off the bar stool. Yusuke gives Ann's rumpled state of dress a look Akira would be dissuading him from ever giving Ann ever again, now that the secret was out. Haru, of all things, sticks a hand out to Makoto. Makoto, without breaking her slack-jawed stare at Ann, reaches into her wallet and gives Haru a 2000 yen note. Futaba inhales deeply, the entire cafe recognizing a 'squee' in the making. Akira drops the mug he's holding.
With all of these things happening at once, there's a moment of sheer chaos in the cafe and no one really can follow what happens in the next frantic minute of scrambling to clean broken glass, shouted questions, and various exclamations of surprise. It finally breaks through Ann's stumbling at replying to their friends.
"SHUT. UPPPPP!" Ann yells, bouncing as she says it as if it would be more intimidating. It draws laughter from the whole room and the cacophony of noises die down enough that Akira can get Ryuji to pull the broom out and Ann can make her way to her usual seat at their booth. Sojiro takes the broom from Akira, patting him towards the booth.
"Looks like you have some explaining to do," he says with the evilest smirk Akira has ever seen on his guardian. Akira shoves his hands in his pockets and doesn't comment, cause Sojiro is right and Akira isn't going to leave Ann all alone with the question storm. Akira reaches for a bar stool to bring over, as he usually does but Futaba all but leaps on top of it.
"Oh no, I couldn't split up the loooovebirds!" Futaba all but crows. Ann blushed into her hands (or groans, he's not sure), and Akira sighs. He sits down beside Ann in the booth, evoking a 'hue hue' from Futaba. Something switches in Akira and he decides in for a penny, in for a pound. He settles in, spreading his arm around Ann's shoulders. He glances at Futaba, the 'hue' dying in her throat as Akira makes it very clear he isn't embarrassed. Ann seems to appreciate the gesture as well, glancing up at him before smirking slightly and settling into the crook of his arm. He can feel some of the tension in her shoulders relax as she does.
"We're dating," Akira says simply.
"Yup!" Ann adds. "I heard absolutely zero of the questions you all asked at once, so if you ask slowly I suppose we," she looks to Akira and he nods, knowing what she wants to say, "do owe you an explanation." It's quiet for a few seconds.
"...For real?" Ryuji says, at indoor volume for a change. Akira nods. "But like, for real for real?"
"Yup. One hundred percent," Ann replies. Ryuji stares at them for another moment, then shrugs and plops back onto his bar stool.
"That's all I gotta know, I'm happy for you," he says nonchalantly, reaching for a chicken wing.
"That's it?!" Ann exclaims. "After all those," she mocks Ryuji's voice, "for reals?!"
"Yeah, I mean..." Ryuji shrugs, "You've had chemistry since the Hawaii trip and like... I figured it had to happen eventually. You uh, do want me to be happy for you right?"
"Of course I do, I just..." Ann trails off into a pout.
"You just take care of Ann, alright dude?" Ryuji winks at Akira. Akira nods and smiles, sure Ryuji already knows he'd take a bullet for Ann if he had to.
"Okay, Ryuji might be satisfied with nothing, but when did this even happen?" Makoto finally interjects.
"After we broke him out of jail, then with the run on Shido's palace..." Ann looks at Akira.
"We didn't think it was work breaking our focus on defeating Shido," Akira continues. "Then we got caught up in everything with the depths of Mementos and..." He looks back at Ann, then shrugs. "We barely had any time to ourselves to begin with, so sharing wasn't at the top of our minds."
"You say that, but I distinctly remember you two sneaking off during the school trip." Akira grabs at his bangs awkwardly and Ann flushes again.
"After your sister's palace... may have been the official thing but..." Ann says without meeting Makoto's eyes. Makoto doesn't look satisfied but Haru cuts her off.
"Aww, the details can come later Mako-chan. Let's just appreciate how cute it is that they spent Christmas Eve together!" Unfortunately for the interrogatees, this only fueled Makoto's fire.
"Yes! The student handbook blatantly forbids students cohabitating after dark-"
"Kid, you do anything I should know about?" Sojiro interrupts Makoto's recitation of the disciplinary code. Akira shakes his head respectfully. Sojiro smiles again, that reserved one that he used to only have for Futaba before turning back to Makoto.
"See, it's all good." Makoto lifts a hand as if to point out something but bites her lip, and ends up brushing her hair behind her ear and sinking into the booth. She looks up over the rip of her coffee.
"I'm happy for you both, of course, I'm just surprised is all," Makoto mumbles. Both Ann and Akira catch the slight blush on Makoto's face and decide to let her off the hook. The questioning comes around to Yusuke at that point.
"Can you model-"
"No," Akira cuts him off but Yusuke continues anyway.
"Together for a painting?" Akira pauses at that, looking Yusuke up and down. That's... actually a nice sentiment, it'd be nice to be painted together with Ann... He looks back to Ann, tentative curiosity shines through her eyes as well, and then Yusuke adds
"Of course, you'll both be nude."
Various objects are thrown at Yusuke from around the room and the couple are spared responding directly. The jeers and laughs overtake the room and the interrogation seems to be over as Futaba hops forward to get food from the booth. The rest of the gang follow suit, and while the topic of conversation had shifted, Akira kept his arm around Ann's shoulder. When everyone's busy discussing the proper way to eat chocolate coronets Futaba had Sojiro buy, Akira turns to Ann.
"Did... you not see my note?" Ann blinks at him.
"What note?"
"I left you a note that everyone was already here and that you could sneak out the window if you didn't want to come down in full view of everyone."
"I never saw it," Ann says. Her expression fades slightly, and she hesitantly adds "Are... Did you not want to tell everyone?" Akira internally berates himself forever bring this expression to her face. He leans over and kisses her cheek.
"Not at all. In fact..." Akira looks across the room. "I don't think there's a more fitting way we could have told them." He's rewarded with a smile that shines like the sun before Ann nestles closer to him.
"I agree. It may have been a complete accident but this feels right, you know?" Akira nods in agreement.
Haru leans over to the two of them, interjecting in the amiable silence between them.
"I'm surprised you came right down though, Ann-chan." Ann twists a ponytail sheepishly.
"I, um, I'm kinda barely functional when I just get up," Ann replies awkwardly and when Haru is all smiles she continues on, "And last night I just felt so... content, so happy with everything that when I woke up, 'will I out our sort of secret relationship to our friend's and Akira's guardian' wasn't my first thought." Akira looks over at her, he can tell by the way his mouth is parted he looks as awestruck as he feels. She looks up at him, flushing slightly. "Sorry, that was a little embarrassing huh?"
"I love you, Ann," Akira says as he shakes his head.
Ann's eyes whip between Haru and Akira before blushing deeper and saying "I love you too." Haru all but coos at the two and Akira has never been happier for Ryuji in that exact moment; the blonde asks Akira to serve as a tiebreaker in a 'best shadow kill' argument between him and Makoto. As Akira and Ann turn to Ryuji's argument, Akira makes a mental note to be wary of Haru's ability to make them embarrass themselves with her soft smiles and 'innocent' questions.
-
The Thieves adjourn to the upstairs in the afternoon for larger table space to play card games and stretch out. Many jokes are made at Akira and Ann's expense for spending the night up here together, the worst of which involved Yusuke and Ryuji acting out what 'must have happened last night'. It's ridiculous and they get laughed back to their seats.
Sojiro calls the Thieves down to the cafe, offering up take out as the hour grows late and no one wants to go home quite yet. Akira is the last to stand from their seats around the table in his room. Ann hangs back, walking up to Akira and grabbing at his hand.
"What's on your mind?" Akira doesn't reply right away, looking around the room, from the piles of coats to the leftover Christmas cake. Akira turns to Ann, her lips slightly parted and head tilted with curiosity. He leans down and pecks a kiss on her lips (they taste like candy canes).
"I'm just not used to being so content yet, I guess." He says quietly. Ann smiles and leans up to kiss him back as their nosy friends, phantom thief careers, and the rest of the world fade away, leaving only the two of them in their embrace.
-
Merry Christmas! This idea has been in my head since I played Christmas Eve out with Ann a few months ago in Royal. It seemed fitting to put it to metaphorical paper and post on the day itself!
The music theme for this one is No More What Ifs, the Jazz Club music from P5R. I probably could have used the exact music the game had for the scene but No More What Ifs is what clicked and that's how it be.
Fun fact, I was going to romance Kasumi in Royal since the new romance option and all... But as soon as Ann's confessions scene played I couldn't resist (^^);;