12/6

Haru was now supposed to be spending the night at Ann's house.

Akira had managed to coax the girl out of the examination room with the promise of a far more comfortable place to stay for the night. At Takemi's request, he had ventured to Central Street and returned with fried yakisoba pan, takoyaki, and sweet buns. He wasn't quite sure what Haru preferred, so he had purchased a variety of things.

She thanked him about a million times before they left for the subway. Akira lent her a nondescript hoodie to pull over her distinctively auburn head. While the Phantom Thieves weren't entirely sure of the delicacies of Haru's situation, it had been made clear enough that her whereabouts required complete discrepancy. Her injuries were certainly abnormal. He felt… bad. Haru was a kind person by nature. Akira had realized this upon their very first meeting. She didn't deserve any of this.

Some of it was due to their own meddling and some of it wasn't. But they had helped stick her into this awful mess, and they were going to help her out of it as well. It wouldn't be like the last time with her father, without her knowledge - they would only take action at her request. They wouldn't force another brutal lifestyle change onto her.

Akira's companion had been quiet for the entire subway ride up to this point. She walked aside him silently, purchasing her boarding pass and taking a seat without making a single sound. They were aboard one of the later trains; not a single person was in their car with them - it was the late evening on a weekday, after all. Yet still Haru didn't seem to relax.

"Are you nervous about going to Ann's?" Akira broke the silence. The question didn't come out as smoothly as he hoped; there was a somewhat awkward pause.

"Um… a little." Haru answered meekly, still staring straight ahead. "I've never even met Takamaki-san before."

"Well, you shouldn't be. Ann is really nice." Akira tried to sound enthusiastic, but inwardly he was genuinely very tired from the wild series of events throughout the past few days. He held back a yawn.

"I'm sure she is. I'm just… not very good at making friends, to be honest." Haru seemed rather embarrassed by her statement immediately after she made it. She glanced at Akira, redness tinting her cheeks. "Not to sound, you know, antisocial or anything."

Akira would've chuckled at her response if he wasn't so afraid of accidentally hurting her feelings. He smiled at her. "I get it. I'm kind of the same way."

They sat in a slightly awkward silence for a few more moments until Akira eventually spoke again. "Morgana is here. Do you want to see him?"

Haru's face lit up at the mention of that troublesome cat. "Oh, yes, please. He's... in your bag?"

"Yeah, that's his usual spot." Akira woke Mona up from his nap and planted the opened bag on his own lap. "Say hi to Okumura-san, Morgana."

The cat was sleepy-eyed, but purred appreciatively as Haru's slender fingers stroked him atop his head. She was clearly very happy to see the little guy, beaming at Akira as she continued her delicate petting. "Kurusu-san, feel free to call me by my first name. I'm so thankful for you and Nijiima-san, after all…"

The train slowly rolled to a stop, disturbing their conversation and prompting Akira to zip his bag back up with just the tip of Morgana's nose sticking out. He quickly assured Haru she could do the same for them, then waited for for to leave the car before following after her. Akira placed himself between his companion and the street as they walked down the road towards Ann's. Akira had only visited a handful of times, but the route wasn't a particularly long or complicated one.

"If you want, I can try to bring Morgana over to Ann's to keep you company," Akira offered this without Morgana's input, but he couldn't hear any objections stemming from his messenger bag so he assumed it was fine.

"Oh, does Morgana like Takamaki-san?" Haru innocently inquired.

"Morgana loves Ann. I'm sure he wouldn't mind." Akira stated. Again, no objections.

"That would be so nice," Haru sighed dreamily. She really meant it. "Thank you, Kuru- Akira, I mean."

Akira smiled at her from underneath his hood. It seemed that their little trip had done wonders for Haru's mood. She seemed so dismal before, whilst in the examination room…

His phone vibrated a few times just as they were approaching Ann's home. Akira ignored it; probably just Makoto scolding him a bit more for his slip of the tongue earlier. He had accidentally mentioned to Haru some information Ryuji had communicated to them privately. It was slight, but a slip nonetheless.

Sure, the Phantom Thieves had been kind of keeping an eye on Haru these past few weeks. In school, and over her phone every now and then, with help from Futaba… And yeah, they kind of had a better grasp on her situation than she knew of. And they definitely knew Akechi was really the one who had messed everything up with Kunikazu, but played it off like it was the Phantom Thieves. These were all things Haru was better off not knowing for now, at least in her current state.

Ann answered the door as quickly as they arrived, fit with a bubbly smile. "Hey, guys. Welcome to my home. Come on in." She moved out of the way to offer them a passage into her home.

Haru looked over, but Akira already knew he couldn't stay. He shook his head. "Sorry, Ann. I've gotta get back to Leblanc." Everyone else had been waiting, and the trains wouldn't be running too much later into the night. It was better to leave now.

"I'll see you later, okay, Haru?" Akira felt disconcerted by how nervous the girl looked. "You'll be okay?"

Haru nodded, offering a polite smile to the both of them. "I hope you get home safe, Akira. And thank you for your hospitality, Takamaki-san."

"Oh, please, call me Ann." Ann was very good at acclimating new people to the Phantom Thieves's way of operating, probably the best out of them all. She ushered Haru into the home quickly, waving one last goodbye to her friend. "Byeee, Akira! Text me!"

…

Haru had never met Ann before - let alone speak to her - but she possessed knowledge of the girl due to both rumors and of course the incident with Kamoshida. When she first walked in the front door, Haru wasn't all too surprised by the size of it. It was very sleek and modern-looking, even from the outside… she knew that Takamaki's family was from Europe, so she had expected them to be wealthy and stylish. A sudden thought came to mind: how would they explain things to her parents...?

"Okay, so this is the foyer," Ann was now giving her a tour of the entire place. "It's kind of cool because there's, like, a staircase, but other than that this part of the house's pretty boring. Oh, and here's our living room… my parents aren't home by the way, so no need to feel weird or anything."

"Oh, where are they now?" Haru asked tentatively.

"Right now, I think… France?" Ann sounded doubtful in her own statement. "They travel a lot, so it's hard to keep track sometimes."

That's kind of sad… Haru thought to herself. Father used to travel a lot, too, but he usually stayed within Japan… She was about to offer an apology when Ann skillfully changed the topic of conversation, travelling into the kitchen area. "Aren't you hungry, Haru? I have a lot of snacks, and some leftovers too."

Haru really didn't want to be a bother. She shook her head. "No, thank you, I'm fine. I actually ate not so long ago."

"Well, if you change your mind, the kitchen is open. There's no way I can finish all this by myself, anyway." Ann's voice was consistently chirpy and bright, never once faltering. "Actually, maybe I could. I kinda eat a lot."

"Oh, but you're so thin!" Haru tried her best at imitating the chirp. She felt she was perhaps bringing the mood down with her gloominess. She often reached for compliments when no other conversation topics came to mind.

"I was going to compliment you on your figure, too!" Ann retaliated kindly, serving herself up a bowl of green tea ice cream. "Also, let me know if you need to borrow clothes. I think we're probably around the same size? I could also buy you some new stuff, if you think it's weird to wear other people's clothes or something."

Is that some sort of rich girl stereotype? Haru pondered. She had never actually worn someone else's clothes before now that she thought about it, so maybe it really was true. "Whatever is most convenient for you works. Thank you so much, by the way… I'm really grateful."

Haru was still in something of a daze from all these bizarre turns her life had taken recently. She struck back against Sugimura, and was now essentially on the run from him. Peers she had hardly ever spoken to before were helping her accomplish something she never thought was possible. Everything still felt unnatural, like she was a doll being bent the wrong way, and it had only been twenty-four hours at this point… Would the uneasy feeling in her stomach keep growing, or diminish over time?

Disoriented from the vortex of her own thoughts, Haru was abruptly jerked back into reality as Ann pulled her in for a hug. She was stiff at first, but sort of melted into it. It had been a long time since she had hugged anyone, after all.

"Don't worry about it, Haru, seriously. We'll do anything to help you." Ann voice and face were so kind to her. Their embrace was quick, but it allowed Haru to steady herself. She needed to accept this new reality and ground herself in it, not waste time pondering if it was really okay for her to do this or not…

Because she had already made a decision. She was here, wasn't she? There was no turning back anymore. Things were changing whether she liked it or not.