Once the Phantom Thieves escapes the crumbling castle and left the metaverse they found themselves in the alleyway in front of the school. Crowds of people we still in front of the school after being frightened by the fire alarm. Makoto was looking around for Akira wondering why he ran off and disappeared. She circled around the crowds once more before calling Haru.

"Haru I need help I can't find Akira."

"Why do you think he is missing?" Haru asked.

Makoto wasn't ready to talk about her time spent in Kamoshida's office but she had to come up with something. "Um well we were hanging out and after the alarm went off he ran off and I can't find him."

"Did he run off because you tried to kiss him?" Haru asked with a giggle.

"Wh-what are you talking about I don't like Akira like that!" Makoto almost yelled in the crown trying to hide the red in her face.

"If you say so." Haru stated. "Where are you? I will help you look for Akira."

"I'm by the front gate, thank you so much Haru" Makoto hangs up the phone and waits for Haru hoping Akira is ok.

Makoto's mind is betraying her with thoughts of Kamoshida attacking Akira to get revenge from saving her. Her thoughts are spiraling out of control and she is only able to calm down when Haru interrupts her.

"Makoto are you ok?" The brown haired girl asks.

"I'm just a little nervous I guess." Makoto says.

"I would say that's a little more than just a little nervous. You must be really worried about him." Haru is half teasing her friend and half showing genuine concern.

"It's what ever we just need to find Akira." Makoto says beginning her search.

The two look around the school grounds but their dark haired friend is no where to be found. After some searching around in Shibuya they decide to go to Akira's new temporary home: Cafe Leblanc.

Makoto and Haru walk in to the small building with the sound of a bell chiming when they enter.

"Hello how may I help you." The man behind the counter asks. "Wow I didn't expect two girls your age to come to a place like this." The man remarks.

"Are you Mr.Sakura?" Makoto asks.

"Yes I am but please call me Sojiro." The man says calmly.

"Ok Mr.Sojiro...um we are looking for our friend and he is supposedly living here." Makoto ask shyly.

"Oh you must mean the kid. Yeah he's up stairs." Sojiro points to the stairs.

"Thank you very much." The two say as they walk up the stairs.

"Akira are you up here?" Makoto says surveying the room. She finds Akira, two other people, and a cat?

Akira turns around and says. "Oh hey Makoto what brings you here." He sounds like he's trying to hide something.

"Hey miss prez." Ryuji says.

Ann whispers something under her breath but Makoto couldn't quite make out what the blond had said but based on the reaction of the other two it wasn't something nice.

"Hi Akira I was just checking in on you because you ran out so suddenly." The red eyed girl said.

"Oh yeah I just uh had to uh help Sojiro get some stuff for the store." Akira says not sounding very convincing.

"Oh that's nice. I didn't know you were friends with Takamaki. When did you two meet?" Makoto sounded a little more jealous then she would have wanted. For some reason seeing Ann there made Makoto angry.

Ann whispers something again and Akira looks mad at what she said but he try's not to let it show. He quickly whispers to her "why are you so mad all of a sudden." But he doesn't get a response.

"Oh well we became friends a little while ago." Akira said. "We were just planning a group project for Kawakami."

"Oh that's good that you are taking your student work seriously...WAIT IS THAT A CAT?" Makoto yelled in supprise. "He's so cute what's his name!?"

"His name is morgana I got him when I moved here." Akira answered.

"Why don't you tell me these things Akira!" Makoto fake complained.

"Because I know how you are with animals." Akira joked.

"I'm not that bad." Makoto said hugging the cat.

"I-can't-breeeeaaaath." Morgana choked.

"He is rather cute and I do like the name morgana. But the name is a little long." Haru commented.

"Oh well sometimes we call him Mona." Ryuji said.

"I like that too it sounds almost as cute as he is." Haru giggled. Morgana almost hurled.

"Anyway it's getting kinda late would it be ok if you left me and Makoto alone for a while." Akira regretful his phrasing when he heard the whistles of Ryuji and Morgana. Normally Ann would join in on the teasing or try to stop the other two but this time she just grabbed her things and left. The others soon followed leaving the two best friends.

"It's been a while since we have been able to see each other." Makoto said her face turning red. 'He is sitting really close to me. Is he doing that on purpose? What dose he want us to do together?' Makoto is in a silent panic. She doesn't know why but she is very self conscious of herself. Now that it's just the two of them she is very insecure.

"It has been I while and I'm sorry for that I've been a little busy what with the Phan- I mean school and Kamoshida wanting to expell me." Akira said oblivious to Makoto's blushing. He is a little nervous himself. He doesn't know why but he is.

'What was he about to say? Phan what?' Makoto wondered. She couldn't think about that now though. "Why did Kamoshida want you expelled?"

"He never liked me but Ryuji yelled at him and got him mad." The raven haired boy responded.

"Why was Sakamoto mad?" Makoto asked.

"He was mad about what Kamoshida did to Shiho."

Makoto almost started crying after hearing Shiho's name. "What do you mean 'what Kamoshida did.'?" The image of Shiho's body lying broken on the ground.

"Well the reason she jumped off the roof was because Kamoshida had...raped her." The last words were like daggers in Akira's throat.

"Oh my gosh! I didn't know." Makoto said with tears streaming down her face."

"It's ok Makoto, you didn't know. There wasn't anything you could have done. Kamoshida was a monster." Akira said trying to reassure his friend.

"What do you mean 'was'?"

"Oh well um you see after Kamoshida took you into his office I rang the fire alarm before he made you take your own life." Akira said his eyes starting tear up. "I don't know what I would do with myself if he had got to you."

"Akira you idiot, I wouldn't ever try to take my own life."

"I know I was just so scared whenever he took you." Akira said crying more.

"Akira it's ok. Nothing happened." Makoto said now trying to calm Akira down. She has never seen Akira this emotional before. But she is glad he opened up to her and that he cares about her that much.

"I know, I'm sorry." Akira says calming down a little but what Akira was about to do caught Makoto completely off guard. He gave her a hug. To Akira it was a normal friend to friend hug but to Makoto it was the world. The embrace lasted for a while and they loved every second of it.

"Do you feel better now you big dork." Makoto teased.

"Yeah I do feel better you bigger dork." Akira joked back.

"How long were we hugging I mean talking I mean...never mind." Makoto stuttered.

"I guess it is kinda late let me walk you home." Akira said checking his watch.

"I would like that." Makoto said blushing.

Akira walked Makoto all they say to her apartment. He took the long way wanting to make this last as long as he can. He got a little upset when he made it to her apartment.

"Thank you for everything Makoto. I really do feel better just from talking to you." The boy said.

"I'm glad I can help you." Makoto responded. "It is really late you shouldn't walk back to Leblanc by yourself. Why don't you stay here tonight?"

Akira almost jumped when he heard his friend. "I guess Sojiro wouldn't care, as long as I get to school. But are you sure it's ok."

"You're always welcome here silly." Makoto answered in a laugh.

"Ok it will be nice to catch up with Sae." The raven haired boy laughed back.

"I don't think she would appreciate talking to someone with a criminal record." Makoto teased.

"Fair enough." Akira said.

The two walked into the apartment and put down their things. The Niijima apartment was quite big and very clean. It looked like a fancy party would be held here. Akira was not suprised though, while their old house in the country was like a regular home it was still very fancy by Akira's standards. "What a nice place you got here Makoto."

"Oh thanks. I guess it's a bit of an upgrade compared to our old house." Makoto said as she walked into the kitchen.

"Hey what are you doing in there?" Akira asked seeing his friend grab things from the cupboards in pantry.

"I'm making a late dinner for us." The brown haired girl responded.

"Oh you don't have to do that. Here let me take over." Akira said while trying to take the bowls and cooking supplies.

Makoto looked suprised and smirked. "I didn't know you can cook."

"Yeah, Sojiro has been giving me some cooking tips."

"Really? I didn't think he would be the type to teach such a sacred art to a criminal." Makoto teased. her smirk growing larger.

"Are you gonna drop that, I told you it's not my fault." Akira joked smirking as well.

"Ok I'll let it go. I just can't believe my best friend has a criminal record." Makoto was almost laughing now.

"Ha ha. Can I just cook the dang dinner it's late enough without you making fun of my record." The two friends enjoyed laughing for a big and Makoto reluctantly let Akira cook their dinner.

"Wow! This is amazing, you are an amazing cook." Makoto complemented her friend while eating the curry faster than Akira had thought possible from the girl.

"You're a dork, ya know that." The boy said this with a big smile from his friends compliment.

"Do you uh l-like dorky girls?" Makoto doesn't know why she asked this but she's glad she did. She had to get it off her chest. The girl was waiting all dinner to find a way to bring up this subject of interest.

Akira had lost all of his composure in less than a second. "W-what do you mean I-I don't know what you're talking about?"

"You know, why kind of girl do you like? We haven't ever discussed this kind of thing. And I know you are pretty popular with the girls at Shujin, especially after confronting Kamoshida." The ruby eyed girl was half lying while she did receive questions about the transfer student it was mostly 'how dangerous is he.' But on occasion a girl would show interest in the boy.

"What do you mean what kind of girl do I like. What kind of guy do YOU like." Akira said in a panic.

"I-I don't know I guess someone who's smart, funny, calming, and someone to be their for me." Makoto responded on a shy voice.

"Oh I didn't know you thought about this kind of thing. You never seemed to be the type to be interested in dating." Akira had a look of shock in his face.

"Well I like to think I'll find someone eventually. What about you?" The girl questioned.

"I never really thought about it. I guess it would be someone who is cute, funny, definitely needs to be smart, and if we are going into looks then brown or dark hair, maybe in a short kind of style."

Makoto's face was instantly red as the description of smart with short brown hair sounded like her. But that couldn't be possible. "That was pretty descriptive are you describing someone."

Now it's Akira's turn for a face colored red. He realized he basically described the girl in front of him. "O-oh uh no, I don't know."

"That's convincing." Makoto said sarcastically.

The two friends joked around some more until they finished their food. The two sat in the living room watching tv. The show they were watching wasn't really important to them they just liked to be able to hangout with each other. It was around 11:15 and the two were growing sleepy.

The two were sitting next to eachother and Makoto was starting to drift off into sleep. The girl leaned to her side forgetting her friend was their. Her head landed softly on his shoulder. The brown haired girl then realized what she was doing. She waited for Akira's reaction and he simply lay his down on hers. Makoto was freaking out. Dose Akira like her? Then a thought crossed her mind. 'I have been feeling weird about Akira since he got to Tokyo. Do I like Akira? No that's impossible. Is it?' Makoto decided to talk to Haru about it later but for now she was going to enjoy this moment and drifted to sleep.

I'm Akira's mind he was freaking out. Makoto had randomly fell asleep on his shoulder what dose he do. Akira dose the only thing he can think of and leans on Makoto and thinks. 'Wow I did not see that coming. I have been feeling weird about Makoto for a while. I think it was when I saw her at Shujin for the first time? Do I like her?' He is just glad morgana isn't here to make fun of him. Akira makes a note to ask Ann about this he thinks Ann would be better than Ryuji. Then The boy falls asleep.

Authors notes:

OK SO BASICALLY I had planned this chapter very different. I had a completely different plan but I am glad how it turned out and the chapter I planned will be next and it fits better now.