DISCLAIMER: I do not own Persona 3 Portable. The song is To Build a Home. (I forgot by who and I'm too lazy to google it.)

Author's Note: I have to confess that I've had this chapter stored for a while but I kept delaying on posting it cause I think I want to add more. However, when I reread it I felt like it was enough. So, I hope that may you all like it. Thank you to everyone who reviewed the previous chapter.

Farewell but not Goodbye

There is a house built out of stone

Wooden floors, walls and window sills...

Tables and chairs worn by all of the dust...

This is a place where I don't feel alone

This is a place where I feel at home...

It doesn't register to him quite clearly. It's like he isn't there but he is. He sees it vividly yet the sounds are all in a blur, like he's watching a movie with the speakers muffled. The cries, the voices, the movement of feet, everything, all is drowned out by the uninterrupted beeping flat line of the machine connected to her heart that is continuously ringing in his ears.

Yukari and Fuuka are shoulder to shoulder, their hands cruelly digging into her still warm pale arms. Their tears staining Minako's hospital blanket. Mitsuru hangs her head low; she hides her grief beneath the curtain of her perfect hair. Junpei tries to console a bawling Ken while he himself desperately contains his tears. He doesn't dare look at Shinji. Akihiko stands immobile in the midst of this display of atrophy. He couldn't take the tears, no, he couldn't accept them. So he walks out of there, away from the atrocious truth, he runs away from her.

Shinji finds him in a dim corner later; his forehead slumped against the wall and his whole body sinking into the floor wishing to find oblivion. Shinjiro sits beside him, a cold empty space in between them. Their silence more suffocating than the muffled sound of sobs inside her hospital room. They have much to talk about and it's piled up like old things in the attic but he doesn't have anything to say. They are both no good in terms of speaking. That's Minako's forte. Was.

"It's not fair…" He says, but it isn't directed to Shinji. He just wanted to say it, to tell the world what he thinks. The hoarseness of his own voice surprises him.

"No, no it's not." Shinjiro assents. "It never was."

"I don't want to lose her…not from Nyx, not from this...not even from you," Akihiko's breath hitches, "but now she's gone!"

And that's all it takes, for him to admit that she's left him and this time around no matter how many times he cries her name or begs, she can never come back. The onslaught of tears is fast, they stream down his face like a river rushing to the bottom of a waterfall. The attack of anguish unforgiving, it strikes him down with ferocious rage that rattles his bones and his lungs. He chokes on his breath and Shinjiro puts all the junk in between them past him to rub his back. Akihiko buries his face in his hand and he cries. He relishes the tears. He knows there are more to come.

Mitsuru finds them a couple of minutes later. The two of them similar to little boys huddled lazily in the corner of their made-up fort. She doesn't comment on Akihiko's red eyes or Shinjiro's tired expression. She just stares at them silently, waiting for them to assemble themselves enough to be presentable in front of other people. She is taken aback when Akihiko confirms his lament with his own lips.

"She's dead…"

Mitsuru nods and ushers them to face their dread. "Let's go."

The silence is too deafening. He wonders when the world has started to become soundless or is it only now that he notices the difference of the absence of the melody of her existence, the voice, the music, the works. He knows he's putting too much value into her but it isn't something he could help. Is it terribly wrong to say life itself was her? But the world goes on, even without her the world will smile and laugh and cry. Unlike him who will decay in sorrow.

Akihiko hesitates, unsure where to place himself in the middle of her haunted room. He looks at the messy scrawl of his name written on a pink post-it paper that is stuck on a small cardboard box. The room is very tidy and everything is in place that it feels so wrong. It is stripped off of her personal belongings that one might think it's uninhabited if not for the organized boxes on the desk and clothes in the closet. It mocks him, gives him the idea of the possibility that she's ready and has prepared for her inevitable exit. He feels betrayed that she had so easily sorted out her things on what and to whom to give it away. He might have launched at Mitsuru and yell at her for disturbing the only sanctuary that was left for him if only she wasn't the one who told him to arrange Minako's room.

Akihiko opens the small cardboard box meant for him and inside he finds the music box he gave her on their first and sadly, only, Christmas together. He caresses the top lid before putting his attention on the pictures that came with it. There weren't much but the two of them were all in it. There's one from the Kyoto trip, which he remembers was shot by Junpei. There's a copy of the group picture they took on the night they taught that the Dark Hour was finally gone, he has a similar one tucked away in his room. Pictures of their trip to Yakushima, their dates, and random Purikura photos. He puts them all back in the box face down, seeing her smile once again only to be reminded that they will never be reanimated anymore makes him weary. He returns the box itself on her desk. He lays himself beside the rabbit doll splayed on her bed and burrows his face on her pillows that has her barely clinging scent. If he dies from suffocation that way he doesn't really mind, he couldn't be bothered to think it's a terrible thought.

He falls asleep in the lull of what remained of her. He drifts into a dream on a place where there's nothing but white and a colossal gold door in the vastness of its space. Akihiko finds Minako standing in front of him in a white dress and her hair let down in waves upon her shoulders. She frowns at him.

"You shouldn't be here…" She says.

"No, where you are is where I should be." He says with conviction.

Minako shakes her head and her fingers move ever so slightly but it is enough for Akihiko to catch the glint of a familiar ring.

"You have a life to live and I'm…I can't be with you anymore. I'm sorry Aki."

"Take me with you then!"

Lines appear on Minako's forehead and from the way she tilts her head on the side it appears as if she is listening to something. She purses her lips. The white empty space becomes the school rooftop, the bright sun and perfect blue sky blinds Akihiko for a moment. He doesn't want to close his eyes for he fears that once he opens them up again she will have vanished by then. But she hasn't. She's still there as he recovers, looking at him with sadness and longing in her eyes.

"Don't say something like that again. It pains me to hear it. I wouldn't want you to…"

He crosses the distance between the two of them and puts his forehead against hers, enveloping her in his arms. He aches from the fact that it's the last time and it's merely a dream, and he wishes he could have had a chance like this when she was still alive.

"But I want to be with you… Come back to me." He pleads.

Minako runs her hand through his hair, trying in vain to comfort him. "You know I can't…"

Akihiko doesn't let go, he doesn't have the heart to do it. He may as well live in this dream forever. But she wouldn't let him.

"One for the journey." Minako kisses him for the last time.

While floating back to consciousness he barely hears her say, "We'll see each other again…someday…"

He wakes up slowly, whirring into life, on a morning with a promise. Akihiko clutches the doll tightly in his grip. The burden he carries in his chest has started to burn into an empty hole. He might as well start packing if he wants to fit in schedule.

He always knew she was friendly but it surprised him to see the flock of people that came to her funeral. There's an elementary girl who is holding onto something seemingly precious being comforted by her parents. A woman with a worn notebook clutched to her chest, a familiar businessman holding a piece of paper, and an old couple who brought a persimmon fruit as a farewell gift. The monk who proposed to read a sutra for free in her service also one of them.

Her other friends from Gekkoukan came too. He recognizes a guy as the Vice-President of the Student Council, the foreign student (the one from whom Minako learned French) who came all the way back from France to pay his respects, the girl who he remembers was always with Minako on clinic duty before she transferred, the captain of the girl's Tennis club, and the ones whom Junpei mentioned as Kenji, Yuko, and Kazushi. They're quite a number all of them, adding up the SEES members and Koromaru they convoluted the bit of space reserved for her urn.

Akihiko notices that most of them brought mementos of her to put on her final resting place; lighter, money pouch, PA record, annotated tennis guide, silver key, motorcycle key, cellphone strap, head phones, pig key holder; petty objects that outlived her, which will one day break and collect dust, forgotten.

Even Aigis grasps a charred screw that for anyone would be meaningless and Koromaru who bothered Shinji to change his collar for an old dirty one, which his best friend had the trouble of fixing and cleaning. And Shinjiro… there in his hand lays the special leather watch Minako never forgets to wear.

He feels empty handed, but then his hand grabs hold of his scarf and he remembers. Minako has given him warmth. She taught him love, something he never imagined he could carry because he isn't strong enough. But he was wrong, it wasn't love he feared. It was loss. And right now he's suffering because of it.

After her memorial he and Shinji find themselves in a back corner alley around Port Island Station. He doesn't know why they have to be there but he guesses they should at least settle it somewhere with only the two of them. The time and place is quite wrong, but for the both of them sooner is better than later.

"She kept it from me, her visits I mean. The time you woke up… I'm sure if I remembered it wouldn't have been big of a deal." Akihiko starts.

"It'd bother you, it bothers you now. But what does it matter Aki? She chose you in the end, didn't she?" Shinjiro's voice cracked at the end of his sentence.

"She told me she truly loved you and that it was you who made her look out for me. If you didn't get into a coma…what would have become of us?" And it hangs, Akihiko's guilt that in times of his weakness he was thankful to have a chance with her. Shinjiro sends him a vicious glare.

"I was ready to leave her to you…but I didn't think I'd live and forget."

Shinjiro wants to walk away but he figures that Aki won't stop until he gets the answer that he wants. But what's the point? It's all over now. She's dead. There's nothing to fight for. They both know the ending way back when at the rooftop. The two of them shouldn't dig up still fresh wounds.

"Back then when I found the two of you at the hospital, did you kiss her?"

"Why do we have to talk about-"

"Did you kiss her!" Akihiko snaps and it annoys Shinjiro.

"Yes!" And just so he could tick off Aki more he added, "And she came back to me and kissed me too before she went to you on Valentine's Day."

It doesn't take a split second for Aki's fist to plant on Shinjiro's jaw. Shinjiro staggers and when he gains back his footing he lunges back at Akihiko. He hits back as hard as his body could let him and despite the fact that he has just recently been discharge from the hospital Akihiko doesn't hold back. It feels like they're little boys again, fighting for a fancy new toy donated to the orphanage, although now it's a brawl for the love of a girl who is now only part-ashes and part-memory and is not even there. Shinjiro takes a blow on his stomach that leaves him whizzing and a solid knuckle that would surely leave a mark on his cheek. Akihiko receives a heavy hit in between his eyes and one below his ribs. The pain shakes him to the core and he likes it. A pain so different from the one in his chest. A pain so terrible it doesn't leave any room for other aches.

A moment later they stop, too drained out of energy to throw any punches or kicks. They sit shoulder to shoulder on the steps of an old building.

"I love her Shinji…so much." Shinjiro hopes Akihiko won't cry. His best friend's voice sounded he's almost going to.

Shinjiro replies bitterly. "I know… She was mine first."

…

It is in this silence that they mourn for her, together. Free from other people's violation of their grief and loss. No tears, just sadness and longing and hurt and emptiness. Their heavy breathing coinciding with the wind. And it would be perfect if they think Minako's there, embracing them with her long slender arms.

By nightfall they begin to return back to Iwatodai.

"Hey Shinji…let's get dinner at Wakatsu."

Shinjiro gives Akihiko a handful of wary stare from his invitation before realizing he couldn't quite well cook in his condition nor eat hot ramen with a cut on his lip.

"Fine. But damn Aki! Were you trying to kill me? I'm still considered sick you know."

"Your punch says otherwise."

Akihiko knows it's not the end, so far it's only the beginning and he's got a long way ahead of him to fill the spaces she left in his life. He's probably going to have to do it as long as he lives but he knows he has to move forward, even if it means leaving the only home he had with her.

Cause, I built a home

for you, for me

Until it disappeared

from me, from you

And now, it's time to leave and turn to dust...

A/N: This is the true final chapter. I've already written half of the first chapter of the sequel which will be entitled "Sweet Dreams are Made of These". I can't promise when I'll post it but I'll try my hardest to write it faster. I got distracted on shipping Legend of Korra, I've been reading plenty of works and have written one too. I'm getting side tracked again.

So, as a treat I'll give you a sneak peak of the sequel:

When Akihiko opens his eyes he is greeted by the shining red orbs he missed so much. Minako stares drowsily at him and smiles.

"Ohayou Aki"

Trauma? Coping mechanism? Craziness? What do they call this?

It's like when she was still alive.

He doesn't just hear her voice.

He doesn't just smell faint traces of her scent.

He doesn't just catch glimpses of her anymore.

He sees her, truly sees her.

And most importantly he could touch her.

And it rings on his head again. She's here. With him.

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