Disclaimer: I don't own Persona.
"Ryuji?" Joker exclaimed, his eyes widening behind his glasses. "Is that you?"
"Yeah, dude…" Ryuji nodded, casting his gaze downwards. "It's me…"
"For real?" Morgana added, his furry face filled with astonishment.
The blonde boy looked towards the cat he was always butting heads with. "For real, Morgana."
Ryuuji peered around at his friends from where he was stood behind the counter. He could see that all of them were gaping at him with bewilderment. They were wordlessly taking in the apron hanging down his front as well as the colourful hat sitting in his head. Ryuji smiled sheepishly. He was a little embarrassed that his allies had found him on the job he'd secretly taken up. Having not told any of them about it, he hadn't wanted them to find out about it just yet.
"Why are you working at the ice cream shop?" Yusuke asked.
"Well there've hardly been any missions for the Phantom Thieves to take up lately," Ryuji explained. "Which means we don't get to make a bit of money by fighting Shadows. I figured a part time gig would help us make ends meet."
"Is that why you haven't been in class lately?" Ann asked, raising her eyebrow.
"No wonder you're struggling to get good grades, Skull," Morgana jeered, "if you're slacking off here!"
"Hey!" Ryuji snapped. "I work real hard here! I'm doing this for us! I do not slack off!"
"You're doing it now!" Morgana smirked. "You're chatting away with your customers instead of taking their orders!"
"He's not wrong!" Makato agreed. "We did come in here to get some ice cream!"
Gritting his teeth, Ryuji reached into the pocket on the front of his apron to pull out a note pad and pencil. "What flavour ice cream will you guys be having?"
The others glanced at one another. All were excited at the thought of ice cream being served to them by a fellow member of their secret underground group. They began to shout out to Ryuji which flavour they wanted.
"I'll have chocolate flavour!"
"I'd like strawberry flavour!"
"I think I'll go for honey flavour!"
"Mint flavour for me!"
"Cookies and cream flavour it'll be for me!"
"And I'll have sushi flavour!"
Ryuji froze. He knew perfectly well had requested the flavour that the shop didn't have. He narrowed his eyes to the one who had demanded it, wondering if he was just messing with him.
"We don't do sushi flavour, Morgana."
"What?!" Morgana hollered. "This is an outrage! How come your store doesn't do sushi flavoured ice cream?"
"Because no such flavour exists!" Ryuji answered with gritted teeth.
Morgana stared at the blonde boy as a frown filled his furry face. "Gimme your pencil! I'd like to fill out a complaint form!"
"Oh and how are you going to do that?" Ryuji smirked. "You can't write with paws!"
Morgana's jaw fell open. He was furious that Ryuji was making fun of him over the transformation he had been through. He jumped up onto the counter, standing on the the glass display which showed the different ice cream flavours on sale.
"Such appalling customer service!" he thundered angrily. "I demand you serve me a triple helping of all your ice cream flavours - on the house!"
"You shouldn't even be eating ice cream, Morgana!" Ryuji snickered. "It's not good for cats!"
"Cat?!" In all his anger, Morgana burst out the single word he hated being referred to as. "I am not a cat!"
With that, Morgana jumped down from the counter - and swung himself into the display which held the tubs of different flavoured ice cream.
"What are you doing?" Ryuji cried. "Get outta there! You're gonna get your fur in the ice cream!"
Morgana sneered craftily as he armed himself with an ice cream. He dug himself a helping of ice cream - which he flung straight at Ryuji.
The blonde cried out as a huge dollop of ice cream splattered into his face. He wailed out from how freezing cold it was. He tried to wipe it away with the back of his hand, only to spread more of it out on him.
"I'd ask if that gives you brain freeze, Ryuji, but of course it doesn't!" Morgana cackles. "That's impossible for you since you don't have a brain!"
As he wiped the ice cream away from his eyes, Ryuji fixed them onto the feline. Rage filled his splattered face as he charged angrily towards Morgana, his arms reaching out threateningly towards him. "I'm gonna get you, cat!"
Still armed with the scoop, Morgana proceeded to fling large chunks of ice cream at Ryuji, preventing him from getting close to him. Different coloured blobs of the flavoured chilled desert hit the boy in his face and his hair and his clothes. The rest of the Phantom Thieves watched in bewilderment. They were all stunned into silence by the crazy showdown between their two comrades.
"Mrawhahaha!" Morgana laughed over how he was successfully hitting Ryuji with every fire of his frozen weapon. "It's scary how good I am!"
As the feline hurled another scoop of ice cream at him, Ryuji managed to duck out of the way. It hurled over his head to miss the teenager - before splattering into the face of some one who had just entered through the door behind the counter.
"Sakamotooooooooo!"
Ryuji's blood turned as cold as the ice cream. He knew who it was that had just yelled his last name. It was a sign that he was in for big trouble.
"Uh oh…" Joker murmured. "This looks like trouble…"
With his heart racing, Ryuji slowly turned around to find that standing behind him with a face filled with rage and covered in ice cream - was the manager.
"Uhh…" Ryuji stammered meekly. "Hi, Boss!"
"What d'you think you're playing at?!" The manager's voice nearly raised the roof of the shop. "I have you this job to serve ice cream to the customers - and here I find you throwing it around!"
"It wasn't me!" Ryuji pointed to Morgana. "It was that cat!"
The manager averted his glare to the feline, his fury increasing at the sight of him. "What is that cat doing in my shop and sitting by the ice cream tubs?! That's unhygienic, Sakamoto! You should be kicking it out, not letting it go behind the counter!"
"I didn't!" Ryuji protested. "He was the one who threw the ice cream at you!"
"Don't give me that, boy! What d'you take me for, a moron? There's no way cats cans throw ice cream!"
"But it wasn't-"
"I don't wanna hear it, Sakamoto! You're fired!"
Ryuji's face fell. The last two words the manager had thundered out cut into him like a knife. The young boy was devastated. He had been stripped of a good opportunity to make some money - and it wasn't even his fault!"
"I want you gone by the time I get back down here! Take off your uniform, clear out your locker and don't let me see your face in my shop again!"
With his anger spent, the manager disappeared back through the door, leaving behind his ex-employee he had terminate, as well as the customers who had witnessed his ordeal - as well as the cat who was responsible for it."
"F…F…F…" Ryuji stammered, unable to believe what had just happened to him. "Fired?"
"Oh jeez…" Joker said emotionlessly. "That's too bad for you, Ryuji…"
"At least now you can go back to class," Ann said helpfully, "and concentrate on your studying."
Ryuji turned towards the other humans of the Phantom Thieves. The ice cream he was covered in was beginning to melt away from all the heated anger that was building up inside his body.
"What the hell's with you guys?" he roared. "Why did you all just stand there and say nothing! You could've all backed me up and vouched for me for my manager!"
"Sorry, Ryuji," Futaba apologised. "I guess we were all just thinking about our ice cream."
"Oh right!" Morgana exclaimed. "Where are we gonna get some ice cream now? Ryuji can't serve us any since he just got fired! No surprise really given his shocking customer service!"
Ryuji averted his glare down to the feline. He was more furious than he had ever been with the cat. The furry critter had done some awful things to him before, but nothing came close to this stunt topped this stunt. He had just had his well-playing job taken away from him - and it was all Morgana's fault.
The former shop worker clenched his fists. He had the urge to button mash Morgana's head in all his resentment towards him - when an idea popped into his ice cream-smothered head. A smile crept upon his splattered face. It was a much better way to give the little trouble-making creature his just desserts.
"You want ice cream, Morgana?" Ryuji murmured ominously, picking up all the tubs. "Then I'm gonna let you have it!"
"You can't-" Morgana began, but was cut off as Ryuji emptying every one of the tubs all over him, covering the cat's furry body completely from head to tail in thick cold ice cream.
THE END