Chapter Text
The death of Kunikazu Okumura, Haru’s father, fell on the Phantom Thieves like a bolt out of the blue.
There was so much to unpack for everyone. Did they go too far with him? Were they still doing the right thing? And what were they going to do with Haru, the newest member?
And still, they hadn’t had the time to actually think about it. They were still students, midterm exams were extremely close, and they couldn’t talk with anyone else about what had happened.
So, as the others did, Yusuke went back to his school life, trying his best to act normal around his classmates and pouring all of his turmoil of emotions into his current painting. Thankfully, no one questioned it, and the teacher herself complimented him for his concept.
It was after one of those gloomy school days that he received an unprompted text from Futaba. Not in the group chat – a private one.
>>Inari!
>>I have an art commission for you (ง ืV ื)ว
Yusuke stared at the phone in disbelief.
A paid one?<<
>>Ofc
>>I’m not a monster
>>So, r u in???
It depends on the subject, I suppose<<
As he observed the dots on the screen, a sign that Futaba was answering, he sighed. First of all, a part of him was scared about what the girl was going to ask for said commission. After all, she never tried to hide her… peculiar interests to the rest of the group. Secondly, the sudden request was rather out of place.
They were currently dealing with an extremely heavy burden, how could she ask for it now?
Plus, he still didn’t know how he felt about obtaining money for his works of art. Was he falling under the wicked and capitalist view of art as merch? But, after all, countless great artists of the past had only worked for paying customers…
>>Listen, why dont u come over to discuss it???
>>I can offer cup noodles
>>For free, u broke artist
I’m on my way.<<
>>YAY
He was not going to refuse a free lunch.
Futaba’s room was messy as always, and adding a chair from the kitchen for the artist surely didn’t help.
It wasn’t the first time Yusuke visited it, but every time was like the first one. In particular, his gaze had immediately fallen on the Phoenix Ranger Featherman figures, and he had to resist the urge to change their poses in a more aesthetically pleasing way.
But no, he had already done it once and Futaba hadn’t been happy about it, so he was not going to repeat his mistake. Even though it was so tempting…
No, he had to focus. He grabbed his cup noodles from the desk and looked ahead.
On her huge monitor, Futaba was showing him the images of the anime characters she wanted a small comic of, even though Yusuke wasn’t sure that a comic was exactly the kind of art that he aspired to make. No shame on the genre, of course. But it wasn’t really his field…
He observed the two characters for some minutes, before actually noticing that it had been whole minutes of complete silence. They were both introverts, but it was still a little bit too much.
Yusuke turned to Futaba, ready to ask if everything was alright, but it was clear that it wasn’t.
Next to him, the younger girl was staring right in front of her, her expression dull as she was completely spacing out.
It wasn’t the first time Yusuke had noticed this kind of behavior from her, but usually it occurred when there was a lot of people involved. When she had to interact with one or two people, she was usually way more active.
Yusuke hesitated for a moment, unsure about what to do, munching his noodles.
‘…are you alright, Futaba?’ he tried.
She immediately jumped on the spot, turning towards him with her big eyes wide-open.
‘Ah! Yes!’ she exclaimed ‘I was just… hmm… thinking’
‘About the comic?’ the artist asked ‘Do you have any… specific request?’
‘…yes, yes yes. Totally about the comic, yeah’ she nodded, talking fast.
Then, she stopped, her gaze pointed towards the screen but clearly not really looking at it. Yusuke raised his eyebrows, waiting. He didn’t want to force her to talk. People had told him multiple times that he wasn’t good with feelings, that he said inappropriate things. And he was very happy about the friendship he was building with Futaba, so he didn’t want to mess it up by saying the wrong thing.
But she was back at not saying anything, now nervously fidgeting with her hands.
The moment he opened his mouth to say anything, though, she was the one to talk.
‘Can I say a thing? It’s kind of personal’ she mumbled ‘So, hum… I understand if you don’t want to listen to me venting’
‘Of course’
She turned towards him, without directly looking at his face.
‘I’m not good with words, so I don’t really know how to put it… also it will probably sound rude, I don’t know…’
Yusuke patiently waited for the to finish talking, even though he was starting to believe that there wasn’t an actual end to the rant.
‘What I want to say is… that this whole Okumura thing… Haru’s dad… it made me think of… you know…’
She stopped, and he noticed how her eyes immediately got filled with tears.
And Yusuke got it.
‘Pardon me if I’m disrespectful, but… is this about your mother?’
The hacker locked eyes with him, frozen in place, then it happened something that he completely didn’t expect.
She threw herself at the artist, almost making him fall on the ground with the whole chair. Thankfully he didn’t. Instead, he awkwardly returned the hug, uncertain as he held her while she violently sobbed, soaking his shoulder.
After a while – he really couldn’t tell how much time has passed – she started to calm down, the loud cries slowing down into quite sobs, and he decided to pat on her back as a form of comfort. It was the first time something like that occurred to him, and he really didn’t know how to react. He had never had relationships that were this close as the ones with the other thieves.
He looked down, uncertain about what to do.
She was now basically curled on his lap, her arms holding his torso as if her life depended on it. At this sight, he felt a burst of rage in his heart, as if Goemon was fussing. Seeing his teammate like this, shaken and vulnerable, could only remind him of how unfair it was their condition. Even though they had chosen to be Phantom Thieves, they were just teenagers, they were not supposed to deal with such a heavy life. Because neither Futaba nor Yusuke had chosen to lose their mothers, and to suffer the consequences for the rest of their life.
Still, he really didn’t know how to react to Futaba’s situation.
After all, he couldn’t even remember his mother.
He held her closer, burying his nose into her messy hair, and sighed.
‘I just’ Futaba sobbed ‘miss her so much…’
‘I know’ he simply answered, completely lost for words. Then, he tried to add: ‘Is this… is this the reason why you wanted me to come over?’
‘Maybe…’ she mumbled, her words muffled by Yusuke’s shirt.
He waited for her to say something else, but nothing came from her mouth. She had said that she wanted to vent, but she was just staying there without saying anything.
Then, he decided to do the talk.
‘You know… I can’t completely understand how you feel. I can’t remember my mother’ he started, not sure about what exactly he wanted to say ‘But I still wish she was here for me’
‘Sorry…’ she whispered ‘Maybe you didn’t want to talk about this’
‘No, it’s all right. I trust you enough to speak about this topic. In the same way as I trust everyone else in the team. After all, even if with distinct backgrounds… we’re not that different. So, I think it’s just normal that you felt this way about what just happened to Haru’
At that, she moved away a little, raising her gaze to properly look at Yusuke.
‘You know’ she smiled ‘I think my mom would have liked you, Inari’
Yusuke reciprocated the smile, a little embarrassed. Though, if she was calling him like that, it meant that she was somehow feeling better.
‘You think so?’ he tilted his head.
‘Yeah, for sure. I mean, you’re an expert in a totally different field respect to hers, but she was quite fond of weirdos’
‘Oh, don’t talk about yourself like this, you aren’t that… peculiar’
‘I meant Sojiro, not me!’ she retorted, offended, but the smile didn’t fade.
‘Ah’
‘Yeah, ah. But still, he would have cooked you curry all the time, because you’re a broke artist’
Maybe he was the one who had to be offended.
‘I wonder if my mother would have liked you too…’ he pondered, tapping his finger on his chin ‘Perhaps, she could have taught you how to draw, so that you could draw your comics by yourself’
‘Why don’t you teach me that?’ she proposed ‘And then you can stay here for dinner and have curry with me and Sojiro!’
What an offer! He was getting both his launch and dinner? For free?
Futaba was now smiling, visibly happier than before, and Yusuke found himself being really fond of that sight. This was how she was supposed to look.
‘I can’t deny such an offer’ he nodded.
In a second, Futaba was back on her feet, dashing to her bookshelf to grab a notebook, and Yusuke realized how he couldn’t feel his legs. He stood up too, stretching a little, and walked closer to the girl.
‘Actually, I already tried to draw, but I can only copy other people stuff’ she explained, holding her notebook open in her hands and turning the pages for Yusuke, showing off her works.
And he couldn’t help but raise his eyebrows in front of her… art.
He didn’t have problems with her poor skills. After all, she was just a beginner who copied drawings, so he wasn’t expecting a great technique.
However, the subjects were quite… repetitive.
All the pages had duos or trios of characters, and he saw the same ones multiple times. In particular, he recognized more than once the two men she wanted a comic of. He soon realized that all the men and women represented were visibly romantically involved – kisses, tender hugs, holding hands – and, every time, they were same sex pairings.
Not that he had a problem with that.
But he wrote down the information in his brain.
As she flipped through the notebook, she explained to him bites of lore of the various characters, jumping from one topic to the other. Apparently, the majority of them were from Featherman. Not that he was surprised about it.
‘So?’ she asked at some point, turning towards him ‘Do you think you can teach me?’
At the moment, she seemed a completely different person from the one that was crying in his arms until just a few minutes before. She had an enthusiastic light in her eyes, holding the notebook like a dear treasure as she looked at the expert artist.
He was tired of seeing distressed expressions on his friends’ faces. Looking at her, he felt the need to protect that warm energy, to preserve the happiness of his friends.
Maybe they both didn’t have a mother – not that they were the only ones in the group – but it didn’t mean that they didn’t have people who loved them.
‘Will you still commission me the comic?’
‘Duh, of course. I’m smart, but I can’t learn that fast’
‘Then’ he smiled ‘I will gladly be your teacher’