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Ann wanted to elope, but Makoto had talked her out of it.
When everything was laid out in her fiancée's level, logical tone, it was hard to argue. Running off to some small prefecture to get married by a stranger would have been a perfect scene in any romance movie, but in reality, it meant ditching their family and friends during a once-in-a-lifetime moment. While Ann knew her parents were used to missing holidays and birthdays thanks to constant travel, leaving Sae out of the proceedings would have been cruel.
So the wedding happened in Tokyo, and Ann got to pick out everything from the colors to the cake. Maybe red and black weren't exactly traditional -- at least, without a lot of white in contrast -- but they had never been an average couple, and it was kind of an unofficial Phantom Thieves meetup by the time the guest list was in order, anyway. Much to her surprise, Makoto had teared up first after their vows and the kiss, but Ann made up for it by reaching for tissues the rest of the evening every time someone brought over a gift, full-out sobbing when Sae gave a tight hug and welcomed her into the family.
There were plenty of Takamaki branches all around the world; she was honored to make the Niijima line a little bigger again.
After the ceremony, during the first morning waking up as Makoto's wife, Ann could scarcely believe it. She stared at the ceiling of their hotel room, happiness leaving her adrift until an arm tightened around her hips, Makoto's breath warm against the back of her neck.
"Morning." Clearing the rasp of sleep from her throat, Makoto pressed a kiss to Ann's shoulder. "Did you get some rest?"
"Yeah." Turning over to give her wife a proper kiss on the lips, Ann smiled. "I think this is the first time I've ever gotten up before you."
A faint flush colored Makoto's cheeks before she murmured, " Someone made me carry her over the threshold before we spent the entire night in bed. I was tired."
"Oh, no, I've exhausted you already." With a cheeky grin, Ann kissed the tip of Makoto's nose this time. "And we haven't even planned our honeymoon yet."
"I thought you didn't want to make plans for that." Brushing stray strands of gold away from Ann's face, Makoto raised a brow. "Did you change your mind?"
There had to be some preparation, even if it kind of ignored the spirit of an impromptu trip.
"The plan is you packing a week of clothes and bringing your passport." Ann declared, excitement sparking in her chest. "Everything else, I'm leaving up to chance."
--
Even on a Tuesday, Narita International Airport was abuzz with people.
Half a dozen languages caught at Ann's ear while she weaved through the crowds with Makoto, hands locked together with their bags on opposite sides. Together they pushed their way up to the massive screen by the ticket booths, displaying an endless cycle of departures and arrivals. Ann eyed the first list, marking which planes were already boarding and those that were about to leave soon after.
"There's so many places we could go." Makoto said, awe suffusing her voice. "I mean, without a visa."
"I know." It was intimidating in a way, but part of this was about throwing caution to the wind.
Hadn't they met in much the same fashion, a daring meeting at school before Makoto jumped right into a gangster's car? For months, Ann's life had been a barely contained chaos, chained by one Palace leading to another. The last couple of years had been almost sedate in comparison, busy with work and every other adult responsibility that practically molded them into civil members of society. Not that making a living wasn't nice, but Ann missed the adrenaline of not looking before she leaped, and coming out different when she reached what lay at the bottom.
Her eyes locked on the flight to Helsinki, boarding in two hours.
Years had passed on by since she lived in Finland, but it wasn't like her last name ever went away. Ann knew Makoto had only traveled outside Japan once -- the Hawaii trip -- and this would be a world apart from warm sands and endless palm trees.
"I picked one." She leaned over to kiss Makoto's cheek. "But we'll have to buy you a jacket from the duty free store."
--
Ann fell asleep on Makoto's shoulder halfway through the ten hour flight, having paged through every magazine jammed under the tray table and burning through the free wifi to brush up on her suomen kieli. Almost everyone there knew enough English to get by, but Japanese was out of the question.
They landed in Helsinki just after sundown, and hopped another much smaller plane up to Lapland. Makoto's eyes were wide everywhere she looked, taking in the sights in between nesting deeper into the fur collar of her new jacket. On second thought, Ann had bought her a new set of gloves too, and they held hands with her own deep in Makoto's pocket, keeping a small blossom of heat between their palms.
"I can't believe you grew up somewhere this cold." Makoto said, ice crunching under her feet as they approached a hotel. It was on the bay by a icy crust that could only be called a shore, but was perfect for Ann's plans later in the evening. "Tokyo must have seemed like another planet."
"It was only for a few years, but yeah. My parents were always bouncing around, but there was a photographer in Helsinki that my mother adored." For a second, Ann could smell the chemicals of a hundred new headshots, even out here. "So we stayed, and she got her break with some big winter shoot."
"And now you're catching everyone's eye in Harajuku." Makoto teased.
That earned a laugh, and Ann nudged her wife's shoulder. "Yeah, but I can't model forever. I was kind of thinking about becoming a photographer myself."
"Oh?" A touch of surprise marked the single syllable, but Makoto looked curious more than anything else. "I think you'd be good at it."
"It's not being a cop or anything but--" Ann began.
She was cut off by a frown and narrowed, wine-dark eyes. "Ann, anything you do is as important as what I do. I didn't join the force because I thought it would make me better than other people."
"I don't think you know how amazing you are." With a smile, Ann tugged Makoto past the hotel building and towards the bay as darkness fell around them. "Sometimes I feel selfish in comparison."
"You're not." Makoto said firmly, squeezing Ann's hand tighter. "You have more heart than anyone I know. God, that day back in the student council room..."
"When I apologized?" Ann asked softly.
"Yeah." Now a smile pulled at the edge of Makoto's mouth. "I didn't think you had anything apologize for, not when you were right. But you felt that rift between us, and refused to let it stay."
It seemed like forever ago, bowing her head low and making the words as polite as she could imagine. Ann had expected a dismissal at best, not comfort, not the intimacy of exchanging bare names and going out to eat together. She must have fallen in love with Makoto then, sharing a crepe together and seeing the mask the older girl wore so tightly, caught between being President and a younger sister and suffocating from both ends. For just an hour, that facade had been peeled away, and they laughed together, pressing close.
Their first kiss had only been weeks after, stolen in the dark of Mementos.
"Maybe it was fate telling me if I didn't apologize, I wouldn't get married." Ann joked, squinting in the dark until she found the bench she was looking for.
"Maybe so." Makoto squeezed in next to her, shivering a little. "So why are we all the way out here?"
"Because I wanted to show you something special." Looking up at the sky, Ann quietly prayed for the winds to move soon. "This place isn't home, but it was a part of me. We're spending the rest of our lives together, and I want you to know everything I am."
Makoto was about to answer when her jaw dropped. A wisp of green light stretched across the sky, followed by arcs of red and brilliant blue, one wave chasing another until the stars themselves were splashed with color.
"The Aurora Borealis." Letting out a breathless laugh, Makoto continued to stare in open wonder. "I forgot you could see it from this far north."
"They call it foxfire up here." Her wife's amazement was infectious, and Ann smiled wide. "When I was a kid, I hoped it would give me superpowers. No such luck, though."
"A Persona is pretty close." Makoto countered, then leaned over, just shy of Ann's lips. "And you're still good at stealing hearts."
"Charmer." She whispered the word a second before they kissed, deep and all-consuming.
For a moment, Ann forgot about the cold entirely, and slipped her hand of Makoto's pocket to cup her cheek instead. Here in the middle of a cold and distant country where no one knew them, there was freedom, if only for a little while. Sure, at some point Makoto would run out of vacation days and her agent would start calling, but this moment was a perfect and separate thing, a secret they could keep forever.
"If that photographer's still around, we could pay him a visit." Makoto murmured softly when the kiss broke apart. Her breath was warm, enough to surround them in a wreath of steam. "He might be able to give you advice on what camera to buy."
"You really think I should?" Ann's fingers slipped down into the collar of Makoto's jacket, clinging to the heat there. Some part of her had feared her ambition would be brushed aside, taken as a lark, and for Makoto to embrace it without question dispelled every mote of doubt. "I love you so much."
The change in topic brought a blush to her wife's face, but Makoto leaned close again, letting their brows touch. "I love you too."
"I know freezing on a bench probably isn't how you planned our honeymoon to start, but we can go get a room and warm up by the fireplace." Then do even more on the bed, if she had anything to say about it. "How's that sound?"
Another gentle kiss was pressed to her lips. "Perfect."
It took a jumble of a couple languages, but Ann managed to secure a room that had a view of the bay, not wanting to lose sight of the Northern Lights just yet. They hadn't packed much more than the necessities, so she stole the pair of fluffy robes out of the bathroom for her and Makoto to change into, relieved to get out of damp, cold clothes. There was a tiny stove to make hot chocolate on, and the two of them settled together by the fireplace with mugs in hand, warding off the last of the icy weather.
"Everyone's going to wonder where we ran off to." Makoto said before taking another long sip from her cup. "I told the captain why I was taking leave, but not exactly what you and I were doing."
"I didn't tell anyone either." Ryuji had bugged her a few times over text, but Ann sent him back an affectionate chain of emoji with their tongues sticking out. "We could always take a picture, I guess."
"Right now?" Reaching towards where they'd abandoned their clothes, Makoto found Ann's phone and handed it over. "You should take it. It'll be the first one of your new career."
"You don't do anything by half, huh?" Ann laughed, then brought up the screen so she could snap a shot of them together by the fire.
The next morning, she uploaded it with a caption:
Halfway across the world with the love of my life. See you all again soon.
--