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It had taken a bit of arguing, but Ann had successfully managed to convince Ryuji to come with her to the TV station for their field trip for a second time. He’d argued that it was what they’d done last time, which was lame, and reminded her that the tour was excruciatingly boring and that he and Akira had been forced into manual labor on the set. Ann conceded that he had a few solid points, and couldn’t help but grimace at the memory of some sleazy crew member hitting on her in the hallway, but they had come to an agreement after some heated debate that they’d sit in on Akechi’s interview just as they had in the last timeline. If only so they could get some entertainment out of it by meeting Akechi somewhere he’d be forced to be civil with them.
Morgana had insisted they stay close to Akira, but he seemed like he was hard to keep track of, it turned out, if he didn’t want to be seen. In the end, most of the day was spent murmuring jokes to Ryuji under her breath and ignoring the same boring tour they had gotten in the last timeline. Ann made sure to keep a lookout for Akira as they walked throughout the station in the crowd of students, but she was also searching every hallway and room for Akechi, who was present at the station for both days of the field trip the last time around. He was sure to be less than pleased to see them there.
The day dragged by, but eventually, like all school days, it was over. Ryuji had just pulled Ann aside, saying something about meeting up with Yusuke for ramen, since getting food was the only way both of those boys knew how to have fun. Ann sighed but supposed she’d go along with them. She could take her diet more seriously and still have a cheat day. Or days. She didn’t even have a start date set for her diet, so really it would be fine. And weren’t diets sort of a slippery slope to disordered eating anyway?
“Totally,” Ann said. “Let’s get ramen.”
“You think we’ll be able to sneak Mona in?” Ryuji asked. Morgana poked his head up out of Ann’s bag, his little kitty face lighting up.
“Please promise you’ll share!” he pleaded.
“Takamaki. Sakamoto. What a pleasant surprise.”
Ann looked up to see Akechi grinning at the three of them from down the hallway. He walked over towards them, sparing a quick glance around at the other loitering Shujin students. Ann felt Morgana disappear into her bag, grumbling something she couldn’t quite make out.
“H-hi there, Akechi-san!” Ann said, trying to act normal but suddenly, against all logic, forgetting how.
“I didn’t think I’d see you two here,” Akechi said, his voice pleasant and friendly. Far too pleasant and friendly for someone who had referred to them all as “worthless pieces of shit who couldn’t defeat a one-legged baby in combat” just two days prior in Mementos. “And here I thought you must have had enough of me. Should I be flattered?”
“Dude. That’s effing disturbing,” Ryuji said, eyes wide.
Akechi, the picture of innocence, just blinked and squinted slightly to emulate honest confusion.
“What’s disturbing? Is something the matter?”
“You know what’s–– don’t pull that shit with us!”
Akechi’s faux confusion seeped naturally into his smile. As he sized Ryuji up, he reached one gloved hand up and threaded his fingers through his well-maintained chestnut hair.
“Sakamoto-kun, we’re in a public place,” Akechi said brightly. “Don’t you think you ought to make an effort to dial down your vulgar speech? And your volume ?”
The message came through loud and clear to the three of them, but to any observer, they were sharing a polite conversation with a picture-perfect young celebrity. Akechi’s smile lost its slight edge as he turned to excuse himself.
Ann studied him, and couldn’t help but be a little impressed. Akechi was a great actor. His facade would have been flawless if he hadn’t made that small mistake last timeline where he’d accidentally revealed himself as a Metaverse user by inadvertently responding to Morgana. Aside from that, it was hard to find any faults in his act at all. Ann wondered if he could give her a few acting pointers.
“We’ll see you tomorrow for your interview!” Ann said. “Ryuji and I are looking forward to it.”
“Are we?” Ryuji asked incredulously.
“I’m not!” Morgana’s muffled yell came through the bag.
“Oh, by the way, Ann,” Ryuji said, a mischievous grin creeping its way onto his face. “You said you were down to get food after this? Maybe some pancakes ?”
Ann watched Akechi very carefully for any sign that he would break character, but he seemed to be covering all the cracks they’d found in his mask better than ever. He simply deepened his friendly smile, never breaking eye contact with Ryuji.
“Well, you two have fun with that,” Akechi said. “That sounds like a nice excursion. Pardon me for a second.”
Akechi pulled out his phone and typed something neatly. A few seconds later, Ann’s phone pinged in her pocket. Ryuji whipped his out faster, so Ann just read over his shoulder.
Akechi: I fucking hate you both, and if I had my way, you’d all be cold corpses in the lowest levels of Mementos.
“Till tomorrow, then,” Akechi said with a 100-watt smile. “Farewell.” And with that, he turned the corner and disappeared.
Ann took out her own phone, typed a heart emoji, and sent it back. She could swear she heard a muffled curse from the other side of the wall.
…
Ann shifted in her seat and side-eyed Ryuji, who had been tapping his foot anxiously since the start of the interview and glancing not-so-subtly over at Akira, who was sitting three seats down their row, about every two minutes. Akechi thoroughly charmed the interviewers with his smiles and dorky jokes, just as he had previously. Once again, he spoke out against the Phantom Thieves, noting that while their intentions to bring down powerful, corrupt people were noble, their methodology was concerning. He equated their “changes of heart” to mind control, which made Ryuji scoff under his breath at the hypocrisy of it all.
“Let’s hear from someone in the audience!” one of the hosts said. Ann straightened back up to attention, following the woman with her eyes as she approached the crowd. Just like last time, she stopped in front of Akira, who looked like he was about to doze off. Ann saw Akechi lean forward almost an imperceptible amount. He was probably just as eager as they were to hear what Akira’s thoughts were on the Phantom Thieves, considering he wasn’t a member this time around. Yet. Hopefully.
“Excuse me, sir? What do you think of the Phantom Thieves?” the host asked, practically shoving her microphone in Akira’s face. Akira blinked back at her blankly from behind his glasses. He cleared his throat slightly and looked up at the host.
“I don’t think they exist,” Akira said.
“ What the hell? ”
Ryuji, to his credit, looked like he’d attempted to keep his outburst quiet. Naturally, everyone in their general vicinity had still heard.
“Well, I suppose that’s fair,” Akechi said, taking the unexpected answer in stride. “While I intend to take this case very seriously going forward, I’ll admit the very limited evidence we’ve collected won’t be enough to convince everyone that they’re a quite real and present threat.” Akira just shrugged to himself, and the host moved on, finding someone else in the audience to put on the spot. Ann tuned out the rest of the interview –– there was nothing super engaging about listening to Akechi prattle on about squeaky clean, sugary justice that she knew he himself didn’t believe in. Instead, she listened to the whispers of some of her female classmates talking about how “dreamy” Akechi was and imagining just what they would think of him if they knew how skilled and downright terrifying he was with a sword.
Once the interview finally ended, Ann broke away from the crowd of her classmates, wondering if she should try to pull Akechi aside and say hello again. She could at least try to be a good teammate, even if the other guys had no interest in even getting to know Akechi a bit better.
“Hey Mona,” she mumbled to her cat companion. “I have a mission for you. Can you follow Akira home today and try to get him into the Metaverse yourself? Like what you did with Haru last time?”
Morgana glowed at the prospect of having his own mission.
“You can count on me, Lady Ann!” he chirped. Then, when he had a chance, he slipped out of the bag, probably finding somewhere to hide and tail the group of students. Ann let out a sigh of relief. That was a good start. Talking to Akechi would be a lot harder if Morgana was there. Morgana rivaled Ryuji in “most arguments started with Akechi” in their one week of having Akechi as the leader.
Ann was pretty sure she would just get brushed off if she approached Akechi, but when he caught her eye, he actually walked towards her, directing her with an obvious flicker of his eyes to step to the side where they were less likely to be overheard.
Ann noted passively that they were standing about where Akechi had cornered Akira last time and started up their weird “rival” thing that Ann had never quite understood even before they knew Akechi’s true nature.
“‘Don’t think they exist’ he says,” Akechi huffed. “If I didn’t know any better I’d think he was just fucking with me.”
“You think so?” Ann said. “What if he does remember and is just messing with all of us? Do you really think that’s possible? That he’d do something like that?”
“Kurusu?” Akechi asked incredulously. He looked over his shoulder briefly at where Akira was, looking unimpressed. “It’s out of the question. He wouldn’t keep up such a charade if it meant distancing himself from all his dear teammates . No, Kurusu is someone who relies on his usefulness to other people to make up for his lack of self-worth and direction. He’s probably miserable like that with no one to dote on.”
Akechi’s assessment of her friend was… unsettling. But the whole point of their team-up was to get Akira back while not falling behind on the schedule of palace infiltrations. Besides, Akechi was, frankly, an asshole and liar, who would probably love nothing more than to stir up an argument among them just for the fun of it. So, she decided she wouldn’t take the bait. Akira would be just fine.
But what if he wasn’t?
Well, Ann mused. I think he always really liked hanging out with Akechi. There’s no way he’ll trust Ryuji and me at this point, but...
“You aren’t going to go talk to Akira?” Ann asked. She looked past Akechi to really focus on Akira. He was standing awkwardly in the corner, hands stuffed in his pockets, likely waiting for the class to keep moving so he could slip into the wave of uniforms.
“And why would I do that?” Akechi asked.
“Well, this is when you two met officially last time,” Ann said. “I mean, I know things were complicated but weren’t you friends?”
“I was spying on him, Takamaki,” Akechi said bluntly, his voice dropping low so it wouldn’t be overheard. “I endeared myself to him a bit so I could infiltrate your group and… well. You know.”
“Are you just going to avoid him entirely, then?” Ann asked, taking the hint and lowering her voice too.
“No, that would be counter-intuitive in the long run,” Akechi said. “The plan is to get him back into the Metaverse, after all, and from what you’ve told me, that won’t happen if we leave it up to fate. In fact, fate seems to be working actively against us.”
“So, when are you planning on recreating the meet-cute then?” Ann said. She couldn’t keep the giggle out of her voice. Akechi took a step back from her, and while his smile didn’t drop, his nose wrinkled a little, betraying his suppressed anger.
“I’m not quite sure what you mean by that,” Akechi said. His saccharine tone was now overcompensating a lot more obviously. Had her teasing made him that upset?
“Look, there’s no harm in introducing yourself. Just do what you did last time,” Ann said.
“ Last time ,” Akechi hissed, “he told me on national television that the Phantom Thieves were better than the cops. It was an actual challenge , and I used that as a reason to approach him. His answer this time was far less memorable.”
“I don’t know about that,” Ann said with a giggle. “You should have seen the way Ryuji’s jaw dropped. He was so upset.”
“You looked rather affronted as well, Takamaki.”
“I was not!”
It occurred to Ann suddenly that Akira may very well have been the closest thing Akechi ever had to a friend. That was… well, it didn’t feel fair, no matter what Akechi had done. Ann didn’t know where she’d be if she hadn’t met Shiho, and Akechi certainly wasn’t going to become any more well-adjusted if they all kept keeping him at an arm’s length.
“What are you doing later?” Ann asked, hoping the topic change wouldn’t be too jarring. “Are you busy tonight?”
“... not particularly,” Akechi said, narrowing his eyes. “Why?”
“Great,” Ann said. “You’re coming over to my place. Team building.”
“Over my dead fucking body,” Akechi said brightly.
“Technically, all of this is,” Ann said. All she got in response was an eye-roll. “Come on,” Ann groaned. “Do you really hate the idea of hanging out with me that badly?”
“I do.”
“And I’m sure that has nothing to do with the fact that you’re too busy doing a certain man’s dirty work and sucking up to every adult in your vicinity to ever make time to relax. Do you even know how to hang out with people your age, Akechi?”
Akechi sneered at her, some of the nuclear rage he’d displayed while fighting with Loki flashing in his eyes.
“I know plenty,” he said through his teeth. “Did Kurusu never inform you? We ‘hung out’ many times last year, in a variety of places.”
“But you said that was all to spy on him.”
“It was.”
“So, it wasn’t hanging out,” Ann concluded. “You’ve never hung out with a friend just for the sake of having fun.”
“You see this as an opportunity to ‘help’ me then,” Akechi said dryly.
If she was being perfectly honest, Ann didn’t think she had the skills (or psychology degree) needed to help Goro Akechi. She just wanted to get to know him better. Somehow, despite how harsh and downright aggressive he’d been acting toward her, Yusuke, Ryuji, and Morgana, Ann couldn’t help but imagine that he was less the ravenous beast he appeared to be and more like a distrusting feral kitten, who didn’t know any better but to lash out because it had never learned any other way to behave in its circumstances.
Still, getting along with him would take some work on her end –– she wasn’t so naive that she expected it to happen magically. Ann could only imagine the hell Akechi would be giving her if he were somehow privy to the kitten comparison.
“I don’t know if I can do anything to help you, Akechi,” Ann said honestly. “But it makes me sad to think of you spending every evening by yourself. I couldn’t help but reach out.”
“Takamaki, do you think I’m fucking thrilled to be your charity case?” Akechi asked. “Should I feel honored that you’re giving up your evening because you just pity me so damn much?”
“It’s not pity!” Ann said. She hated that Akechi was succeeding in riling her up. She actually stamped her foot on the ground in frustration. Why was it so hard to make him understand? “It’s because I’ve been there!” Ann continued. “It sucks! And I’m too embarrassed to have the others over to my empty house because they’ll just talk about how nice it is that my parents are gone all the time and how fun it must be to be on my own! But being alone is…”
Ann trailed off, the fire in her belly dying down. She closed her eyes, clenched her fists to ground herself, then opened her eyes again and met Akechi’s gaze head-on, drawing on Carmen’s strength to give her the confidence she couldn’t quite muster up herself at that moment.
“Being alone is the worst,” Ann said. “It’s not like the others wouldn’t understand me. Yusuke’s alone too, and Ryuji’s just got his mom, but––”
“But I’m not your friend,” Akechi finished for her. Thankfully, his demeanor was more composed and diplomatic again. “So, in a way, I’m easier to confide in. You’ll have no reservations about weighing me down with anything, because I have no emotional investment in you, just as you have none in me.”
Ann didn’t dare correct him. She wanted Akechi to get better, genuinely, and not just because she knew that’s what Akira wanted. He was a cruel person, and the timeline reset hadn’t undone all his crimes, but he’d been hurt and manipulated. The unfairness of it all weighed heavy on her heart. But she’d happily take the burden if she was able to make at least one night a little brighter for Akechi.
“Yeah…” Ann trailed off. “You got it.”
Akechi pursed his lips, expression sour but not actively hostile. That was probably an improvement.
“Very well,” Akechi said coolly. “I will indulge you. Don’t expect it to happen again, and don’t expect this to be… some sort of heart-to-heart where we gush about crushes and braid each other’s hair.”
“What’s wrong with that stuff?” Ann said, letting herself smile again at Akechi’s slightly dumbfounded expression. It was like he couldn’t believe he’d agreed to hang out with her either.
“It’s childish,” Akechi said.
“Well, sure,” Ann said. “We are still just kids. You remember where I live, right? From after you saved us in the palace?”
Akechi nodded curtly.
“Swing by at about 8, ‘kay?” Ann said. “If you’re late, I’ll just get on the messenger and bug you.”
…
Ann had wondered to herself how long it would take for Akechi to incite an argument between the two of them, and it turned out the answer was about two minutes. It was frankly insane that Akechi hadn’t even considered that she might insist he spend the night, especially since his place was apparently bugged (seriously, what the hell).
“I don’t see what the big deal is,” Ann said. “It’s not a bother. And my couch is certainly more comfortable than that awful one Akira has in Leblanc’s attic.”
“Aren’t you afraid that I’ll smother you with a pillow while you’re sleeping?”
“Well, now I am,” Ann said indignantly. Akechi smirked, apparently finding the fact that she dared to be apprehensive of someone who had killed people before absolutely hilarious. He’d brought them food at her request –– nothing fancy, just sodas and convenience store sushi, but even opening the packages and digging in lazily on the floor of her home with Goro Akechi felt like the groundwork for a friendship. That was the end goal, at least. Maybe it was too lofty, but Ann would be dead in the ground before she stopped having big dreams.
Akechi looked shockingly normal like this. He was in a hoodie, for one thing, something she had no idea he even owned. He also was quiet. That was probably either because they were eating or he was just so genuinely inexperienced with normal teenage interaction that he wasn’t eager to initiate any conversation. It was a far cry from the chatterbox Detective Prince.
“So…” Ann said when she finished chewing. “How’ve you been?”
“I’ve seen you two days in a row now,” Akechi said.
“I guess,” Ann said. “But not like really you. Prissy detective you.”
Akechi made a face at her description, so she continued before he could insult her.
“Just wondering about uh… Shido? I mean, uh… have you been in contact with him, or…”
“For fuck’s sake, just ask me directly next time,” Akechi said. “ No , I haven’t killed anyone lately. But I will be doing a job tomorrow. Not that it’s any of your business.”
“It is actually,” Ann said. “You’re part of the Phantom Thieves now. We don’t kill.”
“Oh, cut it out, will you?” Akechi sneered. “You have the gall to elect me leader and then want me to simply stop doing what I was hired to do, making me useless to Shido and dooming me to assassination.”
“...sorry,” Ann said. She finished her last sushi roll and rested her chin on her knees, biting at her lip. “I guess it can’t be helped, can it? I don’t want you to die. But I also hate that you’re doing any favors for that awful man…”
“Spare me,” Akechi said bitterly. “It’s like you people think I have no agency…” He heaved out a long sigh, then seemed to study Ann for a bit. She had no idea what he could be searching for, but whatever it was, she supposed he found it, as his brow smoothed out a little eventually. “Fine,” Akechi said. “I’ll stay. But I’m leaving before dawn. I don’t want to end up on any gossip sites about being caught leaving the home of a notable model.”
Ann felt her face scrunch up unattractively at the thought.
“That’d suck,” Ann said. “The media will really fabricate anything they please, won’t they? I’m not even attracted to men.”
Akechi let out a sharp bark of a laugh.
“That makes one of us.”
Ann looked back over at Akechi, who was poking at his remaining sushi like it had offended him. Ann set down her drink and shifted a little closer to him.
“I didn’t know that,” she said.
“No one does,” Akechi said shortly. “Or, well, I guess you’re the first to know.”
“O-oh!” Ann stuttered out. “Well, I support you, of course, Akechi-san! And I’m glad that you trust me enough to––”
“Trust has nothing to do with it,” Akechi said. “I died without anyone ever knowing that about me. I just thought that someone ought to.”
Ann didn’t miss the way Akechi’s hand clenched tighter around his chopsticks.
…
Most of the evening was spent in relative silence, since Ann elected to put on a movie (some superhero film that Ryuji had recommended) while she touched up her nail polish. Akechi sat on the couch, stiff as a board, only joining her on the floor when she grabbed snacks halfway through and refused to share unless he got closer. The kitten metaphor entered Ann’s brain once again, and she couldn’t help an amused little smile as she watched Akechi pout as he reached for the chips.
When she finished her nails, Ann found that she wasn’t quite satisfied and wanted to put a braid in her hair. Hair supplies and far too many hair ties were retrieved, and Ann had a bit of a hard time even doing a small braid with a section of her hair that framed the right side of her face. She hadn’t braided hair in a while, maybe since middle school. It would be far easier for her to practice on someone else.
Ann waited until the movie’s credits were rolling to beg Akechi to let her put a braid into his hair, but surprisingly, he agreed with only a few relatively mild insults. Maybe he really was warming up to her, the slightest bit. Or at least putting in some effort.
“Your hair is so soft,” Ann commented idly as she worked Akechi’s bangs into a french braid. She was a bit out of practice, but after a few botched attempts at getting it started, she was finding the rhythm again.
“I should hope so,” Akechi said stiffly. “With all the hoops I have to jump through to take care of it.”
“It pays off, though!” Ann said. “Sure seems to drive your fangirls crazy.” Even though she couldn’t see Akechi’s face from where she was working, his grimace was palpable in the air. “When we get Akira’s memories back,” she continued, “I’m going to have to make you lecture him about hair care. I don’t think he even brushes it. And I’ve seen his shampoo. It’s combination shampoo and conditioner.”
“Fucking bastard,” Akechi spat out. “How the hell can he just effortlessly look so…ugh!”
“Right?” Ann said. “Though I guess on some level, I’m no better. This awful co-worker of mine, Mika, gets on my case just because I have good enough metabolism that I can model without being that particular about my diet. She takes it as a personal insult.”
“As she should,” Akechi hissed. “It sounds like you’re the worst kind of person, Takamaki.”
“A model?”
“A lucky person.”
“Maybe,” Ann said with a shrug. She reached down to her small pile of hair ties and found a thin black one. “She doesn’t need to be so awful to me, though. Akira helped me realize that to earn my spot as a top model, I had to grow stronger on my own and really take it seriously. And I do! I just also happened to take my diet of crepes very seriously too.” Ann nimbly started tying the end of the braid and tucking it so it blended seamlessly with Akechi’s loose hair. She sat back to admire her work, passing Akechi her hand mirror.
“Are you satisfied now?” Akechi said.
“Depends,” Ann said. “Do you like it?”
“It’s fine,” Akechi said dismissively. But he was still sizing his reflection up, checking the braid from all angles. He looked rather pleased with himself.
“You know, if you ever get tired of the detective thing, you could model,” Ann commented.
“Sounds awful,” Akechi said. He absentmindedly picked up a bobby pin and began to fiddle with it. “And it sounds far too similar to what I already do. Being paraded around and photographed. It’s not for my work or even for the person I truly am. I’m a pretty face used to give the police department good PR.”
“Why do you do it then?” Ann asked. “If you really hate it that much ––”
“Oh, don’t get me wrong, Takamaki,” Akechi said. In a quick motion, he pried open the bobby pin and bent it so it was a relatively straight piece of useless wire. “The praise is like a drug to me. It doesn’t matter if it’s fake. Not at this point. So, I can’t really say that I hate it, now can I?”
“I like being a model,” Ann said. “I really am starting to embrace it as a future career. But it’s infuriating, being treated all the time like I’m nothing but a piece of ass by disgusting men. It’s so stupid… it makes me wonder sometimes if the bad outweighs the good. Honestly, I’m still not sure.”
Akechi finally turned away from his own reflection and eyed her.
“So, that’s what Kurusu was helping you with, huh?” he said. “I told you earlier, he has something he does for everyone. It’s all transactional. You all get whatever support you need from him, and he gets to pat himself on the back for being such a good little hero.”
“That’s not true,” Ann insisted. “Akira could ask me for help with anything, and I’d be there for him! So, if you’re insinuating that I’m a bad friend––”
“Your conclusion, not mine,” Akechi said cheekily. “But no, I don’t put all the blame on you, or any of you Phantom Thieves. I don’t imagine Kurusu asks for help from anyone, simply because ‘helping people’ is enough to distract him from any problems he might have.”
“So, you just know everything about him, do you?” Ann challenged.
“I spent a considerable amount of time with him,” Akechi said. “More time just observing. Additionally, profiling is part of my goddamn job. Kurusu is a prisoner to his own insecurities who pays for his weakness with never-ending community service –– that’s all of you –– and if he had run the Phantom Thieves unchallenged, who knows what sort of faux-benevolent god-complex he could have developed.”
Ann just wasn’t buying it. Sure, it was probably fair to say that Akira gave more than he took. He gave… a lot more than he took. But Akechi was being unfair.
“Well, what about you, then?” Ann said.
“I don’t follow.”
“What did you want from Akira?” Ann asked. “And don’t you dare say ‘information’ because I don’t believe that for a second.”
“Well, if you aren’t going to believe that I wanted information,” Akechi said, “then I suppose I don’t know what to tell you. He was interesting. I liked beating him in darts. That’s all there was to it.”
“Then, if your assessment of him is really correct, then what was he getting out of the time he spent with you, Akechi-san?”
“I…” Akechi trailed off, looking genuinely distraught that he didn’t have an answer at the ready. “He… well…”
“You still care about him in some sort of way, don’t you?” Ann pressed. “What is it that you want from him?”
“I don’t know what I want from him,” Akechi snapped. He sounded frustrated, though whether it was with her or with himself was unclear. “God, he pisses me off. Do you know how shitty it is that every time I think of him, I just picture him dead on the ground? It’s revolting.”
“Yeah, I’m not going to console you for being guilty about murdering my friend,” Ann said.
“I don’t feel guilty,” Akechi said. “The feeling I got watching the light die from his eyes… it was euphoric.”
Huh. Disturbing.
“Though, looking back,” Akechi continued, “I think that was more about winning than it was wanting him dead. I think I would have been disappointed if he didn’t find some way to survive.”
Ann would literally never understand their relationship.
“So, you feel inferior to him, call him your rival, and he was basically the one person in the way of your plan to take down Shido at the time. But you didn’t want him dead?”
“I…well… it’s complicated,” Akechi said.
“Akechi-kun,” Ann said carefully. “Are… are you sure that you hate him? You really did look like you wanted to talk to him earlier today.”
Akechi let out a dry laugh, and his gaze grew distant, not really fixed on anything.
“Morgana said something similar to me in Shido’s palace,” Akechi said quietly. “And… as I was… dying , I suppose, I realized that he was right. I don’t hate Akira.”
“You don’t?” Ann said.
“I… don’t,” Akechi said, sounding like he still hadn’t really gotten used to the idea. “...quite the opposite, actually.”
Ann probably shouldn’t have been as surprised by that as she was, but considering Akechi had confessed that he’d quite enjoyed murdering Akira with the same amount of sincerity, she couldn’t help but be a little dumbfounded. Ann knew that Akira’s feelings for Akechi were all sorts of non-platonic. If he’d been feeling that way for a while, it hadn’t shown, but he had confessed in a whispered phone call to her after Shido’s palace that he wasn’t doing okay at all. That he had loved Akechi.
Loved. Did Akechi love Akira too?
Ann figured it probably wouldn’t be smart to ask point-blank. There was a zero-percent chance that Akechi wouldn’t get offended or uncontrollably angry.
“So… what are you gonna do?” Ann asked carefully. Akechi rubbed at his face with his hands, looking absolutely miserable.
“Nothing. I’m going to do nothing,” Akechi said. And with that, he laid down on the rug with a thump , his hair spreading out like a fan as he contemplated the ceiling above them in the moonlight. Ann leaned back to lay down a bit more gracefully, staring up at nothing with him. It was terribly quiet, just in that moment. Ann focused on her breaths, noted that her arm was twisted a bit uncomfortably, but didn’t want to move it and risk breaking the spell.
“Please don’t tell anyone,” Akechi said after a moment. “About Akira.”
“I promise,” Ann said immediately.
“Thank you, Takamaki-san,” Akechi said.
His sigh of relief hung in the air. Ann smiled a bit to herself. It really had been a lovely night. She could only hope that she’d been able to provide that to Akechi as well.
“Call me ‘Ann’ already, would you?” Ann said.
Akechi hummed noncommittally.
“If that’s what you want,” he said.
Ann relaxed a bit more into the soft material of the rug. She didn’t know if she wanted to get up anymore and drag herself to bed. Laying there felt amazing, and all her limbs were heavy with the day’s exhaustion. She could already feel herself dozing off and didn’t feel like resisting at all.
“... goodnight, Goro,” Ann said. “We should do this again.”
Ann let her eyes fall closed. She was vaguely aware of the sound of Goro getting up off the floor and walking across the room. He heard him click the light off, then settle onto the couch above where she was.
“Goodnight, Ann,” Goro said shortly. “Now get up and go sleep in your fucking bed.”