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“It's so hot out, and I keep getting pinched by crabs, what the hell!” Ryuji yelled as he accidentally sat on a sand crab for the 7th time this day. The Phantom Thieves decided that they should go to the beach in celebration of Futaba joining the group, but it was shaping out to be a disastrous day.
Ryuji was now covered in pinch-marks, Akira had somehow forgotten to put on sunscreen, Yusuke had gone missing, and they all ran out of money due to the tempting water rides and food vendors. Wait, where was Yusuke?
The Thieves were all sitting in a circle in the cool sand, idly chatting. Futaba was burying Morgana under the sand, and Ann was helping. Akira hadn’t even realized that there was a missing member, though he’s not that attentive in the first place.
“Wait, do you guys know where Yusuke went?” He asked, looking around the beach.
“I haven't seen him in a while, I think he ran off somewhere. You think he drowned or something? He doesn't seem like the type to know how to swim.” Ann laughed.
“I guess you’re right. Well, I’m gonna go look for him” Akira replied, getting up from his towel on the ground and dusting the sand off of him. He started heading towards the vendors that were now closing, as he had a feeling Yusuke would be there.
It was pretty late, around 5:30 pm, and the sun was going to set soon. The sand was cool beneath his feet, and he learned from Ryuji to keep an eye out for crabs. The beach was looking pretty deserted now, as there were only a couple of people walking by. A group of passersby was all eyeing something behind them, as if there was a murderer behind them.
Well, close.
He heard slightly maniacal laughter and walked closer to the source. There he was, the man who had been missing for half an hour, Yusuke Kitagawa, holding a lobster in each hand.
“Yusuke? Why… do you have lobsters?” Akira stood, dumbfounded.
“Ah, Akira! I was wondering where you went. Well, you see, I was wandering around when I laid my eyes on these gorgeous specimen!-"
“I’m not sure if gorgeous is the word I'd use” Akira interjected.
“-well, I just knew they had to be the subject for my next painting! The shape, the emotion you could portray with the tail, the deep, crimson red…”
He seemed… way too into these lobsters. Though, Yusuke had always been the eccentric type, so Akira wasn’t that surprised, but he was confused about how he finds lobsters “gorgeous”. He was very tempted to say “If you like them so much why don’t you marry them?”
“Though, unfortunately, I spent all the money I had left on these.” He glanced at the probably annoyed lobsters in his hands.
“Well,” Akira sighed, “We should probably get going back to the others.” The two started walking down the beach, getting many stares from random people.
Although Yusuke was only an inch or two taller than Akira, he still struggled to keep up to his speed. He made Akira hold the lobsters to frame the view with his hands as usual. Though, he did agree that the setting sun was a beautiful sight.
The two quickly arrived at the rest of the Phantom Thieves. They were all standing, looking displeased at Akira.
“Took you long enough. But, uh, do you have any money left?” Ryuji said, holding his empty wallet in his hands and eyeing the lobsters in Akira’s hands suspiciously. He had been very carefree with his expenses that day. Apparently, they all had, and now the group had no money to pay the bus fee to get home.
“Right. What are we gonna do to get home now? I’m assuming we’re all going to Leblanc, right?” Makoto sighed, looking at the setting sun. It was now 6:30 PM and they had no way of going to the coffee shop that Akira called his home.
“We could just walk, right?” Morgana asked. Well, he was right, walking would be better than hitchhiking, and he wasn't sure what person would pick up six high schoolers in bathing suits to go to some obscure coffee shop anyways.
The group nodded in agreement, and they all took off for Leblanc.
~~~
One hour and a lot of bickering later, they finally reached Leblanc. Although, Akira wasn’t sure if that was a good thing.
“Where the hell have you been? I didn’t expect the beach trip to take that long, I would have closed the shop hours ago!” Sojiro asserted, coming out from behind the counter.
“Right well, we kinda wasted all of our money so we had to walk here.” Akira explained while the rest of the Phantom Thieves were awkwardly standing behind him.
“Well, fair enough.” Sojiro sighed, “Well, I’ll be closing the shop. Don’t do anything illegal.”
“Will do! Er- will not do!” Futaba said.
Sojiro untied the apron he was wearing, and as he was leaving the shop he suddenly stopped, staring at the wiggly creatures in Yusuke's hands. “Honestly,” Akira wondered, ”how have those things not pinched him by now?”
“...Why did you bring lobsters?” Sojiro questioned.
“Oh, these? Well, they will be the subject of my next painting!”
“I see. Well, just don’t let them escape.” Sojiro glanced at Akira confusingly, then left the shop. They all laughed, then headed up to Akira’s room. Akira didn’t feel the need to cook anything, as he assumed everyone was already full with all the food they wasted their money on when they were at the beach.
As he entered his room and closed the door behind him, he saw that the rest of the Thieves had already made themselves at home. He wouldn’t be surprised if they spent more time at Leblanc than their actual houses. (That was an overstatement, really, but they did come over a lot.)
Ryuji had put on the Cake Knight Rises 2. They had seen the first movie in theatres together, and Ryuji apparently bought the DVD for it. He also was glad that he had enough money from Mementos to buy a TV now, as he didn’t have one for a while. Makoto and Ann were watching something on one of their phones, Futaba was trying to grab the lobsters from Yusuke's hands, and Morgana was chasing a bug.
Akira smiled, still standing in the doorway. They haven’t been able to hang out like this for a while, since they were all busy in Mementos, stealing treasures and such.
“Hey, Akira! Will you come over here and watch this with me? There's a really good fight scene right now!” Ryuji exclaimed. The movie honestly looked kinda bad, like they tried to get an actor who looked like an off-brand Bruce Wayne on purpose. He could catch some of the lines, like “You’re a dirty man who bakes for money!”
“Though,” Akira thought, “wasn’t that line in the last movie?”
He nodded at Ryuji, but instead of sitting down with him, he walked over to Yusuke and noticed that Futaba had given up her quest to steal his lobsters, as she was now sitting with Ann and Makoto. He looked over at the other boy, about to say something, but he suddenly got out a mini canvas and paints, almost out of thin air.
“Where did you-“
“Oh, hello.” Yusuke interjected as he started sketching the shape of a lobster with his paint like a madman. One creature was on his lap, while the other was on the floor in front of him.
“First of all, where did you even get the canvas? Second, where will we keep those lobsters? I’m assuming you guys are sleeping over?” Akira asked quickly, looking around his room at the rest of the group. He was also sort of worried someone would accidentally step on the lobster.
“Right. Well, I plan to make a sketch right now, then…” The painter paused to think, “We could keep the lobsters in some blankets?”
The two both paused to think, though, Yusuke quickly resumed his frantic painting.
“Blankets? Like they’re babies or something? We could keep them in the sink, though I’d imagine it would be uncomfortable, plus it’s not saltwater…”
“Wow Akira, I didn’t know you knew so much about lobster care.”
“Well, I’m just sort of guessing. Also, where will you keep them at your house?” Akira questioned. He felt like he was giving some sort of interrogation, or an interro-crustacean? He glanced over at the other man's painting, and it was surprisingly quite detailed.
“Well, I have an empty fish tank, so I’ll keep them in there. I've been thinking about names, but I can’t think of any…”
“Right. How about Leonardo DiCaprio? Wait…” Akira paused. He looked up to see Ryuji in front of him.
“You completely missed the fight scene! That guy kicked his ass!” Ryuji said, mimicking the fight scene and punching the air.
“Yeah, I don't think anyone cares that much about the Cake Knight Rises 2, it seems like some sort of movie you'd find at Dollar Tree.” Ann interjected, leaning back on the chair she was sitting on.
“Oh like you watch fancy award-winning films all the time!” Ryuji argued.
"You don't have to watch fancy movies to figure out that movie is really, really bad!"
As Akira listened to the two fight, he suddenly heard a crash and an “AAAAAAAAUUGH” coming from downstairs. Everyone looked up from what they were doing, and they quickly noticed that Morgana and the second lobster had disappeared.
“My god, what did Morgana get himself into? Don't tell me he tried to fight a lobster.” Makoto said as she got up from her chair and rushed downstairs. Akira decided to follow her, thinking that maybe she needed a backup if the lobster decided to go rabid. Though, he didn't think he'd be good at fighting a lobster either.
Akira almost tripped down the stairs, and he turned the corner to see Leblanc in shambles. Paintings were off the walls, chairs were scratched, but most importantly, Morgana sat on top of the counter, a lobster clamped to his paw. It didn't look like it was pinching that hard, but Makoto was still struggling with the shellfish.
Akira decided to go in for backup, grabbing the lobster's other claw. With a lot of maneuvering, they managed to get the thing off of the cat. Morgana shook his paw and hissed at it.
“What the hell did you do?!” Makoto questioned.
“I was getting annoyed of it staring at me with those beady eyes constantly! So I started hitting it, next thing I know I have a lobster stuck to my paw.” Morgana yelled, then shook his paw again, “How about we boil it?”
“I’d be fine with that, but I don’t think Yusuke would.” Makoto replied.
Akira nodded, then took a look around the coffee shop again. If he left it like this, Sojiro would probably kick him out. He sighed and started picking up the debris off the ground, from what he assumed was from a mad dash with the lobster and Morgana around the store. Makoto went up the stairs with the lobster in hand and Morgana behind her. Akira decided to clean the place up more, looking for the thread to repair the torn-up seats.
“Jeez, what happened here? A murder?” He heard someone say, then looked up to see Ann in the stairway.
“Yeah, Morgana and one of the lobsters had a brawl, I thought Morgana would win but I guess not.” He laughed while sewing one of the chairs.
Akira and Ann spent the next 20ish minutes cleaning up Leblanc, then they decided to go back upstairs. The rest of the Phantom Thieves were all asleep, probably content with the story Morgana and Makoto gave them.
Both the lobsters were swaddled up in blankets next to where Yusuke was sleeping. Nighty night lobsters. Both Ann and Akira decided to join the rest of the group and go to sleep, too. “Today was really fun,” Akira thought, “besides the whole crustacean business.” He was glad to have Futaba be a part of the Phantom Thieves, along with all his other friends. After thinking about his friends and wondering more if lobsters can even sleep, he finally fell asleep himself, hoping that no more fights would happen tomorrow.
~~~
Yusuke and Akira were the first ones awake out of the Phantom Thieves, despite it still being a little late. The rest were probably still tired from all the Mementos missions they have been going on lately, and Futaba’s Palace. He didn't blame them, and it was probably just a coincidence that he and Yusuke woke up early. The two were quietly chatting before they heard a yell from downstairs.
“What the hell?!”
“Was that your boss?” Yusuke asked, slightly worried.
“Yeah, I should probably go see what's going down there.” Akira replied. The two rushed down the stairs, considering Sojiro never yells like that. Akira really hoped nothing bad happened.
Yusuke and Akira stop in front of the counter to see a lobster with-
“A knife?! You gave the lobster a knife!” Yusuke yelled.
“I didn’t give it to him! It stole one! Why the hell would you bring a lobster into a coffee shop anyways?!” Sojiro objected as he was also holding a knife.
“You're… knife fighting a lobster?” Akira said. It was too early for this. He was glad that there were no customers to observe this, though.
Yusuke picked up the lobster and snatched the knife from its claws before dropping it on the ground and drawing his hand back quickly, making some sort of scared noise.
“To believe my own muse would injure me in such a way…” Yusuke gasped dramatically.
Akira looked over to see his hand bleeding. “Oh! I'll get you a bandage!” Sojiro said, ducking behind the counter.
“We should boil it! Sacrifice the crab!” Morgana yelled, suddenly teleporting behind Akira.
“No. I shall not allow it. They still need to be my muse, after all, I’m not done with my painting. I’ll probably keep them in a tank afterward, though I guess I could lend one to you, Akira.” Yusuke said, bandaging his hand while sitting at the counter.
Sojiro was making coffee and putting a lot more espresso in it than usual. Akira wasn’t sure why he needed even more adrenaline. Isn't having a knife fight with a lobster enough? Do you want to have a heart attack?
“Lend? Lend that thing to us? If you do that I’ll probably be enjoying some lobster rolls! Though I've never cooked one before.” Sojiro added.
“Well, It was just a suggestion.” Yusuke said, getting up and turning to Akira, “I’ll probably be leaving now, though it was very fun hanging out with you and the rest of the group.” he smiled then went upstairs to get the rest of his stuff.
“Wait-” Akira reached out for Yusuke without even realizing, then quickly drew his arm back. “-don’t you want something to eat? I’m assuming the others want something too.”
Yusuke nodded and went up to ask if anybody wanted something to eat. Akira assumed everyone would be awake by now.
The Phantom Thieves all came down to eat Akira’s curry that he had been making, and he felt a stronger bond between them all. The Thieves were some of Akira’s closest friends, after all.
“Wow! Nothing beats curry at Leblanc!” Ryuji exclaimed, finishing his food quickly. They all agreed, and all started to talk.
“I take it you didn’t do anything illegal last night?” Sojiro questioned, prodding at one of the chairs, noticing the stitch marks.
Akira suddenly remembered the first lobster debacle from last night, “I hope a cat and a lobster destroying the place doesn’t count as a crime", he thought.
“Nope! Nothing!” Ann said quickly. Akira wasn’t sure if Sojiro believed her or not.
After they all said their thank you’s and goodbyes, they all went home, Yusuke holding his lobsters like you would a football.
Even after they left, one question still remained in Akiras mind:
“What did he do with those lobsters?”