Chapter Text
They decide to try a completely normal family vacation when the kids are twelve.
It's not their first vacation, of course, but typically their vacations are at least a little atypical. Sometimes, when either Akira or Lavenza has to go away somewhere to spend the year with a guest and the Velvet Room (to go away for work, they'll tell the kids, because it's not a complete lie), the other one will take a week or a long weekend, depending on the distance, and take a trip up to see them. And they'll call that a vacation, because technically it is, even if at least one person is on call to potentially have to help with whatever world ending disaster is in the cards at the moment.
This time, with no metaphysical emergencies anywhere in Japan, they just pack up the kids and take them to the beach for absolutely no reason except that they want to. Completely normal. Absolutely nothing weird.
(Well, except that Elizabeth decides to invite herself and Minato along, on the grounds that it's a family vacation and she hasn't seen her niece and nephew in a while)
(But they're very used to Elizabeth's brand of weirdness by now, and anyway her particular brand of weirdness has more to do with her as a person than anything else)
The first few days are fine. Good, even. The kids spend so much time in the water that they smell like salt when they're eventually dragged out and to bed. And then on day four, after Lavenza's taken Airi back to the place where they're staying, Touma begs to be allowed to stay up past sunset to see the stars.
"It's not going to be like back home," Akira warns him. "There's more light pollution here than in Inaba."
Touma responds with a wide eyed, pleading look that probably won't get him anywhere when he's a few years older, but still works pretty well here and now. Akira gives in, and finds them a quiet spot on the cooling sand to wait for the stars to come out. The beach has started to empty out now that it's getting darker and a little chillier, but there are a few other people here. A couple in their early twenties, holding hands and walking just along the edge of the water. A group of high schoolers a few minutes' walk down the beach have brought sparklers with them, and are laughing and chattering as they huddle together to light them up. Snatches of their conversation drift toward the spot where Akira's sitting with Touma, a happy background noise blending in with the murmuring water.
And then there's the woman.
Mid-twenties, and heading directly for them. She's dressed in shorts and a t-shirt, no shoes, and her steps are uncertain. She keeps speeding up and slowing down, like she hasn't completely made up her mind about whether she wants to be here or not. Finally, when she's close enough to make eye contact with Akira and realize he's watching her, she flushes red and finishes her walk toward them at a more normal speed.
...She's a Velvet Room guest, Akira realizes when she's close enough for conversation. Not someone he knows, though, which means she must have been someone else's guest, and that makes him a little wary about why she's coming to talk to him now.
(He half pulls his phone out of his pocket, angling it toward the woman to send a picture)
(Just in case Lavenza will recognize her)
"Can I help you?" he asks. He keeps his tone light, very aware that Touma is sitting next to him, close enough to curl up against his side with his head tilted upward toward the darkening sky. It's completely possible that Touma's too zoned out by a combination of stargazing and a long day at the beach to actually hear this conversation. On the other hand, it's entirely possible that he's not.
"I'm so sorry," the woman says. "I know this is a little awkward, but I saw you and your family earlier today. And I thought I recognized the woman that was with you, but--I don't think it's possible for her to be the person I know."
"My wife, you mean?" Akira asks, and the woman gets a little more flustered. It's worth clarifying, because she might have been talking about Elizabeth, who has also been hanging around with them for most of the past few days. Considering that Elizabeth hasn't had a guest since Minato, and this woman is (or more likely was) a Velvet Room guest, that's not very likely. But it's not impossible, either.
"Well," she the woman says. "That's--I don't think she would be anyone's wife, but..." She takes a deep breath, and blurts out, "I just needed to ask. So I'll know. The blonde woman? About the same height as you. Her name's Lavenza, and--"
Touma stirs against Akira's side, leaving a little smear of damp on his shoulder when he turns his head to peer curiously at the stranger. "You know my mom?" he asks.
"She's your mom," the woman repeats. She looks like she's about half a second from being knocked over by sheer surprise.
"Yeah," Touma says. "Are you guys friends?"
To her credit, the woman rallies fairly quickly, pulling herself together, blood gradually returning to her pale face. She doesn't really say anything though, apart from a few disjointed noises that Akira thinks are probably an attempt at words. Finally, she manages to ask, "But how is that possible?"
Touma's face closes off, and Akira can imagine what he's probably thinking right now--while he can guess that the woman's question had been meant as something like how could a Velvet Room attendant have a normal human son, Touma would only be able to interpret it as how could you really be her son when you don't look anything like her?
He knows that's a sore point for Touma, and he puts his arm around him to hold him tight before answering. "I don't think this is the best place to have this conversation," he says. "Do you?" And he makes deliberate eye contact with her, holding her gaze until she seems to notice his eyes are the same inhuman yellow-gold as Lavenza's. As the Shadows she probably remembers from her time as a guest, and from whatever other metaverse oddities she might have run into in that time.
"Maybe not," the woman says. She sounds uncertain, and a little like she's regretting starting this conversation in the first place. Lavenza tends to attract guests of the 'act first, think later' variety (Akira will readily admit to being one of them), and Akira's definitely getting the impression that she hasn't thought through what she actually wanted to say now that she's here. "But it seems like--you know what I mean, right?" Her voice is edging into desperate now as she meets his eyes. "Because she shouldn't even be here, it shouldn't be possible, but--"
And then, luckily, Lavenza shows up.
"I got your text," she says, nodding at Akira as she joins them on the sand.
"It sounds like you two know each other," Akira says, gesturing to the woman. "Airi okay?"
"She's in the room with Elizabeth. And Minato." The last part is added quickly, before Akira actually has time to get to the objection he's already opened his mouth for. "But I thought I should hurry down and... catch up." Then she turns to the woman, and with a genuine smile, says, "It's been a long time, Mari. How are you?"
"It's really you," the woman--Mari--says. "I don't believe it. How are you here?"
"I think I'm going to leave you two to catch up," Akira says, getting up and brushing sand off himself as well as he can. "Touma and I can go make sure Elizabeth hasn't broken anything."
"But Dad..."
"We can try stargazing again tomorrow," Akira says as he pulls Touma (still protesting tiredly) up to his feet too. "I think it's a little too cloudy tonight anyway."
"No it's not," Touma argues, but he doesn't actually protest much as Akira prods him gently away from the beach conversation. Instead he twists his head around to watch Lavenza and Mari as they start to talk. "Dad, who was that lady?"
"I think your mom used to mentor her at work," Akira says vaguely.
"Mom works at home," Touma points out.
"I mean on one of her trips," Akira corrects himself. Lavenza has, for at least as long as the kids have been in the picture, let people think that her side interest of researching folk lore and other more modern communal stories is her (only) job. She is actually good at it--she'd studied it in college, too, picking up on it as an interest primarily because of her time in the Velvet Room. After all, some of the elements from those old stories might be things that show up in the metaverse, as Shadows or Persona. And eventually, as some of the modern trends evolve and take hold in peoples' minds, they could grow into Shadows or Persona themselves. She loves it, has actually written a couple books that did relatively well within their niche, and it's even been helpful in the Velvet Room a few times.
It is not, on the other hand, a great explanation for how Lavenza could have met someone like Mari.
Better than if it had been one of Akira's old guests, at least. Like Lavenza, his primary job is that he technically works for the Shadow Operatives. Most of the time this just means being on call for any kind of cleanup or management they might need, without getting too involved in the day to day work. Akira had really questioned Mitsuru, when they were first hired, because he hadn't understood why they'd be willing to pay two people a permanent salary for being on call.
Mitsuru had answered this by pointing out that he and Lavenza are helping new Wild Cards, who tend to show up when the world is in danger of literally ending from Shadow threats, which is exactly what the Shadow Operatives exist to do. Making sure they get a living wage, she says, only makes sense.
But while they both have Shadow Operative work, Lavenza also has her research and writes her books. Akira handles most of the requests that do come in from the Shadow Operatives, sometimes helping Ryou with his photography on the side, or Lavenza when she needs it, and takes as much time as he can to be there for the kids. He likes to have his fingers in as many pies as he can, occasionally picking up short term jobs if they interest him, or even once--memorably--running for a spot on a town board in Inaba.
(It had mostly been to make a point, and because he had some strong, Trickster-based opinions on the way certain committee members were abusing their limited amounts of power to make life difficult for people they didn't like, and significantly easier for people they did)
(The land use planning board had never had as eventful a year as when he was part of it, he's pretty sure, but why just because he's stood up to false gods in the past doesn't mean he can't also stand up to them)
Anyway. The point is that his hodgepodge of weird jobs would have been an even less believable excuse for an ex-guest showing up.
"Why was she so surprised to see her though?" Touma asks. "She looked... I think scared?"
"I don't think she was scared," Akira assures him. "Just surprised."
"But..."
He trails off, frowning hard, thinking. Akira really hopes that isn't going to come back to haunt them later, but has a bad feeling that it is. Touma's smart, and Airi doesn't let things go, and if they start talking about this and decides it's important, he and Lavenza are going to be fielding questions about it for a very long time.
"Come on," he says, electing to change the subject for now. "Let's go catch up to your sister."
-//-
Lavenza waits until Akira, and more importantly Touma, are out of earshot before she continues her conversation with Mari. The younger woman is still kind of staring at her, wide eyed like she's just seen a ghost, and when Lavenza says, "So it's been a while," she jumps.
"I thought you lived in the Velvet Room," she says. "But you... don't?" She gestures emphatically after Akira and Touma. "You have a whole family?"
"I used to live in the Velvet Room," Lavenza says. Mari is long past her stint as guest, and now that she's here, probably past the point where Lavenza can hide her life from her, too. "But that was a long time ago, before we met. These days I only work there."
"I thought you were like Igor," Mari says.
Lavenza gives her a distant smile. "I don't think there's anyone that's exactly like Igor," she says. "But I am of the Velvet Room, yes. I just... don't choose to live there."
"You are blowing so much of my mind right now," Mari says, head in her hands, and for a second she very strongly reminds Lavenza of the teenager she'd been when they met, not really all that long ago. "You... everything else from back then is gone, all the Shadows and everything. How did you just decide to stay here?"
"After a lot of deliberation and angst," Lavenza says, dramatically oversimplifying the year Yaldabaoth had infiltrated the Velvet Room. "But I had a guest back then that changed things, and I left for him."
"For one person?" Mari asks.
"Well," Lavenza says. "He is my husband and the father of my children, so I think he was worth it."
"That guy?" Mari looks over her shoulder, in the direction Akira and Touma had gone in.
"You would like him if you got to know him," Lavenza assures her. Early in Mari's career as a Persona-user, she had accidentally set a building on fire and then managed to just as accidentally talk herself out of trouble. It feels like a safe bet that she and Akira would have gotten along like...
Well, she would have said 'like a house on fire,' if it wasn't Mari's preexisting predilection for arson.
(Accidental arson, but still arson)
"Why didn't you ever tell me any of this when I was visiting the Velvet Room?" Mari asks. "We had a bond, right?"
"Of course," Lavenza assures her. Every guest she's ever had has developed a bond with her. "But you were a guest of the Velvet Room. You were a guest for a year, and then you moved on with your life. That's how things are supposed to go."
"Until we awkwardly meet up on vacation, apparently," Mari says.
"Well," Lavenza admits. "Yes. But that's never happened before."
"Huh," Mari says. "That--huh."
The two of them stand on the cooling sand, a little awkward as they venture into uncharted territory.
Then Mari says, "We can stay in touch now though, right?"
"I suppose there's no rule against it," Lavenza agrees. "Just..." And she's anxious, she can't hide that, or pretend she'd not. "The kids don't know about any of this. I would appreciate it if you weren't the one to tell them."
"Really living the double life here," Mari says. "Huh?"
"It's the way things have worked out," Lavenza agrees. "They'll both be Velvet Room guests one day, there's some threat we don't know about yet waiting in their future, but for now... they deserve normal lives, and normal parents, and normal..." She gestures around them. "Summers at the beach. I don't know much about raising children, Mari. I was never really a child myself." And once, that had terrified her. Now that she's twelve years into trying, she's realized that not knowing what they're doing is about the only thing that all parents have in common. It's just slightly more true for her than for most people. "But I want to do the best I can for them."
"Yeah," Mari says. "That's... good, I think. And they're your kids, so if you don't want me to tell them anything about it, I won't."
And she doesn't, as it turns out. Both Mari and the Kurusus are staying for another few days, so they run into each other several more times after that. Mari never does say anything to Airi or Touma about the Velvet Room, although her vague comments about where she'd met Lavenza and what she's doing now don't exactly satisfy the kids.
(Arson inspector, apparently)
(Lavenza gives Mari a skeptical look that her guest returns with the sheepish guilt of a teenager called out by their teacher for claiming their dog ate their homework)
By the end of their so-called normal family vacation, when Lavenza has exchanged contact information with Mari and they're on their way home, Airi and Touma are huddled together in the back of the car, whispering conspiracy theories about their mom's weird new friend.
Akira waits until they're at a red light, and the kids are very definitely distracted, before leaning over to Lavenza and whispering, "Four years until we can tell them the truth is weirder than their 'mom's a spy' theory."
"Shh," Lavenza says, elbowing him gently, but pointedly, back into his seat. "Four years is still a long way away, remember."
This sobers him, and they exchange a last, serious look before the light turns green, and the car moves forward.
Behind them, in the back, the whispers haven't stopped, the kids apparently very thoroughly enjoying their chance to come up with conspiracy theories. In another few years, they'll be pushed into their parents' world, and Lavenza sometimes really wonders if they're doing enough to get them ready for that. Maybe they shouldn't be keeping so much hidden. Maybe they shouldn't be waiting until the Velvet Room opens for the twins to tell them about it.
But then the whispers are broken up with a burst of Airi's bright laughter, and when she glances at them in the rearview mirror, she can see Touma covering his face with his hands, shoulders shaking. They're both sunburnt and grubby from a week on the beach, they're happy and they're kids.
Someday, they're going to find the Velvet Room, make friends, and face the kind of threat that who knows how many other Wild Cards and Persona-users have faced before them. But for now, they're a couple of kids on their way home from a trip to the beach, and that feels like a win. There are definitely kids that would thrive from knowing about the metaverse young--Akira's one of them--but it's not something that should be forced on every Wild Card. If that's the life they want, they can choose it for themselves when they're older. For now...
For now they're happy as they are, and that's enough.