Chapter Text
“The trip is for all of us! We booked it last summer, remember?”
Makoto, in fact, did not remember.
Any memories of last summer had been clouded by the changes that had occurred in her life as a result of her moving closer to her university - away from her sister; away from her friends; away from Ren; away from her home.
Oh, and breaking up with Ren, she supposed.
It wasn’t personal. It was mutual. There wasn’t any bad blood. They simply couldn’t make it work long distance (and she had apparently changed , or something) so they decided to break it off, staying just friends. Friends that had hardly spoken since, as people do after a break-up. There were no hard feelings, though.
At least that’s what she’d been telling herself.
“Uh- yes! Of course I remember. That’s why I’m in Tokyo tomorrow,” Makoto lied to Ann. She was prepared for a trip - a girl's trip. The mental preparation for this minor adjustment could surely be done in a night. “I’m driving you all there in the van, right?”
“Yep!” Ann confirmed. “Everyone is in town aside from you. Should we meet you in Shibuya?”
“That should work, yes.”
“Cool! Cool…” The blonde had more to add; Makoto could tell. She could also tell what it was about. “You and Ren will be okay, right?”
Makoto didn’t want to worry Ann with an ‘I don’t know.’ “Yeah, we can be civil. There were no hard feelings, after all.”
“And you will be okay, right? Don’t think I forgot about how much you cried-”
“Ann! I’ll be okay. Promise,” Makoto sighed. She had cried that much. “It’s been over a year.”
Ann giggled. “Okay! Okay. See you tomorrow for the road trip!”
“See you,” Makoto said, hanging up the call and collapsing on the bed. The mental preparation for seeing everyone again could be done in a night, but the mental preparation for seeing Ren again would take more than a few days.
There was nothing she could do now but accept it.
“No, Ryuji, I had completely forgotten.”
“C’mon, man. I’ve known you for years. Your sarcasm’s obvious now.”
Of course Ren hadn’t completely forgotten. He’d been looking forward to it since he moved back to Tokyo for university. He lived at Leblanc, constantly accompanied by Boss, Futaba (and Futaba’s ‘Inari’, who basically lived at the cafe.) The former still served a cafe with a few regulars, and the latter had just started her senior year at Shujin with Sumire. When he returned - Morgana in his bag, as always - it was nice to see that so little about the dynamic of the place had changed. Of course, Makoto hadn’t returned to the cafe. Especially now that he lived there again. Hell, he’d seen Akechi more often, and he was presumed dead for a year.
There were no hard feelings. Just a constant (and completely healthy) routine of avoiding each other and not speaking if possible.
At least that’s what he’d told himself.
“Alright, fine, I remember perfectly. I’ve been prepared for days.”
“Hell yeah, man! It’s gonna be so much fun to see everyone again.” Ryuji’s tone was practically bouncing off the walls with excitement. “I haven’t seen Ann in person in like, forever.”
“In person?”
“I mean, she went to the US to continue modelling, so we’ve only video called since. But now she’s back in Japan…”
Ryuji sounded almost…hopeful. “And you’re very happy about that,” Ren teased.
“O-of course I am! She’s my best friend!” Ryuji stuttered and then quickly added, “After you, of course. Bros before-”
“Don’t call Ann that.”
“Oh, you’re right.” He paused for a second, perhaps to think, but Ren doubted he was thinking about much more than Ann. “A-anyway- I’ll see you tomorrow, right?”
“You bet.”
“Alright!” He paused suddenly again. “...You and Makoto will be fine, right?”
He didn’t want to worry Ryuji with an ‘I don’t know,’ so he just said, “Of course we will. We’re…Friends-”
“Who haven’t spoken in almost a year-!”
“See you tomorrow, Ryuji!” Ren swiftly hung up the call and sighed. He was more than ready to see everyone tomorrow, but seeing Makoto…He wished he had a few more days to prepare for that.
“You ready?” Morgana asked as Ren collapsed onto his bed with another heavy sigh. “I’ll take that as a ‘no’”
Ren just shrugged.
“You two will be fine. There were no hard feelings, right?”
Ren hummed, trying to sound as sure of himself as he could.
“So you’ll be completely fine.” Morgana walked in circles on the bed before curling up into a ball and yawning into his next sentence. “Focus on the excitement of seeing everyone else…”
The cat trailed off and fell asleep at Ren’s feet immediately, but the boy stayed on his phone for a bit, unable to quiet his mind. A message pinged, bringing the ‘Phantom Thieves’ group chat back to life:
Makoto: I’ll be in Shibuya by around 8:00am
Makoto: We need to be in time for check-in at the resort, so please don’t get there later than 9:00am
Ren stared at his phone, waiting for others to respond first.
Ann: Got it!
Haru: See you there, guys.
Sumire: Haru and I will be there around 8:30am because of gymnastics practice. I’ll update you tomorrow!
He continued to wait. Three people was not enough.
Ryuji: This is gonna be awesome!
Futaba: Shut up, Ryuji
Futaba: And don’t be late, Inari!
Yusuke: But we’re going together, Futaba…
Ren still waited a little more. Just a few minutes, and then:
Ren: I’ll be there with Morgana
Makoto: You’re going with Futaba and Yusuke, right?
Ren’s eyes widened.
Did she just ask him a question? Immediately after his message? He wasn’t used to this. It had been so long. Should he respond? Did he wait? What did he-
Futaba: Yep! So don’t oversleep, okay?! >:)
He sighed.
Ren: I won’t
After that, he chose to ignore any further messages and head to sleep.
Was this really the reality between him and Makoto now?
And, more importantly, why was this the reality?
Ann had arrived just as Makoto did, around 8:10. She was followed by Haru and Sumire, who arrived at their estimated time of 8:30. Surprisingly, Ryuji was right behind them at around the same time.
It was now 8:50, and the rest of them were nowhere to be seen.
“By 9:00, should we just leave without them?” Sumire asked, concerned.
“Probably.” Makoto shrugged. She had planned for such a thing already, and she already knew that they could get there via public transport if needed. Or they could pay their own taxi. “We can check in on time and say we have more people that are a little behind.”
“‘A little’ is putting it way too kindly,” Ann grumbled, crossing her arms. “Did Ren oversleep?”
“He did not.”
Everyone cheered at the arrival of Ren and the rest, but Makoto tensed and failed to react.
She just hadn’t heard his voice in so long. Hadn’t seen him in so long. Adjusting to it would take far longer than it would take him to greet every single person before greeting her last. He exchanged hugs with everyone - as did Futaba and Yusuke, but Makoto didn’t pay nearly as much attention to them - and a handshake into a hug with Ryuji before eventually standing in front of her and staring.
Just staring.
Eventually, she raised her arms and hesitantly offered a hug, and he hesitantly accepted it. Behind Ren, the rest of the group was displaying varying degrees of discomfort - most notable among them was Ann’s facepalm.
All Makoto could offer was an apologetic (and uncomfortable) smile.
Makoto ended the hug as soon as it started. “So. Are we…um…heading out?”
“Yup! Let’s go.” Ann disappeared into Makoto’s van, hiding from the awkward moment outside. Everyone else exclaimed in agreement as they followed.
Except for Futaba. “Yes please! I can’t stay out here with all this tension anymore…”
Makoto, already sitting in the driver’s seat with Ann next to her, put her forehead on the steering wheel. She could only assume that everyone stared at her in horror, because she followed up with. “What? We could all see it.”
“Yes, but perhaps we should simply ignore it so it would go away.” Yusuke spoke as though he disagreed with his own statement and was simply going along with what he believed was the opinion of the majority.
Futaba gave a sceptical hum. “Oh, but I think it’s funnier if-”
“Okay!” Makoto suddenly shot back up from her hunched position, determined to drive away from the tension. “Are we all ready to go? Seatbelts on?”
Everyone gave her hesitant affirmations.
“Okay.” She took a deep breath, preparing herself for the two hour drive ahead of her. She would prepare for the rest of the week one deep breath at the time once she arrived. The immediate worry was actually surviving this drive.
“How long until we get there?” Haru asked, already distributing some snacks.
“Around two hours.” Her declaration was met with groans of annoyance. “Hey! The sooner we leave, the sooner we’ll get there.”
“Alright so let’s get going!” Ryuji exclaimed.
His exclamation was followed by several excited yells prompting Makoto to drive, which she did. And everything was going well until she thought about her and Ren’s encounter fully.
They hadn’t even said hi.
She gripped the steering wheel and sighed. This was going to be harder than she thought.
Over halfway through the drive - that point where all the snacks had been distributed, the playlist had ended (because, despite having been made for the entire drive, some songs were skipped due to strong objections from some members of the group) and the excitement from the beginning of the road trip had ran out - the urge to just get to the damn place could be felt from everyone in the car. Ren himself was unbothered, but the rest of them didn’t look like they could handle the remaining ten minutes without some form of entertainment.
Watching the ETA get closer and closer was entertainment enough for Ren, though.
“I’m gonna double-check the booking,” Ann said suddenly, breaking the silence when around eight minutes were left of the drive. Everyone but Makoto (who had not looked away from the road throughout the entire drive) stared at her as if she was the most interesting thing in the car - especially Ryuji. Ren nudged him, and the blonde nudged him back, and they exchanged a couple nudges until Ann gasped in shock.
Seven minutes.
“What? What’s wrong?” Makoto asked, saying her first words of the entire drive. Perhaps she preferred to only communicate with the GPS on her phone while on long drives. Telepathically.
Anything to avoid saying a word to her ex , Ren thought.
“N-nothing! Just…um…” Ann cleared her throat. “The booking was made over a year ago, so…”
She gestured towards nothing in particular, begging the air to finish her sentence for her. Unfortunately, the air couldn’t speak a language that the rest of the group could understand.
“So…?” Ryuji inquired gently, almost concerned. As the minutes remaining went down to six, Ren wondered when he had last heard that tone from Ryuji.
Ann gulped. “Well, it’s…it’s just…” she trailed off, muttering an “oh, I can’t say out loud…” to herself.”
“Spit it out! I’m curious now,” Futaba urged her with a mischievous grin. Ren was now a little more concerned, but mostly because of what Futaba would do with the issue.
“It would be best to just know what’s wrong, Ann.” At least Haru was a little more gentle with her urging, but her expression had a slight hint of the mischievousness in Futaba’s grin. “Then we can help you with it.”
Ann took a while to speak again. The minutes remaining ticked down to five when she finally said. “...The booking is, uh…It’s three rooms with double beds and…one room with two single beds. And, um, only the…only one of the double bed rooms is…pet friendly.”
The van fell into complete silence as everyone absorbed the information.
Ren sighed.
It made complete sense for the time. Ryuji and Ann dealt with the fact that the couples would be sharing rooms (and they would probably end up doing so even if they weren’t booked that way.) Haru with Sumire, Futaba with Yusuke, and Makoto with Ren.
Except there was the tiny issue of the two who had not spoken to each other in a year sharing a goddamn bed .
“W-well, it’s okay!” Ryuji cut through the silence with an unsure tone. “Ren and can share the room with the single beds-”
“I need the pet friendly room for Morgana,” Ren mumbled, not really wanting to sound like he wanted to share a bed with Makoto. He wasn't opposed to the idea, but she was, so he was careful with his tone and added, “Maybe we can share the double bed?”
Ryuji shrugged. “I dunno man, I don’t really like sharing beds…”
“Mona, can’t you stay with us?” Futaba asked, sighing when Morgana almost immediately shook his head. “Awww, c’mon, Inari and I aren’t that lovey dovey-”
“Can’t I stay with Lady Ann? Then she and Makoto can share the double bed-”
Ann immediately interrupted with a nervous chuckle. “I don’t think that’s a good idea-”
“Mona can stay with us!” Sumire cut in, excited to help. “Haru and I don’t mind.”
“Well,” Haru cleared her throat. “I think Mona would mind…”
Futaba hummed thoughtfully, ignoring (or not noticing) the suggestions in Haru’s statement. It took her a while to speak - it looked as though she was solving a puzzle in her head. Everyone (except Makoto, who was gripping the steering wheel like she was trying to choke it) looked at her and eagerly awaited the solution.
When it was finally solved, she gasped and quickly shared her answer. “Then maybe Ren and I could share the double room and Makoto and Ann could share another so Inari and Ryuji-”
“And we’re here!” Makoto exclaimed suddenly, parking in a hurry, unlocking the van doors in a hurry, and getting out of the van in a hurry as though she was running from something. Ren had been too caught up in he and Makoto were going to have to share a room to notice that the time had ticked all the way down to zero . “Everyone, get your bags and stuff so we can go check-in and-”
“Mako! Wait.” Ann had gotten out just as fast and to her best friend’s aid. The rest of the group waited to get out, despite the unlocked doors, sensing that the conversation between the two was going to be a private one. Though Ren couldn’t hear the conversation, and he was incredibly curious about it, he put it out of his mind and it was immediately replaced with a new thought.
This was going to be one hell of a week.