Chapter Text
09/29/2009, After School
Junpei's wrestling Kenji into one of the best headlocks he's ever executed when he hears it -- the voice of an angel, requesting his assistance.
"Junpei-san! I believe it is time to 'take me out to the ballgame,' as they say."
Or an anti-Shadow weapon wanting to hit things. Same difference.
"Oh, Ai-chan! Wait. You actually want to go to the batting cages?!" He drops Kenji in his incredulous shock, then speaks over his friend's pained groaning. "Uh, sure! Let me just grab my stuff. I do have some, uh, questions while we're on the way, though."
"Understood, Junpei-san. I will wait outside the classroom for you." She bows and runs out of the room, arms streaming behind her. Ay yi yi. She needs to work on blending in, still.
"Uh, dude. Did Aigis just ask you out on a date?!" splutters a bewildered Kenji from the floor. "What the hell, man?!"
"NO! Absolutely not. She's cute, but I, uh, I'm not actually interested. There's... Someone else."
Someone that only wants to talk to him, even though she's met his senpai, met Makoto. A beautiful girl that doesn't care at all about them, even though they're more talented and impressive and put together than he's ever been. He smiles at the feeling.
Kenji snorts. "I don't believe you. You're letting a girl just slip out of your hands like that?"
"Believe it or don't! But Iori Junpei is a one-girl kinda guy." He finally helps Kenji to his feet. "Besides, she probably just wants to practice. Kirijo-senpai would execute us in a heartbeat if we even thought about throwing and hitting stuff in our dorm, and parks around here are really weird about playing ball."
He looks up, about to ask Makoto if he wants to join, then sees his best friend wake his other best friend up, whisper something to her, touch her shoulder, and walk out of the room.
Wait. Makoto is a boy. A boy just touched Yukari's shoulder. Makoto just touched Yukari. And she didn't kill him.
Holy shit. Aigis asked him to hang out and Yukari isn't jumping down a boy's throat. In fact, he swears she's smiling into her fist and trying to play it off. Is the world ending? Are they too late, did they miss a Shadow deadline somehow?
He gapes at her until she grabs her stuff and leaves, hurriedly brushing past the two of them with a mumbled apology.
He smells vanilla and oranges. Wait.
Junpei flashes back to this morning, with Makoto's weird girly cologne or whatever. Vanilla.
To lunch, the way Makoto and Yukari sat closer together than normal, and the absolutely bizarre blocking exercise their leader initiated. "Yukari, lean forward and down, then look up at me."
The blatantly obvious excuse to save Junpei's ego (it worked). How Yukari called Makoto by his given name, no honorifics, and blatantly tried to skew the competition in his favor. "Well, if you count Makoto's little sticky-outie hair..."
Wait. Wait. WAIT. WHAT.
Kenji leans over while Junpei is picking his jaw up off the ground and plucking his eyebrows down from the ceiling. Voice quivering with disbelief, he asks, "Did. You. Just. See. What. I. Saw."
"Kenji," Junpei says solemnly. "I think the current events might be beyond our mortal understanding. Further exploration is, no doubt, entirely unsafe for inexperienced amateurs."
After a beat, his serious expression morphs into one of boyish glee. "Luckily, Junpei, Ace Detective, is on the case. I'm so snooping around at the dorm later." But right now, he has a robot to catch and some balls to whack.
Wait, no --
--
He finally makes it to Aigis, who is hovering by the stairs. "Are you alright, Junpei-san? You were delayed several minutes." They start walking towards the exit as they talk.
"Aigis, have you noticed anything weird about Makoto and Yukari lately? You spend more time, uh, watching Makoto than anyone else." If anyone would know, it's Aigis. He's sure of it.
She looks at him blankly for a few seconds, then something happens. Is that... Is that doubt? Conflict? Guilt? Jealousy? The ghost of something flits across Aigis' normally placid, neutral face.
On bad days, sometimes he sees that same ghost staring back at him in the mirror.
Oh god. The world is ending.
"...There is nothing out of the ordinary with Makoto-san. His vitals are normal and he is conducting business as usual after school," she says flatly, which he takes to mean he's going to hang out with one of his various acquaintances and foisted Aigis off on him. Well, he won't complain. Aigis is cool. "He needs more sleep, but his actions are his own."
Okaaaaayyyy. "Well I think something's up. Not with just Makoto, but with Yukaricchi too. Wanna help me snoop when we get back tonight?"
"What is 'snooping?' I do not have this term in my memory banks."
"Snooping, my dear Aigis," he begins, then trips on the curb crossing the street. An iron grip clamps around his shoulder and prevents him from eating shit and getting run over by a car.
"Ahem. Thanks, Ai-chan. Anyways, snooping is the time-honored art of sticking your nose in places it shouldn't be, looking for information. It's what inquiring minds do when they need to know." He slings his arm around Aigis' shoulders and gestures widely. "And we are indeed inquiring minds."
"Understood. I have recorded this term in my memory banks. Snooping is covert reconnaissance." Aigis gives him a small smile. "Thank you, Junpei-san."
He isn't sure what that means, but assumes it's right. He takes the win, and gives her a double thumbs-up in return. "Sure thing, Aigis."
She looks intently at his thumbs and slowly mimics his movement. Raises her fists. Gently touches her knuckles to his and boops the pads of his thumbs with her own. "Is this the appropriate reciprocation for this gesture?"
Junpei laughs so hard he nearly gets hit by a car again.