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“Hey, Kasumi-chan?” Ann’s voice was quiet, only above a whisper enough to sound like a real instead of a modulated exhale. It was only somewhat dark, the moonlight illuminating the reddish brown hotel room, the stars brilliantly shining down over the ocean view. It was their last night in Hawaii, their last night of the school trip. Tomorrow would be the eleventh of September. They would be heading back to Japan, and with that paying the debt of the sixteen hour time difference they had received on their way home. Kasumi had joked earlier, during their date, that they had traveled back in time and now would be traveling to the future, something that had made Ann laugh to the point of her stomach hurting. She knew it wasn’t really that funny, but when Kasumi said it, she couldn’t help feel everything so much stronger.
“Yeah?” Kasumi replied, almost as quietly as Ann. She hadn’t been remotely tired, unable to sleep thinking about the day they had just had. The sunset really had been utterly beautiful. She wished that she and Ann could have slept out there, on the beach. No danger, no risk, no rules, just her and the woman she had fallen in love with under the moonlit sky. The sunset had been beautiful, but the moon looked even more beautiful tonight.
“Why… why are we in separate beds?” Ann hesitantly asked. For the week they had been here, they had been roomed together. It worked out quite well for them. While the others in their group were aware of their relationship, the same couldn’t be said about the rest of the school. It wasn’t that they were personally ashamed of it, nor did they really care who knew overall, but the two of them had dealt with enough that broadcasting it openly wasn’t worth the irritation. They both knew that their classmates had seen them out and about, and they certainly weren’t subtle sometimes on their dates, but the student body had shown both of them a great deal of grace and respect out of guilt for their behavior after the incidences that had occurred back when they first met. And that meant not giving the faculty any reason to give them any further shit.
“Well…” Kasumi began, trying to think. There wasn’t any risk of them being caught, and the only teacher who was around was Kawakami anyways. Kawakami knew. It was rather hard to keep your entire relationship secret from your maid, after all. “...I guess just because there’s two beds?” Kasumi concluded. They had their intimate moments and their bold moments, but both of them could be rather shy and blind to the obvious at times. Both of them thought it was a cute point of the other and an embarrassing factor of their own.
“Do… do you not want to be?” Ann asked, with the clumsiest phrasing in human history. She wanted to slap herself for that. Kasumi meanwhile was smiling at it.
“Yeah.” Ann turned over as she heard Kasumi getting out of bed, walking over to the one she was in. Ann’s mind was always blown how beautiful Kasumi could look without any effort. Her hair down gave her an entire different, more cute vibe. Had Ann not known just how much pride Kasumi took in her ribbons, seemingly having one for every occasion and outfit she wore, she might have suggested Kasumi wear her hair down more often. Just then, Ann heard a thump!, followed by Kasumi yelping in pain. Ann bolted upwards, seeing Kasumi standing at the foot of her bed. On one foot. “Are you okay?” She worriedly asked.
“Yeah, yeah!” Kasumi enthusiastically replied, doing her best to reassure Ann. “I just don’t have my contacts in and misjudged the spacing!” Kasumi limped over to the bedside and sat down next to her.
“Damn. Here I was trying to be sweet and I end up going and causing you to get hurt.” Ann looked down and away from her. She frowned, beginning to wish that she hadn’t said anything. Kasumi softly put her hand on Ann’s cheek and redirected her head to make her look her in the eye.
“It’s okay. I just stubbed my toe, I’m fine.” Kasumi’s voice was a mixture of reassuring and forceful. “Don’t beat yourself up, okay? That’s the shadows’ job.” Kasumi smiled at her, causing Ann to weakly smile back.
“You know, I’d prefer if they didn’t either.” Ann felt her mood lifting again with Kasumi’s reassurance.
“Well then, maybe you should get a bit faster. We’ll have to train more when we get back.” Kasumi’s smile turned a bit more devious. Ann grumbled, knowing exactly what this would mean. Another six hours in Mementos, and without a new area even opening up. Of course, that was already on the docket, apparently Kasumi needed some rare materials for something important and their last training session hadn’t gotten them even one. Kasumi had previously found two when they went in on a rainy day a while ago, so it was currently her theory that it would only be able to be found on one of those. Kasumi saw Ann’s expression and saw another opening. “Aww, come on senpai, don’t you like training with me? I could bring some more katsu…” Kasumi sweetly teased, causing Ann to blush.
“H-hey! If you do that again, you might break Mona.” Ann recalled how he was acting before they left. They both knew he was, to put it simply, down bad for her. He had been a gentleman about it since Kasumi and Ann had started dating, but it wasn’t like feelings like those just disappeared. “He’s already on edge as it is.” The worst part was, if Kasumi wasn’t joking before about him being where she kept all that stuff (and Ann couldn’t presume she was, it was the only thing that made sense), he’d have to carry it for them beforehand.
“You’re right.” Kasumi sighed, repositioning herself so that instead of sitting crosslegged perpendicular to Ann, they were parallel and able to just slide down to lay down. Ann sat back and found herself quickly drifting sideways, laying on Kasumi. In response, Kasumi wrapped her arms around Ann, positioning her so that her head was lying on Kasumi’s chest. She could hear Kasumi’s heartbeat. It felt like a drumbeat the whole world marched to. They stayed like that for a bit, cuddling, before Ann broke the semi-silence.
“So… why do you keep with this?” Ann asked, looking a bit more upwards towards her.
“Do what?” Kasumi asked, looking down at her.
“Be a Phantom Thief. Like, I get why you started. And I was with you on that. But like, Ryuji’s clearly in it because it gives him purpose. Yusuke, well, I think he’s just going along with us because we’re the only people he has left. Morgana’s trying to get his memories back-”
“The ones that will absolutely prove he isn’t a cat.” Kasumi interrupted, clearly not buying it. Ann laughed, feeling only a little guilty about talking about him behind his back like this.
“Yeah, totally. And Futaba, well, she wants to find out who killed her mom. But what about you?” Ann looked at her intensely, awaiting her answer. Kasumi thought about it for a moment, figuring out her words before she said them. The answer was easy enough, but she wanted to say it right.
“When all of this started, when I became a Phantom Thief, I had been fighting because I wanted the world to be different. After… the things that happened, I just couldn’t stand that this was the way the world was.” Kasumi’s look got a bit more serious. Right now, she reminded Ann of the way she looked right before Ann had awoken her original Persona. “I wanted a world where the innocent didn’t live in fear of the powerful, didn’t risk being exploited simply for the crime of having something someone else desired, you know?” Ann nodded, knowing all too well what that lead to. It had almost killed Shiho, all because that bastard Kamoshido wanted to help himself to some high school girls. But now? I still care about that. I really do want to change the world. I want to make a world where people like Shiho, people like my sister don’t need to live in fear.” Ann blinked, processing what Kasumi had said.
“You never talk about her.” Ann murmured, more thinking to herself than intending to interrupt Kasumi.
“It’s… it’s hard. I miss her. We’d been together in everything, our entire lives. When our parents died, we were all we really had left. Our grandparents took us in, but we weren’t super close.” Ann noticed how sad Kasumi looked. It was a side she’d only seen once before, back when Kasumi had told them all the story of how she ended up in Tokyo. “They were supportive of us, don’t get me wrong. But it wasn’t the same. We lived in their house with them, not in our home.” Kasumi sighed.
“You’ve been through a lot. I’m sorry. It really seems like life has it out for you sometimes.” Ann rubbed Kasumi’s back, comforting her. Kasumi smiled softly back down at her.
“But if I hadn’t been through all that, I wouldn’t have met you.” Kasumi leaned down and kissed her on the forehead, beginning to stroke Ann’s hair. Ann blushed, feeling honored and loved in ways she never imagined she would be.
“You’re so sappy sometimes, Kasumi-chan.” Ann looked up at her. She realized that, although soft and silent, Kasumi was crying. Kasumi didn’t reply to Ann, but continued with her explanation.
“But, now I’m fighting for something more than that. It’s not just that I want to make that world. I want to make that world for us. I want that to be the world we can be together in, that we can live our lives in.” Kasumi’s tears dripped down onto Ann’s face. She didn’t wipe them away. Instead, she sat up and pulled Kasumi onto her chest, holding her close as Kasumi had done for her.
“I want to fight for that too. We’re going to do it. We’ll change the heart of every last rotten adult if we have to.” Ann felt her confidence soaring, her nerves steeling. She understood why Kasumi took their training so seriously, why she worked them so hard. She wanted to make that dream come true, and she needed them to do it.
“Just so long as none of the palaces are full of fog.” Kasumi’s soft crying gave way to a giggle, a weird choked little thing. “In that case, let’s just have Futaba take care of them.”
“Huh? Why not?” Ann asked. It was such a weird limitation to put on themselves, and she really couldn’t tell if it was a joke or not.
“Long story. Five years ago, there were some weird events where I lived and a lot of horrible things happened in the fog. I’ve been a bit scared of it ever since.” Kasumi admitted, letting her fearless facade slip a bit. Ann made her feel safe enough to do that.
“Weird, even by our standards?” Ann asked, intrigued. She didn’t want to push, but that was too mysterious to not ask about.
“Yeah. Actually, come to think of it, maybe they’re related. I wonder if Mementos could ever leak into the real world.” Kasumi mused, unaware of how close of a description of the events that actually was.
“Now that is a terrifying thought. Understood.” Ann stroked Kasumi’s hair. “And, if we ever have a really foggy day, I’ll be there to hold your hand.” Kasumi turned and looked up at her, smiling.
“Promise?” She sounded so vulnerable. In this moment, Ann knew she had to protect Kasumi at all costs. She’d die before she let anything bad happen to her. She’d kill if it was what it took to protect Kasumi. She was the most wonderful, beautiful, kind, passionate, caring person that Ann had ever had the luck to know, and she was hers. She’d guard that like a panther protecting her cubs.
“I promise. I’ll do anything to protect you, Kasumi-chan. I love you.” Ann felt her own eyes begin to mist up. This hadn’t been what she had in mind when she asked Kasumi to come to her bed, but she was more than grateful for the misforture.
“I love you too, senpai.” Kasumi snuggled more deeply into Ann, listening to her heartbeat. It was racing, pounding away in her chest. For some reason, it reminded Kasumi of the purr of a cat. Maybe because of how it made her feel, safe and loved. They stayed like that in silence for a bit, Kasumi snuggled into Ann as Ann stroked her hair. Ann kept staring down at her, wanting to burn this moment into her memory forever. She hoped that in eighty years they’d be together like this. She’d tell Kasumi then, this was the moment when she knew it would be the rest of their lives.