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The smell of cooking curry filled Leblanc. Goro could smell the eye-watering scent of peppers in the air. I swear to god if Ren made it extra spicy just to watch me suffer, I'm going to eviscerate him.
He raised an eyebrow at the other boy, who was currently twirling around that Evoker with a coy smile. "Shouldn't you be more careful with that?"
"Whaaaaat? It's not like it works." Ren shrugged, continuing to do tricks with the Not Gun.
"Maybe not, but you would think someone like you would be a bit more cautious after almost being assassinated by gunshot through the head."
Ren rolled his eyes, though Goro could tell the mention of the interrogation room had thrown him off kilter. "Maybe, yeah. That's your fault, though, so I don't think that's relevant," he deflected casually. "Plus, I've known how these things work for years. I'm not too worried."
Goro glared at him. Damn Amamiya Ren and his goddamned deflecting. If he was determined to play around with a fake gun like a fool, there was nothing Goro could do to stop him.
"You better hope a customer doesn't come through those doors. Or, even better, Boss comes back from the grocery store and finds you with that thing. You might give the old man a heart attack. Don't you think waving around such a realistic gun in a business is a dumb move? Then again, you are an idiot." Goro drawled, pretending he wasn't purposely trying to draw Ren's attention away from those memories. He saw what Shido's men had done, and god if he didn't want to just go and shoot them dead.
"Psh. Today's a slower day, and the regulars aren't due to come in until a while later. I think I'm safe for now."
"Just put the damn gun down and go check on the curry. And you better not have made some mystery spicy curry for me to suffer."
Ren obliged, laughing as he made his way back into the kitchen. "Nah, don't worry. The spicy one is for me. I made a different pot for you. Why would I ever serve you some kind of Mystery Food X?" Ren seemed to giggle a little, as if he made some sort of joke. "Hey, did I ever tell you about the last town I lived in before I got sent here? There was this girl I knew who lived at the inn. Her cooking was horrible. I tried it once. It was as bad as Fuu-chan's used to be. I remember Narukami-senpai trying to warn me… yeah, I should've listened."
Goro hummed noncommittally, filing the story away for later. He was still surprised by how much Ren was willing to share about his life. After all, Goro had literally tried to murder the other. Ren was strange. Goro didn't mind all that much, though. It was nice. Goro didn't think he'd get to be like this with anyone.
Just a few loose ends to tie up, and maybe Goro would get to keep this for once.
Clink!
Goro blinked in surprise as a cup of coffee—his usual order, as always, Ren didn't forget—and a plate of hopefully nonspicy curry were placed in front of him. "Already done?"
Ren hummed in response. "Whaddaya know. Talking to a friend actually does pass time."
Ren actually considered him a friend?
Goro coughed into his hand, trying to lock away that warm, fuzzy feeling that was bubbling up. Pure and utter loathing, that's what it was. "You must be an utter fool to call me your friend."
Ren shrugged, beginning to fiddle around with the gun once more. "Isn't that what we are though? Why else would you let me call you by your given name and vice versa? Checkmate."
"Not how that works." Goro took a bite of the curry, pleasantly surprised with the flavor. So Ren wasn't lying, then. "Did you try something new? The flavor's different."
"Caught red-handed, Detective! I was trying out something new! Considering you're not cursing me out, I'm guessing my experiment was a success?"
"So you did feed me a 'Mystery Food X'." Goro deadpanned.
"What?! No! Trust me, the real Mystery Food X is so much worse." Ren was leaning on his elbow now, the gun spinning next to his head.
"Well, considering I have no clue what the real 'Mystery Food X' is like—"
The door to Leblanc slammed open. "REEEEEEEEN! I demand curry!"
BANG!
The orange-haired girl at the door stared in shock at the Persona standing behind her brother. "…that's gotta be a glitch. Sketchi, you seeing this too?!"
Goro narrowed his eyes at Ren. "I thought this couldn't work outside the Metaverse. Or that mysterious 'Dark Hour' you talked about."
"Uh…" Ren stared at Orpheus, who seemed to be staring back at him with a disappointed look.
"I told you to be more careful, Trickster."
"To be fair, I didn't know this could work either. Maybe someone should have told me."
Goro then watched as Ren's face slowly morphed into a slightly terrified look. Orpheus seemed to sigh, long suffering.
"Yes, you're lucky you never did anything to deserve punishment from Mitsuru. Maybe keep it up. Or don't. My other self would love to see that."