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missingmywing · 1 year ago

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Less angsty, mostly a cute date preparation piece. Just hints sprinkled in here and there~

Day 3: Music/Flowers (Ao3 Link)

Post-P3 so it’s much sweeter and less horribly tragic than the first two.

This also got WILDLY out of hand very quickly. It was supposed to be a cute date piece of Ryoji being cheesy for their first non-fast food date. And then Yukari and Mitsuru swung in and stole the show.

~ ᙙᙖ ~

Neither Minato nor Ryoji had expected to survive the previous year, and yet somehow here they both were. Still alive and… relatively healthy. Despite mentally pleading for more time than they had for three whole months, neither of them had expected to actually receive it.

But they had.

They were still here.

… here currently meaning cleaning the dorm kitchen after Fuuka and Ryoji’s latest disaster, but here nonetheless.

Although judging by Shinjiro’s face they wouldn’t be in the kitchen itself for long.

The other two were very apologetic even as he kicked them out, while Minato just shrugged and dragged them away to get takeout. They were getting better, but their tendency to experiment out of curiosity meant that they were still prone to disaster.

“I thought it would be alright…”

“Doubling the amount of baking powder needed means exponentially increasing how much it rises, even if you do add extra ingredients,” Minato said mildly. “I’m still not sure what you added that made it explode like that, but there’s a reason people say that baking is as strict as chemistry. Ingredients react to each other.”

Fuuka buried her face in her hands. “I thought I was getting better!”

Ryoji rubbed the back of his head. “Oops. Oh well, there’s always next time.”

The sigh Minato let out was as fond as it was put-upon. “Stop experimenting. Recipes exist the way they are for a reason.”

“But…” Fuuka was pouting, arms crossed. “Shinjiro-kun doesn’t follow recipes exactly, and several of the people in the cooking club experiment!”

“How long have they been cooking or baking?”

“… well, years…”

“And do they experiment with random ingredients, or with ingredients they’re familiar with the properties of and have an idea of how they’ll mix together?”

She was quiet for a moment, considering. “You know… I never asked. I guess that does make sense though.”

Minato shrugged. “If you wouldn’t put random computer components together to see if you could make a working pc you shouldn’t put random ingredients together to see if you can make a working recipe.”

Fuuka stopped abruptly, staring at him with her mouth dropped open and a realization dawning on her face. “Oh… Oh!!!! I never thought of it like that, but you’re right! Of course just putting more of something won’t make it work better - it’s more likely to short something out or overpower it!”

Why had that only now clicked…?

Ryoji was chuckling beside him, and he elbowed him. “That goes for you too. Stop making disasters just to see what will happen. Shinji’s going to kill you himself if you keep it up.”

“Alright, alright!” Raising his hands defensively Ryoji just grinned at him. “It’s fun though.”

“I’m not going to save you when he loses his patience.”

“Aww, that’s cold,” Ryoji slung a comfortable arm over his shoulders. “You wouldn’t abandon me.”

“Don’t be so sure.”

The laugh he received said that Ryoji didn’t believe him.

He ignored him. “Fuuka, where do you want to eat?”

“Oh! Umm… that’s good question… Wild Duck Burger is always good?”

Eventually his friends would pick restaurants outside of the two they always seemed to default to. “Sure, that’s fine.” He should ask Mitsuru and Shinji what places around had good food.

They got their food quickly enough and found a booth, but Minato noticed partway through that Ryoji seemed distracted.

He nudged his leg. “What’s wrong?”

Ryoji hummed, still staring at something past him. “We should go on a date.”

Minato paused, trying to process the non-sequitur. “We already go on lots of dates.”

“Not like that. A date-date.”

… what kind of other dates were there? He glanced at Fuuka and found her looking as confused as he felt. Not that that was surprising given she had even less familiarity with this sort of thing than he did, but he could hope.

Twisting around to see what Ryoji was staring at, he saw a couple sitting at a corner table leaning close and talking and laughing together.

… which told him absolutely nothing because he and Ryoji did that sort of thing already.

He raised a brow at him. “If you’re using them as an example you’re going to have to be more specific because we already eat out together.”

That seemed to startle Ryoji out of his thoughts. “Wha- oh! No, not an example. Seeing them just reminded me of a conversation I had with a girl at school yesterday about dates, and what people mean by it.” Shrugging, he tossed a fry in his mouth. “She was complaining that none of the boys she dated recently took her on ‘real dates’, like to a nice restaurant and then out somewhere fun. She didn’t really specify what ‘somewhere fun’ meant, though given one of her friends mentioned karaoke and another one started talking about moonlit walks along the ocean I guess you can get creative?”

“A shame Tartarus is gone then,” Minato deadpanned. “A picnic at its peak and then walking down 263 floors sounds pretty creative to me.”

Fuuka shuddered and Ryoji shook his head with a chuckle. “Not quite what they had in mind, I don’t think. I think something different than usual could be fun, though!”

Maybe. There were a couple of problems with that, though. “Do you have money that you’ve been hiding?” Minato asked dryly. “Because I spent almost all of mine in that final rush to prepare for Nyx, so I don’t think I could afford a nice restaurant.” Unless he got a part time job again. “Not to mention nice enough clothes to be allowed in-” Unless he got a part time job and asked Yukari for store recommendations. “-and finding a restaurant that wouldn’t be weird about it.” … he had no clue for that one. If it were Kabukicho there were plenty, but Tatsumi Port Island was a very different place.

“Hmm…” Ryoji covered his mouth thoughtfully, finger tapping on the table.

… so it looked like they’d both be getting part time jobs then, and he was going to have to suffer through Yukari’s extremely nitpicky fashion sense.

Minato sighed. “I know several places always hiring, so the money should be easy enough to deal with. Yukari will be thrilled to finally get us in outfits she approves of, so that will be simple too. The restaurant itself is another problem entirely. I don’t feel like being whispered about and stared at the whole time we’re there.” Not that he really cared, but it’d get annoying if it happened the whole time.

“U-Um… I can help out,” Fuuka offered. “I can’t promise anything, but I’ll see if I can find something online. Otherwise we could probably ask Mitsuru-san for advice…”

Minato winced. “I’d rather not ask Mitsuru. Knowing her she’d probably just rent out a whole restaurant room for us or something.”

“Oh that could be fun-”

“Absolutely not Ryoji.”

“Alright, alright!”

“Thank you, Fuuka.” Minato ran a hand through his hair, mentally plotting out his weeks ahead. He had kendo practices so he’d have to work around those, but it was doable… He also had more time now that he wasn’t trying to actively maintain over twenty social links and prepare a team for Tartarus every couple of days. Much as he still liked to keep in touch with his friends from various clubs, being able to quit most of his clubs had freed up an incredible amount of time.

After his rather spectacular collapse at the beginning of March, when everything had hit him all at once and a year’s worth of extreme pressure and stress slid off his shoulders - and Ryoji had revealed what his schedule had actually looked like - SEES had been incredulous and Yukari and Akihiko had shouted both him and Mitsuru down about overworking and taking on too much pressure. Suffice to say he’d been relegated to two clubs and one part time job at the absolute maximum, and strongly recommended to stick to one each under threat of Yukari’s fury.

So he’d dropped out of the track team (with some prodding from both Yuko and Kazushi when he hesitated), the art club along with Keisuke, the fashion club had been disbanded when Bebe left, and Chihiro and Hidetoshi had been pretty severe with cutting back his responsibilities for the Student Council once Mitsuru had told them the (abridged) reason for his collapse.

He’d kept up kendo just to keep using a sword, though, and with only one athletic club and no part time job it had been enough to keep his friends off his back while he slowly stopped feeling like he was going to pass out anytime he did anything strenuous.

Which had been sign enough, he supposed.

“Don’t push yourself too hard. I brought it up so I can take care of the money-” The look Minato sent Ryoji made him break off and lean back. “I’m not babying you! I, of all people, know you can handle the pressure, but there are days you can barely even stay awake in class. I just don’t want you to collapse again - you scared us.”

Fair enough. Minato sighed, shaking his head. “I won’t push it too far. But I’ve healed enough that it won’t be a problem.” As long as he paid attention. “As long as we can find a restaurant everything else should be simple.”

~ ᙙᙖ ~

He got lucky enough to get a job at the record store in Paulownia Mall just the job opened up, and his familiarity with music of various bands and ages impressed the owner enough to hire him instantly. So it was a low effort and enjoyable job with low chances of him overexerting himself and collapsing.

So that was one check.

(Not spending most of his money on the various albums in stock was more difficult.)

Ryoji got a job at a karaoke venue nearby, and from what he heard he was a very popular attendant, so it sounded like he was having fun with it as well. Not that he was surprised given how much the Shadow-turned-god-in-human-form loved people and loved interacting with them, but it still made him roll his eyes anytime he overheard some of the girls by the fountain giggling and wondering if they’d be able to “get him in private”. Ryoji was a flirt, but flirting was the only thing he’d do. Minato almost felt bad for them and the inevitable broken hearts.

It took a couple of months before they had an amount they deemed reasonable, and then Minato swallowed his dread and told Yukari. The hard gleam that appeared in her eye would have made even the toughest boy at school nervous. Minato had been expecting it, though, and just resigned himself to a long afternoon of being forced into clothing that would inevitably look good on him and end up self-justifying the whole ordeal.

At least Ryoji got excited about it.

He should have expected Yukari to tell Mitsuru, though. He was not expecting her to show up part way through the trip - didn’t she have enough else going on? She and her father were trying to set up an official Persona task force to deal with metaphysical distortions that may show up in the future, weren’t they? Why was she wasting time on a clothes shopping trip for a date between him and Ryoji??? This was not what he’d agreed to when he’d given in to Ryoji’s whim.

“This is a semi-casual date,” he repeated for the third time as Mitsuru drifted them towards the more formal section of the store.

“Yes, of course, and for semi-casual you need evening wear-”

“Normal person semi-casual, Mitsuru. Not ceo-heir semi-casual. Yukari please help.”

The girl laughed. “He’s right, Mitsuru. Has Fuuka found a reasonable restaurant yet?”

“Not that I know of, though we could always take a day-trip to Tokyo if need be. I know a few around the Kabukicho district. They’re more flippant about that sort of thing.”

The sudden sharp, considering look in Yukari’s eyes made him tense up. “Hmm.”

“Yukari-”

She ignored him and turned to Mitsuru. “How would you feel about a double date at Icho?”

Minato choked at the name, and even Ryoji whipped around with wide eyes.

“Y-Yukari,” Ryoji began, unusually nervous. “I’m not sure that’s what we-”

“Why that’s a delightful idea, Yukari.” Mitsuru smiled at her, why was she already pulling out her phone- “I can make the reservations for this Saturday evening then, if that’s amenable?”

“That sounds perfect!” Yukari chirped, and Minato felt nauseous.

“Yukari,” he said weakly, “Did I do something to make you angry?” How was this spiralling so quickly out of control? Outfits were one thing, but the most expensive, high class restaurant on Tatsumi Port Island was something else entirely. “First of all there’s no way we can afford that-”

“I’m aware,” Mitsuru cut in, waiting for her call to connect. “I assure you, I’ll be picking up the bill. Consider it the beginnings of repayment for everything I’ve put you through, and all you’ve done for us in the last year.”

“That’s really not necessary-”

She sent him a look. “Your idea of ‘necessary’ is the bare minimum of allowing you to remain in the dorm. Let us take care of you for a change, leader.” Her call finally connected and she turned to the phone and away from them. “Greeting, this is Kirijo Mitsuru. I’d like to make a reservation-”

Minato sent a desperate glance at Yukari. “You planned this,” he accused.

The self-satisfied smile on her face was all the confirmation he needed, even as she refuted him with a careless, “Oh don’t be ridiculous. It’ll be fun!”

Fun was not something he thought this classified under. “We’re not high class. I’m not high class. Why do you think this is a good idea?”

“Stop being a baby and overthinking it. It’s a nice restaurant, not a six course banquet.” Yukari rolled her eyes. “Just follow Mitsuru’s lead and you’ll be fine.”

Minato was regretting getting Yukari involved in this at all. Did none of his team understand the concept of moderation? He should have taken Ryoji for a day trip in Tokyo, stopped by Harajuku for clothes shopping, and then they could have gotten a reasonable restaurant on the main street of Kabukicho next to some of the gay or crossdressing clubs.

He didn’t realize he had his face in his hand until Ryoji’s hand brushed against his arm. He glanced over to see the boy with an apologetic look on his face, and Minato took a quiet breath in to calm down.

Yukari had paused and was watching him with a worried look.

It… was fine. Astronomically beyond his comfort zone, but he knew it would be fine. Mitsuru wouldn’t pull him into anything he couldn’t handle, even if it was beyond his usual… life experience. Tartarus was one thing, a fancy restaurant was something else.

It probably said a lot about him that Tartarus was the less nerve-wracking one.

Minato sighed. “A bit of warning next time. I’m better in battle than social situations, you know that.”

Yukari relaxed and shrugged apologetically. “I know. But if we give you warning then you’ll find a way to wiggle out of them.”

Now why could that possibly be?

“Mitsuru’s going to force me into a suit, isn’t she?”

“Wellllll-”

“Great.”

“A full suit isn’t necessary,” Mitsuru assured him, stepping back into the conversation.

He narrowed his eyes at her. “Tie?”

“No, although it wouldn’t be out of place.” Her eyes flashed with amusement. “You needn’t be any more formal than how you wear your uniform - it isn’t the sort of place with a strict dress code. And we’ll have a private room besides.”

She’d gotten them a-

No, alright, he was going to stop thinking about the restaurant now. Mitsuru had claimed responsibility over it, he was going to delegate it to her and not worry about it. “So a dress shirt, pants, and jacket.”

“Or vest instead of jacket,” Yukari chirped, and Ryoji perked up.

Minato would take the jacket over a vest.

~ ᙙᙖ ~

He ended up with a vest too. Ryoji had taken one look at the blue vest in the same cut at the yellow vest he himself was getting and talked Minato into it.

So it wasn’t Mitsuru who talked him into what was essentially a suit - it was Ryoji. Ryoji who kept sneaking glances at him the entire time they were trying on clothes and who Minato could already tell was going to be constantly distracted the entire time they were on the date.

He’d be flattered if he weren’t already so exhausted with the whole thing.

Minato dropped back onto their bed in the dorm with a long, tired sigh, and Ryoji set down next to him after hanging their new acquisitions on the closet rack. “I know this wasn’t the plan-” he began apologetically.

“-but you had no idea it was turn into this,” Minato finished with closed eyes. “I know. It was my fault for getting Yukari involved. I didn’t expect them to spring this on me.”

“They’re trying to help.”

“I know. They just forget that not everyone is as sociable and adaptive as they are. I don’t want to upset them by turning them down.”

“I do think they’d understand.”

“They probably would but it would make them feel guilty too.”

Ryoji hummed, somewhere between amused and sad. “This is why I call you kind, you know.”

“Yeah well according to the Velvet Room my title as humanity’s champion is either “The Martyr” or “The Messiah” so I guess it fits.” He groaned, dragging a hand through his hair and glaring up at the ceiling. “This is going to be bothering me all week.

Reaching out to tug his hand from his hair gently and smooth it out, Ryoji soothed, “It’ll just be one night, and it’ll just be the four of us.”

“It’s stupid, I know.”

“It’s not. Minato,” Ryoji’s voice hardened, drawing Minato’s gaze to him. His eyes softened. “I’ve been here the whole time. I know.”

… of course he did. How often had he been Minato’s only anchor in a world that shied away from him? How often had he hovered protectively over or on the bed while Minato slept just in case the Shadows changed their minds? A silent protector, or a reassuring voice cutting through the static of an endlessly hurtful world?

Stepping from one world into another was always going to unnerve him, to make him anxious. Gone were the days of passive apathy - they’d disappeared when Thanatos had left him and come back as Ryoji.

Not that he minded, generally, but there were times like this where he missed it.

But then he wouldn’t be in this position if it were still true, would he?

A quick brush of lips against his pulled him out of his thoughts and he focused back on Ryoji smiling wryly down at him. “You’re thinking too much again.”

“I usually am.” But there was no point brooding about it, so he sat up. “Have you finished the homework for history?”

“I have. Have you finished the math?”

Minato sighed and dragged himself off the bed. “I’m about to.” If he distracted himself with schoolwork he wouldn’t send himself into a panic about the ludicrous hypotheticals that his brain wanted to shove at him.

He missed the straightforwardness of Tartarus.

~ ᙙᙖ ~

Minato tried not to be noticeably fidgety in the days leading up to Saturday, but he wasn’t sure how well he succeeded. The rest of SEES had noticed, as had a couple of student council members. He avoided the topic where he could, but Chihiro cornered him on Monday out of concern that he was pushing himself and between her and Hidetoshi he was forced to give a basic explanation.

The fact that he was unnerved about an upcoming date raised eyebrows, until he added that Yukari and Mitsuru had arranged it and gotten dinner reservations.

That made all the older council members who had worked with Mitsuru wince and nod sympathetically, while all the first years looked confused.

“Where at, if you don’t mind me asking?” One of the girls in his year asked.

“Isho.”

“Oh my god,” she muttered as a second year boy whistled lowly.

“Have you seen their prices?”

“No I haven’t, and I don’t want to know,” Minato said flatly. “I’m not thinking about it. I refuse. I’ll deal with the problem when I get there.”

“Probably the best way to go about it,” another third year sighed. “Good luck.”

He grimaced and looked at Chihiro. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but please tell me you have complicated paperwork for me to focus on. I’ll take anything at this point.”

She hesitated for a moment, then sagged with a nod. “I know it’s only June, but we’re trying to get an early start on the culture festival planning this year, so we’ve already started some of the initial setup for various class and club booths and events. The specifics will be done in September and early October in the lead up to the festival itself, but we’re trying to get the basic permissions of things we have every year done ahead of time so we’ll be able to smooth out the process for the more… unique… requests.”

“I’m only in the kendo club now, I take no responsibility for whatever insanity the art club comes up with this year,” Minato said flatly, holding out his hand. “I’ll get things organized and outlined.”

Chihiro handed over the folder with something akin to relief. “I appreciate it. I don’t mind doing it myself, but we’re still trying to deal with some issues coming up with some of the athletic club trainings overlapping with summer classes because of misorganization, not to mention the summer-”

“I’ll handle it.” Minato cut her off, flipping the folder open to pull out the documents. “Go deal with your crisis.” He paused, looked up. “Kendo isn’t one of those overlapping ones, is it?”

She winced. “I-It’s all of the sports clubs, I think.”

He closed his eyes with a sigh. “… not my problem,” he decided. “Good luck.”

Chihiro sighed, shoulders slumping. “Thanks, I’ll need it…”

Well at least his week was filled now, and with headphones on and his music blaring it quickly ate up both time and focus because festivals were always an ordeal, and the classes hosting events inevitably made it more difficult than it needed to be. Fortunately this was only the setup and not the actual prep for the events.

He wasn’t looking forward to October. Why had he accepted Mitsuru’s invitation to the student council last year again?

Oh right, because the student council had three separate Social Links and he needed more Personas and more power to deal with Tartarus. The same reason he’d been in four clubs and jumped between a couple of part time jobs.

Looking back, Nyx wasn’t the only reason he was surprised he’d survived the previous year.

A sudden splash of green and white invaded his vision and he blinked and refocused on the world outside of balancing numbers and club names to find a white gardenia on the table in front of him. A quick glance to the side revealed the culprit - a slicked-back black haired boy with bright two-toned blue eyes and a sappy grin that promised trouble.

Minato pulled out his headphones and paused his music with a flat look. “You aren’t supposed to be in here.”

“Oh, are upstanding, respectable, rule-abiding students not allowed to come discuss matters with a student council member?” Ryoji countered playfully.

“They are. You, though, are none of those. Out.”

Ryoji pouted, leaning closer. “How cruel - I even brought you a gift!”

So he had. And in front of the entire student council. Not that their relationship was anything less than an open secret, but he could at least try to be more subtle about it. He wouldn’t, but he could. Especially with a white gardenia of all things. Minato shook his head. “Not much of a secret if you give it to me in front of a dozen people.” Secret love indeed.

That just made Ryoji shrug with an impish grin as he snatched the flower back up and tugged Minatio’s hair back to tuck it behind Minato’s ear. “I just thought it would suit you~”

Alright that was it.

Minato shoved himself to his feet and slipped behind Ryoji to shove him towards the door. “That’s enough out of you. This is why I said you weren’t allowed in here. Out.”

“Minato!” Ryoji protested with a laugh, trying futilely to push back against him. “Come on!”

“No. Out. I’m busy. Don’t you have girls to flirt with? Go away. Whose idea even was this?”

“Several people mentioned flowers being absolutely necessary in the lead up to a date-”

“Not while I’m in the middle of student council business. Go away - and tell Junpei that if either of you come up with a stupid and unnecessarily difficult booth for our class this year I’m throwing you both off of the Moonlight Bridge.”

“That’s cold!”

“The ocean’s a lot colder. Aigis will be more than happy to help me throw you in.”

The boy shivered. “Duly noted.” Minato shoved him out the door. “I’m going I’m going!! I’ll meet you by the school gates once you’re done.”

“Fine, just go.” Minato slid the door shut behind him with a firm clack and dropped his head against it for a moment with a sigh. He tried not to let the fondness in his chest show as he turned around and returned to his seat.

He tried to ignore the feeling of eyes on him from several of the council members - ranging from envious to judging to sappily starstruck - and shoved his headphones back on to get back to work.

He didn’t bother taking the flower out, though.

Ryoji was waiting for him by the gates, as promised, though Aigis’ presence as well was a surprise. They fell into step with Minato as easily as breathing as they made their way to the train station.

“Aren’t flowers usually a day-of thing?” he asked idly.

“Not necessarily! We got a lot of mixed answers, some people said you should do it all the time as surprise gifts, some people said a day or two leading up to the date, some people said a bouquet when you pick them up for the date, some people said that they’re tacky and overdone…” Ryoji shrugged. “Seems to be personal preference like any other gift.”

“Data inconclusive and contradictory, including type and amount of flowers,” Aigis agreed, frowning. “Flower meanings were called both unnecessary and good practice. I’ve found yet another human practice that is very strange and… messy.”

“Did you ask Yukari?”

“We did! She had the most clear answer, I think. Junpei was actually taking notes, it was kind of funny. I dunno why though - he doesn’t seem to have any problems figuring out what makes Chidori happy.”

“More ideas can’t hurt,” Minato said, leaning against the wall of the train as the doors closed.

“I guess…”

“I still don’t understand the complexities of human relationships in the form of dating,” Aigis sighed. “There seems to be so much wasted effort in the form of attempts to guess at what the other person likes. Why not simply ask?”

“Because Minato is a liar whose response to anything is ‘I don’t care’ or ‘whatever you want’,” Ryoji answered cheerfully. He grinned and dodged Minato’s elbow aimed at his head. “A lot of the time the guessing games happen because the person receiving them doesn’t want to admit that they want something, or that they like the idea of their partner putting in any unnecessary effort. If I asked Minato if he wanted flowers he’d say ‘I don’t need them’ or ‘seems like a waste of time’, but because I just gave it to him without asking he’s still wearing it. A lot of people are like that. It’s why Junpei just gets Chidori cute, sweet things that he thinks she’ll like even though she’d never even consider asking for them.”

“Don’t look so smug about it,” Minato muttered, pointedly not thinking about what emotions were swirling in his chest at Ryoji’s brutal dissection of his personality. Since when did he get embarrassed about something?

Aigis frowned, clearly thinking it over. “I see. It is an attempt to make someone happy, even when they refuse to admit that small gestures of otherwise pointless affection are something they enjoy.”

“Exactly!”

“I don’t have to listen to this.” Minato pointedly put his headphones on, ignoring Ryoji laughing at him even when the boy leaned against Minato’s back over the rail.

He could still distantly hear the other two continuing the discussion even through the muffling of his headphones, but he couldn’t make out the individual words anymore which was good enough. Even he had his limits and this was not a discussion he cared to be involved in.

He also hadn’t missed the implication that the flowers would be continuing throughout the week leading up to the date, and he made a mental note to find a vase to fill with water for them. Not that he was going to do that around Ryoji, the smug bastard.

The following day proved his assumption correct, when he found a pink and white primrose (first love, chastity, and admiration, how subtle) on his desk after lunch, and saw a couple of classmates smothering giggles and pointedly not looking at him or towards Ryoji (or Aigis? he thought he saw a couple of them glance at her, and wondered if Ryoji had decided to enlist her help to at least pretend at subtlety). He sighed heavily but tucked the flower behind his third-year pin and pulled out his notes.

The delighted, self-satisfied grin Ryoji wore for the rest of the day was distracting.

That grin only grew when they got back to the dorm and he saw Minato put it into the glass of water he’d commandeered as a mock-vase in their room rather than just putting it on the desk. Minato suffered through his increasingly handsy clinginess for the rest of the evening as he tried to finish his homework, eventually shoving a pillow in his face and telling him to focus.

Wednesday found a cluster of violets (honesty, and wasn’t that ironic for them?) in his locker - though how Ryoji had gotten them in there without crushing them he didn’t know - and he tucked them into the strap of his bag.

By now most of his class - and a number of people outside of it with friends who knew him - had caught onto the trend and were sneaking glances at him and whispering. Some enviously, others delightedly, and he ignored them with as much long-suffering grace as he could. The ribbing in kendo practice was more difficult to ignore but he rolled his eyes at them and the team captain shooed them all back into focusing soon enough.

Minato resigned himself to dealing with this for the rest of the week.

Even SEES teased him for it when he got back to the dorm, ignoring his dirty look to instead ask his which flowers he thought his “secret admirer” was going to give him next. Yukari played absolutely innocent when he accused her of initiating and enabling these antics, but her grin was too mischevious to fool him. The others were just as teasing - even Shinji was smirking at him.

Traitors, all of them.

Thursday brought morning glories, and it was the first ones to give him pause as he tried to remember their meaning beyond pop culture and artistic interpretations. It took a moment, but his chest tightened when he did because of course Ryoji would leave him flowers that meant both “willful promise” and “enduring devotion”.

“Are you the one helping him with these meanings?” he asked Yukari in an undertone as their classmates chattered around them.

“Nope, not after I first brought up the idea.”

“I knew it was you,” he muttered. “I guess he remembers that book I read too then.”

Yukari raised a brow at him. “When and why did you of all people read a book about hanakotoba?”

“To talk to you, actually.” Minato huffed as he tucked the flowers into his bag’s straps once more. “Remember when you asked me to help you pick out flowers for your room?”

She opened her mouth to respond, but couldn’t seem to decide what to say. It took her a moment. “I barely remember that. How is your memory about the most random facts so good?”

He shrugged. It wasn’t like he really planned to retain everything he read or learned. Stuff just… stuck.

Including flower meanings, apparently.

Ryoji caught his eye just before class started, and his smile was softer and somewhat wistful rather than the playfulness of the previous days. It was somehow more distracting, and Minato found himself rubbing his chest reflexively more than once throughout the lesson.

He pulled Ryoji to the roof for lunch so he could actually lean against him without drawing whispers, and Ryoji leaned back with a bittersweet smile. He didn’t need to say anything - the weight of the past eleven years between them spoke more than enough.

It seemed the latter half of the week would have heavier meanings, because Friday Minato received a red camellia with bluebells woven around it. The bluebells meaning gratefulness was simple enough, but when paired with the double meaning of the red camellia… passionate love and a warrior’s honourable death.

He didn’t look towards Ryoji, because he knew the look in his eyes would make Minato lose his composure.

The wounds from the fight against Nyx and their fall into the Sea of Souls before Ryoji managed to overpower Nyx and turn the tide to pull them both back out still hadn’t fully healed, and likely wouldn’t for a very long time. They’d both been prepared to die for the world - Minato just hadn’t expected Ryoji to be able to save them, even with Minato’s own power of the Universe to help him overpower and absorb Nyx.

He set the flowers in his lap, trying to focus on the lectures around his own swirling thoughts and painful emotions. It was difficult when all he could think of was their unrestrained freefall into death, Nyx’s power pulsing and clawing at them, trying to break through the seal Minato was trying to create around her, and Ryoji- Thanatos- Death clawing his way back to consciousness and reaching desperately out to Minato’s soul.

And as their souls bound together once more the seal’s shape changed - no longer a permanent separation but rather a temporary rope that could bind her in place while Death tore through her control from within and reversed their position. Breaking through his role as an “appraiser” and an “avatar”, powered by the bond they had forged and the humanity he had gained, Death and Minato twisted the rules of reality around them to erase Nyx and allow Death to take her place as something new. Something more than a careless bringer of the end.

Sometimes Minato wondered if he’d left part of himself there, in those waves of the Sea of Souls, that space between life and true death, but… well he was still here, wasn’t he? He’d died, but he wasn’t dead yet. He was still alive.

Even if he really shouldn’t be.

Minato really hoped that Yukari and Aigis were taking notes that he could look over later because he didn’t hear a single word of the lecture. As soon as the lunch bell rang he was gone from the classroom and rushing up the stairs to the roof just to try to breathe.

It was… it wasn’t a bad sensation, what he felt. It wasn’t the panic and fear of so many other memories. Wasn’t the pain and nausea and hurt of those memories of the bridge, of those two nights in back alleys under flickering streetlights.

It was something deeper and more integral.

Was there an opposite of existential dread?

Perhaps it was simply awareness. The reminder of what had happened, of their brush against and subsequent alteration of the foundational truths of the universe. Of what they were and all they had done.

Ryoji had barely stepped out onto the roof after him before he was shoving him against the wall and pressing their mouths together in a desperate attempt to be close. To find stability. Ryoji didn’t hesitate, wrapping his arms around Minato’s waist and holding him tightly as Minato wove his fingers into his hair. Minato felt- disconnected.

Frantic and disjointed, simultaneously numb and too aware of everything, like his emotions had shattered apart and the jagged edges were digging into his heart. Eternity stretched endlessly ahead of them and the clock raced towards the finite end so close to them.

It felt like November all over again and he didn’t know why.

The feel of Ryoji’s hand cusping his face and thumb tracing his cheek helped bring him back. Slowly the sensation of disconnect faded and Minato began to feel like he fit his body again. He was shaking as he finally pull back from the kiss and tucked his face against Ryoji’s neck. Ryoji slid his hand around the back of Minato’s neck, skimming his thumb along its curve.

“I’m sorry,” he murmured against Minato’s hair. “I knew you’d understand what I meant, but I didn’t expect it to have such an impact. Was it too much?”

Minato let out a shaky exhale and shook his head a miniscule amount. “No, it- it’s fine. This isn’t a problem just… intense. I hadn’t fully realized just what it was we did. It just all hit me at once.”

“I see. Well I’m glad, then. Do you want to skip this afternoon?”

… well now that he’d brought it up he did. “I shouldn’t. I already missed part of April because of my collapse, and I might miss more if we do have to deal with long lasting consequences of what happened with Nyx.”

“I think this qualifies as consequences, even if it is my fault,” Ryoji sighed, squeezing him. “I can talk to the teachers so we can go back to the dorms.”

Dammit. Now he couldn’t argue.

“That’d be good,” Minato murmured as he leaned against him. He felt exhausted.

Sometimes he really didn’t know how Ryoji did it. But the boy somehow got them both excused for the afternoon and they returned to the dorm and spend the rest of the afternoon napping. Or Minato did, at least - Ryoji was lying on the bed with him doing something on his laptop. What it was he didn’t know and didn’t care - just wrapped his arms around his waist, rested his head on his torso and went to sleep.

He mostly managed to brush off SEES’ concern when he and Ryoji went down for dinner. He had to come clean a little bit about the fact that he’d been putting off dealing with the side effects of the final battle, but the fact that it wasn’t something more serious - such as a relapse from overworking himself - seemed to set them at ease.

Though they were still concerned enough that they were going to be keeping an eye on him, he assumed with resignation. There was no help for it, he supposed.

The exhaustion had passed by the next day, and he weathered the half-day of classes easily enough. There were no flowers today, he noted, and he sent a suspicious glance towards Ryoji. He doubted it was because of the day before - Ryoji wasn’t so easily scared off of something, and it had been a relatively known problem anyway. He was planning something.

That something became apparent after they’d gotten changed later that afternoon, just before they went downstairs to meet Mitsuru and Yukari to be (apparently??? Mitsuru really needed to stop doing this) chauffeured to the restaurant.

Ryoji ruffled through his bag an pulled out a box with a sheepish look. “Unfortunately it’s too late in the year for me to get you the actual flowers - and doing it this way kinda ruins the symbolism of it I know - but here.”

Minato sent him a narrow look and took the box. He opened it to find a small wooden hair clip with white sakura blossoms set on it.

How incredibly poetic and cliche.

“I know it’s not your usual style at all,” Ryoji said, drawing Minato’s attention up to him. He shrugged with a small laugh. “And it not being real undercuts the point a little bit, but I thought it was the most appropriate thing to end on.”

Flowers representing the transience of life, considered the literal representation of life, death, and rebirth, and white ones specifically often used in representations of death. Of course Ryoji would choose them.

Minato sighed, fondness and exasperation intermingled in the action. It definitely was not something he would usually wear, but… he could make an exception this once. “If you were trying to push the symbolism a comb would have been more appropriate.” He plucked the clip up and set the box aside, holding the clip out to Ryoji in a silent offer and request.

Ryoji’s eyes widened and went suspiciously shiny and he swallowed as he realized what Minato meant, stepping forward to take it from Minato’s hand. Minato closed his eyes as Ryoji stepped close and reached up to pull the shorter left side of his hair back and up.

And the fact that he even knew to do that, and didn’t try to pull Minato’s bangs back out of his face to make him look more ‘neat’, made something tighten in Minato’s chest. “Your hair’s not long enough for a comb,” Ryoji quipped as he gently worked the clip into his hair. “If it was as long as Mitsuru’s - or even Shinji’s - I would have.” His hand dropped down to cup the side of Minato’s face and Minato opened his eyes to see the boy watching him with a small, fragile smile that Minato wasn’t used to seeing on him.

He tilted his head up slightly and Ryoji leaned down to press their foreheads together, closing his eyes with a shaky little sigh that made Minato reach up to rest a hand on his face.

“I’m glad you’re here,” Ryoji whispered. “I’m so, so glad we’re both here. I thought for sure we wouldn’t be.”

“Me too,” Minato murmured. “But we are, and we will be.”

Ryoji hummed in agreement, but didn’t pull away just yet. They both stood there for several moments just basking in the relief of their shared presence before Ryoji finally pulled back reluctantly. “We should probably head down now - Yukari and Mitsuru are waiting.”

Minato sighed but nodded. It’d be fine, but the whole thing was still a little ridiculous. At least Ryoji looked nice in his vest and rolled up sleeves. Minato was still annoyed at being convinced into a vest in the first place when he would have been just fine in the jacket.

But Ryoji kept shooting glances at him so he supposed it at least fulfilled its purpose.

Yukari and Mitsuru were both in nice evening dresses, unsurprisingly, and they looked very nice, also unsurprisingly. The rest of SEES seemed amused by the whole affair and Minato shot Akihiko and Shinji an annoyed glare at where they were smirking at him. He could almost hear their “Better you than me.” comments. Ken and Fuuka looked equally relieved to be staying there. Aigis sent him the pitying look of someone who’d long gotten used to his social awkwardness.

Junpei seemed torn between envy and relief, but one glance between Minato’s long-suffering expression and Mitsuru’s placid smile seemed enough to wipe the envy away and he grinned and tossed a salute to Ryoji and Minato. “Good luck! Hope the food’s good!”

“The food will be amazing, I’m sure,” Ryoji agreed cheerfully.

Minato just sighed. “We’ll see you when we get back.” He wasn’t going to think about the restaurant, he wasn’t going to think about the restaurant.

“If you survive, sure.”

“I’m going to pass out and fall down the stairs.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll catch you.” Ryoji slung an arm over his shoulders with a grin, making Minato shake his head.

“You catching me would defeat the point.”

Yukari groaned and turned to to head out the doors. “No one’s going to die, stop being a baby and come on.”

Minato cast one more mournful look towards the stairs leading back up to his nice, comfortable, safe room and then turned to follow with the chuckles of SEES following him.

The limo - because of course it was god damn it Mitsuru - was nice, and Minato found himself envious of how laid-back the other three seemed to be. Anxiety squirmed in his stomach in a way that had him pressing his arm against Ryoji’s as surreptitiously as possible for comfort. Ryoji twined their fingers together.

He wasn’t sure if having him physically here was better than having him a reassuring presence in the back of his mind had been. Better in some ways, but at least when he was in Minato’s soul he could talk to him constantly.

As they rode to the restaurant Minato found himself zoning out and letting the chatter of the other three wash over him, watching the city passing by out the window. So long as he didn’t think about it it was nice.

The restaurant itself was too nice - he took one look at the other guests and their clothes and wanted to turn around and walk out. Instead he just edged as close to Ryoji and Mitsuru as he could without raising any brows and tried not to look around too much. For the first time he was incredibly relieved that Mitsuru had gotten them a private room because the sight of so many people of a very different type was nerve-wracking.

He let out a relieved breath once they were in the room and away from people, and Ryoji reached out to squeeze his hand and tug him to the rounded table. Mitsuru and Yukari sat across from them, watching him with concern. He waved it away and glanced around curiously.

The room had a wall of windows facing the ocean, the whole islands and part of mainland spread out before them. The Moonlight Bridge was almost directly below them and he quickly dragged his gaze away from it and out across the ocean instead.

Dinner went more smoothly than he’d anticipated, and he slowly relaxed as the evening passed. The food was, of course, incredible, and the staff was pleasant enough - though he left most of the interactions with them to Mitsuru just to be safe - but the fact that it was just the four of them for the most part was the most relaxing thing. Ryoji’s arm brushing his kept him grounded even as he left the conversation mostly to the other three.

The whole thing kind of blurred together, honestly. It wasn’t nearly as bad as he’d feared, but it was still out of his comfort zone enough that he was on-edge the whole time.

So it was with immense relief that Minato finally stepped back into the dorms after dinner.

The rest of SEES had scattered by now, only Aigis and Akihiko in the lobby doing homework and reading respectively. They both glanced up to greet them all, Akihiko making a quip about them all surviving, and Yukari rolled her eyes at him.

Minato shrugged and said “It was nice.” and left it very pointedly at that because he was not going to tell Mitsuru that he’d rather jump in the ocean than do that again when she’d been trying to do a nice thing. Judging by Aigis’ cocked head she could tell he was lying, but that was nothing new and it was fine. She knew and accepted that he lied a fair amount when dealing with other people and their feelings.

He and Ryoji bid them all a goodnight, thanked Mitsuru and Yukari for the dinner, and then hurriedly headed up to their room before Yukari could make any suggestion of a repeat sometime.

Minato dropped back onto his bed with a long groan. “Next time I’m not telling them. We’re going to Tokyo and I’ll get us a reservation at something by the clubs. Or we’ll get a private karaoke room at a bar or something.”

Ryoji laughed as he began stripping off his vest. “It wasn’t that bad.”

He didn’t bother responding, just closing his eyes with a quiet sigh. It hadn’t been that bad. But he still didn’t want to do it again. Something far more casual was his preference.

Minato was distracted from his thoughts by the bed dipping and a weight settling overtop of him. He opened his eyes to find Ryoji leaning over him with a small smile playing at his lips and a knowing look in his eyes. “Just the two of us next time,” he murmured.

“Harajuku, then Akihabara,” Minato decided, staring up at him. “I want to see what albums and niche collections Akihabara has. And see if the new portable audio system is as powerful as rumors are saying.”

Lips twisting into a smirk, Ryoji countered, “As long as I get to pick out some outfits for you in Harajuku.”

Minato made a face but didn’t deny him. That was fair, he supposed, even if Ryoji was absolutely going to get him into something ridiculous. “Fine. Just don’t go too overboard.”

A chuckle was all he received in response and Ryoji leaned down to press their foreheads together affectionately, eyes soft and affectionate as they met Minato’s. It was a comfort after the exhausting affair of dinner.

That said he was tired and wanted to go to bed, so after a few moments he nudged Ryoji off of him and began extracting himself from his overly nice clothes. Ryoji snickered at him again, but joined him in the nightly routine easily enough.

Normally it was early for them to head to bed, bun Minato was already beginning to fall asleep as soon as he dropped onto the mattress. He grumbled as Ryoji prodded him into moving under the covers and over so they’d both fit but acquiesced and allowed the other to settle in and tug him into a hug.

Just before he faded to sleep he glimpsed the cherry blossom hair clip gleaming in the moonlight alongside the vase of flowers.

It tugged a reluctant, fond smile from him, and then he closed his eyes and fell asleep to Ryoji’s breaths.

~ ᙙᙖ ~

Me: This’ll be a short, sweet chapter, nothing heavy or particularly angsty-

Ryoji and Minato holding up a hanakotoba book and existential crises: You sure?

Me: Heavy sigh

This was not at all what I was planning to write for this, but then they all got away from me and I had a lot of fun writing out the mundane life of Minato and friends post-canon. This au has turned into “Minato’s third year and how SEES moves on after P3” and honestly I can’t even regret it, because it’s so fun and is also making me mildly emotional to see what could have been.

Fun fact, the restaurant I chose is, in fact, a real one in Odaiba. Meals start at about $130 a person (after conversion) not including reservation fees or potentially drinks, so Minato is completely justified for being terrified of existing within its space because I would be too.

Mitsuru we love you but pls.

#ryominaweek2023 #ryomina #persona 3 #ryoji mochizuki #minato arisato #makoto yuki #i'm always a nerd for flower language so this prompt was incredibly fun #hanakotoba is fun #ryoji is a sap #(minato is too he just won't admit it)#mitsuru and yukari are trying to help but they forget that not everyone considers a top dollar restaurant as a casual date #this is not what minato signed up for please let him go home

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