Akira awoke, feeling something bristling inside his mouth. He opened his eyes, only to be greeted by a sight of black fur covering his vision.

Spitting out the tail, Joker gently lifted Morgana to the foot of his bed. He looked around at the dusty attic, yawning as he did so. He spent a good few minutes fumbling around blindly before grabbing his wide-lensed glasses. After putting them on, he sat on the bed, waiting for his vision to adjust.

The first thing he noticed was that his phone’s screen was lit up. Akira put his feet on the creaking wooden floor and headed over to his work desk, picking it up. The time read “9:45 AM” with many IM notifications gathered under. As the brightness of the screen stopped clouding his view, he began to scroll through the IMs that had gathered overnight. The messages ranged from farming ideas from Haru to playing Gun About with Shinya, but one icon caught his eye before anything else.

Akira tapped the green icon, opening his the conversation to reveal a single new message. The message read, “Diner. 6 in afternoon. No late.”

Joker chuckled at Futaba’s quirky writing. He responded with a quick message of affirmation and set his phone down, changing into his casual weekend clothes. After a moment of thought, he stuffed a spare jacket, an umbrella, some tissues, and his money into his bag. He wondered how Morgana always fit in such a tightly-knit bag, especially when his books and papers from school were present.

A few new messages from Futaba had popped up on his phone, reading as follows:

What should I wear?

Oh god, this is my first time doing this.

What if I screw up?

Akira sent a few messages in response to the question.

Just wear what you normally wear. And you can’t screw up, whatever you do is good enough for me.

...Slick as always, Joker.

See you later today!

~~~

As she left the Shibuya subway system and arrived at the square, Futaba couldn’t shake off the feeling that she was lost. She had been here before, after all. It wasn’t completely unknown territory, but yet, Oracle felt nervous about traveling around alone in the city, especially after hearing about what nearly happened to Makoto. As the city’s sounds rang into her ears, she wondered to herself: why did she have to choose the liveliest part of Tokyo for a date?

After bumping into multiple strangers, she finally arrived at the front of the diner. When she stepped inside, Futaba saw Akira waiting for her. She glanced at a nearby clock. “Ten minutes late?” she thought to herself, anxious.

When Akira saw her, hundreds of thoughts ran through her mind. Would he be mad? Disappointed? Sad? Why did he choose her over all of the other members of the Phantom Thieves? What if-

~~~

Akira had sighed in relief when Futaba came only a minute after he did. He had expected her to be a bit late, so all’s well that ends well. He gave a small peck on her forehead, causing her to stand rooted to her spot for a good minute or two. She shook her head and gave an unusually carefree grin as Akira grabbed her hand and pulled her inside.

As they situated themselves, the couple unconsciously assessed the other. Futaba noticed that Akira’s hair seemed to be… slightly less frayed than normal and that he was somehow keeping nearly completely still. Akira, on the other hand, noticed Futaba’s hair was a mess, as though she had been in a rush, and that she was constantly fidgeting, whether it be with her hair or the edge of her clothes. She looked down to hide a small blush slowly crawling across her face and quickly looked up when she felt an arm wrap around her shoulders. The arm in question belonged to Akira, who had somehow gone and sat next to her in the booth without her noticing. The two sat in a comfortable silence before Futaba tried to engage in conversation. Even before she spoke the first syllable of her sentence, a waiter came up to the two, holding a small notepad.

“May I take your order?”

Akira was the first to respond. “A steak, please.”

The waiter then turned to Futaba, who began stuttering under the sudden pressure. “I- erm, I’ll- I’ll take- uh- I-”

“She’ll be taking a steak too,” Akira responded for her. Once the waiter left, Akira looked directly at Futaba, who was looking at the wall and slowly getting redder in the face by the second. “What happened to talking with strangers?” Akira inquired.

“I- uh- embarrass. Date. Too formal,” she managed to get out before turning to Akira. She was biting her lip, something that he hadn’t seen her in a long while. Rather than making a joke about it or pressing the subject further, Akira simply nodded in understanding, something she was thankful for and patted her head.

This time, Akira was quick to break the silence. “How’s school holding up for you?” he asked, before chuckling. “That’s what I would ask if this was a friendly outing. Luckily, it isn’t.”

Futaba’s mind, despite being how capable and intelligent as it was, couldn’t register nor think of a response to the last statement. She stared at Akira, not caring if it was strange or not. “Luckily?”

Akira chuckled once again, planting a quick kiss on her cheek. “Luckily, as in you were absolutely perfect for me. I’d help you out in the real world, and you’d help me out on the Metaverse.”

Futaba looked away. “Please,” she began, “I didn’t do anything. You guys did it all.”

Akira raised an eyebrow. “Then what about that Final Guard during the Rays of Control? You saved our lives back there.”

Futaba rolled her eyes, slowly becoming more familiar with speaking again. “Yeah, but you guys-”

The girl was cut short when the waiter placed a large steak in between the two. Noticing the ravenous look in Futaba’s eyes, Akira let her have the first plate. It wasn’t until ten minutes later when his own plate would arrive and he would start eating, only for Futaba to finish once he began. There was yet another moment of silence before Futaba began to laugh. Akira looked at her curiously, asking “What’s so funny?”, his mouth half-full.

Once her laughter died down, she responded. “We’re pretty bad at this, aren’t we?”

“What do you mean?” Akira asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I mean, aren’t dates supposed to feel more romantic ? Like, shouldn’t we be dressing up and going to a five-star restaurant or something, then talking throughout the dinner?”

“Hmm. I guess so,” Akira said after a moment of thought. “I just thought you wouldn’t want to do something like that.”

Futaba leaned her head onto his shoulder. “Then you thought right.”

The two had nearly lapsed into another comfortable silence before Futaba began to speak again. “There we go, we almost did that thing again. What are you, a silent protagonist?”

Akira swallowed a large chunk of meat. “I mean, I could be. Who knows? The world’s a pretty big place.”

The two shared a laugh as Akira quickly finished up his steak, paid for the meal, and left the diner. The two walked the streets for a while, visiting the bookstore, arcade, and the CD store. A few hours later, Akira glanced inside of his bag, thankful for its magical ability to hold so many items, and brought Futaba to one of the subway lines. It wasn’t until Futaba had sat down next to a bench when she realized that she was tired and that the duo was at Inokashira Park instead of Yongen-Jaya.

She would have jumped up if it hadn’t been for her fatigue. “Why are we… here? Why aren’t we back at LeBlanc yet?”

Akira gave a quick peck to her cheek, causing her drowsy face to blush fiercely. “Because I have a gift for you.”

Futaba gave a quick scoff. “And these past few hours weren’t a gift? What a joke.”

“So, do you want it or not?” Akira said, grinning.

“Sure,” she responded. “Shoot away, ‘Cree.”

Joker grabbed Oracle by the chin, turning her head to face him. She opened her mouth to argue against this sudden action when Akira was suddenly kissing her, mouth-to-mouth, his hands running down her long, orange hair and her hands wrapped around his neck. They stayed like that for who-knows-how-long before breaking apart. Futaba blushed beet-red, while Akira just sat there with a smug grin on his face.

“How’s that for a gift?”

~~~

The next day, Futaba woke up inside of LeBlanc. She tried to move, only to find herself stuck in a sleeping Akira’s grasp. After spending a good ten minutes wriggling out, she started to poke at his cheek, whispering. “Akira. Akira. Joker. Akira. Wake up.”

Akira groaned, rolling around in his bed. “Ten more minutes, Morgana. I don’t even have school today.”

Futaba laughed at the response, looking around. She was still wearing her jacket- a good sign- and there were no signs of anything weird. At least, until she felt a piece of cold metal underneath her shirt. She felt around and pulled it out, staring at it for a minute or two before looking at the minuscule combination lock on the side, which read “0725”. To her surprise, the locket clicked open to reveal a small photo of the two sitting side by side, asleep and leaning on each other’s shoulders.

She recalled the events of last night. Akira had brought her to LeBlanc later in the day, asking if she wanted to stay for the night. She had happily agreed, and the two went upstairs to the attic. Akira had taken a locket off of his work desk and given it to Futaba, telling her the combination of the lock. When she asked why he chose that number, he responded by saying “It was the day I first laid my eyes on you”. The two had laid on the bed, fully clothed as to not worry Sojiro, until Futaba had dozed off into a dreamless sleep.

Oracle clutched the locket close to her heart before hiding it under her shirt again. “Some memories aren’t meant to be remembered,” she quoted quietly, not remembering who had originally said it, “but some are.”