Chapter Text

Tomorrow would be the day Akira thought as he paced around in the attic of Leblanc, his home away from “home”. Step, Step, Swivel. Step, Step, Swivel. His movements could be heard from downstairs in the café because Akira heard a bang from Sojiro against the wall, an unspoken message telling him to “Shut the hell up”.

He sighed as he moved to sit at the foot of his Bed, he laid his head in hands and rubbed his eyes. Gods he was a mess, he couldn’t stop worrying over this final palace, their final target, and the fact that just two days ago. Akechi had died.

Granted he was a shithead who killed countless people for Shido’s gain, but on a level, he was the same as the rest of the thieves. The only reason he never felt anything when he did what he did, was because he had no one to show him otherwise when he was a kid. On the inside, he was still just a scared lonely boy who knew nothing of the world and was taking it out on others, and his father. Akira felt guilty because he couldn’t save him, he felt guilty because he was focusing on his revenge when stalking Shido’s palace. Most of all, he felt guilty because he could have done something.

Bang!

Akira was snapped out of his thoughts as he looked up and noticed he was making more noise, while he was in his head, he kept bouncing his foot which was obviously annoying Sojiro, hence the loud noise.

With another sigh, Akira lied down and tried to gather his thoughts to take his mind off of something. Then he reached an epiphany, he was definitely not the only one who was nervous about this, while he was wallowing in his own self-guilt the others were probably worrying too. With a deep breathe through his nose, he sat up picked up his phone and messaged Futaba.

Akira: Hey Futaba?

Futaba: Hey, What's wrong?

Akira: How many films have you got?

Futaba: Hmmm. Loads, a ton of horror, some action, obviously some feather man. But none of that icky romance you and Makoto watch. Blech.

Akira: Haha, I’ll have you know those romances are good. Anyway, that’s not my point, bring whatever films round. But make sure you mix up the genres. You know Makoto isn’t good with Horror.

Akira: Actually, bring a lot of horror as well as some action. We’re gonna let off some steam.

Futaba: Roger that.

Akira smiled to himself, phase one was complete. Now he needed snacks and people and it was obvious everyone would be free. He did tell them to get some rest after all. He swiped through his phone some more coming to another text chain he had with Ann and Ryuji, “The OG Thieves” was the name of the chat due to them being the first three members sans Mona.

Akira: Hey, are you guys free?

Ryuji: Yeah man, Ann’s with me rn actually. What's up.

Akira: Oh, are you two on a date ;)

Ann: You know we are silly.

Akira: I know but it is fun to annoy Ryuji, let me guess, he’s blushing like mad rn?

Ann: You bet he is.

Ryuji: SHUT UP! What do u want Akira?

Akira: Well, I’m setting up a movie night to calm everyone’s nerves for tomorrow, do you think you can grab Yusuke and get some snacks? I’ll pay you back for them.

Ryuji: Cool, yeah sure man, we’ll be there soon. Want us to grab Makoto and Haru while we’re at it, we are near theirs and they told us they’d be studying together.

Akira: Yeah sure, sounds good. See you soon.

Ann: Byeeeeee.

Ryuji: Later.

With a content smile on his face Akira put his phone down, as soon as he did, he heard the tell-tale ringing of the door telling him someone had entered. Akira went on high alert in case it was anyone other than the thieves/friends.

“SOJIROOOOOO, I HUNGER!” Futaba’s Curry shout was unmistakable and Akira immediately calmed and took a deep breath out. After he died one month ago, he was always a bit on edge around Police and strangers. If anyone found out he was still alive they’d force him through the interrogation again. It already plagued his dreams, he didn’t want to live it again, he shuddered at the thought and rubbed his wrists feeling the scars the handcuffs left. It had become a habit to rub them now and then in order to calm himself and remind him; he had escaped, and he was here, alive.

Letting a sigh escape, Akira got up and walked down the stairs, by this time the café would be closed anyway so it should be safe. As he reached the foot of the stairs, he noticed Futaba staring and licking her lips at a serving of curry, sitting next to her was a huge stack of DVDs and some games too. Good thinking Futaba he thought to himself.

“Hey Kid, how you feeling?” Sojiro asked while still hiding in the corner cleaning the dishes as he always was.

“I'm doing a bit better, still nervous.” He replied casually, he didn’t want to worry Sojiro by hinting at his PTSD nightmares, only Makoto knew of them.

Sojiro Scoffed at him “Yeah, I know you’re doing better. I can hear it from down here.” He turned to him then with a warm smile on his face.

Akira responded with a smile of his own as he muttered a sorry. Then he mentioned that he invited everyone round to watch some movies and play some games to calm their nerves. Sojiro nodded his head in understanding and simply said: “Don’t be too loud, you're dead remember.”

Akira sighed, “Don’t need to tell me twice.”

#

Akira and Futaba were sitting in the Attic room setting everything up for the rest of the thieves, Akira was moving the sofa and chairs into suitable positions that gave them a good view of the new modern TV he was able to purchase before he killed himself. In the meantime, Futaba and Mona were setting up the DVDs into their respective genre stacks; the horror stack was significantly higher. He smirked to himself as he imagined Makoto’s reaction, maybe he’d turn the lights off to make it even better.

“Hey, Loverboy stop daydreaming!” Futaba shouted at him while Mona piped in with a snigger.

“Huh, oh sorry.” He was in the middle of moving the newly added armchair which was claimed by Ann and Ryuji, there wasn’t much room in the attic so they needed to double up. The usual setup consisted of Futaba with Mona in her lap, Ann sitting on Ryuji’s lap in the armchair (that always resulted in a red face from him and teasing from everyone else), Yusuke and Haru normally sat in their own seats, and that left the couch which Akira and Makoto claimed as the “Queens seat”. On occasion when some of the others were busy, they would use the bed instead.

Akira looked at his handiwork and smiled to himself, just as he had finished and started to sit down, the others arrived. The first to pop up was Yusuke with his lanky figure, he always had to crouch under the beams on his way up. Then Haru followed carrying a few bags of snacks, she was followed by Ann and Ryuji who carried more sweets, snacks and fizzy drinks. A few moments after, Makoto followed with a tray of drinks which she handed out.

“Two hot chocolates, one for Ann and one for Ryuji. An iced tea for Futaba, Camomile Tea for Haru. Coffee for Yusuke, Akira and myself.” Makoto had listed off while she handed them out. She then sat down next to her boyfriend who put his arm around her.

Everyone had some form of table near them, whether it be the work desk near Yusuke or the much larger table that was in front of Makoto and Akira.

Akira turned to Makoto and gave her a quick kiss before he stood up and welcomed everyone with his normal Joker flair. “Welcome Ladies and Gentleman to the fabled Movie Night of Thieves” he exclaimed with his arms outstretched. “Today we have a variety of shows available with some entertainment on offer should you so desire. We have it all, Action, Romance…” Akira chuckled as he heard Futaba audibly throw up as he said her hated and his favourite genre. “Feather Man shows, Video games… and horror” Akira then motioned to the stacks of DVDs that were sitting next to the DVD player, each stack had its own label made by Akira in front of them.

Makoto Stiffened at the sight of the large stack of Horror films and he saw her shuffle and clutch her cup of coffee for dear life.

“Who wants to choose first?” he asked and almost instantaneously Ryuji shot his hand up, beating Futaba by a hair who then started to pout and muttered how it was unfair how over levelled Ryuji’s speed skills were.

“Action, for sure.” He said with a wide boyish grin and Ann rolled her eyes at him although she wore a wide smile at this too. Ryuji had gotten her into action films but she didn’t want to admit it to everyone because she thought it was embarrassing, similarly Makoto had gotten Akira into Yakuza flicks so he made sure to add a small “Yakuza” pile to the mix.

“Action it is my good sir, what would you like to watch first?” he asked and he read the selection stopping at “The Avengers” when Ryuji let out a loud “Oh, that’s good.” With a chuckle, Akira slid it out of the pile and put the disc into the DVD player, sat down and pressed a few buttons on the remote to start the film. Then he got into a comfortable position, One arm on the armrest while his other was snaked around Makoto’s back and rested against her hip, he rubbed nonsensical patterns with his thumb back and forth via instinct; he’d done it that much that he just ended up doing it without thought at times which caused Makoto to giggle.

#

From start to end the Films they had chosen were very entertaining, in The Avengers, Ryuji and Ann were on the edge of their seat and quickly explained plot points to Yusuke or Haru who hadn’t watched prior films. Or in some foreign film chosen by Ann, everyone watched intently trying to understand the plot through what little English they knew, the only person who had any reaction in the film was surprisingly Ryuji because Ann had started to coach him in English speaking. There were many other films including a series of Feather Man that they watched and tried to guess what was going on at pivotal points, Futaba would shoot their guesses down each time because they had no idea what was going on; it was a later season after all.

By far though, Akira’s favourite was when he put on the Trial of the Dragon Trilogy per Makoto’s request. As usual, she was absolutely engrossed in the film and was leaning forward so much that Akira had to pull her onto his lap and wrap his arms around her to stop her from falling off; he loved how into the film she got even though she’d watched it a million or so times.

Then, came the horror films. Futaba must have read Akira’s mind earlier on because she shut the blinds and turned off the lights before sliding the disc into the player and selecting “Play film”, she put on an old classic, “The Conjuring” it wasn’t a very scary film by horror’s standards and even Haru, a horror fanatic, had questioned her choice saying “This isn’t considered scary by my standards and I have a wide collection of horror films.” Futaba responded simply by pointing at Makoto who was sitting on Akira’s lap, eyes wide open and clutching Akira’s hands, which were lying on her stomach, as if they were a lifeline.

The film played on in the background like white noise to Akira because all he was focusing on was his friends. Futaba was cuddling Mona and forcing him to watch the film, Ann, Ryuji and Haru were commenting on how bad the film was and how parts of it were actually funny rather than scary. Yusuke sat in his seat and was making a frame out of his fingers which he peered through, framing the TV while he commented on the cinematography of the film and its beauty.

Makoto however, was now sitting at Akira’s side as around 30 minutes in, she had shuffled out of his lap and started to grip his arm, then 45 minutes in she had turned away from the Film entirely after a very bad jump scare which literally made her jump and scream very loudly and she tucked her head into Akira’s arm refusing to watch the film anymore. For the remaining time of the film, Akira was calming Makoto by shushing her, telling her to breathe and rubbing her hair and kissing her on the head telling her it was going to be fine.

He always loved to tease her with horror films but he immediately felt guilty afterwards for putting her through it. The film had ended and everyone was laughing at how funny it was, Akira turned to Makoto and whispered: “Hey, it’s finished now, it’s all right.”

Like a little kid, Makoto still clutched onto his arm, shook her head and said “No! I’m not moving!” her voice was muffled by Akira’s clothes and shoulder meaning no one but him heard her. He chuckled and said “Ok.”

Everyone was getting up and gathering the rubbish to put in the bin while Akira still sat there watching. He was glad to have met these people, he was truly blessed.

Futaba turned and mouthed to Akira “Shall I take the films?” and Akira nodded back and added, “But not my films, only yours” to which she saluted at him with a mischievous laugh that was reminiscent of Mona’s. She packed the DVDs away and Mona went with her, sensing that Akira wanted some private time with Makoto.

Once everyone left Akira placed his cheek on Makoto’s head, which still hadn’t moved. He smiled and took a few deep breaths, then he got out his phone and went to his book App, scrolled through his selection and chose a book he had been reading with her for a while now. It was titled “The Foolish Priestess”.

He started to read it out loud from where they left off a few days ago. As he continued through the book page by page, he felt Makoto’s grip on him loosen and felt her head swivel round to face the phone. They read the book together for a few hours and then she fell asleep midway through a sentence, having sensed this via her soft rhythmic breathing, Akira put his phone on the table and picked Makoto up, careful not to wake her, he placed her on his bed then he joined her and covered themselves with the blanket.

That night, he slept without nightmares and felt re-invigorated for the change of heart the next day. Everything would be fine. Because they were at his side, and most importantly, Makoto was always there.