A/N: For the @personasummerzine! Could I resist putting a little Akihiko/Mtisuru? Not at all.&hellip

A/N: For the @personasummerzine! Could I resist putting a little Akihiko/Mtisuru? Not at all.…………A cool breeze blew in from the sea, gently tangling Mitsuru’s open hair. She shivered as she brushed a stray bang out of her face; she should have brought a headband and a sweater. Then again, she hadn’t really expected to be on the beach in the middle of the night. Sitting on a log wasn’t as comfortable as television made out. Had she been more prepared, she would have thought to bring a cushion or a blanket. In spite of Junpei’s and Yukari’s best efforts, the firepit barely warmed her shins, let alone the rest of her. At least the flames were bright enough to see by. Rubbing her arms, Mitsuru glanced at the rest of her dormmates as they huddled around the makeshift campsite. Oddly enough, it seemed like she was the only one feeling the chill.On her right, Junpei slowly strummed an old guitar, his baseball cap off for once. There was an odd delicacy as he plucked the strings, a grace that she had never associated with him before. All of that, however, was ruined by his off-key singing. “Oh, when I look back now, that summer seemed to last forever—”Sitting next to him, Yukari covered her ears and groaned. As she hunched over, a pink tank top strap fell off her shoulder. “Either play or stop singing. One or the other. Please.”“Play or…” Junpei stilled as he considered her suggestion. After a few minutes, he squawked, indignant, “Hey! You just want me to stop singing!”“Yeah,” Yukari nodded, crossing her arms and giving him a dry look. “Literally anything but that.”His jaw tightened at the insult. Junpei growled, “What’s wrong with it?” She snorted. “Do you even have to ask?” Turning to her right, Yukari poked Fuuka’s bare shoulder. “It’s terrible, right?”“Huh?” Fuuka recoiled, unprepared to get dragged into the argument. Mitsuru resisted the urge to help the poor girl out; at some point, Fuuka had to learn better than to sit next to those two. “That’s…”“That’s?” Yukari and Junpei repeated together, leaning closer.“That’s…” Her hands clenched on her dress’s hem, bunching the frilly material together. Diplomatically, she weakly replied, “I didn’t know you could play.”Mitsuru chuckled as Junpei and Yukari returned to sniping at each other. Maybe their mutual irritation was what kept them warm despite their shorts and tank tops. In the months since they’d joined the dorms, it seemed like their bickering had only increased. She’d seen cats and dogs fight less. Even their actual dog wasn’t half as argumentative. Mitsuru smiled fondly as she studied the scene on the other side of the flames. Sandwiched between Shinjiro and Ken, Koromaru sighed blissfully as the pair scratched his ears and rubbed his back. Over the crackling flames, it was hard to hear what they were talking about, their voices a low murmur as they watched the fire. It was a study in contrasts, watching them. Shinjiro was the tallest in the group, Ken the shortest, and the age gap between them guaranteed that they’d have never met in a normal situation. Then again, there was a good chance no one in this rag-tag group would have met otherwise. She would have certainly not, at least. Mitsuru paused at the thought. Even if they had met, they definitely wouldn’t have been friends. And yet, here she was, surrounded by all of them.Noticing her stare, Shinjiro smiled faintly. While still guarded, his expression was more open than it had been in months, his smile almost reaching his eyes. Not for the last time, Mitsuru was grateful that he’d decided to return to the group.She had missed his steady presence.“Water!” Minako croaked desperately.Mitsuru jerked her head to her left to find the brunette thumping her chest, her orange blouse wrinkling with every hit. It took a few seconds to realize exactly what was happening: Minako had eaten too fast.Again.Her lips were smeared with gooey chocolate and marshmallow bits. Minato quickly pulled the wood stick out of her hands, ignoring her wide eyes as he took off the marshmallow from the end. “I think you had too much.”“Here.” Aegis stiffly sat down on her other side, holding out a water bottle. “Tha…nkss,” Minako gasped, immediately grabbing the bottle and gulping down its contents. In her haste, a thin stream of water dribbled down her neck. Mitsuru marvelled at the way she managed to make her already messy appearance even messier. Meanwhile, her brother still looked put together.“You should chew carefully before you swallow.” Despite being a robot, there was nothing robotic about Aegis’s concern. “Only eat a little at a time, and make sure to stop when you are full. Eating too much can be a choking hazard, cause heartburn and other discomforts, or even lead to death.”Minato chuckled softly. “That might be hard for her.”Even as she drank, Minako made sure to elbow her brother in the gut. Mitsuru still couldn’t get over how different the two were. She had expected more similarities between siblings, especially twins, yet Minato and Minako were exact opposites in every way. She was outgoing while he was withdrawn, she was eager when he considered his options. Minako was an open book and Minato was impossible to read. It was almost impossible to find common ground between them.Yet, despite all of that, people were drawn to them. Schoolmates, students from a rival school, random strangers—Mitsuru kept finding them hanging out with the oddest of people, and that was one of the rare similarities between the pair. They both exuded a mysterious air, their personas’ shifted with the wind, and Mitsuru stopped keeping track of the number of times she found them talking to themselves. While she couldn’t put her finger on it, she was certain things were changing because of them. Like a stopped clock somewhere had started to tick once more.What it was counting down to, she wasn’t sure. Mitsuru shivered again, though she couldn’t say if it was because of the wind or the chill that ran down her spine at the thought. Countdowns weren’t a good thing in movies and books. She could only hoped they were better in real life.“Cold?” Akihiko asked, disrupting her thoughts as he draped his shirt over her shoulders. He stepped around the log and sat down beside her, their knees bumping as he adjusted his position. “A little, thanks,” she admitted, slipping her arms through his sleeves. The shirt was still warm. She glanced at his bare chest. “You’re fine like that?”“It’s summer.” Akihiko snorted dismissively.“Right.” Perhaps she really was the odd one out here. Almost everyone was wearing short sleeves, shorts, or even a knee-length dress. And no one looked like they needed a shawl. “You looked like you were relaxing for once.” He bumped his shoulder against hers, grinning broadly. “A big change for someone so confused when Junpei and Yukari dragged us out here.”Mitsuru glared at him, crossing her arms as she coolly retorted, “I have never done something like this before. Isn’t it odd to visit the beach at night?”“Really?” Akihiko stared at her blankly. “You have a private beach and don’t come here at night? I thought rich people did that all the time.”Pursing her lips, Mitsuru wondered not for the first time just what her classmates imagined her lifestyle was. “As far as I’m aware, I have never seen a beach party like this.” She gestured at the fire and cozy setting. “This is not even a party. Also, this isn’t a private beach.”“It isn’t?” Akihiko chuckled, shaking his head. “Coulda fooled me. There’ve been, like, five other people here the entire time we’ve been here.”“That doesn’t make it a private beach.” Mitsuru resisted the urge to explain further; no one had time for an in-depth explanation on property law. She lightly traced circles on the sand with the edge of her silver sandal. “Either way, I’ve never done this before. It’s a first.”When she thought about it, Mitsuru had many “firsts” since her persona appeared. First fight, first injury, first loss, first real guilt—she could go on and on about the negatives. Yet, recently, she’d found her list of pluses had grown longer. First karaoke session, first full dinner table, first sleepover…Mitsuru glanced at the group around her, at her friends—no, that sounded too intimate—at her acquaintances—no, that sounded too distant—at her companions.“You know, sometimes I forget how sheltered you are.” Akihiko shook his head, amused. “Hey!” Ken stood, pointing at the sky. “It’s a shooting star!”Immediately, Mitsuru looked up just in time to catch the tail end of a white streak. Compared to the city, sky was somehow both darker and brighter here. Millions of stars gathered together to form a river and even more scattered across the broad expanse with no rhyme or reason. “Did you make a wish?” Akihiko whispered softly.“A wish?” she asked, still looking up. “You don’t know that either?” His tone betrayed fondness, rather than exasperation. “When you see a shooting star, you’re supposed to make a wish.”The streak faded into the black sky and Mitsuru sighed. Too late now.“Ohh, the lemur constellation!” Junpei shouted, excited.Immediately, everyone tore their eyes from the sky to him, expressions baffled. Mitsuru had never heard something so ridiculous in her life, which was saying something considering she summoned her psyche to fight monsters in her school in an alternate dimension every night. Shinjiro gruffly asked, “The what?”Perplexed, Ken cocked his head. “Lemur?”“What?” Noticing their stares, Junpei furrowed his brow and looked at them each individually, bemused. “Don’t they teach you this?”“They don’t teach us imaginary things.” Yukari rolled her eyes, already dismissing him. “There’s no such thing as a ‘lemur constellation’.”“There is,” Junpei hotly argued. “So much for your grades.”“This explains why yours are so low,” she sniped back, her skin flushing a hot red.Aegis shook her head, intervening before a full-scale argument could erupt. “There are no lemurs up there, only stars.”“That’s…not how constellations work.” Minako scratched her cheek. “Not that there’s a lemur one either but…”“Oh come on, can’t you see it?” Frustrated, Junpei lay down on the sand, not caring how much got into his clothes and hair. Pointing at the sky, he started to trace a pattern. “If you take that star…and then the bright one over there…”“Please. Like you can make a lemur out of those.” Yukari grimaced before reluctantly lying down as well. She reached up to yank Fuuka down. “I don’t know why we listen to him sometimes.”“Huh?” Fuuka cried, surprised as she fell back onto the soft sand. “Yukari!” “We’re already covered in sand.” Yukari sounded utterly uncontrite. “And you shouldn’t crane your neck all the time.”“Hey, are you listening?” Junpei growled, stopping his recital. “I was!” Ken replied eagerly, his head resting on Koromaru’s side as he stared up. It was the closest he’d come to sounding like a child. “I still don’t see a lemur.”“I have also not found any giraffes, elephants, or other animals,” Aegis repeated, her head back as she stared up. Clearly, she didn’t need to worry about neck cricks. “That’s not…” Minako trailed off, giving up. Slowly, she lowered herself to lay beside her brother, resting her head on his chest. When he grunted, she murmured, “I’m not getting sand on my hair.”“Fine.” Minato sighed. Crossing his arms behind his head, he added, “I think you can make anything out of the stars.”“Thank you! Someone gets it!” Junpei praised before continuing to trace out his lemur constellation.Oddly enough, Mitsuru could just see it, though even that was just barely, and not something she’d have looked for on her own. If she angled her head just so, and ignored every lesson she’d ever had on constellations, she could just make out a monkey-like thing in the sky.Akihiko chuckled as he sprawled on the sand. “I guess you weren’t making it up.”When Yukari didn’t say anything, he crowed, “See? Told ya so. Next you’ll tell me you don’t know the summer square or the big fork.”There was a long silence. Shinjiro stared at Junpei. She almost did the same. Perhaps Mitsuru should be more concerned about Junpei’s grades after all. Finally, Fuuka politely asked, “You mean the summer triangle and big dipper?”“I’m not sure if he’s serious or kidding anymore.” Yukari shot Junpei a pitying look. “There’s no way you made all that up. Someone lied to you.”“What are you talking about?” Junpei snorted, raising his hand once more. “It’s like I have to teach you guys everything.” Mitsuru glanced at the empty spot beside Akihiko. At this point, she was the only one sitting up; the twins had even managed to get Aegis to lie down. Hesitantly, Mitsuru knelt on the sand, her hand shifting through the soft grains. It was warmer than she’d expected, still retaining the sun-kissed heat from the day. Feeling bold, she slipped of her slippers, digging her toes in the sand.The sensation was nice than she’d expected. Mitsuru glanced around. Here she was, lying on the ground, feet bare, surrounded by her friends, all of them looking for strange animals in the sky…surely this situation was yet another first. Mitsuru couldn’t supress a chuckle.Akihiko shot her a surprised look as she settled in. “What’re you doing?”“Relaxing,” Mitsuru chuckled. -- source link

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