Archive of Our Own

As a child, Ren gets told to cover his mark even more than other kids.

(It’s another thing to ostracize him for, having his left wrist constantly bound and hidden.)

His parents look strained whenever the mark is brought up – it takes him a couple years to figure out why, as the looping writing is far too pretty to be made out easily.

He still learns his first kanji with those words – his favorite kanji, in fact.

It stands for cats, Ren learns gleefully. That’s a part of his mark that leaves his parents looking like someone is pulling their teeth; so after the first few attempts to get them to agree to get a cat for him, Ren leaves it be.

It’s not the ‘cat’ part that’s the biggest issue of his soulmark though.

Ren finds some leniency in himself towards his parents as he grows up; having your child run around with swear words as their soulmark would not lead to the best assumptions.

(As they always liked to remind him.)

***

Ren shows his soulmark to Morgana, the first chance he gets.

“...wow,” Morgana tilts his head. “You’re really tied to someone whose first words to you are…?”

Ren traces the familiar kanji and kana with his finger; he can never stop admiring his supposed soulmate’s calligraphy – it is both extravagantly elegant and scratchy, conveying a hurry as if his soulmate will rush to get those words out.

It’s somewhat at odds with the words themselves.

Ren can’t wait to meet such a walking contradiction of a person.

“Yes,” he says simply. His first couple days in Shujin didn’t end with him running into his soulmate; but now that he has Morgana… “I never had a cat, growing up,” he shares, throat constricting. He peers at Morgana shyly. “So I just thought that…”

“I’m not a cat!” Morgana argues vehemently.

Ren knows that.

“But other people don’t know that,” he murmurs. “So if I brought you along with me…”

Morgana seems torn between arguing more in favor of his very un-cat-like being, despite appearances, and taking pity on him. “...I guess I was kinda gonna stick by your side either way,” he grumbles at last. “But wouldn’t it make more sense that you’d meet your soulmate at random?!”

Ren shrugs.

He is one of the few people in this world who has an actual clue in his words about how he will meet his soulmate. He thinks he’d be stupid not to take advantage of it.

“I will need a comfortable place to stay,” Morgana bargains. “And sushi! Lots of sushi…” His mouth starts salivating.

Ren chuckles. It’s a small price to pay, when Mona is helping him so much.

***

Ren starts bringing Morgana with him everywhere.

And by everywhere, he means everywhere – to school, to his part-time jobs, whenever he goes fishing… Sometimes people do comment on this – never at first though.

He ends up making friends with a lot of those people though, so he is not complaining.

Well, not complaining much.

“I told you your soulmate wouldn’t just magically show up the second you started dragging me around,” Morgana tells him, rolled up as the cutest little tuxedo bread cat ever. His whittle toebeans are hidden under his fur – when he was younger, he had a plush very similar to how Mona is looking right now.

He never knew what happened to that plushie.

He has a couple guesses though, none of them too kind towards Mr. Whiskers’ fate.

Ren reaches around Morgana to grab some more of his tools – they are working on infiltration tools and he is pretty sure his skills are improving. “It’s still worth a shot,” he murmurs.

“Why are you so hung up on this?” Morgana asks. “The others aren’t.”

“That’s not true,” Ren feels the need to say. Ryuji’s soulphrase is something he regularly tells new people – without much success. Ann is a bit wary of talking to strangers still, but Ren heard her utter hers a couple times too.

Ryuji’s chosen phrase is a bit of a joke – Ren’s been teasing him about including one of his catchphrases, to which the answer was a very loud ‘FORREAL?!’ that left him laughing his ass off – while Ann switches back and forth between a romantic one-liner and something straight out of one of her villainess movies. As far as soulphrases go, they are descriptive of them as people – as they should be. Grand phrases, such as ‘I’ve been waiting for you all my life,’ might be mocked online for being cheesy, but Sumi delivers it with such earnestness, it almost hurts to tell her it’s not him. Hifumi shares, after a couple more of their matches, that she wavers between using a soulphrase that her mother approved and something that sounds more like how she talks during their games. He encourages her to try the latter more; after all, her soulmate should be the one to love her for who she really is.

Soulphrases, although they don’t work perfectly, are almost like a rite of passage for people. Choosing one, or coming up with the words for yourself means that you are getting ready to meet your soulmate – that you will introduce yourself to people with those words, and expect to hear the words written on your arm in turn. Some people like romantic and corny, others comedic ones… There are cases of course, when the soulphrase isn’t what the soulmates end up saying to each other at first – there are funny stories with people accidentally complimenting their soulmate, only to be met with their own words, or children unknowingly exchanging theirs – and not so funny stories, where two people seemingly find each other, only for one half of the pair to run into their true soulmate later on. Soulphrases can match like that, and there are several companies that try to set up blind dates based on soulphrases – a venture supported and hated in equal measure.

Ren’s soulphrase isn’t exactly set in stone, despite what he might say otherwise – but that’s okay, he thinks.

If Fate really has decided to usher him towards someone, then it will happen either way.

He does have a few preferred variants – likes to play with the idea of suavely and smoothly sweeping his soulmate off of their feet.

He supposes he should use his soulphrases more often – not just expect someone to blurt out the words that mark his arm.

He tugs at the band tied over his forearm – Morgana’s eyes follow the movement.

The band is a stark black, unassuming and blending into his school uniform. Even with summer uniforms in season now, he doesn’t want to change it; having a white one to match his shirt would just mean it’s liable to get dirty and any other color would draw attention, which is the opposite of what he wants.

He has a lot of respect for Yusuke for wearing bands that are colorful – his own art, often exchanged for a new piece, a pleasing blend of colors and different images drawn on it with whatever supplies the artist has at hand at the time – and standing out with his creations. Ren honestly wouldn’t be surprised if that’s what will eventually draw Yusuke’s soulmate in.

They – the Phantom Thieves – have shared their soulmarks before. It was after a caper, during a late dinner that they exchanged stories – bits and pieces about how they tried finding their person so far. Ren especially liked Makoto’s flushing admission that she’s been trying to study so hard to eventually meet her soulmate; maybe at college or a conference or a competition… The possibilities were endless.

Ren shared his own mark along with the messy story of how his parents refused to get him a cat – since he was still so young at the time, it ‘wasn’t right to search for soulmates yet’.

The group – his friends – were so upset on his behalf, the memory still warms his heart.

Now, glancing at his mark, tracing the words, he finds himself sharing the missing half of that story.

“They never liked my soulmate.”

“Who?” Morgana tilts his head.

“My parents,” Ren’s lips curl. “It’s unsightly to have a soulmate with such a foul mouth,” he affects. “They must be a thug or a gangster or even worse…” He adds, just to be safe, “That’s why they never got me a cat. They just didn’t want me to meet my soulmate while I was still their son.” He smiles without much joy. “I guess they don’t have to worry about that anymore.”

Morgana sounds horrified. “Ren…”

He shrugs. “Maybe they’d have been distant even if I didn’t have a mark like this,” he raises his pale arm towards the light. “But it just never sat right with me that they’d judge my soulmate without even meeting them.”

That they judged him for being tied to someone he never even met.

“They shouldn’t have done that,” Morgana agrees, concern in his eyes. “This whole soulmate system is wack, but… They shouldn’t have done that at all.”

“Sorry if it gets a bit too much,” Ren says, glancing away. He wants to meet his soulmate, yes, but dragging Morgana around…

“You want to prove them wrong, don’t you?”

Yes. Part of him desperately wants to prove his parents wrong, prove all the adults who shipped him off to Tokyo, who got him on record, so utterly wrong.

It’s why he is so driven to bring change with the other Phantom Thieves.

“We’ll prove them wrong,” Morgana promises when Ren stays silent for a second too long. He raises his head to meet the cat’s burning gaze. “We’ll prove your parents wrong. I’m sure your soulmate’s just gonna be surprised or something!” he adds, puffing himself up. “Everyone loves cats.”

Ren grins at the set-up. “I thought you weren’t a cat though…?”

Morgana bats at him. “Close enough!”

That’s what Ren hopes too.

***

Morgana ends up being right.

Ren’s soulmate is surprised; shocked, dumbfounded, taken aback, floored…

Ren is also all those things.

“Did you seriously bring your fucking cat in here?!” The black masked person ends up yelling at him, half an eye on Morgana and the other looking for a way out.

Ren – as Joker – doesn’t even really get the chance to blink.

“Shadows incoming!” Morgana shouts.

Ren turns to deal with those – and takes another, dazed look at his soulmate, only to see them booking it in the other direction.

“Hey-” he starts, but his voice chokes; he doesn’t think his words even make it that far.

A Shadow is straight up in his face, loudly demanding his attention.

It’s just him and Morgana in here – Ren has to focus on the battle to avoid injury, or worse.

It’s only after the Shadows are all defeated that he and Morgana share a look.

Ren is the first to clear his throat. “So… Bringing you along did help?”

“Joker,” Morgana calls hysterically, “are you saying that out of all people, the Black Mask is your soulmate?!”

Well. Ren is pretty sure it was the Black Mask who said the words, not him, but he still kind of ends up nodding, but also shrugging because what the fuck.

***

It goes something like this:

The Phantom Thieves take on the commission by Makoto Niijima – who quickly ends up joining them – to change yakuza extraordinaire Junya Kaneshiro’s heart. They do it pretty successfully, all things considered; and then Kaneshiro warns them of the same black masked figure that their previous target, Madarame mentioned.

There is something about mental shutdowns, lots of deaths and a paid assassin. None of them like the picture that’s being painted and they agree to keep an eye out.

Ren and Morgana heading to the Metaverse – heading to Mementos to be more precise – is a bit of a spur-of-the-moment decision. Ren usually has a lot of cash to go around, what with all their capers – but he just upgraded everyone’s stuff, so he doesn’t have quite enough to pay for a good sushi dinner for the two of them.

Going to Mementos for the explicit reason of getting like, three thousand yen more, should not have been a hard thing to do. Mona is great at navigating and Ren has several Personas in his arsenal – they even agreed to keep to the upper levels to avoid overexerting themselves without a full team present.

Still, it’s good sushi on the line, which is good motivation to keep going for a while.

The Black Mask showing up out of the blue startles both of them more than they can say.

Ren honestly never thought he’d run into the Black Mask like this – with only Morgana as his back-up, with them so near the entrance to Mementos, with five hundred yen still missing from his pocket for the good sushi…

He never thought he’d run into his soulmate like this either.

Looking back, ‘Black Mask’ isn’t too accurate – it’s not a mask, more like a helmet; with a cowl and a visor to obscure their chin and their eyes. They looked beaten, probably having spent a long time down there – alone, Ren is reminded with a pang, probably killing people-

No wonder they ran away as soon as possible.

“-kill people, Joker!” Morgana says, for the seventh time. Maybe more, Ren stopped listening after the third time.

Why didn’t he say something? Then his soulmate would know that it’s him – and maybe they would have stuck around more…

But all Ren did was stand there, too stunned to do anything.

Now, he might never find them – they could be literally anyone.

“I missed them,” he mutters to himself, still in disbelief.

“Good riddance!” Morgana crows. “You shouldn’t have a soulmate who is a murde-”

Ren twirls on him, because that tone, those words-

“Don’t talk about them like that!”

Morgana blinks audibly.

“Joker, you do know that the Black Mask kills people, right?”

“They’re still my soulmate! Apparently!” Ren snaps back.

“Killing. People. Why are you not more concerned about that part?!”

Morgana is concerned for him – logically, Ren knows that.

But at that moment, he only hears his parent’s voices, years and years of talking his soulmate down, directly or indirectly and he cannot fucking take it anymore.

***

“We had an argument,” Ren grumbles the next day, when Ann comments on how Morgana isn’t with him for once and isn’t he worried about not meeting his soulmate because of it?! “Besides, if I drag him along with me all the time, I’ll never know when I’ll actually meet my soulmate.”

“Well, yeah, but that’s the fun of it!” Ryuji says, grinning. “It’s still a surprise!”

Ann raises her eyebrows. “What did you argue about though?”

“I’ll tell you later,” Ren promises, only lying a little bit.

He will tell them eventually – just not yet.

“Let’s just focus on the tour for now,” he tells his two friends, flashing them a smile. “A TV studio’s gotta be pretty cool, right?”

***

The TV studio is everything but cool, but they do briefly meet a pretty boy their age who just bulldozes through the conversation and is apparently the main attraction for tomorrow, and they end up spending a couple hours in the amusement park nearby.

Ren goes home late, to find Morgana had taken all this time to get cat hair all over his stuff.

It’s not the worst, as far as revenge goes and with a somewhat clearer head, Ren sits down to talk.

“It’s not like I don’t know that they’re a murderer.”

Morgana, burrowed in between several pillows and blankets on the bed, glares at him. “Sure sounds like it.”

Ren huffs, but the breath he next takes turns into a deep sigh. “I didn’t want them to be right…”

“Your parents?” Morgana checks, whiskers twitching.

“Yeah.”

Because if they are right about his soulmate…

Then they were right about him all this time. Right about him being off, right about him being a criminal in the making despite him trying to just help, right to basically throw him out of the family-

“Ren,” Morgana calls out, and it takes him a moment to realize the world has gone blurry around him. He blinks, several times. There is a burning sensation in his eyes and he is already crying a bit. “Your soulmate being a bad person doesn’t automatically make you a bad person.”

Morgana has climbed out from under the covers – with a paw on Ren’s leg, he is now close enough to pet.

“Why wouldn’t it?” Ren rasps. “If they’re my soulmate-”

“No.” Morgana shakes his head. “I refuse to believe that I wouldn’t realize that you’re a bad person! And since I’m always with you and I know that you’re not a bad person, you have to listen to me when I say that you’re not!”

It’s a bit of a circular logic, a bit childish.

But somehow it strikes a cord within Ren’s heart and he finds himself smiling. “Promise to yell at me if I go evil?”

“Of course I will!” Morgana swears fervently.

It doesn’t solve the issue of Ren’s soulmate, but it does solve their little tiff, so there is that.

***

In a world where casual greetings like ‘Hi’, ‘Hello’ and the like are reserved for friends and family – or at least people you have talked to before – Goro Akechi has a hate-love relationship with those kinds of words.

Hate – because for the average masses, casual greetings are such a simple way of conveying closeness, despite two people not being soulmates.

Love – because they aren’t just to show off intimacy, but a way of proclaiming one’s self off-limits.

He greets each member of the staff at the TV studio with a cheerful ‘Good morning!’ – and it’s both a perfect manipulation, a show of that friendly celebrity they all expect and a silent way of declaring himself as his own person. No one here can match up to him, Goro knows – so he doesn’t even bother to pretend to look for his soulmate, but that’s just shy little Detective Prince Akechi being such a delight to have in the studio, isn’t it? He doesn’t mean to be a bother, he is politeness itself… He can practically hear the thoughts written over the faces of everyone he comes across.

This place is full of people who are head over heels in love with him, even if they themselves don’t know that yet. On the one hand, selling himself as the idol that has yet to find his soulmate and thus, is open for one, would boost his numbers…

On the other, Goro can do that shit just as well on his own.

***

When he first started out, appearing on TV, the interviewers practically pounced on the topic of his soulmark.

By now, Goro has perfected an awkward little laugh – his gloved fingers dancing over his sleeve, as if self-conscious about it. He has many ways of evading the question; he is still so young, he wants to establish himself as a person, he doesn’t find himself worthy of meeting his soulmate yet… Anything from the humble detective, to the one so taken by the idea of fated love – all masks that people eat the fuck up.

At this point, the question is considered one of the warm-ups for him, in any given interview.

Today, Goro chooses to be a hopeless romantic. “The metaphorical red string that connects people is one that gives me much hope that we can all be happy with our person.” He takes the time to find the camera that focuses on his face and smiles gently at it. “It might seem immature, but I believe love can offer us all what we need.”

“Aw, Akechi-kun!” The woman interviewing him calls out. “Not immature at all!”

“Love does add a lot to a person’s life,” the co-host chimes in. “Do you happen to have a special someone in your life already, Akechi-kun?”

Another expected query.

“Perhaps it won’t surprise you to find out that I am holding out,” Goro, as if subconsciously, brushes his fingers over his sleeve, where his soulmark sits.

Society, of course, approves most of soulmate couples – but there are many who choose to date outside of their soulmates, leading to a lot of drama if they are in a relationship when said soulmate is actually found.

As a teen idol, Goro wants no share in such bad press.

The audience, composed of high schoolers, squeals at his answer, cooing and calling out sweet nothings about him… Just as expected.

It’s a bit of a routine show, really – the only reason it has any relevance is…

“-about the Phantom Thieves-”

That.

Goro has a whole little speech rehearsed – and not just rehearsed, but perfected for stage – establishing himself as an opposing force towards those phantom vigilantes.

Glee wars in him with the emotions he is supposed to project – a quiet, unassuming, but ruthless professionalism.

Because the very Phantom Thieves he is talking about are sitting right there.

Not all of them – their numbers have grown since, Goro knows. But still, it’s a private source of amusement, and a lot of it, to know that his quarry is sitting idly, powerless to do anything while he has center stage.

It gets even better when the audience participation question ends up being directed at Joker.

That Joker, the leader of the thieves – the only one of interest in that motley crew, not that Goro has much interest in him. No one is worth his attention – it’s merely a speck of professional curiosity. Joker seems to be able to command several Personas, like him – Goro is clearly more special than Joker is, of course, since Joker’s Personas are the pale imitating shades of Shadows, but still. A speck of curiosity means a lot.

A speck of curiosity that seems to be reciprocated from Joker, when he indirectly challenges Goro, replying to the interviewer’s question.

Cute, Goro thinks absently. That you would believe us equals enough to bother issuing a challenge.

He still rises to meet it; of course he does.

“If someone close to you, for example your friend next to you… If his heart suddenly changed… Wouldn’t you think it was the work of the Phantom Thieves?”

The hypothetical question is amusing, of course; imagining the Phantom Thieves induce their brainwashing on one of their own… Perhaps if one of them ever stops being Joker’s little lap dog, they will, Goro thinks, fighting his curling lips.

There is a beat of silence – Goro waits for Joker’s blond friend to start yelling, the spectacle it will make will be a glorious smear on the Phantom Thieves’ already abysmal reputation – where only the studio’s constantly running lime-lights buzz – then, Joker is leaning ahead, practically breathing his words into the microphone. “What would you think?”

Goro, having readied himself for an encore of his ruthless professional mask, freezes for just a fraction of a second.

He stomps on the instinct to say something as meaningless as ‘Pardon?’ or ‘Could you repeat that?’ – he doesn’t have the time or place for whatever speculation such a mishap would cause.

His smile is tight as he says, “Ah, throwing the question back at me? Well, this is my opinion on the topic…”

In a way, it segways perfectly into his pre-written talking points.

Goro gracefully finishes the performance.

His racing heart betrays him to none; and sitting under the studio lights for so long is bound to make even the hottest stars sweat.

The words on his forearm burn like a brand, one that Joker wrote with his own blood.

***

Sometimes, soulmate marks are stupid, Goro learnt growing up.

Culturally, most of the world has accepted that since running into one’s soulmate is as easy as exchanging a couple words, soulphrases became widely accepted – a rite of passage, really. Many people learn languages and travel, due to their soulmarks being in a different language than the one they grew up with – their soulmate on the other side of the world entirely. It is said that the reason humanity is so obsessed with discovering and claiming every corner of the planet is due to soulmates.

It is a rather asinine reason for conquering, Goro thinks, but romantic notions always seem to attach themselves to horrors like colonialism, war and corruption. Find a ‘good enough’ reason to want to burn the world and you will have an army of similarly-minded fellows to aid you.

Soulphrases, no matter how generic or not, serve a purpose in everyday life, of course; how else is one supposed to talk to a server at a restaurant otherwise? No one wants their mark saying ‘What can I get you?’ or some idiotic trite phrase like that. Soulphrases are a simple and efficient way of confirming that no, the person twice your age is not your soulmate indeed, you may get on with the business interaction.

To avoid confusion, it is a generally accepted practice to lose the band that covers one’s words, once one meets their actual soulmate – since historically, the practice of the bands has been abused to provide unions for the rich and famous, with people trying to fake their marks. Other ways of showing off one’s bondedness emerged too; from rings reminiscent of the red string of faith to tattoos proclaiming the soulmate’s name.

A brand, Goro thinks of this latter practice. Rather barbaric.

Not that his own soulmark isn’t a brand in and of itself.

The writing is loopy – languid and careless, in a manner he doesn’t possess. Perhaps if he were wealthier, or more intrigued, Goro would visit a graphologist and see what they make of it.

It wouldn’t be any more than what he scraped together over the years from ‘Learn graphology at home! – 5 things your mark tells you about your soulmate’ type of magazine articles.

Besides, visiting a graphologist would require showing the words to someone else – and Goro would never do that.

Not when the words are so pointless and their implications so deeply insulting, he never wants to meet the person who would say them.

What would you think?

Mother used to tell him it would mean his soulmate is answering a query of Goro’s own making; that whoever the universe intended for him was curious about his opinion, cared about his comments, and bla-bla-bla.

Mother was rather darling in her notions, her lies meant to soothe him.

Goro never truly believed them though, not even before mother belied her love for him by ending her life, rather than spending another moment alive with him.

His soulmate wouldn’t be asking him for his opinion, wouldn’t be answering Goro’s question with a question of their own, like a petulant child – no, the most likely option was that they would meet somewhere where Goro was a part of the crowd, a nobody, and his soulmate the center of attention, the orator, the speaker throwing out a single line of query to one of the ‘lucky’ participants – finding Goro within the masses.

Some would still call this type of meeting romantic – that his soulmate would find him amongst a sea of people.

But to Goro, this means that he would forever be stuck in mediocrity – that he couldn’t become someone without his oh-so-precious soulmate being there to lift him up from anonymity.

Well fuck that.

Goro doesn’t need no one to shine the light on him – he got where he wanted to be all on his own, and if blood has paved his way then it’s blood that he spilled with his own two hands. He is not part of a shadowed audience, stuck in the darkness; he is the marvel, the star of the show and he will fucking stay there.

Being the center of attention is no less than what he deserves. He is the perfect actor for TV, for the Second Coming of the Detective Prince, for the teen idol that the people of Japan all long to admire.

The words hitting him out of the blue, not from the mouth of a performer, but a whisper from the shadows…

It’s the worst joke he ever heard.

***

This shouldn’t have happened, Goro knows that for sure.

It doesn’t make sense, he thinks next, panic flooding his thoughts. He already made sure to assert himself in front of the Phantom Thieves yesterday – if Joker didn’t react to hearing his words then, then why now?!

Joker.

Goro stills for a moment.

No, he wouldn’t be stupid enough to talk to the Phantom Thieves – he didn’t even get discovered by them, not at all, not unless you count-

Well. The eldritch horror cat and Joker, in Mementos, when Goro was finishing up his rounds for the day, just two days ago.

He got out of there without a word though!

…or did he? He did run into a Shadow almost immediately after – and it was only due to his depleted reserves that the Shadow got a hit in, before he killed it…

Goro’s head felt stuffy after, yes, but he wouldn’t just forget something so crucial as actually betraying his voice to Joker and the eldritch horror.

Besides, he tells himself, he just asked Joker a question now – directly addressing him, the nobody in the shadows. And everyone knows that it is only once you address someone directly, should you expect to hear your words, so-

Joker would have reacted more, if he recognized the words, didn’t he?

Or did he react? Did Goro miss it? No, he couldn’t have; he is quite good at reading people.

Did Joker suppress his reaction well enough that Goro didn’t pick up on it? The shadows would have been to his advantage; the limelights blinding Goro’s sight.

Something to find out, he decides. Normally, after an interview like this, he would take his sweet time, soaking up attention from his adoring fans – he can already see the line of giggling teenagers forming.

He doesn’t have time for that though. Not if Joker is-

Goro excuses himself from his interviewers, citing needing a quick water break to escape – one of the staff members helpfully runs off straight away.

Now to extract Joker from the rest of the posse, without rousing suspicion…

***

Akechi is not the first person their age who disagrees with the change of hearts the Phantom Thieves have caused.

He is the first one to present a valid point against them though.

They linger behind a bit, trying to find a quiet place to talk.

“-was kinda right,” Ann murmurs, worry clearly visible in her gaze.

“He was making us out to be the bad guys!” Ryuji argues. “We’re not!”

“Yeah, there are much worse things the Metaverse could be used for than some changes of hearts,” Morgana cuts in. Ren pointedly doesn’t look down at the cat, even though he feels Morgana equally pointedly glaring at him.

“We do play judge, jury and executioner all at once,” he says, because they do.

“You think he’s right?!”

Ann’s question is anxious; Ryuji’s yell is pure disbelief.

Ren glares at them both. “Quiet down!” Morgana hisses. “Someone will hear!”

“I didn’t say he was right,” Ren whispers, as fast as he can. “But things aren’t so black and white as he thinks.”

“So… we’re right?” Ryuji tries.

“I don’t think that’s what that means,” Ann says, frowning. “What do you mean, not so black and whi-”

“Excuse me.” They all turn to look at the newcomer with lots of wild blinking.

Their unasked question is almost immediately answered by the red band glinting visibly on the woman’s left pinky. No need to worry about phrases or politeness, when she has already found her partner. “Were you the one talking in the audience participation segment?”

Ren nods slowly.

“Wonderful. Please come with me.”

Ren exchanges a look with his friends. “...why?” He can see from Ryuji’s tense shoulders and hear Ann’s panicked gasp to know that this is about to turn ugly really soon.

Did Akechi or his police contacts somehow figure out that they are the Phantom Thieves?

“Complimentary gift basket,” the woman replies. Suspicious, Ren thinks – but she breaks into a little huffy giggle not a moment later. “Well, I am not sure if the gift basket is real, but Akechi-kun asked for you.”

…oh?

Akechi asked for him.

Ren blinks again.

Exchanges another look with his friends, but even then he already knows his answer.

Know thine enemy and all that.

“I’m coming,” Ren promises, shooting Ryuji and Ann a pointed look. They both seem like they want to protest, but at that, they fall silent.

The whole ordeal is very hushed, actually, now that Ren thinks about it. Most students are clustering on the other side of the room, probably waiting to catch a glimpse of the already departed Akechi, while some stragglers are leaving.

Ren, following the woman behind the scenes, disappears like a phantom in the night.

***

Talking in front of everyone else could have easily turned into a rowdy scene that Goro had no intention of causing.

Arranging the meeting on his turf though – his changing room – not only allows Goro a couple beats to smooth his ruffled feathers and freshen up, but also serves as an intimidating display for when Joker trails in, after a hesitant knock.

Goro checks his mirror self one last time.

Flawless.

He faces the boy stumbling into his den with a benevolent smile. “Ah, I’m so glad to have caught you,” he enthuses, practically oozing charm.

Joker barely glances around, eyes settling on him – as it should be, Goro notes – from behind some ridiculously ugly glasses.

No trace of recognition, Goro notes, watching his body language like a hawk. No show of surprise or elation or any other signs that Joker considers them to be soulmates.

“Please, do sit down,” Goro gestures at the very uncomfortable chair that’s left on the side of the room, that he didn’t bother with at all, except for storing his coat while he was getting ready. “I wanted to thank you in person; it’s not everyday I get to meet someone so willing to speak their mind so freely, especially in opposition to what I’m saying on live television.” His flowery words are delivered with a stunning smile; a critical hit, if you will, soulmate or not.

Are they…?

“I thought it was a taping.”

Smartass, Goro thinks spitefully, affecting a titterring laugh. “Ah, yes. My apologies for phrasing it incorrectly.” Joker hasn’t made a single move towards the chair. “Would you prefer standing?” It seems like you do, asshole, couldn’t even bother thanking me, he continues venomously.

There is only a nod.

Al-fucking-right. If Joker wants to be difficult, then Goro can do difficult.

“May I offer you some refreshments then?” Goro chirps, idol smile blinding. “I myself was rather parched after the taping.”

He is pretty sure he sees Joker’s lips twitch. “I’m good.”

Well fuck you then, Goro thinks, smile still in place. “If you are sure – I must assume from your answers that you’d much prefer skipping the pleasantries of conversation.” He taps his chin as if in thought. “Not very used to polite company, are you?”

Joker snorts. “‘Polite’ would have been stopping to exchange soulphrases before being called on as an audience participant.”

There it is – Goro didn’t even need to bring it up himself.

“You are right, of course,” he concedes. It really was an oversight – the very reason for why they are even talking right now. “I will bring the issue up with the staff – but it isn’t like it caused any revelations, had it? Not on my part, at least,” he lies smoothly.

Another snort – and a shake of his head. Could you be my soulmate, Goro muses. He cannot fully discard the thought, and yet…

What kind of higher power would tie him to this?

Having the vague notion that Joker could come near his level was not, by any means an admission on Goro’s part that they would be equals – he doesn’t have equals, he is above-

“I’m pretty sure I’d know if you were my soulmate.”

You’d think so, wouldn’t you, Goro thinks dryly. “Oh?”

“My words aren’t easy to miss,” Joker says, shrugging. “Besides, I met them already.”

“Ah.” Well that explains it. Goro cannot possibly be soulmates with this trash of a human being – but there is a nagging thought that remains… “Them?”

Could Joker be flat-out lying into his face?

Joker’s smile reflects in his eyes. “Did you invite me to talk about my soulmate or…?”

Goro feels his cheeks flushing. “Of course not,” he bites out immediately. “I am terribly sorry; curiosity is a rather important trait in my line of work,” he excuses himself expertly. If Joker says he met his soulmate already, that cannot possibly be Goro… Not even his alternate self. Right?

…this might require further confirmation, Goro thinks, eyes briefly flickering to Joker’s bound left arm – if only he could take a peek and make sure that…

Complete strangers rarely show off their marks to each other. Goro cannot possibly cause an incident that would be bad enough to rip the band apart either; not without it being a colossal breach of privacy that would only stain his reputation later.

Friends show their marks to each other, he has the fleeting, frankly ridiculous thought. Right, friends.

“I did invite you here to thank you,” he finds himself saying. “I really did enjoy discussing matters with you out there.” He gestures magnanimously. “Like I said, it’s not often I get to hear such a refreshing perspective. In fact, I wouldn’t mind having such discussions in the future,” he adds, because while being friends is a ludicrous idea, it does have some merit. Just to confirm that Joker really isn’t talking about him – with the added side-benefit of gaining insight into how the Phantom Thieves operate, really, Goro has nothing to lose here. “If you would be open to the idea of conversing with me?”

“I’m not sure if we’d agree a lot,” Joker points out.

It’s not a refusal, but not an agreement either.

Playing hard to get. Fucking bastard, that’s my job, Goro fumes.

“I don’t mind a good debate,” Goro says. “That is, if you can keep up.”

Usually, he would wrap a challenge like this in sweeter, honeyed words.

Usually, he wouldn’t be dealing with someone as infuriating as Joker.

An almost familiar fire is reflected on his face though as he says, “I’m sure it won’t be too hard.”

Challenge issued – and challenge accepted.

For a second, Goro almost understands how this messy-curled boy could possibly be his match.

The moment passes, but the curl of his lips is more earnest than before. “Perhaps we could exchange contact information then…?”

“Ren. Ren Amamiya.” Joker digs into his pocket. “Sure.”

“Lovely to meet you, Amamiya-kun,” Goro intones, opening up a new contact. “I’m looking forward to our discussions. I’m sure they will be very… fruitful.”

***

Ren and Morgana call an emergency meeting after the second day at the TV studio.

This just means that Makoto and Yusuke show up at Leblanc and the six of them throw themselves in various heaps over Ren’s couch, bed and some assorted chairs.

“Akechi-kun is against us, huh,” Makoto comments, frowning. “I’m surprised he was allowed on the case…”

“You know him?” Ann questions, almost falling off the couch.

“He works with my sister.”

Having Makoto and her – even if somewhat limited – insider information proves useful once again.

Ren wonders what kind of a person Akechi is at work.

“He’s an asshole!” Ryuji rages. “Kept going on and on about us being the bad guys – did he miss the memo on Kamoshida and Madarame?!”

“We should perhaps listen to the interview ourselves,” Yusuke suggests, “to better formulate an image of his worldview.” As if that’s not gonna be one of Ren’s new hobbies.

“That won’t be so hard anyways,” Morgana pipes up. “Since this guy’s got his number.”

Ren is treated to a couple very stunned looks from his friends.

He holds up his hands. “Full disclosure, he might just be like, really into the idea of someone disagreeing with him.” Based on their meeting after the taping… “Not sure if that’ll give us any info.”

“Wait, wait, back up,” Makoto stares at him incredulously. “What do you mean into the idea – into you?!” She sounds so disbelieving, it’s almost insulting.

“Wow, Prez. Way to ruin my confidence,” he deadpans.

Makoto flushes. “T-that’s not what I- I understand why anyone would be into you-”

“Anyone, Prez?” Ann teases, grinning. Ren winks at her and she giggles.

“-this is Akechi!” Makoto continues, her volume hitting new highs.

“I mean, he did try to figure out if Ren was his soulmate or not,” Morgana comments. The cat did not like that Akechi did that, based on all his grumbling from the TV studio, up until the present moment.

Honestly, the only reason Ann and Ryuji haven’t heard it yet is because Ren not so subtly pulled his bag shut on Morgana.

“Forreal though?!”

“How did you two fare in that test?” Yusuke calls, leaning ahead in interest.

Ren exchanges a look with Morgana. “Well… I’m pretty sure that it’s not him. He said I wasn’t his, anyways.” If he wasn’t just lying, that is… “If he was lying though and he is my soulmate, then that would be… problematic.” And not just because Morgana doesn’t like Akechi at all, as his lengthy rant showed.

“But why?” Ann demands. Her expression shifts to righteous anger. “We’ve all seen your mark, it’s not that bad-”

“I met my soulmate,” Ren cuts in.

Ann falters and the wide-eyed stares are back.

Ren is quick to continue. “And… it’s the Black Mask.”

There is a beat of silence where a pin could drop and they would all hear it tumble to the floor.

Then, pandemonium starts.

“What do you mean BLACK MASK-”

“-MET THE BLACK MASK?!”

“-our soulmate?”

“-didn’t you say anything?!”

Ren winces at the volume – Morgana is grimacing even more than he is though. “Quiet down!” The cat shouts. “Maybe we’d fill you in if you stopped yelling at the top of your lungs!”

The resulting lack of sound leaves his ears ringing.

“Sorry,” Ann mutters, biting her lower lip.

“Just… what happened?” Makoto glances between Ren and Morgana.

He takes a deep breath, sharing a look with his cat.

“It went something like this…”

***

“-cannot pursue them,” Makoto says carefully. “You know that, right, Ren?”

Ren nods, maybe a bit slower than she would have liked. “Mona and I already had this talk.”

“Oh, is this why you were arguing yesterday?” Ann chimes in. “Aw, poor Ren-kun…” She makes a mournful sound.

“Okay, so maybe your soulmate sucks and kills people,” Ryuji starts, “but you still got us!”

Ren chuckles. “I know, Ryuji.” He does.

“I am truly sorry you are experiencing pains like this,” Yusuke declares, his frame dwarfed, as if the weight of Ren’s sorrowful tale were chaining him down. With Yusuke, Ren wouldn’t be surprised to find that to be the case. “Are you quite sure?”

“Yep.” He shrugs. “But hey, on the bright side, it’s not Akechi.”

“How are you so sure about that?” Morgana questions, tilting his head.

“I already talked back to him, didn’t I?” Ren looks at Ann and Ryuji. “Yesterday when he ambushed us in the corridor.”

“I’m not sure…” Ann murmurs.

“I betcha did,” Ryuji says, shaking his head. “Damn, you dodged a bullet with Akechi, but the Black Mask?”

Ann lights up. “Hey, maybe Ren-kun could bring the Black Mask over to our side with the power of love!”

“Ann, they kill people,” Makoto tries to remind her, raising an eyebrow.

“That cannot beat the power of true love!”

“If it comes down to true love versus manslaughter, I do wonder which one would win out indeed,” Yusuke muses, fingers tapping on his side, as if itching for his sketchbook.

“We should probably avoid the Black Mask as much as possible,” Morgana says, commanding their attention. “They escaped the other day, but we cannot count on them turning tail any time we run into them.”

“We should catch them,” Ryuji grumbles. “They just keep going out there and killing people off for no reason!”

“It can’t be just for no reason though, can it?” Makoto asks, furrowing her brows. “There has to be something we don’t see…”

Ren loves to see her problem-solving focus on something other than his soulmate being a mass-murderer.

“I mean, the Black Mask is supposed to be a paid assassin, right?” he adds. “So if it’s up to the people who employ them…”

“Then they can get rid of whoever they want,” Makoto finishes, dread in her voice.

The group wordlessly exchanges a long, meaningful look. Did they bite off more than they could chew…?

“...we should have a plan, in case we run into them,” Yusuke says at last.

“Good idea.” Makoto nods.

“And for catching them,” Ryuji adds darkly.

“If we can take them in a fight…” Morgana muses.

“If all else fails,” Ann starts cheerfully, flashing him a smile, “We’ll just have Ren-kun seduce his soulmate!”

That declaration is met with laughs.

Ren doesn’t have the heart to tell them that that’s his favorite idea so far.

***

This is not a date.

It’s not, Goro reinforces in his mind, even as he is sitting across from Ren Amamiya in a cute little cafe, at a table for two, both of them perusing sweets and talking about not-romantic things such as lofty ideals of justice and phantom thievery and Goro might even be enjoying himself a little.

Not at all a date, really – but it hits him, suddenly, as he hears some whispers nearby with his own name included, that it could easily look like a date.

His reputation cannot take being photographed out on a date with someone else, especially if that someone is fucking Joker of the Phantom Thieves.

Not that people know that, but it’s the principle of the thing.

As the whispers and the giggling teenage girls the whispers belong to, near their table, Goro’s attention wanes and wanes – because this is horrible, he should get out of this, maybe a trip to the bathroom until they leave, he can retouch his foundation or some-

“-help you disguise yourself,” Amamiya is saying, a smirk on his lips.

“Disguise myself?” Goro repeats, eyes deliberately not darting towards his fans. “Whatever for?”

“I thought you didn’t want our time to be interrupted, detective?”

A challenge of his intentions.

Goro smiles shyly. “Of course not. I really do love talking to you,” he leans ahead, just catching himself in time from extending a hand over the table to grab Amamiya’s. Not. A. Date! He is just here to figure out if Amamiya is really his soulmate or not, and gain information…

Amamiya stands from their table. “Come on,” he murmurs, extending a hand and glancing down at Goro with his luscious eyelashes fluttering, “I’ve got an idea.”

How fucking dare he look down on me, Goro thinks, gritting his teeth, but he stands, disregarding the extended hand in favor of dusting himself off. “By all means,” he waves at last. “I do hope you manage to come up with a half-decent idea at least,” he adds. “I do have high expectations of you, Amamiya-kun.”

“Then watch me live up to them.”

Fucking asshole, Goro thinks, because that actually sounded suave and hot.

He needs to steal that line, no, that entire posture – needs to continue watching Ren Amamiya from up close, to learn all his secrets, not just the one written on his arm.

***

Akechi looks cute in Ren’s glasses, with his hair messed up.

“Somehow I find myself appreciating your plan less and less,” the detective declares frostily, looking at himself in the bathroom mirror with contempt. “You wear non-prescription glasses?”

“They make me feel smarter,” Ren replies, leaning against a sink and just watching Akechi. He stole the detective’s coat, so now he actually has a view of some pretty toned muscles. “What do you do for sports?”

“Biking and bouldering.” Comes the immediate answer, along with Akechi’s undivided attention. Ren feels like they are playing twenty questions or something. “And yourself?”

“Running and weight lifting, mostly.” Whenever Ryuji drags him out. “Some basic gymnastics.” Whenever Sumi calls up on him for an afternoon of torture. “What’s bouldering?”

“Rock or wall climbing without equipment.”

Ren whistles. “Sounds like a good challenge.” Exactly the kind of sport he could see Goro Akechi preferring over something more mundane like basketball or baseball. Not a team-based one either, Ren notes.

“It can be,” Akechi replies, a note of smugness in his voice. “But of course, it gets easier when you know what you’re doing.”

“You could show me the ropes sometime,” Ren suggests innocently.

Akechi laughs. “And have you breaking your bones on me? No, I couldn’t possibly risk you like that, Amamiya-kun.”

“Who knows, I might be good at it,” Ren comments, thinking of his Metaverse stunts in stilettos. Those definitely helped him out with gymnast stuff. “But if you don’t think you could teach me that well…”

Akechi bites on the bait, his sour grimace only visible for a fraction of a second. “Ah, well, if you insist – who am I to stop you from your foolish endeavours?”

“A concerned friend?” Ren shoots back, grinning.

The detective huffs. “How presumptuous,” he murmurs, “when we have met so few times, can you confidently declare our bond a friendship?”

The words strike a cord with him.

“So you do agree there is a bond.”

Akechi’s cheeks are darkening, but just a bit – Ren thinks he probably has way too much make-up on. He recently started working at Crossroads, so he is familiar with the wonders of a good foundation, coupled with a natural blush.

“I did tell you before that your worldview intrigues me,” Akechi says carefully. “Whatever you prefer to call that, a ‘bond’ should really not be one of the words to use.”

Ren’s smile diminishes.

Of course. Bonds are for soulmates and he’s already spoken for.

(No matter that Akechi used the word first.)

“Sorry,” he murmurs. “What’s wrong with friends then?”

“We met too few times,” Akechi repeats, a crease of eyebrows marring his features.

“Well, that’s an easy fix isn’t it?”

Just go on more dates.

Amusement creeps into whatever worry the detective had. “You wish to monopolize my time so much?” His next words come in a hiss. “You have a lot of audacity.”

“Isn’t that what you like in me so much?” Ren wonders innocently.

The flush is back, still tempered by the make-up. “We better head back outside – I haven’t finished my cake.”

Smooth, detective, smooth, Ren thinks, following along – because Akechi is already storming outside.

Although he is supposedly here to gather intel from the police, Ren doesn’t mind their meetings being little dates. It’s a different experience, trying with someone who he knows isn’t fated to be with him – probably – but exhilarating in a way he never expected.

It makes him want more.

***

“...so you think of it as a date,” Morgana says, with a tone full of judgement.

“I mean, isn’t it?” Ren asks, trying to lift his body up to the ceiling beam. Morgana’s training regime promised a steady incline upwards, but he feels it’s more akin to jumps; from twenty lifts, he is supposed to work his way up to thirty this week.

“Well, yeah, the cafe one kinda sounded like a date,” Morgana is forced to admit. The cat is perched on top of Ren’s three whole pillows, overseeing the exercise. “But isn’t he supposed to be very traditional about soulmates?”

Ren heaves himself up on the ceiling beam, then lowers down. One. “Not sure.” Akechi did have his interview speech, but his personality during the interview and outside of it made Ren think that he was talking to two different people. “Could ask him.” He breathes out, then raises himself up again. Two.

Once he gets some momentum going, it’s gonna be easier.

Morgana continues talking in the meantime. “That might not be a bad idea – I mean, he is still our enemy, but it’s still better to talk to him than try to approach the Black Mask.” Ren can feel Morgana’s glare try to burn into his soul. Four. “Which you would never do, right Joker?”

He hums.

Five.

Morgana doesn’t sound very reassured, but goes on regardless, “I guess having access to the police and the people investigating us is a good idea anyways.”

Totally just what Ren wants Akechi’s company for, yup.

“But you know you should talk to him about the date stuff?” Morgana points out. “Most people aren’t really okay with not-soulmates dating – which is still stupid, if you ask me.”

Dating advice from a cat – what has his life come to?

Morgana is very correct though. “I know,” Ren huffs. Eight. “Will ask.”

“You should!” Morgana crows. “Plus confirm his soulmark to make sure he is not the Black Mask. There was something off about him since day one and he could have been lying about his words…!”

Ren decides to take this as Morgana being overprotective of him.

“Sure.” Asking to see someone’s mark is a big taboo though, so that’ll only be a factor later down the line… Ren really should talk to Akechi about non-soulmate dating, huh?

Even if all their meetings so far were practically ‘get to know each other’ dates. Gotta verbalize it or something.

Ten.

They are going out for bouldering next week, if all goes well and Ren will hopefully impress the detective enough not to cut their budding friendship or whatever short.

He already has some ideas about how to ask Akechi about his opinion, and it’s a very slick tactic; flawless, probably.

***

“What do you think about platonic soulmates?”

Goro chokes on his water.

Amamiya, always ready to be tactile, raps on his back. Goro blinks tears from his eyes, staring at the boy standing next to him in a quiet shock.

Are you saying that you really are my…

They are standing in the very limited food court that is attached to the gym Goro likes to frequent. It is by no means a romantic place, but then again, the context of Amamiya’s question isn’t one either.

Goro just bought himself a bottle of water after some good exercise, half of which he spent laughing at Amamiya’s miserable attempts at learning bouldering in the span of an hour. Needless to say, the thief failed, but it was still amusing to witness.

Goro might even bring him along next time. See how fast he can improve, to gauge his abilities as well as provide further entertainment for himself.

He also went ahead and bought Amamiya water, since he was already here and he had the change to spare.

Now, he is very much regretting his meager spending on this idiot.

“...what do you mean?” He shoots the question back, his chest compressing. If Amamiya is his soulmate – if he is asking about staying ‘just friends’...

Goro does not care for his soulmate. At all.

But he would not have a fucking ‘best friend’ soulmate, he knows that.

Call him old-fashioned, but he always envisioned his soulmate bond being a romantic one – not that society at large accepts the existence of ‘platonic’ bonds. Many scoff and roll their eyes at the notion, declaring it to be a new fab – despite historical evidence on the contrary – or even just a way for soulmates to keep dating others who are not their soulmate.

A despicable sin in a lot of older people’s eyes.

Goro himself couldn’t care more nor less what soulmates get up to – whether they want to make out or not – what he does care about is whether this idiot is his soulmate.

His eyes, not for the first time, travel to Amamiya’s band – after bouldering, it might be loosened…

Next time I should take him to a bathhouse, Goro muses. Bathhouses usually provide their own bands for the duration of one’s stay, but there is still the question of taking off one’s usual band and exchanging it for the one that can get wet.

Goro heard about nudist bathhouses, so to speak, where people could walk around without their bands present. But much the same way most bathhouses wouldn’t accept someone with visible tattoos, these places are few and far between, compared to regular bathhouses.

Goro shudders to think of the purpose of a place like that. Do people expect to meet their soulmate in a bathhouse? Naked and in literal hot water?

Not something that he is into at all, really.

“If someone agrees with their soulmate that they’re better off as friends,” Amamiya explains. As if Goro simply hasn’t heard of the concept before. “And maybe dates someone else instead…”

Is this his way of saying he wants to date someone who is not me, Goro thinks. Or is Amamiya not his soulmate and trying to make a move on him?

Honestly, it could be either.

If it’s the former, Goro is insulted.

If it’s the latter, he still is, even as his cheeks warm at the thought. The idea that despite Amamiya blurting out his words, they are not compatible…

It’s infuriating. His very blood boils, because what the fuck do you mean this is not his soulmate?!

Phrases can match between people sometimes, yes. But Goro would have thought his to be special, specific enough for that not to matter.

It’s him being a shadow, just a normie in the crowd of a sea of thousands that sets him off; that makes him grit his teeth in the mimicry of a human expression.

“I’m familiar,” he says airily. “I’m just not entirely sure how this relates to our conversation.”

Amamiya seems amused by this response. “I asked you a question?”

“Yes,” Goro is forced to admit, “however I fail to see how we got to talking about this topic in particular.”

“I don’t think you’re talking about it very much,” Amamiya points out, his lips definitely curling into a smile now. “I am.”

Oh well, fuck you, Goro thinks. “Apologies,” he says smoothly. “I’m just not sure what to make of this inquiry.”

Goro can absolutely play hard to get to a tee.

Amamiya takes it in stride. “So I told you how I met my soulmate before.”

“...right,” Goro agrees cautiously, twisting the cap of his water bottle back in place.

“I don’t think we’re really compatible romantically,” Amamiya continues, looking at Goro as if expecting him to pick up on a hint.

Goro picks up on the hint, alright.

This fucking asshole has been lying into my face the whole time, Goro seethes. Is he really telling me that he knows we are soulmates and hasn’t said a fucking word about it?!

“Oh, really,” Goro grits out.

“So I was thinking of dating outside of that,” here, Amamiya waves, “whole thing.”

“Wow,” Goro breathes out, physically straining to keep himself still. Seri-fucking-ously?! What kind of shitty humor does the universe have, saddling him with his enemy and then not even attempting to give the two of them a romantic whatever the fuck everyone supposedly wants?!

“Just not sure how to approach that, since most people don’t really like non-soulmate relationships,” Amamiya is still fucking talking and why did no one knock him out yet?! “I looked it up and there are flags and colors you can wear to help let others know, but still. It’s a bit much at first, you know?” He blinks at Goro, has the gall to look innocent about it and Goro is just realizing that this is one of the longest times Amamiya has ever spoken to him in consecutive sentences.

Naturally, his shitty soulmate only does this when apparently breaking up with him, which, how dare he, Goro does not get broken up with, he is the one breaking things off, and besides, they aren’t even dating-

“And I might be interested in someone who’s holding out for their person,” Amamiya is still wearing those freaking glasses, but his eyes are piercing even so. “What would you do in my place?”

Goro flinches at the words that are so close to his mark.

Is Amamiya doing this on purpose? Goro would have thought Joker preferred the golden boy routine over his preferred style of a ruthless assassin.

“When the metaphorical red string that connects people is one that gives so many so much hope that we can all be happy with our person…”

It’s then that his brain, foggy from fury, begins to ravel back into place, as cogs start turning, because wait a second…

Goro knows those words.

Goro said those words.

So…

Amamiya is not breaking up with him… But asking him out?

He can feel his sweaty palms become even worse. What the fuck is this bullshit. Why is Amamiya so contradictory? Why can’t he just either break up with Goro or ask him out directly?!

(Goro would get so bored of him if he was direct. He doesn’t want healthy communication – or maybe he’s just telling himself that.)

“Ah,” he says, just to say something. He realizes his mistake a moment later, because Amamiya falls silent, watching him expectantly. Fuck, Goro thinks. He still doesn’t know conclusively if Amamiya is or isn’t his soulmate… And it’s not like he would ever agree to actually date him, Goro has standards.

Besides, he has his career to think about! Even if he started dating Amamiya and it turned out that they weren’t meant to be, Goro’s reputation would suffer even more than from people finding out that he does date.

He doesn’t, for the record. No one can match up to his greatness; even the universe has only ever made one person who does.

…and that person might be Amamiya…

Goro wants nothing more than to switch to the Metanav on his phone and disappear from this conversation. Unfortunately for everyone involved, Amamiya would actually know where he’s gone if he suddenly brought out the Nav.

“I suppose inquiring about how the object of your affections sees things is not a bad idea to consider,” Goro says slowly, hesitantly.

“Uh-huh.” Amamiya tilts his head. Goro waits for him to say something along the lines of, I already did.

He doesn’t.

Fucking player, Goro thinks ruefully.

If Amamiya wants to do it like this, Goro can play along.

“I’m honored that you would share something like this about yourself, Amamiya-kun,” he croons, a hand held to his heart as the thought coalesces into words in his mind. “Especially considering how short our acquaintanceship has run.”

“So we’re acquaintances now?” Amamiya raises an eyebrow, his lips twitching.

Goro dares him to voice how that’s a downgrade from the friendship he wanted to call their relationship last time.

Once again, Amamiya doesn’t do what Goro expects him to.

(It’s at once infuriating and so, so terribly intriguing.)

“Well, what do you think?” Amamiya asks, fiddling with his sweaty t-shirt, as if his attention were not fully focused on Goro. “As someone who is holding out.”

Goro could act surprised that Amamiya knows that about him.

He had his own words quoted back at him just a couple minutes ago though, so he won’t.

Although it’s surprising that Amamiya remembers. The only reason Goro does is because he obsessively rewatched the interview, trying to psychoanalyze whether Amamiya could or could not be his soulmate, based on the thief’s words to him.

(They couldn’t have been the first words he directed at Goro, could they?)

He hums, making a show of how deeply he is considering his answer.

“I suppose, it differs for each individual,” he says at last. “Personally, I am waiting for my soulmate,” who might be standing right next to me without me knowing, “due to the certainty she’ll bring.”

She.

Goro can lie all he wants.

Amamiya is everything but a certainty in his life.

(That’s what makes Goro want to spend so much time trying to figure him out.)

“...she?” Amamiya repeats. His confusion makes sense. It is customary to refer to one’s soulmate in a non-gendered way, due to the nature of the soulmate bond tying together people regardless of prejudices. Although different sexualities do factor into one’s soulmate being a certain gender, it also isn’t as stigmatized for soulmate couples of the same sex to be together. For some, it still isn’t encouraged – certain people have terribly outdated notions about keeping bloodlines alive or wanting biological children or grandchildren. Historical anecdotes and tales preserve many such tragedies, or soulmates being separated due to such stickler beliefs…

Goro has a certain image though and the majority of his fans are teenage girls.

Not that he would alienate his, though fewer in number, equally vocal teenage boy fans.

He is not talking to his fans though; but Amamiya.

“Yes,” Goro smiles at the thief. Your move, asshole. What if I’m straight? Have you thought about that? “I can’t really see myself dating outside of having a soulmate – how would I even have the time?” He points out.

Goro knows he misspoke the moment Amamiya starts smiling like that.

“Yet, you somehow have time for me.”

“Yes, but it’s not like the two of us are dating, are we, Amamiya-kun?” Goro turns a vapid, beaming smile at the thief. Come on. I fucking dare you to tell me you want to date me.

You want to date me so bad, it makes you look stupid, Goro thinks.

“Apparently you’re not dating outside of your soulmate,” Amamiya says, “so I don’t see how we could be dating.”

Goro wants to hit him.

He forces himself to breathe out instead. Violence is unbecoming of his idol self.

He will imagine Joker’s face, the next time he shoots a Shadow in the head though.

“Glad to hear we’re on the same page,” he comments, smile blindingly pretty. “I wish you good luck with your endeavors to date.” You could definitely use it, Goro thinks spitefully. “Perhaps consider trying to tame that hair of yours?” he adds, faux-concerned.

Amamiya seems to have lost the amused glint in his eyes for the first time during this conversation. “What’s wrong with my hair?”

Oh, where does Goro even start.

“Well,” he drawls, the picture of innocence. “I wouldn’t want to intrude on your hair-care routine, naturally…”

But, Goro’s mood is drastically improved when he can spend the next several minutes picking apart Amamiya’s apparently non-fucking-existent hair-care routine.

All in all, despite Amamiya’s stupid questions, he does enjoy their little hangout session enough to mindlessly agree to a next time.

Goro only realizes the error of this later, at home.

…I am not one step closer to figuring out if he is my soulmate or not, he thinks, falling backwards on his bed and staring at the blank ceiling. But…

Amamiya does apparently want to date him. That’s something.

If he does something about his hair, Goro thinks to himself, half-jokingly, I might.

Then, he snorts out loud. Like Amamiya would.

***

Ren calls Ann on the way home to ask about hair-care products, based on Akechi’s gleeful breakdown of why his way of washing his hair is the worst way of treating his hair, apparently.

Ann cheers loudly and tells him that they’ll go shopping the very next day – Ren’s faith in his own abilities of hygiene are admittedly rather low after all that.

Still, he thinks back to Akechi’s laughter at his attempts at rock wall-climbing, and he thinks that maybe soulmates are overrated after all.

***

Ren invites Akechi out to the planetarium.

Akechi counters that invitation by one to the aquarium, just a week later. Then, they go back to Penguin Sniper for darts, Ren mentions working at Leblanc, Akechi shows him Jazz Jin and on and on…

Ren doesn’t see his soulmate mark once.

They don’t talk about showing their marks to each other.

They talk about everything else though.

Everything about the Phantom Thieves – Akechi is working to catch them, and Medjed is proving to be a tough challenge, even with Futaba’s newfound help – everything from Ren’s new and improved hair-care to philosophy, life and after a while, even Akechi can’t deny that they are friends.

Ren is pretty sure he would still deny it, if anyone asked, but that doesn’t matter when he knows how Akechi still likes sweets, despite claiming to not have a sweet tooth; that the detective is ambidextrous and prone to work on homework and casefiles with both hands at the same time; that he has a way of finding the best lighting in any room and seamlessly integrating himself to be the center of attention.

When Akechi knows that Ren is used to fewer, but bigger meals a day; that these days, he always has cat hair on all his clothes, regardless of how many times he washes them; that he doesn’t speak much, but if left alone for long enough, he will start humming the newest tune stuck in his head.

It’s a lot of small things to know about someone.

It’s nothing that helps Akechi figure out that Ren is a Phantom Thief – hopefully – and it’s nothing that gets Ren behind-the-scenes info about the police.

But it’s a lot of small things that Ren finds he knows about his friends, the same way they know things about him.

By the time summer is coming to an end, Ren has feelings towards Akechi that he definitely doesn’t have towards his friends. Not the same way, anyhow.

“...at least it’s not the Black Mask,” Ren hears Morgana mutter to himself.

He snorts, mid-way in packing for their Hawaii trip. “I guess.” What’s better? Falling for his soulmate who actually kills people or falling for a boy who made it clear he won’t give Ren the time of day because they are not fated?

Though, Ren is still pretty sure Akechi is just in denial about not wanting to date him.

Their ‘friendly hangouts’ do feel a lot like dates after all.

He remembers the detective’s thinly veiled attempts at pretending to be straight too – not a very believable attempt, but Ren doesn’t have the heart to tell him that. (Nor does he want to make Akechi that mad at him. Not yet anyways.)

“He still wants to catch us, doesn’t he?” Morgana grumbles. “And he keeps calling us the bad guys! Like we aren’t changing things for the better…”

Ren still thinks that Akechi kinda has a point about that. “We’re changing individuals, not the system,” he points out. “We do help people, don’t get me wrong, I know that,” he adds, raising his hand placatingly when Morgana makes a noise, “but the root of the issue is still there? And it’s not like we can just overhaul the system the same way we change a heart.”

Mementos may be a congregation of the public’s conscience, but there is no big Treasure they could get their hands on. Or at least Ren doesn’t think there is a magic switch that would influence everyone – or if there is, they haven’t found it yet.

“...I guess,” Morgana doesn’t sound happy about agreeing, like, at all. “It’s not like he is doing anything to challenge the system – he’s working with the police!”

That’s a valid argument too.

“I don’t know if he can?” Ren murmurs.

“There is always something to do, however big or small,” Morgana declares passionately. “And as far as we know, he’s just using his platform to echo whatever fits with the police’s narrative!”

The police and the same corrupt adults who landed Ren here.

He frowns. “I’m sure he’s doing something,” he says, “it’s still his job-”

“He is actively campaigning against us!” Morgana raves. “Even after everything with Medjed! People are already starting to agree with us over him and I bet he’s just upset he is losing fans over it.”

“Hey,” Ren calls, because this is quickly going from an actual debate to a diss track of Akechi and he is not here for it. “He sticks to his morals, what’s wrong with that?”

Morgana gives him a look. “I have to listen to his ‘morals’ every time you rewatch one of his interviews!” The cat hisses. “What do you mean what’s wrong?”

“You could always just go to Futaba’s,” Ren mumbles, turning away petulantly. So he likes rewatching Akechi’s interviews, sue him.

“Maybe I will,” Morgana huffs at his back. “At least she doesn’t make me listen to Akechi yap all the time!”

Ren doesn’t answer that.

Morgana clearly wants him to, because there are several beats of silence, before the cat hisses and jumps off the bed, trotting off towards the stairs without another word to him.

If he knew what would happen, Ren would have called out after him.

***

Things are mostly okay the next day, but Morgana starts disappearing whenever Ren sits down to rewatch one of Akechi’s interviews and he doesn’t come back.

At first, it doesn’t seem like a big deal. So what if Morgana leaves? Futaba knows where he is. It’s not like Ren has to chain the cat to himself anymore, he tells himself. He met his soulmate thanks to Mona and look how that turned out? No reason to force Morgana to stay around all the time.

It’s not like he got used to Mona’s constant presence, whether the cat was asleep or in a talkative mood.

It’s no big deal.

***

They leave for Hawaii.

Things are simmering in the background – Morgana and Ren never did talk out the whole Akechi thing and that’s apparently not the only thing Mona is upset about, Ren finds out after they get back from their little vacation, because when they are having a meeting, and Ryuji and Morgana start arguing about popularity getting to their head-

Things escalate way too fast.

“Morgana!” Ren calls after the cat when he goes to run off – only for Morgana to turn back at him and sneer.

“Why don’t you run to your boyfriend to help you with Okumura?” he spits. “Or contact your soulmate while you’re at it, maybe they’ll kill him for you!”

Ren flinches.

“Morgana!” Ann hisses, horrified, but the damage is done.

Ren stands still, not running after Morgana.

“Dude, that was going way too far!” Ryuji snaps, turning to him. “Mona’s being a douche, don’t listen to him.”

“He did call you a monkey,” Futaba agrees, wincing. “The little guy’s been way too tense lately…”

And I didn’t notice, Ren translates, because I wasn’t there with him.

“What did Morgana mean by your ‘boyfriend’?” Makoto asks, frowning. “I thought you weren’t dating anyone…?”

“Akechi,” Ren mumbles, not meeting their eyes. It’s not like his crush is a secret, but… “Mona doesn’t like him.”

“Aw, Ren,” Ann draws him into a half-hug. She is one of the few people he can actually talk with about Akechi. “That’s okay, you can still have a crush on him!”

“He is against us,” Yusuke points out. Thanks, like I didn’t know that, Ren thinks grumpily. “However, the heart wants what the heart wants.”

Oh.

“Thanks, Yusuke,” he mumbles. Makoto looks like she’s bitten into lemon – a very similar expression to what she wears whenever the detective is brought up.

“Just because we don’t make a move right away doesn’t mean we’re suddenly on Akechi’s side,” she grumbles. Then, she puts her game face right back on, shaking her head. “I was thinking: did I tell you that Okumura’s daughter is my classmate?”

That sounds like a lead.

It’s something they end up talking about for long enough that Ren almost forgets that Morgana never showed back up again.

***

Goro was always meant to be a star.

He never really considered how light pollution could overshadow his radiance; make people look at him and be blinded by the trash that are the Phantom Thieves of Hearts – and mistake him for the darkness that envelops the night sky.

He may have a dark side, but he is no shooting star; he is a rising one, whether people know this or not.

People these days do not know that.

It doesn’t fucking matter, Goro tells himself, teeth gritted. The masses’ comments mean little, when the Phantom Thieves will only be on the top of the world until Okumura is dead – a month or a bit longer, if they keep to their previously established patterns.

They better keep to their patterns. Goro knows how this is ‘such a necessary’ part of the plan, but painting himself as a clear target for the public’s ire has led to snide looks wherever he goes – words of criticism, where there has been mindless praise before. His social media keeps receiving threats from overeager ‘phans’ and he keeps seeing posts about people tearing down their merchandise depicting him. Anything from posters to T-shirts to pins ending up in the trash, as they are replaced by those stupid fucking calling cards-

Goro inhales.

Calm yourself.

He has an image.

He can keep to that.

He hasn’t seen Joker in two weeks – this is a positive. He would probably throttle Amamiya if he saw him right now.

He still kind of misses running into the thief – it’s become routine at this point. Text each other during the week – meet up during the weekend.

He hasn’t seen the thief’s soulmark yet.

Amamiya also hasn’t blatantly asked him out. His fucking loss, Goro thinks, annoyed. Can’t he see how much of a catch Goro is? Yes, of course, Goro would turn him down, he still has a reputation even as his empire of stardom crumbles around him, but it’s the principle of the matter.

Childishly, Goro hopes Amamiya is feeling the high of his own rising fame – it will feel all the better to tear him down from that pedestal the world seems to be putting the Phantom Thieves on.

Part of him detests the idea of Amamiya finding any enjoyment in his popularity, when Goro’s is on a steep decline; while another part is convinced that perfect little Joker is probably horribly shy and humble about it all.

It’ll still shatter him when he falls, Goro is sure.

I’ll break him myself if I have to.

Plans about bringing someone up, only to push them into the pits of hell are not something Goro has ever had any qualms about.

The clock is ticking – Okumura may be the second-to-last target on his list, before…

Goro licks his lips, steps taking him out of the underground system. He had a talk with Sae earlier and she seems like the perfect target for the scheme of a lifetime.

Another step closer to the ship where he will kill the man who should have died a long time ago.

Today his feet are taking him on that same path; a path that leads him to Okumura Foods Headquarters. He has to set the stage for himself after all; and he hasn’t seen the Phantom Thieves running around yet – all the better for him to familiarize himself with the traps and-

Goro knocks shoulders with someone as he walks.

“Oh!” It’s a girl his age; he can see the glint in her eyes that’s politeness warring with another learnt behavior. “I can’t wait to see what we’ll achieve together.”

Goro shakes his head imperceptively; her words are way too trite to ever be his.

She breathes out, shoulders easing. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t watching where I was going,” she bows her head a bit.

“It’s alright,” Goro says. He is the one breaking an unspoken social convention, not being the one to offer his soulphrase at first.

(But he has no need for a soulphrase, part of him thinks, not when he’s already met-)

“Akechi-kun, right? From television,” she murmurs, not unkindly.

It’s dark, late evening; he doesn’t need it getting out that the Goro Akechi is lurking around Okumura Foods Headquarters.

“Yes,” Goro offers with a strained smile. “I was just passing though, so if you don’t mind-”

“Oh, not at all!” She holds up her hands. “I apologize… I just thought you might be here to see my father, considering how the Phantom Thieves might target him next.”

Her father, Goro thinks, looking her over – she doesn’t look anything like Okumura, but maybe her mother was a pretty woman.

Goro inherited all his features from his mother; he can relate.

He fakes a little laugh. “Not in an official capacity, I’m afraid – it sounds a bit aimless, but I was hoping to take a look around the perimeter of the building…” He needs to get rid of her, fast.

It’s bad enough that she recognized him; but at least he has her name and thus, can take care of her if necessary.

Mumbled words reach his ear. “-take Okumura down before those guys do!”

The who did the where did the what.

Goro barely processes the words – and the voice – when Okumura turns with a frown. “Oh? A kitty…” And begins walking off.

That would be fine by itself.

The mascot Joker lugs around, Goro thinks in a split-second, but what is that thing doing-

The world is suddenly bathed in red, in a very familiar way, without him having to touch the Metanav once.

Goro only has time to think, what the fuck.

***

Morgana doesn’t show up the next day.

Ren talks to Futaba about it over breakfast. “No, I didn’t see him,” Futaba says, tilting her head. “I thought he came back to you?”

“No,” Ren replies, the food in his mouth turning to ash. “He didn’t.”

Futaba bites her lip, but grabs his arm reassuringly. “I’m sure he’ll turn up soon,” she says.

Ren tries to believe her.

But somehow, he doesn’t have the same hope that she does.

Morgana is not coming back.

***

Goro never liked cats.

He never liked pets in general. They are not just another mouth to feed; but a loud, usually furry nuisance that poops everywhere and doesn’t even begin to make up for it by being ‘cute’.

So no, he is not upset that he never got to keep a cat as a child.

He sure as hell isn’t grateful to be housing one now.

“...why can’t you take him,” he asks Okumura with restraint. It’s bad enough that he was outvoted on the matter yesterday night, when two vigilante Phantom Thief wannabes took over his apartment, why the fuck should he put up with Joker’s eldritch monster longer than-

“I have school though,” Okumura says, frowning.

“I do as well,” Goro points out.

“Mona-chan can just stay here, can’t you, Mona-chan?” Okumura asks, turning on the cat. “We’ll be back to pick you up in the afternoon and then we can go to the castle again?”

“Palace,” Goro corrects, holding up a hand, “And I did not agree to that!”

“You don’t need to come,” Morgana sneers, “Haru and I work better without you!”

“She would have died if I wasn’t there! You too, for that matter!” Goro isn’t yelling, because he doesn’t yell, that’s part of his image, but fuck, he wants to.

“I awoke my own Persona,” Okumura says resolutely.

“You did!” The cat looks delighted by that. “And I guess you did too…” Morgana looks over Goro, who delivered the performance of a lifetime yesterday, ‘awakening’ to Robin at seeing the injustice of innocents about to get hurt.

He would definitely give himself an award for that one. It was a tear-worthy show for sure.

“Maybe you could be helpful,” the monster decides.

Excuse-a-whatnow.

“Did you somehow miss my being against the Phantom Thieves for months now?” Goro asks, on the verge of his voice cracking. “Just because I know Amamiya is one doesn’t mean I’m suddenly on your side!”

The cat is clearly very sensitive about his owner; hackles rising. “Who said anything about Joker?!”

“I did. Just now, in fact,” Goro says. Morgana can pretend to be uncaring all he wants, this is too much. “I should be arresting him and all the others, not play pretend with you two!”

“...can you even arrest someone?” Okumura asks, tilting her head.

Morgana gapes. “You can’t arrest them!”

So much for him hating his owner now, Goro thinks, hiding an eyeroll. “I do not have the actual authority to do so,” he tells Okumura.

“Ah.” She nods. “Then all is fine, isn’t it?”

Goro and the cat stare at her in tandem. “...what?”

“You wanted to know how the Phantom Thieves work, didn’t you?” Okumura asks Goro. “That’s what you said in the interview I saw, at least. Here is your chance to find out for yourself how the Phantom Thieves work, courtesy of Mona-chan.” She gestures to the cat. “Why wouldn’t you want to take this chance?”

Goro stares at her some more.

The cat’s tone is considering though, which, what the fuck. “I guess that’s true…”

“I do not want to brainwash anyone,” Goro pronounces slowly, so their addled minds can understand. Murder is much better, all things considered, than just killing the person and leaving the husk of them there.

Okumura and the demonic cat exchange a look.

“So, we’ll be back this afternoon-”

Goro muffles a scream.

***

Akechi texts him about meeting at Kichijoji the day after Morgana disappears.

Ren half-heartedly writes back that he is busy – and it’s not even a lie.

He is busy wallowing in his bed. Earlier, he tried calling home – his first attempt to do so in months and…

They didn’t pick up. Of course they didn’t pick up. Ren asked Sojiro once, if he ever gave any updates to his parents – only for the man to be surprised that Ren thought he’d be spying on him. Sojiro told him that he trusted Ren enough to tell his parents himself what he thought was right.

Ren didn’t tell him that he never spoke to his parents once.

He has so many things that he could think to say. So many things…

I met them, he could say, and you were actually right.

They would be so gleeful to hear that. He can almost imagine their mocking smiles; and is not even startled to realize he doesn’t know what a real smile would look like on their faces.

I lost my cat, he could say.

They wouldn’t care; just tell him that he should have been more responsible, paid more attention to it, that he was just proving how right they were to kick him out.

He closes his eyes shut to force the burning feeling to recede.

He doesn’t wanna waste any more tears on them.

A buzzing sound drags him out of his thoughts – Ren blinks his eyes open, several more times than maybe necessary.

His phone announces Goro Akechi as the caller.

His fingers sneak out to grab the device and accept the call.

“That was not a request,” Akechi starts, not even waiting for him to say anything. “We are meeting in half an hour, I don’t care if you’re halfway across the city right now.”

Ren sighs. “I’m busy.”

“Amamiya-kun.” Akechi sounds almost sweet. “Do you think I would be calling you if it wasn’t important?”

Ren thinks back to their weekly hangouts so far – he hasn’t seen the detective in like, two weeks, what with the Hawaii vacation and everything since coming back.

“I don’t think I’m in the mood for date night,” he mumbles, turning on his side.

Akechi splutters. “What night?!”

Ren taps the sheets where usually, Morgana would be lying, nagging him about putting the phone down and not focusing so much on Akechi of all people… “Raincheck?”

“Joker, I said I want to meet up now.”

Ren stills.

“...what did you say?”

It’s a similar reaction to what someone might have when meeting their soulmate. Disbelief, the immediate need for the other person to repeat those words – words that are etched into one’s soul and skin.

His callsign, Joker, from Akechi’s mouth feels just as damning as his words uttered by the Black Mask.

“You’re missing your pet cat, aren’t you?” Akechi asks, not answering his question. Ren rises from the bed, supporting himself with his free hand as he scrambles to make sense of what Morgana has to do with- “I’m a detective; I can help you find him,” he says mockingly.

Ren can’t breathe.

“Akechi, do you know where he i-”

“Half an hour,” Akechi cuts in. “Don’t be late.”

With that, the line is cut.

Ren would maybe fall, a marionette with his strings also cut.

He would fall, if adrenaline wasn’t coursing through his veins. Morgana, he thinks, Joker, Akechi said, half an hour-

He barely remembers to throw his bag over his shoulder in his scramble for the stairs.

***

Looking back, Goro should have told Amamiya to bring catfood or something along.

It wouldn’t have landed him in the situation he is currently in, after all.

“-mine!” The eldritch monster cat screeches.

Goro is gripping his chopsticks strong enough to bend and break them. “You’re a cat,” he says through gritted teeth.

Okumura looks at the scene with a frown. “Perhaps we should just order more…?”

“I’M NOT A CAT!”

“This is human food!” Goro argues. “I don’t care if you’re Chutlulu himself, fatty tuna is for-” He tries to grab the sushi.

Morgana has claws and sharp teeth, something which Goro doesn’t have outside the Metaverse.

The cat hisses loudly, swiping at air – not at him, not yet, but this is his own home, so-

The doorbell rings.

Fucking finally, Goro thinks, rising from his seat.

Okumura and the cat both look alarmed. “Did you order something else?” Okumura asks.

It might as well count as that, Goro decides, replying a court, ‘yes’, before waltzing to the door. He texted the address to Amamiya right after their rather one-sided phone call; but now that he is here-

“You’re late,” Goro greets.

He hasn’t even opened the door fully, the thief is already shouldering his way in. “Mona?”

Goro is offended.

No.

Offended, with a capital letter. How dare he just side-step Goro after the revelation that Goro knows his – supposed – big secret?!

There is the sound of something crashing from deeper in the flat – Amamiya barely shrugs off his shoes, before he runs off.

“Excuse you!” Goro calls after him, locking the door with force. He quickly descends upon the kitchen, where Okumura and the cat have overtaken Goro’s simple set-up of a barstool at the side of the counter.

Well.

Amamiya is also there now.

“Morgana!” he calls again, voice strained. Was he crying or something?

“What is he doing here?!” the eldritch monster demands, looking at Goro in betrayal. As if he didn’t fucking telegraph this whole thing well in advance!

“Don’t look at me like that!” He hisses. “I told you two that I am not-”

“-on our side, yes, you did.” Okumura finishes for him, sighing. She then glances at Amamiya, something like interest in her eyes, something that Goro technically knows is no more than the everyday curiosity of meeting someone new who could be one’s soulmate, but the biting fury that enters his veins at the sight shows he doesn’t, not really. Amamiya is not Okumura’s partner, cannot be, Goro would know- “I can’t wait to see-”

“Met my soulmate already,” Amamiya cuts her off. Good, Goro thinks, glee filling him at how her face falls at the interruption.

Okumura moves on rather quickly though, all things considered, taking a dainty sip from her cup of tea.

“Mona, why didn’t you come home?” Amamiya asks, having fallen on his knees on the ground in front of the cat.

Goro never imagined that Amamiya would be on his knees, in Goro’s kitchen, and he certainly wouldn’t have thought of this being the context.

His band is askew, part of Goro registers. Had to hurry a lot, if it got tussled this much and he didn’t fix it – most bands are made to settle over one’s arm fully and not move around much; people working in physically demanding jobs often have special bands that do not move nearly as much. Some can be rather restricting, Goro has heard; others a reflection of what technological advancement has given humanity in terms of new fabrics and materials.

Wait.

Did Amamiya actually meet his soulmate, or was that just a line to throw Okumura off?

And if he did, is that soulmate Goro or…?

He’s been looking into the nature of one-sided bonds – although it should be impossible. One-sided bonds always turned out to be cases of matching soulphrases, but the wrong person – a downside of the whole system with soulphrases. Not surprising, seeing as the latter is man-made – thus, not foolproof… One-sided bonds should not be possible – but what are the chances that Goro’s specific words could come from anyone else, other than Amamiya-

He is so busy thinking about this, he almost misses the cat’s rant. “-appreciating me at all!” He twirls on Goro. “And you!”

Goro groans. “What is it now?”

“I trusted you!” The cat throws the words out, accusatory, as if that’s supposed to mean anything to Goro.

Goro, who just stares back blankly. “That sounds like a ‘you problem’.” He holds up a hand before the cat yells at him more, “I don’t know how to tell you that I definitely said that I am against all of this,” here, he gestures around his kitchen, “for the past day and a half.”

“Technically, just a day,” Okumura corrects. “Seeing as we met Mona-chan at a similar time yesterday.”

“Just a day then,” Goro allows, though not without some gritting his teeth at Okumura.

To her credit, she doesn’t seem bothered by his animosity.

“But I do appreciate you,” Amamiya says, frowning at his cat. “If it wasn’t for you-”

“You wouldn’t have met your soulmate, I know,” Morgana rolls his eyes. Say what now?! “Fat load of good that did for you.”

Goro stares at the cat with a whole new perspective.

Is Morgana some kind of divine will of the universe, capable of uniting soulmates? If so, why the fuck hasn’t he conclusively told Goro that Amamiya is not for him?!

“What?” Amamiya flinches. “No! I mean, yes, but no – it’s not about that, Mona,” he extends a hand that the cat only hisses at. Amamiya draws back, lips pulled downwards. “You’re my best friend, I’d never trade that for anyone.”

…could someone who says that a talking cat is his best friend, unironically, be my soulmate?

Goro tilts his head and tries to see if some higher power hates him that much, or if his lack of fatty tuna dinner is starting to manifest in hallucinations.

“You don’t really mean that,” Morgana grumbles, looking away. Instead of his previous fury, he only sounds distressed.

Can cats cry, Goro thinks, eyes narrowed. He doesn’t know, but he might find out at this rate… Then again, maybe magical eldritch horror cats are not a good sample of the species to base such observations upon…

Amamiya huffs. “Why not?”

It’s like me and Okumura aren’t even here anymore, Goro thinks dryly. To be fair, Okumura is just sitting there, drinking her tea, but he is hungry.

He approaches the counter as stealthily as possible.

Fatty tuna, here I come…

“Because it’s always about soulmates with you!”

Goro freezes, halfway to taking a large bite.

…oh?

***

“You’re obsessed with them,” Morgana tells Ren, more upset than angry. “You’ve been since before we met!” Ren tries to open his mouth, force himself to deny this, but Morgana… He isn’t wrong. “You’ve been trying to define who you are based entirely on someone you only ever met for five whole seconds!” Morgana’s ears droop. “...and I’m still jealous of that.”

“...you’re what?” Ren mutters intelligently. He’s been – he’s been invested in his soulmate, yes – but people usually are. It’s normal. Why would Morgana be-

His eyes travel to Morgana’s furry front paw.

“I’m jealous! Of you and Lady Ann and even that prick Akechi-”

“Hey,” Akechi cuts in from the sidelines.

“-because you all have soulmates!” Morgana’s tail moves in agitation, from this side to the other. “And I don’t even have any idea if I do, because I am stuck like this!” He yowls, pained.

“Oh, Mona,” Ren crumbles. “It doesn’t matter if you have a soulmate or not, we’ll still love you.”

“Yes, it does matter,” Morgana argues, not taking a step towards him, despite Ren having opened his arms for a hug. “Because that’s what matters to you most – to a lot of people. And I get it! You all just wanna be happy!” The cat’s eyes shine with… Are those tears? “But I don’t have that and all I’ll ever be is a second-choice, useless pet!”

Ren’s lips settle into a firm line. “You’re not useless, Morgana.”

Morgana rolls his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, I know, you met your-”

“This is not about my soulmate,” Ren cuts in. “You’re right, I was – am defining myself based on them.” Sometimes it felt like that was the only thing his parents could talk to him about – his soulmate and how utterly horrible of a person they probably would be. Ren’s fist curls. “And a lot of people do that and you’re right, it sucks.”

“...I didn’t say that,” Morgana says, quiet, subdued.

“Yeah, you kinda did, didn’t you?” Ren flashes the cat a half-smile. “We live in a world where people are so obsessed with finding someone that they can’t even be happy without it.” He throws his arms out. “And it’s fucking stupid, because it’s all a lie.”

“...what?” Morgana tilts his head. “I don’t… understand.”

“I have never been happier than this year,” Ren shares, the words falling like a tsunami; washing away years of holding his tongue, of keeping his silence. “And it wasn’t because I found someone who’s supposed to complete me – it’s because I met you, and all the others, it’s because of what we’ve been doing together – it’s because we’re friends.” He huffs. “And if that wasn’t fated, then I don’t know if I care about anything that is.”

“But what about your happily ever after?” Morgana asks, his hackles no longer raised. “I thought you wanted…” The cat glances towards Akechi.

“You’ve been showing me all year that life doesn’t need to be lived by someone else’s words,” Ren holds a hand over his band, before letting go. “I’m where I am because of your advice.”

“You say that like you always take my advice,” Morgana grumbles.

“Well, I try,” Ren points out, “I just have shitty taste in people.”

Morgana snorts. “You really do.” He takes a cautious step closer. “You have a pretty good taste in confidants though.”

Ren reaches out again. This time, Morgana pushes his head into his waiting palm. “I think so too,” he replies, smile growing. “There’s nothing for you to be jealous about anyways,” he adds, “I’d trade my soulmate for you any day of the week.”

Ren hears something that sounds oddly like choking on fatty tuna – he is an expert, due to Morgana’s eating speeds being way above what’s healthy – but Morgana’s purring laughter distracts him. “Well, I don’t see that asshole around when you’re upset, so you better.”

Then, Ren is the one too busy cackling at the surprise expletive. “I didn’t know you knew how to swear,” he murmurs, as Morgana climbs into his lap, wordlessly demanding more and more pets and purring like a machine.

“Your boyfriend’s a bad influence,” Morgana says with a sly undertone.

Now, Ren definitely hears choking on fatty tuna.

Thankfully the new girl is there to whack Akechi in the back until he is breathing normally again.

Ren, still sitting on the ground, now with his cat in his lap, quirks an eyebrow. “So, did you start a new vigilante group without us or…?”

Akechi’s cheeks are flaming; though that might be from the choking.

The new girl seems delighted though and Ren looks forward to getting to know her.

***

It goes something like this.

Goro tries to interject into Okumura and Morgana’s storytelling with his own, very important points – mainly that he wants no part in all of this, he cannot believe that Amamiya was actually a Phantom Thief all the time they’d been seeing each othe- hanging out, and what did the cat mean by ‘boyfriend’?! – and each time-

“-was all quite fantastic, but Mona-chan was very helpful in explaining everything,” Okumura says, eyes shining.

Or-

“-are both pretty good, all things considered,” the eldritch horror grumbles, side-eyeing Goro and the fatty tuna that is human food and therefore Goro’s food. Take that you stupid feline.

Although he’d still appreciate being taken seriously, but-

“-can do an emergency meeting with everyone – we were gonna take on Okumura’s Palace anyways, I think,” Amamiya finishes. “Apparently Prez’s classmates with his daughter? So we wanted to talk to her first.”

“That won’t be necessary,” Okumura says primly. “I am her and I approve of the change of heart.”

“Oh.” Amamiya blinks, then nods. “Okay then. Can I have your contact info so we can talk about meeting more easily?”

“Of course,” Okumura agrees.

“Do none of you care that I did not agree to this?!” Goro asks, exasperated and half-way expecting to get ignored, a-fucking-gain-

Except, Amamiya shoots him a little smirk over his phone that may or may not leave Goro’s heart stuttering. “One sec, honey.”

Goro gapes.

“...what the fuck did you just call me?”

Okumura chuckles, wrapping up the exchange of information with Amamiya. “You’ll be alright, Mona-chan?” She checks. The cat nods, having taken over Amamiya’s lap and somehow still managing to almost fall off every three seconds. “Alright then. See you tomorrow for our game plan then.” She bows respectfully, grabbing her bag and disappearing through the door before Goro can fully process that she is leaving.

“Take care!” Amamiya calls after her.

Then proceeds to stare up at Goro, his expression shifting. “Hey.”

“...you’ve been here for over an hour,” Goro feels compelled to point out.

“It wasn’t a whole hour,” the cat argues, grimacing in a very cat-like manner.

Amamiya nods along. “Didn’t say hi,” he explains. “You sounded upset about that.”

Yes, Goro thinks, like an hour ago, when you first stormed through the front door.

Now, staring down at the Phantom Thief in his kitchen, the dumb cat monster still present, but Okumura gone…

Goro clears his throat awkwardly. “Do you mind getting up?” He only has one chair, well, stool, but...

Ah, fuck it, he thinks. Morgana took over half the bed yesterday anyways, it’s not like Goro doesn’t have to wash the sheets twice as it is.

“We should talk,” he says, fully serious.

Amamiya looks back and inclines his head. Finally, Goro thinks through a dry mouth. They’re on the same page.

***

So, Akechi takes him to his bedroom.

Ren is trying really hard not to read into that, since, well, Mona is still with them and the detective’s flat really doesn’t look like it was made with a human person in mind, not to mention several, but hey. They’ve been dating for like, two months now and they haven’t even kissed yet.

True, most of their dates were in public, so Akechi was probably concerned with his fans and his reputation as the ‘waiting for my one true love’ type, but still.

Oh, who is he kidding, he is definitely reading into this.

“Don’t read into this,” Akechi hisses, cheeks flushed. “I just don’t have a couch or anything!”

“Uh-huh,” Ren agrees, because that seems like what the detective wants to hear. He doesn’t try to hide his smirk though.

Morgana trots around the room, before hopping on the bed and settling down straight in the middle of it.

It’s a very Mona thing to do and Ren’s worries settle down at the sight.

“Thanks for taking care of him,” he murmurs.

Morgana huffs. “I can take care of myself!”

“I know,” Ren smiles. “Still.” He glances at Akechi, who is just watching him and Morgana numbly.

“...you’re welcome. I suppose.” He coughs a little, turning away. “Sit down.”

Ren does, stretching back somewhat to reach Morgana, dragging his hand over his small friend’s fur, something that he realizes with a start, he’s been missing for longer than since Morgana left.

His shirt rides up a bit on his stomach as a result of this though and Ren catches Akechi eyeing the skin, before the detective clears his throat loudly. “So, a Phantom Thief, huh.”

Akechi also sits, but unlike Ren, he doesn’t look like he is sitting on a bed, but rather, like someone stuck a stick up his ass.

Maybe stop thinking about his ass when you’re in his bed, Ren tells himself.

It’s not a very helpful thing to think, all things considered, so he tries to focus on the conversation. “Yeah.” He tilts his head, propping himself up further. “Well? What do you think?”

Akechi’s shoulders tense. Ren can practically hear him count in his head as he breathes out.

“I think it finally makes sense why you insisted on meeting so often,” Akechi says softly, the words cutting as he meets Ren’s eyes. “However I must question the efficiency of your espionage, seeing as I fail to see how you could gain information from-”

Ren grabs his arm.

Akechi falls silent.

It’s not just his arm that Ren’s holding onto. It’s his left arm – with the band and Akechi’s soulmate’s words tattooed on his skin.

Normally, it would be taboo to touch anyone like that.

“Going on dates with you?” Ren finishes, lips curling into a smile. His own band is loose on his arm. “No spying. I just wanted to spend time with you.”

Akechi’s usual mask breaks. “...dates?” he repeats flatly.

Morgana snorts. “Yeah and you somehow convinced everyone else that you’re doing it for information.” The cat is kneading the comforter on top of the bed and Akechi frowns at that for a second.

“Do you have to?” Before looking back at Ren. “Those were not dates.”

“Oh?” Ren hums. Then, challenges, “Weren’t they?”

“Of course not!” Akechi declares hotly. “I must ask you to let go of my arm, Amamiya-kun.”

Ren hums. “So what were they if not dates? What are we?” He shuffles closer as he speaks, his own armband, already askew, dragging out of place even more.

Akechi’s gaze is instantly on the band.

“You seriously didn’t have this conversation before today?!” Morgana demands from the both of them, incredulous.

Ren shoots him an apologetic smile.

The cat sighs deeply, hiding his eyes behind his paws.

“...I suppose I don’t know what we are,” Akechi says slowly, deliberately. His eyes flicker to meet Ren’s. “Not since our whole… relationship was built on a lie.”

“Which lie do you mean?”

Akechi doesn’t comment on how Ren is still holding onto him, lips curling at the verbal acknowledgement that there are many things they are both leaving unsaid.

Usually, Ren wouldn’t mind.

Tonight… He is not in a mood to keep secrets anymore.

“We’re enemies,” Akechi says flatly. “I’m supposed to turn you in and you…”

“Being enemies sounds really hot,” Ren murmurs. The detective scoffs.

“I keep telling you, Amamiya-kun, this won’t work out. Are you truly dense enough that you don’t understand that?”

“Well, I’m not sure what you were expecting from a dumb teenager,” Morgana comments. Ren and Akechi both shoot him a glare.

It’s not like Ren keeps forgetting that Morgana is there or anything – the cat being around is reassuring, if anything.

But it does lend a different atmosphere to the room than what he’d like to have when talking about this with Akechi.

Something that Morgana clearly knows, if his interjections are anything to go by.

Ren makes a split-second decision that he’s probably gonna regret in the next two minutes. “You’re waiting for your soulmate, right?” He asks Akechi, point blank. “Let’s check.” They’re not gonna match, he knows that.

Akechi’s eyes widen considerably. “Amamiya-kun-”

“And then you can tell me that you want nothing to do with me.” He cocks his head. “If you really mean it,” he adds, a note of flirtatious teasing in his voice.

Akechi huffs. Ren can almost see the cogs turning in his head…

“Alright,” he says at last. “You first.”

Ren finally lets go of Akechi’s banded arm – their bands are a similar color of black, even if they are made from a different material. The one on his forearm is already loose; untying it is easy.

He doesn’t reveal it yet.

“You too,” Ren prompts, when Akechi just looks at him, impatience in the crinkle of his nose. “At the same time.”

The detective clutches his left, not replying for a beat too long.

They’re not gonna match, Ren thinks – Ren knows.

But Akechi…

Does he think they will?

But that would mean…

“We won’t match,” Ren says. Suddenly, he is not sure if he is lying or not.

Akechi grimaces at him. All this time, Ren thinks, staring at his face, were you thinking that we were…?

“You really won’t,” Morgana pipes up from the peanut gallery.

“Your confidence is astounding,” Akechi grumbles, but this does probe him into untying his own band. “I would still prefer it if you went first,” he adds.

Ren looks into Akechi’s face and he says, “Okay.” With the next move of his hand, the band is gone from his arm; showing off the pale skin that the sun hasn’t tanned over the summer.

The kanji are even starker on this canvas, Ren knows.

He doesn’t waste a second looking at the familiar phrase though, all his attention is on Akechi, who mouths the words, confusion settling over his features…

Except he stiffens.

If Ren wasn’t watching, he wouldn’t notice.

If he wasn’t sitting so close to Akechi, he wouldn’t have felt the shift in the air.

The whole world seems to hold its breath.

“Akechi,” Ren says, mouth dry, “show me.”

The detective’s gaze snaps to his, his expression transforming. “I understand why you said we wouldn’t match,” he says, words only a little more hurried than usual, “this must have been quite something to grow up looking a-”

“Akechi. The band.”

Akechi is holding his own palm over the soulmark. “I’m not very comfortable showing this to other people,” he babbles, voice earnest and smile shy, but his eyes, his eyes are skittish, “I-”

Ren tackles him.

Morgana yelps as the whole mattress moves – not that they stay on the bed for long, because Akechi moves immediately, trying to throw Ren off, which just leads to them crashing on the floor and-

Ren lands on top, Akechi’s arm in his hand, straddling the detective.

Not that Akechi goes easily, despite Ren having fallen on top of him.

Ren receives an elbow to his stomach.

Akechi snarls. “Let me g-”

His face contorts; a deep-seethed rage that he didn’t know Akechi’s soft smiles could ever hold – a dichotomy, Ren thinks once again, gaze snapping to-

Akechi trashes, but it’s a bit too late.

His words aren’t as long as Ren’s.

What would you think?

It’s a bit weird, as far as soulmarks go. Not generic, but nothing as memorable as Ren’s words.

Except for one thing.

Ren’s been obsessively watching and rewatching Akechi’s interviews for weeks on end – it was one of the reasons he and Morgana argued.

He knows those words.

He said those words to Akechi.

If he had a split second more to examine the writing, he would probably recognize it as his own.

As it is, Akechi finally gains on him in his stupor; flipping the two of them over, elbow crushing Ren’s windpipes-

“-you,” Ren chokes out, eyes wide. His glasses flew off somewhere between tackling the detective and falling off the bed.

His soulmate, the Black Mask, Detective Prince Goro Fucking Akechi sneers down at him from above.

“You have a lot of fucking audacity,” he hisses, “to think that you-”

Morgana launches himself onto Akechi’s face.

Ren’s crushed windpipes get momentary respite, but his bruised backside doesn’t; not that he notices, rolling on top of the swearing detective-murderer, with the help of-

“Good job, Mona,” he praises.

Morgana, now sitting squarely on Akechi’s chest, puffs his own little chest out. “Of course!” Then he frowns at Ren. “Why did we tackle him?”

Akechi – Goro? – echoes the question, though with a lot more foaming at the mouth. “Why did you tackle me?!”

“So, good news,” Ren starts cheerfully, “I found the Black Mask.”

Akechi’s expression goes slack.

Morgana’s jaw drops.

“Bad news,” Ren continues, “he is also Goro Akechi.”

***

Goro tries to make a break for it on multiple occasions.

It quickly gets to the point where his own phone and Joker’s are both chucked into the other side of the flat, because they don’t want Goro escaping through the Metaverse.

Which would be a tactically sound decision, if Goro didn’t utterly despise the idea of complimenting someone who had tied him up in his own home.

It really shouldn’t be this hard to overpower Joker and his fucking cat, Goro fumes.

It kinda is though.

“-Akechi is a murderer!” The cat screeches. He is very stuck on that line of thinking, it seems.

Amamiya, who, since tying Goro up with his own equipment – and maybe there is something to soulmates being two sides of the same coin, with how quickly the thief found Goro’s hidden stash – has just been staring at Goro, hums.

Goro sneers at him, teeth bared. “What?!”

For a second, he doesn’t expect an answer.

Then, “Is it about the money?”

Goro has been saddled with an utter idiot.

He exhales, pointedly looking around. “Do you really think I’d be living like this if it was about the money?!”

“Then what?” Amamiya doesn’t seem upset like he did before; his face is open, impassive. A mask, Goro thinks, a poker face.

Even the cat quiets down at that.

“What, you think you’ve tied me up and suddenly I will spill all my secrets?” Goro tilts his head, tone amused. “That’s cute. This,” here, he holds up his zip-tied hands as much as possible, “is not permanent.”

He might as well be talking about the two of them.

“It isn’t,” Amamiya agrees.

Morgana gapes, offended. “What are you talking about? We’re not just gonna let him go!”

“Why not?” Goro asks, flashing a smile full of teeth and lacking all warmth at the cat. “You can’t exactly hold me hostage. Not to mention how no one will believe you-”

“You are right, Mona.”

Goro bristles at the interruption. Is Amamiya really such a quick turncoat?!

“I really do define myself way too much based on my soulmate,” Amamiya continues. Goro avoids looking him in the eyes, now that they both know for sure that that soulmate is… Well.

It really feels like a big fucking joke.

(Like the rest of his life, really.)

“You don’t have to tell us anything,” Amamiya says, leaning down to force his face into Goro’s field of vision. He scowls, trying to duck away, but doesn’t get very far – being hogtied on one’s bed tends to do that. “Just listen.”

Now, Goro could act very childishly at that – start chanting at a loud volume for example, like the poster child of a whiny toddler.

He doesn’t.

Maybe it has something to do with Amamiya’s expression.

It definitely has a lot to do with his words.

“I learnt it from my parents.” His what, Goro thinks intelligently. Not that he doesn’t know where people come from – of course he knows that, what a stupid thing to even think – but he knows for a fact that Amamiya never mentioned his parents.

Frankly, Goro was under the impression they were both orphans – or close enough to count – with Amamiya having been sent away from a distant relative.

Now, this could still be the case – however Amamiya’s next words destroy this hypothesis. “They are soulmates, too, you know.”

Are. Not were.

Goro doesn’t know for sure, but he is pretty darn confident mother’s soulmate wasn’t the bastard who sired him.

She always put way too much stock into his future happiness with his soulmate for that to be the case. Not jaded enough by her own, clearly.

(Some small part of him used to wonder, what if mother met her soulmate in time, what if that soulmate came to live with them – if he had another parent to look out for him, how would he have turned out? How would mother? Would she still have left the world, leaving behind Goro and a soulmate with an empty arm behind? Or would she have been happy, the way Goro couldn’t make her?

If he was a child born to soulmates, would his childhood have been a happy one? Was he, the bastard child the problem?)

“But just because they are soulmates… Well, they aren’t the best parents,” Amamiya muses, a morbid amusement in his voice. Goro stills.

(So much for his fantasy of a perfect little family.)

“They used to talk a lot about you,” Amamiya says.

“Me?” Goro asks flatly. The thief’s smile is… off.

“They thought they knew what kind of person you’d be from this.” Amamiya gestures at his arm. Goro’s mouth dries, settling into a thin line. He is no stranger to others assuming things about him – and those words – his own first thought, besides a half-forgotten memory of actually saying those words, was how growing up with those words would lead to so many assumptions of the worst kin- “I disagreed with them.”

And now… I am not so sure.

Goro waits for Amamiya to say something to that effect – shoulders tense, he waits for damnation from the one person who was supposed to truly love him.

(True love is such a trite concept, isn’t it? As if it really existed, as if everyone had a chance at-)

“I haven’t talked to them since I came to Tokyo,” Amamiya says instead, head tilted. “Before that too, actually. They didn’t really like having a son with a criminal record.” Another rueful, soulless smile. It almost reflects my own ones, Goro thinks.

“Boo-fucking-hoo,” he forces the words out, because Amamiya had parents, he had it easier, much easier than Goro ever did-

“Shut up!”

Morgana hisses, back arched threateningly.

Goro opens his mouth to glower back-

“They don’t matter though.”

He stills at those words.

Then, all his fury is back, flowing out of him like molten lava. “Don’t you fucking dare lie to me.”

Amamiya tilts his head, asking without a word.

“Of course they matter to you,” Goro spits. “You wouldn’t be talking about them if they didn’t – so don’t you fucking dare insult me by lying to me.”

Not about this.

There is the faintest of smiles on Joker’s face – a smile with some warmth in it, Goro realizes with a start.

“They shouldn’t matter,” the thief corrects softly.

Goro scoffs, because that may be true, but it is a pacification, a lie Amamiya may want to tell himself, but Goro won’t do the same.

He may have become a star for himself, but the road he has taken is all because of mother.

(And that good-for-nothing asshole who he’d never actually call his fath-)

Their parents shouldn’t matter – but they do.

In a world of predestination, two things are for sure: one’s soulmate and one’s parents.

There are theories of how soulmate matches come to be – that maybe the parents of the soulmates in question conceived their child at a similar date; that maybe they met, or were meant to meet in some way; that it is the parents’ two halves that make up their child, creating a potential for predicting soulmate pairs, as if such a thing were possible with billions of people on earth-

Honestly, half of it is a hoax at best, but after soulmates, parental relations can be the most defining. Historically speaking, after all, it was the matriarch or the patriarch of a house that arranged for soulmate matches – or lack thereof. Parents decide whether they want their children’s arms bound from an early age – although it is an accepted practice to put babies and toddlers in long sleeved clothes – they often have a say in their children’s soulphrases… Even if, by age fifteen, most people have picked one, parental input is invaluable for a lot of those decisions.

So yes; maybe Amamiya doesn’t want his parents and their opinion to matter, but it does.

“They’re not the ones who have been here for me this year,” Amamiya says. Goro rolls his eyes. Yes, he knows all about the thief’s various strays- “I met Morgana, I met my friends and I met you.”

Goro’s cynicism dies down, despite himself.

“...why would you include me in that?”

Yes, they are soulmates, but before today, Amamiya didn’t know that, Goro is sure about that now, so-

“Why wouldn’t I?” Comes the answer, matching the soft, quiet volume that Goro asked his question. “I didn’t get a crush on you because we’re soulmates.”

Wait what.

“Are you really sure this is where you wanna take this conversation…?” The eldritch horror asks Amamiya, who only huffs.

Goro stares.

“That doesn’t make any sense,” he points out. “We’re soulmates, therefore any feelings you could have developed,” or more like he convinced himself he did, Goro thinks dryly, “are due to that bond-”

“But I didn’t know we were soulmates,” Amamiya counters. “I developed feelings for you, because of you.”

Goro stares at him.

Then…

“No.”

Amamiya raises an eyebrow. “No?”

“No, that’s fucking stupid,” the words burst out of him. “And that’s not how this world works!”

The thief has the audacity to look amused. “Why not?”

“You don’t just get to say you like me for me,” Goro spits, “when it’s objectively as far from the truth as it can be – if anything, you’re the only one who is supposed to like me!” Amamiya is still smiling, but why the fuck is he smiling?! “You don’t get to say you chose that!”

“Why not?”

Goro wants to deck him in his pretty face.

“How stupid can you get? I told you, you don’t choose that!” The universe, Fate, whatever the fuck Amamiya wants to call it, is the deciding force. “If you did, then you wouldn’t be here at all – no one ever is!”

Goro’s yelling halts; he is panting from the exertion.

He already knows he said too much, without looking at Amamiya’s face.

“I think Mona will be the first one to tell you how much I want that unconditional love too.” What is he saying, Goro thinks, raising his head to look at the desperate smile on Joker’s face. What does he mean he does too- “But there is so much to choosing to love someone. It’s a choice to work for happiness and-”

“That still implies that someone chooses you,” Goro cuts in darkly.

“I just told you, I do.”

Goro stares at him.

“I kill people,” he says, as plainly as possible.

“Yeaaaah,” Amamiya agrees, wincing. “That’s a thing.”

This revitalizes the cat. “Yes, he kills people, can we get back to that thing for a hot second-”

“And the only reason this is not a dealbreaker for you,” Goro continues, like one would speak to a child of very bad comprehension skills, “is because of the words on your arm marking you as mine.”

Amamiya shudders at that last word, but he is also flushing – something that holds Goro back from snapping at him.

What’s… What’s with that reaction?

“…do you have a… thing for murderers?” he feels the need to ask, because honestly, that might make some sense.

“No,” Amamiya denies.

“God, I hope not,” Morgana grumbles. Goro is forced to agree with him.

“-I have a thing for you, which we have established already,” Amamiya says, glancing at Goro with an earnest expression, devoid of his glasses.

Goro closes his eyes for a couple seconds, to keep from screaming.

When he opens them, he turns to the cat instead of his soulmate. “Did he hit his head or is he just this much of a fucking moron?”

The cat wrinkles his nose. “Pretty sure he’s just like that, yeah.”

“How do you put up with him?” Goro asks, very genuinely. He does think the cat is his own bag of problems, but Amamiya…

Well. Goro has a very wide vocabulary and even he is struggling to describe his soulmate.

“It’s like Ren said,” Morgana gives the impression of shrugging, which is a very weird visual on a feline, even as he is sitting. “I chose to be by his side.”

“But you left,” Goro points out, before Amamiya can get in a word edgewise.

He can see Joker flinch and look away.

“I did,” the cat agrees, mournful. “I… I was angry about a lot of things. It wasn’t just your fault,” he tells Amamiya, heading over to nudge his arm with his nose. “I… I said a lot of things that I don’t really mean. I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry for not asking what was wrong earlier,” Amamiya murmurs, hand stroking the cat’s fur. Morgana purrs, leaning into the touch. “We were talking, but…”

“We weren’t really talking,” the cat finishes.

“We can do better,” Amamiya offers, grinning.

“We will do better,” Morgana corrects, giving his own impression of a smile.

Goro coughs, both to bring attention to himself – and how he is still tied up, how long do they expect to keep him like this?! – and to distract himself from the disgustingly sweet relationship his soulmate has with a cat, who he already said he’d trade for Goro, any day of the week.

Not that he’s jealous or anything.

“We’re having a moment!” The cat complains, meowling.

“Would you mind having that moment somewhere other than my bedroom?” Goro asks dryly. “I’m a bit preoccupied with being, I don’t know, tied up.”

“Maybe if you didn’t kill people, we wouldn’t have tied you up!” The cat retorts.

Goro rolls his eyes so hard, they almost get stuck. “Maybe, I have a reason for doing what I’m doing?”

“Which is?” Amamiya prompts.

Goro flashes him a smile. “There’s no fucking way I’m telling you.”

Amamiya snorts.

Goro scowls. “What are you laughing at?”

“You’re cute,” Amamiya says, smiling at him without missing a beat.

Goro gapes. “…what?!”

Morgana sighs deeply. “Seriously?”

“I don’t really care about swearing,” Amamiya says, patting his arm – Goro’s words written in a stark ink. “Never minded it too much.” He tilts his head, smile widening. “I think it fits you, Goro.”

Goro thought his jaw couldn’t drop any further, and yet. “What the fuck did you just call me?!”

“We’ve been dating for like, two months, I thought it was time to start hitting the first name basis?”

Goro is pretty sure he is having an aneurysm. “What?” He breathes out. “Dating??” He looks at the cat to make sure he heard it right, but Morgana only nods. “We have not been dating!”

“I mean, your only problem was that I wasn’t your soulmate,” Amamiya points out, which is a point that Goro doesn’t appreciate being pointed out at all. That was not even his only problem with that whole thing! “And now that’s kind of a moot point, so…”

“I did not spend all that time with you, because we were dating,” Goro hisses, “you didn’t even have the courage to ask me out properly!”

“You would have said no-”

“Exactly!”

“-because you were still in denial about being attracted to me.”

Goro cannot fucking breathe. “Excuse you, what the fuck?” He can’t believe that they are having this conversation, while he is tied up, on his bed, both their arms bare, with the fucking cat still there. “I only spent time with you to figure out if you were my soulmate or not!”

Amamiya hums, nodding along.

“That- That doesn’t mean I’m attracted to you!” Goro yells, because can he get that through his thick skull?! Goro’s face feels like it’s on fire from the rage.

Amamiya tilts his head. “By your logic, we’re soulmates, so of course you’re attracted to me.”

“That doesn’t work like that!”

“Oh?” Amamiya inches closer. “It doesn’t?”

“You can’t just tell someone that they’ll have feelings for-” Goro falters, the grin on Amamiya’s face way too infuriating. “Oh, shut the fuck up.”

“I’m starting to think you only know one swear word,” Morgana mutters degradingly. Goro glares at him, but doesn’t get to call the cat out.

“So we’re not in love, because we’re soulmates, or we are in love, because we are?”

Goro finds it very hard to breathe. “Why are you bringing the l-word into this, have you forgotten about my ‘killing people’ thing-”

Goro never considered how his soulmate would react to his side-job, moonlighting as an assassin, but on the one hand, it makes sense that the divine wills of whoever decided to fuck up people’s lives with soulmates would pick some sick psycho who wouldn’t mind that detail about him-

On the other hand, it really makes him question if free will even exists in their world, with Ren Amamiya of all people having been hard-wired to love him, regardless of all that and still have the audacity to claim that he is choosing to do that of his own free will.

“Why do I feel like you’d rather talk about murdering people than our soulmate bond,” Amamiya murmurs, lips curling upwards and he doesn’t look cute by any meaning of the world, one hand around his raised up knee, the other resting on the ground, his head still tilted-

“Because that’s what’s happening?” Morgana inserts sarcastically.

“Because any sane person would have at least some reservations about that!” Goro points out.

Amamiya snaps his fingers. “See, that’s the thing – sane person. Not sure if I meet that criteria, sorry honey.”

Goro’s cheeks are ablaze. “Stop calling me that!”

“Besides, didn’t you say you had a reason?”

“Which I have been refusing to share?” Goro can’t believe that he is arguing with this, but here they are. “Even the cat will tell you that that’s suspicious as fuck-”

“It really is,” Morgana cuts in. “I wouldn’t really trust him if I were you.”

Amamiya hums. “Okay, but here’s the thing: I’m great at justifying things.”

Goro stares.

Blinks.

Exchanges a vague look with the cat.

“...what?”

“I’m great at justifying things,” Amamiya repeats, nodding a little. “So I’m sure I can justify whatever you tell me.” He tilts his head. “Any sad backstories to color the whole image?”

“I… What?” Goro is pretty sure he has entered some kind of weird twilight zone in the past twenty-four hours. Has he ever truly left the Metaverse or is he just lying on the pavement near the Okumura Headquarters?

Nothing else would explain whatever the fuck is happening right now.

“You need a therapist or something,” he mutters, very much wanting to clutch his head, but being unable to, due to his bonds. What the fuck.

“I already have one,” Amamiya tells him helpfully. “He kinda trauma-dumps about his life every time we meet though, so maybe that’s not the best therapist work ever.”

“...you don’t say,” Goro replies through gritted teeth. This situation is growing more ridiculous with every passing second and he just wants out of here.

He finally knows that Amamiya is his soulmate, so his next step is-

Well. Goro isn’t fully sure what that next step is, but there is definitely a step to take there.

Maybe killing Amamiya. He can’t let the secret of him being a paid assassin getting out, not before he finishes his revenge quest – although that means having to get rid of the cat too. Goro glances over at Morgana, who almost fought him to the death over fatty tuna. Yes, he can have that on his conscience. And then there is Okumura, who knows about these two being over at Goro’s place… Did Amamiya tell anyone he’d be coming here? There can’t be that many threads Goro has to follow, can there? So terribly inconvenient. Why couldn’t have Amamiya just waited a month or two more for Goro to-

“-been to a therapist?”

Goro stares at his soulmate like the idiot that he is. “No.”

Amamiya hums. “You should.”

“...what?” Goro breathes out, indignation rising in him. The moment he’ll get his hands free, they are going right around his soulmate’s pretty neck to strangle the life out of him.

“I mean, if I have issues, then you gotta have issues too,” Amamiya reasons and he is not wrong, but also, how dare he imply that Goro needs therapy to function, or worse, to get better, he is already doing great, he doesn’t need that, he is better, he is above that- “Maybe soulmate counseling too? Could help us work through the murder issue.”

“We are not going to a soulmate counsellor!" Goro declares hotly. “I am not getting arrested because you feel the need to justify your murder kink!”

Amamiya pulls a face and the cat mirrors it – what the fuck am I seeing, Goro wonders. “It’s not a murder kink, okay, don’t make it weird.”

“I’m the one making it weird?” Goro parrots. “I’m hog-tied in my own bed!”

“You also kill people, so,” Morgana points out.

Amamiya nods along with his cat’s opinion. “It’s really indicative of just how much society lets hot people get away with.”

Goro, who was about to voice his own opinion, flushes at the implied compliment. He still feels the need to bite back. “Aren’t you the one excusing me?!”

“I’m a part of the problem,” Amamiya states sagely. He is smiling. “You know, that’s the first step: recognizing that there is a problem and that you’re a part of it – perpetuating the cycle and all that-”

Goro makes a little noise that he is pretty sure has to do with his dying brain cells trying to leave this miserable world and get out of reach of Amamiya’s words as fast as possible. He really wishes he could join them.

But alas, he doesn’t have the luxury.

“I don’t care about perpetuating cycles, I kill people and I will continue doing that!”

His soulmate hums. “Pretty sure emotional numbness is also one of the stages…”

“How would that make sense if accepting that there is a problem is the first step?” Morgana frowns.

Goro makes another noise.

***

Although Akechi looks really cute when he is tied up and spilling muffled insults about Ren’s brain capacity and lack thereof, this isn’t really getting him much closer to what he wanted.

We’ll shelve annoying him for another day, Ren decides, even as he and Morgana continue debating therapist stuff. Annoying an answer out of him could work, but so far, what seemed to work the most were the times when Ren was… Well, honest about his affections.

Though that’s just been leading to soulmate debates, which is something that he’s been enjoying – like all their debates – especially with Akechi – Goro? He got upset about getting called by his first name – getting so heated about them…

We can have more debates later, Ren decides, turning back to his soulmate decisively.

“Even if we don’t bring up the murder issue, I still think we could try counseling,” he says. “You know, to work through the whole parental thing.”

“...what parental thing?” Goro asks slowly, like a cornered animal.

Ren gestures at his own arm. “My parental thing.” He takes in how the detective looks… “Maybe yours, if you feel up to it. No pressure.”

“I don’t have a parental thing,” Goro snaps suspiciously fast.

Yup. Sure he doesn’t.

“Then my parental thing,” Ren repeats. He gestures towards Morgana. “Mona’s right that it’s been…” He winces.

“Very damaging towards your self-image?” Morgana offers dryly.

“Something like that,” Ren says, because at the end of the day he is still a teenager and feelings are hard.

“I fail to see what that has to do with me,” Goro claims petulantly.

“You’re my soulmate, honey,” Ren tells him with an indulgent smile. “Of course you’re included.”

Does this go against the lessons he and Morgana just agreed on? Yes. On the other hand, Ren was already making eyes at Goro Akechi, without knowing that they really are fated, so…

“Well, what if I don’t want to be? You two just tied me up on my bed,” the detective harps, again and Ren gets an idea.

“Do you think you have a choice about this?”

Goro’s expression stills; then, he is scowling. “After all your speeches about free will-”

“That’s not what I meant,” Ren cuts in, leaning closer so he can reach the detective, his soulmate, run his fingers over the words on Goro’s forearm – enjoying the shudder that follows. “You don’t exactly have a choice, tied up at my mercy like this, do you?”

“...what?”

Goro’s face is quickly flushing and Ren grins at the thought of what he might be thinking about. “My very own detective prince… Do you have any idea how long I’ve wanted to see you like this?”

The flush is getting even worse. “S-stop it.”

“Your words on my arm… Everyone must want to be where I am right now,” Ren whispers, leaning even closer, “to be able to call you theirs… And yet, here I am, yours – and here you are, mine for the taking…”

It should be humanely impossible, flushing that deep shade of red, but Goro Akechi apparently lives to defy all expectations.

“Er… Ren? What are you doing?” Morgana asks, with a tone of deep discomfort.

Ren shushes him, advancing some more. “You don’t get a choice about loving me,” he whispers, “and you never wanted, did you? Not if it meant I never had a choice about loving you either.”

Goro’s eyes are blown wide open, staring at him. His voice is rough around the edges, stirring something in Ren. “That’s- That’s not-”

“True?” Ren finishes for him. “But it is, isn’t it? I don’t know why you don’t see just how beautiful choosing love can be,” he admits, because he can admit that, “but me choosing you doesn’t mean I’ll ever stop loving you.” He moves closer, cradling Goro’s head, keeping their eye contact. “Our words may mark us however they please, but I stopped caring about those months ago.” His other hand comes to caress his detective’s face. “I don’t care if it’s been written in the stars or not – let me love you, Goro Akechi.”

“I don’t… I don’t need anyone,” Goro hisses, the words spilling from his lips slowly, like sand grains.

“It’s not about needing,” Ren says. As he speaks, the realization settles in him too; something that he hasn’t understood up until this point. “It’s about living – getting to share your triumphs and your failures, getting to see people succeed and falter, having others to share with them whatever you want.” He tilts his forehead against Goro’s. “We live in a world where Fate has decided that everyone should have one perfect pair – but there are so many people out there who matter, in little ways and big ways.” He smiles ruefully. “You just have to choose to go after them.”

“You can live perfectly fine without others,” Goro argues, because of course he does-

“Maybe,” Ren allows, “but wouldn’t it be so boring?” The worst time of his life, considering everything… It was those weeks leading up to his travel to Tokyo, when he was surrounded by people, but no one cared; not since his incident.

Even then, the only thing keeping him afloat – it was the idea that somewhere, out there, there lived a person who would say his words, who maybe wouldn’t judge him like everyone else.

Ren dreamed of just one person; what he found was a whole gaggle of fellow outcasts – friends to call his own, companions and people he would much sooner refer to as his family than the ones he is related to by blood.

“I don’t share my limelight with anyone,” Goro declares with a sharp edge, “and it’s not boring-”

“Alright,” Ren thumbs his cheek. “How about some support from the shadows?”

Goro stares at him. “You can’t be serious.”

“What will it take you to understand that I am?” Ren muses, a smile dancing on his lips.

“Stop doing this to me,” Goro hisses. “You won’t change what I’ve been doing, you can’t just come in with your sweet words and sweep me off my feet and distract me from getting my revenge!”

Revenge, Ren thinks. That’s new.

“Sweet words?” he echoes instead. “I mean every single one of them.”

“...really?” he hears Morgana mutter, but it soon gets lost in the explosion of volume from the detective.

“Stop trying to sell me your lies!” He starts trashing; Ren holds onto him, onto his face, so Goro is snarling straight into his, their mouths tantalizingly close. “We’re on opposite sides and even if we weren’t, I’d still kill you if it meant finally getting to kill him!”

“What do you mean you’d kill Ren?!”

Goro’s breath hitches as he realizes what he has said.

Ren hums. “So, who do you want to kill?” He tilts his head. “And why haven’t you killed him yet? There were a lot of targets you got rid of while in Mementos – does he have a Palace too?” That would make the most sense – even an assassin who can get by on his own in Mementos would struggle with a Palace.

Ren is pretty sure he’d be having problems even with Kamoshida’s Palace at his current skill level, so that’s a fair assumption.

“Whatever you’re thinking, stop it,” Goro commands, his eyes flashing.

Ren shrugs. “Wasn’t thinking of much.” But if Goro would like some assistance with this Palace, well…

Ren isn’t sure his friends would agree so readily, but two heads are already better than one, so.

“It’s my revenge,” Goro snaps. “You don’t get to come in and intrude on it!”

“What kind of revenge is so important you’d kill your soulmate over it?!” Morgana cries out, apparently very stuck on Goro’s death threats towards Ren.

Ren isn’t sure what that’s about, but he appreciates the concern.

After all, if he follows Goro’s logic about Fate not giving them a choice – then there is another kind of relationship, besides soulmates that he can consider.

“Your parents,” he murmurs. Goro stiffens. “It’s about your parents.” Revenge on his parents, to be more precise.

Wow, Ren thinks.

We really were meant to be.

It’s like he is looking into a mirror sometimes – a broken one, true, but Goro’s jagged edges seem to meld into his, like pieces of a puzzle.

“You know nothing,” Goro hisses, but there is a drop of defeat in him. I’m figuring you out, Ren thinks.

“Then why don’t you tell me? I’m just going to assume otherwise,” Ren baits. “Are they neglectful too? Mine are.” He smiles without any warmth. “I think my mum stopped caring when she found out she was having a boy – but for my dad it was the pressure from the community-”

“Stop telling me your sob stories, I don’t care!”

Ren lets him go.

“I think you do.” He settles back a bit; one of his hands comes to play with Goro’s bound and tense fists. “Is it your mum? Your dad? Both?” Ren watches the detective closely, at how he reacts-

His nostrils flare at the second one. “Your dad,” Ren continues. “You want to kill him?”

Thinking back to what Goro said earlier…

“Is that why you became an assassin? So you could work your way up to killing him?” That almost seems to make sense. If Goro’s father is someone with a heavily guarded Palace, learning through Mementos is a logical step – though Ren has no idea how his soulmate first got involved in the Metaverse. He can almost imagine the whole thing – Goro, figuring out how to hurt a real person through their Shadow – something their group almost did, would have definitely ended up doing, if it wasn’t for Morgana’s guidance – seeing what effects that had in the real world, the rise to stardom to open the deeper trenches of Mementos, the commissions to kill certain individuals for money, to gain better equipment, more chances, a stronger arsenal to finally reach his goal…

Stumbling into a chance and making the best of it, for the sake of vengeance – isn’t that what Ren’s been doing all year?

He can almost see himself doing the same, if their positions were reversed.

Goro stares at him blankly for several seconds.

Then, he asks, sounding so utterly done, “Why the fuck was I saddled with you of all people?”

“Because other people would balk at the mention of murder?” Ren asks, lips curling into a smile. “Come on. Tell me where I got it wrong.” He tilts his head. “Or did I get everything right?”

“Of course not,” Goro snaps. “I could kill him any time – and there is really no need to call that sorry excuse of a man anything kind,” he adds with a scowl.

“Wait, but if you could kill him, why didn’t you do so before?” Morgana chimes in, reminding both of them that he is in the room, not to mention, sitting on the bed still – although now, the cat comes to a stand, stretching, as he inches closer curiously.

That’s a good question though, Ren will give him that.

“Timing is of the essence with my revenge,” Goro claims pompously. “I wouldn’t expect you to understand.”

Ren and Morgana share a look.

“Is there a particular date you’re aiming for or…?” Ren tries, because other than having a set date for a death-anniversary, he is blanking.

“Nothing so stupid.” Goro rolls his eyes. “That wouldn’t even work, seeing as, much like your brainwashing, mental shutdowns can take anywhere from a couple hours to several days to set in.”

“Uh-huh,” Ren hums, sharing another look with Morgana. At least Goro does know about the Metaverse, so that’s good?

“That man took everything from my mother and me,” the detective continues, voice laced with venom. “And I will take everything from him.”

“...uh-huh.” So his mum isn’t a part of the revenge? Ren wonders why he never heard Goro mention her before-

“He will die the same way she did, feeling despair and an overwhelming sense that he has fucked his own life over and there is no going back.”

…that explains why Ren hasn’t heard mention of her.

“That sounds horrible,” Morgana mutters. “Your poor mum.”

Goro loses some of his steam. “Well, yes, suicide is always quite horrible.”

Ren stills. “She left you?”

Goro’s head snaps up, even as Morgana cries out, “Ren, she killed herself and that’s what you think of first?!”

“She did,” Goro agrees, soft and vulnerable.

“That’s horrifying,” Ren breathes out. He knows he should feel bad for Goro’s mum and he does – for anyone who has gotten that far mentally, that desperate and that lost…

But he can’t help but think of Goro Akechi, alone in a world where the people who were supposed to love and care for him unconditionally just… didn’t do that anymore.

No wonder he didn’t want me, Ren continues the thought. If Goro believed for even a second that they were soulmates – that their relationship would be just as the bonds that tie blood together – no wonder he doesn’t trust me.

I’m not going anywhere, he wants to say, but words never mean much when it comes to trust, do they? Not like this.

“I’m so sorry she did that,” he says, because he is, but also- “How old were you…?”

“A bit over eight,” Goro replies, still staring into his eyes. His lips draw into a soulless smile. “I don’t believe I ever mentioned that I was in the system for a while?”

Eight, Ren repeats, unable to muster any words. He doesn’t remember where he was at eight years old, but it definitely wasn’t being left by his only guardian to stand alone in a world of pairs.

“You didn’t.”

Goro tilts his head. “Well, how’s that for a sob story? Since you were so keen on hearing one,” he mocks, but Ren doesn’t really feel any fire behind it.

“...well it’s definitely sad,” Morgana says, before Ren can. “But you still shouldn’t be killing people!”

“There are better ways of strengthening your Persona and stuff in the Metaverse,” Ren agrees. “Though we only know about that because of Mona…” So it’s not like Goro had much chance to learn about that, not if he didn’t go out of his way to do so.

Goro only rolls his eyes. “The point of being an assassin is that people end up dead.”

“...so you were deliberately targeting people?” Ren asks. That’s a little harder to excuse than ‘he didn’t know any better’.

Not that that excuse would hold up in court… Or in front of his team…

Ren’s willing to cut a little slack for his soulmate though – not just because it’s his soulmate.

It’s not because he has a thing for murder, it’s because he has a thing for Goro Akechi.

…who does murder. Like. Casually.

Maybe I do have a little something for murder, Ren muses. That’s definitely a ‘therapist who actually cares about your mental well-being’ problem though.

No hate to Maruki.

(Maybe a little annoyance and exasperation to Maruki. There’s a reason Ren’s spacing out their sessions as much as possible.)

“Duh?” Goro looks at him like he is stupid, which would be fair, if their whole misunderstanding shtick couldn’t have been solved months ago by one of them asking a very stupidly obvious question. “How else would I gain that bastard’s trust?”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Morgana stands up, tail moving in agitation. “Your father is giving you the kill orders?”

“Don’t call him that!” Goro snarls. “But yes.”

“So you’re being coerced,” Ren tries.

“No, I’m doing this because I want to.” Goro raises his eyebrows.

Ren sighs. “You’re really not helping me justify a sad backstory for you.”

“Oh I’m sorry,” the detective snaps. “Am I not tragically misunderstood enough for you?”

“The whole ‘I’m doing this because I want to’ makes it a bit hard to take responsibility away from you, yeah,” Ren agrees, because there is that – the matter of agency.

“Why didn’t you kill him yet though?” Morgana asks, genuinely incredulous. “Not that I’m advocating for murder or anything, but… Aren’t you helping him like this?”

“Yes,” Goro nods. “I’m building him up so I can tear him down.”

Morgana and Ren exchange another look.

“Is he struggling or something…?” Ren asks. How many people has Goro killed in his father’s name? Hasn’t it been several months since those incidents started?

“No, he’s quite well-off – that bastard swims in connections.” Goro’s mood sours as he speaks.

“And you’re making things better for him by killing off people that he wants out of the way,” Morgana starts, “all so you can eventually swoop in and somehow still manage to kill him after all?”

“Yes.” Goro huffs. “What’s so hard to understand about that?”

“Can’t he like, get another Metaverse assassin to come kill you if he finds out that you’re after him?” Ren asks, because based on how Goro’s describing things, his sperm donor might be that kind of a person… I mean, someone who can order a hit in the cognitive world can probably do the same in the real one, can’t they? “Or someone in real life?”

“Technically he could,” Goro is forced to admit, looking much like Ren is pulling his teeth at the admission. “But it can’t be that hard to kill the yakuza from the Metaverse – and there is no way anyone else would get in there without me knowing.”

Ren wordlessly points at himself.

“You don’t count!” Goro flushes. “Besides, I knew about your group since you targeted Madarame!”

“Uh-huh.” Ren looks back to Morgana. Morgana looks back at him, his tiny cat face stuck in a very weird expression, as they both try to follow along the logical leaps and bounds that Goro Akechi’s justifications lead them through.

It’s not like Ren wants to call his soulmate stupid or anything, but…

Maybe he just hasn’t thought it through, Ren thinks to himself. “So he could get you killed any time,” he turns back to Goro, who is still bound; that probably can’t be healthy for him, Ren thinks. Then again, the detective doesn’t seem to care a lot about his health at all. “And you’re still helping him with some nebulous goal in the far future before you do anything against him?”

“Well when you say it like that, it sounds pretty fucking stupid,” Goro mutters, glancing away. “And it’s not some nebulous goal at all! He will die this December.”

What’s in December? Ren scrunches his nose trying to think, but all he can come up with is Christmas, winter break and the election that Yoshida keeps trying to-

“Wait, he’s a politician?”

“No,” Goro claims, very unconvincingly.

“That sucks,” Ren says emphatically. “I know like, one politician who’s a chill guy, but he had his years of sucking too.”

“Yoshida at least learned from his mistakes,” Morgana agrees. “His example is admirable, even if no one should make the kind of mistakes that he did.”

“And he’s not doing things alone,” Ren points out, pointedly looking at Morgana.

The cat sighs. “Yes, yes, I know.” He scowls at Goro again. “I still don’t like the fact that he’s a murderer! For all we know, he killed Futaba’s mum!”

“Did you?” Ren asks conversationally. That would make it pretty awkward to introduce Goro at a family dinner.

“Do you expect me to remember every person I have killed?” Goro asks, scowling back.

“That sounds a bit insensitive,” Ren feels the need to say.

Goro huffs, rolling his eyes. “Because that’s my biggest problem at the moment.”

“Look, I’m trying really hard to justify getting you untied,” Ren tells him, because this whole conversation has been about getting somewhere – preferably getting Goro to realize that one, he should probably give up the murder shtick and two, having people help you would be pretty fucking helpful for murdering someone, if number one doesn’t work out. “But that’s gonna require you agreeing to come with us tomorrow.”

“...come with you where?” Goro asks suspiciously. Good, he’s opening up to the idea! Ren brightens.

“To Leblanc, of course. Haru already said she’s coming,” he adds, because a little jealousy never seemed to hurt whatever decisions Goro would be making in regards to him.

“Is she now?” Goro grits his teeth as he smiles.

It’s a terrifying expression.

Ren is a little bit in love.

“...you’re weird,” Morgana tells him when he lets out his signature ‘lovesick about Goro Akechi’ sigh.

“Let’s suppose I agree to go,” Goro continues, heedless of Mona’s interjection. “I’m not just going to suddenly hold hands with you or anything.”

Ren hums. “We can always make out in the back alley sloppy-style.”

The detective’s face flushes a violent scarlet as Morgana lets out a shriek. “Noyoucannot!”

Ren shrugs. “We can figure that part out tomorrow.” The last few days have been a lot of strain as it is. Ren’s perfectly fine putting off one more thing.

“Why would you even want me there?” Goro asks, not looking him in the eye.

Ren leans down to meet his gaze. “Because I’m like mold,” he says with a smile, “you just can’t get rid of me.”

“...that sounds very disturbing,” Morgana declares, but Ren only has eyes for the detective’s cute little flush.

But Goro’s into it, Ren thinks victoriously. Great – they really do fit well together, don’t they?

“So, how about it?” He tilts his head. “Come with me tomorrow?”

“You really don’t want me doing my revenge scheme alone, do you,” Goro asks flatly, instead of answering him.

Ren keeps his smile on. “Support you from the shadows, honey.”

Goro rolls his eyes, but also, “Well, I suppose.”

Ren grins over at Morgana – and the cat pulls a couple faces, before he ultimately nods. “Fine.” He stretches, jumping down from the bed. “I’m gonna check on the sushi.”

“That’s not for y-” Goro snarls, but Ren’s hands on his bonds silence him.

He tries to be as gentle as possible, massaging along the red skin. “There we go.”

“...you’re letting me go just like that,” Goro looks at him suspiciously.

“Uhum.” He doesn’t start out by attacking me, Ren notes, which is a great start, if you ask him. “Can we stay the night? I’ll make breakfast in the morning,” he bargains.

His soulmate still doesn’t look any more settled. “What? I would understand the surveillance, but-”

“You only have one bed,” Ren continues, batting his eyes seductively. “So we have to share…” No couches either – and Morgana went out to the kitchen…

“Don’t try anything weird!” Goro snaps. But in the same breath, he reaches out with his newly freed hands, dragging his fingers over Ren’s arm – his words coloring the pale skin.

It makes Ren realize something.

“How come you didn’t know for sure that it was me?” he asks. “You were still you when you said that.” And Goro started thinking that it was Ren after Ren said his words…

Grumpy is a delightful look on my soulmate, Ren decides a second later. “I got into a skirmish with a Shadow and was hit by some ailment – in hindsight, probably forget.” He shakes his head, disgusted. “The exact wording skipped my mind until I saw it tonight.”

“Do you get hit often?” Ren asks, partially worried. Goro does kill people in the Metaverse, yeah, but since he’s all alone-

“No!” Goro puffs himself up. “I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself!”

“Uh-huh.” Ren exhales, shifting positions so he can lean against the headboard too. He thinks about what has been the most effective in getting Goro to spend more time with him all this time and he says, off-handedly, “I guess we won’t know who’s better in the Metaverse, since we never go together.”

Goro stiffens. “Of course I’m better, I’ve been doing it longer-”

“I have like, eight different Personas right now,” Ren cuts in, after a quick headcount. He is smirking at his detective. “Pretty sure I have you beat.”

“Numbers don’t make a difference if you’re an idiot who can’t think strategically,” Goro argues. “Besides, I have two of my own and they are plenty enough.”

“Two Personas?” Ren repeats, rising up.

It’s all the prompting Goro needs, expression turning smug. “Yes. You didn’t think you were the only one with special skills, did you?”

No, he didn’t – but being face to face with someone who is so much like him makes Ren’s heart skip a beat, and warmth spread in his chest.

“Not sure who’s more special here,” he needles still, because if he does, then maybe Goro will-

“Now listen here-”

-launch into a spirited debate with him, as he is wont to do.

Ren smiles through the whole thing.

***

Goro doesn’t really complain about Ren staying over, but he draws the line at that eldritch horror stealing more than fifty percent of his bed again.

“Go sleep somewhere else, there is no space!” he hisses at the cat, who hisses back-

Ren is sitting between the two of them, frowning. “You don’t even have a couch, it’s not like Mona can go anywhere.” He pats his lap, covered by a blanket Goro threw at him. “Come here, Mona.”

To Goro’s surprise, the cat shoots one last disparaging look at him and then does – rolling up into a small ball, saddled comfortably across Ren.

Why does he get Ren privileges, Goro wants to demand. That’s his soulmate picking the fucking cat over him!

Except just a moment later, Ren pats the space next to him. “Let’s go to sleep, Goro,” he murmurs, smile soft and still using his name-

Not that Goro isn’t calling him so familiarly at this point either.

He sighs, terribly inconvenienced by the third-wheel in their bed – and isn’t a soulmate meeting supposed to be a private affair? Workplaces even give out leave for when someone finds their soulmate! – but very begrudgingly, he joins the other two on the bed.

Ren laces their fingers together, his left arm with Goro’s words on it plain for the world to see.

Maybe it’s not that bad, Goro thinks. That he really is my soulmate.

“Good night, sleep tight, don’t let the bed Monas bite!”

Goro blinks.

“The what-”

The cat only cackles, which doesn’t make him any more settled about the idea, but it’s just one night. Just one.

…Goro resolves to get a couch for the cat as soon as fucking possible.

***

Ren strolls into Leblanc like he owns the place – a reluctant Goro Akechi trailing after him, but Morgana in his usual place in the bag.

The others are already inside, talking with hushed voices – Haru is notably farthest from them, sipping a cup of coffee at the counter next to Futaba and her all-seeing laptop.

“Yo,” Futaba waves. “Sojiro’s out so he won’t skin you yet, but did you have to drop off the map for a whole night?”

Ren shrugs, putting his bag down. “I was out for a reason.” Then, he zips the bag open, Morgana’s head popping out.

“Mona-Mona!” Ryuji calls.

Ann cheers. “You’re back!”

“And I’m not going anywhere,” Morgana agrees, delicately slipping out of the bag, more than enjoying everyone’s attention – from worried words to scratches behind the ear.

“I covered for you, but you better bring out the waterworks,” Futaba tells Ren, snapping her laptop shut and squinting at Goro. “What’s he doing here?”

“The same thing that Haru is – that all of us are,” Ren says, gaining the group’s attention.

Haru waves, smiling.

“I hate this,” Goro murmurs, crossing his arms as he sits down next to her on a stool.

“...is it really a good idea to have Akechi-kun here?” Makoto asks dryly, shooting him a look.

Meanwhile, Yusuke nods. “Haru-san already mentioned that she has a commission for us.”

Ren glances at Goro. That’s basically a commission – a commission that Goro doesn’t want help with, but still.

“Yeah, pretty sure he should be here,” he says. “Since he’s my soulmate and all.”

The bomb lands just like he expected it to; the Phantom Thieves – those in the know – all stare with wide open eyes and dropped jaws.

Haru, in the meantime, looks positively delighted. “Oh, how nice – congratulations!”

“But that means he is-” Ann begins, pointing over at Goro.

“Yup.” Ren nods. “It’s a bit of a long story – why don’t you all sit down while I make some coffee?”

“Fucking finally,” Goro groans, turning to face him. “I was starting to think you forgot.”

How much of a coffee addict is his soulmate? “Never,” Ren promises, grinning at his detective.

The others look shaken – he can’t really fault them for that.

Still, Ren has a plan – it’s gonna be alright.

***

Twenty minutes, and some explanations later, maybe that plan isn’t going as well as he wanted it to.

“I said I had a reason, I never said it was a good one!” Goro snaps, in response to something that Makoto accused him-

Morgana slinks up to Ren’s legs, nudging him until he moves away so the cat can jump up and sit down on the table in front of him.

“He’s a lot of trouble, isn’t he?” Morgana asks, voice low; it’s lost in the pandemonium anyhow.

“He’s worth it,” Ren says. “Everyone needs someone to choose to believe in them.” Like Morgana chose him – like he chose Morgana.

Morgana breathes out. “I guess.” He fixes Ren with a stern look. “I am not sleeping on the couch.”

“Of course not,” Ren agrees. Goro will discover his inner cat person sooner or later, he is sure.

Morgana looks smug, as much as a cat can.

“Although,” Morgana continues, “you should probably visit someone about that murder kink of yours-”

Ren winces. Morgana’s indeed looking out for him; but it’s not that bad, right…?

Looking over at Goro Akechi, about to go toe to toe with his friends over his supposed honorbound killer’s creed, Ren decides that maybe Morgana is right to worry.

Goro looks really convincing, ranting about his killer’s creed, after all – soulmate or no soulmate.