destinystrings | Two Guys, a Girl, and a Date

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Two Guys, a Girl, and a Date

Who: Shinjiro Aragaki, Akihiko Sanada, Minako Arisato, Miki Sanada, Minato Arisato
Where: DUAL LOG of Apartment snooping and Dateos
Summary: Aki asks Minato to distract Miki while him, Shinjiro (and Minako because she'll find a way anyway) snoop around her apartment for Christmas presents. But have they found more than they bargained for?
Warnings: Derps.

[MIKI'S APARTMENT]
Well Minato was true to his word, and Miki is currently not here and will not be for a good while. She thankfully has left the air conditioner running since the weather is unusually hot outside and...a bunch of stuff streamed on her bed. It seems that she had been trying on a bunch of clothing to pick the right one, then grabbed what she needed. It wasn't a mess, but there were things scattered around and left in a hurry. Not like anyone would come into her apartment, right?

Right.

[DATE]
Miki is still confused as to what is happening. Why did she accept in the first place? Well...she has an idea, but she isn't sure how she feels about that at all. Regardless, she had spent way too much time wasting to pick out an outfit that fit the weather and wasn't too casual or too fancy, considering they'd be going swimming at one point, but finally settled on a simple shirt and a jean skirt. Her backpack had everything she needs for later.

As a bonus that allows her easy movement should anything happen! ...If they should get attacked. A Sanada was never unprepared, after all.

Meeting Minato outside, she gives him a wave. It is...still rather unreal to talk with the Arisato and realizing it's not the one who monologues about how the entire world sucked and how death was the only thing unifying all of them.

"Sorry about the wait! I'm ready!" She is...surprisingly cheerful?

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[Alright you three. Time to get your Sneak On.]

[Enjoy a Tranquil moment]

Akihiko had decided to stick dutifully to his original plan, no matter how many times it was implied (however subtly) that he should find another way to get into his sister's apartment. There was nothing wrong with his plan. It was straightforward, it was simple, it would get the job done with plenty of time to spare.

After ensuring that there was no one there to see the start of the operation (save for Shinjiro and Minako, of course), he casually let himself into the empty apartment several doors down from hers, allowing the door to swing open freely as he stepped in.

The balconies weren't that far apart.

However obtuse his plan might have been, someone had to give him credit. He always meant well, and if nothing else made it obvious that he loved his little sister, this sure as hell did.

Minato smiles as she comes out the door. It's a small smile, as most of his smiles are, but it's genuine. Even if Akihiko asked him to do this, Minato is truly glad to get a chance to spend some time with Miki like this. He's gotten to know her bit by bit over the past couple months, and he very much likes what he's gotten to know - enough that even without Akihiko's unwitting prompting, he's willing to take a chance like this. Maybe tomorrow one of them won't be here - willing or unwilling - and they'll never see each other again. But if that's the case, then why not live in the now? Why not really take advantage of this place of second chances? Of new chances?

Even if it goes nowhere. Even if they just have some fun but stay just friends... He won't regret it (at least not so long as Akihiko and Shinjiro and maybe Minako don't accidentally do something awful; he trusts them, but... well... at least Junpei isn't here). And, in fact, he means to enjoy it.

And this first glimpse of Miki is definitely a very nice start.

"Hey, Miki." He makes it obvious that he's looking her over without being skeevy about it. A quick look with no lingering on the wrong parts before he looks her in the eyes (Shinjiro did say to distract her...). "You look extra cute. That color suits you."

Well...that...is...not....whatshewasexpecting. Take pride, Shinjiro, for Minato could have won awards with that distraction. Miki had done her fair share of teasing others in a similar manner, but coming from the Arisato sibling, it felt much nicer than she would want to admit.

She stares at him for a few seconds with her mouth half-open like a complete idiot, forgetting everything that is on her mind.

"...uh...."

Edited 2012-12-12 06:19 (UTC)

You are a Sanada, what are you doing! Remember the three C's; Calm, cool and collected. Be Calm, Cool and Collected.

"...uh...thank...you...you...look...nice too?" She finally somehow manages to find the motor functions responsible for closing her mouth, as she walks past him in a daze, feeling incredibly stupid for having been caught off guard. She's the one who should be doing that! Pushing up her bag higher as an excuse to gather her thoughts, Miki turns around again and manages to look at him in the eyes.

"We should...get going...wait!" Her vision drops and then darts to the door as she points silently, her finger moving up and down from shaking. "Do you mind closing...the door...please?"

...Yeah, she had completely nailed this.

Minato has to try very hard not to start laughing at her fluster. He doesn't wish to make her angry or anything. So instead he smiles a little wider and nods.

"Mm." This is almost too convenient for Shinjiro and Akihiko. What's the catch anyway? Well, Minato does as asked and closes the door for her, miming locking it, even though he neglects that detail.

Then, he turns and offers his arm to her. "Shall we get going?"

He wants to get out there before the weather changes again!

While Aki was scouting out the hallway, slipping into the empty apartment unbeknownst to his more rational-minded friend, Shinjiro's mind was focused on something else entirely. He had every intention of getting to Miki's door and into her apartment as quickly as he could manage, and hopefully preempt Aki from making any rash, stupid decisions that Shinjiro knew his friend was bound to make if Shinjiro wasn't (perhaps literally this time around) more than two steps ahead of him.

Shinjiro doesn't know if Minato had managed to distract Miki well enough to make her forget to close the door, but he's betting on it.

He's really betting on it.

Open doors usually made excellent arguments against stupid, dramatic alternatives.

He tries the door handle, finds no resistance, and without even a second of hesitation, opens the door, more relieved than he'd care to show.

If Aki still insisted on entering the place dramatically, Shinjiro would be more than happy to shove Akihiko through the open threshold himself. He could whine about it later for all he cared.

He backs away from the door, eyes scanning the hallway, spotting Minako as his eyes continue to search the floor. "Look's like it's—"

And then Shinjiro abruptly realizes that Aki is gone.

How the hell do you lose track of a moron in less than a minute's time? Like he's some stupid rabbit that's gone and vanished during a magician's slight of hand, to the amazement of the crowd.

Except Shinjiro is far from amused.

Because of course he'd do something like this. Of course he would.

He couldn't wait one damn fucking minute—

Shinjiro's going to kill him one of these days, he really is, and save his other self the trouble from having to watch Aki do stupid things where he can't do a damn thing about it.

Yes that is an excellent idea. Hell hath no fury like a Sanada scorned, and she tries to (mostly unsuccessfully) calm herself down. Miki doesn't look at him doing it either; there's no reason not to trust him at this point--

--Huh.

So she does trust him, she suddenly realizes. A little, anyway.

Alright, time to put everything that just happened behind and ignore that beating heart in her chest! Let's just get out of--oh-goddamnit-now-he-was-offering-his-arm-crap-and-shiiiiit. Miki stares at the offered arm like he might suddenly grow a third, but then abruptly grabs it (she has a pretty good grip) and attempts to laugh.

"Okay there! Now let's go." She's not trying to be rude, it's just the nervousness speaking for her. That and she's just very very very (very) bad at this.

Good thing Minami isn't here or else I'd never hear the end of it.

It takes Shinjiro's eyes seconds to spot the only other open door in the place, and another split-second more for his mind connect the dots and figure out exactly where Aki's gone and what he's planning to do. What he said he wouldn't do.

That goddamn moron.

He looks over at Minako briefly, his voice a low growl. "Go inside and get onto Miki's balcony."

And then he turns, breaking into a run, making a beeline towards the empty apartment.

Aki better hope he can move as fast as his shitty ideas do.

Minako's participation in this adventure had come pretty late, because Minato hadn't given her much advance notice. Just a text message, 'I'm going out on a hot date with Miki, make sure Akihiko doesn't get arrested or injured by accident.'

...Okay, that's not actually what the message said, but she can read between the lines.

Still, breaking into a girl's apartment with her senpai? Sounds like fun. She'd also seen part of the interior of Miki's room before, so... maybe she could be a tour guide. Or something.

Honestly the reasoning was flimsy she just wanted to come along. And so, she appended herself to Shinji's party when he exited his room and headed up to Miki's. The quest, however, proved a lot harder than anticipated, when Aki kept walking past Miki's door and disappeared before she could warn Shinji it was happening.

She isn't given time to comment, either, as Shinji just growls at her (is he blaming her, or Aki? It's honestly hard to tell...) and takes off on his own. This leaves her to do the actual breaking in. Muttering something about men, she enters the apartment, not having time to glance around it right now, and heads out onto the balcony like Shinjiro had suggested. She's figured out what Aki must be planning too and if he gets hurt, she'd have way too much explaining to do.

She had done this before, but Akihiko's Persona doesn't have wings.

Akihiko, in the meantime, remained oblivious to the mild panic that had taken place back in the hallway. He had to focus, after all, or else the whole operation would be worthless. If he was worried about falling, he didn't let it show. He no longer thought of himself as invincible, not after everything he had been through in the last year or so, but a few gaps?

He could jump those.

And if he couldn't, he could edge along the narrow ledge between them until he reached the next balcony, but that felt a little like cheating. That was no heroic feat.

Before anyone had the chance to catch up to him, he was already two balconies over, preparing to make the last running jump to Miki's.

Shinjiro only stops running once he reaches the balcony, coming to an unwilling stop, freezing in place when he sees Aki more than halfway across and preparing to jump again. He feels the his muscles in his legs, arms, and shoulders tense, eyes constricted and hyper-focused, hands clenched and for once outside their customary pockets.

He almost feels like jumping after him and wrestling him down to the damn floor. He doesn't even know how Aki got across the other balconies that fast. Didn't he even look? Wasn't he even trying to be careful? Or did the fact they were eight goddamn floors up not occur to him at all? That there's nothing outside the balcony railings but thin air that wouldn't even hold up someone as dense and empty-headed as Aki is.

He knows what Aki's abilities are. Knows what he can do and what he can't probably better than Aki does. Shinjiro knows this is probably one of those things he can do, and that he'll probably be fine. Minako's on the other side, and she has a Persona that has a pair of goddamn wings on it. But it just takes misstep, one unintentional miscalculation for everything to go wrong and. And this whole idea is asinine.

The distress edges inwards like a well-targeted knife, but he doesn't say a word, though he wants to. He just stares at Aki instead, tracking his movements with his eyes. He doesn't want to break Aki's concentration by saying anything, not that it probably would. He just wants Aki to hurry up and get the hell across so he doesn't have to stand here worrying about him falling. Because someone has to worry about it, and it's obviously not going to be the moron jumping.

Damn idiot.

Minako steps out through the back door and into a terrible situation in progress. Akihiko, vaulting balconies like they're hurdles on a track, and Shinji too late to stop the whole thing from starting.

She wants to sigh and cover her eyes at how ridiculous Akihiko is being right now.... but if she does that and then he falls, she wouldn't be able to face Shinji again. He already appears to be gathering storm clouds over him with glare he's sending at Akihiko's back from several balconies away. So instead she stands far enough to the side to not block Akihiko's path and prepares to do.... something, if he falls.

He didn't let their appearance break his focus. In fact, it was hard to tell if he had noticed at all. All he seemed to care about was getting across to the next balcony, and the next, clearing the gaps between them safely. Each running jump had the potential to be cause for a heart attack, unbeknownst to him, but each jump landed safely and as planned, until he finally reached Miki's balcony.

It was only then that he noticed Minako.

"Hey. How did you get out here?"

With Aki safely across, the worry is quickly replaced by something harsher than just mild irritation. It's an emotion he's no stranger to when it comes to him, and the almost palpable sense of relief does very little to dull the edge. But, again, he says nothing. Instead, he grimaces, turns, and heads back into the vacant apartment, exiting the way he came.

"Through the door. Which you could have used, too."

But she sees Shinji has disappeared from view behind him, which means there's someone better suited to be giving Akihiko a lecture. She's okay with handing off the duty. "Come on, let's go inside."

Akihiko gave her a withering look in reply.

"That's not sneaky at all. You two are trying to take all of the excitement out of this." Regardless, he stepped through the open door and into Miki's apartment, tilting his head at the heap of clothes on the bed.

Girls were messy.

It's probably a good thing that he's very patient and doesn't mind waiting while she gives that stare to his arm and grabs it and tries to play off her nervousness. But he can't stop from smiling and being kind of amused. He thinks her fluster is pretty cute, but he's not going to tell her because he doesn't think she'd like having her nervousness highlighted.

"Yes. Let's."

And he'll gently lead her on out of the building, even going so far as to open doors for her between her floor and the teleporter.

Miki will continue to be confused about the fact he opens doors for her. Yet each time, she will give him a thanks, each time a lot less muttered than the last a little more heartfelt.

"S-so um..." she looks at the teleporter, giving him a small smile, but her eyes are darting like the usual Sanada fashion...

It's probably best Shinjiro wasn't around to bear witness to that comment.

He leaves the vacant apartment, his body a mess of rigid, tense lines, jaw tightly clenched. He feels the anger simmering underneath his skin as he walks down the hall, opening the door to Miki's room and pulling it closed with more force than he intended to. But even that isn't much of an outlet. He hates how familiar this situation is—watching him do questionable, asinine things without thinking twice about it. It had happened all the time back home, both in Tartarus and outside it. It made Shinjiro postulate that stupidity wasn't something that vanished on its own once the moment was over, just accumulated until an event tipped it over to the breaking point, and there wasn't much that Shinjiro could do about Aki's actions until it did. Even when they were kids he'd pull this kind of stupid shit. Except he had been a kid then. Now he wasn't. He just insisted on acting like one and listening like one.

It would almost be too easy to say nothing. Just turn the lights on and stew in his own silence. But he can't.

"That was one of the stupidest things I've seen you do," he says, voice still an excellent imitation of a growl, once he enters Miki's room and spots the two of them. He barely notices the mess of clothes strewn around her room; it's something his mind processes but doesn't read into yet, because that's not what his focus is on. He feels like yelling at him—feels almost like hitting him, really—but yelling would be pointless and so would be starting a physical fight. Lecturing him is probably pretty damn pointless, too, but there are some things he can't help doing. Shinjiro can keep himself from yelling, keep his voice level enough that it sounds more like sheathed steel instead of uncontrolled fire, but he can't keep himself from saying nothing at all.

"I don't know how many damn lives you think you have, but most people only have one, and they're smart enough to not try risking it on stupid reckless shit because they think they've got something to prove." He looks towards the balcony then, pausing for a shallow split-second. "The door was open, Aki."

Edited 2012-12-15 07:15 (UTC)

She doesn't think Akihiko's thought process was entirely wrong... after all, she'd done essentially the same thing to break into Shinjiro's apartment. The difference is, she'd taken precautions (as much a precaution as using a Persona was.) It had also been the only choice at the time. She was justified. Akihiko, however, hadn't been cautious and hadn't checked for alternate solutions first. His actions were reckless despite her knowing he'd been completely confident in his ability to jump before he did.

But with the way the mood is brewing, she's even more sure she doesn't want to get involved. Commenting would only get Shinji to remember her own past transgression and get even more agitated. So instead she keeps silent (for once) and focuses very intently on checking out the closet for possibilities. The boys shouldn't be allowed to look in the closet and dresser, anyway. Some things girls really don't need even their brothers to see.

Edited 2012-12-15 07:48 (UTC)

Akihiko folded his arms over his chest, content to listen until Shinji was finished with his lecture -- at least for the time being.

"I knew I wasn't going to fall," he said plainly, though there was a distinctly defensive edge to his voice. Still, he stated it with such conviction that he may as well have been informing Shinjiro that the sky was blue, or snow was cold. "I didn't ask Minato to make sure the door stayed unlocked because it seemed too suspicious. There was nothing wrong with the original plan. I may not be invincible, but I know what I can and can't do."

And this is why he hates it. It's like arguing with a wall: very little gives. It's hard to pit two different brands of stubbornness against each other and come out with anything changed.

"I know what you think you can do." And, again, is also pretty sure about what Aki can do. But just because you can probably accomplish something doesn't mean you should just abandon caution in favor of immortal self-confidence. "Doesn't mean you couldn't've waited for two damn minutes while we checked the door, because I did ask."

And even if Shinjiro hadn't, he would've checked the door anyway. He could see Miki forgetting to lock the door. She had probably been nervous. And if it had been locked? Then they could have worked out something else. Maybe it would have included the balcony, but they could have made it safer.

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Page 1 of 3

Two Guys, a Girl, and a Date

YE OLDE APARTMENT INFILTRATION

TOTALLY NOT A FOR-REAL DATE

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LIES it is real

Don't tell that to Miki 1/2

As I was saying in this totally not a date 2/2

Nah, totally is.

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[2/3]

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[3/3]

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laughing so hard, guys.

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