Welcome enacting, indulge, kerri_is_dead, schwann, l2uly68, playingly, semicakes, and koizumi! :D
All of which I met from indulge's Death Note Friending Meme. I'm such a child when it comes to those things. :x

I'll have to redo my intro post for all of you. It's pretty outdated. @_@

ANYWAY! Wrote up another quick Persona 3 fic! break4angels and vanessa_kudu both had requested for Shinjiro/Akihiko. It's closer to friendship than slash, though.

Title: Flickering Lights
Characters/Pairings: Aragaki Shinjiro + Sanada Akihiko
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Akihiko lets everything sink in.
Warnings: Spoilers for the October Full Moon, language, angst, unbetaed.
Disclaimer: I don’t own anything from Persona 3; this is just for entertainment.


“You never change.”

Akihiko chuckles as that familiar line repeats itself in his mind. Ever since they had lost Miki, Shinji had been telling him that. Making it blatantly obvious that he couldn’t stand who Akihiko had become after they lost her.

“You’re always the same, charging ahead like a damn fool.”

He never thought about anything else other than growing stronger. Death didn’t scare Akihiko because he could easily punch it in the fucking jaw and then continue about his training. Nothing would stop him from becoming the strongest he could be.

He was going to make up for his mistakes. His failures. He wanted to make sure there was going to be no more obstacles and no one else would be lost due to one of his own stupid mistakes.

He doesn’t want to make anymore.

“I don’t have time for your shit.”

But he still always listened. Akihiko knows now that Shinji still wanted to fight, but he still had let the past get in the way. Miki. Ken’s mother.

Akihiko was tired of seeing him feeling sorry for himself and rotting away in that shit hole in the alleyways of the Port Island Station. So he was trying so hard to get Shinji to come back to SEES.

Shinji screwed up too, but why did he deal with it that way? It was stupid. The only way to deal with a screw up should be to make sure it never happens again, right? By getting stronger and preventing it rather than avoiding it.

He was being such an idiot.

“Is my room still vacant?”

If it weren’t for Amada Ken, Shinji probably would’ve never agreed. Despite Akihiko’s continuous delusions of ‘maybe he’ll come around.’

He assumes now that maybe he only joined to protect Ken. To make sure little guy didn’t meet the same fate as his mother.

Even though Ken hated Shinji at the time – he hid it pretty well, Akihiko admits – he was willing to do whatever it took.

“This is how it should be…”

He hadn’t made it in time.

But Shinji remained strong throughout it all. He knew death was inevitable and was willing to face it head on.

He had accepted that he was going to die if it was by Ken’s hand or those goddamn pills.

Akihiko runs a hand through his hair and shakes his head as he sighs in contemplation.

Shinji wasn’t the idiot. He was the one who was being selfish and only now is he realizing it. Only now, but it’s too late.

He’s lost both Miki and now Shinji. All because of the fucking shadows and Strega. Those Strega bastards.

He’s going to kill them. He’s not going to let them get away with killing his best friend. The only person he had left.

He’s going to fight for Shinji and get rid of the Dark Hour.

Akihiko crumbles at Gekkoukan’s auditorium in front of Shinji’s memorial. For the first time in years, he cries.


Crossposted to iwatodai & gekkoukanhigh