An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Fandom: Persona 5
Words: 3662
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Kitagawa Yusuke & Sakura Futaba, Kitagawa Yusuke/Sakura Futaba
Characters: Sakura Futaba, Kitagawa Yusuke
Additional Tags: Late Night Conversations, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Catharsis, Grief/Mourning, Angst, Could be read as platonic or pre-relationship choose your own adventure
Summary:
If the world was fair, Futaba should definitely be asleep by now.
But it's not, so instead she's awake to see her phone light up with something unexpected.
(The night of Shido's defeat, Yusuke checks in on Futaba.)
"You've been pretty tight-lipped about what you think about me and Maxwell..."
"Well, I'm not exactly proud of how I reacted when I first learned of your relationship."
-Riley and Bertrand, Book 3 Chapter 18.
I wrote most of this a while ago, after we finally got that scene with Bertrand. Once it really settled in that Bertrand really only found out about his brother and MC right as they announced his engagement, and we didn’t get to see him be pissed about it.
Bertrand hadn't spoken a word, or indeed even looked his way since they left the cabin.
The quietness was unnerving, but Maxwell was more afraid of what would happen when it stopped.
They returned to their room at the palace, and by the time the door closed behind them, the silence felt lethal.
Book: The Royal Romance
Pairing: Maxwell x MC (Riley)
Word Count: 1900+
Summary: Riley is having a rough time, Maxwell is having feelings and doesn’t realize it. Cuddles ensue. Pure self-indulgent fluff at the beginning of Book 2.
(AO3)
The days were winding down before Riley's return to court, and Maxwell was more optimistic than ever that she was going to blow them all away. Not that she hadn't done fantastically before! But, well, Bertrand admittedly had a point about the benefit a little preparation could grant. Now she would be returning with all the courtly weapons the brothers could think to arm her with; she knew all the formal dances, could avoid or defuse most international incidents over dinner or tea, and could consistently run 5K without stopping (though complaining as long as she had breath).
(He mostly ignored the complaints, as long as she kept responding to his post-run “same time tomorrow?” with a nod along with her eyeroll. Plus, now that he had a partner, his own time was down, so yay!)
By now they'd covered all the important bases and were starting to move on to more obscure ones. Today, Bertrand, in his infinite wisdom, had insisted on training Riley in the ancient art of fan language--just in case. Maxwell really couldn't see that one coming back into fashion, but once she'd gotten the hang of the basics, the two of them did have fun using it sneakily to mock Bertrand. The elder Beaumont had eventually caught on, but rather than being annoyed was strangely more pleased that the lesson had stuck.
Yep, she was doing great and soon would be heading back into the fray… And Maxwell was not at all disappointed at the thought that he'd soon have to be sharing her time with more than Bertrand. Because that would make him a big selfish jerk, which he wasn't.
Except maybe he was, because Maxwell was enjoying his days more consistently than he had in years. If the universe had played out fairly, she should be off in the palace with Liam, freshly engaged and ready to start the new life she had fully earned. But instead she was stuck here, with him. If he was being honest, it was just fun having Riley around. He genuinely liked spending time with her; someone who not only listened to his latest big ideas but tossed back ways to improve them, who threw two-person dance parties with him when they got bored, and deflected Bertrand’s ire when another of his inevitable screw ups came to light.
Tonight, Maxwell had been about to rewatch Return of Death Ghost’s Revenge for the hundredth time when he thought to ask if she might want to join him. Bertrand insisted his collection was frivolous and nothing but bad taste, but sometimes a guy just liked to shut his brain off and unwind. He hoped she would get that; months ago he wouldn’t have even tried, but she had a habit of surprising him.
But as he approached her door, he got a different kind of surprise. It uh. Kind of sounded like she was screaming from really far away?
His knock was erratic with mild panic. “Riley? Riley, are you okay???”
Pause.
“Come in.”
He started breathing again as he pushed open the door and stepped inside. The lights were off, and it took a minute for him to make out where she was. She’d been lying facedown on the bed, but had her head raised up to look at him. “Hey Maxwell.” Her head dropped back to the comforter, where frustrated groaning resumed.
“So uhhh…” He approached hesitantly. “Is this about the napkins again? Because honestly, I'm with you. Whatever gets the job done should be fine.”
“Okay, seriously, if an alliance is fragile enough to be broken by one fold, then you've got bigger problems.” she huffed, then shook her head. “Wait, no, this isn't on Bertrand. I upset myself by being an idiot.”
He frowns. “You're not an idiot.”
“Sweet, but incorrect. what's the one thing I told myself I wasn't gonna do on my own? ” She turns to scowl at something; he follows her gaze to see that she'd flung her phone on the ground. “I looked at the news.”
He winces. “Oh. Oh no.”
“Yeah, I knew it was gonna upset me, and I did it anyway. I just wanted to know what's going on, you know?”
He does, and he knows what she must have seen. Trend had just published a profile on Madeline, showcasing all the things that made her a fantastic choice for queen, coupled with flowery prose over how happy she was “finding new love” with Liam.
Her huff of air was swallowed up by the fluffs of blanket.
He sat down on the edge of the bed. “Anything I can do?”
“Casually push Madeline off a cliff?”
“Okay, we’ll put that on the list, but anything short of murder?”
“Dang man, I thought we were friends.” He could hear the grin in her voice. But when she turned to look at him, it was gone, replaced by a thoughtful look. “Actually… you wanna cuddle?”
He blinked. “That… I… What?”
“Cuddle.” She looks uncertain. “Do… do you guys not do that here?”
“No we do! Probably.” His face didn't seem to know what expression to make. “Just uh. No one's ever asked me before.”
“What, really?” That got her sitting halfway up, leaning on her elbows to squint at him with a playfully dubious smile. “ Nobody's wanted to cuddle with Maxwell Beaumont? No way.”
He huffed, suddenly self-conscious. “Well, I mean. It’s not like--” he cut himself off. “I mean… Well, there was one girl once…” He thought back, considering. “It was nice!” Actually, now that he thought about it, he’d liked it more than the sex.
“Oh.” She looked like she actually might feel sorry for him, which just made him feel worse about the whole thing. You really didn't think cuddle experience was a thing that would come up in casual conversation.
How he felt must have shown on his face, because her expression quickly changed to something more encouraging. “Well, don't feel bad, I had to teach Hana too, so maybe it really is a commoner thing!” She looked towards the window, her smile fading. “I hope she's okay.” She picked at a thread on the comforter. “I miss her.”
“I do too,” he admitted with a frown. Hana leaving just wasn’t fair.
She gave him a grateful smile. Then she continued, “Look, forget it, you don't have to--”
He interrupted her by flopping onto the bed. “Let's do this!”
“Oh!” She blinked in surprise, and he was pleaded to see her familiar grin spread back across her face. “That's the spirit! Actually, maybe a little too much spirit for cuddling.”
“Right. Toning it down.”
“Alright, you get comfortable and I’ll work around you. I’m apparently the expert around these parts, after all,” she waggled her eyebrows at him teasingly.
He started out lying on his side looking at her.“Is this--?” He flipped to his back. “How do I--?”
“Here, put your arm out? No, uh. Heh. The one on my side.” Crap, he was not passing this class so far. He flushed slightly as he switched arms. That finally seemed to be right, as she crawled closer, lying her head on his offered arm, before gently placing her own across his chest.
She settled. In that moment, the only movement was their breathing.
“ ...Oh,” he said eloquently.
“Is this okay?” Her voice was soft. “I'm not crushing your arm?”
“No, yeah! This is…warm?”
She laughed. “Alright, good?”
“I mean, it's nice!” Tentatively, he placed a hand over her arm. “I feel like a teddy bear.”
Another chuckle. Maybe that wasn’t the right thing to say? But, perhaps sensing his unease, she squeezed him reassuringly and he relaxed.
Then, he heard her say, in a slightly embarrassed voice, “When I was younger, I had a teddy bear named Sir Fluff.”
Now he laughed, delighted with this new piece of information. “He sounds very brave.”
“He was!” He could tell from her voice that she was smiling again, which was good. “I actually had him for a good long while. He helped me through some rough nights. Very good listener. But…” her sigh tickled his neck. “I lost him moving apartments.”
“Oh no!” His heart gave a pang at the thought of the poor little guy, once so loyal, all lost and alone. “I hope he found a safe place.”
She chuckled. “Me too.”
He could feel her smile against his arm, the movement of her breathing. A sleepy contentment washed over him. His own breathing slowed. Man, is this what he’d been missing out on? The thought clicked that this was it, this was the feeling he’d been chasing, all those nights bar hopping, finding someone willing to be charmed long enough for a quick session back at their place. Just… warmth and comfort shared between two people who trusted each other.
Without thinking about it, he idly started stroking her back with the arm she was laying on. Riley responded with a sigh, leaning into his touch.
This……changed the mood of things. Maxwell tensed. ...Oh. …Oh no.
He shifted slightly, trying to get ahold of himself.
Alright Maxwell, this is our buddy Riley we're talking about. A friend! For friending! Just because she's funny and pretty and soft and actually laughs at your jokes is no reason to be weird about it. That's what friends do!
She shifted against him.
“Bertrand wanted me to tell you about tomorrow's lessons!” He burst out suddenly.
She jumped, a startled laugh escaping her. She moved a little back from him, which was. Good.
Ah yes, talking about Bertrand was the least sexy thing he could think of! He tried picturing Bertrand’s reaction if he caught Maxwell perving on their sponsored suitor. That was an instant bucket of cold water if there ever was one.
Tomorrow was due to be some sort of summary of international trade laws, but they soon made their way over to speculating just how many duels had been fought over proper spoon placement. They passed the sleepy evening that way, winding from topic to topic until he interrupted himself with a huge yawn in the middle of a story about the childhood snowball fight where he’d taken out Olivia and she’d retaliated by plunging him into a snowbank.
“Whoa, was that your jaw cracking? I felt that.”
He wiggled it experimentally, knocking against her head and making her giggle. “It's not the company boring me, I promise.”
“Well obviously. I am incredibly interesting.”
“Most interesting queen-to-be I've ever met.”
He felt her lips shift into a smile, but it was brief. “Thanks Maxwell. You… always have so much faith in me.”
“Well… of course. You can do anything.”
Silence fell between them.
Abruptly, Riley sat up. “Alright, it's getting pretty late. Off to bed with you, Lord Beaumont!”
He shivered involuntarily at the sudden retreat of her warmth. “Huh? Oh.” He yawned again, sitting up. “Hmm. This was nice.” He was quite sleepy.
“Yeah, it was!” Eyes still closed, he felt her ruffle his hair and smiled contentedly. “Thanks, man.”
“Anytime.” Her hand was gone and he was a little sad about that.
“Man, you really are a morning person, huh?” She sounded amused. “I'm the opposite, I'm wide awake now.”
“Bertrand’s like, both somehow.” He blinked at her slowly. “I kinda think he's a vampire.”
“How is he with garlic? Wait, no , you're not distracting me. You're about to fall asleep and I'm sure you'd much rather do it in your bed than on top of mine.”
In his sleepy honesty, he thought she might be wrong about that. But even though he let her shoo him back to his room then, she left him with a warm glow which stayed with him all the way into slumber.
Vivi is Mae, the college dropout who returns to her hometown to find that much has changed in the two years she’s been gone
Arthur and Lewis are her boyfriends (OT3?) that have an apartment together, and they kept Mystery with them while she was away
Arthur still works at his Uncle’s shop and Lewis at the family restaurant
SPOILERS FOR THE GAME BELOW: IF YOU HAVENT PLAYED NIGHT IN THE WOODS YET BE WARNED
Vivi tells them of the vivid dreams she’s been having, with strange, otherwordly creatures. Mystery gets visibly upset when she goes into detail about them- does he know more than he’s letting on?
and they find the severed arm outside of Pepper Paradiso
Vivi pokes it with a stick
She witnesses the kidnapping at Harfest and no one will believe her except for Lewis and Arthur
Short Jae/MC scene written after one too many Charms sessions with Jae straight out asleep next to you as you try once more, against all reason, to help that blonde dude lift a feather. (on AO3)
“Thanks, as usual, for all your help,” Lara snarked at Jae as they exited Charms class.
Jae looked utterly unapologetic as he blinked sleep from his eyes. “Hey, energy is a precious commodity. You know I don’t waste it on lost causes.”
“Harsh, Jae!” She swatted at him, clearly trying not to laugh.
He dodged easily out of her reach. “Seriously though,” he continued, mirth fading into a thoughtful frown. “I’m not even sure why he went on to NEWT level charms. It’s clearly not his thing. And that’s fine! I'm pants at potions, so I didn't waste my time with it. Why didn't he just move on?”
Lara knew for a fact that Jae's issue with potions was more apathy than skill, but let that slide. “Have you asked him?”
“Have you?”
“Well, no," Lara admitted. "But don't you share a dorm with the guy?"
Jae scratched his neck. “I mean, technically?”
Lara raised an eyebrow at him. “You don’t talk?”
“Mmm, not really. Charlie and I tried in the beginning, but...” He shrugged. “He keeps to himself, mostly. Anyway," he refocused on her. "He's a mystery, Flitwick is an incurable optimist… But I don’t know why you keep trying so hard.”
Lara blinked. The truth was, it had never occurred to her not to. “...Flitwick asked me to.”
Jae chuckled. “You’re such a goodie two shoes.”
“Hey!" Lara protested, cheeks warming. "I resent that.”
His grin only grew. “What, you’re going to tell me you’re not?”
“We met in de-ten-tion!” she huffed, poking his shoulder for emphasis. “Goody two shoes don’t get detention.”
“Oh, that barely counts.” He pulled her poking hand away, but didn't release it.
“What!”
“Come onnnn, you got it trying to save the school. So noble," he teased, even as he threaded his fingers through hers.
She tried desperately not to smile and failed. “Kim, I am going to kick your ass.”
He just grinned at her. "Flitwick said you can't."
I was tagged by @the-magnificunt ! Time to remember I write things occasionally :’D
How many works do you have on AO3?
24, which is way more than I thought I did. So that’s neat.
What’s your total AO3 word count?
Proud to report that I have now found the statistics page! 56,855
How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?
One Day at a Time
She-Ra
The Royal Romance
It Lives In The Woods
Dragon Age
Mass Effect
There is also a ff.net account out there with some oldddddd ATLA and Teen Titans stuff, and some cracktastic HP stuff on Fictionalley ? Was that the site?
What are your top 5 fics by kudos?
Not an exclamation mark, but a colon. (ODAAT)
Still Keep Pleasant Dreams (ODAAT)
Secrets (TRR)
The King and I (TRR)
I Guess I Care About You, and Other Choices We Keep Making (She-ra)
Do you respond to comments, why or why not?
I try to! But I’m about as good as responding to anything else, which is to say it depends on the way the wind is blowing.
What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?
Borrowed Time, Dragon Age fic where Alistair comes back to Warden’s Keep having started hearing the calling, and my warden Kara says she’s going with him. It’s about as lighthearted as I can make it, considering the subject matter.
What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?
I Guess I Care About You. I was smiling while I was writing it, they earned that ending. ♥
Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you’ve written?
Hmm not really.
Have you ever received hate on a fic?
Nothing so far, knock on wood!
Do you write smut? If so what kind?
Hahahaaaaa~ Yep, I’ve written some! Mostly Seamista. I like bossy women and men who are starry eyed over that, and a lot of silliness.
Have you ever had a fic stolen?
Hopefully not? I don’t know who would.
Have you ever had a fic translated?
Nope.
Have you ever co-written a fic before?
No, might be fun? No idea how that even works though.
What’s your all-time favorite ship?
Beast Boy/Raven, though I haven’t written for them in years. My favorite to write for is Maxwell Beaumont + Riley from TRR, they’re both so fun and so into each other.
What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?
I have an ODAAT ficlet that starts with some cute flirting and gets into Schneider’s feelings about age, and there’s some stuff there I really like enough to keep poking at it, but it’s been so hard to make it feel natural and I don’t really know where it’s going.
Also I just have..... giant Mass Effect documents that I have posted none of because nothing feels finished. :’)
What are your writing strengths?
Hmm, I wanna say humor and characters just enjoying each others’ company.
What are your writing weaknesses?
I’m trying to work on being more subtle, I usually write pretty literally and I’m slowly learning you can imply things, or have an unreliable narrator.
My stuff would also probably be improved if anything ever had a plot, but I just have never cared about plot and it’s hard to start.
What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?
Oh, I have opinions on this! So the thing is, most of your audience isn’t going to know the language either, and long paragraph or dialogue is just going to lose people. And if you’re not a native speaker, you’re usually not going to know the context to fake like you are. IMO it’s best handled basically like it is in movies or comics:
If the meaning actually matters, just write it in the fic’s main language and clarify the character is speaking something else. (Penelope switched to Spanish to mutter under her breath, “This dumbass is lucky he’s handsome.” ”What?” ”Nothing!”)
If your POV character understands the language and the words aren’t important, only the tone, throw in a short phrase with a description of how the character is acting. The meaning can be a bonus if people understand it. (Penelope rolled her eyes. “Este cabrón.”)
The putting translation notes at the bottom thing is usually good too, but again you don’t normally want to be pulling your reader out of the scene.
And if your POV character doesn’t even understand the language another character is speaking... they’re not going to catch the words. I know some Spanish, and when people are talking I can catch a few at best and hope to understand the context. (Penelope rolled her eyes and muttered something Schneider was able to translate into “this [something?] is lucky he’s handsome.”)
(See, the last one is the one I would go with, because I’m not confident I’m using cabrón right.)
What was the first fandom you wrote for?
Very very first fic before I even knew what fic was.... Spider-man. Specifically, the very first Toby McGuire spidey movie. :’D
What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?
The one I re-read most is Secrets, and my favorite there is still Colors and Light. It’s funny and sweet and sappy. (Secrets also definitely has a quality improvement curve, so the ones I wrote later are less rough than the start.)
Tagging: @actuallylorelaigilmore @shadoedseptmbr @ljandersen @breaumonts @alysurr with low pressure! especially if you’ve already done it recently and I missed it. (☞ﾟヮﾟ)☞
I love these two! I know there were a million things S5 had to accomplish, but I would have really loved to see more of them. Sea Hawk would’ve been so excited to see she'd joined up! So I was playing with this as sort of a resolution to their previous talk, especially considering how differently it worked out for both of them.
I don’t know that this will actually get finished into anything though, so here’s a relatively long snippet:
"Hey, so… I'm actually with the rebellion now!"
"You don't say?!"
"I do say!"
Sea Hawk spread his arms wide. "Bring it in, then!"
New girl wrapped her arms around Sea Hawk, fully lifting him off the ground and spinning him.
"You DO give great hugs!" he cried as she released him, both of them laughing merrily.
"Um, heyyy," Mermista interrupted awkwardly.
Twin expressions of startled delight spun in her direction.
Oh, Mermista thought with foreboding. There's two of them.
"Mermaid princess!" cried Scorpia (?), before scooping Mermista into an enthusiastic hug.
"Oh, uhhh, this is happening," Mermista said.
"Mermista!" Sea Hawk piped up, still cheerful but just bit tense about it. "Her name is Mermista!"
"Mermista!" Scorpia cried, releasing her. “I will remember that!”
Mermista stared blankly, still trying to process what had just happened.
"Sorry, got a little excited there," Scorpia chuckled. "We didn't really get to officially meet before!"
"Yeah, so, we're meeting," Mermista replied dryly. "Welcome to the Rebellion or whatever. Nice of you to join us, finally."
"Again, I am so sorry about everything I did before. But I am ready to try and make up for it now!"
Mermista squinted at her. As much as she wanted to hold a grudge, it was difficult in the face of such pure enthusiasm. She looked away. "Yeah, sure. It's whatever."
"That is a good sign," Sea Hawk stage whispered to Scorpia. Mermista elbowed him.
Author Name: Jicklet. Anything under older usernames....no one needs to see that :)))
Fandoms You Write For: Choices: The Royal Romance (Maxwell x MC), Dragon Age, Mass Effect, She-ra (Seamista), One Day at a Time (Alvareider)
Where You Post: AO3 and Tumblr
Most Popular One-shot: Not an exclamation mark, but a colon.
which is both flattering and mortifying XD ilu Alvareider fandom ♥
Most Popular Multi-Chap: Secrets, my TRR drabble collection, which I now wish I'd just posted as separate one-shots, but here we are.
I only have one work that I actually consider a multi-chapter, as in concepted as one piece and not just "drabbles in a box", which is I Guess I Care About You, and Other Choices We Keep Making. Which I am rather proud of!
Favorite Story You Wrote: Colors and Light, my Maxwell/Riley one-shot after they're married and Riley starts painting again. It shows their new normal and has backstory without being boring, it felt like exactly what I wanted it to be. ♥
Story You Were Nervous to Post: Not an exclamation mark. It was not only the first thing I'd written for the fandom, but the only scandalous thing I'd really posted.
How Do You Pick Your Titles: Sometimes I'll think of a word that kinda summarizes it, sometimes I'll try and find a lyric that fits. Sometimes I'll end up with a phrase stuck in my head while I'm writing, and by the time I'm done I'm married to it.
Do You Outline: Haha whaaaat. Closest I ever came was on "I Guess I Care About You," and that was just when I was reaching the end and trying to figure out what felt like it was missing. Just did a sentence summary of what was happening in each section to check if they felt right.
How Many of Your Stories are Complete: More or less everything posted right now can stand on its own?
In-Progress: I’m currently poking back into my ODAAT wips, before that I had separate docs for all 3 Mass Effects with Olivia Shep/Kaidan drabbles that I’m not sure I’ll be posting bc they’re mostly just character studies, a short Maxwell/Riley m-rated one because they're just fun. Vaguely have my old DA2 Astrid Hawke/Fenris drabbles that I wanted to redo.
Coming Soon: Hopefully something for ODAAT, I have a lot of beginnings that I really liked looking back at them, I just have to figure out where they were going.
Do You Accept Prompts: I'll take ideas! ....as long as the understanding is there that it's unlikely something will come of it because my inspiration is fickle.
Upcoming Story You’re the Most Excited For: There was one I posted part a while back of that starts off with Penelope complimenting Schneider’s sweater and it turns into an age discussion that is like, almost there. We can do it, me!
Tag Five Fanfic Authors to Answer The Questions: @actuallylorelaigilmore @shadoedseptmbr @ljandersen @alysurr @mysticshadows13
