FeMC Scenarios [Persona 5 Royal]

#RYUJI SAKAMOTO [A Close Call]

... In which, after narrowly escaping Shido's collapsing palace, Ryuji does something stupid, and Rin prevents the others from picking on him for it. Instead, she has something else in store. [Requested by Yen2JM4 on A03]

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"Maaaaaaan, that was close..." a voice cuts through our collective crying. My head jerks around and my heart skips a beat. "For real though, why do Palaces gotta explode so much? Can't they disappear normally?"

Ryuji walks up to us as he always does, kicking his foot in honest annoyance. Only then does he notice the sea of angry faces. "... What?"

Within moments, he is surrounded. I stay back myself, fighting my own urge to run up and hit him. Or hug him. Or both.

... In due time.

"Didn't you... die?" asks Haru sincerely and I almost laugh.

"What!?" cries Ryuji and shakes his head, then runs a hand through his hair. "I got blasted out from the explosion... When I woke up, I was lyin' on the grass... I mean, ain't I alive?"

I barely suppress a snort. That's Ryuji for you... my heart swells, I cross my arms and find it harder and harder to stay put. I did have a feeling he was going to be just fine. It's still nice to have it confirmed though.

"What's this?" he looks at Ann who's angrily wiping at her cheek. "Your cryin' face is so not cute."

"It's your damn fault!" she screams and Ryuji winces back. She raises a hand but before she can do anything, I have her by the sleeve.

> "That wasn't very nice, you know, Ryuji?"

"You can't blame us for worrying."

I'm grinning widely and he takes that in, then immediately grins back. "Okay, okay, fine. Sorry."

Ann glares at me but lowers her arm. "You really have to teach your boyfriend here some manners. He'll kill us all at this rate."

For a moment we're all quiet and I weigh my options. Ryuji's looking at me as though I'm his salvation, and—I probably am. Who knows what Ann would have done. She looked like she was ready to hit him.

But... I think back to that moment of panic when he disappeared out of our sight, about how my heart sank and all hope vanished for an awful albeit brief moment when I thought... maybe he was gone.

I only hesitate a second, then I walk past Ann, straight at him. I'm not that much shorter than Ryuji but he's slumped over, so I don't have to reach far up to cup his face in my hands.

> "You're an idiot sandwich but I still love you."

"You really don't know what you did wrong, do you?"

For a moment, Ryuji looks at me, stunned. Then he breaks into laughter. Even our friends join in, hesitantly but still.

"We were worried about you!" Haru mutters.

"You troublemaker!" calls Futaba.

Before any of them can do anything, I've already wrapped my arms around him tightly. It doesn't take Ryuji long to return the hug. "Fine, fine, I get it..." he chuckles awkwardly, "I... almost... k-kinda died!"

"And you're not doing it again, we'll make sure of that." Ann cracks her knuckles.

They keep on going for a while. Throwing playful insults at him like that. I ignore it all, for the most part. I just hold onto Ryuji, gladder than I'd like to admit that he's made it back okay... well, at least in front of the others. I'm already coming up with things to say to him when we're alone. But I'm not about to yell at him in public.