𝐃𝐚𝐫𝐤 𝐑𝐞𝐝 - s. ᴍᴀɴᴊɪʀᴏ

𝟎𝟎𝟖: 𝐖𝐡𝐨 𝐢𝐬 𝐡𝐞?

"[Y/N]?! What are you doing here?" Takemichi asks, opening the door. You raised the plastic bag full of mandarins that you were carrying, "Wanted to check up on you."

He let you in and you both went upstairs to his room. He hurriedly tells you to wait outside the door before coming in and closing it. You hear him rustling around for a good 5 minutes before he lets you in. Seeing that his room was tidy, considering he was a teenage boy, he cleaned it.

You sit down and place the bag of oranges on the table, carefully trying not to let it touch the incomplete puzzle he had. Takemichi sits down across from you, "I appreciate that you were worried about me," he starts to blush, "...But uh, I've never had a girl in my room before."

"I hope no other girl has the misfortune of being in your room..." You say bluntly, disgusted at his sudden flusteredness. He looks at you, mouth agape, obviously offended.

"Glad you seem better," You shift the subject, taking two mandarins out of the plastic bag and offering one to Takemichi. He accepts it and begins to peel it. "I mostly came here because I'm curious..." You continue to speak, "About the future."

Takemichi swallows the fruit in his mouth before answering, "What about?"

"Where's Mikey? You've told me about Hina, Naoto, Draken and even Akkun... Is Mikey even alive?" You ask, the boy's mood seemed to have dropped. "I'm not even sure... Future Naoto says they've been trying to locate him for a while."

"You haven't seen me in the future, have you?" You ask another question and he shakes his head. You think to yourself and wonder if you've affected the future now that you're acquainted with them. Takemichi waves his hand in front of you, "You okay?" you nod in response.

You lean back and sigh, "All this is so complicated, I can't even imagine how you feel right now."

"Me?" Takemichi says in confusion, "I'm fine." You tilt your head, the expression on your face disagreeing with him. "There's no way you're fine after knowing the deaths of people you know personally."

Takemichi slouches, "I try not to think about that, actually," he confesses, "What's more important to me is to correct what happens here so that it doesn't happen in the future." His optimism gives you more energy and you unknowingly smile at him. You wondered how he can be so brave and determined in a situation like this. You couldn't help but compare yourself. He was the real hero compared to you. You were and still are scared of being involved in all this. You still felt helpless.

You got up off the floor and Takemichi looks up at you, "That's all I wanted to ask," you tell the blonde, "You can keep the oranges, by the way."

The two of you say goodbye before Takemichi closes the door to his home. You walk to your apartment. Still thinking about the conflict and Draken's death. Contemplating if you should go to the shopping district to see if you'd bump into Draken again. As you approached the door to your suite, you bumped into a different person. Mikey.

"Where've you been?" He asks. You look in shock, it's as if your thoughts about the conflict summoned him to you. "How long have you been standing here?" You ask and he shrugs.

As you open the door, you let Mikey in. You contemplate whether or not to ask him questions about the conflict or to just leave him be. Furthermore, you were still confused as to why he was in front of your door in the first place.

Mikey, making himself comfortable, sits on the couch. Already taken a snack from the cupboards in the kitchen. "Why are you here?" You ask the boy, glaring at him. You were appalled that he didn't at least ask to have a piece of dorayaki before taking it.

"You let me in," he says matter-of-factly, which kind of tics you off.

"I mean WHY were you at the front of my door waiting for me earlier?" You reword your question, making sure he has no other way to be clever with his answer.