Will You Forgive Me? (Akechi x Akira)

Chapter 2- Back from the dead 1/2

He dealt Morgana a card and lounged back into the comfort of the chair he was in. This was going to be an easy win. Morgana's lack of ability to handle the cards made him Akira's perfect target.
"I'm getting there's a small disparity here..." Morgana groaned, pawing at the cards and failing to even flip them over. As he saw the claws start to emerge from the tops of Morgana's feet he quickly reached out and snatched the cards away just in time.
"Why don't we call that a surrender." Akira stated with a smirk.

"A surrender?!" Morgana hissed, "No way I'm accepting that! You didn't even give me a chance to flip them over!" Morgana's tail flicked back and forth like a severely pissed off metronome and was expressing how pissed off it was by its extremely aggressive movements.

He was lucky that Sojiro had left him to take care of the Cafe today while he spent time with Futaba because even though Sojiro knew that he could understand what Morgana was saying, he felt obligated to translate every time he happened to see Sojiro's confused expression.
"How about a game of chess?" Akira had been trying to get Morgana to play with him everyday since he was not allowed to show his face at school. They had set up a small tally in which whoever won a game of some sort would get a point. Currently Akira was in the lead. Not surprisingly as he purposely picked games that he knew Morgana would lose. Like games Morgana was physically incapable of playing. If Morgana refused, he would simply have to play the 'im lonely card' or the 'your the only one I can play with card' and he was bound to get his way.

"Can I dictate where I want my pieces to go so you can move them?" Morgana asked, still mad from the previous 'surrender'.
"I think you're very capable of moving your own pieces." He smirked at the cat, who looked utterly annoyed at his answer. When Morgana didn't respond but simply glared at him, he took that to mean that he had got his way yet again. He stood up and picked up the chessboard along with the pieces still stacked on top. He carried it carefully over to his and Morgana's table and set it down just as the small bell tinkled to signify a new customer.

"Sorry we're closed." He said automatically not looking up. Boss wouldn't have been happy with that, but it wasn't like Leblanc got too many customers except for the occasional regular. He could just pretend it was one of those 'off' days. His only problem was Sojiro finding the pattern that the cafe's off days seemed to align with everyday he left Akira in charge. Besides he was about to smash Morgana at chess so that he would never be able to look Akira in the eye again without feeling embarrassed at how badly he got beaten. It was a look he had longed for for a while now, today was the day. He could feel it.

"Oh? I was under the impression that it was open. The sign said so and it's only a little past noon." Akira nearly dropped the cards he had been collecting back up onto a neat pile. He knew that voice. It was the voice he had heard seconds before a bullet penetrated his own skull. The voice he had heard telling him that he was pathetic and in his words 'attic trash'. His neck snapped up to look at the imposing intruder. A tall boy of about his age stood there in a light brown jacket, his brown floppy hair falling down over his collar and his face looking rather sheepish in the dimly lit entrance.
"You?!" Morgana jumped up, fur standing on end as he studied Akechi's figure suspiciously. "How are you here?!"

Akechi didn't looked surprised by Morgana's reaction, but still put his hands up in what was supposed to represent that he wasn't a threat.
"I know you must have a lot of questions and well..." he gave a sad smile and glanced sideways at Akira, "I know I'm not welcome here, but I wanted to set things right." The shock of Akechi casually strolling through the door of the cafe still hadn't resided and he simply stood there staring at Akechi up and down. He... was alive. Akira stepped out from the booth he and Morgana had been playing games on and approached the junior detective.

Poke. He felt his finger push into Akechi's muscled shoulder. He was definitely solid. Akira frowned slightly as he examined Akechi, this time taking in everything. He looked perfectly fine from what Akira could see. He didn't look sick or anything. Nothing that indicated that he had died a day or two ago. If Akira had died he definitely wouldn't be looking this good. Akechi looked like he was actively preventing himself from taking a step backwards from the lack of personal space Akira had left him.

"I thought you were dead..." Akira said in a low voice that made Akechi shift awkwardly in his spot.
"It's quite the story... maybe over coffee?" He added, a hopeful tone appearing in his sugar sweet voice. Akira's frown deepened. First Akechi appeared out of nowhere after being supposedly killed, and now he was getting ordered around to make the traitor coffee?
"It's double price today." He spun around and marched off towards the kitchen to grab the utensils he would need if he really was going to be forced to make Akechi coffee.

"I've unfortunately forgotten my wallet today, is it possible to set up a tab?" Akechi asked, a slight pinch to his voice. He had obviously been hoping for a warmer welcome despite everything that had happened.
"Sure thing, but you might not like the interest rates, they get kinda steep." He opened the boxes on the back wall looking for the right beans, "The coffee business is a competitive one." Akechi chuckled dryly and making himself at home on one of the stools overlooking the counter.

He could feel Akechi's eyes on him the whole time he was preparing the coffees and he didn't like it. It was unnerving. He had no idea what Akechi was getting out of coming here, but whatever it was it couldn't be good. Once the satisfactory whistle sounded, Akira poured out the burning liquid into a cup and pushed it towards Akechi, avoiding his eye.
"Ah thank you." Akechi said blowing an even stream of air onto the coffee. Akira brought his own cup to his lips and took a sip without blowing, despite the excess amount of steam that phurled from its top. He regretted it immediately, but acted as if nothing had happened and replaced his cup on the coaster Sojiro had insisted on being used. Akira hadn't been one for using coasters, but Boss could tell when coasters weren't used. Akira had found that out in quite an unpleasant way.

"You've got coffee, so spill." Morgana leapt up onto the counter, earning a disapproving look from Akira. Morgana must've noticed because he looked rather sheepish, knowing exactly what Akira was thinking, "Boss won't know." He reassured.
"Right." Akira raised an eyebrow at the cat. Morgana should know better than anyone that Sojiro had a 6th sense for knowing what had happened in his cafe when he was away. But this wasn't the time, there were more pressing matters right in front of him in the form of a junior detective with overgrown hair. "Spill." Akira prompted when Akechi hadn't made an effort to say anything.

"It seems I can't delay this any further," delay it?? Akechi was the one who had came to Leblanc, if he wanted to delay it he shouldn't have come. "Yes I'm still alive, and I'm not precisely sure how either." Akechi seemed to be struggling to find the right words, "this may sound a little cliché, but I believe it was my desire to set things right between myself and the phantom thieves." Akira nearly snorted, but managed to turn it into a rather convincing cough.
"That's..."
"total BS." Morgana finished his sentence perfectly. Akechi didn't look taken aback by their answer, but still looked disheartened.

"I know you won't believe me, but when I heard the gun shot fire everything was gone, perhaps I did die, but somehow in that moment I also remembered how alone I felt. How I've wronged so many people." Akira exchanged a sceptical glance with Morgana. Akechi didn't seem to notice this because he continued nonetheless, "in the moment something seemed to change and the next thing I knew I was outside the diet building. It also seems I will be unable to enter the Metaverse without someone taking me with them side along."
"Huh?" Morgana gasped, "you can't go to the Metaverse?!" Akechi nodded and pulled out his phone for them to examine.

"It disappeared once I was sent out of Shido's palace, that would also suggest that the app wasn't the only thing taken from me."
"Are you saying your persona is gone?" Akira's said. His mind was racing madly, could a persona be taken away that easily. A persona was the representation of one's rebellious spirit, how was it possible to lose that? There was a major possibility that Akechi was lying, but... he scrolled through the phone Akechi held out to him, Morgana peering over his shoulder curiously. There was no sign of the metanav.
"That is my thinking..." Akechi replied.

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(AN: I have to split some chapters into parts because I wrote too much :/ so here's part 1! Sorry about that)