Fanfiction Archive

Akira and Makoto don’t get married. 

Makoto wants to be commissioner, and getting married would be the end of her career. 

In the Japanese police force, getting married would mean she would not get any more promotions. They would expect her to have children. They would expect her to retire. 

It’s unfair but both of them understand. 

If Makoto becomes commissioner, she can help change that too.

They have a contract of their own. Akira wears a Joan of Arc pendant. Makoto keeps a copy of Lupin, marked with a playing card.

Their life together is a long, unbroken honeymoon.

Akira and Makoto do not have children. Between children and work, when would they find time to devote to one another? And what they do is dangerous. Makoto refuses to leave any child the way her father left her and her sister.

But there are children anyway. 

Akira feels the connection after they talk with a boy in the coffee shop. Makoto asks Akira if he knows the Arcana. He smiles. They will be his Strength.

He is the first. He isn’t the last. A string of bonds that are unbreakable. Deeper than blood. The Phantom Thieves’ family slowly grows.

When Akira meets a serious-faced young man at Makoto’s grave, he knows that there is only one more card to turn over; one more lesson to teach to the newest guardian of the sea of souls.

This young man will have others to teach him of war. Akira tells him about her. About the beautiful springtime of their lives. Of the shine of her eyes, and the curve of her smile. How, without her, winter is here.

Months later, Akira enters the Velvet Room again. He will not leave by the same door. The Phantom Thieves are getting back together.

Akira likes to sneak into Makoto’s apartment through her window. He will scale the building carefully from outside, making his way up and in like a cat burglar. Of course, he has a key, but this way is more fun.

Sometimes he will even sneak in while she is on her way home from work, or while she is in the bath, make dinner, set up a movie, arrange things– then disappear out the window in order to surprise her when she arrives.

She threatens to cuff him if he keeps breaking in. Sometimes she makes good on the promise.

The snow falling outside muffles the distant noise of the city in the late night. The only sound in the dark, spacious attic room is a pair of gently breathing sleepers, curled against one another, sharing warmth in the narrow bed.

Akira finds himself barely conscious in the small hours of the morning. Makoto’s slim back is pressed gently against his stomach, the top of her head tucked just below his chin. He puts his arm around her, and kisses her softly on the back of the head, feeling her chest rise and fall as he goes back to sleep.