{ Consequence }
Title: Consequence
Fandom: Persona 3
Characters: Shinjiro Aragaki, Ken Amada
Word Count: 648
Comm & Prompt: 78_tarot : Justice
Rating: PG13
"Ken, dude, is there something wrong? You haven't even touched your food!" Junpei explained, eyebrows receding into the cover of his baseball cap.
The spread of the meal was something, alright. Shinjiro had busted his ass, used every recipe and table trick he knew to up the presentation, make the dinner a little bit better. This was about making memories, after all, leaving no loose ends. He didn't want anybody there to say when it was all over that they wished they could have had more time with him. He wanted, if nothing else, for the whole thing to be over, done, and closed.
His eyes flicked over to where Ken was seated, picking up on the uncomfortable expression on the kid's face, the way that everyone else was looking at him expectantly, wondering why on earth he didn't dig in, too.
It seemed like it should be obvious. The kid was, what, nothing if not the personification of Justice, and all of the Shadows he'd fought of that arcana already seemed to have it out for him. Wasn't there something about food they'd learnt about in composition, or modern literature, or something. You don't eat in the house of your enemy.
"Hey, you should really give it a try!" Yukari quipped. "I know it's kinda different from the stuff we eat here normally, but it's really good!"
"Yes, please do, Ken-kun." Fuuka smiled sheepishly down the table. "Shinjiro-san helped me, and we tasted all the dishes before we served them, so they're all definitely good!"
But that just seemed to make Ken more uncomfortable.
Shinjiro took a breath, getting ready to call everybody off. Whatever. Look, he hadn't thought that it would work anyway. Yeah, it would have been nice if he could have shown that kid that he wasn't as bad as he must have seemed after that night in the alleyway, axe bloody and mind in warring pieces, eyes gone hollow with shock. He knew that he would pay for it, that a life taken could only be repaid with another life- each of the kid's stares when they passed each other alone in the hall told him that.
He just hoped that maybe, when this was all over, Ken could see him for what he really was: someone who had done something terrible, but not bad in all aspects.
And sure, part of it was sappy and dumb. But the other, more practical part was that if Ken really did want to kill him, then Shinjiro was going to make him understand exactly what he would go through beforehand. The cruelest part of coming to grips with his own darkness hadn't been the sheer fact that he had lost control of Castor, but that his actions had caused so many repercussions. One of them was even looking awkwardly at his food right now.
All actions had consequences.
"Oh, right." Ken looked up. "That's right. Sorry, I just got distracted by how pretty it looked."
"Well, presentation is everything, you know." Yukari stuck her tongue out playfully. "I guess that's why Stupei here never seems to have any luck."
"Hey, hey, hey, what's that supposed to mean?"
"Exactly what I said."
Shinjiro glanced over, his own food growing slightly colder before him. Ken ate the dinner, but from the careful way that he brought food to his mouth and straightened his napkin, it looked more like an exercise in conscience than anything. Akihiko caught his eye and smiled, but Shinjiro didn't smile back.
In between bites of stirfry, Ken made a joke about a teacher at his school and the whole table laughed.
All actions had consequences, after all.
Fandom: Persona 3
Characters: Shinjiro Aragaki, Ken Amada
Word Count: 648
Comm & Prompt: 78_tarot : Justice
Rating: PG13
"Ken, dude, is there something wrong? You haven't even touched your food!" Junpei explained, eyebrows receding into the cover of his baseball cap.
The spread of the meal was something, alright. Shinjiro had busted his ass, used every recipe and table trick he knew to up the presentation, make the dinner a little bit better. This was about making memories, after all, leaving no loose ends. He didn't want anybody there to say when it was all over that they wished they could have had more time with him. He wanted, if nothing else, for the whole thing to be over, done, and closed.
His eyes flicked over to where Ken was seated, picking up on the uncomfortable expression on the kid's face, the way that everyone else was looking at him expectantly, wondering why on earth he didn't dig in, too.
It seemed like it should be obvious. The kid was, what, nothing if not the personification of Justice, and all of the Shadows he'd fought of that arcana already seemed to have it out for him. Wasn't there something about food they'd learnt about in composition, or modern literature, or something. You don't eat in the house of your enemy.
"Hey, you should really give it a try!" Yukari quipped. "I know it's kinda different from the stuff we eat here normally, but it's really good!"
"Yes, please do, Ken-kun." Fuuka smiled sheepishly down the table. "Shinjiro-san helped me, and we tasted all the dishes before we served them, so they're all definitely good!"
But that just seemed to make Ken more uncomfortable.
Shinjiro took a breath, getting ready to call everybody off. Whatever. Look, he hadn't thought that it would work anyway. Yeah, it would have been nice if he could have shown that kid that he wasn't as bad as he must have seemed after that night in the alleyway, axe bloody and mind in warring pieces, eyes gone hollow with shock. He knew that he would pay for it, that a life taken could only be repaid with another life- each of the kid's stares when they passed each other alone in the hall told him that.
He just hoped that maybe, when this was all over, Ken could see him for what he really was: someone who had done something terrible, but not bad in all aspects.
And sure, part of it was sappy and dumb. But the other, more practical part was that if Ken really did want to kill him, then Shinjiro was going to make him understand exactly what he would go through beforehand. The cruelest part of coming to grips with his own darkness hadn't been the sheer fact that he had lost control of Castor, but that his actions had caused so many repercussions. One of them was even looking awkwardly at his food right now.
All actions had consequences.
"Oh, right." Ken looked up. "That's right. Sorry, I just got distracted by how pretty it looked."
"Well, presentation is everything, you know." Yukari stuck her tongue out playfully. "I guess that's why Stupei here never seems to have any luck."
"Hey, hey, hey, what's that supposed to mean?"
"Exactly what I said."
Shinjiro glanced over, his own food growing slightly colder before him. Ken ate the dinner, but from the careful way that he brought food to his mouth and straightened his napkin, it looked more like an exercise in conscience than anything. Akihiko caught his eye and smiled, but Shinjiro didn't smile back.
In between bites of stirfry, Ken made a joke about a teacher at his school and the whole table laughed.
All actions had consequences, after all.