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Akira hadn't thought seeing him in person would affect him as much as it does. After all, he's had two months to mentally prepare himself for this moment.

And yet, the sight of Goro Akechi, alive and in the flesh, perfectly put-together and looking like he was made to sit under the studio lighting, makes him feel... some kind of way. Unsettled, for sure, knowing what he knows now. Then again, there's a part of him that hasn't stopped feeling unsettled since he first (well, perhaps first isn't accurate) jolted awake to find himself on the train to Yongen-Jaya again. In one piece. Not bleeding out on the ground with a megalomaniacal pseudo-god bearing down on him. And, most importantly, as the only one with any recollection of all they'd been through.

It doesn't take Akira long to come to the most logical conclusion: That somewhere along the line, he screwed up. Somehow, it hadn't been enough, and now he has an opportunity to fix it—which would be a lot easier if he were to have some notion of what, specifically, he needs to fix, or even if this is a one-time deal.

At first, he tries copying his previous motions as closely as possible. People always talk about their regrets like they would change them in a heartbeat, given the chance, but the thought of altering the timeline as he knows it is overwhelming. The more Akira steps away from his previous path, the less accurate his existing knowledge may become, the bigger the chance that he may miss something important from the first time around.

That reasoning goes out the window pretty quickly. Akira finds that he can't watch Shiho Suzui jump off that building again, can't go through hearing that agony in Ann's voice a second time when he can so easily prevent it. So he stops her. It's what the Phantom Thieves would do. And things change... but not in a way that affects the flow of events in any profound way. Ann still stumbles after them into the Metaverse and finds the conviction to awaken her persona, somehow. He's not sure how it works out, but it does. What Akira does know is that fate is what you make of it. If he believes in his teammates, they'll end up where they need to be.

But for all of that, he still wavers as they're leaving the recording area. Up until now, the decisions to change things have been easy. Akechi, on the other hand... where to start? Is it even salvageable? Akira's not certain, but when he thinks of their last meeting in Shido's palace, Akechi's remark about the possibility of them meeting a few years earlier, the sounds of gunshots echoing from the other side of the bulkhead—he can't not try. It's not years, but maybe this handful of months will be enough.

Akira lets Ann go ahead with a nod, sliding his hands into his pockets as he tries to maintain his usual casual demeanor. Any moment now...

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It isn't like Akira seeing right through him and jumping straight to the point has never happened before, but being called out so bluntly catches Akechi off guard. He pauses in the middle of opening his own water bottle, uncertain of what to say. After a moment he sighs, though it's no an unhappy sound.

"I thought it might not be a one-time thing." He'd been hoping, as a matter of fact, but that's a hope he hasn't allowed himself to consciously acknowledge until this moment. He's not ready to say it out loud, though he can admit to one thing. "My apartment might not be as comfortable as you room, but having company was nice." Even given the unpleasant circumstances surrounding Akira's original visit.

"It's comfortable," Akira says, quick to speak that thought. The interior of Akechi's apartment may seem a bit sterile compared to his own bedroom, but he's never felt a lack of comfort from it. Maybe because Akechi draws out that sense of warmth and relaxation? It could have nothing to do with the apartment at all, but it doesn't change the way Akira feels when he's here.

He casts his eyes around the walls as he sips from the bottle. "It could use some decorations, but... that's something we can fix." The implication here is clear: to fill Akechi's apartment with the same sort of mish-mash of random items that brings color to Akira's room.

The assurance that his room is comfortable get a look of mild skepticism from Akechi. It's not like he thinks Akira is lying to him, but he doesn't quite see how he can think that. Akechi might not have many things to compare it to, but Akira's room seems much more personalized and lived-in. Akechi is pretty sure there's nothing that makes his apartment stand out compared typical furnished student housing.

"Like star-shaped stickers?" Akechi doesn't really think of himself as having a 'favorite' decoration in Akira's room, but the stars have always stuck out to him. Still, the 'we' in that sentence isn't lost on him. He's just not sure who all is included in the 'we'. "Any suggestions?"

"Glow-in-the-dark star-shaped stickers," Akira corrects. He simply cannot allow Akechi to leave off the best part. "You could put them on the ceiling over your bed."

This is easier, letting himself drift off into this hypothetical future where everything is already resolved and Akechi will let him spruce up his apartment. Not to say it'll never happen, but…

Thinking about how far off it might be makes an itch crawl under Akira's skin again, so he redirects his mental efforts to offering the requested suggestions.

"Definitely some souvenirs from places you like to visit." His first thought is Leblanc, but, well, they don't exactly offer branded merchandise. "Maybe some posters," he adds thoughtfully, though—perhaps not of an idol like his. Akira can't really see that being something Akechi would go for. "I can get you a chocolate fountain, too, if you're interested." And that one comes with such a flat expression that it's impossible to tell whether it's serious or not.

"Of course. My mistake." He sounds more amused than apologetic, however.

The possible suggestions are all considered, and thought Akechi doesn't say anything out loud he's silently shooting them down one after another. Leblanc and his rock climbing gym are the only places he'd say he likes to visit, neither of which have souvenirs that are better suited to sitting on the shelf than being used. Posters aren't something he sees himself wanting, either. The chocolate fountain--

Wait, is that a serious offer? Akechi slides Akira an almost wary look and finds himself completely unable to gauge how sincere of a proposal that is.

"I don't think I need such direct access to that much chocolate." He'd be absolutely sick of it after just one day. "But souvenirs would be nice. You should tell Sojiro-san to start selling them."

"Too bad. It's a good conversation starter," he says, as if referring to a book on a coffee table—and also as if speaking of someplace other than Akechi's apartment, where he gets the feeling there aren't exactly many visitors with whom to start conversations. Akira quietly hopes that will change at some point.

With the suggestion, he consideration turns more sincere. "He'd probably say it would be a pain in the ass," Akira guesses honestly, the words a bit fond. Well, he can't exactly see the regulars wanting to buy souvenirs. Not that they have enough regulars to make that a sustainable idea anyway. "I'd grab you a coffee cup, but he would definitely notice one missing." And Akira's thievery days are supposed to be behind him, anyway.

Conversations with who? Akechi wonders, but he doesn't say that out loud. Even if he's sure Akira is far from okay, his mood is improving and Akechi doesn't want to be the one to ruin that. The counterpoint about getting Leblanc souvenirs is solid ones, and Akira's suggestion gets a shake of the head from Akechi.

"I wouldn't want to add to your criminal record." Even over something as petty as a coffee cup. "But I'm sure we'll find other places to visit. I can just get something from one of those." His word choices - 'we', 'places', 'one of' - are all very deliberate. He wants to experience more of the city from here on out, and he wants to do it in Akira's company.

The syntax of that statement is not lost on Akira, and, that easy, the pang of sorrow in his chest returns. Akechi isn't even asking to spend more time together—he's assuming, correctly so, that that's what Akira wants, and that feels... significant, somehow.

And Akira can't promise him any of it.

"I'll buy you something next time," he says anyway, the words gummy in his mouth as he tries to smile through them. The success is somewhat questionable. "Something you can put on display here."

After all of the time he spent withholding things from Akechi before? This is wrong. Akira's seen what it does to him, what it will no doubt do to him again when he finds out tomorrow. Regardless, being honest about this isn't an option. Akechi has put himself in danger before to protect him; there's no way he won't at least try to fight the decision to turn himself in. That, he can't allow, not when this is for Akechi's sake as much as it is for everyone else's.

That Akira's smile doesn't come as easily to him isn't lost on Akechi, but once again he misidentifies its source. Even with his own plans to present what he knows to the team prosecuting Shido he can't imagine that Akira is about to do the same thing, not when Akechi himself is only planning to admit to his own crimes if he has to. So once again he assumes its about Morgana.

Maybe this subject is a bad one to dwell on. Akechi changes gears.

"Speaking of going out, have you had dinner yet?" Akechi was likely to skip it before Akira showed up, but now it sounds like a good idea. "Though if you don't want to compete with the Christmas Eve crowds, I have the ingredients for proper omurice this time."

A new subject is good. It derails Akira's thoughts, although he almost has to think about it before shaking his head. He wandered around a bit earlier, but at no point did he consider food. It's not until Akechi is bringing it up now that he realizes he is kind of hungry.

"Sounds like you were planning on making it." And the idea of cooking with Akechi does cross his mind as an appealing one, but another memory surfaces at the same time. "Actually… do you think the place that does tiramisu pancakes is open?" It's definitely not dinner. Then again, Akira is kind of beyond caring about proper meals right now.

"I may not have much time for it, but I do know how to cook." His recipes are always pretty by the book and uninspired, but still perfectly edible. Either way, it's a necessary skill. Akechi wouldn't especially mind living off of convenience store bento, restaurants, and Sae's charity, but it's more expensive that he'd like.

The question about the pancakes sparks a distant memory, one which doesn't take Akechi long to place. He digs in his pocket for his phone and take a moment to search for the restaurant.

"They are." He holds up his phone so that Akira can see the restaurant's website, which currently shows an banner announcing special extended hours for Christmas Eve. "We might have to wait a while before there's an available table, but I don't mind that." He's learning that he can enjoy doing almost anything as long as he's with Akira. A boring wait in line is nothing.

He doesn't doubt that one bit. Cooking in its most basic form boils down to just following a set of instructions, a task someone as intelligent as Akechi can navigate easily. It takes a special sort of skill to make great food, but there's no question that Akechi's would be serviceable.

Akira peers at the website when it's turned his way. This is something he's been wanting to do for a while now, one in a long, long list that would be impossible to cram into the few hours remaining before him. As much as he'd also like to pass the night together quietly, something about this feels more appropriate.

His eyes flicker away from the screen and back to Akechi's face. "Then let's go."

Well that decision was simple - though it's just like Akira to be so firm and decisive with so little preparation, so Akechi can only smile and nod. He'd already showered and redressed by the time Akira showed up, so all that's left for him to do is grab his coat. He pauses as he slides his closet door open, however, giving Akira an appraising look.

"Do you want to borrow a coat again?" He has two aside from the ones he usually wears, one better for winter and the other better for fall - but either of them will be better than the light jacket Akira's wearing. He can't actually be immune to cold, and Akechi's pretty sure it's snowing outside.

Besides, it'll be nice to have Akira wear one of his coats again, which is a thought so strange that Akechi bundles it up and shoves it aside before he can come close to saying it out loud.

While Akechi grabs his coat, Akira busies himself with recapping the water bottle and setting it aside once he stands up. He shoulders his bag, and that should make him ready to go—

Then the offer reaches his ears, and he has to look down at himself as if to remind himself of what he's wearing. Right. It was pretty cold outside earlier, but Akira's cloudy mind made it hard to really be bothered by the chill left behind by the snow. While he's pretty sure that would still hold true, especially with Akechi's presence distracting him, there's something similarly appealing about the thought of wrapping himself in something of Akechi's.

"Sure." And once he steps over to get a look inside of the closet, Akira selects the lighter of the two coats and shrugs it on over his thin jacket. The combination of the two should be enough of a barrier. Hiking his bag up onto his shoulder again, he gives Akechi his best attempt at a charming smile. "Do I do it justice?"

Akira gets a once over and... honestly, not really. Akechi is so used to seeing Akira in starkly contrasting colors, so he just looks a little odd in the reddish brown coat he's wearing now. Akechi buys some time to think by shrugging on his own coat (it's the same subdued plaid one he'd let Akira borrow a few weeks ago) and transferring his phone and wallet to its pockets.

"Not bad," Akechi finally allows, because that's at least also true; he figures Akira can look at least passable in nearly anything. "But it looks like something you borrowed." Which is true, but that's a hard vibe to quantify; it just doesn't suit Akira, or look like something he'd buy for himself. "Black suits you better." Too bad the only black anything that Akechi owns are some pants.

The honesty is refreshing enough to lift his spirits a bit as he follows Akechi to the door. "I guess I did that to myself," he sighs, the noise not nearly reflective of his true feelings. Somehow, it sounds better to his ears if it looks like he's wearing Akechi's coat rather than his own. Which... is a thought that should probably embarrass him, but Akira is a hard one to fluster. "Before I knew it, almost everything I owned was black." Akira can't help that he's just drawn to the color. It goes with everything, after all.

It's still snowing when they reach the street. The tiny flakes seem to appear from the dark of the night as Akira peers up towards the sky, and for the briefest moment, it reminds him of earlier today—the opposite of the shimmering particles that drifted upward as the cognitive world once again separated itself from reality.

"... Hard to believe all of that happened just this afternoon," he remarks suddenly, voice quiet, as if the thought itself had been shared to lead into the statement. The world feels completely untouched, as if Tokyo hadn't been almost overtaken by the Metaverse just a few hours prior.

"Black isn't a bad choice. Easier--" to hide cat hair, he almost concludes, before he remembers that, unfortunately, cat hair isn't a problem Akira is likely to ever have again. "--to match."

That comes out sounding more stilted than he wants, and Akechi ends up falling silent until Akira speaks again. He turns his attention to the sky, giving a short nod of agreement. 'Hard to believe' doesn't begin to cover it.

"I didn't think I was going to be able to sleep tonight." He's normally exhausted after Metaverse excursions, and that's true now as well. Even so, sleep felt impossible, like if he didn't keep an eye on the city their hard work would be completely undone. So with that thought on the table he slides Akira a grateful look. "I'm glad you decided to stop by."

Honestly, Akira didn't give much consideration to sleeping. It's not until it's brought up that he realizes he kind of feels the same way. The long delve through Mementos and the battle with Yaldabaoth left him exhausted, but knowing what's waiting for him in the morning...

Spending any of the time leading up to then sleeping feels like a waste, particularly when he's with Akechi.

"Let's just stay up all night, then," he says casually, like it's a completely normal and responsible thing to suggest. Akira slides the glasses off of his face (the flakes of snow are only clouding the lenses; not like he needs them anyway) and looks over at Akechi, something like earnestness shining in his eyes.

The proposal is a startling one, and Akechi is inclined to disagree out of principal. That look in Akira's eye chases any hesitance away and Akechi immediately goes from 'probably not' to 'why not?', even despite being pretty sure they'll both doze off eventually.

"Sure. I need to stay in the habit of pulling all nighters anyway." For school, for work, and for the possibility that he might end up having to sit through his own extensive Q&A with the police. He's not about to bring that up, however. He's also not going to bring up where they can go after they get pancakes; something else has already distracted him.

"Are you going to keep wearing those, too?" He's caught on by now that Akira doesn't actually need them, though he's not sure if he wears them for fashion or to make himself harder to recognize.

He folds in the temples of the glasses and stares down at them for a moment, letting the question seep in. It's true that Akira never needed them, but that may be the case even more so now. Whether it's because he's going to openly admit to being a criminal or because there are no more shady motives he needs to deflect—he'll no longer need to try to fly under the radar.

"Maybe," is his response, however. "I've come to like them. They're... kind of like my mask, out here." Akira tucks them into his bag for safekeeping. Afterwards, his hands retreat into the pockets of the borrowed coat, fingers burrowing deep to hide from the cold, and his gaze skips to the sidewalk ahead. "And you learn a lot about people from whether they take a mask at face value or try to see past it."

Akechi listens closely to Akira's response, privately a little excited to get to hear him lay out his reasoning. It's nice to have some of his suspicions confirmed and learn something new after having some of them denied.

It's the last part that really resonates with him, though. That makes a lot of sense, and it's the sort of thing Akechi has noticed about other people as well.

"I don't know if I could say wearing them suits you any better or worse than not wearing them." There's plenty of differences between the two, but Akechi likes them both. That's the sort of thought he's been careful to under wraps, but right now the lingering memory of their victory and subsequent loss, the hesitant, wary optimism about their future, and the pleasant atmosphere that surrounds them makes him think it might be okay to be a little more honest for once. "But I like them. They're charming."

"Ah... thanks." Once again: Akira is a hard one to fluster. Still, Akechi steps dangerously close to that boundary with his compliment. It really shouldn't be the case. They're charming could be a completely platonic observation.

And yet, he feels a modicum of heat rising to his cheeks. Akira's grateful for the chill of air against his face; maybe he can blame the color on his face on the numbing cold.

Thankfully, he's soon distracted. A sense of curiosity bubbles up as he turns the words over in his head. Without an explanation, Akira reaches back into his bag to withdraw his glasses again, offering them to Akechi in a clear request for him to try them on.

The blush isn't lost on Akechi this time, and it's... curious, actually, in a way that very few things are. It's not just the cold - for some reason, Akechi is certain of that - but there aren't many things that can actually fluster Akira. Did the compliment just catch him off guard? Is it because it's about the glasses? Or--

His gaze is fixed on Akira, but he's still taken off guard to suddenly be offered the glasses. He's normally adverse to wearing them (Shido wears glasses) but this time he doesn't hesitate. The round black frames and clear lenses are different enough that it doesn't bother him, though as he slides them...

"I probably look like a librarian." Especially with his sweater vest.

Oh, no. This was a bad idea. The warmth under Akira's skin only seems to increase as Akechi looks at him from behind the frames. He's not sure if it's the smile, the fact that it's his glasses, or what, but... it's nice. Akira thinks he's heard Futaba utter the phrase megane fetish before, and it's not until this moment that he understands the grave reality of those words.

Akira somehow manages to whip his brain back into shape enough to give a response. "... It looks like something you borrowed." Okay, he couldn't resist the opportunity to lob that one back at Akechi.

When he speaks again, it's still light, but not for the sake of getting in a jab. "Maybe. More like a teacher's assistant." The kind that's more of a distraction than an asset to the classroom, although that thought is not coming anywhere near Akira's lips.

So it is the glasses making him blush. That just inspires even more questions, though, but before he gets a chance to ask them Akira throws his earlier words back in his face and Akechi can only laugh in response.

"If my eyes start to go, I'll probably stick with contacts." Though his next comment only gets a grin from Akira. That's probably not an unfair comparison - Akechi's definitely too young to be an actual teacher - but that's not going to stop him from trying to turn it back on Akira. "Somehow I don't think you'll agree to calling me 'sensei', though."

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