... In which, after narrowly escaping Shido's collapsing palace, Ryuji does something stupid, and Rin prevents the others from picking on him for it. Instead, she has something else in store. [Requested by Yen2JM4 on A03]

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"Maaaaaaan, that was close..." a voice cuts through our collective crying. My head jerks around and my heart skips a beat. "For real though, why do Palaces gotta explode so much? Can't they disappear normally?"

Ryuji walks up to us as he always does, kicking his foot in honest annoyance. Only then does he notice the sea of angry faces. "... What?"

Within moments, he is surrounded. I stay back myself, fighting my own urge to run up and hit him. Or hug him. Or both.

... In due time.

"Didn't you... die?" asks Haru sincerely and I almost laugh.

"What!?" cries Ryuji and shakes his head, then runs a hand through his hair. "I got blasted out from the explosion... When I woke up, I was lyin' on the grass... I mean, ain't I alive?"

I barely suppress a snort. That's Ryuji for you... my heart swells, I cross my arms and find it harder and harder to stay put. I did have a feeling he was going to be just fine. It's still nice to have it confirmed though.

"What's this?" he looks at Ann who's angrily wiping at her cheek. "Your cryin' face is so not cute."

"It's your damn fault!" she screams and Ryuji winces back. She raises a hand but before she can do anything, I have her by the sleeve.

> "That wasn't very nice, you know, Ryuji?"

"You can't blame us for worrying."

I'm grinning widely and he takes that in, then immediately grins back. "Okay, okay, fine. Sorry."

Ann glares at me but lowers her arm. "You really have to teach your boyfriend here some manners. He'll kill us all at this rate."

For a moment we're all quiet and I weigh my options. Ryuji's looking at me as though I'm his salvation, and—I probably am. Who knows what Ann would have done. She looked like she was ready to hit him.

But... I think back to that moment of panic when he disappeared out of our sight, about how my heart sank and all hope vanished for an awful albeit brief moment when I thought... maybe he was gone.

I only hesitate a second, then I walk past Ann, straight at him. I'm not that much shorter than Ryuji but he's slumped over, so I don't have to reach far up to cup his face in my hands.

> "You're an idiot sandwich but I still love you."

"You really don't know what you did wrong, do you?"

For a moment, Ryuji looks at me, stunned. Then he breaks into laughter. Even our friends join in, hesitantly but still.

"We were worried about you!" Haru mutters.

"You troublemaker!" calls Futaba.

Before any of them can do anything, I've already wrapped my arms around him tightly. It doesn't take Ryuji long to return the hug. "Fine, fine, I get it..." he chuckles awkwardly, "I... almost... k-kinda died!"

"And you're not doing it again, we'll make sure of that." Ann cracks her knuckles.

They keep on going for a while. Throwing playful insults at him like that. I ignore it all, for the most part. I just hold onto Ryuji, gladder than I'd like to admit that he's made it back okay... well, at least in front of the others. I'm already coming up with things to say to him when we're alone. But I'm not about to yell at him in public.

It doesn't take long until Yusuke brings up food though, and they all agree to get something to eat.

I clutch Ryuji's hand tightly.

"We'll go somewhere else."

> "Go ahead without us, you guys."

Ryuji throws me an odd look, I believe I make out concern in it as well. But nobody else is surprised. Ever since we announced that we started dating, they've just kind of been expecting us to disappear on our own. We've only done it sometimes, but enough to keep the expectations going.

Nobody was really surprised when we revealed our relationship itself. Ann said she saw it coming months ago, and so did Haru. Makoto shrugged, claiming it was quite obvious that we're closer than friends from the way we interact, and Yusuke said we have that kind of 'chemistry' that is very apparent, and very compatible. Nobody asked him to elaborate. Futaba just looked at Ryuji, then at me, "Good luck."

I can't say it's an unfair reaction.

Now, Ryuji and I watch the others disappear to presumably get food. We remain in front of the diet building for a few more moments before Ryuji begins eyeing me. "So... whaddya want to do now? Honestly, I'm beat." He yawns and I punch him slightly. We all are, I mean, we just fought and won a hard fight, but despite all the hardship and losses we suffered on our way there, that I'm keeping in the back of my head, I can't help being in a celebratory mood.

"Let's go back to Leblanc."

> "How about that sushi place?"

As soon as I speak the word 'sushi', Ryuji's face lights up. "Hell yeah!" he calls and grips my hand tightly. It's fascinating how instantaneously his fatigue seems to have evaporated at the prospect of good food.

It doesn't take us long to get to our go-to sushi place. Ryuji orders a massive portion and I'm starting to become aware of my own hunger at the sight and smell of food.

At first, we eat in silence, but I'm practically staring holes into his forehead the whole time, going over what and how to express all the livid and confusing emotions his previous actions evoked in me.

He's such an airhead, I think and almost smile. Such an innocent, heroic, stubborn, impulsive airhead with absolutely zero consideration for what others think. In a way, I greatly admire that. He's told me many times that I come off as aloof and unbothered by the opinions of others but that's only really true on the surface. If I did anything like that myself I'd probably act cool, but internally go insane over whether and how much worry I caused my friends.

Considering how confused he was earlier, I think it's safe to assume he's not doing the same.

"So, you're gonna say somethin' or what?" he finally bursts out and drops his chopsticks onto his empty plate.

I sigh silently, then put my own chopsticks down and scoot closer on the bench that's framing our little corner table. I keep going until my shoulder is touching his and he turns.

"Hm?"

I look at him solemnly.

> "Time for your punishment."

"Close your eyes."

Ryuji's eyes widen and he blinks, fixating on the hand that I'm raising towards his face now. Quickly, I lock the other around his arm.

"W-Wait, whaddya doin'...!"

I can't say it isn't the slightest bit satisfying to see the mildly panicky expression on his face. We were panicking for him, so now it's his turn.

Ryuji doesn't look away from my hand for a single moment. If there was any room to scoot away, he probably would have done so, but he's sitting at the edge of the bench, and I'm gripping his arm tightly. There's nowhere to run.

His mouth opens and his eyes instinctively shut as my hand hovers before his face. One more moment I wait, then I flick his forehead as hard as I can.

Ryuji cries so loudly any and all nearby people turn their heads in our direction—from pain or surprise, I can't tell. But right now I'm only looking at Ryuji who is eyeing me with a mix between amusement and shock.

"W-What was that!?" He doesn't wait for a reply. "Oh, come on... I was really scared there, for a moment...!"

I narrow my eyes.

> "As were we when you did what you did."

"Now you know what it feels like."

For a few heartbeats he is staring at me wordlessly, then he breaks into suppressed laughter. "Oh so that's what this is all about... man, you really can't let go of that, can you?"

I hesitate, then I shake my head. As angry as I was... he did what he had to do, and so did I now. I simply shut my eyes and wrap an arm around his waist, then lean my head on his shoulder, which seems to only further confuse him.

"S-So, you're not mad anymore...?"

I shake my head and he audibly breathes out in relief. "Holy shit, finally. I-I really don't know what y'all were so mad about but... I'm fine, aren't I? And so is everyone else, and that douche Shido is dealt with, so... can't we just forget the whole episode and like... have a good evening together or somethin'?"

I mean, it's what we're currently doing, I think and smile up at him, nodding ever so slightly.

> "Though, I cannot speak for the others."

"As far as I'm concerned, yes."

For a moment, Ryuji's face darkens again, but it doesn't last long. "Eh, we'll cross that bridge when we get there." He grins down at me. "If we're done eatin' we should probably get going, back to Leblanc."

Many pairs of amused, confused, or just plain curious eyes follow us out the sushi place's door after I've footed the bill—as I do—and Ryuji doesn't stop until we reach the nearest subway station.

"... Y'all were really worried, weren't you?" he suddenly says in a serious tone and I halt. "I mean... I didn't plan on actually dyin' like that or anything... I was never going to, you see?" He scratches his head. "I mean, whatever ended up happenin', the Palace was collapsing anyway, so it would have kicked me out—and y'know, in case it didn't, we were outside, right? I coulda just easily have used the Nav app to get out if stuff had really gone poorly." He chuckles and in the dim street light, he looks happier than he has in a long time. "You really coulda had more faith in me too, y'know?"

I am actually stunned. For a brief moment, I am. Ryuji isn't usually the type to think this stuff through before he does it and I involuntarily wonder how much of this he came up with in retrospect. Still—I grit my teeth—I'm not going to lose even one party member more for the sake of this godforsaken feud with Shido—be it through their own sacrifice or otherwise. Maybe that was part of why... why we were all so scared. It's all way too freaking soon.

I cup his face in my hands again.

"Yeah, I know," Ryuji grins, "I'm an idiot sandwich."

I grin back, then I pull him down and kiss him, allowing the knowledge that he is here and that I still can do this, to flood and permeate me, fill me with happiness. He's kissing me back and nearly lifting me off my feet, as he usually does. I've gotten quite used to it at this point.

Ryuji's taken quite the liking to carrying me around and I usually let him, seeing how much joy it brings him. Even now, as he breaks the kiss, he finally lifts me up and into his arms, then begins racing down the stairs towards the subway station. I've found it better not to look whenever he does this stuff on stairs or other terrain that isn't flat ground, but I trust him. Clutching his neck a tad tighter than I probably have to, I once more pray that I don't end up regretting that someday.

It takes us a while to get back to Leblanc but I'm not worrying myself over Sojiro. Futaba probably told him that I'm out with Ryuji, and even if he's probably waiting for me, then and there, I couldn't care less.

All the way back home, I don't let go of Ryuji's hand for a single second.