Imbroglio

I

Akira yawned as he read yet another book on Personas. Morgana was drilling him so that he wouldn't slack off, but he was starting to get extremely irritated by it and just plain bored.

"You want to stop for today?" The cat asked, cleaning himself momentarily. The boy immediately nodded.

"Yes. I can't read much more before I lose it." The boy slammed the book closed before smacking his forehead on it.

"Jeez, you're in a mood," the cat commented. The boy looked up and shot a glare at him before returning to his previous position.

"Why don't you go bother Ann or something?" he replied, clearly irritated. The cat rolled his eyes, hopping off the counter.

"Fine. At least she'll give me well deserved attention..." the feline trailed, trying to guilt trip the irritated boy. He only earned another glare and a scoff. "Jeez..." And with that, the cat waltzed through the builtin cat door.

The boy shoved the book into a book holder of sorts and picked up his apron, quickly putting it on before his caretaker got to the café. He did this often, as he was terrified of not satisfying Sojiro. Sojiro never got mad, but he still cared.

The boy flipped the sign on the other side of the door quickly before returning to behind the counter, just staring out one of the windows blankly. He just wanted something else exciting to happen, besides the Metaverse.

The door opened, the familiar bell ringing. The boy's gaze shifted to the door, happy to see Sojiro standing there.

"Good morning," Akira greeted. The man nodded.

"Mornin'. Hopefully it's a bit slower day today," the man replied with a sigh, walking behind the counter. He seemed to be getting a head start on making the coffee that morning.

"Mhm," The boy hummed in agreement, looking down at his intertwined hands. He couldn't help but feel like a burden even then to Sojiro. He knew that he wasn't, but the thought was always there.

"Y'know, Akira. You need to get involved with women," the older male stated, walking over the younger boy. Akira's face flushed red as he started waving his hands defensively.

"Wh-What?! No! Why?" He exclaimed, feeling a bit overwhelmed for such a bold comment at 7:30 in the morning when he wasn't exactly mentally prepared.

The man laughed, patting the boy on the shoulder. "Come on, you don't do anything but study. Live a little. The ladies would probably love you, even if you can be a real pain in the ass," he said, stroking his goatee lightly.

The nineteen year old only shook his head. "I don't have time for relationships."

The man scoffed, "You definitely do if I did growing up. Look at your friend Ryuji. He's starting to get somewhere with Ann, right? You should do the same with someone else." The boy stared at his employer, sighing.

"I'm not easily liked. You know that. You didn't even like me when I met you two years ago." The man shrugged, getting himself some coffee.

"Yeah. But now that we've relocated to an entirely different country, you never know what could happen," he stated, smirking a bit. Akira rolled his eyes.

"American girls won't like me, Sojiro. We've been here for a few weeks and I haven't met any girls at all. I'm lucky I talk to Ann and Futaba but that's only because one, I live with you and Futaba, and two, Ann and Ryuji both wanted to come for a new start like us," he muttered, leaning against his palm. The man sighed.

"You're a real, negative pain in the ass, you know that?"

A few hours went by, a couple costumers coming in and going every half hour or so. With the expanded space there, unlike in Tokyo at the original Café Leblanc, some people stayed just to chat with friends in a separate area for that exact purpose. It was going to be hard to get used to, but Akira didn't mind.