Protective and Loving

Chapter One: Keeping Secrets

Akira's P.O.V.

Out of everything that's happened in my life, I never thought that becoming a werecat would be one of them. It was like a dream that I never expected to have. It's been about two weeks since I first turned, but I still remember it like it was yesterday. The argument with Morgana, the bloody scratches, the moon shining through the attic window, and the moment my body started to change.

At first it was one of the most painful experiences I've ever had, but I've been able to control it more as the days go by. There are still times when my ears or tail will pop out, but luckily it's never been when I was out in public. Morgana's the only one that knows about my secret, but luckily he's been nice enough to not blurt it out to the other Phantom Thieves. I don't know what they'd do if they found out, especially Ryuji. I've had a huge crush on him for a while, and I don't want to scare him off by me becoming a monster.

I'm just lucky that he didn't see my ears or tail whenever I got angry at something. And I hope that it stays that way. I was separated from my thoughts when I felt Morgana jump on my chest.

"Hey!" He exclaims in an enthusiastic manor. "Are we going to the palace today? We still have some ground to cover before we find the treasure." I begin to sit up in my makeshift bed, and Morgana jumps off next to me. He looks at me, waiting for and answer, and I shake my head in response.

"No, probably not today.." I say with a yawn. He tilts his head a bit at my response.

"Then how about Mementos? You still have a few requests that you haven't finished." I wasn't in the mood to go anywhere today, but I agreed to it anyways. I wanted to see Ryuji, and Mementos was a place where I could see him in action without worrying about finding someone's treasure.

"Sure, we still have sometime before our deadline. I'll message the others and then we'll go." A small smile appeared on Morgana's face as he hopped into my bag. I picked it up and slung it over my shoulder, and headed out of LeBlanc.

A while later, I exited the train and arrived at the Phantom Thieve's hideout. I saw the others already there, I went up to them to say hello. They turned in my direction and greeted me back. Ann and Makoto gave me friendly smiles, Yusuke gave me a simple "hello", and Ryuji ran up to me and gave me a big bear hug. I blushed, and smiled.

"Hey, Akira!" He exclaims happily, ruffling my hair. God, I wanted to purr so badly, but I managed to contain it and said hello. "Are you ready to go to Mementos? 'Cause I sure am!" He said with a smile that could brighten anyone's day. I smiled more and nodded, hoping that he couldn't see my face turning pink. "Alright! Let's go!" We then all pull out our phones and traveled into the Metaverse.

It was only a few seconds before we found ourselves in front of the entrance of Mementos. We were back in our Phantom Thief outfits, and ready to beat the shit out of shadows. We quickly hopped on the Mona Bus, and began to drive deep into the corrupted subway. Luckily for us, the shadows appeared less today, probably due to the weather. However, any shadows we did encounter were aggressive, and slowed us down when we were trying to find our target.

Every battle was normally enjoyable for me, but they start to become less enjoyable when I hear Mona insult Skull every two minutes about accidentally missing an attack, or getting knocked down from a critical attack. It's always bothered me, but I was really starting to get annoyed now. I glared at Mona as he scolded Skull for the upteenth time, feeling my ears and tail starting to grow in and my teeth sharpening.

"Could you be any more useless, Skull?!" Mona yells. Skull looked away and murmured something under his breath. Mona ignored his comment and continued to go on about how pathetic he is. Every time Skull tried to tell him to stop talking or go away, that stupid cat raised his voice and kept talking. I stomped over to them, quietly growling under my breath, and grabbed Mona by the ear and dragged him away to where we could be alone.

"Ack-! Joker, what the hell do you think you're doing?!" I ignored him and tossed him against one of the Mementos walls.

"We need to talk, Mona.." I said while gritting my teeth. Mona glares at me before opening his mouth to speak, again.

"What's got you all riled up about?" He says with a hint of annoyance in his voice. I glared at him and showed off my fangs.

"I am getting sick and tired of you talking shit about Skull after every small mistake he makes.. Every, fucking, battle you have something bad to say about him.." I see Mona's expression change as he sees my eyes change from soft grey to bright golden. "Ever since you first saw him you have been giving him shit about what he does and who he is. Do you think that calling him stupid or pathetic or any other insulting name is going to help him improve?! You have no idea what kind of HELL he went through before becoming a Phantom Thief!!!"

I continue to yell at him about insulting Skull, noticing him become more afraid as I speak. When I finished, I saw that he was shaking, ears flat against his head and his tail in his arms. I take a few breaths to calm down, and I began to notice how much I shifted. My gloves were puffed up, meaning my hands were cat-like paws, and sharp white claws poked out of the tips of the fingers. I felt soft fur over my face, and my clothes were tighter because of the fur that grew underneath them. I put my paws up to my face and felt cat-like whiskers on my cheeks and my nose was rough and dark. I was about to shift back into human form, and then heard footsteps and a voice behind me.

"Joker...?" I quickly turned my head to see who it was. I saw his blonde hair instantly, and alarm bells started going off in my head.

It was Skull.