Protective and Loving

Chapter Two: Friends Help Friends

Ryuji's P.O.V.

I stopped a few feet behind Joker and called out his name. He turned to look at me and my eyes widened. His face looked more feline than human, with a snow white snout and dark black fur around the rest of his face. A set of cat ears stuck out of his course noir hair, and a black and white tipped tail protruded out of his backside.

I stared into his bright golden eyes for a few seconds before hearing the others behind me, and broke eye contact. I looked and saw Panther, Fox and Queen trodding behind me.

          "Skull, what's wrong?" Panther asks. Like a lightning bolt, Mona dashes towards Panther and hides behind her. She was confused at first, but then she saw Joker. Her eyes widen just as mine did, and she puts a hand over her mouth. "Oh, Joker..."

I look back at Joker, his eyes full of shock and fear. His ears flattened against his head and he starts taking a few steps away from us. He then quickly turns around and runs away from us, disappearing into the darkness.

          "J-Joker, wait!" I call after him, but he was already gone. I stomp my foot in frustration. "Damn it!" I turn back to the other Phantom Thieves.

          "What happened to Joker..?" Fox asks in a calm voice. Sometimes I'm not even sure how he can stay calm in a situation like this.

          "I-I don't know..!" I tried to find a way to put words together where they made sense, but nothing came out. There was an awkward silence between us until Mona spoke up.

          "Joker's a werecat.." I jerked my head towards him, eyes wide in disbelief.

          "F-For real?!" I couldn't believe it. Joker's a werecat? There's no effing way that could be true! "You better not be screwing with us, Mona!" His ears perk up and he looks back at me.

          "I-I'm not! I swear! I'll tell you everything!" He looked up at us and his ears flatten against his head. I crossed my arms and waited for Mona to tell his story.

          "You guys probably remember the fight that Joker and I had a few weeks ago.. And that I gave him a few pretty nasty scratches on his hand.. Well, it turns out that the night that it happened, he turned into a werecat.." He stops to take a breath, and continues.

          "He was more afraid of what he became than I was when it happened.. He was scared about you guys not wanting to be his friends anymore if you found out, so I agreed to keep his secret and not tell anyone.." Mona looks down in shame. I let out a sigh and unfold my arms.

          "I thought something was off about him after that day, but I didn't know what.. But that doesn't matter now." I stand up straight and look at the other Phantom Thieves. "We have to find him before he gets himself killed." The others nod in agreement. Mona jumps up and transforms into the Mona Bus, and we all hop on to find our leader.

          A few minutes after driving around Mementos, we find Joker sitting alone in a dark alleyway. The Mona Bus stops, and I look at the others.

          "I think only one of us should go and talk to him, he might get overwhelmed if we all go at once.." Queen says. We all exchanged looks, until I stood up.

          "I'll go.." I said. The others looked at me. They stay quiet, but they nod in approval. I step out of the Mona Bus and walk over to Joker. His head was buried in his knees and his arms were wrapped around his legs. I take a seat next to him and give him a soft smile.

          "Yo.." He lifts his head up to look at me, and I noticed that he had turned back into a human. I looked into his soft grey eyes before he looks away.

          "What do you want..?" Joker asks quietly.

          "I want to help you.." I tell him sternly. He stays quiet for a few seconds before replying.

          "I don't need any help.." Lies. If he really didn't need help, he would look me dead in the eyes and say it straight to my face.

          "You don't need to lie to me, dude.. I know you need some help. So please.. Let us help you.." No response. I decided to repeat myself. "Joker, let us help you.." No response again. I keep repeating myself.

          "I said, I don't NEED YOUR HELP!!!" Joker quickly turns and pins me to the wall. My heart starts pounding as his sharp claws dig into my chest. His golden eyes flash with intense fiery rage past his mask as he glares at me.

          "D-Dude, let go..!" I say as his grip tightens. He blinks, and his eyes turn back to grey. His gaze softens and he quickly pulls his hand away.

          "I-I'm sorry..." he wraps his arms around his torso and his ears flatten against his head. I stared at his ears for a bit, thinking about what would happen if I touched them. I reach my hand out and I gently stroked one of them. It twitched a bit at the feeling of my hand, but it didn't seem irritated. It was soft and smooth, like a silk blanket. Joker leans his head onto my shoulder and starts purring.

I look over at him and my face starts heating up. He wrapped his arms around my waist and purrs more as I stroke his hair. Shit, he's cute. Like, really cute. I really hope he doesn't look up and see my bright red face.

          "I-If you want, we can go home early today.." I tell him calmly. He stirs a bit and keeps purring.

          "Okay, but.. Can we stay like this for a little while longer..?" He says with half closed eyes. I smile a bit and look away, my face heating up again.

          "Sure thing, dude.. Sure thing.."