Chapter Text
“You’ve what?”
Makoto flinched a little as Ann’s incredulous screech rang out across the café. Frantically sweeping the room with her eyes to make sure her friend hadn’t alerted the entire room to the particulars of Makoto’s social life – fortunately, the other patrons all seemed busy enough with their confectionary and coffee to not register the one-woman uproar – Makoto leaned back across the table, swatting Ann across the wrist.
“Not so loud!”
Makoto’s admonishing hiss didn’t seem to deter Ann one bit. She continued to stare at Makoto, those big blue eyes wide in total disbelief, her crepe forlorn and almost forgotten in front of her. Only the most grievous of shocks could distract Ann from her sweet food. “Are you serious? Like, actually serious.”
Makoto glared at her. “I really don’t see what’s so shocking here, Ann.”
“Uh, what? You’re a college student!” Ann said, sounding both baffled and genuinely outraged. “You’ve been there for months! How could you not have gone to a single club in that time?”
Makoto’s glare didn’t lessen. “Is that really so surprising, Ann? Truly?”
“I…guess not.” Ann said, relenting a little in her aggressive disbelief as she relaxed a little, her eyes still locked on Makoto’s face. “You’ve always been a good girl stick in the mud.”
Makoto frowned and folded her arms. “That’s quite an unflattering way of putting it.”
“It’s true, though.” Ann said, waving a hand a little in dismissal of Makoto’s pout. “But still, I thought you’d end up having to go to a club at some point in college, just to meet people if nothing else.”
Makoto’s frown didn’t shift. “I went to college to study, Ann.”
“And somehow that’s the exact answer I expected from you.” Ann said, rolling her eyes a little and bopping Makoto teasingly on the nose. “You’re nineteen, Makoto! You’re never gonna get this chance again, you’ve got to live a little sometimes!”
“Just because I don’t drink and dance doesn’t automatically make me no fun, Ann.” Makoto said grumpily, before looking up at her friend with an amused smirk quirking a little at her mouth. “That’s a separate choice, which I have also made.”
Ann snorted, grinning in amusement as she took another sip of her coffee, before looking more intently at her friend. “Seriously though, do you do anything for fun? Meeting people, socialising, making friends? Or is it just work work work all the way down?”
Makoto looked affronted. “I’ll have you know that I-”
“If you’re about to seriously insist that volunteering as a teaching assistant or something counts as meeting new people then I don’t think we can be friends any more.”
Makoto fell silent, looking at Ann with sulky eyes. Ann simply laughed, the sound bright and pleasant enough that even Makoto couldn’t help but smile. Ann was such a ray of sunshine, even when she was mocking her.
“Seriously though, you are never getting laid like that.”
“Ann!” Makoto hissed, red flaring at her cheeks as she instinctively slapped a hand over her friend’s mouth, her entire body cringing into itself. “What the hell?”
Ann dodged back from Makoto’s hand, still giggling a little to herself. “What? Nobody’s listening.”
“They absolutely are!” Makoto snapped, trying her best to keep her voice down even as she frantically looked around to see if anyone was listening in. “People keep looking at us all the time!”
“That’s because we’re gorgeous, Makoto.” Ann said, in the casual tone of a professional model who was well-used to such things. She briefly put on her sunglasses and blew a kiss around the room, before looking back to Makoto and lowering them just enough for the stern gaze of her warm blue irises to be visible. “Which is another reason why you living like Futaba is such a tragedy. One that demands fixing.”
“Excuse me?” Makoto said, recoiling almost from the table, her eyebrows raised in outrage. “I don’t live like Futaba!”
“You totally do.” Ann said casually, sipping at her coffee again with almost infuriating composure as she ripped Makoto’s self-image to shreds. “Sure, you exercise more than she does. But if you counted how often you and she actively take initiative to leave the house and see other people, I bet it’s not that different.”
Makoto fumed in silence, partially in outrage and partially because she wasn’t actually sure if she could argue back. Ann rolled her eyes, fondly exasperated by how difficult her friend was being.
“Honestly, I love you, but you’re ridiculous. I have no idea how Haru’s let this persist for as long as she has; what’s she even doing on Friday nights if she’s not setting you straight on these things?”
Ann’s eyebrow raised in a quirk of surprise as Makoto’s expression shifted – her outrage faded and she instead looked faintly haunted as she stared into the middle distance, her hands clenching absently at the tablecloth.
“Uh, Makoto?” Ann tried. “Hello?”
“We don’t talk about that.” Makoto said dimly, her eyes distant and almost traumatised. “We don’t go there.”
“Uh, what?” Ann said, sounding completely lost.
“What happens in Haru’s dorm room,” Makoto said, faintly but firmly, “stays in Haru’s dorm room.”
For a moment there was silence, as Ann tried to gauge if Makoto was joking and Makoto looked like she’d seen a ghost. Shrugging, Ann moved on.
“Uh, ok…so, uh, back on subject. Are you around tomorrow evening? You’re still in Tokyo for a couple more days, right?”
“Yeah, I’m having dinner with Sae tonight but tomorrow I’m pretty clear.” Makoto said, immediately accessing her mental calendar and answering without thinking. But then her reasoning caught up, and she looked hard at Ann, her eyes narrowing in suspicion. “Why the sudden interest in my commitments?”
Ann’s eyes sparkled a little as she pushed up her sunglasses again, every inch the gorgeous, inscrutable supermodel. “Because I know just the place to take your clubbing virginity, and wouldn’t you know it? I have a gap in my schedule tomorrow night.”
Makoto scowled, not best impressed by her friend’s choice of terminology. “I might not want to go.”
Ann grinned, knowing she had what she wanted. “What, you got someplace better to be?”
Makoto’s scowl deepened. Ann was far too sharp for her own good when she wanted to be.
Rap rap rap rap
“One second!” Makoto called, wincing a little as Ann’s loud knocking on the front door rang out through the Niijima apartment. She looked back in the mirror, quickly adjusting her fringe and checking her blouse. Did she look OK? She thought she looked OK. Would Ann think she looked OK? Probably not. Fashion models had high standards.
Taking a deep breath, Makoto looked herself in the mirror one last time, taking a deep breath and forcing herself to relax. It would all be fine.
“Hey!” Ann said loudly as Makoto opened the door, pulling her friend immediately into a tight hug with her usual overwhelming positive energy the instant she got the opportunity. Makoto couldn’t help but smile as she hugged back, the two girls clinging together in the doorway for a moment – she couldn’t really believe that she’d once considered Ann to be reserved and quite standoffish. Not that Ann wouldn’t likely say the same about her…they’d both come such a long way in the years since.
Although, from the look in Ann’s eyes when she finally stepped back and scanned Makoto up and down, it seemed her dress sense maybe hadn’t come such a long way with her.
“You’re…going like this?” Ann asked, frowning.
“Uh, yeah I guess?” Makoto said, uncertainly twisting her fingers. She thought she’d looked OK, really – a white dress blouse, black leggings, classy belt. She looked down at herself, then back at Ann, her eyebrow raised. “Why, what’s wrong with it?”
Ann paused for a moment, her brow furrowed, her inner fashionista seemingly struggling considerably to comprehend the stone wall that was Makoto Niijima’s disinterest in club culture. Eventually she just sighed, her fingers pinching at the bridge of her nose as she shut her eyes.
“Basically everything.” she said finally, not even looking at her friend. “Makoto, you look like you’re going out for lunch or something, maybe meeting a boyfriend’s parents for the first time. Like, you look good, but it’s not right for the situation, you know?”
“Not really.” Makoto said, spreading her hands helplessly.
“Clearly.” Ann said, sighing again before dropping her hands to her hips and striking a pose, flashing a blinding smile and artfully tossing her hair. “Just take a look at what I’m wearing. See the kinda vibe I’m giving off?”
Makoto diligently looked over her friend, taking in the sight. It wasn’t in any way a bad view, in all fairness – Ann was always gorgeous but tonight she looked mesmerising, all crop tops and glossy black skirts and fishnet tights, aggressively enticing makeup and highlighted pink streaks in her hair. It took Makoto longer than she perhaps should have to pull her eyes away from the exposed sight of Ann’s tight, tiny waist and lean stomach, but eventually she managed it, looking back to her friend’s (rather smug) face.
“Yeah? I look pretty damn good, right?”
“You do.” Makoto agreed, keeping to herself any subconscious opinions she may or may not have had about how insanely fuckable Ann looked like that. Ann knew she looked good and clearly wanted to be told so, but maybe wouldn’t be quite so interested in hearing about how Makoto would be perfectly happy for her to bend her over the kitchen island right there and then and…
Ahem.
“I think you get my point.” Ann said, a slightly knowing sparkle in her eye giving the chilling impression that she maybe knew a little more of what was going on in Makoto’s mind than the flustered older girl would have liked. “Like, you’re a pretty girl Makoto, but nights like this aren’t just about looking good. It’s about being seen looking good.”
“I see.” Makoto said, somewhat awkwardly. This was so out of her field of expertise it was almost agonising, but she kinda understood where Ann was going with this. “So, uh…what would you suggest?”
Ann’s responding grin was both encouraging and somewhat ominous.
“Show me to your closet, and let me work.”
And go to work, she had. Amidst a blizzard of sighs, disbelieving questions, scattered praise and seemingly boundless energy, Ann had forged a path through the unforgiving terrain that was Makoto Niijima’s clothing collection, mixing and matching various pieces on the befuddled girl sat on the bed behind her. It was the first time Makoto had seen Ann like this, truly in her element and working with what she knew best, and she was rapidly coming to understand why Ann was rocketing up the fashion and modelling worlds as quickly as she was doing – even if her work ethic sometimes left a little to be desired, Ann knew her shit.
Somehow, amidst the classy desolation that was Makoto’s fashion sense (plus a couple of her own additions, and pieces she’d blatantly lifted from Sae’s old things when she thought Makoto wasn’t looking), Ann had managed to pull something together that seemed to suit the vibe she was intending for the night out. It was darker and much tighter than before, clinging to the curves and strength of Makoto’s body in a way she wasn’t entirely used to – and then there was the hint of toned midriff exposed in a pale strip that Makoto couldn’t help but notice Ann eyeing more than a couple of times. Her arms were bare and her legs clad in semi-sheer tights that didn’t quite make it to the short skirt fitted below a silver-studded thick belt around her waist, tied tight to highlight the width of her hips and the curve of her butt.
Quite frankly, Makoto didn’t know how to feel as she looked in the mirror. She could tell that, objectively speaking, she looked considerably more sexual than she ever had before – she just wasn’t sure how to respond to it. It felt tighter and clingier on her than even Queen’s old suit had, and the highlights of her pale skin against primarily dark clothes really drew the eye. Ann really was a miracle worker, it seemed…did she feel sexy? Makoto wasn’t sure she had it in her to actually feel sexy. She knew she looked good, though, which was as good a start as she could hope for.
She turned to face the room, pretending she hadn’t noticed the feel of Ann’s eyes burning into her ass. “OK, that done, ready to go?”
However, to Makoto’s trepidation, Ann didn’t look anywhere near finished. She was instead reaching into her seemingly bottomless handbag and pulling out small bottles and tiny brushes. She looked up to meet Makoto’s gaze, and the older girl felt a thrill of danger run down her spine at the slightly manic look in Ann’s eyes.
“You know I’ve wanted to try doing your makeup since the very first day you joined the Phantom Thieves, right?”
No matter how much Makoto had steeled herself, or how intensely Ann had coached her on the way over, she had in no way been prepared for the blast of noise that had hit her in the face the instant they’d walked through the door. It was loud and deep and pounding, running in a constant rhythm and thumping against Makoto’s ears, feeling like it was hammering at her very soul.
She recoiled from the sound, but collided with nothing except Ann, who laughed loudly and cheerfully as she caught Makoto and steered her forwards and into the club, leaving her skittish friend no possible angles of escape. It was dark and hot in here, flashes and swirls of light illuminating the room as Ann took command of the situation with effortless ease, practically dragging the paralysed Makoto out of the way of the foot traffic and into a darker corner.
“You OK?”
Makoto simply stared at her, eyes wide, looking like nothing more than a rabbit in the headlights. It was all too much, all too loud, all too overwhelming. She shouldn’t be here, she should go home, maybe do some reading, or some studying, spend time with her sister or, or do some of the jobs she still had to do…
“Makoto!” Ann called, her voice loud even over the pounding music. Makoto blinked out of her spiral, staring at Ann, her inner self at war over whether to flee back to her comfort zone. Somehow, Ann seemed to know what was going on, and put her hands on Makoto’s shoulders, providing a helpful grounding to the other girl as she sought to steady herself. She looked Makoto in the face, blue eyes bright and shining in the roaming lights. “You’re gonna do great, OK? Trust me.”
Blinking rapidly and still breathing fast, but forcing herself to calm down, Makoto managed a nod. She did trust Ann – for all her occasional airheaded moments and lack of situational awareness, the other girl really was one of the best judges of character that Makoto had ever met. If she said it would be fine, then it would be fine. No matter how much Makoto’s heart couldn’t decide if it wanted to beat in time with the music or just stop altogether in panic.
“You got this!” Ann encouraged, seemingly happy to wait and let Makoto take her time as she slowly worked her way back towards something approaching calm. She kept up the reassuring shoulder rubs and encouraging smiles, letting Makoto work through it in her own time. “You good?”
“Yeah…” Makoto said, then realised she’d have to be louder to be heard over the music. It was so loud…although not unpleasantly so once you got used to it. “So, uh, what do we do now that we’re here?”
“We have fun, Makoto!” Ann cheered, clapping and stepping back, looking ready to charge into the fray. When she saw that Makoto’s face remained as totally blank as before, she simply stopped and closed her eyes briefly for a moment again, before snapping back to her hundred-watt smile. “Wanna go dance?”
Makoto flinched away from the word like it had been a crack of Ann’s old Panther whip, her eyes widening in panic and hand coming to her mouth in shock. Not even the smooth sway of Ann’s demonstrating hips could distract her from the spike of panic that accompanied the suggestion…although they did make a very solid attempt at it. “I, uh, I couldn’t, I don’t, uh…”
“OK, that answers that.” Ann said decisively, turning to walk away but pointedly grabbing Makoto’s hand into a tight grip first before setting off into the crush of people around them. “Bar first!”
“Wait, the bar? But Ann, I don’t…I don’t really…”
Makoto’s complaints fell on deaf ears (possibly literally so given how close they were to the dancefloor now) as Ann pulled Makoto across the room, slipping around and through tight knots of clubbers like it was nothing, brightly greeting and chatting with people as she went. She was dancing a little as they went, swaying her hips and clicking her fingers, feeling the rhythm of the music, and Makoto was a little more distracted than she probably should have been by the sway of Ann’s rump in that very short skirt. The hem certainly seemed to be fluttering rather a lot, hinting at the pale curve that lay just underneath…
“OK!” Ann said brightly as they made it to the (mercifully slightly quieter) bar, depositing Makoto on one of the stools and hopping up alongside her. “So, what do you want?”
Makoto raised an eyebrow. “I assume if I say water, or a soft drink, you’re going to breezily ignore me and do something else anyway.”
“Yep! Love you too, Makoto.” Ann said, flagging down the barman with a fluttering of eyelashes and a charming smile and ordering some cocktails instead. “I know you don’t know a lot about what you like yet, but that’s cool. We can try a whole lot of them, see which ones speak to you the most. That way, the next time you’re asked by someone cool and pretty in a bar what they can buy you, you’ll actually have an answer!”
“I, uh, see.” Makoto said, not feeling quite as tense in the hot and pounding atmosphere of the club as she had previously, but still slightly bowled away by Ann’s energy. She was always bright and lively, but she almost seemed to be feeding off the wild energy of the room, drawing from the music and the crowds to hype herself up. It was both inspiring and a little bit intimidating. “Do you have a favourite, then?”
“Oh, I know exactly what I like.” Ann said with a wink, not breaking eye contact with Makoto for a second, and the poor girl felt a blush unwittingly creeping up her cheeks for reasons she couldn’t quite explain even to herself. “But I’m not gonna say anything yet, I want you to work out your preferences for yourself first.”
“Such consideration.” Makoto said dryly, then noticed the very large tray of cocktails being slid along the bar to them. “Uh, this is a lot of drinks, Ann.”
“Yep!” Ann said brightly, giving Makoto’s hand a squeeze and sizing up the raft of glasses before them. “Wanna give you as wide a range of options as possible. This is a big day for you, Makoto.”
“Not as big as tomorrow morning’s going to feel with this hangover.” Makoto muttered to herself, but mentally slapped herself for the negativity and forced herself to sit straighter upright. She owed it to Ann to at least try and show some of the same energy she was giving off in waves. “Uh, was this not quite expensive?”
“Oh yeah.” Ann said easily, closing her eyes and nodding her head a little with the rhythm of the music. “Nothing but the best for my Makoto, I’m not ordering that cheap stuff.”
“I appreciate the compliment,” Makoto said, her inner responsible self convulsing in agony from the financial wastage on display. “But I can’t just let you pay for everything! This is a lot of money!”
“Oh, don’t worry about that.” Ann said casually, waving her hand dismissively and grinning at her. “I paid with one of Haru’s cards.”
“Oh.” Makoto said idly, looking back at the drinks for a second. Then she did a double take. “You what? Ann, you didn’t…”
“I was a Phantom Thief too, Makoto.” Ann said teasingly, waggling her eyebrows, but when Makoto continued to look genuinely aghast, she rolled her eyes and just grinned wider. “She gave it to me. I mentioned we were doing this tonight and she insisted I take it. Said it was up to me to show you the best possible night I could, and that I should spare no expense in making that happen.”
“I see.” Makoto said, looking down at the bar for a second and idly scratching at the exposed strip of her stomach. She turned back to Ann, a tentative smile beginning to form as she threw herself on her friend’s mercy. “Shall we get started, then?”
Ann’s answering smile was blindingly bright as she reached immediately for the nearest drink.
“You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting to hear you say that.”