The Aeon Arcana

Nostalgia

"No! No," Akechi said, embarrassed. "My mask just looks like a bird."

"You are a real Phoenix Ranger!" Futaba seemed delighted. "Your mask, is it black?"

Akechi froze.

"No, it's red!" You said quickly. "A red bird mask."

"Then why not Robin?"

"I-I-" You could tell this was triggering some kind of deep insecurity in Akechi. Ren was absolutely no help and found this utterly amusing.

"Why the nickname Crow?" You pestered him slightly. He had to come up with something to cover for the fact he was normally in a black bird themed powersuit.

"It was…a made up Phoenix Ranger I used to pretend I was as a kid. Featherman Crow." His face was red.

"Aww…that's so cute!" Futaba cried. 

"I'm not cute," Akechi muttered.

"Girls dig cute," said Ren.

"You're not helping!" Akechi cried.

You laughed, then stood and went behind Akechi. You ran your fingers through his hair, which made him even more agitated. "I don't know…you're pretty cute, Goro."

"Enough," Akechi tried to order, but he was too flustered to sound convincing.

You kissed him on the cheek and sat back down. "So, are the others coming too?"

"No, I thought we should start with smaller groups," said Ren. "I don't want to overwhelm Futaba. She actually asked for Akechi-kun first."

"I just wanted Feather Crow to keep up on his promise," said Futaba.

"She's not going to stop, is she?" Akechi sighed.

"You're my hero, Goro," you said as you poked him in the arm.

"I think you broke him," said Morgana as he hopped onto the counter. "Hello, Feather Crow."

Okay maybe it was a bit too much. "There's a lot of day left, what should we do?" You asked, trying to change the subject. "Futaba doesn't really leave her room. Is there anywhere she'd like to go?"

Futaba winced and curled her knees to her chest. "N-no…"

"It can be someplace fun," said Ren. "We'll even protect you from the crowd on the train."

"That's so embarrassing!" Futaba whined. 

"When I first met Goro," you explained, "the crowds were too much for me. He had to hold me the entire time we were on the train! I got better at traveling over time." He still does it, though…

"Oh, really?" Futaba perked up a bit. "Do you think he could protect me from crowds too?"

"Ah…" You looked at Akechi, who seemed to be deep in thought.

"Hm? Oh, yes, I can do my best," said Akechi with a smile. "But where is it you'd like to go?"

Futaba looked embarrassed. "I…I want to see a movie."

"That's easy enough, and it doesn't really require you to look at very many strangers," you said. "What do you want to see?"

"I have an idea which one," Akechi blushed. "I…I have tickets, actually. I sometimes get movie tickets from clients or coworkers."

You rolled your eyes. "Is it the Featherman movie?"

"Yes! I want to see it!" Futaba cried.

"I have extra tickets," said Akechi. "A client really did give them to me. I had already bought mine, but he gave me them anyway. I wasn't sure if Y/N wanted to go to a movie like that…so I didn't know what to do with these tickets…"