Persona 3: Let Me Be With You

Chapter 10: Let's Go

"So... do you want to head out now?" I asked, holding my hand out as I tried to put a brave look on.

"Lead the way." Aigis said, smiling as she wrapped her fingers around mine. We walked out of her house together, and we slowly closed the distance between us as we continued down the road.

"Minato-kun?" my blonde-haired companion asked once we had arrived at the train station, which was fairly empty since it was Sunday morning.

"Yes?"

"You're pretty nervous about this, aren't you?"

"Damn... you're right though, how'd you know?" I answered, laughing nervously at how easily Aigis had seen through me.

"My mom told me how much you were shaking after she let you in." my girlfriend replied, giggling as groaned miserably.

"Great, you must think I'm a total dork now."

"No, no! I actually thought it was really cute when she told me about that."

"Oh... really? How so?" I asked, giving Aigis a questioning look.

"Well, the only times I've seen you get nervous are when Yukari-san is angry at you, so it's nice to see that you're not completely immune." she answered as a smile spread across her face. "But why are you so nervous? It's just a date."

"How can you say that? This is a date, it's-"

"How is it any different from us hanging out together like always?" my girlfriend interrupted, surprising me with an unexpected amount of sharpness in her voice.

"...Is it really any different?" Aigis asked again after I failed to respond after a minute had passed.

"Well... it's not different, it's just that... it's more... important, I guess." I mumbled, scratching my head embarrassedly.

"Minato-kun... you shouldn't worry too much. I'm just as nervous as you are." Aigis sighed, leaning against me as she rested her head on my shoulder. "But I know everything's going to be okay... because I'm with you."

My eyes widened as I turned to look at my girlfriend and saw the look on her face. I had expected her to be grinning or holding back laughter, but although she was blushing, her expression gave no indication that she hadn't been serious when she said that.

"I... uh... thank you... for having so much faith in me." I replied, a little delirious from how warm my face had become. "I... wow, after you say something like that, I can't help trying my best." I continued, smiling fondly at my blonde-haired companion.

"Glad to have you back to normal." She replied, gazing up at me with affection in her eyes.

After our little talk at the train station, our date continued without too many complications. After we arrived at Paulownia Mall, we had breakfast together at Changall Café, during which a suspicious looking man began flirting with Aigis after I had left for a brief visit to the restroom, which I responded to by "accidentally" spilling my coffee on the guy's pants. Although it pained me to see that the scalding liquid had missed intended, the action had its desired effect, and the man fled the restaurant with the appearance that he had wet himself.

Afterwards, we headed to Mandragora for a one-hour karaoke session. Since Aigis was too shy to go up at first, I wound up singing a duet with her, which seemed to boost her confidence quite a bit despite the fact that we were completely out of sync and kept tripping over each others' words. Towards the end of our reserved hour, Aigis sang a round of "Paradise Lost" that sounded so much like Chihara Minori that I spotted some passerby's peeking in to see if the famous seiyuu had decided to drop by for a visit. After that, I wound up singing the last song of our session, which happened to be "Just the Way You Are" by Billy Joel, whose lyrics caused Aigis to blush intensely as I sang.