Poll Winner: What the Future Holds (Persona) (Patreon)

Summary: One stupid night of passion. Ryuji and Ann made love to each other while they were drunk, and now Ann is pregnant with his child, and they wonder just what're supposed to do? Includes: Non-smut. Romantic Drama.

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If someone asked Ryuji if he regretted that night, he wasn’t sure what kind of answer he would give. The right answer would be to say he did. 

He would tell them, that if he could go back, he would never have shared a drink with Ann. Ryuji would have stopped Ann from drinking any amount of liquor, before he would have helped her home and that would have been it.

That was the right answer, but was it his answer…? Ryuji cursed himself as he watched his friend, waiting for the countdown to end.  

He didn’t know when it happened, but somewhere along the way, Ryuji had fallen in love with his friend. When Ryuji told Ren, the black-haired boy laughed and commented that he always knew. He even gave the blond advice on how to win her over, but Ryuji never took that advice to heart.

The advice was good for someone who was charming and cool, but Ryuji wasn’t Ren. Ryuji was loud, obnoxious, and stupid, and he just couldn’t be who Ren was.

So Ryuji was ready to keep his feelings to himself, and that’s what he did for months and months. 

Then he and Ann shared drinks at a bar. Nothing special. They were adults now. The group had gone out for drinks before. But one shot became two. Two became four. Four became Ann’s hands caressing his face, and his hands going up and down her thighs.

Ryuji couldn’t even remember most of the night. Just bits and pieces. He remembered Ann and him falling onto their bed, he remembered holding her in his arms, and he remembered the feeling of her naked body against his… Her lips on his…

He woke up the next morning to a scream. Ann was covering herself with her blanket, staring at Ryuji with wide, horrified eyes. It took him only a moment to realize he was naked too. 

They didn’t talk. He barely got a chance to say anything. Ann just screamed at him to get out. Ryuji obeyed, picking his clothes up off of the floor and running out of the room. It had been weeks since that day…

It’s not like Ryuji didn’t try to talk to her! He called her, but she never picked up. He tried talking to her in person, but she always had a modeling gig to go to, and she didn’t tell anyone in the group when or where they were…

Benefit of being an adult, Ryuji guessed… All of their friends were busy with jobs and lives of their own. That gave Ann a way to avoid him, and unless Ryuji asked for it, the others wouldn’t even know he needed help...

Weeks went by without them talking to each other, until suddenly she called and told him they needed to talk. Now here Ryuji was, back in the same room he was kicked out of. Ann was on her bed, a pregnancy test in her hand.

It didn’t take a genius to figure out why he was here, or what the test results were. All Ryuji had to do was look at Ann’s face, and he knew. 

“A-are you sure it’s me?” It was the first real thing he had said since he had entered the room.  It seemed like it was the exact wrong thing to say, because Ann threw the small piece of plastic at him, screaming. “Ah, gross! Don’t you have to pee on that thing?!”

Ryuji’s disgust was like a drop of rain compared to the boiling sea of Ann’s rage. 

“Shut the hell up you stupid bastard!” Ann stood up, and Ryuji was shocked at just how... mad she was. He had seen her angry before, obviously, but this was something else. Like, almost Kamoshida levels of pissed-off-ness. “I brought you here to talk, and you ask me that?! What the hell is wrong with you?!”

Ryuji flinched at the question. Looking back, it was stupid to ask, but half of the time his mouth came up with answers faster than his brain did. By the time he realized what he had said was probably not a great thing to say, the damage was done.

“I’m sorry,” he quickly replied. “I’m… I’m really, really sorry.”

“Sorry? Ryuji, you…” Ann looked like she had a million things to say. Her blue eyes were burning, her face was red, her hands balled up into fists… “I-I had plans. Things were going good, and…”

Ryuji didn’t know what to say. He just scratched the back of his head as Ann fell onto the bed, staring at her feet. “Does anyone else know…?” Ann shook her head. So not even her parents knew? “What… what are you going to do?”

“What do you think I should do?” 

Was that question rhetorical? Or was she just laying down a trap? Ryuji doubted she was actually curious about his opinion. The look on her face made that obvious. 

“I… uh…” He gulped, his eyes falling to the ground. All his usual bravado was gone, replaced with nervousness and fear. “It’s up to you, I mean. I don’t know.” He had no idea what to say. No idea what to do. He stuttered an answer, and shrugged. 

Ann’s eyes stared at him for a moment, with broken, shimmering eyes. “Ryuji…” She took a deep breath, and her eyes hardened, turning into a pair of cold, unfeeling icicles. Ann glared at him, before uttering, “Leave.”  

“What?”

“Ryuji, I promise not to tell anyone about what happened, but you need to leave. I just… You have to go. I need to call my parents and tell them the news.”

“Wait, Ann-”

“You said what I did with the child was my choice, didn’t you? You can’t tell me what to do, that’s what you said!” Ann’s glaring eyes froze Ryuji, and he swallowed spit down as tears filled the corners of her eyes. “I’m telling you to leave. I don’t… I don’t want you a part of this…”

That didn’t sit right with Ryuji. Maybe it was because he wanted to be here for his friends. Maybe it was guilt. Maybe he was just stupid… “But, I mean, I’m the dad,” Ryuji argued. “Shouldn’t that mean I-?”

“Ryuji!” Ann almost shouted his name, her hands shaking as tears fell down her face. She tried to stop them, but they just kept falling. “Just leave! I don’t want you here!” She grabbed a nearby pillow, and threw it at her friend. He held his hands up, stepping back as it bounced off of him. The message was clear. 

“Alright, alright, I’m leaving!” He walked out of the room, and the door slammed shut behind his back. Ryuji stood outside Ann’s room, his back to the wall as he stared at his feet. 

Thoughts raced through his mind as he rubbed his hand against his forehead. How the hell did things get this crazy? How did one night fuck over everything he had with Ann…? No, worse, how did one night ruin Ann’s future?

Ryuji dragged his feet to the staircase, his mind slowly realizing just what Ann had in store for her.

She’d have to quit her modeling job. No way they were going to let her keep modeling while she had a kid. There’d be like a scandal around her… Who knows what would happen…? They could even blacklist her from all modeling agencies! 

Hell, pregnant and with no husband? Society was gonna screw her over… Wait. What was Ann going to tell people if they asked who the father was? 

His foot took the first step down the long staircase inside Ann’s home. He didn’t get much farther as he considered what Ann had said. She said she wasn’t going to tell anyone, right? 

She was going to tell everyone she didn’t know who the father was…? What the hell, that was so effed up! People would judge her. They’d treat her like some kind of slut! Her parents would probably disown her! 

And what, he was just supposed to let that happen? He could just walk away, no strings attached, no one would ever know, but Ann would know, and he would know, and he couldn’t do that to her friend, right?

The very thought of taking Ann’s deal made him disgusted Ryuji. Worse, it made him realized something sickening.  

Ryuji’s mom and dad were married when they had him, but when life got hard, where did his father go? He walked away. He left Ryuji and his mom to fend for themselves, and he never looked back.

Fuck that. There were a million reasons for why Ryuji should turn around and talk to his best friend again. One of them was that Ann needed his help. Another was that he wasn’t his father. Those two were enough as he turned around and marched back to his friend’s room, practically tearing the door open as he marched in.

“What-?” Ann was still sitting on her bed, wiping tears from her face when he barged into her room. 

“I’m not walking away,” he growled. “I’m going to stay by your side and we’re going to work through this.”

“Ryuji-”

“Let me finish, Ann.” The young man took a deep breath. He wasn’t Ren. He wasn’t the smartest, or the most articulate guy, but he was him. Not his father. Not Ren. Ryuji Sakamoto. He could do this.

“I used to grow up hearing how much a boy needed a father. I heard it all the time. I saw it all the time. I used to see dads picking other kids up from school, and playing with them, and all that crap, but… I never had that. I didn’t have a dad, because he walked out of my life when things got too hard.”

“My mom raised me all by herself. She worked two jobs, and she still had time to play with me. Run with me. Raise me.” Ryuji sat down beside Ann, his dark-brown eyes glaring at the floor. “And she did alright, I like to think, but I saw how hard it was for her.” 

He looked at Ann, and he slammed his fist against his chest. “You have every right to be pissed at me. I deserve it, but Ann, I want to be a part of this kid’s life. I want to be a part of yours. I don’t have to be your husband or even your friend, but I want to be there for you, and them.” 

Ann didn’t say anything. She was quiet. She just stared at the blond man, as if waiting for him to say something else. Ryuji considered telling her that he was done, when she finally spoke up.

“It’s… it’s not all your fault. I’m the one who… well, you know,” she muttered, her face turning red.

“Huh?” Ryuji blinked, tilting his head in confusion. “You what?”

“Don’t make me say it,” she growled, lightly shoving the man. Her blue eyes glared at the floor again as her cheeks burned red. “I don’t know how much you remember about last night…”

Not a lot, Ryuji thought, but he kept his mouth shut. 

“But I think I was the one who kissed you first.” She sounded scared, and Ryuji realized she was shaking. “And then you kissed me back, and one thing led to another…” Ann covered her scarlet face, groaning in shame and embarrassment. “I don’t remember all the details, but I’m the one who started it. That means this is my fault…”

“Bullshit!” Ryuji wasn’t just going to sit and listen to his friend lie to his face. “Bullshit this is your fault! That’s a loud of crap! If anything, it’s both our faults! Or nobody’s fault! I don’t know, I just know it isn’t your fault, do you understand me!”

Ann blinked as Ryuji took her hand in his. “What happened that night was… We might regret it for a long time, but it’s in the past. We can’t do shit to change it. All we can do is make the best of it.” His eyes slowly lowered down to her stomach, and Ann’s eyes followed. “What happens next is your choice, but I want to be with you every step of the way.”

“What if… I chose not to have the baby?” Ann asked, and Ryuji felt a knife impale his heart. He didn’t say anything at first. 

He’d be lying if he said that wouldn’t hurt him, but it wasn’t right to tell Ann what she could or could not do. All he could do was help her choose, and be there for her for the fallout.

“Then that’s your choice. I’m here for you no matter what,” Ryuji replied.

“What if I want to give the child up?”

“Then we’ll find them a good home.”

“And if I want to keep them…?”

“Then I’ll raise them with you.”

“No matter what?” 

“No matter what.”

Ann was silent, before she took a deep breath and sighed. “Will you… will you tell my parents with me?”

Ryuji nodded without a second thought. “Hell yeah.”

“They’ll probably hate you. Might even tell you that you can’t be a part of their life.” Ann gestured to her stomach. 

“They can tell me that. I’ve never been very good at following orders.” Ann and Ryuji chuckled, the young woman wiping tears from her eyes. The laugh was bitter, but at least it was theirs… “I want to be a part of the kid’s life. More importantly, I want to be a part of yours. I’ll drop out of college, I’ll start working two jobs, I’ll do whatever I can to help.”

“I can’t ask that of you.”

“You aren’t. I’m choosing to,” he replied.

Neither of them spoke for what felt like a long time. Ann placed her head on Ryuji’s shoulder, and he pulled her closer with his arm on her shoulder. He squeezed her against his body in a one-armed hug as Ann’s tears stopped. 

Ryuji wondered if she simply ran out, or if she really was feeling better. Maybe she was just accepting the reality of the situation. He didn’t know… All he knew was that whatever the future held, he would be by her side.

His feelings for her didn’t matter. Not now. What mattered was helping his friend. What mattered was they took responsibility for their mistakes. Whatever the future held, Ryuji knew he would be right by Ann’s side...