Disclaimer: I do not own anything in the Persona series.

Welcome to the P5 Shipping Round Robin Challenge! This was something started on Tumblr (at least, that's where I found it), so if you want to see more amazing works, please go there and search for p5roundrobin. I'm starting this somewhat late, so I'm sure there are plenty of great one-shots there now!

The rules are simple:

1. The author must write a one-shot (not a multi-chapter piece) for every possible pairing of humans in the Phantom Thieves (sorry, Mona!) This means ALL pairings, not just the popular ones. So, each author has to write 28 one-shots.

2. The one-shots must be romantic in nature.

3. The author has his/her choice to write a bonus PolyThieves (all human characters are romantically involved with each other) chapter (which I have opted to do, because why not?)

Pretty simple, if somewhat exhausting. I encourage anyone who is a fan of fanfiction and Persona 5 to do this yourself – maybe even with other games in the Persona series! There is no official way to release stories, but many authors have decided to release one per day, which is what I have chosen to do as well.

Just so you know: I will be out of town on September 22, so I will be skipping that day, meaning that (if I calculated this correctly), this challenge should end on my birthday, October 15. I will be posting my favorite one-shot then (not necessarily my favorite pairing).

The official list is on Tumblr, but authors do not have to write them in that order, though many choose to. What I have done is used a random number generator, which was pretty fun!

Now, without further ado, here is the first story!

P5 Shipping Round Robin Challenge:

Trust:

Akira x Haru

-Haru-

Trust.

It was a short word, but far from a simple one.

Of course, the meaning of the word was straightforward, and one that most people generally agreed upon. The dictionary defined it as the "firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something." But how that trust was displayed depended on the someone or something in question.

Akira was reliable, no question about that. He displayed this through his leadership abilities in coordinating the Phantom Thieves, but he also showed it when Haru truly needed it outside of their work in the cognitive world.

She relied on him when she needed to decide the future of Okumura Foods. It was a crushing responsibility for one person, let alone someone who had just become a legal adult and had suffered the trauma of essentially becoming an orphan. At times she feared she came on too strong, but through it all, Akira was there.

And in terms of truth, well… the very existence of the Phantom Thieves was to expose the true corruption of society, and by leading a team whose goal was truth and justice… well, that basically spoke for itself.

Ability was something that Akira demonstrated in abundance. He was intelligent, charming, brave, caring, and poised. It almost seemed inhuman, like he had lived several lifetimes in order to perfect these skills.

Finally, strength was honestly one of the first things that Haru noticed about the boy. He had helped her lift some bags of fertilizer when she was struggling, and she couldn't help but comment on it.

She wondered if that moment was when this all started.

Regardless, Akira embodied everything that trust exemplified and more. She had always wanted someone to trust, but she had never really had someone like that in her life. Her grandfather had passed when she was still very young. She had trusted her father initially, but when his mind had become warped with greed and political opportunity, she found she could no longer trust that he had her best interests at heart. And Sugimura… well, she didn't like to think about that man more than she had to.

She knew she could trust everyone in the Phantom Thieves, whether it was Ryuji and his physical toughness, or Makoto and her wisdom, or Yusuke and his ability to see the beauty in everything, but Akira was honestly the most breathtaking.

The one thing that she admired most about this trust was that he displayed it in a subtle way. He never showed off, save when he would finish off a group of enemies in palaces or in Mementos (though everyone did that, so it was not unusual). He acted instead of boasting. He displayed trust so thoroughly that those around him couldn't help but give it in return.

So when he had confessed his feelings toward Haru, she couldn't accept quickly enough. All of the thoughts and feelings that she had towards him… were shared by him towards her. It made Haru's heart swell with pride to know that she elicited vibes of trust.

In the end, trust was everything in a world that was full of dishonesty and deceit, and it was not something to be given lightly. But Akira had proved himself time and time again, and Haru wanted to do the same for him.

To be the partner that he could trust.

Here is the first part – I hope that you enjoyed! Let me know if you picked up on the reference to New Game +, since (unfortunately) if you want to romance Haru, you basically have to do that or ignore everyone else in the game since she joins so late. See you tomorrow!