#yosuke's trying to make teddie feel better about himself but then he ends off his remarks with a joke

[daily-hanamura]

[arcplaysgames]

I am a Persona 5 enthusiast above all else and a Persona 3 Portable lover directly after that, but fuck if the MC x Yosuke relationship doesn’t own my entire life

I should prob wait until I'm fully done bc I think I'm at the final dungeon now (or, there's a bonus one later i guess that's optional?) but

jesus fucking christ can i please just talk about Yosuke finally because I feel like i'm gonna explode

I don't think I see Yosuke as bisexual is the thing that I have settled on. I feel like Yosuke is a badly closeted scared shitty teenager who is simmering with so much repressed anger and resignation, he doesn't know how to adequately handle it (and frankly he's slowly getting better over the course of the game). But all of his worst moments in the story feel like he's acting from a script, namely the CompHet Script From Hell.

(Also, I would say that I think of Kanji as The Bisexual One while Yosuke is just attracted to dudes, which isn't what I anticipated from the start.)

But Yosuke mostly makes me sad. I feel like the expectations on him, the ones that he has wrapped around himself like a shield in an attempt to ward off people hurting him. Because he's so isolated and desperate for affection, he's willing to do stupid shit to get the attention he wants. All of his bad antics always feel like.... they come from less of a place of horny lust and more from a place of....... fear?

Like when he does the shit around the camping trip and his other sketchy actions, it always feels like a way to say "please be with me in this thing, this is what guys do, right?" like if he hits his mark well enough, he'll unlock some happiness he hasn't figured out yet.

but it's all so SCRIPTED! like when does Yosuke go off the deep end? when there's a script he thinks he has to hit. oh, the spring camping trip can't just be a school trip, it has to be a chance to score with the ladies. oh, you can't just want to get motorcycles and hang out with your best friend, it has to be for laaaaaadies.

but as soon as you separate him from those scripts and he goes back to being him, he's.... such a fucking decent, empathetic guy. he takes in teddie and outright fights to keep him living with him. he takes the lead in the case alongside naoto. he is the first person to rope in Nanako into the group and consistently keeps her involved. and once he gets over his homophobic panic over kanji, he keeps fukcing trying to wingman for kanji, even if kanji would prefer he didn't. and that feels genuine! kanji reacts to it like a cat in a bath, but more than once, yosuke prodding kanji for his taste in boys (and girls and naoto) feels like real interest, not a set up for a punchline. and I've remarked before that he's REALLY decent to naoto re: gender, esp in comparison to the rest of the game, which was STUNNING.

and then he's like "OH SHIT i need to be more of a Dude's Dude" and he morphs into an asshole for a day. then he snaps right back.

the out of universe explanations are clear, i'm not a dumbass. but I am choosing to kill the fucking author and examine what all this genuinely means for the character.

and the guy who attaches himself the MC's hip, and who's growth thru his bullshit is linked to the MC, and who cries around the MC and who accepts a long lingering hug and lets not forget if you roleplay wanting to date him, he's happy.

Maybe in the future this will change, but for the Yosuke of now, in the moment, it feels like his expectations of what Guys And Girls are supposed to be gets in his way of forming stronger relationships (which, again, is why the Naoto thing intrigues me). It feels like he thinks he's supposed to want to date Chie, but when he seeks out intimacy that veers into the romantic, it's not with girls.

ANYWAY I THINK YOSUKE'S GAY, but his closet is sadly made of knives, and it cuts him as he tries to keep himself contorted into the correct shape to keep hidden.

best case scenario is him hanging around the MC until he trips happily into the relationship he wants, built brick by brick until the plausible deniability is left out in the cold

worst case is he's going to get married at 20 and make some poor woman abjectly fucking miserable until they're divorced.

phew okay, all that felt like an exorcism, i feel better now

[layercake]

Why Naoto is Heavily Trans Coded, and How The Discussion Surrounding Him Needs to Change

Hello, I’ve never written or posted anything like this before LOL so this is a bit daunting. But this subject is something that’s been bothering me for a long time, and I wanted to get it out somewhere. So let’s talk about how Naoto Shirogane is heavily trans coded, and how the fandom has a problematic culture surrounding the issue that really needs to change.

Tw // discussion of misogyny , transphobia , and mentions of harassment

Initial Shadow Confrontation 

Since the discussion is most often about what’s “canon” and what’s not, let’s first take a look at what the game actually does give us about Naoto’s character. During the confrontation with Naoto’s shadow, we learn that Naoto idolized detectives as a kid, and wanted to be one himself when he was older.

However, this posed a problem for him in multiple ways. One, he was (is) still a child, and the people in his field don’t take him seriously because of it. He tries desperately to escape this fact, to try and act as mature as possible, but ultimately he can’t change how others will perceive him at his age.

This is what the shadow confrontation focuses on most heavily. But then it switches to discussing the other part of the issue-- the fact that Naoto’s ideal image of a detective is a man, and he “isn’t.” 

At the end, Yukiko says “You must know already that what you yearn for isn’t to become an adult or to become a boy,” and Naoto accepts it. This is what most people point to when saying that Naoto can’t be trans, because he agrees that it wasn’t what he wished for. So, easy, right? If you take this as him telling the truth, then it looks like an open and shut case-- he isn’t trans. But Naoto’s actions don’t really fit what he says here. 

The issue starts with these next lines (below) in particular. To me, Naoto’s tone in the first line is regretful, and doesn’t strike me as a sentiment someone who is cisgender would necessarily hold. Why would he want to “change into a man?” To fit his ideal image of a detective? As he says here, yes.

(Real quick before I continue, it’s not clear in the dialogue screenshot but it’s important to note that Naoto does say “yes” to Yukiko’s question about him not liking being a girl. He nods his head)

The narrative that the game tries to go with after this is that the “ideal image” Naoto wanted to live up to, including the male aspect of it, was unattainable and formed primarily because he felt that was the only way he could be a detective. 

But, is this really that much of a problem? We all look up to certain types of people, people that we want to be like-- and for many, this can factor into gender identity as well. If Naoto really just wanted to be a cool, male detective, that doesn’t at all negate that being trans would be a part of that for him. 

Naoto’s other words and actions, as well as the framing of this scene as a whole, make the scenario feel a lot less believable to me for multiple reasons. Naoto never initiates the conversation that him wanting to be a boy is incorrect-- Yukiko does. Naoto isn’t even the one to trigger his shadow-- Kanji does that. Naoto had a lot less agency in a lot of these decisions than the other characters did with their shadows. 

Naoto’s Continued Actions

The fragility of the narrative Atlus put together for Naoto continues to grow throughout the rest of the game, due to the way he behaves after the initial shadow confrontation.

For starters, it’s implied that Naoto is not his birth name, something that i think a lot of people either miss or forget about-- and yet he continues to go by it throughout the course of the game. We never find out his deadname and he never expresses a desire to share it with anybody.

The day after the “reveal,” Naoto doesn’t change anything about his appearance, mannerisms, or how he presents himself. He honestly seems uncomfortable with the fact that everyone has found out, in a way that felt much like being outed to the whole school, as opposed to finally being seen and accepted for who you “really” are.

I understand that such a drastic shift in people’s perception of you would be overwhelming to anybody, no matter if you were cis or not. But if Atlus really wanted to hone in on the idea that Naoto was happy about this change, they could’ve at least made him…. Well, happy about it. Even if it was just a small smile, just a tiny indication of relief even despite how hard it will be to adjust, it would’ve made it at least a little more believable that this is what he really wanted.

But that’s not the case. Instead, he’s uncomfortable, he still binds, he still wears the school’s male uniform, and he still goes by Naoto. The only time any of this actually changes is if you as the protagonist push him to, which… is a whole other mess.

The fact that Naoto has even gotten to this point, though, speaks more volumes to me than anything else. Passing is not easy. Coming out is not easy. Naoto would have had to go through difficult lengths in order to get not only his school, but the country and media to see him as a man.  He’s a well-known "detective prince".. someone was bound to look up his records and find out about it. That's a huge risk to take.

In addition to this, he binds. He goes by masculine pronouns and a masculine name. He very audibly changes his voice to be more masculine. I don’t know how to tell you this, but this is just…. not something cis people do? At least not comfortably. 

In fact, doing all of this would have been incredibly uncomfortable for Naoto if he was cis. As someone who experiences dysphoria, looking like and being seen as a gender you are not can be really, really painful. If transitioning was something he really didn’t want, why would he put himself through all of that? Was it really to escape misogyny? Me asking this isn’t minimizing the issue at all, because I understand that it’s incredibly serious and hard for countless women. But I would generally think someone’s first reaction to facing misogyny isn’t to… completely change their identity and present as a different gender.

On top of being probably the hardest option of escaping misogyny available to him, and one of the most uncomfortable, presenting as a man doesn’t necessarily get rid of any prejudices Naoto may face. In fact, I would argue that it’s considerably more dangerous. Especially in a rural town like Inaba, where people seem to not really understand or approve of being LGBT. Naoto is smart, he would have thought of all of this. So why?

Inherent Transphobia of Naoto’s Arc 

There is something to be said about how much misogyny is present in Japan’s workforce, especially in fields like Naoto’s, and the importance there is in discussing that. The base idea behind his struggles and message isn’t inherently a bad one, but the way the game went about it was problematic because it put down transgender identities in the process.

The first time I watched Naoto’s shadow confrontation, it was really distressing to me. The game continuously repeats the idea that you can’t “cross the barrier of the sexes,” that Naoto “can never really be a man,” and  that “you can change your name, but you can never change who you “really” are.” I hope I don’t need to explain why this is a problem.

Naoto’s wish to be a man, regardless of what was driving it, is depicted as something temporary and childish. Something that Naoto “didn’t really want,”  something that was just an excuse to run away from the misogyny he was facing. Even if it was unintentional, this message is incredibly harmful to transgender people.

It would have been a better and much more coherent message about misogyny if the writers had steered clear of trans themes entirely. In fact, I think they did so well with Sae’s character in Persona 5-- she’s in the same field of work, facing very similar struggles, but she doesn’t react in the same way as Naoto at all. 

Kanji and Homophobia 

It’s even worse that Naoto’s “reveal,” on top of being problematic by itself, is used as a method to bury Kanji’s exploration of his own sexuality. The problems with Kanji’s own shadow are bad enough to warrant their own long rant, but the reveal that Naoto was “really a girl” this whole time allows the story to completely wave off his gayness for good.

This isn’t something unique to this game-- the trope of “two boys fall in love, but one of them turns out to be a girl so it’s fine” has been used numerous times in other media to explore the topic half-assedly. It plays with the “exoticness” or “drama” of a gay romance, but backs off at the end in order to uphold societal norms and prevent backlash. 

This doesn’t really give any kind of good commentary on gay relationships, nor does it depict them in a positive or helpful manner. It isn’t something that these games should be getting kudos for doing. 

Misogyny?

I think there’s also something to be said about how poignantly bad Atlus is at really tackling the problem of misogyny. It tries, especially with characters like Ann and Sae, and in certain aspects it can succeed. But then they have scenes like the pageant and Every Beach Scene Ever, where the women are forced to wear swimsuits or revealing clothing against their will, or their bodies are talked about without their consent. There is consistently a character in each persona game who is forced to do the whole misogynistic dipshit gimmick that’s supposed to be funny-- Junpei, Yosuke, Teddie, Morgana, Ryuji-- and while this is obviously not a Persona specific problem by a longshot, it’s still indicative of how unsuccessful these games often are in delivering the message that society’s systemic misogyny is an issue.

This is something I think about a lot when people try and argue that Naoto’s story can’t be about him being trans because it’s “an important message about misogyny.” Atlus often doesn’t deliver on such stories already, and they certainly didn’t with Naoto. As soon as Naoto returns to “living as a woman” he’s subjected to the same misogyny that the other girls are. His chest is commented on, he’s forced to be in the beauty pageant, he’s made uncomfortable in the bath scenes-- really, all Atlus did after the reveal was make the problem worse for him. 

On top of this, his story never actually meaningfully tackles the problem of misogyny in the detective force. It’s not a major part of his social link or the general plot of the game-- honestly, it’s barely even touched on at all after the initial confrontation. Thus, the idea that “Naoto can’t be trans because it erases a story about misogyny” is just plain untrue. There never was a coherent one in the first place.

Problems Within the Fandom

Despite all of this, there is such an intense backlash from the majority of the fandom if anybody dares to bring up these issues with Naoto’s story. Naoto being trans is generally seen as something ridiculous and stupid, or something to insult and mock people for.

I understand that there's always going to be people who say provocative stuff like this, no matter what anyone does, and that it’s not something exclusive to this particular fandom or character. But the problem is that this rhetoric isn't just from them anymore--the consensus among so much of the fandom seems to be either that Naoto absolutely cannot be trans, or that speaking about it at all is "annoying discourse" and taboo. Even from fans that are LGBT or allies themselves. 

This in and of itself is such a telling thing to me. if you find yourself getting angry about the subject, really ask yourself why. Is it such a problem for people to reclaim a transphobic story? Is it such a problem for a character to be trans in the first place?  There is room for discussion and nuance regarding this situation, but we have to make it for ourselves. We can accept that Atlus’s base game will never actually give us a coherent story about either misogyny nor being transgender with Naoto’s story. But petty arguments and insults thrown at people who bring up this topic isn’t any of that-- it’s just poorly masked transphobia. 

So at the end of the day, no, Naoto being is trans is not “canon.” Of course Naoto would not actually be allowed to be trans, he is a main character in a game series where the only explicitly LGBT characters have been consistently buried, stereotyped, or demonized with only a few rare exceptions.

Yes, you’re allowed to headcanon whatever you want about him. I can’t stop you from wanting a story about misogyny, or from seeing Naoto’s gender as something more fluid than I do. But you can’t ignore the fact that his story, as written in canon, is laden with transphobia despite its intentions. It’s not a ridiculous or harmful thing for trans people to want to reclaim that.

There are still a lot more issues with how Naoto is treated in the game-- especially in his romance route-- but that’s a whole other can of worms I’m not ready to unpack today lol

Hopefully all of this made sense though, and feel free to bring up anything else I may have missed or point out any issues you might have with it :-) Thanks for reading!

[rjr1396]

Fake Dating AU

Based/inspired off of this 

So I know very little of Persona Q so bear with me. Souyo + Akimina

Imagine that somehow, the events of both persona 3 and 4 are going on at the same time (don’t worry about the logic) outside of the events of persona Q

When Minato/Makoto’s partner ended up being Yosuke, he didn’t mind. Sure he did hope for a certain boxer, but a fellow music lover is the next best thing he figures. Hell Yosuke seems all for it, so this shouldn’t be that bad.

The moment Yosuke said that he and Minato/Makoto were destined partners, Souji/Yu tried to not visibly wince, weren’t they partners? He had to remind himself that it didn’t mean anything, it was just the gimmick for this part of the labyrinth

Akihiko on the other hand didn’t expect the sudden flare of irritation of seeing his leader with Yosuke. He didn’t even realize that he was clenching his fists until Mitsuru grabbed his wrist and gave him a look that somehow said ‘Calm down’ and ‘Don’t do something stupid’. He tried calming down, but the moment he caught Shinji’s knowing smirk, he resorted to glaring at the ground trying to figure out why he’s acting like this. 

Minato/Makoto and Yosuke seemed to hit it off well, a little too well for Souji/Yu and Akihiko’s liking. The music lovers stuck together after that. Minato/Makoto noticed that Yosuke was a pretty good strategist and quite level headed when he needed to be, he was the second in command of the IT for a reason, he needed to be whenever their leader was too impulsive. Plus with how well he worked with Souji/Yu, they were a hell of a unit and asset to the team as a whole. Even Akihiko had to begrudgingly agree that Yosuke was strong, he still didn’t like the guy being a little too buddy buddy with his leader.

After everything was said and done, before each group went their separate ways, Yosuke and Minato/Makoto swapped info/numbers to keep in touch. They text every day.

Souji/Yu tried not to get too upset with that development, Yosuke didn’t have any friends outside of the IT so this is good for him, makes him happy, right?

Mitsuru kept telling Akihiko that it was good that Minato/Makoto have friends outside of SEES. They had to admit that he was smiling more now and Yosuke’s friendship was helping him open up more. Still, it didn’t help with the irritation or the bitterness he felt when he caught a smile that Yosuke help make. He may or may not have punched threw a few punching bags imagining they were of his face.

Minato/Makoto helped Yosuke realize that he may not be as straight as he thought he was, what do you mean I have feelings for Partner? For Souji/Yu?

Once Yosuke fully accepted himself, (Yes Yosuke you’re not straight, No this isn’t a phase, Yes you are somewhat socially inept at times, but this is more than that and you know it, No you can’t keep denying it unless you want to deal with another shadow, now get over yourself) he decides to come out to his parents

It goes well, though they are now convinced that the main reason he came out was because he had a boyfriend and after trying to tell them otherwise, he accidentally says that Minato/Makoto is his boyfriend who lives in Iwatodai.

“So I may have messed up a little.” ‘What did you do?’ “I may have told my parents that we were dating since they refused to believe that I didn’t have a boyfriend since I was coming out to them.” ‘….’ “Please.” ‘….’ “I’ll buy you beef bowls for a month.” ‘*sigh* Fine.’ “Yes! Thank you! AlsotheywanttomeetyouI’lltextyouthedetailslaterkthanksbye!” ‘…Wait what?’ *Hangs up*

Fuuka: Hey, how was your day? Minato/Makoto: Apparently I have a boyfriend now. Everyone: WHAT?!

The moment Minato/Makoto makes that announcement, says that Yosuke is now his boyfriend, everything falls into place for Akihiko. He had romantic feelings for Minato/Makoto and he was jealous of Yosuke. Shinji calls him an idiot. Mitsuru is a little more sympathetic but she still calls him an idiot too.

Teddie, busy with work doesn’t know the whole story, just that Yosuke’s dating someone, so he proceeds to tell the rest of IT, starting with Sensei. “Sensei, Sensei! Did you know that Yosuke’s scoring?” ‘…What?’

Minato/Makoto goes to Inaba for a visit the next holiday, staying with the Hanamuras. Yosuke’s parents end up loving him. They urge the couple to enjoy themselves in town which they do, Where’s my beef bowl Hanamura?

The IT decide to ask about what Teddie’s been telling them, C’mon Teddie, we’d know if Yosuke were dating anyone. They all meet up at Junes, Minato/Makoto hanging nearby out of sight for everyone but Yosuke in case he needs backup.

Yosuke comes out to the group (’I KNEW IT!’ “Shut up Chie!”) and they’re all okay with it, though the punch in the arm by Kanji was to be expected (”I really am sorry, man” ‘ts cool, but I will kick your ass if you bring it up again’ “Understood!”). Naoto and Yukiko applaud him for his bravery and willingness to open up to the group, Souji/Yu smiles and says that he’s happy for him (Internally crying for joy, he may have a chance!) Rise is the one who asks about him ‘scoring’. Yosuke waves Minato/Makoto over and announces that they’re dating. Something in Souji/Yu breaks a little.

The IT all accept Minato/Makoto. Souji/Yu pull him to the side to be alone for a bit Souji/Yu: You better not hurt him. Minato/Makoto: Wouldn’t dream of it. Souji/Yu: I’m being serious! Minato/Makoto: So am I.

Souji/Yu had never been more tempted to throw someone into the TV world til now, Yosuke was his best friend, his Partner, who did Minato/Makoto think he was getting in between them? (but he makes Yosuke happy, isn’t that what matters?)

Minato/Makoto: Yosuke, how long are we gonna keep this up? Yosuke: We’ll just wait til you go back to Iwatodai and then say that we broke up because of artistic differences, but decided to stay friends. Minato/Makoto: Did- did you just quote Chicago? Yosuke: ….Maybe.

Yosuke’s parents suggest that Yosuke go to Iwatodai for the 2nd half of the holiday break, so he does. When they arrive at the dorms, SEES welcome Yosuke amicably

Mitsuru: If you hurt him, know that they’ll never find your body. Yosuke: UH…

Akihiko maintains his distance from the couple (’It’s your fault for not figuring it out sooner, Aki.’ “Shut up Shinji!”), but it’s a bit harder to do when Yosuke joins them during the Dark Hour and into Tartarus. Everyone finds it sweet when Yosuke goes to help Minato/Makoto up when he gets knocked down, snaps him out of a status effect, or just full on takes a blow for him (”I could do that too.” ‘Yea, but you don’t’ “Shut up Shinji!”)

The truth comes out when Yosuke is about to leave for Inaba Minato/Makoto: Well, it’s been fun being fake boyfriends with you. Yosuke:  I guess we’ll just have to settle for just friends. Minato/Makoto: Maybe friends with benefits if we get bored and both single. Yosuke: Sure why not. Everyone: WAIT WHAT?! Minato/Makoto: Oh, did we forget to mention that?

They explain the whole situation and boy has Akihiko never felt more relieved. 

The moment Yosuke leaves Akihiko: Hey Minato/Makoto, you wanna get some beef bowls with me? Minato/Makoto: Is this a confession? Akihiko: Y-yes! Minato/Makoto: Thank fuck. 

Souji/Yu goes to pick up Yosuke from the train station. The moment Yosuke gets off, he gets a text from Minato/Makoto: ‘Man up and go get your man’ Souji/Yu: Get a text from your boyfriend? Yosuke: Ex-fake boyfriend if we’re being honest. Souji/Yu: Wait what?

By the time Yosuke’s done explaining everything they’re back at the Hanamura residence and they’re all alone. Souji/Yu: So it was all a lie? Yosuke: Yea, my parents just wouldn’t listen to reason. I do feel kinda bad for dragging hi-

Souji/Yu pulls him for a kiss, and Yosuke just pulls him closer.

They plan to have a double date the next day off

[mx-shirogane]

Persona 4 and LGBTQ+

Ah yikes, an opinion piece. These are just my thoughts and I’m more than open to hearing other people’s opinions and thoughts on the matter. 

When I first found the Persona Fandom, I was introduced by Game Theory. Not the “Teddie is Yu’s Shadow” video, rather their video on LBGTQ+ represention in video games. MatPat threw around the word “Persona” and as someone who was just learning about the LGBTQ+ community, I became interested in what I thought to be a game with character development around sexuality and gender identity. While I can understand Kanji’s shadow being used as an example for this in their video due to Persona 4 being recent and how it appears at a first glance, I think a better example would have been Jun and Tatsuya from Persona 2: Innocent Sin. In this post I’ll be covering Yosuke, Kanji and Naoto.

Sexuality, Kanji and Yosuke: From the beginning, there were created issues with the idea of Persona 4 being an LGBTQ+ game, this was with Yosuke being removed as a romance option. Had they kept him as a romance option, I personally feel they could have explained his behaviors as internal homophobia and suppression of his own feelings for the protagonist. However, with this removed, Yosuke’s cracks at Kanji’s sexuality lack the reasoning of insecurity and projection and instead comes across as ignorance and fear. The anime made no attempt at fixing this, having more negative connotation around Kanji as the party is hesitant to save him. Another scene that comes to mind is the camping trip, where Yosuke asks if they’ll be safe alone with him. In the anime, the protagonist also joins in on this interrogation. Kanji’s clearly uncomfortable as he eventually runs off to sleep in the girl’s tent at an attempt to defend himself. In the game, Yosuke does express concern for Kanji as he fears he might be expelled. This at least shows that Kanji is a friend regardless of the feelings Yosuke harbors towards his sexuality. This exchange portrays Yosuke as quick to flip sides from being worried about Kanji to worried for Kanji and still maintains their friendship. This does have a bit of karma as Chie insinuates the same thing when the girls sneak into their tent. Where as in the anime, Yosuke and the Protagonist just watch Kanji leave and there are no later comments made on the matter. Overall, Kanji’s homosexuality becomes more of a punchline than a sexual orientation and was more so fueled by hyper-masculinity and Naoto. A later scene in the game that shows his perception change of Naoto from male to female is during the group date cafe when describing his ideal girl and Yosuke calls him out sarcastically for being obvious. During this same event, if you choose to be on the girl’s side, you have a few options. If you pick Yosuke, he’ll freak out but then begin flattering himself, the protagonist noting that he seems “proud for some reason.” Meanwhile if the protagonist picks Kanji, Yosuke will note that they’re a perfect match to which Kanji refuses and even threatens Yosuke if he keeps bringing the matter up. Instead of there being any snarky remarks following from Yosuke, he compliments Kanji saying it’s due to his manliness which Kanji does take well. This could come across as Yosuke trying to protect himself, however his remark is more positive than that in the tent and does signify a growth towards trying to understand. If you sit on the guy’s side and ask if Yosuke likes any of the guys, he’ll respond saying the protagonist before stuttering and calling him out for making him play along. With factors like Naoto’s reveal taken into account, Kanji’s shadow becomes less focused on his sexuality and more so on bullying and hyper-masculinity. As for Yosuke, he comes across as ignorant and fearful. Had he remained a romance option, this could have been played off as an internal conflict Yosuke was dealing with and projecting onto Kanji.

Gender Identity and Naoto: I’ll be using They/Them pronouns to refer to Naoto. Naoto Shirogane was originally thought to be a male which greatly fueled Kanji’s Shadow. However, Naoto’s arc referred more to sexism in the work place and their struggles with being a child detective and idolization. Side note: Props to Kanji in the shadow scene for realizing Naoto had to confront their shadow in order to stop hurting. After the fight, Yukiko asks Naoto if they dislike being a girl and if that’s the reason they dress like a man. Naoto responds saying their sex doesn’t fit their ideal image of a detective and notes that the police department is a male-oriented society. They express that if anyone knew Naoto was biologically female, they wouldn’t be needed anymore. Kanji and Yukiko both make remarks on this, Kanji saying that they didn’t know how others would react, and Yukiko remarking that Naoto didn’t want to become an adult or a boy. This is followed by Naoto saying “What I should yearn for... No, what I must strive for isn’t to become a man. It’s to accept myself for who I really am...”  From this point on, Naoto is referred to with female pronouns terminology, even by their close friends. While Naoto continues wearing the male uniform, they say it’s what they’ve become comfortable in and are show to be generally shy about their body, key examples being in the bath house and the beauty contest. My opinion on how to portray them as LGBTQ+:  These are small notes on how I would portray and shape them based on contradictions and hints in the game.  Yosuke: Have Yosuke identify as bicurious. It’s cannon that he likes girls and there are scattered remnants of him liking the protagonist littered throughout Persona 4 and the other spin offs. His internal conflict over liking guys as well as girls could prove to be an interesting story premise when done properly. As well, him projecting his insecurities onto Kanji would shift his character from being ignorant and fearful to being insecure about his own feelings and not knowing how to deal with them. If you want to have someone in Yosuke’s life that shaped his views on homosexuality, create someone like a friend, parent or even bully who caused him to see homosexuality in a negative light. Try to avoid having him instantly fall in love with the protagonist and present more of a struggle as to figure out what’s right and what’s wrong. Even if you end up having him identify as straight in the end, allow for some wiggle room for experimentation due to the small hints throughout the games.  Kanji: Have Kanji identify as pansexual and focus his shadow around him questioning his sexuality and not hyper-masculinity. Keep in the fact Kanji was called queer by female students because he liked cute things and knitting. This would serve as a starting point for him questioning his sexual orientation. However, when it comes to his shadow, have the repressed self trying to figure out who he likes whether it’s guys, girls or if sex just doesn’t matter instead of flat out calling him gay. That way, when it comes to the reveal of Naoto, his entire shadow arc doesn’t get cancelled out.   Naoto: Have Naoto identify under the transmasculine umbrella. As much as I love Trans!Naoto in fanworks, Naoto does say that they should strive to be true to themselves and that what they want wasn’t to become a boy. Transmasculine, acording to the nonbinary wiki, is an umbrella term that refers to those who were assigned female at birth, and whose gender is masculine and/or who express themselves in a masculine way. Transmasculine people feel a connection with masculinity, but do not always identify as male. This way, you can still have Naoto identify as male for the first majority of the game and have the shadow reveal Naoto felt pressured by the police force to negate any feelings they had and portray themselves as strictly male. They said themselves that both their parents were detectives, which contradicts Naoto saying that they’d get tossed aside if the department knew they were biologically female. Focus less on their age and have the repressed feelings focus on how they felt like an outcast for not fitting in the gender norm which contributed to an anxiety of shutting people out and obsessing over masculine stereotypes as an attempt to fit in. Naoto identifying as masculine would allow for more wiggle room in terms of pronouns and the variety of honorifics used (Chie and Yukiko use Kun, Rise, Yosuke, Kanji and the Protagonist don’t use any, and Teddie uses Chan) whilst further supporting Naoto’s preference for masculine clothes and body insecurities, mainly their chest.

[mypunkpansexualtwin]

📓

Hi Bones! You're getting the Big P4 Angst Idea! And it's going under a cut cause it's kind of A Beast even in summary form. Title in my head is Guilty Until Proven Capable or possibly just The Second Time Around. Fair warning, this is gonna get a little rambly.

So this one's a Persona 4 fic inspired by the handful of NG+ fics I've read that play with new game plus as a time loop for the protagonists because that's already a juicy concept. Specifically, it takes place at the beginning of the second time through events after getting the bad ending on December 3rd, Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect $200, Bad Ending. Narukami wakes up in the Velvet Room the day before he's supposed to leave town and is basically told "you done fucked up, we're gonna give you another shot, but be careful what you try and change." Naturally, after the losses that happened and the evil fog deep unease lingering over town over the three months between making That Choice and leaving town, he jumps right at the chance to fix things. Wakes up on the train going into Inaba and starts the whole cycle over fresh. Things go as expected for most of the first couple of days.

And of course, as is the nature of time travel as a narrative device, the rules and limitations don't get Really Explained until he fucks something up and tries to change too much. Specifically, he tries to prevent Saki Konishi's death.

Specifically, he succeeds in preventing Saki Konishi's death.

And spends the day riding that high until the next morning where he meets up with her again, feels incredibly vindicated that he's already doing better when the bond starts forming and that means she's safe, and... hold up... Magus Arcana? That sounds an awful lot like Magician. And Yosuke's missing from school. Another body's been found. And he knows what's coming at the school assembly, knows what's about to be announced, and somehow seeing it coming makes it so much worse when the principal announces that Yosuke Hanamura has been found murdered. The only thing worse than your best friend being murdered is feeling responsible for it. Even worse than that is not even being able to mourn him properly because at this point you've technically only known him for 3 days.

The second time around, it's Saki Konishi at his side going in to investigate the second victim's death. The second time around, it's not the liquor store in a distorted version of the shopping district but the break room of a dilapidated Junes where Yosuke's last thoughts about the town he hates and the girl who almost makes it worth staying there hang in the stale air and summon the worst parts of the person at Yu's side. The second time around, it's a lot harder to forgive those darkest parts when her shadow talks about how glad she is that he's finally out of her hair and how she only wanted to avenge his death to assuage her guilt at feeling that way.

Harder, but not impossible. She awakens to her persona, Ayame, and again, things proceed mostly as normal.

Next trip to the Velvet Room, the rules get explained: the true victims will always die even if it's not the same ones every time, but not every death that occurred last time was that of a true victim; be careful changing too much from last time lest the team go in just as blind as the first time and twice as out of their depth; face the journey with eyes open not just to what happened as he remembers but as they unfold again, without grief clouding his purpose and they'll find their way to the truth. Easier said than done with one new death on his hands and Nanako's death looming in the future.

Some of the Social Links get shaken up, with Yosuke's father as the new Hanged Man arcana (helping him work through his grief at the loss of his son as he swings wildly between throwing himself blindly into his work, acting as a surrogate helicopter parent to Teddie, and second-guessing everything he's done since his son's death; is he giving his wife space to grieve by taking up the extra work at Junes or is he just hiding from her and his own pain? Is he helping Ted out of the goodness of his own heart because this weird kid needs someone to look after him and it's the right thing to do or is he trying to replace the son he's quickly realizing he didn't know anything about and was probably driving away with the constant moving? Heavy questions to drop on a 16 y/o part timer.) and Naoki replacing Yumi/Ayane as the Sun arcana (medical club rather than drama or band, partly because Naoki cornered him into joining so he could keep an eye on him and get a feel for Narukami's intentions with his sister, and partly because Yu is fascinated by how different the guy is when not numbed by a massive burden of grief he won't let himself process.) And of course letting Saki out of the fridge to be the Magus arcana, as kind and angry and complicated and flawed as the rest of the team, and just as good a friend to him as Yosuke was. With bonus opportunity to relay what Yosuke wanted to tell her about being special if they had both had the chance to live, her rank 10 leads to her awakening to the persona Kushinadahime.

And of course, this wouldn't be complete without addressing the lingering dread of what Yu is certain Nanako's fate is gonna be. Initially he debates keeping an arm's length between them or being The Best Big Bro On The Planet for her and settles on the latter because of course. Throws himself into it when he's not working on the balancing act between essentially metagaming and being complacent in the investigation. As November draws closer and closer, he eventually convinces himself to interfere like he did with Saki in the beginning. Because the most likely person to die in Nanako's place is his uncle and if he knew everything, it's the call Dojima would make. Because he's spent another year of watching his uncle brushing off his daughter and breaking her heart because he can't look her in the eye and deep down, it's hard to feel charitable seeing that and knowing what's going to happen, even knowing why. So he starts working on his argument to convince his parents to adopt Nanako when the time comes.

Through a little extra interference, it's Dojima who gets dragged into the tv alongside Namatame after he fails to kidnap Nanako, although she gets hurt in the struggle to take her and still ends up in the hospital. Rather than Namatame trying to flee after they wreck, it's Adachi who shoves them both in and convinces the team Namatame took Dojima as a hostage. Their shared dungeon is Purgatory rather than Heaven, and Yu's not sure if it's better or worse. Things mostly go as they do in game, although there's also a confrontation with Dojima's shadow before the big fight. It's rough, but they bring everyone home.

Of course, they get the choice right the second time around with Namatame, and when Nanako recovers from the fog everyone's relieved as hell, especially Yu. Y'know, until the guilt of "oh god I was willing to sacrifice my uncle and orphan my cousin to try and save her, what the hell is wrong with me?" hits him like a ton or twelve of bricks. Now that Dojima has seen everything in the other world, has seen firsthand that Yu was telling the truth, Yu confesses everything everything, including the fact that he's done this before and the choice he was going to make. It's, naturally, a lot to process.

The confrontation with Adachi is even angrier, in part because he's done more this time around, in part because of Yu's own guilt. But again, things go as they do in-game.

Playing with the idea of either the Orb of Clarity or Myriad Truths at the very end of the true ending giving everyone else the memories made in the previous "playthrough" or just. Letting that be one of those Protag Things They Never Tell The Team, either way it's gonna be bittersweet as hell because I'm a monster.

I have put so much thought into this work that's gonna be too damn big for me to ever finish if I ever tried to do it. But I need it. But that means I have to write it. Naturally, Andi, if you wanna take this into dms and yell at/with me over this idea, then by all means please do. It's a big enough longfic idea that that's probably the only way it's gonna see anything resembling the light of day.

Send me a 📓 (or other book emoji) and I'll talk about a fic idea I daydream about but haven't gotten around to writing!

[twilightknight17]

Today on P5S, we’re taking a nice relaxing dip in the hot sprin--

Fukuoka, Kyushu! The plan was to keep going straight through to Kyoto, but Makoto was hurting from all the driving, so we pulled over with the intention of spending the night in a proper hotel and having a good meal. Which, of course, means ramen, because we gotta try the local ramen in each place. ^_^

Even Morgana wanted to try, though he requested that Akira blow on it, first, because “feline tongues are sensitive.”

The plan was to stay in Fukuoka until Makoto was feeling better, but Zenkichi called and basically said we had to get to Kyoto right away. So after a night of sleep, we got up the next morning, and we finally learned why Haru hasn’t been driving, despite having her license.

My wife has a lead foot.

Apparently no one but Joker and Queen ever drove the Mona Bus, because everyone but Makoto seemed extremely surprised.

Supposedly it was eight hours to Kyoto. We were there by noon.

Anyway, this old bar is apparently Zenkichi’s safe house, if anything ever goes wrong on an investigation.

He’s tracked the list of names that we found in the lab back to a politician called Jyun Owada, who was apparently a Shido supporter. This guy would benefit from changes of heart, and one of his supporters is the CEO of Madicce, Mr. Akira Konoe. They determine that Owada wouldn’t have a Jail himself, but that he’s probably getting Konoe to influence people for him. Which means that, since Sophia sensed a Jail in Osaka (that we missed because we were all screaming at Haru’s driving), it’s most likely that Konoe is a Monarch.

So my dart hit the board, I just gotta see how close to the bullseye.

Zenkichi heads to Osaka for a meeting with Konoe to try to get his keyword, and convinces the kids to stay behind. They need to rest and recover so they can be at their best for the Jail. Plus, he’s put them up in the nicest hotel in Kyoto! Which means it’s time to go to the hot springs!

The boys are having a lovely time relaxing. Even Morgana’s chilling on a rock with his tail in the water, basking in the chance to really unwind.

.......Atlus. We need to have words.

Not only was this absolutely unnecessary...

It’s the exact same scenario as P3. We’re even in the same goddamn city. If I thought Gekkoukan would be willing to spend 40K per person a night, it might as well be the same hotel.

Apparently, the boys went in right before the time switched over, and didn’t realize. And now, once again, they’re up for an unjust execution. At least Yosuke and Teddie were actually peeping in P4.

Personally, I think a better plan would have been to start yelling, “Who’s there?” as soon as the girls came in. Sneaking just makes it look like you’re up to something nefarious. It was an honest mistake. And really, trying to get out without causing a scene isn’t a heinous crime.

We don’t see who knocked over the thing that got them caught, but they do get caught. There’s no gameplay here. Defeat is inevitable. And...

The girls jump immediately to accusing them of being perverts. Never mind that they’re wet because they just got out of the damn hot spring. And the boys try to explain. They try their best. They explain that they didn’t realize the time had switched. They explain that they’d gotten locked in without noticing, because the men’s side doors lock when it switches over. “It was an accident,” Akira says, plaintively.

And Makoto looks at these boys that she’s fought alongside for over a year. The ones who risked their lives to save her and everyone more than once. The teammates that she stood beside as they shot a god and saved the entire damn world. The ones who, on this very roadtrip, stepped in to defend Haru from Natsume being a harassing jackass... And she says...

She sounds actually angry.

And she beats them up.

For an honest mistake.

I know this is a trope, but in this particular instance, it’s stupid, and it feels incredibly out of character. None of the boys deserve this, but Akira least of all. He’s your goddamn leader; he’s done more for any of you than anyone else. He’s been falsely accused of shit over and over, and now he has to deal with it from his own teammates?

For shame, Atlus. Shitty writing, especially because this event is never going to be brought up again. Was this supposed to be funny? Because in this situation, it wasn’t at all.

...now that I’m done being cranky, let’s go check how Zenkichi’s meeting in Osaka is going.

Hm. Nowhere, apparently, because Konoe’s gone for the day. Weird. Zenkichi had an appointment and everything.

Now let’s check on... well fuck.

Commissioner Kaburagi, Zenkichi’s boss, is summoned by the commissioner general and the previously mentioned Owada. This asshole is claiming to have evidence that the Phantom Thieves are behind all the changes of heart. They hacked into EMMA!

You’ve got a lot of fucking nerve, when you’re the one behind this.

.......maybe this lady is better than I thought.

She says that there’s not enough proof, and that they need to look into things more. The commissioner general counters that the Thieves are going to be tried for murder. Because apparently they killed that poor man at the Okinawa facility after they learned how to get into EMMA.

Kaburagi knows this is bullshit and wants to investigate more, but they basically tell her to do it or else. And promise that she’ll be commissioner general one day. After the current commissioner general launches his political career with the capture of the Phantom Thieves, of course. And she’s just going to follow orders. Never mind. God. I didn’t misjudge her at all.

Konoe goes on TV and announces that they’re shutting down EMMA temporarily, because the Phantom Thieves hacked it and stole personal information. He also informs everyone that they murdered one of his employees. Zenkichi and I had the same reaction, which was “WHAT?!”

Look at this asshole.

Zenkichi realizes what’s going to happen and takes off for Kyoto. Cut to that night, where there’s an entire fucking squad of police outside of the hotel in riot gear. For seven teenagers. Zenkichi shows up and basically pleads with Kaburagi to stop and think, because the real mastermind is still out there.

Kaburagi snaps back with, “You mean like with your wife?” and Zenkichi shuts up. Low blow, lady. She also points out that he seems very attached to criminals.

Before Kaburagi can have the police storm the place, Zenkichi yells for the kids to run, and gets arrested for it. The kids make it to the safe house, but when they find out about the arrest, they want to go after him. They end up agreeing to let Makoto handle that, and then we get a look at King Asshole himself.

I hate how nice this man’s office is.

And I’m kind of afraid of EMMA.

Good luck with that, though. You’d have to break them first; you can’t change the heart of someone stable enough to have a persona. Not that this fuck would know that.

God, he’s like if Shido and Maruki had a fucked-up kid. He wants his own personal team capable of entering the metaverse and changing people, to make the world “better”. Holy fuck.

Somehow I don’t think you’re the one in the right, when you’re talking about making us a “sacrifice to bring about [your] new world order.”

So the next day, the Thieves get a text from Akane’s phone number, that basically says she’s been kidnapped. It’s clearly a trap, but they all agree that they have to go. According to the text, if they want her back, they need to come to Inari Taisha.

Also known as Fushimi Inari, the largest Inari Shrine in Japan. I’ve been there.

I have literally been right there. I have a picture:

And so the kids head into a Jail based on Fushimi Inari where the keyword is “Phantom Thieves”, and I try not to explode from sheer glee because oh boy I thought I’d have to wait a lot longer for this and also I didn’t expect it to be somewhere I know.

Eeeeeeeee~

They find Akane tied up and all go running towards her. Futaba trips, and before she can catch up, a huge cage snatches up the rest of them, because surprise, the Jail Monarch is Akane, and she’s absolutely ready to lord it over them.

Meanwhile, Zenkichi is getting beaten up in interrogation and taking it like a champ.

But it’s okay, because Makoto called in a favor. <3

Futaba managed to get back to the safe house, and Zenkichi met up with her there after Sae got him released.

So you know that bit in P5 where the phan-site poll hits 100% belief and we summoned a demon the size of a skyscraper? That’s Zenkichi right now, except he’s hitting Maximum Dad Energy and I’m pretty sure he’s going to summon his persona.

There’s a cool stealth sequence where you have to sneak by a bunch of shadows, because Zenkichi doesn’t have a persona. Futaba runs navigation for him, but it’s so funny because he... sneaks like a regular person. He doesn’t leap into cover with superhuman speeds.

It might have been cool to play Zenkichi With A Gun, but stealth mode was fun, too. XD

And then the confrontation with Akane. She gives the Thieves a choice of who wants their heart changed first, but before anyone can stupidly volunteer, Zenkichi shows up, and a few more things get revealed. Most importantly, the fact that Owada is the one who killed Zenkichi’s wife, and Zenkichi got death threats directed at Akane if he didn’t stop investigating. No fucking wonder he couldn’t solve the case. But Akane is too disillusioned to listen, because she doesn’t understand. And Zenkichi is forced to confront that at some point, he compromised his morals, telling himself he was doing it for Akane.

This line wasn’t sung, but I kind of wish it was, considering who his persona is. :P

Zenkichi admits that he might have been wrong. But he was doing it to protect the only family he had left.

“But at least I know what makes a person evil. Evil only cares about itself. It’s the mark of a man who would bring another to ruin and dare not show remorse.”

And his awakening was badass.

Shitty picture, but his literal shadow had glowing eyes while it was forming the contract. It was so cool. :D

Wolf is awesome. After beating up a whole hoard of shadows by himself, Akane got away, the Thieves were freed, and we all went back to the safe house to rest. And I swear, you take a nap for one hour, and cannot get any peace. XDDD

Thank you, darling. Now I gotta figure out what deck that’s from.

So that was today. Technically I only played for like...2 and a half hours?? But god, we hit the hot springs and everything just flung itself directly off a cliff and all I could do was hold on.

I have so many thoughts about things!!! But I need to see more first. But this has been fantastic overall.

[forkanna]

ALSO READ ON: [AO3] [WATTPAD] [QUOTEV]

WARNINGS: Petplay, exhibitionism, cunnilingus, watersports(kinda). This chapter is going to remind people that I once co-wrote My Sister's Mistress, haha… though honestly it's not that bad.

Happy December!

I'm very sorry to all three of you waiting for the epilogue of this fic. I was feeling fairly dissatisfied with my writing, so I took some time off for reading, and NaNoWriMo to focus on my original work (expect news about that soon). Though some mental fog remains, I'm feeling a little sharper and more capable now to continue delivering updates. And to that end...

Prepare yourselves for WE'LL FACE OURSELVES: GOLDEN! This will not continue the story of Yukiko and Chie, though they will be around here and there; instead, it will focus on another unlikely ship entirely. I'll begin posting that in about a month, or sooner if I find time. You may also want to keep your eyes peeled for more content pertaining to another fandom of which I am a part...

Thanks so much for sticking with this until the end. If you'd like to look me up on other platforms, please check out my Carrd!

Until we meet again, Jessex

                                                   EPILOGUE

A horrific day that everyone hoped would never come had finally ambushed the Investigation Team. Yu Narukami was leaving Inaba.

Not a dry eye was to be had at the Yasoinaba station as they watched their gray-haired friend bid fond farewells to all the other friends he had made throughout the year. Chie herself was a little shocked to see just how many there were — hell, even after almost a year she was still shocked that Rise Kujikawa, the real Risette, was one of them! An internationally known pop idol! But there she was, hanging on one of Yu's arms and sobbing into his jacket.

"Yu-kun, don't gooooo!" she blubbered, long auburn pigtails trembling with her movements. "I wanna get to spend G-Golden Week with you, Senpaiiiiii!"

Naoto and Kanji weren't much better. They made for such an odd-looking pair, the rough-and-tumble yakuza-wannabe letting fat tears roll down his cheeks as he was comforted by the small, reserved boy-who-was-not-quite-a-boy. Even after finding out Naoto was a woman, not much had changed; she still dressed like a boy and even behaved like one in most ways. All of Rise's attempts to "girlify" her had fallen flat. Chie really had wound up with a colourful assortment of friends, but she wouldn't change that for the world.

"Yeah, man, you can't take off," Yosuke chuckled. Trying to suppress his feelings with humour; they all knew he was going to miss Yu as much as anyone. "Your girlfriend's gonna miss you, and that ain't cool."

Not that he was pointing at Rise. No, his finger was levelled at Nanako — the little girl she and Yukiko had run into once upon a time who turned out to be Yu's cousin. She was currently hiding behind the leg of her father, Detective Ryotaro Dojima, coming over shy after he had reprimanded her for being too clingy with the boy she had dubbed her big brother. Not that he could control Rise doing the exact same thing, despite having nearly ten years on the second-grader.

"Oh, shut up," Yu grunted — though his motivation was pure, as always. "Don't tease her."

"Whaaat? I'm teasing you, not…" But at the glares from everybody, Yosuke sighed and deflated. "You guys are no fun."

Rise pulled back, her large doe eyes shining with tears — on purpose, Chie knew. She was a top notch actress. "Can't you give me a little kiss goodbye? Something to keep me from… from dying from missing you?"

"Oh please," Yukiko muttered under her breath with a begrudging smile.

But Yu obliged. Sort of. Instead of sweeping her into a graceful dip and really planting one on her, he kissed her forehead. It was a tender gesture, though, so Rise couldn't complain; a much more genuine little smile pulled at her pouty mouth, and she hugged him around the middle.

"Excuse me? What do you think you're doing?"

They all pulled back to see Ai Ebihara approaching, hands on her hips. This bitch again? However, something was different about her compared to their last run-in. She was still glamorous, but Chie couldn't help noticing it seemed like her outfit was a little more… conservative?

"What is who doing?" Rise protested, clinging a little tighter to Yu's arm.

"You! Little trollop!" The teen queen stomped over to the two of them, getting right up in Rise's face. She was a little taller and therefore more imposing, but Rise didn't seem scared in the slightest. "Get your greedy little paws off my boyfriend!"

The idol stamped her foot and snapped, "HEY! I don't see your name on him anywhere!"

Yu gulped and began to back away. "Uh…"

"Really?" Ebihara scoffed. "What makes you think you have any claim to him, slut puppy? He went to the festival with me — and spent Christmas Eve with me, too! And for your goddamn information, we got pretty close!"

Poor Rise. Though she was flirty and manipulative toward Yu and Yosuke, it was in a playful way; she did consider them both friends but couldn't seem to suppress her impulses. And here Ai was making all kinds of accusations and getting legitimately competitive. Her lip wobbled, though Chie was fairly certain it had as much to do with losing out to Ai as it had to do with losing Yu himself.

"Senpai, say that's not true! How could you, when I… I let you… you know!"

"Hey, it doesn't count when I'm just sitting there and you plop your butt down on my hand," he protested at her. "And Ai-chan, we hugged a little; please don't tease her by making it sound like more."

Both of his would-be girlfriends pouted and averted their eyes, cheeks turning pinker. Ai seemed a little more genuinely hurt than her rival for the boy's attentions.

"Whew," Yosuke exhaled, wiping his brow. "Don't know how you get away with it, juggling two chicks like that."

"That's not- I didn't…" Yu sighed, shaking his head as he facepalmed. "Maybe I'm glad to be leaving."

But the minute he said so, even if it was in jest, all faces wore expressions of deep sorrow. Nobody really wanted him to go. They had all known his stopover in Inaba had been temporary and yet it was still a terrible shock that Yu would no longer be hanging out with them on a daily basis, going to school, having roundtable discussions in the Junes food court.

"The end of an era, man," Kanji grunted, trying to look tough and only partially succeeding.

"Aww, cheer up, guys!" Teddie proclaimed, bouncing up and down on his heels so hard his blond locks bounced with him. "We'll see Sensei again! Bet on that!"

"There you go, Teddie," Yu laughed quietly, nodding his direction. The bear-shadow-turned-human beamed.

"And in the meantime, I can look after all the girls for you! You don't have to worry about a thing!"

Rise stuck her tongue out at the well-meaning bear. "I don't want you, I want Senpai!"

As the squabbling only grew worse, other classmates began to approach to wish Yu bon voyage. Some girl from his drama class, those guys from the basketball team… even some young boy and his clearly married mother, though she did seem a bit too young to have a child of that age. Their team leader really had left an impression in the short year he had lived there.

When the train whistle signaled that it was about to pull away, the bickering came to an end so they could truly see their friend off. A lot of tearful hugs and well wishes were offered before he was inside, looking out the window at them as it pulled away from the station. They ran after him all the way to the end of the platform until they ran out of space, then stood waving after him until the train was completely out of sight.

Chie was amused that it turned out to be Rise comforting Ebihara, and Yosuke comforting Teddie. Those were some pretty mismatched pairings. Ryotaro took a sobbing Nanako home, and that seemed to be an unofficial signal for them to disperse from the station.

While Kanji was busy throwing an arm around Yosuke's shoulders, proclaiming loudly that they were about to go drinking despite the fact that neither of them had easy access to alcohol at their age, it was Naoto of all people who started drifting closer to Chie and Yukiko. At first, Chie assumed she just wanted some company, but it turned out…

"Forgive my curiosity, but I've been wondering about something for a while now."

"Hm?" asked a bleary eyed Yukiko. She hadn't sobbed the way Rise did, but she wasn't completely unaffected by the parting. "I'm sorry, what's that?"

"Why have you been wearing a dog collar for the past several months?"

Both girls stopped dead in their tracks. If this were an anime, there would have been a record-scratch sound effect. Yukiko flashed a nervous half-smile at her girlfriend, who was busy tugging at the neckline of her shirt and gulping.

"W-well, it's… a fashion statement," the junior innkeeper finally told her.

"Uh… huh." Her sharp eyes looked between the two. "You may have forgotten in all the excitement of defeating Adachi and Izanami, but I am a detective. Do you want me to simply state what I have deduced from my observations, or would you like t-"

"Okay, okay, already!" Chie hissed, waving back and forth rapidly with her hand. "Can you maybe keep it under that crazy blue hat of yours?!"

Before Naoto could respond to the crack about her belted newsboy cap, a throat was cleared behind the three of them. Ai had broken off from the others and approached them, looking penitent and uncomfortable.

"Yes?" Yukiko prompted her in mild surprise.

"I… thought I should say… I am sorry." She swallowed hard, brows furrowed. The expression still made her look angry and snobby, despite her tone of voice being gentle now; she just had resting bitch face. "Probably too late. But I was really going through some things when I sidelined you two in Aiya, and being rude is second nature to me. Can't be the most stunning girl in school without it going to your head, can you?"

"You say that like I would ever know," Chie snorted.

"Right. And… normally I would be agreeing with you and belittling you, Bowl Cu- I mean, Satonaka. I have a lot of practice." Grimacing, she growled, "Got so used to being queen bitch that it's so hard to just be nice."

After a brief silence, so awkward that it felt as if any sound would have been preferable, Yukiko laid a hand on Ai's arm, gentle and reassuring. "Please, Ai-san. We all have darkness inside of us; nobody is a perfect person. So I think it's very admirable you're seeing your flaws and that you're trying to improve. I am the same, and so are my friends."

"Oh yeah?" The girl let out a wet-sounding laugh; indeed, tears were budding at the corners of her eyes. "How the hell aren't you perfect, Miss Goody Two-Shoes? I mean… I've always been so jealous of how the boys talk about you. No 'buts'."

"No butts?!" Chie burst out. "What do you mean? She's got a GREAT butt!"

Ai chuckled a little more heartily at that. Naoto was the only one who tapped her chin while noticing Yukiko's slight blush from the compliment; the others weren't paying it any attention. "No, no, not her ass. Which fine, sure, it's fantastic. I mean like, they describe both of us as really beautiful, or hot or whatever. Same words for both of us. But with me, it always had a 'but she's such a bitch', 'but she's stuck up', 'but she's psycho' attached. Yukiko… a couple of guys said you were snooty if you turned them down for a date, but the rest of them saw through that. You're a good woman and I'm just a good-looking woman. I did so much work to be beautiful so boys would like me, but I'm just… ugly on the inside."

Though clearly, Yukiko was about to speak up, Chie beat her to the punch. "So that's it, huh? You're pathetic."

"Excuse me?"

"C'mon, Ebihara. You're made of tougher shit than that. Where's that girl who slammed her leg up on the table in Aiya and demanded we appreciate it?"

Though the teen queen had been firing up, being reminded of that moment in the diner made her squirm and fold her arms tightly over her chest. "That was stupid. Do you wanna know why I did that?" When Yukiko nodded, she pushed ahead, "Thing is, I was a... when I was little, I was nowhere near the adorable Ai you see before you now. Fat and hideous, got told I had pig hooves. So like, I'm sure it sounds really stupid to you guys, but having dainty little feet now is super amazing to me still."

"You were fat?!" Chie demanded, looking her up and down afresh. "No way! I call bullshit!"

"Yep, a total blimp. And I got hella teased because I didn't match up with their… whatever. Yu already knows all this stuff, but pretty much I decided to reinvent myself when I found out we were moving to Inaba. Obviously it went to my head, but… at least I'm better now. Getting better all the time."

None of them knew what to say. Chie, for her part, was stunned that Ebihara turned out to be more than a one-dimensional prima donna; she had never given any indication otherwise, even in Aiya when her interests in Yu were revealed to be genuine. Maybe he was the one responsible. After all, while the team had been doing their best to save the victims from dying inside the TV and stop further kidnappings in the first place, Yu Narukami had touched all their lives, brought about an awakening of sorts to their inner beauty that they likely would never have found within themselves without him shedding that light. It just seemed to be one of his latent talents. Unsurprising that he had done the same for the entitled fashionista.

"There seems to be only one solution for this predicament," Naoto was stating firmly with a small nod, finger tapping her chin. "We must return to Aiya to remember our departed friend, and strengthen our bonds with each other."

"Oooh, a party!" Rise piped up with an excited little bounce, despite the light drizzle that was beginning to fall. "Yes please!"

"I guess that's a plan," Chie agreed as Rise, Kanji and Yosuke joined them. "What do you guys think? We catching the portal to the meat dimension?"

Grimacing, Yosuke demanded, "Do you have to call it that every time, Satonaka?! Geesh! Sounds super nasty."

"Bet you can't even handle it."

"Wha- OH YEAH?! BRING IT ON!"

                                      ~ o ~

"Ohhhhh, I couldn't eat another bite," Yukiko groaned as they slid open the door to her bedroom at the Amagi Inn. They had whiled away many hours at the diner before the fellowship was broken, and they began to drift their separate ways. Rise was the most afraid to be alone out of any of them, and seemed to want to hang out with Ebihara, despite their strife over Yu's affections. Naoto went off by herself to think, Kanji and Yosuke reinitiated their quest for liquor, that girl from drama class was hanging out with Daisuke and Kou from the sports clubs… and the two illicit lovers had paired off with no one questioning why. Probably because they had already been best friends for their entire lives.

"Well I could," Chie laughed in response as she grabbed a pair of paper slippers. "But you know me, I can always eat."

Yukiko giggled as she began to strip off her remaining clothing. "You and Yosuke, I swear. Your appetites are bottomless."

"Hey, I'm a growing girl!" she said, jabbing herself in the chest with a thumb. "What's his excuse? He doesn't even do martial arts!"

Once fully divested, lithe form fully on display for the other woman in the room, the junior innkeeper approached her side and slid her hands up to gently perch on her shoulders. "Mmm, yes of course. So very strong."

It was impossible for Chie to keep the blush fully out of her cheeks. "Y-yeah. I mean, strong when you're not making my knees weak."

"But Master shouldn't say things like that in front of her pet. She might think she can control her Master, and that isn't very good, is it?"

"True, yeah." Chie shook her head with a vague smile on her lips. It was funny; she was supposed to be the one in control, but most often it was Yukiko who reminded them of their play. The roles they were to serve for each other.

"Mhmmm. Alright." Even though she was clearly a little nervous, she crossed to her dresser, slid open a drawer and began to rummage behind the various undergarments arranged there. "I think we're both ready now."

Poor Chie didn't even bother to ask "ready for what?", because by the time the words began to form on her lips, her best friend was turning around, dropping to the floor and crawling toward her… with a long leather leash dangling from between her teeth.

"A-ah."

"Wrgh dng hrrg trh," Yukiko said — before Chie took the leash from her to allow her room to speak. "I m-mean to say, this is only if you feel up to it, or are interested. But we've spoken a lot about it in the past few weeks, and… and I feel like I would be alright with it."

"Okay, whoa whoa," she laughed nervously. "Listen, I… know you think nobody will see us, but c'mon, the inn gets guests all the time! And like, what if your mom sees us?!"

Sitting up a little straighter, the puppy-girl reassured her, "No, no, I have a plan. Do you know the forest behind our property? It's a little bit of a walk, and I know it might seem silly to take a walk before my walk, but we will probably be free from prying eyes out there. So… so do you want to?"

Any fool in Chie's position could have been able to tell that this girl wanted nothing more than to take her love into the woods so they could play. Even if the type of play they wanted to do was highly unorthodox. How could she say no to those big, baleful eyes?

"Yeah, of course. So um, maybe just put this around your waist under your kimono?"

"YES!" she burst out — before calming herself and clearing her throat. "I mean, yes, that is a good plan. I'll get dressed, try to keep the leash on."

In no time at all, they were strolling through the grounds behind the Amagi Inn, seeming to the single gardener they passed as if they were merely two high school friends out for a stroll. Nothing telltale from their appearances to suggest otherwise — except the collar, and even that wasn't immediately noticeable.

"Okay," Chie whispered once they were in the treeline. "Are you really sure about this one? Cuz like, if you wanna bail on the idea, you can, right now, and I won't give you any shit. I swear."

But Yukiko was already shaking her head from side to side, even before she got halfway through speaking. "I've been looking forward to trying this for so long! Maybe it hasn't always seemed like it, but… how can we know whether or not we enjoy it if we don't try?"

That, as they say, was that.

"Okay…" Chie cleared her throat and tried not to feel too overly self-conscious. "Then take it all off so we can get started."

By far the most difficult thing to endure was watching Yukiko slowly disrobe — which she was clearly doing on purpose, adding to the anticipation. She even did that thing where she paused with the yukata halfway down her back, looking at Chie over her shoulder with a coquettish flutter of her eyelashes. 'Nosebleed City, population: me,' Chie thought to herself. Then she let it drop all the way to the forest floor, pooling amongst the grass and leaves.

Nude… except for two leather straps. One around her neck and another trailing down her back.

"Gooooood," she managed to groan. Then she shook herself and caught up the end of the lead. "Okay, so like… what now? I just take you for a walk?"

"Master, come on," she giggled. "You're not being a good Master." But when Chie frowned, Yukiko fidgeted and added, "I'm sorry. That was supposed to sound teasing, but instead… well, I really am sorry. I was trying to say that you weren't playing your role yet."

"Okay." Taking a deep breath, she cracked her neck and tried to shove away those feelings of inadequacy that had begun to brew. "So you mean I'm supposed to start being a dog owner for real? Like, until we decide we're done and wanna go back inside?"

"Yes," she sighed in obvious relief that Chie wasn't upset with her. "How about this: I'll get on hands and knees, and that's when we start? And I'll stand up if I need to stop."

"Sure yeah, that sounds pretty simple. Go for it when you're ready."

With a small nod, Yukiko stepped out of her zori and into the grass, toes flexing as it tickled them. Her lips quirked into a reassuring little smile before she dropped down to all fours, perky little ass high in the air. Chie wanted to dive right into that inviting sight now — but she could wait. They had a game to play; they could have sex pretty much anytime they were alone together, as long as they were careful about noise levels. And door locks.

"Okay girl, let's go!" she commanded her in a more cheerful tone. This wasn't their first time playing in this way, or even their tenth. They just had never taken the playing outside of a locked bedroom before.

And miraculously… they went. Yukiko started walking along on her hands and knees, making little panting noises now and then. Just to maintain the illusion. Chie was both disturbed and turned on, but that happened a lot during their more adventurous encounters. The more they learned about this strange new culture they were a part of — thanks to the internet — the more intrigued they were, but Chie wasn't as good at taking it in stride as her puppy was.

Her puppy, Yukiko. Still bizarre to her.

"What is it, girl? You like that one?"

"Wan wan!" she yipped joyfully as she continued to mime sniffing a tree.

"Then it's all yours," she laughed easily, reaching down to scratch behind her ear. Her girlfriend hummed at the pleasant sensation, and even tried to jiggle one of her legs. With some success. Then she unclipped the leash from her collar. "Wanna play fetch, Yuka?"

More gleeful barking. So she found a stick and wiped it quickly on her sleeve — which, obviously, she wouldn't do for a real dog like Muku, but she figured she owed Yukiko at least that much.

"Go get it, girl!"

As Chie watched Yukiko, a real human being, bound off into the brush after a stick, she couldn't help feeling that her life had really gotten off track at some point. Mostly, she just wanted to be a semi-normal girl who went to school, hung out with her friends, practiced martial arts. Lately she had been toying with the idea of going into law enforcement when she grew up. Maybe it was because of all their adventures inside the TV, and saving Inaba from the menace of a vengeful god who had judged humanity as both too complacent and too volatile. She had found that not only did her kung fu training really pay off, but she also had enjoyed the idea of saving people more than she expected. And it was important work.

But seeing Yukiko creeping back from the bushes with the stick between her teeth gave her pause. Surely a cop didn't do things like this. Or maybe they did and she was just naive. No matter how many times they discussed the fact that she obviously loved her little Yuka, it still felt foreign and weird to order her around, treat her like property.

Even if they both got off on the roles of master and pet.

They had probably been playing fetch for about twenty minutes when Yukiko dropped the stick at her feet, then reared up to rest her "forepaws" on her master's hips. Barking at her. It was as cute as it was bizarre. Privately, she kept wondering if it hurt her knees to romp around like that, but Yukiko never complained. So she crouched down to scrub all over her hair, disheveling it so badly that she would definitely need to brush it out when they got back to the inn, and her girlfriend responded with more happy yips and licking all over her face.

"AH!" she giggled, trying to push her away without any success. Yukiko could be pretty strong when she set her mind to it. "Cut it out, Yuka! Ewww!"

Of course, this wasn't the first time the kisses had turned to doggy kisses. Though it was still a little icky, it was also highly entertaining for both of them so they had slowly incorporated it into their play. Yukiko's wet pink tongue slathered all over her cheeks, lips, chin… anywhere she could reach. Until finally, Chie grabbed her by the collar and held her back.

"Okay, girl! I love you, too." Yuka barked again so she grinned and pushed their foreheads together. "Who's a happy girl? Huh? Who's my sweet, sweet, happy girl?"

The junior innkeeper's ass wiggled from side to side. They had discussed getting her ears and a tail to help complete the illusion, but decided it would be a lot harder to explain those versus the collar and leash, which could just as easily be for Muku as for Yuka. Besides, she was pretty good at wagging a non-existent tail.

Chie was distracted from her thoughts when she noticed her girlfriend was sniffing around the hem of her skirt. She saw a coy smile grace her lips just before her face shot beneath to nuzzle against her center.

"WHOA!" she gasped — and went down hard on her backside. "Oof!"

When Yukiko's face reappeared, she looked very concerned. Still, they had agreed she was not to break character unless Chie had made it clear that she should.

"I'm okay, girl," she reassured her pet with a shaky laugh. "Just, uh… did not expect you to go for it like that. What is it, girl? Smell something good?" Yukiko gave a very human nod before remembering herself, and letting out a bark instead. "Yeah? Um, y-you want a treat from Master for being so good?"

That prompted a very strong bark, and her girlfriend gave a pronounced wiggle from stem to stern, to make sure there could be no question she really wanted that treat. So Chie leaned back against her elbows, allowing her thighs to fall open. Within a single second, her face was right back between those thighs, snuffling around and making sure her lips and nose were pushing into everything firmly.

And God help her, it was so hot. Every time they played like this, she still expected to feel disgusted regardless of how often she enjoyed it. And then was still surprised again. Maybe she really did have a learning disability of some kind.

When the nuzzling began to feel a little more pointed and purposeful, she realized that Yuka had hit an impasse. Sliding a hand down between them, she shakily tugged the crotch of her panties aside to grant her pet access. No time was wasted. After only a couple of sniffs, a warm, wet tongue was pressing into her needy flesh.

Chie really hoped nobody else would suddenly decide to take a walk through the woods. Not with her screaming out in ecstasy like that, a buck naked girl's face between her legs.

After a few months of trial-and-error, Yukiko Amagi was nothing less than a professional when it came to cunnilingus. That tongue knew every little fold and crease of her lover's sex, and she was an expert at finding the ways to set her off. With almost brutal efficiency, even if the touches were sometimes so light and delicate. Chie gave herself over completely, reaching down to grip her raven locks and hold her in place as she began to buck her hips against that insanely gifted mouth.

So close… "I'm coming! Good girl, Yuka! More!"

Well, she most definitely got what she asked for. At this point the game had been suspended while Yukiko ate her out with all the skills she had learned over the past several months, almost as if someone had challenged her to do the deed as quickly and spectacularly as possible. Her tongue almost seemed to be in two places at once.

Birds took off flying from the treetops when Chie cried out from the climax rocking her entire body, back arching off the forest floor. It was beyond mind-blowing. And all thanks to a good little doggie.

"Tapout!" she finally gasped a few moments later. That was the codeword they had developed for when their eager clits had been overstimulated to the point they couldn't handle any more. Yukiko's tongue disappeared, and she breathed a sigh of relief as her entire body shook and shivered. "Nnhh… oh GOD, that was… super intense!"

A little giggle spilled from the shining lips of her love as she crouched over her. Looking at her with bottomless affection. Just a moment for that to be made known — before she bounced a little. "WAN!"

"Y-yeah… good girl… c'mere…" She patted her chest and Yukiko crawled up to lick all over her face. "AWWW, NOOOO! Yuka, down! C'mooooon!"

Of course, it didn't take long for her to shove her puppy off and to stand up again, though her knees were a bit wobbly. A few deep, cleansing breaths cleared her head enough to clip the leash to Yuka's collar again and set off walking around the woods with her.

"You did such a good job!" she told Yuka — and Yukiko, really. Though she knew she couldn't talk back while they were in the middle of play. "I'm really happy. And even though Narukami's gone, I mean, he'll be back… and the rest of our lives are pretty great. Kinda kicking ass and taking names lately."

"Wan, wan!" Yuka replied. Too cute.

"You like taking walks with Master?" She paused to turn and look up at her, panting with her tongue out; a doggie smile. "Awww, I'm so glad! Sweet baby!"

Yukiko put her paws up again, but this time Chie pointed at her and said, "Down. You know better than that, girl." In response, she let out a little whine and got down on all fours again, looking up at her with large, baleful eyes that would have melted glaciers. "I'm sorry, but you have to behave; I can't have you jumping up on my friends!"

Not that there was any chance of that happening. Even after Naoto had figured it out, they still agreed this was only something for the two of them — nobody else.

Mostly obedient, Yuka pouted a little longer before she resumed trotting through the grass. Once or twice she winced when she crawled over a stick or a rock, but mostly she picked her way around them; they already established their rules for this interaction were no permanent injury. Chie wouldn't begrudge her that, even for the sake of "committing to the role".

They came to a stop nearly half an hour later when Yukiko began sniffing around a white pine tree excitedly. Chie couldn't blame her; evergreens smelled amazing. But as she sniffled… a memory of a previous conversation came back to her master. Were they ready? Most importantly, was Yukiko?

"Okay," she suddenly said, though she could hear the nerves in her own voice. "Mark it so we can go home."

Yukiko's look of surprise was priceless. Even while in Yuka-mode, she couldn't seem to fully suppress that deep level of alarm. But she didn't argue or stand up.

"Go on… if you, um, you need to."

There was a brief moment where it almost looked as if her girlfriend would either cry, or stand up and tell her off. Then she raised one leg…

And let out a golden stream against the bark of the pine's trunk. Chie felt her stomach disappear: she really did it. Her girlfriend, poised, refined innkeeper that she was, a true classic Japanese beauty… was pissing like a dog on a tree. Curiosity spiking, she took a further step to her right to get a better view, and was greeted with the sight of the thin arc of urine issuing from the top of her flawless pink pussy — two fingers on either side, to help keep the liquid from catching on the flushed lips.

Flushed from arousal, from going down on her? Or did she like this? Maybe "like" was too strong a word: Yukiko found it satisfying to be degraded in very small ways, so long as they played into her role of belonging to a loving master. By now, Chie had figured out — thanks in part to her shadow — that this was due to her desire to be cared for, cherished. To belong. Perhaps having to pee like a puppy in the woods pushed the boundary of what constituted a small way, but it wasn't so overboard that she broke character. In that way, it had been a perfect thing to demand of her.

As her thoughts bumped around inside her skull, the stream petered out. Yuka shook her raised leg a little, to rid herself of lingering droplets, then lowered it back to the ground. She was trembling all over, and she winced, but still made no comment.

"Very… good, Yuka," she told her in a distant voice. "Oh wow…"

A whining noise came from her puppy-slash-girlfriend, and she made baleful eyes up at her. Not very often had she witnessed Yukiko's cheeks flushed as they were in that moment. But the moment Chie began to frown, she nuzzled her leg — reassuring her that she was not upset with her. Just that the experience had been a strange, unsettling one.

"Okay, um… well, you did your business, so I guess we, like… should head back? Y-yeah…" But she instead dropped to one knee, pulling her in for a hug. Yuka leaned into the contact gratefully but didn't embrace her back, since dogs didn't use their forelegs like that.

In a flash, she knew what she could do to make her feel better. It was so obvious! After petting over her hair and back a few times, she started sliding her hand all the way back to her rump, then angling downward.

"Wan?" Yuka barked, the noise holding a very human question even if it was animal speech.

"Shhhh, shhh," she soothed her, petting along the damp folds. "Master saw you were really wet back here, girl. I-is it okay if I clean you up?"

Her girlfriend let out some very sensual dog-whines. Which apparently were possible. Chie felt her stomach turn a tiny bit at knowing this wasn't just excitement she was playing around in, because some of it was pee, but probably not much. And either way… it was Yukiko. She didn't mind.

And clearly, neither did Yukiko. As her attentions grew more pointed and firmer, fingers parting the lips and dragging up toward her ass, then back down toward her pulsing clit, the puppy panted and moaned, hips squirming from side to side as if to shake her off. Their past experiences had at least taught them to stop taking that involuntary reaction as a sign that their partner actually wanted them to stop; there had been a few touch-and-go moments thanks to miscommunication. Practice makes perfect, after all.

Kissing the top of her head, Chie whispered, "It's okay, Yuka. Master's gonna take care of you. Just let it feel good, okay? Like you made Master feel good before!"

By now, Yukiko was full-on baying — when she wasn't making more human sounds of pleasure. They were terribly hard to suppress in that state. Her hips were rolling into the contact, begging for more. Not for the first time, Chie wished she had a cock to slam into her — and they had considered buying one, many times. Probably would soon. Maybe even one that had two ends…

Once she started in on her clit, it only took another minute of blistering punishment before Yuka couldn't suppress her climax anymore. Her back arched and she let out a howl as the pleasure racked her body, nearly sending her face-first into the leaves and grass. And even doing something so base, she looked as elegant as always. The magic of Yukiko.

"Gooooood girl!" Chie praised her, kissing between her shoulder blades as her other hand pet up and down her neck. "So good, you were amazing! I'm so proud of my pretty Yuka!"

There was a much more subdued little "Wan" that fell from her lips before she gave a weak wag of her hips from side to side. But at least she was clearly happy.

As they continued their way back to the spot where they left the yukata, Chie was all smiles, and kept praising Yuka or commenting on what they might do later in the day. They had fallen into the habit of Yukiko using happy barks and whines to show her approval or disapproval of their various plans; that way she still got to put in her two yen without fully breaking character. Maybe it was cheating, but who cared?

"God, I could use some lemon soda," Chie sighed as the clothes came into view. "Oh — there we go. Did you have fun out here today, Yuka?"

"WAN!" she barked with a huge, panting grin, bouncing a little. Then she winced. "Nnn…"

"Yuka?" But she shook her head, so Chie sighed and pulled her closer to the clothes. "Mkay, let's get outta here; we still have time to play some Famidrive. Bet I can whoop you in Power Intuition!"

But as Yukiko drew almost right up to the clothes, which would be the official end of their play, Chie suddenly stopped and held the leash taut. There was a quiet gag before her girlfriend turned around to look up at her curiously.

"Wait… um… I was gonna do this later, but I think… I wanna do it now. While you're still on your walk, Yuka." Meaning during play. She actually had been going to wait for her birthday, but that was almost a year away — and she hated that she hadn't thought of it before the last one. Oh well, better late than never.

"Wan?" Yuka asked in concern.

"Huh? O-oh, right! I got you a little something." Kneeling down, she produced it from her jacket pocket and held it out. "Hope you like it, girl."

It was a dog tag. Not just any tag, but a bamboo tag with an elegant burned-in design of flames on one side. When Chie's nervously twitching fingers turned it around, the kanji "優花" were emblazoned on the back: Yuka. Gentle flower.

There was a very real gasp from her girlfriend before she squealed, "CHIE!" and threw her arms around her, bouncing with happiness. Her owner just began to laugh when she suddenly drew back and cleared her throat. "W-wan!"

"It's cool," she laughed as she reached for her collar. "We were almost done, anyway, right? Hmm…" Then she delicately began to attach the tag to her pet. The big grin and the way she could barely keep still was too adorable — and doglike, which continuously surprised her. Even if Yukiko was a beautiful debutante in so many ways, she was also the world's cutest puppy. "There!"

And no sooner had she finished than she was pounced upon, licked all over her face amid a flurry of giggles. After a minute or two, she managed to push the girl away and stood up.

"Okay, you can stand up too now."

"Ohhhh, Chie, it's gorgeous!" Yukiko gushed as she finally rose to her feet, catching up the yukata along the way. "Where did you get it? How long have you been hanging onto this?!"

"Few days," she told her shyly, watching her slip her zori back on. So cute the way her little toes wriggled to slip the thong between them. "J-just… you got me that necklace for White Day, and I don't know why, I didn't even think about-"

"Stop that," she cut her off. "We already discussed this, I told you I wasn't even sure if I should get you something. Since we aren't boyfriend-girlfriend, we are two girls; the rules aren't the same. So you didn't disappoint me!"

Shrugging as she helped her slide the light kimono around her body, she muttered, "Y-yeah, but you still deserved a gift. And we've been going out for like a whole year, so…"

"Almost a year," she whispered back with a twinkle in her eyes. One that made her suspicious.

"Um… you're not planning some kinda crazy thing next month, are you? Like, because it's our anniversary?"

Trying to sound innocent, she pressed a hand into her clothed chest — now that she had finished tying her yukata, naturally. "Why, Chie-chan! Would I do that?"

"Yep. Okay, okay… I guess I do wanna celebrate it, but don't go wacko! Just like, find us something fun. Maybe we can have a nice din-"

"Don't you worry about a thing," she reassured her lover as she linked their arms together. "Just don't be too busy that day and everything will come up roses. Okay?"

Letting out a loud "UGHHHHH", Chie tried to be grumpy as they headed for the edge of the woods, and toward the Amagi Inn beyond. But she still ended up leaning over to whisper, "Fine, I'm excited. Just don't tell anybody."

"Because our relationship is anyone's business as it is," she giggled. "Hmm… are you sure this is the right way?"

As Chie Satonaka stared at the pretty little innkeeper, the shafts of light filtering through the trees, her heart stopped for a moment as time froze. Because her priestess was there, and warm, and real, and so sweet and beautiful. Because they were there together.

"Everything's right, Yukiko," she whispered with a huge, goofy grin. "Everything."

                                      ~ THE END ~

[thermopylod]

SMOOCHES! Souyo, #7 "to shut them up," bonus points if Yosuke if shutting Yu up. >:D

Speechless

~1k words, gen/T rating. Enjoy :)

Yosuke had no idea how anyone could think Yu was a quiet guy. Sure, he tended to be reserved in public, picking his words carefully when he spoke at all, but behind closed doors he was an absolute chatterbox. Yosuke knew this well, as they spent the majority of their free afternoons together, in one or the other’s bedroom. Most of the time, Yosuke loved listening to Yu talk about his jobs, the cats under his carport, his fishing skills, their TV world plans, and just about anything and everything else in his life. With his friends back in the city, they’d never really spoken much. About idols and movies and the latest video games, sure, but not about stuff that really mattered. Not about their passions, their feelings, all those things that made them who they truly were.

So Yosuke liked that Yu was chatty when it was just the two of them. He really did. But right now, he wanted to find out what was going to happen next in this TV show, and Yu just would. Not. Shut. Up. Yosuke had tried ignoring him, turning away from him on the couch and towards the TV, humming the show’s theme song… but Yu was still going on about Mesopotamia or some other weird old place that they’d learned about in class that day.

It wouldn’t have been so bad if he could just have tuned him out, like he always did with Teddie, but Yu’s voice always had a weird hypnotic effect on him. Yosuke just couldn’t help but focus on it. He’d already missed at least two good lines, judging from the laugh track, and he was starting to wonder if it was considered improper to choke your best friend.

“So what’s really cool is that like, it was so long ago, right? But they’re actually the reason we use base 60 for timekeeping even today!”

No, Yu. That was not cool. What was cool was the main character finally—aw, damn it! Now he’d apparently missed the confession scene. That was just going too far. He turned to glare at Yu and his offending mouth, and did what seemed most logical to finally get it to stop making so much noise—leaned over, and pressed his lips to it forcefully. Can’t talk when you’re kissing.

When he drew away, it was blessedly quiet.

Too quiet, maybe, he realised when the show’s end credits started rolling ten minutes later and Yu still hadn’t made a sound. He looked at his friend to find him staring, shell-shocked, at nothing in particular, face flushed and fingers pressed to his lips.

Oh, shit.

Now that his brain wasn’t completely clouded with exasperation and annoyance, he was becoming rapidly aware that kissing someone to shut them up was very much not a logical decision. At all. He considered freaking out about it, but, well, Yu wasn’t anything to be afraid of. He wasn’t like, say, Kanji, with his hulking mass of muscles and bleached hair and leather clothes. He was just … Yu, his best friend full of contrasts and contradictions, soft and strong and smart and stupid all at once, and Yosuke couldn’t find it in himself to feel afraid of wanting to kiss him.

Because he definitely did—want to kiss him, that is. Had wanted to for a long time, now that he thought about it. Yu was kind, always took his side, never made him feel dumb or awkward—which was truly impressive, considering he’d seen his Shadow—and was very, very much attractive. Yosuke wasn’t blind, ok. His molten silver eyes were gorgeous, and those abs he saw when they changed for gym…

Yosuke stopped that train of thought before it could get any further. In any case, it was all well and good for him to be fine with kissing Yu, but that was somewhat ignoring the other half of the equation.

“Yu, I’m so sorry. I didn’t even ask you, that’s so not ok—”

Yu, though, grabbed his hand where it was curled into a fist against the couch and squeezed it, interrupting his apology. The smile on his face wasn’t one Yosuke had ever seen before; it wasn’t sharp like when he was joking around, or soft like when he looked at Nanako. Well, actually, maybe it was a little like that soft smile, but only if softness was something that could be turned up to a thousand. It was exceedingly rare for Yu to smile with his teeth showing so brightly, and Yosuke felt almost blinded.

“I don’t mind. Really,” Yu replied through his smile. “But… why now? Does Babylon get you hot?”

Yosuke made a face and drew his hand back. “No! Please, ugh. It was just… you wouldn’t stop talking and I couldn’t hear the show…”

Yosuke cringed at himself. This was one of those times Yukiko had been telling him about, wasn’t it, when you were supposed to lie for the sake of politeness. Telling someone you wanted them to shut up was rude no matter the situation, but telling your best friend, whom you’d just kissed, that you wanted them to shut up, that was on a whole other level. Yosuke cursed his eternal foot-in-mouth syndrome.

To his relief, Yu didn’t get mad but rather burst out laughing, reaching an arm around Yosuke’s shoulders to support himself as he wiped the tears from his eyes.

“I’m sorry, Yosuke. I would promise to talk less, but if this is what it gets me, I’m not sure I’m too inclined to stop…”

Yosuke rolled his eyes. “Don’t talk less. I love listening to you. Just… not when we’re watching something, OK?”

No answer came, and when he looked into Yu’s eyes he saw that he was looking off into the distance again.

“Yu?”

Yu blinked and focused on Yosuke with a tender expression on his face, like he’d just seen the cutest kitten in town walk by.

“You love listening to me?”

Yosuke facepalmed. “Oh my god, partner.”

Even behind closed doors, Yu wasn’t so talkative anymore these days. His mouth was usually too busy doing other things; things like kissing Yosuke’s cheek, or his hair, or his neck, or his fingertips, or most frequently, his lips. It wasn’t any better than his endless words had been when it came to trying to watch a show, but Yosuke found that for some reason, he didn’t mind this kind of interruption at all.

[ao3 link]

[soprone]

Some notes on my characterisation of Teddie

retreading some old ground from previous blogs but hopefully it’s better than before because i’m always getting better grasps on my muses as time goes on so pwease read with an open mind  .✫*ﾟ･ﾟ

So while my characterisation is mostly based on the english localisation of the games and anime because that’s what i’m most familiar with, i feel like teddie comes across differently than may have been intended due to dub changes. i kind of viewed him the way i do when i first played, learning about the dub changes mostly just confirmed some things about my interpretation. like of course i changed my mind about some things but so you know where I’m coming from

So something that didn’t translate very well was Teddie’s humor. He’s constantly making bad jokes that the rest of the Investigation Team doesn’t respond to. This isn’t because they’re uncomfortable with his jokes, even when they’re a bit perverted. He’s not a jerk who keeps making bad jokes that make people uncomfortable, and the Investigation Team aren’t jerks for not explaining to Teddie that it’s not okay or anything, since he’s new to human customs. It’s because he’s looking to bring others into his comedy routine with any kind of reaction, positive or negative, and the only way to discourage him is to not respond. When someone makes a bad pun, groaning and complaining about it is part of the humor they’re going for. It’s like that.

The reason this was translated poorly is because Teddie was specifically mimicking a Japanese comedy style. I kinda always saw it as dad jokes kind of humor, but learning about the original intentions made it click.

This isn’t to say Teddie never does anything perverted. Almost, honestly maybe every, Persona male acts like a pervert, contrives scenarios to provide fanservice to the player/viewer, sexually harrasses female characters for comedy or just because the writers think it’s normal. What I’m saying is, this isn’t a Teddie problem. It’s a Persona problem. I’m not excusing his actions but I don’t think he should be held to a different standard than other characters who do the exact same things. I also really hate when people call Chie (and/or the other girls) an abuser because she physically hurts the boys, because again that’s not a Chie (or other girl) problem, it’s a Persona problem with how the comedy tries to be this slapstick thing on occasion. Like I hope where I’m coming from makes sense when I say that?? No I’m not say it’s okay for Teddie to try to grope Rise, or for Chie to kick Yosuke, and similar moments. I’m acknowledging that these moments are part of the game’s humor, they’re anime characters engaging in anime nonsense in an 11 year old game. It’s bad faith criticism to judge a single piece of media or a single character by ignoring the tone of the work they’re in, holding them to the standards of the real world and also ignoring the same problems exist within similar works (for example w/ persona 4 you need to consider it within the context of other anime, other video games, all forms of media that may have directly influenced it, the state of the world (politically & pop culture wise) at the time (2008), etc., persona 4 does not exist in a vaccumn) and that exist in other characters within the same work. It’s not helpful in explaining why their behaviour and/or why making light of it/normalising it can be harmful because you aren’t examining why it’s written the way it is. Oof this bullet point got long sorry

Teddie’s character arc is not linear. He doesn’t consistently get better, and he is in fact at his most obnoxious in my opinion during the Yasogami High Culture Festival. Since his arc is about maturity, this is like his ‘rebellious stage’ where he’s a brat before growing up more, after having grown up a lot in the months before the festival. However, I can’t accept his characterisation in Persona Q. He’s pushed too far and ‘flanderized’ ike a lot of the Persona characters are in spinoffs. I adore his group date marriage event (&accept him believing he fell for the protag at first sight as a headcanon (it’s just a crush, not ‘true love’/’destiny’, though)), think the love potion quest where he downs some love potion believing it will make girls love him only to fall for Akihiko is hilarious, but that’s about it. I haven’t finished Persona Q2, but his characterization in that game is a lot better from what I’ve seen.

I believe that Teddie went through the events of Persona 4 believing that when the investigation was over, he was ‘supposed’ to go live in the midnight channel permenantly and say goodbye to his friends. A lot of his antics during the year are him pushing for some cliche high school fun experiences in order to make some memories to hold onto (he’s kind of like a player avatar in that way ?? this kind of thing is why the latest 3 Persona games are set during high school over just one year, right??). His perverted antics can be explained with the idea that he doesn’t actually expect any of these girls to fall in love with him, if he wants anything he wants a movie-style ‘summer romance’ so he doesn’t really take them / flirting with them seriously (I’m not justifying it, only providing a possible explanation). He may have just gotten lonely and came back to visit anyway, but his intention really was to leave the human world for good at the end of the game. It’s only when the IT laugh off the suggestion that he realises he was the only one who believed this, that they really think of him as part of the team and weren’t just humoring him this whole time. 

I headcanon that his perception of his friends changes and he starts to respect them (+Yosuke’s wallet) better over time after this. It’s gradual (old habits die hard!) but noticable if you pay attention. Naoto notices his maturing during the game, she’d probably be the first to catch on.

He’s bisexual and nonbinary. Though, his feelings on gender maybe can’t be compared to a normal human, he takes on an androgynous male body because he wants to be loved rather than because he feels like a man, dresses as a girl because again he wants to feel pretty and loved rather than because he feels like a woman... In Persona Q2 he volunteers himself and Chie for the power team despite struggling to lift the weights that team needs to, because Chie is insecure about being the only girl on the team and he wants to comfort her. So he’s not exactly bigender or gender fluid, he’s nonbinary and presents whichever way feels right at the time, and what feels right is based less on his own feelings and more what will hopefully make him loved or sometimes help/comfort his friends? He did not grow up like a human in a society of binary gender, it honestly doesn’t mean much to him.

He believes Kanji is attracted to him (which I see as untrue aha I sort of ship it but if he’s got a crush it’s not in the way Teddie thinks), &mimics Yosuke’s attitude about it, not seriously scared of him being predatory or anything (not realising the problem w/ Yosuke’s homophobic comments, which Yosuke quietly gets over later &is probably embarrassed about his own behaviour so he’s not gonna explain), just thinking it’s a funny way of teasing him, seeing Kanji denying him (or not knowing what the fuck Tedd’s talking about) as being tsundere. I feel like this would die down as he gets older

His one-sided rivalry with Akihiko in the Q games (ahh I know they have a hostile relationship in the Arena games but I haven’t played them so don’t know if I wanna make that canon to my Tedd, it seems like they’re too hostile) is because Akihiko is hot, has lots of fangirls, but it’s not just jealousy, he’s swooning too

I think he flirts with Goro in PQ2 because he’s told Goro is a detective prince like Naoto, it’s kinda similar to Akihiko, he follows the crowd and fangirls too. But also, Goro is a Wildcard, he doesn’t know it at this point but he may subconsciously sense it? I’ve always headcanoned him having an attraction to Wildcards, of course the P4 protag is his #1 but he’s pretty flirty with the others in the Q games

that’s it for now because this has gotten SO long, if you made it this far I love you. if you didn’t i still love you because i love humanity as a whole but i’m a little disappointed because i crave attention not gonna lie.

[shadowtarot]

A Hillside Chat

Continuation of this because why would I just leave it there?

Yosuke lies in his bed that night, thinking back to what he saw. Yu struggling to allow something from coming out. All that surge of energy bringing him to his knees. And what he said as he fought it off.. Just how much did he hide from everyone? From even him?

“I gotta call him. Tomorrow’s Sunday anyhow so we have all day.” In one quick motion,Youske flips his phone open and calls Yu. It rings about four times in the dead silence of the bedroom, before hitting voicemail.

“Damn...he must be passed out already.” He shakes his head with a quiet sigh. “I’ll just text him in the morning then...” 

As he stashes his phone away, Teddie steps in with a curious look spread along his youthful face. “Were you trying to call someone, Yosuke?”

“Hm? Yeah, I just uh...wanted to see if Yu was free tomorrow is all. But it seems he’s already asleep.” He plays it off casually, laughing as Teddie changes into his PJs.

“I hope Sensei feels better in the morning. He looked really hurt when we were in the TV.” Teddie pouts, arms folded as he sits on the floor.

“Yeah, I think he’s just been overworking himself is all.” Even though he felt like the others should know, going behind Yu’s back wouldn’t be right. Plus he needed to make sure it really was his shadow, and not some...weird Wild Card thing.

“Well I have the morning shift tomorrow so I’m gonna hit the hay! You’re off  right, Yosuke?” Teddie asks as he fluffs his pillow.

“That’s right. A rare Sunday off for me...” He sighs, shaking his head. He had to take advantage of this.

“Well hopefully Rui-san isn’t too harsh on me...” The bear sighs.

Yosuke gives Teddie an annoyed side glance. “I thought you were going to go to sleep, Ted.”

“Y-Yes sir!” Teddie lies down and falls asleep, leaving Yosuke once again to his thoughts.

“No matter what, I’m talking to him about it.” He rolls over and falls asleep.

By the time the brunette wakes up that morning, Teddie had already left for work. It’s only his second time to have a shift when Yosuke himself didn’t, but he still can’t help but worry.

“He’ll be fine. Knowing the others, one of them is bound to go into Junes anyhow. I have something more pressing to worry about..” Once again he whips out his phone and types out a text to Yu.

> Hey man R U free 2day?

> Yeah. What’s up?

> I need 2 talk to you abt somthn

Yu takes a bit to respond. Well maybe not a bit, more like four whole minutes. Yosuke gets a bit worried that he already figured out why, but then..

> Alright, where do you want to meet up then?

> Does the hill from before sound good? No one normally goes up there this early in the day.

> No short hand? You must be serious then. But, jokes aside, yeah sounds great. Let me eat something real quick and I’ll wait for you there.

Yosuke sends one last message before closing his phone. He managed to do it in the end, it seems. Confronting Yu will be a lot harder, however. He’s not exactly the most open with his emotions...

Getting dressed and eating something quick Yosuke heads to the hill, where Yu is already there with his arms folded on the rickety fence overlooking the town.

“So what made you bring me out here so early, Yosuke?” Yu asks, glaceing over at his best friend. “Something going on with you?”

“Well, in a way. It’s because...I’m worried about what happened last night in the TV. Yu...you do know you can talk to me about anything going on, right?” Yosuke walks up beside him, and folds his own arms on the fence.

“...I know. And as I said before, I’m fine so you don’t need to-”

“Bullshit. You’re just as quick to hide what’s going on as I was. That’s...how I know something’s up.” Yosuke looks right at Yu, who’s gaze is already going everywhere but right back.

“...” Yu goes silent, not speaking. 

“If you’re not comfortable talking about it, it’s fine. But..I just want you to know that whatever issue you’re facing right now...you don’t need to deal with it alone man.” The Magican rubs the back of his neck and laughs. “You have me, and the others to rely on. And no matter what, we’re gonna stick by you. That’s...what you reminded me of before, so maybe it’s only right I tell you as well.”

Yu grabs the fence with his right hand, gripping it tighly as he lets out a sigh. “I appreciate it. It’s always reassuring to know you guys have my back..”

While he may have meant those words, Yosuke felt like it was still forced. As if he’s still refusing to touch the subject. 

“...we all gotta face it one day. Either in the TV, or otherwise right? Doesn’t matter what you hear, what matters is that you become better through acceptance. “

Yu steps back from the fence. “...maybe.” And with that, Narukami simply walks down the hill and away from the area. 

Did Yosuke mess up? Or did he give his best friend the push he needed? With a solid shake of his head, he decides to see if Kanji’s free. Trying to hang out with Yu anymore after that conversation might not be the best idea. 

What should Yu do? YOU DECIDE!

[reeciespieces88]

Fortune Found Prologue

This was originally posted as it’s own 3 part story called The Dance/Next Dance/Last Dance for my An Emperor and His Fortune anthology, but I decided to write Fortune Found as a branch off from it, so now it’s the prologue (hence the re-post). Enjoy!

Naoto followed the others to the side as Kanji took the stage. She never thought that he would be the first to volunteer to dance; she was almost certain that was going to be Teddie. But then she remembered that he had expressed an interest in dancing from the start. However, even with all of the contradictory things she already knew about Kanji, Naoto would have never pegged him as a dancer. In her mind, dancing was elegant and graceful, whereas Kanji was...not. And that wasn't a bad thing, Naoto just wasn't sure how his brawler nature would lend to the art of dance. On the other hand, she has seen Kanji work with a very gentle hand on his various crafts, so it was possible that dancing fell into that category. This new thought made her quite curious as she watched him prepare himself for the performance.

As soon as Rise started the music, Naoto knew that they were about to watch something enjoyable. The song Rise had chosen for him had a rock vibe to it, which suited Kanji perfectly. He started dancing and the opening was filled with punches and fist pumps. As it continued, he added stomps, kicks, and flexes to his routine. Naoto was sure that this dance wasn't the dance Rise had taught him at all, but his heavy movements seemed to match the drums and guitar cords almost perfectly. If Kanji was anything, he was passionate; she was certain that his feelings would be received by the shadows.

When the song hit the first chorus, Naoto found herself being drawn in by Kanji's dance. There was something about his energy that filled her with excitement. She found herself moving her body to the beat with him. Kanji's innate passion has always been extremely infectious, but it has never been amplified to this degree before. And, as the song came up to the final chorus, Naoto couldn't control her excitement anymore. Her feet were suddenly moving on their own as she rushed out to join Kanji on the dance floor.

"May I have this dance?" Naoto said as she cut in. Kanji looked somewhat surprised at first, but then he gave her a wide smile. They danced together fluidly, as if they had choreographed the whole thing. The truth was that she hadn't seen Kanji since Rise had gotten them all together to propose her dancing plan weeks ago. The connection she had with him, the bond they shared, that was enough in this moment to blend their dances together seamlessly.

Their dance was nearing it's end and Naoto found herself feeling almost sad. She truly missed spending time with all of her friends like this. She could have done without the dangerous situation, of course, but it had been too long since the last time. Naoto missed her senpais, she missed Rise, and she missed Kanji. Kanji...his strength, his hard-headedness, his bluntness. These were all things she hadn't realized she would miss until they were gone. Naoto couldn't help but smile as they finished their dance back to back.

"Heh. You outta breath?" Kanji asked as Naoto left him to finish the dance solo. "Dance with me again, OK?" Naoto nearly stopped dead in her tracks as butterflies exploded in the pit of her stomach. When did Kanji become so...cool? He wasn't always like that, was he? Had it really been so long? Naoto's head was swimming with emotions as she took her place at the side of the stage. Rise, who's eyes never left the dance from the moment Naoto had decided to join him, leaned over to whisper in Naoto's ear.

"You're blushing, Naoto." Rise giggled, clearly enjoying every second of this. At least Rise hadn't changed. This thought dulled any embarrassment that arose from Rise's comment. As she watched Kanji finish his dance and call his persona in an epic finale, Naoto came up with an answer she knew she didn't have the courage to give him.

"Yes, Kanji. I would love to dance with you again."

Kanji stood quietly off to the side, arms crossed and scowling as Naoto took her position on the Midnight Stage. Watching her prepare for her second dance reminded him how he had chickened out of joining her on stage for her first. Just as he was working up the courage to jump out there, Ted snuck in front of him and stole his thunder. But, while it would be easy to blame this all on the bear, Kanji knew that it was mostly his own insecurity that cost him the dance. This revaluation caused him to loosen up his stance and even smile a little as he watched Naoto stretch out.

'This time will be different,' he thought to himself as Rise started the music and Naoto began to dance.

This song was softer than her previous one; a slower, jazzy tune with a somewhat heavy beat. And, from the first few moments, Kanji was completely entranced. Naoto began with movements more akin to interpretive dance before easing in to more traditional steps, but even then there was a fluid narrative to every move she made. After a short while, the song sped up a little and Naoto just went with the flow. Each move, while different when looked at separately, fit together like strands on a loom as she expertly weaved them into a beautiful cloth.

Kanji's face burned as his heart beat hard in his chest. He had never seen her like this before. Naoto was...sexy. There were a lot of reasons he had feelings for her: she was cool, collected, brilliant, strong, and even cute. But Kanji had never thought of her as sexy before; he rarely used that adjective in the first place. He had been exposed to Yosuke-senpai long enough to know what it meant, however, and that was exactly the right word to use to describe Naoto right now. And Kanji barely knew how to handle that.

The music sped up another time and again Naoto adjusted her dance to match. Kanji began to think that maybe he shouldn't join her. She was looking like an absolute pro out there and he was sure he would just ruin things. His place was on the sidelines, cheering her on and being as mesmerized as the shadows she was dancing for. Just as he resigned to that thought, Naoto paused for just a second and did a beckoning motion with her finger before continuing on. It was just one moment in a long list of perfect moments that made up her dance, but it stood out to Kanji, shining bright in his mind. Who was Naoto motioning to? Was she looking right at him or was it a trick of the stage? Kanji was convinced she was gesturing to him, who else could it have been? This renewed his desire to join her out there, yet try as he might his feet refused to move. It was nearing the end of the dance now; he was going to miss his chance again.

"Oh, come on Moronji!" Rise's voice called out from behind him. Kanji could feel her come in close to his ear to whisper.

"She's waiting for you."

Suddenly, Rise gave him a strong shove and Kanji found himself on stage with Naoto. Again she took his abrupt appearance completely in stride and turned her solo into a duet seamlessly. Kanji did his best to keep up, but he knew he was way out of his league here. While Naoto was fluid, Kanji was rigid and clunky. He was worried that his lack of skill would hinder her beautiful dance, but this didn't even phase her. Naoto continued on almost as if she was enjoying his company, in spite of his awkward steps. She smiled at him whenever their faces met and he smiled back, deciding to stop thinking so much. It was over almost as suddenly as it began and Kanji took his spot back on the sidelines so Naoto could finish. He made sure to throw a glare at Rise as he walked by.

"Don't be like that," she said, sticking out her tongue. "You loved it." She was right, of course, but there was no way Kanji would ever let her have the satisfaction of knowing that. Instead, he stood there quietly as the shadows melted into light around them, reliving the dance in his head over and over again.

Kanji was nervous, more nervous than he'd been in a long time. And it wasn't the stage that Rise's persona had suddenly turned into, it wasn't the massive shadow that stood before him, and it wasn't even the fact that the world's fate rested in the hands of him and his friends once again. That final thought almost made him laugh at how commonplace it had become. No, there was only one thing in this moment that would make Kanji as anxious as he was right now and that was Naoto volunteering to dance with him in the big final dance.

As the group came together a few minutes ago to quickly decide how they were going to handle this last dance, Kanji stood quietly off to the side. He knew who he wanted to be paired with, but he also knew that she deserved a much better partner than him. Naoto was a better dancer than she probably realized and Kanji knew that she could really shine with a dance partner like Yu-senpai or Rise. So he quietly waited for everyone else to choose and to find out who would be stuck with him.

"OK, partner. How should we do this?" Yosuke-senpai asked.

"Well, Rise is supplying the music, I think she would be the best person to tell us what to do." Yu-senpai replied, looking at Rise.

"Other than us needing to do this in pairs, it doesn't really matter." Rise answered. "There will be one person who has to dance alone and I think Senpai should, as the grand finale." Everyone nodded in agreement.

"Oooo! I want to dance with Rise-senpai!" Kanami exclaimed suddenly, raising her hand and bouncing energeticly.

"Hmm, that's not a bad thought..." Naoto said, pensive.

"What do you mean, Naoto?" Yukiko-senpai asked.

"These shadows respond to emotion, correct?" Naoto explained. "I think that we should pair up based on our gut feelings. We are all good friends, but I am sure we all have someone we really want to dance with, deep down. Like how Kanami wants to dance with Rise."

"I think I understand what you mean." Chie-senpai said. "I was really hoping it worked out that I got to dance with Yukiko..."

"Aw, Chie, I want to dance with you, too!' Yukiko-senpai said cheerfully.

"That leaves just one lovely lady to dance with this lovely bear." Teddie said in his best manly voice, looking directly at Naoto.

"No, I believe I'll dance with Kanji." she told him.

"Kanji!?" everyone said simultaneously.

"H-huh!?" Kanji said, shocked. "M-me? R-really?" Naoto looked around at the group as they stared at her, waiting for an explanation. She blushed and pulled her hat down low over her eyes.

"W-well, you see, when I danced with him earlier, he asked me if I-I would dance with him again." Naoto told them. "I-I'd like to accept his invitation, that's all." Kanji was speechless. When he had asked her for another dance, it was in the heat of emotion that came from dancing in this crazy place. He couldn't believe he had even said it at the time and he was even more surprised that she was actually taking him up on the offer.

"Way to go Kanji!" Yosuke-senpai said, patting him on the back. "Looks like your special brand of awkwardness finally got to her!"

"H-hey, shaddup!" Kanji growled and the group chuckled.

"Well, with that decision, that just leaves Yosuke-senpai and Teddie." Rise said, bringing the group back on track.

"Aww, I really wanted to be with one of the girls!" Teddie whined.

"Come on, Teddie. Dancing with me isn't so bad, is it?" Yosuke-senpai asked.

"Wait, you wanted to dance with Teddie?" Chie-senpai questioned him.

"Well, I do agree with him, I'd rather be dancing with one of you girls," he replied thoughtfully. "But since I knew you two would want to dance together, Rise would never want to dance with me, and I actually thought Kanji would snatch up Naoto, not the other way around, I started to think that maybe dancing with Teddie wouldn't be so bad. Team Junes, right?"

"Alllllright!" Teddie said, completely changing his tone. "The men of Junes are going to take the stage and steal all of the ladies' hearts!"

"OK, OK, calm down a bit." Yosuke-senpai told him. "Save that energy for the dance."

"Great!" Rise said, clapping her hands together. "Let me explain a little about how you will know when it's your turn..." Rise went over what part of the song we each had and in what order. Kanji and Naoto were of course first, giving him no time to prepare himself. They broke off into their pairs and the rest walked to the edge of the stage, leaving Kanji and Naoto alone to start off.

"Are you sure you want to dance with me?" Kanji asked her quietly.

"Well, it's a bit late now..." Naoto replied mischievously. "Yes, I'm sure. Dancing with you was fun. I'm happy I get a chance to do it again." She gave him a sweet smile and suddenly all of his worries faded away. There was no way that he could screw this up; all he had to do was dance with all of his heart and Kanji knew that being passionate was something he was actually good at. It would be even easier now that Naoto was by his side. Rise started the music and the pair walked towards center stage.

"Here goes, damn it!" Kanji said, stretching out a bit. "I'm gonna slam everything into this last dance!" Their dance began quickly. The song Rise had chosen had a ton of energy, which Kanji used as ammunition for his dance. They started off dancing in their own styles: Kanji throwing out quick, heavy moves while Naoto performed her elegant, flowing steps as beautifully as she always did. But something happened rather quickly and suddenly they were completely in-sync, not only in timing but in moves as well. Each motion still had their own personal flare, but there was no doubt that they matched. Kanji wasn't sure how it happened; was he copying her or was she copying him? All he knew was that the moves just came to him, like his body was acting on it's own. It was as if their styles had fused into it's own kind of dance, made up of parts of both of them. Kanji knew he had taken some fluid steps from Naoto and he could've sworn he saw her throw her arms up into a flex once or twice.

"I leave the rest to you, Senpai!" Naoto said as their part came to an end much too quickly. They walked off stage together, Yukiko-senpai and Chie-senpai taking their place. They were both breathing heavily from the dance and they wore matching smiles that stretched from ear to ear.

"We got this," Kanji said. "That thing is going down!"

"If the others have half as much fun as I just did, then we will have no trouble at all." Naoto told him. Kanji was grinning so much that his cheeks were starting to hurt, but he didn't care. Here he was, battling monsters bent on world destruction, and all he cared about was that he had gotten to dance with Naoto for a third time and she seemed to have enjoyed it just as much as he had. The two watched as their friends all took their turns dancing and then joined them on the side. Finally, it came to Yu-senpai's dance at a slow bit of the song. After a few moments of him dancing with Rise and Kanami, there was a big swell in the tempo. Without even thinking, the entire group ran out onto stage behind Yu-senpai as he danced, dancing and cheering along. When the song finally ended, Yu-senpai summoned a persona that Kanji knew he had seen at least once before, though he couldn't quite place when. The large shadow cried out and they knew that they had won.

After the LMB festival finally came to a close, the Investigation Team, Kanamin Kitchen, and the Dojimas were all in the back dressing room. Takura Productions had provided a nice spread of food and drinks for them to enjoy while they mingled. This was the first time that the Kitchen girls had gotten a chance to talk to everyone and they were taking full advantage of it. Tomoe, Chie-senpai, and Yukiko-senpai were all laughing together in one corner, Nanako was bouncing energeticly between Kanami, Yu-senpai and her father, Yosuke-senpai was chatting with Rise and Tamami while trying to keep Teddie in line, Naoto was having a quiet conversation with Sumomo, and Kanji found himself talking with Nozomi. She, like the other idols he had spoken to so far, was very interested in his knitted dolls. Kanji was use to people being surprised when he revealed his hobby and he had come to enjoy the attention he often received from it. But, even though his focus was on whomever he was speaking to at the time, Kanji's eye rarely left Naoto.

Kanji knew that her wanting to dance with him meant something, he just couldn't sort out what. Was it really just because he had asked her for another dance or was there something more? Kanji tried to brush the thought off as wishful thinking, but something she had said kept pulling it back into his mind:

'I think that we should pair up based on our gut feelings...I am sure we all have someone we really want to dance with, deep down.'

Naoto didn't just want to humor him, she really wanted to dance with him. Was his dance powerful enough to affect her as well? Kanji knew Naoto's dance had worked on him; he still couldn't think about her second dance without getting flushed. But that brought up another dilemma: perhaps any feelings they were having for each other were artificial? Something about that stage amplified emotions and they could have fallen under its spell. Even so, Kanji knew he cared for her, he always has. So maybe he was lucky enough to have her care about him, even just for a moment. And he was more than happy with that.

"Nozomi?" Tamami called. "Can you come here a sec?"

"O-OK." Nozomi replied. "Please excuse me." Kanji nodded as she walked away, happy to have a moment alone to his thoughts. The moment didn't last long, however, because Naoto noticed the vacancy and was heading over to him. Kanji's heart leaped up into his throat.

"Hello Kanji." she said once she was in front of him.

"H-hey Naoto." They stood in awkward silence for what seemed like ages. Kanji was suddenly overcome with the need to tell her everything and yet he was too scared to actually do so.

"So," Naoto finally said. "It was kind of odd seeing you with blond hair again. Will you be keeping it that way?"

"Nah, probably not." Kanji told her, tugging at a strand of his hair. "As much as I'm dreading having to go through the 'growing out' phase again, I like my natural color. Why? Do you like it like this?"

"O-oh! No, not necessarily!" Naoto said, somewhat surprised by his question. "I was more curious about your opinion on it. It is your hair, after all." Kanji was sure he saw her blush a little, which made him smile. They were quiet once more, neither sure what to say next.

"I have to be leaving soon." Naoto told him. "I need to look into the other cases that may be related to what we did here today."

"Ya mean that Mass Leopard Ski thing?"

"Mass Lethargy Syndrome, yes." Naoto corrected, chuckling at his mispronunciation. "I want to see if I was correct in thinking that it was tied to the Midnight Stage."

"Oh." Kanji suddenly felt very sad. He knew Naoto worked hard at her job and she took a lot of pride in it. But that also meant she was rarely in Inaba. This whole situation had allowed him to spend a lot of time with her and he didn't want her to leave yet. He only wished he had a reason to get her to stay.

"Kanji-"

"Naoto, I-" They both stopped short as they spoke in unison and laughed. "You first."

"OK." Naoto said, taking a deep breath. "I just wanted to let you know that I am so happy that I got to spend so much time with you and the others and that I truly miss all of you. I know my life keeps me away, but I look forward to coming back home to Inaba and seeing everyone when I can. And there is one thing that this whole experience has made me realize: I miss you. I don't know if it's just this place and what happened to us, but seeing you again, Kanji...I don't know what it means or even what I'm trying to say, but I am happy I got to dance with you and I will miss you when I leave." Kanji's stomach exploded into butterflies and his face went crimson.

"N-Naoto, I-I don't know what to say," he managed to get out, his voice shaky. "I'm happy, too. And I'll miss you, too. I hope your busy life brings you back to Inaba soon."

"You know, you guys are gonna see each other in a few days, at my show, right?" Rise said, popping up from seemingly nowhere. Kanji and Naoto were both startled and embarrassed, and Naoto's face reddened to match Kanji's. Rise smiled knowingly before disappearing as quickly as she came and Kanji wondered if she did these things on purpose.

"OK then, I guess I'll be back in a few days." Naoto said, her embarrassment easing into laughter.

"So I guess I'll see you then." Kanji said. Naoto nodded and began to walk away, but something in Kanji took over and he called back out to her. "Naoto, wait! Um...the next time you're in town...you know, after this next time...do ya think that, um...maybe you can...call me first?" Naoto looked at him, confused. Kanji swallowed, forcing out the last few words he needed to say. "I-I was thinking that we could, you know, hang out for a while? Just us?"

"Oh." Naoto pulled at her hat slightly and Kanji began to worry. Had he gone to far? Maybe he had read her intention wrong. He couldn't believe how stupid he was. He was about to retract his statement when she finally said, "Yes, I think I would like that." She smiled at him and he could have died right then and there. Kanji wanted to cheer and celebrate his bravery, but he held it together long enough to smile back as she walked over to the rest of the group to say goodbye. For the first time since they met, it finally seemed like Naoto had an interest in him. He immediately began planing what they would do together; he even considered asking Yu-senpai for help. Kanji had been waiting a long time for this opportunity and he didn't want to screw it up. But that conversation would have to wait; the group was calling him over for one last goodbye before they finally left this adventure behind them.

[treya-barton]

“Your hair keeps falling into your eyes, do you know that? Here, lemme just—” souyo... and really either of them could be the hairy one xD

Yosuke and Yu were sitting on the rooftop for lunch as was theirusual practice, sitting at an angle to each other so they could face each otheras they chatted.  Yu had made them bothginger pork for lunch, which Yosuke had expressed enthusiasm over, reminding Yu,to his surprise, that it was the first lunch Yu had ever made for him.  Yu, of course, had remembered and had pickedthe meal for that very purpose, but he hadn’t expected Yosuke to notice.  “You seemed to like it last time,” he replied,and Yosuke grinned.

“I like everything you make, dude,” he replied.  “But, if you’re taking requests…”  He trailed off thoughtfully.  “Maybe you can make steak so I can rub it inChie’s face.”  He grinned at the idea,while Yu shook his head.

“Instead of making a steak bento, wouldn’t it be better forme to make you stew again?” he asked, watching as Yosuke’s eyes lit up insurprise.

“You noticed?” he asked in awe, his cheeks turning a bitpink.  Yu couldn’t help but feel flushedhimself, although he carefully kept his face under control so Yosuke wouldn’tnotice.  Yu reached up with a hand tobrush his bangs out of his eyes as he watched his friend’s flusteredexpression.  He didn’t know how thebrunet always seemed to take him by surprise with his cute expressions.

“Of course I noticed,” Yu replied before stopping to takeanother bite of pork.  “I would have madethat today but we were out of steak.  So,I figured your first meal would be a good substitute.”

Yosuke cleared his throat and looked away, rubbing the backof his head awkwardly.  “Man.  You really know how to make a guy feel lame,”he chuckled, and Yu blinked at him in surprise. “I mean, you notice all this stuff about people, and I’m over heretrying to come up with ways to mess with Chie.” He looked bashful, and honestly at the current moment he had a point,but Yu shook his head.

“You’re thoughtful too,” he replied.  Yosuke looked up at him hopefully, and Yu satdown his chopsticks.  “You’re alwayslooking out for Teddie, for one thing.  Heprobably thinks you’re just nagging him, but I can tell you do it because youcare.”  He internally grinned at Yosuke’sexpression which had twisted as he tried to unpack Yu’s words.  He was obviously struggling between wantingto argue his point and deciding whether or not it was really a compliment.  As Yu waited, he found himself flipping hishead slightly in order to try to get the hair out of his eyes.  It looked like his bangs were due for a trimagain.

His thoughts were interrupted as something suddenly blockedhis vision, and he realized with a start that Yosuke was leaning over him.  “Your hair keeps falling into your eyes, doyou know that?  Here, lemme just…” Yosukesaid, brushing Yu’s bangs back from his face and sliding a headband over hishead in order to keep it pulled back. Yosuke often would pull out the headband when washing his face so hewouldn’t get his own hair wet.  This timeYu was unable to hold back the blush as he watched, transfixed by Yosuke’s facebeing so close to his own.  Yosuke didn’tappear to notice, being so focused on brushing all the strands of hair out ofYu’s face and adjusting the headband. When he finally stepped back and flashed Yu a grin, the silver hairedteen couldn’t help but feel his heart thrum painfully in his chest.  Thathad certainly been unexpected.

Yosuke tilted his head. “Dude, you ok?” he asked, looking a little worried at Yu’s oddreaction.  Yu cleared his throat,realizing it was suddenly very dry.

“I’m great,” he said, reaching up and touching hishair.  He wasn’t used to his hair beingpulled back like that and couldn’t help but feel awkward over it.  Yosuke batted his hand away before sittingdown to finish his pork.  

“You look fine, partner, don’t worry about it,” he saidcasually, and Yu found himself staring at Yosuke yet again.  The brunet had taken to calling him thatlately, and Yu was finding himself enjoying it more and more each day.  Yosuke didn’t use that term for anyone else,and Yu liked to think it was because they were close.  He took the last bite of his own pork beforewashing it down with some tea, suddenly wishing he had his bangs back so hecould hide behind them like usual.  Hefelt more exposed this way, especially with his feelings in a turmoil over whowas fast becoming his best friend.

“You know, you just proved my point again,” he said, tryingto keep his voice its normal even tone. Yosuke looked at him questioningly, and Yu gazed backstraightforwardly.  “What you just didshows you pay attention too,” he explained, and Yosuke immediately tried todeny it.

“Anyone would be able to tell you were bothered by your hairbeing in your eyes,” he replied, and Yu shook his head.

“Even if that were true, most wouldn’t do what you just did,”he said, pointing at the headband in his hair. Yosuke seemed stumped by that one, and Yu took the small victory infavor of Yosuke’s self-esteem.  When thebell rang to signify the end of lunch, as Yu followed Yosuke back downstairs,he couldn’t help but reach up and feel at his hair again.  He distinctly remembered the feel of Yosuke’sfingers as they ran through his hair and the way his tongue slightly poked outbetween his lips as he focused on the task. Yu bit his lip as he brought his hand back down, suddenly finding that whilehe did feel exposed, he didn’t mind the headband so much, mainly because it wasYosuke’s.  

[neni-has-ascended]

Persona 4 Fanfic: “You Wouldn’t Expect” [Commissioned by spiralstorm]

Characters: Teddie, Labrys

Type: Romance

Description: Teddie takes Labrys out to the beach.

Read on Fanfic.net: HERE

Read on Ao3: HERE

Author’s Note:

A commission piece. Since I personally love this pairing to bits, I had a lot of fun writing it, though it took me a lot longer than anticipated... Mostly because I had trouble deciding what to do with the requested setting.

If you want to commission me as well for art, writing or translation, please check click here.

I also have a tip-jar.

Most people considered him an extrovert. Most people thought of him as a person who was incapable of taking anything serious, regardless of the situation. Most people had trouble imagining him with anything resembling a sense of shame. Most people would also assume that such a shameless, unserious extrovert would not experience any sort of anxiety going to a social outing they, themself, had suggested and set up in the first place.

Most people were wrong.

There Teddie stood, drenched in a mixture of sweat and some overprized body spray he’d snuck from the hygienics department (on Yosuke’s tab). His bike stood angled and leaned against the wall right next to him. Ever since the incident with the pine tree and the rubber tape he wasn’t allowed to use the rollerblades anymore, so fixing up Yosuke’s old ride was his only way to get out here on his own. Probably a good idea anyway; he was well aware of the enticing properties these fabled ‘rides’ were supposed to have on cute girls. Though, didn’t the bikes he’d seen in Yosuke’s magazines look quite a bit different from that bicycle next to him? Not to worry unnecessarily, but this distinct aura of lameness he could feel radiating off the beat-up thing now that he wasn’t on it seemed a bit… troubling.

Ah! Focus, focus! Teddie clapped his hands onto his face and took a deep breath. Now was not the time to lose his nerves! Not here, not today! No, not when this was the moment, the one, his irreplaceable and very special, very first… date.

His breath stopped even just thinking the words. M-Maybe the air was just especially thin today? Who would be surprised, geez, with how unbearably hot and humid it was, good thing he hadn’t come in his beautiful fur, all the moisture would just have ruined his shine, but now his poor head-hair had to deal with these conditions, and his skin was all wet and his foundation was dripping, and his clothes were wrinkled, and the flowers were wilting, and he couldn’t stop biting his lip-

“Hey. Sorry, did I make ya wait?”

-He snapped to attention and froze up like a popsicle in a straight jacket.

Without him realizing, he’d been approached by a slender figure dressed in a light, flowing summer dress, a pale-yellow ribbon holding her long, azure hair together in a ponytail. Fuuka had really done amazing work in restoring those cloaking features. If he hadn’t known better, Teddie would have assumed it was a regular human girl that had just greeted him so kindly. However, he was sure that the face and voice he saw and heard could only belong to one person in this big world.

“O-O-Ohhhh~~!! L-Labby-chan!!”

He could force melodic inflections into his words all he wanted; it didn’t keep him from stuttering. He found it so hard to not stumble over his words whenever Labrys was around. This, too, he wanted to blame on the infernal heat today. It dried up his tongue and made it so hard to articulate! Yes, that was what was going on here, clearly, without doubt.

“‘You okay, Ted? You lookin’ kinda frazzled.” Labrys’ head tilted slightly as she spoke. Oh no, now the hot weather had gotten her worried for him, too! Not that he minded being cared for, of course, but… No, no! Today was not a day to be anxious and worried. Not for him, and definitely not for her! With a hearty shake of his head, Teddie tried to throw off the many oppressive feelings weighing down on his poor little head and laughed.

“Oh no, mon ami, what are you talking about? I’m doing just bearfectly fine! Especially now that I am in such stunning company~!”

“…If ya say so.”

She rolled her eyes a little, giving a slight sigh. While Labrys wasn’t necessarily the best people-reader, she did consider herself fairly perceptive, and the fact that Teddie right now didn’t appear to be at the height of tranquility was obvious to everyone but himself. Then again, hyperactivity was barely out of the norm for the little guy, now, was it? Giving Teddie a gentle pat on the head, Labrys began to scan the area around them a little.

“Whoa, it sure is packed. You sure it was a good idea to come today? Maybe we shoulda rescheduled, huh…”

The doubt in Labrys’ voice was like a lightning strike to Teddie’s motors, and at once he was bouncing along eagerly in front of the young gynoid lady, shaking his head in utmost denial.

“Nonsense! Don’t you know that getting lost in the crowd is part of the charm of this kind of event? Walking down the beach together, hand in hand, in a sea of blissful couples, gazing at the night sky above, and then--!”

“I… I was kinda hoping we’d be going for a swim.”

That sentence killed the scenario in Teddie’s head quicker than Yukiko could kill a man’s self-esteem. Labrys continued talking, her hands tugged away behind her back as she considered her surroundings. When had she ever found herself stood in a large gathering like this before?

“Y’know, since that whole Beach Party thing we were talkin’ about in spring didn’t end up happening yet, ‘cause everyone got busy, when you said we were meeting at Shichiri Beach, I just kinda… assumed.”

His face went through at least 5 different emotions upon the realization that whatever miscommunication he had allowed to happen had caused Labrys to come here with wildly different expectation from him. Teddie eventually settled on a boisterous laugh that came out more awkward than intended, trying to right the wrongs of what he had suggested.

“Ah… AHAHAHA! Of course, of course!! Swimming, at the beach, what beautiful maiden wouldn’t want to swim at the beach, it’s bathing suit time after all!! Summer, sun, pin-up poses! Never you fear, I always carry an emergency bikini just for cases like this, right on my-“

“…Going swimmin’ in a crowd like this would kinda blow my cover. My cloaking device can’t project into water, y’know.”

“-Oh.”

Well, that was quite unfortunate. And though she tried to hide it, a certain sense of disappointment on Labrys’ face couldn’t be denied. Teddie, for some reason, felt put on the spot by this. Embearrassed, even. And there he’d been mapping out this whole, unforgettable evening in his head already. What a debacle.

“Em… Should we…” he didn’t mean to, but he ended up having his head sink in between his shoulders on him. “Should we go home?”

Fast, unusually quiet and short was how Teddie’s question came out sounding. Still, Labrys seemed calm.

“Nah, let’s stay. It’s sorta my own fault for not researching the event before sayin’ I’d come. ‘Sides, I’ve never been to a ‘festival’ before. Maybe it’s gonna be fun.”

Teddie’s enthusiasm was restored.

“Of COURSE it will be fun! You’ll love it! We’ll buy snackies and weird thingie-dings, and write wishes on tiny sheets of paper, and catch goldfish and watch the fireworks and the stars…”

A young, gold-blond boy was excitedly jumping around in front of his azure-haired friend, continuing his descriptions in such a manner that it was hard to believe he was ever going to stop. Labrys chuckled. As nervous as it made her to be around these many strangers, as long as she had Teddie just being Teddie, she knew all was still right in the world. She took a deep breath of salty beach air mixed with the scent of fried meat and Takoyaki and looked out to the festival site stretching out before them.

“Shichiri-Tanabata Festival, huh.” she mumbled to herself. “Let’s see…”

★

Teddie hurried to drag Labrys along to every little point of attraction that grabbed his attention, his excitement unbroken even as the hours marched along. Calling his way of selecting the booths they’d spend their time at ‘erratic’ would have been flattery. In a hurry he jetted from one site to another, from a saleswoman selling star-themed charms to an ice cream stand, to a pair of performers, to a fishing game, to a stand selling cold drinks, and so on. It definitely helped that Labrys didn’t mind his guidance, much to the contrary. She was glad to have something resembling a line to navigate along this chaotic gathering of people, whose countless voices constantly threatened to overload her sensors. Her 5th generation hardware simply wasn’t optimized for complex social situations like this one. Following Teddie’s lead and focusing on his voice helped drowning out the noise. Holding his hand to not lose track of him kept her from getting distracted. Eventually, she found herself sitting by a table put up next to a little tree with lots and lots of colorful papers hung on it, sipping from a plastic cup of iced tea (her systems could handle tasting and excreting liquids; it was only solid foods that caused problems.)

“There sure is a lot to do here,” she said with a sigh, gazing at the mass of people she’d been walking through all afternoon and wondering how she’d survived it. She turned to Teddie. “You’ve been to a festival before, haven’cha?”

“Yes, but never to this one,” Teddie admitted, still a bit flushed from the excitement of all the games they’d been playing. “The one in everyone’s town is very different from here. It’s a lot smaller and a lot less romantic. This one here makes me feel like I’m being swept off my feet!”

“Hm…” Sip, sip, sip, Labrys worked her way through her drink, considering Teddie’s statement. For someone who had never been to this festival either, he sure seemed to sure his way around. There was a lot she could learn from him, especially considering that he hadn’t been living in this world for that much longer than her. It probably paid to be as wide-eyed curious as him when it came to this sort of thing. It was then that a small stack of tourist brochures on the table next to them caught Labrys’ attention. She reached out, took one and began to read it. Of course, Teddie looked over her shoulder.

“Ohhh, English! Fancy.”

“It’s frickin’ broken as heck tho,” Labrys frowned at the grammatical mess before her eyes.

“You speak English, Labby-chan?”

“Came pre-installed with ‘nuff to read most of it. Can’t exactly speak it tho. Well, not withoutta soundin’ like an, um, y’know. Robot.”

It took Labrys some mental effort to stop her language processing programs from going bonkers trying to deal with the monstrosity presented to them. Eventually, however, she had processed the text enough to read out some of it.

“Tanabata, also known as the Star Festival, originates from the Chinese Qixi Festival. It celebrates the meeting of the stars Vega and Altair, who’re thought to be embodied by the deities Orihime, the Celestial Weaver, and Hikoboshi, the Celestial Cowherd. According to legend, the two lovers were forbidden from meeting by the Sky King, who thought their relationship prevented them from performing their duties. Only once a year, when their stars meet on the 7th day of the 7th month, the two can meet, and it is said that wishes written down and bound to bamboo or branches on this day will come true.”

“Ohhhhh, that’s so romantic!!” Teddie almost squeaked hearing the story, making wide eyes at the paper in Labrys hands. She laughed.

“Sure, you’d like that. You’re into mushy stuff like that, aren’cha?”

“Hm. It would be even better if Ori-chan and Bosshy got to meet whenever they want,” Teddie declared after taking a few seconds to process the story. “I mean, it’s so sad! I thought true love was supposed to be forebear! Not giving them a happy ending when all the other fairytales get one just screams of discrimination, if you ask me! They should complain to the management!”

Somewhere halfway through Teddie’s critique had stopped making logical sense, but Labrys didn’t mind that. She’d expected as much. In fact, she kinda found it cute. She ruffled his hair.

“It’s probably a really old story, ya know. I reckon’ by now they’ve long got it worked out,” she suggested. “Like, maybe they quit their jobs and moved in together? That’s what I think woulda made sense, at least.”

“Mhm…” Teddie replied surprisingly half-heartedly as Labrys stroked his hair. Lowering his head, he mumbled. “If it were me, I’d do everything, so-“

“Hm?” Labrys tilted her head. Teddie’s voice had been too low for her to pick up all of what he’d said. However, he wouldn’t repeat the words. Instead, he swung his legs and leapt up from the bench the two of them were sitting on.

“Aaaaaalright! Where shall we go next, milady!?”

A 180° turn to the tree next to their table gave Teddie his answer.

“Oh, I know! Let’s write some wishes!”

★

It wasn’t Teddie’s first time writing wishes on Tanzaku paper. He’d done it the year before with Yosuke’s family, though then he hadn’t known the legend. However, it was Labrys’ first time, and she was struggling a little. To her it felt awkward trying to put any wishes she might have into words, especially knowing how many people there were around that could possibly be looking over her shoulder. The fact that Teddie kept loudly vocalizing every single thing he wrote down, proudly announcing his wishes to the world (he was up to tying his 10th Tanzaku to the tree now) didn’t help. Just how was it so easy for him to come up all these things to say? Maybe she just ought to stop thinking and just write down the first thing that came to her?

Eventually Labrys found a wish and wording she was happy with and put it on the paper in neat, clean handwriting, tying a perfectly symmetrical bow as she hung it to the branch. Yeah, this was okay. It reflected her hopes for the future, and she didn’t feel weird about the fact that someone else might read it. She was satisfied.

“Oookay!!”

Hands on hips, Teddie looked over his army of 27 Tanzaku Papers merrily fluttering on the tree, Labrys’ sole wish mixed right in with them. He seemed proud of the image, miming the hand-gestures of a photographer looking for the perfect shot again and again, though never actually taking a picture of the scene. The one to really take a photo was Labrys. The way Teddie was hopping around in front of that tree was just too cute.

“Careful, ya gonna tear ‘em down with all the wind you’re makin’ wavin’ ya arms ‘round,” she laughed.

“Wind? My lady, I will have you know, this is no orbearnary wind I’m kicking up here! It’s the cosmic shock-wave that will carry our wishes to the heavens! HMMMMMMM!” And he threw his finger up in the air and struck a pose, yelling. “ORI-CHAAAN! DID YOU GET ALL OF THIS!?”

Teddie’s display of unabashed confidence drew the attention of bystanders. A pair of college age girls could be heard chatting.

“Whoa, that kid’s Japanese is pretty good… And he’s kinda cute, too, isn’t he? Hee hee.”

“Careful what you say, I think he came with his big sister. You see that foreign-looking girl next to him?”

“Whoa, she’s pretty good-looking as well, check out that figure! How come foreigners get to have all those curves, huh?”

“Calm down, you’ll bother them. Hey, let’s move on, alright?” The girl took her friend by the hand and walked away, though she could still be heard adding. “It sure is nice, seeing that some siblings don’t feel like they need to ‘grow out of’ being cute together…”

Labrys and Teddie waited until the college girls were out of earshot. Then, they turned to each other, a little stunned.

“…Big sister?” Teddie asked, tilting his head a little. “Whatever did she mean by that?”

Labrys shrugged. “I guess we looked like siblings to them?”

“Oh, sort of like how Yosuke always says that all foreigners look ‘the same’? Geez, how rude!”

He didn’t look offended at all.

“We ain’t really foreigners though,” Labrys pointed out.

“So, we look the same to them because we’re both not human? Hmm, people are weeeird sometimes.”

“Yeah, can’t argue with that…”

“I mean…” Teddie put his fingers on his chin pondering. “It’s not like we should come across like siblings! After all, you are my fair Princess! And I am your Royal Knight, Sir Teddie, coming to your aid in shining armor.”

“Well, I dunno a lotta stuff ‘bout knights. But some of them were princes, right?” Labrys said. “And a prince can be a princess’ brother, I think.”

“Wha—No, no, no! None! That’s not it at all!” Teddie stomped one of his feet in the sand a little, not hard, just enough to kick up a dramatic dust cloud. “I mean… I maaaay be quite princely in just bearly all aspects, but! That’s not the nature of our relationship at all!”

“I mean. Yeah.” Labrys didn’t know what there was to get dramatic about, but on a purely factual level, she had to agree. “I do got some siblings, but last I checked, you weren’t one.”

“Right!?” Teddie seemed vindicated by that statement. He crossed his arms. “And… And anyway! If anything, I’d definitely be the older brother!”

At that, Labrys could only snort. “Really?”

“But, of course! In fact, ever since Sensei has gone back to the big city, I’ve done my beary best to stuff that sad, bro-shaped hole in Nana-chan’s life,” he told her. It’s not like I could ‘replace’ Sensei. Not even moi could ever do that. But! I’ve been visiting her lots and lots! We’ve been going shopping and watching TV and playing in the park and making music…”

Teddie’s mood went from high-strung to almost tranquil as he talked. His face visibly relaxed.

“Actually, you know, I wanted to bring Nana-chan here too! But… She was busy with school today, so she couldn’t come.”

“Why didn’t you just call me to reschedule then?” Labrys asked curious. “I wouldn’t of minded comin’ a day later so we can bring her, y’know.”

“No, it’s okay.” Teddie shook his head. “I’ll come with her another time! Besides… I thought it might be nice to come, maybe… just with you.”

Labrys accepted that statement, though she wasn’t quite sure what he meant by it. Generally, she found him rather unreadable at the moment. His expression, the way he didn’t really look at her but more at the ground behind her, that slightly pink tinge on his cheeks… Was he okay? If he was human, she would have guessed that he was showing early signs of a fever, but…

“Hey, hey, Labby-chan, look, over there! I wanna try that!”

And thus ended a brief, quiet moment.

The ‘that’ Teddie was referring to turned out to be a large stretch on the beach without booths, where people were currently gathering to perform some sort of folk-dance. Onlookers were evidently allowed to join in. Labrys was hesitant, after all, who’d ever heard of a dancing combat device? However, it didn’t take much coaxing for Teddie to get her to join. Despite their exotic appearances the two of them didn’t stand out among the dancers nearly as much as they could have. The crowd was diverse, some people having come in Yukata, while others were in casual clothing like Labrys and Teddie. There were even a few westerners, probably tourists, mixed into the bunch. Chaotic as it was, nobody noticed how many steps the two of them missed in their attempts to follow the shrine priestess and middle-aged man leading the dance. It was all in good fun. Some parts of the dance were performed in pairs and these were the parts that made Labrys most nervous. The idea of having to synchronize with the moves of a total stranger in order to not disrupt the event sent her logic circuits into disarray. However, Teddie kept close to her and immediately paired up with her whenever he heard the musical cue to, and though Labrys knew he probably had his own reasons for doing so, she was thankful. ‘He’s always been pretty clingy around girls, huh?’ she thought to herself. ‘Well, I’m glad he’s having fun.’ It was only fairly late into the song that it occurred to Labrys how many other good-looking girls her own age actually were in the crowd of dancers. Yet, throughout the entire song, Teddie hadn’t strayed from her side even once. When she realized that fact, Labrys fell silent.

“…”

“Labby-chan, what’s wrong? The music isn’t over yet.”

“Wha—O-Oh right.”

Labrys had been so lost in her thoughts, she’d stopped dancing on the spot. Now it was just Teddie and her standing still in the mass of dancers, small wrinkles forming on his forehead as he looked at her in worry.

“Are you tired? Should we take a break?”

“…Yeah, maybe. Thanks.”

Holding her hand gently, as if taking extra care to not hurt her, he led her to the edge of the beach’s waters, a little off from all the music and commotion. It was here, where the crowd was thinner and the noise less prevalent that, for the first time, Labrys could take a moment to breathe and process the events of the day so far. Her sensors registered a high content of sodium-chloride in water vapor in the air… Sea salt. A nice scent. In the distance the sun had begun to set, dyeing the sky and ocean in a dazzling red color. Carefully, Labrys stretched out the bottom parts of her legs to let the waves splash them a little. What appeared to be her ‘feet’ wasn’t real, of course, those parts of her body were a pure projection of her cloaking device, but it still was nice to pretend.

Watching Labrys stretch her legs out to the water like that, Teddie began to pout a little. He buried his face between his legs. “I’m sorry I didn’t take you swimming. You’re probably beary disappointed still.”

Labrys laughed at that. “What’cha even talking about? Today’s been great! I’ve been havin’ a blast.”

“O-Oh!” Surprised, Teddie looked up. “I was just thinking… You’ve been looking so nervous ever since we’ve come here, so maybe you weren’t actually having any fun.”

“Mhm… I’ve never really been ‘round this many people before. So, it’s a tad strange still, ya know?” Labrys admitted. “But a gal’s gotta get out sometime, right? I’m thinkin’, I wanna make friends that ain’t Persona Users too, some time. So, I’d better get used to seein’ more people around like this... You’ve already got that part of livin’ down to a tee, don’cha?”

Labrys grinned at Teddie as she said that, which he visibly took as permission to feel pride. Wearing her statement as a badge of honor, he puffed up his chest a little.

“Weeeell, if you ever need anybody to show you how to bring ALL the hot studs in town to the yard, you can come to me! I’ll be your wise and powerful mentor in the art of socialization and bearing it all to the world!”

“I’m sure ya will,” Labrys pet his hair a bit, partly to get him to dismount that high horse of his for a while. “Look. The stars are comin’ up.”

★

As the day drew to a close, the scene was lit by lights, both around and above them, all reflecting colorfully in the ocean before them. Labrys and Teddie spent the time talking, about themselves, the time they’d known each other, their friends. There was so much to say, the minutes seemed to pass much too quickly, and by the time Labrys had googled and pointed out the locations of Vega and Altair in the sky to Teddie, the festivalgoers had gathered around where they were sitting to gaze up at the stars as well. The fireworks began.

They were were even prettier than the last time Teddie had seen them, painting the sky in all possible colors, lights raining down above them in this pleasantly warm summer night. There were so many people around them, and – Labrys recalled – there were endlessly many more watching up to this same sky right now in this world. It was a concept hard to understand for someone who’d spent so much of her existence isolated from people, so why did she feel so at peace right now?

“I woulda never expected looking at some lights in the sky could be this beautiful,” she said quietly, almost a whisper.

“…Me neither,” Teddie said in much the same tone. And, whether he realized it or not, his hand was on top of hers.

In this moment, regardless of all the people and voices all around, it almost felt as if nobody but the two of them existed in this entire world. It was just like how, during the dance, Teddie had stayed only by Labrys’ side, like she would have never expected him to. That thought on her mind, Labrys found it easy to move closer to the boy next to her, her fingers intertwining with his, before she slowly drew him into a kiss.

“Next time, I’ll take ya out swimming,” Labrys told Teddie, breaking their lip-lock to bop his nose.

Stunned as he was, even if Teddie had had something to reply, he wouldn’t have known how to say it.

[angevon]

Fancy My Hero

Links

Souji - AO3, ffnet

Yu - DW, Pillowfort, Tumblr,  (read it below)

Summary: It's Valentine's Day! Is this Yosuke's big chance to finally confess?

Thanks to @treya-barton​ for pushing me to post this, and @herrdoktorat​ 

Yosuke opened the door to Classroom 2-2 and stopped in his tracks at the sight of Yu's desk. Every square inch was covered by packages of Valentine's chocolate. The mountain was so high it was overflowing onto Chie's desk.

He shook his head, dazed. Sure, Yu was popular, but this was frankly ridiculous.

A group of underclass girls whose existence he'd only vaguely been aware of pushed past him, only to exchange a few words with Yu. Their additions to the pile threatened to cause an avalanche, but Yu managed to keep everything on his desk through some strategic rearrangement.

Without really thinking about it, Yosuke looked down at the box in his hands. The little cake he'd baked seemed kind of pitiful in comparison to the treasure trove his friend already had.

And the real kicker might've been the fact that school hadn't even started yet. Yosuke had come to school early today in the hopes of catching Yu alone so that he could give him his own gift. Now the thunder had been stolen from him.

As the giggling underclass girls passed by him to exit the classroom, Yosuke's determination returned. He'd been planning this for weeks. He couldn't back down now!

He strode down the aisle between desks, and a moment later, he was right at his best friend and crush's desk. Yu was writing in a notebook that he had balanced on his knee (since his desk was so occupied) and didn't really notice Yosuke.

"H-hey, partner," Yosuke started, his voice sounding completely unnatural due to the sudden nervousness he felt. Reminding himself that this was his best friend and there was no need to be nervous did nothing to steel his nerves. He was trying to confess his feelings, after all, and in just another moment he'd either be the happiest boy in the school or have his heart shattered into a thousand pieces.

"That's, uh, quite a haul you got there," Yosuke continued as casually as he could manage.

"My White Day is going to be a mess," Yu murmured in agreement. He didn't look up from his notebook.

"Well, umm... there's more," Yosuke said, bringing his gift forward. "This is for you—"

"More?"

Yu sighed and splayed fingers over his forehead through his bangs. Barely looking at the proffered gift, he took it from Yosuke's limp hand and then dropped it rather unceremoniously onto Chie's desk, where it landed on another box of chocolates with an audible smack. Chie shook her head, clearly amused at the team leader's unanticipated popularity.

"Thanks for bringing it," Yu said, "but I wish the girls would be brave enough to bring it to me themselves."

"There isn't much time before the bell," Chie pointed out. "I guess they just couldn't wait until lunch."

"Err..." said Yosuke, his eyes darting between the box on Chie's desk and Yu. "Actually, partner, that..."

But as he was still formulating words, Yosuke felt at least three pairs of eyes burning a hole in his back. He glanced behind him to find more girls carrying wrapped chocolates.

One of them stepped forward now.

"N-Narukami-senpai, please accept these!" she said, bowing and presenting her chocolates to him. Yu took them with a quiet 'thanks' and dropped them into the growing pile on Chie's desk. The other girls repeated the presentation almost to the letter. Yosuke's gift ended up buried, possibly as deep as his heart.

While Yu began to attempt to clear off a space for his notebook, Yosuke slunk out of the classroom.

There were still a few minutes before class started, and Yu liked to make every minute count. With Chie's help, he was going through the labels on the chocolate packages, writing all the girls' names onto a page of his notebook so that he could return the gesture in March. He would have a lot of baking to do, that was for sure. He sighed to himself. All this attention made him rather uncomfortable, though he tried not to show it. It hadn't been anything like this last year at his old school. He'd always been the type to fade into the background, lucky to receive even obligation chocolate from his classmates.

And vying for attention at the back of his mind was the question of what he was even going to do with all this chocolate. If he gave it to Nanako, the sugar coma would land her right back in the hospital again! Uncle Dojima would never forgive him.

Chie was inspecting the label of a dark brown box. "Ohtani Hanako," she read. "Huh, I don't remember seeing her coming in here to bring this to you."

"Maybe it was the one Yosuke brought," Yu suggested.

"No, that's this one," Chie said, bringing the box in question forward. Compared to all the garish pink and purple glitter-encrusted heart-shaped boxes, this one was a simple white box with an orange ribbon. She read the label and then her eyebrows bunched together. "Huh."

"Who's it from?" Yu asked.

"Uhh... Maybe you should look at this."

She held out the box. Yu carefully took it from her and read the label.

Nanako-chan said you didn't like chocolate. I hope you like cake, partner!

Chie giggled a little. "Boys aren't even supposed to give chocolates out on Valentine's day! What is he thinking?"

Now Yu was frowning. "Where is Yosuke?"

"I thought he went to the bathroom."

"He should be back by now."

"Well, you know Yosuke! He was probably on his way back and then he had to go again." Yu shook his head, and Chie stopped laughing at her own joke. Her expression turned serious. "You think something's wrong?"

Yu's eyes turned down to the box of cake, where his fingers were toying with its orange ribbon.

Yosuke burrowed deep into the blankets of his bed and hoped never to have to come out of their protective embrace. When he'd come home from school before it'd even started for the day, his mom hadn't asked him what'd happened. She'd just let him march himself right to his room and slam the door behind him.

Nothing had happened, and that was the problem.

It wasn't Yu's fault that he'd misunderstood and thought Yosuke's gift was from a girl. In retrospect, Yosuke should've expected it. It was obvious that Yu was beloved by the female population. He'd heard all the rumors. Heck, even innocent little Nanako had heard them, accusing her big bro of being a 'manwhore' during the Culture Festival.

He'd have to find another way to tell Yu how he felt. He buried his face into his pillow. He didn't want to think about it right now. There were only five weeks left before Yu had to leave, anyway. Maybe he could just... not confess. Maybe that'd be better for everyone involved. That way there wouldn't be another chance for fate to punch him in the gut like this.

He sighed into his pillow. He wouldn't cry; he'd already cried too much in the lengthy process of discovering his feelings for his best friend. He was all cried out.

At least his bed was nice and warm.

Eventually there was a knock on his door. Yosuke didn't bother to turn his head towards it. He'd known his mother would eventually come up to ask him what was making him skip school, though she had to suspect it was holiday-related. She'd helped him bake that cake, after all.

"Honey..." Her voice sounded muffled through the door. "Your friend is here to see you. Shall I send him away?"

Yosuke blinked. What friend? If it was Teddie, she'd say his name.

"It's Narukami-kun."

He rolled over onto his back. For a moment, he thought Yu might be here just to gloat about all that chocolate, but he knew Yu wasn't like that. Yu was a million times better a friend than Yosuke's old friends in the city had been. That was part of why Yosuke liked him so much.

"Honey?"

Yosuke grimaced and made an effort to get up from his bed, then found that his mom had opened the door and suddenly there was Yu walking right into his room.

Yosuke scrambled into a sitting position and almost fell out of the bed. "Oh, damn, sorry man, I-I was just sleeping so I—"

"Yosuke."

That softly-spoken word was enough to make Yosuke freeze in the middle of his lie.

"You're missing school," Yu said sternly.

"Well, so are you," Yosuke countered, crossing his arms. Had Yu come all this way just to make him go to back to class?

Yu shrugged, and with that, Yosuke noticed that he was carrying a familiar white box in his hands.

His cake.

Yu noticed that he noticed. He held up the box. "You made this for me?"

Yosuke opened and closed his mouth. "Y-yeah," he admitted. There was no denying it now, with him right there.

Yu nodded to himself. Then he stepped forward and sat next to Yosuke on the edge of the bed, setting the cake box in his lap. He opened the box and looked at the cake. It wasn't anything special, just a plain lemon cake with strawberry frosting. Yosuke hadn't even written anything on it with the frosting.

"Thank you," Yu said so quietly that he almost didn't hear it.

"Oh, you're welcome," Yosuke replied distractedly, because he'd just realized that he was alone with Yu, just like he'd wanted to be this morning at school. Now was his chance! He could still confess, and if... if Yu broke his heart, he was at least still in his very inviting bed.

"I really don't like chocolate," Yu continued in a murmur, oblivious to Yosuke's sudden internal dilemma. "Unless it's dark chocolate, but I never told Nanako that."

Yosuke swallowed loudly. "I made it because... b-because..."

It was so hard to say. Yu was blinking at him now, those big gray eyes so unreadable. Yosuke wanted so badly to be so close to Yu that he could see himself reflected in his eyes, and that thought helped him finally spit it out.

"Because I like you!"

Yu blinked again, then his mouth twisted into a humorless smile. "Lots of people like me," he muttered. "You saw my desk this morning..."

"No!" Yosuke shouted. His hands curled into fists. "It's... it's more than 'like,' partner. You're special to me, y'know?"

"Yeah," Yu said. "You told me that before."

"No, no, I mean really special. Like... reeeeeeally special." Yosuke struggled for a better explanation. "Like... Valentine's Day special."

Yu stared politely at him. He wasn't blinking, but there wasn't any sign that he understood what Yosuke meant. When it came to things like this, Yu was so incredibly thickheaded that it was no wonder he'd broken so many girls' hearts by putting them into his friend zone.

It called for something more drastic. Yosuke scooted closer to him until their legs were touching, then wrapped his arm around Yu's back and pulled him close. Then he leaned in and kissed him on the cheek.

"Like this," he murmured.

And with that, he nearly pulled away. His courage had almost run out, but he forced himself to stay there, to keep his arm around his friend, until he got an answer. His heart thudded a million miles a minute in his chest.

Yu was blushing so hard that even his ears might be red. "I..." he began, then stopped. It seemed like he couldn't think of what to say, and that made Yosuke want to laugh despite how much he was trembling.

Then Yu gave up trying to form words. Instead he moved in and kissed the corner of Yosuke's mouth.

"P-partner?" Yosuke squeaked.

"I like you, too," Yu murmured against his cheek.

Giddy with relief, Yosuke began to giggle, and as his body relaxed, he let his hand fall free from Yu's side.

Then Yu turned to the cake in his hands. He carefully tore off a chunk and held it out towards Yosuke. Yosuke opened his palm, but Yu shook his head and pushed it towards his face. Yosuke crossed his eyes at it until he realized what Yu wanted. His cheeks heating up, Yosuke opened his mouth and let Yu put the piece of cake onto his tongue.

It was a good cake, he was proud of himself for making it, but what he enjoyed far more was the shy but sweet look on Yu's face as he watched him chew. It made Yosuke fall in love with him all over again.

He wrapped his arm around Yu again after that and didn't let go, even after they finished the cake. It was warm and comfortable here with him, and Yosuke didn't think he could be happier. How could he have ever thought that Yu would break his heart?

(likes, reblogs, & comments are absolutely welcome <3)

[ko-fi]

[discoagidyne]

To Make a Dinner

Fandom: Persona 4

Pairing: Yosuke Hanamura/Yu Narukami

Rating: General audiences

Other notes: Anniversary fluff // @magusarcana 

Yu was a good cook. Everyone knew that. He was somewhat famous around Inaba for it, after all, even after he’d moved back to the city. A few of the little old ladies that frequented the Junes produce section had even asked about him after he’d moved. Apparently Yu had competed with them for discounted items on a daily basis and they’d swapped recipes when they were feeling less competitive.

What everyone didn’t know was that Yu had only gotten good at it through trial and error. Yosuke himself had no idea that his partner worked so hard at cooking until after they’d started dating and he walked in on Yu spitting one of his failures into Dojima’s sink.

Yosuke, however, was not the chef his boyfriend was. He could cook eggs, toast, rice, even miso soup on a good day. But typically, if it was Yosuke’s turn to cook, they tended to end up at a restaurant with his most recent paycheck instead of at the stove with the groceries. Yu always said he didn’t mind, that he liked having a man who'd take him out and show him off (at least, once Yosuke actually got comfortable doing that), but deep down, Yosuke knew he’d have to learn to cook a meal other than breakfast eventually.

Our anniversary is coming up, so what better time to learn? Yosuke figured. It can’t be that hard. Then, remembering the pained expression Yu wore as he lifted his head from his uncle’s sink, Yosuke swallowed his fear and thought again, to reassure himself, It can’t… be that hard… No way…

He’d make Yu a spectacular anniversary dinner if it cost him his life.

That’s what he’d thought, anyway, until he saw Chie eyeing up a banana on her kitchen counter as she stirred her curry. Not until then had he considered it might actually cost him his life.

“Chie, please don’t tell me you’re considering putting that banana in the pot.” Maybe Yosuke didn’t know how to make curry, but he definitely knew curry didn’t have freaking bananas in it.

“Wha--” Chie recoiled defensively. “I just thought it could be a little sweeter, you know?”

“Uh, no.” Yosuke didn’t even want to imagine whatever disaster Chie was thinking of making. “You’d think after all this time you would’ve figured out how to make curry.”

Chie turned to face Yosuke, one hand on her hip and the other pointed directly at him. “Well, if you know so much about curry, why don’t you make that for you guys’ anniversary?”

Yosuke’s mouth twisted a little as he thought it over. He played with his necklace, a gift from Yu, turning its cat pendant over in his hand. “Doesn’t that seem kind of…” He dragged it around its chain. “I don’t know, too safe?”

Chie shrugged. “I dunno, I mean--” She returned to stirring. “We had curry that day you and Naoto brought him back to Inaba.”

The Dojima family had been waiting for them outside when Yu, Yosuke, and Naoto arrived. Yu was already halfway out of the vehicle when Yosuke’s car came to a stop. On a normal day, Yosuke might have scolded his boyfriend for such reckless behavior, but as he saw Yu dash into a group hug with his uncle and cousin, Yosuke couldn’t bring himself to do anything other than watch on with a resigned smile.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen him this emotional,” Naoto said, switching off her phone and stashing it away in her pocket. Through the rear view mirror, Yosuke noticed she was smiling, too.

“It’s been a rough couple of months.” That was an understatement. It’d been more like years. Yosuke hadn’t even the slightest idea how bad it’d been until after they’d gotten together, or how much pain Yu had been hiding behind those intense gray eyes for all that time. But it wasn’t really Yosuke’s place to share that. He had a feeling Naoto might have already deduced that much on her own anyway.

“Shall we join them?”

They did just that, catching up to Yu as he swung open the door to the Dojima household to see the rest of his friends there waiting for him. It was meant to be a surprise -- Naoto had texted everyone ahead of time -- but Yu had already heard them from outside.

Everyone’s quiet hiding spots had been abandoned in favor of stopping the curry from boiling over and destroying Dojima’s kitchen. Not that it prevented Yu from taking each and every one of them into a teary-eyed embrace and turning the surprise around on everyone save for Teddie, who’d glomped Yu first, announcing something about making up for last time. Yosuke’s smile went wry as he made a mental note to ask Teddie later what exactly that was supposed to mean.

But just then wasn’t the time for that conversation.

Yu was finally home. His real home.

“Something smells good,” Yu said once he finished his rounds. “What’s cooking?”

“Curry!” Nanako answered excitedly, practically bouncing as she said it.

“Yeah?” Yu placed a hand on her head and shuffled her hair. She’d grown quite a bit since the last time he’d done that. “Did you make it, Nanako?”

“Mmhm! And Chie and Yukiko and Rise and Teddie all helped, too!”

The color left Yu’s face. “I-is that so?”

Yu and Yosuke both shot Kanji a panicked look. Kanji made a distressed arm motion at the girls, then made an X with his arms and shook his head.

Yukiko dished up a plate and handed it to Yu. “C’mon, try it! We’ve improved since last time.”

The curry was pink.

“It does... smell like curry,” Yu conceded, offering them a smile though his eyes were still screaming in terror.

Rise hooked an arm around his elbow. “I promise you’ll love it!”

They herded Yu to the table. Yosuke went with. As much as he dreaded it, he knew he couldn’t let Yu face this alone. They sat down, side-by-side. Yu accepted a spoon from a very apologetic-looking Kanji, and then stared down his meal.

Yosuke was pretty sure it moved.

Yu glanced up with a nervous chuckle.

Yosuke took his hand, right there in front of everyone, squeezing it and brushing his thumb over Yu’s knuckles. The room seemed to pause, their friends’ eyes widening in realization. No one said a word, until finally Yu shoved the spoon into the rice. “Here goes nothing.”

Yosuke’s brow flattened over his eyes. “You know, Chie, as nice of a memory as that is, I don’t think he’d really want me calling back to that curry.”

“What are you talking about? Yu loved that curry.”

“I hate to have to be the one to tell you this, but he pretended to like that curry for Nanako.” Yosuke grimaced as though the memory slapped him in the face. “I spent the night knocking on the bathroom door to check if he was still alive.”

“Well, just...” Chie hesitated, looking down at her dinner with a mix of worry and guilt. “Don’t make that curry. I mean, we’ve all had curry together a lot since Yu first came to Inaba. I’m sure he has a lot of other good memories attached to it.” She paused again, worry tugging her frown tighter. “...Right?”

And each curry was more questionable than the last, Yosuke considered saying, but seeing as Chie actually seemed to feel bad about the quality of the girls’ cooking for once, he kept it to himself. He spent a few moments thinking over all the meals the former Investigation Team had shared together, from the camping trip to their most recent dinner party at the Amagi Inn, and finally, he replied, “That’s true.”

Chie seemed relieved to hear that, at least. Yosuke uncrossed his arms and pushed himself from the counter he’d been leaning against.

“I’ll keep it in mind. Thanks, Chie.”

*****

Fridge door cracking open. Bottles rattling.

“Oho! I spy with my little eye… a beary delicious snack!”

Yosuke rolled over on his parents’ couch, pulling the pillow over his head as he turned.

Fridge door slam. Tap, tap. Trash can click. Swish, ka-shunk. Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap. Microwave door snap. Dull click of plastic on glassware. Microwave door re-snap. Beep, beep, beep. VRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR--

Yosuke dragged himself into an upright position. “Teddie, do you have any idea what time it is?”

--RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR--

“It’s nighttime, you silly bear!” Drag of kitchen drawer wheels on wood. Rattle of chopsticks. Crash of drawer’s contents as it was slammed shut.

--RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR--

If Yosuke had known Teddie was going to spend the night in his parents’ kitchen instead of his old bedroom, he would’ve slept up there himself. “Are you seriously eating at--” Yosuke turned to the digital clock on the VCR, briefly wondered why his parents still had a VCR, then continued, “--3:47am?”

--RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR--Ding!

“Of course! You and I both know how hastily the freshness window for food court leftovers closes.” Teddie’s voice had an enthusiasm to it that was entirely too awake for the hour. Microwave snap open. Painful yelp. Fabric slide. Plastic scrape. Microwave snap shut. Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap.

Yosuke pushed his bedhead out of his eyes and rubbed them. He crossed his arms over the back of the couch and rested his head in them. “That window’s on a haunted house that’s been locked up for years, Teddie.”

“Sounds like someone’s grumpy. You should go to bed, Yosuke.” Teddie shuffled over, sliding across Mrs. Hanamura’s newly waxed floor and into the living room with a plate of reheated yakisoba balanced in one hand. Yosuke’s heart rate shot up, and not in the good way like it did when Yu kissed his ears.

“Please don’t do that.”

Teddie hopped onto the couch, and despite not living with his parents anymore, Yosuke saw his life flash before his eyes when the fried noodles bounced on the plate. Teddie held up his chopsticks and wagged them teasingly at Yosuke. “Remember the last time we had Junes yakisoba?”

“Yosuke, we’re understaffed. Yosuke, the food court is packed. Yosuke, the newbies don’t know how to use the yakisoba grill,” Yosuke whined mockingly as he scraped burnt shards of noodles and veggies from its surface. He knew it was petty, but it made him feel better. “Yosuke, your day off isn’t as important as this--” He started scraping faster. “--stupid yakisoba grill.”

“How’s my hardworking man doing?”

When Yosuke turned around, there was Yu, standing at the customer window. He was dressed to the nines in a suit that Yosuke never would’ve guessed had come from a thrift shop if he hadn’t been there when Yu bought it.

“Oh, you know me. Nose to the grill… stone.” Yosuke frowned. “It sounded better in my head.” He wiped the crumbs from his scraper with a rag. “How’d your interview go?”

Yu’s smile faltered, and he turned away with a small sigh.

Yosuke leaned over the counter, resting his head in his arms. “That good, huh?”

That got a laugh, albeit a weak one. “I’m getting used to it.”

“You’re not supposed to get used to it, Partner.”

“No, I know, but...” With another sigh, Yu rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s starting to feel like I’ll never find a job.”

Yosuke looked up at Yu, taking in his partner’s gloomy expression until he couldn’t bear it anymore. He pushed himself up, then put his own hand over the one Yu had on his neck and pulled Yu into a kiss. It took a moment, but soon Yu relaxed and leaned into it.

When they parted, Yosuke whispered, “Better?”

Yu broke into a tiny smile and nodded.

Yosuke returned the smile, though it waned as soon as he saw the manager approaching.

The manager was a tiny, older man with a ring of hair crowning his bald skull. He’d been working at that particular Junes location so long he couldn’t be fired.

“Great,” Yosuke mumbled, lowering his head in hopes the manager would move on after a glance.

The manager instead strolled over, then squinted at Yu, giving him a judging once over. “You again?”

“Me again,” Yu confirmed with a small shrug.

The manager turned to Yosuke. “You know we’re not paying you to flirt with your boy toy, right?”

“Yeah,” Yosuke said, slowly looking up.

“Then why is he here?” The manager pointed a thumb at Yu. Yu’s nose scrunched up a bit.

Yosuke shuffled his hair with one hand. “No, I know. But I already took care of the line and cleaned up.”

“Well, maybe,” said the manager, his voice increasing in volume. “If you weren’t so busy making eyes at him, you’d see how much there is to get done around here.”

Yosuke shrunk back, then clenched his fists and stepped forward, mouth open and ready to throw it back, only to be cut off when Yu slapped a thousand yen note into the tray on the counter.

“I’ll take two plates of yakisoba.”

The manager gave Yu a confused scowl. “What?”

Yu met the manager’s eyes, his own eyes blazing with a determination over his otherwise blank face. “I’m a paying customer.”

“Oh, so now that I’m scolding Hanamura, you’re going to buy something?”

“Now that you’ve called him in on a day he asked off several weeks ago...” Yu leaned in, towering over the angry little man. “Yes, I am.”

The manager glared at Yu, then Yosuke, and then he scuttled away, grumbling to himself.

Yosuke let out a relieved sigh, then leaned over the counter and muttered, “Look on the bright side, Partner. At least you’re not stuck working here.”

Yu gave Yosuke a peck on the cheek, then rested his chin in his hand and smiled up at him. “Is it better or worse than working for your dad?”

Yosuke groaned as he pushed himself away from the counter. “So much worse. You don’t even know.” He adjusted his apron and headed back to the grill. Smiling to himself, he flicked on the heat. “But thanks for standing up to him. I know it’s not much, but I’ll whip up some yakisoba for you on the house.”

“Make some for yourself, too.”

“Make it three, Yosuke!” Teddie said, popping up in his mascot costume under Yu’s elbow and making him jump.

“Wha--” Yosuke flinched back, pointed his spatula at Teddie. “Dude, how long have you been there?!”

Yu was still staring at Teddie with slightly widened eyes and a mild look of shock.

“Long enough to see you two get lovey-dovey~!” Teddie sang.

Yosuke groaned. “Get back to work, Ted.”

Teddie sank into a pout until Yu patted his head, then he sprung back to his cheerful self and hopped off to greet a family at a nearby table.

“I swear he spends more time picking on me than actually working,” Yosuke said. He was still annoyed, but there was a familiar affection to his voice.

“Maybe I should apply for his job,” Yu said with a laugh.

“Yeah, maybe,” Yosuke said, starting on the noodles. Then he paused, and turned back to Yu. “Actually, on second thought, don’t. That’d be way too distracting.”

“More distracting than Teddie?” Yu leaned against the counter, resting his chin in his hand. “I’m flattered, Yosuke.”

“That wasn’t that long ago, was it?” Yosuke said, leaning back against the couch. “That was that weekend I asked off because you were visiting our new apartment.” Yosuke’s face fell into a grimace. “...and then we both got roped into working, because Junes is a freakin’ black hole of capitalism.”

“Mmmmm-hm!” Teddie agreed, though he’d done it with half a plate of yakisoba in his mouth and a tone that made it hard to for Yosuke to believe he was even listening.

“If you’re gonna eat it in front of me, at least share,” Yosuke grumbled. “I didn’t get to eat anything at Chie’s.”

“Hmmmmm...” Teddie’s tone decrescendo’d as he thought it over.

“They’re not even your leftovers!”

Yosuke made a swipe for the chopsticks and Teddie leapt from the couch, taking the noodles with him.

“It’s waaaay past your bedtime, Mister!” Teddie chided.

Yosuke tossed his blanket aside and jumped to his feet. “That’s my line!”

*****

Dojima hung up the phone. “Yu called. Said he should be here in an hour.”

“Actually, he texted me saying the trains weren’t running on time because of the weather,” Yosuke said, looking around. The Dojima house was pretty much as he remembered it, save for the fact Nanako’s fridge artwork had vastly improved. Yu had told him she’d been drawing more lately because she had free time at the bus stop after her piano lessons. “Is it okay if I wait here?”

“Yeah.” Dojima glanced at the stairs. “I’m sure Nanako will be right down. You want anything to drink?”

“Sure, I’ll take a soda if you’ve got one.” Yosuke felt his phone buzz in his pocket. He took it out and flipped it open.

Yu: How’s the small talk with my uncle going? ;)

Yosuke’s face fell into a wry smirk.

Dojima opened the fridge and took a can from it. “I’m kinda surprised you two didn’t come down together.”

“They’re understaffed at his job right now, and I had some family stuff I had to be back for, so… You know how it is.”

Dojima answered with a thought-delayed grunt as he handed Yosuke the soda.

Yosuke: reeeeeal arctic u late guy

“Thanks,” Yosuke said. He gave Dojima a nod, then looked back at his phone and frowned.

Yosuke: *arctic elate

Yosuke: **attic undulate

His frown deepened.

Yosuke: ***i hate these new phones

“Hey, Mr. Dojima. Do you have a smartphone?”

Dojima’s face twisted just enough to answer for him. “I can’t stand the thing, but they’re required at work these days.”

Yosuke let out a pained sigh. “You know, I thought relating to you might make me feel better, but now I just feel old.”

Dojima’s brows popped up. “Excuse me?”

Yu: Did you just call my uncle old?

“I mean, not that you’re old,” Yosuke rushed in before Dojima could react beyond his initial shock. “You’re in great shape for a man your…” Yosuke trailed off as it dawned on him that he’d rambled himself into a corner. “...for a man.”

Yosuke glanced down at his screen again, then over to the stairs.

Yosuke: ur texting nanako rn arent u

“Uh… thanks,” Dojima said, an eyebrow raised over a hard gaze.

Yu: I might be

Yosuke: tell her to come downstairs n save me

Dojima sat down at the table with his half-finished mug of coffee. “He was stuck at work though, huh? I sure hope that kid doesn’t end up like his mother.”

“I don’t think you’ll have to worry about that.” Yosuke took a seat across from Dojima. Then, with a wink, he said, “Not to brag, but he can’t stay away from me for that long.”

Dojima kind of laughed, but he also kind of gave Yosuke a wary once over. “How long have you two been together?”

Sweat started to gather on Yosuke’s forehead. He laughed weakly. “Almost a year.”

Yosuke: could use some help here

Yosuke: any time now

“Feels longer,” Dojima said. He took a long sip from his mug. The drops of sweat on Yosuke’s skin were quickly becoming bullets.

Yu: I’m interested in hearing what else you’ll say about me

“Y-yeah… Sure does.” Yosuke pushed out another laugh, noticeably more nervous than the last one.

Yosuke: u want me to tell ur uncle n eves popping cousin abt how the small of ur back is ticklish

Yosuke: *peeve spotting

Yosuke: **EAVESDROPPING

Nanako came bounding down the stairs, and Yosuke couldn’t help but feel a tinge of satisfaction.

“Hello, Yosuke!”

“Hey, Nanako!” Yosuke gave her a wave. “Long time no see.” He leaned toward her with a smirk. “How’s your big bro doing?”

Nanako’s face went pink, and guiltily she replied, “I think he’s a little bored on the train.”

Dojima bounced a slight squint between his daughter and Yosuke, but said nothing.

“I guess it is a pretty long journey,” Yosuke said, scratching the back of his head. “It feels a lot longer when you have to go it alone, too.”

Yosuke and Nanako’s phones buzzed in unison, and they checked them together, almost as though it’d been planned.

Yu: I didn’t bring my net :(

Attached was a photo of a rice grasshopper trapped in the train with him.

Yosuke: dont u dare bring that back with u

Dojima sighed tiredly. “Well, it’s a good thing you have those phones.”

“I—uh, sorry.” Yosuke went to put his phone back in his pocket when it buzzed again.

Yu: I could cook it for dinner

Yosuke frowned deeply and drummed out a curt reply on his screen.

Yosuke: DONT

Nanako burst out into a fit of giggles when she saw it.

“Sorry,” Yosuke repeated with a tired sigh of his own as he relaxed. He slipped his phone into his pocket.

“It’s fine.” Dojima took another sip of his coffee. “Almost a year, you said? Anything special planned?”

“Well...” Yosuke dragged out the word as he cast his eyes to the side and broke into a bashful grin. “Just between us, I thought I could cook one of those real nice romantic dinners for him, but it’s still in the planning stages.”

Dojima chuckled softly. “Somebody seems excited.”

“Oh, that sounds great,” Nanako said, clapping her hands together. “I bet Big Bro will love it!”

“I sure hope so.” Yosuke’s smile waned as his nerves took over. “It’s been a while since I’ve manned a stove outside of Junes.”

“Have you cooked for him since that time he twisted his ankle?” Nanako asked. She’d spoken with zero ill will, but the question stabbed through his heart like a dagger.

Et tu, Nanako?

Clutching his chest, Yosuke melodramatically lamented, “What happened to that kind, innocent girl we used to play with?”

Yosuke dropped the spatula and grasped his hand, seething. “Dammit—“ He turned to Nanako, standing beside him with a plate, looking worriedly up at him. “I mean, darn it!”

“Are you okay?” Nanako asked, setting the plate down on the kitchen table. “I’ll turn on the cold water.” She did just that, and Yosuke put his burn under the water with a wince.

“Thanks.” Yosuke frowned at the red mark on his hand. “I didn’t think making him dinner would be this hard.”

“Is this your first time?”

Yosuke’s frown deepened. “Making eggs? No.” He sighed and turned off the water. “I swear your kitchen hates me.”

Brows pressed together, Nanako hummed in thought. “No, I don’t think that’s it. Maybe you’re just nervous.”

Yosuke laughed, sort of. “What makes you think that?” He made a dismissive motion with his hand and bumped his burn against the kitchen counter. “Sh—Crap,” he squawked, then added in a deeper, but still pained tone, “Crap.”

“You seem antsy.”

“Me? Antsy?” Yosuke asked, too incredulously to be convincing. “Nah...”

The toast popped up, and Yosuke popped up with it.

Nanako squinted at him. “Are you sure?”

“Of course I’m sure!” He leaned against the counter, legs crossed in feigned nonchalance. Then he sniffed once, then twice, and shot around to snatch up the spatula again. “Don’t you dare burn on me, egg!”

Nanako put the toast on the plate. “If you say so.” She set the plate on the table and, taking up a knife, she began spreading butter over the toast.

“I mean, I don’t know.” Yosuke flipped the eggs over and shuffled his hair. “I might be a little nervous. Your big bro is so good at this stuff, you know? It’d be nice to make something he can actually enjoy.”

“I don’t think you’ll have to worry about that, Hanamura,” said Dojima from the couch. He turned the page of the newspaper he was reading. “I once saw him eat grass.”

Yosuke laughed. “What? You mean like plain lettuce?”

“No,” Dojima answered with a tired sigh. “Grass.”

“Hmm...” Nanako’s butter knife slowed to a stop. Her face scrunched up in thought.

“Grass, huh...” Yosuke said, suddenly aware of how tightly the disappointment was stretched across his own features. The egg popped and sizzled, grabbing his attention again. “Oh, oops. I think these are ready. You got the plate, Nanako?”

“R-right here!” she said, straightening up and offering the plate. Yosuke took it from her with a grin.

“Alright, and here we go!” He slapped the eggs onto the toast, one and then the other. “How’s that?” he asked, lowering the plate to show Nanako. “Do you think your big bro will like it?”

“Uh-huh!” she said, beaming up at him. “Big bro likes Yosuke, so I’m sure he’ll like Yosuke’s eggs!”

Yosuke started to respond, then faltered as his face filled with heat. After a tense chuckle, he finally managed, “You really think so?”

“Yeah!” Nanako tugged at the borrowed apron around Yosuke’s waist. “Let’s take it up together!”

Dojima cleared his throat and lowered his paper. “Actually, Nanako, I think he can handle it.”

“Huh?” Nanako turned to her father, mouth agape with surprise. “But--”

“Yosuke’s got it under control, Nanako,” Dojima reassured her with a smile and an awkward wink that didn’t suit his gruff detective exterior in the least.

“Mr. Dojima?” Yosuke began, only to be interrupted by Nanako’s tiny hands pressing into his back.

“You’ve got this, Yosuke!” Nanako announced again, as though Yosuke hadn’t heard Dojima the first time.

“Okay, okay! I’m going. Sheesh.” Yosuke headed up the stairs with the plate. He stopped at Yu’s bedroom door and knocked. “Delivery!”

“Come on in,” Yu called back from the other side. When Yosuke entered, Yu was stretched across his sofa with his wrapped leg propped up on the armrest. Yu looked Yosuke over, then said with a grin, “I didn’t know Junes delivered.”

“Ha ha, very funny,” Yosuke said, unamused. “I made some eggs.” He handed the plate over. “Nanako helped. So, you know--” He paused to shrug. “--it wouldn’t turn out like the girls’ cooking.”

Yu met Yosuke’s eyes. “Thank you, Yosuke.”

Yosuke turned away with a bashful smile. With one hand, he shuffled his hair. “Y-yeah. No biggie, Partner.”

Yu’s eyes wandered over Yosuke, then back up. “That apron’s not a bad look for you.”

Yosuke lit up red, and he turned around even further to hide it. “Oh, uh… thanks.” He shuffled his hair again, then his hand settled on his neck. “It really suits you better, though.”

“You’re right, it does.”

Yosuke turned back around, arms crossed, but smiling. “Dude, humble much?”

Yu chuckled back at him, then met Yosuke’s eyes again. Their eye contact lingered just long enough for their smiles to fade and the pink of their cheeks to brighten. Yu broke it first, laughing again, although more tensely. “I better eat this before it gets cold.”

Yosuke blinked. He shook his head, then ran a hand through his hair to push it back into place. “Yeah, definitely. Enjoy.” He took a seat next to Yu’s work table and made himself comfortable with one of Yu’s cushions. “So how’s your leg holding up?”

Yu turned to his ankle. He lifted it about an inch, winced, and eased it back down. “It’s… sure there alright.”

“Not great, huh?” Yosuke crossed his arms, casting his gaze down at the table. “Sorry I let you down.”

“You didn’t let me down, Yosuke.”

Yosuke’s hand returned to his neck, its grip tightened. “But if I hadn’t freaked out back there, then your ankle wouldn’t be--”

“I’d rather have you than my ankle,” Yu said firmly, his eyes locked on to Yosuke’s. Yosuke stared back, speechless and ironically frozen in spite of the heat slowly rising to his ears. As Yosuke’s gradual color change became visible, Yu broke eye contact, hiding his own pink face behind his fist as he cleared his throat. “I mean, who would make me eggs?”

Yosuke cracked into a smile, then a small laugh. “I’m pretty sure Nanako could handle that.”

“I didn’t mean it like that!” Nanako said, waving her hands. “Sorry, Yosuke.”

“I can forgive you,” Yosuke replied, crossing his arms and turning away with a feigned reluctance. “I guess.”

“Yosuke!” Nanako whined back.

Yosuke patted her on the head. “Kidding, kidding.” He broke into a smile and winked. “Even if I was mad, I’m sure your big bro would plead your case when he gets here.”

Dojima smiled, lowering his mug. “About that anniversary dinner, are you making eggs again?”

“What? Now I’m getting razzed by both of you?” Yosuke sighed and put a hand on his hip. “I’m starting to see where my partner gets it from.”

*****

“Do you want this packed a certain way or…?”

“Just shove it all in,” Yu said, doing just that with his shirts. He took no care to keep them folded or neat, instead hastily stuffing them into his duffel bag and moving on to the next drawer. Naoto wasted no time following orders, sliding the gadgets and trinkets upon Yu’s desk into a large shopping bag Yu had dug out from the cupboard under the kitchen sink earlier.

Yosuke, however, hesitated. “Dude, are you sure? I mean--”

“My parents will be back within the hour.” Yu didn’t look up. “I’d prefer to avoid that conversation.” His voice was strangely calm compared to how he'd sounded over the phone ten minutes prior.

“Agreed,” Naoto said, giving the desk drawers a final check.

With a tense sigh through tight lips and clenched teeth, Yosuke began emptying the contents of Yu’s already sparse shelf into his backpack.

“There’s nothing in here that can’t be ironed or replaced. Most of the sentimental things are already at your place.” Yu smiled as he said that, like a child getting away with a prank. Yosuke hadn’t really thought about it until then, but hearing Yu say it, it dawned on him just how much stuff Yu had smuggled into the Hanamura household, just how many times Yu had brought things over and ‘forgot’ to take them home, just how many times Yu had asked ‘Can I keep this here? Since I’m staying over so often?’, and just how often a flirty wink had been disguising the true nature of those questions.

“We’ll have our own place soon,” Yosuke said, face gradually twisting as he threw Yu’s college textbooks into the bag. “Far away from here. They’ll never hurt you again. I won’t let them.”

Yu turned, meeting Yosuke’s eyes, drawing his mouth tight as he swallowed, then opening it, only to be cut off by a whiny gurgle. Yosuke’s face went pink, and Yu snorted into his fist, hiding a smile behind it.

“It’s not that funny!” Yosuke protested. “C’mon, Partner! This is a serious situation.”

“It’s a little funny,” Yu replied between giggles. Yosuke shook his head and sighed.

“We did skip lunch to be here.” Naoto was wearing this smug, knowing smile that made Yosuke feel like pouting. Why the hell wasn’t her stomach making embarrassing noises, too?

Yosuke sighed. “Honestly, Partner, you're lucky I was in town.”

Yu smiled. “I know I am.” He stood up and kicked the bottom drawer of his dresser shut. He flung his bag over his shoulder. “You two finish up here, I’ll get us something for the road.”

“Good idea.” Naoto nodded. “It’s a long drive to Inaba.”

“Thanks, Partner.”

“No problem, Partner,” Yu said, his duffel bouncing against his back as he left.

Setting aside the warm, fuzzy feeling of the word ‘Partner’ in his partner’s voice, Yosuke frowned slightly, perking up an eyebrow. “Is it just me, or is he enjoying this?”

With a somewhat melancholy smile, Naoto checked under the bed, then behind it. “Though I can’t say for certain, I have a theory,” she paused, standing up straight and placing a hand to her chin. “That freedom may taste different for those who have to seize it for themselves.”

As the words sunk in, Yosuke nodded slowly, packing the last of Yu’s personal belongings, those that didn’t fit into his backpack, into the pockets of his cargo pants. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”

They gave the room one last once over, then joined Yu in the kitchen, where Yu filled Yosuke’s arms with a heavy stack of plastic containers filled with pancit.

Nearly dropping the tower of food he could barely see over, Yosuke asked incredulously, “We’re taking all of this?!”

“I paid for it. I cooked it.” Yu said simply, indifferently. “It’s mine.”

Yosuke looked over the containers. “W-well, alright...”

“Thanks, Babe,” Yu said, giving Yosuke a peck on the cheek and patting his shoulder to point him and his red hot face toward the door.

On her way past him, Naoto relieved Yosuke of the top half of the leftovers, softly chuckling to herself.

Yosuke frowned. “What?”

“I assure you, it’s nothing.”

Yosuke squinted at her from behind the whole way down to his car.

Naoto tapped the side of her water glass. “I know it’s a bittersweet memory, but that drive was really important to him, and he seemed to be genuinely amused when his phone went off over dinner time that evening.”

“Even if he did end up hurling lunch into Dojima’s toilet with that pink curry,” Yosuke muttered.

Naoto tugged down her cap. “Letting the others influence Nanako’s cooking was a mistake.”

“You can say that again.” Yosuke heaved a long, drawn out sigh. “Even after all that Chie still suggested curry. I guess, at least there’s no way I can screw curry up that bad.” He paused, glancing at Naoto’s phone on the table between them. “You have any pancit recipes I could borrow? Or even curry ones?”

“You don’t want to use your boyfriend’s recipes?” Naoto asked with a hint of amusement.

Yosuke set his elbow on the table and motioned to Naoto. “Listen, Yu? He has shockingly few physical, written down recipes for a guy who cooks as much as he does. Why do you think it’s taken me this long to start seriously trying to cook?”

“So, you’ve got a natural on your hands?” With a small grin, Naoto crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair. “Sounds like you’ve got your work cut out for you, Senpai.”

Yosuke sunk his chin into his hands and groaned. “Don’t remind me.”

Naoto laughed gently and picked up her phone. “I’m on the case.”

Yosuke’s expression softened. He smiled back at her. “Thanks.”

*****

“You really think I can make this?” Yosuke made a face at the bowl of poke in front of him.

“It’s super easy to make,” Rise said, reaching over the table to point at the dish. “All you have to do is cut it up, mix it, and season. I make it all the time at home.”

Memories of Rise’s past cooking surfacing in his mind, Yosuke gave her a flat, incredulous frown in response. “Really?”

“You don’t believe me, do you?”

Yosuke’s frown deepened. “Can you blame me?” He put his elbow on the table and motioned his hand at her. “Don’t you remember that omelet?”

“That was years ago, Senpai!” Rise crossed her arms with a huff so big it made her over-sized sunglasses sink down her nose. She glared at him over the rims. “Besides, it wasn’t even that bad. You guys just have no taste.”

And yet, Yosuke thought as he let out a pained sigh, you brought me here instead of making it yourself. A younger Yosuke would have said it aloud, but this time he only considered it just before realizing those words might result in Rise dragging him out of the restaurant and into exactly the kind of situation he wanted to avoid.

Maybe Yu was rubbing off on him more than he thought. Not that it was a bad thing.

“Fine, whatever.” Yosuke rubbed his forehead. “But please tell me there’s a way to make this that doesn’t involve so much fish.”

“But I thought Yu liked fish?”

Yosuke lifted his head away from his hand and gave Rise a confused squint. “You know, I kinda thought I’d make something the two of us could eat together.”

Rise sat up straight. “Wait, you don’t like fish?”

“No?”

“Then why didn’t you ever say anything?”

“I did!” Yosuke snapped back. “All the time! Back in high school I used to talk about it so much I die a little inside every time I think about it!”

“Huh.” Rise fell back into her chair. “I must’ve tuned it out.”

Yosuke hid his face in his hands and groaned. Yep. As expected, there it was again. That dying feeling.

Rise’s brows bunched together. Twirling a lock of her hair, she said, “But back in LA, I remember for sure, you didn’t say a word when I got poke for you guys then.”

Yosuke lowered his hands and let one of them slap down on the table. “Yeah, because your bear of a foreign bodyguard was glaring at us the whole time.”

“What are you talking about? Kevin’s a sweetheart.”

“Maybe to you. I could’ve sworn one wrong move would’ve landed me and my partner in the hospital for the rest of the trip.”

“I told you! His face just looks like that; he can’t help it!” Rise said, hands perched on her hips. “Besides, you didn’t complain when I came back without him either!”

“Don’t forget, my concert starts at eight sharp, okay?”

Yu and Yosuke, dragged their eyes away from the bald six foot seven man towering over them, tattoos winding up his arms and to his face that glittered with piercings, and shared a wary glance.

Yu swallowed. “Got it,” he said.

Yosuke, chewing slowly, with a pained expression, merely nodded.

“See you two later!” Rise left with a wave on her way out, pigtails bouncing behind her.

The hotel room door clicked shut.

Yosuke spat a red chunk of tuna and gasped, “Finally!” Yu ran his hand up and down Yosuke’s back as Yosuke gagged and continued, “Ugh… You know, Partner. I thought I’d be free from all that fishy stuff in the States.”

Yu had said not a word, instead chewing his poke in silence. It wasn’t until Yosuke looked at his partner that he realized Yu was a bit pale.

“You alright, Partner?”

Yu swallowed again. “His fist is the size of your head.”

Yosuke scooted closer and wrapped his arm around Yu’s waist. “Oh, c’mon,” he said, forcing out a grin. “We’ve faced scarier things inside the TV, right? He’s nothing.” Yu gave Yosuke a sidelong gaze that sunk down to the chewed up tuna in Yosuke’s take out box and rose back up to Yosuke’s face. “Y-you know what?” Yosuke patted Yu’s bicep. “I bet you could cut him down with one blow.”

Yu chuckled weakly, but his smile remained. “Thanks.” He leaned over, eyes falling shut, pressing his lips to Yosuke’s cheek.

Blush steadily climbing his face, Yosuke mumbled, “Yeah… No problem.” He tugged Yu back in by the cat pendant that hung around his neck. They kissed, once, then twice, then once more; their mouths slowly falling open a little more with each return until Yosuke scrunched up his nose and pulled back. “Geez, dude. You taste like that tuna.”

With a bright-eyed grin, Yu tossed their take out boxes onto the nightstand and fell back onto the plush hotel bed, dragging Yosuke down with him. Like magnets, their lips clicked back together.

“Yosuke? Hello?” Rise waved her hand over Yosuke’s eyes. “Earth to Yosuke?”

Yosuke snapped back to reality, his dopey grin disappearing in an instant. “Wha...” He pushed Rise’s hand out of his face. “The hell?”

“So...” Rise smirked as she settled back into her seat. “What were you thinking about that was so good you had to clock out of our chat, Senpai?”

Yosuke shot a couple uneasy glances around the restaurant. “Oh, you know, just...” He cleared his throat. “Thinking about how good this would be without fish.” He laughed tersely.

“Reeeeeally?” Rise asked, drawing out the word in such a way that Yosuke had to swallow his embarrassment before he replied.

“Yes, reeeeeally,” he echoed back, drowning his mortification in sarcasm.

Rise giggled. “I might be able to find some vegetarian recipes.”

Yosuke sighed, relieved. “Thanks.”

*****

“Yosuke,” Yu laughed. “How far are we going?”

Yu inched forward gingerly, blinded by Yosuke’s hands. Beneath those hands, he was grinning from ear to ear.

“Not much further,” Yosuke reassured him from over Yu’s shoulder.

Though his smile didn’t falter, Yu squirmed a bit. “Your hair tickles.”

“We’re almost there, alright?”

Yu laughed again. “I didn’t say I didn’t like it.”

“Dude,” Yosuke said with a slight frown.

After a few missed swipes, Yu clumsily patted Yosuke’s arm. Then surprise cleared his face, and he sniffed the air. “Something smells good.”

Yosuke brought his blinded partner to a stop, then removed his hands to reveal the colorful spread of dishes all across their small table in a kitchen dotted with candles’ flames.

Yu’s eyes went wide. “Yosuke, did you...”

“I hope it tastes as good as it smells.” Yosuke leaned into Yu’s field of vision and winked at him. Yu took Yosuke by the arm and pulled him up into a firm kiss. Once the shock faded, Yosuke eased into it, letting his eyes fall shut and settling his hands on the belt at Yu’s hips.

Yu grinned as they drifted out of the kiss. “I’m sure it will.” His eyes gave Yosuke’s face a once over, and his hand curled around Yosuke’s nape, thumbing the necklace chain. “But will it taste as good as you?”

Yosuke snorted. “What am I? Dessert?”

“No, tonight that’s me.”

“How can you say that stuff with a straight face?” Yosuke asked, his face aglow in the dim room. Yu only laughed. Yosuke tugged Yu toward the table. “C’mon, we gotta enjoy this mood lighting before it sets off the fire alarm.”

“Classy.”

“Shut up, dude,” Yosuke shot back, smiling despite his words. “Anyway...” He pulled out one of their old, worn out second-hand kitchen chairs and motioned to it with a flourish. Yu met his eyes, smiling with anticipation as he took a seat. Yosuke pushed Yu’s chair in and proceeded with his best waiter impression, “Tonight’s main entree is curry. For side dishes, we have pancit, veggie poke, and yakisoba mixed with eggs on toast.”

Yu’s smile fell as his mouth fell open.

“Something wrong, Partner?”

“No, it’s just…” Yu pushed his hair back behind his ear and chuckled. “This spread’s a real trip down memory lane.”

Yosuke matched him with a nervous laugh of his own as he sat across the table. “Yeah, I, uh… I got some suggestions while we were visiting Inaba.”

Yu narrowed his eyes over his returning smile. “Is that what you were up to while I was out?”

“You caught me.” Yosuke’s shoulders lifted with a resigned shrug.

“Whose idea was the curry?”

“Chie’s.” Fear flashed over Yu’s eyes, and Yosuke rushed to add, “But I swear the recipe isn’t hers.” Yu breathed a visible sigh of relief, and Yosuke gave him a wry smirk. “C’mon, Partner. Have more faith in me than that.”

“Alright, alright.” Yu said, amusement brightening his face.

Yosuke cast an embarrassed look toward his lap, rubbing his neck. “I can always count on you to be there for me, Partner. Not just to cook, but any time I need you, and I…” He lifted his head to meet Yu’s eyes. “I wanted you to know you can do the same. I'm always here, Yu.” Yosuke laid his arm on the table, offering his open palm.

“Yosuke.” Yu placed his hand into Yosuke’s, clasping it tight. He took up his spoon, but paused it above his plate as he dreamily gazed across the way at his partner, eyes glistening with darts of candlelight. “I love you.”

Beaming radiantly, Yosuke answered, “I love you, too, Partner.” He took up Yu’s hand in both of his, squeezing Yu’s fingers under his thumbs. “Happy anniversary.”