Re: Complicated 1d/??
anonymous
June 29 2012, 14:06:40 UTC
These days Souji was a little different though, more unhinged and kind of…Yosuke couldn’t really put his finger on it. He’d just noticed lately that Souji hadn’t been as reserved or calm, especially when they got together. Chie and the others wouldn’t have noticed it, since Souji was a picture of perfection when they were around, so it was pointless talking to them about it and Yosuke wasn’t sure if it was just him being dumb.
Souji wasn’t like him. His grades had ended up being good enough to give him the luxury of choice and his parents had made it sound like his enrolment in Tokyo had been planned from birth. Although Yosuke had never met the infamous Setas, he had heard plenty. They were rigid people, the sort who wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer and planned everything years in advance. It was easy to see why Souji was the way he was, or why he felt the need to be so elaborate about everything.
#
“You want to come visit?” Souji had asked yesterday, calmly and like he was talking about a friendly get-together. It had been obvious what he’d been implying, especially after telling Yosuke all about the argument over the phone and calmly informing him of how ticked off he was.
“Sure”. Yosuke, as always, had spoken before his brain could catch up, but it wasn’t like he’d been doing anything anyway. He’d spent the following train ride to Okina in anticipation, trying not to look antsy or earn himself any strange glances. Somehow, it had felt like everyone in the carriage had known that night, that they could somehow read his mind.
A brief exchange of words on Souji’s doorsteps had turned in a heated kiss before Yosuke could reach to remove his shoes, the other boy’s hands pulling at his jacket and sliding into the back pockets of his jeans without permission. Souji hadn’t wanted to talk. Yosuke’s weight had slammed the front door closed and he’d pulled at Souji eagerly, forgetting whatever words might have been on his lips and letting it happen. He’d been half hard already just from thinking about it, something that Souji’s wandering hand had soon discovered on it’s own. Yosuke had caught sight of their reflection in the TV screen, of Souji’s hand buried down his underwear and his mouth on his neck, warm breath heating the skin and God - Yosuke suddenly hadn’t really given a damn about why Souji was so worked up.
Souji had promptly dragged him from the door and in the direction of the bedroom, shedding Yosuke’s clothes with his intense grey eyes pinned onto Yosuke hungrily. Things had continued against the wall, Souji’s hand wrapped around his cock and his own erection pressed against Yosuke’s thigh, rocking against it while Yosuke had done his best to suck at his tongue. Souji was always insistent, always knew exactly what he wanted like he’d spent the entire day thinking about it, just waiting for Yosuke to arrive. Most of the time, the sex they had was urgent and rough, a race between them both to satisfy whatever need they had at the time. Sometimes it was clumsy, but it was never really bad. They’d learned each other’s preferences by now and Yosuke had gotten braver and keener, reluctance lessened by the time his legs had found themselves tightly wrapped around Souji’s waist and he had been shoved onto the futon.
Yosuke rarely had any more of those ‘what the fuck am I doing’ moments anymore. He’d gotten used to it and the whole thing had become another part of his messed up life. He wasn’t quite sure how fucking his best friend had become acceptable, but it had. An inexperienced kiss on the Samegawa and a few weeks of fumbling around in Souji’s empty house had turned into this. It had been more than enough to help Yosuke confirm that he was definitely bisexual and that yeah, maybe Kanji wasn’t such a weirdo for liking dudes, after all.
Re: Complicated 1e/??
anonymous
June 29 2012, 14:14:29 UTC
Souji’s argument with his parents must have been pretty serious, not that Yosuke was complaining. The stickiness and the sheen of sweat afterwards had been an accomplishment, but right now he needed to wash it off and pretend that it hadn’t happened. If Souji minded him using his shower gel and shampoo, he never said, so Yosuke had taken to using it anyway. He cleaned himself up, pulled on his jeans and v-neck and attempted to towel dry his hair, wiping at the steamed over mirror and frowning at a noticeable red mark in the spot between his shoulder and collarbone. If it bruised, he was going to have to rethink his choice of clothing for the next few days.
The extra toothbrush next to Souji’s bothered him for a moment, before he realised it was meant for him and picked it up, bewildered. Souji was a weirdo - only he would ever think to buy Yosuke a toothbrush for when they…geez, just how much thought had he put into this? It bothered Yosuke a little, to see plain evidence that Souji had actually thought about it, maybe just as much as he had. The fact that he’d gone and bought a toothbrush unsettled Yosuke a lot more than it should have. It was hardly a groundbreaking discovery. He was probably over thinking it. Maybe Souji had just bought a new one and kept his old one…that made sense. That was probably it.
After rinsing his mouth, Yosuke pulled on his socks and ventured out of the bathroom to try and find his shoes, beginning the hunt near the kitchen door and glancing under the desk. There had been a time in the past when Souji had ended up helping him look for his pants for a whole hour, which had been one of the most embarrassing moments of Yosuke’s year. He crawled to look under the desk next, brow furrowed and ears failing to hear quiet footfalls sounding on the carpet behind him. A toe prodding him squarely on the left side of his ass made him jump.
“Partner! D-don’t do that,” he turned his head to look at Souji, who was standing in a pair of black sweatpants and holding a cup of either tea or coffee, a ghost of a smile pulling at his lips. Had he somehow teleported into the kitchen without leaving the futon?
“Your shoes are by the door,” he informed Yosuke easily, watching him groan and head off in that direction. “Did you want breakfast?”
“Uh, no…” Yosuke replied sheepishly, straightening and trying to avoid Souji’s searching stare and distract himself by looking for the missing footwear. They were both aware of what he’d been doing up so early, which somehow made it worse. “I gotta catch the train - Sunday shift, you know?”
“Oh,” Souji leaned against the doorframe, composed, “weren’t you in on Sunday last week, too?”
“Well, I kinda swapped it with someone, because they were doing something important that day, so…” He had the urge to add ‘I’m telling the truth’, but that would be weird - the same reason that he wasn’t going to mention the toothbrush thing.
“Mm,” was Souji’s reply, partially muffled by his cup. He walked over towards the futon, neatness coming before breakfast as he tried to straighten the sheets and replace the pillows.
Re: Complicated 1f/??
anonymous
June 29 2012, 14:17:27 UTC
Yosuke found his shoes and picked one up, watching Souji distractedly. He’d always found the other boy pleasing to the eye; Souji was slim and angular and toned enough to have form and firmness to his upper and lower body. They didn’t get anywhere near the amount of the exercise they had back when they’d fought Shadows in the TV world, but Souji still looked good. Yosuke often looked at him, even when they were in the company of the others, and he thought that Souji probably knew. After all, they wouldn’t have this arrangement if they didn’t find one another attractive.
“It’ll give you more money for your motorcycle, I suppose”.
“Huh? Oh, yeah,” Yosuke scratched his head, clearing his throat and pushing his foot into the shoe. “I totally should’ve had it by now - would’ve, if it hadn’t been for Chie and her trips to the Meat Dimension. You know she still goes on about that DVD? Even after I bought her a replacement for her birthday! I gotta get money for my bike somehow”.
Souji smiled, squinting over his cup at him, “I suppose you do”.
Yosuke found the other shoe, hesitating a little and feeling stupid. This was what he’d been trying to avoid: small talk. He would be absolutely fine in an hour or two - why did Souji always have to catch him off guard and make him seem like an idiot? Sometimes it annoyed Yosuke, seeing his friend so together the morning after, so completely unfazed. It was like since the whole business with Adachi and the Shadows had ended, Souji had seen so many things that nothing bowled him over anymore. Yosuke’s flustered attempts to be mature and serious about this arrangement merely amused him, like he got some kind of extra kick out of seeing Yosuke trying to overlook the elephant in the room.
“Speaking of Chie…did you get the text about everyone meeting on Tuesday?” Yosuke tried instead.
Souji lowered his cup, “…I can’t make it”.
“You’re kidding?” Yosuke was disappointed, turning to look at him. They couldn’t have a get-together without their leader. That would just be wrong. “But we’ve had it planned for a whole month!”
“I know…it’s just that I’m supposed to be having dinner at Dojima’s. It didn’t feel right to turn him down, especially since he took time off to be there…sorry to bail on you all”.
“Dude, it’s cool, I guess. You’ll be in Inaba, so we might see you anyway,” Yosuke waved it off, deflated and a little angry but offering a smile. He picked his jacket off the floor, “So…uh, I guess I’ll maybe see you Tuesday. I’ll call…” he stopped himself, his mouth twisting awkwardly, “we’ll talk soon”.
“Tell the others I’m sorry”.
“Yeah…” Yosuke raised a hand and headed for the door, aware of Souji observing his exit as he left the apartment. He fumbled with his wallet in the corridor, trying to find the train ticket from yesterday and glancing at his watch before heading down the stairs. The whole point of reuniting the team had been because Rise was coming home for the week, which would mark the first time they had all been present in over two months. Yosuke knew the others were going to be seriously disappointed and he doubted that Rise of all people would appreciate Souji bailing on her.
Rest of the prompt coming up in later parts - this is my first time writing something like this, so hopefully I'm not doing too badly. I didn't really mean for it to turn out this long, but I've ended up with a plot and everything, haha.
Re: Complicated (2a/??)
anonymous
July 17 2012, 11:30:47 UTC
Thank you so much for all your comments, anons. Reading them made me so happy and I’m really keen to do my best on this :3
“Yosuke! Yosukeee! I’m coming out now!”
Yosuke backed towards the television in the electronics department hurriedly - the same one, still here even after all this time but at a significantly reduced price. A couple were talking nearby and he prayed they hadn’t heard. He blocked the screen from view and tried really hard to conceal what was happening, pressing against the dark screen firmly and hiding the centre. This would’ve been a hint to most people that the coast wasn’t clear yet, but apparently not to a certain dumb bear. Eyes trained on the approaching couple, Yosuke mumbled pointedly, “Just…wait a sec - I said wait!!” He gave his best ‘customer appreciation’ smile as the couple strolled by and received an odd look in return, then used his hand to ruthlessly shove at an over-eager head that was trying to emerge from the dark screen.
Sometimes Yosuke forgot how annoying Teddie could be, but it never took the bear long to remind him. Thankfully, somehow, the customers chose to do their shopping elsewhere, their feet sounding on the polished floor as they left. Yosuke’s jaw clenched with relief, but it was short-lived. He stumbled at the force of being head butted in the small of his back, managing to catch himself just before Teddie appeared in the electronics department of Junes. Thankfully, he was in human form, although what difference that actually made, Yosuke wasn’t sure. Teddie tumbled out of the television ungracefully and bumped down onto the hard floor, an announcement chiming in overhead about a sale on kitchenware as he did so. He landed pretty hard and he didn’t seem to care, just like he wasn’t affected by the irritated look Yosuke was currently aiming at him.
“It’s been unbearable waiting for Tuesday!” he declared victoriously, loud enough for anyone to hear.
“I told you to wait! Someone could’ve…!” Yosuke face palmed, sighing and checking around quickly to ensure that the area was definitely clear. The couple had, mercifully, moved on by now - he could see them walking underneath the store’s bright lights and heading in the direction of the elevators. The thought of someone seeing Teddie flying out of a TV was just…urgh. What was the point? The bear was hardly going to listen now, was he?
“Yosuke! What’s this thing and why does it have a red sticker?” Teddie had found something else to pay attention to and Yosuke turned reluctantly, horrified to see him about to pick up a ¥23,000.00 HD camcorder and grabbing his arm forcefully. He pulled the curious ‘boy’ out of reach of the colourful display promptly, dragging him in the direction of the food court and ignoring his humiliating protests.
The memory of Teddie’s previous incident with a display item, not to mention the punishment, made Yosuke groan. These new products might be shockproof, but to Yosuke’s knowledge, nothing was ‘Teddie-proof’. He still remembered the silence that had befallen the department after Teddie had done the remarkable feat of destroying a waterproof camera by dropping it in his ice cream soda. “How come you’re late anyway?”
“You know how hard it is to tell the time over there!” Teddie’s unnaturally blue eyes feigned offence. He waved his arms around in an overdramatic gesture like a spoiled child and shot off, unsupervised. “You’re always so mean to me, Yosuke! I’m telling Sensei!!”
There wasn’t much chance of that, since Souji wasn’t coming. Yosuke had yet to actually inform anyone of that and to be honest he begrudged doing so. Souji really should have told them himself, not left Yosuke to deal with the almost certain aggro that would result. A phone call wasn’t hard, or even a quick text or email. Souji could’ve replied to Chie’s text and saved them a lot of trouble; he couldn’t be that busy. It wasn’t the ‘dinner at Dojima’s’ thing that had pissed Yosuke off; it was this - the whole ‘messenger boy’ role.
Re: Complicated (2b/??)
anonymous
July 17 2012, 11:32:34 UTC
Very little changed in Inaba, which was something he had come to accept after the murders had been solved. One exception didn’t really change a whole town and it would’ve been stupid to believe otherwise, because Inaba could never be mistaken for Tokyo or Osaka. People in these sorts of places hated change, so of course they’d reverted back to normal. Who wouldn’t? They’d probably learned to be more cautious…and maybe people still got jumpy when they had fog, but Adachi was behind bars and the police were more visible around the town.
As for the Investigation Team’s old headquarters…they still met there occasionally, at least Yosuke and Souji often did when he was visiting. It wasn’t uncommon these days to see other teenagers sitting at the same spot they once had though, hanging out with their friends and oblivious to the table’s meaning. None of them had ever had to face their Shadow or jump through a TV to save a friend or a stranger. With the TV World being a very different place these days, Yosuke didn’t think it unreasonable to hope that no one would ever go through the same things they had. Sometimes he still found himself waking up at midnight with his gaze drifting towards the TV, but nothing ever happened. Souji had admitted to doing it too, so maybe they all had habits from those days that were difficult to break.
Still, Yosuke had been looking forward to Tuesday, to seeing everyone. They didn’t gather as a group that often these days because everyone was off doing different things. Souji was in Okina, Naoto went between police departments, Rise had gone back into showbiz and the rest of them had all gotten jobs after graduating high school. Even Kanji was earning an honest wage, helping his mother out and doing commissions in her textile store. Maybe Inaba hadn’t changed, but Yosuke supposed they all had, at least a little. It had only been around two years, yet he had to keep reminding himself of that.
Just because Souji wasn’t going to be here tonight didn’t mean the night would suck. Teddie had reached the others first and Yosuke raised a hand cheerfully upon spotting them, picking out their little group easily. On a cool evening like this, when the sun was due to start setting at any moment, they were among the only people in the foot court. The place would close soon, when the long shadows of the tables and umbrellas had crept up the side of the building and eclipsed the bright sale promotions.
Unsurprisingly, Chie was eating. This time it was a large burger and Yosuke could practically hear his wallet sigh in relief. Naoto sat at the far left neatly, next to Kanji with Yukiko across from her - the Detective Prince’s hair was getting pretty long, but she and Yukiko were still like mirror opposites. Yosuke opened his mouth to return their greetings and was instead attacked by an ever-enthusiastic Rise Kujikawa, caught off guard when she gave him an obligatory squeeze that would’ve left him red-faced in the past. It still sort of did, he found himself grinning at it.
“Senpai!” She almost knocked the air out of him. “How’s it goin’?”
“Great,” he replied automatically, “and before you say I’m late, you should know that it was all Ted’s fault”. He took a seat across from Chie, expecting some sort of comeback from the bear and ready with his own. Teddie hadn’t even sat down yet though, still lingering beside Rise and looking around restlessly. Yosuke’s mouth tightened when he realised what he was doing - he was looking for Souji - and any minute now…
“Where’s Sensei?”
Great. Now everyone was looking at the empty seat and searching around for him, like he would be dumb enough to sit at the wrong table or be unable to find them. Yosuke cringed. The only other people here besides them were a group of girls and a family with young children. Yosuke leaned on the table and waited for all the eyes to fall on him, which they eventually did. There was silence, but he didn’t take the bait.
Re: Complicated (2c/??)
anonymous
July 17 2012, 11:35:17 UTC
“Now that you mention it, he didn’t answer my text,” Chie recalled, searching her pocket for her cell phone.
“Maybe his train is delayed,” Yukiko suggested, being optimistic. Yosuke dimly wondered if that could be a plausible excuse for him to use.
“I don’t recall seeing any delays to the Okina line when I arrived an hour ago,” Naoto calmly shot the idea down in flames, “I could perhaps use my phone to check-“
“He’s not coming,” Yosuke came straight out with it, drawing everyone’s attention and holding his breath at the silence. He hurried to correct himself upon seeing Rise’s expression, realising what it sounded like. “I mean…not that he didn’t want to come…he just can’t make it. Family stuff”. There, that sounded right and it wasn’t a total lie. Time to change the subject and get on with their evening. He was hungry and he wasn’t settling for the day’s leftovers.
“Aww…” Rise looked so disappointed that Yosuke thought that Souji had better be feeling really guilty about this. Out of all of them, he was probably the one that Rise had wanted to see the most, given that she had clearly carried a torch for him in high school. “I was really looking forward to catching up with him, he’s always so busy”.
“Hey, we’re all here,” Yosuke pointed out, motioning to their group.
“Uh…is everything ok?” Chie fixed her eyes on him questioningly. Souji rarely bailed on anyone, even though a lot of people fought for his time. Maybe they should just let it go, Yosuke didn’t want to be a jerk over the whole thing and he certainly didn’t want to be responsible for ruining the night.
Rise recovered quickly, throwing up her hands in typically dramatic fashion instead. “Ok! I brought presents!”
“Presents?!” Thanks to his short attention span, Teddie suddenly forgot all about Souji.
“Seriously?” Kanji’s eyebrows rose upon seeing the large bag she was about to dump on the table.
“I brought back exclusive merchandise from my tour, silly,” she smiled, revealing a small plastic gift bag printed with the cover of her latest album. “One of these for everyone - only backstage VIPs are allowed to get their hands on this stuff!”
Yosuke had to admit, that was pretty cool. Having Risette as a friend brought with it a lot of neat perks, although Teddie was getting way too excited over that foldout poster. Where the hell would he put it inside the TV anyway?
Re: Complicated (2d/??)
anonymous
July 17 2012, 11:38:11 UTC
Somehow, Yosuke ended up going to pay for the final refill of sodas. The food court closed in about twenty minutes and they were all trying to agree on a plan of action. Where did they move onto next? Yukiko had already ruled out the Amagi Inn and there weren’t that many places to go around here. Okina might be their only choice, Yosuke thought, because at least they could go to a club or see a movie. Naoto was making the whole thing too complicated and there was no way that Kanji was capable of making a decision with that many choices.
Straight after Yosuke paid for their refills, the cashier closed and pulled down the shutter to lock up. Yosuke took both ends of the tray to lift it and take the drinks over, pausing when he glimpsed Chie standing behind and leering at him in the window glass. He turned round reluctantly, noting that she probably wasn’t here for her drink. “…What’s up?”
Her leer faltered uncertainly at that. “You’ve barely said a word to me all right”. Oh, shit, that wasn’t a leer; it was a look of concern, maybe even uneasiness. At least she wasn’t mad... “Something happen?”
Guilt stung Yosuke hard. He hesitated, well aware that he was digging himself into a hole already. “It’s…nothing”. Great, he couldn’t have picked a more suspicious reply even if he’d tried. He was going to have to say something else. “Seriously, I’ve just had a bad day at work - I’ll be fine when we get away from this place”.
Chie’s hair had gotten a little longer, though the style remained the same. She still wasn’t much for hair spray and high-heels, more likely to be content with overpriced steak and bad martial arts movies. Out of all of them, she’d probably changed the least, but the relationship her with Yosuke had changed. A lot.
He looked over to the others, seeing them engrossed in conversation and now the only crowd left in the food court. Chie wasn’t budging, she knew him too well, he guessed. Right about now, he was probably giving off some serious vibes despite his best efforts. Yosuke really sucked at hiding himself and he’d known Chie the longest out of all his friends. As he’d discovered numerous times, there were various disadvantages to knowing someone that well.
“Did you and Souji fight?” Chie concluded, thinking and tilting her head in a bid to read Yosuke’s surprised face. “You guys never fight,” she reminded him mystifyingly, eyebrows meeting, “not since Namatame”.
Yeah, that was because instead of fighting these days they usually did…other stuff.
Yosuke felt the guilt beginning to seep to the surface where it might be seen and immediately hid it with a laugh, because if it was one thing he could do, it was laugh off pretty much anything. “Huh? We didn’t fight. He’s at Dojima’s tonight, that’s all”.
“Ohh…” His reaction must’ve been at least a little convincing, because Chie smiled and looked less apprehensive. Apparently, the idea of him and Souji fighting was of great concern to everyone. It would be almost funny, if it weren’t for what Chie said next. “You should’ve just said that in the first place! I was starting to think that you’d told him about us and you guys had gotten into a fight. Don’t worry me like that, you jerk”.
Yosuke attempted to laugh along with her, because it was a really funny idea - hilarious even - but his reaction came out a little over keen and forced and she noticed, silencing to give an annoyed sigh now. “Uh, Chie-“ he tried to amend.
“Ah, I should’ve known,” she shrugged, giving his shoulder a very hard shove. “You didn’t tell him”.
Re: Complicated (2e/??)
anonymous
July 17 2012, 11:39:44 UTC
“It wasn’t really…the right time”. Yosuke looked back towards the others, sort of hoping to see one of them on their way over to rescue him. No such luck, Rise was telling some big story that had the others hooked. Yosuke thought this might be the deepest hole he’d dug himself into in weeks, besides the other more obvious pit. “I mean…Souji and I talked over the weekend, but he started going on about having an argument with his parents, and, uh…”
‘And then we sort of dry humped each other against the bedroom wall and I let him fuck me up the ass because hey, that’s what we do when we’re pissed off’.
Yosuke made a sour sort of face, one constructed with great effort to control his guilt mechanism and making him look like he’d eaten something bad.
“Souji’s the only one who doesn’t know - even Rise knew - and it’s been two weeks,” Chie’s hand stilled on his arm. Instead of looking pissed, she actually seemed sort of weary and disappointed. It wasn’t a good look for her. She and Yosuke were the very definition of awkward around one another; their relationship was dumb because they were dumb. For a while, Yosuke hadn’t even been sure if he and Chie had anything going at all, because they’d just seemed to do the exact same stuff they’d always had and it had been confusing, so why would he have told Souji if he wasn’t sure and… Yeah…right now he felt pretty ill.
“I’ll just tell him the next time we talk,” he offered, fingers touching the plastic tray to show that he really wanted to end this conversation and go back to the table now.
“Or…you could do it tonight,” Chie pointed out, brightening like she’d just had the greatest idea of the night. “He’s in Inaba now, isn’t he?”
“With Dojima,” Yosuke made clear, gripping the tray firmly to lift it. “I can’t just go barging in when they’re eating”.
“I think you should”.
Yosuke almost said ‘why’ and only just managed to stop himself. Asking for an explanation over that might earn him a galactic punt. He felt like a serious douchebag - he was a douche - because just about everyone hated guys who did this kind of stuff, didn’t they? You saw it in movies and on TV and it never ended well for them. He didn’t even know how he’d gotten into this mess, it wasn’t like he’d made any sort of conscious decision, he hadn’t worked it all out in his head or gone out of his way to plan everything like a creep. It had just happened and he’d been…with Souji, who was definitely, unmistakably male and totally his best friend. Fuck. This wasn’t him. This was really, really bad. It was worse than the usual situations he somehow always got himself into, but at the same time it had ‘Hanamura’ written all over it. It was just that lame and stupid.
“If you’re gonna keep putting it off,” Chie warned, “then he’s gonna find out from someone else. How do you think that’ll make him feel? I don’t see what the big deal is, maybe Yukiko or I should do it?” She looked him straight in the eye and he understood what this was really about - she thought it was her. Chie thought he didn’t want to tell Souji because he was embarrassed. She wouldn’t ever admit it out loud, she’d sooner knee him in the stomach than admit her insecurity, but Yosuke could tell. That made him feel worse.
“No…I’ll do it”.
Some seriously messy situations coming up lol (as well as some Jerkji and a Shadow - can’t yet decide upon whose, but there’s just too many lies here not to have one pop out, if you know what I mean).
Re: Complicated (2e/??)
anonymous
July 27 2012, 08:21:48 UTC
i only noticed the update now. oh god, how could you let us with such a big cliffhanger? it's pure evil (but you're a very talented and amazing writer so nobody can hold it against you. you have us all loving you lovely anon).
Re: Complicated (2e/??)
anonymous
August 22 2012, 05:50:01 UTC
oh my god nooooo I'm too engrossed in this now. I love the characterizations. Souji being so detached is totally new for me but I love it! Hope you update soon ;3;;;;;;; *bookmarks*
These days Souji was a little different though, more unhinged and kind of…Yosuke couldn’t really put his finger on it. He’d just noticed lately that Souji hadn’t been as reserved or calm, especially when they got together. Chie and the others wouldn’t have noticed it, since Souji was a picture of perfection when they were around, so it was pointless talking to them about it and Yosuke wasn’t sure if it was just him being dumb.
Souji wasn’t like him. His grades had ended up being good enough to give him the luxury of choice and his parents had made it sound like his enrolment in Tokyo had been planned from birth. Although Yosuke had never met the infamous Setas, he had heard plenty. They were rigid people, the sort who wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer and planned everything years in advance. It was easy to see why Souji was the way he was, or why he felt the need to be so elaborate about everything.
#
“You want to come visit?” Souji had asked yesterday, calmly and like he was talking about a friendly get-together. It had been obvious what he’d been implying, especially after telling Yosuke all about the argument over the phone and calmly informing him of how ticked off he was.
“Sure”. Yosuke, as always, had spoken before his brain could catch up, but it wasn’t like he’d been doing anything anyway. He’d spent the following train ride to Okina in anticipation, trying not to look antsy or earn himself any strange glances. Somehow, it had felt like everyone in the carriage had known that night, that they could somehow read his mind.
A brief exchange of words on Souji’s doorsteps had turned in a heated kiss before Yosuke could reach to remove his shoes, the other boy’s hands pulling at his jacket and sliding into the back pockets of his jeans without permission. Souji hadn’t wanted to talk. Yosuke’s weight had slammed the front door closed and he’d pulled at Souji eagerly, forgetting whatever words might have been on his lips and letting it happen. He’d been half hard already just from thinking about it, something that Souji’s wandering hand had soon discovered on it’s own. Yosuke had caught sight of their reflection in the TV screen, of Souji’s hand buried down his underwear and his mouth on his neck, warm breath heating the skin and God - Yosuke suddenly hadn’t really given a damn about why Souji was so worked up.
Souji had promptly dragged him from the door and in the direction of the bedroom, shedding Yosuke’s clothes with his intense grey eyes pinned onto Yosuke hungrily. Things had continued against the wall, Souji’s hand wrapped around his cock and his own erection pressed against Yosuke’s thigh, rocking against it while Yosuke had done his best to suck at his tongue. Souji was always insistent, always knew exactly what he wanted like he’d spent the entire day thinking about it, just waiting for Yosuke to arrive. Most of the time, the sex they had was urgent and rough, a race between them both to satisfy whatever need they had at the time. Sometimes it was clumsy, but it was never really bad. They’d learned each other’s preferences by now and Yosuke had gotten braver and keener, reluctance lessened by the time his legs had found themselves tightly wrapped around Souji’s waist and he had been shoved onto the futon.
Yosuke rarely had any more of those ‘what the fuck am I doing’ moments anymore. He’d gotten used to it and the whole thing had become another part of his messed up life. He wasn’t quite sure how fucking his best friend had become acceptable, but it had. An inexperienced kiss on the Samegawa and a few weeks of fumbling around in Souji’s empty house had turned into this. It had been more than enough to help Yosuke confirm that he was definitely bisexual and that yeah, maybe Kanji wasn’t such a weirdo for liking dudes, after all.
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Souji’s argument with his parents must have been pretty serious, not that Yosuke was complaining. The stickiness and the sheen of sweat afterwards had been an accomplishment, but right now he needed to wash it off and pretend that it hadn’t happened. If Souji minded him using his shower gel and shampoo, he never said, so Yosuke had taken to using it anyway. He cleaned himself up, pulled on his jeans and v-neck and attempted to towel dry his hair, wiping at the steamed over mirror and frowning at a noticeable red mark in the spot between his shoulder and collarbone. If it bruised, he was going to have to rethink his choice of clothing for the next few days.
The extra toothbrush next to Souji’s bothered him for a moment, before he realised it was meant for him and picked it up, bewildered. Souji was a weirdo - only he would ever think to buy Yosuke a toothbrush for when they…geez, just how much thought had he put into this? It bothered Yosuke a little, to see plain evidence that Souji had actually thought about it, maybe just as much as he had. The fact that he’d gone and bought a toothbrush unsettled Yosuke a lot more than it should have. It was hardly a groundbreaking discovery. He was probably over thinking it. Maybe Souji had just bought a new one and kept his old one…that made sense. That was probably it.
After rinsing his mouth, Yosuke pulled on his socks and ventured out of the bathroom to try and find his shoes, beginning the hunt near the kitchen door and glancing under the desk. There had been a time in the past when Souji had ended up helping him look for his pants for a whole hour, which had been one of the most embarrassing moments of Yosuke’s year. He crawled to look under the desk next, brow furrowed and ears failing to hear quiet footfalls sounding on the carpet behind him. A toe prodding him squarely on the left side of his ass made him jump.
“Partner! D-don’t do that,” he turned his head to look at Souji, who was standing in a pair of black sweatpants and holding a cup of either tea or coffee, a ghost of a smile pulling at his lips. Had he somehow teleported into the kitchen without leaving the futon?
“Your shoes are by the door,” he informed Yosuke easily, watching him groan and head off in that direction. “Did you want breakfast?”
“Uh, no…” Yosuke replied sheepishly, straightening and trying to avoid Souji’s searching stare and distract himself by looking for the missing footwear. They were both aware of what he’d been doing up so early, which somehow made it worse. “I gotta catch the train - Sunday shift, you know?”
“Oh,” Souji leaned against the doorframe, composed, “weren’t you in on Sunday last week, too?”
“Well, I kinda swapped it with someone, because they were doing something important that day, so…” He had the urge to add ‘I’m telling the truth’, but that would be weird - the same reason that he wasn’t going to mention the toothbrush thing.
“Mm,” was Souji’s reply, partially muffled by his cup. He walked over towards the futon, neatness coming before breakfast as he tried to straighten the sheets and replace the pillows.
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Yosuke found his shoes and picked one up, watching Souji distractedly. He’d always found the other boy pleasing to the eye; Souji was slim and angular and toned enough to have form and firmness to his upper and lower body. They didn’t get anywhere near the amount of the exercise they had back when they’d fought Shadows in the TV world, but Souji still looked good. Yosuke often looked at him, even when they were in the company of the others, and he thought that Souji probably knew. After all, they wouldn’t have this arrangement if they didn’t find one another attractive.
“It’ll give you more money for your motorcycle, I suppose”.
“Huh? Oh, yeah,” Yosuke scratched his head, clearing his throat and pushing his foot into the shoe. “I totally should’ve had it by now - would’ve, if it hadn’t been for Chie and her trips to the Meat Dimension. You know she still goes on about that DVD? Even after I bought her a replacement for her birthday! I gotta get money for my bike somehow”.
Souji smiled, squinting over his cup at him, “I suppose you do”.
Yosuke found the other shoe, hesitating a little and feeling stupid. This was what he’d been trying to avoid: small talk. He would be absolutely fine in an hour or two - why did Souji always have to catch him off guard and make him seem like an idiot? Sometimes it annoyed Yosuke, seeing his friend so together the morning after, so completely unfazed. It was like since the whole business with Adachi and the Shadows had ended, Souji had seen so many things that nothing bowled him over anymore. Yosuke’s flustered attempts to be mature and serious about this arrangement merely amused him, like he got some kind of extra kick out of seeing Yosuke trying to overlook the elephant in the room.
“Speaking of Chie…did you get the text about everyone meeting on Tuesday?” Yosuke tried instead.
Souji lowered his cup, “…I can’t make it”.
“You’re kidding?” Yosuke was disappointed, turning to look at him. They couldn’t have a get-together without their leader. That would just be wrong. “But we’ve had it planned for a whole month!”
“I know…it’s just that I’m supposed to be having dinner at Dojima’s. It didn’t feel right to turn him down, especially since he took time off to be there…sorry to bail on you all”.
“Dude, it’s cool, I guess. You’ll be in Inaba, so we might see you anyway,” Yosuke waved it off, deflated and a little angry but offering a smile. He picked his jacket off the floor, “So…uh, I guess I’ll maybe see you Tuesday. I’ll call…” he stopped himself, his mouth twisting awkwardly, “we’ll talk soon”.
“Tell the others I’m sorry”.
“Yeah…” Yosuke raised a hand and headed for the door, aware of Souji observing his exit as he left the apartment. He fumbled with his wallet in the corridor, trying to find the train ticket from yesterday and glancing at his watch before heading down the stairs. The whole point of reuniting the team had been because Rise was coming home for the week, which would mark the first time they had all been present in over two months. Yosuke knew the others were going to be seriously disappointed and he doubted that Rise of all people would appreciate Souji bailing on her.
Rest of the prompt coming up in later parts - this is my first time writing something like this, so hopefully I'm not doing too badly. I didn't really mean for it to turn out this long, but I've ended up with a plot and everything, haha.
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“Yosuke! Yosukeee! I’m coming out now!”
Yosuke backed towards the television in the electronics department hurriedly - the same one, still here even after all this time but at a significantly reduced price. A couple were talking nearby and he prayed they hadn’t heard. He blocked the screen from view and tried really hard to conceal what was happening, pressing against the dark screen firmly and hiding the centre. This would’ve been a hint to most people that the coast wasn’t clear yet, but apparently not to a certain dumb bear. Eyes trained on the approaching couple, Yosuke mumbled pointedly, “Just…wait a sec - I said wait!!” He gave his best ‘customer appreciation’ smile as the couple strolled by and received an odd look in return, then used his hand to ruthlessly shove at an over-eager head that was trying to emerge from the dark screen.
Sometimes Yosuke forgot how annoying Teddie could be, but it never took the bear long to remind him. Thankfully, somehow, the customers chose to do their shopping elsewhere, their feet sounding on the polished floor as they left. Yosuke’s jaw clenched with relief, but it was short-lived. He stumbled at the force of being head butted in the small of his back, managing to catch himself just before Teddie appeared in the electronics department of Junes. Thankfully, he was in human form, although what difference that actually made, Yosuke wasn’t sure. Teddie tumbled out of the television ungracefully and bumped down onto the hard floor, an announcement chiming in overhead about a sale on kitchenware as he did so. He landed pretty hard and he didn’t seem to care, just like he wasn’t affected by the irritated look Yosuke was currently aiming at him.
“It’s been unbearable waiting for Tuesday!” he declared victoriously, loud enough for anyone to hear.
“I told you to wait! Someone could’ve…!” Yosuke face palmed, sighing and checking around quickly to ensure that the area was definitely clear. The couple had, mercifully, moved on by now - he could see them walking underneath the store’s bright lights and heading in the direction of the elevators. The thought of someone seeing Teddie flying out of a TV was just…urgh. What was the point? The bear was hardly going to listen now, was he?
“Yosuke! What’s this thing and why does it have a red sticker?” Teddie had found something else to pay attention to and Yosuke turned reluctantly, horrified to see him about to pick up a ¥23,000.00 HD camcorder and grabbing his arm forcefully. He pulled the curious ‘boy’ out of reach of the colourful display promptly, dragging him in the direction of the food court and ignoring his humiliating protests.
The memory of Teddie’s previous incident with a display item, not to mention the punishment, made Yosuke groan. These new products might be shockproof, but to Yosuke’s knowledge, nothing was ‘Teddie-proof’. He still remembered the silence that had befallen the department after Teddie had done the remarkable feat of destroying a waterproof camera by dropping it in his ice cream soda. “How come you’re late anyway?”
“You know how hard it is to tell the time over there!” Teddie’s unnaturally blue eyes feigned offence. He waved his arms around in an overdramatic gesture like a spoiled child and shot off, unsupervised. “You’re always so mean to me, Yosuke! I’m telling Sensei!!”
There wasn’t much chance of that, since Souji wasn’t coming. Yosuke had yet to actually inform anyone of that and to be honest he begrudged doing so. Souji really should have told them himself, not left Yosuke to deal with the almost certain aggro that would result. A phone call wasn’t hard, or even a quick text or email. Souji could’ve replied to Chie’s text and saved them a lot of trouble; he couldn’t be that busy. It wasn’t the ‘dinner at Dojima’s’ thing that had pissed Yosuke off; it was this - the whole ‘messenger boy’ role.
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As for the Investigation Team’s old headquarters…they still met there occasionally, at least Yosuke and Souji often did when he was visiting. It wasn’t uncommon these days to see other teenagers sitting at the same spot they once had though, hanging out with their friends and oblivious to the table’s meaning. None of them had ever had to face their Shadow or jump through a TV to save a friend or a stranger. With the TV World being a very different place these days, Yosuke didn’t think it unreasonable to hope that no one would ever go through the same things they had. Sometimes he still found himself waking up at midnight with his gaze drifting towards the TV, but nothing ever happened. Souji had admitted to doing it too, so maybe they all had habits from those days that were difficult to break.
Still, Yosuke had been looking forward to Tuesday, to seeing everyone. They didn’t gather as a group that often these days because everyone was off doing different things. Souji was in Okina, Naoto went between police departments, Rise had gone back into showbiz and the rest of them had all gotten jobs after graduating high school. Even Kanji was earning an honest wage, helping his mother out and doing commissions in her textile store. Maybe Inaba hadn’t changed, but Yosuke supposed they all had, at least a little. It had only been around two years, yet he had to keep reminding himself of that.
Just because Souji wasn’t going to be here tonight didn’t mean the night would suck. Teddie had reached the others first and Yosuke raised a hand cheerfully upon spotting them, picking out their little group easily. On a cool evening like this, when the sun was due to start setting at any moment, they were among the only people in the foot court. The place would close soon, when the long shadows of the tables and umbrellas had crept up the side of the building and eclipsed the bright sale promotions.
Unsurprisingly, Chie was eating. This time it was a large burger and Yosuke could practically hear his wallet sigh in relief. Naoto sat at the far left neatly, next to Kanji with Yukiko across from her - the Detective Prince’s hair was getting pretty long, but she and Yukiko were still like mirror opposites. Yosuke opened his mouth to return their greetings and was instead attacked by an ever-enthusiastic Rise Kujikawa, caught off guard when she gave him an obligatory squeeze that would’ve left him red-faced in the past. It still sort of did, he found himself grinning at it.
“Senpai!” She almost knocked the air out of him. “How’s it goin’?”
“Great,” he replied automatically, “and before you say I’m late, you should know that it was all Ted’s fault”. He took a seat across from Chie, expecting some sort of comeback from the bear and ready with his own. Teddie hadn’t even sat down yet though, still lingering beside Rise and looking around restlessly. Yosuke’s mouth tightened when he realised what he was doing - he was looking for Souji - and any minute now…
“Where’s Sensei?”
Great. Now everyone was looking at the empty seat and searching around for him, like he would be dumb enough to sit at the wrong table or be unable to find them. Yosuke cringed. The only other people here besides them were a group of girls and a family with young children. Yosuke leaned on the table and waited for all the eyes to fall on him, which they eventually did. There was silence, but he didn’t take the bait.
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“Maybe his train is delayed,” Yukiko suggested, being optimistic. Yosuke dimly wondered if that could be a plausible excuse for him to use.
“I don’t recall seeing any delays to the Okina line when I arrived an hour ago,” Naoto calmly shot the idea down in flames, “I could perhaps use my phone to check-“
“He’s not coming,” Yosuke came straight out with it, drawing everyone’s attention and holding his breath at the silence. He hurried to correct himself upon seeing Rise’s expression, realising what it sounded like. “I mean…not that he didn’t want to come…he just can’t make it. Family stuff”. There, that sounded right and it wasn’t a total lie. Time to change the subject and get on with their evening. He was hungry and he wasn’t settling for the day’s leftovers.
“Aww…” Rise looked so disappointed that Yosuke thought that Souji had better be feeling really guilty about this. Out of all of them, he was probably the one that Rise had wanted to see the most, given that she had clearly carried a torch for him in high school. “I was really looking forward to catching up with him, he’s always so busy”.
“Hey, we’re all here,” Yosuke pointed out, motioning to their group.
“Uh…is everything ok?” Chie fixed her eyes on him questioningly. Souji rarely bailed on anyone, even though a lot of people fought for his time. Maybe they should just let it go, Yosuke didn’t want to be a jerk over the whole thing and he certainly didn’t want to be responsible for ruining the night.
Rise recovered quickly, throwing up her hands in typically dramatic fashion instead. “Ok! I brought presents!”
“Presents?!” Thanks to his short attention span, Teddie suddenly forgot all about Souji.
“Seriously?” Kanji’s eyebrows rose upon seeing the large bag she was about to dump on the table.
“I brought back exclusive merchandise from my tour, silly,” she smiled, revealing a small plastic gift bag printed with the cover of her latest album. “One of these for everyone - only backstage VIPs are allowed to get their hands on this stuff!”
Yosuke had to admit, that was pretty cool. Having Risette as a friend brought with it a lot of neat perks, although Teddie was getting way too excited over that foldout poster. Where the hell would he put it inside the TV anyway?
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Straight after Yosuke paid for their refills, the cashier closed and pulled down the shutter to lock up. Yosuke took both ends of the tray to lift it and take the drinks over, pausing when he glimpsed Chie standing behind and leering at him in the window glass. He turned round reluctantly, noting that she probably wasn’t here for her drink. “…What’s up?”
Her leer faltered uncertainly at that. “You’ve barely said a word to me all right”. Oh, shit, that wasn’t a leer; it was a look of concern, maybe even uneasiness. At least she wasn’t mad... “Something happen?”
Guilt stung Yosuke hard. He hesitated, well aware that he was digging himself into a hole already. “It’s…nothing”. Great, he couldn’t have picked a more suspicious reply even if he’d tried. He was going to have to say something else. “Seriously, I’ve just had a bad day at work - I’ll be fine when we get away from this place”.
Chie’s hair had gotten a little longer, though the style remained the same. She still wasn’t much for hair spray and high-heels, more likely to be content with overpriced steak and bad martial arts movies. Out of all of them, she’d probably changed the least, but the relationship her with Yosuke had changed. A lot.
He looked over to the others, seeing them engrossed in conversation and now the only crowd left in the food court. Chie wasn’t budging, she knew him too well, he guessed. Right about now, he was probably giving off some serious vibes despite his best efforts. Yosuke really sucked at hiding himself and he’d known Chie the longest out of all his friends. As he’d discovered numerous times, there were various disadvantages to knowing someone that well.
“Did you and Souji fight?” Chie concluded, thinking and tilting her head in a bid to read Yosuke’s surprised face. “You guys never fight,” she reminded him mystifyingly, eyebrows meeting, “not since Namatame”.
Yeah, that was because instead of fighting these days they usually did…other stuff.
Yosuke felt the guilt beginning to seep to the surface where it might be seen and immediately hid it with a laugh, because if it was one thing he could do, it was laugh off pretty much anything. “Huh? We didn’t fight. He’s at Dojima’s tonight, that’s all”.
“Ohh…” His reaction must’ve been at least a little convincing, because Chie smiled and looked less apprehensive. Apparently, the idea of him and Souji fighting was of great concern to everyone. It would be almost funny, if it weren’t for what Chie said next. “You should’ve just said that in the first place! I was starting to think that you’d told him about us and you guys had gotten into a fight. Don’t worry me like that, you jerk”.
Yosuke attempted to laugh along with her, because it was a really funny idea - hilarious even - but his reaction came out a little over keen and forced and she noticed, silencing to give an annoyed sigh now. “Uh, Chie-“ he tried to amend.
“Ah, I should’ve known,” she shrugged, giving his shoulder a very hard shove. “You didn’t tell him”.
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‘And then we sort of dry humped each other against the bedroom wall and I let him fuck me up the ass because hey, that’s what we do when we’re pissed off’.
Yosuke made a sour sort of face, one constructed with great effort to control his guilt mechanism and making him look like he’d eaten something bad.
“Souji’s the only one who doesn’t know - even Rise knew - and it’s been two weeks,” Chie’s hand stilled on his arm. Instead of looking pissed, she actually seemed sort of weary and disappointed. It wasn’t a good look for her. She and Yosuke were the very definition of awkward around one another; their relationship was dumb because they were dumb. For a while, Yosuke hadn’t even been sure if he and Chie had anything going at all, because they’d just seemed to do the exact same stuff they’d always had and it had been confusing, so why would he have told Souji if he wasn’t sure and… Yeah…right now he felt pretty ill.
“I’ll just tell him the next time we talk,” he offered, fingers touching the plastic tray to show that he really wanted to end this conversation and go back to the table now.
“Or…you could do it tonight,” Chie pointed out, brightening like she’d just had the greatest idea of the night. “He’s in Inaba now, isn’t he?”
“With Dojima,” Yosuke made clear, gripping the tray firmly to lift it. “I can’t just go barging in when they’re eating”.
“I think you should”.
Yosuke almost said ‘why’ and only just managed to stop himself. Asking for an explanation over that might earn him a galactic punt. He felt like a serious douchebag - he was a douche - because just about everyone hated guys who did this kind of stuff, didn’t they? You saw it in movies and on TV and it never ended well for them. He didn’t even know how he’d gotten into this mess, it wasn’t like he’d made any sort of conscious decision, he hadn’t worked it all out in his head or gone out of his way to plan everything like a creep. It had just happened and he’d been…with Souji, who was definitely, unmistakably male and totally his best friend. Fuck. This wasn’t him. This was really, really bad. It was worse than the usual situations he somehow always got himself into, but at the same time it had ‘Hanamura’ written all over it. It was just that lame and stupid.
“If you’re gonna keep putting it off,” Chie warned, “then he’s gonna find out from someone else. How do you think that’ll make him feel? I don’t see what the big deal is, maybe Yukiko or I should do it?” She looked him straight in the eye and he understood what this was really about - she thought it was her. Chie thought he didn’t want to tell Souji because he was embarrassed. She wouldn’t ever admit it out loud, she’d sooner knee him in the stomach than admit her insecurity, but Yosuke could tell. That made him feel worse.
“No…I’ll do it”.
Some seriously messy situations coming up lol (as well as some Jerkji and a Shadow - can’t yet decide upon whose, but there’s just too many lies here not to have one pop out, if you know what I mean).
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