Chapter Text
09/29/2009, Evening
After the album finishes, they resurface from their hazy cuddle bubble to get more food and keep up appearances with the rest of the dorm. Luckily, there's not much of a dorm to keep up appearances with, it seems. Aigis and Junpei aren't back yet, and Sanada-senpai is out on a run. Fuuka and Aragaki-senpai are in the kitchen. Ken, Kirijo-senpai, and Koro-chan are on a walk.
"Hey, guys!" Yukari chirps as they peer into the kitchen. Fuuka waves from her position behind Aragaki-senpai.
"Not to sound like Aki, but where have you been?" he rasps. "Haven't seen you all day, then you mysteriously appear together."
"Uh," stammers Yukari. She looks to Makoto as if for permission to divulge a secret. He nods. "Makoto bought a new CD. We've been listening to it."
He grunts. "Huh. If that's what you're going with." He ignores Yukari's embarrassed spluttering and returns his focus to the stove, which he immediately slaps Fuuka's hand away from.
"Yamagishi. It's plenty salty enough. You're going to cure it if you add any more."
"S-sorry, senpai!" Fuuka yelps.
"What's for dinner?" asks Makoto. "Smells great."
"Seared salmon with roasted asparagus and rice," Fuuka replies. "I'm doing my best to help, but I'm afraid I might just be slowing Senpai down..."
"I already told you, you're doing fine. You cut the filets well. It's difficult to screw up coating vegetables in oil, also. I'd be frankly impressed if you managed that." Aragaki-senpai shuffles the pan to make sure the salmon isn't sticking. "Aki wouldn't shut up about post-run nutrition, so here we are. It'll be ready soon. His fault if it gets cold by the time he gets home."
He glares at Yukari and Makoto. "Now scram. You're crowding my kitchen with whatever sappy aura you're putting out."
Yukari turns scarlet at that. Fuuka notices and takes a sudden interest in the ceiling.
Makoto doesn't know how to recoup his dignity at this point, so he just grabs Yukari and escapes.
--
Dinner is delicious. The four of them share some small talk over their food -- well, mostly Yukari and Fuuka share small talk. Shinjiro broods quietly into his bowl, and Makoto occasionally interjects an affirmative or negative nod whenever one of the girls turns to him for input.
It doesn't escape his notice how Yukari constantly glances to him, almost plaintive, then to the stairs. He smiles to himself. At least they both have it bad.
Makoto gets up, cleans his dishes, and grazes Yukari on the shoulder as he walks up to the stairs. She nods casually, even as her eyes practically radiate excitement and her knee starts jumping with impatience.
He heads up to his room, pulls the beat-up black and blue guitar out of the closet, and starts setting up.
--
It doesn't take him too long. He can tune his guitar by ear, and the amp settings remain the same as they always do. He's only got a couple recently-acquired, secondhand pedals on a slapdash pedalboard, and hooking them up to power goes quickly. He sits on the edge of his bed and runs smoothly through warmup scales.
There's a knock on his door. "Come in," he calls, improvising a cheery little fanfare for his guest on the guitar. Yukari giggles and curtsies.
"That was really good! I could hear you from the hallway. What were you playing?"
"That was just a warmup. Some scales to limber up my fingers." He notices Yukari's eyes flick to his hands. She bites her lip and pink tinges her cheeks.
Oh. He coughs. Yukari realizes where she's looking, promptly shakes her head and looks away. She clears her throat.
"A-anyways... You said you could play something as soon as you heard it. Can you play one of the songs we just listened to? Maybe the second one or third one."
Makoto smiles. "Good choices." He lets out a breath, closes his eyes and opens them. Go time.
--
It starts on a B power chord. The second he hits it, the whole song unfurls in front of his eyes.
Bright trails of neon color trace trails down the fretboard, like rails guiding his fingers to where they need to go. He jumps from lead to rhythm, neon orange power chords to violently pink octaves and silver plucked fills, to slate gray palm muted arpeggios in the verse, occasionally humming in low harmony to the higher pitched vocals he remembers from before.something prickles just beneath his skin, like fire bursting out of his fingertips when he quickly strums the bridge.
It swells and bursts with the final, aggressive chorus, and something settles back down within his soul as he closes the song out.
He exhales.
Yukari stares dumbfounded, jaw on the floor. Her eyes glimmer with astonishment and wonder. "I need you," she hoarsely whispers, "to play the next one. I need to see something."
Makoto obliges. This song starts with arpeggios, which trace blue and green curlicues through the air in his mind's eye. He concentrates, and if he focuses hard enough he can hear the countermelody of higher notes, see them twining pink and orange with the cooler tones. He hums the bass notes, letting the sound reverberate within his lungs, and this time he actually does sing part of the harmony at the chorus. "You don't have to believe me..."
--
By the time the song ends he's not sure if Yukari is still breathing. "Yukari...?"
Yukari's jaw works for a moment. Her eyes sparkle.
"...What the hell are you doing in high school?! You could be top of the charts. Headliner around the world. Record labels would start wars over signing you. You wouldn't even need a band. Oh my god, Makoto."
Yukari leans heavily back on her arms, meeting his gaze after a little bit. "But then... I guess I wouldn't get to see you every day, or very often at all. So call me selfish, but I like you here with me better."
Makoto thinks his heart might actually burst at the look Yukari gives him. The sheer adoration and love in her brown eyes take his breath away. She's giving him her heart, frozen in ice, walled away and locked inside her chest before this. It's something precious and unique, offered up for him on a silver platter, and he would die before letting this tender piece of her come to any harm.
Yukari leans forward, snapping him out of his reverie and reminding him to breathe. "I saw Orpheus. For real this time. He was playing his lyre. I heard it. It's like he was playing your entire backing track. And... I swear your fingers actually glowed for a second."
This is news to him. He supposes that countermelody wasn't just in his head, after all. "Huh." He scratches his head, then smiles. "Thanks. I'm really glad you liked it."
"That's your reaction?! That's it?!" She gapes up at him, incredulous, hands flailing to punctuate her statements. "Of course I liked it, Makoto. I loved it, and I love you even though we've only known each other for a little while. I'd listen to you playing anything. You're incredible. But you need to be more proud of yourself. This isn't just you being good at everything like usual, this is magic. Honest to goodness magic."
Makoto actually blushes at the praise. Holy shit. He can't remember a time that's ever happened.
Yukari instantly forgets her indignation at his humility and squeals, leaping up to cradle his cheeks. "Ohhhhhhhhh my goddddddddd..."
After a couple minutes of cooing and kissing his face, she settles back. "Actually, I was wondering if you knew a song. I listened to it when I was little after a friend showed me, when people were spreading rumors about me and my mom after my dad died." She knits her fingers together.
"It helped me feel like everything would be okay someday. Like it wasn't the end. Like the rumors didn't matter and people would one day realize they were wrong. It was in English, so I had to study it for weeks to understand the lyrics," she chuckles sheepishly. "But now that I know you can speak English if it's in a song, I'm curious." She tells him the name of the song and he instantly starts switching his guitar settings and tuning.
"Yeah, I know it. It was actually one of the first songs I learned." He grins, shrugs his shoulder strap on, and stands. "But I'll only do it if you sing with me. Right here, right now."
"Roger that, leader." She salutes mockingly, then grabs a loose remote and stands across from him, holding it like a microphone.
His palm mutes the strings. The energy builds in his chest, coiling like a spring, and it snaps with the first F# note. He locks eyes with Yukari through the entire intro, and nods when the lyrics kick in. They sing in harmony.
"Hey, don't write yourself off yet..."
They get closer and closer through the first verse, guitar between them be damned. When the chorus hits, Makoto slams his foot down on the distortion pedal and lets loose from the bottom of his diaphragm over the bombastic D chord. Yukari's yelling right alongside him, shimmying up and down to the beat.
"It just takes some time, little girl you're in the middle of the ride..."
They remain in sync throughout the second verse and chorus, and when the solo hits Yukari breaks off to twirl around the room and laugh and laugh and laugh. Makoto sees blue and pink lights bursting into the air as he tears through rainbows of hammer-ons and pull-offs and tremolos.
For a brief second, he sees Io. She stands from her seat and spins.
He grins, and laughs with her.
They come back together for the last part of the song and end their choreography, sweaty foreheads pressed together. The last line rings out, voices in perfect harmony. "Everything, everything will be alright."
They kiss as the last note fades away. "Orpheus came out again. He smiled," says Yukari breathlessly. "He looked just like you."
"He wasn't alone. I saw Io dance."
They just stand there for a few seconds, grinning and breathing. Makoto opens his mouth to say something, but a knocking at the door causes them to fly apart.
He accidentally smacks his guitar against his desk and screeching feedback rings out. Yukari scrambles and yanks the amp's power cord before he can turn down the volume dial on the guitar.
"Yes?!"
The door swings open. It's Kirijo-senpai, looking serious and foreboding. His blood runs cold. Yukari freezes.
"Yuki. Takeba. While your musical performance sounded phenomenal, please remember that others live here and we are approaching quiet hours. Keep it down."
Oh, thank God. It's just a noise complaint. His heart kicks back into action.
"Sorry," says Makoto, apologetically unplugging his guitar. "Got carried away."
"It's fine. You two work together really quite well, on the battlefield and off." As soon as she says that, some sort of lightbulb goes off behind her eyes. Kirijo-senpai holds her chin with her fingers and mutters, "Perhaps the student council can arrange some sort of talent show..."
"Ah, uh, nonono, that's okay, it was just something for fun, I'm alright," babbles Yukari. "I think Makoto needs something bigger than just a talent show, though. He has an incredible skill. He should get to show it off to the world."
Makoto hides his blush behind his fringe and clears his throat in embarrassment. Yukari might actually have higher charm than he does. That's terrifying.
Kirijo-senpai half-smiles. "Perhaps something to bring up during career counseling, then." She still looks between the two of them, pensive. Wait, no. More vulnerable than that. Curious?
Sweat starts to roll down the back of Makoto's neck. Please no execution. Please no execution. Should he equip a Persona with Endure? Will that help?
The three of them stand there in a somewhat uncomfortable silence, before they hear the front door slamming open. A stridently loud voice that Makoto identifies as Junpei starts hollering something about Aigis.
Kirijo-senpai's eyes narrow, vulnerability and weakness banished in an instant. "Have a good evening. Be mindful of your volume. I will remind Iori and Aigis of the same," she says darkly. "I pray the property damage is minimal. Excuse me."
--
Yukari lets out a breath. "Whew. That was close." She turns to him inquisitively. "Come to think of it, this is the first time I've heard you play. There's no way you don't practice. I refuse to believe even you are that good. How do you not get noise complaints all the time?"
Makoto fishes around in his desk drawer and pulls out an adapter. He plugs his headphones into it, then walks over and sets the amp back up again. Before he turns it on, he plugs in the headphone-adapter assembly, then motions her over.
She slots the headphones on and he plays a few quick chords. "Oh! That's really handy," she says, taking the headphones off and handing them back.
He puts everything away and they end up seated beside each other on his bed. "Today was incredible, Makoto. Thank you." Yukari grins so wide he thinks her face might crack in two. "Totally worth the hell I'm gonna get at the next archery practice."
"I've never sung with anyone before. I'm glad you were my first," says Makoto. "We should go on a karaoke date sometime soon. "
"Glad I was your first in more ways than one, I hope," she snarks, then flushes. "Uh -- I mean --"
Oh, two can play at this game. An evil smile splits his face, and he twists suddenly to grab her by the hips. They tumble down onto the bed, her legs around his waist and his weight supported by one hand beside her head. Yukari's pupils blow wide as saucers and her breath turns shallow and quick. He musters up max charm one more time.
"Not just the first, the only. And all this was just a warm-up. You sang with me," he purrs, "now I'm gonna make you sing for me."
He kisses his way down her face, captures her lips, and breaks away down her neck. When he reaches just below her collarbones, he looks Yukari in the eyes and raises an eyebrow for permission..
She threads her fingers through the hair on his crown, grins, and pushes his head down. "You may not have been able to play the clarinet," she says breathily, "but let's see what that mouth can do anyway."
Makoto chuckles as he slides up her shirt and bra. Yukari giggles, looks him dead in the eyes, and pulls his head back down. He feels the first feathery touch of her softness against his lips and tongue.
She gasps, and sighs, and moans as he works his way down till her thighs clamp around his ears.
This is way more fun than the clarinet. He makes her sing, fortissimo.
The resulting noise complaint gets them in so much trouble. It's so worth it.
--end--