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Yosuke slides down the last bit of the rocky incline to the edge of the cliff on his butt, careful not to pick up too much speed; the drop off if he goes too far is pretty steep, and the water’s shallow enough to break your neck if you don’t aim right.
It’s the middle of summer and the entire IT, back in Inaba for the holidays, is spending the day at a lake a few hours out from Inaba. Everyone’s here, even Rise on a short break from work, but when Yosuke decided to go for the high jump off the cliff only Yu followed him, the others preferring to stay in the shallower waters or lounge on the grassy beach.
Yosuke’s been having an amazing time. Swimming is fun, having the whole group together is great, and this jump looks amazing. It was quite a hike to reach; they had to go up a windy path with only some gnarled, half-dead trees to hold on to, and there was even a bit of a light rock climbing section. He’d been worried he’d lost all his strength from last year, but it looks like his replacement workouts have been pretty effective.
Standing on the edge of the cliff, he looks down; the water looks much farther away from up here than it looked from the bottom, and he feels the adrenaline building up inside of him.
“Oh man partner, this is gonna be a hell of a jump!” he calls out excitedly, looking back for Yu.
To his surprise, Yu’s still at the top of the slope, white as a sheet and shaking, eyes drawn and mouth tight. His eyes even look a little watery, although that’s got to be a trick of the light.
“Partner, you ok?” Yosuke calls out worriedly.
“Yeah, I’m…” Yu shakes his head, then glares at Yosuke. “No I’m not! I hate this!” He sits down and starts sliding down, but it causes a small stream of rocks to go tumbling down the slope and he hisses. “Fuck!”
Yosuke’s flabbergasted. Yu swearing? He’s pretty sure he’s never heard that before. He reaches out a hand towards Yu, although it stops short of being able to reach him.
“C’mere. Shh, it’s ok, you’re almost there,” he says, worried. The last time he saw Yu lose his composure like this was last november; he certainly didn’t expect it here and now.
Yu carefully inches his way down the rest of the slope until he’s by Yosuke’s side. Yosuke kneels and wraps an arm around his shoulders. He’s trembling like a leaf, and now that he’s closer Yosuke can confirm those really are tears in his eyes. “You’re fine, partner. It’s ok,” he says softly, squeezing Yu’s shoulders.
“It is not ok,” Yu growls, his hands balled into fists, but he leans into Yosuke as he does. “It’s way too high and the path was so dangerous and we’re both gonna get hurt and I want to go the fuck back.”
Yosuke rubs his arm comfortingly, wondering how he missed Yu’s unhappiness before this. He prides himself on being able to see through his partner’s legendary poker face, but he wasn’t paying enough attention, too busy having fun himself. He feels guilty now; Yu probably only came up here with him because he’d have been alone otherwise.
“It’s just eight meters, remember? We saw it in the guide. And the water’s really deep if we jump over in this direction,” he says, tipping his chin towards the left. “It’s probably safer to jump than try to go back the way we came at this point.” Yu winces, but nods, and Yosuke squeezes him closer. “Come on, I know you can do it, babe.”
Beneath his arm, Yu goes stiff with a small gasp, and Yosuke’s brain picks that moment to catch up with his mouth.
Oh, shit. This is bad. This is — yeah, of course Yu’s good looking and maybe, just maybe, Yosuke’s started thinking of his partner a little differently over their last few months apart, but that’s no reason to — he panics, scrambling desperately for some way to play off the completely unwarranted pet name, but he can’t think of anything and Yu’s opening his mouth to ask for an explanation he doesn’t have and —
There’s only one way out of this situation, and he’s not even conscious he’s jumped off until he hears the air whooshing past his ears.
At least he had the presence of mind to aim correctly, but the drop’s a long one, long enough that he has time to replay himself calling Yu babe to his face multiple times before his feet finally hit the water. He goes under, the shock of the cold water barely registering compared to the shock of his own stupidity. “I’ve got a crush on my best friend, but it’s ok, I’m fine just being friends—” and then he goes and pulls this dumb trick. He berates himself as he swims back up and into the shallows. What’s gonna happen now? Will Yu even want to be his friend anymore? Is he gonna tell everyone else?
No, of course he won’t, Yosuke knows Yu’s better than that, but that doesn’t ease the fact that he just wants to sink to the bottom of the lake and stay there until he passes out. It has to be better than facing the consequences of his dumb mouth. Should have aimed for the rocks, he thinks bitterly, when a faint “Yosuke!” startles him.
Above him, Yu’s still standing on the edge of the cliff — of course he is, Yosuke just abandoned him there, he’s the worst friend — but before he can try to think of a solution, Yu’s taking a running start and leaping off into the water with a shout.
Yosuke knows this is his last chance to swim back to the other side of the hill where the rest of the group is, where Yu won’t be able to ask him for an explanation, but his feet seem to be rooted in place. And what if something happens to Yu? He can’t ditch him twice. Yu hits the water with a loud splash, and it’s too late for second guesses now.
Yosuke’s staring at his feet, trying to figure out some way to fix this, when cool fingers slide beneath his chin and tilt his head up until his eyes meet his partner’s silver ones. It gets hard to breathe as he anticipates the outburst — maybe if he’s lucky he’ll pass out before it happens? — but then he realises there’s a smile on Yu’s face that he’s never seen before, soft and warm and bright, and Yu doesn’t seem angry or disgusted or even bothered. It’s not until he feels Yu’s smooth lips beneath his fingertips that he realises he’s reached out to touch him. He jerks back as if burned, but Yu catches his wrist gently and bring his hand back to his mouth, placing a damp kiss against his fingertips before letting it go. Something seems to come undone in his brain at that contact. His mouth drops open and he blinks blankly, unable to make sense of the last few minutes. This is a dream, a weird and amazing dream and in a moment or two he’ll wake up in his bed.
Instead of waking up, he’s brought back to himself by the sound of splashing water; Chie’s made her way around the hill and is waving at them.
“Are you guys coming back?” she shouts.
“On our way!” Yu replies, then turns back to Yosuke with a mischievous twinkle in his eye. “Let’s discuss this later, alright, babe?”
“I— You— That’s— Don’t make fun of me, you dick!” Yosuke gasps as he shoves Yu, fully intending to dunk him.
Yu catches him around the waist and they both go tumbling into the water, Yu laughing brightly. “I’m not,” he says softly, right into his ear, as he pulls Yosuke closer. “I promise. I’m just so happy right now.”