Work Text:
“So, what’s in the bottle, Yu?”
Yu spun the small vial around by the chain it hung on, holding it up to the light so the emerald liquid inside shimmered. Squinting, he bit his lip and took a deep breath as he focused; there was a trick to this, a little like trying to see an optical illusion, one of those spinning images that could be mentally reversed with just the right… Ah, there.
“Truth.”
Chie raised an eyebrow at his concise answer, and he laughed softly before elaborating. “Well, not truth itself. Something related to it. Maybe a truth serum of some kind? Though, I’m not sure what a Shadow was doing carrying that around…”
Rise hummed, looking over their notes from the day’s fighting. “That reminds me a little of those sedatives we got off the Trance Twins back in Yukiko’s castle. Remember? You said they made you feel… ‘sanity,’ I think it was.”
“Yeah, you’re right. It’s definitely some sort of mental-impairment remedy, but I don’t remember us getting hit by any new status effects. Do you?”
Rise flipped through her notebook. “Hm, nope. Well, we only got the one, right? You should save it, maybe we’ll need it later.”
Yu nodded and slid the truth serum, if that was what it was, into one of the many inner pockets of his TV world supply bag, before they moved on to discussing how Yukiko’s new improved fire attack could best be used for their next excursion.
The vial stayed in the bag, unused, for many months afterwards. In fact, Yu entirely forgot its existence until early February. On a particularly snowy Sunday, Yu, trapped at home, decided to clean up his now-unused TV world equipment. He’d emptied and sorted all the supplies in his bag, and was about to put the bag itself through the wash when he heard a clinking sound. After five minutes of searching through empty pockets—there truly was such a thing as too much organisation—he found the vial, remembering that they’d saved it in case it might come in handy later. Now that he thought about it, perhaps it would have been useful during Namatame’s interrogation, or with Adachi, but they’d figured things out fine without it. He set it aside for now, figuring he’d sell it at Shiroku along with the rest of the leftover supplies, and continued his cleaning.
To his surprise, Old Lady Shiroku refused to take the serum from him.
“This may yet come in handy to you, young man,” she told him with a twinkle in her eye as she pushed it back across the counter.
Not for the first time, Yu wondered who this woman truly was. There was more to her than a casual shopkeeper-turned-midnight-bartender; how else would she have known where to find Goho-Ms and Vanish Balls, known what they were called even, when outside the TV world they resembled nothing but shiny overpriced marbles? He’d asked once, and she’d only winked at him and held a finger up to her lips. “You should know a lady never tells, darling,” she’d replied, and the next time he’d gone shopping all her prices had gone up a hundred yen. Yu wasn’t an idiot. He hadn’t asked again.
So when she left the vial on the counter and ignored his confused look, he took it back without any further questions. It wasn’t as though he was hurting for money, and it was a rather pretty bottle if nothing else; it would look nice on the shelf over his desk.
The bottle looked nice on said shelf for approximately three days, until Teddie, invited over by Nanako, bounced into his room one afternoon and spotted it.
“Sensei! Can I have this?” he asked as he snatched it up, turning puppy dog eyes on Yu.
Yu knew better than to fall for the look, but he didn’t see anything wrong with letting Teddie have the potion if it made him happy. Maybe something about its link to the TV world appealed to him, or maybe he just liked how it looked; Teddie did have a certain fascination for shiny, pretty things.
“Sure,” Yu replied as he gently ushered him back downstairs before he could touch anything else in his room. He’d had to spend a good two hours doing damage control after the last time he’d visited, when he’d smashed two of his models together because, “They’re fighting, Sensei! That’s what they’re made for!”
He’d thought that was the last he would hear of that small bottle, but unfortunately, it showed up again a very short time later. The entire Investigation Team was gathered in a large reception room at the Amagi Inn, which they’d hijacked for a sleepover party. The guys had just finished relaxing in the hot springs, and everyone was sitting around on pillows chatting while waiting for the girls’ turn. Then they would have dinner, gracefully provided by the inn, and after that probably stay up way too late telling ghost stories that would make Yukiko giggle and Chie and Yosuke scream. Yu smiled as he leaned back on his hands and looked at the ceiling, a bit of a bittersweet feeling coursing through him. He only had a scant month of this left to enjoy, and then it would be back to the city for him—and for all that Yosuke kept making plans for them to go to university together, for all that Rise and Naoto would be moving back there too, well… he was still going to miss this, right here. Everyone, together under one roof, with nothing more important to think about than school and what they’d do next weekend.
He pushed himself back upright, and all his nostalgic feelings fled in an instant as he saw Teddie jump to his feet with a mischievous expression that he’d learned was always followed by a very bad idea.
“Let’s play truth or dare!”
There it was. Yu sighed, getting ready to do his usual bear-handling job, but before he could say anything, Teddie had slapped his hand down in the middle of the circle.
“With,” he exclaimed before pulling his hand back, “a little guarantee of honesty!”
There, glittering, was the truth serum. Yu now realised exactly what the harm could be with letting Teddie have the potion. Hindsight truly was 20/20. This was a bad idea like they hadn’t had to deal with in a while; pretty much on par with adding a swimsuit event to the pageant back in October. There were at least two secrets in that group that their owners wouldn’t want to admit to, and for all that Kanji’s crush was obvious to everyone except Naoto, he was pretty sure Yukiko’s subtle interest in Rise had gone unnoticed by the rest of the team.
His eyes flitted to the two in question, finding the expected lines of stress on their faces. Time for him to settle this down, then. He leaned forward, but was promptly startled back as Rise shrieked,
“YES!!! Let’s do it!”
Chie tilted her head with a hum. “You know what? Why not. Don’t make me kiss anyone, though!”
With that, Yukiko’s fate was sealed; Yu saw the resigned look on her face as she nodded and added a quiet “alright, I’ll play.” Where Chie went, Yukiko followed.
Naoto’s reply surprised him, and yet at the same time, it truly shouldn’t have.
“I am always interested in uncovering the truth, by whatever means available,” she said in that even tone of hers, as if this was some important police business and not ill-advised teenage antics.
Sitting next to her, Kanji screamed, “I’m not afraid!” while his expression told an entirely different story.
Which left… Yu turned to Yosuke, and was startled to see a look of abject terror on his face. Now that was unexpected. Yu was almost tempted to tell him they didn’t have to play, but he knew Yosuke, knew how important it was for him to fit in. If he singled him out like that, he’d throw himself into the game just to prove he was “normal.” Which meant it was Yu’s job to save him from himself.
Yu hissed at Yosuke and discreetly made a “call me” sign with his hand. Yosuke frowned at him, but obliged. A second later, Yu’s phone started ringing, interrupting Teddie and Rise’s excited discussion of game logistics.
“Yeah? … Oh! I totally forgot! I’m sorry, I’ll take care of it now. No, no, you don’t have to, it’s not a problem. Stay with Nanako, she was so excited to have you all to herself tonight!”
Yu hung up and gave his best disappointed look to the group, who was looking at him curiously.
“Guys, I’m so sorry, I forgot I was supposed to pick some things up at Junes for my uncle tonight before coming over. Nanako would be so disappointed if he had to leave!”
It was cheating, using the Nanako card, but everyone’s slightly suspicious expressions softened at the sound of her name.
“Yosuke, if you don’t mind, would you come with me? We’ll go faster on your bike.”
Now Yosuke’s expression was outright baffled; Yu always refused to ride on what he called his “death trap.” Yu gave him an insistent look, and he finally jumped to his feet.
“Alright, Partner! Let’s do it!”
“We’ll be back as soon as we can,” Yu told the rest of the group before they made their exit.
When they’d reached the front of the inn, Yosuke finally turned to Yu.
“So, what was that about? Do we actually need to go to Junes?”
Yu shook his head. “Nah, just an excuse. It didn’t seem like you wanted to play enforced truth or dare.”
Yosuke gave him an undecipherable look, holding his gaze for a little longer than was comfortable. “Man, you really are…” he trailed off, then shook his head. “Thanks, Partner. I owe you one.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Yu shrugged. “I didn’t really want to play, either. I’ve been helping Yukiko by taste-testing her cooking experiments lately and I have definitely not been a hundred percent honest about the results. Also, we all know what Rise would have asked me if she got a chance, and that would have been uncomfortable for everyone, I think.”
Yosuke nodded. “Yeah, good idea getting out of there. We don’t need a catfight breaking out.”
Yu hummed, but didn’t answer; his teammates had too much respect for each other for a catfight, but that didn’t mean he wanted to be the cause of anyone being hurt.
“So, what do you wanna do if we’re not going to Junes?”
“There’s a park nearby, isn’t there? We could go hang out there till dinner. I think they have swings…”
Yu liked swings quite a bit. After seeing him get excited over them earlier in the year, it had become a bit of a joke for Yosuke, who always pointed them out when he saw any and asked if Yu wanted him to go kick the kids off so he could have a turn. Which Yu always turned down, of course… but not without a bit of regret.
Yosuke gave him a fond grin, grabbing his bike and heading in the direction of the park. “Sure thing, Partner.”
They never found out what had happened that evening in their absence. When they returned an hour later, they found the rest of the Investigation Team lying in their sleeping bags with eyes wide open, every last one of them blushing to the roots of their hair and refusing to make eye contact with anything but the ceiling. After a few moments of tense silence, Teddie stood and shuffled over to Yu to shove the half-empty bottle at him with shaking hands.
“Get rid of it,” he said in a voice that hinted at untold horrors, and promptly went to lie back down with a terribly uncharacteristic solemnity. Those were the last words any of them consented to utter on the topic, despite Yu and Yosuke’s baffled questioning.
Yu left the bottle in a drawer of his desk. He figured whatever had happened that evening hadn’t been what Old Lady Shiroku was hinting at, so it was probably worth keeping a little longer. That was his logical excuse; the reason he gave himself for keeping the jar, when he could easily have tossed it in the recycling. The real reason, the one he only admitted to himself when he was tired enough, was that he was a highly curious person, and there was something he still wanted to use that potion for.
For the next two weeks, Yu found himself drawn towards the drawer every time Yosuke came over. He knew that it would be unfair, that Yosuke always agreed to everything he asked and that he wasn’t owed anyone’s secrets, but still the idea of Yosuke keeping something from him clawed at him in a strange way. He wasn’t sure why; Yukiko and Chie were always whispering together and he’d never felt left out or jealous about it, and he knew there were many things in Naoto’s life that he wasn’t privy to. But when it came to his partner, things were different, for some reason. It just didn’t seem right for there to be any secrets between them.
That feeling of wrongness grew until finally it managed to override Yu’s respect for Yosuke’s privacy, and on an otherwise unassuming Wednesday afternoon, as Yosuke sat at his coffee table drinking tea and humming a song, Yu opened the drawer and set off a chain of events that would change their friendship forever.
He pulled the bottle out and turned towards Yosuke, letting him see it before he asked the fateful question.
“You wanna try this, Yosuke?”
Yosuke raised a shocked eyebrow at him, the corners of his mouth turning up in surprised disbelief.
“I didn’t expect that from you, Partner!” he said with a laugh, like Yu had offered him a slyly acquired can of beer.
“One question each, anything we want,” Yu replied as he shrugged his shoulders, the very picture of nonchalance. He knew exactly which question he would be asking, and there was nothing in his life he wanted to hide from Yosuke, so it was a rather safe proposition for him. If Yosuke refused, or looked even the slightest bit uncomfortable, he’d back out, but… There was a glowing spark in Yosuke’s eye that didn’t speak to any sort of unease.
“Anything?”
Yu hummed in agreement and made his way back, sitting across from Yosuke.
“Alright then, deal!” Yosuke said, looking like the cat that had got the cream for some reason, as if Yu wouldn’t honestly answer any question he asked regardless of any potions.
Yu nodded at him. “You can ask first, then,” he said, raising the vial to his lips and drinking half of what remained. It tasted strange, fresh and bright and yet somehow heavy and warm at the same time, but so did most TV world remedies, their flavors a clear sign of their otherworldly origins. For a moment, nothing seemed to happen, then Yu began to feel the effects of the potion. It started with a tingling inside his head, quickly followed by a sense of overwhelming clarity, like there had been a veil, or perhaps a safety barrier, between his thoughts and the real world, that had abruptly been removed.
“Go ahead,” he said.
Yosuke grinned. “Sooo… Which of the girls are you interested in?!”
Yu shook his head with a chuckle. This was hardly the first time he heard this question from Yosuke. “Still the same as the last time you asked: none of them.”
Yosuke threw himself against the sofa dramatically, a pained groan escaping him. “Partneeeer,” he moaned. “Why are you so boring?!”
“I don’t lie to you, Yosuke,” Yu replied, still bound to answer the truth.
Yosuke was silent for a minute, contemplating him, and Yu wondered if that was a barely visible flush on his cheeks or if he was imagining it.
“You actually are perfect, huh?”
Yu raised an eyebrow at that, but when no further answer was forthcoming, handed the bottle over to Yosuke. “My turn, then.”
A flash of apprehension crossed Yosuke’s face, and Yu was about to take the vial back and swallow his curiosity, when Yosuke downed the rest of the it in one go.
“Alright, let’s do this,” he said, just about slamming the bottle down on the coffee table.
Yu considered finding a safe question, one he already suspected the answer to, but his curiosity won out and the question he’d been wondering about for the past two weeks slipped out almost against his own will. “What were you so afraid of Rise and the others finding out at truth or dare? You looked terrified.”
Yosuke gasped and strained for a heartbeat, as if he was trying to keep the truth from bursting forth, but his resistance didn’t last long. His expression changed, a lazy smirk stretching over his mouth and his eyes going dark and lidded in a way that almost made Yu look for golden irises, and he turned his full attention on Yu.
“Why, Partner. I just didn’t want everyone to know how badly I wanna fuck y—”
Yu jumped across the table and slapped his hand across Yosuke’s mouth with a resounding smack, not even aware he’d moved before it was ringing in his ears. He was breathing hard, and above his hand, Yosuke’s eyes were round with shock.
Yu wasn’t stupid; it was obvious how Yosuke has been about to finish that sentence. But, as long as he hadn’t said it, there was plausible deniability. Everything said under truth serum was remembered; Kanji, Teddie and the girls had been unable to look at each other without blushing for a straight week after their little game the other night. And if Yosuke realised he’d told Yu, their friendship would never be the same. Not because Yu minded—in fact, he had no idea how he felt about it right now, it had come so entirely out of left field, but nothing so harmless as attraction could make him turn away from the best friend he’d ever had—but because it would consume Yosuke, shattering the facade of normalcy he clung to. He’d never want to be around someone who reminded him that he was different.
“I don’t wanna know!” Yu said, louder than he’d meant to. “I don’t want you to tell me unless it’s your choice, not because of some truth serum’s.” He let his hand fall away, and only then realised that this too was the truth; maybe this potion did more than just make you answer honestly, but also made you act...
“But I do want you to know,” Yosuke said. To Yu’s alarm, he was leaning forward over the table, biting at his lip, and it definitely did seem like there was a physical aspect to this. It would have been nice for one of the others to have shared that little tidbit, Yu thought as he leaned backwards, blindly pawing behind him for his console’s controllers.
“Hey, uh, didn’t you wanna retry that stage we couldn’t beat last week?” he asked, handing Yosuke a controller and hoping that a new question would distract him.
“Oh, yeah! I did!” Yosuke exclaimed, grabbing for the controller.
The game booted up, and they played for half an hour without any further trouble before Yu began to feel his brain returning to normal, which meant Yosuke wouldn’t be far behind. Indeed, after a few more minutes, he saw Yosuke’s expression turn embarrassed, his focus on the game broken. The screen flashed Game Over, and Yosuke chuckled awkwardly.
“Heh, I said some weird shit, didn’t I?”
Yu kept his face as impassive as he could manage, raising only an eyebrow in Yosuke’s direction. “I appreciate how eager you were to share, but I did not need to hear what you wanna get up to with Yukiko. TMI, man.”
Yosuke visibly sagged with relief, bringing a hand to scratch at the back of his neck as he chuckled awkwardly. “Heh, yeah, Yukiko. Of course. Sorry, Partner, I don’t know what came over me. That potion was really something, huh?”
Yu nodded. “I thought I should have used it when we questioned Adachi, but now I’m not so sure. I don’t think I would have wanted to hear his unfiltered thoughts about the people he murdered.”
Yosuke looked down with a pained face, and Yu mentally kicked himself. Bringing up his dead crush, great way to change the subject there, Yu. Turning off his TV, he pushed himself to his feet and reached a hand down to Yosuke.
“Come on, let’s get dinner started before Nanako gets home.”
Yosuke took his hand to pull himself up before dropping it and Yu found himself wishing, for some unexplainable reason, that he hadn’t let go. Yosuke’s hands were not, by any stretch of the word, nice. They were dry, callused from both guitar and kunai, and his nails were ragged where he had a bad habit of biting them. All in all, they were really nothing special, so why had they suddenly felt so good in Yu’s own?
It wasn’t an isolated incident. Over the course of the next few days, Yu realised that for all his efforts to make sure Yosuke’s near-confession wouldn’t change anything, something clearly still had. Yosuke didn’t, as he’d feared, pull away from him; it seemed Yu’s acting had successfully convinced him. No, it wasn’t Yosuke who was the issue… it was Yu.
It was Yu who, when Yosuke leaned into his space to grab a pen, had to resist the compulsion to wrap an arm around his waist and pull him close. It was Yu who looked at Yosuke licking his lips at lunch and found himself possessed of the urge to lick them as well. It was Yu who felt the warmth of Yosuke’s arm over his shoulders burning like a brand long after he’d pulled away. It was Yu who was so distracted in math class, thinking of the way Yosuke used to do flips after killing Shadows, that Chie had to whisper the answer to him when he got called on. He got some pretty suspicious side eye after that one.
He found himself laying awake night after night trying to understand his feelings, his confusion constant but its source flip flopping for hours. It made no sense, why he’d suddenly started feeling attracted to Yosuke when nothing had changed between them. But then again, Yosuke was objectively attractive, funny, fun to be around, smart in his own way even, so maybe what made no sense was that he hadn’t been attracted to him before. But Yu didn’t really do attraction. But he also didn’t really do best friends and yet here Yosuke was. And on, and on, until the number on the clock was way too close to morning yet again.
In the end, what settled it was a completely innocuous act. School had just ended, and they’d been standing at their lockers changing into their shoes. Yosuke had grabbed his arm for balance as he stepped out of his slippers, and Yu had reached back instinctively for his waist to steady him, as if it was natural—and he’d realised at that moment that it was natural. That Yu, whose family had never been physically intimate, who couldn’t recall the last hug he got before he moved to Inaba, who used to have a personal bubble 3 meters wide, had never had an issue with Yosuke getting in his personal space. He’d always been welcome at his side, and the truth was, Yu had probably been at least a little in love with him from the start. And how could he not have been? Yosuke had taken one look at him and decided, that one’s mine, and suddenly he’d been invited to solve a TV world mystery, sure, but also to arcade outings and beef bowl dinners and game nights. For Yu, who’d always felt like a shadow himself, bound to fade into the background, unnoticed and unremembered, being finally seen had been like stepping into the light for the first time in his life.
It took all he had not to pull Yosuke into his arms right then and there, in front of half the school. But, as he walked home, he realised that he had no idea where to go from here. He liked Yosuke, he was pretty sure of it, and Yosuke liked him, he was pretty sure of that, too. But, then what? Yosuke would likely rather jump into the Samegawa naked in mid-February than ever admit attraction to a guy. Yu’s feelings, in fact, changed nothing to the reason he’d stopped Yosuke from finishing his sentence in his room the other night: it would ruin their friendship forever.
So Yu made peace with the fact that he’d have to settle for this much—for casual touches and sleepovers spent talking until the sun came back up, for shared bentos and good night texts. It wasn’t so bad, really. It was more than most people ever got from their crush, and if it meant Yu would get to keep Yosuke in his life forever, it was a sacrifice more than worth making. And if he felt like there was a gaping hole inside himself, a hollowness more biting than any hunger or thirst, well, that would surely pass in time.
About a week had gone by since Yu’s epiphany, and his departure date was drawing ever nearer. Yosuke had been spending all his free time with Yu, clearly as aware of the impending end of the year as he was, and that Saturday was no exception. They’d been sitting in front of Yu’s TV playing a mindless video game for the past hour, their two futons already rolled out and their bedtime come and gone.
Yu was getting pretty tired, but Yosuke had been oddly fidgety the entire evening. He kept opening and closing his mouth like there was something he wanted to say, frowning at nothing and clearing his throat. Yu was getting increasingly curious, but was letting him get there at his own speed—and meanwhile, racking up easy kills against his distracted opponent.
Dojima knocked on the door to tell them goodnight and point out the late hour, and it wasn’t until they were back in Yu’s room, sitting on the couch with teeth brushed and PJs on, that Yosuke finally spoke up.
“So, you know, the other day… The truth serum thing.”
“Mm?” Yu answered, surprised. He’d thought they’d left that issue behind, and it worried him that Yosuke was still thinking about it.
Yosuke stared fixedly at the floor as he hesitantly said, “It… it wasn’t Yukiko I was going to say. It was, uh, you.” Yosuke cringed suddenly and his voice spiked in alarm as he looked up. “Wait, no, that’s not—I don’t wanna um, actually, do that with you, I just mean I like you, not that I haven’t pictured that, but I don’t wanna do that yet even though I bet you’re really good at—”
Yu, who’d been shocked into silence by Yosuke’s admission, finally managed to boot himself back into motion and save Yosuke from his own foot-in-mouth disease.
“I know,” he interrupted.
“What?”
“Give me a little credit, Yosuke,” Yu said with a gentle smile. “If it had been Yukiko, you wouldn’t have been worried about everyone finding out. You’ve already asked her out, it wouldn’t have been a surprise for anyone. But… why are you telling me this now? It didn’t seem like you wanted me to know.”
Yosuke blushed, and his voice was quiet when he answered. “I don’t think I have any chance with you. You’re smart, handsome, popular, you’ve got really pretty eyes. I don’t even know if you’re attracted to guys, but even if you were, why would you choose me? You could have your pick of Inaba. But… I don’t want the reason I’ve got no chance with you to be because I’m too afraid to admit I like you.”
Yu couldn’t resist the urge to reach out and take Yosuke’s hand, squeezing it tight as he tried to control his emotions. He could feel an uncharacteristic heat in his cheeks as his legendary self-control started to break.
“You do have a chance,” he half-whispered. “If you want one.”
Yosuke’s head snapped up at that, staring at him. “Wait, so you do like guys? That’s why I couldn’t get an honest answer out of you about who you liked! I should have worded that question differently,” he huffed.
“No,” Yu replied with a small laugh, “that would have been cheating, don’t you think? I’ve never really thought about attraction as a gender thing. It’s just, I think I only like people I’ve got a special connection with, and I haven’t felt that sort of connection with any of the girls in our team, as lovely as they are. In fact, I don’t think I’ve really ever had that sort of connection with anyone else than you, Yosuke. But, before, when you acted so decisively straight, I didn’t even subconsciously think of you as an option. Then you answered my question, and when I figured out you liked me, it felt like some sort of switch flipped inside my brain. Like suddenly I realised that, well… we’re perfect for each other, Partner.”
Yosuke’s jaw, which had been dropping farther down the longer Yu spoke, suddenly snapped shut. He gulped audibly, his hand gripping Yu’s vice-tight. “You really feel that way?”
“Yes,” Yu replied warmly, struggling to control his happiness at the fact that Yosuke seemed to be okay with the current turn of events despite what he’d feared. “I really do. But,” he added, his smile turning to a smirk, “I think I’ll save the fucking for lat—”
“Oh my GOD, I hate you!” Yosuke yelled over his words, shoving him off the couch.
Yu sat where he landed on the floor, giggling. “Shh, you’re gonna wake Nanako up! And that’s not true, you like me. That’s what we just established.”
“Ugh,” Yosuke groaned. “Remind me why I like you?”
“Cause I’m smart, and handsome, and I have nice eyes. Oh, and apparently, I’m really good with my hands—”
“Shut up!” Yosuke whisper-yelled, pressing his palms over Yu’s mouth. Yu noticed he wasn’t denying any of it, though. Smiling, he tugged his hands away from his face and pulled him down to sit on the floor by his side. The air filled with tension as the joking mood dissipated and left something much more serious in its wake.
Yu turned to Yosuke and threaded their fingers together, feeling his heart beating oddly fast.
“Hey, Yosuke?”
“Yeah?” Yosuke replied with baited breath.
“Will you go out with me?”
Yosuke’s response wasn’t precisely verbal so to speak, but the enthusiastic kiss he pressed to Yu’s lips, that left his insides feeling like they were on fire and his heart floating like a balloon, was more than clear enough an answer.