Work Text:
The stars hanging above the group were beautiful, even if many of them were hidden from sight. It had been cloudy that day, and some of the clouds still lingered.
Souji had worried that it might rain, but their fears were soon put to rest. Yosuke had hardly reacted to the changing weather, a sure sign that no storm was incoming.
Now he appeared to be napping—far too close to the fire, in Souji’s opinion—as Rise tuned her dulcimer. His ear twitched as she plucked a discordant note.
Souji yawned. “Are you going to play something?”
“Yeah, I’m afraid that I’ll lose my callouses if I put practice off any longer.” She hummed to herself and adjusted the tuning a little more. “Do you mind? I can always put it off for later if you want to rest.”
“No, I’m fine with it. It doesn’t seem like Yosuke minds much either, seeing as he is,” they gestured helplessly, “passed out, apparently.” So much for investigating. Chie would kill them in the morning.
“Not pass’d out,” Yosuke mumbled from the ground. “M’ resting my eyes.”
Souji huffed out an amused breath. “Alright. You’re not passed out. You’re just trying your best to impersonate someone who has lost consciousness.” They shook their head. “Go ahead Rise. He won’t mind.”
“I might mind,” Yosuke objected. “I don’t, but I might. Someday.”
Rise laughed. “Alright, then. Any requests? I have a very big repertoire, you know.”
Yosuke perked up. “I’d be happy to hear anything. It’s been such a long ass time since I heard a bard.”
Souji snorted. “We see a bard every time we go into town. It hasn’t been that long.”
“This is proof that you grew up around knights. No culture whatsoever. It’s sad, really.” Yosuke tutted.
“Says the one who said he’d be ‘happy to hear anything’. “ Souji smiled. “You can’t pretend to be distinguishing and pretentious. It just doesn’t work for you.”
Rise adjusted the tuning on her instrument once more, strumming it experimentally. “Thank you for being quiet while I worked, team.” She rolled her eyes, her lips quirking upwards. “Souji, do you have any requests?”
“Um… there was a song I heard once. I think it went,” they hummed a few notes before wincing. “Wait, no. That’s not how it went. Uh, it was about seasons?”
Rise and Yosuke stared at them in a kind of baffled awe. “How is it,” Yosuke started, “that you can remember all the attacks for the different personas, but you consistently forget pretty much everything else?”
“I remember things!” Souji defended. “Just not songs I hear once.”
Rise laughed. “Okay, since neither of you are going to help, I’m picking one. It’s kind of old, so you may not know it very well.”
“That sounds amenable to me,” Souji said. Yosuke nodded in agreement.
Taking in a breath and sitting up straight, she began.
After a few notes, Souji’s head began to cock, slowly but steadily. Their brow wrinkled in befuddlement, and a grin began to spread across their face.
Yosuke, however, reacted as he usually did: with the full weight of his energy behind him. “Gods, no! Ne’er Going to Give You Up? I can’t believe it. I can’t believe we were so naïve.”
Rise started laughing raucously, and had to place her dulcimer beside her so that she wouldn’t crush it while bending over on herself. “I can’t believe,” she wheezed, “that you would let me choose whatever song I wanted, and you weren’t expecting that!”
“I usually don’t expect absolute betrayal! Lend me some support here, Partner, wasn’t that a complete—“ He squinted at Souji. “Why are you grinning?”
“I actually like the song.”
“I can’t fucking believe this! I’m grabbing Souji’s uncle and you’re both going to the gaol.”
Souji started laughing. “Yosuke, you made us listen to that group of bards that was named after currency once. I don’t think you can condemn us for liking Ne’er Going to Give You Up.”
Yosuke stuck his tongue out at them, as Rise and Souji began to laugh even harder.