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Yosuke had a tendency to go one step forward, five steps back. He wrote the perfect essay answer on a test, and he forgot that the test was front and back. He replaced his piece-of-junk bike’s chain, only for it to fall off when he was halfway to school. He finally got a new phone number, only to give everyone he knew the wrong number and have them try to contact some kid on the other side of the country.
He had finally- finally- gotten out of denial of his, frankly, embarrassingly obvious crush on Souji, and asked him on a kind-of probably-not date. When Souji hadn’t responded as quickly as Yosuke wanted him to (which was immediately), Yosuke had sputtered out that, okay, you just look like you need a break, partner, I don’t know, maybe we could do something you like, like- you know- fishing?
That was only his first mistake of the evening.
Souji had apologized about the fact that he only owned one fishing rod, but Yosuke didn’t really mind that much. He didn’t know how to fish, after all, and didn’t want to make even more of a fool of himself on the first date, or the first kind-of probably-not date. When Souji offered to share, Yosuke shrugged and pointed to his headphones, saying he’d be fine.
Yosuke sat at the pier, his shoes off and toes nearly touching the water. Whenever he had half a toe in the water, Souji would give him a sideways glance, and Yosuke would pull his feet out as fast as he could.
Maybe the fish liked toes. He didn’t know.
Fishing wasn’t something Yosuke particularly liked. He wasn’t even the one fishing, and he still didn’t particularly like it. Sure, at first it was nice; he would glance at Souji every now and then, who looked more relaxed than he had in weeks. It was a rare expression on Souji, and it made Yosuke happier than he’d admit out loud, but even his clandestine spying got boring. Souji, Yosuke had no idea how, had some sort of endless pool of concentration to reach into and fish from, and Yosuke did not.
Fishing was boring. Fishing was mind-numbingly boring.
The stifling silence didn’t bother Souji much, but it grated on Yosuke. His music player only had so much juice, and he had used most of it earlier in the day to calm his nerves. Now, he only had enough left for a couple of songs, and he was hoping to save that if he managed to mess this up even more.
The only thing worse than the silence was the cat. It wasn’t too pleased that Yosuke took its normal spot, and glared at him with cold, unblinking eyes. Occasionally, it would stare at Yosuke, then rub its head against Souji, and Souji would scratch it behind the ears.
The cat would look back, its empty eyes searching for the pain and jealousy ever apparent on Yosuke’s face.
“It’s taunting me,” Yosuke said, louder than he intended, “I mean- I mean, it won’t stop staring.”
Souji laughed, scratched the cat under its chin. The cat rumbled, leaning into the scratch and curling its tail around Souji’s side. “It just wants attention.”
You and me both, dude, Yosuke thought, still glaring back at the cat.
The cat purred, rubbing on Souji’s hand for a moment longer, then walked over to Yosuke. It made a pitiful noise, something between hum and a meow. Souji gave Yosuke a look, and Yosuke huffed, then gave the cat pets.
It purred, louder this time, and as if it was cordially invited, sat on Yosuke’s lap. Yosuke froze, watching as the cat rolled over in his lap, exposing its fluffy underbelly. It made the same noise as before, then outstretched one of its paws.
“Um,” Yosuke said. He heard Souji set down his fishing rod, but was too focused on the taunting cat in his lap to look up.
“It likes you,” Souji said. Yosuke still hadn’t looked over, and wasn’t going to any time soon. Souji had shuffled over to where Yosuke was sitting, their shoulders bumping together. Souji leaned over, and scratched behind the cat’s ear. It stretched out its other paw, this time, kneading the air.
Yosuke could feel Souji’s knuckles on his knee. He could also feel the back of his neck heat up.
They sat there, for a while, Souji cooing over the cat that had planted itself in Yosuke’s lap, and Yosuke frozen and hyper-aware of his own movements.
“You can pet it too, you know,” Souji said. Yosuke could tell what smile he was wearing- soft, but the corners of his lips turned up, almost teasing.
Souji moved, laying his hand in the small space between them. Moving slowly, Yosuke reached toward the cat’s chin. It was still purring, loudly, and Souji seemed to be concentrated on that more than anything else. In a split decision Yosuke was hoping he wouldn’t regret, he dodged away from the cat and set his hand on top of Souji’s.
Souji’s fingers tensed under his, and Yosuke tensed in return. His hand felt like concrete, frozen in place and unable to undo his previous action, no matter how much he wanted to. Souji moved his hand away (oh god oh no), but only briefly. He set his hand back on top of Yosuke’s, gently interlacing their fingers.
Letting out a slow breathe, Yosuke pet the cat with his free hand.
The cat stretched again, but Yosuke knew Souji’s attention wasn’t on the cat anymore. When Yosuke finally looked over to catch Souji’s gaze, he actually looked flustered. Souji smiled sheepishly, his cheekbones red. Yosuke quickly looked away, smiling down at the cat.
“This was nice,” Souji said after a long moment, one that felt longer than the entire fishing trip so far, “Thank you. I mean it.”
“Uh, yeah,” Yosuke said. He could feel Souji making soft circles with his thumb on the top of his hand. “Yeah, yeah. No problem, dude. Anytime.”