The first anyone knew about the theft was, well, all at the same time, considering Yosuke’s volume. “Someone stole my bike!”
Laughter greeted that statement. Yosuke whirled around, trying to catch who was amused. Maybe they’d be the perpetrators. They quieted down before he’d looked at them, though, so he didn’t really have a lot to go on.
“With how creepy you can be sometimes, I’m surprised it didn’t happen sooner.” Chie is completely unsympathetic.
“I’m not that bad, geez.” The anger is beginning to disappear, and suddenly Yosuke’s in a hurry to get somewhere else, because if they saw him crying, it’d just get worse.
“Hey, Yosuke, Chie.” Well, that was something, at least. Souji’d always been friendly, if awkward, from the very beginning. His Shadow had confessed it hadn’t been one hundred percent genuine at first, but he’d found himself actually getting close to people this time around. Which was a bit of a relief, because someone whose life they’d changed that much couldn’t forget them, even in the big city. He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t a little worried about his boyfriend going back to the city lights, and, well, a long-distance relationship, but with the firm way Souji dealt with all insecurities (like they were Shadows, actually) it’s clear that the guy thinks it’s worth it. Thinks he’s worth it.
The greeting this time feels almost natural. More than that, their grey-haired leader seems relaxed, cheerful, which is good. Considering how their relationship had been going and how hurt the guy had been, this makes Yosuke happy. But as Souji catches up, he realizes something else.
Which apparently, Souji does too. He can’t really hide the glassy sheen in his eyes or the slight downturn of his lips, even though Chie doesn’t notice. She’s working on being a better friend; he is too. But he can’t exactly say Chie can’t be oblivious and not be lying. Souji’s the kind of guy to notice, even when no one else does.
“What’s wrong?” he asks with a frown. His hand raises and then falls helplessly. This really isn’t the place for anything, no matter how much Souji wants to comfort him. For a guy so unused to touch, it’s kind of surprising how much Souji tends to use it. But then, just because he hadn’t let himself get close to people like that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t want it.
Suddenly Yosuke’s embarrassed. He’s the type of guy to cry, sometimes, when he can’t handle the stress anymore. But there’s very little (no, not even the pageant) that’s as humiliating as crying in the middle of a public place with a ton of people watching like you’re a five year old having a tantrum. People make fun of you, or ask you what’s wrong and try to fix it, or ignore you. Yosuke prefers the third option. And oddly enough, he prefers the first option to the second. When people try to comfort you, at least with others around, it’s more humiliating and doesn’t really help you stop crying.
At least, in Yosuke’s experience. It just draws more attention to the fact you’re crying in the first place. Like you’re a kid with an overactive bladder who keeps wetting his pants, and the teacher talks loudly about how they have clothes to change into and there’s nothing to be ashamed about. Yosuke hasn’t done that in a long time, at least in ten years, despite what Chie might say, but you never really quite forget the emotions. And even though he kind of needs the caffeine to stay awake after homework and Junes shifts, not to mention hanging out with Souji and trying to save people from the TV, he’s reluctantly started to cut back on the morning coffee because the first time in the TV World was a really bad impression to make on the new guy. Never mind the fact that the new guy is the guy he’s now dating.
“Somebody took my bike. I don’t know why. It’s not like it was worth much or was in the best of shape or anything.” Actually, with the sinking feeling as he talks, he knows exactly why they took it. It wasn’t because they wanted it. It was because, even after all this time, they still can’t accept the Prince of Junes.
“Maybe you left it at Junes?” Souji asks hopefully. “Or at home?”
The guy’s tone is odd, and Yosuke turns to stare. Wh—oh, yeah, it’s probably because of the date later. He doesn’t want anything to ruin the day. He was probably getting ready for it at lunch, too. Seta-kun shifts uncomfortably under the gaze. “Nah. It’s…” He lets out a huge gust of air, hopefully letting the hurt go too. It’s not that it’s not still jerkish, or that it’s not a problem. “I know I rode it to school today, but…it’s not coming back, so. Let’s go.”
Yukiko waves, but she’s busy running past them to get to the inn. Which is good. She’s as oblivious as Chie, usually, but Souji’s calling attention to it.
Souji quickly falls into place on Yosuke’s other side, walking a little close and it’s subtle, but it’s nice. At least he doesn’t say too much, though it makes the brunet a little queasy to see the frown on the guy’s face. Souji shouldn’t frown. They hear some mean-hearted chuckling as they walk out of the gates, which earns probably the fiercest glare they’ve ever seen from Seta-kun. Nobody with any sense would actually tick their Leader off on purpose.
“Hahaha.” It’s a half-hearted laugh from Chie, but Yosuke’s quickly approaching the point of ‘I don’t care’. It hurts too much to let this get the better of him. The glare transfers, and the Chie who’d cheerfully face anyone down quickly turns her gaze down somewhere near her shoes as they walk. “I was just thinking, you’re really protective of him, Seta-kun. Yosuke’s pretty lucky.”
Yosuke feels the flames in his cheeks, which had begun to die down, suddenly flare up again. “Chie!” She doesn’t even flinch when he slugs her in the shoulder.
“Nah, I’m the lucky one.” Souji’s tone is so soft and fond, and against his will Yosuke looks over. The affectionate smile on his face completely matches his words, cheesy as they are, and they’re far enough from the school now. Souji’s hand slips over, as if it’s being pulled by gravity, and slips into his own.
“How do you even say things like that, Partner?” Yosuke lifts his other hand, just for a moment, to place over his face until the redness goes away. Souji patiently waits, and the thought that he’s got someone who’s willing to wait, who’s not put off by all the embarrassment and mistakes that come from a relationship…
Yosuke’s always dreamed of a beautiful girl who can cook and who will laugh at his jokes and listen to him. She can wear a nurse’s uniform and looks completely hot. Maybe she’s just a bit older, like Saki-senpai. She’s not useless; she’ll stand up for herself and for him. She’s eloquent and will go to movies with him. She’s really popular, but she’ll have chosen him, and will stand up for that choice. She’ll have a heart of gold and help out everybody.
After the Investigation Team got started, that dream changed a little. Yukiko was his idea of the perfect girl, until he actually got to know her. For one thing, she needs to wear a sign at all times that proclaims to any potential victims that she can’t cook. Souji assures him that she's working on it, but Yosuke's dubious. She really does like everybody, but she’s usually too overwhelmed to help out anyone who asks, and she does actually have a temper that’s really, really scary to anyone who somehow manages to invoke it. The giggle fits are a little weird, and, well, the image of perfect femininity, as Chie’s Shadow had put it, didn’t exactly match reality, did it?
So maybe the dream girl is a little unrealistic, a little out of reach. She has a few quirks, but nothing too off-putting. And, well, it’s weird, but after watching the others fight he can’t imagine not dating someone who can kick him into the next reality (not that he’s ever thought about dating Chie, because a) she’s his best friend and it’s nice having a best friend and b) he couldn’t just relax and be himself because she’d lose her temper about everything and, as he’s recently been discovering, c) he’ll be broke all the time, because he can’t imagine her making a boyfriend pay for less than he is right now) or use a razor fan on the enemies, or maybe a sword. He sometimes wonders if anyone else on the team watches as everyone fights and admires just how awesome they all look when they’re doing it. Maybe there’s something to martial arts movies, because they’ve grown a lot more than just hanging out and talking and getting over their Shadows would seem to indicate.
…Other than the gender of his chosen partner, because he hadn’t really seen that coming, he’s gotten pretty much what he’d wanted all along. He doesn’t know about the nurse thing, but somehow the dirty magazines he’d hid under his bed had gotten appropriated by Ted, and he didn’t really even care. Somehow they didn’t turn him on the way they used to. He’d pay money for a picture of Souji during that thunderstorm, though. And that’s not even taking into account the things he hadn’t imagined—like the fact that the guy he’s now dating is as much of a dork as he is about certain manga and TV shows, and he can actually play video games with his Partner as a date, and it’s romantic and fun, and there’s no pressure to it.
One thing that hadn’t changed at all—he wanted to be the best boyfriend. He still wants that. The daydreams have changed, yeah, because his Leader’s there instead of a long-haired, pretty girl, but other than that there’s no difference. He’ll occasionally wonder what that says about him.
He wants to be the courteous guy that’ll go out of his way to do silly romantic things just to brighten his partner’s day. He wants to be the guy who does things without being asked, just because he knows the person he’s dating so well. He wants to call and talk about nothing at all, but he also wants to be the one that his—boyfriend, now—will talk to about the serious stuff, and be able to say the exact right thing. (He won’t, probably. That’s probably out of reach. He is getting better at it, and Shadow or no Shadow he guesses that’s all right.) He wants to be properly supportive.
He’s realistic enough to know that there are arguments sometime in the hazy future, but he wants to be the guy that’s mature about it all, and he wants it to be more of a debate than anything. They'd actually done fairly well at that when they'd talked about the off-team thing. He doesn’t want to ‘win’ (even though realistically that might be an emotion that breaks his fantasy, just a little) because what would ‘winning’ be, really? He wants to work it out, have the two of them deal with the stuff life throws at them. He wants them to have lives, and he doesn’t want to smother his partner because, well, that’s just creepy, and he doesn’t want someone he loves that much getting sick of him. As long as he remains special to the person and makes them happy, he’s content.
It’s bugging him to no end that his income isn’t near enough to pay for them all the time and just get random gifts to brighten Souji’s day, but then, equipment for the TV is probably more important for survival purposes, and compared to what they get hawking Shadow bits, his meager part-time paycheck doesn’t even come close. He wants an equal. He wants to be the guy to do everything, well, not completely right, because that’s probably out of reach of anybody mortal, but close enough to make Souji happy. He wants to be the guy that his significant other (that’s a weird phrase, but Yosuke’s not actually that curious) can count on, the dependable type, just as he wants that from the one he loves. He wants an equal, someone he inspires and someone who inspires him to be the best they can be.
He takes the hand away from his face, and Souji’s content, tender smile has only grown when he wasn’t paying attention. Maybe it’s a good thing they were holding hands so the grey-haired student could carefully steer him around obstacles. “Welcome back,” his boyfriend states warmly, eyes crinkling somewhat.
It might be natural that Souji likes cats so much, considering all the mannerisms, like the cat smile, he takes from them. And the guy would probably take it as a compliment, too. He’s occasionally weird, but that’s just the quirkiness thing. Yosuke decides to test the waters. “You’re such a cat, dude.”
As expected, the smile widens. “Thank you. Though knowing you, I’m not sure that’s meant to be a compliment.”
“You spend so much time around them, you’re going to start turning into one. See, you’ve already got the cat smile going. And you take cat naps.” Maybe it’s revenge for his boyfriend saying he was turning into Teddie, way back when.
“Would you still date me if I had ears and a tail?” Contemplative, but he could mess this up if he wanted to.
Like that’s something he’d ever want to do. “Yeah, I’d still date you, you weirdo. Though I’d probably buy catnip, because seeing you like that would be funny.”
“Do you hear that? Yosuke wants to see me on drugs.” That, apparently, was a correct answer, since Souji’s looking amused and holding in laughter.
“You two are one of the weirdest couples I know,” Chie states with a bit of wistfulness in her tone.
“Are you, you know.” Argh, how’s he supposed to say it? “Did you bring that up to Yukiko yet?”
“I don’t know how.” She kicks at the path as Souji perks up. It is a serious subject, after all, and he always seems to enjoy it when he can actually follow along in a conversation. Probably why he’s so good at school. That way he can make the same kinds of connections in a teacher’s lectures. And he does care about his friends. And everyone in Inaba. Just…some of them more than others, and that warms Yosuke’s heart. He’s special to his Partner, but that doesn’t mean that Souji’s going to ignore everyone else, either. “I mean, like my Shadow said, I’m not sure if I even really do like her like that. And I’m not sure that I want to say something, because, well…what if I’m wrong?”
“I think you two are close enough that it won’t matter like you think it will,” Yosuke offers. “I mean, I’m not her, so I can’t tell you how she’ll feel, but…I mean, what I’m trying to say is…” He sticks his tongue out just a little, biting it to think, and he doesn’t miss how this draws grey eyes. It’s important knowledge for later. “…I guess what I’m saying is, that’s how I ended up with this guy. I was kind of faking it at the beginning, because I really didn’t think I was, you know, like that. All I knew was, Souji is important to me and I don’t want to lose him. And I’ve never been this close to anyone, and it won’t hurt to try and see.” Souji doesn’t look hurt like he expects. The expression is more…understanding? And there’s a look there that Yosuke hasn’t been able to quantify, yet, but it happens every time they share truths they haven’t talked about yet with each other. Just in case, though, he squeezes the hand in his own and winks. “It turns out I like it a lot. So, you’ll always be important to each other, but, um. You have to try to figure out the specifics of that on your own?”
“And if nothing else, if she goes to, say, a decorator’s school, it’s not quite university but if she wants to get anything good out of it, she’ll have to go to one of the big cities. The cost is high, so you can just say you want to room with her to cut down on expenses.” The advice is good, just like most of Souji’s advice, but there’s an added note, like this is somehow personal, that gets the attention of the brown-haired students.
“…You’ve been thinking about this for you and Yosuke, haven’t you?” Chie asks suspiciously, and she’s rewarded with a blush. It’s rare and pretty difficult to provoke, but Yosuke doesn’t begrudge her the victory. Much.
Besides, it’s pretty easy to be distracted when it means that, late at night, Souji’s been thinking about their future and wanting to stay together, not just for the rest of the year, not even for a painful year of separation and late night phone calls after that, but making detailed plans that always mean he’s completely serious about this. Which, okay, yeah, Yosuke had some signs of, before, but reminders are always nice. “Have you been making an apartment day-to-day menu?” he asks suspiciously, trying to keep the smile off his face, but by Chie’s chuckle and shove it’s not working. He ends up a little closer to Souji than he intended, but by the fact the blush hasn’t faded yet, it seems like the guy doesn’t particularly mind.
Souji doesn’t answer, just looks away, then sighs. “I’m sorry, Yosuke, but would you mind hanging out with Chie beforehand? Preparations for tonight didn’t go as smoothly as I would’ve liked during lunch.”
“Nah, I don’t mind, Partner. As long as you wow me.” He grins and winks, but it turns out neither of them particularly want to let go, despite the fact that hanging out with Chie is suddenly a fun thing again. Chie and Yukiko weren't the only ones who had drifted apart. And he's going to be seeing the guy again in a few hours, so why's it so hard?
“I don’t really go for romance stories, but you two are pretty cute,” Chie remarks, and that gets Yosuke moving.
He rubs the back of his head, sheepish. “Uhhhh, haha, if I keep you like this, you won’t be able to get ready.” He thinks about it for a few moments, then leans up just the little difference between their heights and kisses Souji on the cheek. “I’m looking forward to tonight.” The kiss is enough to get him to let go, and Souji looks a little stunned, enough that his fingers go slack as well.
The grey-haired student shakes his head, and that affectionate look is back. “Have fun with Chie. I’ll call you when it’s all ready.” He waves and then starts off.
They walk inside, and then Chie asks, “So, you’re looking forward to tonight, huh?”
“Shut up.” Yosuke crosses his arms, following her to the main room. “And you say I’m a perv.”