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The second day of your ski trip with the Investigation Team…
After being basically bailed out of having to pick a singular person to ski with thanks to Yosuke, you tried to divide up your time well with each of your friends. As much as you don’t want to admit it, this will likely be the last time you’ll be able to hang out with them all in a group like this. March is coming closer with every second. It hurts that you’ll have to leave after gaining such a tight knit group, but it isn’t like you won’t be able to see or talk to them again. It just may be a while before the former.
Rise took up the majority of your time yesterday as you aren’t very good at skiing and she wanted to take it slow. She did have a point earlier—it did make sense for you two to be paired up, and you found it hard to really argue with her logic. But, while you do enjoy her company, it felt wrong to solely spend time with her. With the looming thought of you having to go home soon, your time would be better spent with everyone as opposed to just her.
Despite that, everyone remained similar pairs to yesterday but with the added inclusion of you. Yukiko and Teddie kept getting overly competitive and nearly caused another wipe out, Kanji was steadily teaching Naoto how to ski, and Chie and Yosuke have gone up and down the slopes about a thousand times.
Where does that lead you now though? It’s almost time to head back for the night. You suppose you could go down the slope at least once more or maybe multiple times if you’re fast enough. With who though?
…Yosuke, obviously. Is that even a question? He’s your best friend and then some. Of course your last few moments of the trip will lead to you two hanging out. You catch him at the tail end of an impromptu race between him and Chie. He stops quickly which you guess was out of fear of hitting you.
“Partner, dude, you gotta move!” He shouts as he makes it to a hard stop, snow pushing out from under his board. He pulls down his scarf as once he’s in front of you. “One of us could’ve hit you.”
“I was waiting for you.”
His shoulders relax and he purses his lips. “…Well, s-still.” He wasn’t expecting that answer. “I don’t want another accident to happen.” You laugh to yourself as you remember it to his dislike. It was cartoonish how he and Teddie crashed together. You didn’t think that was even possible, but considering the past few months of your life, you should know that basically anything is.
“Do you want to go down the slope together a few times before we have to call it a night?”
Yosuke’s face lights up immediately. “Just us? Oh, man, I was hoping you’d ask. I feel like we barely hung out today.” He has such a bright smile.
You blink for a moment, quietly kicking that thought out. It’s not that you’re ashamed of it, it’s just a bit of a distraction to focus on that. “Did you want to tell Chie first?”
“Nah, she’ll be fine. I think she went in Yukiko’s direction anyway.” He says with a shrug. “C’mon, let’s get going.”
As you start to make your way up though, you quickly see that it is not going to just be the two of you. Teddie quit trying to race Yukiko, seeing as she consistently tied with or beat him in each one. He made his way over to the two of you the moment he could. Eventually, Kanji followed after leaving Naoto with Rise, which may mean the former has actually gotten better. You’ll only admit to yourself that you’re just a smidge bitter about it. You had some important things to tell your partner after all regarding the next month.
Complaints aside, you spend the rest of your time skiing with all three of them up until you begin to see some snow coming in. You all decided pause at the bottom of the slope.
“Y’know, I think I’ve gotten better.” Your partner boasts. “Of course, though, it’s on the last day…” His complaint comes out in a murmur.
“We all have been doing good, including me surprisingly.” You nudge him. “I’m sure we can come back again sometime.” You offer as reassurance.
“What do you mean ‘surprisingly’? You’re good at just about everything.” Yosuke nudges you back with a teasing grin.
You see a few big flakes of snow whoosh past you. Teddie looks up childishly. “Snow is so weird.” He says this to no one in particular, seeming to be in his own world. “How does this even get up there in the first place?” Yosuke offers an explanation that quickly gets overidden by Kanji stating near poetry to you all, talking about “white water flowers” and deep skies.
“That’s a nice image.” You mean that with full honesty. You didn’t take Kanji to be of the poetry type, but it suits him. Maybe he should consider actually writing some.
“Hehe, Kanji has the heart of a dreamy little girl!” Teddie giggles to himself, putting a hand (paw?) over his mouth.
“Shut the hell up, you started this conversation!” The blond barks.
You listen to your two friends squabble for a bit as you begin to notice a sudden uptick in snow. You could’ve sworn it wasn’t even close to flurrying when you last went to the top of the slope. The sky is darkening as well.
“Yosuke, does it seem to be getting darker to you?” You ask him alone since you aren’t expecting much of an answer from the others.
He follows your gaze. “Geez, I knew it might storm, but that was fast…” Yosuke sighs into the sky. He raises his voice with his next few words. “We should start getting back or we might miss dinner. How far are we from the lodge?” He looks down to ask his question. It caught the other boys’ attention, but to his dismay, all they could offer was a shrug.
“It can’t be too bad. The walk here felt fine.” Kanji mutters. “Senpai, do you remember the way back?”
Your friends are all looking at you expectantly. You actually have no clue which way is the correct one, but you can wager a guess. “Left…I think.” You cough out the last two words as a disclaimer. The three of them look at you with uncertainty, which you don’t blame at all.
Kanji shrugs nonchalantly and picks up his skis. “In any case, we should get movin’.” He turns on his heel and immediately gets to walking the way you said, going at a speed faster than expected. Teddie quickly follows.
“Wh...Kanji, Teddie!” Yosuke yelps. “Oh, what the hell…” He mutters and grabs his board. “I hope you’re right.” You half expect him to follow them immediately, but he instead waits for you to grab your own equipment. When you finish, he wraps his hand around your wrist and pulls you forward. He soon slots his hand into yours. That’s new. He hasn’t held your hand since November…
The snow is already picking up at a rate you didn’t think was possible. It’s not time to think about hand holding and what ifs. You’re sure you’ll be able to make it, right?
There’s a heavy feeling at the pit of your stomach, and as you catch up to your other friends, your doubts only increase.
The snow sets in very quickly, and you soon end up losing track of Yosuke since he let go of your hand the moment you made it to the others. It becomes a struggle to see more than what’s directly in front of you, and the only way you can tell anyone is nearby is the occasional yell to check from Kanji. You’re half sure your nose is going to fall off since you don’t have anything to cover it, but you’re at least happy you have goggles.
You end up trying to count your steps to keep yourself moving towards whatever direction you stated. Is this even the same route you suggested?
It’s tempting to just succumb to the conditions at this rate. It’s a total white out; all you see is snow piled on snow. Your body feels so cold.
You feel a sudden grab at your arm that makes you almost jump.
“Yu?” Yosuke. Your name is almost drowned out by the howling wind.
You open your mouth to respond but almost stumble at the feeling of a pressure in your back. You glance behind you to see that both Kanji just slammed into you. Your friends were closer than you thought.
“Senpai!” Your underclassman has his beanie over his eyes. Whatever works.
“Wait, are we all here?” Yosuke seems suddenly a lot closer than a second ago, but in this weather, you could see why.
Kanji shifts his hat to sit higher up and turns around briefly. “I thought Teddie was right next to me...”
A darkened figure comes closer, and judging by the shape, that’s definitely him. His steps are slow as he makes it close to you three. “I’m here…” He grumbles. The fur of his suit is absolutely coated in frost. You’d laugh if the situation wasn’t so dire. He wraps his free arm around himself. “...C-Cold…”
Yosuke groans. “This isn’t good…we’re completely lost, aren’t we?”
“Don’t give up so easy, dammit!” Kanji offers in an attempt to motivate you all.
“Yeah, we still should try…” You quiet yourself at the sound of sudden snoring coming from Teddie. He’s slumped over slightly and the grip on his skis is rather loose.
Your partner moves over and shakes him around. “Stay awake! Stop screwing around!”
“Hey, doesn’t that look kinda like a cottage over there?” The blond raises his arm to point ahead. You follow his finger and see a large figure in the distance, seeming to be in the shape of a small cabin.
“Oh, great, don’t tell me you’re hallucinating.” The words come out in a grumble.
“I’m not, asshole! Use your frickin’ eyes!” Kanji retorts.
“He’s right.” You speak up. “I think that is one.”
Yosuke brings his gaze away from the bear and looks too. “…Really? We’re not just all going crazy?”
“Ooh, Kanji is right! It’s a ‘snowy mountain cottage’!” Teddie supplies randomly, snapping straight up again.
The brunet narrows his eyes at his roommate over the sudden movement. “Look, regardless of what it is, if it’s an actually building, let’s go inside before we freeze.”
The rush over there is as fast as it could be with how stiff everyone feels. When you finally get onto the front porch, Yosuke practically pounds on the door. “Excuse me? Is anyone in there?”
The lack of answer makes you even wearier than you already are. Normally, you’re not much for entering without asking, but you’re kind of desperate here. You carefully reach over and grab the doorhandle…
It clicks open. The door swings inward from the wind and leaves all of you to be dumbfounded for a second. You eventually find your senses and scramble inside, slamming it shut again. While the wind is no longer hitting you, you still feel the cold down to your bones and hope that none of you have frostbite. You all end up tossing your skiing equipment into a corner and shuffle together to regroup. Teddie plops down on the creaky floor, exhaustion hitting him again.
Yosuke pulls down his goggles then crosses his arms, tucking his hands under them in an attempt to warm them. “Alright, uh…does anyone have the lodge’s number?” The question falls on deaf ears. Teddie doesn’t bother to give a response as it looks like he is already asleep, but it seems like the rest of you don’t know. “Oh, come on, really? Do none of us know?”
“I didn’t bring my phone.” Kanji says bluntly as he (briefly) tries to wake up Teddie.
“Why wouldn’t you? They were invented to keep around!”
“Who the hell would I call when we’re all together? If I knew we were gonna get lost, I woulda brought it.” You can’t help the small snicker that leaves you at the sound of that.
“How would I—“ Yosuke breathes out. “Whatever, I’m gonna call Chie.” He takes out his phone. There’s a pause bit greater than expected as he looks at the screen with a blank expression. He flips it closed after some silence. “The battery is dead.”
“With all the shit you gave me for being unprepared…” Kanji starts.
“It’s not my fault the battery is so bad! I don’t have enough to buy a new one because I was saving up for my motorcycle.”
“…You got anything, partner?” They all look at you again for an answer. This feels like a repeat situation of earlier today, and you hope you can actually offer something helpful this time. You take out your phone and feel relief at the sight of it still being alive…but that goes away fast as you realize you have no signal whatsoever. When you voice this, there’s a mutual groan shared by your friends.
“I guess it’s hopeless then…” The statement wounds you a bit, especially coming from your best friend. Granted, this is on you since you didn’t just straight up tell them you forgot. “We don’t know when this blizzard is gonna stop and we can’t talk to anyone.”
“We should at least try to find a way to get warm.”
Yosuke looks around briefly. “There’s a hearth right there. We can start a fire, but I don’t know with what.”
“Well, there’s gotta be somethin’ here if there is one.” You all move around aimlessly and try to find something to work with.
Despite all of the stray and seemingly random items in this place, you’re stuggling to find anything actually useful. You feel as if you’ve been digging around for hours, but you’re quite sure it’s just the lack of energy beginning to hit you. With some time, you manage to find some matches while your friends bring some old newspaper to you. After setting it up into a small pile, you strike the match and toss it in. The flame isn’t at all impressive, but it certainly is better than just sitting in the complete cold, and it seems to be making Teddie come back to his senses. You huddle closely around it.
“Man, this fire is so small. It’s not gonna warm up the four of us…” Yosuke mumbles his complaint into his scarf.
“Why not just set one part of the floor on fire? It’s all wood.” Kanji suggests earnestly. You hold back a laugh.
“That’s called arson, stupid!” Your partner retorts back. “Besides, we’d end up burning to death instead of freezing if we did that.”
“Sheesh, do you just complain all the freakin’ time? You aren’t offerin’ any ideas yourself!”
The two bicker back and forth for a while before the blond offers the idea of layering things. There’s nothing here that counts as warm or furry except…you all glance at Teddie. He quickly shrieks out a no to Kanji’s annoyance, talking about how his “innocence will be destroyed”. That explains why he was so cold.
“Why wouldn’t you wear anything under that in this weather?” Your partner says the question that you probably all have.
“I knew that I’d warm up on my own since we were moving so much!” You guess it makes sense. That bear suit is ridiculously warm most of the time.
“We should try to find some layers for Teddie to wear inside his suit then.” You voice. “Maybe while we’re looking, we’ll find some more material to burn.” Something that isn’t a piece of the cabin preferably.
The bear suddenly sounds emotional. “Sensei…You’re so bear-y kind to me.” He sniffles.
“There ain’t much in here to work with though.” Kanji grunts.
“I’m sure there’s something more around here.” You stand up before anyone can protest. “I’ll look around.”
“Wait, partner, let me come with.” He catches you by the wrist briefly before borderline snatching his hand away. “Y-You’ll probably need some help looking, right?”
You were planning to go alone, but you supposed an extra set of eyes wouldn’t hurt. “Sure.” You direct your attention to your other two friends. “We’ll be right back.”
You get up and walk over to another section of the cabin that is further in and more closed off due to the section mainly being cut off by a wall. You dug through the place deeply during your last search, so you can only hope that you’ll find something more.
“…Hey, man?” Yosuke starts as he reaches out and grabs the cardboard box that sat in the corner of the room.
“Yeah?” You pull out another box from one of the shelves…it’s just tools. That won’t help. You look at another and just find random spare parts.
“I’m sure you already know, and I’ll say this again later, but…” He pulls out a stack of newspapers you didn’t see before, presumably to use as more fuel. You do wish you had something better, but you won’t complain. “I’m gonna miss you real bad.”
You put your boxes back and grab another higher up that has a lid on it. Its color is white instead of tan. “I’ll miss you too.” You’ll miss him terribly. You know that full well.
“You know what I mean though, right?” You glance at him. He’s holding the papers close to him as if they would run away. “You really are special to me.”
When you pry the lid off your box, you find a variety of first aid equipment along with a heavy blanket at the bottom. “…I don’t mind when you say things like that, but it feels a bit random. Are you alright?”
“L-Look, I’m not expecting us to actually die here, but I want you to know again.” He says timidly.
Judging by the lack of other white boxes, you assume that this is the only one. You take your time pulling it out and putting the stray items back in order to think your next words carefully.
“You’re special to me too, Yosuke.” You fold it up and place it in your arms. “I care about you a lot and I don’t expect to think otherwise anytime soon.”
His expression relaxes at the sound of you saying that. A tiny smile appears on his lips, although it’s sad. The conversation ends there and you continue your search for other things. You end up finding nothing of particular use outside of a few tarps that you agreed wouldn’t give much warmth. When you come back and turn the corner, your friend’s voice comes in again. “What the…”
You don’t believe your eyes at how fast Kanji and Teddie fell asleep. You supposed it couldn’t be helped though with all that happened today. In a way, it was kind of sweet, with your underclassman laying on top of the other, looking oh so comfortable with how his face was practically buried in the fur. You aren’t very surprised though, considering his first reaction to Teddie was to ask if he could pet him. Even so, that still means that most of your plan went out the window.
You make your way over to the two and unfold the newly found blanket, laying it over the two. “I’ll leave it with them.” You were planning to put it in his suit in the first place, and it wouldn’t be able to fit all of you anyway. You hear the fire begin to crackle louder and see that the next set of newspapers have been placed in it.
“Well, I’m glad they at least figured it out…” Yosuke’s voice comes to you in a whisper, still strained from the cold.
You glance over to your partner who is currently sitting down and shivering with his knees brought up to his chest. “Any ideas for us?” You ask as you take a seat near him.
“I guess we could just sleep like they are.” He suggests half-heartedly. “Won’t be as warm though with the lack of fur.”
“That might work.” You have fur on your coat anyway. That somewhat counts, right?
“Wait, seriously?” His head snaps to the left to look at you. “I-I was joking.”
“It’s the most practical if the fire isn’t helping.” And, well, you know you both have wanted to cuddle. Or maybe that’s just a personal wish.
Yosuke sighs heavily. “Yeah, I guess.” A hand goes up to mess with the scarf, unintentionally hiding a growing blush you’ve begun to notice. “Are you sure though? Especially since...” He motions to the other guys with a jerk of his head.
You nod a bit more eagerly than you intended. “They’re fast asleep. We don’t have to if you don’t want to though.”
He looks into the fire briefly before shaking his head and scooting closer to you, making you be shoulder to shoulder with one another.
“I, uhm, haven’t done anything like this befor—“ He cuts himself off once he feels your arm wrap around him. He’s dead silent, but the redness of his face increasing says everything and is only amplified by the firelight.
“Sorry, was that too forward?” You ask softly to make sure.
He leans into you, placing his head on your shoulder. “No, no.” He squeaks out. Gingerly, he reaches over and wraps his arms around you. “T-This is just new to me.” Yosuke is as stiff as a board against you, but in a way, you can tell he’s enjoying it. It takes a while for him to loosen up and place most of his weight on you. When he finally does, you’re half sure your heart flips.
“…I guess you were right. This is pretty cozy.” He fights back a yawn. “Maybe I will fall asleep after all.” He ends up pressing his face into the side of your neck and you’re suddenly very aware of the situation at hand. You’re actually cuddling your best friend, your partner, around a fire in a cottage. This is cliche, and you love it.
You hear him mutter something that probably wasn’t supposed to be heard. “…You feel warmer than I expected.”
You are also acutely aware of the way your face must be reddening by the second. You hold him tighter and he leans in further. You can now see every freckle that dots him, now faint from the lack of sun. You think you may be able to sleep like this too, carefully counting each one. Your eyelids are getting heavier.
“…Hey, Yosuke?” The words leave your lips before you can even think about what to say next.
“Yeah?” He whispers back. It was already risky enough to cuddle like this with Kanji and Teddie in the room, but there was an urge to talk.
“I was thinking about September.”
“O-Oh, you mean…our conversation.” He goes quiet for a moment. “What about it?”
“Do you still want to try someday? Dating?” You make sure your voice is even lower.
The brunet moves his head to look up to you. “…I think so. I meant all of that, partner.“
You smile softly, squeezing his shoulder. “Okay. Just let me know.” You’ll keep it short for now.
Yosuke seems to get a sudden bout of embarrassment as he quickly buries his face back into your neck. “Yeah, yeah…don’t look at me like that.” He sighs as you let out a soft laugh.
It is cozy. Sleep begins to take over…
A sudden flash of light and the sound of familiar static makes the both of you turn around and slightly separate yourselves. When you do, you notice an old, worn down television you didn’t see before placed amongst the other random objects in the cabin.
“Did the TV just…?” Yosuke voices the shared thought aloud. “That thing turned on, right?” He turns to you.
You nod. “Let’s go check.” You stand up, taking care as you pull your arms away from him.
“R-Right.” He looks slightly disappointed, but he gets up too after you reach a hand out to him and pull him up.
When you get to the TV, it looks as expected: blank and only showing your reflections. Looking into the screen though brings a sudden urge to simply…jump in. You feel like you’re supposed to be inside the TV right this second as if it’s a guarantee it will lead somewhere important.
…Marie? The back of your mind supplies the thought.
You don’t jump but instead reach your hand out—
“Wait, dude, stop it!” Yosuke yelps, sharply tugging you by the back of the jacket and making you hack from the sudden press on your throat. “What the hell are you doing?” You end up stumbling back and landing on your behind from the force, making a thud. Ow.
“I just thought that maybe…” You trail off. It’s a bit embarrassing to be the one scolded, especially by Yosuke.
He looks down at you, both with concern and frustration. His next words come out in a much lower voice, perhaps being aware again of your shared friends sleeping nearby. “Quit fooling around. If you just force yourself in there, things are bound to go wrong. We’re not even sure if it turned on for real.” He has a point. No matter how worried you might be, if it’s true, you don’t know what’s on the other side of the screen.
“Yeah, you’re right. I should slow down.” You heave out a sigh. “I’m not thinking straight.”
The sound of the front door hitting the wall jolts you both out of any further thoughts or spoken words. “H-Hey! What do you guys think you’re doing?” Chie’s voice booms over the relative quiet, and you hear a surprised noise from Teddie and Kanji after being startled awake.
“Senpai, no!” Rise’s near shriek follows as the two of them rush into the cabin, eventually pushing past her upperclassman. Yukiko comes in at a similar speed. You bring yourself to stand up and share a quizzically look with your partner followed by your mutual friends.
“…What are you two doing?” Naoto takes a slower stride once she enters, sparing a glance at her classmate and the bear instead of you and Yosuke. They seem to still be finding their bearings although they haven’t been asleep for long.
Rise does a once-over of you two and looks relieved. “…They’re still dressed.”
It takes a second to sink in what she just said. Your lips press into a flat line.
“What are you all doing here?” Yosuke glances between the three people surrounding you. “Wait, what about our clothes?” He seems to add this as an afterthought.
“…Why wouldn’t they be dressed?” The tone Yukiko uses seems to be out of genuine curiosity as she turns to Naoto.
Kanji brought himself up rather quickly as he’s already standing by his classmate and supplying a similar thought, although with more confusion. “In this freezin’ weather? It would be weird if they weren’t.” This whole exchange is making you wish you actually did just freeze. You’d go outside and wait for it to happen, but since your friends are here, it must mean the storm is over.
The detective sighs at both of them. “…Do I really have to spell it out?” She sounds tired from the mere fact that they even asked. Ditto.
Teddie waddles over eventually. “Wait, did you girls come to rescue us?” He places a hand over his mouth. “How romantic!” He sways side to side eagerly, seeming to not even acknowledge the whole debacle with you and Yosuke to your relief. That may be for the better.
Yukiko raises an eyebrow. “Rescue?” She purposely seems to avoid the latter statement. “This hut is right behind the lodge.”
“It’s a storage shed, actually. It seems they don’t lock it since the workers come and go throughout the day.” Naoto adds further. You scratch the back of your head. At least that means you were going the right direction. If you walked a bit further, you could’ve actually made it.
“What were you two even doing though?” Chie turns to face you head on. “Kanji and Teddie are one thing, but…”
The way she’s staring at both of you makes you sweat. “We were checking the TV.”
“Is this supposed to be one of those male-bonding things?” Rise sways side to side while asking. “…Or is it more than that?” Once she stills, her eyes narrow on Yosuke, sharp and seeming to somehow look into every detail of his mind.
“Y-You’re completely misunderstanding!” He squawks. It seems he felt the same energy you did.
“It’s a reasonable guess! Look at you two!” The girl motions to the two of you wildly with both hands. That’s just making the situation worse.
“What do you mean ‘reasonable guess’? What the hell about that is reasonable?” Your partner is clearly flustered, and you share the same sentiment. “Why are we the only suspicious ones anyway?”
You end up taking over and giving a detailed and much calmer explanation on the last few hours you and the other guys have been through, taking care to avoid mentioning the cuddling between you and Yosuke. It would only add fuel to the fire, after all.
Chie speaks again first, leaning her weight to one side. “So you got lost, stumbled into this convenient cottage, and needed to warm each other up. Kanji and Teddie fell asleep, so you two…” The avoidance didn’t help in the slightest.
“Oh, my…!” Teddie gasps loudly. “Sensei, Yosuke, I didn’t know you wanted to score with each other. So bold…so scandalous!” So much for him not talking. You swear you hear a giggle come from Yukiko.
“No, damn it! Why aren’t you listening?” Yosuke yells to the whole room. “The main point here is that the TV turned on by itself, not whatever any of us were or weren’t doing.” His face is flushing at an abnormal rate again and you fear you might be doing the same.
Kanji tilts his head, eyes steady on the television set. “It makes no sense though. The case has been over for months.”
“Maybe the wiring is bad or something.” Chie says with a shrug. “That’s the only sense I can make out of it.”
Naoto clears her throat, cutting into the conversation. “From the looks of it, the TV isn’t plugged in. If this is true, we should investigate this immediately.” She says thoughtfully. Someone is finally giving faith to your shared theory.
“That’s what we’ve been saying!” Your partner groans. “Why’d it take so long for you all to focus on that?”
Chie hums, shifting her weight again side to side as she thinks. “Well, let’s see then.” She evens out and makes her way to be closer to the television.
“Hey, wait a sec…” Yosuke moves to block the TV, but is immediately nudged aside by her. You step back.
The brunette leans down and glances at her reflection, curiosity written on her face. Slowly, Chie reaches a finger out and pokes the screen. It ripples for a moment as it normally would when someone is about the enter. “Huh. Whatddya know…” She murmurs. Everyone seems equally surprised, even you and Yosuke despite your assumptions of that being true.
The confusion is amplified as she is suddenly tugged forward by the wrist. There’s an immediate uproar as everyone rushes forward to grab her. As you’re attempting to tug her back, you catch a glimpse of a blue coat. A thin and pale hand is gripping Chie with a force like no other. You think you recognize it, but before you know it, you are propelled into your friend and thrown into a dizzying black and white scene.