Chapter Text
When Yosuke was a kid, he didn’t care what he’d be when he grew up, so long as he was nowhere near Junes. On Get To Know You fill-in-the-blank worksheets in grade school, Yosuke always wrote in something like ‘boss’ or ‘musician’ or even ‘at least 6 feet’ when he was feeling gutsy. But honestly, this isn’t what he saw himself doing.
Of course, there aren’t many kids that would ever write ‘cold-case detective’ on those dotted lines. Hell, Yosuke didn’t know what a cold-case was until his second year of college. He’d been taking a Law and Criminal Justice class for the credit, and didn’t expect to get as hooked on it as he did. Due to the fact that the unit on cold-cases was disappointingly meager, Yosuke found himself spending more time in the library in a week than he had in the entirety of his last year in high school. He chose his major the next week.
Now, Yosuke’s never been the most motivated guy. In fact, he hardly gave a shit about anything when it came to school for years before he bunkered down to get a into a good college. It’s thanks to that (and a recommendation from Ryotaro Dojima, a detective from the small town he’d been from) he was able to get out of those hellish boonies at all. But with this, he actually wants to try, wants to succeed, be good at it, not just decent. The satisfaction of digging, digging so deep it’s more stone than soil and solid evidence is few and far between, but finding the tiniest of connections and working, working, working until there, just there, a solid lead, a springboard, and he’s doing a midair triple-frontflip and nailing the goddamn landing, 10 outta 10, five stars, gold medal, “I’m goin’ to Disneyland.”
When he left college, Yosuke was nothing short of terrified. What sort of place needed a cold-case detective anymore? But somehow, word of him got out, and he got a call from legendary Naoto Shirogane, a detective that his professor had mentioned with admiration. They were prompt, introducing themself as ‘Naoto Shirogane, head detective, please refer to me only with gender-neutral pronouns,’ before diving into the matter at hand: they had some personal cases, but they were quickly lost among the newer, more significant cases that were piling up, and they wanted Yosuke’s help. Naoto Shirogane, Ace Child Detective, wanted Yosuke’s help. Sure, they sounded incredibly reluctant, but Yosuke had the feeling they’re not the sort of person to ask for assistance very often. Also, most people that asked him for help did so with at least a little bit of reluctance, so it didn’t really bother him anymore.
So he packed his things and travelled 4 hours by train to the headquarters where Mx. Shirogane worked, struggled with a hotel’s iron to get the infinite amount of wrinkles out of a suit he hadn’t worn since he was ditched on prom night, and strode into the tall, reflective building with much more confidence than he had.
The interview was with Naoto Shirogane themself. Yosuke was nervous, bouncing his leg the whole time, stuttering here and there, but Naoto’s calm, steady demeanor helped put him more at ease. They called two days later and asked if he could start the next week, and even recommended an acquaintance that was looking for a roommate.
This is where Yosuke stands now: at the threshold of a small house, tucked into a row of small houses identical to it. There are two boxes at his feet, and he shifts the one in his arms to free a hand to knock on the door with. Before he’s able to, however, someone throws it open.
The individual with impressive door-opening skills is none other than his new roommate, Teddie (“Short for Theodore?” “Don’t.”) Kuma. Yosuke had only spoken to him on the phone, and had absolutely no idea he’d be so… Well. Adjectives fail him for a few moments. So extravagant, perhaps? So chipper?
So obviously gay?
All three, probably.
(But mostly the latter.)
Yosuke had gotten over most of his internalized homophobia in high school (which was a good thing, considering his own preferences), but this strikes him as just a little bit ridiculous. This kid is wearing a rose on his lapel. He can’t tell whether or not it’s real. And those pants? They look like they’re intended to be formal, but their fit is more like skinny jeans. The perfect completion of his outfit is his mismatched socks: one red-and-blue striped, one neon yellow. Yosuke has to blink a few times to make sure this individual isn’t a trick of the light.
“Yosuke Hanamura, right?” Teddie asks, grabbing the hand that isn’t holding his duffel bag with both of his. “I’m really sorry I couldn’t meet up with you before, I get super duper busy with the kids!”
Yosuke blanches. Kids? In a house this size? He tries to peer around Teddie, but the other’s laugh has him snapping back to attention. “No, no, not in the house, silly! I work at a daycare!” He gets a dreamy look in his eye. “Those kiddos are so precious…” He releases Yosuke’s hand to feign a swoon, complete with a hand to his forehead. “It pains me to be apart from them!”
This is going to be incredibly odd.
“Uh,” Yosuke finds a gap to interrupt Teddie’s dramatic monologue. “Do you think I could come in? It’s starting to rain.”
Teddie freezes, gasping. “Oh, oh, yeah, I’m so sorry! Golly, I just get so caught up thinking of those li’l guys! C’mon, I’ll show you around!” With that, he snatches Yosuke’s hand again and drags him inside.
The blond has quite a bit to say about every room he shows his new roommate, and says it all so fast that Yosuke can only catch a few phrases at a time. Thankfully, the layout is easy to remember. The main room and the kitchen are separated only by a counter. At the back of the room is a narrow staircase leading upstairs, where the bedrooms and bathroom are located. The bathroom is between the bedrooms, with three doors leading into it: one connecting it to either room, and one from the hall. The bathroom is split by a semi-transparent sliding door. On one side is the toilet and sink, on the other is the bathtub/shower combination. Teddie points out that the first door from the staircase is his bedroom, which he doesn’t show the inside of, and points out that the third and last door in the hall is going to be Yosuke’s room. He leaves Yosuke to get settled while he goes to get treats for them, to celebrate Yosuke’s arrival.
It was all very exhausting.
Yosuke’s room is quite simple, the walls painted a natural beige and the furniture a grayish wood. He has a desk, a bureau with a mirror on the wall above it, and a bed that looks like a double. When he tries to turn on the overhead light, it splutters, then flicks out with a few sparks. Yikes. Yosuke settles for the lamp on the nightstand beside the bed. The light is dim, as if intended mostly for atmosphere. Unfortunately, it’s all he has for now. He’ll have to mention it to Teddie, see if he’ll be willing to chip in for one of those floor lamps with the flexible bulbs. Yeah, that’d be neat.
The duffel bag is dropped in front of the bureau with a muffled thud, and Yosuke collapses onto the bed. It’s more comfortable than he expected it to be, but maybe that’s because he had suffer through a forty-five minute wait for the bus, only to hear that it broke down at the stop prior and wouldn’t be continuing the route. He’d been forced to walk, which wouldn’t have been a big deal, had his bag not been so heavy and had he not gotten ridiculously lost. Whatever. He’s made it now, so that’s what counts.
A call from downstairs rouses Yosuke, who hadn’t realized he’d dozed off at all. He pushes himself to his feet and heads toward the call.
“What’s up?” he asks, running a hand through his already unruly hair. Yeah, there’s some bedhead going on there.
Teddie snickers, probably at his hair situation. Then he gestures to the counter. “I made some cupcakes! I thought I had some left over from a few nights ago, but I guess I ate ‘em all and forgot, but I said I’d get sweets for you, so I made some myself! I dunno if they’ll be any good, since I’ve only ever made ‘em from the packages. I didn’t have any though, so I had to do it from scratch with a recipe, but I hope they’ll be good enough!”
Involuntarily, Yosuke’s jaw drops a little. He manages to close it at soon as he notices, but his surprise is still evident. “You made cupcakes from scratch for the first time just so I’d be able to have some?”
Teddie tilts his head. “Well, yeah. How come you look so surprised?”
Yosuke huffs and looks away, attempting to force away the blood in his cheeks. “No one’s really bothered with that kind of thing for me before. It’s not like my moving in is a huge deal.”
“But it totally is!” Teddie gasps, throwing his hands up to his cheeks. “I’m so excited to have someone to live with! Especially someone who does all that impressive stuff like you!”
Impressive stuff? As much as Yosuke digs through his brain for anything that could be considered impressive, he can’t think of anything. He’s sort of good at making mix CDs?
Teddie hums, moving over to the low table in front of the main room’s couch. He shuffles through the papers there, then holds one up to show Yosuke. “Naoto gave me this! They said it was a little summary of your resume and their notes from your interview, or something like that! Um, lemme see… it says that you know piano and guitar, a buncha the mixes you published online got super great reviews, they were ‘pleased with the quality’ of your thesis essay (which is a good compliment from them, ‘cause they’re picky about stuff like that). See, you’re impressive! I can’t wait to get to know you! Ooh, and for you to meet my friends!”
This successfully strikes Yosuke speechless, which doesn’t happen often. He can’t help the flutter of pride in his chest, the happiness of being praised. He has to admit, that isn’t something that happens often, either.
A grins spreads across his face, and he laughs abashedly, moving toward the counter. “Well, y’know,” is all he can really think to say, grabbing for a cupcake to occupy his mouth and give him an excuse for his loss of words. When he takes a bite, the cake is perfectly fluffy and sweet, and a soft “Mm!” escapes him. Swallowing quickly, he says, “Dude, this is great! You’ve seriously never done this before? Damn!” and stuff the rest into his mouth hastily.
Hearing this, Teddie absolutely beams . He hurries into the kitchen and brings an old, old book over to the counter, snatching up a highlighter from a cup filled with pens. With a quick look at the table of contents, he flips to what’s likely the recipe he used, and then traces the edges of the page with a neon pink line. What an odd way to bookmark something, Yosuke thinks, but it doesn’t faze him quite as much as the other odd things his new roommate has done thus far. Perhaps he’s already used to it.
Unfortunately, the immaculately straight line is quirked crooked when Teddie’s cell phone lets out the peppiest vocaloid song Yosuke’s ever heard (and he’s heard a lot of peppy vocaloid songs). Clumsy is added to Yosuke’s short list of adjectives about Teddie when he fumbles with the highlighter cap, flicking it in just a way that it practically flies across the kitchen, rolling under the stove. He gasps, diving after it, then casts Yosuke a desperate look. “Please answer my phone!”
Oh god what.
Yosuke can barely answer his own phone.
However, caught up in Teddie’s frenzy, he’s answering the call without thought.
“Um, uh—hello?” Nice, Yosuke. Very good.
The individual on the other end hesitates. “Is the owner of this phone nearby?”
“Y-yeah!” Yosuke says, because god this person probably thinks he’s a thief or something. But why would a thief answer the phone they stole? Stop thinking so much and be a decent damn conversationalist! “He’s, um, a little preoccupied, though. Can I pass on a message?”
Another pause. Maybe the signal is bad? “Is it safe to assume you’re Teddie’s new roommate that he’s been talking about?” His voice is fairly low, but smooth and flowing. It’s sort of nice to listen to.
“Uh, yeah.” Broken record, much? Say something other than ‘yeah!’ “I got here this morning. Is he always so—”
“Yes, he is,” interrupts the other, with a light chuckle. “I don’t have much time to talk, but please tell Teddie that Nanako still expects that ice cream he promised her—when? Right, right—twenty-three days, seven hours, and fifty-four minutes ago.”
“What’d she do, start a timer as soon as he promised?” Yosuke asks, astonished, which he immediately regrets doing.
Another voice, distant but distinctly feminine, shouts, “Yes! I gotta, or he forgets! He’s so ditsy!”
Apparently, the volume of the phone is set louder than Yosuke thought (or Teddie has unnatural hearing), because the owner shouts back, “I remembered this time, I promise, I promise!” Yosuke is the only one that can see the true pallor of his cheeks; he’d definitely forgotten.
That chuckle again. “He’s white as a sheet, isn’t he?”
Something about the friendliness in his tone has Yosuke laughing along. “Sure is. Maybe I just moved into a haunted house.”
“Who ya gonna call?” the girl in the background—Nanako—chimes in.
“Me, if necessary,” says the guy on the other end. “Tell Teddie to give you my number, alright? Feel free to call or text me if he’s too much for you.”
This startled Yosuke. Is this guy really that trusting? Or is he just that kind? “Oh, um, yeah, okay.” Back to the basics.
“Thank you for answering Teddie’s phone for him. Nanako asked me so nicely I couldn’t say no, so if you hadn’t picked up, I would’ve felt awful.” Yeah, he’s just that kind. “My break is over, so I need to go, but it was great talking to you. Really, I look forward to meeting you in person.”
“Don’t keep me waiting too long,” Yosuke jokes, then mentally smacks himself for talking without thinking. Too forward, too forward! Nobody likes that attitude, Yosuke! You learned this already!
But the guy laughs outright, not just the chuckle from before. “I’ll try not to, but no promises. Maybe you’ll have to come to me. Which means it’s okay to say that I’ll talk to you later.” With that, the call is over.
Teddie is leaning over the counter. His entire weight is on his forearms, holding himself off the ground and kicking his feet in the air behind him. “I can’t believe he talked to you that much!” he gushes. “Souji takes a while to warm up to strangers! He’s normally super quiet for like, weeks after meeting someone new! Must’ve been something in your voice! No wonder people like your songs!”
They don’t, not really, Yosuke wants to say. But something stops him. Something in the sincerity of Teddie’s words. Something in the tone the guy had used in his goodbye. He isn’t entirely sure what it is, but it’s certainly something.