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It’s been driving him absolutely crazy. And others would think he’s anything but if they knew what he’s been mulling over for the past two and a half weeks.
Ever since Yu Narukami arrived in Inaba, things have been getting a little crazy. Of course Yosuke wouldn’t go so far as to say that Yu is the reason for some psychotic rampant serial killing spree in the boondocks or anything, but Yosuke’s life had gotten a little crazy. Not in bad ways. No, mostly good. Most definitely good.
Chie was arguably his first friend in Inaba, having welcomed him into her own little social circle in a slightly violent manner. Yukiko was unobtainable from the beginning, and not because she’d just gone completely oblivious about Yosuke’s attempted advances. She’s definitely a bit of a space case, something that Yosuke has learned and accepted over the past few months. She and Chie really came as a set. Yosuke likes to think that he and Yu kind of come as one too.
It didn’t start out that way, of course. Yosuke had made one hell of an impression getting a roundhouse kick to the happy sacks on Yu’s first day of school, only to have the other boy rescue him from a garbage can later. Yet, for the strength and flexibility of Yu’s kindness, he ended up hanging out with Yosuke anyway. Yosuke had taken an instant like to him—they’d come from similar backgrounds, after all, city boys lost to the desolate wilds of the country—but he’d found more than just someone to relate to: he’d found his partner.
The TV World helped, yeah, but Yosuke thinks that they would have come to this point in the end even without that whole soul-revealing shadow business. If there had been anyone he’d bare his dirty laundry to, it was Yu. It still is Yu.
Which brings him to his current predicament.
The Investigation Team sits together on the roof of Junes as per usual, seeking shelter under the large awning as the rain trickles just a few feet away. It’s fall and it’s an attempt to combine their forces and conquer the true enemy that is homework, but that rarely happens when they’re together.
Kanji is trying and actually getting a bit of help from Rise who is multitasking like a star between playing tutor and ogling Yu. Yukiko is actually making the best attempt out of them all, although Chie’s own groans of frustration are being brushed off as she continues through the chapter. It’s okay, Chie. English isn’t his subject, either. Teddie has been rightfully sent off to fetch snacks, since he doesn’t have to carry the burden of classwork deadlines.
And then there’s Yu. He’s sitting on the center of the bench, Yosuke on one side and Rise on the other. He makes an effort to follow along with Yukiko, but seems to be at least partially distracted and amused by Kanji’s mumblings of “that doesn’t even make sense, dammit”. Yet, even sitting right next to Yu, Yosuke is perplexed.
He sits behind Yu six days a week and is also used to watching his back when they go into the TV. Needless to say, he’s familiar with many aspects of his best friend.
But he could never really explain what the guy smells like.
One might ask, why does it matter what he smells like? Isn’t that a little weird for you to wonder, Yosuke?
Well, those opinions are all fine and dandy, but he’s got a very good reason for it:
It’s bothering him, that’s why.
He can notice and name a few brands of ladies’ perfume, especially the kind that Rise prefers. She does have an eye—or in this case, nose for quality. Yukiko does it every once in a while as well. They’re all floral, girlish, the kind of thing one would expect. Other than being a wary of B.O. in gym glass, Youske’s never cared at all what another guy smells like.
But Yu…he just smells like something. Definitely not body odor, although Yosuke would be lying if he said they all couldn’t use a shower after a good dungeon crawl. But that’s not what he’s talking about. It’s something he recognizes, or maybe he’s just come to recognize it? No, it really reminds him of something.
It’s crisp, it’s clean. It’s not surprising given the fact that Yu always has a put together appearance, popped collars or otherwise. Yu’s sense of fashion can most definitely be described as clean, a fresh and simple ensemble that screams knowledge of city fashion. It’s a more mature flare than the style Yosuke tends to himself, but it suits Yu. It works with the straight lines of his jaw and shoulders.
It’s got an edge, much like his sword. For a few days Yosuke figured that it was the scent of steel that he was picking up on, the sharpness of cared for metal as it rings throughout their most recent stair climb into the next level. It has a certain tang to it as well, metallic, but not steel. No, that’s too heavy, because Yu is lighter than that, a little too nice and a little too accommodating to be as hard as a blade.
It’s like a cloud—wait, no. Clouds don’t have a smell. Do they? Now this is getting way too poetic. Maybe lightning is a better way to put it, that electric zing after a bolt strikes—
“…Wait, what?”
Yosuke blinks, snapping out of his slight daze as Chie lifts her head from her book to make a particularly discouraging face.
“That doesn’t even sound like a word. How’m I supposed to know how to spell it?” Yu’s attention shifts back to the lesson at Chie’s moaning.
“’Petrichor’,” Yukiko repeats easily. Has she already studied this chapter? “It actually comes from Greek. Petra, which means stone, and ichor which is…’the fluid that flows in the veins of the gods in Greek mythology.’”
Yosuke rubs his nose. “Wait, are you seriously saying that ‘God Stone Blood’ is one of our vocab words? How the hell is that supposed to help us in actual conversation?” A valid concern, he thinks.
Yukiko shakes her head. But before she can respond, Yu verbally steps in,
“It’s the smell of the ground and air after it rains.”
Huh?
Yukiko nods with a proud smile. “Yes, exactly, Yu-kun. It’s that fresh, earthy smell when rain hits the ground.”
That’s it!
The rain itself seems louder now. Yosuke’s gaze shifts automatically to the storm outside, watching the water roll of the awning and onto the concrete of the department store roof. When he pays close attention, he can see each drop hit—a new, clean droplet as it strikes the ground like a blade. He can almost hear the steel ring.
“Petra...chor…” Yosuke tries out the sounds, his gaze a little distant.
“Petrichor,” Yu corrects non-patronizingly. Yosuke decides he likes the way Yu says it better.
He gives a small laugh and a shrug as he rubs the back of his neck. “That’s a random word to be testing us on. Sounds like they’re trying to trick us.”
Yu shrugs as well, tilting his head slightly to the side as he regards his friend. “You never know when you might need it.”
An increasingly familiar warmth spreads throughout Yosuke’s chest at that. He huffs, unable to fight the light grin that pulls at the corners of his mouth.
“Yeah…I guess.”
Yeah…it’s fitting that Yu would smell like rain. The rain has been ever present since his arrival, counting down their rescue attempts and washing the roads as well. It’s a comforting smell, that combination of clean and crisp, the metal of the dirt and invigorating sting of ozone during a light storm. Yu is composed and wrapped up like a cloud, but with the and sharp eye of a leader on the battlefield. He’s a storm and the lightness that comes afterwards.
Yosuke would never say this, of course. He knows it’s a little weird to think about that kind of thing, but he feels better for having a name to it.
Petrichor. Yu smells like Petrichor.
They don’t get much studying done, as is to be expected. But they are all okay with that. The point, at the end of the day, isn’t so much to learn more from textbooks.
It was on the English test, though. And it was the one question that bumped Yosuke up to a passing grade.
Thanks, Partner.