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As Yosuke laid in the infirmary of Yasogami high trying to sleep off his fever, he found himself staring at the cracks in the ceiling when his eyes just wouldn’t stay closed. The throb in his head had finally started to abate from whatever weird medicine Theo was giving him, but they all knew from experience that even Yukiko's strongest healing spells couldn’t do anything about blood loss. It didn’t seem like they’d be able to leave this place until they finished what they started, so they all agreed that he’d just have to rest and let his body heal for awhile. And resting, as it turned out, was really boring.
Elizabeth and Theo were around often, bringing him some of the festival’s lighter fare for his sensitive stomach, and Souji and Shinjiro even tried to make him some soup out of the odds and ends that were around. It had been a few days and visitors were frequent, making sure to keep him in the loop of the little investigating of the labyrinths they were doing without him. They weren't going in much, as he was part of their main fighting team along with the two leaders, Yukiko, and Aigis - and it was dangerous being down a team member. He appreciated it - and though he couldn’t do much else, just laying here sleeping all the time sucked, and it was too damn quiet. He was worried his player would run out of juice if he fell asleep listening to music, so he had to keep it turned off, and it was killing him.
Needless to say, he did appreciate the company, but it was odd - Yosuke didn’t know why, but out of everyone on the Investigation Team, everyone in SEES, even his Partner - Minato was the one who hung around the most.
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“Aren’t you bored?” Yosuke finally said, after about ten pretty awkward minutes of Minato sitting across from him in silence, just toying with the cord of his headphones. Yosuke didn’t mind his company, but he didn’t want him to feel obligated, and anyway, he probably had more important things to do than hang out with his sick underclassman.
“Could ask you the same,” he said blandly, leaning his head back against the wall. “At least we’re bored together.” He laced his fingers over his stomach and crossed his legs, yawning lightly.
Yosuke snickered and sat up a little, as slowly as he could without getting dizzy. “Okay, can you at least find us something to do? Like, a board game or whatever? I mean, this is a festival, there’s gotta be something around here,” he said, eyes sweeping the room for something to occupy them.
“I think Souji got Theo to make a deck of hanafuda cards for one of those quests, actually,” Minato perked up a little. “I’ll go ask him.” He got to his feet and stretched lightly before quietly leaving the room, sliding the door shut behind him.
Admittedly, Yosuke was a little intimidated by all his senpai, Minato being the leader of their group making that doubly so. But he understood why they tended to gravitate towards each other, as they at least had some common ground above the others. He sunk back down into the infirmity bed, reaching for his headphones and flipping the speakers back and forth to occupy his hands. He and Minato juxtaposed each other a little laughably with his silence and Yosuke’s utter lack of it, but it was the same with Souji, and they got along better than anyone he’d ever known. Not only that, but nobody else in either of their groups seemed to care much for music the way the two of them did, and maybe this was Yosuke’s chance to ask him for some recommendations.
Just as Yosuke was starting to doze off a little, Minato slipped back into the room with playing cards in tow, as well as a tall glass of water. He handed the cup to him sheepishly, something about passing along Souji’s orders to stay hydrated. Yosuke grinned, “that’s partner,” and made to take it from him, brushing his fingers against Minato’s in the process, and Minato twitched his hand back like he’d been shocked, almost knocking the cup out of his hand. Yosuke looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
“Your… fingers are cold,” he muttered unconvincingly. Yosuke scoffed and waved it off, though still a little confused because… he did have a fever, didn’t he? He obediently took a sip of water and set the glass down on his bedside table, and put up his hand for Minato to throw him the deck of cards.
He pulled them out of their package and started shuffling, pretending that he knew what he was doing. “Prepare to be dazzled,” he announced. He slid the cards out flat along the bed, each layered on top of the other, flipping the whole line over from the opposite side - fancy, but doing absolutely nothing to actually shuffle the deck - and threw his arms up in mock triumph, winking dramatically at Minato. Minato snorted so loud that the sound even surprised himself, and he threw a hand up to cover his mouth. Yosuke couldn’t help but laugh too, even if it was making him lightheaded. He’d never really heard Minato laugh before - and it was contagious.
“Okay hotshot, think you can do better?” Yosuke gathered up the cards and Minato reached over to take them, his usual blank expression adorning his face once more.
“Koromaru could do better than that,” he deadpanned, but with a little mischief alight in his eyes. He cut the deck in two, bracing both halves together against his knee and flicked his thumbs, bending the stacks so that they shuffled into each other. He went to repeat the action, faltering just a little when he noticed Yosuke watching him. Yosuke raised his eyebrows and whistled, suitably impressed.
“Damn, I could never figure that one out. You’ll have to teach me sometime.”
Minato chewed his lip and shrugged an “it’s easy,” ducking his head a little so that his bangs hid most of his eyes. That was almost… cute - this was a side of him Yosuke hadn’t expected. Minato came off as so distant that it made everyone want to pull him in and grab a piece, like his attention itself was a luxury. Getting him to smile was like winning the lottery, so seeing him act shy was something new altogether.
As he watched Minato’s deft fingers continue to work the cards around, Yosuke found himself thinking up more ways to make him laugh or smile, to unlock what he kept unreadable. It reminded him a lot of Souji, actually - where every little emotion he showed was like finding treasure, and it was weird but he couldn’t help but make a little game out of it, counting a silent victory each time he was rewarded with a new shift in his demeanor. Yosuke felt like in the last ten minutes he’d seen more of Minato than anybody in their group so far - besides maybe Souji - and he felt sort of proud of himself for it.
They decided on playing Koi-Koi, and both threw up their hands in synch for rock-paper-scissors to decide who would deal the cards. Yosuke chose scissors and threw out his fingers in a peace sign, only to have them bumped by Minato’s fist, pretending to crush them with rock.
“That makes me oya,” Minato said almost smugly, and Yosuke grumbled in mock defeat, but took note of what could have actually been a smirk on his usually blank face. He was seeing a few new sides today, it seemed, and he smiled to himself at the thought.
Yosuke was much more accustomed to the transparency of the Investigation Team, of a group who knew each other inside and out from months of putting their lives in each other’s hands and facing their demons together. It shouldn’t have surprised him that Minato wasn’t exactly the person they’d all thought he was - he above all people should have expected that. But he’d gotten so used to people like Chie and Teddie, who bounded with endless energy and gave their laughter to anyone who would take it. That in itself was invigorating to be around, but there was something about people like Souji, like Minato, who kept themselves much more reserved, that Yosuke was drawn to. It was like each small reaction was private, reserved specifically for you. They made you feel trusted, respected… special.
Minato dealt out the cards, and they played a few rounds, comfortably settling into a conversation about their team members, the dungeons, and bonding over how creepy they both found the groups of fake students projected around the culture festival. Yosuke complained about the lack of a charger for his music player, and Minato echoed the sentiment as he weaved the cord around his neck through his free hand, mumbling something about it being too loud in here during their resting periods. Yosuke hummed in agreement, absentmindedly bending back the edges of all his cards.
The wins were going back and forth pretty evenly for the first few rounds, until Minato hit his stride and Yosuke was effectively getting his ass kicked. If he heard him say “koi-koi” one more time he was gonna dump the glass of water over his head.
Yosuke threw down his cards and groaned, slapping his forehead when Minato got yet another match. “That’s it! You cheat man, that’s the only explanation,” he huffed, crossing his arms as he slumped back against the pillow. Minato snickered, folding his legs underneath him at the foot of Yosuke’s bed.
“I didn’t peg you for a sore loser,” Minato tilted his head wryly, and he made himself blink to keep from staring. Yosuke was going to have to start keeping track of all these new expressions.
“Oh ha-ha, whatever,” he flicked a card at Minato, narrowly missing his head, and watched it hit the wall behind them. “You just happened to pick a game I suck at. If we were playing Monopoly right now, oh man, you’d be in for it.” Minato exhaled amusedly through his nose. “I wonder if Theo could whip something up…”
“Only if I get to be the cute dog,” Minato said, suddenly so serious that Yosuke couldn’t help but laugh. He and Souji both picked the strangest things to be determined about.
“Of course you’d be the cute one,” he said, rolling his eyes. “That means I get to be the little racecar with the-“
“Wait, what was that?” Minato cut him off, eyebrows raised and eyes alight like he just caught him watching a dirty movie or something.
“The racecar?” Yosuke said again, giving him an innocent smile. “You know, the old school one that looks like-“
Minato clicked his tongue and threw a pillow at Yosuke, which he so gracelessly took directly in the face.
“Hey!” he yelped, pushing himself up too quickly and closing his eyes against a headrush. “I’m still sick here, you know. Have some respect!”
Minato grabbed the pillow again and wound up, making Yosuke throw his arms in front of his face and flinch dramatically. “Not until you say that again,” he said matter-of-factly. He let fly and this time Yosuke caught it, tossing it to the ground and out of reach. He pulled the sheets over his head and burrowed under them, mumbling out what sounded suspiciously like “make me.”
Minato sighed and got up, cracked his knuckles, and swiftly yanked all the sheets off the bed, nearly taking Yosuke with them.
“Wh- hey!” Yosuke squawked in surprise, trying to regain his balance and not totally fall off the bed. Minato just stood there, casually smug, hands in his pockets, and said, “hey, you asked for it.”
“Alright, that’s it -“ Yosuke declared, getting to his feet to exact revenge - but wobbling instead, grabbing at his pounding head and nearly falling over. Minato dropped his mock-attitude and actually looked genuinely concerned, reaching out to help steady him with a hand on his arm.
“Hey - sorry, went to far,” he said gruffly, hooking his arm around Yosuke’s waist and helping him back onto the bed. “You okay?”
“Yeah, yeah I’m -“ Yosuke started to say, but the words died on his tongue when he realized how close Minato’s face was to his, and they both froze. He swallowed thickly and felt his face heat up, mirroring the blush lighting up Minato’s usually pale face. Yosuke’s eyes immediately flicked to his lips - they were cracked and chapped in a few places, but they looked… soft, and he swiped his tongue over his own lips involuntarily.
Minato was like a deer in headlights, eyes wide and unable to move as Yosuke slowly inched closer, eyes darting back and forth between his, when the door slid open and they both all but launched themselves away from each other.
“Hey guys, thought you might be getting… hungry…” Souji stopped in the doorway, an eyebrow raised at their sudden jerky movements and flushed faces, and he couldn’t help the blush that crept up his cheeks as well. He cleared his throat and set a container of soup down on the chair near the door. “I’ll just uh… leave this here…” he trailed off, slowly backing out of the room and sliding the door closed behind him.
Yosuke threw an arm over his face and loudly groaned out an “oh my god,” thinking that the Shadow might as well have killed him if he was just going to die of embarrassment like this.
Minato sat on the edge of his bed, face in his hands, shoulders shaking a little. Yosuke sat up and put a hand on his arm, suddenly concerned. “Dude hey…” he said hesitantly, trying to get Minato to put his hands down. “It’s just Partner, man, it’s not like he’s gonna judge or anything - it’s nothing to cry about -“ he cut himself off as he realized Minato wasn’t crying at all, he was laughing - in complete hysterics, in fact. He was laughing so hard that no noise was coming out apart from a wheezing sound when he tried to breathe. Yosuke couldn’t help it - the whole situation was so ridiculous that he started cracking up too, a full-on belly laugh that made his head swim again, but he couldn’t stop.
Minato collapsed back on the bed, holding his stomach, choking on air, laughing only harder when Yosuke let out a loud snort through his nose. They were both losing it for what felt like hours, something else setting them off again more than once when they finally started to settle down. Yosuke knew it couldn’t be good for him in his state when he finally laughed himself out and felt like he could sleep for another week, but it was still hilarious. Minato swiped an arm over his face and then clasped his hands over his chest, turning over to stare at the ceiling, a contented look on his face. Yosuke leaned over him and chuckled again a little incredulously, just at how absurd the whole thing was.
“What was that?” Yosuke asked, bemused, and Minato shrugged, face composed but unable to stop the tug at the corners of his mouth. He propped himself up on his shoulders and craned his neck up, casually giving a stunned Yosuke a small peck on the lips before laying back down and stifling a yawn.
Yosuke covered his mouth with one hand and blushed fiercely, sputtering something unintelligible in surprise. Minato stood up and put his hands in his pockets, pursing his lips and flitting the hair out of his eyes.
“You should get some rest,” he said casually, as if he hadn’t just kissed Yosuke on the lips.
“Wh-what?” Yosuke stuttered, still too stunned to argue properly. Minato smiled softly and strode out of the room, sliding the door shut behind him - but not before turning on his heels, looking Yosuke straight in the eye, and winking.
Yosuke laid his head back down and stared at the ceiling, throwing his hands up in disbelief.
“Did that just happen?”