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“So, where’s your room?” Yosuke asks, wandering around the living room.
“Uh, upstair-” before he can even finish the word, Yosuke pushes past him, huge grin on his face, and takes the stars two at a time. “Just at the top”
Yu follows him up, one stair at a time, and watches from the door as Yosuke looks around, taking everything in.
“Hmmmm, it’s pretty clean,” he says in a tone that tells Yu that his own room probably isn’t. “So...? You keep the goods under your futon?”
“Huh?” Is he really asking about that...?
Yosuke laughs, “c’mon, no need to play dumb. Don’t worry, I’ll still be your friend, even if you’re into the freaky stuff.” Yu decides not to answer.
“So, you ever invited a girl in here?”
“I haven’t.”
“Haha, maybe you’re more of a man’s man than I thought,” he says with a wink. “Well, fine. If you don’t want me looking for your stuff, do you have any game systems?”
He jerks his head toward the shelf by the door, “bottom shelf.”
Yosuke doesn’t need more of an invitation than that. He pushes past Yu and starts rummaging through the box where his Play Station still lives. He pulls out the system, the controllers, a tangle of wires that hadn’t been a tangle before Yosuke‘d shoved his hands in there.
Yu sits on the couch and watches Yosuke struggle, trying not to laugh. He’s always been fairly adept at detangling wires, strings, hoses, and the like. But he decides not to offer his help; if Yosuke wants it, he’ll ask.
It takes about five minutes of struggling and a half conversation about how much there isn’t to do in Inaba, before Yosuke decides to call it quits. “Man, I can’t figure this out. I think I’m making it worse.” He drops the mess into his lap and gives Yu his attempt at puppy dog eyes. “Um... maybe you can get some new wires; I can check Junes...?”
Yu holds his hand out and Yosuke gets up, depositing the bundle into his hand as he sits beside him. He doesn’t say anything as Yu studies the tangle for a second, then begins unravelling, wrapping the freshly detangled section into a loose ball as he goes, to keep it from getting retangled.
He holds out three wires, all neatly contained, to Yosuke. “How long did I take?”
He gapes a bit, “I-I don’t know, dude. I wasn’t timing you.” He takes the cords and goes to set up the system. “How did you-? It wasn’t even two minutes- They were all-”
Yosuke picks a fighting game. Something Yu’s Mother had gotten him, insisting that he would make friends here. A bribe. It had been a bribe.
He stares at Yosuke, when he tries to hand over the second player controller. “It’s not that big a deal. It’s just a number.”
“Untangling the wires you messed up wasn’t a big deal, either.”
He gets to be player one.
They play in relative silence for a while, the only things said being the occasional grunt, ‘no!’, ‘dammit!’, or ‘you cheated!’ as they kick each other’s asses in turn.
“So, is it under the dresser? My bed has a frame, so I can just put mine under the mattress, but if I had to pick up my bed every day, I’d want it somewhere a little more secure, you know?” Yosuke deals the final blow, winning the match, and they’re redirected to the character selection screen.
Yosuke jumps up and goes over to the futon, poking it with his toes. Ew. “Stop that. If you really want to know, I’ll tell you.” He turns so fast, Yu thinks he might topple over. Or keep going. “But, I’ve gotta warn you, once you know something, you can’t unknow it.” He picks his character, a purple lady, this time, and grabs Yosuke’s controller to pick one for him too, a yellow dude.
“Hey!” he calls out, rushing back over, grabbing the controller just in time for the ready-set-go countdown to run out. “You cheater,” he whines, bumping his shoulder into Yu’s as they try to kill each other again.
They spend a week and a half in a bad, bad bathhouse. Then a week waiting for Kanji to recover. Then another week trying to figure out what the fuck is going on. They don’t get very far. Then it’s the school camping trip.
“This is as good a time as any,” Yosuke says, turning onto his side and propping his head up on his hand. “So... I-I want you to be honest with us...”
Yu’s stomach clenches, he hopes this isn’t going where he thinks it might, as Kanji says, “Uh... okay?”
“A-Are you really... you know...?”
“Yosuke,” Yu says, pushing himself up onto his elbows.
“Am I really what?” Kanji says, his tone very clearly telling Yosuke to shut the fuck up.
He doesn’t shut the fuck up. “What I mean is, uh... Are we gonna be safe alone with you?”
“Yosuke!” Yu snaps, apparently still being ignored.
“Wha-!?” Kanji says, jumping to his feet. “Wh-wh-what the hell’s that supposed to mean-”
“Yosuke!” Yu snaps again, jumping up and getting between the two. “Kanji hasn’t shown the slightest bit of interest in you. Back off.” They both ignore Kanji’s protestations as Yu stares him down.
Yosuke brings his hands up in the universal signal of ‘I’m not being unreasonable, you are’. “It’s a legitimate-”
“The fuck it is. Do you need to take a walk?” he points to the tent flap.
All three of them freeze when King Moron’s voice interrupts them, “What’s all this yell-yelling? Which one of you assholes is still awake? You’re gu-gunna get detention, all of you. Go back to bed!” There’s a loud thump, the sounds of camping equipment hitting the ground and a chorus of loud shrieks. “Back to bed!” he yells again.
Yu gives Yosuke a final warning look, then opens the tent a bit to see what happened. Four girls are coming out of a pile of fabric that used to be a tent across the clearing. He does a quick mental inventory of the things he has on hand to see if he can help, but realizes that he’ll just get in the way. Besides, he sees Ms. Sofue coming to their aid anyway.
He zips the flap back up and moves back between the boys. “Enough is enough. Unless you want to deal with King Moron. You sleep over there,” he points to where Yosuke is standing. “Kanji is sleeping over there,” he points vaguely down and behind himself. “Go to sleep.”
“But-” Yosuke starts.
“I wasn’t asking.” He lays down between them, on his left side, which just happens to put him facing Yosuke’s feet. They settle in and Yu falls asleep first.
In the morning, he doesn’t say anything, when he wakes up to Yosuke’s arm draped over his waist. Though, he does shake his head at a smirking Kanji.
It takes a few more days for Yosuke to stop moping about being yelled at. During that time, he hangs out with Kanji. They go to the roof for lunch one day and Yu’s stomach filp-flops when Kanji asks if he’ll cook for him again. If he didn’t think it would be received badly, he’d offer to cook for Kanji every day.
Yosuke invites himself over on Sunday. “Hey, partner. You got plans?”
“I do now,” he says. “You want to go somewhere?”
“Yeah,” he says, coming in and taking off his shoes, “upstairs. I owe you an ass kicking. Can’t have anyone questioning my rep as games master. Hi Nanako-chan.”
She waves and watches as they walk by.
Yu leads him up to his room, “oh, is that what passes for mastery here? You’ve been out of the city too long, country boy.”
Yosuke gasps so hard that he goes into a coughing fit. And, of course, Yu has to laugh at him or else they wouldn’t be friends.
They’re pretty evenly matched, both wining a few rounds in the first hour.
“So is it on the bookshelf?”
Yu throws his hands in the air, nearly braining Yosuke with the controller he’s still holding. “You’re not going to let this go, are you?”
Yosuke smiles, wide and obnoxious. “Nope,” he says, popping the p.
“Fine,” he says, defeated. “But I warned you last time. They’re in the bottom drawer,” he waves his hand in the direction of the dresser. “Closest to the bed,” he adds, like Yosuke should’ve already known that.
He drops his controller in Yu’s lap, all but running over to it, pulling on the drawer so hard it almost comes out of the dresser completely. He grabs one off the top as he stands and turns back to Yu. “Now let’s see what kind of kinky shit-” He freezes as he opens the magazine to a random page.
He knows which magazine that is, can see the cover, but he doesn’t know where Yosuke opened it. Should’ve looked at the cover, first, a pair of topless guys on the cover is usually indicative of less dressed guys within.
Yosuke closes the magazine, not looking at it or at Yu. He turns, does a full body jerk, then crouches down, bending at the knees. Presumably so his ass wont be in the air.
Yu rolls his eyes. “No one wants your ass, Yosuke,” he goes back to the game, checking the stats for a character he hasn’t played, yet, as Yosuke slams the drawer shut again.
Yosuke lets out an awkward chuckle, “hehe, what makes you think...” he trails off.
“Just because you want to jump on every girl you meet, doesn’t mean the rest of us don’t have preferences.” He checks the bio because why not.
“Well,” he starts, still awkward as fuck, “I am pretty cute.”
“Sure,” Yu says, looking back over at him, “but I prefer blondes.”
Yosuke’s jaw drops, “seriously?” His face scrunches up into a grimace, “but he’s so...” he moves his hand around, trying to find the right word.
“We gunna play, or not,” he says, holding out the controller.
He hesitates for a second, but takes the controller eventually. “I’m gunna kick your ass so-” he freezes and Yu rolls his eyes. They can work on that.