The Enemy Within Part I

[madimpossibledreamer]

Main Points: Persona 4 Playthrough Mild AU
Chapter Summary: Chie calls Yosuke with an emergency in the middle of the night.
Word Count: 888
Rating: K
Note:  ...Relatively spoiler-free, actually.  Aside from who's in the team and stuff.  Naoto's shadow spoilers (brief, but still there).  Background shipping.

 

            “Wait…say that again,” Yosuke requests groggily, squinting in the direction of the clock.  There’s a bear sleeping in the closet and his room is still completely dark.  His blankets are nice and warm and tempting him to fall asleep again.  He pushes himself up a little, ignoring his body protesting the sudden chill, just so he stays awake.  He’s pretty sure his brain isn’t functioning, but he’s not sure whether it’s because of what Chie just said or because he’s half asleep.

            Chie huffs again, but he’s pretty sure the anger is covering tears, which is alarming.  “And here I was, thinking you could be cool and not-you again.”

            He’s pretty sure she’s about to hang up, so he quickly starts talking again, forcing himself into wakefulness.  “Hey, I’m trying to help here!  I’m just a little tired,” he protests.  “And it’s a surprise, kinda, so it’s just…I’m just taking a little while to process this, okay.  So.”  He thinks through what his sleep-numbed mind is pretty sure he just heard and sums it up.  “So…you like like Yukiko.  Not like as in friends.”

            “What do I do?” she practically yells in his ear.  She’s panicked, but on the whole she’s taking it better than when he realized he might actually like their grey-haired leader.  Of course, there was also the whole Shadow-threatening-to-kill-Souji-because-of-unrequited-love thing at the time, too, so he didn’t exactly have the time to process before it was out in the open, and he’d even briefly considered the idea that he’d just said that to save his Partner.

            He winces and briefly considers.  It’s probably time to talk about that, not that she’s probably going to take it any better than his boyfriend would’ve.  “Uh, well.  There is a way to check for sure.”

            “Eww!  You’re still a pervert!” Well, that wasn’t what he was expecting, not that he should be surprised.

            Yosuke sighs.  “That’s not what I was talking about, Chie.”  No turning back.  He briefly wishes he had his headphones around his neck, but it’s not like he’s going to cross the room just to put them on for this.  Time to be brave without his safety blanket.  “You could ask your Shadow.”

            The startled noise is pretty much what he expects, and he holds the phone away from his ear until she calms down.  “I’ve got a Persona now!” is one of the first things he hears when he’s feeling daring enough to put it back.

            “Yeah, but you still have a Shadow.  You’re just generally listening to it now, which is why it’s calmer.  I kind of talked to mine, so.”  He’s not quick enough to avoid being deafened.  Chie’s even more panicked and angry than before.  She’s probably calling him all sorts of names, too, but he’s having trouble hearing anything out of that ear right now.

            It’s when she gets frantic that he’s not answering that he gingerly puts the phone next to the other ear and hopes she doesn’t cause him permanent hearing damage, because really, that would suck.  He swallows down the fear.  “I’m fine, Chie.”

            “I KNEW YOU WERE CRAZY BUT SERIOUSLY YOSUKE?  I MEAN, YOU’VE BEEN MORE MATURE AND ON TOP OF THINGS LATELY AND THERE’S THE WHOLE TRAINING WITHOUT SOUJI THING—”  At least it sounds like she’s been screaming herself hoarse, so she doesn’t have the lung power to completely deafen him.

            “It’s more like he came out because I was being stupid about Souji.  And we’re much better, which is nice.  But if you do really like her and you’ve been repressing, no one would know better than your Shadow.”  He’s definitely starting to feel more awake, which is unfortunate.  He frowns at his blankets.

            Chie’s gotten through the rage, and now sounds teary.  “W-well, that’s true, but…Yosuke, you’re always on the team when we explore, so how-when…”

            He’s not entirely certain whether it was a dream.  Teddie’s sleep shirt had been completely clean when he’d woken up the morning after, but on the other hand the one hit a Shadow had managed to get through his Shadow’s guard had scarred over.  “Either my Shadow came out in the real world because I was repressing that badly, or it was in a dream.  He didn’t try to hurt me, though, because…”  Okay, yeah, it was still really easy for him to swear but not say the word love, thanks Shadow-self, “…it’d hurt Partner, and neither of us want to do that.” 

He’s met with a strangled sound, which is kind of worrying.  “Are you okay?”

“You’re the heroine in some sickeningly sweet romance,” she manages and then begins laughing hysterically.  It’s worrying, but then, she’s been on the verge of hysterics this whole time.

“H-hey, this is about your romance, Chie!”  Again, probably not the best words, but at least it gets the laughter to die down.  Only Yukiko’s allowed to laugh that uncontrollably.

“Yeah, and now you’re actually set up, so you have to serve as matchmaker.  Which I don’t think Kanji and Naoto are appreciating, by the way.”  She pauses.  “You’ll come, right?”

“Like we’ll let you go in by yourself,” he answers affectionately.  “I think I’ll bring in Naoto-kun.  At least she knows how to keep secrets.  And we’re not breaking into Junes in the middle of the night.”

“Thanks, Yosuke.”