Prince of Junes
Jul. 4th, 2015 07:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madimpossibledreamerAlso, the Souji/Yosuke is much less present in this one and could be construed as friendship, if that bothers anyone. (Okay, I forgot I wrote the word 'dating'. Still much less present though.) Mostly it's Yosuke and Nanako being adorable.
Main Points: Persona 4 Playthrough Mild AU
Chapter Summary: Nanako adopts Yosuke.
Word Count: 2,346
Rating: T
“Yosuke-nii!”
For someone so small and adorable, it’s really difficult to make the first response one of terror, but Nanako is her father’s daughter and speaking of which if he’s anywhere in the crowds right now Yosuke’s life will tragically be cut short. He hopes the panic doesn’t show on his face.
“N-Nanako-chan. Sorry, you startled me.” He gestures flamboyantly in an attempt to convince her. Apparently, he does decently, because she giggles.
“Sorry.” She gestures him closer, which is probably another sign of doom should the detective ever hear of it, but swallowing he does as she asks. It’ll probably be even more painful before his death if he disappoints her. “I’ve decided you’ll make a good big bro. You make Souji-nii happy, and you’re the King of Junes!”
Actually, if he messes it up with Nanako, Souji will probably be the one to kill him. Not just stop dating him. And it’s hard to know what’s scarier. “I’m glad you approve.”
“Dad doesn’t yet, but we’re working on him,” she continues confidentially, smiling and patting his shoulder.
“That’s great!” He swallows back the nervous chuckle and straightens. “Well, I hope you’re having a great day at your Junes.”
She practically dances, and his face warms. He’s an only child, so he’s not used to this stuff. Then again, Souji mentioned that he’s an only child too, so maybe it’s just that I’m bad with kids? …or…nah, it’s that he’s really, really good with them, because he mentioned he’s working at that daycare, too. “Every day’s great at your Junes!” she sings dutifully, and he can feel the stares of other shoppers.
“Well, is your big bro here with you, or…?” It’d be great to see Souji, but he gets weird every time he comes here. Actually, no, scratch that, every time he sees Yosuke in uniform. It’d be flattering if Souji would actually explain, but he’s not the kind of guy to do that, is he? Still, it’d be nice if a little weird. The Junes apron isn’t that great.
Not that he’s contemplating saying that in front of adorable little Nanako, of course. Any of it, really. He doesn’t need to say things her mind isn’t prepared to hear at her age, or ruin one of her idols even if it is a chain store. He’d already done enough damage with that comment about her mom.
“Nope, he’s got some after school thing,” she states cheerfully. So she’s here all alone? That’s…
Okay, yeah, his parents had left him alone a lot, too, when he was a kid, since both of them worked. Honestly, that’s probably part of why they’re so insistent that he works at Junes. Even when it was just a couple hours a day, at least he wasn’t sitting alone at home. Still, it’s a bit different when there’s an unknown killer wandering around the town.
Looking closer, though, it’s a forced cheerfulness. She’s here because she’s lonely, and how could he let a little girl, let alone Nanako-chan, Souji’s little sister, wander around lonely in Junes? She’s probably practically growing up through TV, too. Just like him.
Funny. You might think that you’re alone, that no one can understand you, but it turns out that when you open your eyes everywhere you look there are people who aren’t you, but can at least get what you’re going through.
Well, if he’s helping a customer, especially one as precious as Nanako, who could complain?
“Well, what are you looking for, in what Junes has to offer?” he asks, smiling, and it earns a beam in return.
“Dinner. Though we’ve already had sushi and ramen this week…” She’s biting her lip.
It’s a split-moment decision. But if he can impress both Nanako and Souji, well…it’s definitely worth it. “When do you eat dinner usually?”
She’s staring at him in wonder. “Seven, but Dad’s working late so we might be eating at eight.”
He nods, working it all out in his head. “I finish work at six-thirty, so I can come help you cook if you want. Normally, I guess, Souji would be the one helping you out.”
By the way a little smile appears on her face, she notices the lack of honorific first. The expression disappears when the rest of the sentence registers. “You want to help me cook?”
“If you wouldn’t mind.” Suddenly he’s worried. Is it an imposition? He’s thinking in terms of the Inaba Investigation Team, and they’re an informal group, aren’t they?
His thoughts get knocked out of him as he gets a really big hug. “Yosuke-nii’s the best. Except for Souji-nii, of course.” It’s kind of true, and the giggle takes the sting out of it. “But I didn’t know you could cook.”
“With a recipe, sure. Though we’ll probably have to get extra ingredients in case we mess up.” He smiles. This is probably the time to cut off any bad influences the girls might have on impressionable, innocent young minds. “Sometimes it’s wise to admit when you don’t know something. I’m terrible if I don’t have a recipe. I’d probably poison you and your big bro, and then your dad would arrest me and it’d be just a big tragedy. So I stick by the recipe like glue.”
She nods, following. Sometimes it’s kind of scary how much she understands.
“Chie-chan, Yukiko-chan, and Rise-chan don’t get that. They just assume that they can go off-recipe, but you have to master the basics first and they haven’t bothered. Unlike Souji.” He brings out his phone and turns it on. It’ll be easy to find a good recipe online. It’s kind of embarrassing, but he still follows the cooking channels occasionally. Though if he told Souji, he'd probably get all excited. And he doesn’t find it as embarrassing as before, so he’s getting better. “They also tend to think you can stick all your favorites in together, but that completely unbalances things. There’s a reason your favorites are in separate dishes, after all.”
She nods, frowning with concentration. “That makes sense.” Okay, hopefully I have spared everyone in the future of Mystery Food X cooking brought to you by the so-cute-you-can’t-say-no Nanako-chan. “So, what are we going to cook?”
“What’s your big bro’s favorite?” he asks, scrolling through the long list of recipes on the main website, and then a shadow falls over the two.
“Yosuke-kun, I’d have thought you were more responsible than this. Messing around with your phone on the job?” Great, it’s Takahashi-san.
Before Souji, before the TV World, she’d actually intimidated him. After facing Shadows, though, his hand doesn’t even waver. “This little lady,” he waves a hand at Nanako, who’s looking a hell of a lot more shy than she’d been two seconds ago, “…was looking for dinner for her family, but doesn’t want the old prepackaged stuff, so I was looking up a recipe for her.”
The older lady grabs his phone and huffs in disbelief upon seeing the page is exactly as described. She hands it back, glaring all the while. “Your dedication is overwhelming,” she eventually spits at last and stalks off—probably to fold clothing and bark at unsuspecting part-timers.
She and King Moron are quite the pair, and…gahhh, why did I have to think that? Bad, bad brain.
He feels a tug at his apron and looks down to see a scared Nanako-chan practically clinging to him. “W-who was that?”
He sighs. Her beliefs can’t all be shattered. That’d just be mean. “That’s Takahashi-san. She…” Great, still no idea how to explain, but if I wait too long it’ll be just as bad. Where’s Souji with his great command of words? Then again, Souji doesn’t know about Takahashi-san, either, so he wouldn’t really be of help anyway. And considering how he reacted to the part-timers… “…Her niece and her best friend work here. They don’t have the best work ethic…uh, that is, they’re not the most hard-working. So they get in trouble a lot. And both they and the aunt blame me for that.”
She looks ready to cry for all of two seconds before a steely look enters her eyes that scares even him. “That’s not right. You take responsibility for the things you do.”
Gah! I’m not allowed to tear up! He quickly looks away and sniffs before looking back.
Nanako’s looking sad again. “Did I say something wrong?”
“No, you said something exactly right. It’s just…you were just like Souji for a minute there, and it kinda threw me off.” She’s looking like he’s just told her she’s the best person in the whole wide world, and honestly maybe he just did. He smiles at her, and that gives her the courage to ask another question.
“It’s…it’s not great after all, is it? Working at Junes?” She’s biting her lip again, but she’s not about to look away from the truth. She really is like her big bro sometimes. But then, they could all stand to be a little more like Souji.
“It’s…I’ll be honest, I got to the point where I hated it. All people saw was Junes; they didn’t really see me. And yeah, just like working everywhere there can be stupid, pointless drama.” She’s going to cry, which is why he’s not about to end it there. “But in this past year I’ve been looking at it differently again.”
The hope that comes back to her eyes is one of the most beautiful things he’s ever seen, and that includes a certain grey-haired student. Okay, I’d be perfectly all right with being Yosuke-nii. Bet Yukiko and Chie are jealous.
“Yeah, a big part of that is your big bro. When he can work here, too, when he’s not off doing everything else, those are the best days I’ve ever had working here.” Even if Souji’s just here, it’s nice. “But I haven’t let the bad ones bother me, or ruin my day. They win that way, you know.” There’s a small smile growing on her face. Yep, I’m doing this right. “And they’re not really all that bad. Even Takahashi-san. She’s a scary, scary woman, but she’s just being overprotective of her niece. It doesn’t help the girl, really—she has to grow up sometime, and constantly shielding her from the consequences of her decisions isn’t going to make her a better person—but she’s doing things for the right reasons.”
“Yosuke-nii is great!” she exclaims and hugs him again, and he’s blushing. Argh.
“Y-yeah, well.” He rubs the back of his head, but it’s probably better that he doesn’t try to deny it or anything. “You never answered what Souji’s favorite food was.”
“U-um…” She blushes a little. “He ate grass from the fridge once.”
For an instant, Yosuke stares in shock, then the laugh bursts from him, hard enough to make him cry. “Okay, yeah, if you’d said that about anyone else, I wouldn’t believe it. He cooks a lot, but he hasn’t mentioned what his favorite is, yet. I’d go with sushi, but that’s something you should only try if you’re really, really good, and I’m definitely not to that level yet. Let’s look for something easy but delicious.” He scrolls down the page with a thumb until he finds something that works. “Your big bro likes cats a lot, so what about fish?” Plus, it doesn’t involve any tofu. Fish is weird and he doesn't want to think about handling it, so it's best to get some of the already sliced ones that look more like normal meat. In the end, it is for Souji, and he can brave even handling fish for the guy.
“That’s great!” She literally claps her hands in delight. Too cute.
“Okay, well, there’s a teriyaki salmon recipe here. So, we’ll need salmon—at least four of them.”
“Four?” She’s staring up at him with those big eyes, and he’s powerless to resist.
“W-well, yeah, if I’m going to be helping you cook, I’m probably going to be eating over at your house, so…”
“Yosuke-nii’s coming over! Yosuke-nii’s coming over!” Her delighted giggle draws even more attention.
“Do you know how much sake, mirin, and soy sauce you have?” he asks absent-mindedly, and looks up to see her frowning.
“Um…no, sorry.” No one could be mad at her for that, though.
“It’s okay.” And if I text your big bro about it, he’ll definitely be suspicious. It’d be nice if it was a surprise. Better to just buy more.
Yosuke grabs her a cart and slowly begins walking her through, explaining some of the current sales. He doesn’t notice that they’ve acquired a following, and more than a few are actually picking up the same things. Teddie’s a pretty good mascot, but Nanako-chan’s even more impressive. “We can make onigiri, and you can decorate them. And a side salad’s probably all we can accomplish with the rest of the time. Plus it makes nice leftovers.”
He watches as she lights up then gets sad, and laughs. Time to pull out his salesman voice. Souji’d actually complimented him on it, and Yosuke didn’t get it, but maybe it’d amuse Nanako-chan too. “Lesson number two, you don’t have to make everything. Especially if you don’t have enough time.”
“I’m going to make cats,” she decides, fiercely determined, and he grins conspiratorially.
“You do that.” Eventually, they’ve made it through, and she takes the cart from him.
“I’ve got it from here, Yosuke-nii!” She pulls out a little cute purse, and he can’t help the fond smile. She’s really independent.
“Okay, but let me pitch in. I’m going to be eating some of it, after all.” He gets a glare instead.
“Nope. You’re a guest, and you’re going to be helping cook. You’re not paying!” She’s just as stubborn as Souji, and it’s an argument he’s not going to win. And she’s not Chie, so arguing isn’t going to be fun, anyway.
“Okay, well, see you later!” He waves and heads back off to work. Huh, it got busy all of a sudden.
