Fracturing Image

[madimpossibledreamer]

seriously i love chie in this 'verse
also this chapter was just waiting until i'd watched yuri voice prince of persia, apparently the first two paragraphs have been written since probably at least the last time I posted this series
~dreamer~

Main Points:
Persona 4 Average AU
Chapter Summary: Chie's going to make this right even if she has to kick everyone to do so.
Word Count: 1066
Rating: teen for, this time, Chie's swearing

        It’s not actually that hard to find Yosuke.  It seems like he’d forgotten about the fact that the front gate would be locked, so he instead followed the fence around to hide in the back.  He’s currently sitting behind a bush, legs pulled to his chest and rocking, back and forth, back and forth.  He’s also muttering to himself, though it’s nonsense, but then, by the looks of things he’d somehow forgotten to turn on his mp3 player and probably just needs the noise at the moment.
        Chie sits down next to him and carefully pulls the headphones over his ears, reaching down into his pocket to pull out the player and press the play button.  The rocking slows down, and Yosuke curls in more to rest his head over his own knees, starting to relax just slightly.
        “They’re all going to know.”  His voice is resigned and broken.  Like his life is over.  From the outside in, it’d be easy, to, say, be Souji, to look at this and wonder why it’s such a big deal.  To think maybe Yosuke deserved this, or that he’d brought this all on himself.  They don’t know like she does, that every moment, every day is a struggle, precious and able to be broken in a second.  That despite his smile and carefree attitude, Yosuke lives his life in fear, waiting every second to be called a fraud, and this is probably one of his worst nightmares.  “They’re just going to look at me and they’re going to know.”
        “Nope.  They’re not.  Because they’ll see what we want them to see, which is a guy crossdressing.  After, we can burn our skirts together, okay?  Because there are definitely a couple I wouldn’t mind never seeing again.  I’ve been hanging on to them trying to convince myself, but I’ve realized I’m just trying to force myself to be something I’m not, and I should stop.  Though I wouldn’t mind burning some of Yukiko’s after today,” she mutters vindictively, and that finally gets a reaction.
        Blind and utter panic.  Good going, Chie.  “You can’t!  You shouldn’t—I don’t want to be the reason you two stop being friends—”
        “You can’t stop me protecting you.  It’s who I wanna be, you know.  She started it with being a vindictive bitch and if she can’t handle being called out on it, that’s her problem.  She can dress you for it over my KO’d body.”  Chie carefully threads fingers through his tangled hair.  “I can always talk about your body image problems, though it’s worse for you than it is for me.”  She makes a sudden, grossed out face.  She’s suddenly thought of an analogous situation, and it makes her blood boil even more fiercely.  Because the thought of being trapped in a body that doesn’t feel right is horrible for her, and if that’s what it’s like being Yosuke, all the time… “At least my body never grew a dick when I was a kid.”
        Yosuke finally wrinkles his nose.  “Chie….”
        “Hey, it got you to think about something, didn’t it?  It’s fine.”  She bites her lip, and adds, “And I’m sorry about the awful part of me that is actually kind of happy about this, because it means you’re relying on me and I love playing the hero.”
        Yosuke reflexively winces, because that’s a pretty awful thing to say, but at least he doesn’t pull away.  The silence is tense, but he’s actually thinking about what he wants to say, so that’s something to be happy about.  Eventually, he sighs.  “You and me both.”
        “You’ll be involved in every step of the planning process, so we can make sure it doesn’t get any more uncomfortable for you than it has to be,” she promises, and is shocked to see him smile.
        “Hang on, we could invite Naoto-kun, too.  I just had an idea—we could go Noir Detective Lady for him, and that way he doesn’t have to feel too uncomfortable about it,” he suggests, and Chie downright beams.
        “That sounds like a great idea, and we could get meat and watch martial arts movies and take turns failing at video games while we’re waiting.”  Yosuke opens his mouth to protest, probably at the ‘failing’ description, though she’s not completely certain, and to cut him off she adds, “Actually, you know what, as a reward for surviving this thing, I just remembered there was this kohai that wanted to be Daidara’s student.  I could probably bribe her to make the Dagger of Time for you—minus the magic part, of course, because even if it’s probably possible given Shadows and Personas and the healing power of peach seeds I don’t know that it’s a good idea—”
        She’s taken aback as she’s suddenly tackle-hugged.  Quite literally, she and Yosuke kind of end up on the ground.  “Seriously?  Chie, you’re the best!”
        “Think of it as a payback for Teddie’s clothes—which, now that I think about it, kind of was Yukiko’s idea, too…”  Chie frowns.
        “Life was a little easier before our Shadows, huh.”  He’s still feeling guilty about the inevitable fight.  It’s one of those things that makes him a better guy than most of the people in their class, but also, it’ll tear him apart, fragile boy that he is, if he lets it.
        “Yeah, but it’s not better.  We’d just be stuck in our bad habits and never change,” Chie disagrees, thinks for a minute, then continues.  It’s probably better she not approach Yukiko with the same anger, even if it’s a topic she’s passionate about.  “She’s just being pissy because she still feels trapped, even if an inn is a lot bigger space than the inside of your head.  I’ll try to put it a way that she understands.”  She pauses, then continues, “And I could maybe try to get something along the lines of Baozhai from Night of the Flying Shuriken, and if they yell at us, we can just point out we showed up at least.”
        Yosuke giggles—a little hysterically, but it’s better than him just wallowing in fear—and discreetly wipes away the tears before reaching out a hand, allowing her to pull him up.  She pretends not to notice, asking him about the newest fighting game release, and allows him the escape of her eagerly asking about the new female character additions.