No Longer Bored

[madimpossibledreamer]

Main Points:
Persona 4 Past Will Tell AU (protag swap + Average AU)
Chapter Summary: Yosuke's a little busy to notice the transfer student.
Word Count: 1914
Rating: Teen (some swearing; it's Yosuke)
yosuke is trans though it's only really referenced in this one.  him being bi (and mostly only worried about further bullying/how others will treat him once they know) is more obvious.

        Yosuke doesn’t notice the transfer student much.  It’s not even that the guy isn’t memorable.
        Okay, yeah, so he’d been looking forward to the event.  A new guy from the city; something to occupy the townsfolk’s minds and keep the edge off.  They might even have stuff in common, although he’s gotten more realistic, as these things go, so he’s not counting on it.  He’s got friends, surprisingly…okay, more like, one friend, who mostly only hangs out because her own friend is really busy at the moment, but still.  That counts.
        Mostly it’s just…everything going on.  So yeah, the new guy is weird, and memorable, and there’s something definitely not right about him, but also, he’s low on the list of stuff to be worrying about at the moment.
        First there had been the dream, with the guy with the long nose and the pretty older lady and the girl who wanted nothing to do with him and the really catchy music.  The place had looked like a dance studio, which fit the music, but man it was weird.  Pretty much the girl who kept insulting him was the only thing that made the place feel…realistic wasn’t the word.  Grounded?  Yeah, maybe grounded.  It felt real, that way—at least there was one familiar thing, there.  He’d had the song stuck in his head after the fact and was this close to recording a lamer version with his guitar and putting it on his music player just so he could maybe get it out of his head.
        Then, the announcer lady had shown up dead.  He hadn’t known her, really, though he had seen her on the news and it’d been surreal to know that she was dead.  It was one thing to have this abstract concept that someday someone he knew, however far removed, would die.  A completely different thing to see it.  He’d gone and gossiped about her with the other part-timers at Junes, including discussing the fact that it might’ve been a serial murder, since they found that one police officer hanging from an antenna first, only to have Saki-senpai yell him out, and sure, he felt bad, mostly because she had a point.  He’d mumbled an apology, but it almost didn’t feel like he deserved to make an apology because she’d just think he was sucking up to her.
        Chie, either trying to humiliate him further or cheer him up (probably the latter, because despite the fact that he’s a friend of convenience and source of money for her meat obsession she actually does care in her own awkward way) dared him to watch the Midnight Channel, and no matter how stupid the rumor was, part of him really wanted—hoped—
        And it was Saki-senpai, he’d know her anywhere, and he’d be excited, but she looked scared.  And he’d had a moment of weakness and tried to touch her face, and that’s when things got really weird, because he nearly got sucked into the TV and it was his own clumsiness tripping over the fan that honestly he meant to put back but just kind of hadn’t gotten around to yet that stopped him, as he fell and hoped he hadn’t just given himself concussion or something.  At least Mom was there to check his pupils with a flashlight, and she bought that he’d just tried to get up to got to the bathroom and had tripped, because hey, it was half true.
        So then he’d tried to prove it to Chie using the TV in the cramped storage room at Junes, the one where all the holiday decorations and seemingly everything they’d gotten for the grand opening and decided they didn’t need and just shoved everything in, because they didn’t bother having a camera there and because it was the only place he could think of where they’d be least likely to be noticed.  Everyone called him a freak, but they didn’t need proof, not yet.  Only that hadn’t gone as planned, because she freaked out and grabbed him and he’d lost his balance again and they’d fallen in.
        Between the bear, the revelation that someone had been throwing people in the TV and that someone else was there (which, obviously, Saki-senpai, since unlike everything else in the damn world that didn’t make sense showing up on TV equals being in the TV is actually pretty straightforward), meeting Shadows, Yosuke awakening his Persona and having to fight off Chie’s controlling Shadow….
        He was beat.  And he didn’t want to leave, because the announcer had died, but the instant Chie made him sit down he’d nearly passed out, so….she’d had a point.  He’d only gone after the bear had promised tearfully that Saki-senpai ‘should’ be fine for one more day.  But they were definitely going to get prepared for tonight, damn it.  He wasn’t looking forward to spending his paycheck on the ‘art’ Daidara made, no matter how cool the daggers Chie pointed out were (he’s half regretting introducing her to fighting games, because she needs to not try to reenact those too), or weird medicines from the old lady Shiroku, or…he’s gotta be missing something.  Some store that could help him prepare. 
        He doesn’t remember much from when he’d first tried to look around when he’d moved here, just the glares and whispers that eventually just made him wander out without buying anything.  Which hurt.  He liked quirky little shops like that (or sometimes not so little, like the eight-floor CD shop back in Tokyo), and yeah, okay, mostly he’d been looking for fun clothes or electronics or jewelry or CDs or games, and was sick of staring at the Junes stuff, and wanted to go spend money as a kind of…peace offering, but the residents didn’t want any of that, and he was too shy to argue.  But if it’s to save Saki-senpai and not die in the process, he’ll just suck it up, all the whispering and stares, because goddamnit this is life and death and if there’s a time for him to actually man up about this, it’s now.
        He also, well.  He really hadn’t gotten much sleep, too keyed up.  He’d tried, but his brain was wide awake and not shutting off even when he started to get a headache.  Probably also not good.  Probably also dangerous.  But he’s got Chie as backup, and they can’t wait, just in case—
        He’s got the foggy days on his phone, because at least the non-calling or texting functions still work, and while that weird empty bear-thing (he should be nicer, it’s calling him Sensei which is a level of respect he’s pretty sure he’s never experienced in his entire life, he’s just really stressed out right now) might not know the first thing about a calendar, they’d confirmed before they’d left, when he’d made that promise, Teddie does actually have a pretty clear idea of days, so, like, the day the announcer disappeared corresponded with the day he ‘smelled’ someone in the TV world, stuff like that.  They can match that up, see if the days it gets foggy in Inaba are the days the fog clears in the TV world.  That way, the next time the bastard tries (assuming this is gonna go well, which he has to, he can’t even think about failing and seeing Senpai strung up like—oh, god, he’s gonna be sick, because it might’ve just been TV but he’s seen pigs in a slaughterhouse and that’s the way, exactly the way the announcer had looked, apart from the lack of blood) they’ll have a better idea of the deadline.  He suspects.  And the announcer lady (who’s a lot more accurate than the one in Tokyo, though he’d chalked that up to Inaba being predictable) had warned of fog tomorrow, and he’s not going to leave Saki-senpai hanging (it’s all he can do not to groan) any more than he has to; they’re definitely saving her today.  But it’d be good to know, actually have some concrete ideas of deadlines and stuff.
        Honestly, the point his sleep-deprived brain is trying to say is that he’s up early, early enough his mother’s squinting at him with honestly well-deserved suspicion, and he just kind of yawns and smiles and waves and is off.  He can fall asleep at his desk.  That’ll be normal enough.
        Chie stumbles in, mumbling something about a late-night kung fu movie to ease Yukiko’s worried suspicion, and Yosuke hides the smile of relief and the guilty look on his face in the desk.
        So then class starts, and there’s the transfer student.  Which, oh, right, yeah, that was a thing that was happening.
        He’s unfairly handsome.  Like, he looks like he belongs in the dream he’d had in the blue room, because Yosuke never thought he’d meet someone who fit the anime trope with matching eyes and hair, even if grey isn’t the wildest color out there, and the girls have already started whispering about the guy which probably isn’t helping him escape Morooka’s wrath, but he’s definitely good-looking.  Which is unfair, because Yosuke was crushing on Saki-senpai and she’s in danger this isn’t the time and even if she wasn’t, he’s already got enough on his plate to add how a complete stranger would react to Yosuke’s whole deal.
        And then the transfer student goes and talks back to King Moron, and Yosuke wishes he had that kind of courage.  Man.
        The weird part is, he looks…worried.  But also maybe relieved.  That might just be his imagination, though.  It’s not like the guy is particularly expressive, and sure, he’s been getting better at this out of sheer self-preservation, but Yosuke just has this feeling.  Seta-kun had been all calm until he looked at them, and then there’s this…Yosuke doesn’t know, worry around his eyes.  About Yosuke and Chie.  Despite the fact that he’s pretty sure Chie’s going to be kept busy running around kicking people spreading rumors that they’re dating, because as much as the idea of that rumor sucks, it makes sense.  It’s not like the first thing that comes to people’s minds is that they’re off fighting monsters in another world.  But then, maybe this Seta-kun is every bit as anime as his appearance suggests, so he’d be the weirdo that wouldn’t come to the logical conclusion.
        Normally, as her Shadow suggested, Chie would’ve jumped at the chance to help someone out.  Anything to play hero, she’d purred, staring him in the eye, like he didn’t get that, seconds before Chie had shouted her denial and gotten them in a boss fight.  (Sure, he’s going to use gaming terms, probably, just for lack of any other good words for this kinda thing, that doesn’t mean that he’s not taking it seriously.)  But she’s as dead as he is right now, and even if Yosuke just wants to keep his head down and not draw the anger of his fellow students who hate him and not get the transfer student involved in anything, like being labeled a ‘Junes sympathizer’ or, more to the point, adventures in the TV, he’s not gonna leave the guy standing up there as King Moron yaps his ear off.
        “Is it cool if the transfer student sits in front of me?”  He manages not to yawn.
        And then the transfer student pays him back by giving him an answer during class when he manages to fall asleep, finally, so it all works out.