Chapter Text
Working at Junes always found a way to be stressful. There were the customers constantly complaining about the passing deals and specials of the company, and of course, according to them, the fact that Junes came into Inaba solely for the purpose of destroying the community and their local stores. Then there are the coworkers who seem to think that Yosuke had the same amount of command within the company as his father.
Which, pissed Yosuke off more than customers. He was used to the voices of his peers complaining about Junes ruining businesses, but he couldn’t understand why his coworkers thought he had any influence.
If I did, Yosuke thought, kicking a box of grape juice out of his way, I wouldn’t be sitting here doing the fucking stocking.
He hated the long hours in the back sorting through inventory. Sometimes, when it was later in the day or early enough in the morning there wouldn’t be too many customers, which meant that Yosuke wouldn’t be bothered by questions from coworkers. At these moments, Yosuke enjoyed being able to blast music through his headphones to pass the time and complete the mediocre tasks with a little more fun.
Today however, not even the music could pick up his mood. He felt sluggish, even as upbeat dance music played into his ears. Today, his nerves won out against the power of his music.
It was finally Sunday. Yosuke could feel the weight of the day on his shoulders with every move, yet at the same time, it managed to fill him with a sort of determination.
Sunday. The end of the week. The last day.
The finality of it still managed to surprise him, though he knew the day would arrive no matter what. He may not have the best grades, but he did pass kindergarten. Yet still, everything felt so short and ephemeral. Yosuke had never wanted so badly to slow down time.
A hail over the radio shook Yosuke out of his thoughts. Yet another thing he hated about being the boss’ son was that since he knew his way around the store and all its workings like he knew the back of his hand every time someone needed help in a department he would always be the first one paged. Yosuke closed the box of product he was counting with a sigh and collected his clipboard, heading over to the tech department to hear out the complaint.
“Hana-chan! You’re finally here.” The tech assistant, Saki, stood behind the main counter with her hand on her hip. She spoke sharply, but softened he words with a smile.
“What seems to be the problem?”
“There’s this guy staring at the large tv’s over there. I kept trying to see if he needs any help, but he hasn’t been responding at all. Some of the others are getting creeped out by him and we can’t show other customers the flat screens because he’s totally in the way.”
“And literally no one in the actual tech department can do anything?”
“Like I said, he has been ignoring all of us.”
“Sure, I’ll just use my magical powers then and whoosh him away.”
“Jeez Hana-chan, you know you have a way with customers that none of us have.”
“Flattery will get you nowhere, Saki senpai.”
“So, you’ll do it?”
Yosuke sighed and tightened up the ties of his apron. “Yeah, of course.”
He hated being the one called in when customers were being rude or generally awful in any way, since it really wasn’t his job, but from experience he knew Saki was right and that he was the best at it. The less calls his dad received complaining the better. Yosuke followed her directions to the wall of TVs, until he rounded the corner and nearly ran into someone.
“Oh god, sorry!” Yosuke grabbed in front of him, taking hold of the person’s shoulder so they wouldn’t fall.
“Don’t worry about it, Yosuke. It’s probably just as much my fault.”
Yosuke was shaken for a moment at someone using his name, until he realized that he was standing with Yu’s upper arm in his hand. “Oh, I didn’t know you were here. Can I help you find something or…?”
“Ah,” Yu looked away and tapped his fingers against the screen of one of the TVs, “I just kind of found myself here. I was wondering if Nanako would like a bigger, better TV. Sadly, however, I can’t afford it so I suppose there’s no use in thinking about it anymore.”
“Yeah they’re kinda expensive man.” Yosuke scratched the back of his head, feeling slightly awkward. “Have you, uh, seen a random guy here kinda just staring or something? Some of the girls called me ‘cause there’s some creeper.”
“I regret to inform you, but I believe that creeper may be me.”
“Wait, what?”
Yu smiled sheepishly, finally making eye contact again. “I believe I zoned out while standing here for a while.”
“Dude, there’s no way. You are like, the definition of a lady’s man or like charm master or something. There’s no way you are that off your game.”
“Well, I don’t know about that.” Yu’s smile turned slightly strained. He looked to Yosuke like he might start speaking again, but then seemed to think better of it.
“Okay, well I guess mystery solved then! Makes my job easier. But, uh, I’ve never seen you so off before. Are you doing okay?”
“Yosuke actually –“ Loud feedback from Yosuke’s radio interrupted Yu, followed by a disembodied voice calling for Yosuke’s help in restacking the toilet paper pyramid.
“I’ve gotta get that but hey, I’m off at 4. Can we meet up at the floodplains tonight? We can talk about, uh, stuff.”
“Sure, I’ll see you at about 4:30 then.”
“Perfect, sorry to end short. Bye!”
He slowed his steps about a block away from Junes. Yosuke could see the top of the white gazebo in the distance, and could feel the butterflies growing in his stomach as more and more of the structure came into view. He couldn’t see Yu yet, but he could feel that he was already there waiting. He stopped for a moment, took a deep breath, shoved his shaking hands in his pockets, and proceeded up the hill.
Like he expected, Yu was watching the river rush by while he sat on the boulders. Yosuke allowed himself to stop again, and watch as well. If his plan went well, maybe this would not be the last time he was allowed to gaze upon Yu so freely, but he didn’t want to make himself any promises he may not be able to keep.
The sun was still decently high in the sky, letting off it’s summer heat before it would plunge below the horizon once again to let the coolness of the evening take over. The rays danced across the surface of the water, reflecting back the colors of the landscape around, but also lit up Yu’s hair – changing the grey strands almost to white. Yosuke chuckled to himself, thinking that it kinda made Yu look like an old man. From the position he looked on from, he couldn’t much see Yu’s face, which added to the old man illusion.
He briefly wondered to himself if he would ever actually get to look upon Yu’s face as they aged and grew, or if he would remain with his back turned to him forever.
A jogger passing by behind reminded Yosuke of where he was, and his mission. He stole himself, then walked down to announce himself to Yu.
“Hey Partner, hope I didn’t keep you waiting too long.”
Yu looked up slowly, as if he wasn’t surprised by his sudden company. He patted the space on the rock next to him. “No, but it’s nice to relax outside for a while anyway. I think I’ve been cooped up a little too much lately with school.”
“Well, it doesn’t help that you’re in like ten million clubs, too.”
“You may be right, but I do enjoy them.”
“I guess it’s worth it then. Even if it can be a lot of work, if you enjoy something it’s worth the effort.”
Yu gazed at Yosuke, something softening his stoic, scripted expression. “I’ll have to agree with you on that.”
Yosuke turned away, watching the patterns of the light dance from his new vantage point. Silence descended, but he felt like not even he wanted to break the safety of their silence. Yet, it had to come to an end.
“Yosuke,” Yu began, Yosuke could see that he was still staring at him intently from the corner of his eye, “even next week, I would like to continue hanging out with you like this; walking to school, eating dinner with Nanako –“
“No.” The finality of it surprised even Yosuke, but he could not take back his words now. He gathered all the courage left in his body, all that he had never used at school or at work or at home, and spoke. “I’m not willing to have that sort of strained relationship with you, Yu.”
“So, that’s what you meant.” When Yosuke turned, confused, Yu cracked a sad smile before continuing. “When you ripped up the tickets, that’s what you meant.”
Yosuke didn’t bother answering, too afraid to go off script and lose momentum. “What time does it end?”
For a moment, Yu was silent. He closed his eyes, letting out a sigh that Yosuke could hear was shaking. He waited a few seconds after opening his eyes to speak. “That’s not up to me.”
“Alright then,” Yosuke pulled out his phone, cursing his own shaking hands. 4:44. He tilted the screen so he could be sure that Yu could see as well. “At 4:45 then. There’s no point in waiting.”
They watched the screen in silence until the minute flipped and read 4:45. Yosuke waited another moment for Yu to speak, but nothing came.
“Well,” he let out an ironic chuckle to calm himself, “I’m glad you didn’t tell me ‘I’m sorry I couldn’t fall in love with you’. I don’t know if I could have handled that.”
Yu peered up at him, squinting as if he was trying not to cry.
“Narukami Yu, will you go out with me?”
Yu’s face transformed, wide open with surprise before it returned to a squint, this time out of confusion. “Wait, what?”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t want to just be friends, no, I don’t think I could even if I wanted to, because, well, I love you. I asked you out as a dumb joke and then chickened out but over the past week, but spending time with you has been the highlight and I don’t want to go back to not having that light. And I know this may not sound believable but fuck, I love you. And I’m selfish. I can’t just watch you get stolen away from me, so even if you don’t feel the same way, please go out with me and I can show you a better side of me – better than what I’ve shown you this past week.”
“Wait just a minute –“
“I know that probably sounds dumb but I swear, I will work as hard as I need to to make sure you can fall in love with me.”
“That was so sly, Yosuke.”
“Y’know, if I waited until tomorrow morning one of those girls would have already stolen you away. I didn’t want to risk anything. But I have one condition: this isn’t wouldn’t be any of your weekly dating anymore. I want you to date me for real. I can wait for you to think about it, cause I know it’s askin a lot but –“
Yosuke was interrupted when Yu crushed his lungs in a tight hug. They wobbled for a moment, almost falling into the river, but they managed to stay upright.
“I’ve had something that I’ve been wanting to say this whole time that I was too scared to say. I never imagined – all along I was just so afraid.”
“What – what is it?”
The hug tightened, and Yosuke could feel the next words Yu mumbled against his neck more than he could hear them. “I love you too, Yosuke.”
“N-no way. That’s not –“
“Yosuke, I love you too.”
“But, I mean,” Yosuke struggled for words, gripping his hands in the back of Yu’s t-shirt as if the other boy would slip away as he stumbled through his swirling thoughts. “What about you’re parents? What would they say?”
“Yosuke, just a moment ago you were claiming that no matter what you would make me fall in love with you, and now you say this?”
“Well I sure as hell wasn’t expecting you would actually – you would actually say that.”
Yosuke felt the huff of Yu’s laughter. “Nothing has to be solved right now, but I have a feeling everything will be alright. We never agreed on the specific gender of my partner anyway.”
“Yu I –“
“Yosuke please.”
“Yu, I – I’m so happy.” Yosuke nuzzled his own face into Yu’s shoulder, mimicking the other boy’s position to hide the tears streaming down his face. “I’m so happy.”
Yu pulled back, moving his hands up from Yosuke’s shoulders to cup his cheeks in his hands. He smiled as he wiped away a few of the tears that still spilled out. “I’m happy too.”
Without a second thought, Yosuke pulled his boyfriend in for a kiss.