Work Text:
5 days left
Many people dream about taking a trip to Japan. They think of it as this magical land of joy and culture living in 2055... Yosuke Hanamura often thought maybe the Tokyo metro should be easier to traverse and that the education system should be better scheduled. If he’d known that morning that his Philosophy lecture was going to drag longer than expected, he would have skipped it. It wouldn’t have been the first time he had. But, instead, Yosuke had been a good student and had attended the lecture like he was supposed to, even if it cut kind of close to his train’s departure. A fatal miscalculation on his part. Now he was running down the street, bags in hand, towards the train station from the metro station. This, he thought looking back, was extremely ironic. Because if he’d been in a similar situation 2 or 3 years ago, he’d have taken his sweet time getting on that train headed for the country. The simple fact was that he had hated Inaba at first, and the city was still more interesting in his opinion, but the small town had become home. And going back for the holidays sounded like a dream after the mess of a semester he’d had. Tokyo may have some pretty sights, especially ‘round that time of year, but Inaba had the people he loved and that made it better. That train would be his passage home.
‘Yu’s so lucky, getting to go early. Stupid lecture.’ Yosuke was willing to bet that if his partner was in the same position, he’d have had all his ducks in a row. He was that kind of person. Always reliable and organized. Yu had all his classes scheduled in a way so that he had been done with his classes on Friday and could leave on Saturday, and even then he’d offered to stay back until Yosuke was off so they could go together, but Yosuke had told him to go and he’d catch up. Now, he was staring at the departures in the station in shock.
“GONE?!” He read the line over again:
‘Station of Departure: Tokyo Station Station of Arrival: Yaso Inaba Station Departure Time: 4:15 pm [Early] Status: Departed [Early Arrival/Departure]’
He couldn’t believe it. He’d MISSED it. Even if he knew he’d cut it close, he didn’t think he’d miss the train. What the hell was he supposed to do now?! He missed a train headed for INABA. INABA! How many trains left for the middle of nowhere during the week before Christmas? 2? Maybe 3? Sure enough, one check of the
train schedule revealed that the next train wasn’t until next Tuesday... Christmas Eve. ‘Great.’ He sighed and turned back towards his and Yu’s apartment.
“Hey, I’m at the train station, where are you?” Yu’s voice cut out a little as he talked, probably due to snow messing with reception. Yosuke sighed as he turned on the stove and placed the tea kettle on it.
“How unbelievable would it be if I told you I missed my train?”
“Not very... Did you miss the train?” Yosuke switched the call to a video call. Yu frowned from the other side of the screen. “Ah. I see.”
That got a chuckle out of Yosuke, “‘I see’? What are you? a robot?”
“Beep boop.” He laughed, and Yosuke smiled. His partner’s laugh was so... Pretty? No, not just pretty. More like... comforting. Everything about Yu was like that, his presence felt like home. He lit up a room, even if he was just sitting in the corner reading. Or maybe Yosuke was biased. Either way, he felt better talking to him. He studied the image on his phone. Silver hair, long eyelashes, snow falling softly over him, grey coat and blue scarf.
“Partner... Why are you wearing my scarf?” Yu looked down at the item in question as he started walking back to the Dojima house.
“What? This old thing? Was it yours? I can’t seem to remember...” Yosuke grabbed his phone and went to check the closet next to the door, sure enough there was his coat, his gloves, his hat, and Yu’s scarf. He held it up to the camera “Thief.”
Yu turned away dramatically “Woe is I, for my Aibou has called me a thief.” Yosuke snorted “Dramatic.”
Yu looked at something off screen, “Hey, I’ve gotta go, there’s curry in the fridge. Are you good with everything?”
“Uuuuhhhhh...Yeah, I think so. Thanks, partner.”
“Of course. I love you, Aibou.”
“Love you, too.” With that, Yu hung up and Yosuke was alone with his thoughts in the apartment again. He looked in the fridge, found the curry, put it in the microwave, then turned back to the now whistling kettle. ‘5 days, It’s probably gonna be pretty boring.’ He pulled a mug out from the cabinet and put a tea bag in it. ‘Maybe I’ll take another shift at Carino/Carina... anything to pass the time’ He poured the boiling water into the mug and fetched the curry out of the microwave, smiling at the familiar smell of the spices Yu liked to use. ‘I’ll be there, count down the days.’
3 days left
On Friday, Yosuke didn’t feel like being productive. He had sat in bed and binge watched Christmas movies all day, only leaving the apartment to get lunch and dinner. But on Saturday, he decided that bedrotting wasn’t the best way to spend his time waiting. So, when the cafe he worked at part time called asking if he was free to take a last minute shift? Well, what did he have to lose? So off he biked, headphones on, a 4 hour shift awaiting him when he reached his destination. The city was really pretty near Christmas, decorations hung everywhere and shop windows held themed displays. Even though they weren't on, the lights were magical. Inaba and Okina may have some pretty looking decorations, but Tokyo’s were enchanting. Yosuke loved his home city. So, that day he took the long way around and took his time, he was plenty early and the worst thing that the grey clouds gathering above could do this time of year was snow which was so rare, he wouldn’t count on it.
It started raining. Why did he even think that it was cold enough out for snow? All of a sudden, he regretted taking the long way around. It was pouring down in sheets, it was like the gods had it out for him or something. One second it was a pretty nice, if anything cloudy day, and now he was fighting his bike lock so he could run under the awning and get inside before it got worse.
“Just close! Come on!” Finally, both ends slid together and he ran to the cafe’s door, knocking on the door so the manager would let him in. Instead, a girl with her hair in twin tails he’d never met before came over and opened the door then ran back into the kitchen. Yosuke followed her, finding her in the kitchen on the cafe’s landline phone frowning slightly.
“Mhm, thank you for letting us know. Very well then, see you soon.” She hung up the phone. And turned back to Yosuke. “Oh! Right! You're probably freezing! Let me get you a towel.” With that, she ran off and came back with one of the towels that were kept in the back. “Here you go!”
“Thanks.” She gave it to him which Yosuke happily took, drying off his hair and putting his coat in front of the heater, then went to change into his uniform. When he came back, the girl was straightening out the table cloth on one of the tables. She had ear buds in and her twin tails bounced slightly as she nodded her head to the music. The hair style reminded him of Rise, except this girl’s hair was blond and the tips faded into a nice pink tint. “So, are you a new employee?” The girl didn’t seem to notice him talking to her. He walked over and tapped her on the shoulder. She took out her ear bud and looked up at him, smiling warmly.
“Oh, so that’s what the men’s uniform looks like! I never knew. Not many men work here... On that topic, the manager scheduled for today said that some family business came up, so Hanamura would act as the stand-in for her today. I've never met them, so I wondered if you knew who that was?” She stood up and straightened out her skirt. She was short, maybe around 15 or 16 years old at most. He let the information she gave him sink in, he was the acting manager for the shift. Got it. It wasn’t the first time he’d been in charge. Enough years at Junes taught him the in-and-outs of leadership positions in customer service. Whether that transferred over to food service was still up in the air, but he was about to find out. He fished his name tag out of his pocket and pinned it onto his shirt.
“Well, stand-in manager Hanamura Yosuke at your service then! Nice to meet you...”
The girl looked down to her waist, and noticed her own name tag was missing. She quickly grabbed it out of her apron and pinned it on her waist ribbon. “Tenma! My name is Saki Tenma. Nice to meet you Hanamura-San.” Yosuke almost flinched at her name. ‘Saki’ wasn’t an unpopular name, but it still hurt a little anytime he heard it, even years later.
“Alright, nice to meet you too, Tenma.” They both nodded and got to work. Yosuke didn’t like thinking about the worst parts of the year of the murders. They stressed him out, made him snappy, and even a little paranoid. He definitely hadn’t felt it the worst of the IT, Yukiko, Kanji, Rise, and Naoto probably had some terrible days, and Yu had suffered twice as many sleepless nights and bad memories as him, and he was still on his feet to support Yosuke when he was down and out. Yosuke got it easy. Still, as he set up the tables for the afternoon, he tried to focus on better parts of that year: He met his partner and the rest of the IT, they saved lots of people, he learned to appreciate Inaba, they caught a murderer, and maybe most important of all it was over. And it has been over. With that he went into the back to talk to the cook, and asked Tenma to open up the cafe. Stress could wait, he needed to pay attention to what was in front of him.
Carino/Carina was a small cafe, but it was popular. On a slow day they could expect at least 2 or 3 customers at a time, and even with the still pattering rain outside, the cafe was busy as ever, people coming in and out constantly. Tenma proved herself to be a hard worker getting into a steady rhythm. She was a great conversationalist and an amazing multi tasker, taking on multiple tables at a time
with little issue. Yosuke was also good at this kind of task management, (Junes was good for something after all!) They worked well together, Yosuke worked on bussing and bringing out food, while Tenma took orders and put finishing touches on dishes. So the hours ticked by, and the work was done. When the evening rush hit things got hectic, and the two had to fall into full multitasking roles each. ‘Parfait for table 3, coffee jellies to table 7, bottle cake to table 2...’ Things ran through Yosuke’s mind at a mile a minute. ‘Waffles to 6- no wait 5’ he dropped off the coffee jellies and bottle cake before turning around and running into Tenma, causing her to fall to the floor and Yosuke to drop his platter.
“Oh god, Tenma are you okay?!” He kneeled down to check on her, the plate the waffles had been on had shattered, and the cup the parfait had been in was cracked, and the contents of both had been spilled all over the girl.
She picked up one of the chocolate covered cherries from the parfait off her skirt and popped it in her mouth. “Yeah I’m good!” People were starting to take notice. She smiled and flicked the stem into the mess. “And so are these cherries, I should buy some on my way home!” Yosuke sighed, at least she wasn’t hurt by any of the glass. With that he started picking up the mess while Tenma went to the back to clean herself up. Not a good look for the acting manager.
“Well at least she wasn’t hurt?” Yu tried to be supportive, Yosuke sighed, he wasn’t helping. The instant ramen Yosuke made for dinner had long since been eaten and now he was laying in bed talking with Yu over the phone. Honestly he was starting to lose his marbles with the hand that week had dealt him, and it had only been two days.
“How much longer until midnight?”
Yu hummed in interest at the question “An hour. Did something trigger you?” Yosuke frowned and stared at the TV in the corner of the room, as if that would make midnight come faster. He wasn't usually like this... but better safe than sorry, right? After all, it was still raining, and even if he wasn’t in Inaba and nothing would come on anyway, it’d calm his nerves. “I didn’t tell you that coworker’s name did I?”
“Tenma.”
“Her name was Saki Tenma.”
“Oh. Are you okay Aibou?” Yu sounded worried, even over the phone Yosuke could hear all the slight changes in his voice because of it.
“Yeah, I- yeah. I just want to sleep fully tonight. You don’t have to stay up if you don’t want to.”
“I’m not really tired anyway, I’ll keep you company.” Yosuke was thankful Yu wasn’t hanging up. He didn’t want to be left alone with his anxiety for an hour. “Thanks Yu.”
‘’Of course.”
They didn’t talk much after that, both waiting out the time. A calm came over both of them, as if they were in the same room despite being miles apart, the worry that had affected Yosuke seemed to disappear, and by the time midnight came he was fast asleep and nothing came on. Yu made sure of it, because Yosuke did so much for him, he owed his Aibou every form of gratitude he could offer back. “Good night, I love you.”
2 Days Left
Be productive! That was Yosuke’s plan for Sunday afternoon. He was going to get all his homework out of the way before the last day of break this time, and not just his music work, EVERYTHING. ‘No more stressing for me. Man, I'm so mature!’ Yosuke grinned to himself as he rolled his bike onto the apartment complex’s elevator and pressed the button for the first floor. ‘Study mix or classical? Yu and Naoto said they liked classical more, but then again... You know what? Fuck it we ball.’ He put his Mp3 in his bag and got off the elevator, a man carrying a stack of large boxes almost ran into him, Yosuke ducked out of the way, his bike falling with a metallic crash when he let it go. The man didn’t seem to notice. (or was it that he didn’t care?) Yosuke frowned and picked up his bike, kicking off and heading out.
Two blocks max. That’s how far Yosuke was from the library when the chain on his bike came off and he crashed. It was amazing how often he crashed, to the point that Yu was keeping a count, ‘Extra points if it's with a trash can.’ Yosuke couldn’t resist chuckling at the memory. He had not, in fact, crashed into a trash can, but a bush, one with sharp branches for some god forsaken reason. He dragged himself out of the bush and checked the places that hurt the worst. Good news, his winter clothes had worked in his favor and had protected him from most of the impact and branches. Bad news, said protection did not extend to his hands and face, his palms were rubbed raw, the backs of his hands had their fair share of scratches, and when he checked his face using his phone’s camera he counted at least 3 small scratches and one big one on his forehead that was bleeding and had stained his bangs. He grabbed a handkerchief out of his bag and held it to the wound hoping it would help with the bleeding while he
dealt with problem #2: Bike. Yeah the chain had not only come off but broken, it’d need to be replaced. ‘Great. Thanks for nothing.’ He kicked the handlebars in frustration, then noticed that his hand was warm with blood. He brought the handkerchief down from his forehead and noticed just how much he was bleeding. The cloth was dark red, and had seeped through to his hand, painting it red. ‘That’s not good.’ he picked up his bike and turned back towards the apartment, productivity be damned.
Four hours, a bandage, hydrogen peroxide and some (highly ineffective) Advil later, Yosuke had successfully written an English essay and gone down a completely different rabbit hole than he was supposed to for his history assignment, then zonked out for three hours from pain. He woke up to a video call from Yu.
“Did a bear attack you on your way to the library? What happened to you?” Yosuke frowned towards the bike chain in his night stand. “No, my bike did. AND, it found itself an accomplice.”
“Trash can?”
“Nah, Bush.” Yu bit his lip in a fruitless attempt to hold back laughter, as much as Yosuke wanted to be mad at him he couldn’t help but laugh at his misfortune too, an action that he regretted almost instantly when his head was hit with another round of pain. Yu stopped laughing too, frowning at his Aibou’s condition. “Yosuke, are you okay? That looks bad, you made sure that it didn’t need stitches right?”
Yosuke rolled his eyes. “Yeah sure, ask the music major if a wound needs stitches. Do you think I know?”
Yu gave him a deadpan look “You’ve dealt with enough cuts to know the difference. How big is it?”
Yosuke thought for a moment “Like, maybe a centimeter or two wide, three or four long. Take that with a grain of salt though, I’m not sure.”
“Okay. Is it still bleeding?”
“No.”
“Did you disinfect it?”
“Yes.”
“I think it should be okay. Hey, what happened to the library?”
Yosuke held up his History textbook from next to him. “Didn’t go.”
“Did you get anything done?”
“Essay. Did you know that The Anglo-Zanzibar War only lasted 38 minutes?”
Yu stared at Yosuke with a blank expression while he processed how the hell he got that deep down ANY rabbit hole “Aibou, did you take your adderall today?”
“Yes. I think I need a stronger prescription, my brain kept wandering off all day.”
“I think that’s blood loss.”
“I’m looking that up.” he opened his laptop, “‘How much blood does a head wound bleed?’” he skimmed the page over “Hmmmmmmmmmm... a lot.”
“So, Blood loss.”
“I still think it’s my prescription but sure, let's go with that.”
“Go to sleep.” Yosuke protested that idea for a grand total of three seconds before he decided otherwise, wished his partner goodnight and went to bed.
The next day, he woke up in less pain and had to face the brutal reality that he still had homework to do before he could enjoy his Christmas. As much as he didn’t want to, he worked all day, and completed most of what he had to do.
All Aboard!
The train got delayed due to weather. By 15 hours. Yosuke would officially not be arriving in Inaba before Christmas. Oh he was so done. He wanted to scream. Or punch something. Either would work. But instead he turned towards the bustling train station to wait out the day, and maybe finish some of the work he was missing. His bad mood didn’t get any better when Yu texted him that he wouldn’t be able to meet him at the Inaba train station since he was gonna be with the Dojimas. The only silver lining was that Yu had invited him to the Dojima house after dinner. ‘Good. I missed him this week.’ Yosuke felt a little better at the thought of reuniting with his partner, but the crummy mood he was in persisted even when he finally got on the train headed home.
Dinner was nice, his mom’s cooking beat the instant ramen he’d been eating for the past few days any day, and the Hanamura home felt just as lively as it had been when he’d moved out (mostly because Teddie was still around). Honestly, he slotted right back where he belonged in the family, like he’d never left. And after everyone settled down after dinner he excused himself and headed out for his other commitment, taking his time and letting the fact that he was home ease him. Once the rose colored glasses of ‘Hey! I’m back!’ broke, he kind of was left in a similar crummy mood as the one that he’d been feeling more throughout the week. 'Not the best mood to spend the holidays with.’ He turned onto the Dojima’s street and was pelted with a snowball square in the face. He was about
to complain but a second one hit him before he could, a familiar laugh echoed out.
“Yu that’s not funny!” Yosuke threw a handful of snow back at his partner, the wind blowing it right back at himself and making Yu laugh harder. “Oh you’re in for it now!” He ran the rest of the distance between the two of them and tackled Yu to the ground covering the former in snow (and stealing back his scarf for good measure). They laid there for a few minutes staring up at the sky in silence before Yu spoke up.
“We should probably get inside before my uncle worries about where I went.” “Yeah. I’ve got something for you anyway.” Yosuke picked up the gift box he’d brought and they both went in, taking the time to greet Nanako and Dojima on their way up to Yu’s room.
“Partner, what did you do to your room?!” Yosuke looked over the usually simple room in shock. I was decorated with lights, ribbons, holy, and a bunch of other Christmas decorations. Yosuke had never seen Yu decorate like this, not in Inaba OR Tokyo.
“Do you not like it?”
Yosuke turned to his partner dumbfounded “No! I do! It’s amazing! They’re like the city’s decorations.”
“I’m glad you like them, you’ve looked down all week.”
Yosuke almost couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “You put these up... for me?”
Yu nodded,Yosuke could feel his face get warm. “Of course. You’re that kind of person. Always looking out for others instead of yourself. Idiot.” They both smiled and sat down on either side of the coffee table, Yu set down the cake he’d brought from the kitchen on the table, and grabbed a small gift box from a crate under his bed.
“Presents first, then cake.” Yu slid the box over to Yosuke who picked it up and slid the ribbon off of it, inside was a silver bangle, slim, simple. The design on it was similar to the one on a ring he used to own. It was perfect in every way he could think of. He slid it on his wrist and shook it to see how the lights in the room glittered as they reflected off its surface.
“Partner, it’s amazing. Thank you. Okay, my turn I guess.” He reached for the box he’d brought and placed it on the table. Yu opened it and smiled warmly at its contents, a soft bright yellow sweater.
“Yellow. It’s-”
“Your favorite color, but you barely wear it. So, I thought maybe I could fix that...” Yu came around to join Yosuke on the other side of the table, and hugged him. “Aibou. Thank you, I love it.” They sat like that for a moment. Yosuke felt happier than he had all week. Everything that had happened was in the past, it didn’t matter that he missed his train he was here now. And he wouldn’t trade it for anything.
“Hey, Yu, I’m glad I made it.”
Yu hummed in response. “Yeah... me too.”
“Thank you for this week. I would’ve lost my mind in that apartment if you hadn’t called.”
“That’s what partners are for right?”
“Yeah. I’m glad you’re my partner” he smiled as he tried to hold back tears “Look at me getting all teary, this is why I should keep my mouth shut.” Yu wiped a tear off Yosuke’s cheek and smiled at him.
“I could help with that...” it was such a cliche line but Yosuke didn’t care, he wanted to hear every cliche line that his partner knew, and sit together like this forever, because it made any other problem that came their way unimportant. It was just the two of them, and nothing would change that. He leaned in, allowing their lips to come together, like two pieces of a puzzle. Let the world throw whatever it wanted at him, Yosuke would do whatever it took to get where he needed to be, to be with whom he needed to be. Because Inaba may be where home was, but Yu was home, and wherever he went Yosuke would follow.