Yosuke's POV:
I wish I kissed him now. He probably thinks I've lost interest.
But I just couldn't do it, even though I really wanted to. I'm not his secret, and until he can prove that, we're nothing more than friends.
"Yosuke?" Shin lightly raps on my bedroom door, opening it before I can even respond.
"Yeah?" I frown, sitting up in my bed.
"Uh," he sighs. "Did he make it home okay?"
I tense up. "Yeah. He did," I murmur. "You should be resting, anyways."
"I'm... still in shock, I guess," he shakes his head, leaning against my wall. "I mean... Persona? It just all sounds like a fantasy, you know?"
"I know," I mumble. "Hey... Since you got your Persona... Did you face your Shadow, too?"
"My what?" He asks. "What are you talking about? Humans can have Shadows?"
"Well, yeah." I sit at the edge of my bed, confused. "That's how you obtain your Persona - by accepting your true self."
"That didn't happen to me," he shrugs.
"Weird..."
"Besides, we don't have time for quests like that. Do... do you have any idea how long we have before...?" He trails off, biting his lip.
"It's hard to say," I admit. "When the fog rolls in, I guess. That's how it usually goes."
"...Oh," he sighs.
"Don't worry," I say. "We still have tons of time."
"I just think... Maybe it's best if we finish this soon, you know?"
"It's funny how you never show your fears around anyone but me," I scoff. "You just prance about, acting like you've done no wrong."
He looks away. "So what? You're my brother. I know you'll help me."
"Oh, yeah! Why don't you just rely on me, Shin?" I snap. "Since I can fix everything for you, huh? Why don't you just sit back and relax while I do all the work to fix your mess!?"
"Stop talking to me like that," he says through gritted teeth. "I can help now, too."
"You say you'll help, but then I'll find you in a remote area, tryna bunk off or something with Yu."
"That's not true," he grunts. "Do you really think he's all I think about?"
"Would I be wrong to assume so?" I scoff.
He closes his eyes. "I don't know, Yosuke."
"Figures."
"He's... a really important part of my life. But he's not me. He's with me. But I have myself, too. And I can be strong, if you'll just let me."
"You take chances for granted."
"I know I do," he mumbles. "But that stops today, okay? If I'm heading to prison soon, I don't want to live with any more regrets."
"Dude, you're not sentenced to death," I frown.
"I don't care," he smiles. "I promise, Yosuke, I won't let you down. You can rely on me, now. And so can everyone else. I'll fix this, with all your help. And one day, I'll return the favor on my own."
"How can I trust you?" I say.
He holds out his hand. "I'm not the same guy I used to be. I'm done holding back, and lying, and avoiding the truth. From now on, I'll be a different man. Someone worthy of Yu. Someone you can look up to."
YOU ARE READING
With You (Souyo)
Fanfiction(Prolly still has a shitton of typos, feel free to point them out) Yosuke has never really been great at expressing how he feels. Certainly not to his partner, at least. He'd been... thinking about Yu differently since he left. And now that he's com...
