A/N: What the hell? I was kindly informed by a couple of reviewers that this fic had devolved into HTML nonsense. Sorry guys, I really have no idea what happened. Hopefully this version stays clean?
Yosuke knows that Yu isn't perfect. He knows that better than anyone, probably - he's seen the faces that Yu makes when he falters more often than anyone else (and they don't appear often to begin with).
Even so, Yosuke can't help sometimes feeling like Yu is perfect. He may as well be, for all that whatever minor flaws he may possess interfere with his day to day life. Excellent grades, handsome good looks, the ability to charm an entire town's worth of people (a small town it may be, butstill!)... a Persona awakening without even the hindrance of a Shadow to face. There is the whole cat thing, but Yosuke's not sure that can be considered a flaw so much as a quirk.
A really, really weird quirk.
As if all the above wasn't enough, his position as the undisputed Fearless Leader of the team pretty much cements his image of perfection. Yu exudes confidence throughout every crisis as though it is second nature, as though he truly believes that nothing in the universe will ever get in the way of his team accomplishing their goals no matter how dire the circumstances - and knowing Yu, he probably believes exactly that. Yu insists that it is because of his friends that he can carry such confidence with him like a second skin, but Yosuke can't help doubting this. He can't picture Yu any way other than brimming with self-assurance, friends or no.
So it comes as a great shock to him to see his partner blush for the first time.
It's Yosuke's first time visiting Yu at his own home now that he's moved back to the city from Inaba, Yu's just finished saying something terribly sappy about seeing his best friend again now that he's finally at his front door - said it with a completely straight face, too, just like he always does, damn him - and Yosuke's stuck trying to deal with the resulting embarrassment. Like he always is.
Just once, just once it would be great to have the tables turned, dammit! But any time Yosuke has ever worked up the nerve to say anything remotely touchy-feely in regards to their friendship, it's always hesitant, always with some kind of stutter, and Yu is always smiling at him when he finally gets it out - smiling as if it isn't totally weird for two guys to talk like that, like they're... they're...
Nevermind, Yosuke doesn't bother finishing that thought.
He especially doesn't bother continuing that thought again a few seconds later when the two of them hug for the second time in their friendship as if that were the obvious thing to do. Yosuke reasons that, after all, it's been way too long since he's seen his partner and it's not like they're in public and really, what's a little physical solidarity between guys, anyway? But then his foot catches on the step up into the main hall because, stupid, he wasn't looking at the entryway after taking his shoes off, he was looking at Yu and those eyes and that shit-eating grin that he most definitely has absolutely not been imagining and outright missing for weeks now, the ones that make him realize and then deny that there's been an aching hole in his chest that pulses like a fresh wound every time he looks at the seat ahead of him in class and it's not a head of silver hair at his eye level, every time he just happens to swing by the Dojima residence and there's a group of cats waiting patiently for a beloved human friend that won't be coming, every time a part-timer ducks out on a shift and he's stuck asking for Chie for help because his go-to life-saver is miles and hours and a day-long train ride away in another city that feels all too far removed from here.
He trips, and Yu's reflexes are just enough to catch him by the elbows but not enough to stop him from overbalancing and the next thing he knows the two of them are on the floor. Or, well, Yu is on the floor - flat on his back, in fact - and Yosuke is plastered on top of him, momentarily stunned and bizarrely comfortable and he really doesn't want to pursue that particular realization any further. He lifts his head, planting his hands on the floor on either side of Yu's torso to push himself up, ready to laugh about what a klutzy dumbass he is -
-only he doesn't, because his nose is about one inch from Yu's, and Yu, for the first time in the entire year-and-change that Yosuke has known him, is bright red in the face.
He's also not saying a word, as if frozen in place, and while Yu is generally a quiet guy, he's usually just as ready to laugh about this sort of thing as Yosuke. Well, somewhat frozen in place, Yosuke amends, as Yu's eyes suddenly seem eager to be directed anywhere besides Yosuke's face.
Ordinarily Yosuke would bolt away as if on fire, laughing and stammering all the way because he's not like that, only the sight of Yu blushing and awkward and - and nervous? - is so novel that he's completely dumbfounded and instead he doesn't budge an inch. Only he does, but it's just his face that's moving - an experiment he'd never dare to try but he somehow can't just help himself - he moves that one inch closer until their noses should pretty much be touching but aren't yet, because he just wants to make sure of something - and now it's Yu reacting as if burned, jerking his head back as his face goes an even more spectacular shade of red, and his normal deadpan expression and wit and any voice at all - his lips flap once, silently -are still nowhere to be found, and now Yosuke is absolutely sure that this redness is entirely thanks to him. He's never reacted anything remotely like this to any of the girls - nor any of the guys, for that matter - and goodness knows the whole lot of them have been repeatedly tossed into one awkward situation after another that's accounted for countless opportunities for a blushing Yu - it's never happened even once.
It turns out that Fearless Leader Narukami Yu might just have a weakness after all, and that weakness might just have a name, and its name mightjust be Hanamura Yosuke.
Yosuke realizes, abruptly, that his knee is very neatly tucked right inbetween Yu's legs, and suddenly it's as though his Shadow is whispering into his ear and his leg moves forward just the tiniest bit of its own accord and if the fact that Yu's breath trips in its way down his windpipe and the tensing of his fingers against Yosuke's elbows are any indication, Yosuke is most definitely, absolutely, positively the closest thing to a weakness his partner has ever had.
Also, Yosuke is abruptly faced directly with the fact that he, himself, is most definitely like that.
Also also, if he spends any longer in denial, Jiraiya will most definitely come and kick his ass.
This is also when Yosuke realizes that the thought of being the one thing in the entire universe that can fluster Narukami Yu is actually really - weirdly? - appealing, and he kind of wants to do it more, only on purpose this time, and the rest of this visit is almost probably definitely not gonna turn out like he originally thought it would.