…Man, I've been out of action for so long. Not sure what this oneshot is, it's not exactly fluffy (or even a pairing fic to begin with, the Romance tag is honestly just a placeholder in case I take this any further), but it's not really that much of a character analysis either. Eh, I guess you can take it to be whatever. I might consider making this a series of oneshots, but…well, let's not talk about that now.

I don't know what manga MC is like, but I kinda like how the anime MC was done. I'm rolling with that.

I do not own Persona 4, Persona 3, or Atlus in general.

###

"…I swear, every time I see this, I think it's weird,"

"What, do I really pass as being THAT stupid," Yosuke winked at his meat-loving friend, who rolled her eyes in response. "I'm serious about getting into a business university, alright?"

"I thought you were going to pursue a music career," she mumbled as she scooted over next to him, laying her own study material on the tabletop of their former special headquarters. "You seemed pretty intense about talking to Rise-chan about it,"

"Well, yeah, I did…" Yosuke shrugged. "I just think this fits me more. I've already been 'Junes' during my life here, might as well take over the joint and keep it up all the way,"

Chie chewed the end of her pen, already frustrated from reading the notes Yukiko so meticulously took for her. "You don't have to listen to those idiots, Hanamura,"

"It's not about them," Yosuke sighed as he turned the pages of his notebook, wishing Yu was still around to encourage him…or even just make him feel bad because he made studying look so easy. "It's about me. It's always about me,"

"There's nothing wrong about thinking for yourself," Chie started doodling in the margin of Yukiko's notes. "This is your life you're living,"

"Yeah, I know," He laughed. Both of them tried to ignore how hollow it sounded.

"…Are you actually studying? This is impossible for me," Chie groaned as she planted her face into the table. "Hanamura, the one person that I relied on to have worse grades than me, studying. I think my life's over,"

"Excuse me, Satonaka, I had better grades than you in the first place," he huffed.

"That's BS and you know it,"

"What happens if I insist? Another critical hit to the nads? Look, I want kids, so please don't,"

"Woah, Hanamura being a father, that's almost scarier than Hanamura studying," they both laughed. "So, you have anyone in mind for the mother?"

"Eh…Satonaka, we should study," Yosuke chuckled nervously, hoping Chie wouldn't push the subject. The chance of Chie having any mercy was close to zero, but he had to try.

"Oh, so you do…Any names? Come on, I won't tell anyone," Chie giggled.

"Alright, we're reviewing math. Satanoka, you're doing the questions here, and I'm going to try and keep you from failing dismally," Yosuke dropped a worksheet in front of her. She stared at the problems on the sheet distastefully, wondering where he was getting all this stuff. Yosuke was never this prepared for…well, just about anything.

It turned out that he also got much more observant. "I got it from Naoto after I begged Kanji to ask her for me. He did tell me to man up and tell her myself, but eh,"

"Huh," Chie numbly let out. Was she that easy to read? "Uh, how did you convince to him to ask her?"

"I told him he needed to man up and talk to the girl he liked," Yosuke shrugged. "It was easy to convince him after that,"

"That's a low blow," They both laughed again. "You sure you're qualified to teach me, Hanamura?"

"Shut up and do your work, Satonaka. We can argue about qualifications after you finish," Yosuke winked, causing another giggle to escape Chie's lips.

"Will you buy me steak afterwards?"

"No."

###

Chie mulled over her work at her desk. She was surprised that Yosuke actually made a good tutor. In fact, he was arguably better Yu. She couldn't figure out how it happened. Hell, she couldn't figure out WHEN it happened. The Yosuke she knew…he wasn't like this. The Yosuke she knew would've spent the whole afternoon arguing with her about whose grades were better; he would spend another hour arguing with her about buying her steak. The Yosuke she knew would've tried to hit on every pretty girl that walked past their study session, even if it was one of those winks that he thought was cute. The Yosuke she knew wouldn't be so freaking good at math. The Yosuke she knew wouldn't even know the first thing about tutoring people, especially a hopeless case like her.

She briefly wondered if Yu left a manual to success for Yosuke to read. It would be extremely unfair if he did, because she wanted one too.

Before she knew it, she had pressed Call, her screen highlighting Yu's name.

"Anything you want, Chie-chan?"

"Oh, uh…I was just wondering…did you happen to leave any instructions for Hanamura? He was, uh, acting rather strange today,"

"Really," Chie heard him laugh from the other end. "You sure it wasn't just you?"

"Don't be like that," she whined indignantly. "I'm serious. He seemed so mature…he tutored me in math...I don't know which was scarier, him tutoring or the fact that I actually UNDERSTAND what we went over today," Chie let out a strangled yelp, trying to ignore the image of the amused half-smile that she was sure was plastered all over Yu's face at the moment. "He even bought me steak. WITHOUT COMPLAINING. I'm worried, Yu-kun. I think he's been brainwashed. Or maybe the Midnight Channel incident finally caught up and traumatized him,"

"I think I'll send Yosuke a recording of this," she heard him reply in his signature deadpan nature. "I'm sure he will appreciate your opinions,"

Chie wanted to nothing more than kick straight through her phone into the temple of the boy at the other end. "You're just making fun of me now, Yu-kun," she growled as she heard restrained laughter from her phone

"But seriously, I did not leave him any…instructions, as you put it," Yu managed before bursting into another round of chuckles.

"…I don't know. Hanamura…well, I can't help but worry," she sighed. "He told me he wanted to pursue a business major. I swear, just two weeks ago, he was discussing a music major with Rise. He was serious about it too, didn't try to hit on her even once. Maybe his parents are trying to force him to be something he doesn't want to be…I don't think he actually wants to stay in this town as 'Junes.' Do you know anything about this?"

"…I don't. And even if I did," Chie heard him sigh. "I don't think it would be in my place to tell you. Just have faith in him, Yosuke is strong, far stronger than anyone would expect. Besides, if he actually has a problem, he'll tell you eventually, mark my words. You're a special person to him,"

"Wha-" Chie felt her cheeks warming up. "You – huh – what do you mean, 'special,'" she choked.

The laughter from the other end wasn't even contained this time. "You just are, nothing more to it," he managed to say in between his epiphany. "Look, I think I should talk to you later. There are some girls that have been following me the last few days, and shaking them off is getting really difficult,"

"Oh, still a hot stud with the girls, aren't you," she joked. "I know some people in Inaba who won't be happy to hear that,"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it. Oh, shit, they saw me. Bye now,"

Chie heard a faint "Don't run away from us, Narukami-sama" before an abrupt click signaled the end of the call. It looked like Yu had it tough back in the city. She wondered if he was popular with the girls before he came to Inaba. He implied that he didn't have friends before coming to the small, dusty town, but sometimes, thinking back on how easily he got along with the whole town, she couldn't help but doubt that. Even now, Yu Narukami was regarded as a legend in Inaba, as people eventually pieced together that they all were assisted in their daily lives by the same silver-haired boy.

It would be hard to admit it, but she was infatuated with him too, at one point. Many girls were. It stung when he rejected her, when he shot her down when it took her so long to muster her courage and confess, but Yu just had this aura around him that kept people from staying angry with him forever. Chie smirked as she noted that, although he didn't accept any serious relationship request from any girl, at least he never had to run away from anyone in Inaba.

She still regarded Yu as one of the most reliable people she ever had the luck of knowing, and he was also Yosuke's best friend as far as she could tell. If even he didn't know what was up with Yosuke, then probably no one did.

You're a special person to him.

Chie promptly ignored the echoes of that phrase bouncing around her skull in a warped version of Yu's voice. Perhaps a bit of studying would keep her from thinking about such trivialities. "Ok, Chie, the Indus Valley is situated in India. Indus, India, they sound alike, that makes sense…"

###

Ten minutes and some rather interesting stunts later, Yu struggled to catch his breath as he slid down the wall he was resting on. He hoped those crazy demons wouldn't look in the women's section of the store, otherwise his well-deserved break would end rather prematurely. He ignored the stares of other women that passed by, noting that at least he didn't actually have to buy anything for, say, a crossdressing beauty pageant, this time around.

It was getting late, but he really needed to shake those fangirls off his trail. Yu didn't understand how all the training from fighting Shadows could only barely keep him ahead of those nutjobs, but thankfully he pulled through. He doubted his parents would appreciate it if mobs of girls started trespassing over their private property. It would make it difficult for anyone to get out of the house, and they would wonder just exactly what did their son do to get so many females to swoon over him. He was always unnoticed before Inaba, after all.

Yu doubted the truth would satisfy them. His parents wouldn't believe an explanation like "The Wild Card taught me how to socialize and also made me appealing to the female sex, and I worked out by beating up monsters inside a TV." If they did, well…at least he would understand just a bit better why he got these powers to begin with. Not like he would test that theory out.

He ventured out of the shop, hoping that the hustle and bustle of a city mall would keep him hidden from sight. It was at times like these that he wished he was as unnoticeable as he used to be. Then he would remember how much that actually sucked. Inaba was arguably the best thing that happened to him in his life.

Speaking of Inaba, Yu grinned crookedly as he checked the recording that he saved on his phone. He knew it was going to be something worth getting a hard copy of as soon as Chie mentioned Yosuke. Well, as soon as she mentioned Yosuke without saying some profanity in the same sentence.

What Chie-chan doesn't know won't hurt her. He chuckled as he forwarded the recording to Yosuke. By the sound of it, his partner had gotten somewhat more mature. Yu was sure that Yosuke could figure out what to do with this gem by himself. However, as a precaution, he decided to text a short warning anyways.

Don't tell Chie-chan bout this unless u have 2. Or if u want us 2 suffer from a critical hit.

###

Yosuke couldn't help but smile even wider as he replayed the recording for the umpteenth time. Count on someone like Yu to get his hands on juicy info like this. There were so many pranks that he could pull on Chie with this…then again, once he did, she would be beyond pissed. Even worse, the recording might be wiped from his phone, either by her forcibly, or perhaps with Naoto's assistance.

Yosuke admitted that wouldn't do. No prank was worth it over this recording, not when it gave him a fuzzy feeling inside whenever he listened to it. He ignored the comments Susano-O was making in his head about scoring and went back to his studies. He really wasn't kidding about his studies, although he admitted there were some ulterior motives outside of taking over his father's position.

His parents were surprised when he announced it over the dinner table, to say the very least. His younger siblings couldn't believe it at all, and Yosuke swore his father blanked out for a minute or so, just staring at his food without actually picking up his chopsticks. His father hasn't talked to him about it ever since, but that wasn't something Yosuke was going to concern himself with. He felt it was about time he took up responsibility, even if it sounded ugly, and it wasn't like he couldn't pursue music in his free time. Maybe he could join a band in college, who knew? What mattered more was actually getting into college. Specifically, one specific college: Port Island.

He knew something was going on there, something big. Yosuke spent enough talking to Yu about that tournament incident to know there were people with extraordinary powers all situated around Port Island. While Yu didn't say it explicitly, Yosuke knew the leader of the Special Investigations team was planning to dive into the action by joining Port Island University. Not only that, he knew Yu didn't want to mention anything about Port Island, just in case someone on the Investigation Team figured out what he was planning. No doubt everyone would freak out if they knew that their leader was going to head back to the front lines. Yosuke, therefore, made sure to keep his mouth shut, only citing that Port Island had an extremely strong business branch as his reason for aiming to go there.

The problem was that Port Island was not a school that was easy to get into. Yosuke knew that Yu would get in with no problem – Hell, he might even find it a piece of cake. Yosuke, however, was a different story altogether. As a complete slacker who disregarded his academics for so long, he worried if he had a chance of getting in at all. To be honest, he was riding on the hope that his one selling point would carry him in: He had a Persona, he knew how to use it, and whoever it was in charge of handling the supernatural in Port Island knows that he has one.

He noted that it was probably immature of him, to want to feel the drive of adventure after tasting it once. The dangers were completely obvious, and it was idiotic that he wanted to dive into another escapade. This was exactly what his Shadow accused him of; a hotshot who was bored with the quiet life in Inaba. But he'll be damned if he was going to let Yu take everything on by himself. They were partners, so he won't let Yu shoulder it alone. Preferably without the rest of their friends noticing – Yosuke knew that was another way the two could suffer a (actually, many) critical hit to the nads.

He would be honest with Chie, but he doubted she would keep her mouth shut, not about something like this. His friends had their own lives, and he had no intentions to drag them out into a new adventures. That meant they couldn't know about his plans – if they did, they won't hesitate to drop whatever life they had to help the two of them out. Yosuke admitted that, should he not get into Port Island, he would also still find some way to the thick of the action sooner or later. They were friends; that's what they did.

Besides, there were many things that he wasn't honest to Chie about. Yosuke hoped that, someday, he wouldn't have to lie to her anymore. But not now, not today. He wasn't ready yet. Or Susano-O could be right and he was being a coward, but he would mull over it later. First, he should reassure Chie that he was perfectly normal, Yosuke-style.

It took him two seconds to call her, her contact info stored on speed dial (right after Yu's contacts). If there was anything that would reassure her, it would be this.

"Hey, Hanamura,"

"So, Satonaka, there was this naked man that was walking on the highway, and-"

He grinned as the line was cut.

###

Yu was reading his notes on English when his phone notified him of a new text message.

4get wat I said. He called me to make a dirty joke. During finals prep. I will kill him tmm.

"Well played, Yosuke." He smirked, returning to his notes.

###

Omake:

So, I was wondering. How did u no that Yosuke did not flirt with Rise-chan?

Chie blinked as she read Yu's message. She then threw her phone onto her bed and went back to studying, muttering under her breath profanities describing smartass city boys.

###

I'll let you come up with your own answers for that question. ;)

If you have something to say, please say it. I'll be happy to hear your thoughts. Otherwise, until next time, take care.