A Christmas to Remember - Prologue
WARNINGS: This is completely post-game and I will be basing myself on certain Persona 4 Golden events, especially when it comes to a certain special character. Do not proceed if you don't know the whole story behind Persona 4.
Disclaimer: If you aren't sure whether you know or not the meaning of the word fanfiction, please look it up and then come back here.
Summary: The Magician strikes again with a brilliant idea for Christmas Eve, putting everyone in a tight spot.
Isn't That a Day for Couples
Everyone seemed cheerful and very talkative by the middle of December. It was already really cold and snow had arrived early that year, but they still decided to meet up at Junes to talk about the upcoming Christmas party they would be throwing for the second consecutive year.
"I'm cold!" Rise complained, rubbing her palms together "Yu-senpai, why couldn't we meet up at your house instead?"
"I asked Yosuke the same thing," he replied simply, turning to the said brunet.
The other just grinned in response "You're finally back for good, so I thought the first place we should meet at was our special headquarters."
"Special headquarters..." Kanji repeated a little quietly before giving a small smile "Y'know, 't's December already."
"One year, huh?" Chie entered the conversation, resting her chin on her hands "Can't believe it's been so long!"
Teddie was playing with the straw from the long gone soda he was drinking from, waving it around in excitement "Me either! I can bear-ily recall what the TV world used to be like!"
"How can you even forget something like that?!" Yosuke scowled at the blond boy.
The detective next to him nodded in agreement "Indeed, we are close to the day we finally caught the one true culprit behind the serial murders case."
"Time really does fly too fast..." Yukiko looked down, seeming a little bothered by what she had just said.
"C'mon, don't make that face!" the girl sitting across her jolted up, smiling brightly "We should focus our energy on celebrating all that we accomplished last year and this one too!
"Chie-senpai's right," Rise adjusted the pink scarf around her neck "Besides, Christmas is right on the corner! Shouldn't we be talking about that?"
"Wasn't that the reason Yosuke-senpai called us out here in the first place?" Naoto asked simply, directing her attention to the boy.
"Oh, that's right!" the brunet nodded, crossing his arms in front of his chest "Okay, so this year I thought we could do something a little bit... different from what we did last year."
"Ooh, ooh! Are we gonna have meat for Christmas dinner?!"
"Why would we eat meat on Christmas?!" the baffled boy replied.
"Are we staying at Yuki-chan's so we can peep on the girls?!"
"No!" Teddie looked disappointed and Rise proceeded to smack him on the head.
"You should be ashamed of yourself!" she reprimanded the blond, before turning to Yosuke excitedly "Are you all going to lock me and Senpai up somewhere?"
"How can you scold Ted like that before saying something like this?!" the Junes child facepalmed, annoyed with the situation.
Naoto sighed "Let us hear what Yosuke-senpai has to say."
"Thanks, Naoto," he raised his head, staring at everyone before finally resuming his talk "So, as I was saying... We should do something different this year. Something that does not involve meat, or peeping, or locking ourselves up with Yu."
The idol pouted but stayed quiet and so, Yosuke continued "There isn't much stuff to come up with when it comes to Christmas. So I'm not saying we shouldn't throw a party with everyone like we did last year."
"So what's your suggestion?" Yu spoke up, curious by his partner's words.
"My suggestion is that we throw our party like last year, on the 25th. But you know, what about the 24th? Shouldn't we do something on that day as well? So, since there are eight of us here, why not do something special?"
"I'm not sure I like where this is goin'," Kanji said, not connecting the dots.
"Let's begin, then!" the brunet announced with enthusiasm, laying exactly eight sticks on the table in front of everyone.
"What are those for?" Chie asked, wondering if her friend had loosened too many screws when fighting shadows the year before.
"I suppose," the blue-haired girl started, putting a hand on her chin "Each of us is to pick one of the sticks and we will be separated into pairs."
"As expected from the 'Detective Prince'!" Yosuke grinned, pointing to the sticks "You see how each of them has a number from 1 to 4? So, I'm going to hold them all and hide the numbers. Then, all of you grab one and the last one will be mine."
"But what do the pairs have to do?" Yukiko tilted her head to the side, lost.
"Well, remember the thing about doing something on the 24th? The pairs have to spend the day together."
"W-w-what?!" Kanji started, flustered "Isn't that a day for couples or somethin'?"
"But I don't wanna spend the day with Yosuke!" Teddie whined, against the idea.
"You live with me, you idiot!" he scowled, before regaining composure "And the pairs will have to exchange gifts."
"Spending money on Yosuke sounds so lame..."
"Will you drop that?!" the brunet sighed, grabbing the sticks before adjusting them so that the numbers would be hidden "Okay, who's going to start?"
"Wait a minute!" Chie raised her voice in objection "None of us have agreed to it yet! Right, Yukiko?"
"Um?" said girl turned to her, blinking in confusion "I'm fine with it."
"You are?!"
"Yeah, we're all friends. And I think that exchanging gifts sounds really fun."
Chie sighed – Yukiko loved Christmas, after all. Except from Kanji, who seemed embarrassed and... redder? The only one who could probably help her with the situation was the one person who seemed to have arguments for everything.
"Naoto-kun, tell them why it's a bad idea!" she pleaded, looking the girl in the eyes.
The detective adjusted her hat and, again putting her hand on her chin, seemed to be considering the pros and cons of the game they were about to play.
"Chie-senpai, I am afraid I cannot find many motives for us not to agree with Yosuke-senpai's idea," she said calmly, a small smile gracing her features "We should all enjoy whoever's company we end up with."
"Not you too!" the brunette hung her head, sighing in defeat.
"Haha, alright!" Yosuke gave a carefree laughter, happy with how the situation was turning out "Rise, why don't you start?"
"Alright!" she jumped out of her sit, reaching out a hand across the table to take one of the sticks "I'll get to spend the whole day with Senpai!"
Yu sweatdropped before grabbing one for him as well, and everyone proceeded to do the same.
"Okay," the Junes child sat back down "Now everyone, show which you got."
As each of the Investigation Team members held out their sticks and looked for their one-day pairing, reactions soon exploded.
"What?!" the idol frowned at her own stick "I got Teddie? Who got Senpai?!"
Yosuke blinked "Oh, it looks like I did."
"You what?!" she got up in a jump, pointing her stick accusingly at the brunet "After telling me no one would get locked up with Senpai, you get him yourself?!"
"Hey, I'm not getting locked up with Yu!" he noticed people staring at their table and decided to lower his tone "We're just spending the day together, like actual normal people."
He had emphasized the 'normal' in his sentence, making Yu suppress a laugh.
"But don't worry, Rise-chan! Teddie will be all yours for a whoooooole day!" he smiled at her but she just looked away, upset, before sitting back down.
"Oh well," she sighed "I hope we have a good time, Teddie. But you'd better buy me something amazing, got it?"
"I'll get you the bear-y best present you could never even think of!" he nodded, as if she was saying the obvious.
"I got Yukiko," Chie announced soon after the little scene, sounding relieved "Maybe we could go to some different place? Like Okina or something?"
"Oh, that sounds nice!" the dark-haired girl smiled at her best friend, already excited "We could also spend the night at the inn afterwards. Have some quality girl time."
"Heeeeeh?!" Teddie's eyes widened as he heard her words, his hand reaching out to Chie's side "Here, let's switch, I wanna spend the day with Yuki-chan!"
"Hey!" Rise smacked his arm, offended.
The short-haired brunette simply refused his offer as the idol proceeded to chew the bear out for what he had done.
"Wait," she suddenly stopped, turning to the other side of the table "Doesn't that mean..."
Kanji was looking away, trying to cover his face as much as possible as the detective sitting next to him wore a confused expression.
"Really, Kanji got Naoto?" Yosuke smirked, obviously amused "Talk about luck."
"That aside, Kanji-kun looks unwell," the blue-haired girl kept trying to catch a glimpse of his face, without luck "I don't think staying out here in this weather is doing him good."
"I... Don't think it has anything to do with that," the brunet commented, getting only an arched eyebrow as response.
"But I also think we've stayed out here for too long," Yu started "And we have school tomorrow. I think we should go home."
"I-I agree with Senpai," Kanji managed to say.
"Sure you do," Yosuke rolled his eyes but nodded "You're right, partner. Besides, tomorrow is your first day. Back to being a transfer student, huh?"
"Speaking of that," Chie jumped in, frowning "It's quite a weird period for students to transfer, isn't it? I mean, it's already December and you're a third year."
"That's true," Rise spoke up, a little too quiet for her "You guys are graduating soon."
"Why don't we... Not talk about that," the Amagi heir replied, concerned "We still have a few months, and most of us are going to stick around anyway."
Yu nodded in agreement, happy to hear it.
"So," Naoto got up calmly, a small smile on her face "Shall we go?"
A/N: Hi, hi! Did you guys miss me? Ah, you probably don't even know me. Oh well.
After a few years obsessing over the Persona franchise - especially Persona 4 - I finally decided to write a thing! It's not Christmas season yet but if I wait for it, next year's February-me will facepalm at some point the time she remembers about a certain fanfic story she intended to write.
This won't be a very long story but it will feature a bunch of pairings, especially one that was not in any way mentioned in this chapter.
I hope you will stick around to see how this unfolds and give me opinions, will you? See ya soon!