[Author's notes: Written by me, for me, for my birthday. At least it's something clean this year :)

A Yu Narukami version is available at Dreamwidth at the following address:
angevon dot dreamwidth dot org/49413 dot html
Every 'dot' should be a '.'

Please enjoy!]

Yosuke sat down at the low table by the TV in the Dojima residence's living room. "So what did you need me for, partner?" he asked.

Souji leaned closer to him at the table as if imparting a great secret. "I want to work out a new magic trick for Nanako," he whispered.

"A magic trick?" Yosuke said, not lowering his voice in the least. "Have you tried the one where you pretend to take off her nose?"

"I already did that with my thumb," Souji said. He took out a circular stone pendant attached to a string and placed it conspicuously on the table. "But I want to try something a little more involved."

"Yeah?"

Souji picked up the pendant by the string. He poked it with a finger and it twirled in place. "I want to try hypnosis," he said in a dead serious tone. "I think it would be fun."

"Uh... What?"

"I'd like to hypnotize you," Souji further explained, "if that's all right. Not for long, just to show her that it works."

"I mean, you can try, but..." Yosuke's frown betrayed his doubt. Then he glanced around the room, noticing a distinct lack of audience. "Besides, Nanako-chan isn't even home right now. Why are you being so secretive about it?"

"I want to make sure it works first. Not everyone is susceptible to the power of suggestion."

Pretty sure I'm not, Yosuke thought, and you didn't answer my question. Instead, he said, "Well, if it does work, what would you make me do? Nothing too embarrassing, I hope!"

Souji smiled for a second. "Probably just ask you to sing the Junes theme. She'd love that."

"Oh come on," Yosuke complained. "You can come up with something cooler than that."

"Okay then..." Souji paused, thinking. "Sing the Junes theme while holding your nose closed."

"That's not cooler!"

Souji blinked at him. "Sing it backwards?"

"Even less cool, dude." Yosuke shook his head, but he was smiling. Souji was such a dork, and there was something endearing about it. "You know, if she wants me to sing it that bad, just ask. You don't need to hypnotize me to make it happen."

"I won't make you do anything when you're hypnotized," Souji said. "I'll suggest it. Do you know how hypnosis works? It's actually self-hypnosis, because you have to be willing to let it happen. And the whole time, you're still there and still in control. All it does is quiet your conscious mind—this is called 'reduced peripheral awareness'—to let your unconscious mind come forward. As a result, you'll have an enhanced capacity to respond to suggestion, but because you're still there, you won't do anything against your own morals."

Yosuke opened and closed his mouth, a frown on his face. "Did you just infodump?"

"Y-yeah," Souji admitted. "I read all that in a book."

"Sounds about right, you nerd. But, eh." Yosuke shrugged. He was down for anything if he could spend more time with his best friend. "I trust you, so go ahead and work your magic. Besides, if it doesn't work, I'm a pretty good actor. We can always pretend it works for Nanako-chan."

Souji held the pendant up between them. Yosuke watched it. He waited, but Souji didn't swing it.

"Aren't you supposed to tell me that I'm getting sleepy?" he asked after a moment. "Verrrry sleepy?"

"We have to relax first," Souji said. "Breathe. In... and out... in... and out..."

Yosuke nodded and did as he was told. He could hear Souji following his own instructions too.

After a minute or two of these breathing exercises, Souji began to swing the pendant. "Watch it," he said. "Focus... and breathe... and relax. Just keep breathing, and keep watching... We're surrounded by a big, fluffy cloud... It's soft..."

"A fluffy cloud? What, like your hair?"

Souji shushed him. His dull voice droned on, telling Yosuke to relax both his mind and his muscles and to allow himself to be enveloped by the cloud of fleece. After a few minutes, Yosuke yawned. Though he felt relaxed, he didn't feel all that focused. He felt more sleepy than anything. At some point, Souji stopped speaking and let out a soft sigh. Yosuke endured one more minute before saying, "This is kinda boring, partner."

Souji didn't answer. Yosuke risked a glance away from the pendant and found that his eyes were closed.

Slowly, Yosuke reached out and stopped the swaying pendant. Souji didn't appear to notice.

"Uh, Souji?" Yosuke asked.

He heard some slow, deep breaths before Souji finally said, "Yeah...?" His voice was even softer than normal.

"Are you all right?"

"Yeah..."

"You sure?"

Souji breathed in deeply. "I feel..." – he sighed – "totally relaxed..."

"Uhh," said Yosuke. "I think you might've hypnotized yourself."

"Oh..."

"When you called it self-hypnosis, I didn't think you meant it literally!" Yosuke chuckled, then frowned. "Uh, do you want me to wake you?" He wasn't exactly sure how to do that, or even if he should. It wasn't like sleepwalking where it was dangerous, was it?

Souji took so long to answer that Yosuke almost suspected he'd fallen asleep. His arm was still holding up the pendant on its string, however. No one could sleep like that. "It's all good..."

"Yeah," Yosuke said, "but aren't you more, how'd you put it? Susceptible to suggestion. I mean, I could tell you to sing and dance or something."

"It's all good..."

"Well, if you say so! Besides, you're still in control, right? You won't do anything you don't want to."

"Mm..."

"Anyway my first suggestion is that you put your arm down. That thing isn't even swinging anymore, dude."

After a moment, Souji let the arm holding the pendant fall to the table. Despite the loud thunk as it hit, Yosuke felt a sense of relief—that position couldn't have been comfortable—and he could only imagine Souji felt better too.

See? Yosuke was a good partner, just looking out for his friend.

But now what? If Souji didn't wanna wake up, well... Maybe Yosuke could have a little bit of harmless fun with him. He'd said it was all good, so he might as well test his limits.

"Hey, Souji, think you can hold up a couple of fingers?"

After a short delay, Souji lifted two fingers in a stilted and mechanical way.

"Cool, cool," said Yosuke. "Now stick out your tongue."

Still holding up his fingers, Souji stuck his tongue out.

"Now put your fingers in your mouth."

Souji put the two fingers on top of his tongue, then sealed his lips around them. Since his eyes were closed too, the effect was way more suggestive than Yosuke had intended.

"Ah dude," Yosuke said, his face warming up, "definitely stop!"

"Hmm?" Souji mumbled through his fingers. And that was worse, because Yosuke could see the shine of his spit on his fingers, evoking an even dirtier image.

"Whoa, I am so sorry I asked for that," Yosuke said emphatically. "You can put your fingers away now, geez."

A small frown marred Souji's resting face. "Sorry...?"

Yosuke forced a laugh. "N-nevermind, it's nothing. Uh, how about you, uh" – he scoured his mind for a more innocent idea – "sing the Junes theme?"

Souji did as he was told, though he was more than a little off-key. Yosuke was satisfied anyway. If Nanako-chan was here she'd be so proud of her big bro.

Yosuke cupped his chin, debating on making him sing it backward, but decided there were way cooler—but still innocent—things he could ask him to do.

"Souji," he said slowly. "I think right now... you wanna do the Macarena!"

He waited. Souji didn't do anything.

"Aww, come on," he pleaded. "The Macarena. You know..." He gestured, though Souji's eyes were still closed. "Heyyyyy, Macarena!'

"I don't know what that is," Souji admitted.

Yosuke gasped at the very thought. "It's a dance! It came out the year before I was born. I guess it is kind of foreign... "

"My body feels a bit heavy to dance," Souji said.

"No it doesn't," Yosuke said firmly. "You feel as energetic as Ted with a Topsicle. Okay, maybe not that energetic, but at least enough to indulge me."

Souji straightened from the slouch he'd been sitting in. Yosuke supposed that was a good sign.

"Yeah!" Yosuke said. "And you definitely have the urge to dance to some Kpop!" He began to pull up a song on his phone, but before he could, Souji was already moving.

"Yeah..." Souji breathed. "I'm hearing the music right now..."

"Huh?"

Souji stood up and pressed his palms against his chest, like he was holding something close to his body. Slowly he turned his head disdainfully to the side. Then his body began to twitch.

That's not any dance I know, Yosuke thought. But as he watched, the pieces came together. Souji brought a hand up to his face and ran his fingers against the hem of an imaginary hood. He flipped back a cloak that he wasn't wearing once, twice, three, no, four times, and...

"Bam ratatata ratatatata," Souji sang, raising his arm and moving his hips far more provocatively than Yosuke had ever expected to see. Yosuke could not look away as he fluidly performed several suggestive moves from a recently-popular music video.

"Oh my god," Yosuke said when he was done.

"I am the best," Souji replied in an absolutely normal voice.

Blushing, Yosuke said, "N-no more dancing!" in a high voice. The image of Souji slapping his butt and then caressing his sides was burned into his mind. "I think, uh, maybe you wanna uh... Damn, how do you even know that song? Let alone the music video!"

"Rise loves 2NE1," Souji said. "And so does Nanako."

"...huh," Yosuke said.

"Rise might've introduced it to her."

Though it was quiet after that, the song kept playing in Yosuke's head. He wondered if Souji knew Girls' Generation...

Shaking his head, he fought hard to think of something less... exciting... to have Souji do. He recalled stories of stage hypnotists making people think they were chickens or forgetting their own name, but none of that seemed appealing. Besides, he wasn't sure how permanent any of that was. What if Souji never remembered his name after waking up? What if Yosuke had to give him a name? Oh god, he might accidentally name him "Partner." Or worse, "Dude."

Even if that happened, Souji probably wouldn't mind. He had more chill than a Topsicle in a snowdrift. Heck, just how calmly he was taking this hypnosis thing was weird enough. If anyone'd tried to make Yosuke do the Macarena, he'd simply cross his arms and refuse.

"Oh, uh, you can sit down now," Yosuke said, since Souji was standing there awkwardly without direction. Maybe he could ask him to cook something. No, bad idea. They'd already eaten earlier at school, and who knew if Souji's subconscious could work a stove. Better not risk it.

Oh, but if Souji's inhibitions were lowered, maybe Yosuke could use this to get to know him better! Souji was always so closed off, rarely talking about himself even when asked. This could be the perfect chance to learn all the juicy details of his past.

"Say, partner... What were you like as a kid?" Yosuke asked. "I bet you were a good boy. Teacher's pet."

"Hmm, well..." Souji said. "You might lose that bet."

Yosuke blinked rapidly. "Don't tell me you were once a punk like Kanji!" He tried to imagine the hair of Souji's bowl cut bleached and spiked up and failed.

"Not exactly... but I went through a truancy phase when I was 10."

Yosuke leaned closer, interested. "Really? Why?"

"A pre-teen rebellion, I guess..." Souji sighed, and Yosuke couldn't tell if it was from the hypnosis or something else. "We'd just moved, and I had a hard time connecting with people, to the point where I didn't even want to try..."

"I wanted to skip class sometimes when I was a little kid too," Yosuke said, "but my mom only let me when I was sick. Honestly, she would've kicked my butt if she found me skipping. I don't think I ever thought to try."

Souji was smiling faintly. "My mom wasn't there to stop me."

"What'd you do when you skipped?"

Souji let out another sigh. "Stayed home and ate a lot of ice cream..."

"Wow," Yosuke said in a teasing tone. "You were such a bad boy. I don't know if we can be friends."

There was an expectant pause. Then Souji murmured, "Please be my friend..."

"H-hey, don't sound so sad!" Yosuke patted Souji's arm across the table. "I was kidding. Besides, we're not just friends, we're partners. That distinction is important, you know?"

The corners of Souji's lips turned up. Combined with the way his eyes were still closed, it looked precious. "...Yeah..."

"So?" Yosuke asked eagerly. "What made you stop skipping?"

"Oh, I got lonely..."

"All that ice cream and no one to share it with. I gotcha."

"Mm..."

"You know, when I'm alone, I'm fine as long as I have my music," Yosuke said. "At least until the batteries die. But I guess that means you like living here, right? You have Nanako-chan to keep you company every day."

"And you... have Teddie."

Yosuke snorted. "Yeah, no. You can have him. Hey, you want me to send him here? You'll soon find out that three's company."

Souji was laughing softly. It was a nice little sound, somewhere between a 'hah' and a 'heh.'

"I'm kidding, anyway," Yosuke said. "Having Ted around at home does make life interesting. Sometimes too interesting. One night he spent his entire paycheck on bath bombs and put them all into the bath at once. You can imagine the mess."

"Fizzy..." Souji murmured, imagining it, just like he was told.

"They were all different colors, and you know, the final mix was some ugly brown."

"Like a ramen soup."

"Nah, more like mud. The water was gritty, too. But Teddie got a ton of toys from it. Maybe I can get him to bring some to Nanako-chan. Heck, she can have them all. Get them off the floor so I won't step on them anymore."

"Mm... I'm sure she'd like that. She does like Teddie..."

"Speaking of like," Yosuke said, brilliantly seguing into his next overly-personal question. "Who do you like, partner?"

"I like you," Souji said, with very little hesitation.

Yosuke laughed in surprise. "N-no, I mean—"

"I like you," Souji said again. "That's why... I asked you to come here today."

Yosuke laughed again, more nervously. He couldn't mean that, but if he did... Yosuke wiped his forehead and wished he could open a window to cool down. "Yeah, sure... Well, I appreciate the vote of confidence. That of all our friends, you thought I'd be the one most willing to be hypnotized. You should've brought Rise over. She'd be down for it."

Souji released a long sigh. "Rise... would've just pretended the whole time."

"True, she is a bit of an actress. Oh man, if she was here right now, with you hypnotized like this... I don't wanna imagine what she'd be asking you do to."

"Mmhmm... she'd be asking me who my first kiss was..."

Yosuke scratched the back of his neck and glanced away as if that hadn't been a question on his list. His curiosity was burning more than his face now. Souji kissing anyone was too much to think about. "She'd be asking you to kiss her," he muttered.

"She could ask," Souji said, "but... hmm... I think that's against my morals."

"No kissing while hypnotized, huh? Yeah, I guess that wouldn't be fun. They say that when you wake up, everything feels like it was just a dream. You wouldn't want to have just dreamed that."

"Hmm," Souji said, but he didn't elaborate.

Rise really would ask for a kiss, Yosuke thought. He petulantly kicked his foot under the table and accidentally hit Souji, who didn't seem to care. A kiss from Souji. Yosuke wondered what kind of kisser he was, did he prefer to use his tongue or lips...

"Ow," Souji said, rather belatedly.

Yosuke was grateful for the interruption from his thoughts anyway. "Sorry, my legs are totally cramping up here." He got up and stretched his arms with a big yawn. "Yo, do you think you could climb the stairs like this? Let's chill in your room."

"Sure..."

Souji finally opened his heavy eyes to get up and follow Yosuke up the stairs. His room was about the same as it'd been last time Yosuke had been there. Additions appeared to be some books on the dresser and a big Jack Frost doll on the model shelf.

Seeing the neatly folded futon in the corner gave Yosuke his next idea. "Why don't you show me your stash?" he asked. "You gotta keep it somewhere!"

"My stash," Souji repeated. "Hmm..."

Yosuke almost squealed in delight when Souji moved to his desk and pulled down a stack of books from the top shelf.

"Wow, they were right there in plain sight this whole time?" Yosuke shook his head. "You are one brave dude."

Souji handed him the stack.

"Oh, uh, should I be touching these?" Yosuke chuckled but accepted them anyway.

He flipped through the stack and read through the titles:
Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road, and 501 More Side-splitting Jokes.
Who's there? And Other Knockers.
A Peck of Pickled Peppers: Tongue Twisters and Beyond.

"Umm," Yosuke said, drawing out his hesitancy. "This isn't the stash I meant. Your, um, you know! Your other stash."

A moment later, Souji nodded and opened the cabinet under the TV stand. He pulled out a shoebox and handed it to Yosuke, who shook it gently. It jangled with the sound of plastic hitting plastic.

"Ohhhh DVDs?" Yosuke remarked as he opening up the box. "This is way better than magazines. I knew I could count on you!" He frowned at the title in katakana on the cover. "Gi... lli...gan's... Isl...and? What? It's English. I can't pronounce this."

"Just sit right back," Souji sang softly in English, "And you'll hear a tale.
A tale of a fateful trip..."

"I told you earlier, no more singing!"

"Five passengers set sail that day, for a three hour tour, (a three hour tour...)"

Yosuke put the box back where it came from. "I'm not even going to ask why you have a stash of old American sit-coms."

Though, to be fair, Yosuke thought, Souji had never made fun of him for his taste in Western music. It would have to be their little secret.

"Ugh," he said. He waved his arms. "Not that stash, either! Your dirty stash!"

Souji produced a square box from under the low table. It was lined by a plastic bag. He held it out to Yosuke, who eyed it with suspicion. Knowing already that he'd regret this, Yosuke put his hand in the box. When plastic crinkled around his hand, he made a face and immediately pulled his hand out. Then he peered inside and found that it was just a bunch of candy wrappers.

"By 'dirty' I didn't mean trash... Oh, forget it." Yosuke dropped onto the couch, defeated.

He drummed his fingers on the couch's arm. He was running out of things to ask Souji to do.

For his part, Souji was still standing there, holding the trash box. Yosuke told him to put it away and have a seat. When Souji sat next to him, his hand landed heavily on Yosuke's.

"Uh, dude," Yosuke said, beginning to pull his hand away, but then Souji squeezed his hand just enough to make him stop.

There was a lapse of silence where they just kind of sat like that. Yosuke's trapped hand began to sweat.

"Uh, yeah?" Yosuke finally prompted.

"Thanks for coming over..." Souji said. He squeezed the hand again. "This was fun."

"Yeah, it was," Yosuke said.

"I'm glad it worked... but I don't think I can use hypnotism with Nanako."

"It's too risky," Yosuke agreed. "Who knows what she'd ask you to do."

"She'd probably tell me to get some sleep."

"She's a good kid."

"Mmhmm..."

Another silence followed. Yosuke looked at Souji, who wore a contented smile. With his eyes half-lidded, he looked perfectly at peace. Then he glanced at their hands, still touching.

"Hey, Souji..." Yosuke said softly. "When you said you liked me, uh..."

"Yeah," Souji said. "I like you."

"J-j-just curious, but is... kissing... me... against your morals?"

Not a second later Souji was leaning towards him with a dreamy look. Startled, Yosuke tried to back away, but was already against the couch, and then Souji's thin lips were pressed against his.

Oh, thought Yosuke.

Souji pulled away just an inch, Yosuke felt his breath on his neck, and then Souji kissed him again, and again, and—

"Stop," Yosuke said. Immediately Souji tried to draw away, but Yosuke grabbed his shoulder and held him still. "No, I mean, it's good, it's good! But. You should be awake for this."

Souji stared at him, then grinned. "I'm awake."

"N-no, I mean, not hypnotized."

"I'm not. I haven't been, since you kicked me."

"Oh," said Yosuke. Then he scowled. "You mean all that stuff with your stash, you were just screwing with me?"

Souji began to laugh, a soft chuckle that ended in a big blushy smile. Yosuke wanted to wipe the smile off his face. He grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him back into another kiss. Souji's surprise faded quickly and soon Yosuke learned what kind of kisser his partner was.

"I like you," Souji said when they were through.

"Y-yeah," Yosuke said, his head spinning. "Me too. I mean. I like you too, not that I like me, uh, I mean..."

Souji kissed him again. "Do you think..."

"Yeah?" Yosuke asked eagerly.

"You can watch Gilligan's Island with me? Nanako wouldn't..."

"Uhh... yeah...?"

Yosuke couldn't help but feel a little disappointed, but before long he discovered it was just an excuse to keep him there on the couch with him. The show became simple background noise as they gave each other most of their attention, discussing quietly between kisses what they wanted from each other. After this, Yosuke would have to redefine the meaning of the word "partner."

In any event, the tour lasted more than three hours.