New Year´s Eve Special
Annotations: This story is situated in my fanfiction `Persona 4: The Answer´ so it will have a few minor spoilers that aren´t too huge, though.
It was snowing in the usually snowless Tokyo. While little children were throwing snowballs at each other and laughing in happiness on the streets, Yosuke, arms full with bags full of all sorts of food and alcoholic drinks, just wanted to return to his lounge, lie down in his bed and warm up a bit.
"Achoooo!", he sneezed for about the hundreth time. "Seriously! Why do they always let me do the dirty work!?"
"Aw, but I think it´s kind of nice to wander around the streets together.", Ikas said, leaning agains him and looking up at him happily. "So romantic..."
Yosuke returned her smile and leaned down to kiss her, but screamed in horror when he´d almost managed to smash the bottles of alcohol.
"Oh shit! If those had fallen down, Fatonaka would seriously have kicked my ass!", Yosuke groaned.
Ikas sighed. "Do you always have to fight with Chie-san?"
"She´s the one who always starts it!", Yosuke protested.
Ikas giggled. "Oh, Hana-chan..."
`I always wanted to tell Hana-chan...´, a voice resounded in Yosuke´s memories. `... that he was a real pain in the ass!´ Yosuke stared at Ikas in discomfort, not liking pet name in the least.
"Hana-chan?", Ikas asked, slightly confused.
"I...", Yosuke started, then shook his head. "No, it´s nothing... I... I just had a strange dream..."
"While walking?", Ikas asked, puzzled.
"Oh, you know me! I can sleep everwhere if I want to!", Yosuke joked and continued walking back to Tanaba University together with his girlfriend.
"Hmm...", Yukiko looked down in concentration before her, having chosen to think about the greates question of this evening: Using blue tinsel or red tinsel?
"Just mix them!", Chie said, annoyed, from her seat - Kou´s lap.
"No, no, that won´t do!", Yukiko said, sounding as if the world´s continued survival would depend on her choice.
Meanwhile Teddie had to tend to an important task as well.
"A little bit to the left! No, not THAT far! A little bit further up! Y-- No! Oh, you´re useless!", Rise snapped, having sentenced the poor Shadow to adjust the TV´s antenna.
"But... But... I... I... SENSEIIII!!!", Teddie whined, completely overstrained, and jumped behind Souji who was currently playing cards with Nanako and Jack Frost.
"Royal Flush!", Nanako shouted, overjoyed.
Aww!", Souji said in fake misery.
"Sensei! Sensei! Rise´s mean to me!", Teddie continued whining.
"I am not, you tattletale!", Rise snarled.
"Oooh, let mommy comfort you!", Kashiwagi who had just entered Mr. Bagman´s office where they were all gathered cooed, followed by an annoyed Dojima - had Kashiwagi tried to grope him again? -, Akihiko and Fuuka.
"Waaah!", Teddie screeched and jumped behind a startled Yukiko.
"Okay, the fireworks are all ready and set.", Akihiko said and sat down in Mr. Bagman´s old chair.
"And the sparkling wine´s all set as well!", Kashiwagi announced from one of the corners, one of the bottles in her hand and nearly empty.
"Shirogane and Tasumi are taking care of a few more details, then they´ll be us as well.", Akihiko continued patiently as if Kashiwagi had never interrupted him.
"But... weren´t Yosuke-kun and Ikas-chan supposed to buy food and alcohol?", Yukiko asked, puzzled.
"Oh, but you can never have enough alcohol on such festivities, my dear.", Kashiwagi said and sat beside Nanako who was still laughing triumphantly.
"Want to play again, Big Bro?", she asked.
"Oh! No, please don´t! My pride´s hurt so badly already! I just can´t bear to lose again!", Souji said, still talking in that fake voice, and sat beside Kou who was once again in dream land whenever Chie was near him.
"Oh...", Nanako said, still not satisfied after having won dozens of time, and looked at Kashiwagi expectantly. "Do you want to play cards with me, Noriko?"
"Ooooh, of course I´m going to play Strip Poker with you!", Kashiwagi chuckled.
"DON´T YOU DARE!!", Dojima barked.
"Okay, I´ll leave that for later this night, Ryo! Kukuku~!", Kashiwagi giggled, once again lost in her dream world where Dojima and her were the perfect couple.
The slightly unnerved voice of Naoto could be heard from the hallway. "And I´m telling you again, Kanji: Your help had not be needed when I had climbed the ladder a few minutes ago. If you´re going to keep continuing to disobey my orders, you´ll have to start searching for another girlfriend soon."
"But I...", Kanji´s protesting voice could be heard, but he stopped, probably because Naoto had thrown one of her patented deathglares at him.
"The fireworks are now all set as written in the manual. I´ve checked them personally.", Naoto announced, entering the office seconds later with Kanji, hurriedly snatching her hand away from Kanji´s hand, face beet-red.
"So when can start the fireworks now?", Teddie asked, as excited as a little child. Nanako nodded in agreement.
"Nope. Wait until midnight first.", Dojima answered. Teddie and Nanako hung their heads low in disappointment.
"Ugh! Where in the world are Ikas and Dumbsuke!? I´m getting hungry!", Chie grumbled, her stomach growling in agreement.
"Hey! I heard that!", Yosuke snarled from the hallways and entered the office in the next moment.
"Finally!", Chie cheered, jumped up and stormed towards the shopping bags, nearly knocking over Rise in the process who was now adjusting the little antenna herself. "... Hey! Where are the steaks?!", she finally asked while rummaging through the bags´ contents.
"They didn´t have steaks.", Ikas explained.
"What?! NOOOO!!", Chie screamed in horror and sank to the ground, tears in her eyes.
"Well, they had those weird chicken steaks.", Yosuke corrected his girlfriend and showed said chicken steaks to Chie.
"I don´t want chicken stuff! I want real meat!", Chie cried and punched the steaks out of Yosuke´s hand. The steaks flew through the room and whacked Yukiko over the head.
"Ouch!", the black-haired girl groaned and rubbed her head.
"Oh god! Sorry, Yukiko!", Chie apologized and ran to her best friend to see if everything was okay.
The chicken steaks´ package had been torn though when hitting Yukiko´s head, and so the contents - chicken, blood and fat - were now dripping all over the tinsels.
"Oh, sh--", Chie groaned and went some steps away. Yukiko could be scary if she wanted to.
"Hmm...", Yukiko stared at the now dirty tinsel. "Yes, just like I wanted it." And thus she happily climbed the ladder and hung up the dirty tinsel. The other stared at her in disbelief.
The feast had been prepared quickly - by Fuuka, Nanako, Souji, Kanji and Kashiwagi; the other were all banned from the stove to avoid a New Year´s Eve version of Mystery Food X. Kashiwagi had to be restrained a bit though since she tried adding a little bit alcohol to all of the food to `spice things up a bit´ as she had described it.
Finally everyone sat around the huge table and ate their meal with delight - everyone except the still slightly pouting Chie.
"Kanji, could you please refrain from eating like a barbarian.", Naoto pleaded with her boyfriend who was eating chicken drumsticks with his bare hands, his face full of grease. "I´m sure my grandfather won´t be too pleased about your table manners when I introduce you to him the day after tomorrow."
"Hm?", Kanji asked, smacking, too consumed into his food to comprehend what Naoto had just said. But after a few seconds... "WHAT?!", Kanji screeched and spat some of the chicken drumsticks right into Yosuke´s face in his horror.
"Dude!", Yosuke snapped while Ikas giggled and started cleaning his face with a napkin. Chie threw dozens of deathglares at her.
"How?! Where?! I... I mean when the hell did you decide that I go and visit your old man?!", Kanji stammered, eyes huge.
"That decision has been made 13 hours, 27 minutes and 45 seconds ago.", Naoto answered with a look at her wristwatch. "Semester vacations are starting the day after tomorrow after all. It´s the perfect oppurtunity to introduce you to my family."
"But... But...!", Kanji started, but went quietly immediately when Naoto started to look at him threateningly again.
"Do you think your parents are going to accept me?", Ikas asked Yosuke on the other side of the table, slightly worried.
"Of course!", Yosuke said and smiled at her encouragingly. "But there´s also someone else I wanna introduce you to."
"Really?", Ikas asked.
"Yap.", Yosuke said, his gaze turning grim for a second.
"Back home...", Yukiko mumbled and stared at her plate in sadness.
"Oh, come on, Yukiko! I´m sure your parents´ve already forgiven you.", Chie assured her. "But if you want, I can accompany you to the inn."
"O-oh, no, that´s quite alright.", Yukiko declined.
"Aaaaaaand open up reeeeaaaal wide, Senpai!", Rise giggled and shoved some food into the embarrassed looking Souji´s mouth.
"Say `Aaaah´, Jack Frost.", Nanako imitated Rise and shoved some of her food into the grinning snowman´s mouth as well. Dojima threw a worried glance at Kashiwagi who couldn´t see the snowman, but would surely get suspicious if his daughter suddenly started doing something like this. But he didn´t have to worry: Kashiwagi was already fast asleep, head on the table, snoring loudly. Akihiko who had to sit next to her had leaned as far away from that drunktard as possible.
"And you really don´t want to spend the vacation at our house, Aki?", Dojima asked the silver-haired police officer.
"Hm? Oh, no.", Akihiko politely declined and smiled one of his awkward smiles. "There´s still so much to do for me here, uncle Dojima. And I would feel quite uneasy to leave the university unprotected like this. The killer is still running around somewhere around here."
"At least they left us alone during Christmas and New Year´s Eve.", Teddie said, already wolfing down his fifth helping of ice-cream. "Lucky for him or I would have gone in bear-serk mode!"
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Shut your mouth while eating.", Yosuke reprimanded him and whacked him on the head.
"Your just angry, because your banned from all explorations inside the TV world, Yosuke!"
BAM!!!
"OUCH! That really heard, Yosuke!", Teddie whined.
"Hmpf!", Yosuke just looked to the side, offended.
"What are you going to do during the vacation, professor?", Yukiko asked Fuuka.
"Me? Oh, there are still some assignments left that need grading.", Fuuka answered and smiled.
Ikas started shuddering at the mentioning of `assignments´. She still remembered her epic fail she had the last year, causing her to repeat the first year.
"And I think Akihiko, Aigis and the other members of S.E.E.S. are going to meet again a few times to continue searching for Yukari." She questioningly looked at Akihiko who nodded.
"Maybe I can help.", Nanako suggested. "I´m sure me and Jack Frost could find her."
"No, no, you just go and enjoy your free time with your father and your `Big Bro´.", Fuuka said.
"Hmm... Okay.", Nanako pouted and continued feeding the grinning god. "Eat up so you´ll get bigger and stronger to help Big Bro even more." Dojima combed through her hair in a fatherly manner.
"By the way, Senpai.", Naoto suddenly said and looked at Souji. "What happened to the gauze bandages I had given to you?" She blushed slightly. "Some of my relatives only know me wearing those, so it´ll be slightly confusing if I don´t use them to shorten my bustline again."
Yosuke choked on some jelly. "Did you have to mention that?!", he groaned. "My... my innocent eyes had seen everything... EVERYTHING!" His whole body started shaking when he remembered how he lusted after Souji for a while because of the state his best friend had been in. Teddie hadn´t been much help either since he´d started trying to `score´ with Souji as well.
"Oh, I´ve stored them in my nightstand. I´d completely forgotten about them.", Souji calmly answered, ignoring his best friend. "I´ll give them back to you tomorrow.
"Alright.", Naoto said and turned back to Kanji, trying to teach him a few table manners.
"Okay, time for music!", Rise suddenly announced, grabbed the remote and turned on the TV.
"... Through the monsoon!", blared from the loudspeakers.
"Fuck! Turn off that shit!", Kanji snapped at her.
"Sorry, sorry!", Rise giggled and changed channels.
"Can´t ready my, can´t read my, no, he can´t read my Poker Face! She´s go--"
Nearly everyone present glared at the teenie idol who hurriedly turned off the TV.
"No, he can´t read my Poker Face!", Teddie sang enthusiastically until Yosuke whacked him again.
"Okay. After those two horror stars have assured that everyone´s lost their appetite, should we go outside?", Dojima suggested.
"Yes, I think that would be best.", Souji agreed and looked at Kashiwagi. "But what about her?"
Dojima rolled his eyes, sighed and hauled up Kashiwagi, carrying her outside.
"Oooh! *hiccup* No so wild, my hot *hiccup* stallion!", Kashiwagi started babbling in Dojima´s arms.
"10! ... 9! ... 8! ... 7! ... 6! ... 5! ... 4! ... 3! ... 2! ... 1! ... HAPPY NEW YEAR!!", the friends shouted and had a toast.
A pyrotechnical masterwork followed: Dozens of fireworks shot towards the heaven and formed breathtaking symbols like stars and rockets - all thanks to Naoto´s thorough planning. One Constellation though...
"WHAT THE HELL!?", Chie cried, eyes huge, while Dojima shielded his daughter´s eyes with his hands when several fireworks started building a figure that looked like a penis.
"SHIROGANE!! WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS!?!", Dojima snapped at the young detective that was staring at the sky in horror.
"I... I have no i-ide--", Naoto started, stammering.
"Tee hee hee *hiccup*!", Kashiwagi giggled from the corner where she sat, completely drunk, and proudly pointed up at the sky.
"Oh...", Dojima only said.
"That woman´s just sick...", Yosuke grumbled.
The rest of the fireworks were thanfully without any perverted surprises, and the couples - Yosuke and Ikas, Kou and Chie, Kanji and Naoto - all stood together snuggling, while Souji had to suffer through Rise clinging to his arm like she always did and Dojima having to balance the drunktard Kashiwagi. The rest of the group was happily surrounded around the table full of food and alcohol.
`All in all´, Souji thought while returning to his lounge together with Teddie and Kou, while Naoto manouvered a happily drunk Rise back to their lounge, Yosuke and Ikas departed to their lounge, Kanji and Akihiko started heading to their lounge, and Yukiko and Chie went towards their lounge as well. `All in all this party´s been quite a succes...´
The sun was slowly rising when a figure veiled by darkness finally stood up from her seat on the university´s roof and starting walking quietly towards one of the opened windows through which they entered one of the lounges. Smiling, the figure leaned over one of the lounge´s snoring inhabitants.
"You´re next... I´m sorry, but you´re too close to discovering my secret, my dear...", the figure said, regret evident in their voice, before they disappeared into the room´s darkness.
Author´s note: A Happy New Year to everyone!