A/N Welcome to my first Persona fanfiction story! This story is set in the summer after the events of P4 and P4Arena, and is told entirely in Naoto's POV. I apologize if anyone is OOC. In this story you will encounter Naoto using both -senpai and -san as honorifics for Yu, Yosuke, Chie, and Yukiko. This is because, in the game dialogue, she seems to use them interchangeably. I'm hoping to update this sometime this week or this weekend. This has references to Persona 4 Golden but is based off of Persona 4 because I haven't Golden yet and I suck at writing Marie, sorry to disappoint.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Persona series, SMT, Persona 4, any of the characters, and blah blah blah, legal jargon.
We sat out on the beach at night. It was August the 12th of the year 2012. My senpai arranged this trip to celebrate their last summer break before they graduate. It was also to welcome back Yu-senpai – Yu Narukami, that is – one of my dear friends and the former leader of the Investigation Team and the Seekers of Truth. We also brought Senpai's uncle and cousin, Ryotaro and Nanako Dojima, with us. Dojima-san had left to take Nanako back to the place which we were staying, as it was getting late. Now, only our friends remained.
Something that fascinates me about our group is that we are all so different, yet we can somehow get along. And over the past year that I've known them all, they have not changed. I observed everyone carefully as we all sat around the campfire on the beach. As I did so, I noted my friends' behaviors and actions. Yosuke-san and Teddie seemed to be having an animated conversation with Yu-san, most likely about the school he attends now, with Yosuke-san rolling his eyes at what I assumed were bear puns from Teddie. Chie-san and Yukiko-san were sitting together and talking. Apparently, Chie-san must have said something Yukiko-san believed to be humorous, because she erupted into a fit of laughter. Rise-san seemed to be teasing Kanji-kun about something that I couldn't quite make out. His face turned red at whatever she said and she laughed, clinging to Senpai's arm (which, for some reason, angered me slightly). And I sat there, quietly and observed everything, just as a detective is trained to do. That was, of course until Yosuke-san called me out.
"Yo, Naoto-kun", he said, causing everyone to stop what they were doing and listen, "What are you sitting there all quiet for?"
"O-Oh…Yosuke-senpai, I-I…" I trailed off, embarrassed at being called out. I could feel my face getting hot and I knew I must have been red as a tomato.
Yu-senpai then whispered to me, "Calm down, Naoto. You don't have to say anything if you don't want to," before promptly turning to Yosuke-senpai and saying, "Yosuke, why did you call Naoto out like that? She's still trying to get used to social situations. You should know that, and yet you still did it." Even though his voice was calm, he still projected enough authority to make Yosuke-san cringe away, like a child being scolded. Even though Senpai did not pinpoint the exact reason why I was not talking, I still appreciated it. Or maybe he did know, but made an excuse to save me more embarrassment. If that is the case, his voice did not betray it. Of course, Senpai always has been a good liar. He then discreetly winked at me, confirming my suspicions. Even still, it made my face flush red.
"S-Sorry, Naoto-kun…" Yosuke-san stuttered an apology. But then, he had that look on his face that he only got when he had an idea. Most of the time, they were bad ideas, so I felt worried. "Hey, I have an idea!" I knew it… "We're on the beach, sitting around the campfire. So why don't we tell some scary stories to liven things up a bit?" Oh, boy… "Come on, it'll be fun." His voice was like that of an excited child, and his eyes portrayed more enthusiasm than I've seen in a long time. Still, this was a bad idea.
Chie-san, almost as though she read my mind, said, "U-Uh, I don't think that's such a good idea. I-I mean I'm all down f-for scary stories and stuff, but…hehe…uh," laughed nervously and thought for a minute, "I don't think Rise-chan and Naoto-kun would like it too much…yeah, that's it." One could clearly tell she was lying, especially if one had known Chie-senpai for some time.
"Come on, Chie. It'll be fun." Surprisingly, Yukiko-senpai was just as excited about this as Yosuke-senpai. Well, I suppose it is not too surprising if one were to factor in the scary story incident at the lodge during our ski trip in February.
"Uh-uh, count me out." Rise-san said. I found that quite odd. I would think from knowing Rise-san that she would take this as another opportunity to cling even more to Yu-senpai out of 'fear'. "I don't want to have nightmares. I'll lose sleep from that." Of course, it seems that Rise-san is concerned about what most girls would call 'beauty sleep'.
"I-I'm out, too." Chie-senpai stammered. "Things didn't go well the last time; they won't go any better this time."
"Well that's two down…" Yosuke-senpai sighed as the two left.
"What about you, Naoto?" Yu-senpai asked me, "You don't have to stay if you don't want to." I hate when he does that. It feels like he's talking down to me. I mustered up all my courage, looked him in the eyes with a cold look that only he could see, and said in an even voice, "I'm not leaving. I will stay here and participate. After all, this is the last summer we will all spend together before you graduate." I don't think my lie convinced him. Nevertheless, he nodded and looked away.
"Wow, Nao-chan! You're really red!" I pulled my signature hat down, trying to cover my face from the prying eyes of my friends. "Shut up, Ted. You're gonna scare Naoto-kun off. We need to wait for the scary stories to do that." The way Yosuke-senpai said 'scary stories' implied that he was trying to frighten me. However, a change in someone's voice is not enough to make me run away in horror.
"Okay," Yu- senpai said, looking at all of us with a grin on his face that sent a chill down my spine, "Who wants to go first?"
A/N AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH THE CLIFFHANGERS! THEY BUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRNNNN! Kidding aside, how was it for a first chapter? You may have noticed a lot of mentions of Yu x Naoto. That's because I ship them ridiculously. They're so cute together. Also, Naoto getting jealous of Rise's advances on Yu? I may go more into that in another story. Yosuke played a bigger part in this chapter than I had expected. But that's okay, 'cause Yosuke's a bro. Please Review and leave me any comments or critiques on how to make the story better. Also TELL ME WHO YOU WANT TO TELL A HORROR STORY FIRST. IT CANNOT BE NAOTO at least not yet. As always, thanks for checking out my story. Arigatou Gozaimasu