Triple Quarantine
(FOREWORD: Why have I submitted these in Persona Series and not the Crossover section? I honestly believe these will be noticed more in the Persona section. I am aware there is a crossover section, and if this breaks the rules and risks having these stories taken down or something, I will move them. Sorry if I come off as an idiot here, but I thought I should point this out.)
Have a huge cough as of writing. So I thought; why not have NYJ each have to deal with being ill in the same room since everyone else wants to avoid getting sick? No I don't think I'll call this little fan-trio NYJ. It is once again a friendship fic between Naoto/Yosuke/Joe. I like this little team, but I won't neglect the other characters much longer. I like all of them, they should get some love right?
Don't own Persona or Sonic, Atlus and Sega do respectively.
"I don't get sick. I'm the strongest in the-" His rant was interuptted by a coughing fit before his head smacked the pillow. "Dammit, I shouldn't fall victim to diseases like this. Who invented this anyway?" The hedgehog ranted while shutting his eyes trying in vain to somehow set his cough on fire.
Yosuke grumbled while he laid on the couch opposite, having a towel on his forehead under a blanket. "Dude, why did this happen to us three of all people? First the karoke, then the cake, now this. Is someone trying to tell us something?" He asked to no one in particular as he groaned and tried to bury himself in the blanket.
Another cough filled the room as the third 'victim' made her way back into the room with a tray with three cups on. She had a blanket over her shoulders as she sniffed to herself before putting the tray down on the table and took the light blue cup for herself and sat down on the third chair in the room.
"Made some tea. I read that this sometimes helps with people suffering from illness." The sleuth said before taking a sip and laying down on her chair. The yellow hedgehog slowly took his red cup, groaning as he felt his head throb. "I hope so. I've had enough of this already, and I've been sick for a day."
Yosuke grabbed the remote at his side and pointed it at the TV. "Anyone wanna see what's on?" Naoto and Joe shrugged as he switched the TV on, flicking through the channels. Weather, sports, news, action movies, everything that would be too loud for them to listen to. Yosuke decided to just risk it and put the weather on before turning the volume down enough so they could still hear it at least a little.
"I feel like something else gets added to me the more time passes." Joe groaned as he held a hand up to his forehead. "Cough, headache, sore damn throat..." Naoto sighed. "Complaining will not help our situation."
"Complaining is one of the few luxories we have right now Naoto." The third-year said as he took a sip from his green cup. "At least we don't have to fight or study or anything." Naoto closed her eyes followed with another sigh. "Right now I would rather be doing anything else than be sick and be forced to stay in my apartment because everyone else thinks we are contagious." She said with irritation.
"Well, there is getting comfortable in the blanket." The yellow hedgehog mumbled while trying to wrap more of it around him before opening an eye to give the female detective a small grin. "You didn't mind that back on Port Island." She didn't even blush which was unusual for her considering the comment. She wasn't in the mood possibly. "Problem there is that we need to be asleep for that comfort. And this loves to keep us awake for as long as it possibly can."
Yosuke yawned (or tried to) as they talked about that. "Shame, that's probably the best thing we can do. We don't exactly have much to talk about do we?" Silence filled the room as the other two came to the realisation. Naoto then slowly opened her eyes and turned onto her side so she faced the two guys. "There may be a few things." She gave a little smile as she saw their confused faces. "Yosuke, remember in the club during the murder case I told you my 'life story' so to speak?" The third-year nodded hiding a shudder at the memory of what prompted that whole event.
"Well, I still don't know everything about all of you. There doesn't seem to be a better time as any for bonding." She continued while sitting up slightly. The third-year shook his head slowly while giving a small chuckle (and almost regretted it instantly since it hurt his throat). "You're weird when you're sick Detective."
Naoto rolled her eyes. "I'm serious Hanamura. While we have all been friends for up to two years now, I still don't know what happened with you when you first arrived in Inaba or what happened to you in the city where you previously lived." She then turned to the yellow hedgehog who again coughed and then growled in annoyance which didn't help his throat either. "Same for you hedgehog. You did seem to arrive here only a few months ago, but we don't know much about you. And just you actually. Your friends seemed to like talking about themselves actually."
"Nothing to tell." He replied quickly. Too quickly. Yosuke groaned as he sat up enough so his pillow was higher up on the armrest. "You really wanna choose this time to know about us? What about Souji and the others?" The detective nodded. "As I said, there's no better time. We can't exactly go anywhere. We're stuck here until our health improves. It will be better than laying here and being miserable."
Yosuke closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Well..." He coughed and took a quick swig of his tea before continuing. "Lived in the big city for most of my life. I wasn't exactly like I am now back then, I was pretty reserved actually. Did have a small group of friends growing up, sure. But honestly I just went on in life like it was a machine; just went day by day doing whatever I needed to do in school."
He opened his eyes and sighed sadly. "Before I arrived here I had a similar experience when it came to my love life, or lack thereof." Naoto gave him a concerned look. "Saki." He nodded. "Not the same person of course, but another girl. Met her in my third year in middle school and we seemed to hit it off pretty quickly. It probably wasn't like how I was with Saki, but I felt like I loved her, but she didn't feel the same way. Big suprise huh?" He gave a half-hearted chuckle.
"We did remain friends until she moved away. Actually exchanged letters for a while, then after a few months we just... stopped I guess. This was about halfway through my first year in high school. I acted like it didn't bother me, but I guess it hurt more than I thought it would." He coughed again before groaning. "Nothing else major happened before I moved here. My dad became the manager of Junes and we all know that story. When I first moved here, I was a bit of a loner. I actually hated this place when I first came here."
Naoto and Joe looked at him as he drank some more of his tea and sighed sadly. "Since I was the managers son and it was Junes, I thought everyone would hate me because the store would hurt many other places you know?" He folded his arms and looked down at himself. "Call me selfish I guess. But then there was school, and I had the horrible luck to be stuck in King Moron's class. Though I did meet Yukiko and Chie, so it wasn't all bad." He tried to hide the slight blush on his cheeks when he mentioned Chie, though he didn't hide the small smile that crept up.
"I admit I did try the 'Amagi Challenge' shortly after we first met, but I was another name on the long list of failed attempts." He gave a small chuckle. "Probably for the best, we might not have become the friends we were otherwise. The three of us did talk quite a bit in the short amount of time it was before Souji arrived. And the rest is history." He finished up before taking another sip of his tea.
Naoto looked at Yosuke with a fairly sad face. "I didn't expect you to feel that way when you first came to Inaba Yosuke. Though when it came to Junes, you seemed to care about the other businesses despite you working for the biggest store in the town. That takes some heart." Yosuke just chuckled. "Maybe." They both then turned to the yellow hedgehog who was drinking his tea. "How about you Joe? What happened with you before you ended up in Inaba?" The detective asked him. The hedgehog shrugged again. "Like I said, nothing to tell."
They both looked unconvinced. "You really don't remember anything about your life before you came here? Not even the past few years?" Joe put his cup down and sighed. "Of course I remember that far back. I'm not an idiot." Naoto folded her arms and looked disappointed. "Yosuke told us about him, and he doesn't tell just anyone about his life. I would have thought you would do the same at least for us."
Joe closed his eyes and grit his teeth slightly at the guilt trip being laid on him. "The reason why I say there's nothing to tell, is because there is nothing to tell. I'm the strongest in the universe, I've beaten humans, creatures, alien warriors, robots, androids, magic fighters, demon hunters, hedgehogs, echidnas and even some shadows. There's nothing else to talk about, just have to look towards what will happen next for me."
Yosuke coughed and laid his head back down before turning to face the hedgehog. "But you say you're the 'strongest'. Surely there must be a reason for that? Were your parents fighters or something? Were you born that strong or something? I mean I've heard some people are gentically born with that kind of thing."
The hedgehog's tolerance was much lower when he felt like crap, and it was already being tested with these questions. But that was mostly because...
"I don't know."
He had no idea how to answer them.
Naoto and Yosuke looked at him confused. "What do you mean? Even I remember my parents a little, despite what happened to them when I was very young." The female sleuth said to him, which brought an irritated sigh from him. "I mean exactly what I said. I don't know. I don't remember them. Nor do I remember growing up. All I remember is being the strongest, fast and good looking. And honestly I don't intend to find out why I can't remember anything."
Ignoring the blatant ego talk, Naoto pressed on. "Why not?" Joe closed his eyes while coughing, which almost made him shout in rage but he held it back out of respect. "Because I have a feeling I wouldn't like what I'd find out. Not to mention I'd rather not put my friends though any of it. It takes enough willpower to not let anyone know I can't stand not being comfortable underneath a blanket."
Naoto gave him a soft smile. "You failed at that when you got a hotel room with us." He opened his eyes but didn't say anything, which prompted her to continue. "There's nothing wrong with finding out about your past, regardless of how bad it is. And you couldn't lose your friends over it. We trust you."
Joe turned his head to face them both, both of them smiling at him. Yosuke spoke up. "She's right. Not to mention people aren't gonna judge you about what you do with a blanket. There's far worse you could be embarrassed about." Naoto got a playful smirk on her face and turned to the third year. "Like nurses, yes?"
Yosuke's eyes widened. "S-Shut up about that!" He ducked his head under the covers, having a coughing fit. "At least I'm not too stubborn to admit to Kanji I've got a crush on him!" Naoto blushed furiously at that and then tried to hide under her own blanket. "I-I do not...!" The hedgehog snickered. "Do admit I fall in love too easily though. Suprised I haven't done it with all these girls yet."
Naoto and Yosuke's heads immediately emerged. "W-what?" Naoto said with a slight hint of panic. Joe laughed while also coughing badly. "Calm down, I'm not like that. Besides, humans and anthropomorphic animals don't exactly mix. Not to mention I wouldn't want to budge in on Kanji and Chie so you two have nothing to worry about."
Yosuke and Naoto again blushed heavily before Naoto coughed and took a desperate sip of her tea. "C-Change the subject. Please." Joe laughed. "I don't know, I kinda like the bonding idea now. It's getting pretty interesting."
The third-year grumbled. "God I can't wait to get better. Then I won't have to deal with this again." Naoto sighed sadly. "It seems this wasn't a good idea after all." Silence filled the room for what felt like hours, though it was only minutes. "Sorry, I shouldn't have suggested this. It wasn't fair to put you both on the spot like that, especially considering our health." She laid down on her side and tried to will herself to fall asleep.
Yosuke again spoke up. "I don't know." Naoto looked at him confused. "We did tell you some things. Sure we might not have learned a huge amount of our yellow hedgehog here, but he did tell you a few things. It's a start isn't it?" The detective sighed. "I guess."
Joe turned to face them. "It's not your fault or anything. I just don't talk about my past or anything because I don't know much about it. Not to mention I'm not the best at this kind of thing. Makes me envy the rest of you to be honest." Yosuke gave a small laugh. "We usually spill our guts to Souji, that's probably why." He then looked down at himself briefly in thought.
"Maybe we should open up to eachother more. I mean while it has been two years now, it'd lift a weight off Souji's shoulders to know he isn't the only person we're confortable opening up to. I mean we're all friends right?" Naoto remained silent, biting her lip. "But, Souji listens to us all. We're all different than him. How do you know we won't end up pushing eachother away?"
Yosuke gave a confident grin. "I think today was a good start wasn't it? And we all just take as much time as we need. Social links don't build up overnight do they? Besides, it'll bring us all closer together as a team and as friends. I hardly see a downside to that."
Naoto blinked before giving a small smile. "That's probably one of the smartest things you've said since we've met Yosuke." He gave a small laugh and scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Even I have my moments I guess." Joe drank some of his tea before yawning. "I guess we're lucky we have a genius detective with us then. I doubt we'd come up with this idea ourselves." Naoto shook her head. "It was all of us. If it wasn't for our current health, I honestly don't imagine us having many other opportunities like this."
"Quite a lot does seem to be happening to us three recently doesn't it?" The hedgehog said with a small laugh. "Guess we're our own little team now. Will have to come up with a name and everything." Both Yosuke and Naoto laughed as well as they could without coughing. Joe yawned yet again and stretched a little. "I think I'm gonna try to get some sleep. That might help us after all."
He turned to them both and gave them a smile. "Thanks. You both cheered me up." Yosuke gave him a thumbs-up and wink in return. "Hey, we're friends. We stick together." The hedgehog nodded and shut his eyes while wrapping his blanket around him as much as he could. It was a few minutes before Yosuke spoke again, turning to Naoto.
"Naoto?" She turned her head to look at him. "Hm?"
He gave her a genuine smile. "Thanks for today. You do seem to really care about us don't you. I can honestly say it's a good thing we all met. Probably would have been alone again otherwise." Naoto shook her head and smiled back. "You're never alone Yosuke. I think we all would have become friends somehow. I'm not sure how I admit, but I would honestly like to think so."
Yosuke smiled and yawned himself. "Who knew having a good time made you this tired? I almost hope we don't feel better tomorrow, so we can stay and talk some more." Naoto gave a small laugh. "We'll all talk some more regardless Yosuke. Like you said, we're friends."
He nodded and smiled at Naoto before closing his eyes and waited for sleep to take over him. The detective did the same and gave them both one more smile before closing her eyes.
"We stick together."
God the friendship thing is probably so forced it's revolting. As I'm writing I'm still not feeling well so... this kinda fits? I do really like this little team, I think I've still got some more ideas for them yet. Admittedly when it comes to actually writing them I don't have much of a schedule.
But anyway, I hope you enjoyed this. I know Yosuke has a prequel-manga, but I haven't seen any translations so I had to make his backstory up (And I know it's not very good). And the reason why Joe's backstory comes off as mysterious is because even I don't know what it is. And he's been my character for over 10 years.
Right I'm rambling now, hope you enjoyed reading this. I enjoyed writing it, I think I've got plenty more P4 fics in me yet. See you next fic.