| Chapter Four: I Just Want To See The Boy Happy |


Yosuke mouths something to Yukiko – which she can't quite decipher because it's so quick – and grins at her while he pulls the phone away from his ear and sets it on speaker mode.

She wonders, just for a moment, if anyone would ever be that happy to hear from her.

"Yo, Naoto. Long time, eh?"

Naoto's slow to answer, as if she's hesitating. "I suppose it has. My apologies."

"Stiff as ever, huh?" Yosuke's still smiling, and he waits for an answer. When none comes, he adds, "So – like – what's new?"

The answer comes faster this time. "I've been taking on work, mostly. After my Inaba case I took a short break of sorts, but I've resumed as of late. I'm going over casework as we speak."

Yukiko supposes she could have guessed as much, but she's not quite sure why she's stuck on the way Naoto says Inaba case.

"And yourself? How are Ichika and the kids?"

She gives Yosuke a questioning look, and he returns it, spares Naoto a glance – even if he's still too busy with the kumiki – and looks back at the phone incredulously. "Wh - ? I know you're an ace detective and all, but how'd you know about the kid? And who's Ichika?"

Naoto, for her part, doesn't seem too fazed. "Ichikia? Your wife, Ichika. I've met her, when you invited me for dinner. Two years ago, was it? A 'long time', as you put it. Have she and your children been well?"

Yukiko feels thoroughly confused – even more so than when Naoto explains any of those detective things she hardly talks about but can go on for hours on. Yosuke face is scrunched so tight it might stay that way – but he's still smiling.

He's still smiling.

"Dude, what are you even saying? It's been a few months, not a few decades." He leans back, propped on a hand. As he does so, he pokes Naoto with his socked toe, and Naoto doesn't respond, as normal. "Do you even know who you're talking to?"

"…This is Yosuke-san, correct?"

Well, Naoto's formal, but Yukiko's pretty sure that, by the time she left, she was calling her upperclassmen 'senpai', and by their first name.

She thinks, at least. She's not sure if she remembers Naoto ever actually saying any of their names. When that thought comes to Yukiko, she can't decide if it's a profound observation or a useless one.

Yosuke scoffs. "Not exactly. I mean, I don't think so. It's Hanamura Yosuke. Y'know, super-hot dude from that otherwise lame small town, Inaba."

There's a pause, almost too long. Then, in a tone of voice that's somehow very different than before, Naoto says, "Ah, Hanamura. I didn't recognise you."

"Yeah? Didn't know you knew anyone outside of us, 'specially not another Yosuke. It's not too common a name."

Yukiko can agree with that; she doesn't get too many Yosuke's at the inn. She's only had a handful of Naoto's, but – maybe because she's a bit more acute to it – has noticed many Yukikos.

She's never liked the name too much, anyway. Never really fit her.

"I apologise. You – sound different than I remember. Deeper."

Yosuke's smile drops for a moment. Not completely off; it softens, as does the look in his eyes. Yukiko's not used to seeing him that way.

His voice sounds just as soft. "You think so?"

"It could be the reception."

"Nah, it's me," Yosuke bounces back in a voice that's his own again. His brazen grin returns. "You sound the same, though. Same stuffy words."

"...was there something you needed my assistance with?"

Stilted, Yukiko thinks. Taut, strict. Distant.

It strikes her, then, what the difference is: talking to her married-with-kids colleague Yosuke-san, Naoto had been conversational, but to her maybe-friend Yosuke, Naoto went back to how she was when they first met, competing for the case.

It's a bothersome thought, but Yosuke doesn't seem to notice. "Actually, yeah. Uhm. How do I put this?"

He looks at Naoto, pokes him again with his toe, gets the same lack of response. He looks to Yukiko for help, but she doesn't have anything to add. She realises Naoto wouldn't even know she's here on the call, too.

Would it make a difference if she did know?

"We, uh. We found a lost kid a while back, took him in. We've been trying to find his parents, but it's been like, three days, and we've got nothing. Thought you might know what we should do next."

Another pause, but Yukiko decides this one is for Naoto to process the situation. Yosuke, for his part, did a reasonable job summarising it without making it seem too much like a kidnapping, or a result of two teenagers unable to handle a marginally atypical situation.

Finally, Naoto answers, in that slightly deeper tone that's she's always meant business with. "Did you inform the local authorities? The police station, perhaps?"

"Yeah, uhh, no. Naoto didn't like that, and I didn't want to make a big deal outta it."

"Missing children is no small issue."

Being a detective, Yukiko's sure Naoto would've at least dealt with a few missing persons cases.

Yosuke tries to deflect the blame, but he's still smiling. "C'mon, Naoto-kun. It's not like that. Inaba's a small place, people don't wanna get the cops involved with everything. We wanted to ask around, but – " Yosuke glances at Yukiko for a moment " – we just don't know how to bring it up. It's – I dunno, man. How often do you find a lost kid and not hear anything about it?"

There's a buzzing that sounds like a sigh. "If I'm correct, you found a child and kept it for days without informing anyone?"

It sounds annoyed, if Yukiko's sugarcoating it. And it makes the situation seem worse – or makes it seem as bad as it is, and Yukiko's just been skirting the issue.

What has she even been thinking?

Finally, Yosuke's smile drops off completely. He grimaces instead. "Well – sorta. The circumstance is different. It was late, and Yukiko's right about it being too crazy to mention – "

Yukiko winces at the mention of her own name.

" – and what did you expect us to do? He didn't want us to take him to the cops and no one's running around looking for him, it's just too weird and –"

"Forgive my presumptuousness, but if you've gone out of your way to create another case just to satisfy your boredom, I advise you spend your ample free time otherwise. And I ask that you not to invite me if should you choose to ignore my warning."

Bitter. And Yukiko catches an accusing anger that Naoto's aimed at them before.

Before solving the case.

Yosuke doesn't say anything, until he creases his brow and bites out, "That was uncool, Naoto. If we wanted you that bad, we would've called sooner. And not just because we needed something from you."

Yukiko would've stayed silent.

And Yukiko doesn't assume to know Naoto – maybe no one really does – and she especially hasn't taken much time to get to know Yosuke, but she knows that it would take hitting a nerve to make both of them come to blows like they were now.

And Yosuke was so happy before.

She thinks something should be said, but she doesn't know the words herself. Distantly, she thinks that Souji would know.

"Oh, I am well aware, Hanamura. If you're quite done wasting my time…"

"Yeah, sure. Bye," he at least says before cutting the line, and resorts then to glaring at his phone.

A silence follows, settles in like an unwanted guest in the room. Yukiko, now feeling a nervousness buzz in her head, looks away from Yosuke, because she's not sure he's ever looked so pissed before.

Even if, lately, when she sees him in Junes while she's running errands for the inn, he's sighing and frowning the whole time.

She watches Naoto, who's laid out the kumiki in front of him in increasing size, stack the few remaining ones.

He doesn't seem like a missing child.

He never complained, didn't really say much at all. Emi – the inn worker and mother of two whom Yukiko entrusted babysitting Noato with while she was at school – didn't mention anything out of the ordinary.

So how were either herself or Yosuke supposed to know what to do if everyone and everything acted so normal about it?

"Y'know," Yosuke says quietly, finally, without looking at her. "I get that Naoto's got a stick cemented up her ass, but she doesn't have to take it out on us."

Yukiko's never been one to cuss, never felt like she needed to. And she's aware that most people avoid doing so around her, maybe out of respect or out of her good influence. So when they do so around her, it's always come with an added emphasis of anger.

Still, some part of her urges her to say, "I'm sure it isn't like that. Maybe – maybe things have been rough for her, too."

"Yeah?" Yosuke rounds on her. "Why's she gotta give us shit for it? We're the ones who're there for her, not some frickin' Yosuke-san. Did you hear how chill she was when she thought it was him? And then she got all cold and formal with me?"

Yukiko did. But she also, at the very least, knew how Naoto could be with people. And she knew Yosuke knew, too. They were both there for her Shadow, after all.

"We haven't really been there for her, though. I don't think anyone's called her since she left."

Yosuke scowls. "Not like we've been throwing parties for each other over here without her."

It's the same problem, then. Yukiko has it too: that distance comes between her and everyone. It sneaks in where there's space to. When Souji left, when Rise left, when Naoto left. Between herself and the rest of the team; even Chie's almost started to slip away, but that girl's fierce stubbornness is greater than any chasm of distance.

Yukiko blames herself, for the most part: it's been in the ways she was raised. The inn always welcomes guests temporarily. Everyone leaves, be it after they've told their story or before they've become anything other than a stranger.

It's conditioned her to watch people go, while only thinking of the next guest. Some part of that will always stay with her.

But she knows she's changing – growing, if all the thinking is any indication – so there's room for new habits.

"Y-"

But when she looks at Yosuke, angry Yosuke, she's not sure how to breach the topic. She doesn't know how to bring it up, how she's meant to speak to him so that he hears her.

Yosuke's never been her favourite. If she's honest, Chie aside, Souji is. Though he's likely everyone's favourite, Yosuke most of all. The two just clicked – boys, she thinks, or maybe things in common, like being the new transfer student.

But even then, Chie's always able to carry the conversation with Yosuke. She's mentioned him, sometimes, too, even when he's not there and nothing brings him up. And Chie, Yukiko noticed, was in a chipper mood during their conversation with Yosuke, in spite of homework. Smiling in that happy way.

Similar to Yosuke's smile when Naoto first answered.

Yukiko wonders if she'll ever make anyone smile like that. Like they missed her.

She'll even take it from one of the inn guests. Any of them, just to come back and smile at her, remember her.

"I was uncool," Yosuke mumbles after what feels like a long time, pulling Yukiko out of her thoughts before she can sink in them.

"I got pissed, and I'm just – " he breathes through his nose, frustrated, pushes a hand through his hair. It's longer than Yukiko remembers it being, somehow. "I really, really messed up, huh? More than usual."

"Naoto-kun's not the easiest to deal with," Yukiko offers.

"Yeah," Yosuke says in a knowing way, and for a beat, that smile ghosts his features. He pauses. "I wanna call her again. But I don't think she'll pick up – she'll know it's me this time, right?"

Yukiko doesn't say anything.

Yosuke fills in the gaps. "Some other day. Soon. I'll at least text her, say I'm sorry. Maybe I can piss her off enough to get her down here to shoot me in the mouth."

Yukiko doesn't join him when he laughs, but she catches Naoto's head lift up, look at Yosuke for probably the first time since he came.

Yosuke seems to notice this, too. "Not talking 'bout you, little man. Your dad's probably gonna shoot me anyway."

Naoto keeps a steady stare. Yosuke pockets his phone, and begins pushing Naoto lightly with his foot.

"I wanna say this is your fault, but at least you got us all talkin' again, technically."

This, Yukiko can agree with. She never would have had Yosuke come to the inn, to her room, with someone's child…

It dawns on Yukiko that this is the second time in one week that Yosuke's been in her room, which would mark the second time in her life that another boy her age has been in her room.

For a moment, Yukiko blanks.

Then, "What are we even doing?"

Yosuke takes a break from teasing Naoto with no reaction to give Yukiko a wry smile. "Dude, I'm thinking the same thing. Should we just call the cops?"

The suggestion brings Yukiko back to the situation of a maybe-two-year-old stranger solving kumiki in her bedroom. "You said he didn't like them."

Yosuke pulls himself upright, and tosses his abandoned kumiki to Naoto. "Yeah, we can't drag him there, but we can report it to them."

Naoto looks at the kumiki that's landed in his lap, then hurriedly throws it back to Yosuke.

"I think that's something we should have done at the beginning."

Yosuke shrugs, smiling as he chucks the kumiki back. "Yeah, probably. We were younger."

Yukiko has half a mind to scold Yosuke for being careless with the vintage wood puzzles, but every time it lands back on Naoto, his tiny mouth draws tight, and he throws it back with excited energy even if he looks confused.

It's one of the cutest things Yukiko's ever witness, and, despite the gravity of all that's happened, she feels light inside. She lets it out as a giggle, and ruffles Naoto's hair.

"Oh, Naoto-bō!"

"I said not to call him that!" Yosuke yelps, reaching out to a stray kumiki leftwards. He tosses both at Naoto, who looks more confused than ever.

After what seems to be heavy internal deliberation, he throws both back. It's especially cute considering how tiny Naoto's hands are when they're trying to get a grip on the kumiki.

Yosuke lets out a laugh, and smiles at Yukiko. "Man, he's so…anyway. I'll head on over to the station after this, let them know. And hope they're cooler about it than Naoto-kun."

Yukiko's not sure they will be, and she's not sure what 'this' is, or what will come after it.

She doesn't know much, not about that Naoto, or this Naoto, or Yosuke in her room or people who smile. She knows she likes it when they smile, at her or not.

She'll try, she thinks. Maybe she'll call Naoto later, explain things better. Even put in a good word for Yosuke. Maybe.

But right now, Yukiko picks up a kumiki, and tosses it into Naoto's lap just as Yosuke throws three. Naoto stares at the pile, yelps, and throws them all at Yukiko in a panic.

And so they go on.


A/N: Ah, the miscommunication. Also, too many Naotos.