Another one for Persona 4 a Lifetime. Woo! What a terrible name, but at the same time you gotta love it.
This oneshot takes place long before the new killer shows up in their lives. Yu and Yukiko are out of university, freshly married and working at their careers. So with that said, let's get going.
This wasn't originally one of the scenes I had in mind with my whole future AU but I got the idea while writing Going Back. So yeah. Hope you all enjoy this.

Drinking Buddies

Being a newlywed wife of a detective, Yukiko Amagi knew that she was going to go through a lot of hardship with him. She had dealt with that when he was her boyfriend in college, often going for internships as an officer in Inaba during their vacations from school. She had dealt with it when they were engaged and he had started working as a junior detective after school. And somehow she thought that when they were married, it would be different.

Yukiko was wrong.

She didn't like to be wrong.

Hours ago, he had sent her a text message saying that he had a hunch about the current case he was working on and would be back a little late. She sent him a text that she loved him and would see him soon and he had simply responded with a "Yeah." And hadn't sent a thing since.

That was at 5PM.

To say that her blood didn't boil at that was an understatement.

After hours of cycling between righteous fury at his rather dull response and intense worry for his safety she had elected to start drinking at the godly time of 1:30AM.

"Back again, Ms. Amagi?" The bartender, a young man, Shoto, who had his black hair slicked back smiled at her. "Trouble in paradise?"

"Bite me, Shoto." Yukiko groaned as she took her seat at the bar.

"Pretty sure that's Yu's job. But how about I settle for getting you a drink instead?"

At one point, a comment like that would've made a furious blush cross her face and she would begin to stammer about how they didn't do anything like that and how her relationship was very respectful, innocent and wholesome, despite the things that they had been doing to one another behind closed doors within a month of starting university. But now she was a married woman and used to Shoto's and many other's rather crass humor so she simply waved him off.

The young man held a knowing smile before reaching back to the wall of drinks and asking her, "What kinda night is it, senpai? Shots or the expensive stuff?"

"Shots."

The man nodded and was quick to produce a few tiny glasses and a bottle of hard liquor which he quickly poured into a glass and before he could even react the young manager had swiped the glass from the counter and already looked at him expectantly expecting another.

He let out a light chuckle at this but obliged, filling her glass whenever she was empty. Yukiko allowed herself to just focus on her drinks. She ignored her feelings and focused on the sharp, bitter liquid, letting the light burning sensation quickly make its way down her throat before requesting yet another one of the drinks.

She hadn't planned to be get drunk that night but with no real plan for Yu to come back that night, she just wanted to let herself go.

And go she did.

Or at least, she started to before a new face showed up.

Yukiko, downing another one of her shots jumped when she heard the door slam open and a familiar yell.

Storming into the bar was none other than Kanji Tatsumi. The young man, who had long since abandoned his dyed hair, matted and sweaty and at the moment wore a ragged suit, the tie long discarded and steam practically coming out of his ears.

"Dammit!" He yelled as he stormed over to the barstool and took his seat next to Yukiko. He tossed a couple of crumpled bills towards Shoto. Who nodded and slid a tall jug of beer his way. The former jock gumbled out a halfhearted thank you before getting to downing the glass in one go. He wiped his face, let out a loud belch and proceeded to pull out more crumpled bills and snapped his fingers, demanding more.

Shoto got right to work on pouring another glass. "Heh, guess you're not the only one who's having trouble in paradise, senpai. How's it goin' Kanji?"

"Shitty enough that I'm drinking this crap instead of my usual peanut collate!" He roared as he took the glass and downed it yet again.

Yukiko was watching the young man in surprise. "Kanji-kun, what are you doing here? I thought you had that date with Naot-oh… nevermind."

Kanji gave her a very wry smile at that before downing another jug.

"Fucking sucks." He groaned. "We both finally get a night where I'm not working on my fucking thesis or she's not out doing her detective work and she just keeps making more excuses!"

Yukiko looked surprised.

"What do you mean?"

Kanji didn't even bother to answer and instead, slid his phone towards her while he drowned in even more alcohol.

Yukiko picked up the phone and was surprised to see several messages from Naoto from throughout the night starting to reassure Kanji that she was going to be just a little bit late only to slowly make more and more mistakes, becoming largely more affectionate in a way that she usually wasn't with a lot of "sweeties" and "honeys" being thrown around as it slowly dawned on her that she wasn't going to make it and Kanji getting his hopes up only to get largely disappointed and angry with her.

Yukiko frowned. "Wooooooooooooooooow…"

Kanji slammed the mug down on the desk again. "I know right?! Just agh, fucking dammit!"

"Well, I definitely know where you're coming from." Yukiko sighed. "When I was supposed to have a nice dinner with Yu, had everything planned out right down to using the penthouse after… But some killer or robber or whatever is far more important than me."

"You've got it bad?" Kanji huffed. "Naoto and I have been planning this for months. I got fuckin' tickets to an orchestra while going to university as a shitty bartender!"

"Ahem." Shoto coughed.

Kanji awkwardly chuckled. "Heheh… No offense Shoto."

"Eh, you're right. I could use a raise though."

Yukiko heard this and awkwardly sipped at another one of her drinks, awkwardly looking around as if someone had called her.

Shoto sighed. "Had to try."

"Do you know how much I owe Yosuke for those tickets?! Even if I get on at a junior engineer at that car company I applied for it's still gonna take a good couple 'a months to pay him back!"

"Unbelievable!" Yukiko shouted. "That's so unfair!"

"I know right!" Kanji shouted and then sighed. "I just wanted to have a nice night with her, show her that she's the most important thing in the world to me. But nah, she'd rather play cop with her boyfriend."

"I just wanted to get laid." Yukiko admitted.

Both men gave her pointed looks. "What? I'm drunk. Leave me alone!"

The two just shrugged it off and Shoto got back to watching dishes.

"I'm just so mad." Kanji groaned.

"Tell me about it. We both have special nights and they got ruined." Yukiko sighed.

Kanji drowned another glass. "It fuckin' sucks. I know their jobs are important and all, but dammit. We matter too."

Yukiko nodded. "Definitely!"

The two looked at one another and smiled at this, clinking their glasses together.

The two then launched into conversation with one another, talking about their partners, their jobs, plans for the future and just reminiscing about their childhoods and their current struggles as adults. All of that while making a drinking game out of the dumb excuse texts that Naoto would send to Kanji. It was nice.

"Chie swore she would become a vegetarian after that!" Yukiko laughed.

Kanji was practically rolling at that point. "She'd never give up meat!"

"But for a few days after that Spring Break, she tried!"

"Now that's crazy."

And it was at 4AM that a certain tall grey haired young man and a young woman wearing a familiar hat and a trench coat came awkwardly shuffling into the bar.

Shoto was wiping at a mug and spotted them. "Ah, Detectives Narukami and Shirogane. Welcome! I take it you two have had a pretty eventful evening."

The two glared at Shoto who simply gave them a calm smile as Yukiko and kanji turned their attention to the two.

"Um… Hello." Yu awkwardly coughed. "I apologize for showing up so late."

Naoto had already crossed over Kanji, straddling herself on his lap and doing her best to smile at him while the young man rolled his eyes. "Did you have a pleasant evening though?"

Kanji scoffed at that and then looked to Yukiko who let out a sharp laugh, very dissimilar to her usual fits of giggles.

The two then smiled.

"Yeah. You could say that." Kanji noted.

Yukiko grinned. "We've made each other great company."

"Right… Well, I'm glad you had each other." Yu noted.

"Yes, thank you for taking good care of him, Yukiko." Naoto smiled, nuzzling into him.

Yukiko shrugged. "We took care of each other. But this was fun. I wouldn't mind doing this again, Kanji."

"Ditto. It was a good time." He raised his glass to her as she left with Yu.

And the two would continue to do this over the years, having fun times at the Amagi Inn Bar whenever Yu and Naoto were out on their cases. It was always good time and through it all they would become closer than ever.

And we're done. Kanji and Yukiko are two characters that I adore and I figured with them having the partners that they do, that this would end up being a pretty common occurrence. So I hope you enjoyed their first time just drinking and having a good time together.
R&R and I'll see you when I get another idea for P4aL.