Yu's POV:
"Do you have your keys?" Yosuke asks as we arrive at Dojima's doorstep. I nod, pulling them from my pocket. "Okay. I'll be going, now."
"Wait."
"Huh?"
He tries to make eye contact with me, but I break it almost instantly. How can he look at me like that after everything?
He knows I'm helpless. He knows I'm some weak, pathetic guy, always on his back.
"Yu?"
"Um... I..." I can't find the right words to say. I've been an asshole all afternoon, and I can't find it in myself to apologize. Some friend I am...
"You're not alone, you know?"
"Wh-what?" I say, taken aback by the softness of his voice.
"I'm here for you. And so is Chie, and Yukiko, and Kanji, and the whole gang. Even Shin."
I sigh.
"You don't have to do everything alone, partner," he whispers, his voice beginning to crack. "F-fuck... I don't know why I'm being like this." He laughs at himself, rubbing his eye with his sleeve. "S-sorry."
I wish I could cry with him. But I'm all cried out. No matter how hard I try, I don't think any tears would escape my solid body.
"S-say something, idiot," he stutters.
"How do I ask for help?" I say.
"You... need it?"
I slowly nod, frowning.
"You're not okay," he decides.
"Maybe I'm not," I shake my head. "I don't know."
"Why do you think you're losing control?" He carefully asks.
"You. You're... drifting away from me. Shin is drifting away from me. Chie hates me, Naoto keeps looking at me like I've done something wrong, and--"
I stop speaking when I meet his eyes. The brown iris in him swallows me whole; I can't look away from him. His eyes carry out a sense of determination: knowing that he will get this out of me. But also kindness. Because he's always been like that, hasn't he?
"I promised you I wouldn't leave you," he says, quietly, reaching for my hand. But I quickly jerk it back. He looks a little upset, but understanding all the while. "I don't intend to go back on my word."
"Why?" I ask. "I've given you plenty of reasons to leave. Why did you stay?"
(Yosuke's POV:)
Because I love you. Because I love you, and it pains me to see you this way. Because, without you, I'd be nothing. Because you make me happy. Because I want to help you. Because I care about you. Because you're my partner. Because you deserve it.
I shrug, smiling gently. "Because you're my friend."
"...Friend?"
The way he says it makes me regret my choice of words. What did he want me to say? ...More than friends? Best friends? Lovers?
"Don't I drag you down?" He asks slowly.
"You could drag me a hundred feet below the ground, and I still wouldn't let go of you. And don't say you're nothing special, dude... You are."
"I just feel like I'm being selfish."
"There's nothing selfish about being curious."
He wants to know things, I get that. He wants to know about Shin. He wants to know about me, about Giichi. He wants to know everything... doesn't everyone? But can't he understand that the truth can hurt?
YOU ARE READING
With You (Souyo)
Fanfiction(Prolly still has a shitton of typos, feel free to point them out) Yosuke has never really been great at expressing how he feels. Certainly not to his partner, at least. He'd been... thinking about Yu differently since he left. And now that he's com...
