Once again requested by tumblr user shadow-naoto. Is Naoto a closet gamer? You bet she is! Although this one has a bit of an unconventional Persona 4 pairing. I hope that’s o.k.? *hides*
Beep.
Boop.
Beep boop beep.
“What is that?” Naoto asks as the group steps out of the strip club. It has been a long day of vigorous training, but they all feel like they have mastered that particular dungeon. Rise still doesn’t like it when they visit but she quietly marches on, trying to ignore the sultry music that plays in the background.
“Oh that? That’s the Void Quest,” Yosuke says, “It’s not too far from here.”
“The Void Quest?”
“Mitsuo Kubo’s dungeon,” Souji says, “I always forget that it’s there.”
“He had a dungeon, too?”
“Yeah, and it was a real pain in the ass,” Chie says, “I never want to go back there again!”
Naoto wonders why she couldn’t hear it before. Perhaps the music from Rise’s dungeon had been too loud, or maybe it was because Teddie whined so much when they came here. She’s still not sure as to why it bothers him, she thought the perverted bear would like the setting.
“Awww come on, Chie. 8-bit castles, retro music, it wasn’t that bad.”
“It was a huge maze and that giant robot was awful!”
“She’s right,” Yukiko says, frowning, “Those commands, and just… none of it made any sense.”
“We kicked his ass though,” this comes from Kanji, who’s grinning that grin he always has when talking about ass kicking, “But I agree with the senpai, let’s not go back there.”
No one notices the slightly disappointed look on Naoto’s face.
Except for him.
***
The last person Naoto expects to call her is Yosuke. It’s a couple of days after their training session, so perhaps he’s calling to schedule another.
However, that’s not what he talks about at all.
“I have an important case that I need help on,” he says. If Naoto weren’t so obsessed with solving every case in the entire world, she’d realize that Yosuke Hanamura isn’t the type to concern himself with cases.
Still, a growing detective can’t be picky about her jobs, “I’ll be right there.”
The very last thing she expects is to be brought into his room, his T.V. turned on and a video game playing on the screen. She frowns at him, “Is this it? Is this why you called?”
“Well yeah, I mean, I’m in the middle of this really tough level. I need help, man, and what better person than the detective prince?”
“I have no time for this,” she says. She had already fallen for Souji’s ploy of a case before that had turned out to be that ridiculous meat bowl. Still, where Souji had been charming, Yosuke is proving to be annoying.
“Come on, Naoto-kun, I bet you can beat it!” He waves the controller in front of her, “Come on, give it a try.”
Naoto eyes the controller, eyes sliding over the buttons, the D-pad. She shakes her head, “No thank you,” but she doesn’t move to leave.
Yosuke shrugs, “Suit yourself,” then he starts playing his game.
Naoto watches from the corner as he tries to get through an obstacle course of impossible odds. He starts with only one sliver of life and there’s no health in sight. Besides the fact that the stage is in the middle of outer space, there’s enemies and traps everywhere, and there doesn’t seem to be a save point. When Yosuke dies the first time Naoto just shakes her head. The second time? She sighs. The third time she points to the screen, about to say something but she stops herself. The fourth time she-
“Hanamura-senpai, do not jump-” but it’s too late, he’s already dead.
“Relax, I got a ton of lives, I’ll figure it out eventually.”
But that is not the point. The point is to beat the level quickly, efficiently. It’s foolish to rely on extra lives, or the ability to collect more lives. You can’t count on that! He’s playing the game all wrong!
Fifth time. Sixth time. Seventh time. Falling off the block. Getting hit by the boomerang. Running into an enemy out of sheer lack of concentration. Eighth time. Ninth time. Tenth… Losing balance. Being chased by a shadow clone. Losing hold of the green dinosaur.
“Senpai, I insist that you-”
“That I what? It’s not like you play games, Naoto-kun.”
She twitches. She fidgets. Eleventh. Twelfth. Thirteen- “Give me the controller.”
“What?”
“Give it to me!”
“O.K., jeez!”
And Naoto takes flight, controlling the character with the sort of accuracy and grace that Yosuke has only seen on online videos. He sits and watches, “Shit, Naoto, shit watch out!”
“I got it.”
“To your left-”
“I got it.”
“Now the right!”
“I got it!!”
Soon she’s at the end of the level, further than Yosuke has ever seen. His room is completely silent as Naoto studies the area, trying to find a way to the finish without getting herself killed. She takes a deep breath and runs forward, jumping, dodging, wall bouncing, her heart pounding, Yosuke clenching his fists and then-
The sweet melody of victory music.
“You did it!”
“Yes!”
And what happens next is beyond odd.
Naoto drops the control and her and Yosuke end up hugging each other, relieved smiles on their faces as if they’ve saved the world from a dreadful fog – har har, irony. They hug each other longer than necessary, and when they pull back Yosuke whispers something gamer girls are hot before he leans forward and kisses her. Its pure adrenaline, excitement from beating the hardest level ever created – with no reward to speak of, how lame – that spurs Naoto on. He’s got his arms wrapped around her waist tightly, her hands gripping onto his shirt, their lips crushed together as they moan into each other’s mouths. The game runs quietly in the background, its hero receiving some sort of letter to congratulate him on a job well done. Though he’s already saved the princess, this quest was for bragging rights, he guesses, but in the end it wasn’t worth the headache of that last stage.
Though it does get two people to make out. At least someone gets something out of it?
When the kiss ends they’re both breathless, panting harshly and staring at one another. Soon Naoto’s eyes widen as the current events start to come together and dawn on her.
Yosuke Hanamura just kissed her.
He kissed her and she kissed back.
He had his tongue in her mouth.
Then she had her tongue in his mouth.
At some point his hand got a bit too happy against her ass.
At some point her hand managed to slide underneath his shirt – smooth, his skin is pretty smooth and… wait, w-wait what the hell is she thinking?!
Out of all of the possible candidates to make out with, Yosuke Hanamura is at the very bottom of her list – untrue, Teddie is at the very bottom. Still, the point remains, this is not what she had in mind when she came over to his house.
Yosuke has the same shocked expression on his face. Short, boyish, and always frowning at him what the hell is he thinking, making out with Naoto Shirogane? They don’t even fit together, no matter how nice her backside feels… no, stop it, stop it right now Hanamura!
“Perhaps… I should go…” Naoto says slowly.
“Y-yeah, that would probably be best.”
Naoto steps away from Yosuke, taking a moment to brush her hands against her clothing before she heads for the door.
“Or…”
Naoto stops, looking back at Yosuke. He holds up another game, this one with a man in green who is raising a sword in the air, “We could always play another one.”
“Is that…?”
“Yep.”
“The new one?”
“Yep.”
“With the golden-”
“Again. Yep.”
And somehow, Naoto Shirogane ends up sitting next to Yosuke Hanamura, hitting the start button all over again in the game they’ve started with each other.