Persona 4: Tactical Advantages

[chisotahn]

Title: Tactical Advantages
Fandom: Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4
Characters: Yosuke/Souji...? Souji/Yosuke? Eh, the order doesn't matter. Includes bonus appearance by Nanako-chan as well.
Summary: Fill for badbadbathhouse: "Souji/Yosuke or vice versa. Tickling. One of them finds out the other is very ticklish by accident but keeps on going because they think it's cute. ♥"

Notes: No spoilers. More delicious fluff, as an antidote to the AU. XD; Fun, fun!




"Ugh." Yosuke groaned, then tossed his textbook onto the table. "It's time for a break, man. If I try to stuff any more history into my brain, it's gonna explode."

Souji glanced over at him. They were at Souji's house, studying up in his room - actual studying, not the other, much more enjoyable kind. But exams were only a few days away, and everything else had been put on hold in the face of looming academic doom. Souji had been working patiently at his desk the whole time, the quiet scratch of his pencil a counterpoint to Yosuke's frustrated grumbling. "Already?"

"Yes, already, geez." Yosuke made a face as he stood up and stretched. Their last break had been two hours ago, but Souji was acting as if it was only ten minutes. "How can you keep working like that?"

"How can you not?"

"Sheesh. Come on, let's go," Yosuke sighed, tapping his foot as Souji finished the page he was working on, then paused for a long moment before finally getting up.

Yosuke tromped down the stairs, with Souji following at a more sedate pace; Nanako looked up at them as they entered. "Hi, Yosuke-kun! Are you done studying already?"

Yosuke resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the 'already'; Nanako didn't know, after all. "Hey, Nanako-chan. Nope, not done yet."

"We're just taking a break," Souji added, slipping past Yosuke to go sit down on the couch; Nanako was sitting on the floor as usual, watching TV. "How's the quiz show? Are you getting the right answers?"

Nanako's brow furrowed slightly. "The questions are hard today," she informed them, seriously.

Souji laughed; Yosuke went to join him on the couch. "Maybe we can help," he said, giving Yosuke a sidelong glance.

"H-hey, that wouldn't be fair to Nanako-chan," Yosuke protested, very quietly, so she couldn't hear. "We'll get all the answers first! She'll feel bad!"

"Oh, she might surprise you. She's very clever," Souji whispered back, and Yosuke didn't completely trust the amused smirk on Souji's face. Then his best friend focused his attention on the TV. "Nanako-chan, we'll help you out, okay?"

"Okay, but you have to let me try too!" Nanako said, firmly. "No saying the answer before I get to think!"

"We promise." Souji sat back and looked thoughtfully at the screen as the next question came up; Nanako leaned forward slightly.

"Um... cherry blossoms?" she said, after a moment.

"Cherry blossoms," Souji confirmed; on screen, the buzzer sounded and the correct answer popped up.

"Yay!" Nanako beamed. "You're so smart, big bro!"

"Hey, you answered it before I did. You're smart too," Souji said, with a grin.

"Now you have to help, Yosuke-kun," Nanako said urgently as the next question appeared on screen. "Ooh... what's the tallest mountain in the solar system...?"

Yosuke stared at the question. "Uh..." But nothing was coming to mind; all he could think of was the currently useless history knowledge he'd just finished cramming into his brain. Desperate to save face, he elbowed Souji. "Hey," he whispered, "what's the answer?"

Souji blinked, then chuckled under his breath. "You know this one."

"No, I don't," Yosuke protested, still whispering. "Come on, man!" But Souji was just smiling at him in the most infuriating way possible. Yosuke stared desperately at the television. "U-uhm. Mount Everest...?"

"Mount Olympus!" Nanako said eagerly, and then the answer popped up. "I got it right!"

Yosuke slumped and considered crawling under the couch to die of embarrassment. "What the hell was that?" he hissed at Souji, elbowing him again, harder this time.

"Ow! Quit it," Souji whispered back, wincing. "I thought you were joking. We just went over that in school - I helped you out last week on the same question. Don't you remember?"

"No," Yosuke spluttered.

"A-are you guys fighting?"

The plaintive question drew their attention away from each other; Nanako was giving them a worried look, quiz show temporarily forgotten. "Ah - n-no, Nanako-chan!" Yosuke said, quickly. "We're just... playing! See?" The couch pillow was off to one side; Yosuke grabbed it and made as if to whack Souji over the head. Souji managed to duck, but the pillow still caught him on the shoulder.

"Oh!" Nanako brightened, obviously relieved. "Can I play too?"

"Uh, I guess-" Yosuke began, but Nanako hadn't waited for him to reply; she pounced on Souji with a delighted squeal.

Souji caught her deftly, an affectionate grin on his face, and moved to tickle Nanako under her arms. She laughed and tried to squirm away, flailing at her cousin with both hands. "T-that's cheating, big bro," she giggled, twisting free for a moment and lunging at Souji with hands extended to tickle him back.

Yosuke expected Souji to take this with his usual calm amusement; what he wasn't expecting was for his best friend to shrink slightly away from Nanako's tickles. "Hey, careful," Souji said, grinning, but his face was faintly red as he intercepted Nanako's hands, pulling them gently away.

"Nanako-chan, here," Yosuke said loudly, tossing the pillow in her direction. She looked up, laughed again as the pillow landed at her feet, then scooped it up and threw it at Souji. Yosuke watched, bemused, as the cousins continued their playful tussle. He could only think of one explanation for Souji's reaction to Nanako's tickle attempts. Obviously, his best friend was ticklish.

Interesting.

Souji called an end to playtime after a few more minutes; Nanako was giggling constantly, a huge smile on her pink face. "Alright, that's enough - otherwise you'll never get to sleep."

"Hehe... thanks, big bro," Nanako said, leaning in to give Souji a hug; she waved at Yosuke as she turned to go back to her room.

"Well, that was different," Yosuke said dryly, glancing at the forgotten television; the quiz show was long since over, replaced by the drone of the news.

"She's a cute kid," Souji replied, sheepishly smoothing his hair back into place. "Dojima doesn't have a lot of time to play with her, you know."

"Hey, man, it's cool," Yosuke reassured him, amused. "But I guess that means break time is over, huh?"

Souji stretched, then glanced at the clock. "Yeah, if you want to get through the next chapter tonight."

"I guess." Yosuke made a face and got up, tucking the couch pillow under one arm; if he had to keep studying, he was at least going to be comfortable while doing it. They trailed back up to Souji's room, and Yosuke looked resentfully at the textbook on the table as Souji sat at the desk again. He really didn't want to keep studying tonight, but getting another chapter done was a good idea. Still, as Yosuke sat down on the sofa and picked up the hated textbook, he couldn't make himself concentrate on the words. He kept ending up at the bottom of a page without any recollection of what he'd read, while the constant soft scritch of Souji's pencil reminded him that his friend had no such difficulties keeping focused.

It was annoying, he decided abruptly. "Hey, Souji?"

"What?" Souji said, absently, still concentrating on his work - so he had absolutely no warning when the pillow hit him this time. Yosuke grinned mischievously as Souji recovered and stared at him. "What the hell?"

"I changed my mind about that last chapter," Yosuke informed him. "Let's do something else."

Souji picked up the pillow. "Don't start something you can't finish," he warned; still, there was a playful look in his gray eyes. Evidently, he wasn't entirely opposed to something else.

"Yeah, well. This time, I have a secret weapon."

"Oh?" Souji raised one eyebrow at him, clearly doubtful.

"You're in trouble now." Yosuke grinned, then spluttered as Souji finally threw the pillow back at him, hitting him full in the face. "Damnit - oh, that's it. No mercy!"

Souji stepped back, slipping into a stance reminiscent of battle, obviously expecting Yosuke to go for the pillow again in retaliation - so Yosuke didn't, electing instead to dive for Souji's legs. His best friend made a startled noise and stumbled backwards, tripping over the edge of the rolled-up futon, though he caught himself before he could fall. "You want to fight again?" Souji didn't sound impressed at all.

"Nope. I was thinking more something like this," Yosuke said, and punctuated the sentence by wiggling his fingers against the sensitive skin behind Souji's knees.

It wasn't much of an opening shot, considering that Souji was wearing pants, but the other boy hadn't been expecting it; he tried to step back again, tripped once more, and fell this time, landing on the rolled-up futon. "H-hey!" Souji objected, trying to keep a straight face as he tried to squirm away from Yosuke - but his cheeks were slightly red, and his protest seemed shaky, as if it might turn into laughter at any moment.

"I thought so," Yosuke crowed, and redoubled his efforts, this time aiming for Souji's stomach. "You're ticklish."

"No, I'm no- gah!" Souji tried to ward Yosuke off with one hand, but he had a serious disadvantage. Yosuke could see the cracks in his best friend's usually controlled demeanor; Souji's face was really getting red now, presumably from the effort of controlling the inevitable laughter. "Quit it!"

"No way! I told you, no mercy!" Yosuke grinned wickedly and lunged for Souji's sides, just under his arms, exactly as Souji had done to Nanako.

And that did it; Souji's rattled composure finally dissolved into laughter. Yosuke kept up the relentless tickling assault, quickly figuring out the best places to aim for, until Souji managed to shove him away with a last desperate effort. "Dude, s-seriously," Souji managed, through helpless giggles as Yosuke stubbornly tried to go for his feet, "stop it."

"Oh, shut up. It's about time you got yours, anyway," Yosuke laughed, then squawked suddenly as Souji lunged back at him. He tried to evade Souji's hands, failed, and felt his friend grab at his collar. He braced himself for a return volley of tickling, and was thus utterly unprepared when Souji's lips pressed hard against his own, one hand coming up to lightly brush the back of his neck in a way that made him shiver.

"What was that about shutting up?" Souji said, casually, as he pulled away.

"That's cheating," Yosuke managed.

"What, and you weren't?"

"That was not cheating," Yosuke insisted, trying to regain his own composure, vaguely annoyed at how rapidly Souji had taken control again. "That was... tactics!"

"Really." Souji raised one eyebrow at him, amused.

"Besides, I kind of like it when you're the one blushing," Yosuke added; he feinted as if to grab one of Souji's feet again and smirked when Souji hurriedly tucked them up out of reach. "It's cute."

"No, it's not," Souji said, his face reddening slightly and proving his words a lie. "Are you done?"

"Hmm... nope. If you get to cheat, then so do I. Fair's fair." Yosuke grinned and sat up, grabbing Souji's sleeve to pull the other boy closer.

"Only if I get to tickle back," Souji chuckled, reaching out and proceeding to prove, once again, that he really was very, very good with his hands.


...


"Y'know, Souji? I don't think any of this is going to be on the test," Yosuke sighed, tangling his fingers into Souji's silver hair.

"Eh." Souji grinned. "It was still worth learning."

Comments

[zero-damage.livejournal.com]

Sweet but not sappy, and the ending lines are awesome. Nicely done!

[chisotahn]

Ah, thank you! I do have way, way too much fun writing them.

(And then writing horrifying AUs; the one I'm working on now should earn me a month of fluff fills in penance.)

[sugarainbow.livejournal.com]

aww I loved this~ this couple is just too cute for words!<3