angevon

Sitting at the long table at the Junes food court, surrounded by his friends on the Investigation Team (minus Teddie, who was working), Yu began to zone out. That happened often when they were finished discussing the case for the day. Naturally the topic had drifted to more mundane things, like upcoming exams and gossip about classmates. By his nature, Yu had a lot of trouble keeping up after he'd exhausted his set amount of group-based social interaction for the day. It wasn't usually a problem, but...

"I bet Senpai is great at kissing!"

The topic had turned to him. Yu did his best to try and remember what they'd all been saying just seconds ago. Something about someone's first kiss going bad...?

He opened his mouth to speak, but he didn't need to. Yosuke was already answering.

"Yeah, great at kissing cats," Yosuke said with a snort.

"And you're no good," Rise continued. "I bet you use too much tongue. 'The windmill' is not a kissing technique."

"Hey! I've kissed plenty of girls back in the city!"

"Once and never again, prob'ly," Kanji said.

Yu sighed to himself and settled back down as they bickered. Rarely did they really need his input, and that was just the way he liked it. Leave him out of these debates, thank you very much!

"No boy's ever gotten close enough to kiss Yukiko," Chie said. "As for me, umm... I'm not telling!"

"As if anyone wanted to know," Yosuke said sourly, still upset at Rise's teasing.

"I would like to," Naoto said.

"Like to what, Naoto-kun?" Rise asked. "Know about all of our kissing history, or what it's like to kiss someone?"

Naoto hummed. "This is all truly fascinating..."

"You didn't answer my question!"

Yu felt peaceful as his friends continued talking around him. There was nowhere else he wanted to be right now. Well, maybe at the flood plain, kissing a cat...

Rise stood up all of a sudden. "I think we'd all like to know..." she said dramatically, "what it's like to kiss Senpai!"

Only an idol could pull off a move like that. Now everyone was looking at Yu, who redacted his last thought. Being put on the spot made this the last place he wanted to be.

Tentatively, Yu asked, "Me?"

"No, that old guy behind you eating a Topsicle," Rise said.

Yu looked behind him. There wasn't anyone there. She was being sarcastic. He looked back at the team sheepishly.

"I don't know," Chie said. "His lips look kind of thin and dry."

"It's a struggle most boys have," Rise said, "but I know for a fact that Senpai uses chapstick! They should be nice and smooth."

"I would like to see what all the fuss is about," Yukiko said. "Kissing boys."

"Senpai is the man," Kanji said thoughtfully. "You know he'd take it slow, y'know? Respect your boundaries an' all that."

"I stand by my kissing cats comment," Yosuke said, crossing his arms.

"Then it's settled," Rise said. "We'll all kiss Senpai and see what it's like!"

Yu blinked several times. He opened his mouth to say something, thought better of it and closed it, then tried again and failed again. He looked at Yosuke pleadingly, but his partner was purposely avoiding his eyes. Yu felt his stomach twist at the betrayal, but didn't that mean Yosuke was okay with this...? Everyone else, too, was staring off into space, as if imagining what it would be like to kiss him.

It was flattering, now that he thought about it, and as Rise began to make plans to make it happen, he decided that he didn't mind. He loved his friends, after all, and sharing a few kisses between them would hopefully be a nice way to show it.

Apparently the plan was here and now. Before Yu knew it, everyone had left the food court except Yukiko, who had relocated to sit next to him. She was apparently first in Rise's arbitrarily-determined order.

Yu watched her for a moment. Yukiko was a very beautiful young woman. It was no surprise that so many boys kept trying to ask her out. He suspected that none of them would ever see her like this. The foxy look on her face, while uniquely Yukiko, had a hint of Rise in it.

She really did want to kiss him. He smiled at her, a little hopelessly, because he hadn't been able to admit to everyone that he hadn't kissed anyone in his whole life.

Oh well, it couldn't be too hard, right? He licked his lips in preparation. Before he could lean in, however, she confided that she actually had kissed a boy before. Yu's open-mouthed stare caused her to further explain that it had happened in middle school.

"He was always so nice to me," Yukiko said. "Before I knew it, I'd developed something of a crush on him."

"Oh?" Yu prompted, curious now. It didn't seem like the Yukiko he knew.

"Oh yes," Yukiko said. "Unfortunately when we were finally alone, he was more interested in, well..."

She glanced down demurely and indicated her chest.

"Unfortunate," Yu said. Yukiko deserved better.

"Very," she agreed. "I didn't mind at first—awkward fumbling is to be expected, after all. But when the focus became them instead of me, I pushed him away too roughly. He left, and that's where I earned the reputation for that ridiculous challenge."

Yu had always thought the reputation had been earned through her simply being too busy for romance, making her seem cold and indifferent towards boys. The truth was far sadder than that.

"I'm sorry," he said.

Yukiko shrugged. "I have Chie now, so..."

He paused. "Then... Do you really want this?"

She smiled. Her eyes glinted in a fiery way that made him blush.

So he kissed her. It was just a soft kiss on the lips that didn't linger overlong. It seemed appropriate for her, and she seemed happy with it, so he was happy too.

That was one down.

Chie was next. She sat down next to Yu, but she didn't seem to want to be there. She blushed and stammered and declared how ridiculous this whole thing was... but Yu didn't remember her protesting at all when the idea had started.

"We don't have to do this," Yu told her.

"Uh, yeah, we do," she said, like it was totally obvious. "I'm not going to be the only one out!"

Yu hummed. "You're sure Yosuke will go through with it?"

That got her laughing, much harder than he'd ever seen her laugh, though it wasn't quite at Yukiko's level. His question hadn't even been a joke.

"Ugh," she said, smiling at him. "Let's just do it."

"All right," he said, and he leaned in towards her.

She leaned away on instinct. Then she realized what she was doing and leaned back in. There was an awkward moment in which they just looked at each other, and then their lips met. Chie made a funny noise at first, and then she relaxed into the kiss.

The kiss lingered, and Yu let it. Chie was a good person too, and deserved, well... something, anyway, his mind was starting to blank out as he realized she didn't taste like the meat gum he'd expected, but strongly like mint.

Overpoweringly like mint, in fact. He had to draw back once the taste and smell hit him full force. Had she downed a whole liter of mouthwash to prepare for this?

As she popped a meat gum into her mouth right after the kiss, he realized that's exactly what had happened.

Yu was apprehensive as Rise sauntered towards him like a shark having got a whiff of blood. He sighed quietly in resignation as she took her seat next to him. Then he waited, expecting her to say something or immediately initiate. At least hang onto his arm like she often did.

She didn't, though, and in fact was avoiding his eyes, instead focusing on her fidgeting fingers. She had very pretty nails, alternating shades of pink and purple.

He watched her closely, expectantly, because this was Rise, who'd always thought the world of him. And this had been her idea in the first place.

He realized, after the moment dragged on, that she was scared.

He wasn't sure what of. Perhaps of the reality being different from her fantasies. A legitimate fear, since with his lack of experience, this kiss was bound to be extremely disappointing. But maybe that was a good thing, to have her expectations tempered.

Before she could worry overlong, then, he gently took her hand. Though startled by the sudden contact, she didn't pull her hand away. He brought it to his lips and gave it a little kiss, right on the back of it.

Then he let her hand go. Dazed, she drew it back, staring at where he'd pressed the kiss. Slowly, mechanically, she moved her hand closer to her face. Then, she kissed that spot too.

He smiled at her, and then her eyes caught his own. Relief washed over her, and with a quiet smile, she left the food court with more spring in her step than she'd entered with.

Kanji arrived next, looking mostly unconcerned with the whole situation, which Yu appreciated. Kanji's sexuality was a topic he was not yet prepared to tackle, but if they could kiss without any hangups, well, then he was doing far better than others he could name on the Investigation Team.

But Kanji didn't sit down, even after Yu invited him to. Instead, he scratched his head. "See," Kanji said. "The thing is, you got nothin' to prove to me, Senpai."

"Thanks," Yu said, with a hint of a question.

"And kissin'... it ain't all that intimate to me. I mean, my Ma still makes me kiss her sometimes."

Yu frowned. "You want to do something more than kiss?"

"Yeah!" Kanji declared. "Uh, I mean, I'd rather uh... hug."

Kanji was still furiously scratching his head, his face a brilliant shade of pink that almost made Yu laugh.

Instead, Yu opened his arms wide. Grinning, Kanji moved right into them. Yu wrapped his arms around him. Kanji did the same in return, and they shared a tender embrace. It was nice and tight, just the way Yu liked it.

Just the way Kanji liked it too, as it turned out, because when the hug ended, Kanji gave Yu a warm kiss. It was chaste, but nice, almost like kissing a pet... though Yu had the impression he was the cat in this situation.

To Yu's surprise, Teddie was next. It turned out that during his work break, he'd caught the girls all gathered together and learned what was going on. Being Teddie, of course he wanted in on it.

Yu mentally shrugged and gave the bear a simple peck on the cheek.

And that was all Teddie needed. He danced around afterwards, enthusiastically proclaiming to the empty food court how he'd finally scored before racing towards the elevator, presumably to tell everyone in the store the incredible news. Yu shook his head wryly as he watched him go.

Yu knew Naoto's involvement in all of this was only for the sake of social experiment. Yu didn't mind, since it had pretty much become one by now. It was almost too bad Yu wasn't going to file a report on his experiences. It was surely some insightful information on the team, after all, but Yu respected his friends too much to do that. Naoto did too, and wouldn't expect him to do anything like that anyway.

So when Naoto leaned in, Yu responded with a soft kiss. It lasted a little longer than he expected, but it was Naoto who drew away first. The fond smile on the detective's face afterward let him know that it was exactly what had been expected of him, and he couldn't help but smile in return.

Last (but not least) was Yosuke. Yu expected him to be a bit, well, tsundere about it, kind of like how Chie had been, except with a lot more comments along the lines of "this isn't weird, is it?" and "but you're a dude!"

So Yu was totally surprised to find Yosuke calmly sitting next to him like it was perfectly normal to expect a kiss from your best bro-friend. He must've done his freaking out earlier when Yu had been kissing everyone else. The only things betraying his nervousness was how his leg kept bouncing impatiently, like he wanted to get on with it, to get it over and done with, and the way he kept running his fingers through his hair.

Yu obliged, giving him a quick peck on his lips and then pulling away.

Yosuke was frowning after that. "Is that all?" he said. "You don't have to treat me like glass just because I'm a guy. I want you to kiss me like one of the girls."

That's exactly how I kissed the girls, Yu almost said, but he knew Yosuke wouldn't believe him. Somehow, he had it in his head that Yu was some sort of ladies' man. It had something to do with the King's Game, or something, Yu didn't really know or understand it. He'd kind of blocked that night out of his memory.

Regardless, that meant Yosuke was expecting more, so...

So Yu gave him more. He pressed their mouths together again and moved his lips against Yosuke's in a way that left them both breathless afterwards. Kissing like this, as it turned out, wasn't as hard he'd thought.

"D-d-dude," Yosuke stammered when he drew back.

Yu smiled sweetly at him. He'd absolutely asked for it.

Once everyone had been kissed, they all gathered around Yu at the food court again. There was an air of awkwardness, broken by Rise speaking up.

"So, Senpai," she said. "Let's cut to the chase. Which one of us was the best kisser?"

Yu hunched his shoulders in a defensive posture. There was no safe answer to that question!

"Hey!" said Chie. "I thought this was about us seeing if he was any good. That's what this was about, right guys? Am I misremembering here?"

"Well, yeah!" Rise said. "We already knew Senpai was going to be superb. Like a top sirloin, you know?"

"Who's kissing steak!?"

Rise sighed. "I was trying to use an analogy that fits you. I guess it didn't work. But anyway," she hurried along, "We all got what we were expecting, right?"

"Maybe more than that," Yosuke murmured. When they looked at him, he pretended he hadn't said anything.

"Damn right," Kanji said.

"It was very nice," Yukiko agreed.

Rise turned to Yu again. "Well, Senpai? How did you like it? And more importantly... who's the best kisser?"

"It was pretty fun," Yu said mildly. "As for the best kisser, well... that should be obvious. The one that made me smile the most after."

They all looked at him, thinking. Wondering, probably, if the smile they received had been 'the most.'

Before they could press him for more clarification or ask him to demonstrate a smile, he left the food court. They could fight it out among themselves. He'd done enough for them today.

Besides, he had cats to kiss.

Author's notes: Please leave comments/kudos/likes/reviews on AO3 or ffnet! Reblogs welcome on tumblr too!