Chapter Text
Souji had never even heard of Inaba before he found his things and himself discreetly packed onto a train that would make a two minute stop in the sleepy, discreet town. Discreet. Perfect for sending a troublesome teenager to when you just couldn't be bothered to be a good parent. The ideal place to hide a delinquent son away for a year and avoid any scandal.
Needless to say, the plan had failed. Inaba was so discreet, in fact, that a pop idol had gone there to retire, a news anchor had gone there to vacation, and a serial killer had chosen several town citizens to string upside down off antennae like soggy Christmas ornaments. Souji found the irony funny at first. Send a troublesome kid to a quiet town where idols play and killers lurk. It was even more rich since the entire town seemed to see him as its personal golden boy. But the irony became less entertaining as he found himself starting to adjust to their perceptions of him.
It had started at school, but much earlier really. The plan had been simple. Act perfect, reformed. Do his time in the bumpkin prison and hitch the earliest ride out on parole. Impress his uncle's family with his good behavior to such a degree that his parents would pull him back to tokyo, where he belonged. Only, there hadn't been much of an uncle's family to impress. Just the rough and curt Doujima and the sugar-high little Nanako. The first day he'd been left with her she'd declared herself just fine on her own, turned on the TV, and hummed along to a maddening commercial jingle from hell. It had been so pathetic that he'd found himself making breakfast for her.
No good deed goes unpunished. A breakfast turned into babysitting and trips to the store, then seemed to spread like a rash into advice-giving and morale-boosting for everyone from insecure schoolmates to sad old ladies. He even found himself helping a fox that understood human language. But that was after Souji’s plans went awry. The best laid plans always do.
The first few days went as expected. He laid as low as he could in school and found that he was very good at observing and interpreting the people around him. They were all simple, really. Excited by a new presence from the big city, but he brushed off their questions with just enough response to not seem rude or garner any ill will and the other students got tired of the novelty soon enough. He gave them excuses, sometimes so bad that they sounded like total bullshit even to himself. The students would nod happily, satisfied that he must have things to do that country kids would never understand.
He'd go home after school and watch tv with Nanako until he couldn't take any more magical girl mysteries, then head to bed the minute Doujima came home and Nanako wasn’t alone. It wasn't that he disliked his uncle. Doujima was just gruff and a bit rough around the edges. While he seemed like a “dedicated” worker, he left his young daughter home alone. Souji couldn't help but notice the similarities between Doujima and his own parents. The likeness was enough to keep him from wanting to know any more about his uncle than necessary. Plus, his uncle was a detective. Souji’d never been too fond of the fuzz. And the pigs had caused him enough trouble. Enough to wind him up in Inaba.
Be a good student, lay low, and ask his parents to get him back to Tokyo ASAP. Anything else would just get in the way of his life waiting for him back in Tokyo. Anything else would be unnecessary and a roadblock.
Anything Else made its first appearance when it crashed head-first into a trash can while riding its bike past Souji. Anything Else's name was Yosuke Hanamura and it was loud, colorful, and more than a bit ridiculous.
Souji had observed Hanamura for a brief minute his first day of school and had decided it was enough. As he watched the boy's hands, feet, and ass flail above the trash can Hanamura had landed in, he felt embarrassed for the guy who, no doubt, didn't have enough sense to be embarrassed for himself. Souji thought of leaving the kid be but other people were watching and Souji was unlucky enough to be the closest person. He’d look like a dick if he didn’t help the guy. He couldn’t have girls whispering about how he cruelly left a classmate stranded in a trash receptacle.
Souji sighed, looped his arms around Hanamura's surprisingly bony waist, and pulled. Then had to pull harder. Beginning to feel embarrassed himself, Souji yanked with enough force to pull Hanamura out and nearly sent them both flying. After a few dizzy seconds Hanamura straightened himself out, stood up, and flashed Souji the dumbest and most personable grin Souji had ever seen. It felt like Hanamura was about to try to sell him a car.
"Thanks a lot, man. I think I would've been stuck in that damn thing all day. You're pretty stro--ah! You're the transfer student, right? Er...Souji, right? I'm Hanamura Yosuke," he held out his hand for Souji to shake. Souji felt like telling him that he knew who Hanamura was and where did he get off calling Souji by his first name, but Hanamura just stood there grinning and blushing a bit and Souji found himself thinking it might be a bit fun to have an idiot around. Nice Idiots always knew who was important in town. Souji could use a connection.
"I was a transfer student too, y'know? Last year. So let me know if you need anything."
That probably nixed the connection idea but, if anything, having Hanamura around would make Souji look better by comparison.
"No problem. Nice to meet you, Yosuke," Souji gave a small smile and squeezed Yosuke's offered hand. He had fun watching the guy turn even redder and followed along thoughtfully while Yosuke wheeled his bike to school, hardly pausing for breath between sentences. And so Something Else Number 1 crashed itself into the trashcan of Souji’s Inaba life.
Yosuke's constant chatter could get grating but after the first few days in Inaba it was almost welcome. The Doujima household was almost as silent as Souji's had been in Tokyo when he was practically the only person living there. Nanako got home from school before Souji but, besides for the low hum of her sentai tv shows or her occasional singing of the Junes department store jingle, the house was otherwise dead. From what Souji could see, Nanako did all of the house chores except making coffee and Doujima left before she was awake and returned home after Souji had sent her to bed. It was enough to drive anyone insane. Souji wondered, as Nanako beamed asked if they could go grocery shopping, if it hadn’t already gotten to the kid.
When Nanako nearly broke into tears one day when Doujima called to say he’d be late for the third time that week, Souji found Anything Else number 2. He'd ignored it thinking what his parents had always drilled into him-- family matters are matters of the family and no one should interfere. Souji watched Nanako plant herself in front of the tv set and diligently wait for her dad to come home, like Hachiko with cable TV. He couldn’t help but wonder if he'd looked the same way when he was her age. The thought disgusted him. Thus he made a habit of asking Nanako to make dinner with him. She'd lit up like a fog light the first time he suggested it half-heartedly and before he could figure out how it had happened, she was calling him 'Big Bro' and greeting him every time he came home. But it was good. Gave him credibility that he would cash in with his parents. And just like that Something Else Number 2 snuck up on him.
As did Number 3, the spunky and comically violent Chie Satonaka and her reserved and beautiful, if a bit loony, best friend (and Number 4) Yukiko Amagi. Those two were easy. The tomboy and the princess. The only complicated thing about them was their relationship. Souji had theories that he didn’t mind thinking about fairly often.
Though he'd veered from his initial plan of lay low, don't let anyone get attached, and don’t get attached to anyone, Souji figured he was still okay and could be friendly with a few people as long as his parents knew he was homesick. Not that they would change their minds due to some supposed emotional attachment to Tokyo. They just had to know that he wasn't causing any form of trouble, he had reformed and was now a reserved and honorable teenage boy who wasn't happy where he was. And that he would relish the chance to exhibit his new-found persona if his parents would only let him come back to tokyo and prove he was a son they would be proud to show off to important people.
It was easy. He would explain that the countryside had calmed him down and made him see the error of his disgraceful ways and, while the people of Inaba had taught him some valuable lessons, they were also simple folk who believed in things like red strings of fate and seeing soul mates in television sets. In fact, that was all the kids at school could talk about and, while his classmates were all very kind, was that the sort of backwards mindset his parents really wanted him exposed to?
It was perfect. He'd be quiet and bland in the letter he would write to them (letters were more formal and reformed than phone calls and had the additional bonus if him not having to actually speak to his parents) and he'd be on the midnight express back to Tokyo within the next week.
it took five minutes for his plan to go to shit. Souji listened from his upstairs room as Doujima spoke to Souji’s mother on the phone. Doujima gruffly remarked on how well-adjusted Souji was and how he'd even made some friends already.
It took no small amount of restraint for Souji to not punch a hole through his door that night. He settled for glaring at his ceiling instead and listening to the rain pour outside. As if the boonies weren't bad enough, Inaba seemed to be cursed with rain and fog that was thicker and drearier than Souji had ever seen. He felt trapped. And pissed. He flexed his fingers open and closed and thought about the kids at school and their willful ignorance. Even Yosuke who complained about the small town didn’t show any efforts to get out of there and never really talked about Tokyo. Souji had dared to hope that he had found someone that could empathize but all he'd gotten were goofy smiles, antics, and embarrassed looks. His other classmates were nice enough but he couldn’t help but look at them and see stupidly happy people.
This thought stuck in Souji's mind and he found himself growing furious. Souji ground his teeth, wanting to be pissed or let down but not having anyone to direct it at. Rain was pouring outside, grating on his ears. He stared around the bare bedroom and his eyes settled on the old TV set. It wasn’t a flatscreen like the one in his room in Tokyo. It probably had crap reception too. He hadn’t even bothered turning it on before. He sat there looking at the round and loppy reflections of the window in it and thought about his classmates. Their stupid rumors, the only thing that gave them anything to talk about.The rumor of the week was about TV. The Twilight channel or something. Midnight. And seeing your one true love on the channel at midnight or something equally retarded.
He thought about how his parents would have scoffed at the rumor and nagged him for thinking about it. He glanced at his clock. It read 11:56pm. Why the hell not? He waited.