Strong Fox

1

the arcana is the means of which all is revealed;

there was silence. and then there were light scratching of pencil hitting paper.

yusuke sighed, tilting his head to the side as he stared at his unfinished piece. it had many roses, lilacs, sunflowers and lillies dotting the sides of his paper; however, what he wanted in the middle was beyond his reach.

"stuck already yusuke-kun? you set a new record, it's only been seven minutes!"

yusuke turned quickly, his eyes connecting with bright (e/c). a smile painted his lips. it was only his childhood friend: (y/n).

"good afternoon (y/n)." he greeted, his smile brightening ever so slightly as you childishly tried to hide something behind your back.

you gave your friend a flustered (but cheerful) smile. "good afternoon yusuke!"

as silence crept into the room once more, the blue haired teen motioned to the hidden object behind his friend - who proceeded to give it to him confidently.

the object was a small box, with the words 'For Yusuke Kitagawa' on the front. raising an eyebrow, yusuke opened the box, his fingers brushing against what appears to be a book and multiple blank cards.

"what is this book for?" he muttered to himself, picking it up and examining it closely. the book was a certain shade of blue called blizzard blue, and multiple flowers were drawn on the cover. however, the book has no title.

"your silence worrying me..." (y/n) piped up, gaining yusuke's attention. "if you want, I can swap this for something else I made."

yusuke immediately declined, reassuring his friend that he loved the small gift they made for him. it almost reminded him of when they were little, (y/n) would always manage to make something new everyday. it's part of what inspired him to be an artist himself.

despite that his mind trailed back to stressful events, and the re-meet of both those shujin academy students (if he recalls their names were kurusu akira and sakamoto ryuji) - and stress painted his body like a heavy coat of snow resting atop the pavement on a cold day.

his shoulders sagged as he let out a sigh. "thank you. these gifts destressed me a bit."

(y/n)'s eyes gleamed with worriness as they helped the stressful yusuke to his feet. "stress? we gotta go somewhere where you can let out all that anger! c'mon let's go!"

🌼

as yusuke watched as his childhood friend set up the game he couldn't help but find himself telling them about what happened earlier. he could tell that the events made them conflicted, as their hands clenched into furious (but calm) fists - something (y/n) always did when they were hit with something negative.

"i can always stay with you until they leave," they suggested while handing yusuke the second player controller for the console.

the thought almost made yusuke's cheeks turn a shade of red, but instead, he only cheerfully smiled. "i wouldn't dream of messing up your schedule for something small like that." he waved it off with a simple shake of his head.

"yusuke..." (y/n) started, their fingers raised above the controller buttons. Their eyes concentrated on the screen in front of them. "my schedule and I are more than willing to chip off an activity for you."

their statement was met with silence as the blue haired teen tried to focus on the screen in order to do the best that he could. the game was a sort of contest to see who could obtain something the quickest. players start off in the farthest corner of the maze their set in and will have to make it to the middle, fighting monsters and other players in order to collect loot lying about.

if only one player makes it to the center, they are transported outside the maze and are asked how they want to shape the world - this of course changes if the amount of people who survived are more than two.

after encountering another monster, yusuke found himself frowning, though he did feel less stressed. with some effort his enemy was defeated, and he turned to see how his friend was doing - only to figure out that they had much better weapons than his own.

"how did you-"

"hmm? oh! I played this game from time to time so i remember a ton of stuff about the game." (y/n) announced, grinning as they pressed a button and their in game character poses triumphantly as they reached the middle of the maze.

yusuke lightly puffed his cheeks out. "i want a rematch."

(y/n) giggled and restarted the game. "okay then, try to keep up this time though!"

thank you strwberrykiss for helping me with this!