Chapter Text
March 2017
It was almost dawn when his phone started ringing and wouldn't stop.
The first call barely stirred him out of a deep sleep. With a miserable groan, Souji freed his hand from beneath a mountain of twisted blankets and slapped blindly at his alarm clock. The ringing coincidentally ceased at the same instant that his hand came down on top of the snooze button, so he heaved a tired sigh and rolled over, pressing his cold nose into the pocket of warmth that had materialized overnight between the comforter and his pillow.
The second call came barely a minute later, but it felt like he'd slept for hours. This time, it jerked him awake with a start that left him dizzy and sick to the pit of his stomach. No, wait - that was the start of a hangover. Either way, some combination of his movements and that piercing ringtone (whose was that? He couldn't tell. God, he just needed a good night's sleep...) caused the person lying next to him to stir and give an exhausted, annoyed little huff.
"Who the hell... what time is it?" Yosuke groaned.
"Dunno..." He wasn't about to get out of bed to go check, either. The city had been hit with a late winter blizzard out of nowhere this year, and their cheapskate landlord was still too stubborn to let them turn the heat up very far. Screw getting out of bed. Besides, if he rewound the events of last night - or rather, a few hours ago - he could be fairly certain that his phone was safely tucked into his pants' pocket. Where his pants were was a detail that had obviously not been important enough for his memory to retain.
"Dude, isn't that... Chie?" asked Yosuke, a second after the phone had stopped ringing again.
Now that he mentioned it, Souji realized that the strange ringtone had sounded an awful lot like a warbling midi rendition of the Trial of the Dragon theme. He didn't need to wait very long for Yosuke's suspicions to be confirmed, as his missing phone began to ring a third time.
"Ugh, it's like..." Yosuke rolled over and squinted at the clock. He needed glasses all the time these days, but they weren't anywhere to be found. "It's almost five. What the hell could she want?"
"Pants," Souji demanded groggily, as he reluctantly shoved the warm blankets aside and sat up in bed. He figured Yosuke would have been the one to have seen them last, after all.
Yosuke was absolutely no help, suggesting completely random places he should search while he prowled about the darkened bedroom, tripping over just about every object in the vicinity except the thing he was looking for. He tried listening to the ring, but it never seemed to change in volume, no matter where he stood in the room. It had stopped again, besides.
"Did you fold them up and put them away? I catch you doing that sometimes, you know. You're the only person I've ever met who actually folds his clothes while he's right in the middle of-"
"Shh," Souji hissed. A pounding headache was developing somewhere behind his eyes, and Yosuke's chattering wasn't doing anything to soothe it. After he finished chewing out Chie for calling so early on a Sunday morning, he needed some painkillers and a tall glass of water, and then he was going to sleep the rest of the day away. If he could find his damn phone, first...
It rang again, and this time, Souji knew where it was coming from. He headed to the bedroom door, opened it, and peered around the corner into the bathroom. Bingo. Right where he'd left them - in the sink, for some reason he couldn't quite recall. He fished his phone out of the pocket and flipped it open, already heading back to bed as he answered it, somewhat irritably.
"Chie... do you have any idea what time-"
"Souji..."
His already weakened stomach bottomed out at the sound of her voice cracking over his name. Yosuke didn't need his glasses to catch the disquieted look that he knew had crossed his own face, and he straightened up as Souji sank onto the edge of the bed.
On the other end of the phone, miles away in Inaba, Chie sniffled. "Souji, your uncle..."
He didn't remember the rest. Some time later, he found himself sitting on the floor and propped up against the bed, with Yosuke kneeling beside him and pressing a cold, damp cloth to his forehead. His phone was no longer in his hand.
"...first thing in the morning. Well, in a few hours, I guess. Okay?"
Souji groaned. "What...?"
Yosuke balanced the phone between his ear and his shoulder, and tried to quiet Souji by running his free hand through his hair. It didn’t work.
“Yosuke, get off the phone. I need to… I have to…” Have to what? Call Dojima? He wouldn’t answer. Not now. Not anymore. That’s okay, Souji thought, I’ll leave him a message. He’ll get back to me, he always does…
He blindly reached for his phone, but Yosuke took his wrist and held it at bay; it wasn’t difficult, with Souji in this state. “All right, we’ll be there. I’ll get my parents to pick us up at – hey, Chie, who’s … watching Nanako-chan?”
As soon as her name left Yosuke’s lips, Souji was up and stumbling to the bathroom, barely making it in time to vomit a disgusting mixture of alcohol and yesterday’s dinner into the toilet. He heaved until nothing else came up, until his stomach hurt for being empty, until the effort made his eyes sting and then prickle and then stream with tears.
This isn’t real. This isn’t happening. It’s a joke. There’s nothing to worry about. Everything’s fine-
“Souji…” Yosuke appeared beside him, and he jumped, startled. The water in the toilet was clear and clean; either he hadn’t thrown up at all, or he’d blacked out and Yosuke had erased the evidence. “Oh God, Souji, I’m so sorry…”
As he felt Yosuke press his head down against his shoulder, he tried to protest – he didn’t want to hear this, it was as good as confirmation that this was reality – but all he could manage was a tired, scratchy noise in the back of his throat as he buried his head into his arms and leaned heavily on the toilet.
When the sun finally rose, like this was any day other than the first one without Ryotaro Dojima, Souji and Yosuke were still awake, haphazardly throwing clothes into suitcases and not speaking. It was the first in a long string of restless nights that awaited them back in Inaba.