* Author's Note: This is the Catherine inspired fanfic with Yosuke as Vincent Brooks, and you guessed it, Souji as Catherine.

Souji

Chrono Rabbit

The nightmares were getting to be really weird.

So weird that it was hard to believe he found himself actually spouting out even a hint about them to his girlfriend of all people.

"Hey, snap out of it!"

The incessant tapping and tapping and sudden yell broke through his stream of thoughts. The idle sounding chatter from the atmosphere of the restaurant made him realize just where he was and the slight glare from his girlfriend reminded him too.

"Uhhh…sure." It was common practice for him to space out, but never to the extreme point that the woman sitting across from him would grow concerned. Normally she was too busy scolding him for something.

"You know you've been more out of it lately than usual. Is everything okay? I keep seeing you go into that weird look of yours every time I look away and back at you again."

"Oh sorry, I uh, had to work early this morning." He rubbed at his forehead slightly at the half-truth he just told.

With that sort of smile yet smirk she often played, Yosuke could already see where this was going. "So are you getting anything extra for this?"

"Uh, for what?"

"For all this over time you're doing."

"Oh well, no not this time."

Yeah he could already see where this was going.

"This time?" She was starting to get the condescending tone in her voice as she reached for her tea cup. "So you don't usually get over time pay?"

"Well no-"

"So you don't get anything." And there it was, that sigh and shake of her head that he often got as a reaction from her.

Trying to distract himself, he went to sip his tea only to pull it back just as quickly from how rancid the flavoring was.

"Here, two sugars."

Almost as if on cue, two sugars were being dropped into his tea so he could enjoy the warm beverage to his liking. Seeing the way her turquoise-polished fingers dropped the cubes into his drink, it was then that he realized how strange it was to have her just know something like that and act on it without hesitation. It made Yosuke feel almost…uncomfortable.

That uncomfortable feeling instantly reminded him of how he felt the night before with that weird as fuck dream. When he woke up it was in a sweat and almost feeling like he had actually had to run and push all those blocks to get to the top and away from…those turquoise-polished hands that had been threatening to kill him. That was all he could remember.

"Hey Saki, have you ever had a dream where you died?"

Words really weren't a strong point of his. He always seemed to end up blurting out whatever he was thinking around her.

"You mean like…where you're in danger or something?"

"No, no…like where you actually die..." He flailed his arms a bit as if to further emphasize his point which was another strange habit of his. "You're being killed or something."

"No. I usually do the killing in my dreams."

All he could manage was a nervous chuckle, even more so at remembering those damn turquoise fingernails and that fork that had been like a huge ass pitch fork.

"Ha ha…That sounds like you."

There went her hand, slapping onto the table. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Yosuke shrugged and was about to say something else, but the woman had gotten that look in her eye as if she was about to bring up something serious which usually was on a topic he never wanted to really discuss.

"Hey, how many years have we been together?"

Shit, shit, shit, how long HAS it been? Crap, it's been so long I can't really remember, dammit Yosuke think!

"Hmmm…well then, lets see…how many years.."

"I'm asking you." She sighed. "It's just, my mothers been calling me up and asking how we're doing."

"Oooooh." Yeah the conversation went down that road he knew it eventually would. It kept cropping up every few months now.

"She's worried about me. She knows I've got a career that takes up most of my time but you know…"

"Yeaaaah."

"I mean, it's easy enough keeping all of this how it is now but…"

"I dunno I mean sometimes easy is for the best, when things get hard people don't tend to want to stick around as much. I mean, who knows what'll happen later on in the future and stuff."

"I suppose."

The conversation ended shortly after that. Yosuke ended up paying the tip only since Saki was insistent that after he requested to get some overtime that he could cover their next meal.

As he headed out of the restaurant and back to the other side of town on foot, he found himself reeling from too many thoughts at once. So much stress was going to give him a heart attack at this rate. He shot a text out to his friends, although already knowing they'd be waiting for him at their normal hang out spot.

It was times like these that he was glad to have just a group of guys he could release all his thoughts out on without having to worry about polished fingernails picking up a fork to try and murder him with it or even just the way her brown eyes would shoot him looks and sighs that somehow spelt out 'sometimes I wonder why I'm even dating you'.

Sometimes Yosuke wondered that too.

Stray Sheep

"Saki keeps telling me how her mother is constantly calling her. She says she's not worried about it though." Kou was making some random conversation in the background about a bet on a fight, asking for Yosuke's opinion which he was hardly even focusing on. "So what do you guys think?"

"Who are you betting on, c'mon pick one!"

"What? Women's wrestling isn't really my thing so I'm not all that sure." He sighed while staying leaned on top of the table.

Daisuke released a puff of smoke as the cigarette in his hand lingered between his fingers. "Sounds to me like she finally wants you to ask that one question."

"Ugh, you think so too?" Yosuke was frazzled now. If Daisuke was even reading the same signals then he really was done for.

"What else could it be?" Daisuke tapped some of the ash off his cigarette before continuing. "I mean, I've known you since we were just kids but huh, you married…can't really picture it."

"Hey, nothing's happened yet, and I doubt it will."

"What, you don't want to marry Saki?"

"It's not that." Trying to find his words, he moved to grab his beer then stopped midway as he started explaining. "I love her, but I don't think we just have to go and get married right this second." His arms started flailing again in that habit of his. "You know, we're comfortable where we are."

"Are you?" Daisuke raised an eyebrow at him.

"That's what she said." Yosuke sighed heavily. Leaning forward a bit more, he kept persisting in a defensive way. "Her job is pretty much the most important thing to her right now; you know she's always been like that."

Dotting out the cigarette, Daisuke shook his head somewhat. "Doesn't mean she's always going to be like that."

"That's not what I mean. Besides, you're single too man."

"Hey, I'm still looking for my soul mate; I'm not like you who just hides behind being comfortable. I've already told the girl I'm dating that I'm not interested in marrying her. Doing things upfront makes your life a lot easier."

"Oh then what if you never meet this soul mate that you're on about?"

Yosuke had never thought of such a thing. A soul mate really? There really was no one that there was someone out there that just aligned perfectly to all the things that you like and probably never knew you liked.

"Then I'll never get married, so what?" Daisuke responded back just as quickly.

"Sounds just like you Chief!" Kou grinned while nudging Daisuke's arm lightly.

"Anyway, did you hear about Ted? He's dead."

"Ted? Whoa-woah-woah wait-THAT Ted? Teddie Ted?" Yosuke couldn't believe it. An old friend from their circle of friends in college was dead. It was hard to imagine.

"Yeah and I heard he just went through a divorce, but he seemed fine and healthy when I last saw him. It's really surprising."

"What happened to him? An accident or something?"

"Not sure. His mother just found him dead in his room this morning."

"This morning…" Yosuke practically paled as he remembered waking up that morning. That cold sweat came over him again in that moment.

The conversation went from realizing that the mysterious death from the news coverage in the string of men that had been dying was related to the incident of their friend being found dead that morning. The worst case scenario of them possibly all dying too was heard. Yosuke didn't want to think about that. He was still trying to get rid of the idea of his girlfriend's hands trying to stab him with something.

He confessed about having pissed the bed. It wasn't something he was proud of, but that dream had been fucking weird. You'd never expect your girlfriend to want to stab you…okay so maybe not given how society was today. It was hard to tell with Saki too if she might indulge in her inner femme fatale. That's why Yosuke had yet to agree to move in with her amongst other reasons.

Just as he was trying to defend himself, he noticed the two start to get up to leave.

"Woah-hold up where you guys goin', I don't wanna go home just yet."

"So why don't you just call Saki and have her come here for a drink?"

"Nah I just saw her today." Those fingernails. He shivered. "Besides she'd only get mad and stuff if I told her."

Both men ended up going their separate ways and Yosuke was stuck in the booth alone.

Time went by slowly but with the few drinks he had already managed to put away, nearly two hours had passed. All the thoughts of what Saki wanted to do with their relationship, taking it to the next step, Yosuke already knew he was anything but ready to even start discussing the simple possibility of it.

"Man this sucks." He sighed while having just finished another drink to have another one brought out to him. Moving to check his phone, he noticed the time and decided after that one he'd head home. Was boring as hell just sitting there alone and the thoughts were starting to eat away at him.

"Excuse me, do you mind if I sit here?"

The voice from his left caught his attention. Looking over, he saw a man with striking features to say the least. His grey eyes were looking right at him, almost felt like right through him. And what was with that smile, holy shit.

Yosuke felt a strange feeling from the man.

But for some reason he found himself allowing him to sit down.

~ tbc.