Summary: It was burning. The only shred of evidence in existence to convict the true Inaba murderer for his crimes was burning, and it was all his fault. Accomplice Ending. Yu x Adachi.

Author's Note: This is my take on the Accomplice Ending. Do tell me if I did both the Protagonist/Yu/Souji and Adachi's personality justice.

Warning: Persona 4: The Golden spoilers. Rated M for graphic connotations and content.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Persona series.

Pursuit of the Truth

Created By: x-LittleMissAlice-x

xXx

"Even if we spend our entire lives desperately trying to grasp the truth, once we have obtained it, we must decide what we do with it; and that is, perhaps, the hardest decision one can ever be forced to make."

Unknown

xXx

It was burning.

The last shred of evidence in existence, the ultimate means to rightfully convict the Inaba murderer for his crimes, the final piece of the puzzle to bring this case to a close was now nothing more than a pile of ash.

The killer was standing beside him, uncuffed. The murderer was leisurely leaning against the table of the interrogation room at the police station, in a gray suit and tie instead of behind bars in black and white stripes. The one who had put him and his friends through hell and back over the past year was laughing without a care in the world, and it was all his fault.

"Hahaha! I can't believe you did it… You actually did it!"

It was over.

"After everything you and your friends have gone through and you decide to do this, without telling anyone else? It's just hysterical!"

All of it was over.

"What would compel you to side with me instead of your friends? Are you stupid or something?"

Now he was an accomplice, not the hero he was always made out to be.

A traitor to his friends and family.

Someone who had found the truth, and decided of his own volition to hide it.

No, not just hide it - destroy it altogether.

No one else would ever know the truth: no one aside from Yu Narukami and the killer himself.

"So what do you want? There must be something, for you to let me go free like this."

What did he want? Why would he do this?

"Is it money? Connections? Just name it."

There was nothing. There wasn't a reason at all.

"Or maybe there is someone you want me to get rid of for you. Is that it?"

Chie... Yukiko... Teddie... Rise... Kanji... Naoto...

"Come on, partner. You can tell me."

Partner...?

Yosuke...

Yes, he had betrayed them all and he didn't have a damn reason.

Not. A. Single. God. Damn. Reason.

"I... I don't know."

"Ah, ah, ah~" The murderer wiggled a taunting white, bony finger in the air, shifting his voice to a familiar playful and aloof tone; the same tone he had fooled everyone around him with so many times before. "You shouldn't lie to good 'ol Adachi. There's something you want, even if you don't realize it yet."

Why was he pestering him about this?

He didn't know. He didn't know!

"I just told you. I don't know."

The composed mask he had spent so long building, so long maintaining, so damn long showing to the entire world - the world that seemed to always involve him, as if it completely revolved around him - was cracking, crumbling, breaking. A hint of annoyance leaked in his tone, and he could have sworn Adachi's eyes glittered in excitement at the mere sound of it.

"You know, Yu..."

His voice dropped to a sly, seductive murmur. Those dark eyes watched his every movement: the unsettled shift of his own gaze, the minute twitch of his anxious fingers; piercing every mask and facade he had ever created, leisurely peeling him apart layer by layer, slowly but surely exposing him for the person he truly was.

Adachi must have known that little fact. A mischievous, sadistic smile wouldn't have tugged the corner of his lips if he hadn't.

"I have seen it, the way you look at me sometimes. Did you really think I wouldn't notice?"

It was the calm before the storm.

He could feel the metaphorical wind begin to pick up, practically see every word roll off Adachi's tongue and drift through the air - circling him, watching him, waiting to strike.

"...I don't know what you are talking about."

He couldn't avoid it. No matter what he said, no matter what he did that storm would only continue to feed off him, to grow and build and consume him.

Adachi knew it too. He must have known.

His breathy chuckle sliced through the tense air. A shudder chilled down Yu's spine at the mere sound of it.

"You really are a terrible liar."

Adachi's unnerving smile only stretched further.

"You know, I knew something was up since the beginning," he began, circling, circling, circling around him like a predator about to charge at its prey. "It just wasn't normal, a high school student like you insistent on inviting me over to your uncle's place and practically begging me to spend the night. So I started watching you more closely, and do you know what I discovered? Like a little lost puppy you would drop by the first floor of the Junes Department Store every day to see if I was there. And it wasn't just in the afternoon. Oh no, you would look for me at night too, by the Moel Gas Station, and whenever I told you I was on patrol and couldn't spend time with you, what did you do?"

Those deadly perceptive words were wrapping around him, suffocating him.

"I didn't do anything because I didn't want anything. I still don't want anything."

"Wrong! You did something differently, don't even try to deny it."

Yes, those words were confining him - coiling, coiling, coiling.

"What did I do then?"

The storm- a single clap of thunder.

That maniacal grin stretched further, and Yu's heart leapt into his throat at the murderer's next words:

"You would try to save whoever was inside the TV as quickly as possible not because you cared about them, but because you knew the sooner they were rescued, the more time you could spend with me."

His insistence, his words, his truth was snatching the life out of him - squeezing, squeezing, squeezing.

"That... that isn't true."

"If it isn't true, then why didn't you choose your friends over me?"

The rising wind, the pelting rain, the claps of thunder...

The storm...

It was coming, it was coming!

The stretching smile, the breathy chuckle, the lax unpredictable sway of his body as he circled him...

He was moving closer, moving closer!

"I-I..."

"Come on, Yu. Tell me. Surely you had your reasons. Why did you constantly go out of your way, going so far as to cancel your other plans, just to spend time with good ol' Adachi? Do you enjoy talking about nimono and annoying old ladies, or did you have... other intentions?"

Closer, closer, closer...!

"T-that was... I-"

"Come on! Aren't you the one always trying to pursue the truth? So just admit it! Say it!"

Closercloserclosercloser!

"There isn't anything for me to say."

"Can you be any more dense? It doesn't take a detective - or a detective's lackey, for that matter - to see the situation so clearly! How about I spell it out for you then?!"

And then, finally, the inevitable, anticipated storm-

A single clap of thunder.

Electricity sparked throughout his body as Adachi's cold fingers harshly grabbed his chin, jerking it upwards. His veins caught fire from the spark, rapidly spreading like uncontrollable raging flames as he was forcefully shoved against the nearby wall with a loud slam! And then Adachi - the killer, the murderer, the sociopath looming over him whispered lowly, huskily, darkly in the shell of his ear:

"I know you want me, partner, far more than you would like to admit."

He couldn't speak. He couldn't move. He couldn't breathe.

He was left helpless against the stirring storm in front of him.

"Nothing left to say? That's alright. I like it better when you shut the hell up anyway."

What happened next was not a kiss. No, it was an attack.

Merciless. The attack was harsh, ruthless, consuming - fitting of such an unstable storm.

He could feel his pale hand on his high school uniform shirt, tearing at him- yanking, pulling, grasping and pinning him all at once. Like a sadistic dictator he invaded his mouth, a foreign wet tongue exploring his hot cavern, twirling around and darting into the back of his throat. His hands pushed and shoved, flailed and punched but it was useless...

A mere human could not overpower something as viscous as a storm.

All his knees could do was buckle as he was swept away.

"Falling for me already?" his invader asked as he collapsed against him, intruding hands wrapped around his waist. "Surely we can find you a better use if you can't stand."

The sensation of the hard, uncomfortable wall left his back, and instead a hand gripped the collar of his shirt. It jerked him forward, dragging his weak form easily across the interrogation room before shoving him onto the stiff mattress nearby. He could feel the material dip under Adachi's weight as the man above him crawled on top of him. His lean legs trapped him, resting on either side of his waist.

"You should look at yourself! Who knew the popular and 'Mr. Perfect' Yu Narukami could look like a pathetic blushing school girl."

Sheer terror flooded throughout his entire body at a single sound:

Zzzip!

Oh God... He is going to rape me.

"Adachi, stop-"

"Or what? Are you going to call for help? For the police, perhaps? You know everyone already went home for the night... It's just me and you," he purred. "You sided with me. You choose me. You wanted this, don't you forget that..."

Yu knew from that night on he was Adachi's bitch. He murmured those very words in his ear, made Yu scream it himself over and over again as he took him, and Yu knew from that point on what Adachi said was true.

Whether he liked it or not they were...

Partners.

Thank you for reading. Reviews would be appreciated.

That's all then. Have a lovely evening.

xLMAx