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obsidianfr3sk · 3 years

Text

now

Summary: “Now— do you like it?” Simon asked (still making jazz hands).

Oh, no, he liked it. But Simon had made a tiny mistake. And it wasn’t like he wasn’t allowed to make mistakes. It was just that… if he had a coin for every time Simon had made that exact mistake, he would have two coins. Which wasn’t a lot of coins; but it was funny it happened twice.

And there it was. Again. The infamous latticework pie.

AO3

Hello, friends! Obsi here. I want to start this author note by saying this fic is a birthday gift for Rita (@the-wee-woo-rita), a fandom friend of mine that I hold dear to my heart since the day they started to constantly appear in my notes and hasn't stopped since <3 Forgive me if I spent the rest of my time covering the birthday kid with invisible virtual kisses:)

Aaaah, Rita:') Feliz cumpleaños, amigue✨ I hope you have an amazing day and that you're reading this while your family and friends are giving you tons of presents and kind words <3 I gotta confessed that I noticed you almost since you entered the fandom bc you were always on my notes, so every time I saw your icon, I was like "Oh, Wee Woo is here <3". oH AND WHEN YOU STARTED YOUR FIC DKJFHKJFKJDF I wanted to read it since you started posting it, and when I finally could, it left me 💖💖💖. Not only because it's a super fun story, (go read it if you haven't, people) but also because I can tell you're writing from the heart and you're as invested in Hugh and Simon's relationship as I am skjdhksd one time I even cried because I felt so proud of you for writing it lol

I guess that you already know what this fic is going to be about. When you told me this is your favorite scene of these pair of idiots and knew I had to write something for you about it sdkjfhjksdf it came out really fluffy and funny, so I hope you enjoy it as much as I did <3

Never stop writing. You got this✨ Enjoy your gift!!

When Hugh first started dating Simon, he didn’t know if he wanted to marry him. If someone had asked him, he wouldn’t have known how to answer, and everyone would have thought he was a dick, when in reality, he just hadn’t thought about that. He hadn’t sorted out his life yet.

Not like other people.

She had her life sorted out. At least most of it. Hugh certainly wouldn’t have been able to take care of a child when he was that age, but from the moment Adrian was born, his mom was there for him. She told him she was able to know if he was asking for food, if he needed another diaper, or if he just wanted to see her.

“But how do you know that if he cannot even talk?” he asked her.

“One just knows,” she answered. “If you ever become a dad, you’ll understand.”

And it sounded like a threat. Because at that age, Hugh also didn’t know if he wanted to have kids or not.

Simon, on the other hand, did. He was a mess in almost every single area of his life (like him), but he did know he wanted to have kids and to get married to someone. And it wasn’t like he was trying to scare Hugh the first months they started dating. Simon didn’t talk to him about his plans for the future until they had been together for more than a year. The only reason he knew about them was that he overheard a conversation Simon was having with… with Georgie, on one of the few occasions she was able to take a break from her baby.

At first, Hugh didn’t feel something particularly strong about what he heard. He actually kind of forgot about it for a couple of hours, until he went to sleep.

In his dream— or nightmare, which was a more accurate term, he was in the kitchen trying to bathe baby Kasumi in the sink, but she kept playing with the water and wetting his clothes, even when he tried to tell her to stop. Then, he heard Tamaya screeching his name and when he turned around to see what was happening, Evander (who was the only one whose age didn’t change, so he was a teenager bullying a four-year-old girl) was trying to pluck off the feathers of her wings, with all the intention of hurting her. Kasumi threw more water at him, so he grabbed her, all wet and everything, to try to follow Tamaya and Evander to the living room and stop them from fighting, but then, Georgie, who was at least 9 years old in the dream, pulled his hoodie, and told him:

“This is for you—” and pointed at a newborn baby she had just left on the floor.

Adrian.

Her newborn baby.

“No, that’s not mine, that’s yours,” he said. “That’s yours, Georgie, pick him up.”

She crossed her arms. “You pick him up.”

Then, Tamaya started screaming again, and Evander was freaking laughing, but he couldn’t leave Adrian on the floor, so he handed a crying Kasumi to Georgie, asking himself why the fuck Simon wasn’t around the house to help him with the kids.

When he bent over to pick the baby up, Simon decided it was a good time to appear, spank him and ask him: “Where are my cigarettes, goldilocks?”

And that was enough to wake him up.

It took him a couple of seconds to process what he was seeing. Georgie was sitting on the basement stairs, feeding Adrian and singing a song to him. Evander and Kasumi were sleeping under the same colorful blanket, while Tamaya was sitting on the side of the bed, gazing at her friend and moving her head side to side, as if she were singing too.

“Hey,” Georgie called him. “Are you ok, darling?”

He opened his mouth slightly and when he was about to tell her he had a nightmare, Simon turned around and grabbed him by the arm, still asleep.

It was cute enough for him to stop being mad at him for something he did in a dream. “Yes, I’m okay. Everything’s okay.”

Maybe it had something to do with age, but the thing was that Hugh didn’t dream that often anymore. One time he told Simon that, despite that, he still had nightmares in which he couldn’t move his body but he was aware of his surroundings, just as if he were awake. Simon frowned and said that didn’t sound like a nightmare, but more like sleep paralysis. Hugh thought it sounded a little bit psychedelic and told him he didn’t believe in those things, to which Simon reacted as if he just confessed he was an Earth-flatter.

He couldn't quite understand why Simon acted as if he were some sort of dream expert. Simon told him it was because he was a dream expert, or at least he was more of an expert than Hugh was, since he got a lot more sleep than he did, and it was true. Hugh couldn’t remember the last night he slept without spending two hours staring at the dark and empty room, while he heard Simon’s body rubbing the blankets from time to time.

“You know, I don’t think that’s normal,” Simon told him when they were driving back home from the Headquarters. “I think you should see a therapist.”

Simon said that a lot, too. It wasn’t bad advice per se, but for some reason, it drove him crazy every time he said it, even if he didn’t show it (or at least he liked to believe he didn’t). He remembered that occasion, specifically, because he had had a particularly bad day at work when they had that conversation about sleep paralysis. Kasumi and Evander decided that was a wonderful day to act as if they were the main characters of their new show “Dumb and Dumber”, trying to convince him to get couches for their offices with a slide presentation and everything, and Tamaya was acting like a particularly angry pregnant woman that hated everything that moved, especially if that thing was Hugh. He hadn’t gone completely feral with Kasumi and Evander (even if they kind of deserved it) and just told them to stop trying to kill the last brain cell they shared, but even so, they reacted as if Hugh had done something super offensive and if he were the one who was wasting everyone’s time. He had been even kinder with Tamaya because, yeah, she was being irrational, but at the same time, she was pregnant, and being a dick to a pregnant woman wouldn’t have been very heroic of him. Still, Tamaya didn’t even try to get her hormones under control and was actually devastated when he brought her the wrong kind of gyro from the store. She even cried and took the rest of the day for herself, which was something she had the right to do, obviously.

But anger is a bitch and one of those emotions that takes the best of you, so a little voice inside his head that took control of his consciousness every time he got mad at someone, was telling him that he should ask Simon if his therapist had told him that it wasn’t normal to wake up in the middle of the night to see if your kid was still breathing.

Because it didn’t sound normal to him.

He didn’t do it though. Maybe he was too tired.

Being angry took a lof a lot of energy.

He was still curious about whether Simon had ever told his therapist about that or if he had normalized it so much, that he didn’t think it was important to mention it. He had been doing that since the first night he met him when they were still a pair of kids. The first night they slept together, in Simon's basement, he woke him up in the middle of the night and sighed with relief.

“Good, you’re alive,” he mumbled. And then went back to sleep, as nothing happened.

Hugh thought it was quirky and funny. Now he believed it may be a real psychological problem.

His suspicion was confirmed that same night after having that conversation when he woke up at 3AM to go get a glass of water and realized that Simon had left the bed. He assumed he was at Adrian’s room, so he didn’t think too much about it and went downstairs, without bothering to turn the lights on. After all, he couldn’t die if he tripped with his own feet because his powers would protect him (and if he did, it would be the stupidest of deaths and he deserved it.)

He took a glass cup (because plastic cups were only for kids), filled it with water, and when he turned around to go back to his room, Simon flickered, and he could see him right in front of him, with his dagger in hand, as if he were about to stab him.

“SIMON, WHAT THE FUCK?!”

Simon flickered again and let go of his dagger at the same time he started crying and hugged him while mumbling he thought he was a robber that wanted to “kill everyone in the house and then himself.”

Hugh could only hug him back.

Simon didn’t try to stab him again, but he still had a weird sleep schedule. Hugh, on the other hand, was sleeping a lot better now that his psychiatrist had shown him this amazing invention called citalopram.

A week before their tenth anniversary, he was about to fall asleep when Simon entered the room, got under the covers, and hugged him from behind, pressing his body against his.

“Si, it’s 2AM.”

“How do you want to celebrate our anniversary?”

He asked that question with the same tone he used when he asked Max and Adrian what they wanted to do during their birthdays. Or when he asked Nova if she wanted to celebrate Thanksgiving with them, or when he tried to convince Kasumi and Tamaya to do something fun for Christmas that year.

And Hugh answered him the same thing the others did:

“I don’t know.”

He knew being ten years married to the same person was something that should be celebrated. And he also knew Simon didn’t mean any harm by asking those things, even if they may have seemed a little bit oblivious to the fact that life as they knew it had almost ended during the supernova. Actually, he believed he asked them that because he was completely aware of what had happened and, for instance, he was trying to fix all the things the burning stardust had destroyed, covering the ears of the people he loved, hugging them, and telling them that things couldn’t be that bad if they still could have a little piece of cake to celebrate even the smallest of events.

That gave him an idea.

“I think I just want to eat cake with you,” he mumbled.

“Cake?”

“I like cake. Except when it’s wet.”

Simon snorted. “Do you remember when Oscar invited Adrian to his birthday party and he gave him a pound of cake for him to share it with us?” he asked.

Hugh remembered that. “I do.”

“And do you remember you hated it?”

“It was more milk than cake.”

“Pastel de tres leches,” Simon said, with almost no American accent.

In other circumstances, he would’ve found that voice really attractive, but now the memory of that stupid cake was too much for him. “You know, I think there is where the fucking problem begins,” he told him. “What’s the need of adding three leches? One leche is more than enough.”

Simon tried to contain his laugh and failed. “Why do you pronounce leche like that?”

“It’s not natural, Simon,” Hugh insisted. “Cake is cake. And cake is supposed to be dry.”

“Well, I loved it.”

“You love everything. Even those who are unlovable.”

“Oh, sweetie. You’re not unlovable.”

“I know. I’m talking about the fucking cake.”

Simon stayed silent and Hugh laughed to let him know it was okay.

“So you want to keep it simple this year?” Simon asked him.

“I think that would be the most… appropriate thing to do.”

“All right then—” he pretended to use his finger to write on his back “—No tres leches cake… And keep it simple. Something else, your Majesty?”

“No, I think that’s all.”

“What about gifts?”

“I’m a simple man. I like blue, I like silver things that look like chrome, and I like myself. Go crazy.”

Simon gasped. “Or I could bake something for you,” he said. “I could make a little dinner for us… with your favorite cake.”

He couldn’t tell if Simon was being serious, but he hoped he did because— that actually sounded really nice. “What about the kids though?”

“Pssh, let’s just put them to bed early,” Simon answered. “Max’s bedtime is 9:30 anyways.”

“Are you—”

“Let me do something nice for you,” he interrupted him. “Please.”

Hugh sighed

“I’m being serious. I’m going to make your favorite cake,” Simon assured him, holding him closer to him.

And then it hit him. “Do you know—”

“Of course I know your favorite cake, love,” he giggled. “Why wouldn’t I?”

Hugh wanted to keep talking to him, but he started to notice his eyes were getting tired and that he wasn’t going to be able to keep them open a lot longer.

Simon kissed his shoulder. “Are you going to sleep now?”

“Yeah. But turn around,” he added. “I want to be the big spoon.”

The next morning, while Simon was looking for his mask before heading to work, Hugh realized he never told him what he wanted for their anniversary, so he took that moment to ask him. Simon just said that he would love anything Hugh got for him, which was honestly the worst answer ever because Hugh was the worst person when it came to guessing that sort of stuff, and needed to know specifically what they wanted so he wouldn’t end up giving them a shitty gift.

But then, he realized that it was a gift for their tenth anniversary. And when he gazed at Simon again, he noticed he was already looking at him through the small mirror they had hanging on their closet door, with a small smile on his face, letting him know that he had noticed the moment Hugh remembered what they did each year during their anniversary.

There was a tradition Simon heard about when they were planning their wedding, that it was all about giving a gift made of certain material according to the marital year. He didn’t tell him about it until a year later when they were talking about what they were going to do to celebrate that year, and for some reason, they ended up talking about when they met.

Unfortunately, Hugh could no longer remember when was the first time he saw Simon. It was like one day, he just walked into his life, laid down on a twin-size mattress, and just started to exist there without asking for permission because he didn’t know where he was yet. And Hugh was staring at the kid with brown skin, brown hair, and brown eyes, while hiding behind a big closet he kept there, thinking about how to tell him “Hello. What’s your name? I’d really like to know about you.”

Too bad he always stopped at “Hello”. Too bad it all happened inside his head.

When he was a kid, not a lot of people talked about prodigies in a positive light, so he grew up thinking that his powers were something he needed to keep a secret for everyone and that he had to blend in with the other kids in order to survive, and there was no adult in his life that told him otherwise. But during the Age of Anarchy, the whole Council began to know more prodigies from all over the world, who had different beliefs about what it meant to be a prodigy. During patrol, Simon told him about this old European lady he talked to, who was also a prodigy, and assured him she would be able to recognize every single one of them even without their superhero costumes. When Hugh said that sounded a little bit dangerous, Simon laughed it off and added that what she meant to say was that all prodigies were made of the same stardust and that it was always trying to find a way back to the space where it belonged, that was the reason why many prodigies were drawn to each other even if they just crossed paths by mere chance.

If it was true, then it explained why Hugh could tell Simon was a prodigy from the first moment he looked him in the eye. And it explained why he wanted to be his friend so much, even before knowing that piece of information.

Simon did remember when was the first time he saw Hugh. Or at least one of the first times.

“You were sitting on the ground and staring at a bug. like a beetle or something...” he said. They were walking through the neighborhood, holding hands, and Adrian was in front of them, trying to get the hang of his new skate shoes with wheels. He had asked his dads to give him his space because he had seen another kid at Headquarters using them too and he was sure he could teach himself how to use them. “ And you were really concentrated, completely quiet when an adult came and killed it.”

“Fuck,” he whispered. “Like— on purpose?”

“I don’t know, they were just walking,” Simon shrugged. “But you didn’t even say anything, just… stayed there. And a raccoon walked in front of you, and you decided to follow it to the trash can he lived in, and when you tried to touch it, he and his whole extended family threw themselves at you.”

Hugh probably looked worried or something, because Simon tilted his head and asked him: “You remember that, do you?”

And he didn’t. “It sounds like me,” he said, “I liked beetles when I was a kid. Not sure about the raccoon attack though because I’ve always hated raccoons and getting too close to trash cans.”

“And have you ever stopped to think about why you hate that so much?”

“Because trash cans are a focus of infection. Same as raccoons. I would never follow one of those rats with masks.”

“Hugh, when you were a kid, I saw you eating cereal out of a bucket, I don’t know why you’re acting like you’re better than the rest of us for not following raccoons— which you did.”

“I did not.”

“And you know what I thought?” Simon asked as if he hadn’t heard Hugh. “I thought—”

“You thought I was a poor kid who needed your help.”

“No, I thought you were the weirdest fucking kid I had ever met. And I walked away.”

Then he winked at him, letting him know he was joking. But Hugh felt really offended on behalf of his younger self anyways. “And why do you remember that but I don’t?”

“I was invisible. And I wanted to see what you were up to.”

Then, Adrian fell to the ground and screamed “DADDY!”. Neither of them was really sure of who he was talking to, so they just helped him get on his feet again and told him he should be more careful, ending their conversation there.

That year, he gave Simon a card he bought at the supermarket that he decorated with raccoon stickers he found on Adrian’s backpack, and he even used all his artistic abilities to draw a speech bubble that said “I love you”. Simon also gave him a card, but instead, it was decorated with hearts and flowers and looked a lot more like what a card for an occasion like that was supposed to look like. They gave each other cards because the first-anniversary gift, according to tradition, was something made of paper. He could tell what Simon gave him every single year, but some of the honorable mentions were the leather jacket he never used because Kasumi told him that buying things made of leather was unethical and “not green”, a wooden figurine of the two of them he found at a local flea market, and a pottery coffee mug he did himself when he and Tamaya took pottery classes, which Evander broke one day he went to the house.

So, yes, Simon always gave him nice things. And he kept every single one of them. The card was between the album photos and newspaper cutouts. The leather jacket remained in the closet not to be seen ever again. The wood figurine was in the living room (and will stay there even after he was dead because if Adrian ever dared to take it somewhere else, like he had tried to do before, he was going to haunt him until he put it back where it belonged), and eventually, Evander glued together the pottery coffee mug and gave it back to him, probably trying to make clear he was really sorry about breaking it, without really saying it out loud.

It was a nice tradition. Especially because it was almost impossible to fuck up and Hugh could come up with nice gifts for Simon too.

And now it wasn’t going to be the exception.

That year’s traditional theme was aluminum. At first, he was a little bit confused because the only aluminum he knew about was the aluminum foil they had in the kitchen until he spoke with Tamaya over the phone, and she told him there were a lot more things that were made of aluminum other than foil. She had stayed at her house ever since what had happened in the Arena. Simon told him and Kasumi it would be nice if they took turns to call her one time a day to check on her, and that day, it was Hugh’s turn.

She wasn’t mad at him, which meant she was having a less shitty day than other times it had been his turn to call her. She even gave him the phone number of a place where he could buy something for Simon, that was not so far away from Headquarters. Before hanging up, she reminded him to make sure Kasumi was eating during lunch breaks and made him promise he was going to double-check, just because that's what she would do if she were there. After doing what Tamaya asked him to do (Kasumi started to eat her salad as soon as he walked into the room, and he stayed there until she finished the whole plate), he called the store and knew exactly what he wanted to ask for.

It had been a little difficult to pick it up from the store because Simon was always with him, but the anniversary was on Sunday, so he said that someone had called him to go to Headquarters and headed out before anyone could ask for more explanations. He arrived at the store a few minutes before they closed and the owner told him he wasn’t sure if he was going to arrive on time. Then, he proceeded to show him the final product, and Hugh thought it looked exactly as what he had in mind. The daughter of the owner put the gift inside a box and decorated it with purple wrapping paper and a silver bow, and it was ready to go.

When he arrived at the house, Simon was already preparing dinner and the kids were eating ramen in the living room while watching a movie. He put the gift on the coffee table and told them it was time to get ready for bed.

Simon and Hugh had always been good at assigning each of them chores to do around the house. When Max was living in his quarantine area, Hugh stayed with him after Simon and Adrian went home. He bathed him, helped him brush his teeth, and then put him to bed. Meanwhile, Simon cooked something for Adrian, helped him with his homework, played with him for a while, and when Hugh went home, he helped him with his night routine the same way he had helped Max, while Simon prepared tomorrow’s lunches.

Adrian was a pretty calm kid during bath time (at least most of the time). He would dare to say he liked it, probably a little too much because he didn’t bathe himself until he was almost ten years old. Max, on the other hand, was a completely different story. It was a lot easier to control him when he was a baby, but the older he got, the more difficult it became to get him inside the tub. He tried to distract him with other things, made a lot of excuses, and even hid under the bed so his dad couldn’t see him. Simon thought it wasn’t a normal reaction and that they needed to make sure Max was alright, but Hugh didn’t believe Max’s behavior was weird because when he was a kid he threw even bigger tantrums each time he was told it was bath time. He screamed while he had shampoo on his hair, bawled while he was putting on his pajamas, and sobbed for at least ten minutes after he was tucked into bed. At the ripe age of four years old, he went as far as running down the street completely naked because he was already in the tub, waiting for his aunt to find a clean towel between all the mess they had around the house when he decided that wasn’t going to work out and just walked outside the house, without wearing any clothes. A minute later, he heard his aunt screaming “HUGH, YOU LITTLE BITCH—” and knew he was in danger, so he began to run as fast as he could until he tripped and he was taken back to the bathroom (while he screamed and kicked, like the demon child he was.)

“Well, I guess it makes sense why you acted like that,” Simon answered, “but I want to make sure everything is fine with Max. For my own comfort.”

Simon talked with Max the next day, and apparently, he came to the conclusion he was just someone who thought that bathing was a waste of time, like Hugh did when he was his age. His kid just showed it in a less… explosive manner. Because yeah, Max had never thrown a tantrum because of that. Not at least until the other night, when Simon told him to go take a shower after he spent the whole day outside with Nova and got his clothes all dirty. For some reason, Max got super pissed at the idea of his own father giving him a reasonable order, and after going to the bathroom and taking off his clothes, he started to yell that he was already clean and that he didn’t need to take a shower. Hugh and Adrian were in the living room talking about some mundane topic when they saw a naked and almost maniac Max running around the house, and a screaming and desperate Simon with a white towel in his hands, trying to catch him before he headed out of the house and the neighbors saw him.

Simon almost had a panic attack after that, when Adrian finally was the one to catch Max and convince him to go take a shower, because in his own words, “you smell like a dead dog, my friend” (Adrian knew what he was dealing with because he had done the same thing when he was a kid). And Hugh didn’t want Simon to go through the same experience again, especially that night.

“I was a well-behaved kid,” Simon told him, while they cuddled under the covers. “I almost never cried. And I most certainly never complained about bath time.”

“Everyone has a childhood story that involves running around completely naked because you didn’t want to get on the tub.”

“I don’t… think so.” Hugh scoffed in response. “Actually, I was so well-behaved, one time my mom closed the car door and smashed my fingers, but I didn’t even complain about it—”

“You should have complained about it,” Hugh said.

Simon didn’t hear him. “I think maybe Max is just going through a phase.”

“Or maybe our son is a normal kid and you are the Antichrist for not crying when your mother smashed your fingers.”

And he whispered: “Well— maybe, I guess.”

Luckily, Max was feeling nice and he followed the night routine without causing any more problems, and just asked Adrian to read him a bedtime story. Forty minutes later, Adrian went back downstairs and told them he was going to sleep too (but Hugh knew he was going to stay up late talking with his team.)

Simon took a few minutes after that to finish the dinner because the dessert was still in the oven. Hugh waited for him, sitting on the couch, eating the leftovers of Adrian’s ramen and watching whatever thing was on TV, when suddenly had the feeling someone was staring at him. He turned around and even though he didn’t saw anyone, he still said:

“Simon, I know you’re there.”

And he got no answer.

Then, when he decided to let it go and continue watching TV, Simon was sitting on the coffee table, with the gift box on his lap.

“Can you stop doing that?” Hugh asked him.

“No, it’s part of my charm—” Simon shook the box a little, like a kid would do on Christmas morning “—Is this my gift?”

“No. I bought it for my other husband. But you can open it, I guess.”

Simon shrugged and opened it. He gasped and covered his mouth with his hand, but he still could tell he was smiling. “Love—”

“You like them?”

Hugh had bought a couple of aluminum wine cups, decorated with a blue and purple stripe on the top. He extended his hand to turn on the lamp next to him and then patted the space next to him. “You wanna see something really cool?” he asked him.

Simon sat down next to him, holding one of the cups. Then Hugh grabbed him gently by the wrists and put the cup under the light, allowing both of them to see the hidden message written on the aluminum.

He couldn’t exactly read it because he wasn’t wearing his glasses, but Simon could.

“I’ll forever choose you,” he read. “It’s what—”

“It’s what I said during my vows,” Hugh answered, “and I still mean it.”

Simon leaned against him and Hugh took it as a chance to kiss him on the corner of his lips. “I’m going to kill your other husband,” Simon whispered.

“I don’t think you got it— but actually you’re the other husband.”

“I’m allowing you to make those jokes because I’m too happy to pretend I’m mad at you for saying them, okay? Just wanted to make that clear, so you don’t go around trying to push your luck.” He continued looking at the cup and putting it under the light to read its message again and again. “Can we use these cups? You know— are they made for drinking or are they just decorative?”

“I guess we can,” Hugh answered. “I don’t see why not. Cups are made for drinking.”

“Then it’s a good thing I brought us wine—” he got up with difficulty and grabbed the other cup from inside the box “—Are you hungry?”

He really wasn’t. Adrian’s leftovers were enough for him. But he still had a little space for more, so he nodded and took Simon’s hand before he got on his tiptoes and put his hands over his eyes. “Follow my lead.”

Even after arriving at the kitchen, Simon asked him to keep his eyes closed. He obeyed, and a couple of seconds later, he finally gave him the sign to open them, appearing behind the kitchen bar and waving his empty hands with a silly smile on his face.

Hugh covered his whole face with his hand to hide the fact that he was laughing.

“Now— do you like it?” Simon asked (still making jazz hands).

Oh, no, he liked it.

But even if he did, he could hear his own voice saying inside his head to make sure to sugarcoat whatever he had to say about one small detail that, unfortunately, was the first thing he noticed because he was that mean.

It was an amazing dinner. The main dish was chicken alfredo, and there was a small basket with bread from the supermarket they went every week to buy groceries (the same one Hugh didn’t go to anymore because last time he had almost hate-crimed a cashier because… reasons, maybe). He had lighted up some candles they kept around the house in case the power went out during the night and there was a white tablecloth covering part of the kitchen bar. Simon also took the time to look through the garage for the chinaware they only used for very special occasions and that Hugh insisted on hiding it in the garage since he didn’t trust his kids and believed they would break it at the first chance they got. And he didn't lie when he said he had bought a bottle of wine. Actually, he knew it was an expensive wine because it was the same brand as the one they drank during their wedding. It must have been an absolute hell trying to find it, considering that ten years had gone by since then.

But Simon had made a tiny mistake.

And it wasn’t like he wasn’t allowed to make mistakes. It was just that… if he had a coin for every time Simon had made that exact mistake, he would have two coins.

Which wasn’t a lot of coins; but it was funny it happened twice.

During the Gala, there had been a silent auction to replace some of the stolen drugs. Hugh was going crazy, trying to make sure everything was going according to plan, but Simon insisted that, as members of the Council, they needed to support the fundraising.

At first, Hugh didn’t notice what Simon had done. He had a lot of things going through his mind, like what if someone put a bomb on the ceiling and blew the whole building, if Adrian had drawn a callalily for every single centerpiece, or if Max had asked him to buy him more markers and construction paper since last week or last month. He also was trying to ignore how uncomfortable the suit he was wearing felt, which felt kind of tight when he raised his arms a little bit. Plus, the lights were too bright, the music was too freaking loud for a formal Gala, and for some reason, he was sure he could hear every single conversation that was going on there, at the same time he didn’t understand a single word coming out of those people’s mouths.

But suddenly…

Suddenly Simon grabbed him by the arm and said:

“I got this for you.”

“Huh?”

“I got this for you—” and he pointed at something on the table.

For the split of a second, he thought that Simon was referring to the chocolate cake that was right in the middle of everything, that was decorated with small pearls of white chocolate and a cherry on top. Which would have been a really kind and romantic gesture because chocolate cake would always have a special place in his heart.

But then, he noticed that actually, he was talking about the latticework pie that was right next to it, inside a little transparent box with a golden ribbon around it.

It looked nice; but the chocolate cake looked a lot better from his point of view.

“Simon—”

“Yes, I know technically I haven’t gotten it yet,” Simon said while jotting down his bidding number on a sheet of paper, “but I’m gonna win this and we’re gonna eat pie, like the winners we are.”

“Simon—”

“Do you wanna be a winner or not?”

“Simon—”

Simon finally looked at him, still holding the pen he had used to write down the bidding number.

Hugh had reacted a little bit too late.

So he just sighed, rested his chin on Simon’s head for a couple of seconds, and then asked him if also thought the lights were too bright (“No, but you can talk to someone and see if there’s something they can do about it. Just don’t go all Captain Chromium on them.” “That’s not a phrase other people use.” “Kasumi does.”)

Now, the Gala wasn’t a memory he liked to replay inside his head constantly because while they were there, their kids were risking their lives fighting against people they shouldn’t even be worried about. He felt guilty when he remembered that he was dancing with Simon in a small corner of the room, where they were sure no one could see them (not because they were embarrassed or scared but because Simon didn’t like to be surrounded by a lot of people, and honestly, Hugh wasn’t in the mood for dealing with that either). He was starting to think “Hey, maybe I’m having fun” and Simon was this close to kissing him, but one second after that, they were notified about what had happened to Max and had to rush to the hospital.

It had been one of the worst nights of his life. The last time he thought about it, was while reading Max a book they had just bought for him (“Tough Guys (Have Feelings Too)”). Max mentioned something about Adrian taking him to eat pie that afternoon and “going all Captain Chromium” on him for something he didn’t understand but sounded like normal sibling stuff, and suddenly Hugh vividly remembered the latticework pie Simon had put a bid on.

They never got to eat it.

Which was good because he knew that if he had gotten to eat some, knowing there had been a chocolate cake right next to it that they could have gotten instead of that freaking pie, his night would have been even worse.

Not like your kid almost dying was bad enough though.

“Keep reading the book, Hugh,” Max told him, pretending to be disappointed after he told him that story about the Gala. “Let’s keep the trauma talk for Therapy Thursday.”

(That was how Simon called Thursdays now. It was the day the four of them went to family therapy. Everyone thought it was a stupid way to call it, even Hugh, but he always told his kids it was an incredible way to motivate them, that Simon was trying his best, and that next time he heard them make fun about “Therapy Thursdays”, calling it “$200 Nap Thursdays”, he was going to tell the fucking shrink and they were going to go to family therapy two times a week.)

And there it was.

Again.

The infamous latticework pie.

But when he saw it, he didn’t feel anything else but the impulse to laugh out loud.

“I like it a lot,” he answered.

“You’re putting on the sugar jacket!” Simon exclaimed.

“No, I’m not!” Hugh told him, still laughing.

“No, I can see it!” Simon insisted. “You’re doing it, you always laugh when you do it!”

“What are you talking about?” He cleared his throat. “I’m way too good at sugarcoating, no one notices when—”

“I’m going to keep calling it sugar jacket,” Simon interrupted him, crossing his arms and staring at him with narrowing eyes. “Don’t use that tone with me.”

“And I’m going to keep making fun of you for it. Imagine me putting on a sugar jacket, Simon. It would have to be a huge jacket. The house would be infested with ants.”

But Simon wasn’t interested in the logistics of keeping a sugar jacket inside the house. “It’s like what you did last week. Oh, yeah, Simon, that’s so good—” He scoffed “—I know you hated that souffle because I hated it too.”

“But I liked that souffle! It was pretty good, I don’t know why you hated it.”

“The more you insist on that, the less I’m going to believe you.”

Hugh sat down on one of the kitchen bar stools and hid his face with his hands until he stopped laughing. When he finally did, he saw Simon smiling, even if he was trying to hide it.

“Si—” Simon raised his eyebrows as if he were saying “Hey” with them “—Can I get some wine?”

He thought about it for a second.

“Just because I love you—” and he began to pour it into one of their wine cups. Then, he walked towards Hugh, and with one hand, he took his wine cup, and with the other, he pulled Simon closer to him.

“And I love this,” he whispered. “I loved what you did for me, it’s just what I asked for.”

Simon’s smile got even wider. “I know I said we were gonna have cake but— I know you like pie a little bit more.”

Hugh took a sip of wine.

“Because… you do, don’t you?”

So he left the wine cup on the kitchen bar, grabbed Simon by the waist— and he told him the truth.

“I do now.”

Before Simon could ask him what he meant with that extra “now”, he leaned over and kissed him.

Now it was not the time to talk about that.

#renegades #archenemies #supernova #renegades trilogy #hugh everhart #simon westwood #the warden and the captain are sitting in a tree #sorry but i had to complain about tres leches cake #i reflect all my hate for that thing in my problematic son lol #plus the chicken alfredo is a reference to royal jewels #and there's also a hcttr reference kjsdfhksdfj #and the story of the naked kid running down the street... yeah parcially based on real events <3 #one time i saw one of my neighboor's kid playing outside without any clothes on #it was so weird i had to ask my mom if she saw it too #and she told me a lot of kids do that so JSHDKJSJK #well now im going to stop talking-#tags are supposed to be used for useful things #dUDE I HAD TO LOOK FOR THE ENGLISH VERSION OF ARCHENEMIES BC A LOT OF SMALL DETAILS GOT LOST IN THE SPANISH VERSION #and i wanted to be as acurrate as posible x'd #ok im going to go now x'd #obsi's writs

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chiaki-translation · 3 years

Text

4th Anniversary The Key To Daydreaming: Opening The Future Door with You - Event Translation

Last part of the 4th anniversary event~

Link to the recording is here: 4th Anniversary OTFDwY

4th Anniversary The Key to Daydreaming: Secret Key / / Spring’s Door / / Autumn’s Door / / Winter’s Door / / Opening the Future Door with You

Disclaimer:

A3! is owned by Liber’s Entertainment

Director:

Phew…

(For some reason, everyone is playing a performance from their roles in the Mixed Performance… What’s actually happening over here?

A new way to practice?

But, I didn’t hear anything about it, they didn’t tell me anything either…)

Manager:

Director~

About the key, have you figured anything about it?

Director:

About that, I still have no idea…

Manager:

There’s still one thing that you haven’t confirmed right?

Director:

Eh? But, I have asked all the rooms--

Manager:

Look, look, it’s over there!

Director:

Over there…?

Manager:

Mankai Theatre!

Director:

(Hmm, it’s true that I’m not sure whether the key belongs to the theatre or not…

The manager told me to go and check it out anyway, for the time being, I’m going to check around)

Hmm?

It’s written “Unlocked” here as well…

(I thought someone might be careless to leave the theatre door open, but…)

Director:

…

(Eh? Someone’s inside?)

Excuse me, it’s currently off limit to any non-related personnel--

Hiro:

Speaking of related personnel, I’m one of them.

Zen:

A former one, it is.

Syu:

If you ask which one you are right now, definitely an intruder.

Kasumi:

Sorry!

It’s supposed to be a surprise--

Director:

I see, it’s just you guys… I’m glad.

But, what are the 4 of you doing over here?

Zen:

Isuke contacted me, asking me to retrieve a lost item he had found from my place.

I thought I could ask him send it, but he insisted for the 4 of us to come over.

Kasumi:

We settled on Hiro’s off day and we all came here together.

Syu:

A best-selling actor sure is busy.

Hiro:

Syu-san too, it’s just nice that there’s no performance going on right.

Director:

I see.

(I didn’t hear anything about it though…)

Then, that lost item—

(A projector…?

There isn’t supposed to be such thing in the theatre though…)

Yukio:

It’s supposed to be the courtyard next--

Hiro:

Good work.

Kasumi:

Congratulations!

Yuzo:

Geez, you’re finally here.

Syu:

You’re here faster than I thought.

Zen:

I thought you wouldn’t be here by today.

Troupe Member A:

Good work!

Troupe Member B:

We’ve been waiting for you!

Yukio:

Perhaps, this is finally the goal?

Hiro:

Yep, that’s it.

Zen:

Come, this is your award.

Yukio:

Woah, what is this?

An all-you-can-eat stew ticket? Alright! I’m so happy.

Hiro:

Oi oi… Are you serious?

Zen:

To be really happy over something that’s supposed to be a joke is…

Syu:

That’s why, I told you.

He’s not worth making fun of.

Yuzo:

Well, I thought this might happen.

Yukio:

Anyway, I didn’t expect to be able to see performances inside the dorm rooms after just picking up a key.

Director:

(It’s the same with my experience today…)

Syu:

Your face when you were opening the doors today was so interesting.

Hiro:

It was so hard for me not to laugh.

Yukio:

I can’t help it.

I was so surprised you know.

Kasumi:

We decided to surprise you to show our gratitude, and for Yukio-san, of course it has to be a performance right.

Zen:

Other than that, something that can make you happy is more or less just stew.

Yuzo:

That’s exactly the case.

Yukio:

Yeah. I was surprised, but everyone made a good performance, I had fun.

I think I cannot be happier as a director, to be able to be surrounded by all these wonderful actors.

Hiro:

That kind of thing, so you finally get it?

Syu:

You’re so slow.

Yukio:

It’s an improvement.

Next year, let’s get the Fleur Award.

I will definitely get everyone to a full bloom.

Director:

…

Zen:

That’s so nostalgic.

Hiro:

If I’m not wrong, we missed the nomination for the Fleur award, and we decided to encourage him because he was depressed.

Syu:

Kasumi gave a ridiculous name to it right.

Kasumi:

I don’t think it was embarrassing you know…

Hiro:

What was it again?

Kasumi:

It’s “Daydream Party”!

Zen:

… That was so embarrassing.

Hiro:

Daydre… Ugh.

Syu:

I couldn’t say it then, even now I still can’t get it out of my mouth.

Hiro:

A gathering of old men and party, really, you…

Kasumi:

Don’t say such thing…!

Zen:

Well, the plan itself was not a bad idea though.

Hiro:

It was a lot of work somehow.

Syu:

But, I didn’t expect to be shown that again in this kind of place.

Kasumi:

Furthermore, we are the recipient of the surprise this time.

Director:

Actually, it seems like they’re doing the same surprise to me--

Kasumi:

That key…

Syu:

Hmm, it seems that it’s getting carried over from the parent to the child.

Hiro:

Geez, don’t make it a tradition in this troupe.

Kasumi:

Haha, sounds like them all right.

Hiro:

Speaking of which, that means they’re all waiting over there aren’t they.

They’re waiting for Director to come.

Director:

Right.

Zen:

You better go quickly.

Hiro:

They will complain if you’re late.

Director:

Since you’re all here, why don’t we go together?

Syu:

We’ll just be the wet blanket if we come.

Hiro:

Yuzo and Reni also said that they will come over at night, once again, then, everyone will barge in uninvited.

Kasumi:

See, hurry up.

Director:

--Alright!

Kasumi:

…

Manager:

Everyone.

Hiro:

Oh, you’re here. The perpetrator.

Syu:

Anyway, I’m sure you’re the one who taught them about it.

Manager:

No, that’s not the case! It’s just by chance that the newborn leaders found the treasure chest with the tape.

It was locked, but I properly unlocked it--

Syu:

Ah, you were embarrassed because you laughed like an idiot and you sealed it away right.

Zen:

Speaking of which, the lost item that Isuke talked about, is it about this projector?

Hiro:

This, it’s the one we gathered our money for to buy right.

Kasumi:

We did it so all the troupe can use it fairly, it’s that one.

Manager:

Yes. A message from the newborn leaders, “We borrowed it for a little bit. Thank you so much.”

Syu:

Whether it’s by a strange law or just to be admirable…

They could have just use it without our permission.

Zen:

Surely, it was quite expensive, but it’s already old, I have nowhere to use it anymore.

Kasumi:

It’s fine for them to use it right.

Hiro:

But, this is also one of our memories… For their sake, maybe it’s better for them to try their best and buy a new one of their own…

Zen:

Don’t be stingy.

Syu:

It’s immature.

Hiro:

I, it’s not like I’m being stingy--

Kasumi:

Well, well, I understand.

It’s full of different kind of memories.

Hiro:

… There’s no other choice.

Let’s give it to them because they’re poor.

Manager:

Umm, there’s a continuation of that message…

“We’re grateful to take over it”…

Hiro:

So they’re ready to take it from the beginning!

Geez, what a cheeky bunch.

Syu:

It’s not admirable at all.

Zen:

Well, young people should be like that after all.

Kasumi:

I have to tell everyone to put that much into their performance as well.

Hiro:

You’re right. I’ll charge them the full amount if they don’t get the Fleur award.

Zen:

As I thought, you’re just being stingy.

Hiro:

I’m not stingy! I’m just trying to set off the flames inside them!

Kasumi:

Ahaha.

Director:

(I wonder if everyone’s really waiting for me in the courtyard…

I’m a bit nervous, but… I’m excited as well.

I wonder if Dad was feeling like this too back then)

Director:

…

(There’s no one here…)

--!

Sakuya:

Welcome back, Director!

Tsumugi:

Welcome back.

Banri:

Good work.

Tenma:

You’re faster than I thought.

Taichi:

Good work!

Itaru:

Otsu otsu.

Citron:

Congratulations dayo~!

Chikage:

Welcome back.

Misumi:

Welcome ba~ck!

Banri:

Anyway.

Sakuya:

To “Daydream Party”--

Troupe Members:

Welcome!

Director:

Everyone… When did you prepare all of this?

Kazunari:

We tried our best so we don’t get found out.

Muku:

I thought we wouldn’t be able to make it in time, it was so nerve wracking!

Yuki:

In the end we barely made it though.

Kumon:

I’m glad we made it in time~!

Homare:

Then behold, it’s the long-awaited prize.

Azuma:

To Director who managed to reach the goal safely, we prepared a small gift for you.

Tasuku:

I think you can already make a guess if you watch that video.

Director:

Thank you.

Is it okay to open it now?

Omi:

Of course.

Director:

(Dad got an all-you-can-eat stew ticket, maybe it’s an all-you-can-eat curry ticket…)

…?

This is… spices?

Tsumugi:

Eh, umm, they’re flower seeds…

Sakyo:

I’m sure you were thinking about an all-you-can-eat curry ticket right.

Director:

I mean, well, I thought it’s a continuation from the all-you-can-eat stew ticket.

Omi:

It’s supposed to be that at the beginning.

Azami:

But it’s going to be boring if it’s the same right.

Tsumugi:

We were actually quite lost.

Banri:

The opportunity immediately widens when we try not to stick with curry.

Masumi:

I thought I would be able to put a stamped marriage certificate and a ring inside.

Tsuzuru:

That’s too much!

Itaru:

A game assortment maybe.

Citron:

Itaru’s hard FPS selection~

Tsuzuru:

Director’s definitely not going to be happy you know.

Juza:

I recommended a dessert platter.

Banri:

I told you that we don’t know when Director-chan will come, so they might go bad.

Hisoka:

I wished it was a marshmallow tower.

Tasuku:

That’s just something that you want to eat isn’t it.

Misumi:

I wanted to add triangles inside as well~

Tenma:

Everyone’s saying their own preferences too much.

Chikage:

I also recommended spicy spices.

Tsuzuru:

I thought that would be something that you enjoy as well.

Guy:

In the end, we came to the conclusion that it would be more fun if the content of the treasure box is unpredictable.

Tsumugi:

This seed, we don’t know what kind of flower will bloom from it.

Director:

I see.

In that case, it will be exciting to see it growing before it blooms.

Sakuya:

We watched the video from the first generation, and the adults were laughing as if they’re high school students, it looks like so much fun…

Even when they’re adults, they were able to find companions that they can spend times like that with, I’m sure it was an amazing thing to have.

We were having fun watching them as well, but…

Even though they were aiming for the Fleur award, when I remember that they got separated before it being granted, it became a bit lonely…

Tsumugi:

One day, we might end up walking towards different paths just like that.

Banri:

The possibility is not zero certainly.

Tenma:

That’s why, we will inherit the thoughts and wishes of the first generation, and decided once again, to win the Fleur award one day.

Tsumugi:

The reason that we’re all here today, is all thanks to Director.

Banri:

It’s thanks to Director-chan who broke the door to our heart.

Director:

I, I wonder if I was too forceful…

Tenma:

From now on, towards our future, we need you to stay with us, Director.

Sakuya:

One day, when the seeds finally bloom, I want Director to watch over it.

Director:

Yeah. I will definitely get everyone to a full bloom.

That’s why, let’s aim for the Fleur award together!

#a3!#a3! act! addict! actors!#a3! actor training game #a3! translation #a3! 4th anniversary #spring troupe #summer troupe #autumn troupe #winter troupe

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colaloli · 3 years

Text

Talwar- Kasumi 2nd Anni 4☆ Card Story -part 2-

Saki: Kasumi-san, you did great on stage!

Kasumi: Hi there, thank you very much. I’m so glad that you went to see it~

So, what are your thoughts on today’s show? The story is a bit difficult to understand, well, that's what I think.

Saki: Hmm …… trying to understand what each of the characters are thinking might be the difficult part......

Kasumi: That’s why, the audience can have different perspectives of the show through watching the other teams' show.

It is an enjoyable story because it is all supposedly viewed through god’s eyes, but actually, it gets quite chaotic.

It’s not everyday that we get to see a show this grand, so I guess you could say that that’s the best part of it.

Saki: The production and costumes are wonderful, and including the complicated story, I enjoyed watching the show.

Kasumi: I’m glad to hear that.

The original “The Brothers Karamazov” is quite difficult to understand.

This is the first time I’ve read it properly, and I thought that it was simply just about finding the murderer of the father, but there was much more to it.

There are a lot of characters, and a lot of conflicts of interest. Even this mob found understanding all of it difficult.

The theme is also heavy. Abuse, the existence of God …… it seems like there is no redemption, or something like that.

Saki: That’s kind of true …… There were a lot of painful scenes.

Kasumi: Tragic relationships are a great spectacle to watch.

——That isn’t the case for the people involved, though.

Life is flatter than drama, but stranger than fiction.

If it is from the outside, you can just sit back and relax, and enjoy the story, but if it’s reality …...

Saki: (Kasumi-san…...?)

Kasumi: ——isn't it that! It’s enough to get hurt only on the stage.

Enough of that. So, Saki-san.

If ever you’re in a pinch, you can always count on this mob.

I've had my fill of painful experiences, even if it's just from stories alone. This mob will go anywhere in this world to help you.

masterlist

#fun fact: the 2nd anni titles are their items and yes Talwar is Kasumin's sword #1st anni was also like this gdi kasumi getting all serious ww lore foreshadowing max #blackstar theater starless #bsts #team c #blst #kasumi #translation

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the-himawari · 3 years

Text

A3! Rurikawa Yuki - Translation [SR] Spotlight (2/2)

*Please read disclaimer on blog; default name set as Izumi

---

Yuki: (…It was also like this last time, but there are quite a lot of questions this time.) “Isn’t it tough to balance being an actor and the costumer at the same time”, huh…

*flashback starts*

Tenma: “I’m not planning to tell you to stop anything… But don’t overdo it, alright?”

-pause-

Izumi: “I was thinking that it seems you’ve come to rely on the people around you honestly.”

*flashback ends*

Yuki: (I can’t deny it’s a lot of work… but I’m not alone now, right?)

-pause-

Kasumi: Thank you for coming today, Yuki-kun! It’s nice to have you.

Yuki: Yeah, nice to be here.

Kasumi: Alright, shall we get the interview started right away?

-pause-

Kasumi: Yuki-san is the first actor we've interviewed for this web series who also holds other roles at the same time.

Yuki: Oh, right, now that you mention it.

Kasumi: I was surprised when I heard you’re working as both an actor and the costume designer. Is it hard to balance doing both at the same time?

Yuki: I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t tough, but I don't want people to think that because I do the costumes, my acting is half-hearted, or vice versa. I think it's naïve to believe that I can be careless in one of them just because I’m doing both at the time.

Kasumi: As expected, you have strong professionalism, huh?

Yuki: … Of course, I'm only able to do them concurrently since I have the help of my friends.

Kasumi: So your groupmates from the Theatre troupe, such as everyone in Summer troupe, are supporting you… is that what you mean?

Yuki: …That’s right.

Kasumi: All of you really do share a wonderful relationship, huh? Yuki-kun, you’re working as both an actor and costumer… When it comes to stage, there are many people who serve as actors and directors or screenwriters at the same time. But it’s rare for someone to also work as the costume designer. What do you have to say about that?

Yuki: Maybe it's because I've been doing both since I first joined MANKAI Company, but I've never really thought of myself as unusual. Actually, more than that, I think it’s a privilege only I have to be able to enjoy both the fun of being an actor and the fun of being a costume designer.

Kasumi: I see. With Yuki-san as a pioneer, there may be more generations to come who will be active in a wide range of roles.

Yuki: I’d also be happy if that happens, so I'll be looking forward to the future.

-pause-

Kasumi: I said this before as well, but Yuki-kun’s professionalism truly is spectacular!

Yuki: I appreciate you saying that, but it's a bit stifling.

Kasumi: I’ll have to keep my eyes peeled for both Yuki-kun’s future power-up as an actor, as well as what you’ll create as a costume designer!

Yuki: Of course. I’m not going to give you a chance to take your eyes off me.

---

previous |

#a3!#a3! translation #rurikawa yuki #act! addict! actors!

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readyplayerhobi · 4 years

Text

Flower | 12

; Hoseok x Reader

; Genre: Fluff

; Word Count: 3.4k

; Synopsis: You finally decide to take a dip into the world of online dating and find the Flower dating app. One of the top matches for you proves to be a guy who looks to be your complete opposite; tattooed, pierced, a metalhead and oh…incredibly handsome. What happens when you throw caution to the wind and reach out to him?

; A/N: This one is from our lovely Hobi’s POV! He decided he wanted to take charge for a moment so...I hope you enjoy! :D please comment and send asks so we can taaalk :D

; Flower Masterpost

“FOR GODS SAKE GERALT CAN YOU JUST BLO- fuck, shit, cock sucker...ah fuck it all!” You hissed in anger, clenching the Playstation 4 controller in your hands tighter and shaking it wildly as your character, Geralt, died. It turned out that Hoseok had Witcher 3 and after binge-watching all of the Netflix Witcher show, you’d begged him to bring it over so you could play it.

Today he’d finally brought it, the small case catching his eye as he was grabbing his backpack and he’d quickly stuffed it inside. He’d promised to bring it two times already and two times he’d forgotten. Not today though, today he’d been good and remembered it.

That had been four hours ago, and you’d been gripped by the game since. In fact, you’d barely even stopped to take a drink, eyes focused intently on the screen as you fought, magicked and cursed your way free of fights in the virtual world. Needless to say, you were very enthralled by the game which in turn meant you had gotten progressively louder as you’d died from stupid things.

Not that you were dying because of anything you’d been doing of course. No, it was just your character was doing silly things like not blocking or swinging when you told him to. That was it. Hoseok had been assured by you many times at the start when he’d got a little concerned about how into the game you were getting.

That had been at the start though, and you were now so into the game, so unaware of your surroundings, that it was almost like Hoseok wasn’t actually here in the room with you. Your eyes remained glued to the screen the whole time. Which meant that you didn’t see the way he’d been pouting a little, starved of your attention as he played around on his phone aimlessly in an effort to entertain himself.

Hoseok loved watching people play games, he really did, but he was bored today. He wanted your attention; a novel concept to him as he’d never dated anyone who was more into video games than he was. Being on the other side of someone who avidly loved gaming was unusual and though he didn’t hate it...he just a bit like a child.

There was only so much playing with Kasumi he could do. And sure, he could read the book he’d found in your bookcase a few days ago or even play on your Switch while you entertain yourself, but he didn’t want that. He wanted to do something with you. He wanted to talk to you, listen to you talk and laugh with you.

He was being a brat basically, being a child about it. But despite that, he was also fully amused by your reaction to the game. This was the first time he’d ever seen you play a video game like this and the fact you became so fully immersed in it was exceptionally entertaining.

Why he was surprised about that, he didn’t really know. You most definitely had the personality of someone who would commit themselves to something 100% when they found a thing that was truly interesting to them. Just looking at the abundance of Pokémon around your apartment told him that.

But still...he wasn’t sure why he had such a strong desire for your attention. He was never normally like this with relationships, though admittedly he hadn’t had a relationship extend past three months in a while now. Not for lack of trying of course, but he’d just never quite found someone to click with.

And at the risk of sounding like an old man, at the age of 28, he wasn’t really interested in investing his time and effort into someone who he could already tell he didn’t particularly care for. Hoseok felt like there were three types of people by his age; those who had found love and were happy and content in it, those who weren’t interested in dating and were focusing on themselves and those who were in a relationship purely for the sake of it.

The first group had already started marrying and having babies, Namjoon and Jimin for example, while the second group showed no interest in any of that. Which was perfectly fine obviously. Taehyung and Yoongi were prime examples of people who had no interest and didn’t seem to show any indication of wanting to show interest.

But Hoseok didn’t want to be in the third group, dating just for the sake of dating. He’d done that for years now, had one-night-stands throughout his college years, and maybe even a few he definitely regretted in the end stages of high school. So he wanted what some of his friends had found.

And he’d found that with you, which had been beyond surprising to him. You were most definitely not who he would have picked as his first choice to date, which sounded bad but he was just being honest. He hadn’t thought that he liked girls who liked cute things, nor had he thought he’d had the temperament and patience to put up with your anxieties and stresses.

He had though, finding within himself a deep need to make you happy and experiencing enjoyment at how slow things were progressing. His friends found it wild that everything was moving at a glacial pace and that Jung Hoseok of all people was going along with it and not complaining. But he liked it, he liked discovering your little quirks and traits slowly.

It was like unwrapping a present, with each new thing he learnt about you being his present. And he loved it so much. Which meant that he enjoyed learning this new thing about you, or rather how intense you got in video games you liked.

But still...he wanted your attention.

He was like a child; a whiny and petulant toddler. He knew this, but he couldn’t stop. Almost didn’t want to.

Which is why he was slowly inching his way over to you on the couch, hoping that his slow movements would catch your attention. It was only when he was almost on top of you that he realised it wasn’t working, causing him to sigh deeply and flop back against the couch in what could politely be called a mantrum.

“Do you want me to order food? Or make food? I can make it...can’t guarantee it tastes great but I can make it.” Hoseok asked, his voice light as he questions you. And it’s like he never spoke with the quiet ‘hmm’ you give back to him.

His bottom lip pushes out once more as he opens up his takeout app, inputting your address and ordering pizza for you both. There was no need to ask what you wanted, he knew what you liked by now.

A sudden outburst of unintelligible noises from you causes him to look up with an amused quirk of his brow, watching as your face scrunched in annoyance as you shake your controller at the screen again, teeth gritted together. And suddenly, he’s not bothered that you’re not paying attention to him anymore. Not when you look that cute.

Slowly, he’s not entirely sure why he’s doing it quietly as well when you’re paying zero attention to him, he opens the camera on his phone and angles it towards you with a smile. He takes a few careful seconds to get the best angle before pressing the button, the shutter noise unnoticed by him as he checks on the photo.

Tongue sticking out of the side of his mouth slightly, he hums to himself as he opens up the photo editing app he has on his phone and begins to edit it. Shifting the exposure, contrast and more, he turns what could’ve been a boring photo into something befitting you.

“Did you just take a photo of me?” You ask suddenly, causing him to look up with wide eyes. For a moment, he’s too startled to speak before he gives a playful scowl, poking your side with a finger.

“Oh, so now you listen to me? Huh?” He teases, sticking his tongue out at you. Your eyes drop to it slightly before skittering away quickly, causing him to smile internally. Hoseok was not as immune to your glances and movements as you thought he was. He just chose not to do anything about them because he didn’t want to push you.

“I was listening...you just weren’t saying anything interesting…” The words trail off halfway through you saying them, as if you realise how offensive they could come off. Immediately your eyes widen, mouth opening in what he’s positive is an apology. He’d normally let you, knowing it would soothe your anxieties to know that you’d said sorry to him but he doesn’t care today. It didn’t bother him.

“I’m not gonna argue with you. But yeah, I took a picture. You looked cute, all focused. I never realised you become dead to the world basically when playing a game. I’ve been lonely.” Hoseok makes his eyes go big, an earnest look being matched with slightly pouting lips to give you a face of pure innocence.

It doesn’t work evidently, given the way you roll your eyes at him. But it gets a smile out of you so he considers that a win.

“Hoseok...I don’t really like my photo being taken…” You whine quietly, fingers playing with the controller nervously. Over the last four months, Hoseok had learnt to analyse your body's movements carefully. They spoke your inner thoughts more than your mouth did and he could tell that you were feeling anxious.

“Hey, hey...come here. Look at it...see I edited it! You’re gorgeous!” He turns his phone to let you see, smiling brightly at you as your eyes glance over it. Lower lip being chewed slowly, your shoulders deflate as you push it back.

“No I’m not, I look fat and ugly. I don’t have a good side.” Silence falls after that statement, Hoseok’s mind frozen in sheer disbelief at your words. He wants to sigh heavily, shout at you that you’re wrong. Every part of him wants to shake you and make you see that you’re beautiful, flaws and all.

But he doesn't because he knows you wouldn’t like it. So instead he purses his lips, smacking them and making a noise as he tries to figure out a way to tell you that actually, you’re an idiot. He doesn’t want to hurt you though, so he knows that he has to tread a fine line.

Shuffling close, he presses himself to your side and holds up the phone to you, showing the photo once more. “I want to argue you with so bad right now, but all I’ll say is...you’re wrong. I think you’re pretty, cute even. Look at that scowl, it’s adorable. And look, you’ve seen the double chin I get when I’m laid down.”

“Oh please, as if that makes you look bad. You know you’re gorgeous, look at you.” You gesture at all of him, and he sighs, wrapping his arms around you tightly and kissing you all over your face until you’re no longer whining but giggling loudly. He doesn’t stop though, making the most over exaggerated noises as he does so.

“Oh no, oh no, the travesty of having to kiss this beautiful face. Oh please, I can’t handle it. It’s such a trial for me, to have to do this. Why couldn’t they give me someone less pretty? But it’s only fair that someone with my looks gets to kiss someone like you.” He gets the words out loudly between kisses, half laughing as he does it and fully enjoying the way that you practically shriek with laughter beneath him, body shaking.

Stopping, he just watches you for a moment with a soft smile, enjoying the brightness in your eyes that has replaced the fear and self-loathing. He really wishes that he could show you how he sees you compared to how you see yourself, but he supposes he’ll just settle for showering you with affection.

“Look...seriously...I like this.” He says quietly, resting his head on your shoulder as he shows you the photo once more. You don’t say anything this time, just look at the screen quietly with your head resting against his own. “Do you want me to delete it though? I will if you want.”

“No...if you like it...I just...I don’t have pictures taken often of me. I don’t really like it because I never really think I look good. It takes at least fifteen tries to get one I find acceptable for Instagram.” Chewing his lip, he sighs as he wavers on what to do. He doesn’t want to do something that will make you unhappy, but at the same time...he loves photography. And he wants to photograph you so badly.

Proper photographs too, with his DSLR that he’ll edit with Photoshop on his laptop. He just knows that he can take photos that even you will love and he truly thinks they’ll be some of his best work yet. There’s no way he can go wrong when he has such a beautiful muse here.

“Seriously Hoseok, it’s okay. You can keep it. You have nice editing skills.” Smiling, he clicks through the menu options on his phone before he’s moving the photo slightly, setting it at the right size and centralizing it before saving it as his home screen. It’s only then that you realise what he’s done, eyes widening.

“Did you just make that your home screen?” You ask incredulously and he snorts, nodding with a grin as he shows you with pride. Carefully, he moves his app icons around until you’re no longer covered by them, letting him see you perfectly every time he unlocks his phone. He loves it.

“Yes I did, and it’s perfect. I’ve been wanting a photo of you for a while,” Glancing over at you, he smirks ever so slightly. “I know you’ve got a picture of me as your home screen. The one of me at Namjoon’s barbeque last year where I’m looking away. Jungkook took it and I had it for my Facebook profile for a while.”

The squirm you do let’s him know that you’re probably dying inside but he’s far too amused and pleased with himself over this. Honestly his chest had probably swollen three sizes in pride and ego when he’d glimpsed it the other day. There was something oddly satisfying at knowing you had him on your phone.

And now he had you.

Eyes widening suddenly, he shifts upwards to give you with a shocked look. “I just realised...we’ve never taken a selfie together! If you’re okay with that.”

“I don’t really take them often...you’ve seen my Instagram.” Snorting, he rolls his eyes and moves until he’s sitting up against you, wrapping his arm around your shoulder and hugging you to him. You don’t push him away though, nor do you tell him not to take one.

“That’s a fucking travesty. You should bless the world with your face more. And you spend all that time doing that makeup!” Now it’s your turn to roll your own eyes, pushing at him lightly.

“I do that because I like it, not because I want to show off.” He opens up the camera app once more, shifting the camera to be front facing and watching as his screen fills up with your faces.

“Well you should show off. You’re really talented with it and I’m sure there’s loads of people that would like to see more of it. There’s like...a whole section of Instagram dedicated to it. I know, cos I looked after I saw your pictures. You could be like...the next NikkieTutorials or Tati Westbrook!” It’s only because of the camera facing you both that he sees your incredulous expression, brows furrowing in surprise before they morph into amusement.

“Have you been watching beauty YouTubers?” Glancing at you, he shrugs uncaringly.

“You like them, so I figured I’d see what they’re about. Not really my thing but at least I half understand what you’re talking about when you bang on about primers and toners and all that shit. Besides, I have discovered that they apparently live scandalous lives and I’m oddly entertained by all the drama even though I have no idea who they are.” Hoseok says absentmindedly, mind drifting back to all those drama videos he’d accidentally ended up watching when he fell down the YouTube rabbit hole one night.

You let out a peal of laughter, the sound bright and happy and it makes his stomach twist slightly to hear it. He likes your laughter.

“Oh my god, I can’t believe you actually watched that. So does this mean we can watch drama channels when you’re here?” Letting out a deep and bone weary sigh, he nods slowly before leaning over to kiss your cheek.

As he does so, he quickly angles the phone and snaps a photo of you both. You don’t realise what he’s done at first until he brings the screen for you to look at, grinning down at the image of you both that has been immortalised in high quality pixels.

You’re laughing still, mouth stretched into a wide smile of joy while your eyes are closed, the skin around them creased ever so slightly from happiness. His side profile is clearly evident, the gentle lighting of your room surprisingly good for this picture and his lips are pressed firmly to the soft skin of your cheek, lip ring shifted into view from the movement.

There’s no makeup on your face and you’re wearing an oversized white shirt with Kirby on it while he’s in his usual band shirt. The difference between you both is startling, but it makes his heart flutter a little oddly as he looks at it with a gentle smile.

Looking over at you, he realises that you haven’t said anything about it and he worries that you’re unhappy with the photo. Instantly, he stresses that maybe he’d done a bad thing and he’s about to apologise to you, chastened by his excitement.

But then you give him a shy smile, leaning into him and burrowing your head into the space between his neck and shoulder. “I...I actually like that. It looks...nice. Though you should probably edit it, edit my flaws and all that.”

Giving you a deadpan expression, he just pushes at your shoulder before rolling his eyes. “I’m going to forget I heard that. So...anyway.”

Despite what he said though, he does edit it and shows you what he uses and what he thinks the best edit would be. He lets you play around with the editing too, smiling as you make the photo look horrific by maxing out different sliders before letting him edit it exactly how he wants.

And then once he’s done, he goes onto Facebook and uploads it as his new profile picture.

The stunned silence from you has him looking over cautiously, taking in your shocked face which soon quickly morphs into shyness. It makes his chest hurt a little to see how you react to something as simple as him changing his profile picture to a picture of you both.

He doesn’t say anything though, recognising this as a moment that you’d need to work through it yourself. So instead, he presses his lips to your cheek once more before using his fingers to tilt your face towards his, capturing your lips with his. The movement is bordering on natural now, four months into your relationship.

“So...I ordered pizza which should be arriving soon. Think you might want to take a break?” Hoseok asks, nodding towards the screen where Geralt has been stood quietly for the last ten minutes as he’d distracted you successfully. Pursing your lips, you consider for a moment before shaking your head with a grin, picking up your controller once more.

And that’s when he realises that you had been paying attention to him the whole time. You’d just been refusing to give in to his whining. He almost says something before shaking his head with an exasperated smile, getting up when your doorbell goes off.

Well played, he thought to himself as he took the pizza boxes before standing for a few moments and watching as you became involved once more, well played indeed.

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birdylion · 3 years

Text

I'm enjoying ME2 a lot so far. It feels like I play it faster than ME1 - seeing as I have already recruited Mordin, Garrus, Zaeed and Kasumi and haven't taken the time to write about any of it until now.

First, while it was a joy to see Joker and Dr. Chakwas again, it was kind of disheartening to see that so many people were so frustrated by the Alliance that they went and joined Cerberus of all things. I still don't trust Cerberus, I don't want to work with them, so seeing that those people signed up because of reasons that don't seem that big to me kind of makes me sad. (But then, they're big to them, and I don't want to judge that.) Although I do enjoy having friendly faces around.

Seeing Tali in the colony we were investigating made me very happy. To see that she's still out there, and doing fine, was great. She seems much more confident here than back in the original Normandy. Although the first thing we learned about her back then was that she could handle herself, so maybe it's just the fact that now she isn't intimidated by the Normandy's engine any more? Okay and she's with other Quarians so maybe she is not as lonely and isolated as she seemed on the Normandy. Anyway, it was great seeing her. Of course, I let the Quarian who had survived the Collectors' attack go with her. There's no way I'm handing someone who is not human over to Cerberus. They'd probably just experiment on them.

In the news (I think on Omega) I heard something about Shepard's mum. It would be nice to let her know Shepard is alive.

I think I like Omega. There's something about how these seedy places are shown that ... actually give them a quite comfy atmosphere. (I felt similarly about Kadara in ME Andromeda. And I was playing a very professional/logical Ryder.) I liked talking to Aria. The thing with Patriarch was interesting, especially talking to Aria afterwards. The words she used - "better luck next time" - were the exact same that Aleena said to Wrex when he told their story back in ME1, so until I see evidence to the contrary, I'm going to assume that Aleena became Aria. I feel like maybe she could be a good ally for Shepard. My Shepard certainly wants to build alliances with people outside of Cerberus. I love the music in both levels of Afterlife.

Between the two big recruiting missions, I did "Archangel" first. I already knew that it was going to be Garrus, so that wasn't a surprise. I like how the whole thing was built up. Gathering intel as a simple hired gun, and using that to be prepared for getting out - nice. Sadly, I did not manage to hack the big mech thing, as I hadn't understood the hacking mechanism yet. I liked the reunion between Garrus and Shepard a lot. Seeing a friend again was really good, and I got the feeling that Garrus truly missed Shepard (likewise, of course, but Garrus had two more years of separation, and Shepard simply woke up in a strange place). I liked their banter, especially the bit about having someone at your side when you're walking into hell. The fighting was really hard this time. I don't like close quarter combat. "Doors and corners" ... Also, I miss the maps you had in ME1. For quite some time I didn't find the second and third door down in the tunnels because I didn't notice that I could jump over the barricades. A map would have been helpful, if only to see that there is a way. It took me a bit longer to understand the direction marker on my radar. But in the end, I managed it with dying only once, so it went alright, all in all. When I was back with Garrus and he was fighting against the Krogan, I made good use of my tactical cloak. The Krogan's taunting was quite funny, he told me to stop hiding and confront him. Nope, sorry, won't do that :D

Recruiting Mordin felt easier. Although the plague and the quarantine station hit close to home. All the coughing in the background noise really made me nervous, for obvious real world reasons. The fight in the end wasn't nearly as hard as the one in Garrus' mission. This time at least I got to use my sniper rifle and take the cannon guys out from a distance while Miranda and Zaeed fought the short range battles. I like Mordin a lot. He seems like a cool guy, I like listening to him. (Still did the paragon interrupts.) I think I understand more of what he says than what I headcanon for my Shepard. My Shepard is very impressed by Mordin and quietly in awe of his brains and all this science stuff.

After that, I went to the Citadel to meet with Anderson and the Council. Meeting Anderson again was great. I liked him in ME1 already, and now it feels like Shepard has a real friend and father figure in him. I’m not sure what I think about Udina. Something is up with him, but whether it’s simple jealousy or something else, I don’t know. The Council not believing Shepard about the Reapers isn't surprising to me, although it still is very frustrating. I called that in the end of ME1 already, when I tried to see their refusal to send Shepard to Ilos from their point of view. So they won't help, and actually I figured they would be a lot more hostile. Instead it was "okay you work with an enemy of the Council now, that's treason, but hey, we owe you, so ... we can give you back your Spectre status provided you don't expect anything else from us and stop bothering us?" and actually, I'm okay with that. I would have liked for them to believe Shepard, but I didn't expect it at all, it would have been very improbable. A bit of actual support (even in the background only, without official recognition) would have been nice, especially because I would like to stop depending on Cerberus. The Council hopes for a quick end of the relationships between Shepard and Cerberus, and honestly, SAME. Their easiest way to accomplish that would be to support Shepard themselves, but then, I get that it would cost a lot of resources, and for a thing they don't even believe in. So all in all, the outcome was not what I might have optimistically hoped for, but better than I realistically expected.

It was interesting to see new places on the Citadel. The new ward, the markets there ... not only does the game look smoother and more detailed than ME1, also the settings seem to be way more fleshed out. (I guess they had a bigger budget for the second game, once they knew the first one was popular.) Hearing that there really is a hamlet production with a full elcor cast makes me giddy :D I kind of want to see this fourteen hour experience. I bought Shepard fish for his aquarium, but after what they did with the little animal that could be found on the ship in Mass Effect Andromeda, I don't trust Bioware to provide adequate housing for small rodents, so I skipped out on the space hamster.

I like that there are more places I can visit in the new Normandy. It's fun to see how with each new crew member a new door unlocks. My favourite personal place so far is Kasumi's. The little stories she tells about her stuff are interesting and I seem to like her a lot. Talking to Miranda is very interesting as well. At the beginning she was really stand-off-ish, now we seem to have settled into a comfortable professionalism with even a bit of personal talk. The story she tells, about being crafted to be perfect, breaks my heart because for her, it's just so much pressure. I specifically chose my Shepard's background as a Spacer and Sole Survivor so that I had a character who was handed a comparatively easy childhood and youth, who grew up very privileged and under the best conditions, and then still (from his POV) "screwed up" by not being able to save his team. So, Miranda's story really speaks to me, only that she didn't screw up (yet, in her eyes), but still carries the pressure with her. That's really hard.

The last thing I did so far was checking the Normandy's crash site. I liked how that was done. The whole atmosphere there felt heavy, yet otherworldly. The beautiful landscape (look I love ice and polar lights) and the ruins of Shepard's beloved ship. The dog tags. Even though it wasn't possible to talk to the background crew in ME1, I headcanon that my Shepard still knew them, if only in passing. Shepard's helmet was a nice touch. I especially liked Pressly's data pad. In ME1 I had tried to talk to him more, but he always seemed to have the same dialogue options. To see that in the end he changed his view on the aliens on board kind of reconciled me with that. And the flashbacks were really well done, ouch.

I'm in love with this game.

#me2 #first time mass effect #birdypersonal

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ryqoshay · 3 years

Text

Putting on Hairs: Audition Day

Primary Pairing? Trio?: YuuAyu... Setsu? Words: ~4.2k Rating: G, maybe light T for some implications? AU: Theater, Werewolf, Werebeast, Monster, Cryptid, Angel, Demon, Eldrich Horror

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Author’s Note: I’ve no idea how real theaters work, so anything that may be off with the timeline or proper procedure or whatever, I’ll just have to excuse as author ignorance, or handwave away by this theater being different, in many ways. That said, thank you lonelypond for fielding the questions I’ve sent thus far.

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“Ayumu!” A voice called from a few rows up. “Up here! Up here!”

“Yuu-chan?” Ayumu had to consciously keep her own volume down due to her surprise on seeing her girlfriend. “Shhh!” She added, holding a finger to her lips.

Yuu simply chuckled in response as Ayumu moved up the aisle. Well, it wasn’t like the twin-tailed girl was being any louder than the blonde sitting nearby. Ohara, was it? The theater’s patron, or one of them at least.

“I saved you a seat.” Yuu said with a grin as Ayumu reached her.

“Thank you.” Ayumu replied as she sat.

She was pretty sure they both knew the gesture was unnecessary as there were literally hundreds of empty seats, but it was the thought that counted. Ayumu loved that part of Yuu, always seeking little ways to make her feel special, even simple and unnecessary ones.

As for why the seats were empty, it was because this was merely an audition session. The only people in the theater today were cast and crew. And the cast were all up on stage, ready to make their bids for their potential roles. Well, all but the two leads, Yazawa and Nishikino, as they had been brought in specifically for their star power and were also sitting in the house with most of the crew.

Also, not everyone present was theater staff. There was of course, Ohara, the patron, and her driver, Matsuura. And there were the two from the catering company that had brought lunch earlier, Honoka and Rin, who insisted Ayumu refer to them by their given names when she spoke with them during the meal. She wasn’t quite sure why they were still around as they had finished cleaned up a little while back.

“I didn’t expect to see you here, Yuu-chan.” Ayumu whispered as Dia and Umi prepped the future cast for their auditions. “How did you even get in?”

“I told ‘em I was Ayumu’s girlfriend.” Yuu shrugged. “And they obviously figured out what I am, which probably helped. Although speaking of that…” She glanced around quickly, sticking out her tongue a couple times. “I’m pretty sure everyone here is like us. I don’t remember them advertising that they were only hiring monsters, but… oh sorry, supernatural beings.” She corrected.

Ayumu let her grimace relax. She had never liked the term monster as seemed to carry more negative connotations than other similar terms. And while Yuu was usually careful to avoid using the word, so many of their fellow cryptids used it that Ayumu couldn’t really fault her girlfriend for accidentally using it as well from time to time. Of course, that still didn’t mean she had to like it.

“But I don’t think there’s a single full blood human here.” Yuu continued. “And man, what a mix.” She flicked out her tongue again. “I’m getting a bit of everything. There’s gotta be a werewolf among them. And someone with feathers. At least one undead. I’m getting a bit of sea salt, so there’s probably a mermaid or the like. Sulfur, brimstone, so maybe a demon, or other fire creature I suppose, maybe both. And…” her brow furrowed, and she held her tongue out for longer than usual “that’s odd…”

“What’s odd?” Ayumu pressed.

“I don’t know. There’s something… else… here.” She shook her head. “I’ve never smelled anything like it. Heat. Flame. But not like any I’ve ever known… It’s otherworldly, and yet, not unpleasantly so. Huh…”

“Oh, I think they’re starting.”

“Right.” Yuu turned her attention to the stage where a young woman with long brown hair with some tied in a bright red ribbon was about to begin.

If Ayumu remembered right, the young woman’s name was Osaka Shizuku and had graduated alongside Nishikino Maki from Waseda, a prestigious school known for its arts degrees. For her audition, she had chosen to recite and act out a dramatic monologue in English. Ayumu felt like she had heard the lines before, though not on stage. Perhaps a movie? In any case, Shizuku left little doubt as to her skill and training, leaving Ayumu rightfully impressed.

Next up was… Nakasu Kasumi? Ayumu knew she had seen that face before. The young woman had appeared in a handful of television commercials, usually cute things aimed at a certain female demographic. Ayumu had actually purchased a few items promoted by Kasumi. As such, it came as little surprise that Kasumi’s audition resembled one of those cute commercials.

The next few auditions were a bit of a blur for Ayumu. It didn’t help that she was far less familiar with their names and faces.

But then, she stepped onto the stage. A short, raven haired young woman with an aura Ayumu could only describe as passionate. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Yuu sit up straighter as she seemed to sense something about this girl. Like the previous several others, Ayumu wasn’t familiar with this one, but something about her held her attention.

“Yuki Setsuna, was it?” Umi read from her list.

“Yes.” Setsuna confirmed.

“And what do you have for us today?”

“Well, I read the script and really enjoyed one character, so I would like to recite a few of her lines.”

“You’ve already memorized lines from the script?”

“Yes.”

“The script you were just given earlier today?”

“Yes. It was just so~ good. I couldn’t put it down.” Setsuna seemed to be actively holding back her excitement.

“Impressive.”

In a nearby seat, an orange-haired girl bounced a little, seemingly excited by the admission. Perhaps she was the one who had written the script?

“Oh, I may have also added a few lines.” Setsuna admitted. “I believe they fit the character.”

Umi gave a glance toward the orange-haired girl behind her who nodded enthusiastically.

“Very well.” Umi turned back toward the stage. “Carry on.”

Setsuna closed her eyes and took a deep breath before releasing it slowly. When she opened her eyes again, her entire demeanor had changed from restrained excitement to a fiery passion. Even from several rows up, Ayumu felt she could see flames in the young woman’s eyes.

Suddenly, Setsuna struck a dramatic pose. “At last, I have found you, foul beasts!” She practically shouted, pointing to somewhere else on stage.

Ayumu jumped a little in her seat, having not expected the outburst. She heard Yuu giggle quietly beside her.

“It is I, Artemisia Ullrin! Hunter of Horrors by trade and Collector of Cryptids by hobby.” She held her hand to her chest as the belted the lines proudly. “By order of Lady Lycaonian, I am to exterminate the infestation of werebeats suffered by her lands. You are welcome to resist, though I assure you that you shall lose. However!” Setsuna emphasized her lines with exaggerated gestures. “I offer an alternative! Surrender and be added to my collection.”

As melodramatic as the performance was, Ayumu couldn’t deny that it was quite entertaining. She watched in amusement as Setsuna skipped ahead to what she assumed to be a battle scene where she called out attacks like a cheesy hero show for kids. She knew the production was intended to be a little tongue in cheek, but Setsuna seemed intent on not just chewing, but flat out consuming the scenery, happily.

And then, seemingly all too soon, it was over.

“Bravi! Bravi!” Mari cheered, loudly, as she stood up from her seat. “Bravissimi!”

The orange-haired girl joined in standing as well, clapping and laughing. Then Yuu stood, as well several others.

“Thank you, everyone.” Setsuna bowed before standing back up with a beaming smile.

“<Where in the world have you been hiding,> Secchan?” Mari exclaimed in English

“Se-Secchan?” Setsuna blinked.

“Really, you were perfect!” The script writer added. “I love the new lines! I’ll be sure to add them!”

“It would appear you’ve earned a few fans.” Dia spoke next, fairly coolly and calmly, though Ayumu was certain she detected a touch of amusement in her tone. “That will undoubtedly play in your favor when we make our final casting decisions.”

“Thank you.” Setsuna bowed again before moving off stage to allow the next audition to proceed.

“Alright, next we have…”

Whatever else Umi was saying was lost to Ayumu as hands grabbed her shoulders.

“That was amazing!” Yuu did he best to keep her volume down. “That really got my heart racing! Actors are amazing! Theater is amazing! Ooo… I want to meet Setsuna-chan in person now!”

“-chan?!” Ayumu balked.

“I can’t wait to see the production!” Yuu continued as though she hadn’t heard Ayumu. “How long did you say it would take?”

“Well, it’s a musical, so that apparently adds more time.” Ayumu recalled. “I think I remember either Umi or Dia saying they were slotting for twelve weeks before opening night.”

“Twelve weeks?” Yuu visibly deflated a bit. “That’s like three whole months! I don’t think I can wait that long…”

Ayumu chuckled at her girlfriend’s newfound obsession. She’d seen this dozens of times before as Yuu would latch onto and hyper-focus on some new hobby or interest. “Maybe we can find some old clips of plays performed by the other Sonoda or Kurosawa theaters?”

“That’s a great idea, Ayumu!” Yuu’s eyes sparkled like emeralds. “Let’s do that tonight.”

“Alright.” Ayumu nodded in agreement.

Satisfied, Yuu settled back into her seat to watch the ongoing audition.

For her own part, Ayumu found her thoughts drifting. Artemisia? Ullrin? Lady Lycaonian? Mythology was not her strong suit, but it sounded like that wasn’t the case with the script writer either. It was almost as if she had simply Googled something about werewolves and just went with the first result that came up. Also, wasn’t Artemis already a woman? Did her name really need an -ia at the end to make the character female?

Well, the showrunners seemed fine with the ideas and the script writer and at least one of the actors were excited about them. So, who was Ayumu to judge? It wasn’t as if she herself hadn’t been entertained by Setsuna’s performance.

Setsuna… -chan… Ayumu glanced at her girlfriend. She had seen Yuu fawn over fictional woman before, but this was a first time she remembered her doing so over a living, breathing woman. And for some reason, that bothered her. Was she jealous? Ayumu shook her head to clear it of such thoughts. She was probably overthinking things and being insecure. She and Yuu had been happily dating for several years now. She shouldn’t be worrying about losing her at this point… right?

----------

“Yuu-chan, wait!” Ayumu protested as her girlfriend pulled her through a door clearly marked Employees Only. “We… I mean, you shouldn’t…”

“I just want to meet Setsuna-chan and thank her for the wonderful performance.” Yuu responded, not letting up her pace.

They rounded a corner and…

“Takasaki Yuu-san.” Dia stated solemnly as she stood in the center of the hallway.

“Oh, hi!” Yuu responded cheerfully. “You’re one of the women I met at the front door and decided to let me in. Dia-san, right?”

Dia blinked, obviously not expecting Yuu to skip a level of formality. But Yuu had been like that for the entire time Ayumu had known her. Still, Ayumu winced as she wondered how much trouble they were now in.

“Yes…” Dia confirmed.

“Right. Thank you again for letting me watch the auditions today.” Yuu continued. “They were amazing! My heart was racing pretty much the entire time. Especially with Setsuna-chan’s.”

There she goes again with -chan…

“Yuki-san did indeed give us quite the performance.” Dia agreed. “Anyway, as I was about to say, Takasaki-san, you are not employed here.”

“Nope. Not yet.” Yuu grinned.

“Not yet?” Dia raised an eyebrow.

“This whole experience has been so inspiring that I want to apply to work here.”

Ayumu also raised an eyebrow. That was news to her.

“You wish to become an actor?” Dia inquired.

Yuu shook her head. “No, I don’t really want to be on stage; I’d rather watch from the audience. But I can’t help wanting to support the amazing members of your cast in whatever way I can.”

“I see.”

“I could haul supplies around.” Yuu suggested. “Oh, I’m pretty good with my hands.” She held them out for emphasis. “So maybe I could help assemble sets or props? Ayumu has taught me a thing or two about hair and makeup, so I could definitely help her. Oh, and I worked a while as an editor for my college newspaper, so maybe I could go over the script and help there? And I did some composing for the band and orchestras, and even learned to play a couple instruments, like the piano, so I could help in the pit as well.”

Dia nodded. “I think I am starting to understand. You are essentially a jack of all trades.”

“Master of none.” Yuu confirmed.

“But better than a master of one.” Dia completed.

“Right. I’m no specialist, but I’m pretty good at picking up the basics.”

“Yuu-chan is a fast learner.” Ayumu added.

“I see.” Dia nodded. “Then I would suggest you get a resume in order and send it our way. Uehara-san should have the contact information.”

“Oh, I have that already. I was actually the one who found this place and recommended that Ayumu apply. I probably would have applied as well at that time, but I had a job then.” Yuu shrugged. “But they decided they needed to cut costs, and as I was the most recently hired, I ended up being part of that cost.”

“Well, I admire your enthusiasm and desire to help my cast and crew.” Dia smiled. “I shall look forward to working with you soon. Now, if you will excuse me, there are matters to which I must attend elsewhere.” That said, she stepped past the couple and moved down the hall.

Ayumu released a breath she hadn’t realized she had been holding. So… Dia wasn’t kicking them out after all? She wasn’t in trouble for letting a non-employee into this area?

“C’mon!” Yuu said, grabbing her hand again and shattering her thoughts. “We still gotta find Setsuna-chan. Say, do you know where her dressing room is?”

“I, uhm… know some of the rooms are off to the right.” Ayumu motioned in that direction. “Though I’m not sure if she has one assigned to her yet.”

“Well, let’s go see.”

“Uhm… alright…” Again, Ayumu was pulled down the hall.

The couple turned another corner, moved past the rooms for Yazawa and Nishikino, another without a name plate and… huh…

“She has one.” Yuu said, stopping in front of a room. “They must have just given it to her.” She indicated the paper sign taped over where the a more permanent placard would be placed. “Maybe she already got the part she wanted?”

Ayumu shrugged. She didn’t know enough about the overall process to comment.

“Setsuna-chan!” Yuu called as she knocked. “Are you in there?”

“Yes,” the young actress replied from within “you can come in.”

Yuu opened the door and stepped in.

“Uehara-san?” Setsuna turned away from whatever she was setting up on the vanity. “And… uhm…?”

“Yuu.” The twintailed girl responded. “Takasaki Yuu. I’m Ayumu’s girlfriend and they let me watch the auditions with her.”

“Ah…”

“So, you’re the source.”

“Eh?”

Yuu flicked her tongue. “Of the scent I smelled earlier.”

“Sc-scent?” Pink dusted Setsuna’s cheeks.

“Flame. Fire.” Yuu stepped closer and leaned in toward the young actress. “But not the kind I am used to… Just what are you, Setsuna-chan?”

“Yuu-chan!” Ayumu scolded, moving forward to pull her girlfriend away from Setsuna who was starting to display some defensive body language. “You shouldn’t just ask such things so bluntly.”

“Mm? Why not?” Yuu seemed confused. “I think it’s pretty obvious now that Dia-san and Umi-san intended to create a sort of haven for us here. And if we’re all going to work together, it makes sense to know what we all are.”

“Yeah, but…”

“Anyway, I’m a lamia.” Yuu indicated herself. “I’d show you, but I wore pants today.”

Well, at least she has the decency to not unceremoniously drop trou in front of someone she just met. Ayumu thought to herself. Like she so often does at home…

“But I can do this.”

Eh? Ayumu felt her cheek being pinched.

“There. As you can see, Ayumu is a moon rabbit.”

Eh? Eh?! Ayumu caught her reflection in the mirror near Setsuna. Sure enough, white, fluffy rabbit ears had sprouted on her head.

“Mohhh… Yuu-chan!” Ayumu punched her girlfriend lightly in the arm.

“What?” Yuu giggled at the playful jab. “Ayumu always looks so cute like that. I can’t help wanting to see you like that more.”

“Mmph…” Ayumu puffed her cheeks out to pout, though she couldn’t deny liking the compliment.

“They are indeed quite cute, Uehara-san.” Setsuna agreed with an amused smile.

“Oh, uhm… thank you.” Ayumu replied. “And, Ayumu is fine. Like Yuu-chan said, we’ll be working together a lot, so I don’t mind being a bit less formal.”

Setsuna’s smile grew. “I’d like that. Please feel free to call me Setsuna in return. Oh, and if you don’t mind my asking, by moon rabbit, do you mean…?”

“Well, I wasn’t actually born on the moon, if that’s what you mean.” Ayumu explained. “My ancestors were though.”

Setsuna nodded in understanding.

“But you should try her mochi, though.” Yuu spoke up. “It’s the best. Same with her rice cakes.”

Setsuna seemed to recall something. “I think you’ll find a good friend in Koizumi-san.”

“Oh yeah,” Yuu thought out loud “Ayumu, wasn’t she the one you said they brought a huge container of rice for?”

Ayumu nodded in confirmation. “I was honesty surprised how much she was able to eat, though she wasn’t the only one.”

“I suppose some of us have larger forms to feed.” Yuu shrugged. “Anyway, I gotta know the source of that fiery smell.” She turned her attention back to Setsuna. “You know what we are now, so what kind are you? Why is your fire so different than that of an ifrit, salamander, phoenix, dragon or whatever?”

“Oh, uhm…” Setsuna fidgeted a bit. “I’m a Cthughan.”

Yuu furrowed her brow in thought for a moment before something came to her and she looked up excitedly. “You mean you’re the Elder God, Cthugha?”

Setsuna shook her head. “Great Old One, actually. And I’m only a descendant of him. Cthugha is my great great great… I actually don’t know how many greats, grandfather.”

Oh, kind of like me being a descendant of rabbits who actually lived on the moon way back when. Ayumu thought.

“That’s. So. Cool!” Yuu practically squealed. “No wonder I couldn’t identify it, I’ve never met an Elder God before.”

“Great Old One.” Setsuna corrected again.

“Right, sorry. Anyway, that wasn’t actually the reason I wanted to meet you today.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, I actually wanted to tell you how amazing you were in your audition and that I really hope you get the part.”

“Thank you. And they did actually already give me the role.” Setsuna said. “That’s why I’ve been setting up my stuff here.”

“I was right.” Yuu tossed over to Ayumu. “Congratulations, Setsuna-chan!” She offered the actress.

“Thank you again.” Setsuna smiled. “I really like the part.”

“It looked like it was a lot of fun to play.”

“I know right?” Ayumu detected some of the excitement Setsuna displayed before her audition.

“I haven’t read the script yet, but…

“It’s so~ good!” Setsuna seemed less able, or perhaps less willing to suppress her excitement. “I was able to talk with Chika-san, who wrote the script, and she was able to tell me a ton of things about what she had planned for possible modifications, depending on who got what parts and, oh my gosh, it all sounds amazing, and I think they already know who to cast for the main villain and while I didn’t expect that choice, Chika-san’s explanation was awesome as she revealed her plans to me and what she has planned for Yazawa-san and Nishikino-san’s characters, oh it sounds like so much fun and…” Setsuna suddenly recoiled and stepped back. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to go off like that…”

Yuu laughed. “It’s fine, it’s fine.” She dismissed. “Your excitement makes me want to see if I can track down this Chika-san and get a copy for myself.”

“You can have one of mine!” Setsuna pounced at offering.

“One of…?” Yuu asked, picking up on the word choice.

“Oh, uhm… I may have made a couple copies for myself to write ideas on after Chika-san said she would like to see what I think.” Setsuna admitted as she shuffled through a stack of papers. She started to hold out a set before pulling them back. “Wait, you don’t work here though.”

“Not yet.” Yuu admitted. “But your audition, and many of the others, inspired me to apply here so I could support the amazing actors here however I could.”

“Ah.” Setsuna nodded, holding out the papers, only to pull them back yet again. “You’re not a spy from that other theater down the street, are you?”

Yuu chuckled. “If that was the case, I’d just get my info from Ayumu.”

“Right, that makes sense.” Finally the actress gave the script to Yuu.

“I already offered to Dia-san that I could help with editing.” Yuu skimmed it excitedly. “I wonder if Chika-san would mind if I slipped in a few ideas of my own.”

“She seems pretty willing to accept ideas from others around the theater.” Setsuna said. “Both Osaka-san and Nakasu-san have offered some of their thoughts already.”

Yuu opened her mouth, but whatever she was about to say next was interrupted by her stomach growling. She giggled. “I guess it is getting a little late.”

“Let’s head home then.” Ayumu spoke up. “I’ll make dinner for us. It was nice meeting you, Setsuna-san.”

“I don’t think I can make it all the way home.” Yuu said. “Why don’t we stop at that sandwich shop along the way.”

“Alright.” Ayumu agreed.

“Wanna come with us, Setsuna-chan?”

“Eh? Me?” Setsuna seemed caught off guard by the invite.

“Yeah, that way we can talk about the script and stuff.”

“Oh, uhm, thank you, but I wouldn’t want to impose. Besides there’s still a couple things I want to do here before I head out.”

“Alright. Maybe some other time then.” With that, Yuu took Ayumu’s hand and headed for the door. “See you later, Setsuna-chan!” She called as she exited.

At first Ayumu felt relief that Setsuna had declined, but as she and Yuu walked down the hall, a sense of disappointment set it. She actually did want to talk about the upcoming play. Perhaps next time…

----------

“Ne, Yuu-chan.” Ayumu said as the couple walked home.

“Mm?”

“Would you… uhm… Would you support me if I decided to become an actress?” The way you say you want to support Setsuna-san and the others?

“Of course!” Yuu gave her a toothy grin. “I think Ayumu would be an amazing actor.”

“Really?”

Yuu chuckled. “Well yeah, the Ayumu I know and love may be shy sometimes and hesitant to try new things. But when she decides to do something, she’s the hardest worker I know. She always gives it her best. That’s one of my favorite aspects of Ayumu.”

Ayumu blushed at Yuu’s affirmations.

“So, what prompted this all of a sudden?” Yuu looked at Ayumu with sudden curiosity. “Did the auditions inspire you as well?”

“A little…” Ayumu admitted. Did she need to include her desire for Yuu to look at her the way she looked at Setsuna?

Yuu smiled. “Well, maybe tonight we should look into finding some acting classes for you to take.”

“Classes?”

“Well, I don’t know anything about acting, so I’d be no help to you there.” Yuu explained. “Though I’d be happy to help you rehearse lines or whatever. And you’ll want some knowledge before you start auditioning for roles, right? Surely there has to be some evening or night course you can take somewhere.”

“Alright.”

Yuu’s expression became whimsical. “Mm… I can imagine it now. Uehara Ayumu stars in… something something big show, the marquee proudly proclaims with flashing lights. Ayumu on stage bowing before a standing ovation. Flowers are tossed on stage by devoted fans.”

“Y-Yuu-chan…” Ayumu murmured a quiet protest.

“What? I can’t imagine my amazing girlfriend being adored by all?”

“Well… I don’t really need to be the star, do I?”

Yuu shrugged. “Even if you only want supporting roles, I’ll still happily come watch your performances.”

Ayumu smiled. She loved this side of Yuu, her unwavering and unconditional support, always willing to adapt to anything Ayumu wanted to do. It was a constant source of confidence from which she drew to take on those new things, when she did.

Maybe she was overthinking the thing with Setsuna. Yuu was just being Yuu, getting excited over a new obsession, and Setsuna’s performance just happened to be the gateway into that obsession. As for Setsuna herself, she seemed equally excited about acting as Yuu, if not more so. And as her audition proved, she had talent. Perhaps Ayumu could learn a thing or two from her through observation, or just talking with her.

“Alright.” She set her mind on her decision. “Let’s look into classes when we get home.”

----------

Author’s Note Continued in Followup Post

#YuuAyuSetsu #Takasaki Yuu #Yuki Setsuna #Uehara Ayumu #Putting on Hairs #fanfic #Love Live Nijigasaki #AU August

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ranma-rewatch · 3 years

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Episode 9: True Confessions! A Girl's Hair is Her Life!

Good morning, good evening, and goodnight everybody. Today I’ll be covering the ninth episode of Ranma 1/2, which is also the third episode in Ryoga Hibiki’s introductory arc. I don’t really know what to expect from this one, most of my memories of this arc are from the front half, but I’m interested to see where it went next. Oh, and with this episode I’ll be halfway through the first season! So that’s neat. Well, next paragraph I’ll have rewatched the episodes, so I’ll see you then.

That was a pretty interesting experience. It really feels like this episode was adapting two different chapters, each with a radically different tone, and together they kind of add up into a good summating of the Ranma 1/2 experience, only missing the acting scenes and love dodecahedron elements to tie it all together.

As you might have expected, this episode begins right where the last one left off, just as one of Ryoga’s weapons chopped off a chunk of Akane’s long hair. At first, she doesn’t react at all, leaving Ranma to feel really bad about it, talking with one of the school girls there about how getting a bad haircut out of nowhere like that would feel terrible for any young woman. This is also when the students realize they don’t know who this red-headed ‘girl’ is, but Ranma tries to change the subject.

Ryoga steps up, not to continue the fight with Ranma, but to point out that at least Akane wasn’t actually injured. Still, Ranma brings up that it still hurts Akane emotionally. They both ask Akane to punch them, to let out any anger she might be feeling. She ends up doing just that before walking away, and it looked to be some damn good punches too. That doesn’t seem to be enough though, as she also shatters a metal telephone pole on her walk home, and in the process realizes she twisted her ankle earlier. Her first instinct is to go and see Dr. Tofu, but she doesn’t want him to see her like this.

Instead, we cut to Akane in her room, remembering why she grew her hair out in the first place. We flash back to Akane as a young kid, fresh from a fight at school, going to see Dr. Tofu. Back then, she had short hair, and it’s clear even then she was fond of the doctor. But the high school age Kasumi shows up, turning Tofu’s brains to mush, and causing him to refer to Akane as a ‘he’. As they walk home together, Kasumi tells her little sister that if she tried to dress less like a boy, maybe people wouldn’t mistake her for one. This leads Akane to think that maybe if she grows her hair as long as Kasumi’s, maybe Dr. Tofu would like her the same way he likes Kasumi.

Coming out of that flashback, Ranma is at Akane’s window, but she doesn’t want to talk to him. Instead, she goes to see Kasumi, who is shocked by what’s happened to her hair. Instead of telling her the truth, Akane just says she messed up cutting it herself, and asks for Kasumi’s assistance in making it even. There’s a brief cutaway of Ryoga trying to head to the Tendo household to fight Ranma, only to be waylaid by an old lady asking for his help.

Sometime later, Ranma is back in his uncursed form, and he learns from Kasumi that Akane is going to Dr. Tofu’s. It’s then that he, and the audience, see Akane with short hair for the first time. Ranma apologizes as hard as he can, but tells him that she’s over it, and that him being nice to her feels weird.

At the clinic, Dr. Tofu is surprised by her short hair as well, but tells her it’s cute, and suits her a lot better than long hair did. As he’s tending to her injury, she starts crying, which turns into sobbing into the doctor’s shoulder as he offers comfort. Afterwards, Akane is heading back home with Ranma, apparently feeling better after crying, and he points out that she got what she wanted: Dr. Tofu said she was cute, right? But Akane says she’s over all of that now.

For reasons that are clearly mysterious and not due to jealousy about some other guy telling Akane her hair was cute first, Ranma makes it clear he likes her shorter hair as well. When she reacts with confusion, wondering if he’s okay if he’s complimenting her like that, Ranma starts to backpedal, before instead doubling down, really telling her it’s cute. She smiles at that, and thanks Ranma even if she might still suspect he doesn’t really mean it. To which, we can hear Ranma’s thoughts, as he is amazed to realize she does genuinely look cute. But while he’s distracted, Akane tips him over into the water.

That’s the end of that part of the story. Next part begins with Ryoga finally reaching the Tendo estate, a week after the previous events happened, in the night, in the rain, using an umbrella to protect himself. When he gets inside the house, he finds Ranma asleep, and tries to wake him up so they can properly fight. Ranma dodges attempts by Ryoga to hit him awake, and when Ryoga tries using shouting to get him up, all he succeeds in doing is instead waking up Ranma’s father in his cursed form, who knocks Ryoga and Ranma outside in annoyance, where the rain triggers Ranma’s curse, and Ryoga is still able to use his umbrella to keep himself dry.

As they prepare to fight, Ryoga finally decides to give Ranma a clue as to why he’s so freaking angry at him: after Ranma missed their duel, Ryoga followed him and his father to China. Ranma quickly puts two and two together, asking Ryoga if he too went to Jusenkyo, if he also has a curse. Meanwhile, Akane and her sisters wake up from the noise, and they assume there’s a prowler around. The other two hide behind Akane, and she throws a dumbbell at who she thinks is an intruder, nailing Ryoga hard enough to make him drop his umbrella. This finally activates his curse, but he scampers before anyone can see what it does to him. All Ranma can find afterwards are his clothes...and a mangy dog not far away.

Back with Akane, she finds an adorable black piglet in her room wearing a yellow and black bandanna that’s soaking wet with cold rain, and takes it downstairs to take care of it. Ranma has assumed the dog he found is Ryoga, but doesn’t want Akane to know that, trying to protect Ryoga’s secret. However, Akane quickly realizes that it’s one of their neighbor’s dogs, and Ranma confirms with hot water that it isn’t Ryoga. Then, as he goes off for a hot bath, Akane passes him the pig, since the animal needs a bath too. Ranma does it, even if he doesn’t like it, but as he finally pushes the resisting animal into the water, Ryoga emerges. Cliffhanger! Again!

Alright, like I said before, this episode is functionally two separate stories glued together, so let’s handle one and then the other. First thing I noted about this episode was that there’s a quick shot of Nabiki looking concerned for Akane after her hair accident. I only point it out because she’s known in the fandom for being fairly ruthless and sociopathic, and this is a moment that kind of goes against that. Nabiki obviously loves money, and can be quite selfish, but she does have some empathy for her baby sister.

I can’t remember if this is exactly the first time in the series thus far attention has been called to Ranma’s curse kind of giving him a weird secret identity issue with his schoolmates in general, but it is at least the first time it’s been given as much focus as it was at the start of this episode.

This is also where Ryoga starts getting some more shades to his character. From what we’ve seen of him thus far, it wouldn’t be unexpected if he’d just kept trying to fight Ranma, but even without knowing Akane at all, he still accepted the fight was at least paused, and once it was made clear to him how devastating this was to her, he offered to be punched if it would help. I also think the way he phrases that offer gives some insight into him: he talks about how letting the anger out by hitting him would make her feel better. Is that what his vendetta with Ranma is, a way to unleash all the anger roiling inside of him?

There is a neat bit of imagery around there too, how for a second Akane’s facial expression makes you think she won’t hit them, then we see construction equipment in motion that feels like it symbolizes violence, then we cut to her just walking away. It isn’t until we see their swollen faces that we know she did follow through on their offer.

Aside from those sorts of details, I just really like the mood of this entire first half. There are very few attempts at jokes, instead just focusing on Akane’s mental state. I feel like, while her situation is pretty strange and specific, it’s easy to relate to. I think we’ve all, at some time or another, been hurt by someone else without them realizing it, over something that only mattered to you so much because of some odd, ineffable thing that just you understand.

Throughout the segment, Akane waffles between shock, anger, trying to make the best of it, sobbing, and moving on with her life. I particularly enjoy the bounceback of her trying to take control, getting that haircut with Kasumi, getting compliments for it...only for it to stab into an emotional vulnerability, causing her to break down with the doctor. That all really worked for me.

The same is true for Ranma’s reaction. I don’t know if we’ve ever seen him this hung up on hurting someone else before. He’s clearly bothering her at some points by not leaving her alone like she clearly wants him to do, but he gives a genuine apology, which is clearly really something from him, and his compliment at the end was so cute. It was adorable shippy nonsense, and I adored it. This segment of the larger episode also had a lot more to do with our previous arc, about Akane and Dr. Tofu, than the Ryoga plot, effectively serving as the capstone to that tale.

I feel there was nearly as much to like in the second half. This part was definitely more jokey, with lots of Ryoga being bad at directions, silly background music (which I honestly can’t stand, it’s just a weird personal thing for me), and wacky hijinks with Ryoga as a pig.

But there was still meat to be found with the funnies. Once again, they took the time to establish Ryoga a little better with how he acted towards Ranma. For someone always shouting about how he wants Ranma to die and go to tell, whose vengeance drives him, he had a perfect opportunity to just kill him in his sleep. But it didn’t look like he even considered that. Instead, he just kept trying to wake Ranma up so they could fight. You could argue Ryoga is too dumb to have thought of that, which feels like the kind of thing Ranma would say, but I’d counter that maybe it’s a sign that Ryoga is more about talking about killing than actually doing it. In a kind of equal and opposite event, I liked how Ranma was just immediately all about helping Ryoga once he learned about the curse, trying to assist the dog he thought was Ryoga while keeping it a secret from Akane.

This is also when we finally learn why Ryoga is so angry at Ranma, or at least begin to get the larger picture. It wasn’t just bread, or a missed duel, but that Ryoga kept on Ranma after that, leading to him being cursed to become an adorable little piglet when exposed to cold water. He definitely manages the curse well thanks to his umbrella (I don’t know why Ranma never thinks to try just covering his head), and the care he’s taken to use it to avoid getting wet in the last episode and in this one was some foreshadowing as to what his deal was.

On the whole, this part of the episode was more like set-up for the next one, but it wasn’t bad at all. Together, the two pieces actually meshed together pretty well, at least to me. I got my emotional feels, I got my shippy moments, and I got my boi Ryoga. What else could I want?

Like I said last week, there are other characters I could be doing spotlights for who’ve already been introduced, but they haven’t really done enough yet to be worth covering, at least in my opinion. Thus, we’re going back to Akane.

Since the second episode, we’ve gotten a lot more of who she is, especially between this arc and the one before it. They’ve kind of toned down the whole ‘hates boys’ aspect of her character, and instead refocused on her feelings towards Dr. Tofu, towards Ranma, and towards herself.

I think it’s clear, even to Akane herself, that her crush on the doctor is childish. She likes him because he’s an adult who’s always treated her seriously, appreciated her for who she is, and given her his time. At least in my experience, a lot of people have had some kind of affection similar to hers, towards someone older than us when we were too young to do anything about it. Even as we get older, and we know there will never be anything with that person, we still have a hard time letting go of it.

With Ranma, I think a firm pattern is developing. Aside from occasional moments when she takes her frustrations out on Ranma, Akane is generally becoming more fond of him. Between this episode and episode 6, one could argue she’s starting to actually like him. The problem is that Ranma is kind of a jerk. He regularly does stuff to make her upset, at which point he either makes it worse or starts acting nice. She clearly appreciates when Ranma is trying to help her and cheer her up, but it doesn’t stop the fact that his default setting is ‘abrasive’.

Most importantly with the first half of this episode, we’ve gotten a good look at how Akane sees herself. It’s pretty obvious that the long hair/short hair issue isn’t just about how long her locks are. The issue represents her struggle between being herself, a tomboy who enjoys fighting and martial arts and being more free-spirited, versus being who other people want her to be, more traditionally feminine. It’s honestly kind of weird in the first half of this season, watching her with the long hair. Short haired Akane is cuter, I think it’s hard to deny that, but it’s also her being happier with who she is, and that’s the cutest thing in the world. I’m still not 100% happy with how they handle her violence towards other people, but I talked about that last time, and it doesn't feel like that’s something the show will ever really address.

If it wasn’t clear before, I quite enjoyed this episode. The only particularly weak parts for me were with Ryoga escorting the old lady around, but they were short and didn’t do too much to mess up the pacing. I won’t lie, I’d say this is actually the second best episode so far, only falling behind episode 7. That makes the current rankings:

Episode 7: Enter Ryoga, the Eternal ‘Lost Boy’

Episode 9: True Confessions! A Girl's Hair is Her Life!

Episode 2: School is No Place for Horsing Around

Episode 6: Akane's Lost Love... These Things Happen, You Know

Episode 8: School is a Battlefield! Ranma vs. Ryoga

Episode 4: Ranma and...Ranma? If It’s Not One Thing, It’s Another

Episode 5: Love Me to the Bone! The Compound Fracture of Akane's Heart

Episode 1: Here’s Ranma

Episode 3: A Sudden Storm of Love

Next time, we’ll have into the back half of the season and the last episode of this storyline with episode 10, “P-P-P-Chan! He's Good For Nothin'”. See you all then!

#episode 9 #True Confessions! A Girl's Hair is Her Life!#ranma 1/2 #ranma saotome #akane tendo #ryoga hibiki #anime analysis #anime rewatch

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lori-hime · 4 years

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I haven't written much about what I've been up to lately, so here's some word salad updates~ 🥗

NijiGaku Anime

So I started watching the new LL. I hadn't been keeping up with SIFAS' story, but I did read some of it when it first came out. I gotta say, I'm really enjoying all of the changes they decided to make for the anime version of the story, to both the characters and story. It's starting to feel like something coherent. The story in the game was ok, but the main thing that interested me was the interactions with Muse and Aqours, overshadowing the actual "plot" and even Nijigasaki themselves. But the anime really made me interested and excited about the story and characters again. I would be a little annoyed about the personality and dynamic changes, but honestly, I'm used to it by now. LL always ends up doing this sort of thing, and the personalities only seem to become solidified after the anime airs.

A little disappointed in Kasumi's change in some vague ways I don't really feel like describing, but honestly it balances out because Ayumu is fantastic now (previously one of my least cared for of the group.) Yu's personality is surprisingly super gay fun and I'm really excited for her and Ayumu's dynamic in particular. They're so cute. Seriously feel like I'm gonna ship them hard.

I also really like Rina's initial personality in this. Not only is she bad at expressing emotions through her face, but she also seems bad at expressing them through words too. I feel like this is gonna be much more interesting than her already being cutesy and genki like in the promo stuff and SIFAS.

When Karin was first shown, I had mixed feelings. At first I was like oh god I'm gay and she's beautiful. But the whole sexuality flaunting thing kind of put me off for several reasons I don't really wanna get into explaining. I really didn't know how to feel. I started liking her a little more during SIFAS, when she competed against Muse in DDR and lost... started feeling like I was getting a glimpse of her real personality without the whole sexy idol persona. Although not much has happened in the anime with her yet, she's giving me Nozomi vibes and I love it. I actually think if I had gone into this without previous knowledge of the characters, I'd be betting she'd become my fave for sure.

My list has gone from Kasumi > Rina > Kanata / Emma > Karin > Ai > Setsuna > Ayumu > Shizuku to Yuu > Ayumu > Kasumi / Karin > Rina > Kanata / Emma > Ai > Setsuna > Shizuku

Still biased a bit towards characters that have shown up more in the first two eps, so it'll undoubtedly change. But It's really interesting how much the characters I already felt I had good placements for changed so much.

Edit for episode 3, because I didn't post this fast enough. Student council speedrun was fantastic. Yu continues to be incredibly gay. I wonder how this episode will affect the ships people will gravitate towards. LL has always been a fairly monoship fandom, heavily gravitating towards specific pairs. Of course that's largely the fault of canon itself, often pushing and developing single ships. Well, I suppose we saw a big change with Aqours, though, especially with season two. But even then, the ships tended to stay at least between girls of the same year (aside from my rarepair, shout-out to YohaRiko.) Now, I wonder. From the very beginning, before Yu even had a name, it felt like they were really pushing the shippy stuff @ the viewer. I wonder if that’s still gonna be the angle. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it yet. I really want to see more YuAyu rather than YuSetsu, but I can't really be mad at more gay content unless they try to make it a DEEP story and then fail to resolve it but haha they'd NEVER do that, I'm sure!!

As for the others... I'm guessing they're gonna push RinAi, KarinEmma, YuuKasu, and maybe YuuShizu? My original guesses were that AiKarin would be a thing, evoking NozoEli v3. But I guess that'd be too predictable a third time. KarinEmma sounds like it could be cute and sweet, RinAi feels like it has adorable potential, and YuKasu vs. YuAyu sounds like it could have some good comedic rival-y potential, given they don't make Kasumi super serious about it and make it really angsty. Not that a cute idol show would ever do such a thing haha!!!!!

Higurashi Gou

Also started Higurashi. I doubt many people know this, but I used to be a major Higurashi fan before I got into Touhou. It was my main "fandom" I guess, even though there wasn't really that much of a fandom to interact with comparatively. Anyway, despite that, I didn't think I'd get into this remake super hard... but I'm really loving it so far. The art style is really pretty and eye candy, and it turns out it's a direct continuation of the story rather than a remake. Very excited to see where it's going, and also to see a lot of my baby Rena again.

An interesting difference to me as I'm rewatching are my feelings for Keiichi. While I don't hate him, over the years I've really grown tired of the generic male leads (especially in harem anime) like him. Of course, he's definitely not AS generic as they come, or maybe perhaps that's just my bias from when I used to really like him. The me back then found him unique enough to stand beside the girls. Nowadays, I definitely can't say the same. At least he doesn't grate on my nerves as much as most other harem anime protags do, however. I feel like despite lacking the quirks that make the girls so likeable and unique, he still has something going for him... perhaps the fact he's framed as inherently different from everyone else, because he comes from the city, and the way he acts a bit more realistically to the scary things that are happening. Although those things are obviously explained away later, at least for now I still accept him for what he is, old bias or not.

Genshin Impact

Been playing Genshin Impact religiously and loved every second of it. Though I've caught up with the main story content, so sadly it's slowed down. I'd never heard of this game before it came out, so I was absolutely wowed that such a game was f2p. I've heard a lot of people criticizing it because they added gacha in at the last minute, and I definitely understand being annoyed through the pov of someone who was anticipating it. But part of me is still really thankful that the game is free at all. I suppose that full but paid 60 dollar game would still be a better experience, but because of my non-existent budget situation, I may not have ended up playing it at all.

Aside from the arguably shitty monetization practices, however, the game is fantastic. It really is as similar to BoTW as people have mentioned, and I really appreciate that. BoTW, from a gameplay standpoint, is absolutely my favorite game. It's exactly what I want from any given game. So I really appreciated this. The story and characters of Genshin are also really interesting. I really like Qiqi, Venti, Fischl, and Xingqiu, among others. I spent a while rerolling for Qiqi or Venti 5*s, and eventually got an account with Qiqi. Venti on the other hand I've been trying to roll for but sadly haven't gotten. I have 1 roll left before the banner ends, so hopefully.. My friends whaled him for me. I swear I tried to stop them! I owe them my soul...

HoloLive, Pikamee & Vtubing

I briefly started getting into HoloLive a little while ago. After the Aloe stuff, I started worrying a bit about how the company handles these situations as well as the girls' freedoms and how much of their donation money they actually get.. (I made a post about it a while back.) After a while my worries died down a bit, but then came back full force with the Coco and Haachama situation. After that and one too many uncomfortable sexual jokes, I decided to just distance myself from HL. It's a shame, because I really enjoyed their personalities, but it was making me feel uncomfortable more often than not.

I told myself it’s fine, I’ve got Pikamee if I ever feel like watching vtubers again. And then like a week later... Well, it’s not really something I wanna talk about here, but she made some posts on twitter that made me too uncomfortable to continue watching her either.

On a much lighter note... A friend of mine showed us how to use prprlive and facerig to use the Touhou CB Live2D models, and Asa and I played around with Mokou, Kaguya, and Lyrica’s. It was quite fun, and I do look forward to using the Kaguya one for private streams on one of my servers. I’ve actually always wanted to try out vtubing stuff myself, but not really publicly. Of course, the costs for getting a model drawn and made specifically for me are too much for something I’m not really committing to, so this is perfect. I’m excited~

Touhou Cannonball & Kagura Thoughts

It’s been a long time since I talked about Touhou CB on my blog, and I’m pretty sure I left things on a pretty bad note. Mainly dissatisfied with Mokou’s portrayal for pretty shallow reasons on my part, despite they game having just started and having a lot of room to grow. And grow it did. While I quit pretty early in because of that, Asa decided to take over my account. She realized that it was pretty easy to upgrade any given character you had to a 5* without having to rely much on the gacha. She ended up playing a lot with the goal of upgrading everyone we had. I came back to it around July and actually had a lot of fun with it. The cast had gotten much bigger and we really enjoyed playing on multiplayer. It wasn't the best game ever from a gameplay standpoint, but it definitely had it's charm. The announcement of its death, although unsurprising, came at the worst time. Asa and I actually cried a little when we saw the announcement, ngl. The game had such good, wholesome, Touhouy vibes to it. Nonetheless, we made the most out of the last month or so after the announcement. We played a LOT of multiplayer and had a lot of really cute and good interactions with other players. Near the end, we realized that Lyrica was the only character from the normal banner we were missing, so we grinded like crazy (mostly Asa) to try to get her... we ended up getting a number of 5*s but none Lyrica... she eluded us to the very end. It was quite sad, but how hard we worked for it still felt satisfying somehow. We were able to max out our multiplayer level and complete a ton of goals we wouldn’t have otherwise.

So after this bittersweet experience with Touhou gacha, and all the scummy things I've been hearing about Lost Word, I've been thinking like... I'm done with Touhou gacha, at least for now. Don't wanna hear anything else about it for a good while. And then the 25th anniversary hits and they announce Kagura. Ugh. Please, give me a break. Needless to say, I'm gonna have to give it a try. Touhou is my life, I love rhythm games, I love Touhou music, and I love character collecting games. And I've been waiting for something to replace SIF gameplay in my heart for a long time. I'd banked my hopes on SIFAS but it's really barely a rhythm game so.... at least now that I've gone through CB's death and seen how cruddy LW is, I'll have lower standards and not get my hopes up too high.

If you got this far, thanks for reading my rambles and have a good day~

#loritalk #super long im sorry #there's even more stuff i wanted to talk about but it was already long enough as it is

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catsafarithewriter · 4 years

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“Can’t you see I’m busy procrastinating?” - Haru/Baron, potentially Cups of Tea AU? OwO

A/N: One Cups of Tea AU coming right up! This was inspired by this post, and although I don’t have Haru and Baron sharing your requested line (Hiromi gets that honour, or close to it), this is one option for how Haru and Baron may have met for the first time. (i.e. chaotically) Enjoy!

Moving into a flat with Hiromi was always going to be chaotic.

Still, nothing could prepare Haru for the sight of her best friend cursing at the light switch.

“Work was that bad, huh?” Haru ask as she dumped her bag and coat by the front door.

“Ngh,” Hiromi said.

“Alright. Well, that’s an answer.” Haru kicked off her shoes onto the mat just as the lounge light turned off. “Uh, Hiromi? Some light would be nice.”

“I’m trying, I’m trying.”

“What do you mean you’re trying? How--”

Hiromi grabbed Haru’s arm and, in the dim shadows, dragged her over to the centre of the chaos. “Look. Watch.” She flicked on the switch and light flooded the room.”

“Very impressive, Hiromi,” Haru deadpanned. “And if we move to the kitchen, perhaps we’ll find that turning the tap makes water appear--”

“Just wait.”

Several dubious seconds passed.

“Well, as much as I’d love to stay here with you all evening and marvel at the wonders of modern technology, I have rice that needs cooking, so--”

The light went out.

“Hiromi...”

“I didn’t do anything!”

“You must have done something - that or the bulb has blown--”

Staring straight at Haru, Hiromi flicked the switch. Light returned... for all of ten seconds before depositing them back into gloom. “See?” she yelped. “See? It’s not me! Something is seriously wrong with this place. Maybe it’s--″

“Don’t say haunted.”

“Do you have a better solution?”

“This building is brand new, Hiromi; it’s probably just some faulty wiring.”

“Maybe they build this place over some spirit’s home, and now it’s angry--”

“Unlikely, given that they tore down a warehouse to build it.”

“How do you know that?”

“Unlike some, I actually read all of the brochure before signing up.” Haru shrugged, and the light came back on. “It’ll be... teething problems or something.”

The light turned off.

“Yeah, well let’s just hope the oven isn’t also ‘teething,’” Hiromi said.

Luckily, whatever ailment had taken hold of the living room light seemed content to remain contained for the time being.

Still, Haru had to shut her bedroom door securely and stuff blankets along the base to stop the erratic light beyond from keeping her awake. It became routine, just as much as the funny key jiggle needed to lock the apartment door, or the way that one of the floorboards tilted if you stood on the wrong end.

Hiromi was less accepting about the whole shebang.

“Let - me - turn - you - on - you - blasted - thing!” Hiromi cursed as she battled with the disobedient light switch.

Haru strolled from the kitchen, dinner in one hand and her phone in the other. “Just use one of the table lamps,” she offered as she perched on the sofa. “They don’t misbehave.”

“I don’t want a table lamp, I want the big light to do its damn job.”

Haru watched the unintentional light show and distantly wondered what they were accidentally spelling out in Morse code. Then it gave her a headache, so she looked back to her phone. “Your dinner’s going cold, Hiromi.”

“I don’t care. I will win!”

“Against faulty wiring? I think the only thing you’re going to win is an electric shock.”

“I’m not going to let a haunted light bulb beat me!”

For not the first time, Haru wondered how much simpler her life would be if she didn’t have a drama queen for a best friend. “It’s not haunted, Hiromi.”

“How can you be so sure?”

Haru’s phone dinged, and she opened the message. She grinned. “Because I’ve just discovered the real reason.” She scrolled through the text. “I got talking to the IT department at work - you remember Chika, right? - and they’ve done a little digging and they say...” Her eyes widened at the explanation. “Oh, you have got to be kidding me.”

“What?” Hiromi catapulted herself over to Haru’s side, her battle with the light switch all but forgotten. “What did they say?”

“Apparently these new condos use a - and I quote - ‘unique and innovative binary code’ to connect the switches to the lights and should have a radius of 30 feet.” Haru paused. “The actual radius is much bigger.”

“How much bigger?”

“Uh, about 40 apartments bigger?”

Hiromi considered this. Then a wicked grin spread across her face. “Are you saying that I’m controlling the lights of 40 other flats?”

“Not... quite? Based on the limitations of the binary code, there’s only 16 possible code combinations, so basically our switch controls the light of at least one other apartment, maybe more.”

“So. Not haunted.”

“Not haunted,” Haru agreed.

Haru entered to the furious clacking of the light switch and the sporadic light show dominating the flat. She dumped her groceries, sidestepping the bag of laundry that Hiromi had promised to clear before she’d left, and found her best friend hunkered down before the switch and a notebook.

“Hiromi--”

“Not now! I’m concentrating!”

Haru patiently waited, watching Hiromi’s brow furrow in intense concentration as she clicked through a specific pattern. Just above that, Haru could hear muttered letters.

Eventually, Hiromi sat back, looking entirely too pleased with herself. “Done!”

“I hope you’re referring to the clothes you were planning to take to the laundromat,” Haru said. She leant against the door-frame and gave her friend a look.

“Ah. That.”

“Or maybe you were talking about the dishes in the sink you said you’d clean.”

“Oh. Well--”

“Or perhaps it was the recycling that needed taking out.” Haru raised an eyebrow and was rewarded with an unflustered flush from Hiromi. “What are you doing?”

“Procrastinating. Obviously.”

“Obviously.” Haru leant in and snatched up the notebook.

“Hey!”

Haru raised the book out of her friend’s reach with a teasing, “Shorty,” before flipping it open to the most recent page. A loose sheet fell out, the alphabet carefully written out and a series of dots and dashes beneath it. On the bound page, sentences were spelled out, once again connected by dashes and dots. “Hiromi, are you... talking to the other flats via Morse code?”

“No! ...Maybe.”

“Fear me, fear me, who dare disturbs my rest?” Haru read, flipping further through the notebook and discovering whole conversations carefully converted into Morse code and back. “I come for vengance - I mean, honestly, is this the best you can do? Also, that is not how you spell ‘vengeance.’”

The lights began flickering, and Hiromi snatched back the book in Haru’s inattention. “Shush, let me see what they’re saying back.”

“Hiromi Kasumi Tomoko, are you pretending to haunt someone’s flat?”

“No...?” Hiromi’s nose wrinkled in concentration as she translated the light’s flicking into words, a wide grin revealing the success of her deception. The lights stabilised and she grinned up at Haru. “Okay, maybe a little bit.”

“Hiromi, you are a terrible, terrible person.”

“Aw, you say the nicest things.”

“How long has this been going on for?”

“Uh... a week?”

“Hiromi!”

“Hey, they started it! They’re the ones who were trying to communicate in Morse code to appease the ‘spirit on the other side;’ I just responded. What else was I meant to do?”

“Ignore it?” Haru offered. “Tell them the truth? Not pretend to be a ghost?”

“Okay, sure, but where’s the fun in that?” Hiromi tapped at the page, thinking. “Maybe we should tell them that the ghost cannot rest until they do something to appease it. Like sing the entirety of Mamma Mia, or meow for a day, or--”

Haru yanked the book away. “That’s enough of that.”

“Oh come on, Haru--”

“You are not going to prank some complete stranger! I’m sure it’s hilarious, but there’s probably some poor idiot hyperventilating and googling exorcist rates right now, so just come clean and tell them--”

The lights turned off. And on. And off.

A persistent, almost aggressive pattern began to emerge.

“H-Hiromi? What are they saying?”

“Uh, give me my notebook and I’ll tell you.”

Haru numbly passed it across.

On. Off. On. Pause. Off. On. Off.

“A. R. L. I. A. R. L. I. A. R. L. I,” Haru translated. “Arli? Iarl? What’s that? I don’t--”

Haru leant across, barely taking her eyes off the light, and scrawled, “Liar,” onto the page.

“Oh.”

“I’m guessing they’ve finally clued in,” Haru said. “I wonder what made them realise...”

The pattern changed, and Hiromi frantically copied out the newly-forming letters. She gave a funny squeak.

“Hiromi?”

“I am the ghost,” Hiromi read in a wheezing sort of voice. “Fear me.”

“Oh, for...” Haru slammed to her feet, grabbing her shoes and making a beeline for the door.

“Haru, don’t leave me with the ghost!”

“It’s not a ghost, Hiromi; someone is just paying your trick back at you and I’m going to find out who.” She raised her phone. “I’m going to stand in the car park and see if I can spot the other flat - or flats - we’re battling with. You stay here and keep the light show going if it starts to stop - as long as it’s unique, I should be able to pin them down. We’re going to solve this tonight.”

From what Haru could see, there were two other apartments that shared their ‘haunted’ light show, and the first one they located greeted them with twin screams and the sound of something shattering when they knocked.

Haru raised an eyebrow at Hiromi in an admonishing ‘I hope you’re pleased with yourself’ fashion.

For her part, Hiromi did look fairly amused.

Haru knocked again, and this time she heard frantic scrabbling to the door and several inventive curses. Eventually the door swung open and two men stood in the doorway. They were built of opposites; one tall, dark, and build like a stick, wearing a NASA t-shirt, and the other round and light-skinned, and wearing a sports jersey that had an indistinguishable team or - come to that - sport.

There was the stench of incense from inside, and both were wearing a comical assortment of crosses, crucifixes, and other wards around hteir necks. The larger one had a string of garlic on top of all that.

“Are yer the exorcists?” he asked.

Haru glared at Hiromi in her best ‘look what you’ve done’ manner. “No, but--”

“Then now ain’t a good time,” he said and shut the door.

Haru slammed her foot into the gap before the man could finish the task, and attempted her best winning smile. “We, um - that is, my friend has an apology to make.”

The large man narrowed his eyes. “Why? Did she kill the ghost that’s haunting us?”

“Don’t be stupid,” the tall man reprimanded. “The ghost said she died a 100 years ago - her murderer would be long gone by now.” He frowned. “Unless...”

Haru’s winning smile faltered.

“She’s also a ghost!” the first man yelped. He thrust a crucifix in their direction, vigorously crossing himself. Hiromi looked liked she was fighting the urge to collapse with laughter.

Haru pushed her aside before Hiromi could lose that particular fight. “Look, I think there’s been a misunderstanding. You’re not haunted.”

“Tell that to our flat!”

“There’s been a mistake with the main light system,” Haru barrelled on, very aware she was fast in danger of losing her nerve, “which seems to have caused some of the switches in different flats to link up. So, uh, when we turn on our light, it turns on yours too, and vice versa...”

Both men stared at her and Haru wondered how good her chances were of outrunning them. Maybe she didn’t need to be that fast... just faster than Hiromi...

Then the tall one rounded on his flatmate. “I told you there’d be a scientific explanation!”

“Yeah, well I didn’t hear you complaining when I bought the crucifixes!”

“I should never have listened to you!”

“I didn’t ask yer to!”

“It’s your fault our apartment stinks of incense and garlic now!”

“I’m not the one who’s been parading round as a ghost for a week!”

“That... is a good point.”

Both men simultaneously remembered their visitors, and Haru gulped. She firmly steered Hiromi into their main line of sight. “My friend has some apologising to do.”

Hiromi grinned weakly, and waved. “Hello.”

“You!”

“You’re the one who’s been messing with our light?!”

“Unintentionally, at first,” Hiromi said.

“And after?” the tall one asked.

Hiromi hesitated. “Maybe have been slightly less unintentional.”

“And even now, yer still at it?” the larger one demanded, waving a hand to the flashing lights.

“Um... that’s not me.”

“And why should we believe you?”

Hiromi and Haru both pointed across the corridor, to where corresponding flickering lights, perfectly in time with the men’s flat, could be seen flashing beneath the door of another apartment. “Meet culprit number two,” Haru said.

“Okay, that’s fairly convincing,” the taller man admitted. He sighed and offered a hand. “I’m Toto, and the mountain beside me is Muta.”

“Oi, don’t go giving our names to the fake ghosts, birdbrain!”

“Hiromi, Haru,” Haru introduced. She took the hand. “Sorry about the prank.”

“Even if it was hilarious,” Hiromi added.

Haru rolled her eyes for Toto to see. “Hiromi, don’t make he revoke your baking privileges.”

“Right. Shutting up.”

Conversation was brought to an abrupt halt as Muta cannon-balled past them and up to the final door of the light show. He hammered at it. “Hey, open up!” he roared. “We know what you’ve been doing!”

Haru raised an eyebrow at Toto. “Your friend’s subtle.”

“This is one of his good days,” Toto replied. He marched up to his flatmate and, apparently undaunted by Muta’s self-righteous ire, grabbed his fist before it could make progress through the door. “Hey, perhaps we shouldn’t go breaking down doors in a brand new apartment complex, maybe? Or do you really just have fluff for brains?”

“At least I don’t have my head in the clouds, birdbrain.”

“That’s rich, coming from--”

“Can I help you?”

The door had opened, and a man with an English accent, ginger hair, and the brightest green eyes Haru had ever seen stood in the opening. He wore a red waistcoat over a white shirt, the latter with the sleeves rolled up. And with a mug of tea clasped in one hand, he didn’t exactly look like the prank mastermind that Haru had been expecting.

Muta seemed to have no such second-thoughts. “You!” he bellowed. “You’re the ghost!”

The man blinked, and blush rose up alongside his freckles.

Okay, so maybe he was less innocent than he looked. “Oh.”

“What do you have to say for yerself?!”

The man looked at the small crowd before him, and smiled sheepishly.

“...Do you want some tea?”

#cat writes #mommacomms #replies #cups of tea au #the cat returns #i could have made this longer but this is already 2.5K and it's only meant to be a oneshot XD #and I really wanted to end on that line #baron basically had to put up with the light hijinks for a good week before finally giving in and returning some payback #i'm not entirely sure if i'm contradicting anything i've already written #but eh #i also just wanted muta and toto to be decked out in ghost repelling stuff

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shintorikhazumi · 3 years

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A Real Girl Chapter 3: Holiday Blueprints- er Misprints?

A/N: Hello!!! Took too long to update as I always do, it seems. I’m sorry about that. Just had really bad writer’s block lately. Unexpectedly did some SayoLisa things while I was gone. I baked a crap ton of cookies lately, around 100 pieces to give to neighbors for the holidays. I even ended baking while waiting for the new year haha. Also bought a new guitar since I left my old one back at my uni when I came home during the COVID lockdown back in May due to travel difficulties, and I was starting to really want to play. My fingers hurt like hell yesterday and the day before coz I might have overdone it after not touching a guitar for nearly 7 months. Anyways, Happy Holidays everyone, and Happy New Year!

Enjoy?

~Shintori Khazumi

A Real Girl Chapter 3: Holiday Blueprints- er Misprints?

You’d think that being something of a…robot (Sayo wasn’t sure if that was what she was, but she supposed you could call her that) would make her quite efficient with measurements and weights, and allow her to smoothly function in fields requiring such processes. However, as she leaned in impossibly close to her liquid measuring cup, pouring at a drop-per-hour to ensure she had the exact amount she needed, well… that pretty much denounced that assumption.

At least she could accredit some of her stiffness to Imai Lisa who currently had taken seat on a high stool across from where Sayo was, both elbows rooted on the small kitchen island of her home, head nestled in her hands as she stared at Sayo with an amused grin, the usual playful twinkle in her eyes. When given such undivided attention, wouldn’t you want to hide from the pressure of such a gaze? Thus, Sayo thought it would be best to avoid Lisa’s eyes altogether, and pour all her focus on the melted butter she was pouring into a bowl at an incredibly painful rate, hoping it would bore Lisa and make the girl do something besides burning Sayo with her gaze.

It didn’t work.

She shifted her gaze to Yukina, hopeful to find any semblance of help, but Yukina was just as much of a pain as Lisa was being, sprawled across the couch, flat on her belly, with her eyes pointed to Sayo in an unwavering stare.

She internally sighed as she returned to accomplishing her current task, moving on to another step, doing her best to ignore Lisa and Yukina in a casual manner while not seeming too cold, and give the wrong impression that she disliked them. Fun fact: She did not. If anything, she might like those two a little too much. So, now she just had to express just that. How she’d accomplish it? She didn’t know. She just hoped she could.

Mixing in the final needed ingredient which was a mix of chocolate chips and shards, Sayo smiled in satisfaction, sneaking a bite of one of the chocolate pieces, the action not escaping Roselia’s bassist as the string members’ eyes met, Lisa giving Sayo a shit-eating grin that just screamed, ‘gotya’.

Sayo simply rolled her eyes at that, thankful that Yukina was no longer paying attention to their wordless little exchanges; but she still felt that now familiar warmth in her cheeks as she turned away, choosing to search for an icecream scoop for her dough, instead of silently battling out of her embarrassment with Lisa. Upon finding the utensil, she began lining her balls of goodness along a baking sheet with parchment paper, making sure they had enough space between them to not touch as they baked.

She nodded in approval as she finished two trays worth, popping them in the cleared space in Lisa’s fridge to let them cool and develop their flavor.

“Nice work, Sayo~” The homeowner hummed, beckoning the said girl closer by opening her arms wide. Sayo was still getting used to it, but Roselia had very obviously increased their skinship acts as of late; hugs, cuddles, and handholds being thrown around far more than they used to.

And then there was the occasional kiss to the forehead or cheek, usually just between the other four, as Sayo still felt uncomfortable with that particular act. The few times she had received it from someone other than Hina was during a particularly fruitful tutoring session with Ako where the small girl was overjoyed as she shoved her recent report card in Sayo’s face, jumping up and down in excitement, before lunging over and planting a small kiss on her cheek.

It surely shocked them both, but they eventually got past it and continued on like normal. The other time was with Poppin Party’s Toyama Kasumi. That wasn’t as unexpected as most would think as the girl had probably hugged and kissed more than half of the school’s populace. It was only a matter of time before she got to Sayo.

And thus, these little gestures were something Sayo was (very, very) slowly getting used to. Sure, she would usually state if she did not want to…participate… in such activities; but more often than not, she did not necessarily oppose the idea, however it never ceased to be embarrassing for someone like her. It was a matter of tolerance? Resilience? Possibly with how Sayo struggled to keep a normal temperature each time.

Her parents had to issue her a stronger coolant with how often she’d been overheating. She was surprised they seemed prepared for this development, overhearing her father mutter a, “I expected the heat flushes with how we planned it out, but I didn’t expect it to be this bad. Well, whatever!”. Sayo admitted the fact that this bodily reaction was an intentional installment made her feel annoyed.

Walking around from the opposite side of the island, Sayo reached Lisa, halting just in front of her, hesitant for a moment’s worth before allowing herself to indulge in Lisa’s motherly spoiling. Immediately, after stepping into the space of those arms, she was engulfed in a tender warmth, arms squeezing just the right pressure of tight, yet not overbearing.

Sayo leant down to rest her forehead on Lisa’s shoulder, that cinnamon powder scent calming her in a way she could not describe. A hand made its way into teal locks, twirling and playing with the ends of her hair before travelling upwards to massage her scalp. It made her sigh in relaxation.

If there were things she loved about her body system that she’d never admit, one of those things would be the nature of her senses. She wondered if this was what it actually felt like for real people. This heart-fluttering, yet calming sensation. Pleasant. Feelings… that made you want to smile and, entrust and rest your heart in the palm of someone you loved.

Sayo wondered how Lisa felt about all of this. Was she simply doing it out of habit as she coddled all the other members, and even some of her friends? Did it also make her feel this sense of… what Sayo detected in herself… so-called happiness? Did it please her when Sayo allowed her this opportunity to be so close to her? Or was Sayo the only one fretting about all of this? Worried whether or not she was stepping over lines, or hurting someone every other moment, or offending the people she cared about if she chose to do or not to do certain things that were supposedly of ‘normal’ nature.

Before Lisa could consume her every thought, a weight pressed against her back, slim arms wrapping themselves round about her waist just below the brunette’s other arm.

“M-Minato-san?!” Sayo let out a high-pitched squeak she didn’t know she was capable of producing.

There was no reply, she only felt what she would assume was Yukina nuzzling her head against Sayo’s back. If Lisa’s affectionate hugs weren’t enough, Sayo did not quite know how she would deal with this. Her tenseness must have been apparent as Lisa whispered to her,

“Relax Sayo. Take a break. It’s okay to not do anything sometimes.”

She didn’t know how to respond to that, so she simply nodded, very conscious of the way she was sandwiched between her two bandmates, simply standing there. Doing no particular thing.

The lack of tasks unnerved Sayo the tiniest bit as she was used to always being productive no matter the hour- though maybe not as flustering as her hugging situation with Lisa and Yukina- but in the end, even she could not argue against the peace she felt when they all just stayed there, enjoying one another’s presence.

But it would have been a little more relaxing if Yukina and Lisa were not so busy killing her with their intense friendship and care. Sayo didn’t think her heart could take this much physical affection. She was surprised Yukina, of all people, was able to freely express it. Probably Lisa’s influence. And maybe Sayo was jealous of that ability to convey their thoughts and emotions with such liberty.

They remained that way, silent, otherwise unmoving with the exception of Lisa’s expert hands massaging the calm into Sayo’s body. Everything felt so surreal. She felt as though she wouldn’t mind drifting off in their embrace-

A jolt ran through her spine as she felt a ghost of a kiss pressed against her temple. And just as light, a touch of fingers gliding across her abdomen, causing her breath to hitch. ‘What were those?!’ Her eyes shot open, she didn’t know when they had shut, but now they were flicking about, the only thing she was able to see at the moment were brunette curls and smooth skin. She wanted to argue with herself whether or not what had just transpired was actually real, or just a figment of her imagination, but before she could do so a resounding ding of a kitchen timer cut through her brooding.

“I-I’ll… I shall… go. Get that… thing.” Sayo volunteered as a way to escape her mental tormentors. She awkwardly pulled away from the pair; Yukina more willing to allow her exit as she returned to her initial spot on the couch, but Lisa less so, the girl giving her a small pout before relenting, releasing the guitarist from her hold. Sayo would be lying if she said she didn’t suddenly miss the feeling of them and their gentleness wrapped around her.

But this was no time to think about that.

It was time to check on their cake in the oven!

Clumsily staggering around the marbled center of the kitchen, thoughts still swirling, Sayo stood in front of the hot oven, crouching down to check on the cake currently baking inside through the glass. It looked pretty ready. She guessed she could take it out. In her mind’s jumbled and rushed moments, she forgot to don her oven mitts, opening the stove with little care.

And at the moment she reached into the hot chamber, Roselia’s drummer suddenly came bursting through the front door with one of her chuuni war cries, surprising everyone including Sayo, causing one of her hands to hit the roof of the stove from the inside, and unconsciously holding it there for longer than she should have. It took a moment for her to register what had just occurred, but the sensation that she had come to know as pain- courtesy of her indicators- sunk in, her eyes opening wide in shock and she automatically voiced a yelp louder than she would have liked.

This immediately drew the attention of everyone in the room to her. With Sayo cradling a mitt-less hand close to her body, the fact that she had been checking on the cake, the smell that wafted in the air, and Ako’s prior yelling; Lisa pieced it together all too quickly.

“Sayo! Did you burn your hand?!”

With worry spreading amongst the group, Yukina got up from her place on the couch, walking towards the teal-haired girl who currently sported a look the mix of panic and fear.

“Ako! You shouldn’t have come in so roughly!” Rinko scolds, everyone momentarily thrown off by the smoothness of her speech and the absence of honorifics, probably due to her lack of shyness in her state of concern for Sayo. It kind of touched her heart, if she were completely honest.

But now wasn’t the time for that. She hadn’t meant to alert them, she needed to hide it before it was too late-

“Sayo, give me your hand.”

“I-I’m quite alright, Imai-san.” She stuttered out, retreating a step, back hitting the counter’s sink behind her. Her eyes widened a fraction more.

“No, No you’re not. I know it for a fact.” Lisa replied determinedly, reaching for the hand that Sayo stubbornly kept away.

“I really am-“

“Sayo, hurry, I know how much those burns can hurt and we need to run it under some cool water as fast as we can.”

“B-But-!”

It wasn’t as though Sayo feared getting wet. Her skin was waterproof after all. What wasn’t were some parts underneath it. The wires that functioned as her “veins” and nervous system. And even if her skin was made to withstand certain temperatures, it also needed to be as close to real skin as possible to not give herself away.

If the burn from the oven was enough to melt away those layers and expose part of her inner workings, she wouldn’t know how to explain it. Much more if she short-circuited in the event that there was indeed an opening and it was suddenly exposed to water.

She didn’t have the luxury of time to decide. Lisa caught her hand while she was weighing her options and quickly shoved it under running water.

It was cold. The pain temporarily waned, but most importantly for Sayo, the lack of forceful shut down helped her realize that she would be alright for now, seeing her hand was just a searing red with no openings whatsoever.

She sighed in relief.

“Thank goodness it wasn’t that bad” Lisa murmured, shutting the water and bringing Sayo’s hand up closer to inspect it. After a few moments of looking it over, she gave Yukina and an extremely down-hearted and apologetic Ako some instructions to retrieve the first aid kit down the hall, by the bathroom, while Rinko was tasked with doing the actual bandaging while Lisa took over the kitchen. Once Sayo was seated safely on the couch, as the cake was on the table, Lisa gave her head a single firm pat. “Alright, no more baking for you.”

“!!!” Sayo tried to protest. “But I want to help-“

“You’ve helped out enough.” Lisa cut her off firmly, arms crossed over her torso, a stern look in her eyes. “Let us take care of it.”

“But-“

“I’d prefer you sit on yours.” Lisa cleverly quipped, ending that particular conversation.

Sayo sighed in defeat, turning to watch Rinko as she expertly and neatly wrapped her hand in a bandage after having applied an ointment that would help with the pain and discomfort. Just as the girl looked up to check with Sayo if the job she did was alright, the teal-haired guitarist smiled at her. “Many thanks, as usual, Shirokane-san. You always help me out.”

Rinko mumbled out a long, strung-out, incomprehensible reply, face red as a tomato, but Sayo managed to make out a, ‘You’re welcome, Hikawa-san’, and that was enough assurance for her.

Shifting her gaze once more, she was met with Lisa’s head on, fiery gaze. And should Sayo dare say… jealous?

“How come I didn’t get any heart-felt thanks… I’m the one who-…” As the bassist continued to grumble in her corner of the kitchen, Sayo got up, strange bulk of confidence directing her actions as she stood in front of the sulking girl, looking down those few inches she had over Lisa.

“Eh? Sayo-“

Before she could say anything else, the guitarist had wrapped her arms around Lisa’s shoulders, the latter’s arms automatically finding purchase around taller girl’s waist.

“Thank you… Lisa.” She spoke in a near-whisper, though heard by everyone in the room due to how quiet they all were, mute from the surprise at Sayo’s assertiveness. Also the fact she called Lisa by her given name without honorifics.

That had certainly brought everyone’s thoughts to a screeching halt for a few seconds, trying to grasp the situation and its authenticity.

“I- eh- uh… y-yes? O-of course! Of course, Sayo-“ While Lisa was busy being a blubbering mess, Yukina had walked up to them and tugged on the hem of Sayo’s shirt. Arms still wrapped around Lisa, Sayo turned her head to the side to offer an inquisitive look.

“Minato-san?”

“…I must receive your hugs of gratitude as well.”

“…huh?”

“RinRin wants some too, Sayo-san!!! A-and… and if it’s okay, Ako would like a hug as well…” The youngest exclaimed.

Well, this cooking session certainly turning out to be what Sayo first expected it to be.

//-//-//-//-//

One might be wondering why Sayo, and Lisa- and supposedly all Roselia- were busy preparing cakes and cookies.

Well, when you place people with crazy ideas such as Kasumi in a room with an equally crazily enthusiastic Kokoro with the power to make those ideas a reality, you had… something quite amazing. The two had pouted up a storm when the band friend-group had to have separate Christmases with their respective families, and some with their own bands.

They had desired a ‘boppin’ party, as Hina put it (said sister of hers also being one of the perpetrators) after their joint holiday live, but the idea was immediately shot down. So, in order to appease these children, they all had agreed to free up the new year’s and have a party-slash-sleepover.

It was collectively agreed upon that they would not allow Kokoro to spoil them with everything, and they had divided the food tasks for the new year’s dinner. Roselia had been assigned the aforementioned cookies and a large strawberry cake. To make up for not getting to spend Christmas and eat the classic food together, as Kasumi claimed. In charge of desserts alongside them was Afterglow. Afterglow had made plans to do their prepping at Tsugumi’s café and they had chosen to make cupcakes, tarts, and some homemade icecream.

Popipa decided to pay a visit to Saaya’s bakery and have her dad prepare them some fresh pizza. Pasupare were assigned with drinks, and other little finger foods and snacks that were easier to acquire as they still had a few scheduled events up until the last minute. Raise A Suilen was chosen to buy the chicken. Chuchu wanted a turkey for unknown reasons, so they’d have that too. Pareo would most likely be the one behind all their prep, anyway.

Aside from food assignments, each band was tasked to come up with a party game; two to three members would then lead out the activity and the rest could participate.

These were the things they each had to prepare.

And prepare Roselia did.

“Ready to leave, everyone?” Yukina’s cool voice questioned, door held open for the others to walk through. Everyone was bundled up in their respective coats and scarves.

“Yes… Minato-san.”

“As one of the descendants of the five great dragon Lord-“

“Are you ready, Ako?”

“Yes. I’m born ready!” Ako giggled, running out the rest of the way, arms spread out in a T.

“Ako, be careful of slipping!” Lisa called from behind, and as if fate wanted to play a little trick, Ako slipped right then and there. Luckily, she hadn’t fallen over, and simply laughed, everyone else sighing in relief. “Geez, Ako…”

“I’m okay!”

Then… there was the last person. Sayo stood up from the step by the doorway after wearing her boots, looking around the area and her person to ensure she hadn’t forgotten anything. Once she was satisfied that she was all ready to go, guitar slung over her shoulder, she grabbed the fairly large cake box in her good hand, and then a smaller box of cookies, similar to what Rinko was carrying, in her bandaged hand.

As she exited, Yukina turned to lock the door, double-checking it a few times to confirm that it was indeed closed properly.

And then everyone began to walk to the station to get to Circle for their party. They had rented out the basement so that they would all fit and have a sizeable amount of space to move around.

Just as they exited the gate to Lisa’s house in single file, Sayo was slightly startled by a cool hand prying the cake away from her. The bassist gave her a small smile before replacing Sayo’s now empty hand with her own, squeezing gently. Right after that, the box of Cookies was taken away by Yukina, and the songstress had slipped her smaller hand into the tealettes’s other hand, intertwining their fingers.

Sayo knew with certainty that her face was dyed hot red despite the cold of the evening that was beginning to settle.

“So that your hands stay warm.” Lisa winked.

“Right… of course.” Sayo craned her neck forward, stiffly, fixing her eyes forward on the road. “Thank you.”

…and maybe it was a good thing they held her hands since she did a tiny slip on the road just moments after.

//-//-//-//-//

“Why… did the groupings end up like this?” Sayo muttered.

“Sorry, Sayo.” Lisa clapped her hands in front of her. “Since Ako’s nose started bleeding with how high her tension was, Rinko decided to sit this one out and look after her so that Tomoe could participate. And Yukina and I are the game masters, so every team was going to have about seven members each. And since Roselia was mostly out of the game, we decided to randomly draw lots for the teams…”

“Yeeeeyyyy~ We’re the guitar team!!” Kasumi cheered excitedly, cutting Lisa’s explanation short. “Isn’t that cool, Sayo-senpai?”

“Y-yes, sure.”

“Waaaahhh~ Moca sure is impressed by this coincidence.” As usual, the slothful member of afterglow drawled, casually slipping her arm around Sayo’s waist. “Though I guess it’s not so bad at all if Sayo-san’s here.”

“Eh…” Sayo was starting to think everyone was getting too comfortable around her, skinship and first-name basis and all those little things. Though she supposed some of those factors were old news for some people, and new for others. She was still slightly conflicted about it, though. She had never really allowed people so close to her space, but… she knew her reality was changing by the day.

And she didn’t necessarily hate it.

“If this group has two guitarists from Poppin Party…” Tae hummed in contemplation. “Then we have two times the Popipa energy?! Woaaahhh~”

“That’s right, Tae-chan! Double PopiPower!”

“I’d prefer we only have the minimal amount of that power.” Sayo grumbled to herself.

“On the same team as Popipa, on the same team as Popipa, ON THE SAME TEAM AS POPIPA… POPIPA!!!”

“Rokka-chan!” Kasumi and Tae screamed with as much enthusiasm in response to Rokka’s warcry of fangirling.

“Does that make it three times the PopiPower?” Moca asked Sayo, pointing at the trio, raising their arms up and down in some kind of cult ritual.

“Please don’t ask me that…”

“Ahh~ To be graced by the presence of a Rose, and all the other beautiful flowers in the garden, how blessed I am by my little kittens. Hakanai~!!”

“Kaoru-samaaaa!!!”

“This one is giving me a headache as well.”

“Oh, come on Onee-chan~ Don’t be all ‘Mugyuuuu’.” Hina poked at her side. “Aren’t you feelin’ boppin’ now that we’re on the same team?” She grinned, hugging Sayo from that same side, opposite of Moca.

Sayo looked at her sister’s hopeful eyes, their pressure from the pureness strong. She was rendered unable to deny those shiny greens. Heaving a sigh, she replaced her apprehensive expression with a gentle smile, deciding to be honest with her thoughts about her sister more often outside of their home.

“I suppose… I am a bit happy to be playing on the same team as you, Hina.” She replied, placing a hand atop the shorter girl’s head and giving the short teal hair a gentle ruffle.

There was a collective pause amongst the friend group as they saw this rare tender moment between the twins, hearts clenching at its wholesomeness. Luckily, Sayo hadn’t noticed, thus it didn’t become an awkward issue for her and the topic moved on.

Hina squealed in delight, tightening her hug around Sayo, clearly over the moon. “Onee-chan, I love you! You’re the best!”

“I’m- okay…”

“Eeeehhhhhh~, no fair! I want a hug from Sayo-senpai too!”

Sayo sure was giving a lot of hugs today it seemed.

“Me too!” Tae followed after her leader, joining in the stuffy group hug with Roselia’s guitarist at its core.

“Rare chance!” Rokka realized, diving into the opportunity.

“I wouldn’t mind giving my little kittens some loving-“

“I’d rather you not. Please just… do it normally.”

“…yes.”

As this scene between the guitarists of the bands unfolded, everyone else was just left to watch, unsure of what to do as Sayo was squished in the middle of this human hug pile.

“Oi.”

Well at least Ran might do something.

“I’m a guitarist too. Why aren’t I with you all?”

Maybe Sayo’s assumptions could be wrong more times than she thought.

“That’s because Ran is always left out~” Moca teased with an impish grin.

“You little sh-“

“Language!!” Tomoe hit the top of Ran’s head, and the two both started their bickering, Himari panicking, unable to stop them, and Tsugumi ending up mediating.

“Umm guys… can we start the multi-legged race now?” Lisa sighed at everyone’s antics, feeling like they weren’t going to get to the game any time soon.

“Don’t worry, Lisa.” Yukina placed a hand on her best friend’s shoulder. Lisa felt happy at the comfort, wondering what advice the white-haired vocalist would give in this situation. “This is also rock.”

Of course. This was also Yukina. What was she expecting?

//-//-//-//-//

The girls were able to get to the games… eventually. Surprisingly enough, despite their differences and eccentricities, the guitarist team- minus Ran- was able to stage quite the victory. Not only did they have crazily unrivaled coordination during the leg race, in the next game where each person playing was blindfolded and separated from their teams to try to reassemble via making a sound specific to their team to find each other… well Kasumi was like some kind of beacon or control tower, loudly screeching out what she told everyone was the guitar sound.

Yeah, no.

They won anyway, so… it was fine?

You’d expect the teams to shuffle for team games, considering each band had to prepare a game and have different game masters. And Sayo had been waiting for that moment. But her group never changed. None of them were chosen to be in charge of the games, and well… maybe she shouldn’t be surprised at that. She should probably be more relieved, actually. Things might just get out of hand if entrusted to these children.

So she waited for games with fewer people, or individual player games.

…but apparently all of the bands had decided on group games that would work better with bigger groups. Therefore, Sayo was stuck all night with the ragtag gang brimming with ‘PopiPower’.

Well, everyone seemed happy, so it wasn’t so bad. Sayo would think this with a secret smile as she watched over all her friends.

And as they gathered on the roof of the small building to finish off their little party by watching the fireworks that signified the start of the new year, Sayo found herself blessed to be surrounded by these girls, quirks and all.

And as Tsugumi, along with Tomoe and Pasupare tried to prevent Hina from falling off the edge, Sayo couldn’t help but think,

‘They’re crazy, but thank God for this crazy bunch.’

//-//-//-//-//

After everyone had finished cleaning and locking up Circle’s basement, they were picked up by Kokoro’s long-ass limo, everyone fitting comfortably inside. Even Chuchu was impressed, and that spoke volumes.

Upon arriving at her mansion, the suits escorted everyone with their sleepover bags to a large room with beanbags, blankets, pillows, strewn about; and futons neatly lined side by side.

“I call center spot!” Hagumi declared, rushing and jumping into the soft cushion.

“Then I wanna be next to you!” Kokoro imitated the motions, landing beside her ginger-headed friend. “Happy~!”

“Kokoro, Hagumi, you need to get washed up and changed first.” Misaki chided, walking over to where they were to usher them to the baths.

“Aww, okay.” The pair beamed, before Kokoro turned to everyone. “Let’s all get in together!”

“Hoo boy, that’s gonna be a whole ‘nother mess.” Arisa complained, rallying up her pair of idiots, along with Saaya and Rimi. “I just wanna get to bed. My back is starting to kill me.”

“There you go with your granny talk again, Arisa~”

“Shut up, Kasumi! Whose fault do you think that is?!”

Following the first two bands out were Afterglow and RAS, more civil and calmer in their exit, and Sayo was grateful for that.

“Shall we?” Yukina invited.

Roselia nodded their heads, grabbing their things and heading out.

//-//-//-//-//

Bathing time was rather uneventful, and many of the more level-headed members of the grouped offered their prayers of sincere gratitude that they were able to catch a break and relax in the Tsurumaki’s onsen-level baths.

After that, everyone shuffled sleepily to the bedroom, energy suddenly sapped out from each one of them. Kasumi yawned a contagious one, spreading to O-Tae, then to Rimi, then to the three grand fools of HaroHapi, then to Himari, Ako, and eventually it made its way through all the girls.

… except Sayo.

She looked around, at first finding it adorable how everyone was similar in this aspect having read about it before that yawning was quite contagious.

Then she realized that… she wasn’t like everyone.

She must have stalled in her walk, as Chisato seemed to notice, turning back to her curiously. “Sayo-chan? Are you alright?” The actress asked in concern, separating from her group and approaching the frozen guitarist. “You look… distressed.”

This caught everyone else’s attention.

“Eh? Sayo-san is?” Ako came bounding back towards her, taking her hands carefully in her own. “Sayo-san are you oka- ah! Your hands!” She seemed to realize as she held them. “Is your hand okay now?”

“Did something happen to Hikawa-senpai’s hand?”

“Ah~” Lisa followed Ako soon after. “She accidentally touched the stove earlier and got a slight burn on her hand.”

“Eh? We didn’t notice.”

“Huh? But she had a bandage the whole ti-“ Lisa’s eyes narrowed, staring Sayo down accusingly. “Did you remove it at the party?”

With how she avoided the brunette’s gaze, everyone knew that hit the mark.

“Sayo!!!”

“It is not such a big deal, Imai-san. I felt fine, so I deemed it unnecessary to worry everyone else on such a joyous occasion.”

“Sayo, that’s not the point!”

“Hikawa… san.” Even Rinko frowned disapprovingly, and one by one, Sayo saw the sleepiness in everyone’s eyes replaced by concern.

She hated being the cause of it.

Bowing down in her perfect apology stance, she felt a churning in her stomach, along with her eyes stinging. They were body reactions she was not familiar with. Her mind said it was something like sadness and distress, but the data was mixing and meshing, and fighting. And once again she was confounded by the dreaded feelings. It made her all the more upset.

“Hikawa-senpai.” It was Misaki’s voice. Clear and breaking through the daunting darkness of her thoughts. “No one is mad at you, or blaming you. Okay?”

Sayo’s head shot up, those words clearing her mind as she met those concerned gazes once more, but there was less of that painful stir in her chest. A warmth was slowly overtaking the hurt, and she felt a flush of cooling run through her system.

“?!”

“Senpai?! Are you about to cry?!” Saaya’s question caused a bit of panic, everyone not knowing what to do when one of the steeliest personalities suddenly appeared to be on the brink of tears.

In a flash, before anyone else could react, bright colors filled Sayo’s vision, and she found herself in a situation she was now very accustomed to. A hug.

“When I feel sad, lonely, or when I’m crying, hugging always makes me feel better.” Hagumi murmured. “I want senpai to feel better too.” Sayo felt the movement of Kokoro’s head, assuming the girl was nodding her agreement.

It was warm. Everything, everywhere, it was just so warm. It wasn’t a scalding heat, it wasn’t the biting cold.

For the first time, she might have understood.

Sayo felt… loved.

Returning the hug towards the younger girls, Sayo felt a pleasant kind of prick in her heart as they beamed up at her.

“Ako-chan was right.”

“Mm-hmm! You really are a super comfy big sister!”

“No fair that Yukina-san and Lisa-san keep you all to themselves!” The two mentioned people tried to hide their blushes, but some of their sharper friends had picked up on it, curious at the reaction.

“Righttt?” Hina butted in. “Even though she’s supposed to be my Onee-chan!”

Sayo sputtered out a ‘what are you saying’, flustered all over again as the two released her, Rinko and Chisato taking their place, the former taking Sayo by her good wrist as they sat her down on a random bench in the mansion’s long halls, having acquired a kit from the suits. The rest were ushered into the room to get ready for bed and not overwhelm Sayo.

After treating her hand, the trio made their way into the room, finding everyone positioned and ready for bed, but still awake, attention at the door.

“Sayo.” Yukina called, patting a futon between her and Hina who was next to Lisa. The girl got the message, bowing her thanks to Rinko and Chisato who accepted with their usual grace.

As she made her way there, she noticed that she was at the center of all the laid-out beds, and this made her blush.

Kasumi seemed to pick up on it. “It’s the Sayo Protection Squad formation!” She chirped at the increasingly embarrassed guitarist.

“The… what-why?”

“Mou~ Enough questions!” Hina and Lisa pulled her down to bed, the younger Hikawa twin immediately locking the elder in place with her body.

“H-Hina… I can’t… I can’t move.”

“That’s the point dummy.”

Sayo relented eventually with a sigh, easing Hina’s body-lock into a cuddling position instead, something they were accustomed to at home, at least. Her younger sister was almost on top of her, but she hardly minded the weight.

From her peripheral vision, she noticed everyone moving their futons closer to hers, Lisa moving over to Hina’s as the twins were already practically sharing. As everyone wished their good nights and Happy New Year’s shutting off the lights, Sayo felt Yukina take her uninjured hand, cradling it close, while Lisa held the other, kissing over the bandage.

“Good night, Sayo. Happy New Year.”

Good night.

And a Happy New Year… everyone.

Thank you.

A/N: D’awww, Sayo is well loved. I’m glad. Please leave some kudos, comments, reblogs if you’re on tumblr! Thank you for the support for this story! See you next chapter, and Happy new year!

~Shintori Khazumi

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