Chapter Text
It was cloudy and a heavy chance of rain, though it wasnt early morning like they planned, not many people were out and about. They didnt have much for a disguise other then a hat and some plain looking clothes no real idol would be caught dead wearing, Aira could almost feels Arashi's disappointment when he saw himself in a windows reflection, but hopefully it would stop any fans from noticeing them.
They both ran as fast as they could (really not wanting to rely on tatsumi for a ride), and were out of breath when they finnaly arvived to the store. Like a beacon in the night the store lights shined brilliantly upon them, tatsumi would sometimes talk of heaven when explaining Christianity to his unitmates, and this store must have been the very thing he described. Bright white walls plastered in LED screens and posters of idols, speakers blasted Top idol hits, it was a utopia.
It was almost too shiny for mayoi and while he tried to advert his eyes Aira kept dragging him along, they were still on a mission.
When inside it was Mayoi who had to (hesitantly) drag aira away from other idol merch, he almost made a break for it when he spotted a trickstar display.
"Kyyaaaaaa!! Look they even have new stuff for other units too!! Its been too long since ive been back here~♪"
"Aira, please-" Mayoi had to physically hold Aira back. "Y-you said Alkaloids merch was in the back riight?" He gently tried to turn Airas attention back to their goal.
"Ah! Right!, this way mayo-san!" And aira was back to his senses (for now) and they finnaly made it to the Alkaloid merch display.
Their mouths dropped, there wasnt much left on the shelves but the display was still beautiful, the shelves were their signature Alkaloid teal, and had big signs with their unit name. They marveled at the display, the only mervh left on the selves though, were a few folders and buttons, and a few keychains.
"We-were we too late..?" Mayoi dispaired, looking around, he didnt see any nuis of his unit members anywhere.
"Im suprised people cleaned out the shelves so fast-" Aira also looked around, he knew they were gaining a lot of popularity recently but seeing almost everything gone made him proud in way, especially when he didnt see much merch of himself left, he smiled at the thought but realizing he wouldn't be able to get the merch for himself, he sighed.
"EEEeK-!" Mayoi shrieked,
"Mayo san are you ok!? Why did you suddenly scream!??" Aira looked around but mayoi went to another room, he followed the sound till he saw an even greater sight then the, now mini display, they just saw.
"Oh my god-"
There was a teal room with even more shelves lined with alkaloid merch, not fully stocked but they had to have at least one of eveything on them. In the middle of the room there was a TV playing one of Alkaloids preformances with cardbord cut outs of each of members surrounding it. Mayoi scared himself and almost knocked over the cardboard mayoi.
Aira couldn't even thing of words, it was like walking into a dream, and the most important thing, they had nuis of all the members.
"KYYAAaaaa how love~ly!!!! I cant belive they gave Alkaloid a whole room!!!!!" He was beyond ecstatic. He zoomed around the rooming taking in every detail, and then finnaly came to the shelf with the Alkaloid nuis
"Fufufu~ they got everyones appearancese right♪," Mayoi stode behind Aira carefully taking a hiiro nui from the shelf and inspecting it. The nuis had every single detail down, from the diffrent symbols of their jackets and shoe designs.
"And theres two of eveyone left, wich means~" Aira grabed one of each nui on the shelf, butting it into his shopping basket.
"SUCCESS!!! how love~ly♪!" Aira twirled aroud in victory. Mayoi laughed while also putting his unitmates nuis in his basket.
After they secured their alkaloid merch the rest of the store was free rein, as soon as mayoi blinked aira was gone and all over another idols display. Since not many people were in the store mayoi took liberty in walking around, and practically broke when he spotted merch of Shinobu. Niether of them were leaving with full wallets.
Aira was heading to the check out, he had to grab two baskets to fit his merch hall in, wich he almost dropped when he saw mayoi with four baskets at a self checkout.
"Oh, aira!-" mayoi saw him as he fumbled for his card. Aira looked on with half admiration and horror as mayoi picked up his many bags.
When Aira was done checking out he only had two big bags.
"Oh my, it looks like its pouring outside-" Aira stode by the enterance, looking a bit pale, worried about all their stuff getting soaked.
"I mean...we could, call a ride" mayoi hesitantly suggested,
"Like a taxi?" Aira said hopefully,
"I dont think my wallet can handle a taxi fee right now." Mayoi sighed, "maybe hes gotten better at driving..." Aira shook his head in protest, anything but tatsumi he pleaded. But the rain didnt look like itd lighten up, and mayoi was already shakily dialing Tatsumis number.
"He'll be here in 5" mayoi almost sobbed, he didnt want to get a ride from tatsumi either but he also didnt want to stand suspiciously in the store either.
"Hey boys♪" Tatsumi cheerfully waved from the window of his car. Hiiro was seeming passed out in the backseat.
"Hi tatsu-san" Aira said unenthusiasticly
Tatsumi pulled under an awning so the two wouldn't get wet poading their stuff into the car.
"Is hiro alright?!?" Aira got in the backseat.
"Oh hes just taking a nap~♪ he had a long day of work but still wanted to come with me to pick you guys up" Tatsumi smiled in the rear view mirro, Aira gently shooking hiiro, but he was still out.
"Th-thank you very much Tatsumi-san" Mayoi tried to be as polite as possible even though hed rather be crucified then drive with tatsumi.
"No problem! Is everyone buckeled in?" He turned to the backseat, seeing aira grip the seat belt for his life, same as mayoi.
The drive back was more than painful, if Tatsumi was surely going to hell then itd be for his reckless driving than for what he did at reimei academy. The rain only made it worse, he sped up to turn a corner, almost slaming into a street post, but by the power of god he just nearly missed it. Everyone screemed till they finnaly made it back to the ES building.
. . . ♤♡◇♧ . . .
It was a little after dinner time, mayoi was alone in the cafeteria, he sat there waiting for his food,
"Mayo-san! There you are," Aira suddenly popped up scaring mayoi a bit, having no access to the vents made it easier for people to find him.
"Aira-san? What do you want?" He smiled lightly, recognizing his unitmate.
"I uh, wanted to thank you for today-"
"Wha-!?!" That caught him off guard.
"For still going to the store with me even though it was kinda off our plans, i never really had someone to go shop with me before.." he looked away but smiled, he was truly thankful for mayoi, even though he is pretty weird, he enjoyed his company, especially today.
"Oh nononono- its nothing really-!! Imsorryyouhadtospendyourdaywithsomeonelike-" but mayoi stoped himself and took a breath, "im glad you had fun today" he manged to smile back at aira.
"Oh aira! Do you want something aswell?" Niki came out of the kitchen with a streaming plate of food for mayoi.
"Uugh i dont think ill be able to buy food for a few months," Aira sighed half joking, he did kinda blow all his money on idol merch and was half suprised mayoi could even afford food after he got such a huge hual.
Niki gave a horrified gasp when he herd Aira.
"You need to eat though! Dont worry ill make you something, on the house!" He rushed back into the kitchen before Aira could say anything, he looked at back at mayoi who just awkwardly shrugged at him.
Aira sat down with mayoi and they talked more about idol stuff (more like aira info dumped on mayoi about his favorite idols) and they chatted till Niki came back with some food for Aira aswell.
Mayoi made sure to remember this moment as long as he could, he finnaly was able to connect to another one of his unitmate, and he was happier then ever.