Work Text:
The weekend before Ichigaya Arisa's birthday:
"Hey everyone, come look at this!" Kasumi sounded very excited, though that was nothing new.
The whole band had decided to go in to central Tokyo because they heard there was some Girls Band Party promotion going on. None of them had expected it to be a big deal, probably just a corner of a merch store selling CDs or something. Though it turned out the "corner" was a bit bigger than expected. There was actual band merchandise.
After the five bands had done their joint event, their fame had actually spread outwards a bit. Popipa even got fan mail. Granted the vast majority were just comments on their blog, but they had gotten a few actual paper letters.
As Roselia were, and always had been, the biggest hit, everyone assumed they got more of that stuff. But even Kasumi hadn't wanted to actually ask. It might be rude. Or ego-bruising.
So what had Kasumi found?
"They've made nesoberis of us!"
Arisa froze. "What?" After her brain rebooted, she walked up closer, and saw it was exactly as Kasumi had said. There were nesoberis of all the band members from all five bands. Arisa's brain froze again trying to comprehend the sight.
"Whoa!" Saaya's reaction was appropriate.
"Why?" was all Arisa could think to say.
"This is rather embarrassing," Rimi said, her cheeks turning red. "You don't think anyone will recognise us, do you?"
"Do I really look like that?" Tae asked.
"Of course not!" Arisa said. "They barely look like us at all."
"I don't know, I think they're close enough that you can easily tell who is who," Saaya said. "I wonder if people actually buy them... maybe our bakery should do Popipa pastries."
"I'm not sure how I feel about someone having a plush version of me," Rimi said, and Arisa felt herself agreeing.
"You're already soft and fluffy," Tae said, and ruffled Rimi's hair.
"I wonder if Marina arranged for all of this?" Kasumi wondered out loud.
"You really think she can afford that?" Arisa said, but she couldn't think of a better explanation.
"Hey, we should all get one of ourselves!" Kasumi said.
Arisa's hair rose up. "No fu- hecking way!" There was no way she could handle seeing a chibi plush version of herself in her room every day.
* * *
Arisa's birthday:
"Happy birthday to you~!"
Arisa got a group hug after they were done singing. Which was fine, she had gotten used to those, even if they still made her cheeks feel warmer. It might have been a little... just a little disappointing if she hadn't gotten one.
One upside to being Saaya's bandmate was that you always got amazing cakes for occasions like this. Kasumi and Rimi had also worked together on one, and it looked alright. How it tasted was yet to be determined. Tae was happy to test it out, but as the birthday girl Arisa had the right to the first slice. Though she was kinda tempted to let Tae try it first to see if it was safe. Maybe that was rude. She felt happy that they had gone through the effort no matter the result.
If they didn't have both Rimi and Tae, Arisa would have been worried that two cakes was too much.
"Here's your present, Arisa!" Kasumi said, and eagerly handed it over.
It was fairly large, and soft. Maybe Kasumi had gotten her a jumper or something. A warm one for the upcoming winter. That would be very thoughtful of her. Arisa opened it, and- "Wha-"
"Ehehe, you like it that much?" Kasumi asked smugly.
"W-what's this?!"
"Huh? It's a nesoberi of me! Can't you tell?"
Unfortunately Arisa could. She had known before she asked, she just hadn't been able to stop herself. "W-w-why did you get me a damned plush of yourself?!"
"Hm..." Kasumi put a finger on her chin. "Well, you didn't want one of yourself. So I figured that if you ever felt lonely without me, you could have a small me to cuddle!" She sounded far more proud of her reasoning than she probably should.
"Wha... I... uh..." Arisa was speechless.
"Don't you like it?" Kasumi asked.
"Uh... I mean... it's a present... that I guess you put a lot of thought into... so I don't hate it..." It was weird, but also very sweet. Which might be the most apt description of Kasumi as a person, too.
"Arisa~!" Kasumi hugged her again. "I love you~!"
"Yeah, yeah..." Arisa put a hand around Kasumi, and patted her back. She looked at the others, and noticed their presents were suspiciously similar-looking. A sigh wanted to escape her, but she suppressed it. "Don't tell me you also got me nesos of yourselves?"
"Uh..." Rimi glanced at the others.
"No," Tae said.
"Not quite," Saaya said.
Arisa thought that sounded kinda ominous. As she opened them one by one, her heart felt increasingly conflicted. They were all...
"You all got me Kasumi??" She couldn't believe it.
"Ahaha..." Saaya laughed awkwardly. "I guess we were all thinking the same thing. I swear we didn't coordinate this. We decided to find gifts on our own this year."
"And we know how much you love Kasumi," Rimi said. "So I suppose we all felt that was who you'd want the most."
Tae nodded. "You love her as much as a bunny loves another bunny," she said confidently.
Arisa wasn't exactly sure what that meant. "I... don't know what to say..."
"Are you angry?" Rimi asked.
Arisa sighed. "No, it's fine. What's done is done. I guess you all put thought into it." It wasn't like they were entirely wrong either. "Just... coordinate next year, please. Seriously." She smiled.
"Yay, Arisa loves me!" Kasumi said.
"Yeah, I love you," Arisa admitted. It still felt embarrassing to say it out loud, but she working on getting better at it. "But this is still too much."
"Now you gotta try the cake!"
"Yeah... I guess there's no escape," she mumbled.
* * *
Later that night:
Arisa entered her room with her presents in her arms. She looked over towards the bed, where there already sat one exactly like the ones she was holding. One she had snuck into town to buy on her own.
A heavy sigh that had been building up for hours finally escaped. She had never expected the others would get more for her. If it had been one of each band member it wouldn't have looked quite so obsessive, but...
"What am I going to do with five Kasumis?"