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So today's task was simple: Go to IKEA, find whatever furniture Chu2 was after, pay for it and then go back to the penthouse to assemble it. Hopefully it all goes to plan in a nice, simple and calm way.
Was what Rei was hoping.
At that very moment the poor girl was standing in a dazed state of confusion; one moment Masuki and Rokka were standing there beside her as the three of them gathered their bearings before planning on figuring out where in the seven circle of hell Pareo and Chu2 had wandered off to, but the next moment they'd... also completely vanished. Rei let out a defeated sigh. Maybe a part of being a band's frontman was ensuring that your members didn't get lost in a giant furniture store in central Tokyo. Rei wasn't too sure if she was cut out for that.
So... where could they have gone? Well, Rei had noticed that certain blonde drummer had been staring off into the distance towards the section selling and showing off a variety of soft, comfy, bedroomy things, so perhaps she'd wandered off in that direction and taken Rokka with her? Well, it was worth a try. And so, the very tired vocalist set off in gathering her very tall children.
"Um... Masuki-san?"
"Yeah?"
Rokka had followed (been dragged by the hand by) her girlfriend over to a pretty cool looking bedroom display that Masuki was pretty impressed by just as Rei was attempting to come up with a plan of action for locating their two youngest members-
"That's... I don't... I don't think you're allowed to do that? Aren't these display only?"
"Yeah."
-only to witness Masuki climb onto the bed as casually as if it was her own and lay down to Rokka's upmost distress.
"B-But what if a member of staff comes by?"
"Just tell me if ya see some IKEA person come over or whatever, got it?" And so, Masuki closed her eyes.
"M-Masuki-san??" Rokka couldn't deal with this. She was witnessing her girlfriend commit a crime. An IKEA crime. And not only was she a witness, she now had no choice but to be an accomplice. What if a member of staff came over? Would they be kicked out? Would she and Masuki forever be known as the lesbians kicked out of IKEA? What about-
"... Masuki?"
Oh thank god it was Rei. The expression on her face once she'd found them was an equal mixture of confusion and pure exasperation. She didn't need to walk too far until she found them as Rokka's anxious tone and Masuki laying flat-out upon a (formally) neatly-presented bed display was quite difficult to miss.
"Man, I just wanted a damn nap..." Masuki groaned as she hauled herself into a sitting up position, rubbing the back of her neck. "Found Pareo and the small one yet?"
Rei shook her head, another slow sigh escaping from her yet again. She felt like she'd be doing that a lot today. "No, I thought one of you had spotted them and gone to get them. Besides, you two have only been gone for... about two minutes."
Masuki groaned. Again. This time, it was as she swung her legs over the side of the bed and delicately took her girlfriend's hand who then pulled her to her feet. Despite the fact that the drummer was no longer committing any IKEA Crimes, there was still a look of anxiety upon Rokka's face.
"I'm getting a little worried about Pareo-san and Chu2-san... Chu2-san gets so scared when she's lost."
The guitarist's concerns were met with a firm yet reassuring pat on the back by Masuki. "Don't worry about 'em, they're probably fine. Probably smoochin' in the kids play area or somethin'."
"Masuki!" Although Rei's tone was that of a mother scolding a child, she couldn't help but laugh lightly at the remark since it was probably true. "You better not say that around Chu2 when we find her."
And so, the search began. None of them were at all familiar with the store, so the three of them were pretty much blindly wandering, following the arrows on the floor and hoping for the best. On their way, they'd bumped into the kitchen aisle which Masuki was very pleased about. She had to take a long moment to nerd out to Rokka about all the things she could possibly cook with all the different tools for sale, and so of course she had to take a few with her to buy so she could recreate the dishes she passionately gushed about. Ah, that reminded Rei. The shopping list.
Whilst Masuki was busy plucking things from the shelves and piling them into the basket Rokka had to generously volunteered to carry, the tall vocalist took out the note she'd stuffed into her pocket from earlier; the shopping list was lovingly written by Pareo and was supposed to be given to Chu2, but Rei suggested to be in charge of the list as she was the one most likely to stick to it. And so, she unfolded the pastel pink piece of paper and... ah.
It was in English.
Rei didn't understand any English, nor could she read it. She'd forgotten Pareo had been practicing the language with much encouragement from her teeny girlfriend, so Rei was disappointed but not surprised. Thankfully, she could at least remember the few vital items. The group had only set out for a few things:
- A new desk
- A new bed
- A new chair (Masuki had broken the one they would be replacing)
... Hopefully they had enough money for all that, but the first thing Rei noticed when lifting her gaze from the neatly-written list in her hand was Masuki loading an entire electronic whisk into the already half-full basket Rokka was struggling to carry.
"Um, Masuki? Are you sure we can afford all this?"
"Chu2's payin', ain't she?"
"S-Shouldn't we be looking for her and Pareo-san?" Rokka chimed in, now having to use both hands to carry the basket. "And... shouldn't we get a shopping cart?"
The two baby gays in question were actually quite the short distance away from the others; they were stood in front of walls and baskets of plush animals and Pareo seemed that overjoyed she was practically (almost) vibrating. They'd wandered off together once the taller of the two caught the teeniest of glimpses of the plushie section of the store and proceeded to practically drag her even teenier girlfriend over by the hand with a great amount of enthusiasm.
"Oh, Chu2-sama! Look, look!"
Chu2 had all of her short attention span on a grey fluffy kitty plush she'd plucked from one of the shelves as Pareo called her name and began to excitedly tap her on the shoulder.
"Whuh?"
The taller girl was gleefully presenting an incredibly large shark plushie in her hands for her small girlfriend to see, eagerly wiggling it from side to side with a bright smile. "Look, Chu2-sama! He's almost as tall as-"
Chu2 gave her a grumpy look.
"...as... as cute as you!"
Chu2 didn't look impressed. Still, her girlfriend persisted.
"Please, Chu2-samaaa~~! Can we get him too? I have enough of my own money for him!"
"Yeah, sure. Put him with the others." The tiny DJ motioned to the shopping cart behind them that was already beginning to fill up with all sorts of plush animals before going back to scooping up other kitty plushies out the large baskets and stuffing them into her arms.
But it was as Pareo was gently placing her newly-found large, squishy friend into the cart that she noticed that... man, this was a lot of soft animals. And this was quickly starting to become the teensiest bit expensive. She furrowed her brow a little in concern. "Hmm... don't you think this is going to cost a lot? Pareo hasn't got enough money for... all of these."
Chu2 caught sight of the taller girl's sad expression at the thought of having to possibly part with some of the plushies they'd gathered, so obviously this tugged on her heart strings a little as she placed the kitties she'd gathered into the cart. "Well I'll pay for them, obviously."
"Oh?? Really?? You wouldn’t mind??”
Although Pareo wasn’t doing anything remotely lovey-dovey or gay, Chu2 still managed to find her face heating up at just the sight of those happy sparkly red eyes gazing down at her. “Sure, it’s not big deal.” She shrugged.
“Thank you so so muuuch~~! Pareo will make it up to you somehow! Oh, you can share them! Or how about a kiss?”
“P-Pareo! Not here!”
And that was when the others finally found them.
“What ‘bout ‘not here’, huh?” Of course Masuki would be the one grinning. “See! Told ya they’d be smoochin’!”
“We’re not!”
Even though Chu2 was close to growling like an angry teacup Chihuahua, Pareo seemed very pleased to see the others. “Massu-san! Layer-san! Rokka-sama! We were just wondering when you’d join us. Look at all the new friends we’re buying~!” The colourful keyboardist cheered as she wheeled the shopping cart around to the others.
"Man... these are pretty damn cute, innit?" Masuki remarked, glancing over the edge of the cart and into the ocean of soft squishy animal-like shapes.
"They are but... didn't you come here for furniture, Chu2-san?"
Chu2 was just about to answer Rokka's question, but her tall girlfriend chimed in before she could speak.
"Yes! But Pareo wanted to investigate this adorable display and Chu2-sama wanted to buy a-"
"Anyway! Come on, let's go get the things we came here for." Pareo's tiny girlfriend was quick to interrupt her before she could embarrass her further before promptly turning around and setting off in the vague direction of the furniture aisle, expecting the others to follow.
"Ah, Chu2-sama! I think the aisle is that way."
"I-I know that!"
The journey through the flat-pack large furniture section of the store was quite a lot for Rei to deal with. Chu2 had thought it'd be a fun and cool idea to ride in the cart that Pareo was happily pushing along until Masuki, bored out of her mind, took the cart off the keyboardist and began to sprint as fast as she could ahead of the others much to Chu2's yells of both protest and terror and how Pareo sprinted after the two of them, sounding distraught. Rei thought she perhaps should have left the three of them in the play area.
Oh man did it take the five of them an embarrassingly long time to retrieve three simple items. But after getting lost for the third time, Pareo having to boost Chu2 up onto her shoulders when she was determined to reach a shelf beyond twice her height, Masuki breaking a chair from simply sitting it in too hard and Chu2 then having to pay for it, the lesbian rock band were finally ready to pay for all their items. It took a large amount of effort to move everything onto the conveyer belt at the checkout, and words could not describe the look of pure bewilderment upon the poor cashier's face as she watched the group of teenagers empty half a kitchen's worth of cutlery, a tent, a build-your-own children's slide (Masuki said it was to entertain Chu2 when Pareo was at school), a zoo's worth of animal plushies and several flat-packed furniture onto her workspace.
"That... t-that'll be... 204,773.25yen please... and who will be, um, paying for this...?" The mildly intimidated woman asked after scanning out every single item, looking exhausted.
"Me." Chu2 responded by pulling out wads of ten-thousand yen notes from her pockets and dropping them in front of the cashier looking very smug. "Masking, you owe me six-thousand for the chair."
Masking groaned, rolling her eyes. "Sure, I'll pay ya back eventually." She lied. Probably.
"Pareo, call a taxi whilst the others pack the stuff. We're not getting on public transport with all this."
“Right away, Chu2-sama~! But shouldn’t you help them pack all that stuff? Most of it is yours, after all.” Pareo gently prompted.
Chu2 glanced at Pareo, then over towards the others. Rei was doing her best to ensure everything was neatly and safely packed into bags whilst Rokka and Masuki seemed to be unsure of what to do with the larger items; the drummer seemed to be almost slamming one of the long boxes into a bag that was way too small with an impressive amount of determination.
“Right... sure.” And so she rather reluctantly joined them.
“Oi, Choo Choo~? Is this something for you to cuddle when Pareo ain’t available?” Masuki taunted her with a grin as she held up the large plush shark Pareo had picked out earlier.
“S-Shut up!”
Once everything was packed up and the taxi was called, the group could finally be released into the fresh air and were free from the endless IKEA walls. Now all that was left to do was get home and... build things. Rei wondered how that would go.