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Weekend Garage, the place where Vivid Bad Squad spends most of their days. Whether that be practicing for their next gig or just discussing the song list, it had essentially become their café who was ran by the man himself – Ken. The man who put on the greatest event that they were now practicing so tirelessly to surpass, practicing so tirelessly to achieve a mutual dream between the four high schoolers.
This day was no different, and they had just began to wrap up when An returned to the group after running off to pick up her jacket from the chair she left it on by the window. “Alright so outside is, let’s say, not lookin’ great.. You guys up for just hanging out in here ‘till the weather settles?” She slipped her jacket back on before putting her hands on her hips.
“I thought it was sunny a moment ago.” Akito ran his fingers through his hair, furrowing his brow.
“Well it obviously isn’t now, asshole, use your brain a little geez..” This earned An a glare from the ginger, to which she stuck her tongue out back at him like a preschooler in an argument.
“Well.. I think we should take you up on that offer..!” Kohane stuttered out, putting a wrench in the others’ argument. An’s attention now directed at her partner brought a smile to her face as she linked her arm in Kohane’s, dragging her over to a table and prompting the other pair to follow. The café was usually pretty barren on this day of the week, and that seemed to be true today too as only Ken was there, leaned against the bar counter with his hip.
Ken raised a brow. “You kids not heading home?”
“Mm, I’m keeping them here ‘till the weather calms down because I’m so great an’ all.” An hummed before smiling at her own comment. Akito scoffed before leaning his chin on the palm of his hand, staring at the raindrops running down the windows of the café.
The sound of the rain was incredibly calming, and it almost drowned out the bullshit An was spewing. Keyword; almost. He lightly groaned, trying to will his brain to stop tuning into what An was saying about some video she saw of a hamster and how it reminded her of Kohane.. While the small girl did share many traits similar to a hamster, Akito did not want that to become a constant topic of conversation when it came to An. By constant he means constant. ‘Kohane looks so cute! She’s like a hamster!’ ‘She eats like a hamster!’ ‘Look at her – with her cheeks puffed out she’d look like a hamster! Hehe!’ He sighed at the girl’s voice ringing through his brain.
Until..
Flash. Akito recoiled in his seat, slightly bumping into Toya who gave him a questioning look. The flash then followed shortly by a loud boom. Immediately, Akito’s shoulders tensed up as he scrunched his eyes shut.
“Ooh.. someone over here is afraid of a little thunder~” An cooed in a mocking tone, resting her chin in her hand before cocking her head to the side. The ginger sat back up after a moment, hissing out a quiet ‘shut up’ as he huffed an obvious sigh of relief.. Boom. This time, his reaction was accompanied with an embarrassing squeak, causing An to start howling with laughter.
“Shiraishi..” Toya sighed out with a reprimanding tone, as the aforementioned person started banging her fist on the table from laughter, alerting her father.
“An- ” Ken called out from the counter, An’s smile quickly falling to a small one accompanied with nervous laughter “Your teammate is scared here, be a little supportive.”
“Ken I’m not scared..” Akito grumbled out, earning himself a laugh from Ken.
“Obviously not.”
“Stop messin’ with me!” The rest of them laughed, Akito feeling a slight heat creep up to his face.
“Really Akito, are you good?” An cocked her head to the side.
“As if you’d ca-“ Akito was cut off by another boom from outside, to which Toya put an arm around him comfortingly.
“Perhaps we should move to where the stage is? It’s a little further away from the windows..” Toya tugged Akito up, not acknowledging the red slowly making it’s way up his friend’s face, and slowly walked over to sit by the stage. An exchanged a look with her partner before bouncing out her seat and following the other pair over, a stumbling Kohane right behind her.
They opted to just sit on the stage instead because according to An the ‘vibe just felt right’ (and it also got them further away from the door and windows). Akito did admit the vibe was nice.. but only to himself, not to An. What he also admitted to himself was Toya was very comfortable in the way that being this close to him brought a sense of comfort despite him tensing up every couple seconds due to the weather outside. It felt nice, but not to his heart that was on the verge of breaking free from his ribs like a wild animal in a zoo enclosure, he wouldn’t be surprised if everyone else in the room could hear it (and he hoped they couldn’t because An would be having a field day.). He softly groaned at the thought, burying his face in the crook of Toya’s neck, surprising the other judging by how he briefly tensed up before relaxing.
After a moment of silence, An brought her hands up from her knees, mimicking two people and making kissing noises as she made her hands do a motion somewhat similar to kissing. “An!” Kohane tugged on An’s jacket sleeve to try to get her to stop. Akito didn’t grace her with a response, only shooting her a glare as he leaned further into Toya. His eyes fluttered shut, lashes brushing lightly on Toya’s neck, causing the other to shiver slightly with a sharp yet quiet inhale.
Filling in the quiet of the stage area with quiet conversation, Ken brought over cups of coffee for everyone, made according to their preferences. “Toya I really don’t get how you can drink this stuff black..” An gently took her own mug, muttering a quick thanks to her dad.
“I’m just used to it, that’s all..” Toya huffed a laugh, bringing his own cup to his lips. He glanced down at Akito curiously, as he had not moved despite Ken offering them coffee. Oh. He was asleep. Ken also noticed this, as he placed the cup down in the middle of the group’s place on the stage. “You kids decide who’s having that, it’s too sweet for my tastes.”
“Ok! Thanks Dad! Kohane, do you wanna share?” Kohane looked up at An from the rim of her cup.
“If Aoyagi doesn’t mind..” She looked up at the boy opposite to her, receiving a shake of the head as he drank his own coffee. The other girl happily clapped, downing her own coffee before grabbing at the other cup as if it was going to disappear, Kohane looked at her before quickly trying to finish her own mug.
“Kohane~ I’m not gonna drink this without you!”
“You seem like you would..”
Toya laughed at their antics, slightly shifting to support Akito’s head a little more. A while later, his eyes slowly drifted from his partner’s face to the front of the café, peering out the window. It was no longer raining, and with it the thunder and lightning had stopped. An seemed to notice this too, as she had perked up. “Hey guys! Weather’s all good now.”
Toya tapped his fingers on the empty mug, nodding. “Yeah, it is.”
“Um.. are you going to wake up Shinonome? We should all be getting home soon..” Kohane tilted her head to the side, eyes flicking from Toya to the aforementioned sleeping ginger. He blinked before also looking down at Akito.
“..I would feel bad, he’s always working so hard..” Huffing out a laugh, Toya continues “His place isn’t too far from here so I could always carry him..”
After a long pause, An suddenly bursts out with a devilish smile “Ooooh he’s gonna carry him~!” earning an unamused look from Toya – something you don’t see clearly very often considering how poker faced he usually is. Only Akito can really decipher what he’s thinking, it’s a little concerning, probably because of how much he stares at him.
A few minutes later and after a few struggles, Toya managed to shift Akito onto his back, draping the other’s arms over his own shoulders and holding him up by the undersides of his legs. This was almost a familiar set up, as after the exhaustion of doing constant solo events and practicing Akito had almost immediately fallen asleep as soon as he sat down in the green room of the show venue. If he had fallen asleep so easily during a thunderstorm of all things, something he had just shown to be scared of, it made Toya wonder how much sleep the other had actually gotten, brows furrowing with a little worry laced in them.
As the group exited the shop, they only received a slightly odd look from Ken at seeing the ginger being carried by his partner, but quickly dismissed it as he waved them goodbye.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been to the Shinonome household..” Filling in the silence, Kohane spoke up with a sheepish look.
“Oh yeah I don’t think you have. You should join us next time we dye our hair.” An smiled.
“You dye your hair over at Shinonome’s?”
“Yeah. Dad hates the smell of the bleach and Toya’s dad just hates us in general so we went with our next best option.” Kohane giggled softly at the thought of the trio with plastic bags over their heads, heat creeping up An’s face at the sight of her partner. “Akito’s sister complains about the smell of bleach too but, to quote Akito, ‘Her opinion is irrelevant.’ I’m glad to know that our teammate is such a good sibling.” An continued speaking, sarcasm lacing her voice in the last sentence.
“I’m sure he cares about his sister a lot, he just doesn’t know how to show it.” Toya chimed in, looking back slightly at the other two.
“Whatever you say, gay boy.” An rolled her eyes before laughing, the blue haired boy only sighing as he set his sights back onto the street in front of him.
It only took a short while for the group to arrive at the Shinonome household’s doorstep, An jabbing the button to ring the doorbell, leaving them all to wait. They could hear the faint sound of footsteps coming down the stairs before a muffled girl’s voice rang from behind the door ‘Gimme a sec Mizuki, someone’s at the door..’ who they assumed was Akito’s sister, Ena. Click. The door was unlocked and there stood the person they correctly assumed was opening the door, phone in her hand with an irritated expression that quickly turned into one of amusement. “No way, look who showed up.” Ena turned her phone around so the trio could see the screen, a little box showing that the camera was on but what caught their attention was none other than Akiyama Mizuki, intently looking at the screen, eyebrows furrowed before they raised along with a smile.
“Heya♪! It’s Li’l Brosef and Toya- and An with her partner!” Their delighted voice rang from the speakers, accompanied with a little wave from their end before they continued to speak “Oooh why’s Toya carrying Li’l Bro? Something happen?” Mizuki smiled mischievously, causing Toya to flush slightly.
“Hello Akiyama, and no, he simply fell asleep while we were all looking out for him during the thunderstorm.” Ena cringed at Toya’s response as Mizuki laughed.
“Sorry you had to deal with him being like that.” She shifted her weight to one leg, rolling her eyes.
“Awe, Li’l Bro is so cute when he’s asleep.”
“Dear god no, Mizuki, I’ve never disagreed with you more than I am right now.” Ena turned the phone back around, showing her unamused face to the other person on the line, a laugh shortly emitting from the phone speakers.
“Obviously not as cute as me, though~♪”
“That.. ugh.” Ena flushed a light pink before looking back up at the group, catching a mischievous look from An, before doing a zip motion to her own mouth angrily.
Toya shifted his weight to hold Akito better, which is when Ena’s mouth formed into a little ‘o’ shape. “Right, you’re still holding him. Probably tired from carrying his fat ass around, come on go put him in his room or whatever.” An slapped a hand over her mouth to stop herself from laughing at Ena’s jab at her brother, Kohane slightly jumping from the sudden sound.
“..Alright, thank you.” Toya slipped past Ena and slowly made his way over to the stairs. Even though Akito constantly complained about how annoying Ena was, he smiled at their sibling banter. His own brothers were nothing like him, they took the art of classical music from their father very seriously and were now away abroad, living their own lives and composing their own music. It makes him wonder what his life would be like if he had fallen prey to his father’s strict teaching, what his life would be like if Tsukasa hadn’t been there to tell him he can be who he wants to be, what his life would be like if he hadn’t met Akito. Would he had been just as serious? Would he have worn the same neatly ironed dress shirts, lacking any life in their expression? Thinking about it made him shiver. The world had seemed so dull until he picked up street music, met Akito, and started reaching for a dream for the first time in his life.
Ah, he was in Akito’s bedroom.
Toya lightly stepped over a CD case that was on the floor and walked over to Akito’s bed, turning around so he could place the boy down onto his bed. However, it seems he had slightly overestimated his balance and spacial awareness, as he wobbled slightly before falling backwards. It was onto Akito’s bed, which would have been fine on his own, but there was one slight problem.. Akito was on his back.
“Gah!?” The ginger immediately awoke to being crushed under someone’s weight on top of him, grunting slightly, not really in pain just from the shock of awaking to being.. you know.. crushed.
The other boy quickly slid off the bed onto the floor, twisting around with panic strewn over his face.
“Akito! Are you okay?”
“Jeez dude, what the hell was that f..” Akito’s voice quickly trailed off as he blinked the sleep from his eyes and looked around at his surroundings. This, obviously, was not Weekend Garage. “..We’re.. in my room?” He sat up and questioned, looking down at Toya who was now getting up from the floor, sitting down next to Akito.
“Ah, yes. You fell asleep at Weekend Garage so I carried you-“
“You did what.” Akito interrupted Toya, eyes wide with lips slightly parted. Toya looked to the floor then back up at him.
“I carried you to your place as I didn’t want to wake you up..”
Akito almost felt bad at how worried Toya looked “Dude, it’s fine, you don’t gotta feel bad ‘bout wakin’ me up. It’s fine though I.. appreciate the thought.” Huffing a sheepish laugh, he rubbed the back of his neck.
Suddenly, Toya’s expression shifted to something more serious (thought that was probably only obvious to Akito), making the other recoil slightly. “Toya.. don’t like how you’re lookin’ at me right now..”
“How much sleep did you get last night?” Toya tilted his head slightly to the side as he leant forward.
“Well that’s a bit sudden. I got enough-“
“Akito.”
“Alright jeez dude! I don’t like that expression on your face, feels like I did somethin’ wrong..” Akito held his hands up defensively before putting them behind his head “I did stay up a little late but doesn’t mean I didn’t get enough hours.”
“How many hours is ‘enough’ to you, exactly?”
“Like.. 3?” At this, Toya’s expression fell.
“Akito..” The aforementioned boy laughed sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head like he did a moment ago.
The two spent a few moments sitting there in comfortable silence, looking at each other before the ginger interrupted the silence by clearing his throat. “Well just for you I’ll go to sleep earlier tonight. D’ya wanna stay over? You’re probably tired from havin’ to haul my ass all the way back home.”
“Eugh, disgusting.” Ena suddenly peered out from the doorway, fake gagging.
“Ena!? Who’re you callin’ disgusting when you’re constantly in your little cave of a room.”
“You personally aren’t disgusting it’s how you act with your little boyfriend over here.” Ena scrunched her nose up while looking at Toya, who had a raised brow.
“He’s n-“ Akito interrupted himself with a grumble, feeling himself go red before continuing “Why are you botherin’ me anyways? Don’t you have your girlfriends to talk to?”
“Yeah, something you’ll never get because you’re ga-“ Ena was interrupted with Akito throwing a pillow at her, her having to shut the door to use it as a shield. After a moment, she opened the door again to flip Akito off.
“Fuck you too.”
Ena shut the door again, faintly grumbling about how ungrateful Akito is before she entered her own room. The house was now quiet.
“Pff..” Akito looked to his right at the source of the sound, and Toya had a hand over his mouth, his eyes scrunched up and shoulders slightly shaking.
“You.. okay?” Toya slowly removed his hand from his mouth, revealing a smile. The other’s eyes widened a little, he could never get over that smile from Toya. His usual smile couldn’t compare to this one, not in a millennia. “Why are you smiling like that dude..”
“Nothing, I just find your interactions with your sibling sweet..”
“That’s sweet!?” Akito leaned forward, confused, before leaning backwards on his hands and sighing. “You are one strange guy, yknow..”
After a moment, Akito turned to Toya. “Uh, by the way, thanks for bein’ there for me and.. comfortin’ me during the thunderstorm. I appreciate it, unlike An..”
Toya laughed. “Anything for you, partner.”