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when hiiro had recieved the email that he and several of his friends would be promoting a theme park, his heart dropped in nervousness. the problem wasn’t visiting the park with his friends, but… hiiro had never been on a roller coaster before. the situation was made even worse when he called his older brother in a panic.
“nii-san, what should i do if i have to go to an idol themed park but i’ve never been to one before, and a bunch of my friends will be there, especially suou-kun! and nii-san, he’s going to be next to me in the assigned seating for the promotional photo. he’s going to laugh at me, nii-san! what should i do?!” hiiro cries into the phone as soon as rinne picks up. rinne stifles a laugh, before looking at the clock on his phone.
“sheesh, otouto-kun, you’re seriously facetiming me about this at 6 in the morning?” rinne can’t even hold back the giggle as he desperately tries to calm his little sibling down. “if this suou kid likes you, there won’t be any judgement. niki didn’t laugh at me the first time we went on a roller coaster, and look at us now, happily married!”
niki’s yell comes from somewhere behind rinne. “we aren’t married, rinne-kun!” rinne visibly deflates before continuing.
“anyways, what i’m trying to say is that if this suou kid really cares, you won’t have a problem. if there is a problem, text your little old nii-san and i’ll beat the crap out of him for teasing you. simple as that.” rinne smiles and hiiro looks around. nii-san was always so cryptic.
“okay, nii-san… bye. love you.” hiiro hangs up after receiving a wave from rinne, and then looks up at the ceiling above her bed. maybe it wouldn’t be so bad? at least it was soon, so that he didn’t have to reflect too long.
on saturday, when the meetup had been scheduled, hiiro met up with some of his friends outside the park’s gates. there was a large statue of eichi welcoming everyone to the park. how weird. tori and tsukasa were bickering over something called the good place? hiiro didn’t quite get the debate over eleanor’s morality, but tsukasa seemed to be rather into it the way he leaned over to choke tori.
“haha… let’s not choke tori-kun over eleanor shellstrop, please…” hajime tried to intervene.
“you wouldn’t get it, hajime. eleanor was fundamentally a bad person! people change but some things you can’t forgive!” tsukasa gestured wildly, tori flopping along.
“forgive… deez nuts…” tori managed to wheeze out.
fully weirded out, hiiro managed to enjoy part of his theme park experience. being sat next to hinata on the trickstar teacups was fun, even if he had to sit down for a while after. hinata just wouldn’t stop spinning. tomoya and mitsuru were fine enough company on the rhythm link log ride, though tomoya’s screams of bloody murder on the drop did make hiiro’s heart race. seeing tetora shiver like a cat forced to take a bath on the way out was also hilarious. shinobu was great company for the alkaloid arcade, even winning a few plushies for hiiro and midori. the frog plushie midori had proudly carried for the rest of the day had some silly name like croakson. hiiro even got to snap a pic with an aira standee, texting it to her with the caption, "hey, this outing is for second years only!" she'd responded with a flood of emojis that had made hiiro smile at his phone. for lunch, they headed to the getto spectacle grill, where the main special was a disco ball themed burger. tsukasa had poked the bun, looking at it displeased, and barely managed a smile for the group photo of their meal. it looked like a unicorn had thrown it up like an owl pellet.
“hey, tsukasa-kun, are you gonna eat that?” hiiro had completely demolished the food he’d been given and was looking at tsukasa’s food with eyes like a begging dog.
“take it. i’m glad one of us is enjoying the food.” tsukasa watched fondly as hiiro dug in, finishing it in only a few minutes.
“hey, guys, should we do the coaster next?” yuta had suggested, mouth full of fries he’d stolen from hinata.
the main reason they were all there was the promotional photos for the new coaster launching, the eccentric ender. the pause over the drop was said to add thrill, before the rider going down vertically face first and doing several loops. hiiro felt nauseous just thinking about it, but he was getting a free ticket and meal just for one photo, so he had to make it worth it.
everyone had generally agreed, and so they headed over to join the line. long as it was they’d eventually made it, if not for several fights. at one point, midori had bumped into a middle-aged woman who had threatened to call the police and execute his family. when the group reached the entrance, they showed the ride manager their badges and got into the cues for the individual rows. tsukasa and hiiro were somewhere near the middle, and made small talk while waiting for the coaster to arrive.
“so, have you watched anything interesting recently?” tsukasa asked politely.
“well, nii-san introduced me to this weird show called squid game.”
“i think that’s enough on this subject.” luckily for tsukasa, the coaster arrived at the station. the carts were shaped like tiny oddball faces, and tsukasa couldn’t help but grimace at the tiny leo-shaped screws. they stepped through, putting their bags into the provided cubbies for the guests. even the cubbies were shaped like various members of the older fine with their mouths open. hiiro felt like it was a violation just setting his backpack in them.
“hiiro-kun, are you ready to board the coaster?” tsukasa inquired.
“ready as i’ll ever be. which is not at all, haha.” hiiro replied, already starting to flush just from being in tsukasa’s presence.
“GET ON THE RIDE, LESBOS!” tori yelled from his row. hajime frowned, pulling the pair into their seats.
hiiro and tsukasa boarded their seats, buckling in and lowering the lapbars. hiiro could feel his stomach turning at the sight of the height ahead of him.
“hiiro-kun, are you quite alright? your face seems rather pale.” tsukasa turned to inspect hiiro’s face, lifting a hand to gently move it in a circle. hiiro’s face ended up flushing rather fast, and tsukasa took it as a good sign.
“we’re setting off. are you nervous? you can hold my hand if you’d like.” the comment was met with some snarky remark from tori, hajime gently scolding him after. hiiro was starting to think tori was less of a cute hamster and more some strange white dog. maybe hiiro would get hajime a spray bottle for christmas.
“i- it’ll be fine, tsukasa-kun. i’m not that nervous.” even though he said this, the creaking of the ride slowly moving up the rail terrified him. with a squeak, he grabbed tsukasa’s hand and squeezed it tight. tsukasa let out a little laugh, smoothing his thumb over hiiro’s knuckles.
it wasn’t too bad after that, until they’d slowly jerked to a stop, looking over the edge. mitsuru and sora, who were in the front, decided to yell a loud countdown while hiiro mumbled a prayer to any god that would listen. tori and tsukasa had somehow gotten into another argument about some guy named veck nerd? hiiro couldn’t catch his name. everyone was cut off when their roller coaster started to dive, hiiro letting out a shrill shriek as they plummeted. the rest of the ride went by in a blur before they were slamming to a stop at the ending pad.
“that was… actually really fun!” hiiro yelled, smiling at tsukasa, whose hand he was still holding. tsukasa thought he was charming. someone worthy of a knight’s affections.
“yes, it was. i’m glad i could experience that with you, hiiro-kun. i hope we can do this again sometime.” tsukasa pressed a kiss to hiiro’s cheek, before walking away to chat with the rest of the group. all hiiro could do was blush and stutter. what the fuck just happened. at least it wasn’t too long before his peaceful silence was shattered by the sound of bickering once more.
“what do you MEAN you enjoyed riverdale?? are you insane? the source material is completely different!” tsukasa yelled.
“you wanna kiss me so bad, dontcha?” tori teased back.
even if tsukasa and hiiro’s relationship had likely changed that day, one thing remained constant. tori himemiya was a bitchass motherfucker.