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The changing of seasons from summer to autumn was always something Nene enjoyed. The change from scorching hot summers to the cooler, cardigan weather days, the leaves turning all sorts of beautiful shades of browns and reds and oranges - and the fact that Nene had an excuse to not have to go outside everyday!
Not like she had a choice.
For some reason, Nene was standing near the wonder stage, raking the leaves that had fallen onto the ground into the small grass patch. Tsukasa had claimed that it was not only too dangerous for them to perform with so many leaves on the stage, but dangerous for their audience to have to walk around and possibly slip on leaves. So, that’s how Nene found herself with a rake in her hand, ignoring the screaming and chattering of her troupe mates around her.
No one had ever slipped on a fallen leaf. No one. Was Tsukasa stupid?
The answer is yes. Why would Nene ever ask that.
Grumbling, Nene dragged her current pile of leaves into the much bigger pile of leaves, not really enjoying the sound of the rake scraping on the ground. She’d have to be strategic about raking the leaves from now on.
“You look so glum, Nene!” Tsukasa exclaimed from across the benches, and Nene had to physically stop herself from groaning. “Turn that frown upside down! We’re here doing community service! For the good of the people!”
“I don’t get paid enough for this!” Nene shouted back, cupping a hand around her mouth to make sure Tsukasa heard her.
“You don’t get paid for community service.” Rui chuckled from where he was standing, leaning his chin on the top of his rake.
“Yeah. Dealing with you guys sure is community service.” Nene shrugged, trying not to smile at the indignant squawks and gasps drawn from the rest of the troupe. “Fine, fine.” She began raking again. “Back to work, guys.”
“The faster we get this done, the faster we can go out to eat!” Emu chartered excitedly. “What do you guys want? I was thinking maybe sushi, or ramen, or-“
“We can decide later.” Tsukasa cut in. “Back to raking, dear Emu!”
“Aye aye, captain!”
Nene rolled her eyes at their shenanigans and raked the last of her leaves into the pile, wiping her brow as if she had been doing some hard labor. She needed to put them in a bag, right? When she reached out for a black garbage bag, something barreled into her from behind, arms wrapped around her waist.
“Wait! Rui says to wait until the end! So we can do it all at once and take them all at once!”
Nene had to pretend her cheeks weren’t on fire from the sudden action and how close Emu was. “S-sorry. But did you have to slam into me like that?”
Emu giggled, letting go of Nene and swinging to stand in front of her. “It wouldn’t have been fun any other way, duh! Come help me with my leaves!”
“No thanks. I’m taking a water break.” Despite herself, Nene reached out and squeezed Emu’s cheek, smiling at the giggle it elicited. “Maybe ask Tsukasa. I’m sure he would love to do more work.”
“Of course! Oooh Tsukasa~!”
And there went Emu. She bounded over to Tsukasa, who got startled and dropped his rake. Nene smirked. That was payback for calling her glum!
Nene sat down on one of the benches, uncapping her water bottle and taking a long swing of water. She could feel Rui coming up behind her, but decided not to comment on it. He ended up resting his arms on her head, putting his chin on his arms.
“Done already?”
“I’m efficient. Unlike some people.” Nene’s eyes flickered to Rui’s section, which was still half covered in leaves. “What have you been doing this whole time?”
“Watching.” She felt Rui shrug. “I’m not in any rush.”
As much as Nene would hate to admit it out loud, neither was she. Spending time with them like this - just regular, even domestic things - was nice. Nene loved performing shows with them, but having this kind of mellow afternoon was all she could really ask for.
“…they’re really loud.” Nene settled for, crossing her arms.
“That’s what makes them… them.” Ugh. She could hear his fond smile.
(She was ignoring her own fondness that fought to show.)
“Go back to raking.” Nene swatted Rui off before her feelings burst out of her chest and into her throat and out of her mouth. “Like Emu said, we can go eat after.”
And he had the audacity to laugh and ruffle her hair before going back to raking.
Nene sat there for a bit, watching Emu finish her section with Tsukasa after a couple of playful back and forths. Rui kept on staring (what was he staring at???) so Nene decided to offer her services to help him rake. Surprisingly, they were done a lot quicker, the pile of leaves becoming bigger and bigger than before. It would’ve been fine if Rui hadn’t been staring at her the entire time, making her flustered. Seriously, what was his issue?
(Nene wouldn’t admit that she was staring, too. When he wasn’t looking. When no one was looking, Nene would stare at them, trying to stomp down those feelings of… whatever they were! She didn’t want to think too hard about it.)
“We’re finished!” Tsukada declared loudly, standing with a hand on his hip near the giant pile of leaves. From where Nene was standing, the pile was almost as tall as Emu, and she was pretty impressed that they managed to get all the leaves in one coherent pile.
Nene was pretty naive for thinking it would stay that way.
The signs began to show when Emu was very clearly side eyeing the pile, twitching as if she was itching to do something. Nene gravitated towards her, bumping shoulders with the pink haired girl as a silent way of asking what was wrong. Emu kept on glancing from Rui, then to Tsukasa, then back to Nene.
There was a mischievous glint in her eye. “I want to jump in it.”
“What? No!” Nene’s eyes widened. “We just raked! And were we supposed to go eat-”
“But isn’t that what leaf piles are for? To jump into! Oh, it’s so tempting!”
“They’ll get everywhere-”
“What are we talking about?” Tsukasa poked his head into Nene’s view, tilting his head to the side like some kind of puppy. Nene wasn’t going to think too hard about it, because if she did, her head would explode.
Rui followed shortly after, resting his chin on Tsukasa’s head. “Seems like things are getting heated over here.”
Nene’s first mistake was taking her eyes off of Emu. Her second mistake was not saying anything right away.
The next thing the three heard was a loud “WEE!!”, and then leaves were all over the place, floating in the air and scattering again. Emu laid in the middle of the giant leaf pile, spread out like a starfish, giggling and grinning to herself.
“That was fun! I want to do it again!”
“E-Emu!” Tsukasa exclaimed. “You can’t just- all our hard work-” He was met with a facefull of leaves that Emu had thrown at him, and he grumbled. “Alright! If that’s how it is, I’ll challenge you!”
“Challenge accepted!”
This seemed like a suitable time for Nene to duck behind Rui, out of the way of the line of fire. “They’re so…”
“Odd?” Rui smiled, watching the two fight.
“...stupid.”
“I suppose. We’re no use to either of them right now, as we are.” Rui put a hand to his chin, and Nene did not like the look in his eyes at all.
A facefull of leaves later for Nene, and she was hurling handfuls of leaves at Rui, her cheeks burning when he laughed.
This was stupid, Nene told herself. It undid everything they just did. There was no point in doing this!
Yet…
Why did she feel so happy? Why did she want to stay like this forever? Why did she feel as if she was on cloud nine, so high up in the sky?
Looking at all the smiling faces of her friends, of her troupe members, of the people she had grown to love and care about, the people who she poured her heart and soul out to and they did in return, the people who she-
She-
…
Uh oh.