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== 🌟🍬 ==
It was the beginning of spring, the cherry blossom trees starting to bloom and the heat of summer rapidly approaching. The sun shining even more brightly as the days begin to lengthen, the buzzing of insects starting to become more familiar.
Hotter days like these attract many kinds of people to Phoenix Wonderland, all of them spending their time with family and friends riding the rides and watching the countless shows performed by the best actors and actresses the theme park has to offer, which is what the troupe Wonderlands X Showtime dedicates their time to.
It is midday and the troupe is tirelessly working to perfect their next show as the park becomes even more busy as the days get nicer. The sun is harsh and Tsukasa can feel the heat scorching the top of his head as his golden hair reflects off the rays of sunshine, and he can feel the sweat trickle down his neck and forehead as his hair sticks to his face.
“Alright! I think it’s about time for a break. Good work everyone!” Tsukasa announces to the rest of his troupe, he sees them all look back towards him with relief on their faces.
They all decide to take a break as Nene wordlessly stumbles backstage as Rui follows her, presumably to escape the heat and to find their water bottles. Emu sits on the edge of the stage as she kicks her legs back and forth looking up towards the sky wearing a bright smile on her face.
Tsukasa has an idea.
“Hey Emu! There’s an ice cream place on the other side of the park and I think we should get some because of this heat.”
Emu slightly gasps with excitement at the request “That sounds so yummy- all the flavors are so wonderhoy!”
She pushes off the stage to stand next to Tsukasa as she bounces side to side waiting for Tsukasa to lead the way. They depart the stage, walking down the path from the Wonderstage to the rest of the park.
“Oooohh do you think Rui-kun and Nene-chan would want some ice cream too?” Emu asks as she looks up to Tsukasa.
“Yeah! That’s a great idea, it is quite hot outside after all.” Tsukasa responds as he looks down at Emu beside him with one of his signature grins.
They continue to make some small talk all the way to the ice cream stand on the other side of the park, luckily for them there almost is no line for ice cream. Tsukasa begins to order ice cream for the rest of the troupe, vanilla for Nene, cookie dough for Rui, cotton candy with sprinkles for Emu and pistachio for himself. They start to head back towards the Wonderstage with all of their ice cream in hand.
“Tsukasa-kun this is so wonderhoy! The flavors go all kaboom sparkly! You should try some of it!!”
“Yeah alright!” Tsukasa mentally prepares himself for whatever might happen to his body after ingesting that amount of sugar. He licks one of the sides that Emu hasn’t touched and his taste buds start screaming. Way too sweet he thinks to himself but he can’t bring himself to say it after seeing Emu’s face light up as bright as the sun that day, maybe even brighter, as he tastes some of her ice cream.
Tsukasa notices a little bit of ice cream sitting on her cheek, he covers his hand with his sleeve and wipes the bright pink ice cream off of her face. God she’s so cute he keeps that thought to himself as she leans into his touch.
They get back to the Wonderstage and Rui and Nene are still nowhere to be seen, they are probably still backstage avoiding the heat. They start to look for their other friends but before they can go Emu locks her arms around Tsukasa’s waist in a tight hug, careful to not get any of the ice cream she’s holding onto the back of his costume.
“Thanks so much Tsukasa-kun! I always wanted to try that place but we just never got the chance before!”
The smile she gave Tsukasa is enough to make him suffer from heatstroke, and it’s not because of the sun this time.
“Of course! I always know the best places so if you want we can go back another day.” He places his hand on his hips and strikes one of his iconic poses in pride, happy he was able to make Emu smile like that, he hopes he can witness it once again soon.
== 🌟🤖 ==
Tsukasa is on a mission, to find Nene and deliver her the ice cream he bought. The first place he thought she would be is backstage so that's exactly where he went first.
He enters backstage as the gentle breeze of the air conditioning pushes past his sweat soaked forehead only to find the exact person he was looking for, sitting on one of the fold up chairs, glued to her phone.
"Nene!" He calls out to her, getting a slightly annoyed response from her as she flinches from the sudden change in volume.
"..What is it this time?" She looks up at him with her eyes slightly squinting, still recovering from the shock of his loud and boisterous voice.
He goes to sit down next to Nene on another chair next to her and wordlessly puts the slightly melted ice cream in front of her face.
"Here take it! I wasn't sure exactly what flavor you would want so I picked vanilla for you."
"..I..didn't ask for this.." She deadpans.
"AGH. Listen since it was hot outside I just wanted to do this for you even if you didn't ask for it. You are a proud member of this troupe and I CANNOT allow you to overheat in the middle of practice. So.. I just wanted to do this for you."
Nene sighs at this but takes the ice cream anyways.
"Well.. thanks I suppose."
"Of course! Anything for our diva!" Tsukasa responds as a smile is plastered across his face, looking at Nene.
They begin to eat their ice cream in a comfortable silence, for once Nene doesn't have her phone out and is just trying to enjoy the peace while it lasts, and knowing Tsukasa it won't last long.
She looks back up at Tsukasa to see what he's doing, and he's just staring at her with his stupidly cute smile. The sudden eye contact makes her heart speed up, quickly avoiding his gaze as it seems the ground in front of them is much more interesting at that moment.
A faint rosy blush forms on her face, whether it be from the heat or someone else, she's not sure, but she is sure that his company and this silence they share is something dear to her.
"You're an idiot, you know."
"HEY, what was that for?"
== 🌟🎈 ==
It was about time for practice to end, the sun finally setting, painting the sky in golden hues that fade to a pinkish orange color which reminds Rui of a certain blonde in his troupe. After they decided to wrap up practice, Tsukasa asked all of them if they all wanted to go over to his house for a sleepover, as Saki would be at one of her bandmates' house for the night and Tsukasa didn’t feel like being alone that day.
They all agreed, some more excited than others. All four of them are now walking over to the Tenma residence, Emu and Nene farther ahead of Rui and Tsukasa since Emu got too excited and started to drag Nene by the wrist in order to get to their destination faster, unlike Rui and Tsukasa who are taking their time and enjoying each others company.
Rui is enjoying their silence until a thought invades his mind, curious to know more.
“You really don’t like being by yourself don’t you?”
“Hmm? What makes you say that? I can handle being alone, I'm used to it.” Is all Tsukasa can do to respond to Rui’s sudden question.
“You don’t normally invite any of us over when you aren’t alone, am I wrong? And now when you know you’re the only one in the house tonight, you decide to invite us. You don’t need to answer if you don’t feel like, I’m just curious is all.”
That last part Rui added made Tsukasa feel slightly more comfortable but decides to answer anyways.
“I appreciate your concern but really I’m fine hahahah!” Tsukasa raises his voice at the end of his sentence which makes Nene turn back around and glare at him in slight annoyance.
Tsukasa gives a reassuring smile to Rui which makes his face start to burn up, looking at his friend like this in the sunset in the background, it really suits Tsukasa well and makes him glow even more than he already does.
“Fufu~ whatever you say my star.”
The sudden use of the pet name leaves Tsukasa flustered as he attempts to hide his blush with his hand that's covering his face, looking away from Rui and back to their other friends ahead of them.
They fall into another comfortable silence, the only thing they can hear is their footsteps and Emu’s enthusiastic rambling. Rui notices that they have moved on from Emu holding onto Nene’s wrist to both holding each others hands instead, he feels his heart lighten up knowing that Nene has finally found a place she can belong with wonderful people who make her happy, he only wishes he could be holding someone's hand at that moment.
He glances back down towards the blonde’s hand, if only he could… Tsukasa notices the director staring and switches his gaze back and forth from Rui to the other two in front of them and then back to Rui.
He can suddenly feel warmth on his hand as he looks back down to find that Tsukasa has taken it with his own.
His hands are so warm and soft which contrasts Rui’s cold and calloused hands, probably from tinkering with his inventions too much and getting little cuts and scars from his hard work.
He looks back up and sees Tsukasa’s smile beaming back up at him, this sight right in front of him is even more beautiful than the sun setting in the distance, the shadows that are casted on the blonde’s face highlight his features on his soft skin, which only makes Rui crave his touch even more.
They continue walking, not daring to let go of each other and wait… when did Emu and Nene get so far ahead of them? Has Rui been so infatuated with his current situation he failed to realize that the other two troupe members are much farther ahead of them? By the looks of it it seems that Tsukasa has also failed to realize this.
“Ah- Tsukasa-kun, maybe we should catch up with them.” Rui points forward with his free hand to signal to Tsukasa about how much distance is between them.
“OH CRAP. HEY EMU! NENE!” Tsukasa begins to pick up his pace, his grip on Rui’s hand not faltering.
He starts to run to catch up with them all while dragging Rui along.
“C’mon Rui. We need to catch up with them. It won’t be very star-like if they made it to my house before me.”
They start to run side by side as the grip on their hands gets even stronger than before, his heart flutters as he realizes that Tsukasa isn’t even aware of his grip strength on Rui’s hand, watching as Emu and Nene are now almost specks in the distance.
== ☆彡 ==
They all eventually arrive at the Tenma residence, all placing their shoes with the other pairs that were already there.
“Alright! So we can all head up to my room and we can start this sleepover!” Tsukasa announces. “And we can get some snacks as well, what would everyone like?”
“I think I will be fine, so I’ll pass for now~”
“Yeah.. me too.”
“Ooohhh what do you have?” Emu asks, Tsukasa guiding her to the kitchen to show her the array of snacks within the pantry and fridge. Rui and Nene head up to Tsukasa’s room to get settled.
After Emu and Tsukasa come back from their trip to the kitchen, they find Rui sitting on Tsukasa’s bed and Nene on his arm chair with her legs tucked up to her chest.
“Y’know I thought your room would at least reflect your personality at least a little but this.. It's kind of boring.” Nene remarks.
You would think his room would have something to symbolize that it is indeed Tsukasa’s room, yet all is here is a desk with a few old scripts they performed a while back, his room is also missing a wall which Nene keeps finding herself glancing back towards every few minutes with this confused look all over her face. She sort of feels bad for everyone else who lives in this house having to deal with Tsukasa’s obnoxiously loud voice all the time since, well, he's missing a wall.
Emu and Tsukasa place down a few bowls of chips and other kinds of snacks and a few drinks on the table Nene is sitting at.
“OH GUYS we should play some games!!”
“Hmm that seems quite fun, how about you Nene?” Rui responds to Emu’s suggestion.
“Yeah I’m fine with that.”
“Great! So how about Uno?” Tsukasa instinctively starts to head out of his room to find a deck of cards as he quickly returns and sits on the ground, signaling the rest to sit with him. They all sit in a circle as Tsukasa starts handing out the cards.
“I will warn you guys… Rui doesn’t hold back in this game.” Nene glances over to Rui who has his cat-like grin on his face as he analyzes his hand of cards. That doesn’t look good.
They begin playing the game.
“HEY, what was that for??” Tsukasa had to draw +16 cards, his chances of winning are in the single digits now.
“Rui can you please go after someone else, I feel like you are targeting me..” Rui only giggles at his childhood friend’s request.
“Oh Nene, now why would you think I’m targeting you?”
“Because you do this often.”
“Well you were the only one I could ever play with so that makes sense, no?” Nene scoffs, he’s right though, even so she can’t help but feel like he’s doing this on purpose.
They play for a while, Nene and Emu tapped out and are now spectating the showdown between Tsukasa and Rui. They are both experienced players as Tsukasa would play with Saki in the hospital, so he can put up a good fight against Rui.
They ended up tying that round, their overall score 8:8.
“AGH, I can’t believe I let that loss happen.”
“Fufu~ better like next time Tsukasa-kun.”
“ONE MORE MATCH, for all the marbles!” Nene speaks up before they start another round, knowing that it won’t end for a while.
“How about we go play something else, we’ve been playing Uno for a while and you two idiots won’t stop until someone drags your asses away.”
“Hmmm Nene-chan is right, ooooh how about we play one of her fighting games?” Emu suggests to the group, as Nene stands up to take away both of their hands of cards before they start another round.
They boot up one of Nene’s fighting games, and they decide to make teams, one team is Tsukasa and Emu and the other Rui and Nene.
“How about we make team names? Ours can be Sparkly Kaboom Wooshy Super Pegasus Team!” Emu seems very proud of herself for coming up with that name, Tsukasa puts his hands on his hips in agreement.
“Yea alright, and we are called The Normal Ones.” They begin playing the fighting game, Nene of course is destroying Tsukasa and Emu (there is no mercy for Tsukasa at least).
Rui doesn’t have to help Nene to win the round so they decide to do some 1v1 rounds instead. Nene and Tsukasa have been fighting each other for the past 15 rounds, and she has won every single one of them.
“How can you be this good? These are such intricate combos.” Tsukasa complains to Nene, she doesn’t respond as she once again wins without taking any damage.
“Hmm, have you ever considered going outside Nene? Perhaps what you need to do is touch grass?”
“Says you, Mr. I-will-not-sleep-until-I-finish-this-invention. I mean c’mon how many times has Tsukasa yelled at you to sleep at a reasonable time?”
After that thorough beat down they decide to play one last game. They boot up one of Nene’s racing games and they start playing. Rui, Tsukasa and Nene are all fighting to the death with the onslaught of items thrown at each other, trying to blast each other off the map. Meanwhile it seems that they forgot about Emu, she is in first place and the other three are nowhere to be seen.
“Tsukasa-kun how could you..” Rui begins to fake cry, trying to get a reaction out of Tsukasa as Rui’s character is once again blown off the track.
“That was revenge for what happened last time alright, and don’t give me that look!”
Tsukasa is next to fall off the track as Nene was behind him and threw countless items in his direction. The three of them start bickering with themselves as Emu finishes her last lap and wins the race.
“Emu, how did you win?” Nene looks over towards Emu with a surprised look on her face.
“Well when you guys were fighting each other you forgot about me! So I went all sneaky sneaky and went past you all.” Nene and Tsukasa deadpan and Rui gets up from his spot and turns off the game.
“Wonderful job Emu-kun! Fufu~.” He says with a slight defeated look yet still fond.
== 🍬🤖 ==
After their very eventful night of gaming they decide to turn on a movie, both of the boys are sitting on the bed with their backs against the window and the girls on the floor sitting on a futon they found earlier deep in a closet (which was probably forgotten about for a while seeing as it was covered in dust).
The girls were all wrapped up in several blankets as Emu leans against Nene to share their warmth. They were watching a movie they voted on, there is something about fairytale adaptations that the troupe always found themselves very fond of.
The room is completely dark, only lit up but the laptop on the desk in front of them as a multitude of special effects are present on screen. Perhaps this movie doesn’t have the best plot but there's something charming about it anyways that keeps their attention glued to the actors and actresses and the way they immerse themselves into character.
At first when they started playing the movie they all had thoughts they wanted to share with everyone, but as the runtime of the movie kept stretching they all fell into a comfortable, sleepy, silence.
Nene leans against the side of the bed as she has Emu leaning against her side with her head against her shoulder, Nene can feel Emu’s breathing get slower as the time passes only to find her passed out in this position.
There's something about seeing one of your most trusted friends showing this vulnerable side to you that makes Nene’s cheeks burn, which does not help her overall body temperature as she is buried within the countless blankets that Emu insisted they needed.
Seeing how peaceful her friend was sleeping, Nene decides to make herself more comfortable. Nene shifts her body so now she is leaning slightly more backwards and shifts Emu so now her head is resting peacefully on Nene’s chest. Nene moves her arm underneath Emu’s arm to hold her waist as a way to support both of them in this position.
This close proximity makes Nene want this moment to last forever, just her and Emu, cuddling, while watching a less than average movie adaptation. Nene can feel as her eyes begin to get heavier and her focus on the movie becomes distant. Eventually she also succumbs to the peaceful tranquility of the night, her hold on her friend’s waist never faltering.
She tilts her head to the side so she is leaning against Emu’s head, which gets a response from Emu as muffled noises and incoherent sounds.
“Thank you, Nene-chan.” It was so sudden to her, why was she even thanking Nene?
She was too tired to figure out what she meant so she pulled Emu even closer to herself as she drifts off, hopefully her rapidly increasing heartbeat doesn’t make the pink haired girl on top of her wake, or maybe the rhythm of her heartbeat is enough to lull Emu to sleep. She hopes for the latter.
As they lay together Nene thought she heard something else come out of Emu’s mouth, she swore she heard her friend say ‘I love you’ but that could have been the sleepiness kicking in, along with the audio of the movie becoming less audible as Nene finally rests.
== 🍬🎈 ==
The smell of pancakes floods the room which drives Emu to wake up. She opens her eyes slowly, careful to not hurt her eyes as the sunlight fills the room, she can see the dust floating around in the sunlight.
She spots Nene still passed out beside her on the ground, Emu carefully gets off of her friend so as to not wake her up.
She quickly goes to the bathroom to change into another pair of clothes she brought and heads down the stairs to see the boys awake. Tsukasa is inside the kitchen making pancakes for everyone, he’s wearing a light pink apron with cute embroidery and little pegasuses stitched onto the front (she supposes this belonged to Saki). She also sees Rui who is sitting at the kitchen table with his head on the table.
Emu knows how late Rui tends to stay up and how he likes to sleep in, but if he was to sleep near Tsukasa then that would explain why he’s awake now.
“Rui, you really need to fix your sleep schedule or I’m going to have to continue to wake you up myself.” Tsukasa sighs at this fact, not even turning to look at Rui and has still yet to notice Emu’s presence.
“Now why would I need to fix my sleeping habits if you can just wake me up for me. I won’t even need an alarm if you are here for me fufu~. And besides, you let Nene sleep in, why won’t you let me?” Rui replies as he lifts his head up from the table just enough so he can see Tsukasa.
“Because you are different, if I let you sleep in we wouldn’t see you until noon.” Tsukasa sternly responds in an attempt to change Rui’s mind about his sleeping habits.
“Hey! Tsukasa-kun you meanie! If Rui-kun is tired then he should sleep!” Emu makes her presence known and the boys look back at her slightly startled and Rui looking half asleep.
“Ah! Good morning Emu! Would you like to join us for some breakfast?” Tsukasa looks at her waiting for a response with a spatula in hand.
“Mhm! Sounds yummy!” She goes to sit next to Rui, he has a fond look on his face.
“Oya, thank you Emu-kun for defending my sleep schedule!” He says this as a cat-like grin forms on his face.
“Mhm! Of course!”
“You know you wouldn’t be so tired all the time if you slept at a reasonable time.” Tsukasa turns away to focus on the pancakes in front of him as he continues talking to Rui.
“Rui-kun also wouldn't be tired if you let him sleep!” Emu fires back at Tsukasa.
“AGH- you two are impossible to argue with!” Tsukasa reluctantly drops the subject, knowing he won’t win this argument.
Emu and Rui both glance over to each other, both with a reassuring smile on their faces. A little rosy tint is seen on Emu’s cheeks from the eye contact,Rui then puts his head back down on the table still trying to catch every bit of sleep he can before breakfast.
Seeing Rui go back to sleep gives Emu a thought, wouldn’t it be nicer to be warmer while you sleep? Emu can’t bring a blanket out for him at the moment since they are all with Nene, and she needs them all to stay warm! She thought of the next best option.
She rises from her seat and moves over so now she is behind Rui and drapes her body onto his back. She wraps her arms around his waist and diggs her face into the crook of his neck. She can feel Rui giggle at the sudden physical touch.
“If you’re so sleepy then you can use me as a blanket!” Rui can feel her throat vibrate as she talks into his back. He can’t help but smile at her kind gesture, so he hides his face into the table even more, not daring to look up at the flustered mess he became.
Soon after Tsukasa delivers their pancakes which signals Emu to get up and go back to her seat beside Rui, he wishes that the moment would have lasted a little longer as he misses her warmth on his back.
== 🤖🎈 ==
Since Rui and Nene were neighbors, they decided to walk back home together. Emu left shortly after they had breakfast, not forgetting to say bye to Nene when she woke up. Rui and Nene decided to wait until Saki got back so they didn’t have to leave Tsukasa alone. And now they are on the street back to their own houses.
They haven’t said many words to each other during this walk, but they don’t need to. They know each other well enough to understand what the other person is thinking, so they fall into a comfortable silence, until the taller one speaks up first.
“You seemed to have fun Nene.” She looks up towards her friend, a little curious to know where that came from.
“Mmm… I guess so. But I could say the same for you. Don't think I didn't notice how you looked at those two last night.”
“Fufu I suppose you’re right.” Rui brings his hand up to his chin as he admits that claim.
“Well I’m glad you finally found people who you care about, and how they care about you.” Rui doesn’t let up on this topic, wanting to continue to talk. “It hurt watching you give up on your dreams a while back, but now because you found them you feel like you have a place here, you know where you belong.”
“Don’t think that was all me, you were the one who suggested I join the troupe. And besides, I could say the exact same thing to you. I couldn’t help you back then but I’m glad they accepted you, so you can finally be happy.” Nene’s gaze focused downwards to avoid Rui’s gaze as she can feel his golden eyes locked onto her.
They didn’t realize how they drifted closer together as they talked until their hands brushed on each other. They didn’t bother moving farther apart, the closeness they felt made them content.
They kept talking about their other friends and how much they have done to help Rui and Nene, until their hands sort of subconsciously grabbed onto one another. They both realized at the same time that they were in fact holding hands as they stared at each other with wide eyes and rose tinted cheeks. Rui eventually gave Nene a reassuring smile, silently telling her that ‘it’s okay’, so their grip only tightened, not wanting to let go.
They have been through so much together, all of their ups and downs, and now they have more wonderful (or as Emu would say ‘wonderhoy-ful’) friends to share those ups and downs with too.
There's no doubt in their minds that they wouldn’t want to leave this troupe, but of course that would be too good to be true. One day they will have to separate in order to achieve their dreams, so until that day comes they will treasure the people they met and the memories they made with them.
Rui and Nene finally made it back to their houses, but before Rui could let go of her hand, Nene closes the gap between them and hugs Rui gently. He reciprocates and hugs her back.
“Thanks for being here for me.” Is all Nene can say.
“Of course, I will always be here if you need.” A small smile forms on Nene’s face as she pulls away, unlocking the door to her own house and giving Rui one last smile as she walks into her house and closes the door.
Rui is frozen at his doorstep, still looking towards Nene’s house. After a few moments he takes out his keys and unlocks the door to step inside and goes to his workshop, knowing that Tsukasa will lecture him on taking care of himself but he can’t help it. He wants to make the most out of his place in Wonderlands X Showtime, so he goes back to creating new inventions, hoping that this next show will make everyone smile.