Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The hefty soles of Iori's boots were heard along the pavement as she jogged towards a small dessert shop at the end of a street the four of them had chosen to explore that evening.

"What caught your interest there?" Arata called out to his sister as the other three caught up to her, a little confused but curious when the tall girl had suddenly separated from the group.

"... Saw this place in one of Mio and I's bandmate's posts the other day." Iori replied, nodding at the other young woman, who tilted her head, slowly remembering it herself. Inspecting the outside of the shop in more detail, peering in through the window, Iori muttered to herself, "... Pricey, but they say the crepes are to die for..."

“Ooh, couple’s discount.” Souma helpfully noted as he wheeled closer to the window, reading one of the posters on it. "... Does seem like the cosy sort of place that'll be attracting couples, huh?"

“Lovely. Alright-" Iori turned around to face the others, grinning as she clasped her hands together and spoke her next words. "Mio, Arata, get in there and pretend to be straight for a sec, will you?”

The pair she addressed immediately met her cheerful expression with sullen ones.

“... A- Again…?” Mio mumbled, frowning.

“Yeah, why exactly is it always us??” Arata complained, considerably louder.

“Cause you two pass most as hetero.” Iori replied simply, with a shrug, pointing at her brother. “Since you insist on dressing like a fuckboy. And as for Mio, people probably look at her and think “Aww, typical uwu shygirl,” so.”

"..."

"..."

"..."

“... What I don’t get is how you just manufactured those words with your mouth and didn’t immediately be sick on the floor.” Arata eventually replied with disgust.

Mio silently nodded in agreement with Arata while Souma sheepishly smiled up at them.

“Ahh, come on, you guys, pleaseeeee??” he pleaded, clasping his hands.

Arata shook his head, closing his eyes as if to avoid looking at- and giving into- that expression. “No. Not this time. Nope.”

His refusal earned him a light smack in the shoulder from his sister. “As if we’re going to pay full price when there’s a chance not to? We’re all young adults who work as musicians, you think we can afford passing up a good deal like this?”

Unable to argue with the logic of saving money, Arata groaned, begrudgingly grabbing Mio’s hand and walking towards the door.

“Let’s go then, “darling.” Might as well get this over with…” he drawled sarcastically. Mio, equally reluctantly, half-jogged to keep up with him, while Iori and Souma cheered, high-fiving as they remained outside.

A few minutes later, they returned outside, having bought dessert for the four of them- a chocolate parfait for Arata and three crepes, each suited to the tastes of the others. Arata and Mio simultaneously withdrew their hands the very second they exited the door, much to the further amusement of their respective partners.

"... This better be the best damn parfait on this planet, because that woman at the counter just said to us "what a cute couple!!" and it took such effort to not burst out laughing that my ribs wanted to shatter. Iori, force us into a situation like that yet again, and I'll make up drama about STANDOUT. Will download Twitter purely to post it." Arata muttered, shoving the bag containing the crepes into Iori's hands before starting to eat his own food.

While Iori handed out her and Souma's crepes, Mio added with a nervous laugh, "It is quite an awkward situation to be put into... I- I mean, no offense to you, Arata-kun, but- for others to believe we were together was, uhm..."

Iori grinned, ruffling the shorter girl's fluffy hair. "Oh, darling Mio, I do apologise. Not to you, though." She stuck her tongue out at her brother before turning back to her girlfriend. "Please, you can admit how much of an embarrassment it was to be seen by his side, I'll protect you if he gets offended~" she teased with a chuckle.

Between bites of his dessert, Souma couldn't help but laugh along at Arata's unamused expression while being made fun of by his twin, to which Mio was repeatedly and apologetically denying any ill feeling towards him.

"Say..." he began softly, glancing up at his partner. "... This place's food isn't half bad, what do you say we come here again some day, eh?"

The irritation slipped from Arata's face in an instant, tuning out everyone else at the sound of Souma's voice.

"... 'Course we can." Glancing to the side to jokingly glare at Iori and Mio, he continued with his usual smirk, "Without those ones, I should think. Just the two of us."

Chapter Text

Having met outside the Tono house after completing their commitments for the day, the four young adults were having a quick chat about what they planned to do with the rest of their time.

“Alright. So, shopping, then park, then-” Arata cut himself off as he squinted at Mio. Having taken a proper look at her, he slowly pointed at the lavender plaid jacket she wore.

“Is that mine??” he asked in disbelief, while the girl in question, having grown anxious under his gaze, looked down at it, noting the directions of the buttons. They were on the right-hand side, the side that buttons on clothing more typically sold to men were put on.

“Ah- is it-?? I’m- I’m so sorry, I was cold and- Iori said I could get something from her wardrobe and, well, this was there-”

Iori glanced up from her phone at the sound of her girlfriend's rambling to look at the jacket for a second, nonchalantly confirming, “Ah shit, might be.”

Souma giggled as Arata turned to tell off his sister and Mio frantically began unbuttoning the jacket with the intent to return it.

“I’ve been looking for that. I can't believe you. Still stealing my shit in this day and age. What is the point of being a professional musician if you can't even buy your own- keep it.” he added, reaching out a hand to stop the poor, guilty-looking Mio from shrugging the jacket off her shoulders while he continued glaring at the unbothered Iori.

“... It's been rotting on the living room sofa for the past, like, five months. Could've been the next-door-neighbour's for all I knew. So, finder's keepers.” she replied matter-of-factly.

“Do you really think you can just take whatever you like and give it out?? Do I look like the local thrift shop to you?” he muttered in exasperation, though soon regretted his words as the other three, as if on cue, looked up and down at his current clothes before avoiding eye contact with both him and each other, the lot of them clearly trying their hardest not to blurt out “yes.”

“... Mean to me. All of you. ” he said with a sniff.

Chapter Text

“Oooh, these flower-patterned cupcake cases are the cutest!!” Minori, upbeat as ever, exclaimed as she waved over the two accompanying her in the supermarket.

“Yeah… and about twice as expensive as the normal ones.” came Shiho’s blunt reply as she joined the idol’s side, squinting at the price. “It’s only a school bake sale, we don’t want to spend loads.”

Kohane nodded in reluctant agreement with Shiho, smiling apologetically as Minori deflated in disappointment. She was about to say something, when in the adjacent aisle, she heard a familiar masculine voice with an underlying tone of condescension.

“Iori, I know you failed all of your literature exams in school, but I did have the slightest faith that you weren’t completely useless at reading. Why have you put baking powder in the basket when Mama’s list says baking soda, huh?

Shiho’s head seemed to perk up at the name “Iori,” glancing in the same direction as Kohane. Minori looked between her two friends with mild confusion, before happily taking advantage of their distracted states to slip the multi-coloured cupcake cases into the basket Shiho held.

“What? Give that here-” a woman’s voice could be heard replying, followed by the sound of her ripping a piece of paper out of her companion’s hand. “Well, is it my fault that mother dearest’s “s”s somehow look like “p”s?” she snorted, before adding, “Oh, and you can shut up about my inability to read properly when you can’t count, Mr “Genius” who, unsurprisingly, failed maths.”

“What are you on about…?”

“Mama’s list also happens to say she's wanting two egg cartons, and you’ve put eight in here. Forget basic counting, whatever the fuck happened to common sense, you idiot?? Who wants to buy a whopping eight cartons of eggs in one go?”

“Eh- well, look here, this “2” is such a mess, you can’t blame me for reading it as an “8,” can you? Not when you’re the one who managed to get “powder” from “soda” and- God, let’s just blame Mama’s awful handwriting for this one, shall we?”

“... Fine. You’re still stupid though.”

Kohane and Shiho both slowly walked towards the sound of the bickering pair, confirming each of their suspicions. A still bewildered Minori followed.

“Tono-san-??”

“Iori…?”

The two older ones paused their little argument by the baking aisle to look at them. Noting their similar hair, expressions and clothing styles, all that Kohane and Shiho could simultaneously think was, “Oh my God, there’s two of them.”

“... Hinomori, hey.” Iori nodded towards the bassist, while Arata waved at the other.

“Hiya, Kohane-chan. You alright?” he asked in the usual casual way.

Not processing the question as she had her own, Kohane blurted out, “I- didn’t know you had a… uhm, sister?”

Arata sighed in exaggerated disappointment. “Unfortunate, isn’t it?” he said, putting on a melancholy smile, for which he got a kick in the shin.

“Do us all a favour and hush forever.” Iori hissed at him, before putting on a sweet smile as she looked at the three girls. “Good to see you again, Hinomori. And your friends, I guess?”

“Yeah. Kohane and Minori, from my school. We were classmates last year.” Shiho said shortly.

Still very much lost, but always one to be welcoming, Minori beamed as she enthusiastically introduced herself. “Yep!! I’m Minori Hanasato, nice to meet you!! You look so, so, so cool, miss!!”

“Huh, guess it is a nice outfit, thanks.” Iori replied.

Kohane, though shy, didn’t exactly think before she jumped in with her own compliments to Arata’s sister, having forgotten that he was right there as she said the first thing that came to mind, “Y- yes, it is…!! And you have such long hair too, and cool make up- oh, you’re like if Tono-san was pretty…!!”

If one listened very closely, they would be able to hear the ego of the local pretty boy shattering into a thousand smithereens.

Iori burst out laughing, as did Minori, even Shiho awkwardly coughing to cover up her own amusement while Kohane turned red in embarrassment at the realisation of her own words. Arata sniffed, a little more stung by the innocent remark than he should’ve been.

“Thanks a million, Kohane-chan.” he said sarcastically.

Iori, still howling with laughter in the middle of aisle ten, patted the top of Kohane’s hat, as she managed to say between giggles, “I like you, kid. You said that with absolutely no hesitation, eh? Amazing. Absolutely wonderful.”

“I- I didn’t mean to…!! Ah, I’m so, so sorry-” Kohane stammered, mortified.

“... Just be glad that An-chan and Shinonome-kun aren’t here... this could be a lot worse...” Arata muttered to himself.

As one of the Tonos recovered from her fit of chuckles and the other from his offense, the five of them resolved Minori's confusion as Iori was introduced as leader of a band that Shiho and the rest of Leo/need were acquainted with, and Arata as a street performer working alongside Vivid BAD SQUAD, which was how Kohane knew him.

"Small world..." Shiho mused to which the others nodded in agreement.

Shibuya, a small world indeed.

Chapter Text

“Arata, have any queens?”

“Nah. Go fish.”

“Go fuck yourself, yes you do. You just took like three from Mio.”

“Ah, ah-” Inconveniently for Iori, Ken happened to walk over with their drinks at that very moment, and heard her colourful language, for which she earned a light-hearted look of disapproval. “Nice to see such a lively table, but there are still kids ‘round. ‘Fraid I’m gonna have to ask you to keep the effing and blinding to a minimum, Iori.”

“Yeah, Iori, there’s kids around.” Arata repeated under his breath with a grin, delighted as ever to see his sister get told off.

“And you won’t be in a second.” she retorted, giving him a small shove, immediately triggering a bit of a scuffle as he retaliated.

“... The violence too? If possible??” Ken said with a sigh as he set down a white hot chocolate in front of Mio, who glanced up at him apologetically.

“I- I’m so sorry, sir…” she mumbled, anxiously glancing between the quarrelling siblings, Souma doing so too, bewildered as his cards remained in hand.

“... Are we still playing, or…?” he questioned faintly, before wincing a little in sympathy for his boyfriend as Iori landed a very well-aimed kick on his ankle with her pointy heels. “Alrighty, guess not.”

Chapter Text

The four of them had a very specific seating arrangement when at a restaurant.

They would choose the semi-circular booth, as it allowed them all to comfortably sit around the table, a decent amount of space for Souma’s wheelchair. As for the three sitting on the booth seating itself… Mio was assigned damage control. She was to sit between Iori and Arata, in order to prevent any fights that could have occurred due to accidental kicks, had the siblings been sat next to each other.

Note, this was supposed to prevent fights.

However, it was very quickly discovered not to be foolproof. Particularly due to Mio’s height- well, lack of it. It allowed the twins to argue right over poor Mio’s head without much obstruction, both of them being quite a bit taller than her.

This tended to lead to several situations like the current one.

“Did you just hit my girlfriend!?” 

“Can you not shout that for the world to hear, people are going to think I’m a cunt.”

“Serves you right, you are one.”

“Iori, you drama queen, it was an accident- I was aiming for you, not her, keep your hair on-”

“Is that meant to make it any better?? You little-”

A few moments prior, while waiting for their food, Mio had been attempting to ignore the tension between the two on either side of her, having a pleasant chat with Souma about a manga they were both fans of. The other two seemed to be yelling at each other over a missing microphone. Well, that was how it had begun, but of course, upon escalating, the initial cause of the fight had been forgotten.

Mio had been leaning forward in order to better hear Souma from the opposite end of the table, over the voices of the two she sat between. Huffing, Iori had taken the opportunity to reach her hand behind her girlfriend's back in order to pinch her brother's arm through his jacket sleeve.

Narrowing his eyes and immediately intending to retaliate, Arata had raised his hand to give Iori a light smack on the shoulder.

Only for poor Mio to, very unfortunately (for both herself and Arata), choose that exact moment to lean back.

Therefore, Arata's hand caught the top of her head rather than his intended target.

It was dead silent. For a single second.

Before all hell proceeded to break loose, despite Mio’s meek attempts to assure Iori that she was completely alright, that not a single hair upon her head was harmed by Arata’s poor aim. Her girlfriend, however, certainly had words to say to her brother, which he returned in his usual snarky way, only irritating her further.

“Hey, hey- c’mon, you two, let’s chill out!!” Souma made his own attempt to catch the rowing pair’s attention from across the table, though went unheard, opting to send the mildly frazzled Mio a sympathetic glance instead, for she remained caught in the crossfire.

She soon ducked under the table to join the side of peace by Souma, who chuckled as he helped Mio pull herself up.

“... Suppose we can’t have a normal time grabbing food, huh…?” The bassist mumbled with a nervous smile as she pulled up a chair to sit next to her fellow peacemaker (not that either of them had particularly succeeded in restoring any peace on this occasion), the both of them watching their respective partners at each other’s throats.

“Ahh, don’t worry about it, Mio!!” Souma said with a lighthearted grin, giving his friend a pat on the shoulder. “You know what they’re like. Wait and see, the food’ll come out and they’ll stop and forget it all just like that.” He snapped his fingers for emphasis.

And he would be right.