Work Text:
Toya
Detective Arthur observes the crime scene from a distance, carefully taking in all the details. The police bustle around busily, quickly drawing the conclusion that the apartment was robbed for the precious jewels the inhabitant owned, though Arther remains unconvinced. Something about the way the drawers have been thrown into chaos seems too tidy, something about the knocked over pictures too amateurish.
“-Toya?”
If the robber was skilled enough to not only crack the lock on the window but also to scale up the building without being seen, then they wouldn't be so careless as to leave the prints the officers have found all around. If the robber was knowledgeable enough of the inhabitants' jewels to take them all, wouldn't they have also known to take the small but priceless paintings in the hall? It just wasn’t adding up..
“--Toya!?”
Arthur listens to the inhabitant talk to the police, and notes that she says she works at “Firamax”, the most popular insurance company in the city. Or at least, it was. Now it's on the brink of collapse, with the recession meaning that many of the employees have been laid off. Detective Arthur casts a quick glance at the kitchen table, where the newspaper has been laid to the “Wanted Ads”, several of them marked in red marker-
“TOYA!!!”
Toya’s attention is finally drawn up from his book to Tsukasa, who has been trying to draw his attention for.. Toya isn't sure, actually.
“Tsukasa-senpai? I’m sorry, have you been calling me for a long time?”, Toya asks, grabbing his bookmark and marking the page he’s on.
“Aah don't worry about it,” Tsukasa says matter-of-factly, gesturing wildly with his hands all the while, “You’ve always gotten absorbed into your mystery novels, so I'm more than used to it! Is this the new novel you mentioned the other day?”
“Yes, it’s like a collection of short mysteries with the same detective. I’m really enjoying it so far.” Toya smiles as Tsukasa sits down next to him, comforted by his seniors' presence. Toya closes the book, leaning against the back of the courtyard bench. He has a free period and decided to spend it outside reading, and apparently Tsukasa had the same idea. He looks up into the blue sky, the cool spring air tickling his face. He can feel Tsukasa eyeing him, can feel what he’s about to ask, but doesn’t stop him.
“So how have you been lately?” Tsukasa’s voice is uncharacteristically soft, and Toya knows what he’s really asking.
“No changes.” He replies as he always does. After all, Akito has always been one of the most consistent things in his life. A consistent singer, partner and friend.
And consistently not in love with him.
That too.
Tsukasa sighs sympathetically before following Toya’s gaze and looking at the passing clouds. The silence between the two feels familiar and comforting, even though there's a pit growing steadily in Toya’s stomach. He looks away from the clouds and his eyes find a dandelion sprouting up through the cracks in the pavement. He sighs.
Tsukasa, spotting the dip in his younger brother's mood, launches into a description of his latest play to distract him, and it's thankfully successful. By the end of the period Toya seems far more content, and Tsukasa walks him to his next class as he explains the stunt Rui is planning.
“-And then the cannon goes off, which launches an elegant cascade of confetti over the crowd as Emu picks me up, don’t worry, she’s very strong, and spins me around for a solid ten seconds before I finish with one of my Signature Poses!” Tsukasa shows Toya the pose, effectively blocking most of the hallway, as Toya gives a small applause.
“That sounds incredible, Tsukasa-senpai. I hope I can make it to your play,” Toya says, pausing outside his classroom. Tsukasa smiles brilliantly, striking a different, yet equally disruptive pose.
“You’re always welcome, Toya! And,” He drops his voice to a whisper, leaning in close, “about the other thing, I think it’s all gonna work out ok. You’re a wonderful guy, and if he can’t see that, it’s his loss.”
Toya nods, his smile a little tight, before walking into his classroom. He sits next to the window, grabbing his stuff before looking outside. He can just faintly make out orange hair and a gray sweater laying under a cherry tree, seemingly napping. He smiles, even as his heart spasms uncomfortably.
Even if he can't have Akito in quite the way he wants, just getting to be near him could very well be enough.
–
Kohane
Kohane has a long standing theory that geography class is actually a portal into an alternate space-time-continuum in which time doesn't flow as it should, and that that is why it always seems infinitely long.
Or maybe the teacher’s just boring. Both are possible.
She sighs, flipping her notes to a blank page as she lets her mind drift to this afternoon. Vivid Bad Squad have practice today, and she can't help but be really excited. Not just for the singing, but also to see her squad. Akito, An and…
And Toya.
Not mostly because she gets to see Toya, she really is excited to see everyone but!
Maybe she’s mostly excited to see Toya.
She can feel her face heat up just thinking about him, and tries to no avail to hide it behind her book.
Honami, noticing her friend acting a little strange, leans over.
Kohane-chan? Are you alright?”
Kohane jumps startled by her friend's question. “Oh! I'm okay, I was just thinking about practice later with An-chan and the others.”
Honami nods, seemingly understanding.
“I get that, I used to get flustered too when I saw Saki-chan and the others,” She says, her face growing slightly warm. “This is our last class though, so you should get to see them soon, right?”
Kohane nods, and just then the bell rings, signifying the end of class period
The girls gather their books, hurrying to leave their class before the hallways get too crowded. They manage to escape and change shoes before the height of the bustle comes, and are outside of the building in no time.
Kohane and Honami chat while they walk across the courtyard, when a blur in the form of Saki barrels towards them. She crashes into Honami, who catches her with practiced ease.
“Hona-chaaan!! Have you seen Icchan?? I’ve looked everywhere but I can't find her anywhere!” She whines as she slumps further into Honami’s arms. Honami giggles at the girl's dramatics, petting her hair.
“There there, Saki-chan. Ichika-chan is at the library, she said she had to return a book,” Honami answers, and Saki immediately perks up. She pulls back, seemingly revitalized, and kisses Honami quick before jetting back off the hall, yelling back that she’ll see Honami during practice and also Hi Kohane-chan!!
Honami giggles, her cheeks rosy, at her girlfriend's antics, before turning back to Kohane. “Sorry about that, Saki-chan is big on PDA.”
“Oh it’s fine! An-chan is the same way,” Kohane says, smiling at her classmate.
“Speaking of Shiraishi-san, how long have the two of you been dating?”
Kohane freezes, and she feels her face warm up as she tries, without success, to explain that, No, she and An aren’t dating, as a matter of fact a different member of her group likes An, and that she even likes a different-different member, but the words fail her as her face continues to warm.
Honami seems to have picked up on Kohane’s unease and is looking at her with a pinched face, trying to discern what she said wrong, but before she can say anything Kohane regains her voice, getting as close to yelling as she does;
“You’ve got it all wrong, An-chan and I are just friends!”
“Ah-”
It’s at this moment that Kohane and Honami look toward the gate, where An now stands, looking like she’d rather be anywhere else in the world than right here.
“Uh.. Hey Kohane,” she says, trying for light and jovial but instead ending up near dark and awkward.
“Hey An-chan..” Kohane says back, also trying for kind and friendly and instead reaching startled and nervous.
“Sorry for dropping by without messaging, but my last class got canceled so I thought I’d drop by and pick you up for practice,”
“Oh, yeah.. Thank you, An-chan.”
The air is stiff and heavy with awkwardness as the partners shuffle back and forth.
Honami’s eyes flicker back and forth between the two, as she contemplates just making a break for it. She clears her throat in an attempt to clear some of the tension, and this seems to snap both An and Kohane out of their stupor.
“Ah, we should probably get going then. Honami-chan, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Yeah, bye Kohane-chan!” she says, waving as Kohane leaves with An, an awkward distance between the two as An leaves her hands firmly in her pockets and Kohane keeps her tightly behind her back.
Honami watches them, her lips pressed into a thin line. There seemed to be more going on there, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. Oh well, it wasn’t really any of her business to begin with.
She contemplated her options for a moment, before turning to go to the library to meet up with Saki and Ichika, though the tense interaction would stay at the forefront of her mind for the rest of the day.
–
An
The girls walk stiffly towards Vivid Street, the tense air still. Usually their walks are filled with idle chatter about their days, about Weekend Garage, about Count Pearl or classmates or even just what they want to sing that day. But today, An can’t find anything to say.
She knows that she and Kohane are just friends, but knowing it and hearing her yell it across a courtyard are different things. She shuffles, thinking over what she wants to ask.
It’s obvious that Kohane’s classmate had confused them for something more than friends, quite possibly because of how An acts around her. And if Kohane seems so against anyone getting the wrong idea…
“Hey, Kohane.. Do you-” An swallows hard. If she asks she risks getting rejected, getting asked for space and distance, risks being left alone. But if she doesn’t ask she’ll just have to live in uncertainty. Both are torture. She steadies herself. Can the risk be worth it, or would living in uncertainty be better?
“Kohane, do you-”
The words get caught at a place between her brain, her heart and her mouth, and she swallows hard. She can’t ask the question, she can’t-
Kohane looks at her partner, her eyebrows pinched. They’re still walking, still with that gap between them. An sighs just slightly, and gives her a shaky smile.
“Do you wanna get some peach buns to eat before practice? There's a really cute store that sells them not too far away from Weekend Garage.”
Kohane does a slight double take before nodding. An points at the direction of the store as they make the detour. As they wait in line An makes a silent promise to herself to back off Kohane a bit. It may have been a little excessive, and if Kohane doesn’t want people to get the wrong idea, then it may be for the best that she just eases it all a little bit.
So when Kohane looks So adorable while munching on her peach bun An doesn’t pinch her cheeks or gush, she just smiles while taking a bite of hers. When they walk back to Weekend Garage she doesn’t hold her hand and swing it while they walk, instead she points out the new posters and graffiti. She makes Kohane’s coffee and listens to her talk about her day, and she desperately ignores how this promise makes her insides twist uncomfortably.
An walks over to the back to set up the microphone while Kohane finishes her coffee and waits for the others. Ken walks by as An finishes connecting the mic to the amp, ruffling her hair when he passes.
“Everything all right, Sport?”
An sighs, looking back at her partner.
“Just peachy..” she mutters, unconvincingly.
Ken stares her down for another second before sighing wistfully, seemingly understanding her dilemma.
“You know, it wasn't always perfect with your mother and I either,” he says, following her gaze. This catches her attention, and she looks up with wide eyes.
“But I thought you basically fell for Mom right away?” An had heard from both Taiga and Nagi how her dad had walked around with heart eyes and yearning in his heart after meeting her mother.
“Oh yeah, I did, but she definitely didn’t. She didn’t even notice me at all,” he said, sitting on the edge of the stage and patting next to him, signaling for An to join him. She hops up next to him, leaning slightly against him.
“So, we were in the same class for all of high school, and I had basically liked her since day one, but we’d never even spoken outside of class. So on the first day of our last year I make a deal with Taiga that if we I don't at least ask her out before the end of the school year i’ll buy him this crazy expensive mic, like 20 thousand yen mic-”
“Weren't you broke all throughout high school though?”
“Yes, exactly, so I just had to ask her out. So on the day before the summer festival I walk up to her, dead nervous, and stutter through asking if she wanted to go together…” he trails off dramatically, waiting for An to fall in and engage. She rolls her eyes just slightly, before egging him on;
“What did she say back?”
“She asked who I was.” Ken says, with the steely resolution of someone who had thought about that exchange every day since it had happened. An grimaced, cringing at the thought.
“That's… ow..” An says, her face screwed up in pain. “To be fair though, you said you hadn’t even spoken”
“Uh-uh, I said we’d never spoken outside of class . We had done a biology project together the week before.”
An barely stifles a laugh behind her hand as her father stares off into the distance, shaking his head at the memory. “Taiga never let me live it down. But! That’s not the end of the story, you know..”
“What happened next, then?”
“After I explained who I was she said she was already planning on going with some friends, but that I was welcome to tag along. You know the little white heart keychain on her car keys?”
“Uh-huh”
“I won that for her,” he says smugly, “And she was so taken by it she gave me a kiss on the cheek. And the rest was history,” he sighs wistfully, spinning the ring on his finger.
“So, An, what I'm trying to tell you, is not to give up so easily. She might come round,” Ken smiles at her, but she just looks away.
“I’m not sure about that one dad… I don't think..” Her breath catches in her throat as she searches for the words.
“I don't think the two of us will ever be anything like that.”
–
Akito
Akito paces back and forth in his room. Practice earlier had gone well, and the group had decided to wrap up practice on the set list they had been working on and move on to some new songs that Akito now had to write lyrics for.
He listens to the beat closely, trying to put words to the way the song makes him feel, the gentle hope Toya had poured into the melody is hypnotic, the meshing of the instruments so evocative, and he wants, no, he needs to put it all into words.
He can’t sit still, he can’t stay here. It’s already dark, but he carefully walks down the stairs, avoiding the ones that creak as he moves through his house. He pulls on his running shoes and leaves, Toyas song playing all the while
Akito mindlessly jogs through the street, heading in the direction of Vivid Street. He doesn’t have any real plans for where he's heading, and instead just lets his feet take him where they want to.
Just like all his other songs Toya’s latest track is stellar, and he winds up jogging to the pace of the upbeat drums. The song is like sunflowers on a summer day, like hiding from the sun under a tree, like cold lemonade and a bright smile-
The song reminds him of An.
Everything does.
He ends up sitting on a bench, jotting lyrics in his notes app. He sits there for god knows how long, lost in the flow of writing lyrics. He doesn’t move till he has the first draft done, and smiles at himself, satisfied with what he’s done.
Looking back at the time he realizes it’s damn near midnight, far later then he usually stays out. Standing, he shakes the stiffness from his limbs, and jogs back to his house.
He tries as hard as he can to open the door quietly, and toes his shoes off in the entrance. He pads on socked feet through the living room, and is almost up the stairs when-
“What the fuck were you doing?”
He freezes at the sound of Ena’s voice coming from the kitchen. She stands shrouded in darkness, a tub of ice-cream on the counter and a spoon in her hand pointed at Akito sassily.
Shit. There really is only one move Akito can make here..
He backtracks down the stairs until he's at the bottom, fixes Ena with a powerful glare and shoots back, "What the fuck are you doing?"
She squints her eyes at him, burying her spoon into the ice-cream without breaking eye contact.
“Touché,” she concedes, before gesturing at the cutlery drawer, a silent invitation for him to join her. He pads over, grabbing a spoon and digging it into the ice-cream. It’s salted caramel, and they eat in silence, Ena scrolling through her phone as Akito stands against the counter, lost in thought.
“Have you ever been in love?” He asks, startling Ena with the sudden conversation topic.
“The fuck?” she replies eloquently, her mouth still full of ice-cream. Akito just shrugs, taking another spoonful and not making eye-contact.
Ena thinks it over. She had crushes, sure, but could she really call that love?
“I don’t really think so,” she says slowly, watching her brother's reaction. “Why do you ask?” she shoots back. He shrugs.
“Are you in love with someone?” she asks, somewhere between nosy and caring. He shrugs again, his face getting redder though.
“Is it Toya?” she asks again, her tone now more interested. Akito makes a face at that.
“What? No! I’m straight, dude.”
Ena does not dignify that statement with a response, instead wildly guessing people from school, a list that, much to Akito’s dismay, mainly contains boys.
“Oh! Is it one of the girls from your group? That Azusawa-san maybe? Or is it Shiraishi-san??”
At the mention of An’s name Akito’s face all but bursts into flames, and Ena knows she’s found the ticket. Before the teasing can commence Akito lighting flashes towards the dishwasher, stowing his spoon away and flying up the stairs with a quick shout of “Okayi'mgoingtobednowgoodnightEnanan!”
Ena is left alone in the kitchen, grinning to herself before opening her DM’s with Mizuki
Enanan (12:38)
Amia
Ur never gonna guess what i just heard
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