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1. Kadota and Erika
He takes care of her from the beginning, when he refuses to let her and Walker get away, when he refuses to let them keep going as they are, and when he insists that things can be better for him. Kadota is like no one she’s ever met before, so nice that his lifestyle really doesn’t suit him, and the two of them latch on immediately.
But Erika really comes to depend on him sometimes, when things get bad at home or when she has nowhere else to go and no one to turn to. There are so many times that Kadota, and the rest of his family, give her more than she ever felt like she deserved, and it’s really no wonder that she comes to care for him as so much more than her friend.
People come and go, but he is as much of a constant as Walker, and there is Saburo as well, and the four of them are rarely seen without one another. It is more support and happiness than she’s familiar with, and she has only Kadota to thank for building a place like this for her.
Eventually, things get to a point where they don’t really spend that much one on one time together, because they’re so used to doing everything in a group. It isn’t like with Walker, where they depend on one another when it comes to their common interests. Besides the way the two of them sometimes group off, it is rare to see the group separated, and rare for her to end up alone with Kadota.
So tonight almost feels like a special occasion, even though she misses the other boys. They’re busy, and he isn’t, for once, and she isn’t, so they’re out walking together, forced to walk because their main method of transportation is otherwise occupied. That’s fine, though, and it’s nice to take things easy like this.
“Do you want to get dinner?” he asks, and she thinks about how intimate it might seem if they weren’t already such close friends. She thinks about how nice it could be if it was that intimate, stopping to get dinner alone with him. What does he think of her, she wonders.
Her question is answered when they have too much to drink with their meal, when they’re laughing at the smallest jokes and when neither minds the way their hands brush tonight, and when he brushes some hair out of her face and kisses her so softly that it seems like, even after all this time, he’s still trying to take care of her.
She’s sure that he’s thinking what he’s thinking when they both come to their senses, that maybe they took things a little too far, that maybe it’s going to be awkward now, but then, it isn’t. And then, she only has one thought, one that he share.
“It’s just not right,” he says.
“Without the other two?” she asks.
“Yeah.”
- Walker x Erika
Everyone always assumed the two of them would end up together. They’ve been together for as long as they can remember, in one way or another, but never in that way, and still everyone always assumed that that was how they would end up. And, truth be told, she’s thought about it, and she’s sure that he has as well, but before, they were never in a good position to pursue that line of thinking.
When things do start to get better for them, it’s because of Kadota, and soon enough, they ease into a life with a group, and they can’t imagine ever being that exclusive. Even though she knows she loves him, she decides not to make that known and to not question what sort of love it is, and their group, overall, doesn’t change until she kisses Kadota one night and it does.
“What if you found out I was dating someone?” she asks.
“That depends on who it is.”
“What if it was Dotachin?”
“No way! You’re not being serious, are you?”
“We aren’t dating,” she says, and it isn’t really a lie. “But what if I was dating him and you found out? Or maybe Togusachi?”
“How do I find out? Are you sneaking around and I catch you, or are you honest?”
“I’d be honest.”
“Then of course I’d be happy for you!”
“What if I was dating you?”
“Me?”
“You and Dotachin. Or Togusachi. And Togusachi.”
“Like a reverse harem?”
“You all could date too.”
“I’d still be happy,” says Walker with a rare serious expression. “As long as we’re all together somehow, I’d be happy.”
“What if I kissed you?”
“Did you already kiss one of them?”
“Dotachin.”
“No way!”
Of course, he lets her kiss him after that, and it feels just as right and just as wrong with him.
- Saburo x Walker
The thing is, Walker always assumes he’s straight. Erika gushes to him about her type of guy, and she shows him examples, and she tries to shove her weird doujinshi on him, and it doesn’t do anything for him. He knows his types, and they extend almost exclusively to two-dimensional women, and he doesn’t bother with anything three-dimensional in the first place.
Of course, he’s sure that there could be something between him and Erika, but he isn’t so willing to rock the boat. She’s great, and if there’s any real life woman he could be with, she would be the perfect candidate, but he’s happy with what they have, and what they have with their friends, until she brings up a new possibility, and he finds himself eager to see where it goes.
Saburo doesn’t know anything, the last one to be let in the loop, as usual, and Walker feels sorry for him. And, of course, his curiosity is driving him crazy, and he’s always thought himself straight, but he’s never even considered looking at a 3D man in that way, and now he has to know. He has to see if he really would want what Erika talked about, if he would want to date his male friends as well, and even though Kadota seems like the ideal place to start, Saburo is completely out of the loop.
Walker grabs his hand, and Saburo yanks it back. “What the hell, man?”
“I was just seeing how you’d react!”
“That’s really weird even for you, you know?”
“Yeah, well, things are weird lately,” he says with an easy smile.
“What do you mean by that?”
“Did you know Erika and Kadota kissed?”
“What, like on the mouth?” Saburo seems stunned, and asks a question that seems more fitting to a junior high girl.
“Yeah, and then she told me, and then she kissed me,” he replies, and Saburo’s mouth hangs open. “Well, that was after she asked me what I thought about dating her while she was dating you and Kadota. How would you feel about that?”
“Dating Erika? She’s pretty, she’s one of my best friends...it’d be weird to imagine her dating other guys, but it’d be weirder to imagine any of us left out, I guess?”
“She asked about all of us dating each other.”
“And you were cool with that?! That’s why you…?!”
“I wanted to see what it would be like,” says Walker with a shrug, and the conversation slows to a stop there. Neither of them voice whatever it is that they’re thinking.
- Kadota x Saburo
“Are we all going out now or what?”
“Where’d that come from?” asks Kadota.
Saburo feels his face growing warm and he looks off to the side. “Just something Walker said that Erika said. Pretty weird, isn’t it?”
“So that’s how she decided to take that,” he says to himself, not actually answering the question.
“You guys actually kissed, then?”
“I should have known she’d go around telling everyone,” says Kadota with a chuckle.
“She just told Walker, and he told me. After he tried holding my hand.”
“He really did that?”
“He wanted to see what it would be like.”
“So what was it like?” There’s a hint of teasing to Kadota’s tone, and yet he gets the feeling that his friend’s question is serious. But he doesn’t know how to answer it, so he doesn’t.
“She kissed Walker after you. I feel kinda left out that she hasn’t come for me yet, you know?”
“Maybe she really is waiting for all of us to be together.”
“I don’t know if I have it in me to date three people. My heart already belongs to Ruri, after all.” At the very least, he is able to say this without a hint of shame.
“So, you’d consider all of us going out?” asks Kadota with a grin that is almost sly.
“Th-that’s not-!”
“You never told me what it was like, holding hands with Walker.”
“It was quick. It was weird so I pulled my hand away. I’m not used to shit like that, and with him…”
Kadota takes his hand without another word, and Saburo doesn’t yank it away, not this time. He wants to see how it really feels, after all, and wants to understand what it is that their friendship really means. It’s one thing for all them to end up Erika’s harem, but it’s another thing entirely for all of them to end up together, and if that’s where this is going…
Eventually, he lets Kadota kiss him, and he wonders all the while if he should have tried the same thing with Walker. He wonders if he’s going to have to make it up to him later, or if this is even something they’ll ever speak of again. Wherever this is going, he just doesn’t want to lose what he has with his friends.
- Kadota x Walker
“We’re even,” he says, and Walker looks at him, confused.
“What do you mean?”
“I kissed Erika and you kissed Erika. You held hands with Saburo, and I held hands with Saburo.”
“Wha...I’m surprised he told you about that. He kinda seemed like he wouldn’t talk about it again. What, did he like it? I swear, if he starts going all tsundere on me…”
“He says you and Erika have been talking about some pretty weird stuff. I mean, maybe not weird coming from her, but…” Kadota isn’t sure what he’s trying to say. He’s always looked after Erika and Walker, and even Saburo, in a way. If things change between them, he wants it to be for the better. He doesn’t want to lose any of them, and he worries about what might happen if he isn’t there for them.
“I don’t know what’s going on, to be perfectly honest,” Walker says with a carefree smile. “But I’ve always followed you around, and I guess I’ve followed Erika too, but sometimes I lead her. The point is, where you go, I know I’m going to end up following.”
“I just want us all to stay together, but I think that’s what everyone wants at this point. If that’s how we end up together...I guess that’s how we end up together.”
Walker moves closer to him, leaning against him and saying, “I didn’t know I would end up liking it this much.”
“Neither did I…” Kadota sighs. “Listen, we aren’t actually even. I did kind of kiss Saburo too…”
“Then I guess you’re going to have to kiss me to make it even,” the other man teases, and whether he means it or not, that’s what happens, and they both realize that there’s only one way for them to truly make this even. These sorts of things can’t keep happening between just two of them, and that can’t keep score like any of this is separate. It’s going to be the four of them, all in, or it’s not going to be any of them.
- Saburo x Erika
But there are still things to be settled, in the end. As always, Saburo is the most out of the loop, and he doesn't even realize this conversation between Kadota and Walker takes place. He goes to Erika on his own, just as she's found out about it, intent on figuring out what she wants from him.
“Togusachi, it's all gonna work out just fine,” she says with a smile that feels oddly gentle.
“Yeah, well, I’d like to know what it's turning out as first,” he replies, just a little bitter.
“Maybe we need to start talking things over as a group then,” she says, “but I guess I should try to make it up to you. But you've gotta kiss Yumachi first chance you get, or else it's not fair, got it?”
He doesn't have a chance to ask her what her words mean before her lips come crashing down on his, before she's got a hand wrapped around, holding the back of his head in place while she kisses him with more fervor than he experienced with Kadota, perhaps with more fervor than she experienced with Kadota, or with Walker. This must be the way she tries to make it up to him, and he would be a fool if he had any complaints.
It went around and around between all of them, and it mostly went over his head, but things are starting to settle down, he knows. And, when things settle, he supposes they’re all going to be something . A group of four friends that are something more than friends, four people who are all dating one another, though it feels odd and almost cheap to just say that they’re dating. Maybe it’s not something any of them can really put a label on, but Saburo decides not to overthink it.
They’re going to be together, and he’s not going to be out of the loop this time, and everything is going to be fine. For him, and for all of them, everything is going to be fine. It’s unlikely that much will change, though he surprises himself by how much he fervently wishes for intimacy, and with all of them, at that but even besides that, not much is going to change.
“A promise is a promise,” she says when she pulls away. “You’ve got to kiss Yumachi as soon as you can! And then everyone’s got to stop keeping score, from here on out.”
“Erika?”
“Yeah?”
“Thank you.”
- Van Squad
It turns out that things really do work out much better when they actually communicate about them, and work it out as a group. Of course, they don’t do much talking about the situation, because, as much as they all know that this is what they want, it’s still not something any of them can really put into words. Even so, when they’re all together, rather than trying to figure it out on their own, it feels natural.
It all feels right, in ways that just two of them together, or even three, never could. When he and Erika first kissed, Kadota hadn’t been sure what he was feeling, with his strange mix of happiness and loneliness, but after trying something with everyone individually, and after seeing that ever encounter left him missing the others, he understands. The four of them are always together, and that’s just the way it’s got to be, from here on out.