Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The clacking of keys finally stopped as Aira took a few moments deliberating the perfect way to end the chapter of his ongoing document. Tucked away in a quiet corner of the lounge rooms at Seisou Hall, he closed his laptop, satisfied with the progress he had made that day.

He had rushed there after Alkaloid’s choreography practice, knowing he couldn’t let his flash of inspiration run away. The idea stewed in his mind the entire session, and occasionally caused him to slip up on a step. Luckily, Hiiro had caught him before he faceplanted right into the training room’s wooden floors, saving him from what could have been at least 3 sprained ankles throughout the course of practice.

“Aira, are you alright? You seem distracted,” Hiiro had asked, practically picking Aira up and walking over to the benches at the side of the room.

“Hiro-kun! Put me down!” Aira blushed furiously, wriggling out of Hiiro’s grip and escaping onto the bench. “I’m not distracted, I promise.”

Aira was not very good at lying. Earlier, he had witnessed his roommate, the one and only Sakuma Rei, in an awfully intimate interaction with his unitmate. As he had passed the corner when heading to practice, he saw Rei lean in to whisper something into Hakaze Kaoru’s ear, earning a jolt of surprise immediately followed by a flushed face from the other. And that, folks, that singular scene had been replaying in Aira’s mind for the entire day. Not letting it go to waste, he practically sprinted to his room to retrieve his laptop once the session had ended and Tatsumi and Mayoi had excused themselves, leaving a confused Hiiro behind.

Retreating to a comfortable, secluded corner - and making sure his screen wasn’t facing the window to not subject any passersby to his masterpiece - he typed so fast he practically set his keyboard on fire, only stopping occasionally to collect his thoughts. Not long after, a fresh new chapter had been uploaded onto his favourite fanfiction website.

Morally, Aira knew he probably shouldn’t be writing fanfic about his colleagues. But how could he resist, his little idol heart immediately gave into the sweet temptation. For the sake of his fellow stans, he had no choice but to provide them with crumbs of their favourite idols from his firsthand experience of living right next to the legends themselves.

Feeling bad that he had ditched Hiiro with no explanation, Aira decided to go look for him and maybe go out for ice cream to celebrate his chapter written in record time.

“You were feeling inspired about your project? I knew you were distracted during practice,” Hiiro nodded, enjoying his omurice flavoured ice-cream. Aira didn’t even bother questioning why the parlour decided to do a special omurice flavour promotion, but he figured Hiiro was probably buying enough for them to keep making a profit.

“I think it’s great, but I feel like it’s missing something. I don’t know what though…” Aira sighed, casually stirring the syrup into his sundae. Hiiro paused from devouring his 5th bowl of omuricecream, looking up at him thoughtfully.

“You said it was a writing project, maybe you could come up with a cover for it,” he suggested, “the books I see in the stationery store always have such nice covers.”

For the second time that day, a jolt of inspiration smacked Aira as if it were the lightstick of the person next to him at the last Eden concert he had attended (He had cursed that person in his mind, and had to ask Mayoi to help him cover up the bruise that was left with makeup).

“Hiro-kun, you’re a genius!” he cried out, throwing his arms around the redhead, who looked back at him with a slightly bewildered yet pleased expression. “I gotta go now, I can’t let this moment be wasted, I love you!” 

With that, he grabbed his things and rushed off, leaving Hiiro stranded by himself again. Though, he didn’t seem to mind too much, ordering himself another bowl of omuricecream with the shop owner’s approving nod, glad that their weekly stock had finally run out.

As Aira ran back to his dorm, he was scrolling through at least 3 apps on his phone, searching for a target. Thanks to his involvement in various fancircles, it didn’t take long for him to receive a response. With a grin, Aira set his grand plan into action.

Chapter Text

Keito was facing a bit of a predicament. After spending so much on the stage for their last concert, their budget had been cut. Which would usually have been fine, Keito was quite good at managing budgets considering his past with the student council. But on this occasion, Souma was being unusually insistent on having a particular display for their new live. Unfortunately, Keito had a particular soft spot for his junior, so he was in the midst of trying to move things around for the budget to fit their new specifications. Though no matter what he did, he always found himself just a few thousand yen short of what he needed.

Taking a break from his dilemma, Keito switched on his tablet, about to check over some of the documentation Eichi had sent him. But just as he was about to load the files, he noticed a little notification that had appeared a while ago. 

Curious, he opened it up, seeing that it was from one of his alternate social media accounts.

Sender: RabuRabu

Hellooooo Mizukanome-sensei!!!

I know you’ve been inactive for a while, but I was wondering if you were interested in taking some commissions. I’ve been writing a fic and I really really loooove your art style, and I’d love it if you’d at least consider drawing something for me. Thanks a bunch, I appreciate it!!

Keito stared at the message, completely forgetting that he had actually made that account at some point. He usually liked to draw things as Mizuhanome, but had created an alternative name for when he wanted to post sketches where he experimented with his style. He didn’t actually expect to receive any commissions from it. Usually, he turned them down since he was busy with idol work, but with his current predicament, perhaps it was a gift sent down from the heavens to help him recover Akatsuki’s finances quickly. He looked through RabuRabu’s other message to find the details of the commission.

And then immediately regretted it.

Keito would not be drawing ship art of his colleagues today.

Especially not of his childhood friend and his unitmate, no matter how suspiciously intimate their relationship seemed.

Shutting off his tablet, he prepared himself for his meeting with the rest of Akatsuki, to discuss the plans for their upcoming live.

“Danna-sama, I’ve already finished fixing up the costumes, have you seen them yet?” Kuro asked, catching Keito’s attention. He was glad that he was able to rely on Kuro, because the other man was so talented and kind and helpful and perfectly handsome- Keito was getting distracted again. He nodded, offering a thankful smile as they noticed their son junior approaching.

“Kiryu-dono, Hasumi-dono!” Souma greeted them excitedly. “As you asked, I have successfully memorised all of the choreography for our next ‘pafoumansu’. I hope my diligence pleases you.”

“As expected of you, Kanzaki. Have you managed to fix the step I warned you about in our last practice?” Keito questioned, receiving an enthusiastic nod from Souma in response.

“If I may be so rude to inquire, what of my request for the stage?”

Keito tried his best to keep his expression neutral, doing his best not to worry his junior over the unit’s financial woes. But as it stood, they currently couldn’t afford to implement Souma’s idea of playing furutsu ninja on stage with real fruit. Watermelons are expensive these days. But faced with Souma’s earnest diligence in completing everything that was asked of him to the best degree, Keito didn’t have the heart to turn him down.

“Rest assured, I’m working on it. We should be able to have it ready by the final rehearsal.”

As he returned to his room, he turned on his tablet once more, opening up the message from RabuRabu. After considering his options for what felt like at least 3 hours, he sighed, and gave in, sending a quick commission acceptance message. Apologising to Rei and Kaoru in his mind, he plugged in his drawing tablet and set to work.

Chapter Text

Aira almost choked on his drink when a notification popped up on his phone. He was not at all expecting to be successful on his first try. He had seen Mizukanome’s works before and had found their style to be perfect for his fic, but hadn’t actually expected anything in response from them. He was fully prepared to wait for a week and then track down another artist if he was unsuccessful, but he had somehow convinced them to draw something even during their hiatus. Elated, he picked up his phone to send them another inquiry about pricing, slightly lamenting the fact that he would have to dig into his merch savings to pay for the commission. With a bit of self motivation, he convinced himself he could live with a few less badges of Hiiro for the month, because it was a perfectly normal thing to collect merchandise of your best friend and unitmate.

Excited by the new development, Aira set to work on his fic again, but didn’t manage to make it very far before the subject of the piece himself walked into their dorm.

“Good afternoon, Shiratori-kun. You seem busy, are you working on something?” Rei questioned, sitting his ancient creaky bones on his bed. Aira smiled at him politely in response, utilising his mastery of the ancient stan art of alt + tab and immediately switching to a choreography video Mayoi had given him to analyse.

“I’m studying choreography. Mayo-senpai gave me a few references to look at,” he hummed, turning his laptop around to show Rei. The older man nodded, as if he was lamenting the fact that his own juniors weren’t so diligent.

“Have you considered caressing your microphone while making intense eye contact with your unitmates? I find that seems to elicit quite a nice reaction from the crowd,” Rei suggested with a chuckle.

“Really? Maybe I’ll ask Mayo-senpai about it, thank you~~” Aira hummed, noting it down.

In his fanfic notes, of course. As if he hadn’t seen the way Rei and Kaoru stared at each other on stage, but to have an admission of it from the man himself was a whole new situation. Seeing Aira typing at the speed of light, Rei gave another approving nod before turning away to do his own thing, completely unaware that his fanfic self was currently sharing a passionate gaze with Kaoru during a live. Word vomiting a few more paragraphs onto the page, Aira quickly sent it off to his trusted beta-reader before shutting off his laptop with a satisfying click.

In his own dorm room, Kohaku was about to dig into some sweets, just as he got a text from Aira. Scooping up a bit with his fork and popping it into his mouth, he opened the file that he had just been sent, already knowing what it was going to be.

As he had expected, he had been sent the latest chapter of Aira’s Rei x Kaoru fic. He scooted over on the couch, sitting more comfortably so that he could start reading. He had gotten used to this situation, having read so many of Aira’s fics that he could easily pick up any mistakes that popped up. He was probably also the only one who knew about this dark secret of his friend’s, which would no doubt be disastrous if word ever got out. He took a little while, reading and rereading every sentence carefully to make sure everything was done perfectly. Though it was just a fanfiction, Kohaku knew how much importance Aira placed on them, so he made sure to treat it with the same respect his friend did. Once he had written out all his edits, he sent the chapter back to the blond, who responded to him in less than a second with another piece of news. Supposedly, he had found someone to draw art to supplement the piece. Kohaku raised an eyebrow, but decided not to question it too much. He could never tell what Aira would come up with next, though he had to admit he had to respect the levels of dedication the other had towards his hobbies.

Aira hoped nobody would question him grinning like a maniac at his laptop. Surely he didn’t look that suspicious, but he couldn’t help himself, with Kohaku having gotten back to him with the edited chapter. All he had to do now was wait. He trusted that Mizukanome would get back to him with the commissioned piece soon, and he was bursting with excitement to finally post the two together.

Chapter Text

Keito stared at his drawing tablet in despair, questioning his life choices for the 7th time that day.

Sure, he had agreed to RabuRabu’s request, and the piece was actually coming together quite well, but it didn’t mean Keito didn’t want to slap himself with Souma’s katana’s sheath every few minutes because of it. Every so often, he would put down his pen, rub his temples as if he had a headache, and then look around to check if any of his dormmates had returned to the room. He’d rather jump off ES tower than be caught by either Hokuto or Hajime drawing such scandalous imagery.

Deciding to take a break, he stood from his spot and stretched his arms, wandering out of his room for some fresh air and a walk in the garden to clear his mind.

Maybe he should contact Ibara to make them further away from Seisou Hall.

About 3 seconds into his walk, he came across Rei, who was uncharacteristically sitting at one of the benches near a flowerbed, seeming like he was deep in thought. Noticing Keito in front of him, he gave a casual wave.

“I never thought I’d see you outside willingly,” Keito remarked, genuinely surprised at the situation.

“Yes, hopefully, I won’t be out here long. Kaoru-kun has returned to his room to fetch something before we leave,” Rei sighed, lifting a hand to shield himself from the almost nonexistent sun, which was running away across the horizon considering what time it was.

“Ah, you’re going somewhere with Hakaze?”

Rei nodded, standing up and brushing himself off. “Yuuta-kun recommended a restaurant to the both of us, so we decided to go there together to experience it for ourselves. Since we both have the evening off from any jobs, we may go to see the reshowing of the Noir Neige movie afterwards.”

Keito tried his best not to raise an eyebrow, he really did. But the situation was so bewildering to him that his expressions didn’t seem to listen to what his consciousness wanted him to do. And so, Keito raised an eyebrow, making the most confused face ever. Rei blinked at him, and the two of them stared at each other blankly for a few seconds.

“Is something wrong?” asked Rei.

“No, no. I was just thinking of something. Have fun on your, uh, outing. I just remembered something I needed to do,” Keito shook his head, excusing himself and speedwalking away from the scene, almost bumping into Kaoru on his way back to his dorm.

No, maybe he was reading too much into things. But whatever Rei had just described to him, that was definitely a date, right? Waiting in the garden, going to a restaurant together with just the two of them, seeing a movie afterwards, those were such typical date things that it almost gave Keito a headache. He was clearly being influenced by that damn commission RabuRabu had asked him to make, and was overthinking everything. Definitely. There was no way the fic author had a point, everything they wrote was speculation anyway. It’s not like they had any way of knowing what Rei and Kaoru actually acted like on a daily basis. Yes, Keito justified himself, he was definitely looking at things with a bias. He would just finish the godforsaken commission and then move on with his life. Whatever his friends got up to in their personal lives, that was absolutely none of his business.

Well, for now it was still slightly his business, as he had finally decided on what shade to use for Kaoru’s hair after running into the other man today.

Chapter Text

Aira was preparing his eyes before he ventured out to the cafe where the pretty 5 were meeting. True to their name, the members were so remarkably pretty that he had to train himself by staring at their photocards for a while before seeing the real specimen, because his eyes might just melt off if they were exposed to such beauty without a filter.

Once he had prepared enough, he mustered up his courage and set off, arriving at the agreed upon meetup location before long.

“Oh, Aira-chan, you’re here!” Arashi called, waving him over to the table where she and Mika were sitting. Aira greeted his two seniors, pulling up a chair next to Mika before ordering a drink and inquiring as to where the rest of the club were.

“Momo-chan can’t make it today since he has a job, but who knows where Hiyori-chan ran off to,” Arashi sighed, taking a bite of her souffle pancakes which had cute little hearts drawn onto it in chocolate syrup.

“Hmm, I saw him with Jun-san a while ago, maybe he’s caught up with something, ya’know?” Mika commented, turning to see a spoon approaching his face.

As if it were a practiced movement, he opened his mouth as Arashi fed him a spoonful of her pancake, Aira watching on at the scene and vowing to himself to make a NaruMika fic one day. Alas, his backlog was already full and he was finding it hard to update all of the current ones he had going. Maybe he just needed some more inspiration. Returning to reality, he saw a flash of green approach and plonk himself down on the chair next to Aira, letting out a deep sigh.

“You’re finally here, what kept you?” Arashi asked, pausing from cooing over Mika for a second to look over at Hiyori.

“Jun-kun did. Listen, his having no thoughts at all is adorable most of the time, but this time, I spent an hour explaining why he simply cannot wear his t-shirt with the afro fish to an interview.”

“Ah, that would’ve been a disaster,” Arashi nodded, Mika giving a hum of agreement. Even Aira questioned the logic of taking what sounded like a horrendous article of clothing to a TV interview.

“I mean, I don’t even know where he got it! I definitely didn’t buy it for him, it just seemed to materialise into his wardrobe one day. I would know, I can’t have my Jun-kun walking around looking terrible, so I check his wardrobe every so often,” Hiyori continued, as the rest of the group nodded along with his grievances.

Okay, checking your unitmate’s wardrobe was a very normal thing to do, right?

Wrong, Aira decided. The two of them wearing matching outfits was definitely the next thing that was going to happen in Aira’s HiyoJun fic, now that he knew that the green haired princess could definitely make that happen if he wanted to. Oh, how he loved Pretty 5 meetings. Not only for the chance to mingle (and fanboy) with some of the best idols in the industry, but the tea there was always scalding hot. They somehow knew the ins and outs of everyone’s latest going ons, and it was practically a treasure trove of ES information to Aira.

Hiyori continued to complain for a while, with the rest of them occasionally interjecting with an anecdote or a piece of advice, all while Aira noted the interactions down faithfully in his mind.

When Pretty 5’s cafe meetup had ended, Aira realised the sun was already setting over the horizon. Remembering his next destination, he set off purposefully towards the theatre, ready to claim the limited edition merchandise true idol stan style.

Luckily, he arrived just in time for the Noir Neige reshowing that he had managed to get tickets for, clicking at the speed of light the second they had released. While his intention was to buy two so that he could bring Hiiro with him to gush about how amazing everyone’s acting was in the movie, he had only managed to score one, unfortunately having to leave the redhead behind.

Taking his place in line, Aira lifted up his phone to snap a selfie to commemorate the event, catching a glimpse of an interesting spectacle in the corner of the screen. He turned around to see what the commotion was, noticing two fans that had started arguing with increasing volume levels. At this point, most of the attention in the area was directed towards them, and some people were even inching out of their spots in line to get a closer look. Of course, Aira was no amateur, so he whipped out his phone again, zooming in to see what was going on. As he did this, he sidled closer to the merch table, taking advantage of the fact everyone was moving away to watch the scene.

Just as he finally reached the table, someone let their inner demons win, and the situation exploded. A fistfight had broken out between two fans in line, unholy screeching accompanying the sound of blows. Aira took the chance to buy one of everything he could from the merch setup, making sure he hadn’t missed anything in the commotion.

And that was when he saw it. Unmistakably, he had seen two very familiar figures shuffling along with the rest of the crowd. There was no way he had gotten it wrong, he could recognise their silhouettes anywhere due to the amount of time he dedicated to staring at their merchandise and the fact he lived with one of them.

Rei and Kaoru were attempting to make their way out of the crowd, as discreetly as possible. Though they were donned in an idol’s typical disguise gear, which included a mask, sunglasses and a horrid neon hawaiian shirt in Kaoru’s case, the throng of people around them made it hard to move around.

Aira definitely saw them holding hands, he wasn’t going to pretend he didn’t. It almost made him miss out on snatching the limited edition Ritsu badge from another fan. Sure, it was the easiest way to navigate the crowd without getting separated, but that didn’t mean they had to intertwine their fingers together so gently. 

Unfortunately for Aira, the two seemed to be leaving the theatre, so he wouldn’t be able to observe them any longer. Well, he had plenty of new material for now, so he was still pleased with the results. That, and he had managed to score every single piece of limited edition merchandise for the reshowing, so tonight couldn’t have gone any better. 

Chapter Text

Keito was almost done, thank goodness for that.

Only a few layers of shading were left, and he could finally put the godforsaken piece to rest. Never before did he have to give Sakuma Rei’s eyes such careful analysis, and honestly, the amount of reference pictures he had saved of the two of them was actually embarrassing. The only thing was, there was just one thing he couldn’t get right. Something seemed off, but he couldn’t decide exactly what it was.

It bugged him for days. Seriously, he couldn’t even go through all of his daily tasks without thinking about it.

“Danna, are you alright? You seem kinda out of it,” Kuro had noted at their job later, a photoshoot session. Surely enough, Keito had almost messed up a few poses, very out of character for him. Kuro furrowed his eyebrows, looking over at his unit leader in worry. Keito nodded in response, not wanting to cause Kuro any unnecessary stress. Letting out a long sigh and standing back up, he shakes his head to rid himself of any distracting thoughts.

“Sorry, I’ve just been thinking about some things,” he explained with another sigh. Kuro regarded him carefully, giving him a reassuring pat on the shoulder.

“You know I’m always here if ya need anything, you have a bad habit of shouldering everything yourself.”

Sometimes, Keito felt that he really didn’t deserve Kuro. There was no way he would be able to keep the entirety of Akatsuki running without the other, and at times like this, he was glad he had someone supporting him by his side. But before he could part his lips to utter a thanks, they were interrupted by their boisterous junior.

“Hasumi-dono, Kiryu-dono! They asked us to wrap up our break. Here, I have brought you both a water botoru,” Souma chirped, handing over a bottle to the two of them cheerily before heading back to the photo area.

“Well, we can’t keep them waiting. Let’s go,” Kuro nodded, placing a hand on each of Keito’s shoulders and steering him towards the cameras. Keito decided that he could worry about his predicament later, for now he just had to enjoy the time he was spending with his unit.

It was now time for Keito to worry about his predicament. He had spent hours thinking about it, but he still couldn’t find a solution. The solution; investigate things for himself. Luckily, one quick call to Eichi was all it took to track down UNDEAD’s current whereabouts, at one of ES’ vocal training rooms.

He strode towards his destination, determined to overcome his strange art block. Only to find nothing there.

“Oh, it’s you. Whadd’ya want?” Koga asked, noticing Keito standing outside the room. Adonis also peeked through the doorway, wondering why they had a sudden guest.

“You two? Where are the others?” Keito questioned, already finding the situation suspicious. Koga shrugged in response, casually gesturing down a random hallway.

“We finished a little while ago, and the two of ‘em disappeared after. Dunno where they went.”

Great, 10 minutes in and Keito had already encountered a roadblock. No matter, he just had to keep persevering. He thanked Koga and Adonis for the information, setting off again in the direction he had been pointed in. Maybe it was the job from before, or maybe it was just the weather lately, but Keito was feeling quite drowsy. Once he had finished his mission, he would love a nice nap. He walked on, and found himself in the garden once more. He shook his head with a little laugh, because the probability of finding Rei outside again within the span of a week was practically 0-

No, wait.

Why was he there?

Apparently statistical probability hated Keito lately because he found Rei perched on one of the swinging chairs hanging from the larger trees. And curled up next to him, Kaoru. The nice weather that was making Keito drowsy had supposedly gotten to the two of them first, since they were both sound asleep, not even noticing him staring a hole into them. By the grace of Satan himself, they were going to cause a scandal someday. Well, not like it was Keito’s problem. He just had to sit and wait for the wedding invites at this point. Not wanting to deal with whatever was going on between them any further, and ignoring the fact that RabuRabu was probably completely right about them at that point, he turned around and walked back to his room.

At least he had found a good pose for the commission though.

Chapter Text

Aira was starved.

Starved for ship content. Sure, he had just finished the Trap For You MV for the millionth time, but he needed something new, something fresh.

If destiny wasn’t going to give him new content, he just had to go find it himself. Arming himself with everything he needed, he set off to locate his trusted sources.

It took him a little while to find a suitable location for the deal, and he finally came across a shady corner hidden from any cameras that would be suitable. Looking around his shoulder to make sure nobody was approaching, he let his dealers know that he was available.

A few moments later, a pale, translucent figure appeared in front of him, a cute smile painted on its noticeable lack of features. In the little appendages that Aira suspected were hands, it held two lightsticks which were currently set to a soft white glow. Aira had discovered the informants during Halloween, when Alkaloid were tasked with investigating certain strange occurrences throughout ES. It turned out that the place was haunted, but Aira quickly bonded with the ghosts due to their shared hobbies and worked out a deal with them. All he had to do was give them certain performances or merch from their favourite unit and they would happily give him things in exchange.

“Do you have the goods?” Aira asked in a hushed voice. The ghost in front of him moved in what Aira surmised was a nod, an envelope mysteriously appearing in front of it as its lightsticks flashed a bold yellow.

“Okay, here’s what you asked for,” the idol nodded, taking the envelope and handing over one of his own, filled with a set of photocards that he had worked tirelessly to get. Just as he shoved the package into his jacket pocket, he was dragged backwards with quite a bit of urgency.

“Aira!” Came Hiiro’s call, and Aira felt himself in the familiar position of being picked up, instinctively wrapping his arms around Hiiro’s neck as he felt the patter of footsteps running away from where they had just been.

“Hiro-kun, what’s going on?!” Aira demanded, holding on for dear life as they rushed through the hallways. After a little while, they came to a stop, Hiiro finally setting his hostage down.

“I saw something strange in front of you, and I can’t let you be exposed to danger like that. Are you alright, Aira?” Hiiro asked, leaning in closer to check for any scuffs on the smaller boy. Aira nodded, a blush rising on his face. “Why were you in that dark corner anyway, were you doing something important?”

Aira paused, not knowing how exactly he was supposed to answer that. Well, he technically wasn’t doing anything wrong, so it shouldn’t be so hard to explain.

“Well, uh, I was just collecting something. It was kinda important, yeah.” The redhead in front of him raised an eyebrow in response, as if he was questioning something.

“What are you collecting in a shady corner?” Hiiro paused for a second, as if a thought had finally been produced in his windows screensaver brain. “Oh, Tatsumi-senpai told me about some more city things, Aira, are you doing drugs? That’s why you needed a suspicious corner,” he nodded like he was uncovering the secrets of time and space itself. “But you know, I’ve been told doing drugs is bad. You can always tell me if you’re worried about something,” he finished earnestly. Aira resisted the urge to facepalm.

“I’m not doing drugs!! Calm down Hiro-kun, I’m not going to commit any crimes. Don’t worry, if I have any worries I’ll always tell you before resorting to drugs,” Aira reassured him, and he stood back with a sigh.

“Umu, you can always rely on me!”

Aira smiled, but not too fondly because Hiiro was too much of an idiot for that. The other insisted that he walk Aira back to his dorm so he wouldn’t be assailed by any more mysterious entities, and so he slipped their hands together and set off towards Seisou Hall.

Once he was safely back in his dorm, and had confirmed that his roommates were out, Aira ripped open the envelope to reach the items inside. The ES ghosts had done him well again, and inside sat two pristine photos of Rinne and Niki. It was probably slightly weird to ship your bestie’s brother and his unitmate, but the two clearly had something between them that Aira just couldn’t ignore. One of the pictures involved the super chef being kabedon’d by the redhead, and the other had the two of them walking hand in hand just as Aira and Hiiro had just done.

Now don’t get him wrong, it was very normal and platonic when they did it, nothing to see here at all. He definitely did not have the most massive crush on Hiiro and his adorable honest smile and how bright and exuberant he was.

For now, Aira was going to focus on his Rinniki fanfic and not his very platonic friend. And what better way to commemorate new fic material than to request a commission for it? He sure hoped Mizukanome was going to accept, because Aira had at least 7 plot ideas ready to be thrown onto the page.

Chapter Text

Why was fruit so expensive these days?

Keito was about to develop another headache just looking at all the ridiculous fruit prices. Akatsuki was going to go bankrupt just buying punnets of strawberries at this rate. He had managed to get a few extra funds with his commission work, but even that wouldn’t be able to cover the expenses they were incurring.

He stood, deciding to clear his mind for a little while before he went to his next task. Ibara has asked for him to accompany a meeting, though Keito didn’t know exactly why, he suspected he was probably going to be stuck with people Ibara didn’t want to deal with personally.

“Come onnn, why can’t we have a giant hyper-realistic bee installation for our next stage?” Rinne whined, popping the last of the grapes that had been set out onto the table into his mouth. Keito rubbed his temples, trying to prevent his already forming headache as Niki looked at the redhead with a look of anguish.

“Rinne-kun, I wanted those!” He gasped, trying to snatch the last grape out of Rinne’s hand. Fruitlessly, of course, as the man next to him shoved it into his mouth with a merciless smirk as soon as he saw his unitmate make a move.

“Sorry Niki-kyun, gotta be faster,” Rinne grinned, and Keito was forever thankful that the other two in the unit were sane, as HiMERU elbowed the unit leader to shut him up.

“You can flirt later, HiMERU would like to get this over with faster,” the ever-suffering idol sighed, turning back to Keito to prompt him to speak. They shared a look of exasperation, before Keito cleared his throat and tried to reason with the bees.

“Okay, listen, you definitely don’t have enough budget for a hyper-realistic bee installation. Besides, you’re just going to end up scaring the audience if there’s a massive bee in the middle of the room,” Keito reasoned, deciding to give Ibara an earful for ditching him around 5 minutes into the meeting.

“Nah, it’d be great,” Rinne said, completely ignoring what Keito had just explained.

“Whatever, setting aside that part, you still can’t afford it,” Keito exclaimed with another exasperated sigh, being reminded of his own unit’s budget woes. Who even had the idea of making ES stages so expensive?

“S’fine, I’ll just make some money by hitting the pach-” before Rinne could finish his sentence, Niki bounced up from his seat and pounced on his unitmate, slapping a hand onto his mouth, right as the pinkheaded boy next to them almost landed a punch onto their leader’s head.

“Shh, Rinne-kun. Uh, sorry Hasumi-san, I promise we are a very responsible unit who does not engage in any immoral activities.”

Clearly, they were very responsible, Keito thought, raising an eyebrow at the scene in front of him. Niki was practically sat on top of Rinne, still preventing the older man from speaking, as the other two from the unit were glaring daggers at them. Keito knew that the grape duo had known each other for a while, but still, they did seem a little too familiar with each other.

No, no they didn’t. He was still stuck in the RabuRabu mindset, making every interaction weird. He knew that he shouldn’t have accepted that damn commission.

After another hour of trying to figure out CrazyB’s stage preparations, Keito finally started to head back to his dorm. But you couldn’t go a day in ES without running into at least 3 people you didn’t expect to, so he somehow found Kaoru on the way.

Not just Kaoru, but Sena Izumi as well.

The two of them were walking along the hallway, discussing something in hushed voices. Only when they noticed Keito approaching did they silence their conversation, giving him a nod in greeting as they went past. But since Keito had protagonist hearing for the sake of this fic, he caught a snippet of the conversation as they went. It seemed like Rei was the topic of conversation, and the blonde was currently seeking advice from the other. On what though, Keito couldn’t hear, but it wasn’t any of his business anyway. That stupid commission was over and he no longer ever had to wonder about what was going on between Rei and Kaoru.

Once he was back in his dorm, opening up his tablet again, once again thinking about how he could rack up a few extra funds. Honestly, maybe he should stop doing that, because fate always seemed to send him the worst solutions to his problems. Another message from RabuRabu had appeared, something new from the barrage of thank you messages he had received from them once he had submitted the commission. As if some higher power was laughing at his misfortunes, it was exactly what he was dreading when he opened the message.

I gotta thank you again for the last commission, it’s sooooo good!!!

I was wondering, would you be able to do another one for me? This time, we’ve got Amagi Rinne and Shiina Niki. Pleasepleaseplease, I’d dieeee of happiness if you did.

Again, thanks for the last one!!!!

From RabuRabu

Well, apparently Keito’s days of drawing fanart of his colleagues weren’t yet over.

Chapter Text

What better way to practice your choreography than do it in the middle of the hallway in front of your bestie’s room as you waited for them - which Aira was definitely not about to do. Mayoi had given him the advice for if he was standing around doing nothing, but he sure as hell wasn’t about to bust a move in the middle of the ES hallway. Any improvement he might have gotten from it would immediately be superseded by the extreme embarrassment he would get if anyone happened to run into him. And so, he waited in front of Hiiro’s door like a normal person.

He didn’t have to wait long though, because the door in front of him opened after a few moments, leaving Niki standing there staring at the smaller boy in confusion.

“Shiratori-kun, I wasn’t expecting you. Ohh, you must be here for Otouto-kun. He popped out for a second, but do you want to come in?” He asked, standing to the side to allow Aira to pass the doorway.

“Thanks Shiina-senpai. How have you been?” Aira nodded, walking into the room and taking a seat on Hiiro’s bed. Niki let out a sigh, plopping himself down on his own and grabbing a bag of snacks to prepare himself for unloading his woes. Seeing how Aira came by so often, this wasn’t even an unusual situation for them, but sometimes they had the rest of the dorm joining in too. Before he even knew it, Aira had somehow become an unofficial member of the dorm room.

“Oh, don’t even get me started,” Niki said with another sigh, grabbing a muesli bar from his bedside table to prepare himself for the rant he was about to go on. “We’re trying to figure out what to do for the new stage, and Rinne-kun is for some reason really insistent on a hyper-realistic bee installation! I don’t even know why he wants that?!”

Aira nodded along, listening to Niki’s grievances. Though he also didn’t know why Rinne would want such a weird stage element, he was still going to put it into his fic. Realism was important, after all. And considering the bee didn’t seem like it was happening any time soon, the readers would just think he was making things up.

“The budget meeting we had was right after Rinne-kun made us all play poker as a ‘bonding exercise’. Though he got my favourite food as a consolation prize for losing, so I’m not too mad about that. Aaagh, but he used last week’s snack budget to buy me roses too! My poor snacksss,” Niki cried, going through a variety of emotions as if he couldn’t decide to be mad at or grateful for Rinne. Of course, Aira was noting every suspicious detail from Niki’s tirade down. Was it normal to buy flowers for your unitmate whom you happened to share an apartment with? Maybe under the most exceptional circumstances, but to any outsider there clearly seemed to be something going on here. AIra’s shipper senses would never let him down.

“Aira, are you listening?”

Aira turned around to a voice next to his ear, and a set of arms wrapping around his neck. Two cerulean blue eyes were staring at him in curiosity. Hiiro had somehow entered the room and had taken the opportunity to plop himself down behind Aira while he was preoccupied with daydreaming about his fics.

“Ack, Hiro-kun!” Aira shrieked, a flush creeping into his ears at Hiiro’s current proximity. "When did you get here?”
“A little while ago. I was asking if you both wanted to go to get some lunch, and it seemed like you didn’t hear me.”

“Okay, okay, let’s go. You can let go of me now,” Aira sighed, wiggling out of Hiiro’s grip. 

“Shiina-san, has my brother been troubling you lately?” Hiiro asked, turning to Niki who was watching the two of them with piqued interest.

“Not exactly, you don’t need to worry too much, Otouto-kun,” responded Niki with a smile, perking up at the mention of lunch. “He’s as he usually is.”

Usually getting your apartment-mate roses was even more suspicious. Aira sure wasn’t going to pass this one up. He spent the entirety of lunch taking mental notes as Hiiro and Niki discussed Rinne’s habits over their meal.

It was all for the sake of realism, after all.

Chapter Text

Keito wondered if he should take a holiday sometime soon. He had so many things to do lately that it felt like all he had been doing was running around. Ibara and Eichi had been piling tasks on him, not to mention his questionable little side project, all of it had left him feeling rather tired as of late.

At least work wasn’t the only thing he was doing. Today, he was going to meet with the other members of the manga club for a much needed break. He picked up the newest volumes he had bought the previous week and set off towards the club meeting.

“Apologies, were you all waiting for me?” He asked as he took a seat at the table where the rest of the club was gathered. Since it was such a nice day, they had decided to meet in the local library. Sunlight came through the large wall length windows, illuminating the room nicely. The rest of the club had apparently received permission from the library staff to bring out snacks in the room, and an assortment of finger foods sat at the middle of the table.

“Not really, we all just got here,” Mao nodded, pushing a few packets of biscuits towards Keito. “What did you think of volume 8?”

“I hated it…” Midori grumbled, popping a carrot flavoured chip into his mouth. “The tension is killing me, I can’t believe they chose to end on a cliffhanger like that.”

Keito nodded in agreement, as he also wanted to know what happened in the next chapter. The current volume ended in a particularly precarious situation, and he hoped the mangaka wasn’t as mean as the author of this fic, who had a particular liking for MCD.

“When is the next one releasing? I heard Trickstar’s busy for the next month, would you like me to get the new release for you, Isara?” Keito offered, extending the invitation to the other members of the club. He knew how busy his juniors were with the success of ES, so it wouldn’t hurt to make their lives a little easier.

“Don’t worry about it, I asked Ritsu to get it for me,” Mao nodded in response, still throwing him a thankful smile.

Ah, of course. How could Keito have forgotten about the inseparable childhood friend of Mao’s. It seemed like the black haired boy was at Mao’s side more often than not, and they were extremely close. To the point Keito swore he saw Mao coming out of the Sakuma household in the mornings when he passed by on his way to school. Were all childhood friends this close? Wait, did that mean he had to worry about Kuro and Shu? No, of course he didn’t. What would he even be worried about, it wasn’t like he owned Kuro. Mao and Ritsu were just a special case, he concluded.

Once the manga club’s session had ended, Keito headed to Cafe Cinnamon to grab a quick coffee to perk himself up for the afternoon.

It wasn’t as if he didn’t expect to meet anyone he knew there, the cafe’s proximity to ES meant that it was frequented by various idols, but what were the chances he came in during Niki’s shift so soon after that disastrous budgeting session. The other bees were elsewhere, except Rinne of course, because where there was honey there was usually at least one bee.

“Niki, honeyyyy, can I get another cake pop?” Rinne asked, leaning on the counter, on his seat right next to the staff area.

“Rinne-kun, you’ve had almost half of them! I need to save some at least,” Niki huffed, pulling the container away from the redhead. Keito observed their antics for a while until the chef finally noticed his presence, a light flush of embarrassment appearing on his face as he approached the register. “Sorry for the wait, what can I get you?”

“Just an Americano please… with a shot of red bull. What are the cakepops for?”

“Boss asked me to make something new for a kids’ menu. I thought these cakepops were a good idea, but Rinne-kun ate most of them on the way here from the apartment.” Niki said, shuffling over to the coffee machine as Rinne discreetly fished another cakepop from the container, initiating a staring contest with Keito once he realised the latter was watching him. He only gave in after Keito gave him a nod of assurance that he was not going to snitch, no matter how much he wanted to. Keito wandered over to a nice table, waiting for his order to arrive. 

Niki worked quickly, occasionally engaging in a quick conversation with Rinne, who had finally given up on the kids’ snacks and ordered something more substantial to eat. A little while later, a tray was filled up with various drinks, with the blue haired chef picking it up and exiting the staff area onto the main floor. Though he didn’t make it far before a stray piece of air appeared right under his foot, causing him to stumble forward. Luckily, the floor didn’t get to greet his face, as Rinne deftly reached over and grabbed his waist, pulling him upwards and plonking him on his lap.

“You need to be more careful sometimes,” Rinne grumbled, checking his partner for any injuries as if he hadn’t just pulled off a martial arts film move.

“You worry too much, Rinne-kun,” Niki shook his head, waiting for his unitmate to finish his checks before hopping off and picking up the tray again.

The routine for them seemed to be a practised one, Keito noted as the chef sped around with everyone’s orders. The implicit trust they had in each other was fascinating to watch, and was probably a factor of CrazyB’s surprising cohesiveness on stage. Thinking to himself, he thanked Niki for the drink as it was delivered, paying and then returning to his dorm to tie up any loose ends for the day.

He sat in front of his tablet for a while, thinking of what to draw. He could use the scene from earlier today, but that might be a little too conspicuous. Running low on ideas, he decided to check if RabuRabu’s work might have some inspiration for him. The fanfic author had an extensive list, and it took him a little while to find what he was looking for. Their writing was good, it flowed nicely and the prose mixed well with any dialogue they added. Scrolling through the page, Keito found a line that particularly caught his eye.

‘Niki stepped forward, looking at Rinne through the blinding lights of the stage. His partner was leaning against the hyper-realistic bee installation they had managed to find as a stage decoration.’

RabuRabu had managed to get into the idols’ heads a little too well. Realism was one thing, but somehow coming up with the exact same idea as Rinne was some sort of miracle. Were bees a trending thing nowadays?

Keito didn’t know, but he pulled up some bee reference images anyway. It wasn’t like he had any better ideas to go off.

Chapter Text

Aira might need a new keyboard soon with how fast he was ramming his fingers into the keys on his current one. He had been in cafe cinnamon earlier, and had witnessed the most beautiful scene between Rinne and Niki. The fluidity, the trust, the handling of the situation, the perfection of it all.

Aira couldn’t ignore it. And so, it was immortalised forever within the pages of his fanfic. He had always seen Rinne as brash, and though Hiiro sang his brother’s praises, a little part of Aira never understood how the exuberant man could actually be gentle. Well, he sure knew now. That soft, caring look was apparently only reserved for two people in Rinne’s life, and Aira felt as if he was intruding on something sacred when he had witnessed it, but even God couldn’t stop his fanboy heart.

“Shiratori-kun, you’re always so busy whenever I see you,” Rei chuckled, walking into the room. Aira gave his senior an exuberant wave in greeting, sliding into another tab as soon as he heard the doorknob turn.

“Working hard is the key to success,” nodded Aira wisely, as if he wasn’t just writing about his colleagues having an intense backstage conversation. Rei gave him a nod of agreement, before walking over to his closet and flicking through it.

“A young one like you might have a better idea than me, so which jacket do you think is better?” Rei asked, holding up two options. Aira deliberated between the two, a metal studded leather one compared to a more tame black denim selection. In the end, he gravitated towards the leather one, it seemed to suit Rei. “Excellent choice,” his senior hummed, putting the other one back into the closet and slipping the item on.

“Are you going out?”

“Ah, yes. Kaoru-kun received some tickets to the aquarium, so I’m going to go with him.”

Normal unitmate things included going to the aquarium with just the two of you.

Yeah, right . You couldn’t fool Aira so easily. He decided that he needed to get back to his Kaorei fic soon, and tucked the current scene into the back of his head. Rei waved goodbye, and Aira watched him leave, suddenly wondering if the flashy jacket would scare away all the fish.

He could wonder about that later, right now he had a meetup to get to. He had promised to meet with Kohaku, and since Knights had recently returned from a job in Italy, they had invited Tsukasa to come along too. Aira managed to get to the cafe first, grabbing a table a few minutes before the sakura cousins arrived.

“Hey, Rabu-han,” he heard Kohaku call, walking into the cafe followed by Tsukasa, who also gave him a nod in greeting. Aira waved excitedly to them, pulling out a few menus as they both took a seat at the table.

“I hope you two don’t mind me barging in on your meetup,” Tsukasa apologised, accepting one of the laminated menus Aira held out.

“Don’t worry about it, it’s great to see you!” Aira nodded, putting away his phone and placing an order. He didn’t need to look through the menu as he knew that the cafe was having a special promotion, and half of the reason he had suggested this shop was for the special product. Kohaku and Tsukasa didn’t take long to decide either, and soon enough the three of them had put the menus away and were chatting casually as they waited for their orders to arrive.

“By the way, how was Italy?” Kohaku asked, turning to Tsukasa. The redhead gave him an expression that was halfway between a grimace and a sweet reminiscence of pleasant memories.

“It was great,” he nodded, willing his face into a neutral smile. “The weather there is lovely, and Florence is a beautiful city. The photoshoot ended a day earlier than expected, so we had some time to go sightseeing. We were finally able to see the Galleria dell'Accademia, can you believe we’ve never gone to see it before? The art and culture of Europe is simply 𝓂𝒶𝓇𝓋𝑒𝓁𝑜𝓊𝓈,” he praised, clearly having had a great time in the city. “We were going to stay in a hotel,” Tsukasa continued, “but our senpais insisted we stay in their apartment instead.”

Aira’s fanboy senses were going off, and he knew the most interesting part of the story was yet to come. He was on the edge of his seat, ready to listen to whatever tale Tsukasa was about to reveal, but he was interrupted by the approach of a waitress.

“A strawberry parfait and matcha cake?” She asked, holding a tray in her hands. Kohaku and Tsukasa both took their desserts, thanking her. She handed them off with a smile, before turning to Aira.

“Then you must have the special order. Here is your Knights surprise dessert package. Congratulations, you’ve won the Suou Tsukasa pancake set!”

She then set down the pancakes shaped like Suou Tsukasa’s face in front of Aira. Was it weird to buy a product of someone when they were sitting in front of you? Probably. But Aira wasn’t going to miss out on the special edition badges that were released with the promotion. Pancake Tsukasa’s syrupy gaze stared up at him from his plate, and he turned to meet a set of purple eyes. Tsukasa - the real one, was also boring a hole into him with his gaze, but instead of the chocolatey smile on the pancake, his lips were pressed into a line, with a gesture of confusion on his furrowed eyebrows. After an awkward minute, in which Tsukasa and Aira held a staring contest, and Kohaku glanced between them in concern, the knight seemed to finally ignore the weird situation that was occurring in front of him and continued his story.

“Uh, anyway. We were staying in my senpais’ apartment, which is normally decorated fine. But this time, the entire guest room was overrun by alien decor. I’m telling you, alien plushies everywhere, green sheets, green chairs, and even the walls were somehow painted neon green. I can’t believe Sena-senpai allowed this to happen. 𝒥𝑒𝓈𝓊𝓈 𝒞𝒽𝓇𝒾𝓈𝓉, I could barely sleep because there were glow in the dark spaceship stickers everywhere!”

“Wait, there’s a guest room?” Aira commented, sticking onto that specific part of the story. Tsukasa nodded, giving him an explanation.

“Not really, it’s supposed to be Leo-san’s room, but he never uses it so they let us use it instead.”

Aira knew Izumi and Leo’s apartment had two bedrooms, but the fact they didn’t even use both of the rooms was extremely suspicious. Was it purely platonic to sleep next to your unitmate? Every single day? Even though you had your own room?

No, in what world would it be?

Aira etched the story into his brain, ready to put it into another of the documents he had been thinking of updating.

Chapter Text

“Kiryu, is everything ready?” Keito turned to take a bag from his unitmate. Kuro nodded, handing over a blue coloured backpack with sea creatures embroidered all over it.

“...When did you get that?” Keito asked, raising an eyebrow at the cute childlike backpack. He himself had a plain black one thrown over his shoulder, but he still dutifully put the other bag on.

“I made it for Kanzaki’s turtle a while ago, but I never actually got around to giving it to him. Don’t you think now is a pretty good time?”

He wasn’t wrong about that. A sea creature themed backpack was fitting for their excursion to the aquarium that day, and Keito had to admit, it was very cute. Surely Kamegorou would appreciate the gift, though it might be a bit too big for it. Knowing Souma, he might end up wearing the bag instead, since he wouldn’t let his senior’s work go to waste. Keito picked up a water bottle and a hat, following Kuro out the main door of Seisou hall.

The weather was nice, and it was a nice day for an outing. Since it was so close, it didn’t take too long for them to reach the aquarium, where Souma was waiting for them excitedly. Kanata stood beside him, his usual gentle smile on his face.

“I am glad you ‘both’ could make it,” Kanata grinned, giving them a wave in greeting.

“The new exhibition is almost ready for guests, and I am honoured to be showing you both around!” chimed Souma, circling his seniors as if he were an excited puppy. It had become a common sight when he was in the aquarium for him to substitute his katana for a plush toy, and it hung by his side, staring at them with its beaded eyes.

“Yaho~ Hang on, why are there so many people here?” Keito heard a voice interrupt his thoughts and turned to find Kaoru and Rei standing there, the latter decked out in a leather jacket he hadn’t seen in a while. Rei only used to wear that on special occasions, leading Keito to wonder why he was suddenly in the mood to bring it out now.

“They received an ‘invite’,” Kanata hummed, already heading inside the building. The crowd quickly walked along beside him, not wanting to be left outside.

“What’s with the jacket? Haven’t seen that one in ages.” Keito asked, falling into step beside Rei as the members of the marine biology club led the way, Kuro chatting with Souma about his turtle.

Rei shrugged, offering a casual response. “I thought it would be a good occasion for it… but perhaps I misjudged,” he noted, running his gaze over their unexpected crowd. Keito would have wondered what occasion he was expecting it to be, but decided against it after deciding he really didn’t want to know the outcome. He left Rei to join his unit and Kanata when he noticed Kaoru approaching, the latter with a slightly gloomy expression.

“Your ‘bag’ is cute,” Kanata commented as he joined them, noticing the bag that Souma had slung over his shoulder.

“Thank you, Kiryu-dono has so generously crafted it for Kamegorou,” Souma nodded, giving Kuro a thankful smile. Kanata let out a giggle at their interaction, turning another corner.

“With that ‘bag’, you look like you’re out on a family ‘outing’,” he hummed as they finally came to a stop at a set of large doors.

Keito couldn’t exactly refute him on that, because he wasn’t even wrong. He and Kuro had packed so much for the little trip that they seemed like overprepared parents, and Souma’s cute sea creature bag really finished off the look. Besides, that conversation he had once had  with Kuro about who would be the mother and the father in their little family unit had never actually been solved. It wasn’t like it was weird when you referred to your very platonic unit mate in spousal terms anyway.

“How about you, where are your kids?”

“Chiaki is taking them to the ‘amusement park’,” Kanata hummed.

Well when Kanata did it, it was weird. Not in the sense that it was out of place, actually, it worked for them perfectly. With those two, you could absolutely believe they’d been married for 10 years with 3 children. But Keito and Kuro didn’t have the same vibe.

Right?

Keito set his gaze on the doors that stood in front of them, pointedly avoiding the implications of his questionable terminology use with his unitmate.

Kanata threw the doors open, revealing a dimly lit room, lanterns glowing gently on the ceiling, reminiscent of bioluminescent sea creatures. A row of lights led them to the centre of the room, illuminating murals painted on the wall of creatures long gone from the waters of the earth. Glass cases held fossils alongside detailed descriptions of them, and the far side of the room was lined with a large tank.

“Wow, I wasn’t expecting it to be this nice,” Kuro said, bewildered.

“Let’s go see our ‘friends,” chimed Kanata, leading them further still to a door at the end of the room. It provided access to the tank, which Keito realised was filled with a dozen horseshoe crabs. The crowd ooh-ed and aah-ed at the specimens, watching them scuttle across the bottom of the tank. “Why don’t you explain about our ‘friends’?” suggested Kanata, turning to Kaoru.

“Uhhh, they’re crabs?” The blond responded, earning a scowl from Souma.

“Incorrect, you have clearly not done your research,” Souma declared, moving as if he was about to brandish his sword, before realising he only had a fish plushie at his side.

“Uwah, Rei-kun, he’s trying to assault me,” Kaoru yelped, hiding behind his unitmate. Rei chuckled, taking his hand and bringing him forward again.

“He’s joking,” Rei comforted him, red eyes meeting grey ones, the shoujo-manga like scene being watched by the rest of the crowd, and the crabs looking on especially homophobically.

As if they didn’t want to deal with whatever was going on with the seniors of UNDEAD, they scuttled away to the other side of the tank, Kanata, Kuro and Souma following them. Keito lingered for a second, knowing that if RabuRabu just so happened to commission him again, the lighting of the current scene would make a perfect reference.

…

Not that he was expecting another commission from RabuRabu, obviously. He didn’t want anything more to do with the cursed fanfiction they made, no matter how well written and surprisingly accurate it was. He let out a little sigh, walking over to join his family unit, leaving the two not-really-but-they-sure-seemed-like-it-lovebirds in peace.

Chapter Text

He had been busy lately, and focusing on his unit work took a lot out of him. So, Aira decided to indulge himself in his favourite comfort food from the cafeteria. Piling his plate with delicious steaming food, he wandered the busy cafeteria for a little while before finally spotting an open spot. Rushing over, he set his plate down, and turned to excuse himself to the person sitting next to him.

“Oh, it’s alright Shiratori-kun,” Tsumugi smiled, scooting his own chair over to make some more room for Aira to squeeze in. Aira thanked him and sat down, picking up his chopsticks and digging in. Only when he was halfway through his meal did he notice his table-mate’s peculiar selection.

“Aoba-senpai, are you on a diet?” Aira asked, noticing the 3 boiled beans with a few drops of sauce on Tsumugi’s plate. Tsumugi let out an ever suffering sigh, before turning to Aira with a pained smile.

“I suppose you could call it that, but not entirely of my own volition. Since Knights spent so much of the NewDi budget recently, we’re running a little low on funds. I gave most of my beans for Sora’s lunch earlier, so I’ve only got this many left for myself.”

Aira nodded in sympathy, remembering that Knights had bought an entire island for the Luminous Crown MV and wondering how much it had actually cost. Well, they would probably reclaim the revenue soon with how many times Aira had streamed the video on loop on all his devices to push them up the leaderboard. He was pleased with himself knowing that he was contributing to Tsumugi’s next meal being more than 3 beans.

“And they just returned from Italy recently too, Sena-kun has been bugging me to let them go back for the last few days, but they need to stay longer for a few more jobs,” Tsumugi continued, rubbing his temples. Aira questioned if he should ask about Switch’s skincare routine, because if he had to run a whole production company like Tsumugi did, he’d probably have wrinkles all over by now. The other thing that popped into his mind was Izumi and Leo’s very platonic apartment.

Where they shared a bedroom.

What was it with unitmates and sharing apartments? He knew from Hiiro that Rinne often stayed over at Niki’s apartment when the two of them had a weekend off. Maybe he should ask Hiiro if he wanted to share an apartment when they got older.

Hang on, what was he thinking?

Aira flushed, burying his face in his plate and shovelling food into his mouth as if to push away the embarrassing thought he had just had. Tsumugi continued crying his grievances while taking an awfully long time to finish his meagre meal, and when the two of them were finally done, they put their utensils away and bade the other farewell before continuing on to where they needed to be.

For Aira, that was back to his dorm room. He had a job later, but for now he could do as he pleased. He sat at his laptop, tapping the spacebar in thought. Surprisingly, he scrolled past his fic docs, opening up another work in progress and typing away.

Chapter Text

The lights in the studio blazed down on Keito, making him regret wearing a blazer. He was here for the recording of a TV show alongside Undead and Knights. It was quite typical, the host kept asking questions, going around the circle of idols sat on different coloured cushions. The questions were as he expected as well. So far, filming was going well, and the live audience seemed satisfied with their responses. There was only a little while before the halftime break, he could handle the heat a little longer. Applauding along to the last question that had been answered, the host turned to him, putting their prompt cards down.

“Right then, Hasumi-san, we’ll start off the special segment for you. Any questions from the audience?”

Immediately, tens of hands shot up. Staff members carrying microphones wandered the aisles, and a lucky member was selected. She shot up from her seat, a wide grin on her face as she held the microphone closer.

“Hasumi-san, I just wanted to say I’m such a huge fan of Akatsuki! I was wondering, us fans have all sorts of ways of expressing our love, have you ever interacted with fanworks and the like?”

Keito was not prepared for that question. Fanworks? Did she mean things like fanfiction? The question felt like some sort of divine retribution sent down to needle Keito’s sense of guilt. Though, no matter how guilty he felt, there was no way in hell he was going to admit that he was drawing questionable art of his colleagues to put into a fanfiction. As his thoughts flashed through his head, the fan seemed to pause, giving him a slight look of concern. Had he taken too long? He needed a good answer. Knights and Undead were staring at him, mirroring the concerned look the fan had.

“Uh, no. While I’m grateful to all of our fans for supporting us, I haven’t particularly interacted with these things.”

That seemed good enough, right? The fan giggled and gave him a satisfied nod before sitting back in her seat.

“Thank you, Hasumi-san!” The host cheered. “Next, Sakuma-san, if you please! Ah, the elder one, to not cause any confusion,” they chuckled. Rei gave his usual casual smile as he looked over at the audience to see who was being picked.

Another fan rose up with a squeal of excitement as she was chosen, grasping the microphone.

“Speaking of fanworks, have you heard of Surfboards and Leather Jackets? It’s a fanfiction about you, Sakuma-san! The author is pretty famous in our circles,” the fan chimed.

Wait. Keito knew that title.

It was RabuRabu’s fic.

The one that he had drawn for.

“Thank you for the question. I have not heard of it, but I’ll make sure to check it out thanks to our dear fan’s recommendation,” Rei laughed.

Keito was currently praying for one of the lights to fall and crush both him and Rei so no conclusions could possibly be drawn. How was RabuRabu that famous that people were referring to them in talk shows?

Keito hoped the next question would be the end of it.

“Sena-san, since we’re on the topic of that author, there’s rumours that they wrote the famous webnovel Love Me Even if it's the Last Thing You’ll Ever Do, My Sweet Ballerino!”

Wow, RabuRabu might be good at writing, but their titles made it seem like they were trying to advertise themselves as the season’s new isekai pick. No, Keito had to stay focused. Even he’d heard of that webnovel, how did it have any relation to Izumi?

“I heard,” the fan continued, “that the main lead is totally based on you, what do you think? Apparently, there’s a TV adaptation rumoured too, do you think you’ll audition for it?”

“Well, I’m always open to expanding my horizons in new projects,” Izumi answered, clearly having never heard of the webnovel in his life. The fan didn’t seem to notice, as she nodded enthusiastically. “Maybe I’ll take a look at it,” he nodded.

Thank the gods above, they had finally called for a break. Keito practically threw off his jacket, as the intensity of the earlier questions was stressing him out even more than the studio lights were.

“Omigod, Secchan, this guy is totally you,” he heard Ritsu snicker, turning around in his chair and holding his phone in front of Izumi. “And his love interest seems suuper familiar too, isn’t that just Tsukipi?”

While Leo was clambering over Ritsu to get a look and Izumi was calling him annoying, Keito pulled out his phone and searched up the webnovel. A silver haired ballerino, with exceptional talent and otherworldly grace meets a genius composer that may just sneak into his heart.

Well, Ritsu wasn’t exactly wrong.

“Hey, more importantly, what was that thing about Rei-kun?” Kaoru chimed in as the makeup artist moved away after finishing his touch ups.

Great, now Keito had to figure out a way to kill him in about 3 seconds before the search results popped up on his phone. Unfortunately, Kaoru let out a loud and dramatic gasp, swiping through his phone frantically. Realising he had caught everyone’s attention, he pulled his phone closer in the hopes that nobody else would see.

Too late, Arashi had already searched up the same thing.

“Surfboards and Leather Jackets? Oooh, this seems to be a ship fic between you two, how cute,” she cooed, looking between Kaoru and Rei.

Ritsu smirked, before glancing back at his own screen to rapidly type something. Curiously, Kuro leaned over to where Knights was sitting, and Arashi turned her phone towards him for a better look.

“Oh, there’s pictures too,” he noted. “They sure are dedicated. Though… doesn’t this art style seem kinda familiar?”

Curse Kuro’s thoughtful perceptiveness and attention to detail. It may be cute, but it currently was not doing Keito any favours.

“Is it? Maybe you’re thinking of something else,” Keito deflected, trying not to act suspicious.

“Yeah, it’s probably similar to some famous manga,” Kaoru nodded, “more importantly, who wrote this?? They should know I’m not gay!” He whined.

Everyone turned to Kaoru as if they didn’t believe him.

Before they could discuss the works any further, a member of staff came to inform them the shooting was resuming, and the units all filed back out into the studio. Hopefully, everyone would forget about this fiasco by the time they were done.

Crisis averted.

For now.

Chapter Text

Aira was in a bit of a predicament. He had a meeting to get to in an hour, and he still hadn’t picked out what to wear.

No, it wouldn’t be as simple as throwing on the first business casual outfit he found in his closet.

Aira needed a disguise.

Why, you ask?

Well, he couldn’t have people finding out that the famed fanfic author was actually an idol at ES. 

The project he had written as RabuRabu, Sweet Ballet, had somehow shockingly actually received an offer for an adaptation. Aira had almost fainted at the email, and had called Kohaku to squeal about it for hours.

The only problem was, the ones who were making the offer were none other than ES’ TV and film department.

Aira had immediately called Kohaku again, and the pinkheaded idol was gracious enough to pick up at 3am, even though the call was made about 20 minutes after the end of the long screaming session. They brainstormed what the best thing to do would be for a few hours, going through many different options.

Realistically, Aira knew he should probably refuse. He risked exposing himself if he was to be involved with the adaptation process, and who knew what would happen if he did.

But at the same time, this was one of an author’s greatest dreams, wasn’t it? His work was being recognised for the screen, and even though the characters seemed suspiciously like certain idols, Aira was glad that his effort paid off.

In the end, he decided just to go through with it.

But for that, he needed to take the right precautions.

Aira walked over to his closet again, pulling out a blue item packaged in clear plastic. Ripping off the packaging, he unwound the cosplay wig he had bought a little while ago. Taking his time to place it properly, he pulled out the elaborate hairstyle that was already set on the wig, wincing in pain for his poor fanboy heart. The wig was expensive, and he was just pulling it apart like that. He made a prayer to the cosplay gods so that they wouldn’t smite him for his crimes against wigs, before securing it in place.

Strangely enough, he swore he could feel something on his shoulder.

Turning around to look in the mirror, he almost jumped at the sight of a pure white dove sitting there, cooing softly while staring at him. Wondering how it had managed to get into the room, he carefully scooped it up and took it over to the window, watching it fly away.

But when he turned back, there were two more doves sitting on the abandoned wig packet.

Confused, he shooed them out of the window as well, picking up the packet they were sitting on and reading the tag.

He ignored the price that would make his bank account cry for the next few weeks, moving his gaze to another section that caught his eye. He swore that hadn’t been there before when he had checked.

Disclaimer: No idols were harmed in the making of this wig.

Okayyy. Weird thing to disclaim. Aira flicked his new blue strands over his shoulder, checking for any birds that might have entered somehow. He would have to ask someone to go over the room and see if there were any openings later.

Ignoring his strange predicament, he shoved a very cute set of clothes into a duffle bag before heading out the door. The wig was one thing, but he could easily change clothes in any public bathroom on the way. It was better not to risk it.

Satisfied with his efforts, Aira walked out the door to head to his appointment.

Chapter Text

Standing in an elevator that had Melting Rouge Soul blasting from the speakers was probably not the best place to think, but it wasn’t as if Keito had any choice. In an attempt to promote the artists under their labels, the heads of the agencies practically had a battle royale over who got to choose the elevator music. Clearly, Cospro had won today, but Keito wondered what sort of image they were supposed to be presenting if guests were greeted by whatever questionable lyrics Eden had.

Finally reaching the right floor, he stepped off, checking his watch.

Good, he still had some time before his meeting.

He wandered around for a bit, ordering a coffee to sip on as he sorted out his plans for later. The live he had been planning for so long was just around the corner, and he almost had enough funds for Souma’s special request. If things went well, he could finally stop accepting those damned commissions from RabuRabu.

The talk show he had been in recently had shocked him so much that he was honestly a little traumatised about even going near a fanfiction lest someone somehow figured out that he had been involved in such questionable activities. The faster he got himself away from this mess, the better.

He checked his watch again, deciding to arrive at the meeting room a few minutes earlier. Ibara had contacted him the day before to ask for his help with the production of a new show. While it was an unusual request, Keito had no reason to refuse, and gave a prompt reply.

As he was approaching his destination deep in thought, his lack of notice led to him bumping into someone in the hallway.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” he said, looking over at who he had run into.

Apparently Wataru’s shade of almost neon blue was becoming more popular, as the person in front of him sported it in a strikingly similar style to the idol. They were short, and blue bangs obscured their eyes as they gave a quick bow in apology before smoothing out their skirt and scurrying away.

Slightly confused by the random encounter, Keito carried on, knocking on the door of the room he was supposed to be at.

“Welcome, you’re right on time,” Ibara greeted him as the door opened, introducing Keito to the other man sitting at the table. “Takahashi-san will be overseeing the Sweet Ballet adaptation, I hope you both get along well.”

Keito almost did a double take at the unexpected name. “Sweet Ballet? Wait, were the rumours about that series getting an adaptation true?”

“Hasumi-san, I see that you are very up to date with the latest industry news! Yes, we’ve only just wrapped up our meeting with the original author to discuss filming rights. We already have a few candidates in mind for the cast,” Takahashi nodded seriously. Keito wondered where this conversation was leading, because he was certainly not expecting this when he had walked into the room. “So, considering your experience with many of the ES idols, we’d like to ask for your advice regarding the compatibility of the cast,” Takahashi continued. 

Keito internally facepalmed.

Why would they ask him about his colleagues’ compatibility? Sure, he was going to give insightful and thought out answers, but that was only because he had been observing them a little too closely the last few weeks. How much further was RabuRabu going to drag him? Still, if he refused now it would be even more suspicious.

“Of course, I’d be honoured to give you my professional opinion,” Keito nodded, keeping his expression completely still. “Who do you have in mind?”

“Well, as the main lead, we believe Sena-san would be a good fit. However, we’re having a little trouble trying to decide who we should cast as his composer love interest,” Takahashi sighed.

Seriously? The character is literally just Tsukinaga Leo with a different name . Keito thought, but he kept those specific words to himself. “How about Tsukinaga? He seems to match the personality quite well, and he’s very comfortable working with Sena.”

Takahashi nodded vehemently as if he had never even considered the idea, jotting down Leo’s name on a notepad.

The meeting went on, and soon Keito had offered candidates for almost every main character in the series.

Though, the choices seemed to fit a little… too well.

Hakaze Kaoru as the main lead’s close friend, and Sakuma Rei as his vampire boyfriend - Keito didn’t even know why there were vampires in what was supposed to be a sports series, but apparently nobody else found it as random as he did. Shiina Niki as the kind hearted chef at the local cafe who has a tumultuous hidden relationship with the beekeeper next door, Amagi Rinne.

At this point, RabuRabu was straight up writing the real life people into their story. They must be some sort of superfan to get the idol’s personalities just right. Honestly, Keito respected that. But if only for his sake, at least try to diverge the references just a little so that Keito wouldn’t be put into hot water every time he even thought of their works.

At last, Takahashi finally left, thanking Keito and Ibara profusely for their help.

“That was certainly… interesting. Is there anything else you need me for?” Keito asked, turning to his purple haired coworker.

“Thank you for your help so far,” Ibara nodded, a businesslike smile on his face. “As you say, there is something else. The original author has expressed that they’d like to have hand drawn illustrations to signal the ad breaks. There is an artist they’ve expressed preference for by the name of Mizukanome. I’d like you to look around and reach out to the artist to see if they are interested. Oh, and one more thing regarding your next live. The price of kiwi fruit has recently gone up, so I’m afraid your current budget isn’t enough.”

Dear God, how much longer did Keito have to endure this?

Chapter Text

A notification popped up on Aira’s phone. Curiously, he opened it to find a message from MaakunLover51. They were requesting a Sakuma Ritsu x Isara Mao fic. Aira thought it was a great idea, and he promised to get to it when he had some time. Rei loved to blab about his brother, and Aira was already in the same club as Mao, so doing research for the project would be a piece of cake.

Unfortunately, he had some more urgent matters to attend to right now.

It had been a while since his initial meeting with the adaptation team, and they had already gotten back to him with a potential cast list. Aira was thrilled with how involved he was allowed to be with the project, and excitedly opened up the document in his emails.

He had absolutely no complaints with the cast. In fact, it was absolutely perfect. Just as he had envisioned it. He nodded, giving an internal salute of respect to whoever had helped choose the candidates, they had clearly done plenty of research on his work and understood his intentions perfectly.

Look at him, acting like a bigshot author already.

Feeling slightly embarrassed about his haughty thoughts, Aira felt a blush appear on his cheeks as he closed the document and put his laptop away, heading to his unit’s dance practice.

“Aira!” Hiiro greeted him with his usual cheerful smile. “You seem happy, did something good happen?”

“Something did, actually! But uh, I can’t tell you what it is, for now. But I’ll tell you soon!” Aira grinned. Hiiro let out a chuckle, throwing his arms around the smaller boy in a congratulatory hug.

Normally, Aira would protest, but he allowed himself to relax in Hiiro’s calming warmth for a while. He thought he deserved it a little, with how much he was putting on his plate at the moment.

“Oh, you two have arrived early!”

Aira yelped and immediately jumped away from Hiiro at the sound of Tatsumi’s voice, turning to the door to find his seniors standing there, both with matching warm smiles. Though, there was something suspicious about those smiles. Something familiar, but Aira couldn’t exactly put a word to the thought.

Dance practice went as usual. Aira was feeling pumped about being able to complete a few more steps compared to last time, and he skipped off to the cafeteria with Hiiro after the session ended.

“Actually, let’s go to the cafe. As a celebration for your ‘good thing’!” Hiiro suggested.

“Wait, Hiro-kun, are you sure?” Aira looked over with surprise, meeting Hiiro’s good-natured smile.

“Yes, Nii-san gave me some extra pocket money recently since he got some sort of new role. I tried to refuse, but he insisted. So I thought I might as well spend it with you!” The redhead explained cheerily.

Aira suddenly remembered that Rinne’s name was on the cast list for Sweet Ballet. What a strange loop of fate it was that his project was coming back to him in the randomest ways. Still, since Hiiro was offering, Aira happily accepted.

“So, Niisan says he’s going to be in a TV show soon, isn’t that cool?” Hiiro chirped, happily sipping on an omurice flavoured smoothie.

Aira wondered if the cafe owner had a particular liking for Hiiro, because some of the menu items there genuinely didn’t seem like they would have any other buyers.

“Did he have any opinions on the role he’s playing?” Aira questioned, sipping on his matcha caramel iced half soy half oat with 3 pumps of vanilla syrup macchiato. Hiiro thought for a moment, twirling his straw in his hands before responding.

“Hm, well, he sounds confident but I can tell he’s a little nervous about it. CrazyB doesn’t really take any acting jobs. Apparently Shiina-san is in the show too!”

“He’ll probably do great in the role, they picked him for a reason, right?”

Hiiro nodded excitedly at Aira’s comments. “Yes, exactly! The casting director must have realised how passionate Niisan is when it comes to work!”

Aira wouldn’t exactly use the word passionate when describing Rinne, but he didn’t have the heart to stop Hiiro gushing about his older brother. Still, he was curious about how the show was going to be made. Alkaloid had been involved with some cool filming works - Aira still remembered shooting the Believe 4 Leaves MV like it was yesterday - but he had never actually been involved with creating a TV show.

The two of them finished up their drinks and decided to spend the rest of the day hanging out in the shopping centre, once Aira had declared that they deserved a good break. He had intended to buy some new binoculars to stare at his favourite idols with, but he got so distracted by picking out new clothes for Hiiro that he had completely forgotten about it. The last time the Pretty 5 had gotten together, Hiyori and Arashi had taught him about the magic of specific colour combos, and he just had to put their wisdom to good use when dressing someone as dashing as Hiiro.

Aira definitely didn’t think Hiiro was the coolest and most amazing guy around, nope, it was definitely just an established fact that he was very handsome. It didn’t help Aira from turning into a blushing mess when his unitmate declared that he loved all the clothes that had been picked out, and promised to treat them with the utmost care.

The words reverberated in Aira’s head as he went back to his dorm, finding it empty. It was both a blessing and a curse that his roommates were always so busy, it allowed him to have some time to himself a lot of the time without having to leave his room, but it also meant that he couldn’t maximise his research potential for fic purposes. Pulling the lid of his laptop open, he sent a quick email to the Sweet Ballet team to ask if he might be allowed to watch the filming of some scenes, before switching the tab to a blank document. MaakunLover51 had given him a great idea, and he was determined to make it into a reality.

Glancing around the room for inspiration, he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror. His overactive imagination had spawned a huge grin on his face.

The expression almost made Aira do a double take.

No wonder his seniors’ smiles had seemed so suspicious earlier, he knew exactly what sort of thoughts were going through their heads now.

There was no way in hell Tatsumi and Mayoi thought he and Hiiro would be a cute couple. But on the off chance that they did, well, Aira wasn’t exactly completely against the idea…

Chapter Text

Keito would be pulling off this double life flawlessly, he assured himself.

He had been formulating an entire email conversation between ‘Hasumi Keito’ and Mizukanome on the subject of the special requests for the show, and now that his artist persona had accepted, he hoped that he could put all this behind him soon.

Just finish the drawings and wash his hands free of the situation, that was Keito’s plan.

He had to admit, he was feeling rather satisfied with his efforts so far, the pleased expression on his face evident to Hajime as he walked into the room.

“Is something good happening?” The blue haired boy asked, offering a small pack of handmade cookies to Keito.

“Yes, I’ve been having some troubles regarding something for a while, but I think it might be over soon,” Keito nodded, taking the packet and thanking his roommate, who waved him off with a smile and a cheerful little ‘good luck!’ as he went on his way to ES tower.

Keito had to attend another meeting with Ibara and Takahashi, and he sorted through his documents on the way, closing the tab that still had Mizukanome’s email logged in. He’d rather die before allowing anyone to discover his secret.

“Great to see you again, Hasumi-san!” Takahashi greeted him heartily as he entered the room. Keito gave a nod and a quick bow in greeting as he took a seat on the table.

Right. This was where his battle began.

“I’d like to thank you again for your expert advice regarding your colleagues. All of them have passed the auditions smoothly and accepted the roles they were offered. The filming is already getting off to a great start!” Takahashi explained. Keito smiled politely, thanking him for his generous words as Ibara occasionally interjected with his own overly flattering remarks. 

“That’s good to hear. Now, as for the author’s special request, I have reached out to the artist and explained the situation to them. They were interested- however, they did place a few conditions,” Keito started.

Takahashi nodded seriously as Ibara raised an eyebrow. Come on Ibara, don’t give him that look. Keito’s well thought out plan was about to crumble just at the thought of Ibara somehow figuring it out on the spot. No, he had to persevere. He had faced the businessman many times, he knew exactly how to throw him off the trail.

“Ahem, as I was saying. The artist would prefer if all contact was made through email, and they are reluctant to make an in-person appearance.”

“Well, if it’s just that, I suppose that could be doable. Don’t you agree, Saegusa-san?” Takahashi nodded.

“Yes, it seems reasonable. Is there a reason why they don’t want to come in person? It might be beneficial to have discussions with the team about the art direction sometimes.”

“They say that they are very socially anxious, and quite busy with some other projects,” Keito said, completely seriously. Ibara let out a resigned sigh, nodding.

“If that is the case, I suppose it can’t be helped. Is there someone they would prefer on the team as a point of contact?”

“I suggest we let Hasumi-san take care of this,” Takahashi interrupted. Keito internally poured a hundred years of gratitude on him for saying the words before he needed to. “Since he was the one to contact the artist in the first place, I suppose they might be the most comfortable with him.”

“Alright, we’ll do that then. Please keep us updated on the artist’s requests,” Ibara said, noting something down on a piece of paper.

Great, Keito had won this round. He wanted to let out loud a sigh of relief, but he kept it small, slowly exhaling the breath he had been holding in.

But, as cruel as the world was, that wasn’t the end of things.

“Since that’s been dealt with, there’s one last matter. The author has expressed wanting to take the live action series in a different direction, and they have proposed a few new TV only characters. The writing team was delighted and quickly approved, so I’d like to ask for possible casting suggestions,” Takahashi said, procuring some updated character profiles from his briefcase.

Keito was not expecting this sudden turn of events, but surely things couldn’t get any weirder than what happened last time.

“So, the new characters in question are Hatsumi Kento and Kiryo Kure. The side plot focuses on their blossoming relationship.”

Keito almost choked on the nonexistent sip of water he was taking. He knew RabuRabu needed to use their creative licence a little more when coming up with character names, and that applied here especially. That was basically just him and Kuro! He didn’t know how these ungodly names managed to go through an entire team of writers and still get approved. Snatching up the character sheets, he read through them as if his life depended on it.

A serious person who always does everything he can to the highest level. Raised in a shrine, he loves traditional culture and always sticks to the rules. 

Well, Keito was slightly flattered by the description, but he had to steel himself. There was no way nobody else found something amiss about the characters. He moved on to Kiryo Kure’s sheet.

Though he may have an intimidating appearance, Kiryo is actually kind hearted, and always open to help others. Though he is always generous, he doesn’t hesitate to uphold strong moral standards, and is respected for it.

Such a good report of Kiryu as well. Keito found the accuracy slightly unsettling, wondering how much of an ES superfan RabuRabu actually was to have such detailed information on so many of the idols here. Well, there was always the possibility that the author might actually be some staff member here, but the thought was so ridiculous Keito never entertained it for long. Turning back to Takahashi, he cleared his throat, knowing full well he was about to dig his own grave.

“So, for the second character, perhaps Kiryu would fit well. His personality and appearance is a good fit for the character, don’t you think?” 

Takahashi agreed exuberantly, bringing out the notepad from before and immediately scribbling down the name.

“And the first?”

“Well, why don’t you give the role a try, Hasumi-shi?” Ibara interrupted, an unreadable smile on his face. Keito wanted to grab him and plunge both of them off the top floor of the ES tower at that moment.

“What makes you say that?” Keito asked, trying not to let his emotions show on his face.

“I simply thought you would be a good fit for the character. But if you don’t want to, I won’t pressure you,” Ibara said simply, “we’ll have to find someone else for the role.”

Keito suddenly remembered what genre this was.

And for some reason, he really didn’t like the thought of Kuro getting all intimate with some random other person, even if it was just acting. His mind was immediately flooded with warning signs of Kuro kissing some guy, and he put his palm down on the table with a little more force than he intended.

“Wait! No, I’ll do it. Uh, Takahashi-san, what do you think of me in that role?”

“That sounds fantastic! I’ll make sure to recommend you!” Takahashi beamed.

Keito immediately regretted every life choice that had led him to this particular moment, sitting back in his chair.

“And one more side character, we have Amegi Hiro-”

“Amagi Hiiro.” Keito stated. Takahashi just nodded and wrote the name down.

 

One of these days, Keito was going to find the person who dragged him into all of this and give them a piece of his mind.

Chapter Text

Even though there were tissues stuffed into his nostrils, Aira was typing out notes on his phone as fast as his fingers would go. He paused to check if his nosebleed had finally stopped, throwing the bloody tissues into the small bin sitting beside his bed in the infirmary. He had been so busy collecting information while talking to Mao during club activities that he hadn’t even noticed the basketball barrelling right towards him.

So now he had a bloody nose. But it was worth it, what he had gotten in exchange was unparalleled. Mao had been complaining about a Maa-kun observation diary earlier, and Aira’s shipper senses immediately kicked in. Was it normal to watch your ‘best friend’ so closely that you had enough to fill up an entire journal about them? 

Aira didn’t think so. Sakuma Ritsu, you’re going to have to do a better job of hiding it from this stan’s ultimate sixth sense.

Satisfied with his newly compiled information, Aira checked himself out of the infirmary, spending a little while assuring the nurse he was totally alright.

He didn’t have much time to spare, after all.

The filming for Sweet Ballet was well underway, and Aira had been invited to the behind the scenes of one of the episodes. He had almost fainted with excitement when he had received the email, and he had practically been unable to sleep for the entire week.

He rushed back to his room, making sure Eichi and Rei were nowhere near before putting on his wig and grabbing his already prepared duffel bag with the rest of his disguise on it. He had intended to go right to the filming location after changing, but his shipping radar led him to an expensive designer fashion shop near the mall bathrooms he had changed in. It didn’t take long for him to figure out what had led him there.

“That’s so annoying, why can’t I find this in the right size?” Izumi clicked his tongue, holding a jacket in one hand and rifling through the shelves in another.

“Sena~, hurry up or we’re going to be late to filming,” Leo chimed in, popping up from behind a mannequin as if he had just teleported into the shop.

“Just give me another minute, Leo-kun. Argh, if only I hadn’t spilled my coffee on my clothes earlier. Here, which one’s better?” The silver haired idol asked, holding up two jackets. Leo took a moment to think before a brilliant smile appeared on his face.

“They’re both good, and they’ll look even better on you. You’re the prettiest thing in this shop, after all,” he declared cheerily.

Lord above, Aira couldn’t believe he was witnessing the use of such a smooth line in person. If Aira had ever attempted to say anything like that, he’d probably collapse onto the floor in an embarrassed mess before he even got past the second word, but here Leo was looking completely unfazed by the claim.

Maybe it was the power of chivalry.

Sure, Knights had a reputation for being a cool unit that always managed to wow everyone with their fanservice, but Aira was starting to believe that all of them were just born with the sparkly chivalric aura he was witnessing at that moment. Surely nobody could get so suave with just some PR training.

And more importantly, was it purely platonic to say such pickup-line-esque things to your unitmate?

Izumi let out a puff of breath, rolling his eyes. But Aira swore his ears were definitely pinker than before. “That’s not helpful at all, Leo-kun. I’ll take this one,” he said, handing one of them to Leo before setting the other one down and grabbing another identical to the one Leo was holding, albeit in a different colour. “And this one’s for you. I know I’m pretty, but it’s not as if you’re lacking in that department either. Can’t let that go to waste. Come on, let’s get these checked out and go.”

“Wahaha, Sena~, I love you!” Leo laughed boisterously, throwing his arms around his companion’s neck.

“Oh my god, you’re so embarrassing!” Izumi sighed, attempting to trudge to the checkout with an orange human stuck to him.

Aira immediately turned, practically running away from the store to make sure that Leo and Izumi wouldn’t catch him staring at them. He knew his disguise was decent, but he could never be too careful. The scene he had just witnessed replaying fresh in his head, he pulled out his phone and added to the notes document he had been working on earlier. Izumi had fired back with lines just as cool as Leo’s, and there was no way Aira was letting those go to waste. He vowed to himself to buy as much Knights merch as he could afford with his allowance next month to thank the gods for allowing him to gaze upon such a beautiful sight, one that made his little stan heart almost burst.

He stood there daydreaming for a minute before he felt a buzz on his phone. Checking it, he saw a notification from the calendar app reminding him that the filming was going to start soon.

Letting out another gasp of excitement, Aira dashed off as fast as his legs would carry him, almost bursting with excitement to finally see his work coming to life.

Chapter Text

Keito really wanted to interrogate whoever wrote this script.

Wasn’t this supposed to be a romance-sports series, or was he mistaken? Because why the hell was his character secretly an exorcist?

No, calm down Keito. This still wasn’t as weird as the random vampire.

Speaking of particularly vampiric people, Rei was sitting next to him, having his makeup done as they prepared for filming.

“Honestly, I didn’t expect you here,” he said, dark eyeliner drawing out his red eyes. Keito sighed and shook his head.

“I don’t know why I’m here, either. Maybe I just developed a sudden passion for acting.”

Rei laughed, his usual slow paced, languid chuckle. “This project is interesting, though. I wonder how the author came up with such a plotline.”

“Who knows, maybe they took inspiration from their other works,” Keito suggested, fixing up his costume in the mirror, pretending he wasn’t fully aware of the other works in question.

“Well, I suppose we’ll have the chance to ask them in person. Have you heard that they’re attending this filming session?”

No, Keito had not heard the news. Clearly, nobody had thought it important enough to inform him that the source of his struggles for the past few weeks was finally going to show up in front of him in person. He would finally be able to lay his eyes on the very person who had been making him do such ungodly things.

No, he was partially at fault too. He had given in to the reward, and so he and RabuRabu would have to face damnation together. But even if they were in the same boat, he could never ever allow them to find out about his true identity.

Scanning over the script once more, he let out a long sigh. Rei had already left to start on his scene, and instead of him, Kuro had appeared by Keito’s side.

“That sure was a long sigh, Danna. Something wrong?”

“Oh, Kiryu,” Keito acknowledged, turning to see his unitmate watching him in concern. “Yes, I’m fine, no need to worry. I’ve just been dealing with a few troublesome things lately.”

“Y’know, you say that a lot, but I still worry. You’re always handling things by yourself, and while the two of us respect your leadership in getting the unit to where it is now, sometimes I wish you’d take a little break. I want you to lean on us - well, me - a little more. I’m always here for you, you know that.”

Yes, Keito did know that. He knew it very well indeed. It was so comforting to him, to know that he always had someone to fall back on. It was out of consideration, after all, that he tended to handle these things by himself. Kuro was always designing their unit costumes and doing everything he could, and Keito couldn’t possibly ask his unitmate to carry more of a burden.

“Danna.”

Keito’s attention turned back to Kuro, snapping out of his thoughts.

“I know what you’re thinking.”

Keito didn’t think so, he wasn’t one to show his thoughts on his expression- “You’re going to say that you don’t want to burden me with more responsibilities.”

Great, Kuro had hit the nail right on the head.

“And,” the redhead continued, “I’m grateful that you’re always thinking about me. But I don’t want you to overwork yourself like that. I care about you, uh, probably a lot more than you think I do. So, let me help you out every so often.”

Keito didn’t have a chance to answer before Kuro was called away by the scene director to discuss the next shot. The leader of Akatsuki was left sitting in silence at his dressing room, still going through the conversation that had just happened.

…What exactly had Kuro meant by his last few words? He cared about Keito more than he thought? WHAT was that supposed to mean?? Was it… could it possibly be…

NO.

Don’t even go there, Hasumi Keito. He wanted to smack himself for even considering the possibility that Kuro was romantically interested in him. He sent a curse to RabuRabu for filling his head with such ridiculous possibilities.

Setting the script down, he strode out of the dressing room to approach the set. The current scene was focusing on a side plot between Rei and Kaoru, and Keito’s scene was due to come soon. He glanced around, but found no trace of anyone who could possibly be RabuRabu. It wasn’t as if he had anything to go off, anyway. He had no visual description of the author, so he would just have to look around for any new unfamiliar people bustling about, or anyone who looked like they’d freak out the second any of the idol pairs got close.

But before he could find any possible signs of RabuRabu, he was called onto set.

Assistants fussed over his costume for a while, fixing up any stray strands before allowing him to stand in front of the cameras. He held his exorcist’s weapon, brandishing it in front of Rei who stood in front of Kaoru, holding out his arm as if to protect his partner from the magic that was supposed to be flying around the three of them at the moment.

“Cease, foul demon!” Keito declared, already internally cringing at the line. Maybe he should have just recommended a member of Ryuseitai for the role, they were very used to saying such comically heroic things. Rei - or rather, his character Ray started spouting a dramatic monologue before they were interrupted by the sudden appearance of Kiryo Kure.

“Hatsumi, what’s going on?” Kure asked, gasping in shock at the brawl occurring in front of him. Ray and Chad (Keito knew he had mentally asked RabuRabu to differentiate the names at least slightly, but he had absolutely no clue how they had managed to come up with the most surfer eshay sounding name in existence. The fact that the name was supposedly spelled in full capital letters just made it weirder) disappeared into smoke in the confusion, leaving Kento and Kure staring at each other.

“Is.. is this why you’ve been running off so much lately?” Kure questioned, taking a step closer to Kento. Biting down on his lip as if he was trying to come up with an excuse, the exorcist hesitated to answer. “I mean, I knew something had to be going on, but I didn’t think it’d be this .”

“Does it scare you?” Kento asked.
“This? Well, I’m confused, but scared not so much,” Kure laughed. “If it’s you, I’m sure you’ve got a reason for it. I’ll always try to understand you.”

Keito’s mind went blank. He swore he had gone over the script until the words had been burned into his brain, but currently he had absolutely no grasp on what his next line was supposed to be. He schooled his expression into something hesitant once more, trying to stall for a few seconds so that he might be able to find the right thing to say again.

It was no use.

And yet, he found words spilling out of his mouth before he could stop himself.

“I- you’re right. There’s a reason for it, but I can’t tell you just yet. But I promise, when this is over, I’ll explain everything. Thank you for always being there for me, Kiryu.”

“CUT!”

He heard the director call out as soon as he finished his sentence, and the studio descended into the quiet buzzing of chatter. Keito was already regretting his amateur slipup at the end, but the crew didn’t seem to mind too much, instead reassuring him that they’d just edit over the audio footage with the correct name, telling him not to worry about it as the names were remarkably similar. Letting out a breath of relief, Keito wanted to return to his dressing room and hide there before he had to answer to Kuro.

Unfortunately, fate had it out for him.

His redheaded unitmate caught him just before he was about to leave the room, dragging him aside to a more quiet corner.

“Well, Danna." Keito mentally prepared himself for what was going to happen next. “You promised, so I’ll be waiting for that explanation,” Kuro grinned, giving Keito a reassuring pat on the shoulder.

A promise was a promise. And if anyone had to know about this godforsaken situation, Keito was glad it was the warm, supportive figure in front of him.

Chapter Text

Aira wanted to squeal.

He could barely keep himself together.

The lights, the camera, oh, the ACTION! It was so perfect that Aira almost wept at how beautifully the team had brought his visions to life.

His disguise was doing him well, and he was sure nobody even suspected that the author RabuRabu was in fact Shiratori Aira cross-dressing. He was glad he had asked Arashi for some vocal advice during one of their pretty 5 sessions, seeing how he could keep his voice at a more feminine pitch much more comfortably now. He was an idol, after all, it wouldn’t do him any good to be straining his voice.

One of the director’s assistants had given him a tour around the set a short while ago, and he was enjoying himself watching the scene play out.

Aira knew that he could rely on the director to make sure that everything was done perfectly, and as he had expected, the scripting and movement of the actors was absolutely flawless. Tears welled up in Aira’s eyes as he watched the impassioned speech leave Ray’s lips, his mind flashing back to the very day when he had used his blanket to cover up the light from his laptop and write those very words down. The fight between Ray and Kento was said to be one of the best scenes in the current arc, and his readers had left hundreds of comments praising it. Everything was going perfectly, and there were even talks of a second season being greenlit.

Aira was already getting excited. Season one was turning out to be fantastic, and if more of the series was being adapted, then he had to personally make sure that one of his favourite scenes came out perfectly.

He absolutely couldn’t allow anything to mess up the arc where Saena Izoomi was revealed to be the entire royal family of a secret alien civilisation, and had to work together with his past rivals Ray of the vampire clan and Kento the heir of the exorcists association to save Leon who was actually the reincarnation of an ancient god. And when Amegi Ryan turned out to actually be a demon who was on the search for the ultimate power bee that would be able to restore his kingdom, with honey that only the skilled chef Sheena Nicky could prepare properly.

Aira had stars in his eyes just thinking about the scenes.

But that came later. First, he had to focus his attention on what was going on now.

Huh, those didn’t seem to be the same lines that were part of the script. Aira asked one of the assistants for a copy, and sure enough, those last few sentences were improv.

“Is there a problem, Raburabu-sensei?” The director asked, noticing Aira flicking through the script.

“No, I was just checking the lines,” Aira shook his head, handing the script back.

“Yes, it seems Hasumi-san made a small mistake. Would you like a reshoot of the scene?”

“Oh no, that’s totally fine!” Aira quickly responded. “Those lines were delivered perfectly, and it’s similar to the original,” he nodded.

He didn’t care too much about what the specific words were, but the way Keito had conveyed them - perfection. Aira couldn’t have done it better himself. Once again, he made a mental note to thank whoever had made the casting decisions.

Luckily, he found that he could thank them much more easily than he had expected. With a few quick questions to the director, Aira found out that Ibara and Keito had helped out quite a bit with deciding on who would play each character. Ibara wasn’t here, but Aira knew he could at least go and express his gratitude to Keito, who was just heading back to the dressing rooms. Aira followed, watching as he was pulled aside by his unitmate for a quick conversation before starting towards the door again. Taking his chances, Aira slipped in front of the door, trying to decide how he needed to refer to Keito without too much familiarity so as not to give himself away. He didn’t need to come to a conclusion, because Keito had stopped in front of him, giving him an inquisitive look.

“Hello, is there something wrong?” Keito asked, adjusting his glasses. 

Aira startled, immediately escaping from his thoughts as he shook his head. “Uhm, no, nothing’s wrong. I just- I wanted to introduce myself. I’m the author of the original series, and I heard you were the one who helped out with casting, so I’d like to thank you for helping make the series so wonderful!” Aira blurted, sure that he could set a new record with how fast he had just said those sentences.

Chapter Text

So, this was RabuRabu.

Keito stared at the author for a few moments, at a loss for words. RabuRabu was quite a bit shorter than him, with blue hair that looked suspiciously familiar coupled with a trendy outfit that Keito was sure he had seen on some of the magazines Hajime read through. Keito concluded that the author had to be a girl, with that cute manner of speech and style. That definitely ruled out the possibility of being someone close to the idols, women weren’t allowed in the dormitories, after all. But still, something felt… off to him.

Clearing his throat and settling on something to say, Keito gave a nod of greeting to the person in front of him. “Hasumi Keito, pleased to meet you. I’m really not deserving of thanks, I simply did the best I could.”

“Of course not, I’m sooo grateful! The casting is so amazing that it’s almost as if you read my mind!” RabuRabu gushed, clapping her hands together in excitement. Keito felt a stab at his conscience - he hadn’t read RabuRabu’s mind, but with how many of her works he had read, he might as well have. RabuRabu continued to prattle her thanks for a while, before quickly excusing herself as she noticed the entrance of the Amagi brothers accompanied by Niki.

Keito decided to give up returning to the dressing rooms for now, it wasn’t long until his next scene, and he’d probably only be able to sit for a minute or two before he was called back. Walking over to the crew’s spot behind the cameras, he found Izumi, Leo, Kaoru and Kuro chatting with each other, the two knights wearing suspiciously similar jackets.

Really, if they were going to show off that they shared the same wardrobe, they could at least make it less obvious.

Not that Keito thought they were dating or anything, of course.

Walking past the trio, he found a few staff members briefing Rei and Rinne about their shot, the younger Amagi and Niki enjoying a snack a bit further away.

“Welcome back,” Rei greeted him once the staff had finished their explanation and Rinne had gone to join his very familial looking group.

“How have your scenes been going?”

“Well enough. Have you met the author yet?”

“Yes, she seems passionate about her work,” Keito nodded, choosing to try and forgive RabuRabu for almost everything she had put him through. Almost.

“That she does. But I can’t help but feel like there’s something about her that I can’t quite figure out. More than that, have you seen the ad break screens from the artist she personally requested? The style is really familiar, and the pen name too. I feel like I’ve definitely seen it before,” Rei reasoned, taking a seat and resting a head in his palm in thought.

Keito felt as if a large rock was being pelted into his stomach. He couldn’t have Rei figuring the whole thing out, and with the current situation, the worst case scenario was very likely. Eventually, Rei would be able to connect the dots and come to the conclusion that Keito was in fact Mizukanome.

There was only one thing to do.

Sakuma Rei, forgive Keito for resorting to such drastic measures, but for the sake of his dignity, please die.

At least, that was what Keito had been plotting. Unfortunately, he didn’t get a chance to go through with his nefarious intentions of dropping a stage light onto his childhood friend, as the second Rei went on set again, a car crashed through one of the walls, ploughing through the studio.

“Oh no, Rinne-kun!” Keito heard Niki sobbing, knelt over the lifeless figure of the leader of the bees.

Keito internally cursed the terrible driver for somehow missing Rei entirely and managing to hit someone who wasn’t even on set. The driver’s door opened and Tatsumi jumped out, gasping in shock at the fatality he had just caused.

“My apologies, I took a wrong turn while bringing Hiiro-san his forgotten lunch,” the Alkaloid member said, kneeling over Rinne to offer a prayer for his soul to go to heaven, though Keito doubted that would happen even with those blessings.

The rest of the studio was silent, still trying to process what the hell was even going on, and just as the tension was about to burst, Rinne jumped up and brushed himself off, leading to a multitude of relieved sighs descending across the room.

“Nii-san, are you alright?!” Hiiro sprinted over, only to be reassured that Rinne had somehow only sustained a few scratches from being hit by a one tonne vehicle. Keito didn’t know what those Amagis were made of, but decided not to question it as the director called for a break to resolve the chaos of the scene.

While everyone bustled about, Keito finally took the chance to retreat to the dressing rooms, thinking that destiny had saved Rei for one more day.

He didn’t expect to find a certain author already there.

“Oh, hello!” RabuRabu squeaked, surprised by his sudden entrance. She explained that some of the staff had allowed her to enter the room to escape the commotion of the studio.

“That’s fine, I’m here to take a little break too,” Keito nodded, taking a seat and setting his phone on the table in front of him.

“I didn’t expect something so crazy to happen on my first set visit, I hope Hiro- I mean, Amagi-kun is okay with what happened to his brother.”

“I’m sure he’s fine, he seemed to be overcoming the shock well.”

“I hope so,” RabuRabu nodded in concern. “But aside from that, I’ve been thinking that I should do my part and thank the other people who have been involved in the series. Y’know, to show my appreciation. I’ve already talked to you and the director and Takahashi-san, but Saegusa-san isn’t here right now, along with the artist I’ve specially asked. Their name is Mizukanome, do you know them?”

Why was Keito being faced with such obstacles today? Keeping his expression completely neutral, Keito shook his head, feigning ignorance at the name.

“Oh, that’s a shame,” RabuRabu sighed, “their art is soooo good! Actually, since I already have a way to contact them, why don’t I send them a quick message? I should keep my momentum up!” Hurriedly pulling her phone out of her little handbag, RabuRabu started typing at the speed of light, much faster than Keito could voice a protest. “Aaaand, send!” She cried, tapping the send button on their screen.

Before he could grab it off the table, Keito’s phone buzzed, his screen lighting up with the sound of a new notification. RabuRabu paused, looking between the device and its owner. The room was still.

Slowly lifting up her phone again, RabuRabu seemed to type else out.

And another notification appeared on Keito’s phone.

Jumping up with a gasp, RabuRabu threw the door open and fled, with Keito hot on her heels.

Chapter Text

Aira didn’t know what to do with this information.

He had just discovered what was probably a huge secret, and was now probably about to get murdered to ensure his silence. He was too young and cute to die! If he was gone, who would support all his favourite idols? He didn’t spend his entire allowance buying merch for all of it to end here.

The power of stanning propelled him forward, and he did his best to escape the consequences of his actions. How was he supposed to know that Mizukanome was actually Hasumi-senpai?? It wasn’t as if there were any signs of it. There was no way anyone would expect someone as serious as Hasumi Keito to actually accept a commission to draw ship art of his colleagues, and honestly, Aira was having a hard time believing it even though he had seen the proof unfold before his very orbs.

He had literally sat through a whole bunch of tutoring sessions with Keito and never suspected a thing, what sort of gap-moe was this even supposed to be?? If his life wasn’t currently in danger, Aira would be lying on the floor questioning if he was even sane right now.

Hasumi Keito the demon tutor = Mizukanome the artist?

No way, how was Aira supposed to accept that so easily?

It didn’t matter if he was able to accept it or not, that was the apparent truth. And right now, Aira needed to worry about himself. If anyone found out who he was, he would surely be facing some consequences.

Turning the corner, he found that Keito was inching closer, like some sort of demonic green entity ready to drag Aira down to hell.

And at the worst possible moment, Aira felt something catch his foot, tripping over a stray piece of air and plunging forward. But thankfully, he fell right into a strong set of arms that swept him up and carried him off. Looking up at his saviour (or captor, he didn’t know yet), Aira finally found himself safe in Hiiro’s grasp, speeding away from Keito at a speed Aira was completely incapable of.

“Hir- Amagi-kun?!” Aira squeaked. “Why are you here, shouldn’t you be on set?”

Hiiro didn’t respond, instead slipping into a side room and gesturing in silence to Aira to wait until Keito’s footsteps had gone past.

Letting out the breath he had been holding, Aira turned back to his saviour to continue his line of questioning.

“I knew something was strange,” Hiiro sighed, setting Aira down carefully and looking at him. The author didn’t answer, holding his gaze. “You’ve been running around all busy with something lately, and sometimes it really seems to trouble you.”

Something told Aira that Hiiro was speaking his true feelings right now. A stab of guilt came at him as he regretted keeping something so big from Hiiro, but he just really hadn’t wanted his best friend to think of him as some sort of weirdo for writing fanfiction about his colleagues. If things got out of hand, he’d die from embarrassment, but more than that, he thought he might actually die if Hiiro thought he was some sort of creep.

Aira didn’t want that at all.

So he had been so careful about letting things slip around the redhead.

But for some reason, in this fic redheads seem to be able to read minds, or somehow observance is an enhanced trait for them, because in all honesty, Aira concluded that at this point Hiiro definitely knew.

You didn’t pick up random people and whisk them off like a gallant hero otherwise, right? Wait, did Hiiro do this to other people?

Aira wasn’t completely sure how he felt about Hiiro acting all princely to someone else if they were in his position, what if they got the wrong idea and fell in love with him.

Not that Aira was in love with him, or anything.

Turning back to face his best friend, he found a set of cerulean eyes watching him in concern. Aira prayed to god that Hiiro would somehow miraculously not call him a weirdo for writing a ship fic of his brother of all people, and silently took a deep breath as his friend opened his mouth to continue.

“But I told you, didn’t I?” Hiiro declared, “I’ll support you with whatever it is you want to do. And if anything’s troubling you, I’ll always be by your side, Aira!”

Aira’s heart squeezed.

Not just because the golden hearted idiot in front of him was the sweetest, most lovable person in the entire world.

But also because at that exact moment, Hasumi Keito had flung the door open, staring at the two younger idols with a murderous expression peppered with confusion.

Chapter Text

“Shiratori Aira?” Keito asked, striding into the room. Raburabu squeaked and hid behind Hiiro, carefully peeking out to look at him.

“Uhm, yes?”

That explained everything. No wonder all of the character’s personalities were uncannily accurate, as if the author had personally peered into their lives at a level a fan could never hope to achieve. The author had been amongst them the whole time. And honestly, who would have expected Alkaloid’s youngest member to secretly be a renowned author in fan circles?

Realising that the two younger idols were staring at him, the redhead apprehensively and the smaller one with fear in his eyes, Keito cleared his throat, taking another step forward.

Now that he had an equal amount of blackmail material as Raburabu had on him, he wouldn’t have to worry about silencing anyone with other means (though the jury was still out on whether Rei needed to be dealt with).

But first, Keito needed to deal with the completely uninvolved party in the room. “Amagi, why are you here?”

“I’m protecting Aira,” Hiiro declared matter-of-factly, standing defensively in front of his friend.

“So it seems. Your scene is soon, so you should return to the set. I’m just going to have a pleasant chat with Shiratori.”

Hiiro paused, before turning back to Aira for confirmation. The disguised idol thought for a moment, before giving him a slow nod.

Once Hiiro had left the room, not before glancing between Aira and Keito with a worried expression, Keito turned to stare at Aira, formulating what he was going to say in his mind.

“I think we should save the discussion on the moral implications of writing questionable fiction about your colleagues for another time. Actually, let’s not mention it at all, considering I am also guilty of the same crime. For now, let’s just agree that once this adaptation is finished, we will put everything about this behind us. And never speak of this incident again.”

“I can agree with that, but are you really Mizukanome the artist?” Aira asked, his eyes still wide with confusion. “I’m still having a hard time believing that fact.”

“Please keep not believing it then, that might be better for both of us.”

But at Keito’s protests, Aira shook his head, his expression morphing into one of determination. “No!” Aira declared. “Us stans need to stick together! It must have been hard hiding the fact that you were actually a ship artist, right? Don’t worry, now that we know each other’s secrets, we have someone to confide in!”

Wait, what sort of weird misjudgement had Aira come to?

“Huh??!” Keito started, still comprehending the last few lines he had just heard. “I’m not a ship artist! Well, I wasn’t one, not until I got that godforsaken commission from you!”

Aira shook his head wisely, reaching out to pat Keito reassuringly on the shoulder. “It’s alright, I understand. You don’t need to deny it anymore. I too was like you when I realised the massive ship potential going on everywhere.”

After a short debate in his head, Keito decided that trying to further this ridiculous argument any further was more trouble than it was worth, so shook his head and pointedly changed the topic.

“Anyway, now that we’ve been exposed to each other, we need to make sure nobody else finds out. Am I right in assuming Amagi already knows about you?”

Aira took a moment to think, before nodding. Keito mimicked the action, trying to formulate a solution.

“Alright, so we’re going to need a plan.”

And really, confidential discussions should be held in places where it is sure that no information can be leaked, but in the heat of the moment, neither of the two had actually considered that fact.

That, and maybe the studio needed to invest in some locks for their doors.

Just as Keito finished speaking, the doorknob turned and the wooden slab keeping them away from the outside world gave way.

“In that case, I think I have a proposal for you,” Ibara declared as he stood in the doorway, pushing his shining white glasses up the bridge of his nose.

Chapter Text

Aira wasn’t sure how long Keito was going to keep staring at him wordlessly. Ibara had left a short while ago, leaving the two of them sitting in the private booth alone. In all honesty, when the cospro idol had barged into the studio that fateful day, Aira had thought that his entire idol career was over. It was the worst case of worst case scenarios. Instead, he found a business card practically thrown at him with a date and time written on the back, and Ibara disappearing while declaring something about the stock market in the same abrupt manner as he had arrived.

And so, a week after the incident , Aira had arrived at the fancy restaurant, leaving his disguise behind and braving the scene as Shiratori Aira, resident indomitable cutie of Alkaloid. At least, that was what he had been telling himself. His legs felt wobbly as a waiter led him to a section at the back, and he saw the two older idols turn to watch him as he approached. Before he could mutter an apology and fall to the floor to commit seppuku over his grave sin of arriving after his seniors, Ibara waved him over and asked for a set of cutlery to be brought over for him.

And somehow, the session had passed just like that. Aira barely registered what Ibara had said because he was trying to make sure that he was using the western utensils properly lest he get eaten by some of the scariest idols in ES for breaching etiquette. He much preferred to silently go through his meal, letting Keito deal with Eden’s snake for the most part, occasionally offering an opinion when he was prompted.

Which led him to the current scenario.

“Uh, Hasumi-senpai, do you want to say something?” Aira asked, sure he would simply just explode if he was stared at for much longer.

Keito seemed to snap out of his thoughts, shaking his head to shoo away any errant worries that were plaguing him. “...Yes, well. What do you think of the proposal?”

Aira shrugged in response. “Honestly, I was expecting worse. Besides, it’s not like we have much of a choice. If we say no, he’ll just go public with our secret.” He paused at the end of his sentence, shuddering at the thought of the public embarrassment he would have to face if that happened.

“You’re right,” Keito nodded thoughtfully. “That would be bad. I’m curious, how did you even get yourself into this situation?”

“What do you mean, you were there too, Hasumi-senpai,” Aira responded innocently. “We were talking about it and suddenly Saegusa-senpai barged in.”

“No, no, not that. The whole ‘writing fanfiction of your colleagues situation’.”

“Probably the same way as you, really,” the blond admitted, earning a strange frown from Keito which quickly turned into a sigh of resignation. Aira knew that Keito was probably still coming to terms with the fact that stanning was his true calling, so he decided not to pursue an answer for the previous expression. “I’ve always been an idol otaku, and I'm no stranger to fan circles. I know that technically, I shouldn’t be writing about my colleagues, but it’s my duty as a stan to finish what I’ve started!”

At Aira’s impassioned speech, the author shed a single tear for his dedication to the holy stan arts as Keito stared at him, unimpressed.

“Right… I’m more surprised nobody’s figured it out sooner with how the sweet ballet characters are.”

“No way! I made sure to do my best so that nobody would realise! Well, since you already seem to know, I should probably apologise for putting you in,” Aira admitted sheepishly. “But you and Kiryu-senpai really would make a great couple!”

Keito didn’t respond immediately, taking a long moment to gather his thoughts before uttering a question. “Is that what you think?”

“I mean, yeah,” Aira nodded. “You two really seem to trust and support each other well, and I’m sure that stage cohesion you show is all because you have great communication. Well, aside from what I think, it all depends on how you feel, right?”

Chapter Text

Alright, Keito had entertained the thought before, he’d admit it.

But being confronted by his own romantic reality like this was not what he had expected from this meeting. In all honesty, Shiratori Aira was the last person he thought he would ever be getting love advice from, but here he was.

He’d be a fool to deny the existence of his crush on Kuro at this point, but it wasn’t as if he had any idea what to do with it.

At this point, he might as well ask for some pointers. Considering how he stalked obtained information on pretty much everyone at ES, surely Aira would know about possible next steps, right?

“So, what do you suggest I do?”

Seeing a grin that could only be described as devious appear on Aira’s face, Keito once again regretted his decisions, as he so often did these days.

~~

So, here he was. Well dressed after having been sacrificed to the Pretty 5 by Aira for a makeover session (he had never expected the little group to be so oddly persuasive about trying something trendy yet perfectly suited to Keito’s tastes, and for the aforementioned outfit to actually suit him really well - though it wasn’t for free, he had to exchange some Sweet Ballet set exclusive news for it), Keito stood patiently inside ES’ hanging gardens.

He was about to confess his feelings -and his deepest secret- so he took a breath to calm himself.

Aira said that he would make sure nobody unwanted entered the little pavilion Keito was in, so he could rest assured that Ibara wouldn’t be getting any more blackmail material on him for the moment. He looked up from his perch on the bench as he saw someone approach, shooting up once he realised who it was.

“Hey, Danna,” Kuro greeted with a casual wave. “You called?”

“Yes, Kiryu. Thank you for coming so quickly,” Keito nodded. “I have something I need to tell you.”

“Out here?” Kuro glanced around, slightly confused by the choice of location. “Usually, you’d just tell me over the phone.”

And that was what Keito had been planning on doing, but Aira had seemed so distraught by the idea that Keito couldn’t bring himself to make the call. The blond kept going on about ‘the vibes being off’ and it being ‘a completely un-rabui scene’ that Keito had eventually given in and agreed to come out to the gardens.

But he had to admit, the place was quite picturesque, calming his nerves just a little.

“Well, I thought this might be better to say in person. Uh, so about what I promised to tell you before,” Keito started. Kuro looked at him expectantly, meeting his gaze. “The artist Mizukanome from Sweet Ballet is actually me.”

There was silence. It stretched on for so long that Keito genuinely considered faking his own death and starting a new identity in Australia, but he held out if only for the fact that he didn’t want to get eaten by a kangaroo. After about an eternity, Kuro finally responded, an amused chuckle shattering the veil of quiet that had spread through the area.

“Wait, that was it? I already knew that, I thought you had some other super important thing to hide.”

“You… already knew??”

“Danna, you think I’ve never seen your drawings before? The artstyle is the exact same, not to mention the pen name is only one letter off the one you usually use. Give me a little more credit, will ya?”

Keito’s life was over. He’d have to look into plane tickets as soon as he got back to his room. He wouldn’t even be safe from this shame in a major city, he’d have to go right to the outback and camp with the wombats.

To his surprise, Kuro just let out another entertained snort and put a hand on his shoulder, patting him gently.

“Relax, it’s not a big deal. I wasn’t sure why you were pretending it wasn’t you, but I thought it wasn’t anything important. Drawing fanart of the others is a bit weird, but it’s not like it’s illegal or anything. I’m sure you had your reasons. Gotta admit though, the image of you seriously pondering what sort of cutesy pose to put Sakuma and Hakaze in sure is a funny sight. What was the word? Gap-moe? It’s kinda cute, y’know. Right then, now we’ve got that sorted, should we get something to eat?”

Kuro moved to turn away, only for Keito to reach out and grab his arm to prevent him from leaving.

“Kiryu… one more thing.”

Say it, come on Keito, just say it. He had spent an entire tutoring session with Aira, as the tutee for once, just to say one line.

“I think I have romantic feelings for you.”

The world seemed to freeze, and Kuro completely stopped moving for a second, before taking a step back and lifting a hand to cover one of his rapidly reddening ears. He took a breath, glancing around as if to check whether what had just happened was indeed real, before opening his mouth to speak.

“So, you said it first, huh?” Kuro admitted. “I mean, I guess what I should say is… I do too,” he breathed, still looking unsure that he wasn’t actually in some strange dream. “I was planning on saying it, but it looks like you beat me to the punch,” he laughed, slowly recovering from the shock he had just received.

Keito watched the reaction, a fond smile painted on his face. A picturesque scene, the buzz of electric emotions in the air, he found that he was feeling like he was on top of the world at that point. “So, now what?” Kuro asked, the two of them trying to make eye contact without being completely flustered by the action.

“Now you kiss!” A voice squeaked from the bushes, and a starstruck Aira popped his head out, looking like he had just witnessed the scene of the century.

He seemed more excited by the current situation than the two it actually related to, and Keito felt an irk of confusion mixed with annoyance. He had totally forgotten that Aira was around shooing people away from the area, but he didn’t think the blond would be watching them. Immediately getting the foreboding feeling that his heartfelt confession would soon grace the pages of one of Raburabu’s works, he stomped over to the younger idol, plucking him out of his hiding spot.

“Sorry, Kiryu. Let me deal with this one before I get back to you.”

Chapter Text

“Alright, I’ve done my part, now it’s your turn,” Keito said casually, as if he was just asking Aira to pick up some milk from the shops. The smaller boy retreated further into his seat, as if he would somehow magically turn invisible that way and Keito would stop pestering him.

Because how was he supposed to do his part now? There was no way!! Now that Keito had successfully gotten together with Kuro, Aira had to reveal himself to Hiiro as punishment for witnessing the confession scene.

He let out another dramatically long sigh, before looking up at Keito with a pleading expression as if that would let him off the hook. Keito simply stared back, adjusting his glasses.

Okay, nope, that wasn’t working.

Next was to calculate the chances of escaping the room without being caught.

…The consequences of that one seemed a bit too dire, and Aira really didn’t want to catch up on the 3 weeks of homework he had been neglecting under Keito’s watchful eye.

So outing himself to Hiiro it was.

“Fine, I’ll do it!” Aira declared, standing up in determination.

“Excellent, I’ll call Amagi here now,” Keito responded without missing a beat, reaching for his phone.

“NO!” Aira cried, diving onto the table to snatch the device away before Keito could reach it. “Not here, I need some time to prepare.”

Yes, this was a once in a lifetime event. He needed to plan everything down to the last second. He made Keito’s confession go off without a hitch, so surely he would be able to do the same for his own.

First destination, the Pretty 5!

Aira’s skin was glowing, and his outfit was guaranteed max cuteness thanks to the magic touches of ES’ favourite fashionistas. Arashi had even called Izumi (who had arrived in the country recently with Leo for a Knights job) over, and Aira almost fainted over getting to bask in the aura of Knights. He hoped that he had managed to absorb some of their effortless coolness with the time he had spent with them, but he didn’t worry too much about it in the end. The power of idols really was scary sometimes, because honestly, Aira might go out with himself with how rabui he was looking today.

He skipped off to his destination, a knot of excitement and nervousness sitting tight in his stomach. Giving himself a mental pep talk along the way, he remembered that even Keito the demon tutor had wished him good luck so he definitely couldn’t fail.

Hiiro’s expression morphed into a bright grin as he saw his best friend approach.

“Aira! I’m glad to see you.”

“Hey, Hiro-kun,” Aira said, with all the smoothness he had learnt from Knights. Hiiro tilted his head, looking slightly confused.

“Why are you standing like that?”

“Like what?”

“Like you’re leaning on some invisible pole,” Hiiro said. Aira immediately straightened up, flushing with embarrassment. Dammit, when Knights did it, people swooned. Maybe he just wasn’t suited for 𝒸𝒽𝒾𝓋𝒶𝓁𝓇𝓎.

“Anyway, let’s get going!” Aira declared, storing what had happened seconds ago into the deepest crevices of his memory for it to inevitably pop up at 3am when he was trying to sleep.

“By the way, you’re looking different today. Did you get some new makeup?” Hiiro asked, leaning closer. Aira held his breath, trying not to blush as he nodded.

“U-uhm, yeah! I thought I might change things up today.”

“Umu, it’s cute. It looks good on you,” Hiiro smiled, turning to look ahead as he absentmindedly placed his hand into Aira’s so the two of them wouldn’t get lost.

Don’t get distracted, Aira! You’ve got this.

Is what he told himself. He had gone through most of what he had planned for the day, but he was still no closer to pushing the crucial line out of his mouth. The sun was setting, and Hiiro had suggested taking a little break down by the river that split ES island from the rest of the city. The view was nice, the orange glow of twilight sun casting a glow over the buildings they called home.

Something came over Aira. He didn’t know what, but he sensed in his heart that if he was ever going to confess, he’d rather do it in that current Kdrama like scenery.

“Hiro-kun.”

Hiiro turned, looking at Aira inquisitively. Forcing down the nerves, Aira continued.

“Uhm, so. So… so I like you, Hiro-kun.”

“I like you too, Aira!” Hiiro answered cheerfully.

“No, not like that! I mean, I like you as a friend, yeah, but this is different. I like you in a romance kinda way, y’know?”

Hiiro took a moment to process what had just happened, but as soon as the gears clicked into place in his mind, he jumped up, hugging Aira tightly.

“You do?! I love you too, Aira!” He laughed happily, “that’s great, now we can get married!”

“What?!! Hiro-kun, we aren’t getting married!” Aira squealed, no longer able to hold down the blush that he had been suppressing for so long.

“Oh, you don’t want to marry me?”

“No! I mean, yes! Wait, this is too fast, I’m too young for marriage! How about we start with dating first?” Aira suggested, putting his emotions together.

“Of course,” Hiiro nodded vehemently, “it’s fine as long as it’s with you, Aira!”

Someone save this poor little idol stan Shiratori Aira from spontaneously combusting on God’s unholy earth.

Once he had finally calmed down, Hiiro had gone to grab a drink for the two of them. The cool night breeze allowed Aira to gather his thoughts, and he pulled out his phone to let Keito know of his success.

Hang on, you confessed to him? All I said was to properly reveal your identity as Raburabu.

Wait, WHAT? That was the one thing he hadn’t done! Aira buried his head in his hands, just as the buzz of his phone alerted him to another text.

Well, what’s done is done. You can tell him about Raburabu later. Congratulations.

Letting out a little sigh of relief, Aira pocketed the device, looking up at the stars that were just starting to prick through the curtain of night, and the unitmate-turned-boyfriend that was practically running towards him.

Was it wrong to write fanfiction of your colleagues? Probably.

But when it ended with results like these, there really wasn’t much to regret.

Oh, aside from Ibara’s plan to put brainwashing waves into the Sweet Ballet broadcast to make everyone like ES songs so they could be the top music companies in the world, but that was a problem for another time.

Chapter Text

“One thing I am curious about,” Kuro started, prompting Keito to look over to him as he readjusted his position on the sofa. Akatsuki had gathered to watch the finale of Sweet Ballet together, and since there was still some time before the episode started, Souma had gone to grab some more snacks. Seeing Keito’s attention on him, Kuro continued. “Why exactly did you even start drawing fanart? Knowing you, it seems unlikely that you just felt like it one day.”
“Ah, about that,” Keito sighed, his story already having been formulated and practised hundreds of times in his head. “Well, we’ve been running low on unit funds recently.”

“Wait, that’s it?” Kuro asked incredulously. Keito raised an eyebrow.

“What do you mean, that’s it? Our unit has been having financial troubles for a while now.”

“Really? I asked Saegusa a long while ago, and he said that we were just about to reach our target budget for the next live. He didn’t tell you?”

Keito blinked slowly, registering what Kuro had just said.

Ibara, that little snake, had lied to him.

A scowl appeared on Keito's face as with the most Ibara-esque timing, he appeared on the TV screen, smiling and waving while standing on a podium. The news program that was playing had started explaining that president Saegusa’s inauguration was soon to happen, and for his first act as president, he was going to be making same-sex marriage legal. The news ended abruptly, and Keito heard the familiar opening of sweet ballet start playing as Souma burst through the doors, carrying something in his hands.

“Kiryu-dono, Hasumi-dono!” He exclaimed excitedly, plonking himself down onto the sofa and handing some beautifully adorned envelopes to his unitmates. Keito looked down at the paper, tracing over the floral designs as he reached to open it. 

You are cordially invited to the wedding of Sakuma Rei and Hakaze Kaoru , it read in neat, swirling letters.

Well.

He supposed there was one good(?) thing that came out of all of this.