zmzebra-writes

[zmzebra-writes]

WIP from a larger story I was writing analyzing how each member of Alkaloid interpret “love”.

I wrote Aira’s first thinking his lack of hard lore would make creating family ocs easier. Also i love him. His recent events, however, have made what I’ve written so wrong that I’d have to scrap most of the finished chapter anyways so here’s what I wrote like a year ago:

Follow Aira talk about love stories in his family and his own struggles to find love before high school. Gen with no ships (unless you want to count aira’s parents (mom x dad) and his grandparents (grandma x grandpa) as ships).

♡❤♡❤♡❤♡

Despite talking about it all the time, Aira didn’t really understand love. Sure there were things he knew he loved; his friends and idols, but the idea of all powerful love felt daunting. 

Aira was young when his grandparents passed, but he remembered visiting their house and watching how his grandmother quietly moved around the house taking care of her husband. His grandfather was a large man with a boisterous voice who loved telling stories. 

One of his favorites to tell was how he and his wife had met. It was love at first sight according to him. They had met eyes across the dance floor and right then and there he knew it was meant to be. He immediately rushed across the room to ask her to dance and with a shy smile, she agreed. They had danced all night, the brightest stars in the discotheque. They were from two different worlds: him a French exchange student and her an aspiring Japanese singer, and yet they were joined together through the universal language of dance and love. He decided right then and there as he listened to her laugh as they twirled that he would give up everything in the world just to hear that sound again.

Often at this point of the story, Aira’s grandfather would pull his wife away from whatever she was doing into his arms and begin singing as they swayed and she laughed. “You are still as beautiful as the day I first met you, mon amour.”

Aira always loved when his grandfather told love stories about him and his wife because that’s when his grandmother looked the happiest. Whenever Aira looked at his grandmother, she always had a sad look on her face. She looked so different from the photographs framed on the mantle. There was one photograph of her on stage in a sparkling dress looking vibrant and smiling as she sang to an audience.

Once Aira asked his grandmother about the photograph. She smiled as she explained that the photo was of her singing at her first concert. She had been so excited and nervous leading up to it, but her husband and friends gave her the confidence to get up on that stage and sing to the crowd. She was just one of many acts that night, but it felt to her that the crowd cheered for her the most as they called for an encore.

“What happened next? You became a famous singer, right?” Aira looked up at her with stars in his eyes.

His grandmother’s face fell a little.

“Mm, life isn’t as simple as that, Aira-chan,” she said, “I did a few more concerts and did many more gigs at various bars, but I couldn’t really get my foot in the door. Then I had your mother and got married, and there wasn’t really any time to be a singer anymore.”

“So you just gave up?”

“Life is full of sacrifices and unexpected things, Aira-chan. Some choices will stop you from following your original dreams and replace them with different ones. And sometimes you can’t fight destiny, even if it’s not the destiny you wanted. I left home to become a singer instead of a housewife with some man my father wanted me to marry, and yet I still found myself becoming one.”

Aira turned over his grandmother’s words in his head. “... Do you hate Grandpa because he kept you from following your dreams?”

His grandmother smiled as she knelt down and pulled Aira into her arms. “No, I still love him. Love is a complicated thing. I am sad and regret not following my original dream of becoming a singer, but I found new dreams. I now dream to have a happy life for my family and I. I love my husband, even when he gets on my nerves. He helped bring me out of my shell and gave me the strength to go on stage in the first place. I love my daughter and how she has found success and happiness where I couldn’t.”

She pressed a kiss to Aira’s head. “But most of all, I love you my little Aira-chan. My sweet darling grandchild, I want you to follow your dreams, but never discard your feelings to the side in search of reaching them. You may find along the way that the people supporting you will share your dreams and help you reach new ones you had never thought of before.”

To Aira, his grandparents experienced true love, but it was different than how it looked in the fairy tales. Aira could tell that they loved each other deeply, but it was a complicated love. A love where both sides had to give up something important to them for the other. His grandmother gave up her dreams and his grandfather gave up his home to stay with her. They were happy, but it wasn’t without sacrifices.

Aira watched his parents spend time together. They weren’t the type to talk about their love stories, but the few times they did, Aira listened with great interest. 

His parents met in college. They were in the same chemistry class (“Calculus class!” his mother would correct, “You are changing the details to make a joke!”) and sat next to each other, exchanging notes when the professor was being especially obtuse. After class they would get coffee and study together. They were in different majors, but both still enjoyed helping the other study for exams and check one another’s essays.

His mother was the most beautiful person on campus (“You liar, you were the ones with the looks between us,” she corrected again, “All the girls on campus kept trying to ask you out, despite your rejections.”) and so his father was constantly working hard to fight off her suitors in droves before he could work up the nerve to confess.

“It was so sweet, his confession,” his mother reminisced, “He invited me to get crepes after finals and confessed with a little love letter and everything like we were school children. It was cute.”

His father always blushed at that. “Well it’s not easy to say everything in my confession with a drop dead gorgeous woman in front of me. It’s a miracle I learned anything in that class with your smoking hot mother sitting next to me.”

“Based on your test scores, I don’t think you did.”

“And who’s fault is that for distracting me?” He saddled up close to his wife and pulled her close to kiss her silly. 

“Your own!” she cried between pearls of laughter, “Stop that!”

Aira would usually stick his tongue out and say “ew!”, but his father would just laugh it off. 

“One day you’ll find someone who you will love and who will love you just as much in return and you’ll understand this feeling, Aira,” his father said, “Someone who will make you feel butterflies with only a look, but also calms you down at the same time just by being in the same room. Love is full of extremes and feelings pulling you in opposite directions, but that’s the fun of it. Love is an experience.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, Dad! Now stop being so close to Mom! You’re too close! That’s not allowed!”

“Too close? I think I can get closer before the modesty police come barreling through our door. What do you think, dear?” He leaned in closer to plant another kiss on her lips.

“Nooo!!!” screamed Aira as he covered his eyes.

Parents kissing was incredibly gross to their children, but even Aira couldn’t doubt the fact his parents loved each other. His parents weren’t the type to hold back from showing physical displays of affection whether to each other or to their son. Even when Aira started to drift away from his parents as he got older, his father would still ruffle his hair and his mother would give him a kiss from time to time. To Aira, it felt like those displays of physical affection were the most distinctive cultural aspect in his home from his even more affectionate French grandfather. And despite his protests, they were comforting in a way. Aira could feel the lack of their presence as he seeked out his parents less and less.

Aira sometimes wondered if his father was right that he would one day find someone who would love because in school it felt like he was only born to be hated. Elementary school was brutal and full of bullies, but middle school somehow hurt more. Suddenly, his appearance was no longer a source of disgust from fellow children poking fun at whatever doesn’t fit the norm. Instead, it was seen as a hidden beauty. He felt like the ugly duckling who had just realized he was actually a beautiful swan.

The other students stopped bullying him directly for his looks and girls started to look at him with new eyes. He received his first love letter and, excited about the idea of someone loving him, Aira said yes right away. Popular and with a new girlfriend to boot, Aira felt like life was finally going perfectly.

But that didn’t change the fact he was still an ugly duckling in his heart. Soon after spending time with his classmates, Aira found himself being detested again, but this time for his inner soul. 

His mother had warned and comforted Aira about people making fun of his looks. How they were just picking on what they don’t understand and how he shouldn’t take their words to heart since appearances weren’t what really mattered anyways. Anyone who really cared would judge a person based on their personality instead of their looks.

So what was Aira to do when it was his personality getting targeted? He thought he had finally made some friends for the first time, but they all threw him away as soon as they saw the Real Him. Aira always hated how people made assumptions about him. How they assumed he knew French or was less Japanese than the rest of them. If they knew the Real Him, they wouldn’t say things like that. But now people have found out about the Real Him, and they still hate him. 

Rumors that the French student was a weird idol freak spread quickly amongst the student body. Aira worried that the bullying would start up again, but it stayed quiet. His growing popularity was killed in its infancy, but people still didn’t directly target him anymore. Sure, he got passing remarks or painful comments dropped by others whether on purpose or not, but no one was seeking him out to torment him anymore. He became something less than hated– ignored. Something he would have begged to be a second years ago, but still stung nonetheless. His true self was so pathetic, he didn’t even deserve the attention that came from being hated.

“I must not be worthy of love then,” thought Aira to himself.

He found his only solace in his online friend, but even with them, Aira wondered if they would still like him if they knew him in real life. Aira thought hard about how it would ever be possible for someone to love a freak like him. 

He was watching one of his favorite idol’s livestreams when it hit him: If he became an idol, Aira could prove himself worthy of others’ love. He could bring a smile to people’s faces and be loved by tons of fans. He could succeed where his grandmother failed and become a singer like she dreamed of. And since no one would ever fall in love at first sight with him, he wouldn’t even need to worry about his dreams needing to change.

[zmzebra-writes]

ES Rare Pair Week 2024 Day 1: AU

Title: Late Night Conversations Relationships: Hiiro Amagi/Kohaku Oukawa Summary: Kohaku is out for a late night walk when he runs into Hiiro also unable to sleep on a hot summer night before MDM. They talk about their shared responsibility to their families and their new friends.

Age Shuffle AU Alkakurei is all shuffled up age wise and everyone else is 1 year older aka music era main story takes place a year later in canon. Kohaku is 20 and Hiiro is 19. More information on the AU here.

Kohaku wasn’t sure what he was expecting lurking around at night. Maybe an answer to his troubles. Maybe a reason to stay. After being an idol for the past three years, Kohaku was wondering if it was all worth it. Sure, being free of his prison at home was nice, but did he really deserve this freedom? 

Tsukasa had offered Kohaku a place in Knights, but Kohaku didn’t want that. He had spent his idol life as a solo unit and he wasn’t looking to drag Tsukasa down for his sake. Kohaku was wary enough of Ibara’s plan to use Crazy:B as attack dogs on the rest of ES. Tsukasa couldn’t be involved with the underworld that tainted his very blood. Kohaku knew from the very beginning that the light was never meant for people like him. 

He just had to wait for the climax. This summer would be the final act in the performance of the idol, Kohaku Oukawa. Afterwards, no one would ever consider him to be worthy of freedom. It would be for the best. Come autumn, Kohaku would return to the shadows and take his rightful place as an assassin for the main family. It would be what he deserved after all the trouble he had caused for everyone. 

He turned a corner in the courtyard when he sensed a powerful presence nearby. Kohaku turned quickly towards the source. “Who’s—”

There in a tree sat a young man with curly red hair not unlike another idol Kohaku knew. “Hiiro-han, what are you doing?”

Hiiro looked down at Kohaku from his branch. “Sitting. What are you doing out here?”

Kohaku glanced away. “Enjoying the evening breeze, that’s all.”

Hiiro smiled with a tilt of his head. “... I’m going to miss these conversations with you when this summer is over, Oukawa-senpai.”

Kohaku refocused on Hiiro. “How did— I mean, what makes you say that?”

“After MDM, I plan to return to the village,” explained Hiiro, “My brother is happy and safe here. That’s all I needed to know.”

“That’s right,” said Kohaku, “Your brother mentioned you were in line to be the monarch.”

Hiiro nodded. “It is my duty to lead our people and keep them safe. This includes my younger brother. I couldn’t let him disappear after saying all those things. I worried that he wasn’t in his right mind and left irrationally.”

After all the stories Kohaku heard of the village from Rinne, Kohaku felt like Hiiro was the more irrational of the brothers. 

“Now that I can rest easy knowing my brother has found people to take care of him when I am not there, I must return to my fate.”

Fate. A word Kohaku knew intimately. “If you already know that your brother is safe, why stay? I’m sure the people counting on you would prefer you come home sooner rather than later. What keeps you here?”

Hiiro paused for a moment to think before speaking. “The little ones. Mayoi-kun and Tatsumi-kun. They are relying on me to lead them and save them from being fired.”

“Not Shiratori-han?” teased Kohaku, “He always seems to be close by when I see you around ES.”

“I don’t think it would matter much to Aira if I stayed or left,” said Hiiro, “I was trying to destroy the things he cherishes the most, afterall. The least I can do is protect what I can before returning home.”

With the way he looks at you, I doubt that’s the truth, thought Kohaku.

“What about you?” continued Hiiro, “Will you also be leaving after MDM?”

Kohaku was startled. “Huh?! What gave you that idea?”

“You appear detached from all of us, like you are holding us at arm's length,” said Hiiro, “You also jumped at the implication that I thought you were leaving earlier.”

“W-well, so what? You have nothing to do with me. None of you guys do.” He was not about to let some stranger guilt trip him.

“You’re right.”

“Huh?” Kohaku was expecting a lecture like everyone else in his life.

Hiiro shuffled his position on the tree branch. “I’m not going to judge you for leaving when I plan to do the same. I’m sure you have something important taking you away from here.”

Kohaku thought back home. The cold walls of his room. A gilded cage. He wondered if he would be allowed to do proper missions now that he was older or if they would use this opportunity to hide him away again. “... Yeah. Important.”

Hiiro nodded. “Exactly. We all have our place in the world and people we must return to. We can only run free for so long.

Something about Hiiro’s honest words stirred something in Kohaku. Something he couldn’t name. Something not quite sad, but… not satisfied either.

Hiiro looked away to stare at the sky. “I still have not become used to the lack of stars in the city. Back home, I could tell the time just by the position of the moon to the horizon. Now the buildings hide their path from sight.”

Back home, I could rarely leave to see them at all, thought Kohaku.

“... And yet there is something exciting about it, don’t you agree, Oukawa-senpai?”

Kohaku blinked. He wasn’t expecting that follow up.

“I’d never left the village before this year. It took me months to track down where my brother had ended up,” shared Hiiro, “It was not all pleasant, and at times I wondered if the city had swallowed up my little brother as it threatened to eat me. But I... We both pulled through.”

Hiiro smiled. “Every day is so exciting in the city, a part of me doesn’t want to leave all these people I’ve met behind. You understand, don’t you?”

Kohaku closed his eyes and held back his tongue. To say the truth would be a step too far. He had already walked too close to the edge to chicken out now.

“Hmmm, are you sure you want to leave, Hiiro-han?” Kohaku turned the question back with a twisted smile, “You’re sounding pretty sentimental to me.”

“It’s not a matter of want.” 

And didn’t Kohaku know it. Rinne hadn’t lied about his unfeeling older brother, but Kohaku was starting to think perhaps his younger unit member didn’t have the whole picture. 

“The monarch was born to lead, and lead I must.”

A feeling of a shared burden burned inside Kohaku. Someone who could understand his feelings. Perhaps he would never find someone else to share his feelings with, but still…

“Make sure to stop and say goodbye before leaving, alright?” said Kohaku with a wave, “I don’t want to have to track you down in your village to wrap things up.”

Hiiro nodded. “Umu. I’ll remember to find you before I leave. Will we be able to speak again?”

Kohaku smiled. “Maybe if the hidden moon aligns just right. Good night, Hiiro-han.”

“Good night, Oukawa-senpai.”

For the first time in a long time, Kohaku felt peaceful as he crawled back through the window into his empty dorm room. His heart was racing with conflicting emotions, but for some reason, Kohaku felt like things would be okay. He wondered if Hiiro had something to do with it. He would have to seek out the older Amagi again tomorrow evening in hopes of speaking again.

[zmzebra-writes]

Alkakurei age shuffle au thoughts...

Music era events have been pushed up a year to give alkakurei characters more time to settle into their new positions (give suddenly younger characters a chance to have pivotal pre-story moments). Also some parts have been given more thoughts than others since this was originally made to focus more on some characters over others.

Alkaloid

Hiiro: (19-20) Rinne's older brother and the next in line to be the village monarch. Ever since his younger brother ran away suddenly, he has been waiting for the perfect opportunity to find him. When his father fell ill a few months prior, Hiiro declared his first action as monarch was to rescue his brother from the city. He is determined to destroy anything in his way of his mission.

Aira: (18-19) Ex-idol, currently a producer studying at Yumenosaki. He switched tracks during his third year and is staying an extra year to finish getting all the credits he needs to graduate. After a lack of work and basically getting fired from ES, Aira decided that maybe the stage wasn't for him. With the advice of Anzu, Aira steeled himself to instead support his favorite idols from the sidelines and become the greatest producer.

Tatsumi: (16-17) Skipped a few years and entered high school early after proving his skills as an idol Kanna-style. He is a year ahead of Jun and Kaname so Obbligato still occurs as originally described to avoid disturbing the other mainline characters. Despite returning to idol activities, he is avoiding returning to school for reasons he will not elaborate on. Other idols tend to treat him as older than his years even if he is still younger than them.

Mayoi: (15-16) After he was found living in the walls, Mayoi was enrolled at Yumenosaki as an idol. This is his first year being a proper idol, though he has spent many years observing them and helping them from the shadows.

Crazy:B

Kohaku: (20-21) Started working as a solo idol three years prior to shadow Tsukasa. When Tsukasa discovered his cousin was working as an idol a year later, he offered him a place in Knights which Kohaku declined for a long list of reasons. Tsukasa keeps this offer open, however. Kohaku was never a popular idol (being popular was never his goal), but his popularity has been waning in the past year like the other solo units. He's considering this a sign that his time in the light is running out and is making plans to go out with a bang so his nosy cousin won't try any last minute moves.

Niki: (17-18) Currently not an idol because he has worked so hard to stay in school and dang it, he is getting his diploma no matter what Rinne tries to pull. In his free time, he works at Cafe Cinnamon and the ES cafeteria to earn more money to feed both himself and Rinne.

Rinne: (15-16) Came to the city a year ago after snapping on the village and running away from home. He dreams of becoming an idol and has spent the past year working on making his debut to minor success. He hopes that Crazy:B will be his big break.

HiMERU: (???-???) Kaname would be turning 17 this year. Kaname lied about his age to get accepted into Reimei's middle school division earlier and thus enters Reimei in the same year as Jun. HiMERU, serial identity liar, didn't see an issue with this. HiMERU is currently working his best to act as HiMERU including pretending to be 17-18.

General Notes

Aira is assigned to produce Alkaloid and act as an Anzu proxy in Eichi's experiment to manufacture idols. He ends up dorming with the other three during the summer to make sure Hiiro doesn't do anything crazy and to help bond with the idols.

During the first summer, Alkaloid and Crazy:B only have three members each.

Kohaku is the only idol in Crazy:B who lives in the dorm since his apartment lease recently finished and he declined to renew it. Rinne lives at Niki's apartment and only goes to the dorm when it looks like food is running low and he doesn't want Niki sacrificing calories for his sake.

Kohaku plans to use Crazy:B as a way to self-destruct and force himself to go back underground without hurting the Suous or Oukawas. Admittedly, this not a well thought out plan until Rinne began sharing ideas for how Crazy:B could succeed and meet Cospro's impossible goals (through live crashing and lying). Over the summer, Kohaku unintentionally bonded with Rinne and HiMERU enough that he restructured Rinne's plans so that he could secretly take all of Crazy:B's sins and "die" with them, leaving his unitmates free to continue being idols. Rinne is unaware of this plan until the last minute ("you said we were all in this together!") since he never considered someone not wanting to be an idol and wanting to go back to their family.

Hiiro and Rinne have an unusual relationship due to their swapped positions in the village. Despite Hiiro's attempts to treat Rinne as his beloved younger brother, Rinne is observant and quick to understand his position in life. Nothing Hiiro could've done would have prevented the ticking time bomb inside of Rinne.

Not that Hiiro actively tried very hard. Hiiro can be a bit unobservant when he doesn’t want to see something and while he presents as a clever person (who aces all lessons), he still doesn’t want to see the worst in the village, and thus simply ignores how they say he should treat Rinne. So long as he doesn't actually treat his younger brother as disposable, then he won't feel that way, right? They can just live happily as brothers with Hiiro as the monarch and Rinne supporting him at his side. Or so Hiiro thought.

[zmzebra-writes]

ES Rare Pair Week 2024 Day 3: Wedding

Title: Marriage Fever Relationships: Mayoi Ayase/Tatsumi Kazehaya/Kaname Tojou Additional Tags: Future Fic, Post-Idol Career Summary: Three impulsive and impatient idiots go from dating to engaged to married all in one evening. Click here to see how!

Tatsumi always knew in his heart when he agreed to this that he would need to make compromises. His partners certainly were not short of compromises when it came to him. To this day, he was still surprised they agreed to this arrangement. He felt selfish being allowed to date his two favorite people, much less people he had already hurt so badly. Perhaps they would be better off if he left…

“Hah?!?? No way, Tatsumi!” Kaname had very loud thoughts regarding Tatsumi’s late night musings. He must have been talking out loud when preparing the tea in the kitchen. “We all agreed that all of us are important to each other and that we won’t leave because we think the other two will be better off without us!”

Tatsumi smiled at Kaname. His boyfriend was so sweet. “Yes, yes, I remember. I won’t leave you two. You and Mayoi don’t have to worry.”

Mayoi let out an “eep!” from behind the door frame, but still slinked into sight and into the kitchen next to Kaname’s side. Kaname didn’t look convinced. “You shouldn’t lie, Tatsumi. We promised to be honest about our feelings.”

Tatsumi’s smile became a bit more strained. “Ah… You know I don’t mean to lie to either of you, it’s just…”

“It’s just…?” Mayoi followed up.

Tatsumi’s smile finally fell into something more quiet. “... I visited my parents' church a few days ago. It had been years since we’ve talked, but they had taken an unusual interest in my life. Asking questions about if I had found a girlfriend and the like.”

“I remember that…” said Kaname.

“Did they say something about us?” asked Mayoi.

“Not in so many words,” answered Tatsumi, “I didn’t see much point in confirming what I already know. To them, I am still their strange son who has yet to properly follow the flock.”

“Then…?”

“... I got to see many of my old peers during my stay back home.” Tatsumi turned his eyes to the brewing teapot. “Everyone I met had already gotten married and many of them had started their own families.”

Tatsumi went quiet. Kaname pushed. “... And?”

“And I worry that I am the one holding us all back,” Tatsumi settled on saying, “I am the one who is so caught up in rules that I worry I am hurting you both with my choices. If it wasn’t for me, you two could face the world without a deadweight holding you down and keeping you from living as you like.”

Mayoi moved forward to comfort Tatsumi. “That could never be the case, Tatsumi. We are able to live happily because of your presence in our lives.”

Tatsumi smiled at Mayoi’s touch. Kaname wasn’t satisfied though. “Well what kind of rules? We’ve already gotten over the ‘being gay’ thing so is there another rule I’m missing or…? Your parents didn’t convince you that you’re actually straight, right?”

Tatsumi laughed. “No, I think I’ve reached the point that I don’t think even the Lord above could convince me to stop loving you two.”

Kaname felt more confident now knowing that this wasn’t going to end how his brother used to warn him. “Then what is it?”

Tatsumi glanced away as a blush dusted his face. “... It’s silly to admit.”

Mayoi grasped Tatsumi’s hand tightly to reassure him. “If it matters to Tatsumi, then we care as well.”

“Right!” Kaname agreed as he came over to grab Tatsumi’s other hand.

“Ah… Well if you are both going to insist…” Tatsumi felt warm as he shuffled between his two partners. “... I want us to get married.”

Mayoi and Kaname both turned red. “Married?!”

Tatsumi tried his best to hide his face in his shoulder. “It’s selfish, but while I was back home, I got to help officiate a wedding. The couple was so happy and the moment was so beautiful, but all I could think about was how much I wanted to stand there myself with you both at my sides. I just love you two so much, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you both, no matter what anyone else thinks.”

Tatsumi took a chance to look at his partners. “I’ve overstepped my bounds, haven’t I?”

Mayoi blinked to shake away his shock. “No not at all, Tatsumi! I am so honored that you would want to spend your life with someone like me.”

Tatsumi focused on Mayoi. “You think too lowly of yourself, Mayoi. I don’t want to marry someone like you, I want to marry you.”

Smoke spewed out of Mayoi’s ears as he combusted. Used to this and knowing it was usually a sign Tatsumi needed to step back and let Mayoi calm down, Tatsumi turned to Kaname who had yet to say a word. “What do you think, Kaname? I wouldn’t want to force you to do something you don’t want to.”

Kaname’s grip on Tatsumi’s hand tightened as his eyes began to water. 

“Kaname?!”

Kaname brought their entwined hands up to his eyes as he choked back his tears.

Mayoi snapped back to awareness as both he and Tatsumi began fussing over Kaname, asking him what was wrong and how they could help.

“It’s just…” started Kaname as he tried to speak through his tears, “A part of me never thought I would be able to get married. I’m just… so happy.”

All three of them smiled as they embraced each other. 

~~~

“So when should we get married?” asked Mayoi after they had spent a good portion of the evening being sweet to each other. “Do we need to get rings? I think we may have accidentally missed some steps. Will they still let us get married if we don’t have engagement rings?!” 

As Mayoi began doom-spiraling, Tatsumi began thinking more seriously about their plan to wed. Things couldn’t be this simple, could it? There were still the laws and the more important in-laws. Would they even be able to get married at all?

“Why not right now?” asked Kaname, cutting through the worries of both his fiances. “You’re a priest, aren’t you, Tatsumi? I really don’t want to wait to get married.”

Tatsumi smiled and kissed Kaname on the cheek. “You are so smart, my darling.”

Kaname blushed as he instinctively puffed up. “Of course I am! I am the brilliant Kaname Tojou after all.”

“Are you alright with doing this now, Mayoi?” Tatsumi lifted Mayoi’s hand as he looked at him. “We can wait if you want. Despite Kaname’s words, there is no rush.”

Kaname pouted. “Don’t act like you don’t want to get married right now too, Tatsumi.”

Tatsumi continued to look at Mayoi. “Regardless of my own feelings on the subject, you also get a say in what we do together. Neither of us would want to get married if you did not feel ready.”

Mayoi fidgeted under the attention. His emotions were in a twist, anxiety soaring through the roof, but Tatsumi’s grip kept him grounded. His old self never would have made it this far without his two partners helping him. He looked at Tatsumi and Kaname and knew that this was one thing he didn’t have to overthink. 

If they were together, they would make it through somehow.

“I do.” Mayoi said with a smile.

Tatsumi’s grin grew. 

“Don’t go skipping to the end, Mayoi!” said Kaname.

Tatsumi laughed and beckoned Kaname over. “I’ll get right to the good part for us.”

“Kaname Tojou and Mayoi Ayase, have you come here to enter marriage without coercion, freely, and wholeheartedly?”

They nodded. “I have.”

“As have I,” responded Tatsumi, “Are you prepared, as you follow the path of marriage, to love and honor each other for as long as you both shall live?”

“I am.”

“I am prepared as well. Since it is our intention to enter the covenant of Holy Matrimony, we shall join our hands to declare our consent to one another and God.” Tatsumi grabbed Mayoi and Kaname’s hands as they grabbed each other’s to complete the circle.

“I, Tatsumi, take you two, Mayoi and Kaname, to be my spouses. I pledge to honor, cherish, and love you as my partners today and forever. You two were the first people who saw me as the person I am and met me on equal footing. For that I will be eternally grateful.”

Kaname spoke next. “I, Kaname, take you two, Tatsumi and Mayoi, to be my spouses. I promise to love and defend you both through whatever life throws at us. I’ve spent most of my life working to prove myself to be seen, but I don’t have to worry about that with you guys. I love you two and I know you love me back unconditionally.”

Mayoi sensed it was his turn and spoke up. “I, Mayoi, take you two, Kaname and Tatsumi, to be my spouses. I am yours forever and always, as I swear to love you both until the end of time. I’ve spent the majority of childhood alone and afraid, but since meeting Tatsumi and getting to know Kaname and everyone else I am no longer lonely. You both help me come out of my shell and be a better person.”

With wet eyes and a smile, Tatsumi continued the blessings. “May the Lord in his kindness strengthen our vows we have declared to each other and graciously bring his blessings within us. What God has joined, let no one pull asunder.

“Now we may have no rings, but—”

“Wait!” interrupted Kaname, “Let me just…”

Kaname let go of his partners to remove three rings from his hands. “Rings!”

“Are you sure you are alright giving these to us, Kaname?” asked Mayoi, “Your rings are important to you.”

“It’s fine, I have like ten more in my jewelry box,” waved off Kaname, “This is more important.”

Kaname handed the rings to Tatsumi. “Will these work?”

“They are perfect, Kaname.” Tatsumi took the rings in his hands and began to pray. “Bless, O Lord, these rings, so that those who wear them with deep faith and love for one another.”

Tatsumi lifted and tilted Mayoi’s hand. “Mayoi Ayase, I give you this ring as a symbol of our never ending love and our vow to you.”

Mayoi blushed and blinked back tears as Tatsumi slid the ring onto his finger. He took the remaining two rings and turned to Kaname.

He lifted Kaname’s hand. “Kaname Tojou, I give you this ring as a symbol of our never ending love and our vow to you.”

Mayoi slid Kaname’s ring back onto his finger. Kaname didn’t bother blinking back tears as he’d already lost that battle. He took the final ring and turned to Tatsumi.

“Tatsumi Kazehaya… Tatsumi Kazehaya,” Kaname mumbled to himself as he lifted up Tatsumi’s hand, “Tatsumi Kazehaya, I give you this ring as a symbol of our never ending love and our vow to you.”

Kaname slid the ring onto Tatsumi’s finger as they both teared up. Mayoi grabbed their joined hands to share in the crying fest. 

Tatsumi tried his best to shakily get back on track. “Now, with God as our witness, I pronounce all of us spouses. You may now kiss!”

It was as if all of them had not seen the other in decades as they rushed to kiss and banged their heads together in the process. Tatsumi laughed as Kaname and Mayoi rubbed their heads before using the opportunity to kiss each of them on the cheek.

“Unfair! Sneaking in like that while we were recovering,” protested Kaname, “Mayoi, let’s show him what we think about that…”

Mayoi gave a slender smile and a nod before both of them attacked Tatsumi from either side with a kiss. “Don’t think we’ll let you get away that easily, Tatsumi,” he said.

“Oh, I think I can handle this punishment,” said Tatsumi with a grin, “Don’t feel any need to show mercy on my account.”

“Oh, you can bet there won’t be any mercy here,” said Kaname with the face of a cat who caught the canary, “Now that we’re married, you are never getting rid of us.”

Kaname shuffled up to Tatsumi, Mayoi following suit. “Never~!” he sang.

Tatsumi simply hugged his newly-dubbed spouses and laughed. “I wouldn’t change a thing.”

[zmzebra-writes]

ES Rare Pair Week 2024 Day 5: The Beach

Title: It's Called a Warrior's Bond Relationships: Hiiro Amagi/Tetora Nagumo Summary: Tetora and Hiiro fight more than each other before going to see the sunset at the beach. Sunset confessions silly style.

Neither Hiiro nor Tetora thought too much about their relationship. After school, they would go to Karate Club, and then go to ES because their clubmates got too scared. If they had an overlapping off-day, they would meet up and train together across the city. They had a bond of two warriors powered by their rivalry to improve.

That’s all it ever was. Which is why both of them were unsure what had everyone around them so confused.

Arashi liked to tease Tetora about his frequent outings with Hiiro. “So are you going with anyone special to the beach?”

“Nope! Just Hiiro-kun,” replied Tetora as he packed his bag with the necessities, “We plan to stay there until sunset. We’re going out for dinner after watching it.”

“Just the two of you?” Arashi gave a mischievous smile.

“Yep! Just us.”

Arashi sighed. “How romantic~.”

Tetora froze with a shake, bag half zipped. His face turned red. “It-it’s not a d-d-date, Narukami-senpai! It’s just, it’s just a training activity! For Karate Club!”

Arashi hummed. “Mhm. And tell me where the rest of the Karate Club will be during this?”

Tetora fiddled with his hands as he quietly spoke. “... They can’t keep up with us so they want us to do our intense training away from them.”

“Are you sure that’s the only reason you want to spend time with Hiiro-kun alone?” teased Arashi, “You two have spent an awfully large amount of time together recently?”

Steam flowed out of Tetora’s ears as he became more flustered. “We, we’ve just had a lot of shared free time lately! All a coincidence! Who knows when the next one is!”

“Is that really all it is?” Tetora was looking so cute, Arashi felt like pushing further.

Tetora opened and closed his mouth, but no real words came out. Embarrassed beyond words, Tetora grabbed his half-closed bag and ran out of the dorm.

‘Hmm. I wonder if I pushed Tetora-kun too hard…’ she thought to herself with a hand on her cheek.

Hiiro was not exempt from nosy friends either. 

“What do you mean you are already going out with someone else this Saturday?” asked Aira, “For the entire day, too?”

Hiiro nodded his head. “Umu. Bucchou had the day off from idol activities as well so we are going to train until sundown.”

Aira groaned in frustration. “Ughhh… It feels like every day off we’ve had lately, you go off to hang out with Nagumo-senpai. Don’t you see him enough at school?”

Hiiro shook his head. “Since Bucchou is in charge of the Karate Club, he has a responsibility to stay and look out for the younger members and thus we cannot fight as intensely as we like. The other members are frightened by our fighting.”

“Can’t you just fight using less deadly force?”

Hiiro shook his head again. “How can we improve if we don’t give our best in the fight?”

Aira gave Hiiro a flat look for a minute before sighing. “I suppose there’s nothing I can do then. Enjoy your date with your boyfriend or whatever.”

That last sentence made Hiiro jump. He had seen enough dramas with Aira to know what that meant… “Boyfriend?!”

Aira looked confused at Hiiro’s over the top reaction. “Huh?”

“What do you mean boyfriend? You don’t happen to mean ‘my friend who is a boy’, right? Or do you mean my l-love-l-lov…..” Hiiro broke down into incomprehensible stuttering.

Aira stifled a giggle at the sight. Hiiro seemed distressed enough it felt cruel to leave him there though, so Aira patted him on the back to reassure his friend. “It was a joke, Hiro-kun. I don’t actually think you’re dating Nagumo-senpai.”

Hiiro’s face stayed red. He pouted.

“You just keep hanging out with him so much that it’s like you’re dating,” explained Aira.

Hiiro looked at Aira with a raised eyebrow. “But we spend a lot of time together and you aren’t my boyfriend.”

It was now Aira’s turn to be flustered. “O-Obviously! We are friends and unitmates! Of course we spend a lot of time together!”

“But we’re not boyfriends.”

“That’s why I said it as a joke, Hiro-kun! A. Joke!” Aira felt it was unfair of Hiiro to turn his joke on him in this way.

Aira huffed. This is what he gets for trying to be nice. “I’m going to go hang out with Kohakucchi instead! He’ll appreciate me.”

Hiiro waved goodbye. “Have fun with your boyfriend!”

“He’s not my boyfriend!”

Despite the interference, both boys made it to the beach and had a fulfilling training session. Sand flew everywhere as they fought on the unusual terrain. A few people saw the sandstorm in the distance and decided to visit the beach tomorrow instead. 

Exhausted from a workout gone well, the two boys sat on the sand to admire the sunset as they drank their waters. 

“Nothing manlier than two guys watching the sunset after a fierce battle, right Hiiro-kun?”

“Umu!”

“And to think Narukami-senpai thought there was something weird about it.”

“Hmm?” Hiiro tilted his head.

Tetora realized his mistake. “Ah, I mean, um. It’s not that important!”

“It sounds like it bothered you,” said Hiiro, “Is your relationship with Narukami-senpai alright?”

Tetora sighed as he rubbed the back of his head. “It’s not really that serious. She was just teasing me about how often we spend time together.”

Hiiro nodded in understanding. “Aira did the same to me yesterday. He told me to have a nice time with my boyfriend.”

Something about the word had Tetora’s heart skipping a beat and his face felt warm once more. 

“Hmm? Did I say something wrong?”

“Ahh… it’s just that word is a bit embarrassing, isn’t it?” Tetora looked away from Hiiro’s face.

“Which word? Boyfriend?” 

Tetora let out a squeak. 

“... Boyfriend.”

“Stop it!”

Hiiro finally understood Aira’s joke. “My boyfriend, Tetora-kun.”

That last attack had Tetora turning red from head to foot. He fell back first into the sand as he covered his flushed face with his hands.

“Bucchou!”

Tetora fizzled out on the sand as Hiiro futzed over his side asking if he was okay. After a few moments, he was finally able to speak. “Words can hurt, Hiiro-kun.”

“I’m sorry, Bucchou, I hadn’t realized the word was so powerful.” Hiiro had actually, but like everyone else before him, found the reaction worth the attack.

Tetora scowled from the sand reading Hiiro’s mind. He knew Hiiro wasn’t as ignorant as he made himself out to be. “How would you like it if I turned it on you and called you my boyfriend, Hiiro-kun?”

Hiiro silently blushed bright red and fell from his knees to sit on the sand. 

“... I wouldn’t mind it,” he eventually mumbled in an attempt to prove the word had no power over him.

Tetora somehow flushed redder. “Huh?! You do know what a boyfriend is, right?”

Hiiro nodded slowly.

“A boyfriend is a person you go on dates with and hug and k-kiss and, and other lovey-dovey stuff!”

Both of them blushed deeper as Hiiro slowly nodded again making a strange expression.

“So!” Tetora felt out of breath for some reason despite having never moved from his spot. “What do you mean by that?!”

Hiiro glanced away as his lips formed a strange shape: not quite a smile, nor a frown as they fidgeted.

“Do you want to go on a date with me?!” asked Tetora, stressed out of his mind.

Through pursed lips, Hiiro quietly spoke. “...That sounds nice.”

It was as if a balloon had popped as Tetora felt all his stress flow out of him like air. “I guess you really are my boyfriend now, Hiiro.”

Hiiro felt warm at Tetora’s words. “And you’re mine, Tetora-kun.”

Tetora covered his face and resisted the urge to kick Hiiro for making him feel this way.

[zmzebra-writes]

i'm about to post so many out of order stories

[zmzebra-writes]

obbligato killed me but it did inspire a lot of tatsumi and kaname related stories so.... keep an eye out for them once i recover enough to edit/revise them for posting.

[zmzebra-writes]

Title: The Wrong Amagi Wedding Chapters: 3/? (start, previous) Genre: Comedy Summary: After being invited to their father's second marriage, Rinne and Hiiro find themselves having to temporarily return to the village. Not wanting their friends to be alone, the rest of Crazy:B and Alkaloid join them on their journey back, but these "city folks" might not be the only ones learning something new during this visit.

In this chapter.... The hike towards the village continues! Follow Alkakurei as they traverses the trees and rivers, meet old friends, and take their first steps into the village.

CW for vulgar jokes. Nothing cruel, just a tad dirty.

They were about half-way to the village when Rinne decided to stop for lunch. He had been pointing out edible plants for Niki to snack on, but everyone else wanted to eat a proper meal. It was around lunchtime anyways.

“On the other side of the river,” called out Rinne, “There’s a good space for us to have a picnic. Is everyone confident in their balancing abilities?”

Everyone made noises of agreement, but Aira and Mayoi looked unsure. 

“What do you mean by that, Rinne?” asked Aira.

Rinne held up two fingers. “If you don’t want to get wet, there are only two ways to cross the river to the village: balancing on an old fallen log or balancing on some high river rocks.”

Rinne gave a sly grin. “Unless you want me to test how far I can throw you, Aira-chan~...”

Aira squeaked and rapidly rejected the idea. 

“Kyahaha! Don’t worry, it’s not that bad,” reassured Rinne, “The water isn’t that deep or strong at this part of the river. If you’re nervous, you can walk on through.”

“Really?”

“Yeah! You’ll just freeze your nuts off instead!”

Aira’s face scrunched up. “...I think I’ll take the log.”

Rinne whistled and skipped ahead. “Rotting log it is!”

“Huh?? What do you mean rotting??”

Mayoi looked sick as he watched Aira chase after Rinne. “... I think I’ll just let the river take my balls.”

Tatsumi gave a look of concern. “But your balls are so lovely, Mayoi. It would be a loss for the world.”

“Tatsumi?!” shrieked Mayoi.

Tatsumi giggled. “Kidding~! Just a joke.”

“You are disgusting, Kazehaya,” said HiMERU as he pushed himself ahead of everyone.

“Aw, HiMERU, your balls are cute too~...” 

HiMERU turned around to murder Tatsumi for uttering such slander.

“Can we please stop talking about balls?!!” yelled Kohaku, thoroughly done with his seniors.

“Yeah! Don’t worry, Mayoi,” said Hiiro, aiming to be a beacon of comfort today, “You’ll still have your balls after crossing the river! It’s just cold.”

“Not helping, Hiiro!” There was no refuge for Kohaku.

“Hey are you guys done talking about your balls or are we going to cross this log?” yelled back Rinne, “Aira’s too much of a pussy to go first so Kohaku you need to get over here and hold his hand.”

“Brother, can’t I hold hands with Aira?” asked Hiiro.

“Nah, there’s only so much this old log can handle at a time, but you can go first and help them off the log.”

“On it!” Hiiro zoomed forward, crossing the log with light, deft steps. He leapt off, and started waving from the opposite bank.

“Come on, Aira! It’s perfectly safe!”

Aira still felt nervous, but Kohaku came up from behind and grabbed his hand. 

“Don’t worry, Love-han. I’ll be right behind and keep you from falling,” said Kohaku. 

Aira smiled.

“OK now chop chop, loverboys, get moving,” said Rinne, “We still have a lot more people to get through.”

Kohaku glared at Rinne, but let Aira lead him to the log bridge. Slowly, but surely, they made it to the other side where Hiiro helped them down.

Next was Niki, then HiMERU, and lastly Tatsumi, until only Rinne and Mayoi remained.

“Alright, Mayo-chan~, you’re up.”

Mayoi began to fidget. “... I really think I should just take the river.”

Rinne swooped down and lifted up Mayoi in a single, quick movement. Mayoi squeaked. 

“Come on, scaredy cat. If this ol’ log can hold up a fatass like Niki, it can hold up your flat ass. Unless you want to see if it can handle both our weights at once when I carry you across…”

Rinne held Mayoi so he was barely standing on the log before letting go. Mayoi quickly and gracefully crossed the log in one fell swoop. 

“Now that wasn’t so hard, was it?” Rinne followed behind on the log at a relaxed pace. 

Niki greeted him on the landing. “So lunchtime? You have the cooler, right?”

“Am I only a piece of meat to you, Niki?”

“Nyahaha, of course not, Rinne. You contain many different types of foods. Now open up!”

Rinne grumbled, but unzipped his bag. “A ‘please’ would be nice…”

He looked up at Kohaku. “Do you still have that messenger bag of snacks, Kohaku?”

Kohaku huffed at the obvious as the bag rested in front of him. 

“Are you an idiot, Rinne?” he said as he opened the bag, “Obviously I still have the— huh?”

Kohaku took off the bag and shook out a pile of trash. Only a few of them still contained food or drink. “Where did it… Niki!”

Niki carefully slinked out of sight. Kohaku dropped his luggage to increase his speed as he moved in for the kill. The rest of the group began setting up for lunch as Niki ran for his life.

A few minutes later, a sudden thud and shriek from Niki and Kohaku had Rinne dropping the sandwiches he was taking out of his bag and swiping his knife. Both Amagis hopped to action, running towards the sound of the shouts. 

Niki was sitting on the ground behind Kohaku who stood on the defense. In front of them stood a large beast in the shadows of the trees. Its massive flat face was only rivaled by the size of its soaring humpback. Smoke appeared to surround the beast, hiding its features as it breathed heavily. 

“Rinne, what is that thing?” asked Kohaku, unsure of whether his fists would be enough to take the monster down. 

“Stay still, Kohaku,” said Rinne as he creeped closer to the beast with a hand out to tell Hiiro to pause, “We don’t want to set it off.”

A low rumbling came from the beast as it scraped the ground with its wide hoof. 

“Easy, fella, easy,” said Rinne. He had a bet on what this mystery animal was, but he needed to take a risk to let everything end peacefully, “Don’t you recognize me?”

The beast huffed as more smoke billowed through the trees. Hiiro and Kohaku tensed up. Rinne was now only a foot away from the being. He held out a hand for it to sniff, his knife stored secretly in his back pocket. 

“I know it’s been years, but do you remember? The apple from that time.”

The beast stilled. The ever growing smoke began to thin to everyone’s relief. The beast moved into the light to press its face into Rinne’s outstretched hand.

Niki and Kohaku looked shocked at the sight of the now clearly visible strange creature. 

Hiiro’s eyes lit up in recognition and he tensed up to attack. “Volcano bison! You returned to destroy us!”

“Calm down, Hiiro,” replied Rinne as he patted Volcano Bison, “I’m friends with it. I think Volcano Bison was just curious.”

“Rinne, what the hell is that?” asked Kohaku with a slightly horrified look. The beast appeared to break several laws of existence with its large eyes and what appeared to be smoke coming from the peak on its back.

“It’s just Volcano Bison, Kohaku. It’s not that complicated.”

“It is Incredibly complicated, Rinne! Niki, back me up here.”

Kohaku turned to look at Niki who was ignoring the conversation in favor of observing the newly revealed creature. “Hmmm… I wonder how it would taste… Since it’s friends with Rinne, we probably won’t be allowed to eat it, but still…”

Kohaku’s face dropped for a moment until he recovered with a face palm. “Right. I don’t know what I expected.”

Rinne moved to the side to introduce his new friends to Volcano Bison. “That over there is Hiiro, my younger brother who I told you about. The pink shorty is Kohaku, and the guy on the ground is Niki, my wife.”

This caught Niki’s attention. “I’m not your wife, Rinne!”

“Can we not argue in front of my friends, Niki?”

Volcano Bison let out a low rumble (that Kohaku pretended he did not jump at) before appearing to bow its head. In a way. It didn’t particularly seem to have a visible neck or bendable knees which made it rather unsettling to watch.

“Any friend of my brother is a friend of mine,” said Hiiro with a smile.

“We were about to stop for lunch, if you would like to join us, Volcano Bison,” offered Rinne. He had packed a few apples for this exact possibility.

Volcano Bison smiled with its eyes and nodded.

“Follow us then!” 

Niki used Kohaku (against his will) to stand up, and together they watched the beast gallump after the two brothers. 

“Please tell me you think this is weird too, Niki,” begged Kohaku.

“Maybe a little, but this is a big world we live in Kohaku,” responded Niki before following after them.

Kohaku stared at their disappearing backs. He huffed. 

“HiMERU and Love-han wouldn’t treat me this way,” he said before walking back to the picnic site.

Thankfully for Kohaku, the rest of the group seemed correctly shocked by the beast joining them for lunch. The apple Rinne passed to it appeared to somehow be eaten in one gulp like a :3-faced toucan. Kohaku and Aira pretended they weren’t hiding behind HiMERU and Tatsumi as Volcano Bison stared directly at them. Mayoi also hid behind Tatsumi, but he didn’t try to hide it. It made for a very surreal picnic.

Later, as they were cleaning up, Rinne passed it another fruit before speaking quietly to it. “If anything happens in the village, I want you to cause a diversion and get as many of them out as fast as possible. I’ll call you if I need you.”

Volcano Bison nodded.

Rinne smiled and patted his old friend on the back. “Thanks.”

The Amagis waved goodbye as Volcano Bison disappeared back into the woods in a cloud of smoke. Kohaku, HiMERU, and Aira wondered if some of those road trips snacks had been laced with something.

The rest of the hike to the village was quiet until: “Oh be careful of the twine there,” warned Rinne as HiMERU paused his gait. On the ground was a thin piece of string tied across the path.

“Thank you for the warning, Amagi,” said HiMERU as he and the rest of the party carefully stepped over it.

“No problem,” waved off Rinne.

“What would have happened if the trap went off?” asked Aira.

“A bunch of arrows would get set off and kill MERUMERU instantly,” said Rinne as he glanced around the trees.

Aira went pale, but now was Hiiro’s time to shine: “That’s not true! That trap only lets the village know that someone is walking down the path towards us,” he explained.

Rinne booed him. “Why’d you have to ruin the joke so quickly, Hiiro? Let your little girlfriend hop around worried for a bit first.”

“But the arrow traps aren’t on this path, brother!” said Hiiro, “I don’t want to lie to Aira.”

Aira frowned, but Tatsumi patted him on the back in reassurance. “Don’t worry, Aira. If any arrows come towards you, I’ll protect you from the arrows with my life.”

“Tattsun?!” 

“HiMERU will help Kazehaya if the event occurs,” said HiMERU as he walked towards the front again.

Rinne hit HiMERU on the back. “That’s the spirit, MERUMERU. Glad to see you getting along with Tatsumi.”

HiMERU frowned as Tatsumi smiled.

Rinne looked up at a tree and smiled as his eye caught a glint of metal in the light. “Hey, Hiiro, do you want to do the honors in letting everyone know we’re here?”

Hiiro lit up as he rushed over to climb up a nearby tree and pull on a similar looking piece of string.

“Hey, Rinne?” asked Kohaku, “So what’s the difference between that trap and the one your brother is setting off?”

Rinne turned back to look at Kohaku. “Hm? The one Hiiro is setting off is the hidden village doorbell so that no one thinks a sneak attack is happening. That one MERU was going to set off is the stupid loser doorbell because only the ones not in the know or not paying attention set it off. I think Hiiro set it off once and no one let him live it down for a month.”

“I see,” replied Kohaku, thinking of his own family’s secrets.

Hiiro climbed back down the tree. “Hey guys, what are we talking about?”

Kohaku looked at Hiiro’s bright eyes and decided to spare him. “Oh we were just talking about the different traps on this path.”

“Yeah! We got a lot of them around here to do all sorts of things,” said Hiiro, “My brother is well versed in a lot of them since he set most of them off when we were kids.”

“Oh really?” said Kohaku with a cat’s grin. 

Rinne sped up his walking to race ahead. “Wow! Look at how close we are to the village. We should be hitting the village border any second—”

The more observant of the group spotted a blur racing towards them. “Rinne, look out!” called out Kohaku as he realized the attacker’s target. Rinne braced himself as he stood alone on the forest path, the rest of the group farther behind.

“I was wondering when you were going to show up,” said Rinne through gritted teeth.

The attacker dove for Rinne, starting a brief brawl as the two fought using moves Kohaku had never seen before. Kohaku and Hiiro raced towards Rinne, but they were too late, and soon Rinne was taken down by what appeared to be a large woman with short red hair in blue and tan clothing. 

“Hiiro,” she said flatly, and that was all the warning they got before she attacked once more.

This time, however, Kohaku was close enough to lend his aid. The two of them worked hard to down this strange opponent, but somehow Kohaku kept finding all his moves to kill swiftly disarmed. It was worse than fighting Madara, who had a tendency to enjoy preventing Kohaku from actually connecting any hits over fighting back. In the end, Kohaku and Hiiro found themselves both hanging upside down, one in each hand, as the woman wrangled the two teenagers at once.

The rest of the party caught up and stared in horror as they found themselves helpless against their surprise opponent. 

Aira looked at Hiiro’s serious eyes, but found himself confused by his friend’s smile.

Why was he…?

“Haha! You got me again, father!” laughed Hiiro as he swung himself in the woman’s grasp.

“FATHER?!?” yelled the rest of the party.

“You must be the friends Rinne spoke of,” the woman said, continuing to hold Kohaku and Hiiro by their ankles, “He spoke very highly of all of you.”

A distant voice called out ahead from where the woman came from. “Leader! Leader!” an out of breath voice cried out, “You are supposed to be resting!”

Rinne groaned from where he lay on the ground. “Even while sick, you are still causing trouble, old man,” he grumbled to himself.

Rinne sat up and leveled his father with a flat stare as the villager came closer to them. “Can you put down Kohaku and Hiiro, father? Kohaku’s hair is going to turn red from all his blood rushing down and you’ll confuse him for another Amagi.”

The elder Amagi let go of her opponents. Hiiro tumbled down quietly while Kohaku yelped before both landed softly, used to breaking their falls. Aira rushed forward to their sides and grabbed their wrists. He dragged them both back to stand behind Tatsumi. Kohaku glared while Hiiro smiled. His father cocked her head at the sight, but paid them little mind.

“Hey,” called out Rinne, pulling her attention back to him, “Aren’t duel greetings reserved for martial arts students?”

“You will always be my student, and there will always be more to learn. I needed to see if your skills have rusted in your absence,” she stated.

“Just admit you wanted to take a swing at me and Hiiro after all this time,” said Rinne as he glared upwards at his father.

She pointedly looked away from Rinne towards the oncoming aide. The woman huffed as she bent her head forward in deference. “Sir, I apologize for cutting your reunion short with your sons, but you must spend more time saving your strength for the wedding.”

“It is traditional for the monarch to greet guests to the village before they arrive, Ayasato,” she said.

“It is traditional with a team of bodyguards present, sir,” the aide emphasized, “We had a welcoming team prepared to meet them in your absence led by your wife to be.”

“I deemed them unnecessary. As the only main branch Amagi remaining in the village, I deemed it necessary for myself to be the one to greet these outsiders.”

Ayasato’s face remained blank to avoid showing her true feelings on the matter, but Rinne frowned at his father’s intentional dig.

“Now are we going to stand here all day or shall we return to the village?” their father asked, “We’ve prepared a big dinner for you all tonight, and we have much to explain to you about the rules during your stay here.”

Ayasato bowed. “Lead the way, sir.”

The senior Amagi began walking back towards the village. Ayasato leaned down and offered a hand to Rinne. “It’s good to have you back, sir.”

He ignored it and stood up on his own. “Keep the fake praise to yourself.”

Ayasato frowned, but nodded before she turned to the rest of the party. “Everyone, follow us and I will inform everyone of our basic rules as we walk to the village center.”

With no other path, but forward, the idols followed them deeper into the forest.

[zmzebra-writes]

Excited for new amagi village lore while also devastated that all my amagi village ocs will soon become defunct. rip the amagi step family ocs and amagi father. I’m going to write fast to see if I can at least get them to the village before the event starts (I’ve finished the volcano bison scenes and while I kind of want to write more… I think I’ll just add them in later)

[zmzebra-writes]

Title: The Wrong Amagi Wedding Chapters: 2/? (start, next) Genre: Comedy Summary: After being invited to their father's second marriage, Rinne and Hiiro find themselves having to temporarily return to the village. Not wanting their friends to be alone, the rest of Crazy:B and Alkaloid join them on their journey back, but these "city folks" might not be the only ones learning something new during this visit.

In this chapter.... On the road time! What's a story without the journey and what's a road trip without Tatsumi driving? No way things could go wrong before they even hit the village, right?

The day of the trip had arrived. To Rinne’s surprise, it was suspiciously easy for both units to request time off for all members. Ibara seemed frustrated as he waved Rinne away with an already signed leave form for Crazy:B and, according to Hiiro, Eichi appeared to be holding back a chuckle or two as he signed off on Alkaloid’s leave form.

In any case, planning for the trip had gone off without a hitch. Rinne originally planned to see if he could weasel his way into renting a company car for the trip until Hiiro mentioned Tatsumi had a car he could drive them in. The church had a van which could just squeeze in eight people plus luggage. Tatsumi even offered to take care of the driving as well. 

Rinne figured since it was Tatsumi’s car, it would be fair to let Tatsumi drive while Rinne took care of navigation from the passenger’s seat. Hiiro gave him a promising review saying that Tatsumi’s driving made him fall asleep. 

‘Must be a soothing driver,’ figured Rinne. It would fit his calm demeanor.

From there, it was only a matter of fitting everyone and their luggage inside the car. Rinne warned everyone to pack lightly, and thankfully even Aira had listened to his advice because the backseat Rinne and Tatsumi set up essentially in the trunk for the youngest members was a tight squeeze. Kohaku and Aira pulled faces as they crawled into the back with only minimal complaints. 

As Hiiro crawled in behind them, Rinne handed Kohaku a messenger bag. “I trust you to guard this with your life, Kohaku.”

Kohaku opened the bag and looked inside. Various snacks and drinks. “Huh?”

“Distribute these wisely,” said Rinne with the utmost seriousness before pushing the middle row of seats back into the upright position. 

The next row was a bit more tricky for personality reasons. No matter how Rinne puzzled over how to arrange the remaining three, someone would always be a little upset. Eventually, Rinne just gave up, and chose the option with the least casualties. 

HiMERU would sit behind the passenger seat (to minimize the amount of Kazehaya in his sight line and risk him going for the kill and taking out the driver). Mayoi would take the remaining window seat so as to minimize his discomfort with human contact. Lastly, Niki would take the middle seat, and hopefully his bony ass wouldn’t mind having to sit on the hump seat.

With everyone in their place, Rinne collapsed into the passenger’s seat. He sighed. It was hard having to be the responsible one for once, but this entire visit to the village was stressful enough that even the potential in-flight entertainment from purposefully arranging his unit mates into the worst possible seating arrangements didn’t excite him. 

Best was to just hope for a quiet few hours. More time to plan meeting his father face to face for the first time in years. Tatsumi should be fine navigating for the first half, and then Rinne would take over with specific navigation as they got closer to the checkpoint.

‘I’ll just lean back and relax until then,’ thought Rinne as he watched Tatsumi buckle into the driver’s seat. 

“Don’t forget seatbelts everyone!” called back Tatsumi as he flicked through his keys.

“Wait,” said Aira as both him and Mayoi became more panicked, “Tattsun is the driver?!”

“Hm? What’s wrong with Tatsumi driving, Love-han?” asked Kohaku, “It’s his car isn’t it?”

Rinne picked up on the chatter in the backseat and looked over. 

Tatsumi tapped his shoulder, redirecting Rinne’s attention. “Ah, Rinne? You need to buckle up before I start the car.”

“Sure, sure,” waved off Rinne as he buckled in. Might as well follow the rules of the careful preacher. “Safety first, right?”

Tatsumi smiled. “Safety first.”

Tatsumi turned the key and began backing out of the parking spot. 

“You don’t understand, Kohakucchi,” frantically said Aira as Mayoi began to cry, “Tatsumi is a lawless driver and no one is safe if he’s behind the wheel.”

“Huh? What do you mean—”

“Alright, everyone!” called out Tatsumi as he switched the car from reverse to drive, “Let’s get moving!”

“Noooooo!”

Rinne quickly found himself thankful Tatsumi insisted on him wearing his seatbelt since that was the only mercy Tatsumi had for them in this vehicle. Screams echoed in the car from the back seats. 

“Tatsumi!” called out Rinne.

“Hmm? Yes, Rinne?” responded Tatsumi as he sped up to make a yellow light across an intersection.

“Slow down! We are going to get pulled over!” In truth, the police were the least of Rinne’s worries. The law was more of an afternote when one’s life was flashing before their eyes.

“Don’t worry, Rinne,” said Tatsumi as he turned his head to look at Rinne. 

“Eyes on the road!” cried out Rinne in a panic as they ran a stop sign.

Tatsumi looked forward again in time to make a sharp turn down a narrow road. “I’m very familiar with all the routes in the surrounding area, and I know exactly where the cop cars hide. We won’t get caught while I’m here.”

“If we survive…” said Rinne miserably under his breath.

♠♡♢♣🐝♣♢♡♠

Eventually they reached a small town. Rinne had taken over driving when they stopped for gas with the claim that his navigational knowledge would make him the better driver in the final half. 

When Rinne moved to question his brother about what the hell was up with that misleading review, he found Hiiro passed out in the backseat. Whiplash, Aira had called it.

In any case, the only remaining danger was HiMERU reaching forward and strangling Tatsumi who sat in the passenger seat enjoying the sights. Which, in Rinne’s opinion, would be well deserved for shaving off the life spans of everyone in the car. Even Niki lost his appetite briefly on the ride.

Rinne sighed in relief as the sign for a small inn came into sight. They made it before a murder took place. Rinne parked the car in the sparse parking lot and turned around in his seat.

“Alright survivors! I hope you got a nice good rest because it's time to lace up your boots and get walking.”

Groans that sounded suspiciously like Aira came from the back seat. “Like I said in the group chat, our village is deep in the woods so we can’t take the car much farther. We will have to hike the rest of the way so file out, stretch, and grab your bags while I go check in with the innkeeper.”

Rinne walked into a small house shaped building. A middle aged woman with mid-length brown hair pushed back with a wide dark blue headband sat at a high table. “Hi! Checking in?” she asked.

“Yep! There should be a reservation under the name ‘Amagi’,” said Rinne as he glanced around the cozy room. It felt familiar…

“Amagi…? Oh right yes here you are,” she said after looking down at her binder full of spreadsheets, “Will you be needing the key to your room?”

Rinne gave a friendly grin. “Ahaha, thanks for the offer, but I’m good. My friends and I just needed a place to park our car before we go camping in the nearby woods.”

The woman looked Rinne up and down again. “... Are you familiar with these woods, sir?”

“... You could say that.”

“When do you plan to check out?” asked the woman with a serious look, “It’s good to let other people know when you plan to return before going on a hike.”

“It shouldn’t take longer than a week.” Rinne would see to that.

Her face relaxed into a comforting smile as she closed the binder. “I wish you luck on your trip, sir. Stay safe.”

‘I hope we stay safe, too,’ thought Rinne.

“Thank you, ma’am for letting us park here at a discount to your usual rate~,” said Rinne with a playful tone. Best to throw on the charm to stay on the innkeeper’s good side.

The woman chuckled. “It’s my pleasure. Not many people come to visit here, but it’s peaceful.”

“Have a nice day!” he called out as he left.

“You too!”

The door clicked behind him as Rinne returned to the car. Tatsumi appeared to have taken over the role of the leader as he distributed everyone’s bags and helped organize everyone.

‘That makes things simpler,’ thought Rinne. 

“Everyone ready to go? We have a long, mountainous hike ahead of us,” said Rinne as he walked over to get his bag.

Aira pulled a face at the idea of an exhausting, treacherous hike, but luckily, Hiiro noticed his good friend’s distress and had words of comfort. 

“Don’t worry Aira! My brother is just exaggerating. Only the main path goes through sheer cliff sides. The path I took uses nearby trees to avoid them!”

Aira became paler. “... Trees?”

Kohaku quickly swooped in for damage control. “Don’t worry, Love-han! I’m an expert at climbing trees and can carry you up and down the branches.”

Hiiro felt like his position as his unit’s defender was being threatened. “I can carry you too, Aira! I’ve climbed trees since I was a kid.”

“So have I!”

Rinne laughed at the sight. It was worth pulling their legs a bit. “Nah, no trees will need to be climbed… unless you want to Aira~.”

Aira frantically shook his head.

“I know these woods like the back of my hand,” continued Rinne, “Things might have changed while I was gone, but the route we’re taking should be relatively easy for you city folk.”

Rinne didn’t want to risk a medical emergency during what was already going to be a terrible week. He had already privately talked to Tatsumi before the trip to gauge if he would need any special treatment due to his bad leg. 

‘No need to worsen his condition,’ Rinne figured. To his surprise, Tatsumi brushed off most of his concerns, claiming his foot had already healed months ago. Rinne hoped for everyone’s sake, he was right. First aid was limited in the village.

The mouth of the path Rinne planned to take was close to the inn. From here on, it should be smooth sailing. Maybe they’d even run into an old friend when they broke for lunch.

[zmzebra-writes]

Title: The Wrong Amagi Wedding Chapters: 1/? (next) Genre: Comedy Summary: After being invited to their father's second marriage, Rinne and Hiiro find themselves having to temporarily return to the village. Not wanting their friends to be alone, the rest of Crazy:B and Alkaloid join them on their journey back, but these "city folks" might not be the only ones learning something new during this visit.

In this chapter.... Rinne receives a strange phone call from an unknown number during practice. The rest of Crazy:B find themselves wanting to stick their noses into his business.

It was practice as usual for Crazy:B. Meaning that everyone showed up late, talked for another ten minutes, and then began practice 30 minutes later than scheduled. They had just reached their Niki-sanctioned snack break when Kohaku noticed a buzzing noise coming from Rinne’s discarded jacket.

“Rinne, your phone is going off,” he said, as he leaned over to glance at the lit up screen.

“Who’s it from?” Rinne asked as he walked over, drying his hair with a small towel.

“Doesn’t say,” Kohaku looked down at the strange string of numbers, “The phone number looks real strange so it’s probably spam. See?” He lifted the phone to show the group.

Rinne stiffened at the sight, before giving an overexaggerated sigh and letting the towel drape over his neck. “That company really won’t stop calling to get us to take their job on HoldHands.”

He swiped the cell phone from Kohaku. “But as you know, being the leader means being responsible, so duty calls~,” Rinne said as he began walking out of the room to the hall, “You guys do what you want while I take this.”

The door clicked behind him.

“That was strange,” asked Kohaku, “I’m not just imagining things, right?”

“HiMERU agrees. Amagi is hiding something.” HiMERU put a hand to his chin as he contemplated the possibilities based on the evidence. “Perhaps he is hiding his phone calls with a dangerous loan shark who is threatening him to pay his debts before they turn to more gruesome methods.”

“Or maybe he’s hiding an affair with a mysterious lover!” postulated Kohaku. He looked over at Niki with pity, “Sorry, Niki.”

Niki, who had a granola bar in his mouth, bit down and began rapidly waving his hands as he made noises of denial. “No, no! What do you mean by sorry?! What Rinne does in his free time doesn’t matter to me. Besides, I don’t think it's either of those things.”

HiMERU switched his look of pity to one of curiosity. “Oh? Do elaborate, Shiina. Who do you think Amagi is talking to?”

Niki finished chewing his food while he hummed. “Well I don’t know the specifics, but the last time Rinne got all stressed like that over a random number was when his dad called him.”

“Rinne’s dad?!” exclaimed the others.

“That’s what I said when it happened,” said Niki, “We were just hanging out in the cafeteria kitchen after hours, since the one in the dorm was busy, when he got a call. He got all stiff when he picked up, and talked seriously with short answers. Afterwards, he told me it was his father looking for his input on village decisions, but it sounded like he wasn’t in the mood to talk about it then so I didn’t push.”

“Oh wow… Rinne’s father…” repeated Kohaku, “I forgot he was supposed to still be in contact with his family.”

“Cutting ties completely with family is tricky,” said HiMERU, “Family has a habit of finding you, wherever you are, and sneaking back into your life.”

Kohaku seemed saddened by these words but nodded. “That sounds about right.”

No one was quite sure how to move on from those dark words as they thought about their own families. 

Thankfully, the door to the practice room slammed open soon enough, revealing Rinne. “Man, the mood here looks heavy. Did all of you miss your beloved Rinne-kyun that much? Kyahaha! I’m flattered.”

HiMERU glared at Rinne, regretting feeling even a touch of empathy towards the man, but Kohaku remained curious. “Was that really your father you were talking to, Rinne?”

Rinne’s eyebrows raised. “Hahhh? And what gave you that idea? I told you, I was just talking to a company looking to hire us to promote them.”

“Rinne, be real. This isn’t one of your better lies,” said Kohaku with a flat look, “Besides, Niki told us you’ve been talking on the phone with your father lately, so is it true? Or is it something else?”

Rinne combed his hand through his hair and sighed. “As much as it pains me to say this, yes. And while normally I’d just say everything is as boring as it ever is, there is an actual issue this time.”

The rest of Crazy:B became tense. “What’s the issue?” asked Kohaku, nervous about what the answer would mean for all of them.

“It’s not that serious, you guys. Crazy:B will be fine,” said Rinne, “I just need to take a week or two off to go to the village for a bit.”

He looked directly over at Niki. “Oh, and you need to come with me.”

“What?! Why do I have to come with you?” asked Niki, “This isn’t another of your strange plans to get me to marry you, right? I live in Japan so the laws of your village don’t apply to me.”

“I wish this was a plan to get you to marry me, but no. We aren’t the ones getting married this time. My father is.”

“Your father is getting married? What happened to your mother?” asked Kohaku.

“Died when I was a kid from illness, I think,” said Rinne, raising a hand to his chin in thought, “Hiiro was still a baby at the time so I was only about four or so when it happened. For once my father decided to treat me like a normal kid and shield me from the details, so I don’t really know what killed my mother.”

“I’m sorry about that.”

Rinne plastered on a wide smile. “Nah, don’t be! You can’t really miss who you didn’t really know. It happened like a really long time ago so it doesn’t really bother me anymore.”

Niki made a face at Rinne, but decided it wasn’t worth investigating in front of Kohaku and HiMERU. Besides, more importantly…. 

“That still doesn’t explain why I have to go with you?” he said.

“Is it wrong for a man to bring his wife as his plus one to a wedding?”

“I’m not your wife!”

“I cannot believe you would divorce me right before I go to my own father’s wedding. What am I supposed to tell them?”

Before Niki could retort back and drag out this conversation longer, HiMERU cut their routine off. They did have to go back to practice eventually. “Amagi. Please elaborate on the details of your request.”

“You’re no fun, MERUMERU, but whatever,” said Rinne as he returned his phone to his pocket, “My father appears to have taken a strange curiosity in what is keeping me and Hiiro here in the city. Hence the request to bring guests with us. Just another strange end-of-life request. So I plan to bring my beautiful wife and Hiiro will probably bring his little girlfriend along as his guest.”

“You mean Love-han will also go to your village?” asked Kohaku. He didn’t know a lot about Rinne’s village, but the little he did know made him nervous for his best friend’s sake. If the villagers were anything like Hiiro and Rinne, Aira would be in trouble. Kohaku still remembered how shrill Aira’s voice became as he complained about what Hiiro was going to do with one of ANIMALS circle’s chickens.

“Based on how tightly wound both of them are around the other’s fingers, most likely.”

Kohaku couldn’t let his innocent friend who shrieked when he saw a bug go into the woods alone without protection. “Rinne, could I come along too?”

Rinne looked surprised for a moment. “You really want to come to my village, Kohaku? I doubt the cell phone coverage is very good out there.”

“Someone needs to be there to protect Love-han from you and your brother’s stupidity. ” huffed Kohaku. 

“Niki will be there too, you know?”

“.... Sorry Niki.”

Niki, who was still hungry and had moved on to eat a sandwich, looked up at the sound of his name, “Huh? Why ‘sorry Niki’ again? What’s going on?”

Rinne laughed. “Alright you got me there. How about you, MERU? Interested in learning about my mysterious backstory? We could make it a big bee family trip! Maybe the rest of Hiiro’s little group will want to come too and we could all enjoy a joint unit mission.”

On one hand, HiMERU was interested in learning about Rinne’s secrets. The older Amagi was secretive when it came to information about his past. On the other hand, the idea of going on a car trip with Rinne Amagi and The Tatsumi Kazehaya seemed like hell. So obviously HiMERU would have to—

“It could be nice to take a break for a bit,” said Kohaku, “It feels like we’ve only been getting together to work lately.”

“.... HiMERU will attend your father’s wedding. Should HiMERU bring a gift?” HiMERU could force himself to endure it.

“Nah, my father has a real hang up against ‘city’ things,” Rinne made air quotes with his hands, “I had to hide all the books I stole from the city up in a hole in a tree. Never bothered to look up there, but the birds certainly did.”

“Noted.”

“Well I’m going to go let Hiiro know he’s going to have to get some vacation days for him and his girlfriend,” said Rinne as he waved on his way to the door.

“Wait, Amagi. We still have practice—”

“Byeee~!”

♠♡♢♣🐝♣♢♡♠

To Rinne’s mild annoyance, Hiiro seemed excited to return to the village for their father’s wedding once Rinne reassured Hiiro that he would not order the village to attack him if he entered. Not that Rinne ever got a chance to share that scare tactic order with anyone other than his brother.

When Rinne mentioned that the rest of his unit would be joining them, Hiiro’s eyes widened as he began to fidget.

“If the rest of your unit mates want, father said they would be welcome to attend the wedding as our guests,” said Rinne, taking a guess at what his brother wanted to ask.

Hiiro’s eyes lit up as he smiled. Rinne internally sighed. 

“I’ll ask my unit if they want to join us right away!”

Rinne’s lip quirked upwards into an uneven grin. “Knowing your friends, I’m sure they’ll love to see where we came from.”

Hiiro began rapidly talking about all the things they could show everyone when they return, but Rinne’s mind drifted away. Despite the innocent appearance of the event, Rinne knew to stay on his guard. He’d learned the art of strategy from someone, after all. 

Alas, one can only run for so long. Rinne could see the risk he took by declining the invitation would not be worth the consequences. The best course of action would be to accept on his terms, and keep an eye on the villagers. No matter what, Rinne would put his life on the line to make sure his friends and Hiiro made it back to ES intact.

It probably wouldn’t come to that, but it was better to play it safe with the stakes so high. Rinne was not about to let Hiiro throw his future away because of a dirty trick.

[zmzebra-writes]

Title: Well if he won't become my wife, then I guess I'll have to man up and be the wife instead Chapters: 1/? Summary: Rinne and Hiiro talk about their relationships with others and Hiiro tries to give advice on Rinne’s relationship with Niki.

It was a warm summer day, but Rinne and Hiiro were prepared for that as they ate popsicles in the Sky Garden. It had been a while since they had been able to catch up with just the two of them. 

“Hey, brother?” asked Hiiro as he chomped on his popsicle.

“Yeah?” replied Rinne as he gnawed on the remaining stick.

“I’ve been wondering, but what’s your relationship with Shiina? You always talk like you’re married, but Shiina denies it. I can tell he cares about you, but it is very complicated to me.” Rinne raised his eyebrows. “Is it because of idol rules? Aira told me the ‘no relationships’ one is pretty strict, which is why I have to be careful in public.”

“How is the little girlfriend anyways, Hiiro? He treatin’ you well?” said Rinne.

“Brother… you’re dodging the question,” said Hiiro. Despite wanting to talk about his wonderful boyfriend, he wanted to know the truth about his brother’s relationship first. If his brother and Niki really were married, he should be calling Niki his brother as well.

“Haha, not going to let me get away this time, huh lil’ bro?”

“Brother… This is important.” 

“Mm I get it,” said Rinne, “I’ll keep it simple for you, but like Niki says, we aren’t actually married. I keep asking him, but he keeps turning me down. Always says something about the law or whatever.

“But that won’t stop me from trying,” remarked Rinne with determination.

“Because you love him?”

“Yes, but also because it feels like the best way to thank him for all the things he’s done for me. He took care of me when I first came to the city after leaving home, even when he was barely able to take care of himself. He’s a kind, incredible person, but I doubt he can see it,” explained Rinne.

“He can’t stop thinking he’s a burden, but if we were married and Niki was my wife, he wouldn’t worry about burdening me as it is the responsibility of the husband to take care of his spouse through thick and thin.”

Hiiro thought about this for a while as he took in his brother’s words and gnawed on his own popsicle stick. “Hmmm… Maybe Shiina just doesn’t want to be your wife?”

Rinne choked at his brother’s blunt words. “Ha! Yeah he does act like that, huh… so harsh little bro…”

Hiiro, seeing his words being misunderstood, waved his hands quickly. “That’s not what I meant! I mean, I did, but, um, how to explain this…”

Rinne waited patiently for his brother to sort out his words. He knew his brother didn’t mean any harm and he was curious where Hiiro was going with this. 

Eventually, it looked like Hiiro had found the right words to say. “When I first started dating Aira, I called him my girlfriend because I thought he would like it since he stopped denying it when you called him that. 

“But then, after telling Mayoi and Tatsumi that he was my girlfriend, Aira got really red and went off about how he wasn’t my girlfriend, but instead was my boyfriend. So it turned out he wanted to be the boyfriend, and I’m alright being the girlfriend if that means I get to be with him.”

Rinne took in his brother’s words. “That makes sense, though I never would have expected that from your little boyfriend. He looked like he would enjoy being a wife.”

“Umu! But I believe what Aira says, and I’ll stay with him forever, if he lets me.”

“So you’re saying that if I really love Niki, I should ask him to be my husband? And you would be okay with that?” Rinne looked seriously into Hiiro’s eyes, “It’s usually pretty important that us Amagis pass on the family name, and with you being Aira’s girlfriend, I’m the only one left to do it. Personally, I don’t really care too much about tradition, but I know the village is still important to you.”

“Umu! If it will let you be happy with Shiina, I think you should do it,” said Hiiro, “Love is more important than pride.”

Rinne still wasn’t completely sold. “Hmmm, I don’t know Hiiro…”

“It’s worth trying at least. Like Tatsumi told me when I wanted to confess to Aira, the worst thing that can happen is he says no,” comforted Hiiro.

“You’re right… Wait, did you just say you went to Tatsumi over me to ask for advice on asking out the little boyfriend?!” Rinne felt hurt and like his older brother privileges were being stolen out from under him.

“No offense brother, but you don’t seem very good at asking out people you like.”

“And Tatsumi is?” Rinne needed to defend himself by dragging his little brother’s unit mate into the mud with him, “I don’t see him with any dates!”

“Maybe, but it was that or Mayoi.”

“Ah, yeah. That makes sense.”

Hiiro nodded. “I didn’t want to put Mayoi on the spot.”

“Mm yeah that’s the only reason,” Rinne reoriented the conversation, “So you think I have a shot? And you are okay with the Amagi name dying with us?”

“Umu! You taught me to listen to my heart when it comes to important decisions and I believe that if this will let you be happy, it must be right.”

“Thanks, lil’ bro,” said Rinne as he ruffled Hiiro’s hair.

[zmzebra-writes]

Title: The Lake Summary: Sword fighting at the lake goes wrong for a local LARP group when the Lady of the Lake replaces a sword lost in her domain.

On the bank of the lake a group of young teenagers played with swords. Or foam swords at least. The LARP club for the local school had taken a field trip to the nearby lake for enrichment and “appreciation for nature’s beauty in the heart of Wales” as one of their club advisors had put it when explaining it to the school board. The school board just shrugged and approved it. Emrys Wyllt was an eccentric fellow, but as long as his co-advisor, Fay Morgans, was there, she would prevent any harm to the children.

“Hiya!” yelled out a 15-year-old boy as he brought down his sword on his opponent.

The opponent, a 15-year-old girl, parried his sword and went in for an attack while his sword was down. “Not so fast!”

“Faster even,” he said as he blocked her stab. He pushed back on the sword to make her stumble before going in for the final strike.

Unfortunately for him, the girl was faster— catching her balance, she dodged his attack and sliced him across the back. “But not fast enough.”

The boy groaned at the loss, before falling to his knees. “Ack. I’m dying. I’m dying,” He fell face forward onto the ground, “I’m dead.”

The girl rolled her eyes with a smile before poking his body with her foam sword. “Come on, get up.”

“I can’t. You’ve slain me.”

“Then roll over to the graveyard with everyone else I killed to wait for the end of the battle to be revived. I have more people to kill and Ms. Morgans will get mad at both of us if you end up tripping someone up or get trampled.”

The boy pouted as he stretched out his arms and began rolling to the graveyard. “Fine…”

Ms. Morgans spotted him rolling across the battlefield. “Cai! Stop rolling carelessly underfoot. Did your legs break? If not, get up and use them!”

Cai stopped mid-roll and sulkily got up. “Yes, Ms. Morgans…”

The girl laughed under her hand as she watched her friend get scolded when suddenly it was her own turn to be called out by the other club advisor, Mr. Wyllt. “Lady Rhiannon! If you’ve finished fighting Sir Cai, Sir Mortimer is ready to be your next opponent.”

Rhiannon looked over her opponent as she walked over to the battlefield. If her memory was correct, Mortimer was one of the youngest club members at 13 years old. At first glance, in his all black clothing that swallowed him up and his quiet yet kind demeanor, many of the older members tended to underestimate him. Rhiannon knew better though. She had been studying his battles with the other LARPers and underneath each strike, she recognized true skill formed from years of practice. Mortimer doesn’t struggle to win battles during fights, but he also doesn’t wipe out his opponent as she assumes he likely could. It’s almost as if he wants people to continue to underestimate him and let down their guard with him, was Rhiannon’s opinion of the boy.

She wouldn’t underestimate him, however. She hadn’t come this far to lose to an underclassman because of her own foolishness. She would beat him fair and square. 

Rhiannon stopped a few feet in front of Mortimer. Mr. Wyllt nodded at them with a reminder to “play fair and stay safe” before heading off to investigate a group of students who were getting a little too rowdy.

“Are you ready to begin?” asked Rhiannon.

“I’m ready,” said Mortimer as he got into the ready position.

Rhiannon followed his movements. “Then we start on three. Together-”

“3.”

“2.”

“1.”

“Go!” they shouted together as they both went in to make the first move. Their swords parried against each other before pushing back and leading to their next attacks. 

Rhiannon noticed Mortimer’s movements became more sure and targeted as he realized he would need to pull out all the stops to have a chance to defeat her. Parry, strike, block. Parry, strike, block. They traveled around the field looking for an opening on each other.

The duo appeared evenly matched until Cai yelled out at them from the graveyard. “Hey, Rhi! Morts! The lake!”

Rhiannon glanced over to spot the lake a few steps behind her. Mortimer took the split second opportunity to attempt a lunge, but Rhiannon was able to react fast enough to dodge to the left. She brought her blade down as he overcompensated and nearly fell into the lake, yet Mortimer was able to shift his weight to avoid slipping and parry away her blade in the same movement. 

Both faced each other on the edge of the lake where one wrong foot meant getting wet socks from stepping into the water. The attacks continued with equal fervor until suddenly the loud voice of Ms. Morgans struck them from across the field. “Rhiannon! Mortimer! Stop fighting so close to the edge of the lake!”

The pair were caught off guard which caused both their attacks to miss their targets. Mortimer’s foam blade ended striking Rhiannon’s hand as she was swinging in the direction of the lake, causing her sword to go flying into the water. 

“Shit!” she cursed in pain.

“Sorry, sorry,” said Mortimer instantly as he lowered his sword and got closer, “Is your hand okay?”

Rhiannon opened her eyes to look at her hand. “I think so? Probably just bruised.”

“Sorry again,” Mortimer said as he looked down at her red hand, “I didn’t think I’d actually hit you on that swing.”

“Happens to the best of us,” she said before looking over at the lake where she could see her sword begin to sink below the surface, “Now if only my sword was a bit closer in the water.”

“This is why I told everyone to stay away from the waters edge when fighting,” said Ms. Morgan as she walked over to the pair, “Imagine if one of you had fallen in instead. It’s a straight 3 meter drop down into the water at this point of the lake.”

“Sorry, Ms. Morgan,” the pair responded.

Ms. Morgan looked down at Rhiannon. “Rhiannon, I see that you’ve injured your hand. Let me see it to check the damage.”

“Okay,” said Rhiannon as she lifted her still stinging hand.

“Hmmm…” said Ms. Morgan as she ran her hand up and down Rhiannon’s, “No broken bones, no sprains.”

She released her hand. “You should be all alright now.”

“Thanks,” Rhiannon took back her hand. It didn’t sting anymore.

Ms. Morgan looked out to the lake where the sword had sunk. “I shall get Mr. Wyllt to see if he can scrounge you up another sword, otherwise you should ask your peers if you can borrow theirs. Perhaps Mortimer would be happy to lend you his own sword in return for striking your hand.”

“Yes. Thank you, Ms. Morgan.” 

She turned around to head over to Mr. Wyllt who seemed to be talking to a group of upperclassmen in the back. Mortimer and Rhiannon turned back to the lake. The foam sword had disappeared from the surface. Rhiannon crouched down to the water’s edge and brushed the surface, leaving ripples in her wake. 

“I’m so sorry for knocking your sword out of your hand. I know how much time it took you to make it,” said Mortimer as he crouched down too, “You can use my sword for the rest of the trip. And I’ll make you a new one when we return to school.”

“Thanks, Mortimer,” said Rhiannon as she looked down into the green lake, “But right now, all I want is my trusted sword back.”

All of a sudden, there appeared a glowing object growing larger underneath the surface of the lake. 

“Huh?” said Rhiannon as she and Mortimer began to lean forward to see. 

The glowing object got closer to the surface until a shining sword’s blade rose through it. Rhiannon and Mortimer leaned away to avoid getting stabbed.

The sword raised higher and higher revealing a detailed hilt with two mirrored chimeras and a gemstone embedded at the junction point. It also revealed a pale wet hand gripping the golden handle with a relaxed yet secure grip. Rhiannon and Mortimer watched in silence, unable to move from their spot.

Slowly the hand extended into an arm, then a head, then a face, then a body, until there was a whole woman standing on the water’s surface with a sword lifted into the air with her right arm and a fancy scabbard in her left. The woman had long flowing inky black hair, pale skin tinged purple, and wore an ancient looking ornamental gown. On her head was a golden braided crown. She looked over at the crowd of students who had all stopped what they were doing to look at what seemed to be a group hallucination.

“Hello,” she began, “I am the Lady of the Lake.”

Her voice was soft yet carried across the entire field.

“I’ve come to give the sword Caledfwlch to the next rightful ruler of the Britons.”

The Lady of the Lake looked down at Mortimer and Rhiannon. Mortimer moved to kneel on one leg and nudged Rhiannon to do the same. Lost, she followed. Might as well treat the fae with respect like her family always told her to do.

“Young Rhiannon, daughter of Gwynedd,” she began, “You contain the strength and valor of Arthur himself. You will be the one to lead your people through the upcoming storm. May the spirit of Arthur give you strength.”

She looked up to address the crowd. “May all their spirits give your knights strength.”

Unsure of what came next, Rhiannon looked up at the Lady of the Lake to see her slowly bring down the sword to first tap her right cheek with the flat of the sword and then her left cheek. “I dub thee Lady Rhiannon,” The Lady of the Lake returned the sword into its scabbard, “Put out your hands.”

Rhiannon raised them. “With this sword you shall cut down all your enemies in your path and with this scabbard you shall never bleed. Treasure them and use them more wisely than their previous owner did.”

The sword was placed in Rhiannon’s hands. “I will,” she said confidentantly, “You can trust me to do my best to lead.”

The Lady of the Lake smiled down at her. “I trust you.” 

She looked up again at the crowd. “I trust in your knights to support you as Arthur’s once did.”

Her eyes caught sight of someone as recognition flew into them. Her brow furrowed as the Lady of the Lake spit a stream of lake water at Mr. Wyllt who spluttered, but accepted the blow. Ms. Morgans sidestepped the nearby splashes of water as she rolled her eyes at her co-worker.

Satisfied, the Lady of the Lake smiled at the children who all watched her with wide eyes. “Good luck,” she said before sinking back into the water from whence she came.

The group sat in silence. No one knew how to break the atmosphere to begin to explain what had just happened to them. Rhiannon looked down at the scabbard in her hands. Mortimer leaned over to look as well. Together they admired the intricate stitching along the body leading to a shining hilt. 

The scene was eventually broken by Cai’s loud voice. “Mr. Wyllt! Does this mean Rhi’s the new president of the LARP club?”

Mr. Wyllt chuckled as he twisted the water out of his beard. “I think it means a bit more than that, Cai. But hey, look on the bright side, you don’t need to get a new sword now, Rhiannon.”

Despite how mind-blowing this all was, Rhiannon found herself wanting her foam sword instead. It appeared that the Lady of the Lake was not the greatest at getting items in the lost and found back to their rightful owners. The sword she made was probably still at the bottom of the lake. What a loss.

[zmzebra-writes]

Pinned posts feel like the new About page so I put the blog info below! Feel free to look or to keep exploring my writing blog!

This is a bit of a collection of things I've been writing lately and want to share. These range from excerpts to outlines to complete stories and everything in between.

I'm not really looking for intense writing critique on what I post here (this is mostly just a hobby for fun), but I'm open to messages about typos I missed or general mistakes I made so I can fix them.

I try to tag most things but here are some of the relevant major organization related tags I use:

All proper writing posts are #my writing

Nonfanfic aka original stories are #original

Fanfiction stories are #fanfic

Less polished excerpts/drafts are #my wips

Outlines for au's and unrefined story ideas are #ideas

Text posts not related to a proper story are #rambles

I'll probably edit these tags later as needed.

Fandoms I am currently into:

Enstars

Twisted Wonderland

Project Sekai

Mxtx

Where I am elsewhere:

My main blog: @zmzebra

My art blog: @zmzebra-art

Ao3: zmzebra