Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

In order to cook, one must have the ingredients to cook with. It’s common sense, basic knowledge—everyone should know this. Tsukasa Tenma, a world future star chef, knows this, which is why he has prepared himself to go out into the waters and fish himself some fish.

The chef assumed his journey would be a quick one—he didn’t think it would take super duper long to fish a few fish—then again, he was the chef, not the fisher. What did he know?

He just assumed it’d be easy. How hard could it possibly be to toss a rod into the water a couple times and pull out a little fishy? Definitely not hard at all.

In his room, he got himself dressed for the occasion, putting on his chefs outfit—not forgetting his absolutely amazing hat. After getting dressed he quickly grabbed a map from his nightstand, tucking it into his apron. Then, he went downstairs where he found his dear sister Saki sitting down at their dining table, eating waffles.

“Good morning, Saki!” He greeted with a wide smile, earning a smile just as wide in return.

“Hi, Tsukasa! You just missed mom and dad—they went out to the market just a few minutes ago. But, momma made us waffles!” She beamed. “She told me to save these for you,” she motioned to a plate of two waffles and eggs.

Right, he had to eat before his great big mission! It wouldn’t be safe to go out malnourished, especially since resorting to raw fish was unsafe. “Thank you for informing me, Saki!”

“Of course!” She would take a bite of her own waffles. “Hows the restaurant going? Any progress?” She questioned, now poking at the remainders of her meal.

“Its progressing, yes! I intend on having a grand opening some time this week!”

Saki would clap her hands together out of excitement, her smile only widening. “That’s fantastic, Tsukasa! You better tell me what day is opening day beforehand so I can be there!”

“Of course! You’re the first person I’d let know, dearest Saki!”

Tsukasa would soon finish eating. With that done, it left him with nothing else to do other than set off on his mission. He would stand up from the table, washing his dish. “I’m going to be heading out for a bit. I’ll see you later, Saki!”

“Okayy!” She sang. “Stay safe!”

And now he was out. He grabbed his fishing pole that rested against the side of the house, now striding to the docks. Arriving, he would immediately hurry to his sailboat he bought for a big-ish sum of money, but it was totally worth it! Now he could get his own resources instead of having to pay for them! What an investment.

He untied the sailboat from the dock, hopping on before it drifted away, now letting the wind take him where he needed to be. He heard from actual fishermen that the best fish were in the very middle of the sea that divided the Aoyagi Kingdom, Tsukasa’s very own home, and the Hinomori Kingdom, the neighboring kingdom, so that was his destination! He pulled out the map from his apron, spreading it open to view the contents. It looked a bit different than usual, but he paid it no mind. While he had been to the Hinomori Kingdom before, it didn’t hurt to double check with a trusty map. He placed his finger on a spot on the map. “I’m here,” he whispered to himself. “And I need to get…” He would drag his finger along the paper, stopping to poke it rather harshly. “..here! Hmmhm! This should be easy peasy!”

Thank goodness no one was around to hear him talking to himself like a madman…

The waters were peaceful at first, the boat gently swaying with each small wave that passed from below. There wasn’t much for Tsukasa to do as the sail and wind did at the work, except for the occasional adjusting of the rudder to make sure he was headed in the right direction, using his map to ensure as such. He would simply sit when his boat appeared to be going the right way, resting his back against the wooden pillar that held the sail. He had always lived near the waters all his life, his home not too far, so the stench of fish and seawater was not unfamiliar to him. Naturally, it was stronger out here than it was when he was home, the salty, windy air stinging his nose just a bit.

Windy…

It appears that the wind had picked up in just a few seconds. Of course there was wind before, otherwise his boat would not have been moving—but it was a bit harsher now than before. But, it was too late to back off now even if he wanted to. According to his map, he was getting close to his destination!

Soon enough, he’d have a boat full of fish, he was sure. If he wasn’t aiming to be a world future star chef, he didn’t doubt it at all that he could become a world future star fisher—and he hadn’t even begun to fish yet! That’s just how good he was. He aimed to bring home over thirty fish, if that many could even fit in the relatively small sailboat. He could make it wor—

“Gh—!” He grunted as his internal planning was interrupted due to the boat hitting a pretty big wave. He took a deep breath. That was probably the only wave like that..!

But it wasn’t.

The boat rocked hard once again. He scrambled up to view the waves ahead, gripping the sails pole tight. The waves appeared to only be getting bigger and bigger the further he sailed. He sucked in a deep breath. Maybe it wasn’t too late to turn around and come out another day—but no! Tsukasa Tenma was not a quitter! He would push through the waves. Surely they’d calm down soon.

He would bring his gaze up to the sky, his eyes widening. The clouds were dark gray, the sky itself—how could he have not noticed this before?! It was such a dark blue, and now that he thought about it, so were the waves…

He was definitely caught up in a storm. He curses at himself for not determining what the weather was going to be like earlier. He definitely had to turn around now. He viewed his map quickly before noticing one quick detail—

………………………………….

The map. Was. Upside. Down. Maybe, just maybe, he had unconsciously flipped it in his hands just before when pulling it out, because how did he not notice this earlier..? But that definitely wasn’t the case, because if he recalled wayyy earlier when he first got on the boat, he remembered noticing his map did look a little strange. He turned it over. If he was where he thought he was, then…

He’d be nowhere near the Hinomori Kingdom..!

“SHOOT!” He exclaimed, tugging on the tiller in an attempt to shift the rudder the other direction, but his big man muscles were not strong enough to fight the bigger, more manly muscles(???what) of the waves…! His sail was shivering wildly, the woven cloth seemingly on the verge of tearing. “Shoot, shoot, shoot! How do I turn this thing around?!” He cried out, asking absolutely no one. The wailing winds would be his only response.

He had no clue where he was going now, the wind and sail dragging his boat in directions he didn’t want to go. He looked at his map one last time in an attempt to determine at least something, maybe he’d figure out a solution—but the winds tore the map out of his grip, he whipped in the direction it was thrown away, not even catching sight of it—it was definitely gone forever.

He stood there helplessly on his rocking boat, barely balancing as he held the beam tight.

He was a goner for sure . He was a goner and there was no doubt about it. He wanted, no, he needed to get home to his sister, his mom, his dad, his restaurant, but how? His boat was unstable and he felt like he was going to tumble off deck at any second if he let go of the pole.

Water was splashing on deck now, the waves even rougher. “What do I do—?!” He screamed. It was down pouring now. The rain didn’t even start off gently, no, it fell down hard like rocks. He had to stay strong though. He had to stay strong and make it home…..!

“..I’m gonna die out here—!” He wailed, tears mixing in with the rain. So much for staying strong. “Please, Miku, please save me!” He would plead to the Goddess above. “I have so much to do! I—…” His voice would trail off, his nose sniffling as he stopped desperately begging.

A huge wave, the biggest yet, would splash a ton of water onto the boat, causing Tsukasa to gasp. He tried (and failed) to move away from said water, still holding on to the pole as he scrambled to the other side of the boat. There was a puddle on deck, and as he took a step to the other side—

He would lose his balance, ultimately slipping. His arms would flail everywhere as he attempted to regain his footing, though it was far too late for that…

WHAM

Chapter Text

Tsukasa would wake up, eyes still shut as his head pounded. Scratch that, his head was more than pounding. It was spinning. His eyes felt so heavy, and he couldn’t bring himself to open them. So he just laid still on his bed. He could half-consciously hear words being spoken around him, and he tried his best to tune in.

“…What if he’s dead?! That would be so womp womp womppppp…” A high pitched voice would voice out the onomatopoeia, their voice mimicking a sad trombone. They were kind of loud, making the pain in Tsukasa’s head spike a little.

“Hm. That would be very womp womp womp.” Another voice would speak, this one deeper, smoother, and much quieter than the previous one. Rather than mimicking the noises the other voice had made, they would instead state them as if they were everyday words.

“Rui, shut up. Don’t be dumb.” A third one would mumble, their voice sharp, though it would lighten up a little when speaking to a different person, taking on a sweeter, more melodic tone. “Emu, he’s not dead. Look at his chest rising and falling, he’s breathing.”

“Oh..so cruel..” The smooth voice would sniffle. “And here I thought we were friends..I’ve been decieved!

“Ohwoah…that makes sense, Neneeeh!” The first voice would exclaim. “And don’t be sad, Rui! I’m still your friend!”

“Geez, Rui, you’re like a child..” The melodic one would groan.

Hold on. Pause, pause, pause.

Who were these people? They sounded totally unfamiliar to him—and why were they just talking around him while he slept..?? And, pause again… one mentioned something about him being dead?! He was not dead, and he was not dying!

His eyes would snap open, overwhelmed by the sight of blurred colors before him. Purple with bits of blue..green..pink. He would blink a few times, eyes gradually unblurring as the sight before him came undone. A tall, pale man with purple hair and two blue streaks stood to Tsukasa’s left, and to Tsukasa’s right were two girls both shorter than the man, though the one with olive skin and green hair was slightly taller than the one with sienna skin and pink hair. All were unfamiliar. He blinked once more before…

Shouting at the top of his lungs. (Which did not help his head.)

“AGHHH—! WHO ARE YOU?! GET AWAY, GET AWA—!!”

“Shut up—!” The green haired one would cut him off. “Oh my goodness, your voice is loud…” She hissed, pressing her index fingers to her ears.

“Fufu~. To be fair, he probably didn’t expect to see us when he woke up.” The purple haired man would chuckle, watching as his green friend glared at Tsukasa.

“Oh my gaww! You’re alive and awake! Yay, yay, yayyyyy!” The pink haired girl would jump up and down, fists brought up to her chest, her eyes wide with excitement.

Tsukasa stared at them all, only growing more and more scared. “Of course I’m alive! And…a-answer my question!” He shouted. “Who are you guys? What do you want from me—?!?” He felt embarrassed from how shaky his voice was. He was supposed to be a cool and brave guy! This was NOT a good first impression for him.

“I wanna introduce myself first! Me, me, me!” The pinkette pleaded, for some unknown reason asking permission to say her name.

“No ones stopping you..” The green one grumbled, still eyeing Tsukasa.

“Okaaay! So…” The pink one paused, clearing her throat as if she were preparing for a grand speech. “Hello!!!! My name is Emu! Waaahhoo! Did you know that Emu means smile? Now you do! Wahaaa!” She cheered, practically shaking with excitement and joy as Tsukasa was shaking with anxiety and fear. Ugh, her voice was not aiding his headache. “Was my introduction good?!” Emu would ask, looking at her two friends for reassurance.

“Yeah..it was fine.” The green one would reply with a small smile filled with fondness, a surprise to Tsukasa after the grumpiness he had been introduced with before. Unfair, because Emu was just as loud as Tsukasa..! Her smile would be wiped away fast though, for it was her turn to speak. “Um..my name is Nene Kusanagi..” Her introduction was way less energetic than the previous one, and much shorter. What an enthusiastic person!

The only one left was the purplenette who was now smiling. “Hi there. My name is Rui Kamishiro. May we know your name?” Rui would tilt his head slightly.

Tsukasa’s brows would furrow as he shook his head wildly. “No! I don’t know who you guys are—“ ”Rui, is he stupid..? We just introduced ourselves…” “—and I don’t know what you guys want from me! Why am I here?! I have—I have a restaurant to open!”

“Heyy, Sir! Don’t be mad at us, we saved your life!” Emu would pout, pointing a finger at Tsukasa.

“She’s right. We found you knocked out on your boat which was beached. I wonder how that happened..?” Rui smirked, raising a brow out of curiosity.

Hold on. Knocked out..? Beached..?!? Suddenly, he would be hit with what happened in that big storm when he was on his boat. He survived that, let alone made it to land—?! If he was at land now, it definitely wasn’t a place in his home kingdom…

His expression would twist into one of even greater fear. “W-Where am I?”

“You’re in the Otori kingdom!” Pinkie would exclaim, dismissing the blondes fear as she smiled widely.

“OTORI KINGDOM—?!” He screeched, trying to recall how far that was from the Aoyagi kingdom. He would pat his clothes for his map, only to remember it had gotten swept away from the wind. And as he patted his clothes, he was hit with the realization that these were not his clothes.

“Agh! My clothes, where are they?!” He would glance around the room, patting his head. “My hat, too! Don’t tell me I lost it..!”

“Ah, Sir.. we have your clothes, and your hat. You were drenched from head to toe, and you were shivering so much when we found you. It only made sense to rid you of the wet clothes, considering they only added to how cold you were.” Rui would soothingly reassure him.

It was a miracle that his hat had survived the winds. He had to thank Miku for that. And while Tsukasa was a bit uncomfortable with the thought of having his clothes changed for him, he did appreciate the sentiment.

“We didn’t do anything bad if it makes you feel better.” Nene would speak up. “We just didn’t want you to die.” Oh, that was sweet. “..It would suck to be responsible…” ..less sweet, though it seemed like she was just trying to make herself appear less concerned than she really was.

“Can we pretty please with a juicy cherry on top know your name? I’ll even let you pick the flavor of ice cream!” Emu would pipe up, looking at Tsukasa with big, round eyes. He glanced at the other to, noticing that Rui was pouting too—?! Nene was just standing there, being the nicest she had been to Tsukasa yet.

“…Ah—um—!” His eyes flickered between the three of them. He supposed it wouldn’t hurt to allow them the privilege of knowing his name…

“Ahem!” He cleared his throat, preparing for an introduction even more grand than Emu’s. “My name is Tsukasa, meaning leader, and Tenma, meaning soaring pegasus! That is I, Tsukasa Tenma!” He would boast, slapping a hand to his heart. “And you three are standing before a world future star chef who aims to shine the brightest and cook the best, better than all!” He smirked, trying to see if any of them were impressed by such an introduction.

Emu gasped, squealing. She was evidently impressed, which fed his ego. “Wow, wow! Did you guys hear his introduction? It was just like mine! We both said the meanings of our names, hehe! Thats so woaaaaahhhhh woah! We’re like, twinsies!” She exclaimed, jumping up and down once again.

Rui was more amused than impressed, Tsukasa could tell. “Fufu~, a world future star chef? You did mention a restaurant earlier..” He brought a hand up to his chin as if he were thinking.

And Nene was straight up unimpressed, more annoyed than before. “World future star chef?” She snorted. “What kind of title is that..”

“Hey! Don’t make fun of it..! It’s cool!” He frowned, defending his totally amazing title. He could feel his shaking calm down.

“Ah..moving on..can you guys let me go home now?” He questioned. “I don’t want to worry my sister, or my parents.”

Emu frowned, her excitement immediately drained as if Tsukasa’s words were a vacuum. “Aw, but you just got here! We were all gonna have so much fun together, you can’t go yet…!” She whined, tugging on Nene’s sleeve. “Don’t let him go yet, Neneeeh..”

“If he wants to go he should be allowed to..” She mumbled. She was definitely saying that because she didn’t want him here.

“Well, Tsukasa. We would be more than happy to let you go, but I fear that we cannot do so yet! We found you knocked out, and we don’t know if you’re hurt at all. It would truly be rude of us to let you go home injured—something else could happen to you.” The purplenette would step forward, about to speak again.

“Plus, plus! We saved you! You need to repay us by being our friends and staying for a bit! Pleaaaseee!” Emu would cut in.

Rui would glance at her, chuckling lightly. “So, Tsukasa, any pain anywhere?” He’d question.

Tsukasa would remain quiet for a second, thinking. Asides from his aching head, his left arm did hurt a little bit too. He would slowly bring it up to test the pain, wincing and dropping it when the pain spiked. “..Yeah. My head hurts so bad. I think I hit it..”

Nene huffed. “Now you know how I feel..”

He would ignore her comment, seeing as Emu would be responding for him, petting Nene’s hair in a comforting manner, whispering something like ”its okay, Nene! Ill make the pain go away…” He spoke slightly louder than before. “…And it hurts to raise my left arm.”

“We should get that checked out, then. Lucky for you, this geologist happens to have some medical knowledge.” The purplenette work smirk. “May I have a look at your arm please?”

Tsukasa would look at him for a second. While he did just meet the man, he did claim to have an understanding in medical stuff, so perhaps he would be able to help. He nodded slowly.

Rui would pull up the sleeve of Tsukasa’s shirt carefully, inspecting his arm. “Is it your elbow, Tsukasa?”

“Yeah. It hurts to bend it.”

Rui would nod. “I see some swelling and bruising. I don’t think it’s anything serious, worst case scenario its sprained. Can you try bending it for me again? I know it hurts, but it’ll help me determine whats wrong.”

He sighed, forcing his elbow to bend, holding back a whine of pain as he winced.

Rui would nod again, as if the elbow was speaking to him. Tsukasa had no clue what he was nodding at. “I don’t think its broken, nor is it sprained. Just bruised. You must’ve hit it. Nene, do you mind getting him a pain reduction potion for his head and arm?”

“Yeah, sure.” She sighed. Emu would jump and grab Nene’s hand

“I’m coming with! Pleaaaaaseee!”

Nene smiled and let out a soft laugh. “Okay, come on..”

And the two would leave the room. Rui would step away from Tsukasa, claiming to have to grab something in a different room. As Tsukasa was left unattended, he took in his surroundings. He was inside what appeared to be a cabin, he determined based on the wooden walls and floors. The room was pretty empty as if it were unused, or maybe the owner of the house was just a person who just doesn’t accessorize their house.

Rui would come back in, a glass of water in hand. “Take a few sips, I don’t know when the last time you had water was but I don’t want you to dehydrate.” He requested, and Tsukasa would listen, taking the glass and downing the water. He could feel Rui’s eyes burning into him as he did so, and he’d bring his gaze up to meet the others. He blinked, shuddering at the pair of golden eyes staring directly at him.

Goodness, his eyes are scary…

Nene and Emu would come back, saving Tsukasa from the scary eyes boring into him as Rui turned to look at them. There was bottle in the green ones hand. Nene handed Tsukasa the bottle. “Drink it. It’ll ease your pains.”

He squinted, inspecting the bottle. The contents were light green, and it seemed to shimmer in the light. Nene scoffed. “Stop looking at it like it’s laced..I made it myself. It’s not going to kill you.”

“I promise Nene didn’t put anything in there! Swearsies!” Emu beamed.

..He supposed he should trust them. He popped the cork off the bottle, sipping the potion with uncertainty.

“Tsukasa, Tsukasa! Since you’re hurt and can’t leave yet, you should stay here with us and heal and then we can have all kinds of wahoo together and it’lll be so woosh sparkle waaah!”

What. Was Tsukasa going insane or something. Not a single word she just said made sense….

Chapter Text

….

“What does wahoo mean and how will it be so woosh sparkle waaah?” Tsukasa would blankly stare at Emu, who just stood there smiling.

“She means that we’ll have all kinds of fun and it’ll be super amazing.” Rui would translate with a smile, causing Tsukasa’s brows to lower. That still made absolutely no sense. Why couldn’t she just use actual words? Was she cursed with speaking like that or something?

“Yeah, yeah! Rui gets it! You’re so smart, Rui!” She giggled, giving her friend a thumbs up. Rui would give a thumbs up and a wink in response.

Nene would look at Tsukasa. “So, was the potion poisoned or do you feel fine?” She questioned with a raised a brow.

“..It feels a little better already.” He mumbled, for some reason feeling hesitant to admit it.

“As I thought. Not laced.”

Geez, she was so rude to Tsukasa for no reason…

“I’m glad you’re feeling better! Maybe that means we can go hang out now! We could do so much..I wanna show you the amusement park first! Its super duper fun..the ferris wheel is so sparkly warkly and woohoo!!” Again with the weird descriptions—! At least this time it was comprehensible.

“Emu, look at the time. You need to be home soon or your brothers will get mad at you and then your father will too..” Nene warned, nudging the smaller girl and pointing to the clock.

“Awh, shoot! You’re right, Nene! My curfew tonight is at 8 because of important royal family business…wahh, I wanted to hang out with you guys more. This is so boohoo!” She pouted. Rui would ruffle her hair.

Tsuksa was about to speak up, but Rui beat him.

“It’s okay, Emu. We can all hang out tomorrow, okay?” He smiled, causing Tsukasa and Nene to look at Rui like he was a madman.

“I never said I was hanging out with that guy!”
“I want to go home!”

They both argued at the same time, glaring at Rui.

“What, what??” Tsukasa frowned at Nene.

Rui faced Nene first. “Now now Nene, you don’t want to break poor little Emu’s heart by not hanging out with us tomorrow, do you?” He giggled, Emu giving the green girl big, round eyes, causing Nene to huff, mumbling something practically inaudible, though Tsukasa assumed it to be something like ”only for her..”

“And you, Tsukasa.” Rui would begin, facing the blonde on the bed. “You said you remember hitting your head, which probably caused your headache. We don’t know if you gained any major head injuries like a concussion, so we need to keep you safe. I’ll test you for things tomorrow, okay?”

Tsukasa sighed. Saki was going to freak..but Rui was right. If he was hurt, they needed to prevent it from worsening. He just hoped he would be able to leave soon.

“Emu, can we go now..?” Nene whispered to the pinkie, glancing at Tsukasa. “I wanna go home, too..”

“Is Nene gonna walk me home?! Yaaay!” Emu squealed, hugging Nene tight before grabbing her hand. “Lets go, lets go! Bye Rui! Bye Tsukasa!! See you both tomorrowwww~!” She sang out, practically tugging Nene out of the cabin.

Rui chuckled for a moment as they left before falling into absolute silence. The room fell still, just the purplenette and blonde left now. Tsukasa blinked, looking at Rui, who was looking right back at him.

“Tsukasa, would you like to go outside and take a walk? I don’t want to coop you up in here forever, and it’d help to stretch.” Rui questioned, tilting his head slightly. Tsukasa immediately took him up on the offer.

“Yes, yes, please! I really need to stretch…” He sighed. Rui would nod. “I’m ready when you are then.”

Tsukasa swung his legs off the bed, pushing himself up. He quickly stretched his arms out. “Lead the way.”

The two would now be out the cabin, the door revealing a vast woods. Trees upon trees were all Tsukasa could currently catch sight of. He had no clue how Rui knew where to go, but assuming this was his cabin, it’d only make sense he knew which path led where. He would lead Tsukasa out of the forest, the blonde starting a conversation based on what he meant to mention earlier (before Rui cut him off to make Emu feel better.)

“..Emu said she has royal family business to attend to. What does she mean by that?” Tsukasa question, turning his head to look at Rui as he spoke.

Rui glanced at Tsukasa, smirking. “You haven’t gotten it yet?”

“..Gotten what? What is there to get?” He frowned.

“She’s a princess, Tsukasa. Her full name is Emu Otori.” He stated, letting out a giggle.

…He met the princess of the Otori Kingdom and he didn’t even realize—?! He didn’t even show respect to her! What if she was plotting how to punish Tsukasa at this very moment..? Considering she was with Nene, the punishment was definitely going to be harsh, he just knew it..he could feel his stomach twisting with fear.

But hey, Rui could be lying.. Emu doesn’t appear to be a princess—just take a look at her outfit and the way she acts! Typically, princesses wear dresses and crowns and act less childish. There was no way Emu was one! Rui was just tricking him. Totally.

He took a deep breath, letting out a light chuckle. “Haha, funny joke. She’s not a princess, Rui. You can’t fool me..! Princesses wear tiaras!” The star would exclaim, causing Rui to burst into laughter, filling Tsukasa with uncertainty once more.

As Rui spoke, the trees and trees would lessen as lights filled the area, a road coming into view. “Trust me, Tsukasa. Emu is a princess. She’s just a very, very, adventurous one. She does have a crown, but she’s supposed to be getting a new and improved one soon because she broke her last one while out adventuring.”

So..she is a princess. Tsukasa groaned. “I didn’t even bow or respect her or—or—do anything! I’m terrible..!” He cried out as they began walking on pavement instead of grass and roots.

“It’s fine. She has taken a liking to you already, I doubt she cares. She doesn’t like it when her friends treat her like royalty anyway.”

“..we aren’t friends, though. We just met today.”

“Yeah, go tell her that. Then she’ll be upset, fufu.”

Tsukasa sighed, deciding to take in the environment around him. He had never before been to the Otori Kingdom, but the bright and glistening lights before him were definitely not expected. The place was so colorful, so alive, so different from his home.

As much as he loved the Aoyagi Kingdom, something about the colors here drew him in…

“..How do you like it so far?” Rui would ask, tearing Tsukasa away from his thoughts.

“Colorful.” He breathed out, eyes flickering around to take in everything they could as the two walked.

“Is colorful good?”

“Very.” He confirmed.

“I’m glad you like it. Emu fights hard to keep the kingdom so lively like this. She even fights to keep Pheonix Wonderland open, despite it being the Kingdoms main attraction. Her brothers have no clue what they’re doing…” Rui sighed, shaking his head.

“Pheonix Wonderland..” Tsukasa would silently repeat. He remembered an amusement park being mentioned earlier, so he put two and two together, concluding that this was what Emu was talking about.

“Since you guys probably aren’t going to let me go home for a while—“

“Until you get better.”

“—then..one of these days, will you take me to Pheonix Wonderland..? While I’m here, I might as well enjoy my stay to the fullest.”

“I believe Emu already planned on us doing so.”

They’d fall into silence as they walked, Tsukasa’s attention constantly getting caught by little details. On a lot of the stores they passed were cutesy decorations, that or something to make them glittery and bright. And he also noticed an abundance of taiyaki stands. Peculiar.

“You probably haven’t had food in a while. Would you like me to buy you anything? A snack?” Rui offered, a hand motioning to all the stores around. “Pick anything you want.”

“Oh..hm. I see a lot of taiyaki stands..I’ve never had that before. Can you get me one?” He requested, resulting in a nod as response.

“That’s not really dinner, but I suppose its your choice.” To be fair, Rui also offered a snack..!

The purple one would walk up to the nearest taiyaki stand, ordering two chocolate taiyakis as Tsukasa watched.

Soon, the stand owner would give Rui the two taiyakis, the purplenette handing Tsukasa one. Before he could be warned how hot they were, he immediately took a bite from the head, yelping as the hot bean paste surged into his mouth and burned his tongue. He pulled the pastry away from his mouth, fanning with his free hand in an attempt to cool off the burning paste. He groaned, managing to swallow.

“Be careful, it’s hot.” Rui smiled innocently, earning a sharp glare from the star.

“Yeah, thanks.” He grumbled, watching as Rui split his taiyaki in half.

“Why do you do that?” He questioned, staring at the two halves.

“To allow the paste to cool off. Something you didn’t do,” he teased.

He would have said that was a smart idea if Rui hadn’t made fun of his former actions. “..whatever..!” He took another bite, this one less hot.

“Hows your first taiyaki ever?”

“Its pretty tasty, asides from the accident before.”

“Fufu~. If you wanted to know why there are so many stands everywhere, taiyaki is Emus favorite snack. She requested a bunch of stands practically everywhere..no clue how it worked out. But it did.”

“Wow..that’s weird. If prince Toya requested something like that, it would never be allowed.”

“Emu just has her ways,” Rui shrugged.

The two would soon finish their taiyakis, Rui standing up and offering Tsukasa a hand to help him up. Tsukasa accepted it, and they would begin to walk again.

He would yawn, leading him into pondering for a second, thinking about how he’d be living in the Otori Kingdom for a bit. “If I’m staying here in this kingdom, where exactly will I be sleeping? Has that been planned out yet?”

“Well, I planned on having you sleep in my cabin, if you’re alright with that. Technically, you already did.”

Tsukasa frowned. He wasn’t sure if he was the most comfortable sleeping in a strangers house (even if he knew Rui’s name and just had taiyaki with him), but if Emu, a princess, trusted him then surely it’d be alright. But then again…

“I don’t want to intrude, though.”

Rui shook his head. “You wouldn’t be. I have a spare room that has never been occupied, it’s the one you woke up in.”

He bit his lip. What other choices did he have? He could stay in a hotel, but alone? In a place he’s never been in? He wasn’t too sure about that.

“Okay..I suppose it works, as long as you’re okay with it.”

“I should be the one making sure you’re okay with it.” Rui snorted, leading Tsukasa back through the woods. They’d head back to Rui’s cabin deep within the trees.

..It was a little creepy, knowing you’re living in someones house so deep in the trees.

Soon, they arrived. Tsukasa would enter the house, Rui following suit. “I think you should head to bed now. If Emu wants to hang out tomorrow, that means we have a long day ahead of us.” Rui warned.

Tsukasa didn’t even want to think about it. “..Right. Okay. Goodnight, then.”

“Goodnight, Tsukasa.”

He would head to his new room, shutting the door and falling onto his bed.

He wondered if the pain reduction potion had side effects of drowsiness because immediately, his eyes grew heavy and he drifted into sleep.

Chapter Text

Light would peek through the windows of Tsukasas temporary bedroom, causing the chef to blink awake. His head pain had eased overnight, a product of what Tsukasa assumed to be a combination of the potion and proper rest.

He would have to thank Nene later.

..Nene..right, he wasn’t home, he was in a separate kingdom. He sighed, sitting up. He truly believed there was no reason for the three to keep him here—he would genuinely prefer it if the green one could figure out a way to convince the other two to let Tsukasa go home. He wasn’t severely injured, and besides, he had a family to get home to and a restaurant to open! He just wanted to fish, not get stuck in this foreign place!

..though, he had to admit the general vibe of the kingdom was pleasing to him, the bright lights and colorful scenery calling him in.

Still! He wanted to go back home to his…more dull kingdom! Colorful or not, home was the Aoyagi Kingdom, not here.

“Rui! Rui! Rui!” A voice would call from outside the cabin, the tone recognized by the blonde to be Emu, the princess of the kingdom. Tsukasa shook his head. He was still hung up on that—seriously, he didn’t know she was a princess? He was so close to the prince of his home kingdom, Toya, he should be able to sniff out royalty when he sees is!

“Can we go steal Nene from her house and go explore with our new friend?!” She squeaked, earning a light giggle from Rui.

Tsukasa sighed. He supposed he wouldn’t be going home today, though..if he got here, whose to say he can’t get back? Maybe all he really has to do is go on another fishing trip on a stormy day and then he’ll get home.

Thats totally how it works.

Emu suddenly burst through Tsukasas door, Rui following suit, though he wasn’t cheering like the shorter one was, instead smiling his oddly cat-like smile.

“Tsukasa! We’re gonna go go go! Come on!” Emu exclaimed, grabbing his hands and pulling him off the bed.

..She was strong. Scarily so.

He stumbled. “D-Don’t do that! You could have hurt me!” He scolds, though that only makes her eyes glisten with excitement more.

“And then you would have to stay here for longer! Yaaay!” She squeals, skipping to Rui’s side. She not-so-discreetly!whispered something to the taller boy. “Rui! We don’t have to let him go! If he gets hurt more, then he has to stay more!”

Tsukasa was about to protest the very life threatening idea, but thankfully Rui had some sense in him. “Now now, Emu. Tsukasa is only staying here so we can help him recover. We can’t hurt him more, that defeats the whole purpose.”

“..Speaking of me recovering, what exactly are you helping me recover from? I truly don’t think I have any head traum—“

“Can we go get Nene now? I like it when she’s here, she makes it so yahoo!”

Tsukasa could feel his eye twitch as he was cut off.

“Tsukasa, would you like to borrow a pair of my clothes? We can get you some of your own later so you aren’t stuck wearing the same clothes of yours during your stay.

Tsukasa truly just wanted to leave. How long would he be staying for that he needed spare clothes—?! And in addition to that, he just woke up a few minutes ago and is already being dragged out of his bed? He doesn’t have a problem with getting up in the morning, but having time to relax, even for just a little bit, would have been nice. But he knew he wasn’t going to be given a moment of relaxation because he was already being led to the bathroom, a bundle of clothes being stuffed into his hands—clothes that seemed a little too large for him (an AVERAGE HEIGHT! man) when he unfolded them. But requesting clothes that fit when Rui had offered his own out of the kindness of his heart would just be rude. He was the guest here…or, hostage.

They were waiting for him to get ready, he could tell, so he did what he needed to do in the bathroom.

No details on his business in there, though a large portion of his time spent in there was, naturally, on fixing his hair.

He finished up and opened the door, Emu nearly giving him a heart attack by jumping out in front of him the moment he stepped outside the bathroom.

“Holy Miku—!” He yelped, attempting to resist the princesses force as she tugged him towards the exit of the cabin, spouting on about how they needed to go get Nene for their super duper fun adventure as she pulled him outside into the woods, running fast with Tsukasa stumbling behind her, trying to halt her in her tracks.

“L-Let me go!” He cried out. If he at least wasn’t going to have time to himself this morning, could they at least walk??

“Emu, be careful with him! We want to send him home fully intact.” Rui called out from behind them, locking up the cabin after he exited.

Emu puffed her cheeks out, releasing Tsukasa from her mighty grip on his arm—thankfully the one that was not already aching beforehand. The moment he was let go, the blonde stopped moving, taking a moment to regain his composure. This gave Rui time to catch up to him, letting out a small laugh that scared him just as badly as Emu had.

“EEK—!” He cried out, stumbling away. What was with the trio and scaring his soul out of his body? Well, technically it hasn’t been the trio yet, considering Nene hasn’t scared him..though he most definitely jinxed it now.

“Shall we keep walking? We don’t want to lose Emu.” The purplenette suggested, causing Tsukasa to raise a brow.

“Don’t you know where Nene lives?”

“Of course I do. And Emu does, too. But I just don’t want her straying too far from us.” Rui shrugged as he began to walk, leading Tsukasa to Nene’s house as they strolled through the seemingly never-ending trees.

“You’re acting like something bad would happen if she went too far..shes your princess, have more faith in her!” He couldn’t believe Rui would even dare use such a tone when speaking about royalty, let alone the royalty of his own kingdom.

“You don’t know her like Nene and I do,” Rui pointed out. “But, I’m sure this adventure today will teach you more about her highness.”

That was such an ominous statement…it sent shivers through Tsukasa..!

“So. You talk about wanting to go back home a lot, which I understand, but we’ve not a clue of where your home is. Where are you from?” Rui spoke up again, glancing at Tsukasa as he looked ahead.

“..oh..oh! I haven’t told you yet? I’m from the lovely Aoyagi Kingdom!”

Rui’s brows furrowed for a moment as he thought to himself. “Aoyagi Kingdom..hm..” And something appeared to have clicked in the purplenettes head because he raised a brow, letting out a chuckle. “I have a general idea of where that kingdom is..and you managed to accidentally get here? Tsukasa, do you know how far this kingdom is from your own?”

“Ah…I don’t really worry about the other kingdoms too much..! Really only the Hinomori Kingdom because that’s who King Aoyagi wants us to get imports from and also export our own resources. And I’ve never had a reason to travel to any other kingdoms asides from the Hinomori one, so..!”

Now he felt kind of stupid. He should at least know a little about the whereabouts other kingdoms, but all he knew was that the Otori kingdom had to have been far from his home.

“They’re quite the distance apart, Tsukasa. Look—“ he paused, reaching into the pockets of his pants to find something. A map, Tsukasa concluded as the paper was pulled out.

Rui spread the paper open, pointing to where the Otori Kingdom was on the map, then dragging his finger along the paper, stopping where the Aoyagi Kingdom was. What Tsukasa noticed is that the Asahina Kingdom was blocking direct access to the Otori Kingdom from the Aoyagi Kingdom, which meant he would have had to go around to get there. And he didn’t even want to go there, so how in Mikus name did he???

“T-Thats how far I am?!” He cried out, facepalming as the two walked. “I need to go home soon..” He mumbled.

Rui turned his head to the left, away from Tsukasa. “Soon. When I confirm you’re okay.”

“But I am okay! I’m walking and talking just fine! See!” And to prove his point, he’d jog ahead, throwing his arms up in the air with a “WOO!”

Rui turned his head to watch this, smiling softly. “How do I know this is normal behavior for you, hm?”

“It is! I promise!”

“So you act this strange all the time?” Rui teased, causing Tsukasa to pout.

“Hey! I’m not acting weird, I was just showing you how not-injured I am!”

“Uninjured.”

His brows furrowed as Rui smirked. He crossed his arms, stomping ahead. He needed to brainstorm how else could he prove that he was ready to go home…maybe he could run all the way to Nene’s house! But…he didn’t know where she lived, and he’d probably get lost in these trees. Maybe he—

WHAM

“Gh—ouch!” He cried out, hands flying up to his head in an attempt to soothe his newly found pain.

“Mm. I don’t know, Tsukasa. Are you so injured that you didn’t see the tree right in front of you?” Rui commented as he caught up to Tsukasa, watching him.

Tsukasa huffed. “No! It’s…also to prove how uninjured I am! I’m so uninjured that even walking into this tree can’t injure me!”

“But you said ouch. Maybe your head trauma gave you memory loss…I’ll have to figure that out later.”

“I do NOT have memory loss—can we just get to Nene’s house? Emu is probably already there!”

Rui would flick his hand out, seemingly motioning towards somewhere. As Tsukasa looked, he spotted a house amongst the trees. “Thats her house?” He questioned. It looked nicer than Rui’s cabin, the exterior a muted green, reminding Tsukasa of the girls hair.

The two would hear a squeal from inside the house. “Emus already in there.” Rui commented.

“I figured..how come she can stand Emu’s loudness, but when I speak slightly too loud, she gets frustrated?”

“Because you’re not Emu, I guess.” Rui shrugged. “She’s very fond of Emu.”

“…Right.” He nodded as they entered the house. It proved to be nicer than Rui’s cabin not only on the outside but also on the inside, the house more decorated.

Rui gave Tsukasa no time to observe though, as he led him up the stairs and to Nene’s room. Rui knocked before opening the door.

“Oh, oh! They’re here, Nene! Ruiii! Tsukasa!!” She beamed, sprinting over to give Rui a hug. She whispered something inaudible into his ear, something that he giggled and nodded in response to. She then jumped to Tsukasa, squeezing him unnecessarily tight. “Lets go, lets go!” She urged, yet she was still hugging Tsukasa. He looked down at her, unsure of what to do, attempting to shake the leech off.

“Why is he in my house…” The quieter girl would frown. Okay, ow. Before he could even answer, Emu was explaining it to her.

“Because we’re gonna go on an adventure today! I already told you, silly Nene!” She finally released Tsukasa, bouncing over to Nene and grabbing her hand. She led the green haired girl out of her own room. “Follow me!”

“…We just got here…!” Tsukasa groaned, Rui giggling as they followed the two girls.

The two caught up to the princess and her green friend, walking beside them. Rather than staring ahead, Tsukasa stared at the one who is supposed to have a crown. What better time than now to apologize to the princess, especially when shes right in front of him? For all he knows, she can run off into the distance the next second.

“Ah..your highness!” He called, causing the pink-haired one to snap her head towards him, eyebrows furrowed. “I apologize for not realizing you were royalty before. From now on, I promise I will not slip up again!” He smiled, bowing slightly as they walked. Rui snickered as Nene raised a brow at the scene.

“Hey!” Emu glared, an expression never before seen from the smiley girl. “Do not call me ‘your highness’ ever again or I will have your head chopped off!” She bellowed, pointing a finger right at Tsukasa. But her angry expression changed just as fast as it arrived, a smile replacing that foreign sight. “Call me Emu! We’re friends, Tsukasa!” She beamed.

Yeah..because friends threaten to behead each other…!

“Halt!” Emu suddenly shouted, causing Nene and Tsukasa to jump.

“What..?” “What?!” The two questioned, one more upset than the other.

Staring at Emu, Tsukasa noticed the sinister grin she was giving Rui. He frowned. He had seen them whispering to each other earlier at Nene’s house, and he wondered if this correlated to that.

He turned his head to view Rui, catching the guy nodding.

“Tsukasa… shut your eyes for a moment, okay?” Rui requested.

“What—? How come?” He questioned, brows furrowed.

“Please, Kasa?” Emu pouted, staring at Tsukasa with big eyes. He looked at Nene to see if she was in on this, but she seemed just as clueless as he was.

“Fine..! I’ll shut my eyes.” He huffed, glancing at the purplenette and pinkie before closing both eyes. He resisted the urge to peek as he heard shuffling and giggling, and suddenly he felt a soft fabric cover his eyes and wrap around his head. This was…

“..A blindfold—?! What are you guys doing?” He shouted, attempting to fend off who ever was putting it on.

“Calm down, Tsukasa. We’re going to surprise you with something, okay?” Rui soothed from behind. So he was the one putting it on—though it would make sense, considering how short Emu was and how Nene would not want to partake in something like this.

“…Okay.”

He felt an arm hook his, and suddenly he was moving, being led to Miku knows where.

“Is it true that all your other senses are enhanced when one is taken away?!” The pink girl asked.

“While I believe that to be true, what better way to find out than conduct our own experiments on, say, our dear subject right here?” None other than Rui responded, who appeared to be the one guiding Tsukasa.

…

Hold on, subject?!

“H-hey!” He hissed. “I am no ones subject! I’m just a chef!”

“A wannabe chef.” Nene retorted. “Didn’t you say you hadn’t even opened your restaurant yet?”

He smirked. “Hm? You remember that? So, you care about my restaurant and I—“

“No. But how can I forget when you practically yelled it in our ears?” She cut him off, causing him to gasp.

He doesn’t yell! Ever!

“..Not true! Whatever, are we there yet?” He whined.

“Almost theresies!” Emu chirped. “So closesies!”

“So very closesies, Kasa.” Rui copied.

He could begin to hear the sound of chatter from people other than them increase, and soon his feet were no longer hitting grass, and instead hitting pavement. They must have been out of the forests now.

“People are looking at us funny. Why did we have to blindfold him..?” Nene sighed, evidently bothered by the attention Tsukasa was grabbing.

“Maybe they’re looking at us because of how amazing I am!” He retorted, earning a scoff from Nene.

“Or because Emu is the kingdoms princess.” Added Rui.

“Naww, it’s probably because of Tsukasa being blindfolded! He looks soooo silly!” She giggled.

“..I do not! ..Ah..do I?”

“A little.” Rui responded.

“Well, you guys look silly too, with your bright, colorful hair!”

“Hey, I take pride in my unique hair.” Pouted Rui.

“Don’t worry, Rui! I think your hair is so cool! Its so waaoooah!” Cheered Emu, followed by a thank you from Rui.

“Do you think your hair is normal?” And then a jab from, of course, Nene.

“It’s just blonde!” He defended his beautiful hair. Toya said his hair was cool! Toya would never lie.

“It’s an ombré of, like, blonde to pink. It’s not just blonde.” She argued.

“I think it’s pretty, Tsukasa. Its unique, like ours. You fit in well.” Rui chirped. Tsukasa did not know if fitting in with them was an insult or not, considering how much cooler and not-eccentric he was compared to them all. Upon hearing Rui’s statement, Emu piped up in agreement.

“It’s so colorful here, and your hair just fits our theme! Its like you were meant to be here!”

While he loved the kingdoms colorfulness, he refused to agree with her. She’d probably think that he wanted to stay. “N-No—! I was meant to be in the Aoyagi Kingdom, which is why I should go back! Today!”

“Agreed…” Nene mumbled.

“WE’RE HERE!” Shouted Emu, completely ignoring his comment from before, and suddenly his blindfold was tugged off. He was immediately overwhelmed with colors everywhere, a stark contrast from the darkness of the blindfold. He could see a huge ferris wheel ahead. This must’ve been Pheonix Wonderland.

He took a deep breath, staring at the amusement park. It was big, no—it was grand. It was so beautiful, it was breathtaking. It was definitely even prettier when it was night, and he couldn’t help but imagine the lights illuminating the dark perimeter with their colorful glow.

He wanted to see it like that.

“Someone seems enthralled.” Rui teased, nudging Tsukasa. “Why don’t we walk around?”

“Yeah, yeah! Let’s goo!” Pinkie cheered, tugging on Tsukasas sleeve.

“O-okay—! Alright, lets go.”

The blonde was dragged into the amusement park, being taken right to the ferris wheel. “We’re riding the wheel first?”

“Yup!” Emu nodded, leading them all into the gondola. She sat next to Nene, making Rui and Tsukasa sit next to each other.

As the ride moved, Tsukasa kept his gaze outside, watching as they got further and further from the ground. He took in the sight of the amusement park from above, wondering what ride they would be going on next. And as if his mind were read…

“What should we do after this?!” Emu suddenly asked, making Nene sigh.

“We just got on the ferris wheel, Emu..”

“There’s no harm in planning ahead, Nene.” Rui butted in. As the three conversed, Tsukasa watched a fast roller coaster hit its climax, speeding down the rails.

“We should go on that roller coaster!” He suggested, watching it in amazement.

“Ooh, that’d be so wooohoooo!”

“Eh…doesn’t that thing go fast?” Nene groaned. “I’ll get sick…”

“No you wont, Nenehhh! I won’t allow that to happen!” Emu squealed, and they all fell silent after that, enjoying the ride.

As Tsukasa took in the view of the ferris wheel, he couldn’t help but feel as if he were being watched. Specifically by Rui. He knew Rui was looking his way, and he assumed that maybe he was just looking out the same window..but he couldn’t shake the feeling. He turned his head to look at Rui, raising a brow.

Rui blinked in surprise, though smiled.

“What were you doing?” Tsukasa questioned.

“Looking your silly hair.” He responded, causing Tsukasa to pout.

“It is not silly..yours is silly!”

“I thought we ended this conversation before..” Nene groaned.

And as soon as they got off the ferris wheel, they were led to the roller coaster by Emu. They patiently waited on line, and Emu bolted to the coaster the moment they could. It seated two people in a row, so Nene sat with Emu again, leaving the two boys to sit together.

“You ready, Tsukasa?” Rui questioned, smiling softly.

“Of course! This coaster will have nothing on me!”

“I don’t know, Tsukasa. It goes pretty faaa-aast.” The purplenette teased in a sing-song tone.

He rolled his eyes. “Maybe for someone like you!”

Soon, the ride started, immediately going up. And up, and up, until it reached its peak. Tsukasa sucked in a breath. They were high up, and while he had been high in the ferris wheel, he knew what was to come after the coaster passed the peak of the rails.

The moment they started to go down, Tsukasa screamed like he was being murdered. He could barely hear anything other than himself screaming, though he could tell Emu was squealing and Rui was giggling. Nene was probably shutting her eyes or something.

“I thought you wouldn’t be scared?” Rui called.

“BE QUIET! I-I’M NOT SCAREEDDDD!” He cried out; but soon the ride stopped. It was over?

He blinked. Oh.

That was quick.

“Ah..um.. THAT WAS SO FUN!” He bellowed, laughing loudly to play off his former fear.

“..Never again, Emu, will I go on a roller coaster with this megaphone of a man..” Nene hissed as they all got off.

“What now, what now!?!” Emu squeaked.

“Why don’t we get something to eat? I know Tsukasa didn’t have breakfast this morning.” Rui smiled, glancing at the blonde.

“Yeah, because I was dragged out of my bed??” He huffed, though food did sound really nice.

“TAIYAKKIIIIIII!” Emu cheered, grabbing Nene’s hand and pulling her to a stand in the amusement park.

“I thought we were getting actual food..” Tsukasa groaned as they followed the girls.

“We can have a meal when we get back to my cabin, okay?” Rui promise, and Tsukasa nodded with a sigh.

Emu had already ordered them taiyaki, all of the same flavor. They all grabbed theirs, and they headed towards a bench. Tsukasa noticed that they all ate it differently—he ate it from the head, Rui split it in half, Nene from the tail, and Emu from the middle.

From the middle…that was weird.

This time, Tsukasa didn’t burn his mouth! He had waited until he felt the paste cooled off, and thankfully he wouldn’t have to be laughed at again.

“Is it just as good as our taiyaki from last night?” Asked Rui, causing Emu to tilt her head.

“You guys had taiyaki yesterday?! Without me?!??!” She pouted.

“Don’t talk with your mouth full.” Nene whispered, and Emu quickly apologized.

“Yeah, Rui took me on a walk so I could get fresh air, and then he bought me food. Taiyaki, specifically.”

“I wish I didn’t have to go home so early..” Emu sniffled.

“Don’t get upset, we’re having some taiyaki right now.” Nene smiled at the shorter girl.

“You’re rightttt, Nene! You’re so smart!” Emu quickly brightened up.

”So smart.” Repeated Rui, resulting in a smack on the arm from Nene.

They would finish up their taiyakis, Emu jumping up and stretching. “Now what do we go on?”

“Ah..I might actually throw up this time if we go on another ride..” Nene frowned.

“Ouh..that’s okay! We can always come back another time and do more!”

Tsukasa’s eye twitched. Not because he wanted to do more rides right now, but because he didn’t want to stay here forever. “Yeah, you guys can..but I’m going home tomorrow..!”

“..Tsukasa!” Emu frowned. “Can we talk in private?”

Oh no.

He watched as Rui and Nene exchanged glances of uncertainty.

“…Yeah..?”

Emu grabbed his arm and led him away from the other two, near the line of some attraction he hadn’t gone on today.

“Tsukasa..” she started, taking a deep breath. “Please stay longer!” She pleaded, looking up at him with big, round eyes in an attempt to persuade him. “Not just for me, but for Rui! You don’t understanddddd..he needs friends!” She blurted, exposing her friend. She was really just gonna admit how lonely Rui was, huh? She continued. “He likes you, I can tell! So please stay longer and be his friend! You’d crush him if you leftttttt! So pleaaaaaaase! For me, Nene, and Rui!”

Is she really sure Nene wants him to stay?

“But I have a family to get back to, and a restaurant. I can’t just stay for a week or whatever…”

“Write them letters! Or something!”

He glanced to the side. Was Rui really this desperate for a friend, and was Emu really going to be selfish like this and guilt trip him into staying longer because of that?

Yes and yes. And it was kind of working.

Not just for Rui, but because he wanted to see more of the kingdom…! And also because telling a royal figure “no” felt wrong.

“Fine..just a few more days. But I must write my family a letter soon. Preferably as soon as possible..”

“Really? YAAAAAY! I promise we’ll make your stay as wonderhoy as possible!” She cheered, hugging him tightly.

“Whats wah…won..wonderhoy?” He raised a brow.

“It’s the best thing ever! Lets go to the others! Nowww!” She grabbed his arm again, pulling him back.

“Rui! Take Tsukasa back home now! He has important business to attend to!” Nene jumped, taken by surprise by the sudden demand from Emu.

“What..?” Nene blinked, staring at Emu, confused.

“Emu, what’s going on? Can’t this wait till after we explore?” Rui smiled softly, raising a brow.

“She wants me to write my family a letter, I think..?”

“Yuuup! Go, go! Run run run!” She ordered.

Rui and Tsukasa looked at each other. Rui shrugged. “..Alright, little highness. We’ll be off now. Have fun with Nene, I suppose!” He waved to them. “Come on Tsukasa, so you can..write a letter.”

“I guess I’ll tell you whats going on while we head back..”

As they walked, their pace was quicker than normal, Rui taking Emu’s words of this being urgent seriously.

“Emu convinced me to stay all little longer, which means I have to inform my family so they don’t think I died..and she got so excited that she wanted me to go now.”

Rui blinked at the explanation, his eyes widening a little bit as if he were shocked. “Really..?” He muttered, before smiling widely. “That’s fantastic news! I didn’t know how we would show you all the wonders of the Otori Kingdom if you didn’t stay for more than just two days!” He beamed.

He seemed really happy about this..though it made sense, considering what Emu told him.

Soon, they were back at the cabin. Rui assisted Tsukasa in writing a letter, providing him with paper and pen. Tsukasa got to writing as soon as possible.

”Dear Mother, Father, and Saki,
I am writing this letter to inform you all that I am well. I’m really sorry for sudden disappearing, though it was not my intention at all. I went fishing so that I could have my own fish for my restaurant, but I happened to choose the worst day possible to do so. It was so stormy, and I hit my head on the boat and the waves took me to the Otori Kingdom. And apparently, I’m super far from home.

The princess of the kingdom and her friends are kinda holding me captive. Princess Emu made me promise to stay here a little longer, but I promise you guys I will write everyday and come back in a week or so.

If it comforts you guys, I am staying with a friend of the princess. His name is Rui. He seemed scary at first, and he’s kind of weird, but he was kind enough to let me stay in his cabin to “recover from injuries” that I am certain I don’t have.

I’m pretty sure it was one of their attempts to make me stay, but who knows.

There’s also another girl who is close with the princess named Nene. She calls me noisy and I don’t think she likes me all that much, but hey—you can’t win them all! I’m sure she’ll see my amazingness soon.

That’s all, though. I promise I’ll be home soon. I miss you guys a lot, and if these guys try to keep me here longer than we made a deal for, then I’ll escape on my own! ..But I doubt they’ll do that. They’re not creeps or kidnappers, I swear.

Love, Tsukasa.”

He sighed as he placed the pen down. He re-read what he wrote before standing up and finding Rui sitting in a couch in the cabin. “Where do I mail this?”

“Ah, allow me to handle this part! You just sit here and rest, I’ll take this.” He smiled.

Tsukasa raised a brow. “You sure..? If you just tell me where to go, I can do it myself.”

“You’re my guest—and besides, I need to talk to Emu about something anyway. So, it’d be easier for me to just go out and handle this. If you want, you can make something to eat in the meantime, or I can do so when I get back.” He offered.

Tsukasa kind of wanted to mail the letter himself still, in case Rui would read it. There was nothing personal written there, but still..!

“Alright..you can do it.” He caved in. “I’ll make some food while you’re out.”

“Perfect. Don’t burn the cabin down, Kasa!” He grinned, taking the letter and leaving.

That whole interaction felt kind of weird for Tsukasa. Maybe it was just him, though..?

He shrugged, heading to the kitchen. Time to do what he does best—cook!

Chapter Text

Tsukasa stood in the kitchen, preparing to make a grand meal. But as he opened the drawers and fridge to view what he was going to he working with, he was hit with a puff of dust.

Rui had absolutely nothing. Not even a trace of vegetables were to be found in this cabin, and not only were there no vegetables—but barely any other ingredients. Tsukasa was appalled.

Rui told him they would have food at home, and THIS is the food at home?? A half empty carton of milk, approximately seven grains of rice, and cereal? Oh, he almost forgot the one pound of rotten pork.

There really wasn’t anything for him make unless he wanted to contract deadly viruses. Which means Rui really just left him here for Miku knows how long, and told him to go make something while he waited..with nothing to make?

At least he knew he had something to tell Saki in the next letter, that his kidnapper was lacking in the food department.

..Seriously though, him and Rui needed to go shopping, preferably as soon as possible. Like, when the purple man gets back.

He supposed he just had to sit around and wait until Rui got back.

But what to do while he waited? Perhaps he could take a nap…that didn’t sound too bad.

He walked over to his temporary room, falling onto the bed and laying there, drifting into sleep within just a few minutes.

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟 𓆞

With the letter in hand, Rui strolled through the forest until he reached the pavement once again, and he made a left. He hummed a tune to himself as he made his way to the postal office.

…And while he hummed and walked, he wondered what this note contained. He was aware that Tsukasa wrote to his family to let them know where he was and that he was safe, but did he write about Emu, Nene, and even Rui—?!

He could feel his stomach flip, his heart feeling fuzzy.

Oh Miku, he has known this man for not even a week, only two days, and he is already head over heels. But how could he help it, when he was blessed with the opportunity to meet such a beautiful man?

But, with these fuzzy feelings came a sickening one, for he knew that Tsukasa couldn’t stay. No matter how much he loved the blonde, Tsukasa had a family to get back to, and a restaurant.

This was temporary. It wasn’t going to last.

He hoped his feelings would be the same. Oh, how it’d kill him if Tsukasa left and he yearned for him to come back…

He sighed, stopping in front of the postal office, staring at the letter. Would it hurt to peek at the contents within? He knew it’d be an invasion of his privacy but it’s not like he’ll have to see Tsukasa ever again after the week ends.

…yeah.

He gently undid the envelope, unfolded the note, and took a deep breath before skimming through the contents until he noticed his name. His name in Tsukasa’s note…

He smiled, starting to read what followed after his name, though his smile quickly dropped.

Tsukasa thought he was scary and weird?

Weird..?

He sucked in a breath. Being called weird wasn’t anything new to him. His weirdness is the reason why he has very few friends, only really Nene, Emu, and Mizuki, though him and the latter don’t chat too often, considering they’re in a whole different kingdom right now.

But hearing Tsukasa call him weird felt worse than any other time he has been called that name. It hurt, and why? He barely knew the guy! And he completely understood why Tsukasa would think such things of him.

He folded the letter up and placed it back in the envelope, entering the postal office with a forced smile. He should have minded his own business.

He went through the process of mailing a letter with the lady behind the counter, leaving as quickly as he could.

He needed to find Emu now, but where would she be? He left her and Nene at phennyland

She’s probably still there then, he supposed.

He made his way there. It was relatively close to the postal office, so the walk was not a long one. Now he just needed to determine where they might be at in the bustling amusement park.

He strolled around, keeping an eye out for the sight of pink hair and green hair, when suddenly he heard a squeal.

Emu’s squeal of course!

Now he had a general idea of where she was, so bless Emu for being so noisy.

He spotted her and Nene sitting on a bench together, giggling. He smiled at the sight of the two and sped up his pace. Emu noticed him and jumped up, causing Nene to frown.

“You’re back, Rui! You’re back!” She exclaimed, hugging him. He ruffled her hair. “I’m back,” he confirmed.

“How come?” Nene questioned, raising a brow.

He walked over with the pink leach still clinging onto him, making it so each step towards Nene was a waddle. “I needed to speak to Emu about something.”

“About what?” Emu chirped, releasing the purple haired man and taking a seat next to Nene again, pressing herself up against the green girl to make room for Rui.

“What you told…Tsukasa that convinced him to stay for a little longer.”

“Ohh, ohh..I just told him you’re a little lonely and want him to stay! And I told him that we’d all be sad if he left!” Rui could feel his heart stop. Emu exposed him??

“Why’d you lie…?” Nene groaned. “I won’t miss him.”

“…I don’t think you should have convinced him to stay. I think we should just let him go…” Rui’s voice trailed off. Normally Nene would agree with a statement like that, but now her brows furrowed and she glared at Rui. “Didn’t you want him to stay?” She retorted.

“Yeah! What’s wrong, Rui?” Emu pouted.

He sucked in a breath. “I invaded his privacy and read a part of his letter to back home, and he wrote about me. He said I seemed scary and was weird—and I know I am weird but hearing..or reading…him say it is just, I don’t know. I don’t want to hold him captive if he thinks I’m weird.”

“But if he didn’t write that you wouldn’t mind keeping him hostage?” Nene raised a brow.

“Not the point, Nene..” he sighed.

“If he thinks you’re weird, then I’ll talk to him and show him how wonderful of a person you are!” Emu exclaimed, throwing her arms up into the air.

“And, I don’t think he meant it like..seriously, you know? He doesn’t seem to have a big issue being around you, nor does he seem to care about sleeping in your cabin. I think he was just..saying it, you know? To describe you. I bet he called Emu noisy or something, and me rude…I mean, did he say things about us?” Nene added.

“I believe he did…”

“Then he’s just giving his family an idea of how we are. Don’t worry about it, Rui. And if he really does have an issue with you, then we can just kick his butt out of here, no problem.”

“Exactly!” Emu beamed, patting Rui’s shoulder.

“Ah…thank you guys for listening.” He smiled. “..but I should get back now. I told him to make something to eat while I’m out since I know he is hungry.”

“You what?” Nene blinked.

“I told the chef to cook..? Is there an issue with that?”

“You, Mr. IHaveNoIngredients, told an aspiring chef to cook?”

His brows lowered. “I don’t have..NO ingredients. Just no vegetables and very little anything else!”

“Which is practically nothing..ah, you better rush back home so he doesn’t kill himself when he sees what you left him to cook with.” She advised, and Emu giggled.

“I bet he’s maaaad!” She chirped as Rui stood up.

“Eughh, you guys are mean. I came here expecting you guys to help me out, and now you’re bullying me!” He frowned with a sniffle.

“We helped you, you big baby. Go, shoo.” Nene hissed. He flicked her forehead, stepping back quickly before she could retaliate.

“Heyy, no fighting!” Emu pouted, hugging Nene so she didn’t get up to hit Rui back.

“Yeah Nene, no fighting.” He smirked. “Bye bye, now!”

“Don’t come back again!” Nene called as he left.

“Bye, Ruiii!” Emu shouted.

And now he was on his way back home. He was, admittedly, still worried about going back there to see Tsukasa, but Nene was right. If he really thought he was weird, wouldn’t he try to sleep in someone else’s house.?

Yeah. Exactly.

And besides, he had to get home before the chef had a mental breakdown upon seeing his lack of ingredients.

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟 𓆞

Tsukasa eyes slowly opened, waking from his nap. He yawned, stretching and getting out of the bed.

He wondered if Rui was back yet. And to check if he was, Tsukasa exited the room he was sleeping in to check—and there the purple haired man was! Inspecting his kitchen…!

“..Rui? What are you doing?” He questioned, watching as the taller stopped looking at his cabinets and turned around.

“Oh, I was just viewing the ingredients we have. Did you cook anything?”

Tsukasa deadpanned. “No. No I did not.”

In response, Rui giggled lightly. “How come?”

“Because YOU need to buy ingredients! You were just looking at what you have, right? Isn’t there absolutely nothing to cook with?!”

Rui shook his head. “You must be blind, dear Tsukasa. There is more than enough to cook with! Look, there’s some bread..and some meat!” He smiled.

“You need to go shopping.”

“I don’t think so. I think I have enough!”

“I say you need to go grocery shopping and the guest is always right.” He argued, hands on his hips.

“Isn’t the saying ‘customer is always right?’ And in that case, wouldn’t I be the customer because you’re a chef and you were gonna cook us a m—“

Tsukasa groaned. “Be quiet! It doesn’t matter who is what! Can we please go shopping..?”

“But thats so much work..”

Tsukasa pouted. “You can’t even tell me where to go to buy ingredients? I can go alone if you do!”

Rui seemed to consider this for a moment, before speaking up again.

“..ahh, fine, I’ll go with you. I doubt you have enough money to buy groceries anyway.”

“W-Well! At home I do..!”

“And this isn’t home, so you’re poor here. And technically you’d be homeless if I didn’t let you sleep here.”

“Lets just go..!” Tsukasa huffed.

The two began their adventure to the market as per Tsukasa’s demanding. The walk was silent for the most part, neither of them seeming to know what to say until Tsukasa spoke up.

“You mailed the letter, right?” He asked, glancing at Rui. He nodded, though seemed hesitant to answer.

“..Yes, yes, I did.”

“Thank you then! I remember you wanted to talk to Emu about something after you delivered my letter. Did you find her?”

“Ah, yeah, I did find her. Her and Nene were still at Phennyland, hanging out.”

“They’re super close, huh?”

“Yeah. I’m happy for Nene.” He smiled fondly.

“How long have you guys known each other for?” He raised a brow.

“Since her and I were young. We’ve known each other since childhood, though we both got close to Emu about three years ago. Nene was scared of Emu at first, her being the princess and all, but they got really close.”

“I can see that,” he nodded. “Though I agree that Emu is a little scary..she threatened to behead me!”

Rui laughed. “She wouldn’t do that, I promise.”

They made it to the market. Upon arriving, Tsukasa immediately began collecting things he wanted buy, specifically ingredients for his favorite meal: ginger fried pork.

He also snagged a variety of vegetables, earning grimaces and looks of disgusts from Rui.

“What, are you allergic?” He questioned as he picked up lettuce.

“I might as well be..the taste of any vegetable is vile to me..with each bite I take, I feel my soul rotting away..!” He pouted.

…

“You are such a baby.” Tsukasa sighed. “You need to eat vegetables. Lets buy all this and head out, okay?”

Rui whined as they headed to the cashier of the shop and purchased all the items, including vegetables.

“You’re going to poison me…!” Rui sniffled.

“I don’t know what vegetables you’ve been eating, but I promise mine will be yummy. At least try it!”

“..Fine. I’ll try it.”

Tsukasa grinned. “Perfect!”

They arrive back to the cabin and Tsukasa immediately gets to cooking, making his specialty.

Rui leans on the counter as he watches Tsukasa get to work, admiring the way he focused himself on this so intently. A true chef.

“You’re just gonna watch me the whole time?” Tsukasa sighed, glancing at Rui.

“Do you want me to help?”

“..No, I’m good for now.”

“What, you think I can’t cook?”

“I’m trying to show off my cooking skills! If you assist me, then whats the point!”

“Ohh, you think I can’t cook..” he sniffled.

“Go sit down, I’ll serve you!”

He giggled, taking a seat at the small dining table. Tsukasa soon arrived with two plates of ginger fried pork. “Eat up!”

Rui eyed the plate, evidently thrown off by the side of chopped zucchini, though he did say he’d at least try it… he hesitantly raised the vegetable to his mouth, taking a bite.

“How is it?” Tsukasa asked, filled with anticipation.

“..It’s not bad. I don’t like the texture of zucchini..but..the way you cooked it makes it taste nice.”

“Because I’m a star chef!” He beamed, digging into his meal as well.

“You really are a good chef, Tsukasa.” Rui commented.

“Thank you, Rui! I have to be if I’m going to impress the Aoyagi Kingdom!”

“I’m sure they’ll be blown away.”

The two finished eating, and Tsukasa was about to handle the dishes when Rui stood up first. “I got this. You did enough by cooking.”

“Are you sure? I don’t mind cleaning u—“

“Shh! The customer is always right, remember?” Rui smirked, making Tsukasa glare at him.

“How does that—how is that even relevant?! Ah, whatever..”

Rui giggled as he washed the dishes.

“It’s getting a little late. Anything you want to do?” Rui asked as he finished up in the kitchen.

“I don’t know..ever since I got here I’ve been pretty tired. I guess getting knocked out on the boat did something to me..?”

“Maybe you needed this break from what you do at home?” Rui shrugged.

“..Huh. That could be true..but, the most I ever do is cook for my family and run errands for them. It’s not like I’m overworking myself! Maybe Nene’s potion is still in my system.”

“That’s a possibility but who knows? But if you’re tired, you can go to bed now. I don’t mind.”

He was about to agree when he remembered something. “I don’t have clothes to change into..”

“..Right! We were supposed to buy some today..are you alright with wearing some of mine again..? We can go out tomorrow to get you something.”

“I don’t want you to feel obligated to lend me your clothes.”

“You’re speaking nonsense. Besides, it’s for one night until we buy you more tomorrow.”

Tsukasa sighed. “If you’re alright with it..” He wasn’t really sure how he felt about wearing more of Rui’s clothes, but what other choice did he have?

Rui hurried and went to find something, bringing Tsukasa a shirt and a pair of pants. “Goodnight, Tsukasa! If you need anything at all, feel free to get me. And if I’m sleeping..which is highly unlikely…feel free to wake me up!”

“You better get some sleep tonight, Rui. We did a lot of walking today!”

“Yes, yes, but I do have a job to do. I’m a geologist..but once I finish what I have to do, I’ll get some sleep.”

“I’ll hold you to that. Goodnight, Rui!” He hurried to the bathroom, changing and preparing himself for bed. The clothes were, once again, quite large on him. And they smelt like Rui. Which was kind of nice.

Was it weird to point that out—?

..No. He was just stating a fact..!

He huffed, heading to the bed and curling up on it, trying to ignore his odd thoughts as he fell into sleep.

Chapter Text

Being early in the morning, Rui’s cabin was dead silent, meaning that Tsukasa could peacefully rest, getting a break from all the excitement that he had been put through the past few days.

Though, the whole boat ordeal wasn’t exciting, more so traumatizing in a way…

…Moving past that, it being quiet did allow Tsukasa the ability to rest, yet that is not what he found himself doing. He had awoken from his slumber for a reason beyond his knowledge. All he knew was that his body did not want to return to sleep, his attempts at shutting his eyes and going back to bed all failures. Instead he sat on his bed, his eyes flickering around the room for a clock or something to signal what time it currently was. Unfortunately for him, this room had no clock on any of the four walls, nor sitting atop a surface, making his only means of determining the time the sun in the sky. He was no sailor—something he learnt the hard way just a few days ago—yet by the look of the sky, it was around…8am, if he had to take a guess. Perhaps Rui had a clock in his room, or maybe every room except for this one. He sighed, stepping off the bed.

He stood there for a moment, beginning to feel somewhat uneasy by the silence of the cabin. Both times he had woken up in this place it was much more…energetic, the first time he was surrounded by an assortment of colored hair, and the second time he was pulled out of his room by the princess. This time, the house dead silent. Rui was most definitely still sleeping, which had Tsukasa wondering exactly how long Rui would be sleeping for.

He finally stepped out of the room, walking towards the entrance area, which was empty as expected. He glanced around, eyes searching for a clock, only to find nothing. What was with this guys cabin… He sighed, looking towards the kitchen. He was surprised he managed to cook in there yesterday, the area rather small compared to his own kitchen back home. But to be fair, he didn’t expect someone like Rui who didn’t appear to have anything to cool to have a grand kitchen.

He supposed it wouldn’t hurt to make breakfast.

Grabbing ingredients he picked up yesterday, he combined several things to create a pancake batter, grabbing out a pan. He inspected the pan, making sure there was no dust or anything before pouring some of the batter onto the pan.

As if he had sensed that Tsukasa was up and cooking, or perhaps he simply heard the noise of him in the kitchen, Rui stepped out from his room. “Good morning, Tsukasa,” he greeted, causing the blonde to jump and turn around. “Oh, good morning, R….” His voice trailed off, his brows lowering with concern.

Rui looked utterly out of it as if he had not rested at all last night. He appeared to have eye bags, ones much more prominent than before, and it didn’t help that he just brought up a hand to his mouth to yawn in this very moment. In addition to that, he had a pouch slung across his shoulder that Tsukasa had not yet seen him wear before.

“Rui!” He exclaimed, positioning a hand on his hip. “You look awful, did you even sleep last night?!” He scolded, causing Rui to pout.

“How awfully unkind of you, saying I don’t look good..so cruel. Though, your suspicions may be right…” he gave Tsukasa a small smile.

Tsukasa groaned, returning to making pancakes as he questioned Rui. “Why didn’t you go to bed? You were in your room, no?”

Rui stepped over to Tsukasa, leaning against the wall as he watched him cook. “Well, I’ve been rather occupied during day time ever since you’ve arrived, and because I’ve been too busy to do things in the day, I’ve resorted to working at night.” He shrugged, though quickly spoke up again. “I didn’t mean to make it sound like I was blaming it on you though, I apologize. I simply meant that I’ve been having fun with you and the other two which has been taking up my time. Of course I enjoy what we’ve been doing, but I can’t slack off.”

“Working?” Tsukasa blinked, cocking his head to the right as he looked at Rui.

“Ah..yes, working. I’m a geologist, though I specialize in rocks.” He smiled, reaching into the pouch he had slung around his shoulder and pulling out a small rock. “Well, I don’t know if I can call it working if I do it as a hobby..but still.”

Tsukasa raised a brow, staring at the rock that appeared to be ordinary. But before he could make a comment, Rui placed it on the counter, revealing the glowing purple star in the center of the rock. Immediately Tsukasa’s eyes widened, practically sparkling as he stared at the shiny crystal star. He reached out a hand to touch it before reeling back, looking up at Rui for permission.

Rui giggled lightly and nodded. “Go ahead, just don’t drop it.”

Tsukasa slowly brought his hand out again, putting the rock into his left palm, bringing it up to his eyes. His mouth was forming an ‘o’ as he inspected the rock, visibly entranced by it.

“You seem to like it a lot. Want to keep it?” Rui offered, snapping the blonde out of his trance. He shook his head fast. “No way, you worked hard to get this..or at least I assume you did..so you should keep it!”

“But Tsukasa, I didn’t spend all night just finding one of these crystals. I actually found three others. I wouldn’t mind it if you kept one. Think of it as..a delayed welcome gift to the Otori Kingdom!”

Tsukasa bit his lip, thinking. As guilty as he felt taking the rock, Rui obviously wanted him to have it, and he himself wanted it too. He couldn’t reject a gift!

“Fine!” He sighed, agreeing at last. “But allow me to repay you with pancakes and berries!”

“A fair trade.” Rui nodded, taking a seat at the side of the counter, watching as Tsukasa plated the pancakes, two on each plate, and sliced up strawberries and bananas, placing them along with whole blueberries onto the plates. He then served Rui, rather surprised that the taller would accept fruits but not vegetables. What nonsense.

Rui smiled. “This looks delicious, Tsukasa.” He praised, using a fork to dig in.

“Of course it does! It was made by the one and only Tsukasa Tenma!” He cheered, digging into his own plate as well.

They fell silent as they ate, though Rui would speak up just a minute later.

“So,” he started, glancing at Tsukasa. “Since you’re extending your stay, we aren’t in any rush to get you home, right?”

He took a moment to answer. “Well, I would like to get back as soon as possible..but yes, I am staying here for a few more days. Why?”

“Well, I was thinking that since your kingdom is far, we should get a head start on heading there in..two days? I know its a bit soon, but rather than taking boat, especially since none of us know exactly how to sail one and also since we don’t know if the weather will turn bad,” he paused, flashing Tsukasa a smirk that implied his words were targetted, “…we should go on a little adventure across kingdoms to get there! I wanted you to meet a friend of mine who is residing in our neighboring kingdom for now, and I know Emu would be up for an adventure, if she can convince her family to let her go.” He suggested.

Tsukasa’s brows furrows. “I—I know how to sail a boat! That day just…it was an unlucky day for me!” He huffed. “Though…an adventure..? I don’t know..wouldn’t it take longer than taking a boat?”

“Again, what if the weather ends up being poor sailing weather? I believe that an adventure may actually be quicker…if not funner!” He chirped, taking another bite of his breakfast.

He thought it over. If both Rui and Emu would want to do this, (he wasn’t sure if Nene would want to), then it would be awfully rude of him to shut them down. Besides, Emu would probably force him into agreeing to go on an adventure anyway. “..I suppose it would be more fun..would Nene want to do it?”

“We would make her do it whether she wanted to or not. And besides, I know she’d go if Emu was going. We do have to tell Emu soon if we’re really doing this, since she needs to talk to her family about it..”

“We can do it after breakfast.” The blonde suggested. “But, you spoke of a friend in the neighboring kingdom. Whats their name?” He questioned, finishing his breakfast.

“Their name is Mizuki. They’re a good friend of mine, and since we’d be passing through where they’re living, why not stop by and introduce you guys?”

“Mizuki..hm, I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to meet one of your friends!”

Suddenly his mind went back to when Emu was begging him to not leave. She had outed Rui for needing friends, and he assumed that she and Nene were his only ones. Perhaps she didn’t know about Mizuki?

He debated asking about this, though he didn’t have the chance to settle this mental debate when Rui started collecting the plates and bringing them to the sink.

“H-Hey!” Tsukasa exclaimed, jumping up from his chair and rushing over to where Rui was. “I’m the one who cooked, let me handle this!” He argued.

“Mm mm mm,” Rui shook his finger at Tsukasa. “Let me do this today.”

“You did it yesterday too!” He crossed his arms, glaring up at Rui.

“Well, you made breakfast for me this morning. Let me repay you, dear Tsukasa.”

Tsukasa paused, taking a moment to silently process Rui’s words. Dear Tsukasa? He rolled his eyes at what he assumed to be Rui teasing him. He sucked in a sharp breath before continuing to argue.

“N-Nuh uh! Your repayment was the pretty rock,” he exclaimed, pulling it out of his pocket as if physical evidence of its existence was required.

”I don’t think thats how it went..the rock was a gift, and the breakfast was the trade for the rock, not the other way around.”

”You..It doesn’t matter how it goes, let me pay you back for letting me live here!”

Rui sighed. “i suppose thats fair..” he pouted, moving away from the sink. “Go ahead, wash those dishes..”

“I will!” He beamed victoriously, Rui’s pout leading him to think he truly won. He pocketed the rock. But when he turned towards the sink, his expression darkened at the sight ahead of him. While they were bickering like an old married couple, Rui had finished washing the dishes…!

“You—!” He grumbled. “You’re so evil for this! I’m the chef, I should be handling stuff like this! Especially after you gave me such a nice gift!”

“Hm? But wasn’t the breakfast itself repayment for the gift?”

“T-That’s—so what? That doesn’t matter!”

“I think it does. You tried using it in your argument before. Are you saying it doesn’t matter when I’m using it? I think that’s quite rude of you.” He frowned, turning away.

“Agh—! No! Just..let me wash them next time!”

Rui froze in place, turning around to meet Tsukasas gaze yet again. “Hmm..I suppose I’ll let you wash the dishes next time. I can’t believe you made such a big fuss over some dishes though.” He giggled, raising a brow. “You are a peculiar man, Tsukasa.”

He gasped. “Me? Peculiar—?! Nonsense! I only made a big deal over it because it’s only right of ke to be washing the dishes..! And you can’t be talking about other people being peculiar…” he grumbled, voice trailing off.

“And what is that supposed to mean?”

“You know what it means.”

“Ah, your words feel like a bullet to my heart..you say things like this, yet you’re just as strange as the rest of us.”

“Am not.” He retorted.

“Are too. You should go get ready soon.” Rui swiftly changed the subject, and Tsukasa would have been frustrated if his confusion didn’t take over.

“Ready for what?”

“If you didn’t notice from yesterday, Emu gets very excited to come here early to check up on you. It’s very likely that she’ll come here in..” he pulled up his sleeve, viewing his watch.(so he has the time on his wrist, but not in any of his rooms..) “In ten minutes or so. She leaves her castle around nine, and she sprints all the way here..and unless you want to be dragged outside in…” he looked Tsukasa up and down, raising a brow. “..my clothes that are a bit too large for you, then I’d suggest you get dressed. I believe I set some clothes in the bathroom last night for you.”

“..They’re too large because you’re too tall,” he jabbed. “But ten minutes..That’s not a lot of time—! Ah, I gotta go get ready!” He exclaimed, hurrying off to the bathroom.

Like Rui said, there were clothes left on the counter in the bathroom. As odd as it was, the sight made him smile a little.

Rui was so thoughtful. Weird, but thoughtful.

Though, he did wonder when he’d be getting his own clothes back. Surely they were dry by now..

He figured he’d ask later, putting on the clothes he was oh, so kindly provided with by Rui. It appears that he noticed how big his regular clothes were on Tsukasa, so he must’ve given him something from his closet that was smaller, because this outfit fit Tsukasa better than the other clothes he had been given. After getting changed and striking a few magnificent poses to ensure that these clothes looked good on him (as if he couldn’t pull any outfit off), he began to brush his hair, ridding it of all the knots and styling it to perfection.

He finished up in the bathroom as quickly as he could, which was around seven minutes..a long time, but a star like himself had to look perfect!

He exited the bathroom, rushing to Rui, who was sitting on the couch. “Did I finish on time?!”

And as if she just knew he got out of the bathroom, Emu bursted through the entrance of Rui’s cabin, squealing when she saw that both of them were up. “Rui! Tsukasa!”

“Yes, you did.” Rui snickered as he watched Tsukasa get tackled by the shorter girl. The two fell to the ground, Tsukasa landing with a groan

“Gh..get off of me!” He demanded. “You could’ve hurt both of us! And I need to get home intact!”

Emu pouted, poking Tsukasas cheeks. “Don’t be such a sullen sally! Cheer up!”

He shook her off of him and stood up. Emu remained on the ground, poking at the floor now.

“Now now you two, don’t start fighting. Say, Emu, what are our plans for today?”

But before she could answer, Tsukasa interjected. “I need clothes!”

Emu sniffled. “It was my turn to speak…”

“Well, Tsukasa, I know I said I’d get you clothes, but do we really need to? Since we are going to go on an adventure soon, wouldn’t it be a waste of money to buy you clothes when you could just wear your own?”

Karma hit Tsukasa when Emu spoke up before he could. “An ADVENTURE?” She gasped. “Who? When?!” She scrambled up, pulling Rui’s sleeves as if that would get him to answer sooner.

“The four of us, in a few days.” He smiled, answering both her questions. “I suggested the idea to Tsukasa this morning because I believe it’d be a more exciting and efficient way to bring him home.”

“Can we go today? Pleaaaase?” She pleaded, giving him the puppy eyes she gave Tsukasa on the first day he arrived.

The blonde rolled his eyes. “No, we can’t go today! Thats too soon! Plus, Rui said you need to convince your family to let you go!”

“Aww..you’re right..” she sighed in defeat, releasinf Rui’s sleeves. “I’ll go ask them now so that we can head out as soon as possible!” She turned, sprinting towards the door when Rui called out—

“Hold on now Emu, don’t you want to help us convince Nene?” And with that, she whipped around, squealing. “Nene! Lets go to her house now!”

Rui turned his head to look at the boy next to him. “Ready, Tsukasa?” He asked, smiling softly.

“I’m always ready!” He declared. “Lets go!!”

And with that, the three of them set off to Nenes house, which was not very far. He hoped this small adventure to the divas house would be enough to satisfy Emu until they went on their real adventure.

They arrived to Nenes house, Rui knocking on the door with a peculiar pattern, one that Nene appeared to recognize, Tsukasa noted as he heard her stomp downstairs. She opened the door with a frown. “What now?”

“Nene!!” Emu beamed, pulling her into a tight hug —yet it was far more gentler than the greeting Tsukasa had received. Such blatant favoritism…

“Ah—! Emu..!” Nene sighed, a small smile creeping onto her face as she hugged Emu back. The smile faded though when Emu released her, a brow raising as she looked up at the two boys. “Please tell me I’m not being dragged out for something stupid..todays my day off.”

“Ah, we actually came here to discuss how you WILL be dragged out in just a few days for a splendid—“
“—wah, wah, wonderhoy!!!—“
“—adventure with the three of us.” Smirked Rui, giving Emu a fist bump for her very necessary assistance.

Nenes eye twitched as she processed their words. “An—an adventure?” She repeated before shaking her head. “No way.”

“But Nene, pleaaase? For meeee?” Emu begged, once again pulling the puppy eyes card.

“Yeah Nene, do it for Emu!” Rui chirped. “Don’t make her sad!”

Feeling pressured to give his input, Tsukasa spoke up as well. “An adventure with a star chef is a privilege not many people are offered!”

“..I’ll go. Only for Emu..and Rui, I guess.”

Tsukasa blinked before gasping, a hand flying to his chest, hurt. “What—that is so not kind of you!” He huffed.

“So not kind.” Emu pouted, puffing her cheeks out.

“Guilt tripping me into going on a dumb adventure with you isn’t kind.” Nene sighed.

“You’ll end up having fun, I’m sure of it.” Rui pat her head, and she retaliated by not-so-gently smacking his hand away.

“When are we even gonna go on this adventure..”

“I have to ask my family first..ah, I should go do that now! Do you guys want to come with me?!” She asked, and Tsukasa glanced at the other two. Were commoners such as they really allowed to go into a princess’s castle—?! Especially Tsukasa, who didn’t even live here?

“Your—your family wont have a problem with that?”

“Mm, Nene and Rui have come over before..I’m not sure about you, though! We’ll seeeeee!”

They didn’t even say yes though—yet, there was no point in mentioning that because the pinkette was already grabbing Nene’s hand a tugging her, Rui nudging Tsukasa with his elbow and catching up to the two girls.

He sighed, quickly hurrying over to the trio.

“Tsukasa’s gonna meet my brothers!” Emu cheered, still holding Nenes hand as she grabbed Ruis hand and swung them both.

Admittedly, he felt left out, but such closeness like this was to be expected from them.

“We should do that thing where you guys swing your arms in sync and make me fly in the air!” Emu chirped, causing Nene to pull her hand back.

“You’re way too old for that..” she grumbled. Rui, too, pulled his hand back, merely because Nene did. He instead patted Emus shoulder. “Its okay, Emu. I’m sure Tsukasa would be willing to help you soar. Right, Tsukasa?”

Tsukasa jumped upon hearing his name, taking a second to process what was asked of him. “Wha—make her soar? Thats—“

“Hm, you aren’t strong enough?” Rui teased, causing the shorter boys brows to furrow.

“I’ll have you know I’m plenty strong! Like Nene said, she’s too old for this!”

“I’m gonna ban you from my kingdom!” Emu retorted, crossing her arms. Tsukasa scoffed.

“So when Nene says it its okay, but when I say it its bad—?!”

“Mmmmmhm!” She nodded, tilting her head away to really express how upset she was. Nene laughed softly at Emus behavior.

“You should tell him about your family,” Rui suggested to Emu, causing her to completely forget about her angry facade. She looked at Tsukasa, grinning. “I have two brothers and one sister!” She exclaimed, continuing. “Keisuke is my oldest brother! He’s a little mean sometimes, but thats okay! Then Shousuke! He’s my second oldest brother..sometimes he stinks and calls me names,” she pouted, but quickly moved on. “Then Hinata, my older sister! She’s super duper nice, and she never, EVER calls me names!” She explained, clearly having a favorite.

“I can confirm her brothers are not a nice as her sister..it pains me just recalling how they yelled at me for bringing a small, harmless machine of mine into the castle…” he sniffled, wiping mock tears.

“As much as I don’t want to admit it, they had every right to yell at you..” Nene mumbled, rolling her eyes.

“Support me for once, Nene. That’s all I ask of you…” he sniffled even more. She reached behind Emu, flicking his shoulder.

“Your brothers don’t seem nice,” Tsukasa frowned. “Will they really let me inside the castle..?”

“It’ll be fine! And if not, I can sneak you inside!” Emu beamed.

“And potentially get us all in trouble by your supposedly mean brothers..? I think not..” his voice trailed off, before something clicked inside. He turned his head to look at Rui, the taller glancing at him as they walked. “Wait. Machine of yours?” He spoke up again, raising a brow.

“I didn’t mention it this morning? Ah, well, asides from rocks, I also take an interest in robotics and inventing. Its yet another hobby of mine,” he smiled. “Though, Keisuke and Shousuke seem to hate it.”

“They’re just smelly!” Emu huffed. “Your inventions are so super duper awesome!”

“I’m glad you think so.”

Tsukasa blinked. “You have to show me one of your inventions one day!”

“Soon, soon.”

The group continued to walk. Minutes in, the castle grew closer and closer, and as they reached it, Tsukasa’s eyes widened. He had been in the Aoyagi castle before, but this castle was so much more different. So much more bright and colorful, matching the kingdom itself.

At the castles entrance were two guards standing on both sides of the door. Emu happily skipped over, waving to them both.

Contrasting the Kingdoms vibe, the two guards appeared to be much more serious. They both nodded at Emu in greeting, then took a look at her guests. They glossed over Rui and Nene, eyes freezing on Tsukasa. He blinked.

“Who is he?” One of the guards spoke up—the one on the left side, to be exact.

“He’s my friend! And he’s also Rui and Nenes friend!” Emu beamed in response, looking up at the two guards.

Surprisingly, Nene didn’t disagree with Emus statement. Though, Tsukasa was sure it was to avoid an issue rather than her actually admitting shes his friend..

“His name, Princess?” The guard on the right questioned.

“Tsukasa.” He answered instead, striking a pose. “My name is Tsukasa Tenma!”

The two guards glanced to each other, the left one clearing his throat.

“Does your father know about this man?”

She nodded fast, lying without hesitation. Tsukasa only grew more scared—if they were caught lying, wouldn’t they be punished badly?

”Well, as long as your father is okay with him coming inside..” The guards stepped aside, letting Emu and her friends enter, eying Tsukasa as he did.

Upon entering, Tsukasa marveled at the interior of the castle. A huge chandelier hung above them, and a grand set of stairs was ahead.

“You guys hang out in my room while I talk to my family!” She (loudly) whispered, leading them up the stairs. Tsukasa dragged his hand along the railing as he climbed the flight. “This castle is so different compared to Toyas..” he mumbled, earning an unnecessarily loud shush from Emu, and an eye roll from Nene. Emu took a left turn, tip toeing down a hall before taking a right turn, and then halting at a door. She swung it open, motioning for the three to enter. “Stay in here! And be quiet!” She ordered, shutting the door and skipping away.

He blinked as the door was shut on them, before glancing around the room. Nene sat on Emus bed while Rui leaned against a wall. The walls matched Emus pink hair, though they were a shade lighter, and photos of the amusement park and her with Nene and Rui were scattered along the walls and desks, various plushies thrown onto her bed. One in particular caught his eye, a pegasus one. He gasped, running over to her bed, earning a weird look from Nene all the while, and he grabbed the plushie. “Oh my Miku..” he muttered, observing it.

“Put her stuff down,” Nene hissed. “You’re gonna sully her belongings just by holding them.”

“Oh, come on Nene. Let him have fun. He’s not doing anything bad anyway,” Rui defended him, earning a grateful smile from Tsukasa.

“I’m just wowing at the pegasus plushie! Did you know that my last name means soaring pega—“

“Yes,” she groaned. “I remember your unnecessarily long introduction..”

Rui cleared his throat, pulling their attention away from their bickering. “So, Tsukasa, why don’t you tell Nene and I how exactly this castle differs from the Aoyagi one? We heard you say that before.”

Chapter Text

Tsukasa would have disregarded Nene’s foul attitude and look of boredom as he rambled about how much his home kingdom contrasted this one if it wasn’t for the hint of interest he spotted. With every sigh from the diva as his words continuously flowed, he noticed she still sat there making no negative comments, eyes set on him as she watched him go on and on. As if she actually cared for his life back home.

So perhaps he let this realization get to his head—really, why wouldn’t he? Someone who acts like she hates him is discreetly showing that she actually doesn’t mind him! This only proves that he is a very likable man, something he has thought up until the day he woke up in the random cabin and was met with the green haired girls sour attitude. (a sour attitude that appeared to be a front!)

“The color, hm? You mentioned that the other day, I believe…something about this kingdom being way more vibrant than yours. That makes me curious…really, how dull is the Aoyagi Kingdom?” Rui hummed, bringing a hand up to his chin as he pondered.

He glanced around the room in search of an example for Rui, but to no avail. “I’d show you something for reference, but this room doesn’t seem to have anything but awfully bright colors everywhere…” Tsukasa sighed.

“For coming somewhere described as dull, you do have bright hair,” Rui piped up again.

“Surely you were seen as an outcast back home,” Nene added, earning a scoff from Tsukasa. But he didn’t let it get to his head—this was a front for sure, he reminded himself!

“For your information,” he started, keeping up a proud smile. “I was NOT seen as an outcast! You’re acting like I said my kingdom was completely void of all color, but I never said anything like that! It’s simply less colorful than this kingdom!”

“But did you stand out?” Nene questioned, avoiding eye contact and staring at her hands that rested on her lap instead. Tsukasa hesitated to answer, though he ultimately did. “..As a star, it’s only natural I stand out..!” He beamed.

“You stood out because of your hair, hm?” Rui smiled deviously. “So you’re just as eccentric as us.”

“As you. Not us.” Nene corrected, crossing her arms.

Before anyone else can make a comment, the sound of feet quickly hitting the ground was now audible, as well as the sound of a high pitched voice going “woo!” repeatedly with a 2 second interval between each exclamation. Tsukasa looked at Rui, who was looking at him. Tsukasa raised a brow and Rui chuckled, and then they both turned their heads to Nene, whos gaze was flickering between the two.

“I guess it went wel—“ Nene started, when suddenly the door bursted open. All their heads snapped towards the wide-open door, eyes landing on the very, VERY happy shorter girl. “Hugs for everyone!” She cheered, First bouncing over to Rui, giving him a big hug. He patted her head, glancing at Tsukasa and Nene as he mouthed “maybe it worked.” Then she ran over to the second closest person, who happened to be Tsukasa, with way more power, forcing him to stumble back and fall on his butt. Still, she clung to him. “Get off..! You’re going to hurt me!” He groaned, and she did get off! Lastly she sprinted over to her bed, which was where Nene sat. She leapt onto the bed, pulling Nene into a very tight hug.

“W-what’s with you giving everyone hugs—?!?!” Nene huffed, though she hugged her back.

She pulled back, climbing off the bed and bouncing up and down as her eyes flickering between the three. “Guess what?!” She grinned, letting out a giggle.

Oh, how could Tsukasa EVER guess what had happened? It’s not like she JUST went to ask her father for permission to let her go on an adventure with her friends, so she definitely didn’t get said permission.

Opening his mouth to retort with such an answer, Rui beat him.

“Hm..you really have me stumped, Emu. Is there any chance I could be given help? Perhaps…a hint?”

Tsukasa shut his mouth, staring at Rui. Surely he wasn’t serious—no, he couldn’t be. He glanced at Nene right as she rolled her eyes.

“Rui, just take a guess! Come on!” Emu urged, pouting.

Rui brought a hand up to his chin, striking that well-known thinking pose. He hummed as he thought, the wait for his answer feeling eternally long for Tsukasa. He felt more impatient than ever before. Finally, Rui gasped, making Tsukasa jump in surprise and Emu also gasp. Nene simply watched it go down. “You got permission to go on the adventure!” Rui chirped, earning a cheer from Emu. Her arms shot up and she ran over to Rui, jumping and hugging him— surprisingly (in Tsukasas opinion, considering the power of the hug), he managed to keep his balance. “You’re so smart, Rui! Nene and Tsukasa didn’t even try to answer! So poopy of them..” She frowned, stepping back from Rui.

Tsukasa frowned. “I was gonna answer but he cut me off..!”

“Excuses, excuses!” Rui tutted, wagging his finger in Tsukasas face. Tsukasa glared at him, about to say something when Nene cleared her throat. Their heads all snapped towards her, and she visibly stiffened.

“..U-Um. Well, if she has permission to go on our adventure or whatever, then..shouldn’t we get prepared..?” Nene suggested, staring at her hands as she fiddled with the hem of her shirt.

“Splendid idea, Nene!” Tsukasa praised, apparently too loudly for she covered her ears. He was being nice, and that’s how his kindness is returned—?!

“Well, what’s something we would need for this?” Rui hummed.

Tsukasa pondered for a moment before facing Rui. “Clothes.” He stated, earning a nod of agreement from Emu.

“Clothes..? I, ah..assumed we’d be fine in the clothes we already had.” Rui smiled awkwardly, a look of disgust from their pink companion being sent his way.

“But we will stink!” She pouted.

“Exactly. See? Emu gets it!” Tsukasa huffed, shaking his head at Rui.

Rui opened his mouth, then shut it, repeating this once or twice before ultimately speaking up. “That’s not what I meant..we have clothes at our homes, no? We could just pack some!”

“The only person who needs clothes is the dumb guy over here, Emu.” Nene commented, her head tilting towards Tsukasa. He scoffed at the targeted insult, a hand flying to his chest.

Emu shook her head at her. “We all need clothes! I don’t want to be stinky winky all the time and I wanna go shopping!”

Rui sighed. “Okay, okay. But only get one outfit, alright?””

“I knew my idea was super good!” The blonde boasted, beaming, though Nene immediately shut him down.

“Anyone could have come up with that…”

“Let him have his moment, Nene,”

“Thank you, Rui!” He smiled, earning a wink from Rui. The gesture made him feel a little fuzzy, but he moved past it quickly without giving it a second thought.

“Clothes! Clothes!” Emu cheered, tugging Nene off the bed. “Lets go now!”

“Emu, don’t do that..!” Nene groaned, seeming to get light headed from getting up so fast. She rubbed her head and pinched the bridge of her nose as Emu pouted, rubbing her back as an apology.

“I guess we’re going now then.” Rui raised a brow at Nene. “You okay?”

“All good..” she mumbled, shaking her head as she regained her composure.

“If we’re all ready, then lets go!” Tsukasa proclaimed, motioning to the door and waiting for his new companions to exit first. First Emu bounced out, Nene following her lead and Rui after her. Tsukasa followed after the three as they fled the castle. The blonde was surprised that this had worked—he was able to go in and out the castle without being yelled at by any of Emus family!

Now out of the castle, the troupe walked along the sidewalk together. Out of nowhere, Emu began to whine.

“Awhh..I just remembered that Mizukis gone again..! I wish we could have them tailor our clothes..”

“Even if they were in our kingdom still, they wouldn’t have enough time to make us all outfits before our adventure, unless we delay it, and I doubt you’d want to wait any longer.” Rui stated, earning a nod from Emu.

“Yeah..you’re right. I guess we’ll just have to get some boring clothes..”

“I’m sure they’ll have something you like, Emu..” Nene soothed, and Tsukasa watched as she hesitantly intertwine their hands.

The quartet would soon make it to the clothes shop, unfortunately not the one run by Ruis good friend Mizuki. Still, as Tsukasa stepped inside, he could tell that this place was, with no doubt, not a bad place to find clothes. Immediately, his eye was caught by a shirt with a small fish on the top right chest. While it was a reminder of the reason why he was here in the first place, he was still drawn towards said shirt, eyes practically sparkling with interest.

“Oya? It seems like Tsukasa has found something he likes.”

Unbeknownst to Tsukasa, Rui had followed him, making his presence known in a way that scared Tsukasa’s soul out of his body. He jumped, pulled out of his fishy shirt trance with an exclaim. “AGH! Don’t scare me like that!”

“I didn’t do it intentionally. Maybe be more aware of your surroundings,” Rui teased, making Tsukasas eyebrows furrow. Rui wagged his finger in Tsukasas face before he could speak. “Mm mm mm! Don’t give me an attitude, Tsukasa, I’m the one paying for your clothes!”

Tsukasa opened his mouth to answer, but ultimately decided to remain silent, as ordered by the taller.

“You were looking at this shirt, do you want to buy it?”

He nodded, beaming as his gaze returned to the piece of clothing. “I think I’d look dashing in this shirt!”

Rui appeared to hesitate before answering, Tsukasa noted, though he ultimately nodded. “Perhaps you would. There’s no way for us to know until you wear it, hm? Don’t forget to get a pair of pants too.”

Tsukasa nodded, strutting away to find pants. This article of clothing was much harder to choose, none in particular catching the blondes eye as he looked around. He ended up picking khakis. They were his size and looked good with his shirt, so he decided it’d be fine.

Rui seemed to have finished finding himself a shirt, strolling over to where Tsukasa stood by the pants. “Mind helping me find something that works with this shirt?” He held up the shirt in Tsukasas face.

“That is…” his voice trailed off, staring at the shirt. “Quite the shirt..!” He mumbled as he eyed the light blue shirt with the intricate design that consisted of darker blue triangles headed in no absolute direction, two yellow stripes running vertical, and dark brown linings around the neck and sleeves, which were, instead of light blue, a beige.

“Mm, it seems you don’t see its potential.” Rui hummed. I suppose I’ll just have to find pants myself.” He began to eye the pants surrounding them, eyes widening with an idea as they landed on a colorful pair of pants. Tsukasa could not let him do this to himself..!

“Rui..! How about you get these dark blue pants..! If you really wanna get this shirt, then you definitely should get these pants!” He held them out to Rui before he could grab the colorful pants. Ruis eyes flickered between his options before sighing. “Okay,” he pouted, accepting the dark blue pants.

“I don’t think two pairs of clothes is enough for me! Can I get another outfit?” Tsukasa questioned, glancing around.

“Oh, I forgot you don’t actually live here like we do.” He paused, thinking for a moment as he brought his hand up to his chin. “Hm..can’t you borrow some of my clothes again? I don’t think I have enough money to buy everyone two outfits, and knowing Emu she’d definitely want a second outfit if she saw you getting one, and then she’d force Nene, and then I’d be pressured into it.”

Tsukasa blinked. “You..can just predict whats going to happen?”

Rui nodded, a smile creeping onto his face. “Of course I can.”

“Whatever, I guess I’ll wear your clothes again.” He sighed.

“Don’t worry, I’ll give you the ones that don’t fit me!” He chirped.

He smiled, rolling his eyes. “Where are the girls at anyways?”

“Trying on clothes together, I believe. Emus idea. Nene didn’t really want another outfit.”

The two boys froze as they heard someone squealing.

”NENE! YOU LOOK SO CUTEE!”

“That must be Emu.” Rui stated the obvious.

“She’s gonna break Nenes ear drums!”

A few minutes passed and the girls finished finding their outfit, heading out of their dressing rooms.

“All done?” Rui inquiried, receiving a nod from both.

“Lets check out, then!” Rui smiled, fishing his pockets for a bag of gold coins. He pulled it out, viewing the contents to ensure it was enough as they headed to the counter to pay.

They all placed their outfits down on the counter, the price coming out to be lower than what Tsukasa expected, yet still a high amount. Twenty six gold.

Rui sighed as he handed the cashier the gold, putting his pouch away.

“You didn’t have to pay,” Nene mumbled as they all walked out together.

“Did you bring gold?”

“Well, I mean..I didn’t know we were going to shop..”

“I forgot my gold!” Emu beamed.

“We’ll..pay you back later.” Nene suggested. Tsukasa simply watched them, knowing there was no way for him to pay Rui back at all, at least not until they brought him home. All his gold was in his room, hidden in one of his drawers.

Or, he could just pick up a job before the adventure! He genuinely considered it before tossing the idea away.

“There’s no need for any of you to pay me back. Truly, it’s fine.” Rui insisted.

“If you say so.” Nene shrugged, the troupe standing outside the store. The sky had begun to darken, the sun sinking down in the sky, letting everyone know that it was getting late in the day. “I suppose Tsukasa and I should be heading home now. It’s almost dinner time.”

Tsukasa huffed, assuming that meant he was cooking again. Not that he had a problem with having to cook, it was just the fact that he knew for sure that Rui would, once again, steal his dishes and wash them before he could! That monster…

“We’ll see you tomorrow then! Ooh, ooh, are we going to go on the adventure tomorrow? Or the day after? Or the day after that? Please say tomorrow..” Emu pouted.

“Tomorrow is awfully soon..do you guys think we’re ready for that?” Rui hummed, thinking.

Nene glanced around at the other three before nodding. “I planned on making a few potions for the adventure to make sure we’d be okay..but I think I can make them all by tomorrow if I try. They’re simple ones, anyway.”

“The sooner we leave, the sooner I’m home, the better!” Tsukasa nodded.

“Then we’re all good to set off tomorrow.” Rui stated. “Let’s meet up at my house at nine in the morning tomorrow, okay?”

“Gotchu!” Emu beamed. “See you tomorrow!!”

“Make sure you guys get rest!” Rui suggested. “Ready to go home, Tsukasa?”

Tsukasa nodded. “I’m more than ready! I’ve been waiting ever since I got here!” Rui raised a brow before giggling at the blonde, causing his brows to furrow.

“Wh—what?! Stop laughing at me! I’m being serious!”

“I meant to the cabin, silly.” Rui smirked, a hand reaching up to ruffle Tsukasas hair.

Tsukasa froze, face flushing red with embarrassment. “Hey, don’t mess up my hair!” Tsukasa pouted, before lowering his head “I’m ready for that, too! Lets just go.” He grumbled, walking in the opposite direction of Ruis residence.

“Bye bye, you two!” Rui waves towards the girls, grabbing Tsukasas arm to swing him around so he was walking the right way.

“See you later, alligator!” Emu giggles, Nene simply waving goodbye, snickering as she watched Tsukasa be stupid.

“H-Hey!” He yelped. “What are you doing?!”

“You were going the wrong way,” Rui soothed, still holding Tsukasas arm as they headed the right way this time. He eyed Ruis arm, sucking in a sharp breath before dragging his gaze away.

The two arrived home after a bit of strolling, Tsukasa noticing the letter that laid on Ruis doorstep. He picked it up, spotting his own name on it. It was for him.

“Is it from your family?” Rui inquiried, glancing with his eyes as he unlocked the cabin.

“It is! Let me go read it in my room!” Tsukasa chirped, smiling as he ran to his temporary room. He sat in the chair in front of the desk in the bare room, opening the envelope with eagerness.

Dear Older Brother,

I can’t believe you went out fishing without checking the weather! And when have you ever gone fishing?!? No offense, but we should leave that to the professionals so people like you don’t get sent all the way across the globe! I’m happy you’re safe, though. Your disappearance almost gave me a heart attack, mom and dad thought I really was gonna die from how panicked I was! But I knew that you wouldn’t let anything happen to yourself, so I calmed down, and thats when I got your letter!

I also cant believe you met the princess?! Thats so cool! And she’s forcing you to stay..! Less awesome if you view it like that, but that just means she recognizes your amazingness and wants you to stay, big brother! :) I’m sure Rui isn’t that bad if the princess trusts him, and if Nene really doesn’t like you, I’ll kick her butt! Somehow!

But please, come home soon. I don’t want you getting hurt, Tsukasa! Mom, dad and I miss you lots.

Continue to update me on your vacay!

Love, Saki!”

Tsukasa smiled fondly at the paper after reading the content on it. His sister truly was the best.

He moved the paper aside, getting his own and grabbing the pen he left on the desk last time.

Dear Little Sister,

I received your letter! I miss you three as well and promise to get home as soon as possible. In fact, I’m actually departing tomorrow! Maybe it’ll be today by the time the letter reaches you..but, rather than getting home the way I got to this kingdom, the three I mentioned in my last letter want to adventure home, and it’ll supposedly be safer! I want to do everything I can to remain intact for when I get home, and if I got hurt on my last boat ride, I shouldn’t risk it.

But this means that we can’t exchange letters until I make a stop somewhere for multiple days (which I doubt will happen)..so I’ll see you at home, Saki! If I do end up having the chance to, I will send letters updating my status!

I’ll be home soon!

Love your older brother, Tsukasa!”

“Hmmhmm!” He hummed contently, folding the letter neatly. He exited the room, finding Rui, surprisingly, in the kitchen. He peered over the counter before speaking up.

“What are you making?”

Rui jumped, glancing behind him. “Ah, hi, Tsukasa!” He greeted. “While I may be no chef, I decided to try making pancakes!”

Tsukasa blinked. “But we had pancakes earlier..and pancakes aren’t dinner!”

“You don’t appreciate my cooking?” Rui frowned, making Tsukasa freak out.

“Thats—that’s not what I said! I’ll eat your food, I’m very grateful that you cooked tonight..! Just..”

“Just what..? Is it because you think you’re better than me?”

“No..no! Ah, stop making me feel bad!” He groaned, sitting at the counter and placing his letter on it.

Rui giggled, finishing up, drizzling syrup on the pancakes and serving Tsukasa. “Eat up! I promise breakfast tomorrow will make up for this measly dinner.”

Was he cooking again—?! Would he cook dinner for breakfast?? Tsukasa sighed, digging into the pancakes.

“They’re good, Rui!” He hummed. Admittedly, they weren’t as tasty as the ones he made earlier, but he wasn’t telling Rui that. It was the thought that counts.

“Thank you,” he smiled in return. “I wanted to give you a quick break from cooking, considering you made food for us twice already.”

“There really is no need for you to do that! I’m a chef, imagine how many meals I’ll be cooking at once in my restaurant.”

“Hm. I suppose you’re right, but I wanted to cook you something anyway, even if it’s nothing spectacular..and exactly what we had earlier.”

“Not true..it’s not exactly what we had..! It’s similar, just with less toppings!”

“That makes me feel much better.” Rui giggled, peeking at the letter next to Tsukasa. “Are you sending that to your family?”

“I am! I was wondering if I could go run and do it tonight? Or if you wanted to again.”

“Why don’t we do it tomorrow morning, when we’re heading out? Is that alright with you?”

He nodded. “That’s fine!”

The two would finish up there dinner—well, more like breakfast for dinner. Brinner?
Whatever it was, they finished, and this time Tsukasa jumped up to wash the dishes.

“Hah hah hah!” He laughed with pride as he scrubbed them clean. “I beat you to the dishes!”

Ruis bottom lip jutted out into a pout. “Awh.” He sniffled, leaning against the counter as he watched the blonde.

Tsukasa scrubbed the last dish clean, humming with accomplishment. He turned around to face Rui.

Rui pushed himself off the counter, standing straight now. “You should get ready for bed. We have a big day tomorrow!” Rui suggested.

“In that case, I need pajamas.”

“Already put them in the bathroom while you were reading your letter.” Rui winked. “You left your rock in there, too. Does it mean so little to you?”

Tsukasa blinked. “I—I did—?!” He checked his pockets as if Rui was lying. “Shoot, I’m sorry! I guess I just didn’t want to lose it or something! I promise I appreciate the gift lots.” He frowned, grabbing his letter from the counter to make sure he didn’t forget it.

“I know, I know. I’m just messing with you. Go get ready for bed, Tsukasa.” He smiled softly at the blonde, making his stomach churn a little.

“You better go to bed tonight, too.”

“I’ll consider it..”

He flashed the taller a glare. “Don’t make me force you!”

“Oya? I wonder how Tsukasa plans on forcing me to bed..perhaps I’ll just have to find out.” His expression turned into one of thinking, as if he was seriously running through every possible way Tsukasa could force him to sleep.

“Thats not something you’re supposed to want to find out!” He groaned. “Please, go to bed tonight!”

“Okay, okay, I will. Goodnight, Tsukasa. I’ll see you in the morning.”

He let out a sigh of relief. “Goodnight, Rui!” He headed to the bathroom where he changed, prepared for bed, AND grabbed his special rock.

Upon entering the room, he placed both his letter and rock on his desk, then got himself into the bed, pulling the covers up.

As he drifted off to sleep, he was able to recognize how comfortable he was beginning to feel here.

Chapter Text

A knock with a rhythm is tapped upon Tsukasas bedroom door, causing the blonde to groan. He was comfortable in this bed, surely a couple more minutes wouldn’t hurt. But the knocking persisted, followed by a smooth voice.

“Tsukasa!” The voice sang out. “Wakey wakey! We have a big day ahead of us, so you better get ready!”

Tsukasa huffed, sitting up and rubbing his eyes before stretching his arms behind his back. A big day ahead… He gasped, scrambling off the bed. Today was the start of his adventure home with his new friends…! He bolted out of his bedroom, eyes flickering around until they landed on Rui, who was about to enter his bedroom. “I have to get ready! Where’s the clothes I came here with?” He demanded, and Rui motioned to the couch in response.

“I’ll be gathering my belongings while you get dressed.” Rui hummed, and Tsukasa nodded, quickly grabbing his clothes. Oh, how he missed his beautiful chef outfit. His hat was there, too!

Rui paused, raising a brow. “Whats the big rush for?”

“You said we had to go get ready for our big day!”

Rui snorted. “Yeah, which meant that you needed to get out of bed and get ready so we could leave soon. I never said we were leaving in, like, the next two minutes.”

Tsukasas brows furrowed. “The way you said it had me thinking we were about to be late or something!”

“Late to what?”

“I don’t know, don’t we need to get Nene and Emu?!”

“They can wait until we get to Nene’s house. They’ll live if we take our time.” Rui smiled, before speaking up again. “Though I’m not actually sure if thats true..Emu may die of anticipation if we don’t arrive soon. So I suppose you were right in rushing. Good job, Tsukasa!” He praised.

Tsukasa rolled his eyes. “One, I’m always right. Two, she won’t die! Shouldn't a princess know how to be patient?”

“Oh, judging the princess of my kingdom now? Especially after we decided to accompany you on your trip home? Tsk tsk.” He clicked his tongue, causing Tsukasa to panic.

“A-ah..! That’s not what I meant..!” he freaked, resulting in a laugh from Rui. Tsukasa huffed. Rui was constantly messing with him, and really, he was getting sick of it! Their adventure was probably going to be full of Rui just bullying Tsukasa!

“Whatever!” He sighed. “Do you have a bag I can put stuff in for the trip?” He’d change the subject.

“You have belongings you want to bring on the trip?” Rui hummed curiously. “I suppose I have a bag you can use, but really..what do you even have that you want to bring?”

“You’ll see! Don’t worry about it!”

Rui raised a brow, evidently tempted to determine what exactly Tsukasa needed the bag for. But he didn’t push. “Go get dressed and I’ll leave the bag on the door handle.”

Tsukasa nodded, heading to the bathroom and doing his business, getting dressed. He was about to exit before he stopped in front of the mirror, taking a look at himself. He really wished he was home right now—none of his shampoos or body washes or face care stuff was here. He was lucky his body was able to maintain his beauty without that stuff for a few days, but it as only a matter of time before it began to hit! He adjusted his hat with a sigh. At least he’d be home soon..hopefully. He finished after a few minutes, exiting and grabbing the draw string bag that was hooked to the handle of the door.

Rui seemed to still be packing his own things, so Tsukasa took this time to grab what he needed and put in the bag he was oh, so generously given. He headed to the kitchen, rummaging through cabinets to find a frying pan. He smirked upon spotting it, inspecting it before packing it away in his bag. He wasn’t stealing from Rui, no—he was simply taking Rui’s frying pan with them in case they needed to cook on the trip! He would make sure to tell the geologist too before they left.

Rui finally exited his bedroom, a backpack slung over his shoulder. It appeared filled to the brim.

“What is in there..?” He gawked. There was no way they needed everything in there ..that backpack was FAT.

“Just the necessities.” Rui hummed his response. “What do you plan on putting in your bag?”

“Necessities my bum..! We don’t need all that..I’m actually going to bring the necessities! I was hoping you’d allow me to bring along one of your frying pans. I, um, actually already put it in my bag, but I should at least ask! We might need it in case we need some meals!”

Rui nodded. “Smart thinking, Tsukasa!” He praised, making Tsukasas smile grow wide.

“I’m always thinking smartly! Ah—let me grab something from my room before I forget!” He gasped, skedaddling to the bedroom and heading straight to the desk in there. He grabbed the rock with care, observing its glimmering star crystal with admiration before neatly tucking it away in his bag. Then, he grabbed his letter to his dearest sister, Saki, and he left his bedroom.

…

No, not his bedroom—he wasn’t going to be sleeping here anymore. Last night was the final time he’d ever be in this cabin, let alone this kingdom… he frowned. There was still so much to do here, yet he had to leave so early—but then again, he needed to get home to his family. And he needed to open his restaurant! Those things were priority, not leisurely hanging out in some random kingdom with people he just met!

So, he left the bedroom, heading to Rui who was putting his shoes on. “I’m ready when you’re ready, sir chef.” Rui giggled, resulting in an eye roll from the blonde.

“Don’t call me that. That’s like me calling you mister archaeologist.”

“I wouldn’t mind that.” Rui retorted.

Tsukasa’s eyes narrowed. “Okay, mister archaeologist! I believe I’m ready to go, then!” Can we also mail this letter before we part from the kingdom?”

“Of course, dearest chef. Lets get the girls!” Rui sang out, opening the door as Tsukasa hurriedly put his own shoes on.

“Wait up!” He barked as Rui walked outside, and he scrambled up to catch up with him.

“I was only going to wait outside. Don’t forget I have to lock the door, silly.” He teased, doing as he said to the door. “Now we can go.”

Tsukasa groaned. “Well—I never know with you!” He reasoned. “You’re unpredictable.” He huffed out. Plus, he barely knew the guy!

“Well, I care about my cabin not being robbed, so obviously I’d lock it.”

“Whatever.” He sighed. He saw no point in arguing with Rui. It’s not like he’d win anyway—Rui always had something to quip back with!

The two walked to Nene’s house, Rui simply barging in without knocking. Tsukasa wondered why the door was unlocked in the first place, but Nene probably knew that they were coming over soon so she left it open. They headed to Nene’s room, Rui opening the door without knocking. Again. There!the two girls were already hanging out at, seemingly finished with gathering their own belongings for the trip.

Emu gasped. “Rui!” She squealed, jumping up and running to Rui, hugging him tightly, her momentum allowing Rui to spin her around in the hug. Nene jumped, glaring at Rui. “You could at least make your presence known before entering my room like that.”

Emu got scarily close to Tsukasa as she was spun around, so he quickly hurried to where Nene sat on her bed. Rui giggled, patting Emu’s head as they came to stop. “Where’s the fun in that?” He responded to Nene, making her grumble.

Emu released her grip on Rui, eyes glimmering as they locked onto Tsukasa. “Hi Emu…!” He greeted, glancing to the side. He hoped that she wasn’t about to jump on him like she always does—-and suddenly, she leapt.

“Tsukasa!” She squealed, hugging him now. The impact made him stumble back. “Guh—!!” He groaned. Really, how did Rui catch her—?! Perhaps she went easier on Rui. But why?!

She released him, bouncing up and down now. “Are we ready? Are we going to go on an adventure now?!” She gasped, eyes widening with excitement.

“If you two are ready, then yes! I was hoping we could make a pit stop and grab breakfast before we go. I, ah, promised Tsukasa I’d make up for my dinner last night…and it’d be good for us if we got breakfast before our adventure. Plus, Tsukasa has a letter to deliver before we set off.” Rui hummed. Tsukasa waved the letter in the air to make its presence known, before safely tucking it in his apron..

“You? Making dinner?” Nene snorted. Rui put his hands to his heart, pouting.

“I’ll have you know I can cook, dearest Nene! But with the lack of ingredients in my house…I could only make pancakes. Which we had had that very same morning.” He sighed.

“It was still good..!” Tsukasa said in an attempt to make Rui feel better.

“Breakfast sounds great!” Emu chirped. “Where are we gonna go?”

“I was thinking that diner Minori owns.” Rui smiled. “Last time I was there, the food was delicious!”

“How long ago was the last time? 10 years?” Nene sneered.

“Just because I don’t go out constantly doesn’t mean I’m a complete shut in. I went last month. And you’re not the most outdoorsy either.”

“I’m outdoorsy!” Emu beamed, causing the two that were formerly bickering to laugh softly.

“I can’t wait to try out the food..! Maybe they’ll have a recipe I could try back at home..” Tsukasa gasped, mind marveling at the thought. He could impress his family back home with a brand new recipe!

“Let’s get going then!” Rui smiled.

“Pause.”

Their heads snapped to look at Nene.

“Yes, Nene?” Rui raised a brow.

“What..” she started, pinching her nose bridge before she even finished. “Why is your bag so big? What did you put in there..?”

“That’s what I said!” Tsukasa threw his hands up in the air. He was glad someone else noticed this!

“I said it to Tsukasa and I’ll say it to you—I brought only the necessities! You’ll see later.” He smirked devilishly.

“We’re not going to war, what could you have possibly put in there—?!” Nene groaned.

“Yeah, Rui. Please don’t tell me you’re going to work or something on the trip..” Tsukasa sighed as he thought about the archaeologist pulling an all-nighter the other night.

“Like I said, you will see. Don’t worry your green little head about it.” He teased Nene. Tsukasa felt wounded he was left out, but he quickly thanked Miku because Emu began slinging the words around embarrassingly! Whatever Rui was going to call him was not a nickname worthy of a star.

“Green little head!” Emu repeated as she laughed. “Nene has a green, little head! That’s so cutesy wootesy!”

Her cheeks flushed red. “Can we just go..?” She mumbled, her voice growing meek from embarrassment.

“Fufu! Let's get going.” Rui smiled, leading the way out of the green little headed girls house.

The quartet made their way into town from the woods where Nene’s home was.

“What do you guys plan on ordering?” Rui asked, though he was most likely only talking to the girls because Tsukasa had not a clue of what the menu contained.

“Hmmm!” Emu hummed. “I want a big plate of pancakes with fruits on top! And a smiley face of whipped cream, of course!”

“Mhm, mhm.” Rui nodded, looking at Nene to urge her on.

“Um. I’m not sure..probably just, like, waffles. I’ll see when I get there.” She shrugged. “What about you, Rui?”

“I would order a soup but I know Minori will be upset if she sees that I didn’t eat the vegetables—“

“So will I,” Tsukasa interjected.

“—so I’ll probably get french toast.” He finished, flashing a smirk at Tsukasa.

“You know, you should eat your vegetables now, in the morning, so you don’t have to later.” The blonde suggested with a glare. Rui shook his head.

“And sully my entire day? I’d rather not.”

“Then eat them at night!”

“But it’ll leave a bad taste in my mouth when I go to bed..!”

Nene sharply elbowed Rui’s side, eliciting a gasp of pain and a pout. His hands flew to his side. “How often do you even go to bed? Be quiet and eat your vegetables.” She hissed.

Tsukasa simply gawked at the two. She elbowed him hard, wasn’t he going to fight back—?! Tsukasa wouldn’t just take that if he were Rui!

“Oh, how you have hurt me, Nene!” He whined. “I don’t know if I can go the entire trip so wounded, let alone make it to the diner..! You guys…” he coughed. “Go..go on without me..!” He clutched his heart with his right hand, stopping in his tracks.

Emu gasped, hurrying to Rui’s side. “Oh no..! Rui, we can’t leave you! We need you for the adventure! Come on, push yourself!” She urged him.

He shook his head, continuing his show. “I..I can’t, Emu…I fear my time has come…”

Nene’s eye twitched. “Rui, come on. We’re wasting time. Remember, Tsukasa here just wants to get home soon.”

“You..did hit him really hard. Is he actually hurt?” Tsukasa frowned.

“He’s not.” She simply answered, crossing her arms.

“He is! He is! We need someone to carry Rui!” Emu suddenly declared. “Tsukasa, you’re the tallest out of us three and I’m sure you’re super duper strong!”

“Naturally.” He nodded, smirking as he was about to flex his muscles when Nene pushed his arm down.

“Help Rui to the diner!” Emu wailed.

“Wh—what—?! I have to carry him?”

“Yes, Tsukasa..you must carry me to the diner, otherwise I may have to be left here…!”

“Rui, be quiet and get yourself together. Your little acting show isn’t amusing anyone.” She glanced at Emu. “Except for her.”

“One person can still make an audience.” He stated with a chuckle, giving Emu a thumbs up. “I’ll be paying for her meal. You guys have to pay for yourselves for being losers.”

“??? I was concerned about you!” Tsukasa barked, brows furrowing.

“But you didn’t want to carry me!” He sighed.

“He’s joking, Tsukasa.” Nene sighed, irritated. “He’s only buying you food. Emu and I brought our own gold.””

“Don’t out me like that, Nene. I was having fun.” Rui huffed as they began to walk again.

“Fun deceiving me—?!” Tsukasa hissed. “You’re cruel.”

Rui simply laughed.

They arrived at the diner, Rui rushing to the door to open it for his friends.

“You don’t need to do all that.” Nene snickered.

“Oh? Is there something wrong with being a gentleman?” He smiled, flicking her forehead as she walked through the door. Then Emu followed, pouting at Rui for hurting Nene despite how she hit him earlier, and then Tsukasa.

“Thank you, Rui!” He beamed, earning a wider smile from Rui.

“Of course, sir chef.” And of course, Tsukasa's smile dropped.

As they all walked in, a short brown haired girl rushed over to greet them. “Hello!” She beamed. “Good morning! A table for four?” She questioned, tilting her head.

Rui nodded. “Yup.”

“Great!” She grabbed four menus. “Follow me to your table! Oh, oh— would you guys prefer a booth or an actual table? You can choose either because there’s not really anyone else here at this hour! Especially on a Wednesday.” She hummed.

Nene blinked, averting her gaze. She seemed nervous. Tsukasa assumed she was maybe overwhelmed by Minori’s enthusiasm?

Rui glanced at the other members in the quartet. “We’ll take a booth if that’s alright by you?” He answered, and she nodded enthusiastically. “Follow me then!” She smiled, leading the way. Whilst leading them, her foot happened to knock into a stray chair leg, causing her to stumble forward. She didn’t fall, but she dropped the menus. “A-ah—! Fudge!” She mock-swore, crouching to hurriedly pick up the menus. When she stood back up she seemed visibly panicked. “I’m—I’m so sorry..! Your booth is right here..” she mumbled, voice trailing off.

Tsukasa shook his head. “It’s alright, ma’am!” He assured.

“Yeah!” Emu piped up. “Stuff happens!”

Rui only smiled as he pushed in the chair after Minori, then followed suit to the booth.

Minori smiled softly, seemingly grateful of their kindness. “I’ll…give you guys a few minutes to decide on a drink before I come back!” Placing the menus in their designated spots, she hurried off.

Nene and Rui took the seats touching the wall, Emu sitting next to her partner and Tsukasa sitting next to Rui. Tsukasa took a menu and scanned through it. He wasn’t looking for something like rice..no, he wanted something different. Rui did mention french toast… his eyes locked onto the bold text on the menu that read “BREAKFAST” and he quickly found french toast bites. Was this what Rui was going to order? The description mentioned bananas , strawberries, and blueberries—it really did sound delicious! He placed his menu down, glancing at Rui and unintentionally locking eyes with him.

“Do you know what you want to get?” Rui smiled, placing his menu down, on top of Tsukasas.

“Yup! I want to get french toast bites!”

“Oh? I planned on getting that but they have a lot of food and I fear I wouldn’t be able to finish it..” Rui sighed dejectedly, placing his chin in his palm as his elbow rested on the table.

“You guys can share!” Emu suggested.

Tsukasa thought about it. Wasn’t sharing food like, a couple thing—?! He supposed it didn’t have to be, but was he really willing to share food with a guy he just met?

Well, he was going to have to get to know him if they were traveling together. “If Rui doesn’t mind then I don’t either. I’m not sure if I’ll eat it all myself anyway!”

That was true. He wasn’t feeling too hungry this morning. It’d be a waste of food if he ordered a meal he knew he wouldn’t be able to finish.

Rui blinked, giving Emu a bewildered look as Nene covered her mouth. What was so strange and funny?

“I don’t..I don’t have an issue with it. It’d help me save money, too.” Rui nodded. “Good idea, Emu.”

“Yup! You’re totes welcome!” She chirped.

“To save even more money, you should share a drink, too.” Nene snorted. Ruis cheeks seem to be tinted red now. Poor guy, they were embarrassing him!

Tsukasa shook his head quickly. He was going to reject the offer to save Rui from his embarrassment! “I’m okay! That’s unsanitary.” He stated.

“Are you calling me nasty? How rude.” Rui sighed. “But I wouldn’t…want to share a drink, either. I don’t think one glass is enough for two people, anyway.”

“Maybe Nene and I should share a meal to save gold, too!” Emu piped up, turning to face Nene.

“Are we even ordering the same food..? I thought you were getting some childish pancake combo thing…” Nene mumbled, raising a brow.

“I’m sure whatever Nene is getting will be yummy! You always have great taste!” She giggled, smiling widely at Nene.

The green haired ones cheeks flushed red. “J-Just get your own meal..you seemed eager about it before. We don’t have to worry about saving gold. Especially you, Emu.”

“Yeah, aren’t you a princess? You probably have a room full of gold in your castle!” Said Tsukasa, and he couldn’t help but imagine it in his mind.

“On this adventure, I’m no longer a princess. I’m just Emu!!” She huffed, crossing her arms.

Shoot! Tsukasa forgot he can’t refer to her as a princess to her face or else she’d get mad. “Sorry, um, Emu!” He quickly apologized, afraid of what exactly she’d do if he slipped up again. As cutesy as she was, he felt like messing with her was a poor decision.

“I forgive you!” She beamed, clearly over her former frustration.

As the four engaged further in conversation, Minori soon returned, visibly less distressed than she was before. “Hi guys!” She greeted. “Can I get you four started with some drinks?” She’d tilt her head, pulling out a small notepad.

Nene and Emu shared glances and Enu whispered something in the others ear. As the two quickly conversed, the boys took it upon themselves to order first.

Tsukasa watched as Nene shook her head and Emu sighed, and he was able to hear the latter whisper; “No milkshake, then…” and then the rest of the whispering was inaudible l.

“Yup! Can I get a water, please?” Tsukasa smiled, and she’d nod, her gaze moving to Rui.

“May I get an espresso?” Rui’d ask and she’d nod again. “Of course!”

“May I get a, um..water..” Nene’s voice trailed off, and Emu gave her a weird look. Nene’s gaze dropped to her hands which rested on her lap.

“I thought you were getting a latte?” She mumbled to the green headed one. “So you could stay awake, you said..” Tsukasa assumed that the whispering before was about drinks, then.

Rui raised a brow, amused at the situation. Yet Tsukasa could see a hint of concern in his expression.

Nene shook her head, eyes locked onto her hands. Emu huffed, though smiled widely at Minori. “Hi hi! Can I pretty please get a vanilla latte?” Nene’s head snapped up to give Emu a baffled look.

“Of course!” Minori chirped, writing down the last drink and giving them a thumbs up. “I know it’s soon, but have you guys decided on meals yet? I can come back later if not!”

“I believe we are all set!” Tsukasa declared, glancing over all the heads at the table to confirm. “I’ll start us off, as a star chef should. May Rui and I get one plate of french toast bites? The ones with the berries?” He smiled as he ordered. “We will be sharing!” He’d announce, missing the way Rui covered his mouth and turned away to face the window on the wall.

Nene seemed to have cooled down, for she let out a light laugh, though Tsukasa didn’t know what at.

“You got it!” Minori nodded, scrambling to write down the first order.

“Me next, miss Hanasato!” Emu piped up. “I would like the LOVE SMILE pancakes, please!”

Minori let out a hum of acknowledgement as she wrote it down. Tsukasa peered onto one of the menus—the LOVE SMILE pancakes were three chocolate pancakes stacked on top of each other, decorated with strawberries and bananas and a smiley face of whipped cream, if the image was anything to go off of.

“‘I’ll just have one waffle, please..” Nene requested, and Minori gave her a soft smile.

“Awesome! Your meals will be done soon—though, sir,” she paused, Tsukasa meeting her gaze. “You said you were a star chef, correct?” She asked as if his apron didn’t give it away.

He’d nod, a pride-filled expression taking over his face as a hand flew over his heart. “I am!”

“Wow..! Now I really gotta make sure the food is in tippy top condition..! I can’t disappoint!” She gasped, a determined look on her face. She collected the menus and quickly scurried off, presumably handing the orders in.

“Ooh, the already-delicious meals are going to be extra yummy because you’re here,” Rui teased. “I need to bring you more often.”

How bittersweet, Tsukasa thought. He truly wouldn’t mind coming back here with Rui (if the food was good, though he didn’t doubt it), but there was no way he could. Not if he was leaving today. He frowned, coolly playing it off as annoyance.

“Hey, don’t abuse my star-powers.” He huffed. “That makes it seem like you don’t enjoy my company and are instead using me!”

“Ah!” Rui gasped, eyes widened as his hands flew up in a guilty fashion. “You’ve caught me..”

“Rui! He’s our visitor, you can’t feel that way!” Emu whined, crossing her arms.

“That—you shouldn’t feel that way about anyone!” Tsukasa retorted, earning a giggle from Rui. “My apologies, sir chef.”

“Okay, mister archaeologist.” He returned the nickname sourly.

“You hear them, Nene? They have nicknames for each other! I want to do that with you!”

“I don’t think Tsukasa feels fondly of the nickname Rui has given him.”

Emu frowned. “So..no nicknames?”

Nene paused before sighing. “If you can come up with a good one, then sure. Make sure it's not embarrassing, otherwise I’m shutting it down.” She directed, and Emu nodded. “I gotchu! I’ll be brainstorming!”

“I don’t see why you’re so annoyed by the nickname.” Rui spoke up.

“Because sir chef hardly captures my elegance! Maybe you should use Sir World Future Star Chef instead!” He suggested with a smirk, proud of himself for coming up with that on the spot.”

“That’s far too many words, sir chef. I’ll just shorten it to sir chef, sir chef!”

“ARGH! Stop repeating it!” Tsukasa growled, glaring at Rui.

“Oh, how my heart aches…you don’t appreciate the nickname I so kindly came up for you..and instead you want to replace it with a mouth-sore type name! Remind me to never try and be nice, ever again..oyoyo..!” He’d let out very obvious crocodile tears, covering his eyes with his hands as he sniffled. Nene kicked him from under the table, not too hard.

“And now I’m being attacked by my good childhood friend! Oh, the agony..!”

“Stop hurting Rui!” Emu cried out. “Emotionally and physically! He’s done nothing wrong, he just wants to be a good friend! Stop, or I’ll be sad, too!”

Tsukasa could see Rui stifling a laugh at Emu’s defense for him. She was acting as a mediator as if she was even that tame of a person!

“Fine, whatever..” Tsukasa grumbled, flashing Rui a glare. Again, he didn’t want to mess with Emu…so the most reasonable thing to do was oblige.

Nene remained silent, rolling her eyes at Emu’s whine.

Minori was back again with the drinks, interrupting their friendly banter. “A water for you, star chef,” she’d place a cup, the name making Tsukasa grin from ear to ear. At least someone here respected him and took him seriously! “And an espresso for you,” she’d hand Rui the drink. “A latte for you,” she’d place it in front of Emu, who immediately slid it over to Nene without a seond thought. Minori paused, eyes flickering between the two girls before she placed the water in front of Emu. “Did I get the orders wrong..? I could’ve sworn..”

It seemed like Minori missed how Emu called out Nene for not getting a latte earlier.

“No, no! I ordered the latte for her because she forgot.” Emu smiled, reassuring the waitress. “O-oh—! Would you like a drink then? I hadn’t realized..”

“The water is fine!” She promised.

Minori looked at her, unsure for a second before nodding. “Okay! The food will be done soon, and then you all can feast!”

“Thank you, ma’am!” Tsukasa grinned.

She’d head back to the front of the diner, noticeably stumbling over her own feet a little.

“I didn’t take you for an espresso guy.” Tsukasa eyed Rui’s drink.

“Oh? What’d you take me for, then?”

“…I didn’t really think about that,” he started, thinking for a moment. “But maybe black coffee.”

Rui playfully gagged and Nene scrunched her nose up with disgust. “Eugh. That’s far too bitter for me. I prefer sweet treats, though I’m only drinking this to ensure I will be staying awake the entire day.”

“Toya, the prince of my kingdom, likes black coffee! He’s always drinking it…and why am I not surprised you like sweet stuff…you’re like a child. You don’t eat vegetables but you eat sweets.”

Rui sighed. “How you wound me.”

Tsukasa’s attention turned to Nene. The question he was about to ask was quite out of the blue, but it was something he noticed before. “Nene, does Minori make you nervous?” Tsukasa suddenly asked, earning a look from all three of his new friends. Rui’s look was a slightly shocked one, presumably at the unwarranted question, Nene’s was a suprised and sheepish one, cheeks flushing red though her brows lowered as if agitated, and Emu was just looking at him.

“N-no—that's not..” she mumbled, not finishing her sentence.

“I’m not gonna laugh if she does,” Tsukasa urged.

“I’m not scared of her.” She stated, voice raising slightly. “She’s nice.” She added as if adding evidence to the claim.

“But you—“ he stopped, Rui gently kicking him from under the table. Tsukasa raised a brow and Rui shook his head.

“She said she’s not scared, so she’s not scared, yes?”

“..right. I was just wondering because you didn’t order your original drink.” He’d shrug. “I didn’t mean any harm!”

He wasn’t expecting her to answer the question, but after a moment she did.

“…not scared. I was just overwhelmed.” She mumbled.

“Nene’s not a scaredy cat! She’s very brave and cool!” Emu piped up, wrapping her arm around Nene’s waist and pulling her into a hug from where they sat. Nene let out a shocked noise, trying to push Emu off of her. She’d fail to do so, giving in to the hug.

“Oh. Oh! I see!” Tsukasa nodded. By the way Rui reacted and by the tone of Nene’s voice, he decided not to persist, lest he make everyone upset and uncomfortable.

Emu finally released Nene, and began kicking her feet under the table. Tsukasa knew this because he was the one getting kicked, rather than the air.

“Emu, please stop kicking me.” He’d politely request.

“Oh, oh, sorry!” She beamed, either stopping her movements or lessening her range—Tsukasa didn’t know and didn’t care, as long as she was not hitting him.

Rui began kicking his feet, and Tsukasa knew this because he was purposefully aiming them to the right, exactly where Tsukasa’s legs were.

“Rui.” He scowled. “Stop that!”

“You ask her so politely, but not poor me..!” Rui pouted.

“Yeah, because she wasn’t doing it on purpose!” He hissed.

“How do you know that?”

“Because she's already facing me. You literally have to angle your legs to kick me.” He stated, and Emu began to swing her feet at him again.

“Emu, quit it!” He huffed, crossinf hid arms.

“Oh, shoot! I didn’t mean to do it again!”

He heard a soft laugh come from Nene’s direction. Of course she was finding this entertaining..she loved seeing him be bullied!

“Maybe stop kicking your legs,” he advised, which only made Emu frown further. “But it’s fun…”

“But it hurts me!” He argued.

And of course Rui kicked him again.

“Rui, I swear to Miku..!”

“Guys, please stop raising your voices in a diner.” Nene spoke up, staring directly at Tsukasa.

She was targeting him! Of course she was—and he wasn’t even that loud!

…was he?

“I wasn’t raising my voice..” he’d say defensively, and Nene gave him a look of uncertainty.

“You sure about that, oh, grand chef?”

She called him a grand chef..! Not with good intentions, but she still said it! He supposed he could void the condescending tone and instead take the compliment to his ego!

“I am sure!” He nodded. He was not sure, but whatever, she didn’t have to know that!

“She’s right. You’re sooo noisy, Tsukasa.” Rui hummed, extending the “o” in so to further tease Tsukasa, then taking a sip of his espresso.

“Because of you kicking me!” He sighed. There really was no point in arguing anymore…

Thankfully the food came out before things could escalate. It was comedic how Minori always came back when they were bickering—though he supposed that meant they fought quite a bit. All friendly though!

Minori places the plate full of french toast bites and berries in front of the two boys, Tsukasa's eyes widening at the amount of food. “Wow..” he muttered.

“I definitely wasn’t eating all this on my own,”
Rui snickered, licking his lips.

Minori then gave the girls their respective meals—Nene with her waffle and Emu with her LOVE SMILE pancakes, which were just like the image Tsukasa saw, down to the smiley face of whipped cream. Cute, but sugary.

His french toast bites were no better, but he wasn’t eating the whole thing, and the fruits helped..!

“Enjoy!” Minori flashed a smile before departing. Tsukasa grabbed his fork, Rui doing the same, and they each stabbed a french toast bite

“Cheers!” Rui grinned, clinking his food with Tsukasa's gently as to not knock it out of his hand. “Cheers!” The blonde would repeat, and they bit into their french toast at the same time.

“This is delicious!” Tsukasa gasped, quickly picking up another piece to devour it as well. Truly, the cooking here already seemed phenomenal, he needed to learn how to cook this just like that so he could impress his customers back at home!

“I agree. The chefs here really are talented,” Rui smiled, continuing to eat.

Tsukasa watched as Emu urged Nene to sip her latte, the green one’s cheeks tinted pink as she did so. She slid the latte over to Emu for her to try, and when she did she smiled. “Yummy! Good order, Nene!”

“You’re the one who ordered it..”

“Because you wanted it, silly!” She giggled.

“I can’t wait to get home and cook glorious meals like this one, and blow people away just like I am!” Tsukasa’d boast, quickly imagining himself in his kitchen back home making the same meal he was currently eating with Rui.

“I’d love to try your cooking.” Rui glanced at Tsukasa, their gazes locking. “I bet it’s delicious.”

“I suppose you’ll just have to come to my restaurant and find out for yourself!” He’d hum. “But yes. My cooking is fantastic, if I do say so myself.”

Rui chuckled. “Quite the proud one, aren’t you?”

“It’s hard not to be when you’re as talented as I am.”

“It’d be embarrassing if you hyped yourself up only to suck,” Nene’d comment.

“If I sucked, I wouldn’t hype myself up. Duh!” He’d smirk. “A world future star chef has to be good, and I know my worth.”

“Right.” She murmured before continuing to eatz

As they ate, the sound of metal utensils hitting plates filled the atmosphere, save for the occasional conversation. They all had manners though (for the most part) and did not talk when their mouths were full, which was practically the whole time.

“Are you really going to finish all of that?” Tsukasa raised a brow, eyeing Emu’s half gone plate of pancakes.

“Of course! I don’t waste good food!” She’d say, cheeks stuffed with food.

“Swallow before you respond..!” He reprimanded. “That’s poor dining table etiquette.” A princess should know this, he thought but left unsaid. Like she said, on this adventure she was not a princess. She was just Emu.

One last french toast bite was left (yes, all the fruits were gone. Objectively the most tasty part, or so Tsukasa thought.) Tsukasa wasn’t full, he still had room for another bite, but if Rui wanted it he’d give it up for him. He was paying afterall.

“Do you want this?” Rui spoke first, motioning to the last piece with his own fork. Tsukasa shook his head. “If you want it you can have it!” He urged.

“As you are the guest, it’s only right I offer it to you.” He smiled. “If you weren’t a guest, I’d gladly eat it, even if you wanted it.” He giggled with a wink, an action that made Tsukasa’s cheeks tingle a little. Maybe he really was hungry for that last bite.

“We can split it,” Tsukasa offered. “So neither of us go hungry.”

“I don’t think either of us were going to go hungry no matter what, but great idea nevertheless.” Rui brought his knife to the french toast bite, holding it down with his fork as he evenly sliced it.
“There.”

Tsukasa smiled softly at Rui as thanks before eating his last bite. Delicious, as were all the other bites.

“Thank you, Rui.” He earnt a nod in response, watching as Rui finished his espresso.

The two girls soon finished their meals, and throughout their dining they would slip each other food from the other's plate. So in the end, even if Nene didn’t want to share earlier, they technically were anyway.

Minori strolled back over. “All done, you guys?”

They all nodded. “Yup!” Tsukasa beamed.

“Here’s the check!” She’d hand them the paper, Rui reaching to grab it. Tsukasa watched as Rui eyed the price, biting his lip. “Nene, you owe 9 gold, Emu 14 gold, and I owe the rest.”

Tsukasa peered onto the paper. If 9 + 14 = 23 and the total was 40 Rui owed the rest, that meant Rui owed…quick math, Tsukasa. Quick math…!

17 gold. Holy Miku, that’s a lot—totally worth it considering how good the breakfast was, but still a lot! Tsukasa felt bad that he couldn’t chip in, but he’d find some way to pay Rui back.

The three pulled out the required gold, plus tip, of course.

“A-ah..! Thank you guys so much!” Minori smiled, holding the gold and tip.

“Of course. You’re a fantastic waitress.” Rui’d compliment, causing the waitress to flush red in a shy manner.

“I’m glad you think so…!” Her smile widened. “But may I ask, what are you all doing here so early?”

“We’re going on an adventure!” Emu piped up, throwing her hands up to emphasize her excitment.

“Really? Where?” Minori gasped, eyes widening with interest.

“To the Aoyagi Kingdom.” Rui’d answer. “We are bringing this one home.” He ruffled Tsukasa’s hair, causing the blonde to groan.”I literally just did my hair earlier..it was perfect!”

“Wow..” she murmured . “I wish I could travel..I want to go to the Hinomori kingdom…if you guys happen to pass through there and you meet Haruka Kiritani, please tell her I say hi..! Airi Momoi, too! They both work at the grand postal office..I haven’t seen them in a while.” She paused, staring into the distance for a moment as she thought of times they hung out.

“Will doo, miss Hanasato!” Emu nodded.

“If we pass through there,” Tsukasa agreed.

“We probably will,” Rui smiled. “So I’ll be sure to pass on the message for you.”

“Thank you guys so much..! You’re all awesome. Have a wonderful, LOVELY day!” She cheered.

The four finally finished breakfast, which left them with one thing to do—start the adventure for real. Emu was, naturally, overjoyed practically vibrating with excitement as they began.

“Lets go, lets go!” She chanted, skipping ahead.

“You don’t even know if thats the right direction—GAH! Do we even have a map?!” He yelped.

“Easy now. Of course we do.” Rui pulled it out of his pocket, unfolding it and waving it in his face.

“Make sure it’s not upside down when you read it.” He advised, vividly remembering his past experience. How crazy the waves were then….

“Is that what happened on your boat ride?” Nene raised a brow.

“T-totally not!” He defended. “That’s a rookie mistake. The storm is what happened.”

“Right..right.”

“Follow me!” Rui directed, raising his hand to point in the direction of their travels. “Off we go!”

Emu whipped around, running up to Rui as if that’d make the adventure any faster.

They’d all follow Rui, despite how Tsukasa always envisioned himself in every leading-type role. He supposed it’d be okay for now..the others knew the kingdom better than he did, so it made sense for them to lead. Of course it hurt Tsukasa's ego a little bit, being clueless like this, but it’s not like they were judging him right now!

As Rui led the way, Tsukasa took in the kingdom around him, letting the cheerful setting soak in one last time. The more he thought about how he was leaving right now, the more sad he got. He wished he could’ve spent a little more time here, as much as he complained and begged to go home. If he had come here under any other circumstance he’d definitely be willing to stay. But he was here because of a boating accident, something unexpected.

“You need to deliver a letter, yes?” Rui nudged Tsukasa, snapping him out of his thoughts. Tsukasa blinked, processing his words before nodding quickly. “Yeah! For my sister.”

“The postal office is right around the corner.” He notified the blonde.

“Perfect!”

As they neared it, Tsukasa quickly hurried and put his letter in the box, returning to the other three to resume their walking.

“This is it, then. The start of our adventure.” Rui announced, not even eyeing the map as he lead them to the exit of the kingdom. Being a citizen of the kingdom, it only made sense he knew the whereabouts of places. Tsukasa knew the Aoyagi kingdom like the back of his hand!

“It came quickly,” Tsukasa stated. Too quickly.

“Yeah…I’m super sad you’re leaving, Tsukasa! But it’s okay, we will be together on this adventure!” Emu chirped. “And you’ll visit, right?”

…Would he visit? He hadn’t spared that idea a thought at all, but he already knew he was going to miss the kingdom…then again, was that enough of a visit to travel the globe to return here?

Then again, he had made friends here. Rui, Nene, and Emu. Yes, he’s including Nene—like he mentioned previously, her bitterness is most definitely front. Surely she likes his company.

Nevertheless, their story together was ending so soon and thinking about it like that had Tsukasa wishing to spend more time with them. The adventure would make do, he supposed—but visiting didn’t sound too bad.

That is, if he found time…he was going to be a busy man when his restaurant opened up!

“I’ll try to.” He finally answered, and he could see Emu’s smile widen a tenfold, as well as Rui’s shoulders relax. Nene was turned away, so whether she cared or not was beyond Tsukasa. Though, he could’ve sworn he heard a sigh of relief…unless he was hearing things? But he couldn’t be going crazy, not when he was so young…!

“You’ll always be able to stay at my cabin if you ever come back.” Rui kindly offered.

“You’d just take that as an opportunity to pick on me for Miku knows what.” Tsukasa sighed in annoyance, though his quick, joking frustration faded. “I appreciate that lots, Rui. I really need to make this up to you..”

“Remember, you were originally staying with me because you were hurt,” Rui reminded. “I was your aid. There’s no need to repay me.”

“Aid? I don’t think there was much taking care of me going on, save for the first day…”

“That feels like a million years ago!” Emu jumped back into the conversation. “But it was really not that long ago..!”

“Rui tried convincing you you had a concussion just to extend your stay..” Nene giggled.

“Yeah..Yeah!” Tsukasa gasped, having forgotten that. “And then he bought me taiyaki as dinner.”

“Taiyaki?” Emu gasped as if she wasn’t the one who was the Princess of a kingdom full of taiyaki stands. “That’s a heavenly dinner!”

“Not when you just got beached and were feeling sick.” Tsukasa groaned.

“My apologies, Tsukasa. I hope our breakfast this morning was good enough to make up for that.”

“Wasn’t it supposed to make up for last night's dinner?” Nene countered in favor of Tsukasa.

“Can’t it be both?”

“You really do suck at cooking.” Nene would insult with a light smirk. “Can’t believe you tried denying it earlier.”

“These are just two bad times. That doesn’t make every other time bad!” He sighed, mocking an exasperated hand-throw.

“There are definitely more than two times where you half assed your dinner.”

“Not with Tsukasa.” He retorted.

“Because the only other night you could offer me dinner was the night when I cooked.” Tsukasa added, causing Nene to snort.

“He proves my point. If only you were staying, Tsukasa..you could help Rui actually eat meals. And vegetables.” …They really liked reminding him that he was leaving. He was surprised Nene had something to say about it too, though it was more so her wanting him to help rui than her missing him. A win is a win..?

“No one can make me eat vegetables.” Rui hissed, expression turning bitter.

Nene, Tsukasa, and surprisingly Emu (she wasn’t pitying him this time!) simply laughed at him.

“You’re definitely going to fall terribly ill from lack of nutrients or something!” Tsukasa scolded. “Doesn’t that concern you?!”

“I trust my body.” Was his answer.

“I hope it fails you.” Nene teased.

After walking the sidewalk for a little while, they finally reached the gates of the Otori Kingdom.

“So, Tsukasa. Ready to say goodbye?” Rui hummed, pausing in his steps which caused the others to halt as well.

He wasn’t ready, as much as he wished he was. But he wasn’t gonna say that.

“As ready as I’ll ever be!” He enthusiastically replied, hands resting on his hips as he smiled.

“Wahh..this is so sad!” Emu sniffled, turning towards the blonde and hugging him tightly, far gentler than the previous times.

“Wha—-we aren’t parting ways just yet! Did you already forget about our adventure—?!”

Nene smiled adoringly at Emu as Rui patted the pink one's head. “Let's get started, Emu. We have a lot of walking to do.” He’d excitedly state, smiling widely.

“A lot of walking…I forgot how far our kingdoms are..” Tsukasa mumbled. He wasn’t opposed to walking, no, it was a great source of exercise! Just…their kingdoms are practically across the globe from each other (not really, but they are across the map!) and going by foot was going to be exhausting…

“Right! So we better get going now! Now!” She urged, bolting ahead.

“E-Emu! Wait up!” Nene called out, standing there hopelessly for a moment before groaning and chasing after her.

That left the two boys, who both turned their heads to look at each other at the same time, as if their minds were interlinked.

“Shall we start as well?” Rui smiled, and Tsukasa returned the expression.

“We shall!”

Off the four went, beginning their long, LONG travel.

Chapter Text

Finally, Tsukasa was on his way home. Soon enough he’d be back in the Aoyagi Kingdom with his dear family, and his beloved restaurant that he had to start up! He’d be sure to find someone else to provide him with fish, too, so that he didn’t find himself stranded at some random kingdom a billion miles away from home.

“Sigh,” Rui enunciated the verb instead of actually sighing.(??)

Tsukasa raised a brow. “You good, Rui?”

Rui glanced at him, pouting. “Yes..I’m just missing my, sniffle, glorious house..oh, who knows how long it’ll be until I can sleep in my lovely bed again!”

Tsukasa’s eye twitched. “Wha—we just left!” He exclaimed, crossing his arms.

“Oh, poor Rui,” Emu cooed.

“Rui, how often do you even actually sleep in your bed?” Nene jeered, making him scoff in feigned offense.

“Every night!”

“Liar.” She hissed.

“Pants on fire,” Emu added. “Sometimes, you have sleepovers with Nene and I! So you aren’t even sleeping in your bed!”

“I meant when he’s ho—“

“You got me there, Emu.” Rui cut Nene off, making her glare up at him.

“Didn’t you pull an all-nighter literally the other night?” Tsukasa joined.

“..No.” he shook his head. Tsukasa just stared at him, brows furrowed.

“Trust me, Tsukasa, I believe you. He’s notorious for all nighters.” Nene grumbled.

“I only take them when I’m immersed in my work.” He frowned. “I don’t like being tired, you know!”

“Then stop taking them?” Emu suggested.

“Wow, Emu. Bright idea.” Nene murmurred, and the pinkhead simply ignored the sarcasm with a smile.

“I would if I didn’t enjoy my work so much, Emu. Thank you, though.”

“Someone needs to keep an eye on you to make sure you actually go to bed every night.” Tsukasa huffed.

“You lost your chance,” Rui quipped, making Nene snicker to Emu.

“Sorry I have a life back home.” Tsukasa shook his head, thinking back on his kingdom. He truly hoped Saki wasn’t worrying too much. To be fair, noticing your brother is missing and then finding out he’s in a whole other kingdom being kept there by three random people (one being the princess of said kingdom) and then finding out he’s going on an adventure with them in order to get home was definitely going to concern her, but he hoped she wasn’t getting worked up about it. Besides, he’d be home soon enough!

“Thinking about it now,” Tsukasa started, causing their heads to turn and look at him. He felt as if he were under a spotlight! “You guys are gonna have it worse than I do. Like, all I do is travel home. You guys have to travel there, and back!”

“Such is the thrill of an adventure,” Rui hummed.

“That doesn’t sound very thrilling when he puts it like that.” Nene frowned. “We’re not actually traveling all the way there and back, right?”

“Well, we’re not staying at the Aoyagi Kingdom, yes?”

“Surely we could just find a quicker way back.” Nene insisted.

“But our adventure!” Emu whined.

“We can adventure there, but all the way back is exhausting…!” She reasoned.

“Don’t worry, I do have an idea for us when the time comes.” Rui smiled, and Nene sighed with relief. “Good.”

“Couldn’t we have done that idea on the way there, too?” Now it was Tsukasa’s turn to frown.

“Where’s the fun in that?” Rui argued, Emu taking his side, of course.

“Yeah. That’s no fun! This adventure is going to be so wonderhoy!” She cheered excitedly.

“Again with that..You didn’t even explain what it meant the first time!”

“It can be anything! It’s for all things fun, joyous, and amazing!” She explained with a beaming smile.

..He supposed that made it make a little more sense..but it wasn’t even a real word!

“It’s a fun word.” Rui voiced his opinion with that oddly cat-like smile. It was freaky, in Tsukasa’s opinion..

How could someone smile like that—??

“How much longer until we reach my home?” Tsukasa inquired, earning a scoff from Nene.

“We just started, like, forty minutes”

“Yeah, but..I just wanna know!”

Rui inspected his map. “The Otori Kingdom and the Asahina kingdom are split by a seven mile forest.” Rui noted. “It sounds like a lot, but at our pace we can make it in around two hours. Right now, we’re about here,” he stated, finger jabbing at a spot about four-six inches away from the Otori Kingdom. That looked like two, almost three miles, according to this map. “You’re trying to get here.” He hummed, trailing his finger along the map, doing a little loop-de-loop before tapping the Aoyagi Kingdom.

“I know where my kingdom is.”

“Are you sure? I mean, somehow you got here.” Rui teased. Tsukasa squinted, glaring daggers up at him.

“Oh, and we aren’t going straight to your kingdom, if I didn’t say that earlier.” He changed the subject.

“You had mentioned we were seeing your friend, but we aren’t staying there, right?

“We’d stay for a night or two.”

“What—why?!” He frowned. “I wanna get home as soon as possible!”

“It’d be unreasonable, that’s why.” He retorted. “We need time to rest, and stopping at the Asahina kingdom makes sense. We can probably find a place to stay at, like a motel or inn, and then resume.”

“This is going to take us months if we take breaks!” He groaned.

“You thought we were just going to do this with no rest?” Said Nene, who was raising a brow at him.

“Well..! I thought—“

“You don’t think much, do you?” She interjected, making him scoff.

“Hey!” He exclaimed. “That’s not nice! I think plenty!”

“About cooking and then what?”

“..Plenty!” He repeated. “I think about going home, about your guys kingdom, and so many other things, I can’t even list them!”

“Wow, Tsukasa.” Rui spoke up again. “You are quite the thinker.”

..He didn’t appreciate the teasing tone in Rui’s voice, alongside his kitty smile.

“I’m sure you think a lot, Tsukasa!” Emu came to his aid. “There’s no way your brain is totally empty!”

“We could check,” suggested Rui with a smirk. A very, VERY threatening one, at that.

“Wh—what? No!” He shouted, accompanied by Nene hissing “Oh my Miku, be more quiet.”

“It’d be quick and painless, if we knocked you out, of course. I’m sure Nene has some sort of sleeping potion?”

“Or she could lure him to sleep with her beautiful voice!” Emu suggested, staring at Nene with wide, sparkling eyes.

She flushed pink. “I—I’m not helping you with this.” She mumbled, averting her gaze.

“Don’t you dare knock me out and look inside my brain!” Tsukasa cried out, hands flying up to hold and protect his head. “I don’t give you my permission!” It’s not that he had anything to hide up there, but it was creepy!

Rui jutted his bottom lip out, pouting. Nene groaned, her fingers plugging her ears. “On second thought, I’d love to help you knock him out. Emu, pick a song.” Emu jumped, eyes widening as she thought this through, seeming to be a very important decision for her.

“Ooh, ooh! You should sing st—“

“NO! No one is singing to knock me out and take a peek at my brain!” He yelped, running ahead of them to save himself. He wasn’t even sure if it was possible to ‘look into someones head’ but Rui would surely find a way!

“Come back, Tsukasa~!”! Rui sang out, speeding up his pace to chase after the blonde.

“GAH—STAY BACK!” He screamed defensively, Rui giggling behind him like he was manic.

Nene facepalmed at the situation.

“At least you’re not—oh.”

Naturally, Emu had to join in on the fun, chasing after Tsukasa too. “Get back here!” She squealed.

“AH—!” He cried out, eyes not focusing on where he was running in the forest. His foot got caught on a tree root, ultimately leading to his tumble. He fell with a yowl and landed with an ‘oomf.’ His hat flew off—it could survive a storm, but not a little crash-landing?

“Oh my—Tsukasa, are you okay?” Rui gasped as he caught up to him, kneeling besides him. Emu ran to his side, peering over him. “Tsukasa?!” Emu frowned.

He could hear as Nene gasped and sped up her pace, the sound of twigs and leaves crunching speeding up with her speedwalk.

“Urgh..” he groaned, rubbing his head before pushing himself up onto his knees, Rui assisting him with a hand both in front of him and behind, to make sure he didn’t fall either way. “You good?” The purplenette asked. Emu took a step back, observing Tsukasa.

Tsukasa nodded, taking a moment before striking a grand pose, hand darting to the sky. “Ah hah hah!” He boastfully laughed. “A star chef like I could never get hurt! I am a-okay!” He announced.

“It seems like your fall didn’t make you a normal person. What a shame.” Nene jabbed as she reached Emu’s side.

“I’m normal!” Tsukasa argued.

“So as long as you associate with us, you’re not normal.” Rui smiled, ruffling Tsukasa’s hair. “Here’s your hat.” He handed him the prized possession.

“Don’t mess up my hair,” Tsukasa groaned, running a hand through it before putting his hat back on, adjusting it to make sure it was on properly.

THUD.

…Hisssss…Hisssssssss…..

Tsukasa jumped at the noise, glancing around the forest. The other three seemed alarmed as well, Rui holding a finger up to his mouth as if telling the others to be quiet. Nene grew tense, shoulders rising up, alert.

…Hisssssssss…..

The sound grew louder, as if whatever was making the noise was getting closer. Tsukasa hit his lip—if this was danger, he had nothing to defend himself with!

Well, he did have one thing..

He shifted the drawstring bag off his shoulders, pulling it in front of him slowly and opening it quietly. He reached his hand in, meeting the metal handle of the frying pan. He slowly pulled it out, gripping it tight. Nene stared at him in bewilderment, and Rui in amusement.

Emu was too busy to react, seeming to also have something important in her own bag and oh my Miku it was a harpoon gun.

Tsukasa stared at her with wide eyes, receiving a sparkling smile. His eyes flickered between his frying pan and her harpoon..well, he’d just have to make do with the kitchen tool.

Hissss…

It was much, much louder this time, and the source of the sound was coming into view. Long, hairy legs were stepping towards the quartet—eight, to be exact. And eight beady eyes were staring right at them.

It was a spider. Not one of those small ones with 5 inch legs, no—it had to have been as tall as Nene.

This was Tsukasa’s worst nightmare.

“AGH! MAKE IT GO AWAY!” He screamed at the top of his longs, making the spider tense up. Tsukasa’s breathing got faster as he panicked, and he scooted away from the spider fast.

His scream earned him glares from Nene and Rui. A glare from Rui… holy Miku, he looked terrifying.

Tsukasa bit his lip, avoiding looking at the spider. If he looked at it, he’d probably scream again..

“Rui, what do we do?” Nene whispered.

Rui remained silent for a moment. “Maybe it isn’t harmful.” He suggested, eyeing the way it stepped closer.

Each step it took caused a little “thump” on the ground, making Tsukasa whimper in fear. It was huge…

“It’s definitely not a nice spider.” Emu whispered to them with a frown.

“Definitely not! So kill it!” Not-so-quietly urged Tsukasa.

The spider suddenly stopped moving, blankly staring at them.

Rui’s head snapped to face the blonde, raising a finger to his mouth.

..Why exactly were they being quiet? Those eight, creepy, disgusting eyes definitely already saw them. Though, there probably were more spiders..so he supposed being quiet was smart, as to not alert the others.

Rui stood up from his crouch, quietly walking over to Tsukasa, motioning for Nene and Emu to join.

“It’s heart, if it follows the anatomy of your average spider, should be along the top of its abdomen. Taking out its heart is probably the easiest way for us to kill it, but it’s huge, so it’s likely it’ll put up a challenge. Like Emu said, it’s definitely not a nice spider, by the way it’s…currently trying to get to us. So,” he turned to Nene. “We need to make it relax. Make it sleepy, drowsy, out of it. That way, it’ll be too weak and unfocused to attack us or retaliate.”

Tsukasa didn’t like how much Rui knew about spiders and their anatomy. Disgusting! Yuck!

Nene nodded. “I could..try singing, but.. t-that’d probably alert any other spiders around here, wouldn’t it? And what if it doesn’t work on this beast..” she mumbled.

“Well, if other spiders heard it, wouldn’t they fall under its trance, too? But it you don’t want to do it, surely you have a potion that’d do the trick?”

She nodded again, slinging her bag off of her back and onto the forest ground. She opened it rummaging through.

“Once it’s under the potion, then we can take out the heart. Emu, your harpoon is sharp enough to break through its skin, right?”

Emu inspected the weapon before nodding. “Super sharp!” She whispered back.

“Perfect. Aim at the top of it’s abdomen—the backside of the spider. That should take it out.”

Emu smirked. “Gotchu!”

Tsukasa was expecting some sort of order for him, like swing at its head with his frying pan for good measure, but Rui simply turned away to face Nene.

She stood back up, holding a bottle labeled “energy drainer.”

“Why do you take these with you?” Tsukasa questioned with a raised brow.

“For situations like these.” She mumbled.

Suddenly, a white string shot at Tsukasa. “GAH—!” He attempted to block it with his frying pan, but to no avail, the string trapping his arm in motion. The web wrapped around him from the shoulders down, enveloping him in a tough-to-tear silk. He attempted to writhe out of it, but it wouldn’t budge.

Of course, he screamed.

“GET IT—“ Suddenly, a hand clasped onto his mouth, Rui, once again, shushing him. “Other spiders.” He mouthed. Tsukasa swallowed hard, shutting his eyes tight to ignore the fact that he was currently trapped in a SPIDERS WEB.

“Is..is he okay?” Nene gasped.

”He’s..He should be fine.” Rui nodded. “Now, Nene.” Rui ordered, and he heard as the bottle hit the spider, the potion splashing onto the monster with the minecraft potion sound effect. It let out a hiss, stomping forward, eliciting a gasp of fear from Nene before pausing again.

“Good. Now, Emu.” Rui let the pinkette know she was good to go.

Emu nodded eagerly, showing not even a trace of fear. She stepped towards a tree before climbing it, reaching a sturdy branch. She sat and aimed the harpoon at the abdomen of the spider, sticking out her tongue to ensure precision before shooting.

PSHH.

The harpoon dug into the spiders abdomen, rope connecting the gun to the actual blade, a screech arising as its heart was stabbed. So much for being quiet.

The spider fell to the ground with a thud, and Emu hopped down, yanking the harpoon out of the spider by the rope, making a face at the blood. “Eugh..” she grumbled, wiping it off on a blade of grass.

“Sheesh..” Nene mumbled, visibly disgusted and appalled.

All the meanwhile Tsukasa still had his eyes shut, shaking as he remained trapped in the webs. He was internally begging Miku to save him.

Rui let out a gentle, quiet chuckle. “You okay, Tsukasa?”

“Okay? Does it look like I’m okay—?!” He snapped. “I’m—I got attacked by a beastly spider!” He cried out.

“You’re alive,” Rui countered softly. “Emu, bring the harpoon over here and use the blade to split the webs open and free our dear Tsukasa.”

“On it!” She chirped.

Tsukasa shook his head rapidly. “That’s the same harpoon that touched that spider!” He argued. No way was that thing going near him!

“Would you rather be trapped in these webs?” Rui raised a brow. “We could leave you here for all the other spiders.”

“G-GAH..! No, please..” He whined. Why couldn’t he just be home already…

“Emu, go on.”

The girl skipped over, and Tsukasa opened one eye to peek at her as she pressed the harpoon up against the web and slid it along the silk, struggling a little but tearing it in the end. “There you go!” She beamed.

Tsukasa shuddered, scrambling up to his feet and dusting himself off, and the frying pan. “Poor thing,” he mumbled, still shaken by the encounter. “Now it’s dirty..”

“It’ll be fine. If we need it to cook, we can clean it.” Rui assured, and Tsukasa just sighed. Rui stepped closer, patting his back before rubbing it comfortingly. “You’re actually okay though, right? Not hurt anywhere?”

Tsukasa nodded. “Not physically.”

Rui smiled softly at him. “Good. I promise we’ll be out of here soon.”

“I forgot there was a spider infested forest in my kingdom’s territory.” Emu hummed. “We should get that checked out.”

“You really should.” Tsukasa agreed, picking up his bag from the ground and putting it on—he kept the frying pan out. He might need it.

“Yeah..I agree. This is pretty terrifying..maybe if they were smaller I’d be okay with it, but, Miku, they’re huge..” Nene huffed, passing Tsukasa a sympathetic glance.

“Well, everyone’s okay! Even Tsukasa! So let’s keep moving so we can get out of here!” Emu urged.

“She’s right. Other spiders might come over here after all that ruckus we caused.” Rui nodded, and Tsukasa gulped. One spider was enough. Seeing another would send him into a coma!

“Let’s go..” Tsukasa groaned.

“I wont let another spider attack you,” Rui swore.

“Me neither!” Emu piped up. “That must’ve been freaky!”

“You seemed to enjoy slaughtering it..” Tsukasa raised a brow.

“It was attacking you!” She argued with a pout.

“..I feel like there are eyes on us everywhere now.” Nene’s brows lowered as she glanced around.

“We’ll be okay.” Rui giggled. “Say, Tsukasa, you were the most frightened out of all of us, even before it shot its web at you. Are you scared of bugs?”

Tsukasa tensed up. Bugs were disgusting. They were the worlds worst creatures, and they served humanity no purpose (despite all the purposes they actually did serve.) But, he was amazing. He was brave. He was strong. And he was not going to admit he was scared of bugs. “What..! No! Of course not!” He’d lie right through his teeth. “It was just big. That’s why I was scared.” Totally.

“Yeah?” Rui hummed. Tsukasa nodded fast. “Well, that makes sense. They were pretty huge.”

“They were disgustingly huge.” Nene huffed. “Emu, you really need to exterminate all of them..”

“I can’t just do thaaat!” She huffed. “I need to do it safely so no other animal gets hurt! I’ll bring it up to my brothers after the trip.”

“Thank Miku we won’t be walking through here on the way back.” Nene sighed with relief.

“Things happen. Maybe my plan wont work and we’ll have to pass by.” Rui offered, making Nene groan.

“I’ll just sail and hit my head like Tsukasa did.”

“Wh—hey! Totally unwarranted!” He grumbled.

Hiss…..

..Of course there had to be more coming after them. Though the sound seemed like it was coming from..above.

Tsukasa gulped, slowly bringing his gaze up. He was met with not only eight beady eyes, but hundreds upon hundreds.

The entire forest was infested with the spiders—and they were watching from above!

Tsukasa almost fainted right then and there, his free hand flying to cover his mouth as he shakily raised his frying pan to show the others.

Rui visibly tensed, frowning at the sight. Nene gasped, cowering towards Emu, who stared back up at the spiders.

“More..?” Emu pouted.

“..Yeah.” Rui breathed out. “Way too many.”

“What do we do..?” Nene mumbled.

“I’d suggest singing, but if they fall asleep, chanced are they’d fall down from above and possibly land on us..”

“No..!” Tsukasa gasped out, shaking more as he cowered towards Rui just as Nene did to Emu. Rui cast him a pitiful look.

Miku, if you didn’t want me going home..you could’ve just told me some other way..!

“As..as long as we’re quiet and don’t disturb them, we should be fine.” Rui suggested. “I hope.” He added.

“Yeah! Let’s just respect their privacy. It’s probably nap time for them.” Emu nodded.

“And we killed one of them during nap time.” Nene whispered. He wasn’t sure if that was supposed to make him feel bad or not but it didn’t. Not only did that spider attack him—it was a ginormous spider that deserved its death for existing!

Screw those “killed for the crime of being small” poems, Tsukasa wished death upon all bugs!

“We’re okay. We’re okay. No spiders here.” Tsukasa mumbled to himself. Rui let out a gentle sigh, wrapping an arm around Tsukasa’s shoulder and pulling him close, squeezing his shoulder comfortingly. “You’re right. We’re okay. So let’s keep walking, okay?” He murmurred.

Tsukasa nodded and Rui released Tsukasa.

The four resumed their travels, far more cautiously than before. Tsukasa gripped his frying pan tight. He wasn’t going to let a spider trap him again—no way! He was going to kill that monster before it could even blink one of its eight eyes! (Despite the fact that spiders can’t blink.) Emu seemed to be prepared for another fight as well, harpoon gun still in hand.

It comforted him to know he wasn’t the only wary one.

Tsukasa kept an eye on his footing, making sure to avoid directly stepping on any twigs. He was not going to risk upset one of these spiders!

“The whole forest isn’t like..this, right, Emu?” He whispered over to the pinky girl.

She shook her head. “Not the whole forest!” Tsukasa was about to sigh with relief when she suddenly continued. “Just the rest of our walk for about…one more mile!”

..So they’d keep walking with the spiders above them the whole time for a mile—?! Tsukasa truly wished he had never gone on that boat. He wouldn’t be here in this dreadful situation if he were home!

“Which is almost over.” Rui added. “With how we’re walking, a mile should be over in around seventeen minutes.”

“Where are we on the map?” Nene peered over to Rui.

He pulled out the paper, unfolding it slowly. It made a small noise which caused Tsukasa to jump. Nene jumped too, frightened by Tsukasa’s reaction.

“Calm down, Tsukasa.” She hissed, though her expression seemed more sympathetic and worried than agitated.

He furrowed his brows. It was hard to remain calm with so many murder spiders around!

“We’re here,” he pointed to a location on the map that was past the middle of the Otori kingdoms territory and heading towards the Asahina kingdoms, where Rui’s friend most likely was.

“Thank Miku..” Tsukasa sighed.

SNAP.

The sound echoed around the forest.

They all froze, heads snapping to look at Emu whose foot was on a broken twig. She flashed them a small, awkward smile.

Hisss..

Not again, Tsukasa frowned, biting his lip. Of course Emu had to go and wake one of the spiders up!

“Sorry guys..!” She pouted.

Rui shook his head. “You didn’t mean to. It’s fine.”

“It’s not fine..!” Tsukasa interjected. “They—they’re awake now!” He cried out.

HISSS..

This one was particularly louder, and Tsukasa looked up to see the culprit lowering by its web.

It was right above them. And it was lowering right onto them.

Tsukasa gasped, eyes widening. “AGH—!” He screeched. If he stayed here, he was so going to die! “No—no..! Ah—I gotta get out of here..!” He yelped, clutching his frying pan tight and darting deeper into the forest before he could stop himself. He could hear as Rui hissed out a “NO!” though he was far too late to stop Tsukasa.

Tsukasa sprinted, scared out of his mind. He ran and ran, twigs and leaves crunching below him, only further alerting the spiders. Miku, he should’ve just stayed with the others—he didn’t know why he was running. He suddenly halted, dropping next to a tree, panting. He just wanted to go home…he was breathing so fast. Was this was a heart attack felt like? With how loud he was panting, a spider was definitely going to hear him and then shoot webs at him to save him for dinner. He brought his hand up to his mouth, choking out a sob. He wasn’t sure exactly why he was crying. Maybe because he was trapped in the forest, maybe because what was trapping him here was huge spiders, or maybe because he’d never make it home. Oh, poor Saki…

“Tsukasa!” Emu’s voice rang out, and he cringed. Didn’t she know the spiders were just going to be drawn towards her if she yelled like that?!

He didn’t respond, instead pulling his knees to his chest.

“Tsukasa, where are youuu?”

He shut his eyes tight. Why wasn’t she stopping? Why weren’t the others telling her to be quiet?

“Tsuka—“

“BE QUIET!” He cried out, pulling his knees closer to his chest.

That seemed to do the trick, for she didn’t respond to his demand.

He sat by the tree, taking a shaky breath before letting out another sob. He really wasn’t ever going home, was he? He was going to die in here.

“Tsukasa,” Rui’s voice whispered out from next to him and he jumped, raising his head. “Rui..”

“Don’t run away like that.” He ordered. Tsukasa could only nod.

HISSSS..

“I need you to cover you ears. Can you do that for me?”

Tsukasa wanted to ask why, but making eye contact with Rui told him there was no time to question him.

Tsukasa raised his hands up to his ears, covering them tightly. Rui did the same, and Nene and Emu were no where in sight

Faintly, just faintly, Tsukasa could hear a sweet sounding melody. He was tempted to remove his hands from his ears and listen, but Rui shook his head.

..Was that Nene singing? It had to have been. Tsukasa thought back to earlier when Rui plotting the attack on the first spider. She suggested she sang to make the spider drowsy, but then she refused for reasons beyond Tsukasa. Then she was going to sing before but feared the spiders would drop on them.

Then why was she singing now—?! What if they fell?! Tsukasa swallowed hard, preparing for the worst.

He watched as Rui removed his hands from his ears and he took that as a signal to do the same.

“I thought she wasn’t supposed to sing, incase the spiders got so tired and fell?”

“They’re relaxing on webs from above, I noticed this when the one from before was coming down. They won’t fall from the webs.” He reassured. “Now, none of them should have the energy to attack us.”

“Thank Miku..” Tsukasa breathed out, sniffling. Rui smiled softly. “You’re okay now, right?”

“I think so..yeah. I’m sorry for running away like that.”

“It’s okay. I would’ve ran too, that was scary. I was just worried you were going to get hurt. Really worried.” Tsukasa felt terrible. He didn’t mean to scare Rui, he just wanted to get away from that spider.

“Well, I’m all good..! Are the girls okay?”

“They are. Nene’s probably going to be a little tired after singing..but we’ll be in the Asahina kingdom soon enough. I’d suggest camping here before then but I think we should get out before the spiders regain their energy.”

“I agree.”

Rui stood, sticking out his hand for Tsukasa. Tsukasa took it and was heaved up. “Thanks.” Tsukasa didn’t know why he ran away, he felt so much safer by Rui’s side. Probably because he was a genius

Rui nodded, bringing a hand to Tsukasa’s face. His breath hitched.

What was Rui doing—?

He felt as Rui ran his sleeve along Tsukasa’s cheek and under his eye. “You were crying.” Rui frowned.

Ah. He was wiping his tears. That made sense. “Oh..yeah. I was just thinking about the worst. I’m okay now.” He offered Rui a small smiled. The taller smiled back, hand resting on Tsukasa’s cheek.

“Tsukasa!” A voice gasped before Tsukasa could linger on the moment he and Rui were just having. Rui pulled his hand away fast. “You’re okay!” Emu squealed, bouncing over with Nene behind her. Nene definitely seemed more out of it.

“Of course I am!” He suddenly struck a pose.

“I was worried!” She frowned. “Don’t run away like that ever again!” She scolded, crossing her arms as she glared up at him.

“There’s no need to worry about me! I’m strong enough to defend myself.”

Rui raised a brow at Tsukasa but remained silent. Bless him for not outing him for crying.

“You better be happy I saved you.” Nene grumbled.

“I am! While I didn’t need your saving, thank you nonetheless, Nene!”

She squinted at him. “You needed it.”

“No!” He frowned. “I would’ve been fine!”

“Remind me never to do anything to help this guy ever again.” Nene huffed to Rui.

“Hey—I really do appreciate your help! M-maybe I did need it. A little.”

She let out a small laugh. “Yeah. I mean, you ran away like that..”

“I had to!”

“Sure. I’m, um, glad you’re alright, though.”

Tsukasa blinked, shocked at the kindness he was receiving before he smiled widely. “Thank you, Nene!”

“Yeah, yeah…” she grimaced at his volume.

“Well, now that the spiders around us can’t attack us, are we good to resume?” Rui suddenly chirped.

“Yup! I promise not to make any noises again!” Emu nodded fast.

“It..was an accident.” Tsukasa assured. “It’s fine, Emu.” It wasn’t fine, really—that was the most terrifying thing ever. But she didn’t mean to upset the spider.

“I’m happy you’re not mad at me!” She beamed.

He couldn’t help but smile back.

And once again, they continued their adventure!

Chapter Text

After about a good hour of walking, the quartet had finally gotten past the wide expanse of trees and into yet another kingdom. A wave of relief washed over Tsukasa, his nerves cooling now that he was sure no spiders would sneak up on them. He was quite tired, but it wasn’t because he wasn’t athletic! Tsukasa Tenma, the world future star chef, was totally active! He was a frequent walk taker back home and occasionally he’d exercise. But after running into those spiders…Tsukasa definitely wanted to relax. Rui was right, they would totally need to stop and take breaks every now and then…

Tsukasa glanced around, taking in the kingdom, soaking in it’s…grimness..? Immediately, Tsukasa was set off put. Sure, his kingdom wasn’t the most joyful, bright, and fun looking one—that was the Otori Kingdom, of course—but this kingdom had to have been on a whole other level of gloomy and dull. He supposed he had just gotten so used to the brightness of the Otori kingdom, the constant taiyaki stands left and right, the animal-balloon makers every few blocks, the ginormous amusement park with the huge ferris wheel you could see from miles away that he’d kill to revisit so he could view all the attractions. This kingdom, to put it plainly, had none of that. It wasn’t full on black-and-white monochrome, no, it still had color to it, it’s primary accent being purple…yet… something about entering the kingdom’s gates made him feel worried. Like, it had an unnerving aura to it. Glancing at his new friends, he could even recognize the uncertainty on Emu’s face, which was crazy because she most definitely had been here before and she had to know the princess of this kingdom—they were neighbors! Obviously that meant something was wrong.

“We’re here!” Rui sang out, picking up his pace slightly to get ahead of the others and do a small spin, a welcoming gesture. What a way to state the obvious,Tsukasa would think but not comment.

“Welcome to the Asahina Kingdom.” Rui grinned. He’d raise his hands, shaking them for pizzazz and flare. Tsukasa couldn’t help but break out into a small, amused smile at that.

“Finally.” Nene sighed. “After encountering those spiders, it feels like we were walking forever…” She complained, making a look of disgust as she recalled their experience.

“EEK! Don’t remind me of those!” Tsukasa hissed, shuddering. As much as he agreed with her, he didn’t want to think about them again! Gosh, he would rather die than experience the spider-woods again! Actually, correction, he’d die either way.

“Like I said, I’ll work on getting them away!” Emu hummed. “I just have to have a super fun chat with…Miss Asahina..!” She nodded to herself as if she were motivating herself, visibly hesitant to speak of her. She glanced around at the kingdom around them, deflating slightly.

“Homesick already?” Rui teased the shortest girl. Psh. As if she should be homesick one—look at Tsukasa, he’s been away from his beloved kingdom for days!

“Ah, don’t worry. We’ll have tons of fun with Mizuki!” Rui smiled. “We’re not too far from where they’re staying at. I’m sure that the friend they’re staying with will be delighted to see me at their doorstep!” So it wouldn’t just be Mizuki..

“As if. I don’t think anyone ever would.” Nene jibed, flashing a playful smile towards Rui.

“You mean to tell me that all those times I go to your house to spend time with you, you dreaded it all along?!” He gasped in feign hurt.

“Every time.” She nodded. Tsukasa wondered how true this was—it must have been true to an extent, the way she’s constantly picking on him and hitting him, right? Then again, maybe thats just how she treats her friends! Look at how she treats Tsukasa, and they’re definitely friends! Yup! Because who wouldn’t want to be friends with a future world star chef like him?

“How rude! I like when Rui visits.” Emu pouted, patting his back comfortingly.

Tsukasa glanced to the side. “Why did Mizuki move here?” He inquired.

“They wanted to spend time with their friends.” Rui hummed.

“Aren’t you their friend?” He raised a brow.

“Of course I am. Otherwise we wouldn’t be visiting them,” he giggled. “But these friends are very special to them, so I understand why they moved here.”

“I don’t,” Tsukasa blurted. “It’s so gloomy.”

Rui flashed him a small glare. “Don’t say stuff like that. People might take offense.”

He took a look around again, trying to see if anyone had overheard Tsukasa’s words and was currently about to bludgeon him, but his gase caught sight of no one, making the kingdom only more eerie than previously. “One, no one’s around. Two, Emu agrees!” He protested, looking at the pink girl for aid, but to no avail.

“W-What?” Emu blinked, confused. “Who said that?! I never said it was gloomy.. I said it was less colorful.” She huffed, glaring at him like he was a liar.

“Same difference!”

“Hardly.” Rui interjected. “I’m sure it only looks different to us because of the contrast in color from the Otori Kingdom to here.”

Perhaps Rui was right, but he was confident that even with color, he’d still feel unnerved.

Tsukasa eyed the buildings as they walked, observing their architecture. They were visibly different than the buildings back at his kingdom, but he supposed that was to be expected. All the kingdoms were culturally different, and thats what made each one unique. His being the uniquest, of course! As he was thinking to himself and viewing the buildings, Rui took a sudden, sharp right turn, and Tsukasa proceeded to walk, only noticing they had turned when Emu grabbed his arm and forcefully tugged him.

“Hey—!” He yelped, shaking her grip off her arm.”

“What? You were gonna walk the wrong way!” She argued. “Youu,” she’d jab his shoulder. “Should be thanking me!”

He blinked, before a frown etched across his face. “Well..thank you and all, but be more careful! I don’t want you to pull my arm out of its socket.” Tsukasa reasoned, seaming to pique Rui’s interest.

“Oya? Wouldn’t that allow our adventure to be delayed, and then you’d stay with us for longer?” The thought of staying with them for longer enticed him. He wanted to get to know his friends better—and then he was hit with the reminder that they were talking about pulling his arm out of its socket and suddenly the thought was far less enticing than previously.

..Really, he did just want to get home.“Well—you’d just have to pop it back in place, wouldn’t you?”

“..humm, I suppose so.” Rui sighed, visibly upset. Did he want him to be seriously hurt or something—?!

…he probably didn’t want the answer to that.

They walked down an area with identical buildings on both sides, and as they went further down they noticed one that was particularly different. While still built the same, it seemed evidently more cheerful. Maybe it was the pink lawn gnome.

Either way, this seemed to be the house that Rui’s friend lived at, for the tallest of the clown quartet made yet another dramatically sharp turn (which made Nene grumble about why couldn’t he just be normal) and stepped to the front door. Thankfully Tsukasa noticed the turn this time.

The others followed, creating a single file line that went Rui, Nene, Emu, Tsukasa.

Rui knocked on the door, rapping a pattern that seemed to be his trademark knock. If that was the case, Tsukasa had expected Mizuki to open the door instantly upon hearing it..but they did not.

As they waited, Emu turned to look at Tsukasa. “Isn’t this is exciting? You’ve never met Mizuki before!” She beamed.

He nodded, interested in this new person. He wasn’t told much about them by Rui, and he was hoping he could gain some information prior to meeting them. To be, you know, prepared. “What’s Mizuki like?”

“Well, Mizuki is awesome. They’re wonderhoy, even! And they were always there for Rui, which makes them super nice!”

Tsukasa slowly nodded, face twisting into one of slight confusion. He was expecting an analysis on this person’s personality. You know, something that actually said what they were like, because if an adventure can be described as wonderhoy then he’s not quite sure what it means in the context of what this Mizuki person is like. He guessed she did give him one trait, which was nice, but that’s not all they are. He supposed he’d find out soon enough. That is, if they even opened the door…So far, the four were still standing outside rather awkwardly.

Rui knocked again, earning a shout from inside the house. “COMING! I’M COMING!” Followed by a grumble; “This better not be those little kids coming to ask if my refrigerator is running. I’ll actually snap..” …Good news, they weren’t those people!

The pitter patter of feet neared the other side of the door, and suddenly it opened. Tsukasa leaned to the side, peering at the person from outside the single file line. The door revealed a girl who was taller than both of the female clowns, but shorter than both the males. Her hair was black but faded into blue, and was adorned with fashionable star hair clips.

“..Hello, Rui.” She blinked, staring at the quartet, or, well, Rui, considering he was in the front. This person knew Rui, Tsukasa thought to himself. Was this Mizuki? If so, he would have to praise them on their choice of hair clips! Stars are wonderful!

“Good morning, An.” He smiled his devious cat-like smile. Tsukasa supposed his question was answered—this was An not Mizuki. Unless it’s a nickname..?

She deadpanned, placing her hand on her hip now. “Please don’t tell me you’re here to wreck my home with an explosive or something.”

An explosive—?! Was Rui notorious for bringing hazardous things to peoples homes? Tsukasa wouldn’t put it past him, really…

Rui simply let out a laugh, though the girl didn’t laugh in return. “No explosives today, An. Only me and my friends.” He smiled, though corrected himself. “Well, there are a few explosives in my backpack, none of which will go off in your humble abode, of course.”

“I’m not letting you in with those things in your backpack.” She sighed, shaking her head to emphasize her refusal.

“Whaat?! An, pleaaase!” Emu suddenly whined, following Tsukasas movements and peering from the side of the line. Perhaps it wasn’t a nickname… “We won’t let Rui blow up your house!”

“Oh, Emu,” she blinked. “Hi there. I didn’t see you behind your friend. Who else is here?” She asked, glancing at Tsukasa. She obviously saw him, but she had no clue who he was.

“Nene and Tsukasa!” Emu grinned.

“Hi Nene, nice to see you again. And it’s nice to meet you, Tsukasa.” Nene would only nod in acknowledgment.

“It’s nice to meet you too, An! Haha!” He beamed.

“What are you guys in this kingdom for? I’ve never seen you around,” she pointed to Tsukasa, “but I’m confident you don’t live here.”

“Well,” Rui spoke again. “Tsukasa needs to get back to the Aoyagi kingdom after encountering a storm while fishing, hitting his head on the boat, and washing up at the Otori kingdom. We’re helping him do so, and we just wanted to stop by and say hi to you and Mizuki.”

“You don’t have to tell her every last detail!” Tsukasa groaned, embarrassed. He wanted to look cool, not like a stupid guy who can’t fish!

“Oh, that’s terrible,” she sympathized. “But if you guys wanna see Mizuki, let me just..” she stepped back, turning her head to face the inside of the house.

“MIZU, YOUR FRIENDS ARE HERE!” An would shout, making Nene visibly wince.

Immediately, the sound of someone running from upstairs to down the stairs could be heard, and a person with light pink hair came down. Their eyes would meet the open door frame, and they froze in their tracks. “Oh. Em. Gee.” They gasped.

“Oh em gee.” Rui repeated.

“An, move your butt out of my way!”

An rolled her eyes, stepping aside. Immediately, Mizuki ran up to Rui, throwing their hands around his neck and hugging him. “Rui! It’s been so long! How has my favorite little rock observer been?”

He returned the hug. “I’ve been in shambles since you’ve left us.” He sobbed into their shoulder. “Two months since you left and two weeks and a half since I last visited,” He sighed with a heart broken tone, and they pulled away from each other.

“What, you’re tracking the days?” They snorted.

“Of course I am. Every day without you shatters my heart a little, and I can not help but track how long we’ve been apart and count the days until our next meeting,” he dramatically replied, pouting. An, who was standing behind Mizuki, raised a brow at the act and mumbled “what” out of confusion.

Tsukasa, too, was confused. Were they in love or something? At that thought, he involuntarily frowned, his face acting on it’s own. He averted his gaze from the scene. He wasn’t jealous, no, why would he be? He barely knew Rui, and stars don’t even experience jealousy anyway. He just..thought Rui could do better. Yeah.

He didn’t even know Mizuki, but Rui totally deserved someone better…! Someone amazing-er and glamorous.

“Oh my Miku.” Nene suddenly spoke. “Rui and Mizuki, please stop acting like star crossed lovers. It’s unnecessary. Can’t you two just act like normal friends?”

“Act like normal friends..” That would mean they were not dating! Tsukasa could feel a huge weight lift off his shoulders. He didn’t have to feel sour towards Mizuki now!

“Oya, is that Nene I hear?” Mizuki’s eyes widened, roughly pushing Rui to the side. He stumbled, almost falling to the ground from the force of the shove, but he regained his composure. He pouted further, sniffling as he clutched his heart. Poor Rui…but knowing him, he was probably just being overdramatic.

“Ah—yeah, it is..” Nene nodded, turning her head away, visibly anxious.

Anxious or not, Mizuki remained cheerful. “Nene! It’s so nice to see you!” Mizuki cheered, hugging the shorter girl. Nene let out a squeak of surprise, standing awkwardly before hugging back. The hug was short and the two pulled away, Nene visibly flustered. Socializing didn’t seem to be her strong suit, it seems, but she had no problem being sassy to Tsukasa, who she met just a few days ago! How outrageous!

“How’s Rui been acting? Have you been keeping him in check?”

At that, her flustered state dissolved, her expression swiftly taking on an annoyed one. “As in check as I can. He’s like a chihuahua on a leash…”

Mizuki bursted out into laughter. “Ahaha—! You hear that, Rui? A chihuahua on a leash. Should we get you a leash, you dog?” They teased, turning their head to look at him..

“Wouldn’t you like that.” He deadpanned, making Tsukasa raise a brow. Was he serious—? Mizuki must be an odd character if they would enjoy such a thing..but Rui quickly bursted into giggles, emphasizing it was a joke.

They were definitely close, no doubt about it. Even if they weren’t a couple or anything, he could’ve help that twinge of jealousy he felt.

“Ugh, that’s disgusting.” Nene belched, and An nodded from where she stood at the house.

“I don’t think a leash would manage him anyway.” She’d sigh, shaking her head at Rui as he frowned at all their bullying.

“Yeah, he’s crazy.” Nene agreed. Tsukasa could not disagree with that. Not only did he barely know Rui, but considering he has explosives in his bag and didn’t tell them about that definitely didn’t make him the sanest.

“Rui’s not crazy! He’s just special!” Emu defended, earning a grateful smile from the subject of conversation.

“Yeah,” Nene smirked. “Reaaal special.” She met the purplenettes gaze, and he stuck his tongue out at her. She definitely meant it in a derogatory way, unlike Emu.

“Another one?!” Mizuki gasped, and Nene stepped aside to save herself from being pushed.

Tsukasa stood there awkwardly as Mizuki greeted Emu, ruffling the shorter’s hair. He was clearly visible now—he actually had been ever since Mizuki went up to Nene, but Mizuki did not acknowledge him yet. “Heyyy!”

“Hi, Mizuki!” She beamed. “How are you?!”

“Lonely.” They admitted, earning a scoff from An. Yeouch! “I miss you guys. Then again, I have friends here that I missed. So, it is what it is.” They turned their head, giving An a wink.

“We miss you too! The other day I was so sad because you couldn’t make me a pretty outfit for our adventure,” Emu pouted. “But it’s okay because I have tons of outfits made by you back at home anyway!”

“Adventure, huh? You guys aren’t just visiting poor ol’ me?” Mizuki sniffled, pouting. It seemed like they were similar to Rui with their dramatic acts. “And to think I actually thought I had friends..”

“We are! We are!” Emu chirped, reassuring the taller pinkie. “We wanted to see you!”

Their mock-sad act crumbled as they broke into a wide smile again. “Aha, I’m glad! I promise I’ll make you a nice dress soon.”

Emu giggled with excitement. Mizuki’s dressed must have been nicely made..Tsukasa had actually taken up needlework a bit ago, he wondered how he compared to Mizuki in it.

“Whats with this adventure, though?” Mizuki questioned, turning their head to look at Rui, who would shrug.

“Ask him.” He smiled, head motioning to Tsukasa.

Now the spotlight was on him. As it should be, of course. A star like him was going to embrace it!

“I’ve never met you,” Mizuki blinked. “I’m sure you know my name by now, but it’s Mizuki Akiyama. You are..?”

“Aha ha HAH!” He guffawed, earning himself several reactions. A wide smile from Emu, a glare from Nene, an amused smirk from Rui, a confused stare from An, and a surprised yet enticed look from Mizuki.

“My name is Tsukasa, meaning ruler, and Tenma, meaning SOARING PEGASUS! And you, Mizuki, are standing in front of a future stat chef. You too, An!” He pointed at the girl.

“An Shiraishi,” she’d inform with a smile now. “You didn’t give me this introduction before.”

“I was saving it for the both of you!” He didn’t want to have to say it twice, in case Nene got so annoyed she elbowed him in the side or something…he shuddered just thinking back on when she did that to Rui. That must’ve hurt really bad.

Mizuki stared blankly at him, not giving him a reaction for around five whole seconds. He began to worry that his grand introduction SOMEHOW didn’t wow his audience, and his eyes started darting around anxiously. The silence ended soon though with Mizuki bursting out laughing, arguably worse than the silence.

“Ah ha ha ha! You are hilarious!” They giggled.

“Isn’t he? Truly a spectacular specimen.”

“Wh—SPECIMEN?! I am not a specimen!” He growled, glaring daggers at Rui before returning his gaze to Mizuki. “And what’s so funny about my introduction?!” He frowned, genuinely hurt. He thought his introduction was perfect! Wonderhoy, if you will!

“It’s so over the top. In a good way!” They assured. Over the top didn’t really sound like a compliment to Tsukasa…but he supposed he’d take it. “I LOVE it.” They grinned.

“..As you should! Everyone should appreciate my introduction. There’s currently someone here who DOESN’T.” He stated, placing his hands on his hips, raising his head, and staring right at Nene.

“That’s because it’s so over the top,” She huffed, meeting his eyes. “In a bad way.” She retorted.

“Oh, Nene’s being a hater?” Mizuki chided. “How very typical. Tut tut, Nene.”

“Tell them your story about why we’re adventuring,” Rui urged, changing the conversation.

“Right, right!” Tsukasa cleared his throat. The spotlight was on him again and this time he was going to capture the audiences full attention!

“I, the grand Tsukasa Tenma, from the Aoyagi Kingdom, had bought myself a glorious boat worthy for a star such as I. It was a beauty, truly, and it matched my elegance perfectly. It’s like they modeled it off of me. And of course it was expensive, given it’s looks.” He started. “I wanted to use my boat out in the ocean to catch fish, so I prepared the boat and set sail. But only ten minutes after my flight, these horrendous sea creatures began attacking my boat and creating dangerous waves.” He’d fabricate the story. Admittedly, the original story was lame. He was just taking creative liberty and adding flare! There was no harm in that! “The waves were so large, and a giant tentacle rose from the open waters. It was a monster squid, and it tried lassoing me! I was quick with my feet, but not quick enough. Rather than capturing me, it swept my legs and I fell, hitting my head hard. And that was lights out.”

Mizuki gasped, alongside Emu and Rui. An seemed engaged in the story, listening intently. Nene stared blankly.

“Then, I washed up in the Otori Kingdom and woke up in that guys,” he pointed to Rui, “cabin. And since I needed to get home, he forced me into an adventure. So here I am! That’s my grand origin story!”

“From the Aoyagi Kingdom? Man, that is far.” Mizuki remarked, eyes wide in awe.

“THAT’s the part you’re hung up on?! This guy had a monster squid try lassoing him!” An interjected, staring at him with wonder.

“Yup, yup!” He smirked with pride, letting the glory soak in. “And I survived it all!” He couldn’t get enough of how engaged they seemed in his story!

“You didn’t tell us about the squid before!” Emu gasped. “Why’d you hide it from us?” He was about to explain why when suddenly the hypothetical spotlight shut off.

“Yeah, no; none of that happened.” Cue the audience gasping in shock. Nene just rained on his parade. Her words practically grabbed his wonderful story by the neck and slammed it on the floor the way everyones expressions deflated, including his own but excluding Rui’s. If anything, Rui only seemed more amused.

“No! It’s all true!” Tsukasa argued. Why couldn’t she just let him have this..?!

“Yeah, maybe the part about having a boat and getting lost at sea due to a storm you could’ve avoided, then hitting your head on your boat and landing in Emu’s kingdom. There was no monster squid. There was no sea creatures. And your boat was not glorious. Even in its wrecked state, I could tell it was a mere sailboat.” She stated. All facts, too.

“How would you know all that? You weren’t there!” He frowned.

“We discussed this the day you arrived, you pinhead.” She’d jab.

“Yeah,” Rui hummed. “Nene’s right. Tsukasa’s just a liar.” He’d confirm, walking over to where he and Mizuki stood. He couldn’t believe everyone was ganging up on him now!

“Without all the sea creatures and grand boat, your story is pretty lame.” Mizuki yawned. “Embarrassing, too. I don’t know why these guys helped you.”

Tsukasa’s cheeks began turning red, his brows furrowing as his gaze flickered between the group. “Wh—that’s—..!” He’d stutter, unsure on what to say. “They helped me because of my..my grandiose looks and my beautiful personality!”

“You’re on a roll with these lies.” Nene huffed, resting a hand on her hip.

“Now, now, Mizuki and Nene. His story may be lame, embarrassing, and completely avoidable—but none of that should determine why we helped him. I’ll admit it now, I would have liked for his visit to be longer.” Was Rui going to agree about his amazing appearance and splendid personality..?! Just the thought of the other man complimenting him like that made his heart flutter. Having someone on his side felt great! “I had many tests I wanted to run on him,” Rui frowned, his expression solemn but his words absolutely creepy. “On our way here, I even came up with a new one! I wanted to take a look inside his head and ensure the—“

“NO!” Tsukasa shouted, raising his finger and waggling it to emphasize his words. “Even if I stayed longer, you would never be doing experiments on me! I’m a human being, too!”

“An interesting one at that.” Rui nodded.

“You don’t just test on people you find interesting!” He scolded, and Emu came to his defense, reaching up and patting his head to provide comfort, messing his hair up all the meanwhile.

“I don’t think you should test on him. He’s our friend!” She reasoned. Tsukasa attempted to get her hand away by pushing her arm down, but it shot back up again. “It’s okay, Tsukasa. No one will be experimenting on you.” She assured, making him scowl. “Don’t mess my hair up!” He hissed at her. “I want to look presentable!”

“Weren’t you chasing him to catch him so I could check his head earlier? In the forest?” Rui raised a brow.

She paused, hand still on her head as she blinked. “I had a change of heart.” She declared. “I only chased him because I thought you guys were playing tag.”

“In a sense it was,” Rui hummed.

“In a sense I think you guys should stop standing out here and come in here,” An suddenly stated, stepping to the side from inside the doorway and motioning with her hands for them to enter.

“That didn’t make sense, Annie.” Mizuki snickered as they walked in, Nene and Emu following. “You guys are talking a lot about sense!” Emu chirped.

Rui motioned for Tsukasa to walk in first.

“I promise I won’t do any tests on you on the trip without your permission.” Rui whispered teasingly.

Tsukasa flashed him a glare. “Good, because I won’t give you my consent!” He huffed, stepping into the house.

“Because you don’t trust me.” He pouted, following.

An shut the door behind them, turning the lock. “Make yourselves comfortable!”

The interior of the house, like the exterior, was different from the kingdoms vibe. Right when Tsukasa walked in, he was hit with white walls and colorful furniture..

Emu grabbed Nene’s hand, dragging her to the pink couch that had a pink loveseats on both sides (He wondered if the colors were Mizuki’s doing). Nene couldn’t even protest before Emu sat down, yanking Nene down with her. The latter toppled on top of her, cheeks burning pink. “Emu!” She groaned. “You—you could’ve just asked me to sit with you..!” She scolded, pushing herself up before Emu could hold her captive in a cuddle hug. She instead sat next to the pinkie, head lowered and eyes trained on her knees, visibly embarrassed. “I’m capable of walking for myself.”

“Oh, I’m sorry Nene..I didn’t mean to upset you!” Emu frowned, grabbing Nene’s hand again, this time only holding it.

“Let’s sit next to them,” Rui suggested, and Tsukasa nodded. Rui heavily plopped next to Nene, making her glare at him despite her embarrassment, and Tsukasa took a seat next to Rui.

“Hey!” An barked. “No getting lovey dovey on my couch,” An joked, smirking at the two girls as she walked over and sat on the loveseat to their right. Nene only got redder.

“We’re not getting lovey dovey—!” She frowned, glancing at their hands before yanking hers away, causing Emu to jut her bottom lip out and stare at her with big, sad eyes. Nene took her hat off, pretending to observe it as she ignored Emu’s gaze.

“My couch,” Mizuki corrected, flicking An’s head as they walked by, sitting on the loveseat to Nene and Emu’s left. An huffed, rubbing the spot that was flicked.

“I own this house.” An argued, now crossing her arms. Mizuki copied her, crossing their own arms.

“But I bought the couch.” They retorted, sticking their tongue out and blowing a raspberry.

“You’re getting spit on my floor. Stop!” An groaned, Emu scrunching up her face.

“Yuck! Don’t get it on me!” She squawked, cuddling close to Nene for protection.

“I was about to let you two get lovey dovey on my couch and now you’re yelling at me?” Mizuki frowned. “You’re awful.”

About to apologize, Emu jumped up. Nene quickly interjected. “We were not getting lovey dovey! And we weren’t gonna no matter what!” Nene protested, sinking into the couch. She raised her hat to her face, hiding herself. Really, there wasn’t a point for her to be arguing. None of them seemed to care.

“It’s okay, Nene. Only An is judging here, as she always does.” Rui soothed, offering the green-haired girl a smile. He raised his hand to ruffle her hair, but she shoved him away upon contact, sending him Tsukasa’s way. He’d land on the blondes lap, causing the boys to freeze. Tsukasa would meet Rui’s gaze, and they’d stare at each other for a moment.

Tsukasa couldn’t bring himself to tear his eyes away from Rui. He didn’t know when this happened, but his golden eyes seemed less scary and more hypnotic..he’d shake the thoughts out of his mind. If he kept staring, Rui would probably hypnotize him into becoming his test subject.

“..You okay, Rui?” Tsukasa would question, watching as the purplenettes cheeks slowly got redder. Poor Rui, he was probably really embarrassed! Nene and Mizuki laughing up a storm didn’t help. Rui blinked, tearing his eyes away before he finally answered.

“Yeah, I’m..I’m fine.” He mumbled before scrambling up, letting out a cough. “That hurt a little.” He sighed, rubbing the back of his head. He was embarrassed and hurt, poor guy..!

“I only judge you when you threaten my existence with explosives.” An stated, eyes narrowing at the sight in front of her. “And when you’re all yucky in front of me.

“Yeah, stop being yucky.” Nene teased Rui and Tsukasa, and Rui flicked her forehead.

“Wh—we are NOT being anything of the sort! You pushed him there!” Tsukasa glared at Nene. Nene only smirked, glancing at Rui’s flustered state. “And you hurt him!”

“Yeah, right.” An snickered.

“An, no need to be so bitter ‘cause your girlfriends in another kingdom.” Mizuki jibed, smirking at the girl. An followed Rui, cheeks flushing pink. Tsukasa was grateful the attention was dragged away from him and Rui. While he could handle the spotlight even when embarrassed, Rui seemed to differ. He even seemed to be relieved now that he could relax.

“That’s—..so is yours!” An retorted, and Mizuki gasped. Emu, of course, had to gasp as well.

“Irrelevant!!” They exclaimed, hands flying to clutch their heart.

Tsukasa’s curiosity was piqued. They had partners from other kingdoms? Maybe they were from the Aoyagi kingdom…he couldn’t help but ask his question. “Who are your guys girlfriends? Maybe I know them!”

They both turned their heads to look at him, argument dissolving as Mizuki went first.

“Ena Shinonome. I don’t think she’s in your kingdom currently, but she’s from there!”

“Ena? I know her! She’s Akito’s brother!” Tsukasa gasped. Mizuki nodded. “I take it you know ‘lil bro well?”

He blinked, before piecing together that “‘lil bro” was Akito. “A little. He’s always glaring at me and telling me to stop being stupid when I visit Toya since he’s his personal knight. But I guess we’re friends!”

“That doesn’t sound like friends.” Nene commented. She was one to talk. She practically acted the same way—…was this her way of telling Tsukasa her and him weren’t friends..?

“He can be a real ass sometimes,” An hummed. “Met him when I visited my girlfriend for the first time.” So her girlfriend lives in the Aoyagi kingdom as well!

“Yeah, he’s just like that. Ena tells me all the time through her letters. When I visited, he acted like he hated me but I knowwww he loves me!” They giggled. “Well, he better, since I’m gonna be his sibling-in-law one day. Probably.”

Rui perked up, eye’s widening. Nene and Emu looked at them, eye’s wide as well. An simply snorted, and Tsukasa just stared at them.

“You’re engaged?” Rui gasped, hands flying to his mouth.

“What? No! Not yet!” Mizuki laughed. “Man, you guys look so silly..”

“We had every right to be curious..you worded it like you were getting married soon!” Nene argued, crossing her arms. Rui would nod to back her up.

“Pft, no. Ena wouldn’t want that yet, I don’t think…” They trailed off before speaking up again. “Enough about my love life. Tell ‘em who your girlfriend is!” They grinned at An, who let out a soft laugh.

“Aha, her name’s Kohane Azusawa. Do you know her?” Kohane…he knew a Kohane!

“Kohane?! As in Kohane with the pig tails?!” He barked out, making An jump..

“Yeah, that’s her...” An winced.

“I know her! She’s a good friend of Toya, and shes very nice!” He beamed. He was surprised he knew both of their partners—things like these made the world feel small!

“Yeah,” she nodded, a smile growing on her face. “She’s really nice.” She agreed.

“Don’t get all sappy now! Euuugh!” Mizuki belched. “You tell them not to get lovey dovey but look at you!”

“I didn’t even say anything wrong!” An huffed. “All I did was agree!” Mizuki shook their head.

“I saw that look in your eye.”

An groaned. “The light is playing tricks on you..!” She insisted. “But it doesn’t matter! You guys came from the Otori kingdom just now, yes?” She turned her attention to the four clowns.

All four of them nodded. “That’s not too far…”

“The walk took two hours, maybe two and a half because we ran into…an issue.” Rui interjected, glancing at Tsukasa when he mentioned their issue.

Tsukasa tensed up. Just when he had forgotten about the terrifying monsters within that forest, Rui had to bring them up again! He shuddered at just the thought of those beasts..their eight, hairy, long legs…their beady yet evil-filled eyes…the disgusting, sticky and strong web he was temporarily trapped in..all of it was disgusting, and he didn’t want to think of it ever again.

“Oh? An issue?” Mizuki hummed. “Do tell.”

“Spiders!” Emu shouted, throwing her hands into the air. “Huge, ginormous ones! They attacked us. And then Tsukasa ran away!”

She didn’t need to tell everyone that—! He could feel his cheeks heating up in embarrassment as he glared at her. “I—I did not run away, I ran so..so you guys could do that singing thing and drain the energy from the spiders!” He’d explain, lying once again to make himself seem more brave. If he couldn’t make Rui, Emu, or Nene think he was strong and bold, he could at least make Mizuki and An think so!

“Ooh, I forgot about those things.” Mizuki shivered. “I would’ve ran away, too…they’re freaky.” They’d comfort him.

He crossed his arms, smirking. “See! Even Mizuki wou—wait, no! I didn’t run away because I was scared!” He groaned. They would snicker in response.

“Seriously though, I don’t know why Mafu doesn’t want to get rid of those.” Mizuki sighed, and An nodded in agreement.

Mafu..? Yet another person Tsukasa didn’t know.

“I was gonna talk to her about it after our adventure.” Emu piped up. “They make it soooo difficult to travel between kingdoms!” Emu seemed to know who Mafu was…

“Well, good luck talking to Princess Mafuyu about it.” An hummed. “She’s very intent on keeping them.”

Mafu..Princess Mafuyu—and then it clicked. Mizuki had been referring to Princess Mafuyu Asahina! But to be calling her a nickname so casually..that would mean they were close. Right?

Emu frowned. “But why..? It’d benefit both kingdoms lots if we did.”

“You gotta ask Mafu that, not us.” Mizuki shrugged.

“You guys hungry or something?” An interjected, glancing at the group. “I could whip up something with Mizuki or recommend a nice restaurant.”

“What time is it now?” Rui asked. “We had breakfast before we set off, which was around eight.”

“Mm..it’s..” Mizuki paused, glancing towards one of the walls. Tsukasa followed their gaze, eyes narrowing a the pastel clock that adorned the wall. It would read “…Eleven. Eleven twenty two to be exact.”

“Are you guys hungry?” Rui glanced at his fellow clowns.

He wasn’t sure about the others, but Tsukasa definitely was hungry. And he deserved a grand meal after such an encounter!

“I am,” he’d raise a finger.

“Me tooooo!” Emu would also raise a finger, copying the blonde.

“A little,” Nene admitted. “But I don’t want you guys having to cook for us..that’s a lot of cooking.”

“Then we can go out to eat again.” Rui stated. “Unless our dear chef would like to do the cooking?” Rui raised a brow, turning his head to view the chef in question.

He opened his mouth to talk, Nene beating him to it. “I don’t want his cooking..let’s go out.”

Tsukasa deflated into the couch, frowning as he crossed his arms. “Why wouldn’t you want to try my cooking? It’s great!” He argued. “You’ll be eating it sooner or later.”

“Now now,” Mizuki interrupted. “Why don’t An and I just show you guys our best restaurant around?” They suggested, and An nodded.

“It’ll be really yummy!”

The quartet exchanged glances, all of which screamed “yes, I’m hungry!!!” So, Rui would nod at the two that belonged to this kingdom. “We’d like to go to the restaurant.”

“Woohoo!” Mizuki cheered, hopping off their loveseat. “You guys better have money, though. An and I can not afford to pay for everyones meals..” They sighed. Tsukasa froze. He did not have any money on him..

“We do.” Rui confirmed. “Well, Tsukasa doesn’t, but I’ll be paying for him with what little coins I have on me..” Rui sniffled. He was making Tsukasa feel bad—as if any of this was his fault! He didn’t mean to land in the Otori Kingdom with no money.

“I didn’t expect him to have money,” An shrugged. “I mean, he got beached at your kingdom.”

“Yeah, I figured he’d be broke.” Mizuki chimed, making Tsukasa frown.

“I’m not broke!” He retorted, standing up from the couch. “I have money! It’s just back at home!” He was not poor at all! And he’d only be getting richer once he started up his glorious restaurant once he got back home!

“You don’t have money on you, right?” Mizuki raised a brow at Tsukasa quizzically.

He froze, his own brows furrowing. “Well..I don’t, no—“

“Brokeeee!” They shouted, smirking. “You have your sugar daddy to pay for you anyway.”

Sugar daddy—?! He turned his head to lock eyes with Rui. Rui was NOT his sugar daddy, no way! He was just kind (sometimes) and generous! Emu, Nene, and An laughing at Mizuki’s tease didn’t help at all, and he watched as Rui’s cheeks got pink yet again. He was most definitely embarrassed! It was like these guys just aimed to embarrass him..Tsukasa could feel his own cheeks heating up, too. With frustration!

“He’s not my sugar daddy,” he informed with a frown. “He’s just aiding me while I travel back home.” This was all true! Factual! “So stop laughing! It’s not even funny!”

Rui cleared his throat, standing. He was ready for Rui to decline Mizuki’s claim as well, but clearly he had a different idea. “I could be your sugar daddy,” Rui offered.

What the Miku..?!

Tsukasa just hit a double, no, triple—no, QUADRUPLE take. Why was Rui picking on him, too?!

“And suddenly it’s just not funny anymore..” Nene groaned as the laughter died out. An only nodded in agreement, cringing as she looked at Rui.

“Rui, you don’t even have enough coins to be one!” Emu frowned, outing him.

“Wh-what—?!” Tsukasa yelped, jumping and raising his arms defensively. “That’s—no, Rui! Stop being weird!” He grumbled. “Can we just get food? My stomach is about to growl like that monster squid I encountered.”

“Faker,” Nene hummed as she got up.

Tsukasa huffed, stomping to the exit. He was sick and tired of all this bullying and all those false accusations! He really, really just wanted to be home right now…his parents and Saki wouldn’t treat him like this, and neither would his beautiful restaurant.

“Alright, alright, let’s gooooo.” Mizuki sang out, bounding over to the door and opening it for the others.

With that, the quartet would be leaded by Mizuki and An to the restaurant!

Chapter Text

Following An and Mizuki, Tsukasa takes in the kingdom surrounding him once more, eyes flickering between the two cheery friends and the dark, grim buildings. How people like them live in such a contrasting place was beyond him. He was sure they’d have a nicer time in the Otori kingdom or even the Aoyagi kingdom, but each to their own and whatnot. His gaze panned to the castle in the distance, eyeing its grandness—while the buildings within the kingdom were rather dull, at least the castle had some attraction to it. Black with purple, blue, and gold accents, it stood tall amongst the kingdoms, visible by even the distance Tsukasa stood at. He wondered what it was like on the inside. In fact, he wondered what the princess was like.

She must be a cruel and coldhearted monster, letting those disgusting, vile things roam the forest dividing the Asahina and Otori kingdoms…

Suddenly, Tsukasa felt something nudge at his shoulder. He jumped slightly, head snapping to his right to view the culprit that disturbed his thoughts, meeting a yellow gaze. It was, of course, Rui.

“You’ve been silent for a bit. What are you thinking about?” The purple haired man inquired. Had he really been quiet for too long?

Long enough to catch someone’s attention, obviously.

“Just thinking about this kingdom,” he answered, returning his gaze to the castle. “And the princess.”

“The castle is pretty, isn’t it?” Rui hummed, following Tsukasas gaze. “I think they did that on purpose. I mean, they made the rest of the kingdom more ‘dull’ and less appealing compared to the castle. It kind of exemplifies the queen’s power, doesn’t it?” Rui explained. That…was a pretty smart analysis. Tsukasa hadn’t thought of Rui as a genius like that beforehand, but maybe this eccentric man with weapons and explosives in his backpack had some smarts to him. “What about the princess though?” Rui questioned further, raising a brow.

“Oh, just..” he paused, cringing. “The spiders. I’m trying to piece together what type of people she and the queen must be if they allow such...such wretched creatures to roam the forest freely!” He exclaims in a fit of disbelief and disgust, arms crossing to emphasize his disdain. Rui passed Tsukasa a sympathetic look, reaching for his hand to soothingly rub it. Tsukasa glanced down at their hands, sucking in a deep breath.

This was fine. Tsukass was fine. He held his sisters hand alllll the time, this was normal. Then again, Rui was a man he just recently. There was a distinct difference between him and Saki, and Tsukasa began to question whether them two holding hands was normal. Men don’t typically do this stuff, do they…?

Whatever—Tsukasa shouldn’t be thinking about it that way. This was a nice gesture from Rui, done solely to comfort the blonde.

“Thankfully you won’t have to deal with them again, hm?” Rui reasons once more, and maybe he’s right but Tsukasa can’t help but feel a hatred for the bugs nonetheless. Anyone could get hurt by those beasts—they’re a hazard! They threaten the security of the people! “That alone should not characterize the queen and princess, you know.”

“Well, they let those things live!” He counters. “That says a lot about them, doesn’t it? Those monsters could kill an innocent person crossing kingdoms.”

Rui considered this heavily. “Right.” Rui nodded in agreement, seeming to understand Tsukasa’s point of view. “You’re right about that. But Emu said she would handle this, so there’s no reason to be so hung up about it, right? Let’s have a nice day today.” He squeezes Tsukasa hands once before releasing his hold on it, letting their hands swing freely once more.

Rui was right. Emu had said he’d communicate with the Asahina’s soon enough, so he should just stop worrying about it. But… “I don’t know how you expect me to forget about my near death experience…” Tsukasa grumbled.

“We’re heeeeeereee!” Mizuki sang out, giving them jazz hands for flare. They reminded Tsukasa of Rui when they had first entered the Asahina kingdom, making Tsukasa smile softly despite his former disturbance.

“Surely the food will keep your mind off of it.” Rui smiled, head raising to view the restaurant—well, what they thought was to be a restaurant. As Tsukasa raised his head up as well, a brow rose as he read the name. “Apple House,” with a pie symbol next to it. Well, it could still be a restaurant, right? Just..one with an apple pie theme!

Mizuki skipped ahead and swung the door open, motioning for the other five to enter first.

An dips her head at them. “Thanks, Mizu.”

“What a gentlewoman,” Rui playfully jests, earning a whack on the shoulder from the light-pink haired girl as he walks through, Tsukasa following suit.

“Thank you, Mizuki!” Tsukasa beams.

“Yeah, thanks so super duper much!” Emu reiterates in her own special way, tugging Nene inside alongside her.

“Mmmmhm!” They nod, entering after Nene is dragged by Emu.

The first thing Tsukasa notices when he enters is the strong smell of baked goods. Was it normal for a restaurant to smell like a bakery? Should he aim for his restaurant to smell like this? He looked ahead, eyeing the display of pastries—more notably apple pies. This was like apple pies galore! Which he could have predicted, the name being a dead give away that the owner of this place had a thing for apple pies.

“Is this a restaurant or a bakery?” Tsukasa blurts, raising a brow as he turned his head to look at the two girls that belonged to the kingdom.

“A cafe,” An replies, blinking slowly. “I know we said we’d take you to a restaurant, but Honami’s food is, like, the best in the kingdom. You HAVE to trust us.”

“Yeah, trust us!” Mizuki chimes. “Even Princess Asahina and her knights love this place.”

Well…if people of such high status loved this cafe, then Tsukasa had no reason not to! Not like he didn’t trust the two in the first place—it had just caught him off guard. He was expecting a full on restaurant, but food is food so he won’t be complaining.

“Do we take our seats ourselves or wait for someone to help us? Or do we order at the front?” He asked, and as if on queue, a brown haired girl would hurry over.

“Hello!” She greeted with a smile, hands fidgeting with her apron. More specifically , her apron with a design of numerous apple pies on it. She definitely liked apple pies. “Welcome to Apple House! How are you all today?”

Before anyone else could answer, Tsukasa decided he would be replying for them. “WONDERFUL!” He announced, right hand on his hip. Nene let out an irritated sigh from behind him.

The waitress jumped slightly at his volume, eyeing him funnily for a second. “That’s nice to hear,” she continued, still smiling. “Is it six of you today?”

“Yup, yup!” An interjected before Tsukasa could even try, making him frown slightly. He wanted to do the talking!

Honami reached under a shelf, grabbing menus. “Follow me!” She beamed, leading the six to a booth.

Honami placed the menus in their designated spots, stepping back. Emu hurried over to claim a seat, wanting to be able to look out the window and view the world outside. The very, very unamusing world outside. Nene slid in next to her, and An followed. This left Tsukasa, Rui, and Mizuki.

Tsukasa would sit, claiming the window for himself as well, Rui sitting next to him. Mizuki plopped down heavily next to the purplenette.

“Sooo,” the waitress started. “Can I get you guys started with drinks? Or do you need more time?”

The quartet passed looks among each other, unsure on what they’d be ordering. They were newcomers, so naturally they weren’t sure what the cafe contained.

“I’ll take a strawberry shake,” Mizuki requested, and at that Emu’s eyes widened, glistening brightly with excitement.

“Nene, Nene, they have shakes!” She exclaimed, head then snapping to look at the waitress, who simply smiled unsurely and nodded at her. “Yes, yes we do! We have chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, and cookies and cream.”

“Cookies and cream?!” She gasped, eyes seeming to shine even brighter. Nene shifted, uncomfortable with the attention Emu was attracting from other customers. “Could I have that, please?”

“Of course!” She nodded, writing this down on her notepad. “As for you two ladies?” She asked, referring to An and Nene. Tsukasa grabbed his menu, scrambling to find the drinks section. Upon finding it, his eyes would scan the options as fast as they physically could, trying to make his choice. But with so many good choices—water, lemonade, tea (don't even get him started on the TYPES of tea)—he had no clue what he should pick!!

“Hot chocolate..?” Nene requested silently, diverting her gaze.

“As for me, just water will do.” An smiled.

“Got it!” Honami hummed. “Now, the boys?”

Shoot! It was his turn, and he still wasn’t sure what to get.

Rui, his savior, allowed him a few more seconds of decision making, ordering first. “Ramune soda, please.” He requested. Honami scribbled that down, eyes on Tsukasa now.

“Tea!” He blurted, rather loud. While he was made for stardom, he felt completely unprepared for this, still unsure as to what he really wanted. So he glanced at the list of teas, picking the first one. “Matcha!” His volume gained the gazes of people previously not looking in their direction after Emu’s exclaiming, and Nene kicked him from under the booth.

Great job, Tsukasa, way to go and make a fool of yourself..! He put on a wide smile, trying to save himself. “I would like matcha, please.”

“…Right! Got it!” Honami giggled. “I’ll give you all some time with the meals.”

Silence fell amongst the sixtet, yet it ended after a good five seconds when Mizuki dropped their hands onto the table hard. “So! You four, you're going on an adventure, huh? Plan on running into many scary monsters and stuff?”

“I sure hope not,” Nene groaned, slumping backwards into the cushioning of the booth. Emu patted her head. “If we run into big, spooky beasts, I’ll be sure to chase them away with my harpoon!”

“Hah—you guys even brought weapons?! You really are planning to run into some beasts, aren’t you?” Mizuki teased.

“We already did.” Huffed Tsukasa, arms crossing grumpily. Once more, he was reminded of his life-threatening encounter with the most dangerous beast of all—unnecessarily large blood thirsty spiders. “Those spiders wanted to kill us!”

“You’re still thinking about that?” Rui frowned, nudging Tsukasa. “We said we were gonna have a good time here. You—“ he waggled a finger at the blonde—“thinking about that is just going to aggravate you.”

“It was on topic,” he’d say defensively, frowning. “I’m just hoping we don’t run into anything else like that. Especially not extra large bugs…”

“Adventures in these lands are not exactly safe, you know…” An chimed into the conversation, eyeing Tsukasa. “Especially in wooded areas and when going overseas alone. That’s why I wasn’t so shocked when you mentioned a ‘monster squid.’ In this world, that’s not so crazy—not in my mind at least. I can imagine that being a thing…surviving one, though, seems pretty insane.” An shrugged. “What I’m saying is that you guys should be careful, traveling such a big distance.” Clearly, she seemed to have some expertise on this topic.

“Are you saying we could meet a monster squid, for real for real?!” Emu gasped, leaning over the table to look at An. Nene slumped further back, not liking being in between a conversation.

“Potentially. Maybe.” She shrugged once more. “You could encounter anything.”

“I wanna befriend a monster squid!!!” She exclaimed, beaming widely. “Then, it could help me go overseas super fast and visit Tsukasa wheneverrrr I want to!”

“No way. A monster squid would kill you in an instant.” Tsukasa countered, shaking his head disapprovingly at the childish thought.

“I, too, would like to befriend a monster squid so I can visit Tsukasa every day.” Rui chirped, leaning into the blonde. Tsukasa groaned lightly at the gesture, trying to push him off.

“I don’t think that’d be possible..” An sighed.

Mizuki shushed the girl. “It’s only possible if you think positively. Which these guys do.”

“If you’re visiting everyday, you better be buying food at my restaurant.” He huffed.

“We don’t get a free pass for saving you and bringing you home?” Rui frowned, straightening up to give him a look of disbelief.

“We could’ve left you on the shore to die,” Nene joined, giving the blonde a glare. “And should’ve…”

“Hey! Don’t say thaaat!” Emu whined, covering Nene’s mouth with her hand. “She didn’t mean that! She looooves being your friend, I promise!”

“Yeah, she says that stuff to me all the time.” Rui flashed her a nasty look and she returned the look, Emus hand still clamped over her mouth.

“Yeah, well, I know everyone loves being my friend! Because I’m me!” He declared, hand on his chest proudly.

“Ooh, he’s a loud, confident guy, huh?” Mizuki tittered, nudging Rui. “I see.”

Huh. Saw what?

Rui pushed them away playfully. “You see nothing.” He argued.

“Riiight, riight.” They giggled. Seriously, what were they going on about?

“What I was trying to get to before,” An suddenly spoke up, eyeing Mizuki and Rui, “was that I can provide you guys with a safe way across the ocean.” She proposed the idea.

“Oya? How so?” Rui blinked, head tilting.

“I work with some shipping company, right? We export goods to other kingdoms.” She explained. “Unfortunately, for reasons I won’t disclose, none of our exports will be headed directly towards the Aoyagi kingdom for a bit. But I’m sure Rui and Emu are glad about that, for the sake of the adventure and whatnot,” and the two grinned at each other upon hearing the news as if to agree. “But we have one going out to the Hinomori kingdom in…two days? Yeah, two days. That gives you four time to soak in this kingdom and have fun, and to relax.”

“Woww, look at you, giving them a helping hand!” Mizuki said friskily. “You’re not gonna leave me alone here though, are you?”

An rolled her eyes. “No, unfortunately I’m stuck with you. That export isn’t my shift—mine are primarily out to the Otori kingdom. Of course it’d be easier to bring goods to your kingdom by land, but the spiders and stuff are…hindering such from happening. Anyways,” she cleared her throat. “I can help you four sneak on the boat. I know every nook and cranny of these ships, and I know a spot that you guys’ll be safe in. Especially considering the guys on that shift are lazy and hardly do stuff the whole time, so they likely won’t even check.”

“But there is a chance that they do check, right?” Nene countered, thinking about this with caution.

“Highly unlikely.” An stated. “They’re bad at their jobs.”

“Your meal is on us, then.” Rui offered. “To repay you in advance for helping us so much.”

An waggled her finger at him. “Psh, forget about repaying me. I don’t need that. As long as you guys make it across safely, I’m happy.”

“I’ll cook you a meal!” Tsukasa interjected. “To repay you, I mean.” He beamed. His meals were always super duper delicious—she’d definitely be satisfied with that as a repayment.

“Yuck…” Nene belched.

An paused, staring at him while she considered this. “Well, fine. I guess I can’t say no…and besides, you’d be cooking for everyone, right?”

“Yeah, of course!” He confirmed, glancing to the left. Honami was on her way back, tray of drinks in hand—did he even know what he wanted?

“Rui, rui, pssst,” Tsukasa whispered. “What are you gonna order?”

Rui raised a brow. “Probably just something basic like rice.”

Tsukasa reminded himself, Rui was spending money on him every time they bought food. To cut costs… “Could we share? I’m still full from earliers breakfast.” Admittedly, he was quite hungry, and while he was one for eating all three meals a day to remain healthy, he truly felt bad about running Rui’s pockets.

Rui blinked. “Ah..Sure. That's fine by me.” The pink on Rui’s cheeks went unnoticed by the blonde.

The six of them would order—more like five, with Tsukasa and Rui sharing. Mizuki gave Rui a look upon seeing this, nudging him. Nene shook her head.

Honami turned away, taking her leave with her notepad filled with their orders. Emu took a long slurp of her shake before smirking at the boys.

“Aww! You two are sharing!” Emu cooed. “Thats soooo cutesy tootesy.”

“What—whats so cute about that?” Tsukasa frowned. “I’m just trying to not run his wallet since he's the one paying for me and helping me get back home to Saki.”

Honami froze in her steps, standing still for a moment before turning back to the table. “Saki?” She repeated, eyes widening slightly. “I knew you seemed familiar!”

“Huh?” Tsukasa blinked, dumbfounded and confused. Yet his confusion turned into confidence in an instant. “I’m familiar? Aha, you know my restaurant already, don’t you?”

“That—no, that’s not why I know you, sorry—?” She let out a nervous laugh. “Saki has described you to me in letters before, and then I heard your name and I knew I had heard about you before. I just..didn’t want to be weird about it, aha…but you mentioned Saki, so it has to be you—Tsukasa Tenma, right?”

He gasped, eyes widening. “Yes—yes!” He was being recognized…even if it wasn’t for the reasons he wished he was. Of course, he’d take this opportunity to introduce himself properly. “My name is Tsukasa Tenma! Tsukasa, meaning leader and Tenma, meaning soaring pegasus! I’m going to be the grandest chef of them all—just once I get back home.”

Honami just stood there, staring at him with an awkward smile through his introduction. “W-wow..! That was very nice. You’re…just like how she described you in the letters.”

“She means loud, annoying, and obnoxious,” Nene murmured, earning a disapproving pinch on the cheek from Emu. Rightfully so, too. Tsukasa wasn’t any of those things—maybe loud was right, he’d admit that, but he was charmingly loud. He was loud with purpose! And besides, no one else cared.

“N-no, no—those are not the words she used..” Honami stuttered defensively, shaking her head fast.

“Letters though—how are you two in contact with each other?” Tsukasa asked curiously. Really, there's no way they’ve ever met before. Saki has never left the Aoyagi Kingdom!

“It’s a bit of a long story,” she laughed awkwardly. “I’ll try to make it quick. One of my closest friends, Ichika, is a knight for the Asahinas. She was sent on a mission a few years ago when she was eleven, some sort of training thing I guess, since she was so young…but mid-task, she ran into some injured, sickly girl on the street—her words, not mine! I mean no offense to Saki. Apparently Saki claimed she was practicing walking to regain her strength, I think? Like physical therapy, which would’ve been fine by Ichika except she was alone. And in the state she was in…it worried Ichika, so she brought her home.” Tsukasa didn’t recall this at all, but no way was this kind waitress lying to him…right? “She met your guys father, since I think you and your mother were out, and apparently Saki really liked her and asked her to keep in touch…so of course Ichika did. She’s so sweet…” she sighed, smiling to herself. “B-but, then Ichika told me this story, and she encouraged me to send a letter of my own to Saki…we were young, and I guess she wanted us all to be friends. So, we’ve sort of all been pen pals since then.”

“Woow, that’s some deep lore.” Mizuki hummed, resting their chin in their hand.

“Wow—and Saki never told me about her pen pals?” He frowned. She was hiding this from him for, what, six years? This wasn’t even something to hide! But alas, he wasn’t going to be mad—he had his own secrets too. “I’m glad you guys have been her friends, though! That means a lot.”

“Ichi and I wish to visit her sometime soon…but Ichi’s always so busy and I have a cafe to run..” She let out a sigh. “Is there a reason why you’re visiting the Asahina Kingdom? You said this guy was helping you get back to Saki, right? Sorry if it’s personal or anything, but I’m curious what you meant by that.”

The more he explained it to people, he more embarrassing it got. A world future star chef should experience cool, amazing scenarios, not some lame ‘hit my head and got beached’ story. He let out an awkward, sheepish laugh.“Aha..I wanted to get fish for my soon to be restaurant, right? You know, to prepare for its grand opening…but a few things happened—“

“He went the wrong way and ran into a big storm, then hit his head on the boat and got beached at the Otori Kingdom.” Nene joined, aiding his explanation.

“—That—she’s making it sound more lame than it really was! But, essentially, that is what happened…” he sighed.

“That—oh my pies, it’s a blessing you’re alive and well!” She gasped, hand clutching the bottom of her apron. “The waters out there can get dangerous…”

“And there can be beasts!” An contributed.

“Right.”

“Just evidence that its fate we all met, huh?” Rui hummed, leaning towards Tsukasa. Nene scoffed and Emu nodded her head fast in agreement.

“I’m glad you’re okay, though. You seem like a very kind man, Saki is very lucky to have you as her brother. I know she’d be devastated if anything happened to you…” she trailed off, eyes widening with a sudden realization. “she—she knows you’re alive, right?”

“Yes, yes, of course! She knows nothing bad would ever happen to me—and plus, I sent her letters. She’s informed, I promise.”

Honami let out a sigh of relief. “Good, good…Ah—I’ll go get your meals ready now! Sorry for the hold up,” and with that, she scurried off.

…………

Soon enough, Honami was back, tray of food in her hands. With this waitress, there wasn’t the concern that she was going to trip and drop all the food everywhere, as there was with Minori. (No offense to her of course, she was a delight!)

Honami set everyones bowls and plates on the table in front of the designated person, nudging Ruis food in the middle of the two boys so they could properly share. The bowl of rice clinked with metal, and Tsukasa eyed what it had hit—his tea cup that he had forgotten about. He scrunched his nose up. He wasn’t a fan of matcha, so he wasn’t quite sure what lead him to order it. Perhaps Honamis tea could change his mind?

Rui began to feast upon his rice. “I’m sorry I didn’t order a nice big meal. Like you said, I’m still pretty full from earlier.” He said, mouth full.

“Swallow before you talk,” Nene interrupted, and Rui rolled his eyes before listening and doing as ordered.

Tsukasa slipped two fingers between the teacups handle, raising the cup up to his mouth and taking a sip. He winced at the bitter taste, swallowing hard. The aftertaste wasn’t bad—neither was the tea itself, but just because Honami makes good tea doesn’t mean he’s a fan of Matcha now. He turned to face Rui.

“It’s okay! This’ll be enough to fill us both, I’m sure.” Tsukasa offered him a smile, about to dig into his portion of the rice when suddenly a pair of chopsticks and a bundle of rice were being held in front of him. He stared at it for a second before looking up at Rui. “I’m well capable of feeding myself, you know.”

Rui only pushed the rice closer to Tsukasa, and Tsukasa crinkled his nose up before deciding to just go with it, opening his mouth and letting the rice fall in. He thought nothing of the raised brows from An and Nene and the giggles from Emu and Mizuki.

Even if the order was basic, Tsukasa had to agree that Honami’s food was definitely good. He’s has bad and good rice before, and this was, admittedly, delicious. Tsukasa could only hope his food, from as plain as rice to as complex as a genuine meal, could taste like this.

“Thank you,” he hummed to Rui.

“Isn’t it good?” He smiled, stuffing his mouth.

Tsukasa nodded, this time feeding himself. “It’s yummy!” He said after swallowing his mouthful. “I can only hope my foods even better.”

Nene rolled her eyes. Yet even with the attitude she was giving him, her words came out reassuringly. “I’m sure it’s just as good,” she grumbled.

“Yeah, and we’ll confirm that soon, won’t we? When you make us a grand meal, Mr. spectacular chef.” Rui teased, raising his chopsticks towards Tsukasa once more. Tsukasa gave Rui a grumpy look before accepting the food again. “You don’t have to do that, you know.”

“You’d think as a ‘star chef,’ you’d be able to feed yourself.” Nene sighed.

“What—I can!” Tsukasa frowned. “He just keeps putting rice in my face.”

“Can’t I do something nice for you?” Rui pouted. “I try helping my friends and this is how they treat me.” He let out a fake sob, Mizuki patting his back hard.

“I want to feed Nene like Rui feeds Tsukasa!” Emu frowned. “Open wide, Nene!”

“Oh, look what you idiots starte—mnhhph!” Suddenly, two chopsticks plunged into Nene’s mouth, courtesy of the bubbly pink girl sitting besides her. Nene accepted the food with a grunt, crossing her arms, mumbling a whatever.

“Is it yummy? Super duper delish?” Emu repeatedly asked, staring wide eyed at Nene.

“It’s good…” she sighed, earning a happy air fist pump from Emu. “I’m glad I made a good choice by getting this! Now we can share!”

“Don’t forget I have my own food,” Nene reminded, seeming annoyed, yet a small smile was on her face. Clearly, she was fond of the pinkette.

“Ohh..right. Well, can’t we share that too?” Nene was about to object to that, but she seemed to just accept her fate.

“Ohhhooo…how I wish I had someone to feed me my meal.” Mizuki moped, eyes locked on An from directly across the table.

Tsukasa snorted, and Rui watched with an amused expression.

“I’d ask Rui, but ah, he’s spoken for…and so are Nene and Emu…” they sniffled, poking at their meal.

Spoken for definitely wasn’t the word Tsukasa would use to describe this predicament—they weren’t a couple, Rui wasn’t taken. No way were they dating! Yuck.

An raised a curious brow. “You think I’m going to feed you?”

“..Well, it’d be so nice if you did. You know, I feel so left out—“

“Oh, be quiet. You know I’m not gonna feed you. You’re damn well capable of doing it yourself, and we’re not a couple anyways. I have a girlfriend, you know!”

“And so do I.” They retorted. “Whatever, you’re such a bum. I didn’t really want you to feed me anyways.”

An kicked Mizuki from under the table, earning a whine from the light pink haired one.

“Couples aren’t the only people who share food,” Tsukasa chimed in. “Rui and I aren’t a couple, and we can share food.” He definitely wasn’t just putting it out there to make sure Mizuki didn’t think they were dating.

“Exactly, so why don’t you help Mizuki out, An?” Rui smirked.

Mizuki let out a giggle, mumbling something directed towards Rui, but it wasn’t quiet enough for Tsukasa to not hear. “You guys aren’t a couple?”

“Hush.” Rui hissed, playfully whacking them, which only made them snicker louder.

Tsukasa rolled his eyes, paying this no mind. They weren’t a couple, why would anyone ever suggest that? He sipped his tea again, nose crinkling at the taste once more. He wasn’t a big fan of bitter tasting things, matcha being no exception.

Rui seemed to see this. “You don’t like your drink?” He questioned, nudging his ramune soda over.

“You can take mine to wash it down. I don’t mind drinking tea.” He offered. Tsukasa couldn’t help but think this was awfully sweet—he was willing to give up his drink for Tsukasa’s tea? But alas, Tsukasa would refuse the offer.

“I’m already taking enough by eating a portion of your food. Keep your drink; I’m not a fan of soda anyways.”

“Mmh, not a fan? You’re missing out on this. I need to get you to try soda candy—it’ll change your life.

“I doubt anything is going to change my mind on those nasty, carbonated snacks and drinks.”

………

Time passed, and the check arrived to the table. The payment was split between Mizuki, An, Rui, and Nene. Rui had originally offered to pay for everyone, but he was then reminded that their funds were limited and they needed to make sure they had enough for there and back, so he’d be paying for his own. Nene took it upon herself to pay for Emu’s alongside hers, and the two others paid for themselves, being responsible civilians with their own money.

“Thank you all so much for coming!” Honami beamed, six small boxes in her hands. “I know this isn’t much, but I thought I’d give each of you a small apple pie.”

“You don’t have to—!” Tsukasa gasped.

“Let me pay for them,” Rui stepped forward, hand reaching for his pouch of coins.

“No—no. Just take them, please…! Since you know Saki,” she said to Tsukasa, handing him one box, “and since you two are regulars,” she smiled at An and Mizuki, “and since you three are their friends.” She handed the boxes to the remaining three. “I’m glad you all came today.”

“Ahh! Thank you soooo so much, Honami! I wish you were in our kingdom, I’d come here evvverryyyday, your food is soo good!” Emu whined, evoking a giggle from Honami. “That’s so sweet of you.”

“It’s…really yummy. Thank you for the pie.” Nene agreed, holding her small box with a grateful expression. Honami nodded.

“And Tsukasa,” Honami paused. “Um…tell Saki I say hi, okay? And that I hope to see her soon.”

“Will do, I promise! I’m sure she’ll be really happy to hear it.”

“I hope so…and safe travels, you four.”

“Hopefully you and Saki meet soon!” He cheered, and Honami’s face lit up, cheeks tinted red as she mumbled something in agreement.

“Yaay, now we’re all fed!” Mizuki sang out as they all exited, doing a little twirl. “Man, I feel like I’m full for days!”

“You’ll be hungry by dinner time.” An snickered.

“Whaaaateverrr.” They replied with a huff.

“So, Tsukasa, will you be cooking us dinner tonight?” Emu queried, peering at the blonde man.

“Hm, if you guys would like me to! I have no issue with that at all.”

“That’d be spectacular,” Rui voiced.

Nene looked up at Tsukasa, shrugging. “It’d be alright by me.”

“Yeah, cook for us, chef boy!” Mizuki rejoiced as they and An led the four.

Emu grabbed Nene’s hand, grinning widely. “I’m so excited to taste his cooking. Hasn’t Rui already gotten a sneak peak?” She blinked.

“Mm, yes, I did.” Rui nodded. “Twice, actually. Breakfast, which was pancakes I believe? And ginger fried rice. If I remember correctly, thats your favorite, yes, Kasa?”

“Ah! It is!” He nodded fast. “I’m glad you remembered!” Having someone remember small details like that…it made Tsukasa feel appreciated.

“His cooking is very good. Seriously, its like something I’ve never had before…I have high hopes for his restaurant.” He’d say in a rather fond tone, making Tsukasa feel…fuzzy. Friends like this, who clearly cared, meant a lot to the blonde.

“Soooo cheesy.” Mizuki commented with a belch, shaking their head at An.

“Well, of course!” He exclaimed, completely voiding whatever Mizuki said. “After all , I’m the one who made the food. Of course it’s going to be absolutely, ground breakingly delicious! I’m a professional chef—I didn’t lie about that! My restaurant is going to be famous, and you can hold me to my word!”

“I will,” Nene chirped. “I better see you in news headlines in a month.”

“A month—?! That’s not much time..but alas, I can make it work!” His fist rose to chest with confidence.

“Fufu, you’re definitely something, Tsukasa.” Rui giggled.

“What does that mean?!”

.
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.
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Arriving to Mizuki and An’s residence, the six made themselves comfortable. Time would pass as they conversed amongst one another, and naturally, Tsukasa was constantly picked on by each person.

A few hours go by as the quartet spends time at the duos home, and before Tsukasa knows it, the sky is fading into an ombre of yellow, orange, and pink. He took this as his signal to get up and cook a grand feast, this time actually having proper resources, unlike at Rui’s home. Finishing with his meal, he’d splay the plates out on the dining table, calling everyone over. The meal in question was curry rice.

Mizukis eyes sparkled as they stared at their plate. “This is my favorite…!” Immediately they began digging in, letting out a pleased hum. “And it’s is really good!” Mizuki would compliment with their mouth full.

“Thank you!” Tsukasa beamed. Of course it was really good! He expected no less from his meals.

Sitting next to Rui, he would dig into his food as well. “This is really good, Kasa. You truly are an excellent chef.” He purred. Tsukasa paused at the nickname, but he quickly moved past it as he felt his cheeks heat up with pride.

“Aha—thank you, Rui!” He glanced around, seeing that Nene hadn’t taken a bite of her food yet. “It’s not poisoned Nene, I promise,” he reassured.

Nene would snort, taking a small bite of her food. A few seconds passed and she looked back up at him. “It’s good.” She confirmed, now looking away. “Um, really good.”

“Super good!” Emu chimed, and An nodded in agreement.

Admiring the still present sunset through a window, he takes note of how the sunset really illuminates the buildings outside, making it rather beautiful scenery, which is something he didn’t think he’d ever say about his kingdom. But as he sits here, observing the sunset as he eats, it hits Tsukasa that they don’t have a place to stay at when it gets dark. No way were they going to stay in this home; he’d feel terrible imposing himself and his friends upon these two with such little warning, and he doubted there was enough space in here anyway.

Tsukasa glanced at each of his friends. Perhaps they had a solution. “Rui, Nene, Emu?” Tsukasa spoke up, interrupting any prior conversations or thoughts they were having.

They all turned to face him, including Mizuki and An, and he cleared his throat. “We need a place to stay at tonight. And tomorrow too, probably. Rui, did you think this far ahead yet?” Considering this whole adventure was Rui’s fault, he would have expected him to plan ahead and actually figure things like this out.

But that didn’t seem to be the way this was going. Rui blinked. “That…ah, I did not…” he clasped his hands together, thinking for a second. “Perhaps these two, with their expertise on this kingdom, know of a place we can stay for two nights?” He tilts his head towards the two.

Mizuki and An shared a glance, both thinking hard for a few seconds.

“You guys aim to save money, right? According to what happened in the restaurant…” An asked.

“I don’t intend on running my pockets dry on this trip, so cheaper solutions would be preferred.” Rui nodded.

“Emu and I have money too, you know.” Nene reminded.

“But you guys didn’t bring much, did you?” Rui retorted. “I don’t mind paying for everyone anyways.”

“But thats no fair! You shouldn’t pay for everyone…” Emu frowned.

Tsukasa shifted awkwardly. He would have liked to stand up and say the same thing, but if Rui wasn’t paying for his stuff then no one else would be. Rui really was kind, huh. Odd but kind.

“I’ll handle it, I promise its okay. You guys being here with me is enough of repayment.” He smiled. Nene smiled back, rolling her eyes.

“Aww, Rui!” Emu giggled. “You’re so sweet.”

“In that case,” An spoke up again. “There’s some hotel near by thats…rather cheap. It’s not in tippy top condition, but its not terrible either. Its good enough for two days in the kingdom.”

“Mm, then we’ll check it out.” Rui nodded “Mind giving us the directions? Its getting late out.”

Tsukasa stood up, collecting all the plates and heading to the kitchen sink to wash them. From here he couldn’t hear their conversation well, so he was left with his own thoughts.

If they weren’t leaving this kingdom for two days, and then they’d be heading to the Hinomori kingdom, then when would he be getting home? Hopefully in less than a week…he really missed Saki. The only time he was ever away from her for long periods of time was when she was hospitalized—those thoughts brought him back to times he would rather not relive. He winced, sucking in a deep breath. It’d be ok, he’d be home soon enough.

Yet while he wished to get home soon, a part of him longed to stay with his friends for a bit longer. Whether he planned on this or not, he began feeling affectionate towards the three—parting from them so soon would break him, especially if they live across waters. He bit his lip in frustration.

He didn’t want to leave Rui so soon. And Emu and Nene of course, but especially Rui. It wouldn’t be fair; he was the one paying for all of Tsukasas stuff! He owed him his grand presence, but he couldn’t provide him with that if they were kingdoms away.

Suddenly, someone appeared next to him, watching the dishes be scrubbed. “Hey there,” they greeted.

Tsukasa jumped out of shock, brows furrowing. Somehow, Tsukasa was so in the zone with his thinking that he hadn’t heard Rui enter the room. “Rui, you’re always scaring me! Cut that out.” He heavily huffed, moving the final washed plate to the strainer so it could dry off. His mood shifted rather quick, completely forgetting about Rui scaring him.

“Did you guys discuss the hotel situation?”

“We did,” Rui confirmed, watching his own hand as he ran a finger along the counter. “There is a bit of a…predicament, but I’ll let you know about it when we get there.”

“Hey—!” Tsukasa frowned. Rui looked up, giving him a look of confusion. “You can’t just tell me there’s an issue and then not tell me what it is! Did something serious happen? Am I not getting home soon? Do we not have enough money? Can we only stay there for one nigh—“?” He’d jump to conclusions, attempting to determine which one was the answer.

Rui let out a light chuckle as Tsukasa rambled on and on, and he raised his finger to Tsukasas mouth and shushed him. “It’s nothing to freak out about.” He soothed. “Calm down, okay? I’ll tell you once we get there, I promise. Think of something else in the meantime.”

Tsukasa stared at Rui’s finger on his mouth, a little taken back. Why he felt so odd about that was beyond him, but he eyed it for a second more before pushing it away. “Fine, whatever..! You’re still cruel for this.” He grumbled.

Rui gave him a smile. A really…sweet, fond looking smile, and Tsukasa noticed that in this moment, those pretty green specks in his eyes were really, really visible right now. He admired them for a second before shaking his head, stepping back. “You’re not going to fool me!” He barked, fist clenched. “I’m still upset at you for deceiving me and making me wait til we get at the hotel!”

“I didn’t deceive you,” Rui corrected. “It won’t even be long till we head over there, so don’t freak out about it.” He ruffled Tsukasa’s hair. “You’re so overdramatic, world future star chef.” And before Tsukasa could yell at him for messing his hair up as he has reminded him plenty of times before not to do, he was already heading out of the kitchen.

Tsukasa begrudgingly followed.

Before he knew it, enough time had passed for them to head to their temporary residence—some Asahina kingdom hotel. That meant that the time to part from An and Mizuki was now, too. All four of the adventurers had retrieved their bags filled with what they deemed as necessary to explore.

“Byeeee guys!” Mizuki waved, stepping towards Rui. “You better come by tomorrow, we need to have a serious chat.”

“Will do.” He saluted, and the two grinned at each other.

“Bye!” An smiled, stepping ahead to open the door for them. “You remember the directions, right, Rui?”

“Of course.” He nodded, and An’s smile dropped, looking at him seriously.

“And make sure none of those dangerous explosives go off in the hotel. One, you guys would all die, and then the hotel would be ruined.”

“Who do you take me for, a monster? I’m trying to bring Tsukasa home, not kill him. Of course they wont go of—plus, none of them are really explosive in the way you’re thinking..” A devilish, plotting smirk snaked it’s way onto his face.

“I don’t even want to know what you mean!” She groaned, shooing him out with her hands.

“Bye!” The four exclaimed in unison, and for extra flare, Tsukasa would bow outside their door.

He straightened up. “So, this is like a mini adventure, right?” He asked, looking up at the sky. It had gotten darker, meaning the pretty sunset that once illuminated the sky was gone. He lowered his gaze, flinching at the eerie sight of the buildings.

“It is,” Rui confirmed, and Emu cheered, bouncing down the street.

“Hey, wait up!” He groaned, speed walking her way. “Are you even going the right way?” She whipped around, beaming at Tsukasa. “No clue. Aren’t you so excited to see this hotel?”

“…Not really! Are you?” He raised a brow. A mere hotel was nothing to be excited about—though, he had to admit; he was a little excited to sleep. He reminded himself, just this morning they walked from the Otori kingdom to here, encountering some freakish bugs on the way. They deserved some nice rest.

“A little! I like seeing new places,” she explained, bouncing on her heels. “Ughh, those two are tooooo slow. I wanna get there now!”

”You need to learn how to be patient! Patience is a key virtue to be a princess, no?” He reminded, glancing behind him to view the slower two.

“What would you know?” Emu retorted. Tsukasa turned his head back ahead to face her. “I’ll have you know I’m friends with the prince of my kingdom! I know all the keys to being the perfect prince.” Their argument ended quickly once Rui and Nene caught up. Tsukasa felt an arm drag along his back, indicating that they had to keep moving. He straightened himself up and cleared his throat, ignoring that feeling in his stomach. Emu only smiled at him knowingly before whipping around and skipping alongside Nene.

A few more turns and straights passed and they soon arrived to a five story building. It wasn’t cheap looking by any means, but it definitely wasn’t high class, worthy for a star. But he wasn’t going to complain just yet—perhaps it was nice on the inside! And as long as there were no bugs, he would be okay.

Emu bounced forward, holding the door open for everyone. She received three thanks before it was her turn to head inside.

Tsukasa took in the scenery of the lobby. It was dimly lit, the focal point of the room evidently the reception desk, with most light shining there.

Rui was about to step over there when Tsukasa grabbed his sleeve, holding him still. He looked up at Rui seriously. “What is the predicament you were talking about?”

Rui let out a breathy laugh. “You’re so demanding, star.” He used his other hand to remove Tsukasas grip from his sleeve, holding his hand for a second. “It’s just something Mizuki hypothesized, and if it’s true I’m just not sure if you’ll be happy. You’ll see when we get to the reception desk.”

Rui then took this chance to walk forward, and Tsukasa had no choice to follow, along with Emu and Nene.

“Hi there,” he hummed to the receptionist who clearly just wanted to go home. “Can we have four rooms?”

The receptionist shook her head, staring at him blankly. “No can do. We’re packed tonight, save for two rooms.” She informed, eyeing her computer. In the reflection of her glasses, Tsukasa could see some sort of video game. What a hard worker she was.

But then it hit him. Two rooms—?! That wasn’t enough for them! What were they going to do?

“We’ll take those two then.” He requested, reaching into his pouch of coins for the proper funds.

“Wha—Rui! There’s four of us! Two rooms won’t do!” He frowned, arms crossed. Was Rui thinking at all??

“Two rooms is enough, genius. Four divided by two is what?” Nene interrupted, staring at him as she awaited her answer.

He paused. The answer was two, but how did that mean that two rooms was enough?

“So, you can’t do quick division? Gosh, we have an idio—“

“Its two! I’m not stupid, but how does that make two rooms enough?”

“We split up into twos!” Emu chimed in cheerily, grinning widely. “I call sharing with Nene!”

“Good. I don’t wanna share with a boy.” She grumbled.

“Sharing—?!” He exclaimed. That was…fine! There was probably more than one bed per room. “W-well, that leaves me with Rui!”

During this, Rui had paid for the rooms, handing a key to the girls. “Let’s go—both rooms are the second floor.” He informed, and the four would head up the stairs.

“I claim the bed furthest from the door,” Tsukasa hummed to Rui. “Just letting you know beforehand.”

Emu and Nene exchanged looks, and Nene began to laugh lightly. “This guy…” she snickered to Emu.

“Aha, Tsukasa…this is where that predicament comes into play,” he began, giving the blonde an unsure smile. “There’s only one bed per room.”

Tsukasa blinked, processing this. Okay, so there were two rooms, and two people per room with one bed. That would mean… “we have to SHARE THE BED—?!” He yelped, jumping back. “That—!”

“Shush, lower your volume,” Nene hissed, plugging her ears.

“I can sleep on the floor—!” He offered. Rui shook his head.

“If anyones doing that, it’ll be me.” Rui stated, heading to their door and unlocking it.

The girls proceeded down the hall. “Byeee, Rui and Tsukasa! See you laaater! Hope you figure this out soon!” Emu called out. Rui waved, but Tsukasa focused on the issue at hand.

“You can’t sleep on the floor, you paid for this room!” He frowned.

“So then I guess neither of us are doing that.” Rui said plainly. “I’m sorry we have to do this—I can just go stay at Mizuki’s place if it makes you uncomfortable—“

“No, it’s whatever! I can handle this.” Tsukasa reassured, yawning. He stared at the singular bed, biting the inside of his cheeks. He had shared a bed with Saki when he was younger to comfort her when she wasn’t feeling too well or when she was scared, but that was completely different from now, wasn’t it? Rui wasn’t his sister, and he wasn’t feeling sick or scared. Or was he?

Tsukasa raised his gaze up to Rui, squinting at him as he observed his expression.

“If you say so…” Rui shifted his bag off his shoulders. He glanced back at Tsukasa, catching him staring, and he froze. “Are you…okay?”

“I’m perfectly fine! Just seeing something.” He stated, inspecting for a second more before coming to the conclusion that Rui was not scared or sick. His skin was naturally pale and the faint purple bags under his eyes were always there, at least from the day they met, so there were no indications of illness.

“Right..well, I’m going to put pajamas on. Today has me beat,” he informed, unzipping his bag and rummaging through it. Metal clicked against metal as he searched, and he pulled two pairs of pants and two shirts out. He tossed one pair of pajamas onto the bed. “Those are for you, whenever you want to get changed.”

Tsukasa nodded, placing his bag on the floor besides the bed. “Thanks!”

Rui stood and carried his clothes to their rooms bathroom to prepare for bed.

Tsukasa eyes the pajamas set aside for himself. They were definitely going to be a little long on him, even if Rui was giving him the ones that didn’t fit anymore. Tsukasa glanced at the bathroom door. Rui had just gone in there, surely he had enough time to just change in their room, right?

He shifted his pants off, pulling the fuzzy pajama ones up. As he thought, they were baggy at the bottom, but cozy nonetheless. He undid his apron and removed his shirt. He paused, observing the design on the pajama shirt given to him. A bunch of platypus were splayed around the fabric, and Tsukasa couldn’t help but snort at it.

But before he could begin to put the shirt on, Rui had speedily finished changing himself, and the bathroom door clicked open.

“…!” Rui gasped

Tsukasa let out a yelp of surprise , hurrying to grab the shirt and cover up his front.

“Oh—ah! I’m sorry, I didn’t know..you..um, were changing in here..!” Red in the face, Rui stumbled over his own words, but Tsukasa shook his head.

“N-no—it’s my fault for not letting you know..!” He reasoned, clutching the shirt tighter.

Rui stared at him for a second more before apologizing again and shutting the bathroom door. “Tell me when you’re done!”

Tsukasa took a deep breath, shaking his head. That was definitely something. Rui seemed really embarrassed about walking in on Tsukasa shirtless, but isn’t it normal for men to be shirtless? Of course he didn’t want Rui to see him naked—that’d be weird—but shirtless shouldn’t have been such a big issue, right? At the beach, men typically didn’t wear shirts, but then again that was a completely different situation. Perhaps Rui just wasn’t comfortable with that stuff.

Whatever it was didn’t matter though, Tsukasa reminded himself as he unbuttoned the shirt and put it on. Once he redid the buttons, he let out a sigh. “I’m done now!”

“Okay.” Rui replied, taking a second before coming out of the bathroom. “Sorry again, , I didn’t think—“

Tsukasa shushed him, hand on his own hip. “It’s okay! Perfectly fine, I promise!” He reassured. “You didn’t mean to, and I should’ve let you know.”

Rui gulped, nodding. “Right…well, um, the pajamas—do you like them or do you want a different pair?”

“I think they’re nice. The platypus are a cute touch.”

Rui let out a breathy laugh, nodding. “They’re my favorite animal.”

Tsukasa eyed him. “Huh..well, I guess that makes sense. You’re just as odd as one.”

“Hey,” Rui pouted. “They’re not odd. They’re cute and uniquely different.” He corrected, and Tsukasa rolled his eyes.

“Whatever you say.”

Tsukasa sat himself on the bed, and he was reminded of their predicament. “Um, so, how are we going to do this?” He asked, staring at the bed. “Like, I get one side, you get the other?”

“Unless you want us to cuddle, then yes, thats how two people share a bed.

Cuddle—? He gave Rui a wild look upon hearing the word. Tsukasa shook his head. “I call the left side then.”

“Got it.” Rui hummed, heading over to his bag and dropping his clothes next to it. “Are you retiring to bed already?”

Tsukasa scoffed, was Rui really incapable of folding clothes? He sighed, sitting up from the bed and heading over to Rui, nudging him away. “I was going to,” He began folding his shirt carefully, then his pants. He folded the jacket, placing the pants and shirt on top. “But I had to fix this first.”

Rui raised a brow. “Perfectionist much? What was wrong with the way they were before? No one was going to see.”

“I am, and it looked like a pig pen.” He replied, standing up and dusting his pants off for really no reason. “Now I’m ready to sleep.”

Rui rolled his eyes, a playful smirk on his face. “You’re so overdramatic.” He giggled, heading over to the light switch , flicking it off before returning to the bed. He ran his hand along the sheets before sitting. “It seems big enough for the both of us, so we likely won’t have an issue with space.”

Gosh, Tsukasa really was sharing a bed with Rui. This was weird, but he sat. “Yeah, unless you move around a lot in your sleep.”

“Not that I know of, but do tell me if I take up your side.”

The two would get under the covers, Tsukasa on the very edge of the left side. He was NOT playing around—they were sharing a bed because there were only two rooms, not because they were…you know. Silence filled the room as the two sat under the blankets, neither really sure how to…go about this.

He glanced at Rui, who happened to be looking back at him. “Goodnight, Rui!” He beamed, turning the other way.

“Goodnight, Tsukasa.” He relayed, and Tsukasa heard him shuffling on the other side.

The silence that filled the room was awkward, but there was no way to fill it when they were supposed to be sleeping. Soon enough though, Tsukasa had drifted off into sleep.