Becoming Potatoes

A/N: the long awaited cut back to rui, the (debatably) initiator of this whole mess!

IMRUNNING OUT OF TITLE IDEAS HELP

just a little stuffies. next chapter will be chaos probably



"My Fragment SEKAI?"


"Yep!" Len nodded. "KAITO-nii said that it appeared again. We're not sure how to get there yet, so I'm afraid you're alone on this one again..."


"That's alright. Thanks for letting me know, Len-kun."


The hologram nodded and then promptly disappeared, leaving him in the quiet of his own room.


Unfortunately for him, it was now morning, and it was also a weekday, which meant he had to go to school when he really really didn't want to. He should have enrolled like Mizuki did, and then he wouldn't have to show up every morning; but no. Sadly, he couldn't lay in bed all day like he wished.


He groaned and rolled over on his couch to face the wall, curling in on himself to the best of his ability (with slight difficulty, considering couches don't exactly have much moving space and he has very long legs). He felt horrible. He wishes he'd never let Tsukasa leave— no, wait. Not like that.


He wishes he had been able to help Tsukasa before he left. But now he's laying here, tired and also having just received the news that a literal other world formed by his feelings of sadness had reappeared, due to some circumstance he can't really grasp.


He's not the one that's really suffering here, even if he feels he deserves as such for what he'd caused. In reality, he had little-to-no reason to feel worse than normal.


He just did, he supposed. Feelings are a wild, strange, and not-quite wonderful experience sometimes.


That was when Rui heard his front door opening, and he sighed. Well, that definitely concludes his stay-in-bed(couch?) day plan. As soon as Nene got in his room, it was over.


Mentally, he calculated how many more seconds of sleep he'd get if he went unconscious right now. Fifty-seven— no, thirty-five, thirty-four...


The internal door to his garage slammed open, the sound of Nene's shoes on the floor filling Rui's previously (and miraculously) silent area of work. He heard as she maneuvered around the countless contraptions, parts and bits of mechanical things strewn on the floor like she had lived in here all along, which she almost did, being his neighbor and childhood friend as she was.


"Kamishiro Rui." She finally said, and Rui felt her presence standing ominously beside his current place of rest. He didn't answer.


"Rui, I know you're awake. You slept on call with Akiyama-chan yesterday."


Ah, so this was a coordinated attack. He should come up with a revenge plan for Mizuki whenever he can. They'd been snitching on him too much these past months. Curse them for making him sleep early and logically have to wake up at a reasonable time.


Accepting his defeat, he rolled over to face the girl towering over him in her school uniform. "Good morning." He said, hating the way his voice came out all weird and tired.


"Whatever you're thinking, stop it. I know you'd much rather sit around here and think about how you failed Tsukasa or whatever, but if your grades drop any lower this trimester there's no way you're graduating." Nene was quick to start scolding him as soon as he reacted. He blinked repeatedly, trying to gain full awareness of his environment.


"You're jumping to—" Yawn. "...conclusions a little bit too fast, don't you think so?"


His neighbor huffed, placing her hands on her hips. "Rui."


"Plus, you can just go to school without me. It's not like we're some sort of package deal. My grades lowering won't cause yours to do so as well, 'm afraid."


"If I get murdered behind a maid cafe or something of the sort and it's your fault for not coming with me I'm coming back to haunt you."


He sat up, the blanket sliding off his shoulders and pooling around his lap as he did so, settling into a criss-cross position. He stretched his arms above his head with another yawn, before responding.


"Oh, dear me. My bad. I forgot. My beloved defenseless Nene is afraid of alleyways~" He hummed, knowing he was fighting a losing battle. The look in her eyes said he wasn't getting out of this one with words.


"You're just saying that to try and convince me to go alone. Come on, get up."


"I am, I am! Geez, so impatient."


"I am impatient because if you don't hurry up you'll be stuck in detention again, and I'll be dragged into it!"


Rui resisted making comments about how he knew Nene didn't need him to walk her to school, yet he did so anyway. He knew Nene could call someone else— Mizuki, An, heck, even Akito, Touya or Emu. Or maybe even walk there herself; he still found himself astonished at how fast Nene had grown since they were kids. She wasn't just a little girl anymore, and he's sure her grumpy look in the morning could scare even the baddest of criminals.


Yet, here she was. She had come here, for him. Because she cared for him, or something of the sort; after all, they were practically best friends, despite having drifted apart a bit since what they now call the "middle school incident". Nene was right, anyways; he'd get a lot more productivity out of terrorizing people at school than laying in his bed all day moping.


Nene could keep pretending to be annoyed at him, though, and he could keep pretending Nene needed him. Either way, if it got them both out of bed in the morning, it worked.


Maybe too well. And maybe neither of them knew how to regulate their words, or when enough was enough. But still, they were friends.


And that was all that mattered.



"You could have at least tried," Mizuki snorted, having somehow gotten into his classroom.


Rui shrugged and simply sat still as they worked their magic, brushing his bangs to flatten them out and covering his eyes as they did so. It was a few minutes until his class started, and he had very much warned Mizuki of that fact, but apparently they cared much more about how he looked than not getting sent to detention.


They brushed his signature long blue streak to the side where it belonged and made sure it stayed there before moving on.


"Your hair's getting sort of long." Mizuki commented absentmindedly, running their hands through it alongside their hairbrush. Rui knew it was less an observation and more of a subtle hint to get him to realize something.


"I guess it is." He responded, not wanting to humor Mizuki with conversations about his past; atleast, not today. "That just means more hairstyles for you to put on me, doesn't it?"


They seemed to take the hint and didn't press further, instead responding with a light tease. "You shouldn't give me so much power over your appearance, Kami-chan~ Otherwise, you'll be coming to school with bows all over your head."


"If it makes Akito lose his mind, I'm alright with it."


"Hahaha! You've really taken a liking to Otouto-kun, haven't you?" They laughed. "That's a rare sight. I'm glad he didn't scare you off with his big pointy teeth."


"Oh, no. Infact, I think his 'big pointy teeth' had quite the opposite effect..." He grinned back, trying not to focus on the way Mizuki oh-so-gently combed through the mess on his head. They paused, taking in his words.


"Eh? Wh— OH."


Rui burst out laughing at their expense, and they joined in with his giggling. "Oh my god! Rui, you can't just say things like that! We're in school!"


"And? It's the truth, isn't it~?"


They were about to retort when the bell sounded, shutting up any noise that could possibly come out.


"Crap. If I go out into the hallway now, I risk getting picked on by An..." They lowered their hairbrush from Rui's hair. He tilted his head. "I'll be late for class and get detention if I try running... well, I should probably get going—"


Rui tapped his fingers to his chin, thinking. Well... technically, if no one saw Mizuki here, they weren't in school, were they? If he just hid them...


Ah. That's right.


"Mizuki, get under my desk."


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