A/N: akito's in denial, rui's insane, tsukasa's depressed, what's new

—

"Kamishiro and Akito, sitting on a tree~ f-u-c-k-i-n-g~" An chanted, like she had been for the past five minutes. Akito would have already punched her if she wasn't the daughter of one of his idols and if they weren't in the cafe of said idol right at this moment.

"An, politely, shut up." He chose to say, instead, head in hands, feeling like he was going to get a death-inducing headache at any moment.

"Don't be so rude, Akito-kun." Touya said, and while he appreciated the effort, his presence made his pre-headache worse.

"Ngh." He answered, slamming his head down on to the table, pulling his wrist up to his face to gently nibble on his hand. Touya recognized this behavior immediately.

"Shiraishi, stop it." He said, looking even more serious than his usual resting expression, and An shut up immediately, concerned. "Akito, is everything okay?"

"Oh, now you're worried?" He spat back without thinking, immediately regretting it and following it up with a quiet "sorry".

"It's alright, Akito." Touya gently dragged his hand away from his face before he could actually tear into any skin and hurt himself, rubbing the back of it to comfort him. "What's wrong?"

"..." He let his hand be dragged away by Touya, tapping his fingers on the table with his other one in an attempt to cope without his regular (and slightly self-destructive) method. "...It's whatever. It doesn't matter."

"Shinonome-kun... we're your friends, right?" Kohane said, shyly. "Well- Uhm, I mean, what I want to say is that you've helped me through a lot, and, I want to help you, too, if there's anything I can do!"

Akito blinked, suddenly feeling the need to pinch himself to make sure the girl in front of him was real.

"Azusawa, you're an angel." He said in slight disbelief, causing An to snort beside him while Touya shushed her.

"Eh—?! Oh, uh—" Kohane immediately panicked, growing flustered. "Th-thank you? But uhm... yeah. Don't hide your feelings from us, Shinonome-kun..."

Akito very much considered it, looking at the people sitting on the table around him. An, who cared for him in her strange, teasing way, Kohane, who he's half convinced is sent directly by whatever god is out there to cure every mental illness, and Touya, one of the people who he's spent years building trust with, someone who knows all his weaknesses and strengths and everything else that the best partners should know about each other.

"Fuck, you all suck." He mumbled, entirely affectionately. "Let's go to SEKAI. I need a drink from MEIKO."

"You make that sound like she gives you something very different to tea." An commented, but took out her phone to press on their very special song file regardless.

"Bold words, coming from you."

"Hey! What are you implying?" She laughed, scooting closer to Akito and dragging Kohane (who squeaked in surprise) along with her as the almost blinding blue light poured out of her phone.

—

"I thought I told you to stop flirting with your kouhais, Rui." He heard Nene's voice before he saw her, opening the door to the detention room. So she was the one tasked with saving him from his prison today, it seemed. He smiled at her from his position on one of the desks, head resting on the palm of his hand.

"Wha~at? Me? Nene, I would never." The way he practically purred out the sentence didn't really help his defense. "That'd be super inappropriate for a school setting, you know~"

"Rui, your middle name may as well be 'inappropriate for a school setting'."

"You wound me, Nene-chan. I'm the most school-rule-abiding student ever." Rui pouted in mock offense.

"Right, sure, whatever. Where's your detention card?" Nene walked over, taking out a stamp from her pocket. Rui handed her the paper.

"Where'd you get that from, Nene?" He asked, standing up and picking up his bag from the floor.

"A third year girl on the hall monitor committee. She asked me if I was your friend, and then gave it to me to check you out of detention, since she had club meetings or something like that. And before you ask, I'm not giving it to you." She added, pressing the stamp to authorize Rui's leaving from detention. "God knows what you'd do with the power to sign anything under the permission of the hall monitor committee."

"I wouldn't do anything too bad. What kind of person do you think I am?"

"Oh, you know. Just the guy that brings literal bombs to school, is a constant headache for rule enforcers here, has skipped class more than actually sat through one, and is batshit crazy with robots and machinery and constantly tries to send people to space?" Nene gave him a deadpan look, holding her fingers in front of Rui's face and counting up her points with them. "Didn't Tsukasa-kun mention you building a time machine, once?"

"It just came together. Not my fault."

"That's possibly worse."

"Don't worry, the situation is under control. We made sure no time paradoxes were left behind." Nene handed him his paper back and he simply dropped it on the teacher's desk. Grave mistake to leave him alone, really, but today he didn't actually have anything explosive on him. He would've been out of detention ages ago otherwise. "What made you think I was flirting with the first-years, anyway?"

"Shiraishi-san has been yelling about it all evening." Nene put the stamp back into her pocket. "That, and, the double personality guy— Shinonome, was it? Was wearing something that's very clearly not his. I think he got a uniform violation report for it, actually."

"So if it's not his, how come it's mine? It could be Aoyagi-kun's~ You know how close they are."

"Oh, please, Rui. I've seen you wear that hoodie to my house more often than I've seen you listen to a whole class without making a scene." She rolled her eyes. "And I know damn well you stole Shinonome-san's uniform sweater just to make fun of him for it later."

Rui blinked, then smiled. "Oh, Nene, what should I do with you? You just know too much~"

Nene was not pleased. "Preferably not murder me, thanks. Now let's go, we have practice at the Wonder Stage today."

"We do, don't we?" Rui followed Nene out the door. "To Fennilan we depart, then!"

"You're so cringe." She sighed, taking out her phone to play some solo game on their way to the park. Rui grinned and fell into a comfortable rhythm walking beside her, as they always had.

(Today, Rui didn't mention how much slower he had to walk so Nene could keep up with him. Perhaps it was because Nene seemed nervous, and got more nervous the more they approached the park. She would not appreciate teasing at the moment, probably.)

—

"I'm going out, Saki!"

"Alright, Onii-chan! Have fun!"

Tsukasa shut and locked the door behind him, hopping down the steps to his house in what felt like forced enthusiasm. Have fun... sure, alright. He'll have fun.

He was glad his sister was doing better, don't get him wrong. He remembers the smile on her girlfriends' faces when he took her to school this morning. They were bright, even from Shiho, who he's never seen smile that much before. Saki practically beamed when she saw them, too. He's glad his sister has such good people to support her.

However.

'I wish Saki would get sick again so I could keep staying home and be the one to make her smile.'

He stopped dead in his tracks.

"No, that isn't right—" He mumbled to himself with as much disgust as he could muster. Saki was his sister, a chronically ill one, at that, and he did not wish anything bad on her.

Right?

These have to be intrusive thoughts. He knows they're intrusive thoughts. Tsukasa knows better than that. He can't control what his mind suddenly provides to him, whether he likes it or not—

'But all thoughts come from somewhere, don't they?' A voice in his head says, and he does his best to ignore it, to no avail. 'After all, you're still that selfish, attention-seeking little kid. How childish you are. Practicing the same piano song, the same shows, the same day over and over again foolishly as if a day would come where it would matter.'

'Your sweet little sister doesn't need you anymore. How self-absorbed do you have to be to not realize that?'

No—

There's rain on his face.

Oh, right, practice.

What was he doing, again? He can't afford to be late. If he can't remember what he was so hung up on, it shouldn't be that important.

(Tsukasa knows better than that. They say old habits die hard, however. It's fine. If he forgets about it, it can't bother him later. It's never not been like this. He's a star, he can just get up and deal with it. Everything's fine. Everything is fine.)

Everything is fine, He repeats, skipping past the entrance to Fennyland with a no-different-than-usual smile on his face.

Everything is fine, He repeats, reading Rui's revisions to his script. As always, nothing is unreasonable (or well, not unreasonable under Rui's direction). It's perfect. Rui is perfect.

Everything is fine, Again and again. Nene's singing is stellar, as always. As expected of her. Nene is perfect.

Everything is FINE. Emu's so willing to do anything Rui throws at her. Her enthusiasm makes him 'smile' even wider. Emu is perfect.

EVERYTHING IS FINE, EVERYTHING IS FINE, EVERYTHING IS FINE, EVERYTHING IS FINE—

"Tsukasa-kun? Is everything alright?"

When will he be perfect?

"Yes." He responded, tone colder than intended, but a wide grin still plastered onto his lips. "Everything is fine. I'm fine. It's all perfect. What next?"

Emu stood beside him, and somehow, Tsukasa was the only one who could read how horrified she felt. Yet, she didn't say anything.

Smart girl. Tsukasa thought, addressing her with his smile, visibly unsettling her. A threat, or a promise? Perhaps both?

"Everything is fine."

—