a/n: hello there! So, because episode 13 was released, and I needed something happy, this AU was spawned. It has a plot (kind of) and I plan for it to go on for awhile (it has story arcs, which for me is a first) and for the most part, it's silly and lighthearted and yes okay I kind of screwed with their canon ages/age differences... Anyway, here we go, welcome to the merry band of bandits, I do hope you enjoy.

+standard disclaimer.

the merry band of bandits

(au. You wish you could be as cool as us. Homra-centric.)

The Grocery Store Arc

un: Get In Losers, We're Going Shopping

Lots of things happened during winter break. For one, it always, always snowed, and a group of high school guys would always find themselves playing with a middle school girl playing in it, making snow angles or something completely out of character. When she was an elementary school student and they middle schoolers, she'd get them to play tea party or princess and then blackmail them with it.

The boys—called Homra, or 'the gang'—decided it was because she was Mikoto's second cousin and damn he taught her well. And, being that Mikoto was their leader (their king, per se), and Anna was their little princess, they'd go along with it anyway because if you could deny Anna, you weren't human.

But winter break was also one of the times when the gang was most rambunctious, because they didn't have school obligations and their parents didn't really have control over them because they were always at Mikoto's or Izumo's or Yata's and they'd forget that rules and laws existed. There was a time when Izumo and Mikoto had to bust them out of jail because Yata and Chitose got into a huge fight with Fushimi and some kid named Andy and shitIzumo had been pissed.

Then there'd be Tatara who would somehow film their greatest feats and he'd blackmail them, too. He and Anna had a friendship going on that kind of scared the others because with all the information they had combined, they could absolutely demolish their reputations and/or lives. Still, Tatara was considered one of the sane ones of the pack of idiots and people knew not to mess with him unless you wanted Izumo and Mikoto on your ass and that shit was terrifying to anyone.

Shizume Academy was the private school of Shizume City. It was damn prestigious and expensive as hell, and Tatara was on full scholarship. If one person—didn't matter who the hell you were—made fun of him for his wealth, they were usually found beat to hell in a dumpster, and there'd be a picture in Mikoto's basement with a few of the guys shown making peace signs at the camera in front of said dumpster.

The students learned rather quickly not to mess with the Homra boys and Anna, and when winter break came, they steered clear of east uptown Shizume, which was where the heart of Homra was.

And that's where their winter break began, in the basement of Mikoto Suoh's house located in uptown Shizume.

Sometimes, Izumo and Tatara didn't know whether or not Mikoto drugged them whenever they hung out at his house. There would be times when they'd make a request, and an hour later they'd stare at the mess and ask him what the hell they had been smoking.

This was one such time.

They'd all been very content in the Suoh's basement when Mikoto's little second cousin rushed down the stairs, eyes wide with faux horror.

"Mikoto! You're out of orange juice!" she said.

Many of the guys stopped what they were doing and stared at the little girl. It was the longest sentence they'd heard out of her, and it was over orange juice. All the same, Tatara walked over to her and patted her on the head.

"It's okay, Anna," he told her. "We'll go out and get you some."

Anna's nodded her head and rushed back upstairs to grab her coat and Izumo felt his eye twitch.

"And by 'we' you mean…"

"We'll all go on a field trip to the grocery store!"

Izumo looked over to Mikoto, seemingly begging for him to say 'no, Totsuka, we will not have the boys go on a wild rampage in a grocery store because Anna is out of orange juice' but he grunted and nodded his head in agreement. His parents were out for the week and they were running low on food, anyway. Besides, he knew Anna would make him come anyway, and he'd be damned if he let his entire gang alone in his house. They'd blow something up or light shit on fire.

"We're… all… going to the grocery store…" Izumo said weakly, and the guys—being Chitose, Dewa, Yata, Bando, and Shohei—developed a gleam in their eyes that screamed trouble and Izumo knew he'd regret whatever would come next.

Anna came back down, her red peacoat over her red and black dress, her hat placed neatly on her head. She grabbed Mikoto's hand and started tugging, wanting her orange juice. They began to ascend the stairs, the others following suit. Loud and rowdy, Izumo's hand was twitching.

"Shotgun!" Yata and Chitose shouted at the same time, glaring at each other afterwards.

Tatara turned around and smiled at them.

"I think that position goes to Anna," he told them. In turn, they both grumbled about how Anna always got shotgun and it wasn't fair because dammit, she's eleven years old and in the sixth grade.

In any case, if they were going by age, Chitose would've gotten the seat because he was sixteen and a sophomore and Misaki was a fifteen-year-old freshman that looked like a thirteen-year-old who just entered seventh grade. And if Izumo wanted shotgun, he'd beat all of them out, because he was a) the oldest and b) a senior. They didn't really like talking about Izumo being a senior because that meant he was leaving them next year for college and without him Homra wouldn't be the same, even though he promised he'd hang out with them during breaks.

Anna stood at the front door, while Mikoto grabbed his keys. She pointed to the hall closet because it was snowing and she didn't want her friends getting sick. When Yata tried to walk out without one, she glared at him with such intensity she rivaled Mikoto. He scrambled to grab his sweatshirt and Tatara tossed him a pair of gloves because out of all the Homra boys, Yata had the biggest tendency to get cold.

Once everyone was situated, they went out the door and piled themselves into Mikoto's car. It was a black Lexus RX and it wasn't really Mikoto's. It was his father's, technically, but the two Suohs had ended up trading cars with each other, due to the fact Mikoto always seemed to be the one to drive ridiculous amounts of people that didn't fit into his Camry. So here he was with a luxury car to do the dirty work—besides, he was really the only competent one who could drive. Izumo was the definition of speed demon and Chitose was a batshit crazy driver (seriously, how the hell did he pass his driving exam). The others were either too young or too lazy to take the exam, and in the case of Dewa, too reliant on Chitose, even though said boy had just gotten his license in August.

And anyway, Mikoto didn't like letting other people drive his car.

Mikoto and Anna in the front, and behind them was Tatara, Izumo, and Yata, leaving Bando, Shohei, Chitose, and Dewa to fit themselves into the very back which basically meant sitting on their asses hoping Mikoto didn't make a ridiculously sharp turn sending them flying into one another.

When Mikoto was pulling out of the driveway, Anna was handed Yata's iPod and she carefully plugged it into the USB cable. Suddenly, Marianas Trench started to play and she heard Chitose groan.

"Really, Yata, really?"

Anna knew that the ginger was being glared at, but she decided not to care because Tatara and Izumo began to laugh, which meant that everything was fine. Anna wanted say that playing music was pointless because they all just talked over it anyway. She always felt left out because she didn't know what they were saying.

At the same time, the last time she asked Tatara why they liked to have the radio on only to shout over it was because it was their thing, and it kept them away from awkward silences. He forgot to mention that it was another way to keep her ears innocent from hearing about Chitose's latest conquests or how Shohei and Bando needed to screw each other because the sexual tension between them was suffocating or how Yata nearly beat a kid half to death for calling a girl a whore.

Anna was staring out the window watching the snowfall and wondering what Fushimi was up to. It was their first winter break without the glasses-wearing teen, and Anna couldn't help but think how much more fun it'd be with him. He and Misaki had always been willing to make snowmen with her, because Misaki was a child at heart and Saruhiko did whatever Misaki did. Still, what was done was done and she couldn't change that. She then wondered when they'd get to the supermarket, because she wanted her orange juice and waiting around like this was boring.

They had gone through three songs before Mikoto had finally parked the car.

a/n: so... that's the beginning. And I don't know, this arc is probably only going to be around five chapters, but a bulk of this story will be during their winter break. Anyway, it'd be really super cool if you could review... also... any ideas for tastes in music?