I (sadly) don't own any of the characters or the Kagerou Project or anything like that. *goes off and cries sadly in corner*
ALSO: The picture was made by somebody on Pixiv called... KL? I think. Yeah. Here: . ?id=145719
Kano was grinning hugely.
It was freaking out Kido – last time he smiled like that, he pretended to be Hibiya and "professed his love" to Momo. And that was just awkward.
She hoped that whatever he was doing wouldn't be too drastic. Or harm anyone.
She went back to cutting vegetables and muttering darkly to herself, "If Kano pulls any of his tricks, I swear…"
"I'm offended!" laughed Kano from right next to her.
Kido jumped and almost sliced her hand with the knife. She whirled around, clutching the handle and waved it threateningly in the blonde's face. "Kano! Don't do that!"
"Careful. We wouldn't want little Tsubomi-chan to hurt herself, now would we?"
Kido glared, backing up from him before swinging her fist into his jaw with the hand that wasn't holding any dangerously sharp objects.
Surprise and pain briefly flitted across Kano's face before being replaced by a sickeningly fake grin that Kido was tired of seeing. "Ow, okay, okay. You need to control your temper a little more; you've been so violent lately," Kano laughed.
While Kido's face turned red and her hand rose to slap Kano across his face, the boy in question suddenly grabbed her hand, yanked her close and kissed her quickly and roughly before pushing back, the smile still frozen in place. Kido gasped for air, her eyes wide.
"Dinner almost done, Tsubomi?"
Kano was already gone by the time Kido whirled around to see that while she was distracted, most of the food had burnt.
And, worst of all, it wasn't Kano who had burnt the food. It was Kido; she had let herself be distracted by the trickster, after all. And now, she just wasted one of Marry's clumsy trips for groceries and some of the valuable money Seto had made. She scowled, wiping the back of her hand across her lips, as though trying to erase the evidence that the kiss had ever happened, even if it was permanently seared into her memory.
And even though she knew it wasn't Kano's goal to burn their dinner, she still vowed revenge for him causing her screw-up.
And she would get revenge.
"Ahh!"
Marry's foot caught on the smooth ground somehow, and the tea tray she was holding flew through the air, almost in slow motion.
Marry watched, horrified and reminded of when she spilled tea on Momo, as everything came crashing down on Konoha, who continued drinking the tea he was holding like nothing had happened.
"Sorry!" squeaked Marry. "Oh, I'm so sorry! I should get towels…"
She whirled around and crashed into Seto with a small yelp before rubbing the back of her head sheepishly. "Sorry to you too, Seto. Haha, I'm really out of it today!"
Seto grinned cheerfully and hugged Marry, saying, "It's alright. No big deal. I already have the-"
However, Kano, seated on the couch across from Konoha, burst out into obnoxious laughter, interrupting Seto's sentence. "Out of it today? Marry, you're like that all the time! You don't have to lie! Oh, that was too good! Just like the time she dumped tea all over you, eh, Momo?"
Momo glanced at Marry, who had whirled around, eyes blazing, and smiled slyly. "Almost. Oh, and, do you remember what happened to you when you made fun of her afterwards?"
Seto had already caught on and was tugging on Marry's arm, saying, "Marry, don't," but she paid no mind.
Kido realized milliseconds after Seto and Momo and cried, "Don't!" as well, but Kano was already turning to glance at Marry.
He froze.
There was a brief moment of silence while Kido poked Kano, before Seto announced cheerfully, "As I was saying earlier, I already brought the paper towels for Konoha!"
Marry flushed and wiggled closer to Seto. "I'm so sorry!" she repeated, turning to Konoha, who was dripping with tea.
"Eh?" Calmly, Konoha turned and announced, slowly, "It's okay. I don't mind," as Hibiya snorted.
Marry was in pieces, running around trying to sweep up the broken teacups and collect the ones that were (mostly) unaffected, but she tripped once more, and almost fell onto the broken shards.
She would've, if Seto hadn't caught her at the last minute.
Marry kept going, "Sorry, sorry, sorry!" Seto smiled at her and suggested that she sit down while he cleaned up.
Marry began to protest vehemently, going on about how she made him do everything and how he had just been working, but she eventually gave in and sat by a couch as Seto cleaned up.
When he was done, everyone fell back into routine: Marry sitting in Seto's lap and reading, Momo chattering about this-or-that while Shintaro and Hibiya sighed, Kido sitting silently by a frozen Kano, Ene pressing her sleeve-covered hands against Shintaro's phone screen as she talked to Konoha…
Marry shifted in Seto's lap. Recalling what had happened, her face flushed with embarrassment, and she tugged on her hair. But, before long, that horror faded and, once again, she was feeling safe and secure and… at home. Because they were all family, and, no matter how much Kano laughed at her, she wouldn't want to be anywhere else.
"So… you don't remember anything at all?"
Ene kept her hands behind her back, acting strangely shy.
Konoha blinked, processing the question, before letting out a brief, "Hai."
Ene frowned, looking down dejectedly. "Nothing at all? About school? Or diseases? Or… someone important to you?"
There was a moment of silence before Konoha asked blankly, "What's school?"
Ene frowned with sudden anger. "It's nothing," she announced stiffly, folding her arms, "You know, you remind me of someone. He promised he'd never forget me, and I promised the same thing to him, but I don't think he kept his end of the bargain."
"Eh?"
"Never mind! I just… agh! I'm shutting down the phone!"
Konoha tilted his head in confusion. "Ene?"
But the screen was already blacked out.
Konoha ran his fingers along the screen. "Did you not want to hear? There was someone important to me. A girl…"
But he couldn't remember any more, no matter how hard he concentrated. So, sighing, he lay the phone back on the table and turned to exit the room.
He kept looking back as he left.
Shintaro sat awkwardly next to Seto on the couch.
He didn't even know why he was there.
And he had no idea what to say.
It wasn't that he and Seto didn't get along. They just… weren't close. They had rarely talked before, as Shintaro kind of avoided all his happy peppiness (He didn't like people like that. He never did. There was only one exception to the rule, and she had broken his heart).
It was easy to avoid conversation with Seto anyways, as he was always talking to Marry.
But now it was just them, and Shintaro was wishing he hadn't come as the silence dragged on, and Seto hummed happily to himself, stroking Marry's hair.
Marry had dozed off in his lap, Kano had disappeared and Kido went out after him, Ene went off with Momo somewhere, and Hibiya was mysteriously gone, as was Konoha. It was really disturbing.
Finally, Seto turned to him with an annoyingly happy smile (AyanoAyanoAyano), and asked, "So how are you today?"
"Good."
"You knew Ayano, right?"
Shintaro froze and looked at Seto cautiously. "Yeah."
"She liked you."
"What?!" Shintaro's eyes widened.
"Well, I'm not sure about her liking you as more than a friend; she definitely could've, but she liked you, at least."
"Oh." Shintaro drooped back against the couch cushions, not sure why he suddenly wasn't as happy as he was before the explanation. "She was one of the only people nice to me." Why did he just say that?
"Big sister was nice to everyone." Seto smiled sadly in memory. "And she smiled all the time even through all the tough times. She made having powers into something… not so monstrous. I can't phrase it well, but there was just that air around her, you know?"
Shintaro sighed heavily. "I know."
"I wish she hadn't tried to play the hero so much, though. I wish she hadn't died for us." A silent tear dripped down Seto's face and he wiped it away quickly, trying for a smile again. "But she was brave, wasn't she?"
The wind had been knocked out of Shintaro. "Died for you guys? Is that why-?"
Seto's eyes widened. "Did we forget to tell you?"
A few hours later, when Momo and Ene came back in, laughing and chattering, Shintaro had been fully informed.
And perhaps he and Seto were on the way to becoming friends.
Perhaps.
"I can't believe I let myself get dragged into this," said Kido in a monotone, inwardly sighing as Momo and Marry talked excitedly. Inside Momo's phone, Ene piped up a few times.
Momo looked up when she heard Kido's statement. "Oh, come on, Kido! A girl's night out is exactly what we need! We could go to the spa, watch movies, go shopping…" She clasped her hands under her chin.
"No spa," scowled Kido.
Marry beamed. "That's okay. I've never seen a movie before. We can watch one together!"
Kido pulled the hood even lower over her face and tried to shrink into her sweater. "You've seen movies before with Seto."
"Not at the actual theater! We watched them on the TV back home, but Momo says going to the movie theater is completely different!"
"And what movie would we watch?"
There was a moment of silence. Then, Ene said, "How about this?" and pulled up a page of all the screening movies, but nobody suggested one, knowing that at least one other person would shoot it down.
"Okay, so maybe no movies," sighed Momo. But her expression instantly brightened. "We can still go shopping!"
"We… we have no money," Kido frowned softly.
Marry's happy face fell and she nodded solemnly. "We can't waste the money Seto worked so hard for."
"I have money from my job!" suggested Momo. "You guys could use my money!"
Ene pounded on the phone. "I can't shop for anything, and that's not my scene, anyways," she pouted.
"Don't be sad, Ene!" Marry piped up. "You could help Momo choose outfits!"
"Eh?! Am I the only one getting clothes?"
"I hate shopping." "I sew my own clothes." "I'm trapped."
Momo frowned. "Okay, okay. We don't have to go shopping."
Kido breathed a sigh of relief.
"We can go to the arcade instead! And buy ice cream!"
Marry's face lit up. "Ice cream?"
Ene jumped up and down. "If I can get into the games in the arcade, through the wiring… I could play that new shooting game!"
Kido stayed silent. The arcade? Full of screaming, small children? And they were getting ice cream afterwards? That sounded like torture. Everything to do with a girl's night out already sounded like torture.
But, it turns out she didn't have to worry, as Momo bumped into someone in the street and her eye ability was accidentally set off. They barely made it home unnoticed.
Marry and Momo sat dejectedly on the couch. Even Ene seemed unhappy. The cloud of disappointment nearly choked Kido. She had to do something.
"We could have the girls' night here."
The girls looked up at her, surprised and confused.
"I think we have ice cream in the freezer, and we have those movies. It might not be the same as in the theater, but I think we can make do. And Ene can watch, too."
They smiled.
"I can sew while I watch," beamed Marry.
"We can do makeovers afterwards," cheered Momo.
Kido turned green. "Makeovers?"
Momo turned to Ene. "You can help us conduct Kido's makeover!" she suggested. Ene grinned evilly.
Kido sighed.
This is what she got for trying to be nice.
The End
