Chapter 7: A Friend For Ruby

Several months passed since Karla was hired by Aqours, the warm summer days fading into the crisp autumn air. Karla had left counseling after a drastic improvement in her mental state, spending more time with managing the finances and such of the group. There was one issue though, which became apparent quite quickly. There was way too much paperwork and such for Karla to handle by her lonesome. Often she stayed late to finish off what she needed done for the next day and/or the next show. Karla brought this up with Dia, which prompted her to hire a few new recruits. It was the morning the three of them would be introduced to the cast, and Ruby practically jumped out of bed. Throwing on some clothes, she ran out to the kitchen for breakfast with a gentle thumping of feet on wood flooring. Dia was already in the kitchen with a fresh batch of pancakes awaiting her.

"Perfect timing, the pancakes just finished!" Dia said sweetly. Ruby inhaled the sweet aroma of syrup and soft fluffy stacks of deliciousness. She let out a happy sigh of enjoyment, sitting down at the breakfast table.

"Smells amazing big sis!" she complimented, grabbing a few of them and sliding them onto her plate.

"Excited for the new employee introductions today?" Dia said, sitting down with a mug of freshly made green tea. She blew lightly on the surface of the tea, a faint trail of steam blowing to the side as a result.

Ruby nodded excitedly, popping a small piece of pancake into her mouth.

"I cahh waihh!"

"Ruby, don't talk with your mouth full." Dia scolded lightly. "You want to make a good first impression for them, so make sure to be polite!"

"Sure thing!" Ruby chirped happily. "I'll do my Rubesty!"

Dia giggled, reaching over to pat her head.

"That's my little sister!" she encouraged sweetly.

When the two sisters arrived at the studio, they were greeted to chaos. Chika was talking to a small group of people, most likely the new recruits. Hanamaru was lecturing something to Yoshiko while Riko lightly bashed her head into a wall mat. You frantically picked up papers while Kanan and Mari spectated wordlessly. Dia clenched her fist.

"BUUUUUU BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU DESU WA!" She yelled, startling everyone in the room. "What in the world are you screwing around doing!?"

"Well, the fallen angel Yoshiko decided to go and make the newcomers uncomfortable for a start." Hanamaru said with a sideways glance. "Then the paperwork ended up becoming a mess because Karla slipped on a Mikan peel and it went everywhere."

Dia angrily scanned the room, Yoshiko and Chika shrinking back awkwardly. She sighed heavily and walked over to the new recruits with a sympathetic smile.

"Sorry about all that mess, I'll make sure everything is smooth sailing from here."

The recruits all smiled awkwardly. The group consisted of two girls and one guy. Once everyone got settled, the three of them stood next to each other for introductions. Karla stood near the front sipping a coffee. A blond girl introduced herself first.

"I'm Tsumugi, nice to meet ya!" She said with a wide smile.

"I'm Christine...thanks for having me." replied a black haired girl with a very slender frame.

Ruby watched them with intrigue. She let her eyes drift to the boy nervously twitching his fingers.

"U-Um...sorry I'm just not great with introductions…"

"Don't worry" Dia encouraged. "It's not like we're grading you, just introduce yourself. You'll be fine."

He nodded and hesitated a moment longer.

"I'm...I'm Timothy. N-Nice to meet you all."

"Let's give up for our new members!" Mari yelled gesturing to the members with a bright smile. The members clapped politely, letting the new recruits stand there bashfully. As Ruby looked at them happily, she noticed Timothy looking at her out of the corner of her eye. When she turned to face him, he looked away and fidgeted with his fingers.

"Alrighty peeps, come with me and I'll show you the ropes!" Karla called, curling her arm up and back to lead them to the office room. Ruby caught another glance back from Timothy before he disappeared with their group. She couldn't help but stare back puzzled. She felt two hands suddenly grab her shoulder.

"PIGII! Don't grab me like that!"

"Someone can't keep their eyes off you, zura.~" Hanamaru teased.

"W-What do you mean by that?"

"Oh come on, I know you were looking at him too. I know you saw it."

"W-Well...what do you think about it? He might just be a fan. The girls probably wouldn't have come if they weren't fans at all."

"I guess, but wouldn't that make him your fan?"

"Geez, now you're making me blush Hanamaru. I guess at some point I could meet with him...but I don't know. I've never really talked to boys."

"You're kinda preaching to the choir here Ruby. I barely understand technology let alone guys, but I know a bit here and there from romance novels."

"R-Romance!? But I'm not interested in-"

"You might not, but he might. All I'm saying is keep an eye on him, I can tell there's something there."

"I...I guess. But keep an eye out from afar in case something goes wrong."

"I got your back, zura!" Hanamaru said with a wink.

"T-Thanks…" Ruby said looking off at the ground to her side.

"No way would I do anything like romance with a guy...besides...regardless of what he's like, I don't swing that way anyway…"

Ruby and Hanamaru went to grab some snacks from the local supermarket during lunch break. Hanamaru of course got her signature breadstick, Ruby getting a small premade wrap to make up for her not exactly healthy breakfast. As they walked back from the store, they passed by the lounge. It was only recently installed, but being near the studio meant the group had a nice place to relax during free time. There was maroon couches facing a TV and various smaller chairs here and there, mostly up against walls with small tables next to them. The room was surrounded by big glass windows that allowed everyone to see the extravagant rug it had.

"Let's finish up eating in here." Ruby said, pointing her finger at the room. Hanamaru tilted her head with mild confusion. She had already finished eating her snack. Ruby sighed and opened the glass door with a fwoosh as it passed over the soft rug. Looking around the room, they noticed Timothy in a corner playing with some sort of device. They walked over to him to get a closer look, finding it was some sort of handheld game console. He looked up for a brief second, jumping back in surprise with wide eyes.

"PIGII!" Ruby reacted reciprocally.

"S-Sorry! I didn't mean to spook you!" He said awkwardly. "I just...sorry…"

"No, no, there's no need to apologize." Ruby said with a wave of her hand.

"Great. First time talking to him and it's already awkward." Ruby thought to herself.

"So what's with that strange phone or whatever?" Hanamaru asked pointing to his handheld.

"Oh, this? It's a GSP...it's a game console not a phone. Not that it's that interesting..."

Hanamaru slammed her hands down on the desk, causing him to jump back again.

"You can play video games without a TV now!? Mirai Zura! Mirai Zu- oh, I said it again…"

They all stood there awkwardly for a few seconds, staring at each other wordlessly. Timothy scratched the back of his head, forcing a smile.

"I forgot to mention it earlier but...you can just call me Tim." He eventually said, clearing the silence. "It's uh...nice to meet you."

"I'm Ruby Kurosawa and this is Hanamaru as you probably know already. Nice to meet you."

Tim was starting to turn slightly red, glancing away with a shy smile. Hanamaru glanced at Ruby with a smug expression.

"I have something I gotta do, so you two can keep on talking." Hanamaru said, striding off before Ruby could protest. They looked at each other with a returning awkward silence. They both giggled a bit, failing to make it any more normal.

"So...what made you wanna join Aqours?" Ruby asked to break the silence.

"Well...I've always been a fan of idols and such...and you all just sorta stood out to me I guess." He said with a little shrug.

"Do you want me to show you some of the stuff we idols do? I'd be happy to show you around!"

"I would, but I don't wanna be a bother or anything…"

"No, no, you're no bother! Come on, I'll give you a little tour around!" Ruby said, grabbing his hand and leading him towards the studio. He wasn't sure whether or not he should go along with it, but since Ruby said it was fine he happily went along with her anyway.

After that day, Ruby started hanging out with Tim during their breaks. They often talked about idols, such as the up and coming groups or the legends of old such as A-Rise. Sometimes they would go and get lunch, and as per usual Ruby met up with him near the door.

"Ready to head out?" She said cheerfully.

"Yep, all set!" He said with a shy smile. With that they waved to the other members and went out to get some food. After the door shut, Riko turned to You.

"They seem to be together more often than not nowadays." Riko wondered aloud.

"I'm surprised Dia hasn't said anything about it to us. Dia's too protective to just let Ruby go off with some guy, coworker or not."

"Well, let's take a look at Dia for ourselves and see if anything's up." Riko suggested, tensing up and darting her eyes around mischievously.

"From the looks of you, the plan is to spy on them?" You said with a sigh.

"Dia might keep some details fuzzy for us, I wanna know every juicy detail I can get!"

You somehow felt a bit uncomfortable with the sinister smile on Riko's face. "Another side effect of Yoshikoitis I see…" You mused internally.

There was a small cafe not that far from the studio that Ruby always enjoyed going to called 'The Red Hill Diner'. The place had a deck area with an excellent view of the water and was adorned with pink and purple flowers along short wooden fences. Despite the look, the place had some affordably priced food which was better for a nice light lunch than anything fancy. As they walked in, a waitress gave them a polite bow and a smile.

"Welcome! Would you like a seat outside or inside?"

"Outside please!" Ruby replied. The waitress led her to a table near the fence, allowing her to get a whiff of the sweet scent they gave off. They sat across from each other, Tim looking at his menu. He glanced up and noticed she wasn't looking at hers.

"Already know what you want?" He asked curiously.

"Yeah, I'm a regular here so I already have a personal favorite."

"Oh? Which is that, if you don't mind me asking of course."

"It's a grilled chicken wrap. They always make it perfectly, it's super satisfying."

"Well, I guess I'll have that too! It's...not weird to order the same thing you are is it?"

"Of course not! Actually, I was hoping to convince you to try one!"

The waitress came over, lighting up as she saw Ruby.

"How's practice been?" She asked with a friendly familiar smile on her face.

"We're working on a brand new song, so I've been hard at work perfecting it!"

"Tell me when the new album drops, I wanna get a signed copy!"

They all giggled, the waitress then pulling out her notepad.

"Grilled Chicken Wrap, Lettuce and Mayo I'm guessing?"

"You got it!" Ruby said, pointing her fingers in L shapes towards the waitress. The waitress turned to Timothy next.

"And for you? I don't think we've met."

"I'm uh...her coworker. I help with papers and such. We're just friends, it's not anything...weird." He said bashfully. "And I'll try what she's having."

The waitress nodded and took the menus back, leaving them to chat again.

"That's my friend Camilla. She was at the same school I was in after Uranohoshi, and we hit it off really well. Heck, we even went to the same college and have been friends ever since."

"I wish I had that kind of luck with friends. I have a hard time opening up to people I don't know, which has left me alone more often than not."

"Well, you don't have to worry about it here." Ruby encouraged. "We're already getting to know each other well, so you won't have a thing to worry about."

"Are...you sure? I usually mess something up with friends, so I worry if I opened up too much you might find me creepy…"

"Tim, you shouldn't say that! There's nothing wrong with expressing how you feel inside, I for one am known for loving idols more than anyone else!" She said with a fistpump.

Tim paused, rubbing his arm and averting his gaze.

"Well...I think there's something you need to know about me then. Thing is…" Tim paused with a loud exhale. Ruby's expression became more serious. "...I have...clinical depression. I have to take a medication to help with it but...I don't feel like I'm improving. Thing is...I really was in a bad spot for several years. I felt like my High School life was going to go nowhere. But then, I saw you help Saint Snow and really become this amazing individual out of nothing. I hope this doesn't sound weird Ruby, but...you're my inspiration. You're like a role model to me. It's why you're my favorite Aqours member."

Ruby felt baffled and concerned. She never had a friend with genuine depression before, so she had no idea how it worked or how she could help. Somehow, she found herself wanting to ask Dia for help. "Stop it Ruby, you can't rely on Dia for everything. You should be able to help him out just fine."

"Sorry for killing the mood with this…"

"What? No, no! It's good you're getting this off your chest. We've helped people like Karla before, so I'm sure voicing your issues will help you get better."

"You...you really think so?"

"Well of course! I'll do my rubesty!" She said with her trademark pose.

"T-Thanks…" Timothy said with a faint nervous giggle.

"'You're my favorite Aqours member'..." Ruby thought deeply to herself. "Could that mean he's...interested in me? But...if he is there's no way I could return that sort of interest. I don't want to break his heart…"

Mari, Kanan and Dia were in the office room with the door shut, sitting by the computer. Everyone else had left for lunch except for Chika, Riko and You, although Chika was snoozing happily by her bag with a belly full of mikan. They snuck up to the door and put their ears to it. Through the door they could hear the sound of typing on a keyboard.

"So I assume you found something?" Dia began. Kanan nodded in reply, a piece of paper on a clipboard in her hand. Dia had asked Kanan to do background checks on Tim, mostly as a result of his obvious attraction to Ruby. She wanted to keep it secret from Ruby though, as not to upset her. The whole exchange happened over text the night before upon Dia's request, all the info compiled onto Kanan's clipboard that same night. Kanan cleared her throat as she began.

"His full name is Timothy D. Williams, born in England and immigrated to Japan just this year in fact to pursue a career in the entertainment industry. It seems he's surprisingly knowledgeable and respectful of our culture, and took an interest in pursuing a life for himself here."

"An ambitious young chap, isn't he?" Mari said in a fake british accent.

"Come on Mari, don't be racist." Kanan scolded.

"Sorry, sorry, couldn't help myself." Mari said with a goofy smile. Kanan sighed and continued her paper.

"It seems he's an avid fan of Ruby's, talking about her frequently. Here, let me open up one of his social media sites to show you for yourself." Kanan said, turning the laptop towards herself. Her fingers darted across the keyboard with a rapid pitter patter of typing. Popping open one of the social media sites, they were immediately greeted with a large number of Ruby related posts. Dia scanned the page intensely, looking for any signs of anything creepy. Mostly the posts were about how "She looks so cute in this uniform" or "Ruby nailed that section of this song". Kanan scrolled down a bit, leading to a cute drawing of a chibi Ruby smiling brightly.

"Aww, look at that! He drew that himself! He's pretty good!" Mari commented in real life but not on the post itself.

"I wanted to draw your attention to this." Kanan said, pointing to a link under the picture. Upon opening the link, they were taken to a sort of art blog website. He had a big profile with loads or Ruby drawings, some better than others...objectively. "I don't know if it means anything, but I found out he has an art blog. It might prove useful to us need be."

"Seems pretty tame." Dia said as she took back the laptop from Kanan. "He's mostly got a few nice drawings of her in costume. I was obsessed with imitating Eli when I was younger, so I know how he would feel to have a favorite. But still…"

"But still...what?" Kanan asked inquisitively. Dia remained silent. Normally she wouldn't go to these measures, but there was something about Tim that gave her a nervous feeling. The main issue was that the story with him was sort of similar to that of a story a friend of hers had told her. In college, Dia had a roommate by the name of Jill. Jill had told her a frightening story about an ex-boyfriend she had in High School. He acted a lot like Timothy did at first, but over time became more aggressive. In the end, Jill was raped. He was suspended, but it made Jill have issues trusting any guys whatsoever. Dia was worried Timothy might act like that towards Ruby and recreate the story with her beloved sister. Dia felt a shiver run down her spine just remembering the details. She scrolled down and down, giving the screen a glazed spaced out look. As she scrolled, she saw something out of the corner of her eye that caught her attention. It was a particular picture of Ruby with her hands on her stomach and a somewhat pained expression. It seemed the other two had spotted it too.

"Is she...farting?" Kanan asked with a mix of disgust and confusion on her face. They clicked on the image, and lo and behold Kanan was right.

"Is this supposed to be funny? Guys can be so gross…" Dia said disgustedly. Mari snickered. She started giggling uncontrollably.

"No way! No freaking way! Dia, can you open up the description real quick?" Mari said, failing to control her laughter. Dia clicked open the description worriedly. She read aloud the description to them.

"This might seem kinda weird, but I couldn't help but do this at some point. I won't post stuff like this anymore if you all find it too weird, but I couldn't help but appeal to my fetish just this once."

Mari burst up laughing. She put her hands on her chest as her lungs started to hurt.

"M-Mari!? Calm down and control yourself!" Kanan said, grabbing Mari's shoulders.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, it's just...I can't believe he actually has a fart fetish!" Mari said though excessive laughter. "It's just funny to me! How does someone enjoy that, let alone get off to it?"

"Ok then Mari, how about I check your search history then?" Kanan said, snatching the laptop away from Dia and heading to the history tab. The more she scrolled the more confused and priceless her facial expression became.

"...Crab dance party...The search for the rarest pepe...Thanos porn!? Mari, what the hell is this!?"

Mari exploded in laughter, falling to the floor punching the ground repeatedly.

"I can't breathe...I can't breathe…" She gasped through her uncontrollable fit of self-amusement. Eventually she started coughing, sitting up and calming herself slowly.

"Mari, you have a screw loose I swear." Kanan said, looking back through the history a bit more. Kanan almost dropped the laptop upon seeing the search "Kanan Matsuura Hentai" in the search history. She put the laptop back on the desk with a heavy sigh. "I won't even question the things you search up anymore Mari."

The two of them suddenly noticed Dia hadn't commented on Mari's whole laugh spasm. She sat with her hands together staring at the desk deep in thought. She had a menacing look on her face.

"Since it's a fetish...that counts as a sexualization of Ruby, would it not?"

Mari, Kanan, Riko and You simultaneously gulped. They all felt a strong tenseness in the room, and didn't like it one bit. Kanan and Mari exchanged awkward looks.

"U-Uh, Dia, there's something else you should know…from my research-" Kanan started.

"Don't worry about that anymore." Dia said, cutting her off. "I have all the info I need. I'm going to have to meet with this Timothy for a little...one on one chat."

"If you think you can lay a hand on my beloved little sister, you're damn wrong. You better watch yourself Timothy, cause I've got my eye on you."