Disclaimers: I don't own Nino. Whatever Fuutarou's going to be paying her is way above my paygrade.
Miku was nervously playing with her hair as she walked with her sisters over towards the high class district. She had been fretting ever since Itsuki and Nino had both said that there was essentially a party tomorrow and that they were all invited.
When asked who, Miku wanted to immediately say no, given how the events of the day had gone earlier that day.
If she had the option to, she would avoid ever meeting that boy for the rest of her life! She'd have found a new place to read during lunch at school and if it was possible, change her name completely.
However, her sisters reminded her that she couldn't stay home on a Sunday just to play on the game that was basically gifted by the boy who had invited them.
So reluctantly, Miku agreed to go.
"Ohhh, it's been so long since we've been to a party! I can't remember the last time we were even invited to one…" Yotsuba hopped up and down, having been invited by Eba personally as a plus one.
"That's because the last party we were invited to, Nino beat up all the boys for telling her that she couldn't do something because she was a girl." Miku quietly reminded them.
Nino had left the house early to help prepare the food she had been excited to have them try, leaving Itsuki to have to lead the way.
"Aw, we were pretty young at that time though, so it was really too harsh to have never been invited to anything else~" Ichika gave a giggle before yawning.
"I still don't want to go…" Miku grumbled as she trudged behind the three. "Like Ichika and I don't even know them. It seems suspicious to me… Nino even said that there was only going to be two boys… That's extremely suspicious…"
"Look, sis. If it's really as bad as you're worried about it being, we can just pop in, say hello and if things do look like they can turn out for the worse, we'll pull an Irish Goodbye and bounce." Ichika suggested, getting the third sister's ears to perk up.
"You're being too harsh right now. I've been there everyday so far and nothing has happened. Nino's there alone at this very second and you two don't seem too bothered by that." Itsuki reasoned with the two. "Also, "Irish Goodbye?"
"I've been working at a pub lately." Ichika admitted, giving a weak smile.
"They let you work when you're under eighteen?" Itsuki asked incredulously.
"They let you work if you look likie you're not under eighteen." Ichika corrected, giving a wink to her youngest sister.
Line Break
Takeda was immensely surprised when he came over to see Fuutarou while waiting for the rest of their friends to come when he was greeted by the familiar scowling face of a redheaded girl wearing an apron.
"H-hello, Itsuki-chan?" Takeda guessed, getting her to glare at him harder.
"It's Nino, Takeda." She corrected, before stomping away, leaving him at the door bewildered.
He stepped inside to see his best friend sitting at the dining table, relaxing as he leaned back in the chair, reading a book, giving a halfhearted wave hello.
"Hey, dude. Nice to see you." He called out over to him.
"Hey… Bro… What's Nino-san doing here?" Takeda asked warily, giving him a weird look.
"Oh, she came here yesterday and long story short, she works for me now and practically lives in my kitchen." Fuutarou summarized.
Takeda looked over towards the girl Fuutarou had decided to keep around him before looking back at his best friend.
"So, you're tutoring Itsuki-chan for free, you have Nino-san working in the kitchen for you and you're going to be trying to help the other sisters?" Takeda asked slowly, trying to make sure he understood what was going on correctly.
"Yep." Fuutarou answered without a hint of hesitation.
"Hey, buddy, I have a question for you…" The blonde began, thinking about how to word what he wanted to ask.
"Yeah?" Fuutarou asked, putting his book down to see what he wanted.
"You don't… by any chance… have a fetish for redheads do you?" Takeda went over the words carefully.
There was a long pause before Fuutarou gave a confused and hard stare.
"Hah? Where'd you get that idea?" He asked him as if he had just grown an extra head.
"Well you have literally shunned almost all personal relationship growth since entering high school and now you're suddenly open to the idea of going out of your way to help Itsuki and her sisters." Takeda said, reminding him of how he had been since last year.
"I think you're overthinking it… I'm just trying to do my best to help others now." Fuutarou waved off the ridiculous claim without a second thought.
Takeda however was unconvinced, but let it slide for now.
"How's your dad doing on Raiha's gift by the way?" Fuutarou asked as Takeda took a chair to sit down.
"He's still working on it. He's still pretty busy, as you can expect, so it's not like it'll be done right away, but he did promise to finish it by the end of the month." Takeda informed him as Fuutarou nodded.
It was pretty hilarious in hindsight how his newfound motivation stemmed simply from being bribed with a gift for his little sister.
It was as expected.
Little sisters truly are a factor in what makes a man better.
"Hey. can you try this out for me? It tastes good to me, but I still need to make sure that it's good to others too." Nino held out a pastry for Fuutarou, prompting him to open his mouth to take a bite.
"Mm. Tastes good, but if you're trying for fluffiness, i'd say ease up on the confectionate sugar." Fuutarou advised, getting a nod from her, before she took out a napkin and wiped the remnants of the pastry from his face.
"You got a little something right here, anyways, thanks! I think i've got an idea of how to make sweets~!" Nino turned around to skip back to the kitchen in her apron that Takeda could tell was Raiha's with how small it looked on her.
Takeda gave a hard stare at Fuutarou. One that said "Are you really serious?".
He didn't get to go too into it as the doorbell rang again.
Nino cursed as she placed her beignets down to go and open the door, being greeted to the familiar faces of Yamada and Otori.
"Hah? Nino? You got here before us?" Yamada looked surprised, before noticing what she was wearing. "Wait, are you cooking?"
"Hey, yeah. I'm working for this jerk over here." Nino gestured towards Fuutarou with her thumb. "So I came here early to cook. After all, if i'm not here, I bet he'd probably just order food for you all."
"Ohhh. Uesugi-san personally hired you himself?" Yamada asked with wide eyes.
"Yep! One taste of my cooking and his heart was practically mine!" Nino held her hands to her hip, holding her head high as she praised herself.
"So you made some food for Uesugi-san and one thing led to another, he decided to hire you personally to cook for him?" Otori spoke up as she entered with Yamada.
"Yeah. I would've said no, but I have a lot of things I can make here! I've always been super into cooking." Nino swooned, rubbing her face with the ladle she had in her hand.
"Hey. The food better not taste funny when you do that." Fuutarou deadpanned, inviting the two girls to come inside.
"Oh, please. You know I wash everything before I use them. I can't risk the flavours contaminating!" Nino resenting that remark, glared at the boy in question.
"Yeah, but i'm pretty sure the taste drops significantly when I know what you're doing with all the kitchen tools." Fuutarou remarked, getting Nino's face to adopt a shade of red, before stomping off, muttering something under her breath.
"You're lucky you're paying me!" Nino called from the kitchen.
It had only been a full day and he could already tell that she was the type to dig in her heels with these sort of things.
"Where's Eba-san?" Takeda asked the two as they got seated.
"She's going to be running late, since she got caught up in something." Yamada answered, getting comfortable as Otori observed her surroundings.
"Hah… The fastest runner in our school and she'll be running late…" Fuutarou scoffed.
"Well, it wouldn't be the first thing contradicting today, would it? How surprising to see the normally cold and distant Fuutarou Uesugi reach out to invite us over to his house for a get together." Yamada held her hand to her mouth, giving a sly grin.
"It is rather strange, seeing how you tend to avoid everyone, including your best friend." Otori nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, I thought you'd have remained a loner for the rest of your life with only Takeda being your interaction yearly." Yamada laughed loudly, resulting in Fuutarou getting a tick mark.
"You'll make me be that way if this is how people treat the host…" Fuutarou growled, earning another laugh from Yamada before she patted his back.
"Don't worry, Uesugi-san! I'm just messing with you as always. You know Eba is going to be much worse~" The blonde girl grinned.
"Speaking of which, there was a reason we were going to meet each other yesterday." Takeda reminded Yamada who nodded in realization.
"Oh, right! We wanted you to come because it was important to you, Uesugi-san, but of course, you didn't want to come again." Yamada pounded a fist into her hand.
"Hah? What do you need this time?" Fuutarou's mood dropped immensely.
There was never a time where Yamada would need him for something that didn't make him regret interacting with her.
"Since you were just a freshman last year, the student populace had decided that you wouldn't have to do anything related to the festival if you didn't want to, but now this year you have to participate along with every other sophomore to assist with it." Otori explained.
"That sounds dumb. What if I had other things I needed to do during the week before the festival?" Fuutarou argued.
"Well, there's the thing. You aren't a part of any clubs. You haven't made the principal aware of anything you may have to do for personal reasons this week. FInally, the board chairman himself demanded your presence be there." Yamada listed as she counted off her fingers.
"What? Why would Takeda's dad…" Fuutarou began, before he turned to face his so called best friend who was feigning ignorance.
"You bastard…" Fuutarou glared at him as Takeda gave a shrug.
"There was no other way to have you come out, besides, wasn't your plan to help the sisters? Have you even thought about how you'd reach out to help them?" Takeda asked with a smirk.
"What do you mean? I'm alrea-" Fuutarou began before the doorbell rang.
"Hey! I'm in the middle of something over here! So you get it!" Nino yelled from the kitchen area, prompting Fuutarou to have to go open the door.
"Wait a bit here." He said behind him as he went to open the door.
"Good afternoon, Fuutarou-kun! I hope we weren't late. Miku isn't too used to walking so far." Itsuki apologized.
"Ah, no worries. I know how far you live and if we didn't walk here so often ourselves, we would be just as bad." Fuutarou nodded, opening the door to let them in.
"Thank you! See? I told you he was nice. Come on in!" Itsuki smiled as she led her sisters in.
It was then that something clicked in his mind. Something wasn't right. There was something off.
He could tell Itsuki apart from Miku thanks to her hair accessory, but when Miku entered, another did.
He turned around to see that Nino was coming out from the kitchen.
"Hello, Uesugi-san. It's a pleasure to meet you." A pleasant voice came from one of the lookalikes as she gave a polite curtsy.
"Wow! This is a big house. Is your family big, Uesugi-san?" Another asked, wide eyed and looking around at the interior of his home.
"H-hello, Uesugi-san…" The third timidly said, avoiding eye contact with him.
"There are five of you?!" Fuutarou exclaimed, jumping back from the door as the realization set in.
"Yeah? You didn't know? Why do you think I cooked for twelve instead of ten?" Nino held a hand to her hips, giving a deadpan expression as she had just come to see them.
"I thought you were counting Itsuki as three people!" Fuutarou admitted, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly.
"Hey!" Itsuki yelled, blushing immensely at the remark.
"No, I already know to count for her. I DID cook three times the amount for her." Nino crossed her arms with a matter of factly tone.
"Ahhhhhh! Shut up!" Itsuki held her hands to her ears to drown out their conversation.
"Wait, did you not know? I'm sure I told you already." Takeda said, having followed to see their mutual friend in Itsuki.
"No! You never did! Ahem…" Fuutarou began to yell before he remembered he had guests over, forcing him to regain his composure.
"Sorry about that, it appears i've never met two of you and I was under the impression that Itsuki was a triplet." Fuutarou apologized as he turned to face the three girls that he could tell weren't Itsuki or Nino.
"May I please get your names? I'm Fuutarou Uesugi as you've already learned." He spoke with an air of politeness.
"Oh? I'd have figured you'd have learned that on the first day, but I guess it isn't too easy to bring up~ Ichika Nakano. I'm the eldest sister." Ichika gave a smile as she waved her hand slightly.
"Yo! It's nice to meet you! You can call me Yotsuba! I'm the fourth sister!" The now named Yotsuba gave a salute in greeting.
"We've already met… I'm Miku…" The shyest of the three practically whispered.
"Yeah, well you three can make yourself comfortable. Nino's cooking and i'm sure you already know how great of a cook she can be." Fuutarou sighed, motioning them forward.
"Yep! She brought some food last night and it was amazing! I haven't had anything that delicious since mom took us to this fancy restaurant!" Yotsuba laughed as they all followed him.
"Mhm. So what's the reason for this get together, hmm?" Ichika asked.
He was thankful that they were wearing different clothes.
"I figured that since i've been with Itsuki for so much, that it'd be nice to get to meet her sisters while doing so with some of my friends at the same time." Fuutaoru answered, which got a snicker from Takeda.
"Psht. Some of your friends, more like the default people you consider acquaintances at the very least." Takeda gave his snide remark which got a glare from Fuutarou to shut him up.
"Wow! Well it's super neat to meet you! Is everyone else already here? Eba-san told me she was going to be here." Yotsuba asked.
"You already know Eba? And no, she's going to be a bit late, but yeah, it's nice to meet you three." Fuutarou responded.
"Hey, Fuu. I just realized something. I think we need to talk for a bit. Itsuki, you five go on ahead?" Takeda placed his hand on Fuutarou's shoulders to stop him, before gesturing towards Itsuki.
"O-oh! Okay!" Itsuki nodded before having her sister follow her.
"What is it?" Fuutarou asked, before Takeda began speaking.
"You… aren't going to just try to ask them all at once now, are you?" Takeda questioned, earning a confused look from him.
"Ask them what they'd like my help with? Yeah? Why not?" Fuutarou responded, getting a deep heavy sigh from Takeda.
He clapped his hands together before pointing all his fingers at him.
"Buddy, you can't just get them altogether and just ask them. If you really care, you'd ask them individually to make it seem like you're more personally invested.
"Hah? Why should that matter? If people need help, wouldn't they just take it?" The heir tilted his head, earning a face palm from the blonde.
"No! Some people won't accept help if you do it in a certain way! Think of it this way. If you needed help and someone offered it to you in a room full of people, would you accept it in front of everyone?" Takeda questioned, crossing his arms.
"I guess not…" Fuutarou nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, so if you were to just ask the sisters what their predicament is and how you can help them. You got lucky so far with Itsuki-chan and Nino-san so far, but you need a delicate touch to this sort of thing if you're going to get them to agree." Takeda explained.
"So what do you think I should do? Get them alone and just throw the question at them?" The stoic boy asked, crossing his own arms.
"What you need to do is get to know them. Itsuki asked for help. Nino told you what she wanted to do without too much of a problem, but this is a new situation. This is your first time meeting them mostly and you'll have to make it feel natural and ask them while there aren't too many people. This is the best way without them coming straight to you to ask for help, which I doubt it after seeing how they are." Takeda laid out what to do for him pretty nicely.
Fuutarou nodded, holding his hand to his chin.
"Now, the problem here is that it's just the first day and you're unlikely to get them alone to ask, but on the off chance that you do, while you're talking to them today, you should get to know them. Feel out their personalities so you can approach." Takeda suggested.
"Hm. I'm pretty sure I can do that. It'll be just like a dating sim." Fuutarou gave a wry smile.
"Yeah, like DDLC or Affection Meter." Takeda nodded.
"Alright. You made some good points, I appreciate it. Let's go see what the girls are doing." Fuutarou turned to walk towards the group of girls.
"Of course, what are friends for?" Takeda laughed, following behind.
With the sisters
"Well he seems nice, no wonder you can't stop talking about him, Itsuki~" Ichika gave a lighthearted chuckle.
"W-why are you saying it like that? He's a really nice friend! That's it!" Itsuki stammered, getting another giggle from the eldest sister.
"I didn't say that he was anything more than that~" Ichika gave a sly grin, getting Itsuki's face to turn red immediately.
"Well, I need to go back to cooking. I'm making some beignets~!" Nino said, beginning to return to her claimed territory.
"W-wait! What are we supposed to be doing?" Miku asked her.
"Just go talk and be cool. I'm almost done and i'll be with you guys in a bit." Nino said before skipping off.
"Don't worry, Sis. Eba's super nice so any friend of hers is probably just as nice." Yotsuba grinned.
"Yeah and Nino's a good judge of character. You know she won't just throw you to the wolves." Ichika said as they reached the group.
"Oh, hello! You must be Nino's sisters! I'm Yamada and this is Otori. Where are the boys?" Yamada gave a bright smile, looking up from her phone.
"Hello! I'm Ichika. The boys told us to go on ahead so they could talk in private." Ichika gave a polite nod.
"I'm Otori. It's nice to meet Nino's friends. She's very nice." Otori spoke softly.
"Yotsuba! I heard about you all from Eba-chan! I hope we can be great friends in the future!" Yotsuba energetically said.
"Ah. I'm Itsuki Nakano. I've been studying with Fuutarou-kun lately, but I've heard about you from Takeda-san." Itsuki gave a polite bow.
Everyone turned towards Miku after their introductions so she could introduce herself.
It took a while before Miku realized she was next and at that moment her brain froze and she could only remember what Nino's advice was.
"Y-yo! What's up? My homegirls call me Miku! Nice to meet y'all." Miku adopted a pose with double peace signs, causing the room to go quiet.
"What are you doing?" Ichika whispered to her.
"Nino told me to be cool!" Miku hissed back.
"Yeah, so what in the world are you doing?" Ichika repeated.
"HAHAHAHA! You talk just like Nino-san!" Yamada cackled, trying to stifle her voice with her hand.
"Like hell she does!" Nino yelled from the kitchen, having heard everything.
"A-ah… I think it's about time to pull that Irish Goodbye…" Miku meekly said as she shrank.
"I like you, Miku! You should come with your sister sometimes. Of course, you all can too, but the cafe we frequent isn't generally big enough to fit so many people… Oh! But we can still stay outside!" Yamada wiped a tear from her eye.
"Oh! I can come with Eba if she says she's going to see you all, but i'll generally be running after school." Yotsuba was consoling Miku who was covering her face to hide away her shame.
"I'll most likely spend my time with Fuutarou-kun. So I must decline unless he were to go." Itsuki politely declined as she took her seat.
"I'm sorry, I have a few jobs to do. So I won't be able to hang out unless it's on a Sunday like today." Ichika gave a sad smile.
"Aww, don't worry about it. Whenever you can, but cmon! Let's get to know each other. We were talking about the festival! You're all new right? You'll come right?" Yamada asked.
"Hnn… We're sorry. We most likely won't be able to. We're currently saving for something so we wouldn't be able to do much at the festival." Ichika held her hands together in a gesture of apology.
"You can always help with the festival and the school will give you meal vouchers." Otori suggested.
"Ah, I apologize. As I've said, i'd be busy regardless." Ichika sighed, feeling disheartened. "But maybe my sisters can go."
"If you can't go, we won't go, sis." Yotsuba pumped her fist into the air.
"Mm~ Well I hope something changes, but as of now, let's just get to know each other." Yamada held her hand to her chin in thought before shrugging.
"Is the festival big?" Itsuki asked curiously.
"No, not really. We have a bigger one around winter and an even bigger one around summer, but it's still pretty popular in the local area. We even have some students from other schools join with their own stalls to challenge us. Our school tends to be the host for a competitive market during this time." Yamada explained.
"Ooooh. Are you going to be doing a stand?" Yotsuba asked.
"Hahaha! No. I'll be in charge of advertisement, which is super easy since everyone already knows about it, but I guess i'm doing my job right now by telling you all." The blonde laughed.
"What about you Otori-san?" Ichika asked, having sat near her.
"I'm in charge of finances. We have to make a profit from the festivals so I need to make sure not too much is spent in certain parts." Otori responded.
"Wow, you must be really smart than Otori-san, if the school's giving that job to you." Yotsuba gasped.
"You know it! She's always ranking high on the nationals! She isn't on the same level as Fuutarou or Takeda but Otori is still really diligent in her studies." Yamada placed her hand on Otori, proud of her best friend.
"The only reason Takeda manages to get high is through nepotism." Fuutarou spoke monotonously as he appeared with Takeda.
"Hey. You make it seem like I'm being fed answers. My scores are fully my own, thank you very much." Takeda huffed, being offended from the remark.
"Hey, you two! We were talking about the festival. I know Takeda's going to be with me of course, but we haven't gotten to tell you what you'll be doing, right, Uesugi-san?" Yamada waved towards the two.
Fuutarou looked over the living room area.
Ichika was seated near Otori who was with Yamada.
Itsuki had taken to the floor where she'd usually sit at the coffee table, ready to study out of habit.
Yotsuba was standing up behind the lounger where Miku was doing her best to be as quiet as possible.
Knowing her, she probably said something embarrassing again.
"Yeah, sure. We can, but I think Nino's almost done." Fuutarou said and on cue, Nino appeared with some appetizers.
"Voila~! Some délicieux food with exquis ingredients provided by Mr. Gloomy over here." Nino placed the trays one the coffee table.
"Whoa! Those look really good! Especially since it's just for a get together at someone's house." Yamada gasped as everyone reached out for their portion.
"Mmmm~! Sho good~!" Itsuki let out an unlady like noise as she munched.
"Nnn… what are these called, Nino-chan?" Otori asked, enjoying it just as much as Itsuki.
"Some Salmon timbales~ I found the recipe off of Mopey's phone! I never knew how vast the internet was!" Nino grinned.
All the girls were extremely in awe of the appertizer Nino had set out.
Fuutarou managed to keep a stoic face as he enjoyed it while Takeda looked disappointed.
"Mmm? Is something wrong, hun?" Yamada asked, noticing her boyfriends expression.
"No… It's really good, but… I guess I was just expecting a Food Wars reference… Ah well." Takeda finished his portion, turning away with tears.
"Eh?" Yamada gave a confused look as Fuutarou facepalmed.
"Well, i'm glad you all are enjoying. There's more to come, but right now that's the start. I'll give you the rest right after you're all finished!" Nino declared.
"Muu… I look forward to it. You seem very talented, Nino-san. This is your first time making this too?" Otori asked.
"Yep yep! I did go through some taste tests, but besides following the recipe, it's also pretty easy to tell what would compliment some ingredients for me~!" Nino bragged, proud of her accomplishment.
"That's my sister. You should see her at home sometimes. She'll cook and narrate what she's doing like she's on a cooking show~!" Ichika gave a big smile, getting Nino to immediately turn red.
"Hey! Don't tell them that!" Nino yelled, clenching her fists to her side.
As the group laughed, they began talking more comfortably as the girls kept the conversation going.
It was after the platter was finished that Nino was ready to get the next tray, but Takeda stopped her from moving, confusing the girl.
"Hey, Nakano-san. There's no need to work so hard, you've already cooked enough, why don't you have your boss help out since this is his house?" Takeda gave a kind smile, getting her to think it over before shrugging.
"Sure, whatever, but I'll still need to tell you all what you're eating!" Nino said, getting a chuckle from Takeda.
"No worries, Chef Nino. We wouldn't dare steal your thunder." He promised, getting her to beam at being called Chef.
"Hm? Oh, sure I guess I can." Fuutarou said, standing up.
"Oh, there's more than one tray. You'll need some help from what I can tell, i'd help but Yamada-chan here is…" Takeda trailed off as Yamada smirked from her place in Takeda's lap.
It seems things were all going according to plan for the two.
"Why don't you get some help, bro?" Takeda asked.
Fuutarou didn't need to read between the lines. This was the moment he set up after having been a part of the conversation for a while now. This was a chance to be alone with one of the three sisters to ask some more personal things casually.
Takeda gave a thumbs up and Fuutarou looked over towards his three options, despite Itsuki looking already ready to help him.
Who should he ask for help?
Hey, thanks for all of your support. I know I haven't updated as much as Lance, but…
Christ…
Who in this community is?
Regardless of all that, join the discord server if you wanna talk to me and other popular QQ authors.
[discord gg Txnqc3EKZn]
Also tell me who Fuutarou should go out of his way to talk to for the next chapter. Ichika, Miku or Yotsuba.