my brain: okay pick between the Furubaes watching the Heroine Tarumono anime OR a universe where LIPxLIP and Hiyori actually exist alongside them
me: uhhhhhh ((melts))
I WILL do both eventually but this plotbunny won first place in the race, so. anyway! This is a small crossover between Fruits Basket and Heroines Run the Show (aka Heroine Tarumono, aka HeroTaru). inspired by the polyships discord and chivalrousamour on AO3, who's written a truly staggering amount of OT3 fic for that show's main trio, known as LipHiyo. Have I watched HeroTaru yet? No. but I don't let silly things like that stop me, ohoho~
Burgeoning poly between Kyo, Yuki, and Tohru and established poly Liphiyo, if that wasn't already clear.
"Kyo-kun, Yuki-kun!"
Running footsteps down the hall alerted Kyo, pulling his gaze away from the TV he'd been mindlessly staring at. Tohru had gone for the mail, and...
"Look what came." Beaming, even when she tripped over the rug and barely caught herself, Tohru held up the latest issue of Idol Time toward him.
Too cute! "Hey, stop prancing." Kyo grabbed it and blinked a few times; holding it steady, he saw the cover blaring about LIPxLIP.
Yuki, face down in his textbook, mumbled. Kyo's elbow bumping his head woke him up.
"It's those guys. Cover issue." Look interested, he tried to transmit via stare.
"Mmmh...?" He yawned, sleepily rubbing his eyes, and made grabby hands for the issue. "L'me see."
C-Cute... Annoyed at the unstoppable force of this thought, he chucked the issue at Yuki's face.
The guy caught it. Because of course he did.
Tohru sat down and waited a respectable ten seconds before grabbing the magazine back from Yuki, eagerly paging through it. "They finally have a feature article, and— oh, new posters— and look at these pictures!" She laid it on the table so they could see.
Kyo dutifully looked. Several media pictures he'd seen before, mixed in with new live shots, and quite a few that looked surprisingly candid.
"That girl." Yuki pointed at a brown-haired girl who appeared in several pictures, sometimes in the background, sometimes right there with LIPxLIP. "She's cute. Like you, Honda-san."
Tohru went bright red. With absolute mortification, Kyo felt his own face flushing— Yuki had a genuine smile because he was still half-asleep, but what the hell?! Something that powerful should be illegal!
"Suzumi-san is amazing," Tohru exclaimed through her blush, eyes sparkling. "She can sing, and she even took some of these photos! I can't imagine her workload, even though Ai-kun and Yuu-kun are a only duo. Ah, but—" she flailed a bit— "but surely managing any number of idols is hard work. Still..." She sighed dreamily, chin resting in her hands. "If I could be her for a day, spending time with such handsome princes..."
Cute, cute, cute! Unable to look at her, Kyo looked at Yuki. This was a mistake, because he saw exactly what he was feeling on the other guy's (dumb, pretty) face. And then Yuki looked at him and smiled, just for a second, and what the fu—
Tohru spoke again, stopping him from yelling or doing something else stupid. "Kyo-kun and Yuki-kun would make even more handsome idols, though."
"No way," Kyo said (only a little too loud), in time with Yuki saying, "Absolutely not." Of course that woke him up all the way.
"Dancing is dumb," Kyo continued, "and I don't sing."
"Neither do I," said Yuki.
Liar. Kyo heard him sometimes, when he thought he was alone. He had a nice voice. Would be nicer if he were brave enough to sing fully.
Tohru giggled. Another blush was rising on her face, though. She was staring at something in particular.
He looked closer (he felt Yuki looking with him).
It was one of the candid photos, the duo and their manager all in the shot. They were in casual clothes, carnival plushies in hand. Suzumi-san was laughing, an arm around each of the boys who were both smiling... at her. And standing closer together than might be expected for their pose. Their smiles were almost painfully soft.
Kyo looked up.
Tohru was smiling in a similar way at the photo. Yuki was smiling in a similar way at her.
And Kyo... was in deep trouble. He wasn't entirely sure what kind, but he was definitely in trouble.
For once he wished Shigure was around. He was a pain in the ass but he'd at least be a distraction from... whatever this was.
"Even if it's staged somehow," Tohru said softly to the photo, "they look very happy here."
"They look happy in a lot of them," said Yuki. He'd started blushing.
"Yeah, well." Kyo cleared his throat. "I... need a snack." Mind made up, he stood so fast he nearly hit his knee on the table. He walked quickly.
Not quickly enough to avoid Yuki leaving with him, saying to Tohru, "I need the bathroom."
"Stop copying me," Kyo hissed.
"I'm not," Yuki hissed back, and detoured for the kitchen.
Kyo huffed and went to the bathroom.
Splashing off his still horrifyingly red face, he tried to breathe deeply. He did not like what was happening to him, liked even less that he didn't know what it was (but he did, too scared to let it leave his subconscious). He breathed through images of Tohru's smiling face, of Yuki's soft gaze, thoughts of surprising her with a kiss, of Yuki surprising him with one.
Groaning, he fought down the urge to hit the wall with his head. They were just thoughts... and the more he thought about them, the less scary they became.
Not that he planned to make a habit out of thinking them.
###
As soon as Kyo and Yuki left, Tohru buried her face in the magazine with a tiny scream. She had to get ahold of herself! Words she was nowhere near ready to kept wanting to come out and if she wasn't careful... The boys thought she hadn't noticed their secret smiles and soft looks, and, well, she hadn't, not completely. But she'd felt them, caught glimpses, and that was making it even more difficult to keep those dangerous words held back.
She sighed and looked at the magazine again, flipping back and forth through the cover story. After she saw that one picture she couldn't unsee it, how close the idols and their manager seemed to be. Maybe it was just wishful thinking. She knew even so-called candid shots could be artificial. But...
Even if it wasn't real, even though she couldn't be totally sure what "it" was (but she could hope, oh, she could hope), she wanted whatever connection that trio had to be what she, Kyo and Yuki had.
Emerging from her thoughts, she saw her hand had landed on the famous shot from LIPxLIP's MV for "Non-Fantasy". Ai-kun and Yuu-kun kissing "Hiyoko's" cheeks; Hiyoko dressed in a wedding gown. Tongue between her teeth, she turned the page forcefully. Then she slugged down her lemonade.
We've been in love for decades, for hundreds of years... All the lyrics she could recite by heart, having watched the video more times than she'd ever admit.
"Get it together, get it together," she told herself repeatedly as she got up to get another glass, water this time, with no sign of Kyo.
She'd settled back into her spot and was trying to read the feature article when he returned, box of pocky in hand. Yuki wasn't far behind him. They were both looking much more composed, so Tohru tried to compose herself too.
As they sat down, this time on either side of her, and as Kyo unmuted the TV (which just so happened to be playing one of LIPxLIPs music videos), she said, "I would really like to karaoke LIPxLIP sometime, with you two, maybe. And it's okay if you can't sing! I'm not very good either."
"No, you are good," Kyo mumbled through a mouthful of pocky.
Yuki nodded, looking carefully at the TV rather than her. "And I'm sure Suzumi-san's voice fits your range as well," he said.
She blushed. Of course they'd heard her; she had any number of the duo's songs in her head all the time, and it was so hard to keep their music contained!
"I think..." Yuki grabbed a handful of pocky and nibbled one, eyeing her sideways. "I think you singing Heroine Training Plan would be especially cute."
"O-Oh, no, I..."
Her mouth went dry at how fast Kyo blushed. "Yeah. It would."
A strange little squeal eked out of her; she grabbed her water glass and drank it half down. "I'll practice it a lot, then!" Clenching her fist in determination stopped any other noises escaping.
It did not stop her from blushing yet again when they both smiled at her, in turn, then turned back to the TV.
She wondered if, secretly, the boys saw themselves in LIPxLIP's place sometimes, like she did. If they saw her in Hiyori's place sometimes, like she did.
"We're attracted to each other like magic," she sang under her breath.
If they ever did go to karaoke, she would ask them.
###
(On one of their rare non-business outings, Hiyori, Aizo and Yujiro all sneezed in quick succession.
"Oi! Cover your mouth!" Yujiro glared at the blond.
"I should be saying that to you!" grumbled Aizo.
Hiyori sneezed again. "It's nothing to worry about. Just the pollen. But all of a sudden...?"
"Yeah. Probably." Another sneeze from Aizo.
"You dummy, you forgot your antihistamine medication again." Yujiro sighed and handed Aizo a pack of tissues, sniffling himself.
"I'm ready to go home, then," said Hiyori. "And getting you a glass of water right awa— oh my gosh, crepes!" She grabbed the boys' hands and pulled them along to the crepe cart. "I want strawberry cream!"
"I'll have chocolate, please," Aizo trilled.
"Ah, yes, the miracle cure," Yujiro said. "Same for me, then."
Now standing in line, Hiyori pushed to her full height in front of them and puffed her cheeks out, poking the boys in their chests. "No way. You two are buying your own for once!"
They pouted.
But then she tugged them down toward her and said in an extra-cute tone, "I'll give you extra kisses later." Then she winked, turning away before they saw her grin, immensely satisfied at how easily she could make them blush.)
What with the Furuba reboot and my knowledge of Shimazaki Nobunaga's singing prowess (fun fact, he's Aizo from HeroTaru as well as my husbando Yun-chan~), I have revised my headcanon of Yuki being tone-deaf. :B (Except, of course, for the sequel to my first Yukyoru which I will write someday dammit)