A/N: Hey everyone! Today felt like a good day to update, since I think it's the four year anniversary of the day I formed the idea for this fic (Sept 2nd is when I started writing it!). Seemed like good timing, y'know? I'm trying to finish Chapter 2 of Crystal Swan in time for the Steven Universe movie (feels unlikely), but since it's Labor Day weekend I should have time to work on HC some more! I hope. Feels weird not updating every week. Anyways, thanks for the new faves, follows, and reviews!

Hayashinkage17: oh, I know the feeling of returning to a fic after so long and being super disoriented. Like wait, where am I? If it makes you feel better, that was just one of those "new recruit hangout" chapters, except this time was different because Noda doesn't remember any of them, even Yurippe (which Naoi is secretly glad for). And I'm glad you liked the high school line. XD In this day and age, 25 is the new 19! And the homewrecker thing (love writing Naoi so cheeky ^^). Thanks for the encouragement; you keep writing too! Sounds like we're both trying to end our hiatuses!

Shiranai Atsune: I miss it too! Thanks so much for your energy and support! Guest: My pleasure, thank you for your kind words and for making me think of it! I should give it a reread sometime.

ZainR: You know I think that was my favorite picture shot to write! Poor Fujimaki... XD Also there's absolutely hidden meaning there in that "never really loved them back" line and I love that you honed in on it. Probably my favorite line of the chapter - angsty and packed with secrets. And Yuri is not as much drifting from the Battlefront as she is having an internal struggle. But when she has something like that in canon, who's always there to give their fearless leader strength? :D

(Finally, a disclaimer: Don't own anything they watch or play in this chapter! Didn't even come up with a fake name or anything this time.)

Hope you enjoy!


[Chapter 41]: Babysitting Battlefront


The Not Dead Anymore Battlefront commandeered Ryou's living room for a good hour after that. Ooyama and Kanade seemed especially content to sit on the floor and watch Mitsuo and Botan play together, while Otonashi was content to watch his wife watch them. At one point he had his chin in his palm with a moony expression on his face as Kanade scooped Mitsuo into her arms and cradled him against her chest. Shiina's dog-mom status had unofficially been usurped.

Meanwhile, Yuri pulled Ryou aside and vanished into the kitchen with her. Ayato had a pretty good idea what that was about. They kept their discussion in mostly discreet whispers, but there was still the occasional squeak of realization and apology coming from Ryou while Yuri's tone remained cool. The rest was lost among the living room's chatter.

"So you're good to go along with this, right?" Fujimaki asked Noda casually from his lazy perch on the armchair. "'Course, we don't mind freaking you out, but I figured I'd ask anyway."

Noda shrugged, as best he could with his arm around Kyou's shoulders. "Yeah, but only because when I said 'What the hell is wrong with you people' earlier, I got the weirdest case of déjà vu."

"I'm surprised you know the word! I thought Yui always said even death couldn't cure stupid."

"Reincarnation might," Yui offered.

Noda gestured vaguely to the lot of them. "There it goes again."

"He was pretty easy to recruit the first time we met him," Ooyama reminded them helpfully. "Remember, Hinata? Down in the Guild, Yurippe asked him to join and he accepted just like that!"

Hinata and Otonashi broke into simultaneous sweats, and Noda looked distinctly uncomfortable while Kyou's eyes turned slightly calculative. Ayato noticed Noda's arm curl around Kyou a smidge tighter in reassurance.

"Yeah, that's 'cause he was so convinced we were all a part of his video game," Hinata explained quickly.

"But then he ran away crying when she said she wasn't his female le—mmph!"

Having caught wind of Hinata's uneasy hand gestures, an impassive Kanade had covered Ooyama's mouth with one hand while she teased Mitsuo with the other. Ooyama made bewildered noises and looked to the guys for help, only for Otonashi to flash Kanade a discreet thumbs up.

Luckily, Kyou appeared unaffected by that last bit, more interested when Hinata mentioned video games.

"That sounds like him, alright," she said with a knowing chuckle. "What else should I know about him during his Battlefront days?"

She even flourished her hands at the "Battlefront days" part. Going by her tone, Ayato would guess that she was either still very much humoring them or actively entertained.

Matsushita the Fifth chimed in, "Well, his weapon of choice was a halberd."

"Which he used to slice me into a bloody meaty mess when we first met," Otonashi added.

Kyou blinked, impressed but caught off-guard. "That explains a lot."

"Yeah?"

"He's a butcher, so…" she clarified.

The others stared at her in astonishment. Then Hinata leaned over and muttered to Otonashi, "I can't believe someone pays him to handle sharp objects."

"I heard that," Noda warned, rolling his eyes.

Eventually, Ryou and Yuri emerged from the kitchen. Ryou's guilt looked slightly assuaged. She sat at the coffee table by her sister and gave Ayato an indeterminable glance. Meanwhile Yuri popped up behind Kyou and Noda and abruptly poked her head between them.

"Hi guys!" she said merrily, startling Noda into a jolt and a cry. "What're we talking about?"

"Dumb stuff Noda did during Battlefront," Fujimaki said matter-of-factly.

"Ooh!" She rounded the couch and hopped onto the arm of Fujimaki's chair. "Did you already mention the time he accidentally scalped himself?"

Noda touched his hair nervously. Ayato grinned.

They teased him mercilessly for a while, which was nice. Though he claimed not to know what they were talking about, Ayato noted that he looked a bit wary of Kanade. Even fearful. Part of it might've been the Battlefront pointing out the times he would die first in the Guild. Something akin to vague memory flickered in his eyes and he pulled a face, possibly imagining the petite snow-haired girl on the ground driving a blade through his chest.

Kanade smiled at him and cradled the dog some more. Sweating, he inched closer to Kyou.

However, all good roasts must come to an end, and Kyou looked at her phone and frowned slightly. "Oh, Ryou, it's almost five."

"Really?" Ryou stood up and checked the hall clock in surprise. "Wow, I didn't even notice."

"Sorry, guys, hate to interrupt your little reunion," Kyou said, standing as well and wrapping an arm around her sister, "but Ryou and I are going to head out soon for a little 'twin time.'" She looked at Yuri then, considering. "Actually, Yuri, you can come too if you want. We can make it a girls' night."

"Hmm, sorry," Yuri shook Fujimaki's shoulder lovingly, "gotta stay with my boys. Another time though?"

Ryou and Kyou nodded with a little hum of confirmation. Meanwhile, Yui and Shiina shared some sort of contemplative glance.

Noda frowned hugely. "What about me?!"

"Somebody has to stay home and look after Botan!" Kyou put her hands on her hips, then regarded her boyfriend with interest. She smiled sweetly. "Unless you want to go shopping with us? You can carry our bags."

"Kyou, it isn't funny." Noda beetled his forehead at her, slightly miffed. His eyes then widened as Botan catapulted herself onto his lap. "Oof!"

"Puhi-puhi!" the boar said in happiness. She curled up and settled down with a blithe snort.

"Aww!" Kyou cooed. "She loves you!"

"She's – crushing – me," Noda wheezed.

"How shallow-minded," Shiina said, obviously jealous.

Ooyama brightened from his spot on the floor. "Hey – maybe Noda could come hang out with us?" he offered, and looked at Noda hopefully. "He can bring Botan too. I think she and Mitsuo have been getting along really well."

Ayato glowered at Ooyama in disbelief. Did he just invite a boar into his house? …And Botan as well?

Kyou and Ryou shared a twin look – Ayato faintly remembered enough to recognize those – before beaming at Ooyama.

"I think that's a great idea," Kyou said warmly. "What do the rest of you think?"

Yuri considered. "Might as well give it a try," she said, crossing her arms in thought. "It would be good practice for when we round up any other amnesiacs."

"All right, let's try it," Hinata said with a shrug, and to his credit was the only one who looked to Ayato for permission. The latter rolled his eyes and gave a conceding wave; it wasn't like he was staying the night or anything.

Noda grunted. "It's like I'm being handed off to a bunch of weird babysitters."


Having Noda over at Ayato's was like letting an old stray tomcat into the house. He wandered in through the front door after everyone, frowning and looking all skeptical – startling only when Botan pranced in happily over his feet to chase after Mitsuo. He inspected the place with a wary sniff. He trailed closest to the people he vaguely trusted. Ooyama and Shiina, that is. And maybe Hinata and Yui, the latter of whom he sat down next to on the couch as she cracked open a book.

Otonashi he sort of scowled at like he was unsure of him. Just like back in the Afterlife, Ayato recalled.

Not trusting in Otonashi? Noda was so dumb.

He caught him looking at Yuri while she loved on Botan for a bit and chatted amiably with Matsushita, and cast him a dark glare that the idiot returned. So unbelievably dumb.

Anyway, Fujimaki and Ooyama had brought over their game system and set it up to the TV, so that had lulled Noda into a mild complacency. They let him play their little zombie game for a bit ("You people and the undead," he'd hooted, but settled happily back on the couch with a controller), making Yui squawk in distress at the noise. Noda glanced at Yui and nicely turned the volume down, but she would still roll her eyes and mutter "boys" whenever one of them jumped up and yelled in triumph.

After half an hour of that (and Otonashi companionably joining in and playing with Noda for a round, patient and mature as he was), per Yui's request, they switched to Quiplash – another question-and-answer game that relied on people being clever and quick, which Noda decidedly wasn't, so that had made Ayato happy. Shiina didn't know how to pull the game up on her phone, so she leaned on Yui's shoulder and they alternated between rounds on her laptop.

Surprisingly enough Kanade won three times, mostly because she kept answering almost all of her given questions with "mapo tofu" and people kept losing their minds over it. Something you'd like to fill a swimming pool with? Mapo tofu. The secret to a happy life? Mapo tofu. The Skittle flavor that just missed the cut? You guessed it – mapo tofu!

There was this one question that went "something that would not work well as a dip for tortilla chips," and before the TV screen revealed the players' answers, almost everyone in the room collectively whooped, "MAPO TOFU."

Incidentally, the answers were liver paste and nattō. Multiple Battlefront members groaned in feigned disappointment and turned expectantly to Kanade, who looked surprised at them.

"Actually I think that would taste quite nice," she considered, and looked hopefully to Otonashi.

Otonashi sighed and gave a small knowing smile, taking out a notepad. "I'll add tortilla chips to the grocery list."

(Later there was a question that went "the best way to keep warm on a cold winter night," and Kanade did not let her fans down. Even Noda cracked a grin.)

On the fourth replay, the game asked, "Where's the best place to hide from the shadow monsters?" Most of the group had laughed at it, but that had creeped Ayato out quite a bit, and he accidentally shared a glance with Yuri as she was also making a face. Despite himself, he held her gaze for a moment, because there was actually something they had in common besides mutual burning resentment.

The phone trilled, abruptly breaking him out of his reverie. Ayato and Yuri both glanced toward the phone with a start, then back at each other. His eyes were knowing, hers competitive. She scrambled to get up from her spot on the floor and he followed suit.

"Don't you dare!" he warned, darting after her. "You don't even know who it is!"

"Yeah, right! It's not like it's your girlfriend or anything," Yuri said, swooping down at the phone and snatching it from its cradle. Checking the caller ID, she brightened and hit talk, then greeted with a smile, "Hello, Ayame!"

He heard his mother's voice chirp back at her spiritedly, and scowled as Yuri began to pace into the kitchen with the phone, prattling away. Rolling his eyes, he returned to his spot by the TV just as the two competing answers to the shadow question flashed across the screen ("Living world" and "Nowhere is safe"). Noda briefly gave him an annoying side-eye but he ignored it in favor of the game and his thoughts.

Honestly, that woman…!

The points went to Shiina on that one for her bleak and ominous answer, with only a couple of votes going to Ooyama's. The boy looked only slightly disheartened.

"I guess I'm too optimistic," he said, scratching the back of his hair with a meager half-smile.

Fujimaki grinned and swung an arm around his shoulder. "Aw, but that's just what we all love about you." He closed his eyes contentedly. "Right Mitsuo?" Silence. He opened one eye. "Mitsuo?"

There was scampering above their heads and then a small crash, and that was when they realized neither dog nor boar had been seen downstairs for a while. Fujimaki lurched up from the couch, unsettling Ooyama's comfortable position next to him.

"Oh crap," he said, rushing down the hall towards the staircase.

"I'll get Botan," Noda said, resigned, and casually followed after him.

"Stay out of my stuff!" Ayato called to them, and spared a scolding glance back at Ooyama for not keeping an eye on his pet. The latter didn't seem to notice, staring at the spot in the hall where the guys had disappeared with an unreadable expression on his face. Ayato rolled his eyes and turned back to the game.

Fujimaki and Noda returned, with the troublemakers in their arms, just in time to see the answers for "Something you should never use as a scarf." One of them was "microphone cord," and it wasn't hard to guess who submitted it, as Hinata had been snorting with so much laughter earlier that he'd almost run out of time to type it in and was now red-faced from biting on an earsplitting grin. Yui shrieked indignantly and battered at his shoulder as the votes poured in and everyone but Ayato and Shiina stamped their approval.

"Only because they weren't there," Hinata said smugly, and tweaked Yui's braid.

"It would be a bad scarf," Shiina mused, reconsidering. Yui whined sadly and rubbed her throat in apparent remembrance.

Ayato winced upon seeing it; that was an old habit of Kimito's. Not that the man had ever been strangled by a microphone cord, at least not that he knew of. But it wasn't a thought he cared to dwell on. He bit the inside of his cheek and stared staunchly ahead at the screen.

Finally, as they were all voting on the answers to "A strange thing to keep as a pet" (from the sound of it everyone was pretty split between "Monster Stream" and "AN ACTUAL WILD BOAR?"), Yuri came back into the room and Ayato immediately stood up. She crossed the room to him and waved the phone in the air.

"Alright, guess she wants to talk to you now," she said, tone wavering between demure and cheeky.

He swiped the phone out of her hand with a scowl. Covering the mouthpiece, he hissed to her, "Will you stop doing that?"

Yuri smiled sweetly back at him. "Doing what?"

"You know what! Stop stealing the phone!"

"I'm just talking to her," Yuri said defensively, folding her arms across her chest. "You want to deprive a poor old woman of a nice conversation with the daughter she never had?"

Ayato quirked a brow at her before walking away with the phone. "I'm telling her you called her old."

"Hey, don't—!"

He was bluffing, of course, but it amused him to get her all worked up. Still, he glared and made a face at her one more time before heading into the kitchen. Through the pass-through, he caught a glimpse of Noda frowning and whispering something furtively to Hinata out of the corner of his mouth. Hinata looked confused for a second, and Noda muttered some more. Hinata looked up, and grinned in understanding.

"They're crazy about each other," he replied.

Ayato scowled and turned away.

He told his mother about the wild boar in his house (who was clutched under Noda's arm in timeout and making sad snorts as she and Mitsuo cast longing looks at each other). He told her about Quiplash and pizza in the park. He told her about Ryou's sister coming to town and her boyfriend being an old acquaintance he'd lost touch with. She told him about the renovations she'd been thinking of doing to the workshop ("Such a sweltering and gloomy place, I don't know how you worked there for so long – especially in summer!") and the Hirohashis giving her some construction tips when they came by the shop yesterday.

Well, not Hirohashis yet, or so she'd amended, but did he know they were engaged? Oh no, of course he wouldn't, but she wasn't always sure which of his former classmates he still kept in contact with, or if he'd reached out in the past few years.

"It's about time," Ayato scoffed, leaning against the counter. "They've only been together since, what, 2011?"

"He said he wanted to wait until he made enough money to support her," his mother recounted, then gave a slight chuckle. "But later when she was browsing the aisles, he admitted part of it was that he'd been a little panicked she'd think marriage was a government strategy to fill her mind with distractions of cooking and child-rearing and ground her to only one world. Or something of that ilk."

He laughed quietly. "To be fair that does sound a lot like her."

His mother gave a thoughtful hum. "But eventually, they did reach their happily ever after," she said softly. "With a little patience and a heart of hope."

Ayato squinted suspiciously at the phone. That sounded like it was directed at someone. Was she talking about him or herself?

"They're good for each other," he agreed, rather pointedly. "He's always been kind to her."

She hummed again, sounding a little tired this time, and changed the subject to the weather in Mizuzaka for next week. She was glad to possibly be getting rain soon, but she did enjoy her outdoors time in the garden doing the watering herself so she was envious of the endless sunshine-filled days ahead of him.

"Maybe we can trade," he said dryly.

"Hm, I wish I could bring the rain to you." Her voice grew terribly wistful for a moment, then smoothed over into a pleasant lilt. "Then again, the dirt is always softer after the rain has come, so it'll be easier to pull out all the weeds."

Ayato harrumphed a little. "You look for the good in everything, don't you?"

"And usually I find something," was her answer (but for a moment there he wondered if she didn't sound a little halfhearted).

Whatever keeps you in Akuma, he wanted to bite back. He kept it to himself – no need to soil her good mood.

They talked for another five minutes before she had to go get dinner ready. After saying goodbye to her, Ayato wandered out of the kitchen to return the phone to its cradle just as the game was tallying up the votes of the Last Lash, the final question with one collective prompt. Noda, who'd been watching intently from the moment he stepped out, snorted at him as he passed.

"You still talk to your mommy?" he sneered, his lips twisting into a horribly obnoxious smirk.

Ayato regarded him irritably for a moment. His eyes started to sear with threat, but then he heard Fujimaki mutter something about hypocrites, and simultaneously remembered what little he'd heard of Noda's past life.

"I moved out of my parents' house when I was twenty," he said decisively. "When did you?"

Noda promptly flushed an amusing shade of red. He scoffed, "Whatever, rich boy, I bet your daddy bought you this place."

Ayato snarled at him. "My father never did a thing for me!"

"He stuck around, didn't he?" Noda jabbed. Beside him on the couch, Yui began to look intrigued and Hinata distinctly uncomfortable. "From what I've seen, you're lucky he had the patience to put up with you."

"Don't talk about things you don't know," Ayato snapped, taking a step toward him. Then his lips curled into a smirk, and he added with a snort, "Maybe you should shut up entirely."

Noda leapt up from the couch in a fury. "What was that?!"

Matsushita the Fifth moved to restrain Noda (the latter's fury gave way to baffled déjà vu), while Hinata and Otonashi hurriedly got between them and Ayato. Ooyama looked concerned while Mitsuo barked his disapproval.

"Okay, we know, you both have daddy issues," said Hinata, sweating a little. "Let's not whip them out and see whose is bigger."

Ayato faltered at his words, and considered Noda for a moment. He knew from Battlefront times that Noda had been a hikkikomori, living with his mom and constantly playing video games, but he'd never heard anything about his father.

He stuck around, didn't he?

You're lucky he had the patience to put up with you.

His face cleared, brow smoothing in realization very briefly before furrowing again. If his feeling was correct and Noda's father had abandoned him and his mother when he was young, there was still no need to take it out on him!

Still – and this had nothing to do with feeling Yuri's eyes on him, watching closely – he elected to let the matter drop.

"Fine, whatever," Ayato said, waving a hand dismissively and tipping the brim of his cap with the other. He turned on his heel and headed back into the kitchen. "It's not worth my time."

There were better things to do than let imbeciles boil his blood, like making dinner, so he busied himself in the kitchen pulling something together that was a little healthier than pizza while the others turned off their game in favor of mindless channel-surfing. At Kanade's delighted squeak of recognition, Hinata obligingly settled on what sounded like Finding Nemo.

"It's not fair," Ayato heard him muttering to Otonashi. "How do you ever say no to that face?"

Otonashi chuckled good-naturedly. "I'll tell you when I figure it out."

Meanwhile Yui had apparently gone back to reading, and occasionally gasped over its contents during lulls in the movie.

"Did you know some kinds of objects can be enchanted with flesh memory?" she burbled to Noda and anyone else who would listen. "That means it responds if you touch it in the exact same way that you did before! I think it even gives you the exact same feeling that you had! I wonder if—"

"Yui, is that still one of the books you borrowed from Yukine?" Otonashi asked, scratching his hair. "I thought you returned all of them."

Yui hugged the book against her heart, happy. "I bought my own when we visited Kyuuya last!" she said, and preened as she looked to Shiina in her usual corner and then Hinata at her side. "You can't get magical information like this anywhere else!"

Ayato squinted over the pass-through with a skeptical harrumph. "I found my books on hypnotism in Mizuzaka," he said just for the sake of argument – and then frowned at himself in abject horror. Really, now they had him doing it too?

Shiina looked intrigued, anyhow. She gave a pensive hum and went back to staring broodily out the window.

Pouting, Yui buried her face in the book again, but it didn't take long for her to light up once more. "Oh my gosh! A magic bracelet that turns you into a mermaid!"

Noda made an exasperated face. "But you already have a devil tail!"

"I'm starting to think some of these aren't real," Hinata muttered.

Kanade turned up the volume, leaned her head on Otonashi's shoulder, and listened to the sea ray sing.


Preview:

"Aren't we supposed to root for Iwasawa?"

"You bet on her last time too."

"I would like to sit this one out."

"Yui, hand me my phone."

"Are you coming with us or what?"

"You're just trying to come up with excuses now!"

"I want you to stop calling me an NPC."

[Chapter 42]: Old Habits.