A/N: I think this chapter has a little bit of humour. Also, I stared at screencaps of close-ups of Sora's face from Tri for hours and concluded that her eyes are magenta/pink-ish and decided to use raspberry to describe the colour. Don't hate pls.
-x-
Koushiro watched as Mimi swiftly typed on her smartphone, her face shining with excitement. School hadn't started yet, and their class was only filled with a few students. Yamato was sitting behind the brunette, concentrating on his notebook, occasionally writing down something. Sora was at the front, talking to one of their classmates about the field trip and the upcoming school festival. Taichi was still probably at club practice or late, Koushiro wasn't sure. And Koushiro, was silently sitting in his seat, hoping to get noticed by Mimi, sooner or later. He frowned as she giggled suddenly, her eyes still fixed on her phone screen.
"Mimi-chan, who are you talking to?" The dark haired boy couldn't stop himself from asking her, because he was intensely curious. He was expecting to get ignored, but Mimi looked up and grinned at him.
"Michael." She replied, giggling once again, as she read something on her phone, and started replying immediately.
Yamato's head snapped up at the mention of that name and he looked at Koushiro, who shrugged hurriedly, indicating his lack of knowledge in the matter.
"Michael, your friend from America?" Yamato asked quietly, Koushiro barely heard him and was sure that Mimi wouldn't bother to answer, but she turned around to look at the blond, her expression neutral, she nodded and went back to her phone.
Koushiro could tell that Yamato was mad, or at least a little bit hurt by Mimi's response, she didn't even bother to speak, which even the genius thought was a little dismissive. But since it seemed like she wasn't mad at Koushiro anymore, he tried his luck once more.
"Why are you talking to him?"
"Well, you know how his dad is a movie star right? So they're coming to Tokyo soon, and wanted to know if I'd be able to show him around," she said, still scrolling on her phone.
Koushiro was a little mad that she wasn't even bothering to look at him, just so she could talk to someone she had only been friends with for less than a year. He noticed that Yamato had sunk in his seat, the blond pulled out his trusty earphones from his pocket and plugged them in, indicating that he didn't want any part in this conversation anymore. Koushiro thought that he was probably feeling dejected and didn't want Mimi to notice that.
"When is he coming?" Koushiro asked, facing Mimi.
"Soon. He isn't sure yet."
"So you're just gonna spend all your time glued to your phone till then?" He hadn't meant to sound so patronizing but the words left his mouth before he could remodel it into a polite question.
Mimi faced him, finally, and shot him an icy glare, "Look who's talking," she said bitterly, going on to mimic him, "I have to help Takeru-kun with his phone right now."
"That was an entirely different situation!" He retorted.
"Whatever you say, traitor." She stretched out the word traitor, and Koushiro rolled his eyes at her, she went back to her phone and he faced ahead, a little miffed with the brunette.
Sora came back to her seat and noticing the snobbish look on Mimi's face, she passed Koushiro a polite smile, her expression saying 'she's just being Mimi' and he nodded in return, the exasperation still visible on his face. More students started entering, and Koushiro decided to revise his math homework, next to him Mimi commented on Taichi being late, but neither he nor Yamato bothered to reply. He snuck one glance at the blond and saw that the frown on his face was deeper than usual, making Koushiro conclude that he might be thinking of some way to get the brunette's attention or start a conversation with her, of course without being too obvious about his interest in her. Thinking about that made Koushiro's head spin because it was all just so complicated and he really commended Yamato for keeping his cool.
After a while, even the dark-haired boy got a little worried when their teacher arrived and Taichi was still no-where to be seen. The other sports club members had already returned, though nobody from their class except Taichi was in the soccer club, Koushiro was sure that their morning practice should have gotten over by now.
"He probably overslept, its Monday after all." Yamato commented quietly from behind him, as if reading Koushiro's mind.
"Yamato, you didn't walk with him in the morning?" Koushiro asked, it was rare for the two to come to school separately, unless of course they were fighting.
"He told me last night that he has morning practice, so I took the train." Yamato replied, a slight frown now appearing on his face, "I did see his bike in the bicycle shed…maybe he fell asleep in the locker room?"
Koushiro chuckled at that, not surprised that the blond only associated laziness with their missing ace. He turned his attention back towards their teacher and it was when the latter started roll-call, that Taichi burst into the classroom apologising hurriedly for his tardiness to the teacher, who somehow seemed to be in a good mood today because he simply brushed the brunet off, asking him to settle down quickly. Taichi started towards his seat and then paused, just for a moment, his eyes scanning the classroom quickly and then landing on, to Koushiro's surprise, their classmate Kirishima Ryouta. The genius frowned as he watched his friend send a threatening glare towards their classmate, but Kirishima's response to the glare was what surprised Koushiro even more, a pompous smirk. He watched as Taichi clenched and unclenched his fists and grit his teeth as he headed towards his seat. Their teacher started repeating some information regarding their upcoming field trip and as Taichi flopped down on his seat, looking angry and tired at the same time, Yamato didn't spare him a second.
"What was that?" Koushiro heard the blond ask quietly.
"What was what?" Taichi replied, in a low voice.
"You looked like you were about to kill Kirishima."
"I am going to kill Kirishima."
At that, Sora turned around to shoot a glare in Taichi's direction, Koushiro wasn't sure how the brunet responded because he couldn't see him but he was pretty sure it wasn't nice, because the glare didn't dissolve, it deepened and just as Sora was about to face the front again, Taichi spoke to her in a furious whisper.
"Oh you wouldn't want me hurting your precious boyfriend now, would you?"
The auburn haired girl rolled her eyes in a 'this is so beneath me' manner and scowled in response, "He isn't my boyfriend, and you are literally the most immature person I have ever met in my entire life."
Koushiro was surprised that Sora could manage to say all of that angrily yet quietly, and he was sure that this was the cue for Taichi to raise his voice and then the teacher would scold all five of them, just because. It had happened so many times before that Koushiro sunk in his seat, preparing for the embarrassment. After a few minutes went by and there was not a word from Taichi, the genius turned around to sneak a peek at the brunet and saw that Sora had indeed managed to shut him up for good as the soccer ace was just sitting seething in his desk, switching between directing glares at Kirishima and pouting at Sora's back. Koushiro had never actually seen him look so defeated, and he knew it was mean of him to think that, but he thought Taichi looked quite funny right now. His eyes wandered over to the blond and his smile faltered, Yamato looked pissed. Really, really pissed. Koushiro quickly faced the front, gazing into his notebook intently, he didn't want to be in the blond's line of fire in any condition.
-x-
"Sora-chan, what exactly did you do?" Mimi took a bite of the strawberry cake her mom had so graciously packed for her for lunch as she shot a curious glance in the auburn haired girl's direction. The two were sitting on a bench in their school lawns, and the area surrounding them wasn't populated with that many students, despite of it being lunch time, so luckily they had the bench and its vicinity to themselves. Koushiro had very subtly attempted to follow them out of the classroom but Mimi had shunned him, stating that she needed to discuss things with Sora alone. The agitation on Taichi's face only increased after her words and even though the brunette didn't think it was possible, somehow the angry glower on Yamato's face deepened. It was probably because of the blond's pissed off look that Koushiro didn't want to stay with the guys and although Mimi felt a little guilty about leaving him behind, she felt that it needed to be done.
Sora was halfway through stuffing a club sandwich in her mouth when she stopped to answer Mimi's question. Swallowing quickly and wiping some sauce off her mouth (and after earning a disgusting look from Mimi over her eating habits which she surely had learned from Taichi), she grinned widely, "I really didn't do anything."
"Spill, now." Mimi scoffed, not believing a word her friend was saying.
"Really. At the start of this term, Kirishima-kun had asked me if I would be interested in managing the basketball club because their previous manager had to quit for some reason. But at that time, I was already so busy with Volleyball and occasionally Tennis that I had to turn him down."
"So, you've accepted his offer now?" the brunette questioned, getting ready to finish off her cake.
"Yeah. I mean my Ikebana classes are in the evening, and managing a club isn't as tiring as participating in one, so I thought why not." Sora smiled her usual polite smile, but somehow it seemed more malicious to Mimi now.
"Kirishima-kun has been hitting on you since we entered high school." Mimi said flatly, "He only hadn't asked you out yet because he was scared of Tai-chan."
"Well now he had plenty of chances to do as he pleases."
"Sora-chan!" the brunette squealed, making the other girl wince slightly, "You can't date him, he's so sleazy looking!" Mimi pouted at the other girl, the last bit of her cake lying forgotten.
Sora quickly picked up the small piece of cake and put it in her mouth, resulting in a gasp from Mimi as her pout remained and she got teary eyed, "My cake."
"Jeez, relax Meems. I'm not going to date him, I know he's an ass. Also we'll get crepes on our way back home, okay?"
The brunette let out a relieved sigh and leaned back relaxingly, "Well at least Tai-chan is jealous. I think he's more than just jealous."
"I just hope that he doesn't hit Kirishima, I hate fights." Sora muttered as she savoured the lingering taste of the cake in her mouth.
"Speaking of fights," Mimi started, "Yamato-kun looked so angry."
"I know! I couldn't understand whether he was mad at me or Taichi or both of us…"
"It could also sort of be my fault." Mimi murmured, turning her head away from Sora.
"Oh. It's your time to spill now honey." Sora smirked at her, pulling her arm until the brunette faced her. Sora was already expecting a slight blush to cover Mimi's cheeks and she wasn't disappointed. The auburn haired girl actually thought it was cute that the usually boisterous and upbeat girl would start avoiding eye contact and stuttering whenever the blond's name came up in a conversation.
"Well, I took Sora-chan's advice…"
"And?"
"Honestly, it was because of Kou-chan. Yamato-kun was totally not paying attention to me before Kou-chan pointed it out. So I was texting and Kou-chan got really curious and annoyed that I wasn't giving him any attention and asked me who I was talking to.
So I kind of told him, I was chatting with Michael and planning outings and stuff with him because he was coming to Tokyo soon. After which Yamato-kun went totally silent and put on his music to ignore us…"
Sora furrowed her eyebrows together a slight frown appearing on her face, "But were you really texting Michael?"
"No…I was actually talking to Takeru-chan…" Mimi smiled sheepishly.
"His own brother? Oh, that is pure evil Mimi-chan!" the frown disappeared and Sora let out a small laugh, and it was probably the first time in weeks that the laugh reached her raspberry eyes making them shine brightly which made Mimi grin whole-heartedly despite of the fact that Yamato-kun might be hating on her right now.
"What can I say? I learned from the best." Mimi chuckled.
-x-
"I am done. I am so done with this."
Yamato quickly paced back and forth at the roof, Taichi and Koushiro's eyes following his every step obediently.
"I'm going to go away. For ten years."
Taichi raised a sceptical eyebrow at that, anticipating his best friend's next words.
"And then when I come back, you and Sora will already be married with four kids, two of them by the way should be named after me, and that ways I won't have to deal with all of this drama." The blond made a wild hand gesture to try and illustrate the amount of drama in their lives and it only made Koushiro lose control over the laugh he had so successfully been stifling in, but he hurriedly turned it into a cough because of the glare that was directed at him by the blond. The genius also made a note to mentally record this whole conversation so that he could narrate it to Takeru later as the younger brother was always up for gathering dirt against Yamato.
Taichi on the other hand had an unimpressed, flat-out bored look on his face when he replied to Yamato's outburst, "Excuse me, but four kids? Talk about yourself, buddy. I'm not going beyond one. And I'm definitely not naming her Yamako."
It really wasn't Koushiro's fault for laughing out loud, the other two were making it quite impossible for him to hold it in, "Yamako doesn't seem like that bad a name, to be honest."
Both Taichi and Yamato turned to glare at him and he quickly stopped laughing and edged away as far as possible from them. He realized that he should keep his mouth shut since he didn't stand a chance against the two of them, but he also knew that he wasn't going to stick to his resolution the minute either of the two slipped up. The genius just relaxed back into the railing, slowly eating his lunch and watched his friends bicker.
"Why are you blaming me anyway, Blondie?" Taichi spat, and Yamato's eyes twitched dangerously at the nickname the brunet had given him, "I'm not the one going around seeing other guys, am I?"
Before Yamato could get a word in, Koushiro spoke up yet again, "A lot of people assume that Taichi and Yamato are dating so I wouldn't say no…" The murderous looks sent towards him were frightening to say the least, but somehow it was worth it.
"You know what, Koushiro," Yamato started making the genius shudder slightly.
"Okay, okay. Got it. I'll stay out of it and I'll keep quiet. I am the railing and the railing is me." The dark haired boy put up his hands as a gesture for giving up, smiling sheepishly.
"All of this started because of your stupidity." Yamato turned his attention back to the brunet.
"Okay, I know I fucked up, but that doesn't mean that she'll start dating other people!" Taichi retorted, his disappointed pout returning.
"Helping manage the basketball team does not equal to dating, you fucking potato."
"That's a new one." Koushiro muttered to himself as he took out his smartphone, getting ready to live-text the argument to Takeru, luckily for him his comment went unnoticed by the other two and so did his texting.
"If I'm a potato then you're a fucking radish, you porcelain skinned fucker." Taichi shouted back, and needless to say Koushiro was yet again impressed by the choice of insult. The two had probably gotten bored of their usual insults because of how frequently they argued and now most of their fights were mostly centred around coming up with a better insult than the previous one. Not that the genius was complaining, this seemed more entertaining than sitting and listening to Mimi rant about Michael.
"When I start dating Mimi, I'm going to make sure that there is zero drama-" Yamato's words were interrupted as both Taichi and Koushiro burst out laughing loudly with the former rolling on the ground, unable to control his giddiness.
"Mimi-chan and zero drama? I'm sorry but which universe are we talking about?"
"Dream on, radish. Dream on."
Since Taichi was the closest to the blond he earned a light kick to his stomach, but the soccer ace was so busy laughing that he didn't bother to retort. Yamato's ears were now a flaming red and you could tell that he regretted bringing up Mimi in the conversation instantly.
"And how exactly are you going to start dating Mimi when she's not even acknowledging you?" Taichi smirked as he sat up straight, clutching the side that Yamato had just hit him on. The blond walked away from his friend and finally seated himself, opposite Taichi and faced the brunet with a scowl on his face.
"Not to mention, the whole thing with Michael. You're going to have competition now." Koushiro pointed out from his safe position, farthest from the other two.
Yamato scoffed at that, arrogance flooding his blue eyes as he replied, "That guy is nowhere near to being my competition."
Taichi let out a whistle, "Someone's confident."
"If I had it my way, I could have Mimi running behind me in less than half a day," Yamato began, earning surprised looks from the other two because the blond only took this kind of confident tone when it came to his music, "but I know she deserves better so I'm going to do it the right way."
"Which is?" Taichi prompted him.
"Start simple." Yamato shrugged as if he just stated the most obvious thing. Koushiro had been right in assuming that the blond had been thinking up strategies to work things out with Mimi, but looking at how confident he seemed about himself, the dark haired boy couldn't help but get immensely curious about the future.
-x-
A/N: Ta-da, that's it for now. So from next chapter, I guess Yama and Mimi will actually start interacting much more and maybe the great potato king will earn his position as the leader back. Leave a review, if you can!