A/n: Happy final day of Mimato Week! Since the prompt for today was something out of my comfort zone, I decided to break the self-imposed rule of updating Koisuru annually, and added this cute and enjoyable filler chapter. The first scene and half of the second scene was written years ago but edited out, and I found it while revisiting some old docs and decided to revamp it for today.

Thank you to everyone who read and reviewed the previous chapter, I hope you enjoy this edition which has at least one dialogue for each character appearing in it!

Happy reading!

- x -

"Duck!"

The packet of ramen fell out of Yamato's hand as he was dragged down into a crouching position along with Taichi who dropped the three apples he had been juggling in his hands even after both Yamato and Jou had asked him several times to put them back where they belonged.

"Jou, wha-" Taichi started, his voice dangerously loud but was interrupted by Jou's hand flying to cover his mouth, muffling any other sounds that he planned to make.

"It's him." Jou whispered, terror flooding his eyes as he looked at Yamato, while trying to keep Taichi from moving.

"Who?" Yamato asked calmly, not attempting to get up unlike his best friend seeing as Jou clearly had a problem with that.

"Her ex."

Taichi stopped struggling and Yamato's eyes widened, the two exchanged a look of surprise before returning their attention to their senior.

They were out shopping for dinner ingredients, an impromptu plan to have dinner at Yamato's had been made at school and Jou had uncharacteristically responded very fast in the group chat that he would help with the preparation. The three of them had walked to the shopping mart closest to his apartment and while it had taken them a lot of time to decide the menu, with Taichi and Yamato's tastes clashing at every step until Jou vetoed all their suggestions and took charge of the situation, they were finally on the right track of finishing all the shopping.

It had been a while since all of them had gotten together like this, if Yamato recalled correctly, they hadn't been able to sit down for a meal since his live where Taichi and him had that argument, so he was looking forward to all the silly shenanigans the gang would get to tonight. There might be a lot of sarcastic remarks in store for him and Taichi, and definitely a lot of teasing for both him and Mimi, and Taichi and Sora, but still he felt excited to get back home and get cooking for his friends.

"Your girlfriend's ex?" Yamato asked carefully and Jou nodded stiffly in response.

Him and Taichi exchanged looks once again and he noticed the spark of mischief in best friend's eyes. He immediately glared at Taichi, asking him to stay down through his eyes but Taichi just attempted to grin in reply and if the three of them weren't awkwardly crouching below the ramen shelves, Yamato would have reached forward and grabbed Taichi by the collar before he did anything stupid.

"Why are we hiding from him?" Yamato asked again, unsure of what to make of Jou's petrified expression, and also to keep Taichi engaged in conversation before he did something stupid.

"He hates me." Jou whispered, his voice breaking slightly.

"Why?" Yamato pushed again.

"Because he's not over her? I don't know exactly, but he's really scary, please let's just wait for him to leave." Jou begged, strengthening his grip on Taichi's mouth as he felt him trying to wiggle out of his tight grasp.

However holding Taichi back was a talent that not many succeeded at except Sora, he was able to fully remove himself out of Jou's grasp and once he succeeded, he grinned widely, "I wanna see his face."

"Taichi, no." Yamato hissed, motioning towards Jou's frightened form.

"Just a peek. I'll be done in a second." Taichi responded in a laid back manner, Jou's silent whimpering having no effect on him as he stood up with utter ease and looked across the store. Yamato was about to drag him down but the minute Taichi's eyes found the target, he himself immediately ducked down again, shock replacing the goofiness on his face. Yamato was obviously surprised by Taichi backing down so quickly and his own curiosity tingled but he decided to control himself for Jou's sake.

"What the fuck? He is so bulky! He could strangle the three of us in one go, Jou who the fuck are you dating?" Taichi's voice was filled with surprise, and this time he whispered in the same low tone that Yamato and Jou had been using, and his statement almost made the latter cry. Almost.

Yamato curled his toes in order to restrain himself from getting up and take a look at this guy, Taichi's reaction had piqued his interest further but from the way Jou looked close to tears, he decided to be the mature one in the situation. And he also wanted to get back home so he could share this with Mimi as soon as possible, he felt kind of sad that she was not here because this was exactly the kind of drama, so to say, she enjoyed being a part of. He took a deep breath and told himself that once they'd get the guy's name out of Jou, he would look him up on some social media and satisfy his curiosity then. For now what he needed to do was console Jou and make sure they made it back home in time to actually call their get together a dinner.

"Jou, I think that it's a little stupid of us to just stay here as sitting ducks," Yamato began explaining, making sure to keep his voice calm for the sake of his senior and pass him a reassuring smile as he spoke, "How about you and Taichi sneak out and head back and I will just wrap up the shopping and join you guys as quickly as possible."

"Hey, I'm not risking my safety for Jou. If he spots us, I will run and leave you to get eaten by the shark." Taichi patted Jou's shoulder with a straight forward look on his face, making Yamato want to throw a punch straight to his face. Here he was trying to pacify the whole situation and all his best friend could do was promptly make things worse.

"Yamato, you can't possibly leave me in Taichi's care." Jou pleaded and the blond found it hard to resist the puppy dog look in his eyes.

"Taichi, I swear you-" Yamato almost reached forward with his fist but the brunet avoided him by leaning back quickly.

Yamato massaged his forehead as he squeezed his eyes shut and tried to think of a solution to this seemingly non-existent problem. The fact that they had already wasted so much time trying to hide from this stranger who probably even had no idea they were here in the first place was enough to give him a headache. Taichi had also wasted no time in going back to his usual playfulness ever since he had sorted things out with Sora, and right now Yamato wasn't too proud to admit that he wished his friend would go back to sulking like he had been a few weeks ago.

"Here's what we're going to do," Yamato fixed both his friends with a stern look, "Taichi will go pay for the grocery, and keep an eye on the scary ex, once that guy is out of the store, we'll get up and leave like normal people." He stressed on the last part to make sure that his two friends knew just how annoyed he was with their behaviour.

"Yeah, we need to hurry back soon, Takeru and Hikari have decided to join too." Taichi said as he checked his phone with a frown that was instantly replaced with a relieved look,"Koushiro arrived too. Thank god for that, who knows what Takeru might've done to my sister if they'd been left alone together." He added, shaking his head solemnly.

"Takeru would do nothing to your sister-" Yamato started, irritated by the stupid accusation towards his brother.

"Guys!" Jou whispered urgently, "Innocent sibling contest later. Escape scary ex-boyfriend, now."

-x-

Yamato wasn't sure why Jou made them run all the way back, even when the scary ex was nowhere to be seen, but by the time they got back to his apartment all three of them were exhausted and even Taichi, the soccer ace was a little bit out of breath. As they entered the apartment, both Taichi and Yamato halted in their tracks and Jou promptly bumped into them, looking surprised to see an extra person in the room.

"Daisuke." Taichi smiled.

"I hope you don't mind me coming over too, Yamato-senpai." Daisuke got up from his seat and smiled at Yamato.

"Actually, the three of us were walking home together so Takeru invited him too." Hikari explained, moving forward to help Jou with the grocery bags.

Yamato looked at his brother, questioning him by raising an eyebrow to which he just replied with a shrug. Yamato rolled his eyes, his brother had no sense of competition he thought, he was too kind for those sort of things. He knew that if Daisuke asked him nicely, Takeru might even just back off and let the other boy date Hikari. Yamato found it really surprising his brother was only insolent and cunning when it came to other people's love lives and not his own. When he followed Hikari into the kitchen and accepted her help in sorting through the groceries however, he found it odd that Takeru didn't follow them or try to strike up a conversation, instead he just fell back into his bickering Daisuke without so much as a second look towards the kitchen. Maybe there were still many things he didn't know about his brother, Yamato thought, frowning to himself he decided that next time he will sit Takeru down and ask him these questions as directly as possible. No secrets between them until the very end, that's what they had decided as kids, and that's what Yamato always strived to abide by.

Hikari stayed to ask him if she could help in any way but Yamato just shooed her out as he liked keeping the kitchen to himself whenever he wanted to go all out with his cooking, which he was hoping to do tonight since Mimi was here too. He had only gotten a look at her when he entered, but the excitement was already starting to build up within him. He did think it was a bit weird, how he had spent the whole day with her at school and had probably only been away from her for a few hours but still it felt like just too much time had passed since he last saw her.

Yamato began to prep for the dishes, they'd decided to make Korean style ramen, since it was easy and quick to make and would manage to fill all their stomachs satisfactorily. But he still had to have three pots on the stove because of the varying flavours and levels of spiciness that everyone preferred. Once the noodles were boiling, he started chopping the vegetables for the side dishes and in between of working, he peeked into the living room to see how things were going. Koushiro was sitting in a corner by himself, typing away on his laptop with a furious frown etched on his face as his eyes stayed fixed to the screen. Jou was sitting with Hikari and Takeru and listening to them talk about school and other things. Taichi and Daisuke were already talking sports with Sora attempting to keep the discussion from getting too loud and excited, a difficult task even for a tough girl like her.

Yamato stopped what he was doing and blinked in confusion, running his eyes across the scene once again, where was Mimi?

"Do you need any help?"

The blond almost dropped the pan he was holding out of surprise, turning around to find Mimi standing behind him with a small smile on her face. Although a bit taken aback by how she had snuck up on him, Yamato's eyes still softened when they landed at her and he shook his head lightly in response.

"I'm almost done." He replied.

She nodded, pouting slightly, "I was looking forward to it."

"You should go sit with Jou instead." Yamato said, quickly turning his back to her again in order to hide the blush creeping up on his face.

"Oh, I heard. You ran into the scary ex." She walked over and stood next to him, peeking at the stove from behind him and nodding in approval of the stir fried zucchini.

"Have you seen him too?" Yamato realized he didn't really mind talking to her as he cooked, which was the case with most other people, even Takeru was rarely given the chance to be in the kitchen with him, but right now Mimi's presence felt so natural next to him that he didn't see a point in shooing her away.

"Well," Mimi smiled sheepishly before continuing, "not technically."

Yamato tilted his head to look at her suspiciously, "It was more of a yes or no question though."

"Uhm, I didn't really do anything wrong-"

Yamato scoffed loudly, and Mimi frowned at him, her cheeks were tinged with a light shade of pink.

"I was looking out for Jou-senpai, really." She stated firmly.

He wanted to laugh out loud over how cute she looked while trying to justify something weird so confidently, but he controlled himself.

"Oh is that so?" He countered coolly, raising an eyebrow to show his disbelief at her words.

"Yes! You see, I just wanted to know who this mysterious girl he's dating is." She said, her voice filled with that innocence that was so unique to her, he could never get enough of it, "What if she was just using senpai for some ulterior motive? I just wanted to make sure that no one is taking advantage of him, so I decided to follow him arou-"

"You stalked him?"

"I stealthily followed him around for one day. That is not stalking."

"That is literally the definition of stalking."

"No, stalking is done over a period of time and also requires a certain level of obsession."

"I didn't know you were such an expert. Should I be worried?" Yamato laughed loudly at the frown she sent his way as she punched his shoulder lightly, still managing to look adorable in his eyes. If only they weren't surrounded by their friends, he would've cupped her cute little face in his hands and-

"If you lovebirds are done flirting, I would like to be fed now."

Had it not been for Sora folding her hands and bowing her head in forgiveness right behind Taichi, Yamato would not have hesitated to dump the pot full of boiling ramen on his big, fat head. Not that he needed to worry because Mimi had a better idea.

"Aw, poor Sora-chan, she's dating a man baby who doesn't know how to say please and thank you." She said in a sing-song voice as if she really was talking to a toddler.

The whole house was silent for a minute as Taichi's jaw dropped open at the blatant insult Mimi had thrown his way, but before he could retaliate, loud laughter erupted from every direction, even Koushiro who hadn't bothered to look up from his laptop till now was snickering loudly. Sora pulled Taichi's ear and dragged him away from the kitchen, her own face red from second hand embarrassment over her boyfriend's actions.

Yamato turned his attention back to the stove with a smirk on his lips, almost all the dishes were down now but him and Mimi intentionally took their time setting up the cutlery and making space for everyone to gather around the dining table, even after Taichi whiningly apologised to both him and Mimi, they kept up their farce of moving slowly until he just gave up and sulked in a corner which made everyone laugh some more. But soon enough the only sound that resonated through his house was that of loud slurps as everyone happily dug in, Taichi made sure to thank Yamato pointedly after every helping of ramen that he took and by the end of dinner, his best friend managed to earn a thumbs-up from Mimi which meant that he was finally forgiven.

"And you wanted to go on a double date." He heard Mimi whisper to Sora, who just shook her head and the two giggled for reasons unknown to him.

Once all three pots of ramen had been licked clean, there was a huge debate about whether they should call for dessert or not. Jou who had accidentally taken a few helpings from the spiciest pot advocated for it loudly, but since Mimi took this chance to try and convince everyone that they had to try a new place she recently found out about, none of the others seemed keen ordering anything knowing her history with experimental food.

"Okay, let's do this," Sora clapped her hands together to get everyone's attention, "it's getting late and most of us need to head back, so we'll just pick up something sweet on our way home."

There was a murmur of agreement from everyone and even though Yamato insisted his friends to let the clean up be, they still made sure to help him in clearing the table, doing the dishes and setting the furniture back correctly, for which he was secretly very grateful, before they began to leave.

Daisuke and Takeru were the first ones to go, they had to head in the same direction and didn't want to risk taking the train too late.

"You could just stay, you know." Yamato said to Takeru as he was putting on his coat.

"I know. But I'm a nice brother, so I'm doing you a favour instead." He replied, as he nodded in Mimi's direction and winked at him. Yamato raised his hand to pull his brother's cheek but he easily evaded the advance, laughing loudly at the effort.

"I'll leave you behind 'Keru!" Daisuke's voice rang through the corridor, and Takeru quickly said goodbye before heading out excitedly, making Yamato even more suspicious about what was going on in his brother's head.

Jou was afraid to go back on his own, he said that there was no way to know that the scary ex was not lurking in this area, so he decided to tag along with Taichi, Hikari and Sora. When the four of them were getting ready to leave, Koushiro too packed up his laptop and came forward to join them, only to earn a confused look from Mimi.

"Kou-chan you're leaving without me?"

"Well, yes. I just thought that you- I mean wouldn't Yamato- wait what?" Koushiro darted his eyes from Mimi to Yamato, looking absolutely baffled over the question that Mimi had asked him.

Taichi could be heard snickering in the doorway until Sora shot him a glare, looping her arm in his and patting Hikari on the shoulder, she made sure that all of them were out in the hallway and not within hearing range of him, Mimi or Koushiro.

"It's up to you." Yamato said, surprising even himself with his bluntness before either Koushiro or Mimi had spoken, he turned to face the latter with a smile and repeated his words softly again, "It's up to you."

Mimi stared at her feet for about a minute, while Koushiro fidgeted nervously, not too happy with the fact that he was stuck between the two of them like this. He didn't want to rush Mimi, but he also didn't think that Koushiro would last another minute without spontaneously combusting from anxiety, Yamato wished he knew the right words to tell his friend that him being around really wasn't that big of a deal but he doubted if Koushiro would be able to pass it all off so casually.

"I think I'll go with Kou-chan, you look tired. You should rest." Finally she smiled up at him. Yamato hadn't felt his exhaustion until she mentioned it and he was amazed over how she had managed to catch onto it without him noticing it.

Koushiro looked the most relieved when she made her decision, sighing loudly before he thanked Yamato for the meal and followed the rest of the gang outside in the hallway.

"Why is he so much more dramatic than us?" Mimi rolled her eyes at their friend's behaviour.

"He's a good friend."

"Well, you would know." She grinned, reaching on her toes to loop her arms around his neck and completely taking him by surprise, "See you tomorrow, Yamato-kun! Sleep well, and don't forget about picking me up from the station."

Just as quickly as she had hugged him, she pulled herself back and with a final smile directed at him, bounded out the door joining the rest of their friends who had been waiting patiently. As Yamato pushed the door shut, he could hear Taichi and Mimi arguing about something as they all walked towards the elevator and Jou's desperate attempts at hushing them in case the scary ex lived in this building too and would sniff them out if they were too loud.

Yamato could barely walk himself over to his bedroom and he collapsed straight on the couch, a bit solemn about the house being so silent and empty so soon, if only Takeru would've listened to him instead of being cheeky, he thought. What still managed to keep him awake however, was the fact that nothing had changed among their friends even after him and Mimi had started dating. It was one of the things that had bugged him the most, whether each of their friend would be able to accept that the two are dating, that whether their behaviour towards the two of them would be any different than before, and it was relieving to know that his worst fears hadn't come true, that their friends still cared about them just as much.

He decided to drift off on the couch, knowing his father would be back after midnight and wake him and remind him to go sleep in his bed.

However, there was a tiny, nagging voice at the back of his head reminding Yamato consistently that things had been going too well for him lately, and that his life pattern dictated that it was about time for something to go very wrong, but as he valued his sleep more in that moment, he decided he would cross that bridge when it came to him.

- x -

A/n: After everything is going so smoothly, there has to be a few hiccups for Yamato to get his emo mode on right? ;)

Am I sowing some unnecessary seeds about Takeru and all the drama that follows him around in all my hcs, maybe so xD

Hope you enjoyed reading this, and if you haven't already, you can check out all my other Mimato Week entries for this year! I wrote them in a lot of different settings so you'll find something new to read with every chapter.

Until, hopefully, next year!