The play date wasn't set until three weeks after Hoshino Ai and her gang argued for the event to happen.

Now that it was about to happen, even if Ai had to pretty much miss it nearly in its entirety, she couldn't wait for it. She was probably more excited than her kids were for it to happen.

This was the plan for the playdate. Basically, because Ai needed a reason to be there, a smokescreen so to speak, they picked a date where Ai would have to be out for a few hours, accompanied by the manager. They picked a time where she would be both recording songs as well as having dance practice in a nearby location on the same day so that the kids would have more time for their playdate.

Since both things were pretty innocuous and simple, not needing to deal with too many outsiders, Ai could simply be checked on through message or call. And if anything needed her, Miyako-san wasn't too far away, and could leave the kids with the Arima mother for a short moment if absolutely necessary.

Miyako-san, chosen arbiter to deal with the Arima mother by necessity, kept everyone there updated. "She said she's about 5 minutes away, so everyone should get ready." she reported dutifully.

"Yeeeeeeesssss." the three people in the area named Hoshino droned as they lined up. Ai loved this running gag between them now. Even if it did hurt a bit for her kids to refer to another person as their mother, wasn't it cute that they as a family were lying together? Ai couldn't help but feel closer as a family every time they did this.

Aqua stepped forward. "Mama, mama, headpats please…" He bowed his head in faux expectation. Every time he did this, Ai felt the urge to pay him herself. Ruby always asked him for headpats, and she was great with giving them to Ruby, but Aqua never asked for headpats, and it felt unequal to her in some way.

Ai bounced forward; her signature professional smile upfront. "Mama, mama, me too!" She bowed.

Ruby grumbled silently. "Mama, how about my allowance?" Ai could tell she wasn't pleased to be meeting up with the Arima family, but Ruby did it for her. Ai couldn't help but coo at her. Such a good and understanding girl.

Ai spent a few seconds with her head bowed, waiting for Miyako-san's sigh, or perhaps her retort even, but she opened her eyes to the most confusing scene. Ruby was suddenly holding a 100-Yen coin in her hand, the most confused she'd ever seen her, and Aqua somehow looked even more confused as someone was actually headpatting him. "Eh?" Ai couldn't help but let out a sound of confusion at the scene.

In the instant before she could regain her train of thought and actually understand what was going on, a somewhat familiar voice rang out. "Ai-nee, Ai-nee, bend down a little lower, I can't reach you!"

In response, Ai's body bent down just that little bit lower, her natural instinct to fit the scene no matter where and when controlling her body. If Ai wasn't an idol and stretched often for her dances and modelling poses, she wasn't sure if she'd have reached low enough in the bow. Eventually, as she went down, she felt a small hand patting her head. "Huh?" She couldn't help but gasp in surprise.

Even if she was a top-level idol… Even if she was the greatest liar in the world… Even if she was Hoshino Ai, or perhaps because she was Hoshino Ai, she was the most surprised to feel the hand patting her, rubbing her hair, even messing up her hair a little slightly. After all…

Nobody had ever headpatted her before.

Her father was dead. Her mother never loved her, and in fact, at the slightest opportunity, her mother left her and never looked back. She has never met any relatives in any way so to speak. Even the orphanage caretakers didn't do more than the bare minimum, being both overworked and underpaid, not to mention taking care of so many children at the same time. After that, the adult presences in her life left were… Saitou Ichigo and Saitou Miyako. Many things they were, many secrets of hers they knew, but in the end, at its core, their relationship was one of business. Mutual benefit.

Ai couldn't help but lean in the slightest bit into the headpats, even ending her bow and bending her legs to get to a more comfortable position for the warmth of the small hand. After a few more seconds of warmth, the headpats stopped, to Ai's disappointment.

Ai raised her head, still in her crouched position, realizing belatedly that her eyes were a little teary.

Mana took his hand off her head, much to her lingering disappointment, and spread his arms open. Ai realized what he was asking for, and she froze in place, unsure what to do, when suddenly he started speaking. "Ai-nee… You look like you need a hug." he gestured patiently as if to tell her to come hug him already, and Ai just folded.

She burst forth, quickly, yet tenderly, embracing him as she subtly wiped the one tear that escaped her right eyelid on the hood of his jacket, realizing only just then that he'd seen the tear that escaped.

All of a sudden, it was like she was in the scene she'd acted in only last month once more. Honestly, she wasn't sure if she was idly daydreaming of the scene or if it was replaying in front of her once more. She could pretty much hear it.

"Nee-chan…" the child from her imagination started, before she realized she could feel the wind from his whispering in her ear. "It's not a lie, I really do love you."

Before she could think any more of those words. All of a sudden, Aquamarine and Ruby were at her side. Aquamarine's hands wrapped around her waist from his side on the left, other hand reaching past the Arima child toward Ruby. Ruby on the other hand, was seated on her right, hugging her with her entire body, as if doing her best to cover as much of everyone like a human blanket.

Everyone was giving her a hug. Ai couldn't help but tear up a little more, just that little more, as she was buried in the little group hug of the three kids.

Ah. She thought. It's so warm. Her tears melted away into the gaggle of hugs, transforming into a beautiful smile.

Hoshino Ruby couldn't tell what was going on.

First, Aqua was getting headpatted. Which she did not expect. Ruby thought Aqua hated headpats since he barely got headpats, even from AI. Well, she thought he was just too shy to blatantly ask for it, to ask Ai to spoil him, like Ruby did all the time, but yes, he barely did.

Second, suddenly it wasn't him getting headpatted, but it was their mother. The 3 year old child was headpatting the 18 year old mother. Ruby wanted to emphasize this weird situation. The 3 year old child was headpatting her mother.

Her mother who, from bowing down, even bent her legs to get down lower to be more comfortable while she was getting headpatted.

Third, the same 3 year old child who was headpatting her mother suddenly spread his arms, and the 18 year old idol and mother actually went to go and embrace him.

Fourth, over the said embrace, the 3 year old child was suddenly gesturing over his mother's head.

Come over here, his hand gestures insisted. Come over.

After a brief shared glance with Aqua, where she hoped she communicated her general confusion and - what is actually going on here? - she and her brother surrounded their mother (in secret to the public) and embraced her. It was then that she noticed a wet patch on the sleeve of the 3 year old kid. Was Ai crying? What happened? What did she miss?

She peeked once more at her mother's face and was surprised to find that suddenly she was smiling. Huh? Did she imagine the wet patch? Ruby looked at the clothes again. Nope. Ruby could confirm that they were still slightly wet.

First of all - wait, she'd already used that, it was gonna be confusing, but nonetheless, first of all.

What.

Ugh. Ruby hadn't been this confused in, well, not ever, but like, not since her past life when she borrowed some of Goro-sensei's books and couldn't understand a thing. She felt like she could understand everything happening individually, but altogether everything just seemed like a mess.

Ugh. Ruby just felt so confused.

Ruby felt like there was something completely right but completely wrong in that whole situation. Like 1 + 1 turned into 3, somehow.

And the play date hadn't even officially started yet. This was going to be a long day, she just knew it.

Chapter three is pretty short, sorry. Also, I'm not sure if you guys will like this one... I write entirely based on what the characters just kind of feel like doing in my head, you know? This entire fic is not planned at all, ugh. I actually already had an idea of what to do for the playdate, between Ruby and Aqua and Mana and what would happen, but honestly, Mana kinda ruined all of my plans by pulling all of this, ugh. Now the playdate's gonna be different entirely because of this. Damn it.

Also, I kind of just really wanted to give Ai some headpats and make her happy. Well, I am Mana and Mana is me so we're bleeding into each other a little, ugh.

ALSO, Kaguya-sama characters are starting to enter my brain because Mana wants to interact with them too, I still plan to keep Oshi no ko the focus and stay in this section because this fic very similar in idea and feel to Oshi no ko. Even if the title Mana wants to be genuine is the same wording style as Kaguya wants to confess.

EDIT 2: made so many edits and fixed a lot of things wah

By the way, this isn't just all fluff. I wanted people to realize something about Mana, which is mainly why I kinda cut this chapter off kinda early. I wonder if anyone'll realize... Writing's kinda fun, ugh. Meanwhile, Ruby clearly won't be getting it any time soon, with how confused she is. Honestly, I just channeled how confused I was after Mana did all that.

Here's my regular lie. MORE OSHI NO KO FANFICS WILL BE POSTED.

This lie will become a truth, promise :))