Chapter 6

I need a favor

"I don't remember you ever being this shy…"

'…'

"Komachi, c'mon, I'm not going to laugh…"

'…'

"T-That was just one time…!"

'…'

"I mean it just-oh…"

'…'

"No no, it's fine, just…"

'…'

"…I'll see what I can do, ok? I promise."

'…'

"I… might know someone."

"I… need a favor from you." It was honestly hard for him to utter those words, to the point he almost bit his tongue in the process.

"…" It didn't help that Saitou was now looking at him with sharp, narrowed eyes and with suspicion clearly dancing through her gaze.

And frankly speaking, he couldn't even blame her for it, given the circumstances.

"Do you, now…?" She drawled out, her eyes sizing him up from head to toe before she crossed her arms under her chest. "For what, exactly?"

"I…" He started as he tried to find the best way to say it without coming out the wrong way. "I need a ticket for B-Komachi's next show."

And to his request, Saitou simply stood there, her face showing nothing but surprise even as her eyes refused to leave his own, and once again he couldn't really blame her.

Of all the things he could have asked, that was probably not even one of the top ten things she had imagined just now.

"I didn't know you became a fan." She frowned at him, obviously digging for more details.

"It's… not for me." He sighed, deciding to simply come clean before she got the wrong idea. "My sister, she's a big fan of the group and, well, her birthday is coming up soon…"

He decided to skip the part where, rather than the whole group, she was specifically a massive fan of Hoshino Ai herself.

He also decided not to mention how he had promised Komachi he would be getting the ticket the last time they spoke over the phone.

"I will pay you for the tickets, of course." He clarified once he saw her raise an eyebrow. "I already tried getting them the normal way but I'm starting to think those get sold out on day one."

"They do, yes…" Saitou answered absentmindedly, as if stating the most obvious thing in the world, which considering B-Komachi's, or rather, Ai's popularity, maybe it was. "But we do have some around for personal uses."

"In that case—"

"But on one condition." She stopped him dead on his track, her face as serious as it could get coming from her. "You need to move and never interact with Ai or the twins ever again."

"…"

"…"

"…Does your hack of a husband really think that's going to work?" He looked at her with a combination of incredulousness and tiredness, for this wasn't even the first time she had tried something like this, and he knew exactly why she even bothered.

"I promised him I would at least try." And of course, Saitou simply sighed in defeat once again. He knew by now that she never really meant it whenever she said stuff like that, as much as she might dislike his involvement with the Hoshinos.

Her husband, on the other hand…

"So, about the tickets then." He tried to get back on topic before she requested another asinine thing. "Just tell me how much it is and—"

"Now hold your horses." But she interrupted him this time with a raised hand. "We do have some tickets, yes, every member of B-Komachi gets them in case they want to bring family members or friends as long as they are discreet about it."

He… had a bad feeling as to where this was going.

"Then—"

"But they're not mine, but theirs." Then she smirked at him as if seeing his frown go deeper was amusing to her. "So, if you want them, go ask Ai herself."

And avoiding having to do that was exactly the reason why he had cornered Saitou like this in the first place!

"Hmmmmm!"

"…"

"Hmmmhmmmm!"

"…"

How could someone be so upbeat when doing the dishes of all things?

He could only wonder as such as he gave her a side-glance, while she continued to hum one of her songs.

"Hmmm?"

It seemed he hadn't been subtle enough though, for Ai's gaze quickly met his own, with a tilt of her head and her smile widening just a bit working as a silent question to him.

"…"

One which he promptly ignored, his eyes going back down to his own set of dishes. Could he have done this by himself? Absolutely, but Ai had insisted on helping once again.

At least this time the twins had been too tired to try and help too.

And by helping he meant playing around.

And by the twins he meant Ruby, as at least Aqua did try enough.

Washing dishes in the Hoshino household was surprisingly complicated.

"Oi…!"

"Heheheh…!"

"What are you, a child?" He grumbled as he whipped the soap bubbles from the tip of his nose, courtesy of a giggling Ai that had seemingly decided to poke him out of nowhere.

"Says the grumpy old man." And then she decided to follow her words with a swing of her hips, bumping into his own with ease with how close they were standing next to each other.

"We're never going to finish if you keep acting like that." He murmured as he tried to get back into the rhythm of things, but was forced to duck his head when she tried to poke his nose once again with her soapy hand, earning her a glare in response.

"I don't know what you mean, Hachi." Her feigning ignorance only made his right eye twitch. "The one that's acting silly here is you, not me!"

Whatever words were about to leave him died on his lips as he heard that, his gaze growing softer as he realized that, apparently, he hadn't been as discreet as he thought he was.

"So? What's up with you?" She asked more directly this time, her lips still in a smile but the playfulness in her gaze now replaced with interest.

And to that, he could do nothing but to sigh. He had been going over it in his head about how to approach this, but it seemed it was now better than ever.

"I…" He started as he stopped scrubbing the plate in his hand, the words being far harder to voice out than when compared with when he talked with Saitou. "I need a favor."

He had to admit though, that as much as he disliked having to say it, seeing Ai's usual expression turn into an actual deep frown was quite the sight.

If it had been anyone else, he might have even described it as cute in a strange way.

"What is it?" She asked with actual seriousness this time, for which he couldn't blame her for how he was acting.

But it wasn't like he could avoid it, even if a part of him thought he might be making a big deal out of nothing.

After all, when was the last time he had asked her for anything? As far as he knew, there hadn't even been a first time for that.

He had always tried to avoid requesting anything from her or even Saitou, not because he thought they would reject him, but rather quite the opposite.

Because he knew, of course, that this wasn't just a normal relationship.

He was a nobody who knew Hoshino Ai's biggest secrets, and she just so happened to be Japan's most popular idol.

By all means and terms, and even though it was a thought that made him sick to the stomach, he was someone who could barely easily ruin her career and life.

He knew this, and he didn't like it.

Ai knew this, and she didn't care about it.

Was it naivety? Or did she just trust him that much? He supposed the answer was the latter rather than the former, but it didn't change the fact that there was an… imbalance, so to speak, in their relationship.

In layman's terms, Hoshino Ai had nothing to win and everything to lose here.

And that's why Saitou and her hack of a husband were so… keen on trying to balance it out.

His current job and apartment? All thanks to them, and he certainly wasn't naïve enough to think it had come from just a place of gratitude.

Which is why he didn't like asking them for stuff, because he knew that if he had pushed on, Saitou wouldn't have played coy the way she had.

But when it came to Ai directly, it was far more complicated.

Because once again, he knew she wouldn't refuse him if he asked, but her reasons for doing that had nothing to do with him being able to hold her secrets over her head if he chose to.

She trusted him, after all, perhaps too much given who she was.

But as much as he hated the thought of it looking as if he was taking advantage of her relationship with Ai.

"It's about my sister, you see…"

If it were to make Komachi happy, he would just have to soldier on such discomfort.

"Here you go!"

It had taken less than a minute for Ai to leave the kitchen and then come back with the ticket he had requested on her fingers.

"…" But even so, he still looked at her hand with a frown, his own hands not moving even though she was almost pushing the ticket to his chest. "Just like that?"

"Did you think I would say no?" She then laughed softly at him, and this time truly pushed the thing to his chest. "Just take the gift, would you? If you had told me your sister was a fan before, I would have given it to you sooner, you know?"

He had thought about that before, of course, which is exactly why he had never told her.

He didn't need her coming up with strange ideas of her own.

"Thank you." He finally relented, taking the ticket from her hand as nothing but genuine gratitude slipped from his tone. "I'll make it up to you, I promise."

Of course he knew it could be argued the help he was giving her with her kids was more than enough, but whenever he did that, he wasn't doing it while expecting any sort of reward in the first place.

Besides, it wasn't like he disliked looking over them anyways, so how could he ask for something in return?

"Hmmm, is that so~?" Her playfulness was back in full display however, with both of her hands moving to rest behind her back just as he finally took a good look at the stupid thing that had given him such a headache.

And only then did he realize something was wrong.

"Two?" He whispered as he looked at the two tickets in his hand. Hadn't he only asked for one?

But when his gaze settled on Ai, the half-lidded stare, accompanied by a small grin, she sent his way told him this was no accident.

"Since you're insisting so much, how about you come to see me together with Komachi-chan?"

If the previous chapters were to establish the dynamic of the relationship between the main four, then now I can go along and move forward with the relationship between Hachiman and Ai.

Time to move the plot along and yes this does have a plot it's not just random moments I swear.

An important side of this story though, is to show just how complicated a relationship between these two characters would be, romantic or not. It can't be all fluff and playing family, as much as they might want it to be.

This also means I can start dragging more Oregairu characters into the mix, starting with Komachi of course.

Once again, thank you all for having read thus far! When I started this fic, I just wanted to write something different from my main Oregairu story, and now somehow this one has overtaken said main story in terms of popularity. Idols are too strong, it seems.

Also, this fic is now in AO3 too if you prefer to read it there. Still haven't uploaded every chapter but answering reviews should be far easier over there and no fear of the site exploding like how this one likes to do every month

Next Chapter: Happiness Born from Lies.