love.

with dance-tired shoes frayed at the lace from heel to the clouds, you fall into his embrace—a gentle pirouette for all the days you missed, and one with ardor for the ones you'll miss.

a dip for every kiss, and a raise for the ones to never come.

"there's no way, hm?"

a question you let the wind carry away from your ears, for the heart lodged in your throat couldn't bear the answer. a laugh a little too sour for him drums against your chest—a laugh with ache, tearing crystalline butterfly wings.

how cruel, cupid.

torn fingers clutch your hand tighter, unfurling the dance with bleeding feet. you slow, slow, and you look into weary eyes. ill with sugar—only for you.

how vicious.

one more step, all toward the ledge. the balcony dove into the depths of the river, your eyes down with it, fading into blue and nothingness. jewels fall from the skies upon it—diamonds, pretty pretty broken glass and shards of mosaic and magic, never piercing the surface. shifting his gaze back to you, to the silver on your neck, fragile pearls glimmer between his fingertips.

a look showed all and nothing.

what is it worth?

you place your hand over his, over silver, and you tear. the clasp snaps in two, precious stones tumbling down your chest, to the floor, over the ledge. coated in red, what is it worth?

and he tears the emeralds from his vest, and you tear the sapphires from your belt, the lapis from your ears as he does with the amethyst on his—all over the ledge, all to hell and nothing, his gold speaks to you, and thoroughly—so don't forget me and the rubies.

the moon bows in honor.

✦⸻ taglist: @yumetokashite @lisxdumbr @tomago @runanadwindles @hyacinthyume @the-banana-is-drawing-n-writing @narumika @actualmomotaro @0l-yumiyu-l0 @lilikags @southssuns @arashimybeloved

as self-sufficient as switch normally are, you prove to be a beneficial addition. natsume’s and tsumugi’s banter is cut a little shorter–time teaches you how to slay their conflict, but the little familiar pokes at each other never fail to make you and sora laugh. with the months passing, they get less venomous–but these old habits never leave, especially when natsume and tsumugi treasure both of your laughs so much.

“senpai, is old age getting to you already?”, natsume grinned like a criminal, elbowing his elders' side lightly with a mischievous laugh. “should i carry you to the retirement home? producer, sora, will you help me?”

“eh?”, tsumugi tilted his head–and then, it was as if a lightbulb appeared above of him. “i moved to the left because you put your foot to the left? we would’ve bumped into each other.. but i wouldn’t mind, actually..! i missed hugging my favorite natsume-kun! come here~! ♪”

you saw the terror in natsume’s face when tsumugi reached his hands forward to encase him, tucking his head into his shoulder and holding him like a teddybear. “ew, ew, you’re gonna get my clothes dirty, mojacko! get off, you filth!”, natsume laughed, pushing at his chest. and from next to you, another bubbly laugh came to life.

“producer! sora missed hugs from his favorite producer too! come here~! ♪”, sora parroted, opening his arms for you. you didn’t need to be told twice, falling into his warm embrace. tsumugi’s and natsume’s banter, sora’s bubbly laugh over the faint tune of a new song–what more could you wish for?

natsume doesn’t fancy your choice to produce his unit in the beginning, and acts accordingly–why would they need a producer, when they’re doing so well on their own? they have a leg everywhere, they don’t need another one. sora is tasked with switch’s management, natsume is taking care of the yumenosaki affairs while tsumugi helps them outside of it. but time makes him realize just how precious you are to them, how you help them and lighten their duties, how you care, and begins to slowly accept you into his heart.

one day, he approaches you with an apology for all the times he tried to push you away, and gives you a promise to do better onward. from then on, you get frequent invitations to the secret room–natsume is letting you have a peek at his new materials for future use, so you know how to incorporate them into the venues. but not only that–natsume also starts approaching you outside of idol work. you’re always a little surprised when you receive a brisk text from him asking you out for ice cream or coffee, asking you if you’re well on weekends, sending you pictures of his cats doing whatever. 

it seems that as the days go on, his smile starts to become a little bit brighter, a little less forced, until you’re sure that your natsume is truly smiling and laughing with the others. he looks at you with a look like you’ve never seen, and you know that when he says “thank you for everything.”, he’s speaking from his heart.

tsumugi is so happy to have you! he takes your hands in his and thanks you from his heart for choosing switch–will you replace him as a better manager? he can’t help but be a little bit paranoid, please promise him you’ll take good care of switch if you decide to take his spot, okay? ramble, ramble, ramble–when you make it clear you’re not replacing anyone, he’s so relieved he almost falls over. he’s much quicker to accept you into their little odd family than their leader, resulting in, unfortunately, more additional conflict.

he’s always happy to help you around, having experience in the business side of hosting a unit. you have to make sure that he doesn’t steal your work off of your desk. it’s like watching a child and a cookie jar, except instead of sugar rush from the cookies, tsumugi gets himself over-exertion. you often come back to your desk clean and a new, handcrafted lucky charm ornating it. your phone is often buzzing with check-up calls, even during work hours, and he’s often paying surprise visits to your house with something he thought you would enjoy. rants to you about the newest book he’s bought, about his beloved sora and natsume–and if there’s ever anything on your mind, tsumugi is always happy to listen.

his eyes regain some shine, his skin some color, tsumugi starts looking a bit more alive than usual. happier than usual, more forgiving than usual. he makes sure to let you know how thankful he is, continuously–”i don’t believe i can express it in an object, not a day, not a week, and not a year–i’m thankful forever, so i will show gratitude until i can’t anymore!” as grim as that sounds, it makes you happy.

sora seems to be much more reluctant to approach you than you originally thought he would be. he’s a bit shy when speaking to you, keeping a little bit of distance between you. it’s a rift that you almost didn’t know if you could conquer, sora perching himself a little too high for you to reach. but when he sees his senpai’s slowly accept you, he begins to think that you’re not so bad–and he warms up much quicker than both of them! maybe you’ll be the last ingredient to create the perfect switch?

because his elders are often busy, sora will be the one mostly sticking to your side. you’re busy too, but you’re more accessible than the other two. you can’t really complain when sora is so sweet about it, though–sora always makes sure to be of help to you. he learns how to make your favorite beverage, scrapes out his pocket money to get you a snack. when you have time, sora invites you to play games with him as bonding time! or if you’d like to go outside, he’ll take you to the best parks ever! sora gets to know you the fastest, and you get to know sora the fastest–welcoming you into the world of sora, showing you all the pretty colors and his own magic. 

not everyone can understand sora, and not everyone tries like you do. sora is over the moon when you start to fall into a rhythm with him, learning his patterns and cues. and when he looks at the three of you, he thinks–maybe you truly were the thing that switch needed! his thoughts can’t be put in words, so will a hug suffice as a ‘thank you’?

“thank you, everyone! thank you for coming today! ♪”, tsumugi waved into the crowd. hair sticking to his face, a little bit of exhaustion mixing into his happy eyes. he adjusted his microphone, wiping his face and recomposing himself. from where you were, you could only see his face on the screen–backstage, you could only see his back. he was glowing–like a real idol. “before you make your way out, there’s one more thing.”

you prepared for this, they told you, but you never could’ve prepared for the look in natsume’s eyes when he turned to face you and wave you towards him. admiration, appreciation–countless confessions of love, shining like jewels in the light of the stage. 

before you could even process it, sora was already reaching for a hand. “come, producer!! everyone is waiting for you!”, sora exclaimed. the colors behind him reminded you of the dreams that he told you of–a dream that every color can melt into harmony, that every color can sing and dance along, even if just for a little moment.

when you let your hand fall into his, he tugged you into the new world of the idols, the magical world of switch that you helped weave.

(you dont get a banner ace cry about it for eternity)

raiden is shocked. her eyes are stony.

”babe where did you get that bark.”

ace smiles, effectively shoving the bark into her mouth and chewing it until it turns into those nasty wood chips you find at parks. “it is mine now.”

and then ace literally gets tapeworm. yeah she gets a parasite. what the hell ace go back to playing hollow knight.

raiden is even shocked-er. she weeps, her tears nearly creating the pacific ocean on the floor if not for her then getting a vacuum. it went SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK and then violently exploded. screw you vacuum.

ace raises up a shaky hand as her voice rasps, trying to speak. “raiden i……… i need………. to *cough* tell you………. smth………..”

”what is it ace what is it” raiden is sobbing as ace pats her head one last time.

”ur always……… *cough koffity* gonna be my……… my pogchamp………… and *cough* and my scrunkly scrimbo………. blorbo of my life……..” and then ace dies like girl the audacity ‼️😦

raiden is very mad at the tapeworm. its name is lacrimosa btw ace said so. calling upon the magical powers of lightning raiden electrocutes ace’s body and goes zippity zap at her brain.

lacrimosa is still there. menacingly.

raiden stomps on ace’s head. there is blood everywhere. sploosh.

lacrimosa falls out of ace’s now gone’d brain. raiden stomps on lacrimosa. it is dead now.