#shxtteredwxngs

When speaking in such way to the oldest Amagi, one might wonder if Gatekeeper meant for this to be about the relatively recent SS events or not... if one knew about him, they might just pick up an annoyance in his voice. However, his tone was, overall, as dead as usual.

If this was a few months prior, he would have believed the other's words were only about the game. That his mind was as singleminded and only raw, youthful force was what put the balance in his favor.

... not anymore. He was not going to underestimate him again. Despite all this stupidity...

"Two bottom set pairs. Beat your top pair."

He turned his playing cards, showing his hand next to Rinne's weaker poker one.

Before Mika had spoken up, Midori had already taken a second sip.

"Uh? What do you mean? I'm trying to guess what they put in this. I'm the son of a greengrocer, I should know... woah..."

His head was turning, and he held onto Mika's shoulder instinctively, trying not to drop the cup.

The taller chuckled, his cheeks red with inhibition.

"W-wait, Senpai..." He hesitated, not wanting to be scolded when his senior was so eager to do something.

However, the more the other seemed to be confident in those placements, the more wiggling happened. Midori tried to replace his footing the best of his ability at first, but did not think about stepping onto the remaining rope of lights on the floor.

"WOAH―!"

First, his left foot slipped, then he felt his large body fall backward. Instinctively, Midori grabbed onto his senior's waist to try to hold onto him so he'd take the fall and protect him. With both arms around Subaru, the young man could only take the entire blunt of the fall onto the hard ground.

Midori crossed his eyes, pondering for a moment... before giving in and sliding underneath the blanket at the other's left. He shook his head, like he was inconvenienced.

"You're a living heater yourself, if I get too hot I'm getting out... and if I get sick, it's your fault."

He threw the blanket more onto his shoulder, intentionally obscuring his senior's view by covering his head.

At the same time, their unitmates barged in with snacks and rented DVDs, setting themselves onto Midori's bed while he was sitting on cushions with Chiaki with their back against it.

As music echoed in Midori's bedroom and the studio logos rolled, the melancholic sprout whispered:

"Kanaaata~" Chiaki would bounce over, appearing out of nowhere, wrapping arms around the other in a hugging motion, "I knew when I didn't see you in the practice room that you must be around the building, how lucky I was, maybe I have a superpower after all Fu ha ha ha!!~☆"

"Oof," Kanata said gently, laughter evident in his voice and he squirmed one of his arms out of Chiaki's vice grip to pat the top of his head.

"Hello there, Chiaki... I was... Puka puka and I guess I fell asleep... I... Oh. Did I miss practice? I did not mean to... I think..."

“Why do ya have that look on yer face?” Is what comes out of his mouth as soon as he approaches Hiiro and ruffles his hair. He can tell when his brother is bothered by something, so it's only natural for him to play the role of big brother— especially now that their relationship more closely resembles what it was like before he left the village.

Bringing a hand to rest at his hip, Rinne watches him for any indication of what might be the problem.

"C'mon, ya can tell yer big bro."

🌟 @shxtteredwxngs.

The weather was grey and, to be honest, this job was not very fun. The others who were supposed to paint with them unfortunately fell sick, so both Midori and Subaru ended up alone to paint the Yumenosaki new year festival decorations.

They really wanted to wow people with how intricate they were ... thing was, this made them quite complicated to paint properly. At the very least, Midori had fun painting the characters, but with only two painters, it was quite tiresome. There was no way they could finish everything and could only do their best, and when they both started to get tired ... this is when the green hero turned mischievious.

He had the reflex to dodge by leaning his torso downright, his long legs spreading as he accidentally did a split―oh, turns out all this stunt training bore fruits ?! Although as he was surprised himself from his prowess, stunned for a moment, Midori could only block by raising his arm, receiving a splash of pink paint to the face.

This caused the usually depressed young man to chuckle with his soft voice, raising to his feet with his own brush as he dipped it in red.

" A villain disguised as Akehoshi-senpai is among us ! Good thing a hero is here to protect the stage ! Take this : Ryusei Green Star Strike ~ ! "

🤖 @shxtteredwxngs.

" You're sensitive to temperature and get sick easily, right ? I just thought you could stop putting up a front and―sigh, you must be kidding, right ? "

Contempt was written on Midori's face as he shook his head.