When Mayday told him that they were going to have their first collab with a NSR artist he was excited but after getting into more details he started to dread the idea of it. He thought they got an offer from Sayu, or DJSS, hell maybe even Eve but 1010 was not what he had in mind. He didn’t hate them nor did he care much about them he mainly just tried to keep his distance, especially from the white one.

“Come on Zuke! We’re gonna be late!”

He sighed and looked at her in the most pained and annoyed expression he could muster

“I know, just know that I’m not exactly going to be as active or attentive as usual.”

She flapped her hands while giggling uncontrollably; completely ignoring what he said “Yeah yeah yeah just hurry up and let's go!!”

The shift from the calm and warm colored Natura to the dark and neon colored distric always caught Zuke off guard but Mayday didn’t seem to mind in fact it seemed as if she was already busy hyper fixating on the district, eying anything that seemed new while she ran over towards the mansion. But before he was even able to process the shift in aesthetic they were already there.

“Hello!” Mayday leaned onto a metallic box attached to the gate.

But just as she leaned in, a bunch of voices came together with a simple

“Who is it?” followed by some stifled snickering and hushed giggles in the background.

“It’s us Mayday and Zuke, y’know the duo you invited over to do a collaboration with.”

“Sorry never heard of them”

Zuke annoyed and tired walked up to the box and said in his stearnest voice “Come on you guys knock it off you know why we're here”

After a moment of silence the mic turned back on with some grunts here and there; low and behold their manager was there “Ah! Sorry for the hold up you two I thought my troops were mature enough to handle a simple task such as opening the gates for you two but they seemed to prove me wrong. Anyway come in!”

The duo stepped back as the gates opened up and Neon J waited for them at the entrance. As he gave a small tour of the place he gave the small stories of his time during the war; none of which they listened to but it did make some good background noise while they looked around the place. Most of the mansion was painted in white with black accents at the bottom, the floors were obsidian colored tiles with little accents of glitter at the bottom making them shine like stars underneath the blaring lights.

Waiting in the living room was none other than the boys themselves all of them scattered everywhere doing their own individual thing. Rin and Purl Hew on one side of the coach talking about who knows what, Haym and Zimelu played a rather very intense match of what seemed to be a fighting game one that neither band member knew of, and then there was Eloni laying on the floor watching them play.

“Attention!”

On instinct they all stopped what they were doing and lined up saluting them both.

“I can’t believe the state you left this room in especially with the fact that we have guests over. But enough of me scolding you, you all know why they’re here and I expect you all to be on your best behavior. Especially with that little joke you all pulled earlier”

He shot a look towards Zimelu and Haym who just so happened to be staring at the floor.

“Anyway let’s go into the meeting room where we can properly plan this out.”

Mayday ran ahead with the rest of the band members probably to find out if they have any interests in common or to gawk at how cool they are.

But then that just left him and Rin. They were behind a fair amount so they essentially had each other for company something that neither of them were looking forward to.

Zuke rubbed his arm as he tried to avoid eye contact and asked literally anything to stop the silence

“So how did May convince you guys to collaborate with us? I mean I assume you refused at first right?.”

“I ask myself the same thing, but if I’m being sincere I do hope that our little rivalry for each other doesn’t get in the way of this. You and I both know how excited everyone else is about this so let’s try and not ruin that for them alright?”

Now that he pointed it out he got to thinking why did he hate them, more specifically why did he hate Rin in general. The most interactions they had with each other was when they fought and beat them but other than that there wasn’t anything to feed the flames. I mean he does get defensive over her every now and then but that’s only because he sees her as a sister, so there’s not much to off from there. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad after all.

Zuke’s eyes looked forward to the hallway and noticed that Mayday was walking towards them

“Hey guys!”

“Hey May”

“Hello beautiful~” Rin winked as he smirked while Zuke just stared in disbelief.

Well everything he thought about before has been thrown out the window and there he goes again back to square one.

By the time the meeting ended everyone was tired and it was already around 11. Most of the shops by then were closed and the districts were a lot quieter with the exclusion of the occasional indie bands faintly playing their hearts out in the background.

By the time the meeting ended everyone was tired and it was already around 11. Most of the shops by then were closed and the districts were a lot quieter with the exclusion of the occasional indie bands faintly playing their hearts out in the background.

Neon J took them back to the entrance until he made a rather kind offer

“Well look at the time it’s rather late for you two to be walking back home. How about you two stay here and rest? You can leave early in the morning if you want.”

“Thank you sir but tha-”

“Woah woah woah hold on Zuke he’s got a point it is rather late to be out” She wrapped her arm around Zuke’s and looked up at him with a hopeful smile

He knew how much this meant to her and replied

“Y’know what staying here won’t be a bad idea”

May ran back excited as ever to the living room while Neon J and Zuke followed her.

“Since you’ve both already gotten familiarized with the first floor I’ll leave it to the boys to help you get to your guest rooms.”

“Again thank you so much Neon J!”

1010 ‘discussed’ over a round of rock paper scissors over who’d guide them around the mansion which ended up with Mayday and Haym then Zimelu with Zuke. Great. It wasn’t as bad but still he got stuck with one of the more rowdier members of the group.

He walked out and took in the warm breeze as he approached Purl Hew.

“Won’t the water mess with your insides?”

“AH! oh hey aren’t you supposed to be sleeping or something?” Purl Hew took out his legs out of the water and crossed his legs

“Yeah but your brother made me get lost, but that still doesn’t answer my question though.”

“Hmm? Oh yeah” he laid his head on his hand as he closed his eyes “Not really captain made us waterproof so we can handle stuff like this”

The pool glowed as they sat in silence for a while but it wasn’t as uncomfortable as it was with Rin. Here it felt mutual like they both just wanted to enjoy the silence the city had to offer.

“You two were pretty intense today.”

Zuke looked up confused until it clicked in his head

“Ugh yeah sorry about that I tried to keep my cool but it’s hard” Here he was thinking that he hid their unspoken anger towards each other only to find out that it was visible for all to see.

“Don’t worry about it, I know Rin can sometimes be a lot to handle. It's just that I’ve never seen him so worked up over someone” He stood up and stretched”Just know that he cares about us ok and after you hijacked our concert he’s been on guard ever since.”

Zuke never took into consideration on how the events before could’ve affected them but now he’s starting to get the bigger picture.

“Well I guess it’d be better that I help you find your room instead. Zimelu is probably busy doing his own thing”

As they both walked into the surprisingly dark kitchen Zuke noticed a faint glow down the hallway, he would’ve told Purl Hew had it not disappeared in a blink of an eye so he decided to forget about it. He tried to not focus on that and instead which tried to think about his next course of action. A) how does he try and start a decent conversation with someone who very obviously hates him and B) how to not make it seem sudden and out of nowhere.