Nino>Ichika>Yotsuba>Miku>Itsuki

If this list makes you mad, that sucks for you I guess lmao.

But tell me your list, I'm curious as to who my readers prefer!

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"6 bags..." you grumbled as you meandered through the mall. Following behind the woman who captured your heart.

"Oh come on babe" she kissed you on the cheek. "They can't be that heavy"

"If I dropped these onto you, you would deflate"

"Then it's a good thing I have a boyfriend who's in such good shape" she hugged you.

"You're lucky sweet talk works on me otherwise you'd be carrying half of these bags" you sighed as you re-adjusted the bags in your grip.

Safe to say that shopping was going well. Nino was buying whatever she wanted with her card that just seems like she has the funds of a GTA money glitch. Unfortunately you were stuck holding the currently six bags worth of stuff she'd bought. It was a good idea not to bring the bike as this trip would have turned into a hellscape if you had to carry all of these bags home on that thing somehow.

"What do you think about this one babe?" Nino said as she held another top against herself.

"Looks good, green is a nice colour for you"

"Really? you think so?" she questions as she stands in front of a mirror. "Would you want to see me try it on?" she smiled innocently.

Before you could even get an answer she began laughing.

"I'm kidding, let's just go and buy it" she smiled.

This felt cruel. It seemed like you had a long day ahead of you. Dinner better be good tonight...

----

School began nice and early the next day. It was refreshing to be walking with someone. Even if that someone treated you as a camel the day before...

"This feels weird" you say.

"What does?"

"Walking to school with someone"

Nino held your hand and squeezed it. "It's never really sunk in that you're an only child"

"Well usually I just plug myself in with my earbuds and blast music until I see you in the morning class but now I guess I don't have to now" you smile back at her.

Doing Lovey-Dovey stuff along the way you both eventually arrive at the school gates. There wasn't any sign of the other sisters or Fuutaro.

"So what's the game plan? You going to avoid Itsuki all day?" you ask.

"Probably, unless she apologises"

"As stubborn as always I see" you scoffed.

"Let's just go! I don't want to deal with any unlucky happenings like running into her out here!" Nino stated as she marched off ahead of you inside.

"H-hey! Nino wait up!" you called as you ran after her.

----

Meanwhile...

Fuutaro POV

"Oi, hurry up or we're gonna be late" you called out.

"Don't rush me!" a voice squealed from inside.

What a pain in the ass... Why did it have to turn out like this.

"Finally" you said.

Before you stood Itsuki... unfortunately. She'd decided to camp out at your house after the scuffle with Nino and you couldn't exactly say you were thrilled. She ate more than all of your family combined but at least she did help clean.

"Let's go" you huffed as you began walking down the street. "No limo is going to pick you up from here"

"Uesugi!" Itsuki called out, catching up to you.

"Hey um... about what happened" she began.

"?"

"I'm sorry for what Nino did"

"You've already apologised, plus besides slapping her you're not in the wrong and in all honesty I'm glad you did it and not me"

"B-But" she grabbed the tail-end of your shirt, making you stop in your tracks. "You wrote all of those sheets by hand and she just ripped them up like they were nothing it's cruel!"

"If Nino doesn't want to study then that's on her. Plus even if I can't make her study, Y/N most likely will"

Itsuki chirped up a bit. "Y/N? does he know about what happened?" she says as she fidgeted her hands.

"Yeah, Nino's currently living with him just as you are with me" you said finally ripping yourself away from her grasp on your shirt.

"WHAT!" she exclaimed loud enough for passer-by's to look at the both of you.

Itsuki realised her mistake and got nervous, she dragged you away by the arm around a corner and kept you both moving towards school.

"So she's staying alone with a guy?" a hint of concern about her sister finally breaking through in her voice.

"That guy is her boyfriend remember..." you deadpanned.

She went quiet. "Is that a problem for you?" you asked her.

"No, they can do whatever they want" she snapped as she picked up her pace.

"Such a pain in the ass..." you grumbled to yourself.

Having come home a few nights prior and seeing Itsuki helping herself to seconds of Raiha's cooking already ticked you off. Raiha saw her as an older sister at this point so you had no chance to kick her out before Raiha started berating you.

She did seem willing to keep studying however, just not with Nino. So she dedicated the entire Sunday to her books, you offered her help as much as you could but she only accepted it about half of the time.

It was hard to be hopeful for these upcoming exams. Too much so that you wondered if maybe you weren't the right guy for the job. Y/N seemed to get along better with them all and freeing yourself every evening would similarly give you a better chance to study more and have more time to do so.

The idea today was to talk with Y/N and the other girls and see if there was any way we could make Nino and Itsuki fix their problem. Honestly you were annoyed at Nino ripping up your papers in the first place but with the fact that she still didn't like you and not having Y/N there to keep her under control it was only a matter of time before something like this would happen.

Snapping back to reality made you realise Itsuki was walking a fair distance ahead of you still. You didn't make any sort of attempt to catch up, you just hoped by lunch time everyone could go back to studying together.

----

Y/N POV

Being around the woman you love 24/7 is a strange thing. Sure you get to spend a lot of time with her, but you start to wonder how much time do you actually have with yourself.

That was the kind of thought rolling through your head as the science teacher talked on and on about Chemical Bonds.

Nino was the most precious thing in your life but it was nice to have a class that you didn't share with her, instead it was Miku o'clock.

"Y/N, what about this one" she nudged you, pushing her worksheet in front of you.

"Good going, that's right" you said astonished.

"Don't act so surprised, I've been studying" she smiled smugly.

"With Fuutaro?"

Her head immediately dropped to the desk.

"Are you bummed out by the fact that Itsuki's living with him?"

"Mmhmm" she said muffled by her sleeves.

"I've told you this before. Itsuki is probably the least threatening to your chances with him, well maybe besides Nino. I hope..."

"Nino dating Fuutaro would be like me dating you"

"Exactly" you folded your arms. "Wait, what's that meant to mean!?"

"Nothing" she dryly laughed.

"Whatever, so, you think Nino and Itsuki will make up"

Miku just shook her head in response as she kept writing out exercises from the textbook.

You buried your head in your hands as your brain jumbled about inside. The longer these two took to make up the more anxious you were getting. Ichika told you yesterday over the phone that she'd been studying in her free time, Miku seems to be as on the ball as always. Nino was studying with you and you assumed Itsuki was working at usual but you soon realised you knew nothing about what Yotsuba was doing and that worried you.

Something jabbed against the side of your head a few times lightly.

"Hey" "Hey, Hey"

Miku was poking you with the end of her pen repeatedly.

"What's that look for?" she frowned. "I don't like it"

"It doesn't matter if you don't like it, it's my face"

"When my tutor's anxious, how can I not be too?"

"Yeah, sorry. I don't mean to make you feel like that. It's just a lot on my mind"

"Seeing you like this is weird, sulking I mean" she bluntly put.

You grumbled in response.

"Hey, after these exams..." she continued. "Do you maybe wanna go out and do something?"

You looked at her in surprise, you both rarely went out together as she likes to stay at home mostly so this must be your way of cheering you up.

"Where do you have in mind?"

"That big arcade in town"

It was hard not to smile at her offer. "Sure. Let's do it"

Miku surprisingly is the one who held up a fist awaiting a fist-bump with a smile on her face.

"I'm glad we get along" you said, meeting her fist bump.

"Me too" she smiled.

----

At lunch, you decided you should probably talk to Itsuki as school was pretty much your only opportunity to see her at all.

In the lunch hall everyone but Itsuki was sitting at the usual table.

"Hey Y/N!" Yotsuba waved you over as you entered.

"Hey guys, has anyone seen Itsuki?" you asked the group.

They all shook their heads.

"Why are you looking for her?" Nino asked with her tone becoming sharper.

"I might as well talk to her"

"What about lunch?" Ichika asked.

"I can do without, it's only one meal, I'll live" you protested.

"Y/N, good luck with her" Fuutaro added as you began to walk away from the group.

Cafeteria was a No, so the next logical place Itsuki could be would probably be the library so you set off for there.

You walked with your fingers interlocked behind your head, no one was around as pretty much everyone was outside socializing or in the cafeteria eating. The library also had its fair share of regulars that you'd seen sometimes. Itsuki was one of them and that made you wonder if she was the Queen of the nerds or something, maybe she had her own posse of bookworms similar to herself.

Unfortunately the library yielded no such results as she was no where inside. You literally stood scratching your head wondering where else she could have gone to. This felt like one of those annoying fetch quests in a game, like collecting the Triforce Shards in Wind Waker or something.

In the middle of your delusions a voice called out to you.

"Ah, Y/N"

In the matter of 3 seconds your entire body physically cringed.

"Takeda... what do I owe the pleasure?" you said as intentionally sarcastic as possible.

"It's been a while. How are things?" he asked.

"Same as ever"

....

"Are you not going to ask about how I've been?"

"No. I don't really care if I'm being honest"

Takeda frowned. "So why are you at the library? We both know you don't study like Myself or Fuutaro"

"I'm looking for someone"

"Who?"

"Itsuki. The quintuplet with the star pins, have you seen her by any chance?"

"Maybe I have, maybe I haven't"

"I'm really not in the mood to play these games Takeda"

"Do you enjoy being a tutor for them Y/N?" he suddenly asked.

"I'm not their tutor..."

"Are you not? with the amount of time you spend with them and considering your academic prowess compared to theirs, it would simply be a waste to not be their tutor"

"Where are you going with this?" A bad feeling crept up your spine.

"I hear their father is a very wealthy man. He could pay well most likely, plus it would look great on my applications if I managed to tutor 5 girls to graduation"

Now he'd caught your attention. It was obvious he was doing this to lure you into whatever trap he was setting.

"So what? you want a job?" you asked.

Takeda didn't directly answer you question. "Do you think their father would hire me?"

Pausing to think for a moment, you thought of a way out of this. He definitely knew where Itsuki was otherwise he wouldn't be trying to get an answer out of you and instead would have walked away like usual.

"You have good grades, you have some air of maturity to you, so I think you'd be a decent candidate but I imagine it would only stay that way if you didn't slack on studying"

Takeda looked genuinely taken aback by that string of compliments. He simply smiled and turned around.

He pointed upwards with his back turned to you, then began walking away.

So Itsuki's at the roof...

----

"Itsuki!" you called out as you threw open the door to the roof.

She was halfway through biting a sandwich, slowly chewing as he eyes were locked onto you in surprise.

She cutely coughed and swallowed the sandwich in her mouth. It seemed like you were both thinking the same thing, that this may be a really awkward conversation.

"Soooo... how're things?" you started off.

"Fine, I'm staying at Uesugi's house for now..." she couldn't meet your eyes for some reason.

"I see, just so you know, Ni-"

"Nino's staying at your house, I know" she interrupted.

"Uh, yeah..."

Kill me, this is so awkward.

"Statistically speaking, what're your chances of apologizing?"

"0%"

The sigh that came out of your mouth could have blown down a straw house.

"I thought I'd give it a try" you sulked as you leaned against a railing.

Itsuki stood beside you.

"C-Can I ask you something?" she stammered.

"Go ahead"

"Who do y-you think's in the wrong?" she looked at you in anticipation,

"Both of you are stupid" you said which Itsuki pouted in response to.

"This situation doesn't have to be so complicated if you both just acted mature. It's starting to get in the way of studying for these upcoming exams"

You thought back to Takeda moments before and his interest in tutoring the quints. If he was seriously going to go for the position, you and Fuutaro would both have to be on your A-Game but you also had to make 5 others pass at the same time.

"I've been studying..." she argued.

"I don't doubt that. But you're studying with Fuutaro, I'm studying with Nino but what about your other sisters? Ichika, Miku and Yotsuba can't handle the studying by themselves"

Itsuki looked defeated, she knew you were right.

"B-But Uesugi doesn't tutor me, I study alone"

"That's not the point dumbass" you flicked her. "The point is efficiency. Exams are as close to us as your thumb and pinky finger are top each other"

"That's a stupid was of putting it..." she frowned.

"Stupid or not" you began, standing up. "You and Nino need to make up, the clock's ticking"

"I have nothing to apologise for, Nino ripped up Uesugi's sheets! And she's the reason this whole thing is happening"

Sensing that it was still too early for this conversation to go anywhere meaningful you decided to retreat. Fuutaro may be the best chance of cracking her after all.

What a weird girl... sometimes she's super co-operative, other times she's the most difficult sister in the group. Even prime-time Tsundere Nino wasn't this bad.

"You don't plan on giving me a straight answer? Do you?"

"..."

"Do you want to fail?"

"Excuse me!?"

"Without all of us studying together, without Fuutaro and I tutoring the bunch of you, your chances of failure are much higher don't you think?"

She knew you were right, and that was obvious by her disgruntled expression directed away from you but intended at you.

"I'll let you come to a decision yourself" you said as you walked back towards the staircase.

Itsuki didn't say anything and just kept her eyes fixated on you as you walked away.

"I hope you're smart about this Stars. You're not an idiot, so make the right choice" That was the last thing you left her with before you made your way back downstairs.

-------

"Hey, do you think we'll ever argue?"

"You and me? No doubt about it"

"Really?"

"Look at us, before we started dating we used to argue all the time, as long as it doesn't break us up then an argument now and then isn't the end of the world for the two of us"

"So even if we'd argue, you'd still love me?"

"Even if you stepped on me I'd still love you"

"Are you hinting you want me to do that?" .

"M-Maybe once...."

Back at your house you and Nino had been been laying on your bed, unfortunately not under the covers but lying next to each other, just talking endlessly. School had ended some time ago and neither Nino nor Itsuki were any closer to reconciling than before.

The two of you had done a small bit of studying after you got home but it only lasted about and hour and a half before Nino began to get drained of it and decided she was done.

"I never thought you'd be into something like that" she teased, nudging your shoulder

"I never said I was, but I am admittedly curious to see what It feels like"

Nino smirked, and softly kicked you off of the bed, making you crash onto your bedroom floor. When you met her eyes again, she was holding her foot in the air above you, it just hovered there for a moment as she had a borderline demonic smile plastered on her face.

100% you knew you didn't have a foot fetish, but for some reason your heart was jumping like crazy.

She smiled, and placed her foot back onto the ground. "I'm going to go and shower, don't peep" she winked.

Talk about blue balling...

The sound of the shower running echoed throughout the house as you sat at your desk and clicked away at random websites. Part of you did wonder if Nino meant the 'No Peeping' thing, she was surprisingly open with that kind of thing but in the shower was a step too far for a big risk you weren't willing to take.

Eventually she left the shower and came back in an oversized T-shirt and shorts.

"I didn't peep" you said as she entered the room.

"Thanks for that..."

"You wanted me to peep deep down didn't you"

"Shut up!" Nino shouted as she proceeded to throw one of your own pillows at you.

"Actually I've been wondering. How the hell do you even maintain your hair? From what I know you've had it long like that ever since you were a kid"

"... After keeping it for so long I've just grown used to it I suppose"

"Have you ever cut it short or anything?"

"Never, the occasional trim, but nothing major"

"I think It'd suit you to be honest"

Her face flushed with red.

"Dummy! Don't say things like that"

"I wouldn't say it if it weren't true"

Nino let her hair flow through her fingers.

"When we were all kids, we all had this long hair"

She gazed deep at her own strands of hair as if she were looking into a doorway of the past.

"I'm still the only one who's kept it like this ever since we were young. It's stupid but oh well" she huffed as she stood back up.

"The shower's free so help yourself." she bluntly stated.

"Y-Yeah, cool" you said as she exited the room, presumably to go and change.

Listening to what she said you headed for the shower.

-----

The week flew by, it was now Friday and absolutely zero progress had been made towards Nino and Itsuki. Fuutaro apparently met the girl he met in Kyoto all those years ago and then fell into a lake. It was a weird story to be told but you didn't have any reason to not believe him.

Currently you weren't doing much besides roaming around to see if there was anyone who wanted to hang out or do anything, that's when suddenly;

"psst, Y/N!, Y/N!" a hushed voice called out to you as you passed one of the vacant classrooms in the corridor.

"Yots? what are you doing here? and why are you in a tracksuit?" you asked the girl who was crouched on the ground.

"There's something I need to talk to you about..." she tapped her fingers together nervously.

"Fine, we can do it in her right?" you asked, pointing to the empty classroom beside you both.

"Yeah" she responded, you held out your hand to help her up and she took it. She had some good grip strength compared to the others.

Closing the classroom door behind you, you both proceeded over to a desk by the window that looked out onto the track.

"Is there a problem? If it's anything I can help with just say the word" you assure her.

"No, no it's not like that" she waved. "I just wanted to tell you because I think you'll be the least mad out of you and Uesugi"

I do not like where this is going....

"I'm sure it's not that bad" you said as you put a hand on her head. "You're like a sister to me, I won't be mad at you"

"A sister? Really?" her eyes sparkled.

"Y-Yeah, but don't be weird about it. If I marry Nino, I'll legally be your brother anyway"

"I'd love that!" she beamed.

"A-Anyway, what were you going to tell me?" you switched topics as you started to feel embarrassed as her straight-forwardness

"So the thing is..." she trailed off. Voice getting weaker.

"The track team need my help... so I'm actually going to a training camp this Saturday, so I won't be able to study with all of you" she weakly smiled.

You have got to be shitting me...

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Hey guys, hope you've all been good.

Fun fact about this chapter. Originally this was the chapter the confession was supposed to happen in. Y/N would kind of just spring it onto Nino casually after she made an off-hand comment about how close they were while Y/N was showering. I ended up changing it last minute in planning but part of me does kinda wish I stuck with what I originally planned, as this chapter would have most likely ended on the confession opposed to Yotsuba's dilemma.

As I posted though, I am interested in doing an Ichika story, I'd possibly connect it to this story and have it as one interwoven world as I've seen others do. But even If I do. We'll have to wait till we get to the third year before I publish anything, I don't want to spoil anything in this story by writing another that begins at a later point as I knew where and how I'll begin it if I do end up writing an Ichika story.

Let me know if you'd like it to be apart of this universe or it's own separate one :)

But that's all, thank you for being patient with me as always. It's been hot asf in the UK lately so having my PC on to try and write just roasts me to a crisp so I haven't made much progress in the past few weeks.

Anyway, I'll see you all in Chapter 26. Appreciate you guys as always :)