Happy 2 years of this story!!! Long speech at the end you know how it is by now lol.

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"Thanks for stopping by!" you wave goodbye to another customer as you were once again back behind the counter of the coffee shop. Now with the stress of exams finally over, and an upcoming celebration for your birthday that everyone was insisting on, the skies ahead seemed to be blue.

Well.... apart from that ominous Hot Springs resort trip their father had invited you on which you still knew nothing about as he hadn't made any type of contact with you since getting your details.

For Mid-March, it was a pretty rainy day, the birthday celebration was scheduled for tomorrow, a Sunday. The sound of rain pattered the windows of the shop, not a lot of customers today but that just meant an easier shift and that was a blessing compared to some of the other shifts you'd had to work this week to make up for missing time because of exams. Your boss really hammered into you about missing so much work but thankfully he didn't fire you.

"Hey.... how long are you going to sit there and watch me?" you turned to the end of the counter. "Ichika..."

This girl wore sunglasses and a stupidly large hat, probably to hide her identity as she was starting to gain some fame lately after she landed in a lot of advertisements and smaller roles but her face is popping up more and more.

"Is that a way you should treat a customer? Huh? Big brother~?" she teased.

"Don't call me big brother, save it till I wife your sister" you laughed. "And I'm only 2 months older than you guys, barely feels like there's any difference" you added as you cleaned up the countertop.

Ichika laughed and took a sip of her coffee. "If I make it as an actress, I want you to be my personal coffee maker" She admired the cup as she spoke.

"I think a coffee machine would work wonders for that type of role. Unless you're paying handsomely."

"Oh I'd be paying you, handsome" she fluttered her eyes as I stare at her without a shroud of expression on my face.

"Shut up man..." you grumbled as Ichika laughed to herself. "Maybe you need to get yourself a boyfriend, any luck with Fuu-boy?"

"Fuu-boy?" she realised who I was talking about. "Sadly no. There's not been much time to close the distance lately, I'm too busy" she sighed and laid her head on top of the counter.

You walked over and lifted her head up. "Hey, I just cleaned there, I don't need make-up where the cups go. But in all seriousness, I dunno. He's just an odd guy and it's kind of a pipe dream for him to be in a relationship. Not that he ain't got his charms, he's a good and genuine guy but when it comes to romance he is lost"

"D-Do you like Fuutaro too?"

You deadpanned. "You just became my least favourite sister. And guess who's getting their discounted coffee privileges revoked" You smiled like a villain as you walked off to the other side of the store having just achieved victory over the eldest sister.

After a while, Ichika said her goodbyes and went home, for the rest of the evening you worked your shift as best as you could. With the inevitable hijinks that would most likely ensue tomorrow, a chill day like this to mentally steel yourself was perfect.

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Dressed up nice and... normal. You arrived at the Pentagon at the time Nino had texted you last night before you went to sleep. 2pm on the dot.

"Happy Birthday Y/N onii-chan!" Raiha chirped, running up to you and hugging you as you came through the door.

"Aw thanks sport" You rubbed her head, taking her hand as she lead you to the others by the sofas

Currently, it was you, Fuutaro, Raiha and the girls all situated at the Quintuplets apartment

"Happy Late Birthday!" Miku sarcastically cheered while popping a party popper in my face. She already seemed to be having her own fun today.

"Thank you Miku.." you groaned as your pulled paper strings off of your face. Nino scowled at her sister and began to berate her for your sake.

"Miku! What the hell do you think you're doing!" she stood up from her seat and tried to intimidate her sister, Miku however was one resilient girl so there was not a shred of weakness in her body language.

Nino angrily helped you pull party strings off your face. "Hmph, she's ruining your face on such a special day" she pouted, which almost melted your heart.

Miku chuckled to herself and sat back down, Fuutaro awkwardly shuffled towards you and slapped a hand on your shoulder while Nino was still doing her thing.

"Happy Birthday Man," he said with the fakest enthusiasm in his voice.

"Gee, thanks man" you laughed as Nino pinched your cheeks.

"Hold still dummy, it's in your hair," she said as she extended onto her tip toes to reach your hair, finally pulling all of the remains of Miku's assault from you. Nino smiled proudly at her clean-up and took your hand, leading you onto the sofa and planting herself down next to you.

"So. Y/N" Ichika began. "You really are the big brother now" she smiled.

"You said this yesterday" you leaned back. "I turned 18 like... a week and a half ago."

"But you're the oldest out of all of us!" Yotsuba chimed in, and Raiha also gave an affirmative nod in support of Yotsuba's statement. It seemed like Yotsuba was rubbing off on her for better or for worse...

"Well as I told Ichika, I don't feel older, sure the number's different but please don't keep this trend of referring to me as older..."

"No promises" Ichika laughed.

"Oh, babe did your dad call you?" Nino asked, garnering everyone else's attention.

"Surprisingly, yeah. He was actually awake early for once and sang Happy Birthday down the phone... his voice is well.. unique"

"oh..." Nino said as the air grew awkward pretty quickly, it seemed like there wasn't really a plan in place for today which you appreciated as making a big scene out of your birthday wasn't exactly what you wanted to do.

"Here" Fuutaro shoved a small box into your chest. "It's from the both of us" he said pointing a thumb towards Raiha who sat across from you with her hands behind her back and sporting a big dumb grin on her face. The box was a perfect square so you opened it genuinely curious of what he might have gotten you.

"....Number 1 Teacher...?" you said confused as you pulled out a small sticker from the box and inspected it, turning it around with your fingers, your eyes instinctively looked over and Nino whose facial expression seemed to say 'What a crappy present!' but she was holding her tongue for Raiha's sake.

"See Onii-chan! I told you it was going to be a bad gift!" Raiha stood up and berated her older brother. "Y/N-onii, this one is from me" she handed me a small rectangular box

"Wait... Raiha when did you...?" Fuutaro stuttered in amazement.

"I helped her pick it out" Nino boasted, putting a hand to her chest proudly. "We got it a few days ago when she asked me about a present after she saw your terrible gift" She smirked smugly clearly intending to hurt Fuutaro who just sighed.

You focused on the small gift in front of you however and opened the box to reveal a watch. "Woah," you said as you carefully lifted it out of its paper and looked at it, it wasn't anything extraordinary but it seemed a bit above what you would expect of Raiha's budget.

"Raiha did you..."

"I helped her, don't worry" Nino crossed her legs and folded her arms "She was adamant about not letting me pay for it all so we went 50/50 on it"

"Y/N-onii, do you like it?" Raiha asked sweetly which sent an arrow through your heart, you quickly wrapped it around your wrist and clasped the buckle. It felt perfect and the little designs on the straps were actually pretty cool.

"It's great Raiha, thank you" You smiled at her as she ran over and hugged you, almost toppling you backwards in your seat.

"You're welcome!" she seemed pleased with your reactions and skipped back to her seat.

"O-Oh... you can stick that on your bike by the way" Fuutaro shifted the conversation back to his sticker. Upon looking at it a bit more, it was kinda cool in a funny sort of way regardless, he tried and it was definitely a present that fit Fuutaro.

"Thanks, man, It's... actually kinda cool. I'll put it on when I leave" He looked sort of unconvinced with your answer but to be fair you were telling the truth, it was definitely going to be put on your bike later.

"Okay! I'll go next" Ichika perked up and hands me a small voucher. It was a Steam gift card. "To be totally honest, I didn't know what to get you, you're a hard guy to shop for Y/N" she smirked. "But I always hear you and Miku screaming about games so I asked her and this is what she recommended, so really you should thank her!" she smiled towards her sister who looked away from you.

"You're welcome" Miku muttered.

"Thank you both" you bowed as you pocketed the gift card. Miku suddenly stood up.

"Give me a moment," she said as she took off upstairs to her room.

Nino looked over at Itsuki "Um, do you have any idea what-"

"No clue" Itsuki fixed her gaze on Miku's bedroom door where she slowly emerged with her hands behind her back. She carefully made her way down the stairs as we all watched her shuffle towards us.

"Here" Miku held out 3 tickets in front of you. "They're for this upcoming gaming convention next month, I got one for the both of us and..." she turned to Nino "I know how you are, so here's one for you too" Nino looked at her in confusion as she knew as well as I did that she had next to no interest in games.

"Why would I want one? I don't care about games like you two losers do"

"Well then, I guess I'll go alone with Y/N and we'll spend the entire day alone together" Miku smiled sourly clearly trying to get a reaction out of Nino who fell for the bait more easily than you anticipated.

"Well in that case I guess I have no choice!" Nino scoffed. "Yotsuba! You're next" she barked at her sister as Yotsuba looked at you.

"Ummm, let me go and get it!" Yotsuba rushed upstairs similarly to Miku.

"I wonder what she could have gotten...." Ichika asked no one in particular. "She's an odd girl, to say the least, it could be anything..."

"Excuse me," Itsuki said as she also stood up. "I'll go and get your gift from me too" Her leaving left the 6 of you sitting around.

"So what are you going to spend that voucher on?" Miku slid next to you, as she looked at the steam voucher.

"I'll wait for a sale, spend it all then probably, that's what I usually do."

Nino leaned over your shoulder "So it's like money for the game?" she asked.

Miku caught her laughter, letting out an audible snicker sound. "It's like the online store for games" you tried to explain. "I put it on my account and I have that balance of whatever this card has"

Nino looked slightly confused still but seemed to get the gist of it. You nudged Miku in an attempt to get her to stop laughing to herself, Raiha was talking with Ichika and Fuutaro.

"So Raiha, do you have someone you like in school?" Ichika asked, prying way too much information from a 9-year-old.

"Hey, don't ask her weird questions" Fuutaro crossed his legs. "Don't put any weird ideas in her head idiot"

"Oh c'mon Fuutaro, If Raiha got herself a boyfriend, surely you'd want to know right?~"

"Ichika," you said sternly to her.

"Aww, is big bro being protective now?~"

"Sorry It took me so long!" Yotsuba called out from upstairs, interrupting the conversation. She ran down the stairs, holding a bag in her hand.

"Woah, slow down Yotsuba he's not going anywhere" Nino laughed, "But what's with the bag?" she asked.

"Here!" Yotsuba shoved the bag onto my lap, you curiously looked inside to pull out a magazine.

"Fifty ways to deal with Quintuplets.... by the Nakano sisters..." You looked up at the girls who all smiled.

"We thought it would be a fun idea," Miku said.

"Yeah! There are 10 points about each of us in there so make sure to study it!" Yotsuba giggled, the effort they all put in to hand make this kind of blew you away, it was totally unexpected. The presentation wasn't winning any awards but it was full of charm. You flicked through a few pages, laughing at some of the things said about the girls.

"Thank you guys, really this is super cool. I can say I've never gotten something like this before. The book was light as each of them only had a few pages dedicated to them. Raiha ran over to come and look through it with you.

It was after a few more minutes Itsuki finally made her way back downstairs.

"Oh, there you are," Fuutaro said, alerting everyone to her presence.

"Sorry for the wait" Itsuki apologized as she saw you holding the book. "Oh, what do you think of it? I did a lot of the presentation"

"It's amazing, thank you Itsuki" You smiled at her.

"It's no big deal" Itsuki seemed happy. "This is from me" Itsuki handed me a box, inside was a pair of very expensive-looking earbuds.

"Whoa!" you shouted, "Itsuki these cost a fortune! I've seen a few customers at the coffee store use these and they always tell me how high the price is" Nino took the box from you, and examined it.

"It just felt necessary as I always take your earbuds, so I thought I'd at least upgrade them for you. It's also a thank you for all the help you've given us during the second year. Without your contributions... I honestly don't know if we would have all made it" she admitted, which is a sentiment it seemed all of the girls shared as you looked around the room at their nods of agreement.

"She's right, without your and... Fuutaro's... help" Nino side-eyed the other boy as she spoke. "There was a real chance we would have failed again, I hope Papa can see how important you are to us eventually" she let out a sigh. "He's sometimes rude and...difficult but he's still our Papa so we want him to approve of you, even if the two of you have some sort of history"

"Yeah... I know. To be honest, I'm thankful I met you guys too. My life would be a whole lot more boring and worse off if not for you guys" you said. "C'mon, bring it in" You stood up and awkwardly held out your arms.

The girls looked at you confused for a second before Yotsuba was the first to reciprocate your hug.

"H-Hey!" Nino followed immediately after, not wanting to be one-upped. Ichika chuckled and joined soon after. Miku and Itsuki awkwardly shuffled over and joined, essentially both hugging Nino's back and making no direct contact with you. The hug broke up and Nino looked up at you.

"Oh, don't tell me you're gonna cry?" Nino laughed. "You haven't even gotten my present yet"

You let out a little laugh. "No one's crying Ribbons" you teased her.

"Hmph" she pouted, digging into her pocket and pulling out a small box. She quickly turned away, hiding the box. The sound of it opening was heard as she fidgeted with her hand for a moment before dramatically turning back around and presenting the now open box.

Inside was a single ring.

"Here. It's a promise ring," she said, her cheeks going slightly red as she tried to speak in her usually confident tone. She also had a ring slipped onto her finger which was not previously there. "It's for you to keep your promises to me...."

Nino was a romantic, so the idea of doing this probably meant a lot to her, so of course you took the ring and immediately slipped it onto your finger. "I plan on staying with you as long as you can put up with me"

"Idiot..." Nino laughed as she kissed you. It was kind of awkward in front of everyone, especially Raiha who you could barely see having her eyes covered by Fuutaro.

"I love you"

"I love you too." you smiled back.

For the next few hours, all of you celebrated and partied together, sharing laughs and stories. For only being a group for about 6 months that time felt irreplaceable, it was memories embedded into you forever, and hopefully going into the 3rd Year, it would last even longer. There was still the school field trip, the festivals at the end of summer and many more events to look forward to.

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"Alright, Y/N. Take care of her!" Ichika called out as you and Nino made your way out of the apartment. Fuutaro and Raiha had left about a half hour earlier as she fell asleep and now you were taking Nino back to your house to spend the night together.

Nino held your hand tight, leaning her head into your shoulder as you left the building, the receptionist seemed happy to see the two of you together and the security guard did that head nod thing that guys always do to each other.

"Need a lift?" You offered as you reached your motorbike

"Idiot, I can get up by myself"

"Big girl now eh?" you laughed to yourself as you hopped onto your bike, with Nino slowly sitting behind you and wrapping her arms tight around your torso.

"Don't crash please"

"Only because you asked nicely" You could almost feel her rolling her eyes as she whispered "Idiot" into your back.

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"Honey I'm home~" Nino called out as the both of you entered your home and kicked off her shoes.

"I can see that" you laugh as you hold her face gently and kiss her. "C'mon, let's go upstairs," you say as you take her hand and lead her upstairs to your room.

"I see you keep your room clean... you don't want me to nag you right?" she smirked, "Well good job." Nino walked over and sat on your bed.

You placed everything you'd received today on your desk for now, intending to get them into their proper places tommorow. Today had drained you, nothing sounded better than sleep right now. Soon after you sat down on the bed next to Nino.

"Oh... I forgot to tell you, we won't be here for a few days, Papa is taking us on a trip. I kind of wish I didn't have to go to be apart from you for so long but I can't go against it, plus...." Nino looks away. "No, Nevermind. But I thought I should tell you instead of just disappearing"

Obviously, you already knew this after your run-in with their father previously seems he didn't tell the girls about your invasion of their trip. "Uhhh... yeah that's cool. I'll keep myself busy I guess."

"You sound sad, are you going to miss me that much?" she brushed against you, grinning like a little devil.

"Nah, not really"

"Huh!?" she stood up, putting her fists to her hips and looking at you annoyed. "So that's how you wanna be huh?" Nino pounced on you, pinning you down to the bed and straddled you, looking down at you with a teasing smile. "Enjoying this?"

"Of course, how could I not"

"Pervert". She scowled. "You're lucky"

"I know I am" you smiled like an idiot. Nino couldn't put up with your dumb act, she never could. For some reason, it felt like the innocent days of when you were first getting to know her, like when you ran into her at the mall that one time, memories flooded through your mind of all the two of you had been through in such a short amount of time. The Fireworks Festival, The Field trip, the amusement park, she really was the perfect girl.

"Hey!" she flicked your forehead with a smile on her face. "Your cute girlfriend is sitting on top of you and you're in dreamland!" somehow she seemed angry at that.

"I was just thinking about our time up until now."

"Yeah? It's been a wild few months huh?" she relaxed and purposely let herself drop off of you, laying next to you on your bed. "But, I'm glad it all happened. That hero who saved me on my first day from a bunch of random boys in our class is whose bed I'm laying on right now" she said as if she just realised that.

"Hey... I know sometimes I can be... difficult or stubborn but... I really love you" She looked you directly in the eyes.

"I know, I wouldn't trade you for the world, you're the most important part of my life"

"Hehe... I'm glad" Nino cuddled up against you with a cute smile painted across her face.

She really was the best, you couldn't help but fall more in love with her as each day passed.

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So it's been 2 Years of this story already huh? Saying "time flies" is pretty cliché but it's how I feel. I started this in 2021 on a whim because some shit was going on at the time and I just said fuck it, why not try and write something and at I happened to be in a heavy Nino phase at that very moment, can't believe back then I wrote the first 8 chapters in the span of 2 days.

Thank you all for the support over these 2 years, the fact we're not even at 3rd year of the story after 2 years of writing is really funny, but Scrambled Eggs starts next chapter so maybe by the 3rd anniversary we'll be at Kyoto lmao.

I've said it before but your comments are always the things that have brought me back whenever I've felt like giving up with the story (Which hasn't happened recently but it was happening a ton at the end of last year) So thanks for all you guys do to show support. Unless I get hit by a meteorite or something I'll continue this story till the end!

In other news, I released that Various Females x Male Reader Oneshot book so give that a read if any of the characters I've written interest you at all. My leftover Danganronpa brain rot will probably manifest there lmao. Maybe I'll write oneshots for the other Quintuplets... the scrapped Ichika and Yotsuba stories may finally see some relevance again.

Anyway, thank you guys for 2 years, I plan to keep going no matter how inconsistent I may be sometimes, maybe we'll finish by the 4th anniversary! (I doubt it at this rate) But who knows!

Have a great rest of your day, and take care of yourselves! Thank you for letting me keep this hobby alive!!