The sky was blue and the birds were singing as you took a walk down the many streets of the city. Walking instead of taking the bike somewhere felt refreshing, getting the legs some exercise was always a good thing. On that walk, you spotted a tall gloomy figure walking a short distance in front of you, even from behind you immediately recognised who it was.

"Yo! Fuutaro!" you called out to your best friend, running to catch up with him.

"Oh. Y/N" Fuutaro turned to greet you. "You ready for the first day back at school?"

The day had finally come to start the Third Year of school. Studying was of the highest importance right now if everyone wanted to graduate.

"No... I only got 4 hours of sleep..." you admitted regretfully. Fuutaro slapped you lightly on the back of the head.

"Are you an idiot?" He frowned.

"Hopefully the girls will be here on time..."

"Don't you usually send sappy messages to Nino every morning? Shouldn't you know if she's going to be here on time?"

"S-Shut up man! It's not every morning..." you pouted. " They'll be there but first days are important, even if this is our third first day..."

Flocks of students trickled into school, lots of younger kids you'd never seen before walked around the school grounds obviously lost as to where they needed to be.

Both you and Fuutaro helped a few First-Years find where they needed to go for registration and see what classes they were in.

"Hey, maybe we'll be in the same class this year," you said to Fuutaro as the two of you walked towards the main hall.

Fuutaro looked less than hopeful. "If it happens, it'll be god's luck."

The chances were slim but getting everyone in a class together would be insanely cool, all 7 of you were the dream...

------

"What the hell..?" Fuutaro sighed as you both walked into your newly assigned classroom.

There was a crowd in the middle of the classroom for some reason. At the centre of that tornado of chaos were 5 girls you knew were going to be the centre of attention.

"AH! Y/N, Fuutaro!" Ichika called out as she waved you both over, your other new classmates turned to look at the both of you who stood there dumbfounded.

"Hey... how the fuck did this happen?" You looked at all of the girls as they all stared back at you with nervous expressions on their faces. Your eyes look specifically at Nino. "Explain"

"H-How should I know!" she argued.

"Woah. Seeing all of the Nakano's is really something!" a girl in the class said.

Another boy joined in. "Yeah. They're all identical!"

"No the hell they're not..." you muttered under your breath like a protective older brother.

"They're all kinda cute though huh?" a boy turned to his friend.

"Totally. The one with the headphones seems like my type!"

"Yeah, maybe I'll ask that one with the butterfly ribbons out on a date!" one guy said in response

"O-KAY!" you shouted as you parted the crowd like Moses did the sea.

You took a stand in front of the girls, and Fuutaro joined at your side.

"This one" you pointed to Nino "That's my girlfriend. So hands off." you scowled at the crowd.

"And these!" Fuutaro pointed to all of the sisters. "ARE OUR STUDENTS!" he said loud and proud. The girls and you all looked at him with less than positive expressions, as did the rest of the class.

"Oh... so he's dating her?" a guy said to his friend.

"Ugh! That's Y/N. I remember when that Nino girl first transferred here and I tried to talk to her and he heckled me away on her first day!" another guy said, you recognized him and looked in his direction. He filtered off to the back of the crowd ever so slowly.

"Right... Well. There's five of them, get over it!" you said to the onlookers as the crowd slowly started to dissolve.

"Wow, you were like a super big brother just then!" Ichika teased as she poked your ribs.

"Hey!" you tried to fight back before letting out a sigh. "What are the chances we all got put into a class together?" you asked them as the other 6 looked amongst themselves.

"Probably... one in a-" Itsuki was interrupted by Miku.

"We don't know either," Miku responded as Itsuki shot her a dirty look.

"Regardless of the chances, are you guys prepared for the Third Year? This is important and we have to study more than ever!"

Nino rolled her eyes. "We just got into the class dumbass!"

"Nino..." you tried to calm her.

"Listen" she pointed to you and Fuutaro. "I love you" she said only directing that at you. "But studying needs to take a backseat for the moment. The year's just started!"

In her typical abrasive fashion, Nino controlled the room like it was nothing.

You look at Fuutaro "Fine by me" you say in response which you hear Fuutaro audibly gasp. "If you can handle the responsibility of cramming it all in later, that's up to you... Ribbons".

Nino pouted at your obvious challenging tone. "Idiot" she huffed as she took her seat.

"Heya!" you said cheerfully. "This reminds me of the day you came here. Although I guess you're in front of me now"

"Well..." Nino began. "Things are a bit different now, aren't they?" she smiled while tilting her head. That smug but alluring smile of hers always worked on you.

"He really is dating her..." one of the boys said.

"Damnit, maybe I'll go for the one with the star pins, her boobs are pretty huge."

"Dude, all of their boobs are huge-"

"Excuse me" You stood up and walked over to the group of guys. "I really don't appreciate you talking about my friends like that. SO, I'd suggest you sit down at your desk and close those mouths of yours, okay?"

The boys hesitated for a moment but eventually backed down without any retaliation. The reputation of being a fighter carried over into the Third Year it seemed...

"Such a strong man..." Miku sarcastically added.

"You.. keep quiet too" You shot her a look to which Miku laughed quietly as you went back to your seat.

"Hey!" another classmate approached the girls. "You guys have had an out-of-body experience right? Being quintuplets and all" he smiled. "Or being completely synchronized. Hey, where do you guys live?-"

"Okay, That's enough!" Nino put on a forceful smile.

"Now now...." Ichika tried to quell the situation.

It took a little bit of nudging but soon enough, you and Nino managed to defend the quintuplets with your... unique personalities.

"Y/N! You're in this class too!" An unfortunately familiar voice called out. In all of his sparkly glory, Takeda stood there flicking his hair like some kind of anime character.

"Just great..." you grumbled, with Nino reassuringly standing by your side.

"Always with a Hostile tone Y/N"

You leaned over to Nino's ear. "If I punch him, what's the worst that can happen?"

Nino simply elbowed you in the ribs with a little force behind it.

"Wha-"

"Don't be an idiot" Nino responded coldly. "Fighting over something as small as this is stupid and you'll get in trouble anyway. Just leave it alone" She folded her arms.

"Woah... when did you get so insightful?" you grinned. Nino turned her head away and flicked her hair.

"Hmph, I've always been insightful!"

"Yeah.... anyway" you turned back to Takeda. "I'm only going to say this nicely once. Please don't be a pain in the ass this year. Please."

Takeda did that annoying smile of his that got under your skin. "Well of course I won't Y/N, I think this academic year we could squash that bad blood between us don't you think?"

You looked at Fuutaro who seemed to expect you to respond nicely. "Sure. Whatever" you responded not entirely satisfied but if it'll get him out of your hair.

Takeda stood up at turned to the rest of the class. "Please, leave the Quintuplets be, I'm sure bombarding them with questions would not make them feel welcome in this class at all"

"Maybe Takeda has a point..." one of the boys said.

"We're super sorry!" a couple of girls bowed and apologised to the quintuplets.

"I understand their feelings, however. Being quintuplets is truly unique so everyone is naturally curious don't you think?" Takeda asked.

"Riiiiight..." Nino said in response.

The door of the classroom opened once again. "Everyone. Take your seats, we're starting orientation!" Sensei said as he walked into the room.

Everyone followed orders and quickly took their seats.



Situated with Miku beside you and Nino in front of you was a pretty good outcome all things considered. Itsuki was within conversation distance as well although Ichika, Yotsuba and Fuutaro were a little out of whispering range. The back corner by the window, "so anime..." you laughed to yourself.

"Takeda seems like an alright guy!" Yotsuba turned around and said to you and Nino.

Nino shrugged, "He seems pretty sketchy to me"

Sensei was a pretty scrawny guy so his voice didn't carry much weight. When he started talking about us now being Third Years, Yotsuba immediately shot her hand up.

"What is it..?" he said finally giving in to her persistence.

"I want to volunteer to be class representative!" she shouted.

"I haven't even gotten to that topic yet..." the teacher sighed. "But it's not like I'm saying no"

"Alright!" Yotsuba jumped out of her seat and ran to the front of the class. It seemed she'd already taken control of the classroom environment much to the dismay of the teacher.

"Well in any case we may as well pick the male rep now" Sensei said.

You audibly gulped like a cartoon character and prayed to the gods that somehow you would not be picked. Being a class rep just sounded tiresome, on top of baseball and the private tutoring you had to give the girls your free time would be swallowed whole.

"I also know someone who'd be perfect for the position!" she exclaimed. Like a horror game, her eyes slowly drifted towards you, so you gave her the most deathly stare that you could muster back at her.

"Y-..." she stopped. "Uh. I mean Uesugi Fuutaro!!"

He looked like he wanted to kill her, you could feel his hostile aura even though you sat 2 rows behind him.

"What!" Fuutaro stood up to attempt to protest but it seemed to be in vain.

"Poor Fuutaro..." Miku whispered to you.

"Maybe this will be good for him" you responded. "Becoming more social and recognised could be what he needs" You leaned back in the chair, rocking on the back legs, content with the feeling of knowing you didn't have to fill the position of Male class rep.

Nino turned around and raised a curious eyebrow. "You're only saying that because Yotsuba didn't finish saying your name right?" she smiled.

The rocking of the chair stopped as you looked directly back at her. "The winner is the winner"

"What?"

"My time's already gonna be constrained this year. I didn't need being a class rep on top of that"

"Constrained?" Nino narrowed her eyes.

"Not you..." you sighed. "I meant with Baseball and tutoring and stuff"

"And stuff? Is that referring to me?"

There was no winning this was there... "Look, I just..." you sighed again. "Let's go out after school okay? I'll decide what later."

"Okay!" Nino cheekily smiled knowing she'd gotten exactly what she wanted and then turned back around to face the Teacher as he began talking again.

"As I was saying... This year is an important time for everyone an-"

--------

Lunchtime

After tuning out the teacher for a few hours, lunch rolled around and you walked to lunch. Now that this was a regular occurrence it felt nice. Tons of new faces passed you all in the corridors and a lot of them who'd never seen the girls' before were staring.

"Sensei sure talks a lot, don't you think?" You turned to Itsuki who was walking beside you.

She looked at you disapprovingly. "Y/N, you're our tutor so please try and act responsible. It's important information about our Third Year. Whatever sensei says has its value"

"Someone's taking this new year awful seriously..."

"Of course! If I am to stand where I want to I have to put in the work"

"So you're not going to help with Fuutaro's birthday?" you asked her.

"W-We've talked about it..."

"Oh, so I didn't get an invite to this little meeting?"

Itsuki was quick to shy away and hide her face. "S-Sorry..."

"So what are you guys getting him?"

"That's what Miku's finding out for us right now," she said, pointing as Fuutaro broke away from the group to use the toilet with Miku lagging behind him.

"Stalking him to the toilet is the idea? Are you trying to fix his bowel habits or something?"

Itsuki cutely pouted and sped up her walking speed clearly signifying the end of your talk with her.

Soon enough you were all in the cafeteria. Compared to the first days of school when the girls came, now you all sat and ate together at one table, even Fuutaro.

"Takeda being in our class is... interesting" Ichika began. She looked towards you. "How do you feel about it?"

You stopped stuffing your mouth with food for a moment and swallowed. "It is what it is. Hopefully he's just less irritating this year". You took another mouthful of food.

"You eat like a caveman..." Miku frowned at you.

"HWAY- ITPHUKI EASTH LIESH THIS TWOO"

Nino quickly covered your mouth to stop you. "Chew" she commanded you. You obeyed like a puppy would and slowly chewed and swallowed your food. "Better" Nino smiled, pinching your cheek.

"Anyway..." Ichika continued. "Having a flashy guy like him in the class may take some attention off of us a little"

"Are you kidding?" Fuutaro spoke up. "Five identical sisters are a rare sight to most people besides me and Y/N"

"I guess that's true..." Nino crossed her legs. "But seriously, do they have to ask so many boundary-invading questions?" she scoffed. "A boy asked if we were all the same sizes!"

The other girls looked embarrassed by Nino blurting that out.

"W-Well... hopefully they just get used to us!" Yotsuba added in an attempt to remain positive.

"Speaking of getting used to..." you waved a hand at Fuutaro. "Excited about being class rep?" you gave him a smug grin which he clearly didn't appreciate given the look on his face.

He visibly grits his teeth and holds back his presumably harsher words to not upset Yotsuba. "It's another challenge I can simply overcome" he folded his arms.

"Why's he talking like Vegeta?" you whispered to Nino.

"Beats me" she replied with a huff. The many attempts at trying to get Nino into anime were clearly paying off by the fact she just understood who Vegeta was.

Just then, you looked at your phone and realised the time, shooting up from the lunch table.

"Shit! You guys, sorry to leave but I gotta go and meet with the Baseball team. It is a new year and all"

"Oh, you're still keeping up with baseball?" Ichika asked.

"Of course. I enjoy playing it after all. Me and Kaito were unstoppable back then too so might as well continue that trend now that we're not at each other's throats anymore"

"Can we come to watch you practice sometime?" Yotsuba spoke up.

You scratched the back of your head sort of embarrassed. "I mean... sure you can, it might be pretty boring for you guys though. Anyway, I gotta run"

--------------------------

Nino POV

You watched Y/N run out of the cafeteria and felt a sense of... worry? Like that kind of feeling of a bad premonition.

"Nino?" Itsuki nudged your shoulder. You met eyes with her. "Are you okay?" she said, seemingly being the only one noticing you watching Y/N go.

You looked around the table quickly and then stood up. "Come with me for a moment," you said to her as you began to walk off, soon hearing the sound of chair scraping and Itsuki's footsteps behind you.

Now you were just outside of the cafeteria.

"What's wrong?" Itsuki was in her mature mode, for being the little sister of you all you couldn't help but feel proud at her sense of maturity in recent times.

"It's just..." you looked down the corridor. "I'm kind of worried about Y/N and me this year. Like he seems to be more busy now than before, so our time together may be shorter"

Itsuki read your facial expression for a moment. "Are you afraid you're going to split apart?" she tilted her head. "Nino. I know Y/N pretty well by now, not as good as you of course but I don't think that's something you need to worry about"

"You're right but..." you couldn't find the right words for how you felt but just then your phone buzzed. You pulled it out of your pocket to find a new text.



"What are you smiling about?" Itsuki asked

You clutched your phone to your chest and smiled while blushing red. "Nothing~"

-----------------------------

Y/N POV

"Y/N! You made it" Kaito shouted across the field.

"Yeah, but you don't have to blow me ears off"

"Sorry. I just wanted to get the team together for a small meeting"

"You? Planning ahead? What world am I living in?" you smirked.

Some of the team members laughed slightly.

"Shut up!" Kaito snapped back. "Listen, we're going to need to put in the work this year after we go through the selection for the First years try-outs"

"When is that happening anyway?" a member of the team asked.

"A few weeks from now. The school doesn't want the first years to feel too pressured right away so they're giving them a few weeks to adjust"

"Hey, Kaito. How much are we going to have to have meetings and practice?" another team member asked.

"Preeeeeeeeeeeeeetty frequently," he said bluntly.

The guy who asked frowned. "My girlfriend isn't gonna be happy..." he said.

That made you think of Nino, she knew by now that you'd be a little busier. "Kaito. My priority is still Nino alright?" you told him.

"I get it, I get it" he held up his hands. "Do what you gotta, but the team's important. Remember that Y/N"

"I will. I don't play to abandon this... again"

A few team members laughed. "By the way Y/N, what class are you in this year?" Kaito approached you.

"3-1. Fuutaro and all of the quintuplets are there too. What about you?"

"3-2, my class is boring as hell" he groaned. "It's good that you got the whole gang in your class though, that's some pretty crazy luck"

"Not super crazy, you know Takeda?"

"Takeda... Takeda.... Oh, that pompous kid who's always sparkling or some shit?"

"Yeah. Him. He's in my class too."

"Ah, I feel for ya, I've bumped into him a few times and he kinda seems annoying at a glance"

"You wouldn't know the half of it"

Time went on and the bell rang out loud signalling the start of the next period.

"HEY, ALL OF YOU" Kaito shouted. "Don't forget this year we're working our asses off. Any slacking and I'll rip you a new one!"

The other guys in the team all shouted in acknowledgement and went off to their lessons.

"Rip you a new one? So that's how you get down?" you laughed.

"Shut up. That includes you"

"I have Nino. You'd have to fight her to get to me"

Kaito scoffed. "No thanks" he walked away as you followed him and headed to your next lesson.

--------------------

"Sushi, Sushi!, Sushi~" Nino happily skipped alongside you as the two of you entered the mall. The first day was finished and Nino seemed to be in high spirits for no particular reason.

"If I knew getting some sushi would have you this excited I would have done this a lot sooner"

Nino walked ahead of you, turning back and walking backwards with her fingers interlocked behind her back. "It's not just the sushi" she argued. "I'm just happy to spend some private time with you" She was blushing pretty modestly.

The two of you walked towards this little sushi restaurant that you sometimes came to whenever you were here, super small place but it was comfy and the sushi was top of the line.

We both entered and sat at a small booth and ordered our sushi.

"Salmon Maki?" she asked you. "I didn't take you for the type of guy to like salmon"

"I didn't think you'd be the type of girl to come out for sushi," you said back to her.

Nino put a finger to her cheek. "I wonder If I could make some sushi for us sometime..?"

That idea lit a firework in your brain. "YES," you shouted accidentally. You cleared your throat. "Please do, I'm never gonna say no to anything prepared by you. That cake you baked last week was insane. I don't even know how you do it sometimes"

Nino was clearly happy from the praise. "Normally I'd charge someone if they wanted more. But because it's you, I'll cook for you whenever you want" She smiled and moved her leg under the table, pressing her foot against your leg. "Darling~"

"Ahem" The waitress, who was standing beside the table with our food, cleared her throat. Nino instantly retracted her foot, and the waitress set down our food before hastily turning around and walking away.

"My reputation just took a dive in here..." you mumbled to yourself as you picked up your first piece of sushi. You noticed Nino's plate. "Tuna Maki?"

"What's wrong with Tuna?"

"Nothing," you say, putting the first piece of sushi in your mouth as you watch Nino take out her phone and take a picture of her food and you in the background.

"Hey!"

"Problem?" she smirked. "I like to take pictures of my food, you know this already"

"And then you send it into your group chat with your girlfriends and they insult me at school"

"When has that ever happened?" Nino argued.

"Before we finished the second year, we went on that Aquarium date and you took a picture of me next to the seals and your friends said that I'd finally been reunited with my people" you deadpanned.

Nino laughed but quickly covered her mouth with her hand. "W-Well.... It's all in good fun right?" her attempt to hold her laughter was not helping.

"Just eat your damn sushi" you huffed, scarfing down another piece. Nino began to eat her share as well.

As we ate our respective orders for a minute, Nino spoke up again. "Did you know that we have a field trip in about a month and a half's time?"

"Again?"

"What do you mean again!?" Nino pouted. "The last one was pretty special wasn't it"

"I mean, besides getting beat half to hell it was pretty good" You took a sip of your drink.

"Only pretty good?"

"Why are you picking apart everything I'm saying today?"

"For fun" she smirked. "But anyway, soon our class will have to decide I'm pretty sure"

"Why would we decide and not our teacher? And how do you even know about all of this?"

"Yotsuba spilt the beans after you left. And as for why we're the ones deciding where to go" Nino shrugged. "I have no clue"

"I hope it's somewhere fun. Like Kyoto or something"

"Kyoto?" Nino tilted her head. "Ah, we all went there when we were kids"

You knew that of course because of Fuutaro's picture. "Really? Then maybe we can go again. I've never been"

We sat for a little while and talked as we ate our sushi. Surprisingly for how small the Maki Rolls are, they were pretty filling so we soon left the small establishment and headed out back into the mall.

Nino linked your arms as soon as you left and rested her head on her shoulder.

"I just realised something" you began. "By the time this field trip happens. You'll all be 18, Fuutaro too"

"Oh?" Nino pushed into your side. "Is someone getting ideas?"

"Like you haven't been having ideas for months now"

"Maybe. It's just if you're willing to go there"

"Me?" you laughed. "I've been willing. But we agreed to wait until we were both 18 first."

Nino pouted at that agreement, "Speaking of birthdays though" you continued. "Fuutaro's is pretty soon, are you guys getting him something?"

"We're kind of stuck at the moment. We'll probably need your help to be honest"

"A Mall trip with all the Quintuplets? I'm gonna be stuck trying to keep Yotsuba on a leash and you and Ichika out of clothing stores, Itsuki out of anywhere food related and Miku... well she can behave so I don't have to worry about her"

"Don't treat us like pets" Nino huffed. "You love us, don't deny it"

"Of course I do." As you said that you felt her press into you even more. As always her generous chest made a sandwich out of my arm.

"But you love this even more don't you?" she cooed

"Of course I do" you smiled innocently back at her.

"Pervert!" Nino broke away.

"You initiate it every time" you sighed.

Nino re-linked your arms. "Well perhaps you should initiate more sometime~"

You couldn't help but laugh at her proposal. "Just wait until May 5th"

Nino went beet red and didn't say a thing as you both strolled through the mall together arm in arm.

-------------------------------------------------

Yo!

When some of you read this it might be 2024, so in that case Happy New Year! It's not for me as of publishing this, (Still about 10 hours until then) but yeah I did get 1 more chapter out this year surprisingly.

I do wanna talk about this year a little, this paragraph is gonna be pure waffling but you know how I am. I'm surprised I released semi consistently of once a month most of the year. Along with starting that Natsuki book (Which I really think is some of my best work. I would continue it but I lost the plan files lmao. So I have no clue where I was going with it) I I started that oneshot book. Which also hasn't been touched in months but in my defence, there's like 8 different oneshots all over 1k words just in my drafts, it just comes down to me feeling like writing them again.

Going off of chapter in the original. I'm around chapter 72 of the story so I'm comfortably over halfway but I still think in terms of this story were going past 50 at the very least we might even hit 60 but who knows besides me in a year or so.

Anyways, thank you guys for all the support and comments this year, sometimes you guys are funny asf and I'm just laughing reading some of the comments. Also that seating chart admittedly took me way longer than it should have. I was drunk writing that section of the story and got the idea to do it but stumbled around resizing images for like 25 minutes it's still not perfect but I like it enough. Anyways that's all from me :)

Here's to more Nino in 2024! Take care of yourselves and see you next chapter!