Shibuya Snapshots

Friendship

I almost forgot about this, actually. I told myself I would do it as soon as I got home from school since I had early release today, so naturally, I procrastinated and went "oh shit, it's nine."

But I'm posting this at eleven pm so HA it's not late.

It may have been three years since they've all truly gotten a chance to hang out together, but their friendship is stronger than ever.

-xXx-

Neku's back, Shiki, Beat, and Rhyme can finally smile again from the bottom of their heart and Eri could not be happier. While she didn't know him that well, she was glad that Joshua was starting to hang out with them more. He had often stuck to Neku's side like glue, flirting all the while, so it wasn't too much of a surprise that he stopped when Neku disappeared. There were rare occasions that Shiki managed to drag him out places.

The tension between Joshua and Beat, Shiki, and occasionally Neku was practically non-existent. She nor Rhyme had known what it had been about before, but if Beat told them then they didn't show it. Then again, there was no doubt that Rhyme didn't have a single mean bone in their body.

And so, their group came back together after three long years, and the friendship between them bloomed again. And with that rekindled friendship, their regular outings around Shibuya continued as normal. Today they were at an arcade, as per Beat's suggestion. For whatever reason, Joshua had not fought him on it, despite arcades not being his scene. He stood right next to Neku and agreed as long as everyone else did.

There was a quick talk about inviting some others that they recently made friends with, but it was quickly decided that they wanted to do something just between them this time. Eri didn't know who they were talking about, and Joshua seemed suspiciously hesitant about meeting up with whoever these people were, but she supposed that she could meet them another time.

"Yo, Phones! Priss-Kid!" Beat calls from a few meters away. He really didn't need to shout. "Come try this game!"

The group gathers around one of the simple dancing games with the arrows on the ground.

"Really?" Neku questions, an eyebrow raised and a grin on his face.

"I'll pass," Joshua says, answering the unasked question.

"You chickenin' out, yo?" Beat teases.

"I don't do the whole sweating thing, thank you very much," Joshua gives a tight frown.

"I doubt anyone can keep up with you, Beat," Rhyme shakes their head, smiling.

"Man, that's no fun," Beat complains. "Y'all are stale. Shiki? Eri? C'mon..."

Shiki quickly shakes her head. "No thank you, Beat. I have two left feet."

No one else wants to take him up on the challenge. Eri, on the other hand...

"You're going down," Eri grins, giving him a determined look.

"Hell yeah! That's what I'm talkin' about!"

Eri steps up with him taking the spot on the right while Beat takes the spot on his left. Beat slips his headphones off and hands them to Rhyme. Oh boy, he was serious about this, wasn't he? In that case...

"Shiki, watch my shoes for me."

"Huh? O-Okay, just don't slip. There's no grip up there."

Beat, naturally, skips all the easy songs and finds the one with the fastest rhythm and amps it up to the highest difficulty. Beat wrings out his limbs and Eri bounces on her toes as the opening notes open.