Anything that's Ordinary

Neku was confused.

This wasn't Joshua's room. He was sure that this fanfiction usually started with fourth-wall breaking and Joshua's room. Well, there had only been two chapters and it wasn't even indicated last chapter that they had started in Joshua's room again but it was Joshua's room. The fourth-wall breaking had just been covered, so at least that was the same.

The point he was trying to get at was that this wasn't Joshua's room when it should have been.

It looked more like a studio set.

Joshua and Beat were just standing around, not doing much.

"Er…Josh? Beat? What's going on?" Neku asked.

"Oh, hello dear," said Joshua. "Good of you to finally show up. I thought that I'd never get to meet you, and plainly that would have been a great loss. Now that I've seen you for the first time, I mean."

"…Meet me? Uh…haven't we already met before?"

"Watchu 'talkin about?" Beat looked at Neku as if he had never seen him before. "This is our first day here, yo."

"No, I swear this is the third chapter," Neku said, pretty sure of himself.

"I wouldn't have forgotten someone like you, dear," said Joshua, waving a hand around. "Trust me, this is our first chapter together. We're here for a one-shot, you know."

"Our fanfiction doesn't need continuity whatsoever, so we're like a bunch of one-shots anyway," Neku said, ignoring his own dislike of breaking the fourth-wall. "But it's still the third chapter."

"This guy's whack," said Beat, exchanging a look with Joshua. "Let's just get started, yo."

"Whatever," said Neku, because he was starting to get a headache. "What are we doing today?"

"We're supposed to do a scene prompted by the word 'Betrayal'," Joshua explained, smirking. "Honestly, did you not read the job description before applying?"

Neku didn't sign up for this job, but he thought it'd be pointless to say anything about it. "Okay, okay, where's the script?"

Shiki ran up from off-set. "Yay! First appearance at the start of a chap – I mean, it's nice to be meeting you all for the first time. Here are your scripts."

The three boys took them and began reading.

"Oh yeah," said Shiki, as she retrieved a quick author's note from her pocket. "The writer is aware that there may be people unfamiliar with this fandom that would be reading this particular chapter."

That's weird, Neku thought. And this script I'm reading is getting weirder and weirder too…

"So," Shiki said, "if you want the basic low-down on the characters from the game: Neku's originally anti-social-turned-not-anti-social, Joshua's kind of a prick, Beat's not that bright but he acts like a tough guy, Rhyme likes to use adages for everything and I love fashion but sometimes I'm a little insecure."

She summarised their personalities way too fast there for Neku's liking. Pretty accurate, though.

"And I don't think the writer is going to bother describing them much so you might as well search up what we look like if you want. Just go search 'TWEWY' and you'll see us."

The writer's just being lazy again…And hold up, there's something wrong with this script!

"Ready!" shouted Rhyme, who was sitting on the tall director's chair.

"Set!" Neku was sure neither Rhyme nor the chair had been there before – oh forget it, they were beginning now, anyway.

"Action!"

xxxxx

Hey! Hey!

This world has too much to do.

No! No!

We can't do everything but,

Go! Go!

All things fun are okay and

Anything that's ordinary too.

"Oi!" yelled Neku in protest. "That's the 'Anything that's Ordinary' theme song! You still expect me to believe that this is the first time we're doing this when we're using the same stupid theme song- "

Beat promptly shut Neku up by giving him a chop on the top of his head.

"Good work, Beat," said Joshua, nodding. "If we've taken the theme song from somewhere else, I must say that whoever wrote this must be a brilliant person."

"You wrote it!"

"I know I'm brilliant, but it doesn't mean that it was me."

"Joshua!"

Xxxxx

Anything that's Four-ced

High school – a time for the spring of youth to burst forth. A time for teens to put pour their souls into hard work, be it studies, their after-school club, or the pursuit of romance. Most likely, there would be a combination of at least two of these things.

One of these particular clubs was the basketball club. Their trainers squeaked against the floor as they ran, either trying to dribble past the defence, or trying to steal the ball from whoever was in possession.

"Good work everyone. We're done for the day."

Shibuya High School's team in particular were passionate about their clubs. You could see it by the sweat that glistened of their bodies as they stepped off the court.

Neku, the unlikely captain – stoic but reliable.

He smiled, in satisfaction, knowing that the training was going well. Their team would definitely make it to nationals this year. He would make sure of it.

Joshua, the 'Ace' of the team, the player that looked like he danced as he dodged everyone and shot basket after basket, with a magnitude of grace.

He walked up to Neku, put an arm around his shoulder. "Well, dear Captain. Looks like we'll be a shoe-in for the tournament, huh?"

Joshua's breath tickled Neku's ear, though he did not move. "I wouldn't say it'll be easy, but we definitely have a chance."

The slight laugh Joshua made Neku rush off towards the changing room. Joshua smirked watching Neku leave. He did not notice that there was someone else watching him too.

xxxxx

"Yo, Priss." Joshua found that a water bottle had been tossed his way. Being the team's best player, he caught it skilfully.

He thought everyone had already left, since he decided to shoot some more hoops before closing up. Turned out that Beat, another key player of their team, was still staying behind. He was the powerhouse of the team, and also the person who got Neku into basketball, as the story went.

"Hello Daisukenojo," said Joshua, knowing that it would rile Beat up if he called him by his given name. "I didn't notice you there."

Beat was leaning on the lockers across from Joshua, arms crossed and expression difficult to read, though he did show a slight tinge of annoyance.

"...There's somethin' I wanna ask you." He said, then paused seeming to consider something. "Man to man."

"Hmm, what is it?"

"Are you…you know…that way...for Captain?" he looked uncomfortable asking, but at the same time, seeming to be determined for an answer.

"That's a…interesting question to ask me," said the platinum-haired teen, closing his locker and giving his full attention to Beat. "Why are you asking?"

Beat looked like he had been caught out on that question. He stumbled over his answer, "Y-you know, yo. Like I mean it'd be weird if…wait no!" He waved his hands in front of his face. "Not 'weird'. I mean it's cool if you like dudes. I mean not cool, but – " He covered his face. "Argh, what I'm tryin' to say that if you do, like Captain like that then I think you should probably lay off 'till like…after the tournament. I've been friends with him for long, yo, and if you try and make a move, he'll get distracted and we might lose…you know?"

He uncovered his eyes, waiting for Joshua's response.

He was stunned, when Joshua began to giggle and move towards Beat.

"Is that really why you're asking?" Joshua almost purred. "Are you sure you aren't jealous?"

And of course, Beat couldn't stop his stupid face from turning red as Joshua's face started getting a little too close to his.

Thump!

Both boys turned to see Neku, standing in the doorway. His sports bag was laying at his feet, where he had dropped it. His eyes were wide and there was hurt written all over his face.

"…Beat? You and Josh?"

Beat looked horrified.

But he didn't try to deny anything.

Joshua's eyes shifted back and forth between the two other boys and narrowed.

Neku looked at them both, looking betrayed.

"I…I've always." He swallowed. "I've always loved – "

He clenched his fists together, closing his eyes.

…

…

..

"Loved - ARGH I CAN'T SAY IT!" Neku pointed at the director, Rhyme. "Who wrote this freakin' script? Are you crazy? There is no way in hell I'm going to finish that line!"

"Cut! Cut! Cut!" Rhyme declared, snapping down the clapperboard (yes, that's what the things director's use while saying 'cut' are called, in case you didn't already know).

Joshua stepped away from Beat and shook his head. "How unprofessional."

"Aw man! Don't tell me we goin' to have to do that scene again!" Beat complained. "I hate repleats."

"You mean 'repeats', Beat," Joshua corrected smoothly.

Neku looked at his co-workers in dismay. "Are you guys actually okay with this scene!?"

"Yes. Pretty much," said Joshua smirking. "I do look good as an ace."

"They promised me a lifetime pass to any ramen shop for a year," said Beat, shrugging.

Who's they!? And just how much does your stomach control you!?

"You – no, whatever. I'm not even going to try to understand you guys anymore." He turned to Rhyme. "But Rhyme! What gives? What was with that crappy ass, seriously uncomfortable, unbelievable piece of script!" Neku took in a deep breath. Phew, that was a mouthful.

"I thought it was quite fitting. You all look the part, you know," said Rhyme, cheerfully.

What is she trying to say about me!?

"Okay, first of all – I cannot help that we all look like shonen-ai manga bishies or something. That's all on Squeenix."

Everyone nodded. True.

"Secondly – I can see that you're trying to go for some warped up BL love triangle for this 'betrayal' prompt, but why did it have to be us? And what's with the stupid basketball team setting?"

"Because audiences like watching this stuff!" called out Shiki from the side. "And you just had to stop at the good part too…"

I'm going to ignore that last part.

"What Shiki means to say," said Rhyme, as if talking to a two-year old, "is that BL seems to be very popular these days, especially within sports manga and anime. Therefore in order to go with the prompt and secure enough readership, we combined the two."

"Preach," said Beat, mindlessly agreeing with Rhyme, as always.

"You've got to be kidding me." Did no one other than Neku see the problem with this? "Okay, fine, the setting is reasonable from an economic point of view." Or something. "But your choice in actors is just wrong." He pointed at Joshua. "How is that scrawny guy meant to be the ace of a basketball team?"

"Harsh," Joshua said.

"And how on earth is someone like Beat meant to notice this?" Neku was referring to the notes on his script. "Beat is meant to notice the 'subtle smouldering gazes' that Joshua is supposedly sending me." Neku looked at the notes again. "What the hell, how can a 'smouldering gaze' be subtle anyway?" And to be honest the wording kinda creeped Neku out, he wasn't going to lie.

"Most importantly." Neku pointed at himself. "Why the hell am I…" He pointed down towards the script. "…in love with both of them?!"

Indeed, the the lines that Neku refused to finish off were: 'I've always loved you both. How could you guys get together without me?'

If Neku had actually read those lines out loud, he was sure that he would probably die, because all of his dignity and pride would have left the building.

"Also!" He continued, because Rhyme looked like she wanted to get them back on the scene. "I think we're being extremely OOC." 'Out of character', in case any of you lot aren't in with the fanfic lingo. "I mean, I'm already OOC but that was just over the top."

"Exactly!" Rhyme threw her arms out. "You see! It's not only a betrayal of love, but it's also a betrayal of the original character's personality! Pure genius!"

"What." Neku face-palmed.

…Actually, that kind of makes sense.

She got down from her seat and went to Neku. She looked like she wanted to put a hand on his shoulder, but she was too short. So she settled for patting his arm instead. "You see, Neku. There are times where you need to cast away your fear and do things that you have to do. Be it, this scene, or anything afterwards in your life. You've done it before – be it as starting over as an emo kid again and having being haunted by your love interest (a.k.a. Sanctuary), be it living through a hundred chapters dedicated to you and Shiki as a ship (a.k.a. Stitched Graffiti) or be it again, as the leader of a mainstream storyline (a.k.a. Deck 104). After all, you only live once."

Yes…yes…Neku had been through a lot. He had –spoiler alert, just go read the fanfics if you want to know what would have been written here – and even more. One lousy, stupid BL scene wasn't going to hold him do-

"Wait! Rhyme, did you just try to use 'YOLO' on me!?"

"…Maybe?" she said, looking up at him innocently (not).

"Okay, that's it." Neku walked over behind Rhyme and dug up one of the manuscripts in the pile at the back. "Look, there's something that looks like a decent prompt."

There were guns on the cover and it looked relatively short – Neku thought it couldn't be too bad.

Joshua raised a hand. "I think it's just too much of a hassle to change scenes."

"Nope, we're doing this," said Neku. He was going to get this prompt done properly and it looked decent enough. Guns? Pfft. Been there, done that. "Everyone, we're switching scenes."

xxxxx

Anything that's Four-ced – Take 2

Five ordinary friends, Neku, Beat, Joshua, Shiki and Rhyme, were currently participating in an activity that was enjoyed by most, but mastered by few – paintballing.

The rules for this round was simple. People could play solo, or they could form 'Pacts' with each other. The last remaining Player or Pact, would be declared the winners and would get double the ammo for the next round of the game. A Player was 'out' once they had been shot three times on target.

Right now, Neku and Joshua had a Pact, while Beat, Shiki and Rhyme were in the other. Neku and Joshua had agreed that the other team having an extra person was fine. Shiki herself had said that she probably didn't count as another player. (It was true, all of them knew what a bad shot she was).

The field they were playing on had barrels and wooden fences as well as iron sheets jutting out from the ground. Joshua and Neku were hiding behind one of these barrels, crouched down and attempting to strategize how to take out the opposite Pact.

"I think Beat will be the first one to come out at us," said Neku, having already been shot once by Beat. He had two 'lives' left. Fortunately, though, he and Joshua had each gotten one hit on Beat, so Beat had even less lives than him. "He probably just wants to charge in and take us out. A bit reckless, but with his aim he could do it."

"Agreed," said Joshua, without a hint of a smirk on his face.

Paintball was serious business.

Joshua pointed to his right. "I say we try and corner them. One of us will take Shiki out first. She'll probably scream and someone else, either Beat or Rhyme, will try and get to us. But what they don't know is that they'll be another one of us lying in wait. I'll jump out and shoot the both of them, and then next round it'll be easy pickings."

"Good plan, let's do it," said Neku, feeling like this plan would certainly succeed.

"I'll go after Shiki," said Joshua, decisively. "Less work than the other job."

"No, I'll go." Neku got up. "I know her better than you do." He slowly started on his way down one of the paths. "She's most likely camping out at one of the crossroads, where she'll think it'll be easier to catch one of us."

"Crossroads, hm? There's a saying that comes to mind with that," came Joshua's voice from behind him. "Life's little crossroads are often as simple as the pull of a trigger."

Bang!

Neku felt the paintball dig into the back of his protective gear, the suddenness of it throwing him forward. He turned around painfully, as Joshua stood over him. Now he was smirking.

That bastard.

"…"

Neku couldn't even say anything.

Ugh, this was Joshua! How could he have not seen this coming?

"Neku…Heehee, your face is priceless."

Damn it. Of course Joshua wouldn't mean it when making a Pact

Joshua aimed his paintball-gun at Neku again.

If he was fast enough, Neku could probably lay several shots on Joshua. He weakly raised his arms but they shook.

…

No, Neku could not betray the rules of paintball. Even though Joshua was an asshole, Neku played by the rules – he respected paintball. And he would go down, having played real paintball.

Neku lowered his gun.

Joshua's smirk went even wider, as if he knew Neku wouldn't be able to shoot him.

Bang!

There it was. The third shot, an obvious red splatter across Neku's chest.

Neku closed his eyes.

He…had lost…

…

…

…

Bang! Bang! Bang!

…Huh?

Neku opened his eyes and saw Joshua, with the most shocked look that Neku had ever seen. Joshua dropped his gun and fell to his knees and revealed:

Beat – standing behind Joshua and laughing his ass off.

"Hahahahahaha!" Beat was clutching his stomach. "Priss just team-killed you, Phones! Hahaha. And then he just stood there. Shit, haha. I've never won that easy! Ahahahahaha!"

Well. This was really embarrassing.

"Josh, I hate to say it, but –"

"Do not say another word, Neku Sakuraba."

…Joshua didn't look like he was going to get up anytime soon.

"Beat? Are you okay? Did you get them?"

Neku looked behind him and saw Shiki moving towards them. She looked relieved when she saw that Neku and Joshua were lying on the ground. "Phew. Looks like you got 'em, huh? Nice job Bea- woah!"

Shiki tripped over a piece of wood.

And her paintball-gun went off.

…

…

…

Beat could do nothing but stare at the hideous green that was splattered across his front. He was out of the game.

"…I would laugh, but that's just…really sad, man," said Neku, shaking in his head, feeling sympathy for Beat.

Joshua, though he guessed what had happened, was still ashamed of himself and did not look up, though Beat felt waves of pity hit him from below.

Beat sat down and crossed his legs, huffing. "Yo, this sucks."

Shiki looked like she wanted to crawl into a hole. Though she was technically a 'winner' she had basically just eliminated the person who actually made them win the game. "I'm so sorry."

The four of them stayed there, until Rhyme found them in their pathetic state and walked over, face looking solemn.

"You guys want to tell me what happened?" she asked.

"Nope." Neku was done with this whole 'talking' business.

"We shall not speak of it," said Joshua.

"I'm done, yo," said Beat. "Ain't got nothin' left in me."

"I'm sick of paintball," said Shiki, sounding tired.

Rhyme sighed. Seemed like they all must have done some really stupid things.

"Guess this is the last game, then?"

"Yeah," they all chorused.

They all learnt that day, that betrayal affected everyone. The one who was betrayed, the second person - who was doing the betraying, the third culprit - who laughed in the face of betrayal, and even the fourth, innocent passer-by, who was only near the site of betrayal. Betrayal was a powerful thing, after all, because when one was to 'betray' someone, one would have had to have that person's trust in the first place.

They also learnt to never play paintball with Rhyme again, because right after they answered her, she shot Shiki in the back three times, and then proceeded to walk off the field, humming a happy victory tune.

XXXXX

The scene ended on the pull-down screen and the words 'Anything that's Ordinary Episode 3' came into view. The room was very silent.

"Rhyme here!" The girl said, looking very content. "I'm delivering this chapter's 'Author's Note' this time around, too."

"We should have stuck to the BL," Neku said, in a very soft voice. "Since the writer hasn't read any BL, at least the parody of it won't have been too painful. I thought the guns on the cover were fine, because I've been down that route before." He thought it was familiar – it would be safe.

"Don't judge a book – or a manuscript – by its cover," said Rhyme wisely.

"That's why you shoulda kept your mouth shut, Phones," said Beat, pulling down his beanie. "At least in the first one was jus' stupid so we coulda jus' laughed about it. The second one was jus'…"

"Straight out humiliating," Joshua continued. Even he was looking down.

"Because we all know that's what we would have really done if we were playing paintball," Shiki finished off quietly.

…

As Rhyme was the only one not emotionally damaged by the one-shot, she pressed on. "The writer want to say that she hoped you enjoyed reading this chapter. This was part of the 'Twelve Shots of Summer' Challenge. The challenge can be found on the forum, and anyone is welcomed to join. The prompt for week four was 'betrayal', as was mentioned before."

"Neku, I'm sorry for pretending not to know you earlier," said Joshua, in the middle of the author's note. You knew it was bad when Joshua started apologising. "I just thought it would be funny and asked Beat to play along. That and before the change of rules the writer figured that this might not be considered a one-shot, so she thought it would be funny if another theme of betrayal was that she was breaking the rules. She wants to thank the rule change for crushing one of her dreams, I'm sure."

"…It does say that," Rhyme confirmed, from her cue card. "She did still kind of break the rules…since there were kind of two stories in one."

"Whatever, it's still a one-shot," said Neku, because he didn't care anymore. "Because it was one whole chain of events that made this so…so…" He hid his face in his collar.

"Also," Rhyme carried on, "she hoped everyone got the pun of the title of the chapter. Because the situations were all 'forced' in one way or another, and the word could be misspelled as 'four-ced', if you tried hard enough."

"This isn't even chapter four…this is chapter three…what was the point, yo?" Beat said, dejectedly.

"There was no point," Joshua muttered.

"I can't bring myself to do the segment where I make a preview or self-advertise. Rhyme already self-advertised for the writer earlier, anyway." Shiki was distressed, "How could she do this to us? How could she use us for this prompt like that? How could she betray us like that – "

…

…

…

The whole group went still as realisation hit them.

"WRITER, YOU DID NOT JUST – "

The end (of this chapter – they're not getting away from this fanfic that easily).