Yukiou & Velveteen — The Snack Run

As the lights outside this little convenience store flashed in all the colors Burrowgatory usually flashed in, a lone bun flipped through the magazine rack with a sigh. Ever so carefully they reached out and flipped around one of the front facing magazines—the one with their face dutifully plastered on the cover, thank you very much—while grabbing another freshly-sealed copy for a certain someone who liked to collect this sort of thing. They looked down at the rest of the contents of the basket slung across their little arm — tofu, a couple energy drinks, a bag of reduced-fat chips, garlic powder (they were out), three bags of assorted greens, and… one slice of ube roll.

Groceries… how embarrassing it was that they had to come out to get this stuff. The only place around this side of town that was open this late was this bun-only store, and the other people that they were working with were busy… if they wanted to stick to their diet, they needed to go out and procure ingredients for food themselves (as well as a couple choice picks from the buns they worked with — keeping up relations was important, after all). Thankfully, last time Peter dropped by he accidentally left one of those plug-in cooking pots by this specific studio, so they could make a quick little midnight hotpot… with a sigh, they got in line to check out—

With the whispering of other buns, their ears twitched. What… What were they whispering about? Awkwardly they tugged the mask they wore further up their face, turning around… no one behind. Rarely did buns drop into this place this late at night—they KNEW, they’ve had to do this at least once before to their chagrin—so when they faced front to see the small gaggle of customers (and employees) seemingly flocking around the person in front of them… they couldn’t help but quietly gasp in surprise.

“H-hey, um, aren’t you that guy… the guy on this magazine, here?”
“No. That can’t be me. Can I have a tofu bun, please?”
“N-no really, that’s totally you isn’t it???”
“Actually scratch that, can I get two tofu buns?”

The seemingly bug-eyed cashier jabbed a hoof at a separate magazine than the one in the masked bun’s basket. A rival model, a sparkling idol, someone that this bun has worked with before… Yukiou Larimara?! In the flesh?! He sounds dead inside, did he actually sound like that before? Nooo, right?!?! But he’s standing here, gold crown and all—NO MASK, no NOTHING—buying THREE bags of HIGH SODIUM cheese puffs and TWO tofu buns?!

“I—I, um, sir… wait, hold on, I…” And this dunce—as the flustered bun at the counter shuffled around for pen and paper, for autograph reasons of course—simply did not pay ANY ATTENTION AT ALL to how many eyes he drew to himself.
“Actually… Can I have three tofu buns? And a sesame bun too, just in case. Oh actually do you guys sell that new cake? I saw it in a commercial—” Dear Murmur. How dense was this bun?!

Frankly, Velveteen was appalled.

Before the store clerk could overheat due to embarrassment, Velveteen shoved themselves forward and slammed a bag of carats down on the counter.

“Oh! Oh, uh, dear customer—”
“Keep the change, this is for me and him. You—” Velveteen jabbed their hoof into Yukiou’s fluff. “—you come with me. Right now.”

They didn’t give the other idol the time of day to respond much past a mildly surprised peep (if you could even call that monotone exclamation ‘mild’) — Velveteen simply shoveled all of Yukiou’s purchases into his arms (including the tofu buns and sesame bun) and pushed the bun by his ears out of the store, down an alleyway, and out from the sight of the general public. And once Velveteen was sure that no one was following them… they pulled their mask down and pointed at Yukiou with an accusatory hoof.

“You are indeed Yukiou Larimara! I would recognize that pattern anywhere. Now, can you please tell me what you were—”
“A-a-aaaaah, it’s Velvs! I didn’t recognize you for a minute. Yaaaaa… So cool, Velvs! If you were behind me in line, you should’ve said so! Want a tofu bun?” Casually, Yukiou slid a tofu bun into Velveteen’s hoof. Frankly they were so flabbergasted at this turn of events that they could only stare at the bun for a solid ten seconds before letting out a long breath.

“No… no I would not like a tofu bun, thank you—V-velvs?!” They put it back in Yuki’s arms in a robotic motion, reeling from how… different Yukiou was off the clock. “Ahem. Well, I would most certainly like to know what you were doing here, per say. During our work together I did not flag you for the type to be so… so…”
“Careless? Yeah, my manager says that too. But look, buy one get one free on the hot foods at the end of the day.”
“Mayhaps you should listen to your manager when it comes to things like this?! You’re quite a bit more of a handful than you let on, Yukiou… also please do not call me ‘Velvs’.” Velveteen felt a little guilty looking at Yukiou’s pout after hearing that last line, but nodded as the ditzy idol begrudgingly nodded.

“Alright, alright… is ‘Velvet’ okay then?”
“If you must. Now come on — we need to get back to the studio. Aren’t you scheduled to come in soon, actually? We’re going to the same place.”
“Oh, are we?” Cue Yukiou checking his schedule on his phone, “… we are! Wild.” And also cue Velveteen letting out a sigh. Digging around in the contents of their bag, they threw some glasses on Yukiou’s face and handed him a magazine to hide behind… oh yeah, and the crown has to go for now… sadly.

“I know a good route to take to get back to the studio that doesn’t see a lot of traffic. Hide yourself, and follow me… and DON’T tell anyone about this whole ordeal, alright?”
“Yuh-huh. Thank you, Velvet!”
“… you’re welcome.” What a tiring grocery run…