Chapter Text
It was supposed to be a fairly normal day for Miyuki Shirogane, if perhaps a bit lonely. Living in America was fine, but it was during these times when he truly began to feel the change. With the Christmas season edging into view and all classes slowly winding down, he had expected a brief visit from Kaguya and maybe some messages from the rest of his friends. Maybe an online CO-OP game, if he were lucky.
So, what were they ALL doing here?
"Not that I don't appreciate it- And I really do, but..." Miyuki Shirogane stared in disbelief, seeing people he had expected to be gone for several months more. Amidst the roar of the bustling American airport, the members of the former student council all loitered in front of him. "How did ALL of you get here?"
"Dad's interested in expanding our company to the Global Market, so our family's on vacation." The complete absence of the rest of Ishigami’s family showed how much of a family vacation it really was. With a shrug, he pointed at the girl next to him. "They don't really care what I do here, though, as long as SHE’S fine."
"I convinced my parents to let me tag along." Iino clarified, standing next to Ishigami. They were close to each other, but only because they were travelling with each other. "Mom and Dad didn’t trust him very much, but since he’s taken care of me before, they decided to give him a second chance."
"You should've seen dad's face, he was TERRIFIED of seeing Iino again. Made me SWEAR to make sure she gets home safe and sound. Apparently he only remembers her as the girl who broke her arm to save me." Ishigami crackled a small, exhausted chuckle. “She practically blackmailed him into bringing her along. I didn’t know she had it in her.”
"Next time you trip, you're on your own." Iino frowned, suppressing a yawn.
Shirogane shook his head, letting those two tire themselves out with their bickering. With a sigh, he turned towards the last unusual member of their group, Kaguya being a familiar sight. "How about you, Fujiwara? How did you get here?"
"I found a way."
"Uhhh..."
"I found a way." Fujiwara repeated, the blankness in her stare intensifying. "Who cares? We're all here, let's go have some fun!"
One glance at everyone immediately shot down that plan. While Kaguya and Fujiwara were fine, their juniors were very obviously running on fumes. Shaking his head, Shirogane pointed at the two tired members. “Maybe you should all rest first. Some of you look jetlagged.”
Jet-lag! As Japan is on the complete opposite side of the world from America, it stands to reason that day and night are completely reversed for both countries! But the human body does not automatically adjust when travelling, so their sleep schedule is still set to Japan's nighttime, and thus falls asleep during the American day!
Suppressing a yawn, Ishigami glanced over at Kaguya. "Shinomiya-Senpai... How are you fine?"
"Oh, I'm used to it by now." Kaguya smiled, her constant travelling to America giving her immunity to jetlag’s effects. "Fujiwara is a frequent traveller too, so she's also quite used to jet-lag. But you... I'm surprised you're still standing, honestly."
"Ah. To catch the American streamers, I used to stay up til early in the morning. This isn't new..." But despite Ishigami’s words, his head was drooping as he stood. "I haven't done it in a while."
"How about this: Everyone spends the morning sleeping in, and we'll go out during nighttime?" Shirogane suggested, to murmurs of assent from everyone, some more clearly functioning than others.
A phone began to buzz. Before it had buzzed thrice, Kaguya flicked it open, sent a message, and swiftly returned it back into her pocket. "Our chaffeur's here. I've taken the liberty of renting out a hotel for the four of us. I would have helped you buy out your apartment so we could have all stayed in one location, but..."
Shirogane shook his head. Despite his newfound wealth, he refused to spend any more than necessary, at least until his debt was repaid. "I can stay the night with you all, if you want."
"Please do. I don't want to be the only guy there."
“Stupid… You’re always with someone else.” Iino grumbled in her dreamlike haze, her filters shutting down for lack of energy. “Why can’t it be me?”
Thankfully (or was it unfortunately?), Ishigami had begun to succumb to sleep, his brain slowing down immensely. Judging by the lack of any reaction, it seemed like he hadn’t caught her words.
Glancing among themselves, the three seniors wondered: Just how obvious could someone be and still fail? Before she could start launching even more incriminating statements, Shirogane began shepherding both the juniors into the waiting car.
The hotel Shinomiya had chosen was nice, though not as elegant as some of the most famous hotels out there: Shirogane suspected that Shinomiya had chosen by location, instead of grandeur. It was deep in the city's heart, not too far from Shirogane's own apartment. All the conveniences of modern life were just a brisk walk away, from arcades to movie theatres and even restaurants. Even if only for 1 or 2 nights, they could still enjoy a sightseeing tour of the city just fine.
Dropping off the barely lucid Ishigami and Iino on a lobby couch, the three of them went up to check into the rooms Kaguya had reserved. Speeding ahead of them all, Fujiwara was the first to make it to the receptionist.
"Leave it to me! I've been studying English just for this!" Jabbing a thumb at herself, Fujiwara sparkled so confidently that stars burst out of her. Walking up to the receptionist, she began to speak English. "I Room 325 with friends rented! Room 325 Take please!"
"... Sorry?"
Ah. Vocabulary was studied, but not grammar. A surprisingly common mistake. "My apologies. My name is Shinomiya. We have a reservation for room 325 and 326?"
"Please wait a moment. An employee will escort you up shortly." The receptionist nodded once, gesturing for them to return to the lobby.
Walking beside her, Shirogane raised an eyebrow. "You've been studying your English too?"
"Just a little. I can't have you translate for me all the time when I join you here."
“Why not? I’ll always be by your side.”
"You don't have to rub it in my face." Fujiwara muttered, grumbling to herself.
Almost instantly, they disengaged. There would be enough time for that later, without poking at the chaos demon that was Fujiwara. Thankfully, it seemed like another target had just opened up to distract her.
"Help." In stark contrast to the barely awake loner a few minutes ago, Ishigami looked as if he had been shot full of adrenalin. He was sitting stone-still, not a muscle on him moving. The reason why was evident: Iino was slumped on his shoulder, gently snoring away. Sleep had claimed her before it could claim him. A panicked eye turned to Shirogane, a desperate plea echoed within.
And Miyuki Shirogane, the legendary president of the 68th council, the man who rewrote a Shuuchin legend by himself… just gave Ishigami a thumbs up. He knew full well about Iino's feelings, and was familiar enough with Ishigami to know that if he truly hated the touch, he would have set her down on the couch by now. Plus, he would be lying if he said Ishigami's reaction wasn't a little bit funny.
Kaguya was similarly unhelpful, simply looking away as if she somehow hadn't spotted either of them. And Fujiwara, in true Fujiwara fashion, was relishing each and every second of Ishigami's panic.
Staring at everyone's inaction, Ishigami could barely process their betrayals! Surely they weren't just going to leave him like this, trapped underneath a sleeping person? But as he watched their luggage get wheeled away, Ishigami felt a sinking pit of dread as everyone began to walk off. Were they really just going to leave him here?!
No choice, he needed to act or be left behind. Holding his breath, Ishigami nudged her cautiously, trying to pull her out of her sleep.
Two bleary eyes blinked open, locking on to his own gaze. "Tired..."
"Here. Take my arm and-" Without further prompting, Iino threw her entire weight on him, causing them both to stagger dangerously. Supporting her like he would a drunkard, the both of them staggered their way to the rest of the group.
"Wow. I was expecting a bridal carry or something." Fujiwara smirked, jabbing at him from outside his range. "Are you sureeee you don't want to impress the princess?"
"Quiet, Shiptrash." Ishigami grumbled, his eyelids growing heavier. "I just want to collapse on the first bed I see..."
Fluffy. This bed was so unbelievably fluffy. Sinking down into the waves of fabric and cotton, Miyuki felt his muscles loosen into a comfortable heap. An exhausted sigh was caught within the bedsheets, muffling out into the bedroom. Adjusting his head, he caught a glimpse of warming gold light shining into his eyes. The hotel truly lived up to it's standards of comfort, at least with their beds.
The bedsheets shifted as somebody took a seat right beside him. A familiar elegant voice tugged on his ears, lightly teasing him. "Seems like someone's enjoying themselves."
"Just a bit tired… I had to drop everything and rush to the airport when I heard the news.”
"Well, why not take a rest, then?"
Despite himself, Miyuki began to push himself back up, shaking off the exhaustion. "... I shouldn’t sleep. Not when everyone else-"
"Just lie there. Five minutes is all I ask."
Who was he to deny her? Gladly taking the excuse, Miyuki dropped back onto the bed for a little bit longer. A few extra minutes wouldn’t hurt his schedule. Steady breaths slowed down as he closed his eyes. The silence was peaceful-
No, it wasn’t silent. Slowly, he became conscious of whispering in the air. You’ve been working so hard… You deserve a rest…
Odd. Miyuki shifted his head, trying to get a better look at the whisperer. "Are you trying to give me ASMR?"
"There must be some sort of benefit, if nearly 25 million people use it." The matter-of-factness in Kaguya’s tone was a jarring contrast to the soothing whispering a few moments ago. "Just listen to the sound of my voice."
Well… Miyuki didn’t hate it. Closing his eyes for a few moments longer, he teetered dangerously over the border into sleeping. Maybe a few minutes more wouldn’t hurt…
Kaguya didn’t want him to leave, but she knew he wouldn’t forgive himself for slacking off. A gentle nudge to an elbow brought him back into reality. "Our time's up."
"All right." Feeling ever so slightly more refreshed, Shirogane pushed himself off the bed, getting back up onto his feet. "We'll check in on the three to make sure they're all right, then I’ll finish off my schoolwork for the day. We'll meet back here by 6 PM PST. Is that fine?"
"Quite. I suppose we'll see each other then." Leaving the room, they both began to accompany each other outside, when-
SSSHHHH
Fujiwara hissed at the creaking door, making more noise than the door and their carpeted footsteps could ever hope to achieve. Confused, the couple observed the strange scenario. The very unusual sight of Fujiwara trying to be stealthy greeted their eyes. She was standing right outside hotel room 326, peeking in through a crack in the doorway. Sparing one glance at the two, she frantically motioned for them to come closer. Carefully, both Shirogane and Kaguya crouched down, curiosity driving them forward. Through the crack in the doorway, they saw… something they should have expected, honestly.
Iino was already halfway to the dream world the last they saw her, and Ishigami was very close behind. Soon after they arrived to their rooms, sleep must have taken both of them at the same time. They had fallen asleep upright on the bed, leaning on each other instead of lying down. It was a scene straight out of a romance manga, minus the sparkling heart filters.
"I know neither of them would have agreed to this, but I don't think either of them would want us to interrupt." Shirogane muttered. "Maybe we can give them the room for now?"
"That's a great idea! And later on, we can-" Fujiwara froze. "Wait, I don't want to see you two smooching it up! Why am I the only single person in the council?!"
Technically, those two weren't dating, but they might as well be. Kaguya took her eyes off the doorway for a split second. "Hayasaka's supposed to be about an hour's drive away from here."
"What was that?"
"Nothing."
Dismissing the thought, Fujiwara began to push the door open, taking care to make sure it didn't creak.
"What are you doing?"
"If I push them over, it'll look like they slept together. Can you imagine the look on their faces when they wake up next to each other, in a hotel room they don't recognize?" The diabolical grin on her face could have put a demon lord to shame. "Ooh, and I bet Iino's a hugger! She seems like the type to use a teddy bear."
As hilarious as that sounded, Shirogane knew that was basically murder via heart attack. "That's way too far."
"Traitor. That's the last time I ever teach you anything." Despite that, Fujiwara continued to slowly push the door open, fully intent on getting inside. "Can I AT LEAST take a few photos?"
Kaguya placed a hand on Fujiwara’s shoulder, preventing her from entering. "Hold on. This seems rather natural, does it not?” She shifted in place, settling into a crouch. ”I want to practice my photography. Will you let me?"
With no further arguments from either of them, Kaguya snuck into the room. The carpeted flooring masked her footsteps, and while she was no Hayasaka in terms of stealth, Kaguya was nimble enough not to awaken the light sleepers. Slipping out her phone like it was a spy gadget, she angled herself carefully, trying to capture the perfect lighting for the both of them. There. That was it!
SNAP!
She forgot to turn off her phone’s volume setting! Instinctively, Kaguya stopped breathing. Frozen in their places, all three of them fearfully watched the sleepers, carefully looking for a shift in their eyelids or any sign to abandon ship. Trapped in Ground Zero of the potential crossfire, Kaguya only had one thought running through her mind: HOW DO PEOPLE PRANK WITHOUT GETTING ANXIETY ATTACKS?
Thankfully, aside from some small shifts into each other, neither of the sleepers moved. It seemed that their sleep was far too deep for the snap to disturb. Performing her calming routine, Kaguya breathed a small sigh of relief before booking it out of the room. As soon as she escaped, the other two released breaths they didn’t even know they were holding.
"Done." If there was one thing Kaguya had truly mastered, it was taking absolutely embarrassing mistakes in perfect stride. With no small hint of pride, she flourished her photo. "Take a look."
"Send me a copy!"
Shirogane felt a bead of nervous sweat drip down. "You're going to send it to them, aren't you?"
"Of course! What kind of friend would I be if I didn't?"
With Shirogane cramming the rest of his assessments for the day and their two juniors asleep, both Kaguya and Fujiwara set off on their own. They decided on a nearby fast-food restaurant for now, to try out some traditional American food for lunch. Or, at least, they were supposed to before Fujiwara had a sudden thought: Why not do a little comparison?
"And now- The taste test! American-style chicken Versus Japanese-style chicken!" Miming a microphone with a pen, Fujiwara grandly gestured as if she was a host in a game show. "With our main judge- Kaguya!"
They were lucky that the restaurant was mostly empty. Keeping up a dignified front, Kaguya elected not to respond to the growing madness.
Grabbing a drumstick like all the commercials did, Fujiwara bit in happily. "Go on, dig in! There's enough for the both of us."
There was no way she was picking it up with her hands. Picking up a knife and fork, Kaguya experimentally weighed them in her hands, comparing their weight to the chopsticks she was used to. She had learned how to use these before, but she wasn’t fully used to them just yet. Cutting a small piece out of both dishes, she took a few experimental bites.
Hm. They both tasted the same to her: Crispy. She suspected the American vs Japanese labels were just a marketing ploy.
Not that Fujiwara cared, scarfing down her food. Maybe this was just an excuse to buy two buckets of chicken?
"So, how are things going?" Fujiwara asked, her mouth stuffed. "Y'know, with Miyuki."
Kaguya raised an eyebrow, confused by this sudden interest in their relationship. "As smoothly as we could hope."
Fujiwara shrugged, completely unsurprised. "Well, of course. He's not the kind of guy to go mistreating his girlfriend."
"Didn't you say that anyone in love with him had a life of fire and brimstone waiting for them?"
"Well, DUH. Imagine him trying to give you a bridal carry, but he trips on his own feet! Or singing a love song, but his love song sounds more like a clown falling down the stairs!" Chika shook her head wildly, shivering as if she were in a snowstorm. "Absolute torture!"
"And to think I was worried about you stealing him..."
An absolute look of disgust filled her features, and Kaguya suspected that it wasn't the chicken that brought it on. "What? No!"
"A foolish thought, in hindsight." It made perfect sense to her at the time. How was she supposed to know that Chika had no taste whatsoever?
"If anything, he's the one who has to worry! I might just snatch you away when he's not looking." Chika giggled cheerily, completely unaware of the growing bloodlust on Kaguya. "Kidding, kidding! Unless?"
Is this woman serious right now?
"Well, at least you're not Iino. She seems like the type to get dangerously jealous." The oblivious woman laughed, completely unaware of who the most dangerous person was right now. "Don't tell her I said this, but she's absolutely terrifying when she isn't holding back. I never thought you could do one of those super-quick games-"
"A speedrun?" Kaguya filled in, only somewhat familiar with the term thanks to her junior.
"Yeah. I never thought you could do THAT with a relationship, but there she goes! We're gonna need to keep an eye on those two, for Iino's safety." A frown filled her features. "And Ishigami too. I guess."
Kaguya frowned. She didn't know Iino as well as the others, but she knew Ishigami could be scarily intense with his romantic plans. Only he could've thought of wrangling together something as obtusely romantic as the flowers spelling a message. But it should be fine, as long as she kept an eye on hi-
Kaguya's fork froze in midair. In her relief that she made it out unscathed, she completely forgot about one massive detail. "... We left those two in a hotel room together."
"Who cares?" Fujiwara shrugged, finishing off the last of her food. "Ishigami can be creepy, but he's not going to do ANYTHING. Sense of chivalry and all that. And Iino's fast asleep, so she's not gonna be doing anything, either."
"Do you seriously believe that?"
I can drop the good girl act, right?
All color left their faces.
"WE NEED TO STOP THEM!"
Iino’s first thoughts on waking were disjointed, as all waking thoughts were. The first thing she noticed was how comfortable she felt. Hm. She was on a bed, wasn’t she? That would explain it.
Opening her eyes, she glanced over to her left. Wow, multiple beds. After all the fanfics she read, she half expected there to be only one bed.
Come to think of it, how had she gotten here? She remembered a long trip by plane, followed by a frantic scramble in the airport to meet Miyuki, then it all turned blurry. She was carried here, she thought. But by who?
And then, FINALLY, she noticed the guy sleeping right next to her.
Frantic, it took all her self control not to jump off the bed. Taking heavy breaths, Iino tried to recall why exactly they were sleeping on the same bed together. She remembered him helping her over to the bed, before both of them sat on top after he set her down. Somewhere along the way, they must have both dozed off and fallen over onto the bed. We haven’t done anything. Iino confirmed with a sigh of relief. She glanced down, just in time to catch an eyelid slowly blinking awake.
He blinked once.
She blinked back.
THUD
Ishigami flew off the bed, executing a perfect landing halfway across the room. Stumbling into the second bed, he scrambled back wildly, a blushing mess.
Both their first thoughts were to start screaming at each other, mostly to distract themselves from the burning embarrassment on their faces. They both took a deep breath, then-
Hold on. They were better than this. Surely after all they've been through, they could do more than awkward yelling and arguments? Ignoring her mortification, Iino broke the silence. “Do you want to watch a movie?"
“I- um… Sure.” Ishigami gladly took the out.
Well… that meant she had to pick out a movie now, right? There was a TV off in the corner of the room. A DVD player was plugged below it, a relic of a pre-streaming era. That meant she had to choose from the DVD racks, unless they both wanted to watch 2 hours of crackling static. Picking through the list, Iino’s thoughts began to race. None of these movies were ones she recognized, so she needed to go off genre instead.
With only a few moments to decide, Iino decided to pick the most generically romantic DVD cover they had. It might open up a few opportunities for her to use later, if he agreed to it. Sworn Heart Melody IX It wasn’t a movie she recognized, but surely any movie with that many sequels had to know what it was doing, right?
Seeing the DVD in her hand, Ishigami frowned. “Oh.”
“Is there something wrong with it?”
"Any movie with THAT many sequels is just going to be formulaic. They just keep repeating the same things over and over. Once you know everything that happens, then you stop feeling things." He rolled his eyes, the embodiment of apathy. "In fact, I bet I won't even cry at all."
Really now? That wasn’t the person she knew. Tension easing, Iino decided to challenge that thought. "I'll take that bet."
Ishigami stared at her for a few seconds, before a smug smirk crossed his face. "You're on."
Out of breath and completely panicked, Fujiwara smashed straight through the door! "Whatever you're doing, make sure you're safe-"
A blank eyed Iino was staring off in the distance, having seen the horrors of hell itself. One tear fell down her cheek, trailing down sparkles. Ishigami was sitting next to her, absent mindedly patting her. A stream of tears was falling down his one visible eye.
Sad violin music was playing out of a TV in the corner.
"The hell happened here?"