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It was a slow Thursday afternoon, when Lum had the idea to make herself a blanket fort. Usually Shinobu would be there to try and discourage her, but she was down at her part-time job, while Ryuunosuke was playing Overwatch in her room. She was completely free which, in this case, just meant free to be bored.
Lum grabbed all of the folded laundry airing racks that Shinobu had left folded up in the kitchen, of which there were several to choose from due to Ryuunosuke’s constant dumpster diving and freecycling. She unfolded them all out, and set them around the old beat up sofa, the tall ones acting as the towers for the ramparts of her fort, while the low long ones acted as the walls.
Next, Lum gathered all of the blankets she had from her own little room, including the ones on her bed. She dragged them all downstairs, and laid the largest and the thickest one out on the floor, beneath the couch. She placed several pillows on the covered floor. The foundation of the fort was ready.
Ryuunosuke opened the door of her room, stretching out her legs. After a couple of hours of Overwatch, she needed a break for the bathroom, plus some food. After the bathroom, Ryuunosuke made her way downstairs to the kitchen, passing Lum draping blankets over the laundry racks arranged around the couch.
It took Ryuunosuke a few minutes in front of the microwave before she realised what she had just saw. Slowly, she poked her head out from the kitchen door, staring at Lum and her half-built fort.
“Um… Lum?”
“I’m making a blanket fort,” Lum explained, as she pulled the blanket over both racks, creating a roof over the couch. “It’s not like this couch is being used for much else around here.”
Ryuunosuke stepped out of the kitchen, approaching the fort. “You know Shinobu is gonna freak when she sees this.”
Lum just smiled at Ryuunosuke. “Like that is something I’ve never seen before…” She ran out and pulled some chairs closer, to help act as supports for the blanket roof.
Quietly, Ryuunosuke went upstairs to her room again. She gathered up her own blankets and comforter, folding each of them up as neatly as she could, and then made her way back downstairs.
When Lum saw Ryuunosuke carrying her blankets into the living room, her smile got even wider.
Hours later, Shinobu opened the front door, stepping out of her heels and neatly arranging them beside Lum’s ankle boots and Ryuunosuke’s trainers, and stepped into the living room. She then stopped dead in her tracks as she saw the blanket fort in the middle of the living room, which had gained a wreath of LED fairy lights arranged across the top, shining in the dim evening light.
Shinobu stepped slowly towards the blanket fort in her stocking feet, lifting the corner of a blanket covering the front, and peering inside.
Ryuunosuke looked up at Shinobu, wrapped up in her duvet, seated on the floor in front of the couch. Lum lay on the couch lengthwise, an arm wrapped around Ryuunosuke’s shoulders, fingers gently playing with the hair by her ear. Her other hand was holding her phone, looking like she was either checking messages, or her Instagram.
“Lum,” Shinobu asked quietly, as if not to startle the two, “what is this?”
“It’s a blanket fort,” Lum replied, not looking away from her phone.
“I know it’s a blanket fort,” Shinobu replied, a little more testily. “Why is there a blanket fort in the living room? We’re supposed to be adults now, aren’t we?”
Ryuunosuke said nothing, but her brow furrowed. She huddled further into her comforter, trying to avoid looking at Shinobu. Thankfully, Shinobu seemed to be focusing all of her ire at Lum.
“You know that me and Ryuu hardly use this room, ‘cept as a pathway to the kitchen.” Lum replied, still not looking at Shinobu. “If we’re supposed to be adults, then doesn’t that mean we can do what we want? Or are blanket forts illegal now?”
Shinobu looked at Ryuunosuke, who was still trying her best not to look at Shinobu. Her expression immediately softened, all of the anger quickly draining away.
After a moment, Ryuunosuke turned to meet Shinobu’s gaze. “I’m guessing you had a hard day at work or something?”
Shinobu just smiled, and sat herself down next to Ryuunosuke. “A little bit. You know how Inaba-kun can be a handful sometimes.” Then something caught Shinobu’s eye; she reached out and grabbed the large pillow that rested beside Ryuunosuke. “So you even brought down Akane-chan, Lum…”
Ryuunosuke stared at the body pillow, which had printed on it a picture of Akane Tendou sprawled on purple sheets, looking vulnerable. “You know about this, Shinobu?”
“Of course,” Shinobu answered, arranging the Akane pillow between herself and Ryuunosuke. “Ataru-kun always tried his best to hide his dirty little secrets from me. But he never really was that good enough.”
“You know, when I took her from Darling, he didn’t even notice?” Lum said idly, scrolling through her phone. “He already bought two more of those things to replace her…”
Ryuunosuke just sighed, and rested her head against Shinobu’s shoulder. “Why would he need those things, if he has you? You’re her girlfriend, right?” She closed her eyes as Shinobu’s arms encircled her, pulling her closer.
Lum just growled quietly. “Believe me, I tried.” She reached out and petted Ryuunosuke’s head again. “Let’s just not talk about Darling, though…” She smiled as Ryuunosuke snuggled closer with Shinobu, the two huddling together against the couch.
“If this be a fort,” Shinobu added, “then let it be a fort to protect us from the fuckboys of the world.” She kissed Ryuunosuke’s cheek gently. “Especially Ataru-kun.”
“Ain’t he coming over tonight?” Ryuunosuke said idly. “He said he wanted to come over on Facebook, right?”
“Oh my God, I forgot about that,” Lum said, remembrance creeping over her face. “He said he would be over this afternoon!”
And just as Lum had said those words, there was a knock on the front door.
Lum irritably slid off the couch, careful not to hurt Ryuunosuke, Shinobu or Akane-chan, and quickly made her way to the door. She quickly pasted a smile on her face as she opened the door to reveal Ataru standing on the step.
“Darling!” Lum said, her voice high and musical. “I didn’t expect you to be here so early!” She stepped back into the living room. “Me and the roomies were just hanging around, and I had just thought I would do some… redecorating?”
Ataru peered past Lum to see the blanket fort that she had erected where once a couch had stood, wreathed in fairy lights. “Yeah,” he said quietly, “I can see that.” He stepped out of his boots, stepping past Lum and into the living room. “Is this the thing that you wanted to show me?”
Lum squeaked as Ataru approached the blanket fort. “Oh no, no, that’s upstairs in my room!” She quickly came up behind Ataru, trying to grab onto his arm, only for him to move out of the way.
“Really?” Ataru said. “Because I think this is more interesting…” Before Lum could even get as much as a word out, he crouched low and stuck his head in the blanket fort.
“Darling!”
Ryuunosuke and Shinobu stared at Ataru thrusting his head in, and leering at them from outside. Ryuunosuke pulled Shinobu closer under the duvet, moving into full on protective mode as Ataru grinned his stupid grin.
“Hey, I didn’t know that you managed to get your roomies in here, too!” Ataru looked around the inside of the blanket for for a moment, before his eyes fell on the body pillow sitting in between the two girls. “Wait a tick… Is that Akane-chan?”
The next moment, Ataru reached out and grabbed the body pillow, pulling it out from between Shinobu and Ryuunosuke. Shinobu squeaked as the pillow was suddenly yanked away from beside her.
“Hey!” Ryuunosuke barked out. “Are you nuts?!” She once again pulled the thick comforter around Shinobu, attempting to keep her safe. As she did so, she glared daggers at Ataru, who was still staring at the pillow, blissfully unaware of Ryuunosuke’s venomous gaze.
“It is!” Ataru said, turning the pillow over in his hands. “What is she doing here?!” He looked back at Lum, his brow furrowing. “Did you really try and steal my pillowcase for this fort?”
“It wasn’t for the fort,” Shinobu answered, “she just wanted to keep you from sinking into depravity!”
“Is that what she called it?” Ataru said, laughing. “If she was going to be jealous over body pillows, I could’ve bought a whole lot more!” His snickering was somewhat short lived, however, when Lum reached inside and grabbed him by the back of his shirt.
“Darling!” Lum said angrily. “Stop bothering Shinobu and Ryuunosuke and get out here before I really get mad!” She snarled like an angry cat as she yanked Ataru back out of the blanket fort, Ryuunosuke using her foot to help push him back out.
Ataru grunted as he fell backwards on his butt, still firmly holding onto the pillow. He sniffed haughtily, and stood up again. “Well, that explains why she has been missing for the past few weeks…” He quickly gathered the pillow around him. “Well, whatever it is you wanted to show me, it’ll have to wait until Akane-chan is returned home.”
Lum stared at Ataru as he pulled his boots back on, and opened the door. “I’ll message you on Facebook later, alright?” He quickly disappeared out the door with the body pillow, shutting it behind him.
Lum stared at the door numbly, dead silent. And then she screamed.
“Fine! Just go and take your fake girlfriend back to your stupid little flat and leave me alone!” She slumped down to her knees, sobbing quietly. “Just go… Leave me alone…”
Quietly, Shinobu slipped out from under the comforter, and crawled out of the blanket fort towards Lum. She reached out carefully with a hand, resting it gently on Lum’s shoulder.
Ryuunosuke crawled out from the blanket fort behind Shinobu, and went to the kitchen. She knew that when Lum had a falling out with Ataru this bad, she was probably going to make a beeline for the hottest food she had available.
After nuking some leftover Szechuan-style pork and noodles in the microwave and putting them in a bowl, she carried the bowl to the living room, where Lum was resting against Shinobu, still softly sobbing.
Ryuunosuke quietly placed the bowl of food next to Lum and Shinobu, and retreated to the entrance to the blanket fort, watching silently. Shinobu quickly joined her, not wanting to disturb Lum while food was near.
It didn’t take Lum to notice the Szechuan food steaming next to her, and when she did, she grabbed the bowl and the fork and quickly dug in. She attacked the bowl with a fervour that only the two roommates would see after a bad argument such as this one, slurping up noodles like an industrial vacuum cleaner. Not even the burning heat of Szechaun pepper was enough to stop Lum from practically inhaling the entire bowl.
Lum quietly put the bowl down again, and looked up at Shinobu and Ryuunosuke with wide, soulful eyes. Neither Shinobu or Ryuunosuke knew if she was still tearing up over Ataru ditching her again, or if her tears and running nose were from the heat of the food.
Lum silently reached over, and wiped her face with some tissues, wiping off some of the makeup from it in the process. She was careful to wipe her mouth after she wiped her eyes, so the remains of the Szechaun noodles wouldn’t burn her eyes.
Shinobu and Ryuunosuke exchanged glances, before they retreated back into the blanket fort. Lum watched them crawl inside silently, before she followed them in. As Shinobu and Ryuunosuke huddled together, arms around each others’ waists, they noticed Lum crawling in.
When Lum met their gazes, she knelt in front of them expectantly.
In response, Ryuunosuke reached out with her other hand and tugged Lum closer, to snuggle in between them. As Lum wiggled in, Ryuunosuke pulled the comforter tightly around the three of them, and hugged the two girls as close as she could.
Shinobu reached out and picked up Lum’s forgotten phone, and pulled up Spotify to put on some music. Once the music started playing, she curled in closer against Lum, bringing her arms and a leg around her.
Lum smiled as she found herself sandwiched in warmth and love. It might have not been her Darling, but it was enough.