Work Text:
To do list:
Get into the dorm
Knock down books
Lock someone in a closet
Steal glasses
“Kakeru and I will be out all day. Joji, Jota, you’re in charge of cleanup today. Don’t forget your bentos, and I’ve arranged for Katsuta-san to deliver dinner by 6:00, though I should be back before then.” Haiji is spending the day at the hospital for some post-Ekiden follow-up for his knee. Joji and Jota aren’t really listening, all they know is that they won’t have to worry about cooking.
“Good luck, Haiji-san!”
“Kakeru, won’t you be bored?”
Kakeru shakes his head. “I’m bringing some reading, and I’ll be keeping an eye on Haiji,”
“As always,” Yuki whispers to Nico in an undertone. Haiji shoots him a look, and Yuki smiles back at him innocently.
Everyone disperses, either back to their rooms to study or to head to campus for classes. Joji and Jota have just finished the washing-up, when Joji hears a strange sound.
Honk!
“Jota, did you hear that?” Jota cocks his head and listens.
“That’s funny - it sounds like a goose.”
“A goose? What is a goose doing in the city?”
“I don’t know. Let’s go see!”
They head outside and sure enough, there is a goose in the yard of the Chikusei-so.
“Maybe it’s lost and hungry?” Joji says, though it certainly looks healthy.
“Maybe we can keep it as a pet and it will lay eggs for us!”
“But we can’t tell if it’s a boy goose or a girl goose,” Joji points out.
“Don’t they both lay eggs?”
“No, you idiot!”
“Let’s put it in the kitchen and then we’ll figure out if we can keep it,” Jota suggests.
The goose wags its tail in satisfaction.
“Let’s lure it in!” Jota dashes to the kitchen, grabs some discarded carrot tops from the compost, and hurries back outside. Nira is now awake and looking at the goose curiously.
“Gachou-kun! Would you like a snack?”
The goose tilts its head and contemplates the carrot tops. Jota places a piece on the ground and backs away. The goose waddles up, sniffs the greens, and nibbles at them.
“What a good goose!” The twins proceed to offer more pieces as the goose, feigning reluctance, allows itself to be lured into the dorm and led to the kitchen.
“This will be a good place for it till later. Fill that pan with water, Jota, and put it on the ground, so it has something to drink. We’ll just leave a note on the door so everyone knows it’s in here.”
Suddenly an alarm goes off on Joji’s phone in his pocket.
“Whoops! It’s time for class - let’s go!”
The two grab their books and head to the door to put on their shoes.
“Hey, we forgot to make the sign,” Jota says.
“Remind me and I’ll text Shindou to let him know to make a sign”
“Good plan,” Jota says, but he forgets as soon as they leave and no text is sent.
After they leave, the goose explores the kitchen. It eats the rest of the greens and splashes the water around the kitchen.
A little while later, King heads to the kitchen to make a cup of tea to help him study. He thinks he hears a rustling in the kitchen, but then it goes quiet. Then he hears it: Honk!
A goose? Is that even possible? Someone must be watching a video.
Honk!
He tries to go into the kitchen, but the entrance is blocked by the table. He pushes it aside and looks around. There are scraps of greens on the floor, a mostly empty pan with a bit of water in it, and water splashed all over the floor.
King makes a disapproving sound. Weren’t the twins supposed to clean up after breakfast? He puts his reading glasses on the table and picks up the scraps, puts the pan in the sink, and finds a rag to mop up the water. As he is putting the table back, he sees a flash of white under the table. He puts a hand under the table and feels something soft and fluffy. What could that be? He crawls under the table to investigate, but there is nothing there.
The goose has waddled behind him and is in his blind spot. King looks around in confusion and then…
Honk! Honk!
King, surprised, jerks his head up and bonks it on the underside of the table with enough force to knock his glasses off the table and onto the floor. Wincing with pain, he gets up and looks around. The goose is waddling out of the kitchen.
“Hey! Come back here!”
The goose ignores him and proceeds down the hall. King hurries after him and sees white tail feathers turning the corner. He’s heading for the closet, that’s good, he thinks to himself and follows the goose, not realizing the goose had nudged a mop bucket into his path. He trips, and sprawls into the closet.
Honk!
The door slams shut and he hears the lock click. He pounds on the door and yells, but nobody hears him.
The goose waddles up the stairs and nudges a door open. Prince’s back is to the door; he is scanning his manga collection and rearranging volumes. The goose goes further into the room and Prince looks back, but he is looking for a person, not a goose, so he doesn’t notice the goose till it is right behind him.
Honk!
Prince drops the volume he was holding and his hand collides with a stack of manga, which starts to wobble. He puts out both hands to steady it.
Honk!
“What are you doing? Get out of here!”
The goose darts forward and pecks at the bottom of the stack, like a bold or foolish Jenga player. Prince squawks in alarm and dives to protect the stack, but he slips on the manga he had dropped and is unable to catch himself. Like a slow-motion car crash, he falls and knocks over the stack, which causes another stack to collapse, and another and another, until Prince is nearly buried in manga.
An angry shriek comes from the bottom of the pile. “Noooo! I just finished rearranging these!”
The only response is a triumphant “Honk!”
Down on the first floor, Yuki has his headphones on, listening to his latest record store find, when a loud thump causes the record player to skip. Irritated, Yuki pulls the headphones off and heads to the door, ready to yell at the offender. When he opens the door, he sees Nico is at his door as well.
“Did you hear that?”
“I was listening to a record and heard a thump. Was there something else?”
“I heard a thump and yelling - sounded like Prince. Maybe he had another manga-related accident. I’ll go upstairs and make sure he’s ok,” Nico heads upstairs and Yuki is closing his door when he hears it.
Honk!
He looks just in time to catch a glimpse of white tail feathers heading back to the kitchen and follows the goose. The goose is waiting for him and pecks at his foot.
“Ow!” he bends down to examine his toe and the goose stretches its neck out and grabs his glasses. “Hey! What do you think you’re doing?”
As Yuki feels around for his glasses, the goose picks up his glasses and moves them further into the kitchen, then picks up King’s glasses and drops them near Yuki.
Yuki finds what he thinks are his glasses and puts them on, and immediately realizes they’re not his. “What did you do with my glasses, you miscreant!”
Honk!
King has given up on rescue, and has been watching game show videos on his phone. Hearing the racket outside, he starts banging on the door again. “Hey, somebody let me out of here!”
Yuki is feeling around for his glasses and coming up with increasingly creative legal threats, King is shouting for rescue, and the goose punctuates the din with a “Honk!” at random intervals.
Into this chaos walk Shindou and Musa. Shindou sees the goose, and immediately grabs a broom that happens to be by the front door. “Musa, go check upstairs and see if everything’s ok,” Musa nods and heads to the second floor.
“Yuki, are you ok?”
“I’m fine, just trying to find my glasses,”
King hears his chance and calls out. “Hey! I got locked in here and I can’t get out!”
Shindou advances down the hall. Still holding the broom, he unlocks the closet door. “King-san, would you mind helping Yuki while I deal with this?” King nods and heads to the kitchen, Shindou can finally turn his full attention on the goose.
“So, Gachou-san, you wanted to cause a little trouble? I’m sure you had fun, but it’s time to go now,” as he talks, he waves the broom gently to encourage the goose toward the main entrance. The goose lunges at the bottom of the broom and tries to grab it, but Shindou moves it out of the way and keeps moving forward.
“Tokyo is a big city, I’m sure you can find other people to bother. Besides, Haiji will be home soon and I don’t think you want to deal with him,” Musa has come back downstairs and at Shindou’s nod, he slides the main door open, leaving lots of room for the goose.
With a final “Honk!” and a sassy flick of its tail, the goose leaves the building, waddles down the steps and out of Aotake.
Shindou puts the broom back by the door and turns to Musa. “Everything ok upstairs?”
Musa nods. “Prince’s manga got knocked down and he got buried under the books, but with Nico-chan’s help, we excavated him,”
They both sigh in relief. “Let’s make some tea and break into Haiji’s cookie stash,” Shindou says and Musa nods.
Nico helps Prince downstairs and they’re just finishing up when Joji and Jota return from campus.
“Hey everyone! Did you find a place for the goose?”
“Wasn’t it clever of us to catch it? We’re going to have so many eggs!”
Everyone turns to look at them. Prince springs up from his chair and is narrowly prevented from lunging at them by Shindou. They are spared from further recriminations by Kakeru and Haiji’s return, though later they are pressed into service to help Prince rearrange his manga.
“It’s funny how the goose never touched Haiji’s room, and it vanished just before Haiji came home,” Nico comments later that evening.
Yuki snorts and pushes his glasses up with a finger.
“Professional courtesy,” he smirks.