Work Text:
Pale white against black taunted Toko. No sound, no movement apart from the cursor on the screen of her laptop. She didn’t have to worry about being caught up so late; the dorms at Hope’s Peak were as good as soundproof. Curfew was only based on being in their dorm rooms after ten at night, barring a school event. It was so wildly different than what it was like with her parents that she still kept some of her habits.
The light in her room was kept off, so as to not arouse suspicion. She was careful that anything she typed was typed deliberately, quiet, so she wouldn’t awaken anyone despite the soundproof dorm. Old habits died hard, she supposed, trying to comb a hand through her long tangles of hair. Though she wished some of them could die hard just a little faster.
Her creativity, it seemed, lagged heavily during the winter months. She was huddled under her blankets, not even bothering to drag herself over to the desk right by her bed. Her back ached a little from being arched for so long, but it would pass. It always did eventually.
Every so often, she would tap out a word. The. It. She. She deleted them almost as quickly as she wrote them. This was one of the few times she would admit that the writing process was difficult for her. It wasn’t even that she didn’t have ideas. The problem here was that she had too many clogging the space in her head. It wasn’t often that she stepped away from ideas without at least attempting to write them. It wasn’t often that she stepped away from writing at all, really, not even when she stayed home sick from school.
With a barely audible sigh, she opened a new tab, abandoning her yet-to-be-named document. Instant messaging and voice chat, her savior. Even more so, the green “online” icon next to the recipient’s name. Her hand shot out from under her blankets to grab her headphones off her desk. Her room was one of the coldest in the school, she just knew it. Being wrapped in her blankets was the only way she could stay warm.
She logged in as soon as her headphones were plugged in. Without a second wasted, she clicked the call button, starting the voice chat. “Omaru? You there?”
“Hey, Toko!” For so late, Komaru didn’t sound tired at all. Not really a surprise. “What’re you up to?”
She sighed through her nose, debating switching back to her document. “Trying and failing to write. W-what are you doing up so late? Fantasizing about-”
“Nothing like that!” Komaru laughed, the sound a bit muted. “Technically I’m supposed to be sleeping, but I have a project due soon that I haven’t finished yet, so I wanted to at least try to make some headway on it.” Another laugh, this one more sheepish. “Apparently I’m less productive the later it gets.”
Toko was usually the opposite, but many of her classmates expressed the same sentiment. She wasn’t sure why they bothered trying again and again if it never worked. “I know s-some people work better after sleeping,” she said, biting back the bitter note in her voice. Talking would probably still help…
“Yeah, I guess that makes sense.” She heard a couple of clicks from Komaru’s side, fully expecting for the chat to be cut off. “Anyway, how was your day? I haven’t talked to you yet.”
Color her surprised. “Not...the worst. Everyone was so loud and obnoxious, I-I almost hid out in the library.” Actually, would that have helped? Maybe her ideas were only screaming in her ears because her classmates had been earlier.
Komaru made a small, content noise. “Y’know, I’ve always been kinda jealous that you don’t need to go to class.”
Toko laughed dryly, adjusting her position so she was leaning back on her hands. “It’s hard not to go to class when we have Mr. Rules on our cases for skipping.” If she could help it, she avoided being chewed out by him, even if that meant dodging him all day. She suspected it happened much more often with her, but that wasn’t her problem.
“Hey, Toko?” Komaru said after snickering a little. Her tone was light, patient. She’d always been patient with Toko. “I miss you.”
“I-” Toko inhaled a yawn. “I m-miss you, too. I guess.”
She could practically hear Komaru’s smile. She was busy fighting one of her own. “Hey, I know, do you want to go to the book store this weekend? I need some new reading material and I know you have plenty of recommendations. Besides, we haven’t really gone out in a while.”
That...actually sounded great. “Run out of manga to read?” she deadpanned, only partially joking.
“Maaaybe. I’ll pick you up around one, alright? Then we can- oh, hold on.” There was a bit of muffled conversation before Komaru spoke again, this time whispering. “Sorry, my mom caught me. I have to go, but she says hi.”
Toko fought to keep a smile off of her face. “That’s okay. Have a nice night.”
“You, too! I’ll text you tomorrow. Love you.” Komaru disconnected from the call, her icon going to “offline” a handful of seconds later.
Toko closed that tab after a moment, leaving her face-to-face with the bright white document again. It was a little past midnight; if she didn’t want a lecture from Taka about not paying attention in class, she had better go to sleep soon.
Sleep…
Her brain finally connected with her hands, her fingers warming up as they moved across the keyboard. Her thoughts quieted, fading into the background. They were never silent like that when she wrote at her parents’ house.
She must’ve been writing on near autopilot. It seemed like the next time she blinked, it was two in the morning. She rubbed her eyes under her glasses, not even bothering to check her word count. It wasn’t worth it if she was going to write more next time, especially if she decided to poke her nose into Toko’s business again and start changing things.
She powered down her laptop, her eyes taking a minute to adjust to the darkness of her room. Her headphones pulled out of her hair with minimal tangling for once, thank god. That was one thing she didn’t want to deal with. Depositing her laptop and headphones on her desk, she wrapped her blanket tighter around her. The ache in her back screamed a bit less as she rolled onto her side.
Already she was looking forward to this outing (date?) with Komaru on the weekend. She knew she could count on Komaru to be her muse.