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Kagami strove to be honest and trustworthy. When she made a promise, she kept it. So, even though she’d already gone over the plan she'd made enough times for it to get almost boring, and even though she couldn’t stop pacing in circles, dragging her fuzzy socks around the tiny kitchen, she kept as quiet as she could. Her eyes stayed fixed on the window, where the sky was already pink. Any minute now…
The instant that a glimmer of bright sun appeared in her view, she slid across the room, landing next to the curtain that marked the entrance to Nino's bedroom. She tapped lightly on the wall, before losing her patience and switching to more insistent knocking.
“Nino,” she stage-whispered. “Nino, it’s Tuesday.”
She heard him mumble something like “go away.” That meant he was awake. So far, so good.
“Ninoooo... ow” she got tired of knocking and tried to bonk her head against the wall instead, which was a really bad idea.
“Please don’ hurt yourself.” Nino yawned. It still didn’t sound like he was getting up. She let out an overly dramatic sigh, picking up a pillow from the couch.
Because Kagami was a good friend, who respected his privacy, she blindly flung the pillow over the top of the curtain. She heard it collide with something with a soft thump. Then, it was quiet again.
“You’re legally required to hang out with me,” she called.
“I hate to break it to you, but I don’t think text messages are legally binding.”
“No, but pinky promises are.”
“You got me there.” Nino snorted. She was pretty sure she heard him rolling out of bed.
Kagami was starting to figure out the routine. Nino always complained when she first woke him up, but it usually only took him a minute or so to be fully awake.
Tuesdays, from sunrise to sunset, were dedicated to the two of them hanging out. They had decided a few days ago. They had both known Adrien for years but hadn’t had much chance to get to know each other, Kagami had argued. So they’d set a recurring friendship day. It was foolproof. She had fulfilled her end of the promise, even waiting until sunrise to wake Nino up. Now she just needed him to fulfill his.
“I made pancakes,” she said, idly playing with the fidget beads in her hoodie pocket. “You should hurry so that they don’t get cold.”
Nino appeared halfway through her sentence, wearing a t-shirt and jeans, with his blanket draped over his shoulders like a cape.
“You cooked?” He sounded surprised, which was fair.
“I took them out of the freezer. And I put them in the microwave all by myself.” Kagami meant to say it as a joke, but she nervously sped up, and blushed. She gestured to two plates of pancakes on the kitchen counter, which didn't look all that impressive now.
“Nice, congratulations,” Nino said so genuinely, with such an infectious smile, that it gave Kagami an actual rush of pride. How did he do that?
They sat in silence for a moment, eating. The pancakes were a little bit rubbery, but Nino didn’t show any signs of aversion, so she counted it as a success. She accidentally ate too fast and wound up playing with the cuffs of her sleeves as she waited for Nino to finish eating, trying not to stare.
“So, you told me you had something planned for today?” Nino finally asked. Kagami had adjusted to the quiet by then, so she jumped slightly when he spoke.
“Oh, yeah! Yes, one second.”
She hurried over to the kitchen cabinet, grabbing the three puzzle boxes she had stowed there, and carrying them to the hardwood floor in front of the couch.
“We need to increase our friendship and trust as quickly and as efficiently as possible,” she said, sitting down as Nino made his way over to her.
“I mean, I wouldn’t say we need to,” Nino said, with a small smile, “we’re just trying to have fun.”
“We can ‘just have fun’ next Tuesday, when it’s your turn to decide,” Kagami said, carefully removing the tape on each box. She had three 1000-piece puzzles, which seemed like enough for the day.
“Alright,” Nino said, still sounding amused. “What’s your plan for increasing our friendship stats?”
Kagami opened the first puzzle, carefully dumping the pieces into a pile on the ground.
“We’re going to work together in a highly stressful situation so that we learn to trust each other more, and then when we finish, we’re going out for pizza so we can cool down and create more good memories together.”
“So… we just have to put together some puzzles… what… What are you doing?”
Kagami smirked, dumping all the pieces of the second puzzle on top of the first. She mixed them up slightly, making sure they couldn't be easily separated.
“I’m increasing the stress.”
“Why?” Nino sounded pained. Perfect.
“We need it. For our friendship.”
“And the akumas we've fought together don’t count because…?”
“Too many variables,” Kagami said simply, shaking the third puzzle into the pile.
3,000 pieces looked a lot more daunting now that she was staring directly at them. Still, now was no time to back down. She tried mixing the pile with her hands, but it was too unwieldy to do much with. After a moment of consideration, she closed her eyes.
“Kagami… Kagami what are you-” Nino interrupted himself with a shocked gasp as Kagami grabbed a pile of puzzle pieces and threw them as hard as she could with her eyes still closed. “Kagami,” Nino tried to speak through his laughter, “Kagami, why?”
She didn’t have an answer, so she just shrugged, grabbing another handful and throwing it, ignoring Nino’s wheezing protests. “Finding those pieces is another layer of difficulty. To add to the stress.”
“We were never going to finish it anyway, you didn’t need to- Kagami, Kagami stop!”
Kagami shoveled puzzle pieces into her hoodie pocket as quickly as she could, while Nino took the blanket off of his shoulders and used it to try and shield the pile from her.
“Those are the words of a quitter.”
“Those are the words of a person who wants to make this task humanly possible.”
Kagami stood up, tensing to make a run for it with her stash of pieces, but Nino caught on to her, tackling her to the couch. The double handful she had grabbed went flying, and more pieces fell out of her pockets and into the couch cushions. Before she landed, she managed to grab a pillow to defend herself with. Cackling, she slammed the pillow against Nino’s arms a few times, before she threw it directly at the puzzle pile, sending more pieces spraying across the floor.
“No! You fiend!” Nino grinned as he melodramatically held a hand to his heart. The movement gave Kagami enough freedom to wriggle loose, scrambling to grab the pillow again. Nino hurriedly grabbed a pillow of his own, running to defend the, now noticeably smaller, stack of puzzle pieces from her.
“I,” Kagami was wheezing so hard, she could barely speak. “I’m doing this for you, Nino.” He tried to knock her away, but she blocked his attack, standing her ground. “For us.” She tried to gain control of her breathing but fell apart into shrieking laugher when Nino started furtively throwing the remaining pieces back into the puzzle boxes.
“And I’m doing this for you,” Nino replied, tears forming in his eyes from repressed giggles. “Because I love you, and I can’t let you do this to yourself. Or to me.”
“Then I guess we’re at an impasse,” Kagami said, stopping her motions.
“So it seems.”
“Do you want to try a different activity for today, then?” Kagami asked, serious for a moment, though she was still out of breath and her face was still pink. "I’m having fun, but if you’re not, we can always find something else.”
Nino caught his breath and smirked. Kagami felt her heartbeat race again and took up a defensive stance.
“Hmm, no.”
She cackled as he swung his pillow toward her, and the fight resumed.