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Tsukasa takes a bite of a purple apple, dreaming of a cotton candy cloud with green acid seeping out like a fluffy pink sponge.
"Wake up."
There is a short green elf talking to him and its mouth is moving in slow motion. The sky is also brown, and there are paper thin lollipops falling from the higher skies like descending snow flakes.
"Wake up."
There’s someone moving him. Startled awake, he chokes on his own spit.
It's Nene, shaking Tsukasa's head from side to side with a hand on each of his ears. He blinks twice. While in her grasp, his eyes wander to the alarm clock set beside him.
4 in the morning. Tsukasa looks at her with no words.
"Don't look at me like that," She scoffs, not knowing if it's because of the time or because of the face Tsukasa makes when just he's just waken up. "You told me to wake you up now."
Too early, too damn early, he yawns with a strong urge to flip back into the covers. Nene swiftly dodges the morning breath, standing up from the bed. "Brush your teeth and take your toothbrush with you."
Why had he asked for 4am? Why not 6? 7?
Tsukasa shortly follows her like a duckling to its mother, rubbing his eyes a few times and balancing himself until he finally reaches the bathroom door. His toes are deathly cold. He feels his blanket served absolutely no purpose yesterday night.
At the stairs there's another person, too back-lit to distinguish clearly.
"Hi there," Rui waves in his Rui voice. Tsukasa acknowledges him with a weak wave. Nene flicks the lights on and his eyes squint accordingly. It feels a bit strange seeing them this early.
Turns out that Emu's not a morning person either: her mouth is clamped shut until she reaches the bathroom, a similar habit to Tsukasa. Nene finds it frightening how the two loudest people on earth can be so quiet at the beginning of the day.
"Can you even drive? What time did you sleep last night?" Nene asks while Emu's taking her shower.
Tsukasa takes a sip of hot chocolate and then chokes again. "Um-" A cough, "11's not that bad."
Rui hums in agreement, gnawing on a granola bar he found in his pantry. Meanwhile Nene's here grinding her teeth straight into her gums. Leave it to Nene to be the only normal one here.
He avoids her scary looking face. "I was too excited to sleep, you see. That makes this endearing and now you have no reason to be mad. "
"And I can still drive!" He adds, "look at me now!" The boy says with 3 different colours sitting beneath his eyes.
"What the hell, the drive's 8 hours!"
He opens his mouth, then closes it.
"Well, you can drive too, right?"
Nene scoffs, letting silence fill the room for a couple of seconds.
"I-I can't."
Tsukasa gapes. "Seriously?! You didn't pass?"
"Don't be so suprised! I messed up is all."
"Well, if we ever need a driver, I'm also up for the position..." Rui offers.
"See, that's a good idea!"
"No way." Nene says. He might as well put an ape on the wheel.
Emu emerges from the bathroom with steam trailing out its glossy doors. She has a towel around her neck and a yellow sausage dog on the center of her t shirt. "Hey Nene!"
"Woah, when'd you two get here?"
Nene can expect many things from a girl like Emu, whether it be acrobatics or how many people she can hit at school with her killer snowballs. On the other hand, what she doesn't expect is driving. She has never thought about Emu in the driver's seat ever. But she learns more about her everyday. Sometimes against her own will, but that's okay too.
"Can you even reach the pedals..?" He peeks from the back.
"The car isn't that big, silly Tsukasa." Emu kicks her legs while slapping the wheel. They've loaded their bags into the trunk and now all that's left is to drive.
When the seat is pulled its absolute closest to the wheel, Emu can floor them all without fail. This is the best option, Nene nods. Rui has a lot of leg room.
"Stobbit! Put that thing away!"
"But he needs a third party reviewww… I can’t only have feedback from my mom now. He’s been dying to be let out all Autumn."
“Nene, please,” Tsukasa latches onto the passenger’s seat, shaking it in despair. “Let’s switch.”
“No.”
Tsukasa groans, slumping into his seat. Then he feels something crawling up his leg.
Rui isn’t great at things like road trips and frankly, nobody’s surprised at all. His unhealthy hermit sessions can really speak for themselves. He also stated beforehand how the longest he’s ever travelled was while moving houses—his previous house being 40 minutes away from his current one. So really, not that far at all..
Tsukasa’s there patting his back over his shoulder with a water bottle ready at hand for him. It’s a bit embarrassing and the public toilets are nastier than every nasty thing combined, though Tsukasa’s face offers the tiniest comfort when there’s no judgement to it.
Rui sighs, pushing the flush and watching the granola and tomato juice sink into the water and spiral down the toilet. Relieved, he would’ve thrown up even more if he saw that sight any longer.
Tsukasa hands him the water bottle with an undeterred ‘here!’ and Rui smiles, taking it gratefully.
On their way out, Tsukasa stops them to reel a bottle of chocolate milk from the vending machine. “Who drinks tomato juice in the morning?”
“Nene! How do I work this?”
Nene returns from her time at the toilet earlier than the other two and Emu’s tampering with the maps for the fourth time in these past 2 hours. This alone has resulted in 3 stop overs. Emu and Rui like to spend these stop overs stretching their knees and taking pictures of them holding mountains in the palms of their hands. Nene and Tsukasa are left in the car trying to set their destination in the right direction.
It happens again. She sits back in the passenger and looks over her shoulder. “Give me the phone.”
Emu obliges. Nene’s scrolling through her pinpoints when eventually she reads what she’s inputted, and is absolutely flabbergasted.
“Hey, where did you set the place to?!”
Nene breathes and after a trillion apologies and a trillion responses of forgiveness, Emu’s back to normal, singing a song currently on the radio.
So they’ve been set back an hour.
But it’s only 6 o’clock. Their check in will only be late by a few hours. They were lucky they drove out early.
Now Rui’s become the driver and Tsukasa’s knocked out, snoring loud with his mouth right open. Nene didn’t particularly want it to come this; Rui’s way of driving is very… reckless but Emu’s getting tired after three hours and Nene can’t exactly take the wheel herself.
“Rainbows!”
“Silicone.”
“Err.. eggs.”
“G... g… grass!” Emu says as the fields of them roll by.
The game continues for another hour. It’s a very quick one. Rui takes every chance to overtake whatever car’s in front of them and the music is a calm melody, dancing around them.
She stirs awake, adjusting the pillow on her seat.
“How long until we get there?” Nene asks, voice hoarse.
“4. We’re halfway there at least.”
She rubs her eyes. Emu has her head on Tsukasa’s shoulder and the heater is switched on, faintly panning within the vehicle. The morning is a collection of looming clouds yet they have a way of making it warm.
Nene loves them. Nene loves being with them. Nene loves what she’s become because of them.
“Are you not tired?” she pokes at him, “we can wake Tsukasa and have him switch.”
“No. I wouldn’t want to disturb them.” Rui glints. “In fact, you can go back to sleep too. I know you didn’t much sleep either.”
Nene’s eyes trail to him. Rui has a look to him, one that she can’t label herself. Maybe he feels the same way too.
“You better wake me up if you’re tired.” She warns.
“I got it.” He chuckles.
They’ve pulled over to a convenience store with 3 hours left to go on their journey and Emu doesn’t even know where they are. Some place rural, she figures. She couldn’t answer how they managed to find a modern convenience store like this in the first place but the thought leaves as quickly as it comes. Emu hasn’t used her legs in 3 hours, it’s starting to get to her.
“I’ll take over driving for the rest of the way! I said I was going to drive in the first place, I feel a bit guilty…” Tsukasa rubs his head.
“I wouldn’t mind that.” Rui admits.
“Never mind that. We need ice cream.” Emu says.
“That’ll melt…” Nene sighs.
They end up gathering an assortment of unhealthy food and a box of energy drinks to the check out. Nene lets go of her worries. Mango ice cream is there too.
Emu’s never spent her New Year’s like this. There’d be a dinner with her family surrounding the table, eating and chattering about how business has been, how healthy she’s grown, how she’ll also come to inherit the company one day. It’s not that that’s bad. This is just an incredible change of pace. She had no idea people did this sort of stuff.
Tsukasa drives and the car is quiet, but not silent. A distant tune thrumming in the car speakers and the heater fanning their cold feet, but most of all, their presence: bolder and louder than bother of those things combined. She can’t remember the last holiday she’s spent with friends, hell, she can barely remember if she’s ever felt this happy before.