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“Does everything look good? I feel like something’s missing. Or maybe there’s too much.” Makoto made a 360-degree turn, scanning the room for anything he could improve. “Hmm… maybe…”
“Yuuki, everything looks great! Maybe Sena’s perfectionism is rubbing off on you~” Morisawa good-naturedly slapped Makoto’s back, knocking the wind out of him.
“Yuuki.” Otogari did his own scan of their dorm room. “I believe it’s quite clean. Have you not had Harukawa come over before to play?”
“Well, yeah, but…” Makoto rubbed his arm self-consciously. “I’ve never had him sleep over before. We usually just play games before he goes back to his room, but he’s actually going to be staying here overnight, and I want to make sure he’s as comfortable as possible. And I don’t even know if he’ll want to do anything other than playing games…”
“Don’t worry, Yuuki!” Morisawa confidently propped his hands on his hips. “When in doubt, you can watch one of my tokusatsu films!”
“Or you could prepare a meat dish together,” Adonis suggested. “You can use the meat that I keep in the fridge.”
“…I’ll keep that in mind.” Makoto highly doubted that he and Harukawa would end up doing either of those together, but he figured it was better to humor the enthusiastic duo.
“We should probably get going!” Morisawa shouted with a wide grin. “We’ll be back tomorrow!” He opened the front door and waved goodbye to Makoto.
No matter how often they spent time together, there was only so much of Morisawa that Makoto could take. “O-Okay, have fun you guys!” He hoped his smile didn’t show how nervous he felt.
“If need be, you can contact me or Morisawa for advice.” Otogari put a hand to his chin in thought. “But given how I am with phones, it may be better to contact Morisawa instead. Have fun as well, Yuuki.” He gently smiled before closing the door behind him and Morisawa.
Makoto blankly stared at the door for a few seconds before taking a deep breath. “Okay. I got this. I got this.” He pulled out his phone and went to his and Harukawa’s messages, ignoring the notification that read “GOOD NIGHT YUU-KUN, YOUR ONII-CHAN LOVES YOU ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥” He quickly texted, “Morisawa-senpai and Otogari-kun are out! You can head over! :)” and sent it.
Not long after sending that message, Harukawa sent a message back. “Sora is on his way!” And even sooner after that, “AH! Sora needs help!”
“Huh?” Makoto looked up from his phone. Was that Harukawa’s voice outside his dorm room? When Harukawa said he was on his way, Makoto didn’t think he meant he was going to arrive only seconds after. He opened the door and looked outside. “Harukawa-kun?” Peeking his head outside, Makoto looked down at both ends of the hallway, only to see no one there.
“Yuuki-senpai!”
“HUH!?” Makoto stepped out into the hallway, even more confused, and he turned around. Seeing nothing there, he tilted his head upwards, only to shriek at the top of his lungs. “H-Harukawa-kun!?”
“Hello, Yuuki-senpai! Sora… oof… Sora needs some help.” Harukawa, suspended in the air, waved at Makoto.
Looking closer, Makoto could see Harukawa’s legs phased through the ceiling. “W-What happened to you!?”
“Oh, Sora still needs to practice the teleportation spell that Shisho~ taught him. Last time, Sora was only stuck to the surface of the ceiling…”
“Can you feel your legs like that!?”
“Yes, Sora is only stuck!” Harukawa stretched his arms out toward Makoto. “Yuuki-sensei can think of it like no-clipping. HuHu~ Sora will be able to move back into proper boundaries if you pull him!”
Eyeing Harukawa skeptically, Makoto reluctantly complied with his request. “Okay… I hope nothing happens, or Sakasaki-kun will have my head…” Makoto grabbed onto Harukawa’s hands, and as he pulled, he watched as Harukawa’s legs seemed to phase right back out of the wall. “Almost… there…!”
“Yayyy!” Harukawa cheered as his toes slipped out, completely freeing him from the wall. He floated down, safely landing in Makoto’s arms. “Thank you for saving Sora, Yuuki-senpai!”
Makoto sighed with a breath of relief, helping Harukawa stand up straight. “You should try to be more careful in the future. What happens if no one’s around next time that happens?”
“HiHi~ No need to worry, Yuuki-senpai ♪ Sora can always use his phone to call someone as long Sora’s top half is free.”
“And if your top half isn’t free…?”
“U~mm… Sora can try teleporting out!”
Makoto raised an eyebrow before resignedly shaking his head. “I don’t think that’s exactly the most reassuring plan, but I trust Sakasaki-kun to be able to help with any magic stuff if it gets out of hand.”
Harukawa’s eyes brightened at Sakasaki’s name. “We should invite Shisho~ next time we have a sleepover!”
Makoto nervously chuckled. “A-Ah, sure… if he’s not busy, I guess?” Sakasaki can be a bit intense though… He shuddered at the memory of the evil glint the red-headed magician would give when inviting him to the Game Club room to complete the latest kusoge. “A-Anyway, would you like to come in?”
“Of course! HaHiHuHeHo~♪” Harukawa skipped past Makoto into his dorm.
“That’s another win for me~♪”
“AH!” Harukawa pouted. “Sora was so close this time!”
“Well then, let’s start another round!” Makoto felt a little bad for beating Harukawa so many times in a row. He knew that Harukawa would hate it if Makoto held back for his sake, but Makoto couldn’t help wanting to coddle him a bit. If he gave even just the slightest advantage, he wondered if Harukawa would notice. Makoto scanned the characters that he was worse at fighting with.
“Isn’t Yuuki-sensei hungry by now?”
“Hm?” Makoto tore his gaze from the screen to see Harukawa rubbing his stomach.
“HaHa~ Sora thinks it’s time to eat ♪”
Makoto checked his watch, realizing that a few hours had passed since they started playing. “Oh, is it already getting close to dinner?” He sighed in mild disappointment. “Time flew by so quickly… And here I was thinking we would have more time to play.”
“Don’t worry, Yuuki-sensei! There will be more time to play after dinner ♪”
“I guess you’re right… So, what would you like for dinner?” Makoto strode over to the minifridge that Otogari got for their dorm and looked inside. “Hmm… Oh! We have ingredients for steamed buns if you would like?”
Before Makoto could even process it, Harukawa was at his side, peeking excitedly into the fridge. “How many ingredients are there!? Sora wants to make— Huh? What’s that?” Harukawa pointed to a lower shelf.
It took Makoto a second before he realized what Harukawa was referring to. “It looks like… Adonis’ food. Heh, he likes meat a lot. Did it catch your attention?
Harukawa nodded vigorously. “The food has a warm and bright color. Maybe even more than the steamed bun ingredients! Is Sora allowed to have some?”
Makoto stared at Harukawa in disbelief before sighing with a smile on his face. “Of course.”
Half an hour later, Makoto finished showing Harukawa how to cook a meat dish that Otogari had shared with him and Morisawa. “How’s it taste…?”
Harukawa giggled before closing his eyes and taking a bite. Makoto waited anxiously as Harukawa slowly chewed the food they cooked together.
Harukawa opened his eyes, and the entire galaxy was reflected in them.
Makoto smiled and took his own bite, letting the warmth of their hard work flood his senses. …Maybe Otogari had a point. We should do this again sometime.
“Can we promise to be friends forever?” Harukawa determinedly directed Makoto to choose dialogue options that were purposely intimate, but not romantic.
“I don’t think that’s how dating sims work…”
“Uwah!?” Harukawa startled as the other character on the screen got upset. “How did that happen?”
“They probably thought we were only leading them on into thinking we wanted to be together forever…” Makoto sighed as he restarted the route from the previous checkpoint.
“But Sora does want to be together forever! Friends forever ♪”
“Well, I don’t think the other character wants that…”
“Why not? Sora thought they loved us…” Harukawa looked downtrodden, almost as if he himself had been rejected by the character they were pursuing.
Makoto sympathetically rubbed Harukawa’s back. “They do… It’s just that they want more than that. I don’t think the game programmers had a friendship route in mind when designing this game. It is a dating sim, after all.”
“Then Sora will make a dating sim where the goal is to be best friends forever! And Yuuki-sensei will be the first one to play ♪” After the declaration, as if on cue, Harukawa yawned loudly, rubbing his eye with a fist in a childlike manner.
Makoto chuckled, setting down his controller. “We’ve been playing for a few more hours at this point. I don’t think we’ve ever been able to together for such a long time, but it might be time to call it a night~”
Harukawa drowsily shook his head in protest. “Don’t worry, Yuuki-sensei. Sora can keep going.”
“It’s okay, I’m getting tired too. How about we just go to bed? You brought the stuff you need to sleep, right?”
“Mhm…” Harukawa squished his own cheeks to wake himself up a bit. He fetched his backpack and pulled a blanket, fluffy pillow, toothbrush, cup, and some toothpaste out of the front pocket.
“…How did all those even fit in there?”
“Sora put it inside!” Harukawa cheerfully answered as if that explained everything.
“I— Okay.” Makoto decided to let the matter go. “By the way, Otogari-kun decided to let you take his bed for the sleepover. He said you could decline if you weren’t comfortable, but that he’d like it if you had somewhere nice to sleep.” He gestured towards Otogari’s bed.
Harukawa seemed to be halfway through pulling a futon out of the same front pocket before stopping. “Really!?” Shoving the futon back into his backpack, Harukawa made his way toward Otogari’s bed, where he felt around to check how soft it was. When Makoto could finally see Harukawa’s face, all he could detect was childlike glee.
After brushing his teeth, fluffing up his pillow, and promising to repay Otogari, Harukawa had settled into bed. Makoto turned off the lights, took off his glasses, and rested on his own. “Good night, Harukawa-kun,” he whispered to the dark room.
“…”
“Harukawa-kun?”
“Yuuki-sensei?”
“Yeah?”
“Sora isn’t ready to sleep yet…”
“But aren’t you tired?”
“Yes.”
Makoto suddenly realized, “Do you have insomnia?”
“…No.”
“Oh.” Makoto rolled onto his side to look in Harukawa’s direction. “What’s keeping you up?”
“Sora isn’t ready.”
Makoto internally groaned at the vague answer. That didn’t really tell him anything, but he could tell that Harukawa was being serious. He rolled onto his back to stare at the ceiling, hoping that an idea would come to his mind.
“♪ ~ ♪ ~ ♪”
Huh? Makoto listened as Harukawa began humming a song that sounded like… “Where did you hear that song?”
“H~uh? Does Yuuki-sensei know this song? He can sing this song with Sora!” Sora continued to hum from where he left off.
“No, I don’t— Um, well, maybe I do. It sounds familiar, but I’m not exactly sure where it’s from.”
“HoHo~ It was from a show that Shinobu-chan was watching the other day! He even offered to watch a few episodes with Sora ♪” Harukawa giggled as if he was reliving the experience. “Everyone had such happy ‘colors,’ and even the villain had a nice ‘color.’ Sora can tell everyone acting in it was happy with their job.”
Makoto squinted into the darkness at the familiarity of those words. Villain… Ah…! “Harukawa-kun.”
“Yes?”
“Do you want to continue where you left off with Shinobu-kun?”
A rustling sound from the other bed suggested that Harukawa sat up in Otogari’s bed. “Does Yuuki-sensei know which show Sora is talking about!?”
Makoto turned on his flashlight and faced it towards the ceiling, illuminating the room, and allowing him to clearly see Harukawa eagerly awaiting his response. “Yeah, Morisawa has a limited-edition CD with all the episodes on it, along with a bunch of extra behind the scenes stuff. One time I’ve seen Sengoku-kun come over to get a standard edition CD from him.”
“Can Sora see?”
“Sure, hold on a second.” Makoto leapt off his bed, shivering a bit at the feeling of his warm feet planting onto the cold wooden floor. Even though he and Sora were very much awake, he still felt the need to quietly make his way over to the TV, crouching and facing his flashlight towards the cabinets underneath it. Scanning the contents, he flipped through several cases before finding the one he was looking for. “Aha!” he whisper-yelled.
“Did Yuuki-sensei find it?” a voice whispered in his ear.
“AH!” Makoto fell backward as he realized Harukawa had somehow been sitting right next to him in the dark. “I… uhm, yeah.” Sitting up, he shone his phone light on the case he was carrying. “This is it, right?”
Harukawa nearly faceplanted into the case before pulling back and nodding excitedly. “Yes, Sora recognizes the characters!”
“Well then…” Makoto opened the case, and after carefully taking out the disc, he inserted it into the player connected to the TV. “How about you put it on whichever episode you left off on, and then I bring us some stuff to make it comfier?” He turned the screen of the TV on, and the static glow illuminated the now dimly lit room.
Harukawa’s brows scrunched in concern. “Yuuki-sensei doesn’t need to see the first episodes?”
Makoto waved Harukawa off as he stood up. “No need to worry. I’ve made it halfway through the first season after Morisawa recommended the show to me.” Careful to avoid tripping on anything, he gathered his and Harukawa’s blankets and pillows, dumping them on the couch in front of the screen. Looking down at the inviting pile of fabrics and warmth, Makoto decided to also grab the beanbags sitting in the middle of the dorm.
“Yuuki-sensei! Sora is starting from the fourth episode. Is that okay?”
“Yeah.” Makoto nodded as he took a seat on the couch. “Do you want to sit here? There’s plenty of room~” He patted the empty space to his right and smiled invitingly.
Harukawa shook his head, instead pulling down his blanket from where Makoto had placed it on the couch. “It’s comfy down here! Yuuki-sensei should come down with Sora!”
“Um…” Makoto looked down at the hard wooden floor skeptically.
“Hmm… How about this?” Harukawa touched the floor and closed his eyes. After a few seconds, he opened his eyes again and grinned at Makoto. “Yuuki-sensei, you should try it.”
“Okay…” Makoto reluctantly lifted himself off the couch and lowered himself onto the floor. As he touched the floor, Makoto’s eyes widened at the sensation. “How…!?”
“HeHe~ It’s a trick that Shisho~ taught Sora ♪”
Makoto patted the floor again, making sure he wasn’t hallucinating. It felt as if the material of the floor had completely changed despite it looking the same. It reminded Makoto of a game mechanic where the appearance of armor and the strength of it could be set independent of each other, one of Makoto’s favorite features in RPGs. With no more reservations, he reached for his blankets and pillows as he settled comfortably on the floor.
“Boop~♪” Harukawa pressed his finger down on the remote control, giggling to himself.
As the episode on the screen started playing, Makoto felt some shifting beside him. Looking to the source of the movement, he saw Harukawa snuggling up to him, resting his head on Makoto’s shoulder. He smiled softly, resting his head slightly on top of Harukawa’s, and he let his attention drift back to the show, melting into the cozy atmosphere.
“AH! Yuuki-kuN, I’m glad that I found yoU.”
“Huh?” Makoto turned around to see Sakasaki holding a large box in his arms. “Did you need me for something?”
“Of coursE. I heard that you had a little sleepover with SoRA. Is that righT?” Sakasaki smirked mischievously at him.
Makoto nervously scratched the back of his neck. “Y-Yes…?”
Sakasaki’s signature Cheshire grin only grew wider. “I hope you get ready for the next onE.”
“W-What!?”
Natsume lifted the box he was holding, drawing Makoto’s attention to it. “Ever since graduaTING, you haven’t been coming to the Game Club as ofTEN. Because of that, there are still a lot of kusoges I have yet to give yoU. But there’s no need to worRY, since I’m sure you’ll be willing to let me bring them over next timE, won’t yoU~? ActualLY, while we’re herE, we can do some noW ♪”
Makoto gulped.
“Morisawa-senpai, did you hear that?”
“Hm? Hear what, Otogari?”
“It sounded like a scream…”
“HA HA HA~☆ No need to worry! That’s most likely from the show. It’s normal to hear civilians scream as the villain wreaks havoc.”
“…Are you sure? It sounded as though it came from outside.”
“Of course! A hero will always hear a real call for help. OH! We’re getting to the best part!”
“Yuuki said he would be here a while ago though…”
Adonis’ words fell on deaf ears.