Chapter Text
One day, a pile of blankets shows up at class.
Or at least, that's what it looks like, right up until the moment Nanami's head peeks from behind it to greet her classmates with a fairly sleepy, but otherwise neutral, “Good morning.” She gives a light kick to the door with her heel to close it behind her, and calmly wobbles to her desk.
“Nanami–san! A splendid morning to you, too!” Sonia perks up immediately, questioning nothing, but finding it a little more difficult than usual to clasp her hands with passion to make sure all of her sentiment properly translated.
“Good morning, Nanami–san!” Komaeda echoes. He doesn't acknowledge the fluffy elephant in the room at all, aside from an off-hand, light-hearted, “Do you need a hand with those?”
“Nope, got it.” Nanami sets the precarious pile down on her desk, straightening it up around the top. It looks like a very soft, very colourful Leaning Tower of Pisa, and it would no doubt make it impossible for anyone behind her to see if she didn't thankfully occupy a seat at the very back of the classroom.
“Hey, Nanami! Lookin' good.” Owari pats her vigorously on the shoulder, a broad grin on her face. “Nice blankets. So, anyway, back me up on this: old man Nidai says that copying some of the moves from Mortal Kombat is... how did he put it... oh, yeah, physically impossible and something about spinal injuries? Pssh, whatever. I think I can do it. So, watcha say? I really wanna try pulling off a Square Wave Punch–”
“Okay, is no one going to say it?”
Kuzuryuu rises from his chair with his hands in the air, looking as baffled as if everyone had suddenly started speaking Armenian.
Everyone looks back at him quizzically, Nanami included.
“What's up with the blankets?”
“Oh. Right.” Nanami strokes the pile at her side like she's petting a horse. “These are yours. I think.”
“Wait, mine?”
“Nope,” Nanami shakes her head slowly, starting to worry about Kuzuryuu's no-nonsense meter, which clearly wasn't expecting that it'd be having such a hard time so early in the morning. “They're everyone's.”
“Ha!” Tanaka whips out a hamster. “A gift from the Underworld? I shall not be frightened off! Come, cursed artifacts! Tanaka the Forbidden embraces you!”
“I think he's asking if they're presents?” Souda sighs, looking defeated. “I don't even know.”
“Well, sort of...” Nanami brings a finger to her cheek, deep in thought. “They were everyone's present to me for the last few months. I end up falling asleep around the school a lot, and sometimes...” She points at the pile with an open, upturned palm. “Sometimes, when I wake up, I'll have a blanket on me that wasn't there before. But I don't think I was ever supposed to keep them? Besides, they just kept piling up, so I thought I'd finally return them.”
A hum of collective understanding echoes throughout the room, as people nod and comment along the lines of “Oh, yeah, that makes sense.” No one, after all, is surprised to hear this.
After a while, everyone starts rummaging through the pile, which ends up looking more like a heap within minutes. Occasionally, someone will shout “Ah! I think this one's mine!” or “This one's pretty! Is anyone claiming this?” or “Look! I'm the Human Burrito!” The last one only happens once, followed by a pained yelp as someone else decides that the Human Burrito sounds like something you're supposed to take a bite of. (Namely, Souda's the burrito and Mioda’s just hungry for mayhem.)
Nanami makes a point of thanking everyone who recognises a blanket as their own, cheeks dusted a bright pink and a sheepish, grateful smile on her face that makes more than one classmate melt on the spot.
“Nanami–saaaan,” Hanamura's soft whine makes her head turn, question marks in her eyes. “Are you positive this is all of them? I can't seem to find mine...”
“Ah...” Nanami's face goes blank. “I couldn't bring myself to bring that one. It's too embarassing.”
“I'm flattered!”
“That wasn't really a compliment, though...”
Hanamura winks.
“Well, I'd never do anything to make our Class Rep uneasy! I can come pick it up at your dorm, if you'd like–”
“You,” Koizumi snaps, putting Hanamura's head in a headlock, “are coming nowhere near the girls' dorms.”
“That's fine!” Hanamura shouts as he's dragged away. “I'm perfectly comfortable coming in the boys' dor–”
“THAT'S HARASSMEEEENT!”
“Everyone!” Sonia's voice cuts through the chaos. “Please keep it orderly!”
“Wow! This one looks fancy. Can I keep it?” Saionji flashes Nanami her best Cute Smile™, which would've definitely had more power when she was still as tall as an elementary schooler, but still retained most of its charm. She holds up a precious-looking cashmere blanket, embroiedered with flowers on one side, and displaying gruesome battle scenes on the other.
“Oh! I believe that may be mine!” Sonia's eyes sparkle at the sight. Saionji clicks her tongue and looks away in annoyance.
“It is a wonderful piece of Novoselican history,” she elaborates, hands running over the embroidery work on the inner side. “Ah, the Battle of Lehm's Deep... truly one of the most valorous moments in 1976's Medieval Reenactment Festival.”
“It's from a reenactment...?” Pekoyama lifts her right eyebrow, puzzled not for the first time by Sonia's country's priorities.
“Yes indeedy! Ah, but it's also cursed.” Sonia's face goes dark. “Once it has been received as a gift, it cannot be refused. Otherwise, it's terrible luck for the one who has received it.”
“It can't be! Would the artifact dare taint the Chosen One's fate?!”
“Not really, but it would make it so you can never successfully partake in a historical reenactment ever again...” Sonia looks down, a regretful expression in her eyes. “It carries the curse of anachronism. It will make your bra strap show, and your cellphone ring even though you put it on silent...”
She fervently takes Nanami's hands in her own. “That's why I cannot take it back! Please, accept it as a memento of our friendship!”
Nanami's face is completely red. “B-But... such an important item... are you sure you want me to have it?”
A voice speaks from behind her. “If it's terrible luck to refuse it, I wouldn't risk it, Nanami–san.” When Nanami looks up, Komaeda is smiling at her, holding a different blanket in his arms. “Besides, I feel like you'd make a better use of all these blankets than we could. I don't think anyone here appreciates naps as much as you do!”
“But...” Nanami looks around, flustered. “Is it really okay for me to keep them?”
“It's more than okay! Right?”
A murmur of agreement spreads between her classmates, and for the first time ever in response to Komaeda's words.
“See?” He extends his arms forward. “Of course, I wouldn't blame you if you won't accept a ratty blanket from someone like me, but... it's yours if you want it.”
It's not ratty at all, Nanami thinks. It's knit of pastel pink and lilac wool with fringes on its sides, and it's incredibly soft to the touch. A little old, maybe, but that just makes it all the more comfortable to snuggle in.
She remembers waking up at her desk, one late afternoon, after having collapsed over her PSP, and finding soft fabric under her fingers and draped all around her shoulders. The scent, too, was like castile soap. It made her go right back to sleep.
She takes the blanket from his hands and gives him a big, warm smile. “Thank you, Komaeda–kun. Everyone...”
Just a few months ago, she never would've thought things could turn out this way. That she could have so many friends that watched over her, and cared for her, and asked nothing in return.
“Ew, gross! The weirdo's doing something weird again!”
Saionji's voice ends the moment with a disgusted screech.
“I-I-I'm not doing anything! I p-promise I'm not doing anything!”
“Not you, you fucking pighead!” She points decidedly towards a strange structure made of a particularly large blanket draped over two chairs, each on top of a desk.
“Tsk! Your mortal eyes can't possibly pierce the veil that shrouds the castle of my Four Dark Devas!” Tanaka burrows further into his makeshift den, probably one breath away from hissing.
“Eeh? Did you make a blanket fort for your hamsters?” Saionji covers her mouth with one hand and snickers. “That's sooo lame!”
“S-Silence!”
“Huh,” Kuzuryuu hums, stepping inside from the opposite side, startling both the hamsters and their master. “That's actually pretty solid. You know, structurally speaking. I bet we could make it a tunnel if we used the other desks too.”
After a couple more seconds of mental architectural planning, Kuzuryuu looks up to find fourteen pairs of eyes staring at him in varying degrees of disbelief. He quickly lifts his palms up, blushes to death, and stammers, not necessarily in this order: “N-Not that I was suggesting–”
“No, it's a good idea.”
All of the eyes fix on Nanami, and she pauses.
So many possibilities...
“Actually... it's a great idea. Let's all grab a blanket.”
And just like that, everyone starts shouting with excitement.
“Hells yeah! Ibuki can't build at all but she'll happily conform with everyone in the spirit of Communism!”
“That's not a communist flag! That's just a red blanket!”
“Oi, Nidai! First one to knock down the other's fort wins!”
“I d-don't think that's how you're supposed to play, O-Owari–san...”
“BRING IT OOOON!”
“Haha... Nanami–san, your eyes are sparkling! Sparkling with hope! I can't wait to see where this will lead us!”
“Dark tunnels... soft surfaces... aah, it's the perfect scenario for–!”
“I-I think I'd r-rather stay home and make anime...”
This was going to be great.
“Sorry I'm late, everyone! I was held up at a...”
Yukizome's always prepared for disaster whenever she throws the door open, but she was not expecting what she finds.
“...meeting...”
Her first thought is that looks like an evacuee camp. But colourful. And messy.
And her desks are gone.
Apparently, so are her students.
“Um... guys? Where are you? What... are you doing?”
There's some commotion inside, some rustling, a little yelping as someone's foot is stepped on, but in the end a familiar pink head peeks out from the endless sea of blankets.
“Yukizome–sensei!”
“Nanami–san!” The relief in her voice is palpable. “What's going on here? Is this...”
“It's a blanket fort,” Nanami explains. Then, as an afterthought, she adds, “It was Kuzuryuu–kun's idea.”
“It was not!”
“Is everyone in there?” Yukizome asks, peeking inside. She thinks she can see some familiar limbs here and there.
“Yup. Sensei, do you want to join?”
For a moment, she considers just saying that she's a bit grown up for this, and politely declining, maybe insisting that they actually have homeroom for once.
For a moment.
Then she becomes aware of Nanami's big eyes sparkling with excitement and...
Well, what the hell. She's not that old, is she?
Besides, forts are fun.
“Sensei, don't! Hanamura's gonna be a creep to you too!”
“I can handle Hanamura–kun, Saionji–san! Don't worry about me!”
With that, she climbs inside, because why not? It's not everyday that your classroom gets turned into a warm, fluffy maze.
She bets she can even send a certain someone a picture...
When Yukizome–sensei whips out her phone from an apron pocket, going unnoticed by almost everyone in the darkness of the fort, Nanami gets an idea.
When Hinata checks his phone at lunch, there's a text from Nanami.
It's a picture. Hinata looks at it once, then tries rotating his phone, then looks at it again. It kind of looks like an abstract art painting or the biggest plaid in the world, he can't quite decide. Maybe they're blankets, though? One of them in particular does seem familiar...
On the left side, a corner of Nanami's face peeks at the camera, accompanied by a clumsy peace sign.
He scrolls down.
The caption just reads Fort Meow II.
Hinata has to stop himself from snickering out loud.