Caffeine in the Time of Midterms

Irish Coffee & London Fog (12:04 AM)

Nakiri Alice hummed to herself, flipping through the pages of a gastronomy magazine while the indigo paint on her toenails dried. She nibbled on some madeleines she'd made earlier, offhandedly thinking of what cutting edge cookware she'd purchase next. Just when she felt that Ryo was taking a bit too long with her earl grey latte, her assistant turned boyfriend entered the room.

"Here." He handed her the drink and sat at the edge of the bed. Alice gave a contented sigh.

"Can you believe that Erina and Hishoko are still up studying? They couldn't even bother to entertain me a bit. How rude."

"Just study with them," the fifth seat advised as he sipped an Irish coffee that was nearly all whisky.

"Why would I do that?" Alice laughed. "Whatever points I might lose on the written exams I'll more than make up for on the practicums."

Ryo nodded his agreement, swirled his drink. "Those neurotic types won't get that," he said. Most of the third years had that perfectionist streak, especially those on the Elite Ten Council. They wanted excellence on all fronts, even in subjects that had nothing to do with cooking. It would be their undoing. "This is the time when they'll slip up in the kitchen."

Alice's gave a tinkling laugh at this. She always loved the way that evil mind of his worked. "Mhmm...this is when Erina will be at her worst. Hayama too. Ryo-kun, this is brilliant!" She ran through the plan rapidly forming in her mind. They'd be tired, irritable, more likely to accept a challenge. It was perfect. "We can grab the second and third seats in one swoop."

"I'm only interested in the first," Ryo said. Anything between two and six was all the same to him.

Alice waved him off. "You'd hate it anyway. It's too much paperwork and too many meetings."

Ryo paused, considering this. "You're probably right."

"Naturally," the Nakiri heiress said. "Now let's get some sleep." It would be their greatest asset in the battles ahead.

Barley Tea (2:37 AM)

Tadokoro was eating the person character again as she sat hunched over her mammoth textbook for Cuisine in Classical Literature. Souma's eyes narrowed with affection as he watched her dutifully take notes. She got like this every exam season, but she always did better than anyone in the dorm—save Marui—on the written tests. But she'd be fine, they all would. Isshiki-senpai had told them the course was an easy A, after all—no homework except for reading, relatively few in-class assignments.

He set a thermos of cold barely tea in front of her, the way she always did for him when he pulled all nighters.

"Thanks." She smiled up at him, radiant despite the dark circles forming beneath her eyes. "But you should get to bed soon if you're done studying."

"Are you gonna be up all night?"

"Probably." She paused, yawned, and turned back to him. "Hey, Souma-kun, do you remember what the role of garum was in the patrician dinner parties in Ancient Rome?"

"Huh?" He blinked once. Twice. The professor hadn't mentioned that during the lectures. "Is that some kind of bread?"

"It's a condiment made from fish intestines and vinegar," Megumi explained as she flipped through her spiral notebook. "I just can't remember if it was served towards the beginning of the meal or only with the main course. Was it in chapter ten or twelve of the main text?"

"I see." Maybe he should have bought the books for that class after all. "What else are you reviewing for that test?"

"Let's see." Megumi opened her binder and took out an annotated and thoroughly highlighted study sheet. "There's beer culture in Mesopotamia as described in the Epic of Gilgamesh, the history of rice cultivation worldwide, and representations of bread in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. But that's just for unit one. In unit two-"

"Uh Tadokoro..."

She glanced up at him. "What is it, Souma-kun?"

"What do you think the chances of passing are for someone who, say, didn't do a few of the readings?"

"How many is a few?"

"...All of them."

"Souma-kun!" She started eating the person character again, this time for his sake. "What do ya think you've been doin' all this time? Being on the Elite Ten ain't a free pass, ya know. You can still get expelled for failing midterms!"

"I know, I know," he said, even as Megumi slid her study guide of the gods over to him.

"Hopefully this helps. I highlighted the most important things in purple."

"Don't you need this?"

Megumi shrugged. "You need it more."

"Thanks Tadokoro."

"Don't mention it. If it wasn't for you, I would have failed French last year for sure."

Marocchino (5:32 AM)

It was entirely too late at night for anyone to still be awake and too early for even the sun to rise, but in a certain apartment, just a few miles off a certain campus, a certain heiress typed away on her laptop.

Ikumi rolled her neck, sighing as the line graphs and spreadsheets started blurring together. At a random her father had decided that she should be the one to present on the Mito Group's third quarter earnings at the meeting that weekend. And of course, he had picked Tōtsuki's midterms week to thrust this responsibility upon her.

She glanced over at the couch where Takumi's face was covered by colossal textbook on macroeconomics and the culinary world. They had agreed to keep each other awake while they crammed, but she'd let him be for the past three hours.

He approached her in the kitchen another half hour later, shaking his head. "Why didn't-"

"You looked tired." Ikumi shrugged and bit into the fried chicken sandwich she'd just made. Then she held it out to him. "Want a bite?"

"Grazie." He took it from her and glanced at the work she was doing. "Are you almost done?"

She almost laughed. "Not even close."

"You should sleep, amore," he chided, even as he started the espresso machine. It was an authentic one, shipped all the way from his hometown in Tuscany.

"I'll sleep next month." The ninth seat sighed as the scent of fresh cocoa powder filled the air. He was making her favorite.

Takumi set the drink, housed in an elegant coffee glass Ikumi couldn't remember buying, down in front of her. He had done some lazy latte art in the foam—a little cartoonish version of her. She smiled, sipped it, felt herself starting to blush.

"W-what the hell? If you have time to do all of that go back to sleep!"

But for both of them the night had only just begun.

Chai (2:45 PM)

At the weekly meeting in Tōtsuki's parliament, the Elite Ten Council was a sad sight to behold. At one end of the long table, Erina sat with her hair in a high ponytail to hide the fact that she didn't have enough time to blow dry it—or to ask Hisako to do it for her. And at the other Ikumi and Aldini were drinking espresso out of full sized mugs, both of them hyper-alert and jittery.

Yukihira and Tadokoro hadn't bothered to show up. Whether they were still studying or napping after their morning exams, the world would never know. Megumi had at least posted an apologetic message in their group chat. But Hisako was sure nobody else had read it. She had only seen it flash briefly across the screen of her tablet as she proceeded to cancel all of Erina's tastings for the week.

Most infuriatingly, Alice and Kurokiba, who never seemed to be stressed out about anything, sat smugly, looking decidedly less disheveled than just about everyone else in the room.

Rolling her eyes at them, Hisako poured Erina another Americano—and then one for herself. They were both tea people usually, but times were desperate and they couldn't pass up the extra caffeine.

"Your hair looks great today, Erina," Alice chirped, and Hisako knew that Erina was willing herself not to pour the coffee on her cousin.

"Thanks."

"And how was the French exam?" she tried again. "I know you've never been that good with languages."

"I did fine, Alice. Now can we just talk about the budget?"

"Sure. I could use a new cooking wing," the Nakiri said.

"What's wrong with the the you have now?"

"I'm bored with it. Ryo-kun, you'll approve the project right?"

"Sure."

"And Hayama-kun will support me too."

"What?" He looked up, clearing his throat, his jade eyes slightly unfocused. Hisako frowned.

"You could at least listen while the leader of your faction is speaking." Alice crossed her arms petulantly. "We're trying to get my new cooking wing approved."

"And I've been telling you it's unnecessary!" Erina added.

"I'm calling for a recess," the seventh seat said, sensing Erina's rage about to bubble over. "Let's reconvene in fifteen minutes."

"Fine by me," Alice sang as she sauntered off to her lounge with Kurokiba in tow.

"Takumi, do you have an espresso machine hiding in here too?" Ikumi asked.

"It's upstairs," he told her, and then they were gone as well.

"Are you coming to my lounge, Hisako?" Erina questioned.

"You should go on ahead, Erina-sama," she said. "I'll be up in a minute."

Once they were alone, Hisako went over to Hayama and took a seat on the edge of the conference table. She nudged his leg with her own.

He cleared his throat again. "What's the matter, Arato?"

Hisako could tell now that his voice was a little off. He sounded just the tiniest bit congested, but most people would've missed it.

"You should be in bed." She reached out to touch the side of his face. A lifelong student of traditional medicine, Hisako had of course estimated how high the fever would be, but it still shocked her. Over the past few days she had only seen him in passing, but he always looked put together, unbothered. He exuded his usual princely charm even while other students were folding under their exhaustion all around.

After a short pause, Hayama brushed her off. No one had noticed all week. "It's nothing to worry about."

"Akira," she began, gesturing at the mug of masala chai in front of him. "It's midterms week and you, a coffee enthusiast, are drinking tea. Go home."

"It's fine. After this I still have to write the exam for Jun's class and facilitate a practicum." And that was before he balanced the monthly budget and studied for the classes he was actually taking.

"Honestly." Hisako sighed, rolling her eyes. It was generally understood that Tōtsuki students had to be excused from all other obligations during exam season. "You're going to just collapse someday if you keep this up."

"So you have this side to you too," he observed.

Hisako turned her gaze downward, her face reddening. Was this how far she'd fallen? Who was she? When had she become this soft person? She was almost starting to sound like Tadokoro-san.

"I mean..." She shrugged, crossed her arms over her chest. "We're like...a thing, right? At least tell me when you don't feel good so I can..." She shook her head. Nope. Too mushy. It would be better not to go there. "I mean, what if I had tried to kiss you or something?"

Hayama flashed a smirk at his secret not-quite-girlfriend. "Is that what you were thinking about?"

"You're so infuriating." Her phone vibrated just then, and when she checked it there was a message from Erina asking what was taking her so long. She stood, smoothed her skirt. "I have to go, but I'll bring something for your throat."

"How did you–"

"Shh." Hisako gave his shoulder a light squeeze. "This is what I do."

"What kept you?" Erina asked when she finally made it up to the lounge.

"This and that." She went straight for the cabinets that housed her medicinal tea blends.

"Tea?"

"It's not for me," the secretary explained, regretting the words as soon as they left her.

"Then who?"

Hisako sighed. She was too sleep deprived to come up with a plausible lie. "It's for Hayama-kun."

"Oh..." The Nakiri heiress narrowed her eyes, thinking. "That's nice of you, but..."

"What is it, Erina-sama?" Hisako asked, trying to slow her heartbeat. She had gotten careless. What would she say if Erina asked her directly?

"Nothing." Erina shook her head, chided herself for being silly. She would know if Hisako liked someone, right? She would just know in the same way Hisako seemed to know everything about her before it was even true. And if she didn't know, Hisako would tell her, right? The heiress sighed and took a sip of her coffee. One day without sleep and she was thinking all kinds of crazy things. "Nothing at all."

Authors Notes: Hello, dear readers. I deeply apologize for the unexpected hiatus! I didn't think this semester would be as demanding as it's been so far and I haven't had much free time to write. Thanks for reading, everyone, and have a great day.