Disclaimer: I do not own The Quintessential Quintuplets, they are owned by Negi Haruba, please support the official manga and the anime
Chapter 2: Meeting At The Airport
The best thing Fuutarou could say about the taxi driver was that the man did get him and his wife to the airport a few minutes earlier than expected. However, it did come at the cost of breaking some traffic laws in addition to shaving a few years off of his lifespan. Nevertheless, they did make it there alive. Grabbing their luggage, they proceeded to enter the airport at 3:15am.
The flight was scheduled for 5:30am on that Monday morning with the idea being that the group would probably be exhausted by the seven hour flight so it would be better to arrive in Hawaii at late afternoon/ early evening (since they will be going past the International Dateline, they would arrive in Honolulu at 5:30pm on Sunday) so they could get a proper rest and attack the next morning at full energy.
Fuutarou had determined that arriving two hours prior to departure would be sufficient enough time to make it to their terminal, but thanks to the taxi driver's "impressive" driving, they arrived 15 minutes earlier than expected. Both Uesugis strided through the entrance, confidently expecting to be the first of their party to arrive, but the scene the two were greeted with left them flabbergasted.
Standing in front of them was a wide-awake Ichika with her suitcase in tow and a frappuccino in her hand. The oldest sister noticed the couple and happily waved them over.
"Good morn..." Ichika started before she stopped upon seeing the concerned faces of Fuutarou and Yotsuba quickly approaching her. Yotsuba quickly pounced on Ichika and engulfed her in a hug while Fuutarou cautiously approached her with worry in his eyes.
"Listen Ichika… I know this flight was set up for very early in the morning and that the chances of you oversleeping are quite high, b-but that's not an excuse to skip sleeping. C'mon, you need to start thinking things through!" Fuutarou scolded the oldest quintuplet.
"I'm sure you're used to sleeping on airplanes, but even with it you're going to be super exhausted when we get there. You'll probably be too tired the next morning to join in on the fun," Yotsuba whispered softly to her sister as she began to rock back and forth in her stance as if she was trying to rock Ichika to her much needed sleep.
"Eh? What are you guys going on about?" asked a confused Ichika as she broke away from Yotsuba's hug. "I got plenty of rest last night, I'd say a good 6 hours. There's no need to worry about me."
Ichika gave them a big smile as she was very gracious they would be so worried about her and a bit amused they couldn't fathom her having a responsible sleep schedule. However the two didn't look convinced as they quickly huddled together and started loudly whispering to each other.
"Fuutarou, you don't think...she slept here at the airport, do you?" asked Yotsuba
"Normally that would be a preposterous suggestion, even for someone like Ichika, but given the current situation I can't rule it out," replied Fuutarou. "But where exactly did she sleep? No way someone as well-known as her could get away sleeping on a bench in public, even in the dead of night."
"Oh, maybe since she's a frequent flier she was able to sleep in one of those private VIP lounges!" Yotsuba replied proudly as Fuutarou nodded in agreement.
"You guys, you're completely overreacting!" chuckled Ichika as she broke up the huddle, having heard their outrageous theories. "I'm used to these kinds of early flights, I've learned to train myself to go to bed early and wake up early for this type of travel. I'm not the same lazy girl you remember Fuutarou-kun."
She gave the man a wink before putting her arm around Yotsuba's shoulder, "That being said, I'm definitely going to be sleeping through most of this flight."
"That's fine with me, I'm probably sleeping through most of the flight too. However I will warn you now that if you don't get up the first time we try to wake you, we're just going to leave you on the plane," replied Fuutarou with a smirk, getting an exaggerated pout from Ichika that quickly broke as she couldn't hold back her laughter.
Yotsuba's attention was immediately drawn away as she heard two familiar individuals approach from afar.
"Damn it, I was hoping we would be the first ones here," grumbled Nino as she quickly spotted the trio that had already arrived.
"Well we might have been if you didn't take so long with your makeup," retorted Miku, earning an eye roll from her sister.
"Nino and Miku!" Yotsuba exclaimed as she ducked her head out from under Ichika's arm and immediately ran towards her other two older sisters.
Before Fuutarou could join in welcoming them, Ichika put her arm out in front of him to block his path and gave him a mischievous grin.
"I'll admit those were some good jokes Fuutarou-kun, but don't think you've bested me yet. After all, I am still the Teasemaster."
The title of "Teasemaster" was a never-ending game between the two of them that was basically a competition to one-up each other in their attempts to embarrass the other. Ichika came up with the term as a joke several months ago, which Fuutarou was quick to mock as being a dumb name, but since there was never an alternate name ever given, they just kept it. A silly little name for an ultimately silly little game.
"We'll see who's the real Teasemaster," Fuutarou gave a cocky smirk as Ichika rescinded her arm to allow the man to greet the two sisters that just arrived.
As Fuutarou walked over to them, the first thing he noticed was that Nino had TWO large suitcases compared to the one that everyone else had. This caused the man to sigh.
"Jeez Nino, we're only going to be gone a week, you don't need that many clothes do you?" he thought to himself but ultimately decided it was best if he did not say it out loud. Thankfully the first thing she did was go and check in both of her bags at the luggage dropoff so she wouldn't have to lug both of them around. Yotsuba immediately sprinted over to help her, even though Nino was surprisingly doing well pulling both of them on her own.
"Good morning Fuutarou!" came a soft and serene voice that got the man's attention away from what Nino was doing. Fuutarou immediately recognized it as Miku's voice.
"Good morning Miku," he replied politely back while turning to face her. He noticed that in addition to her suitcase she also had what appeared to be a camera bag. "What's that for?"
"What's what for?" Miku momentarily blushed before she realized he was referring to the camera bag. "Oh this, I know we can all take pictures with our phones but I thought now would be the perfect time to use this digital camera I got a year ago."
"We can then have them printed and make a photo album to commemorate the trip," she continued warmly before her cheeks then returned to their previous red hue. "I actually got the idea from when you gave us that photo album of the Kyoto Trip for our birthday during our last year of high school."
Fuutarou reminisced about how he went about making that album for them. He laughed to himself at how his friend Maeda got confused for a stalker because he wasn't being discreet enough when trying to take their pictures.
"Ooh that's a great idea Miku, I can't wait to capture so many memories," Yotsuba said, having heard the end of their conversation as she and Nino returned from luggage dropoff. Yotsuba then proceeded to give Miku a big hug while Nino made a beeline for Fuutarou.
"Good morning Fuu-kun!" came the flirty voice of Nino, as she immediately invaded his personal space, "Are you excited for our honeymoon?"
"No, you mean Me and Yotsuba's honeymoon," corrected Fuutarou. "You all are just tagging along."
He expected a response from the second quintuplet but what he got wasn't the one he expected, as Nino had a big smirk on her face.
"Well yeah, that's why I said our, as in all of us. Wait... did you think I meant our as in the two of us? Oh my Fuu-kun, I don't know what to think?!" she said as she covered her mouth in fake shock.
"Ugggh! It's way too early in the morning for this," thought Fuutarou as he sighed in defeat, not wanting to add fuel to her teasing. Ichika couldn't help but giggle, wishing she had thought of that trick.
The five of them chatted for a few minutes while they waited for Itsuki to arrive. It was only now turning 3:30am so they weren't too worried.
Starting to feel his fatigue catch up with him, Fuutarou decided just to stand there and listen, seeing if he could get a few minutes of rest while also keeping his eyes open. However a thought crossed his mind as he stared at Miku and Nino.
"Hold on a second, is it really okay for both of you to go on this trip? Who is taking care of the Nakano Cafe?" he questioned the two cafe owners while also trying to hide his excitement. If he could at least get rid of one sister, it would go a long way in making the trip a little less annoying.
"Oh crap, we totally spaced out about the Cafe, what are we going to do?" Nino sarcastically replied. "Honestly Fuu-kun, do you really think we're that absentminded?"
"Don't worry, we still have Kyoko-san to run things, plus Raiha said she'd be happy to work in the kitchen since she's off from school right now," replied Miku with a reassuring smile. Unbeknownst to her, that answer was not actually reassuring to him but he kept that to himself.
Truth is that he had already expected they would get Raiha to cover in the kitchen since she already worked there part-time when she didn't have school. He did however forget about the sisters' other business partner Kyoko Arisugawa since she was hardly ever present at the cafe. This was due to her role in the cafe, which was primarily focused on the advertising side, plus she was also responsible for coordinating the upcoming expansion and dealing with all the paperwork it would entail.
Nino had met Kyoko when the second sister decided to take some college business classes in preparation for when the sisters would eventually open their cafe. She was comfortable adding them to her schedule since culinary school was turning out to be a breeze for her, but quickly learned that keeping both up would be harder than she thought. The two quickly became great friends and actually made Nino's split schooling much more bearable as Kyoko, who would go on to earn a degree in business and marketing, would help teach Nino anything she had trouble comprehending. Even with her differing education, she was more than capable of running the cafe in a pinch since she had plenty of experience doing such for her aunt's diner during high school.
Another 15 minutes would pass as the sisters continued discussing what they were most excited for when they got to Hawaii, when they heard the huffing and puffing of the youngest sister as she ran over to the group, suitcase in tow. As soon as she got there she bent over and was panting pretty heavily, begging for something to drink. Since they were just about to go through airport security, none of them had filled water bottles, leaving the only drink they had on them being Ichika's frappuccino, which wasn't even half-finished. She handed it over and Itsuki shocked everyone there when she downed the whole thing.
"Phew….not exactly what I was looking for but that definitely helped. Thanks Ichika, I'll buy you a new one when we get to our terminal," replied Itsuki as she composed herself. The rest of them just kind of stood there in awe at the woman until Fuutarou finally spoke up.
"Are you some kind of garbage disposal?"
"Ha ha, good morning to you too Uesugi-kun," she returned sarcastically as she then led the way for the group towards the security checkpoint as they were now behind schedule.
AN: Just a heads up that the next few chapters will be fairly similar to this one in theme. I will eventually get to the heavy stuff and finding suitable closure for the sisters, but as is the case with any vacation, the beginning is always full not energy and excitement. Plus it let's me run some fun scenarios.
Also I wanted to make clear this isn't a harem fic, but that's not going to stop these girls from trying. Look forward to more shenanigans going forward and thank you for reading. Please leave a review telling me what you thought of the chapter, I'm especially interested to know if I'm doing well with the dialogue, but any and all feedback is greatly appreciated!