Disclaimer: I do not own The Quintessential Quintuplets, they are owned by Negi Haruba, please support the official manga and the anime

Chapter 4: Now Boarding...

At long last, Fuutarou's prayers had been answered as they started announcing that they would commence boarding the plane soon. Finally, he would be able to catch up on the sleep he missed out on the night before. He eyed Yotsuba's purse as he fantasized about his secret weapon that would soon give him some respite from the Quintuplets, who had already gotten on his nerves even though their vacation hadn't even technically started yet.

As they called for first class boarding, Ichika immediately left her seat out of habit and it wasn't until she got in line and noticed her sisters hadn't joined her that she had realized her mistake. She did her best to inconspicuously return to her seat but her sisters had already noticed and started teasing her about it as soon as she returned, while all Fuutarou could do was facepalm. If he was being honest, he's surprised she hadn't gotten her and her sisters first class tickets considering how easily she booked their deluxe rooms. Though he did have to admit that the fact she was able to book the exact seats right next to and around him and Yotsuba was impressive in its own way.

As their zone was called, Fuutarou noticed he'd only finished half of the frappuccino Itsuki had bought him. Not one to waste food or beverage, even if he didn't pay for it, he decided he'd try to finish as much as possible as they walked up. After all, earlier Itsuki downed a three-quarters full one in one go right in front of them. He figured he could methodically do the same for his half-full cup.

He was wrong.

After just two consecutive gulps he felt a strange mixture of a brain freeze combined with caffeine overload. He immediately gave his wife a look of desperation as he did his best to coherently plead to her for any form of help she could give. Starting to panic at her husband's flailing, she immediately unzipped her luggage and took out a small beach towel and wrapped it around her husband's head, leaving the man in utter bewilderment.

"How in the hell is this going to help me?" he grumbled as he immediately ripped the towel from his head.

"Well, um… uh...I thought maybe it would warm your head up?" she tried desperately to explain her silly solution, "but judging by how you are reacting, I'm guessing that was probably a dumb idea right?"

She had begun to scratch the back of her head in embarrassment as Fuutarou took the towel he had just ripped off and covered his face to muffle the pained groan that was requiring all of his willpower just to hold in so he wouldn't cause a public disturbance. After removing the towel once again, he saw his wife bowing, hands clasped together.

"Sorry I was just trying to help, even if it was just to distract you from your pain."

Fuutarou rolled his eyes as he went to her suitcase case to put the towel away. He was going to explain what would have been the correct solution until he realized he actually did feel better. It seems her diversion tactic had actually worked as Fuutarou was too preoccupied trying to understand her logic to feel either sensation anymore.

"Thank you Yotsuba, I don't know how, but I guess it did end up working," he said to his wife while helping her stand up straight again. The dejected face that appeared when she raised her head began to morph into a self-satisfied toothy grin.

However, Fuutarou wasn't able to look at his wife's proud face for very long as something caught his attention from the corner of his eye. He turned towards the sight and gasped as he saw Itsuki take his frappuccino and proceed to finish it off swiftly, as if it was a simple cup of water. The youngest sister saw his reaction and gave a smug and triumphant grin.

"It's all about the technique," she said as she threw the cup away and got in line. Fuutarou wanted to get mad at her, but decided it was more rational to just blame himself for even attempting such a thing. He really, really needed to take a nap soon.

The group of six were seated on the right side of the plane near the emergency exit over the right wing, perfectly filling in two rows of three seats. Fuutarou, Yotsuba, and Itsuki made up row 16 as Fuutarou took the aisle seat to give his legs plenty of room, while Yotsuba volunteered herself for the middle seat, allowing Itsuki to have the window seat as well as giving Yotsuba a seat next to her new husband. The other three sisters sat directly behind them in row 17. Nino immediately captured the aisle seat while Ichika quickly claimed the window seat. Miku didn't really care about her seat so she resigned herself to the middle seat.

"This is going just as I had hoped," Fuutarou heard Nino mumble to herself, causing him to turn around in his seat to see her happily sitting directly behind him.

"And what's so special about sitting right behind me, I would have figured you'd want to sit where Itsuki is sitting instead."

"Of course he wouldn't understand," thought Nino with an amused smile on her face as she debated whether or not to tell him her reasoning. She hesitated for a bit until all six of them were fully seated and the influx of other passengers boarding would make it too much of a hassle for him to ask her to move seats.

"Well if you must know, it has the perfect view."

"Of what?" asked the man cautiously, bracing himself for whatever scheme she had engineered.

"Well, I mean it's a long trip and it's still pretty early so it's only a matter of time until you start getting sleepy," Nino teased at her goal but realized quickly by looking at his face that he wasn't connecting the dots fast enough so she went ahead and made it much clearer. "So eventually you'll recline your seat back so you can get more comfortable."

Fuutarou still wasn't seeing what there was to be happy about; to him it sounded like a con more than a pro. He analyzed her cunning grin, her slight blush, and her hands rhythmically patting her lap before he was finally able to get his gears turning.

"Well played Nino," Fuutarou admitted to himself, "childish and immature, but well-played."

Yotsuba, who had been listening attentively, was still piecing things together but caught on just a little after Fuutarou did. She pouted at this realization that Fuutarou would practically be resting in Nino's lap if her husband were to recline his chair.

"Hey honey, would you prefer if I sat behind you instead?" Yotsuba said to her husband as she made a cutesy face to help convince him.

However, Fuutarou was much more resilient to that look compared to when they were first dating. Not that he had many reasons to turn her down when she had this look, but he saw right through Nino's plot.

If Yotsuba took Nino's seat, the opposite would be true, meaning he'd have Nino as the only person sitting next to him for the whole duration of this flight. He commended Nino's multilayer plot but even sleep-deprived he wouldn't lose to such a trick.

"Nah it's okay, I wouldn't want to invade your personal space Nino. If I get tired I'll just lean against Yotsuba's shoulder. You're alright with that, aren't you honey?"

Yotsuba nodded almost excitedly and said she would if he offered his shoulder for her too. Nino could only stare at the two as she saw her plan come crumbling down. However she quickly recovered as she sought her revenge.

"Another advantage of sitting here is I can kick the back of your seat," she said in a way too playful tone as she lightly kicked the back of his seat, causing Fuutarou's head to rocket from right to left as he went from staring at his wife to looking behind his seat to give Nino a death glare.

"No…. don't you dare," Fuutarou ordered the woman behind him slowly and in a super stern voice. However Nino had already moved on to talking with Ichika, relishing in the minor victory she was able to grasp as she successfully put the fear of a back-attack into his head.

As all the passengers took their seats, Fuutarou was fighting the temptation to fall asleep right away, as he remembered he still had to finish the new schedule for everyone. However, after a couple of minutes he admitted he was way too tired and decided to hold off until they got to their destination since they had nothing planned for that evening.

He decided to survey his family before nodding off and was immediately amused by the fact Itsuki had her head buried in the in-flight menu.

"You do know that it's going to be another two hours until they give us our first meal right?" Fuutarou asked as he raised an eyebrow with eyelids that were barely half-open as he continued this ongoing fight with exhaustion.

"Wait, did you say TWO hours?" Itsuki quickly replied, springing her head from the menu to reveal a face that was painted with despair. "But I haven't had anything to eat for breakfast yet, I thought we would get the chance to order food right away. If I had known that, I would have gotten something to eat when I was in line."

"There there Itsuki," Yotsuba consoled her sister, noticing the distressed look on her face. She then turned her head behind her seat and asked her sisters, "Do any of you have anything to eat with you?"

The only thing on them was a leftover protein bar Ichika had in her purse that was meant for her flight to Japan a few days ago, but food was food and Itsuki happily took it, even though it wasn't the best tasting and was a little smashed.

"I'm really surprised you didn't eat anything before getting here," commented Fuutarou as he stared inquisitively towards Itsuki.

"What's that supposed to mean?" she growled in response, a combination of her still raging hunger and annoyance that he would make fun of her while she was suffering.

"No I'm just surprised you didn't eat something on the way here, like in the car. I'd be feeling the same way as you if me and Yotsuba didn't share some rice crackers during the taxi ride over here "

"Oh sorry," Itsuki blushed having now realized that Fuutarou was showing actual concern for her and not just teasing her. "I accidentally pressed the snooze button on my alarm out of habit and when it rang again I woke up in a panic. That's why I was late this morning."

Fuutarou gave a knowing smile as he's sure he probably would have done the same thing if he was sleeping in his own apartment on his own futon last night. Daily habits are hard to break. Luckily he wasn't sleeping at home and he also just happened to marry a human alarm clock in Yotsuba.

"Oh by the way Fuutarou, do you think the taxi driver is going to be mad when he finds crumbs all over the backseat?" Yotsuba asked her husband after being reminded of their cab ride to the airport. "He told us we could only eat if we didn't leave any crumbs."

"Well I wouldn't have left any if he drove like a sane person," shot back Fuutarou, as he refused to take responsibility for the mess he made.

"It was a little bumpy, but he didn't hit anything plus he did get us here ahead of time," Yotsuba replied, still feeling a little guilty.

"True he didn't hit anything, but he nearly hit that black cat," Fuutarou retorted as he stood his ground.

"Sorry Uesugi-kun, I'm not sure why you'd be hung up on that," asked Itsuki, who had been listening attentively to distract herself from her hunger. "While I'm extremely glad he didn't run it over, I wouldn't hold it against him since it was a black cat in the middle of the night, especially since he avoided it."

"The cat was sitting on the sidewalk the whole time!" Fuutarou fumed with eyes now bulging. This revelation caused Itsuki to shrink back into her seat a little embarrassed, while all Yotsuba could do was chuckle nervously and scratch the back of her head.

All the passengers had been seated but yet the plane showed no signs of moving. Meanwhile, Fuutarou was losing his battle with the sandman and decided to finally concede.

"Hey honey," he lethargically turned to Yotsuba, "I didn't get much sleep last night so I'm going to take a nap, can you wake me up when they take our food orders?"

"Roger! You can count on me!" she replied with her hand raised against the top of her head in a salute. Fuutarou immediately passed out after her declaration and Yotsuba stared forward in determination.

Itsuki, who was basically just people watching to distract herself from her growling stomach, noticed Yotsuba's eyes were struggling to stay open themselves. Seeing that, she put a hand on her older sister's shoulder.

"If you're tired too, you can also rest. I'll wake both of you when it's time to eat," she said as she gave a gentle smile.

"No, it's okay I'm fine," Yotsuba reassured her younger sister as she lightly slapped both her cheeks to keep herself awake and alert. Unfortunately, it didn't have any noticeable effect as her eyelids continued their struggle.

"No I insist, you look exhausted," replied Itsuki. "There's no way I'm going to be able to sleep until I'm able to have a proper breakfast so I'll wake you two when that time comes."

"You sure?" Yotsuba looked at Itsuki as if she was an angel sent from heaven. When Itsuki nodded her head, Yotsuba took Itsuki's hand from her shoulder and leaned over her to give her sister a hug. Then as soon as the embrace ended, she dropped like a rock as she quickly snuggled against Fuutarou's shoulder and fell asleep.

Itsuki was a bit taken aback by how fast Yotsuba curled up against Fuutarou after confirming with Itsuki it was okay to sleep. The youngest quintuplet eyed her with suspicion that Yotsuba had played her and just wanted to cuddle with her husband.

"I know it's her husband, but I feel a little taken advantage of," thought Itsuki as she continued to stare at the two. It was hard to ignore that Yotsuba's movements were much more alert just now than what she showed a minute ago when she looked like she was about to pass out.

"Maybe I should go to sleep too and teach them a-" Itsuki's thoughts were interrupted by her growling stomach. "Never mind, there's no way I'd be able to fall asleep right now."

Still, she wanted to get back at them and got an idea as she pulled out her phone before remembering she had turned it off before she got on the plane. Looking behind her at Miku, she noticed her camera bag was already under the seat, meaning it would cause too much commotion to get it out and would wake the couple. So she sought out her other sisters and noticed Ichika was still using her phone.

"Hey Ichika, look at the newlyweds."

Ichika removed her attention from her phone to see the cute sight that was being pointed out to her. She immediately, without needing to be told, flipped to her camera app but couldn't get a good picture of the two of them due to the height of the seats and the fact that Fuutarou's head was turned towards the aisle and thus out of frame.

Both Miku and Nino peeked up from their respective magazines they pulled out of the seatback pockets in front of them to see why Ichika was fidgeting around. Nino immediately realized what was going on and signaled Ichika to give her the phone.

Ichika obliged as Nino unbuckled herself and walked into the aisle as she took a perfect picture of a sleeping Fuutarou with Yotsuba resting her head on his left shoulder. She also snapped a few more pics before returning to her seat, satisfied with her work.

Handing the phone back to Ichika, the oldest sister checked the camera roll to see Nino had taken more than one picture.

"Hey Nino, did you forget this was my phone?" Ichika whispered as she revealed to Miku and Itsuki the extra pics Nino took, which were zoomed-in pictures of a fast asleep Fuutarou.

"Oops, my bad. But could you just send me those before you delete them?" Nino shamelessly asked, not doing much to cover up her mental error.

"Who says I'm going to delete them?" Ichika responded with a raised eyebrow and devilish grin. "But yes, I'll send them to you."

"Could you send those to my phone too...you know, for the vacation photo album," Miku asked Ichika while trying to keep her poker face. Ichika saw right through it but just nodded her head before turning to Itsuki.

"What about you Itsuki-chan, you want just the one of the couple, or did you also want the other pics?" Ichika inquired which caused the youngest sister to panic.

"Nononononono the first one is just fine," she reflexively answered while blushing profusely, trying desperately to keep her voice to a whisper but ultimately failing.

Her reaction got some muted giggles from her sisters that quickly ended when they noticed a certain someone start moving again.

"Could you ladies please stop talking, I don't know what you are discussing, but I can bet it isn't something important enough to keep me awake," responded a groggy and irritated Fuutarou.

"What do you mean, we were only whispering," asked Nino as she breathed a sigh of relief at the fact Fuutarou didn't actually hear their discussion.

"Whispering huh? I was afraid that might have been the case." Fuutarou sighed, causing the four awake sisters to question what he meant. "I already had a working theory that after being with all you troublemakers for so long, my brain's primal instincts have adapted to always be on guard when hearing your voices, thus preventing me from being asleep. Looks like my hypothesis is true."

"So what, are you saying we can't talk at all during this flight while you're asleep?" asked Itsuki with an annoyed look on her face.

"No that would be unrealistic, and I guess also unfair to you all, so that's why...," Fuutarou momentarily stopped as he picked up Yotsuba's purse and excitedly searched for what he was looking for before continuing, "I brought these bad boys right here!"

Despite his extraordinary declaration, what rested in Fuutarou's hands were generic, run-of-the-mill ear plugs. Ichika and Miku tried and failed to stifle their laughter, Nino rolled her eyes, and Itsuki quickly pulled out a notebook and started writing something down.

"I don't see why you find these funny, and also what are you writing down?" Fuutarou said as he took his sisters-in-law's reactions.

"Oh, I'm just writing what you said down so next time I have a student come to me complaining about you being overly critical with vocabulary and grammar, I'll share with them that you aren't Mr. Perfect yourself," Itsuki explained as she finished up writing and then quickly turned and stuck her tongue out at her co-worker.

"Oh give me a break, I'm on vacation!" sighed Fuutarou at her childish actions. "Also I am not overly critical."

A chorus of clearing throats erupted among the Nakanos at that last statement, which woke Yotsuba, who had actually fallen back asleep.

Before Fuutarou could respond to the girls' skepticism, an announcement rang over the intercom that presented a more pressing problem.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, I sincerely apologize for this long delay, it appears that the crew have found a slight maintenance problem with the plane. We ask that everyone please grab their bags and exit the plane in an orderly manner so we can take care of the problem."

Nino, Miku, Yotsuba, and Itsuki sighed in varying degrees of annoyance as they gathered their stuff. However, Ichika (through prior experience) and Fuutarou (through simple deduction) knew what this really meant: This specific flight was going to be cancelled and they would need to find a new one.

AN: Sorry for the delay on this chapter, as I mentioned on my other QQ story "Return By Failure", this story will take longer to post chapters because, since I'm labeling it an After-Story, it will require that story details fit in perfectly with canon, plus I only want to publish this story if I'm giving it the highest quality I can give.

So while breaks between chapters will probably be this length if not longer in the future, don't worry, this story is going nowhere as getting this story right is extremely important to me. So please continue to review and let me know your thoughts and feelings regarding writing and the plot. Thank you for reading, I hope you continue to enjoy both stories!