Alice and Ryo attend the Totsuki Alumni Holiday ball.
Yes, a holiday chapter. In May. Sue me.
The Totsuki Holiday Charity Ball was a longstanding tradition of almost ten years, started by the Headmistress Erina in her early years managing the school. Celebrated Totsuki alumni were often invited to cater the event, and charity funds were raised by selling tickets to the elite and the press.
Said ticket with Alice Nakiri was again missing, for the third year in a row. Ryo made yet another mental note to manage the ticket purchasing for her next year.
For the last three years, Alice had been attempting to "do things for herself", in an attempt at independence from her aide, who had been busy with graduate school. She succeeded, for the most part, but sometimes it ended up in mishaps such as this... with Alice in a gown, chucking paperwork out of her bedroom desk, trying to find the event invites.
"Miss Alice," Ryo said--old habits die hard--"Forget it. You know that there's no way they're not letting you through the door." She was Alice Nakiri, for crying out loud.
Alice sighed, and sank down onto her chair. "You're right, Ryo. Of course. But there's no doubt Erina's going to chew me out for the third year in a row over something as silly as invites! She's such a sucker for rules."
"The Rules" included the dress code, which Ryo wasn't fond of, if he had to be honest. His fingers trailed up to his neck, trying to loosen the button-down that felt a little too stifling for his tastes. Formalwear was still too stuffy for him, but he was slowly getting used to it, with the increasing number of events he and Alice had to attend over the years.
Speaking of Alice--she looked like a natural in her cream-colored gown, studded in sparkling crystals, snug around her waist and bust. With her white hair and her fair skin, she looked almost like some sort of ethereal snow queen.
She was pouting though, still upset over the missing invites. But then she glanced up at Ryo, and looking at him, she immediately broke into a smile.
"Have I ever told you that you clean up nice, Ryo-kun?" She clasped her hands together in delight.
"Since we were nine," Ryo said, somewhat relishing in the praise. Formalwear was stuffy, but hearing Alice appreciate it made it a tad more bearable.
"This is so not your style, though," Alice remarked, looking at closed buttons and tie. She smiled up at him mischievously, and then drew him in close, undoing his necktie and tossing it to the floor.
She undid the top buttons of his dress shirt next, until his sculpted chest was tastefully exposed. Her fingers lightly trailed on the bare skin, as she hummed contentedly to herself. "All that working out, it's a shame to not show it off, Ryo!"
"Erina is going to chew us out for the dress code," he said.
"Erina's no fun," she said, her fingers trailing lower now, past his shirt buttons and towards his belt.
Ryo grabbed her wrist and stopped her. "We're going to be late, miss," he whispered to her in a low voice. "And it's a shame if I tear up your gown right now."
Alice backed away, and pouted. "Oh, boo! You're no fun too, Ryo!"
The receptionist at the door was some poor student from Totsuki who was somehow innocent about who she was faced with, giving Alice and Ryo a fair bit of trouble. They tried to explain that, this woman was in fact, Alice Nakiri... but the receptionist simply eyed them with suspicion, staring at Ryo's unbuttoned shirt and Alice's slightly tousled hair, looking like she just got out of bed... or that someone's hand had just been tangled in it, drawing her in.
It was all sorted out when Professor Hayama dropped by, shaking his head.
"The forgotten invites, again?" Hayama groaned, as if he had a headache.
"She can't do anything without me," Ryo said, as if that explained everything. Alice simply pouted.
"Anyway, these two guests hardly need an invite," Hayama said, to the naive student. "This is Nakiri Alice and her boyfriend since birth, the Aquaman of the cooking world, Kurokiba Ryo." The student went wide-eyed at the introduction, and bowed apologetically, which Alice just dismissed with a smile.
"Aquaman??" Alice and Ryo repeated, the former looking amused and the latter appaled. Hayama was probably getting a part time job writing ridiculous cooking nicknames at the Totsuki Paper.
"I said what I said. Now get in here and stop holding up the line. And fix your hair, for goodness' sake!"
The ball this year was, like all other years, spectacular. It was hosted on one of the mountainside buildings of Totsuki this year, with everyone who's anyone in the food world all dressed to the nines. The columbs and archways were all decorated with Christmas vine and tinsel, and from the entryway, Alice spotted a massive Christmas tree at the center of the room.
Just as she clung to Ryo's arm to point excitedly at it, a familiar face came up to them--the redhead Soma Yukihira, dressed in a pristine white chef coat.
"Yo! Nakiri, Kurokiba!"
"Soma-kun!" Alice waved back excitedly, until Soma was in front of them. "I heard you're catering this year!"
"Ah, yeah," Soma said, scratching his head a little. "Nakiri dragged me off from an expedition at the Alps just for this thing..."
"You probably lost a food war to her and owe her," Ryo knowingly guessed, and in response, Soma jabbed him lightly on his arm.
"Don't remind me!"
Their chatter was interrupted by a throng of photographers suddenly pooling around them, all intent on getting photos of three of the most accomplished Totsuki alumni. The boys sighed, but obliged anyway, and Alice readily smiled for the camera, always one for photos.
"...And I better leave before something burns down in the kitchen," Soma said, as the media took a break from shots, reviewing their reels. "See you two later!"
But as he walked away, he turned back to Alice and Ryo with a big grin, and pointed at something at the archway above them.
A mistletoe.
"Now, kiss!" Soma yelled, before dashing back into the kitchen. His voice had attracted the attention of other guests, who now had their attention at Alice and Ryo, standing under the archway.
"Tsk." Ryo began fidgeting with his collar, trying to figure an escape to this predicament. They could just pretend they never noticed it and get on with their evening, or--
"Ryo-kun?"
"Yes, miss?"
It happened too fast--the next thing he knew was Alice was up on her tiptoes, her lips on his, and what seemed like a couple dozen camera flashes all going out at the same time.
A very angry Erina interrupted their sleep the next day.
"I do not believe this, Alice! Your little stunt with Kurokiba is plastered all over the lifestyle pages!" Erina yelled over at the other side of the phone, fuming. "And forgetting your invites! Again!"
"Aww, Erina!" Alice drawled, trying to rub the sleep from her eyes. "The mistletoe was there, what was I supposed to do? I can't show everyone that I'm not a good sport! And I totally saw you and Yukihira in the kitchen, you know! How scandalous, for the school director sneaking something-something in the kitchen!"
"W-What?!"
Ryo chuckled to himself beside Alice, woken up by the conversation. They saw no such thing, and Alice was bluffing. But Erina's reaction totally gave her away. He needed to text Yukihira about this.
"I-I have no idea what you're talking about!" Erina denied profusely. "Anyway, none of these shenanigans next year, okay?!"
"Suuuure," Alice said, but Ryo knew from the lilt in her voice that it was anything but a promise--in fact, probably the opposite. She was going to do something much worse next year.
She hung up, and turned to Ryo with a mischievous grin.
"Let's have a quickie in the bathroom next year, Ryo-kun!"
Ryo laughed. "Oh, Alice. We're going to get banned from this ball one day."
a/n: I wrote this last December and never really got around to finishing it and posting it. Was I gonna wait around for December again to post it? No!I will have to focus on work again so update might take a bit again, but hopefully I can update more often.Reviews appreciated, and open again for prompts (wholesome or nsfw is ok!)