A/N: Alright folks. It has literally been a year, so I think I'm gonna go ahead and make with the update. And it's super massive if that helps! It may have to last a while, as HC is still top priority. But TPS calls to me like the voice in Frozen's "Into The Unknown" and I'm not sure I can ignore its siren song much longer. Thanks to all new faves, follows, and reviews since we left off!

Silver-Tritium-Protractinium: Hah! Thank you! Naoi and I were both rubbing our eyes in disbelief at that one.
ZainR: Very good guess! I think that's part of it, but I'll just let the chapter do the explaining for me. (Ah yes, Kamisama Suzuko... I did pack a bit of foreshadowing in there, didn't I? The real manga it's based on is so up Naoi's alley too) And a lot can happen on a class trip to a beautiful ski resort, so hold onto that hunch! If HSM taught us anything it's that it's the perfect place for the start of something new. ;D
serial napper: Wow, thank you so much! Seriously, there's something extra flattering about when people prefer TPS to HC, when it features only two of the main characters and countless OCs. I do love the Akuma kids so much, so this means a lot.

Well, I'd do a "previously on..." but I don't want to wait a second longer.

So, enjoy!

[Chapter 36]: Vacation (All I Ever Wanted)

Monday morning found Ayato still reeling as he approached the school campus alone with his suitcase in hand. Although Kimito had effectively lost his mind, he was still himself enough to squeeze as many chores into the weekend right down to the last minute before he let him go. Which meant Yuri wasn't waiting for him in the forest when he finally made it to the path.

But then, that was to be expected. He could've contacted her on Sunday and let her know he was going, but he'd decided against it. It would be far more amusing to surprise her. Walking alone just this once would be worth it to see the look on her face when he showed up with luggage.

And yet… part of this still hadn't hit him yet.

He paused just outside the gates, eyeing the Akuma High drop-off in the far distance with a sizeable crowd of students already milling around. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a piece of paper and scrutinized it for a moment.

"Of course I assumed!" Ayato sputtered, unable to hold his tongue as he followed him into the kitchen. "You never signed my permission slip!"

"You never gave it to me," Kimito retorted. He held out his hand, waiting.

Ayato stared dumbly at his empty palm for a second, then shook himself out of his stupor and ran to find his backpack, lest the old man yell at him to "hurry before I change my mind." He retrieved the permission slip, smoothed out the crinkles as best he could, and returned to the kitchen. Still in a bewildered haste.

There it was, just above his own inked lettering. Not a hallucination.

And still so strange.

He started walking again, then knitted his eyebrows together as a thought occurred to him. A little too strange…

"I'm not going to do anything."

He shook his head at himself and pushed on, even though the suspicious inflections in her voice he'd just picked up on continued to eat away at his mind. No… it was all part of his Kimito-induced paranoia. Everything seemed questionable to him today. However, the closer he came, the further away he got from those apprehensions. The aroma of bus exhaust blended with a crisp wintry smell made things more real than ever.

There was no sign of Yuri or the others in the crowd, so they had to be in their classrooms already taking attendance. Making a clear path through the other students, he strode into the school and headed in the direction of Class 2-B.

Masuda and the troublesome trio immediately glanced up when they heard the door slide open. There was an awed silence for all of three seconds before Hejjiguchi leaped out of his chair and punched a fist in the air.

"Hah!" he whooped. "Too easy! Piece of cake!"

"I just knew we could do it!" Ami cheered, high-fiving Kurimu.

Turning around in his seat, Masuda gave the three a nod of satisfaction. "Good job. Nothing more to be said."

"I'll say," said the teacher. "I'd appreciate it if you'd all save your festivities for the bus. Naoi, you may take your seat."

Obediently, he dropped his permission slip on the teacher's desk and headed to the corner of the room with the joyous group of imbeciles. As the teacher resumed taking attendance, Ayato turned slightly to the right and side-eyed Ami.

"What did you do?" he hissed, though not as aggressively as he was curious.

Ami waved her hand dismissively, bracelets jingling at him in a scolding rattle. "Later!" she sang under her breath. Behind him, Kurimu giggled into her hands like a child who'd done something naughty.

He sighed in resignation, faced forward again, and closed his eyes until the teacher finished explaining how the morning was going to go. Last calls for permission slips, where to report without them, the bell would dismiss them, and so on and so on…

Honestly, what did they do?!

The four had a good laugh about it later as they gathered up their things and herded Ayato out of the classroom. His perpetual state of aggravated bewilderment was adding to this, he was sure.

"Did Yuri put you up to this?" he'd demanded, cornering them as soon as the bell rang to go to the buses.

Hejjiguchi and Ami looked wildly offended.

"Noooo," the latter drew out in a small whine, while Hejjiguchi faked a wounded huff.

"But we did seek out the needed information from her," Masuda admitted, looking very pleased with himself. "Like your work schedule, for instance."

"My work schedule?!" Should he feel violated?

"Turns out Masuda's sleuthing skills are the real deal after all," Ami said coolly.

"Yuri said it would be too suspicious if she came with, so the four of us got together after school on Friday and went to your dad's store!" Kurimu chimed in, giving him a huge smile that did very little to soothe his nerves.

What?!

"You talked to my dad for me?" he choked out, now gawking at the entire group in sheer incredulity. Were they all out of their minds as well? Whatever happened to Kurimu rightfully thinking his old man was scary?

Hejjiguchi laughed and adjusted the strap of his duffel bag. "No way, man. We're not that stupid!"

"It actually went something like…" Kurimu stopped in the middle of the hall, tapped her chin, and looked briefly at Ami before closing her eyes and doing a theatric breathing exercise. Then, plastering an aggrieved grimace on her face, she turned to Ami and said drearily, "So, are you ready for the second year school trip to the mountains on Monday?"

"Ugh, it's going to be grueling," Ami groaned, placing a hand on her heart and looking exaggeratedly weary. "Climbing so much in Shiga Kogen's infamously bitter cold!"

"Trudging through the mountain snow, exposed to the elements…" Hejjiguchi dragged his fingers down his face, lifting his eyes to the ceiling for answers. "Why are they making us do this again?"

"Apparently it builds character," Masuda informed them, and even he sounded exceptionally grim. But then he straightened his shoulders, squared his jaw, and added loftily, "If you can't handle it, by all means sit it out! But some of us want to develop a thick skin."

The four exchanged broad grins, and Ami was the first to start cracking up, followed shortly by Hejjiguchi and Kurimu while Masuda just quietly snickered and shook his head at everything.

"But then we got kicked out for loitering," Kurimu said sheepishly, while a much prouder Hejjiguchi added, "and making a ruckus."

"Still," Ami struck a confident pose, "we could tell that we'd gotten him thinking."

Ayato stared at them, aghast, as they resumed following the rest of their classmates out to the drop-off. Memories of Saturday night smacked him in the face as things became infinitely clearer.

"Don't think I'm just going to pull you out of that!"

"What, you don't like school when it makes you put forth some genuine physical effort?!"

"—rather hide behind your parents than build some damn character?"

They'd just… just gone in after school and faked a miserable rant? They had really tricked his father just like that?

That was – actually kind of clever.

"You didn't have to do that," Ayato said, wrinkling his brow as he struggled to grasp their motivation. Really, why in the world would they even go to the trouble? It didn't make any sense.

"Of course we did!" Ami chirped, again fanning his comment away. She brought a happy bounce into her step as she headed out the door Masuda had propped open. "Now c'mon, let's catch up with everybody."

He soon found out what she meant when she said everybody (although he should have suspected by her cheeky tone). They hadn't gone far through the swarm of students before Ayato caught sight of a figure with wine-colored hair, shifting her duffel strap on her shoulder as she chatted absently with Hirohashi who was helping load her other luggage onto the bus.

"Hey, Yuri!" Hejjiguchi called out, and raised his fingers to his lips in a short ear-catching whistle.

She spun around sharply at the noise. Bright eyes widened when they met Ayato's, and it was only a second later that she'd dropped her duffel on the sidewalk and crashed into his arms. He staggered at the impact, accidentally kicking over his suitcase, but felt his entire body grow warm as he returned the hug. Which – no, Ami could stop cooing immediately – he would blame on the toasty thickness of Yuri's new black and purple striped winter coat.

"You guys actually pulled it off!" Yuri gasped before she pulled away. Her hands lingered on his shoulders, gripping them as she looked him in the eyes like she was checking to see if he was really standing in front of her. "When you didn't show up this morning, I thought your dad didn't fall for it. And you guys could've texted me to let me know he was here!"

"I thought it'd be a lot more fun this way," Ami responded evenly. Then she puffed up in indignation. "And what do you mean 'didn't fall for it?'"

"We happen to be very good actors," said Masuda, crossing his arms.

"That's right!"

"Yeah, yeah – c'mon, everyone's here so let's get on the bus!" Yuri cheerfully tugged on a distracted Ayato's sleeve, who was currently using his free hand to get his suitcase upright.

Ami nodded, chin in hand as she regarded the group. "An even six! Guess that means I won't be sitting with Shiruba-kun after all."

Unbeknownst to her, Shiruba had just showed up behind her at the time. He closed his mouth, and used the hand that was about to tap her shoulder to nonchalantly slick back his hair. Nezumi leaned close to his ear and made the dying Pac Man sound behind him.

After loading their luggage, the group all piled onto the bus. Ami sat in one window seat and Hejjiguchi took the one behind her, prompting a momentary lag in the aisle as Kurimu suffered a bit of a crisis. A couple of tense seconds passed, before Masuda came to the rescue and gave her a small prod.

"Why don't we have the girls sit with the girls and the guys sit with the guys?" he suggested kindly. "That'll be fun."

Kurimu looked over her shoulder at him, hesitating at first as she thought about it, then nodded with an encouraged smile and dropped happily next to Ami. Satisfied, Masuda moved along and took the empty seat next to Hejjiguchi.

Meanwhile, Yuri and Ayato argued over the window seat in front of Ami's to the point where they were the ones holding up the line, until Ayato gave in under the condition that he got it on the ride back. Content with this, she pulled him into the seat with her and they watched everyone else push past.

Ten minutes later, the buses rumbled into motion and started carrying them away from school. Ayato breathed a sigh of euphoric relief another fifteen minutes later the very second they passed the sign dismissing them from Akuma.

That freeing sensation… there was nothing quite like it.

(Kimito would be fine without him for a few days, anyway. Wasn't he always saying that Ayato was completely useless?)

Admittedly, the bus was loud and a little cramped, but it was worth spending three hours inside as long as it kept driving farther and farther out. And… he was with good company, too. This would be the longest time he and Yuri spent together since last August.

Though…

"It's the perfect chance for two prospective sweethearts to finally get the alone time they need!"

Except for the part about sweethearts, Ami had a good point. This was his chance to find some alone time with Yuri.

Oh, there would still be group lunches; he was certain Ami would enforce them. Assuming she wasn't too busy trying to be alone with Hejjiguchi. But she'd been dropping so many hints about this place being a chance for romance, he was counting on that last part. He imagined she'd keep herself occupied by obliviously crashing Hejjiguchi and Kurimu's moments together. And since he and Yuri shook a deal on staying out of the romantic drama from now on, he had no qualms letting such things play out and taking advantage of the opportunity.

Frankly, after weeks of spending entire school days with them and sacrificing the one-on-one lunches in the process, he believed he deserved it. And for that, he considered their gesture today an acceptable offering. Four Kimito-free days, Yuri, and a hopefully vast ski resort area so that everyone could scatter to the wind when they chose.

Getting to share a seat and laugh with her was one thing. But he was certainly looking forward to at some point not having the others literally breathing down their necks. Or shrieking with laughter right in his ear.

A twinge of conscience bit at the back of his mind as he remembered, again, why he was even sitting there in the first place. Not that he was ungrateful or anything, of course.

It was just… well, he wasn't sure exactly. Only that sometime this week, he would like to have Yuri to himself.

While she chatted through the seat crack to Ami, he allowed himself a quick look around the bus. The tree-danglers were on the left side slightly closer to the back, Fujimoto and Takada sharing headphones while the latter danced in a sporadic and oddly familiar fashion. Shiruba had indeed settled next to Nezumi, and they were both leaning back to tease their friend in the seat behind them. It turned out Saki had taken the empty seat next to Hirohashi, but had inexplicably fallen asleep on his shoulder while the latter was trying to read, leaving him a bewildered blushing mess.

"Don't wake her!" snapped a tall girl behind them, whom Ayato recognized as Kaori from the drama club. "She knows too much. It's best to let her sleep."

"Yeah, she's too powerful when she's awake," said Sayuki, poking her head above the seat. "I say that's why she's always so exhausted; it's the weight of the world's truths bearing down on her."

"That's one way of putting it," Yuri muttered. She hadn't needed to turn around to know who they were talking about. Instead, she resolutely studied the Shiga Kogen brochure Ami had lent her.

"Ladies, please? You're interrupting a very serious conversation…?" Shiruba tsked, then cleared his throat and began to sing, "Saki and Tomohito, sitting in a tree…"

"You're such a traitor," Hirohashi grumbled, barely discernable over Nezumi laughing his head off.

Ayato rolled his eyes and settled back in his own seat, shaking his head. "I swear, they really are a group of imbeciles," he muttered to Yuri, who looked up at him knowingly even before he could nudge her.

"Aww, some of them aren't all that bad," Ami chimed in through the crack. "Nezumi's just a goader, but Shiruba and Hirohashi can be really sweet." There was a moment of reflective pause before she added in an oddly familiar coaxing voice, "In fact, Kurimu, what do you think of Hirohashi? Don't you think the two of you would make a cute couple?"

Yuri and Ayato shared a bemused glance, while Kurimu startled behind him with a few awkward squeaks of protest that went nowhere.

"Ah—ahm—well?" Kurimu stammered, and Ayato was a bit relieved that a slab of bus seat stood between them, shielding against the tension that now plagued the air.

"Whoooa, Ami!" Hejjiguchi broke in. "I thought we agreed, no more matchmaking."

"Just trying to get a feel for the reaction," Ami said coolly, giving an offended sniff. He felt her kick back in her seat with a harrumph. "Excuse me for being a hopeless romantic!"

Emphasis on hopeless, Ayato thought, pulling his sketchbook from his bag (which Yuri looked happy about). No need to remind him, really – thank God he was no longer regularly on the other end of it.

If she was such a hopeless romantic, why weren't her best friends telling her the truth: that in the convoluted chaos of pursuing an uninterested "bad boy," they'd incidentally discovered their feelings for each other instead? That was what he'd like to know. It sounded cutesy enough that Ami would probably appreciate it and even understand, if anyone asked him. But he supposed that simply made too much sense to play out so reasonably.

Well, whatever. They could do as they liked. As long as they didn't drag him or Yuri into it.

As the bus puttered along, he distractedly began sketching a forest of the demon fog from his dreams, stealing Yuri's attention when he began to shade it. But then he gave up halfway through, as her own vague recollections of being in a dark underground corridor with a bunch of shadowy demons were infinitely more interesting to him.

It was weird, sometimes, how their minds were so in sync that they could dream up the exact same kind of monster. Even Yuri got the same impression that these things wanted to devour her soul.

"What," said Ami, draping herself above their heads, "you mean like dementors?"

Hejjiguchi started rhythmically kicking at her seat. "Read another book! Read another book!"

"Souma-kun! Stop that!"

"Sorry, bun—oof!" Hejjiguchi grunted in pain. Lucky Masuda was there to play impulse control because it sounded like he was about to address Kurimu way too affectionately. Ayato laughed at Hejjiguchi's muttering afterward. Masuda was a far better friend than he…

Wait, "friend"?

Well… after today, maybe he'd consider the title.

Ami looked intrigued as Yuri offered a rambling fuzzy description of the shadows, but for the most part mainly confused. Which left Ayato feeling somewhat smug to be the only one who had a small idea of what Yuri was talking about. He closed his eyes in satisfaction, resting them for a moment while Ami explained her own recurring dream feature of spikes and thorns on the walls.

Her connection with Yuri would never be quite like his, somehow. But Yuri did sound happy.

The rest of the bus ride was zoning out, passively listening to the bus's radio, or people-watching with Yuri. Hejjiguchi had been talking animatedly with Masuda about bands and guitar work, and now he could hear the infamous blaring of music as the two shared earbuds. Saki woke about an hour in and immediately started regaling Hirohashi with astonishing claims such as "every shining light you see is a seed of happiness that can grant a wish," "there are multiple realms besides ours," and "there's more proof for magic than there is against it."

At one point Hirohashi was adamantly waving a book in the air and squawking at her, "In the field of quantum physics, no scientist has ever sufficiently grasped—"

"Let her speak!" Nezumi and Shiruba bellowed.

Then after a gas and restroom break, there was Takada still on his cell phone, trying in vain to return a call from his cousin who lived in America.

"TK, my man, I—" Takada pressed the phone closer to his ear, plugging the other one with a finger. "TK! Listen, I can't understand you!"

"Isn't that normal for him?" Shiruba asked, and Nezumi wheezed so hard with laughter that he fell out into the aisle. Hejjiguchi, who had switched spots with Masuda during the stop, happily took advantage of his new aisle seat to prod him in the ribs with his foot.

And that had been the remainder of the three hours.

The bus itself had been a realm entirely its own, pleasantly overstimulating, but Ayato felt an even stronger sense of relief when he stepped out into crumbly snow and an unfamiliar biting wind nipped at his skin. It was just like one of his dreams, as if he'd been transported into an entirely different world.

Well, he had, in a sense, but… a frozen world. A world even smaller than Akuma, with snow-covered mountains and trees, ski lifts and little shops, and a grand pyramid-shaped hotel that stood in the near distance. A world where Kimito Naoi didn't even exist.

Smirking to himself in triumph, he headed off to fetch his luggage. He wasn't going to waste a moment.

"I hope we can have more than two to a room," Ami said brightly as she unloaded her massive red suitcase. Smiling, she turned to Kurimu and Yuri. "There's no way I'd be able to choose just one of you!"

"Three or more is fine, Kawata," said Ichinose, the teacher that was chaperoning their bus. "We'll discuss rooming situations further in the lobby."

"Yay, roomies!" Ami squealed, launching herself at the girls in a jubilant hug. Yuri was caught off-guard by the hug but turned and received it anyway, neglecting her own suitcase that had finally come un-wedged from the pile. And it was still sliding out above her head.

"Hey, careful!" Ayato hissed, lunging forward to intercept it. He slammed his hand against the bottom to hold it in place, sort of falling protectively in front of Yuri as he did so. In a ridiculously cheesy pose that brought his face uncomfortably close to hers.

Yuri stared up at the luggage that had almost brained her, then back at him in cool reverence.

"Nice save," she said softly.

After helping her lower it to the ground, Ayato looked accusingly to Ami, just in time to see her furtively drop her hands from her mouth. "What are you smiling about?" he asked, instantly suspicious.

Ami shook her head, still grinning from ear to ear. "Not a thing," she said coyly. Masuda chuckled quietly and looked away, pretending to look very interested in the second bus that had just pulled up.

Unsatisfied, Ayato opened his mouth to berate the both of them for whatever they were thinking, but then Ichinose broke in with a clearing of his throat and a wave of his clipboard.

"Alright, now if you have all finished gathering your things," he said, walking onto the curb as the other bus's doors creaked open, "please follow me this way into the hotel lobby and we will start—"

Saki broke into a frenzied sprint across the parking lot. "CHITOSE! Come meet my new friends!"

Ichinose face-palmed. "We don't have time for this…"

The second years assembled in the lobby, where the chaperons explained rules as well as rooms.

"Now these are all random, and negotiable, so don't shoot the messenger," said Ichinose, reading from a list. "Obviously separated by gender, which is not negotiable, but bear with me. Let's just hear this to the end and see what we think, shall we? Starting with the boys…"

He spouted off name after name, assigning four to a room and handing out keys as he went along. There was a sprinkling of awkward nods, some high-fives and hisses of joy, and a handful of groans. But Ichinose powered through with only a few eye-rolls, one of them reserved for Fujimoto and Takada's triumphant whoop (and the latter's victory dance).

"…Ayato Naoi, Eisuke Masuda, Shun Kobayashi, and Daisuke Shiruba…"

Masuda and Ayato exchanged placated nods; in fact, he was more than a little relieved. Shiruba's brow furrowed thoughtfully in consideration.

"…Tomohito Hirohashi, Yuuki Horigoshi, Souma Hejjiguchi, and Mirou Nezumi—"

"Whoa-whoa-whoa!" Nezumi and Hejjiguchi cried out at the same time, looking at one another in mild horror.

"I don't think so!" said Hejjiguchi, laughing.

"Yeah, I wasn't sure about that one either," Ichinose said, apparently understanding something that Ayato didn't. "Calm down, boys, I'll just go ahead and put a mark by your names."

"Please," said Nezumi with a snicker. He flashed Hejjiguchi a somewhat condescending grin. "No offense, dude, but this is a vacation."

"Don't need to tell me." Hejjiguchi turned to Shiruba expectantly. "Switch?"

"Obviously." They shook on it.

Nezumi patted Hejjiguchi's shoulder approvingly. "Good man."

Once that was said and done, Hejjiguchi slung his arms around Masuda's and Ayato's shoulders. "Hey roomies. Thought you'd gotten rid of me, didn't you?"

"I dared to hope," Ayato replied.

Hejjiguchi looked sadly to Yuri. "Will he ever love me as much as you do?"

"You know, that is hard to say," she mused, making Kurimu and Ami giggle at Hejjiguchi's resulting pout. Ayato's heart swelled with pride.

Ichinose finished reading off the boys' rooms and went on to the girls'. There were a few more yelps of disappointment riddled between the happy dances, and the teacher looked tense as he fingered a pair of earplugs. Ami and Yuri looked similarly on edge, for visibly different reasons. The latter was glancing around nervously while the former possessively clutched two hands.

"…Saki Nanashima, Kaori Hikida, Rumi Ono, and Chitose Hisakawa…"

A cheering ponytailed brunette high-fived Hisakawa over the top of Saki's head, while on the other side of the crowd Sayuki pouted up at a shrugging Kaori.

"…Ami Kawata, Sayaka Sawashiro, Yuri Nakamura, and—" Yuri and Ami sighed in pleased relief, the latter still pricking up her ears in anticipation, "Houko Takamori."

"What?!" Ami shrieked, startling Ichinose so much he dropped his clipboard and his earplugs. Grabbing the shoulders of a startled Kurimu, she pulled the girl to her chest and held her tight. "Unacceptable! Kurimu is my very best friend in the entire world since forever! She's like a sister to me! What would I even do without her? Sir, you have to put her in our room! I—" Ami blushed and turned to Takamori. "No offense, I think you're so cool and sweet but—"

"It's fine," Takamori said, holding up both hands in surrender. "I wanted to room with Marina."

Ichinose picked up his clipboard with a sigh. "You know, guys, it really is just that simple to switch," he said, scratching at his bald spot with a pen.

Kurimu blushed and looked down at her shoes. "Ami, I'm not worth that much fuss…"

"Yes you are," Ami said firmly. "You didn't really think the sleepover stopped on Sunday night, did you?"

Clearing his throat, Ichinose tapped restlessly at his clipboard. "Alright, I'd like to reiterate: let's wait until I finish reading off the rooms and handing out keys? And then you can file complaints and switch keys as you so choose. We really don't care."

At the end, there were five more swaps, one of them putting Jinko Kozakura with a very gleeful Ami. Once everything was settled and most students appeared to be satisfied with their arrangements, Ichinose and another chaperon Nakahara handed out copies of the resort rules and went over them for fifteen minutes. Then they took turns explaining "how things were going to go this week."

"For the most part, I'm sure you all have heard, we're going to let you all roam free this week," said Nakahara, hiding a small grin when a few students expressed their heartfelt approval. "Now, starting today up until Thursday, we will have morning excursions we'd like everyone to come along for. A couple unifying hours out of your day, not too much to ask."

"Since it's almost noon and we've only just arrived, today's excursion will be at 2," Ichinose clarified. "Should give you enough time to check out your rooms and unpack, take a look around or grab a quick lunch before we meet back in the lobby. Tuesday and Wednesday it'll be at 9:30. But don't worry, since it's lights out at 11:30pm, you guys should be good. Thursday, you're all free to enjoy your last full day here as you see fit."

Nakahara flipped through some notes, humming to herself.

"Let's see, let's see..." She glanced back up, shrugging her shoulders in dismissal. "You guys get the gist of it. Be back at the resort by 10, curfew's at 11, use the buddy system, try to keep one of us in the loop when you leave the resort or go someplace you might get lost. Pretty basic stuff. Let us know if you need to go over anything. Meet us back here at 2 so we can start gearing up."

Excited chatter filled the lobby as everyone dispersed with their luggage. Yuri scooped up her duffel and her fingers had only just grasped the handle of her suitcase before Ami snatched up her other arm.

"C'mon!" she exclaimed, already dancing down the hall. "I can't wait to see our room!"

"Bye, ladies!" Hejjiguchi gave a silly salute, sneaking a brief smile at Kurimu when she peeked over her shoulder, then he shepherded Masuda and Ayato down the opposite hallway. "So fellas, you think ours has two twin beds? Which one of you wants the honor…"

Ducking free of his arm, Ayato spared a dying glimpse behind him just in time to catch Yuri as the girls were rounding a corner.

Help me, he tried to convey with his eyes.

Yuri sassily waved her fingers at him before she disappeared.

Good fortune did shine upon room 1267 after all. Inside were four single futons, two against each wall adjacent to the large window at the end. Simple enough. But at the same time, it was still a weird feeling to have to have a roommate after all these years. Let alone three. What was that going to be like?

Hejjiguchi thunked down his bags on the right bed closest to the window, then pushed the curtains aside and let out a low whistle.

"Look at those mountains," he said, and his shiver must've been in anticipation because he was standing over the space heater. He pressed his hand against the glass longingly. "Some view, huh? I can't wait to tear up those slopes."

Masuda harrumphed as he claimed the bed behind him and started unpacking. "Yeah, well, the sooner you stop leering at them like an indoor cat…"

"Yeah, yeah..." Hejjiguchi sat down on his futon, sizing up his belongings with a mournful frown. "Should've brought my guitar. What a waste. I'm gonna get so much inspiration from this place."

Masuda and Ayato shared dismal looks, no doubt imagining a much longed-for peace and quiet shattered by guitar riffs. "I believe there's a music room or a center somewhere around here," Masuda noted, reading a brochure he'd pulled out. "Karaoke too. We'll have to do a little investigating at some point."

Hejjiguchi made a face. "Karaoke? Bleh."

"You know Ami will want to do it," Masuda warned.

Shaking his head, Ayato started unpacking as well – on the left window-side bed. It might be parallel to Hejjiguchi's but it was indeed worth the view.

"Hey now," he said with a saccharine smile. "If Hejjiguchi doesn't want to sing, I think we shouldn't pressure him."

"Thank you, Naoi—"

"He's saying you're bad at it," Masuda explained, not looking up from his suitcase.

"I know, I was giving him the benefit of the doubt," Hejjiguchi said defensively. Then he shrugged and pulled out a pair of red and white snow boots. "And hey, I sing great. Just on my own time, you know, whenever I'm feelin' it."

"Ah yes," Ayato mused, shrugging out of his coat for the time being. "Your girlfriend would be so lucky to be serenaded by your dulcet tones."

Hejjiguchi clammed up. "Dude!" he said in a conspiratorial hiss, and nodded furtively behind them. Their other roommate, Kobayashi, was standing in front of the closet putting away some of his clothes.

Ayato eyed the other boy – he'd almost forgotten he was here – but simply shrugged his innocence. "It's not like I said her name."

Kobayashi poked his head out again and blinked at them. "What, Aoki-chan?"

The other three broke into varied levels of panic, Hejjiguchi uttering a strangled yelp and doing a frenzied dance. "How did you know about that?!"

"I mean, you walk her home from school a lot, and she'd visit you at track," Kobayashi said, running a hand through his dark brown hair. "Not hard to guess, man. Sometimes during practice you guys would talk through the chain-link fence like Pyramus and fuckin' Thisbe…"

Hejjiguchi face-planted into the mattress. "It was that obvious?!" came a muffled whine.

"Hey, I'm cool. I won't say anything if I'm not supposed to."

"Well, you're not," Hejjiguchi said, lifting his head to give him a warning staredown. "Because Ami—"

"—can't find out about this," Masuda finished, narrowing his eyes as he rolled them. He muttered something under his breath and zipped a compartment of his suitcase a bit aggressively.

Ayato's mouth twisted into a frown as he clenched his jaw to bite back a comment. Desperately keeping in his mind's eye on the promise that he and Yuri had made to each other a month ago, for their own good.

Don't get involved. Don't get involved. Don't get — ugh, screw it.

"Why the hell not?" he demanded, turning to Hejjiguchi and crossing his arms in frustration. "Haven't the two of you dragged it out long enough? The whole point of Yuri joining drama club—in October—was to buy you your precious time and soften Ami up for you. Not so you could keep playing around like this."

Hejjiguchi ruffled indignantly. "We're not playing around. It's just… we couldn't figure out how to tell her, you know?"

"Well, now it's going to come back around again," Ayato said, extremely unsympathetic. The idiot had wasted the months of chances Yuri so benevolently gave to him. "You heard her in the hall. Yuri did what she could, but now Kurimu is her 'very best friend' and she misses her. You've only made things worse for yourself."

"But when she finds out, it's going to make everything more complicated," Hejjiguchi muttered, rolling onto his back and staring up at the ceiling.

"Only because you let it get that way," Masuda said gruffly. "I agree with Naoi. Someone's got to put an end to these games."

Ayato regarded him in slight surprise, raising a curious eyebrow. So he wasn't the only one?

Hejjiguchi arched his neck, trying to furrow his eyebrows at Masuda. "Are you saying I'm doing this on purpose?"

"I'm saying you've had Ami on your hook for a long time," he replied, just as curtly as before. "Seems like the mature thing to do would be to tell her the truth and let her move on." Sitting back down with a sigh, he picked up the brochure and began to study it. "She's a nice girl, she deserves that much. It still feels wrong of me not to say something to her."

"You promised you wouldn't," Hejjiguchi reminded him, pushing himself up on his elbows. "Remember the analogy I made about detective work? Sometimes you gotta go undercover and not give out important details about the case until it's safe."

Ayato scoffed. "Yes, well, neither of us asked to be assigned to this case."

"You set us up."

"You asked her out."

"Hejjiguchi," Masuda broke in, silencing them both before it could escalate further. "Please say something so that I don't have to."

His friend exhaled slowly and leaned his head against the wall with an unceremonious bonk.

"I'll try to talk to Kurimu about it," he said in a tired, monotonous hum to the siding. "Wanted to find some alone time with her anyway, but this wasn't exactly what I had in mind."

Stretching out his arms, he laced them behind his neck in a makeshift pillow and stared blankly into space.

"To be honest, I think I would miss the whole 'sneaking around' thing," he admitted. "I like it. It's kind of fun."

Ayato's fingers clenched into the fabric of his suitcase. "Fun…?"

"You think sneaking around behind Ami's back is 'fun,'" Masuda repeated, and Ayato felt rather validated by the dark judgment that glinted in his eyes.

"Not that," Hejjiguchi argued. "The 'seeing each other in secret' part. I mean, it's like she's Rapunzel—you know, with all that hair—and I'm the prince visiting her tower while the witch is away."

"I'm sure you know Ami wouldn't take too kindly to being compared to a witch," Masuda said, though Ayato took a moment to silently consider the girl's many magical interests. Masuda caught his look. "Well, not that particular brand of witch."

Hejjiguchi grimaced. "Think I'd find this a whole lot easier if it was an evil stepparent instead of Ami."

"Would you," Ayato said coldly.

Curious, Hejjiguchi met his eyes for a moment, then glanced back down when his phone chirped from inside his duffel.

"Ami says the girls already unpacked and they want to meet us for lunch before the excursion," he announced, then squinted at the screen some more. "Also, Masuda's a jerk."

"Oh, grow up."

"No, really – she said 'and tell Masuda to turn his phone on, jerk.'"

Masuda laughed and reached for his phone, igniting a momentary flicker of envy in Ayato. Radios were one thing, but sending dry commentary to Yuri over text with the butt of his joke in the same room was, as of yet, an undiscovered joy.

The guys finished unpacking, then pulled coats and boots back on and headed for the door. But as Masuda went to open it, Hejjiguchi's hand shot out and held it closed. He turned and gave his audience a meaningful glance.

"Just give me a little more time, okay?" he implored, looking hopefully between the two. "Ami's been looking forward to this trip for weeks. If she finds out now, it'll ruin it for her. She's going to be really upset." When Ayato opened his mouth to make a comment, Hejjiguchi inclined his head towards him. "And not just with me."

"I don't care if Ami's mad at me," Ayato said defiantly. "I have nothing to do with this."

"Yuri does," Hejjiguchi noted, his tone obnoxiously matter-of-fact. "Don't you think she'd care about that?"

Ayato faltered, then gave a little disbelieving scoff as he stepped forward because he couldn't be sure if he was hearing this right. "Are you blackmailing her?"

"No!" Hejjiguchi said immediately, picking up on the warning in his voice and wisely backing off. "What I'm saying is, you've gotta let me figure out a way to do this as smoothly as possible. Or else if this blows up, Yuri might be part of the collateral damage."

Still frowning, Ayato managed a mollified nod.

"Fine, whatever," he said. "As long as you do a good job of covering your ass, because I'm not going out of my way to help you. I plan to be as detached from the drama as possible this week."

"No more games," Masuda added.

Hejjiguchi stepped aside and opened the door. "No more games," he agreed, and Ayato wondered if it didn't sound a little halfhearted. "I'll do my best."

Ayato moved past him and led the way into the hall. With any luck, he'd just heard the last of the subject.

Forget everything else. This week was going to be all his.

A/N: Oof, I haven't had an incomplete preview section since the end of Chapter 13. Even the chapter title is most certainly tentative. But no matter! Totally worth resurrecting TPS for a chapter.

Until next time?

Preview:

"We'll make a girls' night out of it!"

"Just put your hand down."

"Only groups of two?"

"I wonder if he likes her."

"Are you ready to do this thing?"

[Chapter 37]: Hit The Slopes.