Chapter 17: Dammit Takagi-san! You're so lucky!

In the blink of an eye, school was over and it was time for clubs. Nishikata had already ran to tell Senpai about his and Takagi's circumstance and like he predicted, Senpai didn't mind them arriving a bit late. Because of this, Takagi and Nishikata had gone to the library.

Nishikata: "So, Takagi-san. Do you, uh, need any help?"

Takagi: "I'm pretty sure I'll be fine, but thanks for offering. It's nice to have you here as company and just in case I mess up or need help anywhere."

Nishikata: "T-thanks."

Takagi: "You know, it's starting to get colder. We're probably going to need to change into our winter uniforms soon."

Nishikata: "I actually brought mine with me. It's in my locker and I brought it in case it snowed."

Takagi: "Makes sense. I got some tights to keep myself warm."

Nishikata: "Good thinking."

They returned to silence for a bit while Takagi worked through her homework at a blistering pace.

Takagi: "Almost done. Just one question left and we can head to art club!"

Before long, they were on their way. When they were right outside the club room, Nishikata noticed something.

Nishikata: "You know, it's quiet. Weird. Maybe Hayase didn't show up today?"

With that, he opened the door to find Senpai almost finished with putting a tight on Nagatoro. Both Senpai and Nagatoro turned red as Senpai tried to explain.

Senpai: "Uh… I was just helping N-Nagatoro out with h-her tights…"

Takagi: *giggling to herself* "Hope that went well."

Nagatoro: "I'll put on the rest by myself."

Nagatoro grabbed her other tight and put it on relatively quickly and pulled the other one up the rest of the way.

Nagatoro: "So how do I look, Se~n~pai?"

Nagatoro's trademark smirk was back on, her embarrassment seemingly fading at Senpai's bewildered expression.

Senpai: "I-it looks g-good I think."

Nagatoro went slightly flush at his reluctant praise and kept smirking.

Nagatoro: "Hm… Do you have a tight fetish, Senpai?"

Senpai: *blushing even harder* "What? No!"

Nagatoro: "Uwah! I'm going to be ogled for all of winter by pervert Senpai! Oh no!"

Nagatoro knew that what she'd said wasn't true. One of the reasons she liked Senpai so much was that he was always respectful to girls, even if he'd "gotten lucky" a few times.

Senpai: "I'm not a pervert!"

While that exchange was happening, Takagi had grabbed a fruit basket for them to draw.

Nishikata: "Oh, thanks, Takagi-san."

Takagi: "No problem. Let's get sketching!"

With that, they began to draw, and Nagatoro began to relax on the couch.

Senpai: "Hey Nagatoro, want to sketch?"

Nagatoro lept from her couch, stars in her eyes.

Nagatoro: "Well, I am pretty busy but if you're going to insist…"

Nagatoro pulled her sketchbook and a pencil from out of nowhere.

Nagatoro: "Let's sketch, Se~n~pai!"

All 4 of them sketched for a good amount of time and before long, they were all done.

Nagatoro: "Well, Senpai, how does it look?"

Senpai looked at the sketch, only to see an image of himself. Nagatoro had once again sketched her Senpai. The sketch wasn't perfect, some of the lines had been smudged, and some of the lines too thick but… the passion and attention to detail were immense. Once again, Senpai blushed at the memory of the president's secret to drawing.

Senpai: "I-it's beautiful."

Nagatoro looked shocked for a moment, then gave Senpai a wobbly blushing smile before remembering to toy with him.

Nagatoro: "We~ll, it was hard to make it look good considering I'm drawing my beansprout Senpai but I'd say I did well!"

Senpai: "I like it. There's a lot of passion in this piece. Looks like you learned well from yesterday."

Nagatoro: *smirking "Thank you, Senpai-sensei!"

After this, Senpai looked at Nishikata and Takagi's still lifes.

Senpai: "These are good. Both of you are definitely improving. THere's more detail, less mistakes, and there's definitely love in these pieces. Good job!"

Nishikata and Takagi both shot Senpai a genuine smile before Nishikata broke the silence.

Nishikata: "Club time's almost over. Let's head home."

The walk home was fairly normal, besides the fact that it had been snowing pretty heavily. Nagatoro was running in circles around Senpai while Nishikata and Takagi chatted about what they would do at Takagi's house.

Takagi: "The heating in my house has been kinda wonky lately so watch out for that."

Nishikata: "Alright. Oh, I remembered, we can do board games as well! I have a war game, Brisk, a game called Cruiser and we could also try an adventure game called Swords & Spells fifth edition."

Takagi: "Sweet! Sounds like this'll be fun!"

Nishikata: "Actually, Naoto! Hayase!"

Nagatoro and Senpai spun to face Nishikata

Senpai: "Y-yeah?"

Nishikata: "Would you guys be interested in trying out Swords & Spells fifth edition? It's like an adventure game where we use our imagination to visualize the scenes being described!"

Senpai saw a fire in Nishikata's eyes that he only saw when Nishikata was competing with someone else.

Senpai: "You know, I actually tried out S&S 4th edition and I didn't really like it that much. I tried 3.5 and liked it, but I could never get a consistent party."

Nagatoro: "Of course otaku-Senpai loves his geeky games! I'd be down to play, though. It could be fun."

Nishikata: "Alright! I'll show Takagi-san the ropes tonight with a one shot and tomorrow we could try it at lunch! The manuals are all online, so you 2 should be able to learn the game."

Nagatoro: "Alright! See you 2 tomorrow!"

Nishikata dipped into his own house for a couple minutes while Takagi waited outside. Once he came back out with different clothes and a backpack full of games, they headed towards Takagi's house.

Takagi: "You know, Nishikata, this'll be the first time you've been in my house."

Nishikata: *blushing slightly* "Y-yep."

Takagi looked at Nishikata expectantly for a moment before unlocking the door to her house and leading Nishikata in. They each took off their shoes before stepping into the living room.

Takagi: "You want to come up to my room?"

Nishikata: "W-what? Uh… Yeah, sure. I guess."

Takagi grabbed Nishikata by the wrist, causing him to blush, and led him up the stairs of the house, into her room. Takagi then paused as they entered.

Takagi: "So what do you think?"

Takagi's room was almost like a collage. Countless pages of cartoons, meticulously hand-drawn, were plastered all over the room. Among the walls of manga lay several photos which Nishikata recognized as the time Takagi had scared him with a toy snake and used burst mode on her camera to capture his full reaction. A week ago, Nishikata probably would've been annoyed at seeing these photos, but now, he couldn't help but smile at these memories.

Nishikata: *smiling* "I-it's nice. You're really good at drawing! Damn, imagine if I'd challenged you to draw a cartoon that first day in the art club, I would've been so embarrassed!"

Takagi: "Why thank you, Nishikata. You know, I just need to grab some things and we can smash, right here, right now."

Nishikata: She's talking about the video game. She's talking about the video game. "Sure, Takagi-san."

Takagi shot Nishikata a surprised look before giggling to herself and heading into her closet, emerging with her switch. She turned on her switch and the game.

Nishikata: "Let's do… Big Battlefield. I'll take Zelda."

Takagi: "You know, I never figured out why it's called Story of Link when Zelda's the main character. Anyways, I'll pick Waluiji."

The fight lasted nearly 15 minutes with Takagi and Nishikata trading blows, almost evenly. Finally, with one last combo, Nishikata squeezed away the victory.

Nishikata: "Yes! I've finally won against you, Takagi-san!"

Takagi: "Hah! Not so fast, we've still got board games and something else we can both decide on."

Nishikata: "Oh yeah. What did you have in mind?"

Takagi: Do I want to do this? If I guess right, I could make us official, but if I get it wrong, he might not want to talk to me again! Ugh, quit overthinking it, Takagi! He probably isn't ready yet and to be honest, I don't think I am either.

Takagi: "I'm not sure at the moment."

Nishikata: "Well, I guess we can play brisk now."

After some god tier luck, and defeating Nishikata's army of 10 with her army of 2, Takagi won. While the game was going on, a heavy amount of snow had piled up outside of the house. The wind was threatening to knock anyone who was outside right down.

Nishikata: "Dammit Takagi-san! You're so lucky!"

Takagi: "Heh. You could say that. Still, I hope no one got caught outside. My parents will have finished their business meeting by now but they're still at their hotel."

Nishikata: "You… You sound like you're used to this. Is this… common?"

Takagi: "I mean… Shortly after the Summer festival, my parents got a new job at the same company so they aren't home much."

Nishikata's jaw dropped.

Nishikata: "You've been living alone for that long?! Are you serious?"

Takagi: "I mean… yeah? It's honestly helped me a lot, though. I can basically take care of the house all on my own and my parents send me money every week, so it's not like I'm going hungry or anything."

Nishikata: "That's not the point! Your parents should help you… They should be there."

Takagi: "Yeah, like you ever talk to your parents about your life."

Nishikata: "S-shut up. I-I guess we can talk about this later. I-it's getting cold in here, isn't it?"

Takagi: "Actually, yeah. Wait, I have an idea!"

Nishikata: "Y-yeah? What is it?"

Takagi: "An exercise competition! Exercising makes you hot so it'll help us keep warm and we can use it as our tiebreaker!"

Nishikata: I'm still pretty worried about Takagi's whole situation… Still, she seems to be doing ok and I can normally tell when she's not doing ok. We'll probably talk about this later. Oh right! The game! "Uh, yeah! Sure!"

Takagi: "Round one: push ups!"

Takagi dragged Nishikata into her room by the wrist, once again.

Nishikata: "Do we have to do it in your room?"

Takagi: "Do you have anything against being in my room, Nishikata?"

Nishikata: "N-no."

Takagi smiled as they once again stepped through the door.