ok funny story i forgot my acct pw so i was like woops i hope these ppl find masq on tumblr but then today i was like oh wait i remember my pw lmao

"I always knew you were weird," Akira muttered when they got onto the skydeck turned landing pad. He and Hisako had just graduated from their respective colleges and now they, Souma, and the Denmark Nakiris were gathered on top of the Copenhagen penthouse for some quality catching up. There was no doubt that the day would end in another round of shokugekis.

"Rude!" Alice pouted as she set down a large blanket and a few red Solo cups in the shade of Ryo's new helicopter. "I just happened to buy my amazing husband a gift! Besides, he has a license now and having a charter plane is fun."

"You talk as if your family doesn't own three private jets," Akira pointed out, pouring draft beer from a two-liter pitcher.

Alice waved this off with an annoyed flap of her hand. "Hayama, when are you and Hishoko gonna get married?"

"We're twenty-two," Hisako pointed out dully. "We still have a long way to go. And don't call me Hishoko."

"I'm not, Hishoko. However, as the official matchmaker of the Nakiri Faction, I must insist that you get the hell on with it already."

"Nakiri Faction?" Akira inquired.

"Yes! You've been an honorary member since you assisted my booth at the festival in first year."

"You mean Jun's—"

"And you and Hishoko are going to get married in like… two days, so she's automatically a part of the faction as well now!"

Souma laughed as he took out a few boxes neatly packed with onigiri. "Yo, Arato, did you buy Hayama a helicopter yet?"

Hisako raised an eyebrow. "No," she smiled with a teasing air. "But he bought us a company."

The red-haired chef spat out his Lagunitas IPA. "What!?"

"Yeah, I bought Habui," Akira said casually, as if he were talking about bargain eggs.

"Holy shit! Is that why you were on the front cover of Forbes!?"

"It's been the only thing on the news for the last week, Yukihira," he replied drily.

Alice added, "It was definitely a shock at first, though."

True—it took her a full hour of staring at the magazine to properly process the fact that twirling his Phi Beta Kappa key around his finger and still wearing his graduation gown, the fresh Columbia graduate had dethroned the Sendawara sisters with a phrase that would become legend—"My nose can make better curry than your hands." How he'd made that much bank as a college student was up to debate, but nobody questioned the fact that he was the new CEO of Habui.

"Tokyo will be our home base," Hisako said, staring speculatively into her cup. "I'm starting med school at Johns Hopkins in the fall but after Innlausn opens next month Akira will probably be moving back to Japan."

Souma's eyes widened. "Wait! I just had an idea. Why don't you guys stay at my place in Evanston for the startup period?"

"You're only saying that because you want us to be indebted to you so we don't run your ass out of Illinois," Akira scoffed.

"Cruel," Souma retorted, feigning hurt. "I'm just being nice. Right, Arato?"

"I mean, I'll take you up on it," Hisako grinned, and she and Souma exchanged a fist bump. "We owe you one."

"No, we do not! Don't say things like that to him!"

Alice smirked at this. "Oh, yeah? You only got your Chicago floorspace because Yukihira's journalist girlfriend pulled strings with the contractors." She paused for a second, then whirled on Souma. "By the way, Yukihira. You're getting pretty serious with Erina again, aren't you? What a fuckboy. Two girls at once?"

A vein pulsed in Souma's temple. "Oh, shut the fuck up. I'm single and Erina doesn't like me like that anymore."

"Baseless assumption!" Ryo bellowed.

They all laughed at this — the story of the spontaneous kiss after Origin's opening night had circulated among the friend group and now they were placing bets as to when the former first and second seats of the Elite Ten would finally quit beating around the damn bush. Souma, who had been too embarrassed to call Erina since the debut, had chosen to aggressively not participate.

Within moments, they were all rolling up their sleeves and getting their hair out of the way to crack down on each other in a shokugeki themed "obscenely expensive". They had just raided Alice and Ryo's apartment-sized kitchen, making vulgar comments on how Akira had only bought Habui because he was still salty about Sendawara Natsume hitting on him during the Elections and talking general shit like they hadn't already earned each other's highest respect, when Hisako's phone rang.

Everyone leaned over the doctor-restaurateur's shoulder to see just who the hell would dare interrupt their shokugeki episode.

Incoming FaceTime call from: Nakiri Erina

Before Hisako could even answer the call, Souma dropped his knife and bolted for the door. His flight was cut short by Ryo, who grabbed his collar and yanked him backwards. "The fuck you going?"

"F-finland," Souma squeaked, his arms and legs in frantic motion.

"Oh no you are not," Akira snapped, shoving Souma back over to Hisako, who was greeting Erina over FT. "Take responsibility for your dumbassery."

The blonde chef dropped her phone when Souma entered the frame. "Y-yukihira!?"

"Um… yo…? Nakiri? Sup?"

Erina was already blushing, but she managed to say, "Nothing much. You?"

Hisako passed the phone to Souma with an expression of amusement, who nervously combed his fingers through his hair and started moving around to find better lighting. "I'm uh… not doing anything either. Where you at?"

"I'm in Tokyo," Erina said. "At dinner with—"

"Yukihira!" Asahi grinned, popping into view.

Erina looked a little disgruntled as the two proceeded to treat each other like the brothers-in-law they were probably going to be (hahah the foreshadowing).

The rest of the Nakiri family greeted Souma and asked him if he knew where the hell Jou had disappeared to this time, and obviously Souma had no clue, but it really did seem like things would work out between the two families after all. Once it was just Erina watching him silently through the screen, Souma gave a slow smile and said, "Good seeing you again, Nakiri. I guess I'll…"

Erina asked hesitantly, "Are you free later? Maybe around midnight my time?"

Shrugging, Souma answered, "Should be. Why?"

"N-no, it's nothing. Never mind. Goodbye."

"I'll call you," Souma offered.

Erina's ears turned red. "If you insist, I will pick up your call."

"Sounds great." Souma passed the phone back to Hisako and sat down grinning like a foolish idiot.

Alice had been watching the whole interaction with mild amusement, and now she tapped the kitchen counter for attention, first dibs on the truffle oil long forgotten.

"So, Yukihira. You still think she doesn't like you?"