The legend that bound, Chapter 1
That dream-like night.
The legend that binds dictates that the couple who'll dance around the school trip's campfire will be bound together for life, a kind glimmer weakens the heart of the two 2nd year asahiyama high school students, Uesugi Fuutarou and Nakano Ichika, in that night of November 2017
Fuutarou's struggle to transport the heavy logs from the camp's warehouse to the campfire preparations along side Yotsuba overshadows the cordial chills of that clear sky yet cold autumn night.
"I'm going to die, was I always this weak?" he mumbles to himself while breathlessly trying to follow Yotsuba's pace.
His exhausted steps blinded him from noticing Yotsuba's absence though, as his body fought for the strength to lift yet another log, a familiar voice made him stop and look up.
"woah, these are heavy" said a surprised Nakano Ichika, as soon as she recognized the holder of the other side of log as her tutor her conflicted expression turned into a smile and continued talking.
"would you look at that? It's Fuutarou-kun, I just noticed it's you, weren't you assigned to a different duty though?" said happy with this surprise encounter.
"Where's Yotsuba?" asked the boy, completely indifferent to her sudden appearance.
It took him a second to acknowledge the situation as an opportunity to break any built up apathy the nakano quintuplets had against him that could threaten his well-paid job.
"I was helping Yotsuba!, well, let's carry these logs together!" said Fuutarou with a confident smirk, weirding Ichika out.
Log after log, the time passed as the cold of the night settled in. The tutor and student roles were reversed as now Ichika once again had to instruct her partner-in-crime how to properly approach each one of her sisters.
"Be firm when talking to Nino, but be gentle when talking to itsuki-chan" expressed the young woman with the confidence only someone who knows what they're talking about could have "oh, and you can be gentle with me too" Ichika added.
"Gentle?... I'll remember it" said the young student as he followed her to pick up the last log.
"I'm glad I talked to Ichika first, you can definitely tell she's the oldest sister, she has those calm charming eyes that can see through me and her sisters without any bias" he thought to himself, without realizing his lips begin to curl, reminicing all the moments he had shared with her, a feeling he could not recognize nor describe rushed through his entire body, as if the noisy cicadas and wind moving the leafs on the treetops had slowly went mute.
He admired the woman walking in front of him, her beautiful short pink hair and small hands that were tucked together behind her back, "she really is… perfect" thought to himself while she couldn't see the worth-teasing grin he was making
these heart-warming feelings were interrupted by Ichika's sudden stop.
"And with Mi-" her expression abruptly changed, her confident smirk and tone had quickly vanished as she turned back to continue walking in silence.
"what was that?" Fuutarou asked. "it's nothing" she reasued him, though, he noticed her sudden change of attitude, like if she had almost said something she shouldn't have, like if her onee-san self was quickly shut down and replaced with its shadow.
"What was that sudden change of tone?" Fuutarou wondered, still oblivious to the unknown feelings he felt just moments ago.
They arrive in warehouse, and Fuutarou breaks the silence. "it's the last one, huh", "yeah, the campfire will be ready by tomorrow" Ichika awkwardly replied, "tomorrow, huh? Did Miku already tell you?" "yeah, I guess we'll dance tomorrow" she said with the same tone.
Both of them lifted the last log in silent tension, a silence even the dense Uesugi Fuutarou himself could feel.
"Hey, what was that change of tone back then?" He finally asked, Ichika's face changed even more.
"I don't know what you're talking about" said without any hesitation, like if she was trying to pull her onee-san self back up.
"Oe, I kno-" Fuutarou's sentence was cut short by the sound of the unknown steps of two people from behind them.
"Aalright! We got them all out" said an unknown voice, a third person walks in and says "wait! Have you seen Uesugi-san?" Yotsuba's voice made Fuutarou straighten his postuse.
"Uesugi? I haven't seen him" one of the girls replied "well, let's go back to our dorms" "alright!"
The unintentional delinquents heard the sound of the door closing and the click of the lock as the unknown footsteps faded away "a click!?" both of them said with a frightened voice.
"Be gentle, be gentle" the young Uesugi told himself, as the sound of rustling outside bushes filled their eardrums, he covered Ichika with his jacket. "no one is looking" said afterwards.
The short awkward silence grew by the seconds, covering his mouth with the palm of his right hand quickly added "oh, I said something weird again, I'm so-" "no, it's fine, it's fine" Ichika interrupted him with a calmed voice.
As she adjusted his jacket both of them looked at the big wooden door, then at each other, and laughed as the gravity of the situation haven't sunken in yet, but at least the built-up tension had finally disappeared.
"We're locked up huh"
"Yeah"
"What do we do?"
"I'll break the door down!" Fuutarou said with determination as he walked back to burst the door open.
"Hold on! That's gonna get us in trouble!" said Ichika as she pointed her finger at the top right of the door "see that alarm? We'll get in serious trouble if it goes off, the campfire might even be called off"
"Fine, let's disarm it, get on my shoulders" said Fuutarou while kneeling down. The hesitant heart of the pink-haired woman started beating faster, desire and guilt flooded her mind as she grabbed her white shirt by the closest spot to her heart.
"I don't want this alarm to go off either" she thought to herself with a troubled look on her face.
"Don't you dare to say I'm heavy" said Ichika as she sat on her off-duty tutor's shoulders
"Mhm, hmmm"
"What's wrong?"
"This feeling… it's like a déjà vu"
Ichika's face turned into a flustered angry face "Hey! No enjoying my thighs!"
"I can't lift you, you're too heavy" said Fuutarou with a struggling voice.
"Ahhhh! You said it!" A flustered Ichika shouted
"Get off me!" Fuutarou muttered.
"alright!, Let's wait then" said as she broke away from her imagination.
Both of them sat in a cautious distance from each other.
10 minutes had passed since they got locked up, 10 minutes where neither of them exchanged a single word, with only the sound of the friction between the two pieces of wood Fuutarou had gathered to start a improvised fire filling the atmosphere.
"Is this ok? what if Miku finds out about this?" Ichika's thoughts slowly ate her away, as if a trial where the defendant was Nakano Ichika, the judge was Nakano Ichika, and the judged was Nakano Ichika was taking place.
"You're supposed to help Miku get closer to him"
"We're all grown-ups, and we have basically the same age, I don't need to act like an older sister anymore"
"You should be ashamed of even thinking about that"
"Miku was the one who suggested the idea, it should be fine for me to go through it… right"
"…"
"…"
She had finally made up her mind.
"Let's call it quits" Ichika muttered while her mouth was still burried in her elbows.
"hm?" Fuutarou mumbled confused.
"Tomorrow's dance, let's forget about it, I'll take care of Maeda if it's necessary" as the oldest sister, she knew it was the right thing to do in a situation like this.
Fuutarou had suddenly felt a void in his stomach after hearing Ichika's words,"Oh… why though?" his voice did not match his out-of-sight conflicted expression.
"I thought about it better… we shouldn't have forced this on you, it was a problem between Miku and I and-" "You didn't force anything on me, I accepted it to go through it because I wanted to" Fuutarou firmly interrupted.
"Wow, I'm surprised you'd take part in something outside of your tutoring duties" said Ichika, raising her mouth above her elbows in awe
"Studying is everything I've cared about up until I met the five of you, my life has been hell ever since" said Fuutarou with a monotone voice
"But… I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it" he added, hesitant of his own words
Ichika stayed quiet and kept listening.
"I've had a lot of fun with Yotsuba in the test of courage, so why not go through all the trouble you guys had given me? I'm sure it'll be a fun memory to look back on, everything deserves an opportunity, don't you think?" Fuutarou said with a satisfied voice.
"Wow, I didn't know this cheesy side of yours, how cute… Fuutarou-kun" ichika teasingly said
"N-no, it's just… never mind" said as his cheeks grew red
Ichika laughed as she slapped Fuutarou's back, making him inhale through his teeth.
"Agh, I'm trying to lit up a fire, stop!' he said as he tried to find a way to releave the burning feeling on his back
"I'm sorry, haha, that side of you is really cute though" said Ichika with a flirty face
"Maybe you don't know me as well as you thought you did, Miss know-it-all" Fuutarou jokingly replied
"Pffff, Fuutarou-kun, you're really fun to talk to" said Ichika as she leaned her head against the cold wall with a grin on her face
Fuutarou chuckled in response, ending their conversation.
Ichika couldn't stop smiling, as she leaned her head back down she stared at her home tutor's concentrated side profile and thought "I'm sorry Miku, I'm not planning on giving up this spot to anyone else, this is my one love"
A few minutes passed and Fuutarou started grinding at the sounds his improvised fire created, his efforts had finally paid off and the sudden rush of confidence he received made him stand up, walk up to Ichika, and reach her with his hand "why don't we have our own campfire dance here? Since we won't do it tomorrow" said Fuutarou with a sweet voice
Ichika's eyes grew wide open, his words echoed in her heart louder than any remaining doubt the young woman had, she finally gave in to these now unstoppable feelings, "this is the point of no return" she thought to herself as she grabbed her crush's hand with a flirty expression.
"Fuutarou-kun!, I didn't know you had the balls to ask a girl to dance" Ichika teasingly said.
Fuutarou's face grew red as the realization of what he just did hit him, looking away, he covered his mouth with the same hand he reached out to grab hers and said. "s-sorry, that was weird"
"No no, I accept your invitation, Mr ladykiller" Ichika chuckled
"Shouldn't we put some music though?" Ichika jokingly said
"You got your phone on you? Why don't you call someone!?" Fuutarou eagerly replied
"I'm joking, I'm joking" said the older sister laughing
The fire grew bigger and brighter as the two students awkwardly tried to coordinate a dance
"Now, you put both hands on my hips and I put mine on your shoulders" Ichika instructed the dense guy.
"aren't these types of dance only for couples though?" Fuutarou hesitantly asked
"So what? Are you afraid that it's going to awaken something inside?" Ichika kept teasing.
"N-no, it's fine" his face grew a little red and tired of her teasing
The loud outside wind and improvised fire sounds had slowly faded away as the two young students danced in silence, it was awkward and amateur, they made many mistakes and laughed at the same time, but as the time went on neither of them could, nor wanted to break the eye contact, Fuutarou remembered that feeling he had when he was following Ichika's pace just 30 minutes ago that felt like hours to him inside this old, cold warehouse, it was warm, comfortable and uplifting, he liked it, he liked it a lot, he didn't want this moment to end
Ichika had a million thoughts in mind that had just become background noise the moment Fuutarou grabbed her hips with those cold hands of his, she wanted this dance to last forever.
Though, nothing lasts forever, Ichika as clumsy as she is, blindly guided the dance around the bunch of small pieces of wood Fuutarou had grabbed from to create the fire, tripping on one of them, causing her little world to snap back to reality, or so she thought.
"AH-" Ichika loudly shouted as she realized she was falling, she grabbed Fuutarou's shoulders with all her strength.
Fuutarou had quickly broke out of his thoughts and grabbed her hips tighter, drawing them closer to his, placing his left leg forward to keep the balance.
"Are you alright?" Fuutarou worryingly asked, without noticing that his body wouldn't let go of Ichika's, even after he saved her from falling to her back.
She opened her eyes, to see his face just centimeters away from hers, the fire highlighted his beautiful golden eyes and black hair that had a tone of blue to it.
The weight of the situation had finally hit Fuutarou as soon as he saw those two diamonds the oldest nakano quintuplet had for eyes, for a moment, he lost control of mind, as he could sense her raising heartbeat and she could sense his.
Their troubled expressions suddenly changed, without any words exchanged, both of them knew exactly what each other wanted, and what they needed to do.
Thus, they closed their eyes once again, knowing that the other will do the same.
The distance between their faces slowly shortened as their minds only focused their attention on feeling everything the other had to offer.
As their lips met, Fuutarou's brain could only endulge the soft texture of Ichika's peach-flavored lips, so settle yet present
Ichika enjoyed every single second her lips came in contact with his, she didn't have a single doubt anymore, it has been decided, she wanted him for herself and herself only, everything.
Fuutarou wanted to break free to breathe but Ichika did not allow him, there was no way back now, she didn't care if hell was awaiting her outside this cold warehouse, she was gonna embrace the consequences of her actions until the bitter end.
Her fantasy was forcefully shut down as the sound of someone opening the lock's door interrupted this beautiful moment of theirs.
Ichika suddenly tried to free herself from Fuutarou's arms "Let go of me!" she shouted.
Fuutarou clumsily tried to regain the balance as Ichika struggled to break free, "Wait a second! I-" tripping over his steps he fell, dragging Ichika down with him.
As the big wooden door opened, the moonlight possed over the two's incriminating positions, the wind abruptly extinguished the improvised fire, announcing the arrival of the executioner who'll punish them for their sins.
"Ichika, Uesugi-kin, what are you two doing here?" the youngest nakano sister exclaimed with her mom-like voice, with Miku by her side, who stayed quiet, but her silence said more than whatever words could've came out of her mouth.
The two delinquents looked at them, trying to catch their breath again, and just like Adam and Eve after consuming the forbidden fruit, Fuutarou and Ichika will have to face the consequences of their actions… together.