When the cat's away the mice will play. That was the first thought that struck Nakiri Alice when Erina pulled up to the Elite Ten jet with none other than Yukihira Souma in tow. Perhaps she had been so distracted by her new relationship with Ryo that she hadn't been paying enough attention.

She bounced out of her seat when they came onto the jet and wrapped her arms around the prodigal second seat. "Yukihira!" she shouted. "Thank god! How could you leave me alone with all these serious people?"

"Ah, sorry Alice," Souma said, scratching the back of his head. "It must have been rough for you."

"You have no idea! Erina's been extra uptight since you left. It's been awful."

"I'm standing right here, you know," Erina said, glowering, her arms crossed over her chest. "And why don't you get off him, already? Not everyone wants such close contact with you."

"Territorial much, Erina?" Alice glanced over at her cousin, smirking, but still ended the embrace. "You see, before she would have started screaming over something like that. What did you do?"

Souma grinned, glancing over at Erina. "I mean, I mostly just fed her. That usually works."

"H-honestly! Won't the both of you just be quiet already?"

By that point, Erina was all red and pissy again, and Alice giggled behind her hands. "I hope you brought snacks, Yukihira."

The pale haired Nakiri skipped back to her seat before her cousin could yell at her more, just as Takumi Aldini boarded and started shouting at Yukihira about when he had arrived and why he hadn't been answering any of his phone calls. She laughed a bit as she made her way to the jet's small kitchen. Blonds were so high-strung.

"Won't you stop harassing Erina-sama?" Hishoko asked, as she brewed espresso.

"Nah, it's too much fun," she said, leaning on the counter. "But I know you had a hand in all of this. Erina is way too prideful to have tracked him down on her own."

"I did nothing." Hisako tied her hair up and started steaming the milk for her cappuccinos. "You were the one who insisted on taking this trip."

"I don't know, Hishoko," Alice drawled. "You're so busy handling Erina's affairs that you're slacking on your own."

"What are you talking about—"

"You've got a love bite right there." She prodded the space just between the pink haired girl's neck and collarbone.

"D-don't touch me! What are you talking about?" Hishoko's face went fire-engine red.

"Using deductive reasoning, this means that your mystery man is either Takumi or Hayama-kun."

"Your logic is fallacious as usual, Alice," she replied, wearing a bored expression. "I met someone at the beach."

"You?" Alice laughed. "Queen Background Check herself fooling around with a random guy? Nah, I don't believe it."

"Believe whatever you want," Hisako said. "But believe it quietly. Some of us don't enjoy being the subject of public discourse."

With that, Arato Hisako left the kitchen with not one, not two, but three cappuccinos in tow. Alice grinned again. Interesting.

The mice will play, indeed.


For a fleeting moment after Yukihira returned to Totsuki with the rest of the Elite Ten, Hayama Akira had believed that the days of endless meetings and paperwork were behind him—but he was very quickly disabused of the notion.

"Yo, Hayama," the newly returned second seat said, standing in the doorway of his office. "There's a ramen festival going on in Osaka, so me and Nakiri are gonna head over there for the weekend. We'll be back on Monday."

Akira looked up from the document he'd been reviewing and glared at him, as well as Nakiri Erina, who at least had the decency to try and look somewhat guilty. "What about the new seminar budget allotments that are due next week?"

Yukihira shrugged it off, cavalier as ever. "We'll figure it out between all of us."

"All you'd have to do is calculate the remaining discretionary budget and determine what percentage of it can be put towards seminars," Erina explained. "Then you'd read through all the new seminar proposals, rank them by their potential impact on the industry and campus life, and from there conduct follow-up interviews with the lead faculty and write up your proposed allotments."

"Yeah, and we'll do the rest when we get back," Yukihira added.

Akira looked at them with murder in his posture. "And the rest would be?"

Yukihira glanced at Nakiri, who simply raised her eyebrows as though to say 'this was your idea.'

"Ah, Nakiri, we better get going before we miss the train."

Erina rolled her eyes. "You idiot! That's why I said get the later ticket." She sighed. "I guess it can't be helped. The car is already out front."

"Later, Hayama!" Yukihira said.

"Text Hisako if you want my notes. She has access to my cloud."

As the first and second seats left Elite Ten headquarters, it occurred to Akira that as far as the work was concerned, it was more like Nakiri left than Yukihira came back.

Great.

At around six in the evening Arato Hisako came into his office, bearing a pot of darjeeling tea and some scones.

"I can tell you're in a mood," she said, pouring out a cup of tea and handing it to him. "Are you almost finished?"

"Not even close." He had only slogged through half the new seminar proposals and couldn't even think about scheduling interviews yet. And then there were the new lectures for the Shiomi lab course he'd have to write and the prep for upcoming meetings with the investors.

Akira's eyes drew closed, a headache starting at the base of his skull as he pictured his schedule for the next week, and by the time they opened again, Arato was behind him, massaging his shoulders.

He tilted his head back slightly and pinned her with a quizzical gaze. The way she vacillated between affection and indifference was dizzying.

Flushing slightly, Arato glanced at the door—making sure it was really closed—and then kissed him quickly before resuming her massage. "You carry all of your tension right here," she said, pressing her thumb into a particularly tender spot near his left shoulder. "So much stress isn't good for the body. You'll start getting headaches if you don't already. Relax more."

How the hell did she always do that?

"Then tell your mistress to do her damn job."

Arato laughed a little at this. "Erina-sama has been working hard all her life," she said, always quick to come to her friend's defense. "Yukihira just got back. Let them enjoy each other. She'll be back to her duties in no time."

"And when do we get to enjoy each other?" Akira asked, gazing up at her again. He was met with a flicker in her cinnamon eyes that he'd come to know far too well.

"Well, I suppose there's no time like the present," she said, leaving a kiss at the base of his neck.

"What, in here?" he asked. "Right now?" This was bolder than he knew her to be.

She shrugged, beginning to unbutton her uniform blazer. "I mean, Erina-sama is out of town so..."

So...on second thought, maybe having the two of them gone wasn't so bad after all.

Authors Notes: Thank you for reading, and I apologize for the late update!