Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeey, what the heckie a new chapter? hell yeah! XD Here i am... once again... after over a month or something... and yes! I hope you enjoy and thanks for sticking with me!
Disclaimer: I don't own Uta no Prince-sama or any of its characters.
After the surprising encounter between the two redheads, the day proceeded as planned. Otoya headed for the orphanage and Tomochika muttered something about 'getting ready'.
Meanwhile, Haruka had to stand yet another 4 hours of Shining and the rest of the board members arguing about how profitable the concerts would be. At least in the second half of the meeting her boss seemed more prompt to dialogue, but just barely.
She had finally been able to present her view on the situation and even though she had already made up her mind about it, she was still terrified at the prospect of so many people judging her. Her take on it was that with the increased popularity of Starish and the amount of sold tickets in all of their concerts (not to count the higher viewer rating they had been getting on every tv show ever since their music duel with Heavens), it wouldn't be really that optimistic to venture that more concerts around the country would be quite productive. Sure, they would have to promote the heck out of them in all of the cities chosen, but she was positive that they could do that and more with the time they had left before it was time to perform.
Her argument was taken into consideration for a while. Silence enveloped the room and she sweated as if she had just run a marathon. Could they really take that long to come with a decision?
Finally, the head of the board stood up and nodded. He looked down towards Haruka and said: "We have concluded that the motion is approved: Starish will have a local tour" And with that, the meeting was over.
It had ended earlier as well: they didn't discuss any of the other topics that were assigned for the day… But at least they had done something. Or rather: She had.
Haruka proudly strode down the halls of the music label's building. And in doing so, she was so immersed in her newfound success that she just ignored everything and everyone going on around her. And it was barely 3pm! She could totally go visit the orphanage and surprise Otoya, he would surely still be there.
She pulled out her phone to call for a cab when she suddenly felt someone tap on her shoulder. Scared out of her mind, she dropped her phone instantly and then turned around to find her boss standing right behind her.
"Miss Nanami"
"Y-yes?"
"You dropped your phone" he simply said.
She almost froze at his obvious statement, but decided to just go along with his attempt at a conversation. "Oh, I did" she said, before kneeling down to grab it. It seemed perfectly fine, there wasn't a single crack on the screen and it appeared to be working normally. She placed it back on her pocket just as he opened his mouth to make another comment.
"You did a good job today, Miss Nanami! Your supportive attitude will be rewarded" he told her.
"I just did what I thought was right, sir" she said, sheepishly.
"That you did! Good job!" And just like that, he threw a small smoke bomb and disappeared out of her view. She coughed and wheezed as she ran out of the suffocating cloud. 'Was that really necessary?' she thought to herself when she finally got outside.
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It had taken some effort, but thanks to the creativity of the staff, they had come up with some games to do with the kids inside. And to be honest, Otoya was infinitely thankful: he was practically an ice cube when he got there.
They were about to play some hide and seek, but all the kids refused to take part in it unless he sang for them. Just like that: a guitar popped out of God knows where and he was in the center of the room, sitting in a chair, surrounded by children (and adults).
He played "Smile magic" once again since it seemed to be their favorite and then by request: "Maji Love 1000%". Of course, he couldn't deny them that, but with everything going on lately, performing a solo rendition of their debut song didn't feel too good.
After that, all the kids ran in every direction as fast as possible, trying to find the best place to hide as the owner of the place (a really kind, older woman) counted to fifty.
Though the game didn't last too long: not too much time after the countdown finished, some of the kids got out of their hideouts chanting something among the lines of: "Big sister". Otoya had no idea what they were aiming at: he figured they must've been calling someone that worked there. But when one of the helpers threw him a knowing glance, he knew it had to be Haruka.
He walked towards the children's giggles and sure enough: found his girlfriend standing in the middle. She noticed him there and waved him over to which he responded by walking closer.
Strangely enough, when he got close enough, the children made way and ran out of the room as fast as possible leaving the two of them alone.
The out of the ordinary silence made their greeting somehow awkward, Haruka smiled to the floor right after mouthing a quick "Hello" and just overall avoided making any sort of eye contact. But of course, he wasn't going to let the weird moment get the best of him so he just said the first thing that came into mind in an attempt to break the ice. "I see your meeting finished early"
"Yes, it did… Thankfully" And with that, the topic of conversation was completely destroyed.
Otoya still tried to think of something to say, but he wasn't particularly comfortable with leaving the "small talk zone" himself. So he just kept on with the pattern. "Is there… any good news that came out of the meeting?"
"Oh, yes. But I'm not exactly allowed to discuss it with anyone outside of the board… Sorry"
"I see… Well… That's… cool"
She noticed the way his voice dropped at his reply; eyes focusing on the top of his sneakers just like hers had been not that long ago. She honestly felt really bad that she couldn't tell him the good news yet, especially since she had such a big part in it all… But at least he knew there were good news at all, right?
"… And so… What where you up to? You ran into Tomo-chan, yes?" she asked, trying to lighten up the mood.
He looked up at her question and furrowed his brow, confused, as if trying to collect his thoughts before speaking. "I did… I don't know why though… Or rather, she kind of told me why? But it still doesn't… I'm… I have no idea"
"Mmm? What did she tell you?"
"I don't know if I should say anything… But she didn't exactly tell me to keep quiet, and you're her best friend…"
She couldn't help but giggle at his indecision before she finally said: "Come on, tell me, nothing bad will happen"
"Okay… She asked me if I knew if there's something wrong with Ren"
"Oh? What does that have to do with her walking through here?"
"I have no clue, maybe nothing? But maybe she just took a really long thinking-walk, you know? To clear her mind and… stuff"
"Hmm" Haruka pondered on his words, and remembered how off Tomochika had sounded when she talked to her on the phone earlier. Maybe her invitation had been even more spot-on than she had first intended.
All of the sudden, she felt the warmth of his hand cradling her cheek and before she even had time to react: his lips were firmly pressed against hers. Not even two seconds had passed when they both heard a collective: "Ewwwwww!" coming from right outside the room. They turned towards the sound and as expected, found a very large group of kids staring right at them. Something told them they had to be angry, but they couldn't help but laugh at the hilarity of the situation as the teaching staff ran to take the kids back to doing the day's activities.
After the moment passed, they realized that they were still at a really close proximity to each other, and without a second thought: Haruka just wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged the life out of her boyfriend. She whispered "I love you" right next to his ear and let herself stay there right as he hugged back, just as tightly, keeping her up. Instead of just whispering it back like he had first planned though, he took advantage of the position he was in and just kissed the side of her neck, saying each word of "I love you too" only interrupted by his lips touching her skin. She had honestly been trying to be a little less shy for his sake, but the neck touching was just too much. She tensed up in his arms and if she had been asked, she could swear that her entire body was blushing. She just hoped there were no kids around to witness what they were doing.
'Oh, crap! KIDS ARE AROUND!' her thoughts finally pierced through her mind. She moved her arms right in front of her torso and pushed him slightly away so that he'd get the hint. Doing so, he quickly put her down, looking right at her with questioning eyes. To which she responded with: "Kids" And that was all it took for his face to go from "teen in love" to "I just witnessed a murder". He covered his mouth just as his face turned as red as his hair and started looking around frantically, hoping, wishing that no kid had escaped their superiors.
Thankfully for them, after a couple of minutes of searching around, they found that all the kids were having nap time. The relief of their realization made their souls jump back into their bodies and they just collapsed in the nearest chairs completely exhausted. They could see the staff giggling at their expressions, but the joy of not having done anything even remotely indecent in front of small children was enough to make them forget about every worry… at least for the moment being.
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Right as they entered the dorms they were greeted with a very peculiar scene: Masato and Tomochika were napping on the same couch. It was big enough to fit both of them no problem, but the thing was that she was lying on his side, her head resting on his chest. That didn't last too long though, Masato was a really light sleeper, only the sound of Haruka's heals clacking against the wooden floors was enough to wake him up.
He opened his eyes and was about to say something to both of the people that had entered the room, but when he stirred a little in an attempt to talk properly: he found her. He felt her warm breath against his shirt, her hand holding him tightly… that surely couldn't be happening! How did he get in that position in the first place? The surprise was clouding his mind, and for someone that found human touch to be an incredibly intimate action, his current position was compromising to say the least.
Masato shifted his view to the couple that awoke him and found that they were already quietly exiting the room. He had to stop them before they misunderstood!
"Wait!" he said, louder than he intended.
Haruka and Otoya turned around, curious, and waited.
"This isn't what it looks like" he claimed. Inside his head, he felt like slapping himself for the cliché excuse, but it was the truth. Regardless, he decided to keep going before they could assume anything. "I sat here to rest my eyes and before I knew it I had dozed off, but I swear I was alone" He could feel desperation in his own voice, but he didn't want them to have a wrong idea of him no matter what.
Their response didn't exactly help him relax though: the couple shared a knowing look between each other and turned to leave once again without a word.
"Don't go! I'm serious!" he yelled. Sadly, he had failed to realize that there was someone sleeping by his side, and needless to say: he woke her up with his screams.
Tomochika slowly let go of his shirt and moved her head up, trying to figure out where she was. After opening her eyes and meeting his terrified gaze, she paled. In what seemed like a complete state of shock, she slowly sat up without breaking eye contact. At this point, Masato turned towards the red haired couple and she realized they weren't alone. But to their surprise: when she spotted them color returned to her face.
"What on Earth did we walk into?" Otoya asked.
"Just two people coincidentally napping together on the same couch" Tomochika was quick to reply before the redhead could make any joke about the whole thing.
"Coincidentally? Come on, you clearly fell asleep on top of him" he replied.
At his statement, she turned towards Masato. She could see he was uncomfortable and it wouldn't have been hard to guess that he was also pretty offended by her behavior. "Sorry, Masato… I wanted to talk to you and I just… I sat here and tried to wake you up and… I don't know… I guess not sleeping much lately got me falling asleep over you. I'm really sorry"
He seemed to consider her apology for a moment, but considering she had used his actual name instead of the horrible nickname she had given him, he could see that she was serious. "It's alright, no harm done"
After it was all said and done, Masato left the loudly silent room full of red haired people and made his way back to his room.
On the other hand, Tomochika still sat on the couch, guilt filled, and even a little embarrassed. Her friends were still there, but she felt lonely for some reason. She knew that Masato would move past the embarrassing moment, but she couldn't. Not because she had an ulterior motive for doing what she had done, but because of the reason why she hadn't been able to sleep the night before… the reason why she waited for him to wake up and ultimately fell asleep herself. She would possibly have to face the truth very soon as she was going to have some sort of discussion with Haruka, but she just wanted to run away.