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strawberries and chill

(@chikawaweek Day 6: Strawberries) | ao3

Fuck?

Is all Chika thinks, when he wakes up and realises he’s suddenly in pitch darkness. It’s both a question and a statement - he doesn’t know why he’s here and what he’s doing here, and he also wants to curse because he does know he is, for lack of a better descriptor, fucked for the finals tomorrow.

…Right, his now more-awake brain realises. He’s here in the library precisely because he didn’t want to be fucked for the exam. He still has no idea what he’s doing in pitch darkness, though. Just a few minutes ago, he was attempting to memorise something important from the lecture notes, and probably fell asleep, and -

His eyes fall on the clock, which is when he realises that it wasn’t a few minutes ago, but a few hours ago.

Which means it’s now past midnight. Which means the library is now closed.

Which means…he’s stuck in the library for the night?

How it happened, he barely has any idea - did the librarian forget to do a check before closing up? Or did the librarian actually do the check, but somehow happen to be blind enough to miss all 178cm of his stature?

He decides it doesn’t matter - he figures he’s gotta get the lights on first, somehow. So he gets up, groping around in the dark of the closed library with the dim light of his phone flashlight, and -

A shriek so shrill, Chika almost shrieks in response. He turns his flashlight onto the sudden intruder, and this time, he does shriek in response, because it’s a long-haired, female ghost.

He continues shrieking, because said ghost starts beating him up, and boy is she good at martial arts…

…hold on a second. Can ghosts perform martial arts? And in the first place, can they even physically touch humans?

He grabs the entity by the wrist, be they ghost or non-ghost, and that is when the lights in the library suddenly switch on by themselves. The both of them continue screaming, because lights suddenly turning on can, in fact, be as terrifying as lights suddenly turning off. Seems like the sensor has suddenly detected their presence, or something.

Now that there’s light, she’s definitely no ghost, that much Chika can tell...at least, going by the concept that ghosts don’t possess legs. Though, college so far has been teaching him to question unquestioned assumptions, so he can’t say he’s 100% sure at this point. (Anyway, whether or not she’s a ghost, that sure is an extremely cute hoodie she’s wearing. This ghost sure has good taste.)

“Are you listening,” says not-Ghost, waving her hands furiously in front of his face. He looks up and realises her face is scowling just as furiously.

“Oh, sorry,” chokes Chika. He doesn’t mention that he’s daydreaming (nightdreaming) about strawberry snacks, thanks to her shirt. “Did you say something?”

“Yeah, I asked if you have any idea what we should do,” Ghost repeats. “Apparently there was a new librarian on shift today, and they had gone home without checking this sector of the library compounds. Thing is, they live two hours from this campus by shinkansen, and they brought the keys home with them.” Ghost (probably not-Ghost, now that Chika pieces the information together) shows him her cell phone screen. “See, they emailed all the students whose library cards were detected as having entered the library, but not yet exited. And there are only 2 email addresses, so the other unlucky person must be you.”

Ah, so that’s what happened. He checks his own emails - on top of 647 unread emails is the same notification as the one on her screen. He clicks on it and checks the other email address; [email protected] is what it says.

“So you must be Sato-san?” He tries, squinting at the email address. “Or Satoo?”

“No, silly.” She sighs, facepalming a bit. “My family name is Houzuki, given name Satowa. How long have you been in this university? Didn’t you know that they truncate names to fit emails, but you can still find out the names of those behind the email addresses by clicking on the email address, and looking at the information bar that appears?”

“Oh,” he says, trying out the function she’d just described. “I see. Well…never really been one to read emails.” He shuts his phone. “Anyway,” he looks at her, and his eyes really cannot stop staring at the cute cartoon on the hoodie. (Nor her face, which is almost as cute; just almost.) “I guess we’re stuck here till tomorrow morning.”

She doesn’t even respond verbally to that fact. She sits down on the floor, frowning even harder than she already is. She must have something really important tomorrow, maybe that’s why she was still here at this hour. (Now that he comes to think of it, he, too, has something important. Really important, in fact.)

“Why were you here till so late?” Chika asks. He sits down beside her. “Exam?”

“Yeah,” She buries her face in her knees. “Finals. Paper II of PS1007.”

That sounds familiar, thinks Chika. And then he realises.

“No way, we’re in the same course?!” Chika chirps. Right, her name is Houzuki, right, which means…

“You’re that Houzuki? The child prodigy? The one who has been estimated most likely to graduate 4 years worth of college within 2 years?” Chika looks at her, almost wide-eyed with disbelief, and perhaps his widened eyes have helped him recognise her face, because he does know this girl, after all - she’s the one who keeps answering the lecturer’s toughest trick questions, and correctly, too. (How it is possible to even correctly answer trick questions in the first place, still remains a mystery to Chika.)

Houzuki doesn’t respond to that. Rubbing her forehead, she sighs slightly before she does respond. “At this rate, I’m not sure if I can even graduate in 4 years. I have managed to study for the test, but I know from past experience that if don’t get any sleep the night before an exam, I can just about say goodbye to my grades.”

“Oh,” is Chika’s only response. He really doesn’t know what to say, nor does he know how to help. So he offers her his shoulder instead.

“Then just sleep? Here, you can even have a pillow.” He pats his shoulder unblinkingly.

At this offer, her face turns into an overripe strawberry, and cute, is what comes into Chika’s mind.

“Idiot,” is all she says, frowning even harder, and it makes her face all the cuter. Almost as cute as her shirt, in fact.

“Anyway, I’m going to watch some anime on my phone, so you can join me if you want,” He whips out his phone; 15% left, says the battery bar. Not a lot to work with. But if Chika isn’t one to live life on the line then he doesn’t know who is, so he decides that nothing’s going to come in between him and his anime, not even the impending test that he happens to have conveniently forgotten about.

A bit of silence from the girl, and it’s almost a full three minutes before she speaks up again. “I guess watching anime is better than trying and failing to sleep on the floor.”

“Good choice,” Chika hands her a earpiece, smiling slightly at how she seems to have loosened up, even if just a bit. “I like this anime. The main character reminds me of my favourite fruit.”

She pauses to think for a while, staring at the screen as she appraises and evaluates the brightly-haired main character of the anime. “Oranges?”

Chika pauses. Thinks for a bit, before he laughs. “No, but you’re quite close, I guess. Strawberries.” Pure silence, so Chika continues to explain. “It’s because of his name.”

Speaking of strawberries, he does have one more packet of Pocky left, right? He checks his jacket pocket and much to his joy, he happens to be right! Nice, he cheers inwardly; now he even has a nice snack to complement the show.

“Here, have one,” Chika offers her some. “It matches your shirt,” Chika points at the strawberry cartoon on her hoodie. “Very cute hoodie.”

“Thanks,” is her only response, but Chika can tell her mood is already way better than she’d started off with.

(1 hour and 15 minutes later, Chika’s phone runs out of battery, but it doesn’t matter, because so do the two of them, and it turns out that Satowa has eventually quietly taken up his pillow offer, after all.)

===============

The next day, the librarian unlocks the library. The first thing she sees is the two of them sleeping together on the floor, though not in the clandestine ways that university students may be often be caught in. Instead, they’re sharing a pair of earphones, with the girl holding an empty packet of strawberry Pocky in hand, and the guy holding a mobile phone, with the girl using the guy’s shoulder as a pillow and the guy using the girl’s head as a pillow.

The librarian can’t even bear to extricate them from each other.

===============

When Chika wakes up, it’s due to a hard kick in his nether regions that he does, and when he opens his eyes, he sees nothing but a very cute girl in a very cute hoodie with a very cute strawberry design, escaping the scene upon having kicked him in the nuts.

“Why,” is the strangled noise that escapes his mouth, as he grabs onto said nuts for dear life, in pure pain, pure suffering.

===============

15/100, says Chika’s exam paper. “I think I just broke my record,” Chika sighs. “Guess I’m going to have to repeat a year.”

Just then, he feels a jab in his back from behind him, and turns - it’s the same Strawberry girl from the time in the library, the one with academic ability way beyond her years; the one with the extra cute strawberry shirt, and (also extra cute) strawberry-red face.

“Sorry for kicking you the other day,” She appears to be unable to look Chika in the eye, but he can feel her sincerity nonetheless. “And thank you,” she hands him a brand new packet of strawberry Pocky. “I did fine on the exam because your snack and anime helped calm my nerves. So here you are, a full packet in return.” Another pause. “And I hope you did okay on the test, too.”

Another pause. An awkward silence. A blush growing on her face like a strawberry ripening in its field. Chika smiles as he realises that this girl is even cuter than the strawberry on her hoodie was.

“You’re welcome,” he says, feeling an indescribable urge to pat her head. “You don’t have to repay me, either.” He pauses, pondering for a bit; actually, maybe there was something he could use in return. A few things, in fact.

“Well, if you want, maybe you could repay me by telling me where you bought that hoodie you wore that time, because I think I want a matching one.” He pauses to think. “And maybe also watch more of that anime with me, and during then we can share that snack you bought, and we can also share the earpiece, like we did the previous time. That was fun, though we both fell asleep halfway through.” He grins, and the strawberry on her face ripens yet further, now bordering on overripe. (Her cuteness, Chika thinks, is going to give him diabetes at this rate.)

“Doesn’t sound like bad idea,” is all she says, quietly but sincerely.

“And,” Chika scratches his head sheepishly, waving in the air his exam paper, full of strawberry-red marks. “I guess I could use some tutoring, too.”

(Thank you for reading! ^^)

#chikawa #chitowa #chika kudou #houzuki satowa #kono oto tomare #kono oto tomare!#chikawa week #chikawa week 2022 #chikawaweek2022 #この音とまれ!

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: この音とまれ! | Kono Oto Tomare! Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Houzuki Satowa/Kudoo Chika Characters: Kudoo Chika, Houzuki Satowa Additional Tags: chika is very whipped, slight gender exploration, Nail Painting, Chikawa week Series: Part 3 of Chikawa Week 2022 Summary:

He grabs her wrist mid-movement and gently pulls her so her fingers are only inches from his eyes. “Wh-what is it?” she asks, a little startled. “Why are your nails shiny?” he asks. “Heh?” He strokes the nail in between his own fingertips. Shiny and smooth too. Some kind of polish?

Prompt 3; Hands

#chikawa week #chikawa #chika kudou #houzuki satowa #kono oto tomare