Chapter Text
Overnight trips were the sort of thing that used to bring dread into the pit of Nakamura’s stomach. He didn’t have much friends in middle school, so he didn’t have any happy memories like taking selfies by landmarks, or chatting in a school bus with his friends.
He would beg his parents for him to not go to this trip, to just let him stay home in bed and hide away from the rest of the world for the weekend. His parents would say no, that an overnight trip was rite of passage, and that he should take this opportunity to make friends.
No, instead his overnight trip memories were of him car sick in the bus, or sitting next to the teacher since no one wanted to sit next to the nauseous boy who couldn’t sit still.
Or, of him standing around with the rest of the teachers since his class group would quickly abandon him, creeped out by his gloominess and how he never met their eyes.
Or, of him in the far corner of the room, bringing the futon blanket to his face in the inn in the middle of the night while everyone else slept and quietly sobbing to himself because he felt so alone.
Well, that got depressing.
Now though, he’s grown older and wiser as he was now in high school. Nakamura decided that he needed to shed his past grievances with overnight trips. Why is that, you ask?
Hoshimi High was having an overnight camping retreat with all the students in his year! It would be a weekend of camping bliss in the woods, full of activities like telling ghost stories, hiking, and cooking s’mores by a bonfire! Nakamura wasn’t super excited about the trip itself but of what might happen.
Why you see, it was a perfect opportunity for he and Hirose to get closer! He had a good track record of getting closer to Hirose during trips (it was just one trip, but Yokohama was their special moment that he kept close to his heart). He had managed to get grouped up with him, which was a blessing. Hirose smiled at him and had asked him if they wanted to sit together on the bus, and Nakamura nodded furiously at him.
(“Whoa, Nakamura. You’re gonna give yourself whiplash!” Hirose joked, before presenting the window seat to him. “I’ve read that the window seat is best for people who get motion sick! So, here!”
Nakamura felt his heart flutter in his chest. Hirose was too kind!! He cared enough about him to remember how he got car sick!
Hm. Actually, he kinda wished Hirose forgot that.)
Hirose didn’t even move away from him on the bus ride, his friend casually checking up on his condition. He’d look up from his handheld console and quirk his eyebrow at him, and Nakamura, who rested his head against his seat back would shoot him a thumbs up. Hirose would give him a hum and go back to his game, and would occasionally update him on his progress.
(“No way, Primrose’s lover just stabbed her!?” Hirose exclaimed, deep into a RPG that he was meaning to beat, and Nakamura clicked his tongue in disproval.
“I never trusted Simeon. Just from his voice lines he sounded evil.” Nakamura said as he held up his finger, eyes closed as he fought the urge to look at Hirose’s face.)
When they had finally arrived to the camp site, Hirose stretched and let out a long noise of satisfaction. He turned his head and shook Nakamura’s shoulder. Nakamura gasped and woke with a start. He blinked and looked around and wiped his mouth furiously of any drool. The brunette smiled at him before they shuffled out of the bus.
The bus was full of yawns, as most of the students had either napped or gotten bored out of their minds after they lost wifi connection halfway through the bus ride. Nakamura shadowed Hirose as he walked up to Takeuchi and Mukai, who had already met up with the fujoshis. Kawamura nodded at him shyly, and he gave her a quiet nod of greeting.
“So, guys, how was the bus ride?” Takeuchi asked casually. “Not to brag, but my ride was pretty good, since I was with Yuuka-chan!”
The aforementioned girl smirked. “Yeah, I’m sure you had a great time when you passed out halfway through the trip. You slept on my shoulder the entire time!” She teased him and then lamented that it would’ve been better if her boyfriend had slept on the shoulder of a boy instead.
“That’s probably the most action he’s gotten so far.” Mukai said blankly to the others. “Oomori and I had a good time.”
Oomori nodded in agreement. “Yeah, we got into a pretty heated discussion about music. I didn’t think Mukai was into enka!”
Okuda chuckled as she pumped her chest with her fist. “Kawamura and I made an entire doujin on our bus ride. I was the author, and she, the artist. So, it’s about two prickly second princes who are born into warring kingdoms, who at first hate each other but then grow closer when they realize their similarities …” She began before Kawamura cut her off.
“What about you, Hirose? Nakamura?” Kawamura said.
“I finally got around to beating one of my games. The final boss was kinda tough, but there was some crazy plot twists in there.” Hirose said, and Nakamura nodded quietly.
The rest of the group looked at Nakamura expectantly. He looked back at them, before realizing he missed his queue.
“Oh, uh, I did my best to not get car sick the entire time. It was just as intense as the final boss.” He said quietly. The joke got three faster nose exhales from Kawamura, Mukai and Hirose, but an awkward silence filled the air.
Hirose cleared his throat, before breaking the silence. “Yeah, and he won! He also conked out too!”
“Did he sleep on your shoulder?” Hamaoka immediately asked, her gaze serious.
Nakamura jumped at the direct question and scowled. There’s no way he was so bold to do that in his sleep, right?!
Hirose gave her an annoyed look.
“Even if he did, I wouldn’t tell you!” He said, and she nodded quietly, already thinking of scenarios. Before Nakamura could go insane and beat himself up over the concept of resting on his beloved crushes shoulder, a gym whistle interrupted the group. The group looked over to the direction of the noise, to Otogiri-sensei and Niou-sensei, the latter the one to blow the whistle.
“Alright, listen up. We’re announcing your groups. We’re separating the boys from the girls, so don’t get any ideas.” Otogiri said.
Takeuchi groaned in disappointment, while Hamaoka continued to nod quietly, deep in her delusions. Nakamura closed his eyes and tried to not get any ideas.
(“Haha, I can’t believe that we got an entire cabin to ourselves, Nakamura-kun!” Hirose giggled as he pulled Nakamura deeper into the cabin. Nakamura smiled as he allowed himself to be dragged in.
“Hirose, let me make your bed for you.” Nakamura would say cooly, as he let go of his hand and began to walk ahead into the cabin, towards the bedding. He halted as he felt a tug at his arm. Nakamura turned around and saw it was Hirose, who averted his eyes from the older boy.
“Why bother making the bed if we’re gonna mess it up anyway?” Hirose would say, a shy pout on his lips as his face turned a light pink.)
Nakamura continued to fail to not get any ideas as Otogiri called out the members of each group. He watched as the fujoshi girls were grouped together as always, and Kawamura waved at him as they walked towards the cooking teacher. He snapped out of his daydreams and waved back, before sinking his hands into his pockets.
“Alright, and then this group will be with Niou-sensei and I…” Otogiri said as he held up his paper.
“Wait, did he say my name yet?” Takeuchi said as he looked over at Mukai. “Am I stuck with Niou-sensei….” He said as he shivered.
“Hirose Aiki, Takeuchi Kota, Mukai Ryo, Oomori Tsukasa, and Nakamura Okuto.” Otogiri announced, and Takeuchi groaned.
“Nooo, not Niou-sensei!” Takeuchi bemoaned.
“Oh sweet, we’re together!” Hirose exclaimed to Oomori, who nodded in agreement. He then turned to Nakamura, a bright smile on his face. “And we have Otogiri-sensei too!”
“Nakamura! We’re gonna be roomies!” He said, and Nakamura stood frozen, before immediately going to Hirose’s side in excitement.
“Am I dreaming?” The older boy mumbled, before a scary smile formed on his face. “Thank you, God…”
Mukai chuckled. He turned his head to Oomori, a smirk on his lips.
“And they were roommates.” He said under his breath to Oomori.
“Oh my god, they were roommates.” Oomori replied back.
The sun had begun to set, so it was evident that the students had to head to their cabins. The way the cabins were set up, there would be 4 groups in one cabin. Each groups would stay in separate areas in the same cabin: the room Nakamura was staying in had 3 rooms: the main room where he and the other boys would stay in, a separate room where the teachers would stay, and a bathroom with a shower and a toilet built in. It was apparently based on camping cabins that you’d find in western resorts. Besides that separate area, there was a main lobby area where all the groups could convene, like a common room.
The boys lugged their heavy luggage into their rooms and threw it onto the floor, groaning and moaning. Otogiri sighed as he checked out the room where he and Niou would be sleeping. It was very simple, two beds on opposite sides of the room, a wooden desk with a chair and a lamp in-between them.
“Oh, good, there’s two beds here.” He said. “I don’t think you’d want to share one, right, Niou?”
Niou stared blankly at Otogiri, his face stoic and unchanging.
“…Did you want to share a bed?” Otogiri said, and Niou blinked, before shaking his head. He brought both of their luggage into the room.
Meanwhile, the boys “ooh-ed” and “aah-ed” at the room.
“Bunk beds!” Takeuchi said. He threw his luggage on a bottom bunk and immediately ran to the closest bed and climbed up the ladder quickly. “I call top bunk! And this entire bed! It’s all mine!” He said as he cackled above the others boys and stuck his tongue out.
Mukai stared blankly at him. “Like I’d want to bunk with you. Oomori, do you wanna bunk with me?”
Oomori nodded, surprised. The two hadn’t really interacted before their bus ride together, but he wouldn’t reject him. “Sure, why not?” The boy then pushed up his glasses, his hand positioned in a way that covered his smirk. “Oh, I see what you’re doing.”
Mukai nodded knowingly, and the two began to speak in hushed tones, either about who would take which bunk and what was going to happen between the last pair.
Nakamura had gone completely rigid. There was only one bunk bed left. He turned to Hirose, who was looking at the bunk bed.
“U-um, Hirose… If you want the top bunk, you can have it.” Nakamura said, and Hirose smiled brightly at him. The sight made Nakamura’s blush turn brighter.
“Aw, thanks Nakamura-kun! I’ve never slept on a bunk bed before, so I really wanted to try it out! How’d you know?” He said as he started to begin to climb up the ladder and sprawled his limbs out on the mattress.
Nakamura followed him and sat on the bottom bunk.
“I’ve never slept on a bunk bed either. Usually, during overnight trips, we just slept on futons.”
Nakamura grabbed the pillow that was there and began to fiddle with it. He didn’t want to think of his last overnight trip, but just mentioning it made his chest ache and his sinuses hot. He frowned as his grip tightened on white pillow. Hm. The pillow was a bit too firm. He squished it a bit more, trying to calm himself, before a voice cut through his thoughts.
“Boo!” Hirose held onto the bunk railing as his head dangled from above the top bunk. His brown bangs were flipped, exposing his cute forehead as he smiled at him, toothy and mischievous. His face was right in front of Nakamura’s. Nakamura yelped as he jumped and bumped his head on the railing. Hirose’s shoulders shook as he laughed and Nakamura couldn’t help but smile as he rubbed his scalp.
Eventually, the boys settled down in their cabin, showers were taken, and pajamas were changed into. Nakamura found himself sitting on the wood floor hunched over Hirose’s Switch as he, Hirose, Mukai, and Oomori played an intense game of Mario Kart. Takeuchi had played a few rounds with them, before he had decided to hang out in the common room, claiming that he had a Very Important Meeting with some of the other boys.
“Nakamura, you’re trash at this game.” Mukai said as he threw another red shell at the CPU in front of him. He was playing as Waluigi on a wiggler cart, and was currently advancing in first place. He sucked on a straw of an already empty juice box.
“Shut up.” Nakamura shot back, as he leaned forward, his knuckles going white as he shot daggers at the game. He twisted and turned his arms and body as he tried to steer, despite not playing with motion controls. His sad little inkling doing its best in 11th place. He didn’t play video games like that! He only accepted because Hirose invited him! His goal was to have Hirose gush over how he was such an epic gamer, not lose to a NPC!
“Should we blindfold him next round?” Hirose said, as his racer, Baby Daisy in a Mercedes Benz, was in 5th place. He had cursed under his breath when he picked the random option and was given that combination, but it was starting to grow on him. He was slowly gaining speed, and Nakamura took a quick glance to see that he was zooming with a golden mushroom.
“Oomori? Earth to Oomori?” Hirose said, to no response.
Oomori sat quietly, locked in as he leaned forward, a deep frown on his face. His racer, Luigi, was zooming and zipping through the track, passing by Hirose quickly. He had not spoken in minutes.
As soon as Mukai hit first place, Oomori released the item he had been hoarding for an entire lap.
A blue shell.
“No!” Mukai exclaimed as he cursed loudly, causing his juice box to fall out of his lips. Oomori’s glasses shone in a malicious way as he smirked, getting first place and winning the race. Mukai grumbled as he watched Hirose zoom past him and claim second place, and then he claimed 3rd place.
All that’s left was Nakamura, who had somehow climbed from 11th place to 9th.
Hirose glanced to Nakamura’s corner of the game and scoffed.
“Nakamura. You have a bullet bill, why don’t you use it?” Hirose said, as he faced Nakamura.
“Um, uh, I d-didn’t know what button to use…” Nakamura stuttered out, and Hirose laughed like it was the silliest thing he’s heard.
“Why didn’t you say anything? Here.” Hirose grabbed Nakamura’s hands on his controller, and took his pointer finger and they pressed the ZL button together on the joy con.
Mukai and Oomori shot each other knowing, tired looks, while Nakamura flushed and nodded and watched as his character zoomed from 9th, to 8th, to 5th, and then crossing the finish line.
As they let the highlight reels of the race play, Takeuchi finally returned from his Important Meeting.
He had a smirk on his face, and three other boys were behind him. They were snickering quietly.
“Oh no. What are you planning?” Hirose asked as he sighed, his lips curving down into a frown.
Takeuchi continued to snicker quietly, even as another boy opened the window in the room and began to climb out.
“Apparently, this cabin is closest to the girls. We’re gonna sneak over there and hang out with them.” He said, and sighed dreamily. “My cute Yuuka… I’ll see her soon…”
The two other boys jumped out of the window, and Takeuchi began to climb out. He turned around before he climbed out, looking at the other boys.
“The more the merrier, they say. Come join me and flirt with some girls!” Takeuchi said.
“No.” “Yeah, no.” “Not interested.” “You’re gonna get caught.”
Takeuchi clicked his tongue and rolled his eyes.
“You guys are boring!” Takeuchi said, sticking his tongue out at them, before he finally escaped the cabin. Nakamura could hear the other boys giggling as they ran over to the girls lodge.
The boys on the wooden floor sat quietly and blinked at each other in silence. The ranking score music continued to play in the background.
“He’s gonna get caught by Niou-sensei, isn’t he?” Oomori said.
“Yeah.” “For sure.” “He’s cooked.”
Takeuchi was eventually dragged back into the cabin by the scruff of his pajama shirt collar by Niou-sensei. By then, the quartet of boys had played a board or two in Mario Party, which Nakamura somehow won one round in (Hirose had convinced the others to give him a handicap of starting him with 1 star).
Niou had given him a huge scolding in front of them, which left him a shaking, scared mess. (“We said, don’t get any ideas, and what did you do?”) He crossed his arms and frowned at him, and told him to not do it again, or he’d have his parents come pick him up. He then went back into his room quietly.
“Welcome home, Kouta-kun.” Mukai said flatly as he shot a wave over his shoulder. The other boys turned their heads over to Takeuchi. “Do you want dinner, a bath, or me?”
Takeuchi glared daggers at him while Hirose tried not to laugh as he covered his mouth. Nakamura looked at Takeuchi in disappointment, and Oomori shook his head.
“Pretty dumb of you to do that in here with Niou-sensei in here.” Oomori said.
Takeuchi continued to grumble as he stormed to his bed.
“I’m going to bed! Don’t talk to me!!” He said as climbed up his bed and sunk into this bed sheets, seething.
The other boys laughed, but decided to call it a night too.
The morning went fairly normal. The boys fought over who got to shower first, they changed into comfortable casual clothes, and they were dragged by their teachers to the mess hall, where they would all get their breakfast.
Takeuchi made a break for it as soon as he saw that Hamaoka was also in the mess hall, grabbing a tray full of breakfast for the both. Mukai trailed along behind him, hands in his pockets.
“Hamaoka-san is not gonna give him any attention, especially after last night. I’ll let you guys know what happens.” He said as he walked away.
That left Nakamura with Oomori. The two had grabbed their breakfast quite quickly, while Hirose was still deliberating over what was the best choice at the buffet. Nakamura picked at his scrambled eggs cautiously, and then looked over to Oomori.
“So, how’s the drama club going?” Nakamura asked. He put a spoonful of eggs in his mouth, and was pleasantly surprised that it had just the right amount of fluffiness and salt.
Oomori frowned as he took a bite of the thick piece of bacon on his tray. He dug into his pocket and took out his phone, and pulled up his latest messages and slid it to Nakamura.
“Tamura-senpai said he wanted to make a claymation movie.” Oomori said. “The last text I got from him before we lost connection was a picture of mushed up clay and him saying he gave up. ”
Nakamura wiped at the corner of his mouth with a napkin to hide the smile from his face.
“Yeah, that sounds like Tamura. Aokiyama also sent me a pic before I lost wifi, but it’s this weird sigil thing. It kinda freaks me out, to be honest.” He said as he pulled out his phone and showed the zagged lines enveloped in a circle. Oomori shivered.
“Why did you join that club again?” He asked Nakamura, and Nakamura shrugged.
“I like it when we analyze horror movies, and Aokiyama’s nice when she’s not kidnapping me for seances.”
The two ate quietly between themselves, until Hirose finally arrived with his own tray. He placed the tray next to Nakamura’s, and the discrepancy between the two was evident. Nakamura had grabbed scrambled eggs, some fruits, and a bowl of steamed rice. Hirose’s tray was full of all sorts of meat: bacon, grilled fish, and even kaarage. He had a slice of thick toast and orange juice on it too. Oomori laughed at the sight.
“You sure spent a long time just for grabbing all the meat they had to offer.” He said as he held his face in his hand. Hirose’s lips twitched downward, annoyed.
“It wasn’t just that,” he protested.
“Nakamura, I found some coffee for you! Black, just how you like it.” Hirose said as he picked up the small cup of coffee and placed it gingerly by Nakamura’s tray. Nakamura’s hands shook as he grabbed the cup, thanking him softly.
“Hirose… You didn’t have to…” He said, before bringing the cup to his lips and savoring the rich bitter flavor of the black coffee. “It’s delicious…”
Whether it was because the blend that the camping resort had used, or the fact that Hirose had given it to him unprompted, he wasn’t sure.
Hirose smiled brightly in response as he sat down and buttered his piece of toast. He took a bite of his toast and hummed in satisfaction.
Eating breakfast with friends… Eating breakfast with Hirose… Didn’t he daydream about this once? Wow, dreams really do come true…
While eating, Oomori noticed another large group come into the mess hall.
“Hey, it looks like there’s another school doing a trip here too. Looks like a fancy once, they’re still in their uniforms too.” He said, as he stared at the group.
They wore white dress shirts with a green tie, and brown khakis. The students carried themselves with a sense of authority, and walked in neat lines.
Hirose squinted at the group, in deep thought. Nakamura took the opportunity to sneak apple slices onto Hirose’s plate.
The brunette suddenly jumped in his seat and looked down to his meal, brown eyes wide as he shielded his eyes with a cupped hand. Nakamura and Oomori jumped at the sudden reaction.
“Hirose? What’s wrong?” Nakamura asked as he hesitantly placed his hand on his shoulder.
“I know that school uniform. It’s…” Hirose began, only for someone to walk up to their table.
Hirose wore a shaky, nervous smile. Nakamura’s mood immediately soured, and Oomori took off his glasses to clean them, as if he couldn’t believe who was before him.
“Hirose," Matsumura exclaimed, a pleasant smile on his lips. "Fancy seeing you here!”