Work Text:
Awake(and grumpy), she shut her eyes tight to brace for the pain her cracking joints caused as she stretched her arms and legs.
Almost like a cat.
Maki let out a heavy breath at this analogy, and sat up in her bed.
Correction: His bed. This was Kaito’s dorm, anyways. And Shuichi's, but eh, this wasn't his bed.
None of the familiar rays of sunlight filled the room through the window to Maki's left, she noticed. Very nearly, she couldn't recognize the place she was in....and last time she'd been awake, she was eating lunch.
Everything was still.
Too still.
Her head was still ringing with sleep.
She chanced a glance at the window to her left again.
Darkness.
It was just the sky.
Had Maki really been asleep for....that long?
Only now could she hear the faint sounds of talking and something being placed on a flat surface from somewhere else in the dorm.
A stray lock of hair from her bangs was in her eye. Shaking her head to both get the hair out of her face and to clear her mind, Maki took a deep breath.
It was nighttime. Or evening, she supposed. That her nap had gone on longer than expected was now confirmed.
Ignoring all the stickers of stars on the walls, she headed out the door.
Oh.
A hand went to her mouth to wipe away a bit of drool. Gross....
Self-consciousness hit her like a bullet(she would know what that felt like) as she became aware of how messy she probably looked right now. Thankfully, her hair was in its signature twin tails, easier to adjust than if she had slept with her hair open like many other students in the academy did(Miu....).
After tidying up her long red shirt as much as possible, she finally stepped out. To tell the truth...her heart was racing, a voice in her head telling her something was wrong something was very wrong and—
With a comically surprised look on his face(made funnier by the fact that something was in his mouth), Kaito sat on the sofa, half-eaten sandwich in hand, and wearing a shirt with the sentence, "It's Not Rocket Science." Right next to him was Maki's other friend, Shuichi, who was holding a barely touched sandwich of his own.
The surprise on Kaito’s face dropped in favor of his signature grin, all teeth showing.
"Hey, Maki-roll!" he greeted her, surprisingly in a clear and non-disgusting way seeing as he was munching on his sandwich. He took a minute to loudly gulp, covering his mouth with a flinch. As he beamed up at her again, he remarked, "It's nice to see one of my sidekicks well-rested!"
Kaito without any hair gel was a sight Maki had to get used to.
"M-Maki..." Shuichi seemed to have forgotten what he was saying, clutching at the bill of a cap that wasn't there, then just looking away. "We...we got a sandwich for you too! From the dining hall."
After giving a silent nod to Kaito, Maki said flatly, "It's dinner time."
Shuichi must have sensed the underlying question in those words, his gaze directed right at her. "Yes. Uh— we didn't want to wake you up." He fiddled with his fingers as he leaned a little bit backwards. "Sorry."
"Come on Shuichi!" sighed Kaito, putting his sandwich down and leaning back as well, but way more relaxed than Shuichi. " 's not like it's your fault— it wasn't anyone's fault anyway!"
A warm flush crept up Shuichi's face before he took another tiny bite out of his sandwich. "I— o-okay." He gulped down the bite after chewing it for a bit.
"Yeah. It's okay, Shuichi." Maki said, sitting on the chair which was very close to the sofa her friends were sitting on. "I...needed that sleep."
Her head had finally been clear and not aching like it had been after waking up from that....bad dream.
A nightmare, if one must.
Hesitantly, she reached out for a sandwich. It was large enough to be considered as proper dinner.
A warm, welcoming smile visibly grew on Shuichi's lips as he glanced at her. Staring back at him, Maki noticed how the grey shirt he was wearing complimented the color of his eyes. A color which Maki frustratingly couldn't quite pinpoint yet, but she had other things to worry about.
"So," Kaito very obviously finished gulping down his last bite of the sandwich and leaned forward, "you know what day it is today?" His lilac eyes were flashing with excitement.
One could see the moment Shuichi put his critical thinking cap on, when he put a hand over his mouth, looking to the side. In the meanwhile, Maki quirked a brow, sitting in silent anticipation of the answer as she chewed on a bite of her sandwich to keep herself from yawning.
"Um...New Year's Eve? Haha..." Shuichi nervously chuckled after guessing with uncertainty. Though Maki was sure he was quite right.
For today was the last day of December. And the year....
Kaito’s astonishing reply baffled Maki enough for her not to start falling down an existential rabbit hole about how this year wasn’t coming back again, and she had done absolutely nothing—
"No!" Kaito declared with utter confidence that made Maki cringe to her feet. "It's the completion of the Earth's orbit around the Sun!"
"....isn't that the same thing?" Maki questioned dryly, a small piece of sandwich in her mouth. Tasted cheesy.
Somehow, she hadn't noticed the bottles of water and orange juice lying messily around on the table until now.
Huh. Guess she was still tired.
Or it was that motion blindness thing. Kaito had always - and still did - loved rambling about scientific things or whatever to them when Shuichi or Maki(or both) would be feeling not-so-great.
Unless that wasn't how it even worked—
"—roll, you're real sleepy huh?" Kaito’s warm, familiar voice faded back into focus.
Simply from his voice, Maki couldn't see his concern. After she slowly blinked herself out of the daze, she looked straight at him. There it was, worry etched into mildly diminished grin.
"I-I just woke up. No big deal." Maki scoffed, drawing in a breath, gulping down her bite of sandwich simultaneously.
"A-Are you sure?" She saw that face filled with worry again, but this time from Shuichi.
Guilt ebbed its way into her soul. "Don't be stupid. I'm fine." Yikes. A little defensiveness had leaked into her words. "Sorry. For being rude. And you're not stupid, Shuichi." She tucked a dark lock of hair behind her ear, averting her gaze. Her grip on her sandwich slackened, not enough for it to fall to the floor.
At this point, Shuichi's face was tensed up out of worry for her instead of anger at her unintended insult.
"I'm fine, Shuichi," she repeated, looking back at him again and getting ready to take another bite out of her sandwich. "Don't worry."
"...anyways, yeah, that's the same thing, I guess," Kaito huffed, rubbing a hand along the hair on the back of his head. His expression appeared more excited as he slammed his sandwich down on the table(ew.. ). "But hey! New Year, New Us!!!"
"Hm. Really," deadpanned Maki, nibbling on her sandwich some more. A hint of unintended teasing was in her dry tone.
And of course, ensued the reaction.
"Hey! That's true though!" Kaito sat up straight like some proud main character delivering a motivational speech. "The start of a year means there is a whole new set of holidays and seasons and—"
"—just messing with you," sighed Maki, rolling her eyes.
However, as Maki expected, Kaito continued his whole rant(he'd call it a speech) to a somewhat unwilling Shuichi. Meanwhile, Maki herself would use this precious extra time to herself for finishing her sandwich.
Stuffing the last bite of sandwich into her mouth, Maki gave a satisfied sigh, leaning back and actually relaxing into her chair. That was when she heard Shuichi start another thread of conversation.
Clearing his throat, Shuichi lowered his head so as not to meet any of their gazes, and asked, "Are we doing anything? I-I mean," he looked up at his two friends, "Kaede told me they're all going out to dinner in the hall and starting a countdown."
Surprising both boys, Maki leaned forward to chime in, raising an eyebrow. "When?"
Although her face upon a mere glance would have appeared to be completely stoic, there was some anticipation sparkling in her red eyes. Unusual, for someone who hadn't really liked social events much. Keyword: "much."
"I dunno actually," remarked Kaito, though he wasn't asked. "I kinda didn't know about this event until now, either. There any invitations or anything?"
"Oh, Kaede just walked up to me this morning and told me to tell you two about the...countdown. I think she was telling everyone about it within a limited amount of time," answered Shuichi with an apologetic look, turning a little pink as he scratched at his neck. "I....forgot to tell you two until now."
"Don't beat yourself up over it, Shuichi!" Kaito reminded him, reaching to give his sidekick - I mean, friend - a light smack on the back. "We all forget things! Like when I forgot to—"
"So when is it?" Maki asked with some impatience.
Kaito quickly recovered from this interruption. "Before 12 A.M., of course!"
"...." both Maki and Shuichi stared at him with exasperation.
"It's at eleven," Shuichi said immediately to curb any potential disasters. "Though some are coming before then, as I've heard..."
"What's the time?" Maki asked nobody in particular. Theoretically, there was a clock in the dorm, though she couldn't find it in herself to actually look around for it. Maki was just a bit too tired....and she was just beginning to sound like Himiko.
Great.
"You took a nap at around five, am I correct?" Shuichi again put his hand to his chin, looking at her. Once he received a nod as a response, he continued, "And it took around three hours....so...it should be almost nine. Seeing as our conversation has also taken some time..."
The moment he noticed the other two gaping at him in awe, his cheeks flushed a bright red. "But I may not be right, though."
"Bro....you're spot on! It's around..." Kaito looked at something in the distance, particularly something on the wall, "WHOA! 8:59 P.M.. Nice job sidekick!" His voice took on a teasing tone as he smirked. "You really activated 'detective mode' just now!"
Just as Maki thought Shuichi couldn't get redder, he nearly resembled Maki's eyes.
"He is a detective," reminded Maki. Then she asked with uncertainty, "Are we....finishing our sandwiches here?"
"Huh? Yeah! We could finish them here and eat some more in the dining hall!"
"Finished."
"H-Huh? Maki-roll, how did you finish so fast?" Kaito yelped, his lilac eyes wide and staring at Maki's empty hands, then back up at her face.
"Didn't waste time," Maki said curtly, fiddling with a twin tail and looking away from Kaito.
"Geez...and you even started eating later than us..." Kaito muttered. "And I wasn’t wasting time! This was both a manly bonding session and dinner time!" The way his hands curled up into fists showed his enthusiasm in the moment.
"Manly...bonding session?" Maki wrinkled her nose. Had Miu and Kokichi been here with them(they were probably in the dining hall right now), Kaito would have never heard the end of it from those two.
Her focus was now on Shuichi, who had a small, tight-lipped smile on his face while gazing at the affronted Kaito, and was holding more than half of his sandwich. Maki's mouth hardened into a thin line.
"Shuichi. Your sandwich," Maki said suddenly.
Making a small squeak of surprise, a wide-eyed Shuichi jumped, nearly dropping what was remaining of his sandwich. "Ah, sorry, I-I'll finish it. Thank you for reminding me, Maki."
She relaxed her stern glance and huffed.
"No big deal! I'll wait for you two to finish, even if it takes up till ten o'clock!" Kaito beamed brightly at them, relaxing again with his arms crossed over his chest.
"That’s...poetic, Kaito," Shuichi commented admiringly with a light chuckle. He gingerly took a bite out of the sandwich, his eyes lighting up once he found it appetizing.
"Can I..." an awkward Maki gestured vaguely towards the water bottles on the table, catching Kaito’s attention.
Kaito perked up as soon as she spoke. "Yeah duh! These are for all of us anyways. No need to ask, Maki-roll!"
The girl hummed in acknowledgement, took a bottle, and practically unscrewed the cap with ease.
"So, what d'you wanna do next year?" Kaito asked with the excitement returning to his face. "You know...New Year's resolutions!"
As she blankly stared at his face, so full of expression, she wondered how someone like him managed to befriend someone like....herself. Kaito was an influential(...not really, at least that much), optimistic, and outgoing person; while Maki herself was quiet, blunt, and...not very pleasant to be around(even Kirumi was quite reserved as well, but there was hope in her future). Someone like Kaito - and also Shuichi - would have big dreams for the future.
And obviously both of them would, them being the Super High School Level Astronaut and Detective respectfully. Maki, however, was an assassin. The lowest of the low in society.
Her fingers dug into the cushion of the chair.
She was a bad person.
Or so she thought.
Once Kaito had come along, bringing the whole package of her(Maki bit her lip as she thought of her childhood friend) qualities with him, things had...changed.
She could never really move mountains and that kind of "world-changing" stuff. Yet(Kaito would encourage her not to be so self-deprecating). Little things mattered.
Such as their nightly training sessions, when Maki and Kaito would end up getting competitive with push-ups and sit-ups. The way Shuichi was gradually catching up to them.
The ruckus Kokichi, Miu, and Kaito would stir up almost every single day, grating on Maki's ears.
Shuichi's kind smile, contrasting with Kaito’s wide grin.
Tenko's rants(okay those weren't that comforting really) and loyalty.
How...Kaito would encourage the two to open up about their troubles(...often not really doing the same for his own, though that could be a goal for the next year).
Oh, and there had been this one particular surgery Shuichi wanted to take after turning eighteen years old, which was...this very next year. Considering her own...conditions, Maki probably would end up taking that surgery later. Maybe never, as she felt comfortable in this body at the moment.
Maki could change. One step at a time, and she had already started this year, which would melt away into the next year at twelve tonight.
"New Year's resolutions. Hmm..." Maki hummed in thought, "maybe help Kirumi out a bit. She needs it."
"....you've already been doing that, though," Kaito corrected.
Oh right. Her mouth opened in surprise.
The way Kirumi would thank her after getting Kokichi away from her. How Maki would bluntly interrupt anyone who was giving the maid yet another request when it was visibly obvious how burnt-out she was.
"Oh. My bad," Maki thought for some more time, side-eyeing the wall closest to her. "Maybe...try out some new thing? A sport, I think."
"What kind?" Shuichi butted in, about one-fourth of his sandwich in his hand. He had just finished gulping down a huge bite.
"Tennis?" Maki took another sip of her water. Somehow, seeing Shuichi's sandwich made her feel thirsty.
Wait, wasn't there already a Tennis Pro? Ryoma came to mind.
Seemingly, Kaito thought this too. He twiddled his thumbs and pursed his lips. "Well...doesn’t have to be, like, your new 'Ultimate Talent' or whatever. Just a nice lil' hobby!"
"That’s what I said." Maki furrowed her brows.
A quick glance to the side told her that Shuichi was currently in the process of finishing the second-to-last bite of his sandwich. Leaning forward, she pushed a water bottle towards him, making him tilt his head with a questioning glance.
"Maki...?"
"You didn't drink anything yet." She swiftly side-eyed the half-empty(yes, she was going the pessimistic route here) water bottle which was nearest to Kaito on the table.
Obviously, the one who had drunk from that bottle butted into the conversation.
"Eyy, don't say that! You didn't see it, but he did drink a lot when you were napping!"
Her expression all deadpan, Maki asked, "Drank alcohol or....?"
"MAKI!!" Kaito practically screamed, mouth gaping. "Don't joke about that stuff! Alcohol's super bad for ya'. And we're not old enough."
"Not being old enough didn't stop you from going through with that exam," muttered Maki, looking to the side.
"I-I heard that!"
Had Maki been any other person, she wouldn't have been able to resist the urge to chuckle. All she could manage now was a slight tugging at her lips, forming the smallest of smiles.
A potentially long indignant(and entertaining, Kokichi would say) rant was fortunately interrupted by Shuichi.
"Ah. I was planning to drink it after eating," then he remembered the conversation that went down just now, "water, I mean." He rubbed the back of his head, a drop of sweat traveling down the side of his face.
Embarrassment colored Maki's face pink, also wiping away her initial small smile. Of course. She should've guessed that he'd drink some water during her nap.
....better to be safe than sorry, though.
"S-Sorry. Still, drink."
"Mm-hmm," Shuichi said as smoothly as he could while loudly swallowing the sandwich, the sound making Maki wince.
"'Aight, double-triple checking right now!" declared Kaito, apparently having forgotten the shenanigans from a few minutes - or even seconds - ago. "You guys really, honestly, and truly wanna go to the 'count-down' thing Kaede's hosted?"
"Mm-hmm," Maki hummed in agreement, while Shuichi said, "Yes."
"Oh, one thing," Kaito lowered his voice, "do we have to dress...formal or anything?"
"Kaito," began Shuichi with a sheepish look, "I'm sure it's just a casual event! And Kaede never said anything about clothes initially, and when I asked her, she said to wear 'whatever.'"
That made sense.
They were classmates. A somewhat close-knit class, with everyone having seen each other at their lowest points. Well, Maki turned her head to Kaito(and thought of some of her other classmates), almost everyone had.
So why would they be "stiff and formal" with other at this gathering, then?
"The principal allows it?" Maki checked just to make sure.
"She must have allowed it," Shuichi smiled with fondness. "It's a lot of people who are going to be in the dining hall."
"Right," Maki got up from her seat. "Let's go."
"W-Wait, Maki-roll!" Kaito also got up, frightening the daylights out of poor Shuichi, who almost spit out his water. "It's just 9:30! Also some of us might needa' go use the bathroom."
Turning back to her friend, Maki considered his words while worrying her lip between her teeth. "I see."
She brushed a hair behind her ear, then sat back down on the chair again. "Well?"
"Huh?" Kaito raised a brow, looking like some confused puppy.
"We have an hour. And a half left." Maki started. A small smile grew on her face. "May as well use the time wisely."
"Like...using the bathroom?" Shuichi meekly asked, poking his cheek with a finger.
"Yes."
"Aww come on!" huffed Kaito with a pout, flopping himself down on the sofa, unintentionally violently bouncing Shuichi as well, as he was sitting on the same sofa as him. "Oof— sorry, sidekick! You good?"
In a gush and mumble-jumble of words, Shuichi hurriedly assured him with waving hands that it was okay, and that all was well and forgiven.
Maki cleared her throat to catch their attention. "We could go in one hour. Maybe thirty minutes. Shuichi?"
"I mean," he managed to calm down a fair bit, "Kaede did say we didn't need to be there exactly at eleven. A little bit before or after's fine, but as long as it's before twelve."
"So after using the bathroom, I guess we could go!" Kaito concluded. "Alright, sounds good!"
"....there are bathrooms in the dining hall, Kaito..." Shuichi muttered.
"What if someone uses it when it turns twelve?" Maki inquired.
"Hey, accidents could happen," Kaito sighed, then brightly looked up at his "sidekicks." "But anyways, I guess we could go after like, half an hour. That fine?"
Nobody could disagree with that bright, blinding grin.
They talked some more, a conversation(speculating what food would be served in the dining hall) during which Maki thought about how thankful she was for her friends. Cheesy. But true. And she liked cheese a little bit, anyways.
"Maki-roll, you listenin'?" Kaito asked, snapping her out of her thoughts.
She would greatly cherish them. A corner of her lips lifted in a tiny smirk. "Yeah."
Indeed, Maki was looking forward to that countdown to a new year, a new start.