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When Misaki came back through the classroom door, Hiruto's interest was immediately piqued. "Did you get him?" he asked, trying to look past the jailbreaker to see behind her.
As if on cue, Nozomi passed through the door behind her. Hiruto put down the tinsel in his hands and hurried to the silver-haired man. "Nozomi, there you are!" he exclaimed, wrapping the other in a tight hug.
Misaki chuckled as she watched the spectacle beside her. "See, don't I always keep my word? I told you I'd rescue your boyfriend from detention for you," she teasingly reminded.
Nozomi looked around the classroom, finding that it was covered in Christmas decorations and tinsel. A box labelled 'lights' sat on a chair near the window, and the corner of the room had a couple desks moved together and covered with a large cloth.
"Are you guys setting up for something?" Nozomi asked, and Hiruto let go of him.
"Yeah, it's for a Christmas party this afternoon. Come help me set up," the lucky student replied. Before Nozomi knew it, Hiruto took his hand and began guiding him to the box labelled 'lights'. Misaki watched them go, then went to make sure everyone else in the room was okay with their 'jobs'.
Hiruto moved the box to the desk and opened it, taking out a large string of Christmas lights. Showing the lights to the amnesiac, Hiruto instructed, "I was told to put the lights up around the top of the classroom. While I'm putting them up, could you check for any knots in the cord?"
"Sure," Nozomi replied, and he began feeling along the cord for knots. He looked around the classroom, noticing only a few people working on setting up. "There isn't many people here..."
"Well, Erika is Erika, Hiyori and Shoji are getting the snacks, some moron told Rikka that eggnog was nonalcoholic and she's in the infirmary with a hangover, Mayu is chasing Kotori to kick her ass, and you already know where Justin is," Hiruto explained as he stood up on a tall chair with the end of the lights and a roll of tape.
"He had to take a bounty assignment, right?" The amnesiac kept untangling the lights as Hiruto taped them to the top of the classroom. There was silence for a moment, and then he asked, "Why is Mayu chasing Kotori? Another argument?"
Hiruto snickered at the question. "Funny story about that, actually. I didn't pay attention to most of it, but Kotori was in charge of hanging up a banner over the door. I was about halfway done with the tinsel when Mayu came in making a fuss. Poor Misaki, she already had a lot on her plate."
"Did Misaki redirect her anger or something?"
"Um, I guess so? She came over to me since I had a clear view of the door, and she told me that there was a banner saying 'Ego bigger than her ass'. She offered to rescue you from detention if I told her who hung the banner, so I told her that I saw Kotori doing it."
"Ah, that explains it," the amnesiac sighed with a small smile. "We shouldn't expect to see them at the party then."
"Let's give Mayu a chance to wear out her anger first," Hiruto joked. He came down from the chair and moved it to the window to tape up another section of the lights. "How did you get detention anyway?"
"Someone from the other class was picking on Rion, so I intervened. A teacher came out when things were about to get physical, but since Rion ran away when I showed up, she gave us both detention." Nozomi shrugged, getting more lights out of the box. "I didn't even know you guys threw Christmas parties."
The lucky student frowned as he applied more tape. "I guess this would be your first Christmas, right? Or at least, the first one you can remember."
Nozomi fell quiet at the reminder. During the first few days of school, one of their upperclassmen caused an explosion that threw Nozomi backwards and caused him to hit his head. He was unconscious for a week and woke up with amnesia, and now had to routinely go for checkups and MRI scans to make sure he could still live a normal life. It wasn't a happy routine, but he was still accepted by his classmates regardless.
Hiruto quickly noticed how awkward the silence was becoming, and he quickly changed the topic. "Anyway, since we usually keep Christmas pretty quiet in Japan, Misaki wanted to throw the party. She wanted to celebrate Christmas some more before she had to go back to prison, and Justin was pretty sad when he learned he'd have to miss it."
"I guess his country celebrates it more than Japan does," Nozomi assumed.
Their idle chatter continued as they put the string of lights up around the room. When the two of them had finally run out of lights in the box, they plugged the cord into an outlet and watched the lights turn on. With a small sigh of relief, Hiruto reported their completion to Misaki.
"Good job, boys! I knew I could count on you!" she praised. "It must have been faster with just the two of you."
"Is there anything else you need us to do?" Hiruto asked, smiling as he held Nozomi's hand. "Manual labor doesn't require talent or anything, so I can still help out."
Nozomi looked at Hiruto from behind him, amused that he had been left out of the last statement. But then again, Nozomi hadn't initially been part of the group setting up in the first place.
Misaki thought for a moment. "Hiyori and Shoji are going to come back with the snacks any minute now. The 'table' is already set up, so they just need help arranging the snacks and drinks," she replied.
When she finished speaking, Satoshi came up to her. "Everything in the classroom's set up. Should I try to find everyone?" he asked.
"Yeah, go ahead. The only thing we're waiting on is the snacks," Misaki answered, and the green-haired man left.
Hiruto tugged Nozomi's hand and began leading him to the door. "Let's wait for those two to get here," he suggested, receiving a nod in return.
Thankfully, they didn't have to wait long before Hiyori and Shoji showed up. "I can't believe Kotori was keeping all of the snacks in her room," the driver complained. She carried a large amount of soft drinks in her arms, enough that dropping even one would cause a huge mess.
"Speak for yourself, I was the one who had to find a way to open the door," Shoji retorted, carrying several large tupperware containers with a large assortment of snacks inside.
Nozomi went over to Hiyori and carefully took some of the soft drinks from her arms. "Misaki told us to help you guys," he informed, and began heading to the table.
"My, aren't you a gentleman?" Hiyori joked, and followed him with the rest of the drinks.
Likewise, Hiruto took some of the tupperware containers off Shoji's hands. "Is Kotori still getting chased by Mayu?"
"Not anymore."
A new voice caught everyone's attention, and they turned to the entrance of the classroom. Mayu walked inside and went to Misaki, brushing snowflakes off her jacket. The jailbreaker's face lit up at the engineer's return.
"Mayu, there you are! I was getting worried," she chuckled, taking off her own jacket to give it to Mayu. "Where did you put Kotori?"
"In a snowbank. And keep your jacket, I'm fine," Mayu huffed, shoving the other girl's hand back towards her.
Hiruto held in his snickers as he went over to the table with Shoji. Together, the group of four set out the drinks and confectioneries. At the same time, Satoshi came back with as many people as he could round up. Among those were Kotori, who was bundled in extra sweaters and shivering, and Rikka, who still looked very dizzy. Rintaro went over to help the zoologist, while Kotori went to the refreshment and snack table.
"Oh, you guys stole my eggnog!" the baker huffed, taking a chilled carton out of the mix. "Oh well, I was planning to use it up before it went bad. You guys want some?"
"Sure, I'll take some," the lucky student accepted, grabbing a plastic cup and filling it halfway. He looked over at Nozomi and asked, "You want some too?"
"...Sure," he replied, though he stole a glance at Rikka, wondering how he would end up if a glass could put her out of commission. Then again, she was the smallest and weakest of them.
Thankfully, Hiruto only filled his cup halfway as well. He put the eggnog back and filled both cups the rest of the way with Calpico, then handed Nozomi's to him. The amnesiac wondered why he had filled up the cups with a milk-flavoured soft drink until he realized that it was to dilute the drinks.
After doing a quick headcount, Misaki closed the door and gave a thumbs-up to Mayu. The engineer sighed and turned on a radio that Misaki had asked her to get earlier, adjusting the volume for the music to serve as background noise.
The party began, and Nozomi found that he enjoyed the eggnog-Calpico mixture he was given. Once he finished his drink, he grabbed one of the pastries set out and went to find his boyfriend, who had ended up wandering off.
He spotted the lucky student at the window, looking outside at the sun starting to set. Nozomi didn't think that enough time had passed for evening to start, but then again, it always seemed to get darker in winter. Dark and cold, those were two things the amnesiac disliked.
Walking up to Hiruto from behind, Nozomi wrapped his arms around the other man's waist and rested his forehead on his shoulder. Hiruto was surprised from the sudden hug, especially since Nozomi wasn't too affectionate. He smiled nonetheless as he turned to look at the amnesiac.
Of course, Hiruto wanted to eat a snack and play board games with his classmates. Unfortunately, he couldn't move with Nozomi hugging him like this. Holding in a sigh, he hoped that he would be released soon.