Work Text:
Putting on a second coat just for good measure, Ena hit the play button on her phone and braced for the impact of cold air. She shivered involuntarily as the white light faded, why did Mafuyu have to make a Sekai that was so impossibly cold? She laughed to herself as she internally compared the freezing temperatures to Mafuyu’s ice-cold heart, her face slipping into a fond smile that Mizuki surely would have laughed at her for.
Luckily for her, that wasn’t a problem right now. Ena was alone in the Sekai, ready to actually finish the work she had been putting off. She had been having issues working all week; between balancing school and just getting herself to focus, it felt impossible. She knew no one from Nightcord would be particularly upset if she absolutely needed to postpone their release.
Mafuyu would dully comment that she didn’t understand Ena’s vision and most likely wouldn’t even when the piece was finished. Ena would be upset, attempting to explain her purposeful strokes and splatters of color, but eventually give up under the empty gaze Mafuyu gives her in return. She’d huff, act annoyed, but smile a little when Mafuyu’s eyes glow upon seeing her masterpiece.
Mizuki would tease her for her backwards schedule because of her night classes, laugh and beg her yet again to join Kamiyama’s day classes despite being in completely different grades. Eventually, Mizuki would suggest Ena get her “beauty sleep”, the sweetest way of telling Ena she needs to rest without outright saying it.
Kanade of course would offer her incomplete piece various statements of praise before insisting Ena get as much rest as she needs. She would gently chide her for the next few nights if she remained on the Nightcord call for too long, ever watchful of Ena’s health, beginning their next composition before Ena has even finished the art for the current one.
That’s exactly why Ena has to get this done now. She rubs her face with her hands for a moment, desperately trying to rid herself of the red that crept on her face while she imagined her groupmates caring for her in their own ways. Tonight is one of the first few that she’s had completely open, and 25:00 isn’t for a few hours. The only problem was Akito’s consistent loudness, easily solved by retreating to the Sekai.
In the distance she sees Miku, Len, and Rin. Miku is teaching Len the basics of playing Cat’s Cradle while Rin sits a little far off, pretending not to be interested but completely mesmerized at how the string moves. She has her own string in her hands, tangled and knotted in a way that she pretends doesn’t phase her at all. Ena smiles a little but steers clear of them, she can’t afford to get side tracked and not complete her goal.
She maneuvers around the black triangles carefully to not alert them, feeling a little guilty but determined. As she walks a little farther, she spots a head of pink hair that surprisingly isn’t Mizuki. As Luka comes closer into Ena’s view, she watches her turn around and press a gentle finger to her lips. Ena is confused at first, but quickly spots what Luka is attempting to control the volume for.
Ena took in the sight in front of her nervously, worried about making too much noise. Kanade is sat there with her head tilted back slightly to make contact with the black triangle. In her left hand is a loosely held pen, her grip loosening gradually, hovering over what looked like partially filled out music scores. Some are blank, some crumpled into balls, some carry angry scribbles, and the one closest to Kanade’s hand has a line that suddenly stops from where she fell asleep while working.
Luka has a faint smile on her face as she walks away, heading towards where the other Virtual Singers are still playing. Ena observes Kanade’s sleeping figure carefully. With her head tilted back, her hair that normally obscures her face is moved out of the way. Her body softly shakes from the frigidness surrounding her. Her bare legs twitch the most, defenseless to the cold while her upper body has at least her usual tracksuit to keep her warm.
Ena’s eyes glance around quickly before she sets down her sketchbook and drawing utensils. She strips herself of her second jacket, freezing for a moment from the loss of warmth, then gently lays it over Kanade’s legs as a makeshift blanket.
Returning to her supplies, she watches as the jerking in Kanade’s legs dies down to match the occasional shivers of the rest of her body. Ena’s face relaxes as she grabs her sketchbook and sits down in front of Kanade. She fights an internal battle in her head, her work ethic clashing with her desire to draw the uncommon sight in front of her.
Before she knows it, multiple pages have been filled with various types of portraits that all center the sleeping girl. One captures her uncovered face, another one a full body shot, all varying in between abstract and realism. Ena sighs sweetly as she looks back up at Kanade. Her face is starting to morph into one of discomfort.
Closing her sketchbook and getting up yet again, Ena moves herself so she sits side by side with Kanade’s body. Ena’s hand carefully grabs Kanade’s unoccupied right hand, intertwining her cold fingers with Ena’s own warm ones. Kanade’s fingers suddenly flex around Ena’s, startling her mildly. A soft squeak makes its way out of Kanade’s throat as she rolls her shoulder blades back in a stretch, eyes still shut tightly.
“Mm, Ena?” Kanade’s usual whisper of a voice is replaced by a slightly deeper and raspier tone that makes Ena’s heart clench. Her eyes crack open and meet Ena’s brown eyes that are filled with nothing but unconditional love and affection. A smile makes its way on Kanade’s still sleep-ridden face, letting go of the pen in her left hand to gently rub her eyes. She instinctively leans towards the warmth, nuzzling her head on Ena’s shoulder and letting out a heavy exhale.
“How’d you know it was me?” Ena asks softly after a minute of trying to gather herself, not willing to show Kanade how flustered she is. She knows that under normal circumstances Kanade would be far too nervous to do something as bold as putting her head on Ena’s shoulder, but Ena is not one to ever object to an advance by someone as gentle as Kanade. Her thumb rubs slowly on the back of Kanade’s hand, feeling her grip tighten ever so slightly.
“Mafuyu’s hands are bigger and Mizuki runs cold,” Kanade slurs, her voice half muffled by her face practically melting into Ena’s shoulder, “Is that your jacket?” Her head gestures weakly to the jacket draped over her legs. Ena’s face flushes a little before she starts talking again.
“That’s sweet, Kanade. Yes, that’s mine. I might have to tell Mafuyu to not let you in here, you’re gonna get sick if you keep sleeping here.” Ena scolds Kanade with no real malice, making empty threats that she knows she’d never follow through on. She hears Kanade’s light laugh and feels as she presses herself even closer to the heat radiating off of Ena.
“But you keep me nice and warm.” The innocence in Kanade’s tone does nothing to deter the red hue that spreads itself over Ena’s face completely. She looks away bashfully before realizing that Kanade is certainly not looking at her and is instead indulging in warmth.
“C’mon, are you still sleepy? You’ll hurt yourself lying like that.” Ena slowly removes her hand from Kanade’s and tries her absolute hardest to ignore the whine she gets in response. Her hand finds its place on Kanade’s shoulder and gently shifts her into a laying position on Ena’s lap. The normally nervous and self reliant Kanade is docile when half asleep, another thing that makes her heart throb in her chest.
“‘M not sleepy,” Kanade proclaims, which is immediately disproved by the exhaustion in her voice and the way she curls into Ena’s legs. Ena smirks and moves her jacket to better cover Kanade’s legs in her new position. Kanade makes no retort or refusal, her only noise being that of her breath slowly evening out. Ena’s hand finds its way onto Kanade’s scalp and gently runs through her hair, extracting a shuttering sigh from Kanade despite her nearly asleep state.
“Ena,” comes a small whisper, one that Ena was sure she would’ve missed if all of her attention wasn’t directed on the girl in front of her.
“Is something wrong, Kanade?” Her hands slow but don’t still on Kanade’s head, waiting carefully for her response before she becomes too comfortable.
“Mm no. Wanted to say I love you.” The end of her sentence fades into an exhale, clearly bordering between consciousness and comfortable slumber. This time Ena’s hand does stop moving, and she thinks her heart might as well have stopped too. Her face turns red hot, no need to even look in a mirror to know that she looks like a traffic light. Then she smiles as she leans her head backwards onto the triangle, her own eyes closing in peace.
“I love you too.”
Mizuki’s steps are a weird mix of hurried and silent, trying her hardest to listen to Luka’s instructions while also working fast to satiate her own curiosity. It’s not often that Luka approaches her directly, especially not when she isn’t already in the Sekai. Popping up on her phone and telling her to come to the Sekai immediately worried Mizuki; that was until it was clarified that it was strictly an “operation”.
The personalities of the Virtual Signers vary widely, some connecting better to specific people because of that. In most ways, Luka is most similar to Kanade by far, that is clear enough in the way she has helped Kanade and how the two of them simply click. However, not every trait is shared with their familiar, being that Luka is quite mischievous.
That was great for Mizuki, a partner in crime that Ena wouldn’t get mad at, someone she could conspire and joke with that quite literally had an eye on them at all times. So many opportunities for what Ena would call delinquency, but Mizuki would rather call fun. Mizuki couldn’t simply let Luka tell her when there was a chance at a prank, so they work under the code word of operation.
An operation is an opening for Mizuki to play a joke, and you better believe that if Luka comes to tell Mizuki, she is taking that opportunity. In the Sekai, Mizuki tiptoes hastily and weaves between different black triangles to look where Luka asked her to be. Luka had been surprisingly vague, much unlike the other times, telling her only that there would be a surprise if she walked a short distance past the main gathering area and looked around the black triangles.
Just as Mizuki had started to suspect she had gone the wrong way and gotten herself lost, she struck the goldmine. Ena sat with her head tilted back on the triangle, her mouth slightly agape in a way she would absolutely hate to be seen, her hand resting in a silvery-white head of hair. Kanade is curled into herself, mimicking that of a fetal position, head in Ena’s lap and lower body covered by what looks like Ena’s school cardigan.
“Oh my~” Mizuki whispers as she feels a smirk overtake her face. This could not be more perfect, she needs to thank Luka greatly later. Taking her phone out of her pocket and quickly moving to the camera app, Mizuki points at the moment in front of her. Just before the camera shutters, before Ena’s humiliation and Kanade’s squishy soft features are captured forever on her phone, it slips from her hands.
Well, less it slips from her hands and more it was taken. Mizuki whips around her shoulder to see none other than Mafuyu holding her phone like a teacher confiscating it for texting in class. Her empty stare bores into Mizuki’s head as she tries to put together what happened.
“Mafuyu!” Mizuki whisper-screams, desperately trying to keep the other two asleep but still get her point across to Mafuyu. Unfortunately, this only prompts Mafuyu to take Mizuki’s phone and put it into her own back pocket, all the while maintaining eye contact with the perpetrator.
“Do you mind explaining what you were doing? I might have a hunch, but I believe you should be graced with the opportunity to tell me yourself first.” Mafuyu’s voice takes the slightest teasing tone, one that Mizuki is glad to be hearing more frequently as of late. But this is no time for stalling! Mizuki needs this picture bad, whether or not Mafuyu wants it to happen.
“I don’t want to lie.. It’s exactly what it looks like. Mafuyu, please, I need this picture. Think of the blackmail I’ll have on Ena! You have to agree that Kanade looks cute too, right? Please please give it back.” Mizuki doesn’t intend for her words to take such a pleading tone, but they end up doing so anyway. Maybe that’ll be the final nail in the coffin that convinces Mafuyu that the picture is fine.
“No,” Mafuyu starts, watching Mizuki’s face contort to a begging expression, “Kaito warned me about this. He said he saw Luka wandering off suspiciously and had a gut feeling it had something to do with you. It appears he was correct and I will not allow this.” Mafuyu spoke in that tone that made Mizuki think all hope was lost. Should she continue begging? Mafuyu has a strong resolve, but it’s not invincible. If she kept asking then Mafuyu would surely cave at some point.
“Oh,” Mafuyu started again unexpectedly, breaking Mizuki out of her deliberation, “I would suggest leaving if you want to make it out of here unscathed.” Mizuki shot her a questioning look before turning around to see Ena shifting around and stretching, indicating the consciousness flowing back into her body. If Mizuki wasn’t gone from the scene in approximately 30 seconds, she was toast.
“My phone, Mafuyu, my phone I can’t leave without it.” Mizuki spoke quickly, worried about whether or not Ena could run at full speed after just waking up. Mafuyu stared at her for a moment, eyebrows furrowed in thought, before eventually responding.
“I do not trust you not to photograph them, so I will not be returning your cellphone. I do suggest you run though, her eyes will open any moment now.” Mizuki shot yet another worried glance in Ena’s direction before looking at Mafuyu with wide eyes. Ugh, fine. Mizuki took off to her right, the direction opposite to which she came from.
“Mafuyu,” Luka’s robotic voice spoke from behind her, “You do know that Ena will not run if Kanade is sleeping on her lap, yes?” Mafuyu remained in her position facing away from Luka before eventually turning around, a small smile that she herself probably didn’t notice on her face.
“Yes, I do.” Mafuyu turns back around, taking her own phone out of her pocket and taking a photo, several just in case. “I merely wanted to be the one to capture this scene, and Mizuki is loud. I do not doubt she would wake the both of them, and I would rather cherish this sight for a moment longer.” Luka grins at Mafuyu’s words, seemingly proud of her scheming.
How long it took Kanade and Ena to wake is none of anyone else’s business. Whether or not Mizuki begged in Mafuyu’s DMs for her to send at least one of the pictures when the situation was all said and done is also confidential information. At most, Mizuki should be counting her lucky stars that Ena does not yet know of the existence of the photo. She can’t help but shutter at the possible consequences Ena could think up for such an offense.