“I don't know where he is,” Noriko lied to the council president.

By her side Nao grinned knowingly, and she gripped his hand harder. The council president looked at what had to be Himekaizen's most mismatched couple and smirked.

“Think he's still here?”

“Maybe. Somewhere with Kyoko,” Noriko said and added some emphasis to 'Kyoko'. Can't you just accept he already has a girlfriend? One of her best friends at that. She wasn't going to assist the third year girl in any way.

“It's been a long day. Maybe they went on a date,” Nao suggested.

Thank you. Noriko squeezed his hand again to show how much she appreciated his help. More than his good looks, his quick wits and ever present consideration attracted her. She grew fonder of him every day since they started dating.

“Quite a catch you got there,” the president said with just a tinge of envy in her voice.

What's with you and other girls' boyfriends?

“I know. I'm happy I got her before anyone else did,” Nao said as if the comment had been directed at him.

Noriko squeezed hard a third time. I could fall even more in love with you for that. Thank you! She felt her cheeks heat up but she didn't care. The council president could watch her flare red for all she cared.

A chair scraped against the floor and Urufu's face popped into existence from their office area. “President, could I have your attention for a while?”

“Yes?”

Just before the council president turned to face him Noriko saw him wink at her. Then Urufu's face blanked. “I managed to borrow another six com units, so I'm thinking of making hot links between the three rooms we use.”

“Huh?” the council president said.

“You see, if we pair three sets of walkie talkies on dedicated channels we could...” Urufu grabbed her hands and led her around the bookcase to the desks in the office area.

Noriko listened to his fading voice and turned her attention to her surroundings.

Jirou-sempai and Sango-chan were busy loading the fridge with bottled drinks. Tomorrow they'd start the day with enough to drink for the entire crew.

Sho-kun and Hiroyuki-kun dropped two cases with drinks on the floor and left the club room for more. They met Kichirou-kun in the door when he arrived with a third case.

“Put it on top of those,” Noriko instructed. “Nao, could you call Aika-chan and Fumiko-chan?”

“For you I'll call anyone,” he teased.

Noriko stuck her tongue out at him.

Nao grinned back before he waved her to silence when his call got through.

She opened up a document on her laptop.

On the streets shopping patrols in four cars methodically emptied shop after shop in an attempt to stave of disaster the next day. Noriko doubted it would be enough, but Urufu said even extending the time before they ran dry should help some.

“Can I help you?”

Noriko looked up from her laptop. The student council treasurer arrived with a notebook. He held a pen in his other hand.

“Eh? Yeah,” a sudden thought struck her, “you could tell me your name, and the president's.”

He stared back. “Murakami Kenshin, pleased to meet you.” His voice was heavy with irony.

“Wakayama Noriko.” What else could she do?

“My colleague is Tamura Rie.” He smiled. “Guess we've been too busy for common courtesy.”

Common courtesy, heh. We're in our club room where everyone is on a first name basis despite the fact that we really don't know each other that well. Noriko shrugged the thought away. Our club room, our rules.

“Noriko, Aika-chan is still in the store, but Fumiko-chan is on her way back.”

She looked around and searched for his voice. Nao stood by the windows looking out.

“Kenshin-sempai, you had some friends shopping for tomorrow as well,” Noriko said. She still looked at Nao's tall frame. “Could you write down what they bought, so we have a better idea of our supplies?”

A pointless task. Whatever they brought back tomorrow would still see them running out of just about everything, but if it made him feel more useful... The feeling of being needed was important according to Urufu.

“I'll keep you updated with the supplies we bring in,” Noriko heard the treasurer say.

She nodded at him before turning her attention to Nao again. “Thank you Nao. What are you looking at?” Noriko walked up beside him and looked out as well.

“The bike stand,” he said. He never turned around. “I heard that's where you usually… I mean in this school.”

With a scowl she looked up at his face. “I'm not usual,” she said surprised at her own words.

“I know. That's what caught my attention.” With a huge grin on his face he grabbed her hand. “And you're cute as well.”

Too much flattery. You have it way too easy saying those things. “You're unusual as well,” she said suddenly at a loss for words.

He didn't answer, just stood there looking out. Behind her back she heard club members arrive with more supplies. Then those sounds faded as Nao's presence took up more and more of her mind.

Soon she needed to make Urufu fire up the grills one last time to prepare dinner for everyone who stayed through the evening helping out, but right now she only wanted to stand beside Nao.

Warm hands, you have warm hands, she thought and tightened her grip.

***

Warm hands, in my dream you had warm hands. And it wasn't just in his dreams. Last night, before they left the grills and went to sleep, Kyoko's hands had been warm and soft in his.

In the door Yukio saw one of the students from 9:1 meet his eyes and shake her head. She must have been on her way to wake him up, but she could hardly know about the internal alarm clock in his head he more or less could set at will when needed.

Yukio shook Kyoko awake. Time to patrol the school grounds; the last patrol before Himekaizen came alive for the second and last day of the festival.

She stirred uneasily under his hands, even tried to slap them away, but in the end she yawned and woke.

“Time?”

“Five,” Yukio answered. “It's our turn now. The guys from 9:1 are already away.”

She crawled over the floor to a corner they made into a small dressing area. It gave some shelter and a modicum of privacy.

Yukio listened to her getting into her school uniform, and when she showed up from behind the false wall she looked a lot more like his girlfriend instead of the zombie from a few minutes earlier.

Guess that's part of loving someone, to feel her morning breath and still think she's wonderful.

As if she had read his mind she waved with two sets of tooth brushes. “You need one as well.”

He covered his mouth with a hand and grimaced. Guess I smell just as awful.

They walked out into the corridor and made their way down the stairs to the locker rooms.

After he was done, and stood waiting by the vending machines for her to finish, he felt more human as well.

He stole a hug and a kiss before checking that his radio was turned on, and then they left through the main entrance and hit the startlingly chill morning air outside. His tooth brush he simply pocketed in his blazer.

A greyness covered the school yard in a ghost like pre-dawn light. But for the clouds above them, and lingering morning mist, it would have been lighter. Every gust of wind crept inside his body, and he pulled her closer to him more for warmth than a want to hug.

They strolled through the temporary streets between empty stalls. With only the two of them there he felt like walking through a ghost town. Sounds came too clearly, and whenever flags and other decorations moved in the wind he jumped. Skittish like a puppy.

“They should just move the haunted house here,” Kyoko murmured and held his hand a bit firmer.

She noticed as well. “Spooky, heh?”

“Uhum.”

None of them spoke much, and they did their rounds in silence. Through the plaza, a quick loop over the remaining soccer field, along the fences and a cursory pass by the pool. The two patrols from 9:1 had a good view of the parts between cafeteria and the gym hall, so Yukio led Kyoko behind it, and they arrived at the large outdoor café by the back gates.

He saw a couple of students climbing the gates. They wore the Himekaizen school uniforms and he recognised one of them from 7:2. With a wave Yukio acknowledged their presence and called in their arrival over the radio.

Students would start trickling in from now on, and the need for patrolling came to an end.

He led Kyoko past the bike stands, where she shrunk a little and offered him a guilty stare. “Sorry,” she said.

Yukio didn't answer. He had no reason reminding her of his first confession to her. It had been spectacular for all the wrong reasons.

They reached the end of the left wing and walked under the walkway between the wings until they stood in front of the main entrance. Normally he would have taken the short-cut diagonally across the gravel, but now stalls blocked the way.

By now any remnant of morning mist was long gone, and above them the overcast sky was thinning out. Mostly sunny the weather reports promised.

He watched the main gates open to let a group of students past. Then the security patrol assigned there had them closed again. Urufu wanted it that way in case of an early invasion.

“Go inside and get some breakfast?” Yukio asked.

Kyoko nodded, and they returned inside the same way they left the building earlier.

In their club room sandwiches Noriko had prepared waited for them together with hot tea.

Anything as elaborate as miso soup, or even something as mundane as rice, was out of the question since they didn't have access to the home economics room. The side dishes associated with that kind of breakfast weren't a problem, but the thought of takuan mixing with bread in his mouth didn't exactly make his mouth water.

Kyoko wolfed down her breakfast and wiped her lips clean from breadcrumbs with a napkin. She certainly was well brought up, but the last month she mixed behaving like a lady with breaking all the rules just because she dared.

To prove the point she pocketed her napkin and kissed his mouth clean of whatever offended her.

More than a few of the club members present glared at them, but they were slowly getting used to her antics.

“Still hungry?” he asked when she was done.

“Have another sandwich and find out for yourself,” she suggested.

Yukio played with the thought of accepting her offer, but in the end he decided against it. He needed to prepare the back gates café, and after that Urufu wanted him for some more black magic of his invention.

Man, how are we to manage today? “Help me prepare?” Yukio said to Kyoko.

She nodded and took his hand.

They left the room together.