𝗠𝗔𝗚𝗜𝗖𝗜𝗔𝗡'𝗦 𝗣𝗟𝗔𝗬! ━━━━ mao isara (on hold)

43. dinner (mitsumao)

ᡣ𐭩 . no au | fluff

The doors to the dormitory building slam closed for the umpteenth time that day, causing Mao to sigh from where he sat in the living room area sitting on one of the settees with a manga in his hands.

It was Christmas day, and everyone except for Mao had decided to go home to visit family and other people to spend the day with.

Sudden footsteps came thumping down the stairs, catching Mao's attention from where he sat. He glances up and looks towards where the noise comes from and sees a familiar Ra*bits member scurrying around and getting his coat and gloves and hat on.

He raises an eyebrow whilst watching the younger student. The rest of the Ra*bits members left in the morning earlier on, saying they'd walk to their respective homes together bit by bit. If that's true, then what was Mitsuru Tenma still doing on campus grounds?

The mentioned boy then suddenly stops in his scurrying motions, also realising that he wasn't alone. His eyes were wide with shock for a moment. "You're still here, Isara?"

Mao laughs very lightly. "I was wondering the same about you, Tenma. I thought you left with the rest of your unit mates?"

Mitsuru suddenly groans at the mention of them, his figure deflating a little with his head tilting down and frowning in thought. "I originally was going to, but I fell back asleep after Nazuna attempted to wake me up this morning." Mitsuru then perks his head up, focusing his attention onto the older. "What about you, Isara? aren't you going home today to spend Christmas time with your family?"

Mao feels himself inwardly flinch at the mention of the event. He shakes his head no, and with the manga he held, he placed it onto the empty cushion beside him. "I've got too many things to do here, I'm sure my family would understand anyway."

"Okay... well..." Tenma took a few steps closer to the front door, "I best be going now. Stay safe, Isara - Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas to you too." Mao smiled at him and then decided to turn around and pick his manga back up, wanting to finish some of the last few pages and then to catch up on the wanted tasks he had set in mind for today.

Mitsuru focused on walking towards the door, he opened it and stepped outside for a moment. The wind was decently strong and made the winter chills more colder than it had already been for a while. He stops walking again, turning to look over his shoulder to see Mao Isara leaving the living room area and heading towards the stairs.

A frown reaches his features. He felt bad, seeing Mao Isara all alone. Everyone else was having fun at their respective homes with their family members whilst Mao was going to work himself to death like he usually did.

A thought then suddenly comes into mind for Mitsuru.

He slides his hand into one of his coat pockets and reaches for his phone, sliding it out and unlocking it. He immediately goes to the group chat in between him and the rest of Ra*bits, typing out a message that he knew they wouldn't mind.

He sends a similar message to his parents, too. They responded in a close amount of time of understanding as well, along with them sending Mitsuru their holiday wishes. Mitsuru then slides his phone back into his coat pocket and twists back around, and heads back into the dormitory building, closing the door behind himself once more. He removes his coat and shoes, placing them off to the side where they originally were, along with taking his hat off and placing it into another pocket of his coat.

"I wonder what I can do as a surprise for Isara. He said he'll be busy for the rest of the day, and by looking at the time on my phone, it's already nearing two in the afternoon." Mitsuru then glances towards where the pathway leading to the kitchen was, "I wonder if I can cook dinner for Isara? I just need someone to give me advice on how to use the oven - maybe Sakuma could help? Or Hasumi... whichever one picks up my call first."

He then smiles proudly at the plan he's come up with. Whilst heading to the kitchen, he decides to call one of the two people he mentioned.

...

A hiss leaves between the thin gap of Mao's lips as soon as he puts the pen he once held onto the surface of the desk he was sitting at. He rubs his left thumb against the inner part of his right wrist, where it had begun to tense up over the past few hours of nonstop writing.

Already within the past few hours since he had the dormitory to 'himself', Mao has gone through many papers. For homework, for student council plans, along with reading over the lines of the lyrics of an upcoming Trickstar song.

All Mao Isara had left to do was to practice and follow the choreography with the step-by-step video Makoto had sent him a week and a bit ago through messages.

He glances up from staring at his desk for so long, removing his hand away from his right wrist only to move his hands up to his eyes and rub the tiredness he felt away. A small yawn escaped between the gap of his lips a second later, too.

Mao then glances around, looking for the clock that sat on one of the four walls of the dorm room, his eyes widening at the amount of shock he felt from realising what time it was. "It's dinner time already? Where did the time go~?" He chuckles to himself and stands up from the chair he sat in. The legs of the chair cause a cringing noise against the flooring as he turns towards the door at the other side of the room and opens it to leave it.

He stops mid-step, his senses being filled by a nice aroma that swooped in the air around the whole building of the dormitory. Mao was confused a second afterwards. There was the smell of fresh cooked food. No one but him should be inside of the building, right? So, how did that smell come to be? Mao wondered to himself as he began descending down the stairway once more, following the trail that the aroma came from.

It led him into the dining room area. The table held two plates at two of the seats nearest each other that faced one another vertical.

"Oh - you came down a few minutes early, heh." Mao turns to look behind him and sees Mitsuru holding two glasses of a drink, both almost full to the brim at the top. What was the brunette still doing here? He said he was leaving earlier, did he not?

"I decided to make you dinner. You don't deserve to be alone on Christmas, Isara." Mitsuru smiled at him and walked past to place the full glasses onto the drinking mats by the dinner plates.

"You... stayed behind to spend it with me?" Mao was still in shock.

Mitsuru nods fast at him, with a grin of pride reaching his facial features.

Mao then moved forward, too, and decided to sit at one of the seats once seeing Mitsuru do the same movement before him. "You didn't have to waste away your day on me."

"Maybe so. But I wanted to, and... I like spending time with you - you're fun and great to be around!"

"I don't know about being 'fun'-"

"You are, though! Us Ra*bits look up to Trickstar. We admire you guys a lot - even if Tomoya doesn't admit that he does as well half the time - so please: take this dinner as a gift from me to you."

Mao then looked down at the dinner before him. The food did look nice, and with the loving look Mitsuru was giving him, Mao couldn't help but give in and nod. Mitsuru cheers at the reaction he got and speaks really loudly about how the two of them should dig into the dinner.

"I know I already said this, but... Merry Christmas, Isara."

Mao smiled after eating a bit of his food. "Merry Christmas again to you too, Tenma. Thank you for this, I've enjoyed it!"