Queen Of Cards || Akashi Seijuro x OC

Chapter 29

A/N fluff incoming because i want some fluff.

~~~

The week before final exams.

Airi sighed as she tried to explain cubics and quartics to Eikichi and Kotaro for the fifth time today. All club activities were cancelled for this week and the next week for everyone so Akashi and Airi decided to host a study session in the school library for the team.

Exams weren't difficult for her. She had already finished her practice exams and done all her revision. Akashi was silently playing shogi on the table against himself and Reo was finishing off an essay for Japanese literature study.

"Wait but why does it go left when its a positive? Shouldn't positive be to the right?"

"Because when you substitute a number in, the number you substitute in would be a negative number."

"That doesn't make any sense!"

"You've learned the same thing since middle school, senpai."

"You think he learns things?" Eikichi snickered and Kotaro threw his ruler at him.

"...How childish."

Her two idiot senpais not understanding easy mathematics wasn't her biggest problem at the moment. With all the work the student council was doing to put together polls for their end of year culture festival along with studying for exams, Airi rarely saw Akashi outside of school. They only talked during student council meetings. Even during their group study sessions he was silently doing paperwork and practice exams.

Was it selfish to want to spend more time with her boyfriend when he had no time to spare?

Glancing over to his figure as he played shogi, she couldn't help but let out a sigh. It wasn't as though he had no time at all. After all, he had probably finished all the practice exams and revision sheets since she had too.

She just missed him.

After nearly a month of non-personal communication, she couldn't help but think that he didn't really like her that much. Maybe he was angry that she had put them in that situation? Maybe he was upset? Was he thinking of other things? Other people?

If anything would make her fail her exams, it was this. God, if she got below 90% for anything, she would have more than an earful from her parents.

Communication is key, right? She would talk to him tonight.

~

"It's been a while since you came over."

"Mhm."

Memories of the last time she visited the Akashi estate flooded back in. The pain, the heartbreak, the crying.

It all came back.

But there was happiness too.

Their close proximity that night. The connection they built, even if it seemingly got destroyed in mere hours. The other side of her boyfriend. Even though that other side was back, she wished he would pay attention to her. Even just a little.

The familiar smell greeted her as she put her bag down on Akashi's bedroom floor. She watched as he sat at his desk and pulled out some papers from his giant file and started writing away. Sighing, she laid on his bed and put a pillow on her face.

The pillow smelled like him. The room smelled like him. Everything was him. It was intoxicating.

Without even thinking, she silently stood up and her trembling hand reached out to grab his sleeve. She felt him stop moving and she used the opportunity to wrap both of her arms around him.

"Sei..." Airi's voice came out, fragile and muffled from the soft material of his uniform. "Are you mad at me?"

"Why do you think that?"

"I...I don't know. I just missed you. We don't talk that much."

"I'm sorry for that. My father gave me a lot of paperwork to finalise for the end of year wrap-up."

Without hesitation, Akashi pushed his chair back and stood up, fully embracing her in a hug.

The moment felt so right. There was no other way to describe it. A safe place full of warmth, care, and sincerity, enveloped in comfortable silence in each other's arms. A place that felt like home, so much so that the words just slipped out naturally.

"I love you."

"..."

"..."

"..................."

"..................."

As soon as she realised what she said, Airi went into panic mode. Covering her heated face with her hands, she started spewing out a bunch of nonsense.

"I-I mean, if you want me to of course. I didn't mean to say it so suddenly! I'm so sorry! I just-"

She was caught offguard when Akashi pulled her back into his embrace, running his warm fingers through her hair and placing a soft kiss on her forehead.

"You idiot, of course I want you to love me. I love you too."

~

"HOW IS THIS EVEN POSSIBLE???"

The student council was in a panic. Papers were in disarray and everyone was running around like headless chickens. Well, that's a slight exaggeration. Airi was anxiously fidgeting in her seat trying to think of a solution to their giant problem.

Akashi sighed and hit his head on the wooden table once in exasperation before standing up and calling for order again.

"All 5 results ended up with equal votes. Clearly we have to think of a new idea since students dislike almost all of them."

The five choices for this year's culture festival theme were pretty bad. However, they were voted in by student council students. Airi suspected that a few members made an agreement to vote for each other's ideas and this was the result.

"Any ideas?"

"Pirate themed?"

"Space themed!"

"Anime themed!"

"Those have been the ideas for the past 54 years. Can we please think of a new one?"

"How about roller skating?"

"Too cost heavy and the school is liable for injuries."

"How about casino themed?"

At the thought of more gambling, Airi turned green.

"This is high school, not your post divorce community."

This earned a few stifled laughs and poor Hiroshi sat back down beet red.

"Ooo I know! What about Akashi and Airi's Kingdom?" The culture club head suggested.

"That sounds uncomfortable similar to Ben and Holly's little kingdom." Airi grumbled, taking a bite of her bread.

"I think it's a good idea! After all, Akashi-kun is already like a king and Airi's basically his queen. All the classes can be like the village stores and such. Students can dress up as much as they want and it would top Shujo Academy's cosplay themed culture festival."

Before she could protest anymore, the room filled with choruses of agreement and brainstorming for the types of decorations were underway.

Airi groaned and put her head on the table before muttering,

"Ma. Ji. De. Su. Ka."