A Farewell to All Futures

The Night Before

Warning: transphobia, emotional abuse

***

Finally, Christmas Eve arrived at Hope's Peak Academy. The academy itself didn't have any events planned for itself, but it encouraged its students to enjoy their evening to the fullest.

In Room 2-23, Kanade and Iroha walked over to their dormmates' room with a blanket and a pillow, respectively. "What are they inviting us over for?" The painter asked.

"Hibiki and Setsuka wanted to have a movie night for the dorm, and because we live here, they invited us!" Kanade explained. "I wonder what we're going to watch?"

"Um, hopefully nothing too scary..." Iroha hoped.

The two of them entered the room, and Hibiki looked at them from the bed. "Ah, you two! Come onto the bed, I saved you some spots!" The vocalist exclaimed, patting an empty space on the bed next to her. Kanade and Iroha hopped up on the bed immediately, putting the rather large, for them at least, pillow on the mattress under them. They put their arms on the pillow, lying on their arms as they looked at the television.

As for Setsuka, she was setting up the television so that DVDs could be played instead of the cable channels. "Hey, Kana? You mind grabbing that DVD binder over there and picking a movie? It's best to decide on what we want so we don't waste any more time while I work this persnickety thing." The billiards player grumbled as she realized that she plugged the wrong cord into the wrong hole.

Kanade got off the bed and took the binder from beside Setsuka, bringing it back to the bed so that the others could see. "Alright, what do you think we should pick?" Iroha asked.

"Hmm... How about this one here?" The guitarist pointed to the DVD titled 'Lawrence of Arabia'.

"It seems like a classic, I wonder if it'll hold up to today's standards?" Iroha wondered.

Hibiki shrugged. "Well, if it's bad, we can spend the movie making fun of it. Or change the movie, that's always an option." She figured. She hopped off the bed and took the DVD to Setsuka. "We're watching this movie first!" She declared.

The taller girl had finally finished setting up the DVD player and breathed a sigh of relief. "Alright, I'll put the disc in now!" Setsuka took the movie from Hibiki and sent her to the bed, where the vocalist jumped in beside Kanade. Setsuka joined them after a few moments, and the movie began rolling.

Halfway through the movie, Iroha had fallen asleep with her head in her arms and faceplanted in the pillow. Kanade enjoyed how the movie played out and the actors' ability, something she would have to ask Emma about later if she remembered or cared to. Hibiki was disappointed in the ending, that Lawrence and Ali didn't get together, and was even more distraught to find out that the real T. E. Lawrence died a few years after the events portrayed in the movie. Setsuka already knew about all of this, of course, because she had grown up on history books that her father collected long ago. 

All in all, they had a successful movie night, falling asleep together in a pile. Until Iroha was woken up by Hibiki's snoring, that is.

***

Over at Room 2-22, Hajime and Shinji walked in the door covered in sweat. They had decided to do their training at the downtown gym, so Shinji covered his eyes and kept them close as they got into the car. After Hajime found a parking spot and they went into the building, they chose a spot that was far from the windows so that Shinji wouldn't have his PTSD brought to light again.