Chapter Text
The wind gently blew the needles of the trees in the area, some more brittle ones flying off to join the covered ground. Gentle waves reflected the clear blue of the sky as they grazed against the rocks of the land, tree roots acting as a natural staircase leading up the miniature meter tall cliff separating the shore from the designated camping area, as vacant as ever.
“NATURE, HERE I COME!!!”
Taishin groaned. Ticket was hyperactive as always, looking as if she was ready to jump right into the lake and swim to the bottom of the Mariana Trench.
Biwa Hayahide, probably the most responsible of the group, started opening up the camper they had tugged along behind them. It wasn’t anything overly luxurious, but big enough to keep everyone comfy on a rainy day, with two bedrooms, one with a bunk bed. Everyone disagreed on who got the single bed.
This was BNW’s first camping trip, suggested by Winning Ticket, executed by Biwa Hayahide, and dragged along was local victim Narita Taishin. They were stuck here for 5 days, far away from any civilization. And worst of all…
Zero bars.
“Taishin! Can I borrow you for a second? We need to level the camper.”
Her sobfest was interrupted before it could even start as Hayahide asked her for assistance. She pocketed her phone and dragged her feet over towards her, who held several brightly colored pallet like squares.
“I just need you to hold it up for a few seconds while I put these under the wheel. The ground here isn’t the most even.”
Taishin didn’t speak a word, just placed her hands under the giant hunk of metal and lifted it up a bit. It didn’t feel nearly as heavy as the truck she lifted with Haru and Rice.
It was only maybe 15 seconds, but the dread of the week to come made it feel like forever. Loud footsteps behind her warned her of the return of the runaway.
“I’m so excited for this thing!! Hey Hayahide, how’d you spare the money for a camper???”
“Brain recently won her first G1. She offered me half the money, which I didn’t want to accept, but she insisted I keep it.” She finished placing the blocks and signaled for Taishin to put the camper down. “So I decided it’d be nice to treat us to a little vacation out here!”
‘All that money and no WiFi hookup,’ Taishin mused to herself. ‘Might as well have made a shelter from leaves and sticks.’
“It’s already getting late,” she spoke aloud a different thought instead of giving Ticket any ideas. “We spent like 5 hours getting here. We need to finalize the bed arrangement.”
That same Ticket was the first to respond. “Oooh, I want top bunk! O-only if neither of you want it, that is!”
“Where I sleep doesn’t really matter to me. Although I can’t say I wouldn’t appreciate the bigger bed after that drive~”
Taishin had mentally met an impasse; bite the bullet and take the bottom bunk, preventing any arguments, or snag the larger bed for herself?
Well, she didn’t plan to start being so passive right now. “How come you get top bunk? What if I want top bunk, huh?”
Hayahide gave a confused and concerned glance, but decided to stay out of the confrontation. Lest Taishin dare argue that such a small frame needed a mattress so large in comparison, she was gonna start setting up shop.
“Uhhh, no offense but… wouldn’t it be easier to stay on the bottom since you’re a… you’re an… mmm.”
Hayahide immediately threw away her previous thought to watch this go down. And hopefully give some ‘adult’ supervision.
“Oh you did NOT.”
“I didn’t even say it!!”
“You nearly called me the R-WORD!!”
“I’M NOT TRYING TO BE RUDE!”
“Winning Ticket I am going to burn you alive.”
“Okay, but don’t act like it’s not true.”
“It’s still a very rude thing to say to someone,” Hayahide commented amidst the back and forth. Not like they would pay attention.
“If it’s say true why didn’t you say it, huh?”
“I don’t wanna be rude!!”
“Why don’t you say it!? Right to my FACE!?”
“I don’t wanna say it!!”
“SAY IT!!”
“I’M NOT GONNA SAY IT!!”
“SAY!!! IT!!!”
“ITS… ITS JUST-“
“!!!!!!!”
R-R-RUNT-“
“ENOUGH.” Biwa introjected with as much of a mom voice as she could muster, commanding silence from the fowl-mouthed duo. “You guys need to make up and decide who gets which bed now or you’re both sleeping outside.” (Truthfully, this was an empty threat. She was just caught up in her sudden authority.)
Winning Ticket and Narita Taishin both mumbled something that sounded like “yes mom” before engaging in a more civil discussion, one that ended with the latter admitting defeat and taking the bottom bunk.
“If you piss yourself you owe me 5,000 yen in bunk bed compensation.”
“I’ve literally never been a bed wetter???”
Despite the slight sour tone, the night was able to wind down without any more fuss. Taishin was left the only one awake at around 10:30, as Ticket snored from above.
If there was anything that could make her less carefree, it was definitely insults about her height. This wasn’t the first time it’d happened - when they first met, Ticket had called her it so casually, simply because others did too. Hayahide had to explain what it meant to her, and she obviously felt terrible and didn’t mean it, but it still stung to know that hate against her was so commonplace.
Even now, Taishin was ever so slightly convinced that she didn’t fully grasp its meaning. She put in effort to see that they remained friends though, and actually apologized when she did rarely let it slip… maybe Taishin was the one to blow everything out of proportion.
Yeah, actually, a lot of that was her fault. As guilty as she felt about it, she knew that Ticket would probably forget about it by the morning, which was a relief if anything. It could be something that she could look back on in a few years and they’d both laugh… hopefully.
Even when Taishin couldn’t sleep, it was never for long. Even the most insomniac Taishin only took a couple hours max. Which is why she found birds chirping before she could overthink things much more.