Vehemence + Dependence REVISED - an Original Quintessential Quintuplets Story

The nine o'clock bell rang for the whatever-th time.

The teacher spoke over the noise to shush the class. "Quiet down, everyone. To your seats."

The students sat down in their seats and stopped talking.

"As you all know, autumn is around the corner, and with autumn comes Asahiyama's annual second-year Kyoto trip."

A murmur spread throughout the class. The highlight of the second year at Asahiyama was always Kyoto.

"We will be going next week and spending the night. I will post a sheet with a packing list and more details on the bulletin board later.

"You will be travelling in a group with up to five people total. It might be a good idea to choose your group now, before we go."

After the teacher stopped talking, he let the students go to each other's desks and form their group.

Yotsuba turned to (Y/N). "(L/N)-san, we should be in a group together!"

Nino also turned around. "I agree."

Itsuki felt she had to intervene (again). "Wouldn't it be better for the five of us to be in a group? (Y/N) can join Eiyuu and Akasuki."

Ichika turned around. "But it would be nice to be with (Y/N)-kun, no?"

"Well, we can't all be with (L/N)-kun."

Nino was suddenly disappointed. "Right. Any ideas?"

Miku, speaking for the first time in that conversation, suggested, "We could be in two groups of three, and then, when we're travelling, we can just go together. It'll be basically the same as a group of six."

Nino smiled. "Sometimes I forget how smart you are, Miku."

(Y/N) waved his hands around in confusion. "Has no one thought to ask me about this? I never said I want to be in a group with you guys."

Nino pouted. "Come on!" She leaned closer to (Y/N) and smiled. "You'll get to sleep with us."

"And I get to be stuck with you for two days."

"Well, I'm sorry, if we're so annoying, then how come you're still tutoring us?"

"'Cause you keep coming back."

She leaned even closer. "And why do you think that is?"

Itsuki put her arm in front of Nino to stop her advancing. "That's enough, Nino."

Nino rolled her eyes and turned back away from (Y/N). It always annoyed her, how her sisters stopped her from making a move on or teasing (Y/N).

(Y/N) flopped his hand to dismiss the conversation. "Decide with a dice roll or something. Highest two get to be with me."

Yotsuba reached into her pocket, pulled out a die, and held it up for everyone to see, as if it was some holy artifact.

(Y/N) looked at her, genuinely stunned that she happened to have a die on her.

She rolled it on (Y/N)'s desk and got a six.

"Six! No one can beat that!"

Nino angrily took the die and rolled it. She got a two, to which she turned right back around.

Itsuki rolled a five; Ichika rolled a one; Miku rolled a three.

Yotsuba hugged (Y/N)'s arm. "I guess that means Itsuki and I are with you, (L/N)-san!"

(Y/N) quietly nodded; it could have been a lot worse. That would be his group for the trip, he guessed.

- = + = -

The ride to Kyoto brought forth many wallpaper-worthy photos. The trees were slowly turning warmer colours; some were even shedding their leaves.

(Y/N) gazed out the window and watched as they passed by what were probably thousands of trees. The bus they were taking to Kyoto had rows of three seats on either side of the aisle. (Y/N) was sitting with his other group members, Yotsuba and Itsuki. (Y/N) had the window seat, and Yotsuba had the aisle seat.

Yotsuba, suddenly fascinated by the view, climbed onto Itsuki to get a better view. "Woah! It's so beautiful!!"

Itsuki, moderately annoyed that she was being climbed on, nodded in agreement. (Y/N) noticed Yotsuba on top of Itsuki and gently pushed her back to her spot.

Yotsuba must've been sleepy, because she fell asleep only about half an hour into the ride. She leaned her head on Itsuki's shoulder. Itsuki was startled, as she hadn't really been paying attention to her groupmates—she was reading a book—though, granted, there wasn't much to pay attention to.

Yotsuba had been playing cards with some girls from the row across from theirs. (Y/N) had quickly gotten bored of looking at the trees passing by so he started playing a game on his phone. He did ask Itsuki if she'd want to play with him, but she politely declined.

Soon enough, Itsuki, too, fell asleep. This resulted in Yotsuba leaning on Itsuki, who was herself leaning on (Y/N). Now his left arm was immovable, lest he wanted to wake up the two sleeping girls.

After the two-and-a-half-hour ride, they arrived at their hotel in Kyoto. The school stumbled upon the excellent deal from this hotel: they could rent a whole floor for half the price the individual rooms would normally be. They were desperate for whatever reason and ended up renting the floor for the second years.

The hotel was not small, either; the whole floor had more than enough space for all the students and teachers. And, it was the seventeenth floor! The lucky students could see many shrines and the majority of Kyoto around them directly from their rooms.

All was good for (Y/N) until it was announced that group members would be staying in the same room. He had been focused too much on the trip that he didn't put it together and was a bit surprised by it.

Now he had to organize the sleeping arrangements, as there were only two beds per room. (Y/N) didn't want to force Itsuki and Yotsuba to sleep in the same bed, so he decided to sleep on the floor— just kidding! He brought his air mattress.

The trip was really special to (Y/N), who had never been to Kyoto. This was his third demonstration of Japanese culture, after the two festivals.

The first highlight for him was the Kiyomizu-dera Temple. They made wishes and drank from the streams: Ichika, from love and longevity; Nino, one big swig from love; Miku, from wisdom; Yotsuba, from longevity; Itsuki from wisdom (as well as Fuutarou from wisdom, obviously).

(Y/N) took some time to decide from which stream to drink.

Wisdom? Nah, I'm smart enough.

Longevity? Nah, I've probably already lived my life.

Love?

Thus, (Y/N) drank from the stream of love (which immediately got Nino talking and teasing).

The second highlight was the Ten Thousand Gates at the Fushimi Inari-taisha Temple. Yotsuba challenged (Y/N) to a race to the top. She immediately started sprinting up three steps at a time, while (Y/N) took it slow. It must have paid off, as he passed her only about five minutes in; she was panting and having trouble doing any more. (Y/N) just kept walking with a smug face as Yotsuba glared at him.

Around halfway up, (Y/N) decided to wait since he had left every Quint behind at that point. They eventually reconvened and took a slow pace ascending together.

Ichika had told (Y/N) a few months before that she was planning to confess to Fuutarou right here, at the top of the steps. She even had a plan to disguise as Miku if she felt she needed to. This was, of course, before her love for Fuutarou greatly diminished in favour of someone else.

But something unexpected was about to happen. (Y/N) had been thinking about that one Quint's confession to him, as well as Ichika's plan, and decided that it was time. It had been long enough, and this was the right time and place.

(Y/N) was going to return the confession.