The Toko/Syo + Taka friendship that we all deserve.

CW: Sleep deprivation, (mentioned) nightmares

~~

It was late, or I guess early. Two in the morning. Normally, Kiyotaka Ishimaru would be fast asleep preparing for the next school day - which started in approximately... six hours.

Ishimaru checked his bedside alarm clock for the tenth time. He'd been awake for about three hours and found himself unable to fall back asleep. On a normal night he'd be fine, able to sleep the whole required eight to ten hours that diligent students such as himself needed. But, tonight he seemed to be plagued with horrible images of a nightmare long passed.

Ishimaru looked at the clock once again - 2:37 a.m. - and let out a sigh. He got up and stiffly walked over to his desk. If he wasn't going to get any more sleep, maybe he could at least get more work done!

A good hour later, Ishimaru was startled out of his work by the sound of a knock on his door. He headed over and opened it, surprised by what he saw. Standing outside of the door was one of his classmates: Toko Fukawa. She was fully dressed, but that didn't faze him as he was also fully dressed. A hall monitor is always diligent after all! But no, what truly threw him off was the look in her eyes.

The noirette looked her over. To the untrained eye, nothing about her was off, but to Ishimaru - someone who'd been around Toko for nearly a whole year now - it was obvious. It was the little things such as the way she held herself, and the way she looked at him. This wasn't Toko, this was Syo. And that meant-

"Quit staring at me and let me in, creep! I gotta talk to ya."

Broken out of his train of thought, Ishimaru let out an indignant squawk.

"What are you doing out of your dorm? Students shouldn't be up and about during the night!"

He was fully prepared to fully lecture his fellow classmate, but something about the way they glared at him made him come to a stop. Something was up.

"Come on in."

He stepped to the side and let the shorter girl into his room. they glanced around, seemingly unimpressed by his decor. They mumbled something to themself that Ishimaru didn't quite catch. He shut the door behind them and went to his desk, pulling the seat out and offering it to them.

"Here, take a seat and you can tell me what's happening."

Syo didn't respond, but walked over and sat in the offered chair. Pleased, Ishimaru walked to his bed and took a seat. He made a "go ahead" gesture at them and they sighed.

"Toko had a nightmare and panicked. So, I took over."

Ishimaru nodded, "So I was correct in my assumption that it was you and not Toko."

Syo nodded again.

"Can I speak to Toko?"

"Nope!" They popped the "P."

"It's not safe for her now. I'm keeping her well protected until I decide she's safe and she definitely isn't comfortable fronting right now."

Ishimaru placed his hands on his thighs and nodded curtly, "Understood. How do I come into play in this situation?"

Syo shrugged, "I just wanted someone to talk to I guess."

"Well that's perfectly fine!" Ishimaru grinned.

Syo smiled slightly.

The two continued to talk for the next hour and a half. Talking about everything from their classmates to Creative Writing. Which is admittedly not Ishimaru's strong suit, but Syo excels at it and they kindly helped him complete his work for that class (after noting that he was far ahead on the work anyways, to which Ishimaru responded, "One can never be too far ahead in their classwork!"). Eventually, the two fell asleep.

If anyone saw Ishimaru and Fukawa walking to their homeroom together the next day, they didn't mention it.