Archive of Our Own

Touko wished she could blame this on someone else. At least then she'd have the satisfaction of cursing them out to carry her through the week. But no, it was entirely her fault, a cavalcade of bad decisions for which she had no excuse.

It started when her parents invited her home for Golden Week. "We can go somewhere, just the four of us," one of her mothers said.

"It will be just like old times," her father agreed.

Touko chewed the side of her thumb. That was exactly what she was afraid of, thanks!

She couldn't afford to make him angry, though, so she reached for the old standby of delusion to come up with an excuse. "I can't," she said, "because I'm spending Golden Week with my boyfriend's family."

She winced as soon as the words were out of her mouth. What was she thinking? There was no way anyone would buy that, just look at her!

Her other mother nodded slowly. "I suppose you are reaching that age," she said.

"Alright," her first mother said, far too calmly. "Have fun, then!"

"Just make sure to call," her father added. "Maybe we can even talk to the boy, make sure he's good enough for our Touko."

"Y-Yeah..." In an immense show of willpower, Touko didn't faint, nor did she scream at being referred to as theirs. She even let them talk at her for another five minutes, though she didn't hear a word of it. She was too busy wallowing.

Her first problem was finding a boy who would go along with this, especially on such short notice. A year ago, she would have said there was no boy in the world who would want Touko there for a family trip, especially if she was the one to invite herself.

A year ago, she would have been right, but only because she hadn't met Naegi Makoto. He was so stupidly good-hearted, he probably wouldn't even ask why she needed to come.

But asking Naegi came with its own set of problems, one that Touko was unfortunately well-equipped to understand. She was, after all, a romance novelist. She was intimately familiar with the fake dating trope. And no matter how nice Naegi was, or how much time she spent around his family, she had negative interest in falling for him for real.

She didn't exactly have a better option, though, which was how she found herself standing in front of Hope's Peak with a suitcase at 6:00 AM.

Naegi scratched his cheek. "Sorry again about dragging you out here so early, but the cabin is kind of in the middle of nowhere, and we want to get there in time to set everything up while it's still light out."

Touko didn't bother to respond. At least if she fell asleep in the car, she would be spared a little of whatever nauseating family road trip traditions the Naegis were sure to have.

It was only a few more awkward minutes before the car pulled up. Touko would give this to the Naegis - whatever deep flaws in their psyches they had to raise Makoto, they were at least punctual.

"Fukawa-chan!" Makoto's mother called, managing to sound genuinely pleased to have Touko crashing their vacation. "I'm so excited to meet you. Makoto didn't tell us he had a girlfriend!"

Touko forced herself to smile back. "Well, you know how... Makoto... is..." There, that sounded adequately affectionate, right?

"Haha yeah, let's get going, mom!" Naegi stuffed his and Touko's into the boot of the car, leaving Touko nothing to do but climb into the back seat of the car.

As it turned out, there was already someone there: an incredibly average-looking girl, maybe a year or two younger than Touko. She had the same easy smile as Makoto, but somehow it was way cuter on her. "Hi!" she said cheerfully, dipping her head in a seated approximation of a bow. "I'm Komaru. I assume Makoto told you all about me?"

Touko froze. Was this something she should know? Was she going to be exposed as a fraud before they even left? Were they going to drive her outside the city and then leave her there, her punishment for thinking she was good enough to join them?
Komaru laughed. It was an unfairly nice sound. "No, don't worry, I figured he wouldn't have mentioned me, because he's the worst." She turned to glare at Makoto, who was just getting into the car.

Touko scooted hastily aside to make room for him. "The worst," she agreed.

Makoto scratched the back of his head. "Are you two going to gang up on me all trip?"

"Yup!" Komaru answered instantly. She winked (winked!) at Touko.

Touko's traitorous heart skipped a beat. It was then she realized that this trip would be even more trouble than she'd thought.