Betting on Love

Ch. 1: A Win-Win Situation

"Honestly, I can't stand that girl! Who the hell does she think sh— Ah yo, Isshiki." The two second years turned their attention to the tall brunette, who by the way, was ten minutes late into their lunch.

"What kept you so long? You missed like half of my story!" Kuga complained.

"Sorry, something at the cafeteria held me up."

He set his lunch on an adjacent desk to the two, moving a bag to pull up a chair to join their conversation. Satoshi noted the empty classroom, wondering if everyone had already grown tired of Kuga's outburst and split in the first half of lunch to find a quieter place to eat. It's a new record.

"Who are you talking about?" Satoshi asked, breaking apart his chopsticks, relishing in the audible snap of the wood.

"Oh ho, let's not get ahead of ourselves, Isshiki-chin! What's this I see?" Sticking ever so slightly from Satoshi's coat pocket was the corner of a white envelope. Had it been any other person, it could be said that Satoshi hid the envelope quite well, but of course leave it to his nosy friends to catch his errors. Kuga sat up abruptly to swipe the object of interest, shifting the chair backward slightly.

"Hey! Kuga-kun, give it back!" Satoshi protested.

"Is this a love letter I see, Isshiki-chin?" Kuga lifted the flimsy paper to the light filtering through the windows, inspecting the cursive, handwritten letters in the shape of his friend's name. He even squinted a little, trying to make out some words through the translucent paper.

"Is this why you're late? Did someone confess to you again?" Kuga teased, "How'd it feel to break this unlucky girl's heart, huh?"

Satoshi rolled his eyes at his pestering friend, easily grabbing the note from his hands. "It's nothing like that, she just gave it to me," he confessed as he tucked it back into his blazer.

"What an oblivious prince you are, Isshiki," Kuga remarked, slouching back into the chair, sucking the straw of a practically empty juice box loudly.

"I don't want to talk about that, Kuga-kun," Satoshi sighed, turning his attention back to his lunch. "Who were you talking about earlier?"

He observed the sudden squeeze of the blonde's hand, signaling to him that he had done his job at redirecting the conversation back to Kuga's outburst.

"That bitch! Little miss smartass!"

Confused, Satoshi turned towards Eizan, who was scrolling through his phone, obviously uninterested in the conversation.

"Kinokuni," Eizan replied, not bothering to look up.

"She called me a midget in front of everyone in the middle of history! Who the hell does she think she is, insulting me like that! She is such a stuck-up, rule-abiding, prude!"

Satoshi couldn't help but laugh, "You must have provoked her first, Kuga-kun."

"That he most definitely did," Eizan chimed in.

"Did not!"

"You were telling the whole class that she was grouchy because she was 'on the rag.'"

"Whatever, she deserved it!"

"Kuga-kun, you shouldn't say those things to girls. No wonder she insulted you back," Satoshi cautioned.

"Agh! Of course, you would defend her, Mr. Everyone-loves-me." Kuga jeered. "Hasn't she been getting on your nerves lately?"

Satoshi took a moment to think back to his interactions with Kinokuni Nene over the past couple of weeks, which frankly outside of council meetings, debate club and brief discussions in chemistry class were few and far in between.

However, before he could respond, Eizan beat him to it. "She's been getting on mine. Do you know how much of a pain she's been in terms of the stupid rules and protocols at meetings? Everything is about deadlines, deadlines, and deadlines! Not to mention all the work she's been giving everyone since the beginning of the year."

"You see! Who stuck a stick so far up her butt that made her so freaking cold and nasty to everyone? Honestly, how in the world is she our class president? If you hadn't decided to take the role of vice president last minute we wouldn't be in this position right now, Isshiki!"

Satoshi sighed at Kuga's reprimand, tired of hearing his chastising over and over again from that decision. "Kuga-kun, there was no guarantee that I would have won."

"Oh, don't play pretend with me! We all know, probably even little miss Pigtails as well, that you could have easily won with your popularity."

"Really? I guess we will never know," Satoshi brushed off the comment, returning a carefree smile much to Kuga's consternation. "The vice president has less work to deal with anyway. It's a better position for me."

"Hmph, whatever!"

Carried away by his fit of giggles at Kuga's expense, the talk of the council reminded Satoshi of some business he almost forgot to mention.

"Oh yeah, by the way, I need some help from you guys," Satoshi appealed, digging through his school bag to find his file of papers. "Here, look over these."

As the two looked over the handouts, Satoshi continued, "It's a proposal to Headmaster Senzaemon about a revision of the club activities schedule in the gym."

"Is this about the kendo club again?" Eizan asked, flipping the pages of the document.

"Yes, I want more time and space for us to practice. We can't keep sharing our sessions with the girls' volleyball team anymore. That's why I need you guys to support me during our semester meeting."

Kuga lazily flipped through the papers as he slouched into the back of the chair, uninterested in council talks. "Isshiki-chin," he sighed, "there's no way you'll get the seniors to back you up. Rindou-senpai is the captain of the girls' volleyball team. You think she'll voluntarily want to give up court time? On top of that, she basically has total influence over Tsukasa-senpai and Momo-senpai."

In agreeance, Satoshi nodded his head, already anticipating opposition from the third years. "Yes, but I'm pretty sure Saito-senpai and Megishima-senpai would back the kendo club."

"Even still it would be pointless," Eizan commented, "It would be a tie if we were to vote with you. The old man would break the tie and you already know that he'll rule against the revision."

"I at least need to get to the tie-breaker then! Our tournament is coming up and we need to practice. I really need both of you guys to vote in favor of the proposal."

"That would be stupid for us, Isshiki. You know the politics of the council. I don't think it's smart for us to vote against the seniors."

"Yeah, I especially don't wanna get on Rindou-senpai's bad side," Kuga interrupts, setting the papers on the desk. "Sorry, Isshiki-chin. I'll only vote if you have the majority."

What are friends for, huh? he thought, running a hand through his locks. "I can't guarantee that. Nakiri is on the girls' team as well." Satoshi groaned, racking his head for possible solutions before Kuga presented him with one instead.

"Aren't you forgetting about someone, Isshiki-chin?" Kuga raised his left eyebrow, teasingly.

Satoshi took a moment to realize who Kuga was hinting at. "Weren't you just complaining about her, Kuga-kun? You know that Kinokuni won't side with me on an issue like this."

The blonde broke out in a hardy (and annoying) laugh, causing Eizan to cover his ears to keep them from bleeding. "Ah, so you finally agree with us, huh? I'm sure she'll give you a pass, aren't you a special case after all, Isshiki-chin? Being her childhood lover and—"

"That's not true! I just stayed with her family for a while, that's all." Isshiki defended. "Plus, I'm sure she doesn't even consider me a friend, let alone anything more than that."

"Why don't you just work your female magic and charm a vote out of her then?" Kuga joked, returning to sucking on the air inside his straw and closing his eyes.

"Ha, yeah. How funny," Satoshi played along, laughing at the prospect of him hitting on Nene. Yeah, really funny. Picking at the grains of rice left in the container, he popped a piece of karaage in his mouth, chewing in the absence of the conversation that died minutes ago. Or so he thought.

Suddenly, Kuga jolted awake; standing up from his chair to pound his fists on the desk in revelation. The noise was enough to shock Satoshi and Eizan from their thoughts and turn their attention towards the invigorated student.

"That's exactly what you should do, Isshiki!" he shouted.

"Do what?" Satoshi asked, mid-chew.

"Ask Pigtails out!" At the announcement of Kuga's grand idea, Satoshi nearly choked on the chicken, coughing violently to the side.

"Wh— What!?"

"Think about it. If you start dating her, she'll vote on your side for your proposal. That way you can get the majority vote and pass the schedule. On top of that, it'll benefit us because she'll be more lenient and less of a pain in the butt for the council! You know what they say, Isshiki-chin? There is nothing more beautiful than a woman in love! It's a win-win situation for everyone! You get your vote and we get her off our backs." Kuga leaned closer to the brunette, looking straight into his friend's shocked blue eyes with fire and excitement, urging Satoshi to consider the idea.

Satoshi scooted his chair away from Kuga, overwhelmed by his friend's plan. "There is no way I could ever do that!" he hotly disagreed.

"Isshiki is right. I don't think that hag can even feel emotion, let alone fall in love," Eizan smirked, amused at his own comment. "Although, it would be quite funny to see this idiot try to woo her."

"You see! It's a deal then. If you can make her fall in love with you, Mr. Mob-face here and I will vote for your proposal at the end of the semester."

"Huh?!"

AN: My first real multi-chapter story! It's also my first real Isshiki!centric story. I initially wasn't going to upload this until I at least got most of it written, but my excitement couldn't wait. I'll try to keep my writing pace up so the wait between chapters isn't too long. I'm expecting this to run for about ten to eleven chapters so expect a long one :)

Oh yeah, if you couldn't tell, this is a Highschool!AU, so no cooking here. The school isn't really consistent with Japanese high schools or American, it's sort of a mixture of both so please bear with it! I also now have a headcanon forever in my brain that kendo would be something Isshiki would be really good at for some reason...Enjoy!