Another day at Shuchiin academy, another incident that needed to be resolved! The doors to the student council room and entered a first-year girl, looking quite timid. The president, sitting stoically at his desk sifting through papers, looked up at the sound of the door opening and got out of his chair to address the girl.

"Hello, welcome to the student council room. What do you need from us?"

The girl shifted where she stood as she looked into the president's sharp gaze. "Th… there are some delinquents hanging out in the back of the main building, and I think they're up to no good. Th-they had cans of spray-paint, and I think they're going to defile the school!" the girl exclaimed worriedly.

President Shirogane's eyes widened in surprised and considered his options. Thank you, miss…"

"Takayama."

"Takayama. Thank you for letting us know. We will deal with it right now."

"Thank you!" the girl bowed as she made her exit of the room.

"Anytime." Looking around the room, Shirogane gauged what everyone else was doing. Shinomiya was at the coffee table filling out similar paperwork to what Shirogane was doing and filing away accordingly. Fujiwara was at a club meeting, so she was absent from the room. Ishigami and Miko were hunched over Ishigami's laptop working on a financial spreadsheet when Miko stood up, facing the president.

"I'll go!" the petite girl exclaimed. Shirogane nodded, showing a lack of surprise. She was on the Morals Committee after all.

"That's fine, Miko. Go ahead."

Ishigami's eyebrow shot up as Miko volunteered. Sighing, he shut his laptop and stood up as well. "Could I go too?"

Miko whipped around and quickly attempted to protest, but not before the president nodded again and spoke.

"Sure, go for it. Two is better than one."

"Thanks, President."

Miko sputtered and pouted. She looked down, chestnut-brown hair swaying as she did so. She huffed and turned around, reasoning that if the president said it, then she just had to put up with it.

"Let's go, Ishigami," Miko impatiently commanded as she began walking out of the room.

"Wait up, jeez!" Ishigami called after her as he scrambled to catch up to her. Without a word, Miko continued to make her exit out of the room with Ishigami trailing behind.

"Y'know, you should at least wait for your partner."

Silence. Ishigami sighed and kept walking, his tired eyes passing over the back of Miko's head for a few moments before returning forward. Despite his own reclusive habits, the silence between the two killed Ishigami. The awkwardness as they walked was unbearable. He had to say something, anything!

"How many people are actually in the Public Morals Committee?"

Miko glanced backward slightly and regarded his question. "It's just Osaragi and I. Why?"

"Just curious. Besides, the silence was killing me."

"It's a shame that it didn't."

Damn.

With that, the conversation ended, plunging the pair into deeper silence. Once they had reached the bottom floor, Miko opened the exit and swung it open so that Ishigami could follow. Miko slowed her gait so that Ishigami could get within earshot, and she began speaking.

"Ishigami."

"Hm?"

"I… I really don't need you to be here. I never asked."

"Well, too late for that now," Ishigami shrugged.

"My point still stands."

"Whatever."

They rounded the corner of the building and overheard some boisterous laughing and the sound of spray paint cans clacking as they were shaken. Miko immediately broke into a light jog, with Ishigami following suit. Upon arrival, they found three athletic-looking teenage boys wearing uniforms not from Shuchiin. Miko furrowed her eyebrows and marched over to the delinquents setting out multiple colors of cans.

"Hey! You guys aren't allowed to be here, and you're not going to defile our school!"

The boys jumped and turned around, scared at having been caught, but upon seeing the girl of small stature in front of them, all three visibly relaxed.

"And what are you going to do about it? Kick us in the shins?" the leader of the three jeered as his cronies laughed with him.

"Why you… I'm going to report you to the police!"

"You're about the size of a middle schooler. You can't do shit," the boy spoke. He rolled up his sleeve and approached Miko, who began to backpedal as a result.

"Now leave, or you're gonna be tasting my fist for the next week."

Shrinking, Miko tried to open her mouth to counter him, but nothing came out, save for a scared squeak. Before the boy could take another step closer though, another voice that the boy hadn't heard before rang out.

"Hey, asshole! Pick on someone your own size!"

The boy turned toward the sound and saw Ishigami tiredly walking toward him. "Are you trying to fight? You and what army?"

Ishigami raised an eyebrow at him. "Do you wanna find out?"

Seeing as his intimidation tactic had failed, the boy stomped over to him in a last effort to scare off the skinny student. Ishigami, however, stood fast, sizing up the aggressor and staring him down. Fed up, the larger boy charged at Ishigami, fist raised to strike. Instead of turning tail and running, Ishigami lowered his stance and readied his arms. As the boy reached his destination, arm raised to fire a mighty haymaker punch, Miko shouted from behind him.

"Ishigami! Look out!"

The warning was unnecessary, however, as when the attacker followed through with his arm, he suddenly felt a hand grab his wrist and another grab his bicep. There wasn't enough time to process what was happening, as at the end of it, the boy was on his back, completely winded after being slammed to the ground by a very deft aikido throw. Ishigami stepped back, preparing for a second attack as the boy he had just thrown had brought himself to his feet, rearing to go again. He charged at Ishigami, which was the action that sealed his fate. The boy reached Ishigami once again, and the black-haired boy swiftly sidestepped, parrying his arm with his right hand and immediately latching onto his wrist. His left hand instinctively landed on the boy's upper arm, and using the captured arm as leverage, Ishigami used the charging bull's momentum to bring him to the ground, wrenching his attacker's arm upward in an elbow lock as he placed a knee on his back.

The attacker, now face down in the concrete, struggled to push himself up but ultimately failed, as Ishigami had placed strict control on his entire body with just the capture of one arm. Ishigami looked at the boy's nearby cronies and glared at them.

"Anyone else?"

The delinquents' eyes shifted from their leader and between each other, and both of them made a break for it, much to the despair of their leader.

"Wh- Hey! Wait! Get this guy off me!"

The shout fell upon deaf ears, as the two other boys were long gone. Ishigami released the leader's arm and commanded him to get up. Enraged, the boy moved to attack Ishigami once again, but after seeing the murderous glint in Ishigami's eye, he thought against it and hightailed it out with the rest of his posse. Once all three boys were out of earshot, Ishigami exhaled as he doubled over with his hands on his knees. That was way more than he had originally signed on for. When he looked up, he saw a concerned-looking Miko jogging over to his position.

"Ishigami! Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Ishigami said, rubbing the small of his back. "Although, throwing that kid popped like, four vertebrae in my spine. That wasn't fun."

"Speaking of which, where the heck did you learn how to do that?"

"Oh, I did Aikido when I was in elementary and middle school. I hit black belt and quit after… well…"

"Oh..." Miko said as her eyes shifted away from Ishigami's. She felt a small tingling rise from her stomach and she met Ishigami's eyes once more.

"Listen. I didn't need you! I could've handled that myself!"

"Sure you could've. But three against one is hardly fair, is it?"

"I… I guess…"

"You don't have to do these things alone, you know."

"What?"

"You can ask for help. No one's gonna toss you aside."

Miko went quiet and looked down at her feet.

"Miko, I know what you're thinking right now, with all the election crap that happened in middle school. The past doesn't define you. What you have now does, and things can change. You're not alone anymore. You have us, the student council. We'll be there to help you if you need it. Don't worry okay? We're not leaving any time soon," Ishigami consoled her as he placed a reassuring hand on Miko's shoulder and smiled gently.

Ishigami was prepared for Miko to retort with some comment about how cheesy and stupid what he said was, but what Ishigami wasn't prepared for, though, was a full breakdown. Miko sniffled, the edges of tears bubbling up her throat, threatening to begin pouring out of her eyes. When Ishigami placed his hand on her shoulder, the barrier gave way, and the tears she desperately tried to hold back flooded out as she began to wail. Years of pain, sadness, and loneliness were starting to be eroded away, and she clung to the very boy she antagonized. Ishigami took a steading step backward, as he also didn't prepare for Miko Iino of all people to cling to him as she cried. He silently embraced the sobbing girl and drew calming circles on her back with his palm.

If Miko was going to be honest with herself, she had never had anyone stand up for her like that. Sure, Osaragi had defended her in the past, but those times were nothing like this. Seeing Ishigami, the lazy, rule-breaking lummox, stand up and put his safety on the line for her after all of the arguing and bickering between them had written a deep verse in the depths of her heart, carving itself deep into the stone recesses of her emotions. Being held by him now, she felt her heart beat faster and faster as she poured all of her pent-up negativity into his chest.

Slowly but surely, her sobs settled down, and she simply was just taking in Ishigami's warmth and the feeling of his arms around her, pulling her into a sense of comfort she hadn't ever felt before. Miko settled into him, craving more of this newfound feeling. The arguably less awkward silence was broken by a soft question from Ishigami.

"Are you gonna be okay?"

Miko nodded into his chest.

"Do you wanna head back up now?"

Her arms were pinned between them, so she grabbed Ishigami's sweater and pulled him in closer.

"I'll take that as a no."

They stood in private silence for just a while longer, with Ishigami continuing to rub her back as Miko occasionally sniffled. Eventually, Miko separated herself from Ishigami and spoke hoarsely.

"I'm ready."

"Alright."

With that, the pair walked in a comfortable quiet up toward the student council room. They stopped at a bathroom on the way up so that Miko could clear her face, and when they arrived at the council room, everyone was none the wiser. However, President Shirogane noticed an easier air surrounding Miko and Ishigami as they sat down, observing the slight upward curve of their lips as they talked to each other about the spreadsheet they were working on. It's about time, the president thought to himself as he resumed his work.

This was just a filler I wanted to write after finishing all of season two of Kaugya-Sama: Love is War today with a buddy of mine because holy shit these two are SO CUTE. Credits to a friend of mine for the prompt! If/When they make an account here, I shall link them accordingly.

Something about Nighthawk! I'm reworking the sword skills system (and created a bow skills system), as I don't like how it works both in the anime and in the video games. It's taking a little time but it should be done by today, which means the last chapter of Nighthawk for a while will be posted hopefully today as well, if not early tomorrow.

As to why it's the last chapter for a while, I'm going to be off the grid for two months due to military training! I'll be back around September, so don't worry, I won't be gone for too long.

If you read this far, thank you for reading, and have a wonderful summer!