It was long past midnight but well before dawn. An autumn chill had settled upon the Tōtsuki campus, turning breath to vapor and bringing long neglected blankets out of storage bins. But a sweet, doughy aroma wafted through the halls of the Polar Star dormitory, its warmth and richness sliding under doors and into the vast network of communication pipes.

Tadokoro Megumi twitched and sighed in her sleep as the smell permeated her until then innocent dreams. She mumbled the name of the one she loved into the down pillows that had always kept her secrets—not that it was much of a secret anymore. After a few minutes a strong desire for...dessert woke her, so she rolled out of bed, ran a comb through her free flowing locks and made her way down to the kitchen.

"You sleepwalking again, Tadokoro?" Souma asked when he saw her. Megumi noted that he was still wearing his Yukihira diner attire, which meant he probably hadn't gotten any rest after his late night shokugeki against Takumi Aldini. Takumi, along with nearly every other third year at Tōtsuki, was hoping to defeat him and take the school's top spot. Not even the professors could recall the last time a first seat had been so open to challenges.

"No," she laughed, still rubbing her eyes. "I'm up, for now at least." The sixth seat poured herself a glass of water and sat down at the kitchen table. "What'cha making?"

"Maple syrup dumplings. Wanna try?"

Megumi nodded, cheeks slightly flushed. It was the only reason she'd gotten out of bed. Souma ladled two of the plump, glistening treats onto a plate and set it down in front of her.

After blowing on it, she bit into the first one and felt a warmth blooming in her core, reminiscent of a frozen over branch thawing beautifully with the coming of spring. A river, stagnated by ice, began to flow again. Life returned to a barren world.

She licked the residual syrup from her lips. Almond essence, a hint of bourbon, caramel with the faintest bitterness...he really the best she'd ever known where things like sauces were concerned.

"I love it," she said, a faint blush dusting her cheeks. With them, confessions about food and feelings often worked in tandem. "Dessert shokugeki coming up?"

"With Nakiri Alice. First thing tomorrow."

Megumi shook her head ever so slightly. He was just incorrigible. Ever since he clinched the first seat of the Elite Ten Council earlier that month, Souma had accepted every single challenge offered to him, often multiple in a day.

"Ya really oughta get some sleep, Souma-kun," Megumi advised in her honey-sweet hometown drawl, the one that only slipped out when she was flustered or bone tired. "You've been looking a bit pale."

He shot her one of his winning, electric smiles—half intended to assuage her worries and the other half amused as ever by her accent. "Don't worry. I'll be fine."

Megumi's expression was doubtful to say the least. She'd been observing for over two years now, and this was how he always acted right before he crashed. "If you say so," she allowed. "Do you need any help?"

"Well, I've been trying to make the dumplings lighter. But you probably want to get back to bed."

"N-not at all!" She said too quickly, and she meant it.

They ended up tinkering with the recipe until morning, fingers brushing, shoulders touching just enough to plant a giddy feeling in Megumi despite the ungodly hour.

He won the shokugeki against Alice 2-1, as well as the twenty-two others that followed in the next few days.

All that week Megumi had been leaving onigiri and thermoses of tea out for him, as she always did when he was so consumed with cooking that he forgot to eat.

That rainy Thursday afternoon, as she was sitting in the kitchen, emailing potential judges for the upcoming Autumn Elections, Sakaki and Yoshino entered in high spirits.

"Megumi-chi," Yoshino whined. "You missed the best shokugeki ever! It was Yukihira vs Hayama-kun."

"Souma-kun won?" Megumi hardly had to ask. She continued to sip her tea and bite her tongue about how increasingly ridiculous she found the situation.

"He did, but for a while it looked Hayama-kun had him on the ropes! And then, and then! Tell her Ryouko-chi!"

Sakaki smiled an apologetic smile. "Yuki-chan, Megumi looks like she's busy right now. Maybe we should come back later."

"No, not at all!" Megumi insisted, finally looking up from her laptop. "I was just writing a few emails. I'm all ears."

Yoshino immediately stopped pouting. "Alright! So right after the match, in front of everybody, Kurokiba-kun and Erina-chi both challenged Yukihira. Next week is going to be exciting!"

For a split second, Megumi's expression shifted from annoyance to concern and then settled on a kind of resignation. "I suppose it will be," she sighed, all the while fighting down the feeling that this would not end well.

About an hour later Souma returned to the Polar Star dorm, half drenched and carrying a dozen grocery bags. He looked beyond exhausted, but she knew he'd never admit it.

"Hey Tadokoro," he panted, setting his ingredients down on the counter. "Do you wanna taste test a few recipe ideas?"

"As long as it doesn't involve dried squid," she joked, all the while fighting off memories of the most disgusting dishes.

Souma laughed at her horrified expression, but it quickly turned into a coughing fit that he tried in vain to stifle. He really did hate worrying her.

"Souma-kun." Megumi walked over and started rubbing his back. Her lips curved downward into a pensive frown. When the worst of the fit was over, she went to the fridge and poured him a glass of water. It was a few minutes before he could catch his breath.

He took a few sips of the water. "Thanks, Tadokoro."

Megumi winced a little at how hoarse he sounded. "Are you okay?"

"Throat's just a little sore. It's nothing." Then he shot her his classic don't-worry-about-me smile again, but it had been far more convincing the last time.

"That didn't sound like nothing." She had known that all the all nighters would catch up with him eventually. She rested the back of her hand on his forehead. "You're burning. You should go lie down. Does your head hurt? And are you hungry? I'll make some soup for you. And also-"

"Tadokoro," he interrupted her. No one had fussed over him like this since...well, since a time he could hardly remember anymore. "You don't have to-" he started before the cough overtook him again.

"It's because I want to," she insisted. "Now get some rest, okay?"

Megumi then got to work on the chicken soup recipe her mother had made famous throughout their hometown. She had just finished chopping up vegetables and herbs to add to her stock when the doorbell rang. She quickly washed her hands and half jogged the the front door.

"Oh, Tadokoro-san," Arato Hisako greeted as she stood in the doorway holding a manila envelope. "How have you been?"

"I've been well? Please come in, Arato-san."

"Is Yukihira around?" The seventh seat questioned. "I've brought over Erina-sama's terms for the upcoming shokugeki."

At this Megumi sighed. "I see."

"Of course, Erina-sama will be successful. But on the off chance that she is defeated, I'd like to issue a challenge to avenge her. Oh, and Hayama would like to schedule a rematch, maybe for Tuesday. And Aldini for Sunday, after Erina. And Mito-san wanted to schedule a shokugeki that has nothing to do with the first seat. I think she said something about him finally noticing her. So if you could just tell him-"

"Alright this has to stop!" Megumi shouted before she could catch herself. "O-oh my. I'm incredibly sorry for yelling, Arato-san. I mean, I know that for you and Nakiri-san and the rest, getting the first seat before graduation is really important, but now really isn't a good time. Souma-kun is exausted, and he doesn't feel well, so for now can you all just stop? Just for a little while?"

Hisako gave a sympathetic smile and made a note on the document in her folder. "I'll see what I can do," she assured.

When Hisako arrived back at the Nakiri mansion, Erina, Alice, and Ryo were all sitting in the parlor with yellow legal pads brainstorming ways to take the first seat.

"Hisako, you're back!" Erina greeted. "Did he agree to all my terms?"

"About that..." the seventh seat hedged as the second, fourth and fifth seats stared at her with an unnerving intensity. "I think we've become a nuisance to Tadokoro-san."

"What do you mean, Hisako?" Erina questioned.

Then Hisako relayed what Megumi had told her. "So at any rate," she concluded, "I think we should postpone all of our challenges until next month. I can deliver the message to Hayama and Takumi-kun as well."

"Aww, Tadokoro really takes care of him!" Alice gushed. "She's a better aide than you are, Ryo-kun."

"I'd say she's less of an aide and more of a girlfriend," the lethargic fifth seat countered while enduring Alice's slaps.

"G-girlfriend," Erina repeated. "Those two are..."

"See, Erina? This is why I told you not to be so slow," Alice chided.

"I don't know what you're talking about," the second seat said indignantly, arms crossed over her ample bosom. "It would take someone like Tadokoro to put up with such an irritating person."

"I don't know. That's not how it looked last year..."

"Shut up Alice!"

"If you face me in a shokugeki with the second seat at stake, I'll never mention the crush you had on Yukihira again!"

"There was no crush!" Erina shouted, red faced. "And fine! I'll accept the challenge if it puts an end to your slander!"

"Alright!" Alice cheered. "To the kitchen, Ryo-kun."

"Why do I have to come too?"

"In support of me! Support me more Ryo-kun!"

"Alright, milady Alice."

Late that night, before she went to bed, Megumi went to room 303 to check on her best friend. Souma was still sleeping—thank goodness—though his rest was punctuated with frequent coughs. The sixth seat frowned, thinking that his chest must hurt a lot. She tried her best not to wake him when she swapped the now-warm washcloth on his forehead with a cold one.

Still, he opened his eyes and smiled weakly at her. "Tadokoro." He sat up, leaning against the headboard.

"How are you feeling?" she asked, her voice full of an unbridled affection she was usually very good at keeping in check.

"Your soup helped a lot."

"I'm glad," she admitted. Megumi was about to say goodnight when he tensed and then started hacking into the crook of his elbow.

"Breathe, Souma-kun," she soothed while rubbing circles onto his shaking back. "Just try to relax."

The fit left him breathing heavily, massaging the middle of his chest. Megumi sighed, her hand still moving across his back. She wished she could do something more for him. Then a thought occurred to her. "Hold on a minute, Souma-kun."

She returned to her room, and through the bag of medical supplies her mother felt a young woman just couldn't leave for the big city without. In a few minutes, she went back to Souma's room with her grandmother's homemade vapor rub in tow.

"This should help a little," Megumi promised as she sat once again at the edge of the bed. He was half-asleep by then, which she'd expected. Hesitantly at first, she started to massage his chest with the salve. A blush crept onto Megumi's face as she considered how intimate the act was—what on earth would her mother think? And while she truly did love all of her friends, she couldn't think of another she'd do something like this for. But she wouldn't pretend for a moment that she didn't know why.

She stopped her ministrations once his breathing had evened out a bit. "Goodnight Souma-kun," Megumi whispered as she got up and left for her own room again. "Feel better soon."

Author's Notes: Hello, Somegu fandom! I just wanted to clarify the rankings within the elite ten for this story. From first seat on it goes: Souma, Erina, Hayama, Alice, Ryo, Megumi, Hisako, Takumi, Ikumi, some very talented second year. Thanks so much for reading! Have a great day!