Souma knocked on the door to the Thomas dorms. He figured he may as well since Samantha wasn’t there to mess with, and he didn’t want Thea to freak out if he just stepped out of her shadow, though the idea was tempting. The door opened and a young man stared at him. Souma recognized him immediately and grinned. “Heya, Emmett! Is Thea here?”

Emmett frowned but nodded. “We’re playing Clue right now. Let me ask if you can come in.” The door started to close, and Souma panicked, putting his hand out.

“Whoa there, can you just let me in anyway? If she still doesn’t want me around, I’ll leave, but she’s been kinda hot and cold with me all week. I’d like to have a chance to talk to her before she gives me the boot, you know?”

Emmett sighed and opened the door again. “Fine, but I’ll help her kick you out if she doesn’t want you here.”

“I won’t hold it against you if you do,” Souma told him, still smiling. They went inside to the common room, and Emmett dropped into his chair at the table with Thea across from him. A couple of other students were on the couch watching TV, and they frowned as they looked up and saw Souma.

“What’s a Kazegami doing here?” one of them asked, starting to get up.

Thea sighed and waved them down. “Don’t worry about it, you guys. He’s here to see me and play this game with Emmett and I.”

The two shrugged and went back to their show, and Souma took a seat next to Emmett, feeling safer with him than with Thea. He watched them reset the board and then softly said, “So, I have no idea how to play this.”

“He’s not lying,” Emmett told Thea, who went wide eyed. “Yeah, it’s weird that he doesn’t know how to play, but given how the Kazegami act they may not have been allowed to play games.”

“That’s the truth of it,” Souma admitted, nodding. “My mom, when I was allowed to visit before she died, occasionally played Go Fish with me but that’s about the extent of my game knowledge. Well, except for when I was playing card games with Samantha the other day. She taught be a few.”

Souma watched Emmett nod at Thea again before she sighed and dug out the instruction booklet, handing it to him. “Read that, and we’ll explain anything you don’t understand,” she told him softly. “And, you know, maybe you can join us on Thursdays when we have our official game night. Samantha prefers card games, but she’ll concede to different games if it’s to teach someone how to play.”

“If you don’t mind, I’d love that.”

Emmett smiled at him, and then helped him understand the rules while Thea finished setting the board back up.

While her siblings were enjoying game night, Samantha was laying out in the gazebo with her phone out while looking up various date ideas for the coming Saturday outing with Kaguya, and looked up when she heard someone approaching. “Hey, Gianna,” she said, not really able to hide the slight disappointment that it wasn’t Kaguya, but amicably raising a hand at the redhead as she approached.

“So this is where you hide,” Gianna said, dropping down next to her. “I had to ask Souma when you weren’t at the dorm. Emmett’s a cute kid, by the way. He said you weren’t there, so I talked to him a little before I left. That’s where I found Souma, who somehow knew you were here. I swear he’s creepy sometimes.”

Samantha smiled fondly, choosing to ignore anything about Souma in favor of bragging on her kid brother instead. “Yeah, Emmett’s awesome. I’m not sure I could have handled this place without him, even though I still wish he could have gone to a public school.”

“Why’s that?”

“Emmett isn’t a fighter,” Samantha explained, absentmindedly playing a game on her phone. “He keeps up with his training so he’s not a bad fighter by any means, but he’s got such a soft heart, he can’t stand the thought of hurting someone. If there weren’t so many bloodthirsty people here, I wouldn’t worry so much.”

Gianna nodded. “I can see why that would worry you, having him here.”

“Yeah. So I try to keep him out of the line of fire as much as I can.”

“You can’t keep him totally safe here, Samantha. I’d talk your dad into letting Emmett transfer out as soon as possible if I were you.”

“I tried before we moved out here. But he said there wouldn’t be any problems since Emmett keeps his head down.”

Gianna didn’t know what to say to that, but she remembered her talk with Emmett and smiled. “Yeah, I can’t imagine anyone wanting to come after him. He’s too sweet a kid, after all.”

They stayed there for a moment, and then Samantha put her phone down. “Is Italian too cliche for a first date? Thea won’t tell me one way or the other.” After a moment she blushed. “I mean, not that we’re going on a date, I don’t think. She didn’t call it a date, but like-”

“Whoa there, wildcat. I get what you’re asking,” Gianna said, putting a hand over Samantha’s mouth and laughing. “No way is it too cliche. What better way to say you want it to be a date than by eating the food of the romantics?”

Samantha seemed to realize something and looked at Gianna with narrow eyes. “Wait, aren’t you of Italian descent?”

“Yeah, so I’d know right?”

“I wonder…”

“Hey, don’t go doubting my heritage now!”

“I’m not doubting your heritage. I’m doubting whether there’s a romantic bone in your body. You’re like a violent tornado. I just can’t imagine you being romantic.” Gianna hit Samantha in the stomach. “Oof! See? Violent!”

“I’ll show you violent!” She took another jab at Samantha who blocked it and they laughed.

“All right, all right,” Samantha groaned after a little while, holding onto her shoulder after Gianna got a good hit in. “Man, you didn’t hold back at all on that one.”

“Why should I?” Gianna joked, stretching as she started walking away. “You should get back to the dorm soon, instead of waiting until curfew. If the princess hasn’t come by now, I doubt she is.”

Samantha felt her face warm up, embarrassed that her reasons for hanging at the gazebo were so transparent. “I guess so. She’s probably just keeping her distance since we’re going to be going on a date this weekend, right?” Gianna just laughed and waved as she walked away, and Samantha got to her feet slowly, checking her phone for messages one last time. “Nothing still, huh.” She stuffed her hands, one with the phone, into her pockets and started leisurely walking to the dorm.

After a calming, roundabout walk back to the dorm, she opened the door only to raise a brow as she watched Souma jump up and start doing a victory dance with Emmett holding his stomach from laughter.

“You’re practically an honorary Thomas at this point, Souma,” she teased, smirking as she dropped down on an empty chair next to Thea. “You’re practically always here anymore.”

“I mean, it is more fun here than the Kazegami dorm,” he pointed out, grinning as he finished his dance and sat back down. Emmett raised eight fingers at him, and he pretended to be offended. “Only an eight, man? I could’ve sworn my dance was worth more than that!”

“An eight, really?” Thea asked, her tone droll as she tried to hide a smirk. “I’d give it a pity four, it was so horrible.”

“You wound me!”

“You’ll live,” Samantha told him, setting the board back up, this time including herself. “One more game and then we’ll definitely have to pack up. Since Souma can shadow-port back to his room, we can afford to cut close to curfew.”