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You could hear an ant whisper throughout the crowdless hallway. 

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The little taps echoed, bouncing off the tiles.

Aren hoisted the bag higher on his shoulder, the move proving useless as the strap slid down yet again. Unfazed, the boy halted in his tracks, sliding open the door.

Mornings in PK Academy were relatively calm and soothing compared to the shenanigans that typically happened during lunch. Per usual, it was nothing more than gentle murmurings from students and their friends. By this time, it was usually interrupted by–

“Put me down you big oaf!” A shrill shriek pierced the relatively calm atmosphere. 

And there they were–

“What’s wrong chibi? It’s not all that high,” Nendou teased. 

His friends!

Nendou was dangling Shun up in the air by the collar of his school jacket, causing Shun to hang several feet off the ground. The chuunibyou was scrambling rather comically mid-air, squawking incessantly as Saiki disinterestedly stared out the window. The pinkette’s eyes slid over to Aren’s, giving him a slow blink in recognition. Aren smiled, throwing up a friendly wave before plopping his bag down and sauntering to the trio.

“Morning boys,” he greeted, giving Nendou a pat on the back. Tilting up his head, he smiled at Shun, whose face was flushed cherry red. The bluenette’s devil red eyes lit up at the sight of his friend, then a sudden shift. Shun’s hand reached to cover his face, the shadow of his fluffy hair obscuring an eye, the crimson bandage on his hands trailing in an unseen breeze.

“Ah, Aren! The Dark Reunion struck again last night!” Shun announced, arms flailing out dramatically. His voice and tone had darkened by a smidge. Aren jerked his head up to motion for him to proceed, a grin decorating his face. It was quite comical to see the short boy attempting it act mysterious and intimidating despite the fact he was precariously hanging by his jacket, a foot or two off the ground.

“Last night, the Dark Reunion unleashed a beast from its depths to hound after me through the dark,” he whispered mysteriously, effect ruined by the rather audible voice crack that wormed its way out of his mouth. “With my all-powerful Black Beat, I vanquished it into the void!” the teen exclaimed.

Aren nodded encouragingly with a hum as he set down his bag in his seat. He glanced over to Saiki, whose pink eyebrows seemed to raise by the slightest at Shun’s fantasies, but said nothing. Aren must be overthinking it.

“C’mon now, give him to me, Nendou.” The purple-haired teen stretched out his arms to the scrappling boy held aloft in the air.

Nendou gave Aren a childish pout, turning his nose up in the air faux-haughtily. “Fine, but we gotta get ramen after school,” the thuggish-looking teen huffed in response, promptly releasing Shun’s jacket and dropping him into Aren’s arms.

The former-thug caught Shun by the armpits as he dropped.

Shun’s milky cheeks stained cherry pink, mouth agape in the midst of a surprised squeak, eyes flitting bewilderedly as he was abruptly dropped by Nendou, then was supported by Aren’s warm hands.

It may just… Maybe it was the way the soft morning rays hit Shun just right… illuminating him oh-so perfectly… Maybe it was the way Aren’s mind immediately likened Shun to a fuzzy little bunny, with his fluffy hair and all… It may have also been the way Shun's long, brush-like lashes batted to cast a hypnotising spell over him. It might have even been the way the devil red of Shun’s eyes looked so angelic as they widened by the slightest. Transfixed, was the word suitable to describe Aren in this situation…

“Aren… can I get down now?” Shun’s voice knocked Aren back to reality–

A reality where it was definitely not appropriate to hold your homie in your arms for a ridiculously long amount of time.

With a jerky nod, Aren stuttered out some unintelligible words and set his friend down. Said friend dusted himself off, eyes doing nothing but displaying relief of having finally made contact with the ground. If there was any show of embarrassment on Shun's part earlier, it immediately vanished the second his feet reunited with the tiles of the floor.

Just as the blue-haired boy was about to squawk out flustered words of thanks, their teacher entered the classroom, prompting them to slide back to their seats.

°•☆~¤~☆•°

Class was… class…

Shun was paying rapt attention to the lesson, right hand scribbling down notes in his notebook. Occasionally, his diligent note-taking would morph into snippets of the adventures of Jet Black Wings, then revert back to the words on the board. His left hand remained useless for this time period, fingers alternating between drumming on the desk and fiddling with his frayed bandages.

Speaking of which, he wanted to change them, his bandages couldn't hold against his Black Beat forever… Meaning he had to buy some bandages, preferably softer ones, and dye them to that one specific shade of red he liked and tear them up a little, or maybe he should try fingerless gloves for a change, though his mother might ask what the expenses were for.

His eyes flicked over to Aren–

‘Maybe I can ask Aren for some spare ones, he does use them when he rides on his bike…’

His gaze switched to Aren’s hands–

‘His hands are pretty large though, compared to mine…’

He looked down on his own bandage wrapped hands–

‘They probably might not fit… Maybe he has some from his younger days…’

He turned back to blatantly stare at Aren’s hands, his right hand now slack and unmoving–

‘His hands look rather worn don't they? If I squint I could probably see some faint scars and tan lines,” he mused.

‘I wonder what it would be like to hold them-’

He snapped his head up, his posture suddenly poker-straight, ruffled by his sudden thoughts.

It was weird to randomly think of holding someone's hand in the middle of class, let alone the hand of your best friend! Grimacing at himself, he zoned back in and found his right hand had continued writing, the contents, he didn't know.

Taking a peek at his writing on the pre-printed lines, his eyes widened rather comically–

Oh Lord, he'd written everything down!

He scribbled everything out, then deciding to rip the page out as the shame had festered for too long. Whatever, he could always copy off Saiki at break anyway.

Getting back into his studying mindset, he refocused on the lesson. His mind didn't trail off to Aren again… (it did…)

*°•*°•♡•°*•°*

Break was a normal affair if you didn't include Hairo and Nendou engaging in an arm wrestling competition. (Hairo got absolutely demolished after an impressive period of time, and all the while Nendou was picking his nose, typical)

The final classes were finished just as rain began to pelt down. The little group of friends decided to return home immediately instead of going for ramen (much to Nendou's dismay) as they usually do.

Saiki had already gone off into the heavy downpour, Nendou had already hunkered off somewhere after a minute or two of literally prodding at Shun's face, leaving Aren and Shun alone at the entrance.

Shun was thankful he had the foresight to pack an umbrella in the morning, smugly grinning to himself as he shook it out properly and opening it with a flourish. Meanwhile, Aren was slouching at the entrance with his bag lazily slung across his back, watching…

“I'm going to go now… Are you fine being here… alone?” Shun asked, looking up at Aren, head unconsciously tilted questioningly. Aren nodded slowly, casting a glance as the brutal pounding of the rain. Of all days, today was the day he decided to walk to school.

The purple-haired teen shrugged with a sigh, running a hand through his hair, “I s’pose I could wait it out, y'know?” He internally cursed himself for looking so stupid and unprepared before Shun. Who knows what the boy could be thinking of him now!

Without the slightest acknowledgement to the rosy blush on Aren’s cheeks, Shun jerkily tilted his umbrella to him.

“I-I mean,” a nervous chuckle slipped, “I- You- We could always share the umbrella, it's b-big enough…” Shun’s voice trailed off to a whisper at the end of his sentence.

No one needed to know of the leap Shun’s heart made when the headlights of a passing car lit up Aren's sharp features all too finely; and not a soul should even hear wind of how Shun's eyes greedily followed Aren's hair as he ran it through his hair; and not a person should be aware of how Shun felt like he was struck by lighting a million times over when his best friend's eyes pierced his.

Silence blared within the small area as Aren weighed the pros and cons of joining Shun, torn between wanting to spend time with his friend, yet not wanting to hinder the small teen.

Shun was knew all too well that Aren was overthinking it, and he knew just as well the remedy to it–

“I promise you I don't mind it at all, you know? We always drop you off first anyway,” the bluenette added in a unsure whisper.

There they stood for a few moments, lost to the world just for those fleeting seconds. Shun looked all too ethereal standing under his umbrella, the rain framing him in such a way that it more or less matched up to Teruhashi’s glow, but with such a simplicity. Aren brought a sullen, captivating, all-encompassing quality to them, yet not in a way that made you want to cower, but in the way of how the night sky seems so dark and picturesque. Rain danced around Shun; wind waltzed around Aren; the contrast was oh-so simple.

In an unplanned, daring move, Shun entwined Aren's hand in his and yanked the latter along with him under his umbrella. The purple-haired teen let out a yelp at the sudden jerk. His arm tensed up in reflex, his head instinctively telling him to hit, but he refrained. Thankfully, nothing was picked up by his friend.

Aren was a shave away from directly colliding with Shun due to the force of the pull, ending up with both of them bare inches away from each other, Shun's smaller, colder hand just barely curled around Aren's larger, warmer one.

Too intense, too magnetic, too electrifying… Too much to just describe an accident between two friends; best friends in fact. Each bit of skin contact, every intake and release of breath amplified, so much so that Shun barely noticed his slackening grip on the umbrella, the crystal bullets of rain dripping on his bag.

Devil red falling into plum purple; plum purple falling into devil red; heavy pants synchronising; grips tightening–

Should I continue this?