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“So you want me to do… what?”
Teru and Akane are sitting in the student council room across from each other. Teru had tried to make conversation— something about an exorcist dinner— and Akane was barely listening. Usually, he’d be strung up by now and forced to listen to whatever horrible idea Teru had, but it hadn’t come. If only it had, because now he’s very confused.
Teru has a sheepish expression on his face, and he’s scratching his cheek.
“It’ll do you good to listen when people talk to you,” Teru sighs, and he expects to be zapped. “But, I want you to accompany me to the event.”
“An exorcist event. You want me, the person you call a half cockroach, to join you around a bunch of exorcists? That seems like it’ll go well.”
“You do realize you only have that sort of presence when in the school, right? Your clock doesn’t work outside.” Huh, he hadn’t even thought about that.
He goes to ask if there’s anyone else he can bring instead, but catches himself. The only people he really calls his friends are somehow him, Kou, Nene, and maybe Aoi. He wouldn’t send the girls through this torture, and he doesn’t want his family involved in their job. Wait.
“Can’t you just go by yourself?”
“It’s a tradition to bring someone.”
“And who did you bring before?”
“I was the plus one for my father.” He looks away when he says it, and Akane realizes how serious this ask is. “He’s not going to be here tonight, go figure. Apparently I’m old enough to fill in for him now.” He almost wants to say no to rub salt in the wound.
“I’ll go, I guess.” Teru lights up, and he flinches.
“Really?”
“Don’t make me regret it.” Teru proceeds to tell him details of the event like dress code, what he obviously can’t say (he got zapped for a rude comment at that section, but he’s obviously not going to say he’s a school mystery.), the type of food, etc.
A few days passed by with Teru strangely being a little nicer than usual, and then it was the day. He was told it was a “casual formal” event— whatever that means— so he wore a white button-up and black slacks. He considers bringing a jacket, but decides it’ll be too much. If Teru mentions it, he’ll grab it.
A knock at his door has him rushing down the stairs, and opening the door shows him Minamoto Teru. He’s in a grey suit jacket and slacks, covering a black button-up and yellow tie.
“Oh, I should probably grab my suit jacket—”
“No that’s, that’s fine. Guests don’t need to dress as nicely.” There’s very obviously something off about the way he says it, like he’s holding something back. He’s also a little red in the face, eyes looking anywhere but at him.
“Are you positive? I’m kinda representing you, aren’t I?”
“Yeah, but, that’s good. You look good.” The silence is tense, and Akane has no idea why he’s this worked up. Could he really not want to go this badly?
“You have everything, yeah? Then let’s go! The drive isn’t that long.” Having turned around after the first sentence, it’s a little difficult to hear him. Akane gets the gist, though, and locks his door on the way out. They get into his car, but he doesn’t turn it on.
“Pres?”
“I know I mentioned stuff not to say a few days ago, but I remembered other stuff earlier. Obviously, don’t tell anybody anything that the average student wouldn’t know, and just… be careful. There’s gonna be a few people that might talk to you to try and get family secrets or practices. I would prefer to be by your side the whole time, but I have to make the rounds instead of my dad now. It should only be a few minutes, then we’ll be together. ♡” Akane’s face scrunches up.
“Like I’d want that in the first place.” Teru starts the car, a sad look in his eyes that Akane doesn’t know the cause of. He doesn’t move after that.
“One last thing, look at least a little interested in being here? I don’t want it getting back to my father that I brought someone here unwillingly.”
“I can’t promise anything, but I’ll try.”
“…Thank you,” he says, putting the car into drive and starting the journey.
It only takes a few minutes for them to pull into a parking spot. They’ve ended up at a building that looks like an office, and through the window, he can see a multi-color triangle garland.
“Are you sure this is the right place? I expected something outdoors, really.”
“That’s where it usually is, but last year people got bitten by ticks, and they had to move it. What they’ve done to decorate the space, I have no idea.” His eyes are locked onto the same window Akane had noticed earlier.
”Oh, before I forget,” Teru turns to him with a yellow bracelet in his hand. “All the families have a specific color they wear, and ours is usually yellow. Wearing this is just to identify who you’re with, so keep it visible.”
“And you’re positive I’ll be able to move when I’m wearing this,” he asks, though it’s not really said like a question.
“Yes? Now come on, we’re going to be late.” He carefully slips the bracelet on Akane himself and rushes out of the car. Checking his watch tells him they’re ten minutes early, but he follows suit anyway.
They go inside, and Teru opens a door to the left. Inside is an office space devoid of any cubicles, instead containing long tables and cheap pink party decor.
“What the hell?” Teru mumbles, only loud enough for Akane to hear, before putting on a smile and joining the group of people that greeted him. He decides to take a seat at the closest table, facing the door.
There aren’t many people yet; some kids are seated together at the end of the table closest to the wall. Their parents seem to be in the same circle by the food as Teru, and some steadily join or take a seat elsewhere. He pulls out his phone to keep himself busy. Sometime after that, music starts playing. It’s most likely a top 100 hits playlist, if the decorations are anything to go by, but he’s not listening to it enough to care.
By the time that group disperses, the people in the room have doubled. Caterers are bringing food out (from where he’s not sure), and a small line has formed in front. He intends to join it, but someone sits across from him.
“You smell a little singed. Are you alright?” The question startles him a little. Teru hasn’t zapped him in a while, and he knows he washed everything badly affected the same day. Still, he decides to be polite (as an excuse to talk badly about Teru).
“Yeah, I’m alright.” A dismissive wave of his hand causes the beads to clatter a little, and their eyes lock onto it. “The person I’m with tends to zap me often, though, most of the time for no reason. I swear, he’s the worst person to work with.”
“You know, his father used to accidentally zap his mother all the time when he was flustered. I’m sure it’s just the same thing.” The mention of Teru’s family startles him. Also, “flustered”? More like hatred. “I wouldn’t mess this up, if I were you.” They tack on at the end, getting up to greet someone who just walked through the door. Akane sits there, very confused by the interaction. “Mess this up”? They’re not even friends; he’s just here to be nice.
Exorcists are nuts.
He finally gets up to join the food line, which is much longer than it was when he first planned to go, and feels a tap on his shoulder.
“Hi Aoi~” Teru says, elongating the “ee” sound. He’s an inch or two away from their shoulders touching, and he’s smiling. But the way it doesn’t meet his eyes, nor has any teeth showing, tells him it’s already been a rough time. From how confusing his conversation was, he can only imagine how melted the other’s mind is at this point.
“Hey, Pres. How was it?”
“It went fine, just technique stuff as usual. There’s been a resurgence…” Akane continues to listen to Teru’s summary, nodding at appropriate points. He seems happier than before their conversation started, and Akane’s glad he doesn’t have to deal with anything childish at the moment.
“We’ll probably be joined by people the moment we sit down. I’ll try to keep you out of the conversation as much as I can,” he whispers in his ear once they’re close enough to get plates, and cuts in front of him. His eye twitches.
“Hey, I can handle a few questions sent my way.”
“I don’t think you…” He trails off. “Well, if you’re so sure.”
“Yeah, and I’m also sure that you’re acting weird. It’s felt like you’ve been holding back what you want to say all week. There’s obviously something on your mind. Just say it.”
“Not here,” then, hesitantly, “I’ll tell you later.” Minamoto Teru, emotionally closed-off final boss, isn’t waiting until he’s backed into a corner to talk about what he’s thinking?
Teru walks off, done selecting what he’s going to eat, and Akane follows suit. They’re back at the table Akane was originally sitting at, with Teru to his left.
People continue to sit at the different tables, and Teru is swept up in conversation instantly. Akane listens, and surprisingly understands most of the concepts they discuss. Whenever he doesn’t recognize something, it’s not explained; Teru’s silent way of leaving him be. Even if he said he could handle a conversation or two, he appreciates his consideration. Also, he’s still thrown off by that person from earlier.
Eventually, the conversation turns to him.
“Speaking of, who did you bring with you today?” a woman with her hair in a ponytail asks.
”Oh, I’m Aoi Akane. Pleased to meet you.”
“Are you an exorcist as well?” the man next to her asks, black hair slicked back with gel.
”No, I’m not.”
”That could be troublesome,” he says, and Teru’s body language changes. He opens his mouth, but the woman says “Don’t worry, we won’t tell your father,” and it closes with a smile. “You’re the eldest of three; he’ll be happy as long as one of his kids carries on the legacy.” They laugh, and the way he joins them is tacky, like a sticky candy stuck to the roof of your mouth.
“Well, how did you two meet?” she asks.
“Through student council.” The lie is as easy as breathing. It would’ve been the truth if Akane hadn’t been pinned to a wall with a sword to his throat while trying to clean a clock three days into his first year in the school. “I ran for vice president two years back and got the position.”
“That was quick,” the man says, and Akane is tired of these people’s habit of referring to something he doesn’t know.
“Yeah,” Teru says. “We just really hit it off.” Really, the only thing that “hit” was Teru’s bracelet into his face. Akane nods anyway.
“It must be lovely getting to work with and see him every day.” Her head is faced towards Teru, but it feels like the question was for him instead.
“It’s wonderful. Such a shame I only have a year left.” A very happy, amazing shame in Akane’s opinion. A whole year without having to double-check for burns and take pain meds from the drops and strains the beads make.
“It sucks that I’ll never see you again once you graduate,” he jokes.
“We’re keeping in touch and you know that,” he says, and he almost laughs. Since when was that happening?
“On the topic of keeping in touch…” the woman prattles on about people and things he doesn’t know, and lets Teru listen intently for him.
There are only a few people standing now; most of the seats taken by eating families and coworkers. The chatter, while softer, is abundant. Combined with the music, you can hear the people closest to you without having to yell, but not further than that unless you really listen. And with eyes occasionally flicking in their direction, it seems they’re one of the groups positively affected by it.
Teru flicks his leg, bringing Akane back to the table. The woman is talking to the man next to her when Teru says:
“Mind if we excuse ourselves for a moment? I need to show him where the bathroom is.” Akane stares at him, ready to protest.
“Oh, the way is a doozie! Good luck finding it; we’ll keep your seats.”
Now that he has no choice, he gets up and follows him out into the hall. Out here, there’s a pair of people having a small conversation, words going near silent as they watch the two pass by. They pick up once they’re out of view, but by then he wasn’t listening.
He lets Teru guide him through the halls, not focusing on where they’re going. What he’s instead focusing on is the way his suit is fitted. The jacket hugs his torso and arms, a look that would make his fans’ noses bleed. But, the arms end shorter than the undershirt, something easily unseen, and he highly doubts it’s just the style.
And his slacks almost cling to his legs, folding up more than usual to account for his legs bending. It gives him the idea that his suit doesn’t actually fit him, especially when he takes the jacket off after reaching a secluded corner. Teru turns around to face him.
“Do you have more events like this in the future?” He asks, stopping Teru from voicing his thoughts.
“Um, yes. Can I speak now?”
“We should go get you fitted for a suit at one point. If I noticed how it fit, then someone else must’ve noticed too. I’d rather save you the embarrassment of getting called out.”
Teru looks at him with awe in his eyes, his jaw hanging open. He blinked a few times, hung on the words he spoke.
“Yeah, sure.” His voice is breathy, like he spoke when he was breathing out. He proceeded not to say anything, despite having something on his mind that he was willing to share the whole time. He regrets saying anything. Really, he should’ve cut the suit shorter; make him see how it feels to be inconvenienced for once.
“You had something to say?”
“Not anymore,” he grins, pissing Akane off.
“Come on, you’ve had something on your mind all day, and suddenly it’s not important? We both know it is. Just let it out!” He’s raised his voice a little by now, peeved that this keeps happening when it comes to Teru and his thoughts. He really shouldn’t care this much about them, but he’s desperate for anything he can use to either get a read on the guy or ruin his reputation.
“It was about… this. I wasn’t sure if you really had the same idea that I did, but you surprise me every time.”
“What, that I’m coming here to do you a favor so you don’t get in trouble with your dad?”
“If that’s what you want to call it,” he winks, putting back on his jacket before walking back where they came from. He leaves Akane there, gawking at what he just said.
“What do you mean ‘if that’s what you want to call it,’ that’s what it is!”
After they got back to the main room, some people eyed them curiously. Akane assumed they took too long for it to be a convincing bathroom break, but Teru had a slight blush on his face that said he had another idea. Akane considers a few things, but he’s positive they’re maturer than high school students.
They get back to their seats— which the pair did save for them, shockingly— and Akane checks his phone to see there’s an hour left. A smile comes on his face when he sees a text from Aoi, hoping that he’s still alive after whatever Teru’s dragged him to. (He didn’t give her any of the finer details, just the reason why he couldn’t hang out at her place.) He texts, “I’m alive, but everyone’s acting really weird. I want out of here as soon as possible,” and she responds with an image of a sad cat. Definitely stolen from Nene.
“Who’re you texting?” Teru asks, and he normally glares or asks why he cares. But whenever Aoi texts, he still can’t help but always talk about her, even if he’s stopped trying for her hand in marriage.
“Ao-chan. She was checking in to make sure I’m still alive.” The smile on his face is probably the first one he’s had all day, and he can tell that thought makes the blonde sad. Good.
“Do you mind if we switch with you?” a girl with dark pink hair says to the adults across from them.
“Of course!” The man says, and within seconds, there are two women in their place. The second one, the one across from him, has dirty blonde hair that falls to her shoulders. She starts talking to Teru about the occurrence of supernaturals in their neighborhood, and it’s another conversation he can easily tune out.
He gets introduced once more, telling the same lie about how they met. This time, they’re “both lucky to have each other.” How he’s lucky to constantly be in the presence of a maniac, he doesn’t know. After this, he thinks back to his suit shopping offer. It came so easily to him to invite him, and it’s probably because he’s done favors like that for others in the past. Well, more as a group thing than one-on-one like Teru’ll probably insist on this being. At least he doesn’t have to pretend to shop for himself this time.
He sees people steadily make their way out the door and head to the parking lot for their cars, wishing it were him. But people just keep sweeping Teru into last-minute conversations that keep them longer than either of them wants to stay. Soon, there’s a lull in the people visiting, and they practically run out the door and into their cars.
Akane’s sigh was full of relief when he plopped into the passenger side. Teru instantly turned the car on and went into reverse, escaping the lot with minimal resistance.
The short ride is spent in comfortable silence, both parties having been through too much conversation (even if Akane wasn’t partaking in over half of them). Teru’s hand occasionally twitches, but unless it comes with a threat, he’ll keep ignoring it.
They pull up to his house, and they both walk up to his door.
“Wait, when are we doing the suit shopping? I don’t think we ever set a time.” Teru asks as Akane fiddles with his keys.
“Um, overmorrow at two?”
“Overmorrow?” Akane puts his fingers to his temples.
“The day after tomorrow,” he deadpans, and Teru grins.
“Okay! See you for our date in two days!” He turns around to walk back towards his car, but Akane’s too confused to let him leave.
“Wait, huh?! Date?!”
“Yeah? That’s what today was, too.”
“You considered that a date?! I only went to be nice!” Suddenly, all the comments about him “being lucky” and the stares make sense. People thought they were in a relationship. Him. With Minamoto Teru. This would be the funniest idea anyone had thought of in a while, if it wasn’t happening to him in real time.
“You wanted to get me a new suit—”
“Because you look so stupid in that one! I could barely stand looking at you when I figured it out! Just because I’m not making heart eyes at Ao-chan doesn’t mean you get to do… this!” He flails his hands around with the last word. Teru looks so, so hurt, and he would’ve felt bad if he wasn’t so pissed.
“I thought my explanation was enough to give you context!”
“One you literally acknowledged I wasn’t listening to?” He goes quiet at that, looking down at the ground instead of him. It makes his blood boil further. He has several choice words he wants to say, but saying them means he stays in a conversation with the other boy, and that feels worse than stepping on Legos.
“I don’t want to see you right now,” he settles for, slamming his door shut and locking it. He overhears Teru’s car starting up, and the idea of slashing them flashes through his mind.