Chapter Text
Ike was in no way a morning person, having a bad habit of sleeping late and waking up when the sun had already risen far above the horizon. Thankfully, most of his classes were in the afternoon, so it never disrupts his beauty sleep.
Well, not today. It was 3 in the morning when his phone started blaring some cheesy pop song, jolting Ike awake from his slumber. He tried to go to sleep earlier the night prior—already dressed in his shirt and sweats and bundled up in thick blankets—yet he somehow only got a maximum of 40 minutes of sleep. Fuck his messed up sleep schedule.
Ike groggily tapped at his phone screen, willingly the loud music to go away, only to introduce a bright beam of light to shine from the device, piercing through the peace of the pitch black room.
Tired and most definitely sleep deprived, Ike considers lying in bed and shutting his eyes for just a few more minutes, but knowing himself, he'd probably oversleep and miss the flight.
He sits up, criss-crossed on his bed as he forces his eyes open, only to have them droop moments later. Ike frowns, silently cursing himself for not sleeping earlier that night. He makes a high pitched sound as he stretches his arms widely above his head, feeling his joints pop and muscles loosen up. Reluctantly, he slips off the comfort and warmth of his bed and into his fluffy bunny slippers, protecting his feet from the cold flooring of his bedroom.
His body moves on autopilot as he drags his feet around—brushing his teeth and throwing on a soft, baby blue sweatshirt and dark pants—all while half asleep. Ike messes with his hair abit, trying to arrange the locks of platinum blond hair on his head, but the attempt was rather fruitless. He huffs in defeat, ignoring his hair in favour of putting on his black rimmed, hexagonal glasses, blinking a few times as he adjusts to the clearer vision through the lenses.
It’s 3:45 when Ike finishes the last of his sandwich and apple juice, grabs his backpack and luggage, and leaves his apartment, gut bubbling wildly with anticipation.
His school was just a stone’s throw away from where he lived, so it didn’t take long for him to follow the lamp posts lining the avenue to the main gates. A stark contrast to the eerily silent street Ike was just ambling along, the quadrangle was brightly lit and bursting with energy and chatter from the other students.
How do they even have this much energy this early into the morning? Ike has no clue.
He finds Professor Evans trying, yet again, to get everyone to shut up and organise themselves so he can take the attendance before getting on the bus. “Students… please get into your pairs so I can make sure everyone is here…”
Luckily, everyone starts moving to their pairs, probably impatient to get on the bus instead of standing around at school.
“Good morning, Ikey,” Shu sing-songed, appearing next to the latter with a sly grin on his face, standing close enough so their shoulders brushed. Too tired to think of a rebuttal—maybe something witty—in response, he just mumbles a tired “g’morning”.
“Aww, is someone sleepy? Don’t worry, you can use my shoulder as a pillow if you want,” Shu offers, even if it was genuine, sounded impossibly snarky and mocking.
“You’re stupid,” is all Ike could muster in his exhausted state, the supposed insult coming off more pathetic than anything else. His brain was still mushy from just waking up, the cool morning air so soothing he almost nods off on the spot.
Before Shu can say something flirty in reply, Professor Evans interrupts him.
“Alright! Everyone is here!” Professor Evans announces, clapping his hands together once in satisfaction. He waves over to the driver behind the wheel in the bus parked right outside the school gates. At that signal, the bus doors folded open with a heave.
They take turns storing their luggage and large baggage in the compartment on the side of the bus before getting on. Ike followed the line as the class of students filed into the vehicle, Shu right behind him.
“Ike! Over here!”
Mysta yelled across the bus, gesturing to the empty seat next to him and waving him over.
Ike smiles and reciprocates, shimmying along the cramped, 1-person wide corridor down the centre of the bus.
He turns when he feels a tap on his shoulder. “You aren't sitting with me?” Shu says with an exaggerated pout. Ike rolls his eyes.
“You can find someone else to sit with—” Ike tries.
“Oh, and also, please sit with your partners! It's so that it's easier for me to keep track of everyone,” the professor calls out from the front of the bus.
Ike sulks, trudging over to the nearest empty seat before the people behind him start complaining that he's taking too long. He begrudgingly slides into the window seat and hugs his bag to his chest. Fine. Whatever.
Shu happily takes the seat right next to him, another one of those dumb smirks on his face, looking as smug as ever. Ike scoffs, leaning on the window on his left for support as he shifts as far away from Shu and his bullshit as possible.
He looks out the window as the bus pulls out of the gate and onto the main road, watching as the yellow lights outside blur at the speed they were moving at. His phone ‘ding!’s with a notification and he picks it up, switching the device on.
mys :D
NOOOO :((
IM SO SAD WE DONT GET TO SIT TGT WTFFF
ike <3
RIGHTTTT
i have to sit with shu… ;-;
mys :D
i mean you might as well get to know him? you’ll have to stick to each other for the rest of the trip anyw LMAOO
ike <3
easier said than done idiot :[
mys :D
just try?? you don’t have much of a choice atp D:
ike <3
T_T
Ike drops his phone onto his lap and mopes to himself, wallowing in his own misery. As much as he hates to admit it, for once, Mysta is right. He might as well try to be on good terms with him, if it means he'll get to enjoy his one and only chance to explore Paris.
It takes Ike a few seconds to muster up the courage, along with some internal dilemma, before he turns to the boy next to him. Shu was currently lazily scrolling through his phone, occasionally typing something down, wired earpiece running from his phone and plugged into his ears.
The platinum blond boy gently poked the shoulder of the boy to his right, pulling his gaze away from the screen and towards Ike.
“Hi.”
Shu pulls his left earbud out, smiling at him. “Hey, babe.”
Ike chooses to blatantly ignore that pet name that slides so smoothly and casually off the latter’s tongue, only furrowing his eyebrows in response.
“Do you think we should exchange numbers? Or something?” Ike suggests.
“Is this your way of flirting with me, Ike Eveland?” Shu chuckles cockily, clicking on his contacts for Ike to add his number.
“Don’t flatter yourself,” Ike deadpans, swapping phones so they could input their numbers into each other’s phones.
He simply saves his contact as “ike eveland :)”, before handing Shu’s phone back to him.
Ike takes his phone back, only to see the ravenette had saved his own contact in Ike’s phone as “my boy <3”.
“Wow, you really are shameless, huh,” he scoffs in disbelief, deciding to just leave it as it is as he switches off his phone.
Shu just shrugs it with a smirk. “Hey, you were the one that asked for my number, if you wanted to date me, you could’ve just asked.”
That left Ike positively flustered, sputtering and tripping over his words as he tried to form a coherent reply. “Y-you—! Bold of you to assume I’d ever date someone like you,” Ike blurts out, maybe a little too loudly. He really needs to stop doing that.
“‘Someone like you’? I’m really heartbroken that you would say something like that to your boyfriend,” Shu gasps, hand placed on the left side of his chest.
“Talking to you is making my blood pressure spike,” Ike groans, pinching the bridge of his nose—the area above where his glasses rested—in annoyance.
“Why? Because I make you nervous?” As Shu says this, he leans in closer—close enough so their shoulders touched but nothing more than that. Still, Ike jerks backwards with a yelp, his reaction eliciting laughter from Shu’s end.
“You’re adorable.”
“I hate you with every fibre in my body.”
“Whatever you say, baby,” Shu winks.
Ike wants to slap him, his hand already curled into a fist on his side. Thankfully, before he could seriously injure someone, the bus came to a stop and the door folded open with a huff. The bus ride went by faster than Ike had expected.
“We’re here! Please ensure that you have taken all your belongings along with you before you leave!” Professor Evans reminds the group, before leading everyone down the bus.
That put their conversation on halt as they went through the routine of getting off the bus, dragging their luggages around the airport as they tried to navigate their way to their check-in area. The process was rather tedious, especially because Ike was tired, restless and impatient to just get on the plane already.
He sleepily trudges behind the rest of his peers—all fully energised and practically skipping around with a spring in their step—as he pulls his luggage along. Mysta was chatting loudly with some of the students at the front of the group and frankly, Ike was in no mood to talk to anyone at the moment, trying his best to keep his eyes open—under the way too bright fluorescent lights of the airport—and not fall asleep as they looked for the right terminal.
Ike regrets everything for not sleeping earlier, bitterly pulling his heavy baggage along with him. Around 20 minutes of walking around aimlessly, he feels someone take the handle of the luggage from his grasp. At first, his sleep-addled brain was alarmed that someone was trying to steal his luggage right out of his hand. But then he realised it was just Shu. Oh.
He’s exhausted and happy to not have to haul his hefty luggage anymore, so he doesn’t comment on it, sticking to Shu’s side until they finally, finally, found their way to their terminal.
While Professor Evans talks to someone on the phone, Ike leans up against Shu tiredly, too fatigued to process his actions. Even Shu himself was shocked when he felt the weight of another person pressed onto his side. He softens once he realises it’s Ike, letting go of one of the two luggages so he could wrap an arm around the smaller boy’s shoulders, holding him up so he doesn’t fall.
They stay like this for a while, Shu trying his best not to move so as to not bother the tired boy. At some point, he makes eye contact with Mysta, who sends him a quizzical look, but Ike shakes his head in reassurance. More and more people were entering the terminal as the flight timing approached and soon after, they were on the move again to check in their baggage and go through security.
The group continues their journey through the terminal, Shu dragging along two luggages, a backpack, and a sleepy boy clinging to his sleeve like a young child. Ike reluctantly went through the basic procedure of scanning his passport, checking in his luggage, going through security—who made him dump out his bottle of water—and at last, they reached the arrival gate.
Fortunately, the queue was still rather short, so the group was streaming onto the plane in mere minutes. The air stewardesses showed everyone to their seats, Ike and Shu sitting at seats 20A and 20B—on the left aisle and right next to the window. Shu wordlessly assists the latter in putting his bag in the overhead compartment, seeing as the boy was ready to pass out on the spot.
Just as they sit down, Ike sighs in relief, clipping on his seat belt and trying to get comfortable in the not-so-comfortable seat with a cat-like noise. “Get some rest, Ikey,” Shu murmured.
Ike’s eyes fluttered shut as he hummed in acknowledgement, too tired to say anything else as he dozed off, chest rising and falling in a slow, rhythmic pace. Shu unconsciously flashes a small smile for no one in particular to see, taking off his jacket and draping it over Ike’s torso, right before the pilot’s voice crackles over the intercom, reading out the typical announcements.
Paris, here we come.