Chapter Text
And suddenly, it felt like the breath was knocked out of Ajax. There were lots of words he could speak, but he spoke none. His hands were sweaty —they had been since he saw the boy get out of his car. His mouth was dry and his heart was beating so fast he wondered if the stranger could hear it. With the way the indigo haired boy’s eyes wandered, Ajax knew he was reading him like a book.
Seeing him this close was like looking at the morning sky and knowing that your purpose is to see it, know it, admire it. It was two entirely different experiences, yet the same. The bright LEDS that sat in the ceiling would blink every now and then, like they were watching and waiting to see what would happen next.
“Uhm,” Ajax cleared his throat as indigo eyes stared into him, “Narukami?” Ajax awkwardly lifted his hand to point at the emblem on the boys shirt. Just as it had raised, it fell, maybe even more awkwardly.
The boy's soft lips faded into a smile and his eyes no longer pierced into Ajax. His eyes made brief contact with the floor and then shifted to the side. He let out a slight giggle as he rocked back and forth subtly, you could barely notice his movement. His eyes moved up to meet Ajax’s. “Yeah, Narukami.” His words bore a light and friendly tone, “Morepesok?” The boy mimicked Ajax’s movements of pointing. Ajax wore a bright pink dri-fit shirt that had the outline of a football and the word ‘M O R E P E S O K’ above it and ‘F O O T B A L L’ under it.
The gesture made Ajax laugh, “Mhm, my number is 11.” Ajax stopped but his mouth remained open by a small gap. The boy had smiled, it wasn’t like the night of the football game. “You smiled?” Ajax had a tinge of curiosity in his words.
“I smiled?” Ajax watched as the boy's smile went from his mouth to his eyes.
It wasn’t until maybe 30 seconds after the boy had spoken that Ajax realized how much of a creep he sounded like. Ajax blinked before aligning his eyes with the boys. “I’ve just never seen you smile,” He breathed, afraid to say or do anything that could add to the awkwardness in the air.
“Your name?” The boy disconnected his eyes from Ajax’s and opened a fridge door. He grabbed a cold brew and looked up at Ajax, waiting for an answer.
“Ajax,” He watched as the indigo boy closed the door, “Uhm, people at my school call me Tartaglia though.” Their eyes kept meeting. “Uhm, a nickname.” Ajax’s lips formed into a line. god, he didn’t understand why he was so nervous.
“Your last name?” The coldness of the metal can sunk into the boy's finger tips. His eyes still stayed on Ajax’s.
“It kinda feels like I'm being interrogated.” Ajax felt the cold glass make contact with his skin as he leaned onto the fridge, “I still don’t know your name, stranger.”
The warm smile from before reappeared on the stranger's face, “Raiden Kunikuzsuhi.”
A perplexed look came upon Ajax’s face. “Raiden Kunikuz-” He began to repeat the boy's name, but ultimately had to stop in order to not embarrass himself. His tongue slipped on the Inazuman name. A slight giggle came out of the boy named Raiden Kunikuzushi.
“Kuni.”
“Kuni?”
“Yes, call me that,” Kuni let out a laugh that made him smile with his teeth.
To Ajax, it all felt so familiar. He just couldn’t put his finger on it.
“Did Morepesok win?” Kuni flipped the conversation and began to walk to the register—Ajax followed.
“Ah,” Ajax’s teeth pulled his lip back before he began to speak, “No, it wasn’t even close.” They both stopped walking. Ajax’s eyes squinted as he thought. “I suppose it’s better than having a close score. Well, I think so.” His bottom teeth tugged at his top lip,” If you lose when you are so close to winning, it’s always like ‘What could I have done better?’ You know?” Ajax looked over to Kuni.
“I guess so, but at least you fought hard.” Kuni began to walk to the register and Ajax followed.
Ajax had simply responded with a “Mm,” and a nod.
It had only occurred to Ajax that he had not grabbed anything when they walked up to the register. “Oh, Oh!” Ajax grabbed a dark chocolate Hershey's bar and put it on the counter. The boy's forgetfulness made Kuni roll his eyes. His eye roll was then followed by a laugh. Ajax put his card in the machine, trying to shake off how many times he’s embarrassed himself today.
“You like dark chocolate?”
“No.” Ajax received a look of confusion from Kuni and one of judgment from the cashier. Ajax pulled out his card and put it back into his leather wallet.
“You like coffee?” Ajax asked as Kuni placed his cold brew on the counter and gave the cashier some cash.
“I prefer tea,” Kuni watched as the cashier counted out his change, “and I prefer my coffee bitter. I’m not much of a sweets person.” Kuni reached out his hand to catch his cash and change. He then picked up his coffee. He began to walk but looked at Ajax to see if he was following.
Ajax straightened his back as the shorter boy’s eyes made contact with his. When Kuni noticed his action his eyes smiled and his mouth gained a slight curve upwards. Ajax put one foot in front of the other and began to follow.
The walk back to the outside only lasted a few seconds. The automatic doors slid open and the smell of gasoline and outside danced in front of their faces. The faint neon orange lights from the sign, dimmed by the contrastingly colored white lights from inside, touched the back of Kuni’s head and highlighted his strip of light purple Ajax had not noticed before.
Ajax patted Kuni’s head twice with the chocolate bar.
“What are you doing?” Kuni said it with a slight scowl. It seemed that physical touch—even from a chocolate bar—wasn’t Kuni’s thing.
“Here,” Ajax handed him the chocolate bar, “You mentioned you like bitter stuff.”
Kuni hesitated for a second but still took it. “Thank you, Ajax.”
“You are very welcome, Kunikuzushi.” Every part besides ‘Kuni’ was pronounced very wrong. But Kunikuzushi didn’t mind