Chapter Text
Ran has been sitting at his desk trying to ignore the sounds of Jackie shuffling around from his chosen studying position on the bed. It’s a little difficult when they’re essentially right next to each other, but he’s been managing pretty well. Then again, the shuffling only started up sometime in the last ten minutes. Before then, Jackie was laser focused.
So maybe in another ten minutes Ran will be ready to snap. Luckily, Jackie does first.
“This is boring.”
Ran hears Jackie throw himself back against the bed dramatically. He places a thumb next to the line he was reading because he’s pretty sure Jackie is about to distract him into forgetting his place.
“You like this subject.” Ran reminds him.
“Yeah but… I thought we were going to hang out!”
He glances over at Jackie. Watches as he puts on an overexaggerated pout when he realises Ran is looking.
“My message asked if you wanted to come over and work on our project.”
Jackie groans and covers his face with his hands.
“Whatever.”
“Look, we’re almost done on this next section.” As much as Ran wants to get this whole thing done now, he can be reasonable. He can compromise. “Once we get that done, then we can hang out.”
“I’m already distracted, though.” Jackie sits up and starts absentmindedly shuffling through the papers and books strewn around the bed. “And you’re distracted now too, right? Can’t we just stop now?”
Ran’s never had to keep Jackie focused on their task before. While they have very different studying styles, Jackie’s never been one to slack off. It’s what makes them such good “study buddies”, as Jackie put it. It’s the reason they decided to work on this project together.
Well, that and they have no other friends.
The point is, unless it’s a subject Jackie really hates, this isn’t his usual behaviour. Once he gets past the start, he can work for hours.
“Something’s wrong.” Ran notes.
And he knows he’s right when Jackie stiffens.
“No…?”
“You can lie better than that.”
“Well,” Jackie huffs, “I’ll take the compliment, but basically I don’t like lying to you. Makes me feel all weird inside.”
Jackie does this thing sometimes. Where he says things that should be a big deal - should mean something. But the words fall from his lips so casually that Ran doesn’t know what to do with them.
Jackie doesn’t like lying to him. It’s not an illogical leap to conclude that Jackie trusts him. And that feels important. But Jackie says it like it’s obvious. Like he hadn’t even considered Ran would have reason to think differently. Not that Jackie has given him a reason to think differently. But Ran’s a private person. He can appreciate what having someone’s trust means.
Ran fusses with putting a bookmark to save his spot so neither of them can focus on the fact his cheeks feel a little warmer than they did a couple of seconds ago. And also so he can turn to give Jackie his full attention. He’s not exactly used to this comforting thing, but he thinks that’s a good start.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
He hopes the question didn’t sound as stilted to Jackie as it did to him. If it did, Jackie doesn’t comment on it, though.
“Kinda?”
“If you want to talk about it, I’ll listen.”
Jackie sits up and draws his knees up to his chest.
“Well, finals are coming up soon, right? I mean, this project is literally for finals.”
“Yes?”
“And usually I don’t care all that much but like… this is our last year. We need to start looking at colleges and stuff.”
“We’ve both been doing fairly well in school. I’m sure we’ll find a college that’ll accept us.”
Jackie goes silent. But Ran can see him tapping his foot.
And Jackie’s voice is quiet when he asks, “But what if it’s not the same one?”
“What?”
“Well, you know,” Jackie looks down at the bed sheets, but Ran could’ve sworn he saw his cheeks turning pink. “I’ll miss you.”
“Oh.”
Jackie glances up at him, looking a little startled, and laughs.
“I’m bearing my soul to you and all you have to say is ‘oh’?”
For a second, he thinks he’s made a serious mistake. But Jackie’s smiling at him. Soft and content, and Ran has to tear his eyes away so Jackie doesn’t catch him staring.
Ran crosses his arms, and lets himself sound defensive when he says, “You caught me off guard.”
And he has to hold back his own smile when he achieves the desired effect of getting Jackie to laugh again. When Jackie drops his legs back down to rest against the bed and puts his arms behind him to hold himself up. He looks incredibly less closed off than before and Ran counts that as a win. He also looks beautiful, and Ran is starting to become aware that his heart is beating a little faster than it should be.
“Man,” Jackie sighs contentedly, “I was getting all angsty about this and you just-” He mimes an explosion, adding noise effects and everything, “-blew all that to shreds.”
“If it makes you feel better, I won’t accept a college admission without you.”
“Thanks Ran.”
The grin Jackie sends him is a little too much, after everything else that just happened. Jackie’s perfect, like this. Calm, and happy, and with no worries at all. Ran will do anything he can to keep him that way, even if it’ll make his heart give out from how fast it’s racing.
“Do you want to keep working on the project or do you still want to take a break?”
“Project!” Jackie lifts up a book from his pile and taps at a random paragraph that Ran has no hope of reading from this distance. “I found this really interesting bit of info here that would be great for our thesis!”
Ran lets Jackie ramble on, dutifully transferring the basics onto their project document.