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“...So I told them, ‘Look, rhythm is either something you have or don’t, but when you have it, you have it all over.’ Then, I danced.”
Despite the dreary atmosphere that accompanied the constant drizzle of the early Tuesday morning, Hizashi was all sunshine and smiles as he helped Mrs. Sasaki walk her groceries home. He had seen the older woman struggling to hold both her heavy bags and her umbrella while he on his way to class, and he had been compelled to help her. She seemed to appreciate his company, and her amused laughter in response to the dramas of his everyday life only encouraged him to keep talking.
“Were they impressed,” she asked.
“By my dancing? Ehhhhhhh, not really.” He chuckled. “But when I cast a spell that made music play from a nearby coffee mug, then they went nuts.”
An excited sparkle came to Mrs. Sasaki’s eyes. “Ah, so you’re a magus?”
“Yep!” Hizashi puffed up with pride. “Right now I’m studying physical resonance magic, which is really just a fancy way of saying sound magic.”
She smiled. “That’s really very brave of you in our modern world, Yamada. Just the other day there was someone on the news saying science would -oh, how did she say it?- ‘outpace’ magic before the decade is up.”
“Yeah, that’s how some people have been talking, but I’m working on trying to bring the science and magic together, not push them apart. I know that if-” Hizashi was interrupted by the sound of a meow from his back pants pocket. “Oh! Sorry! Let me check this.”
As Mrs. Sasaki laughed, Hizashi pulled out his phone to see what Shouta (or “Eraser” as he was known in Hizashi’s contacts) had messaged him.
Eraser : How did I beat you to class? Are you okay?
The message prompted Hizashi to look at the time. There was only ten more minutes until his class, Intermediate Creature Languages, started. Was today the midterm, or was that next week? Ho boy.
Mrs. Sasaki, seeing the change in mood, also frowned. “Is everything alright?”
“Hm? Oh, yeah! It was just my friend asking me where I am.”
“Is this the same friend you told me about earlier? The one who fell asleep while the two of you watched that really scary horror movie?”
Hizashi pouted at the memory. “Yeah, that’s him.” Involuntarily, his face began to soften. “His name’s Shouta, and he’s a magus, too. He’s studying nullification magic, though.”
“So he’s also a student?”
Hizashi nodded.
Mrs. Sasaki looked at him for a moment, a thought mulling behind her eyes that he couldn’t read. “Yamada, do you have class soon?”
He laughed instead of really answering the question. “Don’t worry about it! Your house is real close, right?”
“Oh, no, no, no.” She stopped and cupped his cheeks in her hands, her thumbs holding the corners of his mouth. “You have been more than kind to me by helping me get this far. Give me the bags and get to class.”
“But-”
“No buts!” As she lowered her hands, her knobbly fingers brushed against his throat. Then she used her hands to gesture for the bags.
With a sigh, Hizashi gave in and handed the bags over. “Thanks, Mrs. Sasaki.”
“Don’t be silly. Thank you . Now go!”
“Yes, ma’am!” Hizashi turned and tried to walk calmly, but his speed walk had the pace of a man a moment away from panic. As he walked, he figured it would be a pretty good idea to text Shouta back.
Mic: Yeah, I’m fine! I was just helping a lady get her groceries home! Please save a spot for me! (･ω<)☆
Eraser : I’m sorry, you took too long. Your spot now belongs to my backpack.
Mic : D:
Mic : Now who will help me with the grammar worksheets?
Mic : I don’t wanna ask Iidaaaaaaaaaaa...(T＿T)
Eraser : Just hurry up get here.
.
.
.
“I don’t think I understood half of what the teacher said today,” Hizashi groaned with a pained smile as he and Shouta walked to get lunch after class. Class had been tough, but, luckily for Hizashi, the midterm wasn’t until next week after all.
“I’m lucky if I understood the other half,” Shouta replied, a seasoned comrade in Hizashi’s Creature Language-related defeats.
“Don’t say that! You’re doing really well!”
Shouta shot him a dirty look of disbelief. “...No. I’m not. ”
“You are,” Hizashi insisted. “You always use such a wide variety of sentence structures, and your handwriting is as messy as a pro!”
“But you can actually speak in class with everyone.”
“It doesn’t mean I know what I’m saying. I’m just good at faking it until I make it!” A new thought put a smile on Hizashi’s face. “You know, I think if we take our different skills and combine them, together we make one very competent creature speaker. Maybe they’ll let us take the midterm together.”
Hizashi laughed out loud, while Shouta snorted a small smile.
“I don’t know how you always stay so positive when we’re getting our asses kicked by this class,” Shouta mused.
“I knew this class would be hard, so I try not to be too hard on myself. If we get too discouraged, we’ll give up before all of our hard work pays off!”
Shouta looked at him with a guarded warmth in his eyes that would have surprised most of the other students in their class. Shouta’s thoughts were cynical and his tongue could be sharp, but Hizashi saw that his intentions were usually good. He had sat next to Shouta on sort of a whim on the second day of class, and he hadn’t left since. They were happy to help each other in class when they could, and when they couldn’t, they groaned together. They had also started hanging out outside of class, and while it was usually just for lunch, sometimes they did do things like watch scary movies (“together”) or play games with a small group of friends. Hizashi liked spending time with Shouta, and though Hizashi assumed Shouta found him annoying at times, Shouta never actually expressed such negative sentiments out loud.
“Honestly, after the first day of class, I was thinking about moving to a lower level,” Shouta said, his eyes drifting back to the sidewalk in front of them.
“What? Really? Why?”
Shouta shrugged.“Everyone was already really good. It felt like they all knew everything already and I was the only one behind. I just couldn’t believe I belonged in the same level as them. It’s been really hard, but… I’m glad I stayed. If I had transferred, I wouldn’t get to spend time with you everyday.”
The confession hit Hizashi in waves. As Shouta had talked, Hizashi had idly imagined him saying something about their budding relationship, but he couldn’t have anticipated Shouta saying something so genuinely sweet and heartfelt. As it settled in Hizashi’s mind that Shouta really had said what he thought heard, his heart fluttered. He knew he treasured Shouta’s company, and now he knew that Shouta treasured his, too. If they were both content in each other’s company, then it was worth exploring if those feelings were just platonic, or…
“Wise men say,”
A song popped into Hizashi’s head the way they often did when he felt like his life had become like a scene from a movie, like when he was dramatically looking out a bus window on a rainy day. It was Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love”, and Hizashi could practically see the movie cutting between Shouta and his own dumb face as the song played.
“Only fools rush in,”
Wait, the song was playing. Like, it wasn’t just in Hizashi’s head. He thought that was a pretty weird coincidence. But where was it coming from…?
“But I can’t help,”
“...What are you doing?”
Oh.
OH NO .
“Falling in love with you.”
Hizashi’s face erupted into scarlet as he threw his hands over his throat and mouth. He was the source of the song; he was the one singing.
“Shall I stay?”
AND HE COULDN’T STOP.
Hizashi was in a panic. What was happening? Why was he singing the very private development of his feelings for Shouta for the whole world to hear? Why couldn’t he stop?
“Would it be a sin,”
“Are you… are you mocking me?”
Hizashi was mortified. He desperately shook his head no as he tried to force his mouth shut with his hands. This wasn’t how he wanted things between him and Shouta to develop. This wasn’t what he wanted at all.
“If I can’t help,”
Mrs. Sasaki! Could Mrs. Sasaki be behind this? She had weirdly touched his face and throat before they parted ways. Hizashi had just assumed she was doing some weird old lady thing! He hadn’t even thought to ask her if she was a magus or not. If it was her, why did she do this to him? Was she actually mad at him for helping her?
Why, why, why, why, why
“Falling in lo-”
“Inrita.”
Hizashi’s voice croaked to a merciful stop. He tried gasping for air, but it was difficult because he started hiccuping. Why was he hiccuping?
He shakily ran his fingers across his cheeks and felt them soaked with tears. Ah, so he had started crying, too, great.
Fan- tastic .
Should he run? He felt like running, but he couldn’t get his legs to move. There was no way he could look at Shouta, no way he could face whatever expression the other man was making in that moment, so he just dropped his head and hoped he would fade into oblivion.
“Hizashi…”
“I’m sorry,” he blurted immediately. “I’m sorry, I didn’t-”
A gentle hand grabbed his arm, silencing him.
“It’s okay.” Shouta’s voice was steady, unreadable. “It wasn’t a curse or even a spell cast with malice. It was easy to cancel. You’ll be okay.”
“No, Shouta, that’s not-!” He had to pause, had to breathe. “This isn’t -I don’t -I had just been thinking and then out of nowhere I started singing , and I didn’t even realize it was me making the sound until-”
“What were you thinking?”
Hizashi bit down on his bottom lip. He didn’t want to answer. This wasn’t fair to him or Shouta.
Shouta said nothing, just allowed the silence to stretch on for an uncomfortable amount of time. Shouta was an expert on silence, but Hizashi could only handle it for so long.
“It’s pretty obvious, isn’t it,” Hizashi finally offered weakly, a hollow laugh echoing in his traitorous throat. “I might be falling in love with you, b-but I don’t know what to do.”
A beat passed, and then Shouta released Hizashi’s arm. Hizashi wanted to die.
“Take my hand.”
Hizashi stared with wide eyes at the hand presented before him. Slowly, his eyes climbed up Shouta’s hand to his arm and then, cautiously, up to his face. Hizashi had feared seeing anger or annoyance or -worst of all- hurt, betrayal.
Instead, Shouta had a pleasantly embarrassed pink tint to his cheeks.
“We’ll figure this out together, just like we always do.”
He snatched Shouta’s hand like a lifeline, and relief washed over him instantly.
“Shouta…” He sighed the name, and with it the last built up tears in his eyes fell.
“Enough.” Shouta wiped his wet cheeks with his sleeve, which did nothing to help Hizashi’s blush, but he wasn’t complaining. “I can’t take you anywhere.”
“Are we still getting lunch?”
“Yeah.”
The rain had stopped and the sun had returned, but the clouds stuck around to keep the sky balanced.
The sun wouldn’t have it any other way.