Chapter Text
P A N T S
fire :(
If you asked Gakushu how he got in this situation with Karma, he would say that everything went downhill the day they were put together for this dreadful English project. He would blame the scene he was forced to observe on Karma, then on their idiot of a teacher. He made a mental note to send a letter to administration about her behaviour in the classroom, but he could only do that when he found a way out of this bathtub.
A week ago
"And for the last pair!" The over enthusiastic English teacher beamed, pulling the last two names out of her silly hat. She was nothing like the other teachers, her hair was a soft red colour, her eyes were green and her face was covered in freckles. If you didn't already guess that she was a foreigner by observing her teaching style, those attributes should've given them away. The students looked up at her, almost as if they were expecting made up names to pop up, because it was clear that as the last names drawn, the pair was going to be... "Asano and Akabane!" She looked overjoyed, unlike the two boys sitting in the front of the class.
Asano's eye twitched and Karma had his head in a book. If it were anyone else they would've thought he was sleeping, but no, he was brooding.
"Alright guys, pick your play guys and stick with it, we'll have presentations in two weeks," she explained, clapping her hands with finality, thinking nothing of Asano or Akabane's reactions. The class slowly shifted into motion, with kids looking through their books to find the play they wanted to do. They were all groups of two, and everyone who wasn't Akabane or Asano was excited, this was a chance for some people to perform with their crushes :)
"Ace-kun," Karma said, groaning slightly as he took his head out of his book and turned to face the blond who was having a staring competition with the blackboard, he smiled, "Shuu-chan!" He cheered, ignoring the side glances he got from Gakushuu's friends and their other classmates. The only reaction he needed to see was Asano's.
"I told you not to call me that," Asano snapped, finally tearing his gaze away from the board that barely had two words on it.
"Staring into the void again Asano-kun?"
"Better than looking at you," he said, rolling his eyes. He hoped the play they agreed on would be somewhat bearable, not any of those sappy romantic plays that the English- or was it the Americans, loved to produce.
"And here I thought you were still in shock, maybe you do have a soft spot for me," Karma teased, glaring at the younger boy.
"Shut up," Gakushuu rolled his eyes, turning fully to glare back into Karma's golden eyes. He wanted to punch the smile off of the boy's face. If he didn't have a reputation to keep he would've done it a while ago. That same smile was growing as Gakushuu's face looked more bothered. This would be a long project. Their staring competition was interrupted by their teacher clearing her throat, smiling awkwardly at the two. They had been staring at each other with the same expressions on their faces for the past five minutes and now everyone was staring. Gakushuu was the first to break away, slightly flustered after realizing how many eyes were on him and Karma.
"Well! Did you guys telepathically pick a play? I hope you picked the theatrical version of Sleeping Beauty! Because that's the only one left," she smiled, and Karma looked shocked. Asano broke off into a coughing fit. The rest of the class stared in awe, and the teacher seemed more than pleased with herself, she continued, "no one has to be the princess though, you could be the witch and the prince," she suggested.
"Sleeping Beauty?" Karma asked after another beat of stunned shock, "me and Asano, Sleeping Beauty?" He chuckled.
"Us? Sleeping beauty? Who's the princess? A rag doll? Miss I don't think we can do this play," Asano said after choking on his spit a few more times, "if we could maybe research another play," he said, and Karma looked hopeful until the teacher smiled down at them and placed a hand on her chin. She was mocking them.
"And here I thought that you two could do anything," she shrugged and smirked a bit before saying, "I'll allow the research but come up with something by the end of class." Before she finished telling them what to do, Karma and Gakushuu were already standing up in their seats.
"I can do it," they said together, and Karma smiled at a scowling Gakushuu.
"Excellent! Get your roles decided today fellas! Ten more minutes of this class," the teacher beamed happily, taking a seat at her desk. Gakushuu and Karma were in another one of their staring competitions and too busy to pick their roles like everyone else had. It was five minutes until the bell when Gakushuu closed his eyes and rubbed his temples.
"You're the witch. Alright?"
"Your superiority complex has reached a new high," Karma teased, but didn't say anything against taking up that role. He could be a witch, and Gakushuu wasn't too far off from a prince-- a demented one yes, but a prince no less. They told the teacher their roles and began to write their script, but they didn't get far with that.
"I think we should do something different, something else for a change. I should get the princess," Karma suggested, and Gakushuu's brain would've exploded and splattered all over the redhead if it weren't for his thick skull.
"No, we're sticking with the original," Gakushuu said, by his tone, it didn't seem like he was going to change his mind. The bell rang and relieved them of their struggles for just a bit. Karma thought he was free of Gakushuu until he got an email with a shared google document. Couldn't he just call like a normal person? Oh, he didn't have his number. So Karma emailed him the series of numbers.