Chapter Text
Amane was alone a lot. He didn’t mind very much, the other students at school bored or annoyed him, and the teachers were overbearing. He hung out with Tsukasa and sometimes even Tsukasa’s super weird friends, but they were having a sleepover and Amane didn’t want to intrude. Tsukasa begged him to come and Natsuhiko tried to bribe him with donuts.
But they had too much frosting on them and Amane was kind of scared by Sakura, so it was a definite no.
His parents had been gone for years, their mysterious disappearance unreported, and adults avoided him like the plague when they could.
Thus, he was alone again and completely unsupervised.
The stars were pretty that night.
Without Tsukasa’s voice asking him what every constellation and star and helicopter light was, it was actually peaceful for once, and he could think straight. He sat on his roof, which was unfortunately very steeply slanted so he had to precariously perch on the shingles, just so he could get a clearer look at the sky. Uncomfortable as it was and as much danger as he was in, it was Amane’s heaven. Bright, shimmering stars looked much better high up than from the ground, even Tsukasa agreed with him.
Amane had always wanted to go to space.
There was so much nobody knew about it and it had so much beauty, waiting to be discovered. He wanted to be the one to find it. He wanted to get off of Earth, away from all of its boring people and asshole adults and same old facts, and he wanted to get away from a world so overdone and to space where anything was possible and nothing was concrete. He’d go there, he knew he would. He got great grades ever since Tsukasa got him to go to a therapist paid by their grandmother, he’d gotten awards for science projects and theories, and he knew for a fact that he’d get up there. Tsukasa would be by his side, after all, they shared everything, including their brains.
He could imagine stepping foot on the moon, dust floating up from every impact. He’d feel weightless and free. He’d look back at Earth, how small it was, and smile because he was finally home.
He rested his head back against the roof, almost standing up straight from how sharp the angle was, eyes reflecting the sparkling sky above. He wanted to touch the star.
“Um! Hey! Creepy guy! Why uh, why are you on a roof?”
Amane startled from his thoughts and started slipping down the shingles in the most undignifying manner, picking up speed as he slid. He screamed, flailing around for anything to grip, but he couldn't grab anything. The person who yelled at him, from who knows where, cursed quite loudly, loud enough that Amane was embarrassed that the neighbors could hear.
Amane fell right off the edge of his roof and into free air, screaming the whole way down, and he braced himself for an impact that never came.
Instead, he was caught by strong arms.
Strong-ish.
Also caught-ish.
Instead of a cliche, damsel in distress situation where a knight in shining armor caught him gracefully, Amane was only caught for a matter of seconds before they both went crashing to the lawn, because although Amane was light, he’d also gained much speed and gravity was still a thing.
Whoever this stranger was, he was definitely not a physicist.
They laid on the ground in a heap, both groaning and bruised. The stranger wasn’t comfortable to lay on, kind of boney.
Amane rolled off the stranger and flopped on his back, panting for breath. He swore he’d seen his life flash before his eyes and honestly, it was less than exciting.
The stranger jumped to his hands and knees and crawled to look over Amane, blocking out the sky completely, such an annoyance.
“I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you like that! Are you okay, are you hurt? I mean, obviously you’re hurt, you just totally fell off a roof, but are you like, super hurt or something?”
Amane squinted his eyes up at the stranger. The stranger was blond with bright blue eyes, and a dumb traffic safety earring and a weird gold staff thing strapped to his back peeking over his shoulder. He looked dumb, especially with his mouth hanging open and showing a little fang. He looked vaguely familiar but he couldn’t place why. Amane didn’t talk to people much other than Tsukasa and Tsukasa’s friends, and he definitely didn’t pay attention to people he didn’t know enough to remember their faces. He didn’t even know his teachers' names, and it was halfway through the year.
“...Who the hell are you?”
The stranger jolted and sat up straight, glancing around. He got off of Amane quickly and stood up, offering his hand to help Amane.
“I’m Minamoto Kou, at your service!”
The stranger, Kou, said with a mock salute, grinning wide.
“You mean disservice, right?”
Kou winced.
“Okay, yeah, but I’m helping you now so it cancels out.”
Amane took Kou’s hand and stood, brushing the dirt off his pants and rolling his eyes.
“I don’t think that’s how it works.”
“That’s totally how it works. Wait, what’s your name?”
Amane looked up at Kou, frowning when he realized how much taller the blond was than him. He didn’t like strangers and he didn’t like telling strangers his name, and he definitely didn’t like telling strangers who stood outside of his house in the middle of the night when he was alone, his name.
“Why should I tell you that? I don’t even know you. And-And what are you even doing here, why are you at my house? Are you like, stalking me or something?”
Kou squawked in protest and waved his hands around, furiously shaking his head.
“No, no! I wasn’t stalking you at all, I just, I saw you on the roof and I thought you might fall or need help off, so…”
“...so you decided to scare me?”
Kou scratched the back of his neck.
“I didn’t mean to...and I was right! You did fall off!”
“Oh my god, I hate you so much.”
Kou laughed lightly, still completely embarrassed.
“So….your name…?”
“Nope. You don’t get my name, not after all that. Now get out of my yard!”
Kou took a step back and nodded so much his head hurt.
“Right! But, uh, before I go, I kind of have a weird question. Are you...home alone?”
Amane’s defenses immediately rose and he put on that creepy, ‘don’t look at me or I’ll steal your tibia’ face and vibe, the one that kept his classmates away from Tsukasa when they tried to make fun of his love of gross bugs.
“That’s a pretty ballsy question, Minamoto.”
“Wait, no, that came out totally wrong-”
“Go away before I break your neck or call the police, whichever comes first. I’ll tell them that you stalked me and pulled me off the roof, and then I was so scared I just so happened to snap your arm in half and puncture a lung.”
Kou’s eyes widened and he took frantic steps back, raising his hands in self-defense.
“Woah, holy shit, that’s-that's graphic, have you done this before?”
“Stop asking questions and leave!”
“Sorry, sorry! But-But I seriously wasn’t trying to do anything bad, I just thought you might want some company! I’m leaving now!”
Kou backed away, hands still up in surrender.
Amane raised an eyebrow and his defense faltered as he realized Kou was too much of a pushover to attack him or kidnap him, and that last part about offering company was weird. Amane was also a stranger to Kou, nobody went up to strangers and just decided to chill with them in the middle of the night.
“Wait. Stop. You asked because you think I want company?”
Kou stopped the second he was told to and his whole face lit up.
“Yeah! You’re-You’re in my first-period class and I kind of noticed that you don’t talk to anyone, and then I was walking here and I saw you were alone-and also about to fall- and I figured...maybe-maybe I could be your friend! Cause you seem pretty cool, and a bunch of people are scared of you, and scary friends are cool!”
Amane still didn’t recognize Kou from his class, but that was common. He didn’t think anyone paid attention to him other than when he stood up for Tsukasa, and he’d never say it, but hearing that someone knew he existed outside of those few minutes was...comforting. Endearing, even. He was also glad to know some people were scared of him, it would keep them away from Tsukasa.
“You...want to be friends with me because I’m scary?”
Kou smiled awkwardly, shifting on his feet.
“Not just because you're scary...you’re also super smart, right? You got like, ten awards for your science project last year, it was all over the news. And you just...you seem nice. My friend, Mitsuba, I think he’s friends with your brother, he says that you’re tolerable, and that’s a huge compliment coming from him. So, um...yeah...Being your friend would be cool….”
“I don’t have friends.”
Kou was getting shy all of a sudden, fidgeting with the hem of his shirt.
“Do you want one?”
Silence fell over them. Crickets chirped off to the side in the bushes and a gentle breeze combed through Amane’s hair.
He’d never had real friends before. He had Tsukasa and that was enough for him, he wasn’t interested in socializing or playing nice with his classmates because he wasn’t nice and nobody seemed to like who he really was. He didn’t like acting like a golden child, and that’s all people wanted, so he’d decided a long time ago that he didn’t need those people. Tsukasa was the only one who got that. Tsukasa was a people person and Amane was more of a space person, and that was how it always had been.
Until Kou.
“Unless that friend wanted to stare at stars, then no.”
Kou smiled softly, tilting his head to the side.
“If I wanted you to tell me about them, would it be a yes?”
Amane studied Kou’s hopeful expression, his sparkling eyes.
He couldn’t say no.
“...Come on. I’ll show you how to get up on the roof.”