Chapter Text
It was finally the end of class. Kel was walking along the pavement, stepping further away from the school gates. He closes his eyes as he enjoys the cold air graze his skin. He quickly forgets about all his worries as he takes a breath of fresh air.
Today has been a stressful day, but it’s over now. He had the option to take the bus, but he wanted to walk today. Kel will worry about his assignments once he gets home, but for now, he enjoys the presence of the current moment.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
A few minutes have passed since Kel started walking home. The trees swayed back and forth as the sun started to set. It felt peaceful. As he turns the corner, he suddenly hears something from a distance.
“Aww, are you gonna cry? You have no one to hold your hand with anymore?” A taunting voice says.
The nice atmosphere Kel was feeling suddenly shifts into something worrisome. Oh no, this better not be what he thinks it is…
He sprints towards the source of the commotion. He sees a small group of people huddled around in a circle as he comes closer.
“HEY!” Kel yells.
The group splits from their circle to face Kel. His suspicions were right, in the middle of the group was Basil. He was lying on the floor with his books scattered around. He was staring at Kel with worry in his eyes.
He looked like he was about to cry…
One of the bullies scoffs as they glare at Kel.
Kel knew that those bullies would say really harmful stuff to Basil, he has witnessed some remarks before. They weren’t pretty. Poking fun at Basil for having friends like them and saying he doesn’t deserve it, making fun of his shortness and him wearing flower clips… no matter how many times he and his friends try to help him, Basil never does anything about it. He shouldn’t be treated that way… it makes Kel’s blood boil with anger.
“Leave him alone.”
One of the bullies face Basil, “You always need someone to save you. What a loser.”
Why is he still talking? Kel steps closer to the bully.
Kel was taller than him, which was an advantage. It made him look intimidating. He faces down and glares at the bully.
“I’ll say it one last time, jerk. Leave him alone.”
The bully was first to face away from Kel as he scoffs. “Whatever. We’re done with him already.” The bully tried to sound tough, but Kel could tell that he was intimidated. He takes it as a win.
The bullies start to walk away to the opposite direction. One of them shoves Kel with their shoulder. Kel began to feel enraged, but quickly shuts it down when he realizes that this wasn't what he should be focusing on about right now. He takes a deep breath to calm down.
Kel turns back to Basil and quickly crouches to help him pick up his stuff. “Here,” Kel hands Basil the previously scattered books and looks at him. He realized that Basil's eyes never left his. He stared back at his light blue eyes. They were still damp from the forming tears. He instinctively raises his hand to wipe them-
Uh…
Kel blinks for a few moments, feeling a little flustered. He puts his hand down and opens his mouth before he does anything else.
"A-are you alright..?"
Kel winced at the dumb question. He mentally slaps himself.
Basil gets out of his trance and quickly wipes his tears. He sits up.
“I-I- uh… I’m s-sorry…”
“Hey, you have nothing to be sorry for…” Kel says reassuringly. He gets up and reaches out his hand. Basil hesitantly takes his hand and gets up as well.
“So, how are you feeling?” It’s definitely an improvement from ‘are you alright?’ Kel hands out the books again and Basil finally takes them. He hugs them close to him. He usually covers himself when holding his things, like he doesn’t want to be seen, Kel noticed.
“I’m fine! D-don’t worry…” Kel frowns, Basil shouldn’t be pretending to be okay! He was just being bullied a few moments ago! He couldn’t help but feel a little mad.
“No you’re not! They’re bullying you, Basil! That’s not okay.”
“…” Basil hugs his books closer. Oh no. Kel should really learn to keep his mouth shut sometimes, but what he’s saying is true! He doesn’t deserve to be treated this way…
“You should really tell a teacher…” Kel says, now a little gentler with his voice.
“…I don’t know…” Basil faces the floor. Kel frowns even more, Basil would usually say that when he doesn’t want to do something…
Maybe Kel was being way too harsh on him. Basil was already dealing with bullies, now he has to deal with Kel scolding him about it.
“Look… just, let me know if they’re harassing you again, okay? I’ll be here for you.”
“Kel…”
“I-I have a lot of free time usually. You’re not going to burden me.” Kel quickly tried to reassure him. He knows that the bullies’ words stuck to Basil.
Even if Kel was busy, he was willing to help him. But he doesn’t say that.
“…”
“Okay?”
“… T-thank you Kel… I really appreciate it…” Basil smiles faintly.
Kel feels his lips start to form a fond smile. Luckily, unlike a few moments ago when he was staring at Kel, Basil was now too embarrassed to look at him.
“I-It’s no problem… I care about you, Basil!” Kel stammers in his words as his whole body starts to fill with familiar warmth.
Wait. Familiar? Has he felt this way before?
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The two decided to walk home together in the end. The tense air they were feeling went away once Kel started to talk about how much of a mess his day was. Basil laughs when Kel admits to mostly just guessing the Math pop quiz he had for his last subject. (Singing a song to decide on which letter to pick.)
Kel tried not to think about the warmth that started to form again when he sees the way Basil smiled to him. So he continued talking.
“Well, I’m pretty sure I took some notes on English, maybe I can let you borrow it?”
“Really?” Kel beams, “You’re the best!”
So maybe Kel was trying to raise Basil’s spirits. What about it?
“Aw… it’s not much…”
“No way! I never take notes,” Wow. Such charming words. “so I really mean it!”
Basil faintly blushes as he glances away, “W-well… If you say so. T-thanks”.
Eventually, after passing the street where Kel’s house is, they reach Basil’s house. The flowers around the house looked like they were doing alright.
“Thanks f-for today Kel… you really didn’t have t-to go out of your way and walk me home…”
“It’s my pleasure!” Kel does a fancy bow. Basil smiles at his silliness. “It’s just a few extra steps, it’s nothing I can’t handle!”
Basil does a bow back, laughing at his own actions. Kel was glad that he was in a better mood now. His lips curve into a fond smile and he feels the warmth come back again.
Before he mentally slaps himself for feeling that way again, the door to Basil’s house opens.
“Basil-?” Polly turns to see Kel as well. “Oh! Hello you two!” Polly smiles happily at the two. She must have realized that they were outside because of their blabbering. She looked delighted to see Basil laughing.
“Heya Polly! Your Basil has arrived safe and sound!”
“D-don’t describe me like a package, Kel!” Basil tried to pout but he couldn’t help letting out a small giggle.
“Well, mister delivery man Kel, thank you! May I pay you with joining us for dinner? I always somehow make some extras!” Polly went along with Kel’s bit. He was glad to have someone like her as Basil’s caretaker. He deserves the positive energy.
Kel thought about it. He wouldn’t want to turn down free food! But he also wanted to have some time to himself to think about… stuff.
“Sorry, my mom doesn’t know that I’m here, so she might get mad that I ate somewhere else after preparing dinner…” Kel scratches his head. That excuse is kind of true, right? On the rare occurrences that Kel would miss dinner, his mom would make a dramatic fit about it, especially if she made something good. Kel didn’t want to take his chances as well.
“Well, maybe another time then! Thanks for walking Basil home!”
“Y-yeah, thanks for today, Kel…”
“Anytime! See you tomorrow!”
“Bye, Kel!” Basil waves widely. Kel gives out one last smile as he turns away.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
After a short walk, Kel finally reached his house. He was greeted with the smell of food and got called in for dinner. He took a seat with his family without Hero. His big brother usually comes home on Fridays, (which was in two days,) but he had an important project he needed to do. So Hero told them that he would stay at his dorm for the weekend.
He wished he would come home. Kel isn’t sure what he’s supposed to do now. Hero has some experience about feelings with Mari, right?
He looked a little spaced out while having dinner, but his parents paid no mind to it. Once he finished, he headed straight to his room and dropped his bag on the desk.
He then realized that he still had assignments… Ah, whatever! He could just copy from Sunny during homeroom tomorrow. He usually copies from him (or they both cram answering together) whenever he didn’t do his assignments. Anyhow, his thoughts aren’t that worried about his assignments, for now, he boots up his computer and waits for it to open up…
He had a lot to think about.