Chapter Text
Usually Mondo could handle Leon's never-ending line of crushes. He'd listen to the redhead blabber on about how hot she was, then tell him to ask her out. He would either do it and get rejected or chicken out and decide he didn't like her that much anymore. And by next week, he'd have his sights on a new girl, so the cycle could continue until Mondo inevitably murdered his friend and spent life in prison.
But Leon had recently decided Celestia was his new target, and that was quickly becoming an enormous pain in Mondo's ass.
"You don't even like goth chicks," Mondo said in between bites of sandwich. He was very tempted to smash his lunch tray in Leon's face just to wipe the dopey grin off his face as he openly stared at the gambler two tables away.
"Not normally, but she's like, intense, y'know?" I bet she'd be totally bossy in the bed—"
"She would kill you if she heard you talk like that," Chihiro said, tapping away at his computer. For someone usually very timid, he became very blunt when he was in the middle of a big coding project, which Mondo loved. God knows Leon needed to hear it.
"Hot," Leon said. Mondo groaned.
"Just ask her out already, dude," Mondo said. "If you keep staring like a creep, this is gonna be Sayaka all over again."
Leon pointed his fork at Mondo. "We don't talk about that. Besides, we're chill now. And the stab wound was minor."
"Minor like your critical thinking skills?" Mondo asked. Leon squawked indignantly.
"Hey! Don't be rude. You're just jealous because you're bi and you still can't pull anyone."
Mondo scowled. "That's not true. I'm just not a desperate little bitch."
"Language," said a voice behind them. Both boys turned to see one Kiyotaka Ishimaru glaring at them. "Please refrain from swearing on school grounds," he said before turning and marching off, shiny black boots clicking loudly on the linoleum.
As if on cue, Mondo and Leon both shot the bird at his retreating back.
"Fuck that guy," Leon said. "'Please refrain from swearing?' What are we, four?"
"He's an ass," Mondo agreed. "But I mean, what do you expect? His 'talent' is basically being a narc."
"He's not that bad," Chihiro said. Mondo turned to give him a look, but he was still absorbed in his code, lunch forgotten beside him.
"You know him?"
"We did a group project together a few weeks ago. I barely had to do anything, he had the whole project planned out start-to-finish before we even met up. He's a really hard worker, just kind of odd."
"Oh, yeah, I'm sure he's great to have around for homework. Not sure it's worth his bitching, though." Leon popped a chip in his mouth. "Anyways, have you guys actually ever seen Celestia's ass? Like, god damn."
"Oh my GOD." Mondo groaned and slammed his head against the table. "You just don't fucking quit."
"Leon Kuwata: Ultimate Horndog," Chihiro said, earning an audible snort from Mondo.
"Whatever. You know what, I'm gonna ask her on a date after school. And then you'll see." Leon pointed a finger at his two friends. "You'll all see."
"Your black eye?" Mondo supplied.
"Whatever, man! It'll be great. Trust me. No one can resist a hot baseball player."
"Except the five women who already hav—"
"No. One."
-
Amazingly, Leon did not have a black eye when the three met at breakfast the next day.
"What did Celestia say?" Chihiro asked. He had huge bags under his eyes— he'd texted Mondo at 3am last night, meaning he'd been up coding at least that long— but he still looked attentive, leaning forward to hear Kuwata's story. The kid was probably the best listener Mondo ever talked to.
Leon huffed, blowing a tuft of red hair from his face. "Apparently she just moved in with her dad, and he's super strict. So she's not allowed to date anyone."
"Not allowed to date?" Mondo raised an eyebrow. "Ain't she 17 like the rest of us? And also, like, a world famous gambler?"
Leon nodded. "Like I said, her dad's weird. She technically can date, but I guess not until after her brother dates someone? That's what she said, anyways."
"Celestia has a brother?" Chihiro asked, mirroring Mondo's thoughts exactly.
"That's what I said! And you'll never fuckin' guess who it is."
"Who?"
"Ishimaru."
Mondo and Chihiro took a moment to take that in. Ishimaru and Celestia? Siblings? They did have similar hair and eyes… but the similarities died there. Still, how had this not gotten around yet?
As if reading his mind, Leon continued. "I guess they're half-siblings, and Celestia only recently found out Ishimaru's dad is her dad too. But she doesn't get on with her mom, so she lives with him over breaks and stuff."
"That's crazy," Chihiro said.
"Right! So Celestia said she'd love to go on a date with me if she could, but that's a lost cause. No one's gonna date Ishimaru." Leon slammed his head on the table and groaned.
"Don't say that, Leon! I bet there's girls out there who would want to date Ishimaru," Chihiro said, giving his friend an awkward pat.
"That's the thing! I guess girls have asked him out before, and he always turns them down. Says he's too busy with school and doesn't wanna date. Celestia thinks maybe he's ace or something? I dunno."
"Or he doesn't like girls?" Chihiro offered. An innocent suggestion, but one that would go down in the annals of Hope's Peak history.
Leon's head shot back up. "That's it! Mondo! Ask him out!"
"What the fuck? NO!" All the surrounding students turned to look at Mondo as he screamed out his reply, and Chihiro quickly began apologizing. But Mondo was undeterred. "You think just because I'm bi I'll date anything with a pulse? No way I'm asking that prick out. He'd probably give me a twenty minute lecture on school-appropriate romance."
"Aw, c'mon! Just to see if he likes dudes, like Chi said. And if he says yes, I can go out with Celes!"
"No way in HELL I'm taking Ishimaru on a date just so you can pull your moves on Celestia. Nuh uh. Get lost," Mondo said, grabbing his tray and standing up.
Leon grabbed his arm. "I could pay you?"
Mondo paused. "What?"
"My parents just sent me money. I'd give you fifty bucks to ask him out."
"Do I look like a damn prostitute?" Mondo said, yanking his arm from Leon's grip.
"I didn't tell you to sleep with him! C'mon, Mondo, this girl actually likes me back. All you gotta do is get through one dinner with the guy. Do me a solid, just this once?"
Mondo should have just said no and been done with it. But he thought back to last weekend, when one of the newer members of the Diamonds nearly fainted during a ride. The kid said he'd barely eaten in days because his mom had been selling any food They could find for drug money. Mondo could feed him for a week on fifty bucks, if he spent it right.
"75 and we've got a deal," he said.
"Done," Leon said, a giant grin creeping across his face.
He could get chewed out for thirty minutes no problem if it meant helping out the gang. And he'd use the extra 25 on a new hairdryer, his was about to short circuit.
Besides, what were the odds Taka actually liked men?
"I don't like where this is going at all," Chihiro said, shaking his head.
-
The hall monitor wasn't exactly hard to track down. Bright white uniform, jarringly red eyes, posture like an army recruit desperately trying to compensate for something… everything about the man stood out, and not in a good way.
The problem was where to ask him out. Mondo might not care if his classmates knew he was bi, but he still didn't go around announcing it, and he certainly didn't want them to get the impression that he liked Ishimaru. So the hallways were out. And the two only had a few classes together, so there was never a great time to catch him alone. He rushed out of class as the bell rang anyways, eager to get into the hallways and scream at some poor first years for holding hands. Mondo kept an eye on him through all his periods the next day, but the right opportunity never came.
"I dunno, follow him into a bathroom or something," Leon said when he explained the problem.
"That would be kind of creepy," Chihiro said. "I still think this is a bad idea… but if you're going to do it anyways, maybe put a note in his locker and ask him to meet up after school? That would be an easy way to do it."
So that's what Mondo did. The letter was simple, just half a sheet of notebook paper asking Ishimaru to meet outside the North entrance of the school five minutes after last period. He hastily shoved it in the grates of the boy's locker on the way to gym.
Despite the fact that he didn't give a shit how this went, Mondo still felt nervous as the end of the day approached. His record with confessions was, well… not great. He had a tendency to scream with nerves and scare them off. He had to keep reminding himself it was fine if that happened here. Better, even. Free $75 and he didn't even have to get a mouthful from the hall monitor.
A few other students gave Mondo weird looks as they passed him hanging out in the doorway, but he just waved them off. He leaned against the wall and scrolled through his phone, pretending he had messages other than Leon’s constant stream of shitty memes. Almost ten minutes passed, and Ishimaru was nowhere to be seen. That wouldn’t be unusual for anyone else, but everyone knew the hall monitor was habitually early. Maybe he didn’t see the note? Or maybe he ignored it. After all, Mondo hadn’t signed the note or anything. Maybe he found it suspicious.
Just when Mondo went to stick his phone in his pocket and head towards his bike, the door opened again. Ishimaru appeared in the opening, gripping a textbook close to his chest. He made no move to come the rest of the way outside, merely blinking at Mondo with those red eyes. The two merely stared at one another for a few moments. Mondo wasn’t sure how to start this conversation, especially with Ishimaru practically using the door as a shield. The prefect broke the silence first.
“Mondo Oowada? Did you leave me that note?” he asked, tilting his head slightly. When Mondo nodded, he straightened up a little bit. “What did you need from me?”
“Ah, well… shit, this is kind of embarrassing,” he said, scratching the back of his neck. Why was he getting so flustered? He shouldn’t be nervous in theory, but having those red eyes on him made it a totally different story.
Ishimaru’s eyes widened. “Oh! Are you needing help with an assignment?” He finally stepped forward, letting the door close behind him.
“No, nothing like that. I was wonderin’ if you’d liketogetlunchsometime?” Oh, fuck Mondo’s nerves. He didn’t even like this guy!
“I’m sorry, I didn’t quite understand you?” Ishimaru replied.
“I ASKED—” he was yelling again. He took a breath before continuing. “I asked if you wanted to get lunch sometime. Like a date?”
Ishimaru stared at him blankly. Mondo counted to three before the other boy turned on his heel and began to walk away without a word.
Well, that was fucking rude. He knew Ishimaru was stuck-up, but he hadn’t expected that. “No need to be an ass,” he shouted after him, resisting the urge to shout something much less polite.
Ishimaru spun back around and glared at him. “Please do not speak to me. You’re lucky I’m not giving you detention.”
“Detention? For what?! Asking you out?!” Mondo pushed himself off the wall, eyebrows narrowing to match Ishimaru’s as the familiar feeling of anger welled up in his chest. “How much of a dick can you be?”
“Feigning attraction to another student is incredibly impolite and not the least bit funny,” Ishimaru replied, standing his ground even as the biker advanced towards him. “At least you had the decency to do it to me and not one of our classmates, but it is still inappropriate.”
“Feigning… who the fuck said I did that?”
“It’s very clear by the way you act you don’t find me attractive. And I don’t—” Ishimaru paused a moment and took a breath. When he spoke again, it was in a hushed voice. “I don’t know who told you I was a homosexual, but my sexuality is not an excuse to belittle me.”
Mondo stopped. Wait, what? He looked back at the other student’s face and, with dawning horror, saw him focused on the concrete, blinking rapidly as if to stave off tears. Oh, fuck.
“I’m bisexual,” he said, as if it cleared everything up. Ishimaru looked back up at him.
“You are?” When Mondo nodded, he continued. “Then you should understand even better that this is a completely inappropriate—”
“It wasn’t a joke, dammit!” he said, slamming his fist against the nearby railing. Ishimaru jumped. “I was actually asking you out.”
“Why?”
“The fuck do you mean, why? Because I wanted to go on a date?” Ishimaru just continued to stare at him as if he’d grown a third head. Didn’t Leon say he’d been asked out before? He was acting like it was a totally foreign concept.
“You actually find me attractive?”
“Isn’t that usually why people ask other people out?” he said. It wasn’t a lie, per se.
Suddenly, Ishimaru bowed. “My sincerest apologies, then. I shouldn’t have assumed that you were heterosexual, nor that you were seeking to ridicule me. It was quite improper of me as the Ultimate Moral Compass to take that stance without any real basis.”
Mondo scratched the back of his neck, pointedly looking away from the boy who was bowed in front of him “‘S fine, dude. You don’t need to apologize. I get that it prolly came from left field.”
“Nevertheless, it was unacceptable behavior on my part!” Ishimaru suddenly sprang back up, facing the biker with perfect posture. “To make it up to you, please allow me to accompany you on this lunch date in order to get to know you better!”
Wait, what?? Mondo’s jaw dropped. “You don’t have to do that, man…”
“Nonsense, I insist.” Ishimaru looked him dead in the eyes. “I have clearly misunderstood you, Mondo Oowada, and I want to remedy that. A lunch date is the perfect way to get to know one another.”
Mondo could practically feel sweat beading off him. This kid was even more intense than he’d realized. “Uh yeah, okay then. How about noon this Saturday?” Anything to get that steely gaze off him.
“Noon on Saturday…” Ishimaru looked upwards, as if checking a mental planner. “I will have to move around some studying, but I believe that will work! Would you like me to give you my phone number so that we may further discuss this?”
“Yeah, sure,” Mondo said, unlocking his phone and handing it to the other boy. With a few quick taps, Ishimaru handed him back the phone.
“Excellent! I hope you have a productive evening, Mondo Oowada,” he said with a grin. And with that, the prefect turned once again and marched off, leaving Mondo in a state of shock. What the fuck had just happened?
He had just inadvertently landed his first date, is what. Leon was gonna laugh his ass off at this one.