Chapter Text
Alcott-sensei was trying hard to get the class to shut up. There were whispers and chattering going through the entire room for a while now and all that Akutagawa had been doing was stare out the window, waiting for class to start, so he could stare at the blackboard, faking interest until lunch break. That would mean half the day would already be over which was great news for him. In the evening he would just copy Gin's homework when she was busy doing whatever on the phone, or watching some of her shows.
The same repetitive shit every single day.
"Please, can you guys just shut up so that the kid can introduce themselves?" Chuuya's voice was loud, barking through the entire classroom and finally everyone calmed down a little. When Chuuya was getting grumpy no one wanted to get on his bad side.
"Thank you Nakahara-kun." Alcott-sensei took a steadying breath. "Class, good morning! As you may have noticed we got a new student. They transferred from Nagoya. Why don't you introduce yourself?"
Akutagawa slowly turned his head away from the window, attempting to look up at the new student. His eyes got stuck on the view of the black overknees and his interest instantly dropped again, on a scale from 1 to 10 he was about negative 3 interested in that new student.
Just another girl that Dazai can talk about, how boring. He turned his head back towards the window.
"Hi my name is Atsushi Nakajima." Akutagawa's head snapped back, focusing on the face of the new student. Soft features, bright eyes, silver hair. A guy ? His eyes dropped down to the skirt, then back up to the purple-golden eyes and back to the skirt. His interest just peaked an all time high of plus 5, not bad for a transfer student.
"I just moved to Yokohama last week. Thanks for having me in your care." He bowed, some longer strands of his hair falling into his face.
Akutagawa squinted slightly, was he wearing makeup ? His cheeks were glittery . Maybe not that interesting after all. He turned his head back towards the window, staring out while the entire class was whispering and chattering.
"Why is he wearing a skirt?" Yuan blurted out, a little too loudly and the entire class went silent.
It took a long while and then finally Chuuya did what Chuuya does. "I don't know Yuan . Why is your hair pink ?"
"Woah chibi, you don't have to be so rude now." Dazai laughed out loud, shaking himself in his chair while some others in the class chuckled out of courtesy. It was kind of a given that everyone would laugh at whatever Dazai thought was funny, after all Dazai and Chuuya were cool . And everyone wanted to be cool in one way or the other.
"Now, now, children. Why don't we do an introduction round for Nakajima-kun, so he knows who is who?" Alcott-sensei offered. "You can sit here in the front for now."
Akutagawa sighed. Introduction round, that means talking , how troublesome.
"I start. I am Nakahara Chuuya, you can call me Chuuya. Also the class president, at your service!" The redhead started, grinning at the new student who had turned around in his chair to look at his classmates.
"Dazai Osamu." The tall bandaged boy next to Chuuya spoke. He was leaning back in his chair and was probably even more bored to be here than Akutagawa was.
And so the entire class took turns, including all of Akutagawa's best friends who, to all the teacher's pain, had been placed in the same class for their final year of highschool. Not like Akutagawa minded.
"Akutagawa Ryuunosuke, nice to meet you." He tried to sound as bored as possible when it was finally his turn. Unluckily for him the boy's brows perked up slightly.
"Another Akutagawa?" He asked, surprised. Akutagawa turned his head to his sister, pleading for help, because he really couldn't be bothered talking right now. But she ignored him with such ease, one could think she had been practicing (which she had for years ).
He sighed. "Yeah, we are twins." He gestured at his sister, who had the same eyes, hair, nose and chin as him, just in girl .
The new student nodded enthusiastically. "I see, that's so cool!"
Akutagawa didn't even try to force a smile. "No it's not."
Gin giggled to herself, turning her head back to the blackboard waiting for class to finally start, which it did.
A painfully long row of morning classes later Akutagawa was finally out at their usual picnic table biting into his Onigiri.
"So, what you think of that new student?" Tachihara started and Akutagawa was already ready to go sit somewhere where he had some peace and quiet .
"What about him?" Chuuya was sitting on the table, Dazai leaning back between his legs eating from his chibis lunchbox.
"Isn't it sad it's a guy? Why can't he just be a girl?" Dazai whined, earning him a slap across the head from Chuuya. "No one asked, shitty Dazai!" Chuuya exclaimed.
Tachihara swallowed before speaking. "Well, isn't it weird he is wearing a girl's uniform?"
"What does it matter?" Gin shrugged. "I wear a boy's uniform and no one complains."
"Yeah but..." Tachihara started again. "Boys wearing skirts is a little different, no?"
Chuuya stretched out his arms before placing them onto Dazai's shoulders. "Now how is it different? It's just something else, no? What do you think, Ryuu-chan?"
Akutagawa glared at him. "I couldn't care less about that new student. Why are we even wasting our time talking about him."
Dazai laughed. "Akutagawa you are such a bore . Don't you want to gossip about that new guy with us?" His voice was teasing, as always. Annoying.
"No, I got better things to think about."
"Ah, like what? How to copy Gin's homework without her noticing?" Chuuya now chimed in on the teasing, drawing a laugh out of Gin.
"You know, Ryuu, I can just help you if you don't understand the assignments." His sister offered.
"It's not that I don't understand ." Which was true, that wasn't the problem really. He just couldn't be bothered about school, or anything, at all and took advantage of the fact that he had a smart and well organized sister. He fumbled with the cable's to his headphones, ready to just ignore his friends for the day.
"Ah come on, Ryuu! Don't shut yourself out already." Tachihara started complaining. "You didn't even tell me about your new board yet."
Gin rolled her eyes, she had already heard and seen way too much about that new board. "Higuchi just texted me, I'll see you in class." She jumped up, waving goodbye to the guys before disappearing into the crowd of students.
"What's with her and Higuchi these days? Can't Higuchi just come eat with us?" Tachihara asked, slightly annoyed to see Gin ditch them yet for another lunch break.
Akutagawa just shrugged, pulling out his phone to show Tachihara his new board.
"Oh damn, you really got a fancy imported one. Did you add the wheels yourself?" Tachihara started to get excited.
"Yeah, I have been trying some bigger wheels. But I am not sure if I like the feeling of them." Akutagawa shrugged, happy that they could finally talk about something that he was actually interested in and that distracted him from Dazai and Chuuya's weird lunch rituals. The type of weird where Dazai eats Chuuya's complete bento, just to then get into a huge argument about it afterwards. It happened every single day and Akutagawa really didn't get why Chuuya didn't just bring an extra bento for Dazai instead of fighting every day.
"Wanna go out tonight? Got anything planned?" Tachihara was now all fired up. He knew that Akutagawa hardly ever had anything planned, except for when the plan was to not do anything or rarely when there was a concert on a Friday night. But today was fine, just another boring Monday. He would have probably gone skating alone if Tachihara wouldn't have asked and he really didn't mind the company too much. So he agreed.
When Tachihara had finally talked enough Akutagawa blasted some 2010 punk rock into his ears. American music was just a tad better than the Japanese, in his opinion. Of course My First Story and ONE OK ROCK were divine, but they were also too popular around here, so it wasn't really worth listening to them, since everyone did it. However no one listened to Linkin Park or Fall Out Boy here, so he could just run around in his band shirts with no one knowing what he was actually listening to.
He looked around the campus while listening to his personal anthem, Misery Business by Paramore, what a great song. His eyes drifted over the tables. He spotted his sister sitting alone with Higuchi, laughing about something probably less than funny. Yuan was making out with Shirase in the midst of their group, gross. The Russians were smoking behind the vending machines, knowing damn well it was not allowed. But that wasn't Akutagawa's problem. His eyes got stuck on the short silver hair, almost reflecting the sunlight. The new student was sitting on his own underneath a tree, head in a book. Geez, what a nerd, who reads in their lunch break instead of just chilling and doing nothing . He stared at the boy, maybe a bit too long, a bit too interested but... He was interesting. Who would voluntarily go through the trouble of wearing a skirt to school. Like, all the commotion it caused just seemed so exhausting . That guy must be crazy or desperate for attention to come to school like that. It's not like he said he would like to be referred to as she or they either, so why the trouble.
Akutagawa caught himself thinking about something that was not worth his time. He looked away from the boy, returning his focus onto his phone, scrolling through Instagram.
His attention returned to what was actually going on when Dazai ripped out one of his headphones.
"Ryuu-chan! Classes are starting!" He grinned at him, earning himself another glare.
"I swear if you break these you buy me a new pair you piece of shit. I know where you live." Akutagawa spewed.
Dazai just gave him a dumb grin. "Of course you do, we are neighbours ." Chuuya had jumped down from the table, his red hair looked like fire in the midday sun. "Chibi, why don't you come to school in a skirt? You'd make a great girl with your hei- Ah, why do you hit me?!"
Dazai jumped away from Chuuya's other fist following his first. "Dazai, don't be a dick. And if I want to wear a skirt, I will!"
Dazai's eyes lit up a little. "Oh, really? Will you let me see?" Dazai was almost purring at this point.
"No. You'd be the last person I'd show, shitty Dazai." Chuuya clarified, following Dazai to the school building. Tachihara just shrugged, he wasn't sold on that entire boys in skirts thing.
The Akutagawa's and the Dazai's had been neighbours since forever. Having three kids the same age kinda led to them spending a lot of time together. So the Akutagawa twins and Osamu had been going to school together ever since preschool. Tachihara had become an addition when they entered middle school. And by the end of middle school Chuuya had moved from France back to Yokohama. For some reason Dazai and Chuuya had become this inseparable team and naturally Chuuya was included into the group, making them five. As of lately Gin had started spending more time with Higuchi from their parallel class. Tachihara had been a little bothered by that but he didn't mind too much, after all he still got to skate with Akutagawa, which seemed like a fun activity for him. Overall their group had been slowly splitting itself up a little. Dazai and Chuuya were always busy with bickering, Gin was more distant lately and Tachihara and Akutagawa would bond over skating. Akutagawa didn't really mind as he had never been very chatty. But he did enjoy the company of his friends, no matter how annoying Dazai was. They were like family to him after all.
The afternoon classes were as boring as ever. Kunikida-san was trying to explain some complicated maths problem to them and no one but Dazai really got it. Actually, that wasn't true. The transfer student solved it perfectly to everyone's surprise. Dazai's ego took a bit of a blow and all of his friends silently agreed that it was in Dazai's best interest, that someone was just as good as him in maths.
Kouyou-sensei's class was as chill as always. It helped that it was one of the only classes where Akutagawa actually didn't mind being productive and that he actually enjoyed. They were working on a collection of portraits. Opening the discourse of perception of the other and oneselfs. Basically drawing people, sculpting heads, taking photographs and self portraits and so on.
Kouyou-sensei was probably one of his favorite teachers. Of course he had massive class bias, but he didn't care. Working on self portraits was fun and hell at the same time. Constantly having to look at some bad picture of himself and actually trying to bring it onto the damn paper, not so nice.
The boy in the skirt seemed to not be having the greatest time during arts class. That seemed just fair, considering Dazai was failing miserably too, letting Chuuya do his drawings for him. Not without the red head constantly complaining about it until Kouyou-sensei was threatening both of them with detention.
"But Ozaki-sensei!" Dazai started, voice pleading. "I just can't draw at all! It's so unfair that I am not gifted!"
She rolled her eyes. "Dazai-kun, no one can't do it. You just haven't tried yet . You need to put your heart into it. It's a drawing, if we would want it to look like a photograph we-"
Chuuya and Dazai spoke in unison. "-would just take a photograph instead."
"Exactly!" She clapped her hands, proud of herself for drilling that into her student's heads. "So, Dazai-kun, if you want to keep on sitting next to Nakahara-kun you should start focusing on your own work. Otherwise I will seat you somewhere else!" She gave him her most charming smile and he slumped back into his chair.
Akutagawa almost laughed to himself. He always enjoyed it when Dazai was failing at something . After all, he had to deal with Dazai being the best at everything for his entire life. So, yeah, Dazai sucking at something was really funny, really enjoyable.
Kouyou-sensei moved to his table. "Good job Akutagawa-kun. Anything that bothers you at the moment?"
He stared down at his drawing. "Mh... the eyes."
She took a closer look. "What exactly do you not like?"
He shrugged. "Aren't they too big? And like..." He closed one eye to take a better look. "Aren't they like... too high?"
She grinned at him. "Well, I would say they are too big. So why don't you adjust that. Also, your chin isn't that big." She winked at him before continuing her stroll through the class, giving tips to the students.
Akutagawa liked Kouyou, he thought she was the best teacher there was and he thought that she was extremely pretty. Especially for someone her age, she looked so good. Her hair was almost the same color as Chuuya's and it was super long. She would always have it in an interesting updo or braided. Akutagawa thought that was amazing, it was worth his time looking at her. So far she had been the only woman in his life that seemed interesting and he didn't mind having a crush on his teacher. It actually helped, as he was motivated for class and actually did something for once, which in return made his mom a little happy. He had thought about confessing to her on the last day of highschool, as it made sense to him to do so. That was at least until he had seen her in the city with some ominous business man, crushing all of Akutagawa's dreams of a lovely future with his teacher. It still didn't stop him from secretly admiring her during class. She was the only person he knew that would always wear a kimono. It gave her that certain something . Like she was some ancient holy being, worth placing on a pedestal. And the way she taught was just so much better than any of the other teachers.
Alcott-sensei was alright. She was a bit of a pushover, having Chuuya pretty much dictate the class for her, because she wasn't able to keep them in check. But she was nice, lovely really. The best homeroom teacher they could ask for. Higuchi's class had Kunikida as their homeroom teacher. Speak about a nightmare, right? He was already hell in maths, how hell would a parent teacher talk or counseling be with him . Yeah, no thank you.
Finally the bell rang, freeing Akutagawa of his misery in school. Of course Monday's weren't as bad as other days thanks to the arts classes, but it was still school . Dazai and him always biked home together, or more, Dazai let himself be pulled by Akutagawa whenever Chuuya had soccer practice, which was on Monday and Thursday.
"You know you have your own legs to drive your ass home, right?" Akutagawa shouted over his shoulder.
"But my chibi isn't here, how am I supposed to get home on my own?" He said dramatically, holding onto the luggage rack of Akutagawa's bike.
"You are so useless, Dazai." Akutagawa pedaled faster to get them home. They said their goodbyes at their respective doorsteps.
"I am home!" Akutagawa shouted into the house.
His mother's voice greeted him from the kitchen. "Welcome home, Ryuunosuke!"
He changed his shoes for house slippers and stepped into the kitchen. "I will go out with Tachi after dinner." He pressed a kiss onto his mothers temple, before heading to the first floor into his room.
He tossed his bag into the corner before stripping out of his uniform, changing into some black ripped skinny jeans and his favorite A Day To Remember t-shirt. He turned on the speakers to his audio system before falling back onto his bed, staring at the ceiling. It was his routine, get home and do nothing before eating dinner, doing the necessary socializing with his family and then either play video games or go out and skate.
An hour later Gin came to fetch him for dinner as he had not heard the shouting of their mother. Dinner was boring, being in the same class as his sister just made conversations boring. There was nothing he didn't know, as well as nothing his parents didn't know. For Akutagawa it was a good way to avoid conversations.
"We have a new student in our class." Gin started.
Akutagawa tried to seem uninterested but it was a pain, as that new transfer student was the topic of every conversation he had today.
"His name is Nakajima uhm..."
"Atsushi." Akutagawa helped her out.
"Yes! Thanks Ryuu! Atsushi. He moved here from Nagoya last week." Gin continued.
"Oh! What brings him here?" Fuku Akutagawa had always been a bit of a nosy lady. She always needed to know every little detail, however, unlike Dazai's mom she didn't gossip.
"I don't really know, I didn't talk to him." Gin admitted.
"What about you Ryuunosuke? Have you befriended him?" She asked her son who looked up at her, slightly irritated.
"Why should I?" He stared at her, expression blank.
She shrugged. "Well I don't know, maybe he is into the same things as you."
"I don't think so." Akutagawa stated flatly. "He seems to be into makeup and things like that."
Gin chuckled. "You paint your nails sometimes too!"
He glared at her. "Yea but not colorful ."
"Painting nails is painting nails." She proclaimed.
"What do you mean he is into makeup?" Their mother asked.
The siblings exchanged glances before Gin spoke up. "Well he wears makeup and he doesn't wear a boys uniform."
Her mother stared at her. "Oh so he is like... uhm... I saw something about this on TV. Transgender?"
Gin shrugged. "I don't know mom, I didn't ask."
"It's not really our business mom..." Akutagawa said, trying to get the conversation away from the hot topic of the day.
"But it's something new, no? When I grew up boys couldn't wear girl's uniforms. It's nice that the world is a bit more open like that." His mother replied.
He shrugged. "I guess. I don't really care. Everyone should just do what they want, really."
Gin laughed. "Why are you always so emo , aren't you too old for that?"
"Shut up Gin."
"Now, now, you two, no fighting at the dinner table." Their mother reminded them, gathering the bowls and plates together.
"Oh, mom, can Higuchi come over next weekend?" Gin asked while helping their mother with the dishes. An annoying habit she had picked up to get a favor from their parents.
"But we aren't home this weekend. Who is this Higuchi person Ryuunosuke?" She asked him because she didn't trust her daughter's answer.
He stared at her, then at his sister who was rolling her eyes in annoyance. "She is in the other 3rd year class. I don't really know her."
The fact that it was a girl made it okay for their mother as it seemed. "But no sleepover!"
"Yes mom!" Gin chirped before leaving to her room.
Akutagawa grabbed his skateboard and texted Tachihara that he was heading out to the skate park.
They met up 15 minutes later. The two of them had been skateboarding for years together now. It was that one thing that they formed their friendship over, learning ollies together, patching up each other's wounds when they fell. It was fun, a good way to get out of the house. Akutagawa in general enjoyed driving along the river side, when they weren't doing any tricks. Just being on the board, wind in his ears, it felt like it was just him in this world.
Tachihara and him didn't really have much to talk about generally. It was mainly Akutagawa's fault, as he just didn't talk to anyone really. Tachihara on the other hand just talked about whatever and Akutagawa listened, sometimes more and sometimes less interested.
Today Tachihara only had one subject and it was just as annoying as when everyone else brought it up. Why was everyone so obsessed with a guy in a skirt, like, was it really that big of a deal? It wasn't to Akutagawa, if it was up to him he would just ignore that skirt wearing boy as he ignored everyone else, but for some reason all his friends, hell, even his family and everyone in school had nothing better to talk and think about.
"Do you think he is like gay or something?" Tachihara asked.
"What do I know? Why don't you ask him?" Akutagawa countered. He had already been listening to his friend for a good 15 minutes.
"I don't know, that would be rude, no?" Tachihara responded.
"It's just as rude if you make assumptions behind his back." And once again Akutagawa just wondered why he even bothered defending that silver haired student.
"Yeah... I guess so."
"Why are you making such a big deal out of it anyways?"
Tachihara shrugged. "I don't know... My dad said that it's weird and- well I don't really know if it is?"
Akutagawa looked at his friend who seemed a little down. "Well, I paint my nails sometimes. Is that weird?"
Tachihara looked up at him. "No, that's just your style."
Akutagawa nodded. "Well then it's just Atsushi's style to wear a skirt, no? Just how you always wear that silly band aid."
Tachihara's hand instinctively reached up to his nose, blushing and nodded. Akutagawa silently prayed that he would now finally be spared all the conversations about the transfer student, at least for a moment.
Even though his friends stopped mentioning it, as they all just agreed that there was no issue with a guy in a skirt, it was still a hot topic at school. The boy would always be alone during lunch break and some of the meaner kids had decided to pick on him. It was mostly just comments, especially in the hallway. Either he got laughed at for wearing a girl's uniform or there were whispers among the students.
In his second week there was a bit of a bigger incident. Someone had taken the time to write onto Atsushi's desk.
"Trannies out."
Chuuya was vigorously attempting to remove the letters from the desk before Atsushi would make it back to class. "Who the fuck did this?" He shouted among the students that were already there. All of them were just silent, staring at Chuuya, who was failing to remove the letters from the surface.
"Akutagawa, can you make sure Atsushi is occupied." There was no space to say no, even though Akutagawa really didn't want to. He headed out into the hallway, looking around to find the silver haired boy.
He walked to the lockers where he found him. Akutagawa took a breath before approaching the other student. "Uhm... Hi, Nakajima-kun?"
Purple eyes met his, making him halt in his movement. "Hey... you are Akutagawa-san right?"
The black haired boy nodded. "Yes! We are in the same class."
"Yeah, I know. Uhhh... how can I help you?"
Akutagawa thought about it for a second. He had to find a good reason to keep the other one busy until Chuuya got that desk cleaned, or a teacher involved, or both really. But how ? His eyes were hanging onto the book in the boy's hand. "Oh, uhm, could you like... uhhh... show me the library?"
Atsushi shot his eyebrows up before squinting his eyes. "You have been going to this school for over two years now and you don't know where the library is?"
Akutagawa realized how stupid he must sound. "No! I mean, I know where it is but I thought maybe we could go... together?" He offered. God, this was so embarrassing, why did Chuuya have to send him out of all people?
"Very funny." Atsushi replied dryly, shutting the door to his locker, the friendly glint vanishing from his eyes. He started marching off towards their classroom.
"Woah, wait a sec!" Akutagawa called after him.
Atsushi turned around. "Listen. I don't know if you lost a bet or if you just want to make fun of me but you can just say whatever you want to say right to my face. There is no need to make fun of me by dragging me to the library to do whatever."
Akutagawa stood there, dumbfounded. Did Atsushi just assume he was making fun of him? He was occupied with his own thoughts for a tiny bit too long, missing the fact that Atsushi continued his march towards their room. Akutagawa snapped out of it when the boy had already entered the room, making Akutagawa run to the door to stop him.
The scene he faced was... well, less than ideal. Atsushi was staring at Chuuya, who was still at his desk, fumbling with tissues. He walked up to it and read what was written on it and just for a second his face turned into a small flight of panic, before turning back to the more friendly face of his.
"Dazai went to get Alcott-sensei so we can figure out who it was." Chuuya started. Atsushi turned his head back to the door where Akutagawa was standing, a mix of surprise and shock on his face.
Frustration started to grow on Atsushi's face, pulling his lips down into a frown, when he walked towards the door to leave again. When he passed Akutagawa there was only one word the other boy heard. "Why?"
Atsushi left the room, a bit too hastily, a bit too quietly. Akutagawa gripped the doorframe, how was this his fault now? He glared at Chuuya, who didn't get what was going on whatsoever, before turning to follow Atsushi.
Unfortunately Dazai's frame stopped him from leaving the room and Alcott-sensei rushed over to the desk.
She frowned before pushing up her round glasses. "Thank you Nakahara-kun, for having Dazai-kun come and get me."
Dazai rolled his eyes dramatically but didn't say anything. His eyes were fixated onto Akutagawa, not letting his friend out of sight. The amber eyes piercing through Akutagawa interested, as if he knew something.
"Well, kids, where did Nakajima-kun go?" Alcott-sensei asked, looking around in the class. "Could someone go and tell him I would like to see him?"
Akutagawa was about to say he will go but Dazai was just a tad faster. "I'll do it!"
"Thank you, Dazai-kun!" Alcott-sensei and Chuuya both had surprise written all over their face. Dazai never did something voluntarily. He would only go and do something if Chuuya literally forced him to do so. Something was terribly off and Akutagawa knew it had to do with him but he didn't understand what he had done exactly. He just did what Chuuya had told him to do, not more, not less. Of course he had failed but he still only did what he was asked to do. Why was everyone acting like he had something to do with this situation, when the only goal in his highschool life was to stay the hell away from anything troublesome and keep quiet.
The class slowly calmed down and settled to their seats. Alcott-sensei seemed out of it the entire lesson and so was Akutagawa. Dazai didn't return and neither did Atsushi. The worst part really was that Dazai didn't even come home with Akutagawa that day, so he couldn't even ask what was going on. And on top of that Akutagawa's mind was occupied , which was the last thing he had wanted, the last thing he needed, when all he wanted was peace and quiet.