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It’s in a sweltering English classroom when Teru is first made aware about the rumours surrounding the school’s time. He lazily side-eyes two girls at the back of the classroom talking in hushed whispers, well known secrets told to all the unsuspecting new students about what hides behind closed doors.
It starts as always;
“…Have you heard the rumour?”
“It’s school mystery No. 1 – the three clock keepers.”
He idly doodles in the margins of his book while his teacher drones on about obscure names and faces he can’t be bothered to remember. The quiet chatter continues as well as the occasional gasp of surprise when the rumour reaches a climax. Teru ignores it, as always. After some time, the bell rings, signaling the end of the period. He gathers up his textbooks and catches a glimpse of brown hair and brown eyes near the window. His skin tingles.
Found you.
--
It’s in the student council room where Teru first lay eyes on a supernatural who looks decidedly human, and doubt pools in the very recesses of his stomach. He pushes that away. He can’t afford to look weak.
He extends a hand forward, quickly hiding the coldness in his movements with a soft smile that never quite reaches his eyes. “I assume you must be Akane-san? It’ll be a pleasure working with you.”
Akane clasps it firmly. His hands are cold to touch, despite it being in the middle of summer.
(To Teru, it’s just another simple reminder of what he’s dealing with here.)
--
Akane’s surprisingly good at managing resources. It hasn’t even been a week yet and already he’s working furiously to no end to suit everybody’s needs and wants. He laughs at classmates jokes, politely rejects offers of love and accepts requests of new additions to the school with promises Teru’s sure he never intends to keep. It’s weirdly jarring at how normal he seems to be.
Akane seems to hold a lot more normalcy in his life than Teru will ever have.
(But is that necessarily a bad thing?)
He sighs and hangs his head in mock defeat as Akane steadily approaches him.
“President,” Akane says. “We need to talk.”
That’s how Teru found himself back at the student council room, staring at a not-so-human who may or may not kill him and praying that he’ll get home before Kou decides to throw out his dinner.
A suffocating silence befalls the two of them. It’s eerily quiet without the usual noise of students running down the hallway.
“You’ve been following me, President.” It’s a statement, not a question. A truth needing to be approved. Akane eyes Teru suspiciously, daring him to confirm.
Because Teru is an idiot, he has no qualms about his life. “Yes, I have been.”
Akane makes a tsk sound. “Alright then. May I question why?”
He hesitates (Minamotos never hesitate. What’s wrong with him?). “It’s because…”
“You’re a supernatural, aren’t you?”
A pause, before Akane breaks out into quiet laughter. It holds no cruelty, unlike many other supernaturals that have been in the same position as he stood now. “What gave it away?”
“Obviously my great intuition,” he jokes half-heartedly.
Another silence.
“What it’s like, having parents?”
When he asks the question, Teru’s caught off guard. It’s a simple one, but it makes him feel sick. It makes him feel pity- pathetic for an exorcist like him. His ancestors would be rolling around in their graves with disgust.
“Well,” he starts. “Parents usually take care of their children. They-“
Oh.
He stops abruptly. Akane wasn’t questioning about mortal lives. In front of him, the supernatural tilts his head and smiles. It’s unsettlingly human, for someone by all definitions, is not a human.
Akane asks the unspoken question at last after some time has passed. It’s expected, but makes Teru feel the same sickness all over again.
“What it’s like, being loved?”
--
“Nii-san?” Kou’s biting his fingernails. “Are you alright?”
He isn’t alright by any means. Teru slumps against the table in absolute exhaustion, not even bothering to carefully sheath the sword lying against his back.
“Oh god,” he mutters into the wood. “I asked him out on a date.”
Teru thinks he might die then and there.
--
“What do you mean?” He had asked, confused. Akane shrugged.
“What do you feel? What do you see?”
Teru contemplated his answer. “Well, it varies. It depends on the person.” He tapped the desk next to him. “It can be an addicting drug, or your worst poison.”
Akane hummed thoughtfully. “I see. For you though, is it nice?”
He stiffened. “I-“
(What is love?)
After not replying, Akane had simply sighed and the room fell quiet once again. Teru gazed around absently, until his attention was caught on a flyer. It was advertising a shooting star shower occurring at the school tomorrow night. And naturally, Teru had probably the stupidest idea to date.
“Do you want to watch the stars with me?”
--
And so, to Teru’s surprise, Akane had agreed.
--
He stands outside of the school gates, faltering and inwardly cursing himself as he pushes the gates open, and walks up the stairs towards the roof. Akane is already there, picking at his nails in boredom. Teru feels his heart rate quicken when he sits next to him, not daring to say a word.
Eventually, he points to the sky and says simply, “Look.”
The stars were falling.
He glances at Akane who is staring at the stars in awe. His expression is akin to a child in a candy store, he thinks amusedly.
The two sit there in peace. Watching the stars glow and shine as brightly as the sun in the darkness of the night.
Ultimately, the stars don’t burn forever and many of them start to dim, going back to sleep after a long night of celebration.
When that happens, Teru thinks about the question that crossed his mind in the student council room.
What is love?
And for a brief, fleeting moment as he hears Akane’s content sigh, he knows he has the answer.
--
In the morning, Teru leaves a special gift for Akane. He knows when Akane opens his desk drawer during homeroom, he will see a neatly ribboned box. When he’ll open it, a pair of recently polished glasses will be unwrapped from the tissue paper protecting it. Akane will examine them in his hand, wondering what to do with them. Then finally, he’ll notice a note lying at the bottom of the box.
And it will read a simple ‘I love you.’
But nobody has to know that apart from them, of course.