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"Guys, I'm dying!" Felix whines as he immediately lies his head on his desk. Most of the club members only acknowledged the redhead and continued on with their paper works.
"Felix, we just had lunch." Leon replied.
"I know, but I'm still hungry."
"Don't you always have a burger or taco stashed inside your vest?" Ciel joked. "Not today." Leon replied for him, making Ciel a little taken aback by that reply.
"I'm gonna die." Felix said dramatically.
"You're not gonna die." Leon replied.
"I'm LITERALLY dying right now."
Leon shook his head at him while the two argued. Shintarou glanced at the two before cleaning up his papers. He lets out a frustrated sigh as he gets up from his seat and makes his way towards Leon's desk. Ignoring the petty argument between the two, he places the papers on Leon's desk.
"The reports on the library books that haven't been returned for this month." He said to Leon, earning a nod from the German boy. Shintarou glanced at Felix who looked like he was almost crying, clutching his stomach and swiftly placing a strawberry flavored candy on his desk. He then gently places a pat on his head to alert him of the piece of candy.
Felix looks up and sees Shintarou walking back to his seat. He smiles as he notices the candy and realizes that it was given by Shintarou. If it was anyone else, it wouldn't be a big deal. But from Hibino Shintarou? Out of everyone else in the club?
"I'm going now." He announced as he packs up his stuff. Gion nodded at his statement, his eyes not leaving the monitor screen even for a split second. Leon stares at the Japanese prince as he leaves before he looks back at Felix who was unwrapping the candy. He looks down at Shintarou's reports, clenching his jaw as he reads them.
【️☆️】️
Shintarou goes through the files in his laptop while he waits for the rest to come into the club room. He glances at the door and sighs.
"I'm not gonna bite you."
"I know." Felix said. He finally steps into the room and looks around. He dilly-dallies while walking to his desk, making Shintarou have his full attention to him.
"What are you doing?"
Felix stops and places something on Shintarou's desk. He steps back, puts his hands into his pockets and waits for a reaction. Shintarou looks over his laptop and scoffs when he sees what it is. He looks back at Felix who looks like he's having trouble containing his smile.
"What is this for?"
"Just because."
Shintarou gives him a hard stare, a substitute for saying, "I have a hard time believing that."
"Okay fine. You gave me a strawberry candy when I said I was hungry the other day. And, I just, wanted to repay you." Felix chimed.
Shintarou stares at the full bag of strawberry candy and winces. He looks back to his laptop without a second glance.
"I hate strawberry candy."
Felix's eyes widened and he starts to be a little awkward as his confidence starts cracking. He takes his hands out of his pockets and starts fiddling with his tie.
"Wait, but.. hahah, you.. you had strawberry candy on you. I thought—"
"That I like it? No. I had that candy in my bag for god knows how many weeks."
Felix blinks rapidly.
"Why—"
"A student gave it to me."
"It wasn't ex—"
"Candies last 6 to 12 months." He looks up from his laptop. "You're good." And off he goes to continue his work, ignoring Felix again.
Felix nods. He blinks a few times, before taking the bag of candy and walking to his desk. Shintarou trails the latino with his eyes. Felix sits down and takes out his trusty stapler to start his work.
"Hazelnut chocolate."
Felix looks at Shintarou upon hearing him speak again. Shintarou looks at him. Felix smiles and nods as a response, happy knowing Shintarou's favourite candy at least.
Just before Felix could start a conversation with Shintarou, Gion and Livio walk into the room, making Felix not say anything that could possibly embarrass him or Shintarou or both in that matter. Livio greets Felix and notices how his eyes linger at Shintarou for a little while. The gray haired smiled a little wider as he stands beside Gion's desk.
"Where are your friends?" Gion asks.
Felix looks around to see if Gion was talking to him before looking back to see the prince staring at him. "They're—"
Shintarou stands up, walks over to Felix with a bunch of paper in hand. Gion just starts being a blur to him when Shintarou, who was doing nothing but stands there and look pretty, starts shining in his point of view. Felix could hear the boy asking him to help staple the copies of the papers but Felix swore he could hear his abuela's romance songs on the telenovelas in his head too.
"Felix." Gion calls out again.
"Oh! They'll be here." Felix's voice cracked, making Shintarou hold back a laugh. Felix's cheeks start getting hot and red as he keeps his head down from first hand embarrassment. Livio smiles as he stays quiet.
【️☆️】️
The elevator chimes as it comes to a stop. Felix steps out of the elevator, chocolate in hand and a smile on his face. He can't believe he's actually walking to Shintarou's dorm room to give him a piece of candy. On the weekend too! Usually Felix just sleeps the morning but now he's actually in front of his ex enemy-ish club member's dorm.
The redhead takes a deep breath as he immediately rings the doorbell so that he doesn't just stand there for 5 minutes rethinking his decision. He starts jumping, internally hoping — PRAYING — that Shintarou is the one that opens the door. (If it's Livio, it's okay but lord help him if it's Gion who does.)
The door opens up and Felix couldn't contain his happiness as soon as he sees Shintarou's adorable face without his glasses. Felix feels his cheeks getting hot again, taking in the fact that the Shintarou he's seeing right now probably just woke up due to the sleepy eyes and bed hair. Shintarou looks stupid as he squints his eyes trying to figure out what redhead this is but Felix just thinks it's adorable.
There it goes again, abuela's telenovela songs playing in his head.
"Felix?" Shintarou speaks for the first time that morning and FELIX JUST MELTS HEARING THE GRUFF MORNING VOICE. Being dramatic as he is, he balls his fist and places it on his chest, pretending to have a heart attack. "What the fuck are you doing?"
"Hi." Felix starts, sounding as dreamy as he can.
"What?"
"Right. Uhm. Here." He hands the hazelnut chocolate to the Japanese prince and gives him a wide smile. Shintarou brings the chocolate close to his eyes and reads that it's a hazelnut chocolate before looking at Felix.
"It's 7am in the morning."
"Leon used to say that eating chocolate in the morning helps burn fat." Felix shared, making Shintarou nod. Shintarou smiles at the chocolate before looking at Felix.
Felix stares at the beautiful boy, feeling his heart beating faster as he starts to lean in closer unknowingly.
"Prince Shintarou?" Livio's voice makes the latino stop and panic. Shintarou looks back at the gray haired preparing breakfast in the dining room. "Who's that?"
"A friend." Shintarou says.
"Oh? Is it Prince Felix who had heart eyes on you yesterday? Because if it is, I wouldn't be surprised." Livio laughs as he jokes. Shintarou and Felix both start blushing upon hearing the literal statement from the bodyguard. Felix covers his face, knowing well that he's as red as a tomato in front of Shintarou after that.
"No. No. Just—" Shintarou snorts as he glances at Felix, "Just a friend."
"Okay."
Shintarou pushes Felix out of the way. He walks out and closes the door behind him before letting out a soft laugh. Felix peeked at the boy through his hands.
"Was I obvious?"
"Painfully obvious."
Just then Felix's stomach starts rumbling loud, letting Shintarou know that the kid probably hasn't even had breakfast yet. Shintarou snorts.
Felix immediately crouches down and starts being awkward. The latino starts venting in spanish, hoping that the earth swallows him whole so that he can escape this embarrassment. Shintarou groans as he crouches down as well. He unwraps the chocolate and breaks half of it.
"Felix."
Felix, a little embarrassed (he's SO embarrassed actually) took a while before he put his hands away from his face.
"Ah."
"But I got it for you."
"Ah."
Shintarou insisted, so Felix opened up his mouth. Shintarou shoves the chocolate into his mouth and Felix takes up the whole piece. Shintarou shows the redhead his half of the chocolate. He bites into it and smiles.
"ありがとう。"
Felix felt his whole body warm up seeing Shintarou smile. It's probably the third smile he saw from Shintarou, but it's the prettiest one. Maybe it's because he's smiling for Felix. Maybe it's because that was the most genuine smile he's ever seen on Shintarou. Maybe, just maybe, it's because he has a special feeling for Shintarou and every stupid little thing about him, makes him look pretty.
"I like you." He blurts out, but sounds genuine enough to make Shintarou stop and consider his words. Shintarou leans in closer and places a kiss on Felix's forehead. The kiss was long, and Felix could tell there were some melted chocolate stains on Shintarou's lips by how it feels on his forehead. Shintarou starts feeling awkward when he doesn't really know how to stop so he just stands up to run away.
Felix grabs his hands quickly, before remembering that Shintarou doesn't like being touched.
"Ah. Sorry."
Felix gets off the floor, standing up and watched as Shintarou walks back to the door. The beautiful boy hesitated before he looked back at Felix.
"Bye Felix." He says and walks into his room. A smile slowly but surely adorns Felix's face as he touches his forehead.
On the other side of the door, Shintarou touched his lips and realized he had some stains of chocolate on his lips.
"Oh god I kissed him. With chocolate on my lips?? That's disgusting! Shintarou! Are you fucking kidding yourself??" He blushes hard as he feels embarrassed by that tiny mistake.
【️☆️】️
Felix opens the door to his dorm and sees that Charles and Alexis are already up, cuddling on the couch with a cup of coffee in their hands. Albert comes into the living room with a plate of sandwich greeting Felix with a confused expression.
"Good morning, mate. You're up early! That's new!" Albert takes a seat on the couch.
"Where'd you go Felix?" Charles asked.
"What's that on your forehead?" Alexis asked straight after.
Felix smiles and looks at Charles. He jumps over the couch, immediately sitting next to Albert. The impact on the couch made Albert almost drop his plate of sandwich.
"Charles. How did you ask Alexis out?" Felix asked immediately.
Alexis choked on his coffee while Charles just immediately asked if he was okay. Albert starts laughing his ass off at how the two react to the point that he's coughing.
"We're not! I'm not!"
"Oh come on. We all know. Now tell me." Felix brushes off Alexis being a panicked awkward mess.
"Well." Charles stares at Felix blankly trying to recall his confession to Alexis while rubbing Alexis' back for his comfort. "It actually depended on him. I told him I liked him and just waited until he told me he liked me too. Then I asked him out."
"God. That is, such a boring way to ask someone out." Albert retched before looking back at Felix, "Also, again, what is on your forehead?"
"Oh yea? I'd like to see you do better, Mr 300 identities." Charles roasts him.
"I'm! Trying!" Albert defends himself.
"Okay, how would you ask our cafeteria waitress out for a date?" Charles directs the question to Albert.
"Well it really depends on Lilian herself. She doesn't like being gifted things. But as you all know, I love giving gifts. So, maybe. I would, ask her out to dinner, then confess over a sweet dessert. Then because I know she'd be petty, we can split the bill."
"Wow." Charles commented.
"That last bit, was so unnecessary." Alexis adds.
"You've got to be considerate of her feelings mate. Can't be a wanker in front of someone you fancy." Albert adviced. "You have to know what they like to wow them into wanting to go out with you."
Felix nods, thanks both Charles and Albert before running off to his room. The three boys left on the couch watched him close his bedroom door before Albert started talking again.
"So, have you guys told Principal Evans yet?"
Charles spits out his coffee and Albert gets his answer.
【️☆️】️
Felix had so little information about Shintarou that he became a little less sure about his ability to ask Shintarou out on a date. He had texted Junta, Shintarou's little brother about what he might like and even Junta himself can't really tell. All Shintarou has ever talked about is technology and that reading is his favourite pastime if he's not studying.
Felix flops on his bed as he thinks of a good place to ask Shintarou to go to, and a good reason to ask him out, and perhaps think of how he's going to ask him out.
All he knows of him is that he likes reading, studying, technology and hazelnut chocolate. Not a lot. But that gave Felix an idea.
"Felix. We got pizza. Are you gonna come out?" Leon knocks before opening the door straight away. "What is on your forehead?"
"Leon! If I ask you to go to a book cafe with me, how would you like me to ask?"
"What?!" Leon frowns. His cheeks start heating up as he starts asking why Felix is asking this.
"Come on. Help me out here!" Felix clasps his hands and starts giving his childhood best friend the puppy eyes.
"Why? Are you... asking a certain someone out?" Leon closes the door behind and his voice starts being a little low toned.
"You knew?!" Felix blushes, panicking that Leon had already found out about his crush on Shintarou, the way Livio knew about it too.
"I'm right?!" Leon blushes even more.
"Yea! Apparently!"
Leon then stands there awkwardly before he asks Felix, "Go ahead. Ask."
"How?! I'm asking you how to do this!"
"Well, you do it in the way you think I'd like."
Felix nods. He takes a deep breath. Leon prepares himself to hear the question, cheeks already heated like a heat pad.
"Shintarou."
"Shintarou??"
"Would you like to go to a book cafe with me this Saturday?" Felix asks quick.
Leon's smile just drops immediately as soon as he hears Shintarou's name instead of his. He looks dejected. Felix waits for Leon to respond with an anticipated look. Leon gulps and nods.
"Yes. Yes, I'd love to."
"You think he'd accept??"
Leon admires how happy Felix looks and nods.
"He'd love to."
Felix hugs Leon, and Leon hugs back, knowing damn well the hugs he'll ever get from the person he likes, will always be platonic.
"Now let's go eat!"
Felix gets up, holding Leon's hand and dragging the taller out to eat. Leon, like he has been all his life, lets Felix take control of him.
【️☆️】️
Felix looks at Shintarou from outside of the class and starts taking deep breaths before mustering up the courage to go in. He starts jumping and prepping himself by telling himself that it's going to be alright.
"It's okay. He'd love to." Felix repeated Leon's words, having faith in Leon's judgement.
Felix walks into the classroom to see Shintarou gone and gasps dramatically. He looks around to find the boy, and sees his silhouette out of the class, carrying his bag.
"Shit! Shit! Shit!" He runs out of the classroom and as Shintarou was walking slowly, he managed to catch up to him. "Shintarou!"
"Felix?" Shintarou blushes when his embarrassing forehead kiss comes to mind when he sees the redhead face to face. "What? What is it?"
"Well.." Felix looks at their surroundings and can already see a few students start to whisper. He hands Shintarou a piece of folded paper. "Here. The report on the library air conditioner."
"What?" Shintarou takes it and as soon as he does, Felix walks away with a subtle wink to the Japanese prince. Shintarou unfolds the piece of paper and inside it reads:
Would you like to talk about robots over tea and cake at the Starlight Book Cafe? My treat! Unless you prefer it any other way.
If you do, meet me at the school fountain in the front yard on this Saturday, May 6th, at 2PM, sharp.
Hope to meet you soon again,
Felix
Shintarou folds it back and shoves the invitation into his bag pocket, holding back a very happy smile and pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose as a way to cover his red cheeks.
【️☆️】️
Saturday, 1.53PM and Felix patiently waits for Shintarou at the fountain. He hasn't seen many people around and only greets the people near him. He looks back at his phone and sees that it's already 1.55PM and gets his hope a little high as the time nears.
"Good afternoon Prince Shintarou." He hears some students greet and stands up to see the boy.
"¡Dios mio!" Felix marvels at Shintarou who has dark academia aesthetic clothing on and carries his usual school bag with him. Felix looks down at his simple red hoodie and jeans jacket outfit. He suddenly feels underdressed.
"Hi." Shintarou greets first.
"Hi!" Felix responded, eyes still glued to Shintarou. He frowns before commenting on something. "You changed your glasses."
"Yea. I just.. changed them to look better."
"Look better in what way?"
"Huh?"
"Like are you trying to look at people better, or are you trying to look prettier?" Felix asks. "Either way, you're doing great."
Shintarou coughs up a thank you before he walks first to avoid letting Felix see his red cheeks. Felix runs up to him and offers Shintarou his hand.
"Get that away from me." Shintarou replies instinctually.
"Sorry. I forgot." Felix shoves his hands into his pockets. "So you wanna talk?"
"Save your topics for the cafe conversation later."
"Cool."
The two teens walked in comfortable silence to the book cafe and when they entered, they went to order their food. Shintarou's eyes were already focused on the huge shelves of books that were situated right on the far right of the cafe. Felix finds that so cute, and he was the one to talk to the cashier first. Felix got just hot chocolate and a strawberry shortcake, Shintarou ordered matcha latte and a chocolate cake. He looks at Felix with doting eyes without saying anything.
"Oh yea, totally. My treat." Felix shrugs. "You go get us a table, I'll bring the food when it's done."
"Alright." The boy leaves to find a table and gets excited seeing an empty table near a window. Shintarou expects a redo for his embarrassing chocolate forehead kiss this time and hopefully, just hopefully, Felix forgets the forehead kiss.
"Here you go." Felix arrives with food and Shintarou leaves his seat to get a book. Felix digs in while Shintarou sits down to read a book he had chosen from the huge shelves in the cafe. It was another comfortable silence between the two, although it was getting quite boring for Felix. He had finished his cake and almost finished his hot chocolate too, but he refuses to read any book here.
"Aren't you gonna die?" Shintarou asks, face still in the pages in the fantasy book. Felix looks at him weird. Shintarou lowers the book down and repeats, "Aren't you gonna die if you don't eat a lot?"
"Oh. Well.."
"Or did you not bring enough money to buy more cake?"
"I just wanted to eat less today."
"Why? Got a buffet after this date?"
"No... more like.. I'd rather not get any attention on us. Because as I know it, you don't like attention. And if I eat a lot, usually in restaurants, people look at me a lot. I don't want you to be uncomfortable." Felix explains making Shintarou scream on the inside on how adorable he was just explaining how overly considerate the latino is.
"Felix, we're in a book cafe. Not a restaurant. Believe me, people here care about what happens in their book more about what kind of cakes you're eating." Shintarou assures.
"So, I can eat as much as I want? And it wouldn't bother you too?"
"I want the both of us to have fun. Wouldn't be nice to be the only one who likes coming here and you're just a burden to carry along." Shintarou goes back to his book. "In addition, maybe you can recommend me a few cakes. I don't want to eat the same cake for the next time we're here."
"You—" Felix lights up when he hears the last sentence. "You'd come here again with me?"
"Why wouldn't I? This is nice." Shintarou smiles at him. "Now go."
Felix smiles and goes off to order more cakes to eat, leaving Shintarou in a better mood to read his book. Soon enough, the two were having a good time in the cafe. Shintarou deep in his fantasy story while Felix was trying almost every flavour to see what flavours Shintarou would like and hate.
"So do you have any allergies?" Felix asks after having the last spoon of cake. The cashier lady starts thanking the lord when Felix puts the spoon down.
"Strawberries."
Felix's jaw drops as he remembers the time he almost killed Shintarou by just offering a whole bag of strawberry candy.
"Shintarou! I didn't know! I'm really, really sorry!!" He starts pleading for mercy, hands clasped together and placed near his chest.
"I'm still alive, calm down. I rejected it."
"I didn't know."
"Well now you do. Just don't do it again." He looks at his wristwatch and closes the book.
"Oh? You're not done with the book yet."
"Yea. I'm at Chapter 32. That's good enough for today. I'll continue another time. If. There will be another time?" Shintarou asks.
"Oh. Yea! Definitely! If, you want to."
"I'd love to!" Shintarou answers quick. He slaps a hand over his mouth out of embarrassment over how quick that answer was. He stands up to put the book back, leaving a smiley Felix basking in his glory of asking Shintarou out anytime after this date too.
【️☆️】️
The two walked back to their dorm with Felix talking and Shintarou listening, only replying when he's being asked. Felix saw an ice cream cart and suggested that the two get some. Shintarou refused as he had enough sugary food for the day, but he encouraged Felix to eat if he wanted to.
Felix ended up buying Shintarou a bottle of water, worried that the boy might be dehydrated from walking.
The two arrived at the school fountain and this is where they part ways. It was getting dark, the sun setting to let the moon take over the night skies, painting it with beautiful gradients of red to orange and a splash of pink. Shintarou bows at Felix, to which the latino bows back in response.
"I had a lot of fun today."
"I'm glad you're not the only one."
Shintarou presses his lips into a thin line before he sees a stain of chocolate on Felix's lips, most definitely from the ice cream he had eaten earlier.
"You have.. chocolate. There." Shintarou tells him.
"Oh I know." Felix had a mischievous smirk. He leans forward and kisses Shintarou's forehead quick, making the other gasp as a reaction. Shintarou presses a hand on his forehead and looks at Felix, knowing exactly why he did that.
"We're even now." Felix laughs.
Shintarou almost felt like beating him if it wasn't for the fact that he cares more about the cream on his forehead. The fact that it's chocolate too. Oh Felix really knows what he's doing. As he was wiping the cream off with his bare hands, Felix once again asks if he can hold his hands. Shintarou stares at Felix's hands. It's not that he doesn't want to, he just genuinely can't. Not so soon, at least.
"If you're interested, and you're willing to wait, one day soon?" Shintarou asks.
Felix got it. A green flag. A chance. Shintarou seems to like him too!
"I can wait. Definitely."
"Really?"
Felix nods. The two boys smiled at each other, both knowing what the other feels and that they're willing to take this slow. Shintarou likes slow. As for Felix who had always been in a fast paced environment all his life, he can afford waiting.