Chapter Text
"You're in denial." Heizou droned while rolling his eyes. He slunk in his creaky chair with a skeptical look, arms crossed.
He was in a dusty, sun-lit classroom with the debate team - as they were having one of their bi-weekly meetings.
"There's just no way! I refuse to believe it. Nope! Nuh-uh!" The girl in front of him expressed.
This was Yanfei, Captain of the debate team. Who was very ironically terrible at proving that her crush definitely doesn't like her back. Yanfei had sunset-pink, mid-length hair with a few accessories - one being a bunny hair clip that this 'crush' had gifted her. Heizou assumed it was a matching set. Yanfei also sported the Debate team T-shirt, who none of them really cared to wear except her, and a black skirt.
"Nah, I have to agree with Heizou on this one. Shes head over heels for you, we both can tell." Another voice chimed in.
"I knew you would get me, Cyno" Heizou said with a grin, to which Yanfei scoffed.
Cyno was another member of this debate team. He had silver hair cut loosely into a wolfcut, and wore a black T-shirt with baggy cargo pants. He's usually an intimidating figure, but the few members of this debate team felt no unease in his presence - Possibly because they heard enough of his dry jokes that all of his daunting figure has been completely erased. But Heizou likes to convince himself that he was never scared of him at any point.
"Arrghh, are you guys ganging up on me? low blow.." Yanfei whined jokingly. Heizou quirked an eyebrow to her with an amused expression.
"We're not ganging up on you, we're having a debate with you. So tell me, what is your evidence that she doesn't like you back, hm?" Heizou retorted with a cocky smirk. It was obvious that Yanfei stifled a smile. "Hmm..I just- I feel like she wouldn't like someone like me, y'know? like there are so many other opti-"
"Objection, The argument was solely opinion based." Cyno interjected, which earned him a scowl from Yanfei.
"Mister Shikanoin, would you like to present your argument?" Cyno said in a strange formal way, which made all of them chuckle a bit.
"As a matter of fact, I would. Now, Miss yanfei.." Heizou leaned on a desk to face her. He was about to say 'Mrs. Yanfei' to prove his point, but he felt like it would only cause him to get a lecture from her. So he ultimately didn't.
"The evidence I choose to present is that your hair colours look nice together. So clearly you guys were made for each other. Debate over." Heizou sneered. Yanfei looked at him with a glimmer of amusement shining in her eyes.
"Hey, take this seriously! I'm on the opposite team and even I can come up with better reasons than that!" Yanfei said with a laugh.
"Oh? I would just love to hear what these reasons of yours are.." Heizou rested his head on his hand with a smirk.
"Alright then, well, she always gives me gifts, like, out of the blue, and she always tells me how pretty I am every day, and-" Yanfei cut herself off when she saw the smirks on both Cyno and Heizou's faces. "HEY! WAIT! THAT DOESN'T-"
"aaaandd debate over." Heizou said while lounging back in his chair. "Miss. Yanfei admits it."
"uh- Hey! that- that doesn't-"
"Count?" Cyno finished for her with a raised eyebrow "well..admission in court is pretty solid evidence.."
"But this isn't a criminal trial! and this is totally NOT how a debate works!" Yanfei argued. Cyno and Heizou gave each other a synchronised look.
"Yanfei, debate rules aside, just ask her out. Man alive, it gets painful to watch you gawk at her everyday" Heizou said light-heartedly. But it was true. Yanfei would always make time to talk about this mystery crush of hers. The way she spoke about her was almost comical, like a fairytale. Heizou sometimes even had doubts whether this crush of hers was even real. Despite how much Yanfei clearly adored this person, she never shared her name with the debate team. Heizou had the skills and connections to find out himself easily, but he respected her strange wishes and didn't.
"I don't see you questioning Cyno when he talks about that fox boy in his biology class.." Yanfei said with a sly smirk. Cyno's cheeks flushed at the sudden embarrassment.
"Hey!- don't bring Tighnari into this!" he said as he buried his face in his arms. Heizou and yanfei laughed.
"Not cool Yanfei! look what you did to the poor guy, you've traumatised him!" Heizou laughed. He patted Cyno on the back to comfort him, but he doubts it helped much. "There there.."
"Ah, sorry, sorry.. It was only fair, I didn't wanna be the only one being bullied over crushes here!" Yanfei giggled. Cyno nodded to forgive her, but it was quite clear to Heizou that he was still quite embarrassed. Yanfei rested her head on her interlocked hands, almost in the same fashion that someone would if they were to be doing an interrogation. This gave Heizou a bad feeling, as he knew what she was gonna ask next. "Anyways, Heizou, do you have a crush on anyone?" She asked with a smile. Cyno finally looked up, clearly interested too.
"Oh c'mon, now I'm the one being ganged up on. How rude..my poor feelings, they ache in utter agony!" he clutched his heart dramatically with a shudder. Heizou wiped pretend tears and pointed to cyno. "I...I can't believe you would betray me like that..I thought we were brothers!"
"If we were brothers, then you would have to hear my bad jokes every day..are you up for that?"
"..yeahh...actually..no thanks" heizou said wryly. His break in character made everyone laugh, including himself. Yanfei wiped a tear before speaking. "Hey! Don't dodge the question..!" She said, between chuckles. Heizou was slightly disappointed that his cheap trick didn't work, but He figured that maybe using them wouldn't exactly work with the debate team. "About your question then.." heizou started with a smirk. "Would you like to take a guess?"
"Huh?"
"Guess. Do I have a crush, or not?"
Yanfei eyed him up and down with narrowed eyes. "Hmm.."
Heizou's phone alarm blared before she could finish, almost on cue. He sat up with a stretch and picked it up to turn it off.
"Oh nooo..it appears that I must go now.." Heizou tried to show that he was sad, but nothing could stop the faint smile creeping up on his lips. Yanfei quirked an eyebrow to him, but nodded. "Yeah, we should probably go home too, Cyno. It's already 5, and I have work today" she said while slinging her incredibly heavy-looking bag over her shoulders. Heizou often worried for her spine, it must hurt to carry such a heavy load everywhere. Cyno nodded and picked up his much lighter backpack. "I have some history homework to finish today, and also, I've got a ton of new jokes that I can annoy Tighnari with" he finished with a smile. Heizou and yanfei looked at each other with an 'I knew it' face.
"Well then, this debate team meeting is dismissed. See ya on Friday!" Yanfei declared while struggling to heave her backpack around. Heizou nodded and picked up his own before making his way to the classroom door. "See ya!" he waved them goodbye before disappearing out the doorway. As he walked in the hall, he could faintly hear yanfei call out 'don't think I've forgotten my question!'
Heizou smiled to himself. He never once doubted that she would, and he knew with his full heart that she wouldn't forget on Friday either. But he was happy to dodge the question for now. The truth is, he didn't know. He really didn't think about things as mundane as crushes often. But will Heizou admit that? absolutely not.
He walked through the dim, empty halls of the school. The debate team usually was hard at work practicing for upcoming competitions during their meeting hours. But since summer break was just a week away, they've been treating the club like a hangout. Crushes were a common topic of theirs, as they enjoyed teasing each other about them. Heizou finds it quite amusing how an entire person could change so quickly when thinking of a person they are fond of, its quite interesting to witness.
When he finally exited the school, he was greeted by the crisp summer gale. It nipped at his face and ears as it flowed past him. "ah, its much windier than it was this morning.." he said while strands of his hair whipped about wildly. Heizou pulled out his phone to check the time.
5:09 PM
I got some time before curfew..maybe I can go to the book store for a bit. He thought with a nod.
He made his way to the sidewalk and began the trek to the book store. that was until, something caught his eye, of course. It was a pathway into the local park. This park was usually just a mere sight he would overlook on his way home. But for some reason, his intuition screamed at him that he should go to there this time. Heizou was a strong believer in his intuition, and held a lot of trust in it. Although he was confused. Why this park, and why right now? It made no sense. He looked at the pathway for a moment, deciding what to do.
"Man alive..alright then. I suppose the bookstore can wait. I doubt they have any new mystery novels anyways."
He treaded into the woods cautiously. Tree roots and stones choked the dirt path, and leaves and ferns crept out from behind said trees. It was obvious that not many people visited this Park, due to how unkempt it was. It seemed like a completely different universe, in comparison to the suburban road Heizou was walking on earlier. It had both a calming and eerie effect on him. There was cheerful birdsong ringing in the canopy, and even some of the breeze found its way through the thicket of trees. A part of Heizou wondered why people wouldn't visit such a place often, and leave it to overgrow.
Soon the dirt path elevated into a long, damp, wooden bridge that brought him over a marsh. The chirps of crickets, croaks of frogs, and the smell of the bog overwhelmed him. stalks of reeds towered next to him as he walked. Parts of the bridge seemed to have begun to rot, so Heizou had to pick where he stepped carefully.
"yeesh" he mumbled when he saw a Giant water bug. It looked quite disturbing to him, and gave him a creepy-crawly feeling. "Did my intuition just want me to see that?" he questioned with a chuckle, but did not tear his vision away from the insect. his brow furrowed as he continued to walk on the trail. He much preferred to be in the woodland area again. It had much less rotten paths, and not as many strange bugs, but his intuition told him to keep going. He had no clue what he was searching for, but the thrill of the adventure encouraged him to continue on the trail. Eventually, he saw something that caught his eye (and wasn't a creepy insect).
It was a broken part of the bridge. Upon closer inspection, it seems that it was a rotten patch of wood that someone must've stepped on by accident. That someone seemed to be fine though, as proven by the track of muddy footprints advancing from the broken spot. but there was something else..something in the water.
Heizou crouched down and peered at the disturbed patch of the marsh. Among the splinters of wood and broken reeds, there was something that bobbed in the water peacefully. He hesitated for bit before rolling up his sleeve and fishing it out.
"House keys..?" Heizou breathed as he dangled the item in front of him. The item was in fact, a pair of housekeys. The thing that was keeping them afloat was a stuffy keychain of a chibi cat, which was absolutely drenched and soiled now that it was been in the muddy waters of the marsh. His eyes lit up with realization. "Ohhhh, now I get it..my intuition wanted me to return these to the rightful owner" he concluded, pleased with himself. Heizou stood up and examined the footprints. They still seemed wet, so that means the person hasn't gone too far. He trekked the bridge with newfound haste, carefully avoiding the footprints as he did.
To Heizou's immense relief, the bridge soon ended as he re-entered the coniferous forest. But that also meant it was much harder to track down this mystery person. They weren't rambunctious, and they never destroyed any of the wildlife. Well, not on purpose at least. Heizou thought as he remembered the broken reeds back at the bridge. But that just gave him much less leads he could follow. Heizou decided to just continue on the dirt path, in hopes that he will simply just bump into the person he was looking for. It seemed like he was walking forever, even though when he checked the time, it would be that only 30 minutes have passed. He sighed. It seems like this person would have went home by now.
"Perhaps they went back to find their keys.." he said in defeat while looking back. The bridge wasn't visible anymore, probably because of all the dips and curves in the path way. Suddenly, loud caws blared from above him as a murder of crows took off into flight.
"agh-!" he yelped, startled. In his surprise, he seemed to have dropped the keys into a thicket of leafy plants. "Man alive.." he chuckled to himself before reaching out for them.
"It's not a good idea to touch those." A voice from behind him stated.
Heizou froze. Not in fear, but recognition. He knew who this was. An unstoppable smile crept onto his lips. He stood up to face this person, hand on his hip.
"I should've known that those keys were yours, Kazuha. Who else would have a cat keychain?"