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It was around 3 o'clock in the afternoon, classes normally end at this hour with everyone preparing to return to their respective homes. Regardless, the school’s library still continues its operation. There alone sat an aspiring inventor in his usual seat on the furthest table near the window. Sure he was considerably friendly and talkative in class but he wouldn’t trade the time he had furthering his knowledge after it ended. He was too preoccupied on reading a book about the theory of biomass energy to hear faint sound of footsteps approaching him.
“Oi, Balsa,” on the other side of the table, appeared before him was his classmate and childhood friend, Edgar Valden. This occasion is rather unusual since Luca was normally the one who bothers Edgar first. What had the young artist coming to him looking so eager?
Luca looks up from his book briefly, eyes lighting up upon meeting with the oh so familiar azure gaze. “Edgar!” he exclaimed, completely letting the book down to give his full attention to the man in a beret. The aspiring inventor flashed a grin, his fang sticking out, “Are you looking for me? What brings you here?” he asked in a sing-song tone.
Valden takes a seat next to his classmate, “Ah so well…” his view shifting away as if he’s clearly hesitating. “Uhm… Are you finished with the physics homework?” the artist crosses his arms, presenting himself with dignity. But he was so easy to read. His expression obviously screams ‘help me with the equations!’ It wasn’t in Edgar’s nature to ask people favors with how high his pride is.
“Of course! I even finished the optional problems,” Balsa answered, not bringing up the case Edgar had on his mind. By the looks of it, he wanted to play with the brunette more. “Don't tell me you waited for me to do the assignment for you? What's this, 3rd grade again?” he added with a chuckle, feeling a bit proud all while witnessing Edgar’s pout afterward.
“HEY I'M DOING MY HOMEWORK! it's just—” The older one of the two looked down, seemingly ashamed— only receiving a teasing smirk from the eccentric, “It's just what? If you want my help, just say so.”
Valden nods and begins searching his bag for his notebook, still feeling somewhat embarrassed. The young inventor observes his classmate’s face while taking out his things. That current expression on the brunette’s face makes him look like a cute pleading kitten, which in all honesty, Luca was quite fond of. He then takes the notebook as Edgar hands it out to him and starts to check over his answers.
“Hmm… Let's see… you got that question right… And this one… oh! You got this one wrong! I'm afraid you must redo the formula here.” Luca points out a specific problem, “But don't worry. I'll stay here and explain the problem to you as much as you need.” he assured his friend with a comforting smile, as if not judging Edgar’s lack of skills in the science department.
“Here, Eddie, let me walk you through this. To start off with, let's define what the question is asking for.” The artist tries his best to focus and keep up with the explanation, nodding his head along the eccentric’s words. Despite the efforts from both of their ends, nothing comes through; Edgar’s head is empty. To him, Luca’s just uttering nothing but nerd gibberish! “Did that make sense so far?” That last interrogative statement snaps him back to reality.
Valden blinks, “... You lost me,” to which Luca responded with a sigh. Even so, he’s determined to lend a hand to a friend in need, especially when it comes to his field of interest. And he specifically came to him for help so how could he give up now? “Here, let me try to give you an example.” The younger man pulls out a piece of paper, attempting to demonstrate how it’s done.
“Suppose that Tracy’s robot starts at the cemetery in Eversleeping Town and ends at the far end of the exit gate, with a walking speed of 1.25 m/s. In 3 minutes they passed by the two-storey building. Let's start by calculating the distance traveled by the doll here, shall we? To calculate this, all you need to do is use the speed/velocity formula—” Edgar found the example weird, even dragging the sweet and innocent Tracy into his silly nerd shenanigans. He decided to brush himself off from complaining, he was the one who asked for this afterall.
Luca keeps on rambling as Edgar follows with solving the questions he’s getting thrown at. They suddenly stop at a particular question. “Ah, Edgar I think this is incorrect,” the brunette lifts his head from the paper he’s working on to look at the other man in confusion. He was quite sure he used the correct equation properly so why? Did he get the calculations wrong?
“You see… Tracy’s doll would’ve run out of battery by then!” The eccentric pridefully declared, along with a gesture with his hands. Despite Balsa’s amusement at his own terrible joke, it only made the painter irritatedly grit his teeth, “Be serious, Balsa!” Luca laughs it off, enjoying the effect it had on the other.
The eccentric goes back to the book he was reading prior to Edgar coming into the library. He couldn’t help but steal a few glances at the cute guy sitting across the table while he checks the answers on his assignment; if he gets caught, he’d just come up with some excuse like only wanting to see how he was doing. A few minutes pass, Edgar still seems pretty focused on the physics homework. Luca didn’t want to distract him initially. That is, until he hears noises of frustration coming from the smaller man’s direction.
“How is the homework going?” Balsa finally broke the silence. “If you need help or feel too stressed, do not be afraid to tell me.” he continues, with an expression gentle as to not add to the painter’s growing displeasure.
“No, it's okay, I'm fine,” This made the taller man close and put down the book once again, giving all his attention to the other. From the library’s silent atmosphere, together with Edgar’s tense demeanor, he wanted to lift the mood up somehow. Besides, he was feeling bored anyway so why not have a little fun? “Hey, Eddie, do you want to hear a little secret of mine?” Balsa then places his arm on the table, resting his head on his hands as he stares at the man in front of him.
Valden lets out a deep exhale, still not taking his eyes off the physics questions at hand, “What is it now? I'm concentrating.” It seems like the eccentric wasn’t successful at his first attempt at getting his attention. No worries, maybe he can catch his interest as their conversation goes along.
“It's not anything big, but… I have a rather big crush on one of our classmates.” Luca adjusts his seat, leaning more on his arm as he anticipates his fellow student’s response. “Can you guess who this mysterious someone is?” he asks with a little smile, urging Edgar to pay attention to him. This only sent him a groan and a slightly annoyed glare, “Ugh… Must you talk to me about this now?”
Balsa giggles, “Come now, Edgar! This is probably our best time to talk. No one's here to bother us.” Now, he seems really eager to get something out of the brunette. “So? Do you want to take a guess? I'm sure you can figure it out.” Luca adds, sounding quite entertained in seeing how Edgar would react or if he would even care. But it seems that this attempt also failed in stealing his attention from solving how fast Naib could run around their school using all three of his elbow pads.
“Hmm… I'll make you a deal.” It’s time to step up the game or so Balsa thought. “If you guess who the crush is, I'll do the next physics homework for you.” and those were the magic words he just had to say to get Edgar’s full attention. The eccentric grins, seeing the effect his proposal had on Edgar, who suddenly seems intent on guessing. It was way too obvious, the way his blue eyes lit up and his body perked upon hearing the offer; the opportunity was too good for him to pass up. “Alright, take a wild guess. And remember to think outside the box!”
The young artist thinks for a while. He was too deep in this science hell anyway, would a single free pass on an assignment really be worth it to let Luca bother him? “No thanks, I’m good.”
“What!?” The wide grin on the aspiring inventor’s face quickly faded, getting replaced by a dramatic frown from his little game getting turned down. “Don't you want to at least take one guess? Come on, I know you want to know the answer!” He then zealously shook his classmate’s shoulders, not hiding how much he wanted him to participate. On the other hand, Valden, from the looks of it, is uninterested and tries his best to go back to focusing on the important task at hand.
Balsa sulks as brings his chair beside Edgar’s, moving a bit closer to him. A mischievous idea enters his head, bringing himself a bit too close to the painter and staring at him directly while the poor man just wanted peace while he’s calculating the velocity of the tennis ball coming towards Mike.
Everyone is aware of how clingy Luca can be, so him acting like this is fairly normal for Valden. Luca's eyes are fixed on those blue ones, seeing the artist struggle to keep focused on his work— attempting to lean just a bit closer, to see if he could still provoke a reaction. He stays quiet, resisting his temptation to tease his fellow student further. Although it’s clearly working now, Edgar seems to stop writing due to all the distractions also known as the entity named Luca Balsa.
“You know… Physics is not as scary as it seems. Would you like me to help you find the answer?” This, of course, being a trick to make Edgar pay more attention to him and distract himself from the homework. “Balsa, I told you, I’m doing just fine now!” The eccentric just sighs in defeat and lets Edgar continue with his work— he leans on the artist’s right arm observing him write equations again.
“Nice job. Your homework looks a lot better now.” Luca finishes pointing out the corrections, giving an encouraging smile towards the artist. “Hey, Eddie. Do you remember what we were chatting about a while ago?” he opens up, sounding slightly more curious than before. Edgar buries his head on the wooden desk, groaning as he does so, exhausted from all the problem solving, “The battery life of Tracy’s doll,” he answered back.
“Come on, Eddie! Don't change the subject now. I asked you a simple question. Don't forget that all this talk about crushes might be a nice excuse to take a break.” The eccentric’s voice has a small hint of teasing at the end of it, his head slightly tilted as he stares at his classmate’s figure. His mind begins to wonder… What could Edgar’s answer be once his mind has calmed? Will he get shocked in case he finds out who it is? “I'm going to ask my question again. And this time, don't change the subject, hmm?”
Edgar groans once more, head still resting on the table, still managing to hear Luca’s teasing. “Please, Balsa… Just stop asking me that question already.” he responds in a meek, worn out tone. The little fang from the taller man reveals itself in a cheeky smirk at the comment, he couldn’t force an answer out of a tired guy anyway; letting him rest for a while. It wasn’t obvious that the brunette put quite an effort on this to the point that it depleted so much of his energy. No, not obvious at all.
The two young men indulge in a few moments of silence, enjoying each other’s company. Luca got back to reading his nerd book, it was unusual for him to be so quiet, at least according to Edgar. He’d be lying if he denied that it was quite lovely, being in each other’s comfort.
Balsa looks around the room. The sky’s faint hue coursing through the windows, illuminating the library in a warm and pleasant mood indicates that it’s about to close. He takes a peek at the resting man in front of him, checking if he’s still alive. Him being the one to wake him up would be the preferable course of action rather than having the librarian walk up to them, scolding Valden in his wake.
‘Oh right, it’s Friday.’ Balsa realized. He won’t be seeing the young artist for a solid two days. They both know where each other lives, yes, but it’s such a pity that he can’t spend time with Edgar like this until next week. Balsa sighs at the thought.
“Edgar, time to wake up.” A creaking sound coming from the chair can faintly be heard as the aspiring inventor gets up, then walking up to his childhood friend and putting his hands on the other’s shoulders. “To be honest… I think our time together and our homework sessions have made us closer,” he continues in a whisper, trying to not wake Valden up just yet. “We understand each other. You make me feel comfortable with sharing ideas. I never had someone that I felt so comfortable talking about my personal problems with, you know?”
Dark ebony eyes lie on the sleeping figure, confirming any sign of mental consciousness— The painter still doesn’t budge. The eccentric smiles, “So... My crush is no longer a mystery. I think it's obvious by now,” he then tucks the light brown hair on the other man’s ear, revealing his peaceful sleeping expression. “But shhhh… Don't you tell anyone, alright?”
The artist’s face flinches slightly at the action, causing Balsa to withdraw his hands from his cheek and instead lay it on his shoulder. “Good morning, Eddie. Did you sleep well?” Luca says in a joking manner once the pools of ocean blue opens itself.
“B-Balsa? How long have I slept?” Valden jolts up as he realizes he might have fallen asleep doing his physics assignment. “Relax, you finished your work and fell asleep for about like… fifteen or so minutes.” The painter arranges his composure, immediately figuring out why he got awakened by Luca. He didn’t need much context clues to know the indications that it’s time to head home.
Balsa waits for his classmate to fix his stuff up, Edgar yawns while doing so. The younger of the two couldn’t deny that the other’s sleepy expression looked really cute.
“Well then? Let’s head off?”
“Mhmmm”