Archive of Our Own

“WHAT THE HELL?” a shout rang out through the halls.

Soon, a crowd formed around the chaos, clogging the way for any teachers to get a glance. The students all gasped at the sight in front of them.

A single student stood amongst a field of bleeding students on the crowd, some with broken noses, some with a few cuts, but still enough to send them sprawling across the previously-polished floors of the high school. Once the nurse finally pushed through, he gasped, completely aghast at the chaos.

One student in particular moved slowly to stand beside the nurse, glowering at the boy in the center. Her face was not as surprised as disappointed, the messy green bun of hair on her head shaking with disdain.

“Arataki Itto, what have you done?”

—

Gorou was a pretty ordinary boy.

He sat in class, in the very middle, because he couldn’t get a back seat in time and was too afraid to sit in front, and paid full attention to whatever topics were spoken of. It was autumn, and as the leaves began to fall, his friend Kazuha would take him out to the park to collect them for leaf pressing.

Him, Kokomi, Ayaka, Ayato, and Thoma were invited, is what he meant to say. He was never invited anywhere alone.

That’s one of the main points I’m trying to make. Gorou is never the focus of anything. He’s not special in any way. If Ayaka brought him to the mall, he’d suddenly be surrounded by many of her friends as well, and he’d be left at a bookstore, his existence only recalled about ten minutes later.

He spent most of his time with Kokomi, who was his closest friend. She was the only one, besides at times Kazuha, who was willing to spend alone time with him… although it was rare, nevertheless.

As his friend group surrounded him at the cafeteria table, he sighed contentedly. He was happy with this life. He liked being in crowds. He liked being an afterthought, because it meant he could mind his own business whenever he wished. He still got quality time with Kokomi, that was all he needed.

Until his perfectly peaceful life was interrupted.

“Gorou, do you have any personal friends?” Ayaka was asking lightheartedly. “Are we really the only people you hang out with?”

Gorou pretended to rack his brain, looking like he was thinking hard, even though he knew the answer.

“It’s just you guys,” Gorou shrugged. “But it’s okay.”

“No, it’s not,” Kokomi interrupted. “You should have other people. I know how hard it can be to have to share friends. Sometimes, you want someone to yourself, that you can depend on, that you know best.”

But Gorou didn’t need that.

“I’m a group kind of guy,” Gorou insisted.

“I don’t know how I’d survive without my anemo friends,” Kazuha noted. “They’re my best friends, just like you guys are. If you shared my anemo friends with me, I feel that I may never feel a sense of originality. It’s very important to be able to have things for yourself.”

“Yeah, he’d never let us become friends with Scaramouche or Heizou,” Thoma smiled, leaning his cheek on his palm. “Even if it sounds possessive, I agree. We all need our people.”

Gorou didn’t contemplate their words, as anyone else would, when they received advice like this. It’s because he knows himself best. He understands that he likes his time alone, and doesn’t need someone close and personal. He likes to share everything— truly, he does.

Except while he reassured this to himself, a soft pang struck his stomach. Yeah, maybe a longing was there. A tiny, insignificant longing for someone who understood him closely, unlike any of his current friends.

Not even Kokomi truly got him, despite them being childhood friends, she was always more of a commanding presence than a bestie. And Kazuha was so distant and distracted ever since he moved to the Liyue part of town; Gorou knew they’d lost the understanding they’d shared.

“I’m alright as it is.” Gorou made sure to store his thoughts away. He smiled at his friends, and a few of them shot him with concerned or knowing glances, but despite themselves, they moved on in conversation.

Gorou let out a breath of relief and ate some tater tots, because tater tots cure all. Except the inkling of a thought that his friends had planted in his head.

The boy ate his tater tots more aggressively.

—

Itto sighed as Shinobu berated him for the thousandth time.

“The hell are you doing? You’re ruining your already unlikely future!” She ranted from where she stood beside his bed at the nurse’s office. “Are you trying to get expelled?”

“I did it in defense, you know that,” Itto said again.

“I’ve already provided evidence that everyone is targeting you, but they don’t believe me,” Kuki Shinobu looked distressed. “They think it’s improbable, because they always end up on the ground. I told them that it’s because you look like an interesting and easy target, what with your stupid brain and fancy-ass muscles, but they don’t think it makes sense that teenage boys want the street cred of beating a giant buff guy up! They don’t understand the logic in it.”

Little did she know, the bullies weren’t targeting Itto. They were playing around with an innocent little bug; a grasshopper, to be exact. The poor thing was being tortured by the cruelty of high school boys, and Itto stepped in to help, determined to beat them all up for being mean to bugs.

If he explained this, Kuki would just get more mad, so he kept his mouth shut on the matter. Instead, Itto turned his attention to his boys, who were all three standing beside his bed, not daring to interrupt Shinobu’s ranting. They knew her wrath.

“How about you come to my house tomorrow and we make an apology gift for her?” He whispered to them.

They didn’t have anything to do with the fight, but Itto knew they’d help anyway. They loved him, after all. He was their amazing leader!

“Of course, boss,” they nodded enthusiastically. They’d do what they could to appease Kuki’s anger.

“Are you listening?” Shinobu hissed.

“Of course,” Itto nodded solemnly.

“I think you need to get a real friend,” Yoimiya interrupts suddenly.

“I have you guys!” Itto exclaimed.

“Yeah, and we all know you inside and out,” Yoimiya continued. “But we’re your only friends, and you know I hang out with the private school kids with Kuki moreso than you all. And your boys are idiots, no offense.”

“None taken,” the ‘gang’ members said in unison.

“I think you should try and find someone outside of this shitty public school— someone who doesn’t know your reputation as a horrible terrible bully. Then maybe you can see what life is like for a normal person, and start realizing that having a future is kinda nice. And it would be good to have a friend to yourself,” Yoimiya rocked in her seat, fidgeting, as she always did when she had an idea.

“I’ll think about it, I guess,” Itto shrugged. “But I’m happy as it is!”

“Nope, listen to Yoimiya. Get a real friend who’ll teach you what life could be like if you weren’t always ‘defending yourself’,” Shinobu gaze Itto the all-knowing gaze.

Itto gave her a thumbs-up, acknowledging that he’d try and make a separate friend.

“You’re a lost cause,” she groaned.

—

The tater tots did not help. That spark of a longing was growing ever faster, and it plagued his mind as he walked to the bus stop, his trenchcoat protecting him from the ever-colder autumn breeze.

Interrupting his thoughts was a gentle humming, and he quickly turned to see what it was about. Oh, it was just the neighbor.

Well, to Gorou he was just a neighbor. To the public school kids, he was a troublemaker, a tall, scary, buff teenager who beats up everyone for no reason. Kids often went to go challenge him in fights to prove their strength, or so they say. But he always won, coating the halls with blood. To the private school kids, he wasn’t much. A few vicious rumors had reached their ears, but that was all. They knew to stay away.

And because Gorou is completely ordinary, he believed these rumors fully. So, when he’d walk to school and see the tall, white-haired gang-membered “psychopath” gardening peacefully, humming to himself without a care, face gleaming with a sweaty smile, he assumed it was a bit strange.

After living next to the boy for a few years, he came to be rather neutral on the topic. Itto wasn’t evil, as the rumors said and the peaceful morning actions refuted. He wasn’t good, as the rumors supported. Gorou couldn’t care less. He was just the neighbor.

But… Gorou stood, staring at the teenager from the sidewalk. The longing grew. Maybe, Gorou thought, he could be my friend… the one nobody else shares. But do I really need that? Want that? Gorou knew he did. He knew he felt a longing for something, someone, to himself, and he wasn’t going to be able to deny it for long.

So, where better to start than the neighbor? Nobody, obviously, should even consider Arataki Itto as someone to be friends with— and this thought, despite his neutral opinion, overrode the desire in his head. Besides, he assured himself. Giving into my friend’s teasing would make me look weak. If Gorou was afraid of anything, it was looking weak.

He huffed into his teal scarf, putting his emotions and thoughts aside. Hopping forward with his hands in his jean pockets, he continued on his way to school, swearing to forget about his friend’s opinions, and focus on studying.

Ah… well, he tried, anyway.

Every day after school, he’d look at Itto’s empty yard, and think about how peaceful the boy looked. Every morning, before he got out of bed, he’d peer around the corner of his hall window and check to make sure Itto was still working. It was kind of soothing, knowing he’d always be there, doing something so innocent.

One morning, weeks after his realization that Itto might be a good friend, Gorou hopped out the door, hearing the crunch of leaves underfoot.

Instantly, it put a smile on his face. He picked up a few leaves and held them to his nose, smelling the fresh scent of the morning dew on dead tree bits. He checked his watch, and paused. Why did it say it was 7:19? That’s when he wakes up, a half hour before he leaves his house for school.

Suddenly, his morning alarm went off, and Gorou quickly slapped his wrist to silence the echoing noise. He must’ve woken up way before his alarm, and just carried on as normal through his morning routine.

Sighing, he was about to head back inside, when he heard singing. Turning, he noticed that Itto was there, as always, as he’d seen through his window this morning. The boy was catching bugs like a child, smiling and putting them into a net.

Gorou felt a smile creep onto his face. It was so innocent and stupid that he felt a sudden need to join in. How fun would it be to act so young again?

I have time, anyways, he reasoned. So he went over, knocking on the picket fence gate as if it were a door.

Itto immediately turned and locked eyes with Gorou. They weren’t vicious, not blood thirsty, but kind and innocently joyful.

“Hi,” Gorou said.

“Morning!” Itto grinned widely.

“I live right there,” Gorou pointed right next to Itto’s house. They lived on a cul-de-sac, so the houses were twisted a bit away from each other to follow the curve of the road. It was this angle that had allowed Gorou to easily watch Itto in his yard. “And, well, I accidentally woke up too early and was wondering if I could join you, just to pass time?”

“Of course,” Itto nodded happily. “Come in, I’ll show you which bugs are best.”

“What are you going to do with them?” Gorou opened the fence and walked inside, both his hands hooked around one of his backpack’s straps.

“Well, the grasshoppers I’ll give to my grandma. She’ll make pie out of them.” At Gorou’s scrunched up nose, Itto laughed and added: “It tastes really good, don’t worry. You can try some sometime! And, it’s great to go through and get them out of the flowers. They eat some of them.”

“Ah.” Gorou nodded in understanding.

“The Onikabuto beatles….” He grinned mischievously. “Those are for my personal keeping. I’ll nurture them and grow them big, and then they’ll fight.”

“Oh, I’ve heard of that,” Gorou said, leaning on his right leg contemplatively. “Beetle fighting.”

“Mhm,” Itto hummed, delighted. “The other bugs I leave alone. Unless you see a ladybug. Keep those. If you see an aphis, they’re tiny and there are millions of them on the milkweed, put the ladybug next to them. Ladybugs eat aphids, and aphids eat milkweed, which are the home of monarch butterflies.”

“So the ladybugs kill the aphids, which is good, because the aphids ruin the butterfly homes?” Gorou confirmed.

“Yeah! And why wouldn’t we want butterflies?” Itto laughed cheerily. “Here’s a net for grasshoppers.”

Itto handed Gorou a tiny butterfly net that was duct taped to the rim in some places. Gorou took it in his right hand, studying it. Looked like it was from Walmart, bought on sale. He shrugged and started walking around the basically-stranger’s yard, searching for tiny creatures.

He ended up being late for school.

“Where were you?” Ayaka asked angrily.

“I got lost,” Gorou shrugged.

“Walking to the bus? Likely story,” Ayaka rolled her eyes.

“Fine, want the truth? I was busy catching leaves out of the wind, like a cat. Then I got hit by a car and my life tragically ended, I’m a ghost,” Gorou explained, deadpanning.

“Oh, I always do that,” Kazuha said from the far left of the group as we walked through the halls, his voice quiet over the chatter of students.

“Die?” Thoma looked across the pod of friends.

Aether, the boy who transferred to the private school a week ago because of a recent move, and Gorou both snickered at the thought.

“No, catch leaves in the breeze.” Kazuha glanced off wistfully. “Plucking nature’s boats from an ocean of wind, veering them on another destiny, releasing them once again to their path, anew, towards the unknown.”

“No wonder Beidou always says he speaks flowers. We should have let her keep him,” Ayato muttered, slurping some Starbucks, frowning when he realized it wasn’t boba. “Where the ever living hell is my boba?”

Thoma looked over at Ayato and sighed, snatching the Starbucks away, opening a plastic bag of tiny bubble tea boba from his pocket, dumping the contents into the cup, and ultimately handing it back over to a happy Ayato.

“Life saver,” Ayato smiled as if all was perfect in the world, directing it at Thoma.

“Yeah, no problem,” Thoma blushed and looked ahead, acting indifferent.

The group collectively rolled their eyes at the gay friends of theirs, and finally dropped Gorou’s case.

—

“You’re usually late, sure.” Kuki twirled her pocket knife keychain around her finger. “But this is a new record. A whole half hour?”

“Yeah, well,” Itto shrugged. “I caught more bugs than usual, so I had to take more time putting them away.”

“Catching bugs?” Lumine, one of the recent additions to the friend group after she moved to the city a week beforehand, asked.

“Yeah, boss catches Onikabuto beetles for his manly beetle fights!” Akira, a ‘gang’ member announced.

“Ah,” Lumine noted, although none of her questions were answered.

“Well, please try to be on time.” Shinobu stabbed her chicken sandwich with her fork tiredly. Lunch at public school was, as it was rumored, actually pretty nasty. The chicken, Shinobu just found, was raw. She sighed and pushed her plate away. “Another tardy for Arataki Itto, and he’s got no future.”

“What’s with you and futures?” Itto huffed. “We’re not living there, we’re living here. Future doesn’t matter, because it’s not right now.”

The boys looked at each other, nodding at this fair, reasonable logic.

“Uh, but it will be ‘right now’ later,” Shinobu reasoned.

“Nah. Anyway, I was thinking we should enter into the talent show,” Itto looked at his friend group. “Yoimiya knows private school kids, so she probably could get someone to teach us how to dance.”

“Hmmm…” Yoimiya thought. “Yeah, Ayaka wouldn’t mind, I don’t think. Oh, wait, you’re rumored to be a murderous psycho because of your ‘accidental’ fights every other day. Maybe she’d be weary.”

“Hey, I swear they’re accidental,” Itto huffed. “I’m not trying to ruin my… what’s it?”

“Future.”

“Future,” Itto snapped.

“Sure,” Yoimiya chuckled.

Itto laughed as Shinobu let out an annoyed huff. She’d given up on trying to disguise them a long time ago. All her friends know how exhausted of all the Arataki Gang’s antics she is, and they don’t blame her.

While Kuki and Lumine get into a conversation about how stupid the male gender as a population is, Itto, uncharacteristically, lets his mind drift off into his thoughts. Not one to think, Itto discovered that it was quite strange, but he went with it and decided to listen to his brain.

In it, he sought out and witnessed many different trains of conversation between different parts of his head. A good superiority was discussing the neighborhood boy, Gorou, and their interaction this morning. But, as mentioned, Itto wasn’t good at listening to thoughts… or thinking at all. So the conversation slipped out of his brain, and he turned back to his friends.

If he were to be smart, though, he’d understand that his thoughts were taken over by the boy. Itto had never made a private school friend before, and he was very surprised that the neighbor who’d walk by his house every morning was that friend. Gorou always seemed so… shy? Hesitant? Around him.

Itto tilted his head contemplatively. It did, indeed, feel good to have a friend to himself. Gorou didn’t know any of his friends, so he couldn’t know any of Itto’s embarrassing moments, or ridicule him for getting in fights all the time. He’d just known Itto for Itto’s gardening and bug finding.

Which, for Arataki Itto, wasn’t embarrassing at all, and in fact he’d always wanted a friend who could look past the child-ness of the whole thing and do it with him. He loved sharing things he enjoyed with others, but his public school friends were always off doing things for their ‘future’ or whatever… they’d never bother coming over in the mornings to garden.

Maybe Kuki was right. Having a friend like that, who wasn’t in the public school, didn’t fear him, and wasn’t interested in anything lesser than a bright future, was kind of fun.

Focusing back on the hall, he realized he’d just thought all of that. Whole paragraphs of thought, lasting over a minute? New record!

With a grin, Itto walked proudly along his ‘gang’.

“I just had a whole train of thought,” Itto announced proudly.

Genta nearly teared up. “Wow, boss… That’s incredible.”

“I want to be like you someday,” Mamoru exclaimed.

“No way, that’s so cool!” Akira swooned.

“You’re all idiots,” Yoimiya laughed loudly, startling some nearby theater kids. “Love you guys!”

“We love you too, Yoimiya, but please stay away from them, your brain will deplete in size.” One of the theater kids separated from their group and walked alongside Yoimiya, offering them, frankly, wise advice.

“Hey, Heizou!” Itto clapped him on the back.

“Couldn’t help but join the circus,” Heizou laughed, grinning. “Who’s this?”

“Lumine,” Kuki introduced. “Please, please don’t infect her with your stupid, stubborn, flirtatious, cocky behavior, or so Raiden Shogun strike me down.”

“Already thoroughly infected, captain,” Lumine teased, winking at Heizou and putting on her best flirty look.

“Sorry, I’ve already got two boyfriends,” Heizou grinned, putting his hands up in the surrendering pose. “Speaking of which, I’ve been trying to get Scaramouche to stop homeschooling and get his ass over here, but he’s insistent! I can’t keep dealing with both my boyfriends in different schools, I’m lonely.”

Yoimiya wrapped an arm around his shoulders, smiling at her detective friend. “Bros before hoes. You’ve got us, my man! We’re company enough.”

“True, true, but you’re all absolute idiots, and I need my smartass boyfriends or I’ll devolve to your level of idiocy.” Heizou put on an over exaggerated ‘the world is ending’ expression. “Anyway, by my expert deductions, looks like Itto’s a bit distracted.”

Itto had, indeed, been contemplating Gorou for a few seconds.

“Ah, bro, it’s just my neighbor, I think he wants to—” Itto stopped. ‘And it would be good to have a friend to yourself’... Yoimiya’s words repeated in his head. Yeah, maybe Gorou could be that friend. Maybe Gorou could be the one who could help him realize that caring about the future is useful, as Kuki suggested. “—Try one of my gramma’s pies, is all. We don’t have the ingredients yet and I was planning a trip to the store after school!”

Not the best excuse, seeing as everyone stared at him suspiciously. He never planned or remembered things, so it was a likely story… everyone kind of shrugged it off, assuming Itto was having a smart day or something.

Itto grinned at his friends, and everything went back to normal. Itto felt a bit guilty about lying… it was okay, though, because he knew that the same friends he’d lied to were the ones who’d suggested he make this friend anyway. He was sure it was okay.

Maybe he could ask Heizou later about how to maintain friends outside of school, but keep it a secret from the rest. Yeah! That sounded smart. Itto mentally patted himself on the back, smiling. He was on a roll in the brain department!

—

The next morning, Gorou woke up again before his alarm, but this time catches the time before he fully prepared for the school day. Before he laid right back down in bed, he paused, half sitting up. Gorou stood slowly, and walked out of his room, down the hall, and glanced out the hall window.

Itto was there, gardening, crouched down at the base of a flower bed with a spade and cutesy gloves to protect his fingers from thistles. Gorou creased his brow and contemplated himself for a second, before heading back to his room and getting ready for school.

His alarm rang the moment he stepped outside, and he silenced it without thinking. He walked briskly over to Itto, dropped his backpack right inside the fence, and approached his neighbor.

“Gorou, hi,” Itto waved.

“Hi,” Gorou replied. “My alarm must be really off… it went off so early, I’ve got half an hour before my bus arrives. Need any help?”

The lies fell off his tongue naturally, and Gorou felt no regret in seeing how Itto’s eyes light up with the idea of a friend joining him.

“Sure! I’m planting marigolds right now,” Itto grinned. “Here’s a spade.”

Gorou accepted the gardening tool and beant down next to Itto, and seeing him with pink gardening gloves and dirt all over his face made all signs of intimidation dissipate. How could the public school kids be afraid of such a bumbling dork?

The morning was spent very peacefully. Gorou planted marigolds, brilliant orange and yellow flowers that helped keep animals like bunnies away from the vegetables, alongside Itto until he heard his bus in the distance.

Gorou shot up, breaking his gardening trace and easy-flowing conversation with Itto. “Shit,” he said, looking down the street, seeing the bright school bus humming gently at the start of the cul-de-sac.

“That’s yours?” Itto asked.

“Yeah!” Gorou put the shovel on the ground and ran to the fence, grabbing his backpack.

But his short legs could never carry him far, and he lost hope soon after the bus started rumbling back to life and moving along. As he was slowing down, completely out of breath and only half way there, he was swept off of his feet.

Itto picked him up and carried him like a corpse over his shoulder, running at top speed, easily making it to the end of the street where the bus had stopped.

“What are you doing?!” Gorou gasped as they flew across the neighborhood after the bus.

“Getting you to school on time!” Itto grinned with pure, innocent joy, catching up to the slow moving vehicle.

The bus stopped as the driver saw the tall, buff, honestly quite daunting public schooler sprinting at it with a tiny guy and a backpack over his shoulder. The doors opened, and Itto huffed with the effort of putting Gorou back on his feet.

“What the hell,” Gorou blinked, feeling the stability of the ground again.

Itto, as a response, lifted a hand and pat Gorou’s head like he was a little kid, letting out a boisterous laugh. Gorou found himself smiling at the situation, and ended up laughing as well.

“See you tomorrow, yeah?” Itto wiped a tear of amusement from his eye.

“Yeah,” Gorou nodded, not really thinking.

“Are you getting on, or wasting such a valiant effort?” the bus driver called from the window.

“Coming!” Gorou quickly responded, rushing up the stairs.

Itto waved goodbye, and Gorou, as he sat in his usual wheel seat, dropped his window down and waved back, still smiling like an absolute idiot.

—

Weeks passed. Itto managed to stay out of trouble for the most part, and Kuki was impressed. He even made a whole apology-cake just for her, and his gang threw a party to get her in higher spirits. She still called him an idiot, but hey, she was smiling when she said it.

According to Gorou, he’d been doing well, too. Even though he nearly missed the bus a few times, he was overall happier. Itto had noticed (he applauded himself for his excellent brain skills) that the tiny neighbor boy smiled a lot more often.

They met every morning. On weekends, sometimes even in the afternoon. Gorou had explained to Itto that he rarely hung out with friends on weekends, and when he did, it was with a large group. He told Itto he appreciated the one-on-one time. Itto couldn’t agree more.

Gorou, often, would help him with gardening. Sometimes, it’d be bug catching, or even training. He taught Gorou the ways of telling which bugs were strongest over which were fastest. In turn, Gorou helped Itto learn the scientific point of view; this bug is strongest because of certain genetics, etc. Itto never liked science, but this science was actually, for some reason, enjoyable. Maybe because it was his friend who was teaching it.

The wind blew shivers down both boy’s spines, and leaves of gold and brown crunched under their feet with every step. Luckily, most of the garden was still vivid green, growing healthy under the piles of fertilizer and periodic waterings.

“Itto, boy, what are you up to today?” Itto’s grandmother asked as she walked outside the house early one Wednesday morning, when the sun had only just breached the horizon.

“Oh, Gramma!” Itto exclaimed, standing up from his crouching position. Gorou poked his head curiously from around a raspberry bush. ”We’re collecting raspberry leaves. Gorou said he’d learned… uh, they did something fancy.”

“They are a good source of nutrients and antioxidants, such as B vitamins, vitamin C, potassium, magnesium, zinc, phosphorus, iron, flavonoids, polyphenols and tannins, which can protect the cells from damage and prevent disease. They can help eliminate waste and toxins, treat inflamed skin, relieve menstrual symptoms, and soothe sore throat–”

“Okay, yeah, that,” Itto pointed and nodded, like he understood anything.

“What a smart young man,” Gramma’s smile reached her eyes as she addressed Gorou. “I haven’t seen you around. Are you Itto’s friend?”

Gorou didn’t seem to have an answer to that. He turned his gaze to Itto, asking the question without words. Itto, with a moment of pure, amazing smartness, probably gained from hanging with Gorou, understood what he meant (Go Itto’s brain today! Whoop whoop!).

“Yeah, he’s my friend,” Itto grinned.

It felt good to say it. To say that he had a real, true friend in his neighbor. He looked at Gorou, and could tell by the way he smiled to himself that he definitely felt the same. It made Itto’s heart glow.

“Come in, come in,” Gramma waved Gorou over to the door. “If you’re Itto’s friend, you sure are to be mine, as well. Care for some pie?”

Gorou’s eyes lit up at the mention of food (Itto didn’t know he’d been skipping breakfast to hang out in Itto’s garden) and put down his tiny bucket of raspberry leaves to head towards Gramma.

“Don’t leave me behind!” Itto shouted with a laugh, running to catch up.

The three entered Itto’s house, and Gorou looked around curiously at all the decor. Glassware, horrible pottery (made by Itto in middle school), paintings of various quality, and a whole wall dedicated to family photos dominated all available space.

“Ah, Itto’s photos caught your eye?” Gramma laughed as Gorou trained his gaze on the wall of pictures. “He was such a cute, chubby boy. So big and loud.”

“I was!” Itto said with pride.

Gorou walked over to the wall, observing. The pictures were arranged by family tree line. Most of them were of Gramma and Itto. Only three images of Itto and his parents were present, and there were few of his Grandpa, even less of great-grandparents.

“Itto, my boy, you have dirt all over your face,” Gramma laughed as she looked at her grandson. She addressed Gorou, “Dear, would you help him clean that off while I take the pie out?”

So Gramma left, and Gorou stood next to Itto, facing him.

“I think you’re too tall, you’ll have to do it yourself,” Gorou made light of the situation. Itto could see a faint blush on his cheeks, though he had no clue what it meant because he’s a blithering idiot.

Itto crouched down to Gorou’s height with a grin. Gorou blushed more and flitted his eyes away for a second, before slowly lifting a towel Gramma had given him and wiping the smudges of mud from Itto’s nose.

“How’d you even get that there…” Gorou muttered.

“Maybe it was when you threw it at me,” Itto replied.

“Oh, yeah,” Gorou smiled gently. “But you started it.”

“No you,” Itto narrowed his eyes playfully.

“Type of argument is that?” Gorou asked, taking the towel back.

“A powerful one that always gets me the win!” Itto stood back up and posed dramatically like a buff man (he is, but still).

“Uh– sure,” Gorou put his hands on his hips. “Anyway, my bus will be here in–”

“–Ten minutes, I know,” Itto teased. “You’re always so exact with your time. I could always carry you again if you miss it!”

Gorou, for some (obvious) reason, looked very apprehensive about that.

“I’d rather be on time, thanks,” Gorou shook his head.

“But, does it really matter? I’m late aaaall the time and it’s just another tardy, who cares?” Itto shrugged.

“Itto, tardies go on permanent records. Colleges hate tardies. You have to think about your future,” Gorou reasoned.

“Does he look like someone who’d go to college, dear?” Gramma joked as she wobbled back into the dinning room with a hot pie in her gloved hands.

“No, but, who knows, he might get a degree in environmental sciences or maybe entomology,” Gorou offered. “Entomology sounds fitting.”

“In-to-what-now?” Itto blinked.

“It’s the study of bugs, doofus,” Gorou laughed.

“Ew, study.” Itto scrunched up his nose like a cat who’d smelled something gross.

“I do love hearing you two banter, it makes my heart happy that Itto has found a friend like you,” Gramma spoke again. “His school friends are always such bad influences. Except for my dear Yoimiya. Even though she makes you quite loud, she is a sweetheart.”

“You said you liked Shinobu,” Itto protested.

“She is too tough for you.” Gramma set the pie down on the table. She then walked to her son and stood on her toes to pat his cheeks. “You are so soft. I see it now, when you speak with your new friend. You are not meant for knives and fights. You are meant for the outdoors and gross little insects.”

Itto smiled as she left the room, rolling his eyes in an affectionate way.

“I agree,” Gorou spoke up. “You are very soft. Softer than everyone says.”

“No! I’m tough and strong,” Itto flexed his bicep.

“You refuse to hurt boxelder bugs,” Gorou deadpanned. “Those things are invasive and gross.”

“You only know that because I taught you,” Itto beamed.

Gorou shook his head and turned his direction to the pie.

“You really should be an entomologist.” Gorou took a slice carefully, making sure not to take extra from any of the other pieces. “I feel like you’d meet some amazing nerds.”

“I’m no nerd!”

“You, my friend, definitely are.”

—

Itto was Gorou’s friend.

Gorou loved that thought. He loved it so much that he pictured Itto saying it every time his friends teased him about having no real, true, personal friends. He thought of it whenever he went in a group to the mall. He thought about it, eventually, every time he saw a bug, saw a fun plant, or felt the autumn breeze.

“Gorou, wanna come to my place this afternoon?” Ayaka asked.

“Sure,” Gorou shrugged. “I don’t have anything planned.”

“You never do,” Thoma pointed out.

“You just have wayyy too much planned, all the time,” Gorou mocked. “When was the last time you spent time away from a Kamisato?”

Thoma paused for a moment, leaning back in his chair, thinking.

“Uh…” Thoma began, then stopped and started thinking again.

Gorou looked at Ayaka with an ‘I-told-you-so’ look. Ayaka smothered a laugh and nodded in agreement.

“Last week!” Thoma announced. “Last week I spent an entire hour with Sayu.”

“Took a while to think of a time,” Ayaka laughed. “And I know only a quarter of that is spent with me.”

Thoma blushed at the insinuation.

“I don’t spend all my time with Ayato,” Thoma insisted.

Kazuha looked up slowly from his phone, sending the most pointed glare Gorou ever seen at Thoma. “Sure, my friend. Sure. If you believe so.”

So once again the rest of the group got into an argument or conversation of sorts where Gorou was forgotten. He didn’t mind, he told himself. But his mind automatically wandered to Itto.

Itto would spend time specifically with Gorou. He made Gorou feel safe, secure, and useful. Like he was a vital moment of his morning, an irreplaceable part of his life. He knew his friends, especially Kokomi and Kazuha, would no doubt reassure him that he was an integral part of theirs… but he couldn’t help feeling differently, now, as they talked on without him.

Gorou put his earbuds in, leaning against his palm as he scrolled through his music. Class started in two minutes, but the teacher never cared for kids using music to cope with their school day, so Gorou pressed play as the bell rang.

Itto was Gorou’s friend, and he’d always be there for Gorou. He smiled at that thought. Sure, he was going with his group to a friend’s house this afternoon, where Gorou would have genuine fun and a great time, but no friend could make Gorou feel so loved as Itto could.

For being the scary public school bully, that was quite a strange thought.

“Gorou, when was the last time you hung out with us?” someone brought him back into the conversation while the teacher droned on.

“Two weeks ago, at the mall,” Gorou responded simply, taking an earbud out so he could hear them.

“That’s sad,” Ayaka said.

“Not really, I hang out with you at school,” Gorou shrugged. “I don’t need to hang out after, not always.”

“How do you live with such lonely boredom?” Ayato asked.

“It’s not lonely,” Gorou insisted. “I have a friend, my neighbor.”

“You do?” Kokomi asked, surprised.

“Yeah,” Gorou said, though he started blushing as he spoke, anxiety hitting him out of nowhere. Why was admitting, out loud, to his school friends, that he had Itto so nerve-wracking?

“That’s a surprise. Still, you don’t have a love life, so you can’t compare to most of us,” Ayaka reasoned.

“Not everyone needs two boyfriends to be considered in possession of a love life,” Gorou shot back.

“Huh?” Kazuha looked up from his desk.

“We weren't talking about you, go back to daydreaming,” Thoma comforted their friend, not rudely. Kazuha went back to blankly staring at the table.

“Anyway, I’ve got my own friend, I swear I’m not lonely,” Gorou persisted.

“Alright, we’ll leave you alone,” Kokomi backed off. “But know you don’t have to lie–”

Gorou put his earbud back in his ear.

“Kokomi, I’m fine, truly,” Gorou said.

His friends went back to talking amongst each other while Gorou settled a smile on his face. He could say he was fine with honesty, now.

—

“Shinobu, I’ve thought about what you said about the future,” Itto said as he arrived at school one morning (late) as always. “I want to be an eat-your-mom-ogist!”

“An entomologist?” Lumine asked.

“That,” Itto snapped his fingers.

Shinobu blinked a few times, cleaned out her ears, blinked again, rubbed her temples, tilted her head to get a good look at Itto, checked Itto’s pulse, knocked on his hollow head a few times, tested his instincts, then blinked again.

“What?” She deadpanned.

“An ent-or-mall-ist,” Itto repeated.

“Entomologist,” Lumine corrected again.

“Lemme clear something up,” Shinobu clapped her hands together. “I have no damn idea what the hell an entomologist is. But it ends in ologist, which means it has to do with science.”

“Yup!” Itto said cheerfully.

“You want to do something that revolves around science?” Shinobu looked like she’d just learned there was a pyramid beneath the Hoover dam, or that aliens ran the Aztec Empire.

“Bugs,” Itto reasoned.

“Still, science?” Kirara spoke up from somewhere nearby.

She’d missed a whole week of school running her family delivery business while her parents were out of town, but she still heard enough of the tea through texts to understand what had been happening with Itto’s future problems and sudden smart behavior nobody could explain.

“Yeah! But interesting science,” Itto replied.

“What brought on this idea?” Yoimiya asked.

“A friend suggested it! And he was so right. I may not be good at science, but he told me that if I wanted to be, I could be,” Itto grinned as he thought about Gorou.

“A friend?” Akira asked.

“Was it Ushi?” Genta’s eyes shone. “I knew he could speak!”

“It wasn’t Ushi, it was a human, idiot,” Yoimiya bonked his head.

“It was my neighbor,” Itto added. “He’s been helping me in my garden!”

“You have a garden? And you’ve been commissioning your neighbor to work for you? Do you at least pay him?” Heizou questioned, walking casually into the class, long after the bell rang.

Not like the teacher was any more on time. The group was still waiting for them to arrive.

“No, he doesn’t ask for money,” Itto waved it off. “He wanted to do it because it sounded fun.”

“What’s his name? You do know it, right?” Shinobu interrogated.

“Yeah, his name’s Gorou,” Itto replied.

“Oh, Kazuha’s introverted friend.” Heizou tapped his chin in a comical thinking pose. “He doesn’t feel like a good match for you. I’ve met him. He was barely confident enough to greet me, because I looked ‘devious’ or something ridiculous.”

“Heizou, devious might be the best descriptor for you I’ve ever heard,” Lumine snorted.

“Hey! That sounds like an insult!” Momoru gasped.

“Yeah, take it back.” Genta glared at Lumine. “Whatever it means, I bet it’s off-pensive! And Heizou’s an honorary member, we have to defend him!”

“Offensive?” Shinobu rubbed a hand over her temples for the 100th time today.

“Devious does sound like an evil word,” Yoimiya noted.

“Not you, too.” Shinobu looked ready to bury herself in a grave already.

“Is devious a word I’m supposed to know?” Kirara cocked her head.

Lumine slammed her face into the table and Shinobu looked at Heizou pleadingly.

“I love hanging out with idiots,” Heizou sighed fondly. “It’s why I love Scara so much.”

“If he was here, he’d beat you up for that,” Shinobu pointed out.

“I know,” Heizou grinned.

Itto and his gang started laughing. They didn’t really get any of the jokes made or anything said, but it felt right to laugh whenever Shinobu looked ready to commit murder. Soon, everyone was at least chuckling, and Itto was glad he had such great friends.

—

Gorou, instead of waking up to his alarm, which he’d set thirty minutes before he was supposed to get up for school every morning, was greeted with blaring honking from the most obnoxious, old car horn he’d heard.

Rubbing his eyes, he stood up and walked down the hall, naturally following his morning routine of making sure Itto was there. He wasn’t. Gorou leaned into the windowsill to get a good look at the street, where he noted Itto sat in the driver’s seat of a rickety old truck, spamming the horn.

Gorou pushed the window open.

“We’re going to the plant store! Your school starts in an hour, we’ve gotta get going now!” Itto’s shout rings through his hall window.

“What the hell?” Gorou asked. “It’s six in the morning! School starts at 7:50.”

“But your bus gets here at 7:30,” Itto reasoned.

“730 minus 600 is 130. You woke me up 30 minutes early, if you wanted an hour to go wherever we’re going,” Gorou sighed and grumbled; “Me and the whole neighborhood.”

“You normally get to my house at 6:50 so actually it’s only like twenty minutes more than usual for you,” Itto shouted back.

“Did you even take elementary school math?” Gorou asked genuinely.

“I plead the 9th,” Itto replied.

“You mean the 5th?” Despite his utter stupidity, Gorou found himself smiling.

“Yeah, that,” Itto snapped his fingers.

“Fine, whatever. Stay tight and quiet until I’m ready,” Gorou closed the window and retreated into his room.

Ten minutes later, Itto was driving (with surprising skill) down the busy morning streets, deep into the city. His rickety old truck would have frightened the boy to death, seeing as it sounded like the wheels would go flying off the moment Itto shifted gears, but Gorou realized, actually rather abruptly, that he had full faith in Itto. It was strange, that realization, and it sent warmth to his cheeks.

He does trust Itto. He trusts him more than he thought. I mean, if a stranger pulled up and demanded a trip to a plant store of all things, I probably would slam my window shut and hide in my closet until they went away, Gorou thought as they zoomed down the freeway. Itto’s not a stranger, though. I know him. I trust him, even if I’ve only known him for a month, to ensure I don’t die.

“You alright little homie?” Itto asked, dangerously focusing his eyes on Gorou.

“Yeah,” Gorou nodded, realizing suddenly that he’d ben subconsciously smiling to himself.

“You’re so distant. Did I wake you up too early?” Itto fretted.

“I think what’s more concerning is if I’ll ever wake up again after this ride,” Gorou joked.

“Don’t you dare insult Ushi!” Itto patted the steering wheel, and when he took his hand off of it, he was covered in dust.

“You named your truck Ushi?” Gorou should’ve guessed he’d named this pile of scraps.

“Yeah! And she’s an honorary Arataki Gang member, so treat her with respect,” Itto grinned childishly.

The two reached a rather large plant store in the middle of town. It was completely made of greenhouse glass, and the moment they stepped inside, they were hit with a pleasant wave of heat compared to the weather outside.

“Not many plants get planted outside this time of year, seeing as it’s autumn, nearly winter,” Itto taught, strutting into the store like he owned it. Gorou noted that he probably was friends with the owner, and came every week. He smiled. It was fitting. “So we’re buying houseplants!”

Then Itto stopped dead, and Gorou nearly tripped trying to stop as well. Gorou sent his friend (the warmth in his chest flutters) a curious yet demanding glare, wondering why Itto had nearly made him crash into a pyramid of ceramic pots.

Itto turned to Gorou, a distressed emotion playing across his face. He took both Gorou’s hands in his and held them close between them.

“Gorou, now that it’s almost winter, you can’t help me take care of bugs or plants!” he wallowed. “We’ll never see each other again!”

“You only just realized this?” Gorou laughed gently.

The moment they’d established their routine, Gorou had been fretting over when it would end, and how. It made his insides sting with displeasure, so he spent many minutes of free time laying on his bed staring at the ceiling, thinking, until the he formulated a plan: he’d simply not let it end.

“Itto, I’ll just visit you,” Gorou comforted. “Like a normal person. Without unpaid child labor involved.”

“Hey, I pay you with joyous company!” Itto shook their hands with his laughter.

“I’m surprised you know joyous is a word,” Gorou pointed out.

“I heard it on Cartoon Network,” Itto said like it was an achievement.

“Well, still, you managed to remember it from your childhood,” Gorou insisted.

“Huh?” Itto tilted his head in confusion. “I heard it last week.”

Gorou thinned his lips to stop himself from laughing.

“Anyway, back on topic, every morning I’ll just hang out in your house and we can play games and talk,” Gorou reasoned.

“Wow, you’re brilliant.” Itto practically glowed.

It was nice to know that Gorou’s anxiety-fueled thinking sessions formulated a good plan. Even now, he realized it was actually super simple.

Itto released Gorou’s hand. Only one of them, that is. He kept his (rather large) right hand still in Gorou’s left as he moved to Gorou’s side, and they continued walking through the store. For the rest of the trip, Gorou continuously felt warm and comfortable, even when they walked with bags of seeds and large potted house plants through the chilly parking lot.

Gorou made it back just in time for the bus, and arrived at school with a peaceful and casual glow to him.

“Have a good sleep, Gorou?” Kazuha asked when they met up in the cafeteria before class, like they always did.

“Yeah.” Gorou breathed out slowly with a smile. “And a good morning.”

“Someone’s lovesick,” Kokomi poked.

“What?” Gorou shook his head. “No!”

“Is it that mysterious neighbor you claim makes you unlonely?” Ayato said while slurping on a boba straw. Where does he get all those, anyway?

“Unlonely isn’t a word,” Ayaka argued.

“Ayato, how are you stupider than your sister, when you’re older?” Aether questioned.

He was usually really quiet—yet another introvert welcomed to Gorou’s misfit group of friends—but whenever he spoke, they tended to be little amusing jabs he’d learned from his feisty twin sister who refused to go to a ‘posh’ private school.

“Aether, stupider isn’t a word either,” Ayaka sighed.

“You’re both idiots,” Thoma patted Ayato and Aether’s heads at the same time, standing behind them. “Here’s a comforting pat for your woes.”

“Thanks, Thoma,” Ayato said with way too much affection for a straight person. “Appreciate it. I feel less like the mud on a boot Ayaka makes me out to be.”

“That was the intention,” Thoma laughed, taking his (permanent) place by Ayato’s chair.

“You’re not mud on a boot,” Ayaka insisted. “You’re more like… a permanent stain on the most expensive white shirt I own.”

“Thoma, she’s being mean,” Ayato fake cried, Kokomi, Kazuha and Aether already laughing at his hysterics. “Do I have permission to dangle her by the ankles from the third story?”

Gorou, meanwhile, was infinitely thankful for his friend’s joint effort in avoiding the topic of Itto. He, admittedly, was growing quite possessive of his neighbor. It was just as they said—having your own, personal friend that you know better than anyone else… It has a very strong appeal, and it made Gorou feel special.

Maybe that was an entire thought process meant to cover up the fact that Kokomi’s lovesick comment sent him aggressively blushing, but who knows?

The bell rang loudly, interrupting yet another teasing and flirt-filled Thomato interaction where Aether and Kazuha ended up talking quietly and Kokomi just scrolled on her phone. Gorou made his leave, having contributed three sentences to their morning hang out, and perfectly content with it.

His group left off to their classes, like usual, forgetting mostly about Gorou. Kokomi and Kazuha bid him farewell, and Kazuha walked with him to his class because it was on the way, like normal. As Gorou sat in his Digital Art class alone in the center of the room, he realized how that need for someone was gone, and it wasn’t because of the magical tater tots. The ache in his stomach disappeared— he felt comfortable, normal (but in a good way), with being lonely, because he knew he had Itto.

There wasn’t an underlying part of himself hoping and wishing for a closer relationship, while his main thoughts that argued he liked being part of a large group who didn’t require his individual personality. It felt good.

Itto made him feel good.

—

“BOSS!” Genta skirted down the hallway and crashed into Itto.

“Bad news!” Akira joined in.

Itto looked around for Shinobu, but the girl wasn’t in sight, and neither were Lumine or Heizou, the other two smart people of the group.

“You haven’t gotten in a fight for two whole weeks,” Momoru started. “So Shinobu started laying off lectures about the… uh…”

“Future?” Itto prompted.

“That!” Momoru snapped his fingers. “But now she checked your grades! Apparently, they’re even worse than normal!”

“That miiiight be because I’ve been distracted,” Itto laughed it off.

“Wait, you’ve been doing that thing recently, right?” Genta lowered his voice to a whisper. “...thinking?”

Akira and Momoru gasped in horror.

“You’ve been thinking? Like regularly? Without being forced too? And that’s what’s distracting you?!” Akira exclaimed, his voice so loud that multiple teachers slammed their classroom doors. Luckily, there were no students in the hall to annoy; they were on a free period.

“What do you thinking about?!” Momoru asked.

“Uh, well…” Itto rubbed the back of his neck.

He’d been thinking of Gorou. In class, in the hall, even during conversation. Heizou had noticed it, and so had Shinobu and Lumine, but Heizou was the only one to discover why. He’d confronted him earlier in the day; asking him if he had a crush.

Then, Itto couldn’t stop, even for a second, thinking about Gorou. The innocent, stereotype-less neighbor boy who took interest in his bugs and plants and saw him for the golden retriever he was. Maybe Heizou’s prediction was right, but Itto’s head was too tiny to wrap around the concept, so he didn’t know how to act or feel about it.

All he knew was that Gorou’s quiet smile that contrasted so hard with all his rambunctious friends was so precious that it was burned into his eyelids. And his camera roll. He’d snapped a few photos.

“...nothing?” Itto finished.

“See, it’s all fine.” Momoru let out a deep exhale. “He was thinking about nothing! A negative and a positive added together is a negative, so he’s not thinking, really.”

“Yeah!” Akira agreed. “And you used math, so it has to be right.”

“Anyway, so we figured that problem out, but what about the fact that Shinobu said she’d beat Itto’s ass until it caved into his skull in five minutes?” Genta realized.

“Yeah, she said that four minutes ago,” Akira noted casually.

“WHAT?!” Itto shouted. “You should’a told me earlier! Scram, boys!”

The gang members immediately saluted him and then ran in zigzags (so they don’t get hit by the bullets Shinobu’s menacing glare shoots at ‘em) into random classrooms. Itto promptly dove into a trashcan.

Gorou came to Itto’s every morning for the following week, plus weekends. Instead of planting or harvesting, they spoke about their lives. They already basically knew all there was about each other, but they could find tiny things they’d forgotten. When Gorou found himself too tired to speak much longer, Itto would offer to play video games, understanding Gorou’s introverted needs.

It was a gentle and sweet relationship. They knew each other’s boundaries; Itto hated talking about his parents, and got really uncomfortable if sitting too close to someone (though, Gorou discovered later, Itto was completely comfortable with Gorou falling asleep on him some tired mornings). Gorou couldn’t engage in too much extroverted activity for too long, though his puppy-like energy lasted a while into most conversations. He hated being pat on the head.

Itto learned that Gorou used to be a hardcore extrovert, but after joining a larger friend group, he settled into a peaceful, more quiet life. He admitted, one time as they watched MLP (Itto insisted) that Itto was bringing the extrovert back out of him.

Gorou learned that Itto wasn’t that stupid. Sure, he lacked basic brain capacity, but he had reasons behind his actions most of the times. He even learned Itto’s biggest secret: he wasn’t a bully. He didn’t go around beating students up, like everyone thought, and Gorou had begun to suspect.

What his friends thought was that Itto was picked on for looking like an easy target (mentally), but a tough one (physically) to onlookers, so aka basically a free street-cred generator. The truth was, he beat those kids up because they were being mean to bugs or to his friends. He was only defending the innocent.

“Like a hero,” Gorou noted.

“Yeah! And I’ve got the dashing looks too.” Itto smirked and ran his comb through his hair, shooting a seductive (not rlly, but he tried) look Gorou’s way.

Their relationship bloomed, much unlike Itto’s garden. Gorou was at Itto’s house the day of the first snow of winter.

“Itto!” Gorou gasped, startling the other, who’d been busy trying his best to read the instructions for Uno (he’d been trying for an hour before Gorou even got there).

“Oh, hi!” Itto greeted. “Just in time! I think I figured out this really tricky card game…”

“Shut up,” Gorou said without any malice, and walked over to force Itto to his feet. “It’s snowing!”

Itto’s eyes shone with instant joy and he ran out, basically sending the door off of its hinges, towards his lawn. Gorou laughed and allowed Itto to yank him along without a moment of hesitation, or surprise, for that matter.

The two boys enthusiastically abandoned their plans for the day and started making snow angels. The laughing never stopped between them.

After standing and observing the size difference in Gorou’s and Itto’s respective snow angels, Gorou started the beginnings of a snowman. They worked on it for a while, making it way out of proportion, and way too tall for Gorou. He couldn’t even touch it’s head.

After running into the house, laughing with cheeks pink, they brought back out a few decorations; a bucket with a hole in it that Itto was planning on tossing, a thigh-high sock from Gramma’s teenage years, a potato because he had no carrots, and then they found some sticks outside.

It was beautiful. A rainbow thigh-high from the 1980s for a scarf, a pot for a hat, a potato nose– when the two boys stood proudly and took their creation in, they wheezed with laughter and fell into each other on the snow.

Their laughter died out slowly, and Itto lay on his back, watching his heavy breaths freezing and floating away, where they mingled with Gorou’s, who was laying under his arm. It was then that they realized how close they were, and how comfortable they were with it.

It was warm, with Gorou. It was warm with Itto. Together, they made a pocket of warmth, and their breaths finally slowed back to normal in the comfort of each other’s company.

“Oh, uh,” Gorou said, breaking the crisp silence of a winter suburban cul-de-sac. “It’s 7:30.”

Itto’s eyes widened and he sat up, dislodging Gorou, who growled as he face-planted into the snow.

“I can drive you,” Itto offered.

“I missed the bus and my mom’s at work, so that’s probably the best option.” Gorou sat up with a grin, still warm from their closeness. “Just don’t let Ushi implode on the freeway.”

“Ushi’s a strong girl! She’d never,” Itto huffed offendedly.

Gorou stood and reached up to pat Itto’s shoulder comfortingly, shaking his head with a sigh.

They got to school, and to Gorou’s horror, his friends were waiting for him outside.

“Hey, Gorou! You weren’t on the bus, a friend told me. We thought we’d wait and walk inside with you,” Ayaka called cheerily.

“Oh, thanks,” Gorou nodded as he expertly opened Ushi’s door. The truck was ancient, but after witnessing firsthand how it functions, he knew all the little quirks. For example, to open the passenger door, one must use the bottom of their foot and apply pressure to the hinges before pulling on the handle.

“Who’s that?” Aether asked, probably assuming Itto was another friend he just wasn’t introduced to yet.

“...no idea,” Thoma tilted his head.

Gorou plopped onto the crispy snowy sidewalk and walked up to his friends, waving bye to Itto. Itto honked Ushi’s horn (it doesn’t work. He put a squeaker toy where it should have been, so it sounded like a clown car) with a giant grin and waved, then drove away.

“Whoever it is, that is the most lovesick expression I’ve ever seen,” Kokomi noted. “And I’ve seen Thoma.”

“Hey!” Thoma scoffed. “Who could I possibly be lovesick for, anyway?”

The whole group, except for Gorou, who was busy watching Itto drive off, turned to Thoma with the most annoyed expressions ever.

“Anyway, Gorou, who the hell was that hot buff guy?” Ayato spoke up.

“Uh, what?” Gorou turned, blinking, recentering himself to reality.

“Who was that guy?” Ayato repeated.

“Oh, that’s the neighbor I was telling you about,” Gorou shrugged as casually as possible. His face was probably (definitely) pink (red).

“Makes sense, that checks out,” Ayato shrugged. “He single?”

Thoma made a garbled choking noise and Ayaka patted his back comfortingly.

“Uh,” Gorou turned even redder (lobsters fear him). “No idea, actually.”

Gorou’s stomach suddenly felt strange. It twisted, just as strange as the feeling of hunger after missing breakfast and lunch, or that horrible loneliness he felt before Itto was around. He tried to stay still and identify it, coming to the conclusion it was jealousy. He wasn’t stupid. Gorou knew feelings; he’d experienced way too many, as an insecure introvert.

Why was he jealous, though? Of Ayato’s easy ability to get a bunch of babes, or of Itto’s single status? The feeling twisted a bit into despair. Yeah, it was Itto. Of course he’d be jealous of whoever could possibly be dating Itto. He was Itto’s best… friend.

That thought only made it worse.

“You okay, Gorou?” Kokomi asked sweetly.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Gorou replied, a bit more emotionless than he intended.

“You’re in love with him,” Kazuha said bluntly. “And you don’t know how to tell him.” The whole group turned and faced Kazuha, who had just shown up with his backpack over one shoulder. He slid off of his boyfriend’s motorcycle, smiling at Scaramouche, who scoffed and drove away. Kazuha faced the group again and shrugged. “It’s pretty easy to tell, Gorou, that you’re in quite the predicament.”

“Wha– no,” Gorou shook his head adamantly.

“GOROU!” Itto’s voice rang out. The group, as one, all turned to face the other way, where Itto was driving Ushi right back into the drop-off spot for the school’s students. “You forgot your scarf.”

Gorou walked up to Ushi and reached into the window, which was down, and accepted his teal scarf from Itto’s large hands. Itto sent him a warm smile, and it was horribly contagious.

“Thanks,” Gorou responded.

“You okay, little dude? You’re kinda red,” Itto tilted his head.

Gorou turned his head back to his group, blushing, and realized most of them were snickering, and Kazuha had a very smug expression on his face he probably learned from Heizou.

“Uh, it’s nothing,” Gorou insisted.

“Okay! See you tomorrow morning,” Itto saluted and drove off.

“Damn, smooth.” Ayato slurped on his boba.

“Kazuha, you may be a weed-addicted crackhead–”

“Pardon me?”

“–but you’re totally right,” Ayaka blinked. “Gorou, you’re in deep.”

“What? No, we’re only barely friends, I haven’t felt anything romantic with him, anyway,” Gorou quickly dismissed their claims.

“Not all romance follows the stereotypical rules,” Kazuha pointed out. “Sometimes, your partner is just a friend that you hang out with more than any other friends, maybe you hold hands on occasion. You don’t have to feel sexually attracted to love someone romantically.”

Why did that describe Gorou’s thoughts perfectly?

“You could ask Aether for guidance, he’s asexual,” Thoma offered.

Gorou felt himself nearly tearing up. He was always emotional, and his friends offering supportive and helpful advice was way too heartwarming. How could he ever think they didn’t care about him as an individual?

“Thanks, guys,” Gorou smiled. “I appreciate it, a lot. But… I think I’m fine, really. I can handle it on my own, I just need time to think.”

By that, he meant try to ignore the correctness Kazuha’s point had made him feel. He didn’t want to love Itto. He didn’t think he’d be able to handle a full romantic relationship by himself, especially with such an idiot like Itto.

Okay, maybe it did kind of sound fun, a bit, too. Seeing Itto’s face red, kissing him goodbye in the mornings… Gorou wrapped his scarf around his neck and hid his face with it, hopefully covering his blush.

Maybe he did want a relationship with Itto. It explained his constant thoughts about him, and the numbing fuzzy feeling he felt after every morning with his neighbor. The prospect of anything more than just laughing, being close, and hanging out… that’s what sounded daunting. Not a relationship, but the after, the next step in every romance. The prospect of sleeping with Itto made Gorou more icky than turned on.

He tried to push it off as his anxiety acting up again, but he knew it was different.

Maybe he’d talk to Aether later.

“If we need to set you up, the offer’s still open.” Thoma saluted playfully, and Ayato looked delighted at the idea.

“There’s a certain couple here that needs a set up way more than me.” Gorou eyed the two, who stood oh so close.

Ayaka snickered at Thoma’s confused expression.

—

Itto, meanwhile, was having similar revelations.

About romance, that is, not about asexuality or anxiety—Itto was too awesome for any of that (his words, not mine). He was so awesome, in fact, that he wanted to do absolutely anything he could to make Gorou like him and feel comfortable with him.

Itto was shit at keeping secrets, so it wasn’t long before he told his group about his little crush. Well, okay, more like Heizou deduced it out of his two-sentence explanation for being late that day, but he still basically told them.

“Well, let’s set you up then,” Yoimiya said simply.

The group turned to Shinobu, the planer. To their unsurprise, she was sitting surrounded near the center of the gang, next to Itto. To their surprise, she was fake crying. She was never one for hysterics; always so serious and done with life.

“Itto,” she fake-sobbed. “You’re capable of real, basic human emotions besides idiocy!”

“What’s idiocy?” Itto asked out of the corner of his mouth.

“Idiot, but plural, I think?” Yoimiya responded.

“No, there’d be a T still,” Akira whispered back.

Meanwhile, Shinobu cut the proud mother act and sighed. “Nevermind, you’re still all idiots.”

“That’s the plural for idiot,” Yoimiya exclaimed.

“Wait, so what’s idiocy then?” Genta clutched his head in confusion.

“C’mon, idiots, let’s get this date set up,” Lumine interrupted, pushing Yoimiya and Genta’s heads down into the table roughly. She’d learned the ways of shutting up people in public school. Shinobu was also proud of this. “Heizou, get some inside scoop from your boyfriend #2, and Yoimiya, get in contact with Miko, we’re gonna need some romantic advice.”

“Let’s do this!” Kirara exclaimed with way too much enthusiasm.

Itto’s heart warmed at their ambition.

He couldn’t help but think of his future with Gorou.

—

It wasn’t hard. Gorou got help from Aether, learned to understand himself and solve his little anxiety-inducing sexuality crisis of sorts, and then slowly but surely was peppered with motivation and confidence to ask Itto out.

Itto, meanwhile, got trained by Miko, a previous private school kid who’d moved to public because it was closer to Ei’s house (she was homeschooled, and Yae visited after public school every day). She was a master of romance, and got Itto in contact with people from other counties, provinces, countries and states across the globe of famous flirters, like Kaeya, a student all the way in some wacky place like Alberta.

Their friends helped each of them out until Gorou was bursting with confidence and Itto felt smart. Finally, it was time. Kokomi even dragged the friend group to Gorou’s house at 6:00 AM just to peek through the windows.

Gorou walked casually (nervously internally, confident externally) to Itto’s house. All his prepping suddenly vanished. He turned back to his house and looked up at his hall window, where his friend group was crowded, spying. He widened his eyes and put on a panicked expression.

“Shit, he’s just too naturally anxious all the time, why did we ever think we could make him confident?” Ayaka shook her head, but sent an encouraging smile at Gorou.

Gorou turned around shakily and walked to Itto’s house, his boots catching (somehow) on the snow and nearly tripping him every other step.

“Man, it’s like our socially anxious little cousin was becoming a rizz god whomst I was so ready to stan,” Kazuha muttered. “Then, out of the red, his exploits became’st tarnished at the thought of truly using his rizzery.”

“What the hell was that sentence?” Thoma asked whilst Aether laughed.

Kokomi turned to Kazuha, grabbed the sides of his head, and asked seriously: “How much weed are you on?”

“Totes,” Kazuha held up a peace sign.

The group sighed and went back to spying, only to realize Gorou was already inside Itto’s house.

Itto and his Gramma were having a conversation in the kitchen when Gorou arrived. They’d been talking about bugs (as per usual), but their conversation eventually dipped towards a more romantic route, which ended with Itto spilling all his training and intentions.

“I knew there was something going on between you two,” Gramma laughed in a sweet way. “I wish you luck, my boy.”

Itto’s ears tinted red, but he glowed with pride. Gramma pat his head like he was a little kid, and then Gorou walked in, his nose pink from the cold, cheeks from something else.

“Itto, can we talk?” Gorou asked, trying his best to be casual.

“Sure!” Itto grinned. Gramma gave him one last pat on the upper arm as he stood.

“Go get ‘em, tiger,” Gramma encouraged.

Itto smiled and followed Gorou into the living room, where the wall separating it from the kitchen would hopefully block Gramma’s hearing range (it was only a meter wide anyway. Lady’s deaf af).

“So, uh.” Gorou nervously adjusted the strap of his backpack.

Itto stood and waited for Gorou to say something, but he didn’t. He just stood there, turning visibly more red as the second passed. Itto knew what he had to do. He didn’t have hours of training for nothing!

“You’re cute,” Itto said bluntly.

Gorou opened his mouth to say something, then closed it, then coughed into his scarf and hid his face in it, all so fast it seemed almost casual and normal. Except that he was very, very red.

“Thanks,” Gorou coughed again. “Uh, you too. Well– you’re more sexy, I guess. Not that I think that– well, I do, but like, uh, in a more passing comment way, because it’s obvious. I mean, who wouldn’t think it? Sorry, I had something to tell you, but that really caught me off guard.”

Ah, yes, just as Yae said, this flustered reaction just meant he was processing the words, and he liked Itto. Yae, however, also said that anything Gorou did, including breathing, meant that he liked Itto. Maybe it was all a lie to build confidence. Whatever, Itto felt empowered anyway.

He felt so bold, in fact, that all of Miko’s and Kaeya’s and Heizou’s and Xingqiu’s and Childe’s and Beidou’s and Lyney’s and Kaveh’s flirting advice just melted away. He was going to skip all the steps they told him to follow, and get straight to the point.

So, with a big grin on his face, Itto said:

“I love bugs!”

Gorou blinked.

“Uh, yeah, I could tell,” Gorou laughed, the tension easing.

Shit, Itto said the wrong word. He was supposed to say ‘you’, but his mind was always so intently focused on bugs and plants that he forgot the word ‘you’ even existed! Aw, shit, what now? Itto’s confidence vanished.

“And, um, you’re a bug,” Itto continued.

“Thanks…?” Gorou seemed to grow increasingly less flustered and more casual.

“So, I love you,” Itto concluded.

“Oh.” Gorou blushed again.

Itto clapped himself on the back. Perfect. He brought it right back to the subject, and logically too! Nice save.

Meanwhile, Gorou was contemplating running into the snow and burying himself deeper than a grave, frozen forever and hopefully, one day, fertilizing the many plants Itto would nurture.

But that thought also made Gorou sad, because that meant he wouldn’t be there to plant them with Itto. He loved planting with Itto. He loved it enough that he’d rather not die, just to be able to do it again. With that thought in mind, he singlehandedly prevented his own suicide and also mustered up the confidence to respond.

“Itto, I love bugs, too. And you’re also a bug,” Gorou said, not embarrassed. Why was that so much easier than just saying ‘I love you’?

Maybe it was because it felt right. Coming out and confessing at the same time, but through a two-step process involving bugs, somehow felt absolutely accurate to their relationship. Strange, but perfect.

“I really love bugs,” Itto grinned.

“Bugs make me really happy.” Gorou tilted his head with a smile.

“Do bugs go on dates?” Itto questioned out loud.

“If they don’t, I think we should make it a thing,” Gorou replied, simply.

“Yeah,” Itto nodded.

Of course Itto understood anything when it came to bugs. Normally the sentence exchange would perplex him, but his passion and Gorou both present made his head clear. He wanted nothing more than to invent dating in the bug world.

“I don’t know how people ever thought you were scary,” Gorou started laughing. There was no tension left to dissolve, but it still felt like letting out a deep breath. “You’re such a nerd.”

“I can’t wait to be an entomologist!” Itto exclaimed.

“Woah, that metaphor went a bit far,” Gorou’s eyes widened. “Itto, uh– I’m asexual.”

“What?” Itto stroked his chin, then blushed. “Oh. Oh. I didn’t mean it like that, I swear! And that’s cool, I don’t even know how to sex.”

“Cool,” Gorou smiled. “What now?”

“Wanna go to the plant store with me?” Itto asked.

Gorou grinned and nodded. Right before leaving, Gramma sent a wide grin and thumbs up out the window at Itto. Itto waved in response, and Gorou noticed, waving too.

They were both rather strange, but Gorou couldn’t help but feel that it was spectacular that way.