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Kohaku was aware it wouldn't be easy being out of the closet, even if he was surrounded by adults that were very supportive and gay themselves. (He loves them, definitely, but if they could tone down the homosexuality for just one practice- )
Kohaku was aware, Kaname was too, and despite building each other up, and receiving promises and reassurances of protection from their guardians, the sting of glances and whispers still hurt as they made their way through the corridor together to their respective classrooms.
Kaname was held back a year due to his coma, giving him one more year in school- with Kohaku.
Kohaku felt a particularly nasty glare. He planned to ignore it, but the way Kaname's hand tightened around his own upon hearing the spat that was more venomous than the usual gossip about him and his boyfriend, coming from the same direction as the glare, had him turning around and facing the source with his own.
His glare, much more terrifying, shocked the girl running her mouth. She backed up like a mouse as tears welled up in her eyes, the bravery and audacity she previously displayed gone in an instant when her target retaliated.
“Shut the fuck up”
Which was effective. He filed that away in his mind as he recalled Rinne teaching him the power of cursing.
“It’s simple really,” Rinne explained to him when the adult bees took turns ‘counseling’ Kohaku the evening before he finally attended Reimei with Kaname.
“Because I curse somewhat often, people ain't as surprised. You don't, so if ya cursed, it would be a shocker. Of course, if ya do it too often it'd lose its shock value anyway-”
“Are you teaching Oukawa to curse, Amagi?”
“Come on Merumeru~” Rinne didn't change his nickname for the man despite the fact he and Niki successfully wrangled the man for his real name after Kaname woke up, saying that it was his nickname, “You've gotta admit I got a point~”
The man had sighed, before sitting beside Rinne and wrapping an arm around Rinne and pulling him close- to which Kohaku rolled his eyes, before giving Kohaku his own pep-talk.
“Don't let me catch you again,” Kohaku warned, while he attempted to silently comfort Kaname by caressing the back of the boy’s palm with his thumb.
He continued to glare as she nodded frantically with the tears now nearly spilling over, hands over her own mouth so tightly he could see the way her fingers pulled at her own cheeks.
As he stalked off, gently tugging Kaname along, he wondered if it was the Special Student status they both held that scared her or was his glare that terrifying.
“Thanks, Kohaku-kun”
Kaname held up their intertwined hands to his lips, kissing it gently and smiled as brightly as the blush on Kohaku’s cheeks.