Chapter Text
Aventurine looked up at the starry sky and turned to Ratio with a warm smile. "Veritas, Do you think we're soulmates in every single universe out there?" he asked, his eyes shining with curiosity and wonder. Ratio's gaze remained fixed on the twinkling stars above, lost in thought.
Ratio grinned mischievously as he looked at Aventurine. "No way, gambler. 'Soulmates' are yet nothing but a myth," he declared playfully, with a sparkle in his eyes, he couldn't help but grin at the situation.
That was the last thing I said before I knew that I was going to lose him.
Ratio woke up, his vision still being dark and foggy. It was cold and breezy; he couldn’t move at all, and it felt scary. It was the first time that Ratio had felt so alone and scared.
Tic. Tac. Tic. Tac. Tic.
As Ratio struggled to open his eyes, the sound of a clock ticking filled his hearing. Gradually, he regained his senses and realized that he had been unconscious and; God knows for how long? The rhythmic ticking of the clock was the only sound in the room, and it seemed to be counting down the seconds until he could fully wake up and take in his surroundings.
As he slowly opened his eyes, he found himself staring at a pristine white ceiling with a fan whirling above him. With a sudden jolt, he sat up and looked around the unfamiliar surroundings. A cozy bed lay beneath him, a small bookshelf, an old, but functioning computer, and a disheveled bag filled with books and papers that were scattered around the room. Despite the mess, there was still something oddly welcoming about the space that made him feel at ease.
He slowly got out of bed quickly to check the calendar and check the current date.
‘August 1, 2011.’
He looked out the window and it was nearing sunset, and Ratio wondered; ‘what even happened before all of this, before I regained consciousness? What was I even doing..?’
There was a faint voice coming from downstairs saying, “Veritas Ratio, come down for dinner!” which sounded exactly like Ratio’s mom from his ‘past life’
He got up from the bed on which he was sitting, and quickly glanced around the room, noticing that there was a journal lying on his desk, but before he picked it up to read it; his mom kept on pressuring him to come down for dinner, which left him no choice but to comply.
As he made his way downstairs, the aroma of delicious food wafted up to greet him. His parents were already seated at the dinner table, waiting patiently for him. With a warm smile, he excused himself and joined them.
"Veritas, how was school today?" asked his mom.
“It was, uh, fine.” when in fact, Ratio did not remember anything that happened before he even woke up.
His parents suspected that something was wrong with Ratio. They noticed that he was behaving differently, “Is something wrong?” his parents asked.
He just shook his head and excused himself to go upstairs - even though his plate was still half-full. It was so sudden, leaving his parents at the table a bit surprised.
☆
As he rushed to go upstairs, he immediately looked at the journal lying on his desk,
July 31, 2011.
This… exceptionally weird guy keeps talking to me in class, he keeps on ranting to me about money and, his gambling addiction. At his age, is that even allowed? Anyway, my head has been constantly hurting throughout the day, I know I am the healthiest of course, and I always take good care of my health. However, based on some ‘research’, the cause may be overworking myself or stress, which cannot be it since I have never felt this before in my entire life. This day was bizarre, I simply hoped that the upcoming days would be better, rather than this.
“Gambling and money..?” Ratio read the description in the journal, for him, it felt familiar. As if it was someone he once knew.
June 16, 2011.
People say it’s supposed to be summer, but strangely enough, it’s raining, and not only is it raining, it’s raining hard. This summer, the weather has been quite unpredictable with the sun appearing and disappearing frequently, with the clouds taking over most of the day. It was as if the weather gods were playing games on us. What’s interesting is, there's this new person in class, Aventurine. Why would anyone name their child based on a stone? But, this guy; he’s pretty intriguing. Blonde hair, purple-blue eyes, and his.. flashy clothes. He’s tried talking to me multiple times yet, I refused to. I knew nothing about him, but at the same time, I also felt like I knew him fully. Strange.
…
“Blonde hair, purple blue eyes, flashy clothes.” It all made sense now, the description fitted perfectly with Aventurine.
‘It seems like we were really fated to meet each other in every universe, huh? That gambler was correct all along.’ Ratio though as he focused his attention on the book pages as he read them.
‘Tomorrow.. It’s Friday, and the only way that I know as of now to meet and find out more about him, is to attend classes. Excellent.’
‘August 2, 2011.’
Ratio got up early, took his breakfast, and immediately left for his classes. The school wasn’t particularly far, it was a walking distance.
And on the way, he saw him.
His gorgeous blonde hair, his pretty eyes, his flashy clothes, and his smile. His beautiful smile, yet, he wasn’t smiling at him but at another person who wasn’t him.
Honestly, it infuriated him slightly, but he had to keep his cool since— this wasn’t like his past life. This ‘Aventurine’ was probably different from the one he knew before.
“Hey, Topaz! What’s up?” Ratio overheard his voice, it was the same as ever, everything about him just seemed perfect.
But that girl, she walked beside him, she was close to him and worse— she was flustered just by talking to him alone.
..
Ratio was near the school and he was also waiting for the girl to leave Aventurine alone so he could finally talk to him face-to-face. But, in the end, he couldn't do it. Ratio was impatient and didn’t want to wait any longer anymore just to talk to him.
“Aventurine.” Ratio muttered to him, walking up to him between Aventurine and the ‘girl’.
“Hi, Ratio!” Topaz replied instead of Aventurine, she was cheery and smiled at Ratio. But Ratio was confused, ‘I don’t seem to recall who this person is..?’ Ratio thought.
“Ah. Hello to you, I guess.” He looked at the girl with white hair with red streaks in it. He was confused about whether this person was best friends with Aventurine or if they liked each other.
“What’s up, Ratio?” Then suddenly, Ratio blinked and he recalled a glimpse of his past memory with Topaz, “Helloo? Earth to Veritas? You there?” As Ratio's mind drifted away, he suddenly snapped back to reality and caught both Topaz and Aventurine staring at him. Yet, even though Ratio was just zoning out, Aventurine found himself smiling at him, he thought it was adorable for him to just zone out like that so easily, but he was also worried at the same time.
“Ah. Yes, I'm here.” Ratio replied.
“Hurry up, we’re going to be late.” Topaz mentioned as she kept walking with Aventurine. Ratio was just behind them, but even though, just seeing Aventurine alone was enough for him, his presence alone was enough to make him fall in love with him, once again.
The three of them arrived in class, Topaz and Aventurine sitting together, while Ratio was lost. He had no memory of where he was supposed to sit, so he just decided to sit somewhere random even if it belonged to another student.
“Excuse me? That’s my seat. Can you move?” The student mentioned. The student wasn’t close to Ratio, so he was confused.
Ratio just looked up at the student and nodded, he wanted to ask the two, Aventurine and Topaz where he was supposed to be, but it would be odd to just forget where your seat was when you came to school almost every day.
Turns out, he was originally seated next to Aventurine, Topaz was just sitting there for the meantime. When the professor arrived, Topaz went back to her original seat and Ratio sat beside Aventurine.
It was quiet between them, worse, it was even awkward. Ratio was listening to the lesson attentively, whilst, Aventurine wasn't paying any attention at all and was just writing random notes in his notebook.
“Hey, can you even understand what’s happening in the lecture right now? You should listen or else you won’t understand anything at all in our future lessons.” Ratio scolded him a bit, but he was whispering to not disturb the professor.
“I know, I know. It doesn’t even matter anyway.” Aventurine replied. He was looking pretty bored.
“At school, learning matters. Why do you think it doesn't?” Ratio sighed, “I’ll just lend you some notes so you can at least try to figure out how to figure out this equation.” Ratio handed him his notebook.
Aventurine was a bit shocked at his response, yet he chose to accept it and he just smiled and whispered a ‘thanks’.
While scrolling through the notebook, Aventurine noticed a sketch on the back of the page Ratio wrote his notes on. It was a sketch of him, and it looked gorgeous. Aventurine thought; ‘So this guy can draw, huh?’, he never really knew that Ratio could draw. Well, he was good at almost everything, so he wasn’t really surprised.
Ratio was wondering what took him that long to read in his notebook — quickly checking on him, he saw that Aventurine had looked at his sketches of him that he had recently just done whilst, paying attention in class.
“Quit looking at that.” Ratio was embarrassed, yet he managed to keep a calm and stoic figure, whispering to not disturb the professor.
“Can you meet me in the garden after school?” Aventurine asked Ratio, which left Ratio confused and thinking.
“Alright then.” He replied, then listened to the lecture once again.
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