Chapter Text
Aesop, he knows, is incredibly down bad for Joseph.
So down bad for Joseph that, in fact, he’s written several unsent love confessions to Joseph without the other knowing. Everything about Joseph, Aesop thinks dreamily, placing a hand under his head on his desk, is perfect. He could even make the dreary grey uniform the school had provided look good.
He looks down at Joseph on the field, who was smiling lightly as his twin brother (Lott? Bott? Aesop had heard others calling his name before, but every place he went Joseph was there, and, well, Aesop couldn’t help but not pay attention.) as he and his group of friends bantered with each other.
It was a Monday afternoon in chemistry class, and Aesop was happily doodling little hearts on his notebook while his lab partner, Frederick, was stressing out.
“If you see bubbles on the water’s surface, it must mean the monolayer has shattered...” Frederick repeats frantically, his hands shaking as he carries the pipette over the basin. “Right? Right?”
“Joscarl canon,” Aesop says solemnly to himself. Joseph was rolling his eyes at something his brother had said. Wow. Aesop never knew an eye roll could be majestic.
“Maybe we should have put more distilled water into this. Or was it tap water?” Frederick mutters. He throws his hands up in despair, groaning. “We’re never going to get a good grade at this rate, and then I’ll have to run back to my family like a pathetic mutt for scraps during winter. Family? Family?! PAH!” Frederick spits.
From the table opposite theirs, Victor gives them a half-terrified, half-weirded out look.
Aesop hums.
Frederick slaps himself. “No, I must endure. Orpheus is right.” He clears his throat before reciting, “There is always a darkness before dawn. Was it that?”
“Move aside, peasants!” A shrill high voice shrieks. Aesop looks up just in time to see a hand shove him.
He falls, ass first, onto the ground.
Frederick barely looks down before carrying on with the experiment. “The monolayer took approximately 86 drops before it shattered. Fascinating.”
“Shove off, nerd.” Snaps Freddy Riley. He makes a point to stomp on Aesop’s shoes on the way to the sink.
Aesop stares at his back impassively before picking himself up.
There’s a bright explosion somewhere to the right, and Freddy screams like a little girl, dropping everything down the sink. Smoke starts enveloping the room.
Someone else yells, “OH MY GOD EMMA WHAT ARE YOU DOING.”
“MY EXPERIMENT!” Freddy screeches.
“Whoopsies!” A voice Aesop recognizes as Emma giggles.
“... Wait, did I calibrate the pipette beforehand? Did I?--” Through the thick fumes, Aesop makes out Frederick’s outline, focused and hunched over.
“The windows! The windows!”
“EMMA WOOOODSSSSSS!” There’s a blood-curdling scream from somewhere across the room.
Eyes watering, Aesop, waving a hand in front of him, hurriedly unclasps the latches and pushes the windows out.
Immediately, all the smoke rushes out towards his face.
Aesop splutters in surprise, coughing. Gagging through his mask, he leans out of the window, breathing heavily. Wiping away tears, Aesop rubs his eyes. Only to lock eyes with Joseph.
“...And now we check if the second trial should be around the same numbers as the first trial. Splendid!” Frederick triumphantly exclaims, slapping the notebook shut.
Joseph is staring towards him while the rest of the friend group exclaims and points upwards at the heavy fumes rushing out the window.
Aesop’s heart skips a beat.
For a while, the world stops. Aesop is looking into the blue of Joseph’s eyes, as bright and blue as a midsummer’s day. His hair is golden silk, cascading over his shoulders in waves of light. Joseph’s lips are parted, and he seems just as surprised to see Aesop standing over a smoking window coughing his guts out.
The moment is over quickly. Reality comes crashing over, and Aesop ducks behind a wall, face burning.
There was still mayhem in the classroom. “Someone call a teacher!” Naib bellows. “Emma Woods caused an accident.” He choked before swallowing with apparent difficulty. “AGAIN.”
The fire alarm had sounded, and water droplets were raining all over the classroom. A soaking wet Freddy makes a mad dash towards the door only to slip on the small puddle forming at the foot of the doorway.
Luca laughs, mopping his hair away from his face. “Guys, is it me, or is it raining?”
“Aesop.” Frederick addresses.
He looks up.
Despite the drizzling, Aesop notes in wonder, Frederick’s hair still maintained its shape, seemingly unaffected. “Our-- ah hem, I misspoke, apologies, my experiment is completed. Finish up the lab report,” Frederick said with a harrumph, inclining his chin upwards, glaring at him.
Aesop squints at his nostrils.
“Here.” Frederick shoves a soggy sheet of paper towards him. Aesop’s heart, which he had drawn at the beginning of the class, was beginning to melt off the sheet, ink blotching all across the wet paper.
He takes the sheet silently.
“Aesop!” Naib calls him. “Do you mind taking Emma to the nurse?”
Aesop nods.
“Fiddlesticks,” Frederick mutters crossly. “Must I do everything myself?”
Aesop tries to give him an apologetic look, but he’s never been good with his expressions. Frederick picks the paper back and snorts angrily. He looks up dramatically and closes his eyes with the water droplets still raining.
“Go. Go. Run away,” Frederick hisses. “Run away and never come back again.”
Aesop dimly wonders why Frederick was quoting the Lion King, but with an excuse to escape from any classwork, he politely tries to bow at Frederick before hurrying to Naib.
“All yours.” Naib nudges his head towards Emma, who is sprawled on the ground.
“Um, Emma?” Aesop offers her a hand which she takes, leaning onto him for support. She doesn’t look too badly hurt, with just a few burns on her arms and a scraped kneecap. Emma is surprisingly light, and although he’s somewhat scrawny, Aesop can still pick her up with minimal effort.
Hauling her up, Aesop scoots over to the doorway, leaving the raining classroom and Frederick behind.
On the way to the office, Emma corners Aesop.
“Joseph, huh?”
Taken aback, Aesop coughs, and this time it wasn’t from smoke. He knew that Emma was blunt, but he had never been on the receiving end, usually preferring to keep to himself in class.
Part of him feels dread. No one has ever been able to crack his expressions, with his indifferent mask (literally and metaphorically). Aesop also barely speaks to anyone, minimizing any form of social interaction.
“Emma noticed you stared a little too longingly at Mr. Popular through the windows. Do you like him?” Emma blurts out, a bit too eagerly. “Are you into older guys, Aesop? He’s hardworking and the student council president, too.” Her voice lowers teasingly, and she grasps his arm. “But of course, knowing the ice prince…”
Aesop frowns.
He’d always found that nickname to be ridiculous. Joseph… was no ice prince. His smiles were always radiant as the sun, bringing warmth to Aesop on gloomy days. Sure, maybe the other didn’t know that, and maybe it was a little creepy of Aesop to think that way when he had barely spoken to Joseph, but damn if he wasn’t sure that at least more than half the student population thought so too.
After all, he would have joined the Joseph Fan Club if not for the humiliating rituals they did every half a year in front of the Desaulniers’ home. Aesop wasn’t too privy to the details, but he knew that last year’s ritual had resulted in strip dancing, a senior girl tied to the stake, and several police charges.
“Emma thinks you should go for it.” Emma nods very firmly and gives him a grin. “If Emma can get with Emily, Joseph will fall head over heels for you too!”
“Emily…” Aesop repeats warily. He doesn’t recall anyone in school with that name. “Who..?”
“Ms. Emily Dyer, of course!” And Emma, good honest kind Emma Woods who always had a smile on her face and always cheerfully greeted both teachers and students alike, snorts at him. “The school nurse, silly!”
Aesop blinks. “Oh, er,” He awkwardly stammers, “yes.”
He’s not really sure what else to say in this situation. What else is there even to say? His classmate just admitted to a potentially illicit relationship.
His mouth opens and closes uselessly. “Erm.”
Thankfully, he’s interrupted as a head pops out of the infirmary.
“Emma, is that you again? Goodness, what are you doing here? Emily isn’t here today, she’s on leave.” Ada Mesmer adjusts her glasses before shaking her head. She sighed. “Stop injuring yourself in hopes of seeing her.”
Emma’s face falls.
“Please, you cannot keep her away from me!” Emma starts to bang on the infirmary door, shaking helplessly. “Please!”
Aesop winces at the loud banging. She was living up to the reputation of a theatre kid, alright.
“Emma, you’re not dating anyone.” Ganji calls from a bed near the door of the infirmary, wrapped in bandages that cover him from head to toe. He shakes a casted arm at her, wiggling all but two fingers, which were under the cast. “C.AI doesn’t count.”
“See? Just what Emma was talking about, Aesop.” Emma shakes her head indignantly. “Haters gonna hate. I’m just gonna shake.”
“Taylor Swift?”
“No idea what you mean, but good luck!” Emma beams.
Aesop eyes her bloody knee. “Aren’t you wounded?”
She ignores him, bouncing happily away. “A kiss from Emma’s beloved has healed Emma up to max health!”
“She’s not even here--”
Emma scuttles away, shutting the door behind her with a thumbs up.
Aesop, wide-eyed and shaking, is trapped in a kabedon by popular boy hotshot slash Aesop’s crush for two years, Joseph Desaulniers.
Backed into the wall, Aesop’s eyes are squeezed shut as Joseph leans over him. His whole face burns, and he’s pretty sure his face is flushed, if not as scarlet as the shade of Mary’s lipstick. Breathing suddenly becomes immensely difficult.
Aesop feels faint. His poor heart can’t handle the strain. Doki doki!! >~<
Just a few minutes ago, he had been walking to his next class before he spotted Joseph walking in his direction. Failing to be subtle, Aesop fumbled around his pocket to retrieve his comb, smoothing his hair and giving himself a small smile for encouragement through the classroom windows. It had come off as a grimace before he started berating himself.
If only Aesop had followed Ganji’s advice and hit the gym!!
Two things had happened at once. First, too occupied with self-pity and his scrawny reflection in the mirror, he tripped over his shoelaces. Secondly, out of the corner of his eye, Joseph starts to walk in his general direction with a speed Aesop’s never seen before.
And Aesop starts, desperately grappling towards any support nearby him. He ends up stumbling towards the notice board with a dull thud.
Mortified, Aesop prays that Joseph didn’t happen to see that embarrassing fail. He turns his head.
Only to see Joseph looming over him, one hand on the wall next to Aesop.
Aesop gulps, his mouth suddenly dry.
Thus his current predicament.
Why is he so close to me! Aesop squeaks internally before forcing his eyes open.
“Hey.” Joseph’s cool voice washes over Aesop.
Aesop jumps, skittery. “Y-y-yes?” He tries not to breath in too much of Joseph’s scent, as if doing so would hide the fact that the face of the man Aesop has been simping for is right in front of him, literal inches away. But it becomes increasingly hard, with the way Joseph is slowly leaning closer with every passing second.
A smirk is playing on Joseph’s face, and it takes Aesop all of his willpower not to stare at his lips. “That was quite the fall,” Joseph says with a charming lilt.
Aesop could have swooned right there and then. His life was complete. Six million years of human evolution, all for the creation of Joseph Desaulniers. Nature was truly beautiful.
“Er, y-yes.” Aesop instead says, intelligently.
Victor, who was standing nearby, gives Aesop a confused glance and Aesop immediately hates himself. He wants to die on the spot.
“Hmm.” Joseph hums, tilting his head. Very attractively. Strands of hair fall gently in front of his blue eyes.
Aesop makes a strangled noise at the back of his throat.
“So?”
Aesop blinks, his mouth open and closing before he speaks. “What?”
Joseph flashes a smile back, playful and disarming. “You’re standing over the timetable. Mind moving, monsieur?” He tilts his head in the same direction again.
Aesop takes an embarrassing three seconds to register that Joseph was trying to get him to move in that direction. He scrambles away, extremely mortified. “I’m- I’m sorry!!”
Joseph just laughs good-naturedly. Humiliation fills Aesop, burning from head to toe.
Aesop feels the pangs in his heart as he watches Joseph lean down with a slight frown, observing the timetable on the noticeboard that had been behind Aesop. Of course, Joseph wouldn’t want someone as insignificant as Aesop to take up his space.
After all, he’s… he’s Joseph Desaulniers-!! Captain of the basketball team, student council president, and leader of the photography club. And Aesop’s… well, Aesop Carl, the unsociable loner who broods by himself in the corner of each classroom and doodles in his notebook when no one is looking. How could Joseph ever like someone like him???!
“Chemistry on Monday. Biology on Wednesday.” Joseph is murmuring, his hand under his chin. “Tests won’t be too cramped together. That’s good for me, then.”
Coos erupt from the student body around them.
When had so many other students crept up on them? Aesop isn’t sure, but Joseph does tend to have that effect on him.
“Ooh! He’s so charming.” A boy barely stands on two feet as he sways on the spot a few meters away from them. “I just love how he’s so devoted to school.”
“I know right!” Another girl squeals. “As expected of the Joseph Desaulniers himself!” A few girls beside her giggle, and a boy bashfully tucks a lock of hair under his ear before batting his lashes at Joseph.
Naib, who was passing by, frowns as he places a textbook inside his locker. “Do you hear that?”
“What?” Aesop mumbles. He mopes, and heaves a great sigh. “The sound of my heart being broken? Yeah…”
“What?” Naib’s brows furrowed. “Aesop, I don’t know what you’re talking about, and that’s why you’re always going to be a loner.”
Before Aesop can protest, the unmistakable sound of footsteps echo the hallway. They’re faint at first, but their rhythm and volume start to pick up. They start to sound like drums, thudding almost in sync with each other, loud and imposing, but then Aesop can hear drums too, drumsticks on rattling snares, accompanied trumpets blaring so loudly the ground trembles--
Run! Victor shoves Aesop as he signs wildly. The Joseph Fan Club has arrived!
Naib has already abandoned them, a flurry of notes and elbow pads in his wake.
Traitor-- Victor’s furious signing is cut off by a loud boom. Victor freezes, before slowly looking up.
Another huge boom shakes the floor.
“What-- Are they doing?” Hisses Alice next to them, rushing towards the window. Alice’s face pales. “Are they-- Are they using a battering ram? Oh, this is crazy. Oh, this is crazy--”
The students around Aesop clamour in worry, starting to evacuate the premises, but it’s far too late for that.
There’s a final slam. The poor hallway doors, decades old, were made for students and teachers alike to handle with care, not made to withhold the hundreds and hundreds tonnes of pressure from a battering ram. They finally give in with a large groan, and light from the outdoors streams inwards.
“Charge, my comrades!” Screams Luca Balsa, perched on top of a large wooden ram. “Onwards!!”
With a war cry, a stream of students, drums, and trumpets flooded the hallway.
“THE DOORS WEREN’T EVEN LOCKED,” shrieks Alice, before she’s stampeded over.
Another voice that sounds suspiciously like Frederick rings out, “Clear a path for our king, Joseph Desaulniers!! Hold, my comrades, HOLD! WE MUST CONQUER THIS CHOKEPOINT! Do not fear, for we move towards a better future!!”
At that, a roar sounded, rippling from the ranks of the Joseph Fan Club.
A boy Aesop has never spoken to in his life glares at him. “HOW DARE YOU STAND IN THE PRESENCE OF OUR KING? BOW DOWN!!!”
“SHOVE OFF!” Screeches a girl, pushing Victor to the side. Victor stumbles and goes down.
“Oh my,” says Joseph, amused.
“E-Emma?” Aesop gapes. Standing in all of her short and sweet glory, she stands in the first few ranks of the fan club, all who were wearing the Official Joseph Fan Club™ badge ‘KING JOSEPH 4EVER’ merch. Emma’s badge glitters gold in the light.
“Emma’s sorry, Aesop!” Emma giggles, not at all looking sorry. “It looked fun, so Emma was curious about it! Don’t worry though, your secret is still safe with Emma!”
She doesn’t spare him as much as another look before charging into the crowd, screaming. “KING JOSEPH FOR PRESIDENT!!”
The Joseph Fan Club was full of talents: leaders who arranged events ranging as elaborate as fundraisers to events like raiding the teachers’ room at night for test answers on behalf of Joseph Desaulniers, capitalists who profited on the sales of Official Joseph Desaulniers™ merch to invest it into the club again for a cause greater than themselves, artists who sculpted 10-feet Joseph Desaulniers statues of pure ivory in every classroom, inventors who used their brilliant minds to resolve any issues in the way of their Joseph Desaulniers, writers who used their talents to write Joseph Desaulniers x (Y/N) fanfictions whenever the club was starving, but most of all, simps. Everyone who was part of the club was a massive simp for Joseph. Aesop had even heard rumors of an unofficial Joseph Desaulniers anthem they were working on.
In the very back of the procession was a row of students, juniors probably, waving flags. ‘JOIN THE JOSEPH FAN CLUB NOW!!’ read one. ‘FOR BUSINESS INQUIRIES, CONTACT: XXX-XXXX-XXX!’ read another. ‘JOSEPH MARRY ME’, read the third flag.
Frederick, at the head of the parade, raises his conductor baton and flicks his wrist.
The trumpets let out another blaring melody, loud and deafening, and Aesop presses his fingers to his ears. He can see the trampled bodies of other students on the ground, the confetti that a few Joseph Fan Club members had thrown at their arrival, and amid all the chaos, Joseph himself.
Aesop can barely make out Joseph’s outline, with dozens of other students crowding between them. Everything is suffocating: the loud noises of musical instruments with fangirls and fanboys alike screaming in adoration, splashes of colour, and Aesop being trapped between bodies. Hands reach out toward Joseph, and some students are cowering and bowing down in fear, victims of the Joseph Fan Club.
Despite that, the glint of Joseph’s bright hair was unmistakable even across the large crowd forming around him.
“L-Leave him alone!” Aesop stutters while raising his arms, trying to defend Joseph.
“Speak up, kid.” A senior girl laughs, brandishing her ‘KING JOSEPH 4EVER’ badge at him. Her friend tosses her ponytail behind her back, showing off her ‘BE JOSEPH’S, DO CRIMES’ limited-edition temporary tattoo™ on her neck at him.
“I--” Joseph’s voice, rich and melodious, rings out clearly to Aesop as though he is speaking without the commotion in the background. Aesop would recognize Joseph’s voice anytime, anywhere.
But then he’s interrupted by the squealing Joseph Fan Club members.
“OMIGOSHOMIGOSHOMIGOSH HE’S SPEAKING!!” A girl shrieks until she’s purple in the face.
“YOUR VOICE IS SO HOT!!” Screams a fanboy next to Aesop, clutching his own chest. “EVERYTHING ABOUT YOU IS HOT!”
“I LOVE YOU!!” A tall, gruff-looking senior hollers. “LET ME HAVE YOUR BABIES!”
Aesop’s flung to the ground, desperately clinging to the few minutes with Joseph he had, replaying the moments inside his head.
Watching the distance in between him and Joseph get increasingly further with every student that eagerly pushes Aesop to get into the front of the crowd, Aesop is painfully reminded that he’s not special. Joseph’s so impossibly far away, and Aesop can’t reach him.
Everyone likes Joseph, and he’s not any different. Aesop’s just another person in the crowd. Not even a face, Aesop thinks reproachfully, staring at the back of Emma’s head, who was at the top of the queue that had formed in front of Joseph. He watches as Joseph starts shaking the hands of every person who comes next in line.
Aesop miserably flops back to the floor, glumly staring at the ceiling.
Fuck his stupid baka life.
There’s only one thing for Aesop to do whenever something troubles him.
"What should I do about my crush?" Aesop sighs to the tombstone next to him.
The tombstone, predictably, does not respond.
The graveyard is a place of calm for the dead, and for Aesop. He’s aware of how weird and creepy it is to loiter around a place everyone else avoided, but Aesop always found peace in the silent rows of tombstones and the cool air. Here, everything is quiet. Even the crows didn’t caw, flapping soundlessly as they perched on the twisted branches of trees surrounding the clearing.
Conversing with his friends-- if Aesop can even count himself close enough to call them that-- is always draining. His numerous attempts at communicating had left him with more problems and confusion than he could handle. He’s never been good at talking anyway.
Plus, Eli’s his only close friend who knows about his crush on Joseph.
IN LOVING MEMORY, ELI CLARK. HE WILL BE MISSED BY HIS WIFE, BEST FRIEND, AND OWL. AUGUST 1478 TO FEB 1499.
Aesop ruefully looks at the words, intricate letters, carved into the tombstone. Despite the decades of years the tombstone had been standing, it had clearly been attended to, with minimal signs of corrosion. Unlike some other graves, which nature reclaimed with vines hugging onto stone whereby human arms were absent, there are barely any cracks or signs of aging on this tombstone. When Aesop was younger, he’d thought it had been magic or some otherworldly being protecting the grave.
"At least you had a wife, Eli." Aesop mourns, reaching over to his right. “I don’t even have proper friends. Or an owl.”
Plucking a yellow rose from a nearby flowering bush, Aesop clears his throat and begins. The petals each float slowly towards the ground as he plucks them out one by one. "He loves me, he loves me not..."
The Joseph Fan Club has their rituals. Aesop has his daily self-deprecating sessions where he lets luck decide whether Joseph loves him on that day.
“He loves me, he loves me not. He loves me,” Aesop remembers the time he’d fell for Joseph, on the first week of spring. With Joseph’s eyes twinkling, his playful smile tugging upwards, the cherry blossoms falling in the background, and at that moment frozen in time where there was just the both of them, Aesop had hopelessly and completely fallen for Joseph.
Maybe it was much more dramatic than he would have liked to admit, but Aesop could never forget the rush of giddiness and warmth he had felt on that day.
“... He loves me not.” The last petal drooped sadly to the ground.
Aesop clenches his fist, crumbling the rest of the flower. He tosses it over his shoulder half-heartedly, resting his head on Eli Clark’s tombstone.
“This is pathetic,” Aesop says out loud, gaining a semblance of self-awareness. “Don’t you think so, Eli?” He nudges the tombstone with his elbow.
Eli Clark does not react.
“Heh…” Aesop smirks sardonically, shaking his head slowly. “I’m going to die friendless and bitchless.” He slowly slid towards the ground. “My only trait is being indifferent, and I’m not even good at it anymore.”
Aesop’s eyes glossed over Eli’s tombstone again, words that he had seen for the countless times he had been here. The familiar arches in the carving today seem to be telling him a new message.
Loving.
February 14--
The thought slips into his mind without Aesop can stop it. A confession for Joseph…
“No,” mutters Aesop immediately. He can remember the screams of adoration from the student body all around them, which were still ringing in his ears. Aesop tugs on his earlobe dejectedly.
Who would like someone like him? Aesop brushes away the remaining traces of the rose on his hand. “Right, Eli?”
Eli stays silent.
“I should go for it anyway?” Aesop frowns. “Why?”
…
Aesop rubs his chin in deep thought. “That’s true. And if he doesn’t like me, he should at least notice me. Or something like that.”
The clearing is quiet.
Aesop gasps. “You’re so right for that, Eli…” He says in awe.
With renewed vigour, he throws his hands up to the sky and shakes his fists. He calls out, “Universe. If you believe I should confess to Joseph too, give me a sign!”
The words echo across the graveyard. Sign.. sign.. Sign… A few startled crows flutter their wings before deciding they don’t want to be part of Aesop’s love life, branches swaying as they take off.
From above, a dead rat flops at his feet.
Aesop grins. He nods determinedly, curling his fists.
“Thanks, Eli! I knew I could always count on you!” With renewed vigour, Aesop stands up. “I’ll report with how everything goes tomorrow!”
Sitting next to his own grave, the ghost of Eli Clark sighs deeply, watching Aesop dash giddily out of the graveyard.
Eli’s much too old for teenage drama.