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Karasu has a reputation to uphold, he can’t be caught up smoking in the courtyard, barely concealed behind a bunch of trees. It’d be unbecoming of him as the top of his class, and a part of the student council.
That’s why he goes to the roof.
Nobody goes to the roof, mostly because they can’t. The door to get up the staircase is always locked and only janitors and the principal or something has a key. For the most part, the staff are pretty good at enforcing the rules and keeping the door closed but Karasu is really sweet with them and he knows how to sweet talk an adult real nice and smooth so it’s easy to get someone to slip him a key every now and then.
They trust him a little too much, but who is Karasu to complain about it? He drops his bag by the stair bulkhead as the door slams shut behind him. He’s already got a cigarette and lighter out and he’s quick to try and light it. It pisses him off that it takes so many tries for the thing to catch fire.
He only really touches cigarettes when he’s really stressed and right now he’s four AP classes, a shitty after school job, and a crush kind of stressed and if anything earns him a smoke it's all of that.
It’s really the crush thing that's stressing him out. His shoulders tense just thinking about it –him– that damn sophomore in his AP lit class. He’s quiet, and smart, kind of irritated, but he’s really fucking cool.
Karasu noticed all his piercings first and quickly labeled him as emo but then they got paired together for a project and it was like cupid shot an arrow through his heart. From then on Rin was everywhere, standing out in crowds, someone Karasu would actively look for between classes just to see him.
Karasu forces down the button a little harder and it finally catches fire and he’s quick to light the end of his cigarette. He wishes he could say the first hit does anything to clear his head of all the thoughts of Rin, it doesn’t, but it does start up a buzz under his skin and he’ll take that as reward enough.
At the least he forgets about all his school work neatly tucked into folders in the bag by his feet. Karasu leans back against the rough stone wall behind him, relaxing in the shade to block the sun from getting in his eyes.
Karasu is just starting to relax when the door to the roof slams open, narrowingly missing him as it bangs against the stone and bounces back.
“Wha–” Karasu starts, ready to chew out whoever just barged up like that and probably bribe them to keep their mouth shut to keep his reputation clean but of course his voice is caught in his throat when his eyes meet bright teal and Rin blinks slowly at him.
Rin is staring at him intensely and Karasu is just about too flustered and confused to figure out why until he processes the white swirls of smoke coming from his own throat and the fact that Rin has probably always viewed him as some perfect class president and smoking is really out of character for him.
If Rin is shocked about it, he doesn't show it, he just stalks closer until he’s leaning on the wall beside Karasu.
Karasu can feel their sleeves brush against each other, he twitches away just a bit and Rin stares at him silently. Usually, Karasu can get a good idea of what people are thinking by looking at them but something about Karasu’s crush is making that hard. He looks at Rin and he just sees all the things he likes about him, like now, and he forgets that he was supposed to be thinking anything in the first place.
Rin makes it even harder as he fishes through his pocket and his arm keeps bumping up against Karasu’s and all he can think about is how hot his face gets every time they touch by accident. He eventually finds what he’s looking for. A cigarette.
“The hell are ya–?” Karasu starts but his protests are promptly cut off.
“Light me,” Rin says, but he doesn’t wait for Karasu to pull out his very faulty and probably hazardous old lighter. He takes it upon himself to lean forward and close the gap between them just a little more, enough that he can tap the end of his cigarette against Karasu’s already lit one.
Karasu’s eyes go wide, then they flutter down, half closed as he stares down at the space where their cigarettes touch. The ashy grey spreads to Rin’s fresh cigarette and sizzles when Rin leans a little closer.
Karasu’s lip tenses just a bit as his brain whirs back up to a point where he can think anything that isn’t just “Rin is close to you, Rin is touching you, you and Rin are smoking together, you're going to die happy.”
He should probably pull away and take a deep breath (or a breath in general, he hasn’t had one since Rin stepped up to him) but all he can really manage is to flit his eyes up the length of Rin’s cigarette to his lips, then a little higher, up the slope of his nose to his eyes. They’re half shut, just the slightest bit of teal peeking through thick lashes.
Rin wears mascara, it makes his long lashes even longer and makes his eyes that much brighter. They’re almost scary, how piercing they are, and the ends are sharpened with liquid liner. Rin’s lashes flutter, then he looks up and Karasu is caught staring.
His breath hitches and he sucks in the chemicals of the cigarette way too fast and he can feel the burn of a cough coming immediately, like he said he only does this shit when he’s really stressed. His lungs aren't made out of steel.
He manages to hold in a cough long enough to turn and thankfully not hack up a lungful of smoke into Rin’s face and it doubles as an excuse for why he’s so red and hot. It’s totally because he’s choking, not any other Rin-related reason.
When he’s sure he won't go back into a coughing fit he turns to Rin, mostly to make sure he didn’t leave from second hand embarrassment or something. Sure enough, he’s still there. Karasu doesn’t know if he’s happy about it or not. On one hand, Rin is still here, leaning on the wall right beside him. They’re smoking together and Rin doesn’t seem to hate being up on the roof with Karasu. But on the other hand, they’re on the roof alone . There’s no Hiori for Karasu to hide behind when he doesn’t want to seem as uncool as he really is. There’s no fancy essays for him to flaunt to prove that he’s actually good at something. It’s just him and Rin and the little voice in the back of his mind screaming a million things at once.
“Lightweight,” Rin says, blowing smoke between them.
Karasu hides his final cough behind a scoff, “I told ya I only smoke when I’m stressed.”
He kind of feels like he needs to defend himself, prove himself in some way when he takes another hit from his cigarette.
Rin clicks his tongue and slips a hand out of his pocket. Karasu follows with his eyes as Rin reaches up and takes his cigarette, which is at the point where it’s just a pathetic little thing now, just a sliver of white. He probably should have stomped it out before that last hit.
Rin’s fingers are warm when they brush his lips and Karasu’s face lights up like a fire sparked to life. He’s having a hard time telling if it’s the nicotine or Rin that's making him feel all fuzzy and warm under his skin, though he supposes both are equally addictive.
“What are ya—“
“You’ll burn yourself if you keep smoking that, dumbass,” Rin drops the cigarette to the floor and Karasu gets a good look at how small it really is. Not his fault he got distracted by pretty lashes.
He isn’t exactly keen on letting others look after him, or insult him without snapping back, especially when the person is his kohai but he doesn’t really fit Rin in the same box as all the other underclassmen so he can kind of get away with something like that. Also, Karasu’s heart is hammering so hard against his chest that he thinks he might go into cardiac arrest so he couldn’t come up with a good response even if he tried his absolute hardest.
“I ain’t a dumbass,” he settles for, when he realizes that sounds whiney and pathetic he adds, “and it ain’t my fault yer distracting as hell.”
Rin turns to him, brow furrowed as he stomps out Karasu’s cigarette for him, “I’m not even doing anything.”
Yeah, except standing on the roof, skin glowing under the sunlight somehow looking ethereal after spending all day in the shitty school air. It's unfair how he looks good all the time, making even the simplest, most annoying things look hot. Just brushing up against his shoulder, or accidentally holding eye contact for too long has Karasu’s heart fluttering and flapping like the damn thing is about to fly away.
Point is, Rin looks pretty and cool and Karasu is apparently a weak man so that much is more than enough to distract him.
Instead of saying anything he’s thinking he scoffs and leans his body back into the wall, “ya shouldn’t even be up here, yer gonna give away my smoking spot. And ya stomped out my last cigarette.”
Rin eyes him, looking vaguely annoyed by his words, then slips the cigarette out of his mouth and turns it toward Karasu, tapping the end against his lips. The end he just had in his mouth.
Karasu parts his lips with the intention to say something, probably not “no” but something other than the weird strangled sudo-squeak that leaves him when Rin gets the cigarette past his lips.
“Here, since you’re so stressed,” Rin says. He makes it sound like he’s got a problem with sharing but it’s not like Karasu asked him to do that and he can clearly see the blush blooming high on his cheeks and ears. It’s a beautiful contrast to all the dark colors he’s got going on between his piercings and hair.
“I didn’t need it,” he mutters around the cigarette, Rin’s cigarette .
Rin fixes him with a glare that just looks really cute because he’s blushing so much and Karaus is sure he has a similarly stupid look on his face.
“Why were you complaining if you didn’t want it?” Rin grumbles, reaching out for his cigarette back.
Karasu jerks his head to the side, if it’s already in his mouth he might as well take at least one hit.
“Didn’t say I didn’t want it,” He mutters, his words coming out as a quiet puff of smoke that lingers even though the words are already gone. He tries not to think too much about how he basically just admitted that he does want it. He does want to indirectly kiss Rin by sharing the cigarette that neither of them should have. Maybe he kind of wants to directly kiss Rin one of these days too.
Karasu lets his gaze drift from the floor back up to Rin. He stares a bit, trying to get a read on what his expression means and Karasu comes to the conclusion that Rin maybe kind of wants to directly kiss him too.
He isn’t sure yet what he wants to do with that information, if he can call it information at all. It's more of a biased assumption. He wants Rin to want to kiss him more than he really wants anything else so maybe his judgment is clouded but that pensive, flustered look on Rin’s face and the tenseness in his shoulders must mean something , right?
Karasu doesn’t usually gamble, he only takes on challenges he can win but maybe… just this once.
“Rin,” Karasu calls, slipping the cigarette out of his mouth. Rin turns to him and Karasu gets a flash of the confusion on his face before he's leaning in and kissing the pout off his lips. It takes Karasu a half a second to really process what he’s doing and for regret to settle in place of the courage he was feeling a moment ago, but before he really gets a chance to back away Rin is fisting his hand into Karasu’s sweater and leaning into him.
Rin kisses violently, exactly like Karasu expected. He’s almost pushed backward into the wall with how hard Rin crashes into him, grabbing at him and pulling him closer like he’s trying to absorb Karasu into him.
There's no time to slow him down or even get a thought in before the school bell is ringing and Rin jumps back from him like Karasu caught on fire and burned him. Some Rin typical swearing and half assed insults are thrown out while Rin covers his mouth with the back of his hand.
“Stop laughing, stupid crow!” Rin hisses at him. Karasu is really trying to bite back the smile that's spreading across his lips but how could he when Rin just kissed him ? Rin storms off all mad and huffy as if Karasu was the one who left a bunch of wrinkles in his uniform.
Karasu is still a little too stunned to actually do anything but cover his own lips, the feeling of Rin’s (very aggressively) pressed against his lingering in his absence. His heart is drumming hard in his chest and his blood is running hot under his skin.
Rin just kissed him.