Archive of Our Own

This whole trip was supposed to be a “reward for hard work” but for Akane, it had spiraled into a nightmare. Or at least, by Akane’s personal hell standards it was getting a solid nine out of ten. 

And worst of all? His sole company through it all was the president—Teru Minamoto—of course. Because the universe did nothing but spite him.

It all started early that morning, back in Kamome and in the comfort of Akane’s very bed. That peace only lasted a fraction of the morning, unfortunately, as would become a pattern that day. 

Akane’s body was still half asleep when he was rudely awoken by his phone vibrating and sounding off near his pillow. He cracked open an eye. It was dark out still, hardly past 5 am as his internal clock told him… so it wasn’t his alarm…

He groaned, rolling over to grab the damn thing off his mattress, resisting the urge to just throw it into his laundry hamper across the room. 

Inwardly he hoped—delusionally maybe—that his precious Ao-Chan had come around and wanted a good morning call from him… Although the probability was bleak given she was like a cat to water when it came to waking before the sun rose.

No. The world couldn’t be that sweet or nice, nor could Akane have his fairy tale ending, because Satan himself decided to drop by his doorstep. Literally. 

Teru’s stupid face looked Akane back through the fog of the sleep in his eyes, a profile picture Teru had taken and set when Akane’s back had been turned sometime in the student council room. 

Despite his knee-jerk reaction to throw the damn thing becoming stronger, however, he slid the button on the screen to answer, his voice rasping as he spoke, “You better have a damn good reason for this, Minamoto.”

A snicker from the other end was his reply. 

“Aoi~ such colorful language is quite unbecoming,” the president chided, and before Akane could get his wits about him to spew even more ‘colorful language’, Teru continued, “But I’ll forgive you just this once, it is our day off, after all.”

Akane was sitting up now, riled up by Teru’s incessant-ness, he ran a hand through his hair. That was right, they had that student council trip today… apparently the school was so impressed by the council’s work so far with recent events, they decided to put funds to send all the members on an all expenses paid weekend trip to the beach. 

But that didn’t change the question of why the hell Teru was calling him 3 hours before the trip was even set to leave. 

“I’m aware.” Akane huffed dryly, not giving Teru any more satisfaction from his reactions than he had to, “I don’t need a personal reminder, Minamoto, so why the hell are you calling me?” 

There was a hum on the other end of the line, “Don’t you know how these things work, Aoi? I could’ve sworn I told you…” 

Akane was seething now—what was this guy getting at!? And why was he dropping information out of blue, when it was clear he had purposefully left it out in the first place!?

“Well, you know what? Just come downstairs, with your bags preferably!” With that, the damn bastard hung up, leaving Akane’s jaw slack and a burning hatred in his stomach. He thought he was so smart, didn’t he? And what the hell was that supposed to mean!? Was he in his house!?

The thought alone sent shivers down his spine, and gave Akane the momentum to get on his feet and drag on some comfortable clothes for their impending trip. He grabbed the duffle bag he had packed full of everything he could possible conceive they might need, checking it and rechecking it for all the essentials, before practically flying down the stairs. 

Thankfully, upon reaching the bottom step, Teru didn’t actually seem to be inside his home. That was good, he thought, since such devils needed to be invited into a house first, right? 

However, his solace wasn’t wholly found, since Akane could see the shifting shape of a tall figure’s shadow crawling in through the crack in the bottom of the door. 

The groaned, shrugging off the spiders crawling up his spine at the thought of having to deal with Teru this early in the morning. 

The door swung open with a creak that could’ve been equal to Akane’s own soul groaning, and there, in all his glory was President Teru Minamoto.

And he had that damn insufferable smirk on his face, eyes lighting up when he saw Akane like a baby being teased with a giant lollipop. 

“Wow, you actually opened the door.” Teru marveled, eyes sparkling. 

“Keep staring like that and it’s about to be slammed.” Akane quipped back, on a short fuse from Teru’s ridiculousness already infecting what was going to be a perfectly good trip. 

“So snippy today,” He hummed in response, stepping back for Akane to follow, “Oh well, we’ll have time to make up for your sour attitude,” 

Akane eyed him with a harsh squint, “could you just stop being so cryptic and tell me what the hell is going on?” 

Teru tilted his head as if he were a kid thinking about whether or not to end his little game early. Thankfully, he gave up the act for the sake of clarity. 

“Well, since our trip is today, the student council needs someone to go ahead of everyone else and make sure there’s no problems at the hotel or resort with our reservations.” Teru smirked then right at Akane as Akane’s horror and dread steepened. “And we just so happened to volunteer, isn’t that so generous of us, Aoi?” 

Akane could only sputter, incoherent syllables and half-started curse words taking over his regular vocabulary. 

“How the—you—how the hell did the teachers even agree to that!” He croaked, indignant about this whole thing… there was no way… absolutely no way he was going to be stuck in a vehicle in close proximity to Teru for what could be hours on end. 

Teru scraped his shoe against the pavement leisurely, seemingly without a single care in the world. “Well, Mr. Nagisa is sick and Mr. Tsuchigomori apparently hates driving… and it seemed like we were the next best options.”

Akane couldn’t believe what he was hearing, “Yeah well—“ he glanced around, looking for some other scapegoat, “Neither of us have a car, or did you forget that?”

Teru just smiled even wider, “They just so happened to be kind enough to lend us our own wheels.” Teru explained, then gestured in a grandiose way towards a van parked in front of Akane’s house.

The vehicle looked… rough to say the least. The paint was peeling in some spots to reveal rust underneath and the whole style of the van itself looked like it was at least two decades older than Akane himself. 

“There’s no way that thing is going to even get us out of the town, much less to the coast. Does it even run?”

“I drove it here, didn’t I? It runs perfectly!” Teru responded with a deal of enthusiasm that somehow didn’t quell Akane’s fears whatsoever. Without permission, he snatched up Akane’s luggage and tossed it in the back of the van alongside Teru’s own. 

“C’mon Aoi, or else you’ll be left behind.” Teru urged, excited to get this show on the road. Akane would have honestly considered it if it weren’t for the fact Teru had just up and abducted his luggage…

He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, “Fine. But I’m picking the music.”

And that’s how Akane stepped inside a hunk of junk on wheels and was driven off to the first circle of hell.

———————————————————————

The ride started off normal enough, for Teru to be driving, at least. Akane had tried to convince Teru to let him drive but Teru made some excuse about having more experience which devolved to a fight over the keys (Teru won by holding them far enough over Akane’s head…) 

After that embarrassing ‘defeat’, Akane sat silently in the passenger seat. He hadn’t accounted for just how old this vehicle was when he made the demand for music, realizing only after they were rolling down the road that there was no way this junk bucket had Bluetooth. 

So, they drove in relative silence for not more than 30 minutes before Teru became restless. “Why don’t we listen to the radio?” 

Teru chimed, turning the dial on the radio without protest as he searched for the best station. They settled on a classic rock station… it honestly didn’t seem like Teru’s taste in music, subconsciously, Akane wondered if Teru had picked music he thought Akane might like. He wasn’t too far off from his preferences at least. 

“This is good.” Akane gave a gruff reply, arms crossed over his chest. 

It wasn’t long after that they were cruising at a steady pace down the road, leaving Kamome behind for the sprawling countryside. Tall clouds billowed against the blue of the, now sunrised, horizon and grass whipped all around them as they drove. 

Akane was pulled out of the silence by the sudden sound of whooshing nearby, wind tearing through his hair. He made a strangled noise of alarm as he turned to see the van’s sun roof open and Teru slowly rolling down both their windows.

“The weather is so nice, it’d be a shame to let it go to waste~ don’t you think?”

Akane could barely see Teru for the hair that kept flying into his face and eyes, but when he finally caught a glimpse, all he could see was that stupid… perfect smile. 

Teru always managed to reflect some of the most mundane moments through eyes filled with child-like wonder. It infuriated Akane in ways he wasn’t sure he could admit in words—was it simply because Teru managed to annoy him at every moment? Or maybe it was because nothing Akane could do could seem to shake him, even if the ginger wanted to push the blonde away completely, he was stubbornly stuck. 

Maybe the buzzing in his head and his stomach wasn’t helped by the fact Teru was also so effortlessly pretty—even now, wind whipping his hair like a mad man—he looked like he could’ve been on the cover of a supermodel magazine.

Teru seemed to notice him staring after a few seconds, giving him only a passing glance so as to keep his eyes on the road. But when their eyes had met, something passed between them and Teru’s eyes crinkled into a real smile. 

The moment was… nice? Strange as it was. Until Teru grabbed a bag of chips from the dash and shoved them in Akane’s lap.

“I didn’t have breakfast this morning,” He explained, “it’s not good to drive on an empty stomach.” 

Akane scoffed at the implication, not sure if he heard him right at first over the radio and the sound of wind whooshing past them. “So why are you giving them to me?”

Teru simply gave him a slow blink as if to charm him, eyes off the road for a concerning amount of time as they were going over a bend. “It’s not good to multitask and drive, Aoi.” 

“No shit!” Akane sputtered, reaching out to stablize the steering wheel, in the meantime, dropping the chip bag, while Teru pitifully watched it fly out the open window. 

“Oh.” 

“Oh.” Akane parroted, seeing what had happened, more so mortified to realize his hand was cupped over Teru’s on the steering wheel. He snatched his hand away as if burned, unsure how to feel about how the president’s rough, scarred knuckles felt against his softened palms. 

“Nice going, Aoi.” 

Teru glanced longingly out the window, watching the bag of chips tumble down the embankment like a little paper parachute doomed to oblivion.

“That was my breakfast.” He whined like a lost puppy, so unlike the six-foot-two menace he truly was. 

“Then why did you give it to me!?” Akane shouted, exasperated and reeling. 

“I thought it would make it more fun that way.” 

Akane wanted to smack that bubbly smile off his face, but of course, that would require actually touching Teru, which, from the incident earlier with the steering wheel didn’t seem like a good idea, so he resolved to angstily cross his arms and glare out the still open window, letting the wind blast his hair back. 

Teru unfortunately wouldn’t let the silence rest for long. 

“Let’s on the bright side,” he said. “We’re making memories.”

Akane narrowed his eyes. “I will memorize the location of your grave when I’m done with you.”

Teru chuckled, clearly pleased with himself and Akane prayed to whatever gods may be that he could speed up time rather than spend another second with Teru.

Unfortunately Akane did not find religion that day. 

———————————————————————

It was nearly two hours later, when Akane awoke to a loud thump, the van jolting violently, followed by an alarming thunk-thunk-thunk noise from somewhere underneath.

Akane hadn’t even remembered falling asleep but he must’ve been so lulled by the relatively smooth ride and the soothing wind in his hair that it’d happened naturally. And now that serenity was gone as the gripped onto the door handle with alarm.

“Tell me that’s just the road,” he said through gritted teeth.

Teru squinted ahead, then casually reached over and turned the music down like that would help them hear mechanical failure better.

“Hm,” he muttered.

Akane slowly turned his head. “Hm? That’s it? That’s your professional diagnosis?”

“Well I don’t have a car, Aoi, how am I supposed to know if that’s a normal car noise?” Teru quipped back, although there wasn’t real bite, rather a playfulness—he was also so unserious. 

The thunking stopped a moment later, suspiciously, like it was never there at all.

“Ah it stopped, that’s good! one less problem then, hm?” 

Akane sat back in his seat warily, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. “That’s not a good sign. Actually the exact opposite.” Akane deadpanned.

Then, he started to get a better grasp of their surroundings…. Sand. But…. Where was the coast? Where the hell were they!? 

The look on Teru’s face as he turned in horror told him most of what he needed to know. 

“…You know where we are, right?” Akane asked slowly, like he was afraid of the answer.

Teru didn’t answer right away. His brows furrowed slightly, lips puckered in thought, and he leaned forward just a bit over the wheel like that might magically bring the horizon into focus.

“I mostly know,” he replied.

Akane stared. “What the hell does mostly mean!?”

Teru didn’t respond immediately. Instead, he flicked on the van’s hazard lights and coasted to a stop at the side of the road—a lonely, endless strip of cracked asphalt surrounded by nothing but scrubby desert plants and dunes of windblown sand.

“There’s no cell signal,” Teru muttered, holding his phone up like it was a cursed object he just needed to expel some evil spirit from. “Which is weird. I definitely took a turn when the GPS said to… sort of.”

“sort of!?”

Teru let out a breathy laugh, then had the audacity to look thoughtful, . “Well, I think it recalculated…? Or maybe I ignored that. Hard to say… you snore pretty loud, did you know that, Aoi?” 

Teru side eyed him, passing the blame as if his snoring had been personally responsible for this mess. 

“You—you ignored the GPS?!”

“Well, it kept trying to reroute me through toll roads, Aoi. I’m not made of money.”

Teru put his hands up, in defense of himself and Akane nearly popped a blood vessel, gripping the dash with such strength that it might have left indents in the plastic. 

“You’re literally rich!” he cried, voice teetering on the edge of unhinged. “And now you  managed to get us stranded in the middle of the literal desert because you didn’t want to pay three hundred yen!?”

He sputtered as Teru’s face just grew more and more into that of a kicked puppy, “Which you wouldn’t have even had to have paid anyway because this isn’t your damn van!” 

Teru winced. “When you put it like that, it sounds—”

“Stupid? Suicidal? Deranged? Take your pick!”

Teru raised his hands in surrender, leaning back in the driver’s seat with a sigh. “Okay, okay, look. It’s not a big deal. I’m sure if we just keep going forward, we’ll hit a town or… a gas station. Or something.”

Akane’s glare could’ve ignited the van.

“We don’t even know what direction we’re going in! And what was that noise earlier, huh? Did you hit something? Are we going to explode? Am I going to die out here next to you and this rust bucket and sand!?”

Teru, ever unbothered, turned to face him fully. “You’re being dramatic.”

“I’m being realistic!”

“We’ll be fine.” Teru reassured, more sure this time, flashing an ever charming fake smile his way. “We’ll just go back the way we came until there’s cell service again.” 

With that, Teru turned the key in the engine of the car, to which it started up for a moment before sputtering and going silent.

“Hm. Must’ve been a fluke.” Teru reasoned, turning the key again and again, to which each time it stalled to a lifeless halt.

Akane was stunned silent, once again, by this absolute enigma of a man. How had he gotten through 17 years life all on his own!?

Teru gave a sheepish smile, trying the key one more time.

Click.

Whirr.

Nothing.

Akane buried his face in his hands. “Im going to die out here of either dehydration or starvation. With your stupid van, and your stupid face, in this stupid goddamn desert and it’s all your fault!”

“You’re being overly negative,” Teru replied with a lightly offended wave of the hand. “We’re not going to starve. I packed snacks, remember?” 

Akane snapped his head up. “You mean the chips you swerved and made fly out the window!?”

“Well, there might still be some granola bars…” Teru leaned to the back seat, rummaging through a tote bag with an overt amount of confidence until he produced a single, sad, squished protein bar. “Ah-ha!”

Akane stared at it. Then at Teru. Then back to the bar.

He very, very slowly laid his forehead against the dashboard, his voice now strained and near its breaking point. “I want you to know I hate you.”

“I don’t think you do~” Teru hummed, leaning back in his seat with an amount of leisure that was completely out of character for the inherent peril they were facing. Did this guy ever take a single thing seriously!? Maybe he had been so hardened by years of exorcist training that “normal” person fears didn’t scare him quite as much, or maybe he was just that dense. 

Or maybe Akane just didn’t care and would rather scream into a void than spend one more second in the company of Teru Minamoto. 

Akane threw the door open with a force that nearly unhinged it and stepped out onto the roadside like it personally offended him.

“Where are you going now?” Teru called after him, not moving from the driver’s seat.

“Away from you,” Akane snapped without looking back.

Teru rested his arm on the window frame, watching as Akane stomped off down the cracked road fueled by fury alone. He waited one minute, then two…

By the third, Akane was barely a speck against the horizon, slowing down as the sun began its merciless descent from directly overhead.

Teru half expected the ginger boy to turn around, although he didn’t, stubborn as ever. He was probably out there, near heatstroke already, thinking about Akane-San and using a fictional version of her as his personal motivation coach in his head. 

By minute five, Teru sighed and finally pushed the door open. He caught up with him easily, hands in his pockets and a spring in his step that was irritatingly audible to Akane as he skipped closer.

“You’re really just gonna walk off into the desert? Like some overdramatic shoujo heroine?” 

Akane whipped around, his face flushed—whether from sun or fury, it was impossible to tell. “What else do you expect me to do!? Sit in that rusty oven and waste away with you!?”

Teru blinked at him. “Yes?”

Akane sputtered.

Teru looked him up and down, letting out a low whistle. “You're already sweating.”

“It’s eighty degrees at least,” Akane hissed. “And I’m walking through sand!” Akane took off a shoe and shook it out, sand falling all over the road as if to make a point. 

“It’s morning, Aoi.” Teru raised a brow and  gestured up. “Give it an hour and the sun’s gonna really start cooking. And then tonight? It’s gonna feel like ice.”

Akane wiped his brow with the back of his hand, scowling. “…So what, you want to just sit in the van and hope it resurrects itself?”

“Give it a little break,” Teru replied with a shrug, “I’m sure the engine is just overheating.” Teru hummed with such flippant confidence, despite knowing just as much as Akane about cars. 

Akane didn’t say anything at first—just glared, hard, like he could melt Teru’s stupidly relaxed expression off his face with sheer will alone. But he was sweating. He could feel it gathering at his temples, dampening the collar of his shirt, sticking to the inside of his elbows. His shoes were already filled with gritty, soul-destroying sand, and each step farther from the van felt less like a victory and more like slow defeat.

He trudged forward anyway, jaw clenched, because pride was apparently stronger than common sense.

Teru stayed, watching.

When Akane finally paused, not ten full minutes later, it wasn’t with any sort of dramatic flair. He just… stopped. Shoulders drooping, hands on his knees, panting like he’d just jogged a mile uphill in a sauna. Which, to be fair, wasn’t too far off.

Teru cupped his hands around his mouth. 

“Are you done being dramatic?”

“Shut—” Akane barked, but it came out hoarse and cracked, which didn’t help his case.

Teru trotted up to him, annoyingly untouched by the heat. “See? You’re already sweating through your shirt. It’s gonna hit high noon soon. We’ll fry.”

“Gee,” Akane growled, straightening up. “If only someone hadn’t gotten us lost in a haunted tin can!”

“Let’s not point fingers, Aoi~” Teru chimed, as if that made any sense, since this whole mess was Teru’s fault. But Akane didn’t even try to dignify that with a response, too tired to argue with the blonde. 

“Come on, we’ll set up camp in the van tonight and see if we can’t start it later,” Teru suggested reasonably, “and if that doesn’t work, I’ll let you go on your death walk again, Aoi.” 

Akane stood there, still baking under the sun, until—because he couldn’t see another way out of this—he sighed and trudged back towards that forsaken van. 

By the time they got back to the van, Teru wasted no time dragging things out of the back of it. 

Akane didn’t even want to know what he was up to, opting to get back in the passenger seat and strap in for the long haul.

For the next few grating hours, Akane did whatever he could to not have to interact with Teru directly, napping, playing on his phone, reading (to which Teru had teased him for bringing a book on a vacation) and, as the sun finally started to set, staring blankly out the window wishing he was at their resort. 

Akane wasn’t sure how much time had passed before a chill started to creep in through the still open sunroof. 

Akane glowered up at it, apparently the thing was broken, as no matter how much Akane had pressed the button to close it, the thing was firmly set on staying open.

Then, his eyes trailed a little further, from the wind blowing in, to the light that had now come to his attention, flooding in from the back of the van. 

There, in the glow of at least 3 flashlights, Teru was sitting right in the middle of a make-shift fort made up of their clothes, towels, pillows, and blankets. Currently, the blonde seemed to be rummaging through another bag for more materials—hey wait—that was his bag! 

“Hey—!” He quickly hopped over into the backseat, losing his book and phone in the process. He dropped down with a thud, on his knees beside Teru and ripping the bag away from his greedy hands. “What the hell are you doing!?”

Teru looked up as if he were just slapped, eyes wide and innocent before he smiled cheekily, “Just looking for more things to make this more comfortable.” 

“Well look in your own bag, not mine!” He spat, pushing the things Teru had dragged out back into his duffle bag, noticing his packet of gum was lying open, nearly empty. 

“Did you eat my gum too!?” 

Teru fluttered his eyelashes sweetly, flashing his bright blue eyes at him. “I got hungry.” 

“Gum isn’t food, you idiot!” He threw the empty packet at him, Teru scrunching up his face at the assault. 

He sulked after that, quiet while Teru rearranged his things, until he inevitably began to complain.

“You could at least compliment my work, you know…” he said in a sulking tone, his voice betraying hurt that Akane knew was fake and meant only to guilt trip his vice president.

Akane did little to entertain it.

“It’s amazing, Prez. You should go into interior design.” He said blankly, not even looking around or caring so much as to turn around and face Teru directly.

He got a scoff in reply, “At least look at our beds for the night, charming aren’t they?” Teru guestured to the piled blankets and towels they were sitting on, clothes rolled up to act as extra pillows

Akane deadpanned, not sure if the other boy was joking or if he seriously thought this was an acceptable sleeping place, “I’m going to have a crick in my neck.”

“Would you rather be outside? In the sand? With the snakes?” Teru questioned lightly, leaning back to rest his head against Akane’s pillow which he had so rudely stolen for himself. 

“The snakes are more tolerable than you!” He snapped, snatching his pillow back and making Teru bump his head on the metal back door, eliciting a whine.

“Besides… I’m not sleeping like this—it’s hardly big enough back here to sleep a single person, let alone you, too!” 

Teru seemed struck, “wow Aoi, are you calling me fat? How insensitive…” 

Akane just stared. The blonde was the picture of a thin, fit man. His waist was probably small enough to grab in one hand—

Nope—nope. He shut out that thought. What the hell was that? Seriously, thinking about another man’s—

“Aoi? Aoi did you hear me?” A firm shake to the shoulder snapped Akane out of his disturbing train of thoughts. 

“Wuh?” Was all Akane could pathetically get out, blinking. 

He could hardly get a moment to catch his breath unfortunately, as Teru was close—way too close invading his personal space! He had a stupid crinkly smile. “You didn’t hear me at all did you?”

Akane simply narrowed his eyes as Teru continued, in not contest to that but pissed off at his very existence, “ I said it’s going to get cold soon. And since you’re spacing out, you might as well lie down and get some rest.” 

Akane wanted to protest—that he wasn’t tired and that there was no way he could sleep knowing danger could be all around them at any time, much less that Teru would be right at his back—but he didn’t. 

Instead he chose silence, turning away from the blonde and huffing once more, getting ready for whatever kind of hell their night would turn into. 

Akane spent the next few minutes ignoring Teru and whatever weird routine the older one had developed to get ready for bed (that was, if the other even had one… which Akane doubted given by his history of shotty sleep). He brushed his teeth using what was left of only an inch of water in his water bottle, spitting out into the dirt with a discontented grumble. 

He felt the van shift its weight, squeaking and bouncing a little under him, causing him to turn and look at the source. Teru was lying down now, having miraculously changed into pajamas in the time Akane had stepped into the front to brush his teeth, and was making himself comfortable beneath the piles of various fabric used for a blanket. 

Akane was hesitant to crawl back there, crawl into the lions den…. Where a hungry lion with bright blue eyes laid waiting. At least that was the analogy Akane chose, since Teru didn’t leave him with many warm and fuzzy perceptions of him, what with the constant zaps of lightning and being hung from the ceiling. 

He reasoned in his head that Teru at least didn’t have any reason to harass him now when he had no supernatural powers outside of the school… he honestly hadn’t gotten to know the blonde too much leisure wise outside of school. If you could call this leisure, that is. 

“Turn out the light, will you, Aoi~?” The blonde hummed in that charming voice he was putting on, ever so loopy from being sleepy. Akane had heard that tone before, sometimes when the president didn’t get enough sleep the night before and it was just the two of them in the student council room, or when they’d been up nearly all night staying late to finish last minute preparations for some big event.

When the sun set a little too far on Teru, or sleep had decided to elude the blonde, he always became nearly insufferable. Giddy and giggly, making the most off-hand comments or just doing whatever he could to pester, annoy, and get right up in Akane’s space. It was like all social intelligence went out the window—and Akane was not looking forward to it.

Akane grunted and turned out the many flashlights without contest, hoping that the less he interacted, less he spoke or made his presence known to Teru, the faster he’d go to sleep and maybe let Akane rest. 

Unfortunately Teru had other plans.

The second the last flashlight was flicked off—plunging the van into a soft blue-gray haze, lit only by the moonlight leaking in through the busted sunroof—Akane felt the air shift slightly.

Not only because the temperature decided to drop a few degrees, but in his partner beside him. Granted, he didn’t hear anything at first, but that just made him more suspicious…

 Akane rolled over slightly, one eye cracked open.

There, lying beside him, face turned up towards the moonlight, was Teru. His eyes were still opened, hands folded over his stomach as if in a casket and his whole body language just seemed to read “uncomfortable”. 

Akane squinted through the dimness, watching Teru lie there too stiffly with his shoulders tense and legs straight, as if he were trying not to take up space, which was a first. The golden boy of Kamome was usually all confidence and grace, the embodiment of someone who never had to think twice about where he fit in.

But right now, under the soft light of the moon, with shadows stretching across the walls of their cobbled-together blanket fort, Teru looked awkward and unsettled.

Akane shifted, letting his other eye crack open as he turned slightly more on his side, trying to figure out what, exactly, he was looking at.

“You’re not asleep,” he said finally, his voice low and flat.

Teru blinked slowly, not surprised. “Nope,” he replied after a moment, voice quieter than usual. “I guess I’m just not tired.” 

Akane knew that was a lie. He knew the signs and Teru had been yawning and humming to himself sleepily for the past hour, growing sleepier by the minute. However now, he was lying there with eyes wide open, stiff as a board and limbs rigid like he didn’t know what to do with himself.

Akane stared at the ceiling for a second, then sighed. “Is it the cold?” he asked, a little more gruffly than intended.

Teru glanced over, as if surprised he’d even asked. “No,” he said. “I just—uh.” He swallowed. “I’m not used to... this.”

“This?” Akane repeated, brow furrowing.

“Yeah. You know. Like—being this close to someone all night,” Teru muttered, being unreasonably honest, his tone soft. 

Akane wasn’t sure what to make of that answer. He suddenly became hyper-aware of the tight squeeze between them. Their arms weren’t touching, not exactly, but there were only a few inches of air between them. In this cramped van, no matter how much he tried to turn away, Teru’s presence still lingered. Always warm, always obnoxiously radiant.

“Do you want me to, like… move?” Akane offered gruffly, already shifting a little as if preparing to sit up. “You can always sleep in the front seat.” 

Teru sat up partway too, alarmed. “No! I mean—uh—no, it’s fine. You were here first.”

“I wasn’t.”

“Well, you know,” Teru said, flustered now, voice getting higher-pitched. “You’ve got your side, I’ve got mine. It’s fine.” Teru insisted, giving him a blank smile, with raging thoughts behind his glinting eyes. “I guess I’m just not used to being so still.”

Akane stared. That was possibly the dumbest explanation he’d heard all day. But it wasn’t delivered with Teru’s usual cocky lilt. It was honest. Kind of… raw, even.

He let his head drop back onto his pillow with a thump. “Weird thing to say for someone who sleeps like a rock in the council room.” He grumbled, side eyeing the president, “Leaving me to do all the paperwork after hours…” 

“That’s different,” Teru muttered, rubbing at his temple. “That’s a nap. In a chair. Alone.”

Akane raised a brow in the dark. “You nap when I’m there.”

“…That’s also different.”

Silence returned for a beat. The wind had settled some, but the night was definitely getting colder. Akane’s arms were pulled in close to his chest now, trying to preserve heat. He watched the shadows on the van ceiling move slowly with each breeze that rattled the old frame.

Teru’s voice, a little unsure now, cut through the quiet.

“Do you think the others are already there?”

Akane snorted. “Probably in hot tubs by now. Drinking those fancy overpriced smoothies and laughing at our expense.” He pictured with a scoff, scowling in the dark at his own imagination. 

“I wonder what Akane-san would say if she were on that trip… hah…” Teru glanced toward Akane. He wasn’t sure why he was bringing her up now—maybe it was his way of testing the waters. Or maybe it was just a natural progression of topics, since it seemed like that was the way conversations always drifted between the two.

Akane stiffened a little, then tried to relax again. “She’d probably be worried…” he reasoned, entertaining the thought, “but she’d be fine by herself—I hope. I mean, she’s not helpless…” 

Teru paused.

“You really like her, huh?” Teru said quietly.

Akane turned his face toward the wall of the van, trying to hide whatever dumb expression might’ve surfaced. “What kind of question is that?” he muttered, as if there was any doubt about that, he continued just as defensively, “Of course, I love her.” 

“Yeah.” Teru replied without a glance Akane’s way, eyes half lidded toward the ceiling, seemingly transfixed by a tiny pinprick of light streaming through the metal, worn by age. 

Akane didn’t respond to that.

There was some soft and ambiguous tone in his voice that was hard to give a clear name to. Maybe it was just tiredness or something deeper he didn’t want to outright give up.

None of it changed the fact that they were two teenagers alone in a van with no idea where they were and only the sound of the wind and each other’s breathing to fill the quiet.

Teru eventually lay back down, a little more slowly this time. His hands stayed folded awkwardly over his chest like he didn’t trust them to rest anywhere else. It was like he was afraid of accidentally brushing against Akane and setting off some kind of landmine.

Still, Teru managed to contradict himself. “If you get cold,” he started, hesitant and awkward in a way that sounded entirely foreign on him, “you can… y’know. Move closer, or something.”

Akane’s breath caught. Just slightly. Not enough to notice—hopefully.

He didn’t respond right away.

He didn’t know how to respond.

His mind buzzed with every possible interpretation of that offer, every reason he shouldn’t consider it, and the fact that, underneath all that static, there was a quiet part of him that wasn’t quite as opposed to it as he should’ve been. 

Without a proper response from Akane, Teru kept silent and Akane peeked at him again, watching the way Teru’s eyes flicked shut and then open again, like he wanted to sleep but his brain wouldn’t shut up.

“Just sleep, Minamoto,” Akane rolled his back toward him coldly. 

“I’m trying,” Teru whispered. “It’s… hard.”

Akane closed his eyes, trying to will away the strange fluttery feeling that came with hearing Teru admit that.

“…Stop overthinking everything,” he added quietly, his voice barely above the rustling of the blankets. “We’re both stuck. Might as well get some sleep…. And I can’t sleep if you’re going to be sitting there—being annoying—the whole time…” 

Teru didn’t bother to reply. 

He could feel Teru’s body beside him. Not touching, but near enough to feel the heat he gave off. Near enough that if Akane even rolled an inch in that direction, their arms might brush.

But he didn’t. He kept perfectly still.

They both lay there like that for a long while. Akane kept his eyes squeezed shut, willing sleep to come, but it didn’t. He could still feel the awareness of Teru beside him, like gravity itself was tugging at him.

A breeze slipped in through the busted sunroof again, brushing cool air against their blanket cocoon. Akane shivered slightly but said nothing. He refused to move. If he did, if he leaned in to any of this, he didn’t trust what he might do. Or say. Or think.

And maybe Teru was feeling the same.

Because neither of them budged.

Eventually, though, the exhaustion crept in. The cold became background noise. The sound of the wind outside faded under the gentle rhythm of breathing—Teru’s just slightly slower, deeper. Akane’s, still sharp around the edges, began to soften.

Neither of them said goodnight.

Neither of them moved closer.

But at some point—whether from the strain of pretending to sleep or simply their bodies finally giving in—they both drifted off, slow and uneasy. Restless and curled slightly inward, their backs were turned to one another, pretending that the space between them wasn’t warm and charged and impossibly loud.

However, at some point in the quiet, the cold became unbearable.

Akane didn’t know how long he’d been asleep—if he’d even slept at all. It felt more like a long, foggy blink where his limbs refused to move and his brain refused to shut off. His body was sore, his neck definitely had that crick he’d predicted, and most of all, he was freezing.

He exhaled, watching his breath ghost into the dark like a cloud. His fingers were curled against his hoodie’s sleeves, stuffed up near his mouth to keep warm, but it wasn’t working. 

The makeshift blanket pile had shifted off him sometime during the night, and there was a draft rolling in from the sunroof that felt like it was coming straight from the arctic.

A soft groan broke the silence.

He turned his head sluggishly and saw Teru shifting, shoulders shuddering a little under the thin patchwork of towels and spare jackets they’d used for warmth. The blonde’s brows were drawn together, his nose a little red from the cold.

“You awake?” Akane asked, his voice cracking with dryness and sleep.

Teru shifted again. “…Yeah.”

It was barely more than a whisper. His voice sounded small in the confined space, smaller than Akane had ever heard it before. There was no snark, no bright teasing smile, just that soft, quiet tone that came only when Teru let his mask slip.

“…Cold,” Teru murmured in a complaint. 

Akane grunted. “Yeah. No shit.”

They didn’t speak again for a moment. It wasn’t necessary. The answer was mutual and obvious: neither of them had slept well nor did they feel rested in the slightest. 

Akane shifted again under the lumpy pile of “blankets,” trying to burrow deeper and tuck his arms tighter into himself, but the heat was long gone from his hoodie. He was miserable. And worse, so was Teru—and even though he knew that shouldn’t bother him… it kind of did.

He heard Teru do the same—adjusting, pulling the towel-blanket higher over his shoulder, curling tighter against the wall of the van.

And still, It wasn’t enough.  Akane swallowed. Then scoffed in a gravelly tone, “This sucks.”

“…Yeah,” Teru whispered, voice equally rough from the cold, dry air.

Teru was the first to move—Barely. He shifted a few inches toward Akane, absorbing the heat that he gave off. 

He turned his head slightly toward Akane, eyes still downcast as he rested on his side now, cold fingers picking at the fabric beneath them. “If you… want to, um…”

Akane glanced at him out of the corner of his eye, not moving. He was slightly disturbed by how nervous Teru was steadily becoming, looking like a school girl confessing his love. 

Teru’s voice dropped into something barely audible. “We could maybe—share warmth or whatever.”

Akane blinked.

Share warmth or whatever.

The most clinical, non-suggestive way to say do you want to be close to me imaginable. And yet, it kept repeating in Teru’s voice like a dumb echo bouncing around in Akane’s skull.

His brain screamed no, but still, his body made the decision before his brain did. It was freezing, and if nothing else, he didn’t want to be half-dead from hypothermia when the search party inevitably found them.

“…Fine,” he muttered, begrudgingly, and shifted.

It was awkward. He shuffled closer, just a few inches at first. Shoulder to shoulder. Nothing scandalous. He made sure not to look at Teru directly, but even through the darkness, he could feel the heat of him now—radiating back, just enough to make a difference.

Akane’s heart was pounding in his chest, loud enough he was sure Teru could hear it. And judging by how stiff Teru had gone beside him, his wasn’t doing much better. It was like trying to lie still next to a thunderstorm. Yet it was still, And underneath all that stillness, Akane could feel the faint thudding rhythm of Teru’s heartbeat. Fast and heavy in his chest.

The blanket shifted again. Teru adjusted, trying to get comfortable without moving too much, but the motion brought his arm against Akane’s side. The contact was warm and his skin burned where they touched, even through the fabric of his hoodie.

“Sorry,” Teru whispered, retracting slightly, like a guilty puppy and Akane felt his heart jump to his throat at the apology.

Time passed. Maybe minutes. Maybe longer. But gradually, awkward shoulder-to-shoulder contact turned into a bit more. A knee bumped a thigh. Ankles shifted and tangled slightly. Arms, pressed too close, started brushing unintentionally every few seconds.

Eventually, Akane rolled, trying to get more comfortable—and the movement brought him flush against Teru’s side—the blonde’s breath brushing faintly toward the other boy’s neck. It wasn’t spooning exactly (Although it felt to Akane just as mortifying). But their legs were touching, and so were their arms, and their sides were definitelypressed together now.

“I can move,” Teru murmured again, and Akane could hear how flustered he was—like the thought of being this close had short-circuited some part of him.

“No,” Akane said immediately. Too fast. Too harsh.

Teru froze behind him.

Akane squeezed his eyes shut. “I mean. Don’t. You’re warm.”

“…Okay.”

There was a moment. And then, slowly, Teru’s breathing evened out again ak thought he was still tense. It was undeniable though, the space between them had officially collapsed.

Akane turned slightly on his side again to find a more neutral position, but that only drew him closer, their legs brushing and awkwardly, their foreheads bumping. Each of them reeled back only slightly, both aware of how close they’d just become. 

Akane’s eyes opened just a sliver, meeting Teru’s in the dim glow of moonlight and sending a violent chill through him that had nothing to do with the cold. His face was barely a breath away, blue eyes wide and startled and sleepy. They didn’t speak—They didn’t dare—for what could even be said?

Teru blinked slowly, as if trying to summon the will to say something. But nothing came out.

Akane tried to look away, irises darting left and right—but there was nowhere else to look. And his mind—traitorous as it was—kept focusing on the way Teru’s breath was warming the skin just above his lip, how soft and small it sounded compared to everything else he knew of him.

Akane Aoi knew Teru Minamoto was pretty, that was a given. He’d heard enough from the swooning of every one of his peers—yet he’d never experienced it in such intensity firsthand. There was something different in the way Teru looked in a classroom, with all the expected grace and charisma he exhumed, versus now—bathed in the soft glow of the moon, his eyelashes bleached white and every imperfection visible and yet so perfect like paint-strokes on a masterpiece. 

Maybe the prettiest part of all, was the part no one else saw: His humanity and his sheer flaws, that to Akane were nearly all he could see at times. Now it was blended together in front of him in a display that made his stomach churn a little.

And yet, Akane for all his instincts screaming “this is weird”, “this is stupid”, “what the hell are you doing”, found himself not pulling away.

They lay like that for a long while, unmoving. Each of them waiting for the other to make a call that wouldn’t come—and each of their minds and hearts racing to figure out what exactly that “call” was. 

There was not a word passed between them after that. Without anyone deciding to allow it, just because they were tired, because it was cold, and because they could—they stayed close.

It was warm together, and cold without, would have been the rational explanation. 

Through half lidded eyes pretending to be asleep, Akane stared into the sharp arc of Teru’s nose and the faint scars across his cheekbone—things he hadn’t noticed before. He could feel the faint exhale of Teru’s breath brushing his upper lip again and again in a slow, steady rhythm.

He tried not to look. He told himself not to look.

But his gaze drifted lower, betraying him, until it landed somewhere between the line of Teru’s jaw and the soft rise of his chest. He focused on the way the moonlight caught the edge of his collarbone, on the tiniest shift of his shirt as Teru breathed.

Akane’s pulse pounded dully in his ears. Honestly… There was no logical reason to stay like this. And yet…

Neither wanted to be the one to end it.

Akane exhaled, slow and shaky, then let his eyelids fall. His body slowly gave in to the warmth pressing against his chest and to the fatigue clawing at his bones.

Hovering in the space between sleep and consciousness, in a state where Akane would never remember this when he woke, Teru shifted closer, half asleep himself. Almost boldly an arm came around his waist, pulling him closer and curling around him like it was an instinct to keep his companion close.

Sleep found them both gently, with the wind howling outside, they were lulled with the warmth of their own closeness.

Morning came with a loud metallic groan, characterized by the screech of metal grinding against rusted metal. The whole van shook like there was some kind of earthquake assaulting the world around them, jostling them both from sleep in the harshest way.

Suddenly, the back doors were pried open and Light exploded in the cramped space like a spotlight, startling the boys fully awake.

Akane flinched hard as he instinctively recoiled—

Only to realize Teru was wrapped around him, arms still loosely hugging his waist, their legs tangled together.

And worse?

Mr. Tsuchigomori was standing there in his long coat and reading glasses, hair disheveled. 

“Good morning, lovebirds,” Tsuchigomori said flatly from the open van door, his eyes bloodshot behind his glasses, face an unholy blend of tired and traumatized.

Akane blinked.

Teru blinked.

Neither of them moved.

Behind their teacher, a voice chimed far too cheerfully.

“Woah. The President and Vice President caught cuddling!?”  Fuji’s voice rang out, followed by the unmistakable click-click of his phone camera going off. “Yamabuki’s gonna lose it when I show him this.”

“Oh wow—is this some kind of twisted love affair??” Himari gasped, hands covering her mouth in pure shock. “What do you think Akane-Chan will say when she hears?”

Nakahara chuckled, hand on a hip as he vainly ran a hand through his hair, “Maybe she’ll look for a new guy, she’d look real nice next to me.” 

Akane finally jolted back like he’d been electrocuted, scrambling upright and banging his head on the low roof in the process.

“It’s not what it looks like!!” he shouted hoarsely, face flushed red from temple to chin, not even wanting to process the various comments, speculations and most disturbingly whatever the hell Nahakara was saying. 

Teru, equally stunned, flopped upright as well, eyes wide and sleep-drunk. His hair was a mess, his shirt wrinkled and halfway riding up his stomach from the way they’d slept.

“I—wasn’t even awake—” he started, looking almost guilty and trying to sleepily recover his tarnished reputation like he was the one who needed to apologize for being warm and soft and literally unconscious.

Tsuchigomori massaged the bridge of his nose.

“Can you two please get out of the van.” He then addressed the students behind him, “and you three stop taking pictures, I thought I said to stay in the van.”

“Already sent it to Yamabuki,” Fuji muttered under his breath, eliciting a groan from Tsuchigomori. 

Akane and Teru practically fell out of the back of the van in a pile of tangled limbs and scattered towels. 

Both scrambled to straighten themselves, fix their hair, Akane grabbed his duffle and the others, trying not to look anyone in the eye. Especially not Fuji. Especially not Teru.

Once Tsuchigomori was certain no one else was in the van and the two had regained some form of composure, he gave them the same look a parent gives a pair of toddlers found asleep in the dog’s bed.

“How did you even get out here?” Akane asked, half to his teacher and half to the heavens.

Tsuchigomori glared, clearly not impressed and utterly frazzled. 

“When the resort said you never checked in, the whole council got worried. We had to call the police and cancel the reservation, the entire student council piled into my car in the middle of the night and we spent the last eight hours retracing every possible route you could’ve taken.” he gave them a look—“The resort reservation? Gone. Canceled. I hope you enjoyed your romantic death trap in the wilderness, because no one’s getting a refund.”

Akane turned to glare at Teru, red-faced, hair a disaster. “This is your fault.”

“Technically it was the van,” Teru replied, too tired to lie but too flustered to argue. “It had a personality.”

“You were the one who drove it.”

“I was volunteered!”

“You volunteered us!”

“Boys,” Tsuchigomori groaned, holding up one hand, before His eyes landed squarely on Teru… who, granted, had been the one who got them into the majority of this mess.

Teru offered a sheepish smile and a bow of apology, “Thank you for retrieving us, sir. Your effort will not be forgotten.”

Tsuchigomori sighed long and loud. “You’re both lucky I found you before the heat kicked in. We’re staying at a nearby motel until this mess is sorted. Don’t talk. Don’t breathe. Just get in the car.”

Akane and Teru exchanged glances silently, both equally a mixture of mortification and annoyance. 

But as they followed the rest of the group down the dusty road to the parked bus, still flushed and warm and mortified, one thing was clear.

They were never going to live this down.

That much was true when Akane was harshly patted on the back by Fuji, “Hope the cuddle session was worth it.”

Ignored.

“So like are the two of you a thing now? Like—boyfriends? Do you have pet names?”

That elicited a scoff and stammer that wasn’t even a reply. 

“Let me guess—honey? Baby? Darli—“

Fuji’s words ended in a strangled yelp, caused by a sharp kick to the shin and a murderous glare from Akane.

However he knew that wouldn’t stop the comments and, slumping into the back seat,  he was unlucky enough to have found the only vacant seat…… right next to Teru. 

They didn’t look at eachother for the whole ride back, although faces burned with the haunting fact they would never live this down. 

Worst… was the new, terrifying feeling that had blossomed between them in the span of one night.