Chapter Text
Tick. Tick. Tick. The pointer on the clock mounted just above the entrance moved each second, consistently and reliably. Anyone as much as acknowledging its existence knew what it was going to do next: Tick, tick, tick. Until eventually it would be joined by the ringing of the small alarm on the professor’s phone, signalling an end to the lecture and inviting them all to leave. It would remain ticking, of course. That was until it ran out of battery, by which point it would probably get new ones, or be replaced all together. Who knew, maybe no one but him would even notice it had stopped ticking in the first place. It wasn’t like many were paying attention to it in the first place.
Instead the people around him seemed to pay more attention to the man in the front of the room, writing down words and scribbling things Caelus could only assume had to do with his field of expertise on the board.
By all means, he ought to listen in as well, and yet he couldn’t. Whatever words flying into his ears immediately ran into a wall as his mind was somewhere else entirely.
He turned twenty today. Happy Birthday. If he was anyone else he’d probably be in a celebratory mood right now, yet he didn’t feel like celebrating anything today. Much less himself. He wasn’t a teenager anymore, more like a… young adult. That just didn’t sound right.
He had looked forward to being an adult all his life, to life on his own, to no longer be told what he could and couldn’t do and to do and to… well. Be an adult. He had envisioned himself attending college, continuing to play baseball even afterwards, maybe even professionally, he had been one of the best wherever he played since childhood afterall, to meet new people, fall in love. All of that jazz.
Well, he fell in love, so that was one thing off his bucket list. Just that it had happened long before college, but considering he confessed during his college years it still felt as if it ought to count. Sure he was rejected, and sure, talking to one of his two bestest friends now felt so awkward he wanted to wrap himself up in a thousand blankets any time he just thought about it, but that’s what he got from wishing he’d fall in love and not that his feelings were reciprocated… If there was a djinnie in charge of taking care of his wishes in a twisted way, then he genuinely felt like commending him for a job well done.
No matter how badly that one ended up, at least it was still better than what happened to his baseball related dreams.
Before he had even more time to drown in self-pity the professor’s phone rang, just on cue as the clock struck lunchtime. Grabbing his crutches and using them to push himself up from his seat, he began descending the stairs until he had reached the exit. If they hadn’t been as wide and shallow as they were, he would have had a lot of trouble ascending and descending them each time he had a lecture in this room, but luckily it wasn’t as arduous as he had first imagined it to be. That being said. It still took him a bit longer than it did before his injury, which considering it further wasn’t much of a surprise, considering how he used to basically dash out the room the moment they were dismissed.
Paying way too little attention to the people around him, he nearly bumped into someone on his way out of the door, quickly looking up to be met with an apologetic smile, and a quick “I’m sorry”, before she was gone. That should have been his line, considering how he was the one at fault, and yet he had kept his mouth shut.
Letting out a small yawn while letting others pass by before making his exit as well, Caelus started walking towards the exit. Most students were making their way towards the new cafetaria, but considering his classes for the day had now officially ended, there was little motivation to remain on school grounds for much longer. When he had enrolled last year, the cafeteria wasn’t a thing yet. There was a large dining area that had sat empty for years after the last one had closed a few years before his time due to reasons he’d rather not get into, so when it was announced they’d get a new one starting from January, he had felt excited.
That was until he had visited it the first few times. Most of the food items were… less than stellar. Funnily enough however the croissants were some of the best he had ever tasted in his life. How an underwhelming cafeteria like theirs managed to fail at almost everything and then still deliver top tier croissants? He didn’t know. At first he assumed they were just bought from somewhere until he found out they were baked in the house.
It was absurd, by any means. And yet he and some of his colleagues from the baseball team made a point to sprint towards the cafeteria as quickly as possible each day to buy up as many of them as possible before the masses could get their hands on them, then students got banned from buying more than one per person and that was that. He was still sprinting there each day of course, but as it was now each man on his own there were enough times he had arrived just to see his colleagues had gotten their hands on the last available goods themselves with nothing left for him.
Considering how difficult it would have been for him to run with crutches, it went without saying that he hadn’t got a taste of the croissants since his injury. If he was extra lucky and he wouldn’t be able to run anywhere as well as before even after his leg had healed as the doctors had said, he wouldn’t get to taste them at all anymore.
Just then, he was hit with the unmistakable smell of the exact baked goods on his mind, as he instinctively whipped around only to be met with the sight of three all too familiar faces.
“There you are, Caelus!” The girl’s voice rang out before he found himself surrounded almost instantly, with a silly party hat being strapped onto his head before he had the chance to even comprehend what was happening.
When he looked to his left, his sister’s face stared back at him, unimpressed as always, with the same coneshaped hat on her hair, as she took another bite off the croissant in her hand, blinking at him in what he could only assume was morsecode for ‘hello’.
“We’ve been looking for you all over the schoolgrounds”, March continued almost pouty, Caelus finding himself silently impressed by how naturally she acted. And while his still healthy leg wanted to instinctively carry him away as quickly as possible, he couldn’t help but feel grateful to have at least one interaction with her that didn’t reek of unimaginable awkwardness.
“Happy Birthday”, Dan Heng cut in with a small smile, presenting him with a croissant wrapped in tissues from head to toes… or whatever the croissant equivalent was… end to end?
Almost immediately, March’s head whipped around towards him, “We agreed to say it in unison this time!”
“You said it on your own as well when we ran into Stelle.”
As the two of them began bickering, Caelus turned towards his sister, “Happy Birthday to you as well.”
“Thanks”, came her response, and although the boy stared at her expectantly for at least half a minute more, she added nothing more. “What? Do you want me to sing for you?”
With that, he averted his eyes from her once again, releasing a small sigh. What did he expect in the first place?
“How did you manage to get two croissants?” Almost immediately, his two friends stopped their argument, their eyes fixating on him for a split second. And although he wished he’d stopped paying attention to it, he couldn’t help but note how March broke eye-contact first, looking away in an all too familiar awkward fashion.
“March told me to skip class so we could camp in front of the cafeteria”, Dan Heng explained and for a moment Caelus felt as if he had a stroke and was hearing nonsense.
“What.” Dan Heng? Skipping class? Someone should call the nearest farmer and ask if his pigs had started taking off into the air.
“Don’t make it sound like I made you do a bad thing. We did it for a good reason, and didn’t get anything out of it. It’s the most selfless thing any of us has done in the past few years”, the girl began defending herself, seemingly misunderstanding his confusion as indignation at her convincing their friend to skip class.
“It’s a shame you’re only allowed to buy one per person”, Stelle finally introduced herself into the conversation, and although her tone was as dry as ever Caelus couldn’t help but interpret it as a dig at him.
“I wasn’t the only one that was buying them up in masses.”
“Sure, but you were the one that ate the most”, she responded while narrowing her eyes ever so slightly. “Well, nice to see you guys, but Dan Heng and I have another class to attend.”
And with that, Stelle left them to their own devices, their friend trodding along as he had to walk in the same direction, leaving only him and March remaining. Almost instantly the mood had changed, a suffocating silence ensnaring them both as their gazes crossed for the briefest of moments before immediately diverting again.
“H-Having to carry around the croissants all this time made me hungry for some myself. I-I’ll go see if there are still some left”, the girl stammered out awkwardly, only for Caelus to do no better himself.
“Ah right! I promised a friend to meet up as well.”
Once again, the two just stood there in silence for a brief moment before their feet finally came unstuck.
“See you later!” They both exclaimed in unison before taking off in opposite directions. March into the exact opposite direction from the cafeteria as Caelus marched away from the very exit he was so determined to get to just a while ago, taking off his little hat the moment he got a few feet distance so as to not draw too much attention to himself.
It took him several minutes to realize he was marching towards nowhere in particular and yet by the time he came to a halt and looked around, the boy had to admit that he had no idea where he was.
Still on school grounds, of course, and yet… no part he had ever traversed before. He had never paid much attention to it but now that he thought about it, it was kind of terrifying how big the school actually was. Countless corridors, all coated in the same white as the others, with a few benches sprinkled in between. Sometimes you’d be lucky enough and encounter a wall made solely out of glass, letting you glance at the garden at the school’s center. They looked incredibly spacious as well, surely big enough to spend an hour or more just walking around mindlessly.
Maybe he should have gone there in the first place instead. Even if he wasn’t paying attention to the green and the plants it surely offered more diversity than the interiors.
Whatever considerations he gave switching scenery, Caelus threw them out at once, deciding to wander the halls again. With how circular the school was, he’d eventually circle back to where he had come from if he just continued to march forward. Well, considering what happened with the last guy that had such thoughts he may also discover one or two entire new continents instead.
As embarrassing as it was to admit, his thoughts made him let out a brief chuckle, only to come to a halt when he could make out a voice. Probably a professor holding a lecture judging from how loudly he was talking. Usually the walls were thick enough to stop any sounds from leaking from the lecture halls, so someone had probably forgotten to close the door correctly.
That thought ought to have led to nowhere, and yet, either out of sheer boredom or… well there was no other option, it was simply boredom, Caelus made it his goal to locate the wrongly closed door as if he was an inspector on the lookout for an ignored safety regulation.
When he was young he could slip into play pretend mode seamlessly, one moment you were talking to Caelus the boy, the next he was a pirate, an explorer, an astronaut or whatever else he had set his mind upon, and while he was too old to publicly admit it, he had never fully grown out of it, imagining himself to be something he wasn’t to pass the time. Call him a creative spirit or simply an adult-sized child, but at the end of the day it didn’t matter what others would think, considering they’d never get to see it in the first place.
As fate would have it, his detective senses didn’t disappoint, as he had spotted to faultily closed door surprisingly quickly, and yet as he moved forward to close it, even going so far as to lean one of his crutches against the wall so he could have an empty hand to grip the handle, his movement came to a grinding halt. The professor’s words reached his ears, and for a moment, Caelus couldn’t help but feel intrigued.
Intrigued. Not charmed or taken aback or anything. Matter of fact, he still had no idea what in earth’s name the man was even talking about, and yet just closing the door and leaving felt like… a bit of a waste. He couldn’t tell when he’d get another chance to get an insight into a different major the same way he did today, after all. Who knows, maybe he’d find it actually interesting, more interesting than his actual classes, that was.
Now… whether or the third semester of college was a bit too late to change his mind on what he wanted to do for the future was somewhat of a big question, luckily for him, the fact that he had never made up his mind in the first place seemed like a good enough excuse not to fall back into the almost existential rabbit hole that was thinking about one's future.
“Are you late to your class?” An unknown voice shook him out of his inner monologue after standing there for a few minutes, startling him half to death, causing him to finally shut the door with a bit too much sound for his liking. And although he had no way to confirm it, the boy knew there were a few new pairs of eyes directed at him – or much rather the door he was hiding behind.
“A-Ah?” Was all he managed to stammer out, as he turned around to face a meek looking girl staring at him. About two or so heads smaller than him, with long, straight and brown hair as she stared at him from behind her glasses. Despite how weird his reaction was, she didn’t seem all too bothered, continuing in a calm fashion, her voice so weak he had difficulties making out what she was saying.
“If you did, I’d tell you to just skip the lesson. That professor is far from forgiving when it comes to being late, he cares much less about absences”, she explained, raising her tone ever so slightly when she noticed how much work Caelus was putting into picking up her words.
“Oh… okay? Sorry, what class is being held in there in the first place?” He couldn’t help but ask, only for the girl to give a small nod to herself as if silently remarking something to herself.
“English, first Semester. I take it it’s not one of your classes considering you’ve just found out?” Her remark earned herself a nod from Caelus, only for her to start walking away before waving him to come with her. “Then I’d make my way out of here before he checks the door.”
Grabbing his second crutch he began hurriedly catching up to her, checking behind himself every so often as to make sure he wasn’t being followed by the professor. Although he hadn’t seen him, judging from his voice and the girl’s remarks, he expected either a bitter old man running behind him with a cane – someone he wouldn’t have feared in the slightest just a few months ago, although two crutches and a seriously injured leg do quite some work to dim his confidence – or a middle aged mountain of a man ready to throw hands with even a crippled boy.
“What about you? Are you late for the lecture?” Caelus asked, partly out of curiosity and partly just to get over the awkward silence.
“Me? No. I don’t have his classes.”
“Do you have a friend in there, or how have you heard about the ‘not all too forgiving’ part?”
“I took his classes for my first semester. Made sure to sign up for another professor the moment I noticed an open slot”, she explained in the same matter-of-factly tone she spoke in since she first opened her mouth around him.
Suddenly, the girl stopped in her tracks, causing him to follow suit a moment or two later as he looked back at her in confusion.
…Not a fan of small-talk?
Well. Or maybe she just wasn’t a fan of him.
Before he could follow that trail of thought further though, she stretched out her palm in his direction.
“Hanabi.” Her voice said drily, Caelus blinking at her in silence for a moment or two as the gears in his head started turning, before he realized she was telling him her name. Almost going for a face palm instead, his hand shook hers as he temporarily wedged the crutch in his armpit so it wouldn’t fall over.
“I’m Caelus”, he introduced himself as well, only for the silence that followed to prove a bit too uncomfortable. “H-Hanabi’s a nice name.”
“It’s Japanese for fireworks. Yours means sky in latin.” She responded.
Wait. It does?
“I-It does?”
“It’s also the name of the roman god of the sky”, she explained further.
“So like Zeus in Greek?” He attempted to at least add something besides general confusion to the conversation, throwing out the only ancient god he could remember, only to be met with a small, almost cheeky smile.
“Your Anus.”
“...W-What?”
“The Greek variant was called Uranus.”
Oh. That made much more sense. He thought to himself, realizing he had misheard her before suddenly hearing her let out a small chuckle, causing his eyes to fixate on her in surprise.
“So count yourself lucky your parents were more into Roman mythology than Greek one.”
Was that… a joke?
Granted, he shouldn’t be so surprised. Considering he had known the girl for… what? Ten minutes? Twenty at best, it was far too early to say what was and wasn’t in character for her… Maybe it was a cosmic lesson not to judge books by their covers?
“You know a lot about those topics… Mythology and such”, he continued, receiving a small shrug of her shoulders in response.
“Reading something here and there is pretty interesting when everything else is just oh so boring~”, Hanabi responded before almost following it up with a groan, only to stop herself a moment before, her voice that had strayed so suddenly from her otherwise formal one returning to the usual the next time she spoke up.
“Hey, I know this is pretty sudden and all”, all of a sudden, the girl sounded a bit hesitant, immediately gaining his full attention, only to awkwardly fiddle around her pocket, “but are you free this Friday?”
…why was she saying “Friday”? It’s Thursday, couldn’t she say “tomorrow” in the first place?
“I have a few classes in the morning”, he stated, only for her to continue.
“So you’re free in the afternoon. I got these two tickets for a play, but I… can’t find anyone to go with me.”
Okay, this was unfair. It was tugging on his heartstrings.
Well, good thing she wasn’t doing it on purpose to manipulate him into going there, because he knew god damn well he would be falling for it without a second thought.
“Ah, sure.” And with that, Hanabi handed him one of the tickets. On it everything he had to know, from address and time to his row and seat, and yet as he looked back up to ask some more questions the girl was gone, as if swallowed up by the ground.
Glancing around frantically, Caelus still couldn’t spot her anywhere, and yet before he had time to activate detective mode again, he heard the door he had previously slammed shut open in the distance, quickly pushing everything else to the background as he prioritized getting even farther away from it than he already was.
Well, seems like the universe was giving him all the signs to start heading home.