Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! Tsukasa groaned. He slowly opened his eyelids, the sunlight coming from his window causing him to squint. He directed his gaze away from the bright light to the alarm clock. It read 6:07 A.M. on the 4th of August. "Mmh... I don't want to go.." He yawned as he rolled over to his other side, grabbing his phone from the nightstand. "1 missed call.. Huh. And it's from Rui," he read the notifications on his phone. Tsukasa pressed the "Call back" option without a second thought.

"Good morning Rui!" Tsukasa grinned at the phone camera, earning a faint smile from Rui. "Hi Tsukasa! Are you ready?..." His voice died down as his eyes inspected Tsukasa's disheveled look. "Okay... Clearly not." Tsukasa giggled, sitting up in his bed as he brushed over his hair with his hand. "Haha! Not quite ready yet. Infact, I just woke up. I'm so excited though! First day of 9th grade.." Tsukasa's face radiated happiness, making Rui chuckle. After a few more minutes of their chit-chat, Tsukasa had to get ready. "Bye Rui! I'll see you soon!" He waved goodbye at the phone camera, his grin disappearing as his phone screen turned dark.

Right at that moment, his mother yelled to him, "Tsukasa! Wake up, it's time for school! Oh, and please wake your sister up too." Sighing, he got out of his bed that felt like a fluffy cloud up in heaven. Rubbing his eyes and splashing his face with water helped him wake up mentally. As he got dressed, he frowned. School was what he hated most in his life, always draining his energy. But alteast he was finally going to the 9th grade, the final year of his middle school! He just hoped it would be the same as last year, where he had friends in all of his classes.

"Tsukasa! Come downstairs before you make Saki and yourself late!" His father called him, causing him to roll his eyes. "I'm coming," he murmured quietly, not caring if his dad heard him. He walked down the stairs slow enough to make his parents tell him to "hurry up!" yet again. On the way out, he grabbed a burnt toast that was on the table. That'll have to do for breakfast..

Once Saki had been dropped off at her school, it took three more minutes to get to his school. As he stepped through the doors, he saw Rui waving at him with a smile, instantly making Tsukasa feel better. "This year was going to be fun!" He told himself. How wrong he was.

Chapter Text

Tsukasa breathed in deeply, putting on an award-winning smile, walking up to Rui who had stopped waving and was coming up to meet him. Tsukasa stood up on his tip-toes and embraced Rui around the neck, Rui mimicking his motion, earning them some stares, but it went unnoticed by the duo. Once they pulled away, Tsukasa's face was flush from the action. "Hi Rui!" He greeted the other happily. Rui just smiled, before taking Tsukasa's hand and leading him to the gym that was near the entrance of the school. "Hey!" Rui finally said, "Also, we still haven't compared schedules. Do you want to do it now?" He continued as they sat on the floor of the gym. Oh, that's true... Speaking of, why haven't we compared them yet? Hmmm.. Tsukasa glanced at his phone, the screen reading 7:19 A.M. Quite early... "Oh, um, sure," Tsukasa hesitantly unzipped his backpack, rummaging through it to find the schedule that he was given at when his parents took him to the school to see where all of his classes were going to be.

"Give me your schedule, Tsukasa," Rui said and reached out his hand. Tsukasa handed over the paper to his friend, watching closely how Rui's face lit up and how his eyes slowly furrowed. "Oh... We only have one class together. I mean, we also have P.E. for the same period, but we're in different classes, so... But other than that, we have math together." Rui looked up from the schedule, finding Tsukasa's face completely blank. "..You okay?" He hesitantly asked, his gaze lingering on Tsukasa for a moment too long. "Uh, yeah, I'm fine. Um, we.. should get going. Don't want to be late to our class, right? Haha..." Tsukasa's voice got quieter as he spoke, turning into a whisper as he finished speaking. Rui raised his eyebrows, a slight frown forming on his face.

"But, Tsukasa, it's still 7:28 A.M. Class doesn't start until 7:40 A.M.? Are you sure you're fine?" Rui asked again, searching Tsukasa's eyes for answers. "Yeah. I'll see you later."

~

No. No. This cannot be happening. Only one class together. So he's going to be lonely? Like those weird quiet kids? The ones that get bullied for having no friends? No, I can't be like them. I absolutely cannot. He was slowly walking through the empty hallways, wondering how he would even be able to survive this school year. He kept his head low, eyes fixated on the white tiles on the floor. I mean... Maybe my other friends have classes with me. Yeah! I'll be fine. Definitely, fine. Taking a deep breath sigh, he straightened up, grabbing the straps of his backpack. He decided to head over to his locker to pass the time, leaving his backpack inside, only taking notebooks and a couple folders with him. "Phew! Alright... I think that's all I need for my classes... Hm?" Something had caught the corner of his eye. He reached over to his backpack, discovering the photograph that he and Rui had taken last year. It was of them standing together, Rui's hand wrapped around his waste, Tsukasa doing the peace sign. Minori was standing next to Tsukasa, Haruka on the opposite side. They were mimicking Tsukasa's actions, also holding up peace signs. He raised his eyebrows, a blush spreading across his face. Thank gosh no one else was there in the hallway. Those were definitely.. good times.

RING! RING! RING! The bell had rung, and crowds of teenagers started pouring in. Suddenly, the whole hallway had turned into a stampede of screaming teenagers. Tsukasa sighed, dropping the photograph in his backpack and closing the locker. He tried walking to his class, unsuccessfully, walking in circles around the 9th grade section for 15 minutes straight. Finally, he found the classroom, took a deep breath in, and entered.

~

Back home, Tsukasa dashed upstairs, straight to his bedroom, kicking off his shoes and throw off his backpack, collapsing on the bed. Oh, what a horrible day it had been! Only one class with Rui, and no classes with Minori or Haruka! Atleast they didn't have to do work or homework yet... But still. He didn't know what he would do this school year. He could just make friends, right...? Nope, too hard. Hmmm.. there was a girl who was in 6 of his classes, though. Her name was.. Emma? No, that's not. right. Aha! Emu! She seemed pretty cheerful, except most of the time she kept quiet. Probably has no classes like me...

"Tsukasa! How come you didn't even greet me?" His mother entered his room. "Ah- About that, I was just really exhausted because I was so stressed last night, I fell asleep quite late. Sorry, mom!" The lie slipped from his lips so easily, that there was no room left for doubt. His mother sighed, mumbling about how he needed to go to sleep early tonight. "Hmm.." Tsukasa pulled out his phone, deciding to text rui.

Kamishiro Rui

Hey, Rui! How were your classes? Meet anyone new?

The reply came quite fast

My classes were fine. And I indeed did meet some new friends. What about you?

Ah.. About that, not really. My classes are ASS. Like, yk Ms. Vina? She's a total bitch. you have her or nah? . Also, I didn't meet anyone new T_T

Ms. Vina? I don't think I even know her to be honest. But that sucks. Don't worry, I'm sure
you'll meet new people with a personality like yours.

;; hopefully
Seen

Tsukasa turned off his phone, done with it for today. He needed to prepare himself mentally for tomorrow, which probably was going to be... much more eventful than today. "Mmm.. I guess it's time to sleep, then." It was never too early to sleep, at least for him. He turned off the light, and plunged onto his bed, letting the darkness of his room embrace him.

Next day

Several classes had passed, and it was break time. He was walking out of class to the outside grounds of campus when he felt a light tap on his shoulder. He turned around, and saw a bubbly girl with pink hair and pink eyes. Ah... It's Emu Otori. "Um, yeah? What's up?" He asked, fidgeting with his fingers. She smiled and said in her cheerful voice, "Hi Tsukasa! I'm Emu Otori! Do you wanna be friends?!"

Tsukasa's eyes widened before he regained his composure. "Me? Oh, sure! Yes!" He responded quickly, hoping Emu wasn't rethinking her choice this early on. "Yay! We're going to be the best of friends, trust me!" She giggled a little. Just then, she averted her eyes to look at someone behind him, her face breaking into a grin as she waved. Tsukasa turned around to look behind him, seeing three other girls and two guys. "Oh, Hi Nene, Mizuki, Ena! Hi Akito and Toya!" She greeted them happily running over. Oh. Well, this is awkward. He thought, before Emu turned to him with a bright smile. "Guys, this is my new friend, Tsukasa! Say hi!" Tsukasa did an awkward, lopsided smile. "Hi everyone..! Nice to meet you all." Surprisingly, they all greeted him back, and quite happily too, at that. They talked about what they all liked, finding out they all were also into 'Alien Stage'. "Okay but, Till totally deserved to die. No offense, Mizuki..." He had said, making Mizuki's jaw drop so low he thought it was going to fall off. Akito and Ena had laughed at her behaviour before looking at each other and starting yet another argument how the other "copied" them for laughing at the same thing.

Maybe this year wasn't going to be so bad.