Chapter Text
He thinks changes are happening too quickly and too fast because, one day he’s a wide eyed boy eager to start highschool, and with a blink of an eye, he’s standing up on stage in the auditorium, being presented a medal, and another, and another, and another, and when he blinks again, he’s at the end of Year 9, and being dragged into the Principal’s office. Kimi didn’t know what he was expecting with the new school year fast approaching, and the end slowly reaching its claws into him. Dr. Wolff, Mr. Wolff, and Mr. Vowels are all there, proposing that he should go over the Year 10 content, and take the exams next week, since he knows the topics well enough already. Before he knows it he’s in Year 11, and then everything begins to feel numb.
It’s a pity, he was looking forward to the Year 10 exchange program, and had already filled out the application to go to Singapore, but he supposed it didn’t matter in the end anyways.
To begin with, he’s never had that many friends, so when Nikola leaves for the exchange program, and everyone drifts off and moves away, he’s left all alone. Lorenzo’s too busy cramming for his mocks to entertain him, and he can’t even make an attempt at decent conversation before flailing and stuttering over his words. So it's just him and Niko’s succulents.
Moving up to Year 11 doesn’t help at all, he just feels out of place, a head shorter and stumbling, so he spends his breaks alone. He’ll be in the labs, growing mold, crystals, blowing stuff up, observing mold, observing lice, blowing more stuff up, or idly churning out problems in Toto’s office.
Safe to say, he rarely interacts with the rest of the school.
So when Mr Komatsu announces that the person they’re sitting next to would be their lab partners for the rest of year in Chemistry, his eyes widen and he turns to face the person he’s sharing the desk with.
“Hey, I’m Ollie.” the tall boy with warm brown eyes said, with a slight trace of an Italian accent and a grin on his face.
“Kimi.” He squeaked out, slightly intimidated by his deskmates' happy demeanour.
“It’s nice to meet you Kimi, let's try to not combust too many things, eh?” and Kimi bursts out laughing at that.
“Sure.” and he returns a grin, and returns his focus to Mr Komatsu.
-
Ollie and Kimi sit together almost every lesson. Turns out they're taking similar courses, sharing most of their classes, and with most teachers preferring an alphabetical seating arrangement, it’s inevitable. Which is both a blessing and a curse.
Kimi might be incredibly out of loop in the school gossip network, only getting snippets and fragments when he passes by people, or hushed whispers in the library. He’s heard his own name tossed around once or twice, that he’s sure he’s not supposed to hear, so he erases them from memory and takes the long walk to the library.
However he’s definitely heard of Ollie Bearman.
He might not be the best with words, but to simply put it, it seemed that half the school population was in love with the guy. The basic information he’s gathered from just hearing people talk could make up a whole biography. Born May 8th 2005 and roommate to one Zak O’Sullivan, grew up in Maranello when he was younger, is semi-fluent in Italian, which is apparently romantic? When speaking about him, compliments were tossed around plentifully along with roses, chocolate and other materialistic frivolities. If one were to reach into a conversation of which he was the subject, and pluck out a sentence, extraneous adjectives would be strewn in his favor. Quiet giggles and whispered confessions seemed to follow the older boy around, yet at the same time they never had an effect on him, notoriously choosing to decline each and every advance. Kimi learnt that his first week in, where love letters and gifts would be strewn across the table, and people would crowd over his desk just to talk to him. Ollie would politely apologise for his lack of reciprocation, and then he would be left alone.
It was disconcerting, to say the very least, but on most days he can ignore how the other half of his desk looks like a valentines campaign.
That wasn’t to say he simply didn’t have an interest in anyone. Last year Kimi heard from library whispers that he was dating a pretty blonde he met on exchange. A few months later, he learns from those same whispers that they had split up after spring break.
It doesn’t concern him, so he packs his books away and bids farewell to the library.
-
Once the day was over, racing to his dorm, Kimi flopped onto the bed, the mattress creaking at his sudden motion. The crochet penguin looks at him with pitiful eyes and he grabs its neck and squeezes it, before plopping it down where it was originally. He looks at where his bag is, flung to the other side of the room, cushioned by Niko’s bed, with his bare naked mattress, and a sad Jellycat bunny staring right back at him. His textbooks are scattered out from his opened bag. He’ll move to tidy them up later, but for now his eyes are focused on the glow in the dark stars on the ceilings. He remembers climbing on top of Niko just to reach the ceiling, and paste them there in their first month of rooming together.
Now he has the dorm all to himself ever since Niko left for Austria, and has kinda filled up his side of the room with little experiments, nothing too insane, just observing the rate of mold growth on an apple Niko left in his corner of his room before leaving that he never ate, or genetically modifying his roommate's succulent collection so their leaves turned blue. Also he might have used up the extra closet space to store model cars. He takes a photo of the succulent which looks positively radioactive and sends it to Niko, who responds with a slew of angry Bulgarian. Oops. He’ll make the succulents green again when Niko comes back. Or perhaps not, maybe it’s time for a change of hot pink.
A week passes, then a month. He complies with group work, fulfilling his part, and asks for teacher’s advice regarding his academics. He still doesn’t talk to anyone, socially at least, within the halls of school.
Kimi prevents himself and Ollie from frying each other's hair in chemistry, stays in Mr. Wolff’s office, and stays on top of school work.
Until Mr Komatsu hands out the first major assessment of the year. And it’s a group task.
“You’ll be working in your lab pairs, so I don’t want to hear any complaining.” He addresses the class after the task folio is handed out, one for each table.
His fingers pour over every word on the pages of the assessment, careful as to not miss any details. His other hand is furiously scribbling in his notebook about how to approach the task, so consumed by his thoughts that he forgets there is a person in the seat beside him.
Something pokes at the side of his arm, “Kimi. Kimi. Kimi.” and in annoyance Kimi gives in and snaps.
“What.” He glares at the offender, flushing in embarrassment as Ollie stares at him and points to the paper.
“Can I see as well?” He tilts his head to the side, and Kimi shifts the paper over to the middle of the table.
“I am so sorry.” He apologises, but Ollie shakes his head.
“All’s well, now what are we supposed to do?” And at that moment the air fizzles with something, and Kimi feels it in bones, that this moment was the start of something new.
They giggle and theorise about the task, generating a multitude of different ideas on how to approach it, each one better than the next.
After Chemistry, they traverse through the corridors, and Kimi doesn’t realise he’s leading the older boy to his Italian Continuers class until he makes a turn into the Aston Wing.
“Ollie don’t you have class to get to too?” Kimi asks, and the older boy laughs.
“It’s ok Kimi, I have a free period in this slot, since I dropped German this year.” Ollie shakes his head.
Kimi nods in understanding, and they chat for a little more until they end up at the doorstep of his class. Ollie waves goodbye to him.
“See you at lunch.” He says and Kimi flushed with a smile, and waves back, closing the door on him.
“See you.” he breathes out, and turns around to take his seat. The chairs scrape loudly against tiled floors and the teacher shoots him a look.
“Got held up?” and this time Niko’s not there to laugh at him or shoot a quippy remark.
“Yeah.” and he spreads his papers out and rolls the pens on the table, waiting for his teacher to boot up his computer. When he finally does, his attention turns to Kimi and points to the screen.
“Well, then. we’re reading through your essay today. Your take on Greek influence in the Latin world was quite well done, however, I do have a few structural criticisms. Also it seems as if the English version of your piece was less detailed than …” He trails off, and it goes through Kimi’s ears and out the other.
-
When Kimi’s class is finished, he finds Ollie in the hallway, leaning against the lockers, sipping on some sort of drink from a floral paper cup. His backpack is slung on one shoulder, and in his other hand there's another cup.
“Hey Kimi.” He grins, and takes another sip, extending his other arm out to Kimi with the other cup.
“Ollie, what is this?” Kimi blinks up at him and the older just smiles and takes another sip.
“Try it. I promise it’s good. It'll be the best hot chocolate you’ll ever have.”
Tentatively, Kimi darts his tongue out to lap at the liquid pooling on top of the lid. The taste at first is sweet and creamy but not syrupy, the milky flavour melting into his tongue. He can’t really taste the cocoa, so he brings the cup to his lips and takes a sip. It’s everything, yet nothing like he expected.
The drink is infused with a rich cocoa, the taste smooth and elegant against his taste buds. There's the creaminess from earlier on, and soothes his throat and maybe Ollie was right. This is the best hot chocolate he’s ever tasted.
“Where did you get this?” He asks and he watches as the boy before him smiles, in a way he’s never seen from anyone else other than his family, one of those sun shattering smiles that would light up someone's day.
“There's a little diner downtown, but there's a shortcut if you take the West Street exit, and turn to the…” He stopped after seeing the utter look of confusion on Kimi’s face.
Kimi’s never been outside before. Although Year 9’s and above were allowed to go into the town during breaks and after school, as long as they were back by curfew, Kimi never really had a desire to. He ordered everything he needed online, or requested it from Mr Wolff and all his meals he ate at the dining hall. He’s only really stepped outside for school sanctioned events and nothing else.
“I’ve never been outside.” Kimi admits and Ollie makes a look of disbelief.
In the distance there’s the yell of “OLLIE!” presumably from one of his friends and he responds back with a loud “COMING!”
With an expression of disbelief painted on his face, he turns back to Kimi who’s silently sipping on the heavenly hot chocolate.
“Mate, you're kidding me. What do you mean you haven’t been outside? Not even to Silverstone Mall?” Kimi shakes his head at that and Ollie sighs.
“Well that just means I’ll have to take you sometime.” Ollie winks, then disappears down the next corner with a wave, leaving Kimi all alone in the corridor.
Oh well.
-
What Kimi doesn’t expect is for Ollie to fulfil his promise so soon.
The next day, once he’s done with all his classes and work for the day, he’s about to walk out of his dorm to the dining hall. That is, until he lets out a yelp after finding Ollie leaning against his doorframe of his dorm.
“Have you had dinner yet?” Ollie looks down at him and Kimi blinks and shakes his head.
“Good. You’re coming with me then.” Ollie exclaims and takes his hand, dragging him along the corridor.
“Where are we going?” Kimi sighs, as he uses his other hand to adjust his glasses. He gets a laugh from Ollie, and an ominous, “You’ll see.”
Kimi finds himself being led by the older boy, down helix stairs and winding hallways, until they arrive at a small nondescript door that one could easily mistake for a closet. Upon opening it, Kimi discovers that behind it is a gravel walkway that leads to an ivy wrapped pergola, marking an exit to the school.
It’s the edge of autumn in Silverstone, when the trees are no longer on fire with red and orange, but have burnt and withered into a lifeless brown, leaves drooping, waiting for their fall.
He shivers as the breeze passes him, and lets out a small sneeze. He’s still in his button up and school jumper, too thin to insulate anything. He’s pretty sure his puffer jacket and other winter necessities are stowed away in his trunk under his bed, too lazy to take them out until the windows are frosted with white. He’s never really had to account for British weather before until the bleak winter days, preferring to run on the school’s indoor track for physical recreation and staying inside for most days, basking in the comfort of the cozy heated rooms of the school.
Ollie, on the other hand, looks comfortable wrapped in his burgundy scarf, parka and red cardigan with a sweater underneath.
“Do you want my scarf?” He offers, beginning to unravel it around his neck, but Kimi vehemently shakes his head. It’s his fault that he didn’t wear something more suited to the weather.
“No.”
Despite this, he feels himself being bundled up in something warm and nice, and turns to find that Ollie has enveloped him in a tight hug.
“Stop lying to yourself, you’re going to catch a cold with the two layers you’re wearing and Mr Wolff will have my head.” Ollie sighs, the exhale puffing out into a visible cloud.
They walk for a while, until, the streets are unrecognisable, and when Kimi turns around he no longer can see the school where it is hidden upon its hill, obscured by the clusters of suburbia.
Eventually they reach an intersection, and Ollie turns them right, facing the sign that says Scott Street. They cross the road once the red man turns green with envy, standing still at a light he’ll never move from.
Ollie stops to a pause when they reach a cosy looking diner, lovingly lit with orange tinted lights and swinging glass doors that chime with bells once opened. The shop signs are lettered with simplistic white and blue calligraphy, the cursive letters framed by wiry silver chrome detailing.
“The Blue Diner” it reads, and Kimi peers inside the windows, at booths enclosed with plush navy leather and laminate countertops with stylized salt and pepper shakers.
They step inside, soles touching the checkered blue tiles.
“Made a friend, Ollie?” The man at the counter asks with a mischievous grin, and Ollie rolls his eyes. He’s fairly young, and perhaps younger than Ollie with wispy hair and twinkling hazel eyes.
“Shut up.” he groans, and Kimi stifles a laugh, unwrapping himself from Ollie’s arms, the heating inside the diner providing sufficient warmth. Ollie takes them to the booth to the right of the door, right up against the windows, down the corner, and seats them both down. As he reaches for the menu that’s sticking from its acrylic stand, Kimi notices that the person behind the counter is scrutinising their table, as if he was trying to figure something out. He’s unsure of what to order, and ready to ask for recommendations from Ollie, until his eyes catch onto the tortellini on the menu.
Tortellini.
It’s his favorite dish and he absolutely adores it and considers it humankind's greatest creation thus far, so he’s curious to see how this small diner in England would recreate the dish.
“What do you want to eat?” Ollie asks, tilting the menu away from Kimi’s face so that their faces meet, and in those soft brown eyes he looks at the reflection of himself, wide eyed a mess his glasses crooked were they perched on his nose. He pushes his glasses up and stares at the word tortellini until it wasn’t a word anymore.
“The tortellini please.” he says and Ollie smiles and turns to the guy at the counter and waves at him to come over.
The guy behind the counter is still looking at them, only this time, he has his hands in the shape of a gun and is aiming directly at Ollie and makes a little shooting motion. In response, Ollie clutches at his heart in an exaggerated manner and makes a wink. With only his hands making contact with the surface, he hops over the counter with no one else occupying it and dusts off his apron. Fetching a cloth from his pocket, he wipes down the area he jumped over, then makes his way to Kimi and Ollie’s table.
“Dino Beganovic, at your service.” he grins, bowing and doing a mock salute. “What would you like to order today?”
Dino? That sounds familiar to Kimi, yet he can’t place where.
“I’ll have my usual, and Kimi wants…” Ollie looks over to where Kimi is, who’s rapidly blinking. He doesn’t know why he’s blinking, or if the blinks mean anything, but he manages to utter out,
“I would like the tortellini please.”
Dino furiously scribbles it down on his notepad, then taps it twice to check if he’s got it down.
“Ok, that’s one Ollie special, one tortellini, and any drinks?” Kimi shakes his head, but Ollie asks for two hot chocolates and how that’ll be all.
He watches as Dino disappears into the backdoor and turns his eyes back to Ollie, who’s looking at him already, but looks away shyly.
Their hot chocolate is served, not by Dino but by a girl that’s oddly familiar, with a name tag that reads ‘Lia’.
“Hey Ollie! Hi Kimi!” She smiles, and Kimi watches as Ollie smiles back, and Kimi realises where he knows this girl from. It’s Lia Block, whom he’s shared a Math’s class with for the last three years and used to play handball with during lunch breaks.
“Hey Lia.” Ollie greets, and Kimi waves with a smile and Lia sets the two mugs of steaming hot chocolate down.
“Enjoy guys.” and she disappears with a little wave, back into the kitchen.
When Kimi tastes the hot chocolate, he’s immediately brought back to the day before, after his Italian Continuers class. It’s still as good as he remembered, the taste absolutely divine on his tongue.
“It’s from here?” and Ollie nods eagerly.
“Now you know where to get it from.” he smiles and takes another long drink from his mug.
As they sip on the hot chocolate, Kimi and Ollie begin to talk.
It’s a strange phenomenon, just suddenly clicking with someone. He wouldn’t go as far as to compare it to finding his soulmate, but he’s never really felt this with anyone else before, the way they’ll start one conversation, and how it smoothly transitioned into the next. How they could really talk about anything and everything. It was like he understood all the random concepts, astronomical to microscopic, obscure to widely discussed, that Kimi talked to him about, giving thoughtful insights to each point he makes.
When the food arrives, served by Dino, who cracks a joke about Ollie being on a date earning a finger from Ollie, Kimi finds out that Ollie’s special order is fettuccine with a side of curly chips.
He looks at the tortellini in front of him, and he’s not one to judge by appearances, but it looks a bit plain to say the very least. The presentation is simple enough, there's nothing suspicious or unique about it. From the cut of the dough and the closing, he could tell it had been delicately handmade, so that excited him a little. The ones served in the school dining hall were always factory made, so it’d been a while since he’s had handcrafted tortellini, so he takes a bite.
He immediately takes back his words calling it ordinary. This might be the one of the best tortellini he’s ever eaten. Maybe not as good as his nonna’s or that one restaurant in Bologna but amazing nonetheless. It's beautiful. The flavour is just right, not overwhelming against his taste buds, and the texture is just right. The filling is exactly what he prefers, ground pork with finishings of parmesan and parsley. His eyes widen and meets Ollie who has a forkful of fettuccine in his mouth.
“It’s good, yeah?” He says after chewing all his food thoroughly. Kimi nods in agreement.
When they scrape their plates clean they resume back to chatting, until Lia comes back to take away their finished plates and only their empty hot chocolates are on the table.
Eventually, even that gets taken away from them, but in its replacement a large slice of tiramisu is placed on the table. Huh, that's weird, he doesn’t remember ordering tiramisu at all.
“Here, have some tiramisu as a treat” Dino winks at him. Kimi blinks up at the guy, and redirects his attention to Ollie, who’s staring at Dino with a strange, almost annoyed expression. Their eyes meet, and the tips of Ollie’s ears turn red.
‘Maybe the heater is turned on too high where he is.’ Kimi thinks and thanks Dino for the tiramisu.
“That was nice of him, giving us free dessert.” He comments as Dino skips away from his table to return behind the counter to chat up some blonde girl. Ollie sighs and shakes his head.
“He’s up to something, I can feel it.” and Kimi made a face at that. He really hoped not, with how mouthwateringly good the tiramisu looked.
“Well, I hope the tiramisu is safe to eat” He mutters and Ollie smiles.
“Don’t worry of course it is. It should be.” He reassures Kimi and he picks up the fork.
The tiramisu is a work of art. He’s running out of compliments to give, but the tiramisu is definitely something. Presentation wise it’s beautiful, the cocoa powder finely dusted evenly, leaving behind an imprint of what seems to be a cute dinosaur? Although the implication of something being done to it has made him more alert, this is still a brilliant slice of tiramisu.
“Then what do you mean by that?” Kimi asks.
“He’s being suspiciously nice to me, something’s definitely up with him.” His eyebrows furrowed and he ran his hand through his hair. Kimi scrunched up his face in confusement.
“Don’t worry about it, I’ll find out on Saturday.” and with that Ollie pierces the fork through the mascarpone, cutting off a chunk and biting it, making a sound of contentment.
When there’s only crumbs left on the plate, there’s a smidge of mascarpone on Ollie’s mouth, and it’s ticking him off.
“You have a bit… here.” Kimi points to the upper corner of his lips and Ollie looks at his hands, brushing the spot above his lips, mirroring Kimi’s actions, but just missing at one spot.
“No…” and Ollie moves his to the other side of his face to it off, but to no avail. Frustrated, Kimi leans forward and wipes that bit off and delicately licks it off his finger. The heater must be turned way too high where Ollie is because his face has flushed crimson and Kimi just blinks at him. There’s laughter in the background, and when he turns to find the source, Dino is bent over the counter, hands clutching at his stomach. When Lia comes to take the empty plates away, they bid goodbye to the diner.
“Come back again!” Dino calls, and the doorbell chimes as they step out into the cool crisp air. It’s even colder than before, his breath almost tangible in the dim lights and Kimi shivers. The sky had already turned an inky black, the street lights illuminating the streets and the way back home. There’s something being draped on his shoulder, and when Kimi turns his head, he finds that Ollie has shed off a layer for Kimi to wear.
“Won’t you be cold?” He questions and Ollie shakes his head.
“Definitely not any colder than you.” and they cross Scott Street together, the red lights blinking at them as they race to the footpath. And so they run, all the way back to school, through the front gate as the smaller entrances must have been locked up by now, careful as to not miss the curfew. The matron was waiting for them with a sharp tongue at the gates.
“Antonelli. Bearman. Just in time it seems.” She smiles at them and lets them inside, the brass gates creaking behind them.
They’re back at the dorms now, resting in the quiet of the Year 11 common room, when most others have retreated back to the comfort of their own dorms.
“How do you know so many people at the diner?” Kimi asks, while fiddling with the tassels on Ollie’s scarf.
“I work there on weekends.” Ollie explains while shedding off his jacket.
“In the kitchen?” Kimi blinks up at him and Ollie laughs, with his being, shaking to the core.
“No, no. I’m a waiter. Sometimes I operate the cashier if Dino’s too busy. I can make mediocre meals, simple and sweet, but if you ask me to make an omelette, I’ll make scrambled eggs on a ruined pan.” He admits, the heating of the common room bringing a rosy glow to his cheeks.
“That’s nice.” Kimi comments, and gives the parka back to Ollie. “I’ll have to go shower now, so goodnight?”
“Yeah, Goodnight it is then.” Ollie smiles and takes his parka back.
“Goodnight Ollie.” Kimi waves, as he heads out the door to go downstairs.
“Night, Kimi” He breathes out, and smiles, at the shrinking figure of the boy.
And as Kimi walks down the stairs, he wonders how Ollie knew where his dorm was in the first place, but he leaves it in the back of his mind, because everything’s going a bit too fast for him.
Profile #01
Name: Andrea Kimi Antonelli
Prefers: Kimi
Age: 15
Occupation: Year 11 Student at Silverstone International Academy
Best Subject: Physics
Hobbies: Biochemistry, Physics, Talking to Niko's succulent
Fun Fact: Currently his best friend and only friend is a succulent