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It should be around here…
Late at night, Idia drifted through NRC's courtyard like a ghost, holding a can of tuna. He'd spotted a cat on the camera feeds, and promptly lost all reason in order to find it. He couldn't miss this opportunity! How rare was it for a cat to manage to sneak in!?
There! It was that bush!
Idia rushed over and crouched down. Through the leaves, he spotted a hint of white kitty fur. Score!
As he uncapped the can of tuna, a familiar scent filled his nose. Idia went to run away in reflex before his brain caught up with him, and he relaxed. He recognized that scary Lilia Vanrouge's scent, so bloody and metallic that it made him sick, but the intensity was all wrong. Lilia didn't smell that strongly.
Silver, however…
Idia wasn't sure what their relationship was, since he'd never seen them kiss or hold hands or anything—not even on security cams—but one thing was for certain: Lilia was one possessive bastard. Every day, he coated Silver in his scent, so thoroughly that it drowned out his own natural scent.
Idia peered over the bushes and, sure enough, found Silver lying down on the grass.
Better avoid an extrovert like him… Idia turned away and pretended that his eyes didn't linger.
The bush next to him ruffled.
A little furry head peeked out. The white-haired kitten sniffed the air, little pink nose turned up in the air. Idia muffled a squeak into his fist and shakily extended the can of tuna. So fluffy, so small, so, so…!!!
SO CUTE!!
Idia squeezed his fists tight with repressed cuteness aggression.
The kitty hesitated by the edge of the bush, observing Idia closely, body low to the ground and ready to pounce away.
"Pst, pst, pst…" Idia tried to entice.
Seemingly convinced, the kitty-cat suddenly perked up and dashed toward him. Idia squealed silently, beginning to open his arms, and then—
—the kitty ran past him and into someone else's ankles.
Silver crouched down next to him.
…Silver!?
Idia's heart leaped out of his chest, and he fell over in shock. Ever the perfect knight, Silver grabbed him by the arm and stabilized him. His other hand was gently caressing the meowing kitty's head.
"Idia-senpai, good evening," Silver said.
"G-g-g-good… Good evening," Idia choked out.
"It seems I surprised you again, I apologize."
"No, uh…" Idia's heart still hadn't settled, so his tongue became heavy. He could only turn away and mutter to himself: "How unlucky can I be? Did I seriously wake up that guy with a little 'pst, pst'? But I thought he needed ten alarms just to wake up in the morning…"
"I'm surprised you know that, Idia-senpai."
"GYAH! Don't listen in when I'm talking to myself!"
"It's hard not to hear when you're right next to me. But it was not your 'pst, pst,'"—he quoted seriously—"that woke me up. I just smelled something nice."
"Something… nice…"
Huh?
Silver smiled, just a little. "It must have been Idia-senpai's scent."
"…Huh?"
"I'm glad I was finally able to tell you," Silver said. "Every time I tried to before, you ran away before I could."
"…What?"
Did he just…
CTRL+ALT+DEL, Idia opened his task manager and saw that Heart.exe had stopped responding. This was why he needed to invest in good hardware—didn't matter how good the software was if the hardware couldn't keep up! Next project: artificial heart.
Did he seriously just compliment Idia's scent?
Did he plan to compliment Idia's scent…!?
There was no way. A guy like Silver, complimenting a nobody loser like Idia… No one had ever complimented Idia on his scent, and for good reason: he barely had any. Idia had always assumed he would follow in the footsteps of his peers: forever_alone.JPEG
A pink light illuminated Silver's face. Idia clutched his hair and tried to pretend it was still blue.
Silver tilted his head and closed his eyes. "Yes," he nodded, "just like that."
Had he really smelled the tiny little increase in Idia's scent, born out of embarrassment? What kind of OP skills did he have!? Idia curled upon himself with a squeaking noise. This couldn't be real, this couldn't be real! Ortho, save me!
A faint laugh made him peek through his fingers. He expected Silver to be playing with the kitty, but Silver was still looking at him.
"I wish I could smell it more often," he said with utmost sincerity. "But I understand that Idia-senpai is shy with his scent."
SHY!?
Idia… SHY!? No, no, he was supposed to call him 'creepy' and 'uncomfortable'! Not 'shy'!
What was he even supposed to say to that!? Idia desperately searched for something to say, and, out of pure desperation, ended up blurting out: "Your scent is nice too!"
………Idia closed his eyes in despair. That was the worst possible answer.
His social anxiety debuff made his legs too weak to run away, and so he stayed crouched down waiting for death. Maybe his curse would have pity on him and devour him whole instantly…
Of course, nice things didn't happen to Idia, so he remained alive.
"Thank you," Silver said.
"I-I-I mean! Y-y-your real scent! Not your mate's scent! Not that I know your scent well enough to differentiate or anything, so maybe I'm wrong, or, I don't know. I don't know! It's not like I want to scent mark you or anything! I DON'T KNOW!"
They stared at each other in silence.
Then Silver said, "But, I don't have a mate?"
Idia slowly stood up, shaking legs and all. Silver helped him, standing up as well.
Idia turned to him, face blank and pale, and said: "I have to leave."
Silver blinked. "Oh, okay."
"Bye."
"…Goodbye?"
Idia walked off.
Silver looked down at the kitty rubbing against his ankle, wondering what to do, when there came the sound of footsteps again.
Idia came to a stop in front of him. He pointed at Silver. "Are you single?"
"…Yes?"
"Okay."
Idia turned back around, took two steps, then turned back again. "S-so…"
Silver blinked. "I apologize if I misunderstood. My old man told me that I needed to compliment someone's scent in order to suggest a relationship… Did I get it wrong?"
Idia turned back to leave, then turned to face him again.
"Nope," he said, with a wild mane of pink hair and a face that didn't know whether to cry or smile or both. "Not wrong at all."