Work Text:
just an oc highschool au thingy i made revolving around the semi-canon ship of my ocs, Xeno and Maya:
(warning: the ending isnt so pleasant, enjoy ^^)
———
Xeno never found himself falling in love his entire life.
Yeah, he had crushes, but not a love interest.
Crushes, to him, are just people whom you admire and feel butterflies when near them. They’d stick and leech onto you for a while before fleeting away, like mosquitoes.
His way of viewing the subjective term already shows just how unlikely it is for him to feel such a way. Which makes it even harder for him to fall in love.
So how’d he end up like this?
His fingers are interlocked with Maya’s, her strands of hair tickling his shoulder, and even better—they’re out in the snow, in the backyard behind her house filled with people gaming, drinking, playing, singing, whatever, spontaneously.
The sky was dark, the only thing you can make out in there were small, independent atoms of stars floating around in whimsy.
It was all too weird, whats even weirder was that they had been dating for several months already. But why now? Why was he just now feeling so jittery yet happy around her?
Of course, ever since they formed a relationship together he realized he was in love with her. But why was that emotion bubbling up even more in this very moment?
To help begin with, lets start from scratch:
— —— —
They had first met in middle school, 7th grade. At first they were just classmates from the same homeroom, nothing more.
Later on, Xeno started noticing Maya more and more. They shared some of the same classes, which was probably why.
He doesn’t appreciate loud noises, humans, and environments too much, unfortunately that was the genre of the people who swarmed and hung around Maya.
Noisy, reckless, chaotic. He would do everything in order to avoid such a disastrous and bustling crowd.
He usually stays in the stairwells during lunch with his own little friend group. (Dont worry, the school allows it—for some reason.) It was nice, until this very particular time.
One day, his friends left him for a bit to throw away their finished food. Suddenly, the pack of lions alongside Maya were starting to trot downstairs, laughing and gossiping altogether like there was no tomorrow. Xeno didn’t know what to do. He had already finished his food and threw it away. He darted his eyes around to see if his friends are back yet. They weren’t.
Now, he could’ve walked away and go to the restroom like an ordinary human, and he also could’ve just gone to his friends to evade the chatterboxes lurking near him. However, Xeno was too focused on thinking of ways to survive such a petrifying situation that he didn’t notice that they were right behind him.
‘This is gonna be the death of me,’ his head chanted.
Turns out they just wanted to say hi and bounced right after. That was the very first time he interacted with Maya. Heck, it was literally the end of the semester. School was gonna end in the near future.
“Hello!” She said.
He just waved back. Could he even call it an interaction? She didn’t even look at him. Or so he thought.
A few days went by. Maya said her hellos to Xeno more and more throughout the hours, and eventually, Xeno found himself doing the same. Those short greetings soon turned to small conversations, then exchanging numbers, then initiating hang outs together, then midnight calls, and after a grocery-like list of things they did with each other, they were now in high school.
Maya was the one who confessed. Xeno very quickly realized that their feelings were mutual, and that the warm fuzzy feeling he normally held for her wasn’t just for anyone—it was for her, and her only.
They started dating and had a normal, yet happy and healthy relationship together.
End of story, right? Kind of. Not really. Let’s get back to where we were:
————————————
It was now Mayas birthday. January 6. She had just finished celebrating, eating, and unwrapping the many gifts that were meant for her. It’s expected for her to get lots of presents. She was pretty popular in school, town, and everywhere she goes.
Her bubbly personality complements her lively demeanor very well, which was probably one of the one-in-a-million reasons why so many people enjoyed her company. As soon as she had nothing else to do, her first thought was to go straight to Xeno and say hello.
“Hello!” She approached him from behind.
“Ack! Jeez, you freaked me out for a second there.” He responded, sighing in relief.
She chuckled then walked next to him. She asked the following question, “Wanna go play in the snow?”
“Sure, just don’t get sick like last time.”
“Oh come on..! It’s not my fault I had to wear plastic gloves! My cousins stole all of the ones I owned.”
“That doesn’t help with the fact that you voluntarily ate the snow on the ground.”
“Wait, you were talking about that time?”
“Huh? What? Which time were you talking about?”
“What? I’m starting to forget—what were we talking about?”
“What?”
“What?”
.
.
.
…A shared moment of silence.
..Then, the shared laughter that filled the air. Their laughs weren’t forced and had absolutely no filter. Xeno laughed like a window wiper. Maya laughed like a witch. For some odd reason, it was nice, not being perfect with each other.
- - -
After walking around for a while and chatting with each other, they both wordlessly agreed to hold hands out in the cold, but comforting snow. Now this, was when he started to feel constipated of the overwhelming feeling of love and nervousness in him. If it weren’t for the cold air, he look quite peculiar with his face all red. They stayed like that and wondered around until they went back into her house.
Later, about an hour or two of accompanying each other and playing video games, Xeno had to leave.
His dad was calling him from downstairs. Before he went out, she kissed him on the cheek and said goodbye. He really hoped that she didn’t see how tomato-ish his face got. “Catch you later.” He replied, trying to seem nonchalant. That didn’t go as planned, hearing the giggles behind him. Whatever, he actually preferred it that way.
——————————————————
It’s been a while since Xeno had seen Maya in person. He decided to pay her a visit.
He brought a lisianthus flower with him, those were her favorite. He walked towards her.
“Hey, Maya.”
There was no response.
He stood still in front of her.
“Remember.. that one time, when it was your birthday?..”
He leaned down, then sat in front of the grave.
He gave her the flower. “I enjoyed it. A lot.”
He steered his head towards her, just so that he can see her.
“Thank you for telling me hello. From the very start.”
Rain droplets started to fall on the grass. It was a small sprinkle. It reminded him of the melting snow on January the 6th. A few years ago.
He couldn’t tell which was falling harder. The now heavy clumps of rain hitting him, or the continuous salty tears dripping on his face.
It didn’t matter. He just didn’t want her to see him like this.