Work Text:
The note fell out of his locker and onto the floor. At first, Leon just groaned and picked it up, because he thought it was some of the loose-leaf homework assignments that lived on the top shelf. He needed to clean this thing.
When he saw it was folded, his curiosity was piqued. Most of the papers up there were varying degrees of crumpled, but this one was neat— the edges even lined up, which Leon never learned how to get paper to do. Anything he'd ever folded in his life had been refolded at least twice before giving up and accepting imperfection.
Leon opened it.
I find you quite beautiful.
Leon closed it, blushing and looking around rapidly to make sure nobody could see him blushing. He'd managed to mess up the crease, so the edges didn't line up.
It felt… weird. ‘Beautiful’ wasn't exactly in the top ten words Leon would ever use to describe himself. ‘Handsome’, maybe. More like the top twenty. It was hard to feel handsome when you were getting crazy acne and sweating all the time, but he did try to look cool. ‘Cool’ was in the top fifteen, easy. Leon did think he was pretty cool.
But ‘beautiful?’ He was pretty confident he wasn't that. For one, he was a guy. Okay, maybe greek statue guys could be beautiful, but like, Leon wasn't that. You had to be beautiful beautiful to be beautiful as a guy. And for another, he just… wasn't. He was edgy and punk and stuff. Not to mention, he'd broken his nose at least twice, and he had pretty nasty looking hands and feet. He was rough around the edges. ‘Rugged’ could make the top fifty, on a good day, maybe.
So he wasn't sure how to feel. On the one hand, it was probably meant as a compliment— probably, because there was a non-zero chance it was Mondo fucking with him. Shit, it was probably a pass at him. But it didn't feel like a compliment he should be allowed to take.
He shoved the note in his pocket, deciding that it wasn't that deep.
Leon fidgeted with the note in his pocket the whole day. Every once in awhile, he'd take it out, slightly more crumpled now that it had been in his jeans, and he'd read the words again. He didn't think this was Mondo's handwriting— less based on evidence and more based on vibes. Mondo did not seem like the kind of guy who could fake good handwriting, and he sure as shit didn’t have it naturally.
The girls in his class weren't really ‘secret admirer’ types. Maybe Kyoko could be, he guessed. Anybody else would either tell him to his face or enter a death-like trance on their way to put the note in his locker. Kyoko probably did have nice handwriting, and killer folding skills. He didn't really seem like her type, and she wasn't really his, but— it wasn't like he was going to turn down a pretty girl.
“What's that?”
Leon jumped out of his skin.
Chihiro sat down next to him in the science lab. Well, if it was Chihiro, her soul would certainly have left her body upon seeing what he was holding, so definitely not her.
“I, uh—” Leon stuck his hand behind his head awkwardly. “I got a note in my locker, a secret admirer I guess.” He was hopeful she wouldn't ask to actually read it.
Her eyes lit up, she clasped her hands together. “Oh, that's wonderful!” Her eyes quickly flicked away from him, then focused back on his own. “Man, whoever put that in there must have some pretty good taste, huh?”
Leon squinched his eyebrows. Chihiro was, to put it mildly, not very good at hiding things.
She knew who it was.
But Leon couldn't look back to see who her eyes had flicked to. That felt weird, like an invasion of privacy. And they were towards the front of the room, anyway. It could be anyone.
Chihiro shrank under his scrutiny, and started anxiously organizing her papers and babbling. Leon freed her of his suspicious glare, but he kept this new piece of information in mind.
Who did Chihiro hang out with?
Chihiro didn't hang out with any girls. It was kind of crazy that he hadn't noticed that until now, honestly. Like, what the hell, right?
It could be a guy.
It wasn't a guy. Shut up.
He couldn't date a guy, even if he wanted to. Which he didn’t. He'd never thought about it, he guessed. Only a couple times, really, and every time he decided no, definitely no. But even if he did want to, he'd never be able to face anybody in a locker room again if he liked guys. Plus, dating girls was cool. Nobody ever bragged about bagging a hot guy. Even lesbians were cool. That's why guys liked them so much.
And Chihiro's friends weren't even hot guys. The venn diagram of Chihiro's friends and Leon's friends was a near perfect circle, the exceptions being Taka and Hifumi. Leon's friends were all butt ugly bastards with terrible personalities, and the other two made up the geek squad.
That wasn't fair. They also had terrible personalities.
He guessed Makoto was also Chihiro's friend. He was kinda everybody's friend. And he had this cute demeanor to him, always kind of sheepish and embarrassed about something.
He was definitely not the kind of guy who could fold a paper and make the edges meet, though.
It didn't matter. This was stupid. Leon finished tying his sneakers and threw the note, along with his jeans, into his locker. He usually hated working out, but right now, it was a welcome distraction.
“Kuwata!” Coach Nidai barked at him, causing him to stop his reps.
“Yeah?” Leon sat up, looking upward at the hulking man. Someone big and strong like Nidai might not be a bad guy to date. Though he was… kinda a lot. Most of the guys at this school were. Everybody. He meant everybody. Most of the everybody at this school was intense.
Nidai frowned at the ground and sighed. He looked back at Leon. “Alright, out with it. What’s bothering you?”
Leon’s blood ran cold. “What? Don’t be stupid, man, everything’s fine.”
“I can see the tension in your shoulders,” Nidai pointed at him, “if you keep going without getting that shit off your chest, then you’ll strain a muscle!”
Damnit. If Nidai was convinced it was affecting his health, he wouldn’t let it slide. “It’s not a big deal, dude.”
Nidai gave him a look that said ‘if you don’t back track in the next two seconds I’m going to lecture you about the importance of mental and physical health.’
Well, he was probably pretty removed from the situation, anyway. He was an upperclassman. “I just… I think somebody likes me, and I don’t know how to feel about that.”
Nidai hummed. “Do you like them back?”
“I don’t know who they are— they just left a note in my locker, is all… and normally I’d be wild about the idea of having a girlfriend, but I don’t think…” I don’t think its a girl.
Nidai nodded. He sat on a bench across from Leon. “Is that something you have a problem with?”
“W-what! No, who cares if… I mean, I’m not gay. But I don’t really care if somebody else is gay. None of my business.”
Nidai chuckled, “That’s good to hear. Maybe, you could make that clear to this person, then, and you could just be friends. Always good to have another friend around; especially one that thinks you're handsome.”
“Beautiful.” Leon said, kicking himself immediately for saying it.
Nidai pinched his eyebrows together. “Huh?”
“He… he said I was beautiful.”
Nidai whistled. “Severe.”
“Tell me about it,” Leon laughed harshly. “I just… I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel.”
“You’re not ‘supposed’ to feel anything,” Nidai paused. “Would it be so bad?”
Leon’s pulse picked up. “What?”
“If you gave him a shot. Would that be so bad?”
It’d be terrible. It’d be social suicide. It’d be impossible… “It’d depend on the guy, I guess.”
Nidai smiled. “Attaboy.”
He felt the tension leave him all at once, like somebody had snapped a rubber band. “Thanks, coach,” he said shyly.
Nidai gave him a pat on the back. “You’re dismissed. Get some rest.”
Leon wasn’t really sure how to go about making it known that, like, ‘Hey, I’m not a homophobe and we could be friends maybe or maybe even kiss if you’re cute?’ was the way he was feeling about the situation to the mystery man. He’d ruled out a few people. It wasn’t Mondo, because Mondo was suddenly very stupidly gay for Taka, as of this week. It wasn’t Taka, either, likewise because he was stupidly gay for Mondo. And that was fine! But, like, seriously. Get a room. He guessed it could’ve been them and they just changed their mind after figuring out they were soulmates, but that would’ve been kinda a bummer. It probably wasn’t Byakuya Togami, but the idea of it being him was pretty funny. And sadly, Makoto was just complete dogshit at folding paper. Leon had tricked him in a feeble attempt at investigation. How did Kyoko do this?
No, no, he could figure this out. There were only two people left, right? Hiro and—
“Oh hey, check it out!” Leon heard Junko say from across the room. It was lunch time, and Leon had been ignoring Taka and Mondo fawning over each other in favor of… doing whatever this was. But Junko was loud about whatever her discovery was, and it grabbed everybody’s attention.
“This is really good, Hifumi!” She said cheerily.
“Oh, um, thank you, Ms. Enoshima, but, really, it’s not so—”
“No, forreal! The likeness is, like, totally spot on! Everybody, come look at this!” She grabbed Hifumi’s sketchbook. Chihiro froze her pen tapping next to Leon. Junko walked over to where they were sitting, and—
Leon saw his own face rendered on the page.
He looked… beautiful.
Hifumi, on the other hand, looked terrified.
It’s Hifumi. It’s Hifumi.
But Hifumi, like… sucks. He’s a total dork, and he’s not cute at all, and he’s arrogant and always saying some bullshit and…
And right now, he’s terrified.
“That’s really cool,” said Leon, “but I think you should give that back.”
“Oh! Right, sorrrryyyy Hifumi, I just thought it was so great.” She handed the sketchbook back to Hifumi, who had a look of solemn dread on his face, as though he were awaiting death.
And even though Hifumi did suck, he felt bad for the guy.
Leon got up, in spite of Chihiro’s meek protests, and walked over to where Hifumi was sitting. He sat down backwards on the chair in front of his desk. “I thought you didn’t draw real people.”
Hifumi stared at him for a moment, seemingly disbelieving that he wasn’t about to bite his head off. “One must learn the rules in order to exaggerate and break them.” He adjusted his glasses and flipped to a blank page. “ Studying from life is a great way to improve. But, I must apologize, I… I should’ve asked if it was okay first, or… I shouldn’t’ve done that, I’m sorry.”
Leon laughed light-heartedly, “It’s all good man. You’re really talented. Well, I mean… I guess that’s obvious.”
“It’s a honed skill, Mr. Kuwata!” Hifumi said exuberantly, getting more comfortable in the conversation. “I practice nigh every day. I don’t want you to think I’m resting on my laurels. Talent alone can only get you so far.” He scoffed.
“I wish I was that passionate about something…” Leon rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. He wasn’t… hating the conversation so far. It was actually kind of… nice?
“It’s hell,” Hifumi said, overly glum.
Leon laughed. “But I thought you loved it?”
“I hate it, and I can’t live without it. It’s my curse.” He lifted his hand to his forehead melodramatically.
They talked for a bit more about whatever, but their conversation was cut short by the next period starting up. Leon was surprised to find he was sad to see it end so abruptly. Hifumi scrunched his nose in displeasure when he saw the time was near their next period, and Leon had absent-mindedly thought that it was a little cute.
The next day, Leon found a note in his locker, perfectly folded with neat handwriting.
‘Thank you for humoring me.’
Leon grabbed one of the loose papers in his locker, ripped off a corner, and marched on over to Hifumi’s locker.
‘I had fun. Call me if you need a model ;)’
He wrote out his digits and folded the paper, then refolded the paper, then gave up, and slipped it in through the top.