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It was just an average school day for Clover. Same schedule, same classrooms, same topics brought up three years prior (even though they advanced a grade, rather undeservedly; they never actually finished 7th grade), same everything. At the very least they’ve been getting perfect scores on everything. Heh, at this rate they’d just need glasses to complete being a nerd. Granted it was only a few weeks into the school year.
Clover actually hadn’t really made any friends yet. Darn social anxiety. And they had managed to actually speak at home, too.
Finally the bell had rung. Kanako was out the door first between the two, since her last class was closer. Clover always gave a good fight, even using their dashing ability, but got silver no matter what.
The two were waiting outside for Kuroba to come. The three of them always walked home together, even though the two could absolutely make it back on their own. It was a nice time to unwind from the potential stresses of school and make nice conversation.
As usual, Kanako and Clover waited between the building and the sidewalk, near the field. There was another group of kids there playing baseball, either for a club, a team, or for fun. Clover heeded no mind; they weren’t exactly the sporty type. Though track and field did call to them a bit… Eh, maybe next year.
“Oh, shoot,” Kanako said suddenly. “Left some work in the classroom. Why was it even assigned, it’s Friday? Haah. Gotta go get it.”
“Ah, alright,” Clover responded. “Be quick. Kuro’s gonna be here soon.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know.” Kanako left, complaining to his embedded serpentine companions about the whole endeavor. (“Ugh, why didn.. ... .... .... ...” “... .... ..... ... .. ......... ...... ............”)
Clover was left out in the open, but they didn’t mind. Certainly wasn’t the first time they were left to their own devices. They just took the time to think to themself. They had already finished their homework, so what should they do for the rest of the day? They opened their phone just to scroll since they knew there wouldn't be a chapter update for their favorite series since the most recent one was just two days prior.
A crack of a bat.
Clover’s ears perked up. (Must be a homerun or something,) they thought. They kept scrolling.
“I got it, I got it!” a voice said, slowly getting closer to them.
Nope, not really anything interesting. Oh well, might as well just wait around for Kanako. Shouldn’t be too long until they come back.
“Hup!” the voice grunted, right behind Clover. They turned around and—
CRASH!
It was like a cartoon the way the two of them made a cloud of dust, they even rolled like a wheel inside of it.
“Ha! Got it! Yyyyeeeeer out, buster!” the crasher yelled to the infield.
Clover slowly opened their eyes. (Ugh… head… hurts…) They tried to get up, but that kid was still on them. “Hey, um. Excuse me?”
“Hm?” they turned around, finally noticing that they were on someone. “Oh! Sorry!” They got off of Clover, and extended a hand. “Here, lemme help you up.”
“Yeah, thank… you…” Clover trailed off when they saw the other’s face.
First off, they could tell that it was a girl. There was something about her soft smile that made them sure of it. She had striking light blue eyes, a dark blue nose, light tan fur, black hair, and two blue antlers. She was definitely a reindeer monster. And she had definitely captivated Clover. They could feel their cheeks blushing.
“Great!” she replied. “Sorry for crashing into you.”
“N-No. I-It’s my bad. I-I’m usually better at reacting.”
“OI! What’s taking you so long!” a voice cried out from the field.
“Sorry,” she cried back, “just trying to make sure this kid’s alright. I caught the ball, in case ya didn’t hear.” She turned back to Clover, gave a slight smile (was that… a bit of blush as well?) and ran back.
Clover didn’t even get her name.
“So, Ver,” Kanako said, spooking Clover who gave a small yelp, “who was that?”
“Oh, um… I, I don’t know,” Clover responded. “She kinda… crashed into me.”
“And is that why you’re blushing like an idiot?”
“Wha-duh-duh. Ike, I., I. It’s. It’s just. because. I’m, I’m embarrassed! There’s a whole field of people who watched that! That’s it!”
“Uuuuuuuuhhhh huh. Tooooootally.”
“Ko, just. Just sh-shut up. Baka!”
Kanako snickered. “Did you really, genuinely, unironically, make a conscious effort to say—”
“SHUT UP! K-Kuro’s almost here. It’s nothing serious, alright?”
“Alright, we’ll drop it. (Awww, but I wanted to sssssssee more.) (Shut it.) But you better hope that Clo doesn’t catch a whiff. We all know you’ll never hear an end to it.”
“Never hear an end to what?” Kuroba asked, seemingly appearing out of nowhere.
“Nothing super important for you to know,” Clover responded, knowing that lying would be impossible. As long as Kuroba’s built-in lie detector didn’t go off, things should be fine.
“Trying to avoid getting teased, huh?” they said, raising an eyebrow.
“Classified.”
“You know that’s an admission of guilt, right?”
“Would you rather I plead the 5th?”
“Would it cause more teasing than watching actual baby shows?”
“You figure it out.”
“So that’s also a yes.”
“I can change the password to the Viz account. Force ya to use MangaDex for delayed readings.”
“Brat.”
“Playing to my advantage, Kuro.”
“Ugh, whatever. Let’s just head home. Ka-san’ll worry if we’re gone too long.”
The three set out for home, which unfortunately for Clover meant that their brain got to thinking, which in this scenario meant that they were thinking about that girl. They didn’t want to admit it to Kanako (though he probably already knows, with how he was proding Clover on), but they did think that they developed a crush on her. Which was insane since it was their first meeting. Is “love at first sight” a real thing? Clover thought it was just for media. Then again, they thought they recalled Ceroba mentioning something similar for her and Chujin, so maybe it was real… In any case, with Kuroba’s back to them, Clover thought they could safely think without it simply being perceived by them. Stupid same-person-psychic-mind-reading the two of them have… very inconvenient for something like this.
(Oooookaaaayyyyyy,) Clover began thinking. (So. You... may have a crush. Which is... fine. So fine. There's absolutely no panic going through your mind at this present moment, everything's A-Okay. There is nooooooooooooooothiiiiiiiiing wroooooooong. It was just. A girl. A cute girl. A really pretty girl. A really pretty girl who quite literally crashed into you. Oh God, is this what they mean by “head over heels?" No, your feet were absolutely higher than your head at that moment.)
(But then again... you thought you were aro-ace. Kuro's aro-ace, and the two of you are literally the same person. I-It'd only be natural that you're aro-ace as well. But, if not aro-ace, then what? You know there's no sexual attraction, so absolutely ace. But, what about romance? You feel about the same way for everyone regardless. Pan? Panromantic? Is that it? Is that what you are? No, determining that from just one instance is stupid. But it could do well to keep it in mind. You just gotta think on it more...)
—
Clover still couldn’t get her out of their mind. It had been weeks and they were still thinking of her. The two still hadn’t talked yet; Clover was way too nervous. They tried going up to her at lunch one time, but the table was too crowded (there were available seats) so they chickened out. At the very least they were able to get her name, if only through classroom attendance, since the two shared a math class together. Her name was December Holiday.
One day, Clover was rushing to class, afraid that they were gonna be late. They had wanted to ask the teacher a question and it went on for longer than expected. They were sure they were gonna be fine, but they wanted to err on the edge of caution.
While rushing through the halls and nearing a corner, they heard a conversation and couldn’t help listening in on accident.
“So you really have a crush on someone?”
“Yeah.” (That’s December!)
“Oh, you have got to tell me. Is he cute?
“Yeah, he’s kinda cute.”
BAM!
Clover ran into the two of them. Specifically into December.
“Uwaah! S-Sorry!” Clover said in embarrassment. “I was trying to make sure I got to class on time. My classes are on complete opposite sides of the building. I wish I could apologize more, but I really gotta go. Sorry again!”
Clover was about to literally dash away to make up for lost time when December’s friend had said, “You know, he’s kinda cute.”
They turned around and said, a little bit sheepishly, “Oh, uh, s-sorry. I’m non-binary. Not a boy. Although, I suppose I do wear rather ‘boy-ish’ clothes. Maybe I should wear some skirts or something… A-Anyways, I really do have to go. Sorry again for crashing into you! Bye!”
Clover had run off, admittedly rather heartbroken upon hearing that December had a crush on a boy, but they couldn’t let that get to them. If anything, not having to worry about if she felt the same way was a bit liberating, since they could focus purely on their classes. But it had still stung.
Later at lunch, Clover decided to sit by themselves, in order to try and let the heartache be drowned out by a stomachache (or a stomache, as they sometimes liked to call it). They were absentmindedly picking at their food when someone came up to them.
“Thought you were gonna sit with Sadie and Byte, Ko,” they said, still not paying attention.
“Who?”
Clover looked up. If it wasn’t Kanako then who was it?
It was December.
“O-Oh! H-Hi, there.” (Why is she here?)
“Hey, is anyone sitting with you?” she asked.
“U-Um… no, I’m by myself.” (A bit by choice.)
“Great, can I sit with you?”
“S-Sure.” (You’d really rather be alone right now but it’d be rude to say no.)
“Thanks,” December said as she sat down. The two of them sat in silence while eating, since there was a bit of an awkward atmosphere. It took a few moments for December to speak up first. “Sorry about earlier.”
Clover was a bit stunned. Why would December need to apologize? Did she know they had a crush on her? “What, uh… what for?”
“Misgendering you.”
(Oh. That’s. Not something you were thinking about. At all.)
“Oh, um. I wasn’t really, uh, super bothered by it. I, I mean I was definitely a bit bothered since, uh, n-non-binary and all, but I admitted that I wear kinda boy-ish clothes so I understood why that happened. But, um, thanks for apologizing for that. (Even though it wasn’t really on my mind.)”
“So I was worried over that for nothing?”
“No! I mean. It’s really thoughtful that you wanted to apologize for that but, you didn’t mean it maliciously. Like it was a complete accident. Obviously misgendering someone sucks but when it’s an accident because you don’t actually know someone’s pronouns it’s. Much more forgivable? Or something? I-I’m not an expert. I suppose the whole ‘male-as-default’ thing in combination with my clothes are probably the culprits.
“Actually now that I think about it, I don’t think we’ve ever, like, actually introduced ourselves. This is, what, our third meeting? Usually people would do this on the first. So, um, anyways, hi. My name’s Clover Ketsukane, and I’m non-binary.”
December chuckled. “My name’s December Holiday, but my friends call me Dess.”
“Dess. Right. Got it. Um. So, I’ve, er, been thinking that you’re a girl but given this whole conversation I just want to make sure. So, uh, are you?” Dess laughed a bit more. It was a nice, soft laugh that Clover enjoyed. (Oh jeez, are those feelings coming back? Dammit!)
“Yeah, I’m a girl, don’t worry.”
“Oh, thank God. I would’ve felt real stupid if I had just said all that and then thought incorrectly for you for weeks.”
They both gave a quick laugh, quickly becoming friends, both unaware of the feelings the other had for them.