Chapter Text
At age sixteen, Fluixon Aculon gets his first boyfriend.
At age seventeen, Fluixon Aculon has his first breakup
At age twenty, Fluixon Aculon has learned nothing good comes of wanting that which you cannot have.
It started innocuously, as many things did. A simple simmering dislike of the guy in his classes that everyone seemed to flock to. Saparata Theria was perfect in every sense of the word — beloved by all for his keen intellect and kind demeanor.
Flux hated him.
Contrary to popular belief, Flux didn’t hate many people, simply on the basis that it was a waste of his time to hate people when he simply didn’t care for them. But Saparata.
“I just don’t understand why everyone’s obsessed with him,” Thomas paid him no mind, continuing to eat his lunch absentmindedly as he flipped though his chemistry notes, “everyone is always ‘Saps this’ or ‘Saps that’. He’s just some guy!”
Thomas let out a noncommittal “uh-huh,” allowing Flux to take over the conversation once more.
“And it’s even WORSE because no matter where I go, no matter what I do, he knows SOMEONE. And that someone will want to talk about him because he’s oh SO great,”
“Uh-huh,”
“Yes, I KNOW he’s on the swim team, yes I HEARD he did a great 100 yard lap. You only reported on it TWICE, Sidefall.”
“Wow, that sucks.”
“I know high school news never reports on anything interesting, but surely they could stand to talk about something OTHER than—“
A groan came from behind Flux, halting his monologue.
“Are you STILL going on about Saps?” Snowbird rolled his eyes, “we get it, you hate him because ‘everyone loves him,’ and he’s ‘too perfect.” He takes his plastic fork out of the pack, waving it at Flux, “even though I’ve told you he’s far from perfect. I have like, at least ten videos of him tripping down stairs.”
“People love the clumsy guy with a heart of gold,” Thomas interjected, eyes still glued to his notebook, “it humanises him.”
Flux scowled, “even his flaws are perfect.”
Thomas sighed, “Y’know the more you talk, the more this sounds like some weird psychosexual thing.”
“Please do not mention my cousin and the word psychosexual again.”
“It’s not psychosexual,” Flux snapped, “tell him to stop kissing ass and maybe I’ll stop complaining about him.”
Thomas finally looked up, raising an eyebrow, “I don’t think you’re capable of not complaining about Saps.” Flux glared at him. It’s not his fault everyone is constantly mentioning him. No matter where he goes, there’s always some mention of what Saps is up to.
“Whatever,” Flux grabbed his trash, tossing it into the garbage as he stormed away. It wasn’t worth it to keep harping on the point when his friends made it very clear they couldn’t care less. It wasn’t his fault he was the only one who could see what Saparata really was, a run of the mill, ‘boy-next-door’ type that was nothing special.
Unfortunately, nobody in his classes seemed to understand this.
While on the best of days he didn’t mind math, the last two weeks had been hellish. For some gods-forsaken reason, the teacher had decided to change around the seating arrangements, placing Flux, known wallflower and Saps hater, adjacent to Saparata and his loud, annoying, posse. Usually, this wouldn’t be too much of a problem, just put in his earbuds and pray that the people around him aren’t louder than the recommended listening volume, but in the “spirit of curating a friendly, social, and collaborative environment,” his teacher banned all headphones, earbuds, and phones — sentencing Flux to an entire semester of listening to Schpood, Spyder and Saparata ‘bro out’ about whatever inane sports related thing they had going on.
Even this, he could (probably) handle. He grew up listening to his parents fighting, he's had plenty of practice tuning people out.
“Psst.”
“Hey. Hey Fluxion.”
“I know you can hear me man.”
Flux’s desk shook as Schpood knocked on it. He ignored him, keeping his eyes on his worksheet.
Schpood sighed dramatically, knocking harder, “Come on man, don’t be a dick.”
Flux felt his jaw involuntarily flex. He REALLY didn’t want to deal with whatever Schpood wanted, most likely just asking to leech his answers, but he also really hated having to deal with him knocking incessantly on the desk. Flux relaxed his jaw, taking a deep breath and continuing to work.
“Yo, I think he’s ignoring you.”
Saparata huffed out a laugh, “yeah I think he knows that.”
Schpood huffed, delivering a hard kick to the legs of Flux’s desk, causing his lead to break. He took a deep breath, reminding himself it’s not worth it to get in trouble because of some asshole and raised his head to look at Schpood.
“What do you want.”
Schpood grinned, Flux wanted to punch his teeth in, though he knew he wouldn’t win if it devolved into a real fight.
“Chill out Flux,” ‘don’t call me that, we aren’t friends.’ “ I just needed to borrow a pencil.”
“And you asked me instead of your friends right beside you?” Flux gestured at Saparata and Spyder, both of whom sat watching the two of them. Schpood just continued grinning at him, “come on Fluxion, help out your neighbor. This class is all about being friendly!”
He really wanted to punch this guy.
He leaned down, digging a pencil out of the bottom of his bag and tossing it at Schpood.
“I want that back,” He said, before turning back to his work. The trio was quiet for a moment; one beautiful moment of silence, before they began whispering furiously to each other.
“Dude, did you see the look on his face?” Spyder hissed, “he looked like he wanted to kill you.”
“As if, I doubt the guys ever even picked up a weight.” Flux bit his tongue, he HAS picked up weights, he just prefers cardio over strength training.
“Dude, he can still hear you.” Saparata this time. Flux held back a groan, of course he’s the one reminding them that flux IS a real person that CAN hear them.
“Whatever man, he probably zoned us out again. You know how he is.” Schpood waved a hand in front of Flux’s bowed head, “see? Totally locked out.”
He could feel Saparata’s eyes on him, but ignored it.
“Sure, but it’s still rude to talk about him when he’s right here.”
“So you’re saying we wait?”
“No! That’s not what I said!”
“Sounds like it,” Flux heard Schpood begin laughing as Saparata stumbled over his words. He gripped his pencil. He REALLY didn’t want to hear any more of this, not because he cared what they were going to say, but he truly wanted just one minute to hear his own thoughts. He stood, grabbing a bathroom pass from the hook near the door and left the classroom. He tugged his phone out of his pocket, typing furiously with one hand.
Architect:
someone w/ 3rd lunch
Come to west hall bthrm
I’m hiding out
Toga:
on it
Hvyro’s w/ me
Flux slammed open the bathroom door, not even giving Gotoga and Hvyro time to greet him before launching into his rant.
“And they just, keep, pestering me. They have each other there as enrichment and yet they constantly constantly try to bring me into whatever stupid thing they’re talking about.”
“Maybe they’re trying to be friends?” Hvyro suggested, earning an elbow to the gut.
“I don’t want to be their friend,” Flux felt his lip curl in disgust, “I have nothing in common with any of them, and even if we did I wouldn’t want to befriend the three stooges.” Flux sighed, leaning against the wall.
“At least it’s temporary?” Gotoga shrugged, looking over at Hvyro for support.
“Yeah, just wait until next semester, you’ll be free of them.”
Flux scoffed, “sure, instead I’ll just be in a class full of his groupies."
“Does he seriously have groupies?” Gotoga shrugged, “I mean, with the amount of comments under Sidefall’s posts I’d assume he has some kind of fanbase.”
“Oh he 100% has a fanbase,” Flux pulled out his phone, “I’ve found at least three Instagram accounts for the swim team, but all they do is post badly edited fancams of Saps.”
Gotoga and Hvyro exchanged glances.
“And you just,,, have those?”
“They — I was recommended them.” Flux felt himself grow red.
“Sure, by the algorithm that only shows you people in common and accounts that others follow.” Flux scowled.
“It’s not my fault if someone I know happens to be following these stupid accounts.” They looked at each other again. Flux could tell they were communicating silently by the way they kept looking over at him and raising their eyebrows.
It finally stopped when Hvyro sighed, turning back to Flux.
“If push comes to shove you can always talk to an advisor about transferring classes. I know Newkids’ done that a few times.”
“And let them think they’ve won? Not a chance.”
Flux kicked off the wall, holding the door open for the two others, signalling the conversation was over. Gotoga and Hvyro made eye contact, speaking again in their weird silent language before Gotoga just shook his head. Flux sighed, is this how they felt when he and Thomas were together? Hvyro followed but Gotoga stayed, “I actually gotta pee man.”
“TMI dude,” Hvyro let the door fall closed behind him, power-walking to catch up with Flux.
“So,” Hvyro shoved his hands into his pockets in feigned nonchalance, “what’re you gonna do about it?”
“Like you said, wait until next semester,” He could see Hvyro watching him out of the corner of his eye, “Patience is a virtue after all.”
Hvyro let out a disbelieving “sure,” waving Flux away and reentering the cafeteria.
When Flux sat back at his desk, Schpood, Spyder, and Saparata all kept their heads down, which was just fine with Flux. On top of his worksheet was the pencil he had lent to Schpood, a wrapped piece of gum, and a note from Saparata that just said ‘sorry about that,’ and a crudely drawn smiley face. Flux stuffed the note and his pencil back into his bag, but opened the gum. It would at least help him stop grinding his teeth for the time being.
If patience truly was a virtue, Flux would consider himself somewhat of a saint. Somehow, by accepting the apology (if you could even call it that) note by Saparata, he now had some kind of notion that the two of them were friends. Not only had he begun trying to rope Flux into more of their useless and honestly, stupid debates, (see: imagine there is an immortal snail chasing you, but you get one trillion dollars, would you take the deal?) he’d also left more notes, each with their own bribe.
“I can’t believe they want to be your friend so much they’re willing to bribe you.” Thomas said, “That's really pathetic.”
“It’s worse that he’s under the assumption that it’s working.” Flux frowned, looking over the chess board, “are you cheating, where the hell did my knight go?”
“You’d know if you were paying attention. By the way, check.”
“You are so full of shit,” Sure enough, Thomas had managed to corner Flux’s king. He huffed, putting his hands up in surrender, “you’ve won the last three rounds. I’m done for today.”
“Oh come on, don’t be a sore loser. Come on, if you’re tired of chess we can always play a round or two of Risk.” Flux gathered his things, giving Thomas a middle finger. He exited the library to the sound of Thomas snickering, weaving through the halls to math. Sure enough, arriving in the classroom he was greeted by a note on his desk and a strip of gum.
‘Sorry, school store ran out of regular bubble gum. Hope you like mint :D’
As had recently become a new routine for him, he shoved the note into his bookbag, unwrapping the gum and popping it in his mouth. It was one of the few things that made the hour and thirty minutes of listening to the world's stupidest hypotheticals while doing AP trig manageable.
“Hey Flux,” Saparata turned around in his seat, smiling. Every time he smiled the stupid little mole under each eye shifted, making it look like a second smile.
Flux thought it was stupid.
He continued silently chewing on his gum, ignoring the subsequent quiet calls of “Fluuuux” from Saparata.
Schpood nudged Flux's desk, which told him he had around one more minute of trying to ignore Saparata before he started violently kicking. Flux sighed, meeting Saparata’s eyes. “Hello Saparata.”
His smile dipped a bit, “dude, nobody calls me by my full name. Just call me Saps.”
“I’m good.”
This time Saparata did frown, “why not?”
“Because nicknames are reserved for friends.”
“But I call you Flux?” Flux wanted to laugh, he sounded genuinely confused.
“I never said you could.”
Something about what he said caused Saparata to grin— a bit like Thomas did when he managed to bait Flux into a bad move, “but you also didn’t say I couldn’t,” Flux heard Spyder laugh, trying to hide it behind a cough, “come on Flux, I can use context clues.”
“Can you now?” He clearly hadn’t been able to deduce that Flux despised him despite the ample evidence he’d been giving him.
“Sure, you take my bribes,”
“So you admit they’re bribes.”
Saparata ignored him, “you respond to me when I talk to you,”
“You don’t give me much of a choice when you harass me until I do.”
“You keep my notes. Admit it, I’m growing on you.” Flux,,, didn’t have a response to that. He HAD been keeping the notes, he wasn’t even sure why — it wasn’t like he was keeping them to show to the other members of the conspiracy, and there was a perfectly good trashcan less than a foot away. At his silence, Saparata’s smile grew, and he turned to Spyder and Schpood, both of whom high-fived him.
“Holy shit man, I think you broke him,” Spyder laughed, nudging Saparata’s back, "I don't think I’ve ever seen him speechless.”
Saparata grinned back at Spyder, “I wouldn’t say speechless, moreso outwitted.”
Flux frowned, although Saparata was right he didn’t like hearing it from his mouth. He sucked his teeth, and turned back to his notebook. He didn’t want to deal with them anymore. It was stupid — they were stupid. Schpood and Spyder continued laughing, but Saparata’s was strangely absent. Luckily, the bell saved Flux from having to deal with whatever horrible conversation he would be roped into next. The last few students shuffled into the classroom as it ended, and the teacher began the lecture soon after, giving them no time to try and coerce Flux into another conversation.
About halfway through the block, Spyder nudged Flux’s foot, holding out another note. Flux tried to ignore him, but he, like Schpood, was persistent. He continuously tried to get Flux’s attention. Nudging his foot, tapping his pencil against Flux’s desk, kicking his bookbag (that one earned him a kick in the knee) before finally giving up with a huff and tossing it on his desk. Flux resisted the urge to open it for a solid ten minutes, methodically filling out his notes and answering the practice problems, but as they were released for individual workbook problems, Spyder began his tapping again. Flux glared at him, snatching the note off his desk and opening it.
‘:( sorry, didn’t mean to upset you. Just thought it would be an ezr way 2 get you to call me Saps instead of Saparata. Didn’t mean 2 push u
Anyways if we r friends (which I think we r btw) heres my phone number (xxx)xxx-xxxx
U can ignore it if u want or like just text me for hw questions r something. Although i think ur better at the hw than i am tbh lol :p’
Flux stared at the note for a long time, reading and rereading it. Somehow Saparata had gotten it into his head that they were close enough to not only be at nicknames level, but beyond that to friends that text each other. Thomas was right, this was pathetic.
For some reason though, the thought of Thomas —- or more specifically telling Thomas made him feel a bit sick. He bit the side of his cheek, shoving the note into his bookbag and the thoughts into the back of his mind. This was a future Flux problem, one he didn’t think he had the time, energy, or emotional intelligence to handle.
Flux turned the paper over and over, both in his hand and in his mind. He could text Saps (it truly was easier to think of him as Saps than Saparata) to figure out what he wanted, but if, god willing, one of his friends somehow found out he had willingly involved himself with Saps he would never live it down. The conspiracy would eat him alive. Flux groaned, collapsing backwards into his bed. It truly sucked not having anyone he could tell about this. Thomas would never let him live it down, Gotoga and Hvyro already had their suspicions judging by how they were acting in the restroom, Sera and Newkids were rarely ever online, and even when they were, getting good advice out of them was like pulling teeth. And Snowbird,,,
Times like these were when he wished he was closer with his siblings. He remembered being younger and telling Cynikka and Ender all about the friends he had made, shoving his crude crayon drawings in their faces and trying to ignore the cold oppressive silence of Crow and Elanulo treating the other as an unwelcome guest. Now though, Ender was off doing whatever corporate business he did and Cynikka was researching some volcano or other.
Flux sighed, somehow out off all the options, Thomas was the best. While he knew he would get torn to shreds, understandably so considering the amount of time he spent complaining about Saps, he still valued his best friend's opinion.
Architect:
hey
Engineer:
what’s up
Architect:
[img_207.heic]
Engineer:
holy shit
Is that Saps phone number
U could actually sell that for some good cash
Architect:
I don’t need cash
What shud I do
Engineer:
????
Wait
Oh my god
Are you actually considering messaging him?
You?
Fluixon Aculon?
Number one Saparata hater?
Are we deadass
Architect:
ur making it a big deal
Engineer:
I am not making it nearly ENOUGH of a big deal
You have no idea how much fucking cash I just made
Architect:
???
Were you betting on me?
Engineer:
among other things
Dw I’ll use some of my winnings to take you somewhere
Dennys or something
Architect:
if you’re goning to monituze my crisis at least make it brunch
*going
*monetize
Engineer:
yk what
Sure man
Have you told the others?
Architect:
nah
Anyway what tf am supposed to dk
Engineer:
do you want to talk to him?
Architect:
hm
Good question
Engineer:
I pose a lot of those
Architect:
I don’t think theres anything i really have to talk to him about
But theres this sort of
Feeling
Or more like I want to know what the hell he wants to say to me because he put in a lot of work to try and be my friend
Engineer:
wait ur right I didnt even ask about that
Are you two like, friends now?
Architect:
he thinks we are
Engineer:
and you?
Flux wasn’t sure. Friendship only applied in his mind after months of being acquaintances, but he supposed for someone as social as Saps it was a simple task to consider standoffish Flux his friend after a few stilted conversations. It had taken Flux months to even warm up to Thomas to the point where he felt comfortable enough texting him. The only reason the two of them exchanged phone numbers was because Thomas had written it in his yearbook on the last day of 7th grade and pestered him incessantly to actually text him so they could arrange to hang out or else he would show up unannounced at his home.
Now that he thinks more about it, it seemed like he had a track record for being coerced into friendship.
Architect:
Im not sure
I mean u know how i am
Engineer:
ya
Architect:
i think i could
Eventually
If he’s actually trying to be nice and not like
Making fun of me to screenshot for his friends
Engineer:
has anyone ever told you that ur paranoid
Architect:
cyn reminds me all the time
Which i think is ironic
They messaged a bit longer, mostly joking about whatever stupid thing was happening in the group chat that day before Thomas left to do some homework. Flux stared down at his phone, glancing over at the note seated beside it.
(XXX)XXX-XXXX:
hey
This is flux