Chapter Text
Charles sank onto the bed as soon as they got back to their room. His little sister watched him from the doorway.
"Aren't we eating?" She asked, rocking back and forth on her feet.
Charles' brain was already threatening to shut down before he could answer. He had to remember he wasn't alone, after all.
"Ah, right. Sorry", he mumbled, pushing himself upright after a moment. "What do you want to eat this time, mignonne?"
"Omurice!"
He chuckled and nodded, reaching for his phone on the nightstand.
Noelle was only seven years old. She was full of energy and had the cutest smile in the world. Charles had never found her difficult to deal with; they barely even argued, unlike what happened with their other siblings. Sometimes he thought Noelle was the only good thing his parents had given him before shipping him off to Japan.
Yes, he and his friends had broken a window. Of course, he'd been caught cheating on two exams. But come one! It could've been worse.
At least he wasn't into stupid shit like smoking or drinking at eighteen. That was just dumb.
His parents apparently thought otherwise. Japan was strict, orderly, and supposedly good at teaching discipline —which was exactly why they'd sent him there.
"Hey, mignonne", Charles said once their food arrived and the hotel employee left. "How are you doing at the kindergarten?"
"It's really fun! I do the same thing I do in Lorient, and the tutors are helping me with my Japanese!" Noelle beamed as her brother wiped a bit of sauce from the corner of her mouth with a napkin. "We paint in the art room, and they're teaching us how to grow flowers, too!"
"Really? That's pretty cool."
"You could come too, if you want."
Charles laughed. "Me? I'm a teenager, remember? I can't exactly hang out with a bunch of little kids. That'd be weird."
"Why? The student teachers look about your age!"
For the first time all day, something clicked in his head.
"Student teachers?"
"Yeah! There are a lots of young people helping out there", she explained. "They're really nice! One of them from another group taught me how much water different flowers need. Did you know gerberas don't need that much water?"
And Noelle kept talking, happily rambling about the plants.
Charles had done nothing but complain since arriving in Japan. The weather was annoying, the food wasn't anything special, and even leaving the hotel felt like a chore —especially since he couldn't just let Noelle go out on her own. Maybe she had a point. He was getting sick of staying in that room.
The routine was simple: the children arrived at seven in the morning and left at noon. Noelle was only gone for a few hours, but during that time Charles found himself growing increasingly restless. At least when she was around, he had something to do. She might get hungry, want to got for a walk, or drag him to the park neat the hotel.
When he walked to the kindergarten that afternoon, he took his time looking around. The place was small, but spotless. I wasn't hard to understand why Noelle liked it so much. Children streamed out through the gate, most of them accompanied by their parents or older siblings. A few walked home with friends; nothing unusual, Japan was safe enough for that.
A moment later, Noelle came running across the yard with a bright smile on her face. She threw herself at his side, wrapping both arms around him.
Near the gate stood a petite woman who was saying goodbye to the children as they left. Once Noelle settled beside him, Charles approached her and offered a polite bow.
"It's actually a fairly small program", she explained after he asked about the tutors. "Some students take a gap year after graduating from high school or college, while others volunteer to strengthen their university applications or gain experience working with children."
"Oh, well..." Charles scratched the back of his neck. "I couldn't really do that. We're foreigners, and we'll only be here for a few more weeks before going back home."
"I see", she smiled kindly. "If your stay ends up being longer than expected, you're welcome to ask again."
Charles thanked her and turned to leave. Then a thought crossed his mind.
His academic record was a disaster— his parents were running out of patience. Maybe volunteer work would actually help. Maybe it would prove he wasn't a complete lost cause.
How hard could it be? He'd just have to keep an eye on some kids, teach them a few things, and spend more time with Noelle.
Easy.
"What? Volunteering?" His mother repeated over the phone.
It was already late in Japan, though it was probably still morning in France.
"Yeah. The principal said it could help my academic record", Charles whispered, making sure Noelle was asleep. "Besides, what else am I supposed to do here? I don't know anybody, at least Noelle gets to go out every day. What about me? I'm your kid too!"
"Oh, stop being dramatic, Charles."
A sigh crackled through the speaker.
"Honestly, what do I know? Do you need our permission for it? Because knowing you, if you didn't, you'd probably do it without telling us."
Charles sat upright. "Wait. You're actually going to let me do it?"
"If I say yes, will you finally start appreciating the effort we've put into your education?" His mother shot back. "And no more lying this time."
"Yes, ma'am!" His answer came a little too quickly.
Still, as he hung up, a thought lingered in the back of his mind.
He wasn't going to regret this, was he?
The next morning, Charles woke to the sound of light rain tapping against the window. The sky was gray, and leaves skittered along the street whenever the wind picked up. Beside him, Noelle blinked sleepily, looking as though she might fall back asleep at any moment.
When they arrived at the kindergarten, a young woman —probably around Charles' age— greeted them at the entrance.
The moment two other children spotted Noelle and called her over, she abandoned them without hesitation. Traitor.
Meanwhile, the volunteer led Charles inside after he explained that he wanted to ask about the gap-year program.
"Since your parents aren't here to sign the paperwork, they can send it by email", she explained with a smile. "But first, you'll need to take a placement test. The volunteer coordinator has to make sure you're capable of handling the same responsibilities as the other student teachers."
Charles nodded as he followed her down the hallway. Most of the children were already in class. "Would it be possible for me to work with my sister's group?"
"Hm, not if there's already another student teacher assigned to them—" She stopped abruptly. "Oh! There's the coordinator. Follow me!"
Before Charles could answer, she grabbed his wrist and pulled him along.
The person she had spotted was speaking with one of the teachers. They seemed ready to leave, but they reached them first.
"Niko-san! Do you have a minute?"
So it was a guy.
He was only slightly shorter than Charles; thin, too. From behind, there wasn't anything particularly remarkable about him.
Then he turned around. And God, Charles nearly forgot how to stand.
Messy black bangs feel across half of the boy's face. Half. Because if they hadn't, Charles would've crumble completely.
His soft features. His pale skin. His absurdly pretty face.
"Yeah, I can help", the boy said, offering a small smile. Then he looked directly at Charles. "Nice to meet you."
Oh.
Oh no.
His voice was soft too.
That was the first thing the French one noticed. The second was that every single Japanese phrase he'd learned over the past year suddenly vanished from his brain.
"Uh... Hi?"
Brillant.
"Thank you for the offer, Mikae-san" He said, and the girl immediately brightened.
"Of course!"
After a quick goodbye, she left them alone.
"Please, follow me", Niko said, and Charles did.
The foreigner stayed about a meter behind him as they walked through the hallway.
Niko.
Or maybe not.
Japanese people usually addressed each other by their last names, didn't they? If Mikae wasn't particularly close to him, then "Niko" was probably his surname.
But at the moment, he seemed like the gentlest person in the world. They stepped into what appeared to be the teacher's lounge. Only then did Niko speak again.
"May I ask your full name?"
"Yeah— Of course!" He practically hurried forward. "Charles Chevalier."
"Oh, You're French."
"... How did you know?"
The moment the question left his mouth, he regretted it. Right.
As if he weren't the only one speaking Japanese with the most obvious accent imaginable.
But Niko merely tilted his head.
"Coincidence", and he did a brief pause. "Anyway, Charles —do you have your parents' permission? And the school's approval letter?"
"Ah, no... ? I mean, I don't have the second one."
Niko blinked. "They didn't tell you?" A sigh escaped him. "Dear God... Okay, just wait here for a minute. You can sit down if you want."
Before he could leave, Charles cleared his throat. "Wait."
The Japanese one paused.
"Can I know your name? Your full name..."
"Ah. Ikki Niko", and the he walked out of the room.
Ikki. God. How adorable.
The door clicked shut behind him. Silence.
Then Charles buried his face in his hands.
"No, wait", he muttered to himself. "I'm actually stupid. How could I like someone I don't even know? Mom and Dad definitely wouldn't be proud..."
Then again, liking another boy probably wasn't the most disappointing thing he'd ever done. Not even close.
His thoughts drifted back to Mikae. The way she'd smiled, how eager she'd seemed to help. The nervous way she'd played with a strand of her hair whenever Niko spoke.
Oh. She liked him. She absolutely liked him.
Honestly, Charles couldn't even blame her. Niko was unfairly pretty.
"Sorry to keep you waiting", Niko said as he returned, nudging the door shut behind him.
He crossed the room and handed Charles a few papers.
"Here. You'll need the principal's signature. Teieri-san always makes time to talk, so that shouldn't be a problem."
Then he pointed to another page.
"And for the very volunteering, you can start tomorrow. Be here at six in the morning, wear your apron, and keep your phone turned off once the children start arriving. Any questions?"
Charles nodded through the entire explanation as though Niko were personally revealing the secrets of the universe.
"Yeah... I mean, no— I got it."
"Good", the other gestured toward the door. "Follow me."
He barely needed words to get Charles moving. How unfortunate.
They stepped into a corridor overlooking one of the playgrounds, where a group of children were running around under the supervision of a teacher.
The hallway was cool and pleasant. Unfortunately, the French one could barely appreciate it. Not with Niko walking beside him. Not when all he could hear was his own heartbeat deep inside his ears.
"So..." Charles began, even when he almost forgot what he wanted to say. "How long have you been doing this."
The black-haired one glanced at him. "The volunteering?"
"Yeah, you're... the coordinator", he redirect his attention. "You seem pretty young— I don't mean you can't do it! I'm just surprised!"
To his relief, Niko chuckled. "It's fine."
Pretty. Dangerously pretty.
"I started volunteering two years ago, when I was in middle school. My parents wanted me to become more sociable. Eventually the principal offered me the coordinator position, and here I am."
"And your parents thought you weren't sociable? But you're approachable to me."
"Hm, maybe. I don't really know what they meant."
What a life. The blond felt a flicker of jealousy.
Imagine having parents who worried because you weren't social enough. His parents' concern was because he kept causing problems.
"And what about you?" Niko asked after a brief silence.
Charles looked up. "About me?"
"Why are you here?" His gaze drifted toward the playground. "Your sister is Noelle Chevalier, right? She's a good kid. She works hard."
The words nearly knocked the air out of Charles' lungs. Not because of what the other said. Because of how he said his sister's name. Or rather, the Japanese approximation of it.
The soft pronunciation lingered in his ears far longer than it should have. Terrible.
"Well, we..."
He tried to say, and immediately lost the ability to form a sentence. Excellent.
Niko glanced back at him, a faint crease appeared between his brows, barely visible. Actual concern, probably, because Charles apparently couldn't answer a simple question.
"Charles?"
Oh, God. His face was definitely getting warm.
Quick.
Say something...
"I'm grounded", his words came out louder than he intended.
"Grounded?" The Japanese one blinked.
They reached the end of the corridor, just before the courtyard. Outside, the clouds looked ready to burst into rain again.
Charles rubbed the back of his neck.
"Yeah. I got into trouble at school before summer break... My parents thought sending me away for a month would improve my behavior, so they sent me to Japan."
To his credit, Niko didn't laugh —his tone remained calm, curious, not judgmental. "What did you do?"
But the French one looked away.
"Property damage..."
"And?"
"I cheated on an exam— Actually, two exams..."
For a moment, the black-haired one seemed to consider the information, then he sighed. "Well."
Here it comes.
God, send help...
"Those are definitely bad decisions. But they're not the kind of things you should spend the rest of your life feeling guilty about."
His chest tension loosened immediately. "You think so... ?"
"M-hm. I've dealt with classmates who were much worse", and he started walking again to anther corridor. "So don't worry. You're not exactly shocking to me."
Charles stared; more and more. A ridiculous amount of relief washed over him.
At least Niko didn't think he was a criminal.
"Ah", his voice came out quieter than expected, before he could reach the superior's side. "Thanks..."
A little hum came out in response. "But, is Noelle part of the punishment?"
"What? No! We get along great, she's way better behaved than me, actually..."
And for the first time, Niko smiled. Just a little, only for a second.
"You're not annoying."
"... Huh?"
"I can tell."
But somehow, that was even worse. Because Charles suddenly wanted to know what had given him that impression. And why hearing it made his heart beat so much faster, warmly crawling the back of his neck.
By the time the second week of the month rolled around, Charles felt painfully aware of how little time he had left.
He wasn't ready to leave. He wasn't ready to forget everything and pretend it had just been some stupid summer crush, like the cheesy movies one of his older sisters was always watching.
The time he'd spent with Niko had come to mean more to him than he cared to admit.
Sometimes Charles even wondered if Noelle's existence was the butterfly effect his life had desperately needed.
Because if she hadn't invited him to volunteer at the kindergarten, he never would've met that beautiful, self-contained boy.
The first few days had been awkward. Even embarrassing.
The French boy had practically forgotten how to interact with children whenever the other was nearby.
More than once, he'd caught himself staring so shamelessly that he'd nearly walked into a wall. God.
There had even been that day when a group of children had covered Charles in acrylic paint.
The black-haired one had spent almost ten minutes wiping his face clean with napkins while simultaneously scolding him for letting it happen. And somehow laughing at him, too.
For reasons he still couldn't explain, it remained one of his favorite memories.
"Niko-san!" Noelle's voice rang through the classroom near the end of the day.
Niko, who was gently combing her hair into place, glanced up. "Yes?"
"My brother likes you."
From the other corner of the room, Charles nearly choked on his lunch, but Niko just laughed.
"What are you talking about?" he asked. "That can't be true."
Charles spun around so fast he almost gave himself whiplash. "Kids these days! Where did you even get that idea, mignonne?!"
"You talk about him like his name is a prayer!"
"I don't do that!"
"You do!"
"I don't!"
The little girl pointed accusingly at him. "You're literally doing it!"
"She has no idea what she's talking about!" He cried, desperately turning toward Niko. "Ignore her."
The Japanese one's grin widened, amused. "Well, I'm always scolding you, aren't I? Maybe it's some kind of PTSD."
Charles opened his mouth to argue, but he stopped. Because as Niko reached out to hand him a hair tie he'd borrowed from one of the girls, their fingers nearly brushed.
The contact never happened. Not even for a second.
Yet something still twisted deep inside of the blond's stomach.
And somehow, that felt worse than any other interaction they would have had.
Still, Niko had begun to suspect that whatever Charles had in hand went beyond the ordinary. He wouldn't name it with another words.
And, since Charles rarely left him alone with Noelle when all three of them were together, he eventually chose a more discreet approach: he waited until Charles was busy playing with the first year group; only then did he ask.
"It's probably none of my business", he began, absentmindedly tugging at his lower lip. "But, were you serious when you said that?"
Innocently, Noelle looked up from a book. "Said what?"
"Ah, you know —that your brother talks about me all the time."
Immediately, she grinned. "Of course! Why would I lie about Charlie?"
Niko took a pause, sighing while nodding. Fair enough.
"And, what exactly does he say?"
"Oh, he's really weird..."
With that, the boy's stomach twisted in confusion.
"You know, Niko-san? One day he melts every time he sees you or hears your voice. The next day he acts completely normal and says that nothing could ever make him fall."
"Fall?" He frowned. Without want it, a sudden heat rushed into his cheeks; that caught Noelle's attention quickly, and she pointed at him with a big smile.
"See? You do the same thing! It's a shy people thing, I guess."
He covered part of his face with one hand, tense. "Charles? Shy? That's ridiculous to hear..."
"No, really."
"Ah, but— never mind."
Niko looked away, trying to compose. He couldn't let down his defense, not in front of a kid.
"Anyway. You're probably a little too young to understand this sort of thing, but people can't just decide they're in love with someone they barely know..."
"Oh, my parents say that too", she closed the book, finishing it and replacing it on its space. "But, if he finds out you don't like him back, he's going to cry a river. I fear."
Her statement was delivered with complete confidence. They both stared at each other, as they didn't have a single idea of how to continue that talk. So they ended it at that point —Niko nodded, helping her to archive another book.
Most children exaggerated everything. They turned small problems into tragedies and ordinary moments into life-changing events. So logically, that's what that was; an exaggeration.
At least... Niko wanted to believe it was.
Three days before Charles and Noelle were scheduled to leave Japan, the older sibling asked another student teacher to keep an eye on his sister for a while the last day at the kindergarten.
Noelle immediately narrowed her eyes at him, as if she already knew exactly what he was about to do. "Don't make a fool of yourself in front of him!" She warned.
Charles groaned, and the other volunteer laughed quietly —and clueless— as the little girl skipped away.
He ignored her, setting off through the hallways alone. His stomach twisted with every step because he couldn't keep lying forever, not when he was leaving —not when there was a good chance he'd never see Niko again.
He eventually found him in the teachers' lounge. That girl from the first day was there too, chatting animatedly about something that wasn't part of his interest; she looked especially happy that day, but Niko was right there, and that was enough to make Charles forget even how to breath.
"Excuse me", he interrupted. "Can I borrow you for a minute?"
The black-haired boy glanced over his shoulder, leaving a pencil over the desk. "Of course. Just a moment, Mikae-san."
She nodded at them, before they were standing alone in the hallway.
The air felt cooler than it had a few weeks ago: summer was ending. The rains had finally eased, and sunlight filtered through the windows again.
The end of summer. The end of everything.
"So you're going back to France this week?" Niko asked, a smile tugged at his lips. "Ah! I didn't realize a month could pass this quickly, it feels like we only just met."
Charles looked away. "Yeah... Same."
"I'm really going to miss Noelle, though", he continued. "She's one of the sweetest kids we've ever had."
"Niko."
The name came out softer than intended; its owner looked at the blond immediately, making him hear nothing except his own heartbeat. His courage threatened to disappear.
No.
Not yet.
Please.
Not yet...
"There's something I need to tell you", he said after clearing his throat.
A flick of concern crossed the Japanese boy's face. The other glanced down at his hands —they were trembling.
"I've thought about this way too much", he admitted. "Honestly, I barely slept some nights..."
"Uh-huh... ?"
"When I first got here, I hated everything: the weather, the rules, being sent away from home... But then, only then, I asked Noelle one simple question..." A nervous laugh escaped him. Niko remained silent. "And I met you."
For the first time, the other visibly froze. "Charles."
Softer.
Careful.
How could he be like that every single time?
"Your skin. It's getting warm."
"Yeah— because I'm blushing! And it's all your fault!"
The confession burst out before the French boy could stop it. A gust of wind swept through the corridor, neither of them moved.
There. Done.
Not taking it back now.
Charles swallowed, forcing himself to continue. "I really like you."
For a moment that felt like an eternity, Niko simple stared.
"And you thought telling me three days before leaving was a good idea?" he asked, almost sounding frustrated, or offended. "In your mind, what exactly was supposed to happen? Did you think I'd laugh at you or something?"
"I don't know!" Charles groaned, honest and tired. "Maybe! Because I'd imagined every possible outcome except this one!"
Without thinking right —not anymore—, he grabbed Niko's sleeves. Not enough to hurt, just to stop him from looking away.
"Niko", he begged. "I promise I'll come back..."
"What?"
"I mean it."
Charles felt ridiculous, completely ridiculous. And yet, he'd never been more serious.
"I'll do whatever it takes... I don't care if I have to cross the entire planet!"
Niko's eyes trembled above him. The grip tightened slightly.
"I want to come back to you."