Chapter Text
Over the span of his years at P.K Academy, Kaidou had developed a passion for art. Ever since (the totally and completely real) Dark Reunion had been toying with him, he felt compelled to draw the concept art of what he believed they look like. This then lead to the study of logo designs, character desi- I mean 100% real people designs, colour theory and so on... So as time passed, he spent months doodling, which eventually turned into sketching, drawing, painting, and before he knew it he had found that deep love for art. Not only did he find it fun, but unlike his usual, super lame diary writing, if anyone were to stumble across it they would have to decode every stroke of brush or scratch of lead instead of casually reading the answers to his feelings. Sometimes, he would draw characters from his favourite shows, and other times he would practice drawing still life. It wasn't something he was used to, but he thought that attempting to draw something realistic would be,, impressive, so to say? He didn't usually find himself impressing other people, and he never showed his art to others in fear of being judged since it was mainly cartoons... He didn't consciously think it - but deep down he knew how people saw him. So maybe learning something inherently impressive would prove to people he actually has talent? He can only find out.
;;Present day
It had been a long, dreadful day at school: especially with a certain big, ugly gorilla talking about ramen every 5 minutes. Thankfully, it wasn't much of a walk home, so he could get back and practice drawing once again. Kaidou had walked past the art room at least 100 times that day, wanting so bad to admire the pieces hung up, but the fear of being judged overwhelmed him each time.
"The great Jet Black Wings could never be caught with his guard down doing something as silly as painting!!!" Had been his whole thought process for the last few months. He would find excuses to walk past the art room, with or without friends, all just to gather up false courage and end up admiring from afar like usual.
Fortunately, despite his poor day, he was walking with his best pal - Aren Kuboyasu. Kuboyasu had kindly offered to walk Kaidou home, having sensed he had a bad day thanks to his very obvious huffing, puffing, and pouting.
Kaidou was mindlessly rambling about supposed "new info" on Dark Reunion, his hands gesturing in every direction. It was a good way to relieve steam after a bad day.
"-and they keep making me trip up on everything!" Kuboyasu had to suppress his laughter. "I even fell up the stairs earlier! How does that even happen?!"
"Are.. you sure that wasn't just you tripping up over your shoelaces..?" He lightly gestured with his head towards Kaidou's clearly undone shoes. A smirk began to pull at the corners of his lips, which left Kaidou red in the face, struck with embarrassment.
"O-Of course not!!!!" His voice rose to an unfathomably high-pitched level, voice cracking ever so slightly. "The great JET BLACK WINGS would never succumb to something as embarrassing as forgetting to tie his shoelaces every day because he's busy focusing on- on--" He clasped his hands tight against his mouth to shut himself up, preventing himself from saying something stupid. Something stupid about his corny art. That he genuinely had no reason to be so embarrassed about. (to be fair, this IS kaidou we're speaking about).
This caught Kuboyasu's attention, peaking his interest more than Kaidou's usual rambles about Dark Reunion (not that he didn't like it; in fact, he found it very entertaining.)
"..hm?" He swayed to the side acting nonchalant, as if he wasn't dying to know what could be so bad that he couldn't even tell his own best friend.
"NOTHING!." Kaidou squeaked, picking up his pace in fear of getting discovered. Good lord, was he fast for someone who rarely exercised. No offence, Kaidou.
"come ooooon… Why can't you tell me?" He couldn't help but pry as he caught up to his friend, whose face was now crimson red.
"It's- stupid --" Kaidou hid his face behind his hand.
"Shun, pleeease." Kuboyasu tried to pry his hands from his face. "You know I wouldn't judge you!"
God, Kaidou knew that. He tells Kuboyasu everything. He felt so happy around him, so at peace and just... free. But there was something about this new hobby that made him embarrassed. It wasn't exactly manly... his mother definitely wouldn't approve of it. And kuboyasu is such a manly guy, why would he ever find art cool? Not that kaidou cared how he, the GREAT JET BLACK WINGS, was perceived by his kind-of hot friend Aren Kuboyasu. Not at all.
"I-I'll tell you eventually! Just- give me some space.." Aren had ended up face-to-face with his hands holding Kaidou's wrists, his touch oddly delicate for a dude so strong (Yeah, Kaidou had seen those muscles. Jesus Christ.), and it made his body warmer than he'd like to admit.
Aren yanked his hands away, his face heating up.
"S-sorry.." His gaze shifted elsewhere, ashamed of himself for get so handsy. They walked the rest of the way in silence, either of them unable to tell if it was an awkward silence or a comfortable one.
...
As they walked, Kaidou felt himself become swallowed by his thoughts.
Recently, he had picked up on some new things about his friend. He noticed that in the sunlight, Kuboyasu's hair shimmered. When getting changed for sport, Kaidou noticed the scars on his chest, and the way each one curved and twisted. He noticed the way he always took his glasses off in a certain way, and how handsome he was when they weren't sat upon his face. Um. Not in a weird way, of course. As bros. Best buddies. And for some reason whenever he got close, Kaidou felt his head spin and butterflies swarm his stomach just like earlier. He wondered if Kuboyasu ever felt like that too, since it was obviously normal for bros... which meant that if he didn't that meant he didn't think they were best friends! That thought alone shook Kaidou to his core...
Eventually, they turned the street on which Kaidou's house was. They stopped a few houses down, as they shared the mutual understanding of his mother's weird tendencies towards Kuboyasu. The silence lifted, followed by what he could've sworn was a shy tone.
"I'll see you tomorrow, Shun." Kaidou's cheeks began to heat up again. All he wanted to do was run home, paint his worries away, and scream into his pillow.
"G-Goodnight, Aren!" He blurted in a pitch so high only a dog could hear it, not even knowing exactly why he was freaking out.. and if it was the way his friend's face was framed so beautifully by the soft, setting sun, that would be between him and the sun only.
He spun around on his feet, and began speed-walking down his street. As soon as he heard the faint sound of footsteps indicating Kuboyasu's leave, a sudden weight lifted from his chest - one that he had no idea was there in the first place. He vaguely remembers it appearing when he and his friend reunited after school in preparation to walk home.. Perhaps he'd gotten used to the feeling when he was around, because he never really noticed it.
"It's probably our fantastic friendly bond that gets me 'fired up'!!" Kaidou thought, using the phrase he overheard his loud red-head friend use all the time. Because, you know, what else could it be?
Finally, he stepped through the gates to his house before unlocking the door, taking his shoes off, and practically running upstairs. The only thing on his mind was Aren. Kaidou shuffled into his room sheepishly, shutting his door as fast as he could, however careful not to slam it. He flung his bag next to his bed and scurried over to the cupboards holding his secret stash of art supplies. Finally. He'd had a rough day, so he decided on simple sketching. Snatching up a sketchbook and a random HB pencil, he fell back onto his bed and scooted back so he was leaning against the wall.
Now all he had to do was figure out what to draw.. Usually, he would have no problem getting started; the ideas would come to him naturally. However for some reason, today he would find himself experiencing 'Art Block'. It was a term he had overheard some students in the art room use when he had "coincidentally" walked past a million times. As the boy got lost in his own thoughts, he didn't even realise his hand starting to sketch. He was just drawing whatever came to mind. At first, he started with a head, obviously.
"hm.. I think I'll add short hair.."
He thought back to his walk home.
"A middle part, maybe..? Yeah, that isn't too specific.."
It was getting a little warm in his room.
"I think I'll give him some slender eyes..," Just a normal, plain, old character, he thought "with a pair of glasses.."
His hands began to grow sweaty, the pencil in his hands starting to slip.
The second he noticed his grip loosening, it snapped him out of the strange dream-like trance he'd fallen into. He snatched his now shaky hand away from the paper and swallowed thickly. He stared at the drawings. Goddammit. Why was this happening to HIM??? He could only draw what was on his mind, and the only thing on his mind was Kuboyasu.
Dark Reunion had to have put some sort of curse on him, for sure, because why else would he be drawing his best friend so much?... And why else would he be wanting to draw him even more?! Kaidou reassured himself - "It's probably nothing. I'm probably just grateful to have a friend like Aren, so I'm showing my gratitude through my favourite hobby!" He sat, fiddling with his pencil.
He was fine. This was fine. His heart wasn't racing looking at the drawing sat before him. It couldn't hurt to draw one more, though, right?
And so, with that, the pages of his sketchbook became flooded with drawings of Kuboyasu from every angle he could imagine. He drew what he recalled he looked like in the sunlight, he drew his side profile, he even drew his eyes completely separate from the rest of him. A few times. Maybe too many times. This was getting bad. Suddenly, a knock erupted from behind his door, making him instantly snap out of his flow and, without thinking, catapulting his book across his room. Where was this strength when playing dodgeball?!
His sister crept in, her gaze unreadable due to the sound she'd just heard from outside. Knowing her brother, he could've been up to anything - it's best not to inquire. Kaidou sat with sweat dripping down his forehead to his red hot cheeks, his body stiff and unwilling to move. "Dark reunion and their spells of embarrassment, goddammit!" He was internally screaming.
"You good, Shun..?" She glanced around, seeking out the source of the unknown disaster, but before she could even blink --
"YESIMFINESORA" He squeaked, absolutely mortified at the idea of his sister of all people figuring out his secret (The art thing, not the thing with Aren... that he's yet to discover), his body unbelievably tense.
"..yeah, anyway." She stood straight in his doorway, prim and proper per usual "We called you down to dinner an hour ago. It's cold, now."
..
Wait. Huh? An hour..? .... A WHOLE HOUR? And he NEVER ONCE HEARD THEM SHOUT FOR HIM? He was so busy drawing Aren that he never even heard them. That was so embarrassing. Oh god. What excuse was he gonna make this time?!?!?
"I-I-.. The.." He was at a loss for words until a lightbulb lit up in his head. "I've been studying! Yeah, there's an exam coming up really soon!"
"Studying? Don't you usually study with that friend of yours?" Clearly referring to Kuboyasu, Sora's eyebrow raised as she began to grow suspicious. Why did she have to mention him? Aren was doing so many- cough. DARK REUNION was doing so many things to him that caused him to feel weird about his friend, he didn't need to be reminded of it all again! (despite the fact all he's been doing is drawing said friend). He had to expand this lie.
"I just thought it'd be a nice change, you know?" He fiddled anxiously with his fingers, wishing he was wearing his 'power-binding seals' so he could mess with the loose strings on them instead. Without further prying, Sora just shrugged.
"Whatever. Your food is downstairs if you want to heat it up." She left with a sigh, almost as if she knew her brother was lying. Which was actually extremely obvious to anyone - all apart from kaidou.
With a sigh of relief, his body went limp as he began to relax again. After his heart stopped banging against his ribcage, he looked back up to review his room. He searched for wherever he could've tossed his book to, until his eyes landed said object sitting in the corner opposite to him.
…
With a few minutes of silence and mindless reflecting on what had just occurred, it dawned upon him.
He was left with alone with his thoughts again. No distractions from friends, no distractions from sketchbooks, and no distractions from younger sisters. His head hung, resting on his chest. He was fully slumped against the wall, and as time passed, he only slumped lower and lower.
Why did this have to happen to him?
..It was incredibly difficult to face, but he knew deep down he was full of shit. Somewhere within him sat a scared, lonely, little boy. A little boy who put walls up for protection - the walls that he commonly referred to as "Jet Black Wings". He didn't like himself, and he couldn't think of a time he ever did. He wasn't sure any of his friends liked him either, as he was positive they could all see through his shitty little façade as well. However, the walls had grown too big, so Kaidou remained stubborn and helpless. He had grown accustomed to it; too comfortable to tear them down.
So instead, he stayed as the 'Great Jet Black Wings'.
Jet Black Wings. The "hero" who called all of his issues "the work of Dark Reunion".