The Outside - SkyDoesMinecraft Fanfiction

Chapter 5

The Outside
Part One

Chapter 5

Arc #1 - Exposition

Sky felt a tap on his shoulder. Looking up from his papers that were just shy of being organized on the lunchroom table, he turned his head. He saw the fluffy, brown hair and signature, purple eyes with the innocence of a puppy bubbling beneath them. The Top-Lister, Seto Magi, stood behind him with one hand reached out and the other holding a hard cover book to his chest. It wasn't a textbook but a fantasy novel. Perhaps the same one that Sky had seen him with from before or a different, he couldn't tell.

There was a sense of awkwardness coming from either of them and the way Seto held himself made him look almost shy. The tension was short lived as Seto willed himself to talk. He wet his lips with his tongue, pulling his hand back to support his book. "I- I wanted to thank you... for earlier. Everyone always says that I get too caught up in reading." He started. Sky turned fully to Seto.

"O-oh..." He said dumbly, most likely gaping like a fish out of water.

'Wow, great answer, Sky. Way to look stupid.'

Seto tried to keep the silence to a minimum and continued to carry the conversation. Though, he seemed at a loss for a topic. "I have to admit, I've never actually run into something in the hallways other than people. If I had hit that pole, it would have been a first for me." He gave a small laugh.

"I guess I just thought that you wouldn't want to be embarrassed in front of a bunch of people. Those poles are pure metal so... They're pretty painful to run into." Sky replied. Their social awkwardness seemed to work off of the other, bouncing between the two.

"You've run into them before?" Seto inquired.

"More than I'd like to admit." Sky mentally slapped himself. Here he was talking to a popular kid and he was starting to admit to things he had done and frankly wasn't proud of. Seto didn't seem to mind however and instead, Sky noticed that he was uncomfortable with the eyes that continually glanced towards them. The curious gazes of their peers that Seto seemed to have difficulty to not cower under.

"W-well, thank you. I bruise easily and it was really kind of you to try to help." The other said. He shifted his weight to his other foot.

"It's no problem."

The awkward silence came again and a sweat bead dropped down Sky's temple. Seto noticed the small detail. "I-I'm not being too annoying, am I?" He asked worriedly.

Sky's eyes darted up. "Oh, no! It's me. I'm not good with talking..."

Seto gave another small laugh, ever so slightly more comfortable. "We have that in common then. Umm... Do you mind if I sit with you?"

Sky shook his head in response. Seto took a seat next to him, laying his book on the smooth, wooden surface of the table. There were whispers around them, causing Seto to glance towards those sitting at the other tables. Sky glanced at the book the other's hand rested on, reading the title. Slaves of the Ocean.

'What a happy, go-lucky title!'

Sky inquired to Seto about the book. "Is that a storybook?" He asked simply. Seto averted his gaze from the room to Sky, then to the book.

"Yeah." He said. "My friends are all seeing if we can do something different these last few weeks before being put into a team and my choice was to read fiction instead of fact." Sky assumed that by friends, Seto meant the other Top-Listers. Mitch had said something similar about changing up their routines as well. "I've noticed that by doing this, I'm not as stressed."