The worst thing that could possibly happen happened: the internet went out at Ignihyde. Actually, that wasn't the worst thing, since the nomophobic students there could still connect their computers and tablets through personal hotspots and the like. The true worst thing that could possibly happen was for both the internet and the power to go out at Ignihyde at the same time.
Which it did.
The students at NRC would never forget the day when hordes of pasty Ignihydians came streaming out of their rooms—some for the very first time that semester—desperate for a way to access the internet and to power up their dying devices. Socially-awkward engineers and technology students clumped around outlets and held their phones high in the air, hoping to get a signal. The day was well-documented as Floyd and Jade spent their time taking pictures of introverted Ignihyde students as they built the nerve to ask Crowley for the NRC main campus Wi-Fi password.
Idia was one of the last students to leave his room. He had been smart and had several portable chargers to keep the juice up on his bevy of technological gadgets for several hours before he, too, had to admit defeat.
At first, he was positively incensed that the whole conundrum had taken place. Who was in charge of the internet at NRC, and how could they let it fail in the dorm that needed it the most? He had been hours-deep in the latest installment of the Some Game series—Some Game 14—and had finally reached the second stage of the final boss fight, when he was forced to leave. This was especially frustrating as it had taken him two hours to whittle down the boss' first health bar! Gods, if he had any power in this school and even the tiniest iota of confidence, he would have liked to give Crowley a piece of his mind.
When he muttered this to his brother, Ortho only cocked his head, raised an eyebrow, and said, "Um ... brother? You're a housewarden? There's nothing stopping you from going to Crowley right now. I'm sure he'll tell you the same thing I did five minutes ago: just be patient, I'm sure they're working on fixing everything." He crossed his arms. "And besides, if you really want to play your game, you could always use one of the computers at the library."
"Can't play games on those," said Idia glumly as he wedged himself into a corner in the Hall of Mirrors, which was crowded with both Ignihyde and other dorms' students. He also conveniently ignored Ortho's reminder of his status as housewarden. It wasn't like the title would immediately give him +10,000 Confidence to actually confront anyone about Ignihyde's internet and power issue.
"Oh. Well, maybe you could work on your History of Flight essay for Professor Trein? Didn't you say it was due soon? I'm sure the library computers will allow you to access a simple word processor."
Idia groaned and consented to the plan. At least sitting slouched behind a computer doing homework was better than feeling like a sardine in a mob of outlet-crazy Ignihyde students and curious passerbys.
The brothers found themselves in a mostly-empty library. Idia recognized a few faces from class, and he noticed Yuu and Ace giggling over what looked like a slumbering Deuce in the corner. Otherwise, everything was quiet.
As Ortho went over to see what shapes he could help Ace and Yuu draw on Deuce's face in permanent marker, Idia situated himself at the back of the library, where there sat a row of boxy, black computers.
He logged in with his student credentials, when all of a sudden, he felt someone poke his shoulder. Turning around, he gave an effeminate shout and quickly closed out of the window that automatically opened when his desktop booted up: his how-to-avoid-Cater-Diamond map. He didn't use it anymore, but it was still set to immediately launch whenever he logged into his school computer.
Luckily, Cater didn't notice as he pulled back his poking hand, beamed, and exclaimed, "Hi-i-i-i, Idia!"
Idia blinked. When had Cater arrived at the library? He had been sure that he had only recognized three people upon entering. "I—uh, hi. I didn't see you come in."
Cater gestured behind him, where there were three private rooms set up. Each of the walls facing the library were made of glass. Idia wondered how he possibly could have missed those. "The Pop Music club's regular spot's occupied today so Crowley said we could use one of the library rooms here for our meeting." He furrowed his eyebrows. "What're you doing in here though? Shouldn't you be, like, working on some fancy technology stuff in your dorm?"
"Oh, um, Ignihyde's power and internet went out." Idia sank lower in his chair despairingly.
"Oof, major bummer—you guys've basically been relegated to the Stone Age, huh?" Cater looked behind him, where Idia saw that Lilia and Kalim were in one of the private rooms, motioning for Cater to rejoin their club meeting. "Oops, gotta run! T-T-Y-L!" As he left, he whisper-shouted (they were in a library, after all), "Also, follow me on MagiCam!"
Huh? Hadn't Idia already done that? He plugged a charger into the computer's USB port and powered on his tablet. Ever since Idia had redownloaded MagiCam, he'd checked his feed once a day, taking care to double-tap any new photos of Cater that appeared—which they always did. And now Cater was saying that he didn't even follow him?
As Idia went through his feed in confusion, Ortho hovered over to him and laughed at the photo that Idia had just scrolled past. "Wow, Cater really looked different back in freshman year with his braces on."
Even more confused now, Idia scrolled back to the picture that Ortho was referring to. He did a double-take. "Freshman year? MagiCam says that this was posted two hours ago."
"Hm?" Ortho looked perplexed. "That can't be—I remember Cater only had braces for one year. Let me see that." Taking Idia's phone, Ortho looked back at the account that had posted the image. "'Caterdiamond18,'" he read. As he continued to survey the screen, his eyes lit up. "Look at what it says in the 'About Me' section: 'Fan account run by 123kalim_al-asim456.'"
"Wait, I've been following a fan account for the past few weeks?" sputtered Idia. Then he made a face. "Cater has fans?"
Ortho looked thoughtful for a moment before snapping his fingers. "Oh, I remember. There was a rumor going around in the beginning of the semester that the other members of the Pop Music club lost a bet to Cater, and his punishment was that they had to make and maintain fan accounts of him. It looks as if the rumor was true."
Idia let out the breath he had been holding before he jolted in realization. "Then what's Cater's actual account?" He took the tablet back from Ortho and typed "Cater Diamond" in the MagiCam search bar. Initially, he had picked the first name that appeared in the results, but this time he considered the others that came up. "Maybe he's 'C8R<>69420?' Oh, wait, actually, that one says it's run by xXLILIA____VANROUGEXx."
"Maybe that one?" Ortho pointed at the screen. "'Itscaycay?' The profile picture has the same hairstyle Cater had his hair in last week."
The account certainly looked as if it could belong to Cater, for the stats showed that it had 3,892 posts, followed 8,040 people, and was followed by 10,933 people. Apart from confirming with Cater directly, the only way to check if this actually was his account was to see the most recent posts. However, the account was set to private, so Idia quickly requested to follow.
"Wow," noted Ortho, "last time you tried to follow Cater on MagiCam, I remember you asked me to check if he'd accepted your request or not, because you were too nervous to see for yourself." His eyes glinted mischievously. "Have you finally come to terms that Cater Diamond reciprocates your obvious feelings toward him?"
Idia flushed a highly unbecoming shade of vermillion and slammed his tablet down on the table. He whipped his gaze toward the computer. "I—I don't know what you're talking about." He cleared his throat and moved the cursor across the computer monitor haphazardly. "O—o—on either of those accounts!"
The younger Shroud sighed. "Come on now, Idia. Surely, you're not denying the prospect that Cater likes you back?"
"See, there's your first mistake," Idia said, turning redder by the second. "There's no 'back!' Cater and I are just friends." He opened Discord on his tablet to display the "notJustGirls" icon on his friends list. "Look! Friends!"
"Friends who've been on a date together. You can't say that that doesn't defy the rules of ... of ... platonomy!"
"'Platonomy?!'"
"It's a word!" shot back Ortho, making a private note that he should add "platonomy" into his system's dictionary before Idia gave him his next software update. "Anyway, not only have you been on a date together, he also asked you to go with him to Somethingfest! And you just told me yesterday that he convinced you to go to the in-person version of the NRC Robotics Fair because he promised to go along with you! Even though he thinks robotics is boring!" Idia opened his mouth to interrupt, but Ortho continued, "Not to mention that before you two even knew each other, you guys were always flirting on Discord!" The last part of this sentence had been louder than Ortho had intended and drew the inquisitive glances of Ace and Yuu. Ortho gulped, but he tried to sound nonchalant as he pointed to Idia and quickly tried to think of a believable explanation: "Him and the Waifu ♡ Super Kawaii ♡ Super Love Bot were always flirting on Discord."
Ace and Yuu nodded understandingly before turning their attention back to Deuce. Idia's face was already at maximum blush, so the only other vent for his embarrassment was to bury his face in his hands and groan.
"Cheer up, brother," Ortho went on, his voice quieter now. "Even I can see that your crush isn't unrequited. And please don't try to hide your emotions from me. It makes me very happy to see you feel this way about someone who isn't, you know, 2D."
Idia only groaned louder. Ortho had been right before; he hadn't been nervous about Cater rejecting his follow request.
Why?
It was simple: this time, he wasn't afraid of not being accepted. Sure, that was because Cater had explicitly asked him a few minutes ago for a follow, but even if he hadn't, Idia was sure that he wouldn't be as nervous as he had been previously.
Idia sat numbly in his chair. His younger brother was so perceptive—he'd come to terms with something about Idia that even he himself hadn't realized.
He, Idia Shroud, had a crush on Cater Diamond.
And maybe, just maybe, after considering everything that had transpired between them, Cater Diamond liked him back.
The epiphany hit him like a bucket of ice water, and he nearly fell out of his chair.
Ortho, recognizing what had happened, clapped his hands and hovered upward to do a flip. "Brother, you've finally come to your senses!" He punctuated another flip with a "Hooray!" Ortho leaned toward Idia. "So, are you going to tell Cater how you feel?"
Idia blanched. Did his brother somehow forget who he was? An introvert? A socially anxious person? A homebody of epic proportions? "W—what? No! I'm not going to do anything. You forget, Ortho, that sometimes playing the safe route still gets you to the good ending," said Idia, thinking of a visual novel he had read recently where that had indeed happened.
"Or not taking any chances and not making any choices could lead to no story progression at all!"
Idia had to admit there were more dating simulations where that had happened instead of what he'd said. He put a hand under his chin thoughtfully. "I ... I wish I could look up a walkthrough on how to do things like this."
"I'm afraid there are none." Ortho shook his head. "You're just going to have to figure it out the old-fashioned way." He pressed on Idia's tablet. "DM him!"
Pushing the tablet away as if it were on fire, Idia yelped, "G—gods, no, what would I even say?"
"Ask him out again!"
Idia had to laugh at this. Oh, if only two-months-ago Idia could see him now. Ortho was suggesting that he ask someone out on a date, and he wasn't threatening to turn his power off. The character development! Where was a mangaka to draw out his life when he needed one?
He could feel himself fast-forward a whole character arc as he anxiously cracked his knuckles and asked: "Where?"
✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧
AUTHOR'S NOTE
Thank you so much to everyone who has read so far!