Tsukasa kept his eyes on Rui as he stared at the blade in his hand.
The blonde's mind was full of angry thoughts related to his new grudge against the principal that came along with a strong, burning feeling of hate.
This is so dumb. How could that stupid principal we faked any of this? Rui has an actual cut, for Pete's sake!
Tsukasa didn't realize that he'd started to ball up his fist out of anger—the one that he wasn't holding Rui's hand with, of course.
"Boys, you can stay here if you want," The nurse winked in an attempt to amuse the two students. "Your teachers won't know you skipped class. Stay here, with the coolest and awesomest staff member in the school!" He chuckled. "But, all jokes aside, today has been rough for you both. You should take it easy."
Rui laughed. "Thanks. You really are the coolest and awesomest staff member."
"Yeah," Tsukasa agreed with a grin.
The nurse smiled with his eyes. "Aw, thank you!"
Rui nodded.
Silence filled the office, but soon the clacking of the keys of a keyboard interrupted it as the nurse went back to typing his document. This left Tsukasa tons of time to think about the fight with Akane.
Now that I think about it...
How did Akane know about Saki...? I don't remember telling him anything...
...And how did he know that Rui would be my type?
Did Rui even tell Akane about his disease?
"Rui?" Tsukasa said after these questions became too much to hold in.
"Yes, Tsukasa-kun?" Rui answered, relieved that someone finally decided to speak up and break the awkward silence.
"What disease do you have?" The blonde asked, impatient for an answer.
"Can't get it out of your head, can you..." Rui sighed and held Tsukasa's hand tighter. "Don't worry about it, it's just diabetes."
"Diabetes?!" Tsukasa cried. "Seriously? Which type?"
"Type 17," Rui mused, a smirk breaking onto his face.
The school nurse let out an amused noise.
"SEVENTEEN?!" Tsukasa shouted, flinching in pain as he suddenly sat up in surprise and let go of Rui's hand. "DOES THAT EVEN—WH—ARE YOU GONNA DIE?!?"
Both Rui and the nurse started laughing.
Oh. He's joking.
"You're so stupid, Rui," Tsukasa groaned, letting his back fall against the wall. "I was super worried about you!"
"Haha, sorry, Tsukasa-kun," Rui said, covering his mouth with his hand. "I have type 1 diabetes."
"Doesn't that make so much more sense?" The nurse said with another small laugh as he continued to type.
Oh my GOD.
"Stop that!" Tsukasa let himself slide down the wall. "You guys are evil."
"My turn to ask a question," Rui said. "Tsukasa-kun, what did Aka—I mean, Suzuki mean by 'I really wish your father had gotten rid of you instead of your sister'?"
Tsukasa looked up at Rui. The alchemist looked like he knew this was a sensitive subject and that he had asked the question at a bad time.
Tsukasa pursed his lips and he hung his head just a little, averting Rui's gaze. "It's obvious, isn't it?" He said curtly. "When I was five, my father killed her."
"My condolences," The nurse said politely and genuinely.
Rui didn't say anything, but he did look like he regretted asking the question.
"He threw her into the ocean," Tsukasa continued, his voice low. "In case you were wondering how he did it. She couldn't swim, so she drowned."
Rui's face was filled with horror. "Oh, I'm so sorry..." He apologized, his voice cracking.
"It's fine," Tsukasa said.
Then, Rui sat down next to the blonde and hugged him awkwardly from the side. Tsukasa nuzzled against Rui comfortably in response, also putting his arms around his friend. The future star let himself feel the warm fuzziness in his stomach. He'd started to accept it, now knowing what it meant.
"You know, I don't think I ever told Suzuki about my disease," Rui said.
"Come to think of it, I don't think I told him about my sister, either," Tsukasa admitted.
"Mm." Rui said.
The hell does 'Mm' mean??
"Five is such a young age to lose your sister," The nurse said. "especially if it's because of your own father. You two have gone through a lot, even before today..." He sighed. "But that makes me even more glad I let you guys stay here. You're opening up to each other now, right? It's important to communicate with the people you care about."
Rui pulled Tsukasa in closer and began to play with his hair. Tsukasa didn't mind it one bit. He was nice and comfy laying on Rui's chest.
"Easier said than done," Rui frowned. "Opening up, especially to the people you care about, is super hard."
"You can say that again," Tsukasa said with a soft smile, practically melting.
"You sound so relaxed—" The nurse turned his head around and let out an exasperated sigh as he saw the two boys, though neither Tsukasa nor Rui knew why the nurse had done so.
Tsukasa didn't pay attention to it, despite the significance it could hold.
As the nurse turned back to his computer, Tsukasa could've sworn he heard the adult mutter, 'Why is everyone gay these days...'.
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"How did you find me?" Ai asked.
"Well, I got a notification from Instapic saying that you posted something," Tadashi said. "And I checked it out. It was kind of hard to tell that it was Akane since you blurred all of their faces and since I couldn't have my volume up because I was in class, but when I figured it out, I decided I'd try to find you and get you to unpublish the video. Y'know, so that Akane doesn't murder you. And you just so happened to be sprinting past the classroom door as I left to 'go to the bathroom'."
He wants me to take it down?
"No way!" Ai shook their head. "I am not taking it down!"
"Please, Ai! He'll have our skins! And he'll eat our brains! Pleeaaase!!" Tadashi begged his partner.
"No! People need to know that they were wrong about Kamishiro and that he's really a nice guy!!" Ai refused, glaring at their boyfriend. "And Akane will not eat our brains, you're overreacting!"
"No, I'm not!" Tadashi retorted, exhaling a frustrated puff of air from his nose. "You're underreacting!"
"Underreacting?!" Ai cried. "Is that even a word?"
"Well, if it wasn't, then it is now!" Tadashi crossed his arms. "But that's not the point! Please, Ai, take it down!"
"Kids, why aren't you in class?" An angry-looking teacher said from the doorway of his classroom.
Crap.
"Sorry!" Ai said hastily, taking Tadashi's hand and bringing him back to class...
...To drop him off, of course. There was no way Ai was going to enter the classroom when they were already this late.
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Word count: 1156