' BOAT CRASH, NEWS DISAST., SAIKI N ASHER ARE HERE TO LAST '
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As Asher typically found himself during class, a leg poked out from underneath the desk as he faced Saiki. His classmates had been planning trips and adventures for their upcoming break, and he wanted to get in on the action.
"Saiki?"
"Yes?" He glanced at the male speaking to him before looking back to where he had before.
"Are you gonna be busy this week?"
Saiki shook his head.
"Good, then you have plenty of time for me. We can go to that cafe you mentioned, and maybe... I dunno. We can figure it out as we go. Maybe catch a movie one day."
'Sounds very unplanned. That's a lot of work.'
He shrugged. "Why not."
"Really!?" The brunette was surprised he gave in to his plans so easily. He pressed forward against his desk and, to his surprise again, Saiki nodded.
'Hell yeah! Maybe I can even convince him to go out of town with me... God, I'm such a romantic.'
Little did he know, his plans wouldn't go exactly as planned.
• ——— •
Asher had lost himself in a trance after the confirmation from Saiki, sloppily forming plans for their week in his head for the rest of the class. His crush was kind enough to, essentially, let him down and tell him the change of plans. And, honestly, hr completely shut it down at first. A cruise was hella expensive, and hearing it'd be on Saiko's boat made him feel no better.
But catching wind of Teruhashi's name had him switching up quickly. No way would he leave Saiki to the hands of that conniving snake! So, several days later, he found himself standing on a huge deck with people standing in front of a huge boat. Like, gigantic.
"How can someone possibly be this fuckin' dumb with riches?" Embarrassingly enough, he was in awe as he looked up to the metal that was probably four times his height. He had never been on a cruise before, so he actually was excited, especially to spend it with a certain someone..
They climbed aboard, Saiko guiding them through the ship, and the group couldn't help but vocalize their amazement. It was no surprise to see how shocked they were to realize just how rich the guy was.
"Heh," the grey haired boy laughed, "poor people get excited so easily. Just wait for what you'll see next."
"It's like a luxury hotel," Yumehara spoke, eyes sparkling as they walked through the long hall.
Kaidou looked just as satisfied, although he kept it retained to a relaxed smirk. "This could really turn out to be a fine cruise."
No more than 5 minutes later, Kaidou's faced had morphed to look like he was experiencing constipation, and he was heaving heavily. He totally jinxed himself.
They all gathered around their friend who sat on a bench, the ginger female bent over to stand face to face with him. "Kaidou, what's wrong!? Are you sick??"
"Yes.. just a bit seasick..."
Yumehara ran off. "I'll go get you some medicine."
Mera wasn't too far behind. "I'll go get you some food, too!"
'I know she's a foodie and all, but damn.'
"Oh, please do!" Kuboyasu took Kaidou's side while the other two scrambled to find what they were looking for.
Eventually, it was concluded that there wasn't any medicine they could find to help Kaidou. Instead, Yumehara opted for taking the male to a bedroom to lay down for the time being. From then on, everything began to go downhill. They found Mera in the pantry around what was left of the food stocked for them. Literally had to tie the girl down just to keep her from eating the cans.
"Then what the fuck do we do with no food?" Asher rubbed at the top of his head, turning to Saiki. "Saiki?" The same twist that came to Kaidou's face had somehow found its way to the pink haired male, as well as the heavy panting. "Saiki!? Are you good!?" Before he could fall over, the brunette rushed over to his side to hold him upright.
"I think Saiki's seasick, too."
"No, it's not as simple as that," the ill male urged. "I suddenly got a headache and wanted to throw up. This is no seasickness."
"It's seasickness!"
"I'll feel better after I get a little air."
"That's seasickness!!"
"You can hardly stand by yourself, no way in hell am I letting you outside," Asher grumbled.
"I- I can take him to rest in a nearby bedroom!" Teruhashi offered swiftly, taking advantage if the situation while she could. The brunette glared at her, just for a moment, before turning him and Saiki away.
"I got him. I'm not sure you'd be able to help him much, anyway," he backhandedly insulted her, unable to hold back his salty attitude towards her. He was still a bit upset about being here in general.
They got to a bedroom and Asher tucked him under the bedsheet, worry knitting his eyes together. "I didn't think you were able to get sick like this..."
'I'm still human.'
"Shit.. this is the worst...". He grumbled angrily to himself, assuming Saiki was asleep from how long his eyes have been closed. He began to pull his hairpins out, not wanting them to disturb his rest. However, as soon as the first was tugged from his head, the boat began to rock under his feet. "What's happening—!?"
Unable to keep himself steady, he moved along with the rocking of the boat and the crashing and breaking that made noise around them. Before he could help it, his head rammed into the nearest solid object. "Agh– f, fuu—" He fell onto the floor, and the world went dark before he could stop it.
• ——— •
The sound of waves crashing together and leaves blowing in the wind awoke Asher, a throb pounding at his head and his left leg. He couldn't stop the groan that tore through his throat as ge realized the pain he was in.
"Oh, thank god, he's alive..!"
He blinked his eyes open, trying to get used to the brightness of the moon that was high in the sky. "'Course I'm not dead.." he muttered, looking up to whatever began to block him from the light. "Saiki. Feeling okay?"
"Better than how you probably feel."
"What happened?"
The group went on to explain what they remember, Asher's disbelief growing by the second as more was explained. Now that he had a better look around, they were sitting on a beach with a vast, vast view of the water. Like, there was nothing but water, and a forest behind them.
"Wait, so the boat crashed and we're stranded?"
"... Yeah, pretty much."
"Well, shit." His head dropped, hands resting in his lap. By now he's sat up and sitting beside Saiki. "I knew we shouldn't have gotten on that damn boat."
• ——— •
They decided to sleep it off, hoping by tomorrow a rescue team would've found them and be in the process of getting them home. However, they were dead wrong. The island was as silent as ever, and by the time everyone was awake, things still haven't changed.
"It's all over." Kaidou was curled into a ball, staring iff into space with a dazed expression. "Help isn't coming. The world had abandoned us." It's only been one day and he was losing it. "We're gonna live the rest of our lives on this island. But we won't be able to live in a place like this."
"Dude.." Asher had been one of the last of the group to wake up, still processing the morning. "It's too early. Cut that shit out."
"Soon we'll start running out of food and starve." He ignored him, drawing creepy designs on his face with a marker. "We'll start killing each other!!"
'He's lost his marbles already.'
"Don't be so pessimistic!"
"Yeah, it's only been one day!"
"Anyways, let's eat and go for a swim."
'This moron's not even thinking.'
"Honestly, I'd take anything but be around the chaos."
'Not you, too.'
"Hey, where's Mera?" Teruhashi questioned. "Usually she'd be the first one running at the mention of food."
"Already, the first victim..!"
Asher shoved Kaidou's shoulder, rather roughly. "Stop it with that, huh!?" He turned his back, heading towards the forest. "I'm– I'm going to look for Mera! Figure out what the hell we're gonna do in the meantime!"
He ignored the calls of his name as he walked off. He needed some time to himself. It didn't help with Kaidou's consistent negativity and the growing worry between the group. As much as he didn't want to admit it, he was scared, teetering on terrified. What the hell should he do? He couldn't get in contact with his mom, who he was sure was freaking out by now. What if another day goes by? A week? There was no doubt they wouldn't survive further than a month—
"'m gonna be sick," he murmured, placing a hand on the nearest tree to hold himself up. His teeth sunk down into his bottom lip, focusing in steadying his breaths and easing the knot in his throat.
A hand grasping his shoulder startled him. "Calm down, it's me."
"Go away.."
"You look like you're gonna pass out. Things are looking better for us." Saiki moved to stand in front of him. "We found some food, and there were some supplies to help his put together a raft. They're getting things ready right now."
"But we're just a bunch of high schoolers. How can we be so sure—"
"We can't," Saiki interjected, Asher opening his eyes to glare at him. "But we can't just sit around and do nothing. We need that fearless guy you always are. Unless that's just been an act, and this is the type of person you really are."
They stare at each other. '... Well, when you say it like that, I get a better understanding of your type.'
'That's what you got from that?'
Asher took a few breaths, standing up straight again. "You're right. I dunno what came over me. Let's.. let's go back and help the group."
Together, they regrouped and did their best in aiding the group in gathering supplies, putting together pieces for the raft, and overall keeping each other together physically and mentally. Now that they had formed a solid plan, Asher had noticed the clear boost in morale, which he was more than grateful for. There was nothing that made him feel more vulnerable than the people close to him feeling lost.
"Wow, we got a lot of progress done today," Aren calpped his hands together, ridding them of the lingering dust and dirt.
"Yeah!" Yumehara nodded eagerly. "I think we can call it a night here."
The rest agreed, following one another into the forest to find a spot to sleep. Asher lingered behind as he noticed Saiki looking over their raft-to-be. "What's up?"
"Nothing," he shook his head. "Just going to add a few touches. Go ahead without me."
"Are you sure?" Saiki nodded. "Mm.. alright. Come find me when you're done."
The brunette wondered around the trees and bushes for a while until he saw a miniature campfire, seeing Kaidou and Aren sitting around it. He sat not too far away from either of them, not saying anything as he looked into the crackling fire.
"Where's Saiki?" Kaidou asked Asher. "He hung back with you, right?"
"Yeah. He said he'd be here in a minute, he's hustling checking out what we've got so far."
Aren hummed, staring into the side of Asher's head. The receiver of the look felt as if he were going to pop a blood vessel after the stare went on far too long. "What, Aren?"
"You and Saiki, huh?"
"Huh??"
"What!?" The blue haired boy was as equally confused.
"I mean, you guys are together all the time. Are you, like.. gay?"
"Wha– I mean, I hang out with you, and Kaidou, and even Nendou all the time, too! What's that supposed to mean!?"
"But, the two of you go home together and seem really close," he continued to press on the topic, to Asher's discomfort. "Remember that time you guys had gotten into a fight? And then he came over to your place on the weekend, when me and Kaidou were there?"
"What? How'd you even know about either of that?" Asher shook his head. He was getting sidetracked, that wasn't the point!
Honestly, he wasn't too afraid to let his friends know he liked Saiki, or that he liked men, no less. It was dragging his crush into all of this that he was afraid of. He knew how the guy was. Putting that kind of spotlight onto him would entirely crush any sort of relationship between them.
"Anyways— no. I just feel really comfortable around Saiki and his quietness, I guess. It's nothing like that. Don't even bring that up to him, do you know how much he'd hate that?" He glared at the two of them, mostly directed to Aren.
"He's got a point," Kaidou muttered.
Aren shrugged, backing off— for now. "I was just asking. I'm telling you– brother's intuition. I'll figure out what you've been going through."
"Stop it."
"Okay..! I won't say another word about it."
"Thank you.." Asher sighed, laying down on the small patch of grass he got. "Gonna sleep. Wake me if you need me."
This trip has become more of a pain in the ass than it should've ever been.
• ——— •
Another day passed by with their moods going up and down, along with their energy and passion. For the most part, especially when everything was put together, everyone felt sure they'd make it out of this alive. Asher was able to look past the conversation from the other night, not wanting to seem suspicious from acting so angrily, and seeming like he had moved on. Which he has, obviously.
The last morning, where everything was finally built and ready to sail, everyone looked refreshed. Everyone aside from Saiki, that is. Every other day he had looked fine, but this morning in particular he was dirtied and fatigued.
"Were you always that dirty?" Asher questioned, getting a better look now that he stood beside him.
"What'd you expect after four days of being out here?"
The brunette shrugged in response. "True. You're just always so perfect in my eyes, I didn't notice."
'Good grief.'
"Now, let's see if this raft can hold up to four people," Aren was the first to step onto the flotation device, closing his eyes with a cheerful smile and peace signs. "Here we go... Nice! It's holding up pretty well!! It's super stable!!"
"We found eight castaways! Do you remember your names?"
"What—?"
'Thank you, sweet Jesus.'
All of them looked like they were ready to drop to their knees and start crying from relief after seeing the rescue boats. All of them were clearly happy to he able to get off of this island and get back to the confort of their homes. Asher wasn't ready for the crying and scolding from his mother, but he did miss the lady.
News about their story had spread like a wildfire and Saiko had to do everything in his power from shutting the news down from the public before their names were revealed to the world. Walking back into class along Saiki brought a lot of unwanted attention on both of their parts, many ridiculous questions and claims being thrown at them left and right. And it didn't help Kaidou threw in his own shady, bullshitted side of the story, only adding fuel to the flame.
"Without food, we lost hope. That's when I decided to suggest building a raft." Kaidou was surrounded by a group of people, sharing the story of when they were on the island. Or, sharing the version he remembers.
"He's starting to piss me off more and more everyday with that fantasy world he lives in," Asher grumbled to Saiki, the two of them staring over at the blue haired boy as they took their seats.
Saiki nodded in agreement. 'They say gossip lasts 75 days and I can't wait that long. I need to do something.'
During their lunch break, while Saiki and Asher were heading to grab their food and eat, they stopped by a group of people surrounding one of the bulletin boards in the hallway. Apparently, their school had a newspaper club? They had written about the island incident as well, plastering all of their faces into the paper, and getting comments from the worst choice out of the nine: Kaidou. The story was practically fictional and exaggerated.
"Give me a break," Saiki muttered.
In all honesty, Asher couldn't give two shits about the whole thing. The constant questions were annoying, sure, but he knew how people are. After you feed into their entertainment for a while, they'll het tired of it and move onto something else. As long as he couldn't keep his patience, then he wasn't too worried. However, he was concerned for Saiki. Everyone knew he hated being the center of attention, and while being at his side all throughout the morning, Asher witnessed his already low mood drop further and further as more people talked and asked and assumed and pestered.
"Yeah, this is some bs—"
"Are you Saiki Kusuo?" They turned, a female with a recorder stood beside a guy holding a camera aimed at them. "And Mortelli Asher, right? I'm Jouten Manako, a member of the newspaper club. You think we could talk about your experience on the deserted island?"
Saiki merely stared at them, making all four of them uncomfortable, before walking away.
'He's just walking away? God, he's such a badass..!'
'.. Seriously? I'm just not in the mood to deal with them right now.'
He watched the shorter male walk off for a moment before looking back to the.. reporters? The kids that were in the newspaper club. "Not interested. Really don't care for that kinda bullshit," he shrugged, disinterest coursing through his body language before he rushed over to Saiki's side, grabbing the hem of his shirt to slow him down.
"They completely disregarded you," the camera man noted.
"Take a picture of them," she smirked evilly while staring at the boys backs, the flash of the camera not disrupting her. "Once they know how terrifying we are, they'll be dying to cooperate."
• ——— •
It wasn't long after that the bulletin was updated. Actually, it was the very next day. The story was completely different from the first, talking about the relationship of two of the people that had been stranded: Saiki and Asher. It wrote of them not wanting to share their stories, and somehow tied in speculation of a 'secret relationship' and their lousy proof to go along with it.
"I always wondered about their relationship."
"I had no idea..."
"What the fuck?" Asher wasn't sure if he was more surprised at how stupid his peers were for buying into it or how far this club was willing to go for what little the both of them had to say about being stranded. "Saiki..."
"This is getting out of hand."
Asher firmly nodded, unsure of how to comfort the typically stoic man. It was clear all over his face how much he dreaded seeing the story being posted on the board. And not only that, but the brunette was partially at fault. Damn him and his inability to keep his hands to himself, no less keep some distance from Saiki for more than an hour. Guilt slowly began to chew at his core, and grew stronger for the rest of the day, all the way until the two of them were walking home.
Asher had invited Saiki over at some point in the day, which he had surprisingly agreed to. The two of them stood in his kitchen, a quietness shared while the brunette grabbed them both a glass of water.
"Fuck, this is—" Asher groaned, not even sure where to begin. "I know it's not necessarily my fault but I feel like shit for getting something like that put out there. Especially since they didn't even know it's, like.. sorta true. 'm sorry."
Saiki rose an eyebrow. "What are you talking about?"
"Y'know... the whole 'Saiki and Mortelli secret, intimate relationship scandal' that was put up today."
"Oh, that," the pinkette shrugged. "Yeah, it's fine. It'll all blow over soon."
"What? How can you be so sure?"
"Hmm... that's a good question."
"???" Asher looked at him in exaggerated confusion, only to be ignored as one of the glasses was taken and sipped out of. "... I shouldn't even bother asking. Wanna watch a movie?"
"Only if I can choose."
",, Fiiiine."
• ——— •
After a day or two of the newspaper club continuing to spread their lies, they even got flipped onto their ass as the truth was uncovered. Saiki watched with a satisfied smirk from the background as people began to share their disliking for the newspaper club and their lies, while said club was basically falling onto their knees.
'Damn,' Asher had thought, 'He really said "If there's a will, there's a way." Why'd this whole thing make him 10 times more attractive?'
'I think you're just out of your mind,' Saiki looked to Asher as he answered his thoughts, mentally. Of course, the brunette couldn't hear it so he tilted his head at the look, a sign of confusion.
Saiki dismissed the look, grabbing the hem of his uniform blazer. "Let's go to that cafe I talked about a while ago. I think I deserve it."
"You do, but I don't?" Asher grew a crooked smirk, cheeks warming at the physical connection. "Well, since you've been such a good boy—"
"Don't word it like that," his face twisted, looking off to the side as if to hide his face, "I did the grunt work for us. I need something sweet to recharge."
Asher didn't need the explanation, he would've gone either way, no questions asked. But getting this sort of response, a bashful Saiki? God, he's pretty sure he just grew wings and was flying up to heaven. Or, maybe he should be clawing his way down to hell with certain thoughts he had.
'Good grief, stop thinking.'
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