At Last || Saiouma fanfic

Homeroom

Kokichi stepped into the classroom. The teacher briefly lectured him on punctuality before writing him a tardy slip. Kokichi scoffed indignantly as he snatched the slip from the teacher's hand and took his seat, stuffing the note in his pocket. The teacher sighed before going back to her desk and working at her computer, leaving the students to talk or work on homework until the second period bell rang.

     Shuichi took note of a small pizza sauce stain on his sleeve, which he appeared to attempt to cover by rolling it up, but it bled through. Had he just not bothered to change from last night, or did he just not have anything else to wear? Both thoughts concerned Shuichi, but he decided he was looking too much into things and resolved to drop the issue in his mind.

Snapping back to reality, Shuichi looked at the purple-haired boy sitting across the room, who holding his chin in his hand as he stared at the clock blankly. Shuichi knew what he had to do. He drew in a shaky breath and walked toward Kokichi, who didn't seem to notice him approaching. Shuichi hesitantly tapped him on the shoulder, causing him to spin around to look at him.

His expression went from bored to scared in a matter of seconds once he saw who had been tapping him. "Hey, Kokichi, I-"

"S-Shuichi!" He exclaimed, cutting him off mid-sentence. "Before you say anything, please.. just take this."

Before Shuichi could ask any questions, Kokichi pulled a black baseball cap out of his bag, the tag marked with a last name that didn't belong to anyone he knew. Shuichi held the worn hat in his hands, examining it for a moment before looking back up at Kokichi, who was staring at the floor. "Kokichi, you didn't have to-"

"You don't have to forgive me.. just.." He looked up at Shuichi and half-smiled. "You look really dumb without a hat."

Shuichi smiled and put on the hat. "Thanks, Kichi." He said quietly.

"You called me Kichi.. are you not mad at me anymore..?"

Shuichi put his hand on Kokichi's shoulder and looked into his eyes. "Actually, the reason I came over here was.. to apologize. I wasn't in a good headspace last night.. I was tired, and I had a headache-"

"Shumai, you don't need to make any excuses. You're forgiven. I'm just glad you aren't upset with me."

Shuichi let out a sigh of relief. "Hey, you got this hat from the lost and found, didn't you?" Shuichi said, laughing.

Kokichi shrugged. "What can I say, I'm broke!" He said, turning his pockets inside out in an attempt to be funny, but he forgot about the tardy slip from earlier, and it slipped out of his pocket and fluttered to the floor. Shuichi laughed, but not for the reason Kokichi wanted him to. He closed his eyes and sighed in annoyance and picked up the piece of paper and ripped it into pieces.

It was then that the bell marking the end of the end of first period made it's shrill announcement across the halls. "Its a b-day, right?" Shuichi said, adjusting his new hat so it fit his head right. "Mhm, can't you remember anything?" Kokichi said teasingly. Shuichi laughed, but in his head he was thinking hard.

Just a moment ago, Kokichi was the most vulnerable Shuichi had ever seen him. He almost looked like he might cry. Was Kokichi really everything he appeared to be?

"Hey, Shumai, you zoning out or something? We're gonna be late, we've got science first period on b-days." Kokichi said, shaking Shuichi's shoulder, his bag already packed and ready to go, still clutching the torn up tardy slip in his fist. "R-right." Shuichi said, startled, as he scrambled to pack his bag.

Kokichi scoffed. "Usually this would be the other way around!" He said, examining the nails of his free hand as if he was the "popular girl" in some awful teenage drama. "Oh, be quiet." Shuichi said jokingly, zipping his bag shut and slinging it over one shoulder.

They walked towards the science classroom side by side. As they walked together, their shoulders bumping into each other every now and then, Shuichi couldn't help being curious about Kokichi's shift in demeanor earlier.

     Even as he was just sitting there, looking nonchalantly at the clock, he just seemed so unbothered, untouchable, like nothing could bring him down. That's how he always was, acting as if he was above the world, above everyone around him.

     But all that was dropped the second he turned around to see Shuichi. As he apologized, the way he was talking seemed much more.. real? Genuine? Shuichi couldn't put his finger on it, but something was definitely different.

     Shuichi felt a tap on his shoulder and noticed that they had arrived at the science classroom as he was spacing out. "What is with you today, Shuichi? You seem really out of it." Kokichi said as Shuichi turned to look at him.

     "S-sorry, just thinking." Shuichi said awkwardly.

     "It's all good, I'm just messing with you, nishishi!" Kokichi said with a mischievous grin, which looked different to Shuichi somehow. He pushed the thought away.

     "Let's go, we're gonna be late." Shuichi said, grabbing Kokichi by the wrist and hurrying into the classroom, but they still had five minutes to the bell. Kokichi showed no reaction, but inside he knew something was up. Maybe things weren't quite back to normal just yet.

-Author's Note-

     Apologies for the short chapter! I didn't want to make it too wordy and i try to limit the chapters that take place in school to one class period, so because of that it ended up being a bit shorter than usual. I'll make sure to write another chapter over the weekend, and i hope you enjoyed anyways! Also i'm writing this late at night and i'm tired so please excuse any spelling errors. Thanks for reading!