Featherlight

One

disclaimer (please read):

this fic will contain themes of homophobia and lgbtphobia, both internalized and not. if these themes make you uncomfortable, please do not read this. no one is forcing you to do so.

this fic is self indulgent and projectory in that it is technically a vent. i get that some people dislike having themes of lgbtphobia in their fics, or find it weird that homophobia is still kind of an issue in 2022, but listen when i tell you that it still is, in parts of the world, especially in asian countries where i am from. a lot of people may be accepting of lgbt people in this time and age, but there are still people out there who are strongly against it, and lgbtphobia is still very much a thing.

because of this, where i live, it's still taboo to come out of the closet, so this fic will sort of be like an outlet to cope with that knowledge. p.s the characters here will have binary genders and "normal identities", but don't take that for what it is. I'm planning on making the povs very unreliable narrator-esque, and, as a side note, not all the characters are as cishet as the narrator makes them out to be. I'll explore these issues as the story goes on - it's already getting long, so I'll end it here. if you're planning on reading this, i hope you enjoy. :)

***

Rumors from last week flood Jade's memory, as he eyes Rutile and Padparadscha from his seat in the class. They're holding hands, a smile plastered across their faces, and they're grinning gleefully. Jade wishes they would stop with the PDA, it's too sweet and it's giving him diabetes, he can already feel the ants crawling up his skin.

Dating rumors.

Something that's pretty inevitable in a school, and a private school such as Jade's own is no exception to that. Speaking of which, isn't dating other students (or the staff) against the rules of St. Lucia Private School? These guys are so... open with their relationship, that it's pretty much obvious, even to a blind person.

How? Well, to start, Rutile would now start using her Padparadscha Love voice whenever she's around him, and oh my God the pet names are the second worst thing ever. The first worst thing would be the horrendous, horrible and absolutely vile PDA, and the third worst thing is the everything else.

This is horrible. Jade silently wishes that somebody would come and stab his eyes out, just so he wouldn't have to witness this catastrophe. Maybe even stab his eardrums too so he wouldn't have to hear their cheesy conversations.

As he thinks this, Euclase comes by to stop at his desk.

"Hello."

"Hi."

Euclase sits down on Jade's chair with the latter still on it, and Jade scoots over a bit so that Euclase would have more room to sit on the chair. Euclase chuckles a bit at this.

"Sorry, I should've brought my chair."

"It's alright." Jade rests his cheek on his hand. "I, uhh, don't mind, actually."

"You don't?"

Jade shakes his head. It's not a lie... he loves the way Euclase's shoulder would brush against his when they're sitting this close. It takes him back to the time when they were children, going home on the same bus, admiring the sunset together while one of them was slowly getting drowsy and resting his head on the other's shoulder.

But that was then.

It shouldn't be the case now, because they're all grown up, and doing that would be weird. Just like how weird it is for Jade to be feeling this warm, fluttery feeling in his stomach every time Euclase comes close.

He's so gross.

Why can't he be normal, like everyone else?

"So, what brings you here?" Jade asks, and Euclase hums.