if you took a little longer, i would've left you.

Happy Valentines, Kuni. (Doesn't mean we're friends, though.)

YOOO Im SO sorry. I don't have a lot of motivation, so take this very, very, VERY late (and short) Valentines gift <3

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1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10!

And an alarm started beeping.

Ajax happily rose from his bed. He yawned and stretched, then wiping at his eyes as he removed his comforter. He then proceeded to make his bed. He hastily did his morning routine not forgetting to greet all his family members a giddy 'Happy Valentines day!' As he made his way to the gates of his family estate. Meanwhile, a certain someone was having the worst morning ever.

"Rukkhadevata, please. Can I call in sick today?" Kunikuzushi pleaded. "As much as I wish we could eat out together today, you must study. And, Tartaglia is depending on you to help him study." Rukkhadevata rejected his pleads. Kunikuzushi groaned loudly. "Fine." He hissed, angrily getting up to get ready for school. He'd be late if he slept in any longer, he didn't want to deal with Ms. Aoki's constant nagging.

After the first day of the new arrangement, Kunikuzushi had learned to, well, mostly tolerate him. Tartaglia, on the other hand was pretty much doing his best to study well. Despite how goody-two-shoes-ish Tartaglia seems to act, he's not all that. He can be rather rude and aggressive when he wants to be. Like that one time where he made fun of a family photo he had in his phone, saying he was cheesy for keeping it as a wallpaper. Tartaglia had lost his remaining kindness and gave Kunikuzushi a rather personal response.

"Yeah? Well it's not like you'd know how familial love works, so I guess I can't be upset you don't understand how important this photo is to me. You don't even have a family!"

Ouch. Those words were ringing in Kunikuzushi's head everyday since then. But that was a good several weeks ago. Tartaglia had apologized. Kunikuzushi could tell Tartaglia had mostly hesitated to apologize and ended up saying sorry for the well-being of his grades. He couldn't blame him, though. Having low grades and being a trouble maker who often got into fist fights with the same person, over and over again, and then proceeding to lose most of those fights.

He didn't exactly realize he had reached the school gates because of how cloudy his mind was. Kunikuzushi quickly entered the school. Kunikuzushi sighed as his mind entered into another topic. What exactly was 'Tartaglia's' name? Ajax? Or was that just a family nickname? He decided he would ask him about it when he got the chance.

As if the Archons read his mind, he spotted Tartaglia across the hall. Tartaglia spotted him, waving. Kunikuzushi reluctantly walked over. "Hey." He greeted plainly. "Hey, Kuni." Tartaglia greeted back. "Kuni?" He questioned the nickname Tartaglia had just given him. "Yeah, well, your name is a bit long, so, I thought," Tartaglia paused. "Fine, whatever call be Kuni or something, I don't care." Kuni swore he could hear Tartaglia mutter a silent 'Thank the Archons!' Was his name truly that hard to pronounce? Whatever, this was his chance to ask him why his parents called him Ajax.

"So, uh Tartar, when we were called in the guidance office because of the, uh, incident, your parents called you Ajax?" He asked, awaiting Tartaglia's answer. "Hmph, that's a name only my family calls me. It's my real name. I'm called Tartaglia because...wait, did you just call me Tartar?!" Tartaglia sounded offended. "Yeah, the sauce? Your name is annoying to say too, so I shortened it." Kuni shot back, mimicking Tartaglia's earlier words. "Ugh! I don't have a second 'r' in my name! And, as I was saying, Tartaglia is a name given to me by my friends. We all have nicknames like that." Tartaglia, no, Ajax responded.

"Yeah, yeah sure. Whatever. After our lectures, meet up at the same cafe to study?" Kuni asked, Ajax nodded, walking to their class.

After school, they went to their 'cafe'. It wasn't actually a cafe, it was actually a tavern, called The Cats Tail. They entered with their bags. They were both currently the same age. With Kuni being 6-7 months older. They had ordered drinks. "Happy Valentines day, Kuni." Ajax had said randomly. "Uh, happy Valentines to you too, I guess?" Kuni guesses Ajax is tipsy, they had ordered some slightly alcoholic beverages while studying, after all. He'd be a bit surprised if Ajax had been a lightweight, but then again he hadn't paid attention to Ajax's intake of drinks.

"Hummm, call me 'Jax..you let me call you Kuni, right? So call me..me..Aax..!" Kuni chuckled at his behavior when he was drunk. He's a lot quieter, but still stupid, he thinks. "K'ay." He says simply. Keeping his stuff and zipping his bag. He'd still have to take Ajax home, after all. "Lets go, Ajax."

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IM SO SO SO SORRY. This is so late and lazy, and its shorter than the usual amount 😭😭.. I know nothing about college btw !! Just letting you know cuz I might make mistakes abt some age stuff and etc. , there was a few weeks time skip btw, I'm not good at slowburn. And this chappy was totally an excuse to shorten their names. And bond like very slight. AND make up for the lack of chapters. See you in like a month ig 🥰

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