1: Homework

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    Kaidou checked the clock. He has about ten minutes before he needs to get himself out of the house and to school. Yet, he is currently covered in about five maths worksheets, all of which he has only partially completed. Awesome.
   "Shun, are you almost ready?" His mother's call from outside of his room helps jolt him awake. There never seems to be a second when she leaves him alone; it's her fault he has such a dependency on her. Well, that and the blaring fact that his father left when he was around thirteen. Right on the cusp of puberty - right when a kid needs the most support - and his Dad just dipped out of his life for what Kaidou now knows to be a permanent choice.
   "Yes!" He calls back, scrabbling about with the different sheets, and attempting to work out a simultaneous equation in his head. Maths has never been his best subject. No subject has been his best subject, but he could never tell his mother that. He finishes the equation, and grabs another. He has five other things he needed to do before he left, like put on deodorant, and socks, and text Aren back, and brush his hair, and-

   "It's time to go, Shun, come on!" His mother's face appears in the doorway, and he almost falls out of his bed.
"Okay, okay, I'm going!" He shovels the sheets into his bag, and swiftly brushes his hair so he doesn't look like a total idiot. He puts on his shoes, and races out of his room. He didn't purposefully wake up late - he'd just managed to ignore his alarm somehow, even though it went off three times. Shun retrieves his phone from his pocket and starts tapping back a reply to Aren. Kuboyasu has become a close friend of his, despite Kaidou's initial fear of his past of delinquency. Sometimes it felt like Aren was the only person to understand what Shun was attempting to say. And everytime he gets a text from the guy, Kaidou finds himself getting all excited, and he isn't entirely sure why. He reasoned it out with himself, and thought that it's probably just him wanting to be Aren best friend. Because it can't be anything else, can it?

    As he walks through the streets, his mind wanders off. He shouldn't have started thinking about Aren, because now the boy is stuck in his head, and that's no good because Shun needs that space for Chemistry knowledge, and for the mountain of things he needs to remember to do everyday. Being a functional human is very hard, but nobody seems to talk about it. The school is up ahead. He used to be picked on quite a lot - even now he's not saved from casual teasing from his friends - but ever since he started hanging out with Kusuo, his overall luck has improved. Less bad things happen when Saiki is around, and Kaidou can't think of why. It doesn't matter, he's glad to have some friends now. He was more than frightened when his Mother tried to intervene. Any other teen boy would have fought back, but Shun wouldn't dare. She can get awfully scary when she wants to.
    Walking into class, he drops into his seat. He needs to finish another few of those sheets. If his mother knew how badly he was slacking lately, she'd practically tear him apart. If only he was good at sports, but his clumsy nature never fails to get in the way. And he's still thinking about Aren. He should stop that. What about the sheets? Yes, the sheets; he forgot. Hold on, did he ever put that deodorant on? Shun gingerly sniffs his armpit, and sinks further into his chair. No, no he did not.

    All of this has him feeling less than stellar. He bounces his legs, and opens his bag to start on one of those sheets. Other students are milling around, chatting, and he wants to talk too. Saiki just arrived so it would be polite, wouldn't it? No, the sheets. He digs his hand inside of his bag, and then gasps. He'd forgotten about this. Prickly, the brown hedgehog stuffed animal is staring back at him. Shun keeps him there for when he gets anxious, or antsy, or for any other reason really. Prickly serves many uses. He commonly takes refuge in Kaidou's school bag, since Shun isn't even supposed to own him. Mother was very adamant about throwing away all his kid things after his tenth birthday, because apparently that's when he was meant to start "growing up". Shun still doesn't understand what she means by that, or how that's a valid reason for evicting sweet old Prickly.
    "Hi. I forgot you were in here, sorry." Shun whispers, gently patting the hedgehog on its head, and placing a number of sheets on his desk. "We'll play at home, okay?" He smiles to himself.

   Shun has never acted the same way as other people, and one of his outlier traits, is his childish behaviour and his unrelenting naivety. For as long as he can remember, he has been lining up toy cars, and pretending to be different animals, or writing stories to whisk himself away to another dimension. As he's gotten older, this aspect of him has remained, and he knows that sometimes, when he gets too excited, or emotional, his brain takes him back to being little. And... It's fun. As long as other people don't find out, then it's okay. He enjoys playing with toys, and drinking orange juice from a carton, or colouring.
    He spreads out the crumpled paper, and starts answering a question about isotopes. It's too bad he can't act like a kid all the time - he'd get in trouble and people would definitely laugh at him. Like he said to Prickly, he'll play at home when he gets some alone time. Surely he deserves it after all the work he does.

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A/n: Kaidou might be one of my favourite characters, but I definitely relate to Saiki more... I don't know if anyone will read this, I'm not sure how many people are looking for this type of content considering it is a comedy anime, but whatever... I've wanted to write it soooo :)

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