Expression

Chapter Twenty-one

Kakyoin was not particularly thrilled about having to do partner work in his sculpture class. He'd honestly never even tried sculpture before, and was ashamed and sorry for whoever got stuck working with him.

"Hey, you," a soft voice called out to him. "What was your name again? Nori-?"

"Noriaki Kakyoin."

"Would you like to work together, Noriaki?"

"Ah!" he hadn't been prepared for this and was even slightly suspicious. What did this guy want? "Yes, that's fine. Sorry, what's your name again? I'm bad at names," he said, smiling carefully and politely.

"Marco," the other answered. His sharp teeth glinted in the light, and for a moment Kakyoin feared that he might be another vampire until he realized that he wouldn't be standing right in the sunlight streaming in from the window if he were. Quit being ridiculous. You're freaking out over nothing again.

"... Something wrong?" Marco asked, furrowing his brows.

"Oh! I'm, uh, alright." He forced a nervous laugh. You're ruining things already, dumbass. Can't you just act normal for once?

Marco frowned briefly but didn't pass the matter further. "When are you free to work on this?"

"Oh! Any time is good, really. I'm not super busy." He rubbed the back of his neck. He would have preferred for each of them just to make their pieces separately. Working around other people, especially people watching over what he did, stressed him out unreasonably. Maybe, he thought, he'd get his sculpture mostly done before they met and then wouldn't have to worry about that. Would that make me seem productive? He wondered, even as he knew that he'd never get something like this done early.

"Is tonight good? It doesn't have to be for long or anything, I just want to get the basic idea down since we have to come up with a theme. We have a few days."

Definitely not getting anything done early.

"Uh... sure."

They met that night in one of the empty classrooms. Kakyoin hadn't exactly been looking forward to it; in fact, given the odd number of students in the class, he had been planning to offer the professor that he'd be the odd one out and just do double the work so that he could avoid having to work with someone else.

They had to create a pair of clay busts representing the theme of their choice.

"So. Noriaki. Any ideas?"

"I, uh–" he hadn't been prepared to be put on the spot like this. In fact, he'd been hoping that this Marco who had taken the initiative in forming this group would have been the one to come up with the idea. "How about two faces? One we show to the world and the face this hides?"

Marco laughed. "I knew you wouldn't disappoint me."

Kakyoin shifted uncomfortably, unsure of what exactly the hell that meant. Although it wasn't exactly fair and he knew this, he'd been wary of Marco for no real reason and this wasn't making him feel any more at ease. "What's that mean?" he asked, narrowing his eyes. The pair that met his were a violet only slightly deeper than his.

"I just like your style. Most people here have a horrible sense of it," came the reply accompanied with a somewhat arrogant toss of his head. Kakyoin had to assume that the blue hair was dyed and another part of this person's elaborate appearance, but at this point nothing would surprise him anymore.

"You talk like a Victorian."

"Ah, do I? A shame. I try to keep my work persona separate from my daily persona."