#decodetalking

"So, have you come to make a sacrifice of your own, or are you perhaps here to enjoy the view as well?" Themis does not move from where he sits, only opting to look over his shoulder after he poses his question.

“But not you, dear. I’m sure anyone who’s so similar to my husband must be a lovely person.” Just then, a loud crash sounded from upstairs. Au stiffened, immediately shouting, “what was that?”

“Nothing!” Came a chorus of children’s voices from through the ceiling and Au slumped into a chair at the kitchen table.

Feeling the telltale stirrings of a human slowly waking up from sleep, Ai gently wrapped his arms a little tighter around Yusaku.

“Nooo...” He protested quietly, even putting on that adorably dopey voice humans get when they’re half asleep. Scrunching his face, he hid it in Yusaku’s bedhead. Normally, Ai would jump out of bed on this very important day - dragging Yusaku along with him - but, just last year they’d had a big, energetic party more suited to Ai’s taste. Ai wanted to show Yusaku that he was more than happy to stay home and celebrate their birthday in the way that Yusaku would no doubt prefer. He was such a good and mature partner! ...Even if his preferred form of “compromise” was him hugging onto Yusaku like a clingy octopus.

Still... he was worried he wouldn’t be able to stop Yusaku workaholic nature completely, but maybe he’d be able to poke at the Ai-shaped weak spot in Yusaku’s cranky armor long enough to convince him to take the day off even though Ai didn’t have any big plans for them to go anywhere.

Reines had expected to team up with her Brother for this fight. The two of them naturally gravitated towards eachother, and he was fully equipped to fight nowadays. It made logical sense.

Yusaku? He wasn’t an expected battle partner. He didn’t even make the list of top twenty. But with no other allies in sight, she was making due with what she had.

She still couldn’t believe she went through eight years of medical school for this.

It wasn’t like Aki hated her job as a school nurse, but the times she had felt actually useful and that she was making a difference in her career like she’d always wanted were few and far between. Besides a passing recognition, she hardly even knew this ‘trouble maker’ student. Whatever it was he did that got him into trouble so many times, it certainly wasn’t picking fights with other students or he would have ended up in the nurse’s office sooner.

Pinching the bridge of her nose, Aki let out a sigh before remembering where she was and that the student in question is sitting right in front of her. She straightened up immediately and gave the kid a tired smile.

A little Ignis popped out of Yusaku’s duel disk. 

“Do you know what today is, Yusaku-chan~?”

Honestly, Ai didn’t expect Yusaku to know what was special about today. Yusaku wasn’t exactly a romantic, so Ai was almost certain Yusaku wouldn’t care enough about holidays like this to even give them a passing thought. That didn’t bother Ai; he knew Yusaku loved him in his own way. Rather, Ai was simply using this question as a lead-in to whatever he had planned for Yusaku today.

Ciscera looked up, a bored expression on his face. As the class secretary, he made it his duty to recognize all of his peers -- and as his boyfriend, he was kind enough to remind Ai: The class president who was so hopeless with faces. Ciscera recognized the student Ai was looking at at a glance.

“You should recognize him, he’s not exactly new. He transferred here at the beginning of the year.” Ciscera turned his attention back to the prom planning papers that they had spread all over their table. “’Fujiki’ is his name. He hangs out with those punk kids.”

Ai turned around to look at the class secretary, “’punk kids’?” Ciscera waved his hand dismissively.

“You know -- skipping class or sleeping through it, barely doing enough homework to pass, hardly in any clubs. You aren’t exactly in the same cliques.” Ciscera gave him a look, which Ai returned even though he knew it was a loosing battle. It’s true, Ai was a bit of a prep. Not doing homework he could understand, but dropping his extracurriculars? Never.

“...Anyway. I’m going to bring some of these to the main office before lunch is over.” Ciscera waved him goodbye without saying anything or even looking up. Ai huffed and gathered the papers in his arms before stomping away. His boyfriend was so rude! He didn’t even know why he started dating Ciscera! In fact... he doesn’t remember when they started dating either... He doesn’t remember much about their relationship at all, actually... And this Fujiki? Him transferring earlier in the year could explain why Ai recognized him, but Ai had a strange feeling that he knew the other student better than that...

Ai was so preoccupied with his thoughts, he didn’t see the other before it was too late and ran right into another student. Startled, he dropped his papers everywhere. Ai jumped back and began picking them up before anyone could step on them.