Kattobingu!

          The regret was instantaneous — both Kaito and Ryoga looked like they desperately wanted to take back this entire exchange. Yuma wasn’t scary in any capacity but Ryoga and Kaito were also fiercely protective of him. To the untrained eye, this sudden shift in character might be odd, but anyone who knew the trio well knew that both of the culprits just hated to disappoint Yuma…and they hated Astral’s bitching.

          “Kaito punched me,” Ryoga offered, clearly shifting the obvious blame to Kaito.

          “In my defense, he deserved it.”

“Kaito! It doesn’t matter who deserved it more, you got that? The thing is, you two always go around tryin’ to one-up each other all the time and now look what you’ve done!”

A swift point in the direction of the shattered tea cup should’ve been more than enough for everyone in the room to realize what Yuma was talking about. Kaito and Ryoga were always arguing, almost more than everyone else was at Vector combined.

          “Electricity doesn’t make light flicker and sway,” Astral points out, watching Yuma somewhat warily. Was he going to put them all out after all? Honestly, for as worried as he was about it, he probably should’ve put them out himself to guarantee they left the three. Or he’d simply complain if Yuma put them all out.

          “You’re hyper, Yuma, you wouldn’t understand stimulation activities.”

“Me? Hyper? Naaah, I’m never like that! I’m just sayin’ that it makes no sense for you to burn this many candles when all you’ve gotta do is flick on a switch for light over there, Astral.” And with a motion to the nearby light switch near the door, out went another candle. Only 37 more to go!

          “…fine.”

          If only because it was clear that he wasn’t winning with Yuma. Astral clearly wasn’t totally thrilled with the compromise, but it’d probably be easier than continuing the argument. Besides, maybe Yuma would eventually relent?

          “I just like the scent and the light is all,” he complains lightly, but turns over the candle snuffer obediently.

“I knew you’d eventually see things my way~!” Yuma almost sings as he reaches for the candle snuffer, holding the small metal bell in his hand like a prized he’d just won. Astral might’ve knew a thing or two about real world facts, but he had the way of charm! Charm and good convincing arguments apparently!

It’s Zayne again ★ @shincbinaku

“Astral...? Hang on, did you really throw that?” There wasn’t anyone else in this room with them, so Astral had to have thrown it, but...the loaf in question had smacked the back of his head with some speed. Had Astral started going to the gym? Could Astral even go to the gym?

I didn’t even reblog this meme on Yuma but it’s Zayne ★ @wordscarred​

“Heeey, Shark! What’dya have to go and do that for!?” It’d be hard to miss that yelp as the loaf of bread collided the with side of Yuma’s cheek, bouncing of his face with a dull thud. The loaf hadn’t hurt, but he knew he should’ve expected something like this from Ryoga.

          “I thought vanilla and honey was supposed to be a good scent,” Astral says with what’s unmistakably a pout. He likes his candles and thought that the scent would appeal to Yuma’s sweet tooth. At least that’s what the salesperson had said…?

          “But doesn’t that mean that it makes our room smell like your home?” He thinks Yuma’s said something about being homesick once or twice — or that could’ve been Kotori for all he remembered. 

          “Surely it’s comforting.”

“Yeah, comforting if you actually like the smell of burnt casserole and old candle wax just hangin’ out in the air. Trust me, Astral. You smell it once and I’m pretty sure it gets stuck in your nose for life.”

Yuma would admit, it reminded him a bit of back home. Though with this many candles burning all in one spot, it was more like someone had shoved his entire house up his nose instead of making a pleasant ‘back home’ scent.

          “That’s not important, just know that we need to go right now,” Kaito hisses, taking a full step back from Astral’s mess. He didn’t want to be present when Yuma broke out, glancing at Yuuya with nothing short of urgency. Ryoga glances at Kaito with the nastiest look possible, but that’s nothing compared to the impending dread Kaito feels moments later.

          “Yuma,” Astral’s voice whines with an accusatory tone.

          “Don’t,” Ryoga hisses as quietly as possible. Don’t call Yuma was left unspoken. Astral clearly didn’t care, holding the large piece of his shattered tea cup like they’d just massacred his entire family.

Too late. 

Unfortunately for them, Yuma was already on his way back to the common room by the time the commotion broken, but the sound of glass shattering had already put him into overdrive. Skidding around the corner in his sock feet, it only took Yuma a second to assess the situation before a glare was pinned right on Kaito and Ryoga.

          “…can I leave five?” That would leave two by the window and three by his bed — which was very rarely used, in all honestly. He and Yuma were so close that often Astral ended up molded to his side to sleep. Not the most comfortable for small beds, but they both usually seemed to sleep decently. His bed, though, ended up only used for studying or sprawling out with whatever odd thing caught his fascination this week.

          “I’ll put out the ones near your bed.”

“Astral! I don’t think you’re getting the point here! Five’s still too many! Though I guess five’s better than thirty nine of those things in here...but still!” 

Yuma definitely wasn’t a candle fanatic, but even he knew that five candles in the small space that was their tiny room would still be too overpowering for anyone to stand. It wasn’t even so much about the flames anymore, but that scent.

          “I know but…”

          Astral liked his candles, which was a problem. Astral didn’t have a whole lot of hobbies or interests, which meant that he got kind of obsessive once he did find something nice. Of course, that usually was a huge inconvenience to Yuma and while he normally would yield with the biggest puppy-that’s-just-been-kicked look, he didn’t seem to want to budge today.

          “Can’t we leave a few?”

“Yeah, and just tell me what your definition of ‘a few’ is?”

“Because if it’s anymore than like three, then I’m still taking all these candles and shoving ‘em right back in the face of whoever thought any of this was a good idea.”

          “No!”

          Astral understood that Yuma didn’t want that many candles lit but that didn’t mean Astral was about to give Yuma the power to blow out all of his candles. He liked them and they weren’t hurting anybody…except perhaps Yuma’s patience with him.

          “You can’t put out all of them, Yuma!”

“Well if you didn’t want me putting them out, then you shouldn’t have lit them all in the first place!”

If Astral asked nice, then maybe he’d leave one burning in the corner beside the window despite the smell. Cracking the glass open would probably be enough to take care of that musty, old person scent Yuma was convinced was already stuck in his nose by now, but Astral couldn’t expect him to leave these candles burning!

          “Everything to safely burn thirty nine candles.”

          Considering that was the exact amount he had scattered around their room, he made sure knew how to do so safely. He didn’t want to set Yuma’s bed or desk on fire, after all…though Astral would surely have to pay him back for the money he’d spent. It’s not his fault he didn’t understand ATMs all too well. 

          “…if I give you this, you’ll put them all out, won’t you?”

“Astral, there’s like...an inferno burning in here because of you and your candles! ‘Course I’m gonna put ‘em all out!”

If Yuma was being honest, he didn’t even like the smell of these candles either. Maybe it was where there were so many, but vanilla and lavender just wasn’t his scent. Or was that honey? Either way, it smelled like something his grandma would’ve had.

          “I suppose it is a little strong for my tastes.”

          He’d just been so excited for such a unique, pleasing sensation that he’d gone a little overboard. At least, in that regard, he’d had the foresight to buy the candle snuffer the shopkeep had recommended, retrieving the little silver tool from the bag. Carefully, Astral puts out a few of the candles and cocks his head at Yuma.

          “How many is too many?”

“Just how much stuff did you get at that shop, Astral?”

Better yet, how much of Yuma’s weekly allowance had he spent buying candles at this place off campus, too? Not that Yuma was that concerned; he could always get his sister to send him more money if he really needed it but bargaining extra funds from Akari was like going through an interrogation.

          “Well, he only gave me one, but there was a little candle shop a block from campus, so…”

          The rest didn’t really need to be said. Astral had obviously liked the scent of the candle so much he’d left to buy more — the true question was whether or not he’d at least blown that first candle out before leaving. For as intelligent as Astral was, he was still pretty clueless when it came to things like common sense.

          “Do you dislike them?”

“Not really, but why’d you have to go and get so many? That one that visitor guy gave you should’ve been good enough for awhile, don’t’cha think?”

Common sense should’ve told Astral that lighting this many candles in one place was just asking for disaster anyway. Even Yuma knew he had more smarts than to do something like that and his friends were constantly trying to tell him how much of an airhead he could be most of the time.

          “I made sure the smoke being made by the candles is minimal — I won’t set off the sprinklers.”

          Astral knew by now, with adventures in the kitchen, that it took a lot to set off the sprinklers meant to save their dorm from a fire. Perhaps too much effort was required, but it made Astral confident that his array of candles wasn’t a harm to him nor Yuma.

          “We just had a visitor to the dorm earlier who was new to campus and lost. He said his roommate didn’t care for the candle and showed me how to light it and burn it safely.”

“Yeah, but Astral...you’ve got enough candles here to light the whole dorm on fire and then some. And something’s tellin’ me this ‘visitor’ didn’t give you all these ‘cause he wanted to get rid of ‘em either.”

“Besides, who brings something like candles with them to school anyway?”

@tsukuseki from here

          “—Yuma!”

          There was rarely a time where Astral wasn’t, in some way, happy for his roommate’s return. This time he was ecstatic, happy to share the warm, comforting scent of vanilla with the other. He’d gotten quite a few, though not all were lit…he’d run out of room.

          “Look, one of the students showed me the joys of candles!”

“Yeah, but Astral...!”

As if Yuma’s whine wasn’t enough to tell Astral his roommate wasn’t pleased. He knew it’d been a bad idea to leave the other unattended while he’d gone out to do things for the afternoon. Why would anyone have shown Astral candles anyway!? 

“—!?” Yeah, that ‘something’ was totally going to be him with how many candles there were in here. There wasn’t just a couple, but every square inch of their small, shared room was literally covered in flames—and what wasn’t covered in flames, was covered in the glow from the flames!  

“I was wonderin’ where you took off to for so, but that was just a figure of speech, Astral. It’s like a saying, it means ‘good luck’.” Though, maybe he should’ve known better by now than to say stuff like that around Astral, too.