Archive of Our Own ^beta

The school rooftop.

A place for the loneliest children, the children that are outcast, who find comfort in each other's loneliness. A place where the outcast children observe the normal children, the good children—the children who don't have to find places to hide who they are, the children who are deemed as 'correct'.

Mizuki Akiyama usually doesn't bother to indulge in such a gloomy place—Hell, they barely attend school. If not for a certain oddball plaguing their thoughts.

"Why, hello there, Mizuki-kun!"

Rui Kamishiro, resident school weirdo, was currently sitting at his usual spot on the school rooftop, feeling the railing against his back and leaning his lanky body against it. He carries an all too clear strained expression on his face, yet he still manages a warm smile at his friend. Like always.

He appeared less fidgety than usual, unusual so. He wasn't tinkering with whatever weird inventions he comes up with- instead his hands were resting on his knees, no wacky gadget in hand, directing his full attention to Akiyama.

With a sigh, Akiyama closes the door of the rooftop, old and heavy, and sits next to Kamishiro. Their shoulders close but not yet touching, in the same vicinity that one could whisper something in the other's ear. Not that that even matters. There's no one to hear the words they're whispering. No one bothers coming up to the rooftop, making it the perfect resting place for the outcast children who only find comfort in confiding in each other.

"Why are you always greeting me so carefree like that when you're clearly not? It's annoying."

Honestly, they wonder, how can a person who's so clearly shrouded in the same loneliness they experience, greet them so cheerily every time they come around this place? It's not like he's any better than them, anyway. From their first meeting and onwards, Kamishiro has always possessed a loneliness in his eyes that makes you feel that he has a thunder cloud above his head at all times, raining and thundering on him. Akiyama supposes the rain cloud has been rather disgruntled these days, from the increase of haziness and tiredness in Kamishiro's eyes.

Besides Kamishiro's ever so cheerful greeting, he hasn't uttered a word since Akiyama's appearance, instead prompting to simply stare at Akiyama with an oddly… fixated expression.

"...What's wrong. Is there something on my face..? Say something." Kamishiro's strange behaviors are nothing new to them—but they're always shown in the form of him being a chatterbox, going on and on about his odd inventions. Him simply staring at them is something new entirely.

Only a light chuckle comes as a reply from Kamishiro, simply grinning at them as he proceeds to scoot closer to his friend in solitude. Their shoulders seem to be touching now. Kamishiro is cold, Akiyama notes, and shivers.

Kamishiro doesn't comment on this, then proceeds to lightly grasp a strand of Akiyama's hair around his finger, twirling it idly. He seems rather fixated on their hair for some reason, not saying anything and just silently twirling and twirling. He's immensely gentle with it, being careful not to tug too harshly on his dear friend's hair.

He seems totally immersed, astonished even, as he continues his little experiment twirling and untwirling light pink hair with yellow eyes following every twirl.

"Say, Mizuki-kun, your hair's longer nowadays, huh? May you even be able to put in a ponytail…?" He ends quietly and tilts his head a little bit.

Moving his face closer, he continues twirling on his finger and eventually starts wrapping the soft peach-colored strand around his hand, lightly patting his thumb against it in a fascinated fashion.

"Huh?", Akiyama in the meantime was too distracted and weirded out from Kamishiro's sudden interest in his hair twirling (Wrapping?) activities that the sudden spark in conversation leaves them out of their train of thought. "Oh, uh… I guess…How did you even notice that?"

"Your hair is so well kept… Fits you rather well, Mizuki-kun." Kamishiro deliberately ignores the question and proceeds to stop his little experiment and moves his face even closer to Akiyama's, the strand of hair still in hand, going back to his previous action of holding it with his finger.

His movements are slow and gentle, as he brings the strand to his lips with lithe and elegant but icy and shaking fingers, and places a soft, yet hesitant kiss to the light pink strand. As he retracted his lips, he looked up to the expression of his friend to see their reaction.

Cheeks redder than their personalized school blazer and wide eyes, Akiyama is left speechless. Mouth wide open, no sound comes out. Kamishiro similarly mirrors their expression by also becoming redder than the tomatoes he so loathes to eat.

A long silence follows as the young pair stare at each other with startled expressions and frozen via. body language.

“U—Um.. I must apologize, Mizuki-kun, I swear it was not my intention to—Err… Forgive me.. I am… “

Noticing that he still held the strand of hair in his hand, he quickly retracts his shoulder and hand (still being careful not to accidentally tug on Akiyama's hair) from Akiyama and puts his now shaking hand behind his head before abruptly bringing them to rest on his lap as he lowers his head and starts bowing in apology.

“I deeply apologize for not asking you, i—it was rather silly... No, stupid of me-”

“Senpai—”

“I swear I will not do it again. Again I profoundly apologize, Mizuki-kun. I probably have betrayed your trust—”

“Senpai!-”

“If you don't want to approach me after this, I totally understand. Again I am very sorry and—”

“Rui!”

Deemed quiet, he slowly brings his head up.

Akiyama determinedly, but slightly hesitant, brings their hands to grasp Kamishiro's lightly. They smile at them.

“It's okay. Um… Honestly I should've said something… It's okay though it felt.. nice? Ah, I mean—" They quickly lower their head but Kamishiro notices the light flush still prominent. Unable to hold himself back, his expression turns back to his signature grin (even if it still is a bit hesitant).

“Is that so..?”

“I—I mean… I guess I wouldn't particularly mind it if you… Twirled my hair like a weirdo again…”

“Sorry, what was that?”

“Oh, screw you, Rui!”