Chapter Text
Life goes on as per normal, for Damon. His routine doesn’t change much, if at all; wake up to study at seven, have breakfast at eight, call his mother on the way to his first class, have lunch with Cassidy’s gang, attend afternoon classes, and resume studying at the Corner. The only thing that’s possibly slightly different in his daily schedule is the new presence he welcomes every late afternoon.
‘Welcomes’ is a little understatement. To be exact, he asked ( not pleaded, asked) Eva Tsunaka of the Mathematics course to leave her dormitory room and study with him through the lonely evenings instead.
It’s not like the new presence is life-changing, or anything. From Damon’s perspective, it’s always great to study with company, moreso if they are just as diligent and quiet as he is. It makes for good motivation to keep going, when the words in his notes start to not make sense.
So, why does literally everyone keep insisting there’s something more behind the scenes?!
i.
“I don’t believe you.” Cassidy Amber, for all her spunk and laughter, says very solemnly, staring Damon down with an unusual grouch on her face.
“There,” Damon sighs, already getting tired before the clock strikes midday, “is nothing to believe. Let it go, Cass.”
“Nuh uh! There’s totes something going on between you and Math Girl!”
Damon does not associate himself with these idiots, thank you very much.
He doesn’t even know when he even got dragged into this… messy group. He was perfectly fine sitting by himself, undisturbed while having lunch, until a few months after freshman orientation when these seniors just decided to sit with him. Uninvited.
“You looked sad and lonely, and we’ve always wanted to adopt a junior of our own!” The masked senior says, bumping shoulders with his energetic redhead best friend, who nods so passionately Damon wonders how her hat didn’t fall off.
“You have him,” Damon pointedly says, referring to an obviously rather reserved boy behind the loud duo.
“Not enough! As Pitbull once said, three’s a crowd, but four’s a party!”
“Actually,” The reserved boy speaks up, “that’s not—”
Okay, yeah. Their introduction was messy. The way they eat and talk is even messier.
Damon would never ever ever admit it upfront, but now that he’s given unlimited permission to have lunch with the two rowdy seniors, along with his fellow freshman Mark, he doesn’t see himself sitting alone ever again.
Even if they are messy. Even if he was forced into it. Even if they relentlessly tease him about what they insist is a secret relationship between him and Eva.
“Jett,” Mark Berskii, the most normal person in this odd group besides Damon, picks at his food and mutters to the masked man. “If you call her ‘Math Girl’ again, Damon won’t let you hear the end of it.”
“Hell yeah! We wanna know more, that’s what we’re here for!”
Damon groans, and runs a hand through his hair. “We’re not dating.”
“No way! Damie, you literally personally invited her to my game tournament,” Cassidy shakes her head, waving her fork rudely at him. “And she showed up! And you even introduced her to us, which is like, totally cool, ‘cause I’ve always wanted to meet more fans of Sublime Slam Sisters. But like, whaaaaaaaat? ‘Cause who does that for a girl they knew for a week?”
“Someone in love, of course,” Jett unhelpfully snickers. “And broskii, before that, you said you were gonna go out the lounge for some fresh air. And what happened?”
A sigh from his left. Mark picks at his food harder. “...I don’t remember.”
“No, you definitely told us that Da-bro and Math Girl were squatting outside, holding hands!” Jett insists. “And what’s more? Damon was apologising, right? Apologising??? ”
“For a girl he knew for a week?!” Cassidy gasps scandalously, “You can’t tell us that wasn’t straight outta a shoujo, bargain bin!”
“Dude, I been saying!!!!!”
Cassidy and Jett excitedly high-five each other, the combined ‘smack’ of their palms sounding like a firework heard up close. Damon buries his face in his hands, ears red from both embarrassment and fury.
“I’m leaving,” Damon grits out, but he shows no real will to. Mark sympathetically pushes his drink towards him.
“Pardon my intrusion, but I’m afraid I’m not quite following,” Jean DeLamer, who was sitting to Jett’s left, chews thoughtfully. “You held Miss Tsunaka’s hand, and spent time alone with her outside of the student lounge? That’s the sort of intimacy you don’t just show to any friend, aye.”
“Any normal friend is what you mean,” Cassidy laughs boisterously, answering the muscular senior she had graciously welcomed into their lunch gang some few weeks ago. “If Damie here isn’t dating Math Girl, then he’s gotta have a crush on her at least!”
Nobody is taking Damon’s humiliation seriously. “You’re all wrong, I—”
“Yo, ten bucks Damon gives in and asks her the fuck out by the end of next month,” Jett suddenly butts in, voice loud and serious.
“Are you kidding?” Cassidy gasps, “ twenty Math Girl does it instead ‘cause Damie’s too busy being pussy.”
“Fifteen the girl does it, but before this month ends,” Mark adds, and Damon turns to him, utterly betrayed.
Jean chuckles from across him. “I see we’re all placing bets now. Hm, I’ll put fifteen bucks on Damon confessing before this month ends. I have faith in him.”
“No one’s,” the subject of the bet screeches, face flushing hotly, “confessing anything!!!!”
At Damon’s frustrated outburst, the group only laughs in kind.
ii.
“What was it like…” Damon swallows, face scrunched in a grimace, “to confess?”
Desmond Hall, professional archer and charmer extraordinaire, chokes at his sudden question. Damon awkwardly watches as the usually composed senior wheezes and flusters.
“Uh, you…” The older boy turns to his junior, cheeks beautifully darkened, “Sorry, repeat that?”
“...I don’t want to.”
“Ah, sure,” Desmond rubs the back of his neck, still a little too embarrassed to look at Damon again, “...but when you said ‘confess’, did you mean it in…?”
“...in that way, yeah.”
“Ah, right. In that way.” Desmond pokes his cheek, eyes looking up to the sky. “Gotta be honest, I don’t remember it at all. At that time, it was a pretty big thing, sure, but after it happened I completely forgot I was nervous.”
Damon huffs. “That’s not helpful enough.”
“Sorry, I don’t really know what your situation is,” Desmond awkwardly chuckles, “Is it courage that you want to build up, or are you just not sure on what to say?”
Twiddling his thumbs, Damon mumbles, “Just… if it’s even worth doing it.”
From the corner of his eye, Desmond smiles, empathetic and kind. He sits a little closer to Damon, clearing his throat. “You always have to take the leap for things you want to change, Damon. You never became the best speaker on the Debate Team by waiting around. You never got into Eden’s Garden Academy by hoping for a miracle. You never knew what the outcome would be, yet you made the first move anyway, which ultimately led you to where you are today. Who says confessing isn’t the same?”
Damon looks at his senior, who fondly chuckles, “Personally, I think that confessing was super worth it. I wouldn’t be waiting outside for Eloise right now if I didn’t.”
A breeze passes. It blows against Damon’s face, and carries Desmond’s words with the wind. He presses his lips together, letting the archer’s words sink in.
He closes his eyes, and dreams. Of a possibility, a world where he confronts Eva, and gazes into steel grey, far longer than he should. A world where he works up the courage to say the words he was too afraid to spill in ink. A world where his hands hold hers, and she stands close, and his mouth runs faster than his mind can think.
A world where she opens her mouth, demure and quiet, and says…
When he opens his eyes, he thinks that being at the mercy of a bloodthirsty murderer would be a much more favourable position.
“What if…” he trails off, looking blankly to the front. Desmond notices the way his eyes dart everywhere, the way his fingers fidget on the wooden bench, and the way his Adam’s Apple bobs uncontrollably. “What if… she says no?”
“If she’s got the high and mighty Damon Maitsu to fluster like this,” Desmond gives him a friendly nudge, getting a ‘yip’ out of him, “why would she?”
The few minutes of silence that follow gives plenty incentive for Damon’s thoughts to run amok. Fortunately, Desmond’s girlfriend finally arrives, having been in fencing training prior to Damon seeking him out.
“Thanks for keeping me company, Damon. I hope all goes well on your end,” Desmond encourages, making his way to the approaching Eloise. “Who’s the lucky girl, by the way?”
“I’m not telling you, go away.”
Desmond laughs and bids his junior goodbye, walking off with Eloise’s hand in his.
Damon watches them go. When Eloise gives Desmond a quizzical look, most likely referring to the unexpected conversation between the two, his senior only shrugs, pressing his lips to the fencer’s temple.
Damon watches, and for a moment, sees a curly haired girl and a blond haired boy in their place.
He slaps himself quickly afterwards.
iii.
“Going out to see Damon, again?”
Eva stops still, very still, in her tracks, and turns around at a snail’s pace. Diana Venicia doesn’t look directly at her, still looking for something in her makeup drawer, but Eva can see the bright smile that pokes out from her half-turned face.
“...Does it matter?”
“Well…” the pink haired girl giggles, and faces Eva, “You’re hurried in your movements today.”
“I don’t like wasting time. You’re holding me back.”
Diana’s smile drops quite noticeably, and Eva feels the massive need to look away. “Ah… sorry, I didn’t mean to do that.”
You probably don’t mean a lot of things either, Eva bites her tongue.
Her hand rests on the cold metal of the doorknob. She turns it, not yet pulling it open, and keeps her hand there. Then she stays in her spot, silent in thought for so long, that Diana carefully comes up to her to ask if she’s okay.
Even as she’s rushing, Eva doesn’t feel quite ready to leave their shared dormitory room yet.
“My roommate’s friends with your roommate, apparently.”
She bites her lip, mentally preparing herself.
“You…” Eva starts cautiously, getting Diana’s immediate attention, “You told Damon’s roommate about me.”
“Well, he did ask, in Damon’s name,” the latter fidgets nervously, “I’m really sorry if you didn’t want me to tell them, but Kai seemed like he really needed it, so…”
“It’s alright,” the bespectacled girl says, using the softest tone she’s yet to use with her roommate. “Things turned out well, in the end.”
Slightly embarrassed, alongside the reminder that she would be running late for the daily study session, Eva fully turns away from Diana, pulling the door open.
She almost mumbles a soft ‘thank you’ when the other girl stops her this time.
“I’m a little hurt, you know,” Diana says, voice kind and lovely, even with the sad smile on her face, “I heard that he introduced you to his friends because you said you didn’t have any. I thought I was a friend to you.”
Eva’s head turns slightly, not enough to look Diana in the eye.
The soft hand curled around her wrists burns in its spot.
Shaking her head, Diana withdraws her grip, holding her own wrist close to her chest. “Sorry. I just… since we became roommates, I’ve always wanted to be your friend, and know more about you. I really try my best to reach out, even when you leave the dorm earlier and come back later than I do.”
Eva hears, for the first time. Fully hears Diana.
All her life, she’s lived and breathed alone like it was her purpose. Because when people did actually reach out, no matter if they were an adult or peer, they always had an ulterior motive in mind. There was always something to be used. There was always someone to be used. And that someone would always be Eva.
All her life, there was no such thing as true kindness without a give and take. So when the pink haired girl stumbled into the room on the first day of orientation, catching her attention with a big bright smile, it blinded her vision and she locked herself away. There is no light without darkness. Surely, her optimistic roommate must be putting on a front, too.
But, Eva concedes, as she sees the way Diana’s hand anxiously clenches her clothing, hasn’t she been far too mean to her?
While she’s still not brave enough to look at her, she nods, very slightly, and notices how Diana’s figure relaxes a little.
“If you want me to stop,” the pink haired girl offers, albeit dejectedly, “I won’t bother you any more.”
“No,” Eva says, before she can stop herself, before she realises she even opened her mouth.
Diana looks up, eyes wide and jaw hung open.
“I— Um.” Eva fumbles, “Thanks. For doing it.”
She takes a quick glance at Diana, meeting her eyes, and very shyly looks away just as quickly.
Even then, she can feel the other girl’s posture straightening itself, and she’s back to being cheerful, bouncing on her toes.
“Okay,” Eva hears the cheer in her roommate’s voice, and the corners of her own lips almost twitch up by themselves. “I’ll keep reaching out, if you don’t mind.”
She sucks in a breath for courage, and looks up at Diana, who’s smiling as bright as the sun. Choosing to put her point of focus on the pink haired girl’s cheek, instead of her jovial doe eyes, Eva raises her left arm, stiff and awkward.
She brings it up to shoulder level, then, even more awkwardly, clamps it on Diana’s shoulder. She raises it again, slightly, and brings it down. Pat. Again. Pat.
Diana blinks, her smile growing wider, even with the confused look in her eyes. “Was that a… shoulder pat?”
Eva doesn’t speak. But her cheeks burn, and she swiftly turns the opposite direction to hide her expression.
“Oh my goodness,” a giggle from behind her, and she can feel the flush spread to her neck and ears. It must be glowing right now, even. “Eva, that was so cute!”
Hastily fixing her spectacles, all she can mutter out is an ‘I have to go’, and pulls away from Diana, running out the room in embarrassment. The giggles get softer behind her, the faster she runs away.
Left in the room alone, Diana forces her laughter to come to a stop. But she keeps an overjoyed expression on her face, eyes smiling at the adorable memory of her roommate. She sincerely, sincerely hopes there’ll be much more fun times like this with her. And maybe, now that Eva seems somewhat willing to open up, they’ll come pretty soon.
“All the best with Damon,” The pink haired girl whispers, and closes the room door, “I really hope you’ll be happy, Eva.”