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trypanophobic) wrote2020-02-25 09:06 pm
trypanophobic) wrote2020-02-25 09:06 pm
BL ANIME AU, BASICALLY
[You know what, maybe Blue and Killua had gotten a little caught up in their hubris here. Aside from where their gym activities intersected, the two didn't really interact much—there were curious, stolen glances from across halls and classrooms, but they'd never really spoken much, despite the two of them holding their own polar, lofty positions. And one of their matched positions at this school was in anything athletic. In these intersections, they finally talked—and it was a lot of shit-talking.
Killua didn't consider Blue a rival, exactly. Not even in sports. He couldn't lift as much as Killua, and was weaker in general—but he was pretty fantastic in cardio based stuff, and not many people could actually match Killua in much of anything. So it was fun to antagonize him. Killua never challenged him to stuff Killua knew he'd win; that just wasn't fun.
The school was more into their perceived rivalry than anyone. Swooning schoolgirls and nosy, rowdy schoolboys all had their own opinions about Killua Zoldyck, the mysterious transfer student who'd appeared out of nowhere to steal Blue's thunder. Not that Killua really had; the Oaks had deep roots (ha) in this city, but so did the Zoldyck's by proxy of some other big name ties—giving the two directly opposite reputations.
It was all rumor and hearsay, but it sounded like the Zoldyck's were part of the mob, if not a whole famiglia themselves. Some people joked that it was like Killua was the devil with his rumored roots, and Blue was an angel, with all the advances in science the Oak's had contributed. They were a charitable, hyper intelligent family, too. But the joke was that Blue wasn't much of an angel, himself—while not unfriendly quite outright, he certainly rubbed plenty of people the wrong way. But he was too dazzling for it to make a dent in his popularity.
Killua decided that Blue sort of annoyed him, that way—but embarrassingly, it pulled him in, too. He was curious about what that kind of kid would be like, even if he already had a strong, biased theory. Just some douchey, pretty boy with a lot of money... but then, so was Killua, and he was buried to his neck in his own skeletons. All the same, Killua wasn't really magnetized enough to talk to him like a normal person.
But sports? Different story.
And Blue was competitive as hell—the two had actually sort of gotten off path, so confident they could jog back onto the trail before their classmates had even caught up after their private race. But as luck would have it, it began to storm quite badly—Killua worried it may have been a monsoon, actually.
So now, their uniforms miserably clung to their bodies, Killua's standing under an old stone bridge with Blue, scowling as water drips from his sagging hair, a darker gray with its saturation.]
Tch, stupid rain! You'd think the damn teacher would've known about something like that before letting us run track outside!
[the weather had been so nice, too...]
I was close, too...
Killua didn't consider Blue a rival, exactly. Not even in sports. He couldn't lift as much as Killua, and was weaker in general—but he was pretty fantastic in cardio based stuff, and not many people could actually match Killua in much of anything. So it was fun to antagonize him. Killua never challenged him to stuff Killua knew he'd win; that just wasn't fun.
The school was more into their perceived rivalry than anyone. Swooning schoolgirls and nosy, rowdy schoolboys all had their own opinions about Killua Zoldyck, the mysterious transfer student who'd appeared out of nowhere to steal Blue's thunder. Not that Killua really had; the Oaks had deep roots (ha) in this city, but so did the Zoldyck's by proxy of some other big name ties—giving the two directly opposite reputations.
It was all rumor and hearsay, but it sounded like the Zoldyck's were part of the mob, if not a whole famiglia themselves. Some people joked that it was like Killua was the devil with his rumored roots, and Blue was an angel, with all the advances in science the Oak's had contributed. They were a charitable, hyper intelligent family, too. But the joke was that Blue wasn't much of an angel, himself—while not unfriendly quite outright, he certainly rubbed plenty of people the wrong way. But he was too dazzling for it to make a dent in his popularity.
Killua decided that Blue sort of annoyed him, that way—but embarrassingly, it pulled him in, too. He was curious about what that kind of kid would be like, even if he already had a strong, biased theory. Just some douchey, pretty boy with a lot of money... but then, so was Killua, and he was buried to his neck in his own skeletons. All the same, Killua wasn't really magnetized enough to talk to him like a normal person.
But sports? Different story.
And Blue was competitive as hell—the two had actually sort of gotten off path, so confident they could jog back onto the trail before their classmates had even caught up after their private race. But as luck would have it, it began to storm quite badly—Killua worried it may have been a monsoon, actually.
So now, their uniforms miserably clung to their bodies, Killua's standing under an old stone bridge with Blue, scowling as water drips from his sagging hair, a darker gray with its saturation.]
Tch, stupid rain! You'd think the damn teacher would've known about something like that before letting us run track outside!
[the weather had been so nice, too...]
I was close, too...
no subject
Tch, you're really one to lecture about babysitting... You're reckless.
And besides, I don't know anything about gardening!
[Killua wants to just stomp out all the dumb flowering plants, even though he knows that's a major misdirection of his frustration.]
Your "coaching style" doesn't help anything...
[Killua sullenly scowls, yanking up some weeds with his bare hands, instead.
He's better with destruction, anyway. They were provided with gloves, but Killua opts out of using them, pulling roots carefully from the soil. Feeling them tear and lift from the soil is nice...]
no subject
[Blue defiantly turns back to his gardening; the argument over who started it was just as circular now as it had been sitting under the bridge.]
[But what the heck, 'coaching style'!? Blue scowls at Killua's back, watching him tend to the weeding instead. At least there was something he could do properly...] What you mean is, you just can't take me telling you that you're doing something messed-up!
...Come on, already. Let me show you how to plant these, and then I won't have to lecture you, anymore. [He gestures with the tray of bulbs in his hands.] At least watch. You might as well learn instead of be bored, right?
[...He doesn't turn back to check and see if Killua is looking or not; instead he gets himself knelt on the ground carefully, still ensuring his injured ankle wasn't sat on. With the tray next to him, he begins to carefully make a small 'nest' of soil in the earth for each one, ensuring the proper depth and spacing.] If you make 'em too shallow, or too close, they'll either starve from not enough soil, or suffocate each other. It's like the big tree stealing all the sunlight, you know? That's common sense. [As he makes each bed, he lays a bulb into it, then begins to cover it over carefully with the dug up soil, patting over it gently.]
Like that. Here, you do a few.
no subject
[Killua watches Blue warily, as if expecting a catch—it is the approach that makes the most sense, rather than letting someone who doesn't know what they're doing mess up and yelling at them for it.
Not one to swat an olive branch (even if Killua's defenses are up, distrustful), Killua stands up so he can crouch a little bit closer to Blue's vantage point. Naturally, his eyes from then go from Blue's face to what he's doing, watching his hands, his resting fingers and palms all pink and dirty with dark soil limp between his knees.
It made sense. Killua felt an antsy little twist inside of him, how easily and how without intention he'd imagined Gon's hands doing the very same thing.]
Alright...
[And, without fuss, Killua settles on his knees, sorting a row of plots for the bulbs with his hands in the soil. He could use a shovel, but the earth is soft. And albeit with less practiced grace and speed, Killua indeed manages to go ahead and do a little row of baby bulbs. He seems a little distracted as he does it, his face a little pink.
Thoughts of loves lost or not, Killua's just not used to being handled like a normal person. Not lately, anyway.]
no subject
[Maybe Killua wasn't such a bad person, after all.]
[Blue can't stand to feel so guilty about something like that, so it's the least he can do, right? And anyway, it would just waste both their time if Killua couldn't at least chip in and help. Surely there were things he knew how to do, too, that Blue didn't know.]
[Although he definitely had him beat in running and studies!]
Yeah, like that. [Blue glances over at Killua's row, having moved on to another one himself. At this pace, they'd be done with this dumb volunteering in no time.] Then, when you water 'em, you want it to be just so that it feels kinda damp on top, but you don't wanna actually see the water sitting on the top of the soil, yanno?
--A-anyway, there's just those last bulbs left, so.... [Suddenly realizing how closely they've been working, Blue leans back to go get the last tray. Dammit, was his face red again...!?]
no subject
His eyes follow him as Blue leans back again, and indeed, his face is a little pink—which makes Killua blink. His lip tugs at its corner upward a bit, and he glances away, thankfully able to stifle a scoff of laughter as he begins on the next row of bulbs.
It's funny, but it seems like Blue gets easily embarrassed, despite his big ego. Which is only funny because Killua's the same way, and he's been made aware of it enough times in the last few years to not deny it. He wonders what he feels so embarrassed about, if that's the case...]
After this, we still have to finish weeding... And trimming hedges...
[It's at least merciful that no one else is really around, or else that'd be a pretty embarrassing display. Not that there's no one at all—some folks are around for after school cram, or their own detentions...]
Do you do this kinda stuff at home?
no subject
[He goes back to the cart of supplies they'd been providing, stacking the seedling trays back in and rummaging for some tools. They'd have to sweep all this up when they were done, too. Ugh.]
[Killua's question catches him off-guard, so that it takes him a moment to answer. He wanted to know about something like that...?]
Well... I don't really care about gardening and botany, to be honest, but that's more my sis's thing. She's a wildlife therapist, but gardening's one of her hobbies. I get roped in. [He makes a face, as if to imply he's not crazy about that, but what's a younger sibling to do?]
I'd much rather be taking care of the horses or the dogs or helping handle whatever other animals we have recuperating on-site.
no subject
...Oh. Your sister, huh...
[Killua snickers a little to himself, eyes rolling away as he pats some loose soil down pat.]
Thought that it was kind of a girly hobby for you...
Does she help you with the animals or whatever, then?
[Killua notices one of the bulbs is... kinda crooked... so he redoes that one. Oops. Not today, Satan.]
no subject
But, I dunno.... Research is boring to me. I'd rather play Polo or train the dogs or like, something fun.
[And as Killua finishes off the planting, Blue starts to carefully try his hand at clipping the hedges. This part, he wasn't necessarily so great at... You just had to cut off the parts that were sick, right? Or, uh, wait, this was cosmetic clipping....] So I just cut here, and here...?
no subject
[The whole reason Killua ran away was because he wanted to be out from under the thumb of his family and just do dumb, fun shit that kids got to do...
Killua lifts his head, then his eyes half lid, lips curling with catlike mischief as he pats down the rest of the soil. Which in combination, looks silly.]
Ha. Beats me! Maybe they shouldn't have left a couple of highschool boys to figure that out.
[Killua stands, brushing off his pants.]
I guess just trim off any leaves that look crappy so it looks like we at least tried...
[Killua, with his dirty hands, grabs a pair of the gardening sheers and opens them up. He gives them a couple test clips, surveying the glide of the hinge, then tilts his head as he rotates them in his hands, finger curiously running the length of one of the open blades lightly.]
no subject
[He snips a little here, a little there... He's doing his best, just eying it, but after a little bit he frowns and grumbles. The hedge is starting to look patchier than it was when he started, and now he's hoping he didn't just make it worse.]
....They're not gonna come and check this, right.....? [Blue grimaces, circling around the hedges with deep regret. Maybe they should just ditch this and go back to their dorms...]
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[Killua laughs as Blue peeks around the hedge, and he leans up on his toes to inspect it, pinching a leaf between his fingers.]
They gotta make sure we actually did what we were supposed to do...
[Killua opens up his sheers, tilting this way and that way before doing some more trimming... on the same poor hedge... just so that they can't tell him he didn't. He's definitely just being petty, though.]
no subject
W-wait, what are you doing!?
[Blue cringes as Killua happily sets to chopping more of the hedge off, like he's popping the heads off of some dolls. Blue can only imagine what the groundskeepers are going to do, when they see all of this...]
We're definitely gonna get into even more trouble.... C'mon, let's clean all this up and get outta here!
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Alright, alright, fine.
[Killua locks the sheers closed, then takes Blue's pair, doing the same for them, and hangs them off his arm.]
I think it'll be fine. [Killua pauses, picking some dirt from under his nails.] If it seems like we're gonna get into more trouble, just blame it on me. [It's what anyone else would do, and it fits the narrative. Though they both have a large type of popularity, Blue's like an angel, and Killua's like the devil. Plus, unlike many of the students here, Killua doesn't really care too much. It's just highschool. His life is already so much bigger, and so much more troubling.
He goes ahead and puts the sheers together with the storage box they walked out with, and tosses his unused gloves in there.]
no subject
[Blue furrows his brow at Killua's casual problem-solving, particularly at his suggestion to take the fall. The heck? ...Why would this guy suggest something so casually.... Or was it that he figured Blue would do it anyway?]
[He likes that assumption even less.]
Why? [He finally spits out, carrying after him and stopping him with a hand at his shoulder.] I mean, even if it's just an accident, I still messed it up, too. And we're supposed to be working together on this thing, right?
[His half-lidded expression conveys that he's as little a fan of that idea as Killua is, but... At the same time, that didn't mean he wasn't going to take on the challenge that was presented to him. He didn't like the idea of being thought of otherwise.]
What makes you think you can just take the blame, huh?
no subject
Killua had just been being cheeky, and were it not for this particular course of action, Killua would have teased Blue for his straight-laced honor in an inconsequential world or something equally as obnoxious. But Killua is stuck in pause, and he flusters, glancing away as his face turns pink, gently swatting off Blue's hand.]
...R-relax. It's where people's minds are gonna go before either of us say anything, and unlike you, I don't really care all that much about it. I know I'm in this school to begin with, but that wasn't my choice, either.
It's fine either way... So don't take what I say so seriously.
no subject
[But to be so blasΓ© about the idea of getting tossed out-- that was what he was getting at, right?-- Was his relationship with his parents really bad, or something?]
[...Well, he was a kid of criminals after all, so it wasn't hard to imagine.... Even if the apple didn't fall far...]
[Blue mulls over all of this in a moment as Killua faces him and brushes it away, but Blue still doesn't feel good about it. His mouth sets sullenly, and he decides that he still doesn't want Killua to get the wrong idea.]
Look. You.... I have no idea why you bothered to help me get back to campus the other day, but-- I'm not gonna just forget about that, you know? Much less think of throwin' you under the bus.
So you better not think of that, either.
no subject
[Killua blinks, then frowns and straightens up. He doesn't think Blue owes him, but he also kind of understands Blue's line of thinking—it's how he's navigated a lot of his interpersonal relationships, even peripheral ones like these. Killua rolls his eyes.]
Tch, really...?
I did that cuz you would've been in bad shape if I didn't. I couldn't just leave someone like that.
[Killua adjusts the box he's holding, huffing with irritation.]
I'm not a good person, but I'm not a bad one, either.
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[He twists his mouth and follows after Killua, grabbing the pushbroom to clean all the murdered bush clippings from the walkway path and pushing the excess soil into the planting bank underneath.] ...If you say so.
[Is he smirking? Just a little, but it isn't haughty, like Killua might expect.] Let's push the burrow back and get outta here. I got homework to do.
no subject
Fine. Finish that up, I got the burrow.
[Since, you know, he doesn't have a (sort of) bum foot. Killua places the box into the caddy of the burrow, slipping his phone from the pocket to look at the time.]
Mm, I definitely think that was supposed to take more time... Unless they assumed we'd be a different kind of incompetent with this task.