BL ANIME AU, BASICALLY

[trypanophobic]

[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...

Comments

[blueser]

Don't kid yourself.

[Blue tsks, arms holding his body with an irritated clatter of his teeth; his perfectly styled hair was ruined! This stupid Zoldyck kid, he shouldn't have allowed himself to get sidetracked with something so dumb.] Obviously they wouldn't have to worry about it if we hadn't gone totally off track.

'course my phone's in the locker... Tch.

[Popping a seat against one of the stone supports of the bridge, Blue glowers miserably up at Killua, who he barely knew, but had heard a world about. Who knows how much of the rumors about him were true, but.... He sure acted like they were. Half the staff were afraid to even ask him to turn in his assignments; he sort of got the sense that the only reason he did was so whoever could get him to behave- his parents, maybe- didn't hear about it.]

[....He seemed like a total brat but, the vexing thing was that he had the goods to back it up. Blue had been really irritated to have someone suddenly threatening to show him up in grades; it made him have to actually try in class, now! The heck would he say to gramps if he saw that Blue had been second in his class!?]

[...(Maybe he already knew that scenario a little too well, though.)]

We're probably gonna be disciplined for this, you know. We're technically skipping class. [He shoots Killua another annoyed look.] This is totally your fault!

DETENTION FOR BAD BABIE

[trypanophobic]

[Killua and Blue have been avoiding each other since the incident—it's longer than they've really gone without a modicum of interaction, though they weren't close or in regular contact. It was more that Blue's lack of a presence was felt in athletic stuff... In fact, in Blue's time healing, Killua's pretty easily climbed to the top of track.

There's been whispers that Killua deliberately injured Blue so he could take his top spot in track, which Killua's scoffed at vocally a few times. If he really wanted to beat Blue, he could have—though there's no denying that Killua's quite competitive, at least no denying it to himself. No one else really knew him well enough to call him out on not caring to compete, although maybe a few kids had a hunch, based on how the two of them would compete against each other...

There's also been rumors of drugs, or even stupider, an excuse to slip away and get handsy and make out. Which made no sense—first of all, that was an embarrassing accusation, but if Killua wanted to go make out with someone, he'd save it for after school! There's so many easier opportunities. But maybe the idea is there's fewer opportunities to get your hands on someone while in a gym uniform? Which certainly had led to some incidental, er, simulations in Killua's mind. Distracting, to say the least. He wishes everyone around them would just shut the hell up, and he wonders what Blue's story is.

It's part of why he's been adamantly avoiding him; he doesn't want to hear how Blue got things twisted to make him sound bad. And, you know...

The embarrassment in general.

The two of them knew that they were going to be made to work together for community service once Blue healed. And now, the day has finally come. It's after school, and the two of them are mandated to stay for about an hour a few times a week to do something to help around the campus. This time, they're being made to do some caretaking of the gardens, and to plant some new spring flowers.

It's only been about 20 minutes in, and Killua's already bored beyond belief, and agitated beyond comprehension just from Blue's proximity. If it weren't for all the stupid rumors and Killua's anxiety about Blue's running mouth, this would be a lot more bearable. At least aside from Killua's clearly cross expression, it's not evident that he's privately freaking out.]

detention babies: this time they're wet

[blueser]

[The gardening task is appraised, as one might expect, with exasperation; the poor shrub ends up re-hedged by a professional groundskeeper, but the flower planting at least is appraised as decent, so they escape further punishment for it. Still, their community service goes on....]

[This time, it's a different, but no less menial task- Blue curls his lip as he looks over the gym lockerroom showers- showers they'd all used every week- but that none of them ever considered, being self centered little richkids as they all were, how they got cleaned.]

This is the worst... [Blue decides, loudly complaining as he dunks a mop into the bucket he has sitting in the floor of one of the showers and pushes it around dejectedly.] How're we supposed to get these gross tiles clean!? They probably haven't even touched these in ages!

tfw u wanna be friends but ur both too awkward to even be human

[trypanophobic]

[The next week, Blue and Killua basically disengage completely—occasionally, their gazes snag, which isn't anything all that new since their joint community service started...

...but what's new is how anxious it makes Killua feel, and how determined, while in Blue's proximity, Killua becomes to wall off, not eager to examine all of that too closely. He's extremely distrustful of other people as a rule, but he's of course also very lonely—trying to be friends with Blue Oak feels like barking up the wrong tree, and also... pretty pathetic.

Of course, only Killua would take the stirring of positive feelings—the prospect of maybe making a new friend—into something to brood about. And it's all over his face as he moodily slouches by the drink machine by the bike-racks, like he's thinking way too hard about his order.]