AUTHOR'S NOTE:

this fic is currently beta'd and co-written by pisho over on ao3!

'Koujaku cursed as the first drop of blood fell, warming Aoba's skin for a brief moment before it began to cool.

"Sorry," he murmured, reaching up to wipe his nose and smearing blood across his lips and hand in the process.'

The final bell rang before Aoba could write any further, leaving him to sigh as he closed his laptop. He'd been hoping to get more work done in his last period study hall, but whatever. Clear was coming over after school, so he could just work on it later tonight. He was so close to being done, though! He shook his head, slinging his backpack over his shoulder with a sigh.

He was one of the last to file out of class, per usual, lagging only behind a few of the class clowns. Sly had probably just skipped again, and Clear was probably at his locker or making small talk with a teacher. Maybe he wouldn't be so bitter about that fact if he had any other friends. Sei was at a prestigious boarding school, so he couldn't count on him either. Fuck.

Aoba groaned inwardly as he began the trek home, the grass tickling his ankles once he stepped out of the parking lot. He didn't need his books anyway, since Clear always brought his and Sly didn't even bother taking his to school. At least his triplet had a few advantages.

Walking home was boring. Having like one friend was boring. Please throw me off a cliff, this half-hour walk is excruciating. I will die if I get another boner on the way home. Don't think about your weird, shitty shipping. Stop talking to yourself, you fucking freak. Welcome to weeaboo hell, Aoba, you're stuck here now.

...His internal monologue continued for another good thirty minutes, before he finally reached his destination: home. As expected, Sly and Ren were both in the living room. Sly, having skipped, had decided to play some shitty Sonic game without him. Ren was older than the triplets and therefore out of high school, and so was holed up in his corner of the room, eyebrows furrowed as he stitched together a bit of neon green fabric.

"I'm home," Aoba called, dropping his backpack at the foot of the steps. Kicking off his shoes, he made his way into the living room, sitting down opposite of Sly on the couch.

"Fuck off, faggot."

"Welcome home, Aoba."

Yep, home sweet home. At least Ren was still nice to him.

"Are Virus and Trip not coming over today?"

"Nope. It's Wednesday, fucktard, they have piano." Sly accentuated this with a fierce mashing of the buttons on his Wiimote. Nice. "Why, you don't wanna fuck your buttbuddy when they're over?"

"He's not my buttbuddy." Aoba huffed, taking off a sock and tossing it at Sly's face. He didn't even flinch when it hit his cheek; he was probably used to the treatment by this point.

"Coulda fooled me."

The other sibling just rolled his eyes, getting comfortable on the couch. Their banter was commonplace by now, and Aoba relaxed quickly now that he was home. It would probably be another half hour until Clear got here... he could probably nap, right? He found the background noise to be more comforting than grating. Aoba rested his head in one of his hands, letting his eyes drift shut, no biggie.

"Wake up, cockslut, your waifu is here." Aoba, unfortunately, woke up to Sly thumping his head. The taste of sleep was thick in his mouth, and he wiped the half-dried drool off of his chin. Ew. He shook his head to try and wake himself up, standing up and popping his joints. Did Sly let Clear in, or just leave him on the front step again?

He took a moment to internally curse his brother before he walked out into the hallway. Clear was digging through the candy bowl on the table for a Twix. Aoba knew this pretty well; Granny bought Twix just for him at this point. The only thing Clear loved more than Twix was his cheap robot dog and probably jellyfish. What a nerd.

"Hey, Clear." His friend turned around with an equally surprised and joyful expression, and Aoba couldn't help but smile. He was so small and innocent for a high schooler. (Not literally, Clear was still taller than him.)

"Hi, Aoba-san!" Sticking his hand further into the candy bowl, Clear grinned, shoving a few Twix into his pocket before he moved to hug Aoba. He'd always been affectionate, so everyone was used to it after a few awkward questions. He could hear Sly catcalling from the living room. Again. Clear pulled away after a few more long seconds, and the blunette already wanted to hug him again. He had hopelessly been pining for the albino boy for over six months now, to be honest.

Clear was too pure to be anything but terrifyingly heterosexual, though, so he wouldn't push it. When Ren had asked if they were going to date, Clear had just blushed and shook his head like the little baby he is.

The taller boy leant down, letting Aoba ruffle his already-tousled hair, before they started up the stairs. Aoba always went slower when Clear was behind him; Clear, ironically, had a bit of eyesight trouble, and needed to hold onto the railing to keep his footing. It took them a bit longer to plop down on Aoba's bed, but it was worth it to keep his bestie happy. When Clear was sad, he looked like a lost puppy, and it was kind of awful.

Aoba took his usual place on the right side of the bed, laying down wordlessly while Clear dropped his backpack, rifling through it. His uniform shirt was too short and exposed part of his lower back, and the blunette had no qualms about sneaking a peek. His boxers were lavender today. Cute.

Clear dropped their algebra book on the bed, pulling out paper for the both of them, along with a magnifying glass. He worked faster than Aoba did, and his vision wasn't incredibly bad anyways, so this was easier than having him read out all the problems to him.

For a while, they actually worked, maintaining the usual small talk as they did. It often ranged from "Mink-sensei's bird tried to bite me today" to "my Skitty evolved today, Aoba-san!" and back again. Clear was better at talking than he was at listening, and Aoba didn't mind. He did tune out most of the time, though, just nodding now and then as he worked.

Aoba shifted a few times as he worked, ignoring the pressure in his bladder. He had, like, three more problems to go, whatever. Clear was finished when he looked over, putting his paper back in his binder and pulling out another to doodle on instead.

Two of the three remaining problems were solved before he actually worried about pissing himself, and he shook his head, swinging his legs over to stand up.

"Where are you going, Aoba-san?" Clear looked up with those confused puppy eyes and Aoba wanted to kiss him right then and there. Heck.

"Just gotta piss," he said, shrugging before he turned around.

"Can I listen music on your laptop, then? I don't have Spotify on mine."

"...Yeah, that's fine." How did he not have Spotify? Whatever. He stretched, yawning as he left the room.

-–—–-

Clear rolled over, making grabby hands a few times before he pulled Aoba's laptop out of his backpack, sitting up. He almost squished his math homework! That would've been a disaster. Leaning back against the wall, Clear looked at the weird anime stickers on the front for a minute before opening it up. He'd ask what Ouran High School Host Club was later. It looked pretty cute.

Normally, Aoba was very good about closing out what he was working on when he was finished, but there was a Word document still open on his desktop. Couldn't all that hard work get lost if something happened? Clear shook his head, clicking his tongue. Aoba needed to be more careful! Clear brought his face closer to the screen, squinting a bit as he moved to save whatever it was that his friend was writing. It couldn't hurt to check, could it? There hadn't been any essays assigned in class... what reason did Aoba have to be writing something nearly this long.

He saved it, before dragging the mouse over to enlarge the text. Aoba might mind, but it would just be a second! He'd just read the first sentence.

'Koujaku's teeth grazed over the skin of Aoba's neck, one hand twirling through his long hair while...'

Yeah, he'd already read and visualized enough. No, no, he was not reading further. He closed the document out, pulling up Spotify just in time for Aoba to walk in the room. Phew, he was safe. Aoba would be mad if he found out that he was snooping! Whatever he was writing, it was probably pretty personal...

Aoba looked over at Clear as he plopped back down on the other side of the bed, some weird Japanese music blaring out through the speakers. He didn't particularly like it, but this was what Aoba liked to listen to, so he wouldn't complain.

Clear twiddled his thumbs, trying to keep from looking Aoba in the eye as he set the laptop aside. He really shouldn't have been looking; now all he could think about was why Aoba was writing about him and Koujaku! Did he like Koujaku? Anyone would like someone popular like him. Was Aoba... gay? A thousand questions shot through his mind, one after another, and he hardly had answers for any of them. It wasn't any of his business, and he felt guilty for even being so curious in the first place.

"Clear!"

Aoba had been talking to him! He sat up straight with a mildly strangled noise, the surprise surely evident on his face.

"Clear, are you feeling okay? You're acting a little out of it." Aoba's eyebrows furrowed, and Clear immediately looked away without a response. He had never been good at hiding things. "Here, I'm gonna feel your forehead, yeah?"

Clear never thought before he spoke, either, and, well... This was one of those times. His mouth opened of its own accord, and he began to speak.

"Why did you... write that about Koujaku-senpai?"

Aoba's face warped into something between utter mortification and shock, and he sat there slackjawed for a minute before finally closing his mouth again.

"How the fuck do you know about that?" Aoba didn't normally curse like that. He was so upset... Clear just needed to learn how to keep quiet. The taller boy swallowed, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Um... it was on your desktop when I turned your laptop on."

"And you just... read it?"

"I didn't mean to!" That was a lie... a white lie, though! He didn't mean to read anything that personal, at least... He curled into himself as Aoba leaned back, slapping his hands over his rapidly reddening face.

"Well, how much did you read?!"

"Not much, I promise, Aoba-san!"

"Are you going to tell Koujaku?" Aoba spread a few of his fingers, peeking out from between them with a sigh. Did Aoba not trust him? Clear shook his head, resting his chin in the slight dip between his knees. "Good. You can't tell anyone, got that?" The white-haired boy nodded this time, looking up at the blunette as he put his hands back down at his sides.

"Aoba-san?"

"Yeah?"

"Have you written anything like that about me?"