Under the Skin
He couldn't help but be a tad bitter about his partner for his final assessment.
For some absurd reason, the teachers paired off random students, rather than allowing them to pick and choose who they wanted to work with. Len had his eyes set on Miku, since they were both the highest scoring students in Magic Practical Studies, and naturally, the best choice was to pair off students according to their abilities - right?
Much to his demise, however, he found his middle-aged professor pointing over at the strange, brooding girl in the corner of the room, her lips pulled into a tight line.
When he showed resistance, his teacher scoffed and said, "You won't get a choice of who you'll work with once you're in the real world, Len; it's vital you develop the skills to be flexible with anyone."
The girl, his partner, was the notorious Rin Kagamine. Silent, stoic, angry. She wasn't bad at magic, so to say. She was capable of spells and the like. But her control, effort and involvement with assessments begged to differ.
Len's nostrils flared as he packed up his books to move next to his partner, seeing as she wasn't interested in moving to his side. She rolled her eyes when she saw him making a beeline for the empty space beside her, leaning back in her chair to stretch.
He set down his books on the desk, inhaling. "I don't care how self-entitled you think you are. I'm not failing this assessment because of your lack of effort."
Rin snorted. "Is that a threat? What are you going to do, give me a rash?"
His eyes flashed. "Don't try me."
"Ooh boy, I'm so scared," she said, turning away to pull something from her pouch. "Big bad Lennie is going to curse me if I don't allow myself to be bossed around."
He held his breath, saving his insults and threats for a later time. Instead, he stared her down as she tossed him a notebook.
"These are the notes I took for the assignment," Rin explained when he eyed it as if it was a rotting shoe.
Len reached out for the book cautiously and flicked it open to the most recent page.
Dragons. The entire page was covered in doodles of freaking dragons.
They weren't even that good.
"Are you serious?" he said, ears turning red with anger.
She smirked back. "I expect you to have all the notes written down anyway." Then she stood from her seat and began packing away her things, snatching her notebook back from his hands.
He frowned. "Where are you going? Class hasn't finished yet."
"What's the point of staying when I know you're going to do all the work?" Rin retorted over her shoulder. "It's not like you're going to let me choose what we should do, anyway."
Len gaped as she sauntered off, disappearing out of the classroom. He heard some laughter behind him, and turned his head to face his classmates, Kaito and Meiko.
"What?" he snapped.
"The look on your face," Kaito said with a snicker, "it's as if you've never had anyone disagree with you before."
His cheeks warmed and he turned away, furiously flicking through his notes. Of course he's had people disagree with him - it's just that Rin, Rin is plain rude.
"You can't do that by yourself, Len," Fukase said, once Len had relayed his plans for the assignment. "Why do you assume Rin won't do it with you, anyway?"
He frowned. "She walked out of class on me the other day," he answered. "Doesn't that prove enough that she isn't competent to do the assignment?"
His friend narrowed his eyes - uh, eye - and crossed his legs. He had made himself comfortable on Len's bed, wearing an unimpressed expression as he thought over his response.
"But you - you - going into the Forbidden Forest on your own, the Forbidden Forest which is notorious for all creatures deadly and nasty, to retrieve an object that puts your life in more danger than it already is -" He paused. "Is it really not worth asking Rin for help?"
Len exhaled. "What's the point of asking if I know the answer already? She clearly doesn't care, so of course she wouldn't offer to come along on some deadly mission."
Fukase just shook his head, a blur of bright red. He'd always had an interesting fashion sense, with mismatched socks and secondhand trench coats. It wasn't that he was necessarily poor - his parents were quite well-off, in fact - he just… enjoyed dressing "humble".
"It doesn't hurt to ask, Len, even if you think you know the answer," his friend said. "You know, you might be surprised."
Len scowled, turning away to stare out his window.
Easy for you to say, he mused. You're partnered with someone you like.
"Ask her tomorrow," Fukase continued. "Ask her tomorrow and tell me what she says. If she says no, I owe you lunch."
Len leaned back in his chair in thought. "Alright. It's a deal."
Rin was giving him an incredulous look.
"You want to look for a fucking mythical rock in one of the most dangerous areas of this ward," she said to Len, staring up from the ground.
It was early morning before class, and he'd managed to stumble across his partner sitting in the grass by the new water fountain instalment. She had her broom out, polishing it with silk cloth.
"Yes," he affirmed.
She sniffed, wiping at her nose with the back of her hand. "Despite being top of the class, you're not that bright, are you?"
Len blinked. "Excuse me?"
"The stone of Crypton is a legend, you stupid monkey. It doesn't exist. You want to risk being eaten alive by giant, flying reptiles to find that a folktale is, indeed, not real? What is the point?"
"The point is to prove the legend, whether it be real or not," he answered, turning a shade of pink. "No one has ever physically gone into the forest to confirm whether it is just folklore, you know."
Rin rubbed furiously at the dip in her broomstick. "Couldn't you have chosen something a little easier, like trying to prove the scales on the riverbank belong to mermaids, or finding where the catacombs under the school lead to -"
"The scales on the riverbank belong to the leviathan who lives there - mermaids only live in the ocean. And the catacombs lead to the town hall, as they were created during war times to make travelling from the town centre to the school less treacherous."
She squinted at him. "Why do you even know about these things?" He opened his mouth to speak, but she hastily interrupted, "Don't answer my question. I don't actually care."
Len pressed his lips together, fighting off the urge to grimace. "Look. I came to ask you whether or not you're going to come with me. Are you?"
"I have to, don't I?" she said. "The professors won't let you go on your own, you do realise."
"Well, I wasn't intending to let them know if I was going by myself," he stated.
She rolled her eyes. "You're ridiculous. Do you really think you're that great, marching into the Forbidden Forest on your own? What are you trying to prove? A suicide mission?" She stood, using her broom as a lever to pull herself off the ground.
"What is with everyone having so little faith in my abilities," he muttered, more so to himself.
Rin narrowed her gaze and jabbed a finger at his chest. He leant away. "Listen here, Len. It's not your abilities that will let you down if you go on your own. It's your egotistical attitude. It acts as a blindfold. If you're too confident, you're completely unaware of your flaws, which can be more detrimental than helpful when you're all alone, fighting to survive."
"Who asked you for your opinion?" he responded, sending a glare down at her.
She turned away sharp on her heel, storming back towards the school's main entrance. "I can't do next weekend, so we should probably do it this weekend if you want to get it over and done with," she said over her shoulder, before she was too far away to be in earshot.
Len blinked, staring at her back as she disappeared up the front steps.
Wait - she said yes?
do u ever start writing things and then just die bc it sucks so much.
Aaaaaaa i don't know how to Finish this anyway so here you go. more unfinished fanfiction. throws confetti and burrows myself back into the sweet safety of Social Isolation