I thought of this while I was volunteering at the hospital so I thought, why the heck not? I've been wanting to try this one out, but I haven't written a story in years and I got a bit reluctant since I wasn't so sure with my current writing skills. After a few days, I couldn't get this AU out of my head, so I finally told myself to hell with it and wrote this so that I can finally rest in peace. There could be some grammar mistakes as well, but I'll read this over and edit it if I get the chance to.
Mika here is an American while Yuu is French. For awhile, I wanted Yuu to be Japanese but I figured French is easy to put.
"BRING AN EXCHANGE STUDENT HOME," it read as Mika stared at the big bold words on the poster in front of him. He was currently debating about whether he should do it or not, so it was a long battle of "what if they don't like it here?" or "what if they don't like the food we eat?" and other series of 'what if's' in his head. Before he could ponder about it any further, he shook away his doubts aside and decided to ask the teacher who hosts the whole program for the application.
His eyes searched for the designated room number on the poster and once finding it, he began walking towards the direction of where the room is. On the way, he met a few people who gave him a greeting of "hello's" and "good morning's," but it didn't take him long to get to his destination. As he opened the door and closed it behind him, he saw the one person he regrets introducing himself to since the first day of school and made his high school life a living hell.
"Ah if it isn't Mika, did you come all the way here to see me?"
He pretends not to notice the way he looks at him eagerly as if he was hoping he was going to shyly say yes, but he didn't want to give him the satisfaction. "No Mr. Bathory, I was actually hoping to get the application for the student exchange program."
The one he called Mr. Bathory gave out a laugh. "At least let a guy hope eh? Here."
Mika rolled his eyes and took the papers that were given to him. He really didn't want to be in the same room as this man for more than a minute so when he turned to the exit, he practically ran out the door once he mumbled a quick thank you with the papers in hand and went outside the school to go home since the day was coming to an end. At least he didn't have to stay and chit chat with his formal teacher from freshman year for that long.
The next day as soon as Mika filled out the application and ended up in the same selected room to turn it in, he basically dropped the papers on the table in front of the bastard teacher from before and mentally thanked himself for withholding the urge to throw it to the man's smiling face instead, as tempting that is. The blonde refrained himself from taking off in a hasty manner and gave him a proper thank you before leaving without saying another word.
Days turned into weeks and finally Mika can't help but grin as he stood waiting patiently inside his homeroom class along with the other students who also signed up for the program to be the hosts. Today was the day he was going to get his own assigned exchange student from France. Come to think of it, do they know English? Ah shit, they probably don't.
As Mika thought of this, he didn't notice the tapping behind his shoulder until he heard a coughing sound that disrupted him from his thoughts. "Mikaaa~ I bet right now your face is all scrunched up when you're thinking too much, it's so cute when you look like that."
He turned around and faced the source of the voice and glared at him. Mr. Bathory put his hands up as if he was surrendering, but he still chuckled nonetheless. "Don't worry I won't do anything to you," the white-haired man says as he handed him a sheet of paper. "This will be the person you'll be taking care of for 5 months, have fun Mika~"
Mika didn't get to reply to him after that because he just grabbed the paper from the other and stomped his way to the corner of the room away from him. At that moment, he gratefully thinks that he can't wait to graduate this year so that he can escape from him forever. He stopped his thoughts when he hears a crunching noise and didn't notice the way he was gripping the paper so harshly. He mentally cursed to himself and tried smoothing out the document until something caught his eye.
The blonde teenager brought the paper a little closer to his face to read the text out loud to himself. "Yu-"
"Yuuichiro Amane," a voice says in a bored tone.
Mika faced himself to the middle of the room and felt a sudden rush of excitement inside him. There was the boy he was suppose to look after, with his green eyes and black hair, anyone can say he didn't look like he came from France, but Mika really didn't care for that because he's meeting someone from another country and he can't wait to learn more about him.
The raven boy looked around the area as if he was trying to find someone and Mika suddenly raised his hand up to wave at him and smile. Yuu's response to that was to blush in embarrassment and turn away from him, but not before returning his gaze back to the blonde when Mika went over to meet him.
"Hi! My name is Mikaela Shindo, but you can call me Mika. Nice to meet you Yuuichiro."
The foreign boy looked towards the person right next to him, Ms. Hanayori, who acted as his translator and the school's French class teacher. While listening to the translations that were said to him, he muttered one word in French. "Bonjour."
What? That's it? No nice to meet you, but a hello? One of the few words he knows from French and that's the only word he gets? Maybe he's just too shy? Mika laughed to himself nervously.
"Ah Mikaela, can you take Yuuichiro with you so that I can introduce the other exchange students and get them to their assigned hosts quickly? We still have to discuss the rules of being a host afterward," Ms. Hanayori says as she gestured the raven to follow Mika across the room.
Mika still couldn't believe it when his eyes landed on the boy right next to him who seems to be shifting uncomfortably as the blonde couldn't contain his giddiness and watched him warily as if he was the only person in the room.
"Pourquoi me regardes tu? Vous pervers." [1]
"Uhh.." Mika began and sheepishly scratched the back of his head in an apologizing manner, "I honestly don't understand a word you're saying.."
Yuuichiro tilted his head confusingly at his words, but ignored (tried) him since he doesn't even know what he's saying anyway and focused on the rest of the day listening to the rest of the students being introduced to their own hosts and listening to the rules as a host in both English and French for both parties to get an understanding. Finally, the orientation finished and everybody was dismissed to invite the ones that they're assigned to back to their home, Mika helped the black haired boy with one of his traveling bags when the other was having trouble carrying two at the same time. At least it wasn't heavy so he just threw it over his shoulder with his own backpack behind him. They walked on the streets towards the blonde's home side by side since it wasn't that far away from school.
After they were half way there, the silence was deafening and Mika wasn't so sure how to start a conversation when he didn't know French in the first place. Is this the gods cursing him for skipping French class and taking an extra English literature class instead?
"Es tu d'accord?" [2]
Mika stopped in his tracks making the exchange student stop as well. This was going to be a problem because he honestly doesn't know how to communicate with him if neither boy doesn't know what the other is saying. Suddenly, he has an idea.
"Look you'll probably just stare at me like I'm some creep whenever I talk to you in my language, but I have an idea."
He pulled out his phone from his back pocket and turned on his cellular to upload an app from the application store. It didn't take long for it to download and he prayed to whatever god there is looking down upon him right now for it to make this work as he typed the words on the blank text before showing it to the raven haired boy.
The response he got was embarrassing, not only was he laughing so hard, but he was also saying something in French that made Mika think that he's probably making fun of him for being an idiot. When the blonde was about to type out a quick apology, Yuuichiro surprisingly stopped him by quickly grabbing the phone away and began typing. It only took a few seconds before his phone was back in his hands again as he read his reply.
[Yes I understand what you say]
It was close; at least he knows what he meant to say so this was actually going according to plan. Mika answered back cheerfully by telling him if it was alright to call him 'Yuu' for short and returned the phone to the other for him to read just to get it back again.
[Yes it is fine.]
The blonde student smiled as he looked down at the text. If he hadn't thought about using google translate to convert his language to Yuu's, then everything would've been a mess as soon as they get home. Wait. Oh shit home!
Mika hastily grabbed Yuu's arm to pull him towards the familiar street, but not before grabbing the raven's backpack on the floor he didn't notice he dropped while he was retrieving his phone earlier. When he turned around the corner to arrive at his two-story house, he let go of Yuu and took out the spare key underneath the doormat to open the door. He hopes he arrived home in time.
Yuu stared at the boy fumbling with the key and he had to hold in his laughter because of how ridiculous he looks when he's trying to open the door. Now that he thinks about it, this program really isn't half that bad. It wasn't his idea to come in America in the first place since his school selected a few students to go across the country and learn their culture. Yuu was one of the 'lucky' selected ones and he wasn't too keen on going over to America because he's not really interested in their culture as much. The program also required a class to learn English, but half the time he wasn't paying attention so he barely passed with a C-.
Now that he thinks about it, he should've tried harder to learn their language so that he can correspond better with the blonde, but it was already too late for that. Besides, Guren was the one who encouraged him to go and check out new places once in a while since he was holed up in his room playing video games a lot so he didn't have a choice in the matter, much to his chagrin.
'Pfft. I bet he just wants to spend some quality time with Shinya.' Yuu thought to himself while shaking his head in disinterest as soon as Mika opened the door to his house and followed him inside.
"Joli..[3]" he muttered in french and scanned his surroundings.
He didn't know houses in America would look this tidy or maybe he's seen too much of his share whenever he stumbles in his room with a few of his clothes on the floor and he has to maneuver around just to get to his video game console, but his friends back in his country have been teasing him about rumors in America such as their houses could be the dirty looking one and he has to sleep on the couch and eat cheap canned foods from flea markets. His whole body shook involuntarily in disgust and he was at least thankful this guy knows how to clean up for himself.
"Hey, are you cold or something?"
Yuu's thoughts disrupted as he raised his eyebrow at Mika. Man, he really wished that he paid attention in English class. The blonde seems to have caught his look of confusion and retrieved out his phone. Now that he's looking at it, it wasn't really anything fancy unless you count iPhones as a fancy device. Once his host finished, he brought his phone to Yuu's face so that he can read the text.
[Are you cold?]
Ah. Yuu wanted to say no, but was interrupted by a girly voice that belonged to someone that came from upstairs. He saw Mika tense up for a moment but composed himself as he shouted back in their language.
Was that his girlfriend or maybe he has a sister? His own question was answered as soon the source of the voice came running down the stairs towards the blonde and hugged him tightly. Since they didn't look alike, his thoughts came to the realization that it could be Mika's girlfriend.
After she releases him, the brown haired girl looked frantic as she said something too quickly in English for him to catch up. The tone of her voice sounded as if she ran a mile, but she calmed down when Mika looked like he was reassuring her about something. Her mouth morphed into a smile, but then she didn't notice another presence in the house until she turned around to meet Yuu's eyes head on. He wasn't used to people looking at him like some animal in a circus so he averted his eyes the other way to look at Mika's blue ones. That's when her eyes darted between him and the blonde as a look of surprise came to her face.
Wait, oh crap. She's probably misunderstanding something here. Before he can react, he immediately brought his hands up to his chest and waved helplessly. "Il est pas à quoi il ressemble-[4]"
Mika beat him to it when the brunette looked at the blonde for a moment and nodded in understanding. She then gave Yuu a wave and said hello. The raven boy waved back impishly and almost smacked himself for looking so out of place. The landline suddenly rang and the girl excused herself before saying something to Yuu and went to answer it somewhere in the house.
Unexpectedly, Mika started laughing and beckoned Yuu to follow him upstairs. He was reluctant to at first but regardlessly walked up the stairs anyways with his host towards a simple room with a bed, a mattress on the floor and a desk close to the window with a lamp on the corner of the room, save for a bookshelf filled with books (most likely for show) and a spare laptop with the headphones plugged in on the bed. This time it was Yuu who looked very confused and he turned to Mika who already have his phone out and gave it over to Yuu to read the text in french.
[We will share a room, is it well with you?]
Google translate may not be a good app to convert languages sometimes, but it gets the job done. Well, sort of.
[Are you sure?] he replied to him and gave the phone back to its owner.
Mika turned his head down to decipher the text before his gaze went up to meet Yuu's to give him a firm nod. Hold on. Won't this affect his relationship with his girlfriend?
Yuu laid out the palm of his hand out to Mika to give him the phone. As soon as he did, Yuu quickly typed his intended message and handed it back to him.
[Your girlfriend will not mind?]
Mika's eyes looked like saucers before his whole face turned red. Did I say something wrong? Yuu thinks he was about to collapse, but he was met with the phone being shoved back to him again as he reads the message.
[She is not my girlfriend, she's my sister.]
Now it was Yuu's turn to blush and he swiftly typed out his reply. [Oh shit. I am so sorry because you guys are not alike.]
After the blonde read over the message, the raven gave him another text to ask him why they're both sharing a room.
[Because my sister told me that I must stick with you so that I can assure you that your trip here in America worth.]
America worth? So he means worthwhile? Save for all the embarrassment today, I guess it's been okay so far..
Before he can respond, his stomach gave out a low rumbling sound and he tried his hardest not to look mortified at the sound it makes at a time like this. It's probably from the jet lag, but then again he didn't really eat that much from the plane ride because their food tasted pretty nasty.
[Wait here. I'll get you something to eat.] Mika replied showing him the text and gave out an audible laugh before leaving the room.
After he left, Yuu walked over to the bookshelf and found a picture that caught his eye on top of it with Mika and his sister smiling with the blonde's arm around her shoulders as the girl has one of her hands up to show a peace sign. Looking at it closely, both of them don't really look the same so people can easily mistake them as a couple. Come to think of it, he doesn't even know his sister's name since he forgot to ask. Ah, he'll just ask him later when he gets back.
When Mika did get back with a tray of sandwiches in hand, Yuu muttered a thank you in his language which the blonde excitedly knew what he meant with that stupidly huge smile on his face, disturbing Yuu rather awkwardly as they both sat on the bed but resumed on eating one of the sandwiches that were given to him. Once he finished, he laid out his palm towards Mika to indicate that he wanted to use his phone to talk to him. He should probably use his own, but he's too lazy fishing it out of his backpack to do it.
[What's your sister's name?]
[His name is Akane.]
His? Now the translation is being ridiculous, but he knows what he meant to say at least.
[Sorry for thinking that your sister was your girlfriend.]
Mika read the text and laughed. [It is good. I have not had a girlfriend since I do not know, forever?]
Yuu was shocked at his response. The blonde looked attractive enough in his eyes to believe that he has a girlfriend, but he'll be damned if he tells Mika that.
[Are you fine? Your face is red.] This one was aimed at him and he hurriedly typed out his answer.
[I'm fine. It's probably the time difference.]
Mika bought it and his mouth formed an 'o' in realization.
[It's late! I'm sorry to keep you Yuu. You should get some sleep since you flew all the way from France, after all.]
Mika darted across the room to his closet that Yuu didn't seem to be aware of when he came inside the room and pulled out a plain blanket to give it to him.
[You should probably change first. The bathroom is on your right once you leave the room.]
Yuu nodded at the phone screen that was thrusted to his face and grabbed one of his bags that has his clothes inside to change in the bathroom. Another 5 months of this and I'll be back playing my video games back home, he thinks once he entered the pearly white bathroom when he turned the lights back on to life. For now, he'll just try to enjoy himself as much as he can and maybe he'll come to like it here.. Probably.
[1] - "Why are you looking at me like that? You pervert."
[2] - "Are you okay?"
[3] - "Nice.."
[4] - "It's not what it looks like-"
This is legit straight out from google translate. French is not my first language and neither is English, but I've been in America for far too long so..
Note: Sorry if the French isn't accurate. If I had knew someone who knows French then I would've asked, but I don't know anyone ;; I'll make do with what I have so far, unless someone volunteers then I guess I can ask?