I like the smiling clown better
I like the clown who knows sadness better
- IU – Pierrot laughs at us
"I wouldn't jump today."
Startled, Soma turned around. Upon spotting the older man, he sighed and turned back. "And why?" he said, sounding annoyed, more than anything, "Because the weather is so nice today?"
When the man didn't reply, Soma almost thought he'd truly found the reason, just to be proved wrong.
"Because it's my birthday."
Arshad leaned onto the railing, next to Soma, not acknowledging the teenager. Without saying anything else, he lighted a cigarette, staring off into space.
"You should stop that, you know," Soma broke the silence, "Smoking, I mean. It's bad, for your lungs."
Arshad couldn't keep from laughing. "Says the one who stayed a week in the hospital because he drank bleach."
"That's something different," Soma argued, almost pouting, "I wanted to die."
Arshad raised a brow. He still wasn't looking at the young teen.
"What makes you think I don't?"
Soma paused. Unsure, he said, "Well. Smoking takes a long time to kill you, doesn't it?"
Arshad shrugged. "Perhaps I want to die slowly."
"Sorry. I'm not buying it." Soma blindly reached for the cigarette, taking it from the older man.
Arshad wasn't angry. He simply smiled, and, when the teen was facing away from him again, lighted another cigarette.
"You're right. I am not really planning on dying, at least not yet."
A breeze blew through the violet ponytail of the younger boy. His hands still held on tight to the railing, his butt barely still touching the roof's edge. Then, with a defeated sigh and a puff of air, he swung his legs back over the railing, coming to stand next to Arshad.
"Perhaps you're right. Today is a far too beautiful day to spend it with thoughts of dying."
And so they found themselves spending the rest of the lunch break in the school's infirmary, which was also something like Arshad's office. Soma had gone to get some cake from the cafeteria (they usually gave food to him for free), and Arshad had made himself busy with making coffee.
Now, as Soma returned with a plate full of cake and muffins, he made to clean the office table.
"You know what, they even gave me the chocolate cake they usually give to the headmaster," he chuckled, "It pays being handsome."
"Then get your handsome ass over here, the coffee's getting cold."
Soma giggled, sitting down on Arshad's office chair. The man shot him a glare. He obviously had been the one who wanted to sit down. Now, instead, he leaned against the windowsill.
The violet-haired teen lifted the foil off the plate, glancing at it. "They even gave me forks."
But the two Indians didn't bother with forks. Instead, they stuck to their country's culture, eating the cake with bare hands. They didn't really talk, then again, they usually never did, since Soma despised small talk just as much as Arshad did.
"Today is our anniversary," Soma finally said, having enough of the usual silence between them.
"Hm?" was all the answer he got.
Sighing, he set away his plate and said, "The 24th. It was the 24th when we met in February"
Arshad crooked a brow, still finding the cake more interesting than Soma. "Drop it. I'm not gonna celebrate our meeting on my birthday."
"Speaking of it, how old are you even? 39? 40?"
It was meant as a joke. But Arshad seemed to have taken offense in the comment of the younger man and said so by shooting him a glare.
"29. I'm turning 29."
But Soma didn't let go of his little joke. At least not that easily.
"Really? Well, your hair says differently."
Arshad was tempted to throw some cake in his handsome face.
"I already explained it to you, didn't I?"
"Yeah, you did," Soma agreed, "But I didn't pay attention."
That was the breaking point.
Without giving so much as a warning, Arshad threw the cake at him. Soma dashed it, grinning brightly at the white-haired man. When said one realized that the cake had instead hit the wall behind the doctor's couch, he let loose a flood of swear words (most of them wishing bad to befall the younger teen), before getting up to clean it off.
"The headmaster's gonna fire me. This time for sure," he muttered while throwing away the mashed pieces of the cake.
"Yeah. Like the last twenty times you said that. Perhaps I should have bought you a dictionary?"
Arshad didn't even get to answer. Outside, somebody was frantically beating against the door.
"Kadar! We know you're in there, come out at once! Whole team's been lookin' for you."
Soma rolled his eyes. He was used to this. Used to the P4 getting on his nerves. Being a popular student sure wasn't easy. Then again, Soma never asked for it anyways. It probably came with being the son of a CEO.
"Man, I hate those guys," he muttered, sticking his tongue out.
Arshad couldn't really blame him. He didn't like the Prefects himself, but of course his job permitted him from having any kind of personal opinion towards a student. Then again, he was spending his free time with Kadar, which probably also counted as a personal opinion.
"Come on, you better don't want to let them down. Isn't the competition this week?"
"It's only national," Soma pouted, "Besides, they'll be fine on their own."
Another voice came from outside. "Kadar, I'm counting to ten!"
"Do what you like."
Arshad really didn't have the nerve to watch this anymore. He unlocked the door and opened it so rapidly that Greenhill and Redmond nearly stumbled into the office. They quickly composed themselves though. Greenhill was the first to regain his ability to speak.
"See, we knew you were there. You had promised you wouldn't skip today, remember?"
"And he wasn't going to," Arshad interrupted the conversation, soon before the purple-haired teen could even speak.
He felt something like satisfaction when the two Prefects gripped the student's arms and pulled him along, out of the room. Perhaps he hadn't been entirely fair, but Arshad had things he had to do as well. He couldn't just sit around the whole day and make sure that a certain purple-haired boy didn't kill himself.
Other people were capable of doing that too.
"Best of luck!" he called after the three, but he was probably lucky that the teen didn't hear him anymore. Otherwise this comment would probably have been followed by a thrown shoe.
After his office had quieted down, he had actually been wanting to clean away the rest of the mess he'd made, but something held him back. The teen's student records. Neatly spread out all over the table. Arshad had been reading through it, shortly before he'd decided to join the teen on the rooftop.
Now, upon realizing the teen had most probably seen them, he felt terrible. He hadn't read them to spy on Soma. (To be completely honest, Arshad was pretty sure there wasn't anything new for him which he could learn about the purple-haired boy, anyway.)
He had wanted to help him. Find a way to get him out of that house, before he could put his thoughts of dying into action.
This time, as the door opened, he lifted his head, eagerly expecting the teen to enter. Instead, one of the freshman's entered. Arshad didn't remember the girl's name, but he'd seen her around rather often.
Most times she came in with a bleeding finger, because she had hurt herself accidentally while sewing.
Arshad shot her a smile, asking her to sit down, while hoping he'd get a chance to apologize to Soma.
Heyy there. Another Somagni fic. (Still spreading love for this pairing!)
This is one of my...deeper? fics and so far I really like it. I love the AU setting and just have tons of fun writing it. I hope it's as much fun reading it.
Oh right, the chapter's titles (and first lines) are parts of my favorite songs that I credit underneath the quote part.
Well then, see you next time!
