Be Mine

Chapter 4

Best Friends

"Kids... Kids! May I have your attention please!" a joyous female 1st grade teacher yelled. "We have a new student, well, two new students joining us today!"

All the kids put their attention on the newcomers as they stopped in the middle of their morning playtime.

"Thank you! Now, everyone..." The teacher pushed two little boys to the front of the colorful classroom. "Meet Lucas and Claus!" She gestured toward Lucas. "They're twin brothers, meaning that they look exactly the same. The one with yellow hair is Lucas." She gestured toward Claus next. "And the one with orange hair is Claus! Say, 'Hello!'"

"Hewo~!" The class greeted in their developing English. The teacher smiled at everyone's cuteness, and then pointed out where Lucas and Claus should sit. She seated them in table groups lacking an even amount of kids.

"Lucas, you go there," the teacher guides and points Lucas to the back table. "And Claus, you go there." She points out a closer table to the right. Lucas quickly went on his own way, shy and timid, and greeted the kids in his group and took his seat. Claus did so too, and sat with his group.

Claus looked over at his group, uninterested and lacking energy. It was 1st grade, and he was only 6 years old. Moving from Tazmily to Onett was something undesired by Claus. He missed everything back in his old town. His childhood friend, Fuel, whom he'd take along with him, and Lucas, to go out and play in the safe part of the forests.

When Claus looked over at the kids, the kids looked back with a blazing interest in him. They smiled at him, and introduced themselves.

"My name is Daisy."

"I'm Jackie!"

"Name is Alex!"

Claus faked a smile at their introductions, until he noticed one of the group members didn't say anything. He looked at a boy with black, messy hair. He was really quiet, and stuck in his own world, coloring a picture of a giraffe. His head was bent down, clearly focused on anything that was the giraffe picture. Liking his atmosphere, Claus took a seat next to him.

The boy with the messy hair finally lifted up his head to see who just sat next to him. His violet eyes met with Claus' emerald ones. He gave him a calm, bright, welcoming smile. One that had the words, 'Nice to meet you,' packed into it. After giving him that small gesture, the boy just went back to coloring. That is, coloring in such a way that the interest in Claus was piqued.

Claus just blankly stared at him, then switched his gaze to his section of the table, one that was empty of activity. When he thought all socializing was done with, he sighed, and finally let his shoulders slump, and his lips bend down into a hopeless frown. He wondered how Lucas felt about the whole thing.

He looked over to the table Lucas was at, and saw him playing with a blond boy with glasses on. He had a big smile on his face, but Claus could tell that smile wasn't all complete happiness. He knew he missed home, too.

...I wanna go home…

"...Hey?" The raven-haired boy next to him poked Claus. "What's wrung?" The heavy annoying English accent was the first thing the young twin noticed, but he brushed it off quickly.

Claus was startled for a second, then looked at him. "...It's nothing."

"Nuthing?" the boy questioned. "Hwhy are yew sad?"

"I'm not sad!" Claus insisted. He didn't look at the boy next to him anymore. His stubborn nature got the best of him.

The raven-haired boy looked a bit offended, but got over it quickly. He stopped talking to him, and went back to coloring his picture. "..." He couldn't help but look at Claus again. He stopped in the middle of his coloring, and pushed his coloring book in front of Claus.

"Waunt to color with mey?" he asked, flipping to a whole new animal: a fox with a background.

"..I hate coloring." Claus replied back, a little rudely.

"Have yew ever troid et?" asked the boy.

"No…" Claus trailed off. He looked as if he's been caught red-handed.

The boy replied, "Then yew shud troi et."

"Okay, okay." Claus gave in, almost up to *here* with the accent pouring into his ears. He picked up an orange colored pencil, while the other boy picked up a blue one. At that moment, the other started off coloring first. He colored the fox's head blue.

"No, stop!" Claus took a hold of his hand to stop him. "A fox is supposed to be orange!"

The boy looked at Claus surprisingly, then smiled. Then he asked him, "Hwhy?"

"Well.. because… because…" Claus didn't know what to say. The boy chuckled and continued on.

"Don't yew think… anything can be any colour?" he asked creatively. "Instod of colouring things the way thar suppused to be coloured, hwhy not color tham the color they mean?"

"What do you mean..?" Claus was utterly confused by the boy's advanced use of words; sounded horrible, but advanced. He could tell that the boy was way smarter than his current age. By that, the boy broke everything down for him.

"This orenge fox remoinded me of your hair!" he said cheerfully. But then his voice went down into a sad tone. "But... yew lewked bleu todai." He gave Claus a sad and empathetic look.

Claus' eyes finally widened from understanding. He finally got what the boy said.

"Saudness spreads a lot, yew know." the boy mentioned, a bit down.

Thoughts flashed through Claus' mind. From that, Claus felt kind of bad for him.

"...Sorry…" Claus apologized, which surprised himself. Claus wasn't always the one for apologies, he'd always try to get the other person to regret it first and apologize, even if it was his fault.

"That's foine!" the boy replied. "Yew didn't ned to apologoize! What wud be best is if yew chin up." He smiled, and then gave Claus a big thumbs up.

From that, Claus finally smiled the first genuine smile he had in Onett. He felt somewhat motivated by the boy, and his accent just made everything he said, funnier overall.

"That's much moar bettah! Heheh!"

Afterwards, the teacher caught the attention of all the children.

"Everyone! Time for morning recess! Clean up all your playthings, and go ahead out."

The whole class cheered as they started rapidly cleaning up. The boy put all the crayons into a box it came with, and slid it to the middle of the table. He closed his coloring book and put it into his Mr. Saturn themed backpack. The boy picked up his hat that was lying on the table in front of him, and settled it onto his head, turning the bill to his right. He was just about to run out the door, before Claus asked something.

"W-Wait!" he called. He ran to catch up with him. When he did, he latched onto his arm and kept a hold on him. "I forgot! What's your name?" he paused, "My name is Claus!"

He chuckled. "I already know that, selly! And the neme's Ness." For a moment, he winked at Claus as a little introduction. From that, Claus' cheeks tinted pink just a bit. He smiled back.

Then, without permission, Ness unlatched Claus from his arm and clung onto his hand instead. With a burst of energy, he ran out the classroom, through the sleek halls, and out into the autumn path. A rush of wind blew past their hair and whipped it pleasingly against their faces.

He was greeted to the outside of the school, someplace so new to him, so… nostalgic for some reason. His eyes blinked slowly, he was still for just a moment. Nothing could compare to how beautiful he thought it was. The trees were completely stripped of their leaves, which were scattered among the play field; and just about everything else blended into the colors of a caramel orange, mellow yellow, and a light green. However, his trails of nostalgia ended when he heard Ness' voice.

"Claws!" Ness stopped in the middle of running, which stopped the other boy, too. "Do yew wunt me to give yew a tewr?" he asked.

"What's a 'tewr'?" Claus responded, childishly.

"..." Ness froze, then scratched his head. His childlike brain only memorized certain sentences from movies he would watch, but not know the meaning to. "...I dunno... But I'll give yew one."

"Okay!" Claus agreed without much thought. They both laughed.

Then Ness ran off, calling, "C'mon, Claws!"

Claus brightened, and bounded after him.

They stopped when they arrived at the playground, to which Ness pointed at exaggeratingly and said, "Thaut's the playground." A few kids that were playing on it spotted Ness and waved at him as well as Claus, all saying different kinds of greetings like, 'Hiiii,' or 'Hewo,' or 'Wassewp.' Ness grinned and waved back, Claus just stood there a bit uncomfortable with the slight attention.

Afterwards, Ness grabbed at Claus' head and turned it a complete 180 degrees.

"That's a saund box," he says matter of factly. "Dun eat the saund, saund is bad." Ness shook his head, while also gesturing a stomach ache.

Claus giggled a bit and let the raven-haired boy lead him around to another place.

"I know what that is!" Claus exclaimed, surprising the other boy.

"What is it?" asked Ness.

"It's a swens set." Claus crossed his arms and wore a smug smile.

"Ya." Ness nodded. "A sweng set." He couldn't help but laugh to himself, and even though he did, Claus still didn't notice his mistake and still believed the playground object to be his beloved 'swens set.' What they both didn't know is that they had actually pronounced 'swing set' completely wrong.

Beyond that point, their tour had been complete with Ness not wanting to explain any other object because there were a lot of obstacles on the playground to identify. He looked around himself, to see all the kids running and playing around them. They weren't doing anything, and there was a silence between them.

"Now whut?" Claus asked, having drawled out the last word slightly.

Ness shrugged innocently, until another smile grew onto his face again at an idea that arose on top of his head. While Claus was turned around, he snuck behind him… ever so slowly…

"...TAG!" Ness poked Claus on the back, who eagerly swished his head around to find his hatted friend already dashing away. Adrenaline built in both of their bodies, as Claus picked up his feet and crunched across the fallen leaves.

"Cheater!" Claus called out playfully. That made Ness turn his head around to stick his tongue out at him, and proceed to run even faster. Before he knew it, he was outrunning Claus, who was trying to keep up with his pace. He didn't realize it, until he heard Claus panting behind him.

"Too fast!" Claus yelled, stopping in his tracks. They've encircled around the whole playground already, and all that seemed to have happened was that gradually, the space between them only increased. Ness heard, and spun around on his heels to see that his orange haired friend stopped. Claus breathed in and out, head hung over, and his arms clutching at his shorts. Ness ran back and lowered his head to look into Claus' face.

"Are yew okay?" Ness asked, a little upset. He was the fastest kid in the class, and oftentimes kids who play tag with him never got him, and would give up entirely and tag out another kid.

"Yes…" Claus continued to breathe in and out, until a smirk appeared on his face.

"TAG! Hahaha!" Caught completely off guard, he tagged Ness from the back and got a running start from the hatted boy's confusion. Ness' joy came back to him once again, and chased after Claus, who wasn't as fast as him, but had more agility. Unlike Ness, Claus ran in between obstacles, dodging and sliding under things to divert the hatted boy's trail off of him. Claus wasn't smart enough to figure out a 'swens set' is a 'swing set,' but he was smart enough to know that his raven-haired friend would catch up if he ran in a straight path.

Since Ness had not caught up yet, Claus decided to run away from the playground to a grove of trees a bit far off from the other children. The forest was beautiful and calm. However, Claus didn't have enough time to take it in, considering he was still running away and was impulsively laughing while doing so. Ness was laughing too, but there was no reason. They were just kids having fun.

When Claus came to a thick tree, he hid behind it with Ness on the opposite side. Every time Ness went to run around the tree, Claus did the same, leaving Ness unable to tag him. It came to the point that they were just making the opposite moves, Claus inevitably teasing his friend. This was certainly the first time Ness wasn't able to tag someone, and as a little kid, he admired it just a bit.

"You can't tag me~" Claus sang.

"I well!" Ness said with determination. He had a challenging smirk on his face.

"Slowpoke!" Claus only continued mocking him.

However, in a moment's notice, the orange haired boy messed up his footing and found himself needing to run from that tree or else Ness would get him. However, to his misfortune, the hatted one was able to get to him before he could. Claus was slippery, so Ness ended up having to pounce on the little fox-like boy.

"TAG!" Ness shouted with triumph. His body was on top of Claus, who fell to the ground with a loud thud.

"Owie…" Claus turned over, still lying down. Ness grew alarmed and got off of his friend.

Now Claus sat up, and Ness could see the damage he accidentally inflicted on his friend. The fall he took ended up scraping his cheek, and wrist. It bled more than Claus was used to, causing the orange haired one to grow red in the eyes and tear up.

"I'm sorrey!" Ness apologized, sitting on the ground opposite of him. He brought a helping hand to him, but was unsure how to comfort him. He stopped in his tracks when Claus looked at him, a bit more than mad.

"You hurt me!" he accused, pouting. Small dots of blood remained on his injured parts, which Ness wanted to clean up.

Ness took his baggy shirt and led a hand underneath it to use as a wipe. He got on his knees to Claus, who was currently sitting up. He tapped at the small scraped spots to absorb it into his own striped shirt. Claus tinged at his very touch, and by the time Ness was done cleaning it off, the boy looked at him with silent rage.

Claus furrowed his brows at Ness, who was not used to anyone getting mad at him so easily. Most of the time, the hatted boy never did anything wrong. However, Claus had a short fuse, especially at this age. He wasn't the type to get close to anyone at first sight, but he would enjoy their presence as it lasts, and Ness hurting him this way, even though it was for the sake of their game of tag, made Claus furious.

Ness gingerly asked, "Are yew okay now?" He averted his eyes from Claus nervously.

"No, it stings!" Claus shouted, "It's all your fault!"

"I'm sorry… I'll make it bettah!" Ness promised. He hoped saying that would atone for his doings, and would at least get Claus to wipe off that angry look he had on him. It softened Claus' expression, giving the hatted one more confidence in himself.

"How?" Claus' tone turned from mad to reasonable. He tilted his head.

"My mum says wheneva someone gets hurt, if yew kiss thar boo-boos, they get bettah!" Ness pointed out genuinely. Claus stared at him in wonder, considering as if what he said was magic.

"Really?" the orange haired one's interest was piqued.

"Ya! Let's troi et."

First, Ness carefully grabbed Claus' wounded arm. The orange haired one complied and let him do so. Then, as if he only had one shot at this, Ness planted his lips on the boy's wrist, then took it off. The hand Claus gave to Ness shook, which alarmed the hatted one.

"Did et work?!" Ness asked. Claus' eyes widened.

"I… I think it did!" A huge grin popped out onto Claus' face. "Do it again!"

Ness giggled, then kissed Claus' wrist another time. "Is thaut gud?"

"Yeah!" Claus started his own giggle fest as well. He started to notice that it tickled when Ness would kiss his wrist.

"Et's like you're a princess," Ness commented, sticking out his tongue a little from his own silly reference.

"Wha- NO!" Claus pouted, a blush growing on his cheeks as he took his hand from Ness. "I'm not a girl!"

"I'm just joking wif yew!" Ness let out a wide grin. "Now et's time to kiss your cheeks! Does it hurt?"

"Mhmm.." Claus hovered his hand over it in pain, but then decided to puff it out for Ness to heal. The hatted one grinned, and went along with the gesture. Happily, he pecked Claus carefully on his cheek, then looked at the boy.

"Is thaut part bettah now, tew?" Ness' face was really close to Claus', and their eyes stuck to each other with gleaming innocence. The blush on Claus' face only grew bigger, but nonetheless, he smiled back.

Claus nodded enthusiastically at the boy, and the anger he felt towards him disappeared. He thought he met a good person on his first day of 1st grade. A friend. One that came to his rescue with healing kisses.

Claus' naiveness spiked, and his heart opened out to him. He wanted to stay with this boy and try to be friends with him. Forget his stubbornness, forget his short fuse.. he wants to be friends with him. He was left staring at the hatted boy's violet eyes, ones that never left his, and he knew, too, that Ness wanted to be a friend to him as well.

RING RING RING!

The female first grade teacher rung a bell, signaling the end of morning recess. The two got up, and made a run back to form a line with the rest of the kids. However, when he was in line, the teacher still rung the bell even when all the students were there already.

RING RING RING!

"What…" Claus scratched his head, then looked at Ness, hoping to see if he was weirded out by why the teacher was still ringing the bell so intensely.

But when he looked at Ness, the raven-haired boy was already staring back at him with tears in his eyes that fell out like a smooth river.

A sudden surge burst through Claus' body, making him wake from his dream. He abruptly jerked his body upwards from underneath his thick blanket.

He brought a hand to his forehead and felt slight moisture upon his skin. His breaths were short and sharp from suddenly waking up.

The boy squinted his eyes and rubbed them to get the sleep out. He didn't know what woke him up. It was the middle of the night and he woke up to nothing. Nothing but the fake ringing in his dream. But he didn't care. He was more concerned with the contents of his dream.

"What. the. fuck," is what he says. Again, he wasn't in a good mood. He felt disgusted.

Two fucking weeks, TWO, he thought. He's been avoiding Ness since then, and the dream he had made him feel guilty and sad. That is, until he remembered the kisses he let Ness naively plant on both his wrist and cheek when they were kids. He sat up on his bed and rubbed his face.

"Ew ew ew ew ew," he went on and on and went as far as to exit his room and go to the nearest bathroom. There, he took out a bottle of alcohol and dipped a cotton ball in it. He briskly rubbed the ball on his face repeatedly, the same part Ness kissed when they were little. He sighed. He wished the alcohol could erase the past like it was currently removing the pathogens off right now.

Kisses don't heal shit, he thought angrily, Just how stupid were we when we were little? God, his accent was really bad back then, too!

Then all of a sudden, a collection of past memories came to Claus; all the idiotic times they've shared since that day, following into middle school as well. Accidentally lighting a trash can on fire, playing pranks on their English teacher in 6th grade, adventuring out into the forest in search of bears—the list went on. He even remembered Ness' big quest to rid of his English accent once and for all, and how he bought children's books and read it to Claus out loud for practice, repeatedly asking, "Is et gettin' bettah? Is et?!" to which Claus would reply, "Not at all."

However, when it came down to it, Claus' heart yearned for him and Ness' friendship to come back, but he doesn't think it's possible. He is considering a solution to his problem, and that is to just… break it off with Ness. No more talking, having fun, or sharing memories with. He'd have to find someone else for that; someone who isn't Ness.

By then the orange haired boy made it back to his room and buried his body underneath his blanket. He cursed himself, and slowly shut his eyes into a forceful slumber.

Ping!

God dammit. Just when Claus was about to fall asleep, too, he had to start back from square one again and slip off his blanket. He checked out his iPhone, only to find that Ness messaged him multiple times throughout the night.

"I can't fall asleep."

Claus cringed.

"I wish you'd just stop avoiding me, damn it. I get it already."

His heart dropped, and even though he was awake to receive the messages as they were sent, he didn't want to reply. He didn't even know what to say. Even though that was so, he really couldn't bring himself to ignore them. Staring into the bright screen, he slid his finger across the touch screen and typed out his reply.

"i just dont want to see you anymore."

Almost instantly, he could see that Ness was already typing out a response.

"Are you serious? You know that's not true."

Claus felt somewhat confused and upset. He missed Ness a little bit but he was still unforgiving about what he did to him. The mental wounds Ness has inflicted upon him were still fresh.

"it is. Don't you dare come near me." He typed out his anger-filled response.

"Claus. Please don't do this. I'm sorry for being so pushy. It won't happen again."

Claus didn't reply, he felt stuck. Can he really trust Ness at this point at all? His unwillingness to reply overtook him and he decided not to say another word. This caused Ness to send another rapid message.

"Goodnight, then."

That message only made him feel lonelier, now. Frustrated, he locked his phone up and slammed it on his nearby desk. He forced his eyes shut and laid under his blanket searching for comfort, but to no success. Instead, he curled up on his side in defeat, feeling like there was a hole through his chest.