The fall winds were gearing up, and though Takumi had to trade in his tank tops and shorts for sweaters and jeans, he couldn't find it in himself to be disappointed. Big, thick, fluffy sweaters were always his favorite, even if they did seem to swallow his arms in the sleeves. Oboro had once asked if he needed her to make some new sweaters, presumably ones that actually fit, but Takumi had gone on quite a rant about how amazing oversized clothes were.
The first round tests were also coming soon, and Takumi is slowly starting to realize that he hadn't studied enough. He's anxious about them, and while exercise would help him with his frazzled nerves, he'd feel much better about it if he cut workouts from his schedule and put all his focus on studying. His muscles and definition might suffer a little, but he could keep his grades from doing the same.
It's as he's opening his door, once again intent on studying that he comes face to face with a scene of interest. Leo's standing in the middle of their dorm room with a purple-haired woman standing over him, pressing his cheeks together with both her hands. And she's not just any purple-haired woman either, she's the purple-haired woman from the bakery on main street, the one he's a regular at.
It takes him a minute to come up with the name Camilla, and now both her and Leo are staring back at him.
He gets to see Leo's flush rise up from his neck, watch his ears turn bright red, but suddenly Camilla's in front of him. He was so focused on Leo's face that he didn't see her move. She's so much taller than he is, even taller than Leo with those damned heels on, and he has to crane his neck to see her face when she talks because she's so close.
"Ah, my darling Takumi! Leo's told me so much about you." She croons, twisting a strand of lilac hair between her fingers. Her smile is bright, and he returns it with nervous grin. Somewhere behind her Leo is cursing, and when Takumi glances towards him, Camilla's sweet smile turns into a knowing grin. "Watch this," is all she says before she turns back towards Leo and snaps her fingers at him. Leo shuffles a couple of papers on his desk, pointedly ignoring Camilla entirely until she snaps her fingers again, then he sighs and steps towards the two of them, frowning when Camilla grips his face once more. She kneads and presses his cheeks together, and Takumi never realized just how much of a baby face Leo actually was.
"Say it." Camilla demands, and Leo just rolls his eyes. He lifts an arm to knock away her hands, but they don't budge. She must have some amazing grip strength.
"Stop it, Camilla please." And Leo's whining now. Takumi isn't really sure what's going on, but it's very amusing to watch Leo squirm around awkwardly. "Stop, it's so humiliating." He pleads, but Camilla just gives him a look and he stops complaining.
"Say it." Camilla says again, demanding fingers pressed tight into his cheeks, and Leo looks away from Takumi.
"I'm a guppy." He starts, glancing at Takumi with a pitiful gaze, but looking away just as quickly. "Guppies don't smile, but I can." And then he smiles, or he tries to anyways. Camilla's fingers are still squeezing his cheeks, forcing out the most gut-wrenchingly funny expression he's ever seen on a human face before, and Takumi's literally two seconds away from dying of laughter. Tears slip from his eyes, and his face is turning red. He's losing control of his breath and bending over his chest, but seeing Leo's baby face squished and squirming was one of the funniest things he's ever seen. And it makes all the ugly laughing worth it in the end.
Camilla lets go of Leo's face by the time Takumi can stand up straight again, and Leo looks thoroughly embarrassed, but that's not his problem. He reminds himself that it was Leo that started the whole 'Taco Meat' debacle, and this is just his revenge. It briefly runs through his mind that he should just start referring to Leo as 'guppy' but then he looks up at Leo's face one more time and the nickname 'tomato' just kind of comes to him.
Leo's face is round and red and pouting, embarrassed and angry and mortified, and the word 'tomato' just fits that somehow.
Camilla leaves a couple minutes after Takumi calms down, but not before whispering words that he can just barely hear. He's sitting at his desk, looking over his notes, and Leo is at the door with her. She's got her hands on his face again, but it's not forceful, and she's cupping his face like a mother would.
"You're so smart, Leo." She says, and Takumi tries his hardest not to listen to the rest, but his curiosity gets the better of him. He glances at the two from the corner of his eye and Leo's back has gone rigid and his hands are balled into fists, like he's mad or nervous or some other emotion that Takumi can't place. "So smart. You can do anything you put your mind to. Try to remember that and use that big brain of yours, okay sweetie?" She sweeps his hair off his forehead to place a kiss there, and then leaves. Leo watches her go, gripping so tightly to the doorframe that his knuckles are turning white.
It's a minute or two of Leo staring down the hallway where Camilla left, and it's all silence. It's like Leo's in a trace, and Takumi has to be the one to knock him out of it.
"So," He starts, and Leo visibly jumps in the doorway, turning to look at Takumi while he continues. "How do you know Camilla?"
"Big sister." Leo grunts as he closes the door to their room and slinks back to his own desk. He makes himself look busy by shuffling about the same stack of papers from earlier.
"Why was she here?" Takumi says without thinking. "If I'm allowed to ask." He adds.
"I was asking if she had a job opening." Leo says, and Takumi turns back to his own desk, uncapping a highlighter to markup his own notes.
"Need the money?" He asks, and he can practically hear Leo sigh in annoyance.
"Yeah, I do." Takumi puts his highlighter down and flips around to sit backwards in his chair, fixing the back of Leo's head with a disbelieving look. If he was going for a job at Camilla's bakery, wouldn't he need to know how to bake?
"Do you even know how to bake?" He asks, smirking when the flush returns to the tips of Leo's ears.
"I -" Leo swallows audibly, and he turns to side eye Takumi. "She has a side job, and I was asking about that."
"Oh, well, what's she do as a side job?" Leo turns away from him, busying himself with his own highlighter.
"None of your business, Takumi."
Takumi blinks at the back of Leo's head. He knows he crossed a line somewhere, maybe it was the baking thing, but he's not really sure. The noise as he turns back to his desk seems so loud in his ears. It's quiet between the two of them aside from the sounds of turning pages and keyboard keys.
The hours pass by in a flash, and suddenly it's late, far later than Takumi expected it to be when he checked the clock. The dining hall closes soon, and he's suddenly reminded of how hungry he is with the gurgling his empty stomach is making. He curses as he stands from his seat, grabbing his shoes to pull them on, but then freezes when he looks towards Leo.
He'd been here before Takumi had been, sitting in his room and studying, and Takumi had been there for five hours at the very least. Leo had to be hungry too, there's no way he wasn't.
"Leo," He called, waiting for Leo to pull his head away from his notebook. When he did, Takumi jerked his head towards the door. "Come on."
Leo raised an eyebrow. "And where are you going?"
"Dining hall, and you're coming with me." Takumi said as he pulled on one of his oversized sweaters. "They close in ten minutes and I'm hungry, so let's go!"
Leo just turned back to his notebook. "I'm not really hungry, just go without me." He said, and Takumi almost let him get away with it, but Niles' words echoed in his mind.
If he ever stops eating…
Takumi straightened up with a frown. There had to be a way to get Leo to go with him. Think, dammit.
And then inspiration struck. "It's Wednesday, Leo." He smirked when Leo looked at him from over his shoulder.
"Yeah, what of it?"
"Wednesday is soup day." Takumi said, watching Leo's usual deadpan expression turn into excitement. "They might have tomato soup."
That was the fastest Takumi's ever seen Leo get ready.
"You lied to me." Leo whines, eying the soup station with distaste. "You promised me there'd be tomato soup but there isn't any. I feel so betrayed."
"I promised you jack shit. I said they might have it, I never said they definitely would, tomato face."
A/N: i have been struck with the inspiration bug pls send help (also thanks for reviews and favorites and follows!)