The next day at school, Mituna sat down at his desk warily. He hadn't slept well last night, yet Sollux said he wasn't getting a cold or anything. The bus ride was hectic for him, he found himself sneaking glances at Cronus and he didn't know why. He felt strange. Like he wasn't a shoe that day or something, but no, Sollux made sure he had his shoes on everyday like everything else.
Kurloz wasn't there that day, and Mituna was some how releived. For some reason he didn't want to let Kurloz know he was staring at Cronus and acting funny around him. He didn't want anyone to know and hoped it wasn't obvious. He wasn't this self concious and skeptical about what people though before, he knew the other students always picked on him behind his back, but when Cronus comes in the picture he freaks out.
He sighed, scratching his head. Sollux refused to give him Advil that morning for the headache he had, telling him he would still be going to school. That confused Mituna even more. Did he seem like he didn't want to go to school? Well, he sure didn't want to see Cronus today, yet he was intent on staring at him.
Mituna jumped as he heard some rattling next to him as someone settled in the desk beside him. Yet again, it was Cronus. Mituna whined softly but didn't say anything. He suddenly remembered something and squinted his eyes at the greaser.
"You better have the paperth! My hand hurt after writing all of it and I won't do it again!" Mituna complained, picking at his pencil's eraser. Cronus blinked and nodded, rumaging through his bag for the papers.
"Yeah, I do. Calm your tits chief, right here see?" Cronus waved the papers in Mituna's face before putting it on the smaller boy's desk with a smirk. "I'm glad your pain was at least worth it, dimwad."
Mituna frowned and huffed, looking to the front of the class as the bell rang. He felt dissapointed as the regular Cronus was back again today, not the almost nice Cronus from the night before, outside the cafe. He felt even more hurt by the insults, more than before. He used to brush insults and names off, but he thought Cronus's opinion was.. nice. And he felt upset that Cronus had brushed him off yet again as the dumb person he was.
He shook his head a little. He realized his thinking was starting to get weird. It wasn't like this at all the day before, when he was only fueled by the namecalling Cronus gave him.
As Mr. Hussie began to talk and give them assignments throughout the day, Mituna couldn't help but stare at Cronus every now and then, studying his face and all the small details. He couldn't concentrate on his work well and thanked Mr. Hussie silently for not doing read alouds that day. As the teacher went around to pick up the reports, he skimmed over Mituna's and Cronus's and nodded.
"Well now, you two didn't make a complete mess of it, I congragulate you two. I think you make a good pair, so you'll be assigned as partners more often, how about that?" Mr. Hussie grinned, almost evilly. Cronus was just opening his mouth, about to complain before Mituna spoke up.
"That'th okay." He said simply, coloring something. Cronus glared at him and Mr. Hussie chuckled.
"Then it's settled! Now class have a good day and don't forget to bring those white board markers for extra homework credit." He shouted to the class as everyone started to file out of the room.
Cronus stood up and leaned down, tapping Mituna's head. "Okay, what the hell. You've just stepped to a whole new level of retard, I hope you know." Cronus growled.
Mituna shrugged and stood up, gathering his things. "Well, I'm thorry. But if you're going to be at the cafe a lot, then that'd be nicthe. It'd be eathier to do the homework than with other people either, I doubt either of uth would want to get partnered up with Calliborn or anything."
Cronus huffed and nodded, sliging his bag over his shoulder and nodding. "I guess you're right for once, dipshit." He muttered.
Mituna realized Cronus could have left the room a long time ago with everyone else rather than strike up a conversation like this. Maybe Mituna was just thinking about it too much, but he felt happier now. He grinned at the taller boy and walked around to leave the class by his side.
"If you want, I can athk Tholluxth if you can come and play video gameth with me thith weekend. I got a new one from Tulip and Tholluxth doethn't want to play multiplayer with me." Mituna could feel his cheeks get hot again and wondered why, shaking his head a little as they entered the hallway.
Cronus was silent for a moment before he nodded. "Yeah I guess. I don't have anythin' goin' on this weekend so that'd be cool. What kind of game is it?" he yelled over the loud crowd popullating the halls.
Mituna got squished closer to Cronus, making his cheeks feel hotter. He needed to get Sollux to give him that medicine. "Jutht thome thhooter game, it theemth pretty cool. It hath zombieht in it too." He yelled in response, letting out a breath in relief as they got outside to the buses, being less crowded. Mituna followed Cronus onto their bus, yelping a little as he was pulled away from his regular seat and pulled to the back. He was pushed into a seat in the very back of the bus and Cronus sat beside him. Mituna raised an eyebrow at the greaser, who shrugged.
"We're chill dude. You get to sit next to me, be grateful will ya?" He chuckles and ruffles Mituna's hair. No one else sat around them, apparently a lot of people didn't like Mituna much, or maybe Cronus? Only Cronus and some of Mituna's friends too sat in the back. Kankri behind them sitting beside Porrim, Latula taking the one person seat. Rufioh and Horuss sat in the seat across from them and in front of them was where Kurloz and Meulin sat, then Mituna sat infront of them and across from him would sit Damara. This was the seat Mituna used to sit in, before Cronus took it. But he had it back now, he thought.
As the bus started up, Mituna looked out the window and watched as everything was passed by. Cronus talked to the people around him, hitting on Damara a little before Meenah yelled at him from the front of the bus. Oh that's right. Cronus and Meenah were together. That little bit of information suddenly made Mituna frown. His heart felt cold and hurt a little as if it was twisting. Why did it matter to him? Did he want more of Cronus's attention. He suddenly felt hopeless, not even wanting to attempt to meddle with Cronus. He wasn't meddling with Cronus, he wasn't doing anything with Cronus. He hated Cronus, he remembered saying that to Kurloz. He layed his head against the cold window, feeling his eyes stinging a little. He wanted to sit next to Kurloz again, he wanted his seat back for himself, he wanted to do his work with someone else, he wanted Cronus gone, he wanted his thoughts to go back to normal.
He whines a little, holding his head as he started to freak out. He realized he wanted a lot of things, but they couldn't happen. He wanted his stop to come quickly, he wanted to go to sleep, he wanted more space right now. Cronus was taking up too much of the seat, he takes up too much space as it is! He needed to move, now.
He growls a little, glaring up at Cronus who was chatting to Rufioh beside him. Thankfully, the bus stopped at his stop. Cronus blinked and got up, letting Mituna out. Mituna hurried off the bus, keeping his head down and walked the sidewalk fast, feeling his eyes get wet. He ran up the steps of the appartment, opening the door and letting his bag fall on the ground. He trudged into the kitchen and felt his cheeks getting wet also, tears falling down the burning skin. His head pounded and he couldn't wait for Sollux to get home from the computer store. Why did he have to work today?
He pulled a chair up to the cabinets and stood up on it, looking through the medicine for what Sollux usually gave him. He could get it himself, he didn't need his help with anything. He could do things on his own perfectly fine. Through blurry vision from the tears, he looked at all the bottles, forgetting whether Sollux gave him pills or liquid medicine. He saw a lable with night time cold with a long name under it. He grabbed that and got off the chair, reading what you needed to take it. He had all the symptoms he guessed. He had a headache and he knew he had a fever, maybe it would even help with his groggy head and all its jumbled thoughts. He didn't know how much to take, so he got a small cup and poured the dark red liquid to fill almost an inch of the cup. That wouldn't hurt, and he made a face as he downed it, thowing the cup in the sink when he was done. His head was already feeling more tired and he got mad at the medicine. He thought it would help his head, not make it worse.
He knocked the container of the liquid medicine over when he reached to get it, whining as it spilt on the table. He didn't feel the tears stop and finally gave up. Going to his room and taking his clothes off, he plopped down onto the bed. He remebered he had to go to the cafe that day again too. And see Cronus again. He whines and buries his head in the pillows, closing his eyes tightly and letting the medicine take it's toll and knock him out.
He heard a door slam open yelling. The lights turned on and he buried his head under the pillow, whining a little. After a while he recognized the voice screaming was Sollux and wondered what it was. Was there an emergency?
Mituna sat up, rubbing his eyes and then his head. At least his head felt better, for now. Sollux was in the room and pacing around, throwing his hands around as he yelled. Mituna couldn't register what he was saying but he didn't like it already. Why would he be mad at him when he just woke up? He sniffles, laying back down and pulling the covers over his head. They were yanked off of him and Sollux grabbed his shoulder, pulling him back up to look him in the eye. He was awake enough now to know what he was saying.
"What the hell happened in here, why aren't you at work, and what'th with you lately? You dumb atth fuck, I can't thtand you anymore!" Sollux threw his hands up again, pacing across the room again and continuing to rant. Mituna frowned, looking down.
"I'm thorry.." he muttered quietly.
"If you're tho thorry why don't you act like it for once and be better next time?" Sollux snapped, mimicking Cronus's words. That's right, the Cronus problem still isn't gone. He felt his eyes sting as it all came rushing back to him, the stress of the bus ride, the stress of the whole day.
Sollux's words stung even worse than Cronus's, as if adding to it and telling him it was true. He suddenly felt out of place, like a nuissance and a burden. He didn't realize Sollux wasn't yelling anymore and was beside him, talking again, no doubt adding to the list of things wrong with him. He cheeks felt wet again and he got angry, already hearing Sollux's mocking voice telling him it was alright. But it wasn't.
"Mituna come on, thtop crying! I didn't mean it! It'th okay." Sollux was saying softly, rubbing Mituna's back. Mituna growled a little and slapped his hand away, standing up and grabbing his uniform, putting it on. Sollux followed him. "Mituna, thop it. You don't need to go to work, I'll call and tell them you were thick. I'm thorry okay?"
Mituna shook his head and put his shoes on, opening the door and shutting it behind him. His hair was a mess and his face was wet, the tears still running down his cheeks as he stomped down the steps and down the sidewalk in the direction of the cafe. He cried a little harder as he never heard the door open again behind him, half hoping for Sollux's calm voice. But no, he was too stubborn to accept it and he knew it. He had to go to his job and show Sollux he could do things on his own, like he was supposed to instead of failing at it like he had so far. It was dark out and he wondered what time it was, Cronus's words echoing in his head to get a watch. He needed to see Cronus, yet he didn't want to. He felt that Cronus was the one to go to, not Kankri or Kurloz, definately not Sollux.
He got to the cafe and went to the front desk, wiping his face and trying to look a little bit presentable. "Hi Kankri.. ith my thift over now or can I thtill work?" He muttered, his voice cracking. Kankri blinked at him and set the drink he had just made on the counter and walked over to Mituna.
"You're brother called actually and told us not to let you work because you.. weren't feeling good. Here, please it down. I'll get you a smoothie, how about that? I can pay for it, don't worry." Kankri said with a soft voice, leading him to a booth off to the side and going back to the counter to quickly make Mituna a smoothie like he said. He hurried back to him and set the blended drinkd own in front of him and put his hand on the dishevled boy's shoulder for a moment before returning to his job.
Mituna stared at the drink and pulled it closer to him, drinking it slowly. His face felt wet and sticky, but the tears had stopped. He just wanted to forget about everything. He sighed and played with the straw, jumping a little as he felt a weight beside him. He looked over and saw Cronus.
"Hey chief.. I was gettin' a little worried about you, I didn't see you workin' today." He said slowly, almost carefully. Cronus was worried for him? He was almost grateful but then he remembered that all he was was a burden and only causing Cronus as much stress as he had to Sollux. He whined a little, looking back down at his drink.
Cronus sighed a little. "Sorry if I'm like, just making everything worse, I'm just tryin' to help. " Great, now he had implied to Cronus that he didn't appreciate his help, just like with Sollux. He whined louder and held his head, feeling a pressure behind his eyes and his eyes water again. "Ah shit, um.." Cronus started, seeing him only get worse.
"I just.. You know, I'm sorry for all I says to ya chief.. I didn't mean any of it. I mean, callin' you a retard and stuff, I shouldn't have said that. Because, well, I'm sorta dumb too so yeah.." He rubbed the back of his neck and Mituna sniffled. "We're friends. I like you, ya know? You're pretty cool."
Mituna wanted to tell him so many things, that he wanted to be more than friends, he wanted to be with Cronus forever, that he absolutely loved Cronus and was at peace with him more than he was with anyone else. He didn't even know what he was thinking now, all of that came out of the blue. He opened his mouth a little, but no sound came out. He didn't know if he wanted any to.
"I like you too Cronuth." He didn't realize that was his own voice. His cheeks heated up again, but he didn't feel the tears. He stared at his drink, not hearing anything from Cronus, so he continued. "I.. like you a lot. Becauth you're nicthe to me and I like being around you. And I don't like Meenah anymore. Becauthe thhe'th.. with you. And I want that. But you probably not tho I guethh it doethn't matter." He grumbled, grabbing his drink and taking a small sip out of it. It had all went smoother than he'd thought, probably becuase he knew he was destined to fail with Cronus, that he would hate him just like Sollux did now.
Cronus didn't say anything, letting it sink in. He cheeks blushed as his eyes widened at Mituna. He took a small gulp, grabbing the smaller boy's hand and pulling him out of the seat and out of the cafe. Mituna yelped a little, afraid he was going to beat him up or something. Before he had knew it, he was pressed against the wall of the cafe, pinned between it and Cronus.
Cronus's lips were also pressed against his own, and Mituna didn't know what was happening at first. The darkness shrouded them and kept them hidden, the chilly air making Mituna shiver and wrap his arms around Cronus's neck as he was being kissed. He decided to kiss back, nervously and slowly.
Cronus had pulled back and Mituna whined softly, thinking he had done something wrong and wanting more. As they caught their breath, Mituna's cheeks burned again and he pressed against Cronus, shivering in the cold night's air. Cronus smiled a little, wrapping his arms around him and holding Mituna to him more.
"Would you like to come to my place for tonight?" he whispered, looking around a moment. "It's gettin' pretty cold and.. well yeah." He gave one of his oily grins, but this one was sincere, Mituna could tell. He nodded, smiling a little in return.
"O-Okay.."