A/N: LOOK! A NEW CHAPTER!
Anyways, this chapter contains that prince dude from Alito's past life... And yeah, reincarnation?
Warnings are keyshippish things.
I donut own Zexal.
School Shenanigans
Chapter 7 - Alito's Familiar New Friend
Alito never paid much mind to news his classmates held, but when he arrived to school that morning, he was greeted with reports of a transfer student coming to Heartland Academy.
No matter where he went, there was at least one person gossiping, and well, all of his friends, particularly Yuma, were excited. Now while he was entranced by the idea of making another friend, it wasn't enough to cause overwhelming emotions.
That was until he found out the student was to be in one of his classes. So, as of now, he sat in his desk, occasionally listening to the chatter of the excited girls in front of him while he waited for class to begin.
What he wouldn't give for Gilag to be here right now. At least they could joke around if he were present.
As he contemplated this, a blonde boy walked into the classroom and stood by the teacher's desk, occasionally focusing his stare on the neatly arranged items that sat on said desk.
Naturally, a few students recognized him as the new student, but for Alito, he had to stop himself from yelling.
This boy… looked familiar.
Blonde hair... Red tips…. Stunning blue eyes…
He looked….
He looked like… the prince, the one from his past life.
The blonde peered up from his fixated stare on the desk and made eye contact with the former gladiator. However, this only last for a second as he shifted his gaze to the teacher that finally entered the classroom again.
"Alright, quiet down," the instructor announced to which the class hushed and focused their attention towards the teacher with curious eyes.
"As you all know, we have a new student," he continued, resting his hand on the new student's shoulder. "This is, uhh... Leo… Anyways, uh, hmmm. There aren't a lot of empty seats available, but ah, I know. You can sit next to Alito. Over there in the back."
"Very well," the blonde youth murmured as he paced over, ignoring the stares his classmates gave him by only gazing ahead. He took a seat next to the former Barian, not bothering to acknowledge Alito's presence.
However, Alito dismissed this as he immediately began to introduce himself, "Hi I'm Al-"
"Don't care," the blonde interjected, blue eyes focused on the teacher as he began today's lesson.
"What?"
"I'm not here to make friends, okay? So, stop talking," Leo replied harshly.
The former gladiator blinked before frowning, deciding it was better to not speak anymore. However, he did keep his gaze on the blonde until class ended.
When that happened, the blue-eyed boy beside him stood up and was one of the first students to exit the classroom. Alito only frowned further, but upon seeing Kotori pass by, he quickly jumped from his seat and ran over to her in an attempt to forget the new student's existence.
Unfortunately, forgetting the new student was harder than Alito thought it would be since Leo ended up having a few more classes with him. However, in a stroke of luck, he wasn't seated near the chocolate-haired boy.
Still, by the time it was lunch, the chocolate-haired youth was completely focused on how the reincarnation of his old friend… was… such a rude jerk.
He explained this to Gilag as they sat next to each other in lunch.
"The new kid, right?" the male asked, peering around for a moment before going back to eating.
"Yeah, he looks exactly like the prince, but unlike the actual prince, he's a total jerk," the dark-skinned boy complained, resting his face on the palm of his hand.
"Well, uh, maybe he's just uh, not comfortable?" Gilag suggested.
"Hmmm. That's true. Perhaps I should be persistent when trying to befriend him?"
His friend replied, "I guess. It did work for Yuma."
"Huh, that's true… Thanks!" Alito cheered as his stomach then growled. "… I should probably eat while I still can…"
After school, the former Barian decided to follow Leo to the library, but to avoid being caught, he hid behind one of the giant bookshelves and watched the boy from the distance.
Now, while he had decided what he would do, he wasn't exactly sure how he would execute that. He sighed and turned away, staring at the bookshelves as he grumbled, "Do I just walk up to him? …Augh, how does Yuma even do this?"
He sighed and peered back to the see the blonde boy typing away on one of the computers.
"Ah screw it. I'm just gonna walk up to him."
And so he did, trying to don as much as confidence as he could muster, but unfortunately, it was all to waste as the blonde boy failed to notice his presence.
He dismissed this though as he took a seat beside Leo and grinned, "Hey!"
The light-haired one of the two only sighed in annoyance as he peered at the former gladiator.
"What do you want?" he hissed, scowling. "I thought I told you I didn't want to be friends."
"Hmm, didya? I can't remember," the dark-skinned youth innocently spoke, smiling brightly when Leo's expression only darkened.
"… Go away."
"Why?"
"Because you're annoying," the blonde teenager huffed, shifting his eyes back to the computer in front of him.
Alito frowned, ignoring the jab by edging closer, "Now that's not a nice thing to tell your friend!"
Leo froze before glaring at the chocolate-haired boy, "Excuse me? We are not friends."
"Sure we are," the former gladiator countered to which the blonde male narrowed his eyes.
"Stop it. Stop before I ki-"
"Oh, do you wanna fight?" Alito inquired curiously.
Leo paused for a second, giving him a puzzled expression before grumbling, "Yes, so you can learn to leave me alone."
"Alright! Let's do it now!" the chocolate-haired male cried as he grabbed the other boy's arms and took off running, dragging a displeased Leo with him.
"So, any questions?" Rio began, clasping her hands together as she gazed at Astral with a grin.
The former spirit looked up from the paper in his hands to the girl, "Must I say these things? They seem… incongruous."
The blue-haired girl furrowed her eyebrows before replying, "How? I think it's worded well enough to get to Yuma."
"I suppose so," Astral murmured as he focused his attention on the paper once more, narrowing his eyes as he studied the words.
"Mmhmm. Just say that to him, and everything should go well."
"But how exactly do I bring this up?"
"Easy! I'll tell you when to do it," she answered, grinning.
"I see… However, what if this plan of yours fails?"
"It shouldn't," she answered quickly before pausing and adding afterwards, "But if not, I have a few other plans."
"And what that might consist of?" the light-haired youth asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Oh, simple things really. Kinda ends with you kissing or in a compromised position. Though hopefully it won't lead to that."
"That sounds fair," Astral muttered as he folded the paper and placed it in his pocket. Afterwards, he stood up and began to gather his school items.
When Rio gave him an inquisitive look, he simply answered, "I should be returning to the Tsukumo household."
"Ooooh. Well, okay. Let me show you out then."
After Astral has completed his task, they headed towards the mansion's entrance which was where they currently stood. However, the Kamishiro girl was quick to approach and open the door for the former spirit.
"Thank you for your assistance," Astral spoke as he stepped into the outside world…. Only to find a familiar voice call his name.
"Astral?"
The named turned to find Shark and Yuma standing in the distance. Yuma seemed confused while the former Barian only stared off to the side, not particularly interested in the sudden events.
"Yuma."
"… W-What are you doing here?" the black-haired boy spluttered, eyebrows furrowing. The former king, or Ryoga, finally turned to gaze at Astral, giving the former spirit a critical stare at the sight of him and Rio standing near each other.
The female of the group piped up, "Oh, I was just helping Astral with a project. He was just leaving… What are you two doing?"
Ryoga didn't answer to which the Tsukumo boy responded instead, "Oh, we were dueling, and he invited me over for food!"
"Huh… Didya Ryoga?" she asked, giving her brother a toothy grin. In response, Ryoga glared at her before heading inside, slightly shoving Astral a bit before he disappeared into the mansion.
Astral didn't bother to call him out, and it seemed Rio and Yuma hadn't caught the sight…
He stared at the two remaining teenagers before deciding to give Rio an awkward wave, signaling he was leaving.
"I… shall be leaving," he announced, unsure how to continue. "I… have some things to attend to…"
Rio only nodded while the dark-haired boy murmured, "Oh, okay… Uh, can you tell my mom I'll be home in an hour or two?"
"Of course, Yuma."
"Thanks! You're the best!" Yuma chirped as Astral began heading home.
Out of all the places Leo expected to fight in, he certainly wouldn't have guessed the roof of Heartland Academy would be it.
According to that fool, this was the best place in the world to fight. Ever.
Leo disagreed, but he was too fed up with this moron to complain any further.
Alito stood on the opposite side of their 'arena', smirking widely as he inquired, "You ready?"
The blonde scowled for the millionth time as he retorted, "Of course. Are you?"
"Yup!"
"Good, because you're going to regret ever going near me!" he shouted, running over to the dark-skinned youth with an intention of socking him in the jaw. However, this backfired because Alito saw through his move and dodged.
Due to physics, Leo took a few more steps before he was able to stop. When that happened, he turned around and found the other boy had taken a chance by trying to land his fist on Leo's face. Only thing was he dodged as well, stumbling a bit backwards from his inability to balance himself.
Leo frowned, because he wasn't expecting the former gladiator to be this good of a fighter. He huffed, annoyed at this revelation as he then ran over, tackling Alito to the ground.
The blonde pinned the brunette down and smirked at the surprised expression on the dark-skinned youth's face.
The light-haired one of the teenagers made to punch the other's face when the sight of something on the floor caught his attention.
…
His deck was on the floor.
"Crap!" Leo hissed as he jumped off of the former Barian and began to collect his cards, counting his deck multiple times to make sure none of them had gone missing.
Alito sat up, a confused expression settled on his face before he noticed the deck.
"You duel?" he asked suddenly, grinning in excitement.
"… Yeah, why? You gonna pick on me too?" Leo grumbled, narrowing his eyes. If so, he could always show him a lesson or two…
"What?! No! I love dueling!" he cheered, and somehow, it looked as if his grin got even bigger. "Actually, my friends love to duel!"
The blonde raised an eyebrow since he was rather hesitant to believe in such a thing, "Really now?"
"Yeah!" Alito paused before giving the boy a determined look, "Instead of fighting, I think we should duel."
Leo scoffed before casually agreeing, "Sure… I'll still beat you anyways."
"No you won't!" the dark-skinned boy countered as he put his duel disk on.
The light-skinned boy nodded to humor the boy as he placed his duel disk on as well, "Whatever. Just when I win, you'll leave me alone, alright?"
Alito hesitantly agreed, "… Fine… Though I won't!"
"Mmhmm," he mumbled.
"Start now?"
"Yeah."
"Sweet!"
"Duel!"
His LP fell to 0 as he was thrust to the ground, hissing at the fact he had lost to Alito.
The worst part?
The former gladiator only had 100 LP left.
'So close.'
Alito ran over to him immediately and hoisted him off the ground, smiling as if he had just won the lottery, "I won!"
Leo gazed a bit to the side, biting his lip before sighing in defeat. He did win.
"Congratulations," he murmured in his best sincere tone before giving his companion a small smile, "... You probably know my name, but I'm Leo… sorry I was such a jerk."
The chocolate-haired boy only laughed before introducing himself, "I'm Alito, and it's fine. Friends forgive other friends, right?"
"Hehe, I guess so... Nice to meet you Alito."
Yuma returned to his home at nine p.m., and well, his family was relieved that nothing bad had happened to him. Though, unsurprisingly, Akari began to yell at him before Kazuma took over and gave the youth a stern talk about how he should have called and informed them he was going to come later than planned.
After some fifteen minutes of more lectures from his mom and Akari, Yuma passively agreed before asking about Astral.
Kazuma only laughed and told him the former spirit wasn't feeling well and had turned in for the night.
The Tsukumo boy nodded, taking in this information as he proceeded to excuse himself to his room…
He walked in, flicking on the light and finding Astral asleep.
The black-haired boy closed the door behind him as he then rested on it, admiring his sleeping companion with a soft smile.
"Guess he's really tired," he whispered as he walked over to his friend and sat on the edge of bed. He didn't move at all, finding himself content with just staring at the former spirit. However, before Yuma knew it, he found himself running his fingers against the blankets that covered the light-haired boy.
When he realized he was doing this, he recoiled his hand and forced himself to gaze at the floor.
That wasn't right. That wasn't fair to Astral.
Now wasn't the time. Things were different than when they were collecting Numbers and saving three worlds.
Astral was human, not an astral being. He was still getting adjusted to being a human.
Yuma couldn't do that to him… by suddenly springing all these wants onto him.
He released a quiet whine as the guilt embedded in his chest only seemed to spread which resulted in him feeling worse.
"I… I should sleep," he murmured, standing up. He began to make his way back to his side of the room when something caught his attention.
On Astral's dresser sat a very symmetrically folded piece of paper…. with a heart stamped in the middle.
Yuma furrowed his eyebrows, and without thinking things through, approached the piece of furniture. He allowed himself to wrap his hands around the item as he quickly unfurled it.
'I know we have something special… In fact, we both have known that for a while now, and I can see you're hesitant to take this further… But do know, I would like that… to take things further, that is. When you're ready… I'll be here… alright?'
The black-haired youth dropped the sheet onto the dresser once more as he gave his sleeping best friend an incredulous expression.
Was… Was that really on Astral's dresser? Was that meant for Astral? Was it possible Astral had already… found someone?
And here he was thinking he was acting too quickly on his feelings…
But from what he understood…
…
That wasn't Astral's writing… In fact, it looked like a girl's.
Yuma closed his eyes and shook his head.
He found he didn't want to think about this.
So, he quickly changed into his pajamas and climbed up the attic, deciding he wanted to sleep under the moon's light just as he had for years now.
Unfortunately, sleep never claimed his body as he ended up tossing and turning, unable to let the letter and its content slip from his mind.
A/N: I… didn't intend for this to happen… but it did.
Anyways, next chapter we focus on Astral's attempts at a confession.
And maybe some kinda little war between Yuma and Vector. Owo (Thank you Whitewolf997!)
Read, review, fight with the new kid, or not!
Later cool kids!