Work Text:
Did you ever wonder?
Yeah, do you ever wonder
What he might be going through?
On his own and
The demons that he's facing alone
It was a muggy Friday, the rainstorm that had rolled in at the a.m.s was endless. Ahmya had just wanted to stay in bed all day, but no, she had to drag her ass out of the comfort of her nest. Dragging her feet as she checked under her arms before shrugging and spraying a perfume she got at a corner store, the scent of the memories of two summers ago with the girls made her hum.
Surveying the messy room as she looked for a shirt to wear that wasn’t too dirty before pulling up a pair of jeans and socks. Pushing her feet to the kitchen where a sticky note was on the fridge labeled “I’ll be out late tonight, pizza is on me :)” a twenty-dollar bill was stuck under one of those magnets that seemed to have existed since the ’70s. A sigh left her lips with a bitter ‘great’ under her breath.
Stuffing the twenty in her pockets as she looked up at the clock and made another agitated noise at how early it was.
I hate that sometimes I can't go home
And it ain't just the same on the phone, no
But everybody's gotta go on
The school bell sounded loudly with an almost even annoying noise that had rung through her ears as her teacher had turned on the old TV to tune into the morning news presented by a few students.
Sucking her teeth as she opened up her journal and opened a pink pen, chewing on the end of the pen as the noises from the TV droned in the background while she looked to her left to watch the rain pour aimlessly. The teacher was about to call attention but the door had opened to the very last of the students that had made it into class.
“Ah, Mr. Sukuna, so nice of you to join us with your presence.” The late student only gave their elderly teacher a sly look and shrugged before the so-called smile was replaced with a sickening glare that was not held towards anyone in particular.
A few students had turned to look at their rougher-looking classmate, not at all surprised by his tardiness, but were surprised to not find him quip back with his own equally shit-eating comment to the teacher. He just walked to the back of the class and took the only remaining seat that was next to Ahmya.
She shifted to move her bag off of the empty chair with a slight squint at him for making her move her bag, even though he did nothing besides walk up to the empty desk. It was the closest she’s ever been to the boy- no he was a man, he didn’t look like he’d been a boy for a long time. Especially with the noticeable bags under his eyes along with the mimicking tattoos of eyes under his own making him only fit in a Spirit Halloween store. He had slumped in the seat while a leg stuck out of the desk and the other leaned over almost into her foot that was crossed over her leg. She swapped her legs so that her right foot was up against the wall, an action he took notice of without her realizing.
So if you need a hero (if you need a hero)
Just look in the mirror (just look in the mirror)
No one's gonna save you now
So you better save yourself
And everybody's hurting
It wasn’t that she was afraid of him, no that’s quite the opposite reaction she had toward her mysterious classmate; she was friendly to him the first day, which may have been her first mistake.
Only getting crude comments about her tits and appearance from him made her a bit more resentful of him, not to mention to be cornered by him in a house party by one of her friend of a friend's house, while she was drunk and a bit foolish to bump uglies in a closet only to be found out by her current boyfriend, who she had been trying to take a break from finding the two of them together. She got a bruised wrist and a black eye and she was back with her boyfriend after being on a short break. After their little rendezvous in the closet, they haven’t spoken a word to each other.
Everybody's going through it
But you just can't give up now
'Cause you gotta save yourself
But he remembered the way she looked on the Monday after the party and it almost sent him into a fit of rage, but it was halted by himself from going up to her boyfriend and giving him a justified black eye to match.
He remembered the way her eyes looked up to his face with remorse and fear, how small she looked, how much she looked like his mother before the accident after the fight with his father. It made his heart hurt like when he had chain-smoked too many cigarettes, biting his lips until he tasted copper. He had skipped that week only going to the classes that she didn’t share with him. He couldn’t look at her with a non-guilty conscience.
The sun'll come out
Nothing good ever comes easy
I know times are rough
But winners don't quit
So don't you give up
He kept his eyes off of her like if he looked at her for too long he’d burst into flames. He’d be checking her wrists and neck like a worried parent and that was the last thing he wanted ever to be; considering how his own father turned out to be the biggest sack of shit in the universe.
Fists clenched under the memories of his father over his mother and the yelling of their arguments always reached to his ears no matter how far away he was from their room. Placing his arms on the desk in front of him he just put his head in between his arms trying to bury the memories from the back of his head.
Ahmya’s gaze flickered to the tattooed man next to her, she felt bad that he always looked on the edge/constantly overtired, wasn’t he caring for his nephew or something?
Most of the older people of the town knew him but she had never seen him before in her life, they would talk about his mother, yeah but she was kinda another one of those “small girl, small-town” cases and never seen again. The number of rumors about this kid was amazing and terrifying.
How he was a secret mob boss’ son that had to hide in a high school in the middle of nowhere, then the rumor of him being an undercover cop trying to crack down on drugs. Looking up at the clock on the wall to check the time only to be disappointed how it still was only so early.
The sun'll come out
Nothing good ever comes easy
I know times are rough
But winners don't quit
So don't you give up
The bell rang again this time it’s been a few hours, unfortunately, the day had only moved slightly slower.
Once their teacher had announced pair projects Ahmya’s heart dropped into the seventh layer of hell, she was sure she could feel Beealzebubs’ feelers tickling her heart back up to her throat. The fact that it was determined on your desk partner was when her heart had returned back to her chest. Her assumed partner was either asleep or had just ignored his teachers’ instructions to start to discuss their project.
Putting her leg down onto the ground to steady herself to crack her back on the chair, twisting to her left first before turning right and hearing a deep pop that seemed to wake her desk partner up. He lifted his head slowly towards the front of the classroom, seeing the names of his classmates paired up, searching for his own, having to bite back his inner celebration to keep the neutral look on his face.
When he looked back to his partner she was in the middle of an arm stretch, with only lifting an eyebrow at her rendered her to blush like a little school girl.
“What’s going on?” his voice reached her ears, his voice no matter how much or little he spoke around her always made her feel butterflies in her stomach, how could an 18-year-old have such a manly and hot voice, she didn’t believe it could ever not make her feel like a child. Scooting her chair closer to her desk as she grabbed her pen looking at the notes she had written before letting an airy sigh escape her lips.
“We have to reenact a part of the play for the reading, he’s giving us our part next class but we’re just supposed to write about the scene we have and its importance to the play.” Why did it feel like her voice was rising to a tone she only used to talk to cats to. Her face heated up as his eyes stayed trained her.
She felt his heated gaze linger a little around her throat but she wasn’t sure if he was trying to find something there.
Good luck, I made sure to conceal that shit up real good .
“What are we reading again princess ?” there it is, his damn pet names, something that made her want to punch him for, it earned him a silent glare and a huff of air.
“Uh the same reading we’ve been doing for the past week?” she snapped back at him, god she was so irritated, it made his heart jump ropes in his chest.
Placing his elbow on the desk while he leaned on his palm, head tilting back as a smile graced his lips with a lidded expression.
“You're so angry, you on the rag or something?” That comment made her bite her lip to the point where she was literally holding back her urge to strangle him to the floor.
“Do you have to do this right now? It’s too early for this shit.”
“It’s 1 pm.” She was furious at how good he was at pushing her buttons, but it was also just- fun .
It felt like before, before her boyfriend was before he got too caught up in football and started to act like a total dick to her and their old friends from kindergarten. A sense of nostalgia and melancholy washed over her and left her bitter in the memories of what once was.
Looking back into her journal as she wrote down the scene numbers that their teacher had assigned them, oh no.
“Anyways- it’s scene 2 in Capulet’s orchard.” a low groan rumbled next to her, now her turn to raise an eyebrow at him. “What?”
“Isn’t that the dumb balcony scene? Where he hollers at her window like a creep ?” full of disgust in his voice as his elbow leaned further on the desk, looking like a spoiled prince on a throne.
“How is Romeo professing his love to her creepy? He’s saying how she caught his eye- he is just doing his best.”
“Oh so you don’t mind a person yelling up at your window in the night then?” a lilt of his voice made her shift in her seat before she huffed back.
“Juliet can’t help the fact that she’s infatuated by a man who has caught her interest- and the only one to be so bold enough to cross into enemy lines in a party that he clearly wasn’t invited in!”
He just laughed at her like she was a tiny dog barking to a bear.
Licking his lips and leaned in to look into her eyes making her still in her seat, her large doe eyes looking into the maroon-colored eyes that seemed to stare into her soul.
“So what you're saying is, I should tell a girl that she is the sun and that I should take the moon away because it steals her light from the sky? How her eyes are bright as twinkling stars, how she looks like heaven? That I am jealous of her glove on her hand to be so close to her cheek?"
His free hand slipped onto her desk and was so close to contact with her own hand. Not even noticing how close he was getting, his eyes kept her in a trance-like state.
“That when she sighs in woe I should ask to hear her speak more?”
“You- I- … Shut up.” he drew his hand back as a laugh left his lips leaning away from her, the warmth on her cheeks felt chilled by the sudden loss of closeness from him.
Before she was able to chide him the bell rang for their final class. The students around them all shuffled to get to their classes, he simply rose and stretched his arms above his head- revealing his hips to an already mess of a girl.
Averting her eyes as she managed to shove all of her belongings into her bag and had to squeeze behind his larger frame, running towards the gym.
He saw her move so fast out of the class, usually , she’d be slow to her last class but today must’ve struck a nerve or three for her.
A genuine smile was held on his usually stoic face as the heat rushed in his face as he looked in his hand at the pink pen with chew marks on the cap.
“Oh fair Juliet, you forgot your favorite pen.” He chuckled to himself as he made his way to his last class with a slight pep in his step.
Ah, whatever goes around
Eventually comes back to you
So you gotta be careful, baby
And look both ways
Before you cross my mind