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That morning in the cafeteria, the atmosphere filled with a strange sensation, all because Karasu, sitting beside Oliver, had been silent for exactly ten minutes. That, for anyone who did not truly know him, could seem like perfectly normal behavior. After all, Karasu was someone known for being serious, with a sharp gaze and brief, concise answers.
However, Oliver did know him very well, and Shidou, who was also there having breakfast with them, unfortunately also seemed to have an internal radar for problems, even more when those problems seemed to have something to do with the crow. The problem itself was not the silence. The problem was that Karasu had been crushing the same coffee cup between his hands for ten minutes as if he were holding back the urge to strangle someone.
“Tabito,” Oliver spoke to him cautiously. “If you keep going like that, you’re going to break that cup.”
Karasu looked at the cup between his hands and, as if for the first time all day he became aware that he was holding it, he quickly let it go, then straightened in the plastic seat and released such a heavy sigh that, for a moment, even Shidou stopped moving his legs under the table and paid attention to him.
“Of all the damn men on this whole fucking planet…” he began in a gloomy voice.
“Here we go…” Oliver sighed, already knowing where the matter of why the crow was acting so serious was headed.
“Four billion, more or less…” Karasu continued, ignoring Oliver and staring at no particular point, as if he were calculating an extremely important statistical tragedy. “Four billion idiots who breathe oxygen and make bad decisions all the time, but no, of course not, the damn egomaniac lion Barou had to set his eyes precisely on my idiot.”
“Well, technically, saying he’s yours…” Shidou intervened, smiling like a hyena that had just smelled blood.
“Dare to finish that sentence and I swear I’ll make you swallow all your teeth,” Karasu cut him off, turning his head in his direction to stare at him.
“Fine, fine, the ninja is yours, sealed and signed under notarized approval.” The tan man cackled, resting half his body on the table to keep listening better to the gossip about the crow’s sudden anger.
“Ryusei, you are not helping,” Oliver scolded him, massaging the bridge of his nose and praying to God for patience.
“But the worst part isn’t that,” Karasu continued, slamming his fists against the surface of the cafeteria table, as if he were remembering again why he was so indignant.
“There’s something worse than that?” Shidou got excited, now completely invested in the matter and practically lying on the table to get closer to Karasu.
“The miserable bastard sent Otoya a message at midnight,” the crow muttered, almost as if he were spitting venom. “To MY Eita, he sent a pathetic ‘Hey,’ a fucking word that isn’t even a full hello but a ‘I want to put my dick in your ass.’”
“Barou writing that must have sounded more like a threat than an attempt at flirting.” Shidou cackled, laughing far too loudly because of how hilarious the situation was.
“And what did Otoya do?” Oliver asked, trying to hold onto the only thread of adult sensibility within that entire conversation.
“He blocked him,” Karasu answered, still with his jaw clenched from anger.
“Well, that was good,” Oliver nodded, calming down upon knowing that at least there was no real reason to worry excessively.
“Yes, of course, that’s perfect, wonderfully perfect,” Karasu answered, still with that venomous tone in his voice, as if there was still something keeping him angry. “My boyfriend acted like a functional adult for the first time in his life, bravo.”
“Come on, crow, you yourself said nothing else happened, so why do you still look like you want to commit homicide?” Shidou teased, barely holding back his laughter, but genuinely curious about the answer Karasu would give.
“Because he didn’t tell me,” Karasu answered, hitting the table with his fist in a vague attempt to release his frustration.
Oliver understood instantly, of course. It was obvious that the crow was not angry only because Barou had tried to get into his relationship, much less because Otoya had done the right thing by blocking him. Karasu was angry because Eita had not told him at that moment, they had not talked about it the way it should have been talked about, and surely now that the crow had found out, it felt to him like some kind of betrayal toward the relationship they both had.
“Maybe it wasn’t that important,” Shidou answered, clearly not understanding a damn thing about why Karasu was this pissed off. “Besides, you get really intense when you get worked up, maybe the ninja wanted to spare himself that drama.”
“Well, that is the fucking problem,” Karasu growled, looking at Shidou as if he wanted to shove him off the chair. “I should have found out from him and not from the idiot Isagi, who came into my classroom with a wet dog face to tell me, ‘I think you should know something,’ because surely that bastard Barou told him or was going around bragging about it.”
“What an injustice.” The tan man complained, bringing a hand to his chest. “Isagi finds out the juiciest gossip and I don’t.”
“When he told me, I felt like an idiot,” Karasu admitted in a low voice, almost through his teeth, as if he were squeezing the rage inside him so he would not break completely. “I felt like everyone knew something that was happening inside my relationship except me.”
“So it’s not that you’re angry only because of what Barou did,” Oliver told him with a soft and understanding expression, even though Karasu did not answer yes or no.
“You’re pissed off because your ninja kitty had a secret involving a third person,” Shidou answered, pointing at him with his finger and smiling more widely.
“Don’t you dare call him ninja kitty again,” Karasu threatened him, only managing to make Shidou widen that crazy smile on his face even more.
“But he does act like a cat,” the tan man kept poking, moving his chair closer to Karasu.
“Ryusei, that’s enough,” Oliver cut him off, intervening before that conversation turned into a fistfight in the cafeteria, then turning to look at Karasu and explaining what he had to do with the most paternal tone he had. “Talk to Otoya, but without getting worked up or making a scene, and don’t turn Barou into an excuse to start a couple’s fight either.”
“Or we can send the lion a photo of you two fucking,” Shidou suggested, raising his hand as if he were in elementary school and asking the teacher for permission to go to the bathroom.
“No,” Oliver cut him off, also holding back the urge to get up and smack the tan man on the head. However, he saw that Karasu had not said anything and, on the contrary, had become far too thoughtful, as if he were actually considering that absurd idea. “Tabito, NO.”
“I didn’t say I was going to do it,” he answered as if that were supposed to calm Oliver down.
“Good, because the last thing you need is to do something stupid,” the bicolored man scolded him.
“Or we can also have Otoya get a tattoo that says ‘Property of Tabito Karasu’ and then upload it to his social media,” Shidou suggested again, to Oliver’s misfortune.
“A tattoo…” Karasu murmured, narrowing his eyes as if he were already visualizing it on his ninja’s white skin.
“For heaven’s sake, no!” Oliver exclaimed, hitting the table with the palm of his hand and drawing both their attention, looking at them as if they were two brats he had to scold for having gotten into trouble. “Nobody is getting any tattoos. Karasu, you are going to go to Otoya and you are going to talk like any normal couple, using WORDS, preferably NORMAL WORDS, and you are going to solve this confusion CALMLY.”
“I already know that, Aiku. There’s no need for you to get worked up,” Karasu sighed, dropping the tense posture he had at the beginning and relaxing a little in the seat.
“Well, who would have thought.” Shidou whistled mockingly. “You evolved from a jealous and murderous crow to calm and communicative crow in less than five minutes. Congratulations, Tabi.”
“Shut up, animal,” Karasu threatened him, looking at him with annoyance. “And don’t call me Tabi.”
“Aaaw, but I’m so proud of you, little crow.” The tan man laughed, completely ignoring the threat shining in Karasu’s blue eyes.
“One of these days, Ryusei, I swear I’m going to throw you down the stairs and then say it was an accident,” Karasu said, crossing his arms and exhaling with frustration.
“As long as you don’t do it today, I’ll take that as progress,” Oliver answered, taking the coffee he had left forgotten on the table and taking a long, tired drink.
Karasu ignored him and fixed his gaze on the enormous cafeteria window, still with his brow furrowed far too much and still with the annoyance of the supposed betrayal burning in his chest, but at least no longer with that feeling that something was wrong inside his relationship for Eita to have had to hide a message from Barou from him. Because at the end of the day, Otoya had blocked the lion, had preferred Karasu over anyone else, and that was what kept the crow’s heart beating with joy.
Now all that was left was for the albino to understand that he did not have to hide anything from him to protect him from fear, much less to avoid some silly fight over jealousy, and that it did not matter if there were idiots sending him “Hey” at late hours of the night. None of that really mattered, because Karasu could handle all of that and more. But the only thing he truly could not handle was the feeling of knowing himself outside his boyfriend’s heart.
And as soon as the bell rang to end the break, Karasu would let Otoya know. Not with scolding, but with words and, above all, by eating him up with kisses as soon as he had him in his arms.