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Chapter Text

Damon had always been given the same piece of feedback from his teachers growing up: struggles with sharing.

In his defence, it seemed a pointless skill to work on. When he wanted something, he took it, and he kept it. It was a trait that came with ambition— one he shared with many of the world’s most successful people. Why should he bother with niceties when he’s clearly in a league above most other people?

Of course, his high self esteem wasn’t unwarranted. At fifteen, he was determined by the Ultimate Talent Program to be the Ultimate Debater; it was a title he held above almost anything else. To be an Ultimate was to be recognized as being the greatest in your respective field of study; it was an honour that most only dreamed of, and proved that he was simply a step above his peers. 

Naturally, once he graduated high school he decided it was about time he finally surrounded himself with his true peers (rather than the mediocrity that his high school normally produced). 

When Eden’s Garden Academy accepted his application, he had been delighted. With that, he had secured a spot amongst the brightest youth the globe had to offered offer (and for free). Eden’s Garden would serve as his stepping stone to the upper echelon of society where he would finally be recognized for his intelligence and dedication to his craft.

It was supposed to be one of the most prestigious schools in the entire world— which was why he was so taken aback to discover that he would be accepted expected to share his dorm room with another student. 

“I’m sure there’s been a mistake,” he insisted to the orientation volunteer who handed him his schedule, and the information about his room (including his supposed roommate). “I wasn’t told I’d be sharing my dorm.”

“It’s Eden’s Garden’s policy,” she explained kindly. “Unless you purchase a private suite, all first years are assigned a roommate. Next year you’ll have to find your own, or request for the Academy to find one for you.”

Internally, Damon scoffed. How could a school of this calibre treat its students this way? Still, there didn’t seem to be any means of fighting it so he walked away from the welcome desk. 

At least a worker had taken his luggage as he exited the train, so he didn’t have to lug it around. 

The slip of paper with the information about his room contained some vital information: their room number, and his roommates’ name. No key, however, since his student ID would apparently work to unlock the door. 

His eyes scanned the page until he found his roommates’ name and ultimate title. It turned out that Damon would be rooming with:

Kai Monteago - The Ultimate Influencer. 

The Ultimate Influencer? In what universe was that title even worthy of being called an Ultimate? What talent was there in being an influencer? The only ones Damon had ever witnessed were vapid, hot, outgoing, and not much else. He didn’t exactly have anything against them, but one certainly didn’t belong at Eden’s Garden. 

Perhaps he had misinterpreted the title. 

There was no use in dwelling any longer on hypotheticals, so he decided to make his way up to his new room. On his door he was surprised to find a dry erase board with his roommate’s name written already on it in pink marker. The handwriting was large and sprawling with a little heart drawn over the “i” in Kai. 

Ugh. Though neat, his roommate’s penmanship signalled that he would not be the type of person Damon got along with. 

With a deep breath, Damon tapped his ID to the lock, then opened the door to his new room. 

Inside was more spacious than he’d been expecting. The large room had a simple layout: two double beds facing the door with nightside tables tucked into either corner, two desks in the middle of the back wall underneath a large window, one trunk at the door of each bed, and a bookshelf and dresser against both side walls. There were also two doors on either side: one was propped open so Damon could see that inside contained a bathroom. At least the room itself seemed luxurious, even if he would have to share it. 

One half of the room was already decorated; apparently his roommate had the time to not only unpack all of his belongings and make his bed, but also put up his own wallpaper. 

Everything was pink. The duvet, the wallpaper, the pillows- every single item that the school hadn’t provided. It looked completely out of place considering the green colour scheme that the empty side of the room had. 

“Oh, hello!” His new roommate greeted cheerily, spinning around on the spot. “Damon, right?”

Even his hair was pink. 

Somehow, his roommates’ appearance surprised him. He wasn’t sure what exactly he had been expecting, but it wasn’t such a normal looking man. Perhaps he had been expecting someone unbelievably beautiful: though the man in front of him was handsome enough, he wouldn’t draw extra attention in a crowd. 

“Yes,” he replied. “Kai, I take it?”

“Yup! Kai Monteago- The Ultimate Influencer at your service!” 

“I’m aware.”

Damon’s luggage had already been placed in the non-pink half of the room; not wanting to waste any time, he walked over and began unpacking. 

“Oh! Have you seen my stuff online?” Kai questioned. 

“No,” Damon scoffed. “I read your name and title on the room assignment paper.”

Bizarrely, this caused Kai to start sniffling, “What? That’s so mean. You really haven’t seen any of my posts?”

“I don’t exactly waste my time on that sort of thing,” Damon explained coolly. 

“There’s no need to be a jerk!” Kai wailed. “I haven’t heard of you either!”

“That doesn’t surprise me. You don’t strike me as the type to watch the news, or to consume much intellectual content in general.”

“Are you calling me dumb?”

“No. I only implied that you don’t come across as the kind of person who’s very interested in cerebral pursuits.”

“Oh yeah? Well I think you’re a dick!”

“I think I’ll live.”

Thankfully, his roommate grew quiet after that. Damon focused on putting away all of his belongings; he hadn’t brought much so it wouldn’t take too long. Unfortunately, he found himself interrupted by the sound of his roommate moving around. After the noise continued for about a minute, he turned his head to see what the fuss was about. 

Kai was holding a roll of tape in his hand, presenting it proudly. On the floor he had taped a vertical line down the centre of the room, perfectly separating the pink from the green.

“What’s this?” Damon sighed. 

“A line,” Kai explained. “I’m standing in my territory, and you’re standing in yours. Under no circumstances are you allowed to cross that line.”

“Fine,” Damon agreed. Though childish, he wouldn’t complain about an arrangement where they both kept to themselves. 

It didn’t take long for him to finish unpacking, though the window showed that it had grown dark outside. Not in the mood for dinner, he crawled into his bed and read on his phone for a while. Thankfully, his roommate stayed quiet enough that he wasn’t a distraction. Damon didn’t bother checking what the other man was getting up to, grateful for the quiet. 

After a couple hours of reading he readied for bed, then promptly went to sleep. Classes would start the next day, and he wanted to be well rested. 

When he awoke the next morning, he took his time getting ready. He wanted to ensure that he made a good impression, so he carefully groomed himself to make certain that his classmates wouldn’t find a single hair out of place. 

If he wanted, he could head to the dining hall for breakfast. However, he wasn’t hungry so he walked straight to his homeroom class. 

Given that only highly specialized students attended Eden’s Garden Academy, their class schedule differed from a normal college. Their mornings would be spent in homeroom with the 15 other Ultimates that made up their class. On the surface it was a general studies class, though it truly acted as the networking opportunity that most students went to the academy for. It would be Damon’s opportunity to rub elbows with some of society’s elite, and he was not going to mess it up. 

After lunch they’d all separate to focus on their individual studies; what that meant was different for each Ultimate. Damon would simply be researching as many topics as possible, as to have a wider breadth of knowledge to pull from in his debates. 

Despite his excitement, Damon had made the conscious decision not to research any of the Ultimates that could be attending Eden’s Garden Academy. Not only would it have been difficult to tell which of the hundreds of Ultimates would end up in his class, but he didn’t want to put them on a pedestal. He would meet them as equals. 

It wasn’t difficult to find their classroom. Damon entered and saw that he was one of the first to arrive; only a thin boy with glasses, and a girl that had long black hair with white tips were already in the classroom. Both were sitting at desks (or sleeping, in the boy’s case), so Damon followed their lead and took his own seat. 

Slowly, more students began to flood in. Every single one of them seemed to have some sort of distinct feature, which he supposed made sense given they were all ultimates. Eventually, Kai entered as well; he was speaking to a girl who also had pink hair, though he still managed to shoot Damon a dirty look as he entered. 

Whatever. Damon had no issue with his roommate disliking him, it would only allow him to bond with ultimates whose talents actually mattered.

Not long after the final desk was filled, the bell rang. On cue, a tall man in a goat’s mask entered the classroom. 

“Hello, Ultimates!” the man greeted cheerily, flourishing his arms in dramatic fashion. “Welcome to Eden’s Garden Academy! My name is Tozu, and I shall be your homeroom teacher for the duration of your time here. Now, since I’ve introduced myself I believe it’s your turn. You can share your name, as well as your Ultimate Talent. We’ll start with you.”

He pointed to the student sitting in the front row closest to the window, who ended up being the girl with black and white hair. 

“Hello,” the girl said as she stood up, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose. “My name is Eva Tsunaka. I’m the Ultimate Mathlete.” 

Snickers broke out amongst the rest of the class; Damon didn’t join in, but he couldn’t blame them. Ultimate Mathlete? What a pathetic title; perhaps if had she been the Ultimate Mathematician it would have been impressive, but Mathlete was such a juvenile term. Still, his classmates could show a little more compassion.

Eva sat down as soon as she finished saying her title. Tozu waved his hand to quiet the class, then pointed to the student sitting on her left. 

A buff woman with pink hair stood up and cheerfully greeted, “Hey there! I’m Ingrid Grimwall, the Ultimate Blacksmith.”

Finally, Ingrid was the first Ultimate Damon had met who seemed worthy of her title. Though, it wasn’t as if blacksmithing was very relevant to modern day.

“Greetings,” a child in a full kimono waving a fan went next. “My name is Toshiko Kayura, and I’m the Ultimate Matchmaker. When you are ready to find love, please come find me. I will find you an excellent match.”

And just like that, they were back to useless Ultimates. How was a child supposed to be incredible at matchmaking, anyway? The girl couldn’t have had any first hand experience in love. 

Unfortunately, none of his questions were able to be answered before Tozu’s attention moved onto the last person in the front row. A large man wearing a ridiculous getup stood up and announced, “Ahoy! The name’s Jean Delamer- the Ultimate Ship Captain.”

The man looked like a pirate, though Damon assumed that he was a more professional captain. A bizarre talent, to be sure, though one with some practical uses. 

“Ulysses Wilhelm- the Ultimate Historian,” the sleeping boy from earlier yawned. 

Ulysses seemed to be the first classmate that Damon had any real interest in speaking to; he wondered what sort of wisdom the Ultimate Historian could offer him. They could likely have some riveting conversations about the world. 

Sitting to Ulysses’ left was a man who carried an immense amount of confidence; Damon could tell just from the way he rose from his seat to stand up. The black haired man brushed some invisible dirt off the front of his jacket, then confidently spoke, “It’s nice to meet you, everyone. My name is Wolfgang Akire, I am the Ultimate Lawyer. I look forward to the rest of our time together.”

There. That was the kind of person Damon wanted to meet; he imagined that the two of them would become fast friends. Their Ultimates complimented each other quite well, after all. 

Completely contrasting Wolfgang, the girl beside him was shaking while she stood up. She pushed some of her short brown hair out of her eyes as she stuttered out, “H-hello. I’m Eloise Taulner, the Ultimate Fencer.”

Damon never would’ve been able to guess Eloise’s talent; he was curious to see her in action. He didn’t suspect fencing was a sport where one could afford to hesitate, or show any nerves. 

“Hi guys,” the boy next to her (and in front of Damon) greeted. “I’m Desmond Hall, the Ultimate Marksman. But don’t get the wrong idea! I only shoot static targets, alright?”

That peaked Damon’s interest: how could you be called the Ultimate Marksman if you didn’t even hit moving targets? And why did Desmond have that rule?

He realized that he didn’t have time to think any further about it because it was his turn to introduce himself. As smoothly as he could manage, he stood up and spoke with all the confidence he could muster, “Hello. My name is Damon Maitsu, and I’m the Ultimate Debater.”

Short, simple, and smooth. He didn’t need to overcomplicate it with any other niceties, so he gave them a curt nod and sat down. 

To his right, a man in a full body suit and helmet stood up. When he did, an odd stench wafted over to Damon. He had to do everything in his power to stop from gagging.

“Yo, dudes!” The strange man cheered, “Jett Dawson here- the Ultimate Drag Racer!”

A ridiculous name, as well as a ridiculous talent. Damon would not be seeking Jett’s friendship. 

“Hello!” The girl who walked in with Kai spoke next, “I’m Diana Venicia - the Ultimate Cosmetologist.”

Diana’s name prompted a few gasps around the classroom, but it was her talent that Damon noticed. Now her friendship with Kai made sense; two Ultimates with such pointless talents would certainly find things in common with each other. 

Speaking of his roommate, it was Kai’s turn next. “Hi everyone! The name’s Kai, Kai Monteago! I’m known as the Ultimate Influencer!”

“Ugh.”

At first, Damon thought it had been his own voice groaning, but Kai didn’t turn to glare at him. Instead, he turned to a girl in the back row who had yet to introduce herself. The influencer didn’t say anything, though, instead opting to sit down as his eyes welled up with tears. 

What a crybaby. 

“My name is Wenona, and my title is The Ultimate Entrepreneur,” the girl behind Kai introduced herself shortly. 

The name was vaguely familiar, though Damon couldn’t figure out where he had heard it. From the way she carried herself, Damon could tell that she was another person he’d be interested in speaking to. 

“What’s up, soybeans?” The girl who had groaned at Kai’s introduction said brashly. “You should recognize me, but in case you don’t, I’m Grace Madison- The Ultimate Golfer.”

Ugh. Ultimate athletes always had this ridiculous ego to them. While Damon was sure that Grace was talented, he didn’t understand why she expected them all to recognize her. Damon didn’t exactly keep up with golf, and he was sure he wasn’t the only one. 

“Yo!” A girl with a stupid hat and bright red hair cheered. “Cassidy Amber here- The Ultimate Pro Gamer!” 

Another pointless talent; it sounded like something a child would aspire to be rather than an actual talent that could help the world. 

“Mark Berskii- Ultimate Music Producer,” the final student said, a boy with an alligator hat. 

With that, every single one of his classmates had been introduced. Damon found himself disappointed; not even half of the Ultimates Talents were impressive in any way. 

“Thank you all for those introductions,” Tozu applauded them. “As stated earlier, I will be your homeroom professor. In this class we will learn all the general education that the state requires, but most importantly we will be focusing on networking; collaboration, people! With 16 incredibly talented individuals in this room, you should be able to work together to create wonderful things.”

The whole class made noises of agreement, though Damon didn’t chime in. Could they make wonderful things? What could the Ultimate Influencer really offer the world? It was a ridiculous notion.

“Now, for the rest of this morning, I’ll give you a chance to get to know your fellow classmates. I’ll begin my lessons tomorrow; toodaloo!” Tozu clapped, then seemed to disappear into thin air. 

What an odd man. 

There was a moment of silence after he left; clearly everyone was a little nervous to be the first to start speaking. Until Cassidy asked, “So does anyone like video games?” 

“Dude, heck yeah I do!” Jett cheered. “What games do you play?”

Ugh- Damon tuned out the inane conversation. Instead, his eyes found the back of Wolfgang’s head. He would have to find a moment to speak to the other and properly introduce himself. 

A group broke out from there: Cassidy, Jett, Jean, and Eva all gathered around the back corner to chat about gaming (with poor Mark stuck at his desk). A few other duos stuck with each other (like Eloise and Desmond quietly chatting from their desks), but most of the others kind of milled around. 

There was no need to be nervous, really, so Damon rose from his seat and crossed the room to Wolfgang’s desk. 

“Hello,” he greeted the lawyer. “Damon Maitsu.”

Wolfgang turned to look at him, titling his head to the side, and narrowing his eyes in a confused manner. He stated, “Yes? You introduced yourself only a few minutes ago.” 

Right. Obviously. What a foolish thing to say. 

“Of course,” he replied, willing his cheeks not to turn red with embarrassment. “I just wanted to greet you properly. I assume that we’ll have to get to know each other if we want someone to have intellectual conversations with.”

Something dangerous flashed in Wolfgang’s eyes; the confusion in his eyes turned false, somehow. He asked, “Oh really? How so?” 

“I just mean, I was hoping to meet more classmates with talents of our calibre,” Damon explained, though there was a strange feeling in his gut. 

Wolfgang smirked like a predator- though, only for a second. He raised his voice loud enough that every person in the room could hear him say, “Are you implying that our classmates don’t have respectable Ultimates?” 

The class went silent; every eye in the room turned to stare at the two of them. Damon began to panic as he realized he had said too much. 

“No. I-.”

“Well then what did you mean by ‘talents of our calibre?’”

The lawyer was poking at Damon, and he was already in a terrible mood. He couldn’t help himself but answer, “You know exactly what I mean! Half of the Ultimate titles in this room are an embarrassment to the entire concept! I mean really, how are these people going to change the world?”

There were gasps across the room. Wenona, the entrepreneur, prodded, “Excuse me?”

“Obviously that doesn’t apply to everyone,” he said quickly. 

“And what good is your talent?” Cassidy accused. “You’re just a bargain bin version of him!”

The gamer gestured to Wolfgang. That pissed him off more than anything else: how could this girl say something like that when her talent was as useless as they came! 

“I can change the world!” He exploded. “I can argue policy, consider ethics and morality. All that most of you are good for is leeching off the public for your own goals!”

“You know what I think?” Kai spoke up, his voice deadly calm and his eyes free of tears. “I think that you’re a self obsessed dickhead who’s insecure about his place in the world, so you have to bring the rest of us down with you.”

There was silence as Damon stared at his roommate, unsure of what to say. 

“Woah! The crybaby got you good, soybean!” Grace cheered.

“Maybe you’d be best to take a breather,” Wolfgang suggested unkindly. “If you don’t want to waste your time with us, we won’t ask you to.”

Without anything left to say, Damon exited the room in a hurry. Fantastic, he had failed at his one goal for his time at Eden’s Garden within one fucking hour. If it wasn’t for that asshole Wolfgang, or his idiot roommate, things could’ve been fine. 

Whatever. Fuck everyone. 

He stomped to the dining hall to grab some lunch, then went straight back to his room. For spent the rest of the afternoon and the evening he researched and read in solitude. If those were the kind of classmates that he was given, then he wouldn’t miss getting to connect with them. It would all be a waste of time, anyway. 

Long after the sun went down, Kai skipped into the dorm. “Good evening, roommate,” he greeted. 

Damon ignored him. 

“I had a wonderful time today. The whole class hung out, and got to know each other. Or, almost the whole class. What did you do today?” 

“I developed my talent,” Damon replied curtly. “After all, that’s what we’re at Eden’s Garden Academy for. Not to waste time with frivolous things.”

“If that’s what makes you feel better about having no friends, you can tell yourself that!”

“I have no friends?” Damon snapped. “That’s rich, coming from you. I read some interesting things about you, this afternoon. I mean, talk about someone who would know what it’s like to be hated. Are you going to send your cult to harass me for insulting you? Do you think they’d still listen to you if I shared a picture of what you really look like?”

Kai’s eyes began to well up, predictably. The influencer sniffled, raised his head high, and responded, “You can say whatever you want. Today, 14 people saw who you really are and said they want nothing to do with you. You can repeat as many internet talking points as you want, nothing will change that.”

Damon loathed not having the last word, but there was really nothing he could reply with. Instead, he purposefully put his nose back down and went back to ignoring his roommate. 

It really had been a day of losses, hadn’t it?

Eventually, he readied for bed and laid down. He racked his brain for a way to fix the situation, but struggled to find one. Perhaps some of the class would respect him if he came back groveling and apologized, but no one whose opinion he would care about. No, the only thing he would be able to do was wait for someone else to make a social faux pas and jump on that opportunity. 

Ideally, that person would be Kai. 

With that thought in mind, he allowed himself to drift off to sleep.

Chapter Text

Unfortunately, no one else made a fool of themselves during Damon’s entire first month at Eden’s Garden. His outburst on day one had secured his spot as the class pariah, and there was nothing he could do about it. As he was unwilling to apologize for the truth, the rest of his class simply pretended he didn’t exist.

That was fine by him; they were all simple minded idiots anyways. The only one of them who seemed to think for himself was Wolfgang, and he was an absolute dick. 

Damon realized very quickly that he had chosen the wrong person to try to befriend. It was clear that the lawyer thrived on being in control, and Damon made a perfect scapegoat to rally the class against. Quickly, Wolfgang’s word became law in the classroom.

The only person Damon really interacted with was Kai, and that wasn’t by choice. Given that they were roommates, it was impossible to avoid the influencer completely, even though Damon did his best. They only ever spoke inside their room, and only ever to bicker over ridiculous things.

All in all, Eden’s Garden Academy was not living up to Damon’s expectations. Tozu’s classes were painfully dull, obviously geared toward his less educated classmates, and the independent study wasn’t anything Damon couldn’t have done at home. If it weren’t for the prestige that would come with graduating from the college, Damon would’ve already left.

“Hey Damon!” Diana, the most bubbly of his classmates, got his attention one day in September. “Are you doing anything tonight?”

“Debate prep,” he answered honestly. 

“Oh! Do you have a debate coming up?”

“No.” 

It was the same thing he did every night; it wasn’t an unfamiliar routine. In high school he had no desire to spend time with the imbeciles he called classmates, so he’d spent most nights practising his talent.

“Oh,” Diana replied, seeming slightly thrown off. “Well! Next time you do have a debate, you should let us know! We can go watch!”

“Who’s we?” 

“The class, of course.”

Diana seemed earnest, so Damon didn’t shut her down. Instead he said simply, “Okay.”

“Great!” she cheered. “Uh, anyway. I asked because Eva and I are hosting a movie night in our dorm, in case you wanted to come.”

Damon scowled, “Would the rest of the class be happy you’re inviting me?”

“It’s my room, so I don’t really care.”

Her eyes shone determinedly; Damon found himself surprisingly impressed by the girl’s disregard for their classmates’ opinion. Perhaps, despite her talent being so frivolous, she was one of the few at Eden’s Garden with a brain.

“I’ll think about it,” he said, somewhat dismissively. 

“Alright,” she sighed. “You know, I would totally understand it if you didn’t want to come. I know that the class hasn’t exactly been welcoming to you: no one would blame you for being scared.”

Damon’s jaw dropped. 

“Scared?” He scoffed. “Of what? A movie? No, I just have many important things to attend to.”

As he was straightening his tie, Kai entered their room. His roommate glanced over at him and wondered, “What are you getting dressed up for?”

“Diana’s get together.”

“What? She invited you to that?” Kai whined, “And are you 80 years old? Who calls it a ‘get-together’?” 

“Intelligent people.” 

Secretly, it pleased Damon that Diana hadn't told Kai she’d be inviting him. The two were supposedly best friends, and yet she had gone behind his back to invite Damon. He was certain that the cosmetologist hadn’t meant to do anything unkind, but she probably didn’t realize how deeply their hatred ran.

“You’re such an asshole!” Kai whined. “I can’t believe she invited you. Whatever, everyone will just be reminded of how insufferable you are.”

“Clearly, not everyone thinks I’m insufferable.”

“Diana only forgot, she’ll remember tonight.”

“We’ll see,” Damon said ominously, then entered his bathroom to finish getting ready.

Suddenly, Damon had two things to prove. First, he needed to show that he wasn’t afraid of his classmates by showing up completely unbothered by their disdain for him. Second, he’d have to be on his best behaviour to get on their good sides again. That would be easy enough, they’d have a movie playing to distract him from his class’ absurd behaviour.

When he exited the bathroom, Kai had already taken off. That was better for Damon; he didn’t want them to arrive together, and he didn’t want to arrive too early. 

He had never been to Eva and Diana’s dorm room but it wasn’t too difficult to find; everyone in their class lived on the same floor whether or not they were sharing. All Damon needed to do was read the names on the whiteboards to find the right room.

When he found it, he took a deep breath before knocking on the door. It wasn’t that he was nervous, he just felt cautious because of his class’ opinion of him. Fear in this situation would be childish, and Damon was anything but. 

“Oh, Damon!” Diana greeted when she opened. “Come on in! Everyone is here already. I’m so glad you came. Guys, look who’s here!”

Diana stepped to the side so Damon could see into the room, and so the room could see him. Despite Diana’s excited voice, he was met with apprehensive looks from all of his classmates but he refused to let that affect him.

“Hello,” he stated. 

He got a chorus of awkward hellos in response. To put everyone out of their misery, he entered the dorm as quickly as he could. 

“Sit anywhere you like!” Diana offered, “There’s not enough seating for everyone, obviously, but there’s lots of comfy pillows for the floor.”

“Thanks.”

Slowly, the class went back to their prior conversations. Damon slinked his way over to the corner, selecting an emerald green pillow to sit on. 

Okay, maybe it wouldn’t be easy to get back in the class’ good graces. All he could do was keep his mouth shut, and get through this movie night. Proximity tended to foster familiarity, so the class would (hopefully) be less hostile toward him.

At the very least, he just needed to avoid ‘reminding everyone how insufferable he was.’ Not that he was insufferable. 

Almost immediately, being given the chance to observe his class outside of an academic setting gave him a shocking new revelation: Grace was sitting on Wolfgang’s lap. No one in the class seemed surprised or put off by this, so their relationship must not have been new. Completely disengaging with his class for the first month seemed to mean that he had missed out on important developments. 

It made sense that two of the class’ most abrasive members would link up together, though Damon pitied anyone who had to spend time with them. However, he pitied anyone who was forced to spend time with Wolfgang at all. That self righteous asshole was more insufferable than anyone, possibly even Damon’s roommate.

Speaking of Kai, the boy was sitting on the couch, cuddled up to Diana. A stranger would have easily mistaken their connection as romantic; in reality, they were just annoyingly touchy best friends. Damon knew that much for sure. 

“Hello,” a quiet voice said to him. He nearly jumped in surprise, but managed to quell the instinct. 

He turned his head to see the Ultimate Mathlete, Eva, peering at him. “Hello,” he responded.

“I’m surprised you attended,” she confessed. “I told Diana it was improbable.”

“Why?” Damon asked, genuinely curious. Of all his classmates, Eva was one of the least infuriating. Though her Ultimate wasn’t anything impressive, she displayed wits in class and kept mostly to herself. She wasn’t an outcast like Damon, just quieter and more reserved than their bombastic peers. 

“You haven’t seemed to care much for socializing.”

“This is the first time I’ve been invited,” Damon pointed out. 

“So you do crave connection, and camaraderie. I’m sorry you’ve been robbed of that opportunity.” 

“I wouldn’t say that,” Damon argued quickly, disliking the idea that he was being pitied. 

“It’s hard, feeling othered from your peers,” Eva said softly. “It’s isolating, but I think more of us might relate to that than you’d first think.”

Damon found himself growing angry at the assumptions this girl was making; he wasn’t struggling at all. If the rest of his idiot class didn’t want anything to do with him, he had no problem with that. Still, he knew that snapping at her would only cause problems (and prove Kai right), so he calmed himself. 

“I think you’ve got the wrong idea,” he said simply. 

“Perhaps,” she agreed with a shrug. “Do you like romance movies?”

Ugh. “I don’t watch many movies,” he replied instead of groaning. 

“Me neither. I mostly watch anime.” 

Damon wasn’t sure why this surprised him. Of course the Ultimate Mathlete would be a nerd. 

“I read,” he supplied. “Lots of non-fiction, but occasionally mystery novels.” 

“Oh!” Eva’s voice, as well as her eyes, lit up excitedly. “I mostly read sci-fi, but I enjoy mystery, too. What’s your favourite?”

The two quietly talked until the movie began. Damon wished that their conversation could’ve lasted longer, especially given the ridiculousness of the movie. Still, it was one of the first meaningful conversations he’d had since attending Eden’s Garden so he couldn’t say he regretted attending the gathering.

After the movie concluded, Damon decided it was time to head out. Toshiko was ranting and raving about the film couple’s incompatibility, so he took the distraction as an opportunity to sneak out without being noticed. 

“Goodbye,” he said to Eva. “I’ll check out your book recommendations.”

“Alright,” Eva replied with a small smile. “I look forward to talking about them with you.”

Damon nodded at her, then walked over to Diana. Thankfully, she was stacking bowls used for popcorn at the side of the room. 

“Thank you for the invite. I had a good time.”

Shockingly, he was telling the truth. 

Diana absolutely beamed at him, exclaiming, “I’m so glad! I’ll make sure to invite you to the next one!”

Damon thanked her, then left before anyone else could attempt to speak to him. 

While Damon hadn’t managed to flip the entire class’ perspective on him, he had found a new person to converse with. Plus, he must not have ruined the night if Diana was offering to invite him back. All in all, he had a good night and proved Kai wrong. 

A resounding success, really. 

After their conversation at the party, he and Eva began a friendship; his first at Eden’s Garden. It was nice to have someone to talk to when Tozu randomly left the class on their own. 

An added side effect was that Damon’s classmates’ seemed less apprehensive to speak with him. He wasn’t sure if it was because Eva had broken the taboo of speaking to him, or if his appearance at movie night changed things, but there was certainly a shift. A couple of his classmates still hated him (Kai and Wolfgang, for example), but he felt a little less alone. 

Not that he cared about being alone; he thrived either way. 

The only issue with his classmates being more willing to approach him was how fucking annoying some of them could be. 

For example, Toshiko skipped up to him one day to ruin his peace. 

“Hello,” the matchmaker greeted. 

“Hello.”

“So,” the gremlin drawled. “You’re pretty lonely, right?” 

“Excuse me?” Damon retorted. 

“You know, you’re almost always on your own because you’re kind of a dick.”  

“Should a child your age be using that language?”

“I’m not a child! See, major jerk behaviour!”

Damon disagreed, though he didn’t bother voicing that. He hoped that if he ignored her, she’d go away. 

She didn’t; instead she continued speaking, “Anyway. If you ever need help finding someone, you can ask me. I can find a prosperous match for anyone! Even someone as undesirable as you.”

“Undesirable?” Damon couldn’t help but react. “I’m very desirable!” 

“Until you open your mouth, perhaps.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Your personality sucks.”

“I don’t care what some kid thinks of me!”

“Fine- ignore my expert wisdom. When you lie alone on your deathbed, and no one is there to hold your hand, don’t call me!”

With that, Toshiko stomped away. 

That was just the sort of conversation that was becoming an everyday occurrence; see, now that the class wasn’t afraid to approach him, they also weren’t afraid to make their opinion known. Or to call him ‘bargain bin’ to his face. 

He absolutely loathed that nickname. 

One day, Tozu announced to the class that they’d be having a group project. It would be their job to team up with another Ultimate in their class and combine their talents to create something extraordinary.

At the beginning of the term, Damon would have loathed any project that required them to pair off into teams. Now, though? He had at least a few options to work with. 

First, he looked toward Eva sitting two seats in front of him. Unfortunately, though, Diana had already walked up to her and seemingly claimed her as her partner.

Great; that was two of his options gone. 

Next, his eyes found Desmond; the sniper was levelheaded, and they’d occasionally shared short conversations about Tozu’s antics. Nothing too deep, but he’d make a fine partner. Of course, he was already deep in conversation with Eloise. 

Desperately, his eyes scanned the classroom for anyone else bearable. Toshiko? Though annoying, he did have an alright rapport with the gremlin. Except for whatever reason, the matchmaker had teamed up with Cassidy. 

Mark? Damon wasn’t sure he’d ever spoken to the producer, but he was quiet and they’d be able to work well together. No, he was working with Jett. 

Damon watched helplessly as his classmates paired off: Ingrid and Jean, Ulysses and Wenona, hell, even Wolfgang and Grace.

He realized, with a sense of dawning horror, that there was only one classmate left.

Kai seemed to notice at the same time, as the two slowly turned their heads and locked eyes with matching horrified expressions.

Fuck. It couldn’t have been literally anyone else? Damon would’ve rather dealt with Wolfgang, for fuck’s sake. 

The two stared at each other for a couple minutes; everyone else had long since broken off into their pairs to brainstorm, but Damon wasn’t going to be the one to get up. It seemed Kai had the same mindset- a perfect standstill. 

“Damon?” Tozu prodded him, somehow popping up behind his desk. “Do you need help finding a partner? It seems you and Kai are the only two who haven’t paired off, yet.”

“Sir,” Damon asked seriously as he turned to face the masked man. “Could I do this project on my own?”

The goat’s mask shook up and down as Tozu laughed, “Alone? That would defeat the entire purpose! No, you and Kai will just have to work together.”

“I just don’t see how it’s possible for our talents to combine,” he tried desperately. 

“Then figure it out!” 

And with that, Tozu disappeared. 

Begrudgingly, Damon stood up and walked over to Kai’s desk. The influencer was staring directly at him, not caring at all how rude he appeared. 

Damon sighed, “I guess we’re working together.”

Kai’s yellow eyes glared ferociously at Damon. After a moment, he groaned, “I guess we have to. But you’re not allowed to be a dick.”

“Me? How am I the dick?” Damon questioned. “You’re the dick!”

“If I looked up the word dick in the dictionary, no pun intended, it would have a picture of your face.”

“You’re just projecting! You’ve been a dick since day one!”

“You’re such a dick that everyone’s hated you since day one!”

“Woah!” Cassidy interrupted, waving her hand between them. “If you want to talk about each other’s dicks, leave that for your room!” 

Damon glanced up and noticed that a good half of the pairs had stopped their discussions to stare at them. Great. There was something about Kai that always got him riled up, and ended up getting him in sticky situations with the class. 

“Sorry,” they apologized in unison, somewhat sheepishly. 

Everyone turned back to their partners; Damon glared at Kai and whispered, “I’ll treat you just as well as you treat me.”  

“Fine,” Kai hissed back. 

What came next was worse than arguing: awkward silence. 

“Do you have any ideas?” Damon tried. 

“No,” Kai replied. “You?” 

“No.” 

And more silence. 

Thankfully, the lunch bell bailed them out. Without looking at Kai, Damon walked out of the classroom as quickly as possible. It wasn’t like they’d have to arrange a time to meet, they could just do it whenever they were both in the room. 

Independent study felt even longer than normal; Damon struggled to focus on the topic he was researching (the rise of North American monopolies), too busy thinking about his roommate.

Or, thinking about how annoying it would be to work with his roommate. 

Eventually, he gave up on trying to focus and instead headed to the gym. Every so often he liked to work out, to ensure that his body was as fit as his mind was. Unfortunately, people often made snap judgments based on appearance, and he needed to ensure that he was someone who would be taken seriously. For most of his life it had worked, but for whatever reason at Eden’s Garden he couldn’t command the respect he deserved.   

The exercise allowed him to push Kai out of his mind for at least a little while, so he didn’t mind how sweaty he was when he got back to the dorm. His roommate was still out doing god knows what, so he decided to take a shower. 

When he finished, he realized that he forgot to bring his clothes into the bathroom. This wasn’t a huge deal; he just wrapped the towel around his waist before reentering the room to find his clothes. 

It was just his luck that Kai had returned, and they immediately locked eyes. 

“Hey,” Damon greeted casually, hoping to save them from more awkwardness. 

“U-uh,” Kai stuttered, his mouth open like a fish.  

It could’ve just been in Damon’s mind, but he thought he saw a hint of red in on the influencer’s cheeks. This gave him an idea, a way to embarrass the asshole as revenge for everything he’d done. 

Ignoring his state of undress, Damon questioned, “So, did you come up with any ideas for the project?” 

“Uh, not really,” Kai trailed off when Damon lifted his arms to stretch. 

Interesting.

“Oh, really? That’s too bad,” he pretended to sigh, using his hand to fluff up his damp hair. “I haven’t either.”

“Are you going to get dressed?” Kai finally asked, with a gulp. 

Damon played dumb, “Eventually, sure. Why? Is it making you uncomfortable?” 

Kai looked torn; as though he wasn’t sure how he wanted to proceed. 

Though Damon had 0 interest in his roommate, it was fun to get him all worked up. He knew he was attractive, he worked hard to make sure of it, but he hadn’t realized that he could use that to his advantage when it came to Kai. He assumed the influencer was used to ridiculously hot people, given his profession, but he wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. 

It was a nice ego stroke, and satisfying to have power over someone he loathed so much. 

“No,” Kai finally decided. “But you should probably get dressed before we talk about the project. We wouldn’t have to stop so you can change.”

“If that’s what you want,” Damon indulged, smirking. 

He took his time finding his clothes in the dresser, aware of Kai’s eyes on his shoulders the entire time. It had been so long since he had been admired, it was nice to have that feeling back. He wondered how far he could push it before his roommate snapped; or what it would mean when he finally did? 

On second thought, it probably wasn’t a good idea to go down that rabbit hole. 

Once he was dressed, he sat down at his desk and opened his laptop. He was ready to start working, seriously. 

Thankfully, Kai was back to normal as well. 

“I think I’ve cracked it,” Kai said once Damon was ready. “Our talents have a lot in common, if you think about it.”

“Like what?” Damon scoffed. There were ruder things he could’ve said, as he felt a little insulted at the insinuation, but he left it at that. 

“In a sense, we both influence what people think. I create culture, while you change society. Or, you do in theory.”

“What do you mean, in theory?”

“Well, have any of your debates ever led to actual change?”

Damon, unfortunately, had no answer. 

“I don’t mean it in a bad way,” Kai continued. “You’re an asshole, but you’re good at what you do. You just haven’t had a platform before. That’s where I come in.”

“You’re not supposed to call me an asshole,” Damon pointed out. “And what do you mean that’s where you come in?”

“I have my own limits too,” Kai admitted. “Like, if you told me that you wanted everyone to start wearing their hair in pigtails I could probably make it happen. But-.”

Damon cut him off, “Why would I want everyone to wear pigtails?”

“It’s just an example.”

“I don’t like pigtails. I think they’re for children.”

“Okay, good to know. Can I finish?”

“Fine.”

“Anyways, I couldn’t like, influence how people think about politics.”

“Do you know anything about politics in the first place?”

“Obviously!”

“Like what? Name three policies you enjoy.”

“No! Why should I?”

“It sounds like you can’t.”

“That doesn’t work on me, I’m not you.”

Damon scowled at that; he didn’t enjoy Kai implying that he was so easy to fool. Not only was it not true, but it was insulting coming from a man who couldn’t name three policies. 

“Can we get back on track?” Kai implored. “My point is that you can get people to change their minds about things they really care about. When you’re not being absolutely awful, you’re really persuasive. We’ll pick a cause, something that you can argue and defend, and I’ll get attention on you.”

As much as Damon hated to admit it, it wasn’t a terrible idea. He knew that all he needed was people to listen to him; once he had that, the matter was already settled. The issue was that he hadn’t yet reached a scale where the masses would acknowledge his brilliance. He figured it would come one day, when he was a politician or something equally important, though he wouldn’t turn down the opportunity for some immediate change. 

“Alright,” he agreed. “That makes sense, I suppose. If you believe you can do it, then I’ll trust you.”

At that, Kai smirked. “Trust me, within weeks the entire world will know the name Damon Maitsu.” 

It was a bold promise; something in Kai’s eyes made Damon believe him, though. 

Later, while lying in bed, Damon realized that he and Kai had finally had their first civil conversation. Sure, it had involved a fair amount of bickering, yet it wasn’t completely insufferable. Maybe there was a chance that working together on the project wouldn’t be the worst experience of his life. 

Across the room, Kai let out a big fat snore. 

Never mind. That was a stupid thought. 

Chapter Text

Damon absolutely loathed being wrong, but he wasn’t so hardheaded that he couldn’t admit when he was. It seemed, to his absolute shock and horror, that he had underestimated Kai’s talents. 

Together, they had chosen to bring the masses’ attention to the topic of workplace democracy. It was a topic that had the potential to garner a lot of traction, while being a little boring on the surface.

At first, it was an uphill battle for Damon to trust Kai’s methods. 

“Alright,” Kai announced at the beginning of their second meeting working on the project. “We’re going to start with you going live, and offering to debate the topic with anyone who wants. I’ll share the livestream to give a kickstart.”

“You want me to debate random people?” Damon scoffed. “That seems pointless, and below my talents.”

“That’s why no one listens to you!” Kai exclaimed. “You think you’re better than everyone, so no one cares what you have to say!”  

“I am better than everyone. That’s what my Ultimate title means.”

“And that is why no one will ever want to listen to you.”

“Why should I downplay my talents?”

“It’s not about downplaying anything, it’s about being relatable and accessible. That’s all what people want; everyone’s lonely and looking for connection. You just have to offer them that.”

Oddly enough, that made sense. Damon decided that he would stomach his pride and trust Kai’s judgment when it came to marketing.

From there, everything exploded. 

At first, people only came to the debate streams in the hope they’d see Kai, but they ended up sticking around to listen to Damon. Suddenly, workplace democracy was a hot button issue across social media- even in circles that hadn’t heard of Damon or Kai. 

It was exciting that the masses were paying attention to his ideas. They were paying attention to him but he didn’t care about that as much. Still, the fancams were an ego boost.

The best moment for him was when he realized that he actually didn’t need to be kind or reasonable. The internet loved it when he went ruthless and called people out for being the morons they were. He couldn’t condone that they were treating debate like a sport, but he would take his wins. 

“What if we pick a new topic?” He suggested to Kai one day. “We can pick something even more obscure, for a real challenge.”

“Sure,” Kai agreed. “I’m pretty sure we could convince people the earth is flat.”

“Why would we convince people of that? It’s not.”

“Obviously we wouldn’t. I just know we could.”

A side effect of the project was that Kai and Damon had begun a more civil relationship; they still bickered constantly, and Damon wouldn’t say he liked the guy, but they could speak to each other without shouting. 

It wasn’t like Damon cared about what Kai thought of him; he just preferred a peaceful living arrangement. 

Summer turned to fall as Damon settled into his life at Eden’s Garden. The leaves decayed into shades of orange and red, a signal that the nice weather would rapidly come to an end. To take advantage of it while he could, Damon started to go on walks in the courtyard during some of his free time.

It was on one of these walks, a time meant for serenity and peace, that Cassidy ambushed him.

“Bargain Bin!” she screeched loudly enough that a few birds flew away. “I have a proposition!”

He already had a headache. 

“Yeah?” he asked, resigned. 

“Come on my stream! We can play a game and debate politics.” 

“What game?”

“Don’t worry, I’ll pick something fun for both of us.”

Damon considered it; it would mean having to time with Cassidy, but appearing on her stream would probably be good for his brand. 

Ugh, since when did he care about things as stupid as his brand? Kai was poisoning his mind. 

“Fine.”

The game Cassidy ended up choosing was GTA- Damon had heard of it before, of course, but he had never played it.

“Bro,” Cassidy howled with laughter, “You don’t have to stop at the red lights!”

“I’m obeying traffic laws,” he responded calmly. “That pedestrian has the right of way.”

The light turned green, signalling that it was his turn to drive. He drove forward, ignoring that the pedestrian hadn’t finished crossing.

“So, like, what’s your problem with communism?” Cassidy asked once she had taught him the controls.

“I don’t have a problem with communism,” he clarified. “I simply see its issues.”

He was surprised that they were able to actually have a somewhat coherent conversation about politics; it seemed that Cassidy had at least thought deeply about her views before spouting them off. 

Of course, people didn’t take that away from the stream. Instead the internet dunked on him for ‘being terrible at video games’.

Kai insisted that this was a good thing; it continued to make him more relatable. Damon detested relatability, however. He would rather the masses respect him. 

Everything was going so smoothly that Damon began to forget the reason he and Kai even disliked each other in the first place.

It was just as things seemed settled that he was reminded. 

“Where are you going?” He asked Kai one day. The influencer was dressed nicer than normal; he looked rather handsome (not that Damon would ever say that out loud).

“Wolfgang’s having a party,” Kai responded. 

Damon didn’t bother hiding his disgust, “Ugh. Have fun hanging with that asshole.”

“Have you ever considered that maybe you’re the asshole?” Kai wondered. 

It was the kind of thing that they said to each other all the time, but for whatever reason in that moment it got under Damon’s skin. 

“No. Definitely not when it comes to Wolfgang.”

“He's actually nice. You just hate him for no reason.”

“He just pretends to be nice, and you sycophants eat it up! You treat him like a fucking cult leader.” 

It was something that annoyed Damon about his class, even though they were mostly on better terms. If Wolfgang made a decision, they’d all follow it without question. That was likely the reason their relationship was still so icy; because Damon wouldn’t worship the dickhead. 

“You’re just jealous,” Kai scoffed. “People hang around Wolfgang ‘cause he’s genuine.”

“Only an idiot would see him as genuine,” Damon spat. 

“I’d rather be an idiot than whatever you are!”

“Why are you defending him so much? Are you in love with him or something?”

“Projecting much?”

“Whatever. Go kiss the ring. He’ll never fuck you, but maybe he’ll spare you a minute of his time.”

As Kai stormed out, Damon saw that his roommates’ eyes had been filled with tears. He didn’t feel bad, though. He hadn’t said anything that he wouldn’t stand by.

It wasn’t like he wanted to fight with Kai, he just managed to get under Damon’s skin in a way that no one else could. Plus, he couldn’t stand listening to him talk about how great Wolfgang was.

And Damon wasn’t jealous, not even a little bit. What would he have to be jealous of? Why would he want a cult of brain dead followers? 

Kai returned from the party incredibly late; Damon wasn’t waiting for him, he just happened to still be up when he got back. Neither of them said a word to the other as Kai stumbled into bed. 

Frankly, Damon wasn’t even sure if Kai realized he was still awake. For some reason that pissed him off even more.

The next day, Damon and Kai continued their silent treatment.  It was easy enough, things had just returned to the way they were before Tozu’s stupid assignment. 

Then, during a five minute break in Tozu’s lecture, Kai walked up to Wolfgang. 

Damon noticed immediately,- not because he was watching Kai. He just so happened to be looking in that direction. He observed (neutrally) as Kai began a conversation with Wolfgang; he couldn’t hear what they were talking about- not that he cared anyways. 

Then, Kai’s eyes shifted to look at him. They made eye contact; Damon considered looking away but that would only make it seem like he had been caught doing something. He hadn’t. It was all a coincidence. 

After a moment, Kai’s eyes went back to Wolfgang.  He said something, probably unrelated. 

Except then Wolfgang turned to look at Damon too; he had a disgusting smirk on his face. 

Suddenly, Damon was desperate to know what they were talking about. Was it him? Was it about their fight? He didn’t care what they thought of him, yet he was naturally still curious. 

Tozu returned shortly after, so Damon would probably never receive his answers. That was fine; he’d forget about it by lunch.

Okay, he didn’t forget about it by lunch, but he only thought about it a few times throughout the rest of the day. Really, it had nearly slipped his mind entirely about when he walked back into their room after dinner. 

He almost tripped over himself when he saw Wolfgang inside, sitting with Kai on his pink bed. 

“I still can’t believe you’ve managed to accomplish so much at such a young age,” Kai praised Wolfgang, completely ignoring Damon. “It’s really impressive.”

“Nonsense,” Wolfgang tutted. “It’s no more impressive than your accomplishments as an influencer.”

Damon couldn’t help but audibly scoff at that; the two continued to ignore him.

He couldn’t tell if he preferred that or not.

“You’re so humble too!” Kai continued. “I mean, seriously. You’re such a good leader.” 

“Oh, Kai,” Wolfgang drawled, his voice smooth as butter. “You’re going to embarrass me if you keep this up.”

“Do you mind?” Damon finally interrupted, unable to take it anymore. “I was hoping to study.”

“Is there a problem?” Wolfgang questioned, not even turning his head to look at Damon while he addressed him. “This is Kai’s room as well, correct? It doesn’t seem fair for you to disallow him from inviting guests over.”

“Kai can speak for himself,” Damon growled. 

“Chill out,” Kai whined. “Wolfgang and I are just hanging out. I guess it makes sense you wouldn’t know what that is looks like; you kind of need friends to do it.” 

“I have friends,” Damon couldn’t help but take the bait. 

“Lovely,” Wolfgang encouraged in his stupid condescending voice. “Perhaps you could go spend time with them, then?” 

“They’re busy,” Damon replied shortly. 

The only person he’d be comfortable seeking out was Eva, and he knew that she would be spending time with Diana.

“Do they go to another school?” Kai giggled meanly. 

Maybe he should’ve just left and saved some of his dignity, but somehow that seemed worse. If he wasn’t in the room, Kai and Wolfgang would be alone to do god knows what. He wouldn’t be able to stop wondering what was going on inside their room, and he’d never get an answer. 

“I suppose if you want to study, it would be wrong of us to get in the way of that,” Wolfgang sighed. “Come on then, Kai. Let’s head to my room.”

Hopelessly, Damon watched as they exited the room. Shit. While he didn’t have to go find something else to do, he would still be stuck wondering what the fuck was going on between them. 

Since when had Kai and Wolfgang even been friends? They had gotten along, sure, but Damon had literally never seen them interact outside of group settings.

Was this some sick joke to punish him? No, he was being narcissistic. Maybe he had hit the nail on the head when he accused Kai of being in love with Wolfgang, and had (in a backwards way) pushed him into confessing his feelings. They were sitting pretty close together on the bed. 

But wasn’t Wolfgang dating Grace? Damon assumed so, given their constant proximity. Though, Grace didn’t strike him as the jealous type. Maybe they weren’t exclusive? Or maybe he had misread their situation altogether? 

It was confusing, and made his head hurt. After the two of them left, he paced around his side of the room for a while, trying to make sense of the situation. 

What did the two of them even have in common? From everything he knew about both of them, they couldn’t be more different. They each hated Damon, but he wasn’t so self absorbed that he believed they could spend hours talking about him. 

Maybe the most annoying part was how they ignored him; Kai had given him the silent treatment all day, and when he finally did speak to him, he hadn’t looked at him once!

Suddenly, Damon remembered a time when he captured Kai’s attention. He wasn’t sure why, but he desperately needed Kai to look at him and forget all about Wolfgang. 

He’d show his roommate that he was no fucking bargain bin version. 

Damon wasn’t sure when Kai would return; he ended up waiting two hours for the asshole to come back. He didn’t get any studying done, either. No, being off guard would jeopardize his whole plan. 

All of it was worth it, though, to see the colour drain from Kai’s face when he walked through the door. 

Damon hadn’t done much; he simply took a shower, put on a pair of sweatpants, grabbed the one book he owned, and lounged on his bed.

Due to their truce, Damon had almost forgotten about Kai’s reaction the last time he had been around him shirtless. It felt a little cheap, but he saw how scrawny Wolfgang was. No matter what the two of them had gotten up to, Damon would prove he was the better man.

To his chagrin, Kai swallowed tightly then looked away, walking to his side of the room. 

“How was your evening?” Damon tried. 

Kai didn’t respond. 

Damon continued, “Did you enjoy spending time with Wolfgang?” 

“I did,” Kai said shortly. 

His roommate still wasn’t looking at him. Damon felt his perfect plan slipping away. 

“What did you do?” Damon asked nonchalantly, hoping that he didn’t seem like he cared too much; because he didn’t care at all. 

He just wanted Kai to look at him, and be attracted to him.

So that Damon could use it against him, not because he wanted Kai to be interested in him. 

“None of your business,” Kai answered before entering his bathroom. 

A little embarrassed, Damon grabbed a shirt and pulled it on. Maybe Kai and Wolfgang really did have something going on, and that was why his roommate no longer cared about ogling him. Or maybe he had misread the situation the first time, and Kai had actually been uncomfortable the whole time.

Whatever. It didn’t matter, anyway. Damon hated Kai, and didn’t care what he thought of him.  Even if his talent was a little more useful than Damon previously thought, Kai himself was still a vapid, vain, infuriating nightmare. 

He and Wolfgang deserved each other.

A few days after the incident, he was sitting in the library with Eva. She had just finished telling Damon about some new show she was watching, and he figured that he had earned the right to complain in return for listening to her. 

“Sorry. I’ve been talking a lot. How have you been?” She asked when she finished her rant. 

“Terrible,” he answered honestly. “Kai is a nightmare.”

“Oh, yeah. Diana mentioned you two were fighting again.”

“What did she say?”

Kai had probably told her; Damon wanted to know what he was telling people about the fight. 

“Just that you’re back to hating each other. I thought the project was going well.”

“It was,” Damon admitted. “We work well together, but he’s awful in just about every other way. It’s infuriating, and I don’t want to have to put up with it anymore.”

Eva considered this for a moment; she was staring at him thoughtfully, as though there was something she’d be able to see on his face if she looked long enough. 

Finally, she offered, “Then don’t. Tozu’s project is almost done, so you two can go back to ignoring each other as much as possible.”

Somehow, that didn’t make Damon feel any better. 

“But he’s my roommate,” he argued. “I have to see him every day.”

“We have to see all of our classmates every day; you don’t have to speak to any of them.”

“It’s different.”

“Is it?” she questioned. “Why?”

That stumped him. 

“I don’t know,” he eventually conceded. “It’s just annoying.”

“How did the fight start?” Eva wondered. 

“I don’t even know. He just pisses me off,” he half lied, hoping she wouldn’t press further. 

Thankfully, she didn’t. Eva was good about that; when Damon wanted her to back off she did it with no complaints. That was probably one of the reasons they got along so well. 

As much as he didn’t want to admit it, Eva was right. Damon had survived most of his time at Eden’s Garden with Kai hating him, and there was no reason things couldn’t go back to that. In fact, it would be even easier considering the rest of the class wouldn’t be hating him as well. 

There was no reason he and Kai needed to be friends, or even civil. 

Which was great, because Damon had no desire to get along with his roommate. Sure, it would’ve been convenient had things worked out, but that only could’ve happened in a world where he got a different roommate. Their temporary peace was just that: temporary. 

Following Eva’s advice, Damon decided it would be best to ignore Kai altogether. There was a bit of an adjustment period, but it really made him feel better in the end. 

Every so often, he checked online and saw people asked where he had gone. They commented under his most recent post, as well as under Kai’s personal content. The influencer hadn’t bothered replying to anyone, so Damon didn’t either. 

Tozu would have to be happy with the work they had done- which should’ve been more than enough. Really, Damon had far lower expectations when they were paired to work together. 

Not that he was keeping tabs, but he noticed that Kai and Wolfgang weren’t speaking to each other any more than they spoke to anyone else. There was always the chance that they were hanging out alone during their free time, but why the secrecy?

Damon didn’t have an answer to that question because he didn’t care what it was. 

Toward the end of October, Toshiko asked him a peculiar question:

“What are you going to be for Halloween?”

“What are you talking about? Halloween is only for kids,” Damon teased. “You’ll have to go trick or treating with someone you your own age.”  

“No, idiot!” Toshiko scolded him, not even bothering to assert herself as grown up. “I’m not going trick or treating, and that’s not what I’m talking about! I’m talking about Tozu’s Halloween Party!”

“Tozu’s Halloween Party?”

It was the first Damon had heard of it. 

“Don’t you pay attention?” Toshiko admonished. “He told us last week! He said costumes are mandatory, and not participating would have deadly consequences!” 

Tozu always had a flair for the dramatics; Damon wasn’t scared of him. 

“We’re supposed to party with Tozu?” Damon laughed. “That doesn’t sound very fun.”

“Tozu won’t be there,” Toshiko explained. “He’s just throwing it for us. He says it’s important for our bonding as a class.”

“I don’t want to bond with the class.”

“No one wants to bond with you either!” 

“So I shouldn’t go.”

“But you’ll get in trouble.”

“I’ll live,” Damon predicted. 

“Fine! I tried to warn you!” Toshiko exclaimed before stomping away. 

Annoyingly, Toshiko was not the last of his classmates to ask him about the party. Eva also tried asking what his costume would be, and was similarly disappointed when he informed her that he wouldn’t be attending. 

“Eva told me you aren’t planning on going to Tozu’s party,” Diana cornered him one day after class. 

“I’m not,” he answered honestly. 

“Is this because of Kai?”

“What would he have to do with anything?” Damon deflected, growing impatient with the conversation. 

“You don’t want to go to the party because you don’t want to spend time with Kai outside of class,” Diana theorized, incorrectly. 

“I live with him,” Damon pointed out. “I just don’t have any interest in partying.”

“But Tozu said we have to!”

“I’m not afraid of Tozu.”

It appeared saying that was a mistake. 

“You’re not?” Tozu said from behind him, suddenly popping up. Damon had no idea how he managed to appear and disappear so easily. “Well, that’s good. I don’t want my dear students fearing me. Why would they ever have a reason to do that?”

“I don’t know.”

“Damon’s not going to the Halloween party!” Diana snitched, sending herself plummeting to the bottom of Damon’s classmate ranking.

“What?” Tozu asked, shocked. He placed a hand on his chest, as thought the very notion hurt him. “But I’m putting so much effort into ensuring that it’s a fun evening for you students! Didn’t I make it clear that the consequences for skipping my event would be dire?”

“Yes,” Damon agreed, even though he had actually completely tuned out the announcement. He didn’t even remember when it happened; though, he probably stopped paying attention when he heard the word party. 

“So then there should be no problem!” Tozu affirmed. “You know, bonding with your fellow Ultimates is quite important, Mr. Maitsu. I would hope that you’re taking that part of your studies very seriously.”

“I am.”

He wasn’t, but he couldn’t exactly tell Tozu that. 

“Alright then. Too-da-loo!” 

With that, the goat masked man disappeared. 

“You snitched on me!” Damon accused Diana, turning to face her.

“I thought it was better he find out before so he could convince you to go! I didn’t want you to get in trouble after he found out!” Diana defended herself, putting her hands up in the air. 

“But now I have to go to the stupid party!”

“Maybe you’ll have some fun!” Diana suggested. Damon thought it seemed unlikely. 

“Ugh,” he groaned, then walked away. 

He didn’t even have a costume; Halloween was only two days away, so he had basically no time to come up with anything. He supposed he could’ve asked Eva or someone for help, but he didn’t want to have to admit that he had been roped into going. 

Ideally, he’d show up, stay long enough to appease Tozu, then be back in bed by 10pm. 

He was so caught up in his frustration that he didn’t notice Kai standing in the doorway of their room. Well, he didn’t notice until he walked directly into him. 

“Fuck,” Damon cursed as they fell to the ground. He lifted his hand to cradle his forehead, “What was that for?”

“You bumped into me!” Kai cried, astonished. 

“Why were you standing in the doorway?”

“I was about to leave, asshole!”

Damon was really not in the mood to argue with Kai.

“Whatever,” Damon groaned. Slowly, he pulled himself off the ground and stepped around Kai to enter the room. 

“You’re not going to help me up?” the influencer whined. 

“Why should I?” 

“You knocked me over!”

“You were in the doorway!”

“You are so fucking insufferable!” Kai shouted before getting up and stomping away down the hall.

“You too,” Damon called back before closing the door to their room. Fuck, he was honestly a little tired of fighting with Kai. He could recognize that he probably should’ve helped him up, but he found it impossible to think straight when they were actually arguing.

Whatever, he didn’t have a lot of time to figure out his costume situation. Until the party, that would be what he had to think about. Not Kai, or his relationship with Wolfgang, or anything else. 

Fuck that- there was no need to think about any of that stuff ever again. Damon vowed to himself that he’d continue to take Eva’s advice and forget all about his roommate. 

After all, they’d only have to live together for another 8 months. But who was counting? 

Chapter Text

In the end, Damon put together a costume he could be proud of: a pair of jeans, and white shirt that said ‘This is my Halloween costume.’ 

Could it be read as lazy? Absolutely. However, his intention was that it would come off as ironic. Hopefully at least a few of his classmates would look at it charitably.

When the clock struck 8pm (Tozu’s required start time), Damon made his way to the dining hall on his own. Kai had gotten ready somewhere else, probably in Diana’s room, so he didn’t have to worry about making sure they weren’t leaving at the same time. 

Surprisingly, he wasn’t the last person to arrive. Neither Kai nor Diana were there when he entered the dining hall. Which was a good thing, of course.

“Damon,” Eva greeted, floating over to him. She was wearing a black dress with seemingly endless layers of fabric, long sleeves, and a hood. In her hand she wielded a silver scythe.

“The grim reaper?” He questioned, curious as to how she had chosen the costume. “Not really your style.”

“Isn’t that the point?” Her eyes traced over his outfit, her mouth tightening into an unimpressed line. Damon noticed that her lips were painted black to match the wings done on her eyes- likely Diana’s work. “At least I put in some effort.”

“Hey! I put in lots of effort,” Damon defended himself. “I spent a long time thinking about what font to use!” 

“And you went with Comic Sans?” Toshiko, dressed up like some sort of psychic, interrupted with a giggle. 

He didn’t appreciate the interruption or the criticism. “It’s ironic.”

“It’s tacky.”

“I have to agree with Toshiko.” Eva pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. “However, I am curious what made you come in the first place.”

“Tozu threatened him,” Toshiko exclaimed gleefully. “I watched it happen! It was really funny.” 

“I thought you weren’t afraid of Tozu,” Eva pointed out, and with that he’d had enough of their conversation. 

“Is there alcohol?” he asked in hopes that they’d allow him to change the subject.

“We’re underage!” Toshiko admonished, her pearl necklace clacking as she nodded her head seriously. “You should be ashamed.” 

Cassidy, donning a blue, pink, and white skin-tight jumpsuit, chose that moment to interject. “Jett spiked the punch,” she supplied, surprisingly helpful.

“Thanks,” Damon acknowledged her, then walked away from the group. 

On his way to find the punch, he nearly walked into a giant red wall. Or, rather, the giant red wall nearly walked into him. “Woah!”

“Sorry, broski!” Jett’s voice came from inside the inflatable red crew-mate suit. “I can’t can barely see in this thing.”

“Then why are you wearing it?”

“Because it’s sick!” 

Well, at least the suit managed to contain Jett’s… unique smell better than his normal one did. “Right.”

While Damon poured himself a drink, he pondered how Jett possibly could’ve managed to spike the punch is in his giant costume. It would’ve been easier to sneak the alcohol in, sure, but how could he have gotten it out of the suit and into the punch bowl without anyone noticing? It would be a feat for anyone, much less Jett. 

Some mysteries were truly impossible to solve. 

In the middle of Damon’s first sip, the door to the dining hall opened to reveal Diana. Now, Damon was certainly not a weeb by any definition of the word, but you didn’t have to be a weeb to recognize Hatsune Miku. Diana looked cute in the costume; she’d clearly put a lot of effort in and it really paid off. 

Unfortunately for her, she was completely upstaged by the man who walked in behind her. 

Kai’s everyday clothes followed a predictable pattern; they would always be solid coloured, oversized, and layered. They certainly weren’t anything Damon would wear himself, but they didn’t look awful on him; or, least that’s what Damon thought before he saw Kai in his Halloween costume.

On paper, it was as basic as costumes got: a completely unoriginal holy angel. He had the expected white fluffy halo, the large white feathered wings, a smidge of gold outlining his eyes (making the yellow pop in an appealing way). Staples for any average sorority girl’s first Halloween.

None of that was what took Damon’s breath away, it wasn’t even the black skinny jeans. (Though, he wasn’t going to complain about those either.)  

It was the fucking sleeveless top. White (of course) with a crew neck, and made of material that clung to Kai in all the right ways. 

Had Damon mentioned it was sleeveless?

The room felt a little hotter as Kai bounced into it; Damon watched him say hello to people. The whole time Kai wore a big smile that he’d never seen before- how irritating.

Wolfgang, dressed as a ghost, strolled up to Kai and wrapped his arm around the influencer’s shoulders. Damon could feel his jaw tightening as the two conversed about something that certainly didn’t require so much physical contact. 

He finished his drink, then poured another. 

“I’d slow down a little,” Ulysses warned out of nowhere, scaring Damon a little. “Jett added his own concoction to the punch.”

The Ultimate Historian was covered in toilet paper- clearly to give the illusion of (fittingly) a mummy.

“That’s why I’m drinking it,” Damon countered, his eyes still focused on Kai and Wolfgang.

“Is that wise? Jett could have spiked it with anything; I’m not sure I trust his judgement.”

It was a good point, good enough that Damon couldn’t argue. It didn’t frustrate him, though. Ulysses was fairly intelligent (even if his random bouts of sleeping tended to detract from that fact), and never smug about it. Not like Wolfgang.

“Fair,” Damon stated simply, deciding that it would be his last cup. “How’d you choose your costume?”

He said it as a joke, but Ulysses’ eyes lit up as he began to explain, “Well, Halloween’s originated from an ancient Celtic festival called Samhain. People would dress up in costumes to ward off spirits, and ghosts. Of course the ancient Egyptians practised mummification to aid their dead in reaching the afterlife. They believed the body was the true home of spirits, and were it destroyed the spirit would be lost. If Halloween is a night where spirits return to roam the earth, wouldn’t it make sense for them to return to their mummified corpses?”

“Sure,” Damon agreed politely; he had tuned Ulysses out not long after he started talking. Wolfgang’s arm was still around Kai’s shoulder. 

“Halloween is actually a fascinating tradition; for a culture so unwilling to face the realities of death, it’s a little morbid, isn’t it?”

“I don’t think anyone cares about the spirits part anymore.” Damon said absentmindedly; Wolfgang’s hand gripped Kai’s shoulder firmly as they started to walk deeper into the party. “Kids just care about the candy, and everyone else just cares about the partying.”

“Perhaps you’re right.” Ulysses expanded on his point further, but Damon didn’t hear what he said. 

No, all of his focus being used was on the fact that Wolfgang and Kai seemed to be making their way directly over to them. 

“It was nice talking to you,” Damon said suddenly, hoping that he wasn’t interrupting Ulysses mid sentence. “Sorry. I really have to piss.”

“No need to apologize. I enjoyed our conversation.”

As soon as Ulysses said that, Damon booked it away from the table. To keep up his lie, so Ulysses wouldn’t completely hate him, he exited the party and walked down the hall to the bathroom. When he entered he placed his punch down and turned on the sink, splashing the cold water in his face a few times.

What the fuck was going on with them? He didn’t care what Kai or Wolfgang did; if they were spending time together it just made them easier to avoid. There was no reason for Damon to feel any sort of anger or resentment at seeing them together. In fact, he was probably just confusing his general feelings of disgust toward the two of them as feelings of disgust about seeing them together. 

That made sense. 

After his heart stopped beating so quickly (likely from whatever Jett had put in the punch), he composed himself and headed back to the party. He wanted to just book it back to his room, but he knew that Tozu wouldn’t be happy with him spending only ten minutes around his classmates.

“Damon!” Diana cheered as soon as he reentered, making a beeline toward him. “I’m so glad you came! I love your costume.” 

“Thanks,” Damon replied gruffly. “You’re the one who told Tozu I wasn’t going.”

Diana frowned. “I just thought it would be good for you to come hang out with us. You had fun when you came to movie night.” 

Being rude to Diana was like kicking a puppy; Damon wasn’t a nice person but he wasn't cruel. “It’s fine. I’m not upset with you.”

“Good!” Diana beamed at him, her smile a little blinding. 

Damon decided to warn her, “Don’t drink the punch. It’s not for kids.”

“I’m a kid now?” Diana giggled. “I want to argue, but I don’t want to sound like Toshiko.”

“Ugh,” Damon groaned. “One gremlin is more than enough.”

“Uh oh,” Diana gasped, seemingly out of nowhere. “That’s no good.”

Damon followed her gaze to Wolfgang and Kai, who were still wrapped around each other. It looked like Wolfgang was wiping something off of Kai’s face with a napkin. The sight made Damon feel a little nauseous. 

Only, their display was broken up by Grace (in a playboy bunny costume) stomping up to them and roughly grabbing Wolfgang by the arm. The golfer yanked the lawyer to her side, then laid a big fat kiss on his mouth.

Oh. That made sense. 

But then why were he and Kai acting so touchy?

“I guess Grace got tired of their charade,” Diana giggled. “I warned them that she wouldn’t let it go on for too long.”

“What charade?” Damon asked dumbly. 

At his question, Diana seemed to realize who she was speaking with. She turned to him with a guilty expression, looking a little like a deer caught in headlights. Unconvincingly, she replied, “I don’t know.” 

“You just said it.”

“I just meant obviously their display can’t be authentic. Since Grace and Wolfgang are apparently together.”

“No,” Damon said slowly. “You said you warned them. That means you knew it was a- what did you call it? A charade. Why would they do that?”

“I really don’t know,” Diana laughed nervously. “Oh- Eloise? Did you have a question?”

The cosmetologist literally ran away before Damon could interrogate her further. 

Why the fuck would Wolfgang and Kai pretend to be together? Especially if Wolfgang and Grace were dating. It didn’t make sense; their first time behaving that way was at the party. Other than the one time in their room- but Damon had been the only person to witness that. Maybe they weren’t actually pretending? No, if it was real then Wolfgang wouldn’t suddenly decide to flaunt his affair in front of his actual partner. 

There was a slight ache building up behind Damon’s eyebrows; possibly from Jett’s alcohol.

Damon needed to talk to Eva; she was the only person who would actually give him a good answer. As Diana’s roommate, Eva would probably know at least some of the gossip. The only issue was that she would definitely ask Damon why he even cared, and he had no good answer for that. Why did he? If Kai and Wolfgang wanted to act stupid then it really wasn’t any of his business. There was no reason the sight of them together should set his entire body on fire. It was just that he hated both of them so deeply that all of that animosity was exponentially increased when they were together.

He was so caught up in his own thoughts, that he didn’t realize there was another person walking directly in his path. Their bodies crashed together, Damon’s cup of red punch spilling all over his white t-shirt. 

“Fuck!” he swore, looking down at himself. 

“What the hell?”

Why did it always have to be Kai? He couldn’t have knocked into literally anyone else?

Miraculously, none of his drink had spilled on the influencer. No, Kai still looked ridiculously perfect; the only thing amiss was the halo on his head, knocked slightly crooked. Up close, Damon could see that his lips were painted gold- it matched the stuff around his eyes. 

“Will you ever learn to watch where you’re going?” Damon wondered exasperatedly, feeling his shirt sticking to the skin underneath. 

“How are you blaming me? Again! You walked into me!”

“Whatever. I’m done with this shithole, Tozu better be happy.” Damon started to storm away, but Kai followed him. 

“You think you’ve had a shitty night?” Kai laughed. “Join the fucking club.” 

They left the party, Damon a few steps ahead of Kai. After they’d made it halfway down the hall, he whipped around and ordered, “Stop following me!” 

“We live in the same fucking room!” 

“Like I could forget!” 

After that exchange, they walked back to the room in silence. All Damon wanted was to be alone, but short of literally locking Kai out of the room there was nothing he could do about it. 

As soon as he was inside their room, he tore his shirt off and whipped it at his laundry basket. What a terrible fucking night.

And a terrible party. Fuck Tozu.

“Why are you even mad?”

A good question that Damon couldn’t answer, so he came up with an excuse. 

“You ruined my costume.”

“You ruined your costume! Not that it was any good, by the way.”

“I’m not in the mood,” Damon warned darkly.  He was facing the wall, taking a few deep breaths to try to calm down. Kai needed to leave, so he could be alone and get over whatever bout of insanity he was going through.  

“What? Are you afraid you’re going to be an asshole? What else is new?”

Something inside Damon snapped; he turned around and took long strides across the room (and the tape) to stand right in front of Kai. He boxed the influencer against his bright pink wall, bringing his face down so close that their noses were touching. 

“Shut the fuck up,” he hissed.

“Why? Are you going to hit me? That doesn’t seem your style.” When Kai spoke, he breathed directly onto Damon’s lips. It smelled like punch. 

“What’s going on between you and Wolfgang?” Damon demanded, ignoring Kai’s ridiculous question. Of course he wasn’t going to hit him, violence was the weapon of idiots.   

Kai had the audacity to laugh. “What? That’s your question? Careful, Damon. People are going to think you’re jealous.”

“Why would I be jealous?”

It was a genuine question, one that had been swarming in Damon’s head since the first time he’d seen them together. It made no sense, the notion of his jealousy was so illogical, and yet he would have to be an idiot to mistake the green eyed monster stirring in his gut. 

Or, determined to ignore it. 

Yet, this could be his only opportunity to get answers. If he continued to shield himself with denial, avoidance, and excuses, he’d never find out the truth. 

“Why’d you come so close, if you aren’t going to hit me?” Kai asked in lieu of answering the question. 

“Why are you always looking at me like that?” Damon countered. 

“Why are you always taking your clothes off around me?” 

“Fuck it,” Damon whispered, then for once listened to his instincts.

He closed the gap between them, pressing their lips together. Kai melted into the kiss instantly, meeting Damon’s intensity with as as much of his own. Damon pulled Kai’s bottom lip into his mouth, bringing it in between his teeth to bite down harshly. Kai moaned in response, opening his mouth to grant Damon further access. 

Kai’s hands found their way to Damon’s shoulders, his nails digging roughly into them as their kiss picked up steam. Damon pulled back, prompting a whine. He went back in to leave a trail of kisses from the corner of Kai’s mouth down to his jaw, and then from his jaw to his neck.

When he bit down, Kai used his hands to grab him by his hair and pull him away from his neck. Then, before Damon could complain, the influencer started leaving his own kisses on Damon’s neck, then his chest.

After letting Kai have his fun, Damon took him by his jaw and gently guided him back up for a softer kiss. This one was sweeter, but filled with just as much emotion. 

“Fuck,” Damon whispered against Kai’s lips. “Fuck.”

“You’re so hot,” Kai praised, his hand trailing across Damon’s abs. “It’s infuriating.”  

“You’re infuriating,” Damon retorted, sucking in a breath when Kai’s hands wandered lower.  

“I wish I had known I could have just shut you up like this,” Kai laughed meanly, pressing a kiss to Damon’s jaw. 

“I’m the one who shut you up.”

“Whatever you say,” Kai giggled. 

A knock at the door sharply broke them out of whatever temporary insanity had overtaken them. 

“Kai?” Diana’s voice question. “You have my key! Are you okay?”

“Fuck,” Kai swore quietly. “I’ll be back.”

Damon watched him walk away. The short pause was enough for him to realize what he had done, and what the potential consequences were. 

Quickly, so he wouldn’t have to face Kai, he ran into his bathroom and shut the door. He kneeled by his toilet, his mind absolutely racing from what had just happened.

Why the fuck had he kissed him? That wasn’t something he’d ever thought about doing with Kai. It must’ve been the punch; Jett had spiked it with some weird ass alcohol that was making him act completely out of character.

And Kai had clearly been drinking it too, judging by his breath. So they were both incredibly drunk, out of their right minds, and hormones got the best of them. It made sense; they didn’t want to kiss each other at all, actually. 

Maybe it was just that their bodies were mixing up their intense hatred for intense attraction. In the morning, they’d wake up and everything would be back to normal. 

“Are you okay?” Kai’s voice asked from outside the bathroom, after he reentered their room. 

“I’m fine,” he called back. “I think Jett’s punch just messed with my stomach.”

“Right. Well, uh, I’m going to go to bed.”

“Alright. Goodnight.”

Damon waited a few minutes before exiting the bathroom. But before he did he wiped off all of the gold lipstick that Kai had left on his body. Weirdly, he felt a little sad to do so. What was impossible to wipe away, however, was the hickey that Kai had left on his chest. Thank God it was somewhere that no one would ever see. 

By the time he was back in the room, it seemed like Kai was already fast asleep. Perfect; he had probably come to the same realization as Damon and was just as eager to avoid ever talking about what transpired. 

Yes, they could never talk about it and then it would be like it never happened. Damon wasn’t attracted to Kai, Kai wasn’t attracted to him, and the universe was entirely normal. 

Damon struggled to fall asleep, but eventually he managed. Though he didn’t dream, he woke up feeling refreshed. 

There were no classes that day, but Kai had already left their room. Damon was happy for that; less time around Kai meant the less time he’d have to think about the party.

He busied his mind with distractions: he did an intense cardio workout after grabbing breakfast, then spent all afternoon doing debate prep. Any time his mind began to wander, he gave himself more work to do. It was an effective plan. 

If he allowed himself to think about the kiss for even a second, he was filled with strange feelings. They were useless, and stupid, so there was no use in allowing them to happen.

Unfortunately, when he got back to the dorm after dinner Kai was already there. The influencer looked up as soon as he walked through the door, then put his head back down quickly. 

Shit. Before, the silence in their room had a slightly hostile feel to it. Now? It was just awkward. 

Damon preferred the former. 

“Hey,” Kai finally greeted, a little too long after he entered for it not to seem out of place. 

“Hi,” Damon replied.

“How was your day?”

“It was fine. Yours?”

“Fine.” 

More awkward silence. During it, Damon noticed that Kai was wearing a turtleneck. He wondered if it was covering a hickey. 

No, that wasn’t a good thought. Damon hadn’t left any marks on Kai and if he had they would fade and never be acknowledged again. That was for the best. 

“So, uh, do you still hate me?” Kai asked, bizarrely. 

“I’ve never hated you,” Damon lied. 

“Damn. I’d hate to see how you treat someone you do hate,” Kai joked. 

“I don’t hate you,” Damon admitted. “You’re just really annoying.”

“Gee, thanks. Your personality isn’t exactly stellar either, you know.”

“I don’t care what you think,” Damon reacted defensively. 

“Whatever,” Kai sighed. “Look, can I be real? This back and forth thing is getting kind of boring. I don’t even remember why we’re fighting.”

Damon remembered, but he wasn’t going to bring it up. The last thing he wanted to do was talk about Wolfgang, or explain why he had such an issue with Kai’s ‘relationship’ with him. He himself didn’t even know why he did. 

“I don’t know,” he said instead of the truth. 

“So can we just get over it? Like, we don’t need to be friends or anything but it would be nice not to have any enemies in class.”

Damon considered this. If he and Kai called a truce, his adversaries would go down to one (Wolfgang). Plus, he could start treating Kai the same way he did everyone else, and that would put an end to all of his confusing feelings.

That must’ve been it, the only reason he got confused last night was because he spent so much time thinking about Kai. Because he hated him. If he stopped hating him, he could think about other things and his life would be improved. 

And he could forget about their kiss. 

“Okay,” he agreed. “Although, I don’t mind being your friend. I guess.”

He only said it because it would further help him in forgetting about the kiss; you didn’t kiss your friends. Damon could associate Kai with platonic feelings. 

“Really?” Kai seemed skeptical. “Why?”

“Well we don’t have to.” Damon scowled. 

It was a stupid idea, anyway. Why had he even said it?

“No, we can,” Kai agreed quickly. “I’m just surprised. I didn’t think you’d want to be friends with someone useless like me.”

It was a little painful to admit that his assumptions were wrong, yet Damon felt like he had to. “You aren’t useless. Your talent has some benefits that I hadn’t initially realized.”

“Wow. What a high compliment.”

“Never mind,” Damon groaned. “You suck, and you’re annoying.”

“And you’re a self absorbed asshole with the social skills of a potato.”

“Is that how you talk to your friends?”

Kai looked at him with a broad smile. “Any good friend gives some hard truths from time to time.”

Something about Kai’s smile made Damon’s heart leap in his chest. Or maybe he was having a heart attack; the odds on both seemed just as likely. 

“Does that mean I can give you some hard truths?” he offered, in the hopes that it would remind him of Kai’s bad qualities. 

“Nope!” Kai answered, then spun in his desk chair to type away at his computer once again. 

Whatever; Damon was smart enough to know that he couldn’t throw something at the back of Kai’s head if they were going to get along.

That didn’t mean he didn’t have the urge to, though.

Chapter Text

Life being friends with Kai was similar to what it was like when they were working on their project together- the largest difference was that he knew where they stood. This wasn’t an uneasy alliance between two individuals who hated each other; this was a friendship. 

An odd one, anyway. 

See, Damon hadn’t kissed any of his other friends. There was this awkward elephant looming over every single conversation that they shared, a sense of shared guilt about a night that they’d decided to forget. Damon didn’t mind that, he was an expert at avoiding things he didn’t want to think about. 

It was just something he thought about, sometimes. 

The social media posts returned, even as they were working on their presentation for Tozu. None of the new content would be included in it, yet still they filmed more. Damon didn’t care what people thought of him, never interacting with anyone outside of his streams. 

Still, the increased debate invitations were nice. 

“I hate homework,” Kai whined one night as he was working on their title page. 

Damon looked up from his own laptop, where he was working on the citations page, and raised an eyebrow. “You’ve been working for five minutes.”

“The longest five minutes of my life. I want to do something.”

“Like what?” Damon sighed. 

“Like. Hm,” Kai trailed off while he thought about it. 

Great, there was almost certainly no work getting done anymore. 

Damon continued his work, wanting to get it over with. Unlike Kai, he didn’t mind work, he just didn’t like it nagging at the back of mind. That’s why he preferred to do it right away, though Kai felt the opposite. It was a real problem since Kai would find excuses to distract himself unless Damon was also working. 

“Let’s make a handshake,” Kai finally suggested. 

“No.”

“Okay. Let’s gossip.”

Damon opened his mouth to shut that down as well, but he reconsidered. “What gossip do you have?”

“That’s a secret,” Kai giggled slyly, turning back to his computer. 

Ugh. 

Damon was torn; he didn’t want to lower himself to begging for the information, but he was curious. It wasn’t that he was interested in frivolous rumours, he just thought it would give him a more well-rounded view of his classmates. 

“I’m finished,” he announced a few minutes later. 

“I have so much left,” Kai whined. 

What the influencer didn’t realize was that was Damon’s plan all along. In only a couple of minutes, Kai would get bored of working and tell Damon whatever the gossip was. 

It ended up taking 103 seconds (Damon counted).

“Did you hear Diana kissed Eva?” 

The words made Damon freeze: a couple of weeks ago, he would’ve been happy for his best friend. Maybe a little hurt that she hadn’t told him, sure, but overall happy. Now, though? A pit formed in Damon’s stomach. Why was Kai bringing this up? Was it even true? It wasn’t the kind of thing that made sense to lie about but it felt too coincidental. 

He wasn’t ready to talk about the kiss, not by a long shot. 

“Oh,” he kept his voice even. “I didn’t, no. How did that happen?”

“Well, she’s had a crush on her for ages. Like, she’s thought she was pretty from the second that they met, and super smart too. But obviously she didn’t want to make a move, in case things got awkward. I kept telling her that Eva was obviously into her, because who wouldn’t be, and finally she just did it. I guess they’re gonna go on a date now, but they want it to be a secret in case it doesn’t work out. They promised each other not to tell anyone but I don’t count.”

Kai basically exploded with the information; clearly it was something that had been eating away at him. His explanation made sense, though; Eva hadn’t told Damon because she promised Diana she wouldn’t. Although, she hadn’t told him about her crush, either. 

In fairness, he hadn’t said anything to her about his kiss with Kai. Or his complicated feelings that definitely weren’t a crush but weren’t quite normal either. 

Damon replied somewhat carefully, “Wow. Good for Diana for making a move.”

“Yeah. It must’ve taken a lot of courage,” Kai sighed wistfully. 

Somehow the influencer didn’t seem at all phased by their conversation. Really, he must’ve been completely committed to the friendship thing they were trying out. Normal friends could kiss each other one time and then completely forget about it. Kai must’ve been acting so casual because it was casual to him. Damon was the one overthinking; he just needed to get over himself. 

“Right.” He hoped his roommate couldn’t tell how difficult it was for him to get the word out.

Naturally, Damon and Kai began spending more time together than Damon did with his other friends. It made sense- they lived together, and Kai was less irritating than most of the other people in their class who spoke to him. Of course, he was still irritating, but Damon was getting a little better at figuring out when he was being baited. 

“I just don’t see why we need an election every four years,” Kai proposed while they were eating lunch in the dining hall. “Like, if a president rocks, then let them run the country forever.”  

“Who decides when an election should happen?”

Even though he knew he was being baited, he still responded. Lately, he’d been finding Kai’s ridiculous claims less annoying. And the way his nose scrunched up when he was trying to come up with an argument? It was almost cute. 

Almost, but not cute. And even if it was cute, if it would be in a completely platonic way. 

“The people!”

“Wouldn’t you need an election for that?”

Before Kai could come up with something ridiculous to say, they were interrupted by Jett. 

“Hey, broskis!” The drag racer cheered, slapping his hand down on Kai’s shoulder. “Check out this good luck- the vending machine gave me two drinks!”

He presented them a pink can, incredibly proudly. Damon stared at his hand still on Kai’s shoulder; he felt bad for his roommate. Sitting under his armpit couldn’t smell good.

“Woah, and the sakura kind!” Kai’s eyes lit up. “Lucky!”

It was impossible to tell, but somehow Damon knew Jett was smiling ear to ear under his helmet. “It’s your favourite, right? That’s why I brought it over here!” 

“Woah! Thanks so much!” 

For some reason, Damon felt annoyed as he watched Kai open the pink drink. Possibly because Jett hadn’t brought him a drink. 

Or maybe, it was the fact that Jett’s hand was still on Kai’s shoulder. 

No, that was stupid. Kai was his friend and there was no reason for him to care about what he did with Jett. 

“Do you want to join us?” Kai offered, and suddenly they were stuck eating lunch with the smelliest guy in their class. 

It was probably the odour that caused Damon to lose his appetite. He had to struggle through every flavourless bite as Kai and Jett talked about some show they both watched.

“Here,” Damon said suddenly, interrupting Jett. He gestured to the bag of chips that he’d been given with his lunch. “I’m full, you can have them.”

“Oh, no thank you!” Kai shook his head kindly. “I’m really full, too!”

Jett cheered, the sound echoing around his helmet. “I’ll take them if you don’t want them!”

“Whatever.”

Scowling, Damon pushed the chips toward Jett. That had backfired; not only did he give away part of his lunch, but Kai hadn’t even taken them.

At least he had the satisfaction of walking Kai back to their dorm room when they were finished with lunch. 

Due to their newfound friendship, Damon noticed the way a lot of his classmates interacted with Kai. It wasn’t just Jett, it was Jean, too. 

“Woah!” Kai exclaimed, suddenly falling forward.

They’d just had their first snow fall at the academy, and there was some ice on the ground as a result. Damon and Kai were walking to the library together to work on their project, when Kai slipped on the ice. 

Damon did his best to grab him, but Jean beat him to it- seemingly appearing out of nowhere. 

“Careful there, friend!” Jean warned. 

The ship captain was holding Kai up by his collar; Damon didn’t think he’d be able to do that. He was strong, of course, he just didn’t have the ridiculous muscles that Jean did.

There was no issue with that- Damon’s most important muscle was stronger: his brain.  

Kai was incredibly grateful once he got both feet back on the ground. “Oh my god, thank you so much! I don’t know what would’ve happened if you weren’t here.” 

Damon would’ve caught him, but he knew better than to voice that. 

“No worries! I’ll be there to catch you any time you fall!” 

Ugh. Jean had this ridiculously earnest expression on his face; it made Damon want to barf. 

After the incident with Jean, it was Desmond.

“I seriously hate chemistry,”  Kai whined one day after Tozu left them alone for independent study. 

Unfortunately, Damon didn’t know much about anything STEM-related. He did fine in his classes, but he wasn’t familiar enough with the material to offer any assistance. 

Frustratingly, Desmond heard Kai’s cries and walked over to his desk. Damon wasn’t eavesdropping, he just happened to overhear their conversation. 

“Hey, I’m actually pretty good at chemistry. Do you think I could help?”

“Oh my god, really? Literally any help would be life-saving.”

“Okay. Why don’t we meet in the library later and we can go over everything you’re struggling with.”

“Dude. If you get me through this, I’ll love you forever.”

What a preposterous claim; Kai was willing to give away his affection that easily? Damon had plenty of things he could teach Kai- it wasn’t as though the bar was set that high.  It was frustrating to hear him make such bold claims over something so small. 

Desmond was smart, sure. And nice, if you cared about that sort of thing. And funny enough, in a dry sort of way. And handsome, in a conventional sort of way. 

There were a lot of reasons for Kai to offer his love to Desmond, but over some stupid chemistry? That was dumb. 

Later on, Damon happened to be in the library, just looking for some extra information on a topic he could be asked to debate in the future. Coincidentally, Kai saw him looking around and waved him over, offering for him to join them for their tutoring session. Damon agreed only because he didn’t want to be rude.  

Next, Mark and Kai bonded over liking some niche musician. Damon tried listening to them, but he thought their music was absolute hot garbage. He almost pretended he liked them when Mark and Kai were agreeing to go to their concert together, until he decided he wouldn’t subject himself to that.

Besides, there was no reason for Damon to even want to go to a concert with Kai and Mark. It didn’t sound like a fun time, and if his friend was going somewhere he didn’t want to go, then it was totally normal to just let him go. 

Not that Kai needed his permission. 

There was what seemed like a thousand more small moments like that; Ulysses lending Kai his pencil, Cassidy leaning over him so they could watch a video on her phone together, Wenona giving him some chocolate to ‘see if they could work together on a brand partnership in the future,’ Ingrid ruffling his hair.

Their classmates were constantly stealing Kai’s attention away from him, and he had no reason to complain because they were only friends. 

Friends who had kissed, but that wasn’t something they talked about. It didn’t even need to be acknowledged, or thought about.

Though, it wasn’t all bad. The two began to share more friendly moments together. 

For example, Damon and Kai were watching a movie together one evening; or they were about to. While Damon was setting it up, Kai gasped loudly enough that he stopped in his tracks. 

“What is it?” he asked quickly, whipping around to make sure his roommate wasn’t hurt. 

“I-“ Kai trailed off, eyes glued on Damon’s forehead. “I. I can see your roots.”

Damon felt the colour drain from his face; no one was supposed to know that he dyed his hair blonde. He must’ve been distracted lately, and forgotten that it was time to do a touch up. It was a stupid mistake, one that was unfixable. 

“Oh,” he said simply. He didn’t want to draw any more attention to his hair, but he didn’t want to turn it into a thing either. 

“You’re not naturally blonde?” 

“You’re not naturally pink either,” Damon retorted, furrowing his brows. 

“Yeah, but everyone knows that!” Kai exclaimed, waving his hands around in the air. “How did I not know you dye your hair?”

“Because I do a good job.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“It didn’t come up.”

Not that Damon would’ve ever admitted to it anyway. 

Kai’s eyes welled up with tears; he whined, “We could’ve dyed our hair together! Or exchanged tips.” 

“We can still do that,” Damon grumbled, not enjoying Kai’s tears. 

In the end, he was very thankful he accepted Kai’s offer. It was way better to have his roommate’s fingers massaging the dye into his hair. Because it was less messy. 

Slowly, they were becoming staples in each other’s lives. One day Cassidy remarked that it was more likely they’d be seen together than apart. For some reason, that filled Damon with pride. 

It was dizzying, how intense his emotions for Kai were. Before, it had been fiery hatred that burned at him nearly all hours of the day- that was exhausting, and probably made Damon a little ruder than he liked. This new emotion was lighter, but no less extreme. All day he wanted to be with Kai, and when he wasn’t he was wondering what Kai could be doing. 

He recognized that he felt differently about his roommate than he did any of his other friends. Still, there was nothing to be done about it. They had tried ignoring each other but it just hadn’t worked. 

So Damon would stay his friend and eventually he’d get over whatever weird thing he was going through. 

Then, Kai almost gave him a heart attack. 

He walked into their room after having an evening cup of tea with Eva, only to find Kai sitting in his desk chair. 

That was nothing out of the ordinary. No, what nearly made him collapse onto the floor was the fact that Kai was wearing his sweater.

“Uh, hi,” he wheezed out. 

“Oh, welcome back!” Kai waved at him obliviously. 

Damon raised an eyebrow at him. “Nice sweater.”

“All of mine are in the laundry,” Kai explained. “I figured you wouldn’t mind.”

“I don’t.”

He didn’t mind at all. In fact, he had the urge to give every single item of clothing he owned to Kai and make him wear them all. 

Only because the influencer’s fashion sense was so awful; maybe that way he could learn a few things from Damon.

The night before they’d have to present their project to Tozu, Kai blatantly crossed the tape line to grab a pencil from Damon’s desk. It was the sort of thing they did all the time but Damon felt like being annoying. 

“Um, you’re on my side of the room,” he complained, pointing at the tape. 

Kai paused what he was doing to examine the tape; Damon hoped that he knew it was only a joke. Just as he was about to apologize, Kai walked to the door and picked up the end of the tape line. He tried to pull it off the floor in one smooth motion, but the end broke off. 

“Fuck.”

Obviously Damon had to laugh at him, but once he was finished, he helped Kai pick up the rest of the tape off the floor. They didn’t need to say anything else about it; it was clear that they wouldn’t need it anymore. 

The next morning, Damon woke up feeling nervous. While they should’ve been able to knock their presentation out of the park, there was a nagging voice in the back of his head that was doubting them. 

On top of that, the project had been the reason they became friends in the first place. It was a stupid worry, but Damon couldn’t help but wonder if the ending of the project would also mean the ending of their friendship. 

He’d never voice that, though. It would sound pathetic and small. Not to mention that it wasn’t the sort of thing friends worried about. 

“You ready?” He asked Kai before they left, the closest to asking for reassurance that he’d get. 

“Obviously. We’re the dream team.”

Kai was probably joking, yet it still made Damon’s heart skip a beat. 

They did nail their presentation, as expected. Tozu was mighty impressed by their collaboration, and their ability to break into popular culture. Sure, any Ultimate was going to have an easier time gaining respect. However, the market had become so oversaturated that it was hard to stand out. 

Tozu was so pleased with them that he approached them after class. “Damon! Kai! Tremendous work! And you didn’t believe you’d ever be able to find a way to work together.”

“Thank you, sir.” Damon bowed his head in respect. If possible, he wanted to avoid discussing his and Kai’s prior relationship or his former belief that working together would be impossible. 

Kai surprised him by humbly deflecting the praise. “It was all Damon! He’s the one with the ideas.”

“But it was your idea to use the Internet,” Damon pointed out. 

Normally, he’d simply take all of the praise. With Kai, though, it didn’t feel right. 

“Still, the topics were all you! And the actual debating!”

“It sounds like you two each played a vital role in your success.” Tozu interrupted their bickering (if you could call it that). “You should be very proud.”

Having given his applause, Tozu slinked away into the shadows. Damon turned to Kai and wondered, “Now what?”

They could spend their afternoons doing independent study, but that felt a little anticlimactic. 

Thankfully, Kai felt the same way. “We have to celebrate! We should go off campus for lunch.”

“Sure,” Damon agreed easily.

Students always had the option of leaving the Academy, as long as they returned by night time. There was a small town only a short bus ride away, so it wasn’t uncommon for students to visit there on day trips. Damon had never been on one, but he knew that Kai and Diana went shopping occasionally. 

Taking the bus brought back memories; he didn’t have a license, so before he lived at Eden’s Garden he had to take public transit everywhere. One of his favourite parts of the Academy was how walkable it was, yet the bus still gave him a small amount of nostalgia.

When they got on the bus it was full enough that they both had to stand. He noticed Kai was wobbling a little, so when a free seat finally became available he insisted that Kai take it. 

They passed their time during the ride by playing rock paper scissors. Amazingly, for a game that should’ve been 50/50, Kai only won about 10% of the time. Watching his face when he lost over and over again made the normally boring game otherwise fun. 

Once in town and off the bus, Kai led Damon to a small diner. It was pretty empty inside- not unexpected for a random weekday. There was a sign that asked them to seat themselves so they tucked away in a booth. 

“Ugh. I love escaping the Garden,” Kai sighed contently as he browsed over a menu. 

That surprised Damon a little. “Really, how come?”

“You don’t ever feel stuffy in there? Like, it’s super nice, don’t get me wrong. It just doesn’t feel like the real world.”

“I guess I see your point,” Damon admitted. The ‘real world’ was full of painfully mediocre people doing their best to survive. For as frustrating as he found his classmates, none of them could be classified as boring. “I think it’s better.”

“In some ways,” Kai agreed. He hummed thoughtfully, pulling his bottom lip into his mouth. Damon couldn’t help but stare at his lips, remembering what it felt like to kiss him. “I just miss normalcy sometimes.” 

“Why would you ever miss that? There’s nothing significant about normalcy.” From the moment Damon was granted his Ultimate title, all of his suspicions had been confirmed. He wasn't normal at all, he was something better. That’s why he had struggled with his peers, and with belonging. It wasn’t that he was the problem, it was that he simply wasn’t where he was supposed to be.

“Do you know how I got my Ultimate title?” Kai asked, somewhat randomly. 

“I just assumed it was because you have such a big following,” Damon admitted. Most Ultimates got their titles in the same way; by being the best in their field.

Unfortunately, a waitress came over and interrupted them briefly. Damon ordered a sandwich, while Kai ordered a salad and a strawberry milkshake. 

When the waitress was gone, Kai began to elaborate. “I mean, you’re kind of right. The account I use now isn’t the one that got me my title, though. I made that one, my personal one, like two years ago.”

“You’ve only been an influencer for 2 years?” Damon didn’t know that, he had assumed Kai had been doing stuff on the internet for a while. 

“Mhm. I made the account on a whim. It blew up pretty quickly, like it had a couple hundred thousand followers within a few months.”

“What were you posting to gain followers so quickly?” The idea seemed completely foreign to Damon; would what could a nobody do to gain so much attention?

“I posted, uh, pictures. Of myself.”

Kai looked really embarrassed to say it, which confused Damon.  What would be embarrassing about posting selfies?

Then it hit him. 

“Uh,” he said, a sense of despair filling his body. “But you would’ve only been 16.” 

Kai looked at him, his expression mirroring the confusion Damon felt. Then, he started laughing. “Oh my god, you idiot. Not those kinds of pictures. Why would your mind even go there?”

“Right.” Damon felt both mortified and like an idiot. 

“No, I posted edited photos of myself. You’ve probably heard Grace make comments about it.”

Thinking about it, Damon had heard the odd joke about Kai looking different in real life than he did online. He hadn’t paid much attention to it, but now it made sense. 

“Why would you do that?” He wondered, genuinely baffled. 

“I don’t know. I was an insecure teenager, I guess.”

“That’s stupid,” Damon said without thinking. “You’re beautiful.” 

Kai instantly turned bright red; he stammered out a very embarrassed, “S-shut up man. Don’t tease me.”

Right. Damon turned red too as he realized that was not something friends said to each other, or at least not like that. He wanted to correct Kai, to tell him that he was deeply serious, but he didn’t want to freak him out. So, he kept his mouth shut. 

“Anyway,” Kai swiftly changed the subject. “Uh, so this company reached out to me to ask if they could hire me to run a faceless account. I’d basically promote brands but do it between memes or whatever else to feel relatable. I was making barely any money from my personal stuff, so I agreed. The faceless account blew up, like a lot. Eventually it got so big that I was granted my Ultimate title.”

“That’s really impressive.” Damon was being honest, he hadn’t known that Kai had managed to amass his followers under the guise of anonymity.

“I’m glad you think so,” he laughed humourlessly. “A lot of people felt cheated, I guess. I don’t know, it’s easy to project on a faceless account and when that’s taken away people get vicious. People found my personal accounts and ripped me to shreds; it was terrible. But my original followers, the ones who’ve been with me from the very start, they defended me. They know who I really am, and they’ve always been there for me.”

Damon felt the urge to argue with that; his followers were just teenagers with superiority complexes. None of them knew Kai, not like he did, and if he were to disappear they would just move onto the next thing. Of course, he would never say that. It was too harsh, too likely to crush Kai who had clearly wrapped up a lot of his self esteem in what his followers thought of him. 

He decided to say, “I’m glad you had people to defend you.”

“Me too.” Kai smiled softly, drumming his fingers on the table. “But anyway, sometimes it gets a lot. Like, everyone knowing who you are and having an opinion on you. Sometimes I miss just being a random face, completely unremarkable. Able to do normal stuff like sit at a diner and have lunch with a friend.”

He gave Damon a small, shy smile at the end of his statement. Damon felt his heart literally clench. Before he could reply with something stupid, the waitress saved him by bringing over their food.

“This was fun,” Damon said while they were exiting the diner, after eating and paying. 

“It was.” Kai gave him another blinding smile. “We should do it again sometime!”

Damon almost tripped over the sidewalk, just barely catching himself. His friendship with Kai was going to be the death of him.

Chapter Text

It took Eva four weeks to admit her and Diana’s new relationship to Damon. 

They were sitting alone in the library, each studying independently. Spending time without either Kai or Diana (or both) had become rare. Part of the reason Damon and Kai had been pushed into spending more and more time together was their respective best friends being essentially attached at the hip. 

He wondered if he would’ve put two and two together even without Kai revealing the truth to him. Admittedly, he wasn’t always the most observant when it came to other people’s relationships. Still, it felt so obvious that he wanted to believe he would’ve noticed. 

“I have something to tell you.” Eva closed her book, then waited for Damon to do the same. Damon followed suit, bookmarking the chapter he was reading. 

“What is it?” Damon thought he knew but there was always a chance Eva was referring to something else. 

“Diana and I are in a relationship.”

The mathlete was looking down at her lap, clearly nervous about the confession. It made Damon want to tell her that it wasn’t anything he didn’t already know, but he didn’t want to get Kai or Diana in trouble. 

“Oh. Cool.”

Eva’s head snapped up to look at him, clearly a little distraught. “That’s your reaction?”

“Yeah?”

“You’re not surprised?”

Damon considered his words. “I am, I guess. You never told me you had a crush on her.”

It wasn’t a complete lie; he had been surprised when Kai told him. It was just that it’d been four weeks since then, and their relationship was sort of old news. 

“Well, I wasn’t sure if you’d want to hear about it.” Eva was frowning; that wasn’t good. 

“You’re my friend,” Damon affirmed, suddenly confused. “That’s the sort of thing friends tell each other.”

“Normally. But it’s not like you’ve told me about your crush.”

A cold sensation passed over Damon; he froze, unsure of how to proceed. 

He landed on asking, “What crush?”

“Your crush on Kai.”

Eva said it like it was obvious. Quickly, Damon looked around the library to make sure that no one else was within earshot. When he confirmed they wouldn’t be overheard, he leaned forward and hissed, “I don’t have a crush on Kai. Why would you think that?”

It was such a stupid thing for her to think; he definitely did not have a crush on Kai. Kai was his roommate, and now his friend, and that was it. Why was she even jumping to such stupid conclusions? Had she somehow found out about their kiss?

That was no good. If Eva knew, that meant anyone else could know too. Not that Eva was the type to gossip, but if Kai had told literally anyone in the class then the secret could spread completely under Damon’s nose. Who else was watching their interactions and assuming that there was something else going on? Eva was supposed to be one of the smartest of them- if she made the mistake then what would one of the idiots think? 

“It’s obvious,” Eva deadpanned. “It’s been obvious for ages.”

“We’re just friends,” Damon insisted.

“Not friends like you and I,” Eva pointed out. clocked

“Do you mean because of the kiss? How did you even find out about that? It was stupid, and we were both drunk, and it doesn’t change anything.”

Eva didn’t respond to him; judging by the shock on her face, she hadn’t known about the kiss.

Shit. Why had he said anything? Now it was out there in the open and he was going to have to talk about it with Eva. It wasn’t supposed to be a thing he talked about, if he didn’t address it then it didn’t count. It could’ve just as well been a drunken fantasy. 

Not fantasy in the sense that it’s something he’d want to do; a fantasy in the sense that it didn’t happen in reality. 

It did happen, of course, but Damon liked pretending it didn’t. Most of the time. 

He may have been spiralling just a little bit. 

“You two kissed?” Eva finally asked, speaking slowly as though he was an animal she’d cornered and he was at risk of fleeing. 

Maybe she wasn’t wrong to act that way; a large part of him had the urge to leave the library and never return. 

“Ages ago. It’s like I said- it doesn’t matter. We never even talked about it.  We’re friends, and that’s it. End of story. No crushes, and no use talking about something we did when we were drunk.”

Damon hoped he sounded more convincing than he felt. 

“Oh my god,” Eva laughed. “You’re helpless.”

“I’m not.” Damon shook his head firmly. “I’m realistic.”

Eva gave him a patronizing look. “You’re going to drive yourself crazy. You should just talk to him.”

“Please. You can’t tell him. Or Diana, or anyone.” Damon pleaded seriously. 

“You’re hurting yourself for no reason,” Eva sighed. “But of course I won’t tell anyone.”

Damon nearly fell to his knees in a mix of relief and gratitude. “Thank you.”

Then, something occurred to him. 

“Wait. If you didn’t know about the kiss, why do you think I have a crush on him?”

The look Eva gave him made him feel a little ashamed. He hated being pitied, but there was no mistaking her expression. 

“Can I talk about my girlfriend now?” She asked instead of directly answering his question. 

He nodded, desperate for a subject change. 

It turned out that Eva was finally telling him because her she and Diana were going to come out to the class. They’d be the second official couple within their 16 students, which meant that 1/4th of the class had paired up.

Of course their classmates reacted positively, excited to see their friends in love. Damon enjoyed his new ability to make fun of them openly, rather than just privately to Kai in the safety of their room. 

What he didn’t enjoy, however, was how it seemed to invigorate Toshiko. 

“Alright everyone,” the gremlin announced to the class one day, after getting permission from Tozu to give a surprise presentation. “We all know about the lovely romantic connections that have already been forged within our group. This shouldn’t be a shock to anyone; of course a group of talented individuals like ourselves would find love in each other’s embraces. It’s like a fairytale, truly.”

“Trust me, you’d never find the things Wolfgang and I get up to in any fairytale,” Grace interrupted with a broad smirk. 

Wolfgang turned bright red and hissed, “Grace! She’s a child!”

“I don’t care about whatever disgusting acts you commit in private.” Toshiko stuck her tongue out while she said the word disgusting. “What I’m interested in is great romance! The fiery passion of love! Is there anything more beautiful?” 

Enough was enough. Damon raised his hand, and waited for Tozu to call on him. “Yes, Damon?”

“How is this relevant?”

“It’s Miss Toshiko’s talent! It couldn’t be more relevant!”

Damon disagreed, but knew that voicing his opinion wouldn’t get him anywhere. 

“If we’re done with the interruptions, I’d like to continue.” After a few seconds of silence, the matchmaker continued, “See, I’ve been observing everyone here. I’ve taken into account your likes and dislikes, your future goals, your views on romance itself. And as the Ultimate Matchmaker, I’d like to propose a number of relationships that I think would result in lifelong harmony.”

The class erupted.

“That’s fucking hilarious!”

“How dare you?”

“I’m not going to sit here and listen to this.”

“This is a waste of time!”

“Who did you pair me with?”

“You made a whole shipping presentation?”

“Huh, why’s everyone shouting?”

“You little gremlin!”

“Toshiko, I’m not sure that this is a good idea.”

“You’re really going to let her do this?”

The last question was Damon’s, directed to their teacher. It was impossible to tell behind the mask, but Damon swore the goat was smirking. 

“Of course. What an honour for you all, to hear the Ultimate Matchmaker’s opinion on your romantic life.”

Everyone settled down after that, likely coming to the realization that there would be no stopping the presentation. Of course, not everyone wanted it to stop. Damon noticed Grace in particular had a giant grin on her face. 

“Okay!” Toshiko clapped. “I’m going to start with an easy one. I’m sure many of you have picked up on this chemistry.”

Her wording made Damon feel nervous; it shouldn’t have applied to him and Kai, but after Eva’s crush theory he couldn’t be too sure. 

Thankfully, she clicked to the next slide and revealed a picture of Desmond and Eloise. 

“When did you take that?” Desmond demanded, standing up from his seat. 

The photo was a little blurry; clearly taken from a distance. The two weren’t doing anything incriminating, only talking at what looked like a dining hall table, but he understood why Desmond would feel unsettled. 

“That’s not important!” Toshiko waved her hand dismissively, turning to the class. “Anyway, don’t get so excited! You had to see this one coming. I’m sure that everyone else has noticed that these two share a quiet and calm demeanour, as well as a friendship. Both are interested in marriage, and also desire children. Their Ultimate talents are well suited for each other, both sports that required them to fight to reach the top of their respective fields. Also, not that it matters, but their sports both use tools that are traditionally weapons. And Desmond always holds the door open for Eloise, so he’s certainly chivalrous. What a prosperous future these two would have.”

Eloise was bright red and (unlike Desmond) hadn’t moved an inch. It looked like she thought that they wouldn’t notice her if she managed to stay perfectly still. Desmond, however, looked absolutely furious. Damon was certain that it was only Tozu’s lurking presence that stopped Desmond from marching to the front of the room and turning off the power point. 

“Any objections, or notes?” Toshiko asked the class. 

“They’re basically dating anyway,” Grace called from the back of the room. “Some Ultimate Matchmaker you are.”

“Hmph!” Toshiko stomped her foot. “I told you that I was starting with the obvious!”

“Maybe we should move on,” Diana suggested nervously, shooting a look at Eloise. 

“I suppose your disappointment makes sense,” Toshiko sighed. “Low hanging fruit and all. That’s okay, though! Next I have a slightly unconventional pick. I’m going to need you guys to stick with me, and let me walk you through it.”

“Dear god,” Damon heard Wenona groan from the back.

The next slide revealed a picture of Cassidy and Jett gaming together. 

As soon as the picture loaded, someone behind Damon yelped loudly. He turned his head, expecting to see Cassidy reacting. 

Instead, it was Mark who was laughing so hard he had tears in his eyes. 

“Broski!” Jett suddenly shouted, standing up in the same way Desmond had. “It’s not what it looks like! I would never keep something like that from you!” 

“Um, Jett and I are just homies,” Cassidy spoke up, side eyeing Mark. The music producer was practically cackling, his whole body shaking with his reaction. 

“I know that!” Toshiko ignored Mark completely. “The point of this presentation isn’t to expose the private lives of my classmates. It’s to show you guys a potential future!”

“There is no potential future!” Jett cried, panicked. 

Honestly, it was amusing to watch- even if Jett standing up caused some of his stench to waft over to Damon.

Toshiko refused to take no for an answer. “Think about it! You’ve both got similar levels of energy, you’d enjoy gaming together, and your colour schemes totally match! Neither of you seem particularly inclined toward having children, and you could take marriage at your own pace.”

“We’re not gonna get married!” 

Mark’s laughter finally tapered out; he had to take a few deep breaths before settling into his seat. Everyone waited for him to say something, but he never opened his mouth. 

“Really, we’re just friends!” Cassidy repeated, looking around the class for assistance. 

“Whatever. I’ll move on if you’re going to get so worked up,” Toshiko sighed, a small pout on her face. “Now, I have another couple that might surprise you. If I could have a moment to explain my thought process before you react, it’d be greatly appreciated!”

The class waited with bated breaths for her to reveal the next pair. 

“Um,” Ingrid spoke up when it was a photo of her and Jean. “I’m not really into fellas like that.”

Toshiko turned bright red. “Sorry!” 

“That is some outside the box thinking,” Jean laughed heartily. “I take it as an honour that you’d see me and Ingrid as a good fit.”

“Aw shucks, Jean. I feel the same way!” 

It was surprisingly wholesome, despite the circumstances. 

“I’ll just move on!” Toshiko said quickly, jamming her finger into the forward button. 

“What the fuck?” Wenona’s voice seemed to reverberate around the classroom. “That’s an invasion of privacy, brat.”

“Please watch your language around your young classmate,” Tozu warned. 

On the board was a picture of Wenona and Ulysses; Ulysses seemed to be bringing her a drink. The photo captured small blushes on both of their cheeks.

“Uh, I believe I’ve come to a realization.” Ulysses raised his hand. “Is this not just the pairs that worked together for Tozu’s project? I’m sure I have the list written down somewhere.”

“Of course not!” Toshiko gasped, bringing her fan up to her face. “There’s some overlap, but it only makes sense that you’d be drawn to working with your true match!”

“You’d better move on, little girl.” Wenona warned. “I’ll have my lawyers contact you.”

“Well, I only have one couple left!” Toshiko announced quickly.

Damon saw most of his classmates’ heads turn toward him; he was one of only three classmates that hadn’t been drawn into Toshiko’s chaos yet. 

Dread filled his stomach as he watched Toshiko click the next slide in what felt like slow motion. 

And then there was, unsurprisingly, a picture of him and Kai. If the rest of his class reacted, he missed it. 

He was too busy staring at the picture; they were sitting together in the library and Kai was laughing at something. Damon, though? He was just watching Kai with this stupid expression. Damon could recognize the endearment clear on his face. His whole body felt on fire; was it always so obvious that he had feelings for his roommate?

Not romantic feelings, to be clear. Intense feelings that he couldn’t give a name to. 

“This one shouldn’t be surprising,” Toshiko giggled. “There’s a thin line between love and hate, and these two have been walking that tightrope since our first day here. We saw how well their talents fit together, and neither of them are willing to let the other walk all over them. Plus, we’ve all noticed how they’re attached at the hip.”

“Aw, look!” Kai cheered. The excitement in his voice knocked Damon out of his panic for just a moment. “Damon! We’re the only gay couple! Toshiko, you must really think we’d be great together.”

Right. They were friends, and therefore something like this was a funny joke. Something that would become an inside joke between them because the idea of them dating was so preposterous. 

“I believe in all my couples! Even if not romantic, I believe every duo I listed could forge a great partnership.”

“Thank you so much for sharing your talent with us,” Tozu led the class in an unenthusiastic round of applause. 

While class wrapped up, Damon considered asking Toshiko if she could send him a copy of the picture she’d used. He couldn’t come up with a good reason he’d need it, though, so he decided to give up on that. 

Later in their dorm, Kai brought up what had happened. 

“It’s pretty funny Toshiko put us together,” the influencer giggled, flopping his body onto Damon’s bed. Damon had to shift to the side a little to avoid getting flattened. 

“We’re roommates,” Damon reasoned. “It makes sense.”

“You think that’s the only reason?”

Kai had a strange expression on his face- one that Damon found impossible to read. 

“What other reason would there be?” 

Kai smiled a little at the question, then shook his head. “Never mind, you’re right. There’s no other reason.”

The expression turned a little sad, and that made Damon’s stomach hurt. He decided to press the subject further, despite how risky it could be. 

“I guess there’s some things she got right. Like, we do work well together.”

“We do.”

“And we spend a lot of time together, already.”

“And I know you aren’t terrible to live with.”

Somehow, Kai’s head had ended up resting on Damon’s thigh. Since it felt rude to ignore him, Damon started playing with his hair.

“I don’t know if I could say the same thing.”

“I guess you being such an asshole could be a problem.”

“You’re as much of an asshole as I am.”

“I say this not to start a fight, but because it’s the truth. Damon Maitsu, I think you are, without exaggerating, the biggest asshole in the entire world.”

“Well that’s just going to hurt my feelings.”

As revenge, he gently tugged on Kai’s hair. 

“Ow! See! That’s my point.”

“You’re a crybaby; that’s another reason it wouldn’t work.”

“No, I don’t think that’s true. You seem like the kind of guy who’d like it when I cry.”

Damon choked on air. 

“Not like that!” Kai said quickly, rolling over to look at up Damon; his cheek pressed against Damon’s stomach. 

He attempted to will away the blush that was threatening to rise before responding, “You always say stupid things.”

“Is that why you hated me?”

Kai sounded curious, not hurt.

“I don’t know. Why’d you hate me?”

“Because you were instantly rude to me.”

“I don’t remember that.”

“You’re a liar.”

“Maybe you’re the problem.”

“Or maybe, it’s like Toshiko said. You thought you hated me but really you just loved me so much that it drove you crazy.”

For whatever reason, Damon suddenly felt embarrassed even looking at Kai.

“That’s a stupid theory.”

Kai didn’t respond immediately; it felt like there was something hanging in the air but Damon couldn’t tell what it was. Finally, Kai sighed. 

“You confuse me.”

“How?”

That wasn’t Damon’s intention; he thought he had been pretty straightforward with Kai.

“Sometimes I feel like you’re sending me signals”

“Signals for what?”

“Stop,” Kai ordered, sitting up. He glared at Damon fiercely. “Can we have a real conversation? I’m tired of playing dumb.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Damon was genuinely lost; how had he gotten Kai upset with him? It wasn’t like he was the one talking in riddles. 

“Fine. If you’re going to be this dense, I’ll just spell it out. Stop me if I’m being stupid.”

Damon felt frozen in place as Kai climbed on top of him, straddling his waist between his knees. Slowly, painfully so, Kai leaned down until their noses were touching. Damon savoured the feeling of Kai’s breath fanning onto his lips.

“Am I being stupid?” Kai asked, his voice cracking slightly at the end of the sentence. 

What a ridiculous question. Damon could’ve said as much, but he decided it was better to just show him. 

He closed the gap between them with a gentle kiss; the polar opposite of the first they’d shared. That time it had been passionate and angry, but now there was an unmistakable sweetness to it. Kai’s tongue darted out to swipe against Damon’s bottom lip, prompting Damon to do what he wanted and deepen the kiss. 

As sweet as it started, it inevitably began to escalate. Kai shifted slightly, reminding Damon of their position; he couldn’t help pull him in closer, wrapping his fingers in Kai’s hair to do so. 

Apparently, that wasn’t what Kai was in the mood for. No, when Damon attempted to take control of the situation his roommate grabbed his wrist and used the momentum (and gravity) to pin him against the mattress. Damon was sure that he could flip their positions at any time he wanted, but he wasn’t dumb enough to want that. At least not yet. 

He allowed Kai to pull away from their kiss and begin to shower his face with little pecks. They were soft enough that they tickled. Though, it didn’t take long for soft kisses to turn rougher as Kai sucked and nipped at the skin under Damon’s jaw. 

“I need to leave a mark somewhere I can see this time,” Kai said between kisses. “It drove me fucking crazy, knowing that you had one but that I couldn’t see it.” 

Damon very much wanted Kai to elaborate on that, but he wasn’t about to pause what they were doing to demand it. 

Then, Kai rolled his hips down in just the right way and Damon couldn’t hold back. He pulled his arms away from Kai’s grasp then grabbed his hands back, and flipped them over. 

“My turn.”

Afterward, they ended up cuddling with Damon lying on Kai’s chest. Kai was running his fingers through Damon’s hair in a soothing motion; it was almost enough to make Damon fall asleep. 

However, he still had some questions. 

“So. Uh. Where did that come from?”

The fingers stopped. 

“Are you about to ask us to be friends again?”

“What? What are you talking about?”

“I can’t do this again. It’s cruel, Damon. If you only want to be friends, stop kissing me.”

“You’re the one that wanted to be friends!” 

After a slight pause, Kai’s hand began to move again. “Only because it was better than you hating me. And I thought it would be good enough but then you have to go and say the most romantic shit and I just can’t get a read on you.”

“I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable,” Damon said honestly. “I was trying my best to be your friend. I know you only see me platonically.”

As he said that, he realized that he was implying that he saw Kai in a way that wasn’t strictly platonic. 

Ah, fuck it. They’d made out twice now; it was stupid for Damon to keep denying it. 

He was down bad for Kai fucking Monteago.

Kai actually laughed out loud at that. “What are you talking about? I haven’t seen you in a platonic way maybe ever.”

Damon blinked. “Then why did you ask to be just friends?”

“I didn’t say just friends,” Kai huffed. “I said ‘friends’ for established reasons. I didn’t want to push it and ask for anything more.”

“Like more kissing?”

“Among other stuff, I guess.”

Damon tried to look at Kai, but the other’s hand kept his head firmly in place.

“Why did you think I wouldn’t want to do more kissing? I think about kissing you all the time.”

Shit. He probably shouldn’t have said that- but Kai started to reply before he could backtrack. 

“Because as soon as you had a chance you ran and hid in the bathroom?”

“I wasn’t hiding,” Damon lied. 

“You were in there for like half an hour. You didn’t even bother flushing the toilet when you came out.”

“I was just nervous,” Damon admitted, though it was painful. “I thought you were drunk and you’d regret it in the morning.”

“The only thing I regretted was getting up to answer the door,” Kai clarified. “Oh my god, you’re so dumb.”

“How am I the dumb one?” Damon exclaimed, a little offended. 

“I have been sending you massive signals for weeks, in hopes that you’d pick up on them and change your mind. We literally went on a date.”

“When?” That was impossible. Damon would remember going on a date. 

“To the diner!”

“Oh. I didn’t know that was a date. You didn’t say anything!”

He felt a little cheated, honestly. If he’d known it was a date he would’ve paid for both of them.

“Well it was supposed to be whatever you wanted it to be!”

“That’s stupid!”

Really, it was ridiculous moments like these that reminded Damon why he initially found Kai so infuriating. 

“I didn’t realize you have the emotional intelligence of a two year old.”

Damon took some offence to that; he was certainly more intelligent than a two year old in every possible way. 

“Fine. Well. I was going to ask if you wanted to go on a real date, but I guess you wouldn’t want that.”

“No!” Kai yanked Damon’s head upward so he could look into his eyes. “I do want that. Very much.”

“Ow,” Damon deadpanned. 

He wanted to be annoyed about the hair pulling, but honestly he found it a little hot. 

“Why don’t we plan it tomorrow?” he suggested. 

“Why not tonight?” Kai asked?

Damon smirked. “I have plans for other things we can do tonight.”

“Oh,” Kai caught his insinuation immediately. “Okay. Yes. Good plan. Date, tomorrow.”

Kai was rambling a little too much for Damon’s liking, so he leaned in to shut him up. 

Chapter Text

Dating Kai was really awesome.

It was like when they were friends, except they also got to make out and Damon didn’t have to keep pretending that he wasn’t insanely attracted to him. 

Of course, it was also distracting. Especially when he was trying to do debate prep. 

“Kai, this is serious,” Damon sighed as Kai peppered kisses on the back of his neck. “I have to be prepared.”

“You don’t like my kisses?” Kai whined, his eyes filling up with fake tears. 

Sometimes, Damon remembered why they hated each other so much when they first met. 

“I will kiss you as much as you want after I finish this. You know how important this is.”

Thanks to his newfound internet fame, the BBC had asked him to compete in a televised debate against some of the world’s most respected speakers. Damon knew that this was a huge opportunity to prove to the world that he deserved his talent, and that he was a force to be reckoned with.

He couldn’t afford to take it less than 100% seriously. Even if that meant missing out on kissing his boyfriend for a few hours. 

“Fine. I’ll go hang out with Diana until you’re done.”

“Have fun.”

On any other night, Damon would’ve given Kai exactly what he wanted. It sucked to have to be responsible, and it sucked even more to have to say no to Kai. 

Saying no to him wasn’t something Damon did very often, at least not after they’d officially got together. No one in their class knew they were dating yet (since they wanted to keep their romantic lives private) but they had picked up on Damon’s ‘simp’ behaviour. 

It was impossible to win; when he was ignoring Kai’s wishes he was deemed an asshole, and when he was following them he was somehow whipped. 

After a couple more hours of research, he decided that he’d worked hard enough. It had nothing to do with the fact that Kai had just returned.

“Did you miss me?” Kai asked the same stupid question he did every time he returned back to the dorm. 

“Of course.”

Really, the best part of their secret relationship was that Damon didn’t have to feel any embarrassment for being cheesy. He’d never say something like that in front of literally anyone else. 

Kai only had to share his attention for two more days- after that it was time for the debate. Damon stayed diligent, ignoring every single whine that Kai gave him. Really, you’d think his boyfriend would be more supportive of him. 

On the day of the debate, Kai waited with him backstage.  

“Good luck out there.” Kai kissed him on the nose after he was given his mic. 

“Thank you.”

There was more Damon wanted to say, but he was hyper aware of how many eyes could potentially be watching them. He settled for squeezing Kai’s hand, then walked out onto the stage. 

It was electric up there; he hadn’t done a proper debate since high school, and even then he had never been properly challenged. He came out on top, of course, but it was exhilarating to face competition that was nearly on his level. When all was said and done, and Damon was declared the winner, he walked off the stage absolutely buzzing. 

Kai practically tackled him into a hug as soon as he was out of view of the cameras. “You did so well, oh my god. You’re amazing.”

“I’ve had lots of practise, arguing with you.”

Damon felt something pressing into his back; once Kai pulled away from the hug, he presented a bouquet of (slightly squished) flowers. 

“I’m glad you brought it up, because to be honest there were some moments you were really pissing me off. Not ‘cause I was disagreeing with you, you were just reminding me how annoying you are to fight with.”

Despite the insult, he took the flowers. 

“And you’re any better? Seriously. You refuse to listen to any logic, even when it’s crystal clear I’m right.”

“You always think you’re right!”

“I normally am!”

It wasn’t a real fight, of course; just a bit of fun. Damon recognized that they weren’t a very conventional couple but he didn’t care very much. Neither of them were conventional people. 

Bickering with Kai has felt like such a core part of their relationship that it would be stupid to give it up. Forcing the other to acknowledge that he’s right was one of his favourite past times.

When they got back to Eden’s, Damon just wanted to fall into his bed. He couldn’t, however, because the rest of his class had insisted on throwing a party in his honour. He tried to argue against it, but Diana told him that they always celebrated anyone in the class’ successes. 

They could pretend it was for him all they wanted- Damon knew the truth; they just wanted an excuse to party. 

Not that he wouldn’t attend- Kai would never let him skip out on something their classmates had thrown in his honour. Plus, he was making an effort to be slightly less of an asshole. Or- at least more considerate of his words.

The Dining Hall erupted into cheers as soon as he and Kai entered, and everyone started showering him with praise. So many people were talking to him that he found it overwhelming.

“Damon! That was sick!”

“You crushed them!”

“Well done, you’ve represented our Academy well.”

“We saw the whole thing on TV! That’s awesome!”

“I bet your opponents are going to cry themselves to sleep tonight!”

Unable to stop them, he allowed his classmates to get all of their excitement out. Once they stopped speaking he said a simple, “Thank you."

With that, his novelty wore off. People naturally scattered so he was able to blend into the background a little more- just how he liked. It wasn’t like he loathed attention, he just loathed having to return it.

“I’m going to go say hi to Eva,” he informed Kai. He wanted to give his boyfriend a kiss on the cheek before he left him, but with all of their classmates around he (unfortunately) had to refrain.

Eva was, predictably, sitting alone in a comfy armchair in the back corner of the room. “Hello,” she greeted him when he approached. 

“Hey.”

“Congrats on your big win.”

“Thank you.”

“Was it fun to compete again?”

“Yes.” Damon smirked. “Even though I knew I’d win.”

“Interesting,” Eva hummed. “I always found competitions boring- mathlete competitions of course. I liked being right, but I thought certain victory took all the excitement out of it.”

“Maybe the problem is mathletes.”

“Maybe."

Eva looked thoughtful; Damon wanted to ask more but she spoke again before he had the chance. 

“Sorry, this is your night. Let’s not talk about me.”

“No, it’s interesting.” Damon insisted, “I’m a little tired of talking about myself, anyway.”

“I’m shocked that’s even possible, honestly.”

“What the hell?”

“I mean, with your ego."

“I’m going to go find someone else to talk to.”

He didn’t, of course. Instead they had a conversation about some new science paper Eva was working on; he admired her for being so willing to explore passions outside of her talent. He couldn’t relate, though; he didn’t really have much interest in anything not related to debate. Since the subject matter was so broad, he never ran out of new things to learn. 

Eventually, Kai came over with a drink. “Punch? Jett’s specialty.”

Damon took the drink from Kai and sniffed it suspiciously; he recoiled at the smell. “Jesus Christ. Is there rubbing alcohol in this?”

Frankly, it smelled almost as bad as Jett normally did.

“Maybe,” Kai giggled. “That’s why I didn’t bring you any, Eva.”

“I appreciate that.”

“Come socialize with everyone,” Kai whined. “It’s your party! You shouldn’t be hiding in the corner. No offence, Eva.”

“None taken.”

Damon sighed. “I don’t feel like socializing.”

He never did after a debate; after spending hours coming up with the perfect way to articulate his argument and manipulate the judges, he just wanted to sleep. 

Still, Kai was looking at him with this sad expression and was he really going to say no to his boyfriend? No. Of course not.

“Fine,” he agreed, because he was a weak man.

“Awesome! Cassidy said she has an idea for a game.”

That wasn’t what he’d agreed to, but Kai was already pulling him toward the bigger group. He looked back at Eva helplessly, yet she didn’t move a muscle. It seemed he’d be facing the group alone.

Perhaps that was karma for keeping his relationship with Kai a secret from her- except that was ridiculous. Not only did Damon not believe in karma, but Eva had kept her relationship with Diana secret from him for weeks.

Suddenly, he came to a realization. He felt a little dumb for not having reached it sooner, but he couldn’t dwell on that. He needed answers.

“Hey, did you tell Diana we’re dating?” He asked quietly.

Kai stopped moving, and turned to look at him with a confused expression. “What made you think of that? And no, we agreed to keep it a secret.”

“Right. But when Eva and Diana started dating they agreed to keep it a secret, except Diana told you because you ‘didn’t count’.”

“I didn’t.”

“So does Diana count?”

Kai laughed, “Do you really want to know the answer to that question?”

“I feel like you just told me.”

“She listened to me complain about you for months- I felt like she deserved to know.”

Damon wanted to argue with that. He was a little annoyed that Kai had broken their promise but it didn’t seem like it was worth a fight. Plus, Diana probably hadn’t told anyone.

Unless she’d told Eva. But Eva would’ve told him, right?

He never told her.

Oh no.

“How many people do you think know?” He hissed.

“Probably just Eva and Diana,” Kai replied, not seeming very stressed.

“But what if they’ve told people?”

“They haven’t,” Kai replied confidently.

There wasn't really anything to say to that, so Damon resumed allowing Kai to drag him to the game. On the way over, he took a big swig of his punch; it burned badly enough that he had to cough.

“Oh my fucking god,” he complained.

Kai laughed at him. “Maybe you should just have one drink tonight.”

“Okay.”

Most of the class was sitting in a circle, clearly about to play a game. Cassidy’s eyes lit up when she saw they were approaching, “Okay! Perfect! Now we can start!”

“What are we playing?” Damon asked hesitantly. 

He looked around the circle after he and Kai sat down and noticed that the only person missing was Eva. It didn’t seem fair that she got to skip out on whatever torture the streamer had cooked up. 

“Truth or dare!” Cassidy cheered. “But remember Toshiko is here, so nothing too crazy.”

Toshiko huffed, “Hey! Stop treating me like a kid!”

“Yeah! How will we have fun without crazy dares?” Jett complained, almost certainly missing Cassidy’s innuendo. 

“Why don’t we just start,?” Diana suggested. She was sitting between Eloise and Ingrid, seemingly happy to allow her girlfriend to skip out on the game. How enviable. 

“As host, I’ll go first!” Cassidy decided. Then, she produced a glass bottle from behind her back and placed it in the circle. 

She gave it a good spin; the group watched it go around and around until it stopped whilst pointing at Mark. 

The producer looked a little put off by all the attention. 

“Truth or dare.”

“I guess it would be lame to start with something other than dare,” Mark muttered. 

“Woo!” Cassidy cheered. “Okay, um. I dare you to do the default dance!”

Mark blinked at her. 

Thank God the bottle hadn’t landed on Damon: he had no idea what the default dance was. 

“What’s the penalty for skipping a dare?” Mark asked, thankfully. Damon needed to know what his options were. 

“You get declared the Ultimate Chicken, obviously.”

Ah, so his only choice was to complete any challenge thrown at him. 

“Fine,” the producer sighed, then stood up and performed a ridiculous dance. Damon laughed even though he didn’t entirely get the joke. 

“It’s from Fortnite,” Kai whispered to him. 

Next, Mark asked Ulysses what the worst secret he has in his notebook is. He claimed it was one of Tozu’s but he was unable elaborate what it was. 

Then Ulysses dared Jean to show them his search history, which was ridiculously boring. It was all just full of searches for different kinds of boats.

It continued for a couple more rounds without landing on either Kai or Damon.

“Oh, look! Truth or dare, Damon?”

Of course it was Toshiko; not only had his luck run out but he also had to deal with whatever the gremlin wanted him to do. Toshiko had gotten off easy- only having to balance on one foot for the next ten minutes. 

Honestly, playing with everyone had only reinforced how ridiculously juvenile the game truly was- Damon felt silly for being scared at first. He was getting so bored, he almost wished that things were a little more juicy. At least then they’d be interesting. 

Of course, they could get juicy after his turn. He’d be happy with a simple task.

“Dare,” he answered. While she was irritating, he doubted she’d be creative enough to come up with anything too terrible. 

“I dare you to kiss the person you find cutest in this room.” 

Fuck. 

“Isn’t that going a little too far?” He looked to Cassidy for help. 

“I’ll allow it.”

Faced with no other option, Damon leaned over and gave Kai a peck on the cheek. No way was he going to properly kiss him in front of these losers. 

Everyone started to go crazy, which was a little annoying. It really wasn’t that big of a deal; even if they weren’t boyfriends what was a kiss on the cheek between friends? 

“Geez, you’re all so dramatic. It’s not like it’s the first time.”

Kai whipped around to look at Damon after he spoke. Damon shrugged back at him; if Eva and Diana already knew then there was no point in keeping it a secret for much longer. Eventually, no matter how much they trusted their friends, the information would spread. 

Plus, maybe there would be some benefits to not having to hide their relationship. 

“Sorry,” Toshiko interrupted their silent conversation. “Could you specify when exactly the first time would’ve been?”

“The first time he kissed me on the cheek? Why would you care about that?” Kai questioned. 

“Please say it was three weeks ago,” Jett pleaded. 

This wasn’t the reaction Damon expected. 

“No, it was definitely only last week,” Ingrid of all people asserted. 

Suddenly, Wolfgang rose from the ground. He did so in a stupid, annoying, graceful way- not stumbling for a second. There was something infuriating about how much confidence he was able to carry. 

“I believe I can shed a light on what happened,” Wolfgang explained. “The first time they kissed was Halloween night, after they both stormed out of the party. Their proper relationship started much later though, right after Toshiko matched them up for her presentation.”

Damon blinked. How did Wolfgang know all that? Slowly, he turned to face Kai.  

“You told Wolfgang?”

His voice came out deathly calm, but inside a storm was brewing. It didn’t matter how much he cared for Kai- he would not be able to look past such a betrayal. To go to his biggest enemy and tell him private details of their relationship would be unforgivable. 

Kai scoffed, looking genuinely offended. “Do you actually think I’d do that?”

“How does he know?”

Wolfgang interjected, “It’s quite easy, actually. Sometime in October, Kai approached me with a proposition. An opportunity to get back at Damon for being such an insufferable asshole. Of course, I agreed. Kai alleged that all we needed to do was spend the afternoon together in their dorm room, and Damon would go crazy. I hardly believed it’d work, but just as he said, Damon nearly went ballistic. I realized in that moment that Damon must be feeling jealous. Except, that would only make sense if he harboured feelings for Kai.” 

“I’ve never been jealous of you,” Damon spat. 

“Allow me to finish, please.” Wolfgang requested. Needing to know what came next, Damon obliged. “Now, Kai being so interested in riling Damon up could only mean there was some shared interest. I saw the chance to gift two of my classmates some happiness. So I proposed to Kai that we continue to charade at Tozu’s Halloween party, to make Damon even more upset. Unfortunately, Grace didn’t like this plan very much, but I’d say it did the job. Especially considering the drastic shift in their relationship we all witnessed the very next day. Hence, their first kiss.”

“That’s insane,” Damon couldn’t help but say. “You wanted to piss me off that badly?”

“Of course not,” Wolfgang huffed. 

“How were you okay with this?” Damon turned to Grace. 

“I obviously fucking wasn’t.”

Wolfgang put a hand up. “May I continue? See, this is when many of our classmates began to also notice the budding relationship between you two. Class bets started being made; I don’t think anyone else realized the depth of your relationship developments, though. I hated to see the distance between you two, truly, so I suggested young Toshiko do a presentation on partnerships she’d believe would flourish.”

“Wait.” Toshiko looked confused. “That was about these two?”

“I knew you’d include them, and it would give them the kickstart they needed.”

It was Grace who realized it first: “But that was the day you bet they’d get together. You used Toshiko to win the pool.”

“The bet was secondary to my primary motive of finding these two love.”

“You’re psychotic!” Damon accused, standing up to point at Wolfgang properly. “You fucked around with our lives like that?”

“Are you not happy in your relationship? What’s the problem?”

“It’s like, violating! So is the bet!”

At least Kai was on his side. 

“It was just a little bit of fun,” Wenona sighed. “We should’ve known you’d be such babies about it.”

“We aren’t being babies!”

“We didn’t mean to make you upset,” Ingrid said earnestly. 

“You’ve gotten a presumably happy relationship, and on the side we had a little fun. Is there anything wrong with that?” Wolfgang reasoned. 

Cassidy chimed in, “Think of it as us being invested in your relationship!”

“Yeah! Financially!” Damon cried- Kai laughed a little at that. 

He was spiralling just a little bit; how much of his relationship had happened because of fucking Wolfgang? Damon hated the guy more than literally anyone else in the world and he could not owe the best thing in his life to him. The bet he could get over- fucking Wolfgang messing with his life? He’d rather die. 

“I’m sorry if we hurt your feelings.” Toshiko looked so sad that Damon felt compelled to comfort her. 

“It’s fine. Whatever.”

“Yeah,” Kai agreed, then took Damon’s hand. “It all worked out in the end.”

Everyone awed at that, which caused Damon to get irritated again. None of them had the right to fawn over his relationship. 

“I’m very tired so we’re going to bed now. Good night.” Damon didn’t wait for them to reply before dragging Kai out of the room. 

“I can’t believe they bet on us,” he complained once they were in the hall.

Kai laughed, “Isn’t that a compliment? An invasion of privacy too, but like it just means they saw the vision.”

“The vision?”

“That we’re perfect together. Born to be together.”

“That’s so corny.”

“It’s romantic!”

Damon didn’t agree. Still, he simply held Kai’s hand and walked with him to their room. When they got there, they had a good makeout session. Just because Damon was in a bad mood and those always seemed to cheer him up. 

Their class never apologized for the bet, in fact they started placing more bets on different aspects of their relationship. Would they go home for the holidays or would they stay together? Who would get the other the better Valentine’s Day gift? When would their first breakup be, and how many hours would it last?

That last one never panned out; Damon figured he and Kai could collect all the money from that at some point, since it would never happen.

His first year at Eden’s Garden’s Academy ended up being shockingly fruitful. He made big strides in his personal, romantic, and professional life. Plus, he learned the power of the internet, as well as the power of pretending to be kind to people. 

Some days he hated the sap he turned into, but then Kai would smile at him and he would realize that it wasn’t so bad after all. 

Not that he’d ever say that out loud; he still had an image to keep up, after all. 

At the end of the year, it was time to make decisions about what would happen when they returned in the fall. 

“Hey,” Eva approached him one day in the hall. “Um, this is technically against the rules but I have a lot of money riding on you and Kai moving in together on campus. Everyone thinks you’ll be off campus, but none of them know you can’t drive. So. Uh. Don’t fuck it up, please.”

She left before he could respond. How had things gotten so out of hand that even Eva was participating?

It was the second last day of classes, so when he returned to their room, Kai was packing up. The sight made him a little sad to see. 

“Hi babe. How was your afternoon?”

Ugh. Babe. Damon only allowed Kai to call him that in private. Something about it felt so juvenile, though if it made Kai happy then he’d suck it up. 

“It was alright. Did you know they’re betting on where we’ll live next year?”

“We should bring it to Tozu. They’re going to like, develop gambling addictions.”

“Let them.”

Damon flopped onto his bed. He hadn't started packing yet; ironically, he loathed to even think about leaving the school. Obviously he’d be back in only a couple months, but it would be a couple lonely months without Kai.

Even he knew how codependent that sounded, so he didn’t voice it to anyone. Not even Kai.

“We should probably talk about that,” Kai suggested, joining Damon on his bed. He laid his head on Damon’s shoulder, which always made it a little more difficult to think. 

“Eva bet on us moving into a second year dorm together.”

“She knows us so well.”

“Is that what you’ve been thinking?” Damon asked, suddenly shy. 

They haven’t spoken about it yet. Damon wasn’t sure what Kai wanted to do, and he didn’t want to presume that he’d even still want to live with him. Yes, they were dating, but maybe Kai was looking for some space. 

Damon honestly didn’t care either way- whatever Kai wanted, he’d be happy with. 

“I guess it makes sense. Unless you want to drive every day. Or take the bus.”

“Too many people on the bus. They give me a headache.”

“Plus on-campus housing would be free.”

“The economical option, for sure.”

There was a pause. Damon forced himself to say, “So I guess we just have to figure out if we want our own dorms or not.”

Kai sat up and looked at him quickly, an unreadable expression on his face. “Would you want that? Splitting up?”

“If you want that.”

“That’s not what I’m asking. I don’t want to force you into a situation you’re unhappy with.”

Damon sighed, “As long as I’m with you and you’re happy, I’ll be happy. I don’t mind if we sleep in separate places.” 

Kai furrowed his eyebrows together. It was as alarming as it was cute. “I wouldn’t be happy if we slept in separate places. I’d miss you too much. But if that’s what you want I’ll respect that.”

“Why would I want that?” Damon wondered, confused. He knew he wasn’t always the most romantic, but he hoped he wasn’t giving Kai the impression that he wanted to get rid of him.

“Because you just suggested we could live on our own?”

“Not because I want to. Just to make sure you don’t.”

“Of course I don’t. Idiot.”

“How am I the idiot?”

“You’re causing trouble for no reason!”

“I’m not causing trouble! I’m being considerate, asshole.”

“I actually hate you. So much.” 

Kai said it with a stupid affectionate smile. Then, he leaned down and gave Damon a kiss that showed him just how much he meant it. 

“I hate you too,” Damon mumbled against his mouth.

“Shut up.”

“Okay.”