#first chap in a hot minute where none of the other yuus show up

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

Yuu can do it!

Part 19

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Masterlist

Ito ended up being the one to look for a table. Enma and Kuroki had stayed behind to place their orders, and Ito had left Grim with Kuroki to babysit because they were pretty sure the monster wouldn’t even think twice about ignoring them if they asked him to do something. Grim had not, surprisingly, complained about this arrangement… but it wasn’t that surprising, because staying behind meant he got to bully Kuroki into getting him extra food.

So, they walked around, quietly looking for an empty table in the crowded cafeteria. It seemed like almost everywhere was taken, an unfortunate side effect of not being there to claim a spot on the first day, and they ended up leaning against a tray return to avoid standing in the middle of a crowded pathway, trying to figure out what to do.

There were trays in the return already, they noted with mild confusion. Was there another lunch period before this?

They shook their head to clear the thought and continued their search. Maybe they could eat outside? Should they join a random table and hope for the best? They could always fight someone for a spot, they supposed…?

They registered a strange flurry of movement out of the corner of their eyes and looked over to find the white-haired boy from the ceremony (the one that they had been on friendly terms with, not Azul Ashengrotto or the weird dog-hybrid-person-thing). He was trying to wave them over.

Well, it wasn’t like they had many other options. They shifted the backpack strap on their back and then started over, trying for a winning smile. “Nice to see you again,” they said.

The white-haired boy nodded fervently, his hair bouncing just slightly with the movement. “You too!” And then he slowed somewhat, his bright smile falling at the edges. “Aren’t you supposed to be home by now?”

They winced. “Yeah. That, uh, didn’t end up working out. The mirror apparently doesn’t recognize my homeland, so the other magicless students and I are stuck here until Crowley finds a solution.”

The other boy at the table seemed intrigued.

The familiar one’s smile fell even more. “Oh? That sucks. Are you okay?”

Oh, well, I killed a guy yesterday and now I’m getting lunch, they thought.

“It’s going,” was all they offered up.

They seemed to get the general idea (general, because murder wasn’t exactly a normal thing to assume when someone was having a bad day), and their kinda-friend-kinda-stranger looked like he wanted to push, but he was stopped short when the person he was with got to their feet and took a step towards Ito, their hand out.

“Well, as Kalim Al-Asim’s caretaker, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for helping him at the ceremony. If there’s anything we can do to thank you, let me know.”

They stared at the hand for a moment before giving it a short shake. “Can't really do that without your name,” they said, a little amused.

The boy gave a thin smile. Dark brown eyes crinkled at the edges, but there was no real warmth there. “Jamil Viper. Second year.”

“You can call me Ito,” they said. “And… it was nothing, really. I literally tackled him in the process, so, I think that cancels it out.”

He nodded once. “Tell me if you change your mind.”

In comparison to Kalim, Jamil was someone most wouldn’t look twice at. His school-brand jacket was pulled over a simple red hoodie. His hood wasn’t up, revealing tan skin and long, meticulously maintained black hair that was pulled back into a ponytail. They looked more ‘normal’ than most of the people they had met so far. Ito was almost relieved to find someone that looked like a regular person they might see back home.

For sentimental reasons.

Also because…

“Actually… sorry if this is weird, but what hair oil do you use?” They asked, rubbing the back of their neck with a sheepish smile.

He gave them a strange look. “Sorry?”

“Your hair looks kinda similar to mine. Y’know, texture-wise,” they explained, resisting the urge to shove their hands in their pockets. “And I doubt that this place has my old brand.”

Kalim brightened, almost jumping to his feet in his excitement. “Oh! What’s the brand? I could get it shipped here!”

Ito blinked in surprise, but they found themself leaning in and smiling all the same. The boy’s glee was almost infectious. “You don’t have to do that.”

“But I do! I’d like to pay you back for all the stuff at the ceremony.”

Ito shook their head. Normally, if someone was insisting like this, they would have simply given in by now. It was too much of a hassle not to. But they didn't really have a choice here. “I’d consider it fair if he just gave me the name of his haircare brand.”

Kalim’s cheeks puffed in a pout, but Jamil seemed almost relieved. He reached into his bag for a scrap of paper to write on.

Eventually, Ito managed to get a hold of his haircare routine. They smiled at the old receipt for a new set of headphones. Not because they particularly cared for receipts nor headphones, but because a brand they had never heard of was scrawled across the back of it. They’d been right in their assumptions. While some brands were similar, like Coke, others were not. It was a good thing to remember going forward.

They glanced around, now, wondering if they should sit at the duo’s relatively empty table or find another place, but Kalim was already grabbing their hand and dragging them down to sit before they could even think of walking away.

The smell of spices caught their attention and they cast their eyes down to find what looked to be thareed. Honestly, for a different dimension, not too much was different (magic and names aside, of course). The food certainly wasn’t too different, even if it tasted a little off. Slang wasn’t that different. Hell, even the fact that Ito could understand them all was a miracle, even if English wasn’t their first language –.

“Now that that’s all settled, you should eat before your next class!”

Ito snapped out of their thoughts. It took them a second to process the words that had buzzed past their ears. And then they nodded. They did like food. Not starving to death was always preferred.

“I’ll be eating, don’t worry, my friends are in line getting food right now… oh, right, that reminds me! Kalim, can they –,” they started, only to stop instantly.

Jamil had tensed up the moment Ito had said Kalim’s name. They had definitely committed some kind of faux-pas, but they weren’t really sure what.

At least Kalim didn’t seem all that concerned, only pausing his intense shoveling of food into his mouth for a second. “Where’re ya from?” He asked, covering his mouth with his hand while he spoke to make up for the fact that he was talking while it was full like a heathen.

(... did they have a God here? Was being a heathen a thing? Nope. That’s a thought they should have later…)

Ito had to fight to keep their expression from dropping in mild terror. Instead, they pulled it into their best approximation of embarrassment. “Do I really stand out that much?”

Kalim swallowed just in time to give a good-natured laugh without choking. “No, that’s not why you stand out.”

Ito raised an eyebrow at him, but he was back to eating. Which, good for him, the food looked very appetizing. But also. What?

They looked to Jamil and made a vague gesture that could have meant ‘explain!’ or ‘look at him!’ depending on the context. Since Kalim was just spooning food into his mouth, the first interpretation was the only one that made sense. Hopefully.

“Titles are really important in Common,” Jamil offered.

Ito nodded slowly, their lips pulling into a frown. Okay. They were going to have to ask Kuroki to give them a full rundown on all of the different suffixes later, then, if it was so important that people could immediately peg them as an outsider because of them.

“Oh,” they murmured, sighing. Now that they thought about it, Enma and Kuroki wouldn’t be bothering to tell people to use their first names if it was normal to use them. “So… last names… and then I add…” Their eyebrows furrowed. Kuroki tended to use ‘-chan’, but that seemed like more of a condescending thing than a proper one, based on their conversation earlier and the general tone he used when saying it. Enma used the ‘-san’ suffix a lot, and he was overall pretty polite to people he didn’t know, so... “‘-san’, right? So, Viper-san?”

Jamil made a so-so motion with his hand. “I’m older than you, so actually you would call me ‘Viper-senpai’, but yes, if we were the same age that would be correct.”

Senpai? Like in anime? Shit, they really should have paid more attention to those shows Ari was always watching…

Ito nodded slowly, and then turned to Kalim. “And how do I do yours? From what I remember the ‘Al’ part of ‘Al-Asim’ is like… a ‘belongs to the Asim family’ type thing, so do I include that in your title or…?”

Kalim looked mildly surprised. “You know the language of the Scalding Sands?”

They tipped their head from side to side, scrunching their nose. Calling Arabic ‘the language of the Scalding Sands’ felt weird. Stupid magic world and its stupid magic words.

“I know a little about a lot of languages.”

“That’s so cool! Are you a merchant or ambassador, too? How come I’ve never heard of you?” He asked, leaning forward with bright eyes.

“Uh – not really, I don’t think you would have heard about me…”

They cleared their throat awkwardly. Kalim was easy to talk to, but too easy to talk to, in a way. They were tempted to just admit to everything, because he looked so sweet and innocent and lying even by omission felt wrong with someone like him. But they weren’t going to tell the truth, either.

“Anyways, I still don’t know how to address you,” they said, raising their eyebrow playfully.

He seemed to mull this over for a few moments before brightening. “You can call me Kalim-senpai!”

(Jamil gave a tiny sigh. They got the feeling he did that a lot. At least it wasn’t really aimed at them.)

“Okay then, Kalim-senpai.”

Kalim nodded cheerily. “It’s nice to formally meet you, Ito-kun.” Then, he clapped his hands together once. “Great! Now that all that’s out of the way! How are you liking school so far?”

They leaned in conspiratorially. “Honestly, I was so confused in Crewel… -sama’s? I think that’s what he said to call him. Crewel-sama’s class. I swear, half of those things weren’t even words.”

“Oh, well, as your senpai it is my job to help you!” He said, pressing a hand to his chest. “If you need any tutoring I’d love to –!”

“Kalim,” sighed Jamil. They got the distinct impression that Jamil sighed like that a lot. “You are hardly passing your own classes.”

Kalim deflated a little. “Oh. Right.” But he was quick to brighten back up again. “Well, Jamil teaches me, so he can teach you, too!”

For a brief second, Jamil looked like he would rather shove an entire lemon into his mouth, peel and all, and bite down.

Ito had to fight not to laugh. “Ah, no thanks. Who knows if I’ll even be here that long, y’know?”

Well, considering Crowley was the one tasked with finding them a way home, they had their doubts that it would be done in a timely manner… but Let’s Not Think About That.

Kalim frowned thoughtfully. “I guess that’s true… but where are you from?”

“It’s nowhere that you’d know of,” they shrugged. “I mean, the magic, apparently all-knowing mirror didn’t know of it, so –.”

Jamil gave them a weird, almost suspicious look. “Why are you avoiding talking about where you’re from?”

Damn, they’d been caught.

And, listen, manipulation is bad. Do not manipulate your friends unless you have to to keep your identity as an accidental dimension hopper a secret, in which case you have many more pressing matters to think about than morality and it is perfectly understandable.

Ito cast their eyes downward and lied through their teeth: “I just… don’t want to talk about home right now, y’know? It’s easier.”

Jamil and Kalim both tensed. No one wants a person to cry in front of them, least of all teenage boys, so it was no surprise that Jamil was quick to bactrack. Kalim frowned and rested an arm around them in a way that was probably meant to be soothing.

They fought the urge to twiddle their thumbs. Shit, this felt awful.

Maybe they should just tell them? They had agreed with Enma and Kuroki that it was probably a bad idea to mention it to people, if dimension travel was so rare that even educators didn’t know much about it then there was no telling what the government(s?) would do if it got out that it was possible. If there was one thing that was consistent everywhere, it was the governments were always corrupt in some way, always searching for power and resources. And their original world was defenseless.

Also, they weren’t sure about the ethical practices of this world’s scientists. Who knows. Maybe they would get experimented on or something.

… but if they asked more people, maybe someone could tell them something of use?

Thankfully, their attention was pulled away by shouting on the other side of the cafeteria. They found what seemed to be a crowd forming. Maybe it was a fight?

Wait… maybe not thankfully. They sucked in air through their teeth. Now that they thought about it, their dormmates really had been taking a while.

No, the chances of it being their idiots that were in a fight were astronomically low, there were so many teenage boys in the area that it was honestly inevitable that a fight broke out. The fact that their friends weren’t back yet was irrelevant, Ito would have gotten distracted by a brewing fight, too. There was no way that it was…

They saw a puff of blue flames roar over the crowd and groaned.

Yeah, no, they should have expected this, leaving those five alone for an extended period of time could only ever lead to trouble.

They handed their backpack off to Kalim and pushed themself to their feet. “Hold this, I’m going to go beat up some idiots.”

Kalim had not been trained to be a bodyguard but was now squinting suspiciously at everyone that happened to be near them. “To help your friends? That’s sweet!”

Ito grabbed a tray from the return as they passed. “We’ll see.”

#do i love this chap #no #but can i get rid of it #also no #sad #yuu can do it! #twst fanfic #yuu twst #twst yuu #enma yuuken #kuroki yuuya #grim twst #twst grim #kalim al asim #jamil viper #first chap in a hot minute where none of the other yuus show up #maybe thats why i dont like it #give me back my forced found family dynamics #:(