[AQ] Reader Beware, You're In For A Scare [Norio/Aomi]

[Aomi]

Growing up, courage was a forty-foot drop into the bottomless blue. It was ignoring the icy thrill of regret that pierced your spine the second your feet left the cloying safety of the seaside bluff, knowing that when you did eventually surface you would be rewarded with the victory cries of your brothers on the shore behind you. Unfortunately, growing up had a way of teaching you that the fears of an adult are very different from swan diving into rocky depths. They were so much worse. It wasn't until he'd sat in the Chijima prefectural office, watching his oldest brother sign the paper that declared himself the head of household on their family registry, that he realized what bravery really was. His brother was twenty then, only three years older than Aomi was now. He had a hell of a lot more courage to build up before he could even consider himself on the same level. Unfortunately, he was pretty sure this was not the way to do it.



"Aaaand, we're in," he said to no one at all, slipping into the window he'd kept unlocked when he'd volunteered for cleanup duty after class. Honestly, this hardly even counted as sneaking in; if anything, he was taking advantage of an understaffed school board and quite frankly lackluster safety protocol. Though recently he'd been getting the feeling that the proprietors of Seiyo cared less about their students breaking the rules and more about students getting caught breaking the rules. Whatever, he'd play along to their weird egg-based chūnin exams for now. It wasn't like he was hurting anything anyway by participating in his fellow third-years stupid 'test of courage'. Though he didn't particularly believe in ghosts to begin with, and didn't really consider sleeping in a place he already sleeps in regularly as a real measurement of his mettle, he'd jumped at the chance to take part in the little game. As far as he was concerned, this was a two-for-one deal on free credibility and an uninterrupted nap. Plus, the time away from his cramped, five-person household didn't hurt either.



Aomi shuffled the classroom door open with one hand, flicking on his flashlight with the other; not that he really needed the light to make the familiar twists and turns. Within a minute he was quietly easing the library door open, stepping past the threshold and into a very, very interesting night. 

[Norio]

There were many adjectives that made up Norio’s book of self descriptors: while many of the words he would chose to define himself were fairly negative in nature, he was willing to admit to himself he had one or two points that made him not deplorable. Bravery, however, wasn’t among them. So it was clearly a little beyond him that he would agree with his peers to spend a night at the school of all places for a test of courage when he already knew that courage wasn’t even a trait he had to begin with. That is, until he remembered the all-too-clear burning desire to be accepted amongst his peers that festered like an ugly knot in his gut. His mother had always warned him that “people are social creatures!”, but in a situation like this he couldn’t help but resent his own patheticness.

A sheep is nothing without his flock, he waxed to himself as his teenage angst grew with the night’s proceedings.

It was just getting around the time to get in the building when Norio sort of noticed there was a significant issue with his situation- there wasn’t exactly a memo of how he was supposed to get into the school building, just to get in it. As if it were the most straightforward activity in the world. As someone who didn’t have the common sense to prepare, too, Norio very quickly realized this was probably going to be the death sentence for whatever nerve he had worked up just to walk from his dorm to the damn school building anyway. What was he going to do to explain himself? ‘Yes, uh, I didn’t actually spend the night at the school because I sort of just thought I’d waltzed into the school on my own.’ Yeah. Sounds about right. Like anyone would take him seriously after that.

Just to be sure, though, he took a long walk around campus, trying every door that he could. They were all locked- except one. A fire exit that seemed to not have been closed all the way, just enough that the lock didn’t click into place. This was either a sign from the heavens that this stupid mistake was fated, or that the security of Seiyo is just really, extremely, terribly awful.

So he stood in the school, among the darkness, hands jammed deep in his hoodie pocket as his noodle legs remained ramrod straight in a small wave of anxiety. He wasn’t exactly prepared for this other than the fact he only brought himself a small, pencil-length flashlight for protection against things that go bump in the night. He regretted not bringing a blanket. He could really appreciate a safety blanket right now. The thoughts that scattered like ricocheted bullets across his mind were just as lame as he didn’t want to be perceived as, so Norio had to physically pull his leg forward just to get a step into the school building. His small light flicked on in his hand as he walked in an anxious autopilot towards the poor literature club, which involuntarily became home base for his nightly excursion.

He was alone. For a moment, anyway. It’s true that the challenge never specified whether or not he would be with someone for the night, but he had hoped. His first instinct was to crawl under the desk pressed up the wall for some minor levels of comfort, but stopped halfway as a distant sound of footprints echoed a little far off. Norio’s blood ran ice cold for a single moment- eyes widening in a moment of fear before he talked himself through it. In all likelihood, he told himself, another student actually had the sense to get into the school without floundering like a fish like I did for the challenge. Don’t piss yourself yet.

It was comforting, but it didn’t wipe the stupefied look on his face as he remained frozen in a half standing, half crouched position, one hand stuck in the air in a barely formed greeting as a 6’ monster stood in the doorway of the lit clubroom.

“H-Hell-fuckin-lo!?!”

[Aomi]

In daylight, Aomi had always thought the boy was like an insect's wing; thinner than most, strangely angular at parts, and deceptively strong. Not strong in the "could take a punch" way, of course, as much had been proven after last week's run-in with dyejob mcstripperabs. Aomi got the feeling that Norio's strength was far more practical; he could bear the weight of himself. Even when he was flapping himself into a frenzy, cussing up a storm to hide his obvious trepidation. That was a talent most couldn't claim at this age.

"Katsumi," he sighed, letting the shine of his flashlight roam up and down him in obvious scrutiny. In this pale light he looked more fragile than ever, his normally swarthy skin the color of aged parchment. He even played the part; hunched over and rolled up, as if trying to curl in on himself. Aomi huffed a momentary smile, a joke shared only with himself, "At ease, Katsumi. I'm not dead yet." Finally, his searchlight moved on. He figured he owed Norio at least the small mercy of darkness.

"Cram session?" he asked, affording him no explanation or preamble. Aomi pulled a book off a nearby shelf, tucking the flashlight between his chin and shoulder so he could flip through the pages aimlessly. "Gotta tell you," he held one side of the book up in his hands, his thumb releasing pages a little at a time so that gravity would do all the work of flipping through them. Though anyone probably could have told him that you wouldn't get much out of Wuthering Heights by reading it like a centerfold magazine. "These are much better in daylight."

He paused, furrowing his brow. "Or so I hear."