Weeks went by and the summer holidays came to an end. And while Kei enjoyed the lazy days of fighting and reading, he also couldn’t wait for school to start again. He really missed his favorite teacher.

When his alarm woke him up on the first day of school, he felt kind of torn. On one side he was tired. He yearned for sleeping till noon before laying down with a good book. On the other side, he really missed Mr Young…

Sighing, Kei got up and shuffled into the kitchen. He needed tea if he wanted to survive the day.

Sleepily, he turned on his thankfully electric kettle and settled on making scrambled eggs for breakfast. He could always just take the rest of yesterdays dinner to school for lunch.

After eating breakfast, he quickly took a cold shower to wake himself up completely before putting on the sweater he made not too long ago and a green polo shirt. If you asked him, the green contrasted quite nicely with the brown of the sweater.

It was probably one of the reasons he’d never become a designer.

He quickly watered his plants, thankful for the practice he got in water magic while building his newest castle.

Finally ready to leave, he grabbed his already packed bag and slipped on his shoes before leaving his apartment and locking the door.

Thankfully there weren’t too many people up in his neighborhood at seven in the morning. He took a deep breath. The air was crisp and not too cold. All in all, it was a pleasant walk to school and a surprisingly good start into the day.

When he arrived at school, he had homeroom the first two lessons, followed by math, geography, German and PE. He quite liked math and geography while German and PE were his favorite lessons.

Seemed like he really landed a jackpot this year.

The other subjects weren’t too bad either, he never had any problems with the topics and none of the students or teachers disliked him. Alright, that may be because they physically weren’t able to… but nonetheless, Kei was happy.

And, once again, really thankful for his family.

After homeroom, he skipped down the corridors towards math. As he rounded a corner, he could see a few girls doing something with their hair and pencils while a group of boys were doing some weird kind of handshake?

Kei was puzzled. What the fuck were they doing? And why? He wondered if he’d have more friends if he did the same…

But with whom would he do stuff like that anyway? Did that mean one needed friends to get friends?

Nah, probably not. And he still had his family, didn’t he?

Kei shrugged, turning away from them. He didn’t see a reason to get himself integrated further into society. If only a tenth of them would be half as idiotic as his classmates, he’d probably just kill them sooner or later anyway. It simply wasn’t worth it.

He just had to finish school, marry Mr Young and settle down with the guy. Did he really need friends on top of that?

Kei entered the math room, sitting down in the front row. He opened his bag and took out a book about herbs he was supposed to study according to Hegemone. It was about flowers, mushrooms and other plants in the God's realm. Rather dry, but excellent right before lessons.

A few minutes later, the classroom started to fill. Shortly before the last stragglers arrived, the teacher entered, giving him today’s worksheets. Oh well, seemed like he was supposed to teach her lesson, again. Was that even legal?

Eh, at least he already learned everything in this years books (thank you very much, Nergal) so it shouldn’t be a problem.

He stood up and walked around the room, giving each student a worksheet before standing at the front and explaining today’s subject. After he finished answering questions, he started on his own sheet before giving it and his summer homework to the teacher.

He wrote a few numbers of pages for reference on the board and sat back down, picking up his book and reading until the sound of the bell.

If each lesson would go like this, he really couldn’t complain.

He put away his book and stood up, collecting his already corrected sheet and homework from the teacher before walking to geography.

He quite liked the subject, it was a great inspiration for designing his own realm, along with biology and history.

In the back even were some showcases with different minerals, jewels and stones he liked to copy. He got the idea to build the walls of one of his castles in different shades of sandstone from here. And he used quartz for a gift for Hestia once.

Now that he thought about it… he was quite boring, wasn’t he? He was reading most of the time, sometimes building castles and training his magic, which was more bothersome than it might sound, and while he liked to bake and cook, he disliked going shopping and creating food in the Mortal Realm was considered a no-go by Hekate. All in all, he didn’t use his kitchen very often.

What else did he do in his free time...?

Well, he fought... and he looked after his plants. And sometimes he had to work with the vampires to avoid their doom once again. Politics suck.

Would Young even like him? All his hobbies were boring and rather repetitive. What would they even do together? Oh god, what if-

The door opened and the teacher entered, distracting Kei and averting a mental breakdown at the last second.

The teacher mostly talked about weather and deserts or something like that, Kei lost focus after less than half an hour, having to learn all about it for gathering herbs when he was younger.

He already missed his family, maybe he should visit them again?

The bell rung and the students filed out, running and shoving on the way to the cafeteria, hoping to still get a hot dog. Monday was hot dog day, it actually tasted pretty shitty if you asked Kei, but the students seemed to like it. Maybe it simply was a part of some high school experience?

Kei sneaked away, climbing the stairs to the rooftop, hoping to bump into Mr Young. He used to eat on the roof alone when he was younger, but since he met Young there towards the end of last school year, Kei seemed to run across him there more and more often.

He assumed the teacher was doing it intentionally, although he had no idea why.

When he reached the door he pressed his ear against it, not wanting to run into any teachers that weren’t Young.

After a few minutes went by he figured the roof was clear, slowly opening the door and peaking his head through the gap.

Kei entered fully, climbing on top of the small roof of the shed on top of the school. Mr Young told him that once there was a gardening club using it, but that it’s been over ten years since anyone officially used it. There were still some benches and a broken sink left.

He set down on the edge, softly swinging his legs and taking out his food. He brought a little more in hopes of sharing with his teacher even though he wasn’t sure if it would be needed.

He sighed, enjoying the view over the schoolyard and adjourning forest. It was sunny but not too warm, a pleasant breeze waving through his hair.

He set down his food, laying down on his back and closing his eyes. From this position he could feel the sun even better, warming his face and body while the wind caressed his skin softly.

His back touched the warm concrete of the roof. It felt suprisingly nice, somehow softer?

His lips turned up, eyes crinkled at the corners. Now all that’s missing was Mr Young.

After a few minutes, he heard the door creak open quietly, announcing the presence of another human being.

“Kei? Are you here?” he heard Mr Young ask from beneath him, closing the door softly.

Kei sat up, looking down at his teacher.

“Boo!” he said, laughing as Mr Young whipped around only to see no one behind him.

“I’m up here, Young” he said, smiling at him softly.

Mr Young blushed, avoiding his eyes while walking around the shed, climbing on top of the roof as well.

“So, how were your holidays, teach?” Kei asked, watching his teacher sitting down beside him and unwrapping a sandwich.

“Not bad, not bad” he mumbled, chewing on the sandwich, looking a little strained.

“Is that thing even edible?” Kei asked, looking worried.

Mr Young glared at him jokingly, “Are you implying that I can’t cook?” he asked.

Kei laughed, rolling his eyes. “Well, I actually assumed you bought it at the cafeteria, or a bakery a few days ago. The bread looks kinda dry and you didn’t use any butter or something else to add some moisture and flavor. You also only used some lettuce, no tomatoes or whatever. It doesn’t exactly look very nice.”

“As if you’re any better at cooking.” Young said, raising his eyebrows.

Jackpot. Kei smirked. “We know each other for a while now. You never brought anything remotely tasty looking, some things looked barely edible. I mean, seriously, how come you’re still alive? Anyway, wanna try?” he asked, holding up a spoon with some rice and curry.

Young gulped. On one hand, it smelled really nice. He didn’t have any real food in ages and now there’s Kei, holding up the spoon he himself already used. Wouldn’t it kinda be like an indirect kiss? And wasn’t he a little too old to still worry about stuff like that?

On the other hand, it would be highly inappropriate. Kei was his student, he couldn’t just eat his food, could he? Never mind sharing the same spoon.

“It’s alright, I really don’t wanna steal your food.” is what he decided on in the end. Bye, nice food. He really was a fool for refusing.

Kei smirked, seeing the way he eyed the spoon regretfully.

“You wouldn’t steal anything, teach. And anyways, I wouldn’t have offered if I wouldn’t have enough. I was in a hurry this morning and simply grabbed all leftovers from yesterday. It’s more than enough for the both of us.”

Seemingly unconvinced, Mr Young still wouldn’t move forward, so Kei took it upon himself to feed him some real food for once.

The teacher looked up as the spoon came nearer and nearer, until it touched his lips.

“Open up” the boy smirked, exerting light pressure.

Mr Young seemed to make a decision, opening his mouth and letting the spoon in.

Kei removed the spoon, watching his reaction. The teacher closed his eyes, obviously enjoying the food his student made.

After he swallowed, he opened his eyes and saw Kei holding out the next spoon with curry.

“You don’t have to feed me, you know. I’m an adult, I’m fully capable of eating by myself, thank you very much.”

Kei smirked. “As capable of eating as of cooking? You know, you weren’t exactly convincing till now.”

Mr Young groaned. “Kei! Give me the damn spoon or eat it yourself! I’m not a fucking baby!”

Kei laughed, eating the curry himself.

“Well, your reaction wasn’t exactly mature either, Mr Grown-up.”

The teacher crossed his arms, trying very hard not to pout. “You know what? Some day, I’m gonna kill you, Mr Perfect.”

Kei burst out laughing, trying hard to calm down at Mr Young’s offended face.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Alright, I’d like to see you try. Or not, actually, I really came to enjoy your company, it would be a shame if I had to kill you. And believe me, I’d succeed. Well, as long as you’re not one of my superiors, I guess. Wait, you aren’t, right? Because that wouldn't be funny...”

There were a few gods that were totally able to do something like that...

“Well, I’m your teacher. You’re my student, so yes, I’d say I’m your superior.”

Kei smirked. “Good joke, teach! Wanna have some more curry?”

“Only if I can eat by my self.”

“You can, but you may not. Now, open up wide… good boy.”

“Kei!”