Salem is seriously questioning his agreement to all of this.

Sure, Salem's decision making capabilities have always been a bit lacking. He's fully aware of the fact that he wouldn't get into half of the bullshit he does if he had better judgement. However, this probably takes the cake.

Catrine was right, Salem doesn't have his first class with Atlas. He gets a break there. However, not only is Atlas in all four of his others, but they have to sit beside each other.

In every single one, they have assigned seats right next to each other. In every single one, they are told to do partner work. Obviously they don't, Atlas completely ignores Salem's existence. It's been three weeks since the start of the new semester, and Atlas hasn't spoken a single word to him. Normally, Salem would be happy about this. However, he has a job to do.

Catrine has been hounding him about his investigation and the fact that he's made no progress. He just doesn't know what to do. He's not good at talking to Atlas generally, let alone without reason.

He can't use their studies as an excuse, because he's always been better than Atlas when it comes to school. It wouldn't make sense for him to ask the other for help. He has no idea what else they could talk about, though. They have nothing in common, Salem has seriously never met anybody more opposite than him.

Atlas is more carefree about his studies, Salem has always been a perfectionist. Atlas hardly speaks unless spoken to, Salem loves talking to people. Atlas is generally mean, Salem is nice. Atlas feels almost nothing, Salem is an emotional mess. Then there's the way they were raised, Atlas from a background of crime and Salem from one of order.

Even the way they look is completely different.
Salem has light brown hair and honey eyes, a somewhat small frame, and his caramel-toned skin is covered in freckles. Atlas has black hair and hazel eyes, his skin is completely flawless and a shade lighter than Salem's. He's also a lot bigger than Salem, generally speaking.

Atlas is all tattoos and piercings and dark aesthetics. Salem is a good kid, a straight A student with a style that's almost exclusively sweatpants and thrifted t-shirts. They are polar opposites.

Salem is currently sitting in his second class of the day, Atlas having not arrived yet. Salem begins looking through his bag for a pen, before he realizes that he gave his last one to Milo yesterday. He didn't need one in his first period, since they were just watching a video. He swears, wondering what he's going to do. This class is almost always 90% note taking, so without a pen he's doomed. He doesn't really know anyone in here, either.

Salem suddenly feels a presence beside him, and it gives him an idea.

He takes a deep breath, mentally preparing himself to speak with Atlas after almost a month of silence. Choosing to get it over with before he's interrupted by the lesson starting, he turns to face his ex.

Atlas isn't looking at him, and Salem decides to get his attention by just talking. "Do you have a pen I can use?"

Atlas glances over at him, and the eye contact has Salem frozen for some reason. Holy shit, he talked to Atlas. Holy fuck. He did it!

Atlas hands Salem the pen he'd previously been messing with in anticipation for class. Salem reluctantly takes it, being careful so he doesn't accidentally brush Atlas' skin with his own. After his retrieval, Atlas turns to face the board again-laying his head down this time. It isn't until about halfway through class that Salem realizes Atlas has no intention of doing anything.

Atlas must have given Salem his last pen.

Salem instantly feels guilty, and makes sure to put the pen back on Atlas' desk at the end of class. Atlas doesn't take it, though, and when the bell rings he just leaves it behind. Salem is forced to take it back.

The day is uneventful, but art class is when things get interesting.

Salem had completely forgotten about the project Catrine mentioned weeks ago, for their art class. She said it would be assigned soon and the two would have to spend time together, outside of school, but Salem completely forgot. He is reminded, though, when he enters the classroom and sees the rubric pulled up on the board.

From what he can tell, this project is about to be twenty five percent of their final grade-it won't be due until the last month of school, too. They will have all semester to work on it. Salem doesn't know how he feels about doing such a huge project with Atlas as his partner. That guy doesn't care about school, he will probably make Salem do most of it alone.

Salem is trying to figure out what exactly they need to do for the project, but he can't tell the specifics from the rubric. Also, the font is small, and his contacts only do so much.

"Alright. Sit down, come on." The teacher walks in, hair in a messy bun and actually looking slightly hung over. She goes and sits at her desk, doing something on the computer. Salem is tense where he sits, not looking forward to what's about to happen. He doesn't even want to know what Atlas' reaction is going to be at this news. Catrine said they'd have to spend time together.

Time. Together.

For work, obviously. Salem is doing this for his future job, experience in the field and the Di Angelo's suck and all that.

"So, our first unit will be on sculpting." The lady begins, drinking out of a water bottle and beginning to pull up a slideshow. "We will be mainly focusing on that for the first quarter, and you will have a partnered project that will be due at the end of the semester. It will be twenty five percent of your final grade."

Salem glances at Atlas from the corner of his eye, and finds no discernible expression. He looks past him and sees a girl walking around and passing out papers. The lady says a few more things, but Salem tunes her out when he receives his paper. He starts reading the directions.

It appears as though he will have to create a sculpture, from basically any material of his choice. It's supposed to represent something that is important to both he and his partner, and have something to do with art history. He will have to work with whoever he is seated with.

See, the art room has tables instead of desks. Only two people can sit at each one, and it's Salem's only class like that. Every other class there is some distance between them, except this one. They are right next to each other.

The teacher finishes up after a few minutes, giving them the rest of class to discuss the project with their partner. They won't be able to work on it at school, since they can't bring materials like that in and she just generally wants to spend the class time on something else. So, Salem and Atlas will have to work on it entirely out of school. Together.

Salem isn't expecting it, but as soon as the woman is finished, Atlas is turning to face him.

"Okay, what's going on."

Salem turns to look at him, his chair already as far as he can get it from Atlas. "Hm?"

Atlas just stares at him, which is understandable because Salem definitely knows what's going on. Obviously Atlas is suspicious of him, Salem doesn't know what he expected. Atlas is smarter than that. Them having almost all of their classes together, and constantly being partnered on top of that, is suspicious enough. Salem would ask questions if he were in Atlas' position, too.

"Why does my entire fucking day revolve around you?"

Salem purses his lips, unsure how to respond to that. He seriously should have seen this coming, came up with some sort of excuse as to why this has happened ahead of time.

Salem decides to pretend like he had no part in it, and agree. "Yeah I know, I was wondering that."

Atlas doesn't believe him, and it's clear on his face. He just gives Salem an unimpressed look, and Salem has no idea how to get out of this. He settles on distraction. "Anyway, the project..."

Atlas rolls his eyes, but thankfully doesn't question Salem any further. He pulls out his phone and starts texting somebody, and out of habit Salem leans forward to see who it is. He can only make out a few letters of the contact name, but not enough to put anything together. The text messages themselves are in Italian, which means Atlas is most likely texting a family member.

Also, Salem has no hope of reading it. Damn.

Atlas turns his phone off after a minute, and Salem pulls away reflexively. There's no way Atlas doesn't know Salem was looking at his phone, but he probably doesn't care, due to it all being in a language that Salem can't understand.

"It's up to you. I don't care."

Salem narrows his eyes, not fond of being in charge of this entire project, which is what he thinks Atlas means by that. This is supposed to be a partner thing, and Salem is not doing all the work. Hell no. Not when it counts for this much of his grade. Actually, both of their grades.

"Uh, no." Salem disagrees, raising an eyebrow. "We are doing this together."

"I never even took beginning art." Atlas notifies him, and if Salem wasn't so nervous he would find comedy in the situation. "I wouldn't be any help. Do it without me."

"I am not doing all the work on this project and letting you take half the credit. Absolutely not."

"Heart-"

"Di Angelo."

Before Salem knows it, there's a hand over his mouth and Atlas is way closer to his face. His eyes widen, not expecting to get such a reaction. He supposes it makes sense, though. Atlas goes by a fake name for a reason. People are already intimidated enough by him, if people knew his real name... well, he'd never hear the end of it. Still, Salem thinks all the secrecy is getting excessive.

"Don't." Atlas' tone is low, and he pulls away a second later. It takes a minute for Salem to remember how to function like a normal person, but Atlas' gaze is unmoving. He maintains heavy eye contact when he continues, giving Salem the sense that he may have fucked up. "Not in public."

"Or what?" Salem asks, feeling distracted. Atlas looks completely done with this situation. "That's your name."

"My name is Marino."

"No it's not." Salem turns to fully face Atlas, who is still facing forward. He glances back at Salem when he continues. "You know what? I'll stick with Marino if you stop calling me Heart."

"No."

Salem lets out a noise of frustration, turning so he's facing forward once again. He crosses his arms over his chest and glares straight ahead. Salem misses a lot of things from their relationship, but Atlas being constantly unreasonable about random things is not one. This guy is so confusing. Why does he insist on always calling Salem by his last name? It makes no fucking sense, and it drives Salem insane.

It's obvious that it isn't natural for him, since he has to actually put thought into remembering to call Salem that. He slips up sometimes, when he doesn't think about it, not to mention the fact that he called Salem by his first name the entire time they knew each other-before the break up.

Well, there were the rare occasions Atlas would call him Sally, but that was purely to irritate him. He never addressed Salem by anything as impersonal as his last name, not until the end.

A few minutes of silence go by, before Salem gives up on being mad. "Whatever. What are we doing the sculpture on?"

"Up to you."

Salem turns his head to look at him, fed up. Atlas is back on his phone, back to talking to someone in a language Salem can't read and therefore can't gather intel on. That's the point of this, Salem reminds himself. He needs to get evidence and answers and at best find a way to get Atlas back in his life. For the investigation.

Salem has no idea where he would even start with that, though.

"I don't know. We have nothing in common."

Atlas doesn't answer him, still on his phone. Salem would really appreciate it if he could focus right now. However, Salem also can't think of a single thing that would be important to both of them.

Salem supposes that they have the police somewhat in common, though from opposite sides. He doesn't know what he could possibly do with that, though. They have nothing else-they're just way too different.

"Well you don't have to think of something now. We have months to do it."

Salem knew that Atlas would want to procrastinate this, but they are going to have to come to some sort of agreement because that is not how Salem is about to do this. He hates waiting until the last minute. If it were up to Atlas then Salem would be doing all the work, and if not then they'd be procrastinating it until probably the last week or something. However, unlike the rest of the goddamn school, Salem is not scared of Atlas Di Angelo. Salem is not letting him off the hook, even though anyone else would.

"We are not waiting until the last minute." Salem finalizes, raising his eyebrows. He's daring Atlas to disagree, but he knows that he won't. Salem hasn't had a normal conversation with this guy in forever, but Atlas hardly would disagree with him when they were together. At least, not when it came to mundane things like this. Serious stuff? Yeah, he held his ground then.

He typically prioritized Salem's happiness, and it seems like that aspect still hasn't changed.

"Fine." He sighs, and Salem smiles. Atlas looks away but still continues. "Then when?"

Salem frowns, because he hadn't thought about that.

"I don't know."

"Where?"

Okay, okay, Atlas has a point. They can't just build a whole ass sculpture in a public place, but the thought of Atlas coming to Salem's house... No, just the concept of bringing Atlas home once again, knowing his name and background and Jack and...

Yeah, Salem can't do that.

"I have no idea."

They sit there in silence for a while, and at this point it's nearing the end of class. "I'll let you know if I think of something."

Nothing is said the rest of class.