The university witnessed two weeks of silence and peace.

There were no races, no people jumping from higher floors, no bicycles, no throwing stuff, no heavier pranks. The students who got used to all the messing around were feeling bored even. It was like free entertainment for them, but lately nothing was happening so people started to notice that… Leon and Nick were giving each other the silent treatment. 

For two weeks they ignored each other. They'd pass by, make an annoyed expression and go the other way. They purposely took routes to not meet. In the dance club, they stood on each end of the room, as far as possible.

Some people had seen the fight of course, but they just noticed the screaming and some of the words exchanged, so the rumors and gossip were of all kinds. From absurd things like: Leon accused Nick of being a playboy because Nick stole his partner; to: Nick lost his patience once and for all with the unrespectful first-year; and so on.

As we know, none of that happened of course.

Leon knew he had crossed the line at the end of the fight. But he felt so outraged with the whole thing. The first-year didn’t understand what he did so wrong for Nick to be that mad. They had fought before, but it was never something like this, it was always an almost friendly banter, not accusations like that.

Leon missed Nick. He actually wanted to apologize after a while, even as he felt wronged, but first of all: he didn’t know how, it felt weird to be that plainspoken out of nowhere, and second: Mark told him he shouldn’t be the first to do it because Nick had started the argument. The redhead asked if that didn’t sound a bit childish, and Mark confirmed it was, but that Nick deserved it this time. And so, Leon didn’t.

Nick, on the other hand, felt very guilty. He didn’t recognize himself in that fight, what was he even doing? Why had he felt so angry? He knows that Leon isn’t really a flirt. At least not on purpose, he thought, but the boy was certainly annoyingly natural at it. And anyways, what if he was? Why would that make his reaction reasonable? The second-year knew he should say sorry.

He knew he should. But… Every time Nick thought about the whole thing, irritation went up his head. It just did not sit right with him. How come Leon was so handsy and sweetie to his friends but not with him? The black haired thought they had gotten closer, but was it just him?  Was he someone the first-year could just mess around and then leave? Leon even went as far as say the same kind of things that the people who wanted to beat him up said. 

It was all very irrational you see. But as Nick’s and Leon’s pride held up, none of them made any effort to say something to each other.

“And so? Are you not gonna talk to him, like, ever again?” That was Henry. 

Henry and Nick were walking around the canteen with trays of food at lunch time when Henry noticed that his friend was looking around, wary, clearly searching for someone. To hell if he didn’t know who he was looking for.

“Not that it makes any difference to me, y’know” He went on “But you're going a long way to avoid him and honestly? Spare me.” And sighed in defeat.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about” Nick sat down and pretended he never looked anywhere, shaking his head like a dog.

“Oh geez, how convincing, really, thank god you went for the dance and not the drama club” Henry sat in front of him as he said that in complete annoyance.

“I act in the dance club as well, alright? And people reeeeally like it too” He made a face. Henry catapulted rice on his face with a spoon.

“Stop avoiding the first-year if you can’t stop searching for him, just talk to the guy”

“No fucking way.”

“Then stop going out of your way to ignore him, it’s irritating”

“I am not”

“Cut your crap” Henry hissed, pointing a fork at the other. Nick gritted his teeth but said nothing. They both knew what he was doing, there was really no point in arguing about it “Nick… Really, you can’t seem to leave Leon alone, so what are you gonna to do, huh?”

“... I’m thinking about it” He answered weakly.

“Well, think faster, isn’t your club’s trip the day after tomorrow? Are you going to keep ignoring him over there as well? You’re the vice president for god’s sake”

The dance club trip. Every club in the university could plan trips and all sorts of things as long as they had a budget for it, and the dance club was very popular and well organized so they went on a trip every single year.

This year they were going to the beach, Nick knew. As the vice president he was aware of it all and this was actually the day they were communicating that to everyone else. The location was a surprise up to the very end, every time. He was also aware that all the boys and all the girls were to share a single giant room each.

Divided rooms were more expensive, so they’d rent big fancy sheds, when they could find it, and throw all the members in a single room: one for the girls and one for the boys of course, and provide futons for everyone to sleep. It was always a big mess, but people had fun and it worked well, so they kept doing it.

All that to say that Nick and Leon were sleeping in the same room. With a bunch of other people, yes, but still, it would be too awkward if they were fighting. The second-year knew all of this, but really… He was at loss at what to do. They shouldn’t have avoided each other in the first place, if he had acted normally on the day after the argument, would Leon have pretended nothing happened as well? Why the hell couldn’t he let this go, Nick wondered, his expression turning heavy.

As Henry saw his friend’s face turn to different stages of grief he decided to drop it. It had nothing to do with him anyway, Nick was plenty capable of handling that if he decided to. “Say, what about your princess?” He changed the subject.

Nick’s expression switched a whole 180 degrees at that, a caring smile taking the place of the frown. “What about her?”

“Isn’t she going to be lonely? It’s what, a three day trip?”

“Riiight?” Nick sighed “Aaarwn, I’m gonna miss my princess so much” Then he excitedly propped his elbows on the table and leaned forward, looking all sappy “I swear, I’m gonna devote all my time to her when we get back, I–” He stopped on his tracks.

Behind Henry was Leon.

The boy looked like he was about to say something, but now his expression turned into pure iciness. He glared at Nick coldly and turned away, leaving without a word. Nick sputtered a bit, too shocked to react. When he thought he should’ve gone after the first-year, the boy was nowhere to be seen.

“Shit” He buffed, thumping his forehead on the table, hands messing his hair. 

Really… What were the odds?

—

“Did you talk to him?” John asked as Leon entered their room. Then Leon banged the door shut, went to the fridge, grabbed an energy drink and downed it in a single swallow. “Ok, I’m guessing no then” The shorter one winced and kept bagging his stuff.

John and Leon knew about the trip as well. They didn’t know where they were going, but the trip was a well known tradition. The two of them were nagged by Mark to get their stuff ready in advance and so that’s what they were doing right now. As they were packing, the same subject popped in their conversation: that it would be awkward if they were still fighting. So the taller boy had decided that he would try speaking with the senpai, even if it was just to piss him off.

“He can go screw himself!” Leon barked “He and his damned princess!”

“Princess?” Mark raised a single eyebrow, he was fumbling around with Leon’s clothes because the other asked for opinions about what to take.

“He and Henry-senpai were talking about how: “he was going to miss his princess so much”” Leon added in a very mocking tone. “How dare he get mad at me, that stupid womanizer” The boy walked up, took a shirt Mark was looking disgustedly at and shoved inside his bag “This one is going”

“That’s a horrendous shirt. In the worst way possible” Mark nagged.

“It’s comfortable, it’s to sleep, leave me alone” Leon was aware that his old anime shirt was ugly, but he really liked it. Mark just shrugged and took out some other clothing pieces of the bag, throwing them aside.

“Why do I feel like you and Nick are acting like you’re being caught cheating, without actually dating?” John scrunched up his nose at the thought. He was folding shorts to take when Mark stopped him with a resounding “no”. “Why not?? It’s cute!”

“We are not acting like that!” Leon yelled.

“It’s a sponge bob short, John” Mark deadpanned.

“It’s for sleep!” John cried out.

“Listen to me!” Leon complained.

“Fine, you two deserve to be friends” Mark rolled his eyes. “Back to the subject, why are you two idiots–” He stopped when both boys looked at him. Holding the bridge of his nose, he kept going “Lemme rephrase it: not you two idiots. This idiot..” He pointed to Leon “And the other, older idiot..” And pointed with his thumb to the door “Why are you still avoiding each other anyways? I didn’t think it was gonna last this long”

“You told me to not talk to him!” Leon threw up his hands.

“And since when do you listen to a word of what I say? You surely seemed deaf when I tried to stop your antics” Mark said as he held up a bright green hat “You are not taking this!”

“I agree with him on that one” John pointed out, staring at the hat.

“Well, I did do what you told me” He pointedly ignored the comments about the hat and sat down at the corner of the bed “And now he got a new girl for himself” He propped his arms on his knees and rested his chin on his hands, looking all sad like a puppy.

“I hardly think him getting a girlfriend was any kind of consequence of this situation” Mark deadpanned, not at all pitying him.

“It isn’t, I’m just being a brat”

“Glad you know”

“Well, I am sorry for how this turned out” John said, coming up to Leon and patting his head. Leon hugged his waist, burying his face on his belly, whimpering about how he was the only one who cared about him. “Hey, maybe you can steal him from this “princess”” The shorter one said, caressing the taller’s head.

“Yeah, with the power of my buffoonery” Leon answered sarcastically, his voice muffled against John’s belly. The other two boys snickered at that.

“Well” Mark huffed, passing a hand through his hair “One step at a time, first we gotta get you two on talking terms again”