[THREAD] the BLUE air is up there, and could i BRING it down

[striginae]

Who: Mello [ cruxanathema ] & Nagi [ striginae ] & OPEN to school-people
Where: TERRA ; high school
When: Tuesday afternoon, 3:07 PM
Summary: Reunion, reunion.
Rating: T

Comments

[cruxanathema]

Weird feeling. Like that feeling when you just don’t remember jack-shit? Yeah, that’s how Mello felt. His whole brain was clouded with familiar faces and events that seemed nothing but a whole side-show of surrealism. He didn’t remember his arm being ripped off, but every so often he could feel his arm twitch with an agonizing feeling of detachment. But Mello shrugged it off as nothing. Instead, he would go see Nagi. Why? Why the hell not. it has been - (a hand went to his forehead as the corner of his lips pulled upwards, emitting a chuckle) - shit, what the hell mattered? All he remembered was something about manslaughter, then being hired by a bunch of rapid dirty working suits. Everything seemed so damn confusing, but it was all pretty simple either way.

With a piece of chocolate dangling from the corner of his lips, Mello wandered into the school. Kids and shit ran past and one tripped over Mello and just missing the holster that held his gun. Clumsy shits. The blond made his way to the window and peeked his head in, folding his arms against the window-sill and tilted his head. Locks of yellow clinging to his face as he grinned and let a leather-gloved forefinger and thumb tilt his shades up so they pinned up blond bangs. And with a crack of the chocolate, Mello spoke with rough amusement, "Hey." Blue hues gazed along the dull classroom before back to the teacher, "Been a while."

[striginae]

He almost missed it at first, that lazy drawl -- too absorbed in his paperwork once he got into the mindset of getting to work -- but the voice was distinct, harsh but not malicious, and instantly recognizable. And Nagi looked up, lifting his pen away from the papers, expecting maybe a student to be standing there. But instead, there was a different face -- one intensely familiar and completely strange at the same time. "-- Mello." The name was spoken automatically, without thought. (Mello. I remember you. Why? -- I don't know. But you -- I trusted you, immensely. It's been a while.) And though his features were still etched with some measure of surprise and disbelief, it was without hesitation that he rose from the desk, ignoring the chair that clattered over behind him, and made his way to the window, throwing it open wider.

"-- It's been so long, I didn't expect to see you here." It was an almost-breathless rush of words, and Nagi smiled to see this figure that he knew he had once been closer to. (And though I can't remember the circumstances, perhaps that can be dealt with later. For now, just for now, all I know is that --) "You look well!" There was no memory, of course, of exactly what sort of condition Mello had been in -- and Nagi felt the faint pangs of guilt at the back of his mind, for some reason. But these, he also kept in check, at least for now. Maintaining only that cheerful expression -- sincerely glad to see this person he half-remembered, half-didn't.

[cruxanathema]

There was some sort of hilarity in the way that Nagi seemed so fucking excited to see the blond, which Mello just couldn’t help but to let out a humored snort with a deep snigger afterwards. The collapsing of the chair and the sudden rush of the other’s movements to swing the window open even wider - "-- You make it seem like a soap opera." Mello said with a half-cracked grin as he removed the chocolate from his mouth and pocketing it lazily. "Come on sweetheart, didn’t expect you to miss me that much." And with a leather-gloved hand, he gripped at the edge of the window and used the surface underneath as leverage to swiftly, and skillfully, make his way over and land in the classroom, his hands in his pockets.

"But if you’re going to act like that--" He stopped, expression creased into something that one could deem as sleazy - or just plain flirtatious before he hunched up his shoulders into a lazy shrug. "Looking better too." Nagi’s arm. It was his arm that was - Mello didn’t remember, and he took a step forward. "Did I miss anything good?” He rubbed his thumb over the side of his nose, emitting a soft snort. There was something that drifted into his mind. Something about always hanging around Nagi could make things seem like a fucking tragedy. "Yeah, we could make up the lost time--" Leaning against the open window, he continued to speak, "High-school teacher hanging out with a scarred leather-decked freak."

[striginae]

And a faint flush spread across his cheeks, accompanying the awkward smile that creased his features. "Was that a bit inappropriate?" And he stepped back to make room as Mello swung himself into the room, closing the window halfway back to its original position. To be honest, this situation was somewhat confusing, and he quietly wondered what exactly had happened during his unremembered past few months -- and part of him wished to ask what Mello might know of that time, regardless of the faint feeling he had that the answer wouldn't be pretty -- but for now, all he knew was that it was nice to see this familiar face after the sizable absence.

The sleazy tone of voice and slouched half-shrug were taken into stride without too much difficulty -- Mello reminded him ever so vaguely of Genkaku -- and Nagi only gave a small laugh, returning to the desk to prop the chair back up on its legs. "I'm not sure if you missed anything much --" (Did you know that I was killed? -- perhaps that's a subject for later.) "But catching-up sounds like a good idea." The breeze from the window had blown a few papers out of place, and he reached across the desk to shuffle them back into order, his movements smooth, his restored arm looking natural. Looking, perhaps, better than Mello had ever seen him -- of course, not that Nagi remembered any of this. A shy laugh, before he looked back up to Mello. "I didn't expect you to show up here, though, of all places."

[cruxanathema]

Bringing a fist up to his mouth, Mello let out a dry laugh as he tossed his head back dully, giving Nagi a twitch of his lips to indicate something even sleazier. It was fun to watch this guy squirm -- even though Mello did genuinely like Nagi, it wasn’t so bad to tease him once in a while. "Shit Nagi. What, are you going to freak out all of a sudden because we haven’t seen one another in god-knows-how-long?" Sounding a bit more intimate than it was meant to be. But Mello just shrugged it off as he spoke with subtle mockery, "Cute. Really."

On an instinct, Mello started to follow Nagi towards the desk - and his eyes were oddly fixated on the unknown (to him) renewed arm, focusing on it’s movements in a freakish interest at the appendage. But he tore his eyes away as he sat on the desk carelessly. "Good. I’m not really good with rejections. You know that. Can't blame me, I'm the delicate type." Lips coiled upwards into something smug as eyes narrowed, "I would say we should go to my place. But I don’t think the first thing you want to see when you walk in is dog shit." But what he was really tempted to ask Nagi was: So, done much manslaughter lately -- and why the hell was he thinking that anyway? And so the blond distracted himself by picking up a piece of paper that was in a waiting line to be graded. "Surprise, surprise."

[striginae]

Had Mello always been this -- confusing to read? Glancing tentatively up from the half-organized paperwork he was trying to shuffle back into a pile, Nagi couldn't help but wonder about the circumstances under which they must have first met, circumstances which he could remember nothing of. All he knew was that this man before him -- despite all appearances and attitude and doubts -- was one who he trusted immensely. That was all he was sure of, and for a moment, he felt a faint pang of doubt -- (I need to know the truth, the memories that have been blocked out. I fear them, but still, but still -- I feel like I cannot be myself without knowing what happened.)

There had been a faint pause in movements, but he managed to mask them most of the way, tapping the pile of papers against the desk to straighten them out and picking up the pen that had rolled off the desk, not really sure of what to say. "If it's a surprise, it's certainly not an unpleasant one." An awkward sort of laugh, before he straightened up, toying with the pen in both hands. "To be honest, I suppose I should be getting back to work -- but these aren't due to be filed for quite some time." A pause, before he sheepishly held a hand out for the paper that Mello was holding, features creased in an awkward smile. "But it would be cruel to reject such a generous invitation, wouldn't it?"

[cruxanathema]

A faint genuine smile marked Mello’s features as he watched the fidgety mannerism from the other. Dropping his pen and folding the papers making him seem pretty twitchy, and the blond just let out a soft huff of breath that resembled a soft laugh as he lowered his head. The polite demeanour was really alien to him in all aspects, not something he remembered about Nagi at all -- and at times, Mello’s arm trembled and he reached over to place his fingers around the joint of his elbow with his occupied hand.

"Yeah. It would be cruel." Mello replied bluntly as his grin slowly returned. He folded the piece of paper in his hand with ease, crossing over his fingers before returning it to the teacher with pursed lips. "But if you want to say no, just say it." Arrogance laced his words fully, predatory in all forms as he slipped himself from the desk and ran a hand through his hair, taking off the shades that fixated his bangs and folded them, placing them in his pocket. With sluggish movements, Mello walked his way around the desk and stood behind Nagi, as though he suddenly gained an interest in the papers before him. But he leaned in, and smirked against Nagi’s ear, speaking with taunting mockery, "Where do you want to go for our date, sweetheart?"

[waitingfora]

Items thrown into his locker. Occasional scolding from his teacher about being too loud or cheeky -- who knew that he would miss Itoshiki so much. At least that guy would just be depressed about whatever rather than care too much what it was that he was doing. Still wondered about what happened to that teacher, if he went the way of Nagi (mild hope that he would come back) or if he really did do himself in. Yosuke stared into his locker for a few minutes, not sure what he should feel about the last part before slamming it shut to go and visit Nagi. Really felt like forever since he had seen the guy. Wanted to spend as much time as he could with him. Wondered if that sounded a little gay, but the guy was old enough to be his father so.

"Yeah, let's not think about fathers right now, brain." Still had to find another job for himself so that he wouldn't end up some complete bum once he got out of high school -- er, if he got out with the way that his grades were going. Ran down the hallways with a few yells in his direction to slow down. He did turn to say that he was going to as soon as he got to his destination, miss seeing the "wet floor" sign and slid across the linoleum floor into lockers and door that he was heading towards anyway, but would have rather not slammed into them as he did. Teachers seemed to think that that was ample enough punishment for running in the halls, at least. Somewhat peeling himself off the surface of the locker, he held his face as he walked into Nagi's room.

"Sensei. I think I broke my no--" Looked up, was some blood coming down out of his nose from having hit the lockers so hard, but it was just a minor injury. His arms flailed out in surprise at the scene that he was walking in on. Wasn't this like some adult --super XXX -- type situation that one only read about? And shouldn't one of them be a girl?! He remained frozen in place before starting to take one step backwards. "Um. S-Sorry to interrup--" Stared at the one behind (oh god, behind) Nagi and recognized him from the party. Guy knew Nill, but this wasn't really a good time to get reacquainted was it? "S-So, yeah." Head down, face red. "I'll be going... maybe. Yeah."

[striginae]

To say that Nagi was embarrassed by this unabashed display of affection would have been an understatement. Because, as much as he was accepting of most people, he didn't exactly keep the sort of company Mello seemed to represent. Part of him knew, of course, that all this flirting (that's what it was, wasn't it?) and teasing was just in jest, but still -- . When he felt Mello come up behind him, he looked over meaning to ask if Mello would wait just a moment for him to clean up before leaving -- and then froze at the feel of Mello pressing in close, the low murmur of words against his ear. He could veritably feel the blood rush to his face, coloring his cheeks an embarrassed blush, and he almost dropped the papers he'd been holding. "Date -- that's not -- um --" Groping for the right words (he was probably meant to laugh this off? maybe?), he gave a flustered laugh, wondering if maybe he was overreacting?

Except, the voice at the doorway made him look up -- and eyes immediately widened in surprise, as Nagi realized how -- wrong this must have looked. Not to mention, there was a noticeable amount of blood smeared on Yosuke's face. Immediately turning to face his student, Nagi waved his hands, face still flushed bright, looking horribly embarrassed. "Ah -- Hanamura-kun, that's not -- you weren't interrupting anything?" No, no, that sounded even worse, didn't it? Giving Mello a slightly dismayed look, he gently pushed his way away from the desk, digging through his pocket for a handkerchief as he strode over to the doorway.

His cheeks were still tinged red as he bent down a little to get a look at Yosuke's face, frowning at the trickle of blood. "-- what exactly did you do? It looks pretty painful." The handkerchief was offered forth, though Nagi couldn't quite look Yosuke in the eye. (That really, really wasn't a sight he should have let a student see, was it?) "I hope it's not broken..."

[cruxanathema]

It was fairly easy for the blond to acknowledge that Nagi was modest and proper. And a grin smeared itself on Mello’s features as he saw the red tinge of colour decorate Nagi’s visage. Thought it looked ridiculous. Didn’t really care. And he just let out a low deep laugh as Nagi stood up from the desk, which in turn forced the blond to move himself and make his way around the desk, and then leaning against it with his arms folded against his chest -- his leather attire emitting a soft noise as he tilted his head to see the teenager who just walked in on them.

A leather-gloved hand reached up to his mouth, giving out a deep laughter that was mingled with a amused snort before tossing his head back, his line of vision directed towards the rush of blood that left the teenager’s nose. Mello pointed at the crimson, and he muttered with teasing intentions, "Isn’t it an old wife’s fable that you get nose bleeds when you get turned-on?" Asking Yosuke with no caring if there was an answer, then he directed his attention to Nagi but his voice was still talking to Yosuke, "Let me guess. You walk in seeing your teacher and some sexy leather-decked asshole - then your brain just took the script and one thing led to another. I get it."

Pushing himself from the desk, Mello walked to Nagi and stood beside him, giving Yosuke a smirk, "You know Nagi, even if he’s a kid, we could take him with us." And he always loved making the situation worse. "No one likes to be left out."

[waitingfora]

"'Cou-Course not! 'Cause that would mean that you were doing something..." His shoulders dropped slightly as he realized what he was saying. Really felt like this was the time to turn around and sprint down the hallway saying something along the lines of: 'It's totally fine to be gay, really, but I have to go and do something. Something is on fire somewhere, I'm sure of it!' And yet, he couldn't get his legs to move. Was he just that embarrassed? Probably. Most likely.

"I ran into the lockers." Jerked his thumb in the direction of the hallway. Where he really should be going! Should he grab his legs and start to drag himself out there by force. Seriously! Way to make a more awkward situation more awkward! "I hope so too. But I probably just gave it some trauma." It was kind of sad that he was so used to crashing into things. He really could be quite the klutz, but that was only when he was in a hurry, dammit! Looked at the offered handkerchief for a long time. "Oh, uh, thanks." Stared at it. Right, it is not going to levitate over to me. I have to actually reach out and grab it. Longer stare. That involves moving. Hello!?

Brain was probably going to need a jumpstart and what the guy was saying was enough to jumpstart it into taking a step forward and swing his arm to dash all those claims. But at least while his arm was out he could snatch the handkerchief from Nagi as well. "What did I just say?! I ran into the lockers! I don't think something like that is hot." Crossed his arms, as he grumbled to himself in a loud manner, foot tapping in a quick manner as his face grew even warmer. "Y-You're not taking me anywhere!" Stepped backwards with the handkerchief to his nose, cleaning it up as best as he could.

"Furthermore, don't you think it is a little cliche that you're dressed in leather! I mean, that's very S&M and Nagi-sensei doesn't seem like ..." Stopped where he was going with this, stared at his teacher with wide eyes and looked back down to the floor. Whaaat!?

[striginae]

Despite the weak smile he wore, Nagi was sort of burning up in mortification inside. Which was only made worse when Mello laugh -- why was he laughing -- and drew near. (Nagi secretly couldn't help but wonder how exactly he had come to know and trust a person so radically different from him in personality and tastes and hobbies -- there must have been a rational explanation, it was just that he couldn't remember.) The smallest sigh of relief escaped his lips when Yosuke took the handkerchief, and he eyed the bruising skin around Yosuke's nose, making a small, worried sort of noise. "You should watch where you're going -- it's a good thing that it wasn't any worse than just your nose." Trying to gloss over this awkward situation and pretend there was nothing out of the norm, he managed to control his voice back down to its usual calm, quite tones.

Up until Mello's last remark, that is. He flinched openly at the drawled suggestion, turning to look at the blonde with an almost scandalized expression on his face, cheeks flushed red and eyes wide. "Mello! That's not --" The implication being, of course, 'please don't make this any worse.'

And he hurried to turn back to Yosuke, waving his hands in a rather dismayed manner, eyes squeezes shut out of embarrassment, still blushing furiously. "Hanamura-kun, sorry, he's just joking --" Looking absolutely mortified at the Yosuke's trailing-off-sentence and shaking his head. "And we're not -- anything -- it's not like what you're implying, really --"

[cruxanathema]

The blond watched as Yosuke started to flail about like a kindergarten student. His lips let out soft amused sounds at all the assumptions and accusations. It was nothing but a little bit of taunting and teasing -- and Mello had no fucking clue in the world why he felt such an emotional intimacy with the teacher. It was bizarre to say the least, but if something like that was there, and if it was (hopefully) mutual, then there was nothing wrong with taking advantage of it. Not that the feeling for Nagi wasn’t genuine, it was that Mello was a pure and simple bastard.

When he heard his name called in a rapid shocked fashion, Mello scoffed at Nagi with pure mockery, slowly drawing out the words. “I was thinking about a bar, babe. But if you were suggesting something else--" He ended quickly with a flirtatious and devious wink with a matching smirk. "--So, how about my place?"

Another deep chuckle and Mello found himself seated on one of the student desks, watching the whole affair unfold in front of him. "Tch. My fashion sense is none of your fucking business, kid. And even though your teacher wounds me with his blatant lies, there is much more to him then being pretty vanilla. You’d be surprised." Every word laced with dry mockery.

[waitingfora]

All right, enough was enough. Now that he got his senses mostly back and he thought that he understood what was going on, he didn't think that he should let things go on as they were. "Now listen here, stop picking on Nagi-sensei! I don't care if Nill likes you, I'm just not gonna deal with it any more!" The handkerchief pulled away from his nose to throw at Mello's head. Not really manliest thing to do, but he didn't want to start an outright fight. Wouldn't he still get detention for something like that? Even if he was defending his teacher's honor. There probably was a limit to what he could do! "Of course, he's just joking. There's no way that you're like that." Eyes closed as he continued to yell these things so that he wouldn't have to look at Nagi or Mello while he did so. "If I have to say it, I'd say that Nagi-sensei is extremely vanilla and wouldn't be involved in any of that shit!"

Face was outright red and he wasn't sure what it was that he was saying, but he had gone and said it. Cracked one eye open to look at his teacher before letting out a sigh. Oh well, he already was yelling and might as well continue as he was. He was on a roll. Exactly where he was rolling was anyone's guess. "So don't go trying to put perverted thoughts in my head about Nagi-sensei. I already have enough problems thinking about ..." Bit his tongue, okay wrong hill to roll down. "...stuff. Not perverted stuff, sensei, just stuff." Looked sheepishly at his teacher now; as he felt like he was losing steam and high ground with this rant.

"So, with that in mind!" Wait, what part in mind!? Head jerked slightly as he wasn't sure where he was going, floundering. His arms raised in a threatening pose while he gestured about in a weak manner as well. Mixed signals all around. "Just ... stop hinting stuff like that about him or I'm gonna take you off school grounds to beat the hell out of you, got it!?" A pause.

[striginae]

As Mello continued, Nagi's face grew even more flushed -- if that was possible. Cheeks bright red by now, he looked over at the blonde, openly dismayed, answering the smirk with a small shake of the head. "Mello, please --" The speculation on his supposed -- not-so-vanilla preferences stopped him in mid-sentence though, and he clamped a hand to his mouth, head bowed, looking at a complete loss for words. (Really. All he remembered was that he trusted Mello deeply, but why? He couldn't fathom any reason he would have come to depend on the other so deeply, not with the way this situation was going.)

And to be honest, Yosuke's 'help' wasn't making the situation all too much better. Though the hand left his mouth at the rushed defense, he still couldn't help but twist the hem of his scarf in between his fingers, biting his lip in embarrassment. Feeling almost light-headed from the constant flush to his face, by now -- if he were a weaker sort of person, he might have just blacked out from the mortification, but no such escape was available.

In the end, Yosuke's proclamation of violence was what snapped him out of his humiliation-induced almost-shock, and he spoke up in weak words, not managing to look either party in the eye. "Hanamura-kun, please, don't -- be starting fights. And Mello, please stop -- making such remarks. It's not -- " Pause. Unsure of where words were going. Decided to abandon that sentence, and shook his head, feeling almost dizzy by now. He really wasn't built for this sort of treatment, and he looked up hesitantly between them, one hand clasped tight about the folds of the scarf. "Can we drop this subject and move on? This really isn't -- appropriate for the school. -- or just -- in general."

[cruxanathema]

This was all terribly amusing to the blond, obviously so that it was indicated by the laughter that left his mouth that seemed much too feral to have any form of genuine concern for embarrassing the teacher. It was always a nice thing to find out you weren’t the only pervert in the room, and Mello flashed a grin at Yosuke with faux taunting approval about the assumptions of Nagi’s sex-life. The handkerchief that was tossed to him in a furious rage was caught rather easily between two slender gloved fingers and the blond dangled it before him before tucking it away in his pocket, giving off a lazy shrug, "I don’t give a shit what you think." Remarking on what Nill thought and so forth. At least Nill didn’t act like a complete idiot.

At the invitation of the fight, Mello slid off the desk which let the side of his leather jacket waver, exposing the gun that was against his waist and just smirked with arrogance. "I could blow off your kneecaps before you could move." Mello threatened before giving off a deep chuckle, "What am I saying? I wouldn’t do that to one of Nagi’s students. But you know--" Shoulders hunched into a shrug, "If you need to vent all that male aggression, then just say so. Puberty is like living through hell."

Then, he turned his attention to Nagi and made his way over to the teach. His hand decided to coil around the edge of Nagi’s pants -- knuckles brushed against Nagi’s hip bone and the blond yanked him towards him with a smirk. "Always so thoughtful Nagi."