the light 'em up high school au no one asked for
light 'em up
yana & tarek
an: the high school au no one asked for. i'm very bad with titles, i'll change it as soon as i have something better. a conversation that actually happened:
me: hey how about writing some canon light 'em up for once??
inner me: write a high school au centering yana and tarek
so, well, there we go. Give Tarek The Happiness He Deserves 2k17
"okay, so - you, me, tonight. my place. is 7pm alright?"
diego looks at her and yana immediately knows what he's about to say, but still, there’s this tiny glimpse of hope -
getting his stuff, he just shakes his head. "sorry. i'm already meeting up with -"
- shattered.
yana groans, interrupting him. "no, be quiet, don't say it."
"you can still ask bonnie, or ariana," diego suggests helpfully, busy stuffing his books in his backpack.
"mh yeah," yana muses while putting her pens away, "if they weren't that busy dancing around each other while making up for another tantrum one of them threw at some point this week that might work, but seeing it as how it is - no."
diego shrugs apologetically as he gets up. "well, how about next week?"
"hey, you coming?" asks a voice and yana spins around, eyes narrowing. that kid, his piercing blue eyes like icicles or something but practically melting as he looks at diego, while still keeping his distant but cool smile.
"next week, i promise," diego says before yana can object, leaving a short kiss on her cheek.
"well, next week my roots will already show too much and then i'll look ridiculous, and they're not going to dye itself!" yana shouts after him, but he's already gone.
letting out a frustrated sigh, she puts the rest of her things away and gets up.
"welcome to the club," someone suddenly says next to her.
"cheese boy?" yana asks deadpanned, followed by the immediate desire to throw herself off a cliff or something, like she didn't actually just say that.
he raises an eyebrow at her. "i don't even - okay, yeah, that was last year," he defends himself, referring to that one time he brought like 2kgs of gouda to calc and spent the whole lesson chewing on it.
"a lot of stuff happened last year," yana shoots back, referring to ... various other incidents that shall not be spoken of. "anyways, your that kid grazia hangs out with, aren't you?"
"tarek," the kid introduces himself, and then adds, under given circumstances: "more like: used to."
"yana," yana says, "and yeah, tell me about it."
"i know. who you are, i mean," tarek explains as yana shoots him a bewildered look, "i sit behind you in biology."
"oh. i didn't notice," yana says unnecessarily, and tarek just shrugs.
"you know, it's just ..." she doesn't finish her sentence as she vaguely gestures in the direction diego and the other guy went off to, all happy walking into the sunset and stuff. and it’s just the middle of the afternoon, night time still far away.
"that he only spends two evenings the week with you instead of four?" tarek muses.
"exactly!” she exclaims, like, he’s actually getting what she means. in contrast to bonnie and ariana, who only have eyes for each other anyway. “alright, come on, i need some coffee."
so they're making their way to the coffee vending machine in the basement of the school through gradually emptying hallways.
"it's just," she starts again, not ready to drop the subject yet, "i really need some backing in lit, and, honestly, his physics could do better as well, but i can already see his grades drop while he's fooling around or doing ... other stuff," yana shudders, as if all her and diego did was studying. most of the time it's less of that than trying to finish the same dumb mission on her ps4 for ages.
by now they arrived at the vending machine. tarek nods sympathetically. yana gets herself a latte, tarek a cacao.
"i don't even want to be like this," yana clarifies, "you know? it's just that i'm..." she's looking for a different word than worried which she doesn't want to use because this kid is friends with diego's might-already-be-called-boyfriend (but hopefully not because he surely would've told her, wouldn't he?), but she actually is. a but suspicious, at least. she's heard stuff and she knows which sources are trustworthy.
"he wouldn't -," tarek starts and there's an unspoken hurt him hanging between them, but then he reconsiders, "well, at least not on purpose."
"diego wouldn't let him anyway," yana counters but they probably both know that's not true. at least her; she doesn't know for tarek, to be honest. who knows how much he knows about diego.
"he can do whatever he wants with whomever he wants," she says just because it's the right thing to say, even though it comes out through clenched teeth.
"but you'd rather have him choosing someone else?"
"well," yana starts, not wanting to come off as rude, "i mean, you guys ..."
suddenly tarek smirks. it's the first time she sees him something close to smiling. "you think ely’s dangerous?"
yana awkwardly takes a sip from her coffee, trying not to meet his eyes. it’s still quite hot, but nothing she wouldn’t be able to handle.
"oh, you think i'm dangerous, too?"
"that's not what i said!"
"but it's what you're thinking."
yana doesn't know what to say, because, yeah, maybe she has been thinking exactly this. that doesn’t mean he has to know, though.
"and?" she throws back, "don't you think i am dangerous as well?"
for a moment tarek just looks at her before he starts laughing and he just wouldn't stop and yana can feel her face getting hot and, alright, that's it, she's officially had enough of this day, she’s done.
yana turns around, stalking away, heels echoing through the almost empty halls, fingers clutched around her cup, which she’s furiously drinking from, already seeing her playing the next chapter on her own tonight, because honestly, who needs diego anyway. or ariana and bonnie. or anyone else.
but tarek catches up with her, still laughing. yana doesn't even bother to shoot him an annoying look.
then - and she really doesn’t know why - she changes her mind, and before she can stop herself she asks: "you still got class today?"
tarek shakes his head.
"alright, then it's time to grow independent from those ... fools," she states, throwing her now empty paper cup away.
tarek looks at her like he wants to say something, but then he drops it. instead he asks: "what do you have in mind?"
"got some money on you?" spending the last of her coins on coffee hasn’t helped much, but it wouldn't have been enough anyway.
he raises an eyebrow, but gets a crumbled tenner out of his pockets nevertheless.
"we're getting hair dye."
tarek looks at her horrified as if she just suggested to adopt a full grown lion. "certainly not for me."
yana rolls her eyes at him, gesturing at her washed out pink hair. "what do you think?"
"whatever," he agrees and then that’s it and they're walking through the gate of the school, the same path diego and ely took just minutes ago, but who needs them anyway.
and yana carries a small smile because, honestly, it's like she said: those roots aren't going to dye themselves.