Chapter Text
Chapter one: Discovery
Training was gruelling, tiring, and painful. Every day felt exhausting. All of this for one goal, one objective. To kill the pillar men. And also to survive, but oh well. The days passed by in a blur, the only thing that was keeping me grounded was Caesar. He was what kept me going. After another long day of training, i dragged my feet to my room, sighing. I closed the door behind me and flopped down on my bed. No more than five minutes later, i heard three rapid knocks on my door. “Coming!” I opened the door to reveal a smiling Caesar looking up at me. I spoke first.
“Hey”
“Hey”
“Why are you here?”
“Just wanted to hang out”
“Sure, wanna go for a walk?”
“Id love to, bello”
You raised an eyebrow
“What does that mean?”
“Don’t worry about it.”
You sighed and left your room, closing the door behind you. I wonder why he wants to hang out? He’s normally tired after training. Well, whatever. You made conversation with Caesar as you walked. Just stupid things and jokes. Getting to spend time with him was always a welcome surprise. You often didn’t do anything besides training, so this was refreshing.
“Man, training has been exhausting lately.”
“It really has.”
“Why’d you call me out anyways? You normally use this time to rest.”
He blinked, before sighing heavily.
“I just needed a break from the repetitiveness, you know?”
He smiled. A real, genuine smile, though it was tinged with exhaustion. You turned to look at him and blinked. The sun was setting, leaving a golden light on his face, as he smiled at you. He seemed to almost be glowing, shining. He looked… beautiful. You felt butterflies in your stomach. What is this feeling? I feel… nervous, and awkward. But why? Why? You gulped slightly and nodded, looking away. Eventually, you looped back around to your dorm, after an hour of just talking idly and laughing. Your mind was still racing after earlier, though. You reached your door and waved him bye. He waved back and you left, entering your dorm. You practically flew onto your bed. You sat there for a second, before dragging yourself out of bed to go get ready for bed properly. As you brushed your teeth, changed, etc, your mind kept replaying the same moment. Him standing there, smiling, the sun shining on him. You rinsed your mouth out, before looking at yourself in the mirror and slapping yourself.
“Get it together. Calm down.”
You said, though it didn’t help much. You trudged to bed. As you lay there, staring at the ceiling, you forced your mind to stop replaying that moment of Caesar, and instead tried to figure out what it meant. Maybe he just looked really nice, and i just so happened to notice. No, he wasn’t wearing anything different and nothing else about him changed. Maybe my mind is just playing tricks on me. That’s probably it. Im just hallucinating. No, that would just be wishful thinking. But what could it mean? Maybe it means that i… like him? No way. We might be best friends, and he might be really funny and smell really good, and also look both hot and beautiful at the same time, but that doesn’t mean anything… right? Fuck, i might have a crush on Caesar. But what does that mean for me? What do i do now? You sighed, and closed your eyes. What mattered most now was getting rest, since you didn’t get much of it anyways. After a good while, you finally managed to fall asleep, still thinking about Caesar and your feelings for him. Tomorrow was a new day, and hopefully, with some rest, you’d be able to figure out your feelings. You woke up early the next morning, the alarm ringing loudly in your ears. After a few minutes, you groaned and attempted to turn off the alarm clock, but since you were still tired, your hand wasn’t has accurate and you missed several times before getting mad and completely shoving the clock off of your nightstand. That made the alarm finally stop going off, the shrill sound of it still ringing in your ears. You sighed, sitting up. “Why doesn’t this alarm ever fucking break?” After blinking for a few seconds, you got up and walked to the bathroom, putting the alarm back on your nightstand. You got ready for todays training with Loggins. Only a week from today, you would have the Final Hamon Test, battling against Loggins to show your strength. At the same time, Caesar would be battling against Messina for the same reason, though he would be across the island. You stepped outside your room, still thinking about the test when you bumped into Caesar. He was laughing, but you were the only one in the hallway.
“…Huh? Oh, hi. ..Why are you laughing?”
“I just called out to you like four times and you just ignored me and kept walking forward and bumped into me.”
“Oh.”
My reaction alone sent him once again into fits of laughter, though you didn’t mind. You were smiling too. Finally, he stopped laughing, wiping tears away from his eyes. He composed himself once again.
“So, what’re you thinking about, amore mio?”
“What does that mean? You’re not gonna tell me, are you?”
“Nope. So, whats on your mind?”
“I was just thinking about the Final Hamon Test.”
“Oh, makes sense, since it’s coming up so soon.”
“Yeah.”
“Anyways, i thought you’d sleep in today.”
“Huh? Why would i? We have training.”
“You didn’t the news? They’ve decided that we don’t have training today.”
“Huh? Why not?”
“Im not sure, but I’m glad i get a break.”
“Honestly, me too. Anyways, thanks for telling me. I’ll probably go back to bed now”
He chuckled.
“Alright. Do you want to go out later? We could get like some food or something.”
“Yeah, sure.”
“Okay. Bye, caro mio”
“Bye”
You went back in your room after that and quickly changed into pyjamas. Not long after, you fell asleep for 2 and a half hours. Suddenly, you woke up from your 2 and a half hour nap because of a particularly bizarre dream. You rubbed at your eyes, trying to adjust to the colours and brightness of the real world. Your dream was still lingering in the back of your mind, though it was becoming fuzzier and harder to remember with every moment. You sighed and checked the time. Fuck. Caesar. He’d probably show up soon. After quickly freshening up, you dug through your closet frantically, periodically glancing at the door incase Caesar showed up. After a few minutes, you found an outfit that wasn’t too bad. It was fairly casual but not too casual. As long as you weren’t going to some high-end restaurant, you’d be fine. Right as you were spraying your cologne, you heard three rapid knocks on the door. You quickly glanced at yourself in the mirror and patted down your hair before running to answer the door. As expected, it was Caesar, smiling like he always does. He was wearing something similar to what you were wearing. Not formal, yet not casual. Though, you were leaning more towards casual while he was leaning more towards formal. You smiled at him and stepped out of your room. This would be fun.
End of chapter one: Discovery.