The dreadful toll of the bell tower was what rattled Toko awake at seven o’clock in the bleeding morning, but the sensation of what the hell I’m gonna throw up in my mouth was what got him out of bed. It meant shambling to the restroom and getting sick, meant taking a bath after that because seriously ew, and it running up to the divination tower knowing he was going to be late.

Whatever happened last night (he remembered shots and shirtlessness and his bed, but not much else) couldn't have been fun enough to warrant this.

Toko stuffed his satchel to bursting with his books and what else he couldn’t remember, and was scampering up those bloody moving staircases with his hair sopping wet on his forehead because he couldn’t remember to use his stupid wand and a headache was punching the backs of his eyes and he was in a hurry and –

…and his satchel burst at the seams and roughly a ton of books, quills, paper, nail polish bottles clattered across the stone floor.

…and none of that mattered, because the stupid bell was clanging for 8 a.m. and he was barely even to the second floor. So Toko did what anyone would do in a situation such as this: he kicked one of his books, pressed his forehead against the wall, and mewed pathetically as a wet kitten.

Yeah, mewed.

Not very sodding manly. But anyone who wasn’t, you know, a slag who got trashed on a Tuesday night was in class by now or still snugged in bed or at breakfast. He’d mew down the whole damn school if he wanted.

Dax's night, compared to Toko's, had been a fun night - if a tiring one. He too was late, but mostly because he'd taken a long, warm shower and had ignored the bell and his brother Dion yelling at him.  He'd gotten the idea when Dion finally hexed him -  after all, nothing interrupted a nice shower-doze like being turned  into a ferret. Dion had only  turned him back once Dax had gotten his teeth sunk into on of his brother's hand and the fighting had subsided.

Early morning in the baths was always a good way to wake up, even if it did get the two of them strange looks.

He was in the middle of meandering his way to Divination when a textbook flew down the stairs and hit him in the stomach. After landing heavily on his arse - which was going to be bruised, what would the girls say - and letting out a wheezed curse, he grabbed the offending book and stomped up the stairs, following the trail of supplies.

He was surprised to find Toko leaning against the wall and was almost annoyed for a moment before the boy mewed. Mewed. That was damned cute, and it made him wonder what the hell was wrong with hi-with Toko.

Oh right, he probably had a hangover. Duh.

"You alright, man?" he asked, despite the obvious answer being 'no'. He set the book by Toko's discarded bag and raised an eyebrow.

Toko jolted and peeled himself from the wall, limbs twining around himself like vines. He whipped around fast enough that his back knocked against the stones. He didn’t know whether he was extremely short or everyone else was just gigantic. In this case, both were true.

“Um. Hi.”

Eloquent. Pulling words out of a Tae-song Toko was like drilling for teeth.

Toko rubbed at his eyes, pushing his glasses up onto his forehead, to keep himself from standing there gawping like a confounded wreck of a boy. Barely awake, peaked and pale. Yeah, the answer to that question was painted clear on Toko’s weary little face. Bloodless as he looked, he already felt heat starting up in his cheeks.

Even after six point five years of magical schooling, Toko still had a very muggle way of doing things. But skittering around on hands and knees was way easier than carrying on a conversation with a giant blonde. Who’d hefted him around shirtless last night, while he’d…gone on at great length about his nips.

Oh dear.

Toko sat back on his ankles, and nosed at his shoulder to push his glasses up his bridge and wipe the water from his face. He gathered up a few books and clutched them to his chest, before peeking up at Dax over the bridge of his glasses.

“I’m…okay. Just, you know. A little sick, maybe.” He chewed his lip and looked away again. “And um…thank you. About last night...and stuff.”

"Hung over, huh?" Dax said, setting his own bag down and starting to pick up Toko's stuff for him, since the boy didn't seem capable of doing it himself.  He glanced at him and noticed the blush - and the glasses. Of course.

Hiding his own slight blush behind his usual foppish grin, he shrugged. "No prob, Toko. Better n' letting you sleep in the armchair, right?" He shoved the rest of Toko's stuff in the boy;s bag and put it at his feet, walking over and crouching in front of him. He grinned at him, remembering the night before. "My nipples survived intact, by the way - though there was a close call," he said, almost hoping the kid didn't remember what he'd been going on about. Hung over people could be cute moe fun.

"You gonna be able to make it the rest of the way to class?" he asked, then grinned jokingly. "I could always carry you again, y'know," he added, subtly flexing his chest to emphasize that yes, he was strong enough to carry him all the way up the tower. Just in case Toko needed clarification.

"Oh dear..."

Toko dipped his head and looked away, weirdly embarrassed by the display. Joke or not. All the same, a faint smile slipped across his lips. Long bony fingers pawed anxiously through his wet hair. Well, that was unexpected. He really wasn’t used to….well, people talking to him or giving half a damn about him.

“Um….ha…” Toko made a funny little noise, that could have been a laugh or cough or maybe both. “That’s very good to hear. Wouldn’t want anyone’s…ah…” His smile broadened into something nervous, toothy, lopsided – and he did away with that quick enough. Crawling around on the floor was stupid enough, showing off his overbite would just make him look dimmer.

Even if it was after he’d made an utter twit of himself, this morning and the night previous. Even if it was to discuss the state of nipples. Which, naturally, stoked up the cinders of flush flared on his face. Toko felt his ears burn red.

“And I…well. You don’t have to do that, I’ll be…fine. Th-thank you, though.” He huffed out a quiet sigh, and absorbed himself in muttering a spell to fix his satchel’s seam. Stuffing books away. That was completely dull and chaste and not homoerotic in the slightest.

“Really, if you were carrying me anywhere, I’d want to be carried back to bed.”

"Already? I thought I'd have had to get you drunk again first."  It was like a nerve reflex - his mind was yelling at him not to say it, but his face twisted into a devious grin and his mouth talked without any sort of wiring to anything other than his reflex to say 'hur hur'.

The moment the words left his mouth he snapped it shut and looked, well, stupid for a moment as his eyes bulged out and his face turned the color of a beet.

"Haha, just kidding, mate," he said quickly, patting Toko on the shoulder and standing up, brushing off the knees of his pants and looking sheepish. "You can't really go back to bed, and if you trek out to the Hospital Hut the ol' bat who runs it'll tell you've been drinking in 2 seconds flat," he said, offering Toko his hand.

"You can just pass out in class, man. Cuthbert will probably let you be."

“You…? Oh…oh my. That’s not—I mean, it’s not that I…um.”

Yumiko Shirasagi got hit on. A lot. Tae-song Toko, however – that was barely a boy, a skinny slip excuse of a boy, especially standing next to a Fayette. Tae-song Tokos did not get on, by anybody, but especially not by a…well.

Boy.

Toko’s eyes were wide as teacup saucers, mouth hanging open. He hadn’t meant that. He didn’t want th—his hands fluttered up to face, covering his seared cheeks. If anymore blood rushed up into his head, Toko figured he might faint dead away. And that would be pretty high up there on the list of stupid as hell things he’d done recently. 

Being on his knees was probably unfortunate, too. Toko scrambled up from the floor so fast one might thing it had electrocuted him. Standing and leaning against the wall, huddled down into his bag, Toko tried to muster up a laugh. It sounded more like a bird squawk. He nervously rubbed the spot on his shoulder where Dax had touched him.

“It’s, um…okay. I just. Ha. Yeah...hopefully he'll just let me sleep or whatever.” Toko looked away and dug those little rabbit teeth into his lip again. He looked like a blush pink mess, must have. Urgh. “I – we should…get to class, I guess?" he suggested meekly.

Ah, bugger - he'd offended him. Good going Dax, why don't you call him a tosser next? He thought to himself, clearing his throat.

Toko was, however, extremely...something when he was embarrassed, he had to admit, staring at the boy in stunned silence. He wasn't sure what the urge he had was - to  'smoosh him', as Sophie so often put it, because he was cute or...other stuff. Yeah. Stuff.

There was a reason Dax wasn't the eloquent twin. That was Dion's job.

"What? Oh. Class. Yeah." He smiled as best he could, failing to ignore how damned odd Toko made him feel. He was like Fir - attractive for all the reasons that didn't make sense. Well, not entirely like Fir. He liked Toko's shyness and innocence and being attracted to Fir for his shyness and innocence was like be attracted to a brick for its softness and ability to write poems. But there was something about the little Asian that was just...smooshable. Maybe it was those goddamn glasses.

"Yeah," he said again, not sure why. He blinked and turned to the stairs and trying his best to ignore the dropping of his stomach, took a deep beath. "Don'tlookovertheside," he muttered under his breath, and pulled his backpack back on. Then he started taking the stairs two at a time.

Toko frowned, but didn’t quite know why. He was the one who was supposed to be embarrassed here, and he was, but there wasn’t any reason for Dax to. Not really. It was weird, remembering that he’d known the other boy for more than six bloody years. The same tiny gawkish pre-pubescent muck as firsties, and then...well.

“Yeah,” Toko echoed.

Hormones swept over fourth year boys dorm, and Toko started stealing glances of the twins getting dressed in the morning because every other damn boy in the world was getting muscled and Toko was still skinny as a sapling. At least that’s what he told himself at first. Only reason, not because.

Yeah.

He scuttled after Dax with a lot more speed than he meant, basically sprinting up the stairs to keep pace with those long legs. God, was this weird. That stupid joke kept bouncing around in his skull, he was just turning it over and over, dwelling on the silence between the excuse of ‘lol j/k bro’ and that blush.

Toko felt a little dizzy all of a sudden, but he marked that up to the hangover.

“H-hey, wait up –“ he faltered, tongue flopping stupid numb against his teeth. What was he expecting to say after that? This whole human interaction thing really was a bother. “I kinda. I wanna walk with you or something. I guess.”

Dax slowed, looking back down the stairs as carefully as possible to avoid looking over the side as they wound higher and towards the corridor that would lead to the stairs for the Divination tower.

He stopped entirely when he got to the landing, retreating away from the edge as he waited for Toko to catch up.

Tilting his head to the side slightly, his grin returned. "Hangover kicking back in, eh?" He asked, gripped the straps of his backpack a bit tighter than he had intended. Still, he'd been thinking as he headed up the stairs and did his best to appear disarming.

He waited until Toko had caught his breath. "Who was the girl you met last night, bro?" he asked, grinning devilishly. "You can't have me believing' old guys were the only ones buyin' you drinks, with that eyeliner all over your face." He winked. "Was she cute?"

“…huh?”

Toko had that deer-in-the-headlights look again, big dark eyes blinking up at Dax just a question mark. “Um, I didn’--?” Then realization struck him like lightning, and he straight up jolted in alarm. “Oh, hey, um. Yeah! Yeah, man. She…” he liked his lips, and palmed at the back of his neck. A slow cat’s smile unfurled across his lips.

“…she was really beautiful, yeah.”  Toko gave Dax a fleeting glance, and he shrugged. That smile wavered and fell. “You probably would have really liked her, I guess.” He scuttled along ahead of the other boy, suddenly picking up the pace. “Total slag.”

What the hell was he expecting, anyway?

Toko decided right then that he’d have to stop drinking if he was going to be this much of a twit the next morning. What was he even wanting? He shook his head, and sighed softly. He hitched up that smile again, and turned around to ascend the stairs backwards. Looking down at Dax was strange, really. Being so small made a vantage like this unusual.

“So. How many girls are you like…taking to that dance….thing?”

"I'll bet she was, bro." Dax looked up at Toko with his arms crossed casually over his chest and a sly grin on his face. He wasn't as stupid as Dion often claimed - he had a feeling he knew where that eyeliner had come from and it wasn't no woman. Or one of the old guys either.

Ew, mental image.

He started up that stairs after Toko with a grunt as the boy asked about the dance. "Right now? Haven't really asked anyone, really," he said. "Been too busy with studying since Dion's been cracking his whip about it." He tilted his head slightly and leaning on the rail a few steps below Toko, so he was about chest-height. "What 'bout you? You goin' with  anyone?"

When Dax just stopped like that, Toko tried to look – you know, responsible, and spare a glance up the ton of staircases to make it look like he honestly gave a shit about falling asleep in Divination. Of course he didn’t. Because…because he was talking to someone, someone who was two hundred times more popular than him, about something that wasn’t homework.

Bloody astounding, really.

“Um…no.” And Toko had to fight himself not to tack on a mousy little ‘of course not’, because that would just sound all kinds of pathetic and lonely and Dax Fayette was talking at him as if he were a vaguely interesting human being and  – “Of course not.” Well. There went that.

It took every nerve in him not to skitter away up a couple steps. After shambling around a drunken mess in the common room last night and all that, it was probably in Toko’s best interest not to seem completely socially inept. Didn’t know how good of a job he was doing at it, though. Didn’t run away, though, and was the important bit.

Just…twined his arms around his belly, stared fixedly at his shoes, and tried biting a hole through his lip. Still needed work, but whatever.

“At least you have an excuse. You could…you could probably ask anybody, I bet. I’m…uh. Probably just going to…go with some uh, friends. Or something. Or…stay in the commons.” He tried a to force a little laugh. “Whichever pans out.”

"Of course not?" Dax was honestly surprised...kind of. Toko was shy, obviously, but he didn't seem like the dateless type.

Dax laughed and continued up the stairs, slapping Toko on the back as he passed him. "Any girl? Not really, bro. Half the girls get all pissed at me. They'd rather go with Dion." He grunted dismissively. "Maybe I'll just take Fir - same thing, basically."

He glanced over his shoulder back down at him. "See, I've known you for long enough to know which of those two you'll do, kid," he said. He paused for a moment. "You could come with me, if you want," he offered, and quickly added, "Right now we're kinda goin' in a group, you know? Fir n' Dion and Sophie and so on. You're welcome if you want."

Toko might’ve done something so stupid as squeaked a little at the slap on the back. Well…there was really no ‘might’ about it. He did. Second after he did, he couldn’t help but roll his eyes to the rafters. It spoke a lot of your social skills when you’d get annoyed at yourself even before other did.

He was a bit tired of this shrinking violet bit. Yumi was, anyway. So he was, too.

The first bit of that sentence made him smile a little, in that faint way of his. That blush searing his cheeks was subsiding, just a bit. Still probably looked like a strawberry, but whatever. Nothing he could do to fix it, at least not right now. Toko drew a deep breath before turning around to scuttle after Dax.

Five minutes and he was starting to feel like a puppy. Apparently it only took a little bit of attention before he was showing his belly like a dog wanting pettings. Or like a bitch in heat. Blegh.

“I wouldn’t…I wouldn’t take Fir Cuween to anything, really. I think he likes me. Not in a, like…buy me candy manner, either.” There might have been a trace of a haughty sniff in those words. Those long lashes fluttered in alarm after saying that, though, fearing it might have sounded like a rejection.

“But, um! Y-yeah, I’d love – I’d really like to go with you….and people, yeah. Just..." Toko pawed anxiously at his hair again, and shot a glance up to Dax. "Don’t leave me alone with him.”