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Zanka was 100% certain that in the last few days Jabber has been planning something nefarious against him. There simply didn't exist any other explanation as to why the older teen was acting in such a suspicious manner, and even if there was one it would probably be something even worse than what his mind can come up with.
Avoiding eye contact but always staring when he thought he wasn’t looking, mumbling his words once spoken to, staring at nothing lost inside his own head and overall just being weird as if hiding some terrible secret, all of that completely out of the blue. One day he was his normal annoying self and on the other everything got flipped on its head. It was starting to really freak him out as time went on and his attitude only got more obviously strange.
They weren’t friends really. Even after the miracle of studying in the exact same schools since kindergarten, Zanka would call them acquaintances at best, and maybe rivals at worst. The other was just really gifted in a lot of subjects he himself has trouble with, so it was only natural for him to try even harder to beat Jabber in all academic matters even if the other teen could care less about such things.
(Also, as an addendum, he wasn’t obsessed with being acknowledged by him no matter how much his friends try to tease him about it. Repeating the exact same phase over and over again doesn't make it true you know?)
Anyways, even if they aren’t that close to one another Zanka can tell from a dozen miles away that something is deeply wrong with Jabber, and whatever isn’t right seems to somehow involve him in some strange way impossible to comprehend given the fact he was acting completely like the usual with everybody else. The best course of action then would be to simply go up to him and ask what was going on, it is not like he was the secretive type or anything of the like. In fact, most would say that being unable to shut up was probably one of his most annoying personality traits.
But while Zanka much preferred this direct method, courage to actually do this was a bit hard to come by at the moment.
The thing is, he wasn’t scared of Jabber out of all people, not at all. Maybe it was a product of over exposure or the fact he just had an easier time understanding him (most of the time), but unlike most of their classmates Zanka didn’t feel afraid when near the other. Is just that in this particular situation his instincts were screaming that talking to him could somehow set off a terrible chain of events that for a reason he could not even imagine leads to his inevitable doom. So the first two days after discovering the abnormal behaviour he kept quiet about it, talking himself out of several spirals before reaching the third day with enough bravery to finally confront him about the situation to stop this nonsense once and for all.
And then a sudden problem appeared, or rather, became apparent.
Jabber was avoiding him.
No, actually that’s not entirely true. Yes, he was doing everything in his power to not interact directly with Zanka at all, inventing excuses to leave when seeing him get closer in the corridors, ignoring all he had to say when he tried to ask literally anything and overall trying not to stay for too long in the same space as the other save obviously from the classroom, where he even refrained from annoying Zanka by poking him with his pencil like he usually did. But it only took half a day for him to understand exactly what happened.
Jabber was stalking him.
He may not be talking his ear off like usual but it was impossible to ignore the feeling of eyes burning at the back of his neck. It’s true that Zanka is a bit popular, after all, he is part of the student council and his family practically built the entire school who knows how many generations ago, but that wasn’t enough to convince him that this was just inevitable, especially given the fact it never happened before in all his seventeen years of existence.
How did he even know with such certainty that it was Jabber following him around and nobody else? Intuition obviously. He had quite the talent for smelling bullshit and trouble coming a mile away or so he heard.
(And the other wasn’t all that good at hiding anyway. Zanka caught him by the corner of his vision at least seven different times, anyone that is genuinely afraid of this absolute dumbass may as well be scared of anything at this point.)
Nevertheless, and also nonetheless, he had a plan outlined that would resolve all of those issues in three easy and quick steps, avoiding what certainly was either a murder attempt, kidnapping or terribly convoluted prank.
Number one: Question people about Jabber’s strange behaviour during lunch.
Which sounded pretty easy on paper but turned out to be stupidly hard in practice, because while running away from the others obsessive stares wasn’t that hard, it seems like everybody in school just assumed his brand of freakyness got upgraded to include stalking, having absolutely nothing of significance to tell him besides the obvious. Going around asking with increasing desperation about any leads also has the side effect of birthing weird rumors at the speed of light that will surely reach his siblings' ears somehow and lead to a row of questioning he is not ready for.
Apparently people believed the other tried to either kill him or beat him up before getting cold feet, avoiding Zanka in some attempt of pretending nothing happened while his poor scared victim tries to understand the situation like the, quote on quote, ‘fool with a bleeding heart’ that he is.
Only stupid kids have such incredible creativity they can waste on stupidity.
“He used to follow you around before anyways, so what’s the problem?” Riyo was making him feel incredibly stupid and a bit insane for daring to think too much about the other’s actions to begin with. She sometimes has that way of looking at him like she was praying that whatever was coming out of his mouth was only an enormous joke and not the truth, putting too much faith in his ability to avoid unnecessary problems, ignoring the fact those same problems had quite the obsession with turning his life a bit more miserable.
“Ya don’t get it, he would be constantly in my ears talkin’ like there was no tomorrow, now he just… looms in the shadows like a creep!” Even if he complained about it, there was a small part of him that did in fact genuinely enjoy having Jabber near. The boy might be a little insane, but only an idiot won’t realize just how smart he was in regards to a lot of subjects. Zanka calling him a genius wasn’t for nothing, look at his absurdly high scores when not even trying that hard and see what he means.
Riyo rolled her eyes, sighting loudly before putting a hand against his shoulder in a strangely comforting manner, staring at him with both pity and amusement in equal measure, clearly knowing something but not having any will to share.
“What is surprising isn’t the fact that the freaky master himself is acting weird.” Then, her smile turned a bit more vicious, gripping him more tightly to prevent his escape before she could finish in-between one laugh and another, "But rather that you like the type of man that follows you like a dog!”
His jaw almost hit the floor in shock, blushing so much he probably resembled Kyouka’s hair with how hot his cheeks felt.
Ignoring her (pretty obnoxious) laughter as best as possible alongside with everything that came out of her mouth, he mumbled an excuse and booked it out of the corridor with long strides, forgetting for a second about the ‘no running in the halls’ rule, slowing his walk of shame to a mere stroll trying to regain control over his embarrassed expressions and beating heart.
Amo and Momoa, Jabber’s so-called best friends in the whole world, didn't help in the slightest either. While the first only giggled mysteriously before running away to probably find Rudo, the second stared unblinking at his face for almost two entire minutes until the bell rang and both had to go back to class, rendering the entire interaction a waste of time.
He didn’t even get to his lunch damnit.
Number two: Find a way to corner him in a place where they could have privacy.
There weren't that many spots with little traffic away from the public eye, with the few remaining being either off limits (like the rooftop) or considered “sacred” love corners where students would confess their feelings to one another. The first was near an old oak tree near the back a little close to the gymnasium, being the worst option because even if nobody would get too close to hear their conversation by product of being afraid of “giving their love bad luck”, it was guaranteed that a crowd was going to form nearby to watch in excitement.
The second one was a little hidden space under the stairs of the main building. While it got less attention, the amount of traffic was big even when class ended, which means they would have to whisper in order to not be noticed, something he knew was impossible when both were near each other. So that was another discarded option, leaving virtually nowhere else they could go in the school for that much needed talk.
That means there is only one choice to make.
The last period was finally over and that meant everyone was gathering their things to either go to one of the clubs for their after school activities or home. So naturally Jabber was no exception to this rule, shoving his stuff a bit carelessly inside his bag like he was already late for whatever he had planned that day.
“Oh, yur ass is not running away this time!” He declared with confidence, gripping Jabber’s arm with enough strength to probably leave a nasty bruise behind. Not that Zanka cared, after all this was nothing when comparing to all the mental anguish he was making him experience in these past few days. In his mind this was merely an equivalent exchange bound to happen, so the curious and confused glances thrown their way were easy to ignore given how determined he was in getting the answers he wanted.
“Huh? What you doin’?” He questioned with a surprised startled expression, standing there like an idiot with his backpack still dangling from his other hand, not moving an inch as if stuck in place holding his breath waiting for the worst.
Zanka didn’t give a response or explanation, simply walking away while dragging his unwilling classmate with enough confidence in his steps to make everyone move out of their way without a word, clearly thinking they had plans together or something similar to it.
As they started to approach the exit, it was clear how nervous Jabber was by the slight shaking of his hand alone. It was a bit bizarre to imagine the other boy as anything but a smiling genius of a fool, in all the years of knowing one another he could count in one hand how many times he ever acted weirder than normal, and even on those moments the situation wasn’t like the one happening right now. He never got quiet or avoided him for more than a few hours to collect his thoughts.
He hated the mere implication of being ignored by the other like this. Maybe he got too used to the idea of being wanted in such a simple and effortless way by someone better than him, an average joe could ever be. Zanka didn’t need to prove anything to the other boy to deserve his attention, even at his worst Jabber would always stick close, being irritating in a way that was borderline infernal, with only him knowing how to get under his skin just right to keep him from stagnating. It was a constant push and pull between them, one he probably should have appreciated a bit more before this confusing mess.
“Zan-zan why are we in a random alleyway?" He refused to meet his eyes even now, taking his time to look around the garbage piling up all over the place like it was interesting, shoving his hands inside the pockets of his pants to appear more relaxed despite his tense shoulders and overall clear disposition to run away in a moment's notice.
What is the better and most private part a school can have (besides maybe the bathrooms) than the outside of it? And ever since some kids below his grade got into a violent fist fight with students from the other side of town that ended with two of them in the hospital, most people avoided the area all together due to fear of being the next one caught in petty territorial disputes.
So this all leads to the last part of his very elaborated (at the last minute) plan.
Number three: Use the information he was supposed to gather to question Jabber and force the truth out of his mouth once and for all.
Yeah so, he had absolutely nothing at all to help him understand what was going on.
Everything was still pointing to either murder or kidnapping, so it probably wasn’t a good idea to bring the possible future perpetrator to a mostly secluded area with zero cameras and not a single soul around to help or serve as potential witness in a court case. Well, it's not like he is scared now, but Jabber’s nervousness is really starting to rub off on him, so there was a chance that both of them would end up being the victims in this situation, how comforting.
In the end after mostly useless pondering he decided to just rip the bandage in one go and get it over with.
“Why are ya stalking me?”
That made the other finally look in his direction, not saying anything in response besides watching him in shock and (weirdly enough) a bit of relief, clearly not expecting this to be the topic of discussion but appreciating the fact he had a bit more time to prepare for whatever he was bracing himself for.
For emphasis, Zanka repeated the question once again, taking a step closer with his arms crossed and not an itch of patience left for this nonsense.
“Is cuz…. Ya know.” He mumbled uncertainly, swinging his body slowly to the sides, making his keychains hit one another in a cacophony of sounds that almost echoed between their shared space. It was a day of firsts it seems, because not even when being confronted about his less than stellar behaviour from the principal himself did he ever show so much anxiety like this.
“Do I? Because it for sure doesn’t make sense to me!” He pressed more for answers, taking another step closer, now standing in front of him at only an arm's length. If they didn’t have a two inches and a half of height difference Zanka would certainly look like a stereotypical bully demanding money.
“Why ya even care? Didn’t ya say you were going to get a boyfriend and never talk to me again?” He snapped back clearly annoyed, rolling his eyes as if Zanka was the one being unreasonable in the situation, grumbling something inaudible under his breath that didn’t sound all that pleasant.
It happened before all this mess started, just a week after Valentine's Day. Jabber made fun of him for not receiving any gift or chocolate despite his supposed popularity, and he responded something back with anger like he usually does, starting the same old dance they are so accustomed with. But then something escaped his mouth, making the other freeze in what could only be described as pure horror before making a quick exit like a sad kicked puppy:
“I swear that if I get a boyfriend I won’t ever talk to ya ever again!”
That’s what he said without thinking too hard about it, something he didn’t even understand the implications of, just to leave the other as annoyed as he felt in the moment thinking he would see it as a stupid provocation like all the things said before this. But now it seems like it had a far worse impact than he could have anticipated.
“What? I was just mad at yer stupid unfunny jokes.” Zanka could not believe his ears right now, did he truly only started the stalking hobby because of an offhand random ass remark most won’t even remember was made in the first place? Was he jealous of a fictional non-existence boyfriend Zanka would never have!? “Why the fuck would I even stop hanging out and talkin’ with you for somebody else?” He once again made the mistake of not thinking before speaking, blurring that embarrassing confession just to quickly come to regret his impulsiveness once the other let a shit-eating grin split his face.
“Oh, so you do like spending time with me!” Jabber giggled animatedly, not letting him turn away in his own attempt at escaping by putting both his hands against his shoulders in a similar manner to what Riyo did earlier, forcing prolonged eye contact he clearly enjoyed doing because he knows how much it pisses Zanka off.
“Shut the fuck up!” Pushing him away was useless, but covering his face wasn’t, so he did just that while ignoring how hot his skin felt.
“Aw man you're so cute!” He laughed, no longer looking angry over something as stupid as this, smiling all sweetly before continuing with another bombshell, “And to answer ya question, well… Is cuz I like you. Really, really, reaaaaally like ya.”
Jabber had the audacity of admitting that with a visible blush on his face and shy demeanor, pouting at his lack of response, but not taking a single word back, just waiting for a reaction or response with bated breath. And normally Zanka would roll his eyes, not taking anything he said seriously before cursing him to hell and back for trying to give him a heart attack.
But this time was different, because it all finally clicked into place.
The week's long weird behaviour that was almost turning scary, the jealousy over the mere idea of Zanka dating someone, the borderline stalker actions while simultaneously being unable to hold eye contact for more than a few seconds without getting embarrassed by it.
This gotta be a bad joke.
Turns out the only thing Jabber was planning in the last few days was how to confess his feelings, no nefarious murder plot involved at all.
“The reason it looked like ya wanted to kill me is because of a fuckin’ crush!?” He nearly screamed incredulously, putting his hands over the others and holding them in place on his shoulders, knocking their knees together briefly while getting even closer than before trying his hardest not to freak out too badly in favor of preserving what little sanity he had left.
“Man, the hell you talkin’ about? Kill you? Me???” Now that he said out loud, it did make him feel incredibly stupid for not putting the pieces together much faster, with this probably being exactly what Riyo alluded to when they talked, but he was too in denial to even try to properly understand. Unfortunately Jabber had all the right in being baffled about this line of thinking, even if it didn’t change how ashamed he felt for expecting literally the worst.
This was officially the worst day of his life, kill him now.
“You j-just had an intense way of starin’ at me…” He tried to explain himself while Jabber almost doubled over in incredulous laughter making them both shake, in the process only making Zanka desperately wish even harder for a hole to swallow him whole as fast as possible so as to not make himself look even more stupid in front of the other, if that was even achievable now.
His mind was definitely spiraling out of control, but before he tried to run like a coward unable to face his own feelings, Jabber put their forehead together gently, closing his eyes like he was simply enjoying the moment between them, with his smile turning into something so soft and tender, he felt like his heart was going to burst out of his chest at any moment in it’s quest on trying to crawl inside the others ribcage.
“Does it look like I want to kill ya now?” He mumbled still very much amused, breathing near his lips almost in a deliberated way, clearly trying to tease him a little.
Actually postpone his death sentence.
“Ugh, shut yer trap and kiss me.”
He really needed to make out with a certain stalker before anything else.
