Chapter Text
There were very few times in Yukino's life where she hated her sister Sorano. Standing in the lobby of a building she was not meant to be in, soaked to the bone from the rain outside, this...was one of those times.
All she had wanted was to attend her local community college. Sure, the physics course there was nothing to write home about, and there was no minor in astronomy, but it would've done the job. A twenty minute bus ride from home. In the middle of the small town she grew up in and knew like the back of her hand. Yukino would've been content with that.
But no. Sorano had gotten a residency in the hottest club in the capital as their new lounge singer. After being in a different country for the better part of five years, she had been desperate to see Yukino again. So desperate that monthly visits at home wasn’t cutting it. In the summer of Yukino's first year, Sorano convinced Yukino that applying to transfer for the physics course at Fiore university in the city, with its residency placement and state of the art resources, would much better serve her in her future career.
“It will get you out of the house too!” Sorano had added, “I'm sick of you growing little mushrooms on your head. The night life in the city is great. You're almost twenty Yukino! It's time to get out there!”
“Come to the city and move in with me, she said,” Yukino found herself mocking her sister in a whisper, “It'll be so much fun, she said.”
Well, what a load of fun it had been so far. During orientation week, the time where you attend freshman parties, meet your new friends, and scope out the campus for yourself, Yukino had caught a nasty cold. Not wanting to catch it and have it ruin her “instrument”, Sorano barricaded Yukino in her room, and busied herself with going out and promoting her club in the evenings. This left Yukino all by herself, struggling to sleep in her sister's rock hard guest bed, in a foreign city where she didn't even know where the nearest bodega was.
When she had finally made it onto campus the next week, the sheer size and amount of people overwhelmed her instantly. The signs giving directions made no sense to her frazzled brain. Any time she tried to ask anyone where her lecture hall was, they either ignored her, or gave her directions that made no more sense than the signs. Thank God for Lucy, her classmate who had stopped to help her on her second day, and had shown her where the majority of her classes took place. They even exchanged phone numbers, and Lucy had drawn her a map of the campus on a tissue, drawing big pink circles around where all her classes were.
So, what was the problem? Well, Yukino had a memory like a sieve at the best of times. Despite walking around with Lucy for a week, the campus buildings all looked the same when put against grey skies and rain. And her phone was dead. And the map had gotten soaked in her pocket, leaving the tissue an inky, incomprehensible mess.
Yukino let go of the straps of her backpack, instead using her hands to cover her face and trying desperately not to burst into tears. She had class in fifteen minutes and was terrified of being late. Her and Lucy's crabby professor, Aquarius, had been very clear on how she treated latecomers to her class.
Shouting in frustration, Yukino ripped her hands from her face. Vibrating with pent up anger, her eyes zeroed in on a crumpled soda can on the floor. Pulling her foot back, she kicked it, imagining it to be Sorano's stupid smirking face.
“Ow!”
The unexpected yelp cause Yukino to jump in surprise. Her head shot up, and to her horror she made eye contact with one of the hottest guys she had ever seen. He had spiky blonde hair, a scar over his right eyebrow, and a diamond earring glinting wickedly at her from his left ear. He also had a hand that was rubbing over his knee.
“Pretty mean kick you've got there!” he said, standing up straight.
Yukino felt her entire face go red, creeping from the neck up. “Oh my god,” she gasped, absolutely mortified, “I'm so sorry!”.
Kicking a can into a random guy's knee would have been embarrassing enough. But as Yukino stepped forward to check if he was okay, she did not notice that her sodding wet coat had dripped onto the floor below her. Her tennis shoes squeaked forward, and for a terrifying second Yukino felt the weightlessness hit her stomach.
“No no no no no!” She screamed internally. The scene flashed before her. Yukino, flat on her ass, and this handsome guy awkwardly excusing himself before stepping over her. She squeezed her eyes shut, praying that as she fell the Earth would open beneath her and swallow her whole. Just then, two strong arms wrapped around her, one hand grabbing her elbow and the other between her shoulder-blades. Startled by the feeling of being suspended, she opened her eyes to find her face mere inches away from the handsome stranger. His eyes were dark blue, the same dark blue as the ocean when it drops from a shallow to a terrifyingly deep depth. How funny then, that Yukino found herself drowning in them.
“Woah there!” she faintly heard him exclaim, “Can't have you cracking your head open while I'm here, I'm in enough trouble with the admin as is.”
With a start, Yukino untangled herself from his hands and righted herself, smoothing down the front of her shirt self-consciously.
“I'm so…so sorry,” she repeated, wondering when that human swallowing hole from the Earth was going to appear, “I'm a complete mess today.”
“Yeah, I noticed.” The guy chuckled, but Yukino must have pulled a face, because he gulped in embarrassment, “Um...what I meant to say is,” he continued, waving his hands around, “We all have those days. Waking up on the wrong side of the bed, and all that jazz.”
“One of those days? Try one of those weeks.” she replied. Seeing him shoot her a concerned look she went on to say “I was sick during orientation week, so I'm behind on filling out all the stupid forms they give you. And I got no tour of the campus, so I'm still really struggling to figure out where it is I'm supposed to be going. My friend did draw me a map but...” She reached into the pocket of her jeans, attempting to retrieve Lucy's tissue map, but it disintegrated in between her fingers, “It got wrecked by the rain.”
The guy scratched his chin which, much to Yukino's annoyance, brought attention to a sharp jaw that was covered with a very light dusting of blonde stubble. “You leave your umbrella at home?” he asked, his eyes travelling up and down her. Yukino's face, which had cooled from its tomato red shade, flushed pink once again.
“My sister stole mine,” she explained, secretly seething, “She's a singer in town, and she spends so much money on her hair and...” she cut herself off, embarrassed by her own rambling. “Sorry, as if you care about all this.”
The guy shook his head gently, “Hey, it's no trouble! A good vent always makes me feel better too!” he took a step towards the lobby door, and that's when Yukino saw he was holding an umbrella. He held it up with a smile, “And, if it would help, I don't mind showing you around. We'll both need to squeeze under this umbrella though,” his smile turned into a cheeky smirk, “I also spend a lot on my hair.”
Yukino giggled, enjoying the way the guy's eyes twinkled at her. “That's so nice of you. But I don't want to be of any trouble.”
“A sweet girl like you could never be trouble,” he replied, “You got class?”
Yukino gasped, embarrassed that she'd been so distracted by the handsome stranger that she completely forgot about her lecture. “Oh god, I do!” She pulled out her phone, checking the time, “And I only have five minutes to get there!”
“Hey, don't panic,” the guy soothed, “Do you know the name of the building?”
“Westbrook Hall.”
“Aw sick, that's literally just down the road and round the corner! Here,” he said, pushing open the glass lobby doors, tilting his umbrella towards her, “I'll walk you there.”
“Are you sure?” asked Yukino, even as she followed him out and ducked under the umbrella with him.
“I already told you it's fine,” he gently reminded, sticking out his elbow in such a way that Yukino could take hold of it. She did, feeling just exactly how hot her cheeks were now that she was outside. She looked up at him, to see his blue eyes already directed at her. “I'm Sting, by the way.”
“My name's Yukino,” she replied, beaming, “It's lovely to meet you, Sting.”
They arrived at Westbrook Hall in no time, a fact Yukino was both relieved and disappointed about. Sting waved her off with a promise to see her around campus, and she had to stop herself from standing at the door to watch him walk away in the rain. She sprinted through the halls, thankfully without any more slips, and planted herself in the seat beside Lucy right before Aquarius walked through the door.
“There you are!”, Lucy whispered, handing Yukino a booklet on asteroids that was being passed around, “I kept phoning you, but it went straight to voicemail.”
“My phone's dead,” Yukino whispered back, “And the map you gave me dissolved in the rain.”
“I'm sorry,” Lucy replied, keeping one eye on Aquarius, “Did you manage to still find your way all right?”
Yukino bit her lip, trying to hide a smile, “Actually, I bumped into a really cute guy who showed me the way instead.”
Lucy squealed in excitement, “Yukino, that's awesome!”
But before Yukino could divulge Sting's name, Aquarius clapped her hands together loudly, signifying the start of the lecture. Yukino tried to concentrate, really, she did. But the sharp line of Sting's jaw kept her distracted the entire time.