"Hey Fen! What'ya you up to?"
A girl with blonde hair in a messy bun wearing a black school uniform walked up to a tall youth about 1.83 cm (6') tall. The two were walking on the sidewalk of a residential area while cars occasionally slipped past on the road of the residential area. .
The youth, Fen, plucked his headphones out of his ears. The brief dip of his lips was the only sign of his annoyance at being bothered by someone he didn't know but he quickly covered up the expression with his usual calm face.
'Why the hell is this girl acting like we know each other? Whatever, I might as well play along. Uhmm, wait I know her name. It's uhh....' He tried to remember her name with many possible names entering his mind. Choosing one, he could only hope that luck was on his side today.
"Hey Claire." The hint of joy showing on the girl's face proved that his guess was correct.
A bright smile flashed across the youth's face, the smile genuine not because of this girl who he found nothing but annoying, but because he had actually guessed correctly. The small victories mattered. Fen brushed his brown hair up away from his eyes as he prepared himself for an irritating walk back home.
"Funny seeing you here, " Fen laughed without mirth, "Usually I walk alone when I go home. Unless, y'know, my girlfriend comes with me."
Claire got flustered at the implied statement within his words. She hadn't expected him to be so cynical and question her being there. Pulling up an assignment from her phone, she showed him the project that the two of them had received during class therefor justifying her presence.
"We've got an project together y'know? Did you forget? I bet you forget, you usually forget about any assignments that you don't like, haha... I noticed that about you, from watching you."
'Creepy,' Fen muttered inwardly.
"Huh. Weird. I don't remember getting a project. Ah, I have work from cram school as well…." A tone of reluctance appeared in his voice. "I guess I can work on the project-"
"Ah, it's fine! I can do the first part myself!"
He inwardly smirked. On the outside of his face was an innocent smile showing his appreciation.
"Thanks, I appreciate the help. I'll do my best to help you with the last part, I just have a lot of stuff to do right now."
'Well, I don't actually have any work to do but why should she know that? Haaa, it's not she came here with innocent intentions anyways.' Fen clearly remembered girls like her. Although it might seem narcissistic for him to say such a thing about himself, it was true; Fen had an attractive face inherited from his parents.
When he was younger it usually wasn't an issue to make anyone who approached him back off but his girlfriend was working with him to be friendlier. His love for her was the only reason he endured the presence of girls like Claire next to him.
"No problem! But you gotta come with me sometime to hang, 'k?"
"Yeah, sure." He made a vague gesture of accepting, hoping to find a way out of having to go anywhere with the girl.
While Fen swindled his classmate, they neared a white house on the side of the street. A brown fence separated the house from the sidewalk where Fen stopped walking. His comfy house never looked so welcoming than it did right now.
"My house is here, so bye." Waving goodbye, he turned around and walked to the door, not looking back.
Disappointment flashed on Claire's face before she nodded. Before she walked away however she put on a bright smile and waved.
"Don't forget about our date!"
'Date? Gah, it's always the same thing with them... And I even said that I had a girlfriend, but when did people like her care about things like that?'
Sighing, Fen looked up at the white house. It had a modest two floors and was pretty sizable for a family of four. The Altairus family never had a need for space. Walking in from the front door, he saw his mom in the kitchen lovingly preparing dinner for them.
"Hey Mom. What's for dinner tonight?"
His mom had a frustrated look on her face as she answered, her hands on her hips and a pout on her lips.
"You don't see me all day and the first thing you ask is what's for dinner? Come on, give your poor mother a hug at least." She spread her arms out from her sides like a predator that had cornered its prey. An outsider might say the scene looked adorable but Fen knew enough about his mother to trust the chill that ran down his spine.
"Sure." A cold shiver ran down his spine, but he ignored it.
He inherited his attractive facial features from his mom who, like Fen, had brown hair and eyes. Thanks to falling in love and getting married early she was in great shape despite having raised a teenager to the age of seventeen. But unlike his mom's kind and warm chocolate eyes, Fen inherited his dad's fierce fall-brown eyes filled with vitality. The father-son pair also had similar personalities.
Both of them were very clever, and cold to people they weren't comfortable with. To people they cared about it was like an internal switch was flipped; they became clingy to the point of annoyance and grew very protective of their loved ones.
"Ughn, let me go." This was not one of the times Fen showed his clingy side; he was currently being crushed by what his mother called a hug. A second before he could've sworn that he heard his ribs creak with strain.
"Stay with me a little longer Fen. You always just stay in your room." His mom pouted in his ear while increasing the strength in her arms.
'Shit, she's got me locked in tight. Is this woman even human?!' Fen managed to barely squirm away by tickling his Mother's sides.
"Hahaha, wait no, come back here Fen! Don't run away from your mother!" Her high-pitched giggles were cut off by her roar of outrage.
"Nope! I've got work to do! I swear this time its real and I'm not lying, please believe me!" His fear fueled his escape as adrenaline pumped in his veins and aided his desperately flailing legs in sprinting up the stairs.
On his way up the stairs, Fen passed his younger sister. Sensing opportunity, his cruel sister started stretching in the middle of the stairs and popped her arms outwards to block his path. It was a shameless strategy to prevent him from escaping by taking up the stairs with her limbs. A normal person, especially a male, would stop and wonder at Alex's beauty before catching themselves. Being siblings Fen of course was immune to her beauty because he practically raised her.
Alex inherited their father's silver hair and blue eyes. Her eyes resembled their mother's and were filled with kindness. At least, that was the case most of the time, now, they were filled with sick pleasure at the feeling of blocking her older sibling's escape from their mother.
"Get out of the way!"
"What do you mean~? I'm just stretching?"
Behind Fen, his mom quickly took off her apron and started chasing behind him.
"Come back here! I just want to snuggle! Wait, why are you running even faster?!"
Seeing his pursuer rapidly closing on him, Fen chose the fastest available route- brute force. He shoved past Alex, pulling her back to delay his mother. Then, using the long legs gifted to him by the Heavens he sprinted upstairs into his room and locked the door. If he was just a second late his efforts would've all been for nothing, but he succeeded this time.
"Damned brat! Just wait until you come down for dinner! You won't be able to escape then honey~!" Sometimes her love was a little much.
Hearing the crazed howling behind the locked door, Fen breathed a sigh of relief and looked around his room. Inside it was his bed and study desk with the creaky chair next to it. A pile of carefully-maintained books lay in the corner next to some exercise equipment. Looking at them, Fen reminded himself to get a new mat at one point; the one he was currently using was starting to have the stench of sweat permanently stamped into it despite all his efforts to clean it.
A lamp on the desk was used for any miscellaneous activity, such as reading or studying whatever subjects he needed to. A laptop on the desk helped Fen with any work that required him to go online, as well as to watch funny videos with cats or his favorite streamer.
Fen slid into his chair and logged on his computer, pulling up his school work. After setting up his music playlist, he began to work on his homework. This time he was actually telling the truth; he did indeed have work to do... Well, technically he didn't even have to start it today and had no intentions to even look at it until his mother chased him upstairs.
"Fuu..." He could only sigh as he set into the work.
"...."
'Hmm? She hasn't worked on the project yet….' After Fen finished working for the day, he messed around on his computer to find the project only to find it completely empty.
Questioning whether Claire was lazy or simply forgot, Fen decided to work on it a little.
'Maybe I can get out of having to meet her after school if I work on it.' The desire for freedom served as his motivation as he tirelessly wrote line after line, using scholarly vocabulary worthy of a good score.
The Project was about Humanities achievements on Earth. It was supposed to act as a review for students to remember the origin of humans, and how we weren't the only race on Earth. Because of how large the planet was, multiple intelligent species of humanoids appeared, influenced by Mana and the environment. Monsters appeared as a byproduct of the Mana shifts on Earth, affecting the evolution of animals to rapidly evolve into the creatures that currently filled history books and movies.
Possessing simple intelligence, the monsters enjoyed the rich resources on the planet and bred at a rapid pace until they encountered the Elves. As the race most connected to nature during their evolution, the Elves felt the aberration caused in the world from the monsters. Seeing the scale of the monster's evolution, they desperately gathered the other races to unite and form a front against their enemies.
Magic became extremely useful among the races as a powerful offensive and defensive tool to use in battle especially against Demons. A race similar to the Elves in their evolutionary direction, Demons were attuned to the world in a very twisted way. If the beautiful Elves wanted to grow along with the Earth, then the Demons wanted to destroy the Earth along with themselves.
Like the Earth's races, Demons were able to harness Mana to perform deeds beyond imagination, and posed a great threat to the races on Earth. However, the practice of using Mana to perform magic declined after the Sins left the Earth, as it was no longer needed to defend Humanity. Today, Mana was generally used in architecture and improving the technology Humans possessed to provide modern conveniences.
Using his laptop to search up historical documents to use as reference, Fen continued to analyze Human history, growing slightly bored with the monotonous activity.
He continued working on the project until he heard a knock on the door.
After having stood up and unlocked his door, his dad stepped into the room.
"Hey bud. You know the drill, tell me about school. Anything new happen, or was it the same old stuff?" His dad said after casually slipping past Fen's attempt at blocking him.
His dad stood at a height of 187 cm (6'1"), and was by no means a small man, and his actions served to create the illusion of an impassable mountain. However this attitude was just a mere illusion.
"Fua, now that hits the spot!" Fen's bed made a pitiful sound as his dad set his large body on it in a motion closely resembling a flopping fish.
Fen chuckled at the sight of a giant man snuggling into his bed, putting his headphones back in to listen to music.
"School wasn't so bad. Another girl tried to invite me out today though. Ah, but I already took care of that so I won't have to." That reminded him, he had to call off the 'date'.
"Oh? And what does Miko think about that?"
His dad's voice was muffled by the bed, but still audible. Fen however, pretended not to hear although he froze in place for a moment.
"...."
"Huh!? You didn't tell her! Shame on you, my son!"
His dad exploded out of the bed, laughing on the floor. He was wiping tears out of his eyes as Fen struggled to formulate a response.
"What? I just forgot okay?! And even if it does creep me out a little, it felt good to be asked out. It reminds me I'm still attractive. Does that make me a bad person?!"
"She's your girlfriend, son. You have to tell her stuff about other girls. Especially Miko! You've known her for years so you should at least know that much." His dad shivered as he remembered what happened the last time Fen didn't tell her about a girl too curious for her own good. May she rest in peace...
Socially, of course. The poor girl's social media practically assaulted her after Fen's scary girlfriend pulled some strings. Unlike her dearly beloved, Miko was very social and had a lot of friends more than willing to do her a favor as small as a social excommunication.
Fen groaned and rubbed his eyes. He checked the time on his phone. 7:27 p.m. He sighed dramatically as he swung himself out of his chair and tried pulled his father up from the floor, then gave up as his fish of a father flopped onto the floor.
"What would happen if she found out and you didn't tell her?"
Fen's face paled at his dad's words. He fumbled his phone out his pocket with shaky hands and pulled out Miko's contact information.
"S-She'd kill me. That'd be the end of me. "
Fen slapped the table.
"No more Fen Altairus. I'm calling her now. Better to explain over the phone then text." Fen blushed a little. "And.… I kinda want to hear her voice."
"It's been, what, a couple hours since you saw her? Ah, young love. What I wouldn't give to experience that again."
"With mom?"
"Your mother?!" Dad sputtered. "Are you crazy?! Well, yes, we dated as kids but still... If I had a second chance.…" Dad rubbed his chin, his brow folding while he was deep in thought. "Nah, I'd probably do the same thing."
His dad nodded, patting his son on the back.
"I'll be off then."
"You're not going to be here with me?!"
"Of course not."
His dad left the room with a hearty chuckle, looking calm and fatherly. However, Fen could hear the man break out into a sprint after he left his line of sight.
"Sorry Fen! She scares me too! Good luck!"
Trembling, Fen pressed the call symbol and wiped off the sweat accumulated on his brow. Breathing in to steady himself, he waited for Miko to answer. 'I want to hear her voice, but dammit, I'm scared too!'
*Click*.
'Oh shit'. Fen erupted in sweat after hearing his call be declined. 'I might actually die. Wait, maybe she didn't mean to decline the call. I should call again just to be sure.'
After the third ring on his second attempt an angry feminine voice snapped out from the speaker.
"What?"
Fen explained what happened that afternoon, and apologized for not telling her sooner, using his project as an excuse for not telling her sooner.
"That's it?" Fen could hear a chuckle through the phone. "Haha, that's ok Fen. I trust you. I know you wouldn't do anything behind my back. You're too smart to something stupid like that."
Fen laughed aloud, but inwardly in his mind he thought, 'That's a threat. 100%. She's wonderful but also terrifying.'
Fen shivered from a cold air in the room before talking more with his girlfriend.
"But next time, think about my feelings ok? How would you feel if you saw me with another guy!"
Fen felt the atmosphere change so he relaxed a little bit. Once you get past the possessive part of her you'd find a sweet, kind, and gentle girl. That was what made Fen fall in love in the first place.
"Alright, I got the message. I'd feel pretty pissed too." Laughing, he listened to Miko complain some more about his growing popularity.
"It's not like I don't like you being with other people, but you need to let them know you have me! If not, I might get really mad and maybe I'll break up with you!"
"Ahhhh no, I wouldn't be able to handle that."
"Well, of course not!"
"....I love you Miko."
"Yes! I know! And I love you too! God, it took you 16 years to finally find the balls to ask me out!!"
"But I did it, didn't I?"
"You could've hurried a little you damn bastard."
"Haha. Alright, so we are still on for the date tomorrow?" He inwardly pat himself on the back for his performance at aptly changing the subject away from his lack of courage.
"Of course!"
A smile formed on the lips of the boy, alone on his bed. Even when the call clicked and he couldn't hear her voice anywhere, the feeling of joy in his chest didn't leave him. He felt exhilaration emanating from his chest and spreading around his body.
After laughing some more and talking about their days, he hung up and slumped onto his bed.
"Fuu. Yeah, I could get used to this. I should have asked her out years ago." Muttering to himself about his regrets from when he was younger, Fen stood up from his bed. "Actually, what the hell am I regretting? She's mine now, and that's all I need."
Fen then walked downstairs to have dinner with his family, smelling the enticing smell that only freshly cooked meat could produce.