draw a line to me and i'll draw a line to you.

[depthless]

heyyy look

[«screenshot_09424.png» —it's of a web map showing a route from Link and Yoshiki's apartment to a small museum of Eastern European art. There's a restaurant marked just off their connecting train stop.]

I think i'm nailing this. Perfect date structure
Lunch AND cool shit AND the trip's not too long AND it's useful for school AND
It'd be fun
Right??

[...Yoshiki can see just how cool Link is playing it, since when Link bounces his leg with restless energy, his knee is right next to Yoshiki's knee. His shoulders are hitched up and his head is tucked low while he types on his phone, which is exactly why they're sitting together in the back of the lecture hall.]

Comments

[ughhh]

[Most days, Yoshiki would reach over and pluck the phone right out of Link's hands, as a reminder to pay attention, for god's sake. Most days, that's just what he'd do. Already enough of a distraction that they're sitting together, side by side, way off in the back... but that doesn't mean Link gets to play around on his phone, too.

Today, obviously, isn't like most days.

Today feels like a clean split. Like there's before, and an afterward. Today is the afterward--the afterword, as it were, and Yoshiki doesn't know what he's meant to do with what that entails. He's been in something of a daze, sitting there (side by side), not even taking any notes, and that's when his own phone vibrates against his thigh. Inaudible, but inevitable. He tugs it into view to look at the message.

Today couldn't be more different from most days.]

Looks like it chekcks all the boxes

[...!!!]

*checks

[He's not sure he can feel his thumbs anymore.]

But I don't know what boxes we're supposed to be checking

[depthless]

Wellll I'd love to say I naturally had all the best ideas on my own
But no surprise I had to look it up lol
I wanted to learn more about how people do it
I mean be together

[Link's leg is still jumping over and over. His body wants to bend sideways, bowing like a reed, toward Yoshiki. His head wants to settle on Yoshiki's shoulder, and to stay straight in his seat is to fight against a more commanding gravity. It's not like that's different or new—but it is, a little bit. But it is, maybe a lot, somehow.

Why it's different, somehow different to go from being with Yoshiki to being with Yoshiki, is something else Link hoped the Internet could answer. People online said all sorts of things about it, but Link still doesn't quite know...]

Not like i filched the whole setup though i promise
I just wanted to be sure i had the right idea about it lol

[ughhh]

[...It's crazy how the future is unknowable in ways it wasn't before. It should be certifiably insane that Yoshiki is more worried about being with Link than literally being inside of Link and having pieces of Link literally inside of himself in return. Going on a date is one of the most mundane, most unsurprising experiences they could have together. It's a logical next step. It's a small stone beside the road. It's nothing much...

And, somehow, it's everything.

Before Link can get so worked up that he sprains something, Yoshiki writes back:]

I think it sounds like fun

[It does sound like fun from start to finish. But the way he swallows, then, is difficult, and it's unsteady. He tastes something unpleasant: acidic, maybe metallic. His heart is trying to find a new home inside his ears, and he wonders if Link can hear that--or, really, feel it. Maybe Yoshiki is the one who's getting too worked up for his own good.]

If we both think it sounds fun then that's probably the only thing that matters?

[depthless]

Thats basically what most people said...lol
Pretty simple in the end

[...Yeah. In the end, it could be pretty simple. Link...The monster learned through classes like this one that human beings look for meaning in all kinds of things. Stories, pictures, clouds, moments. Echoes of one memory in another.

People want it all to make sense.]

Makes sense to me too
Hey

[Link has sunk a little lower in his seat, but he isn't fussing and bumping like a crated puppy, now. He's not pressing against the cork of his boyish form. Just huddling a bit, more like with a satisfied secret than nursing worry.]

[ughhh]

[Simple? Hardly. But it'd be stupid of Yoshiki to unload his many, many anxieties when they're 1) in the middle of a class on art history, and 2) this was his idea in the first place. He's not allowed to bitch when it was all up to him. He can't complain about his stomach tying itself into horrors. He shouldn't expect a pat on the back for pursuing his own selfish desires like everybody else.

So,]

General consensus then, full steam ahead

[He tells himself not to look, but he can't really help it. His peripheral vision doesn't satisfy. Tilting his head, he sneaks a glance over at Link--he should still take the phone away from him. They're in the middle of class. He should go ahead and do that...

He ends up sinking a little lower, too, in his seat, as if that will afford them more privacy.]

Hey?

[depthless]

[Hey? Link is looking at the message. He's still looking down at his phone. His thumbs hover over the screen's face, not touching down upon the keyboard, for a few long moments like he's freeze-framed in the instant before falling. Like he's suspended just outside of the inevitable gravity.

He swallows, and goes back into motion. He's typing again. He must be falling.]

Im really glad

[That's just the only way he knows to say it.]

[ughhh]

[They're still in the middle of class.

Of course, they don't have to be here. They could leave. They could walk out together. This professor--well, she's a bit scatterbrained, so she probably wouldn't notice them getting up and going out. Right now she's wrestling with getting a presentation up on the big screen. At least half of the class is asleep or dozing off. It's quiet, sure, but they could make themselves even more quiet on the way out...]

If

[His thumbs, senseless, fumble over the keys. Dumbass.]

I wasn't sure if we

[Complete dumbass.]

If our steps were aligned so to speak but now I know they were
That they are

[...]

Aligned

[Completely hopeless dumbass.]

I didn't want to be the only one thinking it