"dammit, he's a fool in love. someone punt him."
Alkaid and MC making everyone feel single like the sickening couple they are.
A collection of people wanting to deck Alkaid.
(alkaid x little painter, modern au, fluff, rage, blonde violence, except it fails, everyone wants him to explode, 1.9k words)
"Hm? Miss Unique!"
You turn around in surprise as Stella calls out to you from the entrance of the hall. Dropping your things, you make your way over to meet her.
"Stella! I didn't expect you to participate in events like these."
St. Shelter Academy had recently proposed a collaboration event between the astronomy department and the art department as an advertising opportunity. Currently, the hall is decorated with small exhibits showcasing team projects worked on by both astronomy and art students alike.
Having been praised as one of the leading stars of the art department by O'Connor, you've been saddled with the task of being the main spokesperson for the art department, often spending time arranging discussions between students from both majors.
As laborious as it is, it has its perks.
Stella nods her head with a hint of pride. "Usually, I wouldn't. But when I heard that you'd be here, I just knew I had to take the opportunity to study you again."
You're not sure how you feel about that.
You take the chance to flash her a smile and move on in an attempt to get back to work. But then you hear her speak, and you can practically hear the scowl on her face.
"Alkaid."
You see him smile as he approaches, footsteps slightly giddy and bubbly as he makes his way towards you.
He nods his head towards Stella in greeting. "Hello."
The scowl on her face smoothens, but her vindictive aura remains.
"I didn't expect you to be a part of this event at all. Are you sure you're not too busy?"
Her sentence conveys worry, and her tone suggests spite. You notice a few colourful balloons bounce on the ground and take interest in them instead of the one-sided cat fight happening in front of you.
"Yes, well..."
Alkaid smiles, just a tad bit more smug than usual. "The professor had requested for me personally, so it was quite difficult for me to refuse. I'd be troubling them."
You snicker inwardly. But your amusem*nt doesn't last for much longer.
"I also heard she would be here too, like you." Alkaid picks up a heart-shaped balloon from the ground and hands it to you, his smile softening.
"After that, I had no other reason to refuse."
Great, now your heart is melting and it's all his fault. Your cheeks flush in embarrassment at his sweet words as you take the heart-shaped balloon from him, squeezing it lightly.
Still, you don't want to lose to him. So you tug at his sleeve to whisper softly;
"I'll make you a custom balloon later."
He smiles widens at that.
And Stella has heard everything.
"Ugh, gross."
Stella picks up one of the balloons from the floor and specifically throws it at Alkaid with as much force as she can. Unfortunately–the truth is as such–it is but a mere balloon, and everyone watches as it floats past it's intended target, the Pikachu ears crumpling as it bounces off the floor.
"..."
"I apologize."
The first one to speak up is Alkaid, but all that does is rub salt into the wound. Fortunately, Stella has had plenty of practice maintaining her composure in front of him, so all she does is jerk her head in an odd sort of way in response to his words.
"Whatever."
You take the chance to catch her up on the collaboration plans and watch in real-time as Stella's simmering anger cools off, her eyes twinkling with interest the longer your discussion lasts. Once you've made sure she has the necessities down the pat, you watch her enthusiastically say thanks for helping her with her research as she bounces away to help out.
It seems as if you've contributed to your own demise, and you can only hope that the day she finds out you're an alien never comes.
Thankfully, Alkaid is still standing there. So you sigh dramatically and turn around to hug him by the waist, rubbing your cheek on his clothes.
"I'm tired."
Running around, setting up meetings, and directing booths and teams has slowly drained you of your social battery. You have half the mind to complain to St. Shelter Academy's admin system about O'Connor's habit on dropping all sorts of work on his students, specifically you.
It's the same for Alkaid, being an astronomy student comes with all sorts of time-consuming assignments and projects leaving him little time to breathe. Recently, the both of you haven't had much time together. So as taxing as this event has left you, you're glad for the opportunity to spend more time with Alkaid again.
He accepts your embrace, fondly reaching up to wrap his arms around you and squeezing you gently. And when you feel his chest tremble in an exhale, putting just a tad bit more weight on you, you know he's tired too.
But you also know that he would rather collapse in secret than worry you about it, so you pull back and pinch his cheek.
"Ow!"
You see his left eye squint in slight pain as his cheek is stretched, leaving his face deformed, but he doesn't complain and simply leans in closer.
"Go sit down over there. I can't focus on the job if my boyfriend keeps hanging around 5 meters near me; you should be taking a break."
His eyes stare back down at you, and he raises his eyebrows while rounding the edges of his eyes to create a puppy stare. But you don't fall for it, you can't!
"Go listen to her, lover boy."
A sour voice interrupts their sweet nothings, and they snap out of their little world to see one of Alkaid's classmates watching them from the side, holding a roll of tape in one hand, and a small telescope in the other. Neither object has ever looked as terrifying as they did today, and the both of them pull away reluctantly upon seeing his deadpan expression.
"Alright then."
Alkaid finally agrees to your suggestion, but not before bringing up your hand and pressing a gummy into your palm.
"See you then."
You happily unwrap the gummy and plop it in your mouth before taking off back to work, waving goodbye to him. Alkaid's classmate watches the whole interaction with his eyebrows twitching and his hands gripping the roll of tape in an effort to restrain himself from throwing it at Alkaid, as he hands him the telescope they had been working on as a project for the event.
"I'm begging you Alkaid, if you're going to flirt with your girlfriend, do it somewhere else where...," he gestures to the entire hall. "All of us don't have to see it."
Alkaid spots a few miles away his classmates watching him with tired expressions on their faces, the occasional art student glancing over with red ears, and Stella glaring at him again. Once she realises he has caught on to her, she promptly whips her head to the other side in an effort to hide her animosity.
Alkaid gives off an apologetic smile as he takes the telescope from his hands. "That's rather restrictive."
"Well, restrain yourself."
"I'll try, but I make no promises. It's easier to show sincere love if done in the moment, in my opinion."
"WHICH IS ALL THE TIME, UNFORTUNATELY FOR US."
They hear someone groan somewhere off at the sidelines. "Good grief he's a goner."
"I need to hit him actually."
Alkaid clutches the telescope in his hands a little tighter. "Huh?"
"Someone hit him, I don't care what you use. Anything is fine."
"Wait, what do you- WOAH!"
"And that concludes the event's itinerary."
You clap your hands with a sense of finalisation, and most of those around you scatter off with new tasks on hand. The majority of the planning has been done, so all you have to do right now is wait for the final results of the posters to be sent to you for approval before you're done for the week.
Slumping down on your wheely chair, you spin around a few times to get rid of all the built up stress plaguing your shoulders until someone grabs the armrest to stop you midway and you bump into their arm.
"Alkaid!"
He smiles at you. "Yes?'
He did that on purpose! But all your pettiness is long forgotten as he places a warm flask of mocha coffee in front of you, the steaming and comforting aroma instantly calming you down. You relax back into the chair.
"Thank you, Alkaid."
The others are still there.
An art student watches the entire show with interest, but Alkaid's classmates–already tired enough as it is with him–simply scrunches up their noses at him before resuming their work.
After taking a sip from the flask, you stretch out your legs while yawning and patting his arm, which is still holding on to the chair. "Okay then, once I'm done with the coffee, I'll get to work on that balloon."
He blinks his eyes in surprise.
"There's no need to if you're tired. The balloon can wait after the event."
You refuse that, and shake your head. "No, I want to do it now. I want to make a balloon of my boyfriend and hang him up in my room."
Okay, maybe that sounded a little weirder than you had expected but hey; you're sleep deprived, no one can blame you. So you play it off cool and pretend you don't notice.
"I hope he deflates."
Someone chimes in, and another comment follows.
"I hope your cat punctures a hole in him."
"I hope he explodes and flies out the window into the sky."
Well damn, they're upset today. Or maybe this is how they show their affection.
You try your best not to laugh at their feral wording as Alkaid simply shakes his head in exasperation. Taking the time to savour your coffee, you listen to Alkaid tell you about his day, which consisted of working on small collaboration projects for the event, Sparkles swiping his cookie jar into the sink, and people throwing all sorts of objects at him out in frustration. The remaining students slowly leave one by one, until there are only two astronomy majors left to witness this sickening, homely show of bubbly love.
"And done!"
You screw the cap back on the flask, and gather your remaining items before you take off for the day. As you zip up your back, Alkaid spins the wheely chair around to make you face him.
You feel him poke your forehead and whisper, "Beep."
"Alright then, let's go."
You feel your heart swell in affection, and promise yourself to make the balloon as durable and high quality as possible.
"I hate him actually."
"I should deck him, actually."
You calmly stand up and try to push the flask into the side pocket of your bag, as one of Alkaid's classmates stands up ominously as he grips a rolled up poster in his hands. Sensing danger, Alkaid takes a small step back.
This is not going to end well.
So once you've slung your bag over your shoulder, you quickly grab his hand and pull him along as the both of you rush out the hall in hurry. You hear him laugh behind you, but you focus on getting the both of you out of there as quick as possible to evade the possible, explosive violence.
You make a mental note to keep that balloon as safe as possible.
a gift for @zedieame !
