AN: updating right before i got for my final exam because questionable life choices is my middle name. Wishes i could be as chill as nikhil or as smart as aarav. Instead I'm STUPID and SEEK ACADEMIC VALIDATION. Deadly combo.
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Nikhil reached the decided spot quickly.
Actually, no. That wasn't entirely accurate.
He didn't just get there.
He made an entrance.
The dark shirt he'd changed into made his eyes pop under the dim yellow lights of the hostel building. On the way over, he'd run a hand through his hair an embarrassing number of times. At one point he'd even paused in front of a reflective glass panel just to check whether his curls looked naturally messy or artificially messy. There was a difference. An important difference.
He was aiming for effortless.
The fact that he had put in actual effort to achieve effortless was beside the point.
One hand remained hidden behind his back.
Clutched in it was a small bunch of pink and white flowers that had very definitely not been plucked from the bushes near the hostel gate.
Absolutely not.
No evidence existed.
No witnesses could prove otherwise.
On the other end of campus, Aarav yawned as he dragged himself down the stairs.
He was wearing a faded T-shirt that had probably seen better days sometime during the previous century and a pair of plaid pajama bottoms that did not match it in the slightest. The colors were fighting for dominance. The outfit looked assembled by a sleep-deprived fashion committee operating under severe budget cuts.
Needless to say, he had put exactly zero thought into what he was wearing.
His hair was a complete mess. Some strands fell into his eyes while others stuck out at angles that openly defied gravity.
"This better be important if it was enough to pester me this much and couldn't wait until morning," he thought darkly.
But instincts—and more importantly, experience—told him that whatever Nikhil considered important and whatever Aarav considered important were two entirely different categories.
He braced himself.
It was probably another one of Nikhil's antics.
He wouldn't react.
He would finish this quickly.
He would leave.
He would go back upstairs.
He would study.
His life would continue normally.
He looked up.
Whatever he had been expecting, it certainly wasn't this.
Nikhil looked like he was about to go on a midnight rendezvous date.
Or star in a music video.
Probably both.
Aarav glanced down at himself.
Then back at Nikhil.
Then back at himself.
Suddenly, he felt bizarrely underdressed for... whatever this was.
"What is it?" Aarav snapped, crossing his arms. "And-"
He gestured vaguely at Nikhil's entire existence.
"-what is all this?"
Nikhil smiled.
It wasn't quite his usual smirk, rather, more like a genuine smile desperately trying to disguise itself as a smirk and failing.
He brought the flowers out from behind his back and held them out.
"Here."
Aarav blinked.
The flowers looked suspiciously familiar.
Very suspiciously familiar.
"...Don't tell me you picked those from near the hostel gate."
Nikhil's grin widened.
"Baseless accusation."
He extended them further.
A clear invitation.
Aarav stared at the flowers like they might suddenly grow teeth and attack.
He made no move to take them.
"What is this even for? Because that's weirdly elaborate for one of your jokes. But then again, it's you, and you can apparently commit to a bit with the dedication of a method actor-"
Nikhil stepped forward.
The teasing look faded.
His voice lowered and lost all traces of mockery.
And somehow, that was infinitely worse.
Aarav's survival instincts immediately began ringing alarm bells.
Nikhil raised a hand and gently pressed a finger against Aarav's lips.
The touch was barely there. If anything, it was more suggestion than contact.
The effect, however, was immediate.
Aarav stopped talking.
Mostly because his brain had just been hit by a truck.
"I like you. Romantically."
No buildup.
No dramatic speech.
No flowers-first-then-confession strategy.
He just went straight to the forehead with a sledgehammer.
Aarav blinked.
Once.
Twice.
In his glasses, with his sleep-mussed hair and utterly baffled expression, he looked strangely owl-like.
The words seemed to enter his ears successfully.
The problem was what happened afterward.
Or rather, what didn't happen afterward.
The auditory cortex had done its job.
The association areas had apparently clocked out for the night.
Finally, after several seconds of visible system lag, he managed:
"...What?"
"I have a crush on you."
Nikhil repeated it helpfully.
As if repetition would somehow improve the situation.
Spoiler alert, it did not.
In fact, it actively made it worse.
Nikhil, meanwhile, was unknowingly—or perhaps knowingly—continuing to dig himself deeper.
Honestly, it was impossible to tell with him.
There were three possibilities.
One: he didn't realize he was making this worse.
Two: he realized and didn't care.
Three: he realized and was actively trying to make it worse because chaos was his preferred method of communication.
The third option was unfortunately the most likely.
"I think you're cute," Nikhil continued.
Aarav visibly twitched.
"And attractive."
Another twitch.
"And I find your reactions really funny."
Nikhil paused. Then clarified.
"Not in a clown way."
Aarav looked unconvinced.
"In an interesting way."
Still unconvinced.
"So I just wanted to tell you."
He smiled.
"No pressure to respond. Take all the time you need."
How considerate.
How noble.
How thoughtful, after blackmailing the recipient into attending a midnight meeting.
Truly.
A model citizen of society.
The silence that followed was profound.
The kind of silence horror movies use right before something crawls out of the walls.
At this point, Aarav would've welcomed the horror monster.
Anything to interrupt this.
Because surely this couldn't be reality.
Surely this wasn't where all his life choices had led him.
Unfortunately, it was.
Very much so.
And there was no monster coming to save him from the entity known as Nikhil Goyal.
"I..." Aarav managed.
Then stopped.
Because genuinely, what was he supposed to say?
Reject him?
Yell at him?
Ask if he'd suffered a recent head injury?
All of those seemed equally possible.
Before he could settle on any of them, Nikhil stepped closer.
Then, with the confidence of someone who had never once questioned whether he should do something, he took one of the flowers.
And tucked it behind Aarav's ear.
Like it belonged there.
While he was at it, he gently moved a loose strand of hair away from his face.
The gesture was so casual.
So very natural.
As if they were in some romance movie instead of standing in a hostel lobby at an ungodly hour because one participant had weaponized emotional terrorism.
Then Nikhil smiled. It was not smug or teasing.
Instead, it was just warm. Which somehow made it worse and annoyingly genuine.
"It's okay."
Aarav stared.
"You don't have to say anything."
There it was again.
That ridiculous sincerity.
The same sincerity that somehow made this infinitely more dangerous than all the annoying nicknames combined.
Because for once, Nikhil wasn't messing with him.
That was the terrifying part.
Nikhil turned and started walking away, leaving Aarav standing alone in the middle of the lobby- still wearing mismatched pajamas, still half asleep and still processing.
The flower remained tucked behind his ear.
His glasses had slid halfway down his nose.
His entire worldview currently resembled a building after a controlled demolition.
Nikhil, meanwhile, was walking away feeling absurdly pleased with himself.
His chest felt weirdly light.
His crush had been confessed.
Mission accomplished.
Granted, the recipient had looked moments away from clocking out of the world permanently, but that's just details. Minor details.
Behind him, Aarav continued standing completely still.
Finally, after several long seconds, one coherent thought managed to crawl through the smoking wreckage of Aarav's brain.
What.
Just.
Happened?