Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

F/N scribbled rapidly down on his notebook. Curled up at the very corner of his bed and pressed against the wall, his knees were pulled up halfway up to his chest with a sketchbook pressed against his thighs.

His tongue was stuck out slightly between his teeth though it was currently being chewed on much like how he was squeezing unbearably hard on his pencil. ‘Damn it.. this is the 4th fucking attempt, why does the arm still look weird?’ F/N leaned forward, hunching his back to look even closer at his drawing. Nothing too complex, just a girl sitting down on a bench, yet he still couldn’t get her arm–which was supposed to be reaching for the viewer–right.

The movement forward tilted his headphones down, he groaned and haphazardly shoved them back towards his ears again and reached for his phone to blast the music at full volume. Grabbing his pencil again he went back to so delicately yet so sloppily attempt again, this time trying to start with the hand and going to the forearm and finally the whole thing. He was only about halfway through finishing the forearm (and already feeling dissatisfied) before his music was interrupted by a blaringly loud alarm, his earlier decision of maxing out the volume biting him back practically immediately as his ears were deaf by that forsaken sound.

F/N winced and cringed as he dropped his pencil, flinching backwards and snatching his phone while repeatedly smashing his finger again the ‘down’ button on the side. “Jesus christ..” he mumbled under his breath before checking for the time. ‘8:00am.’ Were the characters displayed at the top of his screen. He really needed to get up and get ready before the bus left him. He usually got ready at the last possible moment.. hes fast at getting ready, anyway.

He kicked his feet off the bed before sitting up snd leaning forward, directing one more frustrated glance at his sketchbook before sitting up and walking towards his closet. He walks inside and rummages through his clothing. He could really slap anything on and call it a day BUT it was the first semester of school… he can’t just go in dressed as whatever. He takes out some baggy jeans with 3 belts (2 decorative ones, the third one he would actually use because his bony hips, or the lack of them, wouldn’t hold his pants up for shit) and two shirts. One long sleeved striped one he would just wear underneath the other.

Getting dressed quickly F/N grabbed his smartphone and checked the time… ‘8:24?! Damn did I dress up that slowly?’ He sighed and shoved his phone along with his wired headphones into his pocket and snatched his sketchbook from his bed before hoisting his backpack which was resting next to his nightstand. F/N almost stumbled backwards as he put his backpack on, it was kinda ridiculous. Only 4 months into the school year and his backpack already weighed a ton. “Fucking teachers..” he muttered under his breath and walked out of his room, having spent the entire morning drawing he didn’t have time (more so didn’t feel like it) to make breakfast, he paused briefly at the kitchen contemplating just eating a plain slice of bread before deciding not to and just heading straight to the front door. Grabbing his keys from the key rack next to the door he opened the door and stepped outside. The gentle, chill breeze of fall touched his face and F/N couldn’t help but linger for a slight second to admire it, fall really was his favorite season. If only the beginning of the school year wasn’t there to fuck the vibes up. He closed the door behind him and jammed his keys in to shut it before shoving them back in his pocket, taking his phone out in the same flow of movement.

He texted one of his friends, maya. They lived in the same neighborhood and typically walked to the bus stop together. Asking where she was she immediately responded with a ‘I’m literally waiting right in front of you.’ F/N blinks and he looks up. “Huh? Oh.” He smiles sheepishly as he sees maya standing right in front of him. “Whoops, didn’t see ya there. You know your skin kinda blends in with the leaves nowadays.” He chuckled lightly as he walked down his house’s front porch and maya slightly nudged his shoulder. “Whatever you say, vampire. Let’s just get going, I can’t afford to be late because of your time blindness.” she starts walking immediately and F/N sighs, walking behind her.

“You can always be nicer to me, maya.”

“Oh I’m the definition of nice, sugar bun.”

“Sugar bun? What happened to vampire?”

“I thought you didn’t like it.”

“Eh I’ve had better nicknames.” F/N catches up to her pace and he notices her earrings. “Ooh, those new? I’ve never seen them before.”

Maya grins. “Ooh, yes! My dad brought them back from one of his trips in France!”

“France? What was he doing there?”

“Little business trip. Heard he’s getting promoted soon!” Maya giggles, fidgeting with her earrings. “He and mom seem happier lately, hopefully I can finally get enough gifts for my birthday!”

“You don’t need more clothes you know.” F/N clicks his tongue and gets nudged again by a pouting maya. “Well not anyone can reuse the same 4 scraps of clothes into 10 different outfits like you, F/N. I don’t have the time nor patience.”

“Just say you lack the passion.” F/N snorts.

“Asshole.” Maya rolls her eyes with a lopsided grin before reaching for her skirt’s pocket. “He also bought me something else, look at this—“

As F/N tilted his head down to look at Maya’s pocket he noticed a strange rock a few feet away from her and lying on the grass. His focus was momentarily distracted as he took sight of it. A strange rock, certainly…it looked almost perfectly spherical. With jagged and uneven spikes. He started at thoughtlessly feeling weirdly fixated by it. Something was telling him.. ‘go pick it up.’ The whisper caressed his ears…

maya waved her hand in front of his face. “F/N??? Did you hear me?”, “uh-h-huh? Sorry what was that?”, “geez you zone out more by the second!” Maya shows him a tiny box. F/N blinked at it. “What is that?”, “a necklace!! I want to show it off to my friends before I put it on.” F/N cocks his head to the side.

“Why not put it on and show it to them?”

“Well, y’know. I need someone to put it on for me and my dad’s fingers are too fat, my mom’s hands are too shaky so.” She shrugs. “I’ll ask one of them to put it on for me and show it off in the process.”

“Right. Well you know you could’ve just asked me. Gimme.” F/N stretches his hand. Maya stared at it blankly before giggling nervously. “O-oh, sure.” She takes the necklace out of the box, placing it gently in F/N’s hand as she turned around and moved her box braids out of the way.

F/N sticks his tongue out slightly from the side of his lips as he looked at the necklace. It was cute, he found the clasp, lobster claw… geez this is why he didn’t wear jewelry. After struggling with it for 4 seconds he got it open and wrapped it gently around Maya’s neck, he clasped it at the back and patted her shoulders. “Done.” Maya turns around as she touched the pendant of the necklace before smiling at him. “Thanks, F/N.”

“Yeah, yeah. You’re welcome, m’lady. We really need to get going.” He looks at his Maya’s wrist clock seeing how it late it was.

Maya and F/N practically ran all the way to the bus stop with F/N falling substantially behind, he wasn’t unathletic. Hell he took track in his freshman and sophomore year, it’s just… ‘this damn backpack..‘ F/N pants as he finally arrives at the bus stop with Maya giggling watching him stumble and lean heavily against the bus stop sign.

“Wait up for me sometime, you know.” He rasped.

“F/N! Maya! What took you two so long?” One of the kids there, Brian dapped F/N up before patting Maya’s shoulder.

“Ermm, my clock broke.”

“Sure.” Maya rolls her eyes.

“What are all those idiots huddled over there for?” F/N gestured with his head to their other friends, all 5 of them in a small circle surrounding a guy, Alex who was typing something in his phone.

“Lorel’s texting Alex again or some shit.” Brian shrugs. Maya gasps loudly. “Oh she isn’t.”, F/N click his tongue, suddenly not feeling fatigued anymore. “Didn’t she cheat on him?” He squints at Alex again, Maya nods. “Yeah! With her cousin!”, “twice removed”, “like that matters, Brian!”

F/N frowns. “That’s fucked up.”

“You’d think. Alex!” Maya runs up to him and squeezes between him and the person next to him. “Are you insane?! Do not answer her!”

Alex looks at her before back down at his phone before smiling nervously. “Already did… c’mon, everyone deserves a second chance?”

“He’s ill.” One of their friends, Emily facepalms.

F/N watched his friends bicker around with crossed arms before approaching to take a look at Alex’s phone.

“What’s she texting you for anyway?”

“Apparently she found an old hoodie I left at her house.”

F/N’s nose scrunches up. “That squeaky yellow one? Honestly just leave it. It looked horrible on you.”

“It did not—“

“It sorta did, dude.” Someone snickers. Alex groans and shoves his phone back in his pocket. “All of you stink.”

What a morning.

The bus arrived less than 5 minutes after and F/N hopped on, he decided to sit near the back and listened absently as the kids around him argued and threw shit around, he didn’t really care as long as it didn’t hit him or his sketchbook. He was lightly tracing over his previous sketch, hatchets leaning against a wall, one he did a few days ago and forgot about. He randomly remembered about it today and decided to pick it up again and finish it. Skylar, a burly dude who sat next to him bumped into him as the girl he was messing with threw her backpack at her. F/N’s wrist slid to the right and it messed his drawing up. He groaned loudly and shoved Skylar right back. “Watch it, dude! You too, Leslie.” He points accusingly at the girl who raised her hands in mock surrenderer.

“We’re just playing around, man!” Leslie chuckles.

“Do you have to act like hyenas while you do it though?” F/N tries to erase the line without messing up with the existing shading.

“Geez, such a buzzkill.” Skylar mumbles.

“I’ll show you buzzkill.” F/N whacks Skylar in the head with his backpack, startled for a second Skylar looked at him wide-eyed before cackling and throwing his backpack right back at him. His plans of a peaceful bus ride to school were quickly sidetracked.

By the time the bus arrived and F/N hopped off the bus his hair was all messed up from his play fighting with Skylar and Leslie. He huffed as he patted it back down and gave Maya a half-minded wave as she walked past him. He looked at his own reflection on the school’s windows to style his hair back in place before finally entering.

The school was an inside school which he was thankful for, while the fall season was certainly lovely and he would appreciate being outside more often to admire it more it didn’t justify having to endure the cold brunt of winter or the melting burn of ending spring. Not to even mention summer (even if he spent that season in summer break.)... seriously, he only went out whenever he was invited to a party or something, without school constantly dragging him out of home everyday he otherwise would stay all the time home.

He greeted people first and back as he walked the hallways, he certainly was popular and well liked in his own right. Socializing was easy, right? People are pretty simple once you get past the judging issues and fears and whatnot. F/N was sure he befriended a good chunk of the school. From popular kids, from normal kids, to outcasts and loners, hell, even school staff.

“Sup. F/N.”

“Nothing much.”

“F/N! F/N! Are you coming to next week’s party?? I heard Samantha’s parents got a pool now!”

“Eh, I’ll see. Might have something else then.”

“Hehe, hi F/N!”

“Ladies,”

“Morning, vampire.”

“Morning to you too.”

As people approached and greeted him he gave back no brainer responses as he fidgeted with his locker’s.. well, lock. For a second almost forgetting what he was supposed to do with it lost in thought before putting his big sketchbook down to open it quickly. The door clicked open and F/N opened it promptly. He really was grateful for these things. He didn’t even want to imagine the poor state his back would be if he was forced to carry that 10 ton backpack everyday.

‘Though I do guess most of it is papers and junk I shove in and never take out.. eh I’ll dump it all out tomorrow… maybe.’ As F/N rustles through his locker two girls walk next to him.

“F/N! Little vampire!”

‘Heya Lily. Sophi.”

“Morning!” Sophi grins at him. “Ya know me and Lily are cheerleading a game this Thursday. It’s actually the same one Jake and the others are going to be play in. And the other girls in the cheerleading team.”

“The baseball team?” F/N asked as he took out an ELA textbook. “Yup! You coming? The whole school basically is.” Lily answers quickly.

F/N hums “maybe~” he grins slightly. “You know, I’m always busy with stuff. I’ll try to clear out my schedule though, for you guys.” He winks as Sophi rolls her eyes playfully. “Man whatever, Romeo.”

                                                                 …

F/N didnt really remember how he got to class, just seeing lily and Sophi go before focusing back on his locker. He had shut it, grabbed his books, his backpack and… oh he did it again. Zoned out. Too hard, he thinks he bumped into a wall on the way or something judging by how his left cheekbone hurt slightly. He rubbed it with a small gruff as the classroom started to fill with more students. Judging by the random lady upfront there was a sub today for science.

“Sweet!” F/N heard brian exclaim as he plopped next to him with emily and alex short behind.

“Theres a sub!” Alex nudges F/N, sitting next to him.

“I think he knows that, Einstein.” Emily says as she sits down in front of the three boys.

F/N watched his friends bicker for a solid minute before the sub stood up as the bell rang, she walked to in front of the classroom and gave everyone a polite smile.

“Good morning, everyone! My name is. . .”

“I ran all the way here and almost tripped over like.. a weird looking lipstick.” Emily whispered over the substitute.

“Really? You’re always tripping on shit.”

“Well, no it was a lipstick.” Alex said back to Brian

“People who leave their stuff around are kinda annoying. But it would’ve been funny seeing you fall.” F/N mumbled, closing his sketchbook to put it on the edge of his desk. “Do you still have it at least?”

“Well I snatched it up because I’m kinda low on them anyway.”

“You’re gonna use a used lipstick you found on the ground?” F/N’s face scrunched up. “Geez, if you were struggling that much you could’ve told me, I would’ve bought you one—“

“I dont need you or anyone to buy me shit.” Emily waved her hand with flushed cheeks. “Im fine, F/N.”

“You could buy me shit any time, F/N!” Brian said enthusiastically.

“bull or cow?” F/N said with a tiny grin.

“Excuse me!” The substitute raised her voice and the group of teens quieted down though alex was still snickering.

“What's so funny, gentleman?” Ms..something something put a hand on her hip.

“N-nothing, nothing teach.” Alex waved his head as emily nudged him with a small smirk.

F/N listened blankly as the 3 goofs sitting next to him played around the entire class, well, not to say he didnt join in too because he definitely did. But he found himself zoning out more than usual. Thoughts trailing back to that strange rock he saw while walking with maya to the bus stop. They all handed their empty worksheets filled with nothing but poorly erased drawings of dicks and tits to the sub smiling sheepishly who just sighed at them. F/N tapped his chin thoughtfully with his pencil as he stared at the almost finished drawing. The hatchets, brian peeked over his shoulder, packing up his stuff with now only 3 minutes to the bell.

“Whats that?”

“A drawing.”

“Of?”

“Looks like hatchets.” Alex peeked from F/N's other shoulder. F/N nodded.

“Gold star. They are.”

“Why hatchets?”

“I just felt like it.” F/N stared at the drawing before closing his sketchbook and tucking his pen into his pocket.

“Y’know there’s a lot more fun things to draw. Like me!” Alex makes a ‘cute’ face that gets him laughed at by Emily and Brian.

“I think I’m good.” F/N waved his hand.

“wait wait I took art class once when I was like 8 i can draw well.” Emily tore a scrap off her notebook (that she hasn’t put in her backpack yet) and started scribbling on it for a few seconds before showing it to Alex. F/N and Brian leaned in to look at it too.

….

It wasn’t.. bad. It wasn’t bad nor good. Though it was far from good. F/N tilted his head. Looking at it, it didn’t seem to be bad on purpose more so just someone who lacked skill. And time. As the bell rung and everyone began leaving. F/N clicked his tongue and looked at Brian and Alex who were looking at each other while clearly holding back a laugh. Emily immediately pouted. “Geez you guys are assholes! I made him as beautiful as he really is!”, “I’m not THAT ugly, mil.” Alex snickered. F/N tapped his bag’s strap and turned around.

“Nice seeing ya, gotta go. You know my class is on the other side of the school so—“

“Oh wait lemme give yall some of the candy I got from my grandma’s house!” Brian digs through his pockets and tossed a bunch of lollipops to them. Only F/N caught them though as Alex’s hit him in the head and Emily missed them entirely.

“Thanks, man.” He gave a small wave and turned around to walk out the classroom. Looking at his hand at the 3 lollipops that he caught… they weren’t that big, F/N could probably bite them off and chew them considering his sharp canines. At the thought of that he ran his tongue over them before unwrapping one, kiwi flavor. He heard that kiwis sometimes tasted similar to dragon fruit but they really couldn’t compare.. nothing could compare to dragon fruits. He popped the lollipop into his mouth and crumpled the wrapper to shove it in his pocket alongside his pencil. While not as pleasant as his usual favorite it wasn’t bad either. The other 2 were strawberry and cotton candy, cotton candy was nasty… he would just give it to some rando in his next class.

As F/N walked his thoughts hazed over to that rock. What was so interesting about it? …well, it was a cool rock. He’s never seen a spiky rock before not even online. And he’s seen lots of shit online, so…

He would just look for it again, yeah. He settled on it already, why does he keep coming back to it? F/N rubbed the back of his neck and just around a few seconds before the bell rung he walked into his next class. Nothing too serious, just one of his electives. A simple student assistant. Though ‘assistant’ was a stretch as he did nothing but spin around in Mrs. Kelly's chair while playing with his tamagotchi or some other trinket of the week he was interested in. He only assisted on stapling papers together or sorting stuff out by color or passing out papers the usual and because the class was full of kiddy fresh out of middle school freshman his talking pool was a little limited.. F/N was certainly very social and charming but he draws the line at immature children…even if his friends are just immature overgrown children… okay fine maybe he is a little hypocritical.

“F/N we talked about the sweets in class, didnt we?” Mrs. Kelly said as she took a sip from her coffee. F/N grabbed the stick of the lollipop and with a ‘crack’ snapped the ball off and started chewing on it, discarding the stick on the trash can he made his way to his usual spot, plopping down on the chair and swaying side to side in it. “Sorry, miss. Im just a little peckish today, what can I say?”

“Hi F/N!!” one of the freshman waved at him enthusiastically. F/N gave a small wave back as he swallowed the crushed lollipop bits.

Mrs. kelly addressed the class shortly after as F/N took out his tamagotchi from his belt, shoving his backpack to the floor. He was pretty sure this class had something to do about U.S. history or civics or something. He didnt really listen to be exact, after around 10 minutes of Mrs. Kelly just talking to the class she dismissed them to do their work and dumped a pile on papers on F/N who grunted slightly, his small device falling from his hands and landing on his lap. Catching the papers by a hair.

“What's all this?”

“Permission slips, it's for that upcoming field trip.” Mrs. Kelly waves her hand. “Pass them out.”

F/N looks them over.. oh yeah, he remembered this thing back in his freshman year.. cant exactly recall if he went or not..

“What? Is it fun? Or academic?”

“just rollerskating. You know, so the kids can have fun and teachers a day off? Ah, also give this to alfonso. hes a new student, over there!” Mrs. Kelly points at a boy sitting at the back of the class, looking a bit hunched over with his hood over his head. F/N raised an eyebrow. He guessed they were still early into the school year so new students weren't unsual, so. He shrugged and quickly hooked his tamagotchi back to his belt and stood up with all the papers.

F/N passed out the papers of the field trip to the kids in the classroom, occasionally responding whenever they talked to him. He wasn’t that interested in befriending any of these kids but a friend is a friend and he wasn’t an asshole. Eventually he reached the end of the classroom where the new kid was… he gave him the last of the field trip papers and took a look at the letter Mrs. Kelly gave him.

“Hm.. Alfonso hart.. that you?” F/N read the name on the envelope out loud, but soft enough just for the boy to hear. He saw his shoulders tense up before he nodded and outstretched his hand. F/N tilted his head and gave him the envelope.

“There ya go. I heard you’re new here.” He bent down slightly to look at the letter before at Alfonso’s face… yeah, maybe he wasn’t interested in befriending any of the other freshmen there but he didn’t quite like the idea of a timid new student being lost on their first day…or week, who knows, maybe he was here for a bit before. Honestly he’s so quiet F/N wouldn’t notice him either way.

“Err.. yes I am.” Alfonso looked over the letter and tried to carefully open it and wincing when he tore the envelope up a little.

“Oh, let me help with that.” F/N took it gently and opened it for Alfonso, he tilted the envelope down on his desk and whatever was inside dropped down. Just simple papers.. well, obviously. What else would fit inside an envelope? ‘Maybe stickers.. but I guess that’s just paper too.’ He waved the thoughts off and placed the empty envelope on Alfonso’s desk.

“What’s that for?”

“Uh.. bus routes, uhm.. my mom works a lot so..”

F/N blinked before frowning. An absent parent, huh? Much like..

“So you take the bus? Lemme see, maybe you’re on the same stop that I am.” F/N leaned close and Alfonso moved out of the way so F/N could get a closer look at the paper. F/N scanned it over quickly and nodded.

“Eh, not exactly but you’re close enough. I think we’re on the same bus, not on the same stop though. When are you going on it?”

“To-tomorrow!”

“Great-o, so once you get on look for me, alright? Once we get off I can lead you around the school for the morning.” F/N pats his shoulder and Alfonso nods with a small smile.

“Y-yes.. thank you, err..”

“F/N.”

“Thank you, F/N!”

F/N nods, smiling back at him. He tilts his head to the worksheet Alfonso had, whatever Mrs. Kelly had assigned. He looked at it briefly, his memory wasn’t good but even a 7th grader would know how to answer this, right?

“Need help with that?”

“H-huh? Oh well I wouldn’t want to bother you while you’re busy..”

“Oh I don’t do shit in this class anyway, lemme help.”

F/N pulled an empty chair from next to Alfonso and sat next to his desk. He spent the rest of the class helping Alfonso with the worksheet, it was actually kinda challenging and F/N may or may have not winged it without even looking at the textbook but they managed. F/N noticed Alfonso eased up a little more around him and even chuckled at some of his jokes. F/N hummed and looked over the paper.

“There, all done. Want me to turn it in for ya?“

“No it’s fine.” He reached out his hand and F/N shrugged before giving him it. He watched as Alfonso stood up and gave it to Mrs. Kelly. He leaned his cheek onto his hand. So far the day has been kinda.. boring. At least he met someone new. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his pencil before pulling down his sleeve. He didn’t have a pen at the moment so a pencil will do, it was harder to write on your skin with a pencil but oh well. Digging hard and with a slight wince F/N wrote the name “Alfonso” on his wrist. There, he wouldn’t forget it now, hopefully. He would see the writing at home and remember to log Alfonso’s name in his notebook.

Maybe he should’ve written it down on his thumb, he tends to look at his thumb more an his wrist. As he slipped his pencil back into his pocket he felt something poke him.. oh, that’s right! The lollipops.. he was planning to give the cotton candy one out, wasn’t he? Originally he thought to just give it to a rando student in the class but… he looked up at Alfonso walking over to his desk. F/N scooted the chair backwards to give Alfonso some space.

“Alfonso would you—“

“Woah.. you got it all right?”

“Huh?” F/N paused. He was about to ask Alfonso if he would’ve liked the cotton candy lollipop.

“Look!” Alfonso shows him the paper and F/N blinks before slipping his hand out of his pocket to grab it. 100.. on the whole paper? And F/N was just guessing in half of them.. guess he’s just a lucky dude. Maybe he should take a stop in the school’s gas station and buy himself a lottery ticket.

“Huh.”

“You’re really smart! I-I’m not so good in history..”

“Hey, it’s fine. Who cares about what a bunch of dead guys did centuries ago?” F/N waves his hand. “I can continue helping you tomorrow.” Alfonso nods as he folds the paper and sticks it in his backpack’s outer pocket.

                                                              ….

The rest of the school day was chil, too. Boring. Meeting Alfonso was likely the highlight of his day, but F/N already met new people quite often, anyway. He stepped off the bus carefully and waved goodbye to his friends, maya had been signed out early apparently, she damn ditched him in science class.. whatever, he didn’t mind walking home alone anyway. He did pull his earbuds out of his ears though, good as the music was F/N wasn’t sure he wanted to risk getting ran over or something. As if his hearing wasn’t bad enough. F/N hummed quietly as he fidgeted with a bead bracelet in his right hand and carried his sketchbook in his left. Mind running over the events of that day, and the day before, and F/N would like to think about the day before, before or the week before or month before but the memories were getting a bit blurry..

he walked close to the border of the sidewalk and what was the forest. F/N lived in the suburbs, a mostly gated community but it did have some openings to the big woods next to it here and there. F/N didn’t quite mind it, he thinks he spent his time there before..staring at the woodland creatures.. F/N grunted when he had a sudden spiking headache. He stopped and held the side of his head with a wince.

“What the hell..?” He huffed and as his vision grew less blurry he noticed he was there again. That spot where he caught sight of the spiky rock with Maya… how ridiculous. This is ridiculous. Was a rock really messing him up that much? F/N looked around, almost hoping someone else had gotten it so he could just forget about it but he spotted it in the exact same place. He stared at it with a grimace before feeling that weird urge to just grab it again.

F/N’s eye twitched and he just kneeled down to grab in, slipping the bracelet into his hand to free it. Having it in his hands, it felt weirdly heavy for a rock so small. It fit perfectly in the palm of his hand. The spikes looked sharp but were dull in the ends. He carefully put his sketchbook down to grab the rock up by one its spikes and spinning it slightly. It was weirdly symmetrical. Like, perfectly so. How could a rock like this even form in nature?

F/N clicked his tongue. Maybe it wasn’t nature made at all and just some trinket someone left there. But feeling the texture of it, it didn’t exactly feel synthetic… oh, well. Technology was advancing faster than ever. He was sure humans mastered replicating rocks by then. He grabbed his sketchbook again and slipped it under his arm as he held the rock in his right hand.

The walk back to his home was relatively peaceful then, he thought he heard a weird form of static poking at the back of his head but maybe it was just the sudden silence in his neighborhood. F/N stepped up to his front porch and taking out his keys he opened the door and walked inside. Closing it shut with his foot F/N looked around the house.. quiet, nothing changed since he left that morning.

“Mom? Dad?” He called out.. no response. They weren’t back yet. He blinked and sighed. Whatever. They usually weren’t. What were they out of the state for that time anyway? Some business trip? Or a vacation away from him? Whatever. F/N walked to his room and dumped his backpack at the foot of his bed and stared at the rock carefully again. He contemplated just leaving it on his nightstand but… it felt unsafe… unsafe? From what? Who would possibly steal this? F/N grumbled and opened the drawers of the nightstand and threw the rock in before closing it.

He shoved his hands in his pockets and began taking out stuff. His phone, earbuds, pen, strawberry lollipop, cotton candy lollipop— oh wait, shit. F/N sighed and dragged a hand down his face…he forgot to give it to Alfonso.. he stared at the tiny thing in his hand before putting it on his nightstand, hoping not to forget it the next day and give it to the boy. He ruffled his hair. At least he’s home. He didn’t exactly feel like going to school the next day but when did he ever?

F/N was just going to shower and eat some dragon fruit or whatever and sleep the entire afternoon. Maybe practice some drawing again if he felt like it. Another boring day went by. And more of his memory F/N felt slip away.