#bunk positions based on: birds vs graves

[umbraastaff]

Soulmates au and boarding school au

"I am," says Kravitz, "almost as relieved to have the dialogue over with as I am to have found him."

"Yeah, I think, uh, having someone yelling about spilling soup on my wrist for years would be my actual worst nightmare, thanks. Would not trade," Barry says, even though he feels just a little big jealous. Who wouldn't, right? But it's not realistic for most people to meet their soulmates in school. Some people don't in their whole lives (but he doesn't like to think about that).

Kravitz says, "It wasn't really that bad. The anticipation was worse."

Anticipation that would kill Barry dead, he thinks, staring up at the bunk above him. He's seen Kravitz's wrist before. That shit's in all caps.

--

Barry has a game with a girl in class. (Taako's twin, he later learns from Kravitz). They waved at each other from a distance on the first day of class, and both realized they were looking at the wrong person -- but she had laughed about it, and it had drained away a lot of the embarrassment. Not enough for him to be brave enough to sit anywhere near her, though.

At the end of class, she waved again, and he -- startled -- waved back.

They start acknowledging each other with stranger gestures and expressions. The game, as he understands it, is to try and make each other laugh, but try not to be noticed being weird by anyone else. There is an unspoken rule (as all rules are unspoken) that they don't use real communication, like sign or blinking in morse code or something, though he does sometimes fantasize about breaking that wall in the spirit of being unnecessarily elaborate.

They have never spoken once.