#but I call it SilverCharm because of Sil's name and Jamil's charm ability

[violetlunette]

(sorry, couldn't resist. Cookie to whoever gets the ref.)

Hi! I saw ficlet frenzy was open so I'm jumping in! I'm a Jamil x Silver shipper and was wondering if you could do something where Jamil likes Silver but Kalim, innocently, keeps getting in the way, leading Jamil to wonder if Silver and Kalim like each other.

[✐] ficlet frenzy i've not written jamil very much before; this was quite fun!

“Jamil! I’ve been looking everywhere for you— oh, hi Silver!”

Jamil can only stifle a sigh as Kalim crashes into his conversation yet again. It certainly hasn’t been the first time it occurred, though he’s long since lost count of just how many times it’s happened again and again. Irritation and frustration flares within him as his narrowed eyes watch Kalim sweep Silver off into another tangent of a conversation, babbling on and on about something of little consequence that has captured his attention for the day.

He should be used to this by now. Kalim interrupting is nothing new. It’s nothing special; it happens all the time, as a matter of fact.

And yet, Jamil cannot help the exasperation that vexes him as he watches them. Kalim and Silver. Silver and Kalim. They’ve been friends ever since they landed in the same class together at the start of their second year, with Kalim sweeping Silver into a whirlwind of events, pulling him out of the tiny, closed-off circle of Diasomnia students he frequently spends his time with.

Prior to this, Jamil hadn’t paid Silver much mind beyond looking into him out of his duty towards Kalim’s safety. But after Halloween…

(Memories flicker to mind: the two of them, traversing a perilous Spectral Realm together. Bonding, just a little bit. The flicker of curiosity and desire to know more about Silver, interest piqued by the stories he tells him.)

He’s tried to spend some more time with Silver after that. Subtle invites to lunch together — lunches that always get interrupted by Kalim’s arrival. Asking him if he needs help with his studies, only to get crashed by Kalim bursting in, whining over how difficult a particular section of their homework is. Even when Jamil succeeds in catching Silver alone, his mood is often ruined when Silver asks him about his history with Kalim — out of an innocent curiosity, Jamil’s sure, but it doesn’t dissipate the annoyance that runs through him as he hears that name.

He simmers in resentment now as he watches the two of them talk, an ugly feeling coiling around his heart, hissing like a viper. Jealousy, that’s what it is; he envies the easygoing attitude Kalim wields with ease, the evident bond of friendship between them — a friendship Jamil cannot achieve, if only because Kalim and him are so colossally different, and he approaches Silver with an edge of uncertainty to his actions and words, his fluttering chest betraying his usual confidence and poise.

He has always lost, always coming in second to Kalim. And as Jamil watches the ghost of a smile grace Silver’s face, he narrows his eyes.

He’s destined to lose this game of love too, it seems.

(Has he already lost right from the very start? He hates thinking about that question, about the possibility that the answer to it is yes.)