The Ammo

“Life is too short to not have fun; we are only here for a short time compared to the sun and the moon and all that.”

— Coolio

…

Two days later, Hiro looked around the classroom cautiously while he was in the middle of giving a lecture, effectively making eye contact with some of his students.

Something’s wrong.

His eyebrow immediately shot upwards in surprise when he noticed that his students looked away from him just as quickly and that others were simply not even bothering to look at him, head bowed and eyes drilling in their notes or their desks like the secrets of the world were carved right into it.

Hiro doubted most of them were still paying attention… even when their professor was speaking right in front of them and giving a lecture.

Okay, you know what?

Now this is just plain suspicious.

He wasn’t stupid. Hiro realized quickly enough that everyone was somehow on edge… and the reason most likely had something to do with him.

The question as of what it could even possibly be had bothered him in class all day long, Although he couldn't find it in him to just ask them to.... say something… and no matter how hard Hiro tried to focus for his next class after lunch, they have a short quiz after all as far as he was concerned.

But Hiro’s friend, Steven Anderson, suddenly ambushed him the moment he stepped foot in the cafeteria and quite literally at that–the Literature professor had all but launched himself right out of his seat when Hiro passed by and roughly grabbed him into a headlock, causing Hiro to let out a startled yelp as he stumbled a bit to regain his much-needed balance before they both fell over.

Steven was practically attached to Hiro while screaming at his ear, cheering, loud enough for every single person in the cafeteria to hear: “I fucking knew it! YOU AND LUNAMOR ARE TOTALLY AN ITEM!”

Hiro is not in the mood for this shit.

He rolled his eyes at his friend's antics. He tried to push Steven’s face away from him–damn idiot is acting like a clingy octopus again.

“No,” he answered, dryly.

“Well… I guess you guys can be an item–that is if someone’s running some sort of buy one, get one free sale. Buy one Hot Prof and get one Snobby Rich Girl for free!”

Hiro considered moving to another table.

“…Whatever,” he muttered.

But Steven continued crack up, still laughing like a freaking hyena, “Bloody hell! I was so fucking right. So, you two are dating after all!” then, he turned to face some of the students, two of those girls Hiro quickly recognized as some of his own students (that is, before Megan decided to take over) from Lunamor’s class, “...see?! Pay up. I told you so!”

Wait, what the fuck did he say?

Hiro did not know who was more surprised by that information, him or his… his former students as they hurriedly opened up their purses.

So, Hiro waved his hands and frantically shook his head at that before they could even give Steven their precious dollar bills. He spoke in a clear, loud voice. Enough for everyone to hear, “Hey Anderson, what is wrong with you? Lunamor and I are not dating… we’re not even interested with each other in that way! AND WHAT GIVES? YOU’RE BETTING ON THIS?!”

Steven simply grinned and pointed straight at Hiro’s nose with his French fries still dripping with ketchup, “Aha! That still implies you’re interested with each other!”

(A ghost of a smile.

Sunlight streaming from the window and dark eyes of silver twinkling, looking like happy crescents of twin moons. And Hiro could have sworn he felt his heart pounding like a war drum in his chest again.

“…I think I do.”)

…and yet, she didn’t even bother to show up during the last two office hours like usual. Scowling, Hiro swatted the fries away from his face as he felt the ketchup dribbling on the tip of his nose, pointedly ignoring Steven’s theatrical scream of horror when the fries landed on the floor in favor of focusing on eating his cheeseburger.

“Dude, what the hell is wrong with you!” Steven groused, protectively shielding the rest of his food away from Hiro, “Now, you’re wasting good food because your girl happens to be a millionaire?!”

“Billionaire, actually.”

“Oh, wow…!”

“Yeah sure, whatever.” Taking a slow bite of his food, Hiro raised an eyebrow when Steven tried to speak up again, “And to answer your ridiculous question: no, you idiot. We. Are not. Dating.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course I’m sure!”

“But–”

“Look,” Hiro very nearly groaned, “…I’m not involved with Lunamor or to anyone at the moment so please stop bitching about it because people might get the wrong idea!”

“Still not over sunshine?”

“Anderson…”

Steven blinked up at him, innocently. “What?”

And Hiro resisted the tempting urge to rub his forehead at that. He can already feel an oncoming headache. Hiro glared at the other professor instead, “Shut up.”

Steven frowned at Hiro as he promptly stuffed his mouth with lots of fries and despite, looking like a stuffed squirrel with squishy cheeks–somehow, in some way, the idiot managed to look every bit of disappointed. “I seriously kind of shipped you guys, you know? And… and everyone says that girl grabbed you and kissed you in the middle of the hallway before going to lunch,” he mumbled.

What.

Hiro just stared, half-wondering for a moment how the hell Steven can even manage to speak with the number of fries he had just stuffed his face with because Lunamor kissing him was…

No, that never happened.

And there was absolutely no fucking way in hell Cassandra Lunamor–of all people–would even so much as think to do anything like that to him, not in school, definitely not in public or anywhere else because no brain, stop thinking about it, don’t even imagine it, no, not, not a fucking chance in hell, nope, nope. Not happening.

Besides, Hiro was pretty sure that he would remember if she had actually grabbed and kissed him… which she didn’t even do in the first place!

“One of my students said she saw Lunamor glaring at this pretty barista in Selena’s for just smiling and talking to you,” Steven continued, slurping loudly at his diet coke now, thankfully oblivious to Hiro’s private panic attack, “Man, talk about territorial… kids these days.”

Barista in Selena’s…?

And just like that, Hiro suddenly lost his appetite before he could even properly eat when it hit him. Holy fuck, are they talking about Clara?

“Wait. Wait a minute, Steven. Where did you even hear that? When did that even—?” Hiro tried to protest, but the words wouldn’t come right away as he sputtered. How on earth could Hiro even protest over something that sounds so ridiculous anyway?

Steven waved him off, “Yeah, I don’t really care about that, buddy. But how the hell can you explain you two having some sort of lovers’ quarrel a few days ago? Right here, in this place?!”

Hiro winced, remembering how Lunamor had verbally torn apart Megan not even five minutes after from meeting her. With a jolt, Hiro quickly noticed some of the other students who were seated near them had gone silent and were obviously interested with what he had to say.

His eyes narrowed into a glare at them.

“We’re not in a relationship,” he repeated.