When his alarm had gone off earlier that morning, Cardin found himself deeply regretting his decision to enrol for school. If Keary were awake, he would have given Cardin a smug look that read, "I told you so". It was probably a good thing that the dark-haired boy remained securely in slumber in spite of the screeching alarm, his arms wrapped around Cardin, his face buried in the curve between Cardin's neck and shoulder.
With Keary’s quiet breath falling softly on his bare skin, Cardin wanted nothing more than to just snuggle further into the other boy’s warmth and fall back asleep. But he knew that this was a challenge he was going to have to surmount for many mornings to come, so he steeled himself to face the early morning chill and wrenched himself up.
With not a little effort, he managed to gingerly extract himself from the tangle of limbs and blankets, trying his best not to disturb the other boy. When he flipped the switch to the bathroom, Keary stirred, but the dark head only turned away from the light before vanishing under the covers. Cardin gave a small sigh of relief, then resumed preparing for the day.
Over the last few weeks, he had been busy with registration, taking an aptitude test, and getting all the administrative paperwork done. There had been a few awkward situations where parental presence had been required, but he had managed to get away with the excuse that his parents were both on business trips which would keep them out of town for a long time more.
After that, there was still a slew of formalities to fulfil: sending a couple of formally-worded emails from freshly-minted addresses; faxing documents with forged signatures, together with copies of the fake IDs that Nigel had put together for his imaginary little family; pretending to be his own non-existent father when the school dialled the phone number he'd submitted, which actually redirected to his own mobile; and then running all around the city to procure his uniform, stationery, and textbooks that seemed to be out of stock just about everywhere…
Cardin sighed as he remembered the hassle of it all. But here he was now. He'd chosen this route of academic acquisition himself, so all that was left to do was to give it his best shot, and see where it took him.
He had taken care to iron his uniform last night, and had hung it in the bedroom that Keary had formerly been using, so that he wouldn't wake the other boy. But just as he was looking in the mirror to adjust his tie, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a shifting in the shadows behind him.
“Hey.” Voice still raspy from sleep, Keary came to lean lazily against the door frame, clad only in a pair of navy-blue sweats. Watching him in the mirror’s reflection as he squinted in the light, Cardin smiled.
"Hey, morning." He knew Keary almost never rose from bed before the sun was high in the sky, unless it was for a job. "Sorry. I was trying not to wake you.”
“Mmm.” A rumble sounded in Keary’s throat as he shuffled up behind Cardin to hug him around the waist, resting his chin on the smaller boy’s shoulder and nuzzling into his neck once more. Cardin could smell the musky scent of slumber on him, and again wished he could just flop back into bed and cocoon himself in it. Instead, he contented himself with lightly grasping one of the arms that encircled him, then turned his head to press a kiss on the dark hair.
Keary let out another low hum, his embrace tightening, but in just a few moments Cardin felt the other boy start to nod off again.
"Hey hey hey. Don't fall asleep on me." He turned around and stepped back. "Do I look alright?"
"Hmmm…" Keary straightened as he surveyed Cardin from the bottom up with heavy-lidded eyes before lightly patting the top of the golden head. "Perfect schoolboy. Mm." He gave a short nod, lips pursed as if to emphasise his sincerity.
"Are you patronising me?"
"No." Keary sniffed. "Why would you think that?" His touch lingered, fingers running through the bright silk of Cardin's hair.
Cardin thought he perceived a shadow of a frown cross Keary's face as his touch fell to the ends of the blonde locks, which Cardin had cropped short a couple of days back in adherence to the school regulations. When he'd returned home, Keary had stared at him in not a little consternation. Although he hadn't said a single word about it, Cardin could sense that he was still not exactly exuberant about the change.
With a sigh, he pushed Keary's hand away. "Come on. You know this was necessary."
Keary raised a single dark eyebrow. "Was it?"
"Yes. Yes it was." Cardin lifted his chin stubbornly, before taking on a more pacifying tone. "Besides, it's not like it won't grow again. But I should at least try to make a good first impression." He stepped past Keary and started making his way downstairs.
Keary shrugged. "Sure." He rubbed his eyes and yawned widely, all the while following behind Cardin.
"Why don't you head back to bed? You always sleep in."
"It's your first day. I wanted to see you off at least." The silver eyes blinked to clear the blur of tears from the yawn.
Cardin couldn't help but soften and smile at the sight. Keary was sizzlingly cool most of the time, with his lean, powerful physique cloaked in dark shades and his graceful, panther-like way of moving. But he sometimes also did things that couldn't be called anything else but adorable. After Cardin had finally won Keary over in his struggle to become a Dagger, the latter had relaxed considerably. Cardin thought he was beginning to glimpse different sides to Keary which the dark-haired boy hadn’t shown when his guard was up, including a hint of something that looked very much like innocence.
Shrugging on his jacket, Cardin asked, "Want to walk me to school?"
Keary hesitated, uneasiness flashing across his face. "I don't think that's a good idea."
"Oh." Cardin's voice fell in mild disappointment. "Why not?"
"I used to go there, and I didn't exactly leave in the best of ways. Things might be difficult for you if they knew you were associated with me."
“‘Associated’? Is that what we're calling it now?” Cardin teased, but he was relieved that it wasn't because of Keary's anti-establishment sentiments. Come to think of it, Keary had exercised a great deal of restraint as Cardin ran his errands. Far from being discouraging, he had helped Cardin out wherever he could.
He knew Keary had dropped out, and wanted to ask more, but decided to save it for later. For now, although he'd given himself some buffer, it was time to get going.
“Well, I'll be on my way then.” He leaned in to give Keary a quick peck on the cheek, and was turning away to open the door when he was caught by the hand and yanked swiftly back.
