Thinking about things had never been Vic’s forte. He usually just followed his instincts and things turned out fine, but sometimes, with some people, that just didn’t work out. Like with Alex. The whole situation was like that: it made Vic think, since apparently everything he had done so far had been poorly received by his classmate.

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Did Alex really not want to be friends? Was he mad at him? Did he hate him?

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It was rare for the pink-haired boy to worry about such things, but it was also rare for him to feel like someone didn’t really like him. It pulled at something in him; at that overwhelming need to please others that ruled his life beneath all the cheer and laughter. How could he help Alex? How could he make sure the other boy was happy and enjoying his time in high school? He was always alone, Vic had noticed, and he was apparently also avoiding him…

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After three days, he chose to wait instead of trying to approach him directly. He had stayed talking with some friends once recess began, but shortly after Alex left, he had followed, only approaching him once the boy was sitting down to have lunch.

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”Hey!” He greeted, beaming as he would always.
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It was a bit underhanded of him, and he didn’t really like that, but as his dad always said: ”Vic, you’ll always win if you have a good strategy!”

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+ Alexei Ivanov

Admittedly, for as much thought as Vic had given to all of this, he hadn’t really considered what he would say once he actually got Alex to talk to him. Some would have said that was the most important part out of all of it, and perhaps Vic himself would have even agreed, but he also would have said that there was no point in forcing things like these...
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Then again, wasn’t he already basically forcing Alex to talk to him?
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Naturally, Vic also didn’t consider this.
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”How have you been? Are you gonna have lunch?” The questions came with a joyful smile, completely impervious to the other’s hesitation and surprise. And then, without waiting for an invitation or giving a single warning, he just sat down as he would have done if he were about to have lunch with any other of his friends. They were doing this, and there was no stopping it.
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Talk about forcing things, huh?
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In Vic’s defense, a part of it was just that he didn’t want Alex to continue being alone everyday, but if the other had outright told him he preferred things that way, he would have stopped and backed away. Reluctantly, but he would have nevertheless.


[break][break]

+ Alexei Ivanov

Vic didn’t even get to have his own lunch. He didn’t even get to reach for his lunch box. For, the moment he sat down was the moment Alex reached for his own, and judging by the other’s expression, things weren’t right at all.
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”A… Alex?” This time, he was the one who hesitated, leaning in just a little closer in order to see what the other was looking at. Food shaped into a Snorlax and a Dugtrio. Something that would have been all too common to see in the pink-haired boy’s own lunch box but that was completely different from the plain food his classmate had complained about last time they had had lunch together.
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Wait… Was Alex crying?!
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What had just happened?!
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”Hey… Come on, it’s fine… That’s a good thing, right?” Vic gave him a faint and gentle smile, looking at him as he wondered what he could possibly say to make things better. But, how could he know what to say when he didn’t know what was going on in the first place?
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All he could do was wait and be there.

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+ Alexei Ivanov

It was difficult for Vic to understand it. Heck, it was difficult for him to even imagine it. At the Wexler home, he may have been the oldest out of three siblings, but if anyone had asked him if any of them was treated differently like Alex apparently was at his own home, the answer would have been a resounding ‘no’. Not like that. Never like that.
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A sigh left him. Not because he found the whole situation to be annoying or exasperating, but because all that would have been difficult to hear for anyone – especially a boy who was barely even a teenager. “Alex. You’re not bothering me.” It was true. After all, if this was difficult for Vic, then that meant it was infinitely more difficult for Alex, to whom all this was happening. And who knows for how long it had even been happening…
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One thing was clear though: it was not just about some lunch boxes.
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Vic may not have been the sharpest tool in the shed, he was even perfectly aware of that as well, but even at this age, he also knew that when someone was this hurt, the answer was rarely ever the most obvious one.
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What had happened?
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”Mmm… Do you, like… wanna tell me about it, maybe? You don’t have to, but… I want to help.”

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+ Alexei Ivanov

He knew exactly what sort of thing the other kids said about Alex. He knew because they had said them to him too. One of those so-called ‘cool friends of his’ had seen them spending lunch together last time, and afterwards a few had asked Vic why he bothered with talking to their weirdo of a classmate. That Alex was strange. That Alex was too quiet. That Vic himself was going to be seen as a weirdo too if he spent too much time with someone like Alex.
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”I dunno... would you like it if people said stuff like that about you? I wouldn’t.” He had responded then, pointing out that he could be friends with as many people as he wanted and that shouldn’t have been a problem – them, Alex, and anyone else in school as well. He was going to keep talking to him, because they were friends.
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So, Alex knew about all that as well. And, beyond anything their classmates may have said, it sounded like he thought his parents didn’t care for him; that they were disappointed and didn’t love him as much as they loved his sisters.
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It sounded terrible.
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It sounded painful.
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”Mmm… I dunno about all that... it sounds hard. But… do you really think no one cares? What if there’s people who do and you haven’t really noticed?”


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+ Alexei Ivanov

“It feels like that—”
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It wasn’t often that Vic had nothing to say. He was rarely comfortable with silence, he didn’t like it, and yet, this time he allowed that very same silence to take over as he watched his friend.
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What could he have even said? Sometimes just wanting to help wasn’t enough. Sometimes people had deep wounds that took time to heal up. But, this in itself was a lesson Vic was yet to learn when being so young…
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”Mmm… What about your sisters?” He couldn’t help but ask then, wondering how it could be that someone’s siblings didn’t care for them. That wasn’t possible, right?! Didn’t all siblings love each other even if they fought? He himself would have done anything for his own, without a question.
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Wasn’t it the same for Alex?
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“But there really is no one…” A pause, finally taking the time to get his lunch box out of his backpack and calmly opening it before looking at the other boy once more. And this time, when he spoke, his usual smile was back – an honest grin that reached his eyes. ”...Then I’ll make sure to care! Since we’re friends, right?”
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Maybe it wasn’t as simple as that, but sometimes things in life were easier to handle when the whole complicated side of them was set aside.


[break][break]

+ Alexei Ivanov

Vic nodded a couple of times in acknowledgement while he ate his lunch, listening to the other boy talk about his sisters and his relationship with them. Honestly, he didn’t really know what it was like. His own sister was only nine at the time, and as far as he was aware, she couldn’t have cared less about things like popularity and being “as girly as possible”. Maybe things like those would come with time, when she got to be around their age. But, right now? She was more of a handful than what even he had been back when he was her age.
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“They—my parents prefer daughters over sons.”
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Huh... Was that really a thing? Weird.
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”Do they really? That’s kind of silly… Why should those things matter at all?” As always, he was oblivious to that kind of thing, always prone to forgetting that most people out there saw the world differently than what he did. Particularly adults. Especially adults.
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When the other boy almost dropped his rice ball in surprise, he laughed; not mocking, but because it was a funny sight. ”Harassed? Mmm… Why would I?” Vic tilted his head, while also being well aware that the other probably meant that his other friends would say the kind of things they had already asked and said. Did Alex think he would lose all his friends if they began hanging out? That was just silly!
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”I have a lot of friends, I’ll be fine,” he shrugged, then beaming at Alex ”I like having a lot of people to hang out with. That includes you!” And, he really would be just fine, because things like peer pressure and gossip had never really affected Vic, and he really didn’t see why he would lose his friends thanks to that. He was nice to everyone and liked getting along with them all, that’s what mattered the most.


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+ Alexei Ivanov