falling for you. | male rivals x ayato aishi

prologue *ೃ༄

Ayato Aishi was six years old when he realised he was different.

"Mother?"

"Yes, Ayato?"

"Why am I not like the other children? Why am I different?" The small boy asked, face blank.

His mother smiled. A warm, motherly, smile. "I was just like you, you know?".

"Really?"

"Yes, it happens to every Aishi child. You will feel empty, you will be different. But one day, you will find someone who will complete you. Who will cure you."

"Did father cure you?"

"Yes, he did. And one day, you'll find someone who will complete you, and you will do whatever it takes to keep them." She said, smile still painted on her face, bringing a hand to gently caress the boy's hair.

The boy gives a small nod, leaning it to the warmth of the hand, closing his eyes as he dreams of what it will be like to find the person who will complete him.

*ೃ༄

Ayato Aishi was the first male born in the long line of Aisha's, cursed with the same emptiness as every daughter before him.

His mother, though shocked by his gender at birth, taught him everything she knew and everything he needed to know.

She taught him of the family curse, and she also taught him of the cure, of the person who will cure him.

Ever since that day Ayato spent all his time thinking and dreaming of the person who would complete him, fantasying about his life with them.

He is especially looking forward to the new year because this year he will be starting his second year and his new school, Akademi High. It was the same school his mother went to, where she found her completion. Ayato used to go to another school, and spent his first year of high school somewhere else because his mother said that she didn't want him going there, for whatever reason, she never told him, always dodging the subject. The only he knew was that it was something to do with her journey to gain his dad.

But he gave it little thought, after asking continuously, his mother finally agreed to enrol him on Akademi, and he was eager to start his second year. Ayato made little progress in finding his half in the other school, but in this school, he was sure it was going to work. It was fate, after all, it was where his mother found her soulmate, and he's sure he's going to find his here too.

He couldn't wait.

When Ayato thinks back on it, he thinks this is where it started, where it all started. Or maybe it was the very first time he stepped a foot in that school, maybe it was the second he bumped into that orange-haired boy, or maybe it was the second he opened his eyes to this world.

He didn't know.