One-Shots #2 [Boboiboy]

2, fluff | seven platonic soulmates, no feet apart

Summary: A collection of short stories about the elementals in school.

#1 Gempa's Sleep Schedule

"I haven't had a good night's sleep since 2002."

"Gempa, you slept more than Ais when we came out of the womb."

"Yeah, you slept for like, 21 hours a day. If Ais were here, she'd get on her hands and knees and offer her firstborn child."

Gempa glowered at both Halilintar and Taufan, clenching the soda can in his hand wishing that it were their necks instead.

"You're not helping," he rebutted helpfully, flipping through a stack of documents by his laptop. "Both emotionally or physically."

The pair turned to each other, exchanged a glance, then back to Gempa with matching shrugs. The can in his hand creaked and bent under his thumb.

"You volunteered to be student council president," Halilintar pointed out. "You dug your grave, now lie in it."

"Yeah, you kinda did," Taufan agreed. "I've never met someone who says, 'Oh? More work? Don't mind if I do!' Most clinically sane people run the other way."

"Since when were you two in cahoots?" Gempa demanded. "Weren't you two at each other's throats for the last piece of strawberry macaroon yesterday?"

"We were," Halilintar said.

"But we decided we should unite," Taufan chorused.

"In the face of a bigger laughingstock," Halilintar continued.

"Which is you," they said together without missing a beat.

Gempa gawked at them, all but stopping the vice grip he has on his soda. The carbonated drink overfilled the top, spilling down his palm and onto his notes.

Dear god, maybe he should give them less work next time.

#2 Solar should drink less caffeine

"Throughout history," Solar began, clicking through different pages of a PowerPoint on his laptop before arriving at the right one, "there has been various studies done on this topic, all arriving on different conclusions each."

Duri nodded fervently, her curly hair flicking around in wild places as she trained her eyes onto the screen. She looked like a puppy wagging its tail waiting for a treat to come.

Solar coughed into his fist, jabbing a finger at the massive block of text with a total font size of 7 and comic sans.

"But I conclude that the ocean, the sea itself, is indeed soup!"

Duri blinked at him.

"What makes a soup? By the strict definition, a soup requires two basic ingredients: water and the ingredients. While seasonings like salt or rosemary enhance the experience, they are not strictly required!"

He clicked to the next slide, which was just a picture of Ais lying face first on a duck floatie in her swimming pool. You could see Blaze underwater holding his nose with a selfie stick.

"And what does the ocean have? Water, fish, seaweed and salt. Lots of salt! I don't know if you realize, but fish is a type of meat and seaweed are veggies. They're just the underwater variety. They are the ingredients. What about heat, you ask? Well, there are over 1 million known underwater volcanoes. And get this: volcanoes means hot."

The slide changed to a picture of the time the trio went hiking on a mountain last year. Taufan was passed out cold and slung over Gempa's shoulder. Half of Halilintar's annoyed face is plastered in the corner of the picture.

Where the heck is he getting these pictures?

Solar's entire face was red. His neck, his nose, and his ears were all cherry. So, Duri should've done the logical thing and just knock him out cold and let him sleep.

But unfortunately, she was the very embodiment of chaos, and instead offered him this:

"Then is cereal a soup?"

Solar fell to his knees in utter despair.

"Oh god, everything is soup!" He gripped at his hair like a madman. "Our existence, as we know it, is all soup! Our cells, our thoughts, our lives are just one elaborate cacophony of soup, soup and nothing more! What's the point in life? What's the use of struggling? We all came from soup and we will all end in soup!"

#3 Ais. Just Ais.

It's not the first time Ais fell asleep in some random hallway. She's made it a habit to bring her blanket and pillows to school, set them down in some random place and start snoring away.

This time, it just happened to be in the hallway in front of her class.

She was tucked in, pillows fluffed up and ready for the sweet embrace of sleep, when she saw a figure from the corner of her eye squatting down and joining her. It was her twin brother Blaze, stealing half her blanket and snuggling into it like he owned it.

Just because he owned half of the womb space when they were fetuses doesn't mean he has direct rights to everything she owned after.

Usually she would kick him out, but she was too tired to care. She pulled the blanket up to her chin when she noticed another pair.

This time it was Duri and Solar. Duri came running down the hallway and dove straight below the blanket, claiming her spot on Ais' right side. She took some of the pillow and also pulled the blanket up to her nose.

Ais didn't question as Solar pulled the blanket over himself, laid down on the bare floor and started scrolling Tiktok.

She closed her eyes again, but this time opened it to another myriad of footsteps. It was the triplets, fighting each other down the hall but stopped when they noticed the pile cuddling on the floor.

So they did the most logical thing they thought of.

Gempa and Taufan took their spots under the left side of the blanket, beckoned Halilintar to join them. She hesitated but when Solar made a face that said "you scared, coward?" she joined them. Even if it was only out of spite.

The corridor was now blocked by a group of people lying on the floor, minding their own business, because they're seven best friends cuddling in the middle of school, no feet apart because they're platonic soulmates and they just aren't paid to care otherwise.

They made this a tradition afterwards. Everyone brought their own pillows and blankets, making it a challenge to find the stupidest place to sleep.

The record, at the moment, is the teacher's lounge. Sir Papa Zola gladly let them hog his space in exchange for a ticket to join them. They listened to him talk about his daughter and how much she likes pulling his moustache.