Of Sages and Oni

Chapter 6 - Observations

Y/N POV:
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I watched as Itto slowly crept up on a rather large beetle. Al Haitham furiously scribbled down some notes, keeping a careful eye on the Oni. He suddenly scooped the beetle up in his hands and trapped the insect between his palms.

"Gotcha!" Itto smiled proudly and looked over at us.

"You're supposed to be acting like we aren't here." Al Haitham looked up from his notes.

Itto puffed his cheeks at my research partner's comment. "Meanie."

The teal eyed man grumbled at his antic's and got back to work. "Y/N. Could you look over this and see if I missed anything?"

"Sure. I don't see why not." I took the paper and looked at what Al Haitham had written down. It was an extensively descriptive account of Itto's actions so far today. It even went down into the fine details, including the way Itto would play with a strand of hair or how he would wander around aimlessly finding things to do. "Wow. This is-"

"Perfect, right? We should easily get an A with what we have so far." He took the paper from my hands and securely placed it in the book.

"Did you ever do that one section?"

"I-..It's not the right time still." His face dusted itself with a light shade of pink. "Besides. There's always time for more observations and notes."

"Y/N! You have to see this!" Itto still has his hands closed around what he caught. I was going to run over and check it out, but Al Haitham grabbed my wrist and pulled me back.

"No interfering with the subject, remember?"

"I know it's just," I looked over at Itto's face. "I can't say no to thattt. Come on Al- Let me go just this once."

He let out an annoyed sigh and let my wrist go. I ran over to Itto and looked at what he caught. "So I thought this was a regular old beetle, buttt." He opened his hands to reveal a black beetle with a red iridescent shimmer to its wings.

"Woah. How pretty.." The beetle flew away, much to Itto's disappointment and landed on a nearby tree.

Al Haitham cleared his throat. "Let's keep observing, Y/N."

"Right...Thanks for showing me your beetle, Itto."

"Mhm! I'll catch a bigger one next time."

The rest of the day pretty much followed like that. Itto would catch different bugs and Al Haitham would take notes. I was really just there to tag along at this point.

Soon enough though, the day started to come to an end and we all made our way back to the camp.

"Itto a word." Al Haitham motioned for Itto to join him a little further away from where I was cooking dinner. I watched as they chatted just out of hearing distance, while trying to manage my attention between them and the food.

Itto had turned a pretty noticeable shade of red after some time, and I watched as Al Haitham shook his head in disappointment.

"What are they talking about over there...?" I let myself get lost in my thoughts and suddenly the boar meat I had brought along was burning. "Ah!" I quickly grabbed the pan off of the fire.

Both Al Haitham and Itto were now looking at me.

"Y/N- Are you alright?" Al Haitham said in a worried tone.

"Yeah. I just burnt the food. I'm sorry about that."

"Here let me help." Itto carefully took the food out of the pan and tossed it before starting another batch. I watched Itto carefully and we all sat in silence. The sound of the boar meat sizzling in the pan was the only thing that could be heard. Itto put the cooked food on three separate plates.

"Thanks."

"No problemo, my guy." He giggled and tore into the meat on his plate.

Al Haitham sighed in annoyance. He's been rather irritated lately. More so than usual. I wonder why exactly though. Did he not like Itto? That was a big possibility. Itto is very childlike and energetic, while Al is definitely more on the reserved side. Maybe with the stark differences between their personalities they were bound to clash no matter what.

"Are you going to eat your boar, Y/N?" Al Haitham looked concerned.

"Yeah yeah...just thinking again is all." I scarfed down my food before putting my plate down. I quickly got up. "I'm going to go for a walk!"

"Alright just be careful."

There was another muffled "Mhm" from Itto as he agreed with Al Haitham's request for my safety.

"I will." I walked off into the woods and found a quite place to try and get my thoughts sorted out. "This is just making things weird for Al Haitham and I... isn't it...."

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Itto POV:

I looked over at Al Haitham and quickly finished my meat. "Heyyyy. So about earlier. Those were all the questions right?"

"I believe so. Why?"

"Oh it's nothing. I was just getting tired of them is all." I paused for a moment. "I know I asked you about your workout routine earlier so...." I reached for Al Haitham, "Can I feel them?"

"Huh?? " I let out a yelp as he smacked my hand away. "Nice try but no- hands off."

"Aw man. Hm..." I reached down into my pant leg and rummaged around before I pulled out a lollipop. "You want one?"

"Wha- No! Where did that even come from?!"

"I have about 10 internal pockets- whoever designed these pants put the pockets on the inside but I have no complaints about that." I smiled.

"Itto- Did you ever think that maybe you're just wearing your pants inside out?"

"I-" I stopped for a moment. We're they inside out...had I been wearing these wrong the entire time? That might explain the zipper on the inside too and...

Al Haitham said something, but I really wasn't paying attention and I just took my pants off to put them on the proper way.

I could've sworn there was some rustling in the bushes so before I finished putting my pants on, I turned around.

I caught a glimpse of some H/C hair followed by the sound of footsteps running away.