Chapter Text
“Sir, there’s clearly something off here,” Rin said. He held up his test paper like it was evidence in a murder trial. “This has the letter O on it.”
Loki leaned back in his creaky chair, arms folded behind his head like he was on holiday.
“Yeah. That’s ‘cos you failed, mate.”
“You’re takin’ the piss!” Rin shot back, eyes wide. “I am not gettin’ dumped into bottom set maths! The people there shop at Tesco!”
“You can’t even tell the letter O from the number 0, brev. Might as well chuck you in bottom set English while we’re at it.” Loki shrugged, hands in the air. “Just sayin’.”
Rin could feel the rage bubbling in his chest. Loki should know better than to mess with his dark side. Unfortunately, being from the suburbs meant he didn’t have a proper balaclava to throw on and disappear into the shadows. He wasn’t even on smoke like that…yet.
The butterfly knife he ordered off Temu for £3.47 (god bless the Royal Mail for free shipping) was still sitting in his sock drawer back in his dorm room, next to a stash of half-used lighters and a broken USB cable.
But you know what he did have on him? His Airpods. And through them, he was blasting the hardest, most violent drill track he had downloaded.
His opps. (Shidou) (Charles) better watch out. Cuz Rin didn’t play around. Nuh uh. This drill beat made him bare mad innit.
He stared daggers at Loki.
Next exam? Man was coming for blood.
As a proud student of St. Ego’s Academy for Troubled Youths (ages 11 to 18, behavioural issues optional but encouraged), Rin wasn’t exactly taking this whole moving-down-a-set situation in stride.
He’d tried his hardest—he really had! But maths just wasn’t his thing. Numbers didn’t speak to him. They barked at him like IShowSpeed. That didn’t mean he deserved to be shoved into bottom set. Pure violation bruv. A personal attack. An act of war, innit.
To make matters worse, Loki had the audacity to suggest he be bumped down to bottom set English too. Now that was truly unforgivable. Rin liked to think of himself as a literary weapon. Predicted a fat 9 for his English GCSEs. Smashed his mocks with a clean hundo. He practically was Shakespeare, icl Rin was a fucking poet mate.
Maybe his parents could sort it—buy him out of bottom set maths like they did when he “earned” his spot as the rugby (football was for peasants) team captain. (He could’ve got it off skill alone, obviously. The cheque was just a precaution.) Because the rumours he’d heard about bottom set maths? Yeah. They weren’t nice. They involved monsters, the Fr*nch, and something about freaky Germans. Some joke ting.
Rin wasn’t built for that kind of life.
He just wasn’t.
Making his way down the creaky, old hallways of St. Ego’s Academy, Rin passed row after row of portraits—hundreds of them—each one depicting St. Ego Bartholomew the First, Ego Bartholomew the Second, Ego Bartholomew the Third, all the way up to Sir Ego Bartholomew the Hundredth. The current Ego (middle name Jinpachi) Bartholomew was the headmaster of this cursed institution.
It was a mad setup, really. The Bartholomew family had been running the school for a hundred years now, and Rin couldn’t help but wonder how much inbreeding had happened in that bloodline. (Not that he was one to judge. It was common in many posh British families, but not his. His lot were new money unlike that Mikage kid and his BUM boyfriend, who—don’t get him started on them, they gave him very violent thoughts.)
It was bad enough when his brother rolled up with some schewpid neek covered in so much eyeliner he looked like a raccoon, and those bright pink highlights that could’ve lit up the entire bloody hallway. Luckily they were just friends so he'd allow it.
Rin was glad he’d moved to the dorms. At least, he thought he was until he realised that Sae and Shidou had moved into the dorms just last week because their parents were working abroad. And now, Rin was stuck sharing the space with that sad lot.
Yeah, he weren't exactly gassed about that innit.
At least they weren’t in the same room, right? The sixth years had their own little area far, far away from where Rin was.
He took a deep breath and opened the door to room 13D. First day of bottom set maths. It couldn’t be that bad, could it?
Nope. It wasn’t just bad. It was bare mental mate. Dead still.
Half the room was empty, and the bell had rung a good 15 minutes ago. Rin figured he was already late, but there wasn’t a single teacher in sight. Just a lot of... well, schiz behaviour.
Some yute was selling Prime out of their blazer.
A kid with fluffy magenta hair was sat at the back, seat next to him empty (because who would sit next to that weirdo?), drawing pentagrams in his jotter and whispering to it like it was some sort of ritual. Bare mad.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw movement. Someone was approaching.
The bloke looked bald, but he wasn’t. His hair was shaved so close to his head that it made his forehead shine like a polished bowling ball. “Oi! You! Yes, you!” The guy practically yelped, getting right up in Rin’s face. “You new here, bruv?”
Rin grunted, barely bothering to look up. He didn’t owe this idiot anything.
“Hey,” the ‘bald’ idiot leaned in closer, uncomfortably so. Close enough for Rin to get a whiff of the pure stench coming off of his black Nike puffer jacket.
“Wanna sign my opp application?”
Rin’s eyebrow shot up. This pussyole was clearly mistaken. Rin didn’t sign anything. He found his opponents in the streets—where he thrived. Unfortunately, here he was, stuck in boarding school.
“What you saying?” Rin scoffed.
“Yeah, bruv! It’s like... we’ll both get clout after we fight each other, innit? Proper rad, right?”
“Hell no, lukewarm. That's some Mickey Mouse clubhouse ting,” Rin bit back, eyes moving back to the board as he tried his best to ignore the nonsense around him.
But, of course, that wasn’t enough for these bums to take the hint. No, next thing he knew, another nitty was trying to strike up a conversation.
Zantetsu. Rin knew him all too well. He had something like celebrity status around these parts, but it was for the sheer level of his stupidity. Bottom set everything, if that was even possible. Bare clapped, fam.
Zantetsu latched onto Rin, eyes wide and eager like a puppy.
“Get off me! Peasant!” Rin shoved him aside.
Zantetsu adjusted his thick glasses, looking far too serious for the situation. “Might we take a moment to concern ourselves with the current social and economic state of the world right now?”
Rin blinked at him, genuinely confused. “What?”
“Have you ever considered,” Zantetsu continued, completely oblivious to Rin’s frustration, “that people stuck in bottom set maths, like us, shop at Tesco instead of Waitrose because of the socio-economic state of the world?” He paused dramatically. “Let’s take a moment to think about it. Poverty means parents can’t always provide the best for their children, and when the kids suffering under poverty go home, they don’t have the time to do their homework or focus on the material they’re supposed to be learning because they’re helping their parents earn money. Hence, they end up in bottom set maths.” He nodded sagely. “Sometimes, a Tesco Meal Deal is all we can afford.”
Rin stared at him, completely dumbfounded. “We? Who is we mate?”
Before he could even respond, the bald guy sitting next to him piped up. “Mad, that’s probably the most intelligent thing I’ve ever heard out of man.”
Rin was about to crash out. “No it isn’t. We literally go to a private school.”
The class ended without the teacher (or the other half of the class) ever showing up. Everyone was skiving. Rin wasn’t complaining. He'd rather sit in silence than listen to any more of that nonsense.
He learned the bald guy’s name, though. Igaguri. He decided right there and then that he would be avoiding him for the rest of his time at St. Ego’s. Man was just too much innit. If Rin heard another word out of him, Loki wouldn’t be the only one getting shanked with a temu butterfly knife.
Zantetsu eventually shut up, which was a relief. That was the only positive thing to come out of the lesson. If these two were the only people he had to deal with, maybe bottom set maths wouldn’t be so bad. Just maybe.
At 12:20, the bell rang. Lunchtime.
Rin adjusted his bag and made his way toward the lunch hall.
It was located in the second tower, a mad hike from his bottom set maths class, but he was honestly grateful for the walk. A nice little breather after whatever that was earlier. He couldn’t believe he was stuck in this dead place. The whole thing felt like a nightmare with extra steps. But at least the food was a temporary escape—so long as no one started talking about socio-economic conditions or handing him "opp applications." Honestly, school pizza is bare loud still.
Rin sighed as he turned the corner.
He wished he hadn’t.
Because there they were, right in front of him.
His brother. Sae.
And his “friend”. Shidou.
Rin’s heart stopped for a second, his brain struggling to process the scene before him. Sae—his older brother, the one he used to look up to—was pinning Shidou against the wall. But this wasn’t a fight. It wasn’t even a heated argument.
No, this was something else entirely. The zestiest ting he had ever seen in his life.
Sae’s face was just inches from Shidou’s, too close. Rin couldn’t look away. He used to think his brother was the definition of cool—calm, collected, always in control. But now? Now, Sae’s hand was gripping Shidou’s shirt, their breaths mixing in the charged silence. And just as Rin blinked, Sae’s head tilted slightly, lips edging closer to Shidou’s.
For a split second, it looked like they were about to kiss.
Rin’s stomach twisted into a tight knot, his mind screaming to look away, but he couldn’t. This wasn’t happening. Not here. Not with them.
“Oi!” Rin finally shouted, his voice cracking with disbelief. “What the bloody hell is going on here?!”
Sae pulled back just enough to glance at him, a flicker of annoyance crossing his face. “Rin... You’re really making a scene, aren’t you?” he said, though his cool tone didn’t quite match the tension in the air.
Rin’s heart was hammering in his chest. “What’s with you two? You were just, bloody hell, you were about to kiss him!”
Shidou didn’t seem fazed at all. He smirked and shrugged, his grin never slipping. “Yeah, and? You’re the one making it weird mate.”
Rin’s fists clenched at his sides. Was he more angry? Confused? He wasn’t sure anymore. “This is some bear wet shit innit.”
Sae pushed himself off Shidou, stepping back with a sigh. “Look, Rin, it’s not what you think.”
“Really?” Rin spat. “'Cause it sure looks like it is.”
Then, without a second’s hesitation, Shidou leaned in, lips brushing Sae’s ear, whispering something that made Sae’s eyes narrow in amusement, a low chuckle escaping his lips. Rin just stood there, completely floored. His entire body was frozen in place, wishing the ground would just swallow him up.
This wasn’t what he’d signed up for. This wasn’t how he imagined his brother’s relationship. not like this. Wet and zesty didn't even begin to describe this.
With a sharp turn, Rin marched away, his hands shaking, hoping to god they hadn’t noticed.
Behind him, Shidou cupped Sae’s face, a cheeky grin playing on his lips. “Oi, Sae—your little brother’s not a homophobe, is he? Or is he just being a bit of a drama queen?”
Sae shot him an unimpressed look, brushing Shidou’s hands away with a casual flick. “Don’t read too much into it. He’s 16, troubled, and they confiscated his phone so he barely gets any proper screen time.
Rin tried anything to distract himself from… that. He figured he might as well double-check his new timetable. To clear his mind from the previous encounter.
Rin fumbled around in his pockets, pulling out the crumpled piece of paper that was his new and updated schedule, complete with his bottom set maths class.
Right, so after lunch, he would have...
They’d messed his classes around a bit to fit bottom set maths in. For some reason, all the sets took place at different times. Weird.
After lunch was...
Maths?
Maths again?
BOTTOM SET MATHS WAS A DOUBLE PERIOD?!