(God this chapter title sounds like stereotypical fan fiction xD)

Osorō's POV

    Why did I agree to come here? I never participate in these stupid group projects, but here I am, about to go talk about worms for the next hour in the house of some guy I've barely talked to.

     It's not like I was dragged here either, Aishi just gave me his address and I voluntarily showed up like some sort of fucking sheet.

     Scoffing at my own stupidity, I rang the doorbell.

     Through the door I could hear some scuffle behind the door before it was opened by a man in a apron. It was safe to assume that he was Aishi's old man, considering they had matching jet black hair.

     "Hello, you must be Ayato's project friend, right?" He said with a cheesy grin on his face.

      "Father, please!"

      "What? I just want to meet him!"

      I couldn't help but chuckle a little.

Ayato's POV

    I explicitly told Father to let me open the door yet he did it anyway. Now I'm just frustrated at him.

     Thinking about it a bit more, I'm not sure why I'm frustrated, I would be if it was anyone else. Father might just say the wrong thing and scare Osorō off, that's all.

     Those fears were realised when I heard Osorō let out a little laugh at the situation. I can't let him think badly of me.

     I shooed my father out of the doorway before turning to face Osorō.

     "I apologise for his actions. Please, come in."

       I quickly led him up the stairs and into my room before any more comments could be made.

     After closing the door behind us, I took a seat on the floor and Osorō followed suit.

     "Cool room."

     "Thank you."

     I didn't consider that he might consider my room to be 'cool', after all it was mostly anime posters, manga and some little figurines from said works that had been gifted to me from others at my old school. I suppose he could have also been talking about my fire ant farm, after all fire ants have a rather nasty bite.

"Alright, so we should start off by listing off insects we should keep our eyes out for..."

Osorō let out an exaggerated groan, making his opinion on doing anything rather clear.

"I told you we were going to continue to work on our group project."

"That doesn't mean I wanna do it."

I rolled my eyes at his childishness.

"Oi, don't roll your eyes at me, buddy."

"What are you gonna do? My father would hear any commotion that occurred."

Osorō rolled his eyes back at me, silently finishing the conversation. We sat in a tense silence for a while, before I got up and turned on my computer so we could start researching.

Waiting for the search engine to load, Osorō got up and stood next to me, though still did not seem committed.

"Do you have any initial ideas?" I placed my hands on the keyboard in preparation.

"I don't know... some kinda beetle?"

I typed in 'Japanese species of beetle' and scrolled for a while, occasionally clicking on links to websites, waiting for something to stand out to us.

"This is so boring."

"Once again, you knew what we were doing."

He muttered something under his breath with a hateful expression on his face. This made something inside me tighten up even more then it already had done. Nothing about this had gone well so far and now he hated me. He hated me. I hated those words. I wanted to erase them, leaving no trace they had ever existed in the first place. I would do anything to achieve that goal.

Osorō's POV

Aishi had been sitting and staring at the screen for an uncomfortably long time. He seemed... angry...?

I wanted to say something but I wasn't entirely sure if he would even pick up on the fact I was talking to him.

The longer the looked the more I noticed, such as how his entire body was tensed up, like his flight or fight reflexes were kicking in or something.

Nothing had happened that would trigger that, I hadn't threatened him this entire time, which was honestly a world record for me.

Was it because of how badly our conversation had gone? I mean, I was only telling the truth, this whole thing is an absolute waste of my time, I didn't mean for my words to affect him this badly though.

"Umm..." He suddenly slipped out of his trance. "It's not too bad, I've dealt with worse projects..."

His face softened at my words. I think I cheered him up.

Wait, why was I trying to keep him happy again?

Ayato's POV

He was trying to make me feel better... Something about that made me feel... fuzzy, like I had nothing to worry about.

"Thank you." I said quietly, not sure if it was the socially appropriate answer or not.

Based on his expression it was not. Despite that, he gave a nod anyway.

"How 'bout that one?" He pointed at a picture of a Rhinoceros Beetle. "Looks like the little guy could do some damage."

"Yes, their horns are useful to them when it comes to fighting over mates or territory."

"You are such a nerd."

"You hadn't already figured that out?"

Osorō shrugged.

I grabbed some paper and a pen and wrote down some instructions on how Osorō could go about finding the beetle.

"So you don't have to do more then the bare minimum on this outrageously boring project." I grinned at him.

Osorō smiled back, taking the note and putting it delicately in his pocket.

"Hey..." he raised a brow at me, "that took a lot less time then expected. Are you willing to hang out more? I have some video games we could play."

Osorō's eyes widened slightly at my request.

"Okay, sure." He shrugged, a smile tugging at the ends of his lips.