Chapter Text
“Lumière and I are sure that you and William will like each other,” Licht repeated once again with his disarming bright smile that made Patri feel just a little bit less negative about the whole situation. “He even promised Lumière that he’ll let you take more than three shelves in the bathroom so you can fit all your hair products there. That’s pretty generous.”
Never the less, Patri remained rather sceptical. He didn’t like humans in general with only a few exceptions. Prince Lumière even managed to become the first human Patri actually liked but that was not a case anymore.
When a few years ago Licht left for college, Patri had a hard time dealing with it. He missed his favorite cousin terribly and was doing insane things, trying to get Licht to come home even for the weekend. Licht somehow managed to calm him down with a promise that when Patri would enroll, instead of living in dorms like most students, they would move in together.
Patri grew up but still remembered about Licht’s promise and couldn’t wait to graduate. But then, out of the blue, Lumière announced that he and Licht would be living together from now on. Patri at first considered moving in with them but his mother called this idea horribly rude and insisted that he should live in dorms like everyone else. Licht was reluctant to agree with her at but finally admitted that she was probably right. After endless vows from Licht that they would stay close no matter what, Patri gave in and agreed to apply for a room in dorms.
But there was absolutely no way his roommate would be fine. First of all, he was human. Secondly, he was noble, that’s how Lumière knew him. Patri despised human aristocrats. They all acted high and mighty with their pathetic magic.
“Just remember to respect his plants, Lumière says William really loves them,” Licht suggested as they were walking the stairs, slowly approaching the door at the end of the second-floor corridor. “I believe you will be able to give him a chance, Patri.”
Patri sighed but with resignation sounding heavy in his voice, he promised Licht that he would.
“Fine, I’ll try. But if he’s an asshole, I will use all my magic to make him regret that he was born.”
“Patri,” Licht glared at him reproachfully. “I’d rather you didn’t. Lumière and I are already having a hard time with people accepting us, we don’t need another ‘elf beating up human noble’ accident.”
“Okay, sorry,” Patri sighed, feeling almost certain it was going to be one of the worst years of his life.
“Unless he’s really an asshole, then you can even call me to help with the beating thing.”
“Thanks, Licht.”
“No problem, Patri. But remember, be careful around the plants. Lumière sounded very serious about that.”
“It will be fine Licht. It’s not like he’s going to kill me if I accidentally bump into one of them, right?”
“I don’t really know. I don’t understand humans that much,” Licht shrugged, trying to look aloof, but Patri felt that it was bothering him after all. “I try but still, they often confuse me.”
“Well, we’ll see. In the worst case, you’ll be visiting me in the hospital,” Patri rolled his eyes. “Or will be paying for my psychotherapy when I go mad because I’ve been living with a human for too long.”
“It’s nice that you’re assuming you’ll make it past the day one,” Licht smiled warmly and then, finally, put a hand on the handle. “Are you ready?”
“Let’s just get it over with and then go for ice cream.”
***
Almost three and a half years later, Patri opened the very same door and immediately got blinded by a flash. It was particularly irritating since it was exactly what one of his own spells did to other people and he was sure magic light should not affect him at all.
But it wasn’t magic. It was a camera flash. Patri blinked a few times in futile attempt to regain sight. It didn’t help much since he barely noticed three figures by the window and god blinded again by another photo being taken. It was worse when he first got his grimoire and started illuminating everything. It made him hate humans again and wonder why he has ever stopped.
Well, of course, he did not hate William. All these years ago, Licht turned out to be right, William and Patri got along surprisingly well. Their personalities just fit together and during these three years, they established a friendship that Patri never imagined he could have with anyone. But right now, even William was on thin ice.
“Hi, Patri,” he heard William’s warm, caring voice. “How was your quiz today?”
“William, please, try not to move, the deadline for the photos is in two hours,” Lumière was panicking.
“We have a lot of time,” Sacré calmed him down, snapping another picture with her awfully large camera.
Patri finally got used to the lights constantly going off stared in shock at William. He was wearing a red and gold ornamented mask that covered only half of his face. It was atrocious but somehow seemed to fit him perfectly and William in it was just mesmerizing even more so than he usually was.
Patri didn’t really like complementing Lumière’s mostly crazy fashion projects but this one was different, one of the few good ones. After a few seconds of shameless staring, Patri tried to redeem his dignity by looking down at the floor. Although, he might have been blushing a bit. He really hoped William was too busy to notice it.
“Wow, you look... good,” he muttered.
“You can tell him he looks gorgeous, Patri, that mask is the master design that will grant me the prize, I’m sure of it! And my family will finally have to acknowledge that I don’t want to be only the Wizard King but also a fashion designer!” Lumière encouraged him with excitement. “And Sacré will probably get an A in her photo class, how are your photos going?”
“Quite well. William, get closer to the plant.”
“You mean Zenon?” William asked. “He has some rights, you should treat him with respect.”
“Sorry,” Nero calmly accepted William’s odd demand. “Please, pose together with Zenon.”
He took a step back and kneeled before their window sill that was occupied by the crowd of William’s bonsais and a few other plants. Every one of them, of course, had a name since William loved them dearly.
To be honest, Zenon was Patri’s least favorite one. He was in a quite bizarre shape, he looked a beefy man with hands in his pockets. He used to creep Patri out at night quite a lot. William made it even worse by insisting that they use human pronouns for all the bonsais which caused Zenon to seem like he had his own free will.
“Fantastic!” Lumière gasped as William posed.
Yeah, Patri had to admit William did look fantastic. To the extent that made Patri even more uncomfortable with his feelings than he already was. Their eyes almost met but Patri averted it on time, hoping the crush didn’t show on his face.
He could feel William’s eyes on him. To avoid suspicion, he gathered his courage and looked up. William was smiling at him.
“The mask really does look great,” Patri said. “Congrats on making something not that ugly this time, Lumière.”
“I admit, I created some disasters but...” Lumière tried to deny.
Suddenly Sacré turned off her camera.
“This should be enough,” she stated with a shy smile. “And Lumière, your fashion is great. I love my dress.”
“It’s a beautiful design,” William agreed. “And suits you perfectly.”
“Fine, the dress is great too,” Patri admitted with a sigh, watching as Lumière skillfully took off William’s mask in just a few quick moves.
“Thanks, I’ll try making something new for you too. But now, to the studio!” Lumière ordered, “Bye, Patri! Bye, William! You can keep the mask if I win!”
They ran off as abruptly as they appeared. Patri immediately felt more at ease. Even though he already got pretty used to Lumière, he really didn’t like humans except for William. The rest he mostly tolerated, maybe almost liked some of William’s friends at times by extension, when William also was there too.
Patri locked the door and turned to see his friend trying to fix his hair in front of the small mirror next to the window without much effect. However, his hair was too short to be in too much mess. Patri was a bit tempted to come and help him but he quickly dismissed the thought deeming it way too awkward and creepy.
And even with scars covering almost half of his face, William was just too pretty. There was something mesmerizing, captivating about him, like a graceful aura, slightly similar to the one Licht had but at the same time different. But maybe that was the actual reason Patri started tolerating his roommate in the first place, ever since they started living together he caught himself staring at William like he was the most fascinating person in the world. At first, it made him confused but now he knew the reason for that pretty well.
“So Lumière got you to model for his fashion project again?” Patri asked casually, dropping the thought.
“Yeah, they came in yelling that it’s an emergency but it’s usually emergency with them. But I hope I will get the mask, it was stunning and you know,” William’s eyes traced the scars in his reflection with resignation. “It would be nice to have something to cover them.”
“I would rather call it atrocious but it looked really good on you,” Patri said shrugging. “And you don’t need a mask, William.”
“I know,” he sighed, not sounding convinced at all. “I just would like to go out in one from time to time. And have everyone staring for an entirely different reason than usual. Although, Yami would probably make fun with me.”
“I could punch him for that if you want,” Patri offered, trying to sound casual. “Or, I don’t know, throw a light sword at him.”
William giggled and finally stepped away from the mirror to face Patri.
“I would love to see you try just for the fun of it,” he said with a smug.
“Hey, I could fight him, I already did a few times,” Patri rolled his eyes. “I went to a fencing school with Licht and did some martial arts,” he reminded his friend.
“And I still don’t entirely believe that you could win,” William cocked his head a little. “By the way, do you want to go out with us on Friday? We were planning on grabbing some drinks.”
By ‘us’ William probably meant the weird bunch he called his friends that included mostly humans. Most of them were Ph.D. students a few years older than them but somehow they’ve adopted William when he was still a freshman and it just stayed this way.
Patri was still feeling awkward thinking about those times. He used to be even more racist than he was now, very awkward with his little infatuation with William’s charming personality and generally not that ready for student life. And then a bulky, scowling older student called Yami started coming over to their room like he owned the place, getting too close with William for Patri’s liking. He even for a week thought that they might be dating, which almost killed him but fortunately, it turned out that Yami was already kind of involved with Charlotte, a beautiful elf that Patri actually did respect but had no idea what she saw in Yami or why she was hanging out with him and his friends.
He had no idea what William saw in Yami either but the two were pretty close. Even though Yami didn’t spare him any complaints or mockery, William seemed to genuinely like and trust him. Also, the fact that from time to time William would come up with a brilliant comeback to Yami’s mockery that seemed to do the charm and helped them keep the balance.
Apart from Yami and Charlotte, in William’s group of friends there was also Finral, a cool but flirty guy with little dignity but a car in addition to his spatial magic what made him a designated driver at all times, Finral’s his best friend Vanessa and a few others that would come and go so Patri wasn’t that much interested in keeping track of them but mostly tolerated them.
“I can’t I’m having a beer with my club’s first-years this week,” Patri explained.
“Hmm...Which bar you’re going to?”
“The Flying Egg, you know, the one that got the name changed after...”
“I know.”
The smirk on William’s face made Patri rather suspicious.
***
Patri wished he could spend the evening just watching dramas or documentaries about nature with William whole night but unfortunately his best friend had a biology club meeting to go to. Feeling kind of lonely by himself in the dorms, Patri left to have a diner with his cousin and unfortunately, his a tad bit annoying human fiancé.
“Eat more salad, Patri,” Lumière encouraged him. “And why are you wearing the sweater I specifically designed for William?”
“We have the same size, the same wardrobe... Sometimes it’s hard to tell whose sweater it is.”
Patri’s eyes drifted to Licht’s plate, trying to assess if he should eat some more. Licht seemed to have liked the salad. Patri decided to take another helping. Lumière was smiling looking simply enamored with the whole situation.
“It’s so adorable how much you idolize Licht,” Lumière said. “Why my sister doesn’t ever do this like that?”
“Your sister is literally giving up on 9 months of her life, her health and weight so you two can have a baby so I would say: respect her more,” Patri reminded him.
Lumière and Licht exchanged a long stare. It looked like they were communicating with each other without using words, the way only people who understand each other very, very well did.
“Yeah, we should pack the rest of the salad and buy her some chocolate,” Lumière agreed after few seconds. “I will drop by her place later.”
“I can do that,” Licht offered.
“Don’t worry, it’s my family and except for Tetia they all kind of hate you for being an elf so we should not risk you running into them this close to the wedding,” he kissed Licht’s cheek and stood up to bring some containers for the food from the kitchen.
“So how are the preparations going?” Patri asked and Licht immediately lit up.
“Pretty good, we finally decided on the meadow big enough, we just need to send a memo to everyone that we are changing the place. And we need to get William to rearrange the trees a bit. Speaking of how are things?” Licht asked with such care that slightly overwhelmed Patri.
He almost started a desperate monologue about how he was still confused about his feelings toward William while he really wasn’t and he knew that pretty well that he just was trying to deny them since he valued their friendship so much. But then he saw Lumière’s curious head pop out from the kitchen.
“Things are.. good. You know, same as always,” Patri avoided the subject.
“Lumière told me you looked like you almost had a stroke when you saw him today,” Licht smiled clearly without bad intention on his mind.
Patri tossed an angry glare at Lumière.
“I didn’t,” he denied.
“Oh, you did,” Lumière insisted. “He did,” he insured his fiancé.
“Do you think William had noticed?” Patri gave in and let his head hit the table with resignation. Fortunately, he did remember about the salad and missed it by an inch. “He’s my best friend and I’m ruining it all.”
“William is a good person, Patri,” Licht ensured him. “He always thinks of others and is very forgiving so you shouldn’t be afraid, really. And I don’t think I’ve ever met any human understands elves so well, no offence, love.”
“None taken, I’m still trying but I’m a prince so I’ll never fully understand how a minority with greater magical power must feel. I prefer to focus on how well we can all get along! And I really do like the fact that we’re getting married on the meadow, you guys have some really cool traditions!” Lumière seemed overexcited for the wedding. “And I mean, I don’t fully get your culture yet but I’m working on that and at least I get Licht so that’s a good start.”
Licht smiled a little bit looking at him. Patri wished eventually someone would look at him this way, just pure love.
“Maybe start with small steps,” Licht suggested. “Ask him if he wants to come to our wedding together with you. It’s pretty innocent since you’re best friends.”
“I would rather die.”
“I’m sure he would be more than happy to have you keep him company instead of sitting with a bunch of strangers,” his cousin wisely pointed out.
“You two wouldn’t do that,” Patri rolled his eyes.
“What Licht meant...There is the thing that it is expected from William to sit with family,” Lumière explained. “Nobles and all that. I already talked about it with my dad and yeah, we have to sit him there and it sucks. Unless you invite him and pull him to the Licht’s relatives’ table.”
Patri finally looked up. As per usual, Licht had pretty good ideas. He was almost convinced to try.
“I’m probably going to ask him later. Since, you know, it’s going to be less awkward later.”
“Sweetie, I am not trying to put you down now,” Lumière approached him. “But William is a wonderful person and he could get snatched by someone else if you wait too long. I mean three years. We managed to get engaged and pregnant in the meantime!”
Licht immediately let out a long, exhausted sigh, knowing Lumière’s words would have the opposite effect to what he wanted to achieve. And he was not wrong. As soon as Patri opened up his mouth, Lumière gasped in horror, realizing what he’s done.
“It’s true,” Patri realized. “Why would William ever lower his standards to go out with someone like me? It doesn’t make any sense, I saw how some people in his biology club look at him, why on earth would he waste time on an elf with too many issues? Yes, there are a lot of people who admire and respect me but that’s because they don’t really know me and William does so there is no way, probably he’s going to be so grossed out when he finds out...”
“Patri,” Licht’s voice was warm and kind. “Love is not wrong, even when something doesn’t go your way, it doesn’t make it a mistake, just a bump on the road. And trust your friend. If you two care about each other, everything is going to work out.”
Even though it was more general advice and not really that realistic, it still meant a world to Patri.
“And don’t sell yourself short,” Lumière took over. “You’re a great leader with a good heart, in many ways you’re just like a mini Licht in the best meaning possible. Your hair is beautiful, you know how to dress and your magic is strong and with so many possibilities! You can heal people, create things and the union magic is just dope!”
“It’s not that powerful and I’m not that good at using it.”
“You’re a baby, Patri,” Licht reminded him. “Of course we’re better at controlling our magic, we’re older.”
“Yeah but...”
“No buts, you’re cool. If you want, you can be in charge of lighting during our ceremony,” Lumière proposed.
“Lumière, we agreed on not involving guests too much so they could have fun,” Licht reminded him. “And we’re already paying for the lights. But Patri, how does the light consultant sound? You can plan everything before the ceremony and you’ll be free during the party.”
“That doesn’t sound so bad,” Patri admitted.
He admitted he has come a long way since being a racist first year, to accepting his favorite cousin’s right to date whoever he wants, liking his own roommate, thinking this wedding will be a national disaster, liking the said roommate even more, slowly accepting that the wedding is going to happen and there would be no divorce, thinking William was the best person except for Licht he will ever meet, accepting that Lumière is not that bad to finally planning the lightening for their wedding.
Those three years passed by quite quickly.
He didn’t even cringe when Lumière hugged him.
“I’ll call our light guy later and tell him you’re the boss now,” Lumière promised. “Just remember, it can’t be too dim or the clothes I’m designing for the guests won’t be visible in their whole glory. Remember that upon accepting our wedding invitation you accepted that you’ll wear whatever I want you to wear for the ceremony?”
Patri sighed heavily.
“I don’t think you’d ever let me forget that even for a day.”
Lumière was nice enough to drive Patri to the dorms on his way to Tetia’s house. He also gave Patri the mask to pass it on to William, although for a moment Patri was tempted to just hide it somewhere so William would never find it. In the end, he couldn’t bring himself to take something William cared about from him and he brought it back to their room.
He expected William either to not be there yet or be reading something in his new broccoli pajamas that no one knew about except for Patri.
He did not expect William the sitting by his desk side by side with an annoyingly pretty elf. Who has stolen Patri’s chair. They were studying the miniature tree William had probably just grown.
“Patri, welcome home!” William smiled brightly. “This is my friend from the club, Yuno. He’s just a first-year so don’t scare him off.”
“Hello,” Patri greeted him, perfectly politely, showing off his perfect fake smile. Only William and Licht have been able to see through it so he felt pretty safe. “What are you two doing?”
“It’s an honor to meet you, Patri,” the brat spoke up. “Everybody had been telling me that your use of light magic is impressive.”
“Oh, really? And what kind of magic do you have?”
“Wind magic and I try to make best of it,” Yuno shrugged.
“That’s true! Yuno is so strong, he could beat you in a minute!” a small pixie-like creature appeared on the table, angrily clenching her fists. William tried to pet her and at first, she tried to push his hand away but when she finally let him, Patri could see her relax under the gentle touch.
Yuno didn’t deny what she said but also didn’t seem to care. He just completely ignored her.
“I want to explain something to Yuno, Patri, sorry, it won’t take more than half an hour,” William told him.
William was always carrying towards underclassman and they all loved him in return. Even though Patri wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about this particular one, he wasn’t about to go out of his way to upset William.
“Sure, don’t mind me. I need to read something for my class anyway.”
Patri did not expect it to happen but they actually did study. He pretended to be reading the text but more than often he caught himself stopping to look up at William or just listen to what William was saying.
William was a good teacher. Always explained everything cautiously and with care. And always believed in the person he was talking to. When he had first met him he found William a little bit naïve even, since always he believed that people had good intentions or were trying to do something good. It was the same when he was teaching someone, he always showed the way and motivated person to learn more. It was mesmerizing. Like the whole William always was.
Finally, after more or so forty-five minutes, Yuno thanked William and stood up.
“Thank you. I think my paper will be much better now.”
“No problem, Yuno, you can come back if you need anything.”
“I will remember that, I’m really grateful. Have a nice evening, William. And see you on the elf beer tomorrow, Patri,“ Yuno said.
“Oh, you’re joining our club?”
“Not really. But a lot of my friends are a part of it and they insist I come.”
“Feel free to drop by any time, you don’t need to officially join the club. The magic training sessions are open too.”
“Maybe I'll come. Thank you.”
Yuno finally disappeared behind the door and it took William just a few seconds to jump on Patri’s bed next to his best friend.
“I’m so proud of how nice you were at the end.”
“Don’t mock me, William.”
“How are Lumière and Licht?”
“They are good but clearly tense because of the wedding,” Patri shrugged. “Lumière reminds you about the clothes. And also, I brought you your mask.”
William's eyes dropped to the box Patri has put next to their shared wardrobe. He immediately reached out to try the mask on.
“Isn’t it fabulous?”
“It’s atrocious.”
“Horribly tacky. But I love it. Now I can’t wait to see Yami’s face when I’ll go out wearing it on Friday.”
“Please, don’t.”
William smiled mischievously and Patri was sure nothing was going to stop him so he just gave up.
“So Lumière and Licht finally agreed on the meadow that won’t cause legal problems.”
“It’s kind of a high time they did, the wedding is in a month after all. By the way, Patri,” William took the mask off and carefully placed it next to his bonsais on the window sill. “Are you going with someone?”
“Don’t you think that you would have known if I was?” Patri tried to conceal his embarrassment with sarcasm. “We literally spend most of our time together. And I don’t mean free time. Just our whole lives.”
“True. But I thought maybe... or I don’t know, that your parents made you take some cousin or something. Anyway, if you don’t, then you could just go with me,” William’s face was unreadable safe from his usual shadow of a smirk.
He couldn’t have known how much Patri wanted to go with him but at the same time, he had a bad feeling about it. In wasn’t how he wanted to invite William for the wedding, it wasn’t how he wanted to be invited but it was safe. He was a sure way he would go with William.
And there was a thing that he had no idea how to turn this situation around without embarrassing himself or rejecting William’s offer. Either way, it was going to turn out terrible so he just gave in.
“I... Yeah. That’s a really good idea,” he agreed slowly.
“I mean, we would probably end up spending the whole reception together so what’s the point. At least this way we’ll be sure that Licht and Lumière will actually let us sit together. And I’ll be able to get away from my father and his wife.”
“You’re right,” Patri said.
He hated William’s motivation. He hated how it happened. He hated his life.
And somehow William made it a lot worse.
“Hey, how about we watch the horror about the forest now?”
***
Patri was tired. Ever since they’ve watched the forest horror, he has been on edge. It turned out to be surprisingly good and traumatized him so severely that he couldn’t fall asleep in the room full of bonsais. Especially, the menacing Zenon. But, on the other hand, if he left, he would have to go through the park to get to Licht’s place and that was not an option.
In the end, Patri invited himself to William’s bed because if anyone was able to protect him from the evil trees, it was William. Still, he wasn’t that used to sleeping with someone in the same bed and William hogged the blankets like a maniac so in the end Patri barely slept a wink for the rest of the week.
When Friday came, he decided that one, maybe two beers should be enough.
However, he ended up on third one with no effort at all since the first years in his club turned out to be so interesting when they loosened up a bit. Drunk Raia and Fana were enjoying themselves too, showing off a bit in front of the kids. And also ridiculing their beloved friend and club president.
“So there was this student trip when we went to a cave because Patri thought it was going to be cool. And he got super excited about his new light whip or whatever, it turned out that the fencing club went there too on a training quest or something. And Patri smacked Yami Sukehiro on the back by accident. Yami got pissed and kicked Patri’s ass so hard that the whole cave collapsed and we had to ask a guy with spatial magic to get us out. True story,” Raia seriously related.
“I like the story when Patri made himself a magic sword and pretended to be Licht more than he did already, he even got makeup and everything,” Fana commented. “Stole my eyeliner, I will never forget that.”
“Just leave me be, I was fifteen,” Patri begged.
“Not when you made the cave collapse. You were all legal then,” Raia insisted.
“I also heard you are to blame for the giant flying egg incident,” Yuno mentioned casually. “Is this true?”
“Yeah, he stole some magic stones from people like headmaster Julius and Fuegoleon,” Fana nodded. “He called the egg ‘Shadow Palace’ and thought it was cool but yeah, it was still a flying egg with corridors inside. It took so many people to take it down! And I still cannot believe Licht and Lumière told everyone Patri was meaning well and they just let Patri go without any punishment!”
“Shut up, if I were punished, you would be too, you helped me get the stones,” Patri mumbled.
“Is this club even legal?” one of the first years asked shyly.
“Probably wouldn’t be if not for Licht,” Raia shrugged. “But it’s nothing compared to Yami’s fencing club. They literally just eat, slack off, and destroy things.”
“And sometimes team up to beat Patri or someone else up. But usually Patri.”
“Guys, I fought Yami like five times, it’s not that much, we’re kind of friends now.”
“I’ve heard you punched him first,” Fana smirked.
“I had a reason, okay?!”
“Yeah, defending your crush’s honor by beating up their other best friend without asking is a good reason,” Raia actually laughed openly.
“He called him queer weirdo, okay?” Patri rolled his eyes. “How was I supposed to know it’s an inside joke that he was actually fine with?”
“Are we talking about the club president William?” Yuno cocked his head.
“Why would you say that?!” Patri could hear his voice raise an octave due to panic.
“You kind off kept giving me the jealous boyfriend kind of looks when I came over the other day,” Yuno mentioned, shrugging.
“Nonsense,” Patri dismissed him. “Utter nonsense. So does any of you have a story about how you experimented with magic too much?”
“Sorry, kind of hard to beat the egg story,” another first-year admitted. “But once I was training my spatial magic and punched a hole in a tree, I don’t know even how.”
“A tree?!”
The horrified voice behind Patri could belong to only one person. He had a bad feeling about it. It took just a few seconds before someone wrapped his arms around him, seemingly hugging him but actually supporting his whole weight on him.
Drunk William. In the atrocious mask. The feathers teased Patri’s ears when William lowered his head so their cheeks were touching.
“A tree?” he repeated. “Was it okay?”
“Eeeee... Surprisingly, yes,” Patri was impressed by the first year’s fast reaction speed, he seemed to have guessed who he was talking to rather quickly. “The hole was so nice birds use it to hide from rain all the time now.”
“That’s good,” William let out a relieved sigh. “Hi, Patri.”
Somehow William managed to get even closer. Tips of his fingers were playing with the collar of Patri’s shirt, casually sneaking underneath.
“Hi, William.”
“Vanessa got me drunk. And I got free drinks in the last bar because the bartender thought my mask was cool. Not atrocious.”
“I still think it’s atrocious. But looks good on you.”
“Thanks. We will be drinking here now. Come by our table if you want.”
“Should you be drinking? You look like you've had enough.”
“Do you think I can grow a bonsai on this table? A bonsai would really look nice here,” drunk William insisted. “Also, we need to clean up our room when we get back. I’ll make us brooms.”
“Sure, William. But leave the table be, trust me, it’s not a good idea.”
“I always trust you. Oh, hi, Yuno. Hi, other young elves.”
Suddenly, the wight has been lifted from Patri’s shoulder. He turned to see Yami pulling William off him and then helping the other man stand on his own.
“Vangeance, stop harassing elven brats. Let’s go,”
He started pulling William towards the table where Patri saw Finral, Vanessa and Yami’s girlfriend Charlotte. William waived sadly to the group he was leaving.
“Take care of him, Yami!” Patri yelled after him.
“Come babysit him on your own if you want, brat,” Yami yelled back across the whole bar.
Patri let out a tired sigh and turned to the rest of elves. They were all staring at him.
“Wasn’t it... like the president of the biology club? The one with all the research grants?”
“You two are so cute,” Fana stated. “Are you finally getting married after you graduate?” she joked.
The first years gasped.
“No, it’s not...” Patri protested faintly.
“That’s so cool you are so supportive of elven magic development but still tolerant enough to be in a committed relationship with a human. That’s pretty awesome,” another student admitted.
That sounded kind of nice and probably Licht would be really proud of Patri if it was true but unfortunately wasn’t.
“Look, we are not together,” he decided not to mention that he wasn’t as tolerant as they were thinking.
“They so are,” Fana insisted. “We don’t know why Patri is being so shy. Probably he just doesn’t want to steal Licht and Lumière’s thunder as the human-elf gay power couple.”
“You know what? I don’t have to listen to you at all. I will be back when you’ll find a subject that isn’t focused on mocking me,” he stated, picking up what was left of his beer and making a dramatic exit. To his surprise no one tried to stop him, the just laughed.
Sighing, he approached William’s table and collapsed in the booth next to his best friend. He had only realized Nozel and Fuegoleon were there as well. Patri regretted not having enough spare time to braid his hair properly today, Nozel was one of the few people who could appreciate the effort he usually put into it.
“Hi, can I hide here for a moment? They are being obnoxious.”
“Running away from your friends, elven boy?” Nozel mocked him. “Are you actually the giant egg person or just a joke?”
“Don’t embarrass yourself, Nozel,” Fuegoleon reprimanded his friend. “Shadow Palace was a splendid magic display and deserves respect. When you can make one yourself only then you’ll have the right to ridicule it.”
“Let it go, Nozel, he and William live in symbiosis, he just had to come,” Charlotte defended Patri and William nodded with a smile on his face.
“What did the little elves do to piss you off, brat?” Yami asked, lighting another cigarette although Patri was pretty sure smoking was forbidden in the bar.
“Fana and Raia just got really obsessed with the possibility of me and William dating and tried to convince the first years that we actually were,” Patri shrugged. “They got annoying.”
“No way!” Finral fake gasped since it didn’t surprise anyone at the table at all.
“Well, that is just tragic,“ Nozel added emotionlessly.
“Sorry, Patri, that’s probably my fault,” William sighed and his head dropped on Patri’s shoulder probably making matters even worse. But then again, Patri knew there was no way back now and just gave in, throwing his arm around William and bringing him closer. Since all William’s friends were used to it, they didn’t even blink.
“You know what you have to do in a situation like this?” Vanessa seriously. “Drink!”
She placed a shot glass in front of him and Patri didn’t think much about it, just drowned it in one go, cringing a little.
“Can I get one too?” William asked.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” Patri tried to protest.
“Oh, honey, of course, you can!” Vanessa got another glass.
“Finral, go and order more vodka,” Yami ordered him.
“Why me?”
“You’re sitting the closest to the bar, don’t complain like my incompetent little sister, just go,” Nozel urged him. “And order me a sazerac.”
Finral left with poutting face. Patri watched as William drank the shot way too easily. It seemed that he was on the stage when the taste of vodka didn’t even matter.
“So get this, Zora wants to start a trap club,” Yami brought up a new subject.
“What is that supposed to be?” Charlotte questioned.
“And do you mean traps-traps or traps who are pretty boys looking like pretty girls?” Vanessa got curious.
“No idea. But knowing Zora, it could be both. He loves all kinds of traps. Even though he’s straight he would include the other traps just for the traps.”
“I’m sure Julius wants to have a tournament for club founds next year, he will definitely ask them to make a trap maze,” Fuegoleon hummed.
“But wait, if he’s starting the new club, he’s leaving the fencing club?!” Vanessa was scandalized.
“You are acting as if he was actually fencing there,” William commented. “Even Nozel’s little sister that he always complains about got in and I’m pretty sure she can’t fence.”
“But that’s the magic of the fencing club! No one can fence there! They just meet up for fun!”
“That is not how clubs are supposed to look like,” Fuegoleon frowned. “But if you create bonds and make each other better people, clubs like yours are important. Much more important than the chemistry club Nozel uses to develop new hair products for himself and his family.”
“We have a few annoying first years now,” Yami complained. “They all want to fence. Even Nozel's sister. But especially the loud one. Asta or something. He just keeps yelling.”
“It’s Asta,” Finral assured him.
“How charming you remember your first year’s names, Yami,” William smiled.
“Like you know all of yours, Vangeance.”
“I do,” William stated with confidence. “Yuno, Mimosa, Letoile, Klaus and I still can’t believe that Langris got suspended for the exams so he’s still a first-year.”
“What about my little brother?” Finral joined in, carrying a whole tray of full vodka shot glasses and an obscure looking cosmopolitan that he put in front of Vanessa and Nozel’s elegant sazerac.
“Wanna tell us a story about how Langris got suspended?”
“But you all know the story,” Finral was clearly embarrassed.
“Come on, tell us,” Venessa encouraged him.
“Fine but first let’s drink, to me finally having a girlfriend, thanks to my little brother embarrassing the shit out of our family! Cheers!”
“Cheers!” they all raised their glasses.
After that, Finral started telling his story about how he’s parents tried to arrange an engagement between his little brother and their childhood friend, how William tempted Langris into very time-consuming plant research that made him overworked and irritated all the time, and finally, how Langris took all the anger out on Finral, causing an amazing spatial magic battle in the middle of the university’s official picnic event. Headmaster Julius let them fight for a while, protecting other students and allowing them to resolve their issues.
In the middle of the story, Patri felt that even though the whole table was focused on Finral’s story, one pair of eyes was glaring at him for a while. Of course, it was William.
“What?” he whispered.
“I think, I’m very drunk,” William confessed, still looking at him and probably not paying attention to the other people at all.
“I can see that,” Patri muttered, trying to dismiss William.
“Hey, Patri, you’re not mad that because of me your club thinks you’re dating me?”
“I don’t mind. I like you, William. It doesn’t bother me you get a bit touchy when you’re drunk as long as it’s with me, not some stranger,” Patri twisted facts a little but the core remained true. Even though it embarrassed the hell out of him, he didn’t mind that William got close to him.
“I won’t. It’s hard to find someone so interesting and pretty.”
“Shut up, you’re the pretty one.”
For once, instead of denying it, William just smiled softly. Before Patri understood what was happening, he got even closer, bringing his face to the same level and then closed the distance with a slow, tender kiss. Patri closed his eyes and let himself be happy for a moment as he opened his mouth a bit, responding to William’s movements.
It wasn’t as if they never did this, it has already happened plenty of times. Well, maybe plenty was too much. But from time to time he would get drunk kisses from William, although it usually was just a peck on the lips. How long the kiss lasted this time around was yet another proof of how intoxicated William was right now but even though he should be responsible right now, Patri couldn’t help himself not to bring him closer. William opened his mouth a little bit more, drawing Patri in even more. His hands clutched on William’s shirt, unwilling to let go.
“For fuck’s sake, Vangeance, even if it was a gay bar, that’s just below human decency,” Yami’s harsh voice interrupted them.
They slowly pulled away from each other and Patri wasn’t feeling embarrassed or awkward at all, just happy. That was it, William made him happy.
“Don’t be jealous, Yami,” William smirked, turning to face everyone but his side still leaning on Patri.
“Of what? Your lack of social standards?”
Vanessa seemed rather proud of him, contrary to Yami.
“Taking what you want boy, that’s the attitude! I’m buying you your next drink!”
“Please, don’t,” Patri begged her. “He’s had enough already.”
“Don’t be such a mean wife, Patri!” Vanessa huffed.
Meanwhile, William was trying to grow a little forest in the middle of the table, no bigger than a plate. Yami, without a second thought, set it on fire with his cigarette butt.
“Isn’t Charlotte this group’s mean wife?”
One glare from Charlotte at her boyfriend and Yami had his katana out, just a few centimetres away from his face. The remains of the little forest got crushed under one of his boots, to William’s horror.
“Why do you always bring a katana to the bar?!” Finral yelled in panic.
“Not that I care much,” Yami addressed Patri. “But people are telling me I should do something when they say bad things about my girlfriend. But to be honest, this is stupid, she’s a fucking magic knight, she can defend herself.”
“Thank you Yami,” Charlotte nodded blushing a bit. “You can sit down now.”
“Good, that was stupid and pointless.”
Patri felt something poking his shoulder and not on William’s side. He looked up to see Raia and Fana with worried expressions on their faces.
“Hey, Patri, can we talk to you?”
“Sure, just give me a sec,” Patri turned to William. “Will you be okay?”
“I guess so. But it’s so chivalrous of you to worry about me,” William’s smile shined brightly.
“Remember not to drink much, okay? Don’t make big trees. Don’t make people trip on the roots. And don’t kiss other people.”
“I never kiss other people,” William pouted and Patri was embarrassed how happy it made him. “Only trees. From time to time.”
“And if you need me, I will be right there, so just call me, okay?”
“I’ll miss you.”
“I’ll miss you too.”
“Must you two always act like that?” Yami groaned but restrained himself from any further remarks when Charlotte put her hand on his arm.
“Bye, William,” Patri said. “Bye,” he repeated to the rest.
Before they even walked away, another vivid discussion started. Patri sometimes envied how easily the group would get along. Everything they did seemed awfully fun. Not that he didn’t love his own friends, it was just that William’s group had more... joyful aura. It was especially visible now when he was face to face with Fana’s angry glare in the bar corner where they had pulled him, far away from anyone they knew.
“Don’t you love us, Patri?”
“Why ever would you doubt that?”
“What Fana means,” Raia elaborated. “Is that she’s mad that you didn’t update on you and the human being a thing now. Hurt our feelings, man. You know we mock you a lot but we love you and will accept you, no matter what. ”
“Guys. I have no idea what you are talking about.”
“We are talking about you, throwing away your elven rules and following your heart! I know we kind of made a joke out of it for years and we kinda thought you two are joking at first but really, you don’t have to hide anything from us! If you have gotten together with William for real you should have told us!”
“Oh,” Patri finally understood what they were talking about. “Yeah, so William and I are not a thing. He’s just kind of touchy when he’s drunk. But since we’re finally talking about it,” Patri felt really drunk and decided to speak up. “I really love William. And your mocking is annoying the hell out of me so please, stop. Forever.”
Fana gasped.
“Raia, I told you! He didn’t tell us that he loves William on purpose! He thought we didn’t know! He actually thought we were just mocking him about a crush from three years ago. We are not stupid, Patri, and we know you. We knew it had to be love.”
“Sorry, bro,” Raia put his hand on Patri’s shoulder. “We’ve known for at least two years. Hell, we kind of had a hunch when those years ago when you knew William just for a few months and you told us about your little crush. First years know too. Hell, I think literally everyone knows, including William. But nice that you’ve finally opened up. Now, finally, we know that you do love and trust us,” he smiled warmly. “Seriously tho, we just saw you two acting all cute together tonight and we were pretty sure you decided to not tell us about getting together either. And that hurt, man. We’re friends. We want to know things about you.”
Patri felt worn out. He let out a tired sigh. He knew William probably didn’t know and that there was no way they would stop their jokes now. Still, having told them, he felt somewhat relieved.
“I just... thought you would make ridicule the whole thing even more. And, for your information, he doesn’t know. But whatever. Can we go back to the table? It’s not good to leave the kids alone,” he reminded them.
“Wait!” Fana stopped him to out of the blue crush him in a hug. “I’m sure that even if he doesn’t now, one day he’ll love you back. That’s why I and Raia keep making those jokes, it’s because we believe it’s a story with a happy ending.”
Patri wanted to protest at first but in the end, he just embraced her in a hug.
“Thank you, Fana. It means a lot.”
When they came back to the elves’ table, they were faced with chaos and yelling. It had seemed that one of the first years, Rades, was just pretending to be an elf, hiding his human ears under a headband. To tell the truth, Patri wasn’t surprised. It was pretty rare to see an elf with a grimoire with just a few pages. Now, some elves were screaming and urging him to leave, a few others we defending him. Yuno was just sipping his drink and watching the whole drama.
As soon as they approached, Rades threw himself at Patri.
“Master Patri! I’m sorry, I’m not an elf! I know my grimoire doesn’t have many spells but I honestly wanted to be in your club! When during the first week of the semester I was depressed because everyone looked down on me but then you actually noticed me, a lowly first year, and told me it doesn’t matter how many pages my grimoire has but what I do with the spells and how. No one ever believed in me this way before! When I heard you had a club, I had to join!”
Patri was yet again confused that he’d become someone’s authority. It happened way too often. Patri had no idea why people were so inspired by him and chose to follow him. He wished his or William’s friends respected him half as much.
He did what he usually did in confusing situations like this. He thought what Licht would do and did exactly that.
He smiled a bit to make everyone around calm down. He might have used also a little bit of magic for that.
“It’s true, magic can be many great things. But are you sure you want to be in our club? It’s an elven magic club. Our magic is quite different than human magic. I’m not sure we’ll be able to help you grow to your full potential here.”
“I don’t care! Please, let me stay!”
“We shouldn’t discriminate anyone because of their race if you want to grow, we would be more than happy to try helping you,” he smiled again but on the inside, he cursed Licht and Lumière for endorsing him with so many liberal ideas. “Maybe we can also learn how to work with human magic better, don’t you think?”
The table nodded. Patri felt great relief because he had no idea what he would do if they disagreed with him. But fortunately, he had always been rather charismatic.
“It’s like hearing Licht himself,” another new joiner gasped.
“It must be the family resemblance,” Fana added.
Maybe they mocked him a lot but actually, his club was one of the most popular in the university. And there were not only members but also tons of elves who would just drop by and ask about the magic. Even though there were so many running jokes about Patri, he was still a good and respected leader.
“Does anyone oppose to this human joining our club?” Patri asked.
Fortunately, everyone who seemed to mind looked too shy to say anything at this moment, probably intimidated by his authority. Patri used those few seconds of silence skillfully.
“Then, I officially accept you. I look forward to working with you.”
Even if a few elves were unhappy about the decision, Patri managed to convince them on the course of the next two drinks. Then, somehow he ended up chatting with Yuno, who seemed to be far more than accepting. It turned out, Yuno was an orphan raised by human peasants and planned on taking over a country when he was little but since such an egalitarian person as Lumière would be taking over in foreseeable future he didn’t feel the urge anymore. He generally believed that no one should be discriminated due to their social status or magic amount. Patri had to agree not only with his views but also with what William had told him about Yuno. That boy was indeed smart, mature and what was even more important, capable enough to make those two useful.
It was getting late and soon there were just a few people at the table left, talking about how Lumière will change the country. It took everything from Patri not to out his almost family member as a chaotic, nerd fashionist.
He almost broke when they had asked him about the wedding. But fortunately, Yami chose this moment to drop William’s dead body on him. Patri managed to stand up and catch him although it had been one of the greatest fitness achievements of his life. He tossed an angry glare at Yami and Charlotte.
“Oh my god, I told you not to let him drink too much!” Patri panicked. “Is he okay?”
“Geez, he just fell asleep. You could probably even wake him up if you tried,” Yami rolled his eyes.
“And can’t you take him home? Don’t you have Finral and...”
“Finral just used spatial magic trying to take Vanessa and the others home,” Charlotte explained. “They are on the other side of the country right now and can’t seem to get back. They used Fuegoleon’s and Nozel’s magic to make a camp and sleep it off.”
Patri gritted his teeth. Humans. As irresponsible and unreliable as always.
“Why would you all drink so much?”
“Things,” Charlotte shrugged. “Maybe William will tell you a story in the morning, maybe not.”
“Speaking of,” Yami suddenly grew more ominous and threatening. “If you will use this situation to do anything that William won’t like tomorrow, I will personally make sure you’ll regret it,” Yami lowered his voice. “And don’t think that since William says you’re his best friend and you’re desperately in love with him, I will let it slide. Do not touch Vangeance. Or I’ll kill you.”
Charlotte's cheeks turned pink and eyes sparkled as she watched Yami’s display. She even took one step closer suddenly acting like a little girl approaching her crush. Patri, on the contrary, was rather outraged and angry Yami would suspect him of something but deep down a bit happy that William had friends who cared so much about him.
“Now do some fancy light magic and get him safe in his bed. And put a lot of water next to it,” Yami ordered. “I and Charlotte are going home.”
“You two are seriously just leaving me here like that?”
“What? It’s your bestie, it’s late, you are going to the same room even, after all. So yes, we are,” Charlotte mightily stated, returning to her usual self. “Let’s go, Yami.”
“Wait!” Patri stopped them. “A-about the other thing... the me being in love with William thing,” he almost whispered, embarrassed to the core of his soul. “Does he know?”
“He would be rather oblivious if he did not,” Charlotte shrugged.
“But William is sometimes naïve as fuck so who knows. Anyway, have fun, we leave.”
Patri sighed and watched them walk away. Then, he concentrated and created a long shining plank in a shape of sword floating around his waist level where he put William down. He could have sworn William smiled a little bit when he felt Patri’s magic touch him.
Then, he took a few steps to the elf table.
“So, I have to take William home now. Bye.”
“Bye, let’s have a beer again,” Yuno proposed.
“Have fun, Patri,” Raia winked.
“Stop it. It was creepy.”
“Would you rather I said have fun cleaning up after if he pukes?”
“That’s even worse. And he’ll probably just sleep until morning.”
William indeed didn’t wake up on the way to the dorms. He didn’t wake up when Patri dropped him on the bed, took off his mask since it seemed extremely uncomfortable to sleep in and covered him with a blanket.
However, when Patri came back from his shower, dressed in pajamas and ready to sleep, holding two glasses of water of him and William in time of need, William seemed to have moved from his own bed to Patri’s.
Patri wasn’t even surprised by that. He didn’t even sigh.
“No way you’re sleeping in my bed with your dirty clothes on,” he stated.
William made an unhappy grumble noise and honestly, Patri expected to be just ignored but William lifted a little bit, with his eyes still closed, took off his shirt and threw it on the floor with his pants and socks coming after.
“Want some pajamas?”
“No.”
“Water?”
William nodded and Patri passed him a glass. William drunk almost half of it at once.
“Are you okay?” Patri asked taking the glass away from William.
“I think. You coming here?”
“I’ll go to the kitchen and get some more water for later,” Patri said.
“Thank you, Patri,” William sounded tired. “Can you please tell my bonsais goodnight from me?”
Patri wished he was surprised. He just accepted it two years ago. He sighed and approached bonsai’s one by one, doing also a small checkup while he was at it, making sure they were all watered and weren’t missing any leaves.
“And a bad night to you, Zenon, I wish you have tree nightmares for all the nightmares you gave me this week,” Patri ended.
“He doesn’t mean that, Zenon!” William calmed the plant down. “But thank you, Patri.”
“No problem.”
Then, with glasses filled and placed on the shelf next to the bed, Patri sneaked under the covers next to William. Immediately, arms wrapped around him.
“Thank you for always caring after me, Patri,” William whispered into the crook of his neck.
“It’s nothing, William.”
“Sorry for getting drunk even though you told me not to,” William continued.
“It’s fine. Can I ask you something?”
“Yes?”
“Do you believe Zenon really hates me? And will eventually come to kill me?”
“No, I don’t think so. You respect that he has his rights. Remember that plants do deserve human rights on occasion, Patri.”
“Not only because it’s right but also since there can be a mage capable of making them come alive and take revenge, I know,” Patri repeated what William once told him. “But, please, if you ever learn the spell to do this, don’t cast it on Zenon. Please.”
“We’ll see about that. Hey, can you turn the little lights on?”
“I thought we were going to sleep now?”
“I like falling asleep with your lights on.”
Patri used his magic and made thousands of little glimmering light under the celling that in all looked like a midnight sky. William smiled and took his hand. The lights flickered and shifted, becoming branches and leaves of a gloving tree, with the sky still above them.
“Our magic looks so well together.”
“It does.”
“I’m so happy that I’m here with you, Patri.”
“I know that feeling. I love you, William,” he said, not entirely sure what exactly he meant. Maybe just the comfort, like the one they were feeling right now.
“I love you too. Goodnight. Sweet, Zenon-free dreams.”