Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The earliest Yuu showed any signs of their identity was when they were only 2 or 3 years old.

Sitting on the carpeted floor of the bedroom Yuu still couldn’t sleep in, cheerfully flipping through a photo album filled with baby pictures . . .

A bit past the middle of the book, little eyes set a little longer on a certain picture. Despite having a largely, underdeveloped brain, Yuu could tell this wasn’t a baby anymore. A 1-year-old at best.

Enough hair had grown out to hide any scalp skin, but couldn’t yet cover the face nor fall down the neck. It curled outwards and resembled a little, unruly bush. The curious-looking toddler wore a white and red-striped shirt mostly covered by the blue overalls.

Something swelled inside Yuu. A raptured wave rose from the chest and swished the eyes and forehead before slowly coming down, but not completely lulling.

The picture didn’t completely fit Yuu’s current description at all. Long curly hair that met the shoulders and donning a white t-shirt with frilly sleeves and a pink flowery skirt.

And yet this inexplicable yearning that wanted to crash down and sweep up the image filled this young mind as a single thought surfaced:

Why can’t I look like that again?

Only a bit pondering yielded the only conclusion that made sense, Oh, right, I’m a girl. I can’t wear boys clothes, I guess?

Still, the girl was a little unsatisfied but felt that it would be better to keep such desires quiet. 

At least, for now.

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Sitting on their now-partially dusty bedsheets, Yuu fiddled with their tie, trying to remember the technique.

Not the first time I had to wear such a nice school uniform but those dresses were less complicated, they thought to themselves. Not that I mind doing all this, of course.

Thinking back, they had remembered Ace and Deuce wore their uniforms a little differently and if anime taught them anything, as long as you were wearing the uniform to some degree, maybe that’s good enough . . . . . . except it wouldn’t be good to assume how things work in another world. Let alone a magic school they kinda were unexpectedly enrolled in. Besides, they still weren’t sure if Crowley never bothered to give them a student handbook or forgot.

Well, in any case, they most definitely won’t ask the collared idiot downstairs for advice. Yuu still hadn’t forgiven him for their first encounter in which they were all nearly kicked out for breaking the chandelier. And no, their magic stone mission didn’t really help to change their opinion of him. If anything, Yuu was more convinced that they should ignore him and his words completely. There was nothing about him that they should devote any energy toward, and yet . . .

“Why did I let him sleep here, again?” they thought aloud, thinking back to the annoying wake-up call earlier that night. “Right, because I felt bad and—“

“Prefect! What’s taking so long?” came a yell from downstairs.

Speak of the devil . . .

“C’mon, minion! I want to get started on my first day of school already!”

. . . and the hellspawn.

Yuu didn’t mind the self-absorbed fire neko that much anymore and was genuinely happy that Crowley granted his enrollment. But as Yuu stood up and opened their room door, they mentally prayed neither him nor Ace would clash and cause yet another incident. They didn’t want to have to face any more monsters—

BweEEGHAHAHAHAHA!!!

“Oh right, the ghosts,” Yuu said calmly.

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Yeah, no, what actually came out was:

“WHAT THE MOTHER FUCKING GEEZUS CRIKEY!!”

They screamed as their arms flailed around.

“Hehehehehe!” the ghost cackled. “You’re way too easy to scare, jani— oh right, it’s Prefect-kun now!”

“It’s not that, I’m just not used to seeing real specters,” Yuu groaned in annoyance, opting to speed walk right through them.

“Hey! That was rude!” it called after Yuu, who took a twinge of guilt to the chest.

“Sorry,” they whispered under their breath.

Bad idea. Hopefully, this won’t bite me in the back later, they thought as they scurried towards the stairs to the foyer only to bump into Deuce.

“Oompf—!” Instinctively, Yuu grabbed the stair railing with their left hand and wrapped around Deuce’s torso with their right to prevent him from falling.

The position was definitely quite awkward to Deuce but Yuu didn’t take it into account as they took a moment to briefly recover from the shock. Taking another second to check that they could balance, Yuu leaned back to look at Deuce’s mildly stunned face, “You good?”

They tentatively loosened their grip on Deuce before letting go completely when they saw he could stand on his own. “Er, yeah! Sorry, Prefect, I heard you scream, are you alright?”

“Oh, yeah, no worries,” Yuu plainly replied, shifting awkwardly in their position before stepping around the bluenette to start walking down the stairs. “Just one of the ghosts playing a joke.”

“Wait, there are ghosts here, too?!” Deuce exclaimed.

“Yup, apparently,” Yuu sighed making their way down the stairs. “They’re an . . . interesting bunch, but they’re relatively less malicious than the ones we encountered in the Dwarf Mines.”

“We heard that!”

Yuu was surprised Deuce bothered to check on Ace this early in the morning. After the whole chandelier fiasco, it would make more sense for him to keep some distance since the other three had gotten him into their mess. Maybe Grim had been right and the two guys were made to be close rivals or something.

In Yuu’s opinion, Deuce seemed . . . more reliable than Ace, to say the least. Decently polite with a strong determination. Like a toned down version of those serious, honor student characters in anime.

I get a bit of a goody-two-shoes vibe from him, though. It might get annoying, they thought to themselves as the two reached the first floor.

“Let me guess, it was the ghosts again?” Grim asked, wearing an expression of annoyance to which Yuu gave a solemn nod.

“Yeesh, I’m glad they didn’t bother me last night. Sleeping on the couch and getting woke up with dust falling on me was bad already,” Ace complained, his hands fiddling with the magic-restricting collar around his neck as he opened Ramshackle’s front door. “Well anyway, let’s get going to school already! I wanna get this damn collar off ASAP!”

“YAHOO! Finally, my life as an NRC student is about to begin!” Grim said, cheered as he bounded out the front door.

First day of school . . ., Yuu couldn’t help the sense of unease that washed over them.

Chapter Text

Walking down Main Street had yet to feel any less strange than the first time yesterday. Even with the uniform keeping them from standing out, Yuu couldn’t help but feel a little awkward. They didn’t understand much about this world yet, but now becoming a “magicless“ student at a magic school brought out some self-consciousness.

And Grim prancing around while proudly announcing himself to anyone within earshot isn’t helping.

“Hey, hey, outta my way~~” cheered a proud Grim in front of them. “The Great Grim is making his way as a student of Night Raven College!”

Yuu grimaced while putting a hand over their face and shrunk into themselves, slowly positioning their form to be walking a bit behind Deuce and Ace.

What the fuck, this stupid neko . . . they thought, their body tensing. This isn’t— Why would . . . ?

“Look at my collar. Unlike the lame thing around your neck, mine is very stylish,” Grim smirked behind him towards Ace, whose jaw tensed up a little. “On top of that, you can’t use magic, correct?”

Oh, no. Don’t you dare.

Yuu stepped forward about to scold Grim just as he had stopped in front of one of the Great Seven statues.

Immediately, Yuu noticed and was startled at the completely scorch-free Queen of Hearts.

The perks of a magical world, I gu—, a sudden, sharp inhale became fairly audible from Yuu who processed a creeping shiver in their chest, almost making them miss Grim’s next insult.

“You’d make a really good janitor. Nyaha! I feel good!”

Yuu whipped their head back towards the furball, snapping, “Grim! Too far!” Fists clenched, and hoping their glare would put him down before they couldn’t resist the urge to stuff his face into his skull.

“Grrnnrrgh! I’ll remember this for when I get my magic back!” Ace growled.

“The Headmaster just told us yesterday to not make another scene,” Deuce reminded. “Nevertheless, you’re going to have problems in class with your magic sealed. Have you thought about apologizing to Dorm Head Rosehearts and having him remove it?”

“Damn it. This won’t go well at all!” grumbled Ace.

“Why would they even allow a punishment like that if it makes classes harder?” Yuu blurted the question before they froze and wondered if they asked something stupid.

“Right?! It’s just like I said! That tyrant’s gonna let me fall behind, and over a tart, no less!”

“It’s probably similar to an at-home suspension,” Deuce answered. “The point is that not taking your classes properly puts you behind and things just get real troublesome in the long run. Uh— er, not that I know anything about that. Anyway, we have some time before class starts so we should go to the dorms now if you want to catch Rosehearts-ryōchō before he leaves.”

“You know what? He did sound pissed earlier this morning so maybe I should just wait until he cools—“

“You won’t solve your problems like that!” Deuce grabbed Ace by the collar (the magic-sealing one, unfortunately) and began to quickly drag him towards the school building.

“OI OI! That hurts!” Ace cried out as his neck was forcibly tugged along with the rest of him. “Stupid bossy Deuce, LET GO!”

“Hehe!” Grim snickered, bounding after them on all fours as Yuu quickened their own pace to avoid falling behind. “Come on, let’s go watch explodey-hair apologize! Ooo~~ and we can check out the other dorms while we’re at it!”

Deuce kept a firm grip on the collar all the way to the one of the bridges leading towards the Hall of Mirrors, his ears either falling deaf or deliberately ignoring Ace’s incessant shouting which earned them several head turns, smirks, and laughs from all the other students they passed by.

Not even Yuu could deny that the sight didn’t exactly look completely innocent.

Eventually, Ace took advantage of the bridge pole by planting his feet and swinging around it, making Deuce lurch backwards and let go from the sudden opposing force.

“Oi! Watch where you’re going! You almost hit my face with your leg!” Grim yelled at a balance-regained Ace.

“Blame the idiot who fucking thought it was nice to grab the giant, metal collar around my neck!” Ace yelled back, pointing at the aforementioned “idiot” who was looking a little embarrassed.

“Ah— apologies! I got a little carried away,” Deuce said. “Though it’s not like it seemed you were gonna apologize at all, Truant Ace.”

“Geez, why ya gotta be such a goody-two-shoes, Crybaby Deuce?!” Ace stepped forward towards Deuce as their bickering went on. Yuu watched as the boys’ faced each other closely while carrying intense, focused looks in their eyes.

I see nothing heterosexual about this.

“So how long do you think they’ll be at it . . .?” Grim asked.

The rest of the walk to the Hall of Mirrors remained pretty mellow after the two calmed down. Or more accurately, simultaneously gave each other the silent treatment.

When they entered the Hall, which was now cauldron-less. They tailed behind the other boys who were heading to one of the surrounding mirrors at the end of a small staircase lined with crimson red and mushrooms on the borders.

“Ah—um,” they flinched when the two turned around. “Are these mirrors like the one in the Mirror Chamber?”

“Yup! Except these will only travel to the dorms,” Deuce said. “They’re located a little far, unlike yours which is on campus.”

“U-uh, I see.” Yuu fiddled with their fingers and broke eye contact to look at the other mirrors to calm the bit of stomach churning they felt.

“Are you okay, Yuu?” Deuce asked.

Ace’s face contorted a little at that and Yuu couldn’t blame him.

“Ah, um, I’m just not used to this yet.” They were attempting not to stutter too much.

“It’ll feel normal soon, lets go!” Deuce gave a calming smile as he said that, before he and Ace stepped through the mirror, leaving dissipating ripples.

With fairly stiffened muscles, Yuu walked up the steps and briefly paused when one foot stepped on the last. They noticed the fear in their reflected features that slowly began to disappear just like ripples Grim ambled through.

You did this just yesterday, meaning you can do it again and nothing bad’ll happen, they reassured themselves.

They took reached a hand into the mirror, detecting nothing from their senses. Taking a deep breath, they closed their eyes and made the next step through.

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