Chapter Text
“You will sweep the entire classroom. Dust and wipe the desks, and vacuum from the entrance to here. I cannot even fathom the audacity you contain in that thick skull of yours to dare eat snacks in Royal One.”
Iruma tried not to squirm in shame as his teacher continued to scold him. Yesterday he was found with several snack wrappers in his desk. He was trying to squish another empty wrapper in there when the poor desk had enough and could not contain anymore. So when one wrapper fell, it caused an avalanche effect that spilled his entire week's worth of wrappers onto the floor. In the middle of a lesson.
The class had stared in silence for a moment until it was broken by Kalego demanding him to stay after class. Azz and Clara tried to intervene but they were immediately silenced. He tried to stuff the overflown wrappers in his book bag and couldn’t help his face flush with embarrassment.
He knew he messed up when even Sabro scolded him after class. Royal One couldn’t become infested with roaches and rodents by careless trash. This would be a disgrace to the Demon King! He promised the other he would stop the bad habit and clean the literal mess he made.
Which is how he found himself at Royal One on a weekend. Broom in hand and a supply of cleaning supplies lined up in front of him. He heard the list of jobs he needed to fulfill, and for some reason, he felt a bit off after hearing them. He didn’t feel sick, just a buzz in his head that he wasn’t sure was going to become a headache. Which was odd since he didn’t have one when he woke up.
“Do you understand, Iruma?”
Looking up at his teacher, he realized that he had zoned out far longer than he anticipated. He heard the question, and his mind instantly began to repeat the several tasks he needed to fulfill in order to make the person in front of him happy. Jobs completed made others happy. He felt like his mouth moved on its own as he responded.
“I understand, Dad.”
He turned around and started walking to the entrance of Royal One when his mind finally realized what he just said. Oh God, Oh Devi. Whatever higher power there is, why now have they abandoned him! He froze and his mind and body felt like a bucket of ice water was dumped on them. He couldn’t turn around and face his teacher. Kalego-sensei was probably facing him furious and ready to expel him for this!
His mind was already giving him a nightmarish image of the teacher’s scary expression as he looked at him with disgust. Despite his body screaming at him to run home, his body turned to face the teacher. Did curiosity kill the student?
Maybe it was his body’s instinct to see the enemy in case he had to dodge an attack. His back to the predator was going against all his instincts. So as he turned to look at his teacher’s reaction after uttering such embarrassing words, he was stunned when he saw not a furious expression, but the back of his teacher. Kalego’s body was tense, shoulders up to his ears which were a bright red.
The reaction was nothing that he ever expected, so he continued to panic and shouted. Unfortunately, his mind still reeling from what just happened, he shouted without thinking. “Dad, I’m so sorry!”
He covered his hands with his face in utter embarrassment. Dammit! He tried again his voice screeching in hysteria now. “I mean Dadlego-sensei! No! I mean Sensei I-“
“Enough!” Kalego’s booming voice echoed throughout Royal One, and it was only after having the teacher for two years was Iruma able to detect the slightly higher pitch in his voice. Oh Devi, both of them were shaken to the core with embarrassment. Kalego still hadn’t turned around.
But it was okay because Iruma could fix this! He just had to use his words! Unfortunately, his mouth said these words twice the normal speed. And then, his brain forgot how to make coherent sentences.
“Sensei I can explain! It’s not that I see you as a dad, MY DAD, you’re not a dad. I mean you can be a dad! Are you a dad!? But then again there’s Balam-sensei but that doesn’t mean you can’t be a da-“ It was like his mouth had stopped listening to his brain as he continued to ramble. He couldn’t stop even as he watched Kalego’s shoulders rise higher and higher till they were touching his ears. Finally, the adult snapped and he turned around his eyes wide in utter mortification of what had happened in the past moments.
“Silence!”
The room seemed to drop to freezing temperatures as Iruma stopped talking and the two stood in silence. He watched as Kalego frowned and pinched between his eyebrows. He gulped loudly, and his feet wanted to turn to run out the door, but before he could turn, Kalego broke the silence. Through gritted teeth, the adult snapped. “When I come back, I want this room spotless.”
And just like that, Kalego left the room, making sure to slam the door on his way out. Iruma could only stand there for a few moments before his body acted automatically in times of trouble.
He worked.
He swept, he dusted, he vacuumed, he mopped, he cleaned the chairs, he cleaned the chalkboard, he stocked the chalk and wiped and cleaned every window on the first floor.
He was currently wiping the last window in one of the many sitting rooms at the back of the first floor. His hands moved up, down, side to side, making sure every corner was cleaned. The human’s hands and eyes were so focused, that his mind zoned out as his body once again fell into the lull of completing several tasks. He was unaware of how his mind slipped back to the mindset of ‘doing jobs efficiently is to gain approval’. And he had to earn approval.
So absorbed in cleaning and in his old mindset, he practically jumped six feet in the air and let out a high-pitched scream when a hand landed on his shoulder. He didn’t stop screaming, even when he heard from above him. “Stop screaming, I’ve been calling your name since I came back, weren’t you listening!”
His mind finally snapped back on and he was faced with a scowling demon glaring down at him. He’d done it now. He thought completing the list of tasks that Kalego left and doing more than asked, would be enough but right now the teacher’s scowl was growing worse as they looked down at him.
“What did you do!” The teacher demanded from him. He gulped and was going to try to explain how he completed the tasks, but before he could, his wrists were grabbed and brought upward.
He was surprised when he saw his hands for the first time, truly looking at them. They were a bright red, and now that they were brought to his attention, the burning sensation from them hit him. He was unaware of the damage his hands endured after having constant contact with the harsh cleaning chemicals.
He was speechless, and when he was being dragged to the nearest couch, he didn’t refuse. Again he was startled, that when he sat down, his body sagged against the couch cushions. It was like all his senses were slowly coming back to him. He heard how loud his breathing was, he felt the sweat that was covering his body, and when he looked down, he was startled to see multiple fingernails broken.
He hadn’t been in that mindset for so long, that after being pulled from it so suddenly, he felt utterly exhausted. So exhausted that for some reason when he closed his eyes to hide from the sight of his hands, he felt his eyes grow warm as tears began to form. He felt his throat tighten, and he tried to keep himself together even when he felt the familiar magic surround his hands.
The burning sting that ached through his hands vanished, and he opened his eyes to see the magical glow from Kalego-sensei’s hands as he healed his. With his hands being healed, he was unable to wipe the few tears that fell down his face, dripping down his chin.
Oh Devi, as if he wasn’t embarrassed enough by today. Why was he being punished! So he felt a little overwhelmed and fell into bad habits again. What was the big deal? There was no need to cry about it!
From above, he heard the teacher instruct him calmly. “Compose yourself Iruma.”
He sniffled loudly, and once the healing magic was complete and his hands were no longer raw and red and his fingernails healed, he quickly wiped his face. The two sat in silence until the older demon spoke. “Iruma.”
He didn’t continue until Iruma finally picked up his head and looked at him. Nodding, he cleared his throat and spoke. His words were clear and concise, yet his eyes watched every reaction from the student. “What I just saw, was quite concerning, Iruma. I don’t know why you live with your grandfather or why you have never mentioned your parents. In all your files they are absent. I am not going to pry into your past. However, I would like to know what action I did that reminded me of your father, that made you call me that. I do wish to avoid repeating this incident in the future.”
Floored at what was said, Iruma failed to respond. His mind was frantic, over the conversation but also what was being asked of him. Afraid of how long he was taking, he began to speak without truly knowing where each sentence was leading to.
“I honestly don’t even know. I think it was the list of jobs, which is really stupid and embarrassing. It’s just that whenever I saw my parents, it was always just a list of new jobs I needed to do. List after list, after list! Always a list! And anytime I didn’t finish them, they were so angry. I was just a child the first time. They didn’t visit me for months after that. It was the worst. And I guess just hearing you say that list, brought me back to when I lived in-“ So deep in his rambling, he stopped and recovered horribly. “With them.”
The teacher eyed him suspiciously but nodded. “There sounds like there’s more than what you are telling me, but that’s fine. I’ll keep that noted for the future to avoid this happening again. ”
A silence fell over them until Iruma hung his head and mumbled. “I’m sorry.”
He felt more than saw the annoyance from his teacher and sure enough, he couldn’t help but wince when heard a sigh. “There are many things you should apologize for.” Iruma couldn’t help but wince but relaxed when the teacher concluded. “But this is not one of them. We cannot control our past, but we can choose our future by the choices we make today.”
Iruma felt his eyes grow hot again, but this time he managed to keep the tears from falling. Instead, he looked at his teacher and asked with a shy smile. “Kalego-sensei, you won’t tell anyone about this, right.”
Now the silence that fell upon them was entirely on Kalego’s side, as his eyes glanced to the side just a mere fraction. Iruma’s smile fell slowly until both of them were looking at each other in utter silence. Finally, the student broke the silence by asking in a monotone voice that sounded eerily like a certain royal security devil. “Balam-sensei already knows, doesn’t he.
“Go home now, before I give you an essay to write!”