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It wasn’t often that it looked so pretty from the towers. At least, it was pretty to him. A wide expanse of green shadowed by rolling grey clouds that drew up a strong breeze. He closed his eyes, sighing contentedly. This would be a good day.
For him, at least.
The student hanging off of the edge of the tower was screaming for help, his voice having gone scratchy from his cries. He was struggling to keep his grip, shrieking each time the wind caught him.
He looked down at the other student, brushing his dark bangs out of his face.
“Having fun down there?” He smiles, as if nothing was wrong.
“You fucking bastard! You demon! I’ll fucking kill you!” the student screeched, failing at making himself look intimidating from where he hung.
“Mm, not from down there you won’t,” starts the older boy. “You got yourself into this situation. Kind of stupid, isn’t it? I told you what not to do and you went and did it anyways. Sort of backwards, if you ask me,” he mused.
Another gust of wind had the student scrabbling at the tiles and sounding like he was about to cry. The other laughed, clapping a few times.
“Go on, do it again! You’re lots of fun when you’re not sneaking around other people’s dorms,” he exclaimed, cackling each time the younger student cried out for help.
Eventually he got tired, loosening his tie and crouching down where the student had resorted to whimpering pathetically.
“This never would’ve happened if you hadn’t tried to slip that vial into Silver’s drink, sweetheart,” he sneered, watching tears build up into the boy’s eyes. “That was some nasty stuff you brewed up. You’ll have to pay, y’know.”
The prospect of payment terrified the student, and it showed. The older boy dissolved into another fit of sharp, piercing laughter as he took the look on the other’s face in.
“You’ll have to pay! You honestly thought you’d get off just like that?” The boy’s lip trembled.
“Please. Please, I’m sorry, I won’t do it again, but please! Don’t hurt me!” he cried, gaining enough leverage to grab at the other’s pant leg.
He just kept smiling, watching the boy struggle as if it were the most entertaining thing he’d ever seen.
“Not gonna do it again? You’re positive?”
“N-no, I won’t! I promise! I won’t!”
“Alright, alright, I believe you,” said the older student. “I know you won’t.”
The boy blinked up at him blearily.”Y-you do?” he sniffled, looking hopeful.
“Yeah, ‘course I do,” said the other. “Can’t run around causing trouble on a broken leg, can you?”
A swift sweep of the leg later and he was watching a crowd of students gather around the boy, listening to him scream and grinning to himself at the twisted shin.
–
“Mister Corvus—“
“Skip the bullshit, Azul.”
Azul’s eyes narrowed from where he sat behind his desk. He cleared his throat. “As I was saying, Mister Corvus—“
“You threw a magicless student out of their fucking house. Not only that, Mister Ashengrotto, but you’ve given them an unfair amount of time to accomplish a task you couldn’t do in seventeen fucking years. Three days? Have you lost your mind?”
Azul laced his fingers together, taking a deep breath to keep himself calm. “They signed a contract, Mister Corvus. And, as the deal goes, they have three days to get me that photograph.”
The dark-haired man scoffs, leaning back in his chair in disbelief. “You had a student who, mind you, cannot walk two steps in any direction without crumpling into a sad little pile because of how bad their hip gets when they don’t have their cane—which, according to my sources, your men are constantly taking—sneak into a museum that’s not even on our land and steal a fucking picture.”
Azul blinked, then forced a smile. “A deal’s a deal. Besides, you’ve never been one to look out for others, so why start now?”
“Right, I get that. But I’m not here for them, I’m here for Malleus Draconia. Ring any bells?” He raises an eyebrow. “Most powerful fae this school has ever seen? A man who I’ve been serving my entire life?”
He chuckled at the way the color seemed to drain from Azul’s face.
“Malleus likes them, Azul. They’re his favorite little toy now, and if anything happens to them because you couldn’t pick your own ass up and do the work yourself, I’m pointing him in your direction. Understand?” He smiles.
Azul doesn’t smile back.
—
“What on earth have you done?!”
He rolls his eyes, giving Sebek a side glare.
“I’ll have you know that our Young Master will be quite displeased with—“
“God, Zigvolt, do you ever shut the fuck up?” rasped the older student.
“Wh—you beat the living shit out of that man!” shouted Sebek, turning redder by the second.
“He threatened the Draconia family. If he’s threatening them, it’s my duty as their son’s scout—and friend—to make sure they cannot act on it. I really don’t know what to tell you, Sebek,” said the boy. He knew Sebek hated the patronizing tone he often used, but it was the only way to keep him off of his back.
Sebek was currently eyeing the blood staining his coworkers hands and forearms with thinly veiled horror. He gulped.
“What…what did you do to him?”
“Like you said, Zigvolt,” the raven-haired student said, throwing that same razor-sharp smile at him. “I beat the living shit out of him. You have your orders, and I have mine.”
Sebek glowered as he was handed his senior’s bloodied jacket.
“Sometimes I think you’re worse than the devil, Corvus.”
The dark-haired boy turned, looking pleased with himself. “Well, someone has to be.”
—
He was beginning to see why Malleus had taken such a curious liking to this new addition to Night Raven College. They were just so…
“Diablo, look! It’s starting to snap!”
…stupid.
He watched as they stroked the head of a plant that was much like a venus flytrap in the sense that it was somewhat carnivorous, but much unlike a venus flytrap, had razors lining the lip of its deep blue petals and moved faster than any plant he’d ever seen. It lunged at their hand again but they only laughed, delighted with the flower’s reactions.
Xiuhcoatl was their name, and doing the dumbest shit he’d ever seen was their game. They genuinely had no fear of anything other students would run away from—hell, they’d ran towards the previous overblots without a second thought, despite having no magic to protect themselves with.
Stupid, but intriguing.
“Hey, how’d you land that nickname, by the way?”
“Hm?”
“Diablo. Seems kinda dark, don’tcha think?” They peered up at him expectantly.
Diablo simply shrugged as nonchalantly as he could, flashing them a seemingly innocent grin.
“Maybe I’m a little meaner when you’re not around.”
Xi seemed to take this as an answer and nodded, going back to poking the plant.
Diablo hoped they’d never find out.