Chapter Text
“As you know, Lilia and myself will sadly not be in attendance. You and the other children of men will have an excellent time regardless, I’m sure. Best of luck to you, Silver.”
It was the morning of Night Raven College’s annual sports day when Malleus uttered those words. The polite encouragements were only intended to show his support and nothing more; The boy he’d helped in raising was selected for the second-year relay race, and while Malleus knew that Silver didn’t overly care about winning, he did care about not falling asleep on the track and ruining it for his team. It was only a pity that he, Sebek and Lilia wouldn’t be able to cheer him on in person.
If only he knew what heartache he’d cause with that simple, thoughtless sentence. If only he’d phrased it slightly differently. If only he’d done anything differently, then he could’ve spared his dearest Silver so much grief.
Seemingly out of the blue, Crowley had decided that non-human species had far too great of an advantage over humans when it came to sports, and as such made a slightly controversial decision; in accordance with the new rules, the human portion of the student body would be separated from the fae, mermen and beatsmen for physical competitions such as sports day.
Most people didn’t really care. In fact, some were quite excited about it. The humans were glad to finally be granted the chance to win, and the fae were thrilled to be competing against those who would give them a challenge. Malleus himself was mostly just confused as to what brought on the sudden rule change, but did ultimately see some merit in the idea - he wasn't entirely oblivious to the children of men he'd leave in his dust during events like these, afterall.
A few nights prior, Sebek had been informed that he would be grouped in with the non-humans. He’d instantly taken it as an opportunity to climb atop his high horse, and gloat to no one in particular about how much stronger he was than ‘measly humans’. For the past few days, Malleus’s ears had been bombarded with a non-stop stream of gleeful hums courtesy of his attendant. It was endearing, in a way, but also extremely annoying, much like Sebek himself.
Not everyone was as overjoyed about the whole ordeal as Sebek was though. According to Lilia, when the plan had first been announced at the dormleaders’ meeting, Ashengrotto’s expression had sunk like a wreckage to the seabed. Malleus didn’t know the merman all that well, but like any other student who’d been attending NRC for more than a week, he was well aware of Ashengrotto’s reservations when it came to exercise, especially of the competitive variety. Being forced to compete against the likes of Leona, or, if the headmaster had truly lost his mind, Malleus, then he was more or less being set up to be humiliated. If Malleus did end up against Ashengrotto at any point, he’d do his best to have it over with swiftly. There was no point in dragging out the poor man’s suffering any longer than necessary.
And don’t even get him started on the three-day long strop that Lilia had been in.
For how often Lilia claimed that Malleus was the more childish of the two, the bat fae certainly had his moments. He’d stormed into Diasomnia with an angry pout and crossed arms, huffing the whole way to his room. When Malleus inquired about what was wrong, the shorter man held nothing back.
“It’s ridiculous Malleus! Absolute lunacy!” He exclaimed, throwing his arms in the air and plopping himself onto his unmade bed. Too large to carelessly thump down on furniture without breaking it, Malleus simply hovered and searched for the right words to ease his caretaker’s mood.
“I don’t see a problem,” he confessed, not really understanding what the big deal was, “it’s merely one afternoon. Besides, it’s in everyone’s best interests to level the playing field, is it not?”.
“The problem is blaringly obvious, Malleus. What if this is just the beginning? Have I told you about-”.
Lilia went on like that for quite a while, and despite his best efforts the prince just couldn’t keep up. As much as he wanted to listen to the old man talk, topics such as human/fae relations always seemed to stir up an intense, deep-rooted passion in Lilia that caused him to forget that he was talking to a teenager, not one of his fellow veterans. He was passionate about plenty of things, such as his videogames and traveling, but none of his other hobbies or beliefs got him nearly as worked up as this one did. He spewed big words and political phrases that Malleus, even with his royal education, wide vocabulary, and excellent understanding of many nuanced topics simply couldn’t wrap his head around.
His confusion was clear on his face, if Lilia snapping out of his indignant rant to laugh at him was anything to go by.
Other than in those few instances, Malleus hadn’t really given the new arrangement much thought; who the competition was made little difference to someone as capable as he. If Crowley was truly so gung-ho about fairness, then he honestly would’ve been better off just removing Malleus from the equation. He would’ve done so without a fuss if asked, though he may of felt slightly bitter about being left out of yet another school event.
‘Perhaps he didn’t want to risk my wrath over something so trivial.’ Malleus mused internally, while grabbing a banana from the sacred communal fruit bowl - the residents of Diasomnia worshipped that little bowl of fruit almost as much as they worshipped Malleus himself, particularly when it was Lilia’s turn to make breakfast – before heading towards the grand entrance to the dorm’s mirror room.
He straightened his P.E uniform, determined to look presentable even during a sports event. He wondered, vaguely, if someone would invite him to the after party (would there be an after party? He wouldn’t know, he never knows) if he let them win. He banished the thought as quickly as it came though, numbly aware that his defeat at the hands of a commoner would bring shame upon Briar Valley.
Regardless of Lilia’s reservations, Malleus hoped that this would turn out to be an entertaining day. Sports day only came once a year after all, making this a rare opportunity to mingle with his classmates. Even though the difference was miniscule, most children of men were marginally less afraid of Malleus when the atmosphere was pleasant, a fact that the fae prince intended to take full advantage of over the next few hours.
Maybe, if he was lucky, he’d even make a friend while he was there.