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If you've been a student long in Night Raven College you should be well accustomed to how boring Professor Trein's classes are. His classes were so boring that many students were caught sleeping in class, Deuce was no exception.
Professor Trein noticed Deuce resting his head on his desk with his left arm stretched outwards on his desk.
Not even trying to hide the fact that he's asleep, Professor Trein thought angrily, his eyebrow twitching in annoyance.
"Lucious, go wake Mister Spades up for me." Professor Trein instructed his familiar, Lucious, who stretched then yawned before walking over to Deuce.
Professor Trein continued his lecture when Lucious started meowing, interrupting him. He sighs, "Lucious, please, quietly wake up Mister Spades."
However, Lucious didn't listen, only continuing their frantic meowing.
"Uhm, Professor? I think there's something wrong with Deuce."
Lucious continued to meow.
Professor Trein began to rub his temple, already feeling a headache coming, when Lucious yowled instead of meow he finally turned his head.
At the same time, Lucious bit down on Deuce's hand, not too hard, nothing more than a prick and based off of another pair of similar indentations on the young boys hand this wasn't the first time Lucious bit his hand.
Now realizing that there's something clearly wrong with his student, Professor Trein walks over to where Deuce was seated, noticing the way he shook, and tried to wake the boy by shaking his shoulder. However, nothing happened. No stirring or confused muttering. The boy was completely limp.
As if a light was switched in Mal's head, he immediately stood up from his seat, yelling, "Professor! Prop his legs up and have his head rest on the floor." Mal was already stripping off his cardigan and began folding it.
"What?" Professor Trein asks but already doing as told. Carefully, he took Deuce in his arms and placed him on the floor with his legs up the chair. Mal placed his cardigan underneath Deuce's head for cushion on the tough floor.
By now many of the students were clearly starting to panic over their unconscious classmate.
"What's going on?!" One asks.
"Is he okay?" Another one asks.
"Should we call someone?" Another asks.
"Should I go get Professor Crewel?"
"Yes! Go get Professor Crewel and does anyone have something sweet? Like soda, juice or candy?" Mal asks, looking between students as he gently holds Deuce's head.
Epel was the one who stood up, already rummaging through his bag to pull out what looks to be his family's apple juice.
"I have my family's juice. I was originally going to have it for lunch but it looks like he needs it more." Epel says as he hands over the bottle to Mal who gratefully took it.
"Thank you Epel. Once he wakes up he should take it." Mal says, his voice steady as he stares down at his unconscious friend.
Epel looked down at Deuce with concern, "He looks so pale." he utters.
Mal couldn't agree more. Deuce did look pale and sweat trickled down his forehead despite his skin feeling cold to the touch.
Mal, having long discarded his gloves to check Deuce's temperature, placed a hand on his forehead, not to check his temperature but to keep Deuce grounded. He wasn't sure what was wrong with him but if it was anything like a similar experience he once experienced himself, then Deuce would feel lost as soon as he wakes up.
As if his thoughts were some sort of trigger, Deuce began to stir. Startling, Mal, Professor Trein and Epel, mostly Professor Trein.
Deuce's eyes finally began to open after a few seconds of stirring.
"Wh-ere?" Deuce croaked, his eyes looking as lost as Mal suspected them to be.
Mal kept one hand on Deuce's head while the other held the apple juice, "Deuce. Deuce, can you hear me" Mal asks.
Deuce turned his head, or tried to, and scrunched his eyes, bringing a shaky hand on his face.
"Help me get him to sit up." Mal instructed, already placing down the juice to grab Deuce by his armpits while Professor Trein took his legs and with careful and slow movements, got him sitting up right.
Deuces chest fell in almost rapid movements, his eyes still scrunched close.
Mal frowned, "Deuce, I know you're probably not feeling well but I need you to drink this. It should help." Mal says as he uncaps the beverage, bringing the drink close to Deuce's lips but as he was just about to tip the bottle Deuce jerked his head to the side almost making him drop the beverage all together if he hadn't had such a tight grip on it.
"Mister Spades!" Professor Trein suddenly yelled, startling Deuce and many of the other students in the classroom.
"Professor! Please."
Deuce's breathing began to go rigid, his breathing sounding more like whizzes now that Mal was listening closely.
Epel was the one who stepped up to Deuce, placing both hands on his shoulders and squeezed them.
"Deuce, breathe. Nice and slow." Epel instructed, demonstrating by taking in slow breaths of his own.
Deuce reopened his eyes, still looking lost but now it seemed like he finally got the message as he followed Epel's breathing. In and hold for three seconds then release for five. And repeat.
They both continued the action until Deuce finally calmed down and his breathing were no longer rapid whizzes.
"Mister Spades, are you alright?" Professor Trein asks, voice soft.
Deuce blinked once, then twice. He looked between Professor Trein, Epel and Mal before his eyes started to wonder around the classroom. His face began to flush.
"I'm sorry." he finally utters.
Professor Trein's brows pinched together, "For what?"
Before Deuce could explain, the door to the classroom opened along with a voice.
"In here!"
A student along with Professor Crewel walked in.
Professor Crewel looked around to find Professor Trein, Mal, Epel on the ground with Deuce leaning his back against his chair, face still pale and body still trembling with beads of sweat trickling down.
Professor Crewel frowned, walking up to the kneeled professor.
"What happened?" he asks as he kneels down in front of Deuce, shooing both Epel and Mal away who moved with no complains, well, maybe a few words were muttered.
"I'm not entirely certain, but while I was teaching I noticed Mister Spades had fallen asleep, however I didn't realize the true extent of what happened until Lucious alerted me that that's when I noticed something was clearly wrong." Professor Trein explained.
Professor Crewel nodded, removing his glove to feel Deuces face. Deuce trembling at the touch.
"He's cold. I'm going to need to bring him to the nurses office." Professor Crewel deducted, putting his glove back on.
"Professor, did you need help bringing him?" Mal asks.
Professor Crewel shook his head, "It'll be quite alright, I can bring him on my own. You can resume classes Professor Trein." he says as he grabs Deuces arms to place onto his shoulders then placed a hand on his hips to help steady him. Which was needed because just as Deuce began to stand up his legs buckled underneath him, almost causing him to fall if it wasn't for Professor Crewel holding onto him.
Just as they were almost out the door, a voice called.
"Oh! Professor, before you go, here." Mal walks up to Professor Crewel, passing the apple juice to him.
"I'm not sure if this will help or anything but Epel insisted for him to take it." he says, giving a lopsided grin.
Professor Crewel smiled, "Good boy, the both of you." he praises as he gracefully took the drink.
Mal smiled before returning back to his seat.
Despite Deuce's best efforts Professor Crewel could tell he was pushing himself just to stay on his feet, but he didn't need to push himself any further because they made it to the infirmary.
When they entered the infirmary, he gingerly placed Deuce on one of the many vacant beds to rest on.
Professor Crewel placing the juice into the fridge for drinks only. Then began to look around for his thermometer when Deuces spoke up.
"I'm sorry." he repeats, his voice watery.
Professor Crewel shook his head, "It's alright, pup, just rest."
Deuce sniffled, "It's not."
Professor Crewel frowned, finally finding his thermometer and walked back to Deuce. Who's eyes were filled with tears.
"Why is that?" Professor Crewel asks, placing the thermometer in Deuces mouth.
Deuce sniffles, "I intewwupted the cwas." he utters, the thermometer causing his words to slurring.
Professor Crewels frown deepened, "You had no control of the situation, pup." he says, taking the thermometer.
He looks down at the thermometer, his eyebrows pinching together. He starts to remove one of his gloves and starts feeling Deuces face then his neck then back up to his forehead.
"Hm, your temperature is normal and you skin is no longer as cold as before. Your color has also started to return, thankfully." Professor Crewel explains.
"I know." Deuce croaks, catching Professor Crewels attention.
Professor Crewel seems to frown further, “And how is it that you already know? Has this happened before?”
Deuces mouth opened and closed, his eyes looking everywhere except the professor.
"Pup."
"I swear it wasn't on purpose. It just...started happening."
"Pup, that's not what I'm asking."
"It's never been this bad before!" Deuce tries excusing himself again.
"But that's not what I'm asking. I'm asking if this has ever happened before. Yes or no, pup." Professor Crewel sternly says.
Deuce looked away, embarrassment rushing over him.
"Pup," Professor Crewel placed a reassuring hand on Deuces shoulder, "I'm your teacher, I'm supposed to help, but if you don't tell me, how can I help you?"
Deuce bit his lip, looked at Professor Crewel and nodded.
"Yes. This has happened before." he finally answers.
Professor Crewel nodded, smiling softly, "Okay. That's all I needed to know. Have you always struggled with this? Nothing in your student profile mentioned anything about fainting."
Deuce shook his head, "No, it wouldn't, because this has never happened before. They only started when I got here." he says, muttering the last part.
"Why didn't you tell anyone? A teacher, the headmage, anyone we could've helped you."
Tears began to form in his eyes as he utters, "I didn't know it would get this bad."
"They started out small, vision going blurry but only for a moment, a second or two then my vision would come back. But, they've started to linger and my strength, it was like my energy was being taken from me."
"That already sounds bad, pup. Why didn't you tell anyone?"
"It's because they would go away! But this time around I knew it was bad, like, really bad today in class. I was going to ask Professor Trein if I could be excused but before I could, I fell asleep. I didn't even realize I was sleeping until I woke up on the floor with the professor, Epel and Mal surrounding me." Deuce was shaking now, tears dripping down his face, causing his drawn spade to run.
"I didn't mean to cause anyone trouble." Deuce sobbed, trying to wipe the tears away, but only causing his spade to smear across his face as more tears began to fall, serving more of his embarrassment.
Professor Crewel sighs, walking off to his desk and picked something up, a tissue box, from behind it and walked back.
He sat down at the edge of the bed and took out a tissue. Taking Deuces face in his hand, he starts to clean up the black smear marks on Deuce's face and once he was done he threw that tissue out, grabbed another and placed the tissue against Deuces nose and said, "Blow."
Deuce listened, blowing into the tissue. Once done, Professor Crewel discarded the tissue and squirted hand sanitizer on his hand.
He sighs again, looking down at his sniffling student, "You didn't cause anyone trouble. However, you did cause everyone around you to worry."
Deuce looked up, his nose red and his cheeks flushed from crying.
The way he looked at Professor Crewel made him frown, he was looking at him in shock like he didn't expect those words to come out of his mouth.
Sighing once more, he goes to the fridge where potion-like medicines were kept to keep cool and opened one of the doors where there were beverages instead of potions. One drink looking familiar to Deuce.
Professor Crewel walks back and passes the juice to Deuce, "Your friend wanted you to have this, he figured that it would help you and I believe he's correct."
It was Epel's family apple juice, Deuce did remember Mal telling him to drink something. Was it the juice?
Gracefully taking the juice, he uncaps it and starts to drink. As he drank, more tears began to form in his eyes but not from sadness, rather, it was from happiness.
Professor Crewel smiles, taking out another tissue and passed it over to the crying boy.
Muttering a thank you, he starts to wipe his nose.
Professor Crewel walks behind his desk, saying, "You are excused from further classes of today. You may also take a nap here as well until you feel better, pup."
When the professor said those words Deuce began to realize that he does feel exhausted, probably from all that crying, he thinks.
Taking another sip of the apple juice, he recaps it and rests his head on the pillow and closes his eyes, falling asleep almost immediately.