Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

If someone had told Leona at the beginning of the year that he would end up caring for a gaggle of freshmen, he would have laughed in their faces before turning their lunch to sand.

Naturally, it started with his own freshman, Jack. After the spelldrive tournament disaster, a lot of the juniors began to have it out for the wolf beastman due to his part in stopping Leona’s plan. They had ganged up on him and challenged him to a spelldrive game alone. Initially, Jack handled it pretty well; even dealing with his upperclassmen’s dirty tactics. It wasn’t until they had decided to forgo spelldrive altogether and start attacking him directly that he stepped in. He was only there to even the odds, it’s no fun ganging up on a defenseless pup, after all.

Then the magicless herbivore got booted out of their dorm by that damn cephalo-punk and his lackeys. To make matters worse, Jack invited them to stay at Savanaclaw since twiddle-dee and twiddle-dum’s dorm was full. And don’t even get him started on Ruggie, the sly bastard suggesting they stay in Leona’s room. Well, at least he got some live-in help. The next couple of nights were spent with him ignoring their idle chatter as they cleaned up his room. Then the prefect figured out a way to get back at the cephalo-punk and he had to admit, he was a little shocked they asked him for help. But hey, gets rid of his problem too so why not. (He decided to ignore the part where he had to fight an overblot Azul while glimpses of his own overblot flashed through his mind).

Then there was Vil’s little passion project; Epel. If Leona had to pick a freshman he liked the most upon initially meeting them, it would be him. Every frustrated sigh he caused Vil was music to his ears (which was ruined by the annoying cacophony that is Rooks's voice). Plus, as he and Ruggie later learned, he was shockingly good at spelldrive for a freshman. Honestly, Leona saw this one coming; after all, Night Raven College is home to a bunch of manipulative little meerkats trying to claw their way to the top. It was only a matter of time until someone tried something on Epel. Though he was more surprised that Queenie or the damn hunter didn’t catch it first. And it was a potion of all things. The one thing Pomefiore is known for. A rather pathetic student from Epel’s dorm decided to swap one of the bottles of ingredients for a rather hazardous concoction. If he hadn’t caught a whiff of it as he was walking by (Ruggie had dragged him there for a remedial assignment), there wouldn’t be a potions lab right now.

“Oi, someone swapped your ingredients.” Leona had told him as he handed him the right bottle. Epel took one glance around the room before his eyes landed on one of his upperclassmen stealthily watching him from behind their cauldron. He gently placed everything back in its proper spot before storming over to the guy and tackling him to the ground. Leona muttered a quick spell to shield Epel and his potential saboteur from the rest of the class. He wasn't covering for Epel at all; he just didn’t want to redo this assignment again because their brawl destroyed the potions lab. (Anyone who said otherwise would find their bags turned into sand)

After dealing with the three of them, Leona picked up on the pattern (and to his dismay, so did Ruggie). So when Riddle’s little freshman came up to them both during lunch, he already knew Ruggie would not let him hear the end of this. Though this time, rather than a problem like the rest of them, he came with a deck of cards and a grin that only meant trouble. He was trying to perfect a card trick to stupe his dorm leader and needed to practice on someone but the other herbivores were busy and Grim had apparently suggested him as an audience. He gave Ace a minute before he walked away. Yet in that minute the little brat somehow managed to swipe his magic pen clean out of his pocket. Ruggie was in stitches when he finished the trick. He had to admit though, his pen? Right off of him?! Either he was getting sloppy or Ace was just as sly as the hyenas back home. Then he remembered who this trick was originally for and he burst out laughing.

“Oh, he’ll love that,” he had told the freshman. He wrote down a number and passed it to him, ordering him to send him Riddle’s reaction to the trick. And when Ace came barreling into the cafeteria the next day with a raging Riddle on his tail, the random vine that tripped Riddle was totally not from his pen. Not that he cared if Ace got away or not, it’s always fun to see the little housewarden squirm. (Though he later realized that Grim never suggested him as an audience at all, he just needed a shield from Riddle. He had to respect someone with a little bit of cunning.)

Even on the days when he left campus to avoid the staff or Rook, he somehow still found himself dealing with another headache. Though this time, he found himself stepping in before he could even think. Riddle’s other freshman (Deuce, he eventually remembered his name) was also going through town on a blast cycle and he had to admit, the little wannabe honors student didn’t strike him as a blast cycler. Though Leona guessed the residents thought the same as he did because the moment Deuce stepped into a store to grab something, three guys immediately tried to steal his blast cycle. Thankfully, he managed to catch them in the act, but that didn’t seem to stop the guys from trying to fight him for it. Deuce, as Leona made a note of, was filled with surprises as he beat up all three guys with practiced ease. Then one of them pulled out a gun and suddenly Leona was there, barrier magic surrounding the freshman.

“Get lost,” he had growled out in warning as he stepped out of the shadows. The three of them seemed to gauge their options before eventually slinking off to whatever craphole they came out of. Once they were out of view, Deuce switched from angry to panicked, much to Leona’s confusion. He sheepishly explained his years of delinquency to him and how he was trying to be better about his bouts of anger. Before he knew it, Leona had offered to teach him how to keep his cool in a fight and how to prevent them, to begin with. Not that he cared or anything, Jack needed a sparring partner at his level is all.

Chapter Text

Epel was late to spelldrive practice… for the third time in the last two weeks. Now if it had been anyone else, Leona wouldn’t have batted an eye. But this was Epel, the fastest player on his team and someone who wouldn't spend a minute more in pomefiore than he had to. Something was up.

“Run through their drills, I’m going to find Epel,” Leona told Ruggie before walking off the field. He quickly made his way towards the mirror chamber, calling Epel’s phone at the same time, but no one answered. Leona came to stop in front of pomefiore’s mirror, and mentally prepared himself for the inevitable headache that he's bound to get, and stepped through the mirror.

“Ah, Roi de Lions!” Rook’s grating voice rang out as soon as stepped into the dorm. “I was expecting you!”

“If you were expecting me then you know why I’m here, hunter,” Leona crossed his arms. “Where’s Epel?”

“He’s with Roi de Poison at the moment. He has been tasked with helping the film studies club.”

“So then he’s not here.” Before the damn hunter could get on his nerves further, Leona turned right around and went towards the school theater. He shot a quick text to Ruggie to start the practice game without him.

“Good afternoon, Leona Kingshcolar!” Ortho’s cheerful voice rang out from above him. The savanaclaw housewarden looked up to see the freshman sitting atop one of the sturdy beans hanging over the stage, adjusting some of the lights. “Shouldn’t you be at spelldrive practice right now?”

“I’m looking for Epel, Radish Sprout. Know anything?” He asked. Out of all of the freshmen, Ortho got on his nerves the least after Epel. (The STYX incident notwithstanding).

“He’s in the dressing room with Vil Schoenheit. He has asked that nobody disturbs him but I estimate a 90% chance you don’t care.”

“Amp it up to a hundred and you’ll be spot on,” Leona rolled his eyes.

“They should be out in about two minutes seeing as they’ve been in there for over thirty. Like you, I would rather not deal with a grouchy Vil Schoenheit so could you please wait two minutes?” Ortho looked down at him with bright, pleading eyes. It reminded him vaguely of Cheka, but to a slightly less annoying scale. He glanced at his phone. No new texts from Ruggie so practice must be running smoothly.

“Two minutes. Then I’m going in whether Queenie likes it or not.” Sevens, Epel is so running extra laps for making him go through all this bullshit.

“Thank you, Leona Kingscholar!” Leona waved off his gratitude and looked around him. Some students were crowded around a bunch of cardboard, attempting to cast painting spells. Others were modeling outfits and wigs while some students cut away at excess cloth and hair.

“So what are you guys even doing anyways?”

“We are setting up for a performance of The Tower. Are you familiar with the story?”

“A child destined to live alone for their entire life before a lone woman takes her and they live together in a tower?”

“Yep! Though back on the island, our version of the story is a little bit different.” Ortho answered as he hopped down, landing right in the center of the stage. “Our version stated that the young princess is the one that helps the lady overcome her own issues and learn to let people into her life.” Leona raised an eyebrow at the freshman’s story.

“Really?” An odd, aching feeling came through the housewarden, but he was saved from saying anything else by Epel storming out of the door.

“I already took care of everythin’ else senpai!” He hollered before storming right into Leona. “Oh…hey senpai.” He smiled at him.

“You’re late, frosh,” Leona crossed his arms.

“It wasn’t mah fault!”

“Mind your accent, Epel,” Vil ordered from the other room. Epel rolled his eyes in annoyance.

“Let’s go. Practice is half over already and you’re running extra laps for making me chase you down.”

“Should make Vil-san run them,” Epel muttered before heading out of the theater.

“Hey, Radish Sprout,” Leona turned back towards Ortho, “Send me a copy of your version of the story.” He didn’t know if the freshman could physically brighten himself, but Ortho was making a pretty strong case for it.

“Of course, Leona Kingscholar!” he smiled, “Perhaps we could discuss the differences of the other stories between our respective regions?” He really was collecting these freshmen like kits at this point.

“We’ll see.”

Winter break was always either Leona’s favorite or least favorite time of the year. He’d relish the breaks where he didn’t have to return home to a kingdom that didn't want him and dread the breaks where his highness would order him to return home, which was the case this year. Ruggie was back in the slums (albeit with a hefty amount of food and supplies for the kids there) so there wasn’t anyone around for him to talk with. The attendants would scurry off in the opposite direction whenever he walked by, his highness’ guests would always give him an odd look when he entered the room so now he’s been excused from most formal events (though he was still required to attend the Yule banquet in a few days). So now the second prince sat alone in his room, bored out of his mind. Then his phone went off with an unfamiliar number illuminating the screen.

“Well, nothing better to do,” he muttered as he answered the phone.

“Hello?” Leona perked up at the prefect’s voice.

“Herbivore? How’d you get this number?”

“Leona senpai?! Uh, hi sorry to disturb you-”

“Wait, is there a time difference between NRC and wherever you’re at?” Grim asked from behind them.

“Grim, focus,” the prefect chided.

“Herbivore, why did you call me?”

“Honestly, Ace added this number with his before he left for break but didn’t tell me who’s it was and nobody else was answering,” Yuu explained. Leona resisted the urge to sigh out loud. That little brat.

“So were you bored or something?”

“Senpai, when has my luck ever been that good?” they deadpanned. The housewarden chuckled at the blunt response.

“So what bullshit did you get dragged into now?” he asked, partially regretting it and partially grateful for some sort of conversation.

“Wait, you’re not gonna hang up on me and tell me to figure it out myself?”

“Well, considering I’ve got nothing better to do, I’ll entertain your call this time.” That was how Leona spent the rest of that day and well into the evening discussing with Yuu the situation at Scarabia; about Kalim’s sudden mood swings and how Jamil always had to bear the brunt of them. About how Scarabia is one oasis march away from a coup d’etat. How they blanked out and when they came to, they were locked in one of the bedrooms; having agreed to help Jamil out.

“I’d bet Ruggie’s entire food stash someone’s manipulating Kalim either with his food or a spell. And that same person used their spell on you to get your help given your track record of solving everyone’s problems.”

“You monster,” Grim gasped dramatically, “what kind of man bets another man’s food stash?”

“If I wasn’t confident that’s what's at play here, I wouldn’t have said it,” Leona rolled his eyes.

“But wouldn’t Jamil catch something like that immediately?” Yuu questioned.

“He would. But as you said, Scarabia is nearing a revolt. Who do you think would benefit the most from Kalim being thrown out of Scarbia if not the person next in line for the Housewarden position?”

“Oh. So Jamil-senpai is just as much a suspect as everyone else?”

“That back-stabbing…uh backstabber!” Grim swore.

“Great insult Grim,” Yuu said sarcastically, “So if someone is manipulating him and has possibly manipulated me, we need to get out of Scarabia as fast as possible.”

“Huh? Why?” Grim asked.

“Because if they realize the herbivore knows what they’re up to, they'll use their spell to stop them from interfering,” Leona explained, “If I were you, I’d wait until night and go for the magic carpet; it’s the fastest way out aside from teleportation.”

“Teleportation magic is a thing?”

“It’s not taught at school but yeah, it exists.”

“The great Grim is going to learn it before all of you, you’ll see!”

“That requires you to learn basic magic first, furball.” Yuu laughed as Grim sputtered indignantly. Leona found himself smiling at their banter. Maybe, just maybe these kids weren’t as annoying as everyone else. Not that he would admit that to anyone.

Chapter Text

If there was one thing Leona disliked more than his brother, it would be Diasomnia and their inhabitants. Malleus for obvious reasons, Lilia because he comes out of fucking nowhere and knows about everything somehow, Silver because… Well Silver wasn’t too bad. But the most annoying of all was the freshman, Sebek.

For starters, he was too. Damn. Loud. Not to mention, all he would do is spout praises about how Malleus was the greatest person to ever exist. Leona knew that with time he would eventually come face to face with him, as he did the other freshmen. He just didn’t expect him to come stumbling into Savanaclaw dorm and nearly pass out on the ground. Him even being outside his dorm was a surprise, as campus was closed for the day due to a heavy snowstorm preventing some students from being able to leave their dorms.

He had been sleeping when Ruggie came in and told him. He reluctantly got out of bed and made his way to the entrance where some juniors were picking a fight with him. Sebek, the idiot, had his pen in hand and was keeping them back with a flimsy fire spell.

“Oi,” Leona’s voice cut through the crowd, “Haven’t you lot learned from the last spelldrive game? We don’t kick prey when they’re down.”

“I’m not down though!” Sebek glared up at Leona. Some of the beastmen present winced at his booming voice, “It would be truly a dishonor to my liege if I succumbed to the cold so quickly.” Right, he’s part crocodile. Crocodiles and winter don’t mix. Leona stepped through the fire with ease.

“You can barely stand,” he deadpanned before turning to one of the students, “go get him something warm to drink.”

“Huh?!” The crowd exploded.

“Now!” Leona growled. Confused murmurs rippled through the crowd and one student eventually tore away to carry out Leona’s order. The housewarden glanced over Sebek. “Can you walk? And no bullshit.”

“Y-yes I can walk.” Leona watched the freshman struggle to his feet before letting out a sigh and pulling him up. Sebek winced as he put pressure on his foot.

“I thought I said no bullshit.” He narrowed his eyes at the freshman. Great seven, why does he have to be the one to deal with this? “Did you slip on the ice?” A couple of the students watching chuckled. Sebek looked about ready to remark at the temerity of Leona suggesting such a thing, but the pain shooting up his ankle forced him to swallow his pride.

“Yes,” he said through gritted teeth. The student’s laughter became louder. Leona pinched the bridge of his nose and muttered something under his breath. Sebek didn’t quite catch all of it but did hear the word idiots.

“Ruggie, call Jack to take these idiots while I deal with him.” Ruggie flashed him a knowing smile.

“On it boss.”

Leona unceremoniously dropped Sebek on a chair before flopping in another one nearby. It was silent between the two of them for a while. After all, what do you say to someone you literally tried to kill a few months ago? They both were sipping on some coffee one of the students had brought by.

“Why did you help me?” Sebek eventually broke the silence. “I was under the impression you hated my lord and our entire dorm.”

“Well, you’re right about the lizard at least.” Sebek bristled at hearing his liege be referred to in such a manner. “But I’m sure the other herbivores would have my head if I let something happen to their friend.”

“And since when did you care for the other freshmen?”

“Since I helped one and the rest followed like cubs. They’d probably bug the hell out of me while I'm trying to sleep if they found out I let you freeze to death.”

“Oh.”

“What the hell were you doing out there anyways? Campus is closed for the day.” Sebek’s answer came out a mumbled mess Leona couldn’t make sense of.

“I know for a fact you’re louder than that. Now answer my question.”

“...Training.” Sebek didn’t take his eyes off the ground. Leona stared at him for a second, a flicker of bewilderment going through him before choosing his answer.

“Not that what you did wasn’t stupid, but why are you ashamed of that all of a sudden? I thought you guys took pride in that kind of stuff.”

“Because I failed. Again. No matter how much I try to withstand it, I keep blacking out in the cold. Sevens, I was delirious enough that I stumbled in here instead of diasomnia dorm.” Leona chuckled to himself, but it didn’t go unheard.

“I’m sorry, do you find my failure funny?!” Sebek growled.

“Considering you didn’t have a chance to begin with, yeah, a little bit. You do know it's like below zero outside right now? Jack wouldn’t even be able to handle that in his wolf form.”

“I should be able to withstand anything for the young master!”

“Why? Is he that incapable that he can’t handle things himself?” Leona shot back before taking another swig of his coffee.

“No! He’s one of the most powerful mages in the world!”

“Oi, not so loud, us beastmen pick up more sound than normal humans y’know.”

“Sorry…”

“Anyways, how does nearly giving yourself hypothermia supposed to help the lizard?”

“Because that’s a weakness I want to improve upon!” Sebek was fumbling with his now empty cup.

“Seven why is everyone here so stubborn,” Leona muttered under his breath before leveling Sebek with a look. “You know I’m a prince too, right?”

“Yes…”

“You know how many guards are on my tail back home?” Sebek shook his head, confused as to where this was going. “I have two. One of them has the opposite problem that you do; she can’t handle the heat. Everytime I pay a visit to the villages, she has to stay behind so she doesn’t collapse from heatstroke.”

“So how did she combat this weakness?”

“She didn’t.”

“So then the king relieved her from duty?”

“My brother may be an idiot sometimes, but he’s not stupid enough to fire someone for something out of their control,” Leona explained. “She would stay behind and she relied on her fellow guardsmen to ensure I don’t die out there.”

“But that’s reckless!” Sebek boomed. Leona glared at him, pointing at his ears. “Right, my apologies. But yes, isn’t it reckless for someone of your stature to be out and about with only one guard?”

“Contrary to popular belief, I do know enough magic to defend myself. Same goes for the lizard.” Sebek looked down at his cup, contemplating. Leona handed his cup to a student that had been walking by, but froze upon seeing the freshman present. “Refill that, would you?”

“So then why am I even a knight in training?” Sebek asked once the student was gone.

“Because there's things you’re capable of that they aren’t and vice versa. The reason there's three of you looking after the lizard is so you can rely on each other to pick up the slack.” Leona took a long, deliberate sip of his coffee. "Like for example, if you're dealing with some rebel who fights with iron. Fae are weak to it right?" Sebek paled ever so slightly.

"How did you know? That's a closely guarded secret."

"It's been speculated for years, but you just confirmed it for me." Leona smirked. Sebek mumbled a curse, but Leona paid it no mind as he continued. "Anyways, since you're not fully fae you would have some immunity to it. So it would be up to you to defend the lizard."

“I think I understand what you’re saying, senpai.”

“Good. Now pass me that chessboard behind you, I drank too much coffee while trying to talk some sense into your thick skull for me to try to sleep right now.” The two of them played through the snowstorm, making idle chatter as they thought up strategy after strategy in order to capture each other’s kings. As it turns out, when he wasn’t screeching about his liege, Sebek wasn’t too bad of a kid to be around. Hopefully Sebek learned from their time together just as much as Leona had.

Chapter Text

Everything was blurring together. He could make out muffled voices but they were overtaken by the sound of his own heartbeat. His bloodstained hands were shaking. It felt like someone used a wind spell and took all the air out of him; he couldn't breathe and he didn't know why.

Then someone grabbed his hand and placed it on their chest. He flinched at the touch.

"It’s okay. Just try to match mah breathin’ okay?" Someone spoke softly.

"So what should we do?" The voices sounded familiar, almost comforting.

"We have to ground him."

"Dude, he's already on the ground!"

"Not what I meant, Ace."

"Is he supposed to be shaking like that?" Another voice asked.

"It's common in panic attacks." The voice from before explained. A panic attack? What? Why was he panicking? What could've-

Then it hit him.

He had been in his defensive magic elective and was sparring someone. Their spar soon escalated into an actual brawl when the student got upset at losing. He had stayed on the defensive for most of it, but the student didn't let up. Deciding he had had enough, he used Kings Roar to end the fight. However, he hadn't anticipated the student trying to swing at him. He caught the fist reflexively, only for the student to scream out in pain. He felt the familiar feeling of flesh drying out beneath his grip. He knew he wasn’t on the spelldrive field but all he could see was the sands swirling around him, and Ruggie slowly dying in his grip. All he could hear was his broken cries for him to stop but he couldn’t-

“Leona!” Sebek’s voice broke through the fog. “It’s alright. The other student’s going to be alright.” He clung to the sound of the freshman’s booming voice to try to pull him out of the fog currently cluttering his mind. Despite still not being able to breathe properly, he managed to get out a single word.

“-Ruggie.” He gritted out. Ace, Deuce, Yuu, and Jack exchanged looks.

“We’ll grab him,” Deuce and Ace quickly ran down the hallways.

“Leona,” Jack spoke up, his voice uncharacteristically soft, “we’re not on the spelldrive field anymore. Ruggie is fine. Just try to match Epel’s breathing, okay?”

“What’s Ruggie senpai hafta do with this?” Epel questioned, his grip on Leona’s hand tightening ever so slightly.

“We shall explain later,” Sebek answered. The ringing in Leona’s ears began to subside just as Ruggie came into the corridor, Ace and Deuce on his tail. He took one look at the situation and, without a word, sat right in front of Leona. He gently placed his hand on his shoulders.

“We’re in the hallway. It’s me, you, and your pride.” The freshmen exchanged surprised glances at the nickname. “No one’s hurt. We’re just worried about you.”

“‘M fine,” he mumbled out. His vision was beginning to clear and he could see Ruggie and Epel sitting in front of him. Sebek, Yuu, and Jack were standing behind them while Ace, Deuce and Grim ensured the hallway stayed empty.

“That’s a load of shit,” Epel said. And honestly, Leona was inclined to agree. He never wanted to take a nap more than right now.

“And you look like shit too,” Ruggie snarked, “But I’ll let you pick; infirmary or the dorm?”

“Dorms.”

“Wrong answer, Kingscholar,” the students turned to see Professor Crewel walking down the hallway and behind him…

…the student Leona had been sparring, his hand bandaged up.

“There he is, professor! That monster nearly killed me!” he cried out.

“Cease your pathetic sniveling,” Sebek growled, “you’re the one that escalated the fight after Leona senpai beat you fairly.”

“If you can’t learn to take a loss, then you will never be able to win,” Jack added.

“Not to mention. Losing a hand wouldn’t kill you,” Deuce said.

“Leona senpai isn’t a monster,” Ace piped up. “We’ve seen monsters and he’s the furthest thing from one.”

“But we can show ya a monster if you keep yappin about him like that!” Epel threatened.

“That’s enough, pups!” Crewel shushed them. He turned towards Leona, who had shakily gotten to his feet. “Go to the nurse’s office. They’ll ensure you’re okay.”

“That’s it?” the student sputtered, “He’s a danger to everyone around him, professor and you’re letting him-?!”

Yuu punched him in the face. Outcry exploded in the hallway.

“Yuu!” Jack exclaimed. Deuce let out an impressed whistle. Sebek nodded in approval.

“Nice one!” Grim and Ace praised in unison. Leona looked at them with an unreadable expression. Ruggie looked two seconds from doubling over with laughter.

“Talk shit get hit,” Yuu glowered at the student. Crewel cleared his throat. “It was in self defense?” He looked between the prefect and the student before letting out a long suffering sigh and returning his attention to Leona and Ruggie.

“Very well, Bucchi, stay with Kingscholar until I get to the office. Zigvolt, I’ll need you to come with me as well since you saw everything.” Sebek nodded and he followed him and the student down the hallway, to the headmages office.

“See you guys in a bit,” Ruggie winked at them. Leona flashed them a tired smile.

“Thank you, herbivores.” The two of them left before any of the freshmen could say anything in response. A beat of silence. Then-

“Leona senpai must have really been out of it if he thanked us,” Deuce spoke up.

“And Ruggie called us his pride?” Grim asked, confused. “Why would he be proud of us?”

“If anything you'd be the only one he isn't proud of,” Jack teased. “But admittedly, the name just means he’s taken us as his own at this point.”

“Cool… think I can get a dorm transfer outta this?”

“Keep dreaming, Felmier,” Ace playfully rolled his eyes. “Though, prefect, I gotta ask-”

“How come you got away with punching him in the face?!” Epel grumbled.

“Honestly, I’m with Epel. That would've been instant suspension if one of us did it,” Deuce sighed. Yuu smirked, reached into their back pocket and pulled out a small card. Grim hopped on his human's shoulders and read what was written on the card out loud.

“As permitted by Headmage Crowley, this card enables the usage of self defense without punishment due to the lack of magical ability for the prefect of ramshackle dorm.”

“So you pretty much have a punch people in the face card?” Deuce asked.

“Yep,” Yuu smiled.

“Can we borrow it?” Epel pleaded.

“Sorry, it only works for me.”

“Dammit.”

“I’ll swipe it off of them later,” Ace whispered to Epel.

“And I’ll ask Ruggie senpai to swipe it back, along with your wallet.”

“Speaking of, are we going to visit them in the infirmary?” Grim climbed off of Yuu as the prefect pocketed their punch privilege card.

“No, let the nurses do their jobs,” Jack answered. “We’ll wait for Sebek to finish up then we’ll head to my dorm.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

It had taken the rest of the day before the nurses finally allowed him back to the dorms and, despite falling asleep in the nurse's office, Leona wanted nothing more than to go to his room and sleep.

"Looks like the freshmen care about you just as much as you do to them," Ruggie spoke up as they continued down the hallway.

"How do you figure?"

"Wha- Leona you can't be serious! Perfect punched that jerk in the face because they were talking bad about you! Not to mention, you should've seen how Ace and Deuce came bursting into my history class looking for me."

"Alright, I get it." He was too tired to argue with Ruggie right now. "I'm going to bed."

"Yeah, for once I don't blame ya. I'll grab whatever you missed from class in the morning."

"Okay,” The two of them went through the mirror to Savanaclaw. ”Thank you, by the way."

"The great Leona Kingscholar thanking me? The world's gotta be ending," Ruggie teased.

"Nevermind I take it back."

"Nope, too late I'll cherish this memory forever.”

“I’ll deny it for the rest of time,” Leona shot back. The two of them fell into silence as they made their way through the dorm.

“Y’know,” Ruggie started, “What happened wasn’t your fault.”

“I know. The kid threw a punch instead of-”

“I meant during the spelldrive tournament.” Leona stopped in his tracks and stared at Ruggie confused.

“Last I checked it was my magic turning you into sand. No one elses.”

“Yeah, but it was also after the herbivores ruined months of planning and you took all the blot from me using my magic. Makes sense that you were angry and overblotted.”

“Me getting angry does not justify nearly killing you.”

“Oh please,” Ruggie rolled his eyes. “At the worst I would have lost an arm and we both know it.” Leona leveled a glare at him. “For real though, we both know that you wouldn’t hurt anybody with your magic unless they absolutely deserved it.”

“Honestly, I’d rather not hurt anyone like that again. I don’t think I can get rid of the feeling,” Leona looked down at his hands.

“Even if it was a threat to your pride?”

“They are not my pride.”

“Coulda fooled me. But if something were to happen- oh my sevens." Ruggie was peeking into the room next to his; Jack's room, Leona realized. Had it not been for Ruggie smiling, alarm bells would've been ringing in his head. "Leona, come look at this." Leona joined Ruggie right in front of Jack's room, where he found all of his herbivores somehow piled onto Jack’s bed, asleep.

Leona smiled at the scene.

Ruggie snapped a picture.

“It’s kinda weird, y’know,” Ruggie started one day as he entered the greenhouse, “In the two years I’ve known you, you never really cared about anyone like this.” Leona opened one eye to give Ruggie a look.

“What’s it to you?”

“Nothin much, just thought it was kind of funny to see you, the schools laziest student, care for a bunch of little freshmen.”

“You know you do the same things for the kids in your neighborhood?”

“Yeah,” he shrugged, “But unlike you, it's normal for me.”

“Well maybe it’ll be normal for me,” Leona drawled.

“Leona senpai!” Ruggie flashed him a knowing look and Leona waved him off.

“I’ll leave you guys to it then,” he said before getting out of the greenhouse. Deuce immediately patted himself down as Ruggie walked past him.

“What- My wallet!” Ace burst out laughing at Deuce’s bewildered expression. The two of them started to bicker while Yuu pinched the bridge of their nose.

“How did you not see that coming?!” Sebek stated, for once, his voice not shattering the eardrums of everyone around him.

“Deuce, go get your wallet before he spends it all,” the prefect sighed before turning towards Leona. “Anyways, I’m making food from my world to let them try it, want to join us, senpai?”

That was how Leona found himself in Ramshackle dorm, with Yuu, Grim, Jack, Ace, Deuce, Epel, Ortho, and Sebek all sitting around him, enjoying something called paella. Admittedly, it tasted good; could’ve used a little more meat but maybe that’s just him. He watched as Grim swiped something off of Epel’s plate. The pomefiore freshman responded by grabbing Grim by the scruff of his neck and throwing him out of the kitchen like he was a spelldrive disc. Ortho ducked as Grim went flying over his head. Leona choked on his drink.

“Epel!” Yuu scolded.

“What?! He had it coming!” He protested.

“I agree! Although, I would have locked the door afterwards,” Sebek piped up. Epel nodded in agreement.

“Maybe we should try that with Ruggie senpai,” Ace whispered to Deuce. Leona snorted.

“Good luck with that, he’d dodge and swipe your stuff the second you touch him.”

“You have a 22% chance of success,” Ortho teased them.

“Damn.”

“Bind his hands first then try it,” Leona suggested. Ace and Deuce stared at Leona in bewilderment.

“Oh hell yes,” Epel whispered. Ace and Epel began hatching a plot while Jack tried to talk them out of it. Grim chose this moment to come barreling into the kitchen only to find his plate completely empty.

“What the-?! Which one of you bottomless stomachs ate my food?”

“If anyone’s a bottomless stomach, it’s you, Grim,” Deuce shot back.

“So it was you then!”

“No it wasn’t!”

“Leona! Who ate it?” Grim asked.

“Well,” Leona smirked, “I did see Epel with a second serving a few seconds ago.”

“Ya dirty little liar!” Epel protested as Grim hopped on the freshman’s shoulder in some sort of attack move. Yuu and Ortho both rushed to get the pot of paella out of the way, only for them to butt heads. Ace and Deuce cheered for Epel as he tugged on Grim, trying to remove him off his face. Sebek was laughing at their “pathetic attempt at a fight” which had promptly gotten him tackled by both Epel and Grim. Jack had actually managed to move the paella along with everything they could potentially use as weapons away from them and Leona…

Leona just sat and watched. A warm smile on his face as he watched his herbivores banter like the younger siblings he never had.

(Man he hated it when Ruggie was right.)

Chapter Text

The life of a fae is destined to be a life of loneliness. That’s what Malleus had been told by his grandmother ever since he was a young little fae and had asked the queen where his parents were.

Now here he was, nearly two centuries later, doubting the words of his grandmother because of a group of human children.

Like most interesting things at Night Raven College, it started with Yuu. The child of man (as he’s taken to calling them) was staying in the dilapidated dorm that was Ramshackle (he would later be having a word with the headmage about the condition of the dorm his human was staying in) and one night saw him as he wandered through the fields. Rather than shriek and back away out of either fear or respect, the prefect approached him. They had even invited him inside! He didn’t know whether to applaud their courage or laugh at their naivety. The two of them talked all evening about grotesques and gargoyles. Yuu had later revealed to him that they weren’t from this world and had asked to learn more about Twisted Wonderland, inviting him over again whenever he was available.

Now at least twice a week, Malleus would evade his bodyguards (not that he minded Silver and Sebek) and rendezvous with Yuu at Ramshackle; where they would exchange stories about their respective worlds or anything that had happened throughout the week. The only thing he didn’t tell the prefect was his name, instead allowing them to pick one for him. Names were important in fae culture after all; and to give one a name is to lay claim to them and vice versa.

(So when Yuu called him Tsunotarou for the first time, Malleus couldn’t help but smile at both their audacity and the idea that a human claimed him for him and not his title).

With Yuu eventually came others. The first, to his surprise, was Ortho Shroud; the younger brother of NRC’s infamous shut-in. Now, Malleus knows that he was no good with technology, but even he could tell when something was malfunctioning. The Ignihyde student was clutching the railing of the stairs, calling out to his brother but receiving no answer. His voice kept cracking, a large amount of static echoing each word he said. Malleus looked around and saw, hiding at the top of the stairs, were a pair of snickering Ignihyde students with a computer. With practiced ease, he cast a thorn spell to tie the two of them up as he approached the Ignihyde vice-housewarden.

Ortho managed to smile at him before his system began to fail him. Ortho fell to his knees; but thankfully Malleus managed to catch him before he could cause any physical damage to himself. The freshman panicked much to his surprise. He explained to Malleus that something like this never happened before. Everytime he tried to fight off the bug, it multiplied and attacked a different part of his system. Malleus knew that this wasn’t something that he could fix with magic, so he did the next best thing. He picked up Ortho bridal style and made his way to Ignihyde dorm. He left the younger Shroud in the care of his brother before going back for the students that did this in the first place. He had to admit, it was quite amusing to watch Idia’s hair go red as he went off on the students responsible. And the next day, when he had found his old Gao-Gao Drakon-Kun fully fixed in his dorm room, he decided to claim the younger Shroud as his as well.

Jack Howl was an interesting student to Malleus. Despite his dorm's virulent hatred of diasomnia, he still went and helped them during the inter-dorm spelldrive tournament. While saving diasomnia from being trampled to death was a team effort, it was this moment that caused Malleus to start keeping an eye on the savanaclaw beastman. So when their herbology classes were joined together for a project, Malleus decided to pick Jack as his partner. Initially, they had been off to a great start (despite the awkward silence that filled the air as they worked). However, Malleus had messed up and dropped the plant; which caused them to redo the assignment.

Now here they were, three days later, redoing the assignment. They had nearly finished the entire thing, with the final step being to place the plant in the ground next to the other, when the plant had begun shrieking and latched onto Malleus’ hand. It had taken Jack a whole five minutes to pry the plant off of him (despite Malleus’ insistence on just burning the plant instead). Eventually, they got the plant into the ground but it came at a cost. The plant had screamed so much it had temporarily damaged Jack’s hearing. Malleus had healed it to the best of his ability but Crewel still insisted they go to the nurse. Initially, the nurse had paid him no mind, dismissing the injury as the result of yet another savanaclaw brawl. It wasn’t until Malleus made his presence known that the nurse paid attention. He had even taken the liberty of contacting Leona about his freshman (and was sworn to secrecy about the way Leona came storming into the infirmary, worry evident on his face, and rushed over to Jack).

They had spent the rest of the afternoon in the infirmary to make sure there was no permanent damage (Leona had to return to his classes at one point). Jack had ended up teaching him some sign language they used back in the Shaftlands, as this wasn’t the first time such an incident had occurred. In turn, Malleus taught him some fae sign language and by the time they had left the infirmary, they could both fingerspell in each other's respective language (and Malleus had claimed him as well. If Leona had a problem with it, he would deal with it later, he decided.)

Word spread quickly about the contract between Yuu and Azul Ashengrotto. With the ramshackle dorm put up as collateral, Malleus barely got to see his child of man as much as he would have liked. So when, the night before the contract was supposed to be over, he ran into them gazing out at their former home, the fae prince was elated beyond measure. He soon learned that Jack had offered them to stay with him until they defeated Ashengrotto and much to the prefect’s dismay, it didn’t look like that would be happening. Yuu explained everything that had happened to them in the last two days when a certain detail in their story caught his attention. But having been around as long as he had, he knew that just giving them the solution would not tide well, it could even breach the contract since they are not supposed to get help from any of the housewardens. So he gave Yuu the information the best way he could; by talking about the gargoyles guarding ramshackle. He could see the metaphorical light bulb go off in the prefect's head. Eyes alight with excitement, Yuu hugged him tightly in thanks before rushing towards the mirror chamber to tell the others of the plan they were coming up with. Malleus stared off in the direction Yuu had run off in, his gaze thoughtful. Even though they were gone, he could still feel the reassuring weight of their hug, a comforting reminder of their presence. But how long would that presence last?

Chapter Text

Malleus heard all about the troubles and tribulations his human had gone through, as well as how the two freshmen from Heartslabyul were there to support them for most of it (not counting the trouble they had caused for their human). However, the two students did help his human with other things outside of whichever crisis they got caught in. One such case was during their joint P.E class, where Coach Vargas was teaching people how to fly on broomsticks. The two Heartslabyul freshmen had teamed up and, with the power of Ace’s charisma and Deuce’s integrity, they managed to convince the coach that Yuu could not go on a broom without brutally injuring themself.

So now the prefect was relegated to watching as the two of them soared above them, flying circles around each other and seeing who could go higher. Malleus, while not in their PE class, was outside with his environmental science class observing some wild flora. So when Ace’s shrill scream echoed from across the field, Malleus could hear it loud and clear. He watched as Ace’s broom sputtered midair before he started to lose altitude. Deuce and Yuu screamed out for their friend, with the former flying after him. But from the speed, Deuce would not be able to catch up to Ace in time. Malleus dropped the plant he was holding (much to Jack’s dismay) and teleported to where the students were flying. Ace was full on screaming at this point and Deuce was telling him to hold on. Yuu was nearly in tears while Grim had flown off to find Coach. Malleus conjured a large cushion of wind which broke Ace’s fall. Deuce pulled his broom up to prevent himself from crashing into Ace. The housewarden lowered Ace gently to the ground where Yuu and Deuce immediately barreled into him.

“Are you okay?! Anything broken or something?!” Yuu let go of him and scanned him for any sign of injury.

“I’m fine, slightly traumatized, but otherwise fine,” Ace faked a smile.

“Dude, you scared the crap out of us,” Deuce exclaimed, “What happened up there?”

“I agree with Spade here, from what I saw, you both were flying across the field just fine a few minutes ago,” Malleus commented. Ace turned towards Malleus and held out a fist.

“Dude thanks for the save! I owe you one for sure!” Malleus looked at Ace’s outstretched fist before he recalled where he’s seen this before. Lilia had shown it to Sebek after learning it from Cater at their light music club. He balled a fist of his own and returned the fist bump. Yuu flashed him a small thumbs up. It was at this moment that Grm returned, Coach Vargas hot on his tail.

“You,” Yuu glowered at the coach. As his humans (yes, he has claimed the two heartslabyul boys as well now) tore into the coach for taking so long to come, Malleus turned his attention towards Ace’s broom. Deuce saw this and came over as well.

“Is there something wrong with it, senpai?” he asked.

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out. You and Trappola were doing well before this, so it seems weird for his broom to stop working so randomly,” Malleus explained. Deuce went red at the compliment, but brushed it aside in favor of figuring out what’s going on. His eyes landed at the bottom of the broom.

“Senpai, look,” Deuce turned the broom so Malleus could see what he was looking at, “the bottom half of the broom is all chipped and the strings binding it together are cut up.”

“Strange. I don’t suppose you and Trappola have any enemies do you?” Deuce shook his head in response.

“Hey! Whatcha staring at?” Grim flew over to them. They were joined by Ace, Yuu and the coach as well. Deuce explained what he and Malleus had seen and Coach suddenly avoided all eye contact in favor of staring at the ground.

“Coach? What happened to my broom?” Ace asked, “Because I can swear that this wasn't me.” Coach Vargas looked like he wanted to be anywhere but here. However, a warning glare from Malleus was all he needed to start talking.

“Er- well, last night the spelldrive team was practicing out here and one of the students saw a mouse or a roach or something. They grabbed the nearest broom, which I’m guessing was yours, and started trying to whack it.” A beat of silence. Then-

“ARE YOU SERIOUS?!” Yuu broke the silence. Malleus watched fondly as all three students metaphorically tore the coach a new one.

Pomefiore dorm was not a dorm that Malleus found himself associating with often. Sure, there was that one instance where he fixed the stage for them to perform in the VDC and when he restored Vil’s youth following the incident at STYX, but otherwise Malleus was not one to interact with the dorm of tenacity. However, this year seemed to be the year of exceptions.

Classes had been canceled for the afternoon due to the snowstorm on main campus. He had disregarded the warnings to stay away from the main campus in order to make sure their child of man was not freezing in their dorm. Thankfully, they were fine and had an enchanted heating system from Sam set up as well as an abnormally large coat with them (Malleus could’ve sworn that he’s seen that coat on Leona when they had all gone camping but he chose not to dwell on it).

As he was making his way back to the school building, he came face to face with an abnormally large apple, covered in snow, and grumbling profanities about the Fairest Queen.

“How peculiar…” he mused. The grumbling stopped. Then a head of purple hair popped up from behind the apple.

“Malleus senpai?” Epel looked at him in confusion, “Wait, how much of that did ya hear?”

“Not much, I was just passing by when your apple caught my attention.”

“Oh. My meemaw and I used to build all sorts of stuff back home when it snowed,” Epel explained. “The apple’s a pretty basic one but it’s one of the few I can pull off on my own.”

“Then I don’t suppose you would mind if I joined you then?” Malleus asked the freshman. Epel did a double take.

“U-uh are ya sure senpai? I wouldn’t want to bug ya if ya had somethin’ important goin on right now.” Epel mentally berated himself for letting so much of his accent slip through. “I mean, I wouldn’t wish to take time from…uh any important things you had to do?” He finished hesitantly.

“Why did you repeat yourself?” Malleus tilted his head in confusion.

“Er, I’m not supposed to let mah- my accent slip though when I’m chatting with people.”

“Well, I don’t mind it, it’s quite unique to hear. Don’t hold back your true nature on my account.” Malleus patted him on the head, causing the freshman to freeze up. Perhaps he’d been too forward with this one? Odd, Yuu neverminded his headpats. “And rest assured, I have nothing of importance right now. Plus I haven’t built anything in the snow in a very long time. It sounds like fun. But if you do not require any assistance then-”

“No! My meemaw taught me the more the merrier so I’d love to build with ya, senpai!” Epel regained his composure and smiled at him. This was how Malleus found himself playing in the snow for the first time in nearly a century. He had to admit, Epel had skills in architecture that would put some of the designers back in the Valley to shame. Perhaps he could take him to work in the castle after he graduated. He’d have to ask what he’s planning on doing later on. They had finished off the apple with a sword going through the middle of it before switching to another snow project: a gigantic tree.

“Think bout it, senpai,” Epel had explained. “It’ll take a while to melt and so when classes open back up an’ Leona senpai comes to take a nap on a tree…”

Well, he was not one to say no to a little mischief. It’s in his nature as a Fae after all. (And it was at this moment, he claimed Epel as his own too.) It took the better part of the afternoon but nevertheless the end product was perfect. A near replica of the other trees on the courtyard. Malleus had even enchanted it so it wouldn’t start melting unless someone touched it.

“Honestly senpai, I don't see why everyones so scared of ya,” Epel mused as the two of them walked to the main building. “Yer actually pretty cool to hang out with.”

“Really?” Malleus blinked in surprise. The last time he heard that one was from his human.

“Yeah! Today was really fun. It’s kinda funny, I originally came out here to get away from everyone at the dorm but now I’m glad to have the company. Plus I definitely couldn’t have made that amazing tree without you.”

“Today was quite enjoyable. I’m happy to have spent it with you, Felmier.”

“Nah, just call me Epel, senpai,” He smiled at him, “And y’know what would make this even better?”

“What?”

“A nice steaming cup of cocoa!” Epel grabbed Malleus by the hand, “Come on, the ghosts owe me a favor!” The housewarden let himself get dragged to the cafeteria by Epel, a warm feeling bubbling inside him despite the coldness surrounding him.

Is this what it’s like to not be alone?

Chapter Text

“Are you sure about this Lilia-senpai? I don’t think anyones added this into soup before.”

“I’m certain. It’s for additional nutritional value.” Malleus paused his walk upon hearing the two. Under any normal circumstances, the prince would have paid his vice housewarden no mind. However, the face he overheard him in the kitchen, of all places, was enough to send alarm bells ringing in his head. He swiftly entered the kitchen to find Lilia instructing Ace, who was standing behind a pot of boiling… something.

“Ah, Malleus!” Lilia smiled at him, “What brings you here?” Ace waved at him before returning his attention to the soupy monstrosity in front him.

“I was walking by and smelled something… wonderful.” Malleus chose his words carefully. “So I stepped in to see what it was.”

“Apparently young Spade is sick and attempting to hide it from his housewarden, so young Trappola volunteered to make him some soup.”

“Correction: prefect is having me do the soup while they take care of Deuce,” Ace spoke up. “Lilia-senpai saw me struggling and offered his assistance.”

“How kind of you, Lilia.” He smiled at him. Despite Lilia’s cooking being akin to biological warfare, Malleus still appreciated the fact he was trying. However, it was still bad enough to kill someone; so he was not going to feed someone outside their family Lilia’s cooking. “I am actually glad I found you.”

“Oh? Did you need something?” Lilia paused from where was dicing up- great seven was that a raw fish?!

“Yes. Crewel informed me Silver has yet to show up to his classes. I’m suspecting he’s fallen asleep somewhere and Sebek is currently in his own class so he is unable to look for him at the moment.” Ace stared at the both of them, confused as to what was happening.

“That silly boy,” Lilia shook his head., but did nothing to hide the smile on his face. “Very well, I will go find him. Do you have it from here, Trappola?” from behind Lila, Malleus was nodding his head at Ace.

“Uh, ye-yeah! I got it!” Ace reassured him, “You go find Silver senpai and I’ll take care of things here.” Satisfied, Lilia left the kitchen in search of his son. Apologies, Silver, Malleus thought. He glanced into the hallway to make sure the coast is clear before returning his attention to Ace.

“So why did you want Lilia senpai out of here?”

“Did you try the soup you’re cooking right now?” The freshman paused his stirring. He grabbed a spoon and tried a bite, only for him to recoil in disgust. It took a lot of willpower not to chuckle at the scene.

“Shit, that’s disgusting!” Ace reached for a glass of water and chugged the whole thing.

“A word of advice, Trappola,” Malleus pulled out his magic pen, “Never get cooking instructions from Lilia.” He stealthily destroyed the offense to tastebuds everywhere, leaving a now empty pot on the stove.

“Noted,” Ace wiped his face dry. “Wait, didn’t he, like, raise you and Silver senpai? How the hell are you guys still alive?” He went to grab some vegetables from the fridge.

“Once we were tall enough to stand behind the stove, I asked my grandmother to let us learn how to cook from the kitchen staff. Before that, I would sneak Silver into the castle with me after dinner with Lilia so we could actually eat food.”

“So you know how to cook?”

“Some things.” Malleus approached the cutting board, tossed out the raw fish, and cleaned it. “I do recall how to make soup if you need instructions.”

“Yes please.”

----------------

It takes a lot for Malleus to get angry; 178 years on earth does give one a lot of patience plus Lilia being present tended to help his mood. However, this was cutting it very close.

Malleus, along with Yuu, Deuce, Epel, and Sebek had been amongst the lucky few to have been selected to participate in the first annual culture exchange between them, Royal Sword Academy, and Noble Bell College, who was hosting the event. But nobody expected the NBC student body president to be a deranged, magic hating, madman. Not only had he given him a fake invitation, but he had nearly killed Yuu (who had no way of preventing themself from falling), caused Epel to stay behind to ward off the pesky vines, and now had nearly dropped a whole chandelier on Deuce. While Sebek grilled Idia for his audacity to try to get out of helping (which Malleus wished he could be part of) and Azul had joined them after a brief conversation with Deuce, he and Rook both knelt in front of Deuce, assessing the damage. Malleus placed a hand on his twisted ankle, planning to heal it, but was stopped by Rook.

“If you use your magic, it will attract those flowers towards us, Roi de Dragons.”

“Surely you don’t expect me not to help him,” he glared at Rook.

“I’ll be okay, senpai,” Deuce reassured him, “Might have to take a break from track though…”

“The sooner we take care of Rollo, the sooner we’ll be able to heal Monsieur Spade,” Rook said, “I will stay with him until then to help fend off the lotuses.”

“I really can’t convince you otherwise, can I senpai?”

“Non, monsieur. This is my choice to make.” Deuce nodded in gratitude towards Rook. Malleus hesitated at leaving behind another of his treasures.

“Though I do have a request, senpai,” Deuce turned towards Malleus, “Make sure to sock that asshole Rollo real good for me!” The mere mention of the cause of all this was enough to get his fae blood boiling once more. However, he hid his simmering rage under a warm smile.

“I promise you, Spade, Flamme will regret the moment he put you all in harm's way.”

(The knowing smile Deuce flashed at him after everything was over and he saw Rollo’s black eye made the entire fight worth it.)

Chapter Text

“Housewarden! Silver senpai!” Malleus turned around to see two of his dorm mates running up to them. Silver gave them a confused look. The librarian glared in their direction, instantly causing the two students to stop yelling.

“Is something the matter?” Malleus asked.

“We were going to ask you that!” the second student exclaimed, out of breath.

“We’ve been in the library since class ended,” Silver spoke up. “What makes you say something like this?”

“So the lightning going crazy at the training grounds wasn’t you?” Malleus looked at Silver, who’s eyes were wide with realization.

“It was not.” He turned back towards the students, “But I will take care of this personally. Please make sure no students go to the training grounds.” The two students nodded and scurried out of the library before the librarian could punish them for talking.

“I assume you know what’s happening, Silver?” His retainer reluctantly nodded as they exited the library after them.

“It’s Sebek. He is trying to gain control of his signature spell.” Malleus froze.

“And why am I just learning he developed his signature spell?”

“It developed during your overblot, while we were in the dream realm,” Silver explained. That had been nearly a whole month ago, and that’s not counting the time in which everyone was asleep. Has Sebek really been trying to control it this long? And how did neither he nor Lilia notice? “He used it to save me from overblotting as well, but asked me not to tell you or father because he wanted to master control of it before revealing it.”

“I understand his intentions, but something like this can be dangerous; especially if his signature spell is to control an element.”

“It’s not really him manipulating lightning if I recall correctly.” Thunder boomed from outside, reflecting the prince’s slowly boiling anger. “He can turn into lightning.” That was all Malleus needed to hear before teleporting himself and Silver the rest of the way back to the dorm.

Everything hurt but at the same time, he couldn’t feel a thing. It felt like he was watching everything unfold from an outside perspective of his own body. Perhaps this is what the ghosts in Ramshackle dorm felt like? Sebek would have to ask them one day (while Grim is preferably out of earshot). He glanced down at his hands, which would crackle on and off with electricity. Everytime the lightning would flare up that suddenly sent waves of pain through his arms. He couldn’t focus on much of what was happening around him, everything outside of his own arms was a tad bit blurry. It will be okay, he reasoned with himself. His pen was nowhere near the danger blot level (which had been lowered since the last overblot) and Silver was guarding Malleus. This was fine. He was fine. And, he was finally making progress! Sebek was finally turning part of himself into lightning! A small part of him was glad that developing his signature spell hadn’t been some wishful desire made up in the realm of dreams to keep him there.

This was real.

But why did it hurt so much?

A pair of hands firmly grasped his own, causing the lightning to stop flickering.

“What?” He looked up to see Malleus, a concerned expression on his face. “M’lord don’t-”

“It’s alright. I’m going to help you,” he smiled warmly at the freshman. Silver was a short way away from the pair, making sure nobody else interfered, when Lilia walked over to him.

“Malleus found out?” he asked his son.

“Wait, you knew?!” Silver exclaimed.

“Silly boy, there’s no hiding things from me.” Lilia smirked before casting a barrier over the yard. “This should keep the lightning from hitting anything else.”

“Allow me to help you, father,” Silver pulled out his own magic pen and reinforced the barrier. Lilia smiled at his son before turning to the two within the barrier.

“I wanted to show this to you when I achieved mastery over it,” Sebek admitted.

“I understand. We will talk about this later, but for right now, I need you to tell me what your spell is supposed to do,” Malleus ordered while still holding his freshman’s hands, his eyes never leaving Sebek’s.

“It allows me to become lightning.”

“Entirely?”

“Yes.”

“Alright. Now listen closely to what I tell you.”

“I always do, young master,” Sebek smiled, albeit a little tiredly. Malleus spared a glance at Sebek’s magic pen. Good. There's still time before he hits the danger level.

“I want you to imagine a river. Imagine the water rushing down the stream. Such a thing cannot be limited to one part of the river, correct?” Sebek nodded.

“The same principle needs to be applied to your magic. You’ve been focusing on trying to get your hands to turn into lightning and the rest of the lightning you’ve conjured is uncontrollable as a result.”

“So should I just let it reign uncontrolled? Wouldn’t that harm everyone around me?” Malleus shook his head.

“Lilia and Silver made a barrier around us. It’s just you and me.”

“But then I’ll hurt you!” Sebek protested, his voice laced with panic. “I can’t- I won’t inflict harm upon you of all people due to my own ineptitude-”

“Sebek. It will be alright,” Malleus promised, “I will be alright. Your lightning is yours to hurt with as you will. Your signature spell is a part of you and I know you would never hurt me. Now, unleash your magic.” Sebek nodded and closed his eyes. He took a breath to steady himself and uttered the words to activate his signature spell. Silver and Lilia shielded their eyes as a blinding light covered both of them and the smell of ozone filled the grounds. Once the light faded, Malleus and Sebek stood, hand in hand, in the training grounds, completely unharmed. However, to Silver and Lilia’s surprise, Sebek was completely covered in lightning or rather: his entire being was made of lightning.

“He did it…” Silver uttered under his breath.

“Of course,” Lilia smiled knowingly, “All he needed was a little guidance.”

“Sebek, open your eyes,” Malleus said gently. The freshman hesitantly opened his eyes and looked down at his arms. He lit up in excitement, causing a few, harmless sparks to go flying around them.

“I’m really doing it…” Sebek said, awestruck.

“I never doubted you for a second, Sebek.” He smiled at his freshman. “Now I want you to try to stop your lightning.”

“Alright…” He pictured the river slowly drying out, his lightning slowly receding until he was fully himself again. Sebek looked at his hands in excitement, then back at Malleus.

“M’lord I can’t thank you enough for your help!”

“I didn't do much of anything,” Malleus answered, “You’ve always been capable of such great feats. But sometimes, we all need a little guidance so don't shy away from asking for help.”

“I won’t!” Sebek fell to his knees, much to Malleus’ concern. “I’m alright, just a little tired.”

“I understand. Working towards mastering your signature spell is a difficult task after all.” Lilia and Silver took down the barrier and made their way towards the pair.

“Impressive work, Sebek,” Silver praised.

“Thank you! But it was not just my doing alone.”

“Such a spell surely took it out of you,” Lilia commented, “Here, I’ll make something for you to get your energy back.” The vice housewarden headed back towards the dorms. Malleus, Sebek, and Silver all went pale.

“NO!” They scrambled to their feet and rushed after him.

Chapter Text

The stars were a sight that no matter how much Malleus looked at them, he would never tire of; because no matter how much he would age, the stars would always be there to keep him company. He shook his head. No, now things were different. There were people that stayed with him, that loved him for more than his title. He had his grandmother, Lilia, Silver, and he had…the freshmen.

But for how long? A small, cynical voice whispered to him. Soon enough, these children will leave you too. Lilia will be leaving soon. It won’t be long before they follow.

“Tsunotarou?” Yuu called out, cutting him from his thoughts. “Everything okay?”

“Did I give the impression otherwise?” He deflected.

“A little bit, you've been staring into space for a while now.”

“Ah. I was just stargazing is all. Tell me, child of man, does the sky back in your realm look the same?” Yuu sat down next to him on the grass.

“I’m not sure. Normally there's so much pollution in the skies that we can’t see the stars. At least in the area I lived in.”

“How unfortunate humans in your world are so careless about their environment.”

“Oh, we talkin shit about Yuu’s home again?” Another voice called out. Yuu and Malleus turned to see Epel and Deuce walking over to them.

“Yeah we were saying they hate the environment,” Yuu answered. “Since they caused so much pollution that we cant see the stars.”

“You can’t see the stars back home?” Deuce gaped as he and Epel sat down next to the pair..

“Not even the guiding star?” Epel questioned.

“Guiding star?” Yuu parroted. Malleus pointed at the brightest star in the sky.

“It is said that the guiding star guides the departed to the spirit realm.”

“Cool…”

“My mom said that people use it to navigate,” Deuce added. Malleus nodded in agreement.

“In Briar Valley, travelers use it to find their way through the dark.”

“But you guys have magic for that?” Yuu tilted their head.

“Not everyone has magic here. But no matter what, the guiding star is always there,” Epel answered.

But soon enough, it will only be the guiding star that keeps you company.

“Malleus senpai?” Deuce questioned.

“Apologies. What did you say, Spade?”

“Alright, yer hiding somethin’” Epel crossed his arms, “Sebek and Jack make the same face when they’re hidin’ an injury.”

“You’re injured?” Yuu’s eyes went wide with alarm.

“I thought fae were immune to most things,” Deuce pondered.

“We are,” Malleus confirmed, “And I promise, there’s no injuries. It’s… a silly thought. Nothing to be worried about.”

“I listen to their silly thoughts all the time,” Yuu snorted, “Whatever’s been bugging you has to be better than Ace and Epel’s argument about pigeons and chickens.”

“Idiot thinkin pigeons are city chickens still gets me riled up,” Epel mumbled. Deuce patted his shoulder in mocked sympathy.

“Alright, I suppose if you truly wish to know, I shall tell you,” Malleus turned his gaze back towards the guiding star. “I am a hundred and seventy eight years old.”

“Woah,” Deuce stared at him in awe.

“Vil-senpai would kill for yer skin routine,” Epel stated. Malleus chuckled at their reactions.

“I age slower because of my heritage as a fae,” he explained. “And because of this, I am… destined to outlive everyone I’ve ever cared about.”

“Wait what?”

“I worry that one day, I will roam these lands on my own, everyone I loved will have already passed on and I will be alone.” Malleus felt something wet on his face. Huh. He couldn’t remember the last time he shed tears but here he was, sitting in a field, crying. “And I genuinely think that despite all the magic I have, all the power I wield as a prince, I cannot face the world alone.” The three freshmen shared the same thought, but Yuu reached him first and wrapped him in a hug. Deuce and Epel were quick to follow.

“You will never be alone,” Yuu promised. “You won’t ever face the world alone. Even if I’m dead, I refuse to leave you here by yourself.”

“Yuu…”

“Uh, Yuu, that’s not how it works,” Deuce said, his voice muffled from being squished between Yuu and Epel. Yuu released the three of them from their grasp.

“Well me being here altogether is an anomaly so who's to say it can’t work like that?”

“Regardless, that’s why we oughta make the most of the moments we got now!” Epel declared. “Who knows, maybe Yuu stays with ya forever because they’re weird-”

“Hey!”

“-but the rest of us aren’t gonna let ya be alone!”

“If anything, I think Sebek would rather die,” Deuce chimed in.

“Than do what?” Sebek strode towards them, Ace, Jack and Ortho on his tail, “Are those… tears? What did you hooligans do to my liege?!”

“We banned him from ice cream,” Epel shot back sarcastically. Malleus looked at Epel with a betrayed expression. “I’m messin’ with ya, senpai.”

“We talked about our feelings,” Yuu answered, “Want to share yours?”

“Sebek,” Ace stage whispered, “if I were you, I would back away very slowly.”

“The prefect does have a tendency to get people to open up about their feelings,” Ortho piped up, “Last week they had big brother venting for nearly an hour about their manga.”

“I thank you for the offer…but I will have to refuse…” Sebek took Ace’s words to heart and started moving away from the group.

“Dogpile?” Deuce elbowed the prefect.

“Dogpile.” Jack shot both of them a dirty look.

“I’m not getting buried this time,” he warned. Deuce nodded in agreement before sprinting to tackle Sebek. The diasomnia freshman yelped as Deuce ran right into him, sending them both to the ground. Epel happily jumped on top of them, ignoring Sebek’s angry ranting. Ace, meanwhile, leisurely walked over and just sat on top of them.

“Is this a common occurrence?” Malleus asked Yuu as Jack shifted forms to go join them. They nodded in response.

“One thing I learned here is that ¾ of the student body are really stubborn; so the only way to force people to talk is if you give them no other choice.”

“Interesting.”

“You’re lucky. Had you continued to say you’re fine we would've dogpiled you too.” Malleus smiled at them.

“Oh really? You think you all are capable of doing such a thing to me?” Yuu smirked.

“You underestimate our power. Plus you love us too much to hurt us.” The prince watched as Jack transformed and hopped on top of all of them, the freshmen- his treasures- mixed between laughing and groaning.

“That I do, my treasure. That I do.”

Chapter Text

“You know what I’ve realized?”

“I’m not a mind reader, y’know.”

“A spell like that doesn’t exist here?”

“Focus! You gathered us for a reason, human!”

“Right. Anyways I was gonna say, two of our senpais have been hanging out with us a lot more recently.”

“And? We were all there for that, prefect.”

“Let them finish before you start being a jerk.”

“Yeah, ya don’t gotta be rude.”

“Sheesh I just said one thing, don’t gotta be assholes about it.”

“Who are you callin’ an asshole?!”

“Guys!”

“Sorry, prefect.”

“Thank you. Anyways, I was gonna say that yes, they hang out with us but its always separate.”

“Well, housewarden’s hated Malleus senpai from the very beginning.”

“I’m not sure how someone could hate my liege so much…”

“Ooh! What if they played a game together? It worked slightly when we had everyone at STYX!”

“I’m pretty sure Leona senpai only plays spelldrive and if Malleus senpai came to challenge him…”

“He’d lose his shit all over again.”

“Well, there is one other game both him and my liege play. Leona senpai played me when I got stuck in his dorm during the snowstorm.”

“I know what you’re talking about. Chess right? But how do we get the housewarden there at the same time as Malleus senpai?”

“I never pegged Leona as a chess player.”

“Grim, we literally tried to play him when we stayed there at the end of first semester.”

“Oh yeah…”

“I'll handle Leona with Jack, Sebek and Epel. Ace, Deuce and Ortho, get Tsunotarou to meet you at my dorm at 7 pm tomorrow.”

“We’re on it!”

“Not so loud or they’ll hear us plottin!”

“Apologies. I’m still working on it.”

“I feel like this is gonna end badly…”

“Don’t be such a downer, Juice.”

“Yeah, maybe they will forgive their past altercations!”

“That’s a bit too much optimism, Ortho.”

“So remind me why I’m being dragged out here this late at night?” Leona crossed his arms. Yuu smiled at him knowingly.

“You did hear us when we said we’re all hanging out at my place right?”

“Ya don’t wanna come senpai?” Epel asked, using what few acting skills he had to try the puppy eyes.

“If you’re trying to do the doe eyes then you need more acting lessons with Queenie,” He snorted.

“Dagnabbit!”

“It had to be semi convincing if you’re walking with us right now,” Jack piped up with a teasing smirk. Yuu opened the door and let everyone in.

“The others will be here in a bit so just chill for a bit,” Yuu informed them.

“Do you need help with anything?” Sebek asked. The prefect nodded and the two of them headed into the kitchen.

“We’ll be right back, senpai,” Epel spoke up, grabbing Jack’s arm. “We’re just gonna grab the movies from upstairs.” Within a few minutes, Ace and Deuce walked in, bickering, while Ortho happily trailed behind them, chatting animatedly with….

By the seven you’ve got to be kidding me.

“I am going to kill those cubs I swear to the seven…” Leona muttered as Malleus sat down on the opposite side of the couch. The silence between them was nearing awkward. It was like when Sebek had come into savanaclaw that one wintery day but worse because he had been Leona’s main target during the Spelldrive tournament. Malleus was everything that Leona was not; a champion spelldrive player, a ruler, beloved by his kingdom, and surrounded by people he loved- well Leona at least had that now. And he’d be damned if Malleus tried to take that too.

“I was unaware you would be here as well, Kingshcolar,” Malleus eventually broke the silence and interrupted Leona’s thoughts. He reached for a chessboard conveniently left on the coffee table nearby.

“I could say the same to you,” Leona’s voice was flat.

“I was invited by Spade, Trappola, and Shroud to ‘hang out’ as they put it,” Malleus mused.

“Huh. The other herbivores dragged me over here to chill out here tonight.”

“So then you arrived at the same conclusion that I have?”

“That the herbivores did this on purpose? Yeah.” The silence that had reigned between them was back in full force. Thankfully, it didn’t last long as Malleus reached for a chessboard placed conveniently on the coffee table nearby.

“What would you say to a match?”

“It beats doing nothing I guess,” Leona shrugged before reaching for the black king. “Your move lizard.” The faintest thump could be heard from the kitchen as Malleus made the first move.

“I take it you heard that as well?” Malleus asked. Leona nodded as he moved his pawn into position.

“They’re all still here but dunno why they’re hiding away.”

“Perhaps they heard your threat when I walked in,” Malleus suggested as he moved his knight.

“They aren’t stupid enough to think I was serious about that.” Leona picked up another pawn.

“I would hope you weren’t,” Malleus flashed him a warning glare. “I would hate to have to end your life so prematurely.” The savanaclaw housewarden looked up from where he had just captured Malleus’ knight and fixed him with a glare of his own.

“Was that a threat, lizard?”

“No.” Malleus moved his bishop into check. “It was very much a promise.”

“I’m quaking in my boots,” Leona shot back sarcastically. He moved his king out of check, capturing the bishop. Malleus’ glare was replaced a confused expression. He glanced down before returning his gaze to Leona.

“But you’re wearing slippers?”

“It’s a metaphor. But I was under the impression the high and mighty prince of Briar Valley didn’t mingle with people lower than him. Since when are you so buddy buddy with my herbivores?”

“I could say the same to you,” Malleus repeated Leona’s words from earlier, moving his queen to capture a pawn that had gone too close to the other side of the board. “Since when is the lonely prince of the savannah so chummy with my treasures?”

“Your treasures?” Leona snorted. “That’s cute, lizard.” He captured the queen with his own.

“Well surely you know as well as anyone how dear a treasure is to a dragon.” Malleus moved his knight, blocking the path to the king. “It seemed to be a fitting name after how much I’ve grown attached to them.”

“I don’t blame ya,” Leona admitted, “Those herbivores are somethin’ else. Once one of them grows on you, the rest follow like puppies.” He had a fond smile on his face.

“So I take it you had a similar experience as I did?”

“Probably,” he moved his queen once more, checkmating Malleus’ king. “Checkmate lizard.”

“Good game. It’s been quite a while since I’ve had a worthy adversary.”

“I’d hardly say I'm worthy compared to someone of your stature.”

“Well my treasures seem to disagree,” Malleus smiled, “and I trust their judgment.”

“A horrible decision really. Those herbivores get into more trouble than anyone using their judgment.”

“Well that’s why it falls to us to get them out of said trouble, no?” He put a hand out. It was as if the entire dorm was silent with anticipation. Leona glanced at the finished chess game then back at Malleus.

“Yeah.” He shook Malleus’ hand, “I guess it does.”

“Yes!” someone whispered. Leona’s ears perked up. Malleus glanced out of the corner of his eyes to see Yuu, Sebek, Ace, Deuce, and Ortho all peeking out from the kitchen door. Epel and Jack were hiding on the top of the stairwell.

“Say, lizard,” Leona had a knowing smirk on his face, “I’d assume the valley has an expression about eavesdroppers?”

“They do,” Malleus smiled back. “Eavesdroppers listen well everywhere, but can't hear under the water.” Both Leona and the freshmen were confused. Sebek meanwhile, slowly began backing away from the doorway.

“Dude,” Ace whispered, “Where are you going?” However, before Sebek could answer Ace’s question, a mini storm cloud appeared above the freshmen and rain began pouring on the freshmen.

“Mrah?!”

“What the-?!”

“A warning would’ve been nice, Sebek!”

“I just fixed the floors!”

“Jack I swear to the seven if you shake the water out of yer hair I’ll murder ya.”

“How about you herbivores stop hiding like a bunch of scared pups and come out here?” Leona called out. The eight freshmen sheepishly emerged from their hiding places, all dripping wet (except Sebek).

“That was just plain rude, ya know,” Epel stated.

“So is eavesdropping,” Leona shot back. “Though I’m surprised the croc caught on so quickly.”

“Master Lilia used to use similar tactics when we were kids,” Sebek admitted. “I believe nowadays the only one of us he can catch off guard with that move is Silver.”

“Makes sense,” Deuce spoke up, “Still could have warned us though.”

“So was the reason you brought us here just to get us to play chess?” Malleus asked.

“Well, yes and no,” Yuu answered. “We did want to see if you guys could get along so then we could all hang out. But the real reason is Ortho brought some videogames and we wanted to play with you guys.”

“Video games?” Sebek went pale. Ace, who saw this burst out laughing.

“You don’t play video games?”

“There isn’t much technology in Briar Valley,” Malles spoke up, “But we’ve been learning from both Lilia and Cater. I suppose you all would be able to teach us more.”

“Sure, lizard,” Leona had a knowing grin on his face as he turned to the freshmen, “I’ll teach you right after I put these froshes in their place.”

“Them’s fighting words, senpai,” Epel threatened.

“Then do your worst.”

“So Epel vs Leona in the first round,” Ortho noted, “There’s still room for two more players.”

“I’ll go,” Ace and Grim said in unison.

“I’d wager this round will be over quickly then,” Sebek whispered to Ortho and Deuce, who both nodded in agreement.

They played through the night, with Sebek nearly electrocuting the TV in a fit of rage, Grim throwing himself off the game stage due to his cat paws being unable to use the controls, Ace and Deuce turning the videogame fight into a physical fight after comments about their mothers were thrown about (Jack and Sebek managed to separate them), and Malleus somehow making it to the finals of their little tournament bracket where he played against Yuu and won. (Though Leona also took credit for being the one to teach Malleus how to play).

By the time they had grown tired of playing and decided to call it a night, it was nearly two in the morning. Therefore they all came to the agreement of sleeping over at Ramshackle. They made a big campout in the middle of the living room, with Deuce and Malleus both summoning extra pillows and blankets (and a cauldron on Deuce’s first attempt at summoning). They split themselves amongst the couches and the floor before Yuu got the lights. As the freshmen each fell asleep, Leona and Malleus couldn’t hold back the smiles at the sight of all of them together and safe. They might have their disagreements, but both the two housewardens would remember this night as the best night of their time at NRC.

Chapter Text

“Woah…” Yuu stared at the street performers in awe. One performer conjured a bear made of entirely water while the second performer retaliated with a python made of vines—the two elemental animals charged at each other, splashing nearby watchers in the process. The five freshmen had gotten permission from their housewardens to leave campus in order to show Yuu around Sage Island. They also planned on doing some shopping (unbeknownst to Yuu) after they found out the prefect barely had any clothing aside from their uniform.

“Someone should take a picture, I’ve never seen them so awestruck before,” Ace whispered to Epel, who was stealthily pulling out his phone.

“Guys!” Deuce, Jack, and Grim walked over, with Grim’s paws currently full of food. “You have got to try these! They let you breathe fire!” He had three lollipops in one of his paws, each one topped with a red fire-shaped candy.

“Ya already breathe fire though,” Epel commented as he took a lollipop. Ace grabbed the other two and passed one to Yuu.

“Um, Yuu?” Ace waved a hand in front of the prefect’s eyes. “Furball grabbed you some food.”

“Oh, sorry. I just haven't seen something like this before,” Yuu took the lollipop. “Thanks, Grim."

“Watch, one day, I’m gonna make animals out of fire and you’ll be like ‘Wow, Grim’s so cool! He should get lots of tuna!’” Grim boasted.

“Sure,” Ace rolled his eyes, “That would require you to not set everything else around you on fire first.”

“Oh yeah?! Name one time I did that!”

“The entrance ceremony,” Deuce answered.

“The Queen of Hearts statue,” Ace added.

“Kalim-senpai,” Epel supplied.

“That was part of the entrance ceremony!” Grim protested before turning to Ace, “And you also set the statue on fire!”

“Guys can we not-” Yuu was interrupted as they hiccuped, sending a ball of fire hurtling near Jack, who sidestepped it with ease. The prefect’s eyes were as wide as saucers. Then they started laughing in excitement.

“Awesome!”

“Oh cool, prefect can breathe fire!” Epel exclaimed.

“Let me try,” Ace unwrapped his lollipop and bit right into it.

“I know you didn’t just bite into a lollipop,” Jack stared at Ace in astonishment.

“Trey senpai would be so disappointed right now…” Deuce pinched the bridge of his nose. Ace opened his mouth to respond, only for an even bigger ball of fire to escape him. However, before it could hit anyone, a sparrow made of water flew by and intercepted it. The five students turned to where the street performers, now having finished their performance, were smiling and waving at them.

“Thanks!” Epel hollered at them.

“You guys were amazing!” Yuu added. The two performers bowed dramatically and, in a puff of smoke, the two of them vanished.

“So cool…” Grim said in awe.

“Oh please,” Ace scoffed, “I could do better tricks with a bit of practice.”

“Sure,” Jack agreed sarcastically, “And would you actually put in the effort to do it?”

“I did it with Riddle senpai a couple weeks ago!

“Yeah, you should have seen it,” Deuce admitted, “I’ve never seen the housewarden look so red before. I’m pretty sure if not for the law, Ace would have been murdered.”

“Now that, I’d pay to see,” Jack smirked.

“Rude!”

“Whatcha looking at, henchman?” Grim hopped off of Jacks shoulder and landed on Yuu, who had their hands pressed against the front window of a nearby plushie shop.

“So many plushies… I've never even seen some of these before! Are they magical here too or is that just in Harveston?”

“I dunno,” Epel admitted, “But I’mma find out. Maybe grab one for my meemaw if they are.”

“Y’know prefect, if you wanted something soft to sleep with, you could just squish Grim,” Deuce teased. Grim squawked in indignation.

“I tried, but it ended up with Grim partially burning me because I rolled on top of him,” they sheepishly admitted.

“So which kind of plushie are you gonna get?” Jack asked as he held the door open for everyone to walk in.

“I have no idea. I’m probably going to look around then decide.”

“Guys I have a genius idea,” Ace spoke up. He pointed to the back wall, lined to the top with plush lions. “We get that one for Malleus senpai.”

“And that one for Leona senpai!” Epel motioned to the dragon plushies stacked neatly on a nearby table. Ace laughed and high fived Epel before going to grab the plushies in question.

“Thinking about it,” Deuce said, “They’re very similar.”

“Leona and Malleus?” Yuu asked.

“I was thinking more lions and dragons in general but yeah, them too.”

“I see what you mean,” Jack spoke up, “They’re both really clever and strong, they both really care about the people around them but they are also too prideful to admit it out loud-”

“Heads up, Epel’s recording you,” Grim whispered to Jack, who whirled around to face the pomefiore freshman.

“Ya damn cat, why’d you snitch?” Epel groaned.

“Payback for my pie-ella.”

“Wait, that was Ace though,” Deuce protested.

“Paella, Grim,” Yuu automatically corrected.

“Well, y’know what they say; snitches get stitches!” Epel snatched Grim off of Jack’s shoulders just as Jack tried to reach for Epel’s phone. Grim yelped and scrambled out of Epel’s grip, knocking over a table of plush raccoons in the process. The employee at the register shot them a dirty look.

“Give me the phone Epel,” Jack demanded. Epel glanced at Jack, then back at Grim who was scurrying towards Deuce, who had left towards the hedgehog plushies, and an idea struck him.

“Ace, catch!” Ace, who had just picked out a dragon plushie for Leona, turned around just in time to get smacked in the face with Epel’s phone.

“Ow! What was that for?” He scowled.

“Was an accident! Keep it away from Jack!” Epel said quickly before rushing after Grim. Ace shrugged and pocketed the phone before returning to look at the hedgehog plushies. Jack sighed in exasperation before turning back towards where Yuu was picking up the overturned raccoon plushies.

“Need help with that?” he asked.

“Thanks, Jack,” Yuu smiled at him. They glanced back where Grimm was flying in circles around a very confused Deuce while Epel tried to grab him. “Honestly I can’t go anywhere with these guys.”

“Well, we haven't been kicked out yet so that's a plus.”

“Fair enough.”

“Guys? What are you two doing?” Ace asked.

“The usual, cleaning up after Grim,” Yuu answered flatly. "Did you find a dragon plushie?"

"Yep," Ace grinned, revealing the dragon plushie. "Now to grab a lion plushie and we'll be all set-" their conversation was interrupted as Grim went careening into the back wall, taking an entire wall of plushies with him.

"I think I spoke too soon," Jack said, his eyes never leaving the disaster in front of him. Deuce and Epel had gone up to pull Grim out of the plush pile just as a manager came out from the back room, positively seething.

"I'm gonna grab the lion plushie before he finishes ranting and boots us." Ace walked away. Yuu looked between where the manager was tearing into the three of them, and where Ace was walking away, and followed Ace over to the lion plushie section.

"Haven't even been here for a year and somehow I'm already banned for life from somewhere," Deuce lamented. Jack patted him on the back sympathetically. "I didn't even do anything!"

"Sorry ya got dragged into it, Deuce," Epel apologized.

"Why are you complaining? At least you didn't have a shelf fall onto you!" Grim cried out from atop Yuu's shoulders.

"You're the one that went flying into it, furball," Ace rolled his eyes.

"To be fair, we all got pulled into it because the cashier pointed us out and said we're responsible for them," Jack added.

"Damn snitches all around us," Epel muttered.

"Okay but did you see the manager's face?" Ace joked. "He could give Riddle a run for his money with how red he got."

"Well at least we came out of this without a collar," Deuce laughed.

"Think they'll call school?" Yuu asked. Jack shook his head.

"I don't think they know we're Night Raven College students."

“Well that’s good at least, the last thing we need is the senpais banning us from going out.”

“Nah, next time we just drag Leona and Malleus senpai with us and they can be supervision,” Ace suggested as they walked down the streets.

“Now I’m kind of glad Sebek and Ortho couldn't come with,” Epel said, “Otherwise that would’ve gone so much worse.”

“Wait, why didn’t they come again?”

“Ortho’s got a system update and Sebek has to tend to the equestrian club horses since Silver senpai is too sick to do it today,” Yuu reported. “So where to next?”

“Well so far we’ve gone clothes shopping, watched a performance, breathed fire, and got banned from a plushie shop,” Grim summarized, “I dunno about the rest of you but I’m kinda hungry.”

“That could be because you have a bottomless stomach,” Epel shot back. However, his stomach contradicted him by growling loud enough for everyone to hear.

“You were saying,” Grim had a shit-eating grin on his face.

“I’m down, just where did you want to-” A man bumped into Ace, muttering an apology. “-go?” He side-eyed the guy before turning his attention back towards the group.

“Well we have to be back at school by 8, which gives us an hour,” Jack said, looking at his phone, “There’s a cafe a block from here.

“I’m down,” Ace agreed, “Gonna fill up on cherry pie and-” His hand went into his pocket and he froze. “Wait a second.”

“What is it?” Yuu asked.

“That guy stole my wallet!” the five of them turned towards the man that had bumped into Ace a minute prior. He immediately broke into a sprint. “Get back here!” Ace went running after him.

“Okay I guess we’re doin’ this, “ Epel muttered. The four of them ran after Ace and the guy, further and further away from the bustling streets of Sage Island. They turned a corner and came to a dead end.

“Look man,” Ace started, slightly winded from the running, “I’m not mad, just give me back my wallet and we’ll go our separate ways.”

“After all the trouble I went through to get you guys away from the crowds?” The freshmen exchanged confused looks. “Nah. I don’t think so.” With a snap of his fingers, five more men entered the alleyway, blocking off their exit.

“Let’s talk, shall we?”

Chapter Text

“There had better be a good reason to summon us this late in the evening, Headmage,” Azul narrowed his eyes at Crowley. All of the housewardens (except for Malleus) along with their vices had been gathered in Crowley’s office.

“I was this close to beating Azul in Monopoly!” Idia sighed through his tablet.

“No you were not-”

“Get on with it headmage, you interrupted my nap,” Leona interrupted the arguing pair.

“Yes, right.” Crowley spoke up, “I summoned you here, in my graciousness, to warn you about an increase in disappearances of mages on Sage Island.”

“Disappearances?” Vil echoed. “As in…”

“Abductions mainly. Authorities are suspecting that a mage trafficking market has opened in the city’s underground." The room exploded in outcry. Riddle stared at them, somewhat confused, until Trey leaned over and whispered what a trafficking market is. The Heartslabyul housewarden looked like he wanted to be sick.

“Everyone calm down!” Crowley hollered. “I can assure you that this campus is perfectly safe!”

“So we just have to lockdown campus, problem solved,” Idia spoke up. “No one gets in no one gets out.”

“When did you learn about this headmage?” Jamil asked. “And how do we know these traffickers haven’t made it onto campus already?” His mind was moving a mile a minute with different ways to ensure his idiot of a housewarden didn't get himself kidnapped.

“The barrier prevents anyone who isn't a student or staff member from entering the school.”

“But that doesn’t consider if any of the students here are part of this market already,” Azul solemnly noted.

“Hold that thought for a moment, Azul,” Riddle stated before turning towards the headmage, the grip on his staff tightening, “Please answer Jamil’s other question. When did you become privy to this information?”

“It was about noon today.” What happened next was so fast that none of the other housewardens could stop it. Riddle swung his staff with practiced ease and, without saying a word, collared the headmage.

“Riddle!” Trey gasped.

“LMAO HE COLLARED HIM!” Idia laughed from his tablet. A quick little flash emitted from the tablet, saving the picture of Crowley being collared.

“Oh my…” Azul stared at him with wide eyes. Leona muffled his laughter at the headmage’s shocked expression. Lilia watched the scene unfold with interest.

“Mr. Rosehearts! What is the meaning of this?!” Crowley barked.

“You learned of this nearly seven hours ago and you STILL signed the permission forms for the freshmen to go off campus!” He exploded, his face red with anger.

“What?” Leona and Vil snapped in unison. They flashed a brief glare at each other before turning their ire back towards the headmage.

“My freshmen, along with the Ramshackle prefect, approached me at about 2 pm today with forms to go off campus in order to show Yuu around the city and do some shopping. After they had my approval, I informed them to take the forms to the headmage, who later sent me confirmation that they were approved.”

“Rook, did Epel approach you as well?” Vil questioned his vice.

“Oui, Roi de Poison, but with the revelation of this, it had slipped my mind at the given moment.”

“I don’t even need to ask if Jack is with them; those froshes stick together like glue,” Leona pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Ortho’s still on campus, correct?” Azul questioned.

“Yep!” his voice came from Idia’s tablet, “I am currently undergoing some updates so I was unable to join the freshmen this afternoon.”

“And Sebek?” Riddle asked.

“He’s still on campus,” Leona answered. Lilia flashed him a surprised look, which Leona chose to ignore.

“And why do you, of all people, know that?”

“None of your damn business.”

“We’re getting off focus,” Vil snapped.

“Why did you wait almost seven hours before telling us about this?” Jamil spoke up. “That’s more than enough time for anyone to get in and/or out of here with potential targets.”

“Well you see…”

“If I may be so bold,” Jade piped up, “I believe this returns to Azul’s original statement. He suspected that there were students from the school involved.”

“Regardless if he suspects the rest of the school; he still should have informed us earlier,” Vil shot back, “It’s our responsibility to ensure our students are safe and we just willingly sent our freshmen out into danger because of this negligence.”

“I uh-” Crowley stammered.

"WOLF!" A voice screamed from the hallways, saving Crowley from having to give an explanation. Leona and Ruggie exchanged glances.

“You don’t think…” Ruggie trailed off. Without another word, Leona strode over to the door and yanked it open. He had barely made it two steps before a large white wolf barreled into him, sending his small passenger flying into the office. Riddle stepped forward and caught him, stumbling a bit from the force. With a bit of force, Leona managed to get the wolf to stand still. Two scarabia students had stopped at the doorway, their magic pens pointed at the wolf.

“Leave him,” Leona ordered the two students.

“B-but its a wolf! What if it goes berserk and eats us?” One of them protested.

“Then you would have earned it,” he snapped before checking the wolf. Blotches of red soaked the wolf- Jack’s- fur and it made Leona’s blood boil. “Can you turn back?” Jack shook his head, wincing at the movement. The savanaclaw housewarden moved his hand along the fur until he felt the scar. Jack whimpered in pain at the touch.

“How bad is it?” Ruggie asked, exiting the chaos that was the meeting room.

“It’s deep. Gotta admit, most wolves would have bled out by now,” Leona answered, his voice low and his eyes never leaving Jack, “But if he’s anything, he’s stubborn as hell. Help him to the infirmary and then lock down the dorm. Anyone tries to get in or leave without permission, rip them to fucking shreds.”

“Yes sir,” he saluted mockingly. As Ruggie led Jack away, Leona turned to where Riddle had picked up Jack’s passenger.

“Oi, furball, you alive?” Grim opened his eyes and exhaled in relief when he saw Leona.

“The great Grim isn’t gonna die that easily. But we do have a problem.”

“Where are the others, Grim?” Riddle questioned.

“We got cornered by these guys; they looked like they were upperclassmen but it was a bit hard to get a good look at them when they're blasting us with magic. We were holding our own until one of them came at Jack with a knife.“ Leona swore under his breath.

“Keep going,” Vil demanded, “How did you and Jack escape?”

“After Jack got hit, Epel tackled the guy while Yuu tossed me to Jack and yelled at him to run. Said that since he can turn into a wolf, he has the fastest chance of escaping,” Grim finished.

“How many were there?” Leona spoke up, trying to keep his voice calm.

“I think about six of them; but only half of them were using magic.”

“The rest were armed with knives then?” Grim nodded.

“Goodness, four students kidnapped under my responsibility…” Crowley buried his head in his hands.

“You're just realizing this?!” Kalim stared at him, astonished at his audacity.

“Wait for it…” Jamil muttered under his breath.

“How am I going to explain this to the public?!” the headmage mewled.

“HUH?!”

“Never fails,” Jamil sighed.

“It’s Halloween all over again,” Trey rolled his eyes.

“Someone shut him up before I knock him out myself,” Leona growled.

“For once I’m in agreement with you, Leona,” Vil said sharply.

“So then what are you planning to do about this crisis?” Riddle addressed the headmage.

“Well, as of now I can’t do anything seeing as I still have my magic bound.” The Heartslabyul housewarden glared at the headmage. However, before things could escalate between the two, Lilia stepped in.

“As Idia said, locking down the dorms is likely the next best course of action. This way not only do we ensure our students safety, but we can catch anyone trying to sneak out to the market. We would do a full sweep to see who's participating in such things and who isn’t.”

“A splendid idea, Lilia-senpai,” Azul answered, almost giddy, “I’m sure those participating in such a treacherous act would have plenty of information for us. Isn’t that right Jade?”

“Of course, Azul,” Jade smiled darkly.

“Well,” Leona got up from his spot, “You all can take care of that. I’m outta here.”

“You’re really going to leave in the middle of all this?” Riddle stared at him in astonishment.

“Mr. Kingscholar! I highly advise you not to do that!” Crowley ordered.

“Someone’s gotta make sure the froshes don’t get themselves killed and its not like you’re going to send people out to search for them.” Vil flashed him a confused look.

“Bruh, I literally just said we should lock down campus and now you’re going to willingly go to the city?” Idia asked.

“If you got kidnapped, I’m sure it would cause an international crisis,” Lilia added.

“You seem to forget that one of the herbivores don’t have magic. What do you think those bastards are gonna do when they find out? Just let them go free?” Leona pinched the bridge of his nose. The rest of the room went silent at his answer. He shot a glare at Lilia, “Plus, as you very much like to remind me, I’m not in line for the throne; the Savanna wouldn't bat an eye if I disappeared.” He walked out of the room, ignoring the eyes staring down his neck. As he made his way out of the main building, his phone chimed.

Queenie: Meet me in Pomefiore in half an hour.

Chapter Text

“Oi, lizard,” Leona found Malleus wandering around Ramshackle as he did every night.

“It's unlike you to be out in the evening, Kingscholar. Is there something wrong?”

“There’s a mage trafficking group loose on the island and they’re locking down the campus. Nobody is allowed in or out of campus as of now.”

“I see. But this is something normally Lilia would tell me or another housewarden would text me, as you all do nowadays. How come you sought me out?”

“The herbivores are off campus.” Lightning cracked through the peaceful night sky. The smile on Malleus’ face dropped.

“What?”

Sebek Zigbolt, please come with me!" Ortho sped to the field, where Sebek was currently feeding his horse some food.

"Ortho? You didn't go with the others?" He asked confusedly. He shook his head.

"I was undergoing a system update. But I just left a meeting with the housewardens. Campus is being locked down due to the potential threat of a mage trafficking group."

"How low can people get?" Sebek muttered distastefully, "Abducting and selling people for their magic? Wait, I fail to see how we're involved with this."

"Something's happened to the others. Jack came bursting into the room, injured and in his wolf form." Sebek’s breath caught in his throat.

"And the other humans?" He asked, scared of the answer he would receive.

"I do not know, Grim stated the last he saw of them, they were fighting off half a dozen armed people." Sebek muttered a curse in fae tongue that would have made the queen blush.

"And we can't leave to their aid because of the lockdown."

"It hasn't been initiated yet. The lockdown barrier will go down at 8 o'clock tonight," Ortho cheerfully added.

"That leaves us 45 minutes to get off campus," he realized.

"Yep!"

“Are the housewardens also going to attempt to rescue them?”

“Headmaster Crowley has ordered everyone to stay put for their safety. However, Leona Kingscholar disregarded his orders and-” Ortho was cut off by the booming of thunder above them. “-”is likely planning a rescue operation.”

“And from the sound of it, he has reached out to the young master.”

“Let’s ask to join them! We’ll have a better chance if there’s more of us than if we attempted it alone.” Sebek nodded in agreement.

"Then let us make haste to our friend's aid!" Ortho quickly helped Sebek close the stables before the two of them headed back towards the dark mirror. However, neither of them caught the third person watching them from the shadows.

"Well, looks like they know already. Better head back and warn the boss." He pulled out his magic pen and pointed at the ground. "Down the Rabbit Hole." The ground opened up and the student was gone without a trace.

“Okay, we have to be calm about this,” Yuu muttered, “Jack and Grim must have made it to school by now and if not, we’re way past curfew anyways; Riddle-senpai would have noticed us being missing by now.” Deuce nodded in agreement. Epel was mumbling a plethora of curses sure to get him a mountain of etiquette lessons. Ace, meanwhile, messed with his bonds with a smug expression.

“How the hell are ya so calm about being kidnapped?!” Epel hissed. The four of them were inside a cage, their hands tied together with zip ties.

“Say Yuu, weren’t you supposed to meet up with Malleus-senpai tonight for ice cream or something?” Ace asked. The prefect’s eyes went wide with realization.

“Jack and I were going to meetup with Leona for a sparring match,” Deuce spoke up. Ace gave him a bewildered look before Epel began cracking up.

“Oh my seven they definitely fucked up,” he grinned.

“All we have to do is stall for time and make sure nobody separates us,” Yuu stated. The three of them nodded in agreement just as someone walked into their cage.

“Okay, we need to assess your abilities so we know what to price you,” the man stated. The four of them exchanged worried glances before Ace spoke up.

“Please,” he scoffed, “You can’t give me a value; I’m priceless.”

“Sounds like you want to go first then,” he grabbed Ace by the scruff of his shirt and hauled him to his feet.”

“Ace, what are you doing?!” Deuce hissed.

“The prefect Juice, plan it out.” Ace let himself be dragged out of the cage into the larger space of the warehouse.

“Whatcha think he meant by that?” Epel asked Yuu. Deuce went pale as he pieced together what Ace had meant.

“I don’t have magic…” Yuu’s voice was barely audible.

“If they find that out, then what purpose does Yuu have here?” Deuce uttered in horror.

“You don’t think they would go that far, do you?” Epel cried.

“They nearly killed Jack when we tried to fight them,” Yuu whispered. “They have no problem murdering us if we aren’t of any use to them.”

Chapter Text

“I’m surprised you came, Leona.” Vil said from behind his cauldron. The two of them were inside of Pomefiore’s personal potions lab. Leona made himself comfortable on one of the cushioned lab benches lining the walls of Pomefiore.

“You wouldn’t have the gall to call me here without a good reason.”

“Well, you would be right. Do you have any kind of plan to find the freshmen?"

"Yeah, to find them," he answered sarcastically, "I'm not reckless enough to go in magic blazing."

"So then what are you planning on doing?"

"It would take us all night to search the whole city, I'm going to make them come to me." A purple haze escaped the cauldron Vil was dropping ingredients into.

"How do you plan on doing that?"

"Well, seeing as they're going after people with magic, I'm going to use enough of it to catch their attention in a seedy place of town." Leona took a whiff of the potion. "What're you making? Haven't smelled any potion from class like this one."

"An illusion potion. We haven't gotten to it in class yet, not that you'd know seeing as you're always skipping class-" Vil snarked.

"Extra dialogues not needed," he rolled his eyes.

"-Anyways, it will let you change into the form of one other person at will. The effect can be canceled at will by using your signature spell." Vil poured the potion into a small vial and handed it to Leona.

"Thanks, Queenie. I'm surprised you went this far for me."

"I'm not doing this for you. If I had it my way, either myself or Rook would be going with you. However, the headmage has borrowed my vice housewarden to track down anyone who leaves and has threatened expulsion to everyone in the room after you left if we tried to copy you."

"I bet Little Red didn't take that well," Leona chuckled.

"Oh no, had it not been for Trey and Azul intervening, he would have committed assault."

"They should've let him do it." A knock at the door interrupted their conversation.

"You expectin' anyone else?" Leona asked.

"Not that I know of. It's likely just Rook," Vil answered before turning to the door. "You can come in." Malleus walked in, with an upset Ortho and Sebek on his heels. Leona should've taken a picture of the look on Vils face.

"Got your dorm situated?" He asked Malleus.

"Yes, but we do have another problem. Ortho and Sebek would like to join us."

"Absolutely not," Vil stated, "I'm having a hard enough time trying to figure out how you convinced Malleus to come with you but there's no way you are taking the other freshmen with you too."

"Leona Kingscholar and Malleus Draconia both have a soft spot for us freshmen so they put aside their differences when it comes to us," Ortho happily explained. Leona buried his head in his hands when he saw Vil smirking.

"Dammit little radish sprout."

"Regardless, I'm in agreement with Schoenheit," Malleus answered, saving Leona from any further teasing. "You two cannot come."

"With all due respect, my liege," Sebek stepped forward, going eye to eye with Malleus, "I was not asking for permission. My comrades are just as important to me as they are to you. I am going to do my part in ensuring they are returned here safely."

“Even if I order you to stay put?” Malleus challenged. The tension in the room was thick enough to cut. Sebek hesitated for a moment before regaining his courage and speaking up.

“Yes.” Vil nearly dropped the ingredients he was returning. Ortho flashed Sebek a thumbs up from behind Malleus. Leona looked between the two of them, still in their standoff, before getting up from his spot and walking over to the pair.

“I say we let them come,” Leona decided.

“You cannot be serious,” Vil narrowed his eyes at him, “Crowley threatened expulsion to anyone that tried to leave campus-”

“No, Crowley threatened everyone in that room with expulsion. I was already gone by then and these three were never in there to begin with.”

“Plus big brother said it was okay for me to go,” Ortho spoke up.

“Why would Shroud allow you to go into such a dangerous situation?” Malleus questioned.

“I have what the others call ‘big ass death laser’ to protect myself with.” Vil opened his mouth to ask Ortho about the death laser, but was cut off by Malleus, who was frowning at Leona.

“Why would you allow them to come with us, Kingscholar?”

“Well, death laser aside, it’s not everyday I see Sebek of all people stand up to you, the person he idolizes the most. Plus the more of us, the better. We don’t know what condition the other herbivores will be in when we find them so we can use all the help we can get in getting them out of there.” Leona explained before turning towards the two freshmen, “But, you two do exactly as we say when we say it. No objections. We tell you to leave, you leave. Got it?” Sebek smiled at both of them.

“We won’t let you down!”

“Ready for our objectives, Leona Kingscholar!” Ortho hovered excitedly.

“As touching as this is,” Vil cut them off, “You need to get out of my dorm. There’s 10 minutes until the lockdown barrier is activated.”

“Very well then. Thank you for your help, Schoenheit. It would seem we are in your debt once again,” Malleus said gratefully.

“Speak for yourself,” Leona rolled his eyes. “Queenie and I are square.”

The freshmen watched as Ace was made to stand in the center of the warehouse and given a magic pen. Two guys stood in front of Ace, each with a magic pen of their own.

“We’re gonna blast spells at you, dodge using any magic spells you know. Preferably a signature spell.”

“And if I don’t?” Ace snarked. “Plus, I’m a freshman, I don't have a signature spell fully developed yet.”

“Then your friends get to watch you get blasted across the room. Just use the basic elemental spells then.”

“Fine, lets just get this over with.” As Ace dueled the two of them, the three caged students watched in astonishment as they hit him with various types of elemental magic. Ace put up a barrier to shield himself from most of it before firing back with a blast of wind magic.

“Guys…” Yuu whispered, trying to keep the panic out of their tone, “They’re gonna see right through me.”

“No they won’t,” Deuce whispered back, his voice laced with determination.

“Yeah!” Epel agreed, “We just have to be smart about it, come up with a strategy like our senpais do.” Their conversation was interrupted as Ace cried out in pain when a shot of vines broke through his barrier and grazed his shoulder.

“Alright, that's enough, Shiro,” the man ordered the one that had fired the plant spell.

“Sheesh, Augustus, don’t hafta get your panties in a twist.” Shiro sighed, disappointed it was already over. The man, known as Augustus, scowled.

“It’s August. Grab the next one then if you have time to chat; Seven knows how long we got to assess them and move outta here before the police are on our tails.” August turned to the other spellcaster, “And you, go wrap up his shoulder; we can’t have the merchandise damaged.” A collective shudder went through the four of them at the word ‘merchandise.’

“Man, they’re actin’ like we’re just some dolls for them to sell or somethin.’' Epel muttered.

“Well, Vil-senpai does dress you up as one…” Ace said as he was unceremoniously thrown back into the cage. “Hey take it easy on me, would you?” the spellcaster shrugged unapologetically before shutting the cage.

“Hey boss, lemme grab one of the RSA brats, they’re more fun to deal with!” Shiro pleaded.

“I’ll never understand this childish rivalry between your schools but fine. Be quick about it,” Augustus pinched the bridge of his nose.

“So it wasn’t just us that was taken…” Deuce said as Shiro exited through a nearby door.

“Not to mention, this Shiro guy is from our school,” Yuu added. “Whichever dorm he’s in is going to be mad when they find out about this.”

“Is it bad I’m hoping he’s part of octanivelle? Just so he can suffer through Jade and Floyd senpai?” Deuce asked.

“Nah, forget that, I’d hope he’s in savanaclaw so Ruggie senpai can make him hurt himself before Leona senpai turns his hand into sand,” Epel smirked.

“Maybe he’s in our dorm, then we can watch Riddle senpai actually decapitate someone,” Ace laughed.

“Housewarden wouldn’t go that far!”

“That’s it!” Yuu exclaimed, wincing at how loud they got.

“Huh?!”

“Yuu, you want to decapitate him?!” Ace asked, actually shocked for once.

“What? No! I was talking about what Epel said about Ruggie senpai!” The door opened with a loud groan and Shiro strolled in, tugging along a sobbing RSA student.

“What are you planning, Yuu?” Epel tilted his head in confusion.

“His signature spell, Laugh With Me, what if I say that’s the only magic I know and that I can only use it on my familiar?”

“Yeah, but the furball’s not here,” Ace remarked.

“They’ll think you’re lying,” Deuce chimed in.

“Which is why they’ll bring one of you out with me and have me do it to you.”

“And then we go out and just cast spells instead!” Epel pieced it together.

“Exactly!”

“Alright, I’ll go with you then,” Deuce volunteered.

“Thank you, Deuce,” Yuu smiled at him.

“Such a gentleman, Deucey,” Ace teased.

“I will punch you, injury or not."

“How are you gonna do that if your hands are still tied- OW!” Ace rubbed his non injured shoulder from where Epel punched him.

“Like that,” Deuce grinned.

Chapter Text

"Trey-trey~” Cater walked up to the vice housewarden. “I heard everything from Kalim. Someone nabbed the freshies?" Trey solemnly nodded.

"Riddle gave them permission to go out today before the headmage told us anything. Anyone missing on your side?"

"Nope. I got a couple clones checking the gardens right now too. Yours?"

"Just one, I'm headed over to tell Riddle." Cater nodded in acknowledgement and joined Trey as he walked through the juniors section of the dorms.

"So Crowley knew and didn't tell anyone? Yikes, I bet nobody took that well."

"Tell me about it, Riddle collared him and very nearly punched his mask right off his face." Trey took off his glasses and punched the bridge of his nose.

"Man, you should've let him!"

"Assault's still a crime, you know."

"Only if you get caught," Cater smiled, the smile never quite reaching his eyes. "Once the dorm's situated, are we gonna go look for them?"

"Unfortunately, no. They're locking down campus and anyone caught leaving will be expelled on the spot."

"What?! Nah Trey, they can't just keep us here while they-" Cater violently flinched, his hand immediately going to his stomach and him falling to his knees.

"Cater?! What's wrong?" Trey asked.

"Someone just stabbed one of my clones." He said through gritted teeth. "They were a rabbit beastman, in the gardens." Trey mentally went through all the beastmen in heartslabyul before finally realizing who had stabbed Cater’s clone.

"I know exactly who you’re talking about. We need to go to Riddle. Right now." Trey helped Cater to his feet and the two of them made their way into Riddle’s dorm room.

“Trey. Cater. Is everyone accounted for?” Riddle asked, currently filling out a missing persons report to send to the police.

“Asides from… you know.” Trey hesitated. “We are currently missing one student.” The pen in the housewarden’s hand snapped.

“Who?”

“Peter Kanni, a sophomore.”

“Do we know if he’s still on campus?” Cater shook his head.

“One of my clones caught him in the garden before he stabbed me so he probably made a run for it."

"What?!" Riddle shot up from his seat and strode over to Cater. "He stabbed you? Are you injured?! Wait, why are you here and not at the infirmary?!"

"Woah, chill for a sec, Riddle!" Cater reassured him, placing both hands on his shoulders, "the real me is still 100%! Though it's probably gonna bruise for a bit."

"Alright, but if that changes, let me know immediately." Cater nodded and let go of Riddle. “Was there any other information about him you could find?"

"His roommates are still accounted for, but two of them reported that their magic pens had been stolen," Trey answered. "I'm guessing Peter took them before he left for some reason."

"I'll send in a request for two more pens. Anything on Magicam?"

"I got a pic of him but otherwise, not much. Doesn't seem like he's much of a poster."

"Alright, then I'll be looking into his records once I finish this." Riddle returned to his chair and pulled out another pen.

"We can take care of that," Trey spoke up. "You just take a break after that, okay?"

"Trey, two of my freshmen are currently missing because of both my and the headmages's ineptitude. How do you expect me to take a break?"

"Wait, how are you at fault?" Cater asked.

"He isn't," Trey answered before turning back towards Riddle, "you know none of what happened is your fault, right?"

"I could have denied them permission."

"And they would've snuck out anyways because no one had any idea about this group on the loose."

"But they're still my responsibility." Riddle sunk in his seat, "If something happened to them, how could I face their families?"

"Riddle, you're only a year above them. They wouldn't blame you even if something did happen, which it isn't by the way." When the housewarden still refused to look them in the eyes, Trey walked over to Riddle's chair and pulled him into a hug.

"Nothing that happened or happens as a result of this is your fault. The only people that had any fault in this are the people responsible and Crowley for not telling us. They'll be back here breaking the rules before you know it." Riddle let out a choked laugh.

"They probably would break the rules as soon as they get back knowing them. That's if they're alright."

"They're going to be okay," Cater piped up, "those freshies in particular have fought worse things than a couple of mages."

"How can you be so sure?" Riddle asked, his voice muffled as Trey was still hugging him.

"Because according to Rook, Leona and Malleus are going after them," Trey smiled. Cater stared at Trey in bewilderment. "They'll find them and make the people who took them wish they were never born."

Chapter Text

“Is this far enough into the city, Kingscholar?” Malleus asked as they came to a stop in the central square. Leona looked around. No traffic cameras, no people to watch. Perfect place to get kidnapped he mused.

“This should be good,” He answered before summoning his staff, “Ready, lizard?” Malleus nodded.

“I will go ahead to the location with Ortho and wait for your signal, do try not to be late.”

“Says the one that can never make it to a dorm meeting in time,” he shot back sarcastically.

“And here I thought you would be envious of such a thing since you don’t like the meetings in general,” Malleus chuckled before turning towards Ortho. “You have the location, yes?”

“Already saved them! Plus there’s a cliffside steep enough to conceal you until it's time.”

“Then we shall be off. Good luck Kingscholar, and don’t let anything happen to Sebek.”

“Young Master…” Sebek’s face went red with embarrassment.

“Same to you and the little radish sprout.” With the snap of his fingers, Malleus teleported Ortho and himself away. Leona turned back towards Sebek.

“Remember, try not to use a lot of magic, just use flashy magic,” he instructed, “We want to catch their attention, not hurt each other.”

“Understood. Perhaps I could show you a spell I’ve been working on for a while?” Leona perked up, interested.

“Sure, go for it, crocodile.” Sebek smiled before taking a couple steps back.

“Strike through the stormy heavens, O lightning!” Lightning crackled through the skies before striking Sebek. Leona’s heart nearly stopped.

“Croc?!” he called out, shielding his eyes from the bright light. When the light receded enough that he could see,

“To be fair, you did say something flashy.” Sebek walked towards him, his entire being made out of pure lightning. Leona did a double take.

“That kind of lightning should have killed you…”

“As it turns out, I am able to channel it through me and become lightning,” Sebek smiled. “This is my signature spell; living bolt.”

“Well, I’ll be damned. Impressive work, crocodile. Now let's see how well you can control it.” Leona smiled, pointing his staff at him.

“It took much practice with the young master, but I can now say I have sufficient control of my spell,” Sebek cracked his knuckles, sparks bouncing off him from the movement.

“I’ll be the judge of that.” The two of them blasted magic at each other in tandem, filling up the central square in a show of lights.

Shiro came into the room a few hours later, bearing some food.

“Eat up. Because afterwards, we’re gonna continue assessing you guys.”

“What? Ours wasn’t enough for ya?” Epel scowled. The pomefiore freshman had been sent up an hour after Shiro finished with the RSA student. His assessment went much similar to Ace’s. However, the one difference was Epel decided to forgo magic altogether once his barrier shattered; instead throwing his shoe square at Shiro’s face. August had to come down and intervene before Shiro could hurt Epel too much.

“You want to go again, princess?’ Shiro glared at Epel, his left eye swollen shut from where Epel had nailed him with the shoe (He had never been more thankful for Vil forcing him to wear heels than in that moment).

“Depends. Am I gettin mah shoes back?”

“Hell no. Anyways, It’s the prefect’s turn,” Shiro eagerly declared. The prefect wordlessly got to their feet and followed Shiro out into the open space. Their zip ties were cut and they were handed a magic pen.

“Um, just so you guys know, I do have a signature spell,” Yuu stammered out.

“Oh?” Shiro grinned, “Well let’s see that first.”

“I do it with my familiar, it lets me control his movements.”

“Is the familiar with them, Shiro?” Augustus asked.

“No. The damn rodent escaped with that other kid. The wolf one.”

“Well, the wolf kid was spotted in the city an hour ago so maybe this kids familiar is with him.” Yuu exchanged worried glances with the others. “Just use another person in the meantime.”

“No way that’s gonna hold up!” Epel protested. (Man Vil would be proud of his acting right now). “A familiar and a person are much different in terms of control.”

“Shaddup!” Shiro shot back.

“Well, now this kid gets to test the limits of their ability,” Augustus declared. “Grab one of them to work with.” Shiro walked back over to the cage and yanked the door open.

"Now which of you wanna play puppet for him?"

"Shiro stop taunting them and grab the blue one, he's the only one that hasn't accumulated any blot yet," Augustus ordered. Deuce made a show of struggling against Shiro's grip. Ace flashed him a small thumbs up as he got dragged to where Yuu and Augustus were standing. "Now, get started you three, it's getting late." Yuu nodded and pointed their magic pen at Deuce. He went still and Yuu gave their first order.

"A cauldron above him."

"What?" Shiro tilted his head in confusion. However that confusion was quickly replaced by pain as a cauldron fell right on Shiro. Ace and Epel burst out laughing at the scene.

"What is it with you brats and using different objects as weapons?!" Shiro growled from where he was pinned to the ground.

"We're only freshmen, you know," Yuu said with utmost innocence. "We don't know many spells to use."

"Well unsummon it!" Shiro demanded.

"I don't know how!"

“You lying sack of-”

“For an ignihyde student, you are so quick to anger, Shiro,” Augustus walked over to them. “I’ll assess these two myself while you get that cauldron off.”

“Couldn’t you just take the cauldron off of me yourself?” Shiro grumbled.

“Where’s the fun in that?” Augustus smiled. Shiro mumbled a plethora of profanities as he struggled beneath Deuce’s cauldron. “Now, let’s continue shall we?”

“Why?” Yuu glared at Augustus.

“Why he asks,” Shiro laughed mockingly.

“Why continue?” Augustus questioned.

“No, why, out of all the jobs in the world, you chose to do this?” Yuu gestured around them. “Why resort to selling kids? Do you get a sick thrill out of separating families?”

“Maybe I do. Maybe I don’t. Either way, it shouldn’t really matter to you.”

“Are you that lonely?”

“Probably,” Epel commented, “if he has to force people to be in his company.”

“Hell, senpai had issues about loneliness but he never resorted to this shit,” Ace muttered. Augustus shot the caged pair a dirty look.

“Thinking about it, it makes sense, your only other company is an ignihyde student, who are known for keeping to themselves.”

“Why are you dragging my dorm into this?!” Shiro snapped at the prefect. A flicker of anger crossed Augustus’ face before returning to his normal composed expression.

“Frankly, I couldn’t care less about companionship. But for the record, Shiro is not my only partner.” Augustus brandished his magic pen and pointed it at the prefect. “Now that’s enough chatter, wouldn’t you agree?” Without so much of a warning, he launched a volley of icicles at Yuu and Deuce.

“Burn them!” The prefect ordered.

Chapter Text

p>Leona quickly downed the illusion potion just as Sebek returned to his normal form.

“Was that enough?” Sebek asked. Leona’s form gradually morphed until he looked exactly like Jack.

“Should be,” he answered, his voice matching the freshmans as well. His ears flicked in the direction of a nearby alleyway. “Someone’s coming, be ready to resist them.” Sebek nodded in understanding. The intruder didn’t make it three more steps before Sebek stormed towards them, his pen at the ready.

“Who are you and why are you following us?!” he demanded.

“Relax, kid. I ain’t gonna hurt you.” “Jack” stepped forward, placing a hand on Sebek’s shoulder.

“What do you want with us?”

“Was just strolling by when I saw the incredible feats of magic you two just did,” he admitted. “You two NRC students?”

“We are.” Sebek answered, “And we were in the middle of a duel before my friend heard you come. So if you’ll excuse us-” Sebek took a step back, but was stopped by the intruder grabbing his wrist. “Jack” glanced at the intruder in faux confusion.

“What’s your deal?” He narrowed his eyes. “We’re busy.”

“Well, how about you put that pent up magic to work elsewhere? Or would you rather I report to the headmage you two were brawling, and in public nonetheless.” Sebek and “Jack” exchanged glances.

“You’re a student too?” Sebek spoke up.

“I am. Name’s Floe, I’m in octavinelle.”

“Alright, so what’s stopping us from telling the headmage you’re outside of campus during a lockdown?” Jack spoke up. Floe’s eyes went wide in surprise before he swiftly regained his composure.

“What’s stopping me from doing the same?”

“We received permission from the headmage to go search for our comrades,” Sebek stated boldly. “They were out before the lockdown was placed and have yet to return or answer our calls.”

“Plus, there’s been rumors of a mage trafficking group growing around these parts so we were worried.”

“Oh! I heard about that!” Floe exclaimed.

“What have you heard?!” Sebek questioned, “Any and all information that could aid us would be most appreciated.” Floe’s friendly veneer dropped in an instant. He snapped his fingers and two more people emerged from the same alleyway he had earlier.

“The rumors are true,” Floe grinned. “Take ‘em in gentlemen!”

“Teapot tyrant’s going to murder you when he finds out you’re involved,” Ace taunted. Peter responded by rolling his eyes and continuing to where Augustus was blasting spells at Deuce and Yuu.

“What’s going on here?” Peter asked. "And why are you pinned under a bunch of cauldrons?"

“What does it look like? I’m assessing the merchandise,” Shiro answered.

‘“Correction. I’m assessing the merchandise,” Augustus spoke up. “How’s things at school?”

“Well, they locked down campus, had to use a rabbit hole to get here. I overheard some of the freshmen planning to sneak out to get these guys back.”

“Sebek and Ortho…” Ace muttered.

"Yah think they’ll find us?” Epel whispered.

“Ortho probably could track us somehow.”

‘Good, we’ll add them to the bunch when they eventually stumble our way,” Augustus grinned. “Now let me finish testing their magic limit and then we can discuss the next steps.”

“Sup freshie?” Peter greeted Deuce. Deuce glared back at him but said nothing. “Cat’s got your tongue or something?”

“The other kid has him under a spell,” Shiro spoke up. Peter glanced between Deuce and the prefect before turning back towards Shiro with a scowl.

“Shiro, you idiot, the prefect’s fucking with you.”

“What?” Shiro finally heaved the cauldron off of him and steadily got to his feet. Deuce and Yuu exchanged concerned glances.

“This is what happens when you’re a shut-in your whole life.”

“Bitch, my whole dorm is a buncha shut-ins!” Yuu slid their magic pen toward the cages. Ace scrambled towards the front of the cell and grabbed it before anyone could see. Epel was gaping at the both of them. Augustus spared a glance in their direction before getting sidetracked by a rouge fire spell, courtesy of Peter, nearly singeing his hair.

“Peter. Behave yourself,” Augustus warned. Peter sighed before turning his attention back to Shiro.

“The whole school calls this guy the magicless prefect for a reason. They don’t have any magic,” Peter pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Then how are they controlling their friend here?”

“Controlling their- that’s what they told you?” he laughed. “Fine, I’ll humor you.” Peter turned towards Yuu and Deuce. “Don’t let him move a muscle, okay prefect?”

"See there you go again, hopping on over here, when you're supposed to be our inside man, just to steal my fun," Shiro grumbled.

"Ah yes, because throwing advanced magic at a bunch of inexperienced little kids is my definition of fun," Peter said sarcastically. "Or is it because you finally found some people that are at your level?"

"You goddamn bitch!" Augustus pinched the bridge of his nose as Shiro and Peter began bickering anew.

"Wow, they're worse than you and Ace," Yuu whispered to Deuce, who nodded in agreement. "Listen, I slid the pen they gave me to Ace."

"But they're gonna realize you don't have it eventually."

"It's okay, we won't be here long enough for them to catch on," Yuu smirked.

"What's your plan?"

"The next non-elemental spell they send my way, intercept it and cast Bet The Limit on the door behind us. Hopefully Ace will catch on and blast the cage open so we can make a run for it."

"Alright, I can do that. But what about if they cast any elemental ones?"

"Then I'll dodge like I did during the overblots."

"It's kind of risky…"

"I know. But it's all we got."

"Hey lover birds, are you two done yet?" Shiro hollered at them.

"I could say the same to you two," Yuu shot back.

"As if that shut-in could land someone like me," Peter scoffed. Shiro rolled his eyes in response.

"We aren't dating," Deuce was red with embarrassment.

"Yeah!" Epel hollered from the cage, "He's with Ace!"

"You shut up!" Shiro growled at Epel.

"Dude, don't make me have to agree with the child traffickers," Ace sighed.

"Enough!" Augustus yelled. "The next person to start bickering is getting shot. Merchandise or partner." He turned towards Peter, "You have five minutes to prove that this guy doesn't have magic before I post them." The four freshmen exchanged concerned looks.

"You got it, boss man," Peter smiled lazily as he pulled out his magic pen and faced them. Augustus nodded in satisfaction before leaving the room. "Let's dance."

Chapter Text

“He took them with him?!”

“Yes. Malleus went as well so while I don’t fear for their safety, I do wonder if the two of them will get along long enough to bring them home.” Jack blearily opened his eyes and tried to sit up, only to wince at the pain in his side.

“Hey, he’s up!” Grim exclaimed from his position in Riddle’s lap.

“Take it easy Jack, you’ll tear your stitches,” Riddle gently chided.

“How are you feeling?” Vil questioned.

“Like I got hit by a disc and fell from the air, What happened?” Jack perked up as he recalled what landed him in the infirmary in the first place, “Where are the others?”

“They have yet to return,” Riddle spoke up.

“Yeah! Apparently those guys sell mages,” Grim tactlessly explained, “dunno why they didn’t take me since I’m such a great mage and all-”

“They've been taken by mage traffickers?!” Jack shot up from the bed, only to get pushed back down by Vil.

“I know you’re worried but you’re in no position to be able to help them like this.”

“I can’t just sit here and do nothing.”

“Well you can’t really go out guns blazing when you got stabbed,” Grim retorted. “Plus Leona and Malleus went after them.”

“Leona and Malleus? Working together?” Jack questioned. “I don’t know whether to pray they don’t fight each other or to pity the traffickers.”

“Well there is one thing you can do,” Riddle spoke up. Jack turned towards him. “As shameful as it is to admit it, one of the perpetrators of all this is a student from my own dorm.”

“Really?” Vil asked, surprised.

“Yes. And while I reported him to Crowley, I know neither Leona nor Malleus has any information about the people they’re facing,” Riddle explained, “However, I have no means of contacting either of them as Malleus does not carry a phone and Leona refused to give me his number.” Jack nodded, realizing where this was going.

“Tell me everything.”

Yuu rolled out of the way of the razor sharp leaves with practiced ease. Peter glared at the prefect.

"Why aren't you casting anything back at me, prefect?" He asked, slightly irritated.

"Because, as I mentioned to your friend-"

"We're not friends!" Shiro cut them off.

"-Lover then," the prefect continued as Shiro let out a sound similar to a dying animal. "The only magic I have allows me to control my familiar, which I'm using right now to keep him still." Peter looked at Yuu, then at Deuce.

"Alright. You want to keep selling that bullshit? Fine. Here's a small question for you, prefect, what's cosmic magic made of?"

"Hey no fair, we haven't gotten to the origins of magic yet!" Epel hollered.

"Can I please beat him up," Shiro looked pleadingly at Augustus who shook his head in response.

“Behave yourselves.” Augustus ordered a final time before exiting the room.

"Wait, you haven't gotten there? Man, Treins going soft on you guys. Anyways, cosmic magic is made of one's pure magical energy. So even if you know one spell, you can cast cosmic magic."

"What?" Yuu stared at him confusedly.

"Oh for crying out-" Peter tugged on his rabbit ears, frustrated. "Here, watch this." He pocketed his magic pen and instead, threw a ball of cosmic magic directly at Yuu. However before it could hit them, Deuce casually stepped in front of them, blocking the shot.

"Hey, you were supposed to keep him still!" Shiro exclaimed.

"I told you, idiot, they don't have magic!" Peter snapped. Yuu paid no mind to them and turned towards Deuce.

"Now!"

"Bet the Limit!" He roared, throwing the magic spell at the door, which went flying off its hinges.

"What are they doing?!" Ace gasped.

"That's why they slid ya a pen! Do the same thing to the lock!" Epel hissed. Ace nodded and cast a jet of fire at the cell door, burning a hole large enough for them to crawl out of.

"They're making a run for it!" Peter pulled out his pen again and cast a thorn vine at them, which was promptly blocked as Deuce fired in return.

"Not on my watch!" Shiro growled. "Cast an exit rabbit hole in front of the door. I have an idea." Peter nodded and cast the spell in front of the freshmen, with the entry hole appearing right in front of them. Shiro fired a volley of icicles into the hole, which went flying towards Yuu, who was in front of them. The prefect's eyes widened in fear and braced themself for the pain. However, all they felt was a pair of arms pulling them back and the warmth of a fire spell. Ace stood in front of them, his pen still in hand and small puddles of water at his feet.

But the fire spell was not enough.

The icicles had speared Ace in multiple places, grazing his arms and scarring his face. However, the most concerning were the ones protruding from his chest. Yuu stood, frozen in horror. Epel clamped a hand over his mouth to prevent himself from crying out.

“A-Ace?” Deuce’s voice was barely above a whisper but still broke Yuu out of their stupor. Ace turned back towards him, a sly, bloodied smirk etched on his face.

“You’re not the only gentleman here, Deucey.”

Chapter Text

Yuu and Deuce rushed to catch Ace before he could hit the ground. Peter, meanwhile, rounded on Shiro.

“What the hell was that?!” He roared, “We were supposed to stop them, not kill them!”

“Well it's better to lose one than to lose them all!” Shiro countered.

“August! Get in here! Shiro fucked up big time!”

“Don’t call him!” Shiro blasted a wave of ice to block August’s door.

“Dude, what the hell?!”

“You…you guys need to run,” Ace said in between breaths.

“Not without you,” Deuce shot back.

“Yer insane if ya think we’re gonna leave you here,” Epel added. Yuu nodded in agreement.

“I didn’t take an icicle to the gut just for all of us to… to get caught again,” Ace glared at them. “You guys can go for help.”

“By the time we’d get back you’d be dead!” Deuce protested.

“Then prefect should go,” Epel decided.

“What?”

“Think ‘bout it. I can cast sleep kiss so Ace doesn’t die and Deuce can make sure those guys don’t try nothin until you come back with help. Plus those assholes said Sebek an’ Ortho are out lookin’ for us so it shouldn’t be long.”

“Not to mention surely the senpais have noticed us missing by now,” Deuce added.

“Guys…” Yuu hesitated, sparing a glance at Ace.

“I’ll be fine, Yuu.” As if the universe wished to prove him wrong, Ace coughed up a glob of blood.

“Prefect, ya need to go, now!” Epel all but shoved them towards the door just as Shiro and Peter blasted another wave of magic at them.

“What the hell is going on in here?” August burst through the office door. He glanced at the ice then back at his two partners.

“Why don't you ask Shiro?”

“Like you had nothing to do with it!”

“I didn’t nearly destroy the merchandise and let the prefect escape!”

“The prefect escaped?!” August growled at both of them, effectively cutting off whatever retort Shiro was about to say.

“Want me to go get them?” Peter offered.

“Save it, you two have fucked up enough tonight. I’ll go get them. You round up the ones still alive. Have two more men follow me.” August brushed past them and headed after Yuu.

It took all of Leona’s willpower not to smirk as the (soon-to-be ex-students) pushed him in the direction of the freshmen. Vil’s illusion potion was still holding strong, making him look like Jack. Sebek was yelling fae profanities as Floe dragged him along, him resisting every step of the way. However, Leona’s smirk quickly faded upon seeing the state they were in. Epel was casting his signature spell on a severely injured Ace, while Deuce stood protectively in front of them, a magic pen at the ready. Two other kidnappers, (one still in their heartslabyul dorm uniform) were standing in front of Deuce, in a sort of standoff. Leona could smell the accumulating blot in the air from their magic pens, indicating they’ve been at it for a while.

“What did you do to them?!” Sebek roared. The attention of everyone in the room turned towards the newcomers.

“Dammit! They caught you guys too?!” Deuce swore.

“What’cha gawking for?” they snapped, shoving Leona forward. “Get moving!” Fuck the plan.

“Oi, herbivores,” Leona interrupted the standoff. The student responsible for bringing him tried to shove him forward, but the savanaclaw housewarden stood firm. Deuce and Epel stared at “Jack” with mixed looks of surprise and confusion. “Is the prefect somewhere in the building?”

“Ace covered them long enough for them to escape,” Epel spoke up.

“Good.”

The magic restraints binding Leona’s magic turned to sand in an instant. He canceled the effect of the illusion potion, which earned surprised cries from the captors and a cry of relief from his herbivores. He summoned his staff and with one graceful swing, the student prodding him was sent crashing into the wall. Sebek moved swiftly, grabbing his magic pen from Floe before he could react. He shot lightning at him, sending him flying back through the hallway they came through. Sebek slammed the doors shut behind them.

Deuce let out a cheer before turning to Shiro and Peter. He spared a glance at his nearly blotted pen before pocketing it and just flat-out tackling Peter. Shiro made an attempt to support his partner but was stopped when he suddenly found himself unable to breathe. Leona strode forward, each step he took left cracks in the ground as it slowly dried out from his touch. Sand swirled around him like a desert storm, and for once, Leona felt no remorse nor panic at Shiro’s reaction when the sand slowly started to dry him out. He grabbed him by the scruff of his shirt and lifted him off the ground. Shiro screamed in pain as the sand began to dry out his shirt, and then his arms.

“Try touch them again, I fucking dare you.”

Chapter Text

Yuu was holding back sobs as they ran from the warehouse, three men on their tail. The sun was peeking out from the waves below them. It had been an entire night.

“Get back here! There isn’t any escape from us!”

“Never!” they cried out, their voice cracking. A blast of fire magic whizzed past them, partially singeing their hair. Yuu's legs felt like lead as they pushed themselves to keep moving, their chest heaving with each ragged breath. They ignored the pain shooting up their ankle, the way their whole being ached with fatigue, the images flashing through their mind of the ice magic, of Ace. Yuu's breath caught in their throat as they came to a sudden halt at the cliff's edge, the sound of crashing waves drowning out the pounding of their own heart as they turned to face their pursuer.

“Alright, I think we’ve had enough cat and mouse for one evening, wouldn’t you say?” Augustus sneered, having finally caught up. “Nowhere left to run now, prefect.” Yuu stepped back as he moved forward. "You can't just leave without knowing if Riddle’s little soldier is okay. He risked everything to protect you, and now you're abandoning him like it doesn't matter?" Despite the panic settling in the prefect, Yuu refused to let it show, especially not in front if him.

Yuu turned to face Augustus, their eyes meeting with a steely gaze. "I know what Ace did for me," they said firmly. "And I want to make sure he's okay. But I also know Deuce and Epel are with him. They’ll take care of him until I come back with help. Letting you catch me would put everything he’s done for me to waste. I won't risk that, not after everything we've been through.” Augustus stepped forward, his magic pen pointed at them.

“Too bad that you just being in Twisted Wonderland already put them at risk, as yesterday afternoon proved. Did you consider that's what they’re probably thinking right now? If not for you, they'd all be up in their stuffy little dorms safe and sound right now.” Yuu opened their mouth to argue, but the words never came out. However, a familiar head of fiery blue hair snuck up behind the two other people pursuing the prefect. He put one finger to his mask before pointing behind them, towards the ocean. The prefect glanced behind them and their heart swelled with hope. They turned back towards Augustus.

"You may think that, but I know my friends. They're strong and they can take care of themselves. Even if I wasn’t here, they’d still find trouble because trouble comes naturally to them. But I am here and I'll do everything in my power to make sure they're safe." With those words, Yuu took a step backward, and off the edge of the cliff. Augustus’ jaw dropped.

“I guess suicide’s a solution too?” He said aloud to himself. “At least knowing the prefect’s dead might get those guys to behave.” Augustus walked over to the edge of the cliff, only to be sent tumbling backward as a fucking dragon flew up toward him. He shielded his eyes as the wind kicked up dust and debris. A cry of pain erupted from behind him and Augustus watched two of his men get electrocuted. Ortho smiled and waved at Augustus before beginning to restrain his men. However, he was given little time to dwell on how the robot found him as the dragon landed in front of him, smoke coming from its snout and its eyes ablaze with anger.

“What the fuck?” he repeated under his breath. The dragon transformed and Augustus soon found himself standing face to face with an angry Malleus Draconia, who had the prefect clutched in his arms.

“Ortho, would you mind?” Ortho landed next to Malleus and gently took the prefect from him. “Also inform Kingscholar I will be deviating from the plan.”

“Leona’s here too?” Malleus nodded.

“Give me a few minutes, child of man, there is something I have to take care of first.” Yuu looked at him, then at Ortho, and nodded in understanding. As Ortho flew off, Malleus turned back towards Augustus, his emerald eyes alight with righteous fury, reflected by the green lighting that scorched the early morning skies.

"You are going to regret ever laying a hand on what's mine."

“Ace,” Epel gently slapped him awake, “Get up.”

“Five more minutes,” he grumbled, turning away from Epel.

“ACE GET YER ASS UP RIGHT NOW OR SO HELP ME-” He screamed in his ear. Ace shot up, wincing in pain as he jostled his wounds.

“Is that Sebek? And Leona senpai?” He asked. Sebek and Deuce had tag teamed Peter, both of them keeping him pinned to the ground and away from his magic pen. Leona meanwhile, was grilling Shiro for information, while he gradually turned their kidnapper to sand.

“I’m sorry…Just please, please don’t kill me. Promise you’ll let me go and I’ll- ah!” he screamed as another of his fingers were turned to sand entirely.

“Shiro don’t you fucking dare!” Peter warned him.

“Funny, did you give them that same option?” Leona growled. “You’re lucky that you’re still breathing.”

“So the prefect made it out?” Ace questioned.

“I dunno, they brought Sebek and Leona senpai in after I casted sleep kiss on ya.”

“If the herbivore got out of the building, then the lizards got them. Him and the little radish sprout are outside,” Leona answered before turning his attention back towards Shiro. “Now, you gonna answer my question or do I leave your sorry ass here?”

“What question,” Ace whispered to Epel.

“He’s tryin’ to find out if anyone else from school’s involved,” he whispered back

“Shiro keep your mouth shut,” Peter said from where Deuce and Sebek were currently piled on top of him.

“You know, you’re not exactly in a position to say or do anything right now,” Deuce commented.

“Sure about that, freshmen?” Peter moved a little bit underneath them, freeing one of his hands. “Down the Rabbit Hole!” He slammed his hand on the ground, making a rabbit hole right underneath the three of them. Sebek yelped as they fell through it. Leona looked over at the rabbit hole in alarm. Ace hastily got to his feet with Epel’s help.

“Don’t move,” Leona ordered Ace, “If those wounds open anymore, you’ll bleed out. Epel, do you have enough magic to keep him still?”

“I dun’ need magic for him senpai,” Epel grinned as he grabbed the previously confiscated heels from where Shiro left them on the floor. “I know more than one way to make a pig squeal.” Leona nodded and, for good measure, slammed Shiro’s head into the ground, leaving him dazed before making his way over to the rabbit hole. Leona glanced around the room before moving a few feet away from the hole, just as a new one opened up right in front of him. The three of them fell to the ground with a thud. Leona grabbed Peter by his bunny ears and pulled him to his feet.

“What the-?!” Peter looked around in frantic confusion, “this was supposed to get me out of here!”

“Ha! Surely, a mere human can’t understand the greatness of my lord’s actions!” Sebek intentionally boomed. Peter winced at the loudness of the freshman’s voice. Deuce sheepishly scrambled to his feet. “He placed a barrier over this wretched place that prevents teleportation magic.”

“But how did you-?”

“A little white wolf told me,” Leona grinned. Before Peter could say anything else, Deuce snuck up behind him and delivered a hard blow to the back of his head, knocking him out.

Chapter Text

“M-Malleus Draconia…” Augustus uttered in horror.

“Does my name truly terrify you to this extent?” Thunder boomed through the skies, punctuating each step the prince took towards Augustus. “Allow me to show you how terrifying I can be.” With the wave of his hand, thorns sprouted up from the ground and coiled themselves around August, bringing him to his knees. The more he thrashed against bindings, the more they cut him and grew tighter. Malleus knelt in front of him, grabbing August by his chin and forcing him to look the prince in his eyes.

“You’d do well to remember this, human,” electricity sparked to life on his fingertips. “Neither lions nor dragons give up what’s precious to them so easily.” August desperately reached towards the prince, but to no avail. Instead, Malleus sent the electricity coursing through August’s outstretched hand, causing him to scream in pain.

“Is this the fear you sought to instill in my treasures?” Malleus’s voice was cold, devoid of mercy. “Feel it now, and know that it is only a fraction of what you deserve.”

“I didn’t know they were yours!” August cried out. Malleus’ onslaught of lightning paused for a moment.

“I do not care; for every moment of anguish you caused them, we will repay it tenfold.”

“Wait…we?” A cruel smirk etched its way onto Malleus’ face.

“But of course, these treasures don’t just belong to me after all.”

“What- ahhhhh!” As he continued to electrocute him, Ortho landed behind him.

“Leona Kingscholar has made it out of the building with the other freshmen,” Ortho cheerfully reported. Malleus stopped his lightning spell and tightened the thorns coiled around August.

“And the other students that were abducted?”

“They have successfully escaped and are returning to their families as we speak.”

“Excellent.”

“L-Leona Kingscholar?!” August said between sobs.

“Surely you now understand the position you’re in?” Malleus smiled at him. August nodded weakly. For good measure, Malleus froze August solid. “Is your laser ready?”

“Fully charged and ready to fire!”

“Very well.” a large plume of green fire encased Malleus’ hand and, just as Ortho’s laser fired, he shot it right at the trafficking warehouse. The building melted to the ground like it was made of ice.

“Woah…” Epel muttered as he watched the building burn.

“Remind me not to piss him off,” Ace said.

“I haven’t seen him this mad since the cultural exchange last halloween,” Deuce recalled. Sebek nodded in agreement.

“To be fair, some of that was Ortho,” Leona spoke up, “Apparently he’s got a death laser.”

“Aw, we were gonna test that on RSA!” Epel exclaimed. The housewarden’s eyes went wide in surprise.

“Why in Twisted Wonderland would you do that?!”

“Guys!” Yuu rushed forward, tackling them in a hug. “You’re okay!”

“More or less,” Ace patted them awkwardly on the back. “Still have some scratches.” The prefect sheepishly let go of Ace before recalling how exactly he got those scars in the first place.

“If you ever try to take a hit like that for me again I will find a way to curse you for eternity,” they threatened.

“Wait, what did he do?” Sebek asked, but was ultimately ignored.

“Weird way of saying thank you for saving my life.”

“Still, you scared the hell out of me; never do that again. You guys mean too much for me to see hurt.”

“It’s the same for you, Yuu,” Deuce came to Ace’s defense. “We’re not going to just let you be hurt like that.” Epel nodded in agreement.

“How about we resolve this by nobody getting hurt in the future and perfecting your guys' defensive magic?” Leona ended the standoff between the freshmen. The four of them nodded in agreement.

“I’m still telling Riddle-senpai though.”

“Fuck.” Their conversation died as Malleus and Ortho rushed towards them.

“Are you all alright?” Malleus asked, giving each of the other freshmen a onceover. He paused upon seeing the blood all over Ace. “Trappola?”

“I’m fine,” he waved him off.

“And possibly delirious from blood loss,” Leona muttered. Before Ace could protest, sirens wailed in the distance. “We gotta go.”

“Wait, you mean you all snuck out of campus to rescue us?” Deuce looked at them in astonishment. “Peter said the place was on lockdown.”

“Did you really think we’d leave you at the mercy of such pathetic humans?” Sebek scoffed.

“We did just burn an entire warehouse building to the ground,” Malleus commented, “we were bound to be noticed eventually.”

“Can you teleport all of us or do you want help?” Leona asked.

“You know teleportation magic?” Epel gawked at them. Malleus nodded.

“Its pretty common among fae. But I would appreciate your help, Kingscholar; especially since we will be taking him along with us,” he pointed at August, still trapped in a block of ice. The rescued freshmen all went pale at the sight of the trafficking ringleader.

“Relax, herbivores,” Leona assured them, “He isn’t even going to breathe in your direction once we’re done with him.”

“He won’t be able to escape that ice until I remove it,” Malleus added, “It's a similar spell to the one used on the snow tree I made last winter.” Epel nodded in understanding, much to the other freshmen’s confusion. Leona, meanwhile, looked at the pair of them, realization dawning on him.

“Would that happen to be the same tree I fell from after napping on it?” He narrowed his eyes.

“It might be,” Epel answered knowingly.

“We can discuss that at a later time,” Sebek spoke up, “the sirens are getting closer.” Malleus and Leona nodded in agreement and, in tandem, used teleportation magic to get them out of there.

Chapter Text

Riddle, Azul, Vil, and Idia all stood outside the school gates as the Arcane Response Unit arrived with Peter, Shiro (whose arm was bandaged up), and Floe in tow. It was early in the morning. Crowley had alerted the four of them that their students had been caught fleeing the sight of the crime and that at least five different people (including Sebek) had stepped forward and reported them as perpetrators.

“I still think we should have just let these guys take them,” Idia grumbled.

“And we will,” Riddle spoke up, leveling a glare at Peter. “But we wished to- Azul, how did you put it?” Azul was smirking behind his glasses.

“We wished for them to have one more day at school to gather their things and mourn what they have cost themselves.” The three traffickers were each cuffed and forced to their knees, their expressions ranging from defiant (Peter) to despairing (Floe).

“Talk about rubbing salt in the wound,” Idia stated.

“I would say they more than earned it,” Vil was clenching his spellbook, ready to unleash a plethora of curses on those that dared hurt his little apple.

“We will be waiting by the gates until they have their belongings,” one officer stated, “After that, they will each be transported to their respective kingdom to face their sentence.”

“Thank you very much officer,” Azul said with a sickeningly sweet tone. The officer gave him a weird look before going back into his truck. The octavinelle housewarden turned towards Riddle and Idia. “I take it you two will be joining us in the lounge?”

“This is a one time thing, Azul,” Riddle reminded him. Vil nodded in agreement.

“Of course. If anything, there won’t be anymore trafficking circles once word gets out regarding what happened to this one.” He pulled out his phone and, with a quick text, Jade and Floyd were walking over.

“Goldfishie!” Floyd immediately squished Riddle in a hug.

“Great…more people..” Idia muttered.

“Floyd, put me down this instant!”

“Floyd.” Azul said sternly.

“Fine…”

“Thank you. Now let’s get these three to the lounge,” Azul gestured at the bound students, a dark glint in his eye. “After all, we have work to do.” Floe, Peter, and Shiro all went pale, realizing just how badly they had messed up.

“Lilia, has the room been cleared out?” Malleus asked his vice housewarden. Lilia nodded, a knowing smirk on his face. The two of them stood in the doorway of the one room the tower had.

“It’s all ready. I even helped our guest get settled in. Gave him some food as well.” Malleus couldn't help but feel a little bit of pity for the man. If he somehow didn’t die from this, Lila’s cooking was sure to do him in.

“Oi,” Malleus and Lilia turned to see Leona coming up the stairs. “Next time something like this happens, we do it in the mines. I refuse to climb all those stairs again.”

“You could have teleported,” Malleus suggested.

“Nah, I’m running on limited magic as is and I wanted to save it for him,” Leona glared at the now thawed out August, who was lying in a ball on the floor, clutching his stomach.

“Alright, I’ll leave you boys to it,” Lilia smiled, “Have fun!” He began the trek down the stairs. Malleus and Leona stepped into the room. August went pale upon seeing Malleus once again but took a breath to steel himself.

.

“So you’re the ringleader for that whole circus we destroyed?” Leona looked down at the man.

“You mean my multi-million madol industry?” August shot back, “You two ruined everything and for what? A couple of classmates? One of which can’t even do magic.”

“They still managed to beat your sorry ass before we even got there.”

“By sheer luck,” August scoffed, “Those freshmen were some of the most incompetent mages I’ve ever seen. They couldn’t even hold a barrier spell- oomph!” August was cut off as Leona hauled him to his feet.

“I would watch what you say about those students,” Malleus warned him, “Those are my treasures you’re speaking ill of.”

“And my herbivores,” Leona all but growled at him. “But y’know what? I quite frankly don’t care about anything you have to say.”

“I suppose you’re right about that, Kingscholar. After all, the dead can’t talk.” August froze, but quickly regained his composure and faced Malleus.

“You wouldn’t.”

“You’re half right,” Leona smirked. “He couldn’t. Not when the lizard already had his fun with you before we dragged you here. Heard you were crying like a baby the whole time. Now, it’s my turn.” He pinned August to the wall by his neck.

“You’re going to turn me to sand, your highness?” August spat. “I know all about what happened during the spelldrive tournament.” Leona’s grip faltered, just for a second. “Go ahead, prove them right.”

“Disregard his babbling, Kingscholar,” Malleus stepped forward. “Acting out of love is unfamiliar to someone like him.” Leona glanced back at August and for a brief moment, all he could see is Ruggie on the spelldrive field, squirming under his grip-

“Leona,” Malleus’s voice cut through the memory, surprising him. He rarely used his first name. “This is not the same as the tournament. There is a valid reason for your actions this time, and that reason is currently awaiting our arrival in the infirmary. Remember who put them there in the first place.”

Ruggie’s words echoed in his mind. “For real though, we both know you wouldn't hurt someone with your magic unless they absolutely deserved it.”

And this bastard? Someone who dared to hurt his herbivores?

He absolutely deserved it. Leona slammed August into the wall a second time, his grip unyielding. Sand began to swirl around them in a brilliant golden glow as he growled. “I am your hunger. I am your thirst. I am what steals your tomorrows.” The sand coiled tighter, shimmering like captured sunlight in the otherwise dark tower. Malleus watched with gleeful satisfaction, arms crossed, eyes gleaming. “Kneel before me! King’s Roar!”

August’s scream echoed as his body began to crumble, slowly turning to sand under Leona’s grip.

“Monsters…” He croaked before his throat, and the rest of him disintegrated entirely.

Leona glared at the pile of sand, a faint smirk lingering. “Actually, my herbivores would say otherwise.”

“Kingscholar,” Malleus interjected, a hint of amusement tugging at his mouth, “you’re aware he can’t hear you, right?”

“Yes, lizard.” Leona pinched the bridge of his nose, suppressing a sigh. “I know. Now do your thing so we can go. I need a nap after all this.”

Malleus nodded, conjuring a blast of wind so powerful it scattered the sand across the island, leaving no trace of August behind.

“Shall we?” Malleus extended a hand, the satisfaction of a mission complete evident in his regal stance. “I’m sure we’ve kept them waiting long enough.”

“Just outside,” Leona muttered, eyeing Malleus warily. “I’m not explaining to the herbivores why you overblotted from teleporting.”

Malleus chuckled, unfazed, as Leona begrudgingly took his hand. With a flash, the two of them vanished, reappearing just outside Diasomnia’s walls.

The walk to the infirmary was silent up until they came across Riddle in the mirror chamber, who looked a bit disheveled and was that blood on his uniform? Leona looked at him in disbelief.

“Evening, Rosehearts,” Malleus greeted him cordially.

“Malleus senpai, Leona senpai,” He answered. “Where are you two coming from so late in the night?”

“We could ask you the same thing, Little Red,” Leona crossed his arms, “You have a bit of a stain on your uniform there.” He gestured at the bloodstains on his shoulder.

“I should've known Floyd lied when he said it wouldn't be messy!” He grumbled under his breath. Malleus let out an amused chuckle.

“I take it you and Octavinelle were…discussing things with the students responsible?”

“Yes, merely a discussion is all,” Riddle used a bit of magic to remove the stain. “And I take it the reason you two have sand on you is from a discussion with the ring leader?”

“Yep,” Leona agreed, “We all had lovely discussions that nobody will ever know about aside from us. Right?” Riddle and Malleus both nodded in agreement.

“Normally such a thing would be so vehemently against the rules but at the same time, I don’t find myself feeling guilty about any of this.”

“Well of course. Your charges were endangered and your sense of care overrode your sense of rule following,” Malleus explained.

“I suppose that makes sense,” Riddle admitted. “I’m glad I did run into the two of you.”

“Because you needed some affirmation or something?” Leona asked, “I’m sure glasses could've given you that.”

“No, I wanted to thank you both,” He bowed, “Thank you for going out of your way to bring the freshmen back home safely.” Malleus and Leona both exchanged glances.

“That’s not something you need to thank us for,” Malleus spoke up, “Those freshmen mean just as much to us as they do to you.”

“As annoying as they are sometimes, we’d never let something like that slide without getting involved. We know you’d have done the same if not for Crowley,” Leona spat the name with venom.

Riddle straightened up and smiled, his usual stern demeanor softened. "I appreciate it nonetheless. If there's anything you need from me or any assistance I can offer, don't hesitate to ask."

“We’ll have to keep that in mind,” Malleus answered. “Especially considering how unruly they can be at times.”

“If anything, their unruliness is pretty amusing,” Leona commented.

“For you maybe,” Riddle grumbled, but there was no malice to it. "In any case, I’ll leave the two of you to check on the freshmen while I take care of the expulsion papers for those three. I will visit them in the morning. Good evening." With a nod of farewell, Riddle walked away back towards his own dorm.

“You go ahead to the infirmary, Kingscholar,” Malleus stated. Leona raised an eyebrow at him.

“And where exactly are you headed?”

“My conversation with Rosehearts made me realize something very important.”

Leona tilted his head, intrigued. “And that is?”

Malleus’s gaze hardened, a flicker of lightning illuminating his expression. “I need to speak with Crowley about his… handling of the situation.”

Thunder rumbled outside the school, the sound rolling through the hall. Leona nodded in understanding, a smirk tugging at his lips. “Well, at least I don’t have to do it. Just make sure you leave him quaking in his boots.” Then he added with a knowing smirk: “Regardless of if he’s actually wearing them.”

Malleus’s smile turned dark, his voice low. “Oh, he will.”

Chapter Text

“Of course out of everything you could have used, you threw your shoes at them,” Jack stated as Epel recounted the story of his bout with Shiro. He was currently sitting on the edge of Jack’s bed, having been cleared of any injuries and just told to rest.

“Hey, it got him to back off and I finally got rid of those damn heels. I’d say I knocked two birds with one stone.”

“That’s until Vil-senpai finds out and gets you another pair,” Yuu piped up from where they were sandwiched between Sebek and Deuce, Grim dozing off in their lap. The ramshackle prefect had ended up with a sprained ankle which was quickly healed by the nurses, but Yuu still had strict orders to take it easy for at least a week. Epel playfully glared at everyone present in the infirmary.

“Nobody tell ‘im.”

“If anything, I’d guess Queenie is expecting it,” Leona piped up. He had claimed an infirmary bed to himself despite having little to no injuries; just blot accumulation. Ortho was sitting with him. “Probably has five more pairs waiting for you back at the dorm.”

“Damn, I’m never gonna escape those heels.”

“Maybe grow a little bit more and you will one day,” Ace said sleepily. Out of all of the freshmen, Ace had the worst injuries with multiple gaping wounds and some borderline severe blood loss. He was hooked to a IV and had been sleeping off the pain medications for the last few hours they've been here, but woken up midway through Epel’s story.

Malleus had offered to heal him, but was rather sternly told off by the head nurse who took one look at the blot level on Malleus’ pen and barred him from using magic for the night (not that it stopped him from getting rid of August earlier).

“The minute you're out of the infirmary, imma put you right back in it.”

“Yeah?” Ace challenged. Epel turned towards Ortho.

“Hey Ortho, how much juice is left on that laser of yours?”

“Epel, no.” The pomefiore freshman was interrupted as the infirmary door opened up to reveal Ruggie.

“I come bearing food and your guys stuff,” he announced, “the ARU dropped it off earlier today.” He handed the bag to Yuu before claiming his spot next to Leona. Yuu dug through the bag, passing out everyone’s magic pens. However, the prefect paused upon making it to the bottom of the bag.

“What is it?” Leona asked. Yuu showed Deuce the last two things that remained in the bag and his eyes went wide in realization.

“I forgot about those.” Sebek peeked in the bag as well, but it only made him more confused.

“I’m not sure I understand where you’re going with this.” Yuu wormed their way out of the sandwich (much to Grim’s dismay) and up to Leona, the bag in tow. Leona opened one eye when they approached.

“What is it, herbivore?” Ace and Epel both perked up as they watched the prefect pull out the small dragon plushie.

“With everything that happened, we never got the chance to give you this. We grabbed it when we were out that night.”

“We also got banned for life from the plushie shop,” Grim piped up.

“Grim!” Deuce hissed. Leona looked at the dragon plushie with an unreadable expression. The silence in the infirmary was broken by Malleus walking in.

“Everything has been cleared with Crowley, and as promised, he was left quaking in-” Malleus paused upon seeing Leona’s expression and the plushie in hand. “I had no idea you liked dragons that much, Kingscholar.” Leona broke out of his daze to scowl at the fae prince.

“I don’t.” He turned back to the freshmen, “But I’m also not someone who would turn down a gift from my herbivores.”

“If it makes you feel better, Malleus-senpai, we got you a plushie too!” Epel spoke up. Yuu approached Malleus and handed him the lion plushie. Ace and Grim were snickering.

“You guys are such little shits sometimes,” Leona rolled his eyes, but did nothing to hide the genuine smile on his face.

“I believe that’s Kingscholar’s way of saying thank you for the gift,” Malleus smiled, “We will treasure them always.”

“Speak for yourself, I’m gonna give it to Cheka.”

“You wouldn’t!” Ace gasped dramatically. Ortho looked at Leona with the best puppy eyes a technomatic humanoid could muster.

“He’s right, you wouldn’t,” Ruggie piped up. “It’ll probably end up sitting on your nightstand or something.”

“If you did, we wouldn’t match anymore,” Malleus added smugly.

“As if I’d want to match with you, lizard,” Leona rolled his eyes. “But yeah, I don’t think I’d give it away for anything.”

“Aw, Leona senpai’s going soft,” Epel teased.

“I can still text Queenie about your heels.” Epel promptly shut up after that.

“You’ve been awfully quiet, Howl,” Malleus noted as he sat down next to Sebek. “Is everything alright?”

“Did the nurses miss something?” Leona asked, giving his freshman a onceover. The other freshmen all turned towards him in concern.

“No they patched me up fine,” Jack admitted, “I just feel kinda useless. You all got kidnapped, Ace nearly died, and the senpais came and rescued you while I just sat here and did nothing.”

“Dude, if it wasn’t for you, nobody would have realized we were kidnapped,” Deuce disagreed. “If anything, I’m the one that just stood there while Ace got impaled by a bunch of ice.”

“Weren’t you and the prefect the ones that made the escape plan?” Ace argued, “also prefect I can see you’re about to say something but if it's anything that matches what Deuce said, don’t say it or we’ll dogpile you.” Yuu opened their mouth to say something but then closed it right after.

“Look,” Leona sat up, “You all did what you could in the given situation. None of you were useless in the slightest.” He glanced at Jack. “We wouldn’t have known to cast the barrier to keep the rabbit from escaping if it wasn’t for you.” Then at Epel. “Ace would not be here if you had not cast sleep kiss.” Sebek nodded in agreement.

“Same thing with you and the prefect,” he said to Ace. “And we all know you three lack the cognitive abilities to plan a method of escape. I don’t even have to be present to know Yuu came up with the idea.”

“Also from what I gather, I believe Spade was the one to incapacitate Shiro,” Malleus added. “Despite the dangerous situation you all were in, you handled yourselves like true mages, whether it was with or without magic. But more importantly, I’m glad you’re all safe and sound.”

“Eh, more or less,” Ace chuckled.

“Plus we have been in worse situations,” Ortho piped up. “And we bounced back twice as effectively!”

“Yeah, I guess that’s true,” Jack conceded. Deuce nodded in agreement.

“Thanks for rescuing us, guys,” Yuu said. “And for the comfort.”

“Wow, is Sebek really that comfy for you to lay on, prefect?” Ace teased. “I thought with the muscles he’d be as hard as a rock.”

“That’s not what I meant and you know it,” they shot back.

“Though, he does have a point,” Epel added, “Sebek is comfy.” The freshman in question went red in embarrassment. Thankfully, Ruggie came to save him, at the cost of his own freshman.

“You guys just forget Jack or something? Laying on him as a wolf is so comfortable!”

“Ruggie senpai!” Jack stammered.

“Alright, enough,” Leona said, “They’re gonna combust if you guys keep at it.”

“And I was about to wager that Kingscholar might be comfier.”

“The hell are you talking about?” He shot Malleus a scowl. The freshmen and Ruggie burst out laughing.

“Maybe you can find out after everyone’s released from the infirmary,” Ruggie knowingly suggested. However, Ortho happily jumped in before Leona could protest.

“We could have a sleepover at one of our dorms!”

“Just say it’s gonna be ramshackle,” Grim shot back, “it always is.”

“What’s wrong with ramshackle? I think it's homey,” Epel piped up.

“I agree,” Sebek added. “Plus we’d be spared Master Lilia’s cooking.” Malleus nodded in agreement.

“We can discuss details once everyone’s been cleared from the infirmary,” Yuu decided. “For now, I just wanna take a nap. I haven't slept in nearly two days now.”

“You and I both, herbivore.”

“But you’re always sleeping,” Ace teased.

“If anyone needs to rest right now, it’s you,” Leona shot back, rolling his eyes. “Try not to snore.”

“I don’t snore!” Deuce looked at him in disbelief but said nothing, instead opting to actually try falling asleep next to Sebek and Yuu.

One by one, the freshmen succumbed to the exhaustion from everything that had happened in the last 24 hours. The room grew quieter, with only the occasional rustle of blankets or a soft sigh breaking the silence.

Malleus, still awake, smiled as he looked over the sleeping group which did not go unnoticed by Leona.

“What are you thinking about, lizard?” he asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

Malleus responded just as softly, “Not much. I’m just relieved to see our treasures safe and sound once more.” He spared a glance at Ace and his smile faded.

“Y’know the nurses said we can’t heal him with magic.”

“I’m aware. It just confounds me sometimes.” Leona shifted in his cot so he was facing Malleus.

“That people break easily?” Malleus shook his head, staring down at his own hands.

“I’m considered to be one of the strongest mages in the world. Yet what good is this power if I can’t use it to protect the ones I love?”

Leona watched Malleus quietly for a moment before he let out a low scoff. “Power isn’t about stopping every bad thing from happening. You’ll just drive yourself crazy that way. You’ve already done it once in case you forgot.”

Malleus turned to him, a shadow of frustration crossing his gaze. “But isn’t that what it’s for?” he asked quietly. “To prevent harm to our treasures?”

“People get hurt, whether we like it or not,” Leona continued, his tone sharper. “Even if you had a thousand spells to heal them, our herbivores are magnets for trouble. They’re still gonna break sometimes. You can’t put all that on yourself.”

Malleus nodded in understanding. “Thank you, Leona. I don’t often hear these things put so… plainly.” His gaze softened. “It helps, in a way.”

Leona gave a nonchalant shrug. “And just so you know, you’re not the only one looking out for them.” He paused, sparing a quick glance at Ace. “Although…”

Malleus tilted his head. “Is something the matter?”

“It’s nothing serious. Just that today probably would’ve gone a lot worse if I’d gone for them alone,” he muttered, almost grudgingly. “So… thanks for having my back through all this.”

Malleus’s face softened, a warm smile spreading across his lips. “Of course. We do make a pretty good pair, don’t we?”

Leona was silent for a moment, his initial instinct almost to tell the fae that there’s no way in hell he considered him as…well, anything really. They had a common enemy; that’s all. Honestly he was starting to regret even thanking him in the first place. But the rational part of him begged to differ. Planning everything out, catching Shiro, Peter and August, and then their joint murder of the trafficking leader; they did it all together. Begrudgingly, it was true—they had made a good team, as much as Leona hated to admit it. Finally, he nodded, barely perceptible. “...Yeah. I guess we do.”

Chapter Text

Hi guys!

So I started writing sorta vignettes/side stories for this AU and I just uploaded the first one! It's called There Are Other Ways (yes, like the song from Epic) and its centered around our favorite robot freshman!

Hope you guys enjoy!