Chapter Text
Sebek Zigvolt had no attachment to social media, in fact, he very rarely visited any website except for literature discussion forums.
But he was told that him and Silver were a hot-topic on the internet after footage of their horse-races went viral, and he had also heard that Silver’s heritage had been a hot topic as well. Who could blame him for being curious?
His journey on the web turned out exactly as you would expect: he would dislike every post that talked ill about Silver or Malleus, one post would push him to the limit and made him write a lengthy comment from his (thankfully anonymous) Magicam account scorning the poster:
“YOU INSOLENT FOOL! You were not even on the Sage Island when the event occured! Prince Malleus did not even intend to hurt us, he just was not thinking straight! Sure I am not excusing it, but someone of his brilliance should not be hindered by mistakes that he has already atoned for! And for Silver, you barely know him! You do not even know him enough to badmouth him! Stop spreading misinformation online, Silver was NOT kidnapped by Lilia Van Rouge and the two have a loving father-son relationship, you should be happy Lilia has not cut your head off for such claims!”
That was not the last comment he left either. After forcing himself to stop reading hate comments, he decided to dig deeper. That’s when he came across something he was not expecting: fanfiction. He was familiar with fanfiction, of course, fanwork was often discussed on his favorite forums, but he did not expect seeing literary works about Silver, specifically how he would behave in a relationship with the reader of the said fanfiction.
And of course, Sebek read every single one he could find.
And he found himself disappointed by every single one. The writers could not get Silver’s personality right at all - their Silver was stand-offish, cold, rude, and only liked the reader of the fanfiction. Sebek’s own Silver was not like that, he was kind, dense, caring and…. Sebek stopped himself from thinking about it further.
He could not blame the writers for not knowing Silver, after all, they have not even had a conversation with him, but for some reason, Sebek was bothered by the mischaracterization of his friend.
“Great Sevens, how will such rotten characterization of Lord Malleus’ guard affect our reputation? They think Silver is a rude buffoon! He is a buffoon, but a polite one! Oh, what to do…” he would mutter to himself, “They think Silver has no idea how to court a lady! What does this say about Lilia? Surely he has raised him better than this! No self-respecting knight would be rude to a maiden he fancies!”
Sebek knew he had to do something about this, not sure what, but SOMETHING! He could not tell Lilia, or Malleus, telling Silver about this would not even be possible.
Truly, there was nothing else he could do but to write fanfiction himself, only to fix Silver’s reputation, of course. He would write one or two drabbles, and maybe, surely, people would pick up on his characterization and popularize it.
And so, he started writing.
Hunched over his desk, scribbling down ideas to expand on: First meeting, childhood friends, rivals to lovers? He could use some real life situations and tweak them to be more romantic, and surely, people would not pick up on it.
His first fic was about the reader’s and Silver’s first meeting: “Reader” and Silver, as children, meet in the forest where the “reader” accidentally picked poisonous mushrooms, Silver promptly took away the mushrooms. They became quick friends.
The second fic was a bit harder to think of, Sebek wanted to write something that would change people’s minds… he remembered that one time when Silver was upset because people thought he was mad all the time, and he wanted to practice smiling… maybe he could use that.
““To hell with others’ opinions, Silver! I know how gentle and caring you are!” Yeah… Maybe the “Reader” would say that… and it ends with Silver beaming a smile at them… of course…” blush crept on Sebek’s face, as he realized that he wasn’t even tweaking his and Silver’s interaction for more romance.
Describing Silver’s eyes was the hardest challenge, how would one even name that color? Flowery language came easy to Sebek, but the words escaped him now: “purple” was too plain, “lilac” didn’t even cover half of it. The closest way to describe them was the aurora he had seen at Harveston…flickering, shimmering, dazzling... He was in too deep to stop now, surely.
Sebek slammed his pen down, he needed to type his work out and post it quickly, before his roommates would come back. He could not believe what he had gotten himself into - though, it was worth it. All for the reputation of Malleus’ retainers, of course.
Soon enough he posted the drabbles on MagiPad and forced himself to move on with his day. He would not check if anyone had read his writings, he had better things to do.
Such as training with…Silver.
Maybe he should sleep early.
He felt much better in the morning, he did not even remember about his published works until he got a MagiPad notification on his phone.
“Huh… Looks like someone read it,” he thought.
He was greeted by too many notifications for his comfort.
His was greeted with far more comments than he was comfortable with.
"AAH!! This is so cute!!! Silver is so dreamy in this~~ Please write more!!”
“Silver gap moe!!! So precious!!! <33333”
“I’m literally dying rn omg;;;;; “
Sebek continued scrolling, small surge of pride bubbling in his chest, “Hah, of course they love it! I know Silver the best!”
Maybe his work here was done, he could move on like nothing happened and Silver’s reputation would fix itself.
But then he saw it.
"Your Silver is too soft. Come on he is a bodyguard for a prince, the guy got to have some guts! And he would not be lovey-dovey like that. I’m sure he was not even allowed to play in the forest as a kid and only ever trained lol”
It took Sebek all his self-control not to reply with an angry rant.
“This fool… What does he think Malleus and Lilia are like, not to allow Silver to play as a child? Do they think they are some kind of tyrants?! Or that Silver can not have positive emotions? As if he can’t be gentle and strong!”
He gritted his teeth.
“Oh I will show them… I will write something that will shut them up!!”
He grabbed his notebook and rushed to class. He would deal with it later.