Chapter Text
It wasn't easy being the new guy anywhere, whether it be at school, at work, in a neighbourhood or, if you were a guy named Wemmbu, a whole new town.
Wemmbu wasn't someone you'd easily get along with right away, as he came off as skittish and, honestly, quite annoying. He couldn't sit still to save his life, fidgeting with random objects until they broke, even if they weren't his, and sometimes he'd act recklessly, which made him come off as quite selfish.
It was that attitude that made him switch Universities mid-term. Well, kind of.
Initially Wemmbu was going to crash at someone else's place but they ended up getting a different roommate who could also pay for their room, so Wemmbu arrived with literally no place to stay. He was lucky enough to find a cheap motel but that also meant all the money he saved up would very quickly vanish if he couldn't find a place he could stay at for less than 40$ a night.
For now he had to find his way around the campus. He got a mail from the Dean a week before on what his timetable looked like so at least he knew which classes he would attend to.
Another reason why Wemmbu decided to switch schools was actually because he really wasn't interested in the main thing being taught at his old university. He originally planned to pass every class except that one, which would still get him a degree due to the whole “nobody-left-behind" clause but he would still have to sit through the classes for attendance. The thought alone made him groan in exasperation.
Then, through sheer coincidence, he happened to see a social media post about this school and the special classes they were teaching here. One of them was literally medieval combat.
He could learn sword fighting.
And he would get a paper if he passed that would say that he learned sword fighting.
If nothing else, he could frame it for bragging rights.
So he did minimal research on the university and it turned out it was called Stable University. Kind of a lame name but whatever.
They do offer housing but Wemmbu really did not want to spend money on housing and possibly work a low-end job while studying. Well, joke's on him because he would have to do that anyways now.
His heels clacked on the busy hallway and he looked around, trying to find his first class. It was “Battle Theory", which was a mandatory class if you took “Medieval Combat", along with “Conquest" and “Basics in Potions". Well, the latter actually wasn't mandatory but it was highly recommended. Whatever, it would earn him some credits.
As Wemmbu turned a corner, not looking where he was going, he bumped into a guy. He was a little taller than Wemmbu, his skin pitch-black, like he was a walking shadow. His eyes were completely white, faintly glowing, and he wore a rainbow coloured bandana, wrist-ties and even some tied around his ankles. His outfit was also black so it was hard to make out what exactly he was wearing but it looked like a short sleeved hoodie and some ripped pants.
Wemmbu stumbled back a bit, one of his long, purple ears twitching as he held his nose.
“Hey new guy, watch where you're going." A smooth male voice came from in front of Wemmbu, making him look up at the shadow creature glaring down at him. Wemmbu didn't understand what his deal was, it was an accident, but then he saw a brown stain on his shirt and a paper cup in the stranger's hand and it clicked.
Wemmbu smiled at him sheepishly, a hand behind his neck.
"Ah, sorry man, my bad. Can I buy you a new coffee?” He offered the guy who sighed, throwing away the now empty paper cup.
“Alright, sure. Whatever. Just watch where you're going next time." He said, sounding less angry and just mildly irritated now. Wemmbu sighed inwardly, he did not need to be making enemies already.
He nodded at the stranger and the two began walking back to the coffee machine.
“Spoke, by the way."
" What?”
“My name, it's Spoke. You?”
“Oh, I'm Wemmbu."
"What's your first class? I’ll show you the way before you run into any more people.”
Wemmbu huffed out a small laugh, seeing that this Spoke guy seemed to be of the petty sort. You couldn't even see the coffee stain on his clothes anymore, anyways, like it was absorbed by his shadows or something. Still, having someone show him around a little didn't seem like a bad idea.
Wemmbu took out his timetable again, by now the paper looked like it went through hell and back, making Spoke raise an eyebrow. The taller shadow decided to take a proper look at him now that they were walking together.
He had very, very long hair, darker purple at the top then slowly fading into a lighter magenta at the tips, his hair so lazily pulled back that many stray strands hung in his face. Long, dark horns and a golden crown with a faintly glowing purple gem adorned his head, his black eyes scanning over the crumpled paper in his hand. His outfit consisted of a white button-up shirt, the first two buttons open, a purple hoodie jacket that hung off his shoulders and black pants paired with black 5 or 6 inch heel boots. It was hard to tell where the pants ended and the boots began. Something curious about him were his long, pointed ears and his tail that had a metal tip, the only jewelry Spoke can see on Wemmbu.
“My first class is Battle Theory. After that it's Math, Literature, P.E. then I get lunch break.”
“Alright bro, I asked what your first class was, not your whole day. You should also take better care of your shit, if you treat your Literature books like that the teacher will actually make you rewrite the whole book."
"Chill, man, it's just the timetable. It got a bit fucked during my move. So where is my first class?”
“Battle Theory? That's in the classroom on the first floor, next to the outdoors training area."
"So, like...”
“Complete opposite direction of where you were walking anyway."
"Gotcha.”
Wemmbu's ear flicked once as he looked away with a smile that practically said of course it is. The two finally made it to the coffee machine, which was being hogged by a group of people. Two guys with blindfolds, one with lion ears and orange overalls with short pants, the other with black dreadlocks and a much darker colour palette, wearing what looked like training gear and a sword by his side. Wemmbu was surprised you could just do that here. The guy they seemed to be talking to was a little shorter than them, about Wemmbu's height with his heels on. He had blond hair and skin the colour of the sun. Like Wemmbu he also wore a crown, but a fancier one than him. Wemmbu couldn't get a good look at him, the other two guys kinda blocking his sight.
Spoke cleared his throat, getting the group's attention. Oh, they don't seem to be on good terms with Spoke. Wemmbu really did not want to be on not-good-terms with a guy who can just carry his sword around at school.
“Oops, my bad, didn't see you there in the shadows." The blond guy said with a smirk. The other two just turned their heads, looking almost bored. Spoke huffed, mildly annoyed by the stupid comment.
“You’re so creative, Zam. Stop blocking the coffee machine.”
Ah, so his name was Zam. Wemmbu glanced over at the other two, both of them taller than Wemmbu but the guy with the lion ears was a little shorter than the other one. The demon-hybrid couldn’t help but keep glancing at the sword. It wasn’t a very flashy sword but it exuded power, having a purple glow to it. Wemmbu could also swear that he felt heat radiating off of it, or maybe it was the owner of the weapon itself. It was hard to tell.
“Blocking it? I didn’t know it was forbidden for me to stand next to a coffee machine and have a conversation.” Zam replied, a hand on his chest as he acted hurt and surprised.
Wemmbu uncomfortably cleared his throat, not a fan of the tension that was building here in the presence of a guy with a weapon at the ready.
“Hey man, we just want a coffee. It ain’t that serious.” He told Spoke, sounding as casual as possible. Wemmbu was relatively good at that, or maybe it was a nervous tick to act casual, nonchalant or joke when he was nervous. However, a clear tell, that the purple man hated about himself, was that his left ear would twitch.
Zam finally seemed to notice the newcomer and glanced over at him, shamelessly looking him up and down, making the latter feel a tad bit uncomfortable. Then again, one doesn’t see a demon hybrid every day.
Spoke took a step forward, partially shielding Wemmbu from Zam’s view. One of the other guys, the one with the overalls and lion ears, mirrored Spoke, standing in front of Zam, who grew visibly annoyed.
“Mane, stand down. This guy really isn’t worth our time. Come on, you two, classes are about to start.” Zam said as he turned to leave, flipping his golden hair over his shoulder if only to be dramatic as him, Mane and the sword guy finally left.
Wemmbu let out an audible breath and Spoke’s tense shoulders also slowly relaxed as the three finally left. That was pretty fucking nerve wrecking. Ear flicking a couple more times as Wemmbu calmed back down, he glanced up at Spoke, who looked down at the shorter guy over his shoulder before they both walked to the coffee machine. No words were spoken as Wemmbu bought him a new coffee, the chatter of the hallway and the sound of cheap coffee pouring into a to-go cup the only noises between the two.
Until Wemmbu spoke up.
“Sooo... Who were they?”
Spoke groaned into his hands, making the purple demon furrow his eyebrows. It cannot be this deep.
“Alright, new guy, you’re gonna run into them again anyway since you guys take the same classes. The yellow prick with the crown, that’s Zam. the other two assholes are Manepear and FlameFrags, they’re his guards.”
“The hell does he need guards for?”
“Because he is, unfortunately, literally royalty.”
Wemmbu almost dropped the coffee he was about to give to Spoke. Actual fucking royalty? No fucking way.
Wait, that meant Spoke is pretty much enemies with royalty and very openly so, too. Would it even be safe for Wem to stick around this guy then?
Spoke looked at him annoyed and took the coffee with a huff.
“I know what you’re thinking, but Zam has little to no power, he is just a prince. He is essentially a really spoiled rich kid.”
Yeah, Wemmbu wasn’t too convinced but decided not to say anything. Well, whatever, he got him his coffee, like he said he would, and he got directions to his first class.
“It, uh, was fun meetin’ you and all, Spoke, but I should probably get to my first class. I don’t wanna be late on my first day, that would kinda... Really suck.” He told the shadowy creature, who was sipping his coffee. Spoke just hummed and nodded, prompting Wemmbu to turn around and leave.
He found the class with relative ease, thanks to Spoke’s directions. Once at the door the purple demon hybrid peeked inside. There were a handful of people already there, but no sign of the royal. Wemmbu sighed and walked inside, picking a seat farther back since he liked feeling like an anime protagonist from time to time. Also, people were more likely to leave him alone if she sat in the back.
As Wemmbu glanced around he noticed there was something carved into the desk next to his. He leaned over to inspect it and noted that it was a weird and creepy jester face with a wide, unsettling grin. Maybe it was a band logo or something.
Shortly before the bell rang another guy walked in and took the seat further in the front. He wore a green hoodie, black pants and brown combat boots as well as elbow-, knee- and shoulder guards. His brown hair was tied to a lose man-bun in the back but his most prominent feature was his mask, that looked like a golden dragon.
Wemmbu thought this guy had so much Aura and he probably shouldn’t mess with him.
Which just made him wanna mess with him so much. It was like a curse where he always had to find just how far he could push a person until he actually got into trouble.
That reminded him of something, though. Pulling his backpack onto his lap Wemmbu began to dig for a paper before the teacher arrived. The teacher didn’t look special, just like a battle-hardened middle aged man. Everyone promptly took their seats when he got here, standing at the blackboard in the front of the class, the noises of muttering and shuffling echoing around the room.
Before the lesson could properly start Wemmbu finally found what he was looking for and walked to the front to show the paper to the teacher. The man was a little bit shorter than Wemmbu but he was sure he’d be 2 or 3 inches taller than him if he took off his heels.
The man looked over the paper with stern eyes before he looked at the purple demon, furrowing his brows as he thought really hard. Then it clicked.
“Ah yes, you’re the new student, the headmaster informed us about you and your... quirks. Just don’t disrupt the class.” He told Wemmbu before turning to the rest of the class, clearing his throat to get everyone’s attention.
“Alright, listen up. Starting today we have a new student. Count yourselves lucky, thanks to this the exam has been postponed by a month to allow him to catch up with the materials.”
The teacher looked at Wemmbu again, prompting him to give a brief introduction. his ear twitched a little, his tail swishing nervously, he wasn’t great at talking in front of a crowd. Still, he turned to the others with a sheepish smile.
“Uh, hi, my name is Wemmbu. I transferred from, like, the other town over.”
Oh man, he really sucked at this whole introduce yourself to the class thing. It was also a lot harder when you were the only one doing it. He could feel his Aura going into the negatives.
Someone in the class raised their hand, an avian guy who had traits of a Cockatiel wearing dark shades and an outfit that looked like it was designed by Pinterest and Tumblr with a baggy black sweater with two yellow lines going down each side of his sleeves and a gold chain necklace, matching sweatpants and beige fur boots. The teacher nodded in his direction.
“If you don’t mind me asking, dude, what are you?”
That was the most blunt way you could ask that question and it really put the poor guy on the spot. Just from glancing around, though, he could tell that more people than just him were curious about it. His ear twitched again and he shrugged, trying to act nonchalant.
“I’m a demon hybrid. Not sure what exactly since I never met my folk.”
Wemmbu’s throat closed up a little and he prepared himself for it. he knew it was coming, all those distrustful glances, disgusted faces and whispers that would follow him from today to the day of his graduation, or until he couldn’t take it anymore. He forced his breathing to remain even but his chest started to hurt, his hands that he stuck into the pockets of his hoodie clenched to fists, his sharp nails digging into his palms, his ear twitching over and over and his tail slowly swishing from left to right, legs itching to run away already, he wasn’t sure if he could take it all again–
“Oh, cool.”
What.
Wemmbu hadn’t noticed but his ears had begun to buzz slightly and those two words, Oh cool, they had cut right through it. The rising panic attack slowly began to subside as the teacher sent him back to his seat so the lesson could finally start. Taking out his earbuds, Wemmbu stuck one into his ear and played some music. Thanks to the paper he’d shown the teacher it was no problem–Wemmbu had pretty bad ADHD and since fidget toys were simply too irritating for other people around him he was instead allowed to listen to music in one ear. Still, he would fidget with his pens, but it wasn’t nearly as annoying as, say, a fidget cube.
Since he didn’t have his books yet Wemmbu was taking notes in his notebook. It was a leather-bound, personalised notebook, a gift from his friend at the old school. It was filled with random notes, conversations between the two and doodles of smileys, fish, eyeballs and feathers, as well as just scribbles. On the cover was Wemmbu’s name etched into the leather and the book itself had a mending enchantment on it since Wemmbu never took great care of his stuff.
Except this book. He hadn’t needed to use mending on it once.
From what he was hearing and jotting down from the lesson Wemmbu realised that he probably needed to catch up on a lot within the one month period that the teacher gave him. He wondered if anyone from the class would be willing to help him out there. Maybe he could ask this Spoke dude.
Then again, he wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to hang around him too much, plus he was pretty sure he left a bad first impression anyway. So maybe someone from this class then, but who? He didn’t know anyone’s names and first impressions were his kryptonite. What if he just asked the teacher for the materials? That seemed like a reasonable and doable first step, at least. His motel had free wifi so he could probably look up what he didn’t understand online.
Just as he was getting somewhere, formulating his plan as to avoid social interactions for as long as he could, the door to the class slammed open, ripping him out of his thoughts and thoroughly interrupting class. Everyone turned towards the door where a certain yellow individual made his dramatic entrance, his crown glinting in the light that filtered through the windows of the class. the teacher let out a heavy sigh.
“Zam, take a seat. I am docking points for tardiness and interrupting class.”
Some classmates murmured among themselves, others giggled. Wemmbu just stared as Zam scoffed.
“Whatever makes you happy, teach. At least I turned up at all.”
More quiet giggles and a glare from the teacher was earned as Zam made his way to the back. For a moment Wemmbu got nervous, hoping he hadn’t accidentally sat down in his chair, his left ear twitching again. Zam stopped right in front of the demon hybrid, eyeing him for a moment, before sitting down in the seat in front of him. Wemmbu let out a quiet sigh of relief.
“Since you’ve decided to show up late again you will have the special task of helping Wemmbu catch up with the materials until the end of the month.”
Oh.
Oh no.