Chapter Text
Apollo and Darcy Graves, the two voted most likely to kill each other before graduation. At least if Graves showed up to class enough to graduate.
Allies in the Ritual, Lab partners, Best friends (Neither would admit that.), and top of their class despite Darcy starting to make both of their attendance records hollow.
The worst part of it all, the longer they work together the smaller the gap between their faces gets. Apollo appreciated the watermelon scent of the candy she often made him buy for her. Darcy hated to think she was starting to like the scent of Vanilla wafting from his hair.
They had been almost glued in place, 3 hours of sharing the same textbook in the farthest darkest corner of the school’s old library left them silently almost fused together. Taking turns reading and writing notes to compare later. The air smelled of leather and hot wax from the various candles.
Apollo’s eyes flickered to the nearby grandfather clock against the far wall. 10 pm, almost curfew. He hoped Darcy didn’t notice the time, he couldn’t take not existing in this moment. He would never say out loud that he was taking a liking to the feeling of her pressed into his side, her head laying on his right shoulder.
She was chewing lightly on her bottom lip. The black lipstick cracking lightly under her bone white teeth. Her eyes focused intently at what seems to be his light red fingers gently fiddling with his signet ring. He thought she was reading the whole time but apparently was wrong.
‘Bite my lip instead-‘ A evil stray thought smashed through his mind at the sight. He almost slapped himself in the face to stop thinking about it. His tail wagged aggressively a few times before he stopped it.
”watch the tail golden boy.. it almost spanked me.” She said so casually and with no usual bite that he almost didn’t register she said a word. Her eyes didn’t flicker at all away from where he still fiddled with his ring. She was almost entranced with every little detail of his large and strong hands.
”S-Sorry.. it has a mind of its own..” he barely managed to mumble out. His voice betrayed him with a light crack. He could tell by her slight upturned smirk that she enjoyed his embarrassment. He would’ve been mad if he hadn’t thought she was so pretty.
An echoing tune from the grandfather clock indicated the hour. They had definitely missed curfew and at this hour being caught would lead to house arrest to their separate dormitories. He definitely wouldn’t be able to handle being apart from his lab partner crush for more than a day. And that is before his father would have his head mounted above the fireplace for staying out late with a delinquent human girl.
”Shit. We’ll need to sneak out..” He grumbled, more so frustrated at the strict rules of the academy rather than mad at himself or Darcy for being the ones to break the rules. Darcy giggled behind him, probably at his ‘Stupid pretty pouty face’ as she once called it when she thought he wasn’t listening.
”My dorm is close just hide out with me for a night.” The invitation from the short goth made his head spin and his chest swell. He turned to look at her and saw she wasn’t just messing with him. She had a serious expression that was a bit wobbly.
”If we are caught, it’d be very uncouth of me to be found in the bedroom of a lady-“ his flustered rambling was cut off by her grabbing their stuff and walking towards the exit. He cursed in Ixian before trudging after the short goth who happened to steal his heart.
~
One sneaky walk through the dark outskirts of the academy grounds later, Apollo was dragged by Darcy up two whole stories and through her small window. Barely able to fit his wide upper body through the gap.
”I know we couldn’t use the main entrance but there had to be a better way in..” He sat on the edge of her bed. It groaned under his weight. He wiped the sheen of sweat off his brow due to the exhaustion of scaling a vertical surface. She kicked her muddy boots across the room towards the door and whipped her school jacket with it. Not caring if it hit the floor.
Much like he expected, her room was dark and very messy. He almost said ‘damn.. you live like this?’ Before the sound of a faint chitter and scratches coming from under the bed made him pause. He gave her a weird look and she chuckled nervously.
”It’s okay Rem.. you can come out.” She said and as soon as she did a small bird thing scampered out from under her bed and jumped into her arms. “Big sis!” The cute little thing chirped. Its glowing eyes closed into a wide smiling expression.
“Sis..? Don’t tell me-“ Apollo sputtered.
”Rem is just a kid who got lost in the city a couple days ago.. he’s staying with me till the ritual.. that’s the only chance he has to go home.” She smiled at the poor little bird cat as she adjusted his little hat. Apollo was speechless. “It’s a long story.”
He was gonna retort. Say a million reasons why it was a bad idea to have this stowaway on school grounds. He was also a stowaway in her room. But the way she held rem on the side of her hip. Looking down at him like he was her kid, her hair down from her usual buns as the wind from the still open window let the breeze carry it away from her perfect face.
He was stunned into silence. It reminded him of the way his mom would look at him. A painful memory. But he also realized he needed to make sure to protect that smile. A single tear rolled down his cheek and he wiped it when he thought she wasn’t looking. She, of course, was.
sighing, he took a step closer and gently raised his hand to pet the little guy. Rem in turn gave him a big smile and let him ruffle the feathers on the top of his small head.
”Nice to meet you Rem.” A genuine smile crossed his face. The sight made Darcy blush, she had never seen Apollo actively show off this genuine of a smile, outside of when he won fencing tournaments.
”Wait.. where am I going sleep?” He realized as he turned to look at the bed. It looked big enough for them both, but it’d be a snug fit. Oh god he now had the image of Darcy lying in her bed with nothing but one of his shirts to cover herself. Motioning for him to join her. His whole body turned a maroon color. His tail wagged hard. She noticed and could guess what he was thinking, chuckling to herself at how obvious he was.
”Big bro can cuddle with us!”
Apollo almost passed out. Graves bit her bottom lip.
”Sure.” She said.