Work Text:
Every year, when the light breeze of spring encroaches over the cold gusts of winter, the approach of Noble Bell College’s annual spring cleaning becomes a widely discussed topic.
All students are held to a high standard in terms of keeping their living quarters and the school tidy of course, but the Spring Cleaning is a much broader campus-wide deep cleaning event.
It helps reset the school into a perfect state after the winter months, including a fair bit of gardening. It is the season of new blooms, after all.
It takes place the week before the vacances de printemps (Fleur City's spring holiday).
Academic activities get halved in that week, only in forenoon to clear up students’ afternoons for their assigned cleaning duties.
But despite its importance it was never exactly a well-beloved tradition.
So, generations ago, the then school council president made an addition to bring up the students’ motivation to truly give it their all: the Spring Banquet.
A reward after a full week of cleaning and giving their bests, and a wonderful final treat at school before the two week vacation.
But for the student council, it also means even more preparations for Spring Cleaning week. So the weeks leading up to the event tend to be rather eventful and busy.
It’s checking old equipment and getting new equipment. It’s ordering new flower bulbs for the gardens, making sure the local garbage collection company agrees to coming by thrice instead of the normal once a week, …
“How are we missing buckets compared to last year again?!” Rollo isn’t easily —outwardly— frustrated by things as mundane as student council paperwork, but at the current point in time he might be ready to toss the list into the paper shredder they don’t even have.
The disappearing bucket trend has been going on for years, even before any of the current student body enrolled. Rollo was hoping to put a stop to it with the equipment log system he implemented, but…
“Another bucket heist this year?” Vincent stretches out his arms up above his head with interlaced fingers, much to the dismay of his muscles that have gotten a bit stiff.
He’s been sitting at the other side of the desk from Rollo, but it’s about time he takes a break from looking at the task distribution sign up slips.
(Next year he really is going to nag Rollo to make it digital, his poor fingers hurt from writing names.)
“How do you even misplace those?” Rollo’s been comparing numbers after last year’s count, but besides a few stragglers he hasn't spoken up about, Vincent knows it must be bad if he’s getting fussed.
Vince makes a vague gesture with an outstretched hand, and Rollo passes the two pages he’s comparing over with a deep sigh.
He glances at each paper in his hands and lo and behold they’ve lost 14 loyal bucket soldiers.
He looks up past both lists. “Like idiots?”
“I’ll tell you how, like id-” Rollo halts his readied response once Vincent’s answer actually registers, and he doens naught to reveal their word-predicting secrets besides the slightest hint of a sly smile beneath the polite one.
“Ahem.” Rollo recomposes himself for a moment before Vincent slides both pages back over his way.
“There’s worse equipment to lose, buckets should be easy to aquire. Not too costly, either.” Vincent’s attempt to lessen the tension doesn’t go unnoticed, but it does very little to Rollo’s sour mood.
“It isn’t about the cost, but the principle. It’s school property, we ought to take care of it with respect. And you ought to stop making excuses for them.”
“They’re not excuses.” Vince furrows his eyebrows just slightly, then rests his head on one of his hands. “It’s true that buckets are both easy to get and don’t cost a lot. I’m thinking problem-solving-oriented, not punishment-oriented. And while I’d love to entertain the idea of bringing our bucket-stealers to proper rightful judgement and justice, we don't have time to start a bucket investigation unless we want to thwart our planning timeline.”
Rollo doesn’t respond at first, simply aligns the two pages in front of him again so he can continue past the bucket-hurdle.
“You’re right.”
“I’ll help you order them later.” Rollo makes a face at Vince, tapping a finger against the desk in a minute display of disapproval (Vincent doesn’t think Rollo knows he does it automatically).
“I didn’t ask for help.”
“I’m acting pro-active, you keep telling vice-kun to do so, so I thought...”
“There’s a reason that was directed at him.” Rollo huffs, displeased. “You act perfectly fine just the way you are, I can't afford to lose your reliability with our current state of the council if you change your behaviour..”
Only someone like Rollo can scold you in such a serious tone while saying such words. It still somewhat surprises Vincent, especially when that serious furrowed look stays on Rollo’s face with not a hint of realization he’d just delivered some high praise coming from the brilliant Student Council President
“Well-” The word comes out before Vince’s had any time to come up with the next ones, resulting in an awkward pause, and no new words swarming to his head due to perceiving said awkward pause.
“I will- remember that, sorry. And thank you.”
“For what?”
“It’s nothing, nevermind.”
It’s busy at the entrance to the college. It’s a week before spring cleaning and the arrival of a big truck filled with boxes has disturbed the Noble Bell students’ third lesson hour.
Luckily the teachers don’t fuss about these things, and Rollo had let most of the staff know about the possible inopportune timing of the delivery.
“Where do these go?”
“Basement entryway, with the others, stack them but make sure they’re stable.” Vincent is ready to repeat that sentence at least thirty more times today. Comes with the territory.
He’s the only council member besides Rollo currently still present at the unloading of the truck, the others are either also carrying boxes or ready to help stack them back in the basement.
Vincent isn’t sure what exactly Rollo is talking about with the delivery driver, but his facial expression seems pretty impartial, so maybe it’s small-talk.
He’s been anticipating this delivery for a while now, praying to something it would be in time. (Of course it would, when Rollo already placed the order about 5 months ago.)
Speciality cleaner. Two different types. One for stained glass, which is a common and important sight of their college. The other for some of the older statues and gargoyles.
Those often receive cleaning, but for more intricate deeper work in crevices and such, some soap can help. But while sturdy, they are old works in need of cleaner with proper pH levels than some normal grocery cleaners might provide.
At least that’s what Rollo said, something along those lines.
Vincent scribbles another three stripes to his tally when some more students pass by with an equal amount of boxes.
“Vince, there you are!” Vincent takes a quick glance at who’s heading his way, before turning his eyes back to keeping track of who and what passes by, helping with directions if needed.
“Hi, Damin. Also here to help?” Vince asks, getting a long drawn out sigh in response.
“Yeahhh.”
“Don’t be like that, many more arms means carrying one box at a time will be more than enough.”
“It’s still a bit of a drag.” “Better use that frustration to drag a box to the basement then.”
Vince receives a slight nudge, having him stumble just a bit.
“Hey! I’m counting. You can goof off around me after this is done, it’s important my tally stays accurate.” Vincent straightens out his uniform again, wiping off dust he can’t see.
“President Rollo must either give very good pep-talks or extremely effective scolding for you guys to be so up tight while on duty. But you’re another level beyond even the others.”
He’s not THAT up tight….
“Nothing like that, don’t go spreading false rumors. It's simply in my job description.”
Vincent gets a bit of a look, before Damin looks him up and down momentarily.
And another four tallies to the list.
“We’re students, you know? Student council is important but it isn’t as serious as a job, Vince.”
Vincent rolls his eyes. It was obviously a figure of speech. But he chuckles, shake-nodding his head dismissively. “Technically, I know that. Don’t worry.”
“What about realistically?”
It’s an oddly serious question coming from someone like Damin.
Vince has to give them a questioning look for a couple moments, awaiting if they truly are asking or if they were joking around and ready to go “Syke” or something equally lame. Another three tallies.
He ponders it for a moment, thinking about the question. Vincent hadn’t put any calculated thought behind using the word “technically”, so he doesn’t have a ready to go answer.
Vince glances back in the direction of the truck, Rollo’s still conversing with the cluelessly friendly delivery driver that really can’t seem to tell Rollo would like to get away from the conversation to start helping with the unloading.
“I think I just-” Vince starts, but then pauses, he hums in thought.
“I just really want to match his determination.”
Damin looks over as well, and shrugs somewhat nonchalantly. “That’s a tall order. Our president is the most determined person you’ll find around the school for sure, every student wants to be a little more like him in that regard, I think.”
“Wanting isn’t enough for me, I’m acting upon it whenever I can.”
“And does the president know he has a groupie?” Vince immediately frowns in reaction to their words, giving Damin a defensive kick to the shin.
“Ouch, ouch-! I was joking!!”
“Joke less loudly!” Vincent scolds, getting a pitiful unhappy pout from his friend.
“How will I be able to help lifting boxes now? My poor-”
“I have accidentally kicked you way harder than that during soccer and back then you shrugged it off for at least two hours before I forced you to visit the infirmary.”
“Ugh, busted.” Damin sighs loudly, but then sort of shakes off the gloom to stand up a bit straighter. “I better get to work before you decide to actually start kicking.”
“I would never.” Vincent makes an offended face, and turns his head away dramatically snobby, giving them a warning side-eye to remember. “Too many witnesses.”
“Good luck with the rest of your tally.”
“Luck has nothing to do with it.” Both Vince and Damin get slightly startled by Rollo, who seems to have just wrapped up, approaching the two.
“President.” Both Vince and Damin greet them, but Damin dismisses himself quite quickly after their arrival to go help, and Rollo watches them go with a frown before he directs his gaze back to Vincent.
“What was all that about?”
“It didn’t affect the tally if that’s what you were worried about.” Vincent assures Rollo, and he really has been keeping track whilst talking with Damin. He can multitask pretty well.
“I wasn’t.”
Rollo doesn’t elaborate further on his answer.
“He just came over to say hello.”
Rollo’s eyebrows furrow momentarily, but he dismisses whatever thought must've formed.
“Very well, keep up the good work. If anyone disturbs you any further, feel free to signal me. I will be overseeing the unloading process.”
“Was everything alright with the shipment? You were talking to the delivery driver for quite a while.” Vince inquires about what’s kept them so long, and Rollo’s facial expression turns slightly worn-out at the thought of it.
“Small talk.”
“Ah, your favorite.”
“Yes, nothing like quite like it...”
Is that him… joking back? That’s new.
“President Rollo?” Vincent pops his head inside the Student Council room. After not having found Rollo at his usual lunch spot, nor at their dormitory, this was the next place on the list to give a look.
Lo and behold, they’re sitting at one of the desks in the room with an opened laptop in front of them.
It’s still an odd sight. Even any time Rollo gets his phone out seems to give those around him serious whiplash. He’s more classic with preferring writing, after all.
He makes an affirmative humming sound, and Vince takes a big step inside, leaving the door open. It’s a rule.
“I was wondering if you had gotten final confirmation from the catering company? You’re probably on top of it, but I was curious.”
“You mustn't be so hesitant to double check me, I am not a perfect human being.”
Rollo glances back at the screen of the laptop, and then to Vince again. “But, speaking of, where do we keep the student council password again…”
“You still don’t remember it?” Vince can’t help but chuckle just slightly, but Rollo doesn’t seem to take it to heart. Only annoyed at the accuracy of the comment, probably.
“It is complicated.”
“It’s Bell of Solace, no spaces, every word’s first letter capitalized, every letter that can be turned into a number and still be recognizable is one.”
Rollo makes a face. “What does that even mean?”
“E’s are 3, O is 0, A is 4. You agreed to it when we set it."
Rollo stares at Vincent for a while, and lets out another small sigh before they look back at the screen. He doesn’t start typing in anything.
“Do you need me to-” Vincent starts, and Rollo immediately interjects. “Yes.”
Vince places his messenger bag on one of the chairs he passes, and picks one of the other chairs up to place it next to Rollo’s. “Move over a bit.”
The laptop is currently open on the logging in page of the school email they use, and Vincent swears he’s shown Rollo how to keep the passwords remembered onto the laptop itself.
It doesn’t matter too much.
Vincent rotates the laptop toward him slightly, and not more than 10 seconds later the password is typed and confirmed, and he turns it back toward Rollo. Who, despite being a mage, looks like he has seen some otherworldly witchcraft.
“I miss when physical forms were more common.”
Vince is pretty sure Rollo, too, was but an elementary school kid at that time, but he understands the sentiment. There’s something pleasing about things on paper, but the soreness of one's fingers outweighs the ease of digital, easily.
“Let us see…” Rollo scans through the subjects of unread emails, a couple weekly familiar ones that they don’t need to worry about (including one about next week’s school cafeteria menu, and Vincent is only slightly disappointed he can’t just look at it immediately, his curiosity will have to wait).
“Ah, here.” A click later, it appears to be the proper final confirmation from the catering company. It includes some handy info like when they’ll arrive, how many tables they request to properly display everything. A question about what side of the school to deliver at.
As well as an attached document with the item and price overview, Rollo opens it up to scan through it. Someone else in the council was in charge of actually ordering everything, but all the inventory seems to be right. Properly within budget for that company as well.
“...They forgot to order any Lamala.”
Rollo’s eyes narrow just slightly, partly with frustration and with immediate calculated worry.
“That isn’t this company, president. We get them from a local bakery in the origin region.” Vincent is surprised at Rollo’s surprise, he must have forgotten. But then their expression turns to thought, trying to calculate times.
“It’s in 8 days…” Rollo mutters to himself, seemingly deep in thought before he addresses Vincent once more.
“Do you think it will be too late to order them?”
Vincent frowns. “Too late? They've been ordered for a while."
“What? By whom? Since when?”
“...Me. And, about 2 months ago. We already got confirmation last week.”
The both of them exchange a few seconds of eye contact, before Rollo turns his attention back to the computer, exits out of the current email and finds the confirmation from said unbeknown-to-him order not much further down the list.
He scans over the contents, reading the confirmation by the bakery and time of arrival. Perfectly in time, all the information is there.
“I don’t remember asking you to do such a thing. I had forgotten about the other company altogether and no one had brought it up to me either.”
“You didn’t, but about 4 months ago you asked me to remind you if they were popular and fully eaten last year.” Vince recalls it rather clearly, as it came out of nowhere at the time. Not the conversation topic one would usually start with when walking into each other at the communal bathrooms.
“When I said yes you made that affirmative hum noise you do when you take a mental note of something to not forget.”
Rollo simply blinks, unresponsive in any other way of communication.
“Then when Noé was asked to order the catering, I reminded him of the different bakery for the Lamala and he asked me if I could communicate with them whilst he focused on the other company. So, I did.”
Rollo doesn’t respond to that either, simply opens up the attached file to the email with the invoice and order date. Vince can tell he’s trying to find something to scold him on, when in reality he’s done a good service for the council.
He’s done pretty much exactly the sort of help you would expect from a secretary. He doesn’t understand why it rubs Rollo the wrong way when things get done without his input. Vince doesn’t need input commands to do his job.
“...Hm?” But then, Rollo notices something on the invoice. On the order is a quite big amount of Lamala (as is needed for a student body this big), but beneath is a singular order for a Nid de Pâques.
“Why is there only one? There were already plenty on the other order, too.”
“Oh, this bakery’s Nid de pâque wasn’t very popular last year so we opted to get those from the other catering company. Last year we figured getting the baked goods only from the bakery was the best option, but I presume with regional differences our students are used to much more chocolate in theirs.”
“Yes, I remember that. It was quite disappointing we ended up with so much left, it is good we found places that were happy to receive some free dessert. A pity, I found it quite nice, preferable over our local ones.”
“Yes, and I remember that,” Vince says with a chuckle. “So I ordered one for you, since you liked it much more.”
“You aren’t meant to make unauthorized purchases with the school’s fund.”
“It was authorized by me, does that not count? I have some secretary input, don’t I?”
Vince can’t tell if Rollo seems unconvinced, or simply annoyed that someone did something nice for him that he finds entirely unnecessary.
“It was entirely unnecessary, I would think you would have realized that when you had to order only one.”
The second one, then.
“I can pay the school back if that’s where the problem lies. It isn’t that expensive of a cake, then you have to feel no moral guilt in enjoying it.”
“That isn’t what I’m trying to say. It’s the principle of the matter.”
“I think that if we are willing to make an accommodating change for the student body into a product they will enjoy, I also think we should be willing to make the accommodating decision to still order some of the previous one even if there was only one student who enjoyed it.” Vince furrows his eyebrows, and crosses his arms for good measure.
“Our goal is to organize an enjoyable feast for everyone, and, be it a surprise or not, Rollo, you belong to “everyone” too.”
There’s a moment of silence, during which Vince spots another student council member approaching the door, but upon reading the tense room in a second they make a swift full turnaround.
But this is definitely a hill he’s willing to die on, if he must.
“And if it’s not what I ended up wanting?”
“That isn’t the case.” Vincent holds back a sigh. Even he is getting frustrated now, and that's not usually an easy feat. It's not usually in his nature to bumps heads with Rollo, though.
“Not from the guy who eats the same lunch every day a year, doesn’t drink any soda besides a specific brand since you were like- 13, always goes for the same stationary set and won’t buy his winter coats at a different store. Your tastes are specific, and they persist.”
“Are you trying to comment on my character?”
Not negatively.
But Vince doesn't want to get into his comments on Rollo's character right now.
“Look me in the eye and tell me you don’t want a piece of that cake.”
“I don’t-”
“Without lying.”
Rollo falls silent immediately.
“...”
Rollo ends their momentary staring content with a long, closed-eyed sigh, turning his attention back to the computer and closing out of the email.
He’s not used to Vincent being so unshakeable in something that has to do with counseling duties.
“I will allow it. I can not afford you to get in trouble this close to spring cleaning either way.”
It’s a victory for Vincent dressed up as a truce for Rollo’s own comfort, but Vincent can accept that.
“Thank you, president.”
Vince will get his own thank you one day.
Probably.
Maybe.
Once the day arrives, Vince has been put on belltower cleaning this year. It’s a strange occurrence to get one of the “rarer” tasks twice in a row. A mysterious coincidence.
It’s even more mysterious considering Vincent did the task distribution this year, and this is not where he put himself.
He isn’t against it, obviously, it’s quite an honor to spend so much time in the belltower and get some wonderful sights out the windows while getting rid of cobwebs.
But he figured he’d pass that honor to someone else this year.
The only person that should still have had their hands on the task list would have been whoever sent out the emails on the student platform informing everyone of their task this year.
Which was vice-kun. Who would have probably told Vincent himself.
If he’d even have a reason for doing so at all.
The only other possible person would have been…
Vincent’s thought process gets interrupted with a short grunt. Rollo’s finished hauling another two big packs of powder soap up the ladders.
Vincent himself has already put his back to the test carrying water filled buckets up here. It certainly isn’t the easiest task to be done in the schools.
Vince longs for the tapestry cleaning duty he would have been on for the first two days. Long and difficult work, but without heavy lifting and dragging.
“These seem to get heavier the more I bring up here.”
Vincent makes an affirmative noise in response, still somewhat in thought while he dusts off the inner window frames. There’s a lot of dust and dirt trapped between the frame and glass itself, he wants to get rid of that first before cleaning the windows.
It’s certainly a flashback to last year. At that point in time, he’d exchanged more words with Rollo on that specific day than every month of the school year before it combined.
That’s changed since then. Luckily. Rollo is still scarce with words at times, but not as much.
They’re on the floor just below the Bell of Solace. Working their way down from there. (It’d suck if you cleaned a floor only for the next one to rain dust on it through any gaps between the layers).
Window scrubbing and dust removing, Vincent’s sealed fate for the next 3 days at least.
"If you wanted me to help specifically, you could have just asked me about it."
The sound of the second scrubber scraping off grime from the floorboards stops. They've been working well for the past hour mostly in silence, focused on their task. But after wondering thoughts have been running circles in his heads digging for a "why", Vincent decides to speak up about it to the only person that can actually answer that question.
"I beg your pardon?"
"You could have just asked." Vince repeats. "Instead of switching my name around after the finalized assignment list has been made."
"I have no idea what you are talking about, Vincent."
"You know I made the list this year, right?" Vince only glances at him via the corner of his eye, but Rollo doesn't look shocked or surprised in reaction. Just stern, neutral as always, aside from the longer silence.
Something in his eyes is just slightly different than usual, though. Must be surprise after all.
"Did you?"
Vince hums affirmitavely.
Rollo sighs, but then resumes his task, which makes Vince stop this time.
"No explanation at all? Really? Not even an excuse attempt?" If Vincent can be entirely honest, he's a little annoyed Rollo "overruled" his task decision making.
"Excuses are beneath me." Rollo starts. "If it were up to me I would have assigned the belltower to myself alone, but with the staff checking around every so often, they would certainly dissaprove."
Vincen't isn't quite sure what that has to do with the task switching.
"For good reason, it's a lot of work."
"I am aware."
"But that's never stopped you from other difficult tasks, I suppose." Vincent resumes scrubbing, quietly, leaving some silence for a reply. One that doesn't come.
"..."
Goodness, take a compliment for once!
"So then," Vince stops his scrubbing again, shifting his focus on Rollo fully this time. "why?"
"You will not let this go."
"Not at all." He huffs somewhat amused, dunking his scrubber into the bucket of soapy water. "So unless you want to spend the next 3 days filled with me trying to get it out of you it might be in your best interest to just tell me now."
"You jest."
"Do I?" Vince can hear them sigh; slighly defeated, and then turns to look at him again.
"I dislike it when you become like this."
"..."
"Steadfast." Rollo clarifies after seeing Vincent's face, and he stops his task too, putting the scrubber into his own bucket of water. He doesn't take it out.
That sounds like a compliment. Looks like Vincent has unlocked their talkative mode after all.
"You barely use your wit, and when you do, it's insufferably impenetrable. It loathes me so to be on the receiving end of it."
"Are you embracing what you'll be up against for the next few days?" Vince leans rests his elbow on a nearby stool, propping his head on top of his hands. "Or simply stalling getting to the point?"
Rollo gives him a look.
"You're getting worse."
"Thank you."
"Not a compliment, Vince."
Vince's head lifts from its propped up position, somewhat caught off guard. Rollo tends to use his full name, never his very nickname. He can't tell if it's a slip of the tongue because Vince's wit is wearing him down or if he's trying to loosen up.
Or distract him, actually, now that Vincent thinks about it.
"Stalling, then?" Rollo sighs at Vincent's question. Looks like he was hoping Vince would lose track of what they were talking about.
He's seen Rollo use that trick on other people before.
"I simply thought you were the best possible candidate. Both for the job, and—" Rollo stops, and then picks up the scrubber from his bucket, squeezes excess water and continues scrubbing without continuing.
Vince is about to probe again after 6 whole seconds of waiting, but Rollo continues himself, having mustered up whatever he needed to say the words.
"For company for the next 3 days. I have nothing more to say about it."
Oh.
Now that's a compliment for sure.
Rollo has left hiself wide open for the best possible remarks and comebacks Vince's heart can think of, but..
Whilst this is the perfect oppurunity to mess around some more verbally if it were anyone else than Rollo—
It's not everyday Rollo talks as sincerely like this. And it explains some of Rollo's behaviour the past few days. Was he mentally preparing to spend time with him? At least it would explain their attempts at humor the past few days.
There's something awfully unrealistic about imagining Rollo trying to practice and be prepared for smalltalk. It's awfully endearing too.
"Of course."
Best not scare them off prematurely if they're the ones trying to reach out socially this time.
But to Vince's grand joy, even should he attempt greatly, Rollo can not always read people easily.
So even with Vince's gentle words spoken, he hopes they don't catch on to the excitement radiating off him.
Lots of it.