Chapter Text
It’s all Ace’s fault, he swears, eyes locked on to the lab gear, coat and all, in an ungainly heap on the floor. Yuu had been standing right there not even a minute prior. Suddenly, the pile moves, and Deuce goes slackjaw as a head pops out from the collar.
It’s Yuu, thank the seven, but also very clearly not.
She’s shorter than her usual 5’9, hair in twin knots by her nape. She gazes at him blearily, and he takes a terrified step back as her eyes land on him. Grim is gaping next to him as she ducks back under her lab coat.
She’s a kid. Professor Crewel is gonna crucify them both.
Curse you, Ace Trappola!
—
“So let me get this straight,” Crewel grits out, a hand supporting Yuu where she sits on his hip, “You not only completely disregarded the advice I gave you, but put your fellow classmate in harm's way?”
There isn’t really much else to say. Ace gulps, nodding, Deuce copying with a guilty expression. Grim huffs about it, but does the same. Crewel opens his mouth to yell, surely, when Yuu grapples onto his coat with trembling hands. All four of them pause to look at her. The first years can’t see what kind of face she’s making from where they’re prostrated on the floor, but it seemingly softens Crewel’s very inflamed temper. His glare softens, and he nods lightly to appease her.
“The pup will be staying with the staff until lunch. You three mutts have after-school detention for the rest of the month. Get to Trein’s class before I make it two.”
Like particularly terrified mice, they speed out of the door after waving to a Yuu that couldn’t see them. Their footsteps begin to fade, echoing down the halls.
The professor sighs, looking down to the child in his arms before smiling tightly. “Let’s get you to the staff room. I’m sure Lucille would love to meet you.”
Yuu’s lips purse, before she mumbles, “...Lucille?”
At the sound of her voice, however hesitant it may be, Crewel softens. “She’s our school nurse. She loves little pups like you, you see.” Yuu seems to allow this explanation, still clinging onto him as if afraid he’d drop her, and burrows her head into his shoulder.
It’s a relatively short walk, and they arrive at the staff room soon enough, silence following them. Crewel opens the door with a wave of his pen, if only to see the girl’s face light up at the party trick, and kicks it shut behind them.
“Ah, Lucille. Just the lady I wanted to see.” Crewel says, and Yuu shyly turns to sneak a peek at her, going stiff before squeaking and turning around.
Crewel then realises he completely neglected to mention that Lucille is a ghost. A very, very poor decision on his part.
Lucille looks at him questioningly, and he just sighs.
—
Eventually, Yuu grows comfortable with Lucille’s presence, looking at her with big, shiny eyes. She hasn’t spoken yet, but neither of the adults are too fussed about that. Crewel makes sure to keep an eye on her from his desk as Lucille tells a story, gesturing wildly.
At a particularly odd gesture, the girl laughs. A quiet, bell-like thing that has Crewel hiding a smile into his collar and Lucille continuing her tale with vigor. Yuu’s attention is fully on her, rapt and invested, when the lunch bell rings.
The noise makes the child jump, attention waning as she looks to the door, then to Crewel, and back to the door. Noticing, Crewel pipes up. “Those troublesome pups will be here soon, I’m sure. They’ll take you to lunch with them.” Yuu’s lips twist, apprehensive, but she nods.
True to Crewel’s assumption, Ace and Deuce open the staff room door panting not even five minutes later. Ace is hunched over trying to regain his breath, but Deuce smiles at Yuu where she’s peeking over the back of the couch to look at them.
“Ready for lunch, Prefe— ah, Yuu..?” Deuce says through heavy breaths, face red at his slip-up. But the girl clearly cares little for it, nodding and slipping off the couch. She bows to Lucille and Crewel both before shuffling over to the teens and hiding behind Deuce. Grim, finally, catches up to them, huffing and puffing.
The adults smile at her manners, telling the trio to behave as they leave for the cafeteria. While Ace waves them off, Deuce and Yuu nod seriously at them through the door.
They start the trek to the cafeteria with Ace whistling jauntily, before he stops and looks at Yuu playfully. “Hey, you’re totally tiny, you know. How old are you even? Five?” He snickers.
Grim frowns, placing his hands on his hips. “Oi, no insultin’ my henchman!” He pauses then, confidence faltering. “..Hench-child..?”
Yuu’s face turns red in embarrassment. “..I’m seven..” She mumbles, fists clenching and unclenching as she turns her head away. Deuce smiles at her apologetically anyway, shooting a side glare at Ace and Grim.
“Sorry about them, Yuu. They’re both morons, you know. You’re not short at all.” He smiles, placing a hand gingerly on her head where she walks beside him. Ace huffs a laugh.
“Don’t lie to the kid, Juice.”
“We cannot keep having this conversation, damnit! It’s Deuce! With a D!”
—
Eventually, amidst a steady stream of bickering, they make it to the cafeteria. It’s packed today. Ace and Deuce waltz in—Grim perched on one of their shoulders— used to the noise and clamor. But Yuu feels glued to the floor where she stands, knees close to buckling. Her palms begin to sweat.
There’s so many people… It’s so loud.
Deuce waves her over, though, and so she takes a hesitant step forward. It’s uncanny, watching so many necks snap to look at her. She kind of wants to run away.
Do I have something on my face? Is my hair messy? Is my shirt rumpled? She panics, even taking a quick peek down, only to see her shirt the same way it’d been the past few hours. Perfectly fine.
So why is everybody looking? Her throat burns as she stumbles over to Deuce, clutching his pant leg like a vice as her head bumps against his back. Grim teeters dangerously, yowling.
She can’t look. She can’t.
So she keeps her eyes plastered to the teen’s blazer as they move up the line, ears instinctively pricking to the whispers around them.
“Is that the prefect?” One of them says. “Why is she so small?” And another. “Aren’t her eyes so much more noticeable now?” She hears, and she freezes again.
Her eyes. It’s always her eyes. She should have known.
(Maybe it’s my fault. Mama always said she hated that I got her eyes, that she wished I got Papa’s instead. And she’s always right.)
Yuu blinks, and they’re sitting at a table. She didn’t even realise they’d moved. There are some new faces here, faces that look at her with surprise, with something knowing that both terrifies her and makes something in her chest feel so very warm.
A taller (stupidly tall, actually) boy with white hair looks at Ace with disdain clear on his face. “How are you even passing Alchemy? No wonder you had to sign a contract, you dumbass.” Ace squawks in offense, but the shorter boy next to him guffaws.
“Ah’ mean… is he wrong?” he snickers, eyes squinted in mirth.
Yuu looks at them all confusedly, head swimming where she’s perched next to Deuce. He seems to sense her confusion, because he straightens up. “Oh, right! Yuu, let me introduce you to everybody. This is Jack,” he says, and the tall boy nods at her, “and Epel.” The purple haired boy, still laughing, shoots her a wave. “The one infront of you is Sebek,” and the stern-looking boy simply looks at her with something unfamiliar in his eyes, “and then Ortho is next to you.” She turns her head to the side, meeting the gaze of possibly one of the most interesting people she’d ever seen, so she waves.
“It’s nice to meet you, Miss Yuu.” Ortho says, eyes crescented with a smile she can’t see, and she belatedly nods, eyes locked onto his hair. It’s literally fire. How is that even possible?
She keeps her eyes on Ortho, tuning out most everything else, and misses the majority of whatever Deuce was saying.
“.... She’s not…. looked kinda… Be patient, okay..?”
Suddenly, Yuu remembers that it’s rude to stare, and turns to her plate of food with cherry-red cheeks. She’ll have to apologise to him later. How embarrassing…
Ortho merely hums. In the loud of the lunch room, even of the table, his quiet is a nice respite.
—
For most of the table, lunch went off without a hitch.
For Yuu, it didn’t. Far from it.
She didn’t eat much, if at all, conscious of eyes on her, eyes looking, eyes searching, eyes judging. Of her own eyes, plain and lidded and dark as they swept along the table. Of every breath she took, of every twitch of her fingers around her cutlery.
It felt like being in a museum. Just mounted, odd and absurd, a spectacle to be oggled at and discussed and not much more.
So yes, Yuu ate very little, instead pushing the noodles around her plate with an ever-growing pit in her stomach. When Grim started making heart-eyes at her leftovers, she quickly handed them over. Most of the table seemed unaware, but two pairs of eyes lingered on her now empty plate. She tried to ignore it.
But ignoring anything was becoming increasingly difficult as the racket in the room crescendoed, raucous laughter from every corner, whispers weaving like the web of a spider beneath her feet.
(The other kids had always said she looked like a bug, what with her eyes. Maybe that was more fitting than she’d anticipated. The thought stung.)
Yuu’s breathing began to shallow, palms growing clammy and chest tightening. She screwed her eyes up tight, incapable of much else, until a heavy, cold hand landed on her shoulder. She could hear a faint whirring, a click and lock, a spring as it tightened around her.
So she braved it, looking frantically to the appendage and the body to whom it was attatched.
Ortho. His eyes weren’t very warm, but she could tell he was worried as he spoke to her lowly. “Your heart rate is accelerating rapidly. Are you alright?”
She wrung her hands in her lap, and nodded. The boy tilted his head, looking into her with that same worried look before acquiescing with a nod.
Neither of them said anything else for the rest of lunch, but Ortho’s hand stayed on Yuu’s shoulder the entire time. Breathing became easier over time.
—
After lunch, Lucille had lead her back to the staff room and sat with her until the final school bell had tolled. While Yuu had appreciated the company, she was still reeling from the attention. Especially in here. Adults didn’t pay attention like this.
So, it was a relief when Crewel informed her she was to stay with Ace and Deuce for the night. Even when he mentioned Grim would also be tagging along.
(He’s.. loud. But he likes her, and protects her without question. It makes her feel so fuzzy.)
After their detention was over, they collected her and walked her to their dorm. The walk was rife with banter and noise, but she’d begun to accept this noise. The noise that means she’s surrounded by people who care about her for some undiscernable reason, who care about one another. It’s very new.
They book it through the mirror— and how does one travel through a mirror anyway?— and after she gapes at the splendor for a moment, finally make it inside. It’s loud for sure, but much quieter than lunch.
A shorter boy with red hair greets them by the door, fidgeting almost inperceptibly where he sits. “Ah, you three. And I suppose this is Yuu, yes?” He says, waving them over. Ace nods, and the boy nods back, looking at her.
Yuu tightens her grip on Deuce, immediately avoiding his eyes as he clears his throat. “I am Riddle Rosehearts,” he starts awkwardly, “Welcome to Heartslabyul. I hope you, ahem, enjoy your time here.”
He’s clearly as uncomfortable with this conversation as she is, so she just nods and bows as low as she can from behind Deuce’s legs. Before he can say anything more, Grim pipes up from above Yuu’s head. “Gnnah, I’m hungry! Who even cares about this stuffy crap?”
Ace laughs at him as a vein on Riddle’s forehead starts twitching. “Can you not wait five minutes, you black hole?” Grim snarls at him, preparing to pounce, but Deuce places a firm hand on his flank before he can.
“Shut up you two! Housewarden was speaking!” He scolds, narrowing his eyes at the pair who seem to back down, rolling their eyes in unison.
Riddle clears his throat again, nodding to the first year. “Yes, thank you Deuce. As I was going to say before some people,” he glowers at Ace and Grim, who both shrink back, "interrupted me..” He turns to face Yuu again, where she’s peeking at the boy from behind Deuce. “Dinner will be served at seven sharp. I’d.. like to see you there. Today we are having salmon. Does this suffice?” He smiles as she nods meekly, eyes softening a fraction. Yuu shuffles in place.
After reprimanding the students for the earlier incident and subsequently bidding them all adieu, Riddle marches off. Yuu follows his purposeful stride with her eyes, both taken aback and kind of impressed all in one.
(He’s so… sure. How does he do it?)
She walks with Ace and Deuce to their dorm room with an absent mind and a dropped head, eyes swivelling nervously to any student they pass. A few wave, leading the boys to wave back. Grim yawns on Deuce’s shoulder, the noise barely covered by the click of the door.
Heartslabyul is… really weird.
The closet is all curvy, as is the bookshelf, and one of the tables is standing on playing cards. There are two more beds farther from the door. Yuu wonders momentarily how that shelf holds so many books, what with its shape. But then Ace plops onto his bed, and it looks soft under his weight, and Yuu wishes she had a room like this too, no matter how odd it is. She stands motionless in the doorway, looking between the two now lounging on their beds.
“Ah, I think Trey is bringing a mattress up for you, Yuu.” Deuce says, noticing her confusion. “Our other roommates agreed to stay in other rooms for the night, so you can ignore the other beds.” Yuu nods, coming to perch on the floor by Deuce’s bed for now. Grim trots over and lays in her lap.
The weight is new to her, but very comforting. He’s so warm. She runs a tentative hand over his furry flank, and he sighs appreciatively, stretching as he begins to doze.
Ace glares at her playfully from the other side of the room. “Why’re you clinging to Deuce so much, huh? The great Ace not clingable enough for you?” He mumbles, arms crossed. But he peeks at her with bright eyes, so she doesn’t bother answering. Deuce smirks at him victoriously.
“She just likes me more, clearly. Maybe if you stopped mooching off of her test answers—”
“We both do that, you delinquent.”
“Stop calling me a delinquent, damnit! I’m a model student!”
“In your dreams, man.”
—
Yuu fell asleep earlier than normal, Deuce notes.
Trey had brought up a spare twin-sized matress after dinner, kind of beat up and sunken in the middle, laying it haphazardly in the middle of the room. Despite its… character.. Yuu seemed to find it the most comfortable thing in the world, falling asleep in record time.
Not that Deuce could blame her, of course. Today was exhausting for every party involved, especially Yuu.
It was weird. Seeing her so small. She’s so much more.. meek, for lack of a better word. It’s uncharacteristic. Even at the start of the year, she was standoffish more than shy. And yet, today, she clung to him like a lifeline, a strand of juvenile ivy to weathered red brick.
Let alone at lunch. That was.. worrying.
Now, Deuce has never claimed to be observant, not like Jack or, seven forbid, Cater. But even he could notice how oddly his friend was acting back there. He could see Ortho’s hand like an anchor on her shoulder out of the corner of his eye, the way she leaped to give her plate to Grim when she so commonly refused him otherwise.
Being in a new environment like this must be terrifying, especially when she’s so young. Maybe that’s why she used him like a shield, a barrier from the uncertainty and clamor and fear. It made his heart warm considerably in his chest to be trusted so deeply.
(That maybe even a child, gentle and anxious like Yuu, could see that he’d grown from the boy he once was. That he can protect, can learn to guard and cradle and worry in equal measures in a way he hadn’t before. It makes him so, so happy.)
Grim turns over, mumbling incoherently where he rests sprawled out next to Yuu’s sleeping form. She’s curled into him, fetal, knees to chest. She looks even younger like that.
Huh. Even when asleep, she seems like she’s worried about taking up space. Maybe he should keep an eye on that?
(She’s kinda like a fawn, huh..?)
Well, whatever the case, Deuce is stupidly proud that Yuu can rely on him, even now, when she remembers none of the history their little group shared. That something intrinsic, buried deep in her heart, knows that he’s safe.
Why she thinks she requires his protection, however, is something to think on. He could chalk it up to the new environment, the unruliness of the student body, but that doesn’t feel like all it is. A factor, sure. But the entire issue? No.
That kind of anxiety, that searching and fawning and panic isn’t typically acute. Not when it’s that severe, that cloying.
Maybe he’s thinking about it too much? He’s new to the whole worry thing, still. He might be overdoing it. Just a little.
Can you really blame him, though? When it’s someone so patient, so forgiving, so dear in a situation like this, he thinks he’s completely justified in his feeling off.
Regardless, he should probably sleep on it, whatever it is. Ace snores loudly at that, as if agreeing. So he lays down, and tries to comfort himself with the thought that she’ll be back to normal soon anyway.
Maybe it’s nothing.
(Maybe it’s everything.)