Chapter Text
"Nii-San! Idia! IDIA SHROUD OPEN THE DOOR!"
Ortho had been knocking on his brother's door for about an hour. Genuinely, how important could a game be that he could ignore his little brother for a whole hour!? He picked himself up, quickly flying away, only to fly back and throw himself against the door. As the metal made a very loud sound across the hall, echoing with a boom Ortho realized, IDIA WASN'T IN HIS ROOM!?
"Idia?—"
"MY DOOR!" Idia came from behind and saw the entire scene.
"Ortho! Why did you break down my door?! NAUGHGWVKEHQLWVEKWJSGQH" Idia whined.
"Nii-San! It's an emergency call from STYX HQ!"
Earlier, Ortho had received a sudden call from his and Idia's father.he thought it was a simple check in, they had become more recent after Malleus' Overblot.
"Ortho! I need you to deliver this message to Idia!" His dad said seriously.
"I didn't even get to say hello. Wait what's going on?" The hint of nervousness in his father's voice left Ortho curious.
"It's your mother, she hasn't been feeling well. We're getting her checked out today. It's nothing big, but you boys should kno—"
Ortho's recording stopped when Idia suddenly yelled.
"Mom!? She's sick!? SHE BARELY GETS SICK, WTF!? IS THIS REAL, ORTHO IS THIS CLICKBAIT—…no, don't tell me, is this your way of gaslighting me into leaving my room and visiting mom and dad!? ORTHO NOOOOOO"
"Calm down! No it's not….would it work?"
"No."
"Oh ok."
They didn't really know what was going on, their father didn't really give them any details, and now they were stressed. Idia bit his nails while Ortho fixed the door. Could their mother just be manipulating them into calling, THAT'S SO MEAN?! She was totally smart, she was one of the heads of STYX after all. If only she used those smarts for things other than looking at his search history. Oh Sevens! Now that he thought about it, what had she seen!? She better come out alright so he could ask her what it was!
"Nii-San? Are you there?" Ortho waved his hand in front of Idia's face, it wasn't like him—Well, sort of was—to zone out this badly.
"I'm gonna go to class…" Idia mumbled before leaving his roo—LEAVING HIS ROOM?!
Ortho stood in complete shock, hell, he started to feel as if he were actually shocked.
"SYSTEM ERROR!"
All the students that saw Idia walking out around the halls were also surprised, they whispered and murmured to each other on why the most antisocial guy in the school was going out of his room and to class, he didn't even have the hood of his hoodie on! Idia walked around with his hands in his pockets, only looking down and apologizing every now and then when he bumped into people.
"Idia!" Kalim cheerfully yelled and ran over. "We're having a party to celebrate that summer vacation is almost here, now I know you don't like them but—"
"Okay." That was all he said as he continued walking.
"Did Idia—THE IDIA— Just agree to a party with you Kalim? That was so totally unexpected!" Cater said.
"I-I think so?!"
"Hm." Lilia began to ponder, "He seems to have a lot on his mind right now, doesn't he?"
"Idia! You missed this morning's Housewarden meeting!" Riddle stated. He and Idia had stumbled into each other in the hallway, and Riddle just had to annoy him.
"Oh…Right."
"I would like a full explanatio—"
"THEN FIND IT SOMEWHERE ELSE!" Idia shouted. Every student nearby froze.
"SEVENS! CAN'T YOU AT LEAST FIGURE IT OUT YOURSELF? I THOUGHT YOU HAD MAXXED OUT YOUR INTELLIGENCE. I DON'T GO CAUSE I DON'T WANNA!"
"LIKE SRS, YOU CAN'T POSSIBLY THINK THAT I EVEN CONTRIBUTE TO THAT SHIT! IT'S LIKE AN ANNOYING CUTSCENE THAT NO ONE ASKED FOR BUT WAS INCLUDED IN THE QUEST ANYWAY! BUT GUESS WHAT? I CAN SKIP IT! OH HOW BLESSED IS THAT SKIP BUTTON, SAVES ME SO MUCH TIME FROM USELESS TASKS."
"Useless tasks?! I'll have you know we discus—"
"Yeah Yeah yeah! While you're at it, why don't you go and fuck yourself!"
Idia left, putting on his headphones to block out noise. Now, there was a possibility that he genuinely did not know how loud he was being beforehand, since everyone could hear the nightcore music blasting from his headphones. What no one could believe was that he yelled at Riddle of all people! Even Riddle didn't know what to do, he didn't take his head!
Word spread quickly, and soon enough, it reached Leona's class, where Idia had also shown up, he even picked up his pen instead of his keyboard. Leona didn't care at first, he thought that maybe Idia was just tired, or fed up with stuff. But the moment he raised his hand and asked an actual question, out loud, with his voice, and mouth, not his tablet, Leona got weirded out.
"Yes Shroud?" Professor Trein had asked him back, also shocked, but he tried to hide it in his voice.
"If that war started because of that one assasination attempt, then why did that one group get involved?" Idia mumbled.
"Oh-I thought you all knew already, did I skip ahead by accident?"
"Mrow!" Lucius meowed and nodded, flipping the textbook over to the page Trein had accidentaly skipped.
"My, forgive me. Thank you Shroud, you get one extra point!"
HIM?! The entire classroom stared with their jaws open, how had he gained an extra point?! AND BY PARTICIPATING?!
The bell rung and marked the end of class, as soon as Idia was about to get up and go to his next class, Leona dragged him down onto the floor.
"Shroud, what was that?" He snarled, making sure that this insanely spaced out idiot didn't just go back to his autopilot mode, walking out and being a normal student.
"Eh?" Idia looked around him, he had gone to class, and even participated, and now Leona was looking at him with that threatening look!
"Eek! I thought you were more like a c-cat, yo-you know! Your eyes look way too menacing! I can practically hear the boss music atp, ah!"
"Shut your nerdy ass mouth and open it for something more relevant! Why have you been acting so weird all day?!"
"O-oh, so when I act like a normie I'm the weird one? I thought that that's what you all would've wanted. And they say I'm the weird one—"
"ANSWER THE QUESTION RADISH SPROUT!"
"eep! Okay Okay, I'll talk!" Idia shrieked, "Nvm, you are like a cat, I can feel your claws on me!"
Idia explained everything, how his mother was getting checked out today and how he started to feel a little (a lot) nervous about what it could be, since she rarely got sick. He hoped it wasn't anything fatal, there couldn't really be a chance of it. But then again, they were exposed to a it of radiation with technology, so it was possible that it was something. He tried to then joke about it by saying it was a very dumb protagonist backstory, lame and repetitive.
Leona listened, he normally ignored him, but now it was something a bit relatable. His father was sick, and he hated how every time he visited him, he had to see him weak and unable to move without help. It was depressing, more than the backhanded compliments he'd say, only to take them back a few moments after.
"I get what you mean. But don't go around doubting the people you know, now that's just pathetic, even for you." Leona said, his tone calming down.
"Eh?!"
"It's your mom, right? Promise you she'll be fine, you can't control how her body works or reacts to illnesses, what you can do is support her from the sidelines, so don't be a wimp and cry when nothing bad has happened yet."
"Wow…That's totally what a character would say during a monologue, do they teach Prince's how to do that?"
"Shut up and just accept I'm bein' nice…They did teach me how to make speeches."
"weeheheee! I knew it—"
An upbeat idol song rang from Idia's phone, it was his father! He would finally get to know what was up with his mother!
"Hello? Dad? What's going on!—"
Leona couldn't really hear what his father was saying, but seeing Idia's face shift to one of absolute terror was making him (and lucius) very curious.
"You know what's up with him?" Leona sked Lucius, who responded with a simple, "Mrrp"
"So he's just bein' a weirdo?"
"Mow!"
Idia dropped his phone, absolutely frozen.
"Oop." Leona grabbed his phone.
"Hello, this is Leona Kingscholar, just wanna know what you said to your kid here that made him…" He looked at idia, "have a heart attack?"
"Oh! Alright. Idia is getting a new baby sibling!"
OH—