quinn

a z u l a s h e n g r o t t o

azul ashengrotto for all his intelligence and planning and skills as a manipulator and businessman is perhaps the most hopeless of anyone in octavinelle — maybe even in all of night raven college — when it comes to acknowledging, accepting, and acting on his feelings. partially because he’s usually so busy with his tutoring work and the lounge that he doesn’t have the time to consider his personal relationships in much depth, and partially because all the bullying he suffered during his childhood set him up for a great deal of self doubt and denial when he eventually did develop his first ever crush on you

but when he does eventually realise that his admiration for you is more than just a platonic appreciation of your better qualities? maybe due to the probing of the tweels, or maybe in the middle of the night right before he falls asleep? yeah he panics. a lot. so much that he spends the whole night pacing and spiralling and ends up showing up to his classes the next day with eye bags so severe they showed even through his makeup

and from there came the very lengthy period of denial. denial about his feelings for you as he tries desperately to rationalise his way out of a crush, hopelessly running the numbers to try and convince himself that he’s wrong and he isn’t as head-over-tentacles as floyd has been teasing him for being as of late. denial about the fact that you could ever return those feelings because his insecurities run deep and the idea of confessing to you is something that he’s certain will lead to immediate and harsh rejection, mockery, and a lifetime spent hidden in his octopot because he really is still that crybaby little octomer at heart even all these years later. just… denial all the way down… until the tweels finally step in and force him to get over himself enough to start doing something about his very obvious (to them, anyway) crush on you

so he starts making excuses to be around you more. a stark contrast to how much he was avoiding you just a few days ago, but a welcome one as you’d found yourself missing his company. and his efforts include things like:

rearranging your shifts at the lounge and swapping out your usual duties with other employees to maximise your time spent either in his office with him or working alongside him during the shifts he spends personally managing the floor or kitchen — giving himself even more chances to fumble to get to know you and present himself as a viable option for a partner however he can (though, admittedly, landdweller courting methods are terribly unfamiliar to him and he basically just keeps tripping over himself in an attempt to impress you)

inviting you to taste test new products with him, including recipes he himself has drafted up based around what he has memorised about your personal preferences just to earn some brownie points with you. please don’t bring up the fact that his very sensitive taste buds makes this whole excuse flimsy as hell, it’ll just hurt his feelings… let him have this

and even offering to tutor you in subjects you’re struggling with. and he does it, for you, completely for free — no stamp card required. he does a damned good job of teaching you too because he does his research and comes up with a session plan that caters to both your weak areas in the subject and the learning method that works the best for you — and by the end you’ll both be smug and happy and eager to do it all again at the next available chance (you, for finally grasping this topic that’s been giving you grief for the longest time, and azul for getting the chance to show off his intellect to his (hopefully) future spouse and earning your admiration and praise as a result)

he also stares at you a lot these days. like way more than he realistically should. so much so that if you caught him you’d be forgiven for either thinking he’s entirely zoned out and doesn’t even know where he is or what he’s looking at, or that he’s plotting something sinister involving you because he just looks so… lost in thought while he’s doing it. and, yes, jade has caught him in the act numerous times and, no, he will not be letting him live it down any time soon. but that’s another point entirely

azul is extremely sensitive to any signs or potential rejection from you or any external teasing about his feelings, so he is very very cautious and intentional about how he goes about all of this. and he spends way longer than he should fussing over every detail before he does anything — including fussing over his own appearance and spending enough time in front of the mirror messing with his hair to make floyd bored — because he doesn’t want to mess things up and lose his chance before he even gets to ask you out. so… do with that what you will

to conclude, when it comes to his crush on you azul manages to somehow be both painfully obvious about his feelings and just subtle enough that there’s still a chance that you’ll not pick up on what he’s doing… or, rather, that you’ll misconstrue his flirting and flightiness as attempts at getting you to sign a contract with him. but even if you don’t realise on your own, chances are one of the twins will give you a nudge (or, in floyd’s case, a very firm and violent shove) in the right direction before he even works up the courage to start planning his actual confession. oh the joy of being the leech twins’ oldest friend…

j a m i l v i p e r

jamil is not someone who catches feelings for anyone easily. nor is he someone who acts without a great deal of planning beforehand. after all, that’s how he was raised to be as a servant to the al-asim family, and even after gaining some independence after overblotting some habits die hard. and remaining emotionally distant from others and trying to avoid any potential romantic entanglements as a result of his family status is most assuredly one of them… until you came along and slowly but surely wormed your way into his heart and left him feeling things he’s never felt before…

so needless to say there will be a very long period of denial for him the second he realises what those feelings actually are. a very long and very convincing period of denial where he all but stuck his head in the sand and ignored his developing feelings for you in the hope that enforced distance would force his mind and heart to give up and, thus, lead to the crush fading away entirely. because with everything else going on in his life jamil viper does not have the time or emotional availability to deal with a crush. or a relationship at all. in fact most days he doesn’t even have the time to breathe for himself between crises. so you can’t really blame him for immediately defaulting to denial

and it was actually almost starting to work until kalim, of all people, casually called him out for being so fond of you and all of his carefully crafted excuses and denials came crumbling down in an instant. worst of all, kalim didn’t even mean to do it — he was just being his usual oblivious and cheerful self, clearly happy for jamil and wanting to see if his most trusted ‘friend’ needed any help confessing his apparently very clear feelings for you. sevens damn it all

following that conversation he ends up going through a very quiet week-long crisis — which, of course, doesn’t show because of his impeccable poker face — in which he alternates between desperately trying to rationalise to himself why his feelings are irrational and why it would be better to let them die completely (for both of your sakes, because sevens know you deserve better than a man who can’t even give you freedom) and going straight back into denial. it’s… a stressful week for him, and for the first time in years the mediocre marks he gets in his classes are warranted

and after that week is over and he eventually comes around to accepting the depth of his crush, you’ll start to notice his behaviour around you changing quite a bit. especially given that he spent a while trying his best to avoid you entirely in the hopes of killing off his feelings by force. though you certainly aren’t complaining about the sudden excess of attention from him:

not when he starts to stick close to your side during and between classes, maintaining proximity up until the moment he has to leave to attend to kalim. sometimes staying quiet, other times striking up conversation with you by cracking dry jokes at the expense of others to make you laugh or genuinely asking about your day and listening intently to the answers you give like they’re important to him, even if you’re talking about the most mundane thing in the world… and you can’t deny how nice it is to actually be listened to for a change

not when he starts going out of his way to meal prep for you to ensure that you always have something to eat for every meal no matter your financial situation. something he starts doing of his own accord one day and just never stops — and he won’t take no for an answer with this because he has your preferences memorised and he knows that you like the foods he made, plus he’s more than capable of out-stubborning you (having a little sister trained him well apparently) so it’s best you just give up and accept his homemade cooking. and the painkillers and water bottle he’s shoving into your hands right now, he could feel that headache coming a mile away. don’t ask how he knew, he just did

not with how protective he becomes around you. mostly in subtle ways, like placing himself between you and traffic when you’re walking around town, or sitting himself closer to the window, or tasting the food you buy when you’re out first just in case. but also in more obvious ways, like utelising his skills as a bodyguard to the al-asim family to swiftly and efficiently take down anyone who tries to hurt you… though, thankfully, this has yet to come up as you’re not in danger anywhere near as often as poor kalim is

and certainly not when he looks at you like that — all warm and soft around the edges, like you’re the most important person in the room and he could look at you for the entire day without growing tired of the sight. it’s a rare show of vulnerability from someone so guarded all of the time, and on its own that look would easily be enough to clue you in on how he feels for you long before he confesses… if you notice it, anyway

to conclude, once he accepts his feelings for you he pretty much starts to treat you like he has been raised to treat kalim in the weeks leading up to his actual confession. though this time his protectiveness and care is entirely voluntary and all but forced on you instead of the other way around. so if you’re familiar enough with his feelings about his family situation there’s every chance that you’ll at least be able to pick up on the fact that he likes you more than most other people… but the crush thing may go over your head a bit unless you catch him staring at you because more often than not he does have an excellent poker face and looks more neutral or affectionately annoyed by your presence around him than he does enamoured

l e o n a k i n g s c h o l a r

leona has always lived his life in other people’s shadows, unable to escape the curse of being ‘second best’ no matter how hard he fought. and after a while he eventually just accepted that he’d never be the first choice, never be the best, no matter how hard he worked for it and thus started giving up on… everything. because its easier to accept a loss when you never tried to win than to accept losing when you tried your very best from start to finish. and that depressive, defeatist mindset eventually bled into his love life as he stopped being interested in pursuing anything meaningful with others

but despite all of that when he starts to develop feelings for you, he’s actually surprisingly quick to just… accept them. no period of denial, no attempts to rationalise his way out of his feelings, no attempts to avoid you or alter his routine to minimise contact with you. he just takes a few minutes to process how he feels, acknowledge why he feels this way, and then just kind of passively accepts that he has a crush on you and goes about the rest of his day as he normally would

including continuing to treat you with that same dismissive and apathetic demeanour that he’s had since you first met all those months ago. partially because he just doesn’t care enough to try and ward you off to try and make his feelings go away (and, besides, he’s smart enough to know that trying something like that just will not work), but mostly because he’s convinced that you can do so much better than him — the second prince, the second best student, the spelldrive player who will never win — and so he treats you accordingly. no point getting his hopes up or getting too attached when he has never been the first choice and he doesn’t imagine that changing with you

so he leans even more heavily into his worst behaviours, not enough to piss you off or ruin your friendship as a whole though. just enough to sell the idea that he’s nowhere near as invested in your happiness, your presence, and the things you tell him whenever you seek him out. in other words, these days he spends way more time pretending to be asleep and hoping you leave than he does actually napping…

but if you stick with him through this period of time, if you’re quick to pick up on the fact that he’s not actually asleep and decide to stay and keep him company anyway, you will be able to notice a few signs that may clue you in to just how deeply he’s started to care about you

like how his ears always flick towards wherever you are in the room no matter how crowded it is. even when he’s pretending to be asleep so nobody bothers him, like he doesn’t even realise that he’s doing it. because he’s always listening out for you — your voice, your breathing, your footsteps — even when there are about a hundred other things he should definitely be paying closer attention to than the way you just laughed or your excited and barely muffled footfall when you think you’ve managed to catch him off guard

or how whenever he has a game, no matter how packed and energetic the crowd may be or how close the match may be, his sharp eyes always manage to find yours. and how he always seems to be that much more determined and certain of his team’s victory after he catches a glimpse of you cheering him on — which, naturally, his teammates are all quick to pick up on and tease him for, voices just loud enough for him to hear but never loud enough to carry back to the stands or be picked up on by any microphones… sevens know they don’t want to actually piss off their captain because they all know how bad he can be when his temper is tested

or how he’s always quick to place himself between you and other students, or just generally between you and anyone who may pose a potential threat to your person. a protective streak that more than makes itself known whenever you get caught up in an overblot, and that’s resulted in him over exerting himself and getting put on mandatory bed rest as a result of the lengths he went to in order to keep you out of the line of fire. for most students this is actually the first time they’ll have seen leona be so quick to put himself at risk, and as such it should be enough for most to figure out just how much he actually likes you… even if you may not be quite so quick to realise

and then there’s the way that he looks at you when he thinks nobody else can see him: soft, warm, gentle. like his committing every millimetre of your person to memory. a far cry from the sharp, calculating, mocking, borderline predatory gaze everyone else is used to seeing from him, and a glimpse to a more vulnerable side to him that he’d sooner swallow literal poison than show anyone. except, maybe, you someday. though he’s very careful about letting his guard down so blatantly like this, so unless you’re incredibly perceptive there’s every chance you’d miss these moments entirely