Ramshackle got a hole in the roof again, and, because the gods love you so much, they made sure the hole was opened right above your bed! As much as you would love a skylight to gaze out of at the stars in the most ungodly of hours, you don't like rain, bird poop, debris, and a surprising amount of mice (and a single racoon you named stupid idiot in a fit of rage one can only feel when they're woken up at 2 am by a racoon cannonballing onto their face) falling on your head and jolting you awake with the fear that the building really is coming down this time. And so, it was decided that you'd stay in Heartslabyul for the time being. Luckily, you managed to totally-not-blackmail the headmaster and he scheduled repairs proptly.

And thank sevens for that because you were tired. The floor is about as soft as your mattress back at Ramshackle, so you have no problem sleeping on the floor, but Ace and Deuce (mostly Ace) have been making it absolutely impossible to sleep. If they aren't away and pelting you with pillows, they're snoring loud enough to put Ramshackle's janky dryer to shame and kicking crap off their beds and onto you in their sleep.

When the butterflies in your stomach start rioting you decide you might as well get up and search the dorm's kitchen for a bite to eat. You excavate yourself from the pile of pillows and blankets unceremoniously kicked onto you and quietly slink out of the room.

The hallway is quiet and somewhat eerie in the dark, but that's the least of your worries as you're doing your best not to go tumbling down a flight of stairs or run into a wall. And you thought the dorm layout was confusing in the day.

By some miracle, you make it to the hallway where the kitchen is located. It's still rather dark, but a soft light spills from the slightly ajar door to the kitchen and provides you with some light. You hear pots and pans in a volume so quiet you didn't realize those metal jerks were capable of.

When you stumble into the kitchen you aren't all that surprised by who you see. "Trey?" you yawn, leaning against the door, your robe wrapped tightly around you for warmth.

"Ah. Prefect. Did I wake you-"

"Why the h*ll are you baking at-" you squint your eyes and look at the microwave clock "-3 in the morning"

"I couldn't sleep" he admits bashfully, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Drink tea, take a supplement, count sheep." you sigh, feeling around for one of the stools to the kitchen island to sit down.

"I know, I know" he sighs, sitting across from you, his gaze on the stove timer ticking down.

". . .so. . .can I have some?"

"Will you rat me out to Riddle?"

"Not if you share."

"Deal."

From then on, you made him set a alarm for himself if he was baking so he finished before 3 in the morning. You initially were going to try to convince him to from the hobby of baking by moonlight entirely, but he bribed you with the spoils of his labor and you were simply too broke to refuse the free food.

On Trey's end, he initially found the timer annoying, only agreeing to it to keep you from snitching to Riddle. However, after a trip back home on which he had to scold his siblings, he began to draw a comparison.

Every morning and every night he started texting you to make sure you remembered to brush your teeth. Honestly, he was touched once he realized how similar your scolding was to the scoldings he gave his little siblings and wanted to repay you for the care you showed him. Yeah, it's kinda weird to text someone twice a day to make sure they're brushing their pearly whites, but he hasn't heard you complain yet (mostly because Ace and Deuce's stories of the nightmarish Trey that appears at the foot of your bed when you don't brush and floss scared you out of it).

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TWST Masterlist

You sighed, leaning your head back as you dropped your phone. Your eyes closed as you tried not to get too annoyed at the present situation. Another relationship gone. That’s your third one in the past month. Seriously, people were going to think you were a serial dater now. Not that you cared.

To make it cliche, you hadn’t found the one yet. More specifically, you haven’t found the one you don’t find insanely boring or toxic yet. You’re still trying to find that one person who gets you on a more personal level and at least tries to be compatible with you. You know relationships have their ups and downs, so you’re not looking for anyone perfect. And you’re definitely not looking for The One yet, but at least someone to pass the time with.

“Another break up?”

Your eyes opened.

You know that voice from anywhere.

Glancing to the side, you see Trey giving you a sheepish smile. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt your little pity party. Please, carry on. Pretend I’m not even here.”

“Why are you even here?” You shot back, an eyebrow perking up in confusion.

You hadn’t seen Trey in forever. The last time you saw him was three years ago when he broke up with you randomly over text. While you were pretty frustrated that he didn’t seem to have the balls to tell you in person, you found out the reason a week later. At his family's patisserie, his family was gushing about their oldest son making it into the prestigious Night Raven College. They would tell anyone who would listen about his academic achievements and his accomplishment of being named vice housewarden for Heartslabyul. You begrudgingly forgave him in your head after that and never talked to him since. You knew he was training to be a good magician, but you didn’t think he would abandon you just like that. Personally, you felt you had a good reason to feel at least a little betrayed.

Trey shrugged. “I was in the neighborhood on holiday and I wanted a moment away from the patisserie. I thought I would visit my favorite place in town.”

Without meaning to, your lips pursed. “Favorite place, huh? The place we first met and went on our first date is your favorite place?”

A guilty look flashed across his face before he cleared his throat. Standing up, he pointed to the seat in front of you. “Mind if I join you? I feel like we have some things we need to discuss.”

You shrugged. “Sure, why not?”

Sitting down, he sipped at his coffee, not speaking right away. Obviously, he wanted you to start. Which you were more than happy to do. “Earlier you asked if I was going through another break up. What did you mean by that?”

He looked guilty again. “I may or may not follow you on social media. Not officially but I do look at your posts from time to time.”

“So you’re stalking me.” You couldn’t help but chuckle. “Gee, it's what I’ve always wanted: my own personal stalker. It’s like I’m living in a fanfiction.”

“Ha ha, very funny.” He grumbled, though he sounded like he was trying to hold back from laughing. “No, I don’t stalk you. I just keep tabs on you, that’s all.”

“We’re not in a relationship, Trey.” You deadpanned, not wanting to beat around the bush. And maybe you were trying to convince yourself of the same thing, considering you actually still did follow him on social media. “You don’t need to keep checking up on me.”

He shrugged, but didn’t say anything. Instead, he drank his coffee and avoided eye contact. Well, he was being oddly peculiar today.

“What about you though?” You asked. “Any secret love affairs I should know about since you apparently know all about mine?”

Trey's eyes widened and he shook his head. “Nope. I don't have time for relationships.”

“Ah, of course. I've heard about your housewarden. Heard he's a piece of work. But leave it to you to straighten out any messes your house might be in.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” He sputtered, a small smile tugging at his lips.

You shook your head, trying to suppress your own smile that was already tugging at the corners of your mouth. “Nothing, nothing. It’s just when we were together, you always had a plan for everything. Nothing could ever get past you.”

He smirked, setting his coffee cup down. “You’re as bad as Ace. He says I'm very mother hen in that regard.”

You chuckle. “But you admit I’m right?”

“I guess…” As you started to laugh, a smile grew on his face before he was laughing with you.

As your laughter died down, you felt a weird twinge in your chest. If you didn’t know any better, you’d say it was longing. You thought you squashed that longing for him years ago. But here it was again. A dull, throbbing ache, just begging for you to collapse into his arms and tell him how much you missed him. But you needed to be strong. You couldn’t break down. Not here, not now.

“I wouldn’t do that, you know.” Trey said abruptly, his voice serious.

You furrowed your brows in confusion. “What?”

He shook his head. “I wouldn’t do that to you. I wouldn’t break up with you like that, over the phone-”

“But you did.” You cut him off, maliciousness in your voice when you didn’t mean for there to be. “You texted me a week before you entered Night Raven College that you wanted to break up and then I couldn't reach you for like a year. I stopped trying after the fiftieth unanswered message. So yeah, you would do something like that to me.”

Trey shook his head again with frustration. “No, listen, I didn’t have a choice! The Isle of Sages is very restrictive. We're not really supposed to have phones or social media. Besides, we're much too busy to keep up constant contact with people from home. We're there to become great magicians. It's important nothing interferes with our training, even if we want to contact people off the island."

You didn’t want to say you were surprised, since it sounded exactly like something a magical school would do. Again, you begrudgingly forgave him for the sloppy text and for ghosting you. But the pain you felt when he did it still hadn’t healed yet, and you knew it was going to take some time before it would.

“I would have done it, you know.” You muttered, staring at your hands around your own drink instead of looking at him. “I would have waited for you, or hid our relationship.”

“Why? You think you could have handled all of this?” He snorted.

Your eyebrow shot up again, and you looked him in the eye. “Are you saying you’re too good for me now? Now that you’re a real magician and everything?”

“I’m saying you’re too good.” He replied. There was a pause before he continued. “You’ve always been too good for me. You’re perfect and I’m just a mess when it comes to you. I was surprised you even wanted to date me in the first place and was even more surprised we lasted over a year before that stupid text. I would have done it too, tried to make something work, because you are worth it. You’ve always meant so much to me and I’ve never stopped thinking about you.”

His words hung in the air like a cloud. You didn’t know what to say. Do you tell him that you’ve never stopped thinking about him either? That the reason you were striking out in all these other relationships was because you truly loved only one man? That you weren’t looking for The One was because you believed you might have already found him in Trey?

He sighed, becoming completely vulnerable, “I tried to forget you. I tried focusing on my work and everything I’ve accomplished. I’ve kissed other girls. Hell, I’ve kissed other guys and it never worked. I keep kissing strangers and pretending it’s you.”

Your breath caught in your throat but you managed to choke out some words. “I’ve done the same thing too.”

A look of shock hit him, but his lips were trying to smile. “You did?”

Nodding, you let your own small smile appear. “I did. I care about you, Trey. I really, really, really do. Hell, there are days I drive myself crazy with how much I think about you. You’re always there, but that’s probably because you’re a successful magician now-” you both laughed before you continued, “I like you, Trey. I like you so much I think I might be in love with you. But I don’t think we can be together. I don’t think Night Raven College would like it very much if we were.”

He took your hands in his and you both smiled. You liked how he held your hands. It felt like they belonged there, like two puzzle pieces fit together. That’s what you liked the most about him. No matter where you were or who you were with or what you two were doing, it always felt like you belonged there, right by his side. To be cliche, he was your home and after being away for so long, it still felt like you had come back home.

“Perhaps you're right. Nothing gets past me, and I've already lost you once. I don't want to lose you again.” He confessed. “I’d be willing to break every rule and every law they throw at me just to be with you again.”

You smiled as you rubbed your thumb over his knuckles. “If you think you can handle a secret relationship, then let’s be together again.”

He returned your sincere smile before it turned cheeky. “So, earlier, you said you might be in love with me. Are you sure you just “might” be or are you actually in love with me?”

With a scoff, you replied, “Don’t push your luck, Trey. We just met after three years. Let’s forget the past and treat this like a new relationship.”

“But I don’t want to forget our past.” He whined. “We had such good times together, I don’t want to forget a single moment. But if you want to go slower, I can go slow.”

You nodded before picking up your interlocked hands and kissing the top of his hand. “You’re lucky I care an awful lot about you or else I’d dump you for someone else like, I don’t know, Riddle?”

“You need to take better care of yourself. I know you’re used to working hard, but this is too much.” you huff, pinching his cheek gently to get your point across, “You haven’t been getting enough sleep and you skipped breakfast this morning to make a grocery run. Honestly, what am I going to do with you?”

“I’m really sorry.” he apologizes again, looking slightly regretful, “I didn’t mean to worry you. Is there anything I can do to make it up to you?”

There he goes again.

“You can rest, damnit.” you sigh, expression softening as you make eye contact with him in the mirror, “I care about you, Trey. Riddle’s a teenager, he can take care of himself. You don’t have to baby him all the time.”

“You’re right.” he shakes his head, taking a deep breath and slumping back in the chair.

You hum softly in acknowledgement and set the comb on the vanity. The soft clink sound serves as a reminder that you’re in his room right now, alone. Before you can think twice about it, you maneuver yourself in front of him and grab his hands. Trey looks at you weird, clearly amused as you lean back and try to yank him out of the chair on your own. He stands up and allows you to pull him over to his bed, where you pat the bedsheet and stare at him expectantly. Trey sits down, hands still clutching yours.

“Riidddlleeee~!” He huffed and crossed his arms above his chest, leaning back into the black and red Heartslabyul tea chair as he sees your form gradually getting closer. You huffed and puffed, though your face is painted with a smile that makes him feel so much at ease, he doubts there’s anything else in the world that’ll make him feel the same way.

“You’re late,” he states matter-a-factly and you laugh nervously, your left hand coming up behind your head to scratch it. “Mmhmm, potions class ended a little late. Sorry, is the tea cold?” you sit down on the other empty chair, there’s already tea poured for you and again, you reach your left hand out to grip the tiny teacup handle, taking a small sip. 

He forgives your tardiness, not pushing it further. The two of you fall into easy conversation, updating each other on what was happening in your respective classes while enjoying the tarts. You hold the fork with your left hand, and that’s when Riddle stands, swiftly maneuvering himself beside you and holding your right elbow in a strong grip, moving it upwards to get a glimpse of your hand. 

As he thought, your right hand is covered in bandages from the fingertips all up to your wrist. His eyes narrow at the discovery. “Your right hand is your dominant hand, I was finding it strange you kept using your left,” You aren’t even surprised that he noticed, but he was definitely going to scold you now. 

“What’s this? Something I should know about?” He moves his hold to just below the wrist, careful not to aggravate anything. “...Just an accident from potions class...” you finally admit, a little pouty that you had to reveal it. He scans your face carefully for any trace of dishonesty, but he didn’t think he saw any. He then sighs and carefully traces the bandages lightly with a fingertip.

“You should tell me these things, but I’ll worry about your punishment later,” and proceeds to drag his chair to sit right next to you. You’re aware that he hasn’t let go of your right hand, laying it on his lap and covering it with his, rubbing his thumb over the bandages in soothing back and forth movements while his other cuts the tart for you.

“It’s difficult eating with your left, right?” There is the tiniest hint of a smile on his lips, as if he was secretly pleased by this opportunity to feed you.

Cater Diamond

“Hm~ Nothing interesting on Magicam today, it looks like,” Cater hums to himself while eating lunch, the fork tapping on his plate as he’s engrossed at just looking at his phone. If Riddle saw him right now he’d be livid at how the fork tapping was just making unnecessary noise. Trey sat next to him, properly eating his lunch, unlike Cater who liked to check his social media first, before doing anything else.

“Your food’s getting cold, Cater,” Trey reminded, to which Cater only replied to with a brief sound of agreement. Trey sighed, sometimes the only thing that could really get Cater’s attention was his phone and-- “Can I sit here?” 

Cater’s eyes darted upwards at the familiar voice, his lips already upturning into a pleasant smile knowing that he’d be greeted with...your bandaged face. His phone drops with a loud clatter on the table, along with his jaw. He shoots up from his chair, eyes wide and trying to process that huge slab of white gauze on your left cheek. “What happened?!” 

He was not expecting it, hence the unintended loudness in his voice that turns a few heads, causing Trey to hush Cater a bit and pull him back down on his seat. Cater’s body doesn’t listen. He wasn’t done questioning you about the obvious wound on your cheek. “Collided with someone during flying class,” you simply state, but shot an apologetic smile towards your boyfriend. 

“And you didn’t call me as soon as it happened? Who took you to the infirmary? Did anyone even go with you?” You’d think that Trey was a worry wart, but Cater was just the same in certain situations. You laid your food tray on the table as Cater came around to your side and inspected your cheek a bit more, putting a hand under your chin and twisting your head left and right. 

And finally, when he was sure that there was no real cause for alarm, he sighed in relief but had a mischievous grin on and swiftly snapped a photo of you, bandaged cheek and all, surprised look on your face at the suddenness of it. “This is for making me worry...” Cater mumbles to himself, tapping on his phone for a moment before pocketing it and making you sit next to him. 

“Now come on, your food’s getting cold,” Cater says and Trey could not help the sense of deja vu he feels, holding back a sigh at the display. Moments later when you’ve all finished lunch and you whip your phone out, there’s a notification from Magicam that you’ve been tagged on a photo.

Of course Cater had posted it. A picture of you looking so unready for the camera, eyes slightly confused and gauze on your cheek. The caption read: “This one decided to give me a scare today. Honestly can’t let you out of my sight for even a moment. #stillcutetho #forevermycutie”

You couldn’t bring yourself to be annoyed at the ugly candid photo of you. 

Trey Clover

“Hey Trey, sorry, can we reschedule?” Your voice over the phone communicated raw regret. It wasn’t difficult to hear. 

The two of you had been planning on going out of town for the weekend, just a quick broom ride out of the college and into a small town that was popular for their quaint and quiet cafes. Both of you had been looking forward to it for quite a while, Trey for the sweets, you for the change in atmosphere. 

“Of course, what’s wrong?” He’d already been ready to go, backpack slung around his shoulder but he shrugs it off at your words. He’s extremely accommodating, and there are times where you truly thought you didn’t deserve such a kind guy. There isn’t any sign of anger in his voice, nor accusations. He should be a lot more angry than this, seeing as the two of you had been talking about the small trip for a while. 

“Had an accident in PE lesson, my ankle’s sprained,” Though you can’t see it, his brows furrow at the information, turning to immediately leave his dorm room. “Where are you? At your dorm?” he sandwiches the phone in between his shoulder and cheek as he pushes his door open. “Yeah, I’m okay though, I already went to the infirmary, they gave me an anti-swelling potion and it’s bandaged.”

“Those’ll only last an hour at most, I’ll come over, just wait,” the finality in his voice is almost sweet, and when he arrives at your room minutes later, he has a plastic bag in his hand and a pastry box in the other. You’d been sitting on your bed at that moment, lightly swerving your foot around to maybe stretch and relieve it a bit more. 

He carefully yet firmly embraces you in his arms as a greeting, breathing in your scent and exhaling slowly, then presses a kiss atop your head before kneeling in front of you and inspecting your ankle. He talks about the medications he brought with him, saying that he has relieving cream when the anti-swelling potion runs out, and some extra over the counter mini-dose potions for pain, if any.

He’s diligent and thorough in looking at it, just wanting to make sure it was really just a sprain instead of something more. “...It should be fine in a few days...Guess we can go next weekend instead?” He offers, looking up at you with a smile. 

You return it half-heartedly. “Yeah...I’m sorry,” He chuckles lightly and kisses your forehead on his way up. “There’s no need for that, I’m just glad it isn’t something worse,” he then taps a finger on the white box he deposited on your bedside table. “Besides, cakes can be enjoyed anytime, anywhere. You most likely need to have extra to help heal your ankle,” he winks and although you’re always worried about gaining weight with his constant way of spoiling you, you also can never say no to his hand-made sweets. 

Ace Trappola

Your schedule didn’t align with Ace’s on Mondays and Tuesdays, so Wednesdays was the first day of the week where the two of you could leisurely spend lunch together. Ace was fiercely competitive and determined, one of the things he would talk to you about was how he was improving in magic, and trying to one up Deuce in their little friendship-rivalry.

You supposed his determination and energy charmed you. Likewise, he loved how you always matched his energy, or at least didn’t judge him for it. It’s a simple relationship with a strong friendship as a foundation, that’s probably why the two of you got along so well. You were as much best friends as you were lovers. 

Animatedly talking to each other as you both made your way to the cafeteria, you’re sat down next to him moments later with your tray of food as he goes to retrieve a drink for you and him. You’re humming while waiting for him, looking at the scrumptious meal in front of you and he can’t help but grin at your sunny disposition. “You’re in a good mood today,” he comments as he sits and places both your drinks on the table. 

“Aren’t I always?” you reply as you start eating and there’s no way his smile could get any wider. He’s just about to turn to his plate of food too, when something on your jawline catches his eye. He pauses for a moment and leans in further towards you to take a closer look. “What’s that...?” he whispers without thinking and you turn your head to ask “Hm?” 

It gives him a better view of a reddish, rash-like print near your jawline, next to your chin and it alarms him when he realizes its a bruise forming. “Where’d you get this?” He drops his fork and cradles your face in his hand, brows knitting together and searching your face for any more. 

Frankly you’d forgotten about the small accident, “Monday at flying lesson, just had a rough landing,” you grin a little but he doesn’t return it and instead winces, imagining how rough a landing it would’ve been for you to get a bruise like this. “You could’ve told me earlier,” he drops his hand, but the frown on his face doesn’t disappear, and it looks so odd on him cause you’re so used to his smile. 

“Sorry, I forgot about it,” but you pick your hand up to pinch on his cheek. “Don’t fret about it, it’ll go away in a few days,” 

“Ouwch,” he slurs as you continue pinching, to which he swats your hand away right after. “How’d you even manage that? It’s not easy to mess up a landing you know?” 

You take a bite of food and nod your head, “Guess I have to practice with you so I can Ace it,” then wiggle your eyebrows. Ace opens his mouth in a laugh-scoff, but he also feels an explosion of warmth in his chest at your lame yet endearing jokes.

Deuce Spade

Try as he might to stay awake in History class, it was just the hardest thing to do, specially on a Monday morning. Ace was a great distraction, only if he could stay awake as well, but Ace would sometimes fall asleep faster than Deuce would. 

He began to daydream. Hey, it was better than actually sleep-dreaming, right? At least he was still awake. He propped his head on his hand, the words of the teacher just going into one ear and out the other. His mind wandered over to you, and he suddenly thought of your timetable. You should be having alchemy class right now, he had your timetable memorized by heart. 

As clueless as Deuce was--and still is--about dating and the like, the two of you had managed to work through and figured out that you liked each other beyond what friends would. He cared for you--and constantly had you in mind--almost like you were a part of him. 

“Deuce, Deuce!” Ace hissed at him and nudged his side with his elbow, causing him to snap back to reality, only to find that their teacher wasn’t there anymore. “What? What happened?” He asked, looking around. He was sure that the bell hadn’t rang yet. 

“Gee have you actually perfected the art of sleeping with your eyes open? Did you not see that guy from the other class come into our classroom asking for help from our teacher?” Ace gave him a deadpan look. Deuce shrugged. In a matter of seconds the hushed classroom came alive with chatter and whispers, all quieting down when the teacher came back announcing. “Nothing to worry about, just a small accident in the next class,” and everything was settled and  back to History class again.

Deuce almost wished that the accident had gone on a bit longer. He didn’t think at all that you were caught in it, and only found out during lunch time when he saw a very imposing bandage and gauze on your clavicle area while picking you up from your classroom. 

“He~llo~” you greeted him in a sing-song voice, as if nothing had happened at all, not noticing his half-confused half-concerned look. “Let’s go for lunch?” You clapped your hands together, excited at the prospect but you yelped a little when he pulled you aside and had you lean on the closest wall. 

“What’s that? Are you hurt? When did that happen?” He was sure as hell that you didn’t have it yesterday. Your hand unconsciously comes up to touch the area he was pointing at. That was the only time you recalled the incident. “Ah! Yeah! You gotta hear this! There was like a huge explosion during chemistry lesson today!” and yet your eyes sparkled like it was an amazing discovery. “All this purple goop flew everywhere and the cauldron basically broke. Isaac had to go to the infirmary cause he got most of the damage. I just had some of that hot purple goop fly on my shoulder, so, yeah. Everyone else was pretty lucky, we only got this much damage. It’s just a slight burn,” 

You smiled, and yet he couldn’t find it in him to smile back. It could’ve been much, much worse and that fear struck him in so many places at once. “You’ve really gotta practice those defensive spells from magic class,” he tells you. 

“I could, but everything happened so fast, you know?” You tugged at his hand and started walking with him to the cafeteria and he merely followed. All the while thinking, this wouldn’t do, despising the fact that he couldn’t protect you at that moment. Still, he understood that these things just happened sometimes, but it was certainly more fuel for him to get stronger. 

Leona Kingscholar

“Leona,” 

As usual, you found him lazing around at the botanical gardens. On his side, arms tucked under his head as a cushion, breathing even and slow. Your smile reaches your ears. In this state, he looks so relaxed, and it’s easy to admire his cute ears--something that he’d get grumpy at if you blatantly stared at it while he was awake.

“Leona,” you tried again, kneeling down next to him on the grass and putting a hand on his arm. You’re being soft on purpose, it’s just how you were. Screaming at his ear surely wouldn’t help. That’s probably one of the things that he liked about you. You weren’t TOO annoying.

“Mm,” he responds this time, arm twitching a little under your touch. He isn’t actually easy to wake up, Ruggie says that if Leona is in a particularly deep sleep, you’d have to drag him up and awake. For Leona though, there’s something about your voice that’s easy to wake up to, though he would never admit that out loud.

“What now?” He knows it’s you, and he’s still gruff with his manners and words, it doesn’t really change much for you, except on certain occasions. “It’s lunch time, I got your sandwich,” you reply and this causes him to peek an eye open. “...I thought I told Ruggie to get it for me,” which translates to ‘Why are you doing Ruggie’s work? Is he slacking off?’ 

“You did, but I just wanted to spend lunch with you today, so I took it off his hands,” There’s a moment of silence. Your honesty takes him aback sometimes, but he quite liked it. At least he didn’t have to play childish guessing games when it came to you. “That so?” there’s amusement in his voice, and he finally sits up with a half-yawn, turning to face you.

There’s an angry, purple bruise on your arm, the size of a walnut that immediately draws his eyes to it. His face contorts into a snarl, the sudden rage he feels is surprising, even to him. “The hell is that?” and he snatches your arm, pushing his head and nose closer to the bruise to get a whiff of it, to get some sort of clue if anyone laid hands on you because no one, absolutely no one was going to get away with that.

“I’ve had that for a while, it’s from a bad landing during flying lesson a week or so ago. It isn’t anyone’s fault, ‘cept myself,” you explain with a short laugh, not shocked by his reaction. He’s wildly protective, and he probably hadn’t seen the bruise before because it’s the first time in a long time you’ve worn your PE shirt without your jacket.

He releases your arm, but still glares at the bruise as if it offends him. “Better not be,” he lets it go and takes the sandwich from you. There’s no thank you nor any sort of appreciation for your food delivery, but you don’t mind. Leona had surprising ways to show you that he cared, words were just not one of them.

Ruggie Bucchi

“Alright Leona-san, see you later!” Ruggie waved a hand behind him as he trudged off. Leona grunted and watched the smaller male leave. Ever since Ruggie started dating you he’d been away from the dorm for longer periods of time. It kind of irked Leona, but at the same time it had recently put Ruggie into such good moods that he didn’t even mind lining up twice or thrice to get food for Leona. So, the Savanaclaw house leader didn’t complain. 

Today was one of the days where you didn’t quite expect Ruggie to come visit you. It was out of the schedule, perhaps he just wanted to surprise you, or just wanted to get an extra day with you, he didn’t really say. He just thought it’d be alright to wait outside your classroom as lessons finished, hoping to spend some time with you, lounging around somewhere you preferred, maybe the library, or just the plaza. 

He watched as a crowd formed outside your room when the bell rings, students respectively going to their own other schedules, filing out from there. Ruggie’s eyes were quite good, so he wasn’t worried about missing you completely. He would’ve seen you and recognized you the moment you came out, but the thing is, you didn’t. 

He tilted his head a little in confusion. The room was nearly empty now, but he peered inside and you weren’t there either, so he finally opted to ask another student. “Hey, you seen Y/N anywhere?” Ruggie grins, liking that he might have to do a game of cat and mouse to look for you.

“Y/N? They didn’t come to class today. Probably has to do with that horrid broom collision in flying class yesterday, looked like it hurt,” and Ruggie’s excitement withers away quite quickly. Collision and hurt in the same sentence could not be something good. 

“Oiii, what’s the deal with you not telling me you got hurt?” he asked over the phone when you picked up on the third ring. His tone is accusatory, and slightly offended. He had the smallest of angry pouts on his lips, barely even there but definitely jutting out to show his displeasure. “Shishishi, thought you could hide it from me, huh?” 

Ruggie was still very playful around you, and he could be anyone he wanted to be with you, no barriers, no pretending whatsoever. You laughed sheepishly over the other end and explained, “Ahhh... Well, you found out faster than I expected,” Ruggie chuckles again, somewhat half proud that he managed to figure it out so fast, though it had all just been a stroke of luck.

You said you’d be going to the infirmary today, so he met you there and saw that most of the damage had been on your left hand, seeing that there was a brace on it. By no means were you a fragile person, so Ruggie thought it was pretty admirable that you were taking the injury in stride, and not crying about it like a wimp. “Shishishi, see how clumsy you are?” he teased and you only poked your tongue out at him.

Despite that, he stayed with you at the infirmary while the nurse talked about what to do to make it heal better. He was listening, and he was listening intently. He even tried to learn how to wrap the hand properly, in case the bandages unravel and had to be redone. 

As he walks you back to your dorm with your good hand in his, he squeezes it and makes a point. “You know there’s no use hiding things from me, right? I’ve got ears all over the place,” he says this smugly, like he was a spymaster who had access to every nook and cranny of the college. “I know, I just didn’t want you to worry,” you explain and he scoffs with a shrug.

“That’s my job, so let me do it. Definitely beats getting Leona-san out of bed every morning,” he’d much rather do things for you, no questions asked.

Jack Howl

Jack wasn’t replying. If you had to guess, he was probably busy training, or just practicing magift with his dorm mates. He tended to get so engrossed in it that he forgot about the time. Classic Jack. His passion for the things he liked and the way he worked so hard was probably what drew you to him.

You shrugged, and figured you’d make it to your dorm by yourself. It was just a hairline fracture on one of your toes, caused by one of your classmates accidentally dropping their cauldron on your foot. It didn’t bother you until the end of the lesson, when you realized that moving your right foot a certain way aggravated a part of your toes that you couldn’t pinpoint. 

Sure enough, on closer inspection by the nurses, one of your toes was swollen, and also had the slightest of cracks on its bone, and so they wrapped it up tight with padding and instructed you not to wear closed shoes for a while, and opt for sandals. “You can still walk, but make sure to take breaks and here’s a note to excuse you from PE for a week,” the nurse told you.

So there you were, backpack on, one foot in a sandal that you borrowed from the infirmary, and one foot in your usual sneakers. It was easy to tell that something was wrong with your foot cause the toes were bound together by sienna-coloured medical tape. That, and you were limping. 

Back at Savanaclaw, Jack had taken a water break, going over to the bench where his bag was and rummaging through it to look for his phone while downing a bottle of water, sweat trickling down his temples. There was only one message, and it was from you. “Hey Jack :) Are you busy?” His eyebrows go up in a moment of curiosity. “Just took a break from magift practice, are you done with your lesson?” 

Normally he’d be back on the field right after drinking water, but he waited on a response from you...and he still didn’t get one after 10 minutes. So, he opted to call, but you didn’t answer. He huffed to himself, chucking the phone into his bag and getting up for another round of magift when one of his same-year acquaintances approaches him. “Yo Jack! Surprised you’re still practicing,” 

Jack swerves around to meet face to face with another Savanaclaw student, raising an eyebrow. Everyone knew that he practiced any chance he could, why was it a surprise now? “It’s as usual, why is it a shock?” Jack asked, and the other guy, totally innocent and unsuspecting says, “Oh, I thought I saw Y/N on my way back here. Looked like they injured their foot, or something like that. Just thought you guys were dating and you’d be helping ‘em out,” he shrugged.

Jack takes a moment to internalize the other guy’s words. Like an ice melting, and the puddle of realization slowly soaks into him. You WERE dating each other, but he didn’t catch wind of you getting hurt. He grabbed his backpack in the next instant and sprints out of there faster than Leona could fall asleep in class. 

He tries to call you all the way over to your dorm, trying to reach you to at least ask you to stay put and wait for him. By the time you picked it up, you were already nearly there. “Jack?” You ask, and you can hear him on the other side, breathless. “Where are you?” you can tell he’s running, he must’ve found out.

“I’m okay, don’t worry, I’m nearly to my dorm so it’s totally fine!” He cuts the line, and you’re dumbfounded, but seconds later you feel his presence nearing, and sure enough, he’s running towards you at full speed and then stops in front of you crouched over himself, panting as he rested his hands on his knees. “Why.Didn’t.You.Call.Me?” He demanded through short breaths. 

He straightened up, still heaving but glares at your clearly injured foot, and repeats. “Why didn’t you call me?” You smile a little, “Well, I knew you were practicing, I didn’t think you’d be able to hear me through it,” 

“I would, there’s a special ringtone for you!” He’d always had a special ringtone for you, and his ears were quite good, so he knew the sound that he was looking for. Message tones, unfortunately, couldn’t be customized to the person. You stare up at him blankly, and he stares back when he realizes what he’d just blurted out. “A-Anyway, come on, get on. What did you even do?” He turns away from you to hide whatever blush is forming on his cheeks, and also to kneel down to have you get on his back. 

You’re equally glad that he can’t see you as you climb on to his strong back, cause there was a super giddy smile on your face as you try your hardest to explain what happened.

Azul Ashengrotto

“Azul, Y/N’s here to see you,” Jade stated as he pushed the door to Azul’s study open. Azul pushed his glasses up before meeting Jade’s gaze. “Y/N? I’ve told them thousands of times to just walk in,” Jade’s signature smile doesn’t falter as he explains. “They wanted to make sure they weren’t bothering you and asked me to check,”

Azul opened his mouth to say something, only to close it again when he recognizes that it was very you to do such a thing. You knew he’d been busy the past couple of days, you were just being considerate. “Send them in,” He stands from his chair and starts retrieving glasses for the two of you to enjoy some of his self-mixed fruit juice. Neat and proper, Azul lays two coasters on his table, followed by the glasses of fruit juice. 

Though he looks stoic as ever, there’s always the slight pitter-patter of his heart at the thought of seeing you. The door creaks open once again and he turns, expecting to see you standing there with some books in your arms, which is exactly what he sees.

What he doesn’t expect is the patch plastered over your right eye. His hold on his juice glass nearly slips and he puts it down firmly on his table before rushing over to you to grab the books away and chuck it on the coffee table in the middle of the room. “What’s going on? What’s wrong with your eye, love?” 

There’s a tinge of panic in his voice because he goes to the worst case scenario, wondering if you’ve been blinded as he firmly grasps your right cheek to take a closer look at it. It’s such a small thing, but he’s even angrier that he can’t gaze into your wonderfully coloured eyes. “During magift practice this morning one of the teams lost control of the magift disk and it went flying off.”

Azul is thoroughly confused. You didn’t play magift, and you weren’t very fond of the sport. “But you don’t play,” he pressed and you laughed nervously. “Ah, yeah, I was actually just watching. Guess I was just unlucky,” You hear the very controlled inhale and exhale he just did, knowing that he was probably pissed at no one in particular.

“Mmhmm, and who, specifically, was playing magift?” He’d crossed his arms over his chest now, pushing his glasses up again to level his gaze on you. You start listing names. “A bunch of juniors. Umm... There was Felix, Han-- Wait, why are you asking?” you suddenly stop, recognizing the glint in his eyes.

Azul smirks and shrugs his hands along with his shoulders, “They could use some magift lessons, I’m sure Jade and Floyd would love to show them a lesson or two--”

“Azul, it was just an accident. Besides, it actually didn’t hit my eye more than it did my eyebrow area,” you clasp a hand on his arm to calm him down a little, he sees reason only for a moment. “That doesn’t make it any better... Though I suppose I can let it go this time...”

You can tell he isn’t entirely happy with being unable to do anything, but he relents, though tells himself that he won’t let it go if it ever happens again. So those magift players better start playing properly.

Jade Leech

“Here, let me help you with that,” Jade walks around you, pulling on the apron strings and tying it neat and tight behind your back for your bar shift. You helped out and worked in Mostro Lounge, usually mixing drinks, rarely as a server. “Thank you,” you briefly said when Jade finished, posing to walk away and prep the bar when he elegantly pulls at your waist. 

There aren’t a lot of people around yet, and as he tucks you right next to him for a quick kiss on the lips you can’t help but be reminded of how tall he is. “Glad to have you here today, darling,” he whispers before letting your waist go and stepping away, ending the brief moment of affection. 

Jade had always been a little discreet, and you weren’t complaining about that. He wasn’t the type to show off too much, or brag about things and you liked it that way. It’s not that your relationship was under wraps, but the two of you were pretty private people. 

As usual, the shift starts off boring. There isn’t much to do, up until later into the night when students start to file in and you don’t even have time to breathe or think about the orders. At some point, it had just become automatic to you. You see the receipt, you read the order, you make it, you put it down and move on to the next one. It took practice, and a lot of experience. 

At some point during your shift, you and Jade take your break together, and you swap out with another pair of Octavinelle students who temporarily takes your job. You were at the break room, washing your hands at the available sink and lathering it with soap, just as Jade comes in as well. “Busy, isn’t it?” Jade starts and was about to comment on how good you were handling the bar, when his eyes catch the bandages around your fingers. 

And it wasn’t just one, there were several wrapped around them. “What happened to your hands, Y/N?” He was slightly sullen that he didn’t notice earlier, you made a questioning sound, and then catch on to what he’s asking. “Few days ago while mixing a drink I might’ve made a wrong maneuver and the glass shattered in my hands. Um...I don’t know, it’s hard to explain,” you laughed nervously, still not completely sure yourself how you managed to do that, but the whole aftermath had been messy and you had to clean it up on your own, not wanting to bother anyone else on shift. 

“Was I not on shift that day? I thought our schedules overlapped,” He’s upset at himself for not knowing. “Ah, no, I came in to replace someone who got sick last minute.” You were drying off your hands, gently using the available towel. Jade was still for a moment, before gently reaching out for your hands and pressing both to his lips. “Would you like to end your shift for now? It must be tedious with these wounds. I can take your bar duty for today,” 

Your gaze softens, there’s some heat crawling up your cheeks. He’s always considerate when it came to you. “It’s not that bad Jade, don’t worry,” you reassure, and he looks at you for a moment more to assess your answer, and decides to believe you. “Alright, but if it does start to sting, come look for me, understand?” 

Though he knows you might ignore the pain, his goal was to just let you know that you could always rely on him.

Floyd Leech

It was a hot day today, PE would certainly feel like hell on Earth. That was the exact reason why you opted to wear the jogging shorts instead of the jogging pants. You didn’t know that would backfire on you while doing laps around the field, when two reckless sophomore boys from your class just barrel through the field, playing around and knocking over each other, accidentally shoving others in their way...including you. 

Safe to say they got a really loud berating from the teacher, shouting about how they’re not kids anymore and they should stop playing around. Unfortunately, you didn’t come out of it unscathed. You’d fallen to your knees and hands, the grass was probably newly cut and it stung when your knees slightly dragged against it, the friction causing bloody cuts all around it. 

It wasn’t too bad that you had to go to the infirmary, the teacher always had a first aid kit on hand, and had the two or three of you who were unfortunately in the way of the rowdy boys sit down and have a look at the cuts. It was disinfected and wrapped securely by the end of the lesson. 

On Fridays, Floyd and you had the routine of meeting up after your last lesson, which was PE. Your schedules just happened to line up perfectly on Fridays. You’d always wait for him at your classroom, packing your things slowly and making sure you took everything for the weekend. 

“Hey, Y/N,” Two blonde boys stood in front of you with grins on their faces. It was those two rowdy boys from PE. You had nothing against them, in fact, you thought they were pretty funny guys in class who always lightened the atmosphere. You smiled at them, while finishing up your packing. “Hey, what’s up?” The taller one scratched the back of his neck and let out a forced laugh. “We just wanted to say sorry for earlier. Ugh, this idiot here just had to start chasing me halfway through my run so we--”

“Oh now it’s MY fault--”

You sweatdropped as they argued in front of you, but couldn’t help laughing at their weird relationship. Floyd had entered your classroom just at that moment, when you laughed, and when the two guys in front of you swerved their heads towards you to wonder what in Cruella’s name you were laughing about. “You guys fight like you’re brothers, and you kinda look like twins too,” 

The two started denying it, again going on another round of arguments, but they felt a menacing presence behind them, at the same time as your eyes light up at the sight of Floyd approaching. “Floyd!” You smile and walk away from your seat to meet him, but he was engrossed at staring down the two blonde guys. “Hey, it’s the two blondeweeds,” Floyd grinned down at them, and the two flinched when they realized he was there. 

Your class was well aware that you were dating Floyd, it’s probably the reason why people tried not to mess with you. “You guys havin’ fun?” Floyd asked all too pleasantly. In truth, it just annoyed him to see you laughing at their antics, a bit of jealousy boiling in his stomach. His smile completely changes when his head turns towards you though, it’s wide and toothy, but genuine. 

“Angelfish, you wore the shorts today instead of the pa--” He was about to comment about how charming you looked in them, when his eyes drop at your bandaged knees. His demeanor does a 180, the smile disappears and there’s a blank look on his face. People thought that it was creepy when Floyd smiled, but what they should really be scared of was his frown. 

It’s enough to turn a whole room cold as he questions you. “Is there anyone I should be talking to about the bandages on your knees?” Just like that, his smile was back, though it was now more menacing than it was earlier. 

The two blondes in the room tense up. By now, everyone was gone except the four of you. “Hm? Oh, it was an accident, it’s fine,” you weren’t even thinking about the cuts anymore, and Floyd had half the mind to just forget about it too, seeing the happy look on your face and just how delighted you were to see him. “Well, if my angelfish says so~ Hehe~”