#twstfic

The sound of his name made Idia jump which unfortunately made his head hit the table, which definitely made some stuff on the table fall over and crash to the ground next to him. And it hurt too. Idia slowly crawled out from under it, hoping that if he moved slow enough, the extrovert that said his name wouldn’t notice and move on so Idia could try to fix things in peace. But when he slowly peeked out from underneath the table, his eyes and nose resting just above the table’s edge, the girl that caused this mess was still standing there.

The girl? Oh, right. It was that girl that showed up at the welcome ceremony with that cat who made it a lot more interesting of a stream than the last two years. 8/10 watch with points deducted only because at the end of it all, Idia still had to go introduce himself to a handful of incoming freshmen irl later.

Wait a sec, how did she know his name?

“Oh… are you okay?” the girl asked and Idia couldn’t tell if it was out of concern or because she thought Idia was currently acting like a scared little freak. Which he kind of was atm but that was beside the point.

And that’s when Idia’s brain stalled out because he realized the girl was pretty. Like really pretty. With long blue-black hair and big brown eyes and… Idia made the mistake of glancing just a couple inches below her face and immediately took damage. His face started to feel hot and he watched in horror as pink started creeping into his peripheral since his blush was spreading to his hair. He guessed he deserved the humiliation for momentarily looking like a creepy perv.

“Ah, I-I’m fine!” Idia shot up because being crouched on the ground probably wasn’t helping him not look creepy. He stood stiffly as the girl crossed her arms in front of her and did his best to not look down again.

“Are you sure? It sounded like you hit your head pretty hard,” she winced (definitely out of cringe) and now Idia started sweating.

“Y-yeah! ‘S fine! I- uh- I was, um…”

Gods his stupid club uniform was hot. Between the overheating from the uniform and the overheating from embarrassment, Idia couldn’t speak, so he quickly dropped down to the ground to pick up his tablet and stood again. He typed into his text to speech program and held the tablet out in front of him in a way that would also kind of hide the girl’s face from view.

“Hello, my name is Idia Shroud. Are you interested in learning more about the board game club?” The voice program usually sounded just like him, but for some reason even that sounded kind of stiff and awkward and Idia frowned, wondering if he should start tweaking the program a bit.

The girl giggled- it made Idia’s heart skip a beat even though she was probably laughing at his inability to talk to people- and shrugged, “I wouldn’t mind it, honestly. I was really into board games back home, but I didn’t really have anyone to play them with. My name’s Lucy, by the way.”

Lucy, Idia was still having trouble talking but he committed her name to memory anyway.

One of the game boxes on their table caught Lucy’s attention and she tapped it, “Wait, what’s this game?”

“Uh…” Idia mumbled and tapped out a response on his tablet, “Great Legacies? It’s a strategy game where you play as a member of the Great Seven and try to establish your legacy before the other players do. It’s got a lot of historic bits in it which can be pretty boring if you’re not into that sort of thing but they take some liberties to make it more entertaining. The strategy aspect and some game mechanics make them 9/10 though it’s only really after they started balancing out the gameplay when they released expansions for other historical figures and re-released the anniversary edition of the original Great Seven pack...”

For a split-second Idia wondered if he was rambling too much, but it looked like Lucy was listening since she nodded a few times.

“There was actually a game like that back in my world! It was of my favorites and I collected all the different editions,” she smiled and it was everything Idia could do to not drop his tablet since it stunned him so hard.

“Your world…?”

She shrugged, “I, uh, kind of got transported here from a world without magic. I have no idea how it happened though.”

“Like an isekai?” the words came out of Idia’s mouth this time and the surprise actually did make him drop his tablet, but he managed to catch it in a panic before it hit the ground, Stupid! Don’t make everything sound like it’s an anime! She probably doesn’t even know what that is;;;

“Just like an isekai.”

Now Idia had never fallen in love before and honestly, he didn’t even think that was a real sensation, but he guessed that the feeling tight feeling in his chest (something that he could only describe as what getting one-shotted in the chest by an FPS sniper felt like) was. Because what do you mean a really hot, super cool looking, nerd hobby inclined girl just spawned in front of him out of nowhere? What kind of super super rare drop was this? Was this the kind of pull that ate all his gatcha luck for the rest of eternity? RIP any future raids with Muscle Red in the future because they’d definitely be leaning on his luck instead.

Oh wait. Idia was staring. He didn’t realize he was just kind of staring, basically full system crash, at Lucy this whole time. There he was making an idiot of himself in front of who was probably the coolest girl he’d ever meet. Well, maybe it hadn’t been going on for that long and Idia had the slightest bit of time to recover.

Lucy made a cute little scrunched up face of concern (or more likely, annoyed confusion) and attempted to break the thicc awkward silence, “...um, Idia?”

Nope. There was no recovering from this actually.

Idia slowly started lowering himself back to his hideaway under the table as if the girl in front of him wouldn’t be able to pick up on the movement. But, obviously, Lucy did because she opened her mouth to say something that Idia didn’t hear because he quickly dropped back to the ground.

“Wait, Idia! I wanna know more about the club!” Idia didn’t hear what she said when he hid, but he did hear Lucy call after him then hear her dive across the table, probably to try to stop him from slipping away which was genuinely terrifying before a few more things fell off the table again.

Idia could hear the shuffle of Lucy quickly standing again, “Oh crap, I’m sorry! I’ll get that for you.”

But it was technically Idia’s fault the whole display on the table was destroyed and Idia really wanted Lucy to go away anyway so he very quickly spoke without thinking and went to grab the box on the ground himself, “N-no, don’t worry about it!”

And then Idia’s hand touched hers and for a moment it felt like his heart stopped. He scurried out from under the table and stood, clutching his hand close to his chest, staring at it just to double check he imagined the shock of electricity that coursed through his body and that this girl wasn’t carrying a taser or something on her. It took a second for him to work up the courage to look back up at Lucy since she could have been pointing and laughing at him or had actually just run off since he was obviously being a creep. But Lucy was still there, carefully organizing the pieces of the game box that fell open on the ground and talking as if she didn’t even notice Idia was acting strange.

“...this would be such a gorgeous display piece if it didn’t also have a million components to it. And there’s pieces to make multiple levels? That’s so cool! I love it when a board does that...”

Okay, so she genuinely seemed interested in talking to him. At least if he were to continue engaging in this interaction, Lucy would obviously be doing most of it. Idia had been dragged into plenty of unwanted, unskippable cutscenes with extroverts in the past and he’d survived them, albeit with sapped HP by the end of it. He was already running on low at the moment so fully engaging in any sort of conversation was gonna be an uphill battle, especially with this girl since every time he looked at her Idia was sure he was going to have a massive panic attack. But Lucy was really pretty and seemed nice...

Maybe he could push his luck and hope his complete and utter lack of charisma stat wouldn’t shoot him in the knee.

“God, I dumped out like half the box, I’m sorry. You can double check if that’s all the pieces, but I think I got ‘em all,” Lucy turned a figure from the game in her fingers, admiring the details on it with a cute, soft look on her face that brought back the embarrassing pink to Idia’s hair, “I love the design of these.”

Okay, so never mind. There was no way he was gonna be able to talk to this girl without spontaneously combusting or drowning in his own sweat. Why did he wear all the stupid layers of his club uniform again? He thought about retreating to safety again but it looked like Lucy also must have had ESP or something because she immediately closed the game box in front of her and put her hand out like she was talking to a scared animal.

“So board game club, huh? What do you guys do?”

It was a stupid question, but an easy answer, “Um, play board games?”

“No, silly! Tell me about your club,” she relaxed once she figured Idia wasn’t going to run away (though every molecule of his being was screaming for him to sprint back to Ignihyde) and shrugged, “I’m not exactly a sporty person and my friends both ended up down the jocks’ row. Since walking around by myself I’ve ran into a couple of, lets say, overzealous pitches to join clubs.”

I’m sure the sole hot girl at this school would get some losers to act up. Cringe... Idia thought to himself then panicked because he wasn’t sure if he said that out loud or not, but Lucy was sitting there waiting for him to talk so he guessed was in the clear for now.

“Oh uh, well I-I wouldn't beg you to join my club or anything! What kind of loser would do that?” Idia’s voice came out a lot more strained and kind of squeaker than he wanted it to and also he was word vomiting and couldn’t stop, “It’s embarrassing, like what are you? Desperate? Just because a pret- girl! A girl walked by your club booth.” He caught himself just before receiving critical damage and cleared his throat with a loud, gross hack.

Idia shrank, begging the universe for an opportunity to abscond, “I mean... I’m sorry.”

“Nah, it’s not your fault. Besides at least the Journalism Club actually seemed interested in getting me to join, but mostly because I have one of these,” Lucy grinned and held up a little box that had been dangling from a strap across her body, “It’s a camera obscura and it’s really the only compensation I got from the stupid headmaster for all the trouble of staying in dusty ol’ Ramshackle House.”

Yeah, it definitely looked like something that would be found in some corner of that old creepy house, with a giant lens on the front and just a viewfinder with no screen to see what the pictures looked like before you developed them. It was crazy low tech in a way that made it just convenient enough to be a game mechanic built to send the player into a panic when trying to protect themselves from ghosts and monsters that drop by.

“Lol, you some horror game protag?” Idia mumbled then shot up straight with an embarrassing yelp.

Lucy paid no mind to Idia’s random noises again and instead scoffed, dropping the camera to her side, “The writers of my life bust be experimenting with genres.”

Idia nodded awkwardly and quietly shifted in place, feeling like he was an NPC and waiting for Lucy to pick the next dialogue option or to at least select a “Goodbye then!” and run off so he could try to survive the rest of his activity fair with his sanity intact. But, amazingly enough, Lucy kept the very one-sided conversation going even though Idia definitely looked like he was still thinking about crawling away.

“Oh, speaking of genres, you mentioned isekai, so I’m assuming there's anime in this world unless that’s called something else here,” she tilted her head in a very adorable way that felt like a stab in the chest to Idia and continued, “Like animation made by a specific country? In my world, it’s from Japan but I’m also assuming there’s no Japan here, right?”

Gods, between the very intent and chipper look she was giving him and the general fluffy cute aura she was emitting, Idia was feeling his health bar drain with every second he stood near her.

“N-no we have anime- yeah, from a group of islands to the east of here...” Talking felt like suffering though a surprise underwater level in a platformer, but her eyes lit up when he spoke so he persisted, “Uh, it’s, um, cool you have it in your world too.”

“It’s truly a universal art form,” another laugh and another damage dealing flash of a smile that made Idia’s head spin as she continued, “You know, for a magical world with fairies and ghosts and magic powered tech, it’s always surprising to me how much this place is like back home.”

“I can give you recs!” Okay, so Idia must have been losing it because he didn’t mean to talk at all let alone say that out loud so loudly it surprised him but at this point he was feeling so light headed he wondered if he was dreaming anyway so he might as well have kept talking to the hot girl that he totally imagined spawned in front of him, “And I can lend you stuff to watch it on too if you need it. Wait, does Ramshackle even get wifi? I-I-I could check if-”

“Or we could watch your recs together sometime.”

Oh, Idia knew what was happening here! He hit his head so hard on that table earlier that he fell into a coma and was currently dreaming that this very hot girl had just asked to hang out with him alone while partaking in an activity they both enjoy. Because the alternative was a reality where this very hot girl may or may not have just casually asked him out on a date.

Fuck, he really shouldn’t have been talking to this girl anymore. He should have dived under the table and dug a tunnel away from there all the way back to Ignihyde’s dorm portal the first moment he could. She was going to kill him at this rate! What Idia really needed to do was to shut up, grab his stuff, and escape this interaction before his health reached a critical point and he died on the spot. It didn’t matter what Azul would say if he left his post at their club booth.

But despite every attempt to move, his body wouldn’t listen. Instead, he let out a quiet, short reply, “Yeah. We could.”

Lucy nodded and picked up one of the club flyers before eyeing it over, “So this has where you guys meet but not when.” She glanced at him through her lashes.

Meanwhile, Idia’s heart skipped a beat, and he tried to nonchalantly check his wrist for his pulse, “...tomorrow at 6.”

“Great! I can make that right after the Journalism Club meeting. Oh, by the way,” Lucy leaned towards Idia, ignoring his small squeak at the closer distance, “I love romance and paranormal and mysteries- easy on the fights and battle scenes unless they’re animated spectacularly. I’m expecting a list of recs tomorrow, okay?”

She stood back and a tiny flash of something crossed her face before she smiled that cute little fluffy smile and again as if Idia didn’t just clock that she may or may not have just low key checked him out. Not that he wanted to dwell on that because his life was in danger at the moment.

“Anyway, I gotta go gather my friends and make sure they didn’t lose my cat, but I’m looking forward to tomorrow!” she folded up the club flyer and stuck it in her shirt (and Idia struggled to avoid looking at that for too long too, mostly because he was already at like 5 HP), before laughing softly, “It’ll be nice to have a friend of culture around here. Bye Idia!”

And just like that, she finally walked away, leaving Idia in a stunned silence and waving as she disappeared into the crowd of students. Gods, Idia felt like he just survived an unexpected bullet hell level irl.

“Why look at that. You’re making friends in real life.”

Oh, now Azul wanted to respawn after the attempt on Idia’s life! He jumped and turned to Azul with a start, “AZU-SHI WHA THE HELL?! I-I mean, where were you?”

“I told you I’d be back after I checked in on the lounge,” he said with a shrug though his eyes followed Lucy as she weaved through the crowd, “So did she ask to join the club or ask you out on a date?”

Idia balked, “NO! N-no! W-wh-wh-why would you ask that?!”

This just earned an eye-roll in return, “Oh please, you’re bright pink and she was eyeing you like you were a five star meal. It was disgusting to witness honestly.”

No, that’s not what happened. Idia was just struck by the aura of a hot and cute and cool nerd girl so that’s what he thought was happening at the time. And Azul was always looking for a leg up on others so of course he’d read into whatever Lucy was doing for an angle.

As expected, Azul pulled one of his classic smarmy little smirks and cooed, “You know if you’re in need of assistance wooing the girl, I’d be happy to provide it to you, at a low cost of course being that we are clubmates after all~”

The thought was ridiculous. Lucy was just being friendly... really friendly, but still.

Idia silently grabbed his tablet and shot Azul a glare, “Fuck you. I’m heading back to Ignihyde...”

Flinching as the monster dove straight at you, you couldn't help but call out the one person you needed most, wishing for one last time to have been able to see him.

"MALLEUS!"

And if you opened your eyes, you would have noticed the fireflies appearing around you.

The blow never came, though, and when you did open your eyes, you saw a familiarly tall and imposing figure in front of you.  His back faced you, but those tall horns were a tell-tale sign of who exactly your savior was.  Green flames licked at the blot monster, and it screeched, rearing back.

Malleus Draconia was relentless, though.  Even as the creature retreated, he easily used his magic to surround it in flames — but before they could reach the monster, it dove back into the mirror, shattering it as it disappeared.

Time seemed to freeze before he turned around, green eyes practically glowing as he regarded you.

"Malleus...  You came...?"  You breathed out heavily, feeling exhaustion weigh over you.  His expression softened, and he reached out to cup your cheek.

"You called," he simply stated, his eyes sweeping over you.  "Are you alright, Child of Man?"

You wanted to cry at the nickname for you.  You hadn't heard it in years.  You hadn't believed anybody would ever call you that again, but here Malleus was, as real as you were, standing right in front of you.  Before you knew it, you were wrapping your arms around him, startling him from the sudden show of affection.  Your hold on him solidified the fact that he was real.  He was real.  And he was here.

It was difficult, but after a beat you managed to nod.  "Yeah...  Yeah.  I'm fine.  Thanks to you."  You had to get it together — now was not the time to get choked up!

After the disappearance of the blot monster, the other smaller monsters seemed to have disappeared — or perhaps they, too, had been eaten away by Malleus' flames.  Whatever the case, they were gone, and with the monsters gone, people began to flock to the streets again.

"Did you see that?  That thing was fucking huge!"

And with people converging back to the streets, all eyes were on you.  Well, actually, they were on Malleus.

"MY LORD!"

You'd recognize that loud voice from anywhere, and turned towards the noise only to see two familiar people stepping out of what you could only describe as a portal.  You couldn't see through the other side, but staring into it felt like looking into a starry abyss, as if it led straight into space.

And stepping out of that portal were Silver and Sebek Zigvolt.

Sebek immediately rushed towards Malleus, not even noticing you for a second as he made sure Malleus had no injuries.  You had stepped back the moment you heard Sebek's voice.  No need to deal with his complaints right now.  "You can't just run off like that!" he exclaimed, before turning towards you finally.  His eyebrows furrowed for a moment, before he gave a small nod.  "Human.  Good to see you're... well," he managed, Silver trailing right behind him.  His expression was serious.

Malleus' expression slipped back into one of stoicism, although his gaze was still soft as he regarded you.  "We need to go," he told you grimly.  There was a hand at the small of your back, and you found yourself being turned around to the glowing black portal.  He barely even acknowledged Sebek, although you assumed time was of the essence right now, especially as police sirens grew louder and louder.  No doubt somebody had reported the phenomena, considering a giant, winged monster had appeared from a mirror.

"Wait!"  Yuna called out, clambering to her feet and catching up to you.  "I'm coming too."

"What?" you asked her, eyebrows raising.  "Wait, where are we even going?"

Before anybody could answer, Yuna was speaking up, her eyes narrowed behind her glasses.  "You already got me invested and involved, so I'm coming along too.  Besides, I am not sticking around to explain this situation to the police and how you disappeared.  Again."

"Yuna, it's way too dangerous!  Did you not notice that giant monster that just attacked us?"

She stood her ground.  "I'm coming with," she insisted.  "I'm not letting you do this alone."

You gave her an incredulous look, and Malleus, Sebek, and Silver stood off to the side, looking out-of-place in your argument with your roommate.  "No offense, but we're barely friends, Yuna.  I thought you could barely stand me."

Yuna rolled her eyes.  "I barely know you," she pointed out.  "Despite rooming with you for a few months now.  But I can stand you perfectly fine, or else I would have moved out by now."  She sighed.  "Just let me come with you.  I don't want you to do this alone.  Besides, girl solidarity and all that, right?"

You wanted to argue that you technically wouldn't be alone, but you knew the brunette wouldn't drop it.  Instead, you gave a defeated nod.  "What if we can't get back?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we get there, I suppose."

You wondered if it was just the adrenaline talking for her, but you were done arguing on the subject.  "Alright.  Alright.  Come on."

Malleus seemed relieved that you two had hashed things out, ushering you towards the mirror once more.  You made sure to grab both of your phones and your backpack.

"We're...  Really going back to Twisted Wonderland?" you asked Malleus, and he gave a nod.

"Yes . . .  We're going home."

Your heart was doing backflips in your chest as you glanced at the portal once more.  With nothing else to lose, you took a step through it, seeming to sink into it as the world around you disappeared.

It was nauseating.  You lost all of your senses for a moment — taste, sight, sound, smell, touch...  You felt completely nothing.  And then, colors seemed to swirl around you.  Next moment you knew, you were standing in a familiar room, stumbling and leaning on a desk.  Yuna didn't fare much better, practically collapsing onto the floor as she gasped.  All around, traveling through that portal was an unpleasant experience, although you were glad your arrival this time didn't entail you waking up in a coffin.

"Welcome back!  It is so wonderful to see you again!"

The jubilant and over-the-top voice had you grimace as you looked up.  "Headmage Crowley.  A pleasure to see you again, too."  Was it actually a pleasure, though?  Crowley's negligence was a huge reason why your school life had been wrought with chaos here.

Behind you all, the portal had closed, revealing the Dark Mirror.  Yuna had quit gasping, but was still struggling to stand for a moment.

Crowley nodded at your saviors, crossing his arms.  "While I loathe for our reunion to be like this, as you are probably already aware—"

Cutting Crowley off was a door opening, revealing another familiar face.  "Malleus!  You cannot just run off like that, especially now of all times!"

Still short and looking as youthful as ever despite his age was Lilia Vanrouge, although he did look weary despite it all.  As his eyes landed on you, his gaze softened slightly.  "Fufufu...  It's nice to see you're alive and well at the very least, [Y/n]."

"You too, Lilia."

You accepted the hug he gave you, before pulling away.

"As much as I love reuniting with you all...  I need an explanation of just what the hell is going on."

"Yes...  It would be wise to contact Mr. Shroud to discuss the situation," Crowley agreed with a nod of his head.

It seemed like there might be more going on than you initially thought.

"But first things first...  Who might this be?"  your former headmage looked over at Yuna quizzically.

Okay; introductions first, and then calling Idia.

══════════════════

"I can't believe the Prefect is back," Idia muttered on the other end of the video call.  "Although I guess you're not really a prefect anymore."

Idia had been half muttering the entire time the call had been going on, pre-occupied with whatever he was doing on his end of things.

You sighed.  "I can't either," you admitted.  The entire situation seemed so surreal, still.  "Do you have any idea on what is going on, though?"  You had been quick to explain everything that happened back in your world with the mirror and the blot monsters.

"IDK," Idia grumbled, "but we've also been having earthquakes and the like here.  It's weird, NGL."

"I didn't realize people actually spoke like this," you heard Yuna mutter under her breath, thankfully inaudible to Idia.

"Not to mention the disappearances..."

"And the vandalism!"  Headmage Crowley interrupted, clutching his chest as if that was the biggest issue that was going on right now.

"Um...  Can both of you elaborate?"

Silver was grim.  "A few former students have gone missing, and three of the statues of the Great Seven are also gone."

You recalled Ace and Deuce mentioning that Riddle was missing when you were on video call with them, and you had a sinking feeling in your stomach.  "Riddle is one of them, right?  Ace mentioned it when I called him back in my world."

"Along with Azul and Leona," Silver confirmed.

"I didn't realize Leona was also missing," Lilia's eyebrows raised.

Three former overblot victims and dorm heads...

"And let me guess: The statues missing are the Queen of Hearts, the King of Beasts, and the Sea Witch?"

"Why... Yes!  How did you know?"  Crowley exclaimed, and you wondered not for the first time how somebody like him had ever managed to become headmage of such a prestigious school.  With the threat of an oncoming migraine, you gritted your teeth.

No point in responding to Crowley.  "And just to guess, again, they were probably kidnapped in the order of Riddle, Leona, and Azul.  Right?"

"Yep."

"It's the order of those who overblotted," you pointed out.  But you weren't sure why the statues were being stolen.  Of course, you had easily pieced together the connection between the overblot victims and the Great Seven years upon years ago, but what did stealing a statue have to do with anything?  What was the point?

Then again, why were overblot victims being kidnapped once more, if not STYX related?

It was as if Idia could sense your skepticism.  "Wait, I swear it's not me or anybody else in STYX!"  he exclaimed, and while you still remained somewhat skeptical, you found yourself believing him.  After all, Idia had also overblotted, meaning he was in an equal amount of danger now if the kidnappings continued.

"Jesus," you muttered, leaning against the wall.  A wave of dizziness and fatigue washed over you.

"Child of Man?"  Malleus questioned, finally speaking up.  "Are you feeling unwell?"

". . . Just tired," you sighed, crossing your arms.  This was...  A lot to process.  You couldn't really wrap your head around everything.  Was everything connected?  The natural phenomena, the disappearances, and the leakage of blot in your world?  Were they all coincidences?

. . . Probably not.  Twisted Wonderland wasn't knowing for 'coincidences'.  No doubt, this was all connected.  But how?  Why?

Yuna had been silent the entire time, listening grimly.  You wondered how much you were going to have to explain to her later; probably most of it.  Unlike you, this was all completely new to her, although Yuna seemed to be a fast learner.

"Perhaps we should rest and regroup," Lilia suggested.  "As it is, Malleus, you must return.  You shouldn't have ran off like that."

Malleus frowned a bit, but didn't refute the statement.  Still, he looked displeased.  Upon seeing your confused expression, Lilia sighed once more.

"Our Young Malleus has finally accepted the crown to become King of Briar Valley, and thus, really shouldn't have ran off.  Oh, to put an old man in retirement in such a position..."  The sigh was more dramatic than it needed to be, and you glanced up at Malleus.

"Oh.  Congratulations...?"

"Is that all you have to say?" Sebek asked incredulously, and you wondered how hard it was for him to keep his voice level.  The Sebek you knew would have screamed it, although six years was a lot of time for somebody else to change.

Malleus chuckled.  "Thank you," he told you instead.  "Briar Valley is open to you and your friend, of course."

You hesitated.  You would have loved to stay in Briar Valley and remain close to Malleus, but you knew better.  Instead, you turned to Crowley.  "Is...  Is Ramshackle still a viable place to stay?" you asked him.  "Not that I don't want to stay in Briar Valley, but...  I need to stay somewhere that is central to everything."

Plus, you knew Ramshackle and NRC campus a bit better than a castle in Briar Valley, and the familiar playing grounds was somewhat of a comfort to you.

Headmage Crowley crossed his arms once more.  "Well...  If you promise to solve the missing persons cases and the acts of theft upon Night Raven College, you are most welcome to stay back in your old dorm!  Although it may need some fixing up once more...  Oh, aren't I so gracious to host you once more?"

Gracious?  Once again, he was dumping problems way out of your league on you, a magicless human.

You were far used to it, now, though.

"Yes, you sure are," you sarcastically replied.  Crowley didn't pick up on the sarcasm, seeming to preen under your 'praise'.

"Come on, Yuna.  I have a lot to go over with you."

Bidding the others 'goodbye' and ending your call with Idia, you were tempted to pinch yourself.  Was this all really happening?  Everything was moving so fast in a blur, as if this were all some fever dream.  

"Ah, just a moment!"  Crowley followed you and Yuna out of the office, the latter looking around in veiled awe at the interior of the castle.

"What."

You didn't mean to sound so grouchy but, in your defense...  It had been a day.  

"Before you head to the dorm, please take a visit to the courtyard.  We cannot figure out how these statues are missing, and each one is invaluable, as I'm sure you remember—"

"—Yeah, yeah.  We'll swing by the courtyard."

Not even giving Crowley anymore time, you left and dragged Yuna behind her, taking her to the courtyard.

You had previously explained a bit of the world to her, but experiencing it was a different thing.  Recognition flashed over her face; it was dark out, but there was ample lighting to reveal the remaining statues.  You allowed her a moment to circle each of them.

"We're missing the Queen of Hearts, Scar, and Ursula," you told her, before nodding at the statue of Ja'far.  "I'm guessing he's going to go missing next...  maybe.  I don't know.  I really want to sleep."

Yuna ran a hand through her hair, matching your look of exhaustion.  "Me too.  Shit...  Just what am I getting dragged into?"

"You're the one who asked to come along."

"Yeah, touché."

“Hey, watch…it…” Leona was about to kick the ass of whoever woke him up but trailed off when he opened his eyes and was met with two big, brown ones staring back at him. It took a few seconds for him to register that their owner’s face was only a few inches away from his and that her hands were on his chest. 

Apparently, it also took her a few to realize what was happening before her face went bright red and she scrambled to sit up, sputtering out a jumbled apology, “Oh my god! I’m so sorry! I-I didn’t see you- or like I did- and then I was going to- or I tried to…” 

Leona slowly sat up and stretched before casually looking the girl over. He recognized her immediately as the only girl at the school- a non-magical one, too. She was an anomaly here and, since the school was filled with hormonal, gossiping students, and word got around about her. And they were right. She was cute. She talked a lot though. 

“...and, in my defense, this isn’t the best spot to be sleeping in since people walk through here. B-but I should have been watching where I was going!” The girl was sitting on her knees now, holding the hem of her skirt in her hands. The position of her arms brought attention to… 

Leona cleared his throat and glanced away, motioning to his shirt before saying, “You..have a…” 

The girl gave him a confused look before looking down at her very open button-down shirt and blushing again. 

“Shit!” she cursed and closed her shirt in a panic, “These stupid buttons have been coming undone all day!” 

She was loud, but it didn’t take much away from the fact that she was very nice to look at. Leona wondered for a moment if her company would be all that annoying. Based on how flustered she was, he could probably get her to go away if he really needed her to. 

“Ugh, a button popped off,” she sighed in defeat and covered the spot that couldn’t close properly with her hand. 

“Happens to me all the time,” Leona leaned back on the tree he was sitting under and crossed his arms, “For a ritzy school like this one, they cheap out on their uniforms.” 

“Maybe they blow their budget on the ceremony robes,” she smirked, looking a bit calmer now that she wasn’t nearly topless. 

“Hey groundskeeper!” a grating, nasally voice shouted from behind the girl and that annoying little monster that tried to barbecue Al-Asim at the Welcome Ceremony came around the corner with his arms full of fruit, “Can I take some of these? I promise I found all of them on the ground and did not climb up the trees to get them at all-” 

“You!” the girl snatched the monster up by the scruff, making him drop his score, “One, I told you to not pick anything from here when you’re about to go eat Heartslabuyl out of house and home anyway! Two, this isn’t the groundskeeper. He’s Housewarden Savanaclaw.” 

She knew who he was. Interesting. 

The monster gave Leona a skeptical look before turning back to the girl and doing something that looked like jabbing a thumb towards him, “...What, this 30-year-old man???” 

Okay, he decided that thing had to go. 

“Grim!” she scolded him before Leona could say anything then sighed in defeat, “Look, there aren’t any garden tools here and no one here is gonna rat on you if you take any food so please just grab some of the fruits and get out of here. Alright?” 

The monster pouted and rolled its eyes, “Fine, but you’re being really mean right now, so I’m not sharing any with you.” 

The girl smirked, letting it go, “What? You thought you could trip me and get away emotionally unscathed?” 

The monster stuck its tongue out in return and waddled away. 

“I’ll meet you outside in a minute!” she called after him. She laughed softly to herself as she watched the creature leave, looking like she was making sure he was going where she told him to. 

Leona watched her for a moment, his head tilted in curiosity.  

“What a handful,” Leona said, his eyes lingering on the girl’s profile. 

“He’s not that bad, honestly,” she turned to Leona with a smile, “I mean he doesn’t really listen to me right now, but I think with a bit more time together-” 

“I wasn’t talking about the giant rat.” 

She stopped talking, her eyes going wide again. Her blush came back and her lips moved like she was going to say something, but she couldn’t get the words out. 

“You’re that herbivore from orientation that couldn’t use magic, right?” Leona asked, but he knew the answer already. Even without every other student at school talking about her, he could tell from the way she smelled. He leaned forward a bit to sniff her again. No magic, but she did have the faintest smell of something sweet on her. Leona liked it. 

“Yeah, I guess-” she answered his question and moved back quickly when he leaned in, “Woah, ask before invading the personal space!” She didn’t sound angry at all, just surprised. Leona backed off but caught her eyes quickly trailing down his torso as he sat up back before they darted away. 

Now that was even more interesting. Leona had been bored and in an awful mood and the year had only just started, but this girl seemed intriguing. Well, if he was going to keep messing with her to see what would come of it, he might as well have introduced himself. 

“Leona Kingscholar,” he offered his hand, deciding to be cordial to not scare this girl away just yet. 

Though it was almost as if he could see the gears turning in her mind as she glanced down at his tail, looked back up to him slowly, and cautiously took his hand and replying, “Lucy Ortiz.” 

“So Lucy,” Leona leaned back on the tree again, resting his arms behind his head, “how’d a non-magical girl end up crashing the welcome ceremony of an all-boy’s magic school?” 

Lucy winced and smoothed out her skirt, “It’s a long story.” She looked like she was about to get up to leave. 

“You should tell it to me some time,” Leona’s glance at the undone button on her shirt lingered a touch too long and he only realized after he caught a glint in Lucy’s eye. He looked away before his face could betray what that annoying feeling in his chest was signaling. 

“Leona! I know you’re in here!” 

All these bloody interruptions when he was trying to talk up this girl. 

“Fuck me…” Leona groaned. 

Lucy stood with a laugh, “I’ll take you up on that offer sometime. For now, I think that’s my cue to leave though.” 

Leona’s ear twitched in interest at her response and briefly thought about volleying a flirtatious comment back, but the thought slipped his mind as he got a new view of Lucy’s legs from the ground. But he wouldn’t have had time for banter anyway since Ruggie finally found where he was hiding out. 

“Geez, Leona did you forget we have after school…” Ruggie paused when he saw Lucy and let out a low whistle, “Hey, you’re that girl.” 

Lucy grimaced, “I love that this is what I’m known as at this school.” 

“Ah, man sorry,” Ruggie scratched the back of his head, looking irritatingly bashful, “I’m Ruggie.” He gave Lucy a wide smile. 

“Lucy,” she smiled back then her eyes met Leona’s again, “I’ve got to get going. Sorry again for the rude awakening. I promise to try not to trip over you while you’re napping in a walkway next time.” 

Leona raised an eyebrow and fought like hell to keep the stupid smirk he could feel coming on off his face. Because in the last minute or so Lucy saw something in Leona that made her go from overly chatty and nervous to calm and flirtatious. Leona didn’t particularly like the feeling not knowing what Lucy was thinking gave him, but then again... Between that look in her eyes and the sarcastic comment, it almost felt like Lucy was offering him a challenge. 

“There are worse ways to be woken up,” Leona stood up and brushed himself off, enjoying the way Lucy needed to crane her neck to look up at him when he stepped closer, “You can cross my territory anytime. Leave the giant rat at home next time, though.” 

Lucy bit her lip, failing to hide that smile of hers before turning, waving goodbye behind her, and walking towards the garden exit. Leona couldn’t take her eyes off her. Ruggie couldn't either apparently. 

“Did I interrupt?” he said, and Leona could see him staring too out of the corner of his eye. 

He grumbled back, “You have impeccable timing…” 

Ruggie snickered in return, “I don’t blame you for being pissy, I mean she’s…” He trailed off as they both watched her disappear into the greenery, “something.” 

Leona didn’t like that, but he wasn’t going to make a big fuss out of it, so instead he just hummed and gave Ruggie a smug smirk, “Don’t bother, Bucchi.” 

“Why?” 

“You know why,” Leona crossed his arms in front of him, “She literally fell for me.” 

Ruggie looked at him incredulously, “Dude, you can’t call dibs on a girl.” 

Leona frowned. That’s not what he was doing. 

“I’m not calling dibs; what kind of animal do you think I am?” 

Leona was just taking mental notes of how Lucy only gave Ruggie friendly smiles with nothing else to read behind them as opposed to whatever that look she gave him was. More of that might be fun. 

Ruggie looked unconvinced which made Leona shrug, “There’s just no competing with me, is all.” 

So maybe calling dibs was exactly what he was doing, but who could blame him? He knew no man ever really stood a chance at bossing a woman around, so he couldn’t even bother trying to actually stake a claim on one. But, Old Kings, was Lucy cute. Ruggie knew him well enough at this point, so he had to have known what was on Leona's mind.  

“Oh, thank you, kind leader, for not crushing my hopes before they’ve fully blossomed,” Ruggie rolled his eyes and rested his hands on the back of his head, “We don’t have time for girls anyway. We’ve got after school classes that if you keep skipping out on will make us be in the same year!” 

She was scared to talk to him at first considering he was asleep and hated being woken up from a nap (and Lucy definitely crushed him when she tripped over him). But Leona seemed okay with it. Actually, he was very okay with it judging from how his tail curled when he spoke to her and the way his deep green eyes kept tracing the lines of her shirt collar and hem of her skirt. And he was surprisingly flirty too. Lucy was positive that she wouldn’t really have another chance to flirt around with this man again, so when she saw an opening in the conversation for something witty to say in return, she took it. To her surprise, Leona was struck a bit speechless. 

It turns out Lucy was wrong about that being her only chance to flirt and Leona was better prepared the next time they ran into each other. 

Lucy was taking a breather from alchemy class because Grim threw an extra herb in their potion and the smell started making her dizzy. And just when she got her head to stop spinning, Leona found her on the way back to class while he was probably leaving his. The sudden sound of his deep voice calling “Oi, herbivore” caught Lucy off guard and made her stop in her tracks. 

“Lucy, right? You don’t seem like the type to skip class,” Leona leaned against a column in the hall, arms crossed and hips cocked in a way that made Lucy actually consider skipping out. 

But Lucy answered honestly, “I’m not. I just needed a few minutes of fresh air from alchemy...” 

She paused, “Wait, what makes you say that?” 

Leona shrugged, “You give off bookworm vibes.” 

Lucy couldn’t tell if Leona was leading to something flirty or condescending. 

He smirked, “It’s cute.” 

Condescending it was then. 

“Listen, I don’t exactly have much to keep myself entertained since getting stuck at this school other than my friends who don’t cut class, so I don’t have options for many other activities at the moment,” Lucy blushed despite herself because Leona looked painfully pretty with that smug look on his face. She recognized the way his tail started to curl and wondered for a moment if her reaction triggered some kind of latent beastman predator instinct or something. 

Lucy realized a second too late that she was biting her lip as Leona replied, his voice casual and even, “I’m here, and I can think of a few other things to do.” 

This feels like deja vu but not the usual kind I have around here, Lucy straightened up and crossed her arms, pretending that she was only pretending to consider the implied offer Leona placed on the table. Because now she really was thinking about it. But Lucy needed to act casual even though she could hear her heartbeat in her ears. Could Leona hear it? Judging from the way his tail swished, it was a solid maybe. 

Lucy’s eyes dragged along his frame one last time, doing her best to ignore the twitch of Leona’s ears or the bit of red that dusted his cheeks and sighed, hating that she was choosing to be responsible, “I gotta get back to class before Grim singlehandedly poisons everyone in the lab.” 

“Whatever suits you, herbivore,” Leona stood and shrugged, sticking his hands in his pockets and saying one last thing before walking away, “You owe me that story of yours.” 

Lucy spent a very long time watching Leona slowly saunter down the hall and disappear around the corner before going to class, still feeling dizzy albeit for a different reason than when she left. 

What Lucy found was that knowing Leona was a strategist who was likely thinking a dozen steps ahead in any given situation, including conversations with her, wasn’t exactly an advantage on her end. Still, it did level the playing field in a way. 

So later that week when she and Leona’s PE class blocks happened to cross, Lucy thought she was more prepared for the inevitable banter that would occur when she walked up to him on the field but... 

“That a girl’s uniform? It fits you too good not to be.” 

Any sense of preparation flew out the window once flirting was a factor. Not to mention his velvety voice and deep green eyes and dumb smirk and muscled arms were incredibly distracting at this particular moment. They weren’t even a few minutes into conversation and already Lucy felt like she was at a disadvantage. 

“I’m genuinely curious,” Leona didn’t give any hints of being condescending or anything other than a certain glint in his eye that made Lucy consciously remind herself to not bite her lip in front of him. She figured he was being honest. 

“Crowley said anything at Ramshackle House is basically at my disposal and there are a lot of extra uniforms there, even the girls’ ones,” she shrugged as if her heart didn’t skip a beat when Leona’s tail started to curl in that familiar way, “It’s kind of my whole wardrobe at the moment...” 

It was then that Lucy spotted Ace and Deuce far off behind Leona, both watching them with confused looks on their faces. Deuce whispered something to Ace which made Ace laugh loudly and call over Grim and even though Lucy couldn’t hear them, she knew they were talking about her from the way Ace pointed over like an idiot. 

So the words came out on impulse, before Lucy could even give it a second thought, “Do you wanna get out of here?” 

Leona raised an eyebrow in surprise, “Here meaning the field or here like the class?” 

“The class, because some people around here have a staring problem apparently,” Lucy looked at Deuce, Grim, and Ace who were currently all whispering to each other and the latter gave Lucy a nod of approval and a wink. 

Leona looked over his shoulder at the others which made them all immediately shift their gaze and pretend to be really interested in the soccer ball at Deuce’s feet. Leona turned back to Lucy with a sigh, “Ya know, I try not to skip PE too much or else Vargas’ll go extra hard on me the next time I show up to class. He’s like that with all the athletics club members.” 

Lucy pursed her lips and shrugged, hoping she was doing a good job at concealing that her heart was in fact pounding in her chest. She usually had crappy luck, but she decided to press it anyway, “Leona, king of the NRC jocks, doesn’t want to skip class with a pretty girl because he’s scared of a few extra laps? His loss.” 

She gave him an innocent smile before turning to walk away slowly. Lucy kept an even pace in the hopes that Leona would follow her, but part of her also hoped she’d just be able to walk away and cool herself off because her face was beet red. She supposed that Leona closing the gap between them so quickly was a good thing even though he could plainly see how flustered she was now that he was walking alongside her. 

Leona gave a mild attempt to seem annoyed, but it didn’t exactly carry to his voice when he spoke, “You know, it’s a little much for one to call themselves pretty.” 

She cautioned a glance at him out of the corner of her eye and, judging by the way he was looking at her, Leona wasn’t insulting her or anything but he was definitely waiting for some sort of reaction. Lucy rolled her eyes in response, “Right. Because you totally seem like a person who wouldn’t call himself pretty.” 

“I wouldn’t say you’re wrong,” he shrugged, but there was an almost playful tone to his voice which made sense because he quickly followed up with, “You think I’m pretty?” 

“Oh, you’d want me to say that, what with the way you were checking me out earlier,” Lucy’s heart raced and cheeks burned at the sight of his smirk, “You were a little forward there with the uniform comment by the way.” 

 Leona was quick with a response even though his ear twitched a little at being called out, “Just stating facts.” 

“But it’s a bit much for me to call myself pretty?” 

“Well, I guess you’d be stating facts too.” 

It took a second for Lucy to realize the reason why her cheeks were starting to hurt was because she was smiling so hard. She figured that if they were keeping score on whatever their little back-and-forths were, Lucy would call this a draw. 

They ended up heading to the botanical garden, sitting around the place where they first met and talking for the rest of the class block. Or rather Lucy was doing most of the talking with Leona laying near her and looking as if he was out cold but suddenly asking questions or throwing in his two cents every once in a while. For all the flirting they were doing before, Leona never made a move on her. In all honestly made her a bit self-conscious, but after Ruggie came calling for his housewarden about Magical Shift practice, Leona stopped Lucy as they were about to go their separate ways. 

“My place, same time tomorrow.” 

And so, that was how Lucy ended up in Leona’s room for the first time. Two weeks since tripping over one of the most beautiful boys at school and there Lucy was on his bed in his dorm room, truly not believing that she even got this far. The two of them had a late lunch and talked a bit again, and still there were no actual moves from Leona other than the occasional flirtatious comment thrown here and there. Lucy was starting to get better at come backs now that the two had spoken more. 

It looked like that’s what they’d be doing for a while since Leona set up for a round of chess. Lucy had been the one to look interested since she was mostly looking at the set up by Leona’s bed. It looked like he must have gone through a game with himself recently and when Lucy commented that she thought it was sweet, Leona got a little flustered (it was only the slightest bit, but a win for Lucy nonetheless) and said it had been a while since he even found anyone that was even smart enough to play against. He then proceeded to not ask if Lucy wanted to play, which was a bit of an insult, so then Lucy mentioned that she would be open to playing a round. Leona set up the board without a word. 

So technically, this was Lucy’s fault, “Listen, I don’t really know how to play. Like I know the pieces and stuff, but you’re going to kick my ass.” 

Leona chuckled in the desk chair across from her and put his feet up on the edge of the bed, crossing his ankles. He rested his elbow on the desk and leaned on his hand, tilting his head in a deliciously cat-like way that made Lucy feel like she was going to melt, “Oh, well now I want to see how bad at this you are.” 

Even if she was good at chess, Lucy would probably still lose from being distracted by Leona alone. He was wearing his dorm uniform today which showed off a lot more skin than usual plus his whole toned, muscled arms were out. It was then Lucy noticed the silence between them was just a bit too long. When she glanced up to Leona’s face, she caught a flash of green before he quickly looked down to the board in front of them. She could have sworn he was blushing a bit.  

Leona nodded to the board, “White goes first.” 

Lucy looked at the pieces. She kind of knew what piece moved where, but it wasn’t like she would be able to keep track of every possible move that could be made like someone who was actually good at chess was. She went to grab a piece to move, but Leona spoke before she did anything. 

“Careful with what you pick up first. You touch it, you move it.” 

Lucy put her hand which was hovering over a piece back in her lap. Leona laughed again, softer this time. Lucy’s heart was about to jump from her chest. 

“It’s called a touch move,” Leona started explaining without Lucy needing to ask, “It’s to keep people from picking up every piece on the board and start moving shit around before actually thinking out a strategy. You gotta move with intention.” There was a glint in his eye and an almost giddiness as he talked. 

Lucy watched Leona until he looked glanced back up at her then, in a hurry, she moved a pawn forward. Leona immediately moved one of his pawns. Lucy moved another pawn. Leona suddenly moved the king to the side of the board then knocked over Lucy’s queen. 

“Damn, you suck at this.” 

And even though Leona’s soft laugh and smile made Lucy’s stomach flip, she still was in shock that she managed to lose so quickly, “How did you do that?” 

“You were just really bad at the game,” he crossed his arms with a smug, entertained look on his face. If he wasn’t so beautiful and big and tall, Lucy would have punched him.  

Lucy’s cheeks burned and she knew she looked like a blushing idiot, in the very real sense of the word, so she demanded a rematch, “I can do better than that! Watch, you go first this time and then I can respond to whatever move you make.” 

“That’s not how it works,” Lucy knew she saw a bit of pink dust his cheeks before Leona started resetting the board, “The chances of it going worse for you are higher.” 

“Just turn the board around.” 

Leona complied and immediately moved a pawn. Lucy knew she had to actually try so she thought for a few moments before moving a pawn directly in front of his. Leona immediately moved the bishop piece. 

Lucy pointed to a knight, “These move like an L, right?” 

“Two squares the long way, one square the short way.” 

Lucy moved the knight. Leona moved his king. Lucy moved her other night piece. Leona moved his king, scooping up one of Lucy’s pawns and knocking over Lucy’s queen. 

“Checkmate,” Leona shook his head, “though you put up a fight this time. Good job.” 

His praise didn’t exactly sound genuine. Lucy crossed her arms with a sigh, “I have a baseline knowledge from some puzzle games back home, but there’s just too much stuff to remember and keep track of at the same time is all.” 

Leona continued with the same smug (but still very sexy) condescension, “Puzzle games? You’re a bookworm and a nerd.” 

“You’re one to talk! You’re the one who invited a hot girl to your room and decided to play chess with her!” 

He put his hands up in a sort of ‘I surrender’ sort of pose before standing to sit next to Lucy on his bed. Lucy’s heart started racing as he leaned closer to her. 

“I’m just messing with you, but I can stop,” Leona spoke up, suddenly a bit more serious now but with a hint of something else underneath that Lucy was having a hard time putting her finger on, “I’ll only go as far as you let me.” 

Was he asking for permission? Lucy glanced down to his tail since that was usually Leona’s tell but it was completely still. She hoped Leona hadn’t picked up on what Lucy had been doing this whole time. When she looked back to his face, she just barely caught him glancing at her lips. Of course he was waiting for her to make the first move. 

Just as Lucy was about to reply, Leona added, “You know, if the herbivore can’t handle it...” 

Lucy leaned forward, pressing her lips against Leona’s and melting into Leona’s touch as he pulled her closer by the waist. She pulled away only a few inches from his face and smiled. 

“If we keep doing this, you have to give me a better nickname. You call half the people at this school herbivore,” She wrapped her arms around Leona’s neck and bit her lip to mask her lovestruck grin. 

He looked down at her with a smirk which only grew as he pressed Lucy against him, “I’ll think of something, Lu.” 

Lucy hardly let him get the words out before kissing him again and pulling Leona down to the bed with her. 

An updated list of things Lucy knew about Leona Kingscholar after the past two weeks: 

Leona was extremely hot. Like easily the hottest guy at the school let alone the hottest guy Lucy ever met. 

Leona tended to keep to himself if only to avoid annoyances from other students and his teachers  

Leona was a strategist at heart so he liked a challenge and when one was presented point 2 was completely irrelevant. 

Leona was a very good kisser. 

Crowley finished his proposition for help with a motion towards Grim, who was practically shaking with excitement on the sofa next to Lucy, “Should you solve the case, I’ll generously permit your dorm to ender the Magift tournament-” 

“We’ll do it!” Grim stood suddenly, pumping one of his paws in the air with a determined grin, “You let me be in the tournament and we’ll solve the mystery, right Lucy?” 

“No,” Lucy’s words hung in the air, the words and the feeling of Grim’s surprised, sad eyes on her feeling heavy. She spoke without thinking, of course, speaking from her gut without taking into account how hurt Grim would be if she didn’t help. She shook her head as she scrambled to find a way out of Crowley’s clutches while still keeping Grim’s feelings intact. 

But then there was the issue with Leona. Lucy knew the reality of the accidents, and wanted to stop the overblot but if Crowley intervened, what would happen to Savanaclaw? There was no way Leona wouldn’t be severely punished or even expelled. 

There simply had to be a way out of this without hurting Grim or Leona. She could always go along with things and lie but- 

“I mean, I don’t know, Crowley,” she started, her mind working on overdrive to find some answer to what to do, “How many jobs are you gonna pile on us while we’ve also got school to think about? Plus, people are getting hurt this time. I don’t have magic and, no offense to Grim or anything, but he can’t control his magic well so this job might be dangerous.” 

The Headmaster’s smile widened and even though Lucy couldn’t quite see his eyes under his mask, she knew they wouldn’t show any kindness as he spoke, “Well, Ms. Ortiz, need I remind you that I am graciously allowing you to live on campus until we can figure out the travel accommodations for your return? Your time here has already garnered and will continue to accrue a variety of living expenses that will need to be covered somehow. It only makes sense that these odd jobs will go towards repaying my gracious generosity!” 

Lucy groaned and put her head in her hands. Of course, greedy asshole Crowley was leveraging homelessness against her. What other options did she have? There was no way Riddle would allow Grim and her to stay for longer than a night at Heartslabyul, if that. And she hadn’t gotten close with anyone else at school other than Leona, not that she was even sure what their standing was at the moment. 

A paw gently rested on Lucy’s shoulder. She looked up to see Grim, whose wide blue eyes made him look more like a cat begging for food or attention than usual. 

“Come on, Lucy. You’re the brains and I’m the brawn, remember?” Grim whispered, “You’ll help me so I can play, right?” 

Lucy sighed, giving in. If there was no way out of this, she’d just need to do things like Riddle’s overblot: go through the motions, follow the events of the story, and everything would work out in the end. 

Unfortunately, this was easier said than done after Trey’s accident. 

Lucy hadn’t been to Heartslabuyl since the unbirthday party, and she didn’t even like being present for that much. It was a shame since the dorm was beautiful and whimsical and everything she’d expected out of Twisted Wonderland. Plus, there was an unbirthday party at least once a week which Ace and Duece invited her to every time, but Lucy had to politely decline each invitation. Any time she even looked at the dorm’s portal, she felt sick. All she could think about when Heartslabyul came up was Riddle’s overblot— the metallic smell, almost like blood, which permeated the air, the ooze of the ink across the ground and the enormous creature that emerged from it, the piercing scream Riddle cried as the darkness embraced him then engulfed his body in one wave of muck. Lucy locked eyes with Riddle the moment before the blot took him and the fear and helplessness on his face still haunted her. 

Though she was currently in the Heartslabyul lounge and not the gardens where everything went down, Lucy still had to fight the pit in her stomach. Maybe she really should have hung around Heartslabyul more often so it could have been a reminder of the hell Leona was about to be put through. 

“Lucy, do pay attention. This was your task after all and you’re lucky we have the time to help,” Riddle’s scolding snapped Lucy out of her thoughts, but his tone and look softened when he saw how she jumped, “Are you alright?” 

There was something about his look of concern which made Lucy’s heart sink, but she did her best to hide the feeling when she replied cheerfully, “Yeah I’m good! I just... had a long day. Grim and I have been running around all morning trying to figure out what’s going on, so I’m sorry for being out of it.” 

Grim scoffed and crossed his front paws, “Oh sure, and it has nothing to do with your dumb boy problems...” 

“Grim!” Lucy snapped and sent the creature a death glare, but before she could deflect the conversation, Cater honed in on the potential well of gossip presented to him. 

“Boy problems?” it was the first time he put his phone down this entire conversation. There was something about the glint in Cater’s eyes that set off Lucy’s fight or flight. 

“Right,” Ace chimed in, almost like some pieces were starting to click into place, “come to think of it, you haven’t been cutting out with that beastman much anymore. He giving you trouble?” There was maybe a speck of concern to the statement but he mostly sounded as giddy as Cater looked. 

Deuce sounded legitimately concerned when he chimed in, “Did you need us to step in?” 

“No! It’s fine,” Lucy grimaced as she felt a heat spread across her cheeks. The thought of Deuce trying to rough up Leona would have been both sweet and comical if it weren’t for the fact Lucy was about to pass out due to sheer embarrassment. 

“Besides, there are way more important things to talk about than my personal life, so if we could just focus.” 

“Quite,” Riddle’s annoyed sigh and headshake made the others back off for the moment as he gave the others a look. Lucy also sighed from pure relief. Thank the Seven or whatever they said around here Riddle’s ability to keep the others in line didn’t fade after his overblot incident. 

He continued, taking a sip of his tea, “Really now, gossiping at a time like this. And about cutting class no less...” 

Riddle trailed off and exchanged a look with Cater over the rim of his teacup. There was no time to process the panic which set in for Lucy before Cater quickly scooted forward in his chair to lean forward and start prodding for more info, “Hold on, what’s this beastman look like?” 

So much for Riddle dousing the flames to the fire. Lucy shook her head, “Now wait a second, I don’t think-” 

“I don’t know, he’s a Savanaclaw guy,” Ace didn’t miss a beat in responding as if they guys were having a regular gossip session over tea, “Pretty tall, long hair- I think he’s a cat?” 

“A lion maybe?” 

“Deuce!” She felt a stab of betrayal as Deuce joined in but at the very least, he winced apologetically after she called him out. 

“Leona Kingscholar?!” 

That was more than enough info for Riddle and Cater who both gasped at the same time. Riddle seemed a little surprised and embarrassed by his reaction while Cater looked like he was foaming at the mouth for details. 

“You’re hooking up with Leona?” he pressed after a nod that Lucy could only interpret as a nod of approval. 

“We’re not...” They weren’t what? They were hooking up. Past tense. Not that Lucy was in the mood to kiss and tell. Actually, what she really wanted to do was to crawl under her chair and die as she spoke through her attempted smile which wound up looking more like gritted teeth, “We might have hung out a little before.” 

“A little?!” Grim stood on the couch to protest, “The other day you ditched me, and I had to spend all night alone in dusty old Ramshackle just me and the ghosts!” 

That was it. It was the final blow to send Lucy’s heartrate skyrocketing. Heartslabyul seemed like a decent place to die since if she stuck around to haunt it, it was a much better livelier place than Ramshackle. 

Riddle and Deuce were beet red while Cater and especially Ace were dying to hear more. 

“Oh really?” Cater was so far forward on his seat now he looked as if he were going to fall off it. Ace leaned over to elbow Lucy but she pushed him away. 

“Cut it out! Listen we’ve hung out a bunch before, but it’s done! It’s over. It’s nothing,” her voice was louder, harsher, and shakier than she meant it to be, but she took a breath to try to calm herself, “It... was nothing.” Lucy only just realized she had the kind of crack in her voice one gets when they’re about to cry. 

An uncomfortable silence filled the room as the others shrunk in their seats, refusing to look at Lucy out of embarrassment, finally getting the memo. Riddle was the first one to meet her gaze. He watched her for a few moments, looking apologetic before sitting up and clearing his throat. 

“Well, dating amongst students at Night Raven College is highly discouraged but not explicitly against the rules, so it would be unfair to reprimand you as a Housewarden,” there was a slight awkwardness to his tone as he continued, “You can always look at the positives, of course. This would leave more time for your studies and should be helpful as you aren’t from this world and do not have the same levels of compulsory education.” 

It was overly formal, but it seemed like an attempt on Riddle’s part to cheer Lucy up. For that, she was grateful. 

“Thank you, Riddle,” she smiled softly, “I appreciate the advice.” 

Riddle gave a small, pleased smile in return. 

But all the talk about Leona, the reminder that he was avoiding her, and the creeping memories of Riddle’s overblot put Lucy over the edge. If she didn’t leave Heartslabyul immediately, she felt as if she’d throw up. 

She shifted uncomfortably in her chair, “You know, I’m not really feeling too well. Would you guys mind if I head back to my dorm to rest?” 

The others all shook their heads and gave quiet responses of “sure” and “okay” with an extra concerned send off from Grim who said, “What good is a henchman if they’re too sick to do their important henchman stuff?” 

Riddle spoke before Lucy could leave the Heartslabyul lounge, “I apologize for any stress myself or my students have caused.” 

She shoved down the pang of guilt that threatened to turn her stomach, “It’s no problem.” 

Lucy knew she should actually return to Ramshackle. She knew that it would be easier to go back to her room and hide until the interdorm magift tournament was complete since events were already in motion. What more could possibly be done with so little time left? But before she could think about it, she crossed the dorm’s entryway gardens, walked through the Heartslabuyl portal and immediately entered the Savanaclaw one. 

If going along with the story was too painful, then maybe she could stop the overblot from happening completely. 

Lucy had been to Savanaclaw a few times before and it easily was her favorite dorm so far. It was warm without being too hot since there was always a breeze wafting through which carried the smell of grass and herbs across the fields. The dorm building itself was cool with a homey, comforting feel to it despite the occasional rowdy students causing a commotion with each other. It also had the advantage of not being tainted with memories of a horrific overblot… yet. 

Lucy spotted Leona immediately and made a beeline for him across the courtyard. He was going inside with a few larger guys Lucy assumed were other third or second years and Ruggie in tow. She hadn’t gotten very close with the other dorm members yet and wouldn’t normally make a fuss in front of them, but she was so focused on speaking with Leona, she didn’t give it a second thought as she walked up behind him and called out. 

“Leona.” 

The group stopped quickly and even though she only called their housewarden, the others turned to face Lucy before he did. She couldn’t quite place the looks on their faces— expectant, maybe? She wasn’t exactly intimidated by the Savanaclaw guys, but she could see how others wouldn’t want to pick a fight with them. It wasn’t until Leona turned around that the creeping anxiety from Heartslabyul threatened to make Lucy change her mind. 

Leona smiled and tilted his head in that flirty way he’d do when Lucy usually approached him. But just for one brief, disquieting moment when their eyes met, something was very, very wrong. Just as quickly as it happened, the dark look flashed away, leaving Leona with the same casual demeanor he usually used when he waited for Lucy to approach him. 

“Lucy, it’s been a while,” he sounded flirty but the look he gave her earlier gave a sour taste to the words. 

But Lucy was determined to try to stop this. She just needed to try. “We need to talk.” 

Leona eyed Lucy for a few moments, the others staying in place until he finally nodded back to them to have them head inside without him. His eyes never left Lucy’s even when Ruggie tapped his arm to get his attention. He just waved the Hyena off who rolled his eyes in response before following orders. 

Leona only spoke when the door clicked closed behind his students, “I’m assuming you want privacy for this little chat.” 

“Yeah, I’d prefer it,” the other dorm members seemed okay with her, but Lucy wasn’t sure what would happen if they heard her trying to talk their leader out of his plan, “Seems like the students here are a little gossipy and I don’t want too many people overhearing.” 

Leona barked out a joyless chuckle that made Lucy jump, “Don’t I know it.” 

It felt wrong- dark and tense in a way that Lucy hadn’t seen before.  Maybe it was because Leona was so close to overblot? No, Lucy could stop this. She just had to pull him aside and talk him off the ledge. 

The two walked a bit away from the dorm building and magift field, out of earshot of any beastmen that might have been milling around. The silence between them weighed heavy until they made it to an alcove in some boulders under the arch of what looked to be a giant elephant ribcage and Leona stopped short with his hands in his pockets. He was no longer flirty and that tension in his voice and eyes were gone. Now he was just cold, his stance and face unattached compared to the warm, confident flirtation Lucy was used to. 

“Listen, if this is about how little we’ve talked since the last time, don’t take it personally,” he shifted, eyes darting to nothing in particular in the distance before meeting Lucy’s, “I’ve been… busy.” 

This again. 

“How am I not supposed to take it personally? What am I supposed to think when you’ve been avoiding me right after we f-” she stopped herself. 

Because of course that’s what he thought this was about! It was the only thing on her mind this past week until she as reminded of Leona’s inevitable near-death experience. But if it was on his mind too, why didn’t he come to her? That must have been why he was acting so strange since she got here. Between the stress of the Heartslabuyl guys bringing up their fling and how unattached Leona seemed about the situation, Lucy didn’t have the patience to talk about now. She needed to focus. The overblot. She needed to stop Leona’s overblot. 

She took a deep breath before speaking again, trying to set aside the way Leona’s distant eyes made her feel, “I mean, this isn’t about… that, but I guess it’s kind of related.” 

Leona’s ear twitched back in irritation and a curious look crossed his face, “What does that mean?” 

The way he spoke made him sound as if he already picked up on the actual reason Lucy was there, so she began to explain herself as cautiously as possible. It was an impulsive decision to come talk to him, so she wasn’t sure how to go about it. 

Maybe starting with facts would help. 

“Crowley asked me to do a favor for him. Said there were some strange incidents happening where students kept having suspicious accidents and told me to investigate,” Lucy bit her lip nervously, “He told me my housing’s on the line if I refuse.” 

“You’re on gopher duty. That’s a shame, the geezer really should be doing his own work,” Leona sucked his teeth and leaned on the stone wall, crossing his arms in front of him, “You know, if you wanna get out of it, you’re welcome to stay with me.” 

His eyes trailed along the neckline of her collar which made Lucy angrily button up her shirt more. Where’d he get off checking her out and offering to stay over his place again after last time? She huffed, “No, I don’t wanna be a bother.” 

“Of course not,” the Lion set his jaw, “you seem kind of stressed about all this though. Seems like you’ve been busy, too.” 

“Well yeah, I’ve been on Ruggie’s trail all day and he’s been busier than both of us,” again, the words came automatically, sharp and on edge because Lucy felt like she was spiraling. 

“What does Ruggie have to do with this?” Leona’s gaze darkened, his suspicion growing. 

Because Lucy shouldn’t know about Ruggie’s unique magic. She hadn’t seen it in person before and she wasn’t close enough to Ruggie for him to tell her about it. Why would she know Ruggie was involved? She hesitated a moment before speaking again. 

“Grim told me Ruggie stole that sandwich he nabbed for me the other day. He said his paw moved towards the guy on its own,” That should be more than enough right? The assumption that Ruggie did something to Grim to make him act out of character could be evidence, “It’s not hard to put to and two together. Ruggie’s taking out the interdorm competition for you somehow.”  

Leona’s brow knitted together in faux confusion and his catlike pupils slit just a bit, “So Ruggie slick talked that ear of yours out of lunch and you think it has something to do with… what?” 

“I figured it had something to do with magic. Grim wouldn’t willingly give up food like that to anyone, including me,” Lucy pursed her lips.  

“Magic? Did that pet of yours tell you that?” He let out a dark chuckle, his smile bringing attention to his sharp canines, “You know he isn’t exactly the brightest creature on the island. He probably wouldn’t know he’d been spelled even if you casted it to his face. Besides we’re Savanaclaw. Why would we need to handicap the competition when we could destroy the other dorms in any physical challenge easy?” 

“Not Diasomnia.” 

Ghosting, doing something dangerous and stupid, lying directly to her face, and now dragging Grim— Lucy was here because she was worried about Leona but he was making it more difficult by the second. So she made a dig of her own. “I know what happened at the last two tournaments. You got your asses handed to you by Malleus because he’s too powerful to take down,” 

Leona straightened from the wall, his eyes narrowing and he ran a tongue along this fangs, “Watch yourself, herbivore.” 

“The others are a warm up for the big leagues, right?” despite the change in demeanor, Lucy still took a few steps closer to Leona and repeated herself slowly, “Right?” 

The quiet tension between the two simmered in their standoff. And although Lucy looked up at Leona with barely contained rage, Leona’s face remained unchanged and emotionless. Then suddenly, his eerily quiet calm gave way to a malicious amusement. 

“Lucy,” he took a step forward, using that low, smooth tone he’d pull out just before he’d pull Lucy in before a make out session, but his eyes were all wrong like before, “it’s usually pretty entertaining for me to try and figure you out but there are still a few holes in your story.” 

He took a step forward, looming over Lucy with a wry smile that didn’t reach his eyes, “So we’ll start from the beginning. Why did you want to talk to me?” 

Lucy never felt unsafe around Leona. He was gentle and patient and even when it seemed like he was getting annoyed with her, he never snapped at her. Leona never pressured her into anything she didn’t want to do and because of that she trusted him, even though they hadn’t known each other for long. But, at this moment, Lucy found herself wondering if maybe they should have had this conversation closer to the dorm halls where they weren’t as alone. 

She backed up a step and crossed her arms in front of her, “I’m just worried, okay? I realized what you were doing and I wanted to talk you out of it. It’s dangerous.” 

Leona let out another joyless laugh that made Lucy’s stomach curl, “Dangerous to who? A bunch of clumsy kids who easily could have gotten hurt themselves? Ruggie’s taken out a lot more than the ones recently you know. I’m surprised Crowley’s only just picked up on it. All the injuries are minor anyway.” 

No, no. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this…  

“Oh I know, you hang around those Heartslabyul froshes, right?” Leona sneered, “Ruggie was aiming for Rosehearts but his boyfriend got in the way. I bet they’re pretty wound up about that over there. You don’t want any more of them getting hurt-” 

“I don’t care about the others!” Lucy took another step back, mind racing. Why wouldn’t he just listen? 

“I mean, I care, I just know they’re gonna be okay. I’m worried about Ruggie and especially you, Leona. Someone could get really hurt.” 

Please, just understand what I’m saying. 

But Lucy’s words had no effect on him. Leona just straightened up and began to close the gap between them, “Oh, look at you. Stumbling into this school, not a lick of magic, thinking you know better than me and showing up in my territory like you own the place—like you can come here and tell me how to live my life.” 

He continued stepping forward until he had Lucy pressed against the wall, his face inches away from hers, “So what are you gonna do, go tattle to Crowley about it? I can stop you by force you know.” 

This whole thing was a mistake. 

“No, Leona, it that was my goal Crowley would already be here and this would be over!” Lucy pushed him away and managed to squeeze out from between him and the wall, “Ugh, I don’t know why I even bothered.” 

Lucy started quickly making her way to the dorm’s portal back to the hub. There was no point in trying to stop Leona’s plan now since he was too far gone anyway. For all she knew, Leona’s blot had been building up this whole time. Hell, it could have been going on for years. Leona was right. She just showed up one day acting like she knew him. Who was she to tell him what to do? 

Leona followed quickly behind, “Lu, you can’t run your mouth to the others.” 

“Then I won’t! I wasn’t planning on it,” Lucy stopped short and turned to Leona, “Not that you’d believe me anyway since you’re so focused on the interdorms.” 

“You wouldn’t understand,” Leona still sounded upset, but his anger was quiet, desperate. Just a minute ago he looked and acted so imposing but now he seemed a bit small, “I need this. We need this.” 

Wounded, that’s what he sounded like. If Lucy wound up in Twisted Wonderland years earlier, maybe she could have changed the course of fate. But now the clock was ticking and Leona was moving forward at a pace Lucy couldn’t stop. 

Lucy stepped closer to Leona, reaching for his hand. He jerked back at first, but then relented, letting  her fingers gently wrap around his. She ran her thumb against the soft leather of his glove with a deep sigh. If she couldn’t stop him, she could at least be there when Leona was about to go through what could be the worst, most horrific day of his life. 

Lucy was a little scared, but she still trusted Leona at the end of the day, even if he didn’t have any for her. 

“Listen, I don’t know what whatever this thing we have is, but I know that at the very least you’re my friend and I want to help you,” she looked up at him, watching his eyes carefully, “don’t you feel the same?” 

In that moment, a familiar glimpse of fear and helplessness shown on Leona’s face. It could have been because he didn’t know how to answer, but it reminded her a little too much of that afternoon in the Heartsalbyul rose garden. Lucy’s stomach dropped and she instinctively squeezed Leona’s hand. Maybe, just maybe, he would snap out of it. 

“Hey Leona!” a voice called from across the courtyard as some kids waved their housewarden down, “Got some Heartsalbyul kids wandering around!” 

The moment was gone as soon as Leona let go of her hand and turned to the voice that called him. Before he started walking in it’s direction, Leona nodded to Lucy once and spoke a warning in an even, unattached voice, “Go get them out of here before I have my guys beat the shit out of them. And then don’t come back here again. Got it?” 

Lucy’s words from before echoed in her mind ...it’s done! It’s over. It’s nothing. It...was nothing. 

Without hesitating, Lucy nodded in return then ran out to the magift field to get Ace, Deuce, Grim, and Cater out of there unscathed. It took only a little bit of convincing and Lucy managed to keep most of the trembling from her voice. She wasn’t sure if it stoked or eased the suspicion from Cater, but she knew he could tell she was upset. Lucy supposed Cater would have asked her what she was doing in Savanaclaw if it weren’t for the fact that she fell to the ground sobbing as soon as they reached the dorm portal room. Ace, Deuce, and Grim made sure to walk Lucy back home this time. The rest of the day was a blur.