❝DÉVOUEMENT❞ ; twst.

✦ chapter twelve.

as soon as she step foot on the school grounds, she ran as fast as she could towards the infirmary and busted the door open. "yuu?!" her sudden appearance made the patients in the room flinch. luckily, yuu was awake and she rushed towards him.

"let's do our best again next yea— eek! f/n?! you scared us! wait, are you doing okay?" asked yuu as f/n checked on his injuries. the diasomnia first year let out a sigh of relief and said, "you're okay... thank goodness... and yes, i'm fine... i'm forbidden to use my advanced abilities without the supervision of anyone from my dorm though..." she landed her gaze on leona who was wide awake and staring at her, "leona... you're okay now..."

leona snickered as he brought back his snarky persona, "worried?" f/n rolled her eyes and said, "no. i hope you realize you can't use magic for a few hours." leona raised a brow as he said, "how did you know? was this your doing?" ace suddenly caught her attention as he said, "oh! dorm leader rosehearts couldn't use his magic for 2 days after his overblot! now, even leona-senpai can't use his... what did you do exactly, f/n?"

"...my unique magic... eye of judgement... it allows me to electrocute and steal all the magical abilities of a person for a given period of time... the time is given under my own command... as for leona, i gave him 72 hours to be unable to use any magic." explained the first year as the rest looked at her with amazement. "...it's not that cool, you know? so stop staring at me like that."

"...i will make you pay for taking away my magic," spoke leona, although it sounded more playful than a threat. f/n hummed as she said, "looking forward to it. don't involve my seniors in this, though." leona grumbled as he said, "yeah, yeah, whatever."

"i finally found you, ojitan!"

the group turned towards the source of the voice as grim asked, "huh? who's that kid?" a kid with red hair ran towards leona as he joyfully exclaimed, "leona-ojitan~!" leona groaned as he mumbled, "ugh... the annoying one's here..." the group stared at him dumbfounded as jack asked, "leona...ojitan...?" leona sighed as he started talking, "this little furball is cheka, my brother's son..." there was a long pause before leona finished off his sentence, "......my nephew."

"nephew?!" exclaimed everyone in the room. "that means... the one next in line for the throne is..." trailed ruggie as everyone stayed silent and watched the interaction with a shock. "your match was so cool, ojitan! teach me how to play next time~!" leona clicked his tongue as he said, "i get it already, stop shouting in my ear! where are your bodyguards? they must be worried sick about you." cheka giggled as he spoke, "i wanted to see you so bad so i left them~ hehe!"

"um... the root of all evil for leona-san is..." trailed jack. "this innocent angel?" finished yuu. f/n stood there dumbfounded as she was not expecting this to happen— no one did. "he's really attached to you, yanno?" remarked grim as leona growled at him. "shut it. stop staring!" cheka tugged on his shirt and continued pestering him, "hey, hey, ojitan~ when are you coming home? next week? the week after that? ah! did you read my letters?"

"yeah, i told you already. i'll be home during the holiday—ow! don't sit on my stomach!" everyone in the room blinked as jack mumbled, "h-he's...sitting on leona-san's stomach so casually...!" ruggie snickered before letting out an amused laugh, "this is awesome! so this is the reason why leona-san never wants to go home." cheka turned around to look at the group as he asked, "are you all leona-ojitan's friends?"

ace laughed as he took this opportunity to tease leona, "yup, we're his friends. right, leona-ojitan~?" ruggie laughed once more that it was practically impossible not to laugh along with him. f/n stifled a laughter as she did not want to get unwanted stares. however, cheka's gaze landed on f/n as he smiled brightly, "you're very pretty! hehe!" f/n blushed at the sudden compliment. sure, she was told such compliments before, but she always thought they were just lies or flowery language to win her over. however, this was a child and children are known to be honest.

"thank you, sweetheart~" cooed f/n as she leaned down and patted his head with a soft smile. "is this still f/n or are we looking at a different person?" mumbled deuce to ace and yuu. cheka giggled as he smiled politely at f/n, "are you f/n-obatan? i've heard of you from leona-ojitan!" f/n was shocked to hear this as she glanced at leona, "oh? what did your ojitan say about me?" cheka hummed as he replied, "hmmm... he said you're cool and pretty!! hehe... he said he wants you to me—" before cheka could finish his statement, leona covered his mouth and scolded him.

"oi, what are you doing? stop that."

f/n laughed softly as she smirked at leona, who was busy ignoring her gaze and scolding his nephew. f/n looked at cheka as she spoke, "tell you what, maybe someday, i'll get to visit you and your parents very soon. i'll even bring some gifts for you, how does that sound?"

almost immediately, cheka smiled brightly and tackled the diasomnia first year into a hug. "yayy!! i can't wait!! hehe!" ruggie laughed before hissing in pain, "ojitan haha—ow!-ow! laughing hurts so much!" leona clicked his tongue as he glared at the group, "stop laughing, you bastards! i won't forget this...!"

...

f/n returned to diasomnia and sat on one of the couches in the lounge. she relaxed for a bit before sensing a heavy presence behind her. "i told you i'll be back, mal." she did not have to turn around to know that it was malleus standing behind her. malleus walked to the couch and sat beside her, "good. now go rest." f/n sighed as she turned her head to look at malleus while leaning on the couch, "mal... i know you're worried, but i'm okay."

the two had eye contact for a while before malleus held her hand, "you're being careless. of course i will be worried... we all are. didn't lilia scold you and warn you many times?" f/n tightly held malleus' hand as she responded, "he did... but, i had no choice. i did the same thing to rosehearts and you didn't react that bad..." malleus had a displeased look as he replied, "because you did not use heavy spells on rosehearts. kingscholar was another story. you used advanced spells that you have learned from us while knowing you accumulate blot faster than other magicians."

f/n stayed silent as she looked into malleus' eyes. the two stayed silent before f/n let out a sigh and leaned her head on his shoulder, "sorry... but you said there's a c—" malleus cut her off, "that doesn't mean you can use your magic just like that." f/n paused for a bit before groaning, "but mal..." before she could finish her statement, she noticed malleus glaring at her and decided to not pester him about this any further. "okay fine, i'm really sorry... will you forgive me if we went out to get some ice cream?"

"...fine," replied malleus as the two stood up. they teleported out of the dorm and to a nearby ice cream shop to enjoy their time together.