Kingston Academy

TWENTY-FIVE

Mirren was being punished in a sense.

He sat across from Niven with his ears down in a guilty manner as the blond calmly sipped his tea on the sofa, one leg over the other as he gave a disdainful look to Mirren. Crescent stood behind her master, also rolling her eyes at what he was going through.

"You wanna run that by me again?" Niven coldly said. "You said you're a beastman, yes? A cat?"

"T-To be precise, I'm an albino jaguar-"

"Could've fooled me—oh, wait... you did," Niven deadpanned. "I thought you were more of a dog, acting like a bitch in heat for the past week."

Mirren flinched. His amber eyes, no longer blue, took a glimpse at Niven. He nervously stammered, "I-I didn't know you could t-talk like that..."

"I guess we don't know each other that well, huh?" Niven looked over to the sylph in a bored manner, holding his tea up. "Could you please take this and stay in your room for just a moment? It seems your master and I have quite a few things to discuss, if he even wants to explain."

The sylph floated over to Niven, taking the tea and bowing her head before leaving the two students alone. Niven snorted at Mirren's pitiful state before snapping his fingers and grabbing the blanket which appeared out of thin air, throwing it at the male's face. "There," Niven sighed.

Mirren wrapped the blanket around his shoulders, still not meeting the blond's gaze. "Thanks..."

"I'm not looking for a simple thanks, I'm just wondering why you never bothered to tell me. Were you ever planning to? Do the others know? Well... if it's a hard topic to discuss then I suppose you should just tell me now and I won't question you again," he said.

"No, it's not that... I just..." Mirren rested his arms on his knees as he leaned forward on the other sofa, still not daring to look up at the student. "The others knew, but I just didn't want you to know."

"Oh, okay," Niven replied in a dull tone. "Well, if that's all then I'll leave you to your dinner-"

"No, wait! It didn't come out right!" Mirren stopped the student from getting up, but he let out a frustrated hiss and placed his head in the palm of his hands, not knowing what to do. "I... don't know how to explain it to you."

"Mirren, you don't have to tell me everything. You could've just said you were a beastman and left it at that, I wouldn't pry," Niven softy responded, feeling a little bad for the male in front of him who seemed to struggle on what to say. "You don't even need to explain anything to me right now, I won't ask anymore."

Mirren let out a tired sigh and finally tilted his gaze up to meet Niven's, showing the boy just how exhausted he actually was. "You were afraid of our alpha, so I didn't want to tell you I was a beastman as well," he stated.

Niven frowned, it didn't sound right for some reason. "Well, that can't be it. Arien and I have gotten closer for the past few weeks, you would've told me by then."

"Yeah, I know you two have gotten closer. I can smell his wretched scent on you," Mirren hissed, baring his canines before quickly cupping his mouth. He really didn't want Niven to see him like this.

"You can smell him on me?" At this point, Niven wasn't so surprised anymore. "Mirren, what's going on?"

"Listen, I just didn't want you of all people to see me like this." To emphasize his point, Mirren gestured a finger over to his ears and tail.

Niven actually looked offended. "But... you look so cool! How come you've been hiding those from me all this time? I want to touch them!"

"Baby, as much as I love hearing you compliment me, touching a beastman's tail is... something one shouldn't do out of curiosity. It's like if a person touches another person without their consent, it's not pretty."