You were totally startled by Vil's laughter, not only the laughter, to be exact, but also his sudden show up and claiming you as his "saviour and bestie". This was not what you had expected when you woke up this morning. "I am sorry Vil-senpai, but... I'm a bit clueless." You didn't thought of hiding your confusion, after all who could not be surprised when a world-class supermodel all of a sudden become their best friend?
Vil stopped laughing, but his eyes still remained smiling. He then took out his mobile phone with a purple phone case out from his pocket and clicked into the MagiCam.
"My interview yesterday has gone viral on the internet. The spotlight is on my outfits." The joyful junior showed the screen to you as he continued. "Everyone is discussing that makeup and the clothes I was wearing during the interview. That fresh, simple yet elegant style has amazed all the viewers, and nude makeup has become the new trend in the city, because of my influence." You could see that cannot-be-hidden smile shown on the junior's face.
But it wasn't all of it. It didn't take long before Vil took a magazine from Epel and enthusiastically turned to a page with a ranking list on it. "The most important part is that, the outfit you chose for me has been chosen as the monthly best outfit by Fashace!, a popular fashion magazine in the city. And could you believe it? The top designer of Laurent watched the interview and has invited me to be the new ambassador of his brand!" Vil couldn't help but laughed out of joy and satisfaction again.
You didn't expected you actually help that much. All you were trying to do was to help Vil attend that important interview. You didn't know that the makeup you put on Vil would start a new trend, and you had never thought that that outfit could get him a chance to corporate with such a prestigious brand.
"Even I, the vice housewarden of Vil, am not able to bring him such a chance of working with Laurent. I'd be jealous, Mademoiselle Saviour!" Rook at the back praised and still, calling you by that weird French nickname.
"I may have to correct you that I chose that outfit." Leona crossed his arms sullenly and claimed.
"I thought all you did was picking some pink clothes from my wardrobe according to Y/n's instructions, Leona." Vil shocked his head. He then turned to you, "Back to us, Y/n. I've always appreciate people with good fashion sense and talent in pursuing beauty. You have not only saved me from my career crisis, but have also helped to take it up a notch. Please accept my thanks, and I'd like to invite you to enjoy your lunch with us." Vil asked, while holding one of your hand and placed a kiss on it.
"Oi Vil! What-" Leona standing next to you widened his eyes and gushed when he saw Vil's actions, but he soon stopped and returned to calmness. He seemed to be agitated, unexpectedly, even to himself. There should not be anything that bothered him, right? The next second he cleared his throat and put on that iconic smug smirk on his face. "Tch, I know it's this magicless herbivore here we're talking about, but don't you think she's stupid enough to have lunch with you, a total neat freak, huh?" He was quite sure that you would not accept Vil's invitation, who would?
"Yes, sure, why not?" You answered Vil with a smile.
"See? I told you. She'll not- WHAT?!! What did you say?!" Leona couldn't believe what he had just heard. The smirk on his face turned into a totally shocked face. You accepted Vil Schoenheit's lunch invitation, right in front of him.
"I have read some magazine articles of you last night, Vil-senpai. Your works are just fantastic, and I'm sure you have put so much effort into them." You further added. After you left Pomefiore yesterday, you were kinda interested in the person that you had helped. It's why you went to the library instead of you dorm, trying to know more about the young world-class model and actor.
"Wonderful Y/n! Calling me Vil will be just fine. C'mon let's go. I have many things to share with you." Vil rejoiced as he heard your answer. He couldn't wait to share his thoughts about the fashion stuff with you, who's definitely got a great sense of beauty.
You ignored the lions yelling but followed the Pomefiore trio to a table reserved in the cafeteria. "What do you mean by "stupid enough", huh Kingscholar?" was the only question you dropped for him before walking away along Vil, leaving the shocked lion behind near the entrance.
"Hey herbivore! Hey- tsk!" Lion hissed as he saw you walking further away while chatting joyfully with the trio in purple robes. An unspeakable anger was aroused in Leona, but he just couldn't explain it. "Mendokusai..." With all the bad moods, Leona decided to leave the cafeteria and have a nap in the botanical garden. Sure everything including his mood will be fine after a good sleep, right?
——
"Okay Y/n, 1, 2, 3 pull! God! Why are these so heavy?!" You grumbled while dragging a huge heavy bag.
It's night and here you're, dragging the rock-like bag containing the presents from Vil with all of your strength. "A meal is far from enough to thank you for your help." Was all Vil said before giving you the huge bag. There were various gifts, mostly cosmetic, you could tell.
You appreciated Vil's kindness, but taking the whole heavy bag back to the dorm alone at night wasn't a great idea to you. You were already exhausted enough after carrying it to here from the Pomefiore dormitory. Looking at Ramshackle Dorm which was far away from you, you couldn't help sighing, "Don't they have delivery service here?!" Your palms were totally reddened because of holding the bag for so long.
"Is it too late to call A-Deuce for help?" You joked to yourself, they had probably gone to bed under Riddle's strict rules. Just when you were going to pick up that "rock" again, some familiar green-and-yellow sparkles all of a sudden appeared in front of you. "Eh...?"
At first there were just a few of them, just like the fireflies, but then more of them came out from nowhere and started to accumulate. The following sudden white light made you covered your eyes with your hands.
"...Need some help here?"
A few seconds later, you heard a male voice asked. You slowly opened your eyes, and you couldn't help widening your eyes in surprise when you see a familiar face right in front of yours, looking at you with those glowing green eyes. He was bending down to the right at around 90 degrees, so as to meet your eye level.
You didn't even have to recall your memory before recognising the boy. It was the boy who helped you with your Potionology homework last time. You could tell without even looking at the huge horns on his head, they were outstanding though.
"Tsunotarou!" You called. It's been a while since the last time you met him, probably weeks ago.
The boy seemed to be a bit confused when he heard what you had said. "Tsuno... tarou...? Are you referring to... me?" He widened his eyes and pointed at himself with an unsure face.
You looked around before your eyes returned to him, replied with a smile, "I thought there's just you and me here."
The boy suddenly bursted into laughter as he heard your answer. "Tsunotarou... Hahaha! Me, being called Tsunotarou! Hahaha! You are really fearless, aren't you?"
"You said I can call you with a name of my choosing, remember that?" You reminded. Of course you wouldn't forget the person who refused to tell you his name because it might "curse" you.
"Hmhm no matter, It was I who told you to use a name of your choosing." He continued with a mysterious smile, "I'll indulge this liberty and permit you to refer me by your... curious nickname, Ningen-san."
"Ningen...-san? What kind of name is that?" You laughed when you heard that. It could be referring to anyone, as long as they're a human!(Ningen= "human" in Japanese) "I do remember telling you my name."
Tsunotarou beamed. "How am I able to forget the name of such a fearless human being, Y/n-san?"
Well that's better.
"Anyway, Tsunotarou-kun. What are you doing here?" You asked, following him to use the honorific.
"You said I can come whenever I feel like to, didn't you?" It's Tsunotarou's turn to remind you.
Of course you did remember. You wouldn't forbidden someone who had helped you from having a little wander outside your dorm, it wouldn't bother you anyways.
You all of a sudden remembered the gifts, but when you finally returned to them, some of them had fallen out from the bag and splashed all over the ground. "Oh god." You sighed, before you crouched down and tidied them. You didn't want Vil's kindnesses being put on the floor.
You were reaching your hand to the eyeshadow palette not far from your feet, but it suddenly flew up and floated in the midair. It then automatically returned back into the bag. You turned to the back, and found it was Tsunotarou who was controlling the palette with his magic pen.
"You can do that?!" According to the uniform he was wearing, you could tell he's also a student in this school, but it still shocked you when he was actually using magic.
"That was a basic one." Tsunotarou smiled, while making all the gifts floated and returned to bag by themselves. With a snap of his fingers, the whole heavy bag you had been dragging the whole time floated up in the air.
"Would you join me for a little wander?" Tsunotarou offered.
You stood up from the floor. There's no assignments tonight and the weather seemed nice to you tonight. "Sure, why not?" Was all you answered before fastening your paces and caught up with him, with that gift bag floating and following you at the back.
After a little wander, the two of you ended up sitting down under a tall tree not far from your dormitory building. It was where you two first met each other.
"Let's see what we've got here..." you took out a bottle of perfume from the bag. Tsunotarou leaned closer to smell the sakura odour of the pink perfume. "May I ask who gave you these?"
"They're the thank-you presents from a senpai, a new friend of mine, I should say. Vil Schoenheit." You told.
"Schoenheit... hmmhmm... I should have known that when I saw the perfume." Tsunotarou joked.
"You know him?"
"...I thought everyone does. Housewarden of Pomefiore, right?"
You two then picked out the presents one by one out of curiosities. As you saw, most of them were cosmetics, probably brand-named ones. You were not familiar with the brands in Twisted Wonderland, neither did Tsunotarou. You couldn't blame him when even the way he talked sounded like he was from centuries ago. But from their luxurious packaging, you could tell they're quite expensive.
"He really shouldn't have spent so much." You sighed, but you wouldn't deny that you were glad to receive them, not because of their value but the fact that you could tell Vil had spent time on choosing them. "Guess my new friend isn't so bad."
"What is that?" Tsunotarou took out a small box from the bag. Its packaging was different from those of the cosmetics.
"Lemme take a look." Tsunotarou then handed it to you. You widened your eyes in surprise when you opened the cover and saw what's inside. It's something you had never thought to see here. It had an oval shape, with the colours of purple and black, just like a tiny egg, with two horns on the top. There was a screen on it, below it were a few buttons.
"Oh god, it's a Tamagotchi!" You couldn't believe you could see one of your favourite childhood toys here, in Twisted Wonderland. You would never forgot how viral it was among the kids. Almost everyone had one hanging on their school bag.
"What is a... Tama... what...?" Seeing you having all your attention on that egg-like object, Tsunotarou was even more confused.
You raised a brow, with widened mouth. How could he not know what a Tamagotchi is?! "You have never raise a Tamagotchi?! What happened with your childhood??"
"..." Tsunotarou thought with a serious emotion, "I don't have much memory about my childhood. But I do remember learning violin and cello-"
"Wait wait wait, Tsunotarou-kun, that's not actually a question- I- So basically it is a digital pet. In order to raise it, you have to feed it, play with it, and take care of it. If it's successful, it will grow eventually." You explained, recalling those days of you playing the mini game in the Tamagotchis, and your experience of failing to raise at least 10 of them.
"Umm... I think I understand that." Tsunotarou nodded with a serious face, "So I have to provide this creature with food and water, like vegetables? But where is its mouth? And it will eventually break this purple eggshell? "
You could only bursted into laughter when you heard him asking the questions seriously. "No... Hahaha! Tsunotarou, I wasn't talking about the physical food! I can't- and it will not break the case and jump out."
Now he's even more confused.
You tried to turn on the Tamagotchi, and luckily, there're already batteries in it. Within seconds, the screen glowed and simple images were shown. The first and only thing you could see on the screen was an egg.
"It's still a baby. By pressing these buttons, you can provide it with different things, like food." You said, choosing the left button under the screen and selected the fork and spoon logo.
"See? I just feed it a mushroom. And there're also carrots, apples and meats." You carefully pressed on the four buttons and fed different food to the pet. You then handed it to Tsunotarou next to you. "You wanna try?"
He seemed a bit surprised and hesitant about your invitation. But seeing you nodding, he carefully placed the Tamagotchi on his palm, like he's taking care of a fragile baby that he afraid he might hurt it, and pressed on the buttons. "I think I just fed it an apple." He turned to you with an excited smile.
"Yes, oh! And try to choose the light bulb icon. I think it needs some lights. And the mini games, too."
"Okay, let me try that..."
"I think I won it."
"Yes!"
You didn't realised that it's already midnight by the time a little crack finally appeared on the surface of the egg, after Tsunotarou played the mini games continuously and fed it. His eyes were glowing when he witnessed that. It had been quite a long time since the last time you spent such a long time on a toy.
"You can keep it if you want to." You offered. As you saw, he was really into the digital pet, and his eyes wouldn't leave it. Tsunotarou looked up to you from the Tamagotchi, with a little bit shock shown on his face. "You're giving it to me?"
You nodded. "As a thank you gift." He had helped you twice, including this time. "I'm sure Vil won't mind me sharing a present with you. And I'm sure you can take a good care of it."
Looking at the smile on your face, and the Tamagotchi in his palms, Tsunotarou startled face was slowly replaced by an unconscious warm smile. "I assure you I will take a good care of it, you have my words."
"Thank you, for giving me this precious gift." He grinned. "It's been quite a while since the last time I received a present."
Putting back all the stuffs into the bag, Tsunotarou walked you back to the dorm. You looked up the the starry sky, allowing the soft wind passing through your hair. Night walks're indeed healing.
"So I guess this is where we part." Tsunotarou said, after placing the gift bag aside. "Thank you for accompanying me."
"Well I should be the one who said that, Tsunotarou-kun." You replied with a smile.
He was about to leave, but he suddenly remembered something. "There's a thing. I would appreciate a lot if you don't tell the others about my visiting."
You were a bit confused. "And why is that?"
"Well I'd like to keep some... privacy. Please consider it as a personal preference." Was all he answered.
You raised an eyebrow with a curious smile, "You surely are weird and mysterious, Tsunotarou-kun. But if that's what you prefer, I'd keep it a secret."
"Thank you." He beamed. "It's time for me to leave. Or they'd be running around the whole school finding me."
"Who is "they" ?"
"And that's another secret of mine."
You opened the door, ready to get in. "Are you leaving with that fireflies thing again?" You asked while leaning a side of your shoulder on the doorframe. He did that in the last few times.
"Precisely."
"You do love showing up within a blink and leave within another blink, don't you?" You joked. How you wished you could have that ability, so you'd never be late for the classes. "Make sure you come around when you're free. And please take good care of the Tamagotchi."
"I will." The boy reassured. He then stepped backwards a bit. "See you soon, Y/n-san."
"And see you soon, Tsunotarou-kun." You waved your hand.
Right after you finished your words, within a blink of your eyes, Tsunotarou turned into the green and yellow sparkles and disappeared in front of you. The sparkles slowly faded, until they all eventually disappeared. You were still amazed by that, even though he had done it more than once.
Scratching your arms with yawns escaping from your lips, you decided to returned back into the building. Grim had probably gone to sleep, for hours already.
"Such a mysterious guy, aren't you, Tsunotarou-kun?" Was all you mumbled before you closed your eyes and fell into the long-waited good sleep. This school is full of weird and seem-to-be-scary people, but maybe it's just because of the first impression that hides their true selves underneath.
——
Bonus
"Silver, what is Waka-sama doing?" Sebek worriedly whispered to his guarding partner. They had seen their housewarden sitting on the sofa in the lounge, looking at an tiny unknown object in his hands for hours. From time to time, they even saw him smiling.
"I am not sure, Sebek. But I'm sure Malleus-sama can handle that. And he seems to enjoy it really much." Silver standing aside replied with another whisperer.
"Could it be a dangerous secret weapon that may hurt Waka-sama?! No I have to protect Waka-sama at all cost!" Sebek raised his voice. He still couldn't put down his worries.
Silver quickly covered his mouth and stopped him from yelling. "No Sebek! Don't bother Malleus-sama's personal time! We just have to stand here, guarding him from far away. And can you please lower your volume?!" He tried his best to keep his voice low.
"But-" "No but. You should stop being so overprotective. Malleus-sama has the ability to protect himself." Silver stopped his kouhai from arguing.
Suddenly, a huge ringing sound came from Malleus direction. "I am hungry! I am hungry!" It startled the two guards standing near the door and them literally jumped out of their skin.
"What was that, Waka-sama?! Are you hurt?!!" Sebek yelled. Not even Silver could stop him from rushing into the lounge room.
Malleus turned to the back when he heard Sebek's questions. "I am alright, Sebek. It's just the time for me to feed my pet." Malleus answered with a smile and tried to calm his worried guard down.
"What- feed...?" However the answer just made Sebek even more confused. But Malleus didn't further explained as he had to feed the Tamagotchi as soon as possible.
"Look what food do we have here... I should feed you a carrot, and a piece of meat?..." The houswarden had all his attention on the digital pet that he didn't have time to ease the confusion shown on Sebek's face.
Sebek turned to his senpai cluelessly to seek for help. But all he got was a shrug from Silver who was even more clueless than he was.
"Looks like you have just defecated. Gotta help you clean it up." Malleus mumbling while pressing the buttons.
"WAKA-SAMA!!"
——
NOTE
When you have Leona as your rival, Vil as your bestie, and Malleus as your secret friend:
You: