Azul Ashengrotto was a student, just like the rest of them. How he was able to own and manage a restaurant at the same establishment he was schooled was beyond you. Maybe his parents had money. But then, Leona was supposedly a prince, and no one here looked at him with near as much reverence as they did the bespectacled, narrow eyed boy before you.
His filtered gaze analyzed you with a practiced criticism. You sidled up to Leona a little bit further. Azul flicked his stare to him instead.
"Aren't you going to buy a drink?" he asked, sounding friendly.
"Sure," Leona said. He tipped up the menu that Azul's tall, narrow-framed server had set in front of you, and picked something out, offhandedly. He handed it to you next, and you read aloud the first thing that sounded good, hoping the tension of the air didn't put too much of a waver in your voice. Azul looked pleased, and the waiter offered a hand to take the menu from you, with a pointed smile that made your bones weak. You got the feeling of being surrounded by sharks.
"Now then. Whatever could you of all people be here for, Leona Kingscholar?"
Leona huffed, displeased, though Azul clearly wasn't mocking him. There was excitement in his fingertips, when he drew his fingers around his wine glass (whatever was in it looked just to be water) and leaned forward on his elbows to take a sip.
"You've never bothered to come to me before, so it must be something good, no?" he looked at you for a fraction of a second, almost enough for you to speak up; you would've if Leona hadn't responded,
"The only thing I need is an access key. To travel outside of the school."
Azul leaned back appraisingly. The waiter returned with your drinks. "Did you lose yours?" Azul murmured, one eyebrow raised. "If so, the staff can easily find it for you."
Leona scowled. "I didn't lose it. I know how to use tracking magic. I'm here to ask for a new one."
"You broke it, then? How did you do that? They aren't easy to break. The only way to manage that is trying to travel somewhere outside of the realms... Which is illegal, of course."
Crowley had a broken key. Was that what he'd been doing?
"I didn't break it," Leona growled. "I just need another one. And I don't see why it'd matter to you why I want it."
Azul didn't disagree aloud. He just drummed his fingers on the table, once, in a row. "They're hard to come by," he said. "Only given out to students once, upon their freshman ceremony attendance."
"I'm sure you can get a hold of one. If you don't already have a stock somewhere."
"Maybe. It would be pricey, though... For me and for you." He seemed like the kind of guy that said that a lot.
"I know," Leona mused, deadpan. "That's what I came here to discuss."
"I don't have a lot of interest in haggling, you know."
Leona's face showed just how much he didn't like this man. You squirmed in your seat.
"W-wait. Shouldn't I be the one to—"
Leona shot you a warning glance of shut up. Maybe he was right about that—he'd warned you before not to make any deals, after all—but you didn't want him making some sort of payment in your place. You didn't have money, though, so... what even could you do?
"Your friend doesn't have any ears," Azul commented, unrelated to the conversation. You wondered if he'd only made the observation now, or had been waiting to bring it up for some time.
"That's a pretty rude thing to bring up, you know," Leona responded. His gaze had darkened just a hair. "Now are you willing to give me a key, or aren't you?"
"I thought all Savannaclaw house members had ears," he continued as if he hadn't heard.
Leona quieted. There was something unspoken hanging in the air.
"I do have ears..." you said, but your voice sputtered out, not sure where you were going with this. They knew you had ears. And you knew what Azul was getting at.
"Oh, please," Leona said, his expression still calm and shadowy. "You're not going to blackmail a payin' customer."
"Of course not," Azul scoffed. "Speaking of payment, I've come up with a deal for the key..." He held out a hand and a scroll unfurled atop it. Azul slid it over to where Leona sat, and a quill appeared at its side.
Leona eyed the paperwork, reading it over slowly. You leaned in to do the same. It was a lot of words in one place, and though it was perfectly legible, the jargon of it went mostly over your head. You could tell by Leona's frustrated scowl that he wasn't much better equipped than you were, but maybe he really was a scholar, because it was only a matter of seconds before he looked back up at Azul with a clean stare. "You want my special magic," he surmised.
Azul folded his hands grandly.
Leona leveled him with a stationary glare. "No."
Something flashed in Azul's eye for just a moment. He covered it up and placed two fingers on the top of the contract. The paper's contents fizzled to blank. "Shame," he said. "It's not like you have much more to give me, after all."
"You know that isn't a fair trade," Leona said scornfully.
"You must not need that key very much, then."
"Ask for somethin' else," Leona grunted unflinchingly.
Azul looked at you. A placid, expressionless question. "What about them?"
"They have no special magic," he said simply. You didn't know what that meant, but as far as you knew it was true.
"I don't just accept special magic," Azul put forward masterfully.
You blinked. "Does he mean?—"
"No," Leona interrupted.
"But-"
"It's not nearly worth it, Y/N. You're not giving him any of your magical abilities." He turned to look at Azul, wearing an intense glower. "You'll have to come up with a better deal than that, herbivore."
Azul crossed his legs, untroubled. "I'm not the one in need here."
You felt the pressure of the air on your chest. Why had Leona come here if he wasn't going to agree to any deal. You didn't need your magic. You would probably be better off without it. You watched Leona's stilled face, daring him to meet your eyes again. Azul interrupted.
"Well. I can offer you one more deal." Azul paused, giving a theatrical silence, looking at you thoughtfully.
"Spit it out."
"This one is best just between us, I think."
Leona stiffened. What did that mean? He looked at you. "I don't—" he cut off when he met Azul's gaze. There was an understanding between them, and Leona was the one to give. "Fine."
"What does he mean?" you asked in a whisper.
"We'll just be a moment," Azul smiled. "Why don't you wait outside?"
It was another ten minutes before Leona and Azul finished talking. You had waited out in the main dining room, where they had been visible through the clear blue water of the fish tanks, but their words had been utter silence to you.
The music was calming, but only slightly, while you watched each patterned fish swim past, some work them stopping in front of you to show off their scales and eye you with glassy unblinking irises. Many of them looked completely new to you.
Leona's face shifted blurrily on the other side, from frustrated to grim to reluctant. You admired his ears and his hair at the behest of a clownfish, and a swarm of grey minnows fluttered past while one of the waiters offered you a new menu. You turned it down. You still had your drink from before, and you wouldn't even be able to pay for that without Leona's help.
You should be thankful for him and what he was doing right now, but the not knowing part put a wrench in whatever feelings you would have normally felt. You couldn't even pick out the part that hurt. You'd decided before that you would trust Leona, so why did you worry now that he might betray you if Azul talked him into it. Why were your shoulders weighed with a pressure as if you had let him down. And why did your head burn hot with the reminder of how you'd been ejected from the meeting, so they could now talk about you in a place you weren't.
You had to right yourself when Leona returned, and you studied his blank expression while you walked toward him, leaving behind the tiny angelfish that floated peacefully away.
"Did he give you a key?" you asked in a small voice, brazen with more anger than you had wanted.
Leona didn't seem to here it. "No," he growled. "But he told me where to get it."
"Oh." That was good. "Well, how is that, then?"
Leona sighed. "It won't be fun."
You were silent. Obviously not. But he could at least tell you. You watched him, impatient for him to explain a little more.
He didn't, he just started walking. You followed him out of the establishment. No one stopped him, so he must have already payed.
Spit it out, you insisted in your head. "Where are we going?" you asked instead. It was a murmur without tone, the harshest you'd spoken to him yet, and Leona turned to you with a baffled and confused look.
"Home," he said, unaffronted, before he corrected it to, "The dorm." When your expression didn't change, and you only turned away as not to meet his eyes, he must have read your guilt as sadness. "It should only be another day or so," he said, to comfort you.
"How do we get it?" you asked him again, lightening your tone as much as you could.
"I'll handle it," he declared, in a tone meant to abate but which only elevated your concern.
It felt uncomfortable. Like something had changed. He had a secret now, and it must have had everything to do with you. For the first time, as you followed him back to the Savannaclaw dorm, you felt the hairs stand on the back of your neck.