ೃ༄ "i've got my mind and eye on you..."
✧──────✧
classes were over and yuu was in his room with ace, deuce, and grim. the ramshackle monster placed a teapot on the bedside table as he spoke, "i have some herbal teas here to keep us awake." deuce hummed as he held onto the ghost camera, "our phone recorders and the ghost camera are ready, too!"
deuce and grim had determined expressions as they cheered in unison, "SHOW YOURSELF, MICKEY!!!"
yuu blinked at their enthusiasm as ace rolled his eyes and said, "no need to get all worked up... anyway, shouldn't we invite n/n over? she's a fae, so she would probably be a great help in this..."
the ramshackle prefect hummed in agreement, "i believe so, too... however, i didn't want to bother her... she looked so pale earlier on our way to class... she's probably sick and i want her to take a rest for a while."
"oh yeah, she dropped her books in the process, too. she looked like she had seen a ghost and she remained weary throughout the day," responded deuce, "...i hope she's okay."
"hey now," spoke grim, "n/n won't like it if they found out we're moping around with worry because of them! i'm sure they would want us to do this with or without her..."
ace sighed as he replied, "yeah, you're right... anyway, lucky her for not getting caught up with this..." the heartslabyul first year eyed the mountain of books on yuu's table, causing grim and yuu to glance at one another in confusion.
"what's with those books?"
deuce replied, "oh, uh... we told dorm leader rosehearts that we'll be hosting a study group here so we could get permission to stay..." ace then continued, "he was like, 'a smart decision. take these workbooks with you. i will grade them for you after your little party.'"
ace and deuce's disappointed expressions turned into mischievous smirks as ace said, "we have enough workbooks for you two as well~"
yuu and grim's eyes widened as they immediately declined, causing deuce to reply, "it's off with your heads if you won't participate~"
"we're not in heartslabyul!"
ace laughed as he pointed at the other stacks, "don't be shy~ the three books over there are for jack, epel, and ortho." yuu sighed as he asked, "how come n/n doesn't have one?"
"prefect rosehearts thought it wasn't necessary... he even had the idea of making her grade it whilst the books aren't handed to him..." sighed deuce, "it's like he trusts n/n so much..."
"i can't ever forget the time when he claimed n/n to be his bride during the ghost marriage fiasco..." groaned ace, "who does he think he is?!"
...
meanwhile, back in diasomnia...
malleus, lilia, silver, and sebek were having their usual after-school tea as they conversed about different things: lilia's sudden leave, malleus' concerns, silver's ring, and sebek's concern about lilia's weapon becoming a household item.
however, the four were concerned about another member who refused to join them for tea today...
"where's beastie?" asked lilia.
"she said she didn't want to have tea... she's tired after school," replied silver. malleus and lilia hummed in suspicion as lilia said, "is she now?"
sebek frowned as he added, "she wasn't looking well when we asked her to come over... i'm afraid your news affected her a lot, lilia-sama..."
"perhaps... but it isn't like her to reject our invitation," replied lilia, "...i should go check on her."
...
f/n stared at the glowing violet sphere that she manifested with her magic. the sphere held the scene on diasomnia's lounge as she listened to lilia's words, "i should go check on her."
with a deep sigh, f/n made the sphere disappear and glanced at the large cauldron with a potion bubbling in it as if to tell her she had made yet another failure.
"...another trial and error... another failure..." mumbled f/n as she slammed her spell book away, "...no matter what, i will reach my goal... even if it takes me an eternity. i'm sorry, you four... or not, fufu..."
...
with a snap, f/n was immediately back in her room and lay on her bed, grabbing her phone and scrolling away through magicam as if to pretend she wasn't in a hidden basement seconds earlier.
lilia showed up in her room as he approached the silent lady. he then kneeled down and placed a hand on her forehead as he asked, "what's wrong, beastie? why did you not join us for tea?"
f/n sat up on her bed as she stayed silent, suddenly remembering the vision she had on her way to class. the lady looked at lilia and said no word as she grabbed his hand before disappearing and showing up in their lounge.
upon their arrival, silver and sebek's eyes lit up as they called out their name whilst malleus stayed silent, though his eyes lit up at the sight of f/n.
the diasomnia lady sat beside malleus as she remained silent. silver stared at her with worry as he asked, "are you alright, n/n? do you feel sick?"
"would you like some tea, n/n?" asked sebek, "or another drink, perhaps?"
"beastie... you've been awfully quiet," remarked lilia.
a few seconds of silence passed by until f/n finally spoke, "...i saw one of your gems in my vision..."
the other three looked at her with disbelief whilst malleus glanced at her with concern, "are you sure it's not yours?" f/n shook her head in response, "it's not mine... it could be one of you four... the past overblots were quite predictable at some point because it looked like there was a pattern to it: dorm leaders. however, jamil was an exception... with idia's sudden overblot, i believe our dorm is the last one..."
the four stayed silent as f/n continued voicing out her hypothesis, "i am inclined to believe our dorm follows the same pattern where the dorm leader falls into overblot... however, i felt that at the same time, that won't be the case. you four are potential subjects to this and... i fear the day would come when i end up cursing one of you with my magic... or worse... killing you, just as i did to my old friends."
the lady finally turned her head to initiate eye contact with the four as she pleaded, "so, please... whomever amongst you four is facing this right now... don't fall into overblot. i have not given this warning to the previous six overblots because i was unprepared... and idia was a different case as well... none of us had expected that outcome, so now... i'm watching all four of you closely."
the silence in the room was deafening and the atmosphere got suffocating. the lady sighed and turned away from them, "...i'll head over to ignihyde. i won't be back until morning."
f/n then disappeared from her seat and reappeared in idia's room. ortho was not around as he was presumably taking a rest in his own room, leaving idia alone as he flinched at f/n's sudden appearance.
the ignihyde dorm head sighed as he held a relieved smile, "n/n..." the said diasomnia student hummed as she asked, "are you not going to ask me if i'm alright?"
idia patted the empty spot on his bed beside him as he replied, "what's the point of asking if i already know you're not well? anyway, does this have to do with lilia-shi's announcement? he shared the news with us during the orientation..." f/n stayed silent as she sat beside idia, hugging her knees to her chest as she stared at his blanket with no emotions present on her face.
"...i suck at comforting, so..." commented idia as he awkwardly patted her back, "um... there, there..."
f/n chuckled as she looked at idia with a small smile, "pfft, you dork... you don't have to do that... your presence is comforting enough." idia's cheeks grew pink at her response as he said, "o-oh... uh... so, i'll just... sit here?"
the lady sighed, though there was a small smile on her face, "... hey, great job. you managed to make me laugh even for a second... i'm just bothered by the vision i saw earlier during the day."
"vision? what vision?" asked idia.
"oh, right... you didn't know about that..." sheepishly replied f/n, "well... i have the ability to detect and sense incoming overblots.. my first sign is usually the vision of a magic jewel getting tainted with blot."
idia hummed in surprise as he looked at f/n with wide eyes, "wow... you're so cool~ wait, that means you saw my gem getting tainted when i..."
"...yeah. my reaction was... um... embarrassing in front of the subjects," replied f/n, "but at that time, i only wanted to save you... i did not care if i cried and yelled at them to let me get to you since you and ortho were my first priority."
idia sighed softly as he apologised, "i'm... sorry for that. since the incident, i was not allowed back home." f/n hummed in response, "yeah... mister and mistress shroud told me you weren't allowed until they fixed the messy aftermath."
"hmm... anyway, what was your vision?"
"...a student in my dorm is supposedly going to overblot," replied f/n, "i don't know who it is from the four, so..."
"...someone from diasomnia is going to overblot...?! well, this isn't good..." replied idia, "they're crazy scary! overblot will just make them ten times scarier and more powerful!"
f/n looked at idia with a bored face, "come on, now... we're not scary. mal is nice, lil is fun, sil is charming, and seb is adorable." idia hummed as he replied, "i can agree with silver-shi being charming... i mean, remember that one time when i stumbled upon you two asleep under a tree? silver-shi looked so handsome, i almost thought he might be a prince."
and so, the two continued chatting away until idia fell asleep with an arm around f/n's waist. the lady stayed for a moment as she unconsciously ran her fingers through his fiery hair, occupied with her thoughts.
...
it was three in the morning and yuuken was still wide awake. he then saw flickering lights that resembled fireflies and he knew immediately who was hanging around outside of his dormitory. slowly lifting himself off his bed, he walked outside and looked around in shock.
in the middle of spring, his dorm was covered with thick, white snow. "it's snowing...?!" exclaimed yuu, which caught malleus' attention. his serious gaze reverted back to his usual expression as he said, "hm? is that you, child of man? ...snow? ah, i didn't notice... surely, this would kill the plants in your garden... what a bad habit of mine..."
the snow then disappeared, which made yuu blink twice before walking towards malleus and standing beside him, leaning on the fence as he crossed his arms with a small smile, "so, tsunotaro... what happened?"
"...lilia once scolded me for encasing the castle in ice when i was younger," spoke malleus, "i had just learned how to walk on two feet back then... and i threw a tantrum over something so ridiculous..."
"hm? over what?" asked yuu.
"my grandmother was supposed to join me for dinner, but she had an emergency and attended an urgent business. i could not control my temper back then... the tables, chairs, and even the waiters were all frozen... no one would dare to approach me... seeing them flee from fright made me even more upset, and the castle was then covered in ice moments after..."
yuu's eyes widened as he listened to his story, "woah... and you said you had just learned how to walk, no? you're quite powerful, tsunotaro... and, i don't think it was a ridiculous reason to throw a tantrum over. you were still a child at that time..."
malleus hummed as he continued, "yes... well... lilia was actively serving us back then, and he was called over to the castle when the incident happened... he slipped past me and freed the servants first, then he ordered them to fetch as many bowls and syrup as possible. lilia crushed the frozen ice, placed them in cups and bowls, and then poured syrup all over them. he shared it with all the castle servants and... it must have been quite the ordeal for the servants... being forced to eat cold treats in an icy-cold castle... fufu..."
yuu and malleus chuckled along as the diasomnia dorm head continued, "i took one look at the people enjoying a cold feast around the table, and... i felt jealous..."
yuu had not said a word but frowned the more he listened to malleus' story. "...lilia saw me observing from afar, so he swung his weapon down and... he freed me from the ice that was surrounding me! he heaped all the crushed ice in one bowl and poured syrup all over it... he took my trembling hands, sat me down, and told me 'it's good, so have some...' it was quite anticlimactic after all i've done."
malleus looked up at the sky as he continued, "to be honest, it was just tasteless ice covered in syrup, and yet... i always dine alone or with my grandmother, so being surrounded by so many people... was quite a welcome change. my anger subsided as i enjoyed dining with everyone in the castle and... the castle was soon freed from its icy cage."
"lilia turned to me as soon as i calmed down... 'you hold tremendous power. you mustn't use them in vain. take a good look at everyone you almost lost today had you not suppressed yourself,'" finished malleus.
yuu hummed as he eyed malleus, "you must have been lonely..." malleus' eyes slightly widened as he said, "lonely...? me? ...hmm i have gotten so used to being by myself... i was alone even as i hatched from the egg, but... lilia has been by my side since i was born... and this may be the last i'll ever get to hear his lectures."
a sigh escaped malleus' lips before looking at yuu, "i have said too much, please pay it no mind. it's rare to see you out this late. you look like you have something to say... come on, tell me."
yuu hummed as he said, "...tsunotaro, i'd like to ask you for your help. i think i am a step closer to finding a way back to my world." yuu continued talking as malleus stood there and listened. once it was over, malleus then spoke, "back to your world...? the mirror in your room is connected to another world...? hm, that certainly seems possible. i see... so you will leave, too... really, everything is fleeting..."
yuu patted malleus' back and said, "not everything... i mean, i'm sure n/n will still be with you... to be honest, it makes me sad to think i'd have to say goodbye to everyone..."
"sad, huh... at this point, i'm not sure if n/n would stick by my side... she's always battling between life and death, so she always told me that a time will come when she... leaves," spoke malleus, "she told me to accept the pain of losing someone, but... how can i? the longer i spend my time with her, the more i want to keep her safe..."
"you must really like her," mumbled yuu.
"...she was the only woman in my life who did not shake in fear at my presence... the only woman who carelessly threw her life around just to protect me..." replied malleus, "i knew no one in this world will ever be as amazing as her... and yet, it felt like she is always slipping away from my fingers... she feels so close yet so far..."
yuu hummed in agreement, "i have not known her longer than you, but the times i spent with her was enough for me to know she's a kind-hearted soul... i can only imagine how much pain you're feeling when she says a time will come when she leaves you..."
malleus sighed as he said, "if... if only there was a way to live without having to lose your family, friends... all of it... would you wish for it?"
"it would be hard to decline," confessed yuu.
"then, why did he..." whispered malleus, "...no, never mind. anyway, please give me some time to think. i cannot come up with a good solution just yet. ...ah, it is getting late. you should head back and rest."
yuu nodded and bid him farewell, "good night, tsunotaro..." malleus smiled and replied, "yes, good night, yuu..." the ramshackle dorm head then walked away, leaving malleus alone as lilia's words flooded his memory.
'you hold tremendous power. you mustn't use them in vain.'
'take a good look at everyone you almost lost today had you not suppressed yourself.'
malleus frowned as he let out a soft sigh, "what is the use of such power if i always lose in the end? everyone leaves their seats eventually... everyone leaves me behind... there is no one left to invite me..."
unbeknownst to malleus, f/n was eavesdropping on his conversation with yuu the moment he stepped into ramshackle's garden. f/n sighed to herself as she disappeared and returned to idia's room. the lady climbed into his bed and lay there in silence, frowning as she recalled his words about her.
'at this point, i'm not sure if n/n would stick by my side...'
'the longer i spend my time with her, the more i want to keep her safe...'
'...she was the only woman in my life who did not shake in fear at my presence... the only woman who carelessly threw her life around just to protect me...'
f/n took a deep breath before turning to her side to face idia, who was still asleep even after she left for a short while. she then placed his arm back on her waist before closing her eyes and resting for the night.
'i've got my mind and eye on you, mal...'