When the four entered the lounge, the boys sat down on the couch, relishing in the relaxation. Angel only looked at them and giggled seeing their tired expressions. Deuce looked around, seeing the semi-clean lounge and spoke up.
"Wow, Ace wasn't kidding when he said that there was dust around," Deuce says, getting Angel's attention.
"Yeah...When I first came here, I didn't clean thoroughly since I was tired, but as time goes on, I'll try to clean as I go," she says as she goes in the kitchen. "I know that we just had some tarts to eat, but do you guys want dinner?"
"Dinner?" Grim's eyes widen as his mouth starts drooling. "I could so eat!" Ace and Deuce only deadpans at Grim's gluttony.
"Hmm...Why not? Tarts ain't gonna fil up all the way so it won't hurt to get some real food in my stomach," Ace says as he looks at Angel in the kitchen.
"Hmm...." Angel thinks as she looks around in the kitchen. She hasn't cook yet, so she's feeling a tad bit nervous trying to figure out what to cook, even worrying to know if her cooking is good. From what she noticed so far, when she peeled the chestnuts, she knew how to work around a knife, since she didn't cut herself so far. She was wondering what to make until Benny came up to her.
"What about making curry...?" Benny says, making her jump at his sudden appearance. "It's quick and easy to make for your living friends!"
"I guess it would work..." She says as she starts getting the ingredients. From Benny's instructions, she gets the carrots, potatoes, onions, meat (thankfully they took it out at the start of the day since they were planning to get the girl a homecooked meal), and curry roux and instructed her on how to make it, giving her tips as she goes.
While Angel was making dinner, the boys in the lounge just sigh after the events of the day.
"Man, I'm so tired!" Ace exclaims. "Today was just hell."
"You tellin' me!" Grim says as he sits up from his cushion. "We got tricked to paintin' roses, went to borin' classes, got into a fight in the cafeteria, pickin' up chestnuts, and makin' a tart in a single day!" Grim lists.
"Yeah, not a good first day of classes, for sure," Deuce says as he sighs.
"Ugh, at this point I might just drop dead..." Ace mumbles without seeing the ghosts behind him.
"Oooooooh? You want to be dead like us riiiight?" Adam says, making the three turn around to see the skinny ghost Adam laughing at the trio.
"Myah?! It's the ghosts again!" Grim says as he jumps in surprise, with Ace and Deuce following suit.
"Wait! You didn't say there were ghosts here!" Ace looks at Adam, with Adam laughing at them.
"Well...you didn't ask!" Casper said as he hovers near Deuce, making him jump at the fact that there were two ghosts in front of them.
"Myah! I'll get ya guys this time!" Grim says as he starts up a fireball, only to be stopped when Adam holds his hands up in surrender.
"Nooooo, we're not here to cause any harm," he says with Casper nodding beside him. "We're here to introduce ourselves at least. After all, it's no fun to talk to the living if we don't introduce ourselves."
"Ghosts...introducing themselves?" Deuce looks at the ghosts, confused.
"Yep! Curtesy of Angel, she let us stay here and gave us names!" Casper says, making Ace and Deuce relax at the fact that Angel knows them and let them live here.
"Huh?" Grim states as he stares at the two ghosts. "Aren't there usually three of ya?"
Casper and Adam looked at each other. "Ah, Benny is with Angel, teaching her to cook, so he's accounted for," Adam says.
"But anyway, let us introduce ourselves. I'm Casper, and this is here Adam," Casper says as Adam just tips his hat off to the two teens, both still in disbelief at the fact that Angel befriended some ghosts.
"Uh...well...I'm Ace," Ace hesitantly introduce himself.
"Deuce," Deuce says.
"Goood to meet some more living people," Adam says as he hovers over the two teens.
"Ugh...this is creepy, even to my standards," Deuce whispers to Ace.
"To your standards? I didn't even know these ghosts were here last night!" Ace replies to Deuce. The ghosts only laugh at the two.
"Well, aside from pulling a good prank on you two, we wanted to tell you that we have a shower room for you to use," Casper says, bringing the two teens to attention.
"Ah, right. We technically didn't shower since P.E.," Ace says, thinking about it.
"I guess we should take one before we eat," Deuce says, with Ace agreeing.
"Yeah...you guys do that," Grim says, crossing his paws. "I ain't going no where near water, so ya'll have fun with your shower," he says as he wanders into the kitchen.
Deuce just sighs. "I don't know how Angel deals with Grim. It's more of Grim taking advantage of her than us taking advantage of her."
"Well, anyway," Ace says to Adam and Casper, "lead the way to the shower room." The ghosts only smile at the two teens and lead them to the shower room upstairs.
As Grim wanders into the kitchen, he sees Benny giving Angel's instructions on stirring. He sneaks past them and finds the cabinet where the tuna is stored. He carefully opens the cabinet and sees his tuna, happily grabbing a few cans and closing the cabinet. He would have successfully executed his plan until Benny appeared behind him, making him trip, spilling his cans. Angel notices the noise and looks at Grim sprawled out with cans of tuna.
"Grim, you know you didn't have to steal the tuna," Angel says as she still stir the pot, trying to keep it consistent.
"Myah! I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for that ghost," Grim says as he glares at Benny, while trying to pick up his cans.
"Where'd Ace and Deuce go?" She asks Grim, with Benny telling her to add some honey to the curry.
"They went to shower," Grim says as he happily opens a can of tuna and eats it.
Angel thinks about it for a moment. "Wait, I know we have a bathroom in our room but there's a shower room as well?"
"All dorms have one," Benny replies. "While we were enjoying your first day, we decided to spruce it up, but we didn't think you might have brought friends over from last night."
Angel only laughs nervously. "Well, situations came up and they'll be extending their stay. I hope that's fine."
Benny only smiles. "It's fiiiine. Your friends mean more friends of the living for us. We're happy that you let us stay with us, so we should put in our weight, or in this case, our spirit since we're dead."
Angel smiles at Benny while she stirs the pot, turning the heat off. "Well, the food's ready so when they come out, they'll have nice meal at least," Angel says as she checks the rice cooker Benny pointed out for the rice. From what Benny explained, the rice cooker will beep when it is done cooking, and on her way to the rice cooker, it beeped, signaling that it was done. "Looks like the rice is done cooking, so everything is done!" She exclaims.
"Aw man, something smells good!" Ace says as he and Deuce enter the kitchen, making Angel jump. She sees that's they took a shower as Grim said, their hair still wet from the water. She sees that they have a matching pair of pajamas, mainly just a white shirt with long red pants, signaling their dorm colors she thinks. She also noticed that their club and spade marks are gone from their faces.
"They came just in time," Grim says as he finishes his second can of tuna, about to open a third one.
"Oh...what happened to your symbols?" She asked the two.
"Oh, it's just makeup," Ace says. "The tradition for Heartslabyul and it's trendy."
Deuce looks at the stove and see the pot of curry. "You made curry, Angel?"
"Yeah, I wasn't sure about what to cook, so me and Benny decided it would be good for curry. Sorry if it's not what you guys were craving," she says as Ace and Deuce just shake their heads at her.
"Nah, it's fine. I'd eat anything at this point. Plus, it's been a while since I had curry," Ace tells her as he sits down at the table.
"Ah, let me help you, Angel," Deuce says as he helps get plates to place the curry on, with Angel rationing out the curry for the three of them. Once three plates of curry have been made, Deuce places them on the table and sits, with Angel joining them.
"Um...just so you know guys..." Angel starts off. "It's my first-time cooking and I got help so...please go easy on me with the taste."
Ace and Deuce only look at her before looking at the curry. It looks good enough They both looked at each other before they put their spoons in the curry and put it in their mouths. Angel just stares at them as they chew, praying that it tastes good.
"This is..." Deuce says with his eyes wide.
"This is really good!" Ace says as he shovels the curry in his mouth, happy with the taste.
"Really?" Angel asks, before taking a spoonful and putting it in her mouth. They weren't lying, it really was good! "Wow..." She mumbles.
"You don't know if you were a good cook?" Deuce asks her.
"I'm not sure. Trey told me that I was good with a knife when we were peeling chestnuts, but other than that, this is the first time I've cooked," she answers, with Deuce and Ace looking at her.
"Then it must be muscle memory," Deuce says as he eats.
"I mean, it's the only thing that makes sense. How else would you know your way around a knife without your memories?" Ace suggests as he adds more food.
"Hmmm...what kind of person do you think I was before I lost my memories?"
The two think about it for a moment. "Maybe you were an assassin!" Ace exclaims, causing Deuce to choke on his food.
"Where did that come from?!"
"Maybe you were an assassin turned good with your memories, like in those movies," Ace explains, making Angel laugh.
"Nah, if that was the case then Angel would have killed me a long time ago," Grim jumps up on the table, joining in the conversation. "Just like Crowley said, she's a beast tamer."
"So...she would have been a butcher?" Deuce mumbles, making Ace and Grim shiver.
"I think if that was the case, Grim would have been a naked rat at this point," he smirks while Grim looks at him angrily.
"I ain't a rat!" Grim says as he stares at Ace, who just scoffs.
"Suuuuuure you aren't. You ain't a cat either, but your eatin' tuna all the time," he laughs.
"That is true. I wonder what monster you are, Grim," Deuce looks at Grim.
"Hmph, well I ain't tellin' ya!" Grim says with a smirk. "You might never know. I could be a rare monster that hasn't been discovered yet!"
Ace gets up to get more food. "Yeah, the most annoying rare monster to ever exist."
Deuce and Angel laugh at the conversation between the two, and the four continue to eat and talk around the table. Once all the food was gone, Ace and Deuce offered to wash the dishes while Angel take a shower, which took a lot of convincing since she knew better than to let the guests clean. After a few minutes, she defeatedly went upstairs, getting her stuff ready to take a shower. She gathers her items and head to the bathroom and takes her shower. From the eggs, she felt that her hair got sticky and decided to wash it while she's in the shower.
As she washes her hair, her mind wanders to the shadow surrounding Riddle. She's never seen anything like it, but it felt like it was dangerous to let it build up. As she thinks about it, her head starts to hurt, and a faint voice in her head calling out to her, .......its........tria..........fat........seal........ She only got those words, wondering what it means as she turns the water off in the shower. She steps out and dresses in the other pajamas Crewel gave her, which consisted of a two piece of a cotton long sleeved shirt and some shorts, both in light purple and white. She admires herself in the mirror, still surprised at the fact that Crewel got her sizes just right for it to fit her body. Once she had a once over, she decided to let her hair down to dry and go tot the other rooms to get more blankets and pillows for Deuce's stay, then head downstairs, only to see Ace, Deuce, and Grim playing cards, in which she decided to hover over everyone and see.
"Gah...." Grim lets out while he picks out a card from Deuce's hand, trying to figure out what card to get.
Angel places the blankets and pillow on the other couch and watches Grim struggle. "What are you guys playing?"
"Old Maid," Deuce says as he watches Grim take a 4 of Clubs from his deck, only to grumble at it. Ace only smirks at him.
"Yeah, but Grim sucks at it," Ace says as he takes a 2 of Diamonds from Grim's hand, happy at the result. "Alright! Got another pair!" He says as he gets the cards and put them to the side.
"Gah! I'll get you next time!" Grim says as he watches Deuce take a card from Ace's hand.
"Hmmm.... seems complicated but fun," Angel says as she sits down, letting the ends of her wet hair on the floor with the towel.
"Well, we wanted to play other card games, but Grim only knew Old Maid," Ace sighs as Deuce sets his pair aside. "Poker would have been nice, or Crazy 8's."
Grim tries to take a card from Ace's hand, only for Ace to contort his face to the card Grim picks, only laughing at him when he picked the wrong one, making Grim grumble again.
"Man, Grim, you can't read faces to save your life!" Ace says while laughing, only for Grim to just cross his paws and look at Ace.
"Humph! I'm only trying to concentrate here," Grim says as he looks at his cards, sighing at the damage he got.
"Well, anyway, Deuce, I got you some blankets and pillows at least," she says to Deuce, who only gives her a slight smile.
"Don't have much hope for them. They're dirty but they get the job done," Ace says as his hand is clear from cards. "I'm out."
"Myah?! Already?!" Grim exclaims, mad at the fact that Ace basically won the game.
"Thanks Angel," Deuce says as he takes another card from Grim's paws, this time a Queen of Hearts.
Angel only looks at the two play while Ace stands over her, looking at the towel on her head. "Dude, Angel, your hair is wet. Why'd you let it get wet?"
Angel sighs. "Egg got in my hair, and it only makes sense to wash the residue off," she replies, making Ace confused.
"What even happened while you guys were out shopping?" Ace asked the trio, and Deuce just froze.
"Oh yeah! We didn't tell him about it!" Grim says as he looks at Angel and Deuce. During this time, Ace decided to help Angel dry her hair, using the towel. "Don't ya think we should tell him, Deuce?"
"Tell me what?"
"Well..." Angel says as she glances at Deuce, as he puts his cards down.
"It's fine. I'll tell him," Deuce says with a sigh, turning to look at Ace, who only keeps drying Angel's hair. While the drying process was going on, Deuce decided to tell Ace about his past, with Ace listening intently to him.
"So...you're tellin' me that you used to beat up weak people like Angel and ditch school like a year ago?" Ace says as he finished hearing the story.
"Yeah...that's pretty much it," Deuce says with a sigh.
"That ain't much different from now don't ya think?" Ace says, making Deuce eyes widen. "What? You think I would hate you for bein' a delinquent? Nah man, you're incompetent sure but you ain't going around beatin' everyone you see, which is better than getting in trouble every day."
"Oh..." Deuce says, surprised at Ace's statement. Even Angel and Grim had to look at Ace in surprise.
"Whoa...never thought Ace would actually say something encouraging," Grim mumbles, making Ace glare at him.
"Hey! I'll have you know I'm very encouraging!"
"Yeah right. When we went against that monster yesterday, you had to make Angel cry to cooperate with us!" Grim retorts.
Angel just nervously laughs at the argument the two is having and looks at Deuce. Deuce only looks down, thinking about Ace's statement. His thinking is interrupted by Ace, as he throws a pillow at Deuce.
"Stop sulkin'. You're a friend, and if we have a hard time, we'll get through it together," Ace says with a smile on his face, making Deuce stand up, and throw the pillow back at him. "Hey! What was that for?!"
Deuce only laughs and look at Ace. "Thanks," he says.
"Ugh, don't mention it. Like ever. Don't mention it again," Ace says, feigning disgust. Angel only laughs at the interaction, bringing the two to look at her.
"You two are such good friends!" She says with a smile while both have a smirk on their face and grab pillows to throw at Angel, which she laughs at it hits them.
"Stop saying clichés, Angel!" Ace says as he hits her with pillows.
"I can't help it!" She laughs.
Grim throws a pillow at Ace and Deuce, making them look at him. "Don't gang up on Angel. If ya want a real challenge, then you'll hafta go through me, the Magnificent Grim!"
"Oh, you're on, furball!" Ace says as he holds a pillow, readying his weapon.
"Bring it on!" Deuce says as he readies his pillow.
Angel recovers and join in on the pillow fight, with Ace and Deuce trying to hit Grim, but Angel only throwing pillows at them, making them lose sight of him until Grim sneaks up on them and smacks them both with the pillow. Ace and deuce obviously retaliate by Deuce throwing pillows while Ace only use the pillow for hitting, hitting both Grim and Angel, who only hit back. The four continue their pillow fight for several minutes, ending with all of them laying sprawled out on the floor laughing. As they look up at the ceiling, becoming tired after the events of the day.
"Ugh...I can't move," Grim groans as he lays flat on the floor.
Deuce looks at the blankets and pillow Angel brought. "I guess we're sleeping on the floor tonight, huh?"
"I'm too tired to even disagree with that," Ace says as he grabs the blankets by the corner and pull them towards the floor. He tries to spread them out on floor for everyone to grab, also getting any pillows that nearby. Once everyone got situated on the floor, they stared at the ceiling, waiting for sleep to come.
"Tomorrow's the day, huh?" Deuce mumbles, with Ace agreeing.
"Yeah. From tomorrow on, this collar is going to be taken off and it'll be sweet freedom for me," Ace says, imagining him using magic again.
"I'm sure everything will be fine. The tarts came out perfectly, so Riddle should be happy," Angel says tiredly, eyes slowly closing.
"I hope so. If he won't eat the tarts, then I'll eat them," Grim says as he starts to sleep.
The trio of teenagers only chuckles at Grim's statement, slowly drifting off to sleep to prepare for the next day.
A/N: Here's the pre chapter for chapter 15 everyone! I rushed the last part, mostly because I got stuck with writer's block at the end, but do know that the rest is on it's way. Depending on how much chapter 15 will be, I might just combine these two chapters into one singular chapter to follow the order right but I hope you all enjoyed this filler chapter!
Update: wrote chapter 15 and 16 ahead of time and yeah...I ain't combining these two chapters so the title will change from "Chapter 15" to "Pre-Chapter 15" then continue on to chapter 15, 16, 17, etc. Thank you for understanding everyone!
Officially chapter 15 will be posted on Thursday to give me time to catch up on school work!
3/21/23