Chapter Text
Jamil gradually woke up, and then immediately regretted it. His head felt stuffed full of cotton, his throat was too dry, and when he cautiously cracked his eyes open the light was too bright. The room was all white and sterile, completely the opposite of both Scarabia dorm and his home. He was in a hospital, most likely. The conclusion was further supported by the cool, almost pleasant tingle of healing magic along his skin. So he knew where he was, the next question was why . He opened his eyes fully to look for a nurse or someone who might answer his questions.
“Jamil! You’re awake! Hey Yuu-!” Jamil immediately squeezed his eyes shut again as if that would block out his noisy employer. Someone (Yuu?) must have signaled him to be quieter, because Kalim cut himself off abruptly before continuing in what he probably thought was a whisper, “Jamil! I thought you might not- You were- I was so worried about you!” And then his volume almost immediately rose again, and he threw himself onto Jamil, sobbing onto his shoulder.
“Kalim, give him room to breathe!” Yuu spoke much more quietly, and in lower tones, although their voice still aggravated Jamil. He turned to eye them cautiously. For some reason they were wearing a Scarabia dorm uniform, clearly grabbed in a rush from the clean laundry. The top was a size too large, and the pants were a size too small, and they hadn’t bothered to put on any of the accessories. Their left arm was covered by a spiral of misshapen sucker marks, normally hidden under long sleeves, which could have given them a more fearsome, battle-scarred appearance if Kalim hadn’t switched to sobbing onto them as soon as they tried to get him off Jamil.
Eventually they urged him back into a plastic seat beside the bed, and busied themself fetching a glass of water from the nearby sink. Jamil pulled himself up into a sitting position, waving off Kalim’s attempts to help. “We’re in Sage Island Hospital, in that little town at the foot of the mountain, you’ve only been out for a few hours, and Azul is fine, he’s right across the hall. Me and Kalim can answer any other questions you have?”
Jamil accepted the proffered glass, carefully drank (again having to fend off Kalim’s assistance) and put it down on the bedside table before speaking. “What even happened?”
Yuu winced, “Ah, right. Probably should have started with that. Uh, how much do you remember?”
Jamil took another sip of water while he concentrated. His plan had almost succeeded, but Azul and the twins had kept interfering. He went to confront Azul, and make him take his flunkies and leave, and… “You lot exposed my plot.”
Yuu nodded, “And after that you Overblotted.” They glanced at Jamil’s expression and quickly added, “but it’s ok! Besides you and Azul, a few other Scarabia students are getting spell-related injuries patched up, but they should all be fine, and no one died or anything!”
That hadn’t quite been his concern, though now he was curious what had happened to Azul. That could wait though, instead he asked Kalim, “Why are you still here? You know exactly what I was planning to do to you!”
Kalim nodded slowly, “I know, and I’m so sorry!”
“What.”
“I had no idea you felt that way! I thought we were friends but you weren’t and you couldn’t tell me that and I kept dragging you into things, and-!” Kalim kept blubbering more inexplicable apologies, as if Jamil hadn’t tried to oust and/or kill him, but at least he hadn’t tried grabbing onto him again. Jamil rested his head against the pillow and waited for him to finish. “-And that’s why I want us to be equal business partners and real friends, like Azul and the twins!”
Yuu fumbled the glass they were refilling and had to scramble to catch it. “What even-? How did you reach that conclusion!? Why!? ”
“Azul, Floyd, and Jade told me all about how their whole thing works. And even though Azul keeps making the Leeches do all sorts of stuff for his plans they still like hanging out together and he does stuff for them too! Like trying to save Floyd from that brick!” Jamil tried to process that. Oddly, the last part sounded vaguely familiar. “And they also said that people need space sometimes, and that you probably felt you couldn’t get any because your job is to take care of me, so I’m declaring you’re getting vacation days!”
“I reiterate, what ? Vacation days!? Equal partners!? NOT ON YOUR LIFE!” Kalim’s mouth clicked shut. “You thoughtless, sloppy, idiotic, clumsy, ludicrously oblivious, arrogant, indelicate, pampered little rich boy! Why would I want to be any kind of partner , let alone even friends!? I don’t want vacation days , I want you out of my life!” And then, because he had absolutely no idea what kind of lessons Kalim was apparently absorbing from Azul’s little mob, he added, “And don’t throw yourself in front of any bricks for me, either!”
Unfortunately, this had the opposite of the intended effect, as with that last addition, Kalim immediately leaped forward to hug him again. “Aw, you really do care!” This time Yuu did nothing to help him, and just laughed.
“Sorry dude. Also, your first break starts now, since the docs say you and Azul have to stay here overnight, and I’m sure you’d rather Kalim go back to campus instead of bugging you all night.”
“What!? No! You can’t thwart my plans to get rid of Kalim and then immediately just leave him unattended in Scarabia! It’ll undercut all your efforts-!”
“Relax, he won’t be unattended, me and Sebek will be there! Seb and Grim have been trying to contact Malleus all day with no luck, so he’s gonna be staying on campus overnight with us ‘foolish humans’ anyway!”
“Absolutely not!”
“Jade can help too, he got kicked out by the head nurse earlier for intimidating everyone who came in to check on Azul, so I’m sure he’ll be relieved to have something else to focus on!”
“No. No, no, no, no, no, no-!”
“C’mon Kalim, we shouldn’t bother him any longer. And relax, Jamil, think of it as a practice run for all those future vacation days!”
“GET BACK HERE RIGHT NOW!”