Chapter Text
Malleus had known that after break ended he and Yuu would both be too busy to spend time together whenever he felt like it. However, the sheer volume of additional activities Yuu took on seemingly the same moment that school resumed session still surprised him. Literally that same moment, in the case of their newspaper. Crowley had barely finished greeting the last group of students returning to campus, when Yuu had marched up to him and demanded to speak in his office. When Malleus saw them next, leaving the headmage’s office, they were clutching a form he recognized as the same one he had filled out to establish the Gargoyle Appreciation Club. Before he even asked, they sighed loudly and explained.
“Ugh, I was trying to chew Crowley out about the Winter Break Fiasco, maybe convince him that this school really needs on-campus mental health support given all the Overblots, but he just brushed me off like usual, and he dumped a new responsibility on me!” They gestured to the form, and the words ‘Journalism Club’ written at the top. “Or maybe this is supposed to be a weird bribe? Anyway, I’ll show him! This is gonna be the best damn school newspaper he’s ever seen! The school’s real bad at circulating information about assemblies and school events anyway, they never even remember to tell me and Grim anything until one of the students realizes I don’t know what you’re all doing for Halloween. It’ll be disgustingly easy to become a better source of campus information than the faculty, plus I’ll run other articles about sports stuff and birthdays and whatnot. Then, when everyone and their parents are reading my paper? BAM!” A group of passing sophomores jumped at the exclamation and hurried out of the hall. “A tell-all exposé on Crowley’s incompetence as headmage and all the ways NRC has failed its students! His precious reputation will be ruined!”
Malleus blinked slowly. “That is certainly an ambitious project,” he managed eventually, “but if anyone can manage something that bold, it would certainly be you, Child of Man.”
“Aw, Hornton, you’re making me blush! I gotta go look up what needs to go into a good newspaper and tell Grim about this, so I’ll see you later!” And then they were off like a shot before he could offer his aid.
The next time he managed to meet them, just after classes a week into the term, they were rushing toward the gymnasium with Grim, Spade, and Trappola.
“Hey, Hornton! Me and the guys are auditioning for the SDC, so we’re gonna go practice, wanna come watch and we can talk later?” He nodded, and they grabbed his wrist to drag him with them, ignoring the outraged noises Sebek made from somewhere behind him.
He wound up perched in the bleachers, watching the valiant struggle between the group’s tendency to immediately launch themselves into every new task with more enthusiasm than forethought, and the need to actually know what dance moves to do in which order. Yuu and Trappola figured out the broad strokes first, although they still struggled with the details, while Spade lagged a bit behind. Trappola went to try to guide his arms to the correct position, but he had barely touched the other boy’s arm before jumping back, his ears turning red. Grim immediately started cackling, to Trappola’s mortification and Spade’s apparent confusion, and even Yuu was snickering when they stepped in to help him themself. Malleus was distracted from seeing if they would be any more successful by Lilia appearing beside him. And then he had to hurry Lilia out because he’d been suggesting inviting Yuu to one of his home-cooked dinners, and there was no way he was going to subject them to that even if it would otherwise be a perfect chance to catch up.
After that, Viper and Al-Asim had taken up teaching the four of them, and Viper kept getting distracted from dance lessons watching Malleus out the corner of his eye warily. Which was fair, Malleus was trying not to glower too hard, but he really didn’t get how Yuu could trust and befriend those who tried to kill them so quickly, and it was probably showing on his face. He kept having to leave before he could talk to Yuu so Viper could focus, and after a few attempts he gave up on trying.
One afternoon, he had returned to Diasomnia after classes to hear, of all things, their voice coming from the lounge.
“…Sebek, are you sure the staring is nefarious? Actually, who am I kidding, it’s Jade we’re— Oh, Hornton!” Yuu looked up at Malleus as he entered the room, as did Sebek, sitting next to them, and Lilia, across the table. Silver was next to him, napping on his father’s shoulder. “Thanks for asking Lilia to help me with history, by the way! I’m probably gonna need to go find other sources though, it’s not like I can cite ‘my fae upperclassman who may or may not be a vampire’ in my essay.”
Lilia sighed dramatically, “Well, there’s my dastardly plan to get you to write your assignment on the Leprechaun Mob foiled.”
Sebek started at that, “You mean that wasn’t true!?” Lilia laughed at his reaction, and Yuu groaned about how much extra work they were gonna have to do to check all their notes now, when their pocket dinged. They reached in and pulled out their phone, glancing at the screen before looking back up apologetically.
“Sorry to cut this short, but I’ve been talking with Azul about him helping me sell ad space in the student paper to cover printing costs, and he wants me to take a look at the newest version of the contract. Gotta go see how many pages of ads compared to actual articles he’s gonna try to push this time,” they rolled their eyes as they shoved their notes into their bag, and then turned back toward Lilia as if remembering something, “Oh, while I’m there, do you want me to get a price quote on catering for you-know-what?”
Malleus did not know what, but Lilia nodded and said, “That would be lovely, thank you,” and Yuu was once again dashing off. Somehow, he missed the chance to talk to them even when they were in his own dorm.
And sometimes, it was his own unwillingness to see Yuu push themself to exhaustion that cut their meetings short, like the time they actually managed to arrange a time to meet outside Ramshackle dorm. When he got there, they were just wrapping up some kind of appointment with Jade Leech, and were ushering him out the gate.
“This proposed menu is more than doable! In fact, I grow the mushrooms used in the school’s mushroom risotto, so it’ll bring me great pleasure to serve it at your little get-together. I do so love to see people enjoying the fruits of my labor.”
“That’s great— Hold on, is that why you keep staring at Silver during lunch?” They rolled their eyes, then stopped, noticing Malleus for the first time. They met his gaze for a moment and smiled before turning back to shove a stack of papers into the Leech twin’s arms. “Never mind, we can go down that particular rabbit hole of a conversation later. Here’s the contract with my revisions, tell Azul that I’m absolutely not signing anything that doesn’t give me veto power on all proposed ads, see you tomorrow.”
Malleus could feel a smile to match the prefect’s tugging at his lips as they ran up to him, until he noticed the dark circles under their eyes, and the distinctive sway to their steps they took on when totally exhausted. “Are you alright? You don’t have to stay up on my account, you know.”
“No, no, I’m fine. You were—” They tried and failed to suppress a massive yawn. “You were gonna finish that story about the gargoyle on the southeast corner of the building!”
“Yuu, when was the last time you had a full night’s rest? Not a couple hours here and there, but a proper eight hours.”
Yuu thought about it for long enough that he wondered if they’d fallen asleep with their eyes open before they spoke. “Today’s Thursday, right?”
“It’s Saturday.”
“That explains why I didn’t have any classes.” They yawned again. “Okay, maybe I really do need to sleep. I’m really sorry, Hornton, I’ll just—” They turned to trudge back up the hill into their dorm, but Malleus gently caught their arm and teleported them both up to their room. “Thanks, Malleus, I’ll try to meet up with you again tomorrow. Good night.”
“Sleep well, Child of Man.”
He did not see them the next day, though he was honestly a little relieved, since they apparently spent all their time that day catching up on sleep. Unfortunately, they did not meet up for longer than the briefest moments for the rest of that week either, leaving Malleus with a problem. He hadn’t yet invited them to his birthday party. He knew he was going to have a party, the dorm insisted on throwing one for him every year, on top of everything else the school made students do on their birthdays, but Lilia was being oddly cagey about the whole thing this time. He was reasonably sure that he would remember to invite them, but Malleus still wanted to do it himself, just to make sure.
Even when the actual day arrived, he didn’t have time to slip out, kept busy by all the interviews and traditions and costume changes. Several of them were quite enjoyable, but it truly felt like every year the headmage came up with a new “ancient Night Raven College birthday tradition” and accompanying outfit. Eventually, he stood just outside the dorm lounge, straightening his white suit, the last outfit of the night, and ensuring that he’d magiced all the traces of pie cream out of his hair, and wondering if maybe he could just make the shortest possible obligatory appearance and then duck out, change into his own clothes, and go meet the prefect. But no, it would be rude to ignore the well-wishes of his subjects, and his dormmates considered themselves as such. Much to his surprise and relief, however, when he pushed the door open and entered, the first person he saw was Yuu, standing in the center of the lounge, wielding an odd device that released bright green confetti with a loud bang when they pulled the cord.
“SURPRISE!” Yuu grinned up at him, as did Silver and Sebek standing on either side of them. Behind them, he could see a makeshift stage set up against one wall, where the Pop Music Club waved at him before going back to tuning their instruments. Against a different wall was a buffet, being manned by Ashengrotto and the Leech twins, although Floyd Leech seemed more interested in trying to grab several of the small explosives to set off at once. The littler Shroud floated near the stage, adjusting the odd black boxes Lilia had told him were called “speakers.” Seeing him, Malleus checked the corners of the room, and sure enough in the darkest back corner was his older brother, fiddling with some kind of large table with cables running out of it. After giving him a moment to look around the room, Yuu spoke up again. “Okay, so technically the party itself isn’t a surprise, since Lilia said you get one every year, but what he described sounded super formal and depressing, so we decided to work together to surprise you with something more fun!”
“Thank you, truly. All of you. This is remarkable.” Sebek preened at the praise and Silver smiled softly, while Yuu’s grin stretched even wider, if that was at all possible.
Most of the party was a bit of a blur. As per usual he had a long line of people looking to wish him a happy birthday, though this year there were a lot more people from outside of his dorm, many of whom he recognized as friends and classmates of either the prefect or his guards, and most of whom came bearing very different gifts than what people normally presented him with. Even the most thoughtless presents seemed obligatory in a “friend of a friend they don’t personally know” way, not an “offering to royalty” way. There were plenty of the latter of course, far more than there were of the friendly gifts, but the overall experience just seemed so much warmer than usual. Even the concerning gifts, like the suspiciously correctly-sized outfit Hunt gave him, or the ones he wasn’t sure how to use, like the automatic shaved ice machine from the younger Shroud.
The food was standard feast fare, mostly an array of traditional Briar Valley dishes. Yuu seemed to enjoy loading their plate with as many different things as they could, asking questions about this or that particular dish as they did so. Oddly enough, Jade Leech seemed slightly distracted, stealing glances at something behind the line while he served people. On a hunch, Malleus followed his gaze, and saw Silver looking utterly entranced by his risotto, and Sebek glaring straight back at the twin. When they had left the buffet table, he mentioned this to Yuu, who snickered lightly. “Yeah, that’s been happening for a couple weeks now, ever since the cafeteria oh-so-suddenly got a new supplier of extra nice tasting mushrooms after Jade’s last camping trip…”
“I confess I accidentally overheard that part of your conversation with him.”
“Oh, right, forgot about that. Anyway, I was gonna tell Sebek to quit fussing about it, since Jade’s only interested in the mushrooms, and he’s not gonna do anything weird to them because then Silver’d stop eating them, but then he started yelling about me insinuating that he cares at all about Silver in anything but a strictly professional capacity, so he can sort this one out on his own.”
“Did you—”
“Oh, I didn’t insinuate anything, I outright said I thought he was jealous.” Yuu laughed and pulled Malleus closer to the stage to watch the Pop Music Club perform.
Malleus had been initially slightly worried about Lilia’s singing amplified by human technology, but the group had wisely decided to make Diamond the lead singer for most of the setlist. Most of the songs were ones he recognized, though the group had, as Al-Asim phrased it in their introduction, “put their own spin on them,” and as Yuu put it after the first song, “each decided to play their own favorite genre but it works somehow?” Malleus could not disagree with that sentiment. In fact, he wondered how much practice it took to make such wildly different styles blend together so well. Or perhaps they had always clicked from the first rehearsal? He shook the question from his head. Diamond was handing the device he sang into (for some reason he thought it was called a microphone, but that couldn’t be right, it looked nothing like the phone in his pocket) to Lilia for the final song of the night, so it was time to abscond. Lilia was saying something about sending everyone off with a traditional Briar Valley lullaby, and Malleus had heard more than enough of Lilia’s lullabies for one lifetime.
“Aw, come on, I’ve been curious about what a thrash metal cover of Once Upon a Dream sounds like ever since Cater tried to warn me!”
“You can find out a safe distance from those speakers. Besides, I should really get started on that cake. It looked awfully large, and I’d rather not see it after the— Ah.” At the buffet table, where he could have sworn he had seen an enormous chocolate cake, there was just an empty platter. Ashengrotto noticed his confusion and stepped in, wearing an apologetic look.
“I’m deeply sorry, but we neglected to anticipate the appetites of some of your guests. I did make sure to set a slice aside for the guest of honor in advance, though,” he placed a plate with a rather large slice on the table.
“Wait, what about the other one?” Yuu asked, and Ashengrotto turned to a freezer box behind him.
“I wasn’t sure if you wanted to save that particular surprise for later, but here you are.” When Malleus heard ‘the other one,’ he had been privately dreading another large cake like the one he had seen before, but Ashengrotto pulled out a small box with a small, single-serving cake inside. It didn’t look like a kind he had seen before, and when he opened the lid to get a closer look, the realization reached him at the same time as Ashengrotto’s explanation. “It’s an ice cream cake, so you should eat it before it melts. Yuu didn’t know what flavor you’d like most, so we chose chocolate and vanilla.”
Malleus picked the plate up out of the box and took the offered spoon gingerly. “An ice cream cake? And you picked it just for me?”
Yuu shuffled their feet and blushed. “Well, Lilia kinda hinted you don’t like normal cakes, and I remembered how much you liked the ice cream at the No One Died party after the whole Scarabia debacle so I thought maybe we could have a normal cake for the guests and a smaller, special cake for you…” they trailed off and looked away, gaze latching onto the other slice of cake still sitting on the table. “A-Anyway, if you want to thank me, just gimme your slice of the other cake. Black Forest is my favorite flavor!” Malleus was pretty sure that that was not what that flavor was called, but he nodded, and they grabbed the plate and a fork, and followed him out to the balcony, just in the nick of time before Lilia started screaming.
“Wow, that’s loud. Did Idia abandon the soundboard or— No, he’s actively turning the volume up. I’m gonna have to tell Ortho to abort the plan. For the sake of the world, he can never talk to Lilia face-to-face.” Malleus blinked and, noticing his confusion, they added, “It’s kind of a long story, has to do with why I’ve been hanging out at Ignihyde a bunch lately. Oh, I just remembered, Crowley’s been hinting I should conduct some sort of Birthday Interview for the school paper?”
Malleus groaned, “I have done enough interviews for one day, please.”
“Alright, no worries. I’ll just tell him there wasn’t enough notice this month. I can start with Cater instead. Actually, that reminds me, I’ve almost finished the first issue! And a lot of the worst parts were only so bad because I was starting from scratch, so next month’s shouldn’t be nearly so time consuming! Oh, and I’m almost done with the really grind-y part of a project I’ve been doing with Ortho, and the SDC audition is next week, so I’ll have a free week of no dance practice between that and the results being announced. Though if I don’t make it into that, I’m definitely gonna make a Culture Fair booth for the Journalism Club. I wonder how I’m gonna fill an entire classroom, it’s a single-student club! Maybe they’ll have me share space with you or Jade… Nevermind, not the point. I’m trying to say, I’m gonna be way less busy soon, so we can finally hang out more!”
“I…admit I have been distressed not being able to talk to you as much lately.”
“Yeah, same here. Now c’mon, you gotta tell me the southeast gargoyle story!”
“Of course, will you tell me what you and the younger Shroud have been conspiring?”
“Sure, but you have to promise not to tell Lilia any of this!”
A cold breeze blew through the balcony, and Yuu pressed into his side as he picked up the story where he last left off. Afterwards, they did indeed tell him about the upcoming ‘Forever Promise Ceremony’, and the plan to set up Lilia and the older Shroud to be friends. He even promised to lend his aid, in exchange for an invitation to the wedding.
“You know they’re not really getting married, right?”
“I am not missing any addition to Lilia’s family, even a virtual one.”
Yuu laughed quietly at that, and turned the conversation to another topic. Malleus’ smile lasted the whole night, not even fading when sleep eventually claimed his conversational partner, and he carried them back inside to find a guest room they could stay in. He still did not quite get the point of celebrating the passing of another year of one’s life, but this was certainly the most enjoyable such celebration in a fair while, and he found he was looking forward to spending the next one with Yuu as well. And the ones after, as many as they had to spend with him.