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Three
“Ack!”
Not for the first time that practice, Epel found himself lodged in one of the trees rooted at the edge of the Spelldrive practice field, his broom clattering towards the grass and the disc that had been centimeters from his grasp stuck high above him in the branches. It had been a particularly uncomfortable crash landing, several broken twigs pressing into his stomach as Epel scrambled to reorient himself on the thick branch he had found himself folded over. His face and arms stung in several places, the accumulated consequences of his previous crash landings earlier in the practice period deciding to make themselves painfully known along with the blooming bruises.
Vil was going to kill him when he got back to Pomefiore that evening.
“Epel, are you okay?!” Ruggie yelled from across the field. Epel threw him a thumbs-up.
“Yeah, ah’m fine!”
In the distance, Ruggie bobbed his head and turned away on his broom, rejoining where the rest of the Spelldrive club was practicing. It was one of those practices where after the initial warm-ups, Leona let them work on whatever skills they wanted, and Ruggie had convinced everyone else that they needed to work on passing the disc between the broom and ground players. Epel, on the other hand, had decided to work independently on a high-control flying maneuver that he’d seen Ruggie pull off multiple times.
The concept was simple— the disc was being passed between two ground players, and his objective was to dive in from high above and get it under his control before the pass could be completed. His methodology for practicing by himself was to launch the disc longways and then dive at it from above. Hadn’t really been his fault that a gust of wind had carried the disc into the tree, but it had been his fault that he hadn’t been quick enough to grab it and avoid the tree. Epel knew that speed wasn’t his issue so much as steering on the broom, and while his control was getting better, he was still nowhere near as good as Ruggie in pulling off the insane turns that he could just as a sophomore. It’d been something he’d been working on since before the SDC a few weeks ago, but this practice was the first time since then that he’d had the time to work on it.
Epel sighed, glaring up at where the disc was stuck in the tree. He was so close to pulling off the move, there was just a tiny gap he needed to figure out how to bridge. If he could figure it out before the interscholastic Spelldrive tournament later this semester, then not only could he stick to RSA after the SDC bullshit, but he could also show off to Deuce.
“Oi,”
“Aah!” Epel startled badly, nearly falling off the branch he was perched on. He glanced down at where the voice had come from. “Cap- Leona! Ah didn- I didn’t realize I had crashed into your napping tree,”
Leona gave him an unimpressed look, his tail thumping the grass in the way it did when he was irritated, his hair covered in leaves and twigs. He still had some gauze covering areas where he had been injured in the STYX incident, one of his forearms completely wrapped up. Epel’s broom laid next to him, the bristles resting on one of his outstretched legs.
Ah, so Epel had definitely woken him up. Shit.
“You’re supposed to be doing self-guided practice, not showering me with leaves,” Leona picked a twig from his hair and flicked it away before dusting the leaves off, every movement emphasizing just how irate he was at being woken up. “That intercept Ruggie likes to do not workin’ out for ya?”
“Uh, no, it’s not,” Epel slumped against the branch he was sitting on. “I can’t seem to pull off that quick little move he does at the end, the one where he goes sideways as he catches the disc instead of trying to climb upwards like how everyone else does it,”
“Hm,” Leona hummed before stretching into a cat-like yawn. “Gimme the disc,”
Epel blinked down at the captain of the Spelldrive club. “What?”
“I’m not going to repeat myself,”
Epel knew from being in the Spelldrive club for almost an entire year that he wouldn’t, so he turned and began to carefully climb up the tree for the disc. It took him a few minutes to reach it, but once he got his hands on it, it was simple to pick his way back down and drop to the grass. Leona was waiting for him at the base of the tree with Epel’s broom in hand. As soon as Epel appeared in front of him, Leona tossed him his broom, Epel fumbling to catch it and hold the disc at the same time.
“Disc,” Leona held out a hand. Epel gave him the disc, a little confused as Leona immediately walked past him after taking the disc and turned to follow him. “Go high and see it clearly,”
Go high? See it clearly? Epel mounted his broom and took to the air, not stopping until he was several meters above where Leona was standing with the disc. As soon as he looked down at Leona for what to do next, Leona was launching the disc horizontal to the practice field. Epel gasped and dove for it, pouring his magic into his broom to catch up to the disc before it landed. He readied his pen as he got in range and flicked a spell at the disc just as he directed his broom to the left, imagining how Ruggie would look when he was pulling off the intercept in his mind’s eye. It was a quick motion of the tip of his broom handle to the left and up with one hand…
The disc’s momentum came to a dead stop as Epel’s magic captured it, yanking it to the left as he and his broom banked hard enough to completely switch directions, zooming back towards where Leona was still standing.
It took a second for Epel to truly register what just happened.
He…
He did it?
He did it!
“DID YA SEE THAT?!” Epel exclaimed as he approached Leona with a huge giddy grin on his face, waving the disc for emphasis. “DID YA SEE THAT PA?! AH DID IT!”
The thinly-veiled impressed smirk on Leona’s face dropped to something more viscerally shocked, his green eyes going wide and his slit pupils constricting. Epel slowed to a stop in front of him, confused. Did he say something wrong?
He mentally backtracked over the past several seconds.
Did he…?
Oh.
Oh no.
Epel felt his face start to burn as Leona continued to stare at him, utterly speechless. There… there had to be a way for him to recover from this, at least no one else heard i–
“Nice move, Epel!” Ruggie complimented, his voice steadily getting closer. Epel whipped around in the direction of his voice just to see him approach on his broom with a mischievous grin. “Aren’t you going to tell him how impressed you are, Pa? ”
Leona didn’t respond, still staring at Epel with his mouth slightly open and his eyes wide.
If the practice field could open up and swallow him whole right then and there, Epel would be forever grateful. He didn’t stick around for it to happen, dropping the disc and turning his broom around just as Ruggie arrived and speeding off the field with his face still aflame. Once he was far enough away, Epel hid his bright red face in his hands and groaned. Deuce was going to laugh at him once he told him about what just happened.
What an awful way to start the week.
Two
“Your eyes will close, your breath will still,” Epel chanted the opening line of his unique magic, aiming his pen at one of the moving targets in front of him. “Crimson Slumber!”
The spell fired off, violet magic zipping through the firelit air and brushing just past his target. It burst and formed a glass coffin around a branch of a tree situated further away. The encased branch broke off of the tree, the glass coffin shattering against the hard-packed ground on impact. Epel lowered his pen and grit his teeth. It had been easy enough to hit the charons while he, Rook, and Yuu had been trying to get to Vil and the other overblotters back at STYX, but the small moving targets that Rook kept at the dorm for archery practice were much harder to hit consistently.
He needed to get better. Epel huffed, glaring daggers at the moving target and its bouncing course around the small clearing. He needed to be better. Sure, he hadn’t been as defenseless as Yuu had when they had been fighting their way through the charons and then the phantoms, but he had still been nowhere as useful as he wanted to be to Rook and Vil. He had just discovered his unique magic at that time, and the blot-heavy environment had made it hard for him to use it more than a few times between rests.
The sight of the Ignihyde housewarden Idia in his overblot form with his monstrous corpse phantom haunted Epel several nights a week since getting back from the Island of Woe, the utter powerlessness he had felt watching overblotted Vil destroy the SDC stage and coat the air with poisonous miasma just a week before that still seizing his heart at random moments of the day. The thought of seeing his boyfriend Deuce heavily injured and comatose from when the charons took Vil still made Epel sick to his stomach. It was all making it hard for him to sleep, hard for him to concentrate during class, hard for him to talk to anyone who wasn’t involved with either event, because what else could he say to them?
So, instead of sleeping, he practiced his unique magic in the shadow of Pomefiore’s dorm building, little wisps of fire magically strung in the air keeping the clearing lit. Just like in his Spelldrive club practices, if he worked at something hard enough, long enough, and with enough imagination, he could achieve anything he set his mind to. Epel took a deep breath and set his sights on the moving target again, pointing the tip of his pen at it again.
“Your eyes will close, your breath will st-”
“Epel Felmier , what do you think you’re doing?!”
Epel yelped in surprise, dropping his magic pen and whirling around. Out of the shadows, Vil stepped into the clearing, dressed in the violet silk robe he usually wore around the dorm in the early morning before getting ready for school and the silk cap that Epel only recognized because Vil had tried to get him to wear one of his own to sleep during the SDC training camp at Ramshackle. Vil stopped at the edge of the clearing, displeasure clear on his makeup-less features and his hands on his hips.
“Vil! Uh, uh, sir-”
“You have five seconds to explain why you’re up past curfew and practicing combat magic outside of class,” Vil snapped. “ Well? ”
Epel frowned, crouching down and picking up his magic pen. This was precisely the encounter he had been trying to avoid by practicing at night. “Ah- I was practicing my unique magic, sir,”
“ What have I said about overexerting yourself?” Vil pressed, striding forward. Epel took a step back as Vil came to a stop in front of him and grabbed his magic pen from his hand, the shock of the action loosening his grip.
He recovered quickly, irritation growing. “Hey!”
“Look at this!” Vil turned Epel’s pen around and showed him the violet mage stone inset at the tip. Epel blinked a few times. Marring the violet color was a dull almost black splotch at the edge of the stone, right were the facets met the black casing. “You’re accumulating enough blot that it’s showing up in your magestone!”
Epel gaped at his magic pen. Had he really…?
“Have you not been sleeping?” the anger in Vil’s voice started to somber. “You wouldn’t be showing this much blot accumulation if you weren’t. How many times do I have to tell you about the importance of sleep for teenage boys, especially at your age? You need eight hours, minimu- ”
“Oh, can it , Ma!” Epel snapped, pressure growing behind his eyes. “Ya ‘ave no idea what I’ve been dealin’ wit!”
Vil’s mouth clamped shut, his eyes wide. Before Epel could fully process what he said to warrant such a reaction, the surprise of Vil’s face morphed into fury .
“If that is how you speak to your actual mother, then I pity the poor woman,” Vil hissed, his hand not holding Epel’s pen grabbing Epel’s shoulder in a vice grip. Epel winced and tried to shove his hand away. “If you’re stupid enough to speak to me like that, then clearly you haven’t been getting the sleep you need. We’re going inside,”
“Lemme go!” Epel tried to pry Vil’s hand off of his shoulder, stumbling to keep pace with Vil’s long stride. “Ah need ta keep practicin’!”
“Practicing for what? ” Vil’s voice still had bite behind it. “And what did I tell you about speaking properly? Your sleep deprivation is making you reckless-”
“To keep up wit- with you!” Epel exclaimed tearfully, the pressure behind his eyes bursting. Vil stopped in his tracks. “I need- I need to get better at magic so I can protect you and Rook like you protected me and Yuu!”
Epel wiped his face with his sleeves with a sniffle, embarrassment creeping up his spine. Maybe he was as sleep deprived as Vil claimed, if he was breaking down in front of him like this. When he looked back up at Vil again, he saw that his housewarden was staring at him with an unreadable expression.
“You-” Vil paused and took a deep breath. When he exhaled, the anger from his features was gone, replaced by something quieter and sadder. They hadn’t quite left the firelit clearing yet, so Epel was able to see a still-healing bruise that peeked out from the neckline of Vil’s robe, leftover from the battle against the Flora Titan. Any of Vil’s remaining wounds normally weren’t visible during the day since he covered them with makeup if clothes didn’t conceal them, so suddenly seeing the bruise was jarring. “Have you been getting nightmares, Epel?”
Epel blinked rapidly at the sudden question. “What?”
“Nightmares,” Vil reiterated quietly. “The past several weeks must have been the most harrowing of your life. It’s okay to feel powerless in the wake of all that,”
Epel stared at his housewarden. How did he know…?
“If you cannot get restful sleep on your own, I have a few sleeping potions brewed that I can give you,” Vil said softly. Then, his voice hardened. “But only if you promise to stop recklessly overexerting yourself and breaking curfew to do it,”
Epel sniffled and nodded. He didn’t even think about taking a sleep potion. Professor Crewel was going to get his ass if he found out Epel had forgotten about a potion he had just learned about that week in class. “Oh- okay. Thank you, Vil, sir,”
“Of course,”
Epel didn’t say much as he walked with Vil into the dorm building and up to his room. Vil didn’t take long to dip into his room and come back with a small glass vial in hand.
“I’m walking you to your room,” Vil stated, still holding Epel’s pen captive as well as the vial. Epel’s shoulders slumped. He supposed he deserved that.
The walk to Epel’s room was just as quiet, letting Epel mull over his housewarden’s words and the blot on his own magestone. Vil was probably right about overexerting himself. He wouldn’t be able to protect anybody if he accumulated too much blot.
“Oh, and spudling?” Vil said after Epel had stepped into his shared room. His housewarden handed over the sleeping potion and his pen before continuing. “I’m a little too young to be a mother, let alone yours. I’m flattered you think of me as such though,”
What?
Epel closed the door and stared at it. When did he call Vil his mom? He took a second to think about through the entire encounter with Vil and groaned when he realized his mistake.
Seven damnit , first Leona, and now Vil? What was with him this week?
Thoroughly mortified, Epel creeped into his corner of the shared room and collapsed face-first into his pillow. Well, at least it couldn’t get any worse than that.
One
Someone was watching him.
Epel could practically feel the eyes glued to his back as he and Deuce made their way over to the lunch table that Ace, Yuu, and Grim had grabbed for them all, their arms laden with sandwiches for everyone. It was Friday, thank the Great Seven, and Friday meant the cafeteria ghosts made specialty sandwiches that the entire student body frothed at the mouth over. It had been Epel and Deuce’s turn to retrieve everyone’s favorites. They were successful this time around, Epel sporting a new black eye for his effort to swipe the last of the gross peanut butter and pear jelly sandwiches that Jack adored. Despite the impending lecture from Vil about protecting his face, Epel felt a bit proud of himself.
That being said, he wouldn’t have even gotten the black eye if he hadn’t been so distracted by the sense that someone was watching him.
“How does your eye feel?” Deuce asked him as they neared the table. Epel gave his boyfriend a grin, trying not to look at the tip of the still-healing scar from the charon attack of Ramshackle that peeked out over the collar of Deuce’s uniform shirt.
“It feels fine, stop worrying so much!” Epel nudged him with his elbow. He immediately regretted it when Deuce winced. “Oh Seven, did I hit something?!”
“Ah, it’s okay, that spot is just a bit sore still,” Deuce nudged him back, his smile affectionate. “Let’s get these sandwiches to everyone else before Grim tries to eat Ace,”
“Hah, right,” Epel tried to push the worry away as he fell back a step. He hadn’t been dating Deuce long— Deuce asked him out shortly after their moment on the beach a few weeks before the SDC— but he felt like he already knew Deuce well enough to know when he was hiding how much pain he was in. Epel had been sleeping better that week since Vil had started giving him the sleep potions, but that didn’t mean the image of his first-ever boyfriend lying black and blue in a hospital bed still didn’t haunt him daily.
The sense of being watching didn’t leave Epel as he and Deuce arrived at their lunch table.
“Finally!” Ace exclaimed, grabbing his order from Deuce’s arms before he could even set his armful of sandwiches down. “You had us waiting forever , Juice!”
“I thought I asked you to stop calling me that,” Deuce sighed, passing Grim his tuna sandwich and setting Sebek’s to the side for when the Diasomnia freshman eventually arrived. Epel set that sandwich he got for Jack next to Sebek’s before passing Yuu their’s and settling down next to Deuce to dig into his own apple butter ham sandwich. After unwrapping it, Epel dug his jar of pickled onions out of his school bag and sprinkled some on beneath the bun before passing the jar over to Deuce. “Oh, thanks Epel,”
“Of course,”
“That’s so nasty!” Grim asserted between mouthfuls of his tuna sandwich, watching Deuce take some pickled onions and putting them on his deviled egg wrap. The monster’s little nose wrinkled with disgust. “Why you gotta do that each lunch?!”
“Because it tastes good?” Epel frowned at him. He wasn’t entirely in the mood to entertain Grim’s… Grimness .
“We talked about being rude, Grim,” Yuu sighed, chastising their partner with a flick on his forehead. Grim whined and patted their hand away. “When are Sebek and Jack getting here?”
“Jack said he’d be here in just a few minutes, something about helping Ruggie run an errand for Leona,” Epel gave Yuu a mental thank you for changing the subject away from his food preferences. “Not sure about Sebek though,”
“Sebek passed me on the way here and said he’d be late because he needed to look for Silver, I think he fell asleep somewhere again,” Deuce answered before taking a big bite from his sandwich. He swallowed before continuing. “Oh man, these pickled onions with the mashed up deviled egg hit , Epel you gotta try this,”
Epel paused mid-bite at the deviled egg sandwich that was suddenly shoved near his face. He glanced at Deuce and his eager expression before taking a hesitant bite of the offered sandwich.
Whatever was watching him felt closer. Epel leaned away and chewed quickly, almost choking on the half-chewed sandwich as he swallowed it. “It’s- it’s good,”
“Are you okay, Epel?” Deuce lowered his sandwich with a worried look. “You’ve been acting a little… a little-”
“Weird?” Ace supplied.
“I wasn’t going to say that!” Deuce snapped at him.
Ace rolled his eyes. “Okay, but we were all thinking it!”
“I’m fine,” Epel shot Ace a look before giving Deuce a hesitant pat on the arm. He made sure to avoid were he had elbowed his boyfriend earlier. “I’m sorry I’ve felt a little off lately, it’s ju-”
Out of the corner of his eye, Epel saw something move, familiar eyes burning on his shoulder.
“PA!” he shouted, hopping to his feet and slamming his hands on the table. “I knew it! Stop watching me!”
“Mr. Felmier?!” Deuce gasped next to him. “Oh Seven, he’s here?!”
What? Epel spared his panicking boyfriend a confused glance. He didn’t say anything about his father–
“Monsieur Pommette, you view me as ton pére ?” Rook gasped as he emerged from the crowd of students he had been concealing himself amongst. He placed a dramatic hand over his eyes, his sharp eyes welling up with tears as he approached. “Oh! I didn’t think it was true when Rois du Poison had informed me of you declaring him ta mére , but this is a most joyous day indeed! For so long he and I have thought of you as notre fils spécial– ”
Ace choked on his sandwich.
Epel stared at his vice housewarden.
What in the name of the Great Seven was he talking about?
“Rook,” he said carefully, disregarding whatever Rook was going on about. “Why’ve you been watching me the entire day?”
“The entire day? ” Deuce whispered next to him, sounding horrified. “Does that mean he-”
Epel felt his face start to burn. Oh no.
“Aah yes, I did catch a glimpse of you and my darling Monsieur Pommette in the throes of young love, Monsieur Spade!” Rook exclaimed, wiping a tear from his eye. “Such beauty is so fleeting and yet so passionate, I felt privileged to have glimpsed such a sight! Ah, I remember such beautiful moments in the early days of mine and Rois du Poison’s relationship, hiding away in empty hallways and feeling his gorgeous hands cares-”
“STOP!” Epel screamed, slamming his hands over his ears. He did not need to hear about Rook and Vil’s adventures in making out during school hours. “Why have you been following me?!”
“Because I’ve been worried!” Rook switched gears immediately, his fox-like smile dropping into a concern frown. “First having to go through Rois du Poison’s overblot, and then assisting me in the mission to retrieve our beloved housewarden from the Island of Woe? Rois du Poison and I have noticed just how distracted you’ve been by it, ma petit pomme , so I thought it pertinent to watch over you!”
“I’m fine! ” Epel snapped. “Tell Ma ta stop worrin’ about me and you stop followin’ me!”
“As you wish~” Rook smiled again. “Are you still bringing Monsieur Spade over this evening to study? Text me what time so I can have snacks ready! Bon aprés-midi! ”
Just as quickly as Rook had appeared, the Pomefiore vice housewarden disappeared into the crowded cafeteria, seamlessly merging into the horde of students trying to get their specialty sandwiches. Epel huffed and angrily sat back down, taking an aggressive bite of his sandwich under the stares of his boyfriend and friends.
“ What? ” he growled after a moment, thoroughly fed up.
“Dude, you just called Rook and Vil your pa and ma ,” Ace snickered.
Epel straightened. “What? No I didn’t,”
“You absolutely did,” Yuu said with a teasing smile. “It was kinda cute,”
The burning sensation of his cheeks returned. Epel turned to his boyfriend, aghast. “Deuce, tell me I did not just call my housewarden and vice housewarden ma and pa in public ,”
Deuce set down his sandwich nervously, his gaze flicking away from Epel’s intense one. “We- well-”
Epel laid his head down on the table and hid his blazing face away the best he could as Ace started to poke fun at him for it.
Whatever was up with him this week, it needed to stop .
+One
Epel rocked back and forth on his heels as he waited for Deuce to appear from the Heartslabyul mirror, fiddling with the strap of his bookbag. After the week he had had, he needed alone time with his boyfriend, their homework, and the barbequed ribs Rook had promised to sneak him under Vil’s nose. If he was quick about it, he and Deuce could get through Pomefiore without Vil noticing and hide away in one of the spare study rooms so they could… study without supervision.
Studying would actually hopefully happen— Seven knew they both needed it— but it’d be a drag if other, more fun things didn’t also happen.
“Epel!” Deuce jogged out of the Heartslabyul mirror in his dorm uniform and his backpack over his shoulder, giving him a wave and a grin. Epel returned it, shyly waving. When he was close enough, Deuce quickly glanced around before going in to give Epel a hug. “Hi,”
“Hi,” Epel whispered back, melting in his boyfriend’s grip. He squeezed Deuce around his waist before pulling back. “We gotta run so Vil doesn’t catch us,”
“Housewarden Schoenheit doesn’t know I’m going to be there?” Deuce’s eyes grew round.
“No, he knows, he just doesn’t like that we’re dating,” Epel rolled his eyes as he took his boyfriend’s hand to lead him through the Pomefiore mirror. “He told me that if he sees you at any point while you’re here in Pomefiore, he’s siccing Rook on you to chase you out,”
“Oh,” Deuce sounded incredibly uncertain as they stepped into the Pomefiore pocket dimension, a soft evening breeze and gently swaying trees greeting them. “So that’s why you prefer to study and hangout in Heartslabyul with me,”
“Yeah, but I think this’ll be fun,” Epel shrugged. “Plus, Rook is on my side on this, he’d only chase you to make Vil happy,”
“That doesn’t make me feel any better,”
Epel squeezed Deuce’s hand. It would be fine. He’d figured out Vil’s weekly schedule a long time ago so he could sneak things into Pomefiore that Vil didn’t approve of, this instance would be no different. At 7 pm on Friday nights, Vil would be holed up in his room doing housewarden reports and his favorite facemask routine while Rook would run him yogurt drinks. Should he be successful in sneaking Deuce in, it would be the perfect end to what had been one of the weirdest— not bad , he’s had far worse weeks recently— weeks of his life.
Of course, everything fell apart the moment they walked into the downstairs lounge.
“No, I will not be excusing Epel from Spelldrive practice,” Leona growled with his teeth bared, his tail thrashing. His arms were folded over his chest and his ears were flattened against his hair. “You had Jack wake me up and herd me all the way over here just to tell me stupid shit like that? If anything, the best thing for Epel right now is to keep with his normal schedule,”
Closer to the door, Jack stood, looking a little sheepish with his ears pinned back.
“The upcoming interscholastic Spelldrive tournament is added stress upon the traumatic experiences he’s had recently, and he clearly hasn’t recovered from that yet!” Vil snapped back with a large gesture of his hands. “Hell, I don’t think any of us have recovered properly from the STYX incident yet, but he not only witnessed Idia overblotting, but me as well!”
“If you try and pull him out, he’s gonna hate you forever,” Leona said, his tail smacking the floor. “You want that? You wanna play pretend that he’s incapable of handling himself in a high stress environment like interscholastic tourneys? Don’t make me laugh,”
“If I may-” Rook tried to cut in.
“ Can it ,” Leona hissed at him.
“Oh, so he learned that phrase from you! ” Vil exclaimed accusingly with a harsh point of his finger. He jabbed the finger in Leona’s chest, moving in between him and Rook. “Earlier this week, Epel told me the exact same thing . Not only are you stressing him out by letting him crash recklessly into trees , but you’re teaching him the very crass language I’ve been trying to train out of him!”
Before replying, Leona’s sharp gaze zeroed in on Epel, and the Savanaclaw housewarden grinned. “Oi Epel, why don’t you tell your ma here where you learned that phrase from?”
Not for the first time that week, Epel felt his face blossom red.
“What’re y’all-” he cleared his throat, stepping in front of Deuce. “What’re you guys talking about?”
“You, Monsieur Pommette!” Rook said cheerfully, his blond bob bouncing as he clapped his hands. “Your three péres and your two méres have been so worried about you! We’ve been trying to pinpoint what’s been stressing our pomme chérie out so we can help you feel better!”
“A Mrs. Felmier called the school earlier today, and the call got directed to me as your housewarden,” Vil explained with a sigh, taking his phone out from the folds of his dorm uniform. “Apparently her only son hadn’t called to check in for several weeks now, and she and Mr. Felmier have been beside themselves with worry. Are you so stressed out from what’s been happening recently that you’ve stopped talking to your parents, Epel?”
Had he…? Epel whipped out his phone and checked his messages. He hadn’t texted his ma in weeks, and there were a bunch of missed calls from her and his pa.
How did he miss those? Had he really been so distracted by what had happened that he just… just forgot to tell his folks?
“Oh,” Epel said a little dumbly, staring at his phone. Dimly, he felt Deuce squeeze his hand. Oh Great Seven, he hadn’t even updated his parents on dating Deuce .
“ Oh is right,” Vil said with his hands on his hips. “As your housewarden and one of your mas , I’m ordering you to take the rest of the evening off of whatever you were planning and calling your parents. Rook, remove Mr. Spade from Pomefiore,”
“What?!” Deuce yelped. “That was real?! ”
Epel stood by helplessly as Rook rounded on Deuce with a grin, the thrill of the hunt gleaming in his eyes. He ran his thumb over his boyfriend’s knuckles before dropping his hand.
“I’m sorry Deuce,” Epel smiled sadly at his boyfriend. “I probably do need to call my folks. Can we hang out tomorrow?”
“Yeah, that’s fine, but only if I can survive Vice Housewarden Hunt!” Deuce exclaimed, already halfway out the door of the dorm with Rook on his heels. “See ya, Epel!”
“If you can evade Rook, we’ll see about you getting official frequent visitor permission to Pomefiore!” Vil called after them both.
Epel watched his boyfriend go. He had faith in him that he’d survive, given all the awards he’s already won the school at track meets.
“ Well , not sure if pa is a a term of endearment I’ll ever get used to, just don’t go callin’ me that in front of the team again, Epel,” Leona said as he passed by Epel to get to the door, reaching over and ruffling his hair. Epel batted his hand away with a shout. “And don’t go annoyin’ me during my naps to play catch now that you have the intercept down,”
“Ye- yes sir,” Epel squeaked. He waved to Jack as his classmate followed his housewarden out.
Behind him, Vil sighed heavily. “ Now , you can have one of the spare rooms to talk to your parents. I’ll make sure you’re not disturbed and bring tissues and snacks should you request them. Don’t stay up past curfew,”
Epel hiked his bookbag higher on his shoulder and gave his housewarden a teary smile. “Thanks Vil,”
Vil smiled softly back. “That’s ma to you, young man,”