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Jade Leech was up to something.
Correction.
Jade Leech was always up to something. It’s just that this time, in some way, shape, or form, that something involved Trey Clover. Not that it would be the first time that the something involved Trey. Jade was known to be quite the unpredictable figure, often menacingly so. Yet that unpredictability often resulted in quite sweet and un-menacing gifts for his upperclassman-boyfriend, like the food mill or dough sheeter the baker had been wanting for some time.
When Trey would ask Jade how he acquired such an expensive piece of equipment, Jade would only flash his sharp-toothed smile and reassure Trey that he had his ways. Would that concern Trey? Only a smidge, until his attention was redirected to an exclusive setting on his new equipment, and Trey was always more than happy to look the other way rather than probe into his boyfriend’s obtainment process.
However, recently, Jade had been far more covert about whatever it was he was up to. He had seen Jade speaking in hushed tones to Vil in a shadowy corner of a hallway. Trey had thought he had done a good job of concealing himself as he tried to listen in to what the two were conversing about, but Vil’s sharp eyes flickered over to him, and Trey quickly hid behind the wall he was standing near.
The unmistakable sound of heels against stone approached him, and Trey, accustomed to the near-silent footfalls of the sly Leeches, tried to appear as if he were doing something on his phone when the two rounded the corner. “Oh!” He chuckled nervously, shoving his phone into his pocket. “Hey, didn’t see you two here. What’s uh, what’s up?”
“Goodness me, Trey Clover, if there’s one thing I know, it’s bad acting,” Vil said, as sharp as ever. “I’ll take my leave now. Rook is waiting for our lunch date.”
Vil passed without a second glance at where Trey stood, beet red at being caught spying. “Jade, I trust you’ll have everything ready by the deadline,” the actor said.
Jade was suddenly standing next to Trey, hands folded neatly in front of him, and that not-so-innocent smile plastered on his face. “Of course, Vil. I wouldn’t dare fail you.”
As the actor disappeared from their sight, Trey glanced up at his boyfriend, who was now directing that shrewd smirk at him. “What was that about?”
“Oh, this and that,” Jade brought a gloved hand to hold his chin as he tilted his head towards Trey, his brows knitting and grin growing as his dangling earring glinted in the winter sun. “I wasn’t aware you had an interest in slinking. Could it be that I’m beginning to influence you?”
Trey adjusted his glasses and let out a breathless laugh. “Don’t say that. I’d like to think I’m a positive influence on you.”
“Is that so?” Jade seemed to muse over that. Suddenly changing the subject, Jade asked: “Are Floyd and I still permitted to come to your home for Winter Break? I’d understand if the imposition was far too grand-”
“It’s not an imposition,” Trey quickly interrupted him. “My mother is excited to finally meet you. Plus, I’m sure Floyd is raring to sneak into Riddle’s house as soon as you arrive. I’m glad he won’t be alone when Mrs. Rosehearts makes housecalls after all.”
The two made their way to the cafeteria, bumping shoulders and making light-hearted conversation as they walked. Their conversation eventually touched upon their next classes, and Trey talked about his upcoming assignment to harvest ingredients for poison-refining that made Jade’s eyes widen with what Trey could have sworn was panic for a nearly imperceptible second.
“What is it?” Trey asked Jade as he placed a hamburg steak on his meal tray while they walked down the cafeteria’s counter. “You look like you remembered something terrible.”
“Ah, yes,” Jade’s smile returned easily. “Azul asked me to stop by Sam’s Store and pick up some sugarcubes for the lounge during lunch.” He leaned in and pressed a kiss into Trey’s hair, startling him at the sudden public display of affection. “I’ll see you soon,”
And, before Trey could question him further, he was off, leaving his confounded boyfriend in the cafeteria line, staring at his retreating back until someone standing behind him pressed him to stop holding up the line.
This strange interaction was all Trey could think of as he walked to the botanical gardens with Vil amongst a stream of all their classmates. The model somehow made a lab coat look like couture as he strutted beside Trey, unusually quiet for someone who always had something to say.
“So, what did you and Jade-”
“—Don’t you know it’s rude to ask others about their private conversations?” Vil immediately interrupted him, giving him a sidelong glance that made Trey snap his mouth shut immediately. “Besides, if Jade wanted you to know, he would have told you, would he not?”
“That’s like saying Rook tells you everything,” Trey chuckled nervously.
“He does.”
A long silence hung between them. “Rook is a bad example in this scenario,” Trey finally said.
Vil only offered a pleased hum as they arrived at the entrance of the botanical gardens. Before Trey could hold the door open for the Housewarden of Pomefiore, it swung open, revealing Jade standing before them, mud staining his usually impeccable uniform as he suddenly shoved a bundle of herbs into his boyfriend’s unsuspecting arms. “Artemisia absinthium,” Jade announced, askance. “All harvested and measured in accordance with your assignment for poison refining.”
Behind Trey, Vil snorted but said nothing. Trey looked between the wormwood in his arms and up at the taller man, dumbfounded for the second time that day. “What are you doing here? Don’t you have study hall?”
“Well, yes, but retrieving the sugar cane for Azul took longer than I anticipated,” contended Jade, as his eyes flickered over to Vil for the briefest of moments. “I figured as long as I’m here, why don’t I harvest your herbs for you? It didn’t take me long, and I’m sure both of you could appreciate the favor.”
Trey turned to look at Vil, who had his arms crossed over his chest and a smirk quirking up the corner of his lips. “Sevens, how generous.”
Trey glanced between the two and sighed. He knew better than to ask what was going on, especially with Vil already scolding him earlier, so he resigned himself to smiling at Jade, thankful for the act of service. “Thanks, you really saved us a ton of time.”
Unable to help himself, Trey did ask, “But I thought you were getting sugarcubes for the lounge?"
Never one to miss a beat, Jade replied easily, “No, Azul asked me for sugarcane. You must have misheard me.” Trey was certain Jade had said sugarcube, but he decided to let it go.
“Come now, Trey. We’ve got a cauldron waiting for us,” the ever perceptive Vil cut through their stand-off and turned on her heel to return to their classroom.
“I’ll see you later, dear,” Jade called after them with a chilling sing-song.
__________
The second time something strange occurred, Trey was sure he knew what Jade was trying to do.
He had just gotten out of science club and began to make his way over to the botanical gardens to pick the strawberries he had been growing. He had been wanting to make a tart for Riddle before school let out for winter break— it would probably be the last one he had before they came back to school.
He was about halfway to the glass structure when his phone started to ring. He fished it out of his pocket to see Cater’s selfie lighting up his screen, and he answered the phone. “Heartslabyul emergency?”
“Mega-emergency!” Cater’s voice was shrill with panic. “Floyd and Riddle were having tea when all of a sudden Floydstarted going all cray-cray! Like, he’s tossing pastries and plates around! Riddle is losing his mind, and Floyd is about to lose his head!”
“Alright, try and calm Floyd. If youcan handle him, Riddle will settle. I’ll be over as soon as possible,” Trey sighed as he hung up after Cater’s confirmation. He shoved his phone into his jacket pocket and began to jog back to the mirror chamber. The strawberries would just have to wait.
When he arrived at Heartslabyul, Cater hurriedly escorted him to the gardens, where Floyd was still on his rampage, breaking tables and tossing teacups left and right. Riddle, red in the face, was firing off his signature magic in rage, shouting his signature “eeUUURRRGHHHHHH” as Floyd laughed maniacally and launched a cupcake at Cater’s unsuspecting face.
“GRK-!” Cater yelped as the cupcake collided with him, frosting spattering everywhere.
“Cease this at once, Floyd!” Riddle screeched at the top of his lungs, holding out his staff as he fired off an ‘Off With Your Head!’ at Floyd, who deflected it with “*Bind the Heart*”.
“I like it when you get fired up like this, Goldfishe,” Floyd cackled wildly, lifting another pie that Trey had painstakingly made, and that’s when enough was enough for the Vice-Housewarden.
“Hey, hey, hey! Come on, guys,” Trey chastised as he hurried over to stop the commotion between the two. “The underclassmen are going to have to clean this up. Think of them,” Trey pleaded.
As soon as he caught sight of the Vice-Housewarden of Heartslabyul, it was as if some switch flipped off, and Floyd immediately stopped his chaos with a lazy smile. “Heyyyyy, sea turtle~” the merman sang as he leaned on the table as if he weren’t just hellbent on destroying the garden. “Good to see ya.”
“Good to see…me?” Trey blinked as he adjusted his glasses and sighed deeply. Riddle, on the other hand, seemed less than pleased.
“FLOYD LEECH!” He screeched with the fury of a banshee, chest heaving as frosting suspiciously drooped off his nose. “WHAT IN ALL OF TWISTED WONDERLAND HAS GOTTEN INTO YOU!”
“Easy now, Riddle, easy,” Trey said in a calm voice, an attempt to soothe the tyrant-mode boy, “We all know what Floyd is like. He probably just got in one of his moods.”
“THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE!” Riddle shouted as he lunged at his boyfriend, who caught him with practiced ease and twirled him around in a squeezing hug. Trey winced. That couldn’t have been good for Riddle’s spine, ego, or temper.
Floyd, for his part, seemed completely unbothered by all of this. “Ehehe~ Little Goldfishe’s jumping with all these new tricks,” his arms tightened around Riddle, who thrashed around in his embrace with a rage reminiscent of the beginning of his second year. “Makes me reallllll excited to spend a looooot of time with him over the break. We’ll smash gingerbread houses, scare away carolers, and set fire to pine trees!”
“Floyd, those aren’t really the way those traditions go,” Cater offered weakly from behind Trey.
“Yeah, but the way you land-dwellers do it is BORING!” Floyd bemoaned. “Me an’ Goldfishe are gonna make it WAY more fun!”
“FLOYD UNHAND ME THIS INSTANT!” came Riddle’s muffled shout from deep in the arms of the merman holding him captive. Trey could see his legs kicking about and his entire body twisting in his attempt to free himself.
“Fine~” Floyd suddenly conceded as he opened his arms and dropped Riddle unceremoniously to the ground below them. Trey let out a deep sigh as Riddle stared up at Floyd, mouth agape, as if wondering how someone could dare to be so careless with him, the Red Sovereign himself.
“You….you aRE INSUFFERABLE!” Riddle shouted as Cater hurried over to help him up.
Floyd seemed completely unbothered by Riddle’s outbursts as he checked his phone and put it back in his pocket with a satisfied smile. Trey vaguely wished he was fed whatever Floyd was growing up to have such nerves of steel. “Whatever. You still love me anyway. Besides, Jade is almost here.”
“Jade?” Trey asked, perking at the name of his boyfriend.
“A-yup!” Floyd said brightly as he picked up an untouched cupcake from the table and bit into it, paper and all. Trey cringed at the affront to the pastry arts and wondered if he complained enough to Jade, if he would do something about his brother’s atrocious habits.
As if on cue, a gloved hand appeared on Trey’s shoulder. “Oh, my. Look at the state of the Heartslabyulian garden. Is it not the pride and joy of the dorm? What a tragedy that it’s allowed to be so neglected.”
“Jade,” Riddle growled between clenched teeth as he staggered away from Cater. “Don’t you dare insult the gardens after it was Floyd’s callous mood-swing that caused the garden to be in such a state!”
“Fret not, I’ll make sure Floyd cleans up the garden,” Jade said, pressing his palm to his heart with a smile. He then presented Trey with a woven basket full of berries. “Here, in the meanwhile, you could go bake that tart you were intending to make for Riddle.”
Floyd let out a loud, displeased noise. “That was not part of the deal!”
“Deal?” Trey asked, turning to Jade with a raised brow. The cogs in his head slowly started turning. However, he felt like there was a piece of the puzzle that was still missing for him to grasp the full picture of what was truly going on.
Jade turned to his twin with a tight smile, the kind that typically hid his true intentions. To most people, they would view this as some sort of threat hiding nefarious intentions and wicked scheming, but unbeknownst to most, that strained smile was more likely to be Jade hiding something he wished wouldn’t be known.
“Floyd,” Jade’s voice was deep and laced with dark implications. “You will clean this up.”
“Ugh,” Floyd groaned, slinking back into the chair he was once sitting in before deciding to run amok. “Sea turtle, you owe me.”
__________
The fire crackled in the hearth, the only sound filling the otherwise silent night as Jade and Trey cuddled close on his family’s couch, limbs tangled and Jade’s face buried in the crook of Trey’s neck as their chests rose and fell in sync. As the snow fell gently outside the Clover pâtisserie, the world seemed to fade away, or grow small enough to be held in the circle of Trey’s arms. Floyd, after dinner, had run off to join Riddle in his clandestine room, and his siblings and parents had gone caroling, although Trey couldn’t help but feel like that was an excuse meant to allow Trey to enjoy the comfort of his partner’s company.
“I’m really glad you’re here,” Trey murmured into the teal locks of his boyfriend’s hair, nuzzling the top of his head as Jade’s arms squeezed him tighter. “It’s nice to spend time like this. Not having to run and tend to the needs of Riddle or Azul. Just…us,” Trey admitted as Jade shifted in his arms to press a kiss against his jaw.
“I must admit, this is nice,” Jade agreed readily. “Your family is kind. I do wish you had let your mother show me more photos of you as a baby. You were quite….plump. Squeezable and edible, “ he mused, and Trey let out a deep groan as he hid his blushing face away from where his boyfriend could see.
“I don’t know why I’m surprised at how well you two got along,” Trey muttered, remembering the excited way his mother had shown off Trey’s baby album after dinner, which the twins had generously cooked. Trey’s mother was over the moon at finally being able to meet the boy who had conquered her son’s heart. Jade had been more than happy to share stories of what Trey was like at Night Raven College in exchange for tales of what Trey was like as a child growing up in the Queendom of Roses.
His mother was, of course, taken from the moment Jade presented her with a bouquet of pink roses that he had retrieved from the botanical gardens, once again barring Trey from receiving them himself by cutting and wrapping them in elegant paper before he even had the chance to formulate the idea of stepping foot into the area.
Trey wrapped his finger around the long strand of jet black hair that hung from the left side of Jade’sface. “So,” Trey finally asked, breaking the comfortable silence that hung between them. “Do you want to tell me why you were doing everything in your power to keep me out of the botanical gardens these last two weeks?”
Jade looked up at Trey with surprise, his heterochromatic eyes wide with shock, perhaps at being caught, before his expression softened to something akin to affection. “I forget that I’m not the only person in this relationship who can mask their thoughts until the right moment,” Jade mused as he seized Trey’s chin and tilted his head down to press a kiss on his forehead. “How about I show you instead of telling you?”
“That would be fine with me,” Trey conceded, eyes fluttering shut as Jade’s brushed against his lips before standing. “Promise me you won’t look?” Jade's breath was warm against his as he kissed Trey with a feverish passion, as if he could disappear in any second.
“I won’t,” Trey agreed in a hurried breath as they broke from their kiss, looking down at the younger as he reluctantly pulled away from his embrace and stood.
“I’ll be back shortly,” Jade promised, kissing the back of Trey’s hand before he disappeared into a different room, leaving him unusually uncomfortable in his childhood home. After a while of unnerving quietness from Jade, Trey called out, “Is it okay for me to look now?”
Following a silence pregnant with anticipation, Jade replied in a voice that had been less tense than he had heard it in quite some time, “Yes, you can come find me now.”
Trey stood from his spot on the couch, walking through the doorway from their family room into the kitchen, where he found Jade under the archway with a startling, shy smile, and a green plant hanging above them in the doorway. Trey instantly recognized it and felt his cheeks heat to an uncomfortable degree as he looked up at the herb. He had mentioned liking the idea of the tradition in passing to Jade months ago, but didn’t expect him to remember it, much less go out of his way to carry it out with such secrecy.
“Is this why you’ve been sneaking around more than usual?” Trey asked as he looked up at the mistletoe that hung between them in the arch of the doorway. In lieu of answering, Jade leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to his lips, wrapping his arms around his waist and tugging him closer until they were flush against each other.
“Perhaps,” Jade admitted against Trey’s lips after a long while, reluctantly releasing him as he led him to a different doorway arch in his home, decorated with yet another dangling mistletoe. Trey couldn’t help but let out a breathless laugh.
“Are…are all of my home’s doorways likely this?” He asked, and Jade’s smile only confirmed his suspicions.
This time, Trey beat Jade to the punch, putting his hands on Jade’s shoulders and leaning up to kiss him first. Jade seemed taken aback for only a moment before returning the affection, cupping the back of Trey’s head and bending him backward, making Trey laugh against his lips.
When they parted, Trey rested his head on Jade’s chest and asked, “So Vil-”
“He was giving me advice on how to grow the mistletoe,” Jade answered. “In exchange for more of his special moisturizer.”
“And Floyd’s rampage?” Trey questioned.
“Azul had let me know that you were spotted heading towards the gardens by Idia’s systems,” Jade said coolly.
“Pause,” Trey lifted his head to stare at Jade incredulously. “You had surveillance put on me?”
Jade chuckled. “I wouldn’t say that.”
“Is it still watching me?”
“Who’s to say?”
“Jade.”
“Not anymore,” he said with a sigh and a devious smile. “You never let me have my fun.”
“I wouldn’t exactly call that fun,” Trey argued.
“For you.”
Trey tugged Jade down for another kiss, effectively silencing him as he wrapped his arms around Jade's neck, and Jade leaned over to kiss him.
After a long while under the mistletoe, Trey pulled away and pressed his forehead against Jade’s. “Why don’t I try to find the other mistletoes?”
“I do love this tradition,” Jade hummed, stealing another kiss, but certainly not the last for the rest of the night.