Chapter Text
Spelldon was getting really fucking sick of the color pink.
It was everywhere.
It was February! Of course it was everywhere.
An ugly, garish shade of pink that made him think of swine and cough medicine.
Spelldon found Valentine in the belltower again, picking at some flowers like the angsty vamp that he was. He couldn’t help but chuckle just a little at the sight.
It was a normal sight to him now, watching Valentine swing his legs on the edge of the belltower and pick at whatever flower he’d found in the grounds’ garden this time. Roses, tulips, baby’s breath- Valentine tore petals from them all, pouting and looking to the world lovesick and heartbroken at the same time.
It didn’t matter what Spelldon said or how he egged at him, Valentine was a tough spell to break. They’d grown so close lately, but it still felt like there was so much that Valentine refused to tell him. It made him feel a little insecure, sometimes. He wanted to be close to Valentine. He was the only monster in the school that understood it all.
He was also the only person in the world Spelldon could talk to about this .
He’d been having visions again- nothing new. He often got premonitions and forecasts in his sleep, but it was usually meaningless droll about the weather or a pop quiz.
“Hey, Vallie.” Spelldon greeted with a sigh, walking over to sit next to the vampire.
“ Spell .” Valentine’s face lit up with the greeting. His face fell again, seeming to notice something in Spelldon’s face. “...What’s wrong?”
“Visions.” Spelldon groaned, holding his head. “Family.”
“Tell me ‘bout it.” Valentine urged, bumping their shoulders together.
Spelldon smiled tiredly. They always fell into a rhythm so easily. Spelldon was a little known gossip, and Valentine just happened to be so good at listening.
Growing up the son of Circe, the little brother of Casta Fierce and the Spells , well, he didn’t get listened to very often. Valentine was different. Valentine looked at him like he was the world, like he was the superstar, or the magical god, and the vampire knew how to keep secrets of all kinds.
“...Do you ever get scared of the idea of your own…immortality?” Spelldon said finally, fingering at the pentacle necklace around his neck.
Valentine hummed, looking out at the school grounds with a pout. He usually pouted when he was thinking really hard about something. “...Not the idea of the immortality, no. The idea of loneliness for eternity…sure as shine.”
Spell couldn’t help but admire Valentine while he looked out at the grounds. The school was decorated in an absolutely garish shade of pink, but Valentine’s shade of pink was different. It was warm and soft and gentle. His skin, the stripes of his hair, the color of his eyes. Even the sky painting the background was that warm, burnt shade of pink that Spelldon had just come to know as Valentine .
The vampire did everything in pink. His hair, his notebooks, his favorite pens. His favorite undershirt was a billowing victorian button-up in a pale shade of pink he insisted was called the queen’s pearl .
“I’ve been having dreams about Valentine’s Day.” Spelldon sighed. “...Fortune tellings, y’know? Just makes me think…”
“That’s nevah’ good.” Valentine teased, tugging on the pentacle necklace and smirking. “You’ll lose the brain cells ya have left doin’ that. You don’ need to be playin’ matchmaker in this school, trust me. It’ll get ya stuffed into a locker.”
“ Ha-ha .” Spelldon retorted dryly, rolling yellow eyes. “...I’m being serious. I keep having those dreams about just being stuck in this loop forever .”
“Loop?” Valentine asked, tilting his head a bit. Spelldon couldn’t help but watch the gentle curve of his hair as it waterfalled across his face when he did that.
“...I’ve been alive a long time, Val. Like you. But I feel like that whole time, all I’ve done is just live out of my mother and my sister’s shadows. I only started experiencing life for my own when I moved here, to get away from them.” He sighed. “...What if that’s all I am? What if all I’ll ever be is a compilation of their leftover magic? Just another shadow in the family legacy? What if all anyone ever sees is that? What if love just isn’t on the table for me like it is everyone else?”
Valentine seemed to think of this, humming.
“...Well, I don’t think that’s true at all.” Valentine said simply, like he was correcting the answer on a study test. “Y’know, out of all the monsters in this school, out of all the monsters in this city- you’re the only one whose shown me any kind of kindness. You’re a good person.”
“Being a good person doesn’t make up for the immortality factor. Who's gonna wanna live forever with the shadow of Circe? Who's gonna even be capable of that?” Spelldon nearly whined, threading through multicolor hair.
“...Someone.” Valentine said simply, removing Spelldon’s circular sunglasses as it got darker around them, placing them in his hair. “...Anyone would be lucky to have ya, Spell. Maybe it’s just…takin’ a while to notice them. You’ve got a lifetime to do it.”
“I just-” Spelldon started, grasping for words. He barely acknowledged Valentine’s touches to his glasses. “I think I’m just overreacting. It’s Valentine’s Day soon, y’know? Love is everywhere! ” He mocked. “Everywhere but here. I can’t even get Holt to look at me, nonetheless someone who could actually make this standstill of immortality seem any more bearable.”
Valentine’s ears twitched, barely noticeable, on Holt . “...Spelldon, I luh-” Valentine’s mouth snapped shut with a click of his teeth, sighing huffily. “...I care about you very much. You’re smart, and you’re kind, and you have a big heart. Maybe your somebody is just…hidin’ in plain sight. You ain’t nevah’ been too good at those spot the differences .”
There was something different in Valentine’s eyes as he spoke through that rough accent. Something secret and teasing.
Whatever it was scampered off when Spelldon stood up, creating more distance between them.
The pink of the sunset flooded into the belltower now, highlighting Valentine like a ghost against his already stark, pale pink skin.
Valentine took the hand offered to him by Spelldon, standing up.
“So, what’ve you got planned for this dumb made up holiday?” Spelldon griped.
Valentine smiled in an amused way. “Just- outta curiosity- do you know who made the holiday up?”
“No?” Spelldon said. “I don’t care to. It’s just another ridiculous reason for monsters to rub their stupid happiness in everyone’s face and beg poor witches like me for made-up love potions.”
Valentine snorted through a laugh- that real laugh that he only used with Spelldon and Draculaura. “You aren’t usually the pessimistic one outta us. I think I’m startin’ to like this new, bitchy Spelldon Cauldronello.”
“Don’t get used to it, Spooky.” Spelldon assured, scoffing. “Give it a few days after Valentine’s and I’ll be back to nagging you into socializing with our peers.”
“ Great .” Valentine droned.
“I’ll see you tomorrow at school. You, Rochelle, and Draculaura are still trying to finish decorating the west wing, right?” Spelldon asked, stepping over the ledge of the belltower and onto the ledge of his broom, floating in air for him.
“ Tryin’ to .” Valentine griped. “Laura thinks nadeshiko pink is a Valentine’s Day color. Can you imagine? She’s gonna drive me up a wall by tomorrow.”
“Is pink not a Valentine’s Day color?” Spelldon asked, amused, as he floated down enough to fold his arms over the ledge and rest his chin on it.
“Not that pink, it’s not!” Valentine huffed, whining and high pitched. “The theme is carnation pink , obviously!”
“I’m sure, Val.” Spelldon snarked, letting the force holding him up fall completely and suddenly as he swept away on his broom.
He started noticing pink everywhere after that. In the sky, in the cars below, and in Valentine’s shrinking form.
He found himself reading another wikia page that night when he couldn’t sleep- something about the difference between Nadeshiko pink and the shade that Spelldon had decided to dub
Valentine pink
.