Work Text:
See, Lottie thinks that Jeb is pretty nice. A stand-up dude. So that’s why she’s a little confused when someone who looks almost exactly like him is teaching a botany workshop. That'd be malicious, really no-good, extremely devious. She's lamented how complicated biology is about a hundred times, so he really should've told her if he were competent enough to lead a workshop. Since, honestly this dude looks almost exactly like him. The guy has broad shoulders, a black shirt clinging to him, and a bit-too-large copper flannel hanging loosely on his frame, obscuring his stocky build. The clothes are familiar, and his hair is slicked back just like Jeb’s. His face looks… a tad different, but if she squints, he’s a dead ringer for Jeb. If it weren’t for the silver hair, she would have called him Jeb. Instead, she texts Alex a discrete picture of the dude.
Lottie: Did Jeb dye his hair?
Alex: ???
Lottie: That guy from halloween
Alex: Yeah, I know him
Lottie: His name is Jeb?
Alex: ???
Alex: Yeah why
Lottie: *1 image attached*
Lottie: Did he dye his hair??
Alex: jdsnfkdn
Alex: Dude
Alex: That’s Jeb’s brother
Lottie: OH
Alex: Yeah
Lottie: I was gonna get mad you didn’t tell me he was a botany expert
Lottie: Nevermind haha
Alex: Wdym?
Lottie: He’s here for the week doing botany workshops
Alex: Hey, I’ll ask Jeb! Maybe he can tutor you!
Lottie: Omg really?
-
Alex: Jeb!
Jeb: Yeah?
Alex: Could you ask your brother to tutor Lottie botany?
Alex: Pleaseeeeee?
Jeb: …Maybe
Jeb: Wait, how do you know he studies botany?
Alex: …because he’s here? Teaching botany workshops?
*Jeb is offline*
-
“Hello everyone, and welcome to the workshop!”
The mystery is put out of her mind when the workshop begins, and she feels the need to furiously take down notes. How was it that everything seemed to be of value? Later on, she would realise he managed to notarize even the little jokes worked into his presentation. It was the end that took her by surprise.
“I actually have a little demonstration here for you.”
He removes a plant, and touching its delicate leaves causes a burst of movement to take place, and the flower shoots upward, dispersing a spray that should be toxic, according to his lesson. There’s some panic before he sticks out his hands, and somehow reels in the gas, returning the plant to its natural state. Hands immediately go up.
“How did you do that?”
The guy has had a strictly neutral face the entire time, a stern and serious expression. In this moment, she can tell there’s a little bit of a light in his eyes, and she sucks at reading body language. He shrugs, stifling a smile. With a wave of his fingers, Kro explains what happened.
“Magic…”
Her jaw almost hits the floor. This guy is a gargoyle, and he just spills the secret?
The secret??
What the f-
“Sleight of hand, card tricks, all good ways to spice up a presentation. The community centre near me was holding a crash course, but you could probably find some tutorials online if I'm being honest.”
He produces a deck of cards, and makes them disappear. Waving his hands around wildly with a still-serious expression on his face, he puts a hand behind one of the attendees' ears and pulls out the cards.
He mimics an explosion-still monotonously stern- and ends the display there. While he’s packing up, she lines up to ask him a few questions. In line, she notices a pretty girl with a head of black hair, and something possesses her to make conversation.
“I like the Botangent series.”
She hits herself mentally.
Luckily, the girl seems to take it well, laughing as she takes a look at the edition.
“Me too! That’s why I’m reading it.”
They hit it off, and though she has to leave, Mei gives her her phone number, and her heart flutters. It appears someone else isn’t having much luck, as Kro shoots down some guy asking for his number. It doesn’t go so well, and the guy is scowling as Lottie steps up to ask her questions.
It soon subsides to his normal expression, and once she’s clarified her feelings, she walks away, holding the door open for Jeb.
-
“Kro!”
His brother swivels around, not even a bit surprised by his entrance.
“Jeb. What can I do for you?”
His astonishment is obviously not going to be addressed, so he cuts to the chase.
“What are you doing here?”
Once more, his impossible brother does nothing but shrug, picking up a crate and moving out of the bustling library.
“Hosting workshops.”
Jeb attempts to fix him with one of his dad’s well-known glares, but has the odd feeling all he looks like is constipated. He sighs, exasperated.
“What are you really doing here?”
Irritatingly, Kro just shrugs again.
“I already told you-”
He’s cut off when a gangly brunette dude he’s seen around, maybe with the Omicoven, comes up to them.
“Look, I know I came off a little- strong in there, but there’s no reason we can’t be-”
It’s Kro’s turn to cut him off with a palm facing out.
“Listen, I told you once, and that should be more than enough. I’m not interested. And also way too old for you. You asking again and again isn’t going to make me more interested. It’s kind of creepy.”
The guy storms off, and Kro grimaces awkwardly. He turns toward Jeb as he hands the crate off to someone in passing, who thanks him briefly.
“You were saying?”
“Well, this is a different question, but like,”
He needs to keep Kro distracted, and needs to keep him in check to ensure he doesn’t figure out more about what’s going on than he needs to know.
“How do you ask someone out?”
His soul leaves his body. Why, why that?
Kro’s eyes brighten, and he knows he’s made a mistake.
“Ah! So it’s about Alex -”
He’s practically shouting, and Jeb’s face goes red.
“Not that loud, yeesh!”
Somewhere on the walk, they’d stumbled into the canteen, and Jeb takes the opportunity to buy a can of pop from a vending machine, shoving it into Kro’s hands. He takes a sip before his eyebrows shoot up.
“I'd forgotten how good these things are!”
To his benefit, a girl approaches them, long brown hair dangling down to her waist, dark eyes sparkling. Luckily, Kro spots her out of the corner of his eye, and misattributes the situation grossly.
“Twice is way too many, dude, I-”
He makes eye contact with her, and flushes slightly.
“Oh gosh. I thought you were someone else. I’m really sorry.”
Something about her is… bewitching, and Jeb finds himself gravitating toward her slightly in a way that Kro is not. He angles himself to face her, looking to Kro to see if he is doing the same. He is not. It’s nothing magnetic, but it’s subtle, barely there. As if she could read his thoughts, she smirks.
“It’s really alright. I was just wondering if you’re here long? I’d really like to catch more of these workshops.”
“No, not really. I’m here for the week, but I won’t be doing any more workshops for a very long time. This is… kind of a rare occurrence.”
She smiles, even though nothing is funny about it. Kro shrinks away, and Jeb tries to figure out why he’s tugging at his sleeve. He wants to stay here just a bit longer.
“I’m Jeb,” He says, clumsily. “I’m his brother.”
She turns to him, her smile hitting him like a flashlight.
“Hi Jeb. I’m Libby.”
Out of nowhere, Callias shows up.
“Hey guys! What’s going on?”
Kro looks to him, nervous. Jeb can tell Callias is doing something odd- maybe fidgeting?- he looks tense.
“We’re just getting acquainted with Katrina here."
“I can tell!” Callias’ smile is forced, tight, his words have an almost musical tune to them.
“So, Katrina, exams are coming up! I bet it would suck to miss lectures. Sometimes I spend too long on break and miss one, and I just…” He trails off, putting his hands on his hips.“I just feel like kicking myself!”
Katrina takes on some of his tenseness, looking at a clock.
“Glad you reminded me. I should get going.”
And then she addresses Kro.
“Guess I’ll have to meet your boyfriend some other time, huh?”
Once she leaves, Jeb notices just how close Callias is to Kro, practically having his arm around his waist. Once Jeb blinks, focusing a bit clearer, Callias steps a little further away.
“You guys aren’t that good at this thing, huh? Maybe we should head outside.”
-
“Dudes. How do you guys get roped up with a cherub and not realise it?”
“A what?”
Kro shifts.
“Look, I’m a little unfamiliar with this place. And that’s without that peculiar- ugh.”
Callias furrows his brow but doesn’t say anything, an unreadable expression flitting across his face. His expression quickly morphs into something more neutral.
“Listen, a cherub reads ley lines and uses that to their advantage. Additionally, they feed off of attachments. Platonic, familial, romantic, love. A cheap way to do it is by feeding off of people who find them attractive. Shallow endearments. You're lucky you had some harpy tunes.”
He looks at Kro, who shrugs easily.
“Not my type.”
He himself cocks his head.
“I’ll be okay.”
They look at him, and he hides his face in his hands.
“...She’s cute.”
They roll their eyes, and he hopes the conversation can move on already.
“Well, are you in town long?”
Kro shakes his head.
“Just dealing with something small before Jeb dragged me away. What was it you wanted?”
He looks to Jeb, who’s frantically trying to think of something.
“Um, well…”
Think, think, think.
“I was wondering if you’d do me a favour and tutor my friend in Botany?”
No! The plan is to get rid of Kro so he isn’t always hovering around, and that’s what he comes up with?
Kro frowns as he thinks about it.
“I don’t know.”
“It’ll be good! Not a seminar where you have to juggle multiple people’s attention, kind of one-on-one.”
No. Absolutely no defending this crazy idea.
“Alright, now I’m a little less sure. I’m better in larger groups of people.”
“I get that,” Callias pipes up.
“Why are you still here?”
“The Dean keeps rejecting my transfer paperwork, and then sending me on errands before I can fix it!”
“See, he gets it. I hate to let you and your friend down, but I don’t think it’ll work out.”
Callias’ lips quirk to the side in an expression of disappointment.
“Shame. If you did show up once a week or something, you could keep tabs on the cherub. You’d be especially great at it since she’s not your type.”
Jeb has never wanted to rip out the harpy’s tongue more than he has right now.
Kro lights up.
“That’s a good point. In that case, I guess you can tell your friend it sounds good.”
-
“You’re really guzzling that pop huh?”
“I only eat root vegetables and boiled mutton. Let me have this.”
-
Later they’re gallivanting all around town looking for a creature library that stocks forbidden knowledge. It isn’t really something they can search on Boogle Maps.
It’s then that they run into Lottie, and Callias is exhausted enough to strike up a conversation.
“Hey Callias! What are you doing here?”
“Just showing Kro around.”
The pink-haired witch looks past him at Kro, who is currently fascinated with a lava lamp.
“Oh!” Realisation lights up her face, and that rubs a slide of confusion down his back. What could she possibly be thinking?
“That makes more sense. Feel bad for the guy. Some dude was hassling him for a date and he was turning him down.”
She goes a little pink.
“Erm, don’t tell him I told you that. It’s just, getting cheated on sucks. Glad you don’t have to go through that, even if I don’t know you so well.”
For a moment, it looks like she’s going to wave him goodbye before he cuts in.
“What do you mean, he was turning him down?”
It was Lottie’s turn to be confused.
“Like, he was asking if Kro wanted to go out, and Kro said no, was really direct about it. Probably since you're dating and everything. Am I overstepping, or?”
“Not at all Lottie. See you around!”
Kro walks over to him as Lottie leaves through the front door.
“No luck. Think I gotta head home." He looks almost nervous when he opens his mouth again. "Care to join me?”
The gargoyle looks pink in the face. He gives Kro a bright smile.
“I’d love to.”