Chapter 1: Chapter 1
Chapter Text
The only thing that rung in everyone’s ears was a large crash.
Well, crashes.
Crashes, and what faintly resembled the sound of fire and flames gorging themselves on any souls it dared lay its flames on, a window shattering and coating everyone in sharp rain.
A scream. Or was it screams? Plural? There was so much going on. A cataclysmic explosion of unmatched proportions.
Grim.
The last thing everybody saw of the mischievous little gray monster was him going feral.
Him casting that blue fire that reminded everyone of orientation.
…the black ink.
There was a roar of sorts and above everyone’s heads wasn’t a phantom—or rather it was. But that wasn’t all it was. HE was.
A chimera breed of a monstrous cat, mixed with what seemed to be parts of a snake, and a dragon. Were those parts of a lion? Octopus and-
Nobody could see a thing. It was too hot, these flames were all overwhelming. The glass continued to shower everybody—and if those wouldn’t swallow them whole, the school itself would, collapsing in on itself like sandpaper.
Not to mention the screams. The chaos. The running and trampling. Trampling over people judging by the vague bones cracking. You’d have to really be paying attention to even hear their cries if not for everyone else’s.
“Kalim! Kalim where are you?!”
That familiar voice broke the white haired boy out of his trance, his hands and knees still on the rough, failing floor.
“Jamil! I’ll find you!!!”
Both their selective attention, their instant drift towards each other through the sounds of screams—panicked and pained alike—and building falling must’ve come from years of Jamil looking after Kalim, years of reading his mind and rearranging his own thoughts to match the heir’s.
̶Y̶e̶a̶r̶s̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶c̶o̶d̶e̶p̶e̶n̶d̶e̶n̶c̶y̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶l̶i̶e̶s̶
It wasn’t until Kalim actually managed to unglue himself from the floor when he felt it, the sharp pain, a strangled gasp slipping out of his mouth.
His hand moved to his stomach and he expected…well, he didn’t know what he expected to feel with his hand.
The spot on his stomach felt warm and wet—definitely blood but…something was sticking out. Kalim couldn’t fully make out what it was.
Maybe it was a piece of glass? All that glass did come raining down from the windows after all..maybe just a small piece of debris? What if it was a piece of bone?? And he would end up drowning in his own blood-
“KALIM!!!”
𝗝𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗹 𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗮𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘆𝗼𝘂. 𝗗𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗵𝗶𝗺 𝘄𝗮𝗶𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝗽𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼𝗼.
For once, Kalim was grateful he wasn’t that good at tying belts. The purple sash had loosened itself naturally from his waist, allowing him to fold the robe over the slowly darkening spot quickly.
H̶e̶ ̶w̶a̶s̶n̶’̶t̶ ̶s̶u̶r̶e̶ ̶w̶h̶y̶ ̶h̶e̶ ̶d̶i̶d̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶e̶x̶a̶c̶t̶l̶y̶.̶ ̶M̶a̶y̶b̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶a̶d̶r̶e̶n̶a̶l̶i̶n̶e̶ ̶g̶o̶t̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶h̶e̶a̶d̶.̶ ̶M̶a̶y̶b̶e̶ ̶h̶e̶ ̶w̶a̶s̶ ̶t̶r̶y̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶m̶a̶k̶e̶ ̶h̶i̶m̶s̶e̶l̶f̶ ̶p̶a̶n̶i̶c̶ ̶b̶y̶ ̶l̶o̶o̶k̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶a̶t̶ ̶w̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶p̶o̶k̶e̶d̶ ̶o̶u̶t̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶s̶k̶i̶n̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶t̶o̶o̶ ̶l̶o̶n̶g̶.̶
All he could focus on was the familiar tall, graceful stature of his n̶o̶t̶-̶f̶r̶i̶e̶n̶d̶ servant. Jamil waved towards Kalim, his calculating gray eyes wide with urgency.
𝐋𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐊𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐦 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐮𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐢𝐦, 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐚𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝.
So, Kalim put his brain’s thinking patterns on the backburner and ran to the noirette, doing his best to just focus on getting to his required destination instead of the burning feeling of the wound being tugged and split more and more with every step. He just hoped Jamil wasn’t paying attention to his facial expressions right now, because he couldn’t help but let a grimace etch its way onto his face, a pained whine leaving his lips that was muffled over all the chaos.
Kalim practically ran into Jamil’s arms, and a̶s̶ ̶t̶r̶a̶i̶n̶e̶d̶ Jamil caught him with perfect precision, holding him close before letting go and letting the blood red eyes look into his.
Jamil didn’t ask him if he was alright, maybe he was asking it through his eyes? They could hold so much expression when they weren’t trying to create a math equation from every illogical situation that came.
𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲, 𝗯𝗼𝘆. 𝗢𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗮𝗴𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝘆 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗝𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗹 𝗶𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗱𝗱𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝗶𝗺𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳 𝗶𝘀 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝗳𝘂𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗱. 𝗢𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗮𝗴𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗽𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻—𝗻𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗼𝘄𝗹𝘆 𝗮𝘃𝗼𝗶𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗱𝗶𝗲𝗱 𝘀𝗽𝗼𝘁 𝗼𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗮𝗰𝗵—𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗰𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗶𝘁, 𝗶𝘀 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝘆 𝗱𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘁 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝘂𝘀𝘁.
Another boom was heard from ahead. The heir and his s̶l̶a̶v̶e̶ servant turned towards it, almost perfectly in sync.
The beast, once a friend, before them was unrecognizable. Its large ominous head forever in a scowl as its blue flamey creations danced around him, creating what looked like a lion mane of blue fire. He towered over everyone as if they were insects beneath its feet and claws, after he was once the small beast looking up at everyone in slight annoyance.
Now they looked up at him, but not in the way he wished. They didn’t look up at him as if he was the most powerful mage, there was no admiration, jealousy in their eyes.
They looked up in terror, like a devil had somehow flown down from heaven instead of crawling from underneath their feet and groveling before them.
He released a ginormous, monstrous roar that must’ve come from deep within his now inky heart and soul, the sheer force of it causing even more glass to fall. Had Jamil’s feet not been planted so firmly on the ground as he held Kalim’s shoulders, Kalim was certain he would’ve flown away just from the sheer force of the roar.
Even more terror erupted from the student body as they ran, shoved, pushed, trampled, fell. Screamed, cried, tried to get their phones or search for their friends.
Kalim and Jamil were already running, hand in hand. Neither of them dared to look back, for the thought of that same monster they had been faced with was the cute yet annoying little cat like creature who always adorned Yuu’s side—
Yuu.
Oh Yuu…the mirror was shattered to bits, Kalim caught a glimpse of it. It must’ve had something to do with Grim overblotting. After all, overblotting only came about if you both overused your magic AND negative emotions plagued your psyche.
Yuu leaving Grim behind should’ve had negative consequences, but to think it would come to this…
Kalim tried not to tear up just thinking about it, how cruel it was. How cruel it must’ve been for Yuu to not be able to go home now after waiting a̶n̶d̶ ̶b̶e̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶k̶i̶c̶k̶e̶d̶ ̶a̶r̶o̶u̶n̶d̶ ̶ for so long. How cruel it was for Grim to lose his one companion and lose all bodily autonomy as a result.
The burning pain in his side was starting to get to the heir, the stickiness of his own blood made him cringe but that wasn’t even the worst part. He couldn’t keep running, it took everything in kalim not to scream at how much it felt like the item was digging more and more into his stomach.
The good news is, the training from having to keep himself quiet during all those kidnappings allowed him to bite his tongue enough that only a barely perceptible whimper slipped out.
The bad news was, Jamil basically had a sixth sense when it came to basically all of Kalim’s actions and feelings, so Kalim already knew to expect Jamil stopping in his tracks, turning around and immediately putting his hands on his charge’s soldiers, a look of concern crossing his stoic, gray eyes.
“What’s wrong? Are you in pain?”
Kalim’s grip on his belly loosened slightly as he stared into those grey eyes. A̶ ̶p̶a̶r̶t̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶h̶i̶m̶ ̶f̶e̶a̶r̶e̶d̶ ̶s̶n̶a̶k̶e̶ ̶w̶h̶i̶s̶p̶e̶r̶e̶r̶ ̶w̶o̶u̶l̶d̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶u̶s̶e̶d̶ ̶o̶n̶ ̶h̶i̶m̶ ̶o̶n̶c̶e̶ ̶a̶g̶a̶i̶n̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶g̶e̶t̶ ̶h̶i̶m̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶s̶t̶o̶p̶ ̶s̶t̶a̶l̶l̶i̶n̶g̶.̶
“I’m fine.” Kalim swallowed and waved off his vice’s concern, the lie feeling almost second nature the moment it left his tongue.
“J-just a cramp.” A shaky and hopefully convincing smile. “We’ve been running a while just—let me catch my breath.”
Kalim thanked the stars Jamil seemed to understand—judging by how he was panting as well. The heir’s lie was half-true, the two had run for who knows how long, and were now in front of the door leading out from the Hall of Mirrors. If you could even call it a hall anymore with how it’s been wrecked.
“Are you alright now? Can we keep going?” Kalim could pick up the urgency and restlessness in Jamil’s controlled tone, and knew he couldn’t keep either of them waiting if they either A) wanted to escape Grim’s flames or B) not drown amidst the sea of people pouring through the large door, almost separating the two.
𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐦𝐚𝐝𝐞 𝐡𝐢𝐦 𝐰𝐚𝐢𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝𝐧’𝐭 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐤 𝐢𝐭 𝐮𝐩. 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐟 𝐛𝐨𝐭𝐡 𝐨𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐢𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬.
“Sorry, l-let’s go.”
Jamil doesn’t even ask for confirmation before he practically drags himself and Kalim by the hand out from the destroyed ruins of what was once the Hall of Mirrors. He almost recoils when he sees the cracks and holes forming inside the halls—the school was collapsing in on itself, and he picked up his speed. He couldn’t afford to slow down or look back, not when their lives depended on it.
T̶h̶o̶u̶g̶h̶ ̶K̶a̶l̶i̶m̶ ̶w̶a̶s̶n̶’̶t̶ ̶s̶u̶r̶e̶ ̶i̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶m̶a̶t̶t̶e̶r̶e̶d̶ ̶a̶n̶y̶w̶a̶y̶ ̶i̶f̶ ̶b̶l̶o̶o̶d̶ ̶l̶o̶s̶s̶ ̶g̶o̶t̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶h̶i̶m̶.̶
Kalim just lets Jamil lead them out alongside the crowd that ran for their lives as well, keeping his head down so Jamil doesn’t see the grimace and clenched teeth adorning his face.
— — —
“Get in! Get in here now!” The normally sleazy and too calm of a voice, belonging to the headmage, now boomed through Kalim’s and Jamil’s ears, coming from the corner where his office was. Kalim lets Jamil dash while still gripping his hand, which almost sends Kalim flying because of his distorted balance. Still, it’s much better than taking a break when it felt like the walls would collapse.
And Kalim knew if he took a break now, he’d collapse alongside it all. Adrenaline was the only real thing keeping him afloat. That and the threat of dying—whether quickly by falling rubble, or slowly and painfully by that pesky, d̶e̶a̶d̶l̶y̶, hidden object still lodged in his gut.
He didn’t have to think about it too long though, since he and Jamil were in the headmaster’s office in records time thanks to Jamil pulling most of the weight, a̶s̶ ̶a̶l̶w̶a̶y̶s̶.̶
The door was quickly slammed behind them with a spell, judging by the colored hue gleaming over it. Would a spell really keep them safe, Kalim doubted it.
“This entire office has been sealed shut with a spell, it should last for about…half an hour!” Crowley announced as he fixed up his disheveled appearance.
“And how, pray tell, did you get that number exactly?”
Huh? Azul was here too?
And it wasn’t just him. A growl could be heard from across the room, belonging to a much deeper voice that was also easily recognizable.
“A spell to seal shut the room while the hallways are cracking around us. We’d be lucky if it lasted half that time before this room collapsed with it.”
So Leona was here, so was Azul…wait.
Are ALL the housewardens in this office?
“How can we possibly think to stay sealed off in here when our dorm members are being injured or worse, KILLED?!”
Riddle’s demanding tone screeched throughout the room, and it was immediately followed by Vil, the usually collected and composed model’s voice shaking ever so slightly.
“I was separated from Rook, Headmaster. What if he was injured and I wouldn’t know because I’m too busy cowering back here? Surely you can show at least a touch of care for your vice housewardens as well…”
Jamil felt those sharp, violet eyes fall onto him.
“Especially since one managed to get here on time.”
Before Jamil could get any words out, mainly to try and divert any attention away from himself, Crowley had already beat him to it.
“Alright, let us all calm down. Panicking does nothing in this situation.”
Ironic, considering that this same man c̶h̶i̶l̶d̶ would collapse in on himself were any of the parents to the students here became alert at what was happening. He’s only remaining calm now because he’s not concerned with saving his own skin at the moment. At least not now.
“O-ortho…ortho he’s out there I have to…I have to get to him….”
Kalim swore underneath the stuttering, he heard the words “I can’t lose him again” leaving Idia’s mouth.
The fact that the flame haired housewarden was somehow even convinced to attend in real life instead of behind his ipad screen was impressive, one had to admit, but then again, this was the ceremony where the prefect of Ramshackle’s labor finally bore fruit and they were able to return home. At least, that’s how things were supposed to go.
Kalim can only think sadly that this would just convince poor Idia to shut himself down more, that it wasn’t just social anxiety and getting into his own head. At least at the moment, he cared enough to show his face. But that was in the past.
And in this less than ideal present, Kalim was standing in the isolated room of his headmaster’s somehow unscathed office with his fellow housewardens and vice just as antsy as he is. At least that meant he wasn’t alone.
But then the bad news was, somebody would try to poke and prod at him—at the object lodged injury he was trying so hard to conceal from their eyes. All the focus would go on golden boy Kalim once again, and a situation where so many innocent students are probably receiving worse injuries than he would be made about him.
If he needed to stay quiet for them and their mission—for Jamil to have less of a workload—he would stay as quiet as possible, straightening himself out while planning a good time to diagnose the source of pain in private.
“I think all the other housewardens are here…” Kalim whispered to Jamil, but he was only met with a sharp “shhh” sound from him as well as a finger to his lips—most likely to intercept what the headmaster was saying over all the commotion.
Probably nothing of upmost importance, but surely he had some priorities that didn’t just concern himself when some of his students were burnt to ash.
H̶e̶ ̶t̶r̶i̶e̶d̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶n̶k̶ ̶t̶o̶o̶ ̶h̶a̶r̶d̶ ̶a̶b̶o̶u̶t̶ ̶h̶o̶w̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶w̶o̶u̶l̶d̶ ̶p̶r̶o̶b̶a̶b̶l̶y̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶r̶e̶s̶p̶o̶n̶s̶e̶ ̶h̶e̶’̶d̶ ̶g̶e̶t̶ ̶i̶f̶ ̶h̶e̶ ̶W̶E̶R̶E̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶c̶o̶m̶e̶ ̶c̶l̶e̶a̶n̶
a̶b̶o̶u̶t̶ ̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶w̶o̶u̶n̶d̶.̶
“Well…” The headmaster cleared his throat, straightened out his rather unkempt jacket, and fixed up a perfectly doll-like smile. “The good news is, all seven of you, plus Mr. Viper, are all in one place and relatively in one piece.”
‘Relatively is an overstatement…’ Kalim thought with an awkward smile as he shifted on his feet, trying to ignore how Jamil raised his eyebrow at the movement.
“And the bad news is…”
“That the other 99% of your student body is outside this door on the verge of slaughter. That checks out, very “bad” news indeed.” Malleus finished Crowley’s sentence in the nick of time, the bluntness radiating from his already deep voice causing some to flinch.
Well, it’s not like they weren’t already flinching from him before, considering what happened when Lilia planned on dropping out of the school. But it seems that’s not relevant now.
The headmaster cleared his throat again, more shaky this time.
“R-right—“
“Then what are we waiting for exactly? Shouldn’t we, as responsible housewardens, go ensure our dormmates’ safety??” Azul still had an air of eloquence in his demeanor in spite of the urgency that escaped that question.
“Now everybody calm down, you are all getting riled up AGAIN.” If not for the authoritative emphasis on the word again, the eight boys in the room wouldn’t have bothered giving him his full attention.
But then again, it was hard for a certain white haired housewarden regardless, adjusting his cloak once again to make sure the growing blood stain didn’t become visible.
Crowley sighed before he pulled his crow mask further down his face, a droplet of sweat barely glistening in the low lighting of the room.
“As you’re all aware by this point, Grim has…overblotted.”
Kalim could make out the comforting yet stiff feeling of Jamil’s hand squeezing his shoulder. He couldn’t see the noirette’s expression, so he couldn’t tell whether it was to comfort him or himself—if it was meant to be comforting at all or just a reflex of sorts.
But it did reassure Kalim that Jamil wasn’t so bitter that he didn’t even want to touch him. The ruby-eyed boy focused on Crowley’s words once again, loosening the grip he had on his robes but not removing it entirely.
“We…have not prepared for such an event to occur, especially not on such a joyous occasion as the prefect’s departure.
“I suspect it has to do with the overblot stones that he has been consuming.”
Kalim felt the air around him stiffen. Right…the stones. The stones all of them—aside from him—left behind when they came to from their own blot craze. He got a good look at Grim for a split second when running and…yeah, it checks out. The chimera had parts of snakes, parts of an octopus, of a lion…you get the picture.
It didn’t take a genius to figure out the guilt that was weighing on all seven of the boys—and that’s not to mention how numb skulled Kalim was in general.
Perhaps the guilt was affecting him as well—bless his big heart—or maybe he was sharing Jamil’s guilt, considering it was his fault h̶i̶s̶ ̶v̶e̶r̶y̶ ̶e̶x̶i̶s̶t̶e̶n̶c̶e̶ that drove Jamil to madness anyway, and now Jamil was once again carrying a burden bigger than his own body, out of his control. And Kalim hated it.
“For now, we will wait until most of the noise outside has cleared out before we all leave the room TOGETHER…”
The headmaster’s voice became a blur as Kalim’s breathing suddenly became heavier than usual. It was almost like his mental state was affecting his physical state, as the pain in his heart caused the pain from the punctured area in his stomach to increase tenfold. He fingers once again surrounded the area of his stomach that was punctured by the object, a cold sweat forming on his brow as a droplet of blood dripped and landed on the floor beneath him.
Shit. He hoped Jamil didn’t see that—
“I smell blood.” Leona’s brooding voice immediately caused Crowley’s brain dump and everyone else’s processing of said brain dump to stop in its tracks.
“What did you say Kingscholar?” Crowley’s attention was focused on the lion beastman, not demanding an answer right away but more or less trying to process what he just heard.
“You heard me.” Leona sniffed the air again, his dark brown hair falling over one of his shoulders. “It smells like blood in here.”
Kalim’s heart stopped when he felt Leona’s dark green eyes gaze into his ruby ones. His head didn’t turn, so there was a chance maybe everybody else would just interpret it as their eyes just locking for a split second.
“I-I don’t smell anything!” Kalim tried to hopefully divert their attention away by doing what he does best—playing the part of the idiot.
“You might not…but considering Leona is a beastman and can smell things none of us would be able to pick up on, I don’t see why he’d be lying.” Vil was the last person Kalim expected to come to Leona’s aid, but considering there was a look in those violet eyes that told the lion beastman “this is a one time thing, don’t get a big head”, this would be harder to come by again.
But still, that little defense escaping the model caused Kalim’s wounded stomach to sink more. He hugged his robe even tighter around himself, almost like a pathetic attempt at trying to hide from everyone’s suspicions.
𝐓𝐫𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐮𝐧 𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐬 𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧, 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐫𝐞.
‘They’re going to find out…they’re going to start worrying about me instead of themselves and others….’ Kalim smacked himself mentally for even thinking that. They wouldn’t care, especially not Jamil. No…they’ll just be burdened by him. But that doesn’t make it any better with people’s lives on the line.
‘Please…don’t let them see….don’t let them see…’ He knows the bloodstain is growing in size, he doesn’t know how long the robes will be able to conceal it, how long he’ll be able to stand here, how long the pain will last, when can he get out of here—
“Ah! You must be referring to this, Kingscholar!” The headmaster rolled up his sleeve to show a large scratch slicing down his forearm. It looked like it only recently stopped bleeding. “I got it from slipping and landing on a piece of debris, arm first! Haha, how clumsy your headmaster is!”
While everyone else winces—whether from disgust or feeling that SHOWING the thing is unnecessary—Kalim breathed a sigh of relief. Not relief that Crowley got that nasty scratch, of course not, but relief that he was the center of attention now instead.
Leona’s scoff shattered Kalim’s small moment of relief. “That’s not what I was referring to.”
Again, Kalim’s breath hitched, and what’s worse is that Jamil caught it this time.
“Kalim?“
“I’m fine…j-just hot in here. Crowley’s fire might be reaching us.” Kalim chuckled nervously. “M-maybe we should get out of here! We need to snap Grim out of it before he causes more damage!”
“Hmm…indeed we can’t waste any more time….” Crowley managing to say something semi intelligent brought back Kalim’s hope once again—and he didn’t even care that it was just the bare minimum.
“If you’re really concerned Kingscholar, I could do a status spell check on everybody here.”
Kalim’s hope shatters again from the Diasomnia housewarden’s suggestion.
This on and off was giving the poor heir a headache, and that, paired with his still bleeding stomach wound, wasn’t a good combination. He’s surprised he hasn’t keeled over yet, or at the very least needed a wall to hold himself upright.
“Well…a status spell to ensure nothing’s wrong WOULDN’T hurt….” Crowley stated contemplatively.
No, no, no—
“With all due respect, can it not wait?! Who knows how much damage has been done to the campus already because we’ve been sitting here twiddling our thumbs?”
Oh Riddle, thank the seven for your stubborn sense of responsibility!
“Besides Leona, the blood you may be smelling may be coming from miles away from other injured students…”
Kalim saw a glimmer of vulnerability in the red head’s eyes as he spoke, almost like he recounted what he saw. Considering what Kalim himself saw in just a few split seconds while running, it made sense.
T̶h̶o̶u̶g̶h̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶m̶a̶y̶ ̶a̶l̶s̶o̶ ̶h̶a̶v̶e̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶d̶o̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶f̶a̶c̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶u̶n̶l̶i̶k̶e̶ ̶K̶a̶l̶i̶m̶,̶ ̶R̶i̶d̶d̶l̶e̶ ̶w̶a̶s̶n̶’̶t̶ ̶u̶s̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶s̶e̶e̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶s̶o̶ ̶m̶u̶c̶h̶ ̶b̶l̶o̶o̶d̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶c̶o̶r̶p̶s̶e̶s̶.̶
“For once, I can agree with your sentiment there Riddle,” Azul replied as he fixed up his glasses, seemingly feeling around the lenses for any cracks. “We ought to reach as many injured folk as possible and ensure their safety.” His tone tried to come off as lighthearted as to ease some of their panic—at least that’s what Kalim thinks.
The word injured rang in Kalim’s ears and he once again found himself holding his stomach, trying to disguise it as just clutching onto his robes to keep them upright.
“Alright, are we all in agreement-?”
“Yes, just let us out!” Crowley was a bit taken aback by Idia’s rather intense response. Looks like he really wanted to make sure his brother was alright.
With a quick tap on the door with his mage pen, the door to the headmaster’s office opens again. The headmaster stepped to the door first and after a hand signal for the other housewardens and Jamil to follow, they all walked in a clump. All except one.
Kalim stayed back as Jamil went with the group of other housewardens. It looks like the noirette had trusted Kalim enough to follow after him instead of holding onto his hand like he was a child who needed to be led. It was progress at least!
Kalim took one second to observe Jamil, to observe how much better he fits in with the other housewardens than he, before he walks in the opposite direction of them. He walks down the hall to where the bathroom in the headmaster’s office was, trying to increase his speed once he notices a small thin trail of blood being formed in the path he was walking.
He needed to treat this injury somehow, and fast.
— — —
Kalim wasn’t somebody who liked being alone.
He felt more comfortable being wrapped up in other people’s laughter, in the conversations at parties, he belonged in the hugs he would always give to people.
T̶h̶e̶ ̶k̶i̶d̶n̶a̶p̶p̶i̶n̶g̶s̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶a̶s̶s̶a̶s̶s̶i̶n̶a̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶a̶t̶t̶e̶m̶p̶t̶s̶ ̶m̶a̶d̶e̶ ̶h̶i̶m̶ ̶f̶e̶a̶r̶ ̶b̶e̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶a̶l̶o̶n̶e̶.̶
Now though, Kalim was more than grateful to be by himself as his feet carried him towards the bathroom, huffing deeply as the pain radiating from his stomach was less avoidable now.
He never liked being vulnerable in front of others, even more so in front of so many people. Jamil’s overblot only reaffirmed this fear, that his selfish, spoiled self didn’t deserve to whine and complain about his pain any more than he already does, for it just created more of a mess for people to clean up.
More than that, he didn’t want the eyes of Jamil, of Crowley and all the other housewardens to focus on him as he dropped his robe down to the floor. Their eyes needed to be focused on Grim, on a plan of some sorts to hopefully tame the monster and prevent any more casualties. Perhaps to get help too, and keep Yuu safe.
Kalim’s own eyes were focused on the object that was finally in full view thanks to the mirror.
A glass shard poking out from the left of his stomach, deeply buried in the fabric of his black buttoned shirt, the area now sticky with warm blood.
With shaky hands and a swallow of saliva, Kalim unbuttoned his shirt and let it drop to the floor next his robes to see just how deep the large shard went.
The white haired heir almost gagged at just how tightly lodged the glass was in his bare skin now that it wasn’t blocked by his shirt.
The shard itself was much bigger than he anticipated—the size of his palm, to be exact. While it was small enough to be concealed with just the overcoat of his robe, it wasn’t a shallow wound by any means. The glass was deeply wedged into Kalim’s stomach, probably much more than it was originally because of all that running—which ALSO seemed to cause the wound itself to look teared more at each edge of the glass.
Kalim took a deep and shaky breath, his hand carefully closing in around the glass, careful not to cut his palm for he had enough wounds for tonight.
This was…bad.
As much as Kalim loved to lie to himself and make rainbows out of dark clouds, he knew this wasn’t a mere scratch. Once the glass was removed, he needed to stitch this wound up. Or cauterize it or—
That’s when it hit him, and his heart dropped almost deeper than when he first saw the large glass and the full extent of the blood.
His mage pen.
𝐇𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐝𝐧’𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐩𝐞𝐧.
‘I must’ve dropped it. I must’ve dropped it when I was running with Jamil.’
The white haired boy thought as he remained frozen in front of the mirror. A deer in head lights, his hand getting wet from the blood leaving the glass filled wound.
𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐛𝐞. 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐧’𝐭 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐤𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐬 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐚𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐟𝐮𝐜𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐜.
Kalim shook his head, he’d figure it out once his abdomen was free of glass. He needed to focus now if he didn’t want to make more of a mess than he already was. Cleaning blood is hard, especially when there was so much.
H̶e̶ ̶w̶o̶u̶l̶d̶ ̶k̶n̶o̶w̶.̶
His fingers once again wrapped around the thick shard, wincing at the pressure and burning sensation of the delicate edges of skin from the still bleeding wound.
Knowing any more hesitation would cost precious time, Kalim yanked the glass out.
“𝑨𝑮𝑯!!-” Kalim quickly covered his mouth with a nearby towel, biting on it hard until he tasted every wrinkle of cotton and the subtle lingering soapiness of detergent. He groaned deeply into the towel, quickly taking it out of his mouth after getting himself together and turned on the sink to soak it in cold water, trying to be quick to stop that puddle of blood on the floor beneath his feet from getting any bigger.
With a silent whisper of remorse at the fact that he was dirtying his headmaster’s own towel just to save face, he pressed the wet cloth against the wounded sight on his abdomen, wincing at both the pressure and the cold water touching the fresh, hot wound. Cold sweat beaded his forehead as he gripped the sink with one hand, using his other to absorb as much blood into the once white towel as he stared down at the blood covered shard now in the sink, almost like he was cursing it for causing him so much trouble.
He grabbed the source of all his pain and dunked it into the garbage can, cursing once again as he couldn’t even get angry properly without feeling the tear. He clenched his teeth and crushed the towel even further onto the wound, almost desperately, both to stop the bleeding and to get the burning pain to stop.
That was way too close, way too fast. What if his scream of pain was loud enough that Jamil came running in, or worse, the headmaster himself?? He wasn’t sure which fate was worse, being reaffirmed by Jamil once again that he was a mess, a burden once more, or being yelled at by the headmaster for staining his superior’s perfectly clean bathroom with his bodily fluids instead of being a semi competent housewarden.
Unironically, the second option sounded worse. At least Jamil knew all the sides to him, no matter how much he tried to hide them—so if he were found out by Jamil and given some sort of lecture or belittled for being useless, he’d at least see it coming.
Headmaster Crowley though? Yeah, that man didn’t give a shit about Kalim or any of the other housewardens. He didn’t see Kalim as anything more than a trust fund kid who despite falling short of being an actual housewarden, was rich—and he liked the gold on Kalim’s name even if everything else wasn’t there.
So to have a rich brat like him bleeding all over his headmaster’s own bathroom floor after being so graciously u̶n̶f̶a̶i̶r̶l̶y̶ let in to their prestigious academy months late, what would he think of Kalim afterward?
Kalim had way too many enemies already, if not, people who were waiting for the go ahead to be his enemy. And he didn’t need any more, not now.
Not when he needed to focus on putting pressure on this wound, on getting the bleeding to finally stop and clean himself and this bathroom up of his own remains as quickly as possible to make sure nobody worries about him.
𝐁𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲’𝐝 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞.
Kalim shakily turned the sink back on, still taking deep, controlled breaths as he watched the water mix in with the blood, becoming a clear pink as it washed away into the drain stopper.
He carefully knelt down to open the cabinet underneath the sink, slow enough that he didn’t accidentally pull the wound anymore than it already was or slip on his own blood. The heir swallowed some saliva as he hoped, prayed to the sorcerer of the scalding sands that there was a med kit, something of the sort. Just anything. Any types of bandages, antiseptics, and especially a thread and needle to sew the wound shut.
After tightening his grip on the bloodied towel crushed to his stomach once again, he opened the drawer to find..to find some things.
There was toilet paper, a plunger, types of hand soap and sanitizer, cleaning wipes. There wasn’t a medical kit in sight.
Kalim just hoped it was the blood loss getting to him and he just wasn’t seeing it properly, but no matter how much he dug around inside that cabinet, how much he took out, there was no antiseptic, or gauze or needle and thread. Nothing to actually treat this wound, which continued to make the towel tightly sealed over it wetter with blood.
No. No. 𝗡𝗼.
𝘏𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘯’𝘵…𝘕𝘖𝘛 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢 𝘮𝘦𝘥 𝘬𝘪𝘵.
Kalim cussed under his breath when he almost slipped on the now drying puddle of blood on the floor. He hissed as his wound was ONCE AGAIN tugged from the movement, and he pressed the towel harder to salvage it. At least now though the glass shard was gone and he wouldn’t need to worry about it causing potential internal damage by digging into his flesh with every wrong move.
‘It’s okay…I can salvage this..’ Kalim thought as he leveled out his breathing, just as Jamil w̶a̶s̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶c̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶l̶e̶a̶r̶n̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶h̶i̶m̶ ̶ taught him.
It’s not like there was nothing in this bathroom. Even if there wasn’t a medicine kit, he could use his imagination with all the other items inside the cabinet that could be put to good use.
𝐆𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐫𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐩𝐢𝐝, 𝐡𝐮𝐡.
He reached back into the cabinet to pull out a new white towel, and after once again apologizing for staining his i̶n̶c̶o̶m̶p̶e̶t̶e̶n̶t̶,̶ ̶u̶n̶p̶r̶e̶p̶a̶r̶e̶d̶ headmaster’s belongings with his own blood, he once again turned on the sink—wincing at how his bloody fingers were now starting to stain the faucet controls—and tossed it onto the ground, spreading it around with his foot on the bloody puddle to absorb as much as possible.
He pulled an untouched roll of paper towels and slowly pulled away the towel he had pressed against his stomach, scared that any amount of quick movement would cause even more damage then there already was.
A relieved sigh left Kalim’s lips once he noticed the bleeding had FINALLY stopped. Maybe he didn’t need a sewing kit or cauterization after all! As long as he wasn’t bleeding anymore, he should be fine…right?
Right.
Best not to overthink when everyone was probably wondering where he was.
Kalim doesn’t even attempt to glance down at the puncture for too long, he knew it wasn’t pretty—it was way worse than just a regular stab wound with a knife. And if the metallic stench of his own blood wasn’t enough to make him hurl, then going over every detail of the hole in his belly—every bit of damaged tissue and skin which was already starting to bruise around the edges of it—would.
To prevent a rash to form on top of this already pretty bad injury, the heir once again turns on the sink but not before soaking his own hand under the water and wipes down the faucet controls, cleaning it of his traces. He needed to clean up after himself after all. The heir wouldn’t want the headmaster to come into his own bathroom to find it looking like a murder scene, hence he’d clean up the puddle more once he had the time and try not to dirty the sink any more.
𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐦𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐮𝐩 𝐞𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐚𝐥𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲.
Kalim then grabs some toilet paper from the nearby roll to his right to wet under the sink before cleaning the bloody area off. He hissed as even the area surrounding the wound was sensitive, but he kept cleaning anyway, not too soft to actually collect the blood but not too rough since he just got the bleeding to stop.
Kalim knew he had to suck it up if he wanted to get the task at hand done without any more dilly dallying, it’s not like sucking it up was all that new of a concept for him.
H̶e̶ ̶h̶a̶d̶ ̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶f̶a̶t̶h̶e̶r̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶n̶k̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶.̶
This pain…was nothing compared to overblotting, which is what all besides he had the misfortune of going through as they waited for the inconvenient, utterly useless comrade to just hurry up already and stop wasting time.
𝐈𝐭’𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐉𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐩𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐞𝐱𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞, 𝐬𝐨 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐤. 𝐢𝐭. 𝐮𝐩.
Kalim tried to calm the shakiness of his hand as it cleaned the last of the blood off from his skin, immediately throwing the dirtied toilet paper into the trash bin to not look at in any further. He once again leaned over the sink to catch his breath, running a hand through his hair as he thought of how to bandage the injury.
It was like a lightbulb went off in Kalim’s head as his fingers went over the soft fabric of his headpiece. Yeah. This will do.
‘What a shame though…’ Kalim thought as he undid the bow-like knot on the headdress, tugging it until it unwinded and became a long cloth and the feathers detached, which Kalim placed on the rim of the sink. Here he was, undoing all of Jamil’s hard work, undoing the i̶n̶v̶o̶l̶u̶n̶t̶a̶r̶y̶ hard work Jamil put into tying this headdress as perfectly as possible for this perfect day turned disaster.
𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐧𝐨𝐰…𝐈 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐉𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥.
He swallowed back the guilt and more saliva as he tied his treasured headdress around his waist. He felt so filthy, disgusting as he mimicked the motion Jamil uses to tie the ends of the headdress into a nice, neat little knot. It was ironic really. His attempt at copying Jamil would end up being covered up anyway, hidden away so nobody could see the imperfections and the unavoidable stains that would adorn this once headdress now filthy bandage.
Kalim unconsciously traced his pointer finger over the fabric, wishing the headdress covered more of his stomach up, but it would have to do since it did a decent enough job at concealing the wound itself—even if he did struggle slightly with tying the end of it.
‘𝘔𝘢𝘺𝘣𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘣𝘢 𝘪𝘴 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵…𝘮𝘢𝘺𝘣𝘦 𝘐 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘦𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵.’
Having a thinner waist would’ve made this easier…best not to dwell on it now though. This egregious job is finally done.
Turning the sink on once again, the heir rinsed off his hands and poured the warm water onto his face, washing off the cold sweat. As he faces himself in the mirror, he ironically looked the most like himself—no unnecessary jewelry, no blinding bright smile plastered on his face, his beautiful ruby eyes now sunken and exhausted, and sun-kissed skin just a tad bit paler. This was Kalim Al-Asim at his most true, at his most bare and vulnerable, without the blinding positivity that distracted everybody from these cracks.
And he hated it.
He held onto his stomach to keep the headdress bandage in place as he knelt down, not being able to bare his reflection judging him for a second more as he began to actually clean the mess of blood on the floor, the red smear slowly disappearing as the white towel was wiped over it. He wet it again under the sink and repeated the motion, and as Kalim cleaned, he couldn’t help but feel how ironic it was that he, the heir to the Asim fortune, was doing these Cinderella type motions.
‘At least it’s good practice for cleaning the floor…that way I can take some work load off of Jamil if I wanna become more independent.’ Even if the situation was still less than stellar, Kalim was grateful he could focus on the one positive that came will the ninety nine other negatives that came with cleaning his own blood off of the floor, still trying to keep that bandage in place over the wound in hopes it wouldn’t start bleeding again and make his a̶n̶d̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶o̶t̶h̶e̶r̶ ̶h̶o̶u̶s̶e̶w̶a̶r̶d̶e̶n̶’̶s̶ ̶ life harder than it already was at the moment.
𝐖𝐡𝐨 𝐚𝐦 𝐈 𝐤𝐢𝐝𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠. 𝐌𝐲 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐢𝐬𝐧’𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦.
Kalim threw the bloody towel into the cabinet in hopes nobody would find it again as he tried to become semi presentable once again. Forcing a smile as he stared in the mirror, though it came out more like a grimace. Trying to get his eyes to have that spark in them again, even when that attempt caused his eyes to widen in fear instead.
He couldn’t stand looking at his shirtless body anymore, so after rinsing his face in the sink again, he grabbed his black shirt and buttoned it up quickly and threw on the ceremonial robes.
He looked a mess, politely speaking. But there was nothing more he could do. He gave his hair a quick ruffle to even out the bird’s nest and tried not to acknowledge the fact that his eye makeup looked smudged. They’ll understand, hopefully.
The young heir would have to accept that he was a bumbling fool compared to the ones still waiting for him, blissfully unaware that he was trying his darnedest to hold himself up together and not purposefully trying to waste their time while Grim continued to wreak havoc unwillingly.
As Kalim walked out of the bathroom, double checking to make sure his remnants were at the very least not visible if not fully gone, he placed one hand against the wall to guide himself out while the other lay carefully over his stomach, feeling the headdress underneath the robe and shirt.
Had the others been in his shoes, especially Riddle, Vil, and definitely Jamil, they would’ve been much more efficient Kalim thought. They would come out like nothing was wrong at all, meanwhile Kalim would hope his golden tongue that tells too many lies than he would like did the trick.
The heir was too spoiled to know how to bandage his own wounds, he was too irresponsible to fully clean every trace of blood, and he was too lazy to put any effort into trying to come out presentable, far too tired from all the work he had to do in there. At least, too much work for him. This would’ve been nothing for say, Leona.
He was too weak to even prevent this wound from happening in the first place. If he had just paid more attention to the glass windows…
Kalim tried to pick up his pace as he walked back down the hall that led to the bathroom, clutching his robes and trying to curtain them over his shirt in the event that any blood managed to leak through his button down.
For once, Kalim was grateful that his headmaster was oblivious and indifferent to what his students went through despite presenting himself as the opposite. As long as he didn’t care, then neither would they.
— — —
“Where the HELL were you?!”
…Eh?
Kalim’s ruby eyes were wide as they were stared intensely into by a familiar angry pair of gray. Jamil’s grip on his shoulders were tight, and he would’ve winced if not for the already searing pain that was still present in his stomach even after the wound had been mostly treated. Looks like he got used to the pain after all.
“I was about to storm back into that office MYSELF had azul not held me back!”
The octomerman in question approached Jamil and separated him from the shorter Scarabia leader. The second time Azul had to keep Jamil from sticking Kalim’s head on a spike.
“Now Jamil, be careful with him. It wouldn’t be good if we were to get ourselves hurt over something so trivial, and considering the state of….everything, we can’t afford that.”
Kalim smiled and thanked Azul in his head. Jamil on the other hand was clearly unimpressed, and very much not a fan of the way Azul spoke to him like he was some misbehaving child.
“Sorry but I agree with Jamil here. Where WERE you? Why didn’t you join us? And without saying anything?? Do you have any idea the fright you gave Jamil?” Kalim squeaked when Riddle all of a sudden began confronting him, and while he would be impressed at how somebody so short managed to intimidate him, it didn’t do any favors when he was trying not to be seen.
Guess he failed at that too.
“Wait…where’s that…thingy you usually always wear on your head?” Kalim’s eyes widened as he intercepted Idia’s mumbled question. Shit, right. His headscarf is acting as a bandage right now, for the wound he’s trying to HIDE from them.
Quick! Think of an excuse!
“Haha! Yeah uhh…I left because my headscarf was dirty so I washed it. It’s in the sink right now so it can dry.”
Perfect. Now they won’t—
“Why couldn’t you dry it with a heat spell?”
Why does Jamil have to pick up on EVERYTHING??
“I…um….” Kalim didn’t think there was a reason to lie about the missing mage pen, so he confessed that it was lost and possibly destroyed alongside the ashes of what was once the mirror chamber.
“You LOST your mage pen? Are you KIDDING ME???” Kalim did not at all expect Jamil’s eyes to widen like they did, or his voice to raise like it did. It caused all the hairs on his head to stand.
‘Okay…better not to tell the truth next time.’
“I-I didn’t mean to! I swear! When we were running I…I just dropped it!!!” Kalim desperately tried to defend himself, but Jamil had turned away, pinching the bridge of his nose in annoyance, seemingly trying to calm himself down with the deep breaths that left his mouth.
This was absolutely humiliating, to have lost something so precious as a housewarden and CONFESSING to it like you were caught with your hand in the cookie jar. And now they were all just staring at him, looking down at him instead of looking with equal level.
Vil’s little remark of “of course YOU would lose something like that” just caused Kalim’s face to redden, and he tried to blink back any tears of embarrassment.
“I’m really sorry Jamil…I didn’t mean to I swear!”
Kalim was hopeless in trying to tell Jamil he really didn’t mean to mess up so hard. He knows he screws up a lot, he knows he’s a burden, but he really didn’t know he would lose his mage pen. If he did know, he would’ve kept a tighter grip or stored it away in his pocket or something!
But he wasn’t a time traveler, unfortunately. And he couldn’t travel back in time, whether as recent as an hour before losing his mage pen, or as far back as their earliest days as children, where he could’ve maybe freed Jamil and his family from the Asim clutches.
And he especially couldn’t go back in time to when Grim first overblotted—where he could’ve dodged when pieces of glass were falling and stop that damn glass shard from lodging itself into his stomach and causing so many more headaches for himself and his team.
“You need to get it together Kalim…Grim is literally destroying our school and you’re just…tripping on your own feet once again,” is all Jamil says as he finally turns to face his useless master, his eyes bitter as they met Kalim’s guilty gaze.
“Jamil.” A hand the servant rather not be in contact with etched its way onto his shoulder. “That’s quite enough. Accidents happen. Especially when you’re running for your life.”
Azul really could be nice when he wasn’t so focused on profits and scamming some innocent bystander.
Then, Kalim’s eyes locked onto the merman’s sharp turquoise blue gaze, and he swears there was something akin to concern in them. And it wasn’t the pitiful mocking gaze. It looked…genuine?
“You don’t look very well, Kalim..”
Kalim’s breath hitched once again, and this time, he swears he catches Jamil start to analyze his appearance too. Did he look that bad…?
“Your robe looks rather…disheveled. And do pardon my rudeness but….you look like a mess.”
Vil’s critical yet not ill-natured comment confirmed all of Kalim’s worst fears. So he DID look that bad! Great…what should he do now….??
“Is everything alright Asim?”
Agh! He almost forgot Malleus was here too with how quiet he was! And he chooses NOW to speak, to question him too??
Crap, Kalim hated how cornered he felt, like he was being confronted for suspicion of doing something wrong.
Technically he did do something wrong. What he did wrong was be foolish and not pay attention to all the glass falling from the windows to avoid this wound he was trying so desperately to hide—both the signs of it and the pain he was still feeling from it—and he didn’t pay attention to how loose his grip must’ve been on his mage pen if it caused it to just slip out of his hands.
Kalim was overwhelmed by all their questions and mental jabs, he swallowed more saliva and pulled the robes further over himself. He felt like an animal that was being cornered in the wild. And he wasn’t sure what he would do if they’d start attacking him.
“Oi, herbivores.”
A voice who Kalim hasn’t heard in a while finally took the attention off of him.
“Quit cornering him, would ya? He’s here now and that’s all that matters.”
Leona’s stern yet still apathetic voice managed to receive hesitant yet understanding nods from everybody else. Kalim swear he could cry from how thankful he was for the usual nonchalant lion beastman coming to his rescue.
He would hug him if not for the risk of his wound being aggravated once more—and he didn’t want that to happen after it was just bandaged, so he settled for mouthing a “thank you” to Leona. Leona’s ear twitched as he made eye contact with Kalim once again, a gleam in his green eyes telling the heir that just because he covered him now doesn’t mean he’s not stupid.
Why else did he try to bring attention to the stench of blood in the headmaster’s office…
All of them hear a call from Crowley from across the cracked hallway and took that as a cue to follow him, this time Jamil had his eyes locked on Kalim, almost like he was making sure the white haired heir stayed with them this time.
As Kalim walked, he once again tried to keep up with their pace, but he found himself clutching the wound once again. He would need to figure out how to manage his speed later.
For now, he needed to walk with his fellow housewardens to find their headmage to discuss how to stop Grim and his rampage.
For now, he needed to ignore Jamil’s cold and judgmental gaze on him—for he’d figure out how to keep that gaze as far away from himself as possible soon enough by acting as normal as possible.
𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐧𝐨𝐰, 𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐤 𝐮𝐩 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐨𝐤𝐚𝐲. 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐝𝐧’𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐚 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐧 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐛𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐲 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐚𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧.
𝐁𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞, 𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐥𝐞𝐭 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐨𝐥𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐢𝐦 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐧. 𝐇𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐞 𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐟𝐮𝐥, 𝐡𝐞 𝐇𝐀𝐒 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐟𝐮𝐥. 𝐍𝐨 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐨𝐝𝐲 𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐬 𝐡𝐢𝐦.
Chapter 2
Notes:
This goes without saying but content warning for blood and graphic depictions of injury!!!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“Mrowwww!!!”
The group stops in their tracks. Kalim thanks whoever—whatever made that sound, for it allowed him to have a breather. Allowed him to fix the bandage sash through his robes with anybody noticing. He placed a hand over the covered wound to detect any bleeding.
At least now he didn’t need to keep hugging the robes so tightly over himself to block any objects sticking out.
The bad news about that though, was he couldn’t block out Jamil’s disapproving gaze as much as he wanted to.
Another “mrowwww!!!” was heard from the same direction, from that same far corner in the crumpled hallway.
“Y-you all heard that right…?” Idia’s question most likely tried to sound rhetorical, but it came out as a mumble again.
“I certainly did.” Malleus confirmed, his piercing green eyes meeting Idia’s.
“Let’s look for who it is then!!” Kalim blurted out without meaning to. Him and his big mouth…
While Kalim DID want to find out who it was, he also didn’t want to add more walking to the trail, for the wound resting beneath his shirt, only just freshly clean and bandaged, made it very clear it didn’t want anymore movement.
Kalim mentally shook his head, scratching out such a selfish idea. Somebody may possibly need help and he was concerned over whether or not his already bandaged wound may become aggravated?? As if all that running before meant nothing.
The heir pushed down such self-centered worries at once, not backing off from the initially impulsive suggestion.
𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭’𝐬 𝐚 𝐟𝐞𝐰 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐩𝐬? 𝐒𝐭𝐨𝐩 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐛𝐨𝐝𝐲 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐲 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐝𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫.
Before Kalim could sabotage himself anymore, a pair—or what sounded like pairs of small footprints came from the direction of those whiny shrieks.
Those footsteps…it dawned on all of them now.
Lucius. There he was, by their feet.
The usually stoic cat belonging to Professor Trein now uncharacteristically vocal, the chubby black furball’s normally grumpy expression put aside as he kept meowing his concerns, his golden eyes now showing a sense of worry.
What was even stranger was the fact that Lucius was rubbing against some of their legs. Lucius never acted so affectionate…scratch that. He seemed to show relative disapproval to most of them aside from a select few students—and Kalim certainly wasn’t one of them. Which is why he almost jumped when the black cat mreowed again for attention, his cold stone golden eyes now looking almost..needy?
Kalim ignored the pang that shot through the wound in his stomach as he knelt down to give Lucius a scratch beneath his chin—relieved that the cat didn’t hiss or bat his hand away like so many other times.
Everyone else’s eyes ranged from shocked to—in mostly Idia’ case—soft. Riddle immediately gave the blue flamed housewarden a look, signaling him to contain himself and his cat craze, lest poor Lucius get any more on edge than he already was.
“Lucius…? What’re you doing here bud..?” Kalim asks softly, trying to control his breathing lest it sound too heavy from the wound pain.
Lucius mewed again and purred against Kalim’s fingers, his ears subtly twitching as he detected the faint scent of blood. Though it was subtle enough that it was seen as nothing more than a twitch.
“Lucius…where’s Trein?” Jamil asked gently as he stroked the cat’s back carefully. A pitiful meow was the response he received and hiding his face against Kalim’s hand—it was obvious something happened. Kalim’s brows furrowed.
“Now that I think about it…” Riddle started contemplatively, “I haven’t seen any staff members aside from the headmaster.”
Kalim immediately knew where this was going..he wasn’t sure his already weakened and damaged body could handle any more stress.
“I wouldn’t immediately jump to negative conclusions just yet,” Azul suggested as he wiped his glasses. “I was separated from the twins when I began running, so I assume it would be the same for the staff. We’ll find them soon, eventually.“
Kalim can detect just the slightest hint of doubt in Azul’s attempted hopeful voice.
Once Idia felt like the coast was clear from Riddle being judgmental, he went and scooped Lucius up into his arms. Instead of the cat batting away at Idia and running away, he purred and settled into the blue flamed housewarden’s embrace, becoming liquid as he purred and snuggled into the embrace.
Idia let out an imperceptible squeal at the lack of rejection and held Lucius close. It was quite obvious he would be making the most out of this new, vulnerable Lucius until Trein was found.
“What should we do then? Shall we look for Professor Trein and the rest of the staff?” Vil commented as he stroked Lucius’ head gently, also marveling at how docile the usual feisty feline was.
Jamil finally stood up from his spot on the ground, brushing off any dust from his pants and stretching out the soreness from his knees and legs.
“I say we just go back to the headmaster for now and figure out what to do from there. We’ve kept him waiting for long enough…”
Kalim could clearly see the way Jamil’s gaze fell onto him after making that statement. He looked down in shame—looking down at his shirt and robes to make sure no blood leaked through.
“You won’t disappear vanish into thin air like last time, will you Asim?”
Kalim could tell that Malleus’ question was meant as nothing more than a light hearted tease, but it still made him wince, the fact that his disappearance was so noticeable that it needed to be brought up again.
“Don’t worry, I’ll keep an eye on him…like always.” Kalim’s heart clenched at the bitterness that oozed its way out of Jamil’s voice as he answered Malleus. He hated how badly he disappointed Jamil to the point he felt as if though Kalim needed to be on a leash or something. The young heir avoided everybody else’s gazes—it didn’t matter they were even judgmental or merely questioning.
Jamil really knew how to make him feel like an ashamed child without any effort at all.
But he couldn’t be ashamed for too long. He forced an awkward chuckle from out of his lips.
“Yeah that won’t happen again guys! Sorry!”
He heard what sounded like a scoff from one of them—most likely Leona, before they turned their attention away and started to get ready to continue walking once more.
The white haired boy finally got up from the floor, pulling his legs off from the now dirtied tiles.
It took a lot of effort for the Scarabia housewarden to get off the floor in a quick enough way that didn’t frustrate everyone about how he was AGAIN, wasting precious time, but also slow enough where the fresh wound being concealed by his clothes didn’t tug too much and start bleeding again.
Still, no matter how he got up, that pesky injury that lay bandaged and protected didn’t seem to be satisfied no matter what type of movement Kalim made and so, the heir felt a sharp pain from the delicate area of his stomach. Thankfully it wasn’t too overwhelming though, and Kalim could ignore it no problem.
J̶u̶s̶t̶ ̶a̶s̶ ̶h̶e̶’̶s̶ ̶i̶g̶n̶o̶r̶e̶d̶ ̶e̶v̶e̶r̶y̶t̶h̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶e̶l̶s̶e̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶p̶a̶s̶t̶.̶
“Okay, now we can go!” Kalim found it a bit hard to keep up his chipper attitude due to the pain and exhaustion, but he continued anyways. He needed to at least make up for just disappearing on them and if raising their spirits w̶h̶i̶l̶e̶ ̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶o̶w̶n̶ ̶w̶a̶s̶ ̶f̶a̶l̶l̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶a̶p̶a̶r̶t̶ is what he needed to do, so be it.
“Don’t worry Malleus, that was just a one time thing. I won’t disappear again, I promise!”
Malleus simply hummed in response, and Kalim was just grateful at least his false promise was acknowledged—even if he felt guilty for lying to everyone.
But as he walked with them—albeit Jamil keeping a 𝐦𝐮𝐜𝐡 closer eye on him—he swallows down that guilt.
Kalim never liked lying, he felt as if it was toying with people’s feelings and trust. But in this case, it was a necessary act of evil he needed to commit if he wanted to be selfless for once. If he wanted to be independent…if he didn’t want to take any spotlight from Grim’s overblot to focus on his needs—especially in the face of students who most certainly have way worse injuries than a measly little puncture wound to the stomach.
B̶e̶s̶i̶d̶e̶s̶,̶ ̶J̶a̶m̶i̶l̶ ̶h̶a̶s̶ ̶l̶i̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶h̶i̶m̶ ̶m̶a̶n̶y̶ ̶t̶i̶m̶e̶s̶ ̶b̶e̶f̶o̶r̶e̶—̶h̶e̶’̶s̶ ̶l̶i̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶h̶i̶m̶ ̶u̶p̶ ̶u̶n̶t̶i̶l̶ ̶w̶i̶n̶t̶e̶r̶ ̶b̶r̶e̶a̶k̶.̶ ̶S̶o̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶w̶o̶u̶l̶d̶n̶’̶t̶ ̶h̶u̶r̶t̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶j̶u̶s̶t̶ ̶r̶e̶p̶e̶a̶t̶ ̶w̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶h̶e̶ ̶d̶i̶d̶,̶ ̶e̶s̶p̶e̶c̶i̶a̶l̶l̶y̶ ̶i̶f̶ ̶i̶t̶’s̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶a̶ ̶g̶o̶o̶d̶ ̶c̶a̶u̶s̶e̶…̶r̶i̶g̶h̶t̶?̶
— — —
It felt like the hallway went on forever. Kalim swore they couldn’t have been walking for more than a few minutes, but his pain-addled brain made it seem like hours, days even.
Every footstep, every pause for direction, every conversation blurred together in his brain. He tried to come across as stoic as possible but he couldn’t help. He let his hand slide across his stomach once again, and his breath hitched when he could feel the very subtle beginning of blood leaking through his shirt once again. On the bright side, they were wearing all black so it wasn’t as see through…but even so….
This was bound to happen, he really, REALLY wished he could’ve cauterized the wound or stitched it or something but no. Kalim couldn’t let himself get tired now, none of them are—and they only just gotten Kalim back after he couldn’t manage his time wisely, trying to keep his body together.
Every movement just hurt so much, and he gripped his headpiece that lay wrapped around his waist, trying to tighten it to keep the blood at bay—trying to get the burning to stop. A grimace spread across Kalim’s face and his breathing hitched again. He was grateful that he was at least in the very back of the little clump the housewardens and Jamil formed while they walked, because then nobody would have to see—nobody would have to worry.
O̶r̶ ̶r̶a̶t̶h̶e̶r̶,̶ ̶b̶e̶ i̶n̶c̶o̶n̶v̶e̶n̶i̶e̶n̶c̶e̶d̶ ̶b̶y̶ ̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶p̶a̶i̶n̶ ̶a̶g̶a̶i̶n̶.̶
“So much damage was already done…” Kalim turned to find Jamil muttering that, looking around the halls. And wouldn’t you know.
There were cracks all around the walls and the floors, some holes carved into the bricks and the paint pealed—on the floor. It was hard to tell where it started and where it ended—Grim could’ve gone anywhere, causing all of this.
Kalim’s brows furrowed as he looked at what was caused already, and a part of him hoped it wasn’t worse than what was in front of them. He didn’t respond verbally to Jamil, only nodded half heartedly. Thankfully Jamil seemed to be more understanding i̶n̶ ̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶t̶e̶r̶m̶s̶ by Kalim’s
non-response, probably thinking the heir was upset by the damage or something and didn’t try to get a response out of him.
Unfortunately, Jamil wasn’t as good as reading Kalim as he gave himself credit for, since he didn’t catch on to Kalim’s very thinly veiled heavy breathing and the beads of sweat building in his forehead.
Kalim didn’t want to seem like he didn’t care of wasn’t paying attention—he was! But it was just so incredibly hard with a wound like this…Kalim hated it. He hated how he kept thinking of himself, how his brain only seemed to focus on the damage done to himself and not the damage done to the beloved school his parents paid for him to go to.
N̶o̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶h̶e̶ ̶d̶e̶s̶e̶r̶v̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶g̶o̶ ̶a̶n̶y̶w̶a̶y̶…̶
“Now then…” Riddle began, distracting Kalim from any more of his d̶e̶s̶e̶r̶v̶e̶d̶ self-deprecating thought. “The headmaster said we should meet him by the hall of mirrors…so that way.”
The group turned right in a non-uniform, uniform fashion. They were closer to their destination at least…the heir never realized how long the hallways of Night Raven could be, how much work they put into using as much space as possible for so many boys.
While it was beautiful, it wouldn’t be of any use now unfortunately—with the damage that’s already been done. And it would’ve been much better if the headmaster’s office wasn’t so far away from the hall of mirrors.
Both for Kalim, and his body…but also everybody else’s precious time of course.
𝐈𝐭’𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮.
— — —
“…where is he..?”
Kalim wondered the same as Idia—who was still cradling Lucius close to his chest.
Crowley told them to meet at the hall of mirrors but…he wasn’t there. All that lay ahead for the group were the mirrors that once led to the dorms they held authority over standing shattered, cracked, destroyed. Tiny glass shards scattered on the ground besides the large frames. The symbols of their dorms were all but hidden under dust of the rubble that fell from the ceiling above, and the purple architecture was barely holding itself together.
It was like a silent communication between all eight—well, nine of them. Just like Yuu won’t be able to go back to their home thanks to the main mirror shattering, they won’t be able to go back to their dorms, something of a home for all of them.
Quite the cruel irony indeed.
Riddle and Azul went to examine the mirrors that led to their dorms, mourning the little control they had in their lives in the form of their housewarden titles. Leona and Malleus leaned against the wall to finally get a real breather after all that’s happened, their rivalry now on pause. Idia held Lucius tighter, hiding his face in the fluffy black fur. Lucius purred softly as Vil scritched behind his ears.
And speaking of glass…
Kalim went to the entrance of Scarabia’s mirror and sat down on the steps, which managed to stay relatively unscathed despite what surrounded them. With everybody else preoccupied with the damage of the very symbols of their power, nobody would suspect that the Scarabia housewarden was doing anything other than taking a short break or breather from either all the walking or the harsh truth of it all.
Or both.
Kalim hunched over and curled up a bit as he sat on the stairs, a subconscious and pathetic belief that if he made himself smaller, nobody would see how he was far more tired that he should be.
Nobody would see how his gaze was focused on the ground, trying to focus on the remnants of broken tile and purple paint instead of how lethargic he felt, how the dizziness he initially felt was now slowly settling into something akin to nausea, and the heir could only pray he could keep it in long enough to not ruin the floors any more than they were already.
𝐇𝐞’𝐬 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐲 𝐫𝐮𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐫𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐦𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫’𝐬 𝐛𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐦 𝐚𝐥𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐜𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐭 𝐚𝐬 𝐦𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐚𝐬 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞. 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐝𝐧’𝐭 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐝𝐝 𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭. 𝐇𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐝𝐧'𝐭 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐦𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐬.
Of course, the most notable symptom that Kalim was desperately trying to ignore was the stabbing, hot pain emanating from his stomach injury. More than just at his wits end, Kalim was confused. He had already bandaged it up, hid it and tucked it away from any prying eyes so then…
Was he bleeding internally then? Or perhaps it was an infection already setting in.
The latter couldn’t be possible though, the former though…Kalim bowed his head down more and watched as the droplets of sweat on his head dripped, dripped down like a disturbing alternative to rain, the beginning of a storm.
He didn’t use any disinfectant because there wasn’t any but he cleaned it with water…then blood must’ve leaked back into the wound.
The young heir had only experienced internal bleeding one other time when he was twelve years old, and a slice of cake he bit into on his birthday was loaded with poison…he almost didn’t make it then.
And just that very thought makes Kalim’s heart sink.
W̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶i̶f̶ ̶h̶e̶ ̶d̶o̶e̶s̶n̶’̶t̶ ̶m̶a̶k̶e̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶n̶o̶w̶…̶?̶
“Kalim?”
Kalim looks up slowly, releasing the vice grip he had on his stomach and evening out his panicked breaths. Jamil was looking down at him, eyebrows raised in confusion and tone tangent with concern.
He knelt down in front of his master o̶b̶s̶t̶a̶c̶l̶e̶.̶
“Is everything alright?”
Huh…?
“You’ve been quiet…strangely enough.”
Heh…even when trying to show concern, Jamil couldn’t help but sneak in a jab. Good for him, at least that meant he was more comfortable expressing how he truly felt.
A̶s̶ ̶i̶n̶,̶ ̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶s̶e̶a̶r̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶h̶a̶t̶r̶e̶d̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶p̶i̶t̶i̶f̶u̶l̶ ̶“̶h̶o̶u̶s̶e̶w̶a̶r̶d̶e̶n̶”̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶f̶r̶o̶n̶t̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶h̶i̶m̶.̶
Kalim straightens out his back and sits up straight, no longer hunching over like a child who was being scolded—although he’s started to feel like that more frequently in Jamil’s presence.
When Kalim’s ruby eyes locked with Jamil’s, the servant’s gray eyes widened, just a smidge and he moved closer to the heir, almost like he was looking deeper beyond those familiar red eyes. Kalim instinctively backed away somewhat in response, feeling like an animal being cornered and uncomfortably picked apart in the head of its predator.
But Jamil’s fingers moving to brush some of Kalim’s hair aside were anything but judgmental or condescending. It was..tender almost.
“You’re sweating…”
Even his voice…it wasn’t critical, or in that exasperated tone that defined how Jamil spoke.
And it made Kalim’s heart ache knowing that the gesture was shallow no matter how could it felt. He knew it was obligatory at the end of the day, and he wouldn’t—couldn’t allow his selfish, joy-sucking heart to be swooped in by the care, because he knew he didn’t deserve it.
He didn’t need it. Not now, not here.
N̶o̶t̶ ̶e̶v̶e̶r̶.̶
“I’m okay Jamil…” a deep breath that rang out in Jamil’s ears. “I just…”
He dug around in his brain for a good, solid excuse.
‘Come on you smooth, empty brain….think…!’
Suddenly? Lucius’ ear flicked and he sniffed around the area after his head pops out from Idia’s chest. The cat jumps out of Idia’s arms—much to Idia’s shock and disappointment, huffing sadly and trying not to let his discontent show by crossing his arms dramatically.
The two Scarabia members look up to see the feline walk towards them, giving Kalim a moment to breathe after the little interrogation.
Jamil makes some clicking noises with his tongue and uses the back of his hand to strokes Lucius’ head and face.
“We’ll find Professor Trein, don’t worry.”
Kalim couldn’t help but crack a smile at the scene. No matter how aggressive Jamil may be with him, or how much he put on the “uncaring front” towards most people, he never stopped being gentle with animals no matter the circumstance.
It made the heir feel guilty slightly, how a servant like Jamil was able to connect with furry creatures who couldn’t speak their minds like he wasn’t able to. Furry creatures who saw his worth unlike humans who saw him as nothing more than a crutch for Kalim.
Kalim hunched back over and hugged his robes closer to himself, going back to controlling his breathing.
Jamil looked up from the cat he was trying to reassure.
“Kalim?”
And this time, Kalim doesn’t respond—the headdress under his shirt and robes slowly accumulating more blood and sweat, and possibly tears if the heir couldn’t keep it all in.
𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐟 𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝𝐧’𝐭 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐝𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭, 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝𝐧’𝐭 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐡𝐢𝐦𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟 𝐭𝐨𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐚𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐡𝐢𝐦𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐭𝐚𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐡𝐢𝐦…𝐦𝐚𝐲𝐛𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐧𝐨 𝐡𝐨𝐩𝐞, 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐢𝐟 𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐝 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐣𝐮𝐫𝐲.
Notes:
WOOOHOOOO CHAPTER TWO IS FINALLY FINISHED. Sorry I took so long with this—I was going to finish this a few days ago but I squeezed it in today ✌️✌️ I guess you could say I got the fanfic author curse because today was AWFUL for my family BUT ITS OKAY NEW CHAPTERRR AND MORE KALIM ANGSTTTT >:)))
Chapter 3: Update
Chapter Text
Hi everyone! Unfortunately this isn’t a new chapter but rather an update. I’m going to be moving into my college dorm very soon, a few days actually! Very exciting!!! Unfortunately, that’ll mean I don’t know when I’ll make time to write while I’m getting adjusted to my dorm, classes, work and allat :< if I’m slower with my posting schedule you’ll know why, but stay tuned though!! This fic is still in the works, it won’t be going anywhere. I’ll try to provide you with the kalim angst that I promised you all! Again, see you all later and keep reading
avacat123 on Chapter 1 Sun 17 Aug 2025 05:51AM UTC
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arminxseaa on Chapter 1 Tue 02 Sep 2025 01:41PM UTC
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arminxseaa on Chapter 3 Tue 02 Sep 2025 01:57PM UTC
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