Chapter Text
Serapter woke up confused. He wasn’t sure why but something felt off. He looked out the plain window and realized it was somewhat bright, if he had to guess it was late four in the morning. It was really early but he figured he’d ask if Ivory wanted to go on the roof to watch the sunrise.
“Hey Ivory are you awake?” He asked in a hushed tone, just loud enough for Ivory to hear.
No response. He peeked over the edge so his voice would carry over better, guessing he was too quiet. “Hey Iv-” Oh, she isn’t here. Weird, maybe it is 6 in the morning, but he highly doubts that. Ivory would have woken him up. Plus the sun isn’t even close to being out. Maybe she went to the bathroom?
He put his head back on the worn pillow and closed his eyes trying to go back to sleep, but there was still this nagging feeling that something wasn’t just off… but wrong . He decided to get up and investigate.
Serapter is just a few steps away from the bathrooms when he runs into Ross, who was probably just leaving, evident by the fact he was adjusting the strap to his overalls. “Hey Ross, have you uh, seen Ivory?” He asks, suddenly feeling a little embarrassed like he was caught doing something he wasn’t supposed to be.
“Oh right, you don’t know,” Ross says compassionately. He’s observed that Serapter and Ivory talk a lot, and they share a room, so he figures they’re somewhat close.
Serapter feels his heart drop to his feet. So he was right. Something did happen. “What do I not know?! Did something happen to her?” He raises his voice a bit at the end without meaning to.
“Yeah, she got attacked.” Ross said carefully, clearly not wanting to break the news. “It was by Bormethius.”
“She got attacked?! Who would do that?!” Why would anyone do that? Serapter had about a million more questions that Serapter couldn’t put into words, but he guessed Ross didn’t have any answers considering he looked clueless.
“I don’t know… She won’t say.” Ross started walking towards the sick ward, gesturing towards Serapter to follow him.
“She’s up in the sick ward resting right now, last I checked she’s awake so you can talk to her.” The two turn a corner and are met with a plain looking sign simply stating “Sick Ward.”
“Thank you Ross.” Serapter only has one thing on his mind and that’s finding out who did this to Ivory.
Serapter knocked on the door and entered upon hearing a faint “Come in” from Ivory. Immediately Serapter noticed that she had gauze wrapped on the right of her forehead and the left of her torso.
“Oh my God, Ivory.” Serapter said distraughtly. “Oh my God, are you okay?” He walked over to her bedside frantically looking her over, worry evident on his face.
“It’s okay, Seraptor.” Ivory slowly sits up deciding that talking to Serapter at a somewhat even level is better than when she’s laying down. “I’m okay. Really.” She says softer than her usual tone of voice. A lot like his sister's voice used to be, Serapter realized.
Serapter believed she was okay, Ivory’s capable after all, but this situation isn’t okay. How could someone want to hurt her? And especially Bormethius, a detective of all things. In not one of Serapter’s brightest moments he decides to ask that question. “Why would the detective even do this?” he paces, “There’s no reason for him to suspect you, what does he want?!”
“He said he wanted an answer- a uh.. Confession.” Nerves suddenly taking over, her breath hitches and she looks away from Serapter, “He said that he knows I did it. He was.. Very insistent.” Ivory fiddled with the stark white quilt, rolling it between her fingers.
Ivory continued in a panic now, “But I swear, Serapter it wasn’t-”
Serapter sat at the end of bed and firmly stated, “Hey no. You don’t need to explain yourself to me, I know you would never do something like this.” He may have only known Ivory for a couple of weeks but he can tell she would never even think of killing someone.
Ivory breathed a sigh of relief. “Okay. Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize either.” Serapter says, “You have a habit of that.”
“Yeah I-” Ivory stops herself before, ironically, apologizing. Serapter gave her an affectionate smile in response.
And so for the next couple of hours they spoke. They didn’t talk about anything important, just whatever came to mind (which resulted in a lot of talking from Serapter and nodding from Ivory). About an hour in, Serapter was rambling on about another room he found in the building (it was filled with even more clothes) and Ivory suggested he go back to their room to get some sleep, but he insisted he stay because “I can sacrifice my beauty sleep to hang out with you” to which Ivory laughed at. Soon the sun rose, the warmth seeping into Serapter’s arm leaving the rest of his body chilly.
—-----
Today is gonna suck is all Serapter could think while he changed into his well-worn uniform. It wasn’t going to be that bad truthfully, just the normal stuff but Ivory wouldn’t be there at lunch or at night to gaze at the stars.
Serapter goes for the motions for the first hour. Get dressed, wash his face (curse his acne scars from his teens years still being prominent), and brush his teeth. Then off to attend Zam. He might make light conversation like usual but his heart wasn’t really in it. The only thing on Serapter’s mind is Ivory. Is she okay? Why would Bormethius do that? What can I do? I need to do something. How? Fuck.
Serapter’s thoughts were abruptly interrupted by Zam asking “Hey dude, you okay?”
“Oh yeah, just…” He wipes down the clock. A constant rhythmic tick tick tick in the background. “Uh, feeling off.” Serapter concludes both the sentence and his cleaning of the clock, now moving on to wiping off Zam’s desk. It was filled with books Serapter noticed.
“Yeah I don’t blame you.” Zam says casually. He’s sitting cross-legged on his bed twiddling with a pencil. “First Mysti, and now Borm beating the shit out of Ivory it’s just…” Zam trails off, probably realizing his choice of words could’ve been better.
“Messed up?” Serapter says, turning around, momentarily stopping his task of stacking the books into a neat, tall pile. “Things like this don’t usually get to me but I don’t know.” Serapter didn’t really want to go in depth about his sister’s death and how that affected him.
“Well you and Ivory are close, right?” Zam asks pushing the eraser every which way until it’s a light pink, resembling a roll of bubble tape.
“Yeah I guess we are.” He answers simply, it doesn’t really explain while he feels so strongly about this. He cared when Mysti died, she was a friend, but this isn’t the same feeling. He has this urge to protect Ivory.
“Well then that’s probably it, right?” Zam says, clearly unsure of his own words.
“Yeah, sorted.” He tries to keep the sarcasm out of his voice which he clearly does a good job of as Zam continues talking. Serapter ignores him though, those same thoughts still racing in his mind. Tick. Tick. Tick. Fuck this clock is annoying.
—---
After his conversation with Zam, Serapter felt conflicted. Zam made it seem like the answer to all of this was because he cares about Ivory. But how is that the reason? He cared about Mysticat, where was the protectiveness for her? What a messed up question. Of course he cared when Mysti died. But he couldn’t do anything.
Too much thinking. He just needed to focus on the task at hand which was lunch. Chicken and potatoes, simple and boring.
“Serapter, are you okay?” Twice someone has asked, damn. He realizes it’s Kantje who asked the question. Div looks a little worried. All Serapter can think about is Ivory’s absence.
“Yeah I’m fine.” Serapter rubs his eyes, feeling a headache coming on. “I’m just… Thinking.” He cringes at himself.
“Well of course you’re thinking,” Div says, getting a forkful of chicken. “Why else would you be staring at the wall?” Kantje gives him a death glare.
Serapter feels his face go red, “Yeah you’re right.” He takes a deep breath and slumps into his chair. “I don’t know… Everything’s so messed up.” He tried to say this casually, but he sounded so defeated.
Kantje gives a sympathetic smile, “Don’t worry Ivory will be out in a couple of days.”
Not what Serapter was thinking about (directly, at least) but it’s not like Kantje knew that. It’s not like he could even articulate it either. But he wants to say something it’s killing him. So he says the easiest thing he can.
“I just want to do something, ya know?” Like find Bormethius and ask why he did what did, by any means necessary.
“I think we all feel that way.” Concludes Kantje. But there is a way to help. There has to be right? Otherwise what type of a friend am I?
“But I think it’s best if we don’t get involved.” Div says, as if he could hear Serapter’s thoughts. “Don’t want to get fired.” He chuckles like he made one of the best jokes in history.
“Yeah you’re right.” Serapter says, hoping that’ll be the end to his endless thoughts. And it is for the rest of lunch and the evening.
He went to go see Ivory after Zam said he didn’t need anything else for the day, but much to his dismay Ivory was fast asleep. Though he really shouldn’t be shocked, after all she has a concussion. God you’re so selfish, go talk to yourself if you want to yap so much. He just hopes Ivory ate dinner.
And with that Serapter goes to sleep the same endless thoughts flooding his brain, pestering him like a dog who wants your leftovers. He tries to ignore them and eventually falls asleep.