“You’ve been studying for twelve hours, Azul. Twelve. I’m not even sure if your eyes are in straight anymore,” Yuu announced from her perch on Azul’s office floor, stuffing the study guides within reach back into her bag with relish.
Azul made no such moves to, well, move at all.
“These are my final exams, Yuu. I’m not doing them halfway.”
Floyd, whose face was already down in the carpet, mumbled through his own pile of papers—which he had given up on at least an hour ago. “The woman’s right, Boss. This is chop-suey. Keeping on with this is like giving mouth-to-mouth to a week-old kipper. Or debating potionology with a moldy turnip.”
“Enlightening imagery, Floyd,” Azul muttered, annoyed.
“I feel like I’m trying to arm-wrestle an octopus,” added Jade, who sat on the recliner, jacket and tie more askew than it may have ever been during his time at NRC.
“Not funny,” Azul grumbled.
Yuu, in a similar state to Jade, rolled over from her spot among the study guides on the floor, and peered up at Azul.
“It’s a little funny.”
“Yuu. Not you, too. We have mere days before exams—”
With a groan, Yuu pushed herself to her feet, and made her way to Azul’s chair.
“Azul, if you don’t get proper exercise and sleep, nothing you’ve studied will actually stick. And this…” She picked through one of the papers he’d amassed on his desk. “Isn’t this from last year’s arithmancy?” She held up another. “And this form. It’s from this year’s Biomancy quiz. None of this is going to be covered.”
“You never know what they’re going to pull from. Anything over our entire time here is free game,” he said stubbornly.
“You do know those already, Azul…” Jade drawled, letting his head loll back on the sofa’s arm.
“There’s nothing wrong with a review. I won’t know what I’ve forgotten unless—” Azul proceeded to lecture the room—mostly himself—about the importance of minor quizzes and obscure professorial references. He did this while raking his hair into a mess reminiscent of a mad scientist. His descent into insanity was practically tangible. On his behalf, Yuu decided he’d had enough.
“You’re done for today,” she said, reaching for his hands and pulling him from the chair. “Jade,” she complained, having to pull harder than she’d expected, “did you starch his suit, or all of him? Come on, Azul. You’re stiffer than a Victorian wig. At this rate, we might need to start marketing you as furniture.”
“I can get up myself, Yuu,” argued Azul, who absolutely could not get up by himself.
Letting him try, she pulled back far enough for him to make the attempt—only for him to make it exactly as far as they’d expected.
“Why are you watching me?” he grumbled, pushing hard off of the desk.
Yuu’s smirk matched the twins’. “I like watching you struggle.”
Azul’s scowl was immediate.
“Charming.”
Chin in her hands on the desk, she kept a straight face as he pushed himself to his feet—slowly.
“I think it’s cute how you glare.”
Azul crossed his arms, finally having made it to his feet. “I think it’s terrible how you flirt.”
“I don’t—um—touche….”
“You do flirt rather blatantly,” Jade sighed, not looking at them. “Really, Azul, is putting the Ashengrotto sigil around her neck any less subtle than a mating mark?”
Clearly the prolonged studying had made Jade less tactful. And less subtle. And grumpy.
“Well, she is wearing it, isn’t she?” Azul replied smoothly, for the first time, entirely unflustered. In fact, though weary, he seemed entirely too pleased. “And, it did get rid of mother quite nicely.”
“You mean the part where she left the dorm cackling maniacally?” Yuu deadpanned.
“And burning contracts, and collecting wagers?” Floyd added unhelpfully.
“It certainly reminded me of someone,” muttered Jade.
Azul blanched. “Is that how people see me?”
“YES,” Jade, Floyd, and Yuu exclaimed at once.
Azul groaned, letting his face fall into his hands. “Eurgh…. So much work to do….Is my reputation really so flimsy?”
Yuu perched on his desk, reaching up to stroke a few stray pieces of his silvery hair back into place. “Give it time. Your own dorm obviously likes you—So do I.”
She placed a quick kiss on his cheek, and he rewarded her with a bright salmon-colored blush.
“Eurgh, you two make me wanna jump in a lake,” Floyd groaned, throwing his arms over his face.
“No one said you needed to study in here, Floyd,” Azul
“You did,” Jade and Floyd said simultaneously.
“...Did I really?”
“—I think that’s a great idea, Floyd,” Yuu interjected, before Azul could go losing himself again. “Sun’s almost set, so we don’t have to worry about sunscreen. Let’s just go swim for a bit. Actually, I saw dolphins go by earlier. We could catch them!”
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Glasses askew, Azul looked at her as though she’d just proposed they all try balancing weasels on their heads. “Yuu, if you think I can keep up with a pod of dolphins, you would be mistaken.”
“We could, though, Shrimpy!” Floyd cried, shooting upright as though she’d just reinflated him. “Jade and I could catch a few of those for you!”
Yuu laughed nervously. “Well, I didn’t mean to eat them. Just… for looking?”
“It’s been a while since we chased anything…” Jade said thoughtfully, a smile spreading on his face.
“Right, well…” Yuu could feel something dissolving in the room around her as Azul’s glare refocused squarely on the twins. “How about you guys go and get some suits? Only so much daylight left.”
“Yuu…” Azul said warningly, as the twins peeled themselves off of their respective surfaces and wandered out of the room. “Yuu, I have to say, this is a risky idea if you were planning on staying un-drowned this evening.”
She shot him a wink over one shoulder. “What I’ve done is bought us a ten-minute head start to get somewhere they can’t track us. Are you a mage, or aren’t you?”
A slow smile twisted up the corners of Azul’s mouth. “And they say I’m the devious one.”
“Tell a soul and they’ll never believe you,” she said mischievously.
“I’ve been catfished,” he sighed dramatically.
“You knew EXACTLY what you were getting,” she said, flicking his ear hard.
He batted her away, collecting his coat. “Yes, yes. But who else did?”
“Did anyone else matter?”
He blinked. “Perhaps I really have been studying too long…So, Yuu. Where did you want to go?”
She smiled, taking the arm he offered to her. “Somewhere quick. Nine minutes left.”
“Alright,” he said, a devious twinkle returning to his dulled eyes. “Alright, I have a few ideas you might enjoy, but we’ll have to run.”
“You would run for me?” she snickered.
He rolled his eyes. “I do. With absurd frequency.”
Touching her free hand to her heart, she found herself feeling oddly, and deeply cared for—not for the first time since she’d begun spending her days with Azul.
“Oh dear…” she said quietly. “I’m not sure what to say to that.”
“Hah!” That tiny edge of madness was seeping back into his smile as he led her from the office. “The possibilities! You could say” I am hopelessly charmed by your refined intellect, undeniable charm, Azul,’ or, ‘If I had to choose between a mountain of treasure and having tea with Azul Ashengrotto, well… I’d at least consider the tea,’ or perhaps, ‘Wow, Azul, I’m so smitten, I believe I’ll wear this pendant forever,’ or—”
She was laughing hard now, as he pulled her down the main staircase behind him.
“Wait, wait. Is that last one really on par with the others?”
At the base of the staircase, Azul paused in their flight long enough to press one of those aureately soft kisses on her mouth that never failed to stick her to the floor.
“No,” he murmured fervently. “It’s far more significant.”
Then, he smirked, and before she could even somewhat come to grips with his question, and what Jade had compared the pendant to earlier, Azul was tugging her along again, with a reminder: “Seven minutes.”
Running behind him, reeling, laughing despite herself, she followed him out the lounge side door and out toward the docks. Yuu never hesitated anymore when jumping into the sea behind Azul. There was a moment of freefall, but she knew he would be there, right beneath the surface to catch her.
*
The next morning, with Grimm…
“You gonna tell me why you’re sleeping in so late, human?” Grim pawed at her face, nudging her into awakeness. “And why you’re on the floor? And why you reek of salt?”
“Exams are coming up, Grim. And we are not getting held back another year. I studied ten hours yesterday. Straight. TEN!”
Grim flopped onto his back and kicked his paws in the air at the mention of exams. “So you did a lot of studying. So did I!”
“Uh-huh. How long did you study with Ace and Deuce before you cracked?”
He flicked his tail indignantly. “Five hours, I’ll have you know.”
“The Great Grim is truly dedicated,” she said sarcastically. “And how much of that was snacking?”
He scowled at her. “I don’t see why we gotta study like this. Don’t you have the best mage in the school as a boyfriend? What is even the point if we’re not dining on tuna every night, and getting study guides for free? ISN’T THIS LOVE!?”
She glared, then shrugged tiredly. “He tried. I banned him from it.”
Grim hopped to his feet, howling. “WHAT!? Free study guides and you said NO!? I thought you cared! I thought this was gonna be the best thing that ever happened to us! Where’s my TUNA?”
Yuu sighed. “Grim, this is gonna mean a lot more to you if you earn it yourself. Plus you need to actually go through exams knowing things. And then, y’know, go through life knowing things. You want to be a great mage, remember? Not just look like one.”
“I mean, I wanna look like one, too,” Grim grumbled, but he didn’t argue further. “Mmph. There’s more letters from your mom and sister, by the way. The Dark Mirror even says it might let them visit.”
Yuu wrinkled her nose. “I’m not sure if I trust that, but if it’s willing to make that kind of deal, I don’t know what else I’d ever go back for….That really would be a dream. It really does listen to you better, you know.”
“Yeah, well…” Grim shuffled his feet away from her, oddly bashful when it came to the mirror. Expectedly, he changed the subject. “Hey, you ever respond to Mallory’s invitation?”
Yuu groaned. “I’ve been too busy. What’s it for again?”
“I dunno. Something called a baby shower. That’s not what it sounds like it is, is it?” Grim eyed her suspiciously. “You humans have the weirdest traditions, but that one’s just scary—”
“Hang the heck on a minute, Grimm,” Yuu spluttered, realizing what Grimm had said. “Did you say BABY SHOWER? ALREADY!?”
Grim’s fur stood on end at the volume of her voice. Yuu was fully awake now.
“I mean I figured you’d heard of it, but if you don’t know what it is either—”
“Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard of it, I just… wow, Mal,” she exhaled. “Maybe I shouldn’t be too surprised. Oh man, this is gonna keep her out of trouble for a while at least.”
Grim was giving her a look like she’d just suggested Mallory was planning on teaching fish to play the harpsichord, rather than the idea that a baby was going to keep her old roommate busy enough to delay making explosives—at least for a little while.
“Don’t worry about it, Grimm,” Yuu said, giving him a scratch behind the ears. “I’ll explain it later—but, if he doesn’t already know, I’d appreciate it if you’d keep this one from Azul…at least until we graduate next year. I’ll be a lot more ready for that reaction, then.”
“Uh-huh. Sure. I don’t know if I have room in my noggin for much else,” Grim said, tucking his head beneath her makeshift jacket-turned-pillow. “Eech! You really do smell like salt! And fish! And, is that…cherry limeade?”
Yuu snickered. “It is. Specialty food at the lounge.”
“Why does your face look like that when you say that?” Grim asked suspiciously.
Yuu sat up, stretching. “No idea what you’re talking about, Grimm. Breakfast?”
“Hmmm….” Grim eyed her through narrowed pupils, but true to form, he could never resist a meal. “Can we do pancakes?”
She nodded, straightening Azul’s pendant around her neck. ”Sure. Anytime. We have all the time in the world.”