A big shoutout to Bea for organising this event and my two awesome betas zxrycyan and descriptionsalive:). And my partner for the story the very talented vialoffire, you should really check out her work on tumblr it's amazing.

This is my story for opbigbang, I hope you guys like it I'm having a lot of fun writing it. Oh one thing before I leave I kept as M for a reason there are some points parts in chapters that get pretty especially what I have in store for future chapters aside from the ones I have qritten-just thought I'd give you guys a heads up and please pay attention to the storyline when I wrote the intial even I was surprised. Anywho onto the prologue

Settling In

Ace once again found himself looking out the window, watching with disinterest as the hills on the countryside passed by in a blur. Resting his chin against the palm of his hand, he mumbled to himself, "A few more hours to go" Turning his head back around with a sigh, he looked to find that the only three other occupants of the bus consisted of an old lady who had fallen asleep in the chair opposite his, a weary mother who appeared to be rocking a small bundle in her arms in a rhythmic manner and the driver of the locomotive-an overweight, dark skinned man dressed in a white shirt and faded blue pants, his radio barely audible over the groaning of the engine. Turned up to full volume listen to these very songs while working around the house. On rare occasions, Ace could hear her singing as well, hitting each note perfectly like she had been doing for years. A small smile tugged at the edge of his lips as he stared at the passing scenery.

He didn't know when they had reached his desired destination, but a gentle shove from a foreign hand and he began to stir from the clutches of slumber. Grabbing his favourite green bag, he stepped out of the bus and into the open air. He stretched his muscles briefly to get rid of the accumulated stiffness in his joints, before catching the large suitcase and bag the bus driver threw As he set down bag on the street he was hit by a blast of hot air. Wow, the difference is so big. He thought to himself as he began to subconsciously make comparisons between his native home and this new town. Ace began to walk down the streets, dragging his large suitcase behind him while taking in his new surroundings.

It was late in the evening and a majority of the stores located at the bottom of the buildings, built close to one another and selling mostly clothes, shoes, stationery and furniture, had already closed for the day. Very few people were walking in the streets, despite him estimating it to be only close to six o'clock in the evening.

At some point, he had walked past a bakery from which the smell of freshly baked bread and other tantalizingly sweet smelling pastries made his stomach growl in hunger. Street lamps stood every fifty meters on both sides of the one-way street, illuminating the path ahead of him. Continuing his walk, Ace pulled out a sheet of folded paper from his coat pocket and studied it briefly before looking at a nearby display traced his finger over a red line and nodded briefly to himself, and then picked up his bags and continued onward.

Eventually, after a long walk through the town lengthened by many detours and backtracking, he finally reached the destination that he desired. It was a low-rise apartment building shaped in the form of a U, with the parking space located in the centre.

As Ace entered the apartment building, he was greeted by the manliest looking lady he had ever seen, her curly orange hair sticking out wildly as if she had never introduced it to a comb before. A pair of of small grey horns protruded from the tip of her forehead. There was a nasty snarl on her face which was largely dominated by some of the biggest pair of lips he had ever seen and medium sized brown eyes. Her baggy clothes smelled vaguely of cigarette smoke and alcohol.

After a brief exchange of awkward greetings and a quick scan of the paperwork, she turned around and snatched a key that was hanging on a rusty metal hook along with several others from behind the well worn wooden counter, and handed it to him before going back to her magazine.

The apartment itself was rather modest but spacious enough for him, with a semi-detached kitchen and living room separated by a wooden counter with two bar stools. Thankfully, there was a working cooker and fridge in the kitchen. In the sitting room, there was a worn. Walking down the narrow hallway, he found one door on his left and two on the right. Upon further inspection, the first led to the bathroom while the others led to a bedroom and an room, which he made a mental note to find another use for later. He then entered the bedroom, dumping everything on the floor and plopping himself onto the queen-sized bed before succumbing to his exhaustion and drifting into a blissful sleep.

The next day, he woke up bright and early despite his temptation to sleep for a while longer, showered and slipped into some casual clothing. Grabbing his wallet, two large envelopes and keys, he headed out the door. Pausing briefly to greet the old hag at the reception area, who in turn grunted something along the lines of a salutation to him, he left the apartment complex.

The weather was just right-not so hot that it was stifling or cold to the point of having to grab a light coat...although he thought it ironic, seeing as how changes in weather patterns didn't affect him in the slightest, unlike it did other species.

To his surprise, not long after he had stepped out of the building he reached his destination. None too soon either as, glancing at his watch, he found it was already five minutes to eight.

Ace gazed with slight trepidation at the behemoth structure. The building itself looked like a page out of history, from the spiralling gothic towers on either side of the large castle-like structure, to the stained glass windows. Nettings that lined the roof gave the building a sinister appearance, as if someone had hung giant spider webs on it. The gardens below were lined with trees, blooming with the most interesting and enchanting flowers that danced in the wind and filled the air with a faint yet sweet smell.

"Excuse me," an unfamiliar voice called out.

Snapping out of his stupor, he turned to look at the source of the voice to find a stunning, slender woman. She was rather petite in stature, standing a half-head shorter than Ace with, dark green hair held back by a laurel made of gold thread. Her hazel brown cat-like eyes that appeared to hold a lot of wisdom and warmth contrasted nicely against her pale porcelain skin. She had a nice hourglass body, on which she wore a simple white cotton dress that fitted her well and went past her knees; on her feet she had on a pair of leather brown gladiators. "You must be Ace. I'll be giving you your tour around Mythos Academy." She held out her delicate hand in greeting and continued, "My name is Makino."

Ace took her hand and shook it. "Nice to meet you, Makino."

"So shall we begin the tour?" she asked. Ace merely nodded and she turned around, making her way towards the colossal building while pointing out different areas,throwing in the intermittent piece of history here and there. Ace took in each word keenly while making a mental map of the area so as not to get lost in the future.

After half an hour spent touring the vast school compound, Makino, whom he had now learned was a wood nymph, brought him in front of a large wooden door, explaining to him that the vice-principal wanted to see him briefly before he could leave for the day. Ace seemed slightly shocked, so Makino gave him a sympathetic pat on the shoulder and offered a few final words of encouragement before departing.

Ace eyed the doorknob, a flurry of thoughts running through his mind. Finally, he reached for it and opened the door. The layout of the office he found to be rather modest-several paintings hung from the grey walls, behind a modest desk sat a vision of beauty dressed in provocative clothing. Her glossy black hair done held up with two lotus hairpins, already the bun had long since began to unravel as strands framed her framed her youthful face. A large pair of bat wings neatly folded behind her chair. the tips almost touching the low ceiling, her fingers a blur of black as they danced across the keyboard, hardly looked up when she heard the door creak open

Only, when the person had finally enter did she look up from her silver laptop, her cyan blue eyes studying him quickly behind a pair of glasses before turning to look at the screen of her laptop once again.

Ace felt a slight bit of discomfort when the winged lady behind the small desk examined him from behind her laptop screen and for a brief moment he could have sworn he saw a mischievous twinkle in her blue eyes before she broke eye contact to resume tapping away at her laptop.

"You must be Ace." she stated

It was not a question but Ace answered anyway, "Yes."

Not even bothering to look up from her laptop, she suggested, "Why don't you have a seat while you wait?"

Ace complied and made himself comfortable on the couch, opting to gaze out the window at the stunning view below of the cherry blossom trees that bloomed throughout the year. A comfortable silence settled in the office between the two occupants filled only with the sounds of the black haired woman tapping away at her silver laptop. The crackling of an intercom made her pause in the middle of her task as she had a brief conversation with the person, filled with the occasional enigmatic chuckle on her side, before she once again pressed the button to end the exchange.

Looking up from the intercom, she gazed directly at Ace with a small smile on her face. "The vice principal will see you now. Just go through that door," she said while pointing manicured hand to a door behind her.

Ace muttered a quiet thank you and entered through the door, heart pounding in anticipation at meeting the guy. After all, it had been a while since they last talked.

"Oh, Ace, it's been awhile hasn't it? How are you finding things around here" a familiar, friendly voice asked. The lax tone in which the man spoke eased his pent-up nerves, making his lips twitch up into a smile. There were very few people Ace trusted, much less liked, in his life, and considering the circumstances he'd been in so far, who could blame him? This man was one of very few exceptions, to put it simply, he could count the number of people he truly trusted with only three fingers.

"Everything's alright, though I still haven't seen much of the town yet so I can't really say..." he trailed off with a casual shrug.

The man burst into laughter, revealing rows of deadly sharp teeth behind his red maw. "That's true; we'll talk more later on once you've settled in." He began to scratch the bottom of his chin with a clawed finger. The sound of nail scraping against his red draconic scales filled the office.

Raising his hand to his mouth, Ace cleared his throat, grabbing the attention of the eastern dragon. "Is there something you wanted to see me about?"

The eastern dragon hummed in thought. "Not really," he grinned, once more revealing his sharp teeth, twisting the expression into something menacing despite its friendly intention. "I'm just excited to see you made it here. Well, don't let me hold you back any longer; I'll see you on your first day."

The morning had gone surprisingly well for Ace and,still in a good mood, he decided to spend the rest of the day exploring the town. Mentally grateful that Makino had given him a small map marking good places to go shopping for food and clothes, as well as a few cafes. So far everything had gone well and he had managed to purchase some basic items for settling into his new home-mostly consisting of food.

The cafe he had decided to go to based on the recommendations Makino had given him was fairly crowded with people and mythical creatures alike, despite it being late in the afternoon. Glancing through the menu a waitress dressed in a black and white uniform had handed to him, he was surprised to discover that they served dishes that reminded him of home as well as dishes from other ethnicities, all within an affordable price range. He could see now why Makino had put this on the list.

Upon ordering, his food came within a couple of minutes and he devoured the meal. The food was excellent and he could scarcely find anything different from the real thing back home. After paying the bill, he took a leisurely stroll back to his apartment the sky tinged in deep shades of purple, orange and pink, while the cold winds nipped at his arms. When he arrived, Ace dumped unceremoniously on the kitchen, a smile of self-accomplishment on his face as his gaze travelled around the sparsely furnished apartment. Deciding to call it an early night, he went down the narrow hallway and opened the second door on his right, throwing his full weight onto the mattress causing the springs to groan.

Everything was going absolutely great, no, seriously; everything had been brilliant for ?Ace so far. For those of you who are sarcasm impaired, the first sentence is a blatant lie. Not only had he woken up late, he had also forgotten his bag back in the apartment in his rush to get to school before the bell rung and the school gates closed

"Really, just really, you have got to be shitting me." Swiftly turning on his heels, Ace began to sprint back to the apartment, a string of vivid curses leaving his mouth as he ran down the street, not in the slightest bit bothered by the looks of surprise he was given by the humans and mythical creatures he zoomed past by.

"Dadan! Key! Need! Now!" he yelled in between sharp intakes of breath, an upturned palm slammed on the counter.

Grunting in disapproval at having her reading disrupted once again, she mumbled some curses before reaching underneath the counter and dropping the keys into his palm.

By some miracle Ace managed to get his bag and make it onto school grounds before the bell rang, though many students eyed him strangely seeing as how he was the only one hunched over in the courtyard,panting as if he'd just been running like death was on his heels. Upon regaining his breath, Ace entered the school and to his surprise found many mythical creatures from different parts attending as well, ranging from some he'd studied about in his old school to some he didn't even recognise.

"You've got to hide me!" a voice behind him begged in panic. Snapping out of his thoughts, he turned around to come face to face with a weretiger. Correction: a panicking male weretiger, who kept swivelling his head in different directions as if he were waiting for something to attack him from behind.

The sudden sound of crashing followed by raucous cursing echoed throughout the halls,steadily coming closer and closer, making the weretiger wince in fright. Turning quickly, the weretiger began to sprint with surprising speed in the opposite direction, muttering something about not wanting to die young and how pineapple headed phoenixes couldn't take a joke.

Ace blinked in confusion as he stared at the retreating weretiger, before snapping out of his daze. Just when he thought things had returned to normal and thus continued on to his intended destination, a wall of dazzling blue fire appeared in his path it quickly dissipated, and in its place stood a man dressed in a purple open shirt that exposed his chest. The blonde spiky hair on the top of his head indeed gave him the appearance of a certain spiked fruit-it was not hard to draw a comparison between the two. Half-lidded blue eyes that radiated fury gazed down at him intently. "Have you seen a weretiger pass around here, yoi?" He asked.

Ace shook his head, remembering the look of panic on the weretiger's face (this was not out of sympathy, mind you-he was already plotting something).

The pineapple headed man eyed Ace suspiciously for a while longer before sighing, releasing his murderous rage and making a mental note to pay back the weretiger at a later date, before turning his attention once again to the man. Come to think of it, he had never seen him around campus before. "You new around here, yoi?" He asked.

Ace paused before shrugging in agreement. "Pretty much: just got here two days name is Ace, you?"

"Marco, yoi."

"So who was that weretiger you were looking for?"

A glint of anger flashed through his half-lidded eyes. "Thatch. A very soon to be dead weretiger."

"Must've done pretty something bad if he got you pissed off to this extent," Ace observed.

"Not really," Marco said while rubbing the back of his head sheepishly "He has been pulling this shit since I can remember so I'm pretty much used to it but today was another issue, yoi."

Ace chuckles and offers lightly "Well, I'll let you know if I see him."

"Thanks, yoi." Marco began to walk off, lazily waving his hand as he disappeared into the throng of other students and teachers in the hallway.

"Thanks dude, I owe you one."

Whipping his head around Ace came to face to face with the weretiger he could've sworn he saw run off. "How did you-you were just running in that direction! How did you get over here?" Suddenly everything clicked. "Wait a minute, are you Thatch? What did you do to piss off Marco that much?"

The weretiger just laughed heartily in response and clapped a paw on Ace's shoulder Gaining his breath once again, he began to describe his plan of absolute brilliance and recount the implementation of said plan that led to the events that transpired earlier, that then led to Marco's rage.

It's safe to say that Ace was soon joining in on the weretiger's mirth, before he even finished his story. Unbeknownst to them, the beginnings of a beautiful partnership in the perilous art of pranking was formed, one that would later on gain them infamy throughout Mythos Academy as the devilish duo.

...

Ace sighed once again and looked once more at the exercise book on his desk with unconcealed ire. To be honest with himself, the lesson had been a complete bore so the flamboyant clothing he wore, the teacher droned on and on in the same monotonous speech pattern that made him want to tear out his freaking hair and slam his head repeatedly against the desk. Glancing up at the clock above the blackboard, he found there to be another twenty five minutes before he would be let out.

"Fantastic," he muttered in resignation.

"Mr. Portgas, care to solve this problem?" the source of monotony asked.

Ace lazily raised his head from the desk and looked at the teacher"Huh?" Ace replied unintelligibly, causing the other students to snicker.

"Come and answer the problem on the board, since you've decided that staring out the window or sleeping on your desk is far more important than paying attention like everybody else," the teacher growled while stretching out a feathered hand in which a piece of chalk was clutched between talons. A pair of golden eyes pinned him to his seat in a piercing glare that sent shivers down his spine.

Having no choice, Ace slowly stood up from his and dragged his feet lazily across the tiled floor to the front of the class and took the chalk from the smirking professor's taloned and feathered hand. Turning to look at the board, a frown of concentration settled onto his face as he studied the question. Muttering a brief curse of annoyance, he began to scribble on the solution. After several minutes filled only the sound of squeaking and scratching of chalk on the board,he turned away, placed the chalk on the teacher's desk and returned to his seat

The man briefly studied Ace's answer before turning to face his student "That is correct, mister Portgas," he said, a hint of disdain in his voice. To his surprise the student had already fallen asleep, using his folded arms as a pillow to support his head on the desk.

It seemed like a bloody eternity before the bell rang, signalling the start of lunch, and Ace was the first one out the door. While heading to the dining hall he was rejoined by Marco and Thatch, with whom he began to chat casually about random topics. Surprisingly the three got along as if they'd known each other for quite some time despite this being Ace's first time meeting the two together.

Upon grabbing food from the buffet-like setup, Thatch dragged a reluctant Ace to a specific table where he introduced Ace to everyone seated there, some of whom he recognised from his morning classes. Once introductions were finished everybody resumed their conversations, inviting the 'newbie' to join in.

"Speaking of which, did anyone hear about the party next week?" Haruta, a petite elf who said while waving a plastic spoon in midair.

"Oh, that thing that always happens at the beginning of each semester? Yeah, I wonder who'll be hosting it this year..."

Not sure of what to say, Ace opted to listen in as everybody began to recount the tales of last year's debacle, some of which he found highly amusing and couldn't but laugh little.

"Will you be coming this year?"

The man being questioned merely blinked as all eyes on the table turned to him. Raising his hands he shook his head firmly. "No thanks, besides gate crashing isn't really my style."

"Nonsense," Thatch hollered while clapping his furry arm around Ace and giving him a toothy grin, "you're coming whether you want to or not!"

Izou huffed in annoyance. "There is no point in trying to force him to come when you can see he is clearly not even interested in doing so."

Releasing his hold on Ace, Thatch folded his arms and began to mutter incoherent sentences under his breath, twitching his tail at random intervals, and Ace could only guess that he was pouting. Ace had to bite the bottom of his lip to prevent himself from snickering at the exchange. Soon the lax atmosphere settled over the table once again as they began to talk about another random topic, with Haruta throwing in his occasional opinion here and there.

When the bell signalling the end of lunch rang and everybody began to gather their things and make their way back to classes, Ace felt someone grab his hand in a surprisingly strong grip. Turning around he found himself face-to-face Haruta, who handed him a black envelope. "Just in case you decide to change your mind," she said, and left without waiting for a reply.

Ace eyed the envelope briefly before stuffing it into his pocket.

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