Summary: Scarlet and Adrian spends a Saturday morning alone in their dormitory.
Every morning, just before the sun could peek over the walls of Ravenwood, and the lamp posts were still lit with wispy flames drowsy with the urge to burn out, a certain creak before any other. There, in a hallway within the Girls' Dormitory, the wallpapers that were actually painted on the walls with exquisite effort. They were a lavish coat of deep purple. The color wasn't too saturated, or one would always notice the lavender feathers painted on the sides of the hallway. The dedication that was put in the walls accurately shows the Violet Nightingale House's love for the arts, whether it would be visual, musical, or in performance. That was no exception for Dorm Seven either. The door to that particular dormitory creaks away with one side shying away from its doorway. Two wizards would step out, both dressed in sweatpants and something casual for the top.
A shorter than the average student was one of them. Her fluffy-soft pale blonde hair grew to her shoulders, with some locks of those soft follicles curling inwards into her face. Her amber eyes burn bright, clearly showing that she wasn't affected by the early morning.
The other girl, at least at first glance, was a bit taller than his friend. Yes, despite it being a girls' dormitory, this young man fit in effortlessly with the girls, as he appeared like one himself. His ice blue eyes watched through the strands of his silver-white hair at his dorm mate, and close friend. One oddity that he had was that furry, snow white cat ears stuck out from his hair, and a long tail protruded from his back. The fur coating the tail was smooth and kept a thin shape until the end, then it was fluffy. He was quarter dog and lion after all.
They both wore tank-tops for the day, white and made of cotton, and their bodies were slim and athletic, which was a rarity for wizards.
"Another day, another excuse to get stronger," the girl recites like a mantra, stretching out her limbs. "You ready, Adrian?"
"Ready for nothing else, Scarlet," he grins back.
Every morning, just before the sun could shine through the leaves of Bartleby which shrouded Ravenwood like a dome top, Scarlet Night and Adrian Kensington heads out onto the roundabout street which circled the old giant tree which Ravenwood held as the source of all magic. Adrian's favorite part about it was the crisp morning air he could just puff his lungs up with, which dashed away any urges to not smile. Scarlet's favorite part about it is how the streets were absent of any other people. No students, no animal professors. Just her and Adrian, with all of Ravenwood to themselves. Why were they outside before anyone else in the dawn? It's because these wizards, unlike the nerdy, unfit majority, like to train hard, and for a particular reason. And that's because—
I have to get stronger for what is to come, Adrian rethinks to himself.
I can't lose to Adrie, Scarlet grins.
Every day, they would do this routine of hard work, and their reward would be more strength, stamina, agility, and not to mention nice bodies. Today is Saturday, but even that isn't an excuse to skip training. Making the effort to generate a bit of adrenaline into his veins, Adrian does a little stationary jog, tapping the soles of his sneakers on the colorfully tiled street, and pulls his arm across the chest, one after the other. Scarlet would watch him intently, glancing at his how defined his biceps were. They weren't much, but one could see how he could win a high noon standoff with those guns.
Scarlet squints slowly at her training buddy. If only he'd flex a bit...
Realizing how perverse her thoughts were just then, she shakes her head and gives herself a few quick breaths before getting her body ready to work out. She'd peek one more time, but not at his biceps. Rather, her attention laid itself on his tattoos on his left arm; green vines wrapping around his upper arm with thorns and roses. Peeking at her own hands near her waist, she'd see Fire runes branded onto her palms.
At least my body art has some purpose, she thinks.
"Hey," Adrian's girlish voice would pierce her thoughts.
The pyromancer swipes her sets of eyes to Adrian, letting the dawn's sun rays make her amber irises light into a fiery glow.
"You were looking at me all funny with a strange scent," he nods upwards.
Oh, that's right, Scarlet recalls. He has a keen nose.
"Come on, old sport," he smiles, letting a wave course through his animal tail like a whip.
Scarlet nods along.
"Ten laps!"
Ten laps of jogging around the whole campus Ravenwood, which was like a slightly larger-than-standard track field. For sure, that would be over two miles, but the managed to complete it all in about eight minutes, and then they ended their run in front of the World Tree.
"Fifty curl ups!" Scarlet barked.
At first, they started at twenty curl-ups, but somewhere along the line, they began to add two more curl-ups everyday, then five. And it was the same for—
"Fifty push-ups!" Scarlet hollers.
They were quick about their workout. Their goal was not how much they could do, but how fast and efficient they could work out while keeping an easy rate of breathing. By then, the two were sweating a pretty decent amount of beads down their faces.
"You'd think I'd get used to the smell now," Adrian pants. "Having this animal nose isn't all that great."
"What are ye' talkin' about?" Scarlet asks with wispy exhaustion in her breath, instinctively using her Scottish accent.
"You're sweaty."
Scarlet snaps back. "You're sweaty as well!"
"Pfft. Okay, what about this? You're smell kind of good."
She gawks at Adrian with disbelief. "When I'm sweaty..."
"Yeah, sure," he nods.
"You do realize that's just... That sounds weird. You know that, right?"
Adrian shakes his head innocently. "How about we just get to meditating?"
A sigh escapes from Scarlet, and she agrees along with her buddy.
"Alright."
Ten minutes of meditating in front of the Big Tree, the World Tree, Bartleby, whatever. They'd both slowly lower themselves to the ground, with legs crossed, next to each other, and submit their bodies to the gentle breezes of Ravenwood's autumn. Instead of looking for peace, they'd close their eyes to open their minds and let the peace in, and swirl the mana within the two. At the same time, the two would concentrate and use the mana around them to conjure up Ice and Fire around them. Embers hover around like fireflies on Scarlet's side, while placid sleet was around Adrian, with quiet, tiny flashes of lightning accompanying the snowflakes along their cascade to the ground.
This was a practice that Scarlet once suggested after she and Morgan went to Wizard City's Library. It was a way to gain a better grasp on manipulating the raw sources of magic with their mana.
Their backs of their hands were on their laps while they tuned into the natures of magic. It wasn't intentional, but Scarlet brushes the knuckle of her thumb on Adrian's pale skin and it made her heart skip a beat. The glowing fireflies of embers around her brightened into abrupt flames, which pulled Scarlet back from her enlightening concentration. Her form barely fidgets and she manages to gain control of the flames again, shrinking them to simple, pretty embers. Still, it was not the end of things. His hand pressed gently onto Scarlet's. It made her gulp and feel warm around the face.
"Alright, we're done," she immediate halts, getting up.
Adrian wakes up from his state of subconscious. "Wh-Wha?"
His eyes follow after Scarlet and her hair lifting away from her back as she went away, consequently losing control of the sleet around him, and the flakes grew into ice gems, which made small, firecracker pops of electricity. Adrian yelps from the surprise and Scarlet couldn't help but chuckle at Adrian. Slightly upset, he sniffs and pouts at her by pushing his lower lip up.
"Come on, brain freeze," Scarlet calls for Adrian. "Let's have a go at it."
Simple blinks were made by Adrian, staring aimlessly at the blonde pyromancer. With an "oh," he gets himself up from his seat and brings up the next activity on the schedule.
"Three rounds of sparring."
No magic, no tricks. Just simple hand-to-hand combat with no shoes. Socks were fine. Adrian had his tail tied around his hip. These matches weren't casual at all. They would fight with the intent to kill each other. After all, the pain would mean gain, and saving Wizard City from the undead wasn't something like a community play rehearsal. Mediation was scheduled between the fifty push-ups and the three rounds of fighting, to replenish their bodies' energy for a few rounds to have at it. Both of their fighting styles were out of improvisation, but they were legitimate nonetheless. Agility was a major part of Scarlet's strikes. She would sweep around Adrian and try to overwhelm him with a series of jabs and kicks. In contrast, Adrian kept still with his potential motion at bay. Any incoming attack from Scarlet would result in him trying to move around swiftly with either a simple dodge or a somersault off her back to deliver a bone-breaking counter. It was fast strikes against counters, dirty play, and slow yet powerful hits. Most of the times, they would always be in a stalemate, blocking every strike in sight. Occasionally, Scarlet could land a sweet thrusting kick in Adrian's guts and elbow his chin away with rigid, balanced form, then stretch a leg high in the sky to bring her heel down on the back of Adrian's head like an axe. That would win her that match.
For the next round, Adrian managed to sweep Scarlet off her feet like a short-lived cyclone. Before her nose could hit the floor, his hand grasps staunchly on Scarlet's ankle, and Adrian tugs her body by the leg towards him so he could grapple his opponent around the waist, and lunge backwards for a suplex. Halfway along the fall backwards, he would twist his body to face Scarlet, and make a claw around her neck to choke slam her into the ground. Round two went to Adrian.
Up to the final round, they both had their share of wear and tear, with a healing spell beforehand between to recover. It ended in a tie. A heavy fist swooped up Scarlet's neck and into her jaw. At the same time, a knuckle sandwich was served to Adrian, missing his mouth and touching down on his cheek instead.
They both went home to Dorm Seven with a bruise, along with concussions and sprains that they could heal easily with treasure cards like Fairy or Unicorn.
"It feels odd when it's just the two of us."
Scarlet approaches Adrian from behind in a fresh Purple House t-shirt, plaid boxers, and her hair wrapped up in a tower. Steam still lifted off her body because she came newly from the showers. Adrian already had his shower and was wearing boxers like Scarlet did, and one of Nicole's band t-shirts for Pierce the Veil with an album cover of a girl's silhouette floating out of a derelict house. He was at his small workshop, drawing up sketches of potential upgrades to his inventions. Standing behind Adrian, Scarlet saw how his hair was tied back into a small ponytail, exposing how his unusual ears would perk up at the top of his head. It was really weird and creepy, but Scarlet had grown used to it. Somehow, he was able to wear his reading glasses. Adrian turns around to see his friend, the pyromancer. His royal blue glasses were stretched ovals, and the frame would only go under the lenses and not over, giving him the look of a young lady librarian.
"I thought you had good eyesight with your animal aspects," Scarlet points out.
Adrian pokes the sides of his glasses with his pinkies. "I feel smarter when I wear these!"
He grins like a child.
"Morgan says that I look cute with them on. Nicole always wants to wear them."
Scarlet could remember Nicole playing with Adrian, urging him for his eyewear.
"Haha, yeah. I saw that once," she smiles.
Another thing that caught Scarlet's attention was Adrian's collar. Blue nylon wrapped around his neck clasped together with a stainless steel circle. Scarlet knew its real purpose. The collar was enchanted so that it could contain Adrian's hypertuberculosis. The sickness developed in his lungs, but Adrian developed a strong resistance to it. The only damage it causes to him is to occasionally cough up blood. Scarlet shakes the matter off her mind.
"I made us cups of frappuccino," Adrian says, gesturing towards two tall mugs creamed to the top with a strawberry for Scarlet and an animal cracker for Adrian. It was a squirrel with its head bitten off.
Scarlet thought that was a bit creepy, but she still pulled up a seat and sat beside Adrian in his modest workshop to enjoy her cup of frozen coffee. Glancing at the desk, it was scattered with incomplete sketches and a few completed blueprints, along with eraser shavings(or eraser boogers as Scarlet would call them) and pencils of different values. The desk also had a crystalvision screen, and a rectangular board in front of it with organized buttons that were labeled with letters and numbers. The concept of desktop computers was foreign to the Scarlet and the Spiral, as this was the only one that Adrian has made, designed from Nicole's laptop and her descriptions from her world: Earth. While it would be called a computer, Adrian designates it as the Central Frame Access to his personal techmaturgy systems. Scarlet was already dizzy just thinking about it. She leans over Adrian's shoulder, spying on his work, which was lit by a lamp hanging above his hands.
"What are you working on?" Scarlet asks.
"I'm working on a way to suppress my feral tendencies and discrepancies in behaviour," Adrian answers.
"Put that in dumb words," Scarlet mutters quickly.
"It means I'm developing a way to not act so... catty. The squirrels and mice have been giving me a bad time."
A giggle bubbles up from Scarlet. "That looks like a person to me."
She haunts over the paper Adrian was sketching on. In the corner, the sketch was labeled: VALKYR_05 – BESTIAL SUPPRESSION UNIT – SYNTHETIC COMBAT-READY BODY
Under it, it had the file location: ai_unit / valkyr5 / synth .skt.
The main paper had drawings of a naked young adult lady, but her face didn't exactly seem so friendly. Her hair was spiky and some of the locks of hair were shaped to be like cat ears. Over her stark naked body, Adrian had already drawn designs of a skin-tight suit with a belt that extended off her behind like a tail.
"You should give her some badass claws," Scarlet suggests, bouncing her head on Adrian's shoulder with her jaw. "And some nice boobs."
"I feel like you will hit me for increasing the size of her mammary organs," Adrian shyly utters.
Scarlet thought about it. "Yeah, I probably would. By the way, why are all your arctic-ficial intelly- whatevers made as girls?"
Adrian squints his eyes at Scarlet and says his words in a tutoring way. "Artificial..."
Scarlet repeats. "Artificial..."
"Intelligence."
"Intel... ligence."
"Better," Adrian nods.
He was Scarlet's own private tutor when it comes to language arts, math, and social studies. Adrian taught her like his private tutors did, back in his rich mansion filled with aristocratic glamour and wealth. Scarlet had the marks of whips on the back of her hands to prove it. The hits were with a black flimsy-yet-sturdy rod with a tassel on the end, light and slightly stinging in nature, but Scarlet messed up so often that there were marks on her. As payback, Scarlet would kick his ass as they go out the door after each lesson.
"Heh," Scarlet would sound as she smiles at the doorway out of the bedroom.
She had not noticed it, but in the nearest corner of the room, a gramophone was playing, letting loose the invisible grand staffs and notes of dance music. It was things that they would play in a rich party, like for waltzes, or sometimes jazz. At times, singers would sing about their sentimental nothings. Scarlet wasn't too fond of this music much, but her ears were hung on the tip of the world, listening for the voice of a woman, singing about something like her husband who never came back from the war, or trampled flowers in a meadow. The lyrics half-heartedly grabbed at Scarlet's attention, as he interest was more for the singer herself. She loved the slow, beautiful voice, and she could imagine that woman in a satin red dress, performing in the music hall.
"You like her, mate?" Adrian asks, smiling at Scarlet. "Seems you've an ear for the blues."
"Who's the singer?" Scarlet says, turning an ear to the gramophone.
"Ethel McBarker," Adrian hums into his work. "She's a fine labrador-spaniel mix."
Scarlet forgot that Marleybone was full of dogs and cats. She's more used to humans, badgers, and foxes while in Avalon.
"I thought the dogs would just howl and stuff," Scarlet ignorantly blurts.
"Ah, that's in this ravish new music," Adrian chuckles. "It's called 'jazz.' It's the rage nowadays. Shall I put it on the gramo?"
"No thanks. I don't wanna hear howling."
The Fire wizard, now a simple girl in casual clothes, moved aside her pale blonde bangs and wrapped her hands around her mug of frozen coffee like paws and brought it up to her lips to sip.
"It's sweet," Scarlet breathes. "I like it."
"You've a smudge on your nose," Adrian remarks when he turns his head to Scarlet.
There was a lick of white cream left on Scarlet's nose after she took a sip from her frappuccino. Adrian wipes it off for her with his thumb, licks off the sweet cream, and returns to drawing on his work. An indignant huff steamed from Scarlet and she took hold of Adrian's frappe and stole a bit of the cream on top.
"Hey, come on now," Adrian smirks.
"I just stole back what you took."
"I was just wiping it off your nose," Adrian tilted his head.
Crossing her arms, Scarlet let out a brief "Hmph."
She sits with her feet on her chair, leaning back on Adrian's shoulder with frappuccino in hand. After a while of silence, not counting the ambience provided by the gramophone playing Ethel McBarker's Howl For Me, Scarlet sets aside her mug of frozen coffee, and unravels the towel from her hair, combs the strands neatly, and with the Fire magic branded onto her palms, Scarlet blow-dries her pale golden hair with rushing hot air, only making as much noise as a lightly windy day compared to electrical blow dryers. Though it's bad practice, Scarlet puts her hair up into a bun using her magical wooden wand and a pen as hair sticks.
"I feel like sleeping in," Scarlet mumbles quietly, slumping back onto Adrian.
"It is a Saturday after all," Adrian spoke. "Are you sure you've no club activities?"
Her head rocks left and right slowly, giving the impression she was miserable, but Scarlet was just tired. An idea pops into her mind out of the midst of nowhere and nudges her thaumaturge friend with an elbow.
"Hey Adrie, watch this."
A hand of the Fire wizard's raises daintily towards one of the four beds in her room, which was red with yellow stars and white fiery stripes behind the stars. The wand in her held-up hair attained a dim red aura, and the red star-spangled blanket was lifted with magic's invisible hands to be brought to Scarlet.
"Impressive," Adrian nods with his lips scrunched and lowered towards his chin. "I see meditation's taught you a thing or two."
The girl wrapped herself in the thick blanket. "You bet."
Adrian peeks over his shoulder. "Hey, let me in as well."
"Huh?" Scarlet was taken aback with her head moving back slightly. "You mean in the blanket? With me?"
"Surely there must be enough room in the blanket."
She snorts. "Room isn't the problem..."
A pause of reluctance holds her back, but Scarlet gives in. Her arm wriggles under her blanket, and she makes herself a bat wing with it to wrap around Adrian. He takes the incoming blanket and scoots closer to Scarlet to fully cocoon himself with the pyromancer within the covers. For a moment, Scarlet could hear the faintness of Adrian purring from the throat. His hairs were like a grass field of heavenly white feathers when Scarlet watched his feline ears twitch with contentment like his happiness couldn't help but produce sudden spikes of electricity. Adrian's hands weren't at work anymore, leaving his sketch for the warmth of the blanket's new arrival. It felt like an accomplishment for Scarlet, being able to see him act so... cute. That thought of her's made the Fire wizard question herself, but she brazenly confirms it: she thought what Adrian did was cute. No shame. Because of that, Scarlet was finally able to smile once again, breaking through her stubborn shell to enjoy the presence of such a dear friend. No, not friend. A loved one. Ethel McBarker's soothingly gloomy voice kept playing, keeping the air rich with something to listen to. At this point, Scarlet was used to this new genre of music, the blues, and she liked the song, not just for Ethel, but for the way it accompanied a mist of serenity with her. Her nerves were soothed, and she really felt like she could sleep. But of course, Scarlet couldn't sleep on chairs now could she?
Subtly, the pyromancer gets up and drags her pale golden hair off on Adrian's shoulder.
"I'm going to sleep in," she says.
It took a second for Adrian to realize that he was no longer under the comfort of the thick, red, star-spangled blanket, and he turns a doleful look to Scarlet.
"Aw come on," Adrian sodded with lowered ears.
Scarlet would find herself staring awkwardly at Adrian, then at the floor, then back.
"Want to join me?"
Those words were like an instant remedy to Adrian's disappointment and slowly got up to join Scarlet's saunter to her bed. With a spell, the bed became wider from a twin-size to a king-sized bed. Scarlet threw herself in, bouncing on the mattress on impact, and Adrian joins the fun, landing on her legs. Giggles filled the room with delight from the both of them. While Adrian rose up onto his knees and hands to crawl to the pillow, Scarlet recalled some memories.
I think the first time I was in the same bed with Adrian, Morgan, Nicole, and Mudge were there as well, she recollected.
The second time was when some theurgist infirmary works were being cheeky and put them on the same bed to recover from a battle. And the third time, Scarlet confessed her love for Adrian, both to him and herself. From there, things...
Escalated.
Usually, pure pyromancers like Scarlet had an affinity for Fire, and could not be hurt by their own flames. Still, Scarlet burned at the cheeks with boiling blood in the form of a peachy blush. She turned her head to see if Adrian remembered the last time they got close in this very bed. Apparently not. She didn't know if she was saddened or relieved to see that Adrian did not hold one thought in his innocent mind about it. Instead, the Ice wizard was squirming around under the blanket close to his sister-figure in order to get as snug and cuddly as he can. Once he found the perfect way out of his wiggling, Adrian snickers in accomplishment, and made a soft, yet wide grin. Unfortunately for him, Scarlet found the opportunity to ruin it for him, and with a hand over his back, the Fire wizard hooks in the silver Adrie fish in, line and sinker included. Fortunately for Adrian, he found himself to love his friend's warmth and his arms squeezes Scarlet in.
The girl swore she had just heard Adrian let out a squee.
"H-Hey, easy now," Scarlet stammers with a half-forced, half-genuine smile.
"Yes, mom," he murmurs.
Scarlet snickers. "Snrkt."
Silently, they'd enjoy each other's embrace. Girl and boy. Fire and Ice. Brash and calm. Sweet and explosive. The two were total opposites, yet Scarlet found herself falling for the foolishly naïve Adrian like it was her job to hold him. The Ice wizard himself thought of Scarlet like a close friend, but then thought of what Scarlet had mentioned before when they had first enjoyed each other.
"Hey, Scarlet... Can you tell me about romantic love again?"
Adrian's first answer to Scarlet's confession was that he loved her like family, just like he did with Nicole, Morgan, and Mudge. He was incapable of feeling that form of affection until Scarlet unlocked it.
"It's when two people really love each other," Scarlet explains. "More than anyone else. They would want to be together..."
"...until the end of the Spiral," Adrian finished.
Scarlet nods subtly with a smile.
He could feel the funny feeling return again. That feeling within Adrian that wished for Scarlet more than anything.
"Well, you know what? I don't want that," Adrian declares.
For a moment, Scarlet was pushed aback. "Wha?"
"To the end of the Spiral isn't enough," Adrian shook his head. "More like... forever. Through death and the end of existence as we know it. Even if our souls are gone."
He nods confidently like he just finally contributed to a school project, which made Scarlet snigger. Adrian was prone to acting like a child because of his one-of-a-kind innocence and naivety that lasts to this day, and Scarlet adored it.
Maybe it's part of what makes him a dedicated nerd- I mean inventor, scientist, researcher, whatever, Scarlet pondered.
For that, a hand of hers delicately guides Adrian's head in towards her bosom. From it, Adrian's white furred tail sprouts out from under the blanket, snaking in the air with satisfaction.
"Shut up," Adrian utters. "I can't help it."
"Then purr again for me, kitty," Scarlet snickers.
Grumbling was his only response, but it only took a few seconds for him to starting purring again. His tail waved around with even more joy now, and Scarlet carried on with Adrian in her arms, stroking his fluffily smooth hair. The blues playing on the gramophone soon ended, and then a big band song started to play. A gentleman's voice begot from its horn.
How lucky can one guy be?
I kissed her and she kissed me.
Like the fella once said,
"Ain't that a kick in the head?"
"Ain't it?" Adrian whispers into Scarlet's chest.
"Any guy would be lucky enough to even flirt with me," Scarlet boasts.
"Yeah, sure," Adrian sarcastically agrees.
Lyrics leaked out continuously out from the gramophone, guiding the two's spirits closer with musical notes as the fingertips and the grand staffs as the fingers. Morning had fully risen, with the sun's rays that were lucky enough to pierce through Bartleby's canopy shining softly into the dorm's window through the curtains. Though that should've been a wake-up call, Scarlet and Adrian were more than ready to sleep in. Before they could set their souls to slumber, Scarlet called her beloved's name one last time.
"Yes, Scarlet?" Adrian murmurs.
He grunts a bit, and peels his face away from Scarlet's breasts, only to be met with a set of lips on his forehead.
Her voice had a softness that could kindle any passionate scene. "I love you..."
Adrian couldn't help but suppress a silly gleam on his face, and he presses his lips back under Scarlet's chin. After a chortle, Scarlet met her plush lips with his, and the two briefly let their tongues waltz and twirl with each other until they retreated backwards, watching a trail of saliva between the tips of their tongues, and silenced reigns for a moment. Even the gramophone was dulled out of the picture as they stared at each other's eyes, sky blue against autumn amber.
Breaking the silence, Adrian starts to ask, "Hey, you know how cats say I love you?"
"They lick your nose, right?" Scarlet had to think about it.
"Yep! And they also bite your nose!"
She suddenly found a set of teeth pinching at the middle of her face.
"AH! YOU ASSHAT!"
It wasn't long until the two went to sleep under the covers, ignoring morning's call to rise up for the day. All that was left to break the silence of the room was the gramophone, ending one of Kenneldeen Martin's big band songs.
She's telling me we'll be wed.
She's picked out a king sized bed.
I couldn't feel any better or I'd be sick.
Tell me quick, oh ain't love a kick?
Tell me quick, ain't love a kick in the head?