(A/Ns: All i can say is that I really do apologise for taking so long to update. The good news is this chapter has a ton of character/relationship development and is nearly 5,000 words. I promise not to abandon it, and I'm sorry if updates take longer than a month.

Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed so far! It means a lot, and would also make me extremely happy if you continued to review!

Content warnings: swearing, underage smoking

Disclaimer: I do not own Pandora Hearts or any of the characters)


Chapter 4

There were a few things that Elliot had learnt about Leo in the two days that he'd known him.

Number one was that you should not, under any circumstances, get in between Leo and his books. This was totally undebatable. Even if the entire school was on fire, and the building was crumbling above them, you couldn't interrupt his reading. No, in the event of a total catastrophe, instead you'd have to stand there beside him, and wait patiently for him to glance up and finish reading that chapter before casually pointing out that the entire fucking building was on fire. That's how Elliot saw it at least.

The second point was that you shouldn't get between Leo and his cigarettes. This was something Elliot had only learnt yesterday, but from the irritability observed after only 5 hours without smoking, he knew this for certain. Maybe 5 hours was a long time for smokers to go without a cigarette – he wouldn't know. Why would he know that? Was that a normal thing for people to know? Regardless, though, whenever he was around him, he really did try to numb himself to the faint but noticeable smell of cigarette smoke and forget this fact. Because, needless to say, Elliot was rather naïve to the whole concept of addiction.

Enough with the negatives, he thought to himself, as he mentally ran through the list. That led nicely onto the third thing: he was really, really smart. Incomprehensibly smart, to be accurate. Even a day later, Elliot still couldn't fathom it. No matter how hard he tried, based on everything he'd learnt, he just could not picture Leo sitting at a desk with a textbook, making brightly coloured, disgustingly fluorescent revision notes – as they'd been taught to do. That meant it had to be natural, which just did not make sense in Elliot's mind.

It also didn't sit well with the fourth and final thing he'd learnt: Leo was totally ignorant, and arrogant, to any rules set aside for him. Sure, he did homework, and showed up to lessons mostly on time. But that didn't outweigh the fact that he managed to violate almost every part of the uniform code with how he presented himself in only a day and a bit. Not to mention his blatant disregard to the clear no smoking policy which was supposed to be followed by all students. Clearly not him, he must've thought.

Another prime example of this blatant disobedience was the fact that he seemed to believe that he was under no obligation to show up to their single period of sports – despite the fact it was part of their compulsory curriculum – just because he didn't fancy it. Once again, this was only how Elliot saw it, but his opinion didn't change as he carried himself into Maths and instantly spotted the noirette, seated oh-so-innocently in the seat next to the window.

As if ingrained in him as a reflex response by now, Elliot's eyebrow twitched in frustration. Reluctantly, he stormed over to the desk at the back, trying to keep his composure mostly intact when he sat down as calmly as possible in the seat next to Leo. Then, after wordlessly retrieving his equipment and laying it out on the desk in front of him, he finally worked up the courage to ask: "Where were you in Physical Ed.?"

"Hm. I didn't feel like going," Leo answered casually, his blatant disobedience – as Elliot called it – clearly showing. No, if anything, given the blunt disregard suggested by his intonation, it transcended Elliot's expectations; defiance was an understatement.

"You won't get away with that forever," Elliot mumbled, fighting back the urge to delve into another lecture on the rules. If Leo wanted to ignore them, then so be it. And Elliot wasn't so stupid as to waste his breath convincing him otherwise. Contemptuously, he added under his breath: "Just like the smoking on school premises…"

"It's funny you say that, really," Leo chuckled, somewhat mockingly. "I didn't get caught yesterday."

"Hmph."

"Or 5 minutes ago."

"Yeah, well one day you'll- wait what?!" Elliot hissed, "Tch, does that mean you won't be an irritable brat for the last half of the lesson?"

"Hm, I'll think about it," Leo said sarcastically; teasingly, almost, as the snarky grin crept back onto his face. "So, you missed me last period, huh?"

"No," Elliot replied, furrowing his brows as he attempted to distract himself by scribbling the date down in his book. "I just wondered where you were, breaking all the rules."

"If you must know, I was on the roof," Leo answered, "Heh. You sure like authority for someone who'll need to stand on his own two feet eventually."

"Hey! I can do things for myself just fine!" Elliot retorted, overly defensively. "Just get on with the work and you might redeem yourself."

Leo smirked again, relishing in the thought that his supposedly recalcitrant attitude had truly provoked the other. Shaking his head, he muttered idly to himself, "I wouldn't be speaking if you didn't initiate the conversations…"

Elliot's pen dropped the moment Gilbert stood up and began speaking.

Crap… I do start the conversations, don't I?


"Hey! Elliot!"

Ugh. One of these days I'm going to slap that kid.

Once Elliot had finished groaning internally, he cranked his neck up, only to find the excitable blonde had bounced up beside him already. And, to no surprise, he donned the same goofy smile as always. Some people never change… Elliot added mentally.

"Yes?" he answered with a roll of the eyes.

"Where are you going now?" Oz asked, fiddling with the straps of his satchel.

"Canteen, like I always do," Elliot answered, "Duh. Why?"

"Well… I was wondering if you'd introduce me to, urmm…" Oz laughed nervously, "His name was… er-"

"Leo," Elliot deadpanned, "His name is Leo."

"Right! Well… can I meet him this lunch?" Oz requested, "Ooh! You could introduce him to all of us!"

"He's not an exhibit or anything worth seeing, Jesus." Another eye roll. "Let's just… go."

"Alright."

Under Elliot's request, the two continued walking to the canteen in total silence. The moment they arrived, Oz instantly began waving, and it didn't take Elliot long to follow his line of vision to the table already occupied by their other friends.

Elliot used the term 'friends' loosely.

There weren't many of them, at that, and it was almost entirely girls – no, it was entirely girls. The first of them, with dyed pink hair falling just past her shoulders and bouncing into small, heat-induced curls, was called Lottie. Her and Elliot weren't always friends. In fact, when they were 13, they were quite the opposite. But that was back in the days of immaturity, and Elliot liked to tell himself he'd grown up a lot in 3 years. She was friendly enough; sneaky, of course.

The second of them was Lily. She was small, chirpy and really quite childish. Some would call it quirky, some would call it irritating. Regardless, though, Elliot firmly believed that she was only there because Lottie's premature maternal instincts had kicked in when she was getting bullied last year.

The third girl usually there was Alice; however, most days, Elliot didn't see her before halfway through lunch, given that she appeared to have a natural aptitude (calling it a talent would be ludicrous) for getting detentions. And today was, to no surprise, not one of those rare exceptions.

The only other girl noticeably there most days was Ada – Oz's sister – which Elliot wasn't particularly fond of, especially since she was in the year above and obviously had better things to be doing with her time other than hanging with sixth form first years.

"Elliot~" Lottie greeted, a sharp edge to her teasing words.

"Tch, what?" he responded bitterly as he took his seat at their table beside Oz.

"Who were you with yesterday morning?" she interrogated, a somewhat sadistic smirk stretching across her lips. "I had Law next to your Chemistry lab. You were meant to walk there with me, you know~"

Elliot's mouth dropped open to respond, but before he could get out a word, Oz decided to take it upon himself to answer for him.

"Elliot made a new friend!"

"Ah, congratulations!" Lottie said patronisingly, "A friend? Or perhaps more~?"

"What-?!" Elliot tried to yelp in his defence.

"Ooh! I see it!" Oz mused, beaming as always. "Ahhh! Elliot has a crush! Elliot has a crush!"

Face now a deep red – much against his will – Elliot grit his teeth, clenching his fists and attempting to swallow down the lump in his throat and the godforsaken blush spread across his face. His mind was screaming a very conclusive no, but his body really didn't appear to be in tune with that.

"So~" Lottie sang. "What's her name then? Tell your big sister Lottie~"

"Okay so first of all!" Elliot yelled defensively, glaring fiercely at Oz for a moment through a burning sidelong glance. "His name is Leo, and he is a he!" He was still blushing. "And I am not gay!"

"Okay, okay," Oz laughed nervously, defensively holding his hands up and leaning backwards. "You don't have a crush on him! But please introduce him to us!"

"If it'll get you off my case, then fine!" Elliot gave up, throwing his hands down onto the table and standing up yet again. He didn't really want to go and track down the noirette, although with the blush still stuck on his face and extremely awkward, overly defensive outburst he'd just delivered, leaving the group for a moment didn't seem like such a bad idea.

All the way out of the canteen, across the playground and to the field, the same thoughts and regrets stuck at the front of Elliot's mind. Truly, he wanted to slap himself for getting so goddamn self-protective over it. They were joking, weren't they?

That's what he wanted to believe.

Most likely a good thing, only a few moments later, Elliot was abruptly snapped from his thoughts when the pungent smell of cigarette smoke invaded his senses, and it was only then that he noticed he'd been heading to the field.

Subsequently, he spotted him, standing as deceivingly innocent as you possibly could whilst hiding behind a tree with a plume of smoke rising from between your fingers.

Elliot scoffed. "Tch, I thought I'd find you here."

Leo, showing no sign of surprise, simply smirked as usual, turning around to the other and dragging teasingly on the cigarette in his right hand. "Oh, Elliot. Fancy seeing you here."

"Hmph." Elliot pouted sulkily, unable to think of a suitable comeback, much to his dismay. "My, er, my friends wanted to meet you."

"Hm, really?" Leo challenged, absentmindedly flicking the excess ash off the end of the cigarette onto the grass and taking another drag. Exhaling the smoke away from Elliot and dropping the hand holding the cigarette to his side, he continued. "Why, exactly?"

"Tch, I don't know!" Elliot yelled, and was soon left questioningly why he'd reacted so rashly once again. His face darkening slightly – against his will – his frown deepened automatically, as he added: "They… they think I have a thing for you…"

"Ah, I see…" The noirette pondered, inhaling from the cigarette in thought and releasing the smoke through pursed lips, staring rather intently down at the grass. "Mhm. And do you?"

"What?! No!" Elliot retorted with such disgust and disdain. "I-I'm not gay!" he insisted. Rolling his eyes, he muttered almost inaudibly, "Why? A-Are you?"

"Hm, maybe. Or maybe not," Leo shrugged, the smirk finding its way back onto his face as usual, as he took the last drag from the cigarette before snuffing it out on the bark of the tree and tossing the butt aside onto the grass somewhere. "Heh, why is it that you need to know the answer to that?"

Elliot huffed, trying to hold back any blush beginning to develop on his face again. "Let's just go. If they meet you, they get off my case. So, are you coming?"

Leo snickered. "If I must."

"Good," the other murmured under his breath with a sigh, rotating on his heel and storming off in the other direction towards the canteen.

A few moments later, once they'd left the field and Elliot could finally breath again, Leo piped up. "Can we stop off at the bathroom first?"

Elliot considered it for a moment; arriving late to his friends didn't seem like too bad of an idea. "Alright, fine. Go this way."

Wordlessly, the two proceeded to the classroom block adjacent to the canteen. Very few students were around at this time – the sixth form and secondary school were on different sites, and the students of the sixth were either in the canteen or the library studying. From the halls to the notice board to the aura of each room, everything just screamed academic; Elliot wasn't messing around when he stressed about respect and authority in this environment.

"I'll… wait outside," Elliot muttered, kicking one foot back against the wall and leaning against it rather precariously. Shoving both hands in his pocket, he emphasised once again: "I'm waiting!"

Leo threw both arms up in a sarcastic surrender. "My bad, my bad. Of course you wouldn't want to be seen with the poor kid, right?"

"T-That wasn't what I-!" Elliot tried, but before he could finish his sentence, the door slammed shut on his words. A pang of guilt coursed through him briefly. He hadn't said it, but he probably looked like he sure as hell thought it. It wasn't totally untrue; however, it genuinely wasn't his intent.

Though, he still felt guilty for it somehow.

Tch, that brat… Elliot thought dismissively.

But never before had he experienced such strong emotions around someone else. Not to Oz (except hate, maybe), not to Alice, not to Lottie. Not even to his family. To no one. Feeling strongly and deeply about someone on several different levels was a totally foreign concept to him.

Everything about Leo was a totally foreign concept to Elliot. Perhaps that why he couldn't seem to leave him alone.

"Elliot? I'm done."

Elliot jumped, snapping from his daze and pushing himself off the wall. The same unimpressed façade kicking into action, he continued leading Leo to the canteen, unnoticeably drawing in a deep breath to prepare himself once they arrived. And, seeing no way of getting out of whatever reaction his 'friends' would give, Elliot grudgingly nudged the door open.

The silence lingering between the two dragged on until they reached the table in the corner of the room, Elliot sighing a breath of relief internally at the fact Alice had yet to arrive and wreak havoc like she did best.

"Ooh, Elliot," Lottie hummed, winking discreetly at Oz. Not discreet enough… Elliot noted mentally, at that. "Is this your new friend then~?"

"I think 'friend' is pushing it…" he muttered grumpily, "Guys, this is Leo. Leo, this is Oz, Lottie, and Lily. You've met Ada, and you'll be lucky if you don't meet Alice."

Oz clambered out of his seat once Elliot had finished speaking, holding a hand out to Leo expectantly and sending the same, warm smile his way. "Hey, Leo. I'm Oz. It's real nice to finally meet you after, er… everything Elliot has told us!"

"Oi, shorty," Elliot sneered, "Watch it."

In response, but nonverbally, Leo nodded, returning the hand gesturing and a weak smile to accompany it.

Then, Oz lowered his voice, leaning slightly closer to Leo and whispering: "Ah, trust me, whilst Elliot may seem hostile and cold at first, he's actually a really nice guy. It just takes a bit of time. So, ah… please be patient with him."

"Mhm, I'm counting on it," Leo smiled slightly, "Elliot does seem confusing, though."

"Hey! Watch what you're sayin'!" Elliot warned, snarling under his breath. "Tch, shorty."

"Call me short again and I'll punch you," Leo threatened as he turned around to Elliot briefly, his tone teetering on the line distinguishing between aggressive and joking.

"See, they get along great~" Lottie chuckled, waving her fork in the air pointedly.

Elliot couldn't help but snicker under his breath as well. Especially when Leo appeared to smile – only fleetingly – as well.

It was a feeling of comfort, perhaps.

Hold on a moment…


The feeling was indescribable, and Elliot had thought about nothing but that for the last 24 hours. Every time his mother, his father, his sister; every time anyone spoke to him, it seemed totally irrelevant in his mind.

Comfort wasn't the right word. Sure, it may have been what came to mind in the spur of the moment. But that wasn't it. No, it was more complex; much deeper than that. It was a paramount sensation of compassion, almost, albeit with more enjoyment. Affection seemed too sappy, and Elliot really did not like the idea of actually liking the noirette – let alone feeling affection towards him.

However, one thing he had to note was that, the moment he arrived at sport the next morning on Wednesday to find Leo absent once again, the noticeable loneliness was the first thing he observed. The hour study period following that was also strikingly quiet, and calm. And he hated to admit that he didn't exactly prefer it like that.

He preferred it when Leo was there, challenging him, pushing all his buttons, and just downright winding him up whether he intended to or not.

No no no no no, this is not right.

"Elliot? You're spacing out again."

Leo's voice quickly snapped him out of his trance, dragging him back into reality.

"Right… sorry," Elliot apologised sheepishly, his gaze still fixed on the adjacent wall in fear of looking at Leo and losing control of his train of thought. "Er, why weren't you in sport?"

"Same reason as yesterday," Leo answered, spinning his pen nonchalantly whilst staring down at the work, occasionally glancing up at the clock. "I'm really not cut out for sport."

"Tch, well one day you'll get caught bunking," Elliot pointed out sulkily. Chewing the end of his pen, he returned his attention to the practice questions Break had flung at them 15 minutes or so. Admittedly, Elliot could have finished them by now, but instead had spent a majority of the lesson daydreaming, too imprisoned by his own thoughts to observe his surroundings. Considering he had been zoned out for the past hour, Elliot felt he deserved some sort of acknowledgement for making up most of the answers.

Up until now, at least.

He didn't want to ask for help, knowing full well that Break would incessantly tease him about it for the next week, and almost certainly tell Oz, who seemed to be all buddy-buddy with the teachers. Ruling out that option, unfortunately, only left Leo, who had, sure enough, completed the work already; subsequently, he was left sitting with one elbow on the desk staring at the window and the holding the pen up to his teeth – as he usually did.

Mumbling something incoherent under his breath, Elliot eventually pulled out his pencil, scribbling something illegible down on the diagram.

"You've put the amide in the wrong place," Leo said, seemingly bored but hiding a smug, mocking edge behind his words; it was inherently obvious that correcting people (or maybe just Elliot) was something he got a kick out of, to say the least.

Shortly after pointing out his mistake, Leo picked up on the totally clueless expression stretched across Elliot's face almost instantly, shaking his head with an amused sigh and leaning over to pluck the pen from his grip. The pen now in his hand, the noirette scribbled out Elliot's earlier attempt at answering the question and rewrote it in the correct place in his own indecipherable handwriting.

Wordlessly, Elliot blinked, before snapping back into reality and picking up the pen which had just been dropped next to his paper and flicking over the page. There was less than 10 minutes left of the lesson, but that didn't mean he wasn't determined to finish this. Alone, that was; without any assistance.

"Stop tapping your foot," Elliot snapped at the other a moment later, trying to revert his focus back to the work but only discovering more distractions.

"Hm?" Leo halted his foot, rolling his eyes unnoticeably behind the thick lenses of his glasses. "Oh."

Elliot shifted, turning his head down again. At least the distraction was gone, Leo instead now slumped forward on the table, knocking the other foot against the leg of the stall; fidgeting indefatigably with his pen. Then, as he sat up again, eyes flitting to the clock, whatever idiosyncrasies which Elliot had been subliminally observing suddenly made sense, as he dug through his blazer pocket and – exactly as he'd done yesterday towards the end of fourth period – pulled out the packet of loose tobacco.

Unwilling to beleaguer him right now, Elliot only shot a weak, sidelong glance at him, warning under his breath: "I wouldn't do that in here. Break watches us like hawks."

Leo didn't bother to glance up from the cigarette he was currently rolling when he replied, "I think I'm safe. I just think you're being paranoid."

"Tch," Elliot scoffed. "I'm just waiting for the day you get caught, and I get to say 'I told you so'."

"You keep waiting then," Leo smiled bitterly at the other, swiftly slipping the cigarette paper along his tongue to seal it, the snarky grin returning to his lips; Elliot braced himself for the most likely inappropriate comment to follow. "Besides, this teacher of ours seems almost as unobservant as that headteacher."

"Hey!" Elliot yelped in Break's defence – thankfully, their teacher hadn't heard the comment. Or at least, if he had, he showed no signs of offense, or acknowledgement. "I know Break might not be your average teacher b-but… he's a really great Chemistry teacher, and… just a nice person!"

"To the teacher's pet, maybe," Leo countered, "You seem obsessed with him."

"Shut your trap, idiot," Elliot grumbled. Pinching his eyebrows together, he decided not to exacerbate the noirette's temper, pinning his attention back to the work.

But, unfortunately, right before the solution to the next question was able to make its way to his memory, the bell rang, serving as a cue for the usual hurried scratching of chairs against the linoleum floor.

Before any of them could leave, however, Break stood up himself, turning to face the board; the pen in his left hand. "Don't forget the homework sheet due tomorrow. You've had since last week, I'm not taking any excuses~" Following that was a derisive chuckle at the mutters of students confiding in each other's incompetence – so he saw it. "Oh, and Leo? Mind staying behind for a moment for me? The rest of you can go. Don't do anything stupid~"

Shrugging at Leo, Elliot mentally debated over whether to wait behind. He didn't want to look like he was lingering pointlessly, but at the same time, Leo's occasional glances as if to check he was still there implied he expected him to wait.

Unfortunately, before he could come to a final decision, Break noticed his presence. "Ah, Elliot. Are you waiting behind?"

"Uh, y-yeah…" Elliot answered unsurely, lingering by the table at which Leo stood at, as their teacher rummaged around in one of the draws before eventually finding what he was looking for.

Dumping the text book on the desk in front of Leo, Break leaned over the mass pile of paperwork which had built up on his desk over time, flicking through the glossed pages as he adjusted his glasses slightly. "So, tell me, Leo. How much of this did they teach you at your previous school?"

With a bored sigh, Leo took over the task of page flicking, briefly scanning over the words but with no real effort or care. A few seconds later – about half way through the innumerable chunk of pages he'd just skipped – Leo stopped, pointing to the content marker in the top left corner. "We were taught up to here," he said, "But I've read to the end, more or less."

"Ah, self-taught, I see~" Break hummed, taking back the textbook. "Well, that'll be all. I still haven't marked your test yet."

"Don't expect it back any time soon," Elliot muttered under his breath, turning on his heel and leading away Leo, who nodded almost politely at Break before doing as the other had instructed.

"Are you coming, or are you just going to follow me creepily?" Leo asked once they'd left the science lab.

"W-where are you going?" Elliot questioned in return hesitantly, as if he didn't know the answer.

Wordlessly, Leo pulled out the lighter from his inside pocket and shook it pointedly at Elliot, and then gestured to field before proceeding in that direction. Behind him, Elliot was still mentally debating whether he should follow or not; what if they got caught? "Tch, fine. I'll go," he gave in. Surely just bending the rules only once couldn't hurt. Besides, he was a prefect – albeit Elliot couldn't really see how that was an excuse, but he decided to trust his inchoate instincts, and follow Leo.

It didn't take any longer than a couple of minutes for them to reach the field, at which point the blonde could relax just that fragment more.

"So," Leo started, as he glanced over his shoulder one last time before diving behind the tree and sticking the already rolled cigarette in his mouth. One hand cupping over the tip of the cigarette, he held the flame of the lighter up to it, exhaling swiftly. "Is there a particular reason you don't spend time with your other friends? They seemed nice enough."

"They're annoying, and too… persistent," Elliot countered, scrunching his nose up at the foul smell of cigarette smoke invading his senses. "Give it more than a day, and then you'll realise."

"Hm, alright," Leo hummed in disbelief, taking another quick drag from the cigarette as the usual sly grin returning to his lips. "So does that mean you don't mind me, you know, hanging around you instead?"

"Tch, you're better than Oz, I'll give you that…"

"Oh, Elliot, you're flattering me," Leo teased, lifting his gaze from the ground directly up to Elliot's eyes. "So, does that mean we're friends?"

Elliot froze. That question really did have him stuck. "Sure, call it whatever."

"Well, if you're my friend," Leo continued muttering, pausing to inhale on the cigarette for a second. "Shouldn't I have your number?"

"Ah?! No!" Elliot rejected bluntly, discreetly clenching his fists at his sides. But the interrogative yet laughing stare from Leo was much stronger than his initial dismay, and eventually, Elliot gave in with a distinct roll of the eyes. Without a word, he retrieved his phone from the inside pocket of his blazer, handing it out to the other once it was unlocked. "Fine."

The cigarette dangling loosely from between the same two fingers, Leo couldn't resist but chuckle slightly to himself as he input his number into the other's phone and handed it back to him, sticking the cigarette back between his lips. "You really are a bit of a pushover, Elliot. But I don't mind you." Another snicker. "Next time you want a booty call, just hit me up."

Cheeks darkening to a deep red from his furious blushing for no goddamn reason, Elliot mentally punched himself, gritting his teeth together at the other's relentless teasing. Of course, he knew he was joking, but it still made Elliot flustered. Somehow – he liked to promise himself. "Shut up…"

"Don't get so wound up, I'm just kidding," Leo shook his head derisively, sucking the life out of the cigarette before aimlessly throwing it out onto the grass, prompting Elliot to wonder how long it would be until the mass of cigarette butts built up enough for one of the teachers – or the students – to get the hint. "Alright, I'm done."

"Great," Elliot deadpanned, sarcasm embedded deeply into his sour tone. "Let's go. I'll watch you slowly get more and more pissed off at Oz and the others."

"Haha, ok," Leo chuckled, "Let me go to the bathroom first, though."

"Tch, fine," Elliot granted, although only using it as an excuse to prolong the time spent alone with Leo.

Just as they left the field, though, the ash-blonde felt something – that something being the same warm feeling fluttering in the pit of his stomach as yesterday.

Maybe this was just what having a real friend felt like.

Yes, friend. That sounded right, Elliot was forced to remind himself.

Nothing more, and nothing less.