AN: BTW, this story is cross-posted at AO3.
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As usual on an early morning, the residents of the Tower were treated to the sight of an angel with some impressive dark circles and a stack of books emerging from the library like a mole poking its head out the ground for its first taste of sunlight.
Wakashi Hiyoshi didn't often care about what other angels thought of him. As one of the youngest archangels of Hyotei Tower (also known as the Violet Tower), one of the most prestigious angel Towers in Heaven, he didn't have to care. His reputation spoke for him. However, he still wasn't anywhere near the level of importance as the young Lord Atobe Keigo, son of the Council member who ruled Hyotei. He would overtake Atobe though. He already had a secret plan: work ethic.
Through hard work and perseverance, he wholly believed he could outmatch Atobe in influence. His parents had taught him that a good work ethic could get him farther than anything else, and since he didn't have the photographic memory Atobe had (at least not until he successfully bullied Ohtori into granting him the gift when Shishido wasn't lurking around), he had to trust that studying would get him through. And if that meant his boyish good looks were enhanced by panda eyes, then so be it. He would suffer the longing looks that all the cougars gave him with the dignity befitting an archangel.
As we can see, Wakashi really isn't so different from Atobe.
Thus, on an early morning, he was trudging out of the Tower's main library as usual, books under his arm and circles under his eyes. He planned on taking a good five hour nap before eating a late breakfast (or early lunch) and hitting the books again. Power wouldn't come by itself, he consoled himself. Power had to be earned, he told himself.
Rewards would come from all the suffering from Atobe's snide comments on "getting more sleep to take care of those dreadful dark circles", Mukahi's boundless hug attacks, Oshitari's "advice" on proper diet and exercise to take care of his sleeping problems, Shishido's teasing, Kabaji's judgmental stares and Jiroh constantly pulling him away for buddy naptime where he just fell asleep by himself on top of Hiyoshi, Heaven's most reluctant pillow. Even Ohtori, his childhood friend and his closest ally, had been making not-so-subtle attempts to pull him away from his domain of books with excuses of needing a food tester or someone to help him shop for Shishido's birthday present. The fact that Hiyoshi had been insanely proud of his find of a sturdy and stylish new pair of wing cuffs for Shishido was beside the point.
The point was that it seemed that everyone was trying to get in his way on his mission to achieve ultimate power (or at least enough to overtake Atobe), and Hiyoshi wasn't standing for it anymore.
So when, on his way to his five-hour nap to charge up for more research, he spotted Mukahi pressed up with his ear against a door, clearly conducting suspicious behavior out in daylight when obviously such things should be done covertly at night away from prying eyes, Hiyoshi sighed and turned the other way.
Or, at least he tried to.
He had only the yelp of "Wakashi!" and the tell-tale flap of wings before he was bowled over in another Gakuto Hug Attack™. He blamed it on his exhaustion when he closed his eyes and leaned back briefly.
"Have you been studying in the library all night again?" Gakuto scolded as he put a cold hand on Hiyoshi's forehead. He sounded remarkably like Hiyoshi's mother, so much that Hiyoshi snapped open his eyes and stepped away to confirm that yes, it was just his senior nagging at him.
"I'm fine. I'm just heading to my room for some sleep," Hiyoshi said, waving away Gakuto's hands. Gakuto looked skeptical, but he didn't press the issue.
"What are you doing?" Hiyoshi said, indicating the door the other angel had been hovering around. Gakuto brightened.
"I'm spying on Jiroh and the demon!" he exclaimed, making Hiyoshi raise his eyebrows.
Those were two things he'd never thought he would hear in the same sentence. "Senior Akutagawa…and a demon?" Hiyoshi said incredulously, and maybe just a tad jealously. It wasn't every day that one met a demon, and Senior Jiroh had met one before him when he spent literally three-fourths of the day sleeping. Life was cruel, Hiyoshi determined.
"Yeah, didn't you hear? Apparently it arrived four days ago and Atobe threw it into the dungeons. It just got out yesterday morning, although Jiroh's hung out with it already," Gakuto relayed, "Figures, he'd be the first one of us to meet a demon, after Atobe of course."
"Why hasn't anyone told me?" Hiyoshi grumbled, figuring he was the last to know, as usual.
Gakuto narrowed his eyes and gave him a quick slap upside the head.
"Ow!" Hiyoshi said and rubbed at his head. He stared dumbly, not used to being physically attacked. It had taken him a long time to get used to hugs after all. His family wasn't nearly as touchy as the Hyotei bunch.
"If you haven't noticed, this is the first time I've seen you in a week. You've taken this whole avoiding everyone thing too far. I've had to rely on Yuushi and Ohtori to give me readings on how you were doing just to know you weren't drowning in your own puke or something!"
At Hiyoshi's confused look at the last, Gakuto just said something about "hot Earth musicians" which did not explain anything at all.
"Anyways, you only have yourself to blame for missing out on the gossip of the week," Gakuto snapped.
"Understood," Hiyoshi mumbled and at Gakuto's look, he added a swift, "Sorry." Five feet tall and even he made Hiyoshi feel like a child—what was Hyotei doing to him, Hiyoshi mentally agonized.
Of course then he found himself giving Gakuto a lift in the room they patronized to spy in so that the shorter angel could try to listen in on the two through a vent connecting their rooms.
"I think I can hear them talking! Man, the demon sounds young," Gakuto said, and Hiyoshi was interested despite himself.
"What are you doing?" Ohtori asked from the doorway they had forgotten to close, shocking the two of them so much that they both jumped and lost their balance. The pale-haired angel was left blinking at their collapsed and twitching forms on the floor.
"Um," said Ohtori.
"That hurt," Gakuto whined, and he was sporting a rash of red underneath his chin from his impromptu meeting with the ground.
Without prompting, Ohtori said, "May I?" and neatly wiped away the wound with a short wave of his hand above the area. Oshitari could heal wounds just as well, but he never did it as naturally as Ohtori did, which made sense since Ohtori's specialty was in healing. Hiyoshi was willing to bet that Ohtori could heal in his sleep, seeing as Shishido often looked much better after a night of sleep after one of their matches. Shishido and Ohtori had been roommates for a year now.
When they filled Ohtori in, who had also heard about the demon accidentally through Shishido, Hiyoshi was sure that he would put an end to their operation, but Ohtori got a thoughtful look and only said, "I did wonder what it would be like to meet a demon," which Hiyoshi chalked up to the criminalizing tendency of Hyotei. It got him, after all; there was no way Ohtori would have escaped it.
Then, Ohtori's eyes narrowed on a second look at Hiyoshi and Hiyoshi sighed, knowing what was coming.
"Did you stay up all night again?"