A/N: Well, I finished this chapter early so I just thought I would post it. Trying to stay ahead while I can and speaking of which, I should probably get back to my AoT story. Haven't updated in half a year. Sheesh. Anyways, I didn't feel comfortable skipping to the next school term so I did this chapter which led to some much needed fluff for the two, at least in my opinion. Enjoy!
"Mizore, do you have everything packed?" Drayce asked as he stuffed the last of his socks inside his duffel bag.
Out of everyone that was leaving and returning back home, Drayce and Mizore were the last of the Newspaper Club to leave, that was with the exception of Tsukune. For reasons only known to himself, the boy had decided to stay in the human world but not go home. Where he would stay was beyond Drayce but somehow, he still seemed to be managing.
"I already have my stuff by the door. I'm just waiting on you to finish up," Mizore replied as she watched Drayce pack from his bed.
"Are you sure this is a good idea? Your mom is gonna freak out when she sees me," Drayce asked.
"She's going to freak either way. The longer we wait, the more distressing it's going to be," Mizore pointed out.
Drayce sighed as he tugged the zipper close. "Been years since I last saw the village. What changed?"
"You only ask now? I mean, not much really. Several more houses were built but mostly everything is the same," Mizore replied. "Ready?"
"I guess I'm as ready as I can be," Drayce answered with a shrug, picking up Mizore's bag and slinging it over his shoulder. "After you m'lady."
Mizore giggled as she swept out of the room and into the hallway. Drayce set down his bag and closed his door, locking it behind him. "Not gonna be here until the next term starts. Never thought I'd say this but I might miss the dorms, actually."
"I could do with a break. At least you don't have to listen to girls arguing all the time," Mizore replied as they walked down the stairs.
"Yeah yeah. But anyways, I got something to show you when we get on the bus, something important that might help you understand a little bit better," Drayce started.
"What?"
"Wait till we get on the bus."
"Why?"
"Mizore, it's at the bottom of my bag. Unless you want me to take out everything and repack just so I can take it out, we'll miss our ride."
The two made their way to the bus stop, the school growing more and more distant in the background. The walk to the bus was silent except for the occasional squeak of a bat or the crunch of fallen leaves. The winding path down the hill was rocky, loose with pebbles. One misstep would mean a very unpleasant plummet down the hill but the two managed to get down without a problem. The bus was already waiting for them, the bus driver leaning against the side of his vehicle while smoking a cigar. Noticing the pair's arrival, the driver grinned and stomped out the stick of tobacco.
"You kids ready? Then all aboard," he said grinning.
Mizore and Drayce boarded the bus and moved quickly towards the back of the vehicle. Setting his back aside, Drayce unzipped his bag and dug around the bottom. Closing his hand around what he was looking for, he pulled it out for Mizore to see. The snow woman gasped as she laid eyes on the golden scroll in Drayce's hands. Unfurling the scroll, Mizore could see three columns, all illuminated in different colors with the exception of the leftmost segment. Mizore studied the scroll but couldn't make out a single word.
"These runic markings, what are they? What does it say?" Mizore asked in a hushed tone.
"Wait a sec, I'll get to that but first, look at this now," Drayce instructed quietly. The right side of his body turned to ice and split apart, revealing the black sword he used in the fight against Ruby's creatures.
"You keep that thing inside you?" Mizore asked incredulously.
"Uh, yeah. How else am I supposed to carry a sword without raising multiple alarms around the school?" Drayce asked, rolling his eyes. "But take a look at the blade. Do you notice anything similar?"
Mizore's eyes swept over the blade, landing on the runes imprinted on the blade. Glancing back at the scroll, she could recognize some of the familiar characters. "Your sword has the same runes as the scroll," she began slowly.
"Right, now remember the day we fought Ms. Ririko?" Drayce asked as he stowed away his sword.
"The slut of a teacher? Yeah I do," Mizore replied.
"After you guys left me from the nurse, the Headmaster came in and gave me this. This scroll apparently belonged to my parents but why they never showed it to me or told me anything about it is still a mystery to me," Drayce admitted. "Now this is the only section that we can see."
"Why are the rest of the sections unreadable?" Mizore asked. "Why only the red?"
"Because recall back to the actual fight, near the end. What did you see?" Drayce asked, leading Mizore towards the answer.
"Well, you started-" Mizore began but cut herself off. "Oh, I get it!"
"Yeah, you see? What the headmaster thinks is that this scroll is tied to me somehow. He came in and asked me about it directly," Drayce said as he looked up, trying to blink away the spots from the bright light emanating from the scroll.
"Can you read it? The runes look unfamiliar to me," Mizore asked as she touched the markings.
"Yeah I can but it doesn't really give anything important. It's just a fairy tale," Drayce said, making a face as he reread the markings.
"Who knows? Mother always said the smallest detail may be the most important one," Mizore replied.
"Of course she did. What? Didn't she used to want to be a spy when she was little?" Drayce asked.
"Yeah, she did. Her passion didn't stop there though. It got a bit...much," Mizore replied.
"What do you mean?" Drayce asked confused.
"Tell me the story and I might tell you," Mizore replied smugly.
"Well I was gonna tell you anyways but let me see. Ah, here we go," Drayce cleared his voice before narrating. "It begins with a king, who ruled a kingdom of a distant land. It is said that one day, the king found an abandoned pair of twins, a brother and a sister. The king sent the two off to learn the ancient magic but the two split up, going down their own paths. Soon, the two began to constantly argue over the superiority of their magic. When the old king finally died, the arguments turned to war, both side bearing heavy loss. What was once a prospering kingdom was reduced to nothing more than two warring tribes as a result."
"That's it?" Mizore asked slightly disappointed as she watched Drayce roll back up the scroll.
"That's it. Like I told you, it's just a simple fairy tale, nothing of use. Well, nothing useful to me at least," Drayce replied as he stuffed it back into his bag. "But if we can somehow uncover the rest of the scroll, maybe it can give us more clues to why my parents had it."
"I don't mean to break up the conversation but, we've arrived at the snow mountains. Please get all of your baggage ready. Anything you leave behind, you won't get until I come back to pick you all up," the bus driver alerted.
Drayce a Mizore immediately pressed their face to the window, eager at the prospect of returning home. The sight was still as splendid as when Drayce first laid eyes on it, with a flurry of snow flying around, pure white sheets of it covered the mountains and nestled right in the center was the village, lively with lights and lanterns.
"This never gets old," Drayce breathed as he greedily took everything in with his eyes.
The bus grinds to a halt at the base of the mountains and Drayce leaps up, grabbing his duffel bag while Mizore pulls her out from underneath the seat. The two make their way to the door as it hisses open, letting them out.
"Thank you sir. See you when the new term starts," Drayce said as he threw his bag of the bus.
"Alright, you too Mr. Tatsugami. Take care," the bus driver chuckled before closing the doors, backing out, and driving away.
"He seems nice," Mizore quips as she watches the yellow and green bus make its way back up the mountains and disappear. "Come on, mom is waiting at home."
"Lead the way. I barely remember the path anyways," Drayce said as he pulled his coat closer to him. "And I apparently also forgot how cold it can get."
"Says the guy who can turn into ice. Suck it up," Mizore laughs. "This way, past the center square. We're near the outskirts of the village."
"Oh yeah. Kind of makes grocery shopping a bit annoying right?" Drayce asks as he trudges along.
"Yeah. You crashed into one of the stall from what? Trying to skate there too fast?" Mizore recalls.
"Okay! In my defense, they had a freaking sale on okay? I had to get there quickly! How many times have we been through that?!"
"Your hair smelled like fish for a week."
"Just...walk."
Tsurara put her book down on the coffee table and began to pace in her living room as she glanced at the clock. It was four now. Mizore should be home any minute now. Her husband, Yama, looked up from the newspaper and stood up, folding it neatly.
"Don't worry. She'll be back soon. I'm sure she has a lot to tell us about," he said warmly, placing an arm around his wife's shoulders.
"I know honey, I'm just nervous to hear how she's been, is all. And if she's found someone yet or if she-"
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK
"See? There she is now," her husband said cheerfully. "Nothing to worry about, right? I'll go get the tea started."
Tsurara watched as her husband strode off to the kitchen to prepare the tea. Shaking her head, she threw open the door to see Mizore standing there. Hugging her daughter, she planted a kiss on her forehead.
"Ohh, Mizore! How have you been? I've missed you so much!" she said as she continued to hug her daughter. "Have you found a boyfriend yet."
"I'm fine mom and please stop asking me that question, it gets annoying," she mumbles while she glares at Drayce who was doubled up with silent laughter behind the door. "Mom, there's someone I want you to meet."
Drayce immediately stops and mouths to her panicked 'I wasn't ready'. "Who is it? Is it your boyfriend? I'm surprised you didn't tell me earlier Mizore," her mother said quirking her eyebrow.
"He's..right...here," Mizore grunts as she pulls Drayce from behind the door and in front of her mother. Tsurara stares at Drayce in shock as the boy looks back with a small smile.
"Hey auntie," he says, giving a small wave with one hand, the other grabbing Mizore's hand.
Tsurara reached out with a hand to touch his face, as if to make sure he was actually there. Her hand began to tremble as tears began to pool to her eyes. "Oh my god. How-how is this…?"
She could barely finish her sentence. Drayce stepped forward and hugged his foster mother tightly. "I'm back."
Quickly drying her tears, she composed herself. "Come inside, you must have quite the story to tell. Yama! Hurry with the tea!"
"On it honey. Who else is here-?" Yama stopped in his tracks as his eyes landed on Drayce, alive and well with a grin on his face.
"Uncle Yama, it's been a while," Drayce began, placing his bag on the ground beside. Yama broke out of his stupor, his smile growing by the second.
"Come, tea is ready. We're all eager to hear your story," Yama spoke as he set the tea tray down on the coffee table.
Drayce sighed as he looked around the house. Crystal lights hung from the ceiling, illuminating the room with a slightly blue tinted light. It was very traditional overall, nothing too special but hey, home was home.
"How did you two meet each other?" Yama asked as he poured Drayce and Mizore each a cup of tea.
"Well, it's not what you would have expected to happen. We were already like a week into school when Mizore showed up," Drayce began.
"Because she was sick. We had to send her a little later," Tsurara agreed, taking her cup of tea.
"Right but as you can imagine, I kind of freaked out a bit and ditched class for the rest of the day," Drayce recounted.
"So when he ran out, I thought that he was angry at me for leaving him to die. I ended up ditching class as well after lunch," Mizore continued softly.
Drayce squeezed her hand before continuing. "After hearing about this from my other friends, I ran and searched for Mizore," he said, his voice taking a darker turn as he revealed the next part. "And when I found her, the fucking PE teacher was trying to take advantage of her."
"WHAT?" both parents yelled, looking at Mizore in concern.
"I pummeled the damn pedophile, I mean of course I did, why wouldn't I? And the damn coward scuttled off. Still angry that the headmaster didn't fire him immediately," Drayce growled.
"We can't thank you enough for saving Mizore's innocence," Tsurara thanked, relief in her eyes. "Mizore, you are to not leave his side. We cannot risk anything like that happening."
"Mother, don't worry. We have great friends and besides, I would never leave him," Mizore replied, tackling Drayce with a hug.
"It's true auntie. We have a friend that's a vampire. Anyone gets the wrong idea and they get kicked half a mile away by Moka," Drayce said from underneath Mizore.
"It seems that you are all doing great then. That's good to know," Yama declared after draining his cup.
"Well, I feel that the school's been treating us well enough. Can't say the same about Tsukune though," Drayce chortles as he sits up.
"Tsukune? Who is he?" Tsurara asked with interest.
"He's one of our friends. He has three girls that are constantly trying to win his love. Moka, the vampire, Yukari, she's a witch, and Miss Titty Pie," Mizore summed up.
"Really? The name calling? I thought you were past that Mizore," Drayce groaned as he flopped back onto the couch.
"What? Can't help if that's how Kurumu is. Always pushing her boobs into Tsukune's face, suffocating him," Mizore points out.
"I mean, that's true but that's not as bad as Moka sucking his blood every single day," Drayce replied lifting up his head.
"Kurumu? Does she have blue hair?" Tsurara asked curiously looking at the couple's nodding heads. "Succubus is her monster form?"
"Yeah, why?" Mizore asked.
"That's Ageha's daughter. We were rivals back when we went to Youkai Academy," Tsurara replied.
"Wait, seriously?! You never told me that!" Mizore said, shocked that her mother knew her friends mom from so long ago.
"From what I'm hearing, she got Ageha's habit with men!" Tsurara declared. "Stealing other boys for herself."
"Funny story about that actually," Drayce began. "Before we were friends, Kurumu actually had a major rivalry with Moka because all the guys were interested in her instead. So she charmed Tsukune away from Moka and she tried to do the same to me. Emphasis on tried."
"Oh, so you managed to resist a succubus's charm, eh?" Yama asked in amusement. "I expect nothing less! Well then, I'm sure you can understand that we weren't expecting you so we didn't clean your room. It's still the way you left it."
"Oh no, that's fine. I can clean it up by tonight," Drayce tried, only to be interrupted by Tsurara.
"You needn't bother with that. You can sleep with Mizore in her room tonight," she said suggestively.
"Wha-? Come on Mizore, really?" Drayce protested as he looked at Mizore, who was blushing extremely hard as she understood her mother's implications.
"I wouldn't mind," Mizore said embarrassed, raising her hands to cover her cheeks.
"Yes and while you're here, we can talk about wedding arrangements as well," Yama joked.
"Wedding arrangements?!" Drayce exclaimed weakly.
"Come on," Mizore said, planting a kiss on Drayce's cheek as she dragged him upstairs. "We're fixing you a place to sleep tonight."
"O-okay."
Tsurara and Yama laughed as they watched their daughter drag Drayce upstairs and disappear into the hallway. "It's good to see them together again," Tsurara said to Yama, listening to a door shut.
"It certainly is."
"Wow."
Drayce looked around Mizore's room, gazing at her possessions. The room was repainted to a lavender purple color with a single light on the ceiling. Her dresser sat in the corner of her room with her desk on the opposite side of the room and her bed in between the two. It was very simple, organized.
"I repainted while you were gone. What do you think?" Mizore asked as she bounced on her bed.
"It suits you. I remember you used to have poster around your room. You took them down," Drayce observed.
"Yeah, I grew out of them," Mizore replied.
Drayce looked on her desk and picked up a photo. It was him and Mizore when they were kids. He was sitting on the ground while Mizore peeked out from above his head, her arms around his shoulders, legs wrapped around his waist. He laughed as he turned around to show her the photo.
"Do you remember this? This moment?" he asked.
"Yeah. It was when you first told me that I was your best friend. You promised that you would never leave my side," Mizore said, her voice full of nostalgia. "Even so many years later…"
Drayce placed the photo back on her desk and sat down next to her, tilting her head up. Before Mizore even knew what was happening, his lips were already on hers. Her eyes widened in shock at first but she closed them, kissing back and enjoying the moment. When the two broke apart, Mizore could see that his eye was filled with love and happiness. Her heart fluttered with joy and her body filled with an indescribable warmth.
Cuddling closer next to him, the pair stayed that way. Inside, they could care less if the world ended right then and there. Just as long as they had each other, they knew they would be fine because they weren't alone, not anymore.
