Whispers practically bounced off of the walls of the Academy as Sora shuffled through the halls to the dining hall, but having a one track mind at that moment, they fell on deaf ears. He probably looked like he felt - death. The night before had brought him nothing but haunting hallucinations and restlessness, resulting in a small amount of sleep. But he was starving, and according to the pamphlet, they had grand buffets for every meal. All he needed was a pick-me-up to get himself back into gear, at least enough to focus on the studies he had to do for the day. The brunette was already counting down the minutes until he could collapse on the downy bed in his new dorm.
As he entered the hall, he made straight for the intricate display of foods and liquids crammed onto the large table at head of the room. Surprise briefly settled in his mind as he noticed that it was separated - barely - and labeled for particular species. He searched for the gilded plate with vampires. As soon as his red-rimmed eyes spotted it, he snatched a tumbler of liquid, snapped open the lid and began gulping down the contents in one swift sitting.
"You'd think with all that perfection and whatnot, they would have a little more sense for mannerisms."
A thwap! and a brief grunt followed the muttered words as Sora turned to his right, setting the empty tumbler back on the table and lifting a finger to swipe at the trickle of blood at the corner of his mouth. His eyes landed on a pair of identical boys, one looking irritated while the other was hunched over and nursing his chest. He raised an eyebrow at the two as he licked the blood off his thumb, having half a mind to try and scare them off with a flash of fangs, but he didn't want to go down in the books as a trouble maker on his first day.
"I'm sorry about my idiot brother. He can dish it out, but he can't take the heat..." Both boys had deep blue eyes and dirty blond hair that looked windswept; whether it was natural or from styling, he wasn't sure. Sora looked for some sort of difference to tell them apart, but he found none. "I'm Ventus. You can call me Ven, for short. This moron is Roxas. Before you ask, because we get it all the time, our wristbands."
"Your wristbands?" the brunette asked, glancing at their wrists. It only took a second, but he noticed a slight difference. The one who had explained, Ventus, had a white trim on his checkered wristband. Whereas Roxas had a black trim. Minor, but it worked. Dawning must have shown on his face because Ventus simply turned back to the table without answering. Sora did the same, grabbing another tumbler off of the table.
"Aren't you gonna introduce yourself? Kinda rude if you don't, you know." Roxas quickly took a step away from his brother before he could get hit again, but kept his eyes on the boy in question.
"Sora." He began drinking his second tumbler as the boys filled their plates with food, letting his eyes wander through the room. Almost immediately he locked eyes with sea foam irises further down the table, creating a tension in his shoulders. Resting his free hand in the back pocket of his faded jeans, he took another slow drink of the thick liquid before turning back to the twins and nodding his head in the silverette's general direction. "What's his deal, anyway?"
"Oh, Riku. You know, I'm not really sure. He always seems to be on edge, but it could be because of the problem he has with his wolf. Heard it was pretty rough," replied Ventus after a moment, moving to his side.
"He's an asshole, mostly," supplied Roxas around a mouthful of french fries, now standing on the opposite. Sora heard another dull thwap! and the sound of the boy coughing and choking on his food. A chuckle escaped the brunette's throat as he glanced over, but his eyes widened when he saw a tall redhead instead of Ventus. Clutching his chest, Roxas glared at the newcomer in all seriousness. "Why the hell is everyone deciding to abuse me today?!"
"Maybe because you have no censor," said Ventus flatly.
"Or maybe because karma is a bitch, whether you're honest or not. Axel, by the way. And you're the new guy." Sora reiterated his name once again, eyes staring at the pointed locks of hair and vibrant green eyes looking him over. "Ah, looks like Vincent has himself a new student."
Sora saw the color drain from the twins' faces at the mention of the name. Axel went on to explain that he was the Elder vampire and one of the top five feared people at the Academy, but mostly due to the fact that he barely talked. Nobody knew much about him besides that he had a tragic history involving a woman, which left the man shrouded in mystery.
After another twenty minutes of conversation, breakfast was over and the four boys went to leave the dining hall. Sora began feeling the tendrils of loneliness hit him as he pulled out his schedule and glanced over it. The last thing he had counted on when he came here was to find anyone to feel comfortable with, let alone people who could potentially call friends - even if the three of them seemed a bit on the oddball side.
"Roxas-hey!" He was broken out of his thoughts when his schedule was snatched out of his hand. The other blonde rested his weight on the brunette's shoulders as he glanced over at the schedule in his brother's hand. Axel joined in, adding even more weight to his shoulders as he struggled to keep the weight from tipping him over.
"Ven grabbed it, not me!"
"Looks like you're stuck with us, Sora," supplied Ventus, handing back his schedule. "Axel is still on his own. Well, sort of. He has the witches in his studies, and the broody wolf."
"Well that's not fair! I don't get enough time with Roxas as it is. I mean, you're cool and all Ven, but Roxas is my best friend," the redhead said smoothly. A smirk played on his lips as he put his arm loosely around Roxas' shoulders and extracted him from Sora's shoulders, causing the younger boy's face to turn a light shade of pink.
"Alright, alright. We need to get going before we're late. I really don't want to feel the wrath of the Elders if we are." Roxas struggled out of the hold and grabbed both Ventus and Sora, aiming straight for the foyer. "We'll see you at lunch, Axel. Don't start any fires."
The twins helped Sora throughout the day, helping him settle into the flow of the Academy. Classes were few, but they were long. At first, he wasn't sure what the point of it was. But as he went to each class, he realized it was more along the lines of grooming for the human world rather than learning what the basic human would in a school.
Some were minor, like basic knowledge and events that were broadcast to the general public. Another was more focused on how to keep their identities from being found out and how to deal with a situation in case they were uncovered. These topics were widely touched on with multiple examples from the past and how they met their unfortunate fates, along with how the tracks had to be covered so it wouldn't lead to anything further in the humans' superstitious searches. The one Sora found himself paying more attention to was the class on how to be himself without tipping off the human masses. Being a vampire, it was going to be rough.
"So have you even looked at the events coming up?" Sora tore his oceanic gaze from the blurring pages of the book to look at Roxas, an eyebrow raised at the random question.
"I haven't had a lot of time to do much, honestly, let alone look at the events," he said slowly. He got a sudden feeling of suspicion, wondering if the boy was planning something. Especially something to be worried about.
"We have a couple of events coming up at the end of the month. I think they make things up just to give us something to do. It isn't like this is really a school. It's more like a rehab for the supernatural."
"They have to take our minds off of our problems or we will become a bigger problem, that's all," Ventus interrupted. He slid a sheet of paper over decorated with two silhouettes on the verge of clashing with the title of the event. "The first thing coming is the Fitness Competition. It's just a glorified physical test, if you ask me."
"We usually skip it. We don't have any of the enhanced abilities like majority of the people here. Our powers are more...mental. We signed up one year and got our asses kicked."
"No, we didn't, Roxas," retorted Ventus as he scribbled notes down in his notebook. "After we watched other people go through it, we literally sat in the grass with the makeshift white flags you made as a sign of forfeit. We haven't joined one since. But he is right, our powers are mental. He can walk in people's dreams, whereas I walk in their nightmares." Roxas stuck his tongue out at his brother in a mocking manner before resuming his own notes, disgruntled at how easily his brother admitted their surrender.
"What about the other event?" At this, he saw Roxas perk up in his seat and turn toward him, a smile plastered on his face.
"The Unversed Masquerade! It's a night literally invented to ignore the rivalries between the species and to have a night of fun. From what we've learned in the past few years of being here, Master Xehanort and the Elders could never get the Academy masses together for an event without some sort of fight breaking out."
"More like a night for you and Axel to play hide-and-go-suck when you finally find each other," muttered Ventus.
"Ven!" A sharp sound resounded in the room, causing the three to look up and see their Elder staring them down with steel blue eyes. They finished the remainder of their studies in silence.
"I'm telling you, Elder Leon is gonna kill us one day. He just looks like the type to do it."
"Count yourself lucky, Rox. Elder Leon is a dæmon. He wouldn't hurt a soul unless he has reason to," said Axel around a mouthful of steak. "Elder Cloud, on the other hand, would kick your ass if you choked on air unintentionally. Nephilims are scary bastards."
"Coming from a dragon, that says something..." muttered Roxas.
"A dragon?" Sora examined the taller redhead more closely at this new piece of information until something dawned on him. "So... how does that work? What's it like with a dragon?"
Three pairs of eyes turned to the brunette at the question; one was amused, one was shocked and the last was twinkling with a type of smugness that made Sora fidget in his seat.
"Wouldn't you like to know?" Axel asked in a low voice, only to be rewarded with a sharp jab of Roxas' elbow to his ribs.
"What the fuck, Axel. It's bad enough Ventus ran his mouth-"
His words were cut off by a sharp, high pitched sound resembling a scream, followed by silence. Almost instantly, every pair of eyes rested at the front of the dining hall where Master Xehanort presided, along with a half dozen others. Sora recognized Namine standing among them, along with Elder Leon.
"Apologies for interrupting your dinner. I regret to inform you of a fellow student who was found gravely injured on the premises. We are going to be conducting an investigation for further information, so for the remainder of the week, classes will be canceled and we will only be holding sessions to help with your abilities. Use this time wisely to relax or work on your studies," announced Xehanort, his golden eyes sweeping over the students. "Elder Aerith will be busy attending to the injured, so in the meantime, Kairi will be spending the next few days in the infirmary should anyone need assistance. Elders Leon, Cloud and Vincent will be available should anyone have any information pertaining to the incident."
The remainder of their dinner went by in near silence. From what little Roxas and Axel spoke about, very rarely was anyone ever injured at the Academy. With Elder Aerith having her entire time preoccupied to the one student, it was painfully obvious it was a more grave situation than a simple announcement. They also explained the people who accompanied Xehanort.
The three girls were the top witches of the school, all sharing the basic spells and incantations of any naturally born witch. Namine was the eldest and had the power of a Seer. In relative terms, she was the most powerful witch attending the school, having been there for a few decades. Xion was the next, and although she was the youngest, she had been attending the school for fifteen years. Her powers excelled at dark magic and manipulation. Because of these powers and her partial control over them, she was another listed as the top five feared people within the Academy. Kairi was last. Her powers were of light and healing, only having attended for five years.
Already knowing a bit about Leon, they kept his information to a minimum. He was a dæmon, a guardian of sorts, with enhanced physical capabilities. His cold demeanor was still a mystery to them, as well as to most of the populace on campus. Cloud was the nephilim. Despite rumors of these fallen angels, he stood at average height and seemed particularly normal in appearance. Vincent, as Sora remembered from Axel's words earlier in the day, was the vampire elder. It was clear why everyone feared him. From the stoic demeanor he held to the blood red eyes. Normally, vampires only had red eyes when in a frenzy, but his never changed.
As they said their goodbyes and went their separate ways in the hall, Sora couldn't help but feel a sense of dread and darkness descend on him as the events rolled in his head. A near death happening in the school shortly after he arrived only made him wonder, and fear, if this was really where he should be. Memories flashed in his mind as he crossed the foyer, reminding him why this was the better choice.
A weight descended on his shoulder, breaking him from his thoughts. He realized he was standing in front of his door, hand on the handle, but had yet to go in. Turning, he looked up at the source of the hand only to find himself staring directly at Vincent. He wasn't sure whether it was fear that caused him to be so still or the fact that it felt like the elder vampire was staring directly into his soul.
"After breakfast tomorrow, class 2N. We will begin assessing those abilities of yours." Sora felt as if his eyes lingered a little too long, like he was assessing the nightmares that were buried in the deepest recesses of his mind instead of his person. When Vincent finally removed his hand and left, the brunette disappeared into his room and, with a flick of the lock, rested his back against the door. Maybe they had every right to fear that man.