With the other 'Case Of' chapters so far, I've been trying to focus solely on that headmaster; Case of Ira focused on Ira, and Case of Invi focused on Invi. In these chapters, the headmasters don't interact with the kids we've seen so far (Anora, Ephemer, etc.) and instead interact with kids from their respective house- Ira talked to a Unicornis student, and Invi went on a search spearheaded by Anguis students.
However, I wanted to do something special for Aced's 'Case Of' chapter. Mostly because Aced will have pretty bad luck in this AU otherwise, and also because I wanted to take some time to set up an idea I have for the after summer chapters. This chapter ended up being quite a bit longer than expected as a result. So please, enjoy watching Aced awkwardly flirt while his date casually admits to being bisexual.
Thank you for reading!
What was it about April Tremaine that completely disarmed Aced? Was it her height? Her flippant attitude? Both? This was only their second date, Aced could understand being a little nervous, but he wasn't nervous. He was terrified. Maybe it didn't help that Ms. Tremaine actually lived in town and not on campus. He was just… out of his element. Yeah, that was it.
Aced's fist shook as he carefully knocked on her door. Thankfully, he didn't have to wait long.
"Hey there." April greeted with a smile. Aced almost had to take a second look at her- the older woman looked so tired, trying to hide it behind a thin coat of make up.
"Are you… already to go?" he cautiously asked.
"You bet!" April affirmed as she grabbed her purse on her way out. "Let's go."
The duo then made their way to Club 13 in silence. April didn't seem to notice, but Aced was practically sweating. Should he say something? What would they even talk about? Could you use someone's kid as an ice breaker? That was rude. That sounded rude. Aced looked down at April as she sent a text off to Annie. He struggled with bothering to ask her what they were talking about.
By the time he could muster up the courage to say something, he and April were already at Club 13. April walked over to the server podium and gave the server a light grin. In an authoritative voice, she said to them, "We have reservations for indoor seating."
"Name?" the server asked with a slow blink. The tone of the server's voice almost made Aced want to punch them. April didn't seem at all phased.
"Tremaine." she replied. The server nodded before looking down at the seating chart. They then gestured for April and Aced to follow so they could be directed to the table. Once the duo was situated, April ordered a cola and Aced requested water before the server left.
"Anything look good to you?" April asked as she started to go through the menu. Aced nervously did the same.
"N-no..." he mumbled. "Not really."
April looked around her menu to get a good look at the headmaster. She snorted when she noted that he was shaking.
"You know," she casually told him, "I've been divorced for 7 years, I think that means you're not my rebound, so you can chill out a bit."
Aced flinched. He looked from over his menu to see April peeking through hers. She was smirking at him- of course she was smirking at him. Before he could protest or defend himself, the waiter came by with their drinks and a small basket of french fries, asking if they were ready to order. April ordered for the both of them. After the waiter took their menus, April rested her elbows on the table, cupping her chin in her hands, and looked up at Aced.
"I met Annie's sperm donor while I was working at Daybreak, you know."
Aced looked up at her, not sure of where she was getting it. April took it as a sign to continue.
"He was a real nice guy, I'm not going to lie about that. But I was pushing 30, the clock was ticking, and I wanted to have kids." April took a slow, tentative sip of her cola in thought. "Of course, it didn't work out. I still like him, but I wouldn't date a guy like that twice. So, what about you?"
"Me?"
"Yeah, you. How did you meet Ira and Invi? Her birthday was yesterday, seems fair that we gossip about her when she isn't able to hear."
For a moment, Aced wished he had the willpower to change the subject.
"Ira and I formally met after his graduation." he found himself admitting. "The superintendent, then headmaster, had wanted us to take on his job if he should happen to leave. Invi was still a student when we met her."
"Whose idea was it to be poly?"
Aced looked down. "Hers." he told her, quietly. Shamefully.
April raised an eyebrow. "She really loved being in love, huh?"
"She wasn't the only one..." Aced sighed. He looked over at the straw sticking out of his water glass and seemed to space out for a moment. "We were young, and reckless."
"Restless."
"The point is," he grumbled at her. "The three of us did a lot of things we should not have done. We're lucky that we still wanted to talk to each other after we broke it off."
"Would you do it again?"
Aced looked away from her, his face slowly starting to heat up. It had been years, but the memories were still fresh as they talked about them. "Yeah..." he found himself admitting. "Absolutely."
"I don't blame you," April then mused as she casually stuck a fry in her mouth, "I'd wanna threeway Invi too. Those thighs could save lives."
Aced immediately choked.
"April!" he eventually managed to gasp. Several people turned in their direction in confusion. All the while, April only offered a callous raise and lower of her shoulder. His face flushing a deep red, Aced leaned in particularly close to April before hissing,
"April, you can't just… say stuff like that."
"There are no kids here. We're both over the hill. Why not?"
"Because it's rude."
For this, April playfully rolled her eyes.
"You won't get anywhere in life without being a little rude. It's a fact." April surmised, pointing a bony finger at him. She then laid back in her seat- an indescribable expression crossing her features. "But if I'm going to be the rude one here, answer me this; why did Invi take a sabbatical three years ago?"
Aced looked April over in suspicion. "How do you know about that?"
April raised an eyebrow. "Are you headmasters really that out of touch with your staff?" she questioned, genuinely curious on the answer. "We gossip, you moron, and we do so with reckless abandon. She was gone for six months. And guess what? We all want to know what happened. A lot of us assume she was pregnant- do you concur?"
That was when Aced's jaw dropped. He then looked down with a particularly steely gaze.
"If she was," he mumbled, "It's certainly news to me."
In truth, none of them knew what Invi had done during her time off. The Anguis headmaster refused to say. Aced tried to mentally retrace what had happened up until that time. She had seemed… happy, glowing even, when she asked for the sabbatical during one of their monthly meetings. Had something felt a bit off, though? Invi had been glowing, but something about the whole situation did feel odd. She never took a day off of work- it was on record that she would prefer to die from a cold than skip out on watching over the school. So why…?
"I hadn't… been with Invi for years." Aced mumbled, more to himself than April. "I don't remember the year, but know that it was not during her sabbatical. Whatever happened to her was not my fault."
"Never said it was, teddy bear." April callously claimed. "I'm just trying to quell the gossips."
Aced recoiled at this. He should have known better. He should have known that the staff would gossip about such a long absence. Who wouldn't? Wearily, he looked back at April.
"How is Anastasia doing?" he asked, hoping to change the subject. "Did she pass the entrance exam for the early statistic classes? Since she's in Anguis, it's a bit hard to ask around without getting weird looks."
April gave him a bright smile as they then spent the rest of their lunch talking about her daughter.
. . .
After lunch, the two decided to walk around town together. They still didn't have much to say to each other. April was almost comfortable in the silence (words of affirmation were not her favorite love language), but Aced was all but forcing himself to say something.
"April, I… I really like our times together." he finally found himself admitting. "When I'm with you, it almost feels like I'm able to control my-"
"And this is where I stop you right there, Aced."
Aced stopped dead in his tracks, muttering out a confused, "Huh?"
April had also stopped walking. She looked up at him with an unreadable expression. "Aced, honey," she carefully started, "I like you, but I'm not here to save you."
"But I'm not asking you to-" he tried to argue, but he was stopped with a single raise of her hand.
"Look teddy bear," the older woman told him, perfectly asserting her dominance in voice alone. "I know about your anger issues. I know that you tend to fly off the handle when shit gets tossed, and you end up breaking more things than you intend to. I know you've got a good heart in there too. But I'm not your personal psychologist. And it's not my job to fix you. Will I support you if you get help? Sure. I'll even go to AA meetings with you, if you so well please. But remember this, and remember it good- I spent over 20 years in my life to be surrounded by music, not deranged lunatics who think their first non-headmaster circle friend will cure them of their temper tantrums. I like you, I really do. But I can't fix you- that's something that only you have the power to do."
With having said her peace, April gave a long, relaxed sigh and a bright smile. "So," she then decided with a clap of her hands, "Are you going to buy me a latte, or are we done for the day?"
For a moment, Aced just looked at the tiny woman, too conflicted on what to do next. He hadn't expected for her to go off on that sort of tangent. But at the same time, he had.
"I..." he slowly tried to say. "I don't know any good cafes around here."
"I do." April informed him- her voice was still sharp. "While we're there, we can get something for Annie. Promised her an oatmeal cookie but don't feel like making them."
"Maybe she should come with us next time." Aced offered. "We could all go to the fairgrounds for a picnic or something."
"I'd like that." April nodded. And, to his relief, she smiled.