[Chapter: 01]

After a quick shower, Kiritsugu exited his room with his school bag over his shoulder and somewhat cleaner clothes on, before making haste towards the cafe to get breakfast, where he soon met his cousin waiting in the hall halfway there.

"That was fast. Did you make sure to wash your hair correctly?" Ingrid asked as she leaned in a bit to see if he smelled or not.

"Yes, I did, no more Mr stinky," Kiritsugu said as he pressed his finger to her forehead and pushed her away from his personal space.

Smacking his hand away and giving the blonde a light glare, Ingrid turned on her heels and away from her cousin.

"Alright, now come on! lecturing you have made me hungry for waffles," She said as she made her way to where food would be.

Rolling his eyes slightly, Kiritsugu followed his cousin down the hall, where after a short walk they found themselves in the cafeteria along with the other students.

Getting a small plate of eggs and ham, as opposed to his cousin's large plate of waffles covered in whipped cream and enough chocolate sauce to give her a heart attack, the two looked around for a table, where Kiritsugu saw a familiar face.

Said face belonged to a girl his age, with shoulder length blonde hair with a bow tied into it, matching coloured eyes, and fair skin. Her outfit consisted of an honest and straightforward light blue dress with white sleeves, and matching coloured heels.

"Hey, Jane," He said as he walked up behind her, startling the poor girl and causing her to let out a surprised yelp, nearly drop the latte in her hands.

"Oh! Kiritsugu," She said as she turned to face the boy with pink cheeks, "G-good morning!"

"Sorry, did I startle you?" Kiritsugu asked with a sheepish look.

"N-no! It's fine," She said as she moves a bit of her hair out of her face before turning to Ingrid, "Morning Ingrid,"

"G'morning to you too Jane, how are things?" Ingrid asked with a smile.

"Oh, fine. I managed to get an A on my last history paper though."

"Really? That's great Jane," Kiritsugu congratulated with a smile.

"Oh, thank you, Kiritsugu," Jane replied with a smile and tinted cheeks.

Ingrid had a devilish smirk on her face, knowing all too well that Jane had some emotional feelings towards the snow prince, as well as a few other select few whom, weren't as oblivious as her younger cousin. Something which runs in his father's side of the family, at least according to her aunt.

"Well, I see some of my friends over there," Ingrid said as she motioned to another table, "See you two little birds later, don't do anything I wouldn't," She said with a small devilish smirk before leaving, causing Jane to gain a slight blush.

Kiritsugu ignored her, knowing that Ingrid was trying to get into his head like every other morning, and took a seat next to the young half fairy.

"Don't mind her, Jane, you know Ingrid's just a big tease," He said before digging into his plate.

'Hm, a bit overcooked, and could use a pinch more of pepper,' He noted.

"Right," The half Fairy said before turning back to her meal, but stopped as she took a look at Kiritsugu, noticing the slight bags under his eyes, "Kiritsugu, did you get some sleep last night?"

The blonde's face fell a bit, too tired to come up with a proper response or excuse from said lack of sleep and already had the same conversations with his overbearing cousin.

"Not you too," He moaned placing a hand on his face.

"Wait," She said as the realisation came to her, "Were you practising magic last night?" Jane asked in a whisper.

"... Maybe."

"Kiritsugu, you know that Magic is supposed to be retired. What if my mom found out you were practising it? You could get in trouble," Jane said, trying to talk some small sense into her friend, "And you need to get some sleep, you knew we had an exam in chemistry today, you don't want to fail, do you?" She asked worryingly.

Honestly, Kiritsugu wasn't that worried about either situation. For one, he had been practising magic rat as carefully as possible for the past two years since he started at this school, and hadn't been caught yet. Also, he already had a moderately above average grade in the class and enough marks that even if he did bomb it, he wouldn't fail the course and at worst get a C+, not counting the tests and quizzes ahead of this one.

"You know you're starting to sound a bit too much like Ingrid," Kiritsugu muttered, the image of a copy of his cousin providing to be nightmare fuel, "I'll be fine, don't worry."

Jane, however, wasn't having any of it. She figured that the magic talk probably wasn't going to get to him, but his sleep depravity was another thing.

Taking the latte still in her hands and plopped it next to Kiritsugu's plate.

"Here, drink this to keep yourself at least awake enough to finish the exam today."

"Jane I'm-" The blonde was about to say, until Jane put up her 'pouty face', attempting to put up an angry expression which did not at all fit her at all.

Failing to resist the rather adorable glare, Kiritsugu sighed in defeat and took the cup from Jane's and, and began to slowly drink the hot liquid, and took noticing the slight taste of cherry along the edges from having previously touched Jane's lips.

"Hmmm, I can never win against you, can I?"

He had to admit that Jane was no doubt a mousy and anxious girl, seemingly taking the image of a nervous wreck most of the time. But that didn't mean she had her moments from time to time, and Kiritsugu eventually learned that behind her humble and shy attitude, Jane could be stubborn when the needed.

"I'm here to help," She said with a small smile, pushing a bit of her hair out of the way as she looked at Kiritsugu, "And please promise that you'll at least be careful with the magic."

"I always am," He said, giving the half-fairy a reassuring smile before the two began to eat in silence before two people both recognised walked up to them.

The first was what some girls would consider being a handsome boy with fair skin and brown hair and eyes, while next to him was a beautiful brown girl attached to his arm, with long luscious brown hair and eyes, though the scowl on her face was not doing her any favours.

"Jane, Kiritsugu, morning!" The boy greeted with a warm, welcoming smile.

"Morning Ben, Audrey," Kiritsugu welcomed Ben while merely giving the later a light wave, to which the later gave no reaction.

This put Kiritsugu on 'High Alert Level: A', as he knows by experience that when Audrey is not happy nor has the energy to respond to anything, especially when she's attached to Ben, then it means trouble for him and his precious ears.

"So, I got big news!" Ben suddenly announced.

"Big bad news," Audrey countered with a slight angry scowl.

And so we have reached red alert.

"C'mon Audrey, give it a chance," Ben tried to convince his girlfriend.

"Is something wrong?" Jane asked, not knowing the new can of worms she just opened, as Audrey was now in her face ready to reveal the news.

"What's wrong, is that Ben possibly made a bad choice, which is not something Future Kings are supposed to make!" She spoke in the girls face, making her recoil a bit and scootch closer to Kiritsugu

"Eep," she went as she unconsciously latched onto the blonde's arm.

"What did you do?" Kiritsugu asked the Crown Prince as he gave him a neutral look, expecting it to be something Audrey was overreacting about.

"Well, after thinking about what my first proclamation would be, I decided to give the children from the Isle of The Lost a chance to come to school here in Auradon," He stated, sounding confident in his proclamation.

... Well shit, that's actually something.

"No way," Jane said as she turned towards Ben.

"Yes. I came to the conclusion that just because their parents are Evil and have done some rather Evil deeds, that doesn't mean that their children are or have done anything," He reasoned.

Honestly, Kiritsugu had to agree. Sure there were some legit evil people on the Isle who have done some rather wicked deeds, but there were also some people whom he and his father believed don't deserve to be there, such as the many children that roam said Isle, the Villain's being a few.

"When will they be here?" Jane asked, sounding a tad bit nervous about the children of Villains coming to their school.

"A bit after classes today. If you'd like you can come with and greet them at the welcoming ceremony I have planned for them."

Thinking about it, Kiritsugu didn't have anything planned after classes besides a possible nap or magecraft practice, couldn't hurt to see the new arrivals.

"Sure, why not," He shrugged, "You want to come too, Jane?"

"No, I have to study for my Algebra test, but maybe I could maybe meet them some other time."

'So long as you're with me.'

"At least you'll be saved from the exposure," Audrey told the half fairy.

"I still don't understand why you're so against it," Ben said to his girlfriend.

"Because they're evil!" Audrey countered.

"Well, how are you supposed to know that? You can't call someone you don't know evil. Especially just because they're the parents of someone who is 'evil'," Kiritsugu reasoned, surprising the brunette.

"Thank you, Kiritsugu," Ben thanked, glad to have someone else agree with him on the matter, while Audrey sent the blonde Magus a glare.

"Fine, whatever!" Audrey said as she decided to give in for now, "I just hope you know what you're doing."

"I promise you, everything going to be fine, just give them a chance, and you'll see,"

Audrey gave her boyfriend a light glare, before giving up and deciding she couldn't be mad at her 'soon to be king boyfriend' any longer than necessary.

"Fine. Oh, I almost forgot!" Audrey said before turning to face Kiritsugu, "Kiri, I need you to do something," She said, not even bothering with asking politely, "The heater in my room short out a few days ago and It's like a fridge in there! I want you to fix it."

"Did you put in a request for someone to come and fix it?" Kiritsugu asked, hoping to weasel his way out of doing 'Audrey Work', which was code for any problem Audrey can't bother to fix herself.

"I put in a request to fix it, yet nobody has come to help! So I have no choice but to turn to Auradon Prep's Ice Cream Cone," The Princess said, causing the blonde to twitch a bit.

He hated that name, truly he did. He didn't know who started the damn name last semester after helping a few people fix their broken appliances as an excuse to practice his Magecraft secretly, but he wanted nothing more than to bop whoever it was on the head for coming up for such a stupid title.

"Fine," He said with a sigh, "I'll fix it later after classes and before the Villain's kids arrive."

"Good!" Audrey said, happy to finally get some service, "Just make sure it lasts long enough not to break down."

'The hell does that mean?'

Before more could be said on the topic, the bell began to ring, signifying that classes were about to start soon, and students began to funnel out of the cafe and towards their morning lectures.

"Well, I have to go. Bye, Benny Boo!" She said to her beloved boyfriend before giving his cheek a pec and turned heel to get to her morning lecture.

"I will never understand how you two started dating," Kiritsugu admitted as he gently pulled his arm from Jane's hold and stood up ready to go to class.

"Someday you'll understand."

"No, I don't think I will," The blonde said before quickly downing the latte in his hands before turning to Jane, "Alright, let's get to class before Mr Deley starts giving out the exam early."

"Okay. bye, Ben," Jane said as she got up and followed the blonde away, not noticing the sly smirk on the Crown Prince's face as he watched the two disappear.

Halfway towards their destination, Jane turned towards her companion and decided to ask a question she had on her mind when Kiritsugu seemed to agree with Ben's decision.

"Are you really not worried about the kids of villains coming here?" Jane wondered.

"Honestly, not really," He admitted with a shrug, "Sure I'm not expecting sunshine and rainbows from them and maybe a slight hint of edginess, but they can't be that bad. They're not their parents after all."

Jane thought over his words carefully, still a bit afraid but deciding to trust in Kiritsugu's words and see for herself and maybe try and talk to these new arrivals when they get here.

Couldn't hurt to try, she trusted Kiritsugu after all.

Classes went by rather quick, nothing exciting or day breaking, and the Chem exam wasn't even that bad, and was more than sure he passed it.

Still, that just meant that he had one more thing to do before he could meet up with the others to welcome the children of the Villains.

Walking across campus towards the girl's dormitory with a small bag of tools, he made his way over to Audrey's door and gave a few solid knocks, but instead of Audrey, a girl with black hair tied in a ponytail and green eyes greeted him.

"Oh, sup, Kiri," She said with a smile as she leaned into the doorway, "Guess you're here for the heater?"

"Hey Melody," He greeted the daughter of Ariel, "Yeah, something about it being broke or something."

"Yeah, it's been on the fritz lately, think you can fix it?"

"I can give it a go," He shrugged.

"Great! Well, I'm off to swimming practice," Melody said as she slung a gym bag over her shoulder, "Audrey left with Ben a few minutes ago, so you can just put the heater back when you're done. See you later, Kiri!"

Waving the girl away, Kiritsugu walked into the room, where he saw that the broken heater was pulled from the wall already and leaning against it, and had a few scratches and loose screws on it, as if someone picked it from the wall to try and open the panel but gave up not a few seconds later.

'Should've figured,' Kiritsugu thought, figuring Audrey tried to tinker with it perhaps but gave up not even a minute later.

Stepping towards the heater, he knelt and placed his hand onto it and was ready to begin.

Trace On

As he repeated his mantra, the image of a hammer slamming atop an anvil appeared in the back of his head, and multiple blueish green glowing lines appeared on his arm and the feeling of Od flowing through his arm and into the appliance as if the appendage was a circuit board.

Soon the image of the internal workings of the heater entered his mind as if he was getting a direct look into a 3D blueprint of it, and knew everything about it and where every single fan, screw and wire was and what they did.

He soon found the problem, a single shot wire that was in need of replacement, and by the looks of it, would only take a few minutes to fix.

"Alright, time to get to work," He muttered as he began to take apart the appliance.

Just like he figured, the job didn't even take him ten minutes and was able to give the wire only a temporary fix until the actual repair crew could adequately repair it, but it was good enough.

"There," He said as he put the back panel to the heater back on, wiping some bits of sweat from his brow.

Placing the appliance back in its spot, he gathered his stuff to put back and then prepared to head out towards Ben and the others to greet the new arrivals.

[END]