(It's been over a month but oh well. I promise I won't abandon it, I just had a lot of oneshots to write over Christmas for my priv account. Oh, and I'm setting this based off the UK school system, so students complete 3 or 4 A levels from 16-18. And they're super hard. Like, really hard. Yeah. That's all I have to say. Oh, and Break has glasses in this AU.

Thank you so much to any reviewers + followers! If you can, please take a minute to let me know what you think about the fic if you are reading it. All feedback is greatly appreciated! ^^

Content warnings: mild swearing, smoking

Disclaimer: I do not own Pandora Hearts or any of the characters)

Chapter 3

After a weekend away from Leo, Elliot still hated him.

Although, it was a strange sort of hate – so much so that 'hate' almost seemed like a strong word. It was the sort of hate where he detested every single possible thing about him that one could possibly notice, and yet at the same time, he was just itching to see him again; to feel that same resent. The list of things which he could comment on was endless.

Having grown up in a rich, privileged, upper-class family with successful siblings and parents with a net profit for their multiple businesses of over 3 million, Elliot had never been exposed to anything. Every part of his education was always at a private academy, and his sixth form, which he currently attended, was no exception. So, it was only natural that meeting someone like Leo was a bit of a shock. He'd thought exactly the same thing when he first met him; the only thing which had changed was how much he'd pondered.

Dare he call it curiosity?

No, he daren't. To even think of that would be an abomination against everything he stood for.

"Elliot!"

Not now…

Much to his dismay, once again, the irritating blonde came prancing over to him, Elliot internally cursing himself for forgetting to go in the back way, like he usually did on Monday mornings. In all his life, he'd never met someone like Oz who actually enjoyed Monday mornings.

Elliot was beginning to suspect that, maybe – just maybe – he'd spent a good deal of his life isolated and even protected from society.

Abruptly, however, he was snapped out of his trance, Oz bouncing up beside him and sending the same bright, beaming smile in his direction.

"What do you want this time?" he groaned, internally rolling his eyes as they passed the school gates.

"Well… I was wondering if you could tell me more about the new student?" Oz asked, his eyes glinting in the sun with such curiosity it made it difficult for Elliot to refuse.

"Fine," Elliot accepted, scanning his ID card against the electronic register and entering the hallway, following the gradually dispersing crowd towards their tutor room. "What do you want to know?"

"Well… what subjects is he taking?" Oz asked.

"Literature, Chemistry, Maths and Latin," Elliot answered nonchalantly, his brow twitching at the thought. "Tch, of course he'd pick the same as me…"

"Aha, maybe it's fate?" Oz teased, snickering under his breath and scratching the back of his head, avoiding Elliot's unimpressed glare. "I remember you said he's arrogant, but that might've just been a bad first impression. So… what else did you notice about him?"

Elliot had to think about that one for a moment, before screwing his face up in blatant disapproval. "He's just… scum. I don't know how he got into a school like this."

"Hehe, you never know…" Oz said, trying his best to fill the awkward silence as they approached the tutor room. "So… are you going to introduce him to us?"

"I doubt it," Elliot groaned, adding under his breath: "I don't even want anything to do with him. He doesn't even know who he's speaking to! He pisses me off. But all the teachers seem to think I should be his personal tour guide."

Another sly, suspecting smirk tugged at Oz's lips, as he followed Elliot's curious gaze to the new student, who was sure enough already sitting in tutor, his nose buried in a book.

Nothing about his appearance had really changed, apart from his bow tie now being crooked and his hair even scruffier somehow. Or, maybe that was just his bias speaking. Either way, Elliot still didn't approve.

"Er, Elliot. Could you please come here?"

Promptly, he was pulled from his trance by his tutor, Mr Lunettes, who taught History. He didn't teach Elliot, since he only studied Literature, Chemistry, Maths, and Latin for his A levels, but he was his form tutor, and was probably the only teacher who insisted on being addressed professionally. Despite this though, everyone did know his name was Reim, but mostly out of respect refrained from calling him that.

As senior prefect, Elliot had to return such professionalism. "Yes sir?"

"Has the headmaster introduced you to the new student yet?" he asked, readjusting his glasses as always – at least he wasn't cleaning them, Elliot noted.

"Yes, last week." Elliot nodded, his tone polite but with a biting edge of disapproval.

"I apologise if this is asking too much, but I know you're in the same classes, so –"

Don't say it…

"- would you mind briefing him further on the timetable and then showing him to his classes?"

Elliot exhaled, trying not to sound too repulsed by the idea; albeit he was failing. "But I already took him around last Friday!"

"Elliot, please do as your superiors tell you," Reim stressed, sitting back down at his desk, which had a decently sized pile of paper stacked up in front of his laptop. Then, he began muttering something under his breath. "That stupid Xerx… making me fill out all his tutee's parent information as well…"

With another irritable sigh, Elliot took that as his cue to leave, sucking up the self-control to not fire up an argument with the other. Then, he slowly approached the table at which Leo was still sitting. He wasn't even sure he had acknowledged him yet, his face still buried in the book, several strands of hair hanging over his eyes.

How does he even read through that rat's nest?

"Oi, Leo."

There was no response.

"Hey! Listen to me!"

"What do you want?" Leo asked. And Elliot couldn't see it, but he could also feel Leo's eyes rolling at his presence.

"I-I was sent to sit here!" Elliot declared, kicking back the chair and sitting down reluctantly. Sulkily, he dropped his bag on the floor beside the chair leg, crossing his arms over his chest and turning his head away from the other.

"Stop looking at me then." Leo's tone turned sour. "Can't you see I'm trying to read?"

There was another silence.

Then, Leo's focus finally flitted to Elliot, as he questioned, "When does Period 1 start?"

"8:45," Elliot answered nonchalantly, before leaning over back to his bag and pulling out his book of Holy Knight Volume 17. Briefly, he noticed Leo staring at the front cover of the book, as if he wanted to say something.

But, instead, the noirette simply asked, "What about the other lessons?"

"Tch, just pass me your timetable," Elliot ordered, holding a hand out expectantly, in which Leo dropped an already torn piece of paper into. Screwing his face up at it, Elliot slowly unfolded the timetable, being careful not to rip the tattered thing anymore.

He wasn't sure why he was disappointed when he opened up the timetable and saw they'd taken the same subjects, and were consequently in all each other's lessons. Disappointed or not, however, he was still curious as hell; especially since, last Friday, Leo had rather boldly claimed he'd gotten 100% on all the entrance exams.

We'll see about that… Elliot thought in total disbelief of the other's statement. There was no way this scruffy, arrogant and ill-mannered kid had gotten a scholarship without pulling any strings with the school or doing some kind of dirty work. Not the way he saw it, at least.

"Lessons 1 and 2 are two hours, you'll finish them at 10:45, then have a 15 minute break," Elliot explained, refusing to make eye contact with the other – he wouldn't want to make himself seem welcoming. Because, in case he hadn't made it clear enough, Elliot really didn't like Leo so far. "Then, period 3 and 4 last two hours until one, at which point you'll have a half an hour break before periods 5 and 6, which takes you to half three. Then you go home. There's no leaving the premises at any point. Got it?"

"Perhaps," Leo shrugged. He really didn't seem overly impressed with all the rules Elliot insisted on mindlessly spewing at him. In all honesty, if he weren't at the prestigious school he was currently at, he'd have decked Elliot in the face upon first meeting him. But, common sense suggested otherwise; that probably wouldn't end well, so the best option would've been to ignore him. And so, Leo proceeded to bury his face in his book once again, turning his head away from the other rather pointedly.

Unfortunately, Elliot wasn't really getting the hint.

"Just remember where you are right now, al-"

"Elliot, I'm not interested," Leo cut him off bluntly. "To be frank, I find you quite irritating."

Wordlessly, Elliot flung the timetable back in his direction. "Tch"-ing under his breath, he picked up his own book, glancing across the room at Oz – for once, he wanted to be near the blonde, if it meant trading seats and getting away from Leo.

Although, something notable was different with Leo. Where were all the retort-y centred comebacks which really did set Elliot on edge? Where were the biting remarks accompanied by sly smirks?

Maybe he just didn't like Monday mornings, just like himself.

No, no! Do not think that we're similar! Elliot scolded himself mentally. There was no way they could possibly have anything in common.

Silence lingered between the two like there was no one even there, until eventually, the bell rang, echoing down the corridor. That signal then prompted the screeching of chairs being dragged against the floor, and Elliot joined in with that choir of noise when he stood up himself, folding both arms over his chest and waiting rather impatiently for Leo to pack up and follow him. He was only doing as he was told; he didn't want to wait for the other.

"Let's go," Elliot grunted once Leo had finished packing up, which felt like an excruciating amount of time. He's definitely taking the piss now.

"Oh, so you're escorting me to my first class?" Leo snickered, his bangs falling over his face to partially conceal the slight smirk stretching at his lips.

"Huh-?! O-of course not!" Elliot yelped. "I-I mean... I'm taking you there because I have to!"

"Elliot is really a kind person," Leo commented to himself, the sarcasm blunt as usual as he followed Elliot down the corridor, still chuckling away to himself.

Rolling his eyes, Elliot was then quick to realise his irritable demeaner had had a 180 flip in the space of 20 seconds; he was now the same snarky and – to put it frankly – arrogant 'student' he remembered from last Friday. Perhaps he just didn't like anyone getting between himself and his books; Elliot made a mental note not to disturb him whilst reading.

Thankfully, their first classroom was only up a couple of flights of stairs, and within a minute, they had arrived.

And the moment they entered the vicinity, noting that they were the first there, their teacher saw them.

Break wasn't your average teacher – in any way at all. To begin with, he was even less professional than Levi, constantly being seen with a lollipop in his mouth. To accompany this, his hair always seemed to cover his left eye, regardless of whether it was done up at the back or not – this detail alternated depending on the day. No one ever dared to ask about it, though; the black framed glasses were enough of a giveaway that his eyesight wasn't too brilliant. As for clothes, they barely passed as formal, a white untucked and unbuttoned at the top shirt hanging over the hem of his slightly-too-tight black suit pants. He also donned a violet coloured blazer, along with a black tie knotted rather messily and clinging to his collar.

But, putting aside all of that, he was a very, very skilled Chemistry teacher, and Elliot would be lying if he said he didn't look up to him in a way.

"Ah, Elliot. Happy Monday~" Break greeted, swinging back on the stall he was currently perched on at his desk. His laptop was set aside and abandoned, in favour of a considerably small stack of test papers he was marking, presumably. Then, his crimson eye flitted to the boy beside him, as he pulled the lollipop out of his mouth and pointed it at him. "And you are?"

"This is Leo," Elliot cut in.

"Elliot really is nice," Leo snickered once again, only infuriating Elliot further. "But for future references, I can speak for myself, you know."

Apparently, Break found it quite amusing as well. "So, were you tasked with taking him around then, hm?"

"Tch. Yeah…" Elliot answered.

"Well then," Break grinned, "It's good to meet you, Leo. You can call me Break. Just Break."

As courteously as he could do, Leo nodded. Then, Elliot rotated on his heal, taking his seat at the desk on the far-right side of the room, before dropping his bag down onto the table with an exaggerated sigh.

"Ah, Elliot?" Break grabbed his attention, eyeing him hintingly as a sly grin tugged at his lips once again. "Move along one seat. Leo, you can sit next to Elliot."

"But-!"

"No buts, Elliot," Break interjected, as he pointed at the empty seat beside him and glanced at Leo. "Sit~"

Wordlessly, Leo did as he was told, proceeding to the seat next to Elliot and sitting down.

"Don't you have anything to get out? Like equipment?" Elliot scoffed, pulling out his calculator, notebook and pencil case. Leo simply shook his head in response, pulling only a pen out of his blazer pocket and placing it pointedly on the desk in front of him. "Tch, of course…"

A few minutes of awkward silence later, and everyone had arrived to the class, the room far from full with only about 15 students present.

"Now," Break clapped as he stood up. "I have your tests back. Apologies for them being late, Reim didn't mark them for me, so I had to do them myself. So, aha, don't thank Mr Lunettes this time for me."

Elliot laughed internally; he couldn't actually remember the last time Break personally marked any of their tests. Some of the teachers at their school were certainly questionable, that was for sure.

The class trapped in silence, Break began handing out the test papers, the slight heels of his boots clicking against the floor. Eventually, Elliot's paper came, being slid onto the table in front of him by Break, who simply glanced at him briefly before continuing as he was doing. Then, a few seconds later, he returned once again with the last paper, placing it on the desk in front of Leo.

"Do as much of this as you can," Break instructed, laying a finger on the top of the paper and leaning over the table. "Never mind if you get stuck on any of it. I'm sure your new best friend Elliot will help you~"

"Tch, s-shut up," Elliot grunted.

"Ah, that's no way to talk to your superiors~" Break pouted. Rotating on his heel, he retreated back to the smartboard, pulling up the mark scheme. "Say, you guys could've done better. But we have time to improve, so don't fret it. I mean, I'm not saying you did badly, but I'm not saying you did well, either. Let's just hope I'm feeling nice enough not to tell your parents, eh?"

Elliot wanted to rip his paper in half when he saw his grade.

It wasn't necessarily a bad grade. It just wasn't want he wanted, or what he'd studied for. And it was certainly not as well as he could've done.

"Oh, so you got a B?"

That damn-!

"Leo!" Elliot couldn't help but yell in a whisper, turning his gaze away momentarily. "I-It's not bad!"

"I see. You can tell yourself that."

"It's not though!" Elliot tried to defend himself. "B-Besides… it was a hard paper."

"You can think that, if you want," Leo said ambiguously, reading through the first questions and scribbling down the answers the moment they came into his head.

Elliot was amazed.

If you looked past the awful, almost illegible handwriting, the answers written down were almost word-for-word identical to the mark scheme.

"Is there something you wanted to say?" Leo asked, flicking the page and scanning over the questions briefly. He was unfazed by all of it – even the top level questions – spinning his pen idly in his right hand.

Damn it, was I staring? "N-No…"

Leo didn't even hesitate for a moment when he returned his focus back to the paper, his hand gliding naturally across the paper as if he didn't even have to think about it. It appeared as though he wasn't thinking about it, hands down. It was the type of rare, natural intelligence that you hear of, but never actually believe exists.

Maybe he wasn't as bad as Elliot had thought after all.

Perhaps he had just been naïve.

It was now quarter to one, the two having gotten through Chemistry without murdering each other yet. Granted, Leo's sly comments definitely hadn't been toned down, and Elliot still wasn't quite used to them, considering he had yet to think of an appropriate comeback for a single one of them. But, it hadn't been too bad, he had to admit.

Of course, when break came around, Leo had disappeared almost instantly, leaving Elliot with no other choice than to seek out the company of Oz, who was, as expected, bursting with more questions about the new student, as if he expected Elliot to just magically know everything about him.

Then, 15 minutes later, they were back sitting next to each other, because their maths teacher – Gilbert, who was known quite well as Vincent's brother – decided it would be a great idea to put the two next to each other. Obviously, he had been oblivious to the fact they clashed. Or, maybe Elliot just wasn't making it clear enough.

It took about an hour of the lesson for Leo to turn sour once again, just like he'd been when Elliot first made the grave mistake of interrupting his reading. His mood seemed so erratic, and his personality really was quite equivocal; Elliot could barely keep up with it. Although, after several refused questions, he eventually learnt not to ask anything. Not about the work, nor himself. Silence seemed favourable, but that was more awkward than trying to make conversation.

There was only another 20 minutes of the lesson left now, Gilbert having given them a work booklet and leaving them to it. In some ways, that was a good thing, since Leo was even more unfriendly than usual and more or less blanked their teacher whenever he tried to speak to him.

However, given the fact that Elliot was really struggling on the last couple of A* level questions, not being able to say anything was really starting to show its downsides. Leo wasn't even doing anything anymore. No, instead, he sat kicked back against the chair, spinning his pen in his hand, clearly bored, and gazing out of the window.

Hand scrunched up in his hair, he cocked an eyebrow in confusion, his pen floating over the paper in thought but never touching it.

"If you're stuck on the second to last question, the answer is a equals a half."

Elliot blinked, dumbfounded. "… huh?"

Dropping his pen back onto the desk, Leo sat up, wordlessly picking up the paper and flipping to the last page. He let out a small sigh, almost as if to say 'I can't believe I'm doing this, how stupid are you?', and then tossed the paper at Elliot, before picking up the pen once again and slumping back in the chair, watching Elliot whilst chewing on his lower lip discreetly.

"How did you…?" Elliot wasn't even able to finish his sentence, still in shock that the other had done it so easily. "B-But… this is… how?!"

"Just take the first part out, factorise it, and then just follow on as you would," Leo explained briefly. "I'm not spoon feeding you the answers."

"O-Ok…" Elliot stuttered, still baffled. "Um, thank you?"

Leo didn't bother responding, simply returning his attention to the window as the fiddled with the pen.

Elliot, on the other hand, was still completely and utterly flabbergasted; he'd now personally learnt why people always say "never judge a book by its cover". It had also become so clear how he'd gotten into this school: of course he'd aced the entrance exams with that brain. How could he not?

There was a few more minutes of silence between the two, Leo seemingly zoned out as Elliot continuing wracking his brain for the answers. Eventually, he got there, and was about to move onto the dreaded last question when Leo decided to speak up again.

"How long until this lesson ends?" he asked, and no matter how hard he tried to read his tone, Elliot couldn't tell whether he was bored, irritated, or all of the above.

"Er," Elliot glanced up at the clock behind them. "About 10 minutes. Why?"

"Finally," Leo sighed, checking the teacher wasn't looking before slyly reaching into the inside pocket of his blazer. A second later, he pulled out a bag of loose tobacco and a single sheet of rolling paper.

Elliot's mouth visibly dropped open.

"W-what are you…?" His words tripped over his tongue. "… huh?!"

"Shh," Leo hushed, tearing apart the tobacco and lining it up along the paper.

"Y-you… you can't smoke on the school premises!" Elliot yelped, keeping his voice low as Leo had instructed, though.

"I can, and I will," Leo retorted, as he rolled the cigarette up once it was filled before fishing a loose filter out from his inside blazer pocket.

"B-but… why do you even…?" Elliot asked; he was back to square one again of being clueless. It was no surprise, of course – the stench of cigarette smoke clung to him. But for some reason, he'd never really thought about it. Clearly, he was just oblivious, and that realisation had slapped him in the face by now.

"Are you really that surprised that I smoke?" Leo muttered, checking that Gilbert wasn't looking before bringing the cigarette up to his mouth and sliding his tongue along the adhesive strip, bringing it back under the table to finish rolling it.

That question got Elliot. For some reason, he was overcome with this strange feeling of annoyance. It was unexplainable, but he hated the idea of Leo smoking. Maybe it was his naivety on the subject matter; the closest he'd ever seen to smoking was his father's highly valuable Cuban cigars that he was told were worth more than his life. "I guess not, but… why?"

Leo shrugged, spinning the cigarette around between two fingers momentarily, and then pocketing it shortly after. Wordlessly, he glanced up at the clock once again, finding to his relief that they only had another 5 or so minutes left.

"Well… don't you know how much it's killing you?! Or do you just… not care?"

"I'm not stupid, Elliot," Leo shot back bitterly, leaning an elbow on the desk. "I just don't want to quit for the time being. But, you can spare me the lecture about how I'm going to die horribly of lung cancer and throat cancer and heart failure and every atrocious consequence of smoking for another time." He huffed quietly. "Preferably when it hasn't been 5 hours since my last smoke, unless you want to get punched, that is."

"Uh…" Elliot stuttered. "H-how much do you even smoke anyway?"

He had no clue why he even asked that, as he mentally smacked himself a mere second later for allowing his goddamn curiosity for the other to win over his sense. But, the contrast between himself and Leo was astonishing, to say the least; it should've been no surprise his curiosity got the better of him.

Leo paused for a moment, before answering nonchalantly, "About 12 a day? I don't count, but it's not that many."

"But that's like… every 2 hours!"

"Which is nothing in comparison to most people," Leo countered, somewhat defensively, but he really wasn't in the mood to argue with Elliot right now; not when his hand was practically twitching towards the cigarette hidden away safely in his pocket.

"Really?"

"Yes, really. Now, if you would, Mr Senior Prefect," Leo gave the other a teasing smirk. "Do the honour of not telling. Unless you want me to beat someone up in last period."

"Ha! You, violent?" Elliot scoffed.

The glare he received from Leo – or at least the glare he presumed he received from Leo, as he slowly but threateningly turned his head towards him – told him that his comment was a bad move.

"Believe what you will, but I used to get into a lot of fights at the old school," Leo said casually, and Elliot genuinely couldn't decipher whether he was proud or ashamed with himself, or somewhere in the middle. "My teachers described me as 'unsettled' and 'defiant'."

Why am I not surprised to hear that much…? Elliot asked himself rhetorically. His eyebrow twitched. "Hang on then… how the hell did you get into this school with that attitude?!"

Waving his question paper from the lesson in Elliot's face laughingly, Leo mocked, "Need I remind you of my intelligence?"

Elliot silence instantly. A moment later, the bell rang, signalling the start of lunch. And, when Gilbert dismissed the class, Leo immediately took off, no doubt searching for a place of privacy and specifically away from Elliot.

Perhaps he was better off avoiding the other where possible.

Lunch finished a mere half an hour later, Elliot once again trudging back to his final lesson, Oz on his tail as usual. Thankfully, he was fairly certain Vincent wouldn't move him away from Oz, the two being a fairly unusual but good pair.

Obviously, he'd been wrong.

"Ah, Elliot," the blonde teacher called the moment his foot passed the threshold. Giving the same smile to lure Elliot into doing what he wanted, Vincent continued. "I've been speaking to our new student. Sit next to him, please?"

Elliot sighed internally. "Do I have to?"

"Yes," Vincent answered instantly, pointing at the spare seat beside Leo at the back of the classroom. And, sure enough, the noirette was already there, nose buried in a book like this morning.

Cautiously – remembering that interrupting the other was a risky and dangerous move – Elliot approached him, dumping his bag on the floor and taking his seat. Bag still on the floor, he fished out his copy of Romeo and Juliet, laying it on the desk and then retrieving his notes.

Leo didn't move a single muscle, and Elliot wasn't even sure whether he'd registered his presence or not.

"Alright, turn to Act 3, Scene 4. And get your homework out, I'll be checking that momentarily. If you haven't done it," Vincent paused, the cynical smile returning to his lips. "I hope you know what to expect."

From beside him, Leo did exactly that, his eyes still locked on the book as he tore the paper from his bag. The paper of the essay was ripped and torn, but Elliot could tell with only one glance that the quality of the work was nothing short of outstanding.

But, for now, he decided it was better off leaving him undisturbed. And if he had no choice but to spend every lesson with him?

Well then, he might as well try getting along with the other.