The last few weeks had been hell for Leonora Lesso. There was more paperwork than ever before. This was partially her fault, but that didn't make it suck any less. Every year she trained her students twice as hard as she did the year before. And last year it almost paid off.

Her Student Dollie, whom she had taught from her first year, had had her nemesis thrown off a cliff. But the Ever hadn't died, due to being saved by her animal friends. Then she proceeded to punish Dollie by killing her with slow poison.

Leonora had had such high hopes for her favorite Neverstudent. But no, she had failed like all the others.

The important thing was that she had learned from this. If she worked twice as hard, if her students worked twice as hard as they did last year, they would have to win. It only made sense.

So that she did. There were times she'd work from dusk till dawn, only to catch an hour of sleep before classes started. Sometimes she'd fall asleep right after the school day had ended and woke up four hours later to go to dinner. Time slowly started to lose its meaning and the days faded away like they were one.

The things that had notified her of it being Friday were the meetings with Clarissa. It had started a few years ago when Lesso had been lonely and searched her fellow dean up to discuss schoolwork. It slowly became a tradition to talk at least once a week about school and later on just to gossip with a cup of tea and biscuits.

It was odd to her that Dovey hadn't visited her in weeks but neither did she, so she didn't say anything. There was a reputation to uphold and seeming desperate for someone to talk to might ruin it.

Leonora put her wild curls in a bun to stop it from hanging in her face as she graded the essays of the Never that were in their last year. From these essays, she could find the student to focus most of her attention on due to their pure Evilness. Her hopes were high, if she had to be completely honest.

With her brown bifocal glasses on, she started to read.

The first Never, Gareth Thorne, argued that burning their nemesis' house down was the best way to go. His reasoning: it was safe, quick, could potentially kill other heroes and easy. She wrote down What if they're not home? What if they escape? What if you kill another villain's nemesis and they decide to hunt you down?

But this one wasn't the worst by far. Taine Cairns, a Nevergirl that had not reached her full potential, said that paying the hero's sidekick to kill him was smart. It was supposed to be easy, flawless, she would remain blameless and her nemesis would feel betrayed. Leonora wondered how the girl had come this far as she scribbled her feedback down.

This went on for about half an hour, when a new student had walked in and asked her a stupid question. "What if I don't want to be Evil?"

Who didn't want to be Evil? That was the real question. But she didn't say that. No, she snapped "Then you die or become an animal. Now go."

She had never seen a Never run that fast. Leonora did not feel pity for the boy, though. Who would ask such a thing at this hour? Like she had nothing better to do.

She leaned back in her chair for just a minute and looked out of her window. The lights in the Ever castle were still on. All the windows were all the same shape and disgustingly pink but she was able to tell which window belonged to Clarissa. It was the one on the highest floor but not the highest window, that one was of the staircase that led to a dusty attic, and the fifth one to the right.

Leonora had been there so many times. They usually met up there, because the Evers were afraid of her and the Nevers weren't of Dovey. Dovey was always on her toes, when she was in the Never castle. Especially at night when who knew what spooked around.

Loud shouting came from the other side of her door. "CURFEW!" A wolf yelled as he slammed the door with a pole, "CURFEW!"

Students were now not allowed to go outside their dorm and teachers just didn't. Their quarters were next to their offices, and some didn't even have an office, so there was no real reason for them to wander around the school.

Lesso sighed deeply as she focused on her work again.

Zeshan Garner wanted to cook his nemesis in oil and then eat him. Cruel and evil, but the thought of it did make Leonora's stomach turn. Eating your nemesis, that was even too far for her. He wanted to do this because it was an awful death and he would deny others the pleasure of burying their hero.

She wrote down her feedback, mostly on his writing and went on to the next paper.

The next one wasn't a speller. She even wrote her name wrong. This one would end at the bottom of the ratings, the dean thought to herself as she shook her head.

Time flew by and the next thing she knew it was completely dark outside. Even the light in Dovey's room was out. It made Lesso feel a bit lonely again. She was probably the only person awake right now. Again.

Then there was a knock, just as she had bowed over her desk. "Get out." She snapped. She was in no mood for other teachers asking her things, or even worse, children who thought it would be funny to break curfew, knock on her door and then leave as fast as they could.

But then the door opened.

"I said get out." she repeated as she looked up to see the creature that had disturbed her peace.

It was Clarissa.

Her face lit up immediately. It took her a lot of power not to smile like crazy. Leonora blamed her sleep deprivation for this.

So, instead she went for a smug grin. "Well, I hadn't expected you here, princess."

It was almost impossible to notice the pink shade on Dovey's cheeks. But how could Lesso tease her about it, if she had the exact same problem?

"Good evening to you, too."

Leonora watched as the pink painted lips moved and revealed white teeth. She was enchanted with the cheery honey voice, how her lips almost reached her eyes and how she moved her eyebrows and hands as she spoke.
Oh, late at night, she sometimes wondered what else those hands could do. Too often than she would like to admit.

"Why are you here, Clarissa? Because I can't talk right now. As you might've noticed, I am very busy." She sighed in relief, as she wasn't sure she'd be able to speak normally now that they were alone.

"I know." Clarissa nodded, a smile forming on her face, "That's why I'm here. I'm here to help with whatever you're doing."

What? Lesso wasn't sure if she could actually concentrate with her here. But spending time with Clarissa and possibly finishing the endless pile was just too appealing to say no to, normally.

She declined at first, but when Dovey pushed again she was brought back to doubting. And after having discussion with herself, she came to the conclusion that the pros weigh out the cons. Due to that, she agreed.

Clarissa responded something but Leonora couldn't hear it. She was too wrapped up in how to survive tonight.

There were no words leaving her mouth, so she signed her friend to sit at the chair that just appeared.

It wasn't wise for her to come closer. But still she did, because she wanted to. The lump in her throat had gone away and her voice had returned.

Her face was close to Dovey's, too close. "Okay, we can do one together first. To get you on your way." she whispered, proud of the fact that words had finally left her mouth without fucking everything up.

There was a nod as response.

Lesso tried to teach, she really tried. But she messed pretty much every sentence up. It had been years since she could feel Clarissa's breath on her skin and smell the flowery sense that surrounded her.

It was just too much to focus.

Luckily, she noticed that the dean for Good hadn't paid attention. So she tried again. This time with her head under control.

Through the evening, Dovey had muttered things like "How dare they?" or "How on earth does someone come up with this?". It was rather amusing to Lesso to watch and hear her be so horrified by her students. This just had to mean that she had taught them well and it made her somewhat proud.

At around two thirty, the Ever started to yawn and rub her eyes. And Leonora, although she would never admit it, felt somewhat bad for the woman. She was here to help her after all. So, she took two stacks from the pile and hid it. She would find a way to do them the next day.

It took them about half an hour to finish the two remaining classes. The problem was that she didn't want Clarissa to leave. So, when she wanted to leave, Leonora made up some stupid excuse for her not to.
Again, she blamed her exhaustion.

It was not not noticeable how odd the Ever found it that her house wasn't a cave with torturetoys. She had them, just not on display.

The same was with her bedroom.

The cotton candy pink dress, which was horrifying, seemed so much more uncomfortable than her pants and blouse, so Lesso gave Clarissa her the shirt-like dress she wore to bed.

She never ever gave that thing to anyone and might seem meaningless to most of them. But it wasn't to her. That was what she wore when she was taken from Gavaldon.

She was almost fully grown then, so she still fitted it.

And Lesso hated her village with every fiber in her being. There was no future for her there, she had only one friend and the rest hated her and vice versa. But sometimes, when late at night she wondered how it was there now. If the children were still so afraid of being taken, where her friend was and if her sister had overcome her idiotic heartbreak over a stupid boy. Lesso had beaten the boy until he was barely breathing when he broke her sister's heart.

But she gave the thing to Dovey without a second thought.

Taking off the corset was harder than she had expected. First of all, standing without her cane was a bit difficult. It was there to keep her balance, as she could not walk without for longer than a minute or two. So, she leaned on Clarissa's back, trying very hard not to fall over.

Having her cane back in her hand was the sign for her to go to bed. She was so tired that she could sleep for days. There was no point in denying it anymore.

Dovey laid next to her not a minute later. Leonora took pride in the fact that she hadn't fallen asleep yet.
She was just awake enough to mutter a goodnight, before falling asleep.

Leonora had always been a light sleeper, so she was awakened in the middle of the night by a nudge.

Clarissa had rolled over to her side of the bed and the poor thing was shivering like a leaf. Thinking about it, Lesso should've expected it. The Good castle was always warm even at night, unlike the Evil castle.

There were no blankets or anything that could keep Clarissa warmer. So, Leonora pulled the woman in. It would be a pity to find her dead due to hypothermia. She figured she would wake up a bit earlier and let Dovey go. Then she could just move on with her life and pretend this never happened.

So, she waited until the woman was a bit warmer before going back to sleep.

As it turned out, that had been the worst idea she ever had in her entire life. Because Clarissa had woken up before her and had obviously noticed.

"We shall never speak of this." Leonora had said, her voice still husky from sleeping. Dovey simply nodded.
"What time is it?" she asked instead.

Lesso groaned as she moved to look at the clock. "Ten." She pushed her head back into her pillow, not wanting to wake up.

"Oh." Clarissa deadpanned. "This is not good."

"What do you mean?"

"It's ten. Classes start at eight."
That was what woke Leonora up. They had slept through the wolves banging on her door. Well, there went her reputation of being a light sleeper.

"Fuck."

"Could you not curse?"

"Fine." Leonora got out of bed and walked over to Clarissa's side. She had been sitting on the side of the bed. "There is one more thing. How will we get you out of here without anyone noticing?"

"Can I not just walk out the door?" Oh, Dovey was clearly irritated.

"There is a word in this world we call a 'reputation'. And if you walk out of my room with your puffy pink dress, everyone will notice. There will be rumors, meaning your reputation destroyed. And even worse, mine." Leonora took place next to her friend, but kept a decent distance to keep her thoughts and feelings under control.

"How would mine be destroyed?"

"What would parents think, if they heard that you spent the night with a Never? Not to mention, the dean of Evil. Let me tell you, they would go absolutely ballistic."

"True." Clarissa agreed hesitantly.

They sat there in a comforting silence, thinking about a plan. Suddenly, Lesso jumped up, which was not her best idea because she almost fell over. "I have an idea." she announced. "You keep the dress. It comes to your knees, so you won't need to wear pants. Because you wouldn't fit mine, let's be honest."

Clarissa nodded, trying her best to follow the other dean.

"Then you put this on." She went into her closet and emerged with a cloak. One side was black and the other side light pink.
Dovey's eyes widened and asked surprised "You have something pink in your closet?"

"Yeah. I used to sneak into the Good school to cause trouble." Leonora explained as if it was the most normal thing to do in the world.
"Students can't cross the bridge. They would-"

"I know, Clarissa. That's why I didn't do it as a student. Du-huh."

There was a gasp coming from the Good dean's mouth. As if she just realized something important. "So-"

Ignoring Clarissa, Lesso continued. "Anyway, you put the black side out when you walk through the halls and when you cross the bridge you change it to pink. Is it a plan or what?"
"I guess it is some sort of a plan." Dovey hesitated, "And we haven't thought of anything else. Concluding that this is the best we came up with."

"Will you do it, or not?" Leonora deadpanned.

"Fine." Clarissa huffed, "But if somebody notices–"

"It will be completely your fault. Because I am a master at making plans. They only go wrong when others do it wrong."

Dovey rolled her eyes, but didn't argue. She simply put on the cloak and walked towards the door.

Leonora yearned for her not to. To just stay with her all day. But of course that couldn't be. She did walk Dovey out, she was after all a good hostess. For a villain.

Before Clarissa left, she turned to Leonora and kissed her cheek.
The Never who never ever blushed felt her cheeks turning pink. She tried to hide it by pushing Dovey out of the door, whispering a 'don't fuck it up' and then closing the door.

It burned where the lips had just been. She tried ignoring it. A Never wouldn't get so affected by a kiss. But she couldn't help but touch her cheek.

Lesso shook her head and distracted herself by cleaning herself up and putting her waistcoat on. She then hurried to the class she was supposed to be teaching for two hours already.

When she arrived, the children were sitting on the floor in front of the door. They didn't even bother to look up, when Lesso came and opened the door.

She thumped her cane on the ground. "Well, get in." She shouted. The students got up as fast as lightning and basically ran into class.

When all the kids were in their seats a boy had the courage to ask her where she had been. And if he had phrased it better than "Where the hell have you been?", she might've not responded with "Sorry, I was fucking your mom in the cellar. Lost track of time."

Some students snickered but nobody dared to ask any further.

Problem solved.