"Please!" a female with short dark hair pleaded as she knelt on the ground of a burning island around her, her gaze was on the purple-haired male and the large Kraken in the distance that was destroying the island and city.

"...Sepira..." the purple hair male spoke as he stared at the dark-haired female with what could have been described as a sad and betrayed look in his eyes,

"I...I'm sorry" the dark-haired female pleaded desperately while watching the purple hair male walk closer before he stopped in front of her and knelt down to her height

"... I'm aware" he spoke before all the dark-haired female knew was darkness as she collapsed unconscious.

The next time she awoke, she was on the shore of a nearby beach and she quickly turned to look back before freezing in shock and horror.

The entire island that had once been there...

It was gone...

The whole island...

The city...the island...all of it was gone.

"...a single night..." she whispered to herself in horror as she realised exactly how little time it had taken for the island and city to be destroyed, she felt saddened but also slightly grateful that the purple-haired male had spared her...probably from what little kindness he had left after what she had done.

A banging on the front door of Ramshackle in the early hours had all the occupants startled awake, all three flame users were instantly on high alert as they moved to the front door.

Skull pulled out one of his knives as he snuck to the front door before Tsunami sighed and moved past them and opened the door with a tired look

"Ace, what do you want?" Tsunami asked with a raised eyebrow before the group noticed the collar around Ace's neck and instantly the trio recognised who it belonged to

"...you pissed off your dorm leader didn't you?" Skull sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose while Ace looked kind of sheepish

"...yeah, but all I did was eat a tart!" Ace replied as he tried to explain why it was stupid to be collared just for eating a tart.

The trio looked at each other before they looked at Ace as if the boy was stupid

"did you even consider that the tart was to be used for something?" Tsunami asked Ace bluntly and the red-head blinked before he looked between the trio

"wait...wait are you taking his side?" Ace spluttered in disbelief and the trio of flame users sighed softly

"no, bossu is just suggesting that perhaps you should have asked?" Chrome suggested before Tsunami pinched the bridge of her nose.

"you can sleep on the couch for the night, tomorrow morning before class we'll go to Heartsubly and you will apologise," Tsunami told Ace bluntly who pouted but did agree anyway.

"fine, fine" Ace nodded to agree even if he wasn't exactly thrilled about sleeping on the couch, but he did kinda deserve it considering it was the middle of the night...

"..night then" Ace spoke and the trio nodded before going back up the stairs, Ace felt a shiver go down his spine and he swore he saw ghosts floating near the hallway to the second floor...right...no trying to sneak up then...

Another banging on the front door of Ramshackle is what woke them all up, this time Skull went down and ripped the door open to glare darkly and coldly at who was dumb enough to knock so brazenly on their door so early in the morning.

"Who dares- oh hey Deuce" Skull started to sound threatening until he registered who it was and instantly stopped with the threatening aura.

Which gave Deuce slight whiplash from the sudden change of aura from the cloud standing before him, the first year could have sworn that Skull's purple eyes had glowed almost threateningly.

"...hey Skull" Deuce replied after a few seconds of silence before he cleared his throat

"I apologise for the rude knocking...is Ace here?" Deuce apologised first before getting to the actual reason he was at Ramshackle at the early hour.

"he is" Skull nodded and let Deuce into Ramshackle before gesturing to the main room where Ace was sleeping on the couch...or at least he had been sleeping before Deuce had knocked loudly on the front door.

"I figured you would be here Ace" Deuce spoke up and went over to Ace who was startled and looked up at Deuce

"what are you doing here?!" Ace exclaimed as he stood up and looked at his fellow student who looked at him with a deadpan.

"I came to see if the rumours were true, that you had eaten the dorm leader's tart last night" Deuce explained before he noticed Tsunami, Chrome and Grim coming into the main room of the dorm

"ah...i apologise for the early visit without warning" Deuce apologised as he bowed slightly to Tsunami and Chrome, Tsunami just waved him off as she went to the kitchen to start making coffee for the trio

"you two want any coffee or tea?" Skull raised his eyebrow and both Ace and Deuce blinked.

"...you have coffee and tea?" Ace asked rather shocked and Skull nodded as he crossed his arms

"yeah we do, it was one of the things we did yesterday other than attending classes" Skull shrugged almost as if getting coffee and tea was something important outside of classes,

"we're both blaming that egotistic asshole for corrupting our taste of normal coffee" Tsunami deadpanned as she left the kitchen with the cups of coffee and tea

"bossu' mom corrupted my taste of tea" chrome spoke up with a slight shrug as she set Grim down and picked up her own cup of tea and took a sip before sighing in happiness at the taste that reminded her of Nana's blend of tea.

Ace and Deuce both ended up having a cup of tea each and instantly understood what Chrome meant

"...i don't think I can drink any other tea again..." Ace whispered quietly in shock and Tsunami grinned

"that would be my mama's special blend, don't ask me how she makes it, she has not yet shown me how" the brunette explained while she sipped at her coffee.

"anyway...get dressed and ready, let's go see if you can apologise and get that collar off your neck before the school lessons start for the day" Skull sighed as he ruffled his purple hair and gave Ace a look his actions had deserved.

"...huh...painting the roses red...deja vu anyone?"

.

"ha! this really is looking like that movie indeed"

.

.

.

"you mean he needs to make a new tart?"

.

.

.

"...huh..."

.

.

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"...i think he almost recognised me..."

.

.

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"hey uh...Tsu...why would a fae recognise you?"

Hello everyone!

I am very sorry about the span of time it's been since I last updated...

I had severe writer's block...like seriously any time I tried to add to this chapter I would just keep drawing a blank.

So I am very sorry.

Anyway...as I'm sure you may have guessed, I have added just a tiny little snippet of what will be in the next chapter.

For those curious about the last line...

hehehe...

:3

You'll maybe find out in the next chapter...

Maybe.