Chapter Text
“Aren’t they the Mutt pair?” Even in the academy hallways it was difficult to ignore the whispers. Wearing matching collars, the only difference being that Aqua’s was dark brown leather with ‘Terra’ etched into a gold coin while Terra’s was dark blue with ‘Aqua’ on a silver, both dangling lightly in the hollow of their throats, did nothing to hide the fact that they were an unusual pair. But Aqua wouldn’t do anything to hide the proof of their bond no matter what others said.
Witch familiar pairings were beyond common. Being romantically or sexually involved wasn’t even something worth a second glance; several forms of magic could require the ritual of intimacy and some witches practiced sex with their familiars as the main way to deal with focus fever and necessary bonding maintenance. The line was drawn at having a child together. Mixed children like Terra and Aqua were lesser beings to both sets, and even non-magic humans turned their noses up when they realized what they were. Despite having all the rights of a full-citizen, rights that full-familiars didn’t enjoy, their more magical-brethren considered them near abominations at worst, and pitiful at best.
Witches were by far the worst. With the way halflings' magic worked so differently from full-witches, the different variables and ingredients, minute to massive changes in amounts of magic needed varying seemingly at random by spell type and caste. It angered them. They couldn’t teach them the same way, and felt their efforts, time and ingredients were wasted. That ‘halfers’ were a waste. “Why do they even let those disgusting creatures in this place anyways?” Terra’s flinch at her side had her walking subtlety closer as they tried to pretend they couldn’t hear. Just keep walking normally...paying attention to them would just make the situation worse. They’d learned that quickly as children, as all hybrids tended to. As all different children tended to.
She’d been immensely grateful that they’d met so young, life may very well have been unbearable without Terra by her side. It had been her second year at the academy, and his third. He was the year above her though they were in the same class now. Bonded pair privilege and all. They’d recognized the other’s energy before their eyes had even met, and started to sit next to each other to eat lunch. It had taken less than a week for them to attempt to work together, when Aqua noticed Terra was having trouble with a touch of Focus Fever. She was pushing it on dodging clinic appointments and risking a Geostigma outbreak at the time. Nothing had ever felt so natural, so right, as working with another hybrid. They didn’t even bother to notify anyone about bonding until the day after they did it, despite the school’s regulations.
Pointing out that the wording in the school rules specified ‘Witch’ and ‘Familiar’, and didn’t apply to either of them because they were both and neither hadn’t won them any points...but it did keep them from getting into trouble somehow. That, and since nothing had gone wrong ‘Unlike with a certain firebird and his puppies’, they didn’t really care. Not really caring was often the best they could hope for from a lot of society.
And now that they were partners, neither had to go to the clinics anymore. Supposedly there wasn’t supposed to be any discrimination there, as ferals, unbonded, and hybrids all needed help with Focus Fever and Geostigma...but all the groups had their own issues with each other, and it could get messy sometimes, even though medically they all needed the help. One more reason hybrids were ‘allowed’ at schools now, even though they’d never been ‘banned’, per say. The flexibility to either bond or be bonded should have at least in theory made them more valuable to their classmates.
Even in one on one work and group projects, others had been reluctant to work with Aqua. Terra said there had been a pair of upperclassmen who hadn’t minded working with him too much, but it more seemed like it had to do with them being interested in hybrids for nefarious purposes then because of any kindness. He hadn’t wanted to say much more about it, but she’d noticed the way those silver-haired boys looked a little too interested in them. There was also an unbonded boy in the year below them who was nice, she couldn’t quite recall his name but he had brown spiky hair and kind blue eyes. He always greeted them with a smile and a wave, his intentions honest and pure.
It was unsettling in the least threatening way. He had reminded Aqua of the only other hybrid they’d met at the school, a girl several years older with dual-colored blue and green eyes and no partner. She’d been kind to Aqua when she was in the lower grades of the academy, alone and scared. And unlike the others, the adults who lied and told her it would “Get easier”, “Get better” or worst of all “Just stand up for yourself.”, she’d looked her in the eye and said “It gets less hard.” while smoothing back her hair smiling a gentle smile and wiping her tears away. If the gap between their ages hadn’t been so large, she might have tried to partner with her, despite having not presented yet herself.
Neither she nor Terra had seen Yuna in years, she’d graduated a while ago, but she’d always had a kind word for them, always been smiling and waved when their paths did occasionally cross. She’d been the one to convince them that not all witches were awful, and introduced them to her little brother, Hayner. He was a year below them, but was always sticking up for them, and reminding them that they belonged here just as much as anyone else. It made it easier to stay, to not hate all of them. To keep working towards graduation.
Wednesday morning had them in two back to back lectures before a break for lunch, followed by a weekly counseling session mandated for bonded pairs coupled with career counseling before afternoon extracurricular classes. They had all but one of the same classes; Aqua had opted for a dance course for her physical credit, while Terra was taking his fifth year of Judo. It was one of the only times they spent apart since they were now sharing a dorm room. It wasn’t required, but they had both signed on for it, rather than be paired up with some stranger or have to pay the added tuition for a single room.
A new term meant new classmates. There were mostly no new faces, but that didn’t mean they knew everyone’s name by a long shot. No need to remember when you weren’t ‘really a person’ to most of them. This part of the meet and greet was always her least favorite.
“My name is Aqua. I’m dual-bonded with Terra-” Someone was already trying to interrupt to ask about that. How had they gotten to this point in their education and still not learned about hybrids? ‘-and my familiar form is a Fossa.” Deadpan looks. “...its similar to a mongoose.” More stares. “...a land-otter.” A few nods. Ugh. She slid into her animal form to demonstrate, deciding against changing back since several other students hadn’t bothered. They’d set a precedence, she’d just...climb up Terra and sit across his shoulders.
He crossed his arms and stared down at some of the shorter students “I’m Terra, Aqua’s dual-bonded partner- it means we’re hybrids, do your homework. I’m a jaguar, and if you don’t know what that is it’s a big fuck-off cat you shouldn’t piss off found mostly in jungles and some forests. I like Judo and mochi.” He sat down at their assigned desk and Aqua couldn’t help but think he’d done a much better job with introducing himself, even if he’d lost his temper a little bit. The usual questions came once the class started the mingling part of the first day of term.
“So, if you're both, why do you need a partner?”
“Can’t you just use your own magic for your Geostigma?”
“Aren’t you worried about bonding so young?”
And the less polite ones, just as usual.
“So, are you two...dating?”
“Since you’re both both, do both of you die if you sever the bond, or neither of you?”
“What do your parents think?”
Class really couldn’t end soon enough. It was beyond rude and invasive and while she felt increasingly guilty being in a form that couldn’t talk back, she also knew that her temper was more likely to land them in hot water. Terra was a quiet rage, and his glares chased most people off...she’d probably cause a small scene. Not something either of them really wanted to deal with the aftermath of.
Terra pulled an orange out of his bag for her in the break between classes, her favorite. “Maybe we should have skipped after all. Remember the year we did? Thought they were gonna kick us out, they made such a fuss.” They probably wouldn’t have, but it had been a good enough scolding to discourage them from doing it again. As bad as things could be at school, they both knew it was worse for unlicensed witches. They’d have a hard enough time finding work, convincing people they were ‘real witches’ even with the proper paperwork, they couldn’t risk not graduating from the academy.
“We’ll plan a really good end-of-term prank for the winners of the asshole award this year.” A small game they’d come up with. Probably not the most mature way to handle the situation, but it kept them laughing about it, and it was mostly non-violent...no one would ever get seriously hurt, they made sure of that much at least.
They’d only been caught once. And the teacher had smiled and looked the other way, muttering something about how the ‘Little asswipe deserved it.’ Apparently the ‘Almacy Boy’ had an entire drawer, his file was so full. Someone had changed the label on it to Problem Child, much to Jiminy’s chagrin.
“You wanna watch a movie tonight? Something really, really bad? Like, ‘ The Room’ bad?” She thumped her tail against him once to say yes. Bad movie night sounded perfect. Maybe a bath too. Half a day down, fifty-two to go, and just one more year after this year was over. Then they could find a place where they really belonged. Maybe she’d ask Hayner what Yuna had been up to.