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It was an average school day, if your definition of average involved watching people train with swords, axes, lances, and even magic.
Which is why the purple haired boy running along the school roof wasn’t the weirdest thing, especially with the reputation this mage had.
Rui in one word was strange, always doing seemingly risky things you think any spell caster would never even dare to do, but somehow always pulled it off.
Jumping off from the roof onto another, before hanging off the edge Rui really just found to be part of a daily routine. Something which his friend rather wishes he didn’t do.
Which, speaking of his friend, ended up face to face with the mage.
Rui literally just leaned off of the edge right before his friend was there, so the poor man almost fell back out of shock.
His friend was no other Tsukasa, the young prince of a rather important kingdom of these lands. He was intelligent, graceful, and quite skilled in combat.
Which is why the mage found so much joy in being able to so easily scare and fluster him.
“Rui! What are you doing up there?” Tsukasa did manage to not fall, but wasn’t pleased with his friend's little stunt. Rui did notice though that he had books and a few papers in his arms. That was no fun.
So of course what Rui did was flip off the edge, again scaring the prince, before taking his papers with a small smirk.
“Oh come on, Lord Tsukasa! Today is the day of the ball, all homework is postponed for at least a few days!” Tsukasa pouted at Rui, before suddenly smiling and grabbing his hand.
“Well then! The ball is coming soon so we must get ready!” Tsukasa grabbed Rui’s hand, starting to pull him to his room. The poor mage was caught off guard, not able to get out of the prince’s hold.
“W-we?” Rui barely stuttered that out, still getting dragged by his friend. “What do you mean we?”
“It’s for the whole school! You do go here!” Rui wasn’t sure how to fight back against this, but as he figured it out Tsukasa cut him off. “You always skip out on balls I know, but you’re coming for at least a bit of this one, and so it’s my duty to dress you for the part!”
And that’s how Rui was here, getting a ribbon tied around the shirt collar he somehow was forced into.
The outfit was way more fancy than he’s ever worn, but Tsukasa seemed so proud of his work. Which… is good since Tsukasa saw Rui shirtless and Rui totally hadn’t been crushing on his friend for the longest time.
“And done! Alright it’s time to go to the ball!” Tsukasa had a bright smile, making Rui end up smiling back. “Well follow me!”
~
Yeah. In the end Rui ended up sneaking out of the ball, which wasn’t too much of a surprise.
He was fairly attractive, sure, but could only take so many dances before wanting to escape from people.
And so he snuck up to a tower in their monastery, typically called the lovers tower just to get away. Sure, he had to hide occasionally from a couple who were being romantic, but often he was able to sit on a ledge, watching the courtyard below.
Which… was fine until he started noticing something about the people coming out of the ballroom.
There was a lot of stumbling, and laughter. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what happened.
Someone spiked the drinks.
Oh. Shit.
Rui’s never jumped from a ledge to climb down a building so fast.
Quickly running into the ballroom he did notice a bunch of very drunk teenagers, but found his friend rather quick.
And also got to quickly run over to stop his friend from hitting the floor.
“Ruiii!” Tsukasa had a slight slur in his voice, smiling up at Rui. “Hi!~ I missed you.”
“How much have you had to drink my friend?” Rui ended up picking Tsukasa up bridal style, hearing the prince let out a small drunk giggle.
“I only had time to get… 2!” Rui paused, before realizing it was just the fact that his friend was a lightweight, and not that the drinks were that strong.
Rui fell silent, starting to walk back to the tower he was previously at, wanting the quiet there.
Unfortunately, the drunk prince in his arms had different desires.
“Ruiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!” Rui had finally gotten to the ledge he was previously at, sitting down and setting Tsukasa into a more lying position, setting the prince's head onto his lap.
He started to gently play with Tsukasa’s hair, pulling it out of the ponytail it was in.
“Rui, you’re ignoring me, what did I do!” He had a rather childish pout, which made Rui chuckle softly.
“I’m sorry Lord Tsukasa, I simply was in thought. What is it you need from me?” Rui did look down over Tsukasa, seeing the prince’s face light up at that.
“I wanted to know why you brought me here!” Rui’s expression shifted to a confused one, making Tsukasa continue. “Well, typically it’s lovers who come here right? I didn’t know if that’s what you wanted from this place?”
“Lord Tsukasa, I think you lost me at the last sentence, clearly you're a little too drunk.” Tsukasa pouted at that, reaching up to Rui’s collar and pulling the ribbon loose, before Rui was quick to grab his wrist. “Tsukasa.”
“What?” Since Tsukasa was drunk the blush Rui had was lost to him, instead just confused. “You looked uncomfortable, I assumed it was because of the shirt I gave you to wear.”
Rui let out a small sigh of relief, glad he wasn’t going to have to awkwardly stop his friend and crush from trying to do anything he might regret.
“Tsukasa, you need to rest,” The mage ended up seeing the prince yet again pouting, but starting to run his fingers through the younger man’s hair made him drop it. “Come on, you’ll feel better when you do. I’ll stay with you ok?” Rui smiled softly, deciding that since Tsukasa probably wouldn’t remember it in the morning to just gently kiss his forehead. “So rest well my prince, ok?”
There was a pause from Tsukasa, before the prince shifted to sit up and off the ledge, back into the tower.
“It’s safer to sleep inside, not the ledge.” Tsukasa said very matter of factly, getting a smile from Rui. The mage did hop off and sit leaning against the ledge he was on, seeing Tsukasa simply sit by his side and rest his head on Rui’s shoulder.
They fell into a peaceful silence, before Rui ended up feeling Tsukasa’s head fall a bit onto his chest, having finally fallen asleep.
“Good night my prince.” Rui quietly whispered this, kissing Tsukasa’s head one more time. It was going to be a bit of an awkward conversation, but for now Rui was happy to see the young prince happily sleeping, slowly falling asleep as well.
~~~~~
At a very similar time, two girls were currently hiding in the greenhouse together, sharing secrets.
One of these girls happened to be rather good friends with the purple haired boy from earlier, and ended up sneaking out around the same time as him.
Nene was also quite skilled in the ways of magic, but tended to focus more on ritual spells than spontaneous casting. She wasn’t the popular girl of course, but she at least wasn’t seen as weird as her friend was.
Emu, on the other hand, was just as popular as Tsukasa, being a princess. She ended up having a lot of fun dancing that same night, but once people started to get drunk snuck out to find her magical friend.
Emu was quick to realize though, noticing the hidden heels that she saw Nene wearing earlier outside the greenhouse, and happily ran in, tackle hugging the other girl.
Nene wasn’t that surprised, after all since the two got together these sort of surprise attacks happened quite frequently. But Nene smiled softly at Emu, looking down at her.
“So, what took you away from the party?” Nene always was softer with Emu, something the princess noticed but never commented on nor asked her to stop doing.
“Something not nice in the drinks made people all weird!” Emu pouted, nuzzling into her girlfriend with a sigh. “But it’s ok, that let me come find you! I know you don’t love all the noise in there so…” Emu hopped up, holding Nene out a hand. “Come dance with me here! Your princess demands it!”
Nene ended up starting to giggle at that, rolling her eyes but taking the shorter girl’s hand.
“Well if it’s an order I don’t think I’m allowed to decline,” when Emu shook her head no Nene laughed, deciding to take the lead in their less than proper dance. They could still vaguely hear the music from the ballroom of course, so there was something to dance to at least.
“Hehe, you look so pretty in your dress Nene!” Emu ended up pressing a gentle kiss to the other girl's lips, before continuing to compliment her. “Your hair is also really cute! I love seeing you style it like that!”
“Emu…” Nene let out a small sigh, using the chance to spin Emu, to make the princess go quiet and just giggle.
“What??? It’s true!!!” Nene gently shushed Emu, not wanting to give her hiding place away to any drunk people potentially passing by. “Nene is so beautiful! I’m so lucky to be with her!”
Nene ended up blushing, eventually settling to end their dance and just hiding her face in the other girl's shoulder. Emu giggled softly, kissing her head and rubbing her back.
“Well, as your princess I demand one more thing from tonight!” Nene did look up, looking at Emu a little confused. “I demand one more kiss, and then a night to cuddle with you!”
Nene started to laugh at that, giving her girlfriend what she desired.
What she wasn’t expecting was the moment she pressed their lips together for Emu to wrap her arms around Nene’s neck, pulling them into a bit deeper a kiss then planned.
Not expected, but then again not unwelcome. When they did part the poor mage was flustered, as the princess started to laugh and drag her back to the room they often found themselves in together.