Milo frowned as he used his magic to turn his page back. He’d gotten sidetracked in his focus and by the time he’d noticed his mind was elsewhere, he was on the wrong page. The library was a nice place for him to read and study, but surprisingly he didn’t study there very often. He preferred studying in his own room where he’d filled his floor-to-ceiling bookshelves with his own reliquary that he’d built up over the years. The majority weren’t rare books on sorcery, but there were a few that he’d been gifted or bought on sight when he saw them in a used book stall in the market. One he’d even bought before he realized it was rare, even after all of his experience and studying in sorcery.
“Ugh, finally!” Sirena complained loudly, slumping into the chair next to Milo loudly. He had the urge to shush her and tell her she was too loud for the public study area of the library, but he knew from experience that wouldn’t do any good, and in fact would only make things worse when she pitched a fit. “I’m sorry I missed our date, baby.” She apologized in a projecting voice, seemingly more for herself (and the other library guests for some reason) than for Milo. He’d asked her not to use pet names like baby with him at the beginning of their relationship, but it’d fallen on deaf ears. “I wanted to be there; I really did!” she shook him by his shoulders, causing Milo to lose his place again. “I missed you badly, baby…”
Milo looked at her with a cheerful expression cultivated from his years of being dragged to political dinners. “Hey, I forget,” He said at the acceptable library volume. “What did you have to do again?”
“Ugh, some stupid project with Jake for AP Arcan History.” Sirena answered, showing her distaste for the class outwardly and loudly.
“That’s weird; Teophania mentioned you guys haven’t gotten any projects in that class yet.” Milo said passively, going back to find his place in his book so he could properly mark it.
“It was last minute, and besides: that vampire girl doesn’t do any of the homework anyway.” Sirena dismissed. Milo got a bad feeling from that. Something deep down in the pit of his stomach told him something about that wasn’t adding up.
Milo made a show of jolting when he looked at the library’s clock. “Oh! I’m almost late; I made study plans so I should get going. See you!” Milo said cheerfully as he packed his things with lightning speed and started for the door.
Sometimes, he really appreciated being able to use magic.
“See you!” Sirena called, waving dismissively. Milo quickly made his way out of the library and down the hall towards the exit.
Milo sighed a little. In truth, he really just wanted to be away from Sirena right then. Though it sounded rude in his mind to say the least, the bad feeling from her explanation of her project was the least of it. It felt like she was hiding something. Everything about her demeanor today was giving him a bad feeling, and it only got worse as things piled on, making Milo want to just… get away. He still had a little time before he was due to meet up with Hati though.
Maybe he’d just read at the fountain in peace, Milo mused. He looked up though, and stopped in surprise a bit. Hati was already sitting on the lip of the fountain, looking at the coins under the water curiously. However, before Milo could even call out to him before closing the ten yards of a gap, Hati turned to see him, smiling brightly as he waved. Milo started walking up. “Milo! Hi!” He said cheerfully. “What brings you here so early?”
“Nothing too notable.” Milo said cheerfully. “What brings you?”
“Ah, I just decided to wait here for a bit after my hike so I could enjoy the sunlight a little.” Hati explained with a sheepish grin.
Milo smiled down at him– Milo was tall compared to most people, meaning he towered over Hati. “Well, since we’re both here, Do you want to start your study session early?”
“Sure!” Hati beamed excitedly.
“Alright, then.” Milo hummed, turning towards the dormitory wing. “My dorm’s this way.”
Hati walked with him for a couple minutes before he looked at Milo with a concerned expression and spoke up. “Is something going on? You’re upset about something.”
Milo chuckled awkwardly. “Is it that obvious?”
“Not to humans, no.” Hati said simply, as if that was a common answer for him.
Milo let the confusing answer go. “Um… what kind of person is Teophania?”
“Tiff? Oh, well…” Hati paused for a moment as he thought about how to word his response. “She’s the most responsible out of all of us. We do homework together a lot when we don’t have other plans to stay motivated. She’s always been meticulous and reliable the whole time I’ve known her. She even used to tutor me when I was younger on Arcan.” Hati answered calmly as they entered the dormitory hall and the stairwell. “Why?”
Milo paused for a minute as he decided what he wanted to say. “... I have a feeling that someone’s hiding something from me, which is fine, and everyone deserves to have a privacy, but instead of them telling me it’s a personal thing or something, they’re lying to me about it and it’s making me uncomfortable.” He said finally as they continued up the stairs. “When I picked into something they lied about, they deflected by insulting Teophania.”
“Oh. that sucks.” Hati said. “It hurts when stuff like that happens, so I understand feeling uneasy over it. I’m always here if you need to talk about it.”
“Thanks, Hati.” Milo said as they rounded off the top of the stairway and started down the short hall on the top floor.
“Of course!” Hati beamed, clearly happy he could help.
“Anyway,” Milo hummed, changing the subject as they reached the large oak doors, intricate designs carved into the thick wooden slabs. “Here’s my room.” He said, pushing the door open after he used his magic to unlock it. “Make yourself at home.”
Hati gaped, staring wide-eyed at the vaulted ceiling and opulent furniture. “Woah!” he breathed. “This is so cool!”
Milo chuckled a little self-consciously. Sometimes he forgot that the level of opulence he grew up with was leagues different from what others were used to. It wasn’t something very important to him– Sure, it was nice, and having money was pretty convenient—but Milo could and had lived without it. “Thank you.” He said cheerfully.
“Your bed is like a little island!” Hati said in fascination, gesturing to the bed draped with a silken canopy to decorate the headboard. Milo had asked them to at least forgo that, but the palace staff that moved his belongings and decorated his room had done it anyway.
“You can sit on it if you want.” Milo told him.
“No, I don’t want to be rude, it’s okay.” Hati answered immediately.
Milo was going to assure him that it was okay, but he had a feeling that Hati wouldn’t budge on this. “So… How do you want to go about this?” Milo asked, gesturing to the table and pulling out one of the padded chairs for his new friend before sitting across from him.
“Well…” Hati thought for a minute on how to word things before he spoke up. “I think it's best to start with werewolves as a whole. Also, feel free to ask me anything you're curious about during these study sessions! I don't mind at all as long as you're asking it to learn, so don't worry about being offensive or anything.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” Milo said with a smile. “Thank you!”
“Of course!” Hati beamed. “Let’s get started, shall we?”
“Sure.” Milo confirmed. “Whenever you’re ready.”
“A lot of people believe that werewolves are two separate beings in the same body. Like two lengths of string tangled in a knot. In truth, that isn't the case. It's more like a singular string dyed in two different colors. If a werewolves soul were a part of the string, it'd be the area of string where the two colors are blended. Sticking to the color analogy, the side that would be considered "werewolf" would be the color red. Since humans technically count as animals, that side would probably be a light pink color. The gradient would be where werewolves reside.
Depending on the genus, where on that gradient a werewolf would be would shift lighter or darker. Though, that's a topic for a poster date. Point is, a lot of people in Arca think werewolves are like two separate people in one body, but really we're more mixed into a whole singular being.”
“That's really interesting! I actually never really thought about that.” Milo said cheerfully, a question popping into his head as he did so. “You know, Atlas mentioned the other day that you have another human form other than this one…?”
“Oh!” Hati said, perking up a little as he recognized the subject matter but didn’t quite expect it. “Yeah, I do. Normally when werewolves are in their human form they keep their ears and tail.”
“That’s so cool!” Milo said, visibly interested. Shapeshifting magic was hard for sorcerers, and the potions to successfully achieve it were tetchy and took much longer than Milo found worth it, not to mention that even a tiny difference in the purity of ingredients could make what the person who took the potion shifted into drastically different than the target. From too many legs to a completely different animal than desired. Of course, Milo could do it and had done it to prove he was ready to finish his training years earlier than average, but he by no means enjoyed shapeshifting magic. That is, when he was the one performing it. “May I see?”
“Sure!” Hati said cheerfully, before being engulfed in a puff of purple smoke. The smoke faded fairly quickly and Hati waved it away from his face with a hand, now adorned with sharp, pointed fingernails. His ears as Milo knew them had disappeared, instead replaced by a pair of pointed ears near the top of his head, covered in fur a similar shade to his hair. “Turning looks different from this though. Less smoke, thankfully.”
Milo couldn’t help but stare. It wasn’t that it was too different for him or anything. It was just a little… surprising, for lack of a better word. This form seemed to fit Hati so well. Even the tattoo-like marks on hati’s cheeks—three lines radiating outward under his eyes—seemed more in place than they usually did. Hati was incredibly cute like this too. In Milo’s eyes he looked cuter than every puppy he’d ever seen combined. Milo felt his face heat up, but tried to keep his blush at an acceptable level. Hati’s expression turned a little nervous though. “Is… something wrong?”
“Oh!” Milo realized he was staring then and gave a reassuring, mildly apologetic smile. “Nothing’s wrong, I apologize for staring. I just… didn’t expect it to suit you so well.”
Hati laughed as if he were flattered. “Don’t worry, I don’t mind. Thanks! What else would you like to know?”
Things continued as usual after that day, though now Milo had added the extra appointment of Hati tutoring him about werewolves at the end of his day. While Milo would’ve thought that adding an extra task to his daily schedule would have added more stress, but in actuality the response was the opposite. Getting to see his friend and learn more about him every day helped him to decompress, and it helped even more that Hati didn’t seem to have any sense of judgment when Milo didn’t immediately understand a grouped concept that needed to be simplified for him due to his starting from the ground up in the subject. Hati just seemed happy to be around him. They’d gotten exponentially closer in the week they’d kept the routine; an unexpected, yet not unwelcome side effect of the tutoring class.
Hati yawned as Milo pushed open his door, inadvertently showing off his sharper-than-humans canines and molars. Milo suddenly noticed the bags under his eyes. “I’m a little tired today.” Hati admitted on the tail-end of his yawn, looking up at Milo with his eyes still a little teared up. “Do you mind if I nap today instead?”
“No, go ahead, I don’t mind at all.” Milo said, watching with a mildly amused expression as his friend tottered into the room and curled up into a ball on his rug, closing his eyes. Milo raised a brow, using magic to close his door. “You can sleep on my bed, you know.” He reminded.
“No, ’m fine here.” Hati murmured in a sleepy tone, refusing to move or open his eyes.
Vmm! Milo looked down at the ring on his left middle finger. Sirena had hounded him months ago for a way to send instant messages to Milo instead of just sending letters like an average human. Milo had eventually caved and enchanted a necklace for Sirena and a ring for him so Sirena would stop complaining non-stop about it. He tapped the ring twice, the magic in the ring creating glowing letters and words in the air above his hand.
I have to cancel our date tomorrow, sweetheart, sorry </3. Jake and I got roped into helping the professor with an example for ap arcan history. Raincheck?
Milo sent a reply back. Of course :). Remember not to work yourself too hard!
Ugh, I won't even have time to get coffee tomorrow:`(
Aw, that sucks. Milo responded, tapping the ring twice again before lowering his hand and looking over to the curled-up ball of sleep he knew to be his friend. “Hati, do you mind meeting me at my dorm tomorrow? I’m thinking of bringing Sirena some coffee after class tomorrow.”
“Nah, I don’t mind,” Hati said drowsily, seemingly barely awake.
Milo chuckled softly to himself at his friend’s antics.
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