“The student council gave Hati a box of chains saying it was for the full moon tonight, and started teasing Hati about it when he got irritated.”

Milo’s eyes widened in surprise and slight anger. “What?”

“Seriously, though, Milo. It’s fine.” Atlas reassured. “I’ll take care of it; I’m watching over Hati today anyway, so I’ve got it.”

Milo didn’t seem to hear that and turned a glowing eyed glare to the student council members. “Go. I’ll deal with you later.” He ordered in a low, calculated, and stern voice. The group was quick to scurry away from the situation. Milo turned to look at Atlas and Hati with an empathetic expression. “I’m sorry about them, that was extremely inappropriate and they’re going to be reprimanded for that.”

“It’s fine; we’re used to it.” Atlas dismissed, raising a brow at Milo’s shocked expression. Apparently, he didn’t know about that.

oops.

“Used to-” Milo cut himself off and shook his head, deciding to himself that that was a conversation for another time. “Can I ask: why are you watching over Hati today? I know werewolves aren’t violent even on full moons, but I don’t understand why he needs a chaperone and I’d like to learn.”

“Normally, He doesn’t.” Atlas explained, looking over at his friend, who he’d let go after the threat had left the area. “But full moons affect werewolves the entire day. At its most basic, they have wolf brain the whole day unless an emergency or something happens. It’s really not dangerous, but I usually hang out with him when he’s not with his pack just in case.” Atlas shrugged. “But since we have to go to classes today, I have to drag him around campus.”

“I see…” Milo said softly, the two of them watching Hati chase after a moth that’d gotten into the building somehow. He cast a concerned glance to Atlas. “Is he even able to focus in class today?”

“I dunno.” Atlas admitted thoughtfully. “I haven’t had class with him yet.” He turned to ask hati, paling before he ran to chase him down. “Hati, don’t eat that moth!” He grabbed his friend by the shoulders. “Hey, can you pay attention in class or not?”

“I don’t want to go to class!” Hati griped. “I want to go look for mushrooms!” 

“Hati, no. We can’t do that right now.” Atlas told him. 

Hati gave him a pleading expression. “But we go every full moon with my pack though!” Hati complained, dragging out his words to express his dissatisfaction.

“No!” Atlas repeated sternly. 

Hati whined, staring pleadingly at his friend with sad, teary eyes again. The look yet again didn’t work on Atlas, who was largely immune from the years of interaction with Hati.

The look, however,  worked on Milo. “I’ll take care of him.”

“Milo!” Hati cheered, suddenly happy to see his friend. “Can we go hiking?”

“Sure!” Milo responded with just as much cheer. 

Atlas frowned uncertainly. “I wouldn’t want to bug you…”

“It’s no trouble,” Milo assured with a crooked smile. “Really.  We’re friends. Besides, they give me the day off for full moon rituals since I’m a fully trained sorcerer.”

“Yeah, but they’re threatening the end of the program if Hati doesn’t make it to all of his classes.”

“Don’t worry, Atlas.” Milo hummed. “I’ll take care of it.”

Atlas sighed as he caved. “Just don’t let him get into trouble. I gotta go to class. Hati,” Atlas looked at his friend. “Stay with Milo, okay? Don’t run off.”

“Okay!” Hati said cheerfully. “Bye, Atlas!”

“I mean it, Hati. This isn’t like back home; you can’t just run off until tomorrow!” Atlas said cheerfully. 

“I won’t!” Hati assured cheerfully. “Don’t worry!”

Atlas frowned to show he was unsure, but nodded and left with a wave. Milo took that moment to speak up cheerfully. “So, let’s get this sorted out at the office, and then we can go look for mushrooms, okay?”

“Yeah!” Hati shouted excitedly, running down the hall toward Headmaster Anderson’s office as he declared: “Let’s go let’s go let’s go!”

…

Milo chuckled as he started walking down the hall after Hati. It was interesting and a little endearing to watch the way Hati would run down the hall to the headmaster’s office, then circle back to where Milo was walking, lighting up when he saw his friend was still coming too and running back to the office, his loops getting smaller and smaller the closer Milo got to Headmaster Anderson’s office. When he actually got there, Hati just bounced on the balls of his feet excitedly.

“Hati, wait here, okay?” Milo suggested, gesturing to the waiting chairs in the hall. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

“Okay.” Hati said with a determined nod. 

Milo knocked first, poking his head into the room to make sure Headmaster Anderson wasn’t in the middle of a meeting. “Headmaster Anderson..?”

“hm?” The older man hummed as he looked up, his face lighting up when he realized who it was. “Oh, Prince Milo! Come in, Hello!”  He said cheerfully. 

“Hi. So, about Hati going to classes…” Milo said getting straight to the point. 

“Yes, yes, I know.” Anderson said in a confident tone. “The Alastair boy tried to make a few excuses but I stood my ground and made sure he’d attend today!” He declared with a proud smile, as i he were expecting to be praised for his initiative. 

Milo didn’t oblige. “Right, well… about that.” he started. “They were trying to warn  you that the full moon affects werewolves the entire day. Hati really isn’t at his full capacity today, and I don’t think he’ll be able to focus, so would it be alright if I took him with me for the day and made sure he’s safe and alright?”  Milo asked with a polite, well-practiced smile.

Headmaster Anderson frowned at him, clearly wanting to disagree and deny the request, but was unable due to the fact he was speaking to a prince with much higher status than his own. Finally though, he caved. “Sure.” He sighed out, a bit of grumbling in his tone.

Milo gave a his diplomatic smile to the headmaster again. “Alright; thank you, Headmaster Anderson. I’ll see you later.” He said cheerfully. Then, he turned on his heel and went into the hall, where Hati was sitting on one of the chairs and swinging his feet absently. He looked at Milo as the door clicked closed behind him. Milo gave him a cheerful, genuine smile. “Ready to go get some mushrooms?”

Hati leapt out of his seat, beaming at his friend. “Yeah!” He exclaimed, racing down the hall again while chanting  let’s go let’s go let’s go as he did so.

----------------

Author Note: The language I use for Hati and his pack’s native tongue is a dead language that I’m new to learning, so there’s bound to be a few mistakes and some sentences won’t be as cool in the language as they should be. I only have one translation dictionary on my phone and it doesn’t have a lot of words I’d like to use. Please don’t be too harsh on those. Thanks!