A Queen and Her Kings

The Patriarch and The Rivalry of the Spade and the Ace

The first few minutes that the group spent making their way down the corridor were spent in silence, save for the chatter of students on similar journeys. For Cassandra, her Court, and Grim, it was a comfortable one. For Deuce, it was one of the most awkward walks of his life.

It wasn't until they came to the first of four flights of stairs that would lead to their History of Magic class that Yue, of all people, abruptly broke the silence with a sigh, and turned back slightly to face the navy haired boy as they climbed.

"For the love of God, could you stop acting like we're going to eat you? We don't bite... much.", he said, starting out with an exasperated tone before drifting into a much slyer one, a grin appearing on his face, giving Deuce a glimpse of what might have been canines much sharper than they should have been for a human. Deuce gulped a bit before responding.

"I'm sorry...", he trailed off as he looked down. Not even halfway through his first day and he had already irritated his only... friends? Acquaintances? Whatever the case, things weren't going well.

The eldest of the group, Griffin, if he remembered right, jogged up the stairs at a surprisingly fast pace until he was right beside Deuce. He grinned brightly and started to speak.

"Don't pay any mind to Yue. He's just jealous because he hasn't gotten his daily dose of being the center of attention. He acts like this a lot, though, so you'll have to get used to him being salty 24/7.", the man said. His voice was surprisingly gentle and soft for someone of his athletic seeming disposition.

Yue, meanwhile, had growled at him in a manner not unlike the way an angry teenage girl would and had begun stomping up the stairs at an even faster pace. He only stopped when Cassandra grabbed him gently by the arm and told him Griffin was just messing around and didn't mean it with a smile. Immediately, the boy with the ponytail held by an odd looking red hair tie deflated and regained his neutral expression. The only difference between the way he looked now and how he looked before he started talking was that Cassandra had laced her fingers with his. Deuce wrote this off as nothing of consequence. Girls could be touchy with their friends, right? He had seen girls do that with their friends at his old middle school, granted most of them were girls too. But Yue acted enough like a girl from what little the ex-delinquent had seen of him, so they were probably just good friends. Not thinking there was any other possible meaning behind their joined hands, Deuce forgot about it and refocused on his and Griffin's budding conversation.

"Why will I have to get used to it?", the Heartslabyul student asked.

Not even a second after he said that, Shorter, who Deuce had sworn was just a few steps behind Cassandra a minute ago, had swung his arm around his shoulders.

"Because you're one of us now, dumbass! You're in the Court!"

Deuce blinked at that. He had heard them coin the term at the entrance ceremony, but didn't really know what it meant to them., "Court? What do you mean by that?"

Again, another one of Deuce's... friends? Friends. Had somehow managed to get right beside him. Ash was much quieter than Shorter, however, and was only noticed when he began to speak, causing the first year to jump and nearly start spewing curses. At this point, the wide staircase was starting to get a little cramped with the four of them all walking in time. It was a miracle there wasn't anyone going down anymore, so they weren't blocking their path.

"The Court is short for The Court of Miracles. It's the name of our... friend group, so to speak. We call it the Court because, at the end of the day, we all serve Cassandra. Like knights with their king."

Deuce blinked and remained silent as he tried to understand what 'we all serve her' meant. Ash took this as a sign to continue.

"The Miracle part is because-", and just like that, the green eyed man was cut off.