✧24. Tyranny. ✧

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The sunlight seeping through Ramshackle lounges' tattered curtains woke you up the next morning. As your eyes softly fluttered open, you took in the gentle scent of jasmine. Your arms were wrapped around someone else's. You correctly assumed it was Deuce's arm. Sometime during your sleep, perhaps due to your dream about Serafina, you had wrapped your arms around Deuce's left arm and was cuddling it. You should've slept on the end, maybe this wouldn't have happened then. Your mattresses were positioned in a line, in order of Yuu, yourself, Deuce, and Ace.

This did not go unnoticed by Deuce, frozen in place, his face bright red. It was like when an animal decides to sit on your lap, you simply can not move for fear of disturbing their rest and being deemed unworthy.

Internally, you deadpanned. If this kind of thing happens again, you're gonna cry. (not really, but you felt dramatic) You let go of Deuce's arm as you sat up, rubbing your eyes and yawning. Your eyes shifted down to your wrinkled uniform, frowning slightly. You really shouldn't have slept in this, but Yuu absolutely insisted that you should keep your clothes on. You looked over at your other friends, Yuu looked restless like he was dreaming, Deuce's eyes were tightly shut and his face was bright red, and Ace was starfished out on his mattress, taking up as much space as he possibly could.

You stretched out your limbs before standing up, sneaking up the creaky stairs as quietly as you could. You quickly completed your morning routine, attempting to tidy up your uniform. Initially, all you planned to do in the bathroom was brush your teeth, but you got caught staring at yourself in the mirror.

You'd locked eyes with yourself, internally noting how weird you felt your new appearance was. It's so weird to suddenly... be a human. You miss your scales and you miss taking in water instead of air. A knocking on the door ripped you away from your thoughts. You glanced back at the mirror before rushing out of the bathroom and down the stairs.

Yuu, Deuce, and Ace had all woken up. They'd gotten ready for the day while you were upstairs. Yuu had already answered the door and your new guest had let himself in. "Good mooorning! Did you all enjoy your sleepover? Did you bond over pillow fights and card games?" Cater's energetic tone rang through Ramshackle's thin walls. You let out a gentle "Morningg." As you walked into the kitchen. "Oh, good morning, Cater. We did play some cards, yeah." Ace answered from the lounge couch. "But only Old Maid, 'cause that was the only one Grim knew how to play."

Grim crossed his arms and pouted. "And I still got the old maid every time, dang it!" You took out some leftover food from the fridge. "I mopped the floor with them~" You practically sang out. "Let's just say Grim doesn't have a very good poker face." Deuce added. "Well, you should get one of the tarts we made yesterday and go apologize to Riddle." Cater propped a hand upon his hip. "And you should probably hurry because after the trouble yesterday, we're a little short-handed."

You raised an eyebrow at this. "Trouble?" Ace was as confused as you. "What does that mean?" Cater just gave you all a smile. "Don't worry. I've totes got it under control. Anyway, off to the party we go!"

You'd all arrived at the party, though on the way, you'd found an irritating way to entertain yourself that involved you gently yanking the collar around Ace's neck. Ace was not happy and it almost escalated if not for Yuu's amazing ability to de-escalate situations. 

"All right, so I'll hand over the tart and say I'm sorry, then-" Ace had begun to make a gameplan but was interrupted by... another Cater? This time in a gym uniform. "Hey, it's about time I got back! Good to see me!" Cater pat Cater on the back. You looked between the original Cater and the imposter Cater. "And me! Looking good as always, me!" The original Cater smiled at imposter Cater. You could feel your brain melting with how confused you were. The rest of the boys were as shocked and/or confused as you.

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