#also Neige x Rolyat?

[rolyatswonderland]

When you wish Upon a Well

(story under the cut)

It was a calm day on the campus of Night Raven College, but perhaps oddly calm would be a better way to describe it. The nice breeze carried with it a pleasant silence, something rare for the rowdy school since it was always hustling and bustling with some sort of commotion. But Rolyat didn’t mind this new found quietness, she took it all in as she swept the sidewalks of the courtyard. Despite her no longer being the technical ‘janitor’ of the school, she would still help clean up from time to time. Finding the times where she would clean to be oddly calming and therapeutic in a way.

“Fyaaa, I don’t know how you can just sweep all day, I’d die of boredom honestly.” Grim said, sighing as he watched the girl sweep the leaves and dirt off the path, munching down on some fish shaped crackers that she had gotten for him at Sam’s shop.

Rolyat simply glanced at him and chuckled, continuing to sweep, “Well I don’t really mind it. Cleaning up can be nice sometimes” She smiled, sweeping away at the last pile of leaves and pushing them onto the grass. “Hmm, perhaps I should grab the rake next and put all the leaves into a nice little pile.” Rolyat stopped sweeping to observe her work, tapping a finger to her lips as she thought up what else it was she could do, but she could hear Grim groan from his sitting spot on the well.

“Ugh common Roly you’ve been cleaning for like, ever now...can’t you take a break for a second?” He slumped over, his head being held up by his paw as he stared at her, just watching her clean was making him tired, and he wasn’t even doing anything.

“Hmm” Rolyat looked between the scattered leaves and Grim before smiling with defeat “alright, alright, I’ll take a break” She smiled, making her way over to the well as she leaned the broom by a nearby bench. Grim sighed with relief, laying down on the brick edge of the well as Rolyat simply giggled, leaning against the brick’s as she gently patted his stomach, watching his tail swish in enjoyment.

There was always something about the well that felt oddly calming to her, watching the water down below ripple ever so slightly and the nice echoing sounds that came from it filled her with a sense of nostalgia. Resting her chin in her palm she leaned forward, glancing down at Grim who still laid there as if sleeping, her mind began to run with all sorts of thoughts and she felt as though she remembered something. Before she could even think to consider it, the words came falling out of her mouth anyways.

“Hey Grim, wanna know a secret?” Royal poked the cat gently.  Grim opened his bright cyan blue eyes as he stared at the girl curiously. “Promise not to tell?” She held a finger up to her lips with a smile, and that seemed to get more of his attention, Grim loved secrets.

“Yeah yeah! Tell me! What is it?” Grim beamed, sitting up and scooting closer to the girl and nodding his head, eager to listen.

“Well, we are standing by a wishing well~” She sang the words with a smile on her face, and Grim didn’t seem surprised by it as he peered down into the well. “Make a wish into the well, that’s all you have you do, and if you hear it echoing, your wish will soon come true~”

“Whoa, really?” Grim’s eyes sparkled as he looked back up at her with a curious and eager expression. Rolyat simply nodded, mouthing the word ‘watch’ as she pointed down into the well and leaned over slightly.

“I’m wishing~ For the one I love, to find me~ Today~ I’m hopping, and I’m dreaming of the nice things, he’ll say~”

The words echoed back from out of the well, causing Grim to jump back a bit in surprise at just how loud the echo was, but he stared in wonder as Rolyat nudjed him slightly to try for himself. He looked as though he were focusing all his confidence in his words, “I’m wishing, for lots of tuna~! Albacore, Bluefin, and Skipjack!” The expression on his face as he heard his words bounce back out of the well was truly priceless, totally full of wonder and amazement. But that expression was soon replaced with an unsure one as he looked back up at Rolyat.

“Hm?” She looked back down at him curiously, a kind smile still on her face.

“So, how do we know when the wishes will come true?” Rolyat quietly hummed back in response, Grim was far from being a child, at least she thought so, so of course he would question such a silly method of echoed words granting wishes. She tapped her chin in thought before smiling back down at him.

“Well we might just have to wait and see, wishes take time after all, but if we’re patient then hopefully they’ll come true.” She gently patted his head, and this seemed like enough of an answer as he simply grinned back in response.

“Well common! Let’s wish some more so they’ll definitely come true!” He shot back up, fully determined now to make his wish come true as he peered down into the wishing well with absolute focus.

“Haha, alright alright” Rolyat couldn’t help but laugh and agree, singing a few notes into the well and hearing them echo back along with Grim’s own singing. And even if he were off key, she did her best to harmonize with his voice.

As they sang though, a passersby who had been quietly walking through the courtyard, almost sneaking in a way, stopped at the sounds of a gentle singing voice. He was curious to be sure, not simply by the fact that someone was singing, but by the fact it sounded like a girl's voice in an environment he knew very well to be an all boy’s zone.

Carefully he made his way to the source, seeing a figure standing by the well, he smiled as he made his way over. Hearing what he could only assume was the song coming to its end, he decided to make his grand appearance. Rolyat continued to peer into the well, singing the last few words of the song as she watched her reflection in the water below.

“I’m wishing~ for the one I love, to find me~ today~” Rolyat sung.

‘Today~!” Suddenly another voice sang along with her as a new face appeared next to her in the water, causing both she and grim to yelp in surprise.

“Oh-!”

“Fynaa!” Grim toppled over in shock at the sudden voice that appeared, his body falling off the rim of the well and onto the ground. Rolyat seemed just as surprised, glancing down to where Grim had toppled over but had her focus mainly fixated on the stranger that had suddenly appeared.

“Oh I’m awfully sorry, did I frighten you? I didn’t mean to” The young man smiled apologetically, taking off his black sailor cap as he held it close to his chest. He tilted his head curiously as he waited for a response, but Rolyat simply stared back at him in quiet shock.

His appearance was awfully cute, if not a little handsome, with short black hair and brown caramel eyes. Though with the soft appearance of his face, it made his tall stature all the more alarming. He looked almost around Trey’s height if she had to guess, or perhaps a little shorter?

Though it was at this point that she realized that she had probably been staring at his appearance for too long that she forgot to say anything. She felt her face become slightly warm, trying to glance away but she could still feel the boy’s gaze on her, she knew she would have to say something soon.

“O-Oh um, you sort of did yes- but, oh it wasn’t that, it’s just that you’re a- uh-” She seemed to grow perplexed the longer she stared at him before finally finding her words. “-A stranger.”

“A stranger?” The boy blinked his eyes in surprise.

“Mhm” She nodded, shyly humming out a small simple response.

It had been such a long while since anyone could look at his face and call him a ‘stranger.’ Did this girl really not know who he was? But he could see so obviously on her darling little face that there wasn’t a single ounce of a clue. That she truly did not recognize him as Neige Leblanche.

Perhaps it helped that he wasn’t wearing his school’s bright white coat, but instead a simple navy blue pea coat, but her obliviousness brought a bright smile on his face. Thinking to himself that perhaps to today he could play the role of ‘a simple stranger.’

“Ah I see, I’m really sorry for scaring you, I just heard such a pretty voice that I wanted to see who it belonged to.” Neige put on his best princely smile, tilting his head to place his cap back on his head. When he looked back up his eye caught her as her cheeks looked more pink.

“O-Oh I, I see.” She seemed to fidget in place, glancing away from him and trying to look off in some far off direction. He continued to smile though, seeing such a genuine pure reaction out of someone like this was really peculiar. Grim however seemed to watch warily from behind the well, seeing as the boy hadn’t noticed him yet as he had his attention solely on his dorm leader, but there was something about this guy that was rubbing him the wrong way.

“Ah- I see I’ve forgotten to introduce myself, pardon my rudeness but I’m a representative from RSA, I came to see how preparations for the VDC were coming along and seem to have lost my way, haha, I was looking for the gymnasium?” He gave an awkward laugh and an apologetic smile, watching her expression go from shy to surprised at the mere name of his school. White lie’s weren’t all that bad

“Oh- RSA? I see, uhm, right now they’re having a lesson so it might not be best to go in there right now..but I can show you where the teachers office is if you’d like.” She knew full well how the students of Night Raven thought of anyone from Royal Sword Academy, and she knew if she told his boy where to go he might get ripped to shreds for sure, so showing him to where the staff was would be far more safer to him.

“I see, I see, how kind of you!” He smiled, placing a hand on his chest as he sighed with relief Rolyat simply smiled and nodded in response.  ‘Ah what a cute smile too’ Neige thought, but he sensed the coming silence might become awkward so he was quick to say something to keep the conversation going. Putting on an act, he stared at her curiously and leaned in as though he were examining her features. This sudden change made her blink back with confusion as she tilted her head, but he quickly leaned back and lightly pointed at her.

“Oh I see! So you must be the ‘flower in the den of thorns’!” His smile became brighter, seeming proud as if he had solved a mystery.

“P-Pardon?” Rolyat tilted her head at his sudden declaration, the flower in the den of thorns? Did he mean her?

“Ah- Haha sorry, that’s just the nickname some students at RSA have given you is all, you’re actually quite the topic of conversation at my school” He chuckled, hand on his chin as he thought about it. “We didn’t know your name, but given your situation, many of us viewed it like it was like a delicate flower in a den of dangerous prickly thorns.” He glanced back again to see her tilt her head in confusion, like she was still having a hard time processing the situation.

‘People at RSA...talk about me?’ She couldn’t help but feel that it was strange, how did people from that other school even know about her? Maybe it was all those times she ended up having her photo taken, or even perhaps..Chenya? He was the only other person she had meant from RSA so that seemed to be the only logical thing to explain it.

“Oh my- speaking of names, I don’t think I’ve asked you for yours yet have I? My apologies” Now it was his turn to tilt his head, giving her a worried smile like he had made a mistake, but she simply looked flustered as she waved her hands at him. Everytime he smiled she felt something flutter in her chest, perhaps it was his appearance or how kind he was but it almost felt as though she were talking to a fairytale prince.

“N-No no it’s fine! Uhm, my name is-”

“Ooi! Rolyat!” A sudden voice in the distance called out to her, turning her head she could see both Ace and Deuce jogging over to them, but they were still a bit far away.

Neige however felt his eye twitch in annoyance as he kept his smile up, oh dear, there were always people showing up just to get in the way wasn’t there? Even when he had just found someone so interesting, but oh well, he could deal with this for now.

“‘Rolyat’ huh? Well that’s quite the pretty name” Not like he had ever heard that name before or knew what it meant, but it got her attention back on him and got him just the reaction he wanted out of her as her cheeks dusted pink. “Well you can call me..hm '' Neige thought about it for a moment, he didn’t want to out himself as the ‘Neige Leblanche’ so soon, he was having far too much fun as a ‘mysterious stranger.’

“You can just call me ‘Snow’” He smiled, gently taking her hand in his and planting a delicate kiss on her knuckles, causing her whole face to blush a cherry red as she was rendered speechless. “Haha, I hope we get to meet again dear Rolyat” and with that Neige let go, waving goodbye to her as he walked away and behind the pillars of the courtyard, completely out of sight.

Grim sighed, jumping back onto the rim of the well, he crossed his arms as he stared off in the direction where ‘Snow’ left. “Geez that guy sure was weird huh Roly? Eh- Roly?” Grim turned to look at his dorm leader who seemed completely dazed, not even the sounds of Ace and Deuce panting and walking behind her even caught her attention.

“Haa, there you are, seriously, you can ever stay in one place can you?” Ace sighed, hunching over with his hands on his knees in exhaustion after having looked around nearly the whole campus to find her.

“Huh? Rolyat are you okay?” Deuce asked, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder, surprising her with the sudden touch she looked surprised at Deuce.

“E-Eh?” She blinked back at him, totally unaware of what kind of look she had on her.

Ace stood back up as he walked around to see her face, nodding in agreement with Deuce. “Yeah, you're not sick or something are you? Your face is as red as one of Riddle’s tarts” Ace snicked, poking at her cheek in a joking manner.

When she realized just what they were talking about she felt her face grow warmer with embarrassment, turning around and shaking her head as not to look at them. “I-It’s nothing! Let’s just go!” Flustered she began walking off in the direction they came from, causing Ace and Deuce to look at each other in confusion as they simply shrugged their shoulders.

“Grim? Did something happen with Rolyat?” Deuce looked to Grim who had a bothered expression on his face, but Grim just sighed as he jumped onto Ace and hung onto his shoulders.

“Hrmm well, honestly I don’t even know what happened, she just ran into a really weird dude I guess” Grim grumbled. It wasn’t like he had been fully paying attention to whatever she and that guy were saying, he was too bothered by the strange vibe the guy was giving off in the first place.

“Huh? A weird guy? Did he do something to her?” Deuce seemed alarmed, his energy totally starting to shift into his delinquent side at the idea that someone had been messing with their friend. Grim even felt Ace’s energy spike up in alarm as the boy squinted his eyes, but Grim shook his head which got them to calm down a little.

“No, no, gosh calm down you two, I’ll you about it later but if we don’t leave now you two are going to lose sight of her again” Grim pointed out, the duo turning to see that Rolyat was nearly out of sight, causing them to jump in alarm as they began running to catch up with her.

Meanwhile

“Ufufu, how interesting, how very interesting indeed.” Rook, who had seen the whole interaction between Neige Leblanche and the delicate Fleurette, his little nickname for ‘miss Rolyat’, chuckled as he watched the group of first year’s leave the courtyard. It was not like he had been purprosely spying on them in the first place, it was all happenstance, just a simple beautiful coincidence that he had been resting in a tree in the courtyard and heard the girl’s singing voice which in turn drew in his dorm leader’s rival.

Rook hopped down from the tree, dusting off his uniform as he looked around the area before feeling a pair of eyes watching him. He looked up towards a window and smiled, as though blissfully unaware of the expression they wore, at the sight of Vil who was glaring down at him.

Vil’s angered expression glanced to watch the troublesome troupe of potatoes leave before he focused his attention solely on his vice dorm head. He knew Rook had surely heard all that had transpired down by the well, and he knew he would likely have to interrogate Rook about the matter. Vil was sure Rook would ask him some ridiculous question, maybe even throwing the word ‘jealousy’ in there.

No he was not ‘jealous’, what an ugly word. He was not jealous over that distasteful scene of affection he had witnessed from high above, he was not jealous at how that snow white brat just waltzed in and charmed that oblivious potato and even went as far as to kiss her hand.

No he was angered by the mere fact that his rival had the gaul to show up to his school, on his territory, unannounced like that, and just walked around like he owned the place, like he already won. ‘How repulsive, so utterly ugly and repulsive’ Vil’s thoughts swirled with utter disdain.

He turned away from the window, making his way down the hallway with an expression that made others feel as though hell had erupted. He was Vil Schoenheit, he was far above such childish and unsightly feelings like jealousy. But just even recalling the sight of her smiling so brightly at his rival had him grit his teeth in irritation.

“To think I’d allow myself to become so frustrated over something so ridiculous” He huffed, storming down the hallway and not paying any other student and heed.

“Ah, hi Vil-! E-Eh?” Think of the devil and they shall appear, the moment he heard her voice and caught sight of her oblivious sime did he force himself not to look at her, the irritating thumping in his chest grew louder, only continuing down the hallway and leaving the first years confused.

“Haah? What’s his deal?” Ace muttered on his breath as he raised an eyebrow, his eyes staring off in the direction that the Pomfiore leader had stomped off to.

“I’m not sure, but I hope whatever it is that’s put Vil in a bad mood won’t have any effect on our dance practice” Deuce sighed back, still feeling the soreness in his shoulders and calves.  

“I wonder if something bad happened..he looked really mad” Rolyat stared worriedly at Vil’s back the further he went down the hallway. Her friends just shrugged it off and ushered her to hurry on down the hallway.

Nodding she followed them, not even noticing that the moment she turned around Vil stopped in his tracks to glance back at her fleeting form. He felt that bothersome feeling in his chest but quickly shook his head in disgust and stalked off, muttering under his breath.

“Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous.”