#i havent finished reading the event past malleus getting angry so if i made a mistake... i didnt write this

[selya711-twiste]

i'll take that, it's mine now

Rollo Flamme x reader You take his handkerchief from him.

ignoring my friend's request so that rollo would be my first post god bless. heads up that all my following works default to gender neutral y/n unless the request says otherwise. yuu is a shithead here btw. maybe some tsundere rollo is ok. is this called pining btw

It's the second day of your trip to the city of flowers. The events that transpired the previous day all feel like a fever dream. You try to recall a scene from the festival, but all of a sudden your memories blur in together with the flickering reds and yellows of those flowers that spread like wildfire. Like an actual fever, you feel like you're overheating from dwelling on these thoughts for too long.

"Are you still listening?" Rollo speaks up a little louder, getting you out of your haze. You nod your head in response, but he's already caught on to your attention being elsewhere. "As I was saying…" He pauses for a moment as your eyes return to him. You sincerely tried to avoid conversations with the other Night Raven students as much as possible until noon. All that effort would go to waste now if Rollo Flamme of all people were to notice.

He was the one behind everything, wasn't he?

You don't have any magic (which is why you assume he's interested in you at all) so there must be some other way to get back at him. A small act done out of spite, something you can do... something to get on his nerves...

Rollo has yet to notice the shift in your expression when he brings out his handkerchief. Your eyes sparkle at the familiar purple cloth adorned with golden celestial shapes. Right before he could carry on with whatever he was talking about to you, your hand darts out and snatches it from him. It didn't even have the chance to touch his lips yet but now you have his handkerchief in your clutches. "I… What?" Rollo stares at you completely dumbfounded, at the sheer audacity-

You send him off with the most mischievous smile you could muster and turn around to flee. The image of his deer-in-the-headlights expression completely burns itself into your mind. You must admit you did this completely on impulse because now you have to deal with the prospect of returning it. Who knows what he could do to you over a handkerchief considering he set the city on fire.

You debate with yourself whether you should turn around or not to check if he's after you. As soon as you do, he's still standing there shocked at what you just did. His hand hasn't even moved from its original position. Your laugh echoes down the hallway as you continue to get away and your heart races with excitement. It's not long before you finally reunite with your schoolmates who ask you where you've been. The handkerchief is tucked neatly into your pocket. You reply innocently that Rollo talked with you for a moment while you were sweating bullets.

You spend the afternoon with your schoolmates and explore what the City of Flowers has to offer past the festival. The whole time, however, you feel holes being bored into your back.

"Hey, you good?" Your good friend Deuce places a hand on your shoulder. Fortunately, his voice was a bit hushed, so you don't have to worry about everyone else worrying over you. You reply as soon as you could but you don't let him know why you were distracted in the first place. Rollo is standing there at the other end of the street with other Noble Bell College students, his sharp gaze locked on yours. A million thoughts race through your head about how this encounter would go. Maybe Rollo will walk over towards you with your friends to ask for his handkerchief back, but that means facing everyone who confronted him the previous night.

Speak of the devil, you thought to yourself when Rollo takes a step forward after excusing himself from his companions. Fortunately, Grim tugs on your pants with his little paw to get you going. Your friends are already leaving to go to another area. Once again, he watches you go with his beloved fabric in your pocket.

Would the others notice that he hasn't brought out his handkerchief since lunch yet?

Just to rub some salt in the wound, you face him one last time to stick your tongue out.

He glares at you like his vein could burst at any moment.

...

You spent much of your afternoon revisiting shopkeepers you met yesterday and finding new stalls that you missed during the festival. Professor Trein passed by at some point to check on your group and was glad to see everyone immersed in the city's culture. You have completely forgotten about the "souvenir" in your pocket. Hours pass until the familiar chime of the Bell of Salvation rings throughout the city.

The sun has already set. The orange-red hue of the sky is gone and drifting into a softer lavender. It won't be long before it's completely dark. It's about to be dinner soon and you have already returned to Noble Bell's campus. The others tell you not to get lost when you slink out of the group to find a restroom.

That soft light seeps through the windows of the hallway. It's exactly at this moment that you remember the item in your pocket as this was where you and Rollo left off earlier. All the other students are clamoring in the main hall and you can hear it from where you're standing.

If it was possible, maybe he could forget about what you did to him today. It's soft in your hand as you take it out and lean against the stone wall.

You've grown accustomed to being seen as beneath all of your peers because of your inability to cast magic. You were mocked and cast aside here and there, and it was only a few months into the academic year when Grim would start defending you.

Rollo was the first one to express concern over your predicament. You remember vividly how you two first met, down to the way the palm of his hand felt when he shook yours... but the chaos that followed not long after ruins the memory a little.

A mage that scorned other mages over the use of magic was definitely new, and you're going to have to add this to your long list of experiences in this world you weren't born in. Compared to the others you have spent most of the academic year with up until this point, you only just met Rollo when everything went downhill in a day. You're curious about the warmth and coldness in your heart happening simultaneously as you thought deeply about him.

Maybe at another time, the crimson flowers never bloomed and the party would have gone on like normal. You two could have gotten to know each other better otherwise and shared a much more comfortable dance. The novelty of having someone new in your life whether he was a friend or foe will wear off soon enough, and maybe none of this would ever be spoken about again...

...Yet when you think about the possibility that you two almost never met, something in you stills. You absent-mindedly press the handkerchief to your lips the same way he would as a way to comfort yourself. Sure, he hurt your friends, but it's not like your friends haven't been constantly at each other's throats either. This isn't exactly new to you and there's even something funny about the absurdity of it all. Maybe you really have gone mad.

You tap into your inner middle schooler with a crush and hope you could keep this forever after that indirect kiss warmed you up a bit, but you're careless.

"You really thought you could escape me?" A mocking voice gets you out of your head as a strong presence stands right in front of you.

A choked noise comes out of your throat and you immediately pull your hands away from your mouth, desperately hoping he didn't see what you were doing just now. Your eyes have nowhere to go but toward his gaze, and it feels like you just dug your grave deeper. When did he get here? You ask yourself that as if you weren't yearning to see him again just now.

Even if you wanted to say anything, let alone his name, it doesn't seem like coherence is an option.

"Now hand it over. You shouldn't be stealing what doesn't belong to you." Did he really need to be this close? You clutch the handkerchief a bit more strongly and he catches onto your knuckles turning white from the force you're gripping it with.

It feels like the fever you woke up with was returning, along with all the sirens blaring in your head to actually move already. You still have a chance to run and keep this game going for longer, but you can't help but succumb to him. Being in front of Rollo like this combined with the silhouette his uniform gives him makes you feel so small.

"Give."

That was definitely a command, and his voice was firm. But when you look at him, he doesn't seem too mad at you, his grimace from this afternoon aside. Your heart skips a beat from how focused he is on you, but a part of you reasons that he merely wants his personal belonging back. You don't break eye contact with him even as he places a hand out in front of you, waiting for his handkerchief to be placed on it.

Instead of doing what he wants, you scoff and unfold it right in front of him. You haven't lost yet. There's still something you can do, and you have to do it fast before someone walks in on you two. You steel your nerves and finally speak.

"Why should I? I want to keep it as a memento of my time here."

Before he could retort, you wrap it around his neck and pull him closer to you. Rollo looks at you with his mouth agape. Once again, you have him absolutely mesmerized (or appalled) with your boldness. You're starting to become obsessed with getting on his nerves. It's fortunate that he didn't see what you were doing with his handkerchief because now you're intent on giving him the real thing.

You don't know how much he's thought of you today since yesterday, and this is the closest he's gotten to you the way he's always wanted, more than when you two waltzed together.

It's as though you're leaning in for a kiss, but Rollo is too staggered to respond to that like it was one. He hasn't moved at all.

I want to keep you in my pocket next, you don't say out loud, but he could feel the possessiveness in your actions all the same.

Your lips barely brush against his when you immediately pull away instead of what you initially planned to do. The last thing he sees is your light-hearted grin when you pull his hat down and shove it to his face. A perfect distraction for you to slink away. Rollo finally stands back and gasps at what just happened while you're already escaping once again. He hurriedly fixes himself and pulls the loose handkerchief away from his neck. You can see in the low light that the tip of his ears has become a shade of pink along with his cheeks, even if he was peeved.

"See you during dinner, Rollo!" You wave and turn to walk away from the man who was still standing there absolutely flabbergasted.

He'll certainly have a lot to say the next time you two find each other alone. Maybe when that happens, you'll actually kiss him.

Rollo is looking forward to that as well, though hopefully, you're not going to forget that your action today warrants punishment...