"Imagine smiling after a slap in the face. Then think of doing it twenty-four hours a day." (Mark Zusak, The Book Thief)

"Is everything crystal clear, Ake?" a deep, soothing but authoritative voice asked.

""Yeah, but Ash, I still don't get why I must be the one who -"

" Perfect. If everything is clear, then Zeph and I will go, we wouldn't want to be late. Fayez will be in your care for today. Listen, I don't want any drama, okay?

"There - there won't be any."

"The poor sweetheart looked pretty distressed yesterday, and we don't want you to make it worse by acting like an asshole toward him" - another voice, much lighter than the others two. An angel's voice.

"Don't start lecturing me about it, too, Zephyr. I've already told you that what happened during his first day of training was an accident. An accident, you get it? I will never let things go this far again. You should know I would never hurt a student intentionally. I'm better than that."

"Okay, Ake, okay, I won't start patronizing you. After all, there can only be one daddy here, and the role is already taken by Ashur."

"He might be your daddy, but he isn't mine!"

"Come on, Ake. You might not be a sub per se, but you're a sub for him!"

Some laughters. People briefly kissing.

" Bye now, love. Don't stress too much about it - I know you, and I'm sure that deep down you're freaking out about spending the day alone with our adorable little lamb."

"Ugh, Ashur, he's not adorable! Plus, what makes you think I could stress over him! He's not even my- okay, I can see that you guys won't ever believe me. Whatever. Bye-bye. Have a nice fucking day."

"You too, Mister Grumpy"

"I told you to stop calling me that! I'm a prefect, not a fifteen-years old thug in some posh private school"

More laughters, the sound of the door being closed, then everything was silent again.

Fayez felt back into a half slumber. He couldn't remember sleeping this peacefully in his whole life. Actually, he had always been some kind of a night owl - not because he went to clubs or attended parties, obviously not. Such words didn't belong to his vocabulary.

He did not even enjoy staying up late to read, write, or whatever else the so-called artists enjoyed doing at night.

For some reason, his brain usually went into an overactive mode every night. Pictures of his life danced in front of his closed eyes. Those pictures were bleak, colorless and way too realistic. Nobody would be interested in looking at them for more than a few seconds.

Those pictures sometimes made him consider whether or not it was worth for him to be alive. The immediate answer was always the same.

When those thoughts came into his mind, he forced himself to think about Anna, the little girl who had died because of him, centuries ago. He thought of the promise he had made to himself that day, and how it would be a coward act to kill himself before he even had the chance to make amends by protecting as many humans as he could.

He had achieved little to nothing, during those three centuries, so he wouldn't allow himself to leave this world now.

Last night hadn't begun on a promising note. He had hurt himself again after hearing Akhenaton cry. Yet, he had still managed to fall into a deep, thoughtless slumber not too long after, which was a suprising discovery.

Could it be linked to the three prefects' presence? But how?

Wait... the three prefects - that's right - last night....

He wasn't sleeping in his own bedroom right now!

The realization was enough to fully wake him up, and he sat up straight, taking frantic looks to his new surroundings.

"Oh, you're finally awake. Good. Now, let's get moving."

Fayez felt himself blush as his eyes met Akenaton's, who was looking at him with an unimpressed expression.

God, why did this guy always manage to look so attractive in his own, unique way? That was so unfair! In comparison, Fayez probably didn't look like much, especially not right now, with his dishevelled hair and puffy eyes.

"Akhenaton - I mean Master Akhenaton... pardon me, but where did the others two go?"

Akhenaton snorted lightly at Fayez's unusual use of such formal expression, before responding with a half-amused, half-annoyed voice:

"As much as I enjoy you calling me "Master", I think you can drop the title now, since we're going to be roomates."

Was Akhenaton purposefully teasing him right now, or did Fayez just have a dirty mind? Unused to such things, Fayez started fidgeting on the couch, making the brunet smirk at him with a knowing expression.

"Uh, so, you didn't reply to my question, Ak - Akhenaton. Where did they go?" Fayez asked, in hopes to dissolve the weird tension between them.

"They had some business to attend. Anyway, I'm going to train you today, so please get dressed and hurry up. No more questions for now. We should have arrived on the Castle's roofs one hour ago."

Fayez nodded, and put his gloves on again. Once he was done, he got up, only to wince in discomfort at the sharp pain he suddenly felt on his belly.

Shit. He must have fallen asleep with his bare hand laying flat on his stomach. The burn probably wasn't a pretty sight right now, although it would eventually disappear, thanks to his magical powers.

"What is it, Fayez?"

"What - what are you talking about?" Fayez asked back, giving Akhenaton his brightest, most innocent smile.

The problem was, Akhenaton wasn't someone who could be easily fooled. He narrowed his eyes, and took a step closer to the young vampire.

"Are you hurt somewhere?"

He had to find a convincing lie, and he had to do it quickly, because knowing the guy, Akhenaton wouldn't let him leave the room if he thought that Fayez was hiding something from him.

"I have - uh - stomach pains. Since I got to the Institute, it has happened to me a couple of times. I think it's because of the blood from the cafeteria, which makes me really -"

"Okay, I get it. No need to share more information with me on this subject" Akhenaton cut him, a look of slight disgust on his handsome and scarred face.

"Okay, I get it" Fayez replied in a sheepish manner. "No more talking about stomach troubles again. Just know that it usually passes very quickly."

"Good. You're still gonna have some breakfast, though, because I don't want you to faint during the training. I've brought you some blood. Now, for God's sake, please hurry the fuck up."

"Yes, of course ! Sorry, Akhenaton"

Akhenaton just mumbled something under his breath, and turned his back to him in order to give the vampire some privacy while he got dressed.

Despite the pain of having to remove his pyjama to put a clean shirt on - because he was in much more pain than he had shown to Akhenaton - Fayez couldn't suppress the small smile that appeared on his face.

Akhenaton definitely wasn't a bad guy. True, he wasn't the easiest person to handle, but he wasn't a bad guy, and he was one of the most fascinating person Fayez had ever met.

The other equally fascinating persons being Zephyr and Ashur. Obviously.

No, he didn't like them like that. He just found them fascinating. Well, "fascinating" made it sound like he had a crush on them. "Interesting" would have been a more appropriate choice of word.

Fayez was bad with words, but he definitely wasn't into these three men. Don't misread his inappropriate choice of words for something which doesn't exist.

Once he had put some comfortable clothes on, and drank the bag of blood that Akhenaton had handed to him, they both exited the room and started walking into the surprisingly desert hallways.

"Where is everyone else?"

"Today is a day-off. For students, at least, because us poor prefects are being constantly exploited. Did you forget you weren't supposed to attend classes today?" Akhenaton asked, without looking at him.

"I - uh. Well, yesterday was a bit .... eventful, and I kinda forgot about it."

Akhenaton nodded, but remained silent, and Fayez suddenly remembered how Akhenaton had cried yesterday night, when he had thought everyone was asleep.

He really wanted to asked him about it. It wasn't a good idea, though. First, it would probably make the prefect uncomfortable. Second, it would make it sound like Fayez was just prying. There weren't close, so he didn't have the right to ask such intimate questions.

It also seemed like they were making some small progress, and he didn't want to ruin everythjng.

He really wanted to talk about it, though. Call him selfish, but Fayez wanted Akhenaton to tell him that he was wrong, and that he hadn't been crying because of him.

The question was at the tip of his tongue, threatening to leave his mouth. Afraid that he would eventually let his anxiety get the best of him, he decided to ask something else, instead. Something much more random.

"Say, Akhenaton"

"Hmm?"

"If we're late for whatever private training you're supposed to give me..."

"Yes, Fayez? Stop beating around the bush and ask your question already"

He was already getting on Akhenaton's nerves with his questions. Great.

"Then why didn't you wake me up earlier?"

This time, the silence stretched out for so long that Fayez thought his simple question would go unanswered. Eventually, though, Akhenaton broke the silence.

"You looked tired."

"Uh -o-okay. That's not the most flattering comment I've received about my physical appearance but ... yes, I suppose I was a bit tired. What about it?"

"I didn't want to wake you up, you idiot. You needed some rest - I think you still do. I couldn't wake you up when you were sleeping so peacefully."

"I - I .. thanks. That's very considerate. You shouldn't have -"

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Shut up already. We're here."

See? Definitely not a bad guy.

On the roofs, the wind was a bit chilly, and Fayez was glad that Akhenaton had advised him to put some warm clothes on. As the other guy was looking at the horizon with a thoughtful expression on his face, Fayez decided it was time to lighten up the mood.

Although, it probably wasn't a secret to anyone anymore that he was very bad at it.

"Uh, so, why did you bring me here instead of the training hall? You don't intend to throw me off the roof, do you?"

That didn't cheer Akhenaton up one bit. He turned to Fayez, and, much to this latter's dismay, there was a deep agony in his voice when he suddenly declared:

"I'm sorry for hurting you during the first day of training. You were a brat - still are - but I didn't intend to take things so far. For some reason, when I tried to test you by inflicting mental pain upon you, it felt wrong and my powers partially escaped me."

Why did Akhenaton sound so guilty about it? Fayez didn't like it one bit. He had long forgotten about that day, plus, he had always known that the prefect didn't intentionally hurt him.

"Don't worry, Ake" he said, biting his lips as the nickname escaped his lips. "I know you hadn't meant to hurt me. Plus, you've healed me after that, which I had found very kind."

"It wasn't kind." Akhenaton growled, reminding Fayez how intimidating the prefect could be. "It was just the bare minimum I could have done. I didn't even apologize at that time, and I feel really ashamed about it. I know words can't do much, but I'm really sorry. Zeph and Ash are right, I'm too impulsive sometimes."

Stop it, Fayez thought. I can endure being in pain, but I can't bear with the idea of you or Zeph or Ashur being put in a similar pain.

"Really, it's nothing"" he insisted, with a forced light tone. 'Plus, I am used to pain anyway. It's no biggie. Let's just forget about it, and start our day of training. I'm really curious about what it is that you want to teach me."

He thought about taking a few steps away from the confusing prefect, but grey eyes pinned him on the ground, and he felt like he couldn't move.

The only thing he could do was helplessly watch Akhenaton take a few, cautious steps in his direction, like one would do with a wild and wounded animal. When there were only a few centimeters separating them, Akhenaton asked in a deceptively calm voice.

"What do you mean, you're used to pain?"

"I - I nothing bad! It's just, you know, with the daily training and all... we newbies sometimes get some bruises. Plus, our prefect is a bit of a pain in the ass. Ah. Ah. Ah"

Akhenaton wasn't laughing at Fayez's hilarious joke. He frowned, and took his gloved hand in his.

"Don't lie to me" he hissed, the anger in his voice contrasting with the gentleness of his touch.

"I'm - I'm not lying. I wouldn't dare"

"Fayez, why is your abdomen hurting right now?"

"What?"

"Lift up your shirt. Now."