Chapter 1: Introduction

"Hey… what are you doing here?"

Leo didn't even look up. He didn't want to. Didn't need to. Not many people came into the orphanage library, and those that did usually knew better than to interrupt him. He never left his fantasy world, not for anything, and heaven help someone that disturbed that world. That, at the moment, would be whoever owned this new, unfamiliar voice.

"Isn't it obvious?" he responded, keeping his face turned downward, trying to remain submerged in the novel.

The owner of the voice uttered a growl that made Leo's eyebrows raise under his thick bangs, but he still didn't look up. Still didn't need to.

"Wha… I-I'm Elliot Nightray!"

Leo frowned, finally, reluctantly lifting his face, glancing sidelong to the newcomer. The kid was tall, but not really tall – average, he supposed. Lean, still obviously in the middle stages of adolescence, as Leo was himself. Scruffy sandy hair, and cobalt eyes bright as a clear winter's day and at the moment, narrowed in looming anger. Leo wrinkled his nose; stuffy noble, that's all.

"So what?" he spat, and Elliot Nightray's face began to slowly darken. Leo paid him no heed as he went on. "To put it bluntly, you're distracting me. Can't you see I'm reading?"

Leo paused, and read a bit more of his book. Then he cocked his head, deciding he wasn't quite done with the noble. "Or maybe, just like the main character of this book, you're not going to leave me alone until I kneel before you and kiss your feet?"

"Eh?"

Ah, the sound of dumbfounded bewilderment.

Leo sighed, flipping the page and settling back against the bookshelves, ignoring the sharp corners of the wood against his back. He scoffed, letting an amused smirk quirk his mouth. "You're really a bore, you know?"

He heard the eruption coming even before it did. It was to be expected, of course; how else would a self-respecting noble react to such a greeting, after all?"

"CAN'T YOU SEE I'M A NOBLE!?" the youth exploded, and Leo wondered if he'd bring the house down with the utter volume of his outrage. This, of course, only made Leo grin wider.

The young Nightray raved and ranted even when two young men – from the family resemblance, Leo guessed them to be most likely his older brothers – rushed in.

"What's going on, Elliot!?"

"Shut up, Ernest!"

Just as Elliot made a lunge at Leo, who didn't blink, the two of them grabbed him by the arms and dragged him backward.

"CLAUDE! Let go of me! I can handle this myself!"

Leo snickered to himself, pretending to remain consumed by his book. Yeah, right, you can… Even as Elliot Nightray was carted out, to be escorted back to the fancy carriage from whence he came, Leo let himself for just a moment relish the sense of accomplishment. By now, he prided himself on his ability to make people hate him. Everyone singled him out as the weird one, anyway; he'd figured it was better to make the reason because he was a jerk, rather than because… Well, because… He shook his head, going back to his reading.

It didn't matter anyhow. Elliot Nightray was just another name on the lengthy list of people he'd irked. He'd assuredly get a lecture from Sister Fianna or one of the other sisters for treating someone of authority in such a way, but what did he care?

He'd probably never see the Nightray boy again, anyway.

~PH~

"What? You again?" Leo paused, holding the basket of laundry firmly in front of him. He only hesitated because the kid was standing right in front of him. The Nightray boy obviously hadn't had enough the first round, and had come back for more. Leo cocked his head. "Aren't the children of noble families supposed to go to boarding school?" He paused, and gave a wry grin. "Oh, I see… You didn't make it, did you?"

Elliot narrowed his eyes in a dagger glare, shoulders tensing and fists clenching. "Shut up."