A/N: I'm back! Had a lot of fun with this chapter! Enjoy!

Oh my fucking ass I don't want to be here somebody please save me from this torture…

Emil had his fists clenched on the scratched wooden table, his ass on the edge of the bench so he wasn't pressed up against his brother, who was currently being embraced by his disgusting Danish canoodler. If he didn't have to shove his way through a thousand people to get out of the cafe, he would already be long gone. Not to mention when he had scooted away from Lukas after they first sat down, the older man had crushed his foot under his, a threatening grin on his face, promising that if he left he would send the canoodler after him, said man attempting to give Lukas a hug.

Now they were making out next to him, a shit load of people sounding like they were screaming in his ears around them, too close and seeming to be having too much fun for the clearly terrible situation they were in. He groaned in frustration, feeling overwhelmed and uncomfortable. Hoping the server would get to them soon, Emil buried his head in his arms on the tiny table, trying to block out as much noise as he could.

He was successful for a few minutes, calming down mostly, until somebody bumped the elbow he had hanging over the edge of the table. His head shot up, looking for the peace ruiner, but there were still so many people he couldn't tell who had done it. Cautiously glancing to his left, he saw the canoodle duo were done with their greeting and Mathias was showing Lukas something on his phone, the latter seeming highly unimpressed but not doing anything to stop the other, the only indication he wasn't actually annoyed was a look of disguised fondness in his eyes. As usual.

The scene ironically calmed Emil down slightly. The look in Lukas' eyes was one Emil clearly remembered from his early childhood. Not having much in the way of caring parental figures, Lukas was often in charge of Emil, despite only a couple years' difference in ages. Emil constantly sought his attention and approval, chasing the rare fond look in the elder's eyes. Once his magic came, it came more often.

Of course, they both changed. Shit happened, good and bad. He settled his chin in the crook of his arms, still resting on the table, and let his eyes fall shut again-

Only be kicked in foot by a harried looking server. Emil glared at him, the man attempting to catch his breath, suddenly bumping against their table to let a customer behind him, jostling Emil. Please save me from this fucking torture…

"Excuse me!" The man moved back, fully facing them, whipping out his notepad, blue eyes sparkling. "What can I-"

"Alfred!" Mathias said excitedly, Lukas rolling his eyes beside him. "Dude, I didn't know you could actually get a job!"

As if he hadn't actually seen who was at the table initially, Alfred's eyes widened at the Dane in front of him. "Mathias! I didn't know you were allowed in public spaces!" They fist bumped over the table. "It's been insane today! Arthur - he works here too, ya know! - almost quit!"

Mathias looked like he was going to continue the conversation, but Lukas covered his mouth and smiled (not so) sweetly at Alfred, the man shuddering slightly. "I'll have a large coffee and the smoked salmon sandwich, extra mustard sauce." He continued "smiling" at Alfred, ignoring Mathias' struggles to evade his hand beside him, as the blond, bespeckled server quickly scribbled down the order.

"A-and for you?" He asked Mathias, trying to avoid the smaller man beside him.

Emil spaced off again as Mathias rambled on a long list of shit, asking questions about everything because he was too much of an idiot…

Preoccupying himself with deepening a scratch on the table, Emil made pretty good progress before Alfred finally turned to him, looking even more exhausted than before. Out of the corner of his eyes, Emil saw Lukas was now pointedly ignoring Alfred and watching a video Mathias had shoved in his face. The look was back.

Ignoring the tiny pang of nostalgia, he looked back at Alfred and quickly grumbled his order, a large coffee and a pastry he'd glanced in the case that reminded him of a snúður , the only thing he remembered his mother making him before-

Shut the fuck up he hissed at his own brain. Whenever he was tired he started remembering things. And that was never good.

Trying to distract himself from the wash of feelings he looked back at the canoodle couple. Mathias was laughing and, as usual, the man's overwhelming personality was one of the few things to crack the impenetrable Lukas' stony exterior. He was almost smiling now, no longer looking at the phone that was still in his face, but at the man next to him, who was now talking animatedly about the dog in the video.

Despite wincing every time Mathias' loud laughter or high-volumed voice rang out, being generally disgusted by their PDA, and how fucking weird they both usually were, Emil had to grudgingly admit he appreciated the Dane for at least getting his brother to smile every once in awhile.

There I go, being a sap when I'm exhausted, he thought, stifling a yawn. Finally pulling out his phone, Emil messed around, only looking up when their drinks were nearly slammed down by a pissed off blond man with huge ass eyebrows. He only stayed long enough to quip at Lukas, "of course you would come on a day like this" and then hurried off, missing Lukas' eye roll.

Taking a few sips of the deliciously bitter coffee, Emil tried not to gag at the sight of Lukas tearing open at least 10 sugar packets and dumping it in his coffee. Emil liked sweets too, but he took his brother's affinity for sugary coffee as a personal, deep offense. Unconsciously drawing his own coffee towards himself, as if to keep it away from the aforementioned offender, Emil took a few more drinks and reopened his phone, trying to staunch his boredom and block out the still deafening noise around them.

"So…" Mathias drawled out, facing Emil, who looked up, sensing the man was turning his unwanted attention on the younger. Lukas, now fully invested in the coffee, was ignoring the Dane, which caused the man's shift in attention. "Are you excited for school, Icey?"

Visibly cringing at the nickname, Emil turned back to his phone and grumbled "the fuck is there to be excited about?"

Not seeming fazed, the dumbass just grinned wider. "You get to learn more about your magic! Not that kid stuff back in upper secondary!" He made a few wild gestures, wisely avoiding the man beside him, waggling his fingers.

Admittedly Emil was excited about getting to use his magic more. Before you came of age, you weren't allowed to use your magic except in the specialized classes at the magic upper secondary school he attended, and the lower secondary he'd attended before. They were only learning either how to control their magic or a few other low-risk areas of magic, like divination (which Emil couldn't do to save his fucking life). He still hadn't worked up the courage or really had a proper situation (besides being tempted to freeze the annoying Dane) to actually use his magic. And, though they couldn't really stop them, the teachers from his old school during graduation had encouraged them not to use their magic until they were safely at their chosen magic university.

Sighing, Emil drank more of his coffee. "I guess."

Still not deterred by Emil's lack of participation in the conversation, Mathias nodded. "I think you'll like it! Your first year might be boring, but it'll get better! Second years can enter the World Magic Tournament!"

Lukas quietly scoffed at that. "Like you did last year?" His tone was mischievous. "When you pulled out that huge-"

"ANYWAYS!" Mathias said loudly, and Lukas just sipped his coffee, expression devious. "You'll do fine." They talked (or at least Mathias did) until their food finally showed up.

Significantly less people were in the cafe now, it being fully dark outside, the flickering light of the torches now visible inside. Lukas was making a comment on Mathias' sandwich, which seemed to be an impressive stack of pork, bacon, cheese, and a few other things Emil couldn't quite determine what they were.

Lukas grudgingly accepted a piece of the giant sandwich before delicately cutting and picking up a perfectly square section of his own, the smell of salmon drifting over to Emil. The pastry he'd picked out wasn't terrible, he had to admit, but it definitely didn't have anything on a proper snúður.

Mathias unfortunately stayed with them as they walked back through the shopping district, walking hand-in-hand with Lukas. He seemed to be tired after the meal, wonderfully not saying much, only commenting on the occasional window item that caught his attention. He had insisted on carrying all of Emil's bags, and had no trouble doing so in his free hand. Neither brother had protested.

Emil followed behind slowly, soaking up the crisp night air and the near quiet now that most people were gone for the day. The torches on the walls flickered mysteriously along the rough brick buildings and pathways. It looked, well, magical.

Looking up, he saw they were approaching the archway that would take them out into the outside world. It lead out to a normal outdoor shopping mall, and he could see a higher volume of people and the bright lights through the archway's fuzzy filter. A few people were passing through casually. Emil didn't understand what magic was on the archway, but only magical people could pass through, and the magicless didn't notice.

When they got closer to the archway, Lukas glanced back at Emil, as if to make sure he was still there, and went through with the overgrown puppy he was holding hands with. They immediately blurred and stopped on the other side. Emil quickly went through, the shock of cold not bothering him.

Throwing his arm with the bags around Emil's shoulders, Mathias nearly dragged Emil along with him and Lukas. Between the man holding all those heavy bags in one hand and dragging a likely murderous looking younger man with him, while holding the hand of a blank-faced, mysterious man, the trio got a lot of strange looks as they headed to the parking lot. The magicless were always a lot more aware of them than those with magic were. Not only were they simply a little different than the usual person, but the aura of those with strong magic could also be felt by the magicless, to a certain extent, making them receive even more attention than a regular weirdo would attract.

Even blending into a crowd, not drawing attention to himself, Emil always felt eyes on him. It was annoying and made him extremely self conscious. It didn't help that his hair was almost an unusual silver and his eyes had a violet hue in most lights, which would catch people's attention normally even without his cold, magical aura.

It was a relief when they got back to Lukas' car, Emil immediately circling around and tugging on the handle so Lukas would get the hint and unlock the car and stop making out with his fucking Danish canoodle buddy.

Instead he had to grit his teeth and wait, grouchily wishing he could teleport to anywhere but there.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed it! I tried to bring a bit of world building into it. I'm really enjoying writing it! If you have anything you'd like to see happen during Icey's first year I would love to hear suggestions!

Thanks for reading!