Rosciel:
Rosc didn’t really like being out of his room, he didn’t like being in public spaces, but frankly he knew that he needed to get better at this. It made Sin happy, Nic wanted him to be more social as well. If he could at least learn to fake it, then… At least he could fake it.
He sat on an armchair in a common room of the demon dorms, one leg crossed over the other as he leaned one elbow on the armrest. Half of his lap was taken up by his other hand holding a thick, dark book while the other half was usurped by a small, white wishing cat. Nightingale was as permanently blood-stained and bandaged as Rosc was and it made him like her all the more. Of all his pets, she was the more calm and affectionate. On top of that, she reminded him of really getting back together with Sin.

Normally, he hated reading because it gave him headaches to focus enough to be able to read ink. But every so often, Rosanna did something amazing for him. For his birthday, she sent him something she had been working on for a while.
A book with raised print.
It was so unusual to see the words without having to concentrate. It was a good book, though, mostly about various styles and techniques of music, but also bits and pieces on how one reads music and composes. He probably still wouldn’t write down his compositions.

Lumikki:
Lumikki had finally ventured out of her dorm room longer then a few minutes. She had pretty much locked herself in there after Prom and had only recently found herself out of her room, today she had been wandering the hallways only because she couldn't actually remember what floor Julian's room was on, but then again she had forgotten her skellyphone in her room, so she decided wandering would be the way to get figure it out. Sighing as she noticed herself back in the demon common rooms,

"I'm forever doomed to walk in circles..."

She mumbled slightly as she turned the corner. Wincing as she saw a boil in the room already. She hated bothering people and he looked to be deeply in thought. Biting her lower lip she hoped that he wasn't too bothered by her entering. Her first thought was to just leave the room but she was slightly fascinated by the boil. Tilting her head to one side then the other as she looked at him from the door.

Rosciel:
“Tip-toing around does you no good. My hearing’s probably better than even yours,” Rosc suddenly said, his voice a chilly neutral. See? He was trying. If he hadn’t been, he would have growled at her. Sure, what he said and how he didn’t even look up from the book. It didn’t matter; he could still perceive her for the most part. He wasn’t taking in a whole lot of detail, but with the quick scan he’d gotten she might have been that ghoul Sin’s little friend Julian had gone to Prom with.

Then again, she wouldn’t know that he’d looked at her unless he moved his head. The hand that wasn’t holding the book moved and scratched Nightingale between her ears, resulting in a soft little purr.
He was wearing a black button-down shirt today with his tattered dark jeans. He wasn’t wearing his usual coat, since there was plenty of heat in the dorms, but he did have his backpack with him with extra supplies and where he could carry his book.

Lumikki:
Lumikki frowned. What was with the boils in this school, it was as if they could just hear anything. She leaned out slightly to see if the boil had actually looked at her leaning a little too far she lost her balance, falling slightly but being able to catch herself she made a mental note not to do that again, her tails bristled slightly from the tone the boil gave off.
“I...I wasn't tip-toeing around...I...I didn't want to bother you.”
She wasn't sure if he was friendly or not but the pet on his lap seemed to like him well enough, slipping past his backpack and him she took a seat across the way from him.
She noticed as she walked past him the book and the bandages, no wonder he was able to hear her.

“I...uhm I hope you don't mind me sitting for a bit with you? I'm Lumikki by the way.”

Her tails still a little bristled from earlier but the rest of her demeanor had relaxed slightly. At least he didn't hit on her like that imp had done the first minute he opened her mouth. Instead he was a little cold, tilting her head to one side and then the other she wondered why he was out here. The last student she had actually seen in the common rooms was Sin, that reminded her she needed to check in with the ghoul and possibly go shopping.

Rosciel:
Rosc didn’t mention her trip. He didn’t care.
“I don’t care.” The response was short, somewhat curt and he knew that was not the right way to go. He slipped a piece of paper between the pages of the book and carefully closed it, far too worried that he could damage the raised lettering to snap it shut. Nightingale nosed at his hand and he went back to scratching her as he tilted his head up to give Lumikki the impression that he was focused on her. Yeah, this was the one Julian had a thing for. He loved her, but Sin could be far too much of a gossip sometimes.

“Rosciel. So you’re Julian’s little ghoulfriend, then?”

Lumikki:
Lumikki wrinkled her nose at his tone, hmph he sure wasn't to friendly she thought as she watched the small mini sitting in Rosciel's lap. Trying to ignore his tone she looked at him when he mentioned his name,
“Rosciel...”
She frowned again when he called her Julian's ghoulfriend. Again what was with everyone that knew Julian, that was the second time she'd been called his ghoulfriend. Shaking her head she looked at him directly,
“You must be a friend of Julian, yes? Perhaps you know Sin? I met her in these common rooms not too long ago.”
She figured that if she just kept talking the whole comment about ghoulfriend would be dropped. Her mind still trying to figure out why she thought that his name sounded so familiar. Her eyes still watching the minipet intently it was interesting, she was used to glassetta's and a few others but mainly glassettas. They were easier to not chase when the urge hit her.

Rosciel:
“Sin’s my ghoulfriend,” he replied when she asked if he knew her.
“And I wouldn’t say Julian and I are friends. He’s Sin’s friend.” Rosc didn’t have any friends, not really. He had people he knew, but a friend was someone you’d let stand at your back in the middle of a fight. All he had in that sense was Sin.
Julian, however, he owed far too much. The boil had protected Sin on a field trip Rosc hadn’t been able to come on and he hadn’t yet found a way to repay the other demon. It was a debt he wasn’t even sure he knew how to address.

He smirked a bit at the thought of her formally meeting Sin.
“And how did that go?” If this ghoul was anything like Julian was, he imagined Sin drove her up the walls. Rosc was a recluse, but he certainly wasn’t shy. For someone like Julian, Sin was overpowering and possibly scary.

Lumikki:
“OH!”
Lumikki practically jumped up when she heard that this boil was Sin's boilfriend. Thinking about when she first met Sin she giggled slightly,
“I think Julian and Sin both made comment about you. Actually!”
That was it that's where she had remembered him the night that she had gone up to see Julian. He had been with Sin, smiling happily to herself as she nodded. Shaking her head when she heard his comment,
“Ah...well I uhm...kind of insulted her...well that is I mean she made a comment about going to the prom by herself...and I made an assumption and it wasn't right...”
She winced if she remembered right, and from his tone so far she thought she did remember right telling him might not have been the healthiest thing for her to do.

Rosciel:
Rosc waved the comment off with his hand.
“She didn’t expect me to ask. Parties aren’t something I enjoy,” he replied with a small shrug, his useless wing twitching with the action. While the one was folded neatly between his back and the chair, that one was never fully functional, so which it was partially folded, it still sort of flopped around his side.

“I don’t think she mentioned that, though. What did you say exactly?” Really, he was curious how one could insult someone while talking about going to a dance by themselves.

Lumikki:
Lumikki watched him wave off the comment, she was thoroughly confused. But when he made comment that dances and parties weren't something he enjoyed she found herself leaning forward a little. She started to make comment about how the two of them were together but lucky for her he had asked her another question. Her ears drooped slightly,
“Oh uhm...well...I met Julian on the Isles...and uhm he told me about some of his friends back at the school...I was an exchange student. And uhm...well he told me about a ghoul he liked and then he told me about another ghoul that had a boilfriend.”
She thought about her words very carefully,
“And well when I first met Sin...she made a comment about going by herself...I...I thought she was the ghoul that Julian liked. So I made a comment that I was sure she'd be going with him...and then maybe made a comment about it being okay to be single....I really didn't mean to insult her...”
Frowning slightly she adverted her eyes back to the minipet. She felt as if this boil was staring at her intensely even though his eyes were bound.

Rosciel:
An eyebrow raise was all the reaction he gave her for a moment before snorting.
“I wonder what you’d do if you heard a real insult,” he said with a small shake of his head; he certainly knew a very colorful few.
“Birdboil wouldn’t be able to handle Sin for a ghoulfriend. I doubt he handles her very well as a friend-friend.” His tone was slightly amused by now, trying to imagine the shy, little fluffball having a crush on Sin. If that was the case, Rosc’d certainly try to beat Julian’s feathered a**, but both knew better. Julian and Sin were far too different and on top of that Julian was afraid of him.

Then again, Rosc and Sin didn’t have much in common, at least not at face value. She was gorgeous, he was damaged. She liked attention and being around others, he’d rather be left alone. She was happy, he was brooding.
But the outside wasn’t what mattered between them, not really. All it had taken was one dance. He had found someone he could talk to, someone who didn’t know what he was worth monetarily, didn’t know what had happened to him, didn’t know he had trouble with simple things like reading. And deep down, she wasn’t the stab-you-in-the-back social demoness that most saw. He loved her for her buried compassion.

Lumikki:
“a...a real insult?”
Lumikki blinked a few times, was he saying that it wasn't an insult. As she thought back to the day she frowned, that wasn't exactly the case she remembered. She remembered how mad Sin had gotten when she made that comment. Shaking her head she looked at him when he made a comment about Julian. She still wasn't admitting that she liked Julian but that didn't mean she was going to be okay with someone calling him names.
“Hey watch your mouth. His name is Julian not Birdboil...
She caught herself before she started to growl, it wasn't because she liked him nope it was totally because he was a friend...right, that's what friends did.
“h..he...he could take you in a fight...yo...your not that scary...”
She was trying to get herself killed. Wrinkling her nose she frowned,
“I...I'm sorry I didn't mean to be rude...”

Rosciel:
Rosc couldn’t stop himself from throwing his head back and laughing, though his “gaze” never left her. Mouth open with his laugh, it was now clear that every single tooth, at least in the front, was tipped in a sharp point, rather than like some students’ flat-edged teeth.
Julian, take him in a fight? Not if it was a matter of skill.

“I’ve been fighting a lot longer than he has, I doubt he’d be able to best me on a good day.” A bad, now that would be a different story. A bad day… it wouldn’t take much to lay him out.
“Ah, but you still said it. At least you were honest,” he added, turning his head away but keeping an eye on her, always ready for an attack. He respected that, sticking up for someone you fancied as well as being honest. He always thought it was a more powerful weapon. And he hated it when someone lied to him, when someone moved behind his back. It’d happened once, he never wanted to let it happen again.

He wasn’t about to explain his actions to her, she didn’t deserve the knowledge, not yet. She had no idea that if he hated someone he didn’t call them anything, much less a name or their given name. If he was being “polite” he used someone’s official name. Now, if he considered you in the closest he could to what one might call friendship… that’s when you received a nickname. He never called Akariel, the closest thing to an uncle he’d ever truly known, by his name. Fuzzball or b*****d, just as the kitsune called him “little bird” and Rosanna called him her songbird. Sin… She was his black swan. Or princess, depending on what mood he was in. She seemed to accept the former, the later she treated with somewhat disdain.

Lumikki:
Lumikki watched the boil and frowned, he was mad clearly that would explain why he was laughing at her right now. As he tipped his head back she saw his teeth, putting a finger up to her own tooth she touched them slightly, she had fairly sharp teeth but nothing like the boil in front of her. He could possibly rip and tear very quickly from the looks of them.
“Y...your crazy? Is that what it is? I...I mean...”
Her brow pinched together, as her ears swiveled slightly now was definitely a time she had wished she had her mother's talents. At least her mother was diplomatic in these instances, she wouldn't have made a demon and his ghoulfriend annoyed. And from what she remembered of Sin this boil was surely something other than what he let on.
“...your different...not like other succubus...”
She had remembered Julian telling her he was one, even though he didn't look the part. Tilting her head to one side then the other she wondered why Julian would be afraid of him, he didn't seem that scary...not yet at least.

Rosciel:
“Perhaps. Heard that said a few times, but no one’s gotten around to proving it yet,” Rosc replied with yet another arrogant smirk. Perhaps he was a little insane. He didn’t think anyone, least of all his guardian, would be terribly surprised if he was diagnosed as such. Seeing your mother torn to shreds and your eyes plucked out by your “beloved auntie” as a toddler was certainly enough to mess you up.

He relaxed a bit more in his chair, considering what she had said about him not being like other incubi. Yeah, she said succubi, but he had a feeling she didn’t know there were gender-specific names. It wasn’t a common trait.
No, he wasn’t like others of his kind. He could say that was because he was a half-breed. Even though he was through-and-through an incubus, that didn’t change the fact that his father hadn’t been one. But that probably wasn’t the full truth of it. He wasn’t like any demon. If he hadn’t lost his parents, his eyes, his wing he might have been perfectly normal. But he wasn’t, just like Sin wasn’t, not really. He’d been betrayed and broken and the damage caused by something like that is irreparable. He trusted no one, he hated being around others. Not until Sin had come into his life. Who would have thought all it would have taken was a beautiful ghoul and a year and then some’s worth of semi-anonymous letters? Nic certainly hadn’t.

“No, I’m not. And I really don’t care that I’m not.”

Lumikki:
Smiling slightly, as she watched him. There seemed to be something going on deep in his mind but all she could tell was that he seemed to relax a little.
“Ah...well that's probably a good thing. I mean...if you cared to be like others then...well you might go crazy trying to be like what they want...”
Frowning slightly she remembered her exam, it wasn't that she was still very worried about the whole getting pink tips on her tails...or even the extra tails. No that didn't bother her anymore. It was the fact that she was never going to make her mother proud, not after she finally admitted that she loved someone. And not just someone...but a boil from school one that she had actually left her room to go see if he was back. Her ears twitched slightly as she looked back up,
“I'm sure that's why Sin likes you so much. She really likes you...I mean I only met her that once...but I could tell when she talked about you. And from what Julian has said about the two of you...”
Grinning slightly and feeling a lot better since she first sat down,

“Maybe...we could be friends? I mean...I don't really have that many friends here...or back home for that matter...but...you...you seem like you'd be a very good one to have...maybe...I could be wrong...you could be completely crazy...and no one knows it yet...but..”
She started to ramble about random things before catching herself again, maybe it was the fact that she didn't realize he could see her or possibly because she felt a connection with him but she actually liked him and had hoped he'd be willing to be friends with her.

Rosciel:
If Rosc had eyes, he’d probably have gotten a far-away look in them when the ghoul brought up Sin. But his mouth did quirk up at one side, the angles in his face softening an almost imperceptible amount. Sin didn’t like him, she loved him, just as much as he loved her. His father had baffled him until he’d met Sin. He understood now what had really killed his father. If he lost Sin…

He shook his head.
“I don’t have friends. Don’t want them. Best you’ll get out of me is smirks and sarcasm, I’m afraid.” Sin wasn’t his friend, she was so much more than that. And Julian? Certainly not. Rosc just didn’t have friends. He didn’t trust them.

Lumikki:
Lumikki smiled,
“You hide behind the sarcasm don't you? I think...if you let...well I'm sure I can surprise you...”
She tilted her head to one side and then the other. She had seen the look on his face when she had brought up Sin and something inside her ached,
“...what is is like? Loving someone like you love Sin?”
She hadn't actually meant to ask the question but it just seemed to come out. She had talked to Julian about her test but she had kept changing the subject and just assumed that Julian had followed her lead since he hadn't actually asked any other questions. But maybe if she asked someone who was so deeply in love what it was like she could prove to herself that she wasn't actually. It was just something she had blurted out because of what had happened.

Rosciel:
Rosc turned his head away, one hand idly stroking Nightingale’s fur while he debated what he should say. Honesty, he praised it. He hated to be tricked, lied to. He’d rather someone just come out and say it to his face. Or attack him straight on, whatever the opponent wanted to do. But what could he say to her? He didn’t tell anyone what he felt. His actions spoke enough, in the way he touched Sin, held her, how he’d…

“I lost her once, almost twice. When that happens, it feels like your world’s being torn apart. Not a quick yank, either. Piece, by jagged, painful piece.” He shouldn’t go on. This wasn’t something he needed to share with her. But Sin cared about Julian, and it was clear to him that Julian cared about this ghoul. What harm was in it, anyway? Anyone with half a brain knew Sin was his weakness.

“Having the one you care about… It’s having a piece of yourself returned to you that you didn’t even know was missing. Or you did feel the empty space and it’s suddenly so full you’re not sure what to do with it. Jack-damned scary and calming all at the same time… Worst of all, you’ll give them the most powerful weapon to use against you and all you can do is hope they never wield it.” His accent had deepened slightly the more he’d talked. It was, for the most part, fairly neutral; each word was pronounced low and clearly. But as he continued to talk about Sin, it seemed to slip, slowly taking on subtle lilt. It was a far cry from his father’s side of the family, but still there, hidden beneath the layers of lessons with Rosanna, pieced together from when he’d first said athair and all the times Nic lost his own cool and started yelling at him.

Lumikki:
Lumikki frowned as she listened to him speak. She noticed the way he had taken pause before he started to speak. And when he did she felt that ache again. Blinking a few times, she couldn't even think about what she would do if she honestly lost Julian. Not that she was in such a place as Rosciel and Sin were but just the thought of it was enough to make her gasp slightly.
“You...you lost her...that...”
She had nothing that she could say as he continued. The thought that loving someone was that powerful and that dangerous made her frown even deeper.
“...a weapon...do...do you worry that Si...Sin would ever?”

She blinked a few times suddenly very worried of what would happen if she gave that power to Julian. She could hear the soft accent in his voice and she suddenly got lost in her own thoughts. Julian had an accent she could hear it every once in a while. But this was softer, and a bit different. Could she ever give that kind of power to anyone. Finally looking up at Rosciel,
“...do you ever regret giving her that po...power? ...wou...would you change it?”
Without meaning to she finally blurted out,
“...do you think Julian would hurt me?”
Covering her mouth quickly she looked mortified about actually saying anything.

Rosciel:
“My own damned fault. But that’s long gone.” Not that he didn’t still think about it sometimes. It was always there in the back of his mind. Not as a regret, but as a reminder, of why he had to trust Sin. Because if he didn’t, he could drive her away and he knew exactly what that would do to him.
His vision focused on the fox-ghoul for a few moments. She asked a lot of questions and, frankly, he was done answering them. Careful not to jostle Nightingale too much, he leaned down and slipped his book back into his bag, zipping it closed as quickly as he’d opened it. Without a word, he scooped up his docile wishing helper and held her close to his chest with one arm, slinging his backpack over his shoulder with the other as he stood.

“You’re a very nosey ghoul,” he finally said and turned away to head back upstairs. After a couple of steps, though, he paused and turned his head slightly as if he was looking over his shoulder at her.
“A part of you will regret it, at first. No matter who we are or how we were raised, somewhere deep down it’s in our nature as demons to exploit others. But somehow he’ll prove it to you, that despite that he’ll put you before himself. It may take time, but you’ll know eventually what’s really important to him.” Rosc had no idea what Julian had done on the isles, that he had told Lumi to stay behind rather than follow him to attack the hunters, a battle he’d gone into worried that he’d never come out of. But Rosc didn’t know that, he barely knew Julian.

That said, he turned away and left the room.

Lumikki:
Lumikki tilted her head to one side and then the other when the boil made comment about it being his fault. Frowning slightly the admission was enough to understand that giving such power to someone wasn't done lightly.

She hadnt noticed him starting to move. She had been so engrossed in her own thought. That was until she heard him move up the stairs. Snapping her head up she had apparently been too nosey for the boil, hearing him confirm it made her wince.

“sorry..."

Was all she could mumble, before hearing him speak again. As she watched him leave the common rooms she smiled slightly, he wasn't as gruff as he tried to be. Not after what he had just said, nodding she was determined to prove to him that she'd be a good friend. Getting up she looked around she was looking for Julian's room to drop..oh she had forgotten the gifts. But that gave her another thought as she remembered how Rosciel was with his minipet. She might have a gift for him too.

His words still lingered in her mind. It was definitely something to think about before seeing Julian again.