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Idia sighed, rolling over on his cot for the umpteenth time that night.
Their day (days now, since the race went overnight) had been long and their battle hard fought, yet their little sled racing team only had sore muscles and completely exhausted magic stores to show for it. Of course those Royal Sword Academy kids would come in and ruin it, no matter how hard they tried.
Despite their loss, Idia couldn’t find himself to be entirely unhappy with their performance. After all, the other team didn’t have to contend with sudden avalanches, impromptu plushie surgeries, and giant ravines. Considering that three out of four of their team members had never touched a sled before in their lives, Idia thought that 2nd place was pretty damn good against teams of experienced racers.
Plus, he had got to meet the inspiration for his best girl in real life. That was worth WAY more than a couple days of socialization and physical activity.
Idia rolled over again, kicking the blanket so that it covered his feet. Due to a lack of outlets in the town hall, all of their electronics had to be charged in a separate room, meaning that Idia was without a phone to ease his restlessness and lull him to sleep. He stared at the wood grain patterns on the ceiling, drawing his finger in the air as he tried to make out shapes. The soft snores of the rest of the crew were surprisingly decent white noise, but Idia’s sleep routine was less than non-existent; thus starting a great mental debate on whether or not it was worth it to leave his warm, cozy cot to go grab his phone and leave the worries about low battery to his future self.
After 5 minutes, Idia decided his future self could suck it. He carefully extracted himself from his fortress of blankets, making sure not to wake the rest of the group lest he suffer an earful in the morning. Tiptoeing around the sleeping forms of Jade and Sebek, Idia paused. Epel’s cot (strategically stationed next to Sebek’s so that the first years could socialize more) was empty.
Huh. Maybe he went to the bathroom? Idia thought as he continued his great escape. Although that wouldn’t make much sense- Idia hadn’t slept a wink all night, and without any electronic distractions he definitely would’ve noticed Epel getting up and leaving.
He carefully closed the door- not enough for it to actually click shut, but hopefully any sound Idia made now would be muffled enough that the rest of the crew would stay asleep. He quickly retrieved his phone (charged to a surprisingly pleasant 80%) when a light caught his eye.
From a crack in the door to the main room, Idia could see the shapes of a warm fire dance against the wall. He knew for a fact that they had put it out hours ago, hence the absurd amount of blankets piled up in Idia’s sleeping area.
Ah, well. Curiosity got the cat. And it’d be bad if the embers had somehow re-lit themselves; Idia did not want to be held responsible for a historic building burning down in the night.
He crept forward, opening the door further, and quickly made out Epel’s figure. He turned at the intrusion, fire lighting up his face.
“Ah- Idia? What are you doing up?” Idia thought Epel’s voice sounded a little worse for wear, but it could just be the hushed tone he was speaking in.
“Couldn’t sleep.” Idia shrugged, inviting himself into the room. He sat on the couch next to Epel, appreciating the warmth of the fire.
“How come? Do you need more blankets? Or were you thinking about today?”
“Nah, the cots’ plenty warm.”
Epel hummed quietly, and the two sat in silence. Epel’s gaze never really broke from the rumbling flames, and Idia gained the distinct impression that he was supposed to be saying something.
Under normal circumstances, this would be a total no go. Idia was, admittedly, not the best at speaking to people aside from his little brother and other fellow otaku (although they were almost exclusively online interactions). However, Idia was kind of extremely tired from the day, eroding any energy he had left to be socially anxious. On top of that, he honestly wasn’t too intimidated by Epel. He was normally pretty polite, especially among NRC freshmen- something that Idia did not take for granted as the leader of a dorm full of socially inept teenagers. Plus, he had been especially accommodating to Idia on this trip, answering all of Idia’s nerdy Harveston related questions and going so far as to make sure he had the type of food that he liked, never forcing him to be the center of the party.
And, honestly, the kid looked pretty sad. He knew that the race was more important to Epel than any of the rest of them, and it couldn’t have felt great to lose it to some RSA out of towners. He sort of looked like he was going to cry after the race was finished, right before his grandma came down the track to congratulate them. At his core, Epel was still just a kid, and Idia was nothing if not a big brother.
“I had fun at the race today… GGs and all that.”
“Really?” Epel’s face brightened. A good start. “I’m happy that you enjoy Harveston so much. I would’ve figured someone like you would’ve preferred a city over some isolated village.”
“Cities got wayyyy too many people, and half the time they’re flooded with normies who think way too highly of themselves because they have some fancy job.” Idia wrinkled his nose. “I like it out here- it’s nice and quiet, and people are more down to Earth.”
Epel nodded in agreement, a faint smile on his face.
“Exactly! Even though our community is small, we take a lot of pride in the stuff we do around here. I’m glad I can share it with other people…” He trailed off, face falling a bit.
“You good?” Idia asked, eyebrow raised.
“Oh, sorry. It’s nothing, I guess I…” Epel sighed. “I’m glad more people are hearing about the sledathon, it’s stuff like that that allows our town to stay afloat. After all, our festivals are pretty much the only thing that brings tourists directly into Harveston instead of just buying our products from a grocery store or something. I’m grateful, really, but I just…” A frustrated look overtook Epel, brows scrunching together in a harsh line.
“Is it because we lost?”
No reply. Idia turned to fully face Epel.
“Epe- Oh!” In a few short moments, the freshman’s eyes were welling up with tears, cheeks growing impressively red. Idia would be lying if he said he wasn’t a little panicked- he wasn’t really close to Epel, only having forced his way onto the trip because he couldn’t pass up an opportunity to go on a true anime pilgrimage. Luckily, his many years of looking after Ortho had trained his instincts.
Idia opened his arms in a casual gesture, not asking anything lest he embarrass Epel (and himself), but enough to let the other know he was there.
“You can talk about it if you- oof !” In a flash, Epel had thrown himself against Idia, wrapping his arms around Idia’s waist and burying his face against his chest. Naturally, Idia allowed the hug, slowly returning it and rubbing his hand soothingly over Epel’s back as he began to cry. They sat like that for a few minutes, Epel bunching his hands into the soft material of the hand-knit sweater Idia had borrowed.
After a while, Epel cleared his throat, still sniffling. Idia couldn't see his face, but he would wager that Epel’s tears had not stopped entirely.
“I just, I- we tried so hard ! It would have been fine if another group from town took first, but instead it’s some RSA kids who don’t even live here. And Mee-Maw took the time to make our stuffed animals and even gave me her cape and I still couldn’t win.” He let out a choked sob. “I’m s’ppsed to be a deadly poison apple, but I can’t even do something to make my town proud. I’m so…” Epel began to cry in earnest again. Idia frowned, his heart clenching a little in his chest.
Slowly, Idia shifted their position so that he was lying on the couch rather than hunched at an uncomfortable angle. He sighed minutely, raising one hand to sit in Epel’s hair while the other continued rubbing soothing motions across his back. After a while, Epel’s muffled sobs began to die down a little.
“You know, I think your town is more proud of you than you know.” Epel didn’t respond, so Idia took it as a chance to continue. “At the feast yesterday, I overheard your grandma boasting about how she was ‘so proud of her little boy’ for getting into Night Raven. And the other townspeople were pretty quick to agree; talking about seeing you grow up, getting into the very own Fairest Queen’s dorm, all that sort of stuff.” Idia smiled softly. “Heck, I even saw the mayor showing pictures from your Magicam to some people. I've only been here for a couple days, so I can’t speak for how the people here feel but… From what I’ve seen, they’re pretty darn proud of you.”
Epel sniffled again, adjusting himself against Idia.
“I just wanna do good. I can’t do good in my dorm, but I thought at least out here in my own town I could do something right.” His voice was hoarse and quiet. Idia hummed.
“Look, I’m gonna let you in on a little secret. At housewarden meetings, we don’t really do any important stuff, it’s a lot of just sitting there.” Epel snorted, and Idia smiled.
“Hey, I’m serious! But anyways, most of the time it just turns into a competition for all the housewardens and their vices to brag about their dorms and recent accomplishments, so I hear a lot of stuff about most of the underclassmen. It’s pretty annoying.” Idia sighed fully this time, recalling the times he had left his precious residence under the notion that the meeting would be important, only to have it turn into some sort of weird ego boosting session. “But listen up when I say that Vil and Rook? They only ever talk about you. It’s always ‘Ah, my little poison apple is coming along so beautifully. He got full marks in alchemy today,’ or ‘Monsieur Cherry Apple scored an incredible goal at Spelldrive practice today, I was graced to see it with my own eyes!’” Epel giggled softly at Idia’s impressions, tears long dry.
“All I’m saying is that I think people are pretty proud of you all around. A real golden child, you are.” He ruffled Epel’s hair. Epel sighed lightly.
“Thank you, Idia.” He didn’t make a move to get up from their spot on the couch, instead content to snuggle in closer to Idia. Eventually, Epel’s breathing evened out and he began to snore softly.
Ah, he was trapped. Although, Idia supposed there were worse places to be stuck in. He carefully reached up, pulling down a blanket that was draped over the couch, and layed it over the two of them. No point trying to move Epel now, the sun would be up in a couple of hours and they had to head back to school in the morning. Idia let his eyes fall shut, finally feeling sleep begin to overtake him.
“Sleep tight, Epel.”