Vile Attraction (Floyd Leech/Yuu, Jade Leech/Yuu)

15 ~ Ruined Plans

Azul was at his wits' end. Between Floyd always whining about wanting to be with his girlfriend and Jade taking random days completely off of work with increasing frequency, he was at a loss for how to handle the twins.

The most concerning thing to Azul was how strange Jade seemed to be acting. Floyd was capricious and volatile, but where he lacked responsibility, Jade made up for it. He always managed to balance his personal fascinations and his obligations, but something recently had come up and was affecting his performance at the Mostro Lounge.

And if something was affecting the Mostro Lounge, it was Azul's business.

While he could always ask what was going on, that would make Jade close up and it would become impossible to find anything more about the situation, so Azul planned to observe him.

At lunch, Floyd would always join the prefect nowadays, so it would be just him and Jade. They usually would discuss business-related topics, but recently, Jade was becoming more spacey. Azul turned to look where Jade was looking, finding that his gaze landed directly on the prefect's table.

Fighting back the urge to widen his eyes in shock, Azul made a mental note. It wasn't quite the fact that he was staring that was noteworthy since Jade would often watch their table since he enjoyed how uncomfortable Floyd made the other freshman, but rather his expression. It would be one thing if it was Floyd making that expression while staring in that direction since he was dating the prefect, but Jade...

He quickly averted his stare when he noticed Jade side-eyeing him and suddenly became very interested in picking at his lunch.

"I thought I felt someone's gaze on me," Jade commented, raising his eyebrows. "Is there something you need, Azul?"

Azul cleared his throat. "I wanted to discuss the budget reports, but you seemed to be a bit, ah, preoccupied." All of the pieces in Azul's head were falling into place; everything was suddenly starting to make sense.

Jade's eyes narrowed slightly at the remark but he simply smiled and responded, "Not at all. I haven't managed to take a close look at them, unfortunately, but I've glanced it over."

Adjusting his glasses, he took a deep breath and turned his head to fully face the other boy. "Jade, could we have a word after classes?" As quickly as Azul had started observing, he had been caught, so he might as well try to talk to Jade about it.

Azul followed his eyes as he glanced back to the prefect's table, then to another table that he wasn't able to catch before Jade's gaze returned to him. "I'm afraid I'm a bit busy today..."

"Jade," Azul spoke harshly, "As your housewarden, I need to have a word with you."

He hated resorting to the authority he had as a housewarden when it came to the twins since status had no bearing on their relationship, but he would be lying if he said he could manage Octavinelle perfectly fine without Jade as its vice.

An indiscernible look flashed through Jade's eyes, but he quickly masked it with another one of his signature smiles. "...Of course." He stood, gathering his belongings. "I'll be seeing you later then, Housewarden."

"Jade—"

Before he was able to get anything else out, Jade was walking away. Azul was perplexed by the interaction, mostly stunned by all of the new realizations and slightly shocked that it took him this long to piece everything together. At least he was now certain that Jade was not acting weird because of a new mushroom that he had discovered.

'The expression he was making at the prefect... Maybe I shouldn't be jumping to such conclusions. But he was definitely looking at their table. What else would he be looking at? It only makes sense...'