LATER THAT DAY!
It was now night-ti in the Demon Academy, the various night lights illuminating the magnificent campus as a restless hush settling after the uproar of the day.
Most were still shocked at Albedo’s beast defeating Celeste in public, and late night discussions were already happening across not just the Academy, but the entire Demon Kingdom about what that would an for the future, especially since there was already a spot-light on Albedo due to his shenanigans with Lilian.
However, far from the crowded dormitories, Lilian was walking through the northern wing of the Academy, which was nearly deserted at this hour, only sparsely used by the night-owls looking for peace and quiet.
Tall windows of black crystal admitted thin strands of moonlight, silvering the obsidian floor. Her boots made only the faintest sound, a rhythmic echo that seed to fall into step with her thoughts.
So much had shifted since the Exchange Program began. What was ant to be a way for her and Celeste to get so fun revenge for what happened when they t Albedo had spiraled out of control.
Now pretty much every influential Demon across the entire Kingdom had their eyes on the Academy because of what happened in the past couple days.
Now she was trying to get so peace and quiet to relax herself after a stressful day. She was halfway past a row of shuttered classrooms when the air changed.
It was subtle at first, a faint vibration in the mana around her, a ripple of presence that brushed against her senses like the stroke of a cold fingertip.
Her stride faltered and Lilian imdiately turned her head, scanning the darkened hallway, but she didn’t spot anything behind her, not even a shadow, and her senses didn’t pick up anything either.
"Paranoid," she murmured to herself, though her vampiric instincts thrumd in warning.
In the next mont, before she could react, the door behind her swung inward with a sharp click of runes, and a sudden rush of cool air.
The next instant, a strong hand wrapped around her waist and pulled her inside, the door slamming shut with a resonant thud, locking itself with a flash of violet glyphs.
"Wha!"
Her protest was cut short as her back t the cold wood of the door. A taller figure stepped into the sliver of moonlight slicing through the window.
Platinum hair and eyes glowing faintly with Source Code’s violet runes, it was Albedo, his gaze piercing as he looked into her eyes.
"Wha—Albedo!" Lilian gasped, her heart leaping into a furious rhythm, "What are you?"
He didn’t answer, or rather his answer shocked her as instead of giving her a normal response, Albedo leaned in with sudden, disarming speed and captured her lips in a single, heated kiss.
The world contracted to the press of his lips against hers, the faint taste of smoke and ozone clinging to him like the aftermath of lightning. For a heartbeat she forgot everything, where they were, why he was here, even the sound of her own pounding heart.
His hand braced beside her head, the other resting lightly at her waist, not restraining but impossibly sure whereas her hands twitched against his chest, torn between shoving him away and pulling him closer. His presence flooded her senses, cool intelligence wrapped in dangerous warmth.
It lasted only a heartbeat, two at most. Then he pulled back, breaking the kiss with a faint smirk curling at the edge of his mouth.
Lilian blinked up at him, crimson eyes wide, "What," she demanded, her voice rising in a startled scream that echoed against the classroom’s stone walls, "was THAT?!"
Albedo rested one palm against the door beside her head, his lean fra caging her in just enough to make her pulse race faster, "So more payback," he said simply, his voice laced with amusent, "And... maybe a little fun."
"YOUUU!" Lilian said angrily, pointing her finger at him but unable to quite get the words together to explain her current emotions.
Her cheeks flad despite the cool night air, "That is not, this is not, " She broke off, furious that her voice betrayed even a hint of a tremor, "You can’t just drag in here and, "
"Can’t I?" His smile deepened, not cruel but undeniably predatory, "You’re really fast when you want to be. If you truly didn’t want this, Lilian, you would have moved before I ever touched you."
Her heart hamred hard enough to ache. She wanted to deny it, to spit back a cutting retort, but the truth of his words clung like static in the charged air between them.
"This isn’t a ga," she said finally, her voice sharper than she intended.
"That’s strange cuz I’m having a-lot of fun right now," Albedo said causing her to glare at him angrily once more.
Once he said that, a strange silence settled between them that stretched like a drawn bowstring, charged and humming with the energy of everything unsaid.
Lilian glared up at him, crimson eyes flashing, her breath still uneven from the suddenness of the kiss. The faint glow of the moonlight slanted across Albedo’s face, sharpening the line of his jaw, making the faint violet runes in his eyes gleam like distant stars.
"So that’s it?" she finally snapped, voice low and dangerously sharp, "You pull in here, steal a kiss, and then just...smirk at like a smug bastard? Was this all just to tease ?"
Albedo tilted his head, studying her with that infuriating calm of his. The corner of his mouth tugged upward again, but this ti there was sothing heavier behind the look, less amusent, more calculation.
"No," he said simply. "If I only wanted to tease you, I’d have done it in front of everyone."
Lilian blinked, taken aback by the bluntness of his tone, "Then what, exactly, was this?"
He leaned a fraction closer, enough for the cold wood of the door to press harder against her back. "I need your help."
That was the last thing she expected. "Help?" she repeated, brows knitting. "With what? If this is so ridiculous human exchange-student sche,"
"This isn’t a ga," Albedo interrupted, his voice dropping to a low, resonant calm that carried an edge of sothing far more serious. "During Ember’s battle with Nyx... I felt it. There was outside interference. Subtle, precise, like a thread of foreign mana woven into the fight. Soone tampered with the arena’s wards to weaken Ember at key monts. Whoever it was, they’re skilled enough to hide their presence even from the Demon Professors."
Lilian’s eyes narrowed, the flush of her earlier embarrassnt cooling into wary focus, "You’re sure? The arena is designed with preventative runes to avoid that kind of event,"
"Positive," Albedo replied, "It wasn’t just a random fluctuation. It was deliberate. Soone wanted Ember, and by extension, at a disadvantage."
Her fingers tightened against her arms where she had crossed them defensively. "And you dragged into a deserted classroom and... that", she gestured sharply toward the space between them, "because...?"
"Because I need soone who understands the political webs of this Academy," he said smoothly. "Soone who can move in Demon circles without raising alarms, soone who knows the gas your nobles like to play. And because I can trust you more than anyone else here."
Lilian scoffed, though the sound lacked conviction, "Trust ? You have an odd way of showing it. And why, exactly, should I help you?"
Albedo’s smile returned, slow and deliberate, the kind of grin that promised trouble. He leaned in until his breath ghosted against her ear.
"Because if you don’t," he murmured, "I’ll just have to get... more brazen in public. Next ti, maybe I won’t wait until we’re alone to steal a kiss again, I’m leaving soon anyway, you’ll have to suffer all these consequences yourself,"
The threat , or was it a promise? Sent a hot flush racing across Lilian’s cheeks. She stepped back instinctively, only to find the door still behind her. "You!" she started, but the words tangled themselves into a frustrated hiss.
"Think about it," Albedo said lightly, straightening with infuriating ease, "Help , and I’ll keep my...boldness contained. Refuse, and..." He let the unfinished sentence hang in the charged air, his violet eyes glinting with wicked amusent.
Lilian’s crimson gaze locked on his, the sharp retort on her tongue dissolving beneath the quickened beat of her own heart. Her instincts scread to deny him, to put distance between them, but curiosity and a treacherous spark of excitent coiled tight in her chest.
Finally, she exhaled a slow, controlled breath. "Fine," she said, her voice softer than she intended. "I’ll help you. But only because I have my own reasons for wanting to know who’s tampering with Academy wards. Don’t you dare think this gives you permission for..." Her blush deepened. "...that again."
Albedo’s answering grin was pure satisfaction. "Good," he said, as if her agreent had never been in question. "We’ll start tomorrow. For now, just enjoy the fact that you get to spend more ti with ."
Her eyes widened in outrage. "You!"
"Good night, Lilian." His smirk lingered as he stepped back, the violet glyphs on the door unlocking with a soft hiss. He slipped out into the moonlit hallway with silent, unhurried strides, leaving only the faint scent of ozone and the echo of his presence behind.
Lilian remained pressed against the door, one hand hovering over her chest as if to steady the frantic rhythm beneath.
"Was that really all he wanted to do...?" she whispered to herself, crimson eyes still glowing faintly in the dim light.
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