One Month Later

“Vex!”

Vex glanced up before internally groaning as he saw Felix approaching him with an unnaturally wide smile and ridiculously fluffed flaxen hair.

Felix Blake was Vex’s cousin and had only been a few years above Vex throughout their academic lives. Felix had returned to Nessus University after gaining an apparent ‘wealth’ of medical experience and was now in residence as the academy’s principal doctor.

Felix was blond and handsome and for some reason, Vex had always found him irritating and unreadable.

“I wanted to be the first to pass on my congratulations,” Felix continued despite Vex refusing to even greet him but instead continuing to walk towards the nearest onsite café.

“Thank you,” Vex replied, having no idea what Felix was talking about but still enjoying the frisson of annoyance he could feel from the other demon at not yet having riled Vex up.

“Oh so you’re aware of the good news then?” Felix continued, after a moment’s faltering. “Well then, when are you planning to introduce Ciel to your father? I’d love to be there, make it a real family affair and all that.”

Vex frowned, trying to run through all the names that he knew, but ‘Ciel’ certainly didn’t ring a bell.

“What are you talking about?” Vex sighed, his curiosity winning out over his determination to irritate Felix.

“Ciel Rai?” Felix hummed innocently. “He’s pregnant.”

“Congratulations to him then,” Vex huffed, immediately cataloguing all his most recent one night stands to frantically reassure himself that this really had nothing to do with him.

It was impossible, Vex never released his fertilisation packet during casual sex as higher half-demons had the ability to control physiological release.

“I couldn’t believe it when the scan showed you as the other parent,” Felix laughed as Vex froze and turned to face his cousin.

“Impossible,” Vex replied through gritted fangs.

“But true,” Felix let out a long exhalation, almost like a triumphant whoop. “And guess what Vex?” Felix whispered, leaning forwards so his curly blond hair tipped and revealed his twirled ivory horns.

“What?” Vex snarled, feeling his blood pulse and gather, forming whirlpooled migraines under his own, thick, onyx horns.

“He’s an aquatic demon,” Felix’s grin turned so wide Vex wasn’t sure his ears wouldn’t split in two. “Your father will be thrilled,” Felix’s sarcastic laugh echoed around them as Vex felt his blood turn cold. 

“You’re lying,” Vex snapped. “Your stupid ploys were dumb when we were children but now they’re just pathetic,”

“Oh Vex,” Felix, clutched his hand to his chest with a wounded expression. “Come now, we’re cousins remember? Family is oh so important to the Dubois clan. Which is exactly what makes this news so exciting.”

Vex stopped and stared hard at Felix, the other man was a sociopath but not an idiot, there would be no point to such a finite ruse but the alternative was inconceivable.

“Oh, by the way, you’ve been summoned by the Elders,” Felix announced breezily. "I’ve come to escort you."

After that Vex kept his mouth shut so as to not betray his panic. Instead, he followed Felix all the way through the labyrinth of academy corridors until they reached the chamber of the Elder Council.

The chamber was a dark royal blue with vaulted ceilings. A relief of Dante’s Inferno was etched across the far wall and a depressed looking Charon rowed his way up an Acheron River of embedded sapphires.

“Vex Dubois,” Elder Tomiko rose in greeting, gesturing for Felix to stand to one side. “We have much to discuss.” 

Two Weeks Earlier

Ciel tucked himself futher behind the stone pillar of the pergola, peeking out to try and catch a glimpse of the senior students who were milling about the lawns in the midday sun.

Sure enough, Vex Dubois was in the centre of a crowd, the other man’s dark brown hair reflecting the rays whilst his obsidian, leathery tail arched gracefully above him, the end an aggressively sharpened weapon in the vague shape of a fleur de lis.

Everyone knew Vex Dubois. He was famous at the academy, a top marks student, heir to Dubois Enterprises and a face and body that seemed to impress all those around him.

Vex was also notorious, however, for his cool and icy demeanour. In other words, he was a massive, narcissistic jerk.  

Therefore, when Ciel had disorientatedly found himself blinking up at Vex at a party a couple of weeks before, he had expected to get a scolding. Ciel had already prepared a snappy retort, balanced on his tongue in automatic self defence.

Instead, Vex had kindly helped Ciel up, his touch warm and gentle. Ciel knew he had a reputation for being rather prickly himself, but it was different, Ciel’s demeanour was born from necessity, especially in a place like Nessus.  

Ciel’s azure hair denoted him as having water heritage, a lower class of lineage than other demonic inheritances and on top of that, his surname meant nothing here to the elite and socially conscious students of Nessus.

Furthermore, the fact that he was part aquatic meant his skin often reacted badly to the humidity changes on land, scaling and peeling or becoming inflamed in patches that he self consciously tried to cover up with heavy knitted sweaters and bundled scarves.

Ciel wasn’t classically handsome, far from it. He was thin and bony with an angular face and a limp tail that wouldn’t stop anxiously hugging his leg no matter how much he coaxed it.

He had been raised in an orphanage, a home for unwanted demonic spawn run by the controlling and snapping Mrs. Cruxa. Thankfully, Ciel’s hard work and decent grades had enabled him to gain scholarship entry to Nessus Academy but sadly, it did not gain him friends.

The isolation had started off manageable at first but it had grown, from a faint echo to a roaring emptiness that gnawed at everything he did, pervasive and encompassing.

In the end, Ciel had used it to sharpen himself. He no longer flinched when his peers made a passive aggressive remark or cowered when he passed large groups in the hallways. Which is why he had been totally prepared to bite back at whatever insults Vex Dubois hurled his way, but that hadn’t happened. Vex had actually been nice.

Ciel rolled his eyes at himself, he was being pathetic, drawn in like a fish to the slightest dangling bait of kindness.

He tried to tell himself that the devastatingly erotic dream he had experienced that night of the party was nothing to do with the way Vex’s touch had lingered on Ciel’s skin.

Ciel had convinced himself that the dark haired man whose shoulders he had clutched whilst writhing in agonised pleasure bore absolutely no resemblance to the demon now smirking with friends on the grass in front of him.

He felt his cheeks heat up in embarrassment, recalling the dream. It wasn’t like the setting or the theme had been anything new, Ciel’s night time imagination had always been vivid, but something had felt different, almost tangible.  

Ciel suddenly groaned as another flash of nausea wove its way through his stomach. He hadn’t been able to keep breakfasts down recently and was starting to wonder if he should go to the sanatorium for a check up.

He scrunched up his face, willing the dizziness to pass, however when Ciel opened his eyes he gasped. Vex Dubois was frowning at him from across the lawn, as if just having noticed that Ciel was there. Ciel quickly gathered up his things and fled across the quad towards his next lecture hall.