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Scara always hated going to Sandrone’s house. Waiting for the cameras to properly identify their faces, greeting the bodyguards at the front— the process of simply entering the Guillotin’s house was more convoluted than necessary. But he would rather deal with that than fail his chemistry final.
“Fabio, Pulonia! Are we ever gonna spar?” Childe asks cheerfully as they push through the door.
“Will you stop asking that? It's not gonna happen, and really, it’s getting old. Really old.” Scara grumbled.
“That’s the point. If I ask it enough, Sandrone’ll give in and put fencing in their code… how do you think I managed to convince her to give us the notes?”
“I… ugh, whatever.” They stepped inside the giant lounge area, the space traditional and grand in a way Scara would both never get used to and understand. Surely a house that only inhabits two individuals would be a lot more… modest.
His internal grievances regarding their residence were short-lived when he heard Alain call them from the kitchen. Unlike the ginger boy, who somehow possessed an abundance of energy despite it being 9AM on a Sunday— Scara had to drag his feet towards the warm voice, exhaustion continuing to loom over him like a pest. He wouldn’t fail if he decided to catch up on some sleep after this visit, would he?
“Its always a pleasure to see you guys.” Alain said with a smile.
“I’m glad you aren’t sick of us yet, Mr. Guillotin,” Childe remarks lightly, getting a small laugh out of the other.
“Why would I? I’m glad to know Sandrone has friends kind enough to come over so often.” He placed his coffee on the table, the motion making a faint thud sound. “Be that as it may, Sandrone and Columbina studied really hard last night— so I’ve left them alone so they can sleep in for the morning. If you want, I can get some breakfast for you both while you wait.”
“As lovely as that sounds,” Scara drawls, “small talk over some bacon and eggs is the last thing I want to do.”
Childe narrowed his eyes judgmentally, putting an arm around the shorter boy’s shoulders before turning them around to speak in a hushed tone: “Dude, you’re seriously turning down rich kid breakfast?”
“We literally stopped by Taco Bell before we came here.” He said sharply, “How do you still want food??”
“Pulonia is a great cook! Can you really blame me?”
“We can eat Sandrone’s entire pantry later. Right now, our plan was to get the notes, leave, and sleep through the entire morning before I spend the rest of the day staring at my goddamn papers.” He spewed.
“Uh, that’s your plan. Not mine.”
“You aren’t gonna study?”
“Hey, I’ll look it over…! Probably.” The ginger replied sheepishly. “But Lumine wanted to go to this party later, and that’s infinitely more important.”
Scara scowled. “Why the hell did you even come, then??”
Childe pointedly ignored the question. “Look— even if you don’t wanna eat, it’s not like we have much of a choice. We can’t just break into her room.”
“Sure we can.” He said, “She always just leaves her notes lying around on her desk. Can’t be that hard to sneak in and go.”
Before his friend could protest, Scara had already released himself from the boy’s grip so he could begin darting towards the stairs. Childe quickly followed behind, the duo’s evident lack of order managing to get a small chuckle out of Alain and a reminder not to wake his daughter— to which they both ignored.
“Scara, I know you’ve never had a girlfriend in your life— but I feel like it’s common courtesy to, y’know, not break into a girl’s room?”
“We’re not breaking in, dipshit,” he retorted, “we’re just getting what we need.”
“So breaking in.”
“Passing my final, is how I see it— but sure.”
They reached the end of the long corridor, standing awkwardly in front of Sandrone’s door. It shouldn’t be too difficult— after all, his friends regularly barged into Scara’s own residence unprompted, unanimously deciding his room was fit to be the group’s hangout space. Doing the same thing to Sandrone couldn’t hurt.
Childe cleared his throat. “Most people knock.”
“It’s Sandrone. She doesn’t deserve manners.” Scara said with a roll of his eyes. He put his hand on the knob, before gently opening the door.
—-
Sandrone woke up to Columbina’s bare body curled up against her side. She couldn’t help the flush that rose to her cheeks when she felt the other’s steady and warm breath against her collarbone, not helped by the arm draped around her waist, the hold weak but undeniably affectionate. There was a heat between their bodies that a blanket could never replicate, and she had the sudden urge to lean in, but rationality told her that her servant walking in on them— or worse, Alain seeing her in this state, was not worth indulging in the warmth her partner was pampering her with.
However, if she woke up at 9AM, as routine follows— she would at least have an hour to sneak Columbina out of the house before either of them woke up… But as she untangled herself from her embrace and glanced at her phone, she realized she was tardy by 50 minutes. Never in her life has she been thrown off routine like this, and never would she allow it to be because of some adolescent affair— but somehow, she had let herself get distracted— and she had roughly 10 minutes to get Columbina out before her caregivers decided to check in on her.
“Columbina,” she spat out, shaking her aggressively by the shoulder, “get up!”
“Mm,” Despite the panic evident in her voice, Columbina saw it as an invitation to shift closer. Her face nuzzled into the crook of her neck, and her arm came around her bare waist once again to bring her closer. It was even worse than how they were moments prior, because now she could feel every inch of her against her— her dark hair tickling her jaw, her arm brushing against the skin underneath her breasts— she was convinced that every movement was calculated to distract her, to overwhelm her to the brink of insanity.
“For fucks sake— Columbina!” She shoved her off, firmly enough to finally wake the other up. “We slept in! Pulonia is programmed to come in here any minute, and if he sees us like this…”
Columbina rubbed her eyes groggily before her eyes fluttered open. In her peripheral vision, she watched Sandrone roll to the edge of the bed and reach towards the ground. Without warning, a baby blue bra hit her right in the face. She removed it with unrestrained amusement, which was only amplified by the scowl on the other’s face.
“Are you kicking me out, Sandrone?” She asked calmly.
“You just realized??” She exclaimed. “I don’t want there to be a shred of evidence that this happened! None!’
Columbina furrowed her brows. “Did you regret what we did last night? I was under the assumption that you enjoyed yourself… You were, ah, quite des—”
“Shut up!” She managed to gather most of Columbina’s clothes before throwing it into her lap. “Put them on!”
“I don’t know. If I’m being honest, I kinda prefer you like this.” she remarked, a small smile tugging at her lips as her eyes trailed down the girl’s upper half. The girl’s adoring gaze only made Sandrone more irritated about the situation, pulling her sports bra down to hide her extremities.
“Ugh, you pervert!” She shrieked, though staring wasn’t exactly the worst thing Columbina had done to her in the past few hours.
“I really don’t see what there is to be embarrassed about.” Columbina said. “Pulonia’s a robot with no understanding of our activities. And I’m sure Alain wouldn’t mind that I slept over.”
“You didn’t just sleepover, dumbass.”
“I digress.”
Sandrone inhaled deeply, the only thing preventing her from snapping at the girl’s obliviousness was the fact she was currently naked in her bed, her pale skin glistening under the rays of sun peeking through the blinds and her eyes affectionate in a way that made her shiver.
Suddenly, Columbina settled back into the mattress, her dark hair splaying all over the pillow like spilled paint. Sandrone was not looking forward to picking out the hair she’ll leave on the covers or having to go through the effort of asking her servants to wash away Columbina’s scent on the sheets.
“What the hell are you doing? I told you to put your damn clothes on!”
“Your bed is too comfy. I think I’ll stay here for a bit longer.”
“I know you don’t give a shit about dignity,” Sandrone began, “but I am too great to be caught in such a humiliating act with the likes of–!”
The door swung open, where Scara and Childe stood at the doorway. She froze on the spot, staring at the boys uncomfortably before it finally closed shut.
—
Sandrone was tempted to not show up at all, but her fear of failing senior year was stronger than facing the humiliation of yesterday. She spotted their space in the lower commons, which was a table they unanimously claimed in sophomore year. Even from a distance, she could make out Childe’s loud and unproductive chatter on the phone, Columbina sleeping on her papers, and Scara failing to focus… for the first time that morning, she grimaced at something that wasn’t of her own shame. This group really was screwed without her.
Reluctantly, she approached the table. She hasn’t spoken a word to any of them since the day prior, and she could only hope it wouldn’t be brought up.
“You two manage to understand the material?” She asked the two boys, taking a seat next to Columbina.
Childe shrugged. “It was pretty difficult to, without your notes, Sandy—“
“Don’t call me that.”
“But Scara managed to pull through and write some yesterday.” The ginger continued. “I’m guaranteed to pass now!”
“Did you even look them over? You’ve been on call with Lumine the whole time.” Scara gestured to the phone on the table.
He waved his hand dismissively. “We have an hour before the final starts. I’ll be fine!”
“You’re hopeless.” Sandrone said.
“Says the girl who couldn’t even give us her notes on time,” the blue haired boy muttered.
She shot him an annoyed scowl, “maybe if you actually paid attention in class, you’d have your own notes instead of having to take mine!”
Scara scoffed. “Did you even study?”
She abruptly stood from her chair, her face contorting into anger. “Of course I did!”
“Didn’t look like much studying was being done,” The boy deadpanned. The comment only worsened the red in her cheeks.
Childe perked up, “Oh, so we’re finally addressing this?”
“There’s nothing to address!” She shrieked. “And for the record, we did study!”
“Study what? Sexual education?” Scara remarked.
“Our finals, dipshit!”
“That’s inaccurate.” Columbina’s calm voice interrupted. “I think it’s more in line with… physics. Momentum.”
“Not helping, Columbina!”
Scara let out a sigh. “Look. We don’t care if you two are fucking now, alright? Do whatever you want. Right now, I’m more concerned about passing finals so I won’t be put into an adoption centre again.”
“Don’t you dare insinuate that this’ll ever happen again,” Sandrone snapped. “It was all an accident! It’ll never happen again!”
Columbina sighed in disappointment. “That’s unfortunate.”
“Shut up!”
Sandrone managed to shift the topic to today’s final, threatening to never help them with future assignments if it was ever brought up again. She hoped after today it would be forgotten by everybody, because it surely wasn’t forgotten by her.
During her final, Columbina continued to be an annoyance. Solving equations should have been the first thing on her mind, yet all she could think about was the warmth of Columbina’s body against her own, her breath against her neck and her gentle touch. It was a miracle she managed to pass the exam when lewd thoughts consumed her brain.
She had told herself she wouldn’t do it again. But one night spent with her had made Sandrone addicted to her presence, and she wasn’t the kind of person to ignore her own needs. Before she knew it, her phone was ringing. Columbina answered in no time.
“Mm?” The girl’s quiet hum echoed through the phone. “I never thought I’d ever see you call first, Sandrone.”
“Shut up.” She said with no heat. “Just… Can you come over?”
She could hear the smile in her voice as the words left her lips; “I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”