3rd POV
     Jack gives a half hearted finger salute as trio leaves. He pushes himself from his seat, and notices Ace looking at him. “What?” He questions, shooting him a confused look.
     “I still wanna officially meet one of these girls.” He says blankly. Trey and Jack give him identical deadpan looks. “What! Come on, Trey-Senpai, don’t tell me you’re not curious about the girls either. Specially since you’re a third year and you won’t be around basically at all next year.”
     “Drop it.” Jack says,  now giving him a glare. “It’s already bad enough they’re the only girls here, but they don’t need the extra stress of boys wantin’ to take glances at ‘em like they freakin’ shit on display. So stop, k?”
     Ace gives a silent, slightly scared, nod. Trey gives him an impressed look as Jack searches for a snack in the cabinets. “Hey Senpai, do you know if there’s anything to snack in these cabinets?”
     Trey nods his head and nods his head towards the cabinets by Ace. “Students have areas for each dorm so they’re not stealing snacks from others. It doesn’t work that much, but eh.” 
     Ace stands up, opens the door, and grabs a bag for each of them, tossing one to each. They sit in silence for the most part, messing on their phones. 
     Jack glances around boredly, and suddenly gets an idea. He smirks mischievously, and picks up a piece of popcorn from his snack bag. “Yo, Ace.” Said boy glances up, and Jack says, “Catch.” Throwing a piece towards his mouth. He immediately catches it, giving a cocky smirk. Jack scoffs, and grabs another piece. “Yeah, keep smirking card boy.” He tosses the next piece farther away and Ace bends over to catch it in his mouth. His face disappears behind the counter, then quickly pops up with a smirk and the piece in his mouth. Trey playfully claps his, and Jack follows somewhat unwillingly, making a pretend disappointed face. Ace bows over exaggeratedly. 
     “Thank you, thank you, I’ll be here all week.” “If you’re not expelled by then.” Ace glares at Jack, who holds his hands up innocently.
     Trey rolls his eyes at the two first years who begins to playfully argue. “How about both of you stop talking about expellment and think about something else. Like how you,” he points at Ace, who points at himself confused, “should learn a lesson from this.”
     “The lesson bein’ don’t fuck up or you’ll get expelled.” Jack once again raises his hands innocently. 
     “Ok, stop saying I’ll get expelled!” Ace says, pointing a playfully upset finger at him. 
     Jack gives a simple shrug with a smirk. Trey sighs at the twos bickering. He mutters under his breath, “Children.”
     “Oi!” The two say in unison, making Trey laugh. “Hey, you can call that one a child all you want,” Jack points at Ace, who gives him a deadpan glare, “but I am nothin’ but a man.” 
     Trey raises an eyebrow, and Ace snorts, trying to cover it with a cough. “Jack,” the former says, “what makes you more of a man than Ace?”
     Jack confidently says with a shrug and smirk, “The fact that I ain’t a tart thief or a trashy freshy.” 
     Ace begins to shouts complaints at him, and Trey interrupts saying. “Is that all now?” in an amused tone. Jack pauses before slowly nodding, look a bit less confident in himself. Trey smirks to himself and stands up. “Nothing else you can think of?” Jack glances around at nothing in particular, mostly trying to avoid eye contact. Ace is silently watching. Trey smirks, quickly leans close to Jack’s ear while towering over him, and whispers, “I can think of a few.”  He leans back with a innocent smile, but his eyes glint with mischievous humor seeing the bright red glow covering Jack’s face. He almost burst out laughing seeing a look of disgust on Ace’s face, but thankfully doesn’t, as that’s was the exact moment Deuce, Yuu, and Grim returned. “Ah, welcome back. Find everything ok?”
     Yuu nods, holding up the bag. “Right here. The place was pretty cool too.” They glance over to the two 1st years, one who was voiding everyone's gaze, the other looking at the two that stayed in disgust. “Uh, what happened here?” Yuu ask Trey, raising a confused eyebrow.
     He snickers under his breath and says. “Not much. What happened to Deuce?” He gestures to said boy, who looked to be in a daze. 
    They shake their head and said, “Don’t ask.” 
     Trey chuckles and shrugs. “In that case, let’s finish up.”

༺༻

          Jack Di Trade POV
     ‘Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!’ Is what I felt on the inside, but on the outside I had calmed down and was watching Trey finish up the tart with the others, myself . ”Last, we dust the top with powdered sugar…” He lightly does so, before setting the tool down.
     Ace, Yuu, and Grim had been looking at the tart excitedly, and when he set the tool down, they all yell out, “Finished!!” in excited tones. Deuce doesn't sound as excited as he repeats it.
     I knock myself out of my daze and immediately repeat it too, sounding a bit flustered. The three stare at me and Deuce, and I look away, hoping I don’t blush to hard.
     Ace and Yuu turn to each other as the former ask, “Did something happen while you were out shopping?”
     Yuu rubs the back of their neck with an awkward smile as they say, “Deuce just…had a revolution. MIght be best ot leave him be for a bit. What about what happened here, when we were gone?”
     “Yeah, what happened with the clown?” Grim ask, pointing at me. Ace just gives a disgusted look, not answering.
     I look up with a glare and say, “Oi! I ain’t no clown and nothin’ happened, alright!?” He give Trey and glare when I hear him let out an amused snort, ignoring Deuce’s muttering. 
     Yuu gives a sigh and says, “Well in anycase, I’m exhausted. Both from making sweets and everything else from today.” All the first years nod in agreement.
     “Good work~. Is the tart finished? The decorations are super cute!”
     All the first years pause before slowly turning our heads to the doorway. We see Cater leaning on the doorway with a smile, giving us a teasing wink when he caught our attention. “It’s totally magicamegramable! Let me take a pic.” He takes a pick of us before walking over to the counter and takes a few pics from different angles. We continue to just stare.
     From the corner of my eye I notice Yuu makes a weird face and smacks their mouth, probably from Cater’s vocabulary. ‘Fair, young one, fair.’ I subtly nod in agreement at them.     Ace groans under his breath and says, “Oi! What are you doing here?” He gives Cater an accusing glare.
     Said senpai looks at Ace and says, “I came to check on my cute underclassmen, working so hard.” He playfully taps Ace’s nose, before laughing right in his face. “You look beat!”
     “Things you aren’t used to tire you out quick.” Trey speaks up, and we notice he had set up a piece of tart for each of us. “So when you’re tired you need to eat something sweet. Go ahead and try the mont blanc we made.”
     We all cheer…even Cater. Ace and I give him playful glares. “Cater, you came here just in time to eat the tart!” “Yeah, such great timing for you Cater-senpai." 
     He shrugs his shoulder innocently, the smirk saying anything but. “You can just think of me as the taste-tester.” We all playfully roll our eyes at his excuse.
     Grim had already bound up to a plate and was staring at it,practically with stars in his eyes. “Waaahaaa…It smells so deliciously sweet. The chestnuts on top are glossy while the cream underneath is so fluffy!”
    I give him a strange look. ‘He should be a food critic.’ 
     “Let’s eat!”
     We all take a bite, and Ace nearly drops his fork. “Holy crap!”
     Deuce stares at the mont blanc in shock and says, “It’s like what you get in stores.”
     All I can do is moan from the taste and take another bite.
     Yuu stuffs their mouth and says, “This is freaking amazing, holy shit.”
     Grim has sparkles in his eyes. “It’s not overly sweet but still has richness to it! It’s like a garden of chestnuts in my mouth!”
     Trey ask with an unsure smile, “Is that a compliment?”
     Cater grins in amusement to our reactions, before he excitedly says, “Oh, oh! Trey, do the thing.”
     He gives him a confused look and repeats, “The thing?” A second thought later, he realizes. “Aah, that.” Us first years share confused looks as he suddenly ask, “What’s you favorite food?”
     We share another confused glances before Ace says, “Mine’s cherry pie, that or hamburgers.”
     Grim is practically drooling as he describes his favorite food. “My number one is canned tune. And cheese omurice, and grilled meat and pudding~.” An actual drop of drool falls from his mouth, making Yuu cringe and wipe it up while saying their own favorite.
     Deuce taps his chin in thought for a second. “If I had to pick, omurice, I guess.”
     I immediately answered, “My mama can make a damn good raspberry tiramisu, it’s what I look forward to the most whenever we have a proper big dinner.” I hear Ace snort, and level him with a glare. “Cherry pie.” He stops laughing after that.
     “And mine is grilled lamb with diablo sauce.” We all look ata Cater in shock, and he just shrugs. I look down at his plate and notice he took the tiniest bite he could. ‘Ah, I see.’
     Trey takes out his magic pen and says, “Ok then…Let’s ‘paint the roses’!” He points it at out pieces, the magic happens, then he puts it away. We look confused, while Cater looks excited. “Now take another bite of the ont blanc.”
     We share a look, before we each take a bite. Ace’s eyes widen in shock. “This is…mont blanc but it tastes like cherry pie!”
     Grim takes a bite as he says, “It tastes like canned tune!” Another bite. “Ohh, now it’s cheese omurice!” He keeps on munching, almost finished. “And grilled chicken, and pudding!”
    Cater chuckles as he takes an actual bite of his own and says, “Isn’t it fun?If you did this while having tea with a girl they’d be super impressed!”
     I raise my eyebrows in a teasing way, smirk, and say, “What, tryin’ta find a girl to impress? Got one in mind?”
     “Eh, nope.” He shrugs shoulders, making me sweatdrop.
     “It is amazing though.” Deuce says, looking up at Trey in awe. “Is changing the flavor of food your unique magic, Trey?”
     “Actually, its magic that “overwrites a component”. So not just taste, but I can also overwrite the color or scent or anything. The overwrite only lasts a short time, but covers the real thing, hence painting.”
     Grim rubs his stomach happily and, once again, drools as he says, “That magic sounds like my dream come true, being able to change anything I eat into tasting like canned tuna even when it isn’t~. So much better than the magic Riddle uses to bully people.”
     I silently snort and nudge Trey, and say, “He ain’t wrong about yours being hella cool. Riddle’s is alright, but yours is on another level.”
     Trey looks away , rubbing the back of his neck bashfully as he says, “No…my magic is nothing more than child’s play when compared to Riddle’s. He’s on a different level.”
     We all silently stare at him. He coughs, breaking the tension as he smiles and says, “It’s gotten late. Let’s go home and give RIddle the tart tomorrow. Tomorrow is the Unbirthday Party. Don’t be late.” He says this specifically to Ace and Yuu.
     “Prefect,” the former turns to the later and asks/begs, “will you let me sleepover again? My cruel upperclassmen and fellow first year aren’t going to let me in the dorm!”
     “Hey, I ain’t in charge of you stayin’ or not.” I say, shrugging my shoulders. 
     Cater playfully pouts and says, “Wow. So prickly~.” 
     Deuce pulls the back of Ace’s collar clothe and says, “Ace, don’t force Yuu to spoil you too much.”
     “Yeah!” Grim says, crossing his arms as if trying to be threatening. “You gotta pay to stay! 10 cans of tuna!” 
     Ace gives a scandalized look and screeches, “Whaaat! Are you telling me to sleep outside?”
     Yuu flicks Grim’s ear and says, “No, you can stay, don’t mind him.” Ace pumps his fists in celebration and Deuce rolls his eyes somewhat playfully.
     Trey stares at them for a moment before saying, “Deuce, why don’t you stay in their dorm to keep an eye on Ace? As the vice dorm leader, I give you permission.”
     “Trey, you’re spoiling the trashy freshies.” “Agreed, you’re spoiling these newbies.” Me and Cater say.
     Cater then continues, “Hey Prefect, can I go too?”
     “Not you, Cater.”
     He pouts, and I snicker under my breath. “Bringing me down, #rude.” He says.
     Trey turns to Yuu and says, “I’m sorry about forcing these two on you, but we’re counting on you tomorrow.”
     Yuu gives a half salute and says, "No problem Trey. I'm a bit used to them at this point, sadly."
     Deuce gives Yuu a playful glare as Ace says, mostly to himself, "Tomorrow is the Unbirthday Party. This collar is definitely coming off! Just you watch, Riddle."
     I snicker under my breath, and Ace whips his face over to me with a glare. I hold my hands up innocently, and everyone else chuckles at us. 
     "Ok guys, it's time to head back." Trey says, gaining our attention. "We'll see you three tomorrow. Jack, Cater, let's go." 
     Yuu picks up Grim, and the four walk out, while me and the other two go the other way. 

༺༻

     As we walk back to the dorms, we pass by the Cafeteria. After a moment, I pause, and walk backwards to look into said Cafeteria. Cater and Trey follow me confused. Inside is Opal and the purple haired boy from lunch who both perk their heads up seeing us. "Sup." Opal says, taking a bite of some cheesy fries between the two of them. 
     "Sup yourself." I say confused, and walk in. Cater and Trey stayed back near the doorway. I sat next to Opal, giving the other boy an unsure look the whole time. 
     He finishes his bite and wipes his hands before holding them out to me, giving me a smile. "Howdy." I nearly choke on my spit at how heavy his accent is. "Names Epel Flemier." 
     I shake his hand and return the smile. "Jack Di Trade. Nice to meet ya." I give Opal a confused look that asking 'why is this random boy eating with you?' She sighs and says, "We were both gettin' tired of Vil tellin' us what to do, so we bounced into here."
     "Holy shit it's a country convention." We all turn and give Cater identical looks that  scream 'dumbass'. He flushes a bit, before awkwardly chuckling. "Sorry, sorry, mouth got ahead of me." He hurried in and takes the seat next to Epel. "Sooo… you're Jack's little 'friend', right?" He had a teasing smirk on his face. Little will he realize… 
     Opal gives a deadpan look before saying, "No, I'm his fuck buddy that uses code names." Cater and Trey choke on their spit, while Epel does a double take. I smack my forehead and ignore her evil giggles. 
     "She's a liar." I say, and smack her arm playfully. She holds her arm and pretends it hurt, while I give her an amused deadpan stare. “Don’t even you little shit.” I say while chuckling. The others were watching us amused, and Cater chuckles. I sneakily grab a fry and eat it before Opal could take it back. 
     She gives me a glare, and smacks my arm back. “Jerk, don’t go stealin’ our fries.” I chuckle, and Trey says, “The fries do look good though. I’ll go back into the kitchen and grab some more.” He gets up and does just that.

༺༻

          3rd POV
     After an (almost) midnight snack and everyone getting to know one another, everyone returns to their own dorms. As the Heartslabyul trio enter, another student rushes up to the two senpai’s in a panic. “Trey-Senpai, Cater-Senpai, I’m so relieved you’re finally back!”
     Trey gives a confused/concerned look and ask, “What’s wrong?”
     “There were 10 residents in violation of Laws of the Queen of Hearts Number 256: “Just after 8pm one must drink lemonade with honey” that got their heads offed by Riddle…” He whimpers before he begins to tear up. “I can’t live like this anymore! I’m rendered immobile by rules I don’t understand…I want to transfer to another dorm…” He covers his face with his hands and begins to sob.
     Cater and Trey exchange looks behind Jack’s head, who was looking at the student in sympathy. “...Everything’s going to be fine. I’ll go talk to our dorm leader.” He turns to Jack and ask, “Can you take them back to their rooms?”
     Jack looks between the two before he sighs, shrugs his shoulders and says, "Yeah, sure Senpai. Come on, let’s grab some tissues then get goin’.” He grabs the students shoulder, and casting a look over to the Senpai’s, begin to take the student away.
     As the two walk away, Cater groans, his shoulders drooping, and says, “I suppose I shoulder go get some tea ready to try to win favor with the queen.”
     “I’m sorry, Cater.” Trey says, before he adjust his hat. “Oh yeah. Make sure to pick herbal tea instead of black tea. I’m pretty sure rule Number 153 mentions something about evening tea…” He trails off before he sighs.
     Cater stares silently for a moment before he also sighs and says, “Will do, okay.” He walks to the kitchen, and Trey waits a moment before he tiredly sighs and sits down, taking off his glasses and rubbing the bridge of his nose.

༺༻

     Back in Ramshackle, Ace and Deuce are downstairs on the couches snoring asleep. Upstairs Grim is curled on a pillow, purring contentedly. And Yuu…
     They bolt upward with a startled gasp, sweat staining their shirt collar. They hold their head in pain as the image of black ink fills their head again. Their eyes open as it passes. They take a few deep breaths and mutter to themselves, “What’s happening to me?” 
     They whimper and bury their head into their knees.