Chapter Text
Adam burst into the Dorm common room. “Norma!”
Norma jumped in her seat as Adam loomed over her.
“Have you been hurting Raz while he sleeps?”
“WHAT!? NO! Of course not!!” Norma glanced at her sister. “If anyone’s hurting Raz in his sleep it’s Lizzie!”
“Norma, throwing your sister under the bus? For shame.”
“Well, Lizzie?” Adam asked as d’Artagnan and Gisu stood near him.
“I wouldn’t break into Pooter’s room. If anyone would do that it’s Sam.”
Sam, who was eating some ice cream, looked back up at them. “Uh uh! No way! I wouldn’t hurt Raz! Morris is the one who has the key to Raz’s room!”
“What!? No! I didn’t do it! Besides, when Raz had the bruises on his neck he was sleeping on the couch, so it could have been anyone! Like Bobby!”
“Bobby didn’t hurt him!” Chloe told the rest of the group. “He was passed out from staying up for 48 hours straight in his own room!”
Kitty raised an eyebrow. “What about you Chloe?”
“Huh?”
“Where’s your alibi?”
Elka stood between the two. “What about your alibi Kitty?”
“Hey hey, Okay. It’s obviously not Kitty or Chloe cause they were with people. But you know who’s never around people? MILKA! And she’d obviously do that to get back at Lili while being scared of her.”
Elton bristled. “Don’t you dare say that! Milka was only mad at Lili cause you two framed her! Besides, if anyone was gonna beat up Raz, it’d probably be Chops.”
“Dude, what the heck?” Chops asked.
“Yeah you little salamander, what do you know about my pardner that’d make you think like that!?”
As the arguing worsened, d’Artagnan sat next to Vernon, who was writing everything he could down in his notebook. Surprisingly, for someone who talked so slow, his hand was incredibly fast as he wrote everything happening. And by everything, d’Artagnan meant everything.
“What about Nils!?” Benny shouted, pointing at him.
Nils, who had been distracted by seeing the girls yelling at each other, suddenly tuned back in. “Huh? What?”
“Hey, yeah! Nils is probably punching Raz considering he’s always jealous of those in relationships.” Elka nodded with a sneer.
Nils shook his head. “Oh please! If anyone is able to get that close to Raz, it’s Dogen.”
“Dogen would have just blown Raz’s head up.” d’Artagnan growled as behind him, Phoebe and Quentin came in for some ice cream, but had also been watching and listening to see what was up.
“Wish we had that power.” Crystal grumbled.
“Yeah, it’d be great.” Clem agreed.
“That’s fucked up.” Bobby said, eyeing the two suspiciously.
“Could be that Dogen has a block, like Phoebe has with me.” Quentin off-handedly mentioned.
“Shut up about my block, okay! You don’t need to rub it in everyone’s faces!”
“Course I do! I like being someone’s favorite.”
“Quentin!”
Dogen finally turned his head from the window, surprised to see everyone engaged with something and took off his headphones. “What?”
Sam looked back to the snot-nose who blamed Dogen. “It couldn’t be Dogen either. Raz, Lili, Dogen, myself? He’d NEVER hurt. However if I hear anyone blame my little brother again, you’re going to wish he’d blown your head up when I’m done with you!”
“Are people mad at me, Sammy?”
“No Dogen, we’re just trying to figure out who hurt Raz.”
“Oh… OK.” Dogen put his headphones back on and turned his video to play again, enjoying the video of kittens purring.
“Alright alright, what about Clem and Crystal?” Benny pointed to them.
“What!? Crystal would never!” Clem shouted.
Crystal huffed. “Yeah, and Clem and Raz are friends! ”
“But what if you guys did it together?” Benny questioned.
“No, it couldn’t have been them. They’re suicidal, not homicidal.”
“Everyone has been blamed except me and d’Artagnan.” Vernon narrated.
“DUDE!” d’Artagnan shouted.
Arguments just kept getting worse.
d’Artagnan was about to just hop off of his chair when Raz finally came in.
“Ah! Raz! Perfect timing! C’mere and sit!” Gisu invited.
Raz did so, confused about what was going on. Gisu put her hands on Raz’s shoulders. “Okay everyone, compare your fist sizes to the bruises on Raz’s neck.”
“WHAT!? Gisu why???”
“We’re going to figure this out!”
Adam nodded. “She’s right.”
The interns quickly deduced that they were not the ones to harm Raz, and began to drag over the new interns to compare and contrast their fists.
“Not Elka… Not Milka… Not Nils… Not Benny… Not J.T. … Not Melvin…”
The door opened again and everyone looked to see who was possibly ruining this deduction.
Lili was holding her arm, looking side to side. “Raz I need to…”
Well, it couldn’t have been Lili. She was Raz’s girlfriend.
Elka’s eyes widened as she looked between Raz’s neck and Lili.
Lili bolted out.
“LILIANNA BLAZE ZANOTTO YOU GET YOUR ASS BACK HERE THIS INSTANT!” Elka shouted, chasing after the Grand Head’s daughter.
Raz tried to stand up to go after them, but Gisu simply grabbed him and sat him back down.
“Where the heck is Dart?”
“It’s d’Artagnan .” A voice from above came. Gisu, Adam, and Raz looked up to see d’Artagnan glaring at all of them on the fan blade.
“Well, let’s look at the others.”
After more were ruled out, Elka came back in, slightly singed. She glanced at the room, and simply said: “I’m going to bed.”
Similarly, Dogen wandered over to Sam, to simply inform her of the same. “Going to bed.” He then waddled over to Raz, ignoring everyone else. He said the same thing. “Going to bed.”
“Sleep well, Dogen.” Raz told him with a smile.
“Yeah, it’s pretty late.” Elton mumbled as Milka disappeared.
Maloof and Mikhail walked in from outside, both covered in weird red goo.
Adam just looked at them and nodded to the boy’s dorm hall. “Go to bed.”
Mikhail and Maloof decided to follow Adam’s suggestion, because he was actually nice.
“Yeah, Kitty.” Franke pulled on Kitty’s sleeve. “We don’t want to miss our beauty sleep.”
“Reckon I been up too late, too. Hopefully I can wake up ‘fore Chop’s crowin’ goes off.”
Chops laughed. “You mean my alarm?”
“Same thang.”
“Good night, Clem!” Crystal skipped over to the girls hall.
“See you in the morning, Crystal!”
Chloe began to push Bobby. “You heard everyone else, it’s bedtime now and you shouldn’t stay up late again.”
“He can walk himself!” Benny told her.
“Shut up, Benny.” Bobby growled, finally moving where Chloe pushed him.
“Thank you, Benny.” Chloe smiled and went off to her own bedroom.
Benny sighed, and left.
Nils shrugged, seeing no more girls he was interested in and heading to his dorm.
Sam finished washing her bowl and placed it back in the cupboard. “See you guys!” Sam walked down to her room.
Lizzie followed her roommate.
“Well, now that everything seems out of the way, I’m leaving too.” Norma said, brushing herself off.
“d’Artagnan. Time to come down.” Adam told him.
“No.” d’Artagnan decided.
“If you don’t come down, I’m getting the broom.”
d’Art stared for a long time. “Do it, you coward.”
Adam walked towards Quentin and Phoebe, who decided to take their ice cream bowls into their rooms. Behind them, Adam opened the storage and got out the broom. “Alright then. Come on down.”
d’Artagnan landed onto his lev-ball and rolled through the hallway.
“Hey no! No Lev-balls in the dorms! Otherwise–”
A CRASH sounded and Adam ran down the hall.
Gisu sighs. “Sorry I couldn’t help you find out what happened, Raz.”
The door opened. Hollis came in. “Ah, Junior Agents Neruman, Aquato, Tripe…” She greeted them all. Hollis looked at Raz. “Did Miss Zanotto explain to you what she did?”
Raz’s eyebrows creased with concern. “What did she do???”
“Apparently she has not told you.”
“WHAT DID SHE DO!!???” Raz asked again, worried.
“Ask her.” Hollis merely said. “I’m not getting involved with teenage relations.”
Gisu watched Hollis walk away, then it dawned on her. “No…”
“What? Do you know what she did?”
“How could she even know that!? You both are babies!” Gisu shouted.
“Gisu, I’m literally 14.”
“Baby! You are a baby boy!”
“I’m a teenager , Gisu. And you’re not my mom!”
“I just… I can’t see you as 14. Cause if you’re 14 that means… I’m an adult.” Gisu gave him a panicked look. “I’m not an adult Raz! I can’t be some uncool square who hasn’t gone on an official mission yet!!”
“You’re not uncool! You have cool levitation powers and fought Maligula with me!”
“No, Raz. I never wanted to be an adult… but now I am… I need to do some… long long thinking…”
Gisu wandered away.
Raz huffed, and then crossed his legs. He reached out to Lili, who seemed extremely agitated, and didn’t calm when Raz’s psychic presence reached out to her. Everyone’s gone now. You can come back.
Are you positive?
Raz glanced back at Vernon. “Vernon, aren’t you going to bed?”
“Is something interesting going to happen?”
“Probably not. I’m probably just going to go to bed myself.”
Vernon then… silently left.
Raz was surprised by that but reached back out to Lili. Everyone’s gone NOW.
Okay.
It took roughly an hour, Raz still felt exhausted, but kept himself up by reading and pacing until Lili came in. She stood by the door, and finally began to speak. “So… I was the one who gave you those bruises.”
“What?”
“On accident! I swear!”
“Explain?”
“So… when I give you those kind of suction kisses… where my mouth is open. It can cause bruising. Milla and Hollis found out about it and… told me that the interns were worried about someone beating you up. And I thought… well when you came to me and asked me about ‘kissing them better’ I thought you were just being flirty. Not serious.”
Raz stared at her.
He stared at her for a long time.
Stared for a very long time.
Lili began to look around everywhere that wasn’t his green eyes.
“So, they’re just kiss marks?”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
Lili was surprised as he lifted her up. One hand on her back and the other on her upper legs. His breath tickled her neck and Lili barely held an ‘
eep!
’ as his mouth opened against her skin.