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Caught Between Fire and Ice

Chapter 2: Melting the Ice

Notes:

I'm currently trying to come up with my own human design of them and atm, the story is set around fall/mid-fall so I'm also trying to take that into account. Finding an outfit for Stolas was fine, for Andrealphus idrc I must say, buddy is probably the kinda dude who would never shiver under the snow with a shirt, right, my issue is VASSAGO. His og fit is at the same time too basic but also too fancy for a college student (even if they're all rich) idk if that makes sense and I don't want to give him just a white shirt and black pants like any average guy, UGHHH.

Also for those who wondered, Vassago and Stolas are 20, while Andrealphus is 21 because he took a gap year, they also each have a different major but they're all in the same field so they have a lot of classes in common.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Stolas did think that he wanted to see Andrealphus again to have a deeper talk, but he also didn’t expect to see him so soon after meeting at the coffee shop earlier.

“What are you doing here?”

“What do you think, spit on poor people?” He snarled before letting out a high-pitched laugh. “That’s only on week-ends though, obviously I’m here to attend class.”

“I thought you were busy-”

“And I’m done with my business, I said let’s meet on the campus, didn’t I?” 

He smirked, flapping his scarf over his shoulder then taking a seat next to him without even asking if it was fine with him. Stolas didn’t care, but he was slightly worried due to Vassago sitting on his other side and sending glares to Andrealphus. 

“Talking about poor people, I heard you finally broke up with that vulgar proletarian of yours, how about I take you out this week-end to celebrate such a glorious day?”

“Stolas, you’re not going to accept his offer- right-?” Vassago suddenly interrupted. 

Stolas looked awkwardly at the two of them. 

“Sure, Andrealphus.”

“Stolas-!?”

Vassago would have slammed the table if Stolas didn’t pinch his thigh as a reminder to the former not to go overboard. Though he could understand Vassago’s reaction. That may have been surprising, hell, alright, he admitted that this was absolutely crazy. Even though they used to be, somewhat, close in the past, that was before. The Andrealphus of today wasn’t the same man and Stolas wasn’t very sure yet of how he should treat him, but that was exactly why he accepted, to Vassago’s dismay.

“I know that breaking up with Stella hurt you, but I didn’t think it would be so bad that you would just hang out with anyone, dear Stolas.”

“Say that again-!”

“Alright guys-” Stolas put an arm around Vassago’s shoulders while pushing Andrealphus away with his other hand so these two wouldn’t jump on each other’s throat right in front of him. “The class is going to start so you both should calm down.”

Thankfully, they listened to him and peace came back. After the class, Andrealphus was the first to get up to leave. 

“You still have my number, right, Stolas? I’ll text you the details of our date later.”

He gave him a quick wave, completely ignoring Vassago, and disappeared in the hallway. 

“I don’t understand why you accepted, Stolas.”

“It may be fun, who knows.”

“I don’t see the fun in going on a date with your ex’s brother.”

“Why don’t you come too then?”

“Qué-” Vassago covered his face with his hands for a moment, the rush of emotions was too much for his brain to process. It was obvious that Stolas didn’t see that Andrealphus had some hidden thoughts and it would have been a pleasure to crush that so-called date. Only if Vassago wasn’t the righteous man that he was. There could be a chance that Stolas was right too, that the dandy had changed. “I’m good, thanks. However- Text me right away if this guy bothers you.”

“I will.” Replied Stolas with a chuckle, finding Vassago’s concern quite amusing. 

The two men then went their separate ways, Stolas having classes in another building, while Vassago had finished his day but still had some club activities. The latter's friendliness was so contagious that there was no end of people wanting to become his friends or simply talk to him, although he convinced them to leave him alone or he'd quit college, which of course nobody wanted. But it didn’t change the fact that he was a very popular man whose agenda was probably filled for the next few months (he would gladly cancel for Stolas however). 

The rest of the day went by without much happening. It was about eight in the evening when Stolas drove back to his apartment, not so far from the university. He let out a yawn as he got in the elevator, slightly dozing off while it took him to the highest floors, the part of the building where each floor was rented by a single person. 

Once at his place, he dropped dead on the sofa, his bag falling on the ground. Quite a lot had happened recently, from his break-up, Andrealphus’ return, the latter’s bickering with Vassago and mid-terms to top it all. The last thing wouldn’t cause him much trouble as he was part of the top-students but having to attend classes still was tiresome. 

He sighed and took out his phone, the sound coming from the videos appearing on his feed being the only noise echoing throughout the living room. Stolas was the only one living here, he had requested his father for his own place so as to get away from the annoying politics of his family, and his demand was granted without issue, most likely because his relatives didn’t care about him and preferred it when he was the farthest possible. 

Occasionally, or quite often in all fairness, a video about horses popped while he doomscrolled, and each time he would have to click on the ‘not interested’ button. After half an hour or so, he was about to get mad at how many there actually were but just before it could happen, his phone rang, and showed the notification of a new message he had received.

[Andrealphus : Are you free this saturday?]

It startled Stolas for a second because the profile picture he had set for Andrealphus dated from quite some years ago. His usual frown didn’t change but he definitely grew even more handsome, he thought. 

[Stolas : I am, do I need to dress up a certain way?]

[Andrealphus : Don’t. I’ll come to pick you up at 10 so send me your address.]

Stolas gave him his address then suddenly wondered if he had any social media accounts. Knowing the man, his username was probably something close to his name so people would recognize him. In just a few seconds, he had found his account which had more than ten thousands of followers. He looked a bit through his posts which showed him in a lot of different places, always looking more fashionable than the previous picture. Before he knew it, he had liked a few dozen and the only reason he had stopped was because the owner of the account, so Andrealphus, had sent him a private message that said ‘Like what you see?’ It immediately made him panic and shut his phone that he threw across the other side of the sofa. 

“That was enough screen time for today…”

That night, Stolas went to bed early. However, it didn’t help much because he still looked horrendous the next morning. He tried to cover it as best he could with some makeup and that did the job. For his outfit… Andrealphus told him it wasn’t necessary to dress up so he put on a simple black turtleneck and white pants. Everything was covered by his coat anyway. He finished preparing just in time because Andrealphus sent him a message saying he was in the parking lot when he was checking he had everything in his bag. He quickly put his phone in his pocket and went to the elevator to the underground level. 

“Sorry for the wait-” He said slightly breathless as he got in the passenger seat. 

Andrealphus stared at him for a moment before chuckling. 

“Did you sleep late looking through my pictures?”

“I di-”

“Wait a bit.”

Andrealphus seemed to search for something in the back of his car and Stolas noticed that it was a small makeup box. With swift moves, Andrealphus had put two hair pins on his head to keep his hair out of the way and was starting to work on his face, brush and palettes in hand.

“Do you carry this with you everywhere…?”

“That’s the bare minimum, dear.” Stolas stayed still like this for a few minutes, his eyes closed because having Andrealphus staring at him intently made him a bit nervous for some reason. “It’s done.”

The blue-eyed man smirked as he turned the mirror of his palette towards him. Stolas couldn’t help but let out a gasp of surprise, his face looked so more alive and fresher than earlier. 

“You impress me, Andrealphus, are you some kind of magician?”

“Buckle up if you’re already charmed. The date didn’t even start yet.”

Stolas’ face heated up a bit as he heard those words. He looked outside the window to calm his mind as Andrealphus drove who knows where, but a tinge of excitement kept pulling on his heartstrings during the whole ride.





Notes:

Once I'm done with the human ver of the three birdies, eventually I'll draw the others who are supposed to appear too. More additional info, updates of this fic should be each week-end if I keep being consistent. For now I have about 7 chapters drafted/with the plotline but there's a gap in the middle so I'm still trying to figure out this part of the story ┐(´д`)┌

Notes:

Thank you for reading! Don't be shy about leaving a comment and checking out my socials @Midorigatari (IG) and @Miidori6 (X) (I draw sometimes...)!

I also have a discord server : https://discord.gg/hMsnWz4kEW