Chapter Text
It was as normal of a day as anything ever got at Unstable College.
Inside the campus gym, the air was filled with the sharp squeaks of sneakers on the polished wood and the heavy, rhythmic thud of a basketball bouncing against the floor.
Flame darted across the court with explosive speed, sweat dripping down his forehead as he seamlessly maneuvered past two defenders like they weren't even there.
The ball spun rapidly in his hands, casting a faint, otherworldly glow. It was a strange detail, but at this school, it was the kind of supernatural quirk that absolutely no one questioned anymore.
With a powerful leap, Flame launched himself toward the net, slamming the ball through the hoop for a flawless finish.
“Yo, good shot, Flamey!” his friend, Spongs, yelled from the sidelines, wildly waving his hands in the air to get his attention.
Flame just rolled his eyes at the annoying nickname. He reached up and ran a hand through his thick dreads, which were currently pulled back into a comfortable, loose ponytail that rested right against the back of his neck.
FlameFrags was easily one of the most talented players on the entire campus roster, a fact that practically everyone on the team agreed on. Even their strict team captain, Swight, praised the blaze most of the time for shooting clean shots.
After all, Flame was the primary reason they managed to walk away with a victory in almost every single tournament they played.
“Aight, good game, everyone. Go get some rest,” Swight spoke, raising his voice slightly so it echoed across the large gym.
The captain stretched his sore arms above his head as the rest of the exhausted players began making their way toward the locker room showers.
“Are you heading to our dorm?” Lomedy, both his roommate and best friend asked, in the middle of taking off his shirt and changing into his usual outfit.
FlameFrags looked down at him, pulling the hair tie out of his hair and shaking his dreads slightly. Already finished changing his outfit into a red, baggy hoodie that matched the color of his newly changed blindfold perfectly, along with baggy jeans. “Yeah, bro. Why?”
Lomedy shrugged, pulling down his shirt quickly to catch up to Flame and grabbing his things. “Oh, no.. nothing! I was just wondering if you could go to the convenience store with me, I’m kind of.. uhm..” He paused, trailing off awkwardly.
Then the reason clicked in Flame's head. Oh, right.
Lomedy was absolutely terrified of the dark. It was just a well-known fact about him, and since it was already 10 PM, he was the last person on earth who would ever wander around outside by himself at night.
Even when they were just heading back to their rooms after regular practice, the shorter boy would always stick close to Flame's side, constantly worried that someone might jump out and attack him in the shadows.
“Oh- Yeah, yeah- Yeah, sure bro I'll go with you.” FlameFrags spoke, letting out a silent snicker at his friend's expense.
He nodded toward the exit and hoisted his heavy backpack over his shoulder.
A little while later, they were walking along the path back to the dormitory building.
Lomedy was already aggressively chewing on a bag of random chips he had just bought, his eyes darting all over the place as if some kind of monster was about to ambush them from the bushes at any second.
“Dude.. there’s nothing here that could hurt you, bro.” Flame suddenly spoke up, breaking the eerie quiet. The sudden noise made Lomedy violently jump in place.
“Lomedy, chill out, we’re on campus already.”
“you never know!..” The shorter boy said, a heavy hint of fear and worry bleeding into his voice.
The two of them kept pushing forward toward the massive building where all the student housing was located. They were just passing a dark corner when a figure suddenly lunged out from the shadows.
“BOOOO!!”
“OH MY FUCKING GOD OH MY FUCKING GOOODD!!!” Lomedy yelled at the top of his lungs. In a complete, blind panic, he launched himself entirely onto FlameFrags.Flame caught him without even flinching, lifting the boy off the ground with absolute ease and wrapping his thick, muscular hands around Lomedy’s waist.
Flame was incredibly built, and honestly, saying he was "quite strong" didn't even begin to cover the guy's actual physical power.
Spongs burst out into a loud laugh. In fact, he started laughing so hard that he completely lost his breath, forced to lean forward and rest his hands flat on his knees as a series of breathless wheezes left his chest.
“Dude!!..” Lomedy yelled out the second FlameFrags set him back down on his own two feet. He aggressively stomped his foot against the pavement, glaring at their friend in pure annoyance.
Spongs only laughed harder, wiping away a few literal tears that were forming in the corners of his eyes from how funny he found the reaction.
He finally managed to catch enough air to squeeze out a couple of words. “Dude.. you should have SEEN you FACE!” he wheezed. He stepped closer to join them, wrapping both of his arms around the guys’ shoulders and forcing himself right in between them.
“Genuinely, what the hell is wrong with you, bro..” FlameFrags whispered, keeping his voice incredibly low. He reached up and firmly slapped Spongs’s hand away, taking a deliberate step back to put some distance between himself and the other two.
“Come on dude, have some humour! It’s not my fault, you can’t take a jo-” Spongs attempted to ragebait the two of them for his own amusement, but he didn’t get to finish speaking because Lomedy instantly reached up and clamped a hand tightly over his mouth.
“..shhh..” Lomedy shushed the yellow-skinned guy, who immediately raised an eyebrow in pure annoyance at having his voice cut off.
FlameFrags tilted his head, curious of why Lomedy had suddenly silenced their friend. “What, bro? What’s wrong?” FlameFrags asked in confusion, but before he could get an answer, Lomedy quickly shushed him too.
Then, the sudden shift in the mood finally clicked in his brain. Spongs was shaking his head frantically as if telling him to shut up, while Lomedy subtly pointed a trembling finger toward a crowd gathered right by the main entrance of the dormitory building.
A handful of guys were hanging out near the glass doors, smoking weed, regular cigarettes, and all sorts of things.
Normally, whatever the other students chose to do on their own time never bothered any of them, especially FlameFrags. He didn’t give a single shit about what people did as long as it didn’t actively interfere with his life.
Besides, Flame himself thoroughly enjoyed smoking some weed once in a while to relax after a long week.
But the issue was that this wasn't just some ordinary, random group of students.
These were the campus troublemakers, the notorious, so-called popular crowd. It was a tight pack of about eight people, every single one of them being a highly athletic, heavily muscular guy who possessed an ego that reached higher than a mountain.
They had built up a massive reputation at the college through constant bullying, instigating random fights, and causing all kinds of trouble.
Well, that, and the undeniable fact that they were all incredibly handsome or pretty.
And standing right near the center of the clique was the shortest guy among them. He was a purple-skinned void demon with beautiful, dark purple horns curving gracefully from his head.
He had stunning, long layered hair with choppy, intentionally messy ends—the top sections were cut shorter while the sides fell in longer strands around his face, with wispy bangs framing his forehead to give him a remarkably soft look.
Soft.
That was the perfect word to describe the man's face. His features were uniquely delicate, possessing a beautiful, small, soft button nose with a straight, delicate shape, big, plump lips, and striking, large purple eyes that instantly stood out from the crowd.
His arms were only slightly toned, just a little, but the rest of his physique looked like it had been pulled straight off a high-fashion modeling runway.
He had an incredibly small waist for a guy, slender enough to mimic the extreme proportions of those people who get specialized surgeries just to shrink their midsection, which didn't quite match his athletic, slightly toned arms.
It was almost as if that narrow waist was a woman’s feature, while the rest of his build was a man's, yet softer and far more petite.
The outfit he wore highlighted his beautiful body perfectly. He was wearing a dark purple tank top that was clearly an extra-small, paired with baggy, grey sweatpants that loose-fitted over his lower body—a hidden view that practically anyone on campus would love to see.
And his name,
was Wemmbu.
Literally everyone at Unstable College knew exactly who he was.
The professors knew him, the rest of the popular athletes knew him, and even the most isolated introverts knew his name—which was pretty ironic, considering the campus gossip claimed that Wemmbu himself was actually a massive recluse.
He was a cocky, bratty introvert, sure, but an undeniably gorgeous one.
The campus rumors also claimed that his looks were so intense that he had single-handedly caused multiple straight men to question their sexuality, turned lesbian women straight, and had even broken through the minds of the most narrow-minded people on campus.
And FlameFrags? Well, he wasn’t even surprised by those stories.
Hell, if that guy ever offered to let him hit, Flame would absolutely accept without a single second of hesitation.
Because honestly, who wouldn’t?
The majority of the clique was busy smoking standard cigarettes, but Wemmbu and another guy named Sharpness, yeah, that was his name, were sharing something else.
The two of them were leaning against the railing, smoking weed from a single joint that they passed back and forth between them.
“Lets go, go, go...” Lomedy whispered urgently. The quiet panic in his voice snapped both Flame and Spongs out of their daze as Lomedy grabbed their hands, desperately pulling them toward the building entrance to get past the crowd.
But a split second before they crossed the threshold into the lobby, FlameFrags caught the eye of the pretty boy.
Even though it lasted for less than a second, and even through the thick fabric of his blindfold, Flame could distinctly feel Wemmbu staring right back at him, giving him a glaring, bratty look.
Yeah, without a doubt, the rumors were definitely true.
“Dang bro, I wish I looked like those guys, bro... fucking looksmaxers—” Spongs snickered quietly, casting a quick glance back toward the glass doors as they walked inside.
“Bro... just tell me, why are you two so afraid of them? The hell are they gonna do? Especially Wemmbu,” FlameFrags scoffed. He tilted his posture forward slightly as they walked, trying to have a proper conversation instead of just staring down at his shorter friends as the six-foot-two guy he was.
“I lowkey think me and Flame could easily take them in a fight, am I right?” Spongs said, playfully nudging Flame’s shoulder with a smug grin.
“Who’s 'you and me', bro?” FlameFrags added, rolling his eyes at the comment.
Spongs was just about to fire back with some insults or another attempt at a ragebaiting sentence, but before he could speak, a loud shout echoed from the very end of the dim hallway, accompanied by the heavy thud of approaching footsteps.
“Hey! What do you kids think you’re doing outside of your dorms at this time of night?!” one of the campus janitors yelled, storming directly toward their position.
The three of them instantly shared a panicked glance before sprinting toward the stairwell, since the elevator was completely broken down again.
Halfway up the flight of stairs to their floor, Lomedy cried out, panting heavily as his legs gave out. “Guys, I can’t run anymore!”
Without missing a beat, FlameFrags pivoted on his heel and dashed back down a few steps to grab his friend. He scooped Lomedy up into his arms, spinning back around to continue his escape with absolute ease, carrying the boy as if he weighed nothing at all.
Spongs let out a loud laugh as the two of them bolted down the corridor toward their room.
Behind them, the angry yells and curses of the janitor began to fade, though the commotion had already attracted one or two teachers who were now joining the chase, their distant voices echoing through the halls.
And soon enough, they reached their dorms. Or more like... dorm. Since Spongs definitely wouldn’t reach his own room in time before getting caught by the staff, he slipped directly into FlameFrags’s and Lomedy’s room right behind them.
The three of them were panting heavily, especially FlameFrags, who had to carry his friend all the way up the flights of stairs.
Mind you, their dorm was located all the way up on the sixth floor, making the physical climb brutal.
“bro.. that.. was fucking- EPIC!!” Spongs yelled. He immediately flopped face-first onto one of the mattresses, choosing the one on the left side of the room, which belonged to FlameFrags specifically.
FlameFrags looked up from the floor, his chest still heaving as he reached up and yanked off his blindfold to catch his breath. “Bro, get off my bed!!”
Spongs let out a loud laugh, then another, and then another.
The initial outburst turned into a steady stream of constant snickering and giggling that lasted for around a minute or two, until he was finally able to gasps out a proper response. “Oh buddy, I’m staying here tonight! I ain’t got no keys to my dorm and there ain’t NO way I’m coming out there!” he laughed once again, rolling around the mattress to make himself comfortable.
Oh, tonight was going to be so incredibly tiring.