Chapter Text
“This must be the place. A bit….Creepy though.” Lance stated as the bus with a rather ghoulish looking driver drove off leaving him in front of what looked like a Castle. The pamphlets showed a rather different school, he didn’t remember there being bushes or trees in the pamphlet. He crumpled the paper into a ball and threw it into his backpack. His luggage at his feet and a grin on his lips he remembered when he got accepted into the school. It was supposedly not the best school around, perhaps it was all a lie so that only the ‘best’ would enroll?
He made his way to the iron gates and was about to open them before they slowly creaked open revealing a man with what Lance would describe as a rather good mustache. But the markings under his eyes Lance took note of for only a moment. The man caught him off guard and he let out a shrill scream that caused the vultures to take flight from the dead trees around the gates and in turn Lance screamed even louder as the other man joined in.
For a few moments they looked into each other’s eyes screaming before Lance slowly calmed down. His heart felt like it was going to jump out of his chest. He didn’t see the man from the gate!! And the gate had holes!! After a moment the man said to Lance,”Ah! Sorry there!!! I was just greasing the old gates to keep them from being too squeaky and you gave me a bit of a fright!! Hello there!! You must be the new student! You must be the…..Um….So many new students I seem to forget…You’re not a banshee too short of hair and your scream wasn’t that impressive….Too short and not hairy enough to be a big foot…Too alive looking to be a Preta…Hmmm…”
It felt like a huge joke, Lance couldn’t hold back the laughter as he said to the man grabbing his stuff and walking past him towards the school,” Good one old man!! This place has a sense of humour…I am loving it already!”
Whatever the man was going to say was lost to the rather loud thunder that boomed. Lance did not question why there would be thunder when the sky was all clear and the sun was out. Nope, he just continued his confident stride towards the building. He had a paper with instructions on where to go and his dorm room. He found it cool that there was even a little keycard, he thought he was going to be going to some shabby run of the mill tech school that wouldn’t even know if the vending machine was out of order or not! This place was good at hiding how advanced it was!!
He was amazed by the place, the lion statues that overlooked the grand staircase. The strange students who seemed to believe it was Halloween and he was impressed by how some of them knew magic tricks! Lance climbed the stairs the red, blue, yellow, green, and black tapestries amazed him. He wanted to find who designed the building and compliment them on their eye for detail. Ten flights in and Lance felt like he was about to fall over, his suitcase felt like it weighed a million pounds and his legs screamed for a short rest! He looked at his card again huffing as he squinted in the dark hallway,” Please, let me be close. These stairs are killing me…Three hundred and eighty four…”
Lance looked up to see that he was in front of the correct room. He felt relief wash over him as he whispered putting his card in the card slot,” Thank you lady luck.”
He swiped the card watching the red light turn blue and he walked inside…Immediately tripping over a pair of shoes. The room was pitch black!! His luggage fell ontop of him as a grumpy voice sounded from across the room,” Who is it? I told you I am not going to P.E. today. The sun is out and so I am in. Leave me alone.”
“Ummm….I didn’t know I was going to have a roommate.” Lance blurted out as he tried to stand only to trip over his backpack that fell beside him. He caught himself on the bunkbed touching something rather soft at the same time. Suddenly it was wrenched out of his grip as the bunk moved under his hand and he tried to keep himself from falling.
A moment later Lance was blinded by the bright light of a lamp being turned on, he was surprised to see someone standing in front of him. Was there another person there besides the grumpy one? The man in front of him started to speak surprising Lance once more that this was the same man,” So you’re my new roommate. I thought they learned their lesson about sticking people with me. Especially clumsy ones. You can’t see in the dark and you’re a bit touchy feely. Just stay out of my way.”
Grumpy pants. That is what he is going to call this…At that moment his eyes adjusted letting him look at the tall, pale, lavender eyed man in front of him. He expected him to have harsher features and not a mullet,” Stay out of your way? Who has the lights off at three in the afternoon?! You’re just asking for someone to break their neck mullet!!”
“The name is Keith. Unlike you I cannot be exposed to light for very long. It hurts my eyes and gives me a headache.” Keith shot back, he was already finding the man to be annoying. It was not a good first impression for someone to just barge into the room and start spouting off with nonsense. He wanted him to just throw his bags down and leave him to sleep.
Lance though was not going to let it go that easily. He said to Keith noticing that the only bunk left was the bottom one, he threw his stuff on it turning to look at him again,” What are you a vampire or something? A little sun never killed anyone!!”
“ How perceptive of you. I am a vampire and vampires cannot go out in the sun so yes a little sunlight /will/ kill me. So if you don’t mind I am going back to bed.” Keith could not believe he was still up chatting with this unnecessarily aggressive stranger. Who just walks into a room and turns the light on without knocking or being considerate?!
“Sure, and I’m a Changó.” Lance shot back, at least the guy had a sense of humour and was joking around now. He thought that the guy was going to be a bigger pain than he already was.
“A what now? I don’t think I’ve heard of that.” Keith stated, his eyes wide and even held a hint of confusion in them. He was trying to figure out whether the man was being serious or just being snarky as well as trying to remember whether he’s heard of it before.
Lance sighed, to him he was amazed that Keith never heard of a Changó before but then again most people wouldn’t know unless they went to his home country.” A Changó . It’s a Cuban god of strength, thunder, and lightning. You know a pretty awesome being. I’m Lance the Changó .”
The fake bravado that Lance gave off would’ve sold it to anyone else but he leaned on the lightswitch in his effort to look as impressive as possible and in turn the lights and ceiling fan turned on blowing his hair in his eyes. As he moved the hair out of his eyes Keith smelled it. It was something that most would overlook or even miss, so many monsters roaming about they would not have picked up on the fact that this rather dense man in front of him…Was a human.