The light was beginning to fade from the skies above Nevermore as Lucius took his coat from his driver.
"Will that be all, young Master?" His driver, Chase, asked, his eyes rapidly blinking, trying to keep his voice neutral.
Lucius gave a small smile and stepped forward, holding his hand out. "Yeah, I think I'm all set." Chase looked at Lucius's hand before swiping it aside and giving the young man a tight embrace.
"Make sure to take care of yourself, young master. We'll be waiting for your return."
Lucius returned the embrace easily, "I will, Thanks, Chase, for everything. Without you and the others, I don't know how I would have gotten through their disappearance. Make sure everyone's taken care of, alright?"
Chase and the others who worked for the main branch of the Draven family had been looking after Lucius since he was young, after his parents had disappeared during the night.
"I will." Chace gave Lucius a once-over before nodding and stepping back into the car, pulling off and out of Nevermore.
The courtyard was still as the Nevermore gates closed after the car had disappeared. Lucius stood still for a moment before letting out a breath and turning to walk away.
His head snapped up, his neck turning to the west in alarm. His pupils turned to pinpricks as his nose twitched. The strong scent of blood blew into the school courtyard; the smell alone wasn't what caught his attention, but the feeling clinging to every scent molecule that came his way.
Fear
Human fear. The scent was unmistakable; the mix of sweat and pheromones was something he'd grown familiar with.
His body turned in that direction, closed his eyes, and focused his other senses entirely on it. The sound of broken conversations drifted in.
"Keep hikers out of the woods...deny campfire permits....bear attack... Wasn't human...Murders connected to Nevermore,"
Lucius furrowed his brows, the sound of the conversation fading as another sound caught his attention. Heavy lumbering steps echoed in his ears. Whatever it was, it was big, the sounds it made were erratic, and...it was getting closer. Each step it took came closer and closer to the Nevermore grounds.
He took a step forward, dashing forward in a blur, crossing the distance in seconds until he stood atop the western wall's border. His ears caught the movement of whatever creature he heard come to a halt a few hundred meters away.
His eyes focused on the creature who stood hunched in the forest, its large, pale grey body perfectly still, clawed hands digging into a tree with such force that the bark cracked and splintered. And its large, bulging, red eyes were focused solely on the shape of Lucius atop the wall.
Gold met red in an intense, unflinching stare. Neither predator moving an inch.
____________
First day
Wednesday Addams was walking through the Fencing hall with an even stride. Her eyes moved across each ongoing match with disinterest. The heavy thud of a body hitting the ground caught her attention. She turned her head where the body was sprawled out on the ground, the chest rising and falling rapidly as the young man, whose helmet was knocked off, looked at the rapier tip glinting down at him, as Bianca Barclay stood over him(A/N: Lucky bastard, ahem).
Bianca looked at Coach Vlad with a slight smirk.
"Come on, Coach Vlad. When am I gonna get some real competition?"
"I'd be glad to oblige," Wednesday's voice cut into the conversation, stepping up.
Bianca looked at the shorter woman with a slight condescending smirk. "You must be the psychopath they let in. That's kind, but Rowan doesn't need you to defend him. He's just too lazy to put any effort in."
"I'm not doing this for him. I simply wish to take you down a peg. I have a morbid fascination with removing the stingers from Queen bees." A tiny yet very taunting smile played on her lips, her black eyes locked challengingly onto Bianca's blue.
The two took their stances, blades held perfectly still before Coach Blad gave them the signal, and the sound of blades meeting filled the room once more.
All eyes were focused on the dueling young women, so much so that no one noticed Lucius entering the hall and making his way towards two young men watching the fight intensely. Xavier Thorpe and Ajax Petropolu.
"Does it usually get this intense around here?" Lucius asked the two as he stopped next to them, as the two girls tossed away their helmets and decided to end the match in a first-blood sudden death.
"I wish this beats repeating forms any day," Xavier said with a snort, "You Lucius, right? My name is Xavier, and this is Ajax." He motioned to his friend standing on his left, " We're a few doors down from you in the dorms. Principal Weems asked us to help out if you needed anything."
"Nice to meet you guys," Lucius nodded, barely taking his eyes off the intense fencing match in front of them.
"Mmhmm, cool to meet you too, dude. Now shhh, Biancas get the new girl on the ropes." Ajax said, his head moving in exaggerated movements as he followed the fight intently.
"What, no way. Wednesday cleary has the upperhand," Xavier replied, before Ajax could respond. Lucius cut in, "$50 says your wrong." He smirked.
Xavier eyed him before returning the smirk, "You're on."
"Hold on, cut me in on this. If Wednesday losses you gotta cough up $50 a piece," Ajax said, grinning.
"All right, I'm about to be 100$ richer." Xaniver took the bets with a smirk, and the three of them then refocused on the ongoing duel.
The clash of blades was relentless, tides turning with each smirk. Bianca faltered to a hard lunge from Wednesday, only to quickly recover with a perry. She spun quickly, her repeir cutting across Wednesday's forehead, drawing first blood and winning her the match.
"Yes!!" Ajax exclaimed, his arms shooting up in celebration, "Pay up!" He held his hand out to a frowning Xavier, "Come on, richy rich place the mula in my hand nice and slow, I wanna watch."
Xavier gave him a flat look, glancing at Lucius, who was looking at the practically vibrating Ajax with a raised eyebrow, an uncomfortable look on his face.
"I'll pay you guys later, this thing dosen't have pockets," Xavier gestured to his fencing suit.
"Eh, don't sweat it, I was just having some fun." Lucius shrugged uncaringly, to which Xavier nodded with a smile.
Said smile fell almost immediately as he watched Wednesday turn and walk briskly out of the hall, her hand covering the bleeding wound on her forehead. Her face was in its usual apathetic expression, but the frustration was evident in her eyes.
Xavier didn't waste a moment, quickly following after her. Completely ignoring or just not noticing the approaching Bianca, whose proud gaite seemed to deflate at seeing him run off after another girl, which caused a scowl to cross her features.
Ajax, noticing the familiar look that was coming across Bianca's face, quickly found an excuse to make a break for it, ahem, leave.
"Wait! You owe me $100 Lucius said I could get his 50." He took off after Xavier.
Lucius, who'd pointedly ignored the last comment, turned to face Bianca, who had a none-too-pleased expression.
"Well fought, your sword play is awe-inspiring." He commented to her, a bit much, yeah, but she looked like she could use a win despite the one she just had.
"I know, but it's to be expected." His comment seemed to do the trick as she began to preen, a light returning to her admittedly bewitching blue-green eyes.
"I can understand why," he chuckled, looking her over subtly. Though the fencing costume wasn't flattering to anyone's figure in the slightest, he couldn't find himself caring once his gaze returned to her face.
"Lucius Draven, its a pleasure to meet you..." he extended his hand with the palm facing upwards,
She took a moment to look him over with a slightly scrutinizing gaze before a small smile came to her lips as their eyes locked. His attention was on her, solely on her, something she always appreciated, even more so in this moment after Xavier had gone after Wednesday.
"Bianca, the pleasures all mine," She gently slid her hand into his, her eye never leaving his form as he lifted it to his lips. "You're the other newbiw right?" She asked, stirring up a conversation as they left the fencing hall
___________
They walked through the open spaces of Nevermore, speaking amicably with each other before spotting Wednesday Addams just ahead of them.
"Hey, hows your head feeling." Bianca asked, a slight smirk on her face, but at least it wasn't cruel or vindictive, at least to Lucius's eyes.
Wednesday stopped, turning to face them, "Enjoy this while you can, the next time we compete I assure you, I will be the victor."
Before either could respond, the sound of scraping stone caught the attention of the three, and their heads turned upwards as a giant stone gargole tipped over the roof right above Wednesday.
Xavier, who'd spent the last few minutes looking for Wednesday, appeared just in time to witness the scene and, without thought, darted forward.
Bianca, eyes widened, stared disbelievingly at the ongoing scene, "Watch out!" Her scream came out too late; she was forced to shield her eyes from a sudden gust of wind as a blur shot past her.
Wednesday felt the world blur for a moment before the sound of shattering stone made her head snap around, where she saw the gargoyle in ruins.
She felt a gentle touch on her arm and looked up to see the calm eyes of Lucius Draven.
"You alright?" His voice was light, as if he hadn't just saved her from being flattened.
Before she could respond, Lucius was thrown to the side as Xavier barreled into him. They landed on the ground in a heap of limbs and groans.
Xavier sat up with a groan; he'd been unable to halt his momentum from when he'd lunged forward to save Wednesday. Putting him on a collision course with Lucius, who'd gotten her out of the way before he could cross even half the distance.
Lucius was staring up at Xavier with an irritated look, a slight but noticeable muderus gleam in his irises. "You have a second to get off me." His tone was laden with an agitated warning.
Xavier stood up quickly, clearing his throat and trying and failing to play it off casually, "Sorry. Couldn't stop in time."
Lucius stood, brushing the dirt from his uniform, which, now that Xavier looked, was different from the standard uniform. Instead of the standard indigo-black striped blazer, Lucius wore a primarily black blazer with gold pinstripes, the nevermoe crest emblazoned on its chest in black with a gold background. [Image here]
"Uh-huh, just make sure not to do it again, I don't know how you took out first meeting, but thats not the type of friends I want to be," Lucius said with a narrowed, weary gaze at Xavier,
"Whoa! No no no no no, that's not-." Xavier sighed defeatedly at the unchanging look on Lucius' face, "Anyway, you okay Wednesda-" Xavier turned the girl...who was no longer there, "Great,"
You know her or something?" Lucius asked, noticing Xavier's fixation on the girl.
"Yeah, guess you could say that." Xavier sighed, "Sorry about knocking into you, man. I'll convince Ajax to help me give you a tour of the dorms later. See ya"
Xavier left after that, leaving Lucius standing there until Bianca stepped up beside him. "That was exciting," She commented, having calmed down from the whole debacle.
"You could say that again," Lucius scoffed before turning his head to an open window. He could hear an erratic, almost thundering beating emanating from that room.
"Bianca, who's room is that?" He motioned his head toward the window.
Bianca looked at it for a moment with a thoughtful expression.
"I think it's the corridor leading to the nurse's office. Why?"
"Huh, no reason just wanted to know." he said smoothly.
She looked at him for a few seconds before giving a smile, "Come on, I'll give you a tour, can't have you getting lost now, can we?" She grabbed his arm and took a few steps back, leaving him no way to refuse as she led him away.
Not that he would to begin with, even though he'd already had a tour.
A/N: This was another quiet chapter, but the action begins in the next chapter. I just finished season 1 a few days ago, and I can't tell you how in love I am with Bianca and Wednesday. So I decided to make one or both of them the primary romantic interest(s). I don't think I'll do a harem, but more likely a polyamorous relationship.
I also gave a character image in this chapter, but please know that I'm not Lucius's hairstyle; I don't know why they generated the Image like that, but whatever.
Let me know your thoughts, and I'll be back with chapter 4 by Sunday. See you.