["Fireworks? In the middle of winter?"] Ace asked, with a pocky stick sticking out in the corner of his mouth. He had a headphone connected to a mic and he was staring back and forth to the camera and the other screen as her fingers typing the keyboard rapidly. Who would've guessed that Ace was a gamer?

This was the first magicam group chat with the Heartslabyul. The screen was split into six boxes. Deuce, Jonah, and Cater were using their phone (though Jonah's widescreen made him looked like he was on PC), while Riddle, Trey, and Ace were on their PC. Riddle was obviously in his room, which could be seen from his tidy background. Trey said that he was in his living room since the signal there was better than in his room, with children's (presumably Trey's three siblings) voices could be heard. Cater was lying on his bed with an emoji pillow next to his head, though for whatever reason his lighting was so bad that his face was kinda blurry. Deuce said that his laptop broken down before the final exam and currently he was trying to fix it since he didn't have enough money in his piggy bank to buy a new one. Jonah meanwhile was sitting at the front stairs of Scarabia dorm with Grim on his shoulder, watching the Scarabia's magishift practice.

["Are you in a training camp or a beach episode?"] Ace asked again, without even looking at the camera.

Jonah shrugged. "Many says that sometimes Senior Asim would have extra activities in the night for bonding."

["Heh, sound like fun,"] Cater commented. ["We should do that as well, Riddle?"]

["No thanks."] Ace stuck out his tongue. ["I don't want to stay in school for the holiday."]

"Yeah! The homework is too much!" Grim got closer to the camera as if for emphases himself. "We should be relaxing and do our homework on the last day of winter."

["You keep saying that and I'll consider holding a boot camp,"] Riddle said deadpanned.

Ace's head wiped to his phone screen. ["No! Have mercy!"]

["Then, change my name, Admin!"] Riddle shouted back. What he was referencing were the names that Ace, as the creator and admin of the magicam group chat, assigned. And with great power comes greater pranks. Ace and Jonah probably has the most normal name with 'Ace of Heart' and 'DA Captain'. Cater got 'Cay Cay Motherfucker' which Jonah never understand why, but Cater seemed to like it. Trey, on the other hand, didn't seem to like his despite sounding as normal as 'Sugar Daddy', but he just nervous chuckled it off. Riddle and Deuce though didn't take this well with 'Captain's Queen' and 'No Thoughts Just Cauldron'.

["Nope~ It suits you!"] Ace laughed, the previous fear was replaced by teasing looks and smirk.

["It is not!"]

["Don't be embarrassed, Prefect~"]

["Change my name too!"] Deuce shouted as well, his voice cracked because of the bad signal.

["No!"] Ace yelled. ["It suits you as well!"]

["I have thoughts!"]

["You can't be sure of that! Both of you are just petty. I don't see Trey, Cater, or the captain complaining."]

Trey was, of course, just chuckling nervously while Cater was snickering. The chat ping-ed with a message from Cay Cay Muchafruka said 'daddy ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)' which sent Ace and Cater himself into a laughing mess, while Trey himself just covered his mouth to hide his embarrassed smile.

["Their name is fine!"] Riddle shouted, maybe purposely not opening the chat. ["Don't misuse your power!"]

["I finally have something Prefect can't control!"]

["You little white rabbit-"]

["Whoa! Language, Riddle."] Cater said, raising his hand in the chat, but still chuckling.

The sound of the whistle gained Jonah's attention. "I have to go now." He looked back to the screen. "The magishift practice is nearly over. Group chats again tomorrow?"

Riddle paused to breathe to calm himself down before answering. ["I'll try my best. I think my family is going to the castle tomorrow."]

["Castle? You're invited by the queen again?"] Trey asked.

["Yeah. I better start packing after this."] Riddle nodded. Trey was about to ask again but a girlish scream in Trey's background, he looked up, just making sure. "Clematis, what's that?" A muffled answer of "Nothing!" came in.

["Man... Staying in the castle, huh?"] Cater said, resting one arm behind his pillow. ["Sound so fancy."]

Riddle huffed. ["It's glamorous alright."]

Cater whistled. ["Man, I wish I have something to do. It's so boring here."]

Trey went back to the screen. ["Well, you have homework."]

["Not you too, Trey!"] Cater pouted.

Riddle frowned, glaring at his screen as if he could burn a hole through it. ["All of you better do at least one homework by tomorrow."]

Ace, who had gone back to his game, just rolled his eyes, glancing to his screen once before going back to playing again. ["Alright, alright, Your Majesty."]

Riddle was fuming from Ace's nonchalant attitude. ["And the names better changes to be less goofy."]

Ace snorted. ["Make me!"]

["You little-"] Ace's screen suddenly disappeared leaving Riddle baffled. ["He logged out! How dare he log out in front of my face!"]

Cater was laughing out loud. Deuce camera was turned facing his table so it was dark but not logging out but you can him trying not to laugh. Trey was smiling hiding his muffled laugh behind his hand. ["Chill, Riddle," ] Cater said once he had stopped laughing. ["Well, hope you guys are having fun on your side."]

["Yeah."] Jonah nodded, waving to the screen. ["See you tomorrow."]

One by one, they logged off before Jonah turned off his phone app on his arm. Standing up and dusting his pants before going down the stairs when a new magishift round started. This was probably the last round since the sun was no longer high in the sky. The Scarabia students were seperated into two teams, one with red headbands and the other had blue. Jonah noticed Asim was in the red team while Senior Nigam, or Ashoka he wanted to be called, was in the blue team. As Viper yelled, "Ready. Set. Game!" the disc disappeared in the scrimmage of students, then suddenly a member of the blue team appear bringing the disk, ankles flicking with lightning. A red team member, stomped the ground and a wall of rock appeared in front of the disk carrier. But a blue on a broom shot the rock until it exploded. The disk was tossed to between the teammates, back and forth between two teams, but then suddenly Ashoka came out of nowhere on a horse made of ice. He galloped past his enemies until he reached the last line and then he shot through the goal ring.

"GAME!" Viper blew the whistle ending the game with team blue victory. Jonah and Grim cheered as Ashoka rode back to his side and jumped off his horse which disappeared into a burst of snowflakes. His teammates were cheering before shaking hands with Asim and the rest of the red team.

"Everyone." Viper clapped his hands, gaining everyone's attention. "We're closing in with dinner. Which team in charge today?"

From the bench, Chandra raised his hand. "Our team!"

"Alright!" Asim shouted. "I can't wait to eat your food!"

Chandra responded with his thumb-up and a big grin on his face. "You can count on us, Prefect!"

Asim laughed. "That's the spirit! Everyone, dismiss."

As the students dismissed, Viper turned to the two Ramshackle guests. "Jonah, Grim. Would you like to help us? You guys can be the tester."

"Sure." Jonah smiled.

Grim was grinning widely. "Tasting food fresh from the stove? Yes, please!"

-----

Viper clapped his hands once the team had gathered, already cleaned up from the sweet and in fresh clothes and apron. "Alright, everyone. Let's get started if we want to feed all mouth here!"

The team quickly got working. Jonah, along with Viper, Chandra and Ashoka were on the counter job, cutting the ingredients.

On Chandra and Ashoka's counter, they were peeling the potatoes. Unlike Ashoka's clean cuts, Chandra was sloppy and cut more chucks rather than the skin. "Whoa!" He yelped when his potatoes slipped from his hand into Ashoka's counter.

"Be careful with that, Chandra." The blond passed the potato to the purplenette's hand.

"Yeah. I'm fine." Chandra rolled his hand. "It slipped out of my hand. Peeling potatoes is hard."

"It's not that hard." Ashoka's lips curled up. "This is why you should help out in the kitchen."

"Geez, there's no need to call me out like that," Chandra grumbled, earning a snicker from Ashoka.

On Jonah and Grim's counter, the cat was sniffling. Jonah stared at him strangely. "Are you crying?"

"No!" Grim wailed. He raised his paws which had a half-cut onion and a knife. "The tears won't stop!"

Jonah shook his head but smiled. "Well, we are chopping onions."

"Here. Let me take over this." Viper suddenly appeared behind Grim and took the knife off the cat's hand. "You think you can help washing the rice for the pudding?"

"Leave it to me," Grim nodded.

"You better not eat anything yet!" Jonah yelled just as the cat fly away. He huffed but Viper chuckled at this.

Everyone had their job, was very coordinated, and flowed quite well without any complications other than playful banters. The food they produced was amazing too; chicken biryani, paneer butter masala, tangy tomato and fresh corn soup, dal makhani (spiced buttery lentils), achari aloo baingan (potato and eggplant in pickling spices), and kheer (creamy cardamom rice pudding).

The dinner was as merry as the cooking session. Food was laid out in the center of each eating group and everyone made sure everyone got a taste.

"Hmm~!" Asim hummed when he put a spoonful of soup into his mouth. "Whoa, guys! It's delicious!"

"I know," Jonah nodded. "A meal that we worked on together taste better."

"This is so good!" Grim devoured his chicken biryani. "I can't stop eating!"

Chandra raised his empty plate. "More, please!"

Mustafa smacked him behind his head. "Get it yourself!" In the end, everyone was chatting happily and enjoying their food.

-----

"That's the last one," Jonah said as he put the last plate he just washed on the stacked of the cleaned plate. There wasn't anyone else in the Scarabia kitchen other than Jonah, Grim, and Senior Viper, since he volunteered himself. Chandra's team had left earlier.

"I'm so full..." Grim laid on the counter and patting his stomach. "I can sleep like a log after this."

Jonah chuckled. He picked up Grim who already snuggled in his arm to sleep. The remaining two students walked through the warm-lit Scarabia hallway.

"Thanks for today," Viper said. "Hope you're enjoying this so far."

"Yeah. It was fun," Jonah smiled. "Thanks for having us. And thank you for yesterday."

Viper nodded. "You often get a panic attack like that?"

"Not that bad." The captain looked down to the cat in his arm, hand patting his head. "Usually I just stuck on my spot, just..."

It felt like he forgets how to breathe. It was like he was still in the water. His chest felt tightened. Water filling his lung. He was drowning again, isn't he? He couldn't breathe. He couldn't get out-

"Hey." A gasp escaped his lips. He blinked looking down at his arm, he realized a hand was holding it. He just realized that he had stopped walking. Looking up slowly, he saw Viper's face in front of him, looking calm. His voice also sounded calm, which made him calm as well. "You're okay here."

Jonah breathed slowly until he felt better. He nodded. "Thanks." He gave in a small smile. "You've dealt with panic attacks before?"

Viper shrugged with a small smile on his face before they continued to walk. "Kalim has some. Being the heir to his family comes with its downside." He sighed. "I've been handling Kalim's trouble since I was a kid, including his panic attacks."

"What kind of relationship you have with Kalim?"

"My father and mother are attendants to the Asim family. I've been with Kalim for as long as I can remember, keeping him out of trouble he basically caused."

There was something that Jonah just noticed. Glancing at the vice prefect, Viper didn't look at him. His hands were in his pants pocket, brow slightly frowning and lips pressed into a tight smile. "He doesn't look like a troublemaker," Jonah said.

Viper gave him a one-sided shrug. "He can be, more often than not. And I'll be there to clean those mess."

Another thing he noted that his voice. It was flat. Never dipped, so he couldn't be mad. It wasn't high either, so he wasn't proud either. Very flat. Very indifferent. "And..." Jonah took a deep breath and sighing out as his steps flattered. "How do you feel about that?"

Viper let out a huff. He was a few steps ahead of him and he turned around facing him. The warm-lit hallway became colder as Viper smiled at him, black eyes shining under his hood. "I have nothing to say." He had one hand on his chest and the other arm stretched to the side, bowing slightly. It was as if he was supposed to be a humble welcoming servant, but Jonah couldn't help but feel scared. "Except it's my job to be his loyal servant."

Jamil turned around, walking away leaving the boy and the cat alone. Grim blinked awake, slightly confused why they were stopping. "Jonah?"

Jonah looked down, giving a small smile to the cat. "I'm okay." He looked back up again. Viper was nowhere to be seen, but Jonah could still feel the suffocating feel like something was trying to squeeze him to death.

Is there something you're hiding, Jamil Viper?