Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

A boy’s voice cracks, tearing at the edge of crying.

“Father, am I different?”

“No, why do you ask Silver?”

“People at school say I'm different.”

“How so?”

“They say because I’m human I was lucky I didn’t get killed by other faes and that I should be glad I wasn’t left to die on my own..”

A father looks at his child with a melancholy look to his eyes.

“You know that they’re just other kids your age Silver, they’ll act like that for a long time.”

“…for how long?.”

“Well, some mature as they get older and some never grow out of it.”

“So they basically stay a kid forever?”

Lilia takes Silver’s hands into his own.

“Kinda, in their minds they do. They might grow up thinking that the world works for them and the others will learn how to navigate the real world and learn from their mistakes and keep pushing forward no matter what stands in their way.”

“So, should I try to keep moving forward?”

“Yes, but you have plenty of time to think about it, either you move forward and forget this a few years from now or to stick with it and stay in one place.”

‘A few years from now? But I don’t want to forget this. Isn't it an important life lesson that parents are supposed to teach their young?’

‘Please to the Great Seven above, don’t let me forget that conversation, don’t let me forget my Father, Brother, and my best friend.’

Silver wakes up in his bed with the light shining through the small window in his room.

‘What time is it?’

Silver looks at the clock on his desk hoping that he isn’t late for school.

‘I woke up before my alarms? That's new. I haven’t had that dream for awhile.’

Silver sits up, looks over at his roommate’s bed.

‘He must be downstairs already’

He hops out of bed and puts his slippers on then makes his way to the bathroom with his uniform to take a shower. As Silver makes his way into the hall to get to the bathroom he passes by the stairs that lead down to the lounge. There’s people chatting, eating breakfast, and doing last minute assignments.

Lilia notices Silver heading to the bathroom with his clothes in hand and his slightly drowsy expression along with his bed head, Lilia laughs to himself quietly as he finishes eating.

———

After Silver took his shower and dressed in his uniform, he made his way to the lounge to get breakfast and Lilia was at the table on his phone looking at something.
Sebek was boasting about something to Malleus, probably a gargoyle or a grotesque he found and Malleus was simultaneously correcting him about the differences between them.

————

At NRC: Potionlogy

Silver and Kalim were partnered up for their assignment and both were determined to not mess it up.

Crewel walked to the front of the class and began with the instructions for the growth potion.

“You have to put the ingredients in this exact order, the growth potion is extremely similar to a transformation potion, just different orders for the ingredients. Any misuse of any of these products will result in a week detention and a referral home, understood pups?”

“Yes professor Crewel.” Said the joint class of first years and second years.

Silver and kalim started to work on their potion, starting with the base of it which was a special water potion.
They were both very careful with what they did and how they put the ingredients in, they put them in just as instructed and they ended up being one of the first people to finish without slipping up.
Silver went and grabbed a beaker and a spoon to be able to pour the potion in it.
Kalim was practically jumping up and down with excitement that they pretty much finished.

“We did such a good job Silver! We didn’t mess up or anything!” Kalim gave Silver one of the brightest smiles.

“You did a wonderful job at keeping the same pace while stirring.” Silver tried to return the smile with one of his smaller ones.

Silver handed the beaker to Kalim so he could fill it with the spoon, as silver started to pour the potion it changed color like it was supposed to.

“woahh! I know Professor Crewel said it would change color but it’s so pretty!” Kalim looked astonished as it changed.

Once Silver was done filling it he put the spoon into a separate beaker so it wouldn’t come into contact with anyone’s skin. Kalim made his way up to professor Crewel’s desk and gently put the finished growth potion down.
Crewel looked surprised then smiled at Kalim. “Wonderful job Kalim, tell Silver he did a wonderful job as well.”

“I will!” Kalim responded then made his way back over to Silver and started helping him clean up the small mess.

Silver handed Kalim some leftover empty stems that they didn’t need.

“Could you throw these out?”

Kalim gently took them out of Silver’s hands.
“Of course!”
Kalim went to go and throw the stems out.

As Kalim was doing that Silver felt something bad was going to happen so he started looking around him not noticing anything wrong, he then let his guard down and went back to cleaning when someone came up behind him and poured a different potion on him catching him off guard.

The student went back to his station acting like nothing happened and Crewel was busy helping other students to not notice what happened.

The potion that was poured felt like it burned Silver’s skin horribly; he let out a guttural scream that drew everyone’s attention and Crewel rushed over to Silver taking off his fur coat to have more range of movement.

“Kalim, I need you to go and get the nurse immediately!”

Kalim nodded as he ran out the door to the nurses office.

———

Lilia and Malleus were on their lunch break together casually chatting when Sebek came up to them and sat down with his lunch.

The doors to the cafeteria were opened with a loud bang, a lot of people looked and so did the Diasomnia trio.

“LILIA!”

It was Kalim running towards their table as fast as he could.

“What is it Kalim, did something happen?”

“Yeah! Someone poured a potion on Silver during potionology and he’s been in the infirmary since this morning!”

Lilia’s eyes went wide and he got up as thunder suddenly roared outside. The Diasomnia trio made their way to the infirmary where Silver was.
Once they made it there Crewel was talking with the nurse as the Diasomnia trio walked in.

“Thank you, I'll find and make a reversal potion so don’t worry too much. Ah, finally you three are here.”

Lilia tried to calm himself down as much as he could, he was so worried about his baby he was sure Malleus felt the same way, speaking it was completely thundering outside without any rain.

“Silver is completely alright, just a little less human at the moment.”

Malleus spoke up
“A little less human? What do you mean by that?”

Sebek nodded as Malleus talked, being uncharacteristically quiet at the moment.

Silver walked out from behind the curtain of the bed he was laying, as his check up was complete.

“It feels quite weird to have animal ears.”

The Diasomnia trio looked at Silver and Lilia was the first one to walk up to him, Lilia then gently grabbed his face and turned his face side to side to make sure that his son was alright.

“Fa-Lilia I’m alright, they did a check up on me.”

“Well I would like to take a good look at you myself to make sure you’re alright Silver.”

Malleus walked up to Silver with Sebek behind him. He looked at Silver and noticed the white ferret ears atop of his head and the white tail as well.

“Did someone pour a transformation potion on you?” Malleus asked.

Silver shyly responded “yes, and the person has already been taken care of so need to worry Malleus-sama.”

The thunder outside calmed significantly but a light rumble was leftover.

“At least you’re alright. That's the important thing.”

Silver nodded and looked at Lilia and oh boy, Lilia’s eyes had lit up looking at how cute his little baby was with the ferret ears and tail.

“Wh-why are you looking at me like that..”

Lilia started giggling and smiling like a child.
“You look so cute!”

Silver’s cheeks dusted pink and his ears went down in embarrassment and all Lilia did was coo at how cute his little boy was as Malleus chuckled.

Crewel sighed and got their attention back to him and Silver was grateful for that.
“The potion should wear off on its own in a few hours or days, in the meantime I’ll see if I can find a reversal potion.”

“Thank you for your help, Crewel.”
Lilia said with a smile at the man.

———

Chapter Text

All the way back to Diasomnia Lilia was cooing about how cute Silver is and Malleus had joined in on the teasing making Silver turn a little red in the cheeks and the tips of his ears turned a little pink.

“Father, Malleus…please have mercy on me.”

Malleus looks at Silver with a smug smile as he starts to scratch behind his ear.
Silver leans into his touch and starts closing his eyes as if he was about to start falling asleep.

Lilia’s laugh brought Silver out of the blissful state of the ear scratches from his brother.
“Seems you really like ear scratches huh?”

Silver’s cheeks turn red from embarrassment once again and his ears go down slightly.
“Father..”

————

Out in the field of the school Sebek and Silver were running laps and sword training.

Wood hit against wood at a fast pace as the two boys moved to dodge attacks from the other.

The occasional taunt was thrown at each of the boys but they both knew that the other meant to do no harm.

“Silver! Keep your eyes open!”

“My eyes are open, Sebek! Maybe you need to get yours checked so you can keep Malleus safe!”

“There will be no need! My eyes are perfectly fine!”

———

After the boys were done training they were sitting on the ground drinking water and resting up.
Silver then looked at Sebek as his tail started wagging and hitting the ground making a thud every time it hit.
Sebek looked over at him with his brows furrowed in confusion.

“Silver, why is your tail doing that….why are you looking at me..”

Silver started to make a strange quiet chuckling sound that was even more strangely rhythmic.
Sebek had a gut feeling to get up and run away so he did exactly that.

Sebek looked behind him as he was running towards Main Street, Silver was on his tail (hehe) running after him so he panicked even more and started running just a bit faster.

{on Main Street}

Malleus was out for one of his late night walks accompanied by Lilia.

“The weather is quite nice to go and look at gargoyles.”

“Indeed it is Malleus. I wonder how Silver and Sebek are holding up in their training at the moment.”

“They might be taking a short break, knowing how they train.”

Lilia was going to respond when he was cut off by loud screaming that was getting closer to the two.
They both turn around and they see Sebek running towards them screaming.

Malleus and Lilia were about to spring into action to help Sebek before Sebek yelled at the person chasing him, which was Silver.

“Silver! I must ask you to stop chasing me at once!”

The two younger boys ran past them and the two older saw Silver’s tail wagging.
Lilia was going to say something about how cute Silver’s tail is, that was until he tackled Sebek onto the grass and trees, fortunately they didn’t tumble into the statues of the Seven.
“GAH- SILVER!”

“Oh Goodness! I never thought I would see Silver tackle someone.”

Malleus watched as the two tumbled into a small ditch, which was a bit muddy since it had rained last night.
“I never thought I would see him do that as well.”

Sebek started shouting at Silver again.
“Silver!! You must put a stop to this unruly behavior at once!!”

Lilia and Malleus walk over to where Silver had tackled Sebek.

Sebek was trying to get off of the muddy ground and out of Silver’s hold but it was useless as he started rubbing his cheek against Sebek’s like he had found his best friend after not having seen him for years.
His tail was still wagging a bit as he held his grip on Sebek.
Lilia laughed at the sight of the young ones.
Malleus quietly chuckled to himself.

———