—

“Hey, Mark! Did you hear? The Prince of the Ivanov family is in our class!” A noble who had been a long-time friend of Mark’s said as he caught up to him right before their entrance ceremony to the military academy.

“Oh? Really?” Mark murmured, “I’ve never met him before but my brother says he’s terrifying for someone my age.” 

“...Huh? What does that mean?” Mark’s friend asked.

“No clue.” Mark shrugged.

The bell signaling that the entrance ceremony would start soon sounded so they rushed into the auditorium.

The ceremony started with Elena introducing herself and talking about the expectations and goals of the academy. She wished everyone luck in their journey in the academy and then passed the stage to the head teacher who talked about classes, class structure, and student government.

“Usually, the only students eligible for the class president and vice president positions are the top students of the two main subjects, swordsmanship, and magic… but in this situation, both positions have been seized by the same person…and the margin of their victory is…unlike anything we’ve ever seen here at the academy… therefore, we will not be selecting a vice president until midterms. Now, please welcome your class president to the stage.” the head teacher said and moved off the stage.

Everyone was a bit surprised that someone got an entrance exam score that was so far above everyone else’s that a vice president couldn’t be chosen…they were all curious about who it could be but at the same time, it was glaringly obvious who it would be. Who else but an Ivanov?

Viktor Ivanov was not one to participate in social events often, he was still very young, only 15 years old, and he was generally not well known by the nobility. It was only logical to assume he would be beautiful, his mother was gorgeous and his father was also very handsome, not to mention his sister was also famous for her beauty. But all of the rumors about him were about his strength-–and cruelty so everyone held their breath.

Of course…he was beautiful. Everyone was VERY aware of that. So much so that no one paid attention to the couple of words he said before walking off stage again.

“Woah…he’s gorgeous…right Mark?” Mark’s friend whispered as he turned to Mark.

Mark was frozen in place, completely stunned. This was the beginning of it all.

-

No one was brave enough to speak to Viktor in the hallways on the first day. Everyone thought of him as beautiful but he was way too intimidating for them. 

The first person was Mark.

“Your Highness! What classes are you in?” Mark rushed up to Viktor, not even bothering to introduce himself before speaking.

Viktor almost didn’t even acknowledge his presence but after glancing at Mark for a second from the corner of his eye, he turned to face him.

“Nice to meet you too, Delov,” Viktor said, sarcastically reminding Mark to introduce himself or at least greet him properly.

“Yes! It’s a pleasure to be in your presence, Your Highness.” Mark’s friend quickly tried to cover for Mark’s slip-up. Mark was enthralled in looking at Viktor’s face and hadn’t responded for a while so he tried to be subtle as he nudged him.

“If you must know, we don’t share any classes. Goodbye.” Viktor said, walking away seconds later.

Mark was deaf and blind to the coldness of Viktor’s tone, all he could think of was how beautiful he was when he looked at him.

Mark’s friend didn’t know how to react… he was certain this wasn’t a good sign.

–

Viktor’s eyebrow raised as Mark sat down right in front of him in the academy library.

“This isn’t where you should be,” Viktor said dryly, barely sparing Mark a glance.

Mark was skipping class—Viktor was too but that wasn’t the point— to interrupt his peace and quiet.

“...I think it is where I should be.” 

Viktor knew that tone too well. Despite establishing himself as someone to not be trifled with everywhere he went—- namely in school settings like his private elementary school— he always ended up with people like Mark following him. Trying to lure him into their arms either for political gain or simply because they lusted for him.

Viktor glanced upwards, making the mistake of glancing into Mark’s blue-green eyes. He wished he could wipe his memory of the piercing eyes they reminded him of but it was not possible. He managed to ignore Mark though, continuing to read his book and ignore everything Mark said.

He should’ve been more clear with his distaste though. Because that was the start of a very long ‘relationship’.

Mark followed Viktor everywhere—as long as he could get away with it that is– almost anytime people saw Viktor, Mark followed like a little puppy. And by the time Viktor realized how extreme this had gotten it was too late. He should’ve nipped this at the bud long ago.

“Fuck.” Viktor cursed, wiping his lips furiously as stepped into the bathroom connected to Arseny’s dorm. 

He tolerated Mark for the sake of politics— at least that's what he told himself since he refused to acknowledge his soft spot for his eyes— he didn’t push him away because he thought it was clear that he felt nothing for Mark. He thought it was so obvious even Mark would feel it but apparently not.

He first started to consider a different approach when he overheard someone whisper about how he wasn’t with his ‘lover’ one day when Mark had a midterm.

He was going to end it there but that was when outside of school things took a sudden turn.

-

“What do you mean? you won’t take a Fiancee?” Andrei’s questions never sounded like questions–not to Viktor at least. They sounded like spears, stabbing into him, making his mouth fill with bitter blood and anger with every syllable.

“That’s not what I said. I said I won’t get engaged to a woman.”

“Like I said. What do you mean by that?” 

Elena knew Andrei, she knew him very well. She knew that what Viktor was trying to say was really just not making sense to him and he was trying to get clarification but she also knew Viktor viewed this as anger and hostility. She tried to quickly do some damage control to soften whatever was going on.

“No no don’t worry about that, you don’t have to get engaged or married or anything Vitenka.”

Elena’s attempts were ignored.

“I don’t like women.” Viktor’s head felt like it was about to explode, he couldn’t even hear Elena’s attempt to de-escalate this.

“...What Do You Mean By That? “ 

Andrei’s voice felt like nails on a chalkboard at every tone.

“IT MEANS I LIKE MEN.”  Viktor exploded at him and slammed his hands on the dinner table. The table broke under the blow and the three of them were left in silence. A few seconds passed and before Andrei could open his mouth or even compose his expression Viktor left the room. Elena was going to rush after him but she kind of froze. Should she go make sure Viktro was okay or should she stay and make sure Andrei understood that this was not something shameful? Sure she believed Andrei to be a good person and a good father who would love his son no matter what but… they had been alive for a LONG time… It wouldn’t be crazy to assume he had SOME ‘old’ values. She was going to choose Viktor in the end but she felt his presence leave the manor and sighed, she took too long to make a decision.

Viktor couldn’t bear being in that manor that night. He teleported to the academy, planning on camping out in Arseny’s dorm room for the night.

On his way to the second-year dorms, he found himself face to face with Mark, who had stepped out of a first-year dorm full of students. He was alone and smelled a little like booze but Viktor couldn’t be bothered to snitch.

“Vitya!”

Viktor didn’t have the tolerance for this today. He planned to trudge through whatever Mark had to say but before he knew it Mark was grabbing his shirt collar and smashing their lips together. Viktor froze for a second, a second that was very very long. He pushed Mark completely off of him and to the ground before all but running away to Arseny’s bedroom. 

He rushed into the bathroom and wiped his mouth clean so much that his lips turned red and felt sore.

Do I even like men..? Or do I just like him?

Viktor wished he could make himself cry at this moment. But he felt nothing but overwhelming nausea. Because of the kiss? Maybe. Because of how overwhelmed everything that happened with his father made him? Definitely.

—

Despite being pushed away—literally— by Viktor, Mark still didn’t change. He got worse actually. He remembered everything he did while drunk—except being pushed away at the end apparently. And this gave him all the confidence to be incredibly bold with his advances.

Mark was COMMITTED to this pursuit of Viktor. So much so that he developed his magic skill enough to join Viktor’s advanced magic class. This drove Viktor insane but as time passed without a proper conversation between him and Andrei…the more dead Viktor felt inside and the less he cared.