Chapter Text
A/N: the fair folk in this au are a LITTLE like the ones in the shadowhunter universe but with my own tweaks ;)
Lysandre frowned at Augustine. Five minutes ago, in their Holocaster conversation, he had a slicked cheek. Now, there wasn’t even a marking...? Lysandre put it down to a visual glitch. Sycamore couldn’t be a hunter. He was sure of it.
Two hours later
Serena shifted nervously in her spot. It was her first proper hunt. Gripping the heavensteel knife tightly, she slid into a crouching stance. She could hear the vampire’s footsteps, clacking against the polished tiles.
She swivelled around and gulped.
There were five of them, dressed in their eye-burning red suits, wearing their gaudy sunglasses. Calem tensed next to her, shifting his stance.
Shauna sprang, jabbing her spear out. The professor bit back an incredulous cry - that was easily the most reckless thing he’d seen a student do. Shauna’s eyes shone with fear.
‘Oh, fuck it,’ The professor muttered, swinging a pole-spear-thing at Team Flare.
They bared their teeth in response, just as the floor opened up beneath the students.
The lights went out.
‘Steven,’ May started. ‘Explain it all, please. I’ll try to be civilised.’ Her voice cracked at the end part.
‘Where do you want me to start?’
‘Wherever. I don’t particularly care.’
Steven pauses for a moment, then inhaled quietly.
‘I could hide it from you because I’m not fully vampire, but enough so that food doesn’t satiate my... appetite. ‘ May lifted an eyebrow at this, but didn’t interrupt.
‘Well, you see, I’m part Seelie.’
There was a not-so-discreet choking sound coming from May’s general direction.
‘You know, Steven, I’m considering murdering the person coming up with this shit,’ May said, casually breaking the fourth wall. Steven frowned but continued.
‘I use the... erm... abilities I’ve inherited to hide it from your advanced Hunter senses,’ he said, giving May another chance to preen at his compliments. She took the bait.
This was good. Their relationship was reforming, when the ‘person coming up with this shit’ decided to ruin their moment.
The bell on the door jangled, opening to a short, pale man (who wasn’t exactly thin) wearing odd glasses... and only one glove.
‘Steven Stone, you traitor. You’re a disgrace to the Vampire community. Just look at you! Cavorting with the Hunters? Selling them the tools instrumental in our demise?’ Xerosic sneered.
They both froze, May’s hand inching closer and closer to a heavensteel knife before Xerosic’s strange annoying science power clamped tight on her wrist. Steven reached for a Pokeball, but of course, Xerosic was annoying again and wouldn’t let them go.
‘I think I’d like you as hostages,’ Xerosic says, grinning.
‘We’re in a pit somewhere in Team Flare’s base,’ Sycamore says. ‘We’re also tied up, somehow.’
Serena shoots a glare at the ceiling. Calem, the little snob, says, ‘If we were at home, I would have gotten us out by now,’ comically sticking his nose in the air, despite being tied up.
Serena simply turns her gaze on Calem and says, ‘But we’re not at home, dipshit.’
For a moment there Augustine thinks, Look at my trainers, all grown up, swearing at each other! and a happy glow spreads through his chest before it’s crushed by the strangling ropes that bind him to the pole located somewhere in Team Flare’s base.
Augustine fumbled around, feeling something digging into his skin from his pocket. He reached in and pulled out his Holocaster, gasping in delight when he realised there was a signal, albeit a shit one.
The most helpful contact he could reach (with his bound hands) was Lysandre, and he smirked at the mental image of the tall man literally tossing the puny Team Flare grunts aside. He was probably capable of that.
There was a loud thump next to him, and Augustine quickly hid his Holocaster in his pocket, somehow discerning the shapes of Team Flare grunts tying what looked like May and Steven to a pole further back in the darkness.
When the grunts disappeared, Augustine waved at them - or tried to. ‘Hi!’ he said, grinning. Maybe they could all stage a grand rescue/rebellion/fighting party thing. Serena directed her blue gaze at the Professor, and he audibly gulped. ‘Sorry.’
Dear Arceus, it was like his students could read his mind! It probably was possible, though - Olympia could do it, and that unnerved him greatly. He really hoped she hadn’t told the library about his five-month overdues.
Augustine felt around in his pocket, pulling his Holocaster out, and recording a message to send to Lysandre.
‘Hey, Lysandre! Is it possible you could bail us out of Team Flare’s base? Be careful, they do bite, and their suits are bright enough to hurt your eyes. That might be why they wear glasses.’ He paused for a minute. ‘You know Geosenge, right? Go to the back, there’s this awesome stone building thing. Go into the elevator, type in the code 4138, go down to the very bottom floor and keep on turning right until you get to this empty room and press the red button on the left wall. The floor will open up underneath you. Be careful,’ he finished, sending a toothy grin Lysandre’s way.
Well. This was an interesting situation. He had to save his friend/secret love interest from his employees without raising any suspicion on the Professor’s end.
He walked into the room, activating the button, stepping back when the floor opened up beneath his feet. The professor was quite observant.
‘Bonjour, mon ami!’ Lysandre looked down to see the relieved face of Sycamore. He looks quite sleepy, his mind helpfully supplied.
Pulling Sycamore and his students up, he wondered how they’d gotten al the way here.
‘I’m going to report this place to Interpol. For now, stay away.’ A feeble excuse to keep them away, but if it worked, it worked.
When they were gone, Lysandre pored over the footage from the cameras and did a double take.
They were hunters.
His shoulders shook in laughter that didn’t reach his eyes. How ironic, he thought, to have fallen in love with his literal enemy.
A journey to the lands of the Fair Folk, he had suggested. Perhaps it wasn’t the safest of expeditions, but there was so much experience to be gained! Apparently the secret to making heavensteel lay with the Seelie Queen.
Okay, he was really going there for the heavensteel. No harm in admitting it.
Omake
A/N: this is just a little scene I had in my mind that I wanted to write but didn’t really fit in anywhere so um yeah enjoy...?
‘The flowers are so pretty here!’ Shauna gushed.
‘Be careful, don’t touch anything, these flowers know how to decapitate you in five ways then digest you over a nice long period of six years,’ Augustine said.
‘Thanks,’ Shauna responded, drawing away from the flowers.
They reached a peaceful clearing, sun shining down brightly, but not enough to be painful (unlike the Flare suits, Augustine thought ruefully.) Augustine pulled out an acorn and cracked it.
‘Uh, hi, I’d like an audience with the Seelie Queen,’ he stared, but was silenced by the great throne that started rising out of the grass. An elegant Seelie was draped artfully- hang on, was that Diantha?
‘Um, Sister,’ Augustine started.
‘Bow down, foolish mortals,’ Augustine’s sister, international celebrity, movie star and newly crowned Seelie Queen, Diantha, giggled.
This was too funny.