Chapter 13: Reverse Scale

Basalin walked out of his Dust Labs class with a grin on his face, he'd aced that test. His third year at Signal was ending soon, and the 'Trio' were going to be fourth years.

Now sixteen years old, Basalin was growing into his body as puberty now had now fully eroded his will. His body, one that had new instincts and feelings had made his teenager years absolute hell for his mind. Long trips to his ID were common, and his eyes lurked on his classmates bodies longer.

As the days went by his relationships were also strained slowly by his frequent visits to the ID and the 'disappear game' was getting old.

Not that puberty hadn't been beneficial, as his body sang with new found strength, might, and radiated a beauty and regal mien that had attracted nearly all females in his school. With a low hanging ponytail, his eyes, and snake-like features highlighting his 'regal' and 'primal' aura, he was getting plenty of love letters and confessions.

Sadly for his sanity, Basalin was determined to sweat puberty out, not even using his hand. This was only made a hundred times worse with his close proximity to Silvers, a girl that checked of all of his boxes and more, with the only thing holding him back was the 'age' difference.

Basalin had done his damned best at rationalizing a relationship with the girl, but whenever he wanted to open his mouth, Carrow's old social anxiety would suddenly spike down his throat, cutting off any semblance of coherent words, and into his heart.

This was only made worse by his feeble morals that got in the way. He'd long since decided that his reincarnation and any meta knowledge he had would never be talked about in any way shape or form. Yet, Basalin was once a twenty two year-old man, and starting a relationship with a sixteen-year old felt... incorrect. Not that Basalin or Carrow cared about what was correct or incorrect, but the feeling lingered.

That feeling was only made worse by the fact that a very large part of him saw the Hunter life as 'Live fast, die young'. He wanted to start a relationship as soon as possible to at least experience it if he died too soon. A realistic outcome in this profession, and one he had no delusions about.

Both friends, Roman and Silvers saw Basalin start to drift and would either avoid them in certain ways, or escape their vicinity. His smiles that were once full of casual joy and a hint of danger, were now strained and his eyes darker.

Unsure of how to broach the topic, the two after watching a sit-com, decided to host an intervention.

As Basalin walked the halls, his eyes suddenly caught onto both Roman and Silvers walking towards him. Seeing Silvers so close to Roman made him feel a spike of envy and rage towards his friend, and as they neared he instinctualy sniffed and tasted the air and found that Silvers was still 'pure'. His heart beats softened.

"Bas, nice to see you, uh, Silvers and I want to talk." Roman shuffled. His tongue dashed out and he tasted nervousness and confusion from both.

Basalin shuffled on his feat. "Uh, what about?" He asked.

"Its, best to talk about that in the room, privacy and the like ya' know." Silvers smiled awkwardly, the smile sending flutters through his heart and a kick to his bloodstream.

His own smile carved itself onto his face, "Ah, sure, lead the way." And so they walked.

Both Roman and Silvers started to send each other looks and silent messages. Messages that were intercepted by Basalin and horrendously misinterpreted.

'Are they dating? Are they seeing each other and they want to let me in on it? Fuck, fuck I'll fucking kill them, nah, nah, chill, zen, zen, kill thine envy, kill thine rage.' He stewed in his mind.

They entered the dorm and Roman and Silvers sat on one bed, leaving Basalin to be left standing. His smile and expression twitched and spazemed, the proximity and location of his friends and one love interest spiking his paranoia.

Basalin woodenly sat down on his bed, facing both Silvers and Roman. His expression was that of carved and chipped concrete, barely holding back a seething rage that both friends knew existed, but had never actually seen.

"So..." Roman began. The word was the trigger.

"I'm...so happy...for you two." Basalin hissed, the simple fact that he was doing so a massive red flag for both friends. They looked at each other with alarm.

"Uh, what do you mean?" Silvers cocked her head to the side. Basalin now was also confused, "What do you mean, 'what do you mean'," Bas hissed harder, real anger leaking into his expression and making Roman and Silvers stand up. Basalin stood as well, "Its quite obvious what's going on." He bit out.

"Uh, we don't understand." Roman said, confusion and worry on his face. Basalin hissed at him, showing a mouth of teeth and two fangs coated in poison. The action made both humans step back in shock, never having seen the more primal side of Basalin.

"Fucking. 'Don't understand'" He mocked, "Your dating asshole," He shook his head and smiled brokenly, fangs peaking out. "So fucking happy." He hissed, spinning on his foot and going for the door.

Silvers snapped out of it and dashed faster, blocking his exit. He snarled at her, and she flinched back. "Its not like that!" She said, yet Basalin wasn't in a listening mood. "Move," He growled. She didn't.

"We just want to know why you're distancing yourself!" She yelled, making him flinch in surprise. "You disappear for hours on end, Roman doesn't see you for lunch, dinner, breakfast, or ever really, and its a rare day I get to spend more than thirty minutes with you a day!" Tears started leaking from her eyes.

"I-I..." He cursed at his inability to form words.

"We miss you, Bas, and we're worried." She took a step forward and he took one back.

"I'm... just going through a lot of things right now, alright." He smiled brokenly, staggering over to Silver and pulling the girl into his embrace. He buried his face into her neck and the girl. Wide eyed she staggered over to his bed and sat down. Looking down at the young man currently clinging onto her like a life-line, as months of self imposed stress and several mental breaks nearly avoid through catharsis bled through.

His body shivered and tears streamed down his face, staining Silvers' clothes with the salty water. Silvers ran her hands through his hair, a completely baffled expression on her face as she stared at an equally bewildered Roman.

Basalin wasn't like this. A cool, casual, and aloof young man with a sadistic streak a mile long. Weakness and Basalin weren't applicable in any sentence, and yet they now saw his Achilles Heel.

Soon the young man had calmed, before drifting off into a deep, cathartic sleep. Slivers managed to escape from his grip, with both Silvers and Roman exiting to room to let him sleep.

"What... what brought that on?" Roman asked, not used to having to deal with emotional things.

Silvers was silent for a moment, "He thought we were dating... he didn't take it well." A blush crept on her face and Roman chuckled, knowing that the girl had it bad for the snake man.

"Yeah, that's... a topic." Roman admitted, "But, what about the 'things' he was talking about." Both Roman and Silvers thought about it.

"He doesn't have parents or siblings." Roman said, with Silvers nodding, "And the only family he has would be his grandfather."

"We could call him?" Silvers offered, with Roman frowning, before nodding. "Yeah, we need help."

They entered the room, doing their best to not wake the sleeping faunas. Roman spotted the young man's scroll in his hoodie pocket, and quickly extricated it from the room.

They turned the scroll on and Roman easily bypassed Basalin's shit password. Navigating to contacts, both Roman and Silvers frowned at the sheer barrenness of the page.

'Booze'

'Weed/Jim'

'Gramps'

'Silvers'

'Roman'

Roman tapped on Gramps and the call was sent out. A moment later and a grouchy voice came on the line.

"Brat! Took you fucking three years to call me! Freaky mother fucking brat..." The man promptly ranted at the two teens, entering a level of cursing and language that would stay with them their entire lives.

"And just cause your a mother fucking brat doesn't mean you fucked my daughter you cheeky little piece of shit!" The old man paused to catch his breath.

"Uh..." Silvers murmured. "Mr.Chrome?" She asked. There was a silence, before Crouch spoke again, "Who's this?" Direct and to the point.

"I'm Roman Torchwick," Roman spoke, "Basalin's roommate."

"I'm Silvers Grey, a friend." She tucked a strand of hair behind a ear.

"We called, because Bas is, uh, acting strange." Roman said.

"What! That's all? Brats always acting strange..." Crouch stroked his beard.

"Well, yeah, but like in a non-Basalin way." Silvers corrected.

Now that got Crouch's attentions. "How." He demanded.

"Well, he started crying for one." Silver said, looking down at her white hoodie.

"Yeah, he got really paranoid. Accused us of being in a relationship, and well, we're not." Roman added.

"Plus, he disappears for a long while, like, hours if not days and is starting to skip classes." Silvers added, a worried frown on her face. "He's obsessed with learning though."

There was a dull silence, before a deep sigh came from the scroll.

"I've been taking care of that brat for nine years. On the day his parents died and I went to break the news, he didn't cry. At the funeral, he didn't cry. When he shattered his left leg into nineteen segments, he didn't cry. When I nearly collapsed his esophagus in a spar, he didn't cry and gave me a new scar in pay back." The old man narrated morosely.

"That brat is a freak. And if he's crying about something, then its weighing on him harder than all of that combined. If I were to wager a guess then its likely something deeply personal." The old man stated.

Roman then spoke up, "Deeply personal?" He muttered. "Can I get an example or something." He chuckled in defeat, being out of his depth.

The old man huffed, and started to brainstorm. "Well, if there's one thing about that brat is that he's anathema to common sense. Think of something that's likely common for someone else and it'll be taken to the extreme for him." The old man yawned. "It's late, gonna take a nap. Bye normal brats." The line died, and Roman's brow twitched.

"So," Roman started, causing Silvers to slap him up the head and him glare to at the girl. He cleared his throat. "What's something 'normal' that could be bothering Bas?"

"Grades?" She offered, before shaking her head. Roman stroked his chin.

"Uh, he's envious of our 'relationship'." Roman air quoted. "Trouble of the heart?" He tried, and Silvers nodded.

"Its likely apart of it. But..." She blushed and looked away. "I'll handle that I guess." Roman grinned and shook his head.

"So, relationships..." Suddenly Roman had a feat of enlightenment. "Oh. I got it."

Silvers snapped to attention.

"He's going through True Faunas puberty." Roman stated, making Silvers' jaw drop. "That's so normal, and yet not." She muttered.

Silvers took out her scroll and looked up 'True Faunas Puberty', and was promptly sent to a thesis document. She started to read it and was disgusted at the sheer... racism and euphemisms. 'The Animal' and 'The Beast' were used repeatedly. Pushing through, she noticed several lines and behaviors that were similar to Bas' current state, just more feral and uncontrolled. A normal true faunas would have ripped out Torchwick's throat and raped her; Bas showed weakness and reigned himself in. An ironic sign of true strength.

As time slipped by, Roman went back inside and slowly went to sleep, an eye on his friend and roommate as he did so. Silvers went back to her dorm, reading the paper and memorizing useful bits of knowledge.