Sibling Rivalry

After the small event with Park, Trevor began to feel a certain hint of guilt through the rest of the day.

Even though the short lad had stopped bothering him and Kurt after he was blasted by Gaby, he still kept glaring at the three of them for the duration of the classes.

Trevor couldn't keep the things he said out of his mind, the way he would just call him 'Fake friend.'

It was true that he only attempted to create a bond with the young prince due to the command of the empress Sabiri. She was, after all, his savior.

But that didn't mean he didn't want to honestly grow closer to the lad. Even if he ignored his duty to protect him, Trevor could feel Kurt was a good kid. A troubled kid with a lot of baggage for sure, but a good one at the end of the day.

He started to wonder if he should confess about his connection with Sabiri. Would it be better to admit that everything was organized by his mother beforehand? Or should he wait a little more?

"Hey, guys..." Kurt himself suddenly started to talk, making Trevor return to reality.

The three of them were already done with the first batch of lessons and were now eating together in the cafeteria.

"Are you two... Well... Okay with everything?" Kurt continued while mumbling to Gaby and Trevor with a lowered face.

"What do you mean?" Gaby asked.

"I mean... You heard that kid. I'm not a real dragon like you two... Doesn't that make you guys upset?"

Gaby and Trevor exchanged a look between them and returned to stare at Kurt.

"I don't really care," Gaby admitted.

"I... Sorta already knew once I found out you were the son of the empress..." Trevor added.

Kurt widened his eyes, "R- Really?"

"Honestly," Gaby continued while taking a bite of her lunch, "Who cares if you're a dragon or not? For me, all that matters is whether you're annoying or not."

"So... You don't find me annoying?"

"I find you tolerable" she replied with a smirk, "But just to make sure, you're not a sixty-year-old guy inside a kid's body, are you? Cause that would be all kinds of creepy..."

"What? No! I was fifteen before I was sent here!"

"Ah! We're good then! I think..."

"Same here," Trevor began to talk next, "I honestly really admire the guests. It must not be easy to come into an entirely new world. Just imagine... Everything you knew, everything you had, all changed completely! I can't imagine what it must have been like for you, Kurt."

"It wasn't that bad..." the boy commented before picking a piece of his food and offering it to his owl, "I had great people taking care of me and keeping me company."

Gaby glanced at his smiling face, "Do you miss it? Your old home?"

"Sometimes... It was a big part of my life after all... But I don't regret coming here."

"I'm glad! I'm also happy for you being here," she admitted.

"You are?"

"You kidding? You were the first one to ever try to even talk to me. Everyone else would just run away scared, fight me, or attempt to bribe me" she explained while glaring at her food, "Nobody tried to help me out... Not a single one of them..."

Trevor couldn't help be feel a sense of guilt since he was also included in that group, "I'm sorry..."

"It's fine..." Gaby sighed, "Who would want to help out the crazy girl of the class anyway, right? I bet I would have done the same in your place.

But that's exactly why you two shouldn't let what that peanut said bother you! You are not a fake dragon and you are not a fake friend! You helped Kurt out when he needed support to fight Saramin, remember? You were the only one on his side when nobody else was!"

Trevor flinched, "R- Right..."

"And you," she shifted her gaze to Kurt, "Even if you are a guest, do you really feel ashamed of not being like the rest of these guys? Ashamed of not being another jerk that judges and discriminates others for no reason?"

"Good point..." Kurt commented, "But to be fair, that's also a thing in my old world."

"Shhh... Don't ruin my argument!"

"Sorry..."

"The point is..." Gaby continued, "Forget about these losers. Neither of you did anything wrong. Trust me, I know. I've been dealing with their kind for a long time now, and I can safely say that they are always the problem, not us."

"Did you really not know who he was?" Trevor wondered.

"You want me to remember every single dragon that turned against me? It's a really big list and I rather use my time with something more productive."

"Like our study group!" Kurt mentioned while revealing radiating like a kid on Christmas eve.

"Yeah, sure, that..."

"Great!! I've been waiting for this for a long time now! We can ditch the self-defense class since I'm pretty sure all of us are sick to death of it..."

"Agreed." both Gaby and Trevor mumbled.

"So I was thinking that Trevor could help me out with biology... Gaby you could help me out with my sense enhan- Gaahgh!"

Kurt suddenly gasped after being lifted from his seat out of nowhere by a tall red-haired figure with a muscular body and a disturbing smile.

"Little dude!! You're back!!" Hugh shouted while carrying Kurt with one hand by the collar of his shirt.

"Ugh... You..." Kurt groaned, his usual reaction whenever he saw his older brother.

Hugh brought him closer and began to hug him like a pillow while shaking his body left and right, "Where were you, man? I missed you so much! Without you here I had to busy myself with little Leo and miss grumpy-face!"

"Miss grumpy-face?" Kurt mumbled.

"He means me..." Gaby explained with, as Hugh so kindly put it, a grumpy face.

"What? Hugh! Did you hurt Gaby while I wasn't here??"

Hugh leaned his neck and began to smirk at Kurt before dropping him on the floor like a sack of potatoes, "Maaaaaybe? What you gonna do about it?"

"He doesn't have to do anything about it!" Gaby declared while standing from her seat and emitting sparks of energy from her glasses, "If you try to mess with me, I'm gonna mess with you as well!"

"Ha! Big words from someone who already lost to me once!"

Gaby's face started to twitch as the sparks of energy around her began to increase in size.

"A top student beaten by the third place! It's so sad that it's almost funny! What was it that the class was saying before? Fake dragon and fake friend? Does this make you the fake number one? A perfectly happy trio of fakes! Hehehehe!"

Kurt saw what Hugh was trying to do and hurried to step in between them, "Get lost, Hugh! None of us want anything to do with you!"

"Oh! You sure about that? I saw you at dad's dinner party, little dude! I know how to put you in the mood!"

Hugh glanced at the other side of the table and before the kids could react, Park appeared without anyone noticing and dropped an object on top of their food, splatting minced meat everywhere. He had his arms crossed and his chin lifted up while grinning at them.

A couple of students in their class began to notice the commotion and started to whisper about what they were seeing as usual.

"Park?" Trevor gasped once he saw the kid's face, "What are you doing?"

"We couldn't help but hear that you guys were done with the self-defense lessons, so we thought about something a little more interesting to keep you busy!" Park explained.

"You buddies with Hugh now?" Gaby wondered, "I thought you hated 'fake dragons.'"

"Hugh isn't a fake. He might be a guest but he's more of a dragon than anyone in this table!"

Gaby rolled her eyes, "And you said Trevor was a sellout..."

Kurt lifted his eyebrow and simply cleaned up the food to find out just what Park had thrown at them.

Once he grabbed onto the object, his hands started to shake, and he immediately began to glare daggers at his brother, "Hugh... What did you do?"

He carefully looked at the notebook with ripped-out pages he was holding to make sure he wasn't making any mistake. That was Leon's drawing notebook.

"Well, since I know how much you wanted to get closer to little Leo, I set this up for you to be his hero and save him from the big bad dragon!" Hugh commented before pointing at himself with his thumb, "A real dragon!"

Kurt's body reacted by itself and before he realized it, both of his fists began to cover themselves with metal scales.

Gaby, Trevor, and Park all flinched upon seeing that.

Meanwhile, Hugh just widened his grin even more, "Yeees... That's what I'm talking about! The mean glare! The pulsating vein! The heavy breathing! The sheer air of intimidation!"

He then placed his arm around his brother and began to press his index against Kurt's chest.

"Now THAT is a dragon!"

Kurt grabbed Hugh's finger with his self-made gauntlet and pulled it away from him, "Where is Leon?"

"Meet me after school and you will find out!"

"You kidnapped a student? Are you crazy? You think I won't tell-"

"Tell who, little dude? You think we are still in our old world? That the same rules apply?" Hugh laughed while playing with Kurt's ponytail, "This isn't Kansas anymore, brother! All that matters here is survival of the strongest! The teachers won't care because I'm a prince, I can do whatever the hell I want! Dad won't care, he only cares about us becoming as strong as possible to serve his goals!

Once he hears all about this, he will just laugh and be all 'that's my boy!' while patting me on the back. And even if you try to go to the kid's parents they won't dare to complain against the royal family!

Nobody will be on your side just to help out some worthless midget!"

Kurt froze once he was finished and began to look at Trevor hoping for him to prove him wrong.

"He's kidding, right Trevor? This can't be real. Don't we have laws against this?"

Trevor simply shook his head with a gaze of defeat, "The imperial family is the highest authority. If Hugh makes a claim that he has a reason for what he's doing, no one can say anything to him..."

"This is stupid!! Hugh!! What did you do to Leon!!? Where is he!? You wanna fight me? Then let's do it! I'll fight you right now!"

The large lad just shrugged at him, "Nah... I'm sick of that arena. I wanna play with my own rules this time!"

He started to slide his finger over Kurt's metal scales.

"I want you to play me with your new toy!" he whispered inside his ear before turning his arm into a red-scaled dragon claw, "I still didn't get to show you all that I can do!"

Kurt began to gaze at his surroundings. Many of the students were looking at them and yet none of them were saying anything.

"Gaby was right..." Kurt whispered, "You guys are all the same..."

The kid with an owl on his shoulder glanced at Trevor and then at Gaby, and with one look, he could tell they were all in agreement.

"So, you three ready to play a good ol' game of 'Where is Waldo?' staring our little Leo? All you have to do is meet us here once the school lessons are over. It's going to be really fun!"

Both Hugh and Park couldn't stop laughing while Gaby, Trevor, and Kurt glared at them.

"Okay, Hugh... We will play your stupid game..." Kurt commented while raising his gauntlet and grabbing Hugh's shirt, "But you better be ready to deal with the consequences of it!"

"Ohohoho! I. Can't. Wait!"