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Claudio stared up into to darkness of his room. His curtains held firm before the window, blocking what rays of light may wish to intrude upon the seamless darkness. Claudio knew what he was searching for, he knew what he would never see. He simply lay motionless, bed covers kicked off sometime during the night. His nightgown trailed off the bed's edge, mingling with the velvet shadows that crowded in on him. His arms lay stiffly at his side. No expression cracked his stoic visage.

He heard the school bell ring. He didn't move. He could hear footsteps pattering along the hall outside, but he did not move to join them. He was not one of them. A student, yes, but not one of them. Claudio was a square peg in a round hole. It had been this way since he had arrived some time ago. His father couldn't be bothered to spend an entire summer at his son's side. Instead, Claudio had been abandoned at Verum Domus before the year had even begun.

When he did rise from his mattress, his bones creaked as if the bed had leached from them all of their youthful vigor. He ran his hands through his short, lemon-colored hair, bright green eyes criticizing his gaunt frame in the mirror above his chest of drawers. He did not bathe; Claudio would not be bothered to spend much time with his peers anyways. Instead, he went right on ahead to dress, taking care to pack a rucksack full of what he would use: tools of his trade.

Even as he stepped out of his room, and out of the dormitories entirely, with the sun bearing down on his face, the frown that hung so haggardly on his pallid face did not move. Only servants and a teacher or two now moved about the grounds, all other students studying with an intensity that Claudio scorned. His heart beat at the same leisurely pace in which his feet plodded. He would not go to class. Rather, I think I'll take a quick detour, he though to himself with the cruelest grin he could muster hanging beneath his sharp nose like a bat hanging on a branch. He stepped carefully, silently to the gardens, very much aware of who would be working there.

Two girls, one at least: Jeannie and Kizzy. Jeannie was always busying herself about the Queen Ann's Lace, Morning Glories, Blue Bells, and all sorts of hideously bright-colored abominations. Kizzy would likely be there as well; the two girls shared some sort of bond, something Claudio would never understand. Even as he approached the gardens, he could tell that both girls were there. Kizzy's bright, pink ribbon shone in the morning sun. Nothing out of the ordinary. Claudio's grin held its place as he rifled through his rucksack. He knew what he was looking for, and he knew where to find it. A set of clothes, so plain, so incredibly uninteresting, no self-respecting student would wear such a dirty-brown tunic or pants of torn and patched leather. A costume of sorts, a servant's worst uniform.

A dark grin, and cat-like green eyes disappeared behind a building's corner, where no one would see him. A few moments later, a servant with lemon-colored hair and emerald eyes reminiscent of a jungle cat on the prowl stepped into the garden. His footsteps were soft, taking care not to crush a flower beneath scuffed and dirt-stained boots. Claudio's nose scrunched up in distaste as the sickeningly sweet aroma of wild roses and imported lilies wafted on an upward breeze. The brown tunic he wore had a bloodstain or two along its collar. Something he could use, perhaps?

He kept his hair in disarray even as he cam closer and closer to Kizzy and Jeannie. If he was lucky, he could catch them off guard, before their became too alert to the mischievous glow in his eyes or the way he fought to keep his pink lips from grinning like a mad hatter.