Archive of Our Own ^beta

Ah, the days of Black Hat Institute.
A higher education for aspiring villains. You can get offers through recomendation, good grades and evil achievements, or you can just get straight up abducted and forced to go.

That's how Kenning Flugslys ended up going.

He wanted to go to that school anyway, but he fell asleep one night, and ended up there.
Kenning was a particulary thin boy with curly, dirty blonde hair, buck teeth, giant glasses, and pimples. He was just the type of kid to get made fun of all the time, and so he hated his social life.
It wasn't too bad he supposed. He made a few friends.
And by a few, he made two.
And one of those friends, he hadn't met until later on in his institute school days.
One was a girl named Cecelia. She was quite a mystery to Kenning. She had medium length brown hair with pink bangs that she always had up in a pony tail with cat ears. Her face was just like Kennings, pimply. Kenning always thought his puberty was late until he met this girl. Even though she was 19 just like him, she looked sort of younger.
She had boxxy glasses, odd ear peircings, and braces, so Kenning always thought it made her look juvenile. But he admired that about her. She never cared and stayed confident, no matter what others thought of her. Just like him.

He hated himself for falling in love with her.

Cecelia always acted nice with him, but he had no idea that she was living several different lives.

.

Another girl that would later be Kennings friend was a descendant of the amazing Dr. Henry Jekyll.
Her grades alone were enough to let her into Black Hat Institute, but if that weren't enough, she got in on special recommendation by Lord Black Hat himself. Apparently, Dr. Jekylls alter ego, Edward Hyde was a close ally to Black Hat back in the day. Once Black Hat opened the institution, he noticed that the now deceased Hyde had a descendant on the road on villainy. This distant relative would fit right into his school, and so he invited her to join.
She was thrilled!
She had short curly brown hair and round glasses, and skin paler than cream.
Black Hat noticed she had inherited from over years more of Henry Jekylls intelligence more than Hydes insatiable hunger for violence.
It would have to do.

Her name was Marianna.

Kenning had seen her around, but he didn't have any classes with her. He wouldn't be sure until the last quarter of the school year. And it would be his final year at the institute.
In a way, he was jealous of her. He had heard of what a great student she was, and her classmates got along with her, unlike his.

He sighed as he walked to his locker. He couldn't let envy get in the way of his studies. He had a lot to do if he wanted to be a good villain.
After he got his books, he turned around, and bumped into someone. They both fell. Kenning struggled to find his fallen glasses, but they were given back by someone he couldn't make out. His vision was too poor to see. But by their voice, that alone was enough.

"Woah, you in a rush Kenny??"

"C-cecelia!"

She gave him back his glasses, and he put them on and got his books. They stood up and began walking to class.

"Thankyou. I didn't even notice you there!"

"I get that a lot. But that's not the point! I gotta ask you something!"

Kenny smiled as she happily skipped her way to class beside him.

"Sure, whaddya need to ask?"

She slowed down, almost to a stop, and went silent. Her face was bright red and her shoulders scrunched, as if she was trying to get smaller.

"I-I'll ask you later. It's pretty embarrassing."

"Oh. Okay, it's up to you I guess."

Kenning walked on, and Cecelia sped up to not get left behind. He could not understand cues for the life of him.

.

They got to class and went to their seats next to eachother. Kenning set up the lab equipment so they would be prepared. Cecelia watched blushing. She wanted to tell him what was on her mind.
Finally she relented, and decided to ask.

"Kenny, will you go to prom with me??"

Kenning dropped the beaker in his hand in surprise, but was able to juggle it around. Cecelia helped him catch it, and for a moment, their hands were on top of each others. They both blushed and pulled away, Kenning carefully putting the beaker away. He coughed into his fist.

"You.. Want to go with me?"

"Well yeah!"

Kenning thought for a moment. No one ever asked him out. Maybe this could be his chance. After all, he really did like Cecelia.

"I- I'll go with you."

"Yay! Thankyou!"

She hugged him around the waist, surprising him. She let go innocently as the teacher came in, signaling the class to pay attention.
Throughout the lesson, they couldn't help but smile at eachother and joke around quietely when they were supposed to be paying attention.
She really was adorable, Kenning thought. He wondered how lucky he was to have such an amazing girl in his life.

.

In the days since Cecelia asked him out, they spent a lot more time together. They'd share notes, do work together, and even have library study dates.
They had in fact just left an after school cafe sesh and were going their separate ways for the evening. They waved goodbye and went on.
Cecelia removed her smile as soon as she left his field of vision. She took off her glasses and took her hair out of its ponytail. Lastly, she stuffed her cat ear headband into her school bag.
As she ran her fingers through her hair, she lost track of her surroundings, and bumped into someone.

"Ugh, watch where you're going!"

Cecelia exclaimed. She looked up and noticed that she knew this person.
A girl named Marianna.
They had a few classes together, and though Cecelia was admired for her confidenc in her courses, every class she was in with Marianna, she seemed to be outshone.
Marianna was smart. Very smart. She could solve equations off the top of her head like it was nothing!
It made Cecelia jealous. What was she if their attention wasn't on her??

"Oh jeez, I'm sorry. Cecelia, right?"

"What's it to you?"

"Well we have classes together! And I see you with Kenning Flugslys alot, so I was wondering-"

Cecelia balled one of her fists and pointed at Marianna.

"Listen here. Just back off, because he's mine! Why would he ever want a dork like you anyway??"

Cecelia usually burnt out after school and became intolerable. She had quite the temper. And her secret hatred for Marianna only strengthened her anger.
Marianna backed uo in defense.

"Woah, that's not it at all! He just announced in the school paper that he left his thesis in a classroom. I went to pick it up for him. Can you tell him it's from me?"

Cecelia gave her a fake smile and took the thesis journal.

"Sure..."

"Thank you!"

Marianna ran off, hoping not to cause any more drama.

.

On her way home, Cecelia couldn't help but look through the journal. It seemed that in his free time, Kenning had been studting how to alter human emotions.

"His hand writing is terrible! You can barely read any of this clearly!"

She said to herself. She sighed and stuffed the thesis in her school bag. She figured she'd try deciphering it when she got home.

.

Kenning slept in dorms. Because he was kidnapped, he couldn't really leave campus. (Of course, he wanted to go there, and wouldn't try running away if he could, but still, he wondered why.)
There were some shopping outlets and cafés, but nothing too fancy.