Moonlit Ink
Qifrey x Platonic! Gn! Apprentice! Reader
Summary: You bite a bit more than you can chew, studying late into the night, and fortunately your master takes notice when it seems to be taking a toll on you.
Warnings: insomnia, fainting, potential anime/manga spoilers, potentially OOC, reader uses they/them, the reader’s age isn’t specified but they are written as being around the same age as Qifrey’s other apprentices, descriptions of exhaustion, lightheadedness, and nausea, I’m currently only watching the anime so if anything written contradicts what happens later in the manga I’m sorry
You laid on your back, looking up at your moon-illuminated ceiling. No matter what position you laid in, how tightly you shut your eyes, or how high you raised your blanket over your head, you weren’t able to get even a moment of sleep. Your hands itched for your pen.
You turned to look outside of the window. The night was still young, and if you were careful you probably wouldn’t wake anyone up. Taking in a deep breath, you slowly got out of your bed, grabbed your lantern from your bedside counter, and left your bedroom, and gingerly opened and shut your door so it wouldn’t creak too loudly. Once you made your way to your desk, you kneeled down and carefully placed your lantern onto the soft wood.
You took a piece of paper and held it down with one of your hands. With your other hand, you grasped your pen and dipped it into your small bottle of ink. You watched the way small droplets of the ink fell back into the bottle, before giving your pen a couple of rhythmic taps with your index finger. A few more droplets of ink fell back into the bottle. You brought the tip of your pen to the surface of paper. With a deep breath, you started to draw the first line of a spell.
You started out basic. A simple water spell, a simple fire spell…that you immediately put out with another water spell. But as the minutes turned to hours you started turning to more complex spells. Spells that took a few extra attempts to get right, in your eyes. After completing the circle for a levitation spell, you watched as the paper the spell was drawn on flew into the air before delicately swaying back down onto your desk.
“Perhaps I should try that one spell Tetia came up with…” you mumbled to yourself as you continued to burn through your paper.
By the time it began to occur to you how long you had stayed up, it was too late. You looked up, and your heart dropped at seeing the sun peak out from the hills near the atelier as the birds had begun their morning chirps. You sucked in a deep breath and quickly put your pen back into the bottle of ink before discarding your used paper. Hastily grabbing your lantern, you darted back into your bedroom. You put the light out in your lantern before jumping into your bed and drawing your blanket over your head. You shut your eyes tight again, desperately praying for sleep to come quickly if at all.
“(Y/N), breakfast is ready!” A lively voice called, accompanied by the sound of your bedroom door opening. You groaned as what felt like your only few seconds of sleep were ripped away from you. You slowly but surely sat up in your bed, rubbing your eyes, as if that’d do anything. You blinked open your eyes to see a familiar pink-haired, twin-tailed girl poking her head into your room.
“Good morning,” the pink-haired greeted, as she fully walked into your room with a hop and skip in her step.
“Good morning, Tetia,” You greeted back, internally letting out a sigh of relief as you managed to keep your voice from slurring. “Thank you for waking me up.” You continued, slowly getting out of your bed.
“Thank you for your thank you!” Tetia said, not even missing a bit. The second your feet touched the ground, you had to lean your right hand against your bedside counter. It felt as if the ground was swaying beneath you, like you were on a boat.
“Hey, are you alright?” Tetia asked, tilting her entire body to her waist to the side. Despite the fact that she was right in front of you, her voice came out warbled and far away; as she was attempting to talk to you while you were sinking in the ocean.
“I’m alright. Just a bit tired, still,” you tried to explain. Tetia had an unreadable expression on her face as she let out a small hum, as if she was examining your every move. A second later, her smile reappeared back onto her face, although it wasn’t as bright as it usually was.
“Well, alright then,” Tetia said. She turned around and walked to your door before looking over her shoulder to you, “anyways, let’s hurry! Everybody’s probably waiting for us.” You nodded, following after her as she exited your bedroom and walked to the dining room.
Your body felt both weightless but like lead, and you could already feel the hint of a headache surface. Yet you knew that in order to keep the rest of the Atelier from worrying about your condition, you’d need to steal yourself and remain vigilant, even if your own body made that near impossible. I’ll just make it up by going to bed early today, you tried to tell yourself.
“Well, look who showed up,” Agott’s curt voice mused, snapping you out of your thoughts. You blinked, realizing that you were already walking towards the dining table. You immediately plastered a smile on your face and picked up a wooden bowl from the kitchen countertop.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to sleep in,” you said to Agott, walking over to the pot of breakfast stew. You blankly stared at the usually appealing steaming pot of stew. Seeing whatever was being or had been cooked for breakfast would usually make your heart soar in delight, yet now, looking at the breakfast stew, all you could focus on was the weird feeling swirling in your stomach. Like expired milk, curdling violently inside you. You hesitantly picked up a spoon and poured a small amount of stew into your bowl.
Just enough to abide hunger until lunch time, but little enough to keep you from feeling anymore violently sick than you already were. You made sure a smile was plastered onto your face before walking back to the dining table, bowl in your hands.
“Oh my, is that all you’ll be having for breakfast?” The silky voice of your treasured Master Qifrey asked, causing you to look up at him. He wasn’t looking at you, but down at the amount of stew that was on your plate. You could make out the hint of surprise in his eye. Your smile tightened slightly and you nodded your head.
“I suppose I just don’t have much of an appetite right now,” You said dismissively. You didn’t acknowledge the way Master Qifrey continued to stare at you while you walked over and sat next to Coco. As you ate and listened to everyone else converse between themselves whilst occasionally adding to it, you had to steal yourself from giving into the way the stew upset your stomach.
Since you took so little stew, you had finished breakfast much before anyone else.
“(Y/N),” Coco called out to you as you gathered your bowl in your hands and stood up. You turned back around to look at her.
“Yes, Coco?” You answered.
“Would you like to study together with us? It might be a nice change of pace!” Coco asked and explained.
You sadly smiled, “sorry Coco. Perhaps another day,” you said. Before Coco could respond, you turned your back to her to clean up your bowl. Once you finished, without saying a word, you walked out of the dining room and back to your desk. The bright light shining through the windows was nearly blinding.
You truly did want to take Coco up on her offer but…you couldn’t allow anyone to see how tired you truly were. You sighed and kneeled down in front of your desk, placing another piece of unused paper beneath your non-dominant hand. As you picked up your pen with your other hand, you noted the way it seemed to tremble.
You simply readjusted your hold, tightening your grip on your pen — as if that’d truly help with anything — before dipping it into the ink. You then made the first mark on the paper.
You pinched the bridge of your nose and let out a groan. Your head was pounding, as if a needle had been shot right through it. It was making it hard to think, and focus. You groaned once more, exasperated, as the trembling in your hands seemed to intensify, causing your spell to come out sloppy. You drew your hands to your face and allowed it to rest in them.
I just need some fresh air, you attempted to rationalize with yourself. You grabbed your pouch of paper* and stood up. As you traveled to the door leading outside of the Atelier, you noticed you didn’t encounter any of the girls nor Master Qifrey. Perhaps they were busy elsewhere.
Once you made it outside of the Atelier, you spent a few moments simply basking in the hilly landscape as the soft cool wind danced around you, rippling throughout your gown. You then walked a bit further from the Atelier before kneeling down on the grass, feeling the way the grass tickled at your legs. You opened your pouch. Good, you still had much more paper left in it. Repeating the same motions you did earlier, you tightened your grip on your pen, before you started drawing once more.
After managing to complete just a few spells, you started to feel that perhaps the change in scenery was useless. Your hand was still trembling, and as time ticked on, you felt your eyes growing heavier and heavier. You yawned. Perhaps resting your eyes for a few moments would be fine, right?
With a half drawn spell still on the paper in front of you, and your pen still within your hands, you closed your eyes, hoping that would relieve your exhaustion even by a little.
…
“Is that where you’re choosing to sleep?” The playful tone of Master Qifrey’s voice cut through your exhaustion, causing your eyes to shoot open. You turned your head to see Qifrey leaning down slightly, looking down at you. He had a soft smile on his face, yet you could make out hints of concern in his one, visible blue eye.
“The fresh air is nice, however I’m not quite sure sleeping out here would be as comfortable as sleeping in your bed,” Qifrey teased. You felt your cheeks heat up and you looked away.
“…apologies, Master Qifrey,” you mumbled, bowing your head in shame, “I’ve just felt…very tired today,” you admitted. You heard Qifrey let out a small hum. You heard the soft crunches of grass being stepped on as you saw the tips of Qifrey’s boots walking to stand in front of you. Qifrey’s arm drew into your vision right before he placed his fingertips under your chin, gently urging you to lift your head up. Once you obliged, you noted how your master was now kneeling in front of you on one leg. He tilted his head slightly.
“You stayed up last night practicing spells, didn’t you?” Qifrey asked. There was no tinge of accusation within his voice. You nodded your head, suddenly gaining the want to throw yourself into a hole and never come out. Perhaps you could draw a spell for that while Qifrey isn’t looking.
“My apologies, Master Qifrey,” you repeated. “I just couldn’t help myself.” You looked down slightly, even with Qifrey’s fingertips under your chin.
Qifrey once again tilted your head so that you would look up at him. Much to your surprise, he didn’t seem even the tiniest bit disappointed.
“You have nothing to apologize for, (Y/N). It’s natural to feel the itch to want to improve. I just wish you wouldn’t push yourself so hard,” Qifrey said. He then moved his hand away from under your chin — allowing you to pull your gaze back down to the grass between you to — before placing it on top of your head, petting it softly.
A beat of silence passed between you two as Qifrey continued to pet your head.
“…how about you finish your studies early for today?” Qifrey decided. Your eyes widened and you looked back up at him.
“Really? Is that alright?” You cautiously asked.
Qifrey let out a quiet chuckle, “of course dear. All I ask is that you spend the rest of the day getting an adequate amount of rest.”
You nodded your head and closed your pouch, your pen still in your other hand. You attempted to stand up, however, your legs seemed to refuse to fully obey you, which resulted in them trembling before collapsing under you.
“Oh dear…are you alright? Do you need me to carry you?” Qifrey asked. Through your slightly blurring vision you saw him extend his arms forward as if you were to faint at any moment. You felt your cheeks heat up even more in embarrassment.
“I’m fine, Master Qifrey…” you were going to say more, yet you trailed off as — when you attempted to stand up again — your legs mirrored their previous movements and caused you to lean forward. On instinct, Qifrey reached forward and caught you in his arms, positioning you in a bridle carry. As you rested your head comfortably on your stomach, you felt an unusual freeness in your hands. Did you drop your pen and pouch?
“Don’t worry about your things, (Y/N). I’ll make sure to collect them later,” Qifrey said, as if he could read your mind. “Just focus on resting now.”
As if a spell was cast on you through Qifrey’s words, your eyes grew heavier and you could no longer resist closing them. Qifrey hadn’t even made it through the door of the Atelier before you slipped back into a much needed rest, in the safety of your one and only Master Qifrey’s arms.
*If you have no idea what I’m talking about it’s that small circular notebook the girls use to be able to quickly cast spells. I couldn’t remember what they were called and I felt too tired to check lol.
First ever wha fic yaaaay. Sorry if it ended suddenly, I didn’t know how to end it. I definitely wanna write more of those, but I think I might get better material if I read the manga, soooo I have to get to do doing that one of these days.
Should note tho that anymore platonic qifrey fics I make I’ll probably be putting on ao3 because I feel like there’s really not a lot of platonic qifrey fics, but that doesn’t mean I won’t post anything here tho!!
Anyways I hope you enjoyed thiiis. Somehow in the short span of a few weeks this perhaps morally dubious witch has become one of my comfort characters and I honestly couldn’t tell you how lol