George's heart raced against his chest.
Standing outside the room of who he was now hesitant to call his brother's, he attempted to take some deep breaths, managing to calm down somewhat as he realised he was in a place where anyone could easily see his dishevelled state.
Swiftly, George walked down the empty corridor, grateful that this was still lesson time.
He needed to go to a place no one else would find him, he wanted to go to a place where he could digest what was going on, a place where he could be alone.
Luckily, as it was his last year in this school, he knew the place like the back of his hand, so he easily slipped out of the doors leading to the gardens, skilfully finding his way around the back of the trimmed hedges to an opening clear of any other people.
Only he and Victor knew about this place, so he was confident no one else would find it.
He sat against the back of the trimmed hedges in a daze, hoping for the sharp sensations on his back to poke some sense into him as he stared at the opening before him.
The space was large, or at least it would have been large if not for the cut branches and piles of swept leaves littering the ground, most likely from when the people working in the gardens had decided the spot was too secretive for anyone to know it was their dumping ground - but for now, the space was cramped and it was clear that this was simply a spot the gardeners had not bothered to take care of, with grass growing rampant and daisies which would have usually been carefully plucked out peeking out shyly.
However, as much as the gardeners had chosen to neglect the now little spot behind the trimmed hedges, the sun did not differentiate and chose to shine on the spot anyway, of course save the scarce shadows provided by the perfectly cuboid hedges.
The place shone with a wild kind of beauty, something rare in an academy as superficial and classist as it was.
So this was what this place looked like before all this academy bullshit came into place.
George would often think as he spaced out from the rest of the world, twiddling with a daisy growing near his reach.
But today, he did not have time to admire the raw beauty as he awoke from his daze.
His breathing became near erratic again as his mind raced.
How long had this been going on?
...No, that much was obvious to even a passer-by. It had to be the morning of when Leige, or the person occupying Leige, had apologized to him.
His heart ached as he realised the apology from Leige had not been real at all. He knew it was too good to be true in the first place.
More importantly,
Who was inside Leige?
Even if he was unable to accept that his Leige was not his Leige anymore for now, he knew he would have to eventually, and so instead tried to figure as much as he could out.
However, it was impossible for him to know what had happened to his Leige for the time being.
As he had calmed down reasonably enough now, he went over new Leige's actions thoroughly in his head.
Overall, this new Leige seemed like a quiet and obedient person, although he wasn't sure whether it had been an act or not.
However, he thinking back, he felt as though it was very unlikely to be a sort of act, simply because the new Leige had not gained anything by his current personality.
Gained.
Was there some sort of goal this new Leige had in mind? Was that why his Leige had been taken away?
Make no mistake, he did not like the previous Leige. It could even go as far as to describe his emotions as hate and disgust.
However, Leige was still his family. His younger brother.
And there was no way in hell he would let go of him just like that, and accept that someone else had just taken over his body.
"George?"
A familiar, deep voice interrupted him from his rapidly spiralling thoughts.
He looked up.
Sure enough, two eyes, cold and pale, stared back at him, with a hint of concern that would have been near undetectable to anyone but George.
"Victor." he breathed out, sighing deeply as he rested his head against the prickly leaves.
Victor frowned as he looked at his best friend, knowing something was very wrong.
The last time the two had been at this spot was when Victor had a fight with his father, causing him to be whipped multiple times until any sudden movement would open his wounds on his back.
That was two years ago.
To them both, this place was only for when they were struggling with something and needed time to adjust before facing the academy again.
George could be considered a perfect person.
Yes, there was no such thing as a perfect person, but Victor deeply believed that if there was, it would be the embodiment of George.
He never seemed to show his emotions on his face, constantly smiling to everyone, no matter what had happened.
For Victor, his facial features where also considered perfect, with soft, golden eyes which lit up whenever he chose to smile for real.
Not to mention his straight nose and structured face, he was at what would probably be considered a perfect height, just below Victor's.
Everything about him seemed perfect.
Yet only Victor knew about his struggles, the rare times he would let his emotions control him, the occasional times he would act his age and show a hint of childishness, and the extraordinarily scarce times he would let a tear slip down from his face.
"What's wrong?" if anyone else saw Victor so soft, they would most likely throw a fit. Yet George did not find anything odd about him, mostly because he was not in the right mood to care.
George blinked, then blinked again.
It was the first time since childhood that he had felt so... lost.
He was at a loss at what to do.
There was no clear answer waiting for him, there was no one who could guide him into doing the right thing when someone else had just completely taken over his younger brother's body.
How was he meant to react?
Was he meant to ignore it?
Was he supposed to just sit there and watch as someone who he did not know at all changed his brother's identity into someone else's?
For the first time in his life, he wished that he had simply been ignorant.
Ignorant of the fact his younger brother had gone to a place, where he did not know.
Ignorant that there was someone else living in there, that it was not Leige he had driven to school, that it was not Leige he had dinner with just yesterday, and the day before that...
He looked at Victor again, who had by now crouched onto the ground to carefully detangle his hair from the trimmed hedges.
"Victor?"
Immediately came his reply.
"Yes?"
George had no idea what to do anymore.
He did not know the right path to take, how to face Leige now, or how to act.
"Let's go back."
He would just have to figure it out as he went.