The constant ticking of the clock as its made its rotation was the perfect background noise for the classroom, the air silent except for the ticking every second and the occasion turning of a page as the students at the desks worked on reading through their tests. In the back corner of the classroom, his desk turned away from everyone else's so that he could keep from distracting himself by watching them do their tests rather than do their own, Owain had his arm laid on the desk, hand palm-up, watching the way his fingers twitched from having already done a fair amount of the test's writing.

"You're never going to finish the exam at this rate, how are you expecting to get enrolled in the school if you have an incomplete entry exam?" the stern proctor of the test, one of the teachers at the high school that Owain knew fairly well, asked as she walked up behind him, her rolled-up exam instruction booklet in her hand. "You cannot rely on who your family is to be accepted into the school, you have to show some sort of attempt at placement testing."

He didn't reply to her, only falling forward in his seat and laying his torso and head on the desk next to his arm. She shook her head before walking away, checking to make sure the other students in the classroom were still hard at work on their tests. "I'm going to get in no matter what, test or no test," he whispered to himself, turning his head so that he could see the words on the page of his test he'd left it open on. "Just because I'm not a good student doesn't mean I can't get in, my parents weren't good students and they got in, so I can too."

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the first question on the page, one he had gotten a sentence into answering before his hand had cramped up to the point of being unable to continue. "I can't do tests like this, everyone knows this, why am I here? Why am I having to take this stupid test right now?" His fingers were still twitching, feeling nearly numb as they moved without him even paying attention to them. "I'm smart enough to do this, I know I am, I just can't take tests like this…"

Footsteps echoed back behind him, followed by a test booklet smacking him against the back of his head. "I was given explicit permission from your parents to be allowed to do that if you were caught slacking off," the teacher told him, before she pulled a chair up next to his desk and sat down, smacking him again with her copy of the test as he sat back up and looked at her, confused. "What, did you think they were not aware that you would be in here with me for this? They made sure that you were under my guidance for this exam, in case this exact situation happened."

"My hand stopping working so that I can't keep taking my test?" Owain glanced at his hand for a second, all the feeling in it from fingertips to wrist completely gone at the moment, before he was focused on the teacher once more. "Miss Miriel, this happens every time someone asks me to write more than a few words. And you knew about it?"

"I mentioned you must show some sort of attempt at the test, did I not?" Reaching past him to take his unfinished test booklet from him, Miriel closed it before she opened to the very first page, reading over what answers Owain had given in it with gentle murmurs of "interesting" or "well-put". When she reached the last page he'd been on, with the single sentence written on it, she set the book down exactly as it had been when she'd picked it up, smacking him with her own booklet for a third time. "Your dedication to trying, as well as your creativity, show that you've given this test all you can. If you find yourself unable to write more during this period, I'll make a note of the extenuating circumstances and attach it to the booklet. For now, though, please at least try to get more answers—I'm sure whoever grades your test would enjoy the humor."

As she got up and pushed the chair away, Owain found himself staring slack-jawed at where she had been sitting, his eyes following her as she made her rounds around the classroom once more. "Huh, how about that," he managed to say, turning his attention back to his test. "I guess maybe I could try to keep going, it's nice to know that I'm not going to fail with what I've got but if she thought it was funny…" He laughed, bringing his non-writing hand to his mouth to stifle the noise to keep from being a disruption, while his still-twitching fingers reached for his pencil. "I've gotta see how many people I can make laugh with my answers. There's no other choice!"

The bell ringing to dismiss the actual high school students from their classes signaled that the testing session was over, giving the kids in the room a few minutes' break before they were back for the next part of the test. By that point, everyone else who'd been in the room was finished and waiting by the door for dismissal, minus Owain, who was mostly done but had given up on properly answering questions in exchange for writing stories in place of what the questions wanted as their responses. He'd jumped up at the sound of the bell, slamming his booklet closed and running it to Miriel's desk, her having piled the other tests in an orderly stack that was just waiting for his on top.

She cracked a small smile at him when she saw his eagerness to turn in his exam. "I hope you took my words to heart and actually gave an attempt to blend correct answers with your particular brand of humor," she said to him, watching him recoil as he realized he'd not done anything close to that. "Oh, at any rate, the person grading it will have a fun time. You enjoy your break time with the rest of the test-takers and make sure to return when they do. The next segment is a math-based one, so no long essays or answers needed."

"Sounds good to me!" he replied, backing away until he hit a desk, then he turned around and ran for the door, leaving her to laugh for a moment before she started preparing the room for the next part of the test. He reached the door in record time and went outside into one of the halls of the school, an area that would normally have been flooded with lingering high school students if it hadn't already been filled with the younger kids there taking their placement tests. There was a thought in Owain's mind about ditching the area to go find one of his parents, but he knew there wasn't enough time in the break to get to where they would be and back.

"Hey, Owain, how'd ya do on that part?" The voice asking him the question was coupled with a hand grabbing his arm and pulling him over against the wall, something he unwillingly did because he knew the speaker and the person touching him were not the same. "Those questions that required deep reading were really hard, don't ya think?"

"I'd say they were incredibly difficult, but that's just me." That was the voice of the boy with his hand still holding Owain's arm, an action he seemed to have no desire of stopping anytime soon. "What do you think, was it hard to you?"

Owain opened his mouth to give a reply, but the realization that he had no idea what questions they were asking about sank in and he was left awkwardly laughing. "I wish I could tell you I did good, Brady, but I don't think I did. Because I didn't actually do my test after, like, page two." That had the first speaker sighing, burying his face in his hands. "But it's not like I had to do it, like you, Inigo."

"I don't have to do it either, we all read the first page where it says that if we're taking the test, we're already guaranteed acceptance into the school." Finally letting go of Owain's arm, Inigo took the opportunity to run that same hand he'd been using through his light gray hair. "I just want to say I did excellent so I can impress the girls we'll be coming here with."

"We…didn't have to try hard?" Owain asked, his laughter fading as he now just felt incredibly awkward. "But she said, she told me we had to attempt the test to get into the school, but she also said me giving funny answers was a good idea too…"

"You really don't like taking tests, do you?" Inigo was trying his hardest not to laugh at his friend, something made all the more difficult when Owain smacked himself on the forehead, leaning against the wall as he did so. "I should have known, only one of us in the friendship can be the smart one, and it seems like the smart one here also happens to be the good-looking and charming one."

"So, me?" His voice muffled by his hands still covering his face, Brady pulled them down just enough to look at Inigo over his fingertips. "'cause I'm pretty smart, if me being here even though I'm a year younger than everyone else means anything."

Inigo let out a single chuckle, nearly spitting on the two boys he was with as he did. "You, good-looking or charming? If you're a year younger than us, that makes you…what, twelve? You haven't started growing into a man yet, I'm afraid, and no girl is going to find you even slightly 'cute' with that nasty scar on your face."

"N-nasty scar? Ma always says it makes me look older!" Beginning to whimper as if he was genuinely hurt, one of Brady's hands moved back up to cover his eye that had the straight-line scar running over it. "Ya can't blame me for that, or for being younger than you guys! I'm still smarter than you, I bet."

"I'll give you that point, it must take some serious smarts to be able to start high school a year early." Inigo's attention shifted over to Owain, who was still leaning against the wall in disbelief that he'd been tricked into trying harder on something he didn't need to try hard on at all. "Say, Owain, how do you even know this kid anyway?"

Because Owain was a bit preoccupied with his mental breakdown, Brady went ahead and answered for himself, even though his voice was wavering and he was on the verge of tears as he spoke. "Me and Owain have known each other since I was a baby, our moms being best friends and all that. He's kinda like a brother to me, and he's my best friend, and if he was payin' attention here he'd hurt you for makin' me cry." With that, the tears started rolling and Inigo was left staring at a blubbering mess of a boy standing right next to one that was completely unresponsive and ignorant to what was going on around him.

"I'm going to pretend like I don't know either of you right now." Looking around for someone else to talk to, Inigo sighed when he saw that the crowd of kids was already beginning to congregate around the door to the classroom they were testing in. "Or maybe not, looks like it's time to get back to the testing thing. Let's hope the next break we have doesn't end up with someone crying."

Sniffling, Brady said, "I'm only cryin' because you're a jerk. I don't know why Owain thinks you're as cool as he does, but I don't see it."

"He thinks I'm cool because I actually went to school with him, unlike you and your history with him." Inigo stuck his tongue out when he heard more sniffles coming from Brady, but he dropped the gesture when he watched Owain shake his head and bring himself back to reality. "Look who's decided to rejoin us! Is everything okay in that head of yours? You were out of it for a while there."

"Everything's fine, yeah," Owain answered, still leaning against the wall and thinking about what he'd just gone through. In the time he'd been ignoring his friends bickering, he'd come to the realization that he was most likely going to do much, much worse than either of them on any of the tests they had to take, but thanks to the fact that he was already guaranteed a spot in the school that wasn't too bad of a thing to have to deal with. So what if he'd end up having to take classes without them? He didn't need to be with his friends all the time, he could do just fine on his own. "I just can't wait to get done here today. Missing school's fun, but not when we're just taking tests somewhere else."

It took a moment of letting Owain's words sink in, but Inigo's eyes went wide when he came up with something he thought the two might want to hear. Telling them would have to wait, however, as the moment he opened his mouth to suggest it they were summoned back to the classroom for the next segment of the test. With it being the math portion, things seemed to have gone over a lot better for them as a group, judging by how Owain wasn't the last one done and he was able to leave the classroom on break at the same time as everyone else, rather than having to turn his test in at the start of the break, but when they were back in their same spot in the hall, there wasn't any time for discussing numbers and equations.

There was only time for Inigo to look down the hall at the passing high schoolers and watch some of the older girls walking somewhere so foreign to him. "I don't think I want to sit through the next test, if you know what I'm getting at," he told Owain and Brady, both of them exchanging a confused look when they heard what he had to say. "I bet there's a girls' gym class happening in the next hour and I'd love to get to—"

"Uh, we're not doing any kind of gym test," Owain interrupted, completely missing the point. "Miss Miriel said it's another writing part, which really sucks for me but what can we do about it? Tests are tests and we've got to take them."

"I've always known you're not smart, Owain, but seriously?" Inigo turned his head to give Owain a stare that showed that he thought his friend's comment was dumb. "We don't have to take anything if we don't want to. All we need's a reason to get out of the room, then I'm sure you know where the gym is from here. Mind giving your friends a tour?"

Scratching at the back of his head as he mulled the question over, Owain shrugged. "I mean, this isn't really the time to be doing that, don't you think? I bet if I asked my parents nicely, they'd bring us here some day and show us around themselves…"

The stare was broken when Inigo rolled his eyes, turning back to looking at the people passing down at the end of the hall. "I don't want to be here without the older kids, that's the issue here. When else would we have the chance to take a look around and see the sights, maybe have someone find us cute while we're walking around? We won't have that chance when we're actual students here, we'll just be the babies of the school. We have to do this now while it's a possibility."

"I think I get what you're sayin'," Brady said, before looking to Owain with a scared expression, "and I don't think we should fall for it, Owain! He's tryin' to get us to skip out on the test to go look at girls!"

"Whoa now, I can't do that! Just because I'm doomed to fail the test anyway doesn't mean I'm going to ditch it!" Owain reached out and grabbed Inigo's shoulders, shaking his friend back and forth for a few moments before one of his arms was slapped away. "What are you trying to do, get us kicked out before we even start going here? Can you imagine how bad that would be? I…I have to go here! My parents went here! My uncle's the principal! I can't get kicked out already!"

"No one said we'd get kicked out, not if we—" Inigo dropped the volume of his voice as he gave the (in his mind) best part of his idea, "—had some reason to be roaming the halls. A good reason. Like someone being sick or hurt or something. Surely that's not an excuse that would be ignored."

Owain opened his mouth to reply, but quickly closed it when he realized he didn't have anything to say that went against that idea. The only thing he could come up with was something to make it possible, by using his arm aching as a reason to need to leave the classroom, but suggesting that didn't feel right to him. However, just because his friend was starting to fall for the trap didn't mean Brady was going to as well. "I don't think that's a good idea," he said, trying to sound stern and serious even though doing that was rather hard when he was not intimidating in the slightest. "All of us aren't going to be allowed to leave at once, and even if we were, wouldn't the teacher make sure we get to where we're going? I don't really know her, but my dad does and he talks about how she can…oh you're just gonna walk away, I see how it is."

Somewhere in the middle of Brady trying to be the sensible one, Inigo had decided that he was going to go try looking at the high school kids for himself, heading down the hall to where it intersected with the one bustling with the older students. Owain had to fight with himself between listening to the explanation and following his other friend, and when he decided to follow Inigo's lead that had left Brady standing there talking to the air. He didn't follow the two, instead heading back to the classroom by himself with a dejected sigh.

"I know you just met the kid today, but you've really gotta not walk off while he's talking," Owain chided when he caught up to Inigo, them both reaching the end of their little hallway. "You might've made Brady cry, and I don't think his mom's going to like it very much if he goes home talking about how you made him cry. She'll blame me, and I don't want to be on his mom's bad side. Bad place to be."

"And you walking off while he's talking is okay?" Hearing Owain stutter as he tried to come up with some response that somehow justified what he'd done, Inigo laughed. "Let this be known as his first taste of actual school, I suppose. He doesn't want to hang with the big kids, he can go cry home to his mommy." He feigned wiping tears from his cheeks, finding his actions humorous, so when he ended up getting kicked in the shin he wasn't expecting it. "What was that for, Owain?" he snapped, dropping down to grab where his friend's foot had just hit him. "I was making a joke!"

"You don't pick on Brady when he's not around. I won't allow it." Giving a loud huff as he glared down at Inigo, trying to decide if he had anything else to say, Owain froze in place when he looked back up and saw several high school students standing across the hall, having watched what he'd just done without a word. He slowly raised a hand to give them a small wave, the sounds of their laughter and questioning if the "little brats" were really fighting making color rise to his cheeks.

As he turned to run back to the classroom, Inigo looked at the group that was currently finding him getting kicked hilarious, his face going pale when he recognized one of the people in the group. He too raised a hand to wave, but the person in question he was locking eyes with gave a slight shake of his head, wordlessly telling him not to bother. He swallowed down hard and nodded, making a break for the classroom as well, a bit of a hobble in his step as he ran. Once they, and the rest of the kids that were supposed to be there, were back in their seats, the next part of the test was able to begin.

Halfway through the session, Owain was starting to regret dismissing Inigo's idea like he had. The feeling of embarrassment he'd had from attacking Inigo in the hall had long since faded, but he was sure if he dwelled on being watched like that long enough he could make his cheeks go bright red again, which would make it rather easy to fake being sick. He couldn't spare the time to think about that though, not when there was a test sitting on his desk that he needed to complete in some timely manner. "I'm still going to fail this thing," he told himself as he gripped his pencil tightly enough to make his whole hand tingle, "but I'm going to actually try doing it. I'm not skipping out on a test because Inigo says so."

Yet after the session was over and there was just one more test to go, he was back to considering that suggestion as a real possibility. "I don't like when you've got that look on your face, Owain," Brady whispered to him, breaking him from the train of thought he'd gotten himself lost on. "Normally it means you're about to do somethin' stupid, and if you're doin' it then I'm right there with ya on it, and I don't know if I wanna know what you're thinkin' about this time…"

"What if Inigo's plan isn't that bad after all?" he replied, getting his friend to groan. "No, hear me out, what if it's not? I mean, we don't want to spy on the girls like he does, but I'm getting tired of testing and I'm sure you are too."

"I am, but that doesn't mean I'm gonna break the rules to get out of it. Can you imagine if Ma found out I got caught skippin' one of these tests? She'd choose to homeschool me for the rest of forever, because I couldn't be trusted to do good here with you." Brady gave Owain a terrified look, almost as if he was on the verge of crying at the thought of being stuck under his mother's control in regards to his education. "I don't know if I could handle doin' that until I graduate, I really don't!"

"Then it's good we're not going to skip the last test, I suppose." Owain shrugged, grabbing Brady and rubbing a fist into the top of his head, ruffling his brown hair until it was a complete disaster. "We're going to stick to what we've been doing all day, and then after this we're done! Easy as that!"

They shared a laugh as Owain let go of Brady and allowed for him to try fixing his hair as best as he could with his fingers, but deep down they both were questioning how true that statement was. With the seed of adventure taking root in Owain's mind, it was only a matter of time before he capitalized on it; all he needed was an opening to make a move.

Had they known that opening was going to be as simple as a loud sneeze in the middle of that last test, their confidence in them sticking to the testing would have been next to nothing. The sneeze itself hadn't been the problem, just a minor disruption for the students in the room as they were trying to take their science test, but when the shaky statement of "Uh, I think my nose is bleedin'" came from Brady as he held his hand to his nose, that seemed to be like the biggest opening ever to Owain.

As Miriel stopped her rounds to inspect what had happened, Owain turned around in his seat and saw that Inigo was looking in his direction, almost as if he had been waiting for this same opening. With the adult in charge distracted, Inigo quietly got up from his seat and started tiptoeing towards the door, holding a finger to his lips to tell Owain to stay quiet, but the moment his hand dropped, the time to become an even bigger distraction was upon him. "Miss Miriel!" he called out, giving Inigo the opening to get the door opened and sneak out without being heard. "Does Brady need to go to the nurse's office? I do know where that is, if you want me to take him."

"What a kind offer, but I think a few tissues will suffice to take care of this issue." Already Miriel was heading to grab some tissues for Brady, not looking in the direction of the desk that had been emptied. "If it persists, however, taking you up on your offer might be a necessary action." She was in the process of handing the tissues to Brady when he sneezed again, him grabbing what she had and holding them against his face, a smear of blood visible on his hand. He didn't seem to be too bothered by what was happening, but she was looking from him to his desk that had a small splattering of blood on it and then over to Owain, who was still turned around in his desk, waiting for the cue to leave. "You know what, I cannot see you focusing on your test long enough to finish it, and the boy does need to wash up after this, so perhaps you can lead him to the restroom? There's no need for a trip to the nurse's office for this."

"I can do that for you!" Owain cheerfully said, jumping from his seat and running to behind Brady's, urging his friend to get to his feet so he could lead him to the door. "We'll be right back, unless it gets worse then we'll probably stay gone but I don't know if that'll happen or not!" He could hear her sigh at his loud proclamations, which made him feel a bit bad for everyone who was still taking their test at that point, but he really didn't care too much about them. All he knew was that he had his way out of the class, and it was for a legitimate thing that had happened.

If only Inigo wasn't right on the other side of the door, waiting for them to finally come out. "Took you long enough," he said, smiling at the two. "And what a believable excuse, that blood looks more real than it should for something like this."

"That's because his nose is actually bleeding, Inigo. He's not faking this." A sense of needing to do what he'd been tasked with had overtaken Owain, and he was completely prepared to lead Brady towards the closest bathroom to get him cleaned up and back to the testing room, but when Inigo stepped in front of him, arms crossed over his chest as he shook his head, he knew that his intentions were going to be ignored. "Come on, can't we at least go get him cleaned up?"

The head shaking persisted, Inigo looking at Brady's current state with a small smile. "We can use his bloody nose as an excuse if we're stopped on our way to the gym. Now show us the way, Owain, you're the only one here who knows how to get there."

"I don't think I want to do that," he said, his voice shaking as he fought with himself internally about what he was doing. He knew that helping Brady was the right thing to do, but at the same time, doing things with Inigo was always a fun time, because they were going against the rules and against all sense of right and wrong. "But…you know what, the day's almost over, what's so bad about going a bit out of our way right now? If we get caught, I know there's a bathroom near the gym so we could say we were heading there. We'll just show you where the gym is once we're down there."

"You're not letting me go by myself, I'll need backup there by my side to confirm whatever I see." Inigo stopped shaking his head when he finally saw Owain let his shoulders drop in defeat, the blond boy saying that he'd do it after all. "That's the spirit! Now, dear friend and said friend's dear friend, which way do we go?"

Owain looked down the hall both ways, before gesturing to the left with his head. "This way'll take us by the fewest classrooms, but we've gotta be careful because I'm pretty sure that, unless they moved rooms for some reason, Brady's dad's classroom is that way."

"Are you crazy?" His voice altered thanks to him holding his nose to make sure it wasn't going to bleed everywhere, Brady took a couple steps in the only other way they had to go. "I'm not getting in trouble by my dad catchin' me out of the test! We're goin' this way if we're goin' anywhere at all!"

"But Brady, if we go that way, there's so many other classrooms we could get caught walking past. I know you don't know all the teachers like I do, but we really shouldn't…" Owain sighed when he saw Inigo step to being alongside Brady, interlocking arms with him to make it look like he was doing a helpful service. "I guess we're going to go that way, huh? So much for not getting caught, but when it happens, I told you so."

"Stop your complaining, Owain, we're not going to get caught unless someone hears your big mouth. Now grab your friend's other arm, we're going to make this convincing until we get close enough to the gym to see those lovely ladies!" Already starting to drag Brady along, Inigo didn't wait for Owain to catch up, instead making him work for a place in the scheme to get to the gym. Once he was in a position to make it look like he was helping Brady move (despite the only ailment being a bloody nose), the three of them made quick work of getting down the hall and to where the older students had been watching them before. The main corridors of the school were done in a square, ultimately all leading to either exits or to the school commons, and with one turn they were headed straight for where the gym was located, having to only go down a long hallway with classrooms on both sides.

Nothing too problematic, not for students whose goal was to actually go where they'd been told to go. But for three younger boys who were ditching a test for two very different reasons, the situation was nothing more than a recipe for disaster, especially when they walked past the door to the copy room right as someone was opening it from the inside. If he'd been paying attention to his surroundings, Owain might have made note of that before it was painfully obvious who was coming out into the hall, but he was too busy focusing on staying quiet and quick on his feet to take a second look at that doorway.

"What in Naga's name are you boys doing?" the voice belonging to the white-haired woman who'd pushed open that door asked, ending all notions that this endeavor was going to end well. "Aren't you supposed to be somewhere right now? Say, in a testing room? With your classmates? Not roaming the halls like you are?"

"Come on boys, let's run!" Inigo whispered to the other two, trying to pick up his pace to get out of the situation they'd stumbled into. "We've gotten so far, we can't let ourselves get caught right now!" When he made it a few steps before being pulled back thanks to Brady having stopped walking, his speed not enough to pull the kid from where he now stood, he had no choice but to give up hope on what he'd been trying to do. Or he could have tried running for it again, sending himself slipping onto his back when, once again, he couldn't get enough force to pull who was keeping him from moving. "Ow, I can't say I deserved that…"

"Way to try and get out of getting in trouble," Owain said, rolling his eyes at what Inigo had just done. "We're trapped now. Aunt Robin got us."

"Trapped? Did you figure someone would catch you while you're trying to do, ahem, whatever it is you're out here doing?" Laughing, Robin let the door to the copy room close behind her as she closed in on the three boys in the hall, bending down to look at Inigo as he lay on the floor. "I'm going to go ahead and assume this is the guilty party here, correct me if I'm wrong."

"No, it was definitely that kid's idea," Brady replied, still sounding strange due to holding his nose. "He wanted to go look at girls in gym class."

Robin smiled down at Inigo, who was glaring back up at her. "What an interesting thing to hear, someone wanting to go watch girls in gym! Wouldn't it be funny if you'd made it down there just to find out that it's only a boys class in there right now, so there wouldn't even be any girls to spy on?"

At the same time Inigo said that that wouldn't be funny at all, Owain realized what that would have meant for them, taking in a sharp breath at the idea of getting all the way to the gym only to have been caught in there by his own father. "I'm glad you found us then, Aunt Robin," he said, trying to back away from the situation but finding the same problem that Inigo had when he'd tried to run: he was still locking arms with Brady. "You're going to show us back to class and tell us not to do it again, right?"

"No, oh gods, I couldn't let you three get out of this without learning something!" Still laughing, Robin stood back to her full height and looked between the three boys. Inigo remained on the floor, completely unamused, while Brady was beginning to tear up at the prospect of being in trouble at a school before he was even a real student there, and Owain's lower jaw was shaking as he tried to find some words to use to ask for some forgiveness. "I'll be leading you somewhere, but it certainly isn't back to where you're supposed to be."

There was a silence between the boys, until Brady wailed, "I don't wanna go to the principal's office on my first day ever here! Please don't get us in trouble like that, both my parents will kill me for it!"

"Don't worry, I wouldn't put you three on Chrom's list of worries quite yet," she assured him, getting a thankful sniffle in return, but the look she was giving Owain was making the blond boy shake where he stood. She winked at him, before adding, "I know just the place that'll suit you for what you've done. Based on how one of you seems to be bleeding and one hit the floor rather hard while trying to escape, I'd say the nurse's office is best."

The breathless "no, please" that Owain managed to get out was overshadowed by Inigo, not reading the situation at all, making a sarcastic comment about how that was where they'd been told to go to begin with, so it only made sense for them to go there after all. "Y-you don't get it, do you Inigo?" Owain asked as he watched his aunt shuffle how she was holding her papers to help his friend up to his feet. He shrugged in response, making him shake a bit harder. "That's where my mom is, she's going to be so mad when we walk in there 'cause we're in trouble…"

"Oh, I don't think she'll be mad, but she'll definitely have something to say about seeing you boys in there before you're actually students here." Robin started leading them down the hall, checking behind her every couple steps to make sure they were trailing behind her. "Don't worry, I'll make sure to keep the 'ditching the test' part out of my explanation for why you're there, but this is a one-time offer I'm only honoring today. No exceptions."

Based on how sincere she sounded when she said it, Owain figured it was best to heed his aunt's word about this being their one free pass when it came to punishment in the school. He was sure Brady felt the same way, and he couldn't be bothered to care about how Inigo felt because it was Inigo's fault they'd gotten into this mess in the first place. "Thanks for not ratting us out, Aunt Robin," he said once they got closer to his mother's office, having her turn back to smile at him for the comment. "I'll never forget this."

"Yes, well, I'll never forget it either, and neither will Chrom. Don't think I'm not telling him what you three did, even if we're not punishing you for it." They were steps away from the heavily-decorated door to the nurse's office, a sign visible in the window to knock before entering. Upon coming up to it, she gave a few hard knocks on the glass, watching the boys that had followed her wince at the sound, knowing that this would have been a source of punishment had kindness not been bestowed upon them.

The door creaked open, a cheery face peeking out of it that turned to a look of surprise when she saw the three boys standing there with Robin. "Oh no, what happened here?" Lissa asked, bringing a hand to cover her mouth as she looked from her son to his two best friends. "Did someone get hurt? Do we need to call some parents?"

Sometimes, having family that worked at a school was a great thing. Other times, it was the most terrifying thing in the world. Being escorted to his own mother's office as a light punishment was one of those terrifying times, and Owain swore to himself right then that he would never find himself following those same steps down there again. If he ever had to come visit her during school hours, he'd do it because he was sick, not because he was a bad kid or anything.

Little did he know that, when school started that fall, it would take exactly half an actual school day for him to break that promise.

A/N: so okay this is basically the prologue of the story, which is the DIRECT sequel to Plucky and Prideful (please go read that before you read any more chapters of this fic!), but if you read Terribelle Things and/or Young and Yearning those basically help build the story universe.

I've been wanting to write this since finishing Plucky and Prideful in June 2015. It's going to be a labor of love but it's going to be so worth it in the end, whenever it gets finished.