Chapter I – Broken Doors and Memories

Lyra groaned, covering her eyes with her hand as sunlight streamed in through her window. It had been a late night studying for an upcoming test, and she did not want to get up so early.

That feeling was rudely erased when her door was kicked in.

"Lyra," a familiar voice called out in a singsong tone. "It's time to wake up."

"Arrgh." She rolled over to face the opposite direction. "Get out, Alex."

"No, seriously, Lyra. You have five minutes to get up, or I'm leaving without you. And then you'll be late."

She shot up in panic. Her hazy mind registered somewhere that the stack of books that had been laying in front of the door was now scattered across the floor. All the other stacks, however, were still neat in her numerous bookcases. This was relevant to the fact that her door had just been kicked in for the third time that week.

"Alex, am I really going to be late?" she asked him quietly.

"Um, well. . . ." He rubbed the back of his head. "No, not really. You have about an hour." He grinned apologetically.

"Alex. . . ."

"Yes, Lyra?"

"Get the hell out of my room before I decapitate you. . . ." she growled.

He quickly retreated.

Lyra moaned and got out of bed. Now that she was awake, she might as well get changed out of her pajamas. She quickly grabbed a white dress shirt and black skirt and leggings out of her closet and headed toward the shower. She'd have to make it quick, but she should be able to make it on time, and not have to skip breakfast.

Alex leaned back from his empty plate and sighed. For some reason, he was feeling nostalgic, thinking about when he and Lyra had first met. He wasn't sure then, and he wasn't sure now what had compelled him to call out to her. But all in all, it had obviously been a good choice.

I mean, sure, it took a little while, he thought with a grin, but we're getting along all right now.

In the beginning, Lyra had been resistant to him to the point that she refused to speak to him after her nonchalant, "Sure, why the hell not?" After that, she had simply waved her hand at him, expecting him to lead the way to DWMA.

And lead he did. It was a simple matter to convince the teachers to let Lyra in – she could already transform into a full weapon, already had basic control over which body parts could transform – all in all, "simple" was not a descriptive enough word. Perhaps "pathetically easy" would be a better description.

From then on, he didn't get to see Lyra until the first day. All the newcomers had been forced into a room, made to put on name tags stating whether they were Weapon or Meister, and told something along the lines of, "Look, if you find your partner now, great. If not, don't worry, you'll have other chances." Of course, it was obvious to him that Lyra and he would be partners; however, it wasn't so obvious to her.

From what he could remember, the conversation had gone something like, "Want to be partners?"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"Even though I saved you from a life of poverty, despair, and thievery?"

"Hell no."

"You realise that all the other people are going to be even more annoying than I am, right? And I have a friend that's paying for an apartment, so you wouldn't have to live in the dorms?"

"I'd rather live in the dorms than with you."

"What, do you think I'd do something to you in your sleep?"

"Go away."

"I'm hurt. I'll have you know that I usually take a girl out to dinner before I try anything."

"Leave me alone."

"Pretty, pretty please?"

"I will cut you."

"With a cherry on top?"

"I will defenestrate you."

"What would it take for me to get you to agree to be my partner?"

"For you not to be you."

"I can not be me real easy. I'm a great actor."

"Leave. Me. Alone."

"You do realise I won't leave you alone until you agree, right?"

There had been a long pause, and then, "You have to buy me lots of books."

"Any books you want."

"Deal."

Lyra stepped out of the bathroom, fully clothed, but hair still a little damp, towelling it dry as she walked to her room. She set about putting on the rest of her daily self-imposed uniform (a black-and-white striped bow tie, which she simply knotted around her neck), and, grabbing her book bag along the way, headed out the door. She ignored Alex, who was seated at the table, staring at the ceiling with the most ridiculous look on his face, breakfast dishes still in front of him. He had broken her door for the third time in a week, and it was only Monday. She decided he could handle being a little late for class.

The walk to DWMA was largely uneventful. The most exciting thing was she accidentally tripping on the enormous staircase. Thankfully, she saved herself rather easily; all those gymnastic lessons had paid off.

The classroom was virtually empty when Lyra got to it, so she sat and pulled out a book.

Alex gradually came back to reality, gazing at the clock. A few moments passed before it finally clicked in what time it was.

"I'm going to be late!" he screamed.

[A/N] Thanks for reading! If you're reading this, it's probably been a few days since I posted the prologue. And I lied about wanting reviews before I posted. (I had this typed up already. . . .) Stick around for next chapter. We might actually get around to introducing the canon characters! (Lol)

For anyone who is wondering, to defenestrate someone is to throw them out of a window. So basically, Lyra was threatening to throw Alex out a window. (Points to whoever can tell me what that word is a reference to! :D )

Also, just to let you know, I'm mostly writing this story to practise my grammar. So please, if you notice anything that's incorrect, point it out (politely) in a review!

That reminds me: please review! Nice ones will get a nice reply, flames will be used to warm my toes. (Lol)

I hope you're enjoying. :)