"What page are we on?"

Petra half-whispered to her friend as she slid into the desk in front of him. Erd ignored her question because he lacked the answer and Auruo gasped at her presence and attire, suddenly talking too loudly to which he received harsh retaliation from their professor. He lowered his voice a bit.

"Where were you?"

She looked to Auruo, sitting in the desk to her right, and apologised with a silly smile for being late, -although she knew that's not what he had meant when he had asked where she was- asking again what page they were on and for their notes. She needed a way to drive his attention away from last night, as well as from her clothes. They surely noticed her attire, but she was hoping the conversation wouldn't go too far. Auruo shifted nervously at her petition for his notes, a faux-confused expression in his tawny eyes, his brow turned upward. She responded to his dodginess in harsh whisper.

"What?! You've been in class for an hour and don't have any notes?!"

She was terribly scrupulous about her grades and sighed in frustration, turning back to Erd behind her.

"Erd! You're responsible."

He smiled, nodding with his eyes closed, his arms crossed.

"Great! I knew I could count on you!"

His nodding continued.

"Can I see your notes from today for so far?"

He opened his eyes, looking away from her, the same sort of faux-confusion painting his face as Auruo just shortly before.

"Weeeell... you see..."

He pointed to his head.

"I have a brain."

"O...kay... Well, could you tell me what we've talked about so far?"

"Well, you see, I'm still processing it all."

She met his gaze, eyes half-lidded, clearly unamused as she plopped back into her chair with an ugh, facing forward towards the projector screen.

"I can't believe I can't trust either of you to do that much."

Erd leaned forward, tapping her shoulder.

"Come now, Petra. It'll be fine. He puts the slideshows online."

He lowered his voice.

"I'm glad you're all right though. You gave Auruo quite the scare. I told him you took a cab home because the alcohol hadn't set well with you. I figured you'd done something that wouldn't have gone over too well with him. He was really worried about you. He said he thought to go back to your apartment to check on you, but I talked him out of it."

She blushed, looking down in her seat and then whispered lowly back to him, with a soft smile.

"Thanks, Erd."

His lips curved to a smirk as he tapped the skin along the neckline of her shirt gently.

"You're welcome. I'm guessing, from this mark, that it's a good thing I didn't let him go to your place."

She felt her face redden heavily, pulling the shirt higher on her neck as he tapped her shoulder, leaning further forward to whisper to her.

"It's all good, Petra. I'm glad you let loose a bit. It'll all work out. By the way, Nanaba called me, worried about your absence at around…. oooooh 9:00 this morning? I told her you were extremely ill last night. You're lucky they didn't try Auruo first."

She let out a long sigh, drooping her head back a bit to relax, the ends of her hair playing along the top of his desk.

"I do expect a story later, though."


A/N: Thank you to all that have reviewed and given feedback thus far. Your words are invaluable. Thank you to those that begin/continue to review as well.