This was inexcusable. Completely inexcusable. Emil's parents didn't pay for Eliatha University's tuition out of their pockets for something like this.

"Sorry, class, but the water piping system is a little screwy so you're just going to have to grin and bear it," the graduate student (also known as the teacher assistant or "T.A." for short) glumly yawned. "There's nothing I can do about it."

Outside, the university's water piping system was chugging away at the lawn, watering the grass like there was no tomorrow. In the peak of later summer, the temperatures were fairly warm, but apparently the time clocks hadn't been adjusted appropriately. On top of that, because the water pipes happened to be built into the walls, the entire room rang with an ear-splitting moan; it sounded along the lines of a building suffering through bad indigestion.

"It's stupid how they do that," Emil told Lili who happened to be in the same lab section as him. That wasn't something her brother wasn't able to change. This was the only lab section available for both their schedules.

"Why?" she asked.

"If they water while the sun's up, the heat's going to cause the water to evaporate right off the grass blades," he explained. "They're just wasting water and killing the grass."

"Oh. I didn't know that."

"Okay, class, so I'm going to be your T.A. for this term," the teacher assistant spoke up from the front. "We're going to get through some quick lab procedures. First of all, how many of you are freshmen?"

Emil, Lili, and a decent amount of students raised their hands.

The graduate student cleared his throat. Now that Emil thought about it, he had an uncanny resemblance to someone he had seen before. He couldn't quite put his finger on who it could have been, but it was on the tip of his tongue. The accent was strangely familiar, too.

"I'm Gupta," the teaching assistant said. "I was born in Egypt but lived in Turkey for some time so if I have an accent, just ask me to clarify. I've been a graduate student of Dr. Adnan's for a while. Give or take four years. My office hours are on the board. Go ahead and copy them down if you haven't already done so." He paused for any of the students to catch up. "And I'm assuming you've all brought your lab coats? Who didn't bring their lab coats or goggles?"

None of the students raised their hands.

"Good," Gupta nodded. "You're going to be needing them for this lab. We were supposed to go over some basic models on atoms, but since Dr. Adnan doesn't like to review the programs. It's not really important yet. You're not going to need to look at the models again until o' chem."

By "o' chem," he must be referring to organic chemistry, Emil deduced.

"…And this is the fume hood. Leave it closed unless you're using it. Eye wash station's over there." The teacher assistant paused for any questions. "That's about it. You guys are adults. Most of you, anyway. So any questions?"

No one had questions.

"That makes my job easier," he yawned. "So I'm going to go over a few of the concepts of today's lab…"

For the next half hour or so, the graduate student continued to go over the main points of the lab, what to look out for, and what sort of data he wanted to get.

"And make sure you wear your goggles," he reminded everyone. "If someone walks in and sees the students not wearing any goggles, it looks bad on me. So just do it."

Emil rolled his eyes. It might not have been the most preferable feature of conducting lab experiments, but it was crucial in keeping one's eyesight. If there was a boiling or caustic chemical, any untreated splashes could leave a person blind for life.

The main reason people disliked wearing the safety goggles was because of the suction cup-like feeling over their eyes and the nasty red marks that came afterward. Lukas had mentioned something of the sort to his little brother when doing the labs.

"If you want, I can always give you my old labs," he had offered. "Knowing Adnan, he's too lazy to write up new ones. I have perfect scores so if you ever need help…"

"Pass," Emil had refused. He wanted to be able to do the labs on his own. It wasn't going to help him if he needed to conduct fieldwork in the future.

Gupta spoke up again. "Look around and remember your seat," he instructed. "You're going to be working with these people for the rest of the term so introduce yourselves and exchange information."

Emil and Lili had sheepish smiles tugging at their lips. They had met prior to the first day of instruction so introductions weren't necessary.

"Have you looked over the procedure?" Emil asked his lab partner.

"Yes," she replied. "Michelle helped me with some of it."

Emil sighed. Ever since that incident in the library with her older brother, he wasn't about to risk his neck over something like that again. If he really needed help, he supposed he could go to the professor's office hours or ask his brother.

Maybe the professor's more reliable, he thought. He felt that if he resorted to asking Lukas, he'd end up getting spoon fed every step of the way.

"Okay. You can begin the lab now," Gupta said. "I'll be walking around if you need anything. When you're done, just tell me, and I'll check you off. Clean up your stations, dry everything off, all that good stuff."

Sounds typical, Emil thought. As he and Lili began cleaning the lab equipment, she began to converse with him.

"Um, Emil…?"

He looked her way. "Yes?"

As if ashamed, Lili avoided all possible eye contact with him. Instead, she resorted to wiping down some of the beakers with a paper towel or labeling the test tubes, but not once did he see her look at him.

"A-About the library thing with my brother…I'm sorry about that."

Emil blinked. "Oh. No, that's okay. It wasn't your fault. I probably shouldn't have—"

"No, it is my fault," she cut him off and let out a small sigh. "If I wasn't so shy and weak, my brother wouldn't have to be like that. I—Oh!" She looked up. "I've never told you his name, have I?"

"Er, not that I recall, no," he smugly replied.

She bowed her head again. "I'm sorry. I was so caught up with everything that I forgot. His name is Vash. Vash Zwingli."

Emil forced a nervous chuckle. "I don't think I'm going to forget his name anytime soon."

Lili flushed pink. He noticed she was continuing to clean the beakers even though they were completely free of fingerprints.

"Lili, we have a lab to do, remember?"

She jumped. "Sorry," she apologized again.

"You don't have to always apologize. There's nothing to be sorry about."

Again, Lili flushed a deeper shade of pink. She didn't say anything to him after that. Every now and then, she would tell Emil some measurements for collecting data; other then that, her lips remained sealed.

At least she's not apologizing left and right anymore, he noticed.

Lukas had told Emil that the ones who were efficient in labs were always finished first. "The smart ones always know what they're doing," he told him. "Unless they have friends or needed to retake the class."

Emil remembered lowering his eyes when he had said that. "Of course you'd like to call yourself the competent one."

"There's nothing wrong with that," his brother had responded without the slightest hint of shame. He could afford to be like that. He was a medical student at the graduate school, after all.

By pleasant surprise, Emil and Lili were the first ones to finish with their labs. Once they had cleaned up all of their equipment and finished filing in their data charts, Gupta came over to sign them off.

"Let's see," he murmured. "Everything's dry, the station's clear, pre-labs are done…Good job, you two." He then took out a green-inked pen and began to sign his name in their lab notebooks. "See you next week, you two," he finished off and went over to another station for inspection.

"That was good," Emil said when he took off his lab coat. "My brother was always the first one to finish his labs, you know."

"Oh," was all Lili commented.

"He told me to try picking competent partners." He made a little frown. "If you ended up with someone bad, the experiments could go very wrong, I've been told. But…you're a good partner. I think we'll be able to work very well together this term."

Lili bowered her head until her bangs covered her eyes. "Thank you, Emil."

"It's nothing," he replied as they left the laboratory together. "Um, so, does your brother live on-campus?"

She nodded. "We were thinking about living off-campus once I finished my first year here. He's only staying this year to make sure I'm alright."

Emil swallowed. "Is he…? He's not coming here to pick you up or anything, is he?"

To his surprise, Lili shook her head. "I told him Michelle was going to come pick me up."

"Is she?"

"No. She has a discussion class."

So she lied.

"Why would you tell him that, then?" he asked. He noticed her tightening her fists. It wasn't a hateful gesture; it was more frustrating if anything. He had been in that position many times, too.

"I just wanted to be able to do things on my own for once," she breathed. "Vash has always been there for me when I was in trouble. But…I'm taking a different career path than him. We're not going to be together forever. I have to learn how to live on my own one step at a time. We're already in college. If I can't start living for myself, when will I start doing it?"

Emil nodded. "I get what you mean. So then…you don't want me to walk you back?"

His innocent question made Lili tuck her head into her shoulders like a timid turtle. It was almost cute, he thought.

"I-I wouldn't mind," she nearly whispered, "but it's out of the way, isn't it?"

Emil shrugged. "I don't mind the exercise." He paused for a moment trying to find something else to say. "Did you hear about the day-trip to Chottsym on Saturday?"

Lili looked up again, straightening her posture out. "Chottsym? Isn't it that place between the mountains and coast?"

"Yeah. Leon and I are going together. To clear our minds up and have some fun. Stuff like that."

"Oh." A faint smile appeared. "It must be nice having a friend like Leon."

Emil blinked. "What do you mean?"

"Whenever I see the two of you together, Emil, I get a sense that there's something special between the two of you. I can't put it into words, but it's what I would want in a friendship if I could call someone my best friend."

"A-Ah." He rubbed the back of his neck. Apparently Leon's gesture was starting to grow on him. "It's kind of different. Leon's only my best friend because I didn't have any in high school. He just kind of sat next to me in class one day, and that was it. But I'm not saying whatever we have together is the best. He can be…overwhelming sometimes."

"Oh, I know that," she giggled. Now it was Emil's turn to flush pink. "But I'm still jealous. I think if I wasn't so shy, I might have had a different experience in high school."

Emil stared for a moment. "Do you regret anything that you should have done in high school, Lili?"

"A little," she admitted. "If I was able to stand up for myself, I wouldn't have had to rely on my brother so much. I might have been able to make friends. I can't blame him for acting that way. He's only been trying to protect me."

"Old habits die hard," Emil grimaced. "My brother's still like that in a way. It's just not as bad because he's over at the grad school. I think if he was here, he'd be stalking us right now." To his amusement, Lili looked over her shoulder to see if anyone was following them. When she returned her gaze to the front without a word, the two of them breathed in comical relief.

"Um, what were you saying about Chottsym again?" she brought back up.

"Oh, that." A weight lifted off his chest when she stopped mentioning friends and brothers. Those were the last things he wanted to be talking about with someone like Lili. "You sign up for it through an online sign-up sheet. There were a few more spots left when I signed up. Do you want to go?"

"Well, it would be nice to see some of the surrounding kingdoms…Is it really okay?"

"Of course," he smiled. "Why else would I tell you about it?" He took out his phone. "Here. I'll send you a link. Leon gave it to me."

She pressed her lips together. "Maybe Michelle and Cissy want to go, too."

"Yeah…" Emil was fine with Michelle coming along, but having Cécile going was just as bad as having Charles sitting next to him in the dining commons. Those two were bad chemistry for everyone. But, if Lili really wanted her to go, there was nothing he could do about it.

As his luck would have it, just as Lili receive the link, they reached the bottom of Topaz Hall.

"We're here," he announced. "Did you get the link?"

"Yes. Thank you."

"No problem." Before he left, he stopped and turned around to see her going into the building. "Lili, if you need help with the lab write-up, you can always E-mail me."

She smiled a little. "Thank you. See you later, Emil."

"Same," he nodded and headed back for Opal Hall.

When Emil returned to his room, he saw Leon sitting at his desk with one of his many pairs of headphones tucked on his head. He didn't bother making eye contact, but he must have seen his roommate coming inside since he greeted him with a short, "Hey."

"Hey, yourself," Emil yawned. He wasn't used to having a class section for so long before. So this was what it was like for Lukas.

Leon took off his headphones once his roommate sat on his chair. "So how was lab?"

"Good," he replied with another yawn. There were tears leaking out of the corners of his eyes. Apparently talking with Lili had distracted him from his lethargy long enough for him to reach his room.

Leon raised an eyebrow. "You look tired, Ice."

He groaned. "It was a long lab, and I was talking with Lili. I had to listen to her about some stuff about her brother."

"Oh. Did you learn his name?"

"Vash," he shortly replied.

"Huh. Suits someone like him."

"Whatever, Leon." Emil leaned back in his chair. There was only one more day of class before the trip. He would have to adjust his sleeping schedule so he wouldn't pass out during the trip. "I'm going to go take a shower." He promptly stood up and went to the closet area to retrieve a change of clothes.

"M'kay." With that, he put his headphones back on his head and returned to his computer. "I'll take one after you."

Emil cursed in his head. That's right. I still haven't figured out how he keeps his hair like that. He turned to look back at his friend one last time before going over to the bathroom. Nah. I'll find out another time.