Drifter Ch. 14-Somewhere In Between

A/N: I now am on summer break so I'll hopefully be able to write a little more, but I am getting slowly sucked into the Hetalia void, so we'll see. Ahahaha...

So sorry that this is late orz (HETALIA *cough* HTTYD2 *cough* FOREVERTOWEROFGOD *cough* FULLMETALALCHEMIST *cough*)

I know some rudimentary Mandarin, but feel free to correct me on my very dubious memory.

I'm going to start putting translations in parentheses and italics. (like this, and I'm not translating literally.)

Honestly, I've been watching Dangan Ronpa, finishing Hetalia, getting through FMA:B twenty four episodes at a time, reading SDR2, TUMBLRWOOHOO, drawing, haha...I'm sorry, no excuse, I've been procrastinating. This story might actually need to go on hiatus, honestly.

Again, I do not own Half Prince, only my story and original characters.

So...I guess I died, huh? I took off the helmet, and sat up, feeling queasy. Urgh...this feels so bad...Sitting up made me feel much more uneasy, so I lowered myself back down.

I stared around at the blank walls of my apartment, willing the queasiness to leave. Finally, after four or five minutes, the uneasiness faded, and I stood up.

"Well, I guess I'm early, huh..." I blearily stared at the clock. For some reason, I just couldn't focus on the numbers...

Wait a second...

Oh, shit!

It's already one thirty in the afternoon, and today's Monday. Doesn't my class start at two!? I started running around, frantically gathering up school supplies and clothes. My alarm didn't go off either, agh...In the end, I rushed out of my apartment with a mouthful of toast while struggling to hold onto my notebook and drawing pad and pencils...and well, it wasn't fun.

I wailed mentally, "This is not a good start for today!"

To whoever was watching me from up there: Please give me your guidance! I can't be late today!

Thanks to the wonders of twenty-second century technology, I managed to make into the class right before two. I stood in the doorway, panting heavily. The teacher looked up and laughed. "Well, don't just stand there! Come in!" She spoke that in English thankfully, since I had forgotten my translator yet again.

I looked around the class. It was a normal lecture hall, excepting the fact there was only three other students inside. I looked back at the teacher, uncertain. "Um, is this the entire class?"

She grinned jovially back. "Why, of course it is. After all, not many foreigners wish to take the time to learn Chinese when they could be using translators. Oh, and I do need to tell you that translators are forbidden inside my class." I nodded, and hurried to a seat away from the three other students.

Just then, the digital clock hit two o'clock, and an announcement boomed from the speaker. "It is now two o'clock PM. Please start class."

The teacher in front clapped her hands together, and beamed up at us. "Okay, I know you guys don't know each other very well, but can you come down? I don't want to project my voice very far."

As I had taken a seat in the third row, I picked up my stuff to move again. You could have told me this before I took a seat, I fumed. The other students took their seats, and again, I stayed a little distance from them.

The small commotion quieted down quickly, and the teacher grinned, again, even more exuberantly then before. "Hey, welcome to Beginner Chinese! Or, rather, Chinese for Dummies. Now, my name is Lee Fen Chun. However, you shall address me as Lee Lao-shi."

A glasses-wearing girl sitting near the front raised her hand. "Um, what does-"

"Excellent question, Miss...er...er...whatever! Lao-shi means teacher. Now, we will be speaking in Mandarin for the majority of this class, since that is the most common form of Chinese spoken in Beijing. And we will be learning simplified characters, so don't be too worried." She smiled widely again, as if a happy expression couldn't keep off her face.

I groaned inwardly. Oh, great. This is going to take quite a while. While Lee Lao-shi talked on and on about the wonders and beauty of using Chinese in today's world, I looked around at the other students.

The girl who had spoken up before was eagerly taking notes, staring up once in a while and nodding in agreement. She was quite a bit younger than I was, and she looked European. Sitting right next to her was a young guy who would occasionally put his arms around the girl, and the girl would absentmindedly shake his off. He also looked to be from Europe.

Finally, the last occupant was a kind of plain looking girl with her hair in a ponytail, and hunched over a little.

I leaned my head on hands and sighed quietly. There really was nothing to do but pay attention, huh?

"...And so, repeat after me: Ni is you, and Wo is me."

The faint chorus of four voices repeated dutifully. "Ni is you, and Wo is me." I stared at the clock, willing the numbers to change. Three fifty nine, three fifty nine...

"That's good! Next week, we'll have another introductory lesson. Now-"

Thankfully, she was cut off by the announcement. "It is now four o'clock PM. Please end class."

I leapt out the door, eager to be outside. The guy was busy flirting with glasses girl, but the pretty girl stared curiously, then decided it was none of her business.

Looking into the class, I didn't even notice when I ran into Willo-An Liu.

"Oh, hey there." He smiled.

"Er, hi. Can I help you with something?" I asked.

Arachn-Li Xue popped out from behind An Liu, and started speaking really quickly, tugging on his sleeve, and staring intently at my face.

"Yeah, could you possibly return my phone? I sort of needed it, but I couldn't find you."

Oh, oops... I felt a little guilty. "Sure, I'm really sorry for keeping it for so long." After digging the phone out from my bag, I handed it over to An Liu.

He waved his hands quickly in denial. "Ah, no, it's not a problem. In fact the other reason I wanted to find you was to invite you to coffee with us, since Li Xue wanted to talk to you a little."

Li Xue smacked An Liu's head and spoke rapidly. "Ni shi ben dan! Bu shi wo, shi ni! Ta shi hao kan. (You're stupid! It's not me, it's you! He is seriously eye candy.)

I blinked. "Excuse me, but can Li Xue understand English?"

An Liu nodded wearily. "Yes, but she's unable to speak it. Anyways, she said she wants to invite you for my sake."

"Alright, sure. I'd actually like that. How would you like to go for coffee tomorrow?"

"Does 6 in the afternoon sound good? Oh, and there's this lovely place called Caffe Bene."

"Sure, sure. See you tomorrow, then." I started walking down the hall, and waved good bye to the pair once I reached the corner.

Li Xue squealed and kissed An Liu when she thought I was out of hearing range.

I scratched my head. Why would this meeting be for my sake? I bet you that Arachne just wants eye-candy again, hmmph.

Work in the Graphics Department turned out to be fairly fun. The Graphics Department (or GD) worked with the Computer Programming folks to fix small bugs, come up with new NPCs, and generally make life as beautiful as possible. Seeing as I was a newbie, they tended to saddle me up with creating armor or pet designs, while someone more experienced would do the finalization of the details.

They even gave me the chance to create monsters and the like. Seeing as how this was for a video game, I dug up old memories and manga, and created some of the cheesiest, weirdest, lamest monsters I could think of off the top of my head. A nine-tailed fox, a P*kac*u, and, and...

Oh, great. I need a third monster! I looked wildly around my desk for inspiration. One computer, one tablet, three mugs of coffee, one can of Pepsi, two plates of noodles...wait!

I seized the can of Pepsi and started to sketch it out. When all else fails, bullshit it!

Luckily, no one would look too closely at my work, especially since it was a small request by higher up. Though why they wanted three weird monsters, yet didn't care what they were...seemed sort of time-wasting.

The rough draft of the Pepsi was completed, and I began to work on lining and shading. Add a thicker line here, bring this angle a little wider...

Eventually, I finished the very iffy drawing, and labeled it "P*psi."

I saved the file and sent it to the completed work folder.

"Keelan!" One of the other girls in the graphics department called my name. "If you're done, could you render this for me?"

"Sure!" I moved onto her request, and completely forgot about the three odd creatures.

Walking out of the graphics department, I bumped into the auntie from before, who was talking very seriously with a really tall guy.

Tch! Just going to hug the wall here, and move along...

Unfortunately, the auntie noticed me, said something, and the guy turned around slowly. My jaw dropped, and I was pretty certain that if I didn't pick it up off the floor, it was going to stay permanently down.

"Michael?"

"Keelan..." His voice trailed off as if he were uncertain of himself.

The auntie nudged Michael. "Go on then, go hug your sibling."

He didn't have a chance to respond before I tackled him. "Oh my God! Michael! I missed you so much, and I really, really wanted to talk to you, and-wow, you are clearly not happy to see me." Michael had pushed me a little away from him.

"Ah! No, it's not that! I was a little surprised, that's all. C'mere." He enveloped me in a hug, then held me at arm's length. "It should not be humanly possible for you to be growing still. Is it just me, or have you grown an inch?"

"Probably just you! Anyways, I was trying to see you the first day I got here, and then I got sucked into the Graphics Department, and I just really missed you!" While I hadn't been thinking of Michael consciously, I suddenly felt so happy that my heart felt like bursting. Keep it together, heart! I covered my mouth and coughed.

The auntie laughed. "And you said that Keelan wouldn't want to see you. Dummy."

I frowned at Michael. "Of course I would want to see you, dummy." I reached up and pinched his cheeks. "This is for being stupid, stupid!"

"Awh! I gaet eet!" I released the pinch.

"I need to go home and get some rest, but we need to talk later, okay? Promise me!" I pushed on Michael's shoulder impatiently. He looked at me, sighed, and took my hands in his.

"Of course, we'll talk later. We need to, at any rate." He gave me a peck on the cheek, and ruffled my hair. "Now, go get some sleep, you look like a zombie."

I saluted him, and walked off, pretty happy. When they thought I was out of earshot, they started to talk.

Behind me, the auntie said, "Are you sure you don't have a little brother?"

Michael snorted. "At times, I'm not sure, but, yes, Keelan's a girl."

I smiled, and kept on walking, my hands clenched into fists. You will pay later, stupid brother.

After logging back into Second Life, I flopped onto the ground, legs and arms turning into water-elemental jelly.

"I don't wanna mooove..." I groaned. The breeze is beautiful, the sun was shining, birds were chirping...

And Dream stood over me, her braid falling in my face. "Get up. We don't have time for lazing about."

I spluttered indignantly. "Blech, gross. Get your hair outta my face first." Arachne pulled me up, and I stretched. "Why don't we have time for lazing about? I happen to love lazing about."

Arachne sighed. "Quite obviously, we need to get stronger. We're too weak, since we lost the tournament." She huffed. "And we didn't even make it into the last battle! We even missed Prince and Wicked and Gui-"

I groaned. "Okay, okay, I get it." As I looked around, the forest clearing was empty of three annoying guys. "Where'd the guys go?" One Night Angel, Willow, and Ice Storm were currently gone. With the amount of UST between Ice Storm and Dream, I was surprised to not see the energetic high-schooler.

"Training."

"Why didn't you go with them?"

"Because."

"Can you stop answering like that?" I knocked Arachne sharply on the head.

"Ow, ow, ow. Don't hit me!" Arachne whacked me on the head with her staff.

"You two act more immature than I do," Dream commented dryly. "Honestly, and you guys say you're all college students." She plopped onto the ground.

"Then answer my question first. Why didn't you guys go training?"

"Because we obviously need to go shopping. Duh." Arachne rolled her eyes.

"Sur-Wait, what?"

Dream butted in. "S. H. O. P. P. I. N. G. Is it that hard for you to understand?"

"Why would we go shopping? Shouldn't training be our priority? You even said earlier that we should get stronger." I directed my question at Arachne.

"Because, stupid, even if we level up, if we don't get armor more suited to us, then it's only a small amount of growth. Plus, getting a fantastically altered wardrobe with good clothes raises our mood, and then-"

"So, in short, you just want new clothes."

"Yes."

I sighed. "Well, that took way longer than it needed to be. Let's go, and please don't spend too much..."

As the pair walked in front of me, they started to energetically chat.

"Oh, wow. I think a white robe and silver accents would look best for Ice Storm."

"Really? I thought that gold might work better, but it's your call. Hey, let's buy some jewelry too! They don't take much space up, and it's fairly pretty."

I patted my wallet. Goodbye, my dear friend.

A/N: Apologies, apologies. This is so fantastically (not in a good sense) late.

I started this back in freaking May, and it's been a while. After looking at my author's note, I've decided to put this story on semi-hiatus. I'm starting high-school, and well... Sorry!

I'll write when I can, but this isn't going to be updated again any time soon.