Several Years Later
Ceser Barl ruffled through his duffle bag and pulled out a crumpled piece of paper showing his class schedule for the week as his class mates floated down and out of the lecture hall.
"What ya doin'?" His friend chimed as she slumped over his shoulders, stretching out her hands in front of him.
"Hey, Trish…" He smiled as he noticed her nails were chewed into the flesh.
He took her hand and brought it to his face, while looking up at her.
"Stressed?" He gestured with her hand.
She pushed her head into his back, making him cringe as her small white antlers dug into his muscles. She glared at him as she rested her chin on his back.
"I hate tests…"
Ceser laughed as he placed his class schedule back into his bag and stood up.
"Wanna grab some lunch?" He asked as he pulled the strap over his head.
With a pout she nodded, falling in step next to him. Ceser listened intently to Trish as she grumbled about the lectures and the upcoming tests, occasionally snickering at her outbursts about genetic infusion and the inclusion of Basic Quirk Laws into their curriculum. As they took up their spot in the University cafeteria line, she had started ranting about the lecturers, but stopped midsentence, jumping and wave excitedly at some of their class mates. Without a second thought she raced off to them. Several minutes later, Ceser also join them, handing Trish a pie, soda and some fruit, while biting into his own. Cluttered across the table, textbooks bared their contents with dozens of papers spewed around.
The group were hot in a debate about the upcoming tests. Trish had also joined in the debate. As Ceser chewed away at his pie, he picked up the closest textbook, titled Human Molecular Genetics Volume 2. Casually he flipped through its pages. He stopped flipping through when he noticed the debating had stopped.
With raised eyebrows and cheeks bulging with pie he looked up to realize everybody at the table staring at him.
"What?" He asked after he swallowed.
"Did you write down what we needed to study?" One of the guys asked him.
"No..." He shook his head, smiling as his classmate slammed his head on the table, "…Kidding, here."
Ceser took a paper off the table, flipped it around, wrote a detailed list of all the chapters to focused on for the tests in all the subjects. He handed it over to a fox girl, who placed it on the table and started taking photos of it with her smartphone. Everybody quickly followed her example.
"As expected from number 2 in the class."
Ceser shrugged.
The fox girl slid over to him, sitting on the table in front of him.
"Have you started summarising?" She asked him with a textbook on her lap.
"Hey Vicky, yeah, since the start of the semester, why?"
"So, you're ready for the tests?"
"Just got to rewrite the last couple of chapters we did this week." He answered, tapping in head.
"You probably just rewrite the chapters word for word…" She smiled.
He gave a sarcastic gasp.
"How did you know…" But he shrugged again, "…Basically…One of the advantages of my quirk, I guess…"
"You're lucky to have a quirk like that…Do you remember everything?"
"No, no…Just what I write down…Once I pen it, it gets locked in forever…" He tapped on his forehead.
"Lucky…"
He laughed as he gestured to her folded skirt.
"You're showing, by the by…"
She quickly glanced down at her skirt, then gave Ceser a sultry look, before hopping off the table and straightening her skirt. Her turned to walk away, but caressed her tail between his legs.
"Trish…" He stuttered as he reached out to her, his eyes locked on Vicky.
He pulled Trish between himself and Vicky.
"Trish…Protect me…I think Vicky is hungry…" He said as he folded her arms around her waist.
Vicky chomped loudly at the air, at which Trish placed her hands on her hips and said in as low a voice as she could.
"FEAR NOT CITISENS, FOR I AM HERE!"
Trish balled her hands into finger guns and started gesturing shots at Vicky who dodged them and shouted:
"You think you can stop me, All Might?! Ha Ha…"
One of the guys leaned to Ceser, whispering as the two girls continued their mock battle:
"Sometimes I am amazed those two are university students…"
Ceser shook his head as the whole table started cheering for their chosen winner.
After finishing the afternoon classes, Ceser and Trish walked back to the dorms, through the woods, his arm hooked around her neck and her arm around his waist, with their hands intertwined.
"Hey, you want to study together again?" She asked as they neared the dorms.
"Hahaha…Riiight…'studying'…" He said placing air quotes with his free hand.
She giggled.
"I'm serious this time…"
He just stared at her.
"I am!" She snickered as he smirked, tilting his head to one side.
"Fine! Do you just want to have dinner?"
"Sure, I'll go and get my pyjamas…"
"I said Dinner!" She giggled, "…Besides, I have some of your pyjamas anyway…"
"Really? Which ones?"
"Why don't you come with me and see?"
"Here?! Shouldn't we wait until we are in your room before we do stuff like that?" He gave a massive toothy smile.
She pushed him away but pulled him back.
"You're disgusting…" She shook her head, staring at the ground.
After a moment of walking in silence, she whispered:
"I just don't want you to go back to that room…"
"Sorry, I couldn't hear…What did you say?"
"Nothing…What are you in the mood for?" She said, slowly brought her head up until their eyes met.
He gave a sigh:
"I'll make some eggs and chips."
"Ok…" She replied as she snuggled into his chest.
They made their way up the floor through the dorms to her room, stopping at her door.
"Ah…I just remembered…My Laptop…" He said as pulled his arm off her, making her twirl on her feet as she refused to let his hand go.
"You can use mine…" She gently tugged him towards her door.
"I just wanna…" He gestured with his thumb over his shoulder, but was interrupted as she shouted.
"No! Please! I don't want you to go back to that room!"
He stepped back.
"That room? MY room?" He frowned, "…Why?"
"Please…I see you in that room…You…that is not you…never leave after you go in…"
He stepped forward and placed his hand on her cheek.
"You act like it's the end of the world…It is just a room…"
He stepped into her, caressing her head in his hands, their foreheads against each other.
"I'll just grab the laptop and then come back…Promise…"
She just nodded.
"Okey…hey...You're awesome…" He said as he stepped into hallway.
Ceser jogged down the hall, jumping down several flights of stairs, sliding around corners until he stood in front of his room. Without thinking, he unlocked the door and stepped in…
The sound of glass cracking reverbed through his room as he walked in. He crouched down as he picked up the cracked picture frame…
Inside the picture frame was a photo of a bearded man grinning as he clung onto a small boy who mirrored his grin as they looked at the camera with eyes closed. Ceser sat still, entranced by this photo only snapping out of the trance as water droplets dripped onto the shattered glass.
"Ah shit…" He choked, rubbing the tears away from his eyes.
Walking into the room, gingerly stepping around the shattered furniture, torn papers, he placed the broken frame on his bedside table, after moving a bloodied fold-away blade to one side. Taking a deep breath, he made his way, gingerly to one side of the room, searching for his laptop at his desk. He continued searching under his desk moving along the room. He stared dumbly at a wall filled with dozens and dozens of newspaper clippings of massive disasters, heroes and causalities of massive battles between villains and heroes. On the one corner of this wall was a small poster of the Chivalrous Hero, Crimson Riot, with entire bottom of the poster shredded, with a knife caked with dried blood stabbed in his head, with the words, 'NOT YOUR FAULT', written over the poster with dried blood.
He moved from this wall to a bookshelf that blocked half of the only window in the room, looking through the shelves for the laptop. On the bottom shelf, all the textbooks Ceser used throughout his University career stood, gathering dust. The other shelves had books of all different sizes, spines all cracked, with titles like:
A Study on Ethical Quirk Usage
Heroes: Dangers of Unregulated Quirks
Meta Liberation Army: An Autobiography of Destro
Quirks and Politics
The Antagonist: Understanding a Villain's Mentality
A Short history of Quirks
Blue on Black: Save guarding Civilian Life.
In the middle of the bookshelf, an ornamental pot stood centre stage. Engraved on the pot was a picture of a middle-aged couple embracing each other.
"Ah ha! Found you, you little shit!" Ceser shouted holding up the laptop, "…Now…the charger…Fuck…"
Several minutes passed before the door creaked open and Ceser left the room. As he walked, small drips of blood streaked down his fingers, leaving an outstretched trail of blood drops behind him.
"I'm baaack…" He said in a Germanic accent with outstretched arms as Trish opened her door for him.
She leaned into the wall as he stepped past her into her room. She stared down at her feet.
In front of her toes, a small droplet of blood reflected bright red against her light floor.
In the middle of the room, Ceser spun on the ball of his foot to face her.
"What's wrong?"
She looked at him.
"Lift up your sleeves…"
He gave a nervous laugh.
"Why?"
She pointed at the droplet with her big toe. As he saw it, he released a sigh, sheepishly smiling at her.
"I'll get the first aid kit…" She said walking to the kitchen, opening the cupboard under sink without a thought like every other time.
She made him sat in her coach, hopping over the back of the coach with wound clearer and a few bandage rolls, sitting next to him on her crossed legs.
"These are the last ones I have…" She told him, hitting him on the forehead with one of the rolls.
"I'll buy you some more…" He said, but she straightened up with a deep frown on her.
"Nnnooo!...", She took his arm on her lap and baptised a gauze in wound cleaner, "…You'll stop cutting yourself!"
Afterwards she vigorously rubbed the cuts, making Ceser cringe and giggle with pain.
"Oh shut up!" She said as she started wrapping the bandage around his arm, "…Next time I'll use salt, I swear!"
"Hahaha…Nurse Trish…Ow, ow, ow!" Ceser giggled as she knotted the first bandage, pinching the finger tips to test Ceser's bloodflow.
"This is way I didn't want you to go into that place…Every time you go in there…" She gripped his other hand like a vise-grip manically rubbing the wound cleanser into the cuts.
"Ow! Ow! Ow!...jeez…" He giggled as he grabbed at her hand, but she pulled her hands away, burying her face in them.
"Hey…Hey…" He gingerly reached for her hands, but she turned away.
"I'm sorry…" He said staring down at his hands.
"I'm sorry…" She mumbled as she dropped her hands into his.
A few moments slipped by as they sat in silence.
"You hungry?" Ceser broke the silence.
She reached over, gently finished cleaning and dressing Ceser's other arm, before nodding.
"Yeap…"
"Okay..." He started to stand up but was halted halfway as Trish held onto his hand.
He slid back onto the couch, with her snuggling up against him, hold onto his one hand with both of hers.
"Please, break this…" She mumbled under her breath.