Sorry for another shorty, college actually makes you do things. Who would've thought? Anyway, hope you enjoy, comment/criticism good, Shadow epic editor, see yas next week.

Damon hovered his hand over the Gardening Club's rooftop door. Should I really be going up here? How am I going to be able to reason my way through this? "Hi Haru, I'm here to look at my section of the greenhouse for the third time this week. I know nothing has changed, but I just like looking at them." It sounded stupid, not to mention it was a lie.

The young soldier was frustrated, mostly with himself. After the stunt he pulled with the black bear he'd been embraced by most of the school staff, but most of the other animals had started to passively shun him and the other Gamma students. The display of raw power instinctively didn't sit well with the herbivores, and the fact that it had been carnivores who were victims made them weary of being the next to be embarrassed.

Of course, the 701 crew didn't really care what most of the school thought. In the little time the Spartans had attended they had already made a great impression on the canines and hyena. The group had blended well, excluding Ana who was progressively becoming more and more absent during meals. He had tried to confront her on the subject, but she had insisted that it was only because of her work load. I guess none of us lie well. She's at least a couple chapters ahead of Nomad and I. That I know for sure.

In reality, Damon didn't really care about what the other animals thought as well. All except for one, the hare in the Gardening Club.

She had been vexing him for the past month. When he originally returned a week after their introduction, she had told him that the club's duties had been taken care of and that there wasn't a reason for him to stay. Damon understood, leaving without a proper conversation. He came back the next week, but couldn't find her. After looking around and finding her shed with the glass door locked, he left once again. The curtains behind the door were closed, but he could have sworn he heard voices. An early frost had come in the first week of November and Damon resigned his attempts to approach the club directly.

At some point he'd finally come across her in the halls and asked if there was anything he could do until Spring. She then informed him that there was a green house, offering to clear a section for him to grow whatever he wished until Winter ended. Damon thanked her and went on his way. The Spartan wanted to kick himself for not inviting her to a meal. I must look like an alien who's infatuated with plants.

It wasn't the way he wanted Haru to look at him, but she barely looked at him at all to begin with. The white rabbit had done nothing wrong besides be formal to him. It was the proper way a senior should treat their junior. There was nothing between them but the surface level courtesies that Damon despised.

To say he was overthinking this would have been a massive understatement. He shook his head and finally pushed down the cold handle to open the rooftop door. Come on soldier. Once more unto the breach.

Upon walking through, he came face to face with the pointy tips of a red deer's horns. His sight turned downwards towards a startled animal. The creature was still in the process of readjusting his tie when Damon had barged through the opening.

Louis had to stifle the urge to turn tail right then and there. The being before him was massive and imposing without a single conscious effort to be so. It was strange, he had no claws, nor fangs, and yet Louis knew he had the potential to rip out his throat or tear him apart through sheer force alone. In that moment, the deer wondered just how many large carnivores it would take to bring him down. Certainly far more than what the drama club could provide.

"Apologies, didn't mean to scare you." Damon kept the door open for Louis to pass through.

The horned senior gathered himself and narrowed his eyes at the foreigner. "You didn't." He set off on a brisk pace down the stairs.

Okay. Sure. Damon tried not to laugh as he closed the door. By now he had figured out who Louis the Red deer was. A prospect for the next Beastar. It seemed like a laughable possibility to the Spartan. You're going to need some augments if you plan on being half the beast Yafya is.

When he was sure the deer was gone, Damon made his way towards the rooftop's brick arch and pulled a clipboard off the wall. Nothing had really changed this week so he wasn't expecting to actually write anything.

A cool breeze blew and caught his hair. It was far longer than what UNSC regulation allowed, but Tina didn't seem to mind. Getting a haircut was usually something Gamma Company as a whole did together. That wasn't going to happen again. Oh grow up. You're at a boarding school now. Of course you've got to start taking care of yourself.

Damon passed the president's shed when he noticed there was a slight crack in the door. He heard Haru inside, crying. Thinking she could be in trouble, the Spartan reached out and grabbed hold of the curtain and pulled it back along with the door. The girl was bare chested on a bed and Damon turned his head on reflex. He was expecting a room of gardening tools and supplies, not a tiny apartment. The hare quickly bunched up the blanket around her chest and sunk into the pillow behind her, having been startled by the soldier's sudden entrance.

"I'm sorry, but are you okay?" The dots finally connected in the medic's mind. "Did he do something to you?" He hadn't noticed his balling fist until his knuckles audibly popped.

Her mourning eyes quickly shifted to that of worry. "No! No, we just… had a disagreement. He didn't do anything. Intentionally that is." She said the last part as an aside, no longer looking at Damon.

"Okay." The Spartan forced his hand to relax before grabbing hold of the curtain again. The situation was obviously not something that he should be involved in. "I'll be leaving now."

Haru reached out, one hand still firmly securing her only covering. "No, wait. Just… wait outside, but don't leave."

"Understood." Damon shut the curtain and the door. He marched to the brick arch and took a seat, facing the door to the stairs.

What was… do they just… HOW? The same augmentation that decreases a Spartan's reaction time also increases their memory and creativity, compared to their normal human counterparts. Damon, in this moment, couldn't stop his ridiculously overactive imagination. It made him want to beat his own brains out thinking of them. Thinking of her. That snapshot. That moment in time that he would never be able to unsee. SHE IS A RABBIT FOR GOD'S SAKE! WHY, DOES SHE LOOK LIKE THAT!?

The glass door opened and Damon shoved those thoughts into the corner of his mind the best he could. He didn't turn around. He didn't really want to see her. The only sounds on the roof now was the wind and the soft padding of the bunny's feet. The medic had that tight feeling in his muscles again.

"I'm sorry." Her meek voice broke the tension. "Not just for you having to see me like that, but for how I've been treating you." She gave a shallow laugh. "You would have thought I would be happier about a new member after so long. Guess I believed you would just stop coming at some point."

Damon kept facing the door. "Our old teacher always said 'Spartans must be persistent.'" Ambrose actually said "relentless."

"Glad you took it to heart." Haru took a moment to search for a question. "Spartan, who came up with that name?"

Damon felt over his calloused palms. "Spartans are an ancient group of warriors, named after their home territory of Sparta. They existed long before the UNSC was even thought of."

"Really? How old are they?" The rabbit sat beside the soldier like they were close friends. She smiled like he hadn't just seen her au naturel. If she was embarrassed, she was doing a great job hiding it.

While he was still fighting his thoughts, Damon was happy that she was looking at him like he was a living being and not just a work bot. "More than two and a half millennia now. They were outstandingly efficient soldiers for their time. They had a strict training and selection process. They only accepted the children that earned a place among them."

"And the children that weren't accepted?" A relaxed ear flopped down as she tilted her head.

"They weren't allowed to become soldiers and were placed into a lower class of society. There was no room for failure." The medic thought about his comrades in Gamma Company. Not a single one had backed down or didn't make the cut. They all passed and were chomping at the bit to get into real combat. He wondered how many were still alive now.

Haru leaned in a little closer and squinted at the young man. "How old are you now?"

Damon was finally forced to break his line of sight, matching the bunny's gaze. "I'm fifte-"

"You're lying. You didn't look at me until I asked that question."

Damnit.

"How old are you?" She asked with the same exact tone.

The Spartan reinforced his will and turned back to the rooftop exit. He was torn between making for the door and continuing to talk. "That's classified."

Haru's eyebrows started to crease. "Why?"

Damon sighed. "That's classified."

She wasn't happy with the answers she was receiving. "How old were you when you started?"

"Classified."

Instead of being discouraged by the lack of information, the girl's curiosity deepend. She changed her questions. "Did you have the choice to become one?"

He was getting close to done with this conversation. "Yes."

Haru perceived his lack of enthusiasm as hesitation. She believed she might be getting to him. "Why did you become a Spartan?"

"I became a Spartan because we were needed." He answered quickly and realized his mistake just as fast.

"We?" The senior was swift in digging through her junior's words. Just because she ignored her newest member didn't mean she wasn't informed about him. Word tends to spread fast, especially about aliens. "Your brother volunteered first, didn't he? You couldn't let him go alone, but you couldn't make him stay. You followed him." That information wasn't classified.

A wall of silence fell between them, all but confirming Haru's accusation. A frosted gust blew as she waited for a response, but Damon stood and walked over to the arch where he hung up his clipboard. He didn't feel like going into the greenhouse anymore.

The hare knew that she had overstepped by his reaction. "Damon, I'm sorry. I'm just trying to-"

"I'll see you next week." The Spartan's long stride had him off the roof before another word could be said, leaving Haru alone in the cold.