The cafeteria itself was one of two on campus, each on opposite ends. Zack had learned his freshman year- the previous- that the one closest to the freshman dorms was also the nastiest. About all it was good for was fast food and stolen silverware. The other, farther away dining hall was usually cleaner and had better food, but was also more crowded. And closer to classes. So you sacrificed privacy for quality and convinience evened itself out in the end. There were bay windows which looked out over the little student-only street, sometimes obscured for a couple days at a time by a car that had been illegally parked over night and was now a semi-perminant landmark thanks to the iron locks the campus latched onto one of the front wheels. Tabletops were always covered in a thin layer of salt, and the shakers were always being stolen. The familiarity of it was refreshing.
"Mind moving your backpack, brooding one?" Freya's flatline and even paced voice brought Zack out of whatever daydream he'd been having staring into the little contained acid trip of a breakfast food. Before blinking or even looking up, the sophmore swept an arm evenly across the table which sent his pack and a few loose books and binders chaoticly racing towards the carpeted floor. People turned slightly in their chairs to look, but returned to eating after they saw there wasn't anything of interest happening. Freya pulled a slight face on her grey-ish muzzle and set down a plate and bagel, pausing to lift her tail high enough to make use of the seats. "You're certainly a ray of sunshine today. What's eating you?"
Zack picked up a eye-stabbing red peice of cereal and held it between his index and forefinger, dancing it in the rat-girl's direction and straining his voice into cracking regions. "A million little minions for me, the breakfast king. We've crawled into his stomach and slowly plan to take over his entire body by first numbing the brain with waves of sugar warriors! World conquest will be ours if we can take but this one last human. Do not dare to defy us, or we will blind you with our Yellow 14 and Red Lake 5!" He then ate it.
Cracking a smile, Freya neatly tore the bagel in half with her claws and picked up a knife and little gold-wrapped packet of butter and began preparing her own breakfast. "That's original, yet somehow completely expected. Hoping to go into a sugar coma and forget the events of sunday?"
"Something along those lines, yeah." Zack shrugged blankly and picked up another brain-rapingly bright peice of cereal and crunched down on it.
Again, the rat-girl pulled a slight face and paused in her motions. "I'm worried about you now, Zack. This isn't like you. What happened?" She shook her head, the white threads of her hair dancing lightly. "You wouldn't do something stupid and rash."
"What, like have wild unprotected gay sex on your bed?" Smirking, Zack flicked a piece of cereal in Freya's direction. "No, nothing like that."
"Stop that." Freya's paw batted away the peice.
"They warned you not to interfear."
"Neon cereal is not the answer to this problem, Zack."
"Damn you, I do not have a breakfast problem." The exchange was unusually deadpan, a few freshman sitting at the next table over went into snickerfits. Zack flicked a few peices of day-glow sugar in their direction as well until they shut up. "It's just hanging over my head."
Freya always had dark eyes, the kind that were so inky brown they faded to black in the center. Some people were offset by eyes like that, but the rat-girl had the aura of one much more experienced and well traveled than others, and the gaze was always a comfort. "What you did to Seifer, you mean?"
"There's that, yeah," Zack gave up on the cereal and rested his head in a hand, propping his elbow against the table edge. "And the fact that he was gone by the time I was awake. I don't know who I was getting out of trouble. Hell, what do I know, maybe he really did know what he was doing."
Freya shook her head again, taking a bite out of the bagel and swallowing before speaking. "I highly doubt that. You know how Seifer and his compatriots can be."
"Still doesn't solve the problem of knowing who that kid was."
A smile crept into the rat-girl's eyes and she leaned across the table, the fuzzy brown sweater she wore making soft scuffling noises on the surface. "You certainly seem hung up on him, Knightblade. I would have never figured-"
"Hey," Zack pointed a warning figure and leaned back on two legs of the dining room chair. "Don't make me get the cereal after you again."
Pulling back into her seat and continuing to eat, Freya let Zack continue the conversation one-sided. Once he began, it wasn't too rough a bet to say that he would keep going. It was at least a sign that he wasn't brooding quietly anymore. Depression never seemed to suit the dark-haired student. He let the chair fall forward onto four legs again, clacking as it did so, and went on speaking.
"It isn't that I'm trying to get him in trouble, and Gods know that if I make anything public about what happened to him, he's toast. I've never personally had a problem with the homophobes on campus...even the Weapons. But that's just because they know I can hold my own and won't take shit. Him," Zack paused, shaking his head. The mane of dark spikes down his back responded with delay. "He couldn't even hold his own to Seifer. Call me crazy but I think he's one of those 'I've got to college, now it's time to rebel as hard as I can to show everyone how much of an individual I am' types. And I don't say that I wasn't one of them-"
Freya cut him off curtly around a mouthful of bagel. "Because you were."
Balling a fist without more than a two second wait, Zack slammed it down on the tail end of the spoon that peeked out from under the hyper-chroma mass and sent a psychadellic sugar-puff rain down on the entire table. The freshman behind them burst out laughing as both of the sophmores' heads recieved a liberal dusting of cereal parts. It took them a moment to shake and dust away the artifically coloured goodness before Zack could continue as if nothing had happened. "In any case, that's going to get him into trouble around here. I've probably already made it worse for him by beating up on Seifer..." He trailed off for a moment. "I don't know. I feel like I should keep away for his own sake, but I at least want to know his god damned name..."
"You're rambling, Zack," Freya wiped her muzzle on her sleeve without making eye contact.
Reaching across the table and showing some of his more usual energy, Zack stole the other half of the anthropomorphic student's bagel and began spinning it routinely on the polished tabletop. "Excuse me for being true to myself. But what do you think? I mean, I fell asleep watching to make sure he wasn't going to seizure or try to jump out a window or strip and run naked around campus or anything..."
"Ahh, so you didn't ravage the little blonde boy's naked body on the rug."
"Everything with you is ravage, ravage, ravage," Zack was grinning again. It was a good sign, it meant he was back to his normal every-day somewhat hyperactive self. "Well?"
Freya chuckled to herself and stood, taking the knife with her. Zack did likewise, balancing the uneaten bagel half on his fingertips and slinging the pack over his shoulder with the other arm. The rat-girl deposited the dishes at the wash area on their way out and the two began a leisurely pace towards their classes. "I find it rather interesting you're coming to me for advice on your crush, but I'll give you my opinion."
Sidestepping in front of his friend and walking backwards, Zack mock begged, clutching the bagel like it was a hat in front of him. "Oh please, great one, any advice you can give to me would be of such grand appriciation. They write ballads of thee, lady. Great plays about transvestite rock stars and webcomics bow to your glory. Advice, Lady, Advice!"
"For one, Sir Knight, you're headed for the signpost."
There wasn't time to make noise or turn before the metal post slammed solidly into Zack's back and head, causing the dark-haired sophmore to stagger a moment and nearly trip over the curb rubbing the back of his head. "Ow...christ... Your Fuzzyness has psychic powers. Thanks for the advanced warning. In seriousness though?"
"In seriousness," Freya sighed deeply a moment and shook her head, hands delving into the pockets of her jeans. "In seriousness, I believe you now have an obligation to watch out for this kid. He isn't in my dormatory, so I can't do much about him. Even if he isn't gay, Zack, you know how fast this place can become a rumor mill. The last thing you want is him getting on the Dean or the Headmaster's badside, and it is only the first day of classes. If you keep your eyes open, you'll probably see him around somewhere. Just do your best to keep him out of trouble."
Zack flopped the bagel from one hand to the other and licked where it had been on his other palm, watching Freya from the corner of his eye and speaking around his protruding tongue. "Oo, oo reraionthii aa i oin?"
Blinking in confusion, Freya shook her head and cocked it to an angle. "Excuse me?"
Grinning, Zack finished cleaning his hand and wiped it on the side of his pants- a pair of army issue surpluss cargos. "Sorry. I said, 'So, no relationship at this point?'"
"It wouldn't be a good idea, I don't think. Especially since you haven't got any idea how he feels about you. Head out of the clouds, mm?" [authors note: THIS IS SUCH A BAAAD PUN! X_x]
"Yes, mother," Zack smiled and looked skyward, the inky streaks of grey clouds having pulled themselves across the slightly blue sky like a set of dirty sheets. I pretty typical set of weather conditions for where their college was situated, not too far to the north. A few returning students passed the duo on the sidewalk and shouted their greetings and Zack responded absently with a hand wave. He'd find the callers again later and exchange better greetings when there was more time. Somewhere on campus, he could hear the extremely familiar yelps and howls of Zell, probably bored, and Irvine probably lopping afterwards without an evident care in the world.
Yeah, it was deffinitly school time again.
"Hey, is seriousness over with?"
Freya turned and blinked at her companion in confusion. "I suppose so."
Zack grinned and returned his gaze to the path in front of them. "Good, because your bagel smells funny." Without another second of hesistation, he smeared it across his face several times, making exagerated facial gestures before finally tossing it on the curb. "I Don't Know Why!"
"Zack..."
Freya spoke just a little too late, Zack had already taken off at a run down the little street lined with buildings to classes. The rat-girl sighed and shook her head, knowing that some people simply would never mature.