That Monday Nova found her self waking up to her alarm and dragging herself out of bed to meet Matt and Shiro at breakfast. Any other day she would forgo breakfast in favor of a cup of coffee in her dorm but Shiro had insisted. Because classes started at 8:30 Shiro had asked if they could meet at 7. Groaning at the alarm clock Nova got up to get ready, she threw a little makeup on but the majority of her getting ready was frantically looking for whatever assignment they had due that she misplaced.

One of the best things about Nova was that she was never late. She prided herself on her punctuality, often bringing into light how she was never late. Shiro was usually on time too so when they both arrived at the dining center at 7 they knew they'd have to wait a little while longer for Matt. The first few times the trio would go out Matt offered to walk with her since they lived in the same floor, she had waited 10 minutes for him to knock on the door and she soon discovered she'd rather be on time than late.

Shiro had a authoritative presence, one that Nova would be discouraged to compete with. However she knew that despite his professionalism and reputation he wasn't much different than any of the other students. It was difficult to make him laugh though, a task Matt had taken extremely seriously.

"How was the Holt's?" He greeted as she walked up to him. He looked as put together as usual, uniform neat and clean, hair styled. His book bag was carefully hanging off his shoulder.

She smiled. "Fun. Matt's parents are amazing."

Shiro nodded.

"How was your weekend?"

Shiro paused for a moment. "Productive."

They spent the next few minutes going over an assignment for one of worksheets they had on atmosphere. Nova kept wincing as Shiro named another problem she got wrong.

"Gotta fix that." She muttered, hastily scribbling into her notebook.

"Hey guys!" They both turned as Matt came bounding down the path. Nova laughed as he carefully avoided running into a couple of students. "My bad."

"Sorry I'm late." He grinned. Nova smiled back and ruffled his hair. Shiro nodded in acceptance.

She laughed at his annoyed expression. "It looked too neat."

"Let's eat!" Matt announced as he lead the way into the café.

"Josh and I broke up." Nova spit out half of the coffee in her mouth as Shiro started talking. They had found a table in the mess hall. It was fairly crowded and since Matt demanded on shooting a spot near the waffle maker their choices were limited. Luckily a small tables tucked away in a corner was empty. Shiro was on one side of the table sitting across from Matt and Nova, who had both choked at the confession. Way to be blunt, Nova thought. She recalled how she hadn't even known they were dating until a pretty Asian girl had asked him to coffee, he had replied that he had already gone to coffee with his boyfriend. Unsurprisingly this made the girl walk away while Nova and Matt berated him for never mentioning that he was dating someone.

"It just wasn't working. He kept talking about a future that I never wanted." Nova kept coughing as Matt handed her napkins, which she graciously accepted.

"Well," Nova started as soon as she could breathe. "Maybe things could have been different. But I think you're better off without him." Matt nodded in agreement. Both relieved that the picky boy was now out of their lives.

"I'd be lying if I said it was mutual. But I can understand that we didn't want the same things. And I suppose I didn't feel like myself in the relationship anymore." Nova nodded in understanding, despite having no experience in a relationship she had some friendships that had fizzled out once she realized she was spending too much time criticizing other girls with her friends and once she had realized that she became friends with those they had been teasing.

"Are you okay?" Nova asked carefully, Shiro had a tendency to stick with things, no matter how damaging. She only hoped that the decline of the relationship hadn't been going on for a while.

"I will be. I just thought I'd let you two know seeing as you spent a lot of time with Josh." He gave a sad smile noticing his friend's concerned faces.

Nova reached across the table to grab his hand as Matt offered Shiro half of his bagel.

"Really? You're going to give him your bagel? He eats nothing but bananas and oatmeal." Matt then made a big show of presenting the bagel towards the girl.

"Your highness." Nova rolled her eyes at the comment but took the bagel, setting her hand on his shoulder. "My knight in shining armor."

Shiro smiled at the exchange. "How was your house , Matt? I wish I could have gone." Shiro was quick to change the subject, he couldn't stand the pitying looks anymore, he had enough of those already.

"I think it's safe to say my parents have new favorite child."

"Hopefully Pidge gets used to being second best." Nova responded, flattered that his parents had thought so highly of her.

"Actually the dog was first."

"Right. Well you do have a cute dog." She smiled as Matt laughed at her.

"Still a cat person though?"

Nova raised her eyebrows, giving him a disbelieving look. "Of course. I wouldn't betray their loyalty."

Shiro groaned. The great cat vs dog debate had begun the moment Matt and Nova felt comfortable enough with each other to "fight". So it started only a couple weeks after their first meeting. The argument wasn't serious but rather an inside joke. Shiro, however, despised it. He preferred dogs but he never wanted to be on the end of Nova's rage. He had a feeling it was only a joke with Matt.

"Don't worry Shiro, turtles are still acceptable pets." Nova smirked at her irritated friend. After one of her and Matt's longer discussions Shiro had yelled out that turtles were better and Nova had never let him forget. That outburst had affectively ended the conversation but it came at a price.

Matt gave her a look as if to say "oh really?"

"What?" She questioned.

"You're terrified or turtles." Shiro remarked as Matt pointed his finger at Shiro in confirmation.

" We are all allowed our own opinions."

"Oh? And me liking dogs is an exception?"

Nova smiled at Matt and patted his head. "It's the wrong opinion."

"Oh, look Shiro, it's your shadow." Nova turned her head too quickly and Matt laughed at her reaction to the black haired boy.

"Keith. How are you?" Shiro questioned as Keith stood by their table, unsure what to do until he was motioned to sit down.

"I want to practice some flight modulations but I need an older student to supervise me." He explained to Shiro as Nova and Matt observed the exchange between them.

"Nova can take you." Nova glared at Matt. He just smirked back at her, casually taking another bite out his eggs.

"I'm not prepared enough to supervise someone flying, Matthew."

Keith didn't even glance their way, he only looked at Shiro. "Can you help?" Shiro nodded, standing up and saying a quick goodbye to Nova and Matt before leaving the room with the younger boy following.

"What was that?" Nova rounded on Matt who grinned at her as he took a bite of eggs.

"C'mon. We have to get to class." Matt stood up and stuck out his hand for Nova to take. She rolled her eyes, accepting the help up.

Once they made it to class Nova sat at their usual seats while Matt went to the professor to ask some questions that Pidge had wondered about. He sat down next to Nova as the lesson started, grinning while telling her that Pidge was going to love it here.

Nova found it difficult to focus on her lesson. She kept thinking about Shiro and Josh. It was true that she never liked Josh, nor did she like them as a couple but she knew that Shiro was more upset then he was letting on. She had heard many fights about how Josh couldn't take care of Shiro, with the response that he didn't have to. Nova always wondered what was the one thing Shiro couldn't do himself.

Class finally ended. The moment Nova stepped out the doors her and Matt made their way outside. There was a nice tree they both spent their free time at. Normally Shiro would meet them there after his courses, unfortunately he wasn't answering either of their texts.

"Either he's still with Keith or he's taking this breakup harder than we thought." Nova told Matt as they sat down under the shade of the tree. She couldn't imagine Shiro doing anything reckless after his breakup he had been known for diving headfirst into his work.

" He doesn't seem that upset though." Matt responded as looked around the campus. "Besides he's too busy teaching flyboy." Nova shook her head at Matt's nickname.

"You don't get human emotions."

Matt gave a small smile in response. "Please enlighten me since you have all the answers."

"Have you ever broken up with someone?" Nova asked, trying to gain some perspective.

"No," Matt looked down then quickly looked at Nova with a smirk. "Have you?"

Nova rolled her eyes. " Any relationship, no matter how damaging, impacts a person. Josh has been with Shiro since he was 16. He trusted him, understood him and loved him. It's a part of Shiro that he can't get back."

"I thought you'd be less sympathetic." Nova looked at Matt surprised.

"What?"

He shrugged. "You've just always seemed so comfortable being alone, I thought you'd disapprove of basing your emotions on someone else."

Nova scoffed. That did sound like her. "Maybe I've realized that emotions aren't so easily controlled."

"Is this about flyboy?" Matt questioned as he gave Nova a disgusted face.

"No Matthew, it's about you and Shiro." She shoved him lightly. She paused slightly, worried that her choice of words would sound too cheesy. "Without you guys I think I'd believe everyone should go through life alone."

She looked out the corner of her eye at Matt who had a large smile on his face.

"So nothing to do with the moody mullet wearing kid?" He asked.

"I don't understand why you hate Keith so much."

"I hate him, you love him. It all evens out."

Nova shoved him onto the grass. "You promised you'd stop." She laughed.

"I never keep my promises." She pursued her lips and gave him a disbelieving look but remained silent. In all the time she knew Matt he never once broke a promise or failed to do what he was supposed to.