Vald failed in his attempt to try and stay awake in Professor Mars' class. The professor woke him up when the other students were leaving with a concerned expression.

"Have you not been sleeping?" he asked while Vald began tiredly returning his stuff to his bag. "Have you been eating enough? College students often overeat or starve themselves and I would hate for you to be one of them since you seem smart enough not to."

Vald smiled and said, "I just didn't get much sleep last night. I had a nightmare that kept me awake until morning. I'll be fine tomorrow."

Mars nodded. "I understand. Would talking about it help? I may not look like much, but I majored in psychology and have taken my fair share counseling courses throughout the years. It was my first career choice, you know."

The student shook his head politely. "Thanks, but I can't really remember it." That was of course a lie, since he couldn't get the other professor's face out of his head no matter how hard he tried. He couldn't remember specifics in the dream, but knew that it was about the professor passionately having sex with him. But he'd be damned if he admitted to having a sex dream about his professor to one of said man's coworkers.

Thinking about it made Vald blush and he tried to hide his face from the professor.

Mars didn't seem to notice and instead began talking about college students and their eating habits. About a "Freshman Fifteen" which apparently was a phrase to refer to the fifteen pounds freshmen normally gained due to poor eating habits upon leaving home for the first time. Vald listened politely as they left the classroom together. Mars often got off topic in class, especially when it was about food, so this was hardly anything new.

Abraham was waiting for him since he had texted Vald about having lunch together if they were both on campus. They stayed and talked to Professor Mars for a little longer while Oliver and Liz joined them after Oliver's class.

Professor Mars began talking to Abraham about which classes he was taking and which he was planning on taking in the future when Oliver and Liz walked up. She was griping about his class being boring but brightened up when she saw Vald.

"Vald!" she cried when she was close enough not to yell. "Can we go get lunch now? Olly's class was stupid and I don't want to be stuck with just him for the rest of the day!"

Oliver rolled his eyes.

Abraham glanced at them. "Did you already have lunch plans?"

Vald nodded. "I figured it wouldn't be a big deal if we went together, though. You and I started talking because of Crimson Spell and these two play it as well."

"Small world!" Mars laughed. Vald had almost forgotten about him. "I also play that game. It must be more popular than I thought!"

Vald regretted saying the game's name. He had been hoping it would be a reason to get away from Mars and leave for lunch, but apparently nothing could stop his lonely professor from tagging along.

"What class are you?" Oliver asked politely. Liz had given him a disgusted look and turned to talk to Abraham about the same thing.

"I play a thief on my main," Professor Mars answered. "I'm not great at combat and the thief class offers plenty of ways for me to talk my way out of stuff. It also makes it easy to steal food when I'm low on health."

"We mostly play as a group," Oliver said. "We trade off classes and this time I'm a white mage."

He continued talking but Vald zoned him out. He tried to focus on Liz's conversation with Abraham but had the same result. He just couldn't concentrate. His eyes blinked too often and his lids felt heavy, his legs ached even though he hadn't been standing or walking too long, and he just wanted to lie down to get some sleep.

While he was focusing on not leaning against the wall to doze off, he noticed that the others had gone quiet. He blinked and forced himself to pay attention again just in time to see Professor Mars fall to the ground.

If you've kept reading this far: THANK YOU! I hope you've liked it. I still have a long way to go, but I'm astounded I've written so much since this is the longest thing I've written including when I finished NaNoWriMo one year. But 2+ years does that I guess.

But I'm going to say sorry if my prejudice shows through. I don't like Mars (Marse?) much as a character and mostly view him as a waste of space. And Vald didn't view him too favorably at first either, so I'm using that to justify my treatment of him here. If you think I'm a bit harsh, I'll try to lighten up on him.