"Hey, Professor? Professor Glynda?"
Glynda yawned loudly, wiping a small streak of drool from her chin before rubbing the sleep from her eyes. She couldn't remember where she was or how long she'd been asleep, but the realization that the voice that'd woken her up belonged to a student quickly snapped her back to her senses.
"Oh! Mr. Vasilias… it's seven already," she asked tiredly. She stretched her arms out to her sides, arching her back like a tired cat.
"A quarter to. I just wanted to let you know I'm almost ready to go. And I uh… I made you…" Neptune shrugged softly, gesturing down to the desk. Confused by his uncharacteristic wariness, the professor reached for her glasses and slipped them onto her face as quickly as she could before looking at what he'd gestured to.
"Mr. Vasilias," she hissed loudly. Right in front of her, Neptune had placed a plate of spaghetti and meatballs and had even poured her a small glass of red wine.
"Where did you- how did you- did you finish grading?" Glynda's mind cycled through every question she had for him before finally focusing on the most important one.
"Well, Professor, I got through almost half of everything on your desk and filed it away for you." Neptune tugged at the collar of his sweater helplessly, not sure what the professor was thinking.
"Half," she nearly screamed in shock. The woman stood up in one swift movement, pushing her chair back against the wall. Brisk, even strides carried her across the room to the open filing cabinet.
"I- I would've done more, but your stomach was growling while you were asleep and I… I don't know, I thought you might be hungry when you woke up." Neptune tried his hardest to control his wavering voice, positive he was in deep trouble.
"You fucked up big time, buddy," he thought to himself.
The professor quickly searched for the folder of recently graded work. Neptune had marked all answers as correct or incorrect, and even wrote helpful feedback on the short-response questions. Nearly half of the work she'd scheduled the entire night to do had been completed in less than an hour. The thought was akin to floating on a cloud, unburdened by stress or responsibility.
"Mr. Vasilias…"
Neptune tried hard to swallow the lump of anxiety that'd formed in his throat. Excuse after apology filled his head as he tried to piece one together that would even begin to explain how he'd screwed up so terribly.
"Thank you…"
"Oh?" Neptune couldn't think when she finally looked up from his work. Her smile lit up the room like a spotlight. Her eyes crinkled at their edges, the corners of her lips pulled upwards in glee. Years melted from her face like hot candle wax.
"She's… wow," the words repeated themselves over and over again in his head, leaving no room for other thoughts as he watched her smile finally fade away.
"And where did you find the time to make me pasta? How did you know…?" Glynda walked back over to the desk, astounded by how quickly Neptune had put together a full plate of pasta in less than an hour.
"Don't worry about it Professor. I just had a hunch you might like it." Neptune turned his eyes to the floor, trying hard not to stare as she admired the plate of food. She lifted the plastic fork off the paper plate and brought a forkful of the pasta to her mouth.
"Mr. Vasilias… who taught you how to cook," she asked curiously. He'd made vodka sauce seemingly from scratch and the pasta seemed to have been cooked in herb water. Ingredients she definitely didn't have in the small office.
"My mom. But, uh, Professor-"
"Please, Neptune. Please call me Glynda," she reminded him quickly, bringing another forkful to her mouth.
"Sorry, Glynda. But, um… well, I've gotta go now and I know you've still got a ton of work to do, but… um… the illunanation is tonight and I'd really like for you to see it. You know, in Mistral we call it the luna regenerationis. It means-"
"The moon of rebirth," she finished. She'd set her fork down to listen to him, giving him her full attention. She'd never expected to receive this kind of care and hospitality from a student. Especially not from a student who wasn't in danger of failing.
"Yeah, and, well… I think it might mean something to you. You know… rebirth. New beginnings…" Neptune fidgeted with the buckles to the leather straps on his forearms, hoping she'd say yes. It was hard not to worry about the professor, especially now. The smallest act of kindness had produced the most genuinely happy smile he'd seen in a long time. She needed a night just for herself.
"Plus, you know, even if I leave now I'll still probably be late. So… I'm gonna need you to at least walk me there." He smirked sheepishly just as the woman closed her eyes and let out a huge sigh.
"Fine, Neptune… but only if you answer me one last question. And answer it honestly." She adjusted the glasses on her face, letting the light in the room strike them to produce a quick glare. It was just one of the skills she'd picked up to let her students know she meant business.
"Yeah, anything. What's up?" Neptune was nearly bouncing as he stood, waiting for the question so he could lead her out of the messy office and into the fresh night air.
"Where exactly did you get this wine from?"
"... oh…"
Neptune smiled as he watched Professor Goodwitch mingle with the other professors on the rooftop. He was sitting a decent length away from her, camped out with a telescope with the rest of his team. She looked ecstatic as she spoke to Professors Oobleck, Port and Peach, smiling as she unbelievingly waved away one of Professor Port's tales of victory.
"Dude, are you sure you're pointing it directly at the moon? We can't even be an inch off or we'll miss the-"
"Sun. C'mon. You think I'd mess up this kind of math," he asked playfully.
"Good point," Sun responded quickly. "Thanks for being a nerd, I guess," the Faunus quickly peeled the third banana of the hour and took a huge bite out of the soft fruit.
"You're going to kill yourself with those," Scarlet said roughly.
"I need them for energy! I don't see you flaunting these kinds of abs," the blond rebutted, pulling his already open shirt apart just a bit more so his team and the girls surrounding their station could get a quick glance at what he was most proud of.
"Some of us like to keep the ladies guessing, Goku," the redhead responded. Neptune and Sage immediately stepped away from the telescope.
"Call me Goku one more time, I swear on your life, Scarlet-"
"Goku, Goku Go- ah!"
"So I'll be over at Team RWBY's telescope. That'll probably blow up in the next eight minutes given their track record but it's probably better than here." Neptune quickly waved to his teammates and walked the short distance to Team RWBY's station. They'd designed their own telescope, allowing Ruby to paint their insignias on the side of it.
"Hey, Neptune," Weiss said softly.
"Snow Angel," he responded smoothly. He knew just how easily those pet-names made her heart melt, and he loved seeing her with her guard down.
"What's up, Neptune? The thing's about to start." Yang said softly, grabbing another handful of popcorn and shoving it into her mouth.
"I know. The sun is blocking our view though," he replied, sitting down in between Ruby and Weiss.
"The sun? It's almost eight o clock, what do you mean-" Blake tapped her partner quickly on the shoulder and gestured over to the ongoing scuffle between Sun and Scarlet. They'd attracted Team CRDL and JNPR's attention, Pyrrha, Jaune and Ren trying desperately to separate the two teenagers while Nora joined in with CRDL at egging them on.
"Oh, you mean- that's pretty funny," Ruby giggled loudly.
"Speaking of being blocked, check out Headmaster Ozpin cockblocking General Ironwood." Yang gestured towards the older men talking by the railing of the roof.
The grey-haired headmaster stood between his professor and the general. It was clear by her body language that Professor Goodwitch really did not want to be there, but the general wasn't understanding. Headmaster Ozpin tried to occupy him with more smooth discussion, but somehow the general would always manage to drag Glynda back into the conversation. Neptune scowled at the drama unfolding in front of the entire student body. He couldn't believe General Ironwood would be so immature. Would embarrass Professor Goodwitch in front of all of her students like this. He looked to Team RWBY's telescope and quickly kicked it over.
"Neptune," Weiss shrieked in shock.
"Dude, what the Dust," Yang growled angrily.
"I'll be right back, give me two minutes!" Neptune jogged over to the professors, hoping he wouldn't be too late to get Professor Goodwitch away from the General.
"Ten! Nine! Eight! Seven!" The entire school counted down as the giant comet made its way towards the moon. It's path would send it through the debris cloud, then skating along Remnant's upper atmosphere before it continued along its path to the sun. Everyone was either looking straight up at the shattered moon, or down at the computer screen connecting to their telescopes. Team RWBY counted down with two extra members.
"Six! Five! Four!" Professor Goodwitch's emerald eyes were trained directly at the comet overhead, watching as the large chunk of rock punched through the cloud of scattered debris.
"Three! Two! One!"
The tail of the comet finally entered the cloud and, for the first time in nearly a century, the shattered pieces of the moon shone brighter than any star in the sky. Thousands of bright, white lights flickered on, dozens at a time as the tail touched more and more of the floating rocks. Students laughed and screamed and cheered and got away with several suspendable accounts of PDA as fireworks from Vale's Illunanation Festival light the night sky, desperately trying to compete with the spectacle occurring a few thousand miles overhead.
Glynda looked to Neptune and couldn't help but smile. In less than a month, he'd quickly become her favorite student. The look on his face was priceless, conveying so much wonder and joy at the scientific marvel happening before them. The comet collided with one of the larger pieces of the moon, causing incredible explosions of purples and blues that were quickly followed by bright yellows that faded until deep greens.
"So I guess the comet really is made out of Dust," Neptune said in awe, watching as rainbows of color exploded to life along the path of the comet.
"Mr. Vasilias…" Glynda said softly, hating to interrupt his stargazing.
"Yeah, Prof?" Neptune peeled his eyes away from the comet for a moment, catching the next few explosions of colors reflected through emerald eyes.
"I just wanted to thank you. For getting me out here and for-"
"Don't worry about it, Professor. It's the least I could do." Neptune looked back up at the night sky just in time to see a dark black explosion mix with a flash of yellow. The two clouds of Dust interacted with each other, causing a flickering explosion of energy that seemed to vibrate like a hive of bumblebees. Her mind wandered back to Vale, and the amount of fun the citizens must be having at the festival. She realized just how much she would've enjoyed being down there than anywhere near the drunken General.
"Neptune?" Her voice was softer now, not wanting to catch the attention of Team RWBY as they watched the event.
"Yeah?" Neptune's eyes flicked from the sky to her, watching her curiously.
"Would you like to accompany me to the Festival?"
"That sounds awesome," he responded. The smile that crossed his face could've melted a mountain, and his pearly white teeth caught the lilac glare of the next explosion, reflecting it into a very similar shade of purple. The Professor smiled back, suddenly feeling very maternal towards the azure-haired young man.