All three of them were bad at remembering, and they were constantly getting after one another to put on their hand wraps before hitting the heavy bags. Mason, the more typically more responsible one out of the three, tended to forget less than the others. Though Dimitri had been pounding the habit into Rose more and more during her private training session. It was Eddie who constantly forgot.

Mason who had come up with the idea way back when they were all thirteen. They bought trio packs of hand wraps every couple of months so that they would never have an excuse to forget them in training. Rose had called the black ones outright. Both boys teased her relentlessly, but truth be known, neither could really deny her anything. They had grown up together and she was like a sister to them. Or, Eddie thought of her as a sister. Mason had stopped thinking of Rose as a sister right around puberty.

So Rose got her wish and always wore the black hand wraps. Eddie took the second pick and chose the red, insisting that it would "hide the blood stains of his enemies better," and Mason accepted the blue without complaint. Every so often, they would take turns ordering a new pack and dividing them up. Even after Rose disappeared with Lissa in Sophomore year, Mason and Eddie continued buying the trio packs and setting aside the black set. Eddie had only pillaged from the dedicated box of black wraps once, and earned quite a few words from Mason because of it. He was always certain that she'd come back one day.

Rose was surprised on her first day back at the academy when Mason dropped off a big box filled with two years worth of black hand wraps, but she knew she shouldn't have been. Mason had always been there to take care of her, and she knew that he always would be. She accepted the gift graciously and was thankful that she had more than enough to stick a spare or two in her training bag.

When Eddie stepped off the plane from Spokane, still in a daze, it was all he could do to make it to his room before he broke down. He rubbed at the bandage on his neck, already feeling the pull towards the addictive endorphins and feeling horrible because of it.

Perhaps the cravings are what made him fail to realize that his dorm room, the closest thing he's ever had to a home, wouldn't be much of a comfort from the recent events. Mason's belongings lined the other side of their shared room. Opening the door was like stepping into a time capsule. Eddie stared at Mason's halfheartedly made bed, his Fast and the Furious DVD collection, even the pack of cards they had both forgotten to pack for an impromptu poker night at the Lodge. It was still sitting on Mason's desk. They had decided a few days ago that it has probably been for the best anyways, since Rose could have easily cleaned them and any other novices out.

A tap on his shoulder made him jump. He was surprised about how easily spooked he was at the moment and prayed that it would fade over time. Actually, he prayed a lot of things would eventually fade: the feelings of guilt, the nightmares, the stupid cravings...Maybe they would fade, but he doubted they'd ever go away entirely.

When he turned to face the person behind him, he saw it was a guardian. The older man couldn't quite look Eddie in the eye, not that Eddie blamed him.

"This came for you while everyone was at the Lodge. I set it aside until you came back."

"Thanks," Eddie replied quietly, taking the package and shutting the door behind him. The label said it was addressed to him, and it took him a moment to remember what he had ordered over the past few weeks. Using his room key, he tore into the box.

Inside lay a package with three sets of new hand wraps. One pair in black. One pair in red. One pair in blue.

Rose, Eddie, and Mason.

Years later, Rose and Eddie still ordered their hand wraps together. They both knew it would be easier to order them separately now, or just order a pair of hand wraps if they wanted to. The gym at Court even sold them at a reasonable price. But for some reason, every couple of months, one would order the same package that they had been ordering since the Academy. One would take black, another would take red, and they always set the blue ones aside to be placed annually on a gravestone bearing Mason Ashford's name.

Author's Note

Those of you who have read my Frostbite DPOV, specifically the scene with Mason's funeral, might remember Eddie placing a set of blue hand wraps on Mason's casket. This is my imagined story behind them...