**Important** In chapter 3 originally she outright said art student, but I corrected it to student that way I could do this bit with Deidara and it make sense. There was always this bit, it just wouldn't make sense the way I wanted to write if she had already said it.

It was the middle of the night when she finally woke up; the migraine was gone. The room was so dark that she could scarcely see anything, the occasional flash of lightning was the only source of light. The rain was constant, but the storming was always worse overnight. Sometimes, like tonight, it woke her up. It was usually easy for Kyoko to just turn over and go back to bed, she had never been plagued with insomnia. Part of her wanted to let herself fall asleep, to enjoy those blissful hours when she was unaware of everything. She tried to remember the dream she had been having, she thought it might have been the beach. On the edge of her mind, she could still see her mother's face, smiling and laughing in the breeze.

She threw the blanket off in a huff and sat up, glaring at the blank walls. It was too painful to think of home. It was too painful to think about how much she missed them. She had to orient herself in this place, in this temporary life, it was the only way to keep going without sinking into the pain.

This place was… odd. When she had woken up in so much pain, she had expected dungeons and daily torture if not death. When Pain had said Itachi would teach her, she hadn't expected it to feel so normal. She had expected more… force, not patience.

Itachi was… odd. He was stand-offish and dismissive in the way he behaved and if she discounted the events of yesterday, he ignored her more often than he spoke to her. And yet… the few times he had spoken to her, it had been a point to address some unspoken concern. She still didn't know what to make of yesterday, of his curiosity. Maybe he was just curious about what life in her world was like, what the stakes were. It made more sense to her than anything else. She decided it didn't matter if he was odd or if his behavior was contradictory, she would simply have to take it for what it was. It's not like he was going to explain why he had felt the need to ask.

Well, there wasn't going to be any more sleeping tonight. That was fine, she decided as she stood, maybe she could try reading about chakra again. Except when she saw the half-empty desk she remembered where the books were. She glanced at the door, unsure of what to do next. It was always dark in this place, but she had never actually wandered around at night. She had no idea how many people were in Akatsuki, or if anyone outside the few she had met knew about her. Maybe they were the only ones? It was doubtful. Maybe it would be fine?

It was darker in the hallway than usual, the light the windows were letting in was dimmer than usual. She walked down the hallway, trailing her right hand along the wall as she did. It had taken practice, but she did finally know the way to places she needed. The kitchen was not far at all, and she supposed it was the tense energy that had created the illusion and her stomach growled as she entered the kitchen. Even her stomach had gotten used to the routine Itachi had set, but for the first time, he was not already there preparing breakfast before they started the day.

A glance at the window showed the sky was already starting to lighten in the distance, it was closer to morning than she had thought. The smile spread across her slowly at the realization that she could eat something other than rice and eggs. He would probably be irritated; he had already agreed to let her skip running today and now she was going to eat unregulated food. The horror.

She should have probably been afraid as she searched through the cabinets, but he would either kill or he wouldn't, she reminded herself. If she spent every second consumed with what to say or do for fear of him killing her, she would get nothing done. Besides, he had been the one to advocate for her life. Killing her now would probably be a bad look and physical torture wouldn't exactly make training easy. She got the sense he wasn't wrong often and didn't like to fail, he was far too rigid for any of that.

The kitchen was small, but there was plenty of food to work with. She found everything she would need to make rice and some miso soup, but what else? They couldn't just eat rice and soup… Oh, they had quite a few packages of natto, that could work. The fermented soybeans weren't everyone's cup of tea, but it wouldn't be here if no one liked it. If Itachi didn't like it, he would make himself eggs and be fine. He might do that anyways.

Speaking of tea, she had found some green tea and a small teapot shoved to the back of one of the cabinets. Itachi had really been holding out on her, having her drink nothing but water and eating eggs every day. She liked eggs fine, but that wasn't the point.

It didn't take long for everything to be ready; she hadn't made a real breakfast in a long time, but she didn't have trouble remembering the steps. She had made enough for three people because while Itachi didn't seem interested in feeding Deidara, she wasn't going to be rude and exclude him. Deidara was the reason she had as much freedom as she could in this situation, if he hadn't convinced her to talk to Pain, she'd probably already be a mindless minion by now. Though she still wasn't sure if she had actually convinced Pain of anything, or if he just… pitied her. 'We lost our homes too, once.' They would never elaborate on that, she was sure, but she couldn't say she wasn't curious.

Itachi walked in as she was finishing up the tea, his footsteps had been as quiet as always, she never heard him walking down the hall. He stopped mid-stride when he saw her pouring the tea.

"I made miso," she cut in before he would say anything, "and, uh, rice and there's natto… I found green tea in the cabinet and, well I thought… I woke up early so I thought I would, you know, make something." Was there ever going to be a time when she didn't just start rambling?

"That is too much food."

"You could say thank you. Also, I made some for Deidara too," she explained while she served herself. She had considered serving him his portion, it was what he typically did for her. There was still a pretty high chance that he would make his own food and ignore what she made completely. Instead of worrying whether he was going to, she sat in her usual place with her breakfast and her tea and tried to read about chakra again.

The morning sun was only just starting to lighten the sky, and the storm clouds were dissipating for once. It had rained tirelessly since she got here, today was the first time that it wasn't at least a drizzle. Seeing the city bathed in the warm glow was a change, it was a different sort of beauty from the typical darkness.

She glanced at Itachi, he still hadn't moved, whether to eat or cook something else. If they had a late start because he was thrown off, it would push them back farther. "You don't have to eat it, I won't be offended," she offered, unsure what his problem was.

"Your feelings are irrelevant."

Kyoko wasn't sure the breakfast was worth the foul mood it was putting him in. She had seen him be rude to Deidara, but he didn't usually turn that on her. She knew better than to ask him what his issue was, it would have to be his problem. She finished eating and placed her dishes in the sink, there was no point in starting to wash them until Itachi decided whatever it was, he was deciding.

In the meantime, she should be trying to study again… but the light was just right. She grabbed the journal and pencil she had left out and pulled a chair closer to the window. It would have been better if she was able to paint so she could capture the golden hues, but she would have to settle for black and white. It wouldn't be as good, but maybe if she was careful with her shading, it would come out okay.

She sat that way, trying to do the view justice with such a small sheet of paper. If only she had her paints and a decent canvas to work with. She was halfway done by the time Itachi finally made a decision. It took Itachi far too long to decide what to do in her opinion, but eventually, he did eat the food she made.

The temptation to ask what his problem exactly was with the food she made was nearly overwhelming, but he wouldn't answer. It was always that way between them, she asked him too many questions and he answered too few of them. The one benefit of Itachi's long periods of silence was that she was able to finish the drawing in peace. That wasn't something she would have been able to do around Toshiro or even her mother. She had never minded, but they asked a lot of questions about the process or wanted to talk about something or other.

She was onto the finishing touches by the time Deidara came in. In contrast to Itachi, he was always easier to hear coming down the hallway. His feet often half dragged, and he was usually muttering to himself when he was up this early; she got the impression he wasn't exactly a morning person. Her hand stopped across the page only long enough to turn and meet his eyes as he entered, "There's enough for you too."

His eye widened in shock, "Thanks, yeah."

Her eyes were already back on the page, trying to catch the last of the light as the sun moved across the sky. It was almost done, just the shading in this one spot wasn't quite right… what if she –

"You're an artist?"

Kyoko blinked and turned her head to look at him, but he was suddenly very close to her face and his eyes were manic. She recoiled, nearly falling off her chair as she did. This was how Itachi had started their conversation yesterday, only Deidara was asking instead of just stating a fact at her. Though Itachi hadn't looked at her with a crazed look in his eye. "Yeah…" she offered tentatively.

"Can I see?"

She looked at the sketch, it was pretty much done, and the lighting wasn't the same anymore, the sun had gone too far out of the way. Letting out a sigh she passed the journal over to him.

Deidara nodded appreciatively as he inspected her work, "Not bad, yeah." He grinned at her, "Not as good as mine though."

"You draw too?"

His grin widened and he still looked rather manic with a smug glint in his eye, "No, my art is much better than that. I am a true artist."

That was a little pretentious, but she was intrigued, "Can you show me?"

"I would but Leader would kill me if I did it inside, yeah. We have to go outside first. I can show you after you're done with Uchiha."

Outside? Was she allowed outside? She stood and whipped around to confront Itachi. He was still eating so she only half expected an answer, "Am I allowed to go outside?"

He paused, his eyes glancing at her, "Not alone." When he started clearing his dishes, she saw he had eaten all but the natto. Maybe he hated it and that had been the source of his indecision. All he had to do was not eat it, there was no need to make a production of it. It was just natto.

"But I'm allowed?"

"Yes," he left without looking back to see if she was following.

Kyoko brightened as rushed after Itachi, leaving her journal with Deidara. "We can talk about art later," she promised, only able to spare a quick look back as she did.

Deidara was grinning widely, a mischievous look in his blue eye, "Let's hope you can appreciate true art."

They had just finished the first set of drills and should be starting the second, but Kyoko was sitting by the expansive windows in the training area and Itachi was… doing whatever he was doing. He had gone through the door on the other side of the elevator from the bathroom. She didn't have it in her to wonder what was in there.

She turned from the window when she heard the door shut, he'd brought out a myriad of items and started setting it up closer to the center of the room. What was he doing? "You will begin target practice today," his words belayed nothing, but it was that tone. Itachi's mood had gotten worse over the course of the morning, he wasn't usually so… rude when they trained.

Was he still sore about breakfast? It's not like she had expected him to be grateful about it, but the attitude was unnecessary. Kyoko far preferred his detached indifference over whatever this was. Though… in all this time she had bombarded him with questions, he never got irritated with her, or if he did he just ignored her and didn't react in a way she would notice. She was having a hard time believing this was all about breakfast or not liking natto. Was he angry about yesterday? She had answered his questions, so he had no reason to be. He had badgered her about her personal life choices, it seemed unfair for him to be angry about that.

"I thought we were doing double drills?" she ventured hopefully.

"This will be in place of the drills," his words came short and clipped.

Regardless of whatever mood he was in today, they had both agreed on double drills and what drills they did was up to Itachi. How much worse could this be than running?

The answer came quickly, she had only just stood and taken a step when something came flying at her face. Her heart raced painfully fast and instinctually threw her hands in front of her. Kyoko had only meant to block whatever it was, but her hand reached out and grabbed hold of whatever it was he'd sent flying her way.

"Interesting."

Interesting? Interesting? He had thrown a kunai at her. What was wrong with him? "You could have killed me!" she seethed.

Itachi dismissed her concerns, "You were in no danger."

"No danger? You threw it at my face! You could have killed me; I think that's a fair amount of danger."

"No, you were not," he gestured behind her.

Still seething she turned and saw… Itachi. She whipped her head back and forth between the two identical Itachi's. She had read about shadow clones, but seeing one of them standing in front of her was completely different from reading about it. She also hadn't pictured it quite like this, he looked so… tangible, so real. If she hadn't caught the kunai, she supposed the clone would have, but still, "A warning would have been nice."

The clone disappeared in a puff of smoke. "That would have defeated the purpose," he handed her some of the kunai when she reached him. They felt heavier than she had expected them to feel. "Now, stand here and I will teach you to throw them."

By the time they were done her arms felt like they had been filled with lead, which was arguably worse than running. There would be no sketching tonight, her arms and shoulders were killing her and there were tiny cuts on her hands where she had fumbled with the kunai and nicked herself. The only plus was that Itachi's mood seemed to level out during the process, though she still wondered what it had all been about. It was probably best not to ask.

"How did you know I would catch it that first time?" she asked tentatively.

"I did not. It was only a theory."

"What theory?"

"The body remembers even when the mind does not," his voice had dropped the harsh tone completely, and he was already putting away all the targets he had pulled out.

She was half tempted to help him, but with how heavy her arms felt she worried she would be a hindrance to the process. When he was done, he headed for the elevator as was typical, it was easier today to drag herself to follow him. Her arms might be useless but at least she could walk without feeling on the verge of collapse.

When they stepped out of the elevator, they proceeded the same way they had been. They went their separate ways so that she could shower and would meet back in the kitchen when she was done. She glanced at a window as she headed that way, it was maybe a bit past noon. It was a good thing she had woken up so early, even with how long they had taken with breakfast, they were still done earlier than usual.

After she finished rinsing the sweat and grime from her skin, she tried looking into the mirror again. It was getting slightly easier to look at herself in the mirror if only a little bit. The face was still all wrong, but… if she focused only on the familiar darkness in her eyes, she could stomach it. It helped that she had taken to pulling back her dark, and with it wet like this… well the purple looked dark enough that it almost passed for black if she didn't look too hard. One of the chapters she had read was about jutsus that could change your appearance and maybe… maybe if she couldn't get home right away, she could at least have her face.

If she ever learned to use chakra.

She needed to be able to use chakra, for far more important things than fixing her face. She didn't need to ask to know that he wouldn't teach her anything that would help her get away from Akatsuki, but she still needed to be able to outrun the shinobi in Konoha or she was dead. No matter how fast she could run, she would never be fast enough if she didn't figure out how to use chakra. Itachi told her he doubted she would ever even be able to get the information Akatsuki needed if she wasn't able to use it.

They still hadn't told her exactly what she would be doing or what kind of information. All she knew was it had something to do with a jinchuriki, but they hadn't even told her what a jinchuriki was yet. There was nothing she could do about it. She had asked Itachi multiple times to no avail, she had even asked Deidara, but he had clamped up and avoided her for days. Whatever it was, it wasn't good.

Kyoko dressed quickly, having already spent too much time thinking in circles about the situation. Itachi had finally settled into a decent mood, and if she took too long that might change. She was not equipped to deal with him having a bad attitude throughout the rest of the day.

As she walked to the kitchen, she tried to mentally prepare for Itachi to badger her with questions she didn't know the answers to. That wasn't fair, she did know some of the answers, but he would ask her questions that hadn't been in the material. They were probably conclusions he had expected her to draw on her own, but she hadn't.

A loud howling laugh had her stopping in her tracks.

That wasn't Itachi, she wasn't sure he could laugh, and while she hadn't heard Deidara laugh, she doubted it sounded anything like that. Sasori maybe? She hadn't seen him since that first day, so maybe.

When she stepped over the threshold, it took all her willpower not to visibly react. There was the biggest man she had ever seen in her life. He had to have been at least a full foot taller than her and as wide a door frame, and as big as he was the sword on his back was even bigger. It was his skin and eyes that had her clenching her teeth to keep her jaw from dropping. His skin was blue. His eyes were small and silver, and they reflected the fluorescent lights. For as strange as she thought Deidara's hands had been, he at least looked human. This man looked like a fish.

"Is this her?" his face widened in a toothy grin. It was horrifying. Every one of his teeth came to sharp points at the end, and she wondered if he filed them that way or if it was natural. Describing him as a fish had been inaccurate; he didn't look like a fish. He looked like a shark.

"Yeah," Deidara answered him, he was smiling again, the same dangerous glint in his eye. "She wants to see my art, yeah."

The shark-man let out another bark of laughter, "Does she know what she's in for?"

"It's a surprise, yeah."

Kyoko could feel herself staring, and she knew she should, but this man looked like a shark. What was she supposed to do with that? Go sit down and study while Itachi made lunch?

"You don't look like you're from another world," the man was still grinning at her, unperturbed by her staring.

She was only able to force herself to move when saw Itachi set her plate at her usual place. The shark-man was sitting at the table Itachi usually sat at by himself. She half expected Itachi to sit somewhere else, but he sat in his usual place next to the new addition.

"I, uh, this isn't what I really look like, in my world, I mean," she sounded like the village idiot as she sat down.

"It's not?" Deidara asked her, eye wide.

She didn't need to look at the plate in front of her to know it was the same as yesterday. "Well, no, but you know this isn't my body why are you surprised?"

Deidara shrugged, "Well I thought maybe you looked the same, yeah. I thought maybe that's why you got pulled in this body."

"Well, I don't," she muttered as she picked around her food. It was the wrong day to focus on what she looked like; she'd spent way too long in the bathroom looking at this face.

"What's so special about you?"

That was the thing about all of this, wasn't it? What was so special about her? What was so special about her, that she had been pulled into a world so different from her own? "Nothing," she answered, "I'm just an art student."

"You study art?" Deidara exclaimed, completely missing the point.

"Well yeah… I learn about art theory and art history, and there are other classes too. I still have to learn the basics to graduate but, yeah, I study art."

Deidara scoffed at her, "You can't study art," he said dismissively, "Art has to be experienced."

"Well, that's just as important, but if you take most art out of its context it loses its meaning. It's not enough to experience it, you have to know the context or you're missing the point. That's why art history is important," explaining this to Deidara was soothing. If nothing else was the same, at least this conversation was. This was a debate she often had with members of her study group that had dismissed the importance of art history.

"Just wait until you see my art, yeah," the mischievous look was back in his eye.

The look on his face should have had her worried, scared even, but how bad could it be?

Somehow Deidara had gotten the shark-man, who she learned was Kisame, to agree with him that they should take Kyoko outside after lunch and skip Itachi's endless quizzing. Itachi seemed to respect Kisame significantly more than he did Deidara, but he still refused the idea initially. It was only when Kisame offered that Itachi could quiz her while Kisame and Deidara sparred in the outdoor training field. Kisame reasoned that it would be good for her to see shinobi in action instead of just reading about it, though she didn't understand what any of that had to do with Deidara's art. Kyoko had a feeling that wouldn't have worked if Deidara had said it.

She wondered if it was an age thing. Deidara and Itachi couldn't have been far from her age, but Kisame was at least ten years older. It was hard to tell his age given his odd appearance, but something about the assured way he spoke and his patience for Deidara.

As soon as they had finished eating, they headed to the elevator and split into pairs. Kisame was so large there was no way for all four of them to fit inside so he went with Deidara first. When it was their turn, Kyoko had expected them to go down but instead, Itachi selected a higher level. Maybe it was just a training area they kept on the roof?

The wind was whipping loudly around her when they left the elevator, she had been right it was roof access. Only, it didn't look big enough for anyone to do anything up here, the building must have narrowed as it got taller, what were they supposed to do up here?

When she finally spotted Kisame and Deidara, she also saw two very large clay birds. At the shocked look on her face, Deidara smiled proudly. Were the birds his art? They were pretty, and it was definitely art, but it felt a little… anticlimactic.

"Have you ever flown before?" Deidara had to yell above the wind for her to hear him.

"A few times," she yelled back.

He looked disappointed but hopped on the bird and held out a hand to pull her up. There was no way. No way this thing was going to fly. She had seen him make a little clay bird that flew the first day, but that was to carry a message, not people.

"No way!" she shrieked at him.

"Come on, it's safe! I promise, yeah."

Itachi and Kisame had already climbed on their bird, which seemed a bit larger than this one. Probably to account for Kisame's large size. Kyoko had half expected the two to be sitting awkwardly pressed together but they both stood rather casually, as if they had done this before. They probably had.

She grabbed Deidara's hand, trying not to think too hard about the odd feeling of it against her own. She could feel the small opening of the mouth on his hand against hers, but much to her relief the mouth was pressed tightly closed. The relief must have shown on her face because as soon as she was up Deidara snatched his hand away.

"It'll be easier if you sit, yeah," he grumbled at her, his good mood gone.

She nodded and sat down carefully, afraid of losing her balance and falling off the bird. Kyoko didn't have a particular fear of heights, but she had flown in the relative safety of an airplane, not on the back of a clay bird. There was nowhere to grab so she placed her hands palms down against the back of the bird, it wouldn't save her if she started flying off, but it would give her some comfort.

"Shove your hands into the clay and make a fist, it'll help," Deidara hollered as the bird started to take off. Her hands dug fiercely into the clay, she could feel it squishing between her fingers and getting in her nail beds. It felt a little odd, but it was better than nothing.

Then they were flying.

At first, she had closed her eyes, the wind stinging her eyes and chilling her to the bone. She could feel the temperature drop as they soared farther up, and she was shivering. Their pace seemed to slow after the initial ascent, the wind felt less aggressive, and slowly she opened her eyes. She had never seen anything so beautiful.

They were still above the small city; it was surrounded by water on all sides and her impression of an island hadn't been wrong. There was a bridge that connected it to land in the distance, but it was like the village had been situated in the middle of a large lake. The building they had come from was the tallest of them, and she felt her mouth fall open. There was a large metal sculpture built into the side of the tower. It was so impossibly large and had to have been planned into the architecture of the building. It was a sculpture of the upper half of a man, his hands held out from his hands and a long tongue that extended from its mouth. She thought she saw a speck of orange on the tongue, but it was too far now to see.

Every time Kyoko looked at this city from a new angle she was in awe. If this is what Ame looked like, then what could she expect from Konoha?

"Do all the villages look like this?" she screamed the question; afraid the wind would carry her words away.

Deidara turned his head slightly to answer, "No, they all look different."

They spent the rest of the ride in silence, and Kyoko looked around in awe of the changing scenery. The surface of the water was so smooth that it reflected the blue of the sky like a mirror. She looked over at the occupants of the other bird, their faces indifferent. How were they not in awe? How were they not amazed by how wonderful this was? They were probably too used to it. Just as she had been too used to the things in her own life to appreciate them. Adapting to the world around you was one of the most human things someone could do. She knew that eventually, she would get used to the sights and people in this world too, but she would lose the beauty of it as well. It was a sad thing really.

She was taken out of her musing as they started to descend when they reached a shore. They had finally gotten past the lake and were descending on the grassy field just past the shore. There was a small expanse of sand at the edge that faded into the grass, making for a small beach. It was too cold to go anywhere near that water, but she hoped there would be the potential for another excursion when it was warmer.

This must have been the training field they came to when they wanted to show their skills, the ground was marked with deep craters and singed in places. There were trees in the distance, and some of them had been badly burned or outright broken down. Some of them were long dead and lying at the end of the field, pushed out of the way, and leaving only stumps behind.

"You should go over there with Itachi, the kid can get a bit… excited," Kisame informed her.

She nodded and started following behind him, he had already started to head to the area with the stumps. "Is this safe?" Sitting over by all the broken and burned trees wouldn't have been her first idea.

"I will not allow you to die," he answered.

That wasn't what she asked but it was probably as good of an answer as he was going to give. He sat on one of the larger stumps and she sat next to him, there was plenty of room between them and even Kisame probably would have fit. Even still, he stared at her as if he was offended by her presence.

"Oh, what, I can't sit next to you?"

His face pulled into a scowl, and he gazed straight ahead at the field, ignoring her.

"Deidara is right, you are an asshole," she sniped at him.

"Deidara is vulgar and a fool," he spoke with finality, but she wasn't going to let this drop.

"Yeah, well at least he talks to me!"

"Are we not speaking?" his face was still inscrutable, but his tone was condescending.

She shook her head, "That's not what I mean, and you know it. You play semantics and pretend not to know what I mean, but you know exactly what I'm talking about." Arguing with him was stupid, he had finally settled into a decent mood after training and here she was, picking a fight with him. "You were rude all this morning, for no reason. You asked me personal questions about my life yesterday, that I did not want to talk about it, but I answered anyway. Then today, I decided to make breakfast, and instead of thanking me, you were rude about it. Which would have been fine, except then you were angry or moping, or I don't even know what for most of the day."

"I was not rude."

"Yes, you were," she insisted. "You don't treat me like a person. We train together, we eat together, you give me reading assignments and that's it. If that's what you want to do, then fine, but don't ask me questions about my life, and then look at me like I'm some kind of bug when I sit next to you. I've done nothing to deserve that."

His face had relaxed in her tirade, and he was no longer scowling at the field, but he said nothing in reply. It's not as if she expected an apology but… something. He could have said something.

She rubbed her face, trying to calm herself. Kyoko wasn't exactly angry about it, but this situation as awful enough. It's not like she wanted to be here, and he was so inexpressive and so closed off that it's not like she knew what to do to make it easier for either of them. All she could do was guess. "I don't need you to be my friend or anything like that. I just… this is hard, and I don't understand anything, and you don't make it easier. I feel like I'm stumbling around in the dark while you're able to see and you're just refusing to help guide me. Just waiting until I ask just the right question before you tell me anything."

"Stop bickering with Uchiha! You're gonna miss it if you don't pay attention, yeah!" they were so far that Deidara had to have been screaming for her to hear him.

A sigh escaped her as she looked back at the field, this day had been exhausting. Itachi didn't say anything more and neither did she. She had said all she needed to say and it was probably too much. They sat in silence as Deidara and Kisame started to spar. Just as she was wondering again why they needed to come all the way out here for Deidara's art, the first bomb went off. She stared, in horror and bewilderment as the clay birds they had ridden exploded in the air, the blast of it knocking the air from her lungs. It was astonishing that she had managed to stay sitting up.

"Art is an explosion!" Deidara shrieked gleefully.

A/N: This took me.. a day and a half basically. I had the idea to write it like this originally, decided that was dymb, wrote this completely different, hated it, tried to push through, kept hating it and then finally gave up and basically did a complete re-write and wrote it how I originally wanted to. Which sucks because it means I basically spent an entire day working on one chapter and I definitely wanted to put out two.

I have non-stop schoolwork from Sunday-Wednesday and I work an 8-5 job during the day. I will try to find some time to write, but it won't be enough to push out anything substantial. I'll be able to maybe get 500 words out and these chapters are going to start getting longer. Even on days I have no school work, I can get about 2k words out but that's about it. Which is why struggling to write this was particularly inconvenient.