Chapter 13 – Plans

Nick Eldrien

Nick stood from his bed with a yawn. He had spent a majority of the night working on plans for adjusting the blades in Nadea's gun and hadn't noticed how late it was until he looked at the clock. With the clock telling him it was almost 6am, he had finally called it and gone to bed. While not an unusual occurrence for weekends, he always ended up regretting it on school days. He stretched out his shoulders until he felt the last of the tension leave his muscles and ran his hand over the stubble he had allowed to grow in his time at Haven.

A quick look around the room showed that as usual he was alone, Camea and Nadea most likely having gone for their run and the sound of the shower running in the adjacent bathroom indicating that Ella had only recently woken up herself. With a sigh, he began to get dressed.

Even though he had been wearing it for over a month, Haven's uniform still didn't feel right. The trousers were far to thin and soft compared to his usual tough jeans and the blazers were much lighter than his leather jacket. The dress shirt wasn't too bad and thankfully he didn't have to wear a tie but the trousers and blazer often felt weightless and their restrictions on his movement due to their closer fit always caught him off guard. Fortunately, the school didn't object to students wearing small pieces of armour over the uniform so he made sure to always attach his single steel pauldron to his right shoulder.

Finally dressed, he looked down at his bedside table to quickly review the plans he had drawn up last night and mentally chastised himself. In his tiredness, he had made a rookie mistake and failed to take into account that the weapons would be lighter with the new blades he intended to fit and therefore would throw off Nadea's aim. However, with only thirty minutes left until class, he didn't have time to fix it right now. Instead he snatched up the plans and shoved them into his pocket to work on during lunch.

"Hey, you're awake." He heard behind him and turned to see Ella stepping out of the bathroom already dressed in her uniform.

While he wasn't a fan of the male uniform, he was definitely a fan of the girls. The short skirts and knee high socks where very much to his taste and even though he had no real interest in Ella, he still had to admit that she looked good in them.

"I thought I was gunna have to wake'ya up," She continued as she picked up a brush and began to sort out her hair. "What time'd ya go to bed?"

"Six," he grunted back. The was still a little tension between them after their small argument last night where they had both said some things they regretted. Fortunately the apologies had been quick and they were moving past it.

"Musta got a lot done?" she asked.

"Most of it, the guns aren't that badly designed so the adjustment will be easy," he replied while digging through his night stand. Finding what he was looking for, he pulled out two chocolate bars and held one out to Ella only to pull it back when she reached for it. "Tell Nadea I said that and you will never get another."

The girls face broke into a grin as she accepted the gift, immediately ripping the packaging open to eat it. Ella's weakness for chocolate was one the team had discovered very early and they had begun to use it to great effect. While many people had a price for their services that was often Lien or favours in return, his partners was simply chocolate. It didn't even have to be good chocolate. Just give her a candy bar and all small incidents would be forgiven.

"We should get goin'," she said once she had finished and had thrown the wrapper into the bin.

They two of them made their way to Dust Application, one of the only classes they had every day, with Ella making most of the small talk Nick contributing with the occasional grunt. His partner knew that on day like this he was likely to be less talkative so generally stuck to simple topics and easy to answer questions.

It didn't take long to get to the classroom and take their seats next to Camea and Nadea. As they sat down, Camea handed them both an apple and he bit into straight away. While eating, Dr. Crimson entered the classroom and as usual, the man was talking to himself.

The man was probably the weirdest teacher at Haven. He seemed to be eternally talking to himself and while never late to class, between them he had a tendency to get very lost. Nick had once encountered him on the second floor of the first year dorm and when the man had saw him, he had asked where he was. The weirdest thing about him however was the random outburst of anger. It wasn't uncommon for him to be explaining something interesting about a type of dust before suddenly flipping out and punching the chalkboard. He also didn't appear to own any clothes that weren't torn to shreds.

Nick had heard many rumours about what had caused all these things since their first class and while many of them seemed ridiculous, a couple seemed likely. The most accepted one was that the man suffered from split personality disorder; but quite a few people believed that the man had been in an accident with dust and it had left him just as unstable as the material he worked with. Either way, Nick didn't care. The man was a genius when it came to dust and his name was on almost every major textbook regarding the substance. For that alone, he was the teacher Nick respected the most.

The lesson was very much the same as all the previous ones that week. Dr. Crimson introduced a new way to fuse dust to make the type stronger and gave out small canisters for students to practice. Fortunately there was no repeat of the explosion from yesterday and Camea even took the lead after Ella told her he didn't sleep much. In fact many of their classes did.

Now that they were in the middle of the term, teachers were starting to bring up the long term subjects. Mr Pastell had begun to teach how the great war had form much of the modern culture in Mistral. Ms Copper was now matching up the stronger solo fighters with pairs. Miss Petunia was giving him harder work than the rest of the class that revolved more around what caused 'The Great War' while the rest of the class were discussing the importance of the importance of the Vacuo/Vale alliance. Even Mr Pitch who taught Grimm Studies, the only other daily class, was now beginning to move away from studying singular Grimm and had begun to lecture them on the rise and fall of villages due to Grimm attacking habits.

By the time lunch came around, all Nick really wanted to do was sleep. However, he knew he couldn't so he pulled the plans for Nadea's weapons from his pocket as began to work on the weight problem while he ate his salad.

"So Cams, nervous for later?" He heard Ella say from next to him.

He looked up to see that Camea was just pushing her food around her plate and was unable to contain the snort that pushed its way pushed it way out of his throat. Ella obviously heard as she immediately punched him in the leg.

"I feel sick," She whispered.

"You know Maggy will be okay postponing it if you're no feeling up to it," Nadea said in a soft voice.

"NO," Camea blurted out, drawing his eyes once again. "I don't want to postpone it, I'm just worried I will mess it up."

"Not like she can be expecting the world best date," he grunted while erasing part of the blade he had drawn on the plans. His comment once again earned him another punch in the leg only this time he turned to face his partner. "What? Maggy knows she has never been on a date before. If she expects Camea to not be nervous then she's dumber than she looks."

"He said it like an ass but he's not wrong Cams," Ella sighed. "Maggy ain't expecting ya to be super confident, she's expecting you to be you."

Nick had to try very hard to resist rolling his eyes at how cliché that comment was. Instead he went back to the design and coloured in the part of the blade he had erased to indicate that he wanted to add a weight to the area. In fact, adding the weights there would be more beneficial since not only would it help with weighting the gun, it would aid in making the girl strike harder as the weight would shift into the blades once Nadea extended them.

"I know," Camea sighed. "But I'm still worried I am going to say the wrong thing or do something to ruin the date or maybe she just wont enjoy being out with me."

"Camea, you message each other almost every night and she still wants to take you out, so I doubt she's now going to enjoy herself," Nadea reassured the girl. "And as far as saying the wrong thing, just don't say anything Nick would say."

"Fuck you," Nick replied without bothering to look up from his work.

By the time the gong sounded out to indicate lunch was over, he had finished a vast majority of the work and thankfully he could get pretty much everything he required from the school supply. He would have to ask Terra for some high tension springs but the girl made them so often that she always had some to spare.

Mathematics and Mistralian flew by pretty quickly; however by the time Engineering came around, he was far too tired to pay attention. Fortunately, the team sat at the back of the class and were rarely called upon by the teacher so Camea didn't bother to wake him when he fell asleep. Instead he was awoken by the final gong that signalled the end of the school day.

Nick felt better after the small nap and quickly made his way back to the dorm room and stripped out of his clothes. Now dressed in his jeans and the heavy leather jacket, he let out a sigh of relief as he immediately felt more comfortable. While he would have liked to lay down and enjoy the silence for a little longer, Ella and Camea exited the bathroom talking very loudly.

"So what time are ya meeting her?" Ella asked, her voice tinged with excitement.

Nick let out a sigh. This date was all he had heard about for the past two days.

"She's coming by in..." The girl looked at the room clock and her eyes widened comically upon seeing the time. "Thirty minutes," she quivered.

"Cams, don't worry, it's gunna be fine," Ella smiled only for it to falter a second later. "Camea?"

Nick looked up once again to see that the girl was breathing heavily. The quick darting of her eyes and how shaky her legs appeared to be caused his instincts to kick in.

He jumped off his bed and grabbed Camea by the shoulder to lead her over to the window, forcing it open to allow her to get some fresh air. He knew he was right about her unease as he felt her shake in his grip.

"Camea you're panicking, I need you to look at me," He ordered repeatedly until her eyes focused on his own. "You need to slow your breathing, can you do that for me?"

The girl took a moment but responded by taking a deep breath and holding it in. He felt her shakes lessen almost straight away and she slowly exhaled.

"Good," Nick nodded. "Now tell me, knowing everything you do about yourself and all you know about Maggy, do you truly believe you could do anything that will make the day unbearable?"

Camea appeared to think for a second as she took another deep breath before she shook her head in response.

"Neither do I," Nick gave her a stern look. "So keep telling yourself that."

The deep breathes seemed to finally begin to settle her so Nick released the girls shoulder.

"And remember you can cancel at any time if its too much."

Sensing that the anxiety attack was passing, he slowly moved back to his bed. On the way, he walked past his partner who seemed frozen in place shifting uncomfortably. Knowing what it was like to witness and not be able to do anything, he didn't judge her for freezing up.

He let out a groan as he laid back down. He thought the days of handling things like were behind him. Not that he didn't love his brother, but being Grante's main support had taken its toll on his life.

After his father's death, his mother had shut down for quite a while and even though she had eventually started to become much like her normal self, the damage was done. She had tried ever since to fix her relationship with Grante and had succeeded in some ways but Nick had always been the boys go to when he was having a tough time.

Not wanting to deal with those thoughts today, he shook his head to clear it. Instead he rolled onto his side and reached down to grab the plans for some final reviews. As soon as Nadea got back from wherever she was, he could go over the plans with her. If she was fine with everything, then he could potentially go to the workshop and forge the blades today.

Lost in the plans, he didn't notice how much time had passed until a loud knock sounded throughout the room followed by a loud bang as Camea all but fell off her bed. Nick had to suppress a laugh as the girl straightened her clothes and ran over to open the door only to stop and turn to Ella.

"What do I say?" She whispered.

"Try saying hello," Nick interrupted. For once, Ella nodded in agreement.

Nodding to herself, she turned around and slowly opened the door.

"H-Hi," he heard Camea breath shakily.

"Hey," Came Maggy's confident voice from the other side. "You look great."

"Th-Thank you," Camea replied.

Nick watched as the girl looked at the ground in an attempt to hide her smile. A ridiculous action considering Camea was slightly taller than her date.

"Are you ready to go?" Maggy asked. Nick didn't need to see the girl to know that she was smiling.

"Oh... yeah, one second," Camea replied and moved away from the door to search her drawer for something.

Taking his chance, Nick stood up and walked over to the door and stepped outside. Maggy stood there in a red blouse and black leggings. She looked up at him and moved aside, clearly expecting him to continue on. Instead, he remained standing in front of the girl and pulled the door shut behind him, he activated his semblance to allow his strength to grow and tightened his grip on the handle.

"This is the girls first time doing this and she's not exactly the most confident person," he started with a growl, making sure not to break eye contact. "So if I hear that you've done anything to make her uncomfortable, we will have serious problems. Understood?"

Magenta stared back with a hard gaze. While he knew the girl could take him in a fight, there were plenty of other ways he could make the girl last year at Haven a living hell and he wanted her to understand that he wouldn't hesitate to do any of them.

"Perfectly," She replied in an even voice.

He was about to go back into the dorm when a hand caught his arm.

"It's good to see Ella ain't wrong about you," She said in a sincere tone.

He gave the girl a grunt in return and pushed the door open. Both Ella and Camea were stood there looking at him in confusion. Not bothering to answer their questioning looks, he turned away and laid back down on his bed.

"Ready?" He heard Maggy say.

Camea,who was still looking at him, started and gave a small nod. She wrapped her shawl around her shoulders and with one last look at him, left the room.

Silence filled the room as the door swung shut. Nick, knew she was waiting for the two girls to move away from the door before speaking. After almost a minute passed, she apparently felt they had moved on and finally voiced her question.

"What did you say to Maggy?" She asked. Her voice was firm yet he sense hesitation it.

Not wanting to bother with a long explanation, he answered the girl as simply as possible.

"What needed to be said."