I sit up in bed. Ugh. I just woke up from the best dream... Wait, why is the light on the balcony on? I get up in my orange pajamas and slide the door open, seeing Nicky curled up in a chair singing softly to herself. I strain my ears to hear the lyrics, immediately confirming my my suspicions that it's the song she was writing earlier, after we got done training. I shut the door behind me, taking care not to make too much noise, as not to alert Nicky to my presence. "I'm so hurt, so dead and so alone, no one can ever know..." I hear a faint sobbing noise, and it hurts something in my heart. "Why can't I be like the others? Why don't they see, that I'm not like them, but I'm still me?" I step up behind the chair and watch as she places her face into the palms of her hands and puts her head between her legs. She seems so delicate, so fragile... But so dangerous. I'm not sure whether I should go to her and help her, or should I maybe go away, like everyone has ever done to me in my life? No. This is different. She's crying, and I could help her. I place my hand on her shoulder as lightly and gently as I can, and she jerks away from my touch. "What are you DOING?!" She scream-whispers, so the rest of the team doesn't wake up. "I... I just... wanted to help you." Her eyes are grey-ish, instead of red like regular people's eyes get when they cry.

"I don't need your FREAKING help! All I want is to be left alone! Can you do that? Can you actually physically force yourself away from me? Or is that impossible for the stupid hothead you are? Are you too perfect to leave me be? Or do you just want more material to use to MAKE FUN OF ME?!" I sigh and lower my voice more. "No. Please stop, you're going to wake the others up. I'm not making fun of you." I go to hold her hand to comfort her, but stop as I see something that makes my heart skip a beat. Instead of a fully skinned hand, it's half-skeletal... How? What? "No! Don't look at it!" She covers it with her sleeve again and sheds a few more tears. I take her hand again, softer than I've ever done anything in my life. "Hey. I don't care what you are, or what this is. I'm here for you. Please don't think you're a freak. To me, you're my partner, and my friend. We don't always get along," She rolls her eyes but doesn't interrupt, "But together we make the best partners there ever were! So... please... don't hide from me." She leans against the balcony's railing and lets out a shaky whimper, whispering, "Who are you to try and help me? You don't care, nobody ever does!" "No," I walk over and stand next to her, "I do care. Don't do this. I'm your partner, and we have to trust each other with everything. So, tell me, how did you get like this?" She takes a deep breath, realizing I'm sincere in my concern. "Fine. It's a long story."

"Alright, well... let's see. You should know about my father first. He's... well maybe you know the fictional creature called Grim Reaper? Well, in reality, there is a race of skeletal people named Reapers who harvest people's souls when it's their time. Father could disguise himself to look humanly, and so snuck into Beacon to see if any Hunters or Huntresses were ready to leave this world. Eventually, he encountered my mother, a beautiful huntress, and he fell in love. Much more time later, Mother gave birth to me. However, I came out half-Reaper, so my parents came a close eye on me. When I was five, there was a horrible thunderstorm. The electricity went out. They lit so many candles so they could watch me... But... Well... um... u-um... They forgot to keep an eye on the candles, they were so fo-focused on me... There was a horrible fire... Mom tossed me out the window, into a flower bush, and I was the only one who got out alive. They died, and my aunt and uncle came by the pick me up. My aunt and uncle were terrible people. They raised me up until I was nine, and then I got so fed up with the abuse and mistreatment I ran away. I hit many hard times, and grew up on the streets. I just... I miss my parents sometimes and... nobody understood at any of the elementary schools or middle schools my condition, so I started wearing my mother's cloak... It's all I have left of her. That, and my father's scythe... So there. That's my sad, miserable life story. Going to make fun of me now?"

I just stand there, staring at her, for a few seconds. She's gone through so much... No wonder she has to keep herself hidden and emotionless. She must have been bullied so much... I shake my head and reply, "No, Nicky, I'm sorry for... well how I acted. I will never make fun of you ever again." The door opens and a half-asleep Harmony calls out, "Hello, please, go to sleep, both of you... You're very loud..." She stumbles back in the dorm room and Nicky and I chuckle. "You go on in, I'll go back to bed in a sec." Nicky lets out a relieved breath. "Being out here makes me more sleepy." I look at the amazing full moon, yellow-ish and surrounded by clouds. "Sleeping problems?" I ask. She shrugs and answers, "Well, in this case, insomnia kind of helped me, right?" We both exchange a smile.