A/N: Actually, fuck it. Have a triple upload.

"Greetings, my name is Miss Haley, I'll be your English teacher."

Valentine's index finger idly tapped on the side of his leg, his gaze utterly bored as he waited for the woman to finish her introduction.

"Now, forgive me for asking, but are you by chance siblings with Yuuki and Rachael?" Miss Haley asked curiously, very aware of that oh so distinctive sparkling silver hair.

"They're my older sisters." Valentine gave a slight nod.

Some of the students were still unable to see Valentine from where he was standing in the hall, while Miss Haley stood at the door. They could hear him, of course, so the gender confusion was beginning to rise.

"Well then, please, come in, there's a seat available at the right side of the room. I'll have to ask that you please speak English in class at all times, your sisters were rather notorious for arguing in Russian and Japanese."

"Of course, I understand." Valentine agreed, then the teacher moved to the front of the class while Valentine took the offered place in front of a boy with a noticeable look of disdain on his face. The girl ahead of Valentine was discreetly texting on her phone under the edge of her desk as Miss Haley clasped her hands together once, gathering their attention to her.

"Now, everyone, this is Valentine Darkwood. Please be respectful, it's already past midterms for this semester, so there's a lot to focus on right now. Now then, Valentine, we've been studying forms of fiction writing, on Monday I'd assigned the class to write a short story of their own imagination, we will..."

Without a word, Valentine reached into his shoulder bag and pointedly dropped it onto his desk before speaking.

"Fourteen pages, original plot, theme and characters. Written by hand, with proper sentence structure, punctuation, paragraphs. Oh, and of course... It's in English."

Miss Haley was silent for a moment, so Valentine added one more comment. "You taught my sisters, remember?"

"Yes I did." Miss Haley nodded, then smiled. "Well then, everyone, continue working on your short stories. Valentine, if you could... read yours over, do any editing or fixes, that would be excellent."

Everyone did as they were told, opening notebooks and binders to get started. Valentine idly twirled a pen on the flat side of his first index knuckle. After several quiet minutes - aside from the clicking sound of Valentine's pen twirling on the side of his finger - he heard a low, derisive snort-like sound of disgust from behind him. He knew it was the boy that had been glaring at him when he sat down.

A few more times, the boy made that low yet distinctive sound. Valentine casually turned a page in his notebook with his right hand - the hand with his pen spinning on it - without dropping his pen or slowing the current spin. He gave it another flick with his thumb to keep it going, which made the usual sharp little tick sound of contact, and the boy let out a much louder huff of annoyance.

Bingo.

Valentine caught on by now. This boy's constant groans and derisive snorts were being directed at himself. Now, armed with this knowledge, Valentine could tell he had the advantage... He just needed to lay the bait.

On Valentine's left hand, he had four rings. Usually he wore two on each hand, but he'd taken them off to begin twirling his pen. So, just like when he'd turned the page in his notebook, Valentine flawlessly kept the pen spinning as he slid his usual two rings off his left hand and back onto his right, one of which was his index finger.

With a low growl of frustration, the boy behind him started drumming his fingers on the surface of the desk, trying to make it seem pointedly loud, but the sound of Valentine's plastic pen contacting his metal rings easily drowned out the finger drumming.

"Ugh! Oh my god! You think you're so special 'cause your sisters were in her class before you. I don't even think you wrote that story, you just took it from one of them." The boy hissed out between his teeth, sounding rather nasally and noticeably stuck up.

"My oldest sister wrote hers in Japanese kanji, which I cannot read, and my other sister showed me hers to get me started. Her story got a 83, but wasn't quite long enough for higher marks." Valentine spoke just as quietly, smirking without turning his head. "If you have something to say, speak up. This is an English class, after all. It should be a class on proper social etiquette, but I digress."

The boy made that disgusted snort again. "... Whatever."

Valentine's bait wasn't in place yet, he needed to aggravate this boy a bit more. It was obvious that he wasn't difficult to insult, but smart enough to pick up on subtle comments. He could work with this.

"I just... can't even stand to look at you, god, your outfit is terrible, and your voice is breaking my concentration." The boy huffed again, tossing his pen onto his notebook. "Like, it's just as gross as that stupid flower you probably did on yourself to make yourself look cool. Doesn't even look real..."

Wow... He just laid the bait himself...

Valentine's face broke into a sadistic grin as his eyes glinted with glee in a way that would make even Serenity - the absolute master of this very expression - proud about what he was about to do.

In about half a second, Valentine spun around on his heel, grabbing the boy by the back of his head - his hair was really greasy, tied up into a hasty and messy bun - and slammed his forehead down onto his desk with a resounding bang that caused everyone to either jump or cry out in surprise as the tense silence was shattered, just like the boy's desk as Valentine pulled him back upright by the same grip on his disgusting hair.

"Enough." Valentine didn't yell, but his voice still had that intimidating, resonating power - that signature Darkwood family aura of intimidation - that guaranteed all eyes and ears were on him. "Learn how to actually communicate with other people in a constructive, polite and straightforward manner. Insulting people for how they look, dress or act is bullying. Falsely accusing them of plagiarism is another thing, and of course, hypocritically saying that they're breaking your concentration while you yourself are making noticeably loud and repetitive noises is just plain arrogant." Valentine pulled him off his chair - again by the hair - and leaned over him menacingly, yet continued to speak in that level, calm voice that resonated around the room thanks to his family's aura. "If I find you so much as glaring at me, you'll find out my last name. Have I made myself clear?"

"Get off me!" The boy couldn't get Valentine's iron grip out of his hair.

"One last thing..." Valentine leaned in close and whispered into his ear. "I'll let my aunt Serenity know what you think of my lotus tattoo. I wish you good luck."

With a mere flick of his wrist in the boy's head, Valentine sent him stumbling backwards to fall back onto his ass, then winked at him and slipped a crisp business card out of one of his numerous belt pouches and tossed it onto the boy's stomach before smoothly grabbing his bag and notebook and walking towards the door, but stopped and held up his right hand with his pen balanced on top again...

Then he gave it one pointedly loud spin, then smoothly rotated his hand palm up, catching the pen with all but one specific finger standing straight upwards at the humiliated boy.

The boy glanced down at the business card and held it up: All that was on it was a red heart with an archery arrow impaled through it, with a neatly written V over top in silver. The rest of the card was pitch black.

"One down, three more to go..." Valentine leaned back from his final touches to the Boost Pack's final design. He still had the prototype T-15 Exosuit in his - it was literally his now, the BSAA had hired him after a long discussion with his father - workshop, and now had to move onto the next of his four upgrades to the T-15. Thankfully he made the design simple, and even the original T-12's made by his father and the mass produced 13's had the necessary things for him to already have a head start. "Zyke, connect me to my father." Valentine tapped his earpiece for his phone back on, and his assistant, a former intern that he'd found acceptably competent, quickly stepped over to the cell phone resting in a cleared spot on the desk - Valentine's workshop was a clusterfuck of papers, components, partially assembled parts, tools and of course, his finally finished P90 was leaning within arm's reach of the youngest Darkwood. The little magnetic mechanism he'd made for the suppressor to spin itself onto the barrel was perfected and integrated into the custom gun proper.

"Calling." Zyke announced as the line connected.

"Valentine, how's the T-15 prototype coming along?" Tobias answered quickly, sounding like he was outdoors.

"First upgrade is complete, all testing and changes done, mass production can begin for the Boost Pack's right away. My next upgrade's actually been used before... by you."

"I don't follow... What did I use?"

"Your skull mask. It's ballistic grade Quinque Steel, right? My upgrade concept is just an integrated ballistic mask. I know your original T-12 has a deployment method to bring it over your head and onto your face."

"What do you have in mind for the deployment method? Most of the BSAA infantry wear helmets, headsets or other headgear. I just wear my mask, obviously."

"That's where it gets interesting. Headgear and helmets won't be necessary anymore; my plan for the mask is more than just a face mask. It'll have optical and communication components integrated."

"I think I can see the concept. Alright, since it's armour related, it's going to be put through combat and environmental torture testing, remember that."

"Don't worry, you'll like what I have in mind." Valentine smiled, then bade his father goodbye.