As soon as Lazula ditched her rain-drenched clothes for her combat uniform, she had a feeling it was going to be a good meeting. The snow had melted some over the past several days, but only when Port Cyrreine's usual Winter rain came back in full force did it truly begin to disappear. A sparse layer of slush was all that remained outside.

"Alright, since finals are next week, this is gonna be the last practice of the semester!" Midas announced. "But, I'm sure you all know that by now. After break, we're gonna hit the ground running to prepare for the Vytal Tournament! Anyway, we'll just do some pretty standard routines today, and then a cooldown on the indoor track, because I'm sure you guys don't want to go out and run in that." He twirled Resplendence with a grin, and pointed its tip to the Sparring Team. "But first! Do we have any challenges today?"

A hand strapped into what looked like weightlifting gloves eagerly shot up toward the front. It was the squirrel faunus who had struck up a handful of conversations with Lazula before, and was the second first-year to join the team, after herself.

"Yes, Moka!"

"I want to challenge Lazula!"

A chorus of excited murmurs rose from the crowd, and Moka turned to Lazula.

"As soon as the second semester starts, we're going full speed ahead until the Vytal Tournament!" Moka explained. "Every sponsor in Remnant is gonna be watching, so I wanna know what I'm up against!"

Lazula returned her smile. It had been a while since someone challenged her; most just figured they wouldn't bother, and challenged someone closer to their skill level.

"I accept your challenge."

Midas looked to Moka. "What are your safety parameters?"

"Let's do twenty-five. I still wanna be able to work out with you guys after!"

Lazula could sense the crowd's excitement as she took her position in the SFC's practice arena. Lazula's regal blue and gold attire looked like something belonging to the grand hero of a high fantasy. Across from her, Moka wore tight cargo pants a shade halfway between brown and green, a knit scarf, and a beat-up tank top. Their school pictures were projected from a screen above. Moka's big brown eyes nearly closed with how hard she smiled. Next to her, Lazula scowled.

"This is an impromptu sparring match between Lazula Skye, and challenger, Moka Chino!" A tall, wiry young many with curly black hair announced. "The first combatant to decrease their enemy's aura to twenty-five percent, or the combatant with highest aura level after five minutes, will be declared winner!"

The crowd cheered, and the countdown began.

Lazula and Moka met in the center of the arena. Moka's first punch, aided by the brown waves of aura crackling across her body and arm, slammed into Aegis. She pushed Lazula back with a left hook, followed by a swift right jab and a couple more strikes, Aegis ringing with each blow.

Brown waves of static worked their way around Moka's core, chest, and arm, indicating another semblance-enhanced punch. Lazula braced herself, careful not to channel enough of her semblance to injure her challenger's wrist. Still, she pushed the faunus backward as her attack landed, and took the offensive with a pair of swings. Moka tucked her arms in and ducked around them on light feet like a boxer, then spun on one foot to kick Lazula's third swing into the ground.

Lazula felt a punch to her gut and was flung backward toward a hollering crowd. She stopped and stabilized herself with her sword before blocking Moka's next attack and channeling it into a strike of her own, taking a chunk of her foe's aura.

Moka pulled back, her default smile replaced by a determined stare as she once again took a fighting stance. She leapt toward Lazula, and her next several strikes were lighter but quicker. Another powerful punch neared, this one with a spark of yellow surging from the studs on her glove. As Lazula raised Aegis to block it, electricity coursed into her shield, and her arm seized up. Knocking Aegis aside with a smile, Moka delivered a strong jab to Lazula's gut that nearly knocked her to the floor.

The faunus didn't let up, and before Lazula had a chance to catch her breath she had to raise Aegis once again. After a few more strikes, Lazula chanced a stab. Moka spun around it and struck down at Lazula with her forearm. Lazula shoved her back, following up with a high, horizontal slash.

Moka fell for her ploy. When the faunus ducked under her swing and had her back turned, Lazula shoved forward, knocking her to the ground. She held Moka down with a boot on her stomach, and lowered the tip of Impetus a few inches from her throat.

Moka's eyes widened as she looked at Lazula's gleaming weapon. She looked up with a grin, and raised her hands in surrender.

"So that's why you don't lose!" Moka joked as Lazula helped her up. "I felt like I was fighting a brick wall! ...With a sword."

"You're not bad either," Lazula complimented, sheathing Impetus. "You said you were looking for sponsorships?"

"Yeah! My mom needs Frontline's care, so after I saw you win a few tournaments I thought I'd try out the whole huntress thing!" she side-eyed Midas. "Frontline's treatment just has to be so darn expensive, but they're the only ones who can help her... But yeah! I took martial arts classes as a kid, but I forgot most of the stuff so now I just punch and kick things and it usually works!"

"Well, keep it up," Lazula encouraged. "Tournaments have been giving out more and more prize money recently."

"Thanks!" Moka returned. "You can go ahead and win the Vytal Tournament though. It doesn't give any prize money. Kinda weird if you ask me! It's like, the tournament, but the winner only gets a trophy and a ton of bragging rights."

"Whatever the case, you're right," Lazula recognized. "If you want to pick up sponsors, that's the place to do it."

As Caspian neared the door to his team's dorms, his heart began to pound. Lilly was always out in the common area at this time in the afternoon, and Caspian wanted so desperately to back out, as he had all those times before. But it was too late. He clutched the bouquet in shaking hands, and he had told Rowan today was the day. A bit of insurance, as he knew without it he would continue straight into his room with little more than a polite greeting to her. Caspian raised his wrist to the pad at the side of the door and it opened into a short hallway, which turned left upon reaching his room.

At the end of the hall was the common area, Lilly writing away at the table. She looked up, and Caspian felt as if his heart stopped. He managed a smile.

"Those flowers are beautiful!" Lilly complimented.

"Thanks, I-I'm glad you like them," Caspian returned. He felt short of breath as he approached her. "I have something to ask you."

"Ah, I actually have something to ask you as well," Lilly returned coyly. "But go ahead," she allowed.

Caspian took a deep breath. "These flowers are for you. I've been wondering... for a while now, actually..." he stammered. "Do you want to go out sometime? Like... as a date?"

"Oh, Caspian..." Lilly began. He winced. He could already see the hesitation on her face. She looked to the doors down the hall, then up to him. "Can we speak outside?"

Caspian swallowed the lump in his throat, and nodded, following her out to the balcony. The two stayed near the window and under the eaves, taking shelter from the driving rain that obscured their view of the bay.

"Caspian, you're a very good friend. You're smart, kind, and have a great sense of humor. Any girl would be lucky to have a young man like yourself," Lilly gently assured.

"I should have expected this," Caspian thought to himself.

"...Provided she's into men."

Caspian blinked. He looked from the rain that bounced off the railing to Lilly for the first time. "Do you mean..."

Lilly nodded. "I like girls, Caspian," she said in a hushed voice. "Please, don't tell anyone. You're the only one who knows."

Caspian didn't know quite what to feel. Disappointment, of course, as his crush of several years crumbled into an impossibility. Surprise, and a couple other feelings he couldn't put into words.

"No one knows? Not even your parents? Or Lazula?"

Lilly grimaced a bit. "No, no one. It's not that I fear what they would say, either. My parents have told me before they would accept me, and I'm sure Lazula would do the same. I'm just not ready to tell them."

Caspian nodded, once again looking out at the rain. "Well, you said you had something to ask me. Go ahead."

Lilly started. "Oh- no. I can't."

"What do you mean?"

Lilly shook her head. "I couldn't do that to you. I may ask you in time, but not today."

By the time Caspian arrived to meet his friends at The Roots, they already sat around the usual table, halfway into their meals. It was a labor to drag himself down to the dining hall when he wanted nothing more than to be alone, but he still needed to eat something, and his friends would find out eventually, anyway.

"Hey, there he is!" Rowan welcomed. "So, how did it go?"

Caspian wrung his hands under the table. "...She turned me down."

Rowan's face fell. "What? How come?"

Caspian pursed his lips. "I... I'm not sure. She just said no."

"Oh... I'm sorry to hear that," Ichigo offered.

"Aw, man..." Rowan murmured. "Well, there are plenty of other fine ladies at Sentinel!"

"Sure, but none of them are the girl I've been crushing on for years," Caspian thought. He was silent.

"I've got an idea!" Rowan declared. "Why not come with me and try to get a girl's number? Find someone to talk to, y'know? Ichigo never wants to go with me."

"I don't either."

"You seem to bother Laurel. This might be a bad idea," Snow commented.

"Oh come on, it'll be fun!" Rowan encouraged. He looked to Caspian. "Is there anyone else you've had your eye on?"

"I... guess there's the sandwich girl..." Caspian recalled. "But-"

"Oh! I think I know who you're talking about! She's working today, let's go!"

"Wait, I d-" Caspian stuttered. "She's working, now's not the time!"

"Don't you always get sandwiches on Wednesdays?" Rowan said. "We'll get you some dinner too! Two birds, one stone!" He practically dragged Caspian from the table, and brought him to the sandwich kiosk at the far end of The Roots.

The girl working had thick streaks of blonde in her dark brunette hair wound into a single braid down the back of her neck, with dark brown eyes that seemed to shine beneath her glasses. She smiled as the two approached.

"Hey! The usual today?" the girl asked, her gloved hand approaching a loaf of bread.

"Uh, yeah," Caspian returned. "I'm Caspian, by the way."

"I'm Rye!" she returned, pointing to her nametag. "And yes, I know it's ironic that I work at the sandwich place, and my name is Rye. I get that a lot."

Caspian chuckled. "Did you choose the sandwich place because of that?"

"Nope! I just got placed here randomly," she explained, organizing turkey, bacon, and cheese on the bread. She looked up. "Toasted today, right?"

"Yup," Caspian confirmed. He took a deep breath. "I was wondering, can I have your number? We can maybe... uh, hang out sometime?"

"Oh, sorry, I have a boyfriend!" Rye stated. She looked over Caspian's shoulder. "Hey babe!"

Caspian's eyes went wide as a deep voice replied from behind him.

"Hey cutie."

Rye looked to Caspian as he left in a hurry, retreating to Snow and Ichigo. "Is he still gonna want his sandwich?" she asked Rowan.

Rowan sighed. "Yeah, it's gonna be the same one as usual. I'll pay."

After classes the next day, Caspian and Rowan walked in the shadow of Skye Hall on their way back to the dorms. At Rowan's suggestion, Caspian had asked a girl in their class for her number. She had rather bluntly declined.

"I'm just saying, you gotta keep trying until you succeed!" Rowan encouraged.

"Really? And how well has that worked for you?" Caspian retorted.

"It's a work in progress," Rowan responded. He stopped suddenly. "Hey! Just the guy we need right now!"

"Cas, Rowan!" Uncle Douglas greeted with a smile, coming down the front stairs of Skye Hall. "What's up?"

"We're just coming back from class," Caspian said. "What are you doing here? Don't you work today?"

"I was discussing top-secret stuff with your dad," Douglas replied playfully. "Just kidding. We were talking over the Vytal Festival. Frontline's offering a little boost to security this year, is all."

"Probably for the best, huh?"

"We need your advice again!" Rowan cut in. "Some stuff happened and Cas is a little down in the dumps. How can he find a lady-friend?"

"Again, your goal shouldn't be to 'find' a lady-friend," Uncle Douglas reminded. He smiled lazily. "But all I can say is be yourself."

"That's all?" Rowan prodded. "Everyone says that!"

Douglas shrugged. "Because it's true. If you act like someone else, you'll end up with someone who likes that someone else. If you're your genuine self, and show the true 'you' with all your flaws and quirks, you'll find a genuine connection." He rubbed the stubble on his chin. "But other than that, put yourself out there! Make friends, and eventually you might find someone you click with."

"I see..." Rowan pondered.

He waved. "I am on the clock, so I should get back to HQ. Good seeing you kids, tell your friends I said hi."

Rowan seemed invigorated by the talk, but Caspian was discouraged further, if anything. All the talk of flaws and quirks, and getting out there to find someone that accepted and loved them, it didn't seem real. It didn't seem possible.

He couldn't imagine anyone loving his genuine self.