I've been sitting in my seat for about half an hour, and I've been sneaking looks at my scroll from time to time. Somehow it's only eight twelve. I've ditched my book by now, previously having haphazardly stuffed it into my bag. I'm not really paying much attention to the brawl going on between Ren and Levi, but I can tell that it's a surprisingly even fight. I'm interrupted by either the call of a freshly opened can of soda, or someone trying to get my attention.

"Pssst."

Turing to see Jaune looking at me, and I can't help but wish it was the soda, and not my excruciatingly dense friend. Nothing against Jaune, minus his density that rivals the average black hole, but I just want a drink.

I whisper, "What's up?"

He motions to the overhead display, showing that Levi's won the fight. I'm not going to hear the end of that one for a solid week. After a moment, it shows that Blake and Jade are to approach the stage for their fight. Then, it flashes a message saying that the next two fighters are to prepare. Said two fighters are Lukas and I. Lovely.

I'm slightly disappointed I don't get to watch the one fight I cared about, but at least I can finally wipe the smug grin off his face. After a trip to the armory, and some embarrassing failures to attach my cape to my armor, I walk back into class. The fight's not going great for Jade, until she manages to catch Blake in the middle of a jump and punch her. I wince a bit, but she quickly recovers.

An overconfident voice makes its way into my ear, "Ouch. Looks like your girl's getting her ass handed to her."

I roll my eyes before responding to Lukas, "Oh please, she'll win. Plus, you should be more worried about how I'm going to punch that dumbass look off your face."

Lukas scoffs, and continues the banter, "Don't get your hopes up Embers. I'm not going easy on you."

"Keep up that attitude Sparky, I dare you."

"Yeah, yeah, sure. Keep convincing yourself you'll win. I'm sure that you'll look even dumber when yours truly puts you in your place."

"We'll see about that. I wouldn't get your hopes up too high."

After a bit longer, Blake manages to win the duel with a devastating slash across Jade's chest. I give Blake a thumbs up, and wait for her and Jade to exit the stage.

"Mr. Canicus, Mr. Sinclair, assume your positions." Goodwitch says.

I walk towards the stage, looking at Lukas, he's adjusting the sleeves of his hoodie. That cocky bastard doesn't even wear armor in combat. He's wearing a blue hoodie, grey sweatpants, and sneakers. Fucking sneakers. Do you know how much fucking audacity it takes to fight in sneakers?

Meanwhile, I walk up the steps, my grieves and boots making each of my steps louder than Sneaker McFuckface's over there. My cape billows behind me, and I make sure my gauntlets are on properly.

After a moment I call out to Lukas, "So, should I use my semblance, or do you want to keep it a clean fight?"

His response is instantaneous, "You know who you're talking to, right?" Lukas opens up his left hand to show light blue sparks dancing between his fingertips. That answers that, to say the least.

I draw my gladius, flaunt it with a spin, and activate my semblance. A warm and familiar feeling flows through my body as my gauntlets and sword begin to burn a warm reddish orange.

"Fair. Don't know what I was expecting."

After staring him down for a moment, I say, "Feel free to charge in whenever you want to."

He takes the invitation, flicks his baton open, and rushes at me. He swings at me, but I deflect the attack. I slash at him in return, but miss due to his speed.

Lukas laughs, "You're going to have to be a bit faster than that!"

Lukas goes for my chest again, and I block the attack with my left arm bracer. I notice he slightly messes up his footing, overstepping my a few inches, and I take the chance to knee him in the gut. Lukas' aura blocks it, but he still staggers backwards.

I laugh loudly, and spin my sword before jeering at him again, "You're getting sloppy. Where's the challenge you promised me?"

He doesn't take kindly to that, and rushes me down yet again. He swings over and over. While I block most of his attacks, he manages to bash me in the left arm. My aura blocks it, yet it still hurts like hell. Having an aura is nice and all, but I swear it doesn't do jack against blunt force.

Lukas speaks, his face now adorned with a dumb grin, "I thought you were supposed to be better than that? What was that?"

As a response, I attempt to stab him. He dodges, but I predicted so, and already have feinted the attack, regained my footing, and have my left fist swinging at his head. Due to the fact that he was probably cooking up another one liner, he gets clocked. A few sparks fly through the air as my gauntlet makes contact with his aura. Lukas falls, but quickly recovers. He rubs his cheek, and spits.

I snicker at him, "What an electrifying turn of events!"

From the crowd, two voices ring out. One is rather soft, and belongs to Ruby, "Can we not with the puns?" Poor girl already has to deal with Yang's puns, so it's fair.

The other is pissed, and it's Weiss, "Can you both just SHUT THE FUCK UP?" I roll my eyes, because she's just being rude about it, and look at where Lukas was. However, when I looked to see who was speaking the cheeky little rat managed to rush up to me and dead leg me. After falling to one knee, and half assedly blocking a strike from him, I get knocked down.

Lukas looks down at me and approaches, a somehow even cockier tone in his voice, "Tough luck, Embers."

When he attempts a coup de grace, I use a decent portion of my remaining aura to send flames exuding from my body in a small sphere, and pushing him backwards. Lukas rolls to ease his fall, and looks at his scroll.

I also check my scroll to see I'm about two thirds through my aura. I really need to be more conservative with my semblance in the future. I can only assume that Lukas is below that point, since he hasn't had enough of a breather to drink any coffee and has been getting consistently hit. Deciding that I'm not letting him get the chance, I rush him down, and attempt to swing at him.

He jumps to the side, and raises his arm to strike. I quickly recover, grab his arm, and punch his gut with my weapon hand. Then I kick him right in the chest, and he falls to the ground.

Lukas attempts to get up, but I'm yet again expecting it. I shout out, "Stay down!" and absolutely deck him back to the wooden floor. His aura nearly gives out, as indicated by a flurry of rouge sparks flying, and Goodwitch declares the fight over, "Alright, that's enough. You may both head to the armory. Good work, both of you."

I sheathe Hell's Retriever, and deactivate my semblance. Looking at my scroll, I notice my aura only has twenty four percent remaining. I slightly wince at how low it's gotten, and look down at Lukas. "That was a close fight, dude. Good shit, Lukas." After I offer him my hand, he takes it. I pull him to his feet.

"Yeah. I need to be more unpredictable next time we fight, huh?" After a short nod, we both head into the armory to get out of our gear. Granted, Lukas is just changing into slacks. Once he's changed, he leans against Jade's locker while sipping from his thermos.

I decide to be cheeky, and bring up his romantic situation, "So… How are things going with that girl?"

Lukas chokes on his coffee while looking like he'd just seen a ghost. "H-how do you know about that?" he stammers.

"Please, where else would you be going every weekend? I'm not dumb, Lukas." I snicker.

He regains his confidence, and speaks in an accusatory tone, "Oh, so you're stalking me now?"

The truth is that I saw him walking with a girl through the streets of Vale while buying some flowers. However, my ass would not be caught dead being all mushy, especially in front of Lukas, so I can't exactly come clean. I didn't get a great look at the girl, however.

"I have my ways, shorty. Now, what's her name?"

Lukas quickly retorts, "First off, don't call me shorty. Second off, you won't tell Ozpin, right?"

It's an odd request, but I don't have any reason to say no. "You have my word, I guess."

He looks relieved, "Thank the Brothers. Anyways, her name's Penny."

"Penny?" I ask.

"Penny." he confirms.

I don't know anyone who goes here named Penny. Half of me wants to press further, but I also don't want to piss Lukas off. After getting out of my armor and storing my gear in my locker, we both head back to class. When we get back, it's Jaune fighting Nora. It's going as well for Jaune as you'd expect.

I go back to my seat, and decide that since I've already fought, I can take a nap. Professor Goodwitch notices this, and decides to make me pay for my insolence. Due to her being somewhat like an aunt to me, she knows I hardly sleep at night and that I have a habit of sleeping in class. She draws her riding crop and whips my desk with it. I jump up, falling out of my chair. I can hear who I'm assuming is Blake trying to stifle her giggles.

Prof. Goodwitch scolds me with that classic tone of telling me that I'm a disappointment, "Mr. Canicus, your victory over Mr. Sinclair does not give you the right to sleep in my class. Maybe if you wouldn't spend all night texting your partner, you'd have adequate sleep, yes?"

You see, I have two options. I can tell her that texting my girlfriend isn't the only reason I can't sleep, but that might result in me getting hit with her whip. The other option is just pleading for forgiveness. However, pleading for mercy is the coward's route. "Now, Professor Goodwitch, that's not a fair way to look at it."

Prof. Goodwitch scoffs, and gives me a glare that would make a toddler start sobbing. "Really now? Is that the game we're playing, Doge?"

So long story short I now have to write a paper on why I should put my academics over personal relationships. Maybe being a coward was the call in this scenario.

Later that day, after many more classes, an uneventful lunch, and an equally uneventful dinner, I'm on paragraph four of five into said paper, in the team's dorm. Checking the time, it's around seven thirty. Dinner wrapped up around an hour ago, and I've spent all my free time thus far writing. Y'know, I should probably explain the living situation while I have the chance.

So, due to Lukas and I being effectively Ozpin's adopted nephews, we both have our own rooms in the faculty wing. Jade, being the colossal being that she is, also has her own room, but it's in the dorm wing. She just has a full team room to herself. Levi gets the team DAIS dorm, but sometimes the rest of us use it to hang out with each other. This is one of those cases.

Levi is on his bed listening to music, and looking over his maul, Zum Sieger. Lukas is nowhere to be seen, and Jade is watching me write. Personally, I'd rather write about anything other than a paper concerning time management, but it could be worse. I could be spending my free time writing smut or something.

Anyways, Jade's standing over my shoulder. She occasionally opens her mouth to give input, but she keeps stopping herself. "This is so fucking stupid…" I groan.

"It's ok, friend. You'll figure it out eventually." Jade says.

"Thanks Jade…"

She replies in a much more eager tone than is applicable for the current situation, "You're welcome!"

I consider drinking some bleach to expedite the process, but then I get a random burst of inspiration. I quickly finish the paper, which is now at six out of five paragraphs. After some rigorous proofreading, and overthinking that would make Lukas blush, I'm done.

My hand hurts, I have a headache, and I don't have any Monsters in the fridge. Well, there's an Ultra Violet, but I'd rather suck an egg than drink that liquid dandruff.

With not many other options, I decide to lay down in one of the beds. I'm exhausted, but since I'm actually at a point where I can sleep unimpaired, it's just not happening.

I roll onto my side, then back onto my back, then on my side, then onto my stomach, then onto my side, then onto my back, then onto my stomach. Sleep just isn't happening, so I take out my frustrations by groaning into the pillow. I roll over onto my back again, and just stare at the ceiling. Some time passes before I start to settle in, but something is just nagging at me. I realize that my troubles are coming from what I'd hesitate to even call music emanating from Levi's scroll.

"What the fuck are you listening to?"

"R.I.P. Everyone by J.J. Demon." he says, as if bestowing upon me great wisdom.

After blinking a few times I speak in an even more bewildered tone, "Why the hell is that on your playlist?"

"Well, someone else introduced me to it."

"Ok, but why haven't you skipped it?"

Levi speaks in a somewhat defensive tone, "It's nostalgic."

I'm even more confused now, and it shows in my voice, "Nostalgia? For what? Getting banned from ever touching the AUX cord ever again? Turn that shit off."

Levi continues to try and justify it, "I know it's bad, but-"

Jade cuts him off, sounding very offended, "But? But nothing. If the forest could hear that, it would cry. And trees can't cry without my presence."

"Fine, fine, I'll change the playlist." Levi says while clicking at his scroll.

I shake my head, "Playlist? Nah, you need to change your whole music taste."

"Well, I did, but I went back to-"

I just cut him off, "Don't. I don't think your music taste can devolve any worse than that. Just put on one of your more recent playlists."

Jade speaks in the most aggressive tone I've heard from her all day, "You should feel regret. Listening to that was like having sandpaper shoved into my ears."

Levi then puts on a different playlist. It's not exactly to my tastes, but it isn't that abomination of the gods that was playing before.

I manage to take a cat nap, and wake up at about seven in the evening. I'm drenched in sweat, tangled in blankets, and pillowless. My mouth is akin to a desert, and my right arm is numb from sleeping on it. Yeah, that's about right for an after school nap.

Looking around the dorm, Jade's probably gone back to her room, and Levi's just missing. My scroll is on the floor, and I have a message from Blake. I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit how quickly I open it.

Blake's Text: "Hey, are you okay? You looked kind of rough in class. Just wanted to check in on you."

It's from half an hour ago, so it shouldn't take too long for her to respond. But first, I grab a bottle of water from the fridge and drink about eighty percent of it in a few seconds. I may take my mental health as a joke, I may take my sleep as a joke, however, hydration is one thing I'll never forget to be on top of. Stay hydrated.

Text Conversation

Me: "Hey, Blake! I'm ok. I was just a bit sleepy is all. Lol"

Blake: "If you say so. Just saying, you can tell me if anything's wrong, alright?"

Me: "I know, I know. But I'm good, really."

Blake: "Look, I'm just worried is all. You don't have to hide these kinds of things from me. I know you're not always the most comfortable sharing these types of things, but it's not healthy to bottle it up."

Me: "Really Blake, it's nothing. Just a small hiccup. I'll make sure to sleep better tonight."

Blake: "You better."

Me: "That almost sounds like a threat..."

Blake: "It is. See you tomorrow!"

End of Text Conversation

I smile at my scroll, and put it into my pocket. Her words somehow never fail to provide solace to me. It then occurs to me that I need to go to my room and shower. Once I'm sure that my essay didn't get tampered with by any of my friends or something, I place it in my bag. I then walk across the campus to the faculty wing. Reaching my room, I unlock the door and walk inside. Finally, home. I walk past some of the memorabilia I've collected over the years, ranging from a collection of books, a couple posters of my favorite bands, and a few model airships. Yes, it's nerdy as hell. No, I don't care. It's mine, and that's what matters.

After grabbing a fresh pair of clothes, a towel, and a washcloth, I walk into the bathroom. After a full day of being stuck in it, I finally get out of my uniform, and turn on the shower. I get bored of waiting for the water to warm up, so I step inside, but, to not a single person's surprise, it's fucking freezing. For a bit I avoid the water, pressing my back against the wall, and occasionally touch it to see if it's heated up. When what feels like hours passes, it feels warm enough for me to not recoil when a stray droplet hits my skin. I finally step into the water and wash myself off.

When I'm all cleaned up, I turn off the shower, step out into the frigid air, curse, dry myself, and put on my clothes. A grey t-shirt and black sweats to be precise. Following routine hygiene, I also brush my teeth and apply some deodorant.

Once I'm tucked into bed and have some music playing in the background, I finally start to calm down. I take the second dose of my medication, and I yawn softly. I close my eyes, and by some miracle manage to fall asleep at a decent time.