As Tuesday morning rolls around I feel half decent. I can't feel my bones or my own mortality anymore, and I think I can get through the day without an energy drink, so hey, progress! I'm still going to drink one, but still, the sentiment is there. Not really, but like, from a certain point of view you could argue that… Oh, whatever, fuck off. It's my life to ruin, not yours.

After I go through my morning routine of brushing my teeth, getting dressed, and responding to any texts, I leave my room. Thankfully, the walk to the cafeteria is yet again uneventful. However, when I get closer to the cafeteria, I pass by some students who are not so discreetly mumbling about an argument between two of the first years. I just fucking wonder which two dipshits they could be referring to…

Upon pushing open the doors to the cafeteria, I see my friends sitting in their usual places, and decide to join them. They're midway through a conversation, so I stay silent while trying to get the gist of it. To be specific, Pyrrha's in the middle of speaking to Weiss, "…hard on you. I'm sure you'll warm up to him eventually. He's a good guy, really."

Weiss scoffs and quickly replies, "He's been a jerk to me since day one. I don't owe him anything! He might as well kiss my ass for all I care!"

Yang snickers, before speaking in a sing-song voice, "Don't test fate, he might take that as an invitation…"

Lukas' voice echos out from the table over, where he was talking with someone I can't quite see, "Excuse me!?"

"Guys, guys, please calm down!" Ruby says, attempting to keep the peace like always.

Yeah, as expected they're talking about how Lukas and Weiss are at each other's throats, and Ruby's playing peacekeeper. Ruby's face has anxiety painted all over it, and I'm quickly losing my already extremely limited patience with Lukas and Weiss.

Blake sits down, takes a sip from a cup of tea, and turns to face me. I notice her bow twitch after we make eye contact. It's honestly so damn adorable when that kind of thing happens, to the point where the current situation momentarily slips my mind. "Well, you look better this morning. Did you finally go to bed at a decent hour, or am I asking for too much?" she says with a soft smile.

After rolling my eyes I respond, "Not even a good morning?"

She smirks over her glass, "It isn't like you deserve one."

I roll my eyes again, "Damn, ok, love you too."

We both turn back to the conversation, with her sipping the tea, and me taking occasional sips of an energy drink. Weiss half shouts, presumably after a little back and forth with Lukas that I didn't bother to tune in to, "You would be privileged to even get that close to me, you street rat!" Her face is red with anger and pride. Probably some embarrassment too, truth be told.

"Don't make me give you another nosebleed, Snowflake." says Lukas, the smile gone from his face and fists clenched.

I decide to intervene, "Alright, alright, no. I'm not putting up with your fucken' shit today. You have two choices, either you two get a room, or cut it the fuck out. Some of us are trying to make it to Port's class without having a mental breakdown, y'know."

Lukas and Weiss both look equally appalled about my 'get a room' comment, but who knows? Maybe they have soft spots for each other that their egos refuse to let them show. Or maybe I'm just hopeful for an enemies to lovers type ordeal.

Silence befalls the table, thank goodness. I take a breath, and cool off for a moment. Everyone's looking a little awkward, also trying to cool off, or they're Jade. Jade is starting off into space, and is either pondering the theoretical implications of her own mortality, the stereotypical act of her being a rabbit faunus and eating carrots, or nothing. I'm rather inclined to believe it's the third based on the vacant look on her face. Jaune decides that not enough is happened apparently, and taps Jade on the shoulder. "Uhh, Jade? Are you ok?" he asks in a concerned tone.

Jade snaps out of whatever trance she was under, and her voice fills the room, "Hello, friend Jaune! I'm doing well!" She then looks around the table, noticing the current atmosphere, and speaks in a less chipper tone, "Uh, friends? What's wrong?"

I open my mouth to inform her on the situation, but knowing I was going to say something snarky, stupid, or both, Blake quickly puts her hand over my mouth and explains the situation, "Lukas and Weiss got into another fight. Everyone's a little tense about it, but we'll be ok."

Now, me being the cheeky bastard that I am, I open my mouth to attempt to bite Blake's hand. She immediately withdraws it, half heartedly glares at me, and lightly smacks my shoulder.

"No." she scolds, trying not to smile.

After attempting and failing to force a pout without snickering, I go back to leaning on my hand. Ruby giggles a bit, then checks her scroll, and stands up. I check my own scroll, and it's around 7:55. "Alright, well, we should probably get to class. I wouldn't want anyone to be late, alright?" a much more relaxed looking Ruby says. I really need to figure out how she manages to destress so quickly. I mean, hell, I can decompress somewhat quickly, but never that fast.

Everyone gets up and leaves, and as Blake finishes the last sip of her tea, I pat her shoulder. "I'll see you later, alright?" I say, letting my hand fall back to its resting position halfway in one of my pockets.

She smiles up at me and nods, "See you later."

I make the executive decision to accompany Lukas on the walk to class, since we both have Ooblek first period. I've always enjoyed history, being a massive sucker for it, so I'm not going to complain too much about it being early in the morning. Could be math or something.

"So…what was that about?" I inquire.

Lukas doesn't sound the least bit apologetic, "She was being stuck up, so I put her in her place."

"Really now? Because it looks like you both wanted to throw hissy fits that time." I say between glances at my scroll.

Lukas shrugs while taking a sip of his coffee. We spend the rest of the walk in silence. Silence, minus the students chattering that is. From people trying to promote their music, cracking jokes with friends, and of course, the obligatory gossip about x, y, and z. Apparently, that Cardin Winchester asshat is back on his bullshit. All I'm saying is, if he does something serious to any of my friends, they're going to be lucky if there's enough ashes left of that birdbrain to scoop into an urn. Ok, wait, no, death threats this early in the morning are bad. Let's not do that, yeah?

Once in class, we take our usual seats, and I put my head down. The great thing about today is that Blake isn't in this history at this hour, so she can't get on my ass about sleeping in class. I know she only does it because she cares, but I'd rather not worry her with my shitty life choices. With my head down, I listen to a mixture of Ooblek's lecture, and random students talking. After a bit, I just put in my earbuds and drown everything out. I make a mental note to grab a cup of tea or coffee to wake myself up at lunch, but keep my head down for the time being.

After a few minutes of failing to sleep, I pick my head back up. I look around the class, while my right eye is slightly blurry. I feel a hand tap my shoulder, and turn to see Ruby. She looks a bit worried, and I take out an earbud.

"Yeah?" I ask, my voice slightly confused.

Ruby asks me, "Are you ok?"

I give her a small nod. "Just a bit tired. It's nothing serious…" I say before yawning.

She ponders this for a moment before continuing, "Well, maybe try going back to sleep?"

Guess she thought I had managed to sleep in the first place. I shrug and respond, "I've been trying, but I can't. That energy drink I had earlier must not have worn off yet."

"Hmm… it has only been half an hour or so. Anyways, I hope you feel better?" she uncertainly says.

"Thanks, Rubes. I'm gonna be fine, I promise." I say, stealing Yang's nickname for her.

Ruby gives me a slightly worried smile and turns back to the lecture. As I put my earbud back in, I think about her worried look, and it makes me feel a little bad, but I shake it off as best as I can. Class continues to pass on at unbelievably slow speeds, but I just keep listening to music.

…

After the period ends, and I make my way across the hall, I once again find myself taking my usual seat. I yawn a bit, and listen as Port goes on and on about his "good old days." Officially made it to this class without breaking down, so that's major progress. It's entertaining enough, but it's also enough to make me want to fall asleep. His voice drones on and on, and my eyelids feel heavier and heavier. At this point, the only thing remaining of that energy drink is a minuscule stomach ache. And as I said, very minuscule.

Just as I start to feel sleep overtake me, and my eyes become half lidded, I hear Yang's voice to my left, "Hey, can you look at me real quick?"

I do so, not even bothering to ask why.

"That's neat, your eyes did turn fully grey." she says.

"Huh?" I ask, confused for obvious reasons. I mean, who starts a conversation like that? Well, Yang. Obviously Yang. Who else?

"Blake was telling me how she noticed your eyes have been turning grey instead of blue over the past few weeks. Wanted to see for myself. They're kind of pretty."

She beams at me as she tells me this, and I don't really know how to respond. I get a little curious the more I dwell on it. "Take a picture if you don't mind, I want to see." I say.

Yang quickly produces her scroll, and takes a photo, with the flash on. To anyone who doesn't know, blue, and especially grey eyes are extremely sensitive to light. I recoil, and throw an arm over my eyes. "Gah! Damn it!" I exclaim.

"Shit, sorry! I didn't mean to!" explains Yang.

I shake my head and wave off her apology. It wasn't really that bad, so I don't want her to get caught up over it. It hurt, but like, I'm alright. "It's fine, really... Anyways, how did the picture come out?" I ask, blinking away the black spot now adorning my vision everytime I close my eyes.

With that, she shows me her scroll, and sure enough, my eyes look more grey than blue. It's neat, I guess. Matter of fact, I remember reading somewhere that eyes can turn grey from genetics, diseases, trauma, or medications. Take your pick at whatever of those could be the culprit, or hell, maybe it's all of them. Wouldn't surprise me in the slightest, anyways.

I hand her her scroll back, and she slips it back into her pocket. Seemingly having gotten what she wanted, she turns back to face the front, and I do the same.

Once I've started to give in to the sweet call of sleep and laid my head down, I hear Yang once again, "Aww, look who's exhausted! Guessing you still haven't caught up on your sleep. When are you ever going to take Blake's advice?"

My voice is low and tired, "Please, don't tell her I stayed up late. I'm genuinely begging you, Yang, just don't. She doesn't need to be worrying about me."

Either out of pity or kindness, she agrees not to, "Alright, alright, fine. I won't tell Miss Dark and Brooding that her 'emotionally action packed' other half is refusing to sleep at an acceptable time again."

I'm rendered speechless, not because I'm offended, but because I'm impressed. I mean, what the fuck do you even say to that in response? Anyways, remember how I said I went to bed at a decent time? Yeah, I… kind of lied? To be fair, I went to sleep at two in the morning, which is good for me, so I technically told the truth. Blake would still be pissed to know I had stayed up past midnight, though. I just give Yang a slight nod, and go to sleep.

…

Yang watches as Doge passes out and she can't help but laugh to herself. To Yang, Doge is a long list of things, but good at taking care of himself is never going to be one of them. This always pisses off Blake, for obvious reasons, but Yang thinks that it's a part of his charm. Well, as much charm as someone like Doge could possess, anyways. He and Blake were so alike, yet so different. It was always fascinating to her how the two emo edgelords naturally gravitated to one another. Not that either of them would dare own up to being emo edgelords, but still, the heart was there.

"If you didn't want to be called emo edgelords, you wouldn't wear dark clothes, read edgy books, and listen to the kind of music that you listen to…" Yang says, shrugging. Upon seeing Doge slightly shift in her sleep, she pipes down, not actually wanting to wake him up. She graciously elects to leave him alone, and let him enjoy his nap.

Well, this is probably the least important of the rewritten chapters, but still, a decent bit better than the original. If this happens to be your first time around, don't worry, you don't miss much. Kinda weird writing one of these notes knowing that there's chapters right in front of this one, but yeah, if you have the time, go enjoy those. You've got ten of 'em lined up for you as I'm writing this.