Chapter 13 Truce
Miss Greene and Robert sat in heavy silence as the bus rumbled along the deserted road back to Solar Springs High School. From her seat beside the driver, Greene found herself repeatedly glancing over her shoulder at Robert. Again and again her gaze drifted toward him, lingering a little longer each time, barely masking the curiosity that churned within her. Robert, however, appeared almost entirely unaware of the attention. He sat motionless at the last seat, his head slightly bowed, his gaze fixed on his knees as though lost in thought.
Yet for Greene, the quiet was beginning to feel suffocating.
Questions tumbled restlessly in her mind. She longed—almost painfully—to understand what was truly happening with Robert; how he could transform into a hulking sand creature and what the ice monster wanted with him. The image of Robert's transformation replayed itself over and over in her memory, as vivid as the moment she had witnessed it. The sight refused to leave her thoughts.
What exactly was Robert?
Was he even human at all—or something else entirely posing as one?
The bus continued onward through empty streets, its engine humming steadily beneath the thick blanket of quiet that filled the vehicle. The minutes crept by slowly—so slowly that each passing second seemed to stretch and linger, tightening the tension in the air.
At last, Greene could endure it no longer.
Rising from her seat, she stepped into the narrow aisle and began walking toward the back of the bus. The vehicle swayed gently beneath her feet as she made her way down the rows. When she reached Robert, she paused briefly before sliding into the empty seat beside him.
Robert had anticipated this moment.
Of course she would come. How could she not? After all, the student she had personally escorted to the hospital had transformed into a sand monster right before her eyes.
For a quick moment, neither of them spoke. Then, Miss Greene broke the quiet with a tentative, yet determined, voice.
"Robert," she said softly. "Please... tell me what the heck is going on?"
"I'll tell you," Robert almost immediately, as though he'd been desperately waiting for her to ask. He hesitated briefly, rubbing the back of his neck before glancing down at his chest.
"Umm… Poison?" he called awkwardly. "Can you come out?"
Poison's voice echoed in his mind. "You're sure about this, kid?"
"Come on," Robert responded silently in thought. "It'll be fine."
Some seconds passed, and then, Robert began to feel a strangely familiar sensation, like a wide, suffocating hollow in his chest, and on cue, a brown, spectral, humanoid figure emerged from his chest, facing him. The phantom faintly resembled a hairless man, a subtle hollow for eyes and other orifices. A thin, pulsing, greyish cord trailed from the being's midsection, tethering it to Robert's chest.
After a nod from Robert, Poison shifted to face Miss Greene.
"Hello," he began smoothly. Robert did not fail to notice the deeper tone. "I go by the name Poison. I'm with your student here for reasons that are deeply personal—matters that I cannot disclose to you. All you need to know is that I am a soul — though certainly not the sort you would ordinarily imagine. Long ago, I was a living man, and this boy..." he gestured subtly toward Robert, "…is a descendant of mine. My presence in his body allows him to utilize Earth magic and I assure you it is being used with honorable intent. We're presently engaged in a mission of utmost importance and secrecy, and I can promise that its success would affect no one, on the contrary, the fate of the entire world may very well depend on it. For that reason, I ask that you keep what you have witnessed today strictly to yourself." Poison spoke with the authority of a stern professor.
Robert could barely believe his ears. Since when had Poison ever sounded so serious? Maybe this exposure thing was a bigger deal than he'd realized.
Miss Greene, meanwhile, slowly looked from the elemental to Robert and back to it again, face frozen in utter disbelief. Now she realized it—Robert hadn't really been talking to himself or hallucinating like the students rumored. This was it, the brown spectral floating right before her. This was what he'd been communicating with!
"I... understand," she said at last.
Without another word, the spectral figure vanished back into Robert's chest.
Miss Greene glanced at the bus driver and heaved a relived sigh. The old man was completely focused on the road. Evidently, his hearing aid wasn't good enough to alert him to the sound of Poison's voice.
Thankfully.
Turning back to Robert, Greene studied him carefully.
"Has it always been like this?" she asked quietly, searching his eyes.
Robert shook his head.
"Not until recently."
—————
In his living room, Williams paced back and forth restlessly. Every few moments his gaze darted toward the television mounted on the wall, where the news continued to play.
"How could Manwell have survived that? Are ancestor-souls that powerful? X-rays are supposed to be one of the most destructive bane of wizards, capable of wrecking havoc on magic energy and causing them to spiral into chaos. Yet, that boy emerged from a direct blast unscathed!" He pondered. "And where did the ice ancestor-soul even come from?!"
Williams turned his attention to the news, hoping to find out more about what had happened. A reporter's voice filled the room.
"... a major incident here at Heiss City General Hospital in Axille," the reporter paused to breathe. Behind her, the damaged hospital structure loomed in the background, sections of the building cordoned off with bright orange emergency tape while personnel moved about in the distance. "The hospital staff report seeing monsters — one formed from ice, the other of sand. Investigators were unable to recover any footage from the security cameras, but we did manage to obtain a cellphone recording from a patient. The clip shows an icy creature hovering just above the hospital before being struck by what looked like a dagger carved from stone. We've also been given said object, which was discovered earlier on the hospital lawn." The reporter held up the smooth shard of stone.
The broadcast shifted slightly as the camera zoomed closer to her.
"Doctor Roy Wizzlehette, a practitioner here at Heiss General Hospital, was present in the X-ray chamber at the time of the incident—an area now believed to have been the epicenter of the chaos and the point of the impact that compromised the building's structural integrity. According to the doctor's account, during the time of the earlier chaos, moments before the structural disruption, he witnessed two humanoid elementals engaged in what he described as a violent confrontation right inside the ward. The patient who had been undergoing examination in the same ward as Doctor Wizzlehette has been identified as a student from Solar Springs High School. With that in mind, our next destination is the school itself. We'll be speaking to the principal, the student, and any witnesses who might be able to shed light on this extraordinary event. This incident raises a lot of questions. What is behind the surge in the sightings of bizarre and anomalous creatures in Axille? Is there a correlation between the recent establishment of vigilante force—rumored to be Magic enforcers—in Axille and these occurrences? Does this suggest the Heiss government is engaging in clandestine magic-related operations beyond public scrutiny? At present, the mayor's stance on the hospital-attacking monsters remains unclear. Where did they originate, and what drove them?"
The broadcast ended with the reporter looking back toward the damaged hospital.
"For Yonder Times, reporting live from Axille."
"Ignorant fools!" Williams switched off the television and hurled the remote at the floor, letting out a stream of curses as he did. "That was the most perfect plan, and Roy couldn't execute it properly! Even Xolomon failed to beat Gabor. But how could it be? What's Xolomon doing in Axille?
Williams resumed pacing around the room, his thoughts spinning through possibility after possibility.
He snapped his fingers abruptly.
"The scepter — that's his target!" he exclaimed. "Yes, of course. That explains everything. But who is his descendant host? If they're not in this school, how could he know Robert was at that hospital? Could it be Jackson Cannen? No, I tested the vortex on the boy, he gave no reaction. But what about that weird kid, Oliver? Oh, he's definitely strange." Williams paused, and his eyes widened abruptly. "It's him. It has to be him. It simply cannot not be him."
He sat against the edge of the cushion of his couch, and his foot began tapping on the ground almost immediately. He cupped both hands together and place them against his mouth, breathing into it as he pondered on.
Then, suddenly, a realization struck him like a bolt of lightning.
"Damn it!" he burst out, jolting up from the couch.
"The Acho warned me about this..." He muttered anxiously. "These ancestor-souls do not take lightly to unwarranted exposure."
He paced a few uneasy steps before stopping again.
"Greene must be dead by now — she saw Manwell transform. Gabor would've killed her already. And the boy... he would be expelled. He'd be pursued for the rest of his life. Wizzlehette has probably compromised my involvement to the ancestor-soul. Manwell would know this entire thing my doing. Gabor would be enraged. I tried to kill his host... I got the kid expelled... I destroyed his one feeble chance at living an uncomplicated life."
He ran a trembling hand through his hair.
"Damn it!"
A cold shiver spread through his chest.
"He must be on his way here right now… coming to finish me off."
For a moment he hesitated. "Or... perhaps I'm overreacting." He chuckled, "Maybe I'm just being paranoid."
But the uneasy feeling refused to leave him.
"No… no, he's coming," Williams gritted his teeth. "I can feel it. I can feel it in my bones."
He turned in a tight circle, agitation growing.
"What do I do…?"
He sat on the couch again.
Then suddenly, he sprang up and hurried through the door to his bedroom. Reaching his reading desk, he yanked open one of the drawers and pulled out a rolled sheet of yellowed parchment. He stared intensely at it with wide, desperate eyes. His lips parted slightly as though he was about to address the parchment...
But then something caught the corner of his eye. A sudden, sharp glint of sunlight flashed in his peripheral vision. His head turned toward the window. There, in the distance, the tall black gates of the school stood open. A vehicle was driving through them.
He squinted.
The vehicle driving in was the minibus that had taken Robert to the hospital.
Williams' heart lurched.
He immediately rushed out onto the balcony overlooking the school grounds. He leaned over the railing just in time to watch the bus roll to a stop along a section of the walkway clearly visible from his elevated position.
The door of the bus slid open.
To his absolute surprise, Miss Greene stepped out of the bus, and moments later, she reached back and helped Robert out... as if nothing had happened at all.
Williams frowned.
"She wasn't killed!" He exclaimed, his face flooding with relief. "That means... that means... no, no, I don't understand."
From above, he squinted hard as he observed the two of them speak quietly. Greene's posture was composed. There was no panic in her movements, no sign of fear in the way she stood near Robert. On the contrary, her gestures seemed reassuring. Comforting, even.
Williams frowned thoughtfully.
Had she… agreed to keep silent about what she had seen?
That must be it.
Yes, it made sense. I mean, look at the way she just pat the boy's shoulder...
Williams exhaled slowly.
Of course. She must have decided that revealing the truth would only bring unnecessary trouble upon the boy.
No surprise there. He knew Eira Greene to be remarkably compassionate.
"Nothing to worry about, then."
With a heavy sigh of relief, Williams retreated from the balcony and returned to his bedroom. The tension drained from his body all at once as he collapsed onto the soft surface of his bed.
"Nothing to worry about."
————
"Thanks again, teacher," said Robert, squinting his eyes against the afternoon sun. He could feel the tight knot in his chest begin to loosen. The entire ordeal—the hospital visit, the scan, the confrontation—was finally over. At last, it was all behind him.
"I'll be heading to the hostel now."
For the first time since he was told he'd be taken to the hospital, Robert looked at Miss Greene without the fog of anxiety distorting his perception. He found himself truly noticing her—truly seeing her. And in that quiet moment, his gaze lingered, absorbing every detail of her appearance, and what he saw took his breath away.
Oh, you couldn't imagine how smooth her skin was, a flawless brown that seemed to illuminate the surroundings along with the afternoon sun— so even-toned and pristine it almost looked unnatural. And her face... Robert found himself studying it again. You wouldn't say it was perfect, not the kind of perfection sculpted in magazines anyway. But rather something far more captivating—an uncommonly beauty that refused to conform to conventional standards yet somehow surpassed them.
And her figure... Robert's eyes hesitated. "Is she even meant to be a teacher? I mean, just look at her! She's more stunning than any model I've ever seen on television." His thoughts raced.
This was one of those rare opportunities where he had the chance to be so close to her without the usual distance of a classroom separating them. And Robert found himself savoring the opportunity a little too much.
"If only I could get a kiss, just one..."
His thoughts were interrupted by a sharp rebuke from Poison. "Kid, what's gotten into you?!"
Robert jolted slightly.
At that exact moment, Miss Greene spoke, bringing him fully back to reality. "Alright," she said, offering a gentle smile. "Make sure you take special care of yourself." She paused, then asked, "Anyone else know about the... soul?"
Robert shook his head. He certainly wasn't about to tell her about Oliver—that would just be putting her in danger and complicating the whole thing even more.
"No," he replied quickly. "Just you."
"Good. Let's keep it that way. I'll go speak with the principal now."
Robert opened his mouth to say something urgent, but she cut him off. "Yes, I remember everything we talked about. Don't you worry, I'll sort this all out."
"Okay," Robert offered a small, grateful smile.
Once Principal Carve laid eyes on the news, she'd left with no room for doubt... that the hospital had been wrecked by unidentified, formidable entities... right after Robert's medical examination had concluded. And along with that, she would have to accept Robert's 'palatable diagnosis': that he wasn't dangerously unwell, or mentally ill, or that something strange was going on with him, but simply suffering from mild psychological stress brought on by lack of adequate sleep. Nothing more. A bit of rest, and he'd be back to normal.
Then there was the matter of Doctor Roy Wizzlehette. A possible delicate thread in itself. But Robert wasn't overly concerned. The doctor should naturally value his own safety enough to keep quiet. Especially when silence was the only thing standing between him and the possibility of a late-night visit from, not one, but two hulking elemental beings. Robert was fairly certain that would be motivation enough to keep Wizzlehette's mouth firmly shut.
Miss Greene turned to head in the direction of the teacher's apartment building. But just before she took another step, she paused, her eyes flicking to Robert with quiet intensity. "You sure you're okay?" she asked softly.
After an assuring nod from Robert, she moved on.
Robert watched her walk away. For a moment, his thoughts drifted — completely.
"Look at those ch—"
"Robert!" Poison snapped. "Just so you know, Miss Greene would never look at you the same way if she had the slightest idea what's running through this head of yours right now. So it's best to keep those thoughts to yourself. Or just... stop."
Robert let out a dismissive snort. "Pfft, I'd bet she'd be flattered—maybe even a little impressed."
Poison said nothing.
The silence that followed made Robert roll his eyes slightly before he turned and began walking toward the hostel block.
"So," he began casually, though his tone carried a heavy undercurrent, "how long are we gonna pretend I didn't see anything after that machine turned on?"
Poison responded swiftly, almost cutting Robert off. "Listen, kid. That machine messed with your mind, brought up memories and stirred up your imagination. Treat it like a dream—strange, vivid, and intense, but meaningless."
"Meaningless?" Robert shot back, incredulous. "Poison, I saw your so-called brother... the fire elemental. I saw him hurt Dora. I saw Xolomon—stab her! And that old man... he looked so familiar. It all felt real, Poison. Absolutely real!"
"Look, the machine did not just poke around your memories," Poison's voice rumbled, though quieter but still firm. "It dug into your fears and darkest thoughts too, played them all out and forced you to experience them. I can't stress this enough, kid, but we ought to shout our thanks to the sky that that's all the machine did to you. Here's some advice—and you do well to to take it: Forget it. Forget it all. Best not to burden your mind with that. It's not a pleasant experience."
Robert said nothing in response. Instead, he merely lifted his shoulders in a small, wordless shrug just as he reached the entrance of the blue hostel building.
Without pausing, he pushed through the main doors and stepped inside, heading toward the staircase. However, before he could begin climbing, his attention was diverted by an unusually intense chatter coming from the dining hall (the dining hall occupied the entire ground floor of the boys' hostel building). The commotion made him aware that he'd missed lunch, which, judging by the sound of clattering trays, shouting voices, and bursts of laughter, was currently in full swing.
The dining hall was never quiet during meals, but the din Robert heard now suggested something else was going on. Either a fight was underway or...
Robert glanced into the hall through the door and barely managed to catch sight of Jackson through a large cluster of students frantically devouring plates of white noodles alongside a female tenth-grader sitting across from him in what appeared to be a contest, while the surrounding students cheered them on and banged the tables.
Robert stared for a brief moment.
Then, he let out an apathetic sigh, turned away from the doorway and continued up the stairs.
The strain of the afternoon was finally catching up, and Robert could feel the weariness seep into his muscles. His limbs felt heavy, and each step up the staircase seemed to demand more effort than the last.
Eventually, he reached the senior boys' dorm, heading straight to his bed and collapsed onto it, exhaling wearily as the mattress absorbed his weight.
His eyes drifted briefly toward Oliver's bed.
It was empty. Much like the dorm itself.
No student in their right mind would intentionally miss noodles. Not even Oliver. Robert chuckled at the thought.
But then, just as his mind attempted to settle and sift through the afternoon's chaos — the possibility that Williams was out to eliminate him, the discovery that x-ray exposure was highly dangerous to wizards, the inexplicable visions he'd experienced, the brawl with Xolomon, and the revelation of Poison's existence to Miss Greene — a sudden, chilling gust of wind swept through the dorm.
It was the kind of cold that could make a fire demon shiver.
The air thickened with unnatural stillness.
And then, as if summoned by the chill itself, Oliver appeared out of thin air, silently materializing at the foot of Robert's bed.
Robert immediately sprang to his feet and a faint, almost playful smile crept onto his lips.
The two boys both stared at one another.
Seconds passed.
Neither spoke.
Finally, when it became painfully clear that Oliver had no intention of breaking the silence any time soon, Robert spoke first—almost involuntarily.
"That was... uhh... one hell of a fight, wouldn't you say?"
But Oliver did not react. He simply continued to stare at Robert with a stony expression, his face as blank as a mask. After several long seconds, he slowly lifted the hem of his sweatshirt, revealing a raw gruesome wound in his side that was clearly the result of a stab — Poison's rock spike.
"You did this," he said accusingly, his eyes boring into Robert's.
"Hey, Oliver, come on, that wasn't my fault," Robert replied. "It was a fair fight, I had my own injuries to show for it." He folded his hands, and quietly began attempting to conjure a rock dagger just in case Oliver made a move.
Oliver's eyes narrowed slightly.
When he spoke again, his voice was colder than the wind that had brought him into the dorm.
"Two days to heal this wound. Unfortunately, I can't regenerate instantly like you. Don't you for a second think you can just walk away, like nothing happened." A dangerous look crossed his face. "Cus I will make you pay, Robert Shade Manwell, one way or another." He then pointed at the wound. Instantly, frost crept across the injured flesh, freezing it solid.
Robert simply stared at him.
Oliver lowered his sweatshirt. His usual stoic expression took over.
"You must be super lucky to have survived that x-ray scan. No magic energy-bearing entity could have walked away from such a fate without serious harm. But, no matter, I have something I need to ask you," Oliver continued, rubbing his wrist. He flashed a smile that made Robert shift uneasily. "Yes, we're not on the best terms, but I've managed to convince Xolomon to forget about making your life miserable for the time being. Honestly, I'm sick of it. We missed lunch. Let's go out and get something to eat."
Robert blinked.
"We can use our abilities to sneak out," Oliver added plainly, "and maybe 'borrow' a little food from a stall somewhere nearby. What do you say?"
Robert's heart sank. Oliver was clearly up to something, but he couldn't put his finger on what it was.
"I can read Xolomon's thoughts, Robert," Poison said. "He doesn't seem to have any hidden motives. And I agree with the kid, we did missed lunch and I'm... well... we're starving. Just a bit of food would do, and we'll only take a little from any stall. Nothing to be missed, just a small amount."
Robert could easily guess what Poison's actual thoughts were; Why not take the opportunity to truly bury the hatchet with Xolomon? Even if temporarily.
Robert sighed.
"Alright," he said reluctantly. "Just a little petty theft, no hurting people, deal?" He extended his hand again.
"Deal," Oliver shook the hand.
"When do we leave?"
"During siesta."
———————
The afternoon sun blazed brightly as the students gradually returned from lunch, their voices ringing out through the hostel corridors and in the dorm in boisterous conversations.
Robert lay quietly on his bed, waiting.
Siesta came immediately after lunch on Novadays. He knew the hostel would soon grow silent. Most of the students would fall asleep, giving him the perfect chance to sneak out with Oliver without being noticed.
Amidst the bustling activity, Robert closed his eyes and mentally reached out to Poison.
"Do you have any idea why I survived that X-ray scan?"
Poison released a long, thoughtful sigh inside Robert's mind. "I've been asking myself that very question again and again, son. And the truth is, I have no solid answer. What happened to you after that machine was turned on defies nearly everything I know about magical principles. By all known standards, the intensity of X-radiation naturally should've super-violently agitated the magic energy flowing through every single atom of your being."
A pause.
"When magic energy is disturbed at that level, it becomes unstable—wild. And even if the heat generated by this reaction doesn't damage your body severely, then the workings of most of your organs, especially your brain, would've been disrupted, or at very least you'd be in a state of magical shock. Any possible outcome of that situation should have been devastating, and yet... nothing happened to you. Nothing. That, Robert, is an extraordinary feat!"
Robert's brows furrowed in thought. "Maybe it's because I'm not truly a wizard," he thought. "I can use magic only because you're possessing me. Maybe were not as completely integrated as you think we are."
"I've considered that possibility as well. But believe me, that's not the case. Do you have any idea the level of integration required for me to be able to communicate words directly into your mind the way I am now, to perceive your thoughts with complete accuracy, to take control of your body in my elemental form? That's no shallow link, Robert. That's a deep, and I told you earlier, irreversible bond. The fact that you survived that scan... Kid, that's the sort of thing wizards would call a miracle."
Robert allowed himself a small smile: Oh, he did not just become a wizard-level miracle, did he!
Silence settled between them for a little while.
"So, if this ancestor-seal thing is real, why aren't you pushing me find it?" Robert thought. "Sorta validates my doubts, don't you think?"
"Kid, the seal isn't the kind of thing you casually go searching for. Certainly not while you're still attending school. Finding it would require time… dedication… and frankly, you'd probably have to drop out entirely and—"
Two figures suddenly entered Robert's corner. He sat upright and immediately got out of bed, standing.
"Dora."
"Robert!"
Dora rushed and threw her arms around him, pulling him into a tight, almost desperate hug. "I tried to speak with the principal as soon as I heard but... Oh, I was so afraid I'd never see you again!"
Robert returned the embrace warmly. He couldn't deny her concern touched him, deeply.
As he looked over Dora's shoulder, his gaze landed on Vanessa, who stood quietly a step behind her. Her expression was composed — almost unreadable, yet her eyes betrayed something deeper: a guarded worry. It became clear to Robert that, unlike most of the other students who barely seemed to notice or care that he'd taken away earlier, Dora and Vanessa had genuinely been concerned since the moment he boarded that bus.
Their eyes locked for a second—Robert's and Vanessa's.
Then, without a word, Vanessa broke the gaze and silently extended her hand.
Still wrapped in Dora's tight embrace, Robert adjusted his posture just enough to reached out and accept the handshake. As their hands touched, he felt something small and crumpled press against his palm. When their hands parted, the object remained hidden in his grasp.
The exchange was subtle — Dora hadn't noticed... neither did any of the other students. The atmosphere in the senior boys' dorm was lively and distracted: most of the students were caught up in their own noisy chatter, others were already stretched out on their beds drifting toward sleep, and a few were busy with small personal routines—folding clothes, tidying their bedsides, eating snacks, or just lazily sitting on their bunks and watching the room around them.
"You'll always see me, Dora. Always." Robert whispered. As the words left his lips, his eyes flickered toward Vanessa again, who gave nothing away in return.
Robert gently loosened Dora's tight embrace and leaned back just enough to see her face properly. Her eyes were glassy, shimmering with unshed tears. She hurriedly wiped at them with the back of her hand as though embarrassed that he had noticed. Then she looked up at him again, searching his face carefully.
A fragile smile broke through.
"Really?" she whispered.
Robert returned the smile with a warm, reassuring one of his own.
"Yes," he said softly. "Really."
Dora exhaled slowly.
"I'm so sorry I couldn't do anything," she murmured. "Carve was caught up with the incident at the teacher's lodge. Security wouldn't let me see her—"
Robert held her shoulders gently but firmly. "Hey, hey. It's alright, I'm fine."
He gave a casual shrug.
"I only went for a check-up anyway. And honestly… I probably needed it."
"Oh," Dora muttered, lowering her gaze momentarily. "Because of the... rumor?"
Robert nodded.
"Well then, what did the doctor say?"
Robert's lips curled into a grin. "That I should stop spending half my night lying awake and thinking about my girlfriend... and actually get some proper sleep."
For a moment Dora simply stared at him.
Then the tension in her face melted, and a soft laugh bubbled out of her before she could stop it. "Oh, really?" she said, trying—and failing—to sound skeptical.
Robert shrugged again, the grin still on his face.
"Doctor's orders. Wouldn't be wise to disobey."
Dora held his gaze, and their smiles widened.
For several seconds neither of them spoke.
They simply stood there, smiling into each other's eyes while the heavy strain of the day slowly slipped away from their thoughts.
When suddenly—
"Guys!"
Zarie's voice burst through the dorm like an alarm bell from his bed, which was by a window overlooking the main grounds.
"Big B is on the move!"
Everything that followed happened in less than three seconds.
Students who had been talking loudly moments ago dove onto their beds with astonishing speed. Blankets were pulled up. Pillows were clutched. Bodies stilled. The dorm went completely silent.
Every student in the dorm except two had reclined upon a bed. And from every corner came the exaggerated sound of snores.
Robert blinked.
Then he looked around the room.
Beds everywhere—each one occupied by a supposedly sleeping student.
Except for two people.
Himself and Dora.
Robert quickly scanned the room for Vanessa. She was nowhere to be seen.
Wow, he thought. She moves fast.
He looked down at his own bed. Unoccupied.
Dora let out a quiet groan. "Damnit," she whispered under her breath, though a faint, resigned smile tugged at her lips. Her gaze dropped briefly toward Robert's chest. "Bouse would catch me awake. I'll end up working in the dining hall all week."
She looked up again to meet his eyes. "But I'm really glad you're okay."
"Dora," Robert whispered back. "Lie down on my bed and pretend to be asleep."
She shook her head immediately.
"No," she said quietly. "You lie on your own bed. You're not getting punished because of me."
"Technically you're going to get punished because of me. And there's no way I'm letting that happen!"
"No way I'm getting on that bed."
Dora crossed her arms slightly, her eyes sharpening with that familiar stubborn determination Robert knew all too well. It was the exact look that had defeated him in countless debates before—the look that usually flipped the "give up, she won't budge" switch in his brain.
But not this time. Robert straightened a little.
Nothing in the world was going to make him back down right now.
"Then we've got a problem," he whispered.
Dora raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"
"Yeah," Robert replied quietly. "Because either you get on my bed right now…" He gestured toward the mattress. "…or we both just stand here until Bouse walks in and catches us awake."
Dora studied his face carefully.
Then, slowly, a mischievous little grin appeared at the corner of her mouth.
"You know," she murmured thoughtfully, leaning slightly closer, "I've always wondered what it'd be like if we ended up serving punishment together." Her grin widened just a bit. "Just you and me. Scrubbing dishes… cleaning floors… spending hours alone in the dining hall." She tilted her head playfully. "Sounds like it could be fun."
Robert blinked. He had to admit… the image wasn't exactly unpleasant. For a moment he actually considered it.
But then he groaned quietly and lowered his head, rubbing his forehead as if fighting off the thought.
When he looked up again, Dora was still smiling at him. Their eyes met—and for some seconds they both shared the same amused grin.
Then Robert moved.
He gently placed both palms against Dora's cheeks, catching her slightly off guard. Before she could react, he leaned forward. Their lips met in a quick, firm kiss—short, warm, and as usual, tender.
When he pulled back, Dora looked momentarily stunned. She licked her lower lip.
"Just get on my bed," Robert said softly. "I'll be fine. Trust me."
He glanced sideways across the room at Oliver's bed. He then stepped past Dora and began walking toward the dorm entrance. Robert knew if he had stayed another moment, they would have kept arguing until Bouse did arrive and punished them both.
Across the dorm, Oliver had been watching the entire exchange from his bed. He sat up as Robert approached the door, a knowing smirk on his face.
Time to leave.
Meanwhile, Dora remained standing where she was, staring toward the doorway until Robert was out of the dorm.
She touched her lips lightly with her fingers.
Then she looked down at his bed.
A small, thoughtful chuckle escaped her.
Slowly, she slipped under the blankets and closed her eyes.