58 Catching Fur

Lydis made her way back to the dorms as she had already registered and acquired her class schedule since it was in the pocket of her overcoat.

The slum kids behind her were quieted by new instructors since their dancing had grown too wild. Standing over them, Crill laughed as he saw the adults become disorganized. From the corner of his eyes Crill noticed that Bennox had started to slowly follow Lydis. Although it wasn't obvious at eye level, from where Crill was standing it was as clear as day. Wanting to keep good relations with Lydis, Crill let out a playful order.

"Scatter!"

Like magic, each kid stopped dancing and they all ran in different directions. The instructors tried to calm them but, they were from the slums. If anyone wanted to order them around it could only be by someone they respected. Seeing how hopeless the scene was a few instructors stopped trying and just watched as the kids disappeared.

Amidst that chaos Bennox was swept away and soon he was swallowed by the stampeded of kids. Smirking, Crill exited the auditorium without anyone noticing.

Lydis reached the front of the dorm building when she saw a familiar face… er form?

From the window of the dorm head's room was a small ball of fluffy red fur. Having to double back and look twice Lydis squinted at the ball. At that exact moment the ball moved and revealed two perky ears along with a pair of pleading eyes.

"MAAS~TERR!"

Lydis quickly made a 'hush' motion by placing her finger on her mouth. If Hal was inside and heard Valfafer speaking it would be hard to pass him off as a normal dog. Valfafer whimpered and scratched at the glass repeatedly. His master had left him and the dumb robot all alone with a weird human! He wasn't even asked if he wanted to go!

Something behind Valfafer shinned and he quickly stopped his attempts to get Lydis's attention. In the room, a large metallic body hung from the ceiling. Tucked into the corner, arms bent in weird directions to hold it in place.

Valfafer turned around slowly, his tail shaking, although not from excitement but fear.

Suddenly the head of the human monster turned all the way around, it's mouth opened but no words came out. Instead, a long thin claw shot out and grabbed the curtains, pulling them closed gently. Seeing as how the light was covered and the room was now painted a warm orange, the robot retracted the claw and returned to it's former position.

Valfafer wanted to run away badly but he still hadn't found the smaller stupid robot. Not wanting to wake the humanoid robot, Valfafer leaped down from the window and started his search once again. Around the corners of the chair, under the pile of stinky clothes and near the doorway. Still, the little robot was nowhere to be found.

Valfafer whined and fell into a sad pile of disorganized papers he had knocked down earlier by accident. As Valfafer waited for Lydis to finally come get them the actual human in the room began to stir.

*Mnnn* "… F*cking bastard…"

Valfafer flinched and raised his head just enough to see the human turn over in the chair and go back to his nap.

A little beep sounded and suddenly Ui popped out from the humanoid robot's sleeve. In its dragon form, Ui quickly scrambled off the robot's arm and landed gently next to Valfafer.

Unable to contain his joy and relief, although Valfafer himself would never admit it, Valfafer jumped at Ui and began to smother it. His soppy tongue layering salvia onto Ui's back.

"S-stop! You're disrupting, my, sensors!" Ui used one claw and jabbed at Valfafer's nose. Yelping back in surprise, Valfafer rubbed his nose with his paw.

In a hushed tone, Valfafer tried to muffle his voice as much as possible.

"How do we leave?"

Ui was in the process of wiping Valfafer's spit on Hal's clothes nearby when a shadow passed by under the large door. After a pause the shadow came back and stopped in front of the dor.

With a slight knock they heard a familiar voice from the other side.

"Dorm head Hal? It's student Lydis." After receiving no answer Lydis said in a voice slightly louder.

"Ui, can you get the window open?"

Beeping once Ui responded.

"Yes Master Lydis. I should be able to penetrate the window. Please wait on standby on the other side."

"Wait wait! I didn't say break it. Can you open it? If not then what about the lock on this door?"

Ui paused. Looking up at the door handle Ui saw that it was a simple lock. Just turn the little metal piece in the middle and the door would become unlocked.

"Master Lydis, I will attempt to open the lock."

Still a bit doubtful of Ui's methods, Lydis held her thoughts since kids were starting to reach the dorms. After about thirty seconds Lydis heard a small click.

"Master Lydis, the door has been unlocked. If possible, could you turn the handle since we lack the strength and opposable thumbs to do so."

Lydis turned the handle and swiftly, Ui and Valfafer slipped outside through the slight opening. Closing the door silently behind them, Lydis released a sigh.

"MASSTERRR!" Valfafer pounced on Lydis and began to rub his head against her leg.

"Not now Valfafer and, what did I say about talking out loud? What if someone heard you?"

Valfafer whined but stopped. At least they were out of the strange room for now.

Lydis walked with Valfafer lagging behind while Ui sat comfortably in her pocket.

As they walked back to Lydis's room a group of four girls blocked the hall, each standing shoulder to shoulder. They had their heads turned to the side while fans covered most of their faces.

"Well, well, well. Look at who still has the nerve to attend the academy…" Slowly all of their fans came down but when they saw Lydis dressed in a black uniform they quickly changed tones.

"W-we're sorry! We thought you were someone else!"

As quickly as they could, all the girls turned around and ran as fast as they could. In between the sounds of their small heels hitting the floor Lydis could hear snippets of their conversation.

"… Who said she was 'easy' to bully?!..."

"Why… Lydis dressed in black?"

"… Just run!"

"… Lied to us…"

Uninterested, Lydis continued to her room.

Arriving at room two-thirty-nine Lydis pressed her hand against the scanner.

"Welcome, Lydis Frawn."

Sliding open, the door revealed the same room except there were two other girls already inside. Both were dressed in white uniforms, purple lacing on the hems and edges. Just from the color, Lydis knew that they were from the Horoscopes.

Recognizing a familiar face, Lydis interrupted their tense conversation.

*ahem* "If you don't mind moving, I'd like to get to my bunk."

The girl with sea foam hair in a ponytail glanced at Lydis.

"Oh my. Where are my manners." Turning away from the fuming shrimp next to her, the girl picked up an imaginary skirt to her side and did a small courtesy. "Fior Flur Bianca Breavux but, you can call me casually as Bianca." She smiled sweetly and gently moved away from the doorway so Lydis could pass between them.

The purple haired girl just scorned both Bianca and Lydis as she slowly slunk against the wall.

*hmph* "Whatever. I'm taking this top bed. Just try to take it from me then we'll see who's sorry."

Lydis ignored the purple haired girl and went to her bottom bunk, opposite to the one that had been claimed. While all this happened, no one seemed to notice the ball of red fur that had stealthy slipped inside as well.

Bianca turned her attention to Lydis.

"May I have your name? Seeing as you're from the Zodiacs I'm sorry I didn't catch your name when they were announcing it before."

Lydis stayed silent but Bianca had an invisible imposing aura around her. It wasn't the kind that was threatening but, rather it just brought a lot of unease and annoyance to the receiver. As Bianca shifted closer Lydis found the feeling almost nostalgic. Similar to how Ami would pester her about the wounds she received during her training.

As the silence between them continued Lydis found Bianca's expectant stare tiresome.

*sigh* "Just call me Lydis."

Bianca beamed.

"Oh! What a wonderful name! Would you like to be friends?"

Lydis was almost taken back by Bianca's forwardness. Regaining her composure, Lydis tried to sound apathetic towards Bianca.

"I'm not sure if someone like me would be suitable to accompany you."

"I will be the one to decide that."

"You are from a noble house, I am just a commoner."

"We are all fellow students at the academy where birth means nothing."

"I do not want to trouble you."

"It'll be more troublesome to refuse."

Lydis closed her eyes for a moment, her brows furrowing slightly.

"I'll get straight to the point. Having you around would be annoying and a bother. I prefer to do things at my pace. If that's still not giving you the message, then here's your answer. No, I do not want to be friends with you."

In the beginning Lydis had tried to let Bianca know in a nicer way but she was surprisingly persistent. Now it had gotten to the point of Bianca becoming annoying.

*pfft* "It seems that you're even funnier than I imagined!" Bianca shrugged off Lydis's comment and began to pinch at her cheek playfully. "Having such a fun roommate must be fate right?" By now Bianca was pinching both of Lydis's cheeks with her hands, her smile wide and playful.

Valfafer was in a panic. His shaking making him look like an electronically charged ball of fluff. Whoever this 'Bianca' was, she wasn't going to get off easily from doing that to his master. Not that he would do anything but his master would be more than enough to handle it. As Valfafer waited for Lydis to explode, she didn't.

Peeking a glance at Lydis, Valfafer saw that Lydis was just as confused and stunned as he was. Lydis's mouth hung open slightly while her eyes widened in surprise.

Bianca was joyfully enjoying the softness and mushiness of Lydis's cheeks to the fullest. Stretching it then squishing them together into a puffy fish face. Seemingly lost in the heavenly pudding which was Lydis's cheeks, Bianca copied Lydis's squished face and laughed again.

"Ha ha, aren't you just the cutest little bean? So squishy and soft…" The switch in Bianca flipped and suddenly Lydis found herself wrapped in Bianca's arms. As Lydis was a few inches shorter than Bianca it made her the perfect height as a head rest.

Once again, Lydis froze in shock. Was this really happening? Was she really being treated like a kid, by another kid?!

Snapping back to reality, Lydis tried to shove off Bianca's arms but she turned out to be stronger that expected.

"Hey!"

Both of them turned to look at the purple haired girl looking down at them from the top bunk across the room.

"If you're gonna keep doing weird things to that little 'Lydis' or whatever, I'm going to report you for harassment."

Bianca frowned slightly but the pressure on Lydis's cheeks eased a bit.

"I didn't think you knew what cuteness was but now I believe you have never been called cute at all."

The girl paused mid shout but retracted her head back over the safety rails.

"Whatever…"

Lydis took this chance to slip from Bianca's grip. Taking wide steps, Lydis quickly made her way to where Valfafer was.

Bianca was about to pounce on Lydis again when something red and fluffy hit her face. Blinded by that second of confusion, her head was jolted back a little by Valfafer's force.

Peeling him off, Bianca's face lit up and she instantly became engrossed in the animal in front of her, Lydis's cheeks disappearing from her mind.

"Oh my! What is this? How could this be? It's sooo fluffy!"

Valfafer on the other hand was devastated. How could his master sacrifice him like that? Did she really not care if he had no fur left? With one look and Valfafer could tell that Bianca was somewhat like Amber. Their love and obsession for small, cute, fluffy or soft things were very similar and dangerous.

Lydis took this chance to slip out of the room, taking one last look at Valfafer as she stepped out the door.

"Bianca, that bottom bunk is mine."

Seemingly lost in the fluff, Bianca just nodded while stuffing her face into Valfafer's fur.

Realizing that his master had abandoned him again, Valfafer stopped resisting and let himself succumb to his fate.