11 Let's Go Home to a New Place!

It was starting to get late and darkness would have covered the academy completely several hours ago, if not for the small areas of light created by the magical lanterns placed all along the walkways and around the buildings.

The weather was mild, but a few drops of rain, as well as the wind getting stronger and stronger made it obvious that a storm would soon cover the academy.

Aaron was sitting on a small bench along the lake on his own and didn't really mind the few drops of rain. He could still hear the noises of the banquet far away that was held at the beginning of every year, whenever new students were recruited. He had just come to the first one and then never even bothered to show up again for the next two. Soon his fourth year in the academy would start.

Of his 17 years he had already spent the last 3 years in the academy. It was not rare for students to stay here for 20 or 30 years, as magical skills not only took time to learn, but magical users could also live for a very long time compared to people without any magical ability.

Silverspire Military Academy had always been a rather decent place compared to others, at least in Aaron's eyes. The training was good and there were not many students who could be bothered with politics and status. He could not stand those foppish lordlings or the frail wallflower girls of nobility who could only talk big but had no skills or experience to back it up in a real fight.

Still even though the students were a lot more approachable and reasonable here, Aaron tended to avoid them, if they didn't avoid him in the first place. He was known to be cold and unapproachable and not many tried to make friends with him anymore. Not only was his attitude cold, but as he was by far the strongest person in his age group with an innate violet aptitude and exceptional sword skills, no one dared to bother him.

Aaron just considered going back inside, when he heard footsteps coming closer. He soon found the source of them, as a girl with black hair and a pretty face was approaching him. Looking at her steps made him frown, as it was easy to see that she was drunk. 'Who is she?' he wondered, as he had never seen the girl before. The academy was not small, but it was also not big enough that there would be many students that he was unaware of. He might not know their names or histories, but he would at least remember their faces. 'Probably one of the new students, who joined just recently.'

Aaron could barely complete his thoughts when she was already right in front of him. Even though her steps looked rather funny as the girl could barely manage to walk in a straight line, her speed was nonetheless rather quick.

She stumbled into him and Aaron considered if he should just dodge and let her face plant into the bench, but in the end decided against it, that would just be a little bit too rude even for him.

Once he caught her, he expected to just settle her down on the bench and leave, but his ideas had a little problem.

"Let's go home, I'm tired .." was all she mumbled, before clinging on to him and falling asleep.

For a few seconds Aaron was just frozen in place. His cold attitude as well as the aura of an expert usually told all girls to keep their distance subconsciously. He was never before in a situation where he got this close to a girl and having someone cling to him was quite the new experience for Aaron.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing!" he shouted at her, after a few moments, but the girl did not seem to care, she did not even wake up a little bit. He then tried to get her arms off of him, but soon noticed that he would not succeed with just a little bit of strength. 'How can this little girl be so strong!' he thought and considered using a substantial amount of magical power to free himself, before quickly giving up on the idea again. 'What if I hurt her? I can't just break her arms, because she was holding on to me while drunk.'

It took him a while to fully realize his predicament. He couldn't get away from the girl and it also did not seem like she would wake up any time soon. "Wake up!" Aaron shouted again and got a little bit angry. He first shook her a little and when that didn't wake her, he gave her a light slap, but that also didn't do anything except make him feel guilty. His parents always taught him to treat others with respect and don't harm any innocents and his morals would strongly forbid hurting a girl just because she was drunk and caused him to be a little bit embarrassed.

The young man sat there on the bench, not really daring to move, when he realized that there was still the problem of the rain. It was just a few drops here and there before, but after a few minutes it got stronger and stronger.

'Should I go bring her to the girl's dorms? But what if she still clings to me, how are they supposed to get her off me if even I can't do it? Wouldn't that be even more embarrassing? I'd rather not have anyone see me like this.'

There was no one around the lake, with most of the people still at the banquet and in the end Aaron decided to go back to his room. They each had their own little rooms and none of the academy staff would really worry about any of their relationships as long as it did not interfere with their studies or the other students. With all of them being either magical knights or mages themselves, it was not hard even for the most unskilled to prevent an unwanted pregnancy. Beyond that, the academy didn't really bother about where they spent their nights.

This did not mean that it was common for girls to spend a night over at the boy's dorms though, at least not with anyone else but the two lovers being aware of it. It was not unusual for some of the young people to date, nor was it rare to see a young couple kissing, but most of the kids would at least drag their important other back to their family and get their blessings before making a relationship official. Everything else was like a well-known secret. A couple meeting somewhere in the middle of the night wasn't rare, but everyone pretended it didn't happen as long as they were not too obvious about it.

The higher someone's status, the more often relationships held some political importance. As long as no one knew about their other relationships, no one really bothered about finding out more, but it would be a problem if it became well known.

Aaron picked up the girl and went back to his room, quickly closing the door behind him before anyone could see them. He sat down on the chair for a while before frowning.

'I can't just sit on a chair all night long.' he sighed and then started to get rid of his shoes and cloak, before removing the girl's shoes and cloak as well. He then dragged both of them into the bed and tried to get as much distance as possible between them. Aaron didn't want to wake up next to a girl who would ask him a lot of embarrassing questions, but he didn't really see any other way.

At least he told himself there is no other way. Maybe he wasn't totally honest with himself. If he seriously thought about it, there would likely be many other ways to get out of this trouble, but he was in the end just a 17 year old young man. What young man wouldn't be curious and anxious to have a pretty girl cling to them? It was never that he did not like girls, but he never got close to a girl, because he did not want to deal with all the baggage that came with them. Love and family seemed like nice things, but he did not want all the other trouble like all those girls who were only interested in him because of his strength or looks and didn't even get to know him.

He soon noticed that sleeping, while someone was hugging you, was not as easy as he would have expected. As soon as he tried to sleep on the side, with the girl next to him, he would be sleeping on one of her arms. In the end, the only way that seemed to work was just sleeping on his back, with the girl's head resting on his chest.

At least she was no longer sitting right on his lap, otherwise he likely wouldn't have been able to sleep even a little bit. It did not exactly help his self-control that he could feel every single breath she would take and even though their clothes could cover most of the skin, he could still feel all of her curves pressed against him through the thin leather and layer of cloth. It would be a very long night for Aaron.

--

Myra woke up with a slight headache. The first thing she noticed, before even opening her eyes, was someone hugging her. She also seemed to embrace the person. Person, yes it was definitely a person and not some fluffy pillow. 'What happened last night?' she wondered, but could only remember bits and pieces. She did remember the banquet, she also remembered Nell telling her to drop her magical defenses, otherwise she would never be able to enjoy the drinks. She might not be the smartest person, but even Myra could tell, that she must have been drinking way too much. Maybe drinking was not one of her best ideas. She slowly opened her eyes a little bit to take a look.

She was tightly hugging a young man with black hair and a pretty face, who seemed to be a good bit taller than herself and likely a few years older, although there did not seem too be too much of an age difference. He looked like one of the older students and not like an instructor. Even though he looked rather peaceful while sleeping, he did not exactly look like a gentle scholarly type of person and his face reminded her more of those unapproachable bad boy types. People with magical aptitude would have a certain aura most of the time, unless they intentionally suppressed it.