Chapter 4.4

"Whoa," said Asami, surprised, as they entered the Dome. It was shaped like its name, with various tables and holographic screens at the top that simulated the outside weather. There was a small second floor, with a railing overlooking the first floor, which was meant for teachers and below it was the counter to buy the meals from.

After buying their meals, the three sat down on a table and started discussing various things, trying to suppress their feelings. From the best place to buy clothes to the kind of boys they were interested in, and they failed to notice Jason walking towards them.

"C'mon, I bet you like the cool, arrogant type!" Asami said to Alina.

"No, I don't think so. Truth is, I'm not entirely sure, cause ... I haven't actually had a date before…" replied Alina in a small voice.

"Is your brother that protecteur?" asked Michelle in disbelief.

"That's not entirely it. We were always moving from one place to another. Sometimes every week or so. Because of that, I could hardly connect with people." Alina explained.

"Aw, you poor thing. Here, Lemme give you a hug!" Asami leaped onto Alina, hugging her tightly. "And don't worry, we'll connect really well! Let's go to a salon, paint our toenails, and check out boys at the mall! Ooh, we could also go underwear shopping!"

"Yeah, not exactly something you wanna shout out loud kid, the boys are listening in with bleeding noses," An amused voice in front of them said, causing all three to jump. Looking up, they saw Jason standing there with a smile on his face.

"Hey kid," his lazy voice said in a husky tone. "You forgot your lunch."

He then saw Alina with a tray of food in front of her. "Oh, you already got that covered. Guess I was too late."

"Sorry, I didn't know you'd bring my lunch," Alina replied guiltily.

"Don't worry about it Alle. In fact, it's a good thing. I actually forgot to bring mine." Jason said while ruffling Alina's hair before he started to walk away.

"Wait, are you heading to the teachers' canteen?" Alina asked.

"Nah, seems like my papers haven't been authorized yet, so I can't enter areas like that without an ID. I'm heading back to Silvie's office, why?" Jason explained while Alina's eyes widened.

'Silvie's office'? The hell, are they that close? She thought.

"You could join us instead!" Asami declared quickly.

"Yeah, it's not a problem, right? You're my brother and I'm sure no one will complain," Alina added.

Jason raised an eyebrow while looking at Alina, thinking about how she was misunderstanding the relationship between him and Silvia.

Then again, this could be fun, He thought mischievously as he chuckled inwardly. I should invite Silvie home once, see how they both react to each other.

Jason then sat down next to Michelle, while the former quietly played with her salad, and opposite of Alina's seating. Jason opened Alina's lunchbox, a pretty pink colored box, and started eating casually while the three girls looked on. At first, they felt that it would be awkward seeing a guy eat from a girly box, but they realized that Jason managed to pull it off.

"You've been quiet for a while now, Michelle. Your name's Michelle right?" Jason asked Michelle next to him who nodded.

"Oui, my name is Michelle LeBlanc." She replied in a shy voice.

"LeBlanc?" Jason asked surprised, looking at her face carefully. "You wouldn't happen to have a brother right? Pretty dude, looks like a teen despite being old, has wavy blonde hair, beardless, and pompous, is named Raphael?"

"You know mon frère? How?" Michelle's sapphire blue eyes widened as she asked.

"Hmm, how can I say it? Ah, I do know him and I ended up kicking his ass black and blue." All three looked at Jason incredulously. "What? He wanted to arrest me even though we were on the same side. Who cares if a human trafficker ended up decorating the streets down below."

"You are militaire, non, are you a mercenaire?" Asked Michelle when seeing how nonchalant he was about killing.

"Classified, ma belle dame." Replied Jason in fluent French while winking, causing Michelle to blush, distracting her. Asami, in the meantime, was scribbling all of this into a notepad.

Uh ... he just admitted to kicking your brother's ass, and now you're flirting with him?! Thought Alina with exasperation when she saw Michelle's face before turning to glare at Asami. And stop writing all this down!

"Sorry for, you know, hurting him. But he had this idiotic self-righteous attitude. Even if we didn't fight I'd try to find an excuse and beat him up," Jason told Michelle as he opened a can of root beer and downed it one go.

"Dumbasses like him tend to act like heroes and always end up dying." A depressed Jason muttered under his breath, but Michelle heard him.

"Were you deux friends?" She asked curiously.

"Nah, he just reminded me of someone. Bastard was just like him and had to go and be a hero." Jason replied quietly, his head looking up.

The table became quiet as all three contemplated on his last words, realizing that this friend of his had probably died.

"Well, I'm off. Ah, I forgot, I'll be making some changes to the combat course, so make sure you don't eat too much," said Jason as he finished his meal and stood up to leave. "Oh and Alina? No skipping class."

Sweat fell from Alina's pale face when she heard what Jason said, as the other two looked on confusingly.

"Qu'est-ce que ne va pas? You look like you seen a ghost." Michelle asked.

"Yeah, c'mon, his training can't be as bad as Ms. Silvia … right?" Asami added hesitantly.

"Worse. We'll probably need an ambulance when he's done with us," groaned Alina as the two winced.

Sure enough, when the time came Alina realized she was right. Jason walked into the class, Combat Theory, and took one look at the holo-text on the desk, then turned it off.

"All right, that's a load of bull," Jason said. "You can't learn these types of combat maneuvers from a book. No, let's do something else. Hmm… ah! I know, let's combine Combat Theory with the Practical Combat class! 3 hours of fun. Hehe."

As Jason laughed the entire class felt a chill go down their backs…