Real Men

Atticus turned to find Kael gazing at him, expression unchanged. "Ahem," Atticus audibly cleared his throat. 'Was I staring?' he wondered.

Straightening his trench coat, he began walking through the hall, Kael in tow. Kael had been right; their class would start soon, and wasting time meant risking being late.

As expected, the walk remained eerily quiet, with neither of them exchanging words

They both saw some other first year leaders' students in the hallway as they walked, and both Atticus and Kael walking in tandem with each other immediately drew stares from the other students.

Many of them had been too out of it yesterday to notice the closeness between Atticus and Kael. Both of them getting close was the last thing any one of them expected.

But they both completely ignored the stares and kept moving forward.

They reached the end of the hall with both of them seeing the map of the academy once again.