Academia - Part 2
#2 of Academia
Academia - Part 2
Copyright 2008 Zelphair/YaminoFoxie
Kaze was always slow to awaken, but awareness came even slower than usual this time. The first things to reach him were purely tactile sensations. He groggily noticed that he was in a bed, that he was dry, and that he wasn't wearing any clothing. A moment later, new realizations came to him,namely that the bed wasn't his own, and that there was someone else's fur pressed against his own, a bit coarser, but also thicker.
Next to reach him were auditory aspects of his current surroundings. A low hum he recognized from long experience as the sound of a personal computer could be heard from perhaps several feet away. Soft breathing and occasional snores came from somewhere very near his ear, and presumably belonged to the owner of the strange fur he'd felt earlier. He could also just barely hear footsteps every now and then, but muffled, as though the sound was coming through a thick wall.
His nose was the next sensory organ to awaken. The most immediate aroma was a distinctively male musk, though his sleep-addled brain couldn't put a species with it just yet. Much fainter was the lingering airborne scent of some kind of flower, perhaps tulips, and beneath even that, a slight lingering smell he recognized as his own wet fur. The latter struck his slowly awakening mind as odd, given the current dry state of his pelt.
After a few more moments, rational thought reached him, alarming him enough to open his weary eyes. When his vision focused, he could see in the dim light that there was an otter, about the same age as himself, pressed up against him. What fur was visible over the covers was an odd shade of jet black, and even more noticeably, he could feel that his bedfellow was definitely male, and just as nude as the fox himself was. Under other circumstances, he may have regarded that as very good fortune on his own behalf, but considering that the fox had no idea where he was or how he got there, it was instead cause for alarm.
Pushing through the fog of sleep surrounding his consciousness, he resolved to question his bedfellow, and realized in order to do so, he should probably be moving out of his current compromising position. In his scramble to get up and out of the bed, however, he ended up falling off the edge of it instead, inadvertedly taking most of the sheets with him. The resulting noise was enough to wake all but the soundest of sleepers. Unfortunately for the fox's dignity, the now completely uncovered otter was apparently not among that group. The stranger blinked sleepily before looking around, bright black eyes peering over the edge of the bed at the fox.
"Ah, you're finally awake," the otter remarked with a tired smile. "I guess I must have dozed off there too for a minute. Kinda rude of me, I guess...but in my defense, I was really comfy, and it was getting late."
"Um...do I know you? And where are we?" Despite the very odd situation, as the fox leveraged himself into a sitting position, his eyes couldn't help lingering a few seconds too long on the otter's ample sheath and full orbs before traveling up the sleek, stream-lined torso to this stranger's face. He also couldn't help noticing that the otter's fur wasn't completely black. A thin trail of fur running from sheath to navel was a more normal shade of brown, as was a sizable, almost cross-shaped patch of the fur around his chest.
"Well, no, you don't know me yet...but I really hope we'll get to be good friends!" The otter's bubbly eagerness and energy upon waking was more than a little disconcerting to the confused vulpine. The otter had obviously also noticed the lingering glances directed at his anatomy, but his only response had been a wink so brief that the fox could scarcely be sure he hadn't imagined it. "I'm Dylan, by the way...Dylan Jordan. I'll be your roommate here at the Academy. It's kind of...well, think of it as a college that only accepts students with...uh...special abilities."
"Oh...um...nice to meet you, Mr. Jordan," Kaze replied, the formality his parents had always stressed creeping into his words despite his current embarrassment, as he made as much of an approximation of a bow as he could from his awkward sitting position. "My name's-"
"Kaze Shiroi, right?" Dylan interrupted. "They already told me a few basic things about you...name, age, that kind of thing. And please, just call me Dylan. When you say 'Mr. Jordan', I expect to look over my shoulder and see my dad there...not something I really wanna picture when I'm naked."
"Oh...alright...Dylan," Kaze agreed, still quite confused and uncomfortable. He debated for a moment whether or not he should respond to the otter's mention of his obvious nudity. It was certainly tempting, but he was also well aware that such conversation would only lead down a path to eventual disappointment. Sighing inwardly, he merely ignored the provocative comment. "So this is a school? What did you mean by 'special abilities'?"
"Well, I mean stuff like..." The otter pondered for a moment, as if trying to figure out how best to put it into words. "Hmm...maybe it'd be easier to just show you."
Before the fox could even comment, he was shushed by a dark paw digit pressed against the tip of his muzzle in an obvious bid for silence. Despite the casual nature of the touch, Kaze could feel his cheeks warming, and knew the white portions of his fur did nothing to hide the blushing skin under them. It had been over a year since he had been touched by anyone at all, let alone anyone male, and thus the simple touch of finger on muzzle was enough to stir desires the young fox felt were best left dormant.
Slowly retracting his paw from Kaze's muzzle, the now quite solemn otter turned his paw palm up between the two of them. There was a slight shimmering in the air above Dylan's paw, so slight that the fox couldn't be sure it was anything more than a trick of the light at first. Upon closer inspection, however, the shimmer resolved itself into a drop of water, continuing to expand until a sphere of water roughly the size of a kickball hovered over the otter's paw. As the fox's muzzle formed a small "O" of surprise and wonder, the water quickly froze over, before shattering into myriad shards of reflected light that fell to the floor between the room's two occupants.
"What...what was that?" Kaze managed to ask, his eyes still riveted to the shards of ice as they quickly melted and, instead of soaking into the carpet, gathered themselves together again, making a hasty retreat in the direction of a doorway, through which a bit of tiled floor was visible. The young fox guessed that if the room was a dormitory like the otter had implied, the tiled room was more than likely the bathroom. His conjecture was confirmed almost instantly by the low but unmistakable sound of water flowing down a drain.
"That," Dylan replied, with another eager grin as Kaze's eyes made their way back up from the floor, "was probably the reason you were brought here instead of the hospital wing. It wasn't worth waking a Healer, or even a regular doctor, in the middle of the night when you'd be fine as long as you got dry and warm as soon as possible. The first part was easy to take care of, since all I had to do was pull the water from your fur, but getting you warm had to be done the mundane way, since I really wouldn't feel comfortable with a Fire user here in my personal space too long."
"You didn't seem to mind me in your personal space." The words were out of his muzzle before the fox could stop them, and he felt another blush under his fur. The words were motivated by simple curiosity, of course, but he realized too late that they could easily be taken as either rude or very flirtatious. Though admittedly quite handsome, the otter had seemingly played a vital part in saving his life, and if his earlier comments were any indication, the two of them would presumably be sharing the room for the foreseeable future. Living in such close quarters with the object of a failed flirtation was definitely a risk the blue fox was, at the very least, hesitant to take at this point.
"Oh, well first of all, you're not a Fire user," the otter explained matter-of-factly. "Air and Water are pretty compatible. Besides, it's not like I'd let hypothermia set in on you just to save myself some stretching room."
"Oh...right..." Kaze stammered, eyes traveling downward again in embarrassment. Did the otter think he was being accused of that? Or was he simply clarifying that their close proximity had simply been to ensure the fox's physical well-being? "I didn't mean to imply..."
"It's alright," Dylan assured him, while at the same time bestowing upon him a look of utter bewilderment. "Hey, sorry if this sounds rude, or if I'm prying, but...you don't talk to people much, do you?"
"Is it that obvious?" asked the fox, before blushing once more and stammering "I-I mean...what makes you say that?"
The otter chuckled softly, but somehow Kaze knew it wasn't directed at him. "You just seem really unsure of yourself, like you're terrified you're gonna say the wrong thing. Don't worry so much. Trust me; it's really hard to offend me.
"O-okay," the blue fox agreed, returning Dylan's smile for the first time in their conversation. Feeling a bit more relaxed, he finally turned around enough to see a second bed behind him, its sheets the same shade of blue as his fur, and its pillowcases a light silver hue. He couldn't help but notice the way it compared to the deeper blue and sea green color scheme of the bed Dylan inhabited, somehow managing to contrast nicely without clashing at all. "Is this other bed mine, then?" he inquired.
"Yep, unless you wanna share," the otter quipped with a decidedly impish grin. "I'll warn you,though, I've been told I kick in my sleep."
If Kaze's smile was the tiniest bit uneasy as he settled into his own bed, his roommate didn't seem to notice. It was nice that Dylan was easygoing and inclined to joke around to make him more comfortable, but statements like that last one were likely to send the fox's mind wandering down paths best left untread. Unable to respond honestly, he occupied himself by looking around the room.
The basic layout of the room seemed roughly identical to some of the dorms he'd seen on college visits before, albeit larger and much more nicely furnished. The carpet, with which he was already intimately familiar, was a more neutral blue, somewhere betweens the shades of the two beds, and was thicker and softer than anything the fox had encountered even in his parents' home (as comfort was, after all, much less important than appearance). The walls were simple white plaster, but even and smooth, obviously built by a skilled paw, despite the simple materials. Much more remarkable than the walls or the carpet, however, was the ceiling, looking for all the world like a starry night sky.
His eyes also confirmed what his nose had smelled earlier, fresh tulips, in a tall aqua vase atop a dresser on what was presumably Dylan's side of the room. The dresser, and its twin on his own side, were beautifully crafted, and if his nose could be believed, carved out of cedar. There were desks on each side of the room, made in a similar style and presumably from the same material. The one on his side looked quite empty when compared with that of the otter, cluttered as it was with books, notebooks, a stereo, and various computer equipment.
Illumination came from an overhead light that cleverly fit in as a full moon in the ceiling mural. There was also what must have been a window on Dylan's side of the room, but it was currently blocked by curtains of thick blue velvet, and judging by the clock on the nightstand, it was probably quite dark outside, anyway. There were also fashionable reading lamps in the color of each bed's pillowcases, placed so that they would presumably let the occupant of either bed read without disturbing the other, but these were also off at the moment.
Doorways into two other rooms could be seen from Kaze's bed. The one on Dylan's side was obviously the entrance to the bathroom that he'd seen earlier, but he couldn't see enough of the one on his own side to see what it was. It intrigued him, but his earlier glance at the clock, combined with the soft, warm, comfortable bed, made him realize just how tired he still was, enough so that he was disinclined to explore at the moment.
Still, despite the late hour and his own fatigue, his mind was buzzing with unanswered questions. Turning his head back toward the otter's bed, he noticed that Dylan had pulled himself into a sitting position, and had extricated the sheets from the floor so that his package was no longer on display, though Kaze had the distinct suspicion that it was more for the fox's modesty than his own. Catching the otter stifle a yawn, Kaze wondered how much more he could get away with asking before his roommate decided sleep was more important than hospitality.
"So..." The young fox had thought about trying to find a less awkward way to restart the conversation, but had finally given up on successfully applying subtlety in his current condition. "Does what you said earlier mean that I'm an Air user? I mean, how do you know?"
"Well, the headmaster told me," Dylan explained. "He said he'd known for a while that you'd be coming our way, even if he hadn't expected it to happen quite so dramatically. And don't worry, he respected your privacy. I don't know what happened, and you certainly don't have to tell me. It's just that most new arrivals are discretely approached at a regular college and brought in bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, not dragged in soaking, freezing, and unconscious."
"Oh...I see." The young fox fought back another blush at the charming grin that had accompanied that last sentence. "So most everyone else just arrives at their normal campus, and has someone approach them about their abilities? What if someone has abilities, but isn't going to college?'
"That's dealt with on a case by case basis, I guess," the otter replied after a moment's thought. "I really don't think it happens all that often, anyway. Most people with Gifts do pretty well in school, and if they can't afford college, scholarships generally find their way to them, sometimes with a little help, if you catch my drift." He couldn't help but notice an introspective look on the fox's face. "What is it?"
"Hmm?" Kaze looked up, broken out of his contemplation. "Oh, it's just that, well...you called them Gifts. My parents...They certainly didn't see what I can do as any kind of Gift."
"I'm sorry to hear that," Dylan remarked sincerely, leaning a bit closer. "But listen to me. What we can do...there's nothing to be ashamed about. Here, we learn how to control it, and eventually, how to use our Gifts to help others. Never believe, even for one second, that what you can do is anything but a blessing. People with Gifts like ours are out there all over the world, doing their best to make the world a better place. They're succeeding, and no matter what your parents think, so will you."
"I...I'll keep that in mind," the fox agreed, still a bit unsure of himself, but truly wanting to believe the otter's passionate words. "Do you mind if I ask you something else?"
"One more thing," Dylan conceded, not bothering to stifle a yawn this time, "and then we both really need to get back to sleep."
"Well, there was something you said earlier." As he spoke, Kaze laid down on his bed, pulling the soft, warm sheets around him. "You said that you wouldn't feel too comfortable with a fire user in your personal space. What did you mean by that?"
"Oh..." The otter pondered his response for a moment. "Honestly, you picked a really complicated question to ask me when I'm tired and trying to hurry up and answer so I can sleep."
"Oh, I'm sorry..." The fox had figured he'd say something wrong before the night was through, and sure enough, his prediction had come true. "I can ask something else..."
"No, no. It's fine." A mixture of amusement and apology showed clearly on the otter's face. "I'll try to answer as best I can, but I'm not really an expert. As far as I can tell, people with different elemental Gifts kind of have personalities based on their elements. It's hard to explain, really, but the gist of it is that people Gifted with opposing elements tend to have trouble getting along. I have nothing against Fire users, and I can have them in a couple classes if I have to, but I'm not likely to ever be friends with one."
"I guess that makes sense." Kaze actually had a very difficult time imagining the cheerful, friendly otter he'd met tonight not getting along with anyone. The personality clash must have been quite severe indeed. "Do you want me to get the lights?" he asked, realizing the switch was on his side.
"Nah, I've got it," Dylan replied with a grin, as a small chunk of ice materialized above the light switch, the simple effect of gravity bringing it down, and the light switch with it, plunging the room into darkness. "Anyway, the headmaster can probably explain it better. You'll be seeing him first thing tomorrow."
"He wants to see me personally? Isn't that a bit unusual?" The blue fox felt a twinge of anxiety coursing through him. It was overwhelming enough to suddenly find himself in a school full of people like him, and now he had a personal meeting with the headmaster on his first day? He certainly seemed to be diving in head first, and without much choice in the matter.
"I wouldn't make too much of it," the otter replied calmly, voice drifting a bit in a clear sign that he was on the brink of sleep. "You're the only new arrival until the usual batch shows up at the beginning of the semester. Besides, I'm sure he'd like to know that you're okay. You weren't exactly in the best shape when he brought you in."
"The headmaster was the one who brought me here?" There was no answer to his question, and after a moment, the fox heard a soft snore from the direction of Dylan's bed. As he stared at the ceiling, with its stars somehow still faintly visible even in total darkness, he realized he finally had an identity to go with the soft white fur that had enveloped him, and the voice that had brought him comfort amidst a miasma of hopelessness. He found himself wondering what this headmaster was like, and was so engrossed in his thoughts that he barely noticed that the faint pinpricks of light before his eyes had been replaced by the total darkness of his closed eyelids.
As his mind drifted toward the comforting void of sleep, he was sure he felt something that had, over the past years, become less and less familiar: the first stirrings of happiness.