The dorm rooms at Beacon Academy were quite large, considering that each dorm room had to house four, usually very individualistic individuals that formed each team. It wasn't uncommon for team members to fight over space, often resulting in dorm rooms being divided into four even quadrants, with each quadrant having their own unique sense of decor.

  Aside from the horrible feng shui this created, it usually also meant that every inch of a team's dorm room would be covered in posters, knick knacks, and random pieces of furniture, leaving no space for anything else. While some teams took it further than others, resorting to building bunk beds that broke every single safety code in existence in order to free up more floor space, most dorm rooms were still crowded enough that there wasn't much room to do anything but sleep there. Eating was done in the cafeteria, studying was done in the library, and training was done in the gyms or the fields.

  Usually.

  Team MACE was a team that proved to be an exception to this rule. Three out of four of their members barely owning anything more than the clothes on their backs, and the last keeping all of her possessions in the seemingly infinite pockets of her cloak, meant that aside from the nearly empty closet and dresser supplied by the school, coupled with the fact that all four of the beds had been shoved into one corner of the room, the dorm room had an unusual amount of free floor space.

  While this floor space had largely gone unused for the first week that team MACE had been attending Beacon, on the morning of the first weekend, right as the sun rose, the scene in the dorm room looked quite odd indeed.

  Though Mercury was only just blearily waking up, oblivious to what exactly was going on or why he was sitting in a chair instead of sleeping against Atlas's shoulder, he let out a loud yawn and tried to wipe the remnants of sleep from his eyes, only to find that he couldn't.

  Though a flash of panic ran through him when he strained against the ropes that bound his hands behind his back, a familiar scoff made him look up to see an equally familiar glare that was easy to recognize even with the haze of sleep still clouding his eyes. He stopped struggling against his bindings, not wanting to give Emerald any indication that he was bothered by whatever prank she was trying to pull on him.

  "Morning," he said, with a grin that he trusted would infuriate her. "This your handiwork? I'll be honest, I didn't realise you were into this sort of thing. Can't say I'm surprised though. I always assumed you'd be a little freaky."

  Emerald's only reaction was to scowl down at him, but while it was easy to assume that Emerald was stoic if you didn't know her, since it was rare for her expression to shift away from the resting constipated bitch face she always wore, Mercury had known her too long to not notice the irritated twitch in her eyebrow at the question.

  His grin grew wider as he drew first blood, but it dropped in confusion when he finally noticed what Emerald was wearing.

  "Wait, I was just joking," he said, too shocked by the situation to be playing along with his own joke. "Are you actually coming onto me?"

  A look of twisted disgust came over her expression.

  "Why the fuck would you think that, asshole?" she asked, sounding like she was close to gagging at the suggestion.

  Despite her strong reaction, Mercury couldn't help but remain a little unconvinced.

  "Well, you did tie me up to this chair while I was asleep," he said, stating what was an irrefutable fact. "And you are wearing a sexy teacher's outfit."

  "It's a regular fucking pencil skirt, you fucking virgin," Emerald said, staring down at him with a look of utter contempt.

  "And damn do you pull it off, babe," Mercury said with a wink. "So, what do you plan to teach me?"

  Not for the first time since they'd met, Mercury glanced down at Emerald's twitching fingers and wondered whether this would finally be the day that he would manage to get her to snap and actually try to kill him. While being tied down to a chair meant that he was probably in trouble if he managed to do it today of all days, he would still consider it a victory.

  Unfortunately, Emerald managed to calm herself down, clenching her fists but otherwise keeping them off of his body as she glared down at him instead. Giving him a look of utter disgust, like she was staring at a literal pile of shit.

  Mercury had to stop the frown from showing on his face as he realised, with a small amount of horror, that his pants were uncomfortably tight. Glancing down, he was relieved to see that he had a desk hiding his pride and joy from view, though he struggled to keep a cocky grin on his face as he desperately tried to convince himself that it wasn't a reaction to Emerald's disgusted glare, and that it was just an untimely case of a daily morning phenomenon.

  Thankfully, he didn't have to match Emerald's glare for much longer, as he spotted something waving frantically in the corner of his eye.

  Breaking eye contact, he turned his head to see Atlas sitting down at a desk like he was, though Atlas had his hands unbound and was waving one frantically in the air.

  "Yes, Atlas," Emerald said.

  "Professor Sustrai," Atlas said, with no hint of sarcasm in his voice. "I have a question."

  "What is it, Atlas?" Emerald asked.

  "What is a virgin?" Atlas asked.

  "It's a word to describe people like Mercury," Emerald said, not missing a beat as she turned back to look down at him once again. "A pathetic fucking virgin loser."

  It was just a natural phenomenon. There was no chance that it was happening for any other reason. No chance at all. It would go down on its own. Any second now.

  "I see," Atlas said, nodding seriously with his chin in his hand. "An interesting addition to my vocabulary."

  Thankfully, Emerald seemed to find the severity of that sentence important enough for her eyes to widen and turn back to Atlas, giving Mercury a much needed reprieve from her glare.

  "Emerald," Chroma said firmly, before Emerald could say anything to Atlas, standing up and slamming her hands down against the desk at Mercury's other side. "I refuse to play along with this farce."

  "Sit down, Chroma," Emerald said, with a frustrated growl. "I'm not letting you out of this even if you throw a tantrum, so sit your ass back down. I don't know how, but you're even worse than Atlas."

  "And there it is once more," Chroma hissed. "Not a single day goes by where you cannot refrain from barking the name of your master. To think I extended my acquaintanceship to you, turncoat. Deceiver. Dirty dog of Atlas."

  "Professor Sustrai is a human, dear Chroma," Atlas said. "But if we are to compare her personality to the traits of an animal, I would say she is closer to a cat."

  "Could've sworn she was more like a seagull," Mercury said, unable to stop himself despite his desperation not to draw any attention to himself before he got his situation under control. "Won't shut up. Steals food. Floats on water probably."

  "I've never witnessed Professor Sustrai attempting to swim before," Atlas said, grabbing his chin to muse once more, before a spark of inspiration seemed to strike him. "We must test this."

  "All of you, shut up!" Emerald shouted, and for a brief moment, Mercury could swear that the entire room was engulfed in the literal fires of hell. A demonic visage fell over Emerald's face, promising eternal torture for his sins, before she swore and clutched at her forehead and the illusion faded away.

  Though Chroma seemed stunned into silence, Mercury had seen the familiar hellscape enough times to not be fazed by it.

  "Did you just do all three of us at the same time?" he asked, growling in annoyance. "Are you stupid?"

  "Shut up!" Emerald shouted, squeezing her temple once before looking back up at Mercury, stomping over to him to grab his collar and lean threateningly close to him. "Or I will kill you."

  In most cases, there were many things that Mercury might've said at this point, ranging from berating Emerald for overstraining her semblance like an idiot, to mentioning that he could see down her shirt from the angle that she was glaring down at him from, but more than anything else, he wanted to give himself a moment of reprieve until his little situation calmed down somewhat, not wanting to mistakenly associate certain feelings with Emerald, of all people.

  "Fine, fine," Mercury said, leaning back and rolling his eyes. "Just get whatever this is out of your system quickly, you crazy bitch. I've got places to be."

  Though the snark had been unintentional, Emerald thankfully seemed to be content with simply giving him a quick glare before turning attention towards Chroma.

  "We might as well try to solve this problem before we try to do anything else," she grumbled under her breath. "What's your fucking problem with Atlas?"

  Chroma blinked a few times, as she seemed to still be fazed by the vision of the hellscape that Emerald had shoved into her mind a moment before, but quickly shook her head and glared up at Emerald.

  "Atlas brought down my father's company," Chroma growled, through gritted teeth.

  There was a loud thud as Atlas dove out from behind his desk and ran around the room to plant himself down beside Chroma, getting on his knees. Pompadour met wooden flooring, and wooden flooring gave way as Atlas smashed his forehead against the floor in a deep bow.

  "What are you doing?" Chroma asked, momentarily distracted from her angst before she could launch herself into her backstory completely.

  "I am prostating myself," Atlas said solemnly, though his words were muffled by the floor.

  "Prostrating, buddy," Mercury said.

  "I am prostrating myself," Atlas repeated. "I was not aware that I had caused you and your father such grief. I hereby dedicate my life to making amends, in whatever way I am able."

  "What are you saying, Globe?" Chroma asked. "You have no fault in my father's company's downfall."

  "I must regretfully disagree," Atlas said, still with his head against the floor.

  The sound of a chair clattering onto the floor echoed in the room as Chroma stood up, backing away from Atlas in horror.

  "No," she said. "You can't mean-"

  "Yes," Atlas said. "I am Atlas.."

  A long silence hung in the air, as Chroma stared, wide-eyed down at Atlas, seeming to be frozen in time until the illusion was broken by a single teardrop forming at the corner of her eye.

  Chroma remained frozen as the teardrop escaped, travelling down her cheek and gathering on her chin until it dropped down to the floor.

  When her teardrop hit the floor, it was like a trigger had been activated, and time had taken hold of her once more. Reaching into her cloak pocket, she drew out a large revolver, and pointed it directly at Atlas's head.

  "Globe, you bastard," Chroma hissed out, her voice shaking as much as her hands. "I trusted you."

  Atlas raised his head, bringing debris and woodchips along with him as he drew his pompadour from the floor, though the small cloud of dust around his head did nothing to obscure his sorrowful expression, his cheeks lined with a steady stream of tears.

  "If I must give my life to earn your forgiveness," he said. "Then so be it."

  Chroma drew in a few shaky breaths, her tears flowing freely as she grabbed her revolver with both hands, taking aim at the center of Atlas's head.

  But before she could fire it, Emerald slapped it out of her hands, sending it to the floor where it clattered and spun around.

  Chroma blinked, staring at her now empty hands before staring up at Emerald who glared down at her with a look of abject fury in her eyes. Chroma reached into her cloak and pulled out another revolver, but before she could even take aim, Emerald slapped it away again.

  "Do you mind?" Chroma asked, giving Emerald an annoyed grimace.

  "Yes, I mind!" Emerald shouted. "Stop trying to kill Atlas!"

  "I must have my vengeance, Emerald," Chroma replied, giving Emerald a resolute glare from behind the curtain of moisture that coated her eyes.

  Emerald gave Chroma a hard stare, before she grumbled under her breath in a way that sounded suspiciously like a sigh.

  "Atlas didn't do whatever you think he did," Emerald said, as she slapped another gun from Chroma's hands.

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  "Lies," Chroma said. "You cannot trick me into thinking Atlas was not complicit in my father's company's downfall. I was there when it happened."

  "It's a different Atlas you're thinking of," Emerald said flatly, as she sent another revolver spinning to the floor.

  Chroma hesitated for a moment before drawing out another revolver from her cloak.

  "You intend to tell me there is more than one Atlas?" Chroma asked.

  "Yes," Emerald said, wearing the beleaguered expression of a mother whose child had discovered a way to pry the childproof locks off of the cutlery cabinets and wall outlets. "I don't know whether you're thinking of the city or the school, but this Atlas isn't either of those things."

  Immediately, Chroma fell to her knees as the strength in her legs seemed to fail her.

  "What have I done?" she said, staring at Atlas. "I nearly killed my best friend. How can I ever forgive myself?"

  "You can start by not pointing a gun at his head," Emerald said, crouching down to grab Chroma's wrist to point it away from Atlas's head before prying the newest revolver from her fingers.

  Chroma stared at her now empty hands, before looking up at Emerald.

  "How wise of you, Emerald," Chroma said.

  Emerald stared down at her, the annoyance in her eyes too dampened by exhaustion to be considered a glare, before she sighed.

  "Are you going to try to kill Atlas again?" she asked.

  "Why would I do that?" Chroma asked. "I hold no grudge against him."

  Emerald's eyebrow twitched before she decided that it wasn't worth it to make a comment.

  "Okay, whatever," she said instead. "Now, is there anything else we need to clear up before I start attempting to tutor you idiots?"

  "Wait, is that what's going on?" Mercury asked, genuinely baffled by the comment. "That's why you're dressed up like a cheap hooker?"

  A loud bang echoed in the room as Emerald fired a shot from Chroma's revolver. Though the bullet passed by him close enough that he could feel the wind of it against his ear, he'd been expecting it and managed not to flinch.

  "Fine," he said, with a roll of his eyes. "You're dressed up like an escort. An expensive one too. Happy?"

  Another loud bang rang out, this time accompanied by Mercury's pained cry as a bullet hit him directly in the forehead. Mercury's aura flared, and though he managed to strain his neck so his head wouldn't snap backwards, the force of the bullet proved to be strong enough to knock him backwards completely, sending him toppling to the floor, still bound to his chair.

  "Bitch!" he shouted.

  "The reason why we're having this study session," Emerald said, ignoring him completely. "Is because after a week of schooling, we've had two quizzes and one written assignment so far, all three of which were scored out of a hundred. Would anyone care to guess, with the four of us, the cumulative score we've received out of a possible score of twelve hundred?"

  Though Mercury couldn't see it from his spot on the floor, he imagined Atlas was waving his hand frantically in the air.

  "Yes, Atlas," Emerald sighed, confirming Mercury's guess.

  "A lot," Atlas guessed.

  "No," Emerald said. "Chroma."

  "Why twelve hundred?" Chroma asked.

  "Because we had three assignments scored out of a hundred, and there are four of us?" Emerald asked, as if she was uncertain about her own answer.

  "I'm not certain I understand," Chroma replied.

  There was a long pause, before Emerald continued.

  "We got a cumulative score of a hundred and seventy nine," Emerald said. "Out of all of those scores, Atlas and Chroma got three points each for writing their names, and the rest are from me."

  "Damn, that's only an average of about fifty eight," Mercury said. "You should really study some more, Em."

  "You got an average of zero, you ass!" Emerald shouted. "You didn't even submit anything!"

  "Emerald, I still don't understand. Why is the number twelve hundred relevant?" Chroma asked.

  "A hundred and seventy nine is a lot, right?" Atlas chimed in. "Does that mean I win?"

  "Shut up! All of you!" Emerald shouted, as she fired three more bullets into the air, and tossed the gun aside once she realised it was empty. "At this rate, we're all going to be fucking expelled, and I refuse to be homeless again just because you idiots can't pass a fucking test!"

  Though Mercury had a snarky comment loaded on his tongue, purely out of habit, he bit it back when he realised that Emerald was being serious. He wriggled around enough on the floor to be able to look up at Emerald, and felt a twinge of something when he saw the fainted look of genuine desperation and fear that she was hiding underneath her thick shell of bitchy angst that she liked to pretend defined her.

  Though Emerald scowled at him when she noticed his gaze, trying to hide her true emotions behind a shield of thorns, he had already seen enough.

  It took him a moment for him to recognise the wave of guilt that passed over him for what it was, the emotion too rare for him to be immediately familiar with it.

  Suddenly, he couldn't help but feel embarrassed. While he could've argued that the three assignments they were given in the first week of school didn't actually contribute to their overall grades, and was just a bit of busywork to start off the year, the truth was that it didn't even cross Mercury's mind whether the assignments would matter or not in the moment. He couldn't even claim that he'd been lazy, since he hadn't even bothered to submit a blank page with nothing but his name on it. No. He had just refused to submit anything out of a petty sense of rebellion.

  And for what?

  "Em," Mercury said. "I-"

  "I'm sorry my friends," Chroma said, cutting him off before he could continue his thought. "It seems there had been a misunderstanding. I am afraid I shall be leaving Beacon Academy."

  Though the announcement might've been impactful had it come from any other person, somehow the effect was lessened when it came out of Chroma's mouth. Or at least Emerald certainly seemed to think so, even while Atlas let out a loud gasp.

  "And why is that?" Emerald asked.

  "I came to Beacon Academy with the sole purpose of obtaining a diploma, as my father has forbidden me from inheriting his company without a formal education. I was under the impression that I would only need to showcase my ability to destroy creatures of Grimm in order to graduate, but if academic results are required, I am aware I may be out of my depth," Chroma said. "I thought it would be ludicrous for the Academies to prohibit individuals from protecting civilisations from Grimm, simply due to a lack of academic prowess, especially since there is always a dire need for more Huntsmen, but I suppose I have been short-sighted."

  "Does that mean you're leaving us?" Atlas asked, diving forward to latch onto Chroma with a tight hug. "No, Chroma! You can't! I forbid it!"

  "I must, Atlas," Chroma said, staring stoically into the distance. "Do not make this more difficult than it needs to be."

  "I beg of you Chroma," Atlas said, sniffling as he hung limply off her body, with tears streaming down his face. "This cannot come to pass."

  Chroma glanced down at Atlas, before stiffly turning her head away.

  "It must," she said, her voice wavering slightly as she spoke. "Forget about me."

  "Do not dare ask such a thing of me," Atlas cried out. "I would sooner rip the heart from my chest, than your name from my memory."

  "Fool," Chroma said, a single tear running down her cheek as she looked to the sky. "What have I done to deserve this amount of loyalty?"

  As Mercury watched the soap opera unfolding in front of him, he glanced up at Emerald who shuffled slowly to stand beside him.

  "Okay," she said. "Am I going crazy, or did what Chroma said actually make sense?"

  "The whole not needing to be smart to be a Huntsman thing?" Mercury asked.

  Emerald nodded slowly, as if afraid to give it voice.

  "Makes sense to me," Mercury said, with a shrug, scraping his chair against the floor with the motion. "You know, now that I think about it, they might've mentioned something like that in the team leader meetings."

  "Really?" Emerald said, glaring down at Mercury. "And you couldn't have mentioned it five minutes ago?"

  "Hey, in my defense, I was pretty much half-asleep," Mercury said. "And even then, it's not like they outright said, 'Hey kids. Don't bother putting any effort into your boring ass studies because we'll pass you no matter what.'"

  "What did they say, then?" Emerald asked.

  "It was mostly just Port telling us that we'd have to do remedial classes if our marks were too low, until we could bump our grades back up. Didn't seem to imply whether there was a limit to how many remedial classes we could take. In fact, I vaguely remember the guy getting on his knees and begging us to do good enough in class so he didn't have to waste his afternoons babysitting, even if it meant that we needed to cheat."

  "So all this was for nothing," Emerald growled, through gritted teeth.

  "I wouldn't say that," Mercury said, with a laugh. "You learned that you can stop crying and pissing yourself about being expelled, and I got to see you wearing a sexy teacher's outfit. I'd say it's a win-win for everyone involved."

  "It's just a fucking skirt, you ass," Emerald grumbled, kicking him in the shoulder, albeit with less force than he knew she could summon.

  "It's still an outfit. Which you still haven't explained yet, now that I think about it," Mercury said. "Why are you wearing a sexy teacher's outfit?"

  "Stop calling it sexy," Emerald said, with a glare.

  "Fine. Hot," Mercury said, rolling his eyes. "So what is it? It's not like you thought you'd need to play dress up for Atlas to take you seriously, and you don't really give a shit about Chroma, so I'm guessing you just got carried away with the roleplay and you're just too embarrassed to admit it. Either that or you really are coming on to me."

  "As if," Emerald said, with a scoff. "I wouldn't fuck you even if- what the fuck is that?"

  Mercury tried not to wince as Emerald finally noticed the thing that he'd desperately been trying to draw attention away from ever since he'd woken up. Cursing his own blessed vigor and health, he grinned up at Emerald, hoping that she couldn't detect any of the mortification that he felt.

  "Like what you see?" Mercury asked. "You can look all you want, but if you want to touch you'll have to pay extra."

  "I wouldn't touch it for all the money in the world," Emerald said, scowling at him one last time, before turning her head away.

  "I'm flattered you think I'm worth so much, but I'll give you a discount if you ever change your mind," Mercury said.

  "Die in a gutter, you fucking virgin," Emerald practically spat.

  "Hey, if you didn't want to see it, you shouldn't have worn that outfit," Mercury said. "Or at least don't stand right where you are. You're about half a step away from giving me an upskirt, and I'll admit the teasing's worse than if you just outright flashed me."

  To his surprise, Emerald didn't react as violently as he might've guessed she would. She simply stepped to the side, and crouched down. It was only when Mercury saw what exactly she was grabbing from the ground, that he felt his mouth fall into a flat line.

  "Don't you fucking-"

  Five shots rang out from Chroma's revolver, as Emerald fired it towards Mercury, not even glancing back as she emptied the cylinder blindly in the direction of his lower body.

  Though he didn't feel a single bullet striking against his aura, he looked down to see that his situation had finally settled.

  "Speaking of almost pissing myself," Mercury said, straining against his bindings. "I haven't gone to the washroom yet on account of me being tied to this chair. Care to let me go?"

  Emerald flipped her middle finger up at him before stalking out the door, slamming it behind her as loudly as she could as she left.

  Mercury sighed, shaking his head.

  "I worry about her, sometimes," he mumbled to himself, before he lifted his head, hoping Atlas would be able to hear him over the sound of his own sobbing. "Hey buddy. A little help, here?"