Lana held Blaine close and let him release the emotions. As he went to sit back up, she kissed him on the cheek and whispered, "I love you too."
He smiled brightly at her, "we are going on a date on Saturday. Anything you want. Price doesn't matter even though you can buy what you want now, it's my treat."
Lana chuckled, "I can't buy anything I want. I just bought two level-6 ability books. You also have a level-2 wind ability now. You may want to help him out if you want the bonus outing.
Blaine chuckled, "I forgot about him. He's in my class, too! Wait, what about your extra?"
"Duff… He's the numbskull who had trouble with a sword in combat class, can't tell his right from his left when marching and got his hand stuck in my venus fly trap causing me to have to wither Seymour…"
"That's what happened!" Alto exclaimed, "I rather enjoyed watching it grow. Can you put in another?"
Lana shook her head, "too many stupid people in school."
Almin and Dobin both chuckled though Dobin did still glower a bit at Blaine. He thought Blaine was too close to his sister. He just wasn't willing to risk pushing his sister away.
"Duff had no ability until I bought him one. I also fired him from Agriculture Club. Made him go to Beast Weapons Club instead. Kattie, have him switch to Sai. If he can master them, I'll buy him a descent pair."
Kattie nodded, "sounds fair."
Blaine nodded, "so you are still taking care of others… Do you have any left at all?"
"About 300 credits," Lana replied.
"That's crazy."
Lana shrugged, "I need my team to be as strong as I can get them. We want experience, we need to work for it."
Blaine nodded and looked around. Everyone was done eating but the cleanup needed to be done and food packed to go to the two rooms. "Are you guys okay to take care of this? She does so much. We still need to replace her lock and get her ready for martial arts class."
"Lana," Almin asked, "did party funds from the crystals from that first outing cover the books?"
Lana laughed, "the crystals got you new equipment. What was left covered half of each of your level-5 books. Level-6 was all on me, as was Duff's Level-3 book."
Dobin jumped up, "we have this, go get her lock and get ready."
They nodded and left. Dobin turned to the others, "we need to do better at pulling our own weight around here. Kattie, I know you're working on learning to cook. Someone needs to join you in that. The other two of us need to do the cleanup. She needs to be able to come to meals, grow the food and do nothing else."
Almin volunteered to learn. Especially with fresh vegetables going up to their room every day. One of them needed to learn how to cook them.
It didn't take long for Lana to get a new lock. Blaine wanted to wait until the weekend to replace her outfit. However, he did buy a level-3, level-4 and level-5 wind ability book for Tobias.
In her room, he had her change into her clothing for class then they cuddled on the bed until it was time to go. It had been a rough and emotional day. A bit of hand-to-hand might be a good thing.
As they lay on the bed, contemplating getting up to go, they heard Kattie come in followed by Dobin. They were talking about how to better support Lana. Dobin stopped dead in his tracks when he saw them laying on top of her bed, fully clothed, her head on his chest.
Lana looked at her watch, "we need to go."
"We could always tell them you're not feeling well or something."
Lana shook her head and climbed over him. "I think we need to spar tonight. You're coming with us, Dobin."
Dobin was dumbfounded and Blaine smiled, "let's go!" Dobin handed her bag back to her. Since the kitchen wasn't cleaned yet, it was left behind so they could put it away.
Dobin handed her bag back to her. Since the kitchen wasn't cleaned yet, it was left behind so they could put it away.
Dobin quickly fell in step. Ever since they got to this school, all Lana told him to do was study and practice his new ability. She had always acted like a mother. And he always listened to her. Was she finally accepting that I'm no longer a child? Dobin couldn't help but think.
The teacher taught the class a new blocking move and circulated the room as the students were meant to be practicing. They were in pairs. Since Star was no longer in the class and they lost other students as well on that outing, Blaine stood in as Lana's partner because there was an uneven number of students.
They were never told the reason behind the elevation in level for that planet. It was understandable to cancel the trip due to the deaths, but it seemed to them, they simply weren't ready for that level of beasts.
Lana found the new move rather interesting. She was enjoying the exercise and not thinking about all the things was good for her stress levels. Since the class was down to 19 students, they had more room to spar. Lana and Blaine went off to their corner and did a light spar where they only practiced what they learned in the last two weeks of classes; the time away didn't count. Lana kept egging Blaine on. He handled her with kid gloves. She kept telling him beasts would not be so gentle. He needed to truly come at her.
He finally decided she was right and swung a fist at her right shoulder as fast as he could. She backflipped and tried a kick straight up to his chin then realized it was an "illegal" move. They had learned it a month prior. Blaine laughed as he watched her facial expression.
"It's fine. Keep going."
The kick had missed as he sidestepped but she twirled in and ducked to go for a gut punch. She had used the move before and saw it coming. He swept her leg and restrained himself from falling with her to keep her from bumping her head. She twisted herself as she was falling, landed on her outstretched hands and bounced herself back to her feet and got back into the fight. Then the teacher blew the whistle, signaling the end of the session.
Blaine chuckled, "you did great today!"
She grinned, "so did you! You didn't follow me down so I was able to get back up again!"
"I didn't know you could do that."
"You didn't let me show you before."
They walked over to where Dobin was, "what did you think? Boring?"
Dobin chuckled, "watching you fight is never boring but now I see why you feel so safe with him. He's got more than what he could show on that portal outing."
Lana nodded, "you need to trust your sister." She giggled, "let's get me some chocolate before heading back?"
Blaine hung his head, shaking it. "You and your chocolate."
Lana grinned then walked toward the door. Everyone else had already left.
Later that evening, as Lana lay in bed savoring a chocolate bar that Blaine had purchased for her, just as curfew rang on the watches, a first-year student stood on the roof looking anxious. He dialed a short code into his watch then dialed a number. His watch pulse red when it connected and soon became a steady green. He heard nothing from the other end.
"I have been waiting for him for a while, no answer when I knock on his door. He teleported away with her. When I got to his location, I saw two sergeants enter then leave a few minutes later. I have not seen him since."
"Monitor the situation," came a scrambled voice and the light on the watch went out.
The next morning at breakfast, Lana sat down and got a notebook and pen out of her bag. At the top, she wrote: ALERT. She kept glancing out the corner of her eye in a specific direction. Underneath that, Invisibility user leaning against the wall. There was an invisibility user near my tree before that happened yesterday. He was gone when we returned.
Blaine watched her write it. Dobin needed to be poked in the side a few times to get his attention to get him to read it. She then placed the notebook in front of Chekof and Karlen. Next, she sent a text message to Paul.
[Any invisibility users in the DFAC?]
[One. Sending an oomlaut.]
[Thank you.]
Lana saw Duff leaving the breakfast line and waived him over. He immediately acted skittish and looked round. Noticing someone had skipped breakfast he warily joined her table.
"You eat meals with us from now on. If you are to be on our team, we need to get to know you. You are also under my protection. If anyone messes with you, I need to know."
[Send an oomlaut to Duff as well.]
She still had several on her that had not been placed. She figured Duff needed one for multiple reasons. If he had been forced to work for the evil side, they may be able to learn something. Lana finally had the morning agenda taken care of and quickly ate her cold bacon.
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