"What was it like? Was it more like a stern scolding, similar to the one Miranda gave you? Or was it the playful, flirtatious type of scolding that Natasha does, which by the way, makes me want to vomit."

Despite the distractions of dozens of soldiers and the noise from the cafeteria chatter, Toni and Richie smirked at the way their best friend had brought up the servant again, and watched as Jesse's disdain for the conversation continue to rise.

"I very much doubt that the Princess was flirting with him as Natasha had done," Jesse scoffed as she sat down to eat the leftovers for dinner. The group had a busy schedule ahead, with a four AM departure off-world and a long meeting with the council board of academies to discuss the opening of the Bruela Academy.

"Seraphina, no," Matthew scoffed, "she wouldn't know what flirting looked like if it hit her in the face. The servant..."

"Jesus Christ," Jesse said, shaking her head as she went back to her burger, removing the lettuce with a satisfied smile. She reconstructed the burger slowly as she turned to Matthew, who she considered a brother. "Didn't we already have this conversation on the way home?"

"Yes, but that small smile hasn't left his smug face since we left," Toni offered, pointing at the man across from him.

Richie nodded and smiled at Toni's observation. "What smile?" Matthew laughed. But Jesse leaned in, her green eyes studying Matthew as he ate. She pointed at him in accusation.

"There's a stupid little smile there," Jesse said, watching the dimples appear. She could see that the sex-sick idiot was interested in bedding this woman like all the others piqued his interest.

"What smile?" Matthew laughed, as he glanced between his friends sitting around the small table. He then shovelled the burger into his mouth, starving from the three-hour endurance session.

Jesse knew him well, as she did the other two at the table who she considered her brothers after over a decade of being together.

"Look at it," she poked at the dimples, which in turn, caused the man to bat her hand away, wanting to finish off his food.

"Something clearly happened," Toni encouraged him. "You were gone way too long, and don't say it wasn't anything."

Matthew shrugged at his best friends.

"Ahah!! Some...thing... di..d ha...ppen," Richie barely muffled the coherent words through the burger that had been half falling out of his mouth and onto the plate before him. Then another failed attempt as he tried again to shove the rest of it into his mouth before it ultimately fell to pieces.

"Don't talk with your mouth full," Jesse death stared at the man; she was always on about them with politeness and table manners.

"Just go ... back...to," he managed to swallow the burger's contents, "killing... the left..uce."

She shook her head slowly, her mouth cocked in annoyance at the man, before turning her attention back to Matthew.

Toni, however, looked at Richie, quietly pointing at him, trying to contain his laughter at the scolding he received.

He squinted at Toni before an idea stuck him, "oh, I know," he turned his attention to the blonde and red-haired pair that cocked their heads suspiciously, "this is so typical, mate."

The response was met with the three of them waiting for some Richie-theorized explanation.

"She looked straight into your big, charming eyes like all other women and fell deeply, madly, sickeningly in love with you." He leaned back into his chair, puckering his lips, "she wants to have your babies, doesn't she?"

Matthew laughed and threw a nearby bread roll at Richie, "What the fuck. Have you snuck alcohol in here again? The disciplinary committee won't let you off that light again."

Richie laughed and shook his head, "I won't get caught next time, trust me on that."

"She pledged her undying love for you, just like Jocelyn did last week?" Toni poked the bear.

"What!" Jesse now took Toni's plate, bringing it closer to her. She placed the lettuce onto his plate, and in response, the man removed the bun from the burger and placed the extra lettuce on it.

"Hold on. She pledged her love to you?" shaking her head in disgust.

Satisfied the lettuce was off her plate, she leaned into her seat, "she's been with half the younger cadets already. Don't you go near her. You'll end up catching something!"

"How do you know that?" Toni looked up at her, "since when are you up to date with the gossip?"

"Since Aiden told me."

"You're back with Aiden again?" Richie snapped, leaving the other two men to stare at the red-headed for answers.

"Yes," she pointed accusatorily at the three of them, "don't go being all judgy at me for my decisions, we're happy, and the last fight was just about communication. We both aren't great at that."

Matthew smirked and raised an eyebrow, "Teddy helped with that, huh?"

"Teddy literally scolded us for an insufferable long twenty minutes in his office," Jesse said with frustration, "he is much more of a pompous ass than the other psychologists we've had. However, he made us see that we need to work on vocalizing our needs in our relationship with one another."

"That's cute," Richie raised an eyebrow.

"Shut up," Jesse deadpanned him with her fork, ready to stab him, and then she turned her attention to Matthew. "Now spill, why are you actually smiling? My patience is wearing thin."

"Somebody's tired," Toni commented, stealing some of Richie's food.

"Why do you think?" Matthew smiled in a way that annoyed Jesse immensely.

"Really, we're back to her again. That is why you're honestly smiling." Jesse exhaled, relenting in the discussion. "Fine, did she have like an enormous set of tits. Did she have some way of saying she'll have your babies, and it was like a turn-on for you or something?"

"To be fair, I haven't really seen any ten out of ten servants hanging around, mate," Richie swatted Toni's hand away from his remaining food before he looked up between Jesse and Matthew.

"This one I hadn't seen either, but she interrupted just in time when Seraphina was barraging me about how this will all go wrong-"

"Go wrong?" Jesse asked, waving her fork in front of Matthew's face.

"That was the same face I made," Matthew rolled his eyes, agreeing with Jesse. "Anyway, there she was, this absolute goddess interrupting our discussion during that fantastic and riveting conversation. I completely appreciated the universe for intervening this time."

"Naturally," Richie offered.

Toni agreed with that statement, "name?"

"Never spoke it."

"Features?" Toni persisted with the questions.

Jesse scoffed, "blonde, big tits, high cheekbones, bangs to cover her enormous forehead," she studied his smirk as she detailed the woman she imagined, "green eyes, I suspect, you're a sucker for green, arcadian accent, also a sucker for that."

Matthew raised his chin in his know-it-all, matter-of-fact attitude, "actually she's a brunette, eyes as the bluest mercurial oceans. I'm actually a sucker for that. Her hair was down; thankfully, she had this small cute head, so I doubt she had an enormous forehead. Tits were average like yours."

That would be enough to rile her up.

"My tits are brilliant, thank you very much!"

Bingo!

"Tits like yours," Matthew antagonized, "sarcastic nature, I assume, but her smile, that amazing smile. Great teeth."

"She's too good for you already," Jesse smart-mouthed back, "her and her small tits are out of your league."

"Probably," Matthew agreed, "but she was something beyond words, and her voice ..." he trailed off, reminiscing fondly with another smirk.

"And we've never seen her before?" Toni rounded back with his questions.

"Nope!" The Commander replied, looking just as puzzled.

"You three idiots are hopeless, and you, most of all, buddy." Jesse eyed Matthew now, once again raising her fork to them all.

"You need to give up that fork," Toni had been watching as she waved it about for far too long now.

"No," the red-headed shook her head, regripping her weapon, "you need to keep those things in your pants. That's all you three get up to."

"Hey!" Toni protested.

"Don't try to turn this around on me," Jesse shot back.

"You're just as bad," Richie chimed in, defending his friend.

"Excuse me! I am not as promiscuous as you lot," Jesse retorted, "nor do I hold a fan club. I am with Aiden."

Richie laughed between himself and Toni at Jesse, slowly losing her cool before she turned, pointing her weapon at them both. Her voice was impossibly higher and more irritated. "They're not even your fan club," Jesse said, pointing the fork at them both, "they belong to him."

"They are a dedicated group," Matthew added, winking at Jesse.

"And you've slept with nearly all of them already! Probably twice with the rate you go through them!"

"Hey, it is not my fault I look like this, Jesse, and it's not my fault either that God graced me with my package."

"Oh, for fuck's sake, Matthew," Jesse face palmed herself. These days, she questioned why she hadn't murdered the three idiots.

"Blame him. He sees, he wants, he gets. I have needs, woman; excuse me for having a high sex drive."

"Don't refer to your penis like that," the stupid fan club with the circulating rumours were bad enough. "God, don't you dare," she shook her head as though trying to strip the image from her mind.

She often wondered how and why she was friends with this lot, it was still beyond her some days.

"Besides, it's not all of them," Matthew chuckled, "it's not like I have slept with the entire female population."

"Oh! It's bloody close!"

"Well, it looks like he wants to add the servant to that list," Richie leered at Jesse, hoping for a volatile reaction.

"If she has any form of intelligence, she'll tell you to fuck off, and I hope for one she does. Being the servant to the crown, she should have better morals."

The three men suddenly roared in laughter, and just as she flung her head to deal with them, their laughter was short-lived when the whole cafeteria blared in alarms.

Matthew, midway through his own laughter, suppressed it. The continuing alarms pierced his senses like an oncoming freight train ready to derail him, forcing the cold chills to race down his spine.

Jesse, Toni, and Richie look to Matthew, who remained momentarily frozen, for, like him, the sound did not bode well with any of them, especially not at night.

Immediately, the soldiers jumped to their feet, pushing back their chairs, and the remaining people in the cafeteria rushed out, ready to take action. At the same time, the four of them headed towards their headmaster's office without a word.

What they hated most was that the defog alarm meant that there was trouble, and the severity was only something they could imagine at this stage.

Amongst all the chitter chatter they unanimously decided that you needed to vote.

Their orders, not mine!

#justdoit