The two walked to the auditorium, unsurprised when they saw it was mostly full. Robin couldn't help but feel a little guilty, if his balance was a little better then they both could have arrived earlier and found seats faster and easier. But oh well, nothing he could do about it now. He glanced at Zelda, who had a finger on her chin as she scanned the area looking for seats. He probably should too, it was the least he could do, after all. Now he began to think, where would she like to sit? Close to the stage, far from the stage, halfway? Well, in case her eyesight was bad, close up would probably be better, but being that close to a giant stage made him nervous, so maybe halfway? Now that he thought about it, it's not like they had to sit together. But he kinda wanted to, she was the only person he "knew" here so...

"There's a pair of seats over there, c'mon!" Zelda said, grabbing the edge of his sleeve and leading him down the aisle, by the middle row. She took the aisle seat while Robin took the one next to her. The people in front of them seemed like a lively bunch, well, more like the one guy, the other three in that seemed to be almost completely ignoring him. Sad, but relatable. The two girls next to Robin were pretty quiet, though one of them had quite an awful tone to her voice.

"You're new here, right?"

Robin flinched, snapping out of his daze, and turned to face Zelda. "I'm sorry? Oh, am I new here? Yes, yes I am." What the hell was that?

Zelda smiled with a raised brow. "You okay there?"

"Yeah, yeah, I just," Robin sighed, facing forward, "Spaced out. How about you, are you new here?"

"Nope, started freshman year. Anyway, since we're both juniors and will be in the same dorm building, I'll show you around campus."

"Really? That would be very helpful, thank you," Robin smiled. But, how did she know he was a junior?

"You know, a little birdie told me they're gonna do mixed-gender dorming this year." The two of them looked forward, facing the group in front of them. The one guy had turned around now, but the other three were still talking to themselves. He had emerald green eyes and curly, dark umber hair and russet skin. He was quite handsome, really, but his eyes held a certain mischief which intimated Robin.

"Really?" Zelda wondered, her voice surprisingly calm, Robin would've thought she'd be more alert.

"Yep! From what I heard, there's an even amount of guys and girls, so they're just putting them together," the guys said. "'Guess there's the same amount throughout each year, I guess."

"Interesting. I guess that means you and I could be roommates," Zelda smiled, turning to Robin. He smiled back but really, the idea that he could be dorming with a really pretty girl kind of scared him. Zelda was really nice, what if he caught feelings? Nah, that would never happen, he wasn't really looking for a relationship right now anyway. What really made him scared was the fact he would have to share a room with some stranger for an entire nine or so months. It sounded so nerve racking.

"Oh, I'm Claude by the way," the guy said as he held out his hand, snapping Robin out of his thoughts. "I'm a junior, from the Leicester Alliance."

Zelda shook his hand. "I'm Zelda, also a junior, from Hyrule, and this is Robin, he's..."

Robin cleared his throat. "I was born in Plegia, but I live- uh, lived in Ylisse." An overly dramatic gasp was from the seats beside them. They turned to look at the creepily wide eyes of the blue-haired girl next to them. She was kinda pretty though.

"You're from Ylisse?! I'm from there too! My name's Lucina, it's nice to meet you, Robin," she grinned.

"Oh, you too," Robin smiled awkwardly, trying to keep the conversation short. How did she know his name? Was she listening the entire time? That's kinda creepy. What about the girl next to her? Was she just ignoring her? Rude.

Speaking of said girl, she leaned over a bit, her green hair cascading onto Lucina's thighs. "Hey, I was talking to you."

"Hm? Oh yeah, sorry Palutena, I just got excited over someone else here being from Ylisse," Lucina said.

The girl, apparently named Palutena, pouted. "There's plenty of people from Ylisse."

"Yeah, but they're all seniors or freshmen."

"What about Owain? Or Inigo?"

"Oh, right. Still-"

The trio tuned out their conversation then. "Why is this presentation taking so long?" Claude groaned.

"No idea. Wanna play some Uno?" Zelda asked, taking out a deck of cards from the small purse at her side. She had brought a suitcase, like most students had, but left it outside the auditorium so as to not cause a disaster.

"You guys have Uno?" One of the other people next to Claude turned around. They had dark hair with pink stripes, stunning brown eyes, and a rather mischievous smile. And unlike the rest of them, they had a red vest instead of a blue one. "No one beats me at Uno."

"Middy, you should sit back down," the blonde man next to them said. "The presentation will start soon enough, I'm sure."

"Dimitri is right," said the white haired woman. "You two have already caused enough trouble, so turn around and sit down."

"What did I do?!" Middy said. "But fine, fine, anything for you, Dimitri. And for you too, Edelgard, I guess." Robin, Claude, and Zelda watched the three of them argue with one another before as Middy sat back down.

Claude turned to the two, smiling. "I'm not that big of a trouble maker, promise."

"Something tells me that isn't true," Zelda teased. The lights in the auditorium dimmed, a soft hum from the students as the stage light lit up from above. Two people came on to the stage, one a tall woman with short, black hair and glasses, the other a tall, muscular, middle-aged man with dark skin, shining long, coily, white hair which was tied up into a bun. The wrinkles around his golden eyes crinkled as his pupils gazed over the mass of students. He adjusted the tie of his fully white suit before he began speaking.

"Welcome, one and all, to Master's Academy," he said, his deep voice resonating throughout the auditorium, even without the need of a microphone. Robin noticed the woman next to him was making movements, which he recognized to be sign language. "First of all, I want to congratulate all our new students for making your way to this academy. I am well aware it's not an easy one to get into, and yet all of you were accepted thanks to your fantastic grades and efforts. You should all be very proud of yourselves.

"Secondly, as I'm sure many of you have heard, boys and girls will be sharing dorms this year. What goes on in said dorms is none of my business, 'less it's illegal of course, but do try to keep the rooms clean." A couple of laughs and snickers were heard, particularly from a group of guys not too far away. Robin had a feeling they were involved in the reason why the dorming format changed. "Anyway, there are four separate buildings, one for each grade. Doors open at five in the morning and close at midnight, visitor hours are from eight to ten. If you are found in another dorm building outside of visitor hours, you will receive a penalty, and if you're not in the building by midnight, good luck sleeping outside. As for dorm assignments, once you get to the front lobby of the dorm building you belong to, you will..."

Robin kind of stopped paying attention after that. This school sure was strict as hell. He had read the rule book before arriving here, and there were so many little things you could get in trouble for. The one he remembered the most was that being tardy to class resulted in immediate detention. Now, Robin wasn't a very punctual guy. He found it very hard to get up in the mornings, primarily because he always fell asleep very late at night, but still.

He also remembered reading that, with enough penalties built up, he could be thrown out. This school was expensive as hell, Robin did not have that kind of money. He got lucky this year because he was invited, but if he were to be thrown out and tried to reapply, not only would he not be accepted, but he wouldn't be able to pay for it in the first place. It was very surprising when he received a letter in the mail regarding this school, considering his, uh, family history, and with this being one of the best schools in the world, he could not let this chance go to waste. And so, he opted to have around ten alarms so he could get up early. Hopefully they didn't bother his roommate too much.

"..bin... Robin!"

"W-what?!" Robin gasped, turning to face Claude and Zelda, who were looking at him worriedly. He noticed some students were already leaving the auditorium. "Oh, it's over."

"You good?" Zelda asked.

"Yeah, I just... spaced out," Robin said.

"That was way too much info, I barely understood any of it," Claude groaned.

"Perhaps," snapped Edelgard as she, Dimitri, and Middy stood up, "if you had paid more attention, you would know that we're supposed to go to the junior dorms now."

"Perhaps if you had paid more attention," Claude mocked quietly, in a high-pitched voice. Edelgard glared at him and subtly shoved him as she walked past, making him hiss. "Rude. Anyway, do you guys mind if I stick with you? Clearly I'm not very welcome with those three."

"Of course! C'mon, we should go before it gets more crowded," Zelda said, grabbing Robin by the edge of his sleeve. He kinda liked it when she did that. It was cute, and didn't involve direct touching. Plus, it let him know she didn't forget him. It felt nice.

The trio promptly left the auditorium, and while Robin waited for Claude and Zelda to gather their belongings, he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around a little too quickly, resulting in his glasses flying off his face. He watched as they soared over the air, readily accepting the fact that he would soon need to set up an appointment with his eye doctor. But instead of them falling on the ground and shattering, someone else jumped up and caught them, their long blue hair being the only thing he saw.

"These are wayyyyy too big for you," Lucina commented. She held them up to her face and looked through the lens, her eyebrows furrowing. "Your vision is terrible."

"Yeah, I almost qualify to be legally blind," Robin laughed awkwardly as she handed his glasses back to him. That comment was completely unnecessary, matter of fact it wasn't even true. He meant to sound sarcastic, but now he wasn't really sure if it came across that way. Sadly, his brain could not stop his lips, tongue, and vocal chords from uttering such utter nonsense. He tried to play it off, though, smiling as wide as he could.

"Shouldn't you have one of those canes, then?" Lucina asked, tilting her head.

"W-well-"

"Lucina!" The two turned to face Palutena, who was already making her way to the main entrance. "Come on! I wanna go to sleep."

"I'll be there in a bit!" Lucina shouted back. She turned back to Robin, smiling. "Can I have your phone for a bit? I'd like to exchange numbers, if that's okay with you."

That was the first time anyone asked him that. "S-sure, here." He handed her his unlocked phone and she quickly put her phone number in, then took a picture of his phone number to put in her phone later. He was a little surprised that she didn't make a comment about his lack of contacts, but he did appreciate it.

"Okay, it's done," Lucina grinned, handing him his phone back. "I'll text you soon, and maybe we could, I don't know, hang out or something?"

Robin smiled, feeling his cheeks heat up. "That'd be wonderful."

"Great! I'll see you later then, okay?" She waved, then grabbed her belongings and quickly walked to where Palutena was. Robin couldn't help but stare after her. She had a lot of energy, energy he couldn't possibly hope to match. Truthfully, he thought she was a little weird at first. She had quite the introduction, and was quite chatty. He didn't particularly like chatty people, he preferred silence. But Lucina was nice, she didn't seem like a judgy person either. He liked her, not romantically. At least, not yet.

***

The trio walked down a road and up a small hill until they saw the dorm buildings standing in the distance. They could see the long lines of students in front of them, which they quickly joined. They picked a paper slip out of a jar, which contained numbers in them, then showed them to the administration so they could jot it down. Afterwards, they met inside the building.

There were couches set up for leisure, as well as a couple of tables and even a mini fridge for drinks and snacks. They noticed a screen right by the entrance, where a couple of students were putting their thumbs on. "That's how they track when you leave and enter a building, if you don't do it and they catch you, you'll get a penalty."

"There's so many ways to get penalties," Claude hissed, scratching the back of his head. "How about giving us a little freedom to, I don't know, live?"

"They do give us freedom, limited, but some," Zelda smiled.

"There you are, Claude!" The trio saw Dimitri walking up to them, his face stern. "I've been looking all over for you! Come on, let's go."

He grabbed Claude by the collar of his shirt, causing him to yelp. "Hey wait! I wanted to hang out with them more!" Dimitri glared at Claude, a glare that could intimidate an entire army. He gulped. "My dorm's number 26, feel free to visit any time." Zelda and Robin were left to watch as their new friend got dragged away to the elevator, possibly to his death.

"Well, let's hope we see him tomorrow, alive," Zelda murmured, Robin nodding along. "Anyway, what's your dorm number? I'll take you there."

"Oh, right," Robin said, taking a glance at the paper slip in his hand. "It's room 19, I believe it's on the second floor." Zelda gasped, surprising the hell out of Robin.

Her smile widened. "That's the same room as me!" Oh. "That means-" But then that means- "We're roommates! Isn't that exciting?!"

Well, it was a little relieving. He wouldn't have to dorm with a complete stranger. He still wasn't too hot on the idea of having to spend his school year sleeping in the same room as another person, particularly a woman. He feared he might make her uncomfortable, being that he was a man. But he wasn't particularly worried, it's not like he planned on doing anything, plus, were something to somehow happen, which it wouldn't, he had a feeling Zelda could take care of herself.

"C'mon, let's go!" She grabbed his sleeve and dragged him to the elevator, quickly pressing the button to the second floor. As soon as the door opened, she ran (still dragging Robin along) down the hallway until they reached a door with the number 19 on it. By then, Robin was already out of breath, leaning on his knees to get some air in his lungs. He really needed to go outside more often.

There were two key cards in an envelope which hung from the doorknob. Zelda took one and handed the other to Robin, who had calmed down a little. She slipped the card in and waited for the beep, then took it out and strolled right in. Robin, still a little afraid, took a peek inside first. The room was surprisingly big, with two different closets by a door he assumed was the bathroom and one big bunk bed which had a staircase that led to the top bed. Each step had a drawer, likely for clothes or materials, while there were two big ones beneath the bottom bed. The room was lit by the wide window behind the bunk bed, a warm light which reflected off the mahogany table which stood in the middle of the room, with office chairs surrounding it.

"Woah," Robin whispered, stepping in as he closed the door behind him.

"This school may have some strict rules, but they treat their students well," Zelda said. Robin nodded as he opened the door to the bathroom. It wasn't anything too fancy, but it did have a tub. He glanced at his phone, frowning a little when he saw there were no new notifications. As he closed the door, he glanced at the beds, snickering a little when he saw Zelda sprawled out on the bottom bed.

"I guess that means I can take the top bunk?" Robin smiled.

"All yours, my dear," Zelda smiled. Robin felt his heart jump out of his chest when she called him that. He knew she probably meant it jokingly, but maybe she didn't. "I've never been a fan of bunk beds, they're scary."

He cleared his throat as he climbed to the top bunk. "By that logic, wouldn't you rather have this one?"

"I guess? I don't know, I've never really thought about it," Zelda said, turning around to lay on her stomach. After a small moment of silence, she said, "Maybe I'm just scared of heights."

Robin couldn't help but chuckle. He noticed a rather empty space on the right corner of the room, like something belonged there. "Why is it so empty there?"

"There used to be two bunk beds per room, but after something happened last year, they reduced the amount of students per dorm to two instead of four," Zelda said.

"I wonder why."

"No clue. My personal theory is that some people got real wild one night."

"... as in?"

"As in..." Zelda hummed. "Anyway, what do you think we should do with that space?"

Gaming station. But that's silly.

"We could do a gaming station."

He let out a short, monotone "scream." He didn't realize he said that out loud. "W-we don't have to, I mean, what do you think we should do?"

"I'm okay with a gaming station."

"But-"

"I didn't really have any other ideas anyway. Oh I know! We could buy some bean bag chairs, a little stand and a little TV, and then go off from there! We could also buy a mini fridge, and-"

"I don't think I have the money for that..."

"It's fine, I'll get my brother to do it for us."

"Uh-"

"Relax, it'll be okay! Allow me to take care of this, as my first act of friendship!"

Friendship. How long had it been since he last heard that in relation to himself? The best part? When Zelda said it, it didn't sound fake at all. She genuinely wanted to be his friend, to learn about what he liked, and try it out herself. And that made him really happy. He couldn't help but smile and quietly giggle, his cheeks turning a deeper shade of red. Maybe this year wouldn't be so bad after all.

***

Zelda was already asleep by the time he finally decided to put his phone down. It was past midnight at this point, even though he had promised himself to go to sleep early. And he really was going to. It's just... she hadn't texted him yet. He was just a little worried, that's all. She didn't seem like the type to just ditch on people out of nowhere. Then again, he could be completely wrong. She could have just forgotten. Wouldn't be the first time something like that happened to him.

He took off his glasses, placing them on one of the steps on the staircase, and cuddled up to his pillow. That's when he heard a quiet "ding!", so quiet he almost missed it as sleep began to take over him. He took his phone and opened the message app, smiling when he saw her name and greeting. He quickly responded.