((I apologize beforehand. I made up the trollish language (it's called Trollspeak. Very creative) that is spoken since there's only an official alphabet and not anything about pronunciation, grammer, spelling, etc...
I tried my best ^^;; ))

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The smell of old leather hung in the air, reminding you of an old lady's home. A bookcase full of boring sounding titles and some dusty pictures of what appeared to be a family stood by one wall. A small piano by the other.
You had never heard it being played so you wondered if it even worked.

Glancing back to the middle aged man who sat across from you behind a wide desk, you gave a small sigh.

This was no old lady's home, this was Arcadia Oaks High's principal office.

After Strickler had escorted Steve to this office along with you, the plain looking man before you had begun scolding the blond oaf rather harshly, talking about suspension and -even worse- expulsion.

At first, you kind of enjoyed seeing him squirm so pathetically but it grew sad to watch soon.
He hadn't really done any harm to your face since that already had happened the night before so all this talk about violence was a bit unnecessary in your opinion.

And by now it was hard to sit there and see the once so proud boy be at the verge of breaking into a crying fit.

The tall teacher behind you didn't really seem to help Steve either with his endless pacing and yet you were still unsure if you should speak up. The principal looked pretty agitated right now and if you were to interrupt, he'd most likely direct that anger at you and that was the last thing you needed.

Things had been going pretty peaceful with your father lately. Who knew how he'd react when he got a letter, saying his daughter got into a fight and then resisted against not just a teacher but the principal himself.

Yeah, no thanks.

Then again, Steve was being accused of something he didn't do, even if he believed he did it himself. Although that was just because he was an idiot, let's be real.

You threw a look over your shoulder, noticing that Strickler had stopped pacing by now and was thoughtfully watching Steve, occasionally frowning at something being said.
For a short moment, he looked over to you, catching your glance with a look that nearly made you jump.

He didn't look like a teacher that believed to be justly scolding a bad kid but rather like a teacher that was forced to watch a good kid be wrongly punished.

That's it.

You couldn't take it anymore.

"I tripped and fell into a wall yesterday."

The principal had been on an especially heated part of his monologue when you suddenly interrupted, causing all three pairs of eyes to snap to you as it grew quiet in the stuffy office.

You used this silence, albeit it being nerve-wracking, to further explain your bruises.

"My face hit the bricks head-on so I covered it with make-up this morning," to prove your point, you carefully smudged over your face, uncovering more of the dark spots and hearing the beefy teen next to you gasp in overdramatic horror, "Steve only messed up the make-up. The bruises aren't his fault. That's it."

It took a while for anyone else to say anything and you were already beginning to question your sanity for barging into a conversation like that when a calming hand landed gently on your shoulder.

"I do not believe Palchuk meant ill either. I saw him trip just before I left the classroom. It looked like an accident," came Strickler's voice, backing you up further.

You shortly wondered why he had brought you here in the first place if he thought it was an accident but didn't think about it further, simply glad that he was being supportive.

While the principal appeared to be quite perplexed, Steve was gaping at your profile from his seat next to yours, his expression going from confusion to shock, then realisation and finally relief. The atmosphere felt like it had lightened by a few pounds.

At last, the middle aged principal found his words again but sounded quite shaken from the sudden turn still, "Ah, well, I see then. If, uh, if (L/n) and you, Walter, can vouch for Palchuk then I suppose I'll let him off the hook with a warning."

All three of you relaxed immensely, glad that the situation was finally resolved and done with.

Quickly getting up, which made Strickler take a few steps back, you nodded at the principal and promptly walked out of the room, not wanting to stay in this yucky smell any longer.

Once you were in the empty hallway again, you took a deep breath and shook yourself a bit. Taking a few steps toward the direction of the exit, you heard the door open and footsteps hurriedly following you.

"W-wait up!" Came Steve's still surprised sounding call, drawing a small sigh from your lips.
You stopped and turned on the spot, waiting for the tall boy to catch up.
As he came to a halt before you, you noticed something different about the way he carried himself. Although it was faint, it was definitely there.

Nervously brushing back his golden locks, the tall teen glanced to your face and then to the ground.
"Thanks for helping me out, buttsnack," he said, still calling you by his usual insult but also being serious.
A rather strange combination.

You rolled your (e/c) eyes, crossed your arms over your chest and huffed.
"Just stop calling me a 'buttsnack'. It sounds weird," you told him and stared at him to make him feel more uncomfortable, hoping he'd agree if he was confused enough.

The boy did seem confused when he began to stutter slightly in response before managing out a quiet 'alright, fine' and then giving a huff of his own.

"Good. See you tomorrow," turning and beginning to walk again, you raised your hand and waved over your shoulder leisurely, "buttsnack."

With that final word, you turned a corner and disappeared from his view, sadly missing the priceless expression of embarrassment and anger that flushed his face with a deep shade of red.

Looks like you outplayed the great Steve Palchuk once again.

---

Since then, you had spent your time going about a relatively regular teenager life. The occasional complaint about a test being too hard or too long, the usual struggle with nearly daily homework and of course, having to put up with an overprotective trollhunter.

Although Kanjigar always denied it once you questioned him about it, you had seen him lurk around the shadowy woods behind your house in the late afternoon now as well. It was nice to know that he cared so much but then again, you didn't need him to bodyguard you the entire time.
There was something called 'privacy' that you wish you still had.

You couldn't even use the bathroom without feeling as if someone was staring right at you. That was obviously not possible but that didn't mean you couldn't feel like it.
And it sure made you uncomfortable.

Aside from that, your face had recovered quite well, the bruises barely visible anymore and looking like simple shadows on your (s/c) skin.
Jim and Toby had inquired about the cause of them several times but you only told them the same thing you told the principal until they believed you. And of course, you had made sure to stay out of Barbara's way the entire time.
Who knew how she'd react upon seeing you so bruised up? Probably all.. motherly. Ugh.

The thought alone made you shiver involuntarily.

Looking up from the thick and old tome that rested on your lap, you rubbed your arms and glanced to Kanjigar, who was practicing some fighting moves in your backyard.
Sometimes you wondered why he still came around.
Bular hadn't shown even the tip of his stinky tail around town in the past few weeks and combined with that strange green troll's argument, you'd assume that you were pretty much the safest you had been in a while.
And still, the blue troll across from you still showed up nearly every night, brought you a book about trollish history, language or other awesome stuff, talked with you and trained while you read and observed.

You learned a lot alone from watching how minimal and simple yet precise and strong his attacks were that he aimed at nothing in particular in the air.
His fighting style was that of a true expert, you had figured out that much quite easily, but it made you incredibly curious.
Who had taught him how to move like that?

And, more importantly, could you learn that too?

Once more, the mere thought made you shiver. This time in anticipation and excitement.

Numerous times now had you been at the verge of asking him to teach you in not just his language and history but also in combat. You were pretty sure it'd be hard and extremely tiring but then again, you'd have a huge advantage against any other humans due to being mentored by an ancient being with seemingly endless knowledge.

Continuing to watch Kanjigar feint his attacks, you barely took notice of the quick looks that the bull-like troll was throwing you whenever he could.

---

The trollhunter had at first been a bit awkward about doing his usual routine in her backyard but he soon grew used to the different environment and used it as an opportunity to broaden his horizon further.
Changing training places was good for his mental strength as well for he had to keep up his guard to be quiet and notice any smaller movements around him, which helped him to improve his multitasking as well as his stealth.

Although there was one thing that distracted him to the point of him nearly slashing a small rock into half with an especially wide swing of Daylight.

He could feel the human's curious eyes on him.

That wasn't necessarily a bad thing, no, no. He was glad she showed interest.
But it was that look in her (e/c)-eyes that got him worried.

There was this fiery glint of determination and admiration in them that reminded him of the older days. When his son used to look at him train with that exact same expression.
Well, his was more blue and stony but, you get the point.
Sometimes he felt as though she was about to jump up from her sitting position, storm over to him and join his routine just like he had as a whelp.

It made him anxious since he didn't want the human to involve herself in the dangerous parts and yet, at the same time, that look she gave him made a blooming warmth spread through his broad chest.
He wasn't sure what exactly it was but it resembled being proud quite a lot.

Pushing the wide sword forward after doing a spin as though he were stabbing an enemy into the heart, Kanjigar shortly halted his motions and looked over to the (h/c)-haired human again.
She caught his own yellow gaze and before he knew it, the corners of his mouth tugged upwards.

Without any words, the two seemed to briefly converse alone through looking at each other before the human opened her mouth and said something that made Kanjigar's jaw drop in surprise.

"Amajak sul benesh, Kanji?"

... Did she just use Trollspeak?

And in a way that he understood it too. There were a bunch of mistakes, especially with the pronunciation, he could hear that right away but he still got what she meant with it.

'Am I doing this right, Kanji?'

Too perplexed to tear his eyes off of the unsure looking girl, the tall troll blinked and then closed his mouth again.
"Not entirely," he said and watched as her shoulders slumped in disappointment before he continued, "but it's good enough to understand."
Despite him only having pointed out the obvious -he wouldn't have been able to answer her if it hadn't been comprehensible after all- the young human still looked really happy about his words.

It reminded him of a small whelp, learning their first few words and wanting to be praised for their hard work.

Straightening his posture as he walked over to her spot on the porch, Kanjigar peered into the book on her lap and saw that she had a smaller book of her own resting on the bigger book he brought with him.
Trollish letters and some phrases were jotted down on the clearer pages in a messy fashion and he could immediately tell that she had been studying his language for quite some time on her own now.

For a while, both were quiet. The girl stared up at him in anticipation while he studied her work thoughtfully.

Frankly, it amazed him.

---

Oh, gosh, please let it be good enough.

The moment had just felt so perfect to you to reveal your little surprise. Trollspeak really hadn't been all that hard to understand, it was like a mixture of Latin and some other older languages with a bit of Hebraic.
Kanjigar's careful inspection still made you nervous though.
Kinda like that feeling when your teacher is looking over an assignment you know is perfectly fine but are still anxious about it possibly not being alright.

After what felt like endless seconds to you, the blue troll finally looked back up to your face and showed a still slightly surprised smile.

"Would you like me to mentor you in Trollspeak?" he offered to you, placing down Daylight's tip so he could lean on it a little while waiting for your reaction.
Although he didn't need to wait long before you eagerly nodded, returning his smile.

It was a lot easier to relax with him than with other humans for some reason so you had already grown accustomed to smiling more often when Kanjigar was around.

The horned male chuckled at your excited expression and shifted his body so that he sat in front of you in the grass.
Once his armor and sword had dissolved into blue mist, he leaned forward and looked into the book on your lap.

"Very well, let us begin," said the trollhunter and started to explain some of the letters and their correct usage to you by fixing some of the errors in your notebook.

Just like you thought, it was a lot easier than it appeared to be.
About two hours later, you could pretty much pronounce each letter by itself.
Kanjigar seemed pleased by your quick progress, watching you with a warm look in his eyes as you repeated the trollish alphabet over and over.

But it had grown late and you were pretty tired after the long day at school and now the extra lesson in Trollspeak too.
Ending your seventh nearly flawless repetition, you let out a loud yawn.
This caused the bulky troll to chuckle and reach out his large hand to pet your head gently.
His solid but warming touch was comforting and increased your sleepiness further.

"I believe you've studied enough for a day, (Y/n)," Kanjigar told you and took the book out of your lap to close it and then get up from the ground, "get some rest and we will meet tomorrow evening again. I shall bring you more books."

You nodded and got up as well, having to rub your butt to get some feeling back into it from sitting on the hard porch for so long. Looking up to the blue hunter, you showed him a small smile.
"That sounds good to me," you told him and repeated your nod, "I'll see you tomorrow then, Kanji."

He returned the smile and with the old tome under his arm, he turned to leave your backyard.
Watching his broad figure disappear into the shadows of the woods, you took a deep breath and let out another yawn before you too left the backyard to go back inside the empty house.

It was weird that you hadn't seen your father in days but you weren't gonna complain about getting to meet Kanjigar every night without troubles. If your father were to return, you'd probably have to wait ages each time before he fell asleep and you could leave your room.
That would suck.

Good thing he was busy with his work. At least, that's what you assumed he was doing. Also possible that he had found another girlfriend again and stayed at her place. Well, not that you cared.

Only sucked because you needed your dad's money to pay for the repairs on your motorcycle. And without the motorcycle, you couldn't go to the taekwondo lessons. Which meant you didn't have a way to let out pent up anger.
As long as you were around the tall blue troll, you barely noticed that but once you were by yourself, you could feel this nagging in your stomach, as though something was trying to escape your body. It was annoying.

With a small groan, you let yourself fall onto your bed. Right now you didn't care about the nagging since you were too tired to pay attention. Your eyes slid close quite quickly and you barely had the energy to move below the blanket and cuddle up before you were already deep in dreamland.

---

These strange words made no sense.

They kept going round and round in your head, occasionally slipping out as a green ball of light before going back into your skull.

It wasn't exactly painful but it didn't feel pleasant either.

Looking around, you only saw soft darkness that surrounded you like a veil. Your lips parted but no sound left them.
A faint glow in the distance caught your attention and a feeling of sudden nostalgia washed over you, making your feet move toward the glow without your consent.
Looking down, you saw that you were wandering over a wide bridge of black glass in which lines of pulsating green grew like veins that reached toward the distant glow.
They dimmed down and flashed back to life in a weirdly familiar rhythm.

Confused, you took a better look.

They were following the beat of your own heart.

As soon as you realized this, you heard something shatter behind you.
A look over your shoulder was enough to see that the glass was beginning to fall away into nothingness just a few steps behind your heels.

Suddenly, your body stopped moving altogether and the cracking glass came closer.

The lines flashed quicker, following your panicked heart as it pumped more blood to your legs to make them move again.
But it was in vain, you couldn't even move an inch anymore.

Before you knew it, the ground beneath your feet crumbled into dust and shards of glass, the glowing veins dying out and turning black as you felt your stomach lift and heard the words from the beginning grow louder.
Your skull nearly exploded with the burst of sound while you plummeted into an endless void of black, unable to scream but hearing a thousand screams in your head instead.

You kept falling further down and down but that glow that you had seen in the distance wasn't getting smaller at all.
Quite the opposite actually. It was growing brighter.

Despite falling, you were growing closer to the light that seemed to call for you, slowly but surely shutting out the screaming in your brain and tuning in with a fierce and yet at the same time soothing sound.

Still not able to make any sound or move yourself, you could only watch as a blurry silhouette took shape in the center of the now large glowing ball of bright green.

However, before you could make out what it was, your vision suddenly went dark and you felt your body slam into something with a loud thud.

When you opened your eyes again, you were laying on the floor of your room, the soft carpet pressed into your face and half of your body still on the bed.

"... A dream?" mumbling to yourself, you shuffled back up to your feet and looked around the room. There were already some faint rays of sunlight shining through the window and your clock read 4:37am.

Looks like you could still go back to sleep.

Returning to your bed, you snuggled back into the blanket and closed your eyes.
That weird dream had already left your mind by the time you went back to sleep.

It didn't return again.

At least, not yet.