Dear Diary,

Today wasn't half bad.

Woke up after a full night of dreaming Locked in a Box, woke up confused but otherwise rested. From my left elbow down my arm decided to punish me for the horrid crime of existing by tearing itself to pieces. Saffron pounced on me before I could get dressed; not complaining in the slightest.

Afterward I got up to get dressed, and Saffron lay on the bed, propping her chin up on her elbows watching me. The situation was more than a little weird, so I asked, "Aren't you worried we'll be late for breakfast?" She just grinned at me, making me feel a little bit like a wounded bird about to be some cat's snack. "Hell, at this rate we'll be late for class."

She smiled at me until I stood there, fully dressed, with her laying on the bed kicking her feet against the wall. When I went to get her clothes out of the armoire to throw them at her, she said, "No class today. Equinox is coming up, and the Dining Hall will be serving through the day. Not sure if they'll have enough cooked to feed you, at any rate."

I stood there slack jawed for a bit before saying, "You mean you let me get all the way dressed knowing we didn't have to leave early today?"

"I liked the view."

That called for vengeance if anything did. As we lay there after, my shirt soaked with sweat and my pants and jacket lying on the floor. I asked, "So, no classes until Equinox?"

She shrugged, "Honestly, I'm a little surprised they had classes yesterday. I think they only did because we missed a week or two at the beginning of the semester. Most schools and government buildings are closed the three days prior and three days after."

"You mean we've got nothing to do until next Tuesday?"

She laughed a little; when I poked her she squeaked before explaining. "Your accent is so cute. Unique and hard to understand sometimes, but cute."

"Accent? What do you mean, accent?"

She just smiled and said, "the days of the week are?"

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday."

She nodded and recited, "Sunday, Moonday, Tyrsday, Wotansday, Thorsday, Freyday, Saturnday."

"Huh. I never thought of that. So, what do you want to do on our days off?"

Half a frown decorated her face before she said, "Honestly? I've got no idea. I mean, we've got to be back here at least an hour before dark, since Grandma will be dropping Isnomi off and I'd rather not have her walking home in the dark."

I thought about it for a while, tracing patterns on her back until a thought hit me. "Wanna go shopping?"

She didn't reply immediately. "Shopping for what?"

"Maybe some civvy clothes?"

"I've got a couple outfits, and I really can't afford anything new."

I shook my head, "I got you, Saff."

She twisted and rolled over until she straddled me, looking down into my face. "What did you call me?"

Apparently I can learn. Maybe. Sorta.

Ah, let's face it, nothing can get through this titanium cranium. "Oh, Saffie-kins, you're so scary cute when you're forceful."

We wound up getting a late start on our shopping trip. We hit one of the Dan stores I'd scouted before, one that specialized in nice dresses for day-to-day wear. They apparently had a 'Equinox Sale' going on, and between the discount from that, the discount we got for being Academy students, and a bit of fast talking by yours truly, the owner paid us to walk out in a pair of nice dresses. He said he'd send a delivery boy to the Academy with our uniforms.

After that we hit that little café Loki'd shown me a few weeks back, and wound up holding hands while we stared at a few ships coming and going on the river while we sat there noshing on whatever the café owner brought us. When the sun headed for the far horizon, Saffron sorted out what we owed the cafe, and I dropped another few gold on the table before we left.

As we walked away, she asked, "What was that for?"

"Habit, really. Where I'm from servers are underpaid, basically not paid enough to live on, so customers leave extra money beyond the actual price of the food."

"That's not very nice, that the servers aren't paid enough to live on."

"Yeah. I mean, apparently it started out a racist thing, because people didn't want to pay former slaves to do the jobs they had when they were slaves."

She shook her head, "That's really kind of horrifying the more I think about it. The place you come from sounds like such a utopia most of the time, then you talk about things like that as if they're not terrible."

I shrugged, "I guess you just get used to terrible things eventually, when they happen every day."

Even with that bit of downer conversation we still had a pretty nice day, and a pretty nice date. When we got back to the Academy, Grandma Aetos was waiting for us with Isnomi. We took the little crotch goblin back to Saffron's room and played baby games with her until she fell asleep. We made a little nest for her on the bed, then checked an item off my bucket list by canoodling on the bear skin rug. After that we spooned up on Saffron's bed and slept the night through. I mean, they slept through, and the only nightmare I remembered was the Locked in a Box one.

Like Ice Cube said, 'today was a good day'.