Dear Diary,

So after the past couple of days, getting back to my normal class schedule felt like a vacation.

Saffron stayed with me last night, and Marie brought a bath around. Slept like a baby. An exhausted, happy baby.

We both woke up at more or less the same time, and as usual I spent most of my 'getting ready for the day' time staring at Saffron. As she pulled her pants up, she said, "I'd think you'd get tired of that eventually."

"Meh. I'm a simple woman. I see tits and ass, I press like."

She just rolled her eyes and pulled her shirt around her, so I got up and pulled my own clothes on. We walked arm in arm all the way to the Dining Hall, which opened just in time for us to stroll right in without stopping. Some suspiciously Lancaster sounding jackass took the opportunity to say, "Disgusting. Bag Bitches pawing all over each other."

I would have let it go as my minimum daily requirement of Lancaster bullshit, but Saffron wasn't having it today. She turned around, me following her lead, and stepped right up into Lancaster's personal space without ever actually touching him and said, "What were you too much of a coward to say to my face, Cadet Lancaster?"

Silence rippled outward from the pair; I just watched, my arm still linked with Saffron's. Lancaster glared at her and said, "You're real brave with your freak Bag girlfriend backing you up."

"And you're real brave when people can't see what you're doing." I watched Lancaster's face, ready to step in if he started something.

He got a little red in the face, but choked out, "Disgusting Bag Bitches, pawing all over each other, not a properly respectful bone between them."

"We're perfectly fine with the absence of 'bones', Cadet Lancaster. As for the rest, I'll see you in the Practice Yard on Sunday." Then she turned her back on him and led me to the ROTC table.

I leaned over just before we parted to get to our normal seats and whispered, "You've got a really nice ass for such a badass."

Before I could move my recalcitrant left arm to get even a passing grab, she slipped her arm free of me and, in passing, ran her hand across my ass, "Right back at you, Goof." By the time I recovered, she'd already sat down.

Breakfast contained many spicy eggs and loaves of dark bread. I noted purely by smell that someone in the Dining Hall got bacon with breakfast, but didn't have the fucks to give to do anything about it. It would not surprise me if Lancaster, who I assumed hailed from the same spot as Lancaster County back in the world of Eastside, which was one of the bigger meat producing areas in the region, had pulled strings to get extras delivered.

So breakfast went as breakfast do, and we all left a little early to avoid crossing paths with the Barbie Brigade in the hallway. No worries if they jumped us, because not only would it be four on three, despite Rosen and Rider being veritable giants among men, I'd beaten all three before solo, Angel could outlift any of them, Saffron is the baddest of bitches, and if anybody knew when to hold back to avoid getting in the way and when to jump in to help, it was Bill.

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We got to class and Doc DeLeon had already put a big map of the Eastern Mediterranean up on the front wall of the classroom. Once he had all of us in our seats, he started in.

"As I mentioned last week, today we'll be moving away from Atlantean Cities and beginning to study Europan ones. While our study of Atlantean cities was far from exhaustive, and we'll no doubt return to them, we've already covered all of the potential local threats, and the older, stronger, more established Europan Cities have been known to mount expeditions to Atlantis for a variety of reasons."

I raised a hand, and when Doc DeLeon called on me asked, "why would they spend that much just to come throw down here?"

"Good question. Can anyone answer Cadet Diaz' question?" he paused a moment, then said, "Cadet Lancaster?"

"To demonstrate their power."

"Not wrong, but not complete. Cadet Aetos," he pointed at Saffron.

She immediately replied with, "Trade routes, piracy, and diplomatic failures."

Doc DeLeon nodded, "an excellent summation. Does anyone else have anything to add? Cadet Aetos," this time he pointed at Raven.

"The Spartans and Trojans can't bear the idea of anything like a true democracy existing."

"Excellent. That last, in fact, is the most pertinent reason we study the Cities of the Greek peninsula, as Sparta has often targeted Phileo City for just that reason, and while they've yet to lead an alliance against us, they've done so against both Athens and Reme."

Reme. Huh. Quick glance at the map showed me a couple city states in the boot-shaped peninsula I thought of as 'Italy'. That explained why no Italian Market. I wrenched my brain back around to the prof after he took a pull from his water and continued. "Now, can anyone tell me which City we'll be studying first, and why?"

That got a few people muttering to their neighbors, but almost immediately Lancaster's hand shot up, "Sparta, because of their unparalleled military might."

"Sparta is a militaristic City, and they pride themselves on that, but no. Also, their military, unlike the City we'll be studying first, has been defeated on multiple occasions."

Saffron raised her hand and said, "Athens, because our democracy is loosely modeled on theirs, and they've done the most rigorous examinations of Mana and its uses in Europa?"

Doc DeLeon shook his head. "No, although both of your reasons have the virtue of being correct. Rosen?"

Rosen took a moment before replying, "Venice, because of their dominance of trade along the coast of Europa?"

"No, although it bears stating that Venice is not, in fact, on the Greek peninsula. Morson?"

"Corinth, because they've got the best engineers in Europa?"

The prof shook his head, replying, "That reason is debatable, but Corinth does have fine engineers. Anyone else?"

I stuck my hand up, more to show willing than anything. "Uh, Thebes? I have no fucking clue why, I just picked one off the map."

Doc DeLeon winced when I'd said Thebes, and the whole class laughed at my reasoning. "I am both surprised that you got the correct answer and completely unsurprised at how you arrived at your answer. Now, does anyone know why we'll be studying Thebes? Cadet Lancaster?"

Larry surprised me by finally opening his mouth and not having a sneer come out. Instead he had the hesitant yet proud tone of someone who'd just figured out something important. "Because they've never lost a major battle, because of the Brotherhood of Thebes, and we've based our own Heroic military loosely on theirs?"

"Excellent! Can you tell me any specifics of the Brotherhood?"

Lancaster shook his head, but Bill raised his hand. When the teacher called on him, he explained, "They were limited to one hundred in number, and every member of the Brotherhood had to take a lover from within the Brotherhood?"

As DeLeon nodded, gushed a little, and started in on 'important facts and figures about Thebes', all I could think was, that would explain the general lack of homophobia hereabouts.