The rest of the day went by relatively smoothly.

Ivan and I had a tour of the city, eating at a small tavern where a few other students were. He practically dragged me over to talk to them and, even though I didn’t really feel like it, I couldn’t deny that I had a bit of fun. The two girls, Sofie and Sofia were there, with Sofia turning out to be as much a fanatic of heroes as I was.

Birgit also called me back eventually, explaining how she was held up and then went training with a few others at their mansion.

“Azam? Isn’t he the prick from earlier?” asked a shocked Ivan.

“I know, I know,” Birgit snapped at him. She snuggled closer to me and I wrapped my arm around her, causing Sofie to actually say ‘awww’. “I don’t like him either, but he’s strong. And I won’t stop sparring with you, kæreste, we’ve been training together for months.”

“It’s all right,” I said, although the image of the two of them spending any time together made my stomach flip in ways I did not like. “You should be training with people who are as strong as you too.”

“You’re plenty strong, idiot,” Birgit shot back. “You’re just too held up in your own issues.”

I clenched my hands. “Can we not talk about this?”

“Sure.” Shrugged Birgit. “I’m not saying that I don’t get you. It’s just…you know?”

Ivan, thankfully, chose this moment to change the topic into something about university, and our expectations from it. Everyone quickly engrossed themselves in the conversation, while I quieted myself–I still participated, but preferred to listen–and thought about whatever it was Ahmed was going to show me.

We all went our separate ways then. We eventually went back to our mansion, where Ivan and the twins went to their room while Birgit and I went to the living room. It was quite large. It had two big screen TVs, with a couch and two armchairs pointing in each. Some students were sitting there watching movies and sports, while others were snacking.

I knocked on the door at the far end of the room, where the supervisor’s office was, hoping I could get him to give me a key for my room. Unfortunately he wasn’t there, so I had to hope my roommate was in.

“You seriously can’t get your door to open?” asked Birgit, barely able to contain her laughter.

“Yeah, yeah, it’s funny isn’t it?”

“How Atlantis’ systems can be broken so easily? A little bit, yeah.”

Sadid was, once again, standing in front of our door, this time talking only to Sofia. He turned his head toward us as we approached, smiling when he saw Birgit. And suddenly I was filled with the urge to take off my gloves and show him exactly why my power wasn’t pretty cool. Show him what would happen if I-I immediately stopped that train of thought, burying it as deep in my head as I could.

“Your hair is beautiful,” he said in a low tone. “Natural?”

“Please tell me that he isn’t your roommate,” asked Birgit as she turned to me.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

“Am I missing something here?” he asked, looking between the two of us.

“I, uh, I should introduce you,” I said awkwardly. “Birgit, this is my roommate, Sadid. Sadid, this is Birgit. My-my girlfriend.”

At that, he let out an awkward cough before unlocking the door. “I’m about to leave, but still don’t make a mess of the room. If you do, I’ll make sure you know exactly why I have dual coloured eyes–and no, they aren’t purely aesthetic.”

Birgit smirked at him. “Don’t worry, we’re pretty good at cleaning our messes. Also, if you hurt even a hair of his head, chest, or any other area, I will freeze your balls off.”

Sadid laughed at that, before saying goodbye and taking off with Sofia. Birgit and I went inside the room and she proceeded to plop down on my bed as soon as I told her which one was mine.

“You should have gotten the window one. I assume it has a hell of a view. I know our basement rooms do.”

“It does,” I said, looking at it. “You can see the island. Both the natural and man made parts of it. But Sadid wanted it.”

Birgit didn’t say anything, but she looked at me in a way that made it clear she had a lot of thoughts on the matter. “I’m sorry about what I said before too, with your strength. It came out wrong,” she said instead.

I focused on keeping my breathing straight. On not snapping. She didn’t mean anything bad by it, but it was clear she didn’t know what I had gone through. The fact that she didn’t turn away was a miracle all by itself. I should be grateful, not angry.

“What did you mean, then?”

“You aren’t what your classmates thought you were,” she answered immediately. “I knew that since when we first met. Do you remember what I’d told you?”

I thought back to that day. “That I looked to be too powerful for someone so sure they were weak? Or something like that?”

“Exactly. Because you are strong. You’re also a complete and utter fool for not realising, even now. You’re not a monster because of something that happened so long ago.”

Only it didn’t stop then. The note I’d left for myself. The thoughts that I’d had, like the one from a few minutes ago. Enough nightmares to make me feel like I was going insane, and the diary full of them.

Of course, I didn’t say any of that. “I-I hope I’m not.”

“Good,” she said with a nod. “Because I want you to hug me.”

“What’s wrong Miss Hugaholic?” I asked her with a smirk.

“Shut up and do it.”

And so I did. And we laid there for a while, on the bed.

“You know that, after the first term is over, we have a competition of sorts? And that other universities will participate in it as well?”

“Yeah, the Inter School Tournament. It’s a mostly ceremonial thing, isn’t it?”

“Right. And also something my stupid parents are suddenly interested in for some reason. And I hate it for that fact.”

I separated myself from her and sat up straight. “I’m not-I don’t know what I can say to make this better, but I know I’ll be there for you. I’ll even yell at Lady Flame if I have to.”

“I think you’re physically incapable of doing that,” Birgit smiled slightly. “And even if you weren’t, I think your fanboyish nature would get in the way”

“Hey!”

“What? Aren’t you a fanboy?”

“Well-”

“You are!” she said, but suddenly it was almost like she was disgusted with me. “And it’s pathetic! You’re an idiot. You’re nothing!”

“What?” I wasn’t even looking at Birgit any more. Or, I was, but it wasn’t quite her. It was like I was staring at someone else at the same time. Someone older, different.

“Alex?” And like that it was gone. And replaced with a slightly smirking Birgit. “Did you finally run out of comebacks, you Greek giant?”

“The day that happens is the day your Greek becomes halfway decent.” I chose to ignore that for now. It would definitely go in the nightmare notes, being exactly what I’d heard in my dream.

Although that didn’t bode well for me, I couldn’t deal with it right now. Between everything going on right now, I could only hope that they didn’t prove to be a bigger problem than they already were.

Of course, I could never be so lucky. And it wouldn’t be until a few hours later that I would realise just how wrong I was.