Zandre awoke with a start, a thudding sound jolting him out of his sleep.
He shot up into a sitting position and looked around to see what had caused the noise.
"I apologize for waking you up." Place was crouched on the floor between their beds, holding something.
"What happened?" Zandre rubbed his eyes as his mind registered that it wasn't an emergency situation.
"I just dropped something, you can go back to sleep."
"You dropped something?" Zandre squinted to try to see what he was holding. It was too dark to see clearly, but it looked like some sort of round object.
"That sounded like someone falling off their bed! What did you drop?"
Place was fiddling with something now.
"Are you familiar with what people falling off their beds sound like?" Place asked a question in return.
"I took care of many children, it's something of an instinct now."
Zandre swung his legs over the side of the bed, too awake to go back to sleep.
"What are you doing?" He asked, peering down through the dim light.
"I'm putting together some body-exercising equipment."
"In the middle of the night?"
"It's an hour before sunrise, this is my usual wake-up time."
"...Why?"
Place paused his work, and looked up at Zandre.
"Why what?"
"Why do you wake so early?"
"There is a certain charm to it. Being awake when the world isn't."
Place got up and stared out the window.
"I like it, the quiet, the dark, the empty. Sometimes it makes me feel like I'm all alone."
"That sounds... terrifying." Zandre shivered as he imagined what Place was saying.
Walking through an empty, dark city, with who knows what lurking around... He shuddered.
"Maybe, but you can do anything at this time, with almost no one to disturb you. You can train, you can read a book, you can gaze at the stars."
Place crouched back down.
"And then, after a bit of time, the world starts waking up. The sky lights up as the stars fade, and birds take flight. The noise grows bit by bit as people start to move about, all within the span of a few dozen minutes."
Zandre pondered Place's words in silence as he put together whatever he was doing.
Finally, Place straightened up, and turned to face him.
"Want to go on a walk?" Place asked.
"What?" Zandre asked, having being too deep in his own head to properly hear Place's question.
"Want to take a walk?" Place gestured to the window and the view outside it.
"I have some time to spare, and you don't seem like you're going back to sleep, so..."
"...Alright." Zandre stood up. "Give me a minute to-"
"No need for all that." Place grabbed his hand as he made to walk towards the bathroom. "You don't need to make yourself presentable if nobody is going to see you."
"Wai-Hold o-Stop!" Zandre made multiple attempts to stop being dragged out of the building, but unfortunately for him, Place moved too fast.
"You said something?" Place asked as Zandre tried to stabilize himself, leaning against the main gate of their dormitory.
"That was on purpose." Zandre rubbed one of his eyes and glared at Place with the other.
"I have no idea what you're talking about." Place kept an impassive face as he inwardly reveled at seeing Zandre getting a taste of his own acts.
'Revenge? A bit unusual for you, isn't it?' A remark echoed in his head.
The 'Friends' voices snapped him back to himself.
'It is.' He remarked back. 'Thank you for the reminder.'
"I apologize for that, it was unlike me." He immediately apologized, while inwardly setting up a reminder for himself.
'Need to get Righty into the play as soon as I can.'
Zandre was taken aback at the sudden change in Place's attitude.
"I... accept...? It's alright, it wasn't anything too bad." Zandre waved away Place's apology.
"Can you do something for me?" Place asked as they started walking.
"Hmm? What is it?"
"If at any time in the future, you think that I am being cruel, violent, or just, 'unlike myself' in any way, I want you to tell me to 'Check myself'."
'Smart.'
Place ignored the mental speech.
"Tell you to check yourself?" Zandre pressed his lips together. "That sounds arrogant."
"There are some situations in which I might not be fully aware of what I'm doing, you saying that will make me keep my emotions and actions in check."
Place's explanation made Zandre nod in acceptance.
"Alright then, I'll see what I can do."
"Thank you."
They walked for a minute in silence.
"This is strange," Zandre admitted as they reached a crossroad. "But there is something..."
He searched for the right word.
"Comfortable. There is something comforting about this. I can see why you enjoy this."
"Do not doubt my ability to find comfort, it is one of my favourite skills to have."
"Really?"
"Something surprising about that?"
"You don't give off that impression."
"You haven't known me for that long."
"That is true."