Work Text:
Sharpness shook out of sleep with his loud ass alarm going off right next to him. His hair shined with the sunlight peeking between the curtains; his bangs falling onto his eyes, blocking his vision. Raindrops were aggressively tapping on his window with a nice rhythm. He immediately pulled the sheets over his head to block off the awful ringing. Maybe putting it right next to his pillow was a bad idea. He had no right to complain though, knowing there was literally no other method that he woke up to. Having really deep sleep was a habit that he just couldn’t get rid of. After a few more seconds of trying to ignore it; he finally sat up to turn the alarm off. He let out a long groan, stretching his arms.
Long blonde hair was spread around his pillow as if it was placed by hand. He carefully detangled the locks, gaining himself some time from getting out of the bed.
Today was the first day of the second term. And if he had to be honest, second year of college was going way better than he imagined. Because as they all said “This wasn’t any other university. This was Strength University, where we help students find their strength!”. What a stupid motto, he thought. It was partially true, his success in academics was nothing like he ever had before, and it was all thanks to this weird… curriculum they had going on. Unlike other colleges, they were heavily focused on people's skills and how to embrace them enough to help students make a future out of it. The main three departments were Battle, Build and Redstone. Aside from other departments, these three were the most “popular” ones with their many headtitles that attracted tons of students.
But what does all of this have to do with Sharpness, you may ask. As you can probably guess, the best head title in Battle Department was PvP. Sharpness’ special talent. He was like no other student, the number one in the whole building. His incredible sword moves never failed to get compliments from the teachers. Of course he had a few people who tried to challenge him out of his throne, but no one actually succeeded in taking his place. He was most literally the best, he had no match to his success.
Well, except for one person.
Judelow.
The only obstacle in Sharpness’ way.
He was well known for his amazing traps, just single-handedly carrying the Redstone Department. There weren’t known to be many trappers in the college, so he automatically flew up to his current place. On top of his mechanic skills, he was smart and fast. Which were basically everything you would need to be a good trapper. But he was much more than good, he was perfect.
Despite being in completely different buildings, the whole school knew that these two were the biggest rivals in the Strength University. Throughout the entirety of the first term, they were working extremely hard and would rise past one another through the ranking. Sharpness would always win except for a few times that Jude did; and it was just because Sharpness let him, as he says.
Although everything was going well for Sharpness in his first year, there was something that was bugging his mind all semester. In the very last exam of the last term, Jude beat Sharpness ridiculously well. And it wasn’t easy for Sharp to accept that. He wanted revenge, and he would always get what he wanted. Unless Jude wins. But that wouldn’t happen. No way. Not again.
He jumped out of his bed with the sudden motivation, unconsciously clenching his fist. Despite hating school, the idea of getting revenge on his rival was more than enough to get him up. That stupid smirk Jude would put on right before activating the traps flashed before his eyes. YIKES. His face reddened. With anger, obviously. Right.
Sharpness headed to his wardrobe, his long legs carrying him there with just a few steps. Instead of focusing on what he should wear, his mind was racing with thoughts about Judelow.
Focus, dude.
He darted the shelves quickly, grabbing a red sweater with black leggings. Something weirdly simple for him, to be honest. Maybe because he wasn’t paying attention at all, or because he was in a rush.
Wait, he was in a rush.
Fuck.
He ran over to the door and grabbed his jacket, swinging his bag over his shoulder. He struggled to tie his shoes, hopping his way out of the dorm on one foot. He wasn’t planning to go late. Not again. There seemed to be a lot of “ not again”s for Sharpness today. He just hoped the day wouldn’t be as bad as how it started.
─────────────────୨ৎ─────────────────────────
Of course he forgot his umbrella. He always did.
The door creaked loudly, all heads turning to one by one. You could tell that nobody wanted to be here just by looking at their sleepy faces. No student would like coming back to school after a sweet holiday. It was surprisingly quiet here. Sharpness decided to blame it on this cold Monday morning.
Okay, five minutes were pretty good for Sharpness. He silently ran over to his usual place, throwing his bag somewhere near him. Just as he turned to talk to-
..Spongs.
Where was Spongs?
Oh so *that’s* why was it so quiet in here, he thought to himself. No history lesson would go without Spongs asking the most useless questions just so the lesson would be cut off.
Sharp was pretty sure that Spongs was talking about some “ragebaiting Tai” plans of his just yesterday, making it rather odd that he gave up on such a thing.
Sharpness looked around the classroom to see if he was sitting somewhere else today. He didn’t think much about it. Eh, maybe he was just skipping again.
The very first lesson on Monday was History of Battles, where they learned about people who were best at pvp at their time, older pvp techniques and so on. Basically the worst lesson, he thought. He would always say that history is useless. Who would need to learn about old stuff if they’re old?
Anyways, he should better take notes before he falls asleep. His messy bag was making it hard to find his notebook, he could swear that it was organized last night. It must’ve ended up like this because of how careless he acts about it. Didn’t he just throw it, like, 10 seconds ago?
Focus on the lesson, dumbass.
He pulled out the notebook and his tiny pencil case and placed them neatly on the table. The aggressive pencil clicking echoed in the classroom along with the teacher’s speech until he saw the tiny lead reaching from its tip.
Time to lock in.
He did in fact lock in. Surely. Yeah, he was so locked in that he took absolutely no notes and zoned out of class. Side effects of being smart I guess, he thought. There was a minute left of the class, a minute that felt like eternity.
When the bell rang, Sharp stuffed everything to his bag and leaned to-
“Oh, I almost forgot. Spare a few seconds, please. Or don’t, unless you want to fail this term.” The professor added, slowly standing up from his wooden chair and walking towards the giant board.
He leaned back to his previous position and sighed, irritated by the unexpected extension. He just wanted to get out of this damn class.
“As some of you might know, this term’s grading will be a little different than the previous ones, a bigger project.” He added, the chalk in his hand scratched around the board as he continued.
“The professors council, including me of course, had come to the conclusion that there's little to no interactions between departments. There’s a reason these departments are separate and unrelated. But if you put enough thought into it you will see that just because the departments are separate, doesn’t mean they always will be.”
Now this is getting interesting. It didn’t make any sense for them to change strategies now, final projects would always be the same concept. Made it easier to pass, you know.
“We tried to focus on teamwork and seeing how students will adapt to different techniques being forced to become one. The best way to do this was, obviously, making the project get rid of the barriers between departments.”
He backed up and faced the classroom; many shocked, confused, even disgusted. Whatever he was scrambling just now was clear right into everyone’s faces:
Breaking the Ice
“What we want, is for you guys to find a partner from a whole different department and get ready for the finals tournament, ‘Breaking the Ice’ ”
Silence. Maybe because no one knew what to say, or maybe no one wanted to say it.
“You’re dismissed.”
Rain had quickly gone away and left its place to the warmth of the day, the sun rising to the top and making the noon basically hell for students of Strength University. Small raindrops laying on the bright green grass was creating a nice view, it was certainly nice to see spring find its way to the campus again.
They were, Flankee and Sharpness, sitting on the bench somewhat enjoying the weather. There was a big old willow tree not very far from the main garden, where ness liked to stop by every once in a while to get away from the academic stress. It was a cozy, private spot; literally just what he needed after that lesson.
Damn, it's been only a single lesson and its already buns, he thought.
What they were asking was absolutely nonsense. ness would never work with anyone who isn't a PvP’er, it was simply stupid to do so. One thing he was sure about battles was that it was the last situation that opposites would attract. It would only lead to chaos and an unbalanced teamwork, since you can't balance two things that are on different scales.
He perked up with a figure making its way in through the leaves, quickly walking up to ness.
He started to rant before Flankee even sat down.
“This can not be real. It's just so fucking dumb, what do they even want to achieve by this??” Sharpness groaned, cupping his face.
“I thought they would just.. I don't know, add a new rule or something!”
“Woah,” Flankee said, “Hello to you too dude. Rough start for a new term don't you think?”
He didn’t really know what to say since he had many friends from other departments, leaving him nothing to complain about. It was relieving to see Sharpness talk to him as usual again considering his not-very-loyal-to-Sharpness team-up with Judelow.
He added up to not sound annoying,
“I’m sure you got this man, there gotta be a true match for you out there. Everyone will be in the line to team up with you!” He chuckled, hoping to shift the focus a little.
“Shut up, I’m not FlameFrags bro.” ness hissed, failing to hide his widening smile with that “angry” tone.
“I kinda see the resemblance tho, you sure about that ?”
“Actually stfu bro.”
They both giggled.
The conversation faded into a silly chatter about lessons and the new term, just usual student stuff they had. A soft breeze slapped the willows' long leaves from time to time, allowing splats of sunshine to peek through and color the grass with a nice light green.
Sharpness could complain later, it wasn’t easy to find some peaceful time like this. Oh and his ass was probably completely wet because of where they were sitting, but whatever.
Maybe he didn’t need to sweat this so much, college can’t be this serious afterall.
─────────────────୨ৎ─────────────────────────
He walked around his dorm a few times, readjusting his glasses whenever they slipped because of how much he was sweating. This was horrible. Like actually horrible. As much as it was bad, it was happening. And there was no way he could avoid it. He just had to observe, adapt, plan and take action. As always.
Not like he had many friends at his own department, now he had to find one from another. He would always work alone anyway, not like he needed friends. Part of him was pretty okay with failing the second year, but it would just tarnish his reputation.
He hesitantly headed to the bathroom, placing his hands on the outline of the sink. A nervous figure stared back at him through the mirror. He scoffed and looked away, carefully rolling his sleeves and just letting the water flow between his fingers.
After a pretty long while later, he joined his hands together and rubbed the cold water against his face. Glowing pink eyes met with his reflection once again.
“Couldn’t have been a better day.” Judelow muttered