3 Months Later

Asher is on his hands and knees, breathing heavily. He groans and pushes up to his feet painfully.

"Ughhfff."

Noctus drops her hands, 'You've made significant progress. I'm proud.'

'It's thanks to you Noctus.'

'You've come a long way, you should be proud of yourself. Rest, tomorrow you have a big day. It's a tough place Asher.'

Asger smiles and shakes his head. 'What?' She asks,

"I owe you so much Noctus. Very much. Thank you, and I'll be careful."

She bows her head. 'I haven't known someone with as noble a heart as you. It's very enjoyable.'

"I haven't known someone as crazy as you. Or amazing." Asher laughs,

Noctus rolls her eyes and nods up, telling him to get going. 'Have you talked to Raegan lately?'

His smile fades, 'No, not since everything happened. I think she just wants time to process.'

'Asher...it's been almost 4 months.'

"I know...I'm gonna go shower."

After the shower and making dinner for him and Noctus he heads upstairs into his room. He thought he'd get ysed to it, but he hasn't. The house is just...huge. He has more money than he could ever hope to spend. He has his own car, he even has his own jet. Yet, he feels like he doesn't deserve a dime, it's all so much. Not to mention he is starting at the academy tomorrow, he just can't fall asleep.

However eventually, he does, he gets about 3 hours of sleep. Noctus knocks loud on the door, its enough to startle him awake.

He groans and buries his face in his pillow.

knock-knock-knock!

"Yeah-yeah! I'm up. Im up."

He awkwardly rolls off the bed onto his feet and stands up in the same motion, a little impressed he was able to actually catch himself.

He rubs his eyes and yawns. He walks over to his open closet and walks in. He throws on jeans, all star converse and throws on a shirt with his drowsy eyes closed, not caring what it is. The cool thing about this academy is there aren't school uniforms.

He hurries downstairs and into the kitchen. Noctus takes a plate out of the microwave and sets it on the table in front of him.

"Noctus you're amazing."

'I aim to please.'

He eats the eggs, bacon and sausage. "Alright, see ya."

Tap! Tap!

Asher looks back at her, the knuckle of her middle finger having tapped the counter.

'Be careful okay? You're a big name.'

He smiles, "I know. I will. Keep me posted?"

'Always do.'

He turns and walks out the door, he really was trying to be invested in this company, even though he understood near nothing, any involvement felt like progress.

He climbs in his tuscon SUV and starts off to school. His smile fades, he'd have a bit of a harder time staying in touch, he still will of course and come back all the time, but this is the first time he will have been away from Noctus for this long. The thing with the academy is, you have to live on campus. But he and Noctus aren't just gonna be long distance, they are still going to be together all the time. Noctus made sure of that by hiring people to lighten her load so she isn't always busy.

But Asher is going to make a life of his own for himself by starting here and it isn't far either, 20 miles away.

He drives into the student parking lot and climbs out. He takes a deep breath and starts onto the campus. He gets the key to his dorm and gets a free bag, he explores the huge campus and finally finds his dorm building.

He takes the elevator up to his floor and starts down the hall. It's very lively, hardly anyone pays attention to him, its a weird transition from being the topic of the year.

He finds his room and unlocks it. He opens the door and walks in, it's a single student room, pretty nice. Most others have two or three.

He looks at his bed by the window, it was a balcony next to it, that's a bit much. He has a kitchen, bathroom and even a guest bedroom. Now that is too much, though he could always allow Noctus to use it if she visits. That just feels weird.

He looks at an email he recieved on his phone, he opens his school schedule, the welcome ceremony starts in a few minutes, but, he doesn't want to go. He doesn't want to be stuck in a huge, room crowded with people for an hour and a half.

for the last half hour he walks around the campus cause he's bored and then he realizes as he sees some of the students wearing uniforms. Craaaaap....

He rolls his eyes in frustration and hurries to the finance office of the academy based on the map on his phone.

He walks to the desk and smiles at the man sitting there. "Hi, um I need to get my school uniform."

His smile fades, "You weren't sent any through the mail?"

"Uh, no, maybe it got lost."

"Uh, I'm so sorry. Let me get some for you, if you want more than three though it's $15 per pair. What's your sizes and could I get your name?"

"Uh Asher Palmer, 30 30 waist, not sure how you measure shirt sizes." He chuckles,

The man's eyes are wide. "Uh...yes sir...pleasure to meet you."

He smiles, "Pleasure's mine, uh..."

"Jack Michaels sir. Shirts are small, medium, large and extras. They do shrink a little."

"Let's try a large then."

He smiles and nods, "Just a moment sir we got them in a storage room back here."

"Yeah course."

He grabs his uniforms and heads back to his room, he changes and looks in the mirror at himself. He wears a red jacket with a black button up shirt, red tie, black trousers and black dress shoes.

He groans in disgust, he hates wearing dress clothes he looks at the time on his phone and starts to his homeroom class. He walks in behind a few other students and checks out his knew class.

He looks at 2 of the girls talking to each other. One has white hair, the other long ginger hair with square "nerd" glasses.

They laugh pretty loud with each other. Asher walks to the back and sits down next to them and a few other students given that the only seats available are in the back. Isn't it usually the other way around? People must really be here to learn.

"Hey, you're Asher right? Asher Palmer?"

He looks over at them, the two girls stare at him, with much of the rest of the class.