When Nerluce returned to Room D, it was... much louder than he remembered it being.

He flinched at the sudden assault on his ears, such a sharp contrast from Aristide who spoke so softly it was little more than a whisper in Nerluce's ears. Two new futons were on the floor, meaning two new people had been placed into their room - both of which were boys and contributing to the loudness of the room. They seemed to be positioned on one side, while the girls were on the other, hackles raised.

Between the two groups, a chalk line had been drawn across the wooden floorboards. The boys stood on the side closest to the door while the girls were on the other. Standing with one foot on each side of the line was a girl - maybe? Her head was shaved so it made it a bit hard to tell but no, she was undoubtedly a girl as there were only three male newcomers and they had all been accounted for - looking mildly embarrassed.

For some reason, Nerluce had a prickling suspicion that this had all started because of her.

Upon his entrance, Lyana snapped her head in his direction. She threw up her hands and pointed at Nerluce. "You!" she said. "Which side of the room should Eko sleep on?"

Which... which side of the room...?

Nerluce's lips drew tight. There were eight people in the room therefore the girl standing over the line - who Nerluce figured was Eko - should sleep on the side with fewer futons. However, it did make things a bit troublesome since Eko was a girl and it seemed the boys' futons had all been dragged to one side of the room.

So Nerluce went with the safe option of shrugging. "Whichever side she wants to?"

"They," the girl - Eko - said.

Nerluce turned to look at her. The room had gone quiet. What... what had Nerluce said...?

"I use gender-neutral pronouns," Eko said, offering an explanation. "Because I'm, uh, nonbinary so-"

"Oh, sorry!" Nerluce said, eyes widening as he cut them - and the awkward tension in the room -off. "Alright then. Eko should sleep on whatever side of the room they want to." He offered Eko a small smile and they returned the gesture.

"I'm sleeping on the boy's side," Eko said. "There's more room."

"We could divide the room into thirds," one of the boys suggested. He had a head of hair so yellow it looked like corn. He probably came from wherever it was that they grew corn.

The other boy - taller than the first and Nerluce - elbowed the first. "Then Eko gets way too much space. Let's just make a small, Eko-place," he said. His voice was deep and husky. Attractive. The voice of a man.

"I cannot express how unnecessary that is," Eko said, rolling their eyes. "Besides, what will chalk do? It's not going to stop anyone from entering one side of the room or peaking or- whatever it is you're worried about." Eko shot a look at the group of girls.

The ringleader - and shortest girl - placed an offended hand to her chest. Nerluce couldn't tell if this was done in sarcastic mockery or if she was genuinely offended by the accusation. "It's the principle of it," she huffed. "I don't want to sleep beside a boy. Beyond being concerned about their motives, boys smell and they don't clean up after themselves. It's ridiculous!"

The rest of the girls rang out in a chorus of agreement at the same time the yellow-haired boy cried, "What?"

He turned to the taller boy and Nerluce, clearly seeking their support but Nerluce just rolled his eyes and sat down on his futon. He wasn't particularly tired, but he also didn't care how this worked out one way or another. As long as they weren't playing a game of shells in the middle of the night, he figured whatever happened would be alright by him.

"There is no way we smell any worse than weeds over there," the yellow-haired boy said.

"You-" Lyana divulged into a colorful combination of south-western curses.

Those who understood her words seemed to cringe. The yellow-haired boy most certainly did. The taller boy gripped his friend by the elbow and glared down at him. "Shit, fine, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it."

"Call me weeds again and I'll show you exactly what-"

"Lyana," the ringleader of the girls said, a small frown on her face as she cut Lyana off. "Is weeds... a nickname of sorts? But I'm from northern Ithoroh so perhaps it just hasn't reached us."

She glanced around the room, looking to see if she was alone in her stance. When Nerluce realized no one else was going to say anything - or no one else was from his home country - he said, "I'm from Itoroh as well, southern, and I haven't heard it either."

The ringleader offered him a smile and Nerluce returned it. A small spark of kinsmanship flared between them. It was not something that could be helped in the midst of unfamiliar territory.

"It's a name from the west," Eko said, their eyes dark as they stepped across the line, coming closer to the ringleader and Nerluce. "It's unlikely anyone from the great eastern empires would have heard of it before." She turned and looked directly at Lyana. "It's a name for the horse people of Riedith - those who can only grow weeds so must resort to theft to survive."

Lyana scoffed. "It's an insult to hundreds of years of culture."

"I said I was sorry," the yellow-haired boy grumbled.

"It doesn't-" Lyana snapped, the flames of the candles suddenly flaring.

Everyone jumped at that. Nerluce was on his feet, eyes hunting around the room. Some had blown the candle closest to them out. Those that could already control the flame, made the candle nearest to them bigger, the way a cat's fur stands on end whenever it feels threatened. Make it bigger, make it scarier, and then perhaps your enemy will run away, will leave you alone.

The candles nearest Nerluce went out, blown out in a single breath. The room's shadows grew in length, nearly swallowing all of them whole. The tension was so palpable in the air one could almost cut it with a knife.

The entire time, Nerluce watched Lyana and the yellow-haired boy. He watched their entire bodies and how they held themselves. Both were hot-tempered. In fact, a majority of this room could probably be described as such. Those with an affinity for fire were constantly characterized by their aggression... and passion, Nerluce supposed.

But for some reason, Nerluce felt that in an overcrowded dorm of teenagers, aggression would manifest in a much more tangible manner.

Nerluce's eyes skimmed the room, hunting for someone to defuse the situation before a dawning horror rose beneath his skin. Nerluce - passive and lazy - was the only one who seemed more ready to run away than start a fight. Which also made him the only one capable of calming everyone else down.

No pressure.

But Nerluce did what he did best and made a fool of himself. From the inside of his pocket, he fished the single slice of cucumber he hadn't given to Eden and tossed it across the room, praying he wouldn't be burned. It hit the side of Lyana's head, snapping her out of whatever daze she'd been caught in by the flames and her own anger.

"What- what was that for?" Lyana snapped, looking at Nerluce with an expression he could only describe as... bewildered.

Nerluce shrugged. "You seemed to need a snack."

Lyana reached down, picking the cucumber off the floor then wrinkled her nose. "It's covered in mud. What did you do to it?"

"That, my friend, is not mud," Nerluce said, leaning back onto his futon.

With a squeak of disgust, Lyana threw the horse poop-covered cucumber at the yellow-haired boy who made an even higher-pitched squeak. Finally, Eko picked the cucumber up with a cloth, looking thoroughly disgusted as they did so and shooting Nerluce foul looks the entire time. They took it to the window and dropped it down, shaking their head.

"We're not drawing an Eko square," Eko said, pulling their futon to an open space on the boy's side of the room. "We should just get rid of the chalk in the morning but keep the futons where they are. Done and done."

"Or everyone could get their own square," one of the girls said.

"Oh, I like that idea much better!" another girl agreed.

"Whatever, but let's do it tomorrow," Eko said, waving their hands as they went around the room blowing out what remained of the candles.

For a while longer, Nerluce heard the whispers of a couple of people - mainly from the girls' side of the room - but soon it devolved into silence. Nerluce supposed everyone was tired so he figured he might as well settle into the futon that would belong to him for the foreseeable future. In his mind, he tried to list off its qualities to help himself fall asleep. The more boring the topic, the less likely it was for Nerluce to have nightmares, or so he thought.

So he described the sheets. They weren't as coarse as the first set but they weren't soft either. Nerluce felt comfortable with them. The futon itself was soft enough. Once again its quality was awful compared to what he was used to but it was still better than the one from the night before. Perhaps that was why they all had to stay in that large room. It was an act of humbling so they'd appreciate anything they were given afterward.

The blankets were the best improvement. They were thick and warm and if Nerluce wanted he could pull them over his head and be covered completely. Even the taller, deep-voiced boy could do that and he seemed practically a giant. Nerluce was happy about this. In the wintertime, he always got colder than he should have. He shivered and shook and...

Well, there was a memory. Nerluce in the snow. He was young. Too young to have been left out there all by himself.

It felt real and Nerluce realized that it was a dream and he had failed. The younger version of himself trembled in the snow. His lips were blue. His eyelids had frozen together from the tears. He was stumbling around blind. He was looking for his mommy. Where was his mommy? He couldn't find her and he was so alone and so, so scared.

Nerluce started to sob.