School Days | A Shadow Slave Fanfic

Unlike Sunny's regular form of transport to school, which had been his legs so far, Sunny now found himself within a vehicle that words could not describe how expensive it appeared. Despite the vast amount of space that was present within the vehicle, Nephis had decided to seat herself directly next to Sunny.

As usual, Sunny decided to seat himself closest to the nearest exit, that being the door. Despite everything, allowing himself to lower his guard completely would be idiotic and frankly against all his principles. And so, this made it even more uncomfortable as Nephis directly pressed herself against him, leaving him no room to escape lest he jump out the car.

She didn't say a word, simply staring absentmindedly forward without even glancing at Sunny, and yet, the slight upwards turn he could sense on her lips made him think she was enjoying the situation far more than he did. That wasn't to say he wasn't enjoying it either, Nephis was warm, and heat wasn't something that came in large supplies for someone like him.

Eventually, the car stopped directly in front of the open gates of the academy. Sunny exited first, letting loose a sigh of relief as he finally didn't have Nephis pressing against his body, his eyes scanned across the building before placing a hand on his chin to attempt to remember his lessons.

Thankfully, since he was new and too poor for the school to expend exorbitant amounts of money on him, Sunny was limited only to two lessons. However, remembering what time of day they were was a real challenge. A light slap tore him from his dawdling as he turned to the left to see Nephis standing next to him.

"Keep moving, you'll think of when your lessons are better while you walk." She commented, briskly moving ahead of him without waiting for a reply. How she managed to read his mind so easily was a mystery, yet Sunny wasn't going to complain. He quickly matched her pace as they walked briskly around the hallways.

Finally, the thought came to him. It was so simple that it made Sunny look like an idiot. He had the exact same lessons as Nephis. Both of which were directly stationed one after another at the very end of the school day. Slapping a hand on his face, he realised the extreme amounts of free time he had before a new challenge arose in his mind.

'How will I get her attention.' Nephis had lead him to an open field before he knew it, all the other students were busy doing as they liked during the free time that they may or may not have had, leaving the field relatively empty. Deciding the path of silence could not be deviated from easily, Sunny simply dropped to the ground and began doing push ups.

Why he ever started working out was beyond him, before he met Nephis, it was his way of passing the time seeing as he had no source of entertainment, and it often meant he ended up getting hungry far faster than he needed to. Now, Sunny was operating on a full stomach, although his body was still far lighter and skinnier than it was meant to be, forces of habit weren't broken easily.

Unknowingly, Sunny's sudden burst of physical activity grabbed Nephis attention. She watched with interest as Sunny dropped to the floor and began doing push ups, eventually taking off his shirt to avoid it being stained by his sweat. Nephis face flushed red as she shot Sunny an embarrassed whisper.

"What are you doing, stripping bare out in the open like this!?" She whispered, Sunny stopped for a moment before falling backwards and looking up at Nephis. "I'm working out, it's a force of habit. Sorry if I startled you." His meek reply tore any pieces of embarrassed anger Nephis had as she simply sat on the soft grass with him.

"Do you ever plan on getting revenge on Caster? I've seen you fight; you could kick his teeth in if you wanted to." Nephis commented idly. Sunny fell on his back, crossing his palms behind his head to form a makeshift pillow.

"Revenge? Maybe if I was from a prestigious family who could back anything I do. Revenge is a privilege of the rich and powerful. Think about it, if I beat him up once, what stops him from razing my house down to rubble with a single whine to his father?"

Nephis frowned at Sunny's nonchalance. She didn't like his defeatist attitude at all, and yet, sticking by it had prevented the bloody scene she had only seen yesterday from occurring.

"My family wouldn't let that happen. I'd protect you." At this, Sunny sat up. His expression was sharpened and serious, something she hadn't seen from the usually aloof or suspicious young man who she had come to be acquaintances with.

"Don't ever, and I mean ever, use your family to protect me. If I end up becoming detrimental to your future, I won't ever be able to live with myself. You have something good going for you, despite how much I want to cry for help, I'll never ruin your chances."

With that, silence fell between the two once more as Sunny returned to his workouts. Sweat beaded off his brow as each repetitive motion sent his sweat cascading off his body like a fountain. Nephis had tried counting, but eventually once Sunny passed a hundred, she had given up and simply fallen into a trance at his motions.

Eventually, Sunny hit his limit. He fell onto his stomach with a sigh, unable to muster the energy to push himself onto his side. "I overdid it." He moaned into the floor as he weakly attempted to pry himself off the floor. Nephis sighed with a slight smile on her face before making her way towards him.

Gripping him by the shoulder, she rolled him over with a mild grunt. It was like Sunny's body had become glued to the ground. Yet, despite that, he was still as light as ever requiring almost no effort from Nephis part to move him. Sunny let out a laugh as he stared at Nephis.

"Look, now you've got my sweat all over your hands!" Nephis stared at her hands with a mild frown on her face. Turning around, Nephis glanced back at Sunny for a brief moment. "Don't move, I'm going to go wash my hands." She said, her tone impassive as ever as she made her way out of Sunny's line of sight.

Immediately she was sure her actions would go unseen, Nephis glanced back at her wet hands for a moment, wiping them across her mouth before walking back to where Sunny had once been. 'How salty' she thought to herself with a smile, before finally returning to Sunny.

She was unable to completely hide her smile when she returned to Sunny, as he lazily turned his head in her direction before mirroring a smile back at her. It was the first time he'd found himself genuinely smiling in a while.

"What's gotten you so happy?" Sunny teased, Nephis face shot red as she looked away. Not offering Sunny's comment any consideration as she licked her lips with her back turned to him. "Just focus on getting your stamina back you training maniac, do you need some water?"

Her tone was soft despite the rude wording, she regretted the words as soon as they left her lips however Sunny merely offered her another hearty laugh before shifting his body so he could sit up.

"Thank you, Neph. That would be great." Sunny's usage of a nickname instantly caught his attention as a hand shot over his lips, his face turning red. "I can call you Neph, right?" A nod silenced all his worries as he saw Nephis silently get up and disappear, going to buy him some water.

This time, Sunny was in too good of a mood to allow it to be ruined by anyone. He already had a slight suspicion that those who intended to make his life hell would arrive as soon as the friendly scion disappeared from view, so instead, he quickly made his way towards the nearest tree before pulling himself onto it's branches.

'Now I'm out of reach of the sheltered bastards' Sunny thought to himself. A small smile settling on his face as he prepared to take a nap directly on the tree. However, a small rock slamming itself into his head tore the unconsciousness from his mind.

Caster had found him anyways.