COFFEE IN ONE HAND, LAPTOP IN THE OTHER while it pressed gently up against a sharp hip bone. Dietrich looked across the shop, his eyes scanning each table and searching desperately for one that had enough space for his work to be done. The café was crowded, as is normally was around noon. Dietrich had started coming here for studying purposes after transferring to the university on Selene Isle, finding that it gave him a calm and quiet environment to become encompassed in his essays.

Spotting an open booth in a corner by the door, Dietrich meandered over and dropped his book bag on the cushioned seat. He set his coffee gently on one end of the table, and placed his laptop on the other, leaving enough space between the two to prevent any unfortunate spills, and then slid into the seat. The screen lit up abruptly after pushing the screen of the computer up, the documents he had been typing up still sitting open on the desktop. Embarrassingly enough, Dietrich had been working on this project for a little over two weeks and only had a little over three pages written for his final report. The slow progress had been partially due to procrastination, and partially by pure laziness and distractions. However, Dietrich had promised himself he would get it done, and that he would remain in the small café all day if he needed to.

While business picked up, Dietrich typed away at his computer, hitting the keys with swift skill in a rhythmic pattern. In his head, words and phrases kept swirling around, his fingers unable to keep up with his stream of consciousness. The coffee, still untouched behind his computer, was now lukewarm if not cold. The blonde took a moment, rubbing his fingers onto his eyelids. He was starting to get a headache from staring at the screen so long and he still had a long way to go before he would have wrapped up all the research an analysis in his essay.

“Who cares about ferrofluids anyway?” the blonde muttered, shutting his laptop. Just a short break, just a few minutes before he would get back to writing. Dietrich pulled the hood of his jumper up and leaned back onto the cool, soft cushion of the seat. The male allowed his head to fall back onto the wall behind him, his eyes sliding shut behind his glasses. The café was bustling and people were chatting and laughing, some of them talking too loud and some too softly for the male to listen in on their conversations. The longer he sat, the louder it seemed to get.. until all sounds became muffled. Slightly opening one eye, Dietrich looked around the general area. Everyone was still in their seats, and no one had seemed to leave; so what on Earth had changed for everything to be hushed?

Dietrich turned his head, both eyes opening and looking for a cause, but none could be found.. That is, until Dietrich felt his heart skip about two and a half beats. His breath became shallow, and a constant stream of ringing entered his ears. He could feel his mind screaming, nagging him, but its commands were silent. It felt like his body was trying to run, it pushed him despite his body staying put. The blonde’s eyes flashed across the café, looking desperately for something that Dietrich didn’t even know he was searching for. The brown orbs landed, finally, on a tanned and sweet looking brunette that had entered the café. The ringing stopped, his breath deepened, and suddenly he felt a surge of relief wash over and through his mind. Dietrich diverted his eyes, shaking his head and whispered Germanic gibberish to himself. She was nothing out of the ordinary on the island, and yet he felt his gaze continually being pulled towards her direction. Looking up once more, Dietrich allowed himself to watch the young female, despite the commands his gave himself to not stare. She was of average height, average size, and seemed completely normal. Definitely nothing out of the ordinary.