Slava woke up in a stupor. He couldn’t believe he fell asleep. Slowly raising his head, a realization hit him. Wait, he didn’t have a nightmare, he slept… well? Rubbing his eyes, he looked at the time.

[7:00 AM]

Well, it seemed like he had slept a few hours, maybe he would be able to attend class this time. He also seemed to have made progress on whatever he was working on because the shifting figure before him seemed more stable, regular, and fluid in its movements. The sketch that he had also started, almost looked like a complete painting.

It depicted a gorgeous woman facing a thunderous sky, at its center, an ominous-looking figure staring her down. Below it, a thunderous wave was rushing towards her. She didn’t seem perturbed in the slightest. Instead, with her katana in hand, she was looking back, smirking. Some of her hair mixed with the sun’s rays masked most of her face. Making it almost impossible to stop any discernable facial features.

Looking up from the desk, Slava’s eyes landed on a notification:

[You have 1 new unread message]

As soon as he saw it, the image morphed and some text followed by the sound of someone’s voice.

"Hi Vich, it’s been a while since you came by, Anissa misses you. Your father and I wondered if you would like to pass by sometime this week to at least have dinner.” The text was accompanied by the image of a stern golden-haired elegant looking woman. In her arms, she held a small child with similar features to hers. Both of their bright blue eyes stared at him.

It was his adoptive mother. She would send him messages from time to time. But he was surprised, he'd always felt her messages were short and straightforward. This time it felt different.

“Of course, I would love to! I can come by sometime tomorrow afternoon if that’s ok with you.” he wrote unhesitatingly. He wanted to see his little sister anyways. The reply came almost instantly.

“Great! We will wait for you then. Try to be there for 18:00, you know how your father can be with punctuality.”

His adoptive father was indeed a punctual man. A punctual military general. On top of that, he had never really gotten over the fact that he had decided to leave the army after his mandatory service. This was going to be bothersome…

Interrupting his thoughts, the door to his room swung open.

“Jesus Christ, who just bursts into a room like that. Learn to knock," his roommate grunted. “What time is it?" Kolya asked, rolling over in his bed. "Oh, why are you bursting in at such an hour Sasha?” His tone had changed completely, from anger to curiosity. Slava was momentarily blinded by the light coming from the hall.

“Don’t be a downer Kolya, I came to drag Slava to class.” Saying this, she turned her head, her expression turning to shock. “Did you even sleep?” He was in the same spot she had left him.

“Don’t you know? This guy doesn’t know sleep.” Hearing Kolya’s response, Sasha’s eyes shifted to Slava’s monitor and her shock turned into intrigue. Not wasting a single second, she rushed in to drag him away. When they reached the hallway and the door had closed behind them, Sasha slammed him against the wall.

“What did you find? How did you stabilize it?” He could feel her breathing down his neck and he didn't like it one bit.

“Yea, sure but back off first,” he said with slight disdain visible on his face.

“So?” Stepping back, she stared at him, her gaze full of curiosity. It was rare to see her with such a childish expression. He couldn’t help but chuckle.

“You won’t get it even if I try to explain it," he paused, pointing to her chest, "you’ve gotta experience it for yourself.” From what he understood, she wouldn't be able to grasp the meaning of his words unless she had a grasp over what he was talking about. It would be like talking to a toddler, she would hear but not understand.

“Are you calling me stupid?” She said, scowling at him. “Try me!”

“It has nothing to do with that, it’s just my way…” Facing her glare, he sighed. He knew there was no other way out, so he began his explanation. “The way I saw it was that momentum is just a description of movement, a velocity during a certain distance. If you reduce the distance enough, momentum can become velocity. At extremely small scales, momentum can be transferred from object to object easily, but as the size grows so does the distance, so the momentum becomes harder to transfer as well. In this case, all you need to do is make sure to…” Bright white sparks suddenly appeared around Slava’s eyes, dancing and spreading to his mouth and tongue. Instantaneously, his mouth started to move at incredible speeds, making his next few words intelligible.

“I did that for demonstration purposes, but what I meant to say was; All you need to do is make sure to chain micro momentum transfers to create a bigger one, removing acceleration and deceleration from the equation.”

In front of him, Sasha stood pensive. “Shit that didn’t help me at all." She finally replied, nervously stomping her foot on the ground. "How do the same formulas apply to so many different things? Goddammit,” she murmured under her breath. As expected, he'd lost her halfway.

“Alright go take a shower before the other one starts having ideas,” she told him after a while. Her voice was plain, her expression still thoughtful.

He had spent the whole night working on the formulas. It sounded plain and simple to explain, but the execution was way harder. It wasn’t as simple as plugging numbers together. It consisted in cross-referencing different situations and formulas to come up with new ones that made sense. Its meaning also had to be extracted afterward. Even then, the formulas weren’t fully stable in every situation and he still had some issues interpreting some of their aspects. All in all, saying that it was easy would be a massive understatement.

“Ah, fuck!” he murmured under the fog of the steam room. “I was so close. If only… Shit, I need to go back!” Saying this he looked down at his hands. Clenching his fists, barely visible sparks lit up around him. Lightly slamming the wall, he closed his eyes. Taking a few deep breaths, his body relaxed.

Finally leaving the room, all signs of his previous agitation were gone as he took the time to put on some clothes. He always wore casual clothes. He would always prioritize comfort over anything else. If it was up to him, he would wear exosuits all the time. Unfortunately, It was considered a weapon, so its use was restricted outside authorized zones.

When he was ready he stepped into the hallway. In front of him, slightly further away, stood Sasha and Kolya seemingly having a nice chat. Now that he looked at her from afar, Sasha really was stunning. She always knew what to wear and when to wear it to make sure that all eyes would always fall on her.

“Oh, you done?" Seeing him approach, Sasha looked him up and down. "Look at you handsome, all clean and proper!" She exclaimed with a smile. "The clothes could use some work though,” raising her eyebrow, she shifted her gaze back to Kolya.

“Mhm, what are you guys chatting about and Kolya why are you half-naked in the hallway?” Asked Slava.

“Oh yea, I forgot. Haha, my bad. I was just curious to know what you were working on all night…” As their eyes met, Kolya lightly frowned. Feeling uncomfortable, Slava spoke. “What? Do I have something on my face?” Kolya's gaze was constantly dashing from his eyes to his mouth.

“Nah, don’t mind me, I just thought of something,” he said, facing both Slava’s and Sasha’s confused stares.

At this sight, Sasha couldn't help but sigh. “You guys are hopeless. Slava, are you ready now?” She removed her back from the wall.

“What do you mean? Isn’t it too early?” he asked confusedly. He'd rather stay and continue working for a little longer.

“What’s wrong?" She asked back. "You know? You don’t always need to be in a hurry.” Sasha didn't let him enter the room, “alright, come on, let’s go,” pushing him in the opposite direction.

“Haha to think I’d see the day Slava would go to class,” he looked up in a daze. “And on time at that! Have fun you two!” said Kolya ducking back through the doorway.