Reintroductions
(For Lack of a Better Name)

Spring Break, for many college students, means a chance to get back out into the world, rest up after long hours spent studying for tests and exams, and maybe go back home and have your parents take care of your laundry and food supplies. Of course, all things must come to an end sometime, and so, once Spring Break ends, all the college students have to pack up their things, head back to their dorms, and get back to the grindstone.

Of course, it helps when your twin brother makes sure that your things are packed up in the car alongside his things, like you asked him to. Unfortunately for Mag, this was not the case. And thus, the Flareon was left sitting on a bench in the lobby of the college dorm building, waiting for Dash to come back from their family's house with his luggage that was left behind.

"At least I've got my smartphone." Mag muttered to himself as he tapped here and there on the screen, playing a game that had come out recently which he found rather entertaining. Various students, dressed for the very un-spring-like weather the city was having lately, were coming through the doors, chatting with friends and dragging along their luggage. Mag, however, was much less bundled up, in just a t-shirt and shorts. Having an innate affinity for fire and heat helped make choosing what to wear year-round much easier for him.

Occasionally a student he knew would come through the doors, but no one approached Mag to strike up any conversation. Sitting on a bench off to the side from the doors and out of direct sight of most people will do that, Mag had hoped, and was perfectly fine with it being true. Playing a game on his phone probably helped as well, as it looked like he might be doing something important besides merely playing a game.

Not everyone would be deterred by all this, however, as soon enough, a couple of familiar faces came up to him, belonging to his friends, Regina and Lilith, the former a widely grinning Arcanine girl, and the latter a somewhat exasperated-looking Mightyena girl. Regina plunked herself down on Mag's left, and Lilith took a seat on the other side of him.

"Hi girls." Mag said, looking up from his phone for the first time in a few minutes to glance at his new bench-mates. Regina, being a Fire-type like Mag, was dressed more for summer than the not-spring temperatures of the day, with a modest t-shirt and knee-length skirt. Lilith, however, was more accurately bundled up, in a jacket and blue jeans.

"Hey, Mr. Anti-social!" Regina poked Mag's side. "Didn't Keiko tell you not to hide away in a corner with your phone? She's not gonna be happy if she sees you doing pretty much exactly that."

"I'll be fine, I don't think she's here yet." Mag waved his hand dismissively, turning his attention back to his phone.

"Regina, you'd have better luck convincing a wall to be more social." Lilith chuckled, before looking around the lobby. "Where's your brother? I was expecting him to be causing problems in the lobby before even reaching your dorm room."

"Oh, he forgot my luggage." Mag replied, causing Regina to giggle and Lilith to sigh. "I could have sworn I asked him to make sure we put my stuff in the car before we left, but apparently he didn't hear me."

"Lilith said he'd probably wind up in trouble before getting into the dorms, looks like you were right about that! Well, technically." Regina laughed, although Lilith looked none too thrilled to be correct.

"Alright, let's talk about something else besides my brother's low attention span..." Mag said, still focused on his phone. "What classes do you two have coming up?"

"Well, I've got some more law enforcement classes." Lilith replied, counting off on her fingers as she spoke. "One on combat theory, an Advanced Battle Techniques class, aaand an elective science class." Mag glanced up from his phone again to give her a quizzical look. "Hey, I need the credits!" She huffed, getting some laughter from her friends.

"To be fair, I've got a science class I'm taking for credit purposes, too." Mag said, tapping some more on his phone. "Is yours the one with the weird gnoll girl, uh..." Mag furrowed his brow, trying to remember her name.

"Oh, Professor Arlulu?" Lilith replied, jogging his memory.

"Yeah, that's the one. I think the name of the class is Science And The Magic Of Alchemy."

"Yep, that's my class too, actually. I figured if I'm gonna take something for credits, I might as well make it interesting." Lilith laughed.

"Oh wait!" Regina snapped forward and hopped in her seat excitedly, which made Mag a bit glad his brother wasn't around to stare at Regina's bouncing. "She's the one with the crazy eye, right? The one that's all black with a blue iris that's all cool and glowy?"

"Uh, yeah, I think she is." Mag replied. "But she says-"

"I heard she can see the spirit world with that!" Regina interrupted, in a hushed, matter-of-fact tone.

"Regina, you can't just-" Lilith began to interject before being also getting cut off by her energetic friend.

"Or she can see the future! It's one or the other, I think..." Regina tapped a finger against her lips, in thought. "I dunno if it was both, but imagine if it was!"

"Regina!" Lilith snapped, bringing her energetic friend's excited bouncing to a halt. "Stop listening to rumors and stuff like that, Professor Arlulu said those are all fake anyways." She spoke in a softer tone which Mag could tell took her a lot of willpower to use.

"Oh... uh, sorry." Regina poked her fingers together, looking up at her friends and giving a slightly nervous laugh. "I'll try to do more fact-checking in the future, ehehehe..."

"Aaanyways..." Mag decided to get the conversation back on track. "What about you, Regina? What classes do you have comin' up?"

"Hmm, I think I've just got a music class or two," Regina leaned back in her seat, staring up at the ceiling. "Like playing some other instruments besides the guitar. Dad covered those lessons well enough already!" She peered over at her friends and giggled. "I think I might have some other classes, but I kinda chose 'em at random, to try and widen my area of study."

"Again?" Mag asked, looking up from his game again with a confused look. "I know you still haven't declared a major and stuff, but you've been changing up your classes so often, I don't think you've had the same types of classes two semesters in a row..."

"Well, y'know, I'm just trying t-" Regina began, but was interupted by the door as it opened again. She gave a gasp of joy before jumping up from her seat at lightning-speed to greet the girls whom had just entered, yelling rather enthusiastically as she did so. The speed at which all this occurred nearly made Mag drop his phone with a start. Regina then began jumping around and chatting quickly with the girls she ran over to, which turned out to be her fellow members of the cheerleading squad for the college, a cow girl named Molly whom Mag often saw with Regina, along with two girls Mag was less familiar with, one an Oricorio and the other a Plusle.

Lilith watched all this with the same exasperated look she had when she first showed up. "I swear, she's a great girl, means well, and is super nice..." She sighed, sinking lower in her seat. "But fuck if she isn't tiring to be around sometimes." She gave a world-weary laugh at her own words, before sitting back up again.

"Well, it's good to know she didn't lose her ADD attention span over the break." Mag glanced over at the group of girls bouncing around, giddy to see each other again. He stared at this rather eye-catching spectacle for slightly longer than he would admit to his loving girlfriend, the thought of which drove him to pry his eyes away and back onto his game.

Suddenly Lilith was the next one to jump out of her seat suddenly, but before Mag could figure out the reason for it, he was hit rather hard by something sizable and tumbled out of his seat on the bench. "Ack! Wh- what the fuck..." Mag sputtered, looking back at the bench to see who, or what, had knocked him out of it. What he saw was Keiko, his Glameow girlfriend, sitting where he was just a moment ago, holding his smartphone which must have fallen from his grasp in the momentary chaos, and looking none too pleased. "Oh... hi honey."

He got back onto his feet and dusted himself off. This was more than most opponents his girlfriend had squared off against were capable of after a hipcheck like Keiko's, but Mag had plenty of experience with it from all their sparring, and the occasional usage outside of battle. "Uh... what's up?" He tried to sound cheerful, despite the fact he had a feeling why this surprise attack happened. He glanced towards Lilith, who immediately looked away and tried to be casual, despite the fact she clearly saw Keiko coming and could have warned him.

"Mag..." Keiko sounded like she was trying to match Mag's tone, which made it sound far more ominous to him. "What have I told you about sitting off in the corner and playing games on your phone?" She waved his smartphone before looking at the screen. "You're lucky I'm so agile, you would have lost a bunch of progress if this hit the ground, it looks like."

Mag sat back down on the bench next to his girlfriend, looking rather sheepish. "Ahh, sorry hun..." He began, slouching in his seat. I'm just waiting for Dash to bring my stuff back fro-"

"Wait, did he forget your stuff?" Keiko interrupted.

"Uh, yeah."

"Fuck!" Keiko groaned. "I owe Sayako ten dollars."

"Did... she bet he'd do that?"

"No, just that he'd fuck something up in general right off the bat." Keiko pouted for a moment, then saw Lilith was doing a rather poor job of looking nonchalant as she tried to decide whether or not to sit back down with them. "Lilith, sit back down already!" She laughed heartily. "I was only gonna yell to scare him at first until I saw him staring at the Jiggle Sisters over there." She motioned to where Regina and the other cheerleaders had been, although they had since taken their chatting towards the dorms.

Mag flinched slightly at the observation while Lilith plopped herself back down on the bench, relieved to have the tension broken. "Uh, well, they were being rather noisy an-" Mag had started to explain, before Keiko suddenly leaned on him heavily as her spiral-tail encircled his waist.

"Why is it so fucking cold outside?!" Keiko griped, shuddering suddenly. Mag noticed she was dressed very warmly, but the proximity to the door outside meant having to deal with the occasional burst of cold air whenever a student showed up with their own luggage in tow. This particular time was caused by a considerably large Nidoqueen dragging an equally-large suitcase behind her. Mag recognized her as Nina, a friend of his and Keiko's and to an extent, Lilith. They had been rivals in battling for a very long time however, and always found time to take jabs at each other which he knew would result in a snide comment from one to the other as soon as they saw each other.

"Wow, Lil', lookin' like a third wheel there." Nina called out to the Mightyena, apparently having taken notice of her already. "Wouldn't happen if you weren't such a bitch to guys, maybe you'd have one too." She kept her eyes focused on the path to her dorm ahead, knowing full well that not looking at Lilith would agitate her more while insults were thrown.

In moments Lilith was on her feet again, striding not directly towards the Nidoqueen, but in an arc towards her own dorm. Mag and Keiko instinctively braced themselves for any form of confrontation, as was common around the two, and sure enough Lilith fired back. "At least I have a reason for being one literally, what's your excuse?" She grunted to Nina once she got close enough. This began a back-and-forth of insults between the two, some thinly-veiled and others more brazen. Their near-yelling could be heard for another minute or so, leaving Mag and Keiko to stare at the hallway they went down.

"Remind me to get boyfriends for those two, so they can work out their frustrations elsewhere." Keiko eventually quipped.

"You mean they can't just do that with each other?" Mag mused.

"Honestly at this point, that option's not off the table yet."

The couple snickered at their own jokes, before Keiko sighed and handed Mag his smartphone back. "Take it, I don't care." She leaned against him some more, relishing the warmth his body naturally gave off as it warded off the cold from outside. "I do want you to be more social though, don't think you're off the hook for that." She poked his nose, causing Mag to squirm a bit.

"So uh, I didn't mean to sta-" Mag began explaining again as he took his phone back with some reluctance, before Keiko pokes his nose again.

"C'mon, man, I know you didn't mean to stare." She chuckled, snuggling into him again. "They're very... bouncy. All over. All the time." Keiko exaggerated the tone of her pouting about the difference in size between them and herself, although Mag knew she did have some concerns in that department.

"Honey, you know I only have eyes for you." He smooched her cheek as he put his arm around her, holding his phone in his other hand. "And your butt is way better than theirs." He winced in pain slightly. "Seriously, it should be classified as a lethal weapon, I think you bruised a rib..." He scoffed as Keiko snickered.

"Thanks hun." Keiko murmured. "You really know how to sweet-talk a girl."

Mag chuckled, as he turned his attention back to his smartphone, but didn't make much headway in the game before feeling a large, soft, and somewhat familiar weight upon his head, and a girl's voice from above. "What'cha playing, Mag?" The voice inquired innocently, although Mag knew the owner to be far from innocent.

"First of all, hi Meimu." Mag began, almost with the same fake cheerfulness that Keiko had used with him earlier. "Second of all, kindly remove your chest from my head."

"Booo..." Meimu pouted, before getting up from the backwards-bench on the other side of Mag's. She walked around to the other side and sat down next to Mag, opposite from Keiko, whom merely glared at the Zorua as she took a seat. She was dressed rather conservatively, given her usual showy clothing, although this was most likely due to the cold. Her jacket was zipped up completely, yet she still had a rather short skirt on, with stockings that reached up under it. She grinned widely at the couple, either not noticing or not caring about the daggers Keiko was shooting her. "I was just curious about what you had goin' there."

Mag decided to try and keep the conversation civil as long as Meimu would do the same. "Eh, it's just a new smartphone game that came out." Mag showed Meimu the screen. "It's pretty cool, I guess."

"Ah, yeah, I've been playing some stuff on my phone too." Meimu nodded. "I've gotta find something to do in between photoshoots, after all." She giggled and leaned back in her chair. "I put in for more time than usual over vacation, it'll suck to have to go back to part-time again." She sighed deeply before clapping her hands together and looking cheerful again. "But hey! It'd make the time I spend with the other girls all the more meaningful when I do go in!"

Mag laughed along with Meimu, while Keiko continued to glare at the Zorua on the other side of her boyfriend. Meimu just couldn't ignore it any longer, and chirped, "Keiko, why the look? If they could kill, I'd be dead five times over by now, ohohoho..."

"You know damn well why I'm glaring at you." Keiko gruffed, a bit of a growl developing in her voice.

"Oh, the boobhat thing?" Meimu asked, waving her hand. "It was merely a joke, nothing more. Sorry about that..." She scratched the back of her head then looked a bit sheepish. "You know I'm trying to clean up the ol' image a bit, my Freshman and Sophomore years here damaged that a fair deal..."

Keiko narrowed her eyes at the other girl, her growling intensifying slightly. It was true Meimu used to be rather open with her invitations to fellow students, whether male or female, but she had calmed down quite a bit once she got her job at a local modeling agency, where she was able to direct all of that energy into a much better outlet. "... Feh." Keiko turned away dismissively. "Whatever, just be careful with those things."

Meimu saluted the Glameow. "Will do, ma'am!" She hopped up out of her seat. "Well, I'm off, gotta get everything unpacked in my dorm room." She bowed to the couple. "Sayonara!" With that, she trotted off down the hallway towards her dorm. Mag made very sure not to stare at her as she walked away, because he knew full well that Keiko had turned her attention back to him to make sure he didn't.

"Oh, there you are!" A different female voice called from the door leading outside. The couple looked over to see Keiko's younger sister Sayoko coming in, the Purrloin bundled up just about as much as Keiko was, looking relieved. "You snuck off right after we got here, what the heck were you doing?"

Keiko laughed heartily, before replying. "Ah, I just wanted to surprise ol' fluffbutt here." She gave Mag a pat on the head, while Mag couldn't help but chuckle, since she really did surprise him alright. "Sorry 'bout that!"

Sayoko gave Mag a wave as she approached the bench, then peered down the hallway. "I just saw Meimu with you two, she wasn't causing any problems, was she?" She asked with a sigh. "You looked a bit pissed off there, I was worried she went a bit too far with a joke again..."

"Nah, don't worry about it, I think I was a bit harsh on her." Keiko waved her hand dismissively as she got up off the bench.

"Ah, yeah." Sayoko laughed. "She's still getting the hang of being less grabby and flirty and stuff."

"True, but it's a lot different when you've got a boyfriend she gets all grabby and flirty with."

"That better not have been a jab at me!"

"Guilty conscious needs no accuser." Keiko gave a smug grin as her sister playfully punched her arm. "So I'm guessing you brought in absolutely none of the boxes while I was away."

"Well, I was looking for you this whole time, so..." Sayoko trailed off as she poked her fingers together, her gaze fixed away from Keiko.

"Dang it, Sayoko." Keiko put the hood up on her jacket and braced for the cold air beyond the door. "You lazy bum, now we have to go back out there again!"

Sayoko gave an involuntary shudder at the thought. "Oh, right... damn it." She peered over to Mag on the bench. "Cuddling up to Mag afterwards would give me some good incentive to go quickly."

"Being cold will be the least of your worries if you try that." Keiko growled, half-joking but also half-serious. Before they reached the door it opened again, and through it walked the guy whom had kept Mag waiting all this time. "Dash, what the fuck man?!" Keiko yelled, punching the Jolteon in the arm far harder than Sayoko had done to her earlier.

"Ow! What?!" Dash yelped, completely offguard.

"How do you forget to make sure your own twin brother's stuff is in the car before you leave?!"

"I thought he said he put it in there already!" Dash threw his arms up, clearly having already been chewed out for it on his return trip back home.

Sayoko perked up upon hearing their conversation. "Wait, did he really fuck something up already?" She asked, a bit too much of a tone of excitement in her voice for Keiko's taste. "Sis, pay up!" She held her hand out in front of Keiko, who grumbled and turned to the door once more.

"I'll give you it later, for now let's just get our stuff unpacked."

"I'm not gonna let you forget it if that's what you're hoping for!"

The sisters continued their bickering out the door and into the parking lot, while Dash grumbled and rubbed his arm where Keiko had punched him before making his way over to Mag on the bench. "Mom and Dad already gave me crap about it, now she does too." He griped, but received no sympathy from Mag, who seemed to find wrapping up the game on his phone more interesting than his brother's complaints. "Alright, stuff's in the car, let's get it all inside."

"Finally..." Mag sighed as he started to get up off the bench, but the door outside opened once more and a Lopunny girl clad entirely in black clothing walked through it, seemingly in her own little world humming along to music she listened to through earbuds clipped to her large fluffy ears.

Dash saw her and immediately attempted to put Mag between him and the girl's line of sight in a very-badly-done attempt to look casual about it. "... Still hiding from your ex?" Mag muttered as the Lopunny continued walking past them and into the hallway. "You know you're like an inch taller than me, why are you trying to hide behind me?"

"I'm not... entirely... trying to hide behind you..." Dash said at a noticeably low volume. "... Is she gone though?"

Sure enough, the girl had left the area at that point. "Yeah, Chrissy's gone." Mag sighed and began heading to the door himself, with Dash close behind him looking over his shoulder down the hallway. "Remind me again why you keep hiding from her?"

"Because I swear she's gonna curse me or something if she sees me again." Dash breathed a sigh of relief at avoiding Chrissy as Mag scoffed.

"If she's gonna curse you, what makes you think she needs to actually see you again to do it?" Mag asked. "What even makes you think she could in the first place?"

"Well, I heard a rumor tha-" Dash began before Mag cut him off.

"Ugh, again with rumors." Mag opened the door outside and was hit by the cold air, although it was not really a bother to him. "Me and Lilith just had to tell Regina not to buy into that stuff, too. She heard we were having that class with the gnoll lady, Professor Arlulu, and-"

Now it was Dash's turn to cut his brother off mid-sentence. "Oh yeah, she's got the crazy eye that can see when people are lying, right?" He sounded rather excited by the idea, although Mag couldn't figure out why someone like him would be happy about such a thing.

"No, Dash, it can't see lies, nor the future, nor the spirit world." Mag retorted as they walked outside and Dash began leading the way to where he had parked. "She's already told people it's just a warning to everyone to always wear safety goggles when working with dangerous chemicals, and not to lean over the beakers when mixing them together just to see into 'em better."

"Yeah, yeah..." Dash's reply sounded bored. "She's probably lying about it, though. I mean, if you could see spooky stuff with your crazy-lookin' eye, you wouldn't go around telling everyone about it, right?"

Mag grumbled at his brother's stubbornness. "Dash, you really shouldn't just listen to rumors like that. Remember that one you heard about the weird tentacle-plant things supposedly growing in the forest near the campus here?"

"Hey, that one could be real, there's a part of it that's off-limits to students!"

Mag gave a weary sigh and decided to let the subject go for now, but he could only imagine what trouble his brother might cause in this new semester, or the rest of this day alone for that matter. They hadn't gotten their stuff unpacked yet, after all.

END