Ephemeral Dream

IX: Hei Long

As I followed Summer down the stairs, my eyes moved to my MP that I'd exhausted right before going to sleep. It was back at full. Casting a glance at the time, I saw it was 6 P.M.

That meant 8 hours of sleep was definitely enough to restore my MP from zero to one-hundred percent. Doing some quick math in my mind, I concluded sleep really did explosively increase my recovery time. If I'd been awake for eight hours without using mana, my MP would be sitting at around five-thousand, not the almost eight-thousand it was at now.

An unintentional experiment, but an important one for the future.

"What's for dinner?" I asked Summer.

"Fish and chips," she said. "I wanted to make something simple tonight..." She pouted. "I was really excited when Raven said you'd have to face me in cooking contests every Friday, but I understand why you'd ask for tonight off."

I laughed sheepishly. "Thank you."

"... Are you really planning on living on your own?" She asked me softly, stopping at the bottom of the stairs and looking back at me.

"Yes," I nodded. "I understand you're concern, but I know how to do household chores. I can cook and stuff... Neo is the one I'm worried about."

She didn't say anything.

"She's lived her life in an orphanage, or even on the streets," I told her. "She probably doesn't know much about doing chores or things like that, which is why I want you to teach her. Not just school stuff, but also how to do things like chores, how to cook, all those sorts of things. So that, even if I'm not around, she'll be able to live on her own."

"Can I ask something?" She asked after listening.

"Huh? Sure."

"Why do you care so much?" She said. "I understand you saved her, and you sympathise with her due to her being kidnapped like you were... But why are you doing this much? Is it something to do with the Guardian Bond?"

"... I don't know," I told her truthfully. "I've... Thought about the Guardian Bond. I truthfully feel like it's a forced bond, created from being exposed to my Sky Flames too much... But something inside of me is telling me otherwise. Something tells me that this bond isn't unnatural, that this was meant to happen..." I shook my head. "Eh, don't worry about it."

She gave me a look I couldn't identify, before nodding. "Alright, Jaune... I won't push you any further on this, but don't be afraid to ask for help if you need it, alright?"

"I won't be," I promised. "Afraid I mean, I'll ask for help if I really think I need it."

She smiled and nodded, before leading me through to the dining room. "Girls! Look who's here!"

I saw Ruby and Yang turn their eyes to me, before their eyes widened in surprise. "Jaune!" Ruby cheered as she jumped off her chair, running over to me and giving me a tight hug.

I smiled and returned the hug, rubbing her back. "Hey Ruby."

"You're out of the Hospital now?" Yang asked, looking relieved. "I mean, we were told you got released, but it's damn good to see you looking okay."

"Yeah, never felt better," I smiled at her, continuing to rub Ruby's back. "So, I guess I'll be in your care for a short while."

"Huh?" Yang tilted her head, and Ruby looked up at me. "What do you mean?"

"It means Jaune is going to be living here for a couple of days," Raven said from her place at the table.

"What!?" Yang and Ruby exclaimed as they whipped their heads around to Raven.