"You would think for all the staring I did, the clock would move a bit faster.." Cassius sighed to himself, picking up his backpack and heading to the door out of his history class. He heard a slight crackle, then a small chime before a familiar voice rang in his ear.

"If you were engaged in the lesson, you wouldn't be able to devote any attention to the time.." Cassius rolled his eyes, a gesture that he was thankful his Navi couldn't see. He always found his Western Civilization class to be, as he put it frequently, "a chance for that windbag of a teacher to inform the willingly open students about what should be fascinating."

"It's not my fault the history teacher's horrible at holding my interest." He scoffed, adjusting his sunglasses slightly to the apparent interest of a girl walking by who offered him a small smile in return. He flashed a toothy grin and made a cheesy shooting gesture, another moment he was glad Aestus couldn't capture fully. Again her sigh slipped into his ear.

"Why do you even act like that? Do you not realize the full of your potential? You are an intelligent being, I don't see the purpose in acting like a buffoon." Her voice was very matter of fact, and bordered on haughty, but she retained the ability to keep a peaceful air about her tone, a talent Cassius found irritating from time to time. She sounded more often than not like a mother than a friend. "As if it matters now.. What is the agenda for the afternoon to be?"

Cassius paused in the middle of the hallway, putting a finger to his chin in contemplation. His eyes drifted over toward the library, the place that he knew he -ought- to go to study for his upcoming math test, but his eye caught the hallway leading to the computer labs. The moment the hallway came into view, there was a flurry of nearly unintelligible and somewhat terse Latin.

"You're getting really good with that." He nodded. Aestus responded with with something between a cough and a sigh.

"That's not the point. You have a math test next week." Cassius pulled his PET out of his pocket and let it rest in his hand. Soon after, a small holographic image of a woman with white hair and a toga emerged from a small display on the device's face.

"And how do you know that?" He asked, quirking an eyebrow.

"Because you log all of your assignments into your computer." She responded very matter-of-factly. Cassius shuddered slightly. Not because she was right, but because he was constantly reminded of how nice her voice was. What really got to him was the fact that this always came up when she was in the middle of lecturing him.

"How about this. I haven't actually taken you out to battle for a while, so I'll strike a little deal with you." He grinned. Aestus simply folded her arms in that eye-catchingly serene and deliberate way that she did everything which evoked another shudder from him.

"I swear you could dictate a novel just by blinking your eyes." The Navi's brow furrowed slightly.

"What exactly is that supposed t-"

"Never mind." He interrupted. "I'll take you out to battle, and if we win I'll listen to you and go study. How's that?" Aestus's eyebrow arched with what could be supposed as interest.

"As much as I disagree with your study habits and general choice of lifestyle," She started, a slightly melodic swish sounding out over the PET as she retrieved her weapon from its resting place on her back. "You have always been true to your word. We have a deal."

Cassius smiled, walking down to the computer lab and finding an unused terminal to jack into. The moment he sat down however, the grin vanished from his face and his eyes became set and rigid. Understanding the change as a signal for battle, Aestus conjured her aquatic battle armor and prepared to jump into the net.

"Aestus.exe, jack-in."