[h2][centre][color=cee4e1]Shou Matsuoka[/color][/centre][/h2]

(([@viciousmarrow] And possibly [@Stern Algorithm]))

[b]12:10am, 
Monday[/b]

[color=cee4e1]"Mnnh..."[/color]

[i]Buzz.[/i]

The silver haired professor rolled over in bed, away from the nightstand atop which his vibrating phone nagged at him to respond. [color=cee4e1]"Five more minutes..."[/color] he murmured into the pillow. It seemed two minutes passed, and then three minutes, and then-

...
...
[i]Buzz buzz.[/i]

Too late.
He lifted his pillow with a heavy hand and stuck his head under it, trying to drown out the insistent sound. After about five minutes of trying to fight off the need to stay awake, he groaned, reluctantly crawling out from under the pillow and laying flat on his back, his eyes bleary as he stared blankly at the ceiling. What time was it?
He went to check, hand fumbling around in the dark for his phone on his bedside table. Double-tapping the screen, the time blinked back up at him in digital: 
[b]00:10[/b]
Tapping it again, the digital dot-view screen yielded:

[b]14/08
[sub]Mon[/sub][/b]

The familiar symbol for voice-messages beamed up at him in pale yellow from the dot-view cover. He squinted at the phone for a handful of seconds, as if staring long and hard enough would make them go away, before resigning with a heavy sigh. The first day of the new summer-fall term at the academy began tomorrow, and he was certain he'd have gotten a good night's sleep if he clocked in by half past nine. He had everything prepared, suit freshly ironed and hung up for the next morning, socks and trousers and shirt laid out, Romeo and Jinxie's arrangements made with the neighbours. Everything was going perfectly...well, up until now.

Fumbling a little more in the darkness, he found his glasses and also the button-switch for the handy bedside lamp he kept for nights where he felt in the mood to read. And he was hoping he'd be weaning off his habit of drinking, too, before the new school year began. Most people made New Year's resolutions. Shou Matsuoka made New-School-Year-resolutions. Of course, sticking to them was a different matter entirely.

[color=cee4e1]"Huh..."[/color] having put the spectacles on, he flipped the cover of his phone open, and on the notifications tab was informed that there were seven unchecked voice-messages.
[i]Seven! What![/i]
Alarms went off internally. Did he sleep through an emergency, or something? He wasn't awake enough to deal with anything at midnight! His thumb swiped the password on his Vndroid phone to reveal that all, each and every one of the voice messages were from...
[i]Patience Morgan.[/i]

He cringed inwardly. Was the girl in trouble? Was something wrong? He would never forgive himself if she was trying to dial him, and he hadn't responded, and-
With trepidation, he clicked to listen to them. All seven.

...

He couldn't help but drag his palm down his face with a sigh that woke even the sleeping German-Shepherd in his basket by the window of the professor's room. Oh, Patience, what had she gone and done this time...that girl would get herself into way too much trouble if she continued. The profession she had chosen for herself was becoming a problem to her health. She was bubbly as ever at school, without a doubt, but this would wear her out faster than she could even imagine. He left his phone upon the nightstand and lay in bed again, listening to her messages all over again.

[color=#9a85c6]“I’m shorry about dat lasht message, please ignore id, Shosho. I just shtill shad from dat girl’s funeral ding… And lonely...”[/color]

Of course, how could he forget?

[hider=He murmured something into his Vndroid, and the soft sound of music filled the otherwise empty room.]
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqWcpEZ3GY0[/youtube]
[/hider]
He moved himself so he was sitting up, legs thrown off the side of the bed and the dull moonlight pouring in through translucent bedroom windows illuminating his figure. He was absolutely naked - and why wouldn't he be? Summer was hot enough, as it was. And, somehow, he could never give up the habit after spending so long with Alex. He reached for something on the bedside, holding it in the light of the lamp so he could get a better look at it.
'That girl's funeral thing...'
Of course, that girl was no ordinary girl. He turned the photo frame he held in his hands a little so the light would reflect less off the glass. It was a framed photo of the two of them, Shou Matsuoka and Tsubasa Yukimori, from much earlier days. 

[hider=The two stood by a backdrop that was, in hindsight, absolutely breathtaking.]
[img]http://pm1.narvii.com/6161/3599a725affc04a233e4867d6f486bd468bf24e6_hq.jpg[/img]

[/hider]
It was a summer evening, and Shou couldn't even remember what they were doing. Was it going to be his first day teaching at the academy? There must have been a reason he looked so stiff. Then again, Tsubasa was in what looked like a uniform, too. And then he remembered. The two childhood friends promised they'd start work at around the same time, but of course, since she was that much younger than him (about six years, give or take), she was still in nursing school. Still, she never gave up being by his side, through all of life's challenges, and he was protective over her like a big brother to a little sister - he never did have one, after all, with just him and Yuusha in the house. Even Shou's mother, Chiasa, had happily taken the girl into the family and remembered the three of them engaging in all sorts of adventures as children. They must have met when she was six, and the boys were eleven and fourteen, and as she grew up, they had been inseparable.

Patience's words played in his head again, taking him back to the events of the afternoon. Shou had gone with Tsubasa's parents, Kimiko and Shintaro, to arrange for their daughter's funeral. Thirty days, give or take, but if Shine City's doctors, some of the best in the region, had confirmed it, you'd be right to believe them.

Shou had to shake himself out of his thoughts. It was as if everyone important in his life were slowly being taken away from him, one by one. He thought back to how he almost lost Oliver, too. Shou and Oliver Holland went way back, and he was crushed when he believed that his old friend was dead. New Year's had a rollercoaster of emotions for the man, including being reunited with his old friend, who had turned into a bandaged, mummy-esque mess, but he was still the same man Shou knew and cared about, very deeply. It seemed he had dropped off the face of the earth, or Shou himself had busied himself with the ending term, and they saw less of each other. He hoped he would be able to see more of him now, once he got back into the groove of things.

His thoughts were snapped back to Patience. She was alone, out there, and drunk out of her mind. Who wouldn't be in danger in a situation like that? He was worried about her, too. That girl always had a knack for...making him worry about her. With a new franticness, he dialled her number, to no response. And tried again, and once more. He hoped she would respond.
When those were logged as 'busy' too (perhaps she was making another call), the silver haired man clambered out of bed, stretching out his body like a cat, as well. Ever loyal, his older dog did the same, padding over to his master and sitting obediently at his feet. Shou and Romeo had a connection that ran pretty deep. For a long time, the dog was his only companion to keep him sane, after Alessandra's passing. Jinxie was warming up to him now, too, but he couldn't deny that him and Romeo had been through more. He'd never admit it to the Jack Russel that lay, spoilt, sleeping in Alex's corner of the king-sized bed, at the foot of where his fiancee used to sleep, but some things were just left best between a man and [i]his[/i] dog.

Sauntering lazily over to a robe hanging on one of the closet doors (as he left out every night), he pulled it on before going to the bathroom and freshening up. Normally, this would be a routine that he would do in the morning. He had to be awake bright and early at 6:30, after all, but sometimes, things like that could wait.
He dialled his student - and good friend, he had to admit, else he wouldn't have cared about her quite as much - again, hoping to get a response,
[color=cee4e1]"Patience, Patience. Also, do you realise what time it is? Where are you, right now? ...sorry I couldn't answer your calls, I - like you rightly thought - was asleep. God, just...don't get in any more trouble, okay? Just tell me where you are. I'll come to pick you up. You should be asleep, y'know. School starts in-"[/color] he looked at the digital clock by his bedside, green numbers blinking back at him as if scolding him for being awake, [color=cee4e1]"-less than eight hours."[/color]

He couldn't deny he was worried about her. That being said, he rummaged through his closet for something casual and appropriate for a midnight hunt-for-patience. This would be a long, long evening, it would seem...
The German Shepherd cross at his feet yawned his agreement, resting his nose on his paws as he protectively watched his master pace around his bedroom in contemplation, and choose out a pair of clothes to wear, this late into the night.