Pen rattles restlessly against the café table as a student racks their brain.

"Whatcha' doin'?" A boy in uniform asks.

"Avery?" The student looks at him, then looks back at their work. "Well... it's not something I can't..." Uncertainty takes hold of their voice.

"Well, looks like your brain's drained on energy," Avery hands the student a plate of doughnut balls. "Empty stomach, empty mind, right?"

The student hesitated on the offer.

"It's vegetarian if the jelly is a concern," Avery affirms.

The student accepts. Taking it as an invitation, Avery takes a seat beside them.

"I believe this is our first time meeting, right?"

"Yeah, it's been a while since some of these faces since our designations. It's nice having everyone together again."

"Wait, now that you mention it, you're Lukas, right?"

"I'm Luca, I don't think Lukas made it to the trip."

"My bad, the 's' always gets me. What've you been up to since designation?"

"Nothing crazy. Been assigned to specialise in investigation,s and I can't get my head around this scenario." Luca's voice edges out in frustration.

Avery pulls the paper closer, getting a better look at it.

"Can you break it down for me? Lik,e what's your thought process?" Avery asks, guiding Luca.

Luca provides their response directly and literally.

"They say the most obvious answer tends to be the right one, but it isn't a hard set rule. Not everyone we're gonna deal with is gonna make sense, at least not at first." Avery pauses to think of an example. "All these competing witness reports may seem contradictory if you were to look at them from the suspect's perspective, of each report, you could trace or extrapolate commonalities from them. At least that's how I've been working on my assignments."

Luca lets out a heavy sigh. "That sounds long, though."

"That's cause it is, it's even longer in reality, reports can be even less reliable. At least with these, there's meant to be an end to find. You don't always get that on the field. That's from what Mr Moreno's been saying anyway."

"Hmm, I'll see what I can do." Luca looks at the clock and starts scrambling to finish the work.

Avery let them be as he made his way to the second storey of the café. He picked a lively-sounding study booth and strolled right in.

"Just the guy we're looking for!" One of them calls out.

The door closes behind Avery. "What'd I do this time?"

"It's about what you're gonna do." A student commands. "We're trying to see if Hugo can still be a whiney bitch about this girl who rejected him eight months ago."

"But she actually cared about my interests." Hugo pours.

"You know who also cares about your interests?" The student paused for a response. "Me, dickhead. Yet I'm yet to see you slobbering and grovelling for me the same way you're doing for her."

"Well, she's a woman. You're well... You."

The two of them broke into a spat before Avery decided to step in as requested. "You see, Mercy, let Hugo go through the motions. Better to let it out for good than repress it and cause other problems later."

"Eh? He's had a whole pregnancy term to move on."

"How long did it take you to move on from your ex?" Avery spits back.

"Two years," she mumbles under her breath.

"Then why not give him that same grace?"

"Maybe it's because we actually dated and they barely even touched hands."

"Then I guess I'm overdue in giving you some shit. Now ,where do I begin?" Avery caresses his chin thoughtfully, Hugo joining him, then the other students.

"No shot y'all think this is the same."

"I mean... Food for thought."

"You can think with my foot up your ass." Mercy shoo'd him away. Avery walked about, but could hear the murmurs of a conversation rather than the back-and-forth neck biting from earlier.

He makes his way downstairs to the counter, ordering himself a small jelly-filled doughnut ball. He leaves the café, ending his lunch break, while enjoying his treat.

As he approached the La Defense Institute doors he could hear shouts, "Wait! Wait up!"

He turns around, seeing a blonde lady in blue and white reaching out for him. He closes the distance between them.

"You need something?" Avery asks, offering some of his treats.

Panting, she replies, "Thanks— for— waiting." She takes a deep breath and lets out a heavy exhale. "I forgot my ID." She gives a nervous chuckle.

"You a student here? I'm only a guest, I don't have much access—"

"We're in the same boat, dude. I'm a trainee too, I just couldn't find my ID before the bus left."

Avery takes a closer look at her appearance. "I don't think I've seen you, though."

"Well, my luck's been uncanny recently. Had to beg to join the trip and only got approval literally hours before y'all left. Had to get the Eurostar to get to the hotel, and had to figure out the metro here cause the bus left before my eyes as I reached the ground floor," she moans out her frustration. "Plus, it's just for this class, and after that, I can grab my ID and probably camp in my room till y'all get back."

"Huh!? And miss out on the all-inclusive tour paid for by the city itself!?"

"I'm not one for tourist traps. Plus, I got some sleep to catch up."

Avery continues walking, with her following close by.

"Well, we're early for class, so I guess your uncanny streak is over." He reaches for another doughnut ball but pauses. "You sure you don't want some? They're vegetarian."

"Eating makes me drowsy, so I'd rather be awake for class."

Avery second-guesses her, but doesn't vocalise the thought, instead nodding affirmatively.

Avery stood outside the reception, looking into the orange sky distantly. From bright blue to orange and lilac, the realisation of the changing seasons hit as hard as the exhaustion after the joint lesson the cadets had with La Defense Institute in their prized House of Omega. The bus awaited them for their next leg of their journey:

"A tour in Paris!" Mercy announces from behind as she hops onto his back. Avery caught her, only stumbling a few steps forward. With the momentum, he carries them both into the coach.

"You're pretty excited for someone who called this place a 'shiny shithole'." They scan their IDs on entry.

"We're British, when has that stopped us before?" Mercy is dropped into her seat, while Avery sits across from her.

Avery chuckles as he falls into the seat behind him, "Well, you enjoy, I'm calling it from here."

"You answer a few questions and sit your ass for a bit and call it quits?"

"Maybe if you paid attention instead of texting guys in class, you'd maybe be a little checked out."

"Well, don't come to me when you're missing out on a Frenchie from a Frenchie."

"If it's meant to be, it'll find its way to me."

As Mercy tried to respond, Avery had checked himself out.

With the cover of twilight, the coach brakes suddenly at the hotel entrance. The momentum tossed Avery to the ground. Grunting, he tries picking himself up while everyone makes their way out of the coach. Luca comes passing by, offering their hand. Avery takes their hand.

Luca tried striking up a conversation, despite his usual upbeat tone, exhaustion marked his voice.

When they finally arrived at the hotel, Luca and Avery went to their spacious shared room.

“You coming for the tour de Pari?” Luca asks.

Avery falls into his bed, “If I can get up, then yeah, I’ll come.” His voice muffled as his face fell into his pillow.

“Want me to wake you up when it’s time to go or…”

“If God wills it…” His voice dulls out. “Where are Jay and Kay?”

“Probably at the diner floor.”

“In uniform? Crazy work.”

“You’re one to speak, cadet; on bed in uniform,” Luca says, expecting a response that never came. Luca looks over to the beds, seeing Avery sound asleep.

Not too long after, his eyes open, enveloped by the ambient city glow. He looks over the bedside clock, seeing that only an hour has passed. Avery makes his way to the bathroom, cleaning away the signs of sleep from his face.

At the walk-in wardrobe, he changes into his pedestrian attire. At the door, he checks his phone, just over an hour since they arrived.

He makes his way to the floor lobby and looks out the window. The last of his cohorts entered the coach. He looks at the contacts on his phone, pondering how much he really wants to go.

“Just missed ‘em… again.” The blonde lady from before states. Before Avery could respond, she continued. “At least I’m not alone, right, Avery?”

“I guess,” he responds automatically while he tries to collect his thoughts.

“Honestly, I thought of joining ‘em ‘cause I lowkey got jack to do camping it out, but looks like I made that decision a bit late. But what’s your excuse?”

“I was asleep so…” he says as his hands run through his curls.

“I just left the diner and thought I’d drop by and see what’s up with Jay, but no one answered the door, so I waited, and by the time I realised he wasn’t coming then… the rest solves itself.”

“He left in uniform?”

“Haven’t seen him since brunch,” she shrugged. “Plus, why are cadets in uniform in the first place?”

“You didn’t attend the brief?”

“Dude, I had like hours of notice and had to make my own way in while y’all flew in.” She went to sit down on the lobby sofa. “I think I missed a little more than just the brief.”

Avery went and sat across from her. “Well, for the trip to be sponsored, we are registered as active cadets, so we’re on duty until the parade.”

“Parade? Like for the armistice?”

“There isn’t any other parade I’m aware of, so yeah, the armistice.”

“What happened to the actual military for the military parade?”

“No idea, my guess they’re bracing for the syndicate’s reaction to the event.”

“What’re they gonna do that the Interpol can’t handle— oh, yeah… I see it now.”

“Yeah, not too eager to find out what’s gonna happen after.” Avery’s tone turns sombre.

“If they’re expecting aggression, why are they putting y’all on the line?”

“It’s gonna be hard for the syndicate to respond when they’re gonna be put under siege during the event.”

“They sound pretty open talking about military tactics with cadets.”

“It’s pretty obvious, even if they don’t say it, the syndicates won’t take lightly to the referendum, so active suppression is necessary to keep them from acting. My guess is that the military is already moving to act, hence why they have us fill in for the parade.”

“Whoa…”

“Tell me about it.”

7 days until the armistice