Why Did I Write So Many Tropes?!

I winced as the nurse tightened the bandages around my ribs. "Ow. A little gentler, please?"

Dr. Andre sighs. "Maybe don't throw yourself into a fight with one of the top students in your year. Then, we can talk about 'gentleness.'"

I gasped for air as he tightened the bandages again. Did I see some malice in his eyes…? I must have been mistaken. Surely, I was mistaken…

For several moments, I felt sympathetic towards Mr. Booker-- he had to deal with Dr. Andre whenever he accidentally injured me. He can get pretty scary. Even Mr. Booker cowers before him and now, I'm starting to understand why.

I muttered something under my breath, but the nurse ignored me, moving on to inspect the burns on my arms. Across the room, Leo let out a dramatic sigh.

"You're really annoying, you know that?" he grumbled, shifting in his bed.

I laughed, glancing at him. "Says the guy who nearly fried himself trying to kill me."

Leo rolled his head to the side, eyes narrowing. "I wasn't trying to kill you."

"Could've fooled me." I gestured at my tattered sleeves, scorched and barely hanging on. "Or do you just call 'almost vaporizing someone' a friendly spar?"

He huffed, looking away. "…You pissed me off."

 What a tsundere. This is hilarious. I let out a dry chuckle. "Yeah, I tend to have that effect on people."

Silence settled between us for a moment, the only sound being the faint ticking of a magic clock on the wall. 

After he finished tending to me, Dr. Andre moved on to Leo, peeling back what remained of his sleeve. His arm was covered in raw, red burns from where his own lightning had licked at his skin.

I watched as he winced but said nothing, his usual arrogance dulled in the aftermath of the fight. Perhaps his ego had burned up in that insane lightning blade he had summoned before.

On second thought, it was unlikely.

With his healing magic and mundane medical skills, Dr. Andre was quickly done with his work and walked away after giving us his usual speech about waiting until he had released us before we could get up. At this point, I had heard it countless times already and was barely listening. Rather, I was studying Leo.

"You pushed yourself too hard," I muttered, looking at the white bandages that covered both of his arms.

The white-haired boy scoffed, but there was no real heat behind it. "Like you didn't?"

"Okay, fair," I shrugged. "But at least I knew when to stop-- I didn't need Mr. Kvasir to physically restrain me."

"Shut up," he sighed, before continuing. "Next time, I'll win before it gets to that point."

"What makes you so sure there'll be a next time?"

He gave me the side-eye. "You are annoyingly persistent, if nothing else."

"Thank you for the compliment. I'm blushing," I deadpanned.

He frowned, before turning away from me.

I almost thought I heard him say, "Maybe being persistent isn't that bad."

Or something like that.

***

I was confused.

Gauss, Rebecca, and Leo were sitting at our table again.

It was a strange sight. Seeing almost the entire main cast in one place threw me off as the author.

When I sat down between Perseus and Lucia, the others welcomed me. Though technically, Gauss and Rebecca were the ones who welcomed me; Leo just looked up at me before looking back at his food. Which I supposed was better than glaring at me, so I would take it.

"So, you guys sit here now?" I asked, as I began cramming spoonfuls of curry rice into my mouth.

"Yeah, got a problem with that?" Leo snorted as he picked at his food.

"No. Just curious why you'd want to sit with the lowest ranked students in class," I gestured vaguely towards Perseus and me.

I felt Lucia bristle next to me as she was about to point out exactly what was wrong with my assessment, but someone else beat her to the punch.

Leo rolled his eyes. "You don't have to pretend. Just because you lost the ranking challenge doesn't mean that everybody suddenly forgot about the performance that you showed them during the fight."

I still felt unused to Leo's new attitude towards me. I appreciated it, but I wasn't sure how to feel about it.

Meanwhile, Rebecca leaned on the table, staring at me curiously. I'd never really paid her much attention since I was more focused on Leo and Gauss, but she was just as pretty as I imagined her when I wrote the book. She had dark skin and black hair that she wore in a thick, loose braid. She was effortlessly pretty and didn't seem to care much about her appearance.

"What?" I asked, becoming self-conscious as she watched me devour my food. Do I look like a glutton?

"How did you get so strong, so quickly?" she tilted her head. "What's the secret?"

"Hard work," I said at the same time as Lucia. We both looked at each other, snorting silently.

"Y-yeah," Perseus stuttered. He seemed even more nervous than usual around the three strongest students in Class A, but he was still able to speak. He truly came a long way, I mused as he continued. "Mav trains with Lucia almost every day. And are you still doing that mana orb training?"

"Mhm," I managed to say as I swallowed another spoon of curry. I pulled my hand out of my pocket, still holding the glowing orb.

"Where did you get it?" asked Leo, looking curious rather than irritated.

"Do you want one? I can ask my instructor to get you one if you want."

"...I'd appreciate that," Leo nodded stiffly.

"Aw, look at you! Getting along with new people!" Rebecca teased, poking Leo's face.

"Stop," he barked without much heat. "Don't touch my face like that."

"But it's so funnnnnn~"

"I said stop."

"Gah! Don't pull on my braid! Don't you have any respect for women?!"

"Let… me… breathe…"

It seemed that my lunch period became much more lively.