Of Beetles And Half-Elves

"Here, I want to show you something!"

The young man sighed as the boy before him indicated he wanted him to follow.

Getting up from his desk, the man walked over to the boy, who was pointing to something that looked like a cup on the ground.

"What is it you wanted?"

The boy grinned, and lifted the cup up, smiling as he revealed a large beetle.

"Look!  These are pretty rare in the area!  I found it outside, on the Academy wall!"

The older male sighed, wondering WHY it had to be brought into HIS workspace, knowing any moment now it would escape, and he would be forced to deal with it causing annoying buzzing sounds for the next several days.

"And you felt the need to--" he paused as the large insect took flight, remarkably fast for something of its size, and proceeded to ignore it as it landed squarely on his forehead. "- show me this, why, exactly?"

Grinning sheepishly, the younger of the two laughed at the comical appearance of his serious friend with a large, annoyed insect perched on him, and made as if to pull it off, only to have his questing hand waved off, with a half-hearted glare, his companion muttering about taking care of it himself, before the insect took off once more, buzzing off into a dark corner of the dungeon-like basement where the older of the two worked.

"...You kinda expected that to happen, didn't you, Richter?"

"...Yes."

"...Sorry."

A soft sigh escaped the older male as he shook his head slowly.  "It's fine.  I'll find it again in a few days perched on my paperwork, I'm sure."

"Er, yeah, probably, eheheheheh..."

Shaking his head again as the boy retreated upstairs, the half-elf allowed himself a rare half-smile, wondering how many days it would take to recapture the insect.  And what Aster would set upon him next.