Morning Confrontation

The next morning, Alana felt rested, despite not getting back to sleep right away. It was, she supposed, due to talking about it with Hitomi. Talking about strange and bothersome dreams had always helped her get back to sleep when she was little.
She gathered up a notebook and headed to the cafeteria to catch a little breakfast before tackling things head on. Nothing like a good breakfast in the morning to get the brain moving, she always thought. Sadly, she wasn’t prepared to have to fend off Collin De’An.
“I hear you were meeting with our illustrious leader last night.”
Alana sighed as she turned around to face him. “What of it?” Her accent clipping her words even more than she intended.
“Oh nothing,” his feigned innocence fooling no one. “I just wonder what was so important that you needed to see her. At 3am.” He smirked as the innuendo he laced his words with registered.
She smiled sweetly, “Oh, I don’t suppose you need to know that.” Her expression darkened, “So shove off, you preening git.”
He sneered in response, “I think I have an idea anyway.”
“You? Have an idea? That’ll be the day.”
His sneer turned murderous, but before he could say anything more, Jeremy stepped between them. “Hey, what’s going on? You bothering Alana, Collin?”
Collin straightened and sneered down his nose at Jeremy, “Nothing you need to be concerned with. Unless you’re interested in knowing why Alana here was in Onoe’s room in the middle of the night.”
Jerry sighed and looked Collin straight in the eyes. “Back off. You’ve been told to stop projecting your childish grudge against Hitomi onto others. You may be older than me, but I’m bigger than you.” To demonstrate, Jeremy straightened up out of the habitual slouch he affected after working on his mechanical projects for long hours. He was in fact bigger than Collin, who did in fact back off. But not before giving another condescending sneer.
“You don’t scare me. I was just leaving anyway.” Despite his words, he made his way quickly out into the hallway.
Alana shook her head. “Thanks, Jeremy. I shouldn’t let him get to me,” she trailed off, and Jerry knew what she meant. Collin was barely polite under most circumstances, give him something to work with…
“Eh. He’s a twerp and a bully. Unfortunately he’s a bully with words. Physically threaten him, and he back off. Don’t like doing that, but it takes care of him quick.”
“Thanks all the same,” she smiled. “You have breakfast yet?”
“Yeah, just finished. I got up early, and want to finish a project today, since its pretty quiet.”
She nodded, her cheeks coloring with disappointment. “Oh, alright. Good luck with finishing then. Let me know how it goes?”
“Will do!” He gave her a short, friendly hug then bounded off with his usual energy. She watched him until he turned into the hallway, then shook her head. “Oh, get it together, girl.”
“Get what together?” Alana turned and saw Hitomi standing there.
“Oh, nothing. Just,” she paused and blushed, “Jeremy.”
Hitomi made a conciliatory noise. “He’ll come around, just need to be patient. He’s just a bit blind where you’re concerned.” She paused and looked at her younger friend with sympathy. “Anyway, if you’re gonna have breakfast, we could start looking into your dream?” Hitomi held up the tablet computer she started carrying out of habit since Siege and Buck left.
Alana nodded and sighed, “Sure, that sounds like a plan.”