“So, how was your day?” Luhan’s voice rang through Tao’s headset, causing the other to slightly lower his volume.

    “It was...alright. Busy.,” a tired, but honest, reply as dark eyes scanned the screen in front of them to see what exactly looked off in an illustration that needed to be inked.

    “Busy in a good way or a bad way?”

    “Neutral way.”

    “What exactly do you do when not doing school work? I have to ask,” the older student’s voice was laced with curiosity, and Tao hummed in acknowledgement as he erased an arm for a pose and began the process of re-sketching it.

    “I work on art stuff,” ah, there it was, now the pose was looking much better, more natural, “Commissions, merch, etc. etc.”

    “You’re popular enough to be able to make money from those things?” which caused a snort from Tao as he finally began to test out brushes for the lineart.

    “I’m not on the level of people like Seerlight or Cyarine, but I can indeed make a pretty good amount from that stuff and there are definitely people who genuinely want to buy them.”

    “What kind of merch do you have ah !”

    “You good there?”

    “Tripped an alarm in the game, don’t worry about it. But anyway! Yes, merch, what kinds?”

    Pausing for a moment to scrutinize a line he had placed down, Tao gave a bit of an absentminded answer, “Mainly charms, pins and prints, there are a few things like shirts and hoodies. I was asked if I had any mug designs so that’s something to think about.”

    “Ooo, those sound great!” the reply came with a distant echo of gunfire which made Tao mentally snicker, Luhan did have a tendency to keep the microphone too close to the TV or his computer, “what type of stuff is on the merch?”

    Eyes moved over to a reference photo for a second before flicking back to the sketch, bolder, more solid lines finally being placed onto the canvas, “Lotsa fanart, which might seem mildly cheap, especially since tons of people make claims about it ‘Not being true art’ or something and there’s a whole mess of things to unpack there. But I enjoy it, others enjoy it, and it makes me money so I don’t really put too much stock into the words of those people. I have some more simple, graphic design with stuff like flowers or stars, and then I have just original illustrations. It’s a whole mix of things.”

    “Well, I would one day love to see them, maybe even purchase a few things and help you not be the true stereotypical broke-art-student.”

    “Yeah no, you yourself don’t have the money for such a thing,” Tao rebutted with a bit of a snort, flipping the canvas with sharp eyes checking for anything that seemed off, “But I appreciate the offer. The thing that I can do, however, is show you some of my stuff.”

    “The Great Huang ZiTao is going to show me his art? I feel honored beyond words,” this time the words were laced with even more of a teasing tone, and it made the younger of the two smile.

    “You should be, there’s been a lot of time invested into these.”

    “Oh trust me, I have at least some idea of what it’s like what with me being so popular that I have plenty of friends in the art department,” Tao ended up trying to stifle a snort at the other’s fake snooty tone, “I could introduce you to them if you’d like.”

    “Hmmm, maybe some time, I might end up meeting though anyway once the semester starts,” the words were chosen carefully, trying to hide the fact that meeting new people made Tao slightly want to just crawl into a hole and hide.

    “Fair enough. Speaking of which, are you ready for the semester? It starts pretty soon.”

    “I’m about as ready as I can be as a freshman.”

    “What about your sleep schedule? That thing’s totally wrecked.”

    Tao glanced over at the screen where he had Discord pulled up, giving Luhan’s name a glare, “You are not the right person to be telling me such a thing.”

    “Now Tao, just because I stay up super late does not mean that you yourself should be following in those footsteps,” a chiding tone this time, and this time Tao actually did snort.

    “I appreciate the concern, but truly I’m alright. I’ve been staying up late since I was maybe 12, I’ll be fine,” he said in a dismissive tone, sleep deprivation having become a rather familiar companion over the years.

    “That young? Any reason as to why you decided to start your sleep debt so early?”

    “School, homework, a good book, you name it,” the reply was easy, afterall it was for a topic that Tao had long since grown used to. But, even so, it still didn’t stop him from feeling a stab of guilt. It was the truth...or at least it was part of the truth. The rest, well, that was something that only Tao knew.

    There was silence on the other end, and for a moment Tao felt panic as he thought that the other had noticed that he was leaving something out the reply. For all his energy and slight tendency to get distracted, Luhan was by far one of the most perceptive people Tao had ever seen/known. He might not say what he noticed outright, but the older student was always watching, always observing, and always mentally storing those observations away for later.

    Finally, just as Tao was beginning to feel like crawling out of his skin, Luhan gave his reply, “Yeah I can sadly say that that’s pretty common of an experience. My excuse is video games which I feel is not much better since you were at least doing productive stuff.”

    “Don’t give me too much credit, I too had my fair share of late night gaming,” Tao smoothly followed up, but he made sure to remember Luhan’s observational skills, the other student wasn’t the only one who was good at filing information away for later.

    “Well, you’re also an art student, getting no sleep is part of the deal for that,” the other said, something in his tone giving the impression that he knew from personal experience just how non-existent an artist’s sleep schedule was.

    “Oh? Do applied music students also stay up until the wee hours of the morning?”

    “On occasion.”

    “Either way, I appreciate your concern Luhan, I really do. But don’t worry too much about it, I’ll be fine.”

    “Tao.”

    “Hey, don’t go around there sounding like my mom, I get enough of that type of talk from her already.”

    “Maybe she’s right?”

    “Maybe she is, but there are only so many hours in the day where I can be awake before I crash into unconsciousness.”

    “Tao.”

    “Alright here, when I finish at least the initial version of the lineart for this drawing, I’ll turn in for the night.”

    “Promise?”

    “Promise.”

    More silence, until, “You’d better or else I’ll scribble all over your notebooks.”

    “I swear that I will get off Discord and go lie down in bed as soon as I’m done, and that I will not take extra long to finish this lineart because that would be cheating,” Tao gave in a solemn voice, staring directly at the drawing that had about half of the lineart done.

    “Good. Good night, Tao, get some sleep,” and before Tao could reply, the other ended the call.

    Despite blinking a bit at the abruptness