And Ran With Them

As in, "I took the characters' names and basic attributes and ran with them."

First fic, un-beta'd, help me out with a review! And if you don't have anything useful to say, feel free to post random song lyrics, and I'll see if I can identify them.

"I said say hello, you stupid kids."

Most of the students tore themselves from painting their nails or playing hangman at least long enough to look their new classmate up and down, decide he wasn't that interesting, and roll their eyes at the teacher. One of the guys in the front row even said "Hey" disinterestedly.

Looking at this student, the blonde teacher asked, "Who you texting, Haru?"

"My girlfriend," the boy responded without looking up from the iPhone he held on top of his books.

"Just making sure."

The small, dark-haired boy at the front of the room sighed. It was only four minutes into first period and he already knew that this place could never compare to his old school. Even if Mikage had come with him...

"Park it, kid. Doesn't matter where. Today's a mental health day, so, don't worry about learning anything either," said the man who was rapidly becoming the worst excuse for a teacher Teito had ever seen.

Still, he answered semi-politely, "Thanks, Mr. ..."

"Frau. No 'mister.'"

Teito forced himself to walk away before he made some comment about how he didn't deserve to be called "mister" anyway. Getting in trouble (though he seriously doubted he would, seeing how this guy felt about discipline) was not something he wanted to do on his first day. He headed for the back row where he could sulk in peace.

None of the other students even looked up at him as he passed, busy sleeping or playing Fruit Ninja or whatever. He reached an empty desk near the corner...then realized it was a series of empty desks. A circle of them, surrounding a tiny girl with her pink hair in a long braid. Teito met her exposed eye - the other was covered by an eyepatch - but only for an instant before looking away uncomfortably and shivering. What an unpleasant feeling...and, on second thought, maybe she was a boy...

Teito looked around briefly, seeing that if he went back the way he came, he could take a seat in the front row. He really didn't want to be near that useless teacher now excitedly digging something out of his desk, so, gathering his nerve, he asked, "C-can I sit here?" He gestured to a desk diagonally in front of the...student.

With an innocent and earnest expression, he/she replied, "You can see what happens if you try."

Teito turned 90 degrees and took a seat on the other side of the room.

As the kids behind him began grinding erasers and tearing loose leaf to practice rolling joints, Teito stared hopelessly at the ceiling. How had he ended up here, alone in a public school classroom full of scary and idiotic people? He lifted his head a fraction of an inch so he could check on Frau - the word "Playboy" clearly showed from behind the textbook he was kind-of trying to pretend to read. Teito groaned and dropped his head back again, closing his eyes. Immediately Mikage appeared in his mind. Mikage laughing. Mikage talking. Mikage smiling. Just smiling. Smiling at him. Always smiling. Always crinkling the corners of his brown eyes in happiness as the sun shone in his messy blonde hair.

Except when he told Teito they were moving. He wasn't smiling then.

Teito rubbed his still-closed eyes, discreetly wiping away the gathering tears. That was how he'd ended up here, in this madhouse. Mikage was his best friend, his only friend, his brother...his parents had unofficially adopted the little orphan Teito, giving him food and shelter and clothes and even paying for him to attend the special academy school with Mikage. Teito felt his face flush slightly as it always did when he considered how much he owed the Fyulong family, and rubbed his eyes again in case anyone was looking. But they never made him their son, so he couldn't go with them when Mr. Fyulong got a new job. He was forced to remain, moving out to an orphanage, required to attend public school like the others. If only he and Mikage had really been brothers...his favorite memory surfaced, and he watched it play in his mind with an aching chest...Mikage, a playground slide, a blonde boy...

Somewhere among the memories of Mikage now running through Teito's head like a YouTube playlist, 50 minutes disappeared, and Teito stood to the sound of the bell. He hoped the next class wouldn't be anything like the first.

Eve dropped her bag on the table heavily, frustrated from a long day of especially useless chatter from her "pretty friends." At least her hair looked nice, she thought vaguely as it fell into her vision - long, straight, and brown like milk chocolate.

"Hi," said Kuroyuri, tossing her own long pink braid over her shoulder. Though she was a freshman and Eve a senior, Eve considered Kuroyuri her closest "fun friend." Haruse, an incredibly tall, black-haired, basically mute senior (her standard description if any of her other friends forgot who he was), was another of these friends. He was also how Eve and Kuroyuri had met, because he was dating the smaller pink-haired girl. Eve liked them a lot. They actually went out and did things instead of sitting around watching TV and taking pictures of themselves all the time.

Eve skipped a friendly greeting and got straight to what she'd been forced to think about all day. "Who IS this kid?"

Kuroyuri blinked up at Eve behind Haruse's enormous shoulders, then once her thoughts caught up to Eve's pointed to a scrawny dark-haired boy sitting by himself a few tables ahead of them.

"Oh." Eve hadn't been expecting to see him, much less have a class with him, after all the insane rumors she'd been hearing. For example, she'd been assured the boy was literally three feet tall. She was a little disappointed to find that he wasn't quite that short.

After studying him a moment, she sat down and turned to Kuroyuri, still having a conversation across a statue-esque Haruse. "Is he really from that academy school?"

The pink-haired girl shrugged.

"Is he an orphan?"

Another shrug.

"Well, I heard he is."

Kuroyuri stared at Eve patiently.

"Can you fucking say something?"

"I don't fucking know anything about him," Kuroyuri said without any hint of negative emotion, "besides that he's in my history class, so why don't you ask him?"

The brown-haired girl shot the other a theatrical exasperated look in place of responding and scooted her chair back across the hideous carpet installed before the birth of Christ to stand up again. The bell rang out in the hallway and echoed through the high-ceilinged library, telling the assembled students to take their seats. Eve, however, ignored it, as she, as a senior, had a right to do. She walked a little faster though. She had places to be.

"Teito Klein." She approached the boy from behind and he jumped then turned around, already half-scowling at whoever was intruding on his silence. She just smiled. "I've been hearing about you all day!" she said as she took the chair next to him and leaned on her elbow, putting her face very close to his. He turned red and fixed his books with the glare he wanted to use on Eve. She couldn't hold in a laugh. "You're so cute!" she cried, ruffling his hair, meant in a sisterly way and interpreted in a mocking way. Teito stiffened slightly, but still didn't say anything, so Eve continued. "I've got loads to ask you about. You're a freshman, right? And I heard you're from the Academy?" He stared sullenly at his books. Following his eyes, Even noticed that they didn't look all that nice. His clothes either, now that she noticed. Just a brandless navy blue hoodie and nondescript jeans. Not at all characteristic of an Academy student - everyone knew you had to be super rich to go there. Odd.

"Hello?" she said, waving a hand in front of his face. This wasn't working. She adopted a softer tone, as though speaking to a small child. Or a cat. He reminded her of a cat. "Hey, I'm just trying to get to know you," she started to say, but an unfamiliar male voice spoke over her.

"Leave him alone."

The voice was calm and even and apparently had no idea who it was talking to. Eve's temper flared. She was trying to have a nice conversation, there was no need to tell her what to do.

She turned around and took a guess. Pointing at an overweight junior who was staring at her, she said, "Listen, punk, I'm not even doing anything!" but was cut off again.

"Over here, Eve."

As it turned out, the voice did not belong to the now wide-eyed junior, but to a thin student at the table behind Teito and Eve with long blonde hair in a low ponytail and wire-framed purple eyes which met Eve's pale blue ones with something between dislike and disinterest.

"Do I know you?" Eve said huffily, still frustrated at how unsuccessful her friendliness was turning out to be. She looked the blonde boy over, since she'd only ever seen him from behind (and, honestly, had thought he was a girl since the beginning of the year...).

The boy raised an eyebrow and Eve raised one back, but, unfortunately for the spectating study hall students, the librarian walked in at that moment to take attendance.

Eve sighed and stood, returning to her place in the back next to Haruse. She happened to actually like the librarian, Razette, even if the woman were really weird and never spoke, just kinda hummed. And besides, the faster attendance was taken, the more time Eve could spend in the main office.

Razette took attendance while singing to herself in what Kuroyuri had dubbed "mermaid language." It really just sounded like baby talk, if you asked Eve, but prettier. She smiled when she was finished and hummed two notes of approval, waved cutely at Teito who didn't even notice, then, unfazed, moved gracefully toward the long check-out desk along the side of the room.

Eve slung her bookbag over her shoulder, waved to Kuroyuri and Haruse, checked to see if the blonde boy was looking at her (he wasn't, and besides that he wasn't worth her time at the moment), and zipped over to Razette.

"May I go and help in the main office today? Please?" the brown-haired girl asked, as she did every day.

Razette made a happy-sounding "aah" noise and nodded, causing the purple hair that fell to her waist to ripple slightly. With a quick "thanks!" Eve immediately pushed off the desk and half-ran to the door.

Right as she reached the door, it opened away from her, and she collided hard with a junior, Konatsu, of whose life she was extremely jealous. The secretary, Mr. Hyuuga, who Eve considered her gay best friend, had chosen this boy as his assistant, so he got to spend much of his time in the office rather than in class. Then again, he had to take math at the university in the evenings, but he actually seemed to enjoy that. Somehow. Freak.

She blinked at boy whose brown eyes had jumped to hers in surprise. They were the exact same height, Eve noticed idly.

"Sup, Konatsu."

"Are you headed down to the office?" he asked needlessly, pushing his blonde hair off his forehead and adjusting his watch. He was such a restless kid. His neck caught her attention - he was wearing a tie. And not just a tie. A bow tie. How...Konatsu.

"What are you all dressed up for?"

Konatsu unbuttoned and rebuttoned the sleeve cuffs of his Oxford shirt. "I have to leave early today, so Mr. Hyuuga sent me down here to find an extra helper. Meaning besides you. Since Mr. Ayanami is free."

Eve turned right around and called, "Hey, Teito, how'd you like to help in the office for this period? Just for today? I'll introduce you to everyone..."

She heard Konatsu move to look over her shoulder. "The transfer student is in this study hall?" he muttered in a way that meant Eve didn't actually need to answer. Not that she would. It was like an unspoken game that she and Konatsu played. Who could ask the other more questions without ever answering one the other asked?

Teito looked up at her with big green eyes and great annoyance. She beckoned to him with an exaggerated arm motion, which made the ponytail boy glare at her. She sighed and abandoned her attempt to talk to Teito.

"Anyone want to come help in the office? Konatsu has to leave and Mr. Hyuuga wants someone to...um..." She trailed off, seeing that the students in her study hall had all suddenly become either deaf or absurdly studious. Eve popped her lips in an expression of awkwardness and frustration (a trademark of her favorite - though very diva - pretty friend Misa). She'd never been anything but nice to these people.

Haruse eventually met Eve's glare and, though he was holding an already fast-asleep Kuroyuri like one would hold a new baby, rose to his full six feet and five inches, gathered his and his girlfriend's belongings with one oversized hand, and followed Eve to the office silently.

Eve forgot about Teito and his ponytailed admirer and skipped down the hallway. Two of her favorite people in the world were in that office.

The red-haired man wanted nothing more than to bang his head against the table. The longer he stared at the wooden grains and listened to his stoned companion, the more appealing this idea became.

He was working on calculating whether it would be more beneficial - considering used energy and time and accounting for air resistance - to knock out himself or Labrador with the empty chair to his left when the Teachers' Lounge door opened to admit two more men, Frau and Lance. Castor stood up so fast and greeted them so loudly that Frau's eyebrows disappeared into his spiky hair. Labrador, whose back was to the door, stopped talking, turned around slowly, and blinked his huge purple eyes, smiling dreamily the whole time.

"How's it going?" said Frau, trying, and mostly failing, to hold back his laughter at the look of intense relief on Castor's face.

Castor composed himself quickly and adjusted his glasses, which had come askew due to his sudden movement. "Lab was just telling me about...he was telling me a lovely story. Have a seat, stay a while."

Lance flicked his long curly hair out of his face with a jerk of his head, adjusted his gray sweatpants, and took a seat across the table from Labrador, leaving the chair with which Castor had been contemplating self-harm open for Frau. He did it almost without thinking - Castor and Frau always sat together. They just went together. They'd been friends since they were teenagers and now were reminiscent of an old married couple.

Castor and Frau sat down at the coffee-stained table and, sure enough, began bickering.

"Mikhail was perfect in my class, again," said Frau tauntingly.

"Ohh, that boy is a demon..." Castor realized Frau was trying to provoke him and snorted. "Actually, I'm not surprised in the least that you would say that. You don't teach, you don't even look at your students. You should hear what they say about you in my class-"

"What do they say? That they love the class?"

"That they're all going to fail the standardized graduation exams for history."

"Only the ones who are like you would say something like that. Everybody else loves me."

"Only the ones who are like me? Is this a joke?"

"You're right. Only the ones who are like you would say that, and everybody loves me."

"I can't believe you sometimes."

"You love me." Frau was grinning wickedly.

Castor only shook his head and looked out the window.

Labrador chose that moment to reach over the begin playing with Castor's hair.

The violated man tried to swat the other's hand away. "Oh God, Lab, what are you doing? Don't touch me-"

Labrador ignored him and, as Castor protested more and more loudly, explained to no one in particular that Castor's hair was the exact shade of Labrador's dog's fur.

Frau sighed. "Lab, not this again. We go over this like every week. You don't have a dog."

Without dropping his hand, Labrador continued on to another topic which may or may not have been related in his odd and drugged mind. "I had a new student in one of my biology classes."

"That's the transfer student we all got an email about on Monday," Lance said as he shot a paper ball into the trash can across the room.

"But he's a freshman. Why was he in my biology class?"

It was statements like that that made the other men stop and wonder if Labrador was faking it. It took him ten minutes of pulling at drawers to notice that his students Saran-wrapped his desk shut, but after one period he'd managed to notice that the new boy was a freshman in a sophomore class?

Lance flicked his head again and explained patiently, "He's from the Academy. They take biology as freshmen over there."

Labrador seemed satisfied by that answer and let go of Castor's hair, transfixed by something in the sky that no one else could see. Frau smoothed the abused hair, earning himself an angry glare.

"What, you want me to leave it sticking up? I guess then you'd look more like me. That's what you're going for, isn't it?"

Castor kicked Frau's shin - hard - in the process of crossing his legs.

"Ah!" cried Frau, putting on a pouting face. "Now kiss it and make it better."

Castor ignored him, and Lance chuckled quietly to himself. He tore another paper at random from the corkboard behind him. A reminder that all library books must be turned in by next Tuesday, before winter break. Storing that information nowhere in his brain, he crumpled the paper and shot it across the room.

"I had him too," said Castor. "The new boy, Teito."

"Me too," Frau said, nodding.

Lance threw a piece of newspaper. He missed, muttered "damn" under his breath, and heaved himself from his chair to retrieve the paper wad.

"He seems very nice," Castor mumbled, wondering how he was going to find something for dinner.

"Mmhmm," Frau answered, without a clue how nice the boy was.

Lance pushed his hair out of his face and sat down again, with his knees far apart and two feet of his chair off the ground. He wasn't even listening to them anymore. His boys were playing their rival that night, and coaching now occupied most of his thoughts.

The four teachers settled into a comfortable silence, broken only by the protests of Lance's paper basketballs as he disfigured them and the occasional footsteps or conversation of students passing by in the hall. Even Labrador remained quiet, hypnotized by something among the empty branches of the trees in the courtyard.

Along with their students, they waited for the bell to ring, signalling the end to another day.