Note: Wow, it looks like a few people like my little story! (And thanks to those of you who have reviewed so far, please spread the word! It's been ages since I've written a 'light-hearted' story.) To answer the question that a couple have asked via PM, this story takes place just before the gang heads over to Aure, the "Secret Flower Garden." And as far as Sinistra/Éclair or Dextera/Éclair stories go, I haven't read any yet, but I might try my hand at one... hmm...
A Crash Course in Elegance
Chapter Two
The following morning, Éclair was awakened by a loud pounding on her door.
"Good morning, Éclair! Rise and shine!" came Armblast's cheerful voice through the door.
"This has to be a nightmare," Éclair groaned aloud. "I'm actually going to wake up any minute now and realize this was all just a horrible nightmare."
"My feelings are crushed," Armblast replied, knocking even louder. "You realize that most women would be giving their eyeteeth for having me knocking on their door first thing in the morning?"
"Go away!" she moaned, rolling over and covering her face with the pillow. "The sun's barely even up!"
"The early ES member gets the worm! Come on, Éclair, time to get up!" There was a pause. "Or would you rather I came in there and made you get out of bed?"
Éclair was out of bed like a shot. "Don't you dare!" she screeched.
"Ah, you sound much more awake now. Hurry up and get ready, we still need to swing by G.O.T.T. headquarters before we go to L'Ecole, but I'll take you to breakfast before your classes start!"
"The condemned woman's last meal," Éclair muttered, before raising her voice again. "Fine, I want breakfast at Fleur! And you stay out there while I get dressed!"
"As if I would ever entertain the notion that you would be nice enough to let me in and offer me coffee," Armblast said dryly through the door. "I can see which Chief Eclipse is making you attend these classes if you insist on making me stand out in the hallway."
"Put that briefcase to yours of good use and turn it into a stool or something," Éclair shot back as she disappeared into the bathroom.
An hour later, the two were seated at Armblast's usual table at the small cafe, since Éclair had decided to spite the auditor by taking forever to get cleaned up, dressed, and ready to go.
"Well, it's nice to see you do maintain at least one feminine habit - you simply refuse to get ready to go out in anything less than an hour's time," he said with amusement, studying Éclair across the table.
"Hi, Éclair, you're up early! Don't tell me you're actually going to work on time for a change!" Caprice said cheerfully as she approached. Then she saw the smug grin on Armblast's face and the irritated expression on Éclair's, and her own cheerful smile faltered.
"Um, Éclair... are you okay?"
"Oh, I'm just thrilled to death," Éclair said through gritted teeth. "I'd like my usual, please."
"Sure, and for you, sir?"
"My usual, Caprice, and thank you," the inspector said with a charming smile, and Caprice blushed slightly as she headed behind the counter.
"There, you see what a little charm gets you?" Armblast asked Éclair, who stuck her tongue out at him. "Perhaps I should start your lessons a little earlier."
"Don't go getting ahead of yourself, Armblast. The Chief said I had to attend this school, not have you teach me yourself." Éclair rested her elbows on the table and began massaging her temples. "God, it's barely seven o'clock and I already have a headache. This getting up early thing is so not me."
"You might want to get your elbows off the table, by the way," Armblast said, raising his eyebrows. Éclair lifted her eyes to his without raising her head, stuck out her tongue, and then went back to staring at the tabletop.
Armblast leaned across the table.
"I know you find this hard to believe, Éclair, but I really do want you to succeed at this," the auditor said quietly. "You, more so than any other ES member, may be the proverbial 'diamond in the rough,' but I truly believe you could outshine them all if you really tried."
"Save the flattery for someone who doesn't know you," she said wearily, continuing to rub her forehead.
Armblast frowned. "Do you really have a headache, or are you just trying to get out of going to class?"
"Does it matter?"
Then she started as he reached out and gently touched his hands to her temples, and suddenly her headache disappeared.
"Wha... how did you do that?" She sat up straight and stared at him.
He wiggled his fingers at her like a stage performer as Caprice arrived with their food. "Magic, of course. Why else do you think they call me Wizard?"
Armblast pulled up in front of G.O.T.T. headquarters, got out, and held the door open for Éclair.
"So what are we doing here?"
"I promised the Chief I would drop something off for Lumiere to look at when she had the time. Operations has sent over some possible upgrades and the Chief wanted to sit down and discuss them with her while she had some time this week."
Éclair shrugged and followed Armblast inside. At the front desk, Ricki and Bonita were smiling and bowing to a man as he headed toward one of the far corridors.
"Have a nice day, sir, and enjoy your visit to the G.O.T.T.!" Ricki sang out, then she glanced over and saw Éclair walking in beside Armblast. "Oh, hi, Éclair! What brings you in your day off?"
"Actually, she's here with me today, ladies," Armblast said with a smile and a wink, and both girls giggled.
"Oh, shut up already!" Éclair said in frustration, grabbing Armblast by the elbow and forcibly steering him toward the elevators.
Along the corridor, they passed Tweedledee and Tweedledum, who had just gotten off E Shift. The twins nodded to Armblast politely.
"Inspector," Tweedledee said with a smile, but then her eyes widened at the sight of Éclair. "Éclair? What are you doing here today?"
"It's a long story..." Éclair began in a "don't ask" tone of voice.
"She's actually on assignment with me for the next two weeks," Armblast said helpfully.
"Really?" Tweedledum asked, looking at Éclair. "I'm surprised that Lumiere's not with you."
"Well, the Chief did want us to spend some quality time together," Armblast replied easily, nonchalantly dodging the heel of Éclair's shoe that she attempted to drive into his foot. "But I'm afraid that Chief Eclipse is waiting for us, so if you'll please excuse us..."
"Of course." The twins nodded again and left.
"Are you going to rub it in with every single person we meet?" Éclair hissed as they got into a waiting elevator.
"Now why would I do that?" Armblast protested, looking hurt as they were whisked up to the top floor. "You'll notice I haven't told anyone exactly what it is that you'll be doing for the next two weeks, have I?"
Then the doors opened, and Éclair and Armblast found themselves face to face with Alv and Dvergr. The two women stopped in surprise.
"Well, well. In trouble again, Éclair?" Alv said in that casually biting manner she had perfected ages ago.
"Actually, no, I'm not," Éclair said, mentally gnashing her teeth at her bad luck of running into the two senior S-Class ES members.
"Oh, I see, I'm sorry. I must have been mistaken then when I saw that application form to L'Ecole on Mercredi's desk with your name on it," the older girl said, a hint of a smirk playing around her mouth, and Éclair's teeth-gnashing went from mental to physical.
"And good morning to you, Inspector Armblast," Dvergr said, her voice soft, and Armblast bowed.
"A pleasure to see you, as always."
"I take it that you are the unfortunate one assigned to monitoring Éclair's performance?"
"It's actually a task I look forward to," Armblast said politely.
"Although we do still owe you one for stealing our ship," Alv said easily, without removing her eyes from Éclair's.
"I did give it back, and I even arranged for a washing and polishing," Armblast reminded her. "And I restocked your wine supply, with better quality wine, I might add."
"Of course," Alv said, her eyes finally moving to lock onto Armblast's, but he returned her stare look for look, until at last Alv shrugged and the two women brushed past them.
"Have fun, Éclair," she said with a smirk, just as the doors closed.
"Oh, why, why, why did Alv have to be the one to find out?" Éclair wailed as they approached Mercredi's desk. "The Chief should have just hung up a sign!"
As they reached Mercredi's desk, the door to Eclipse's office opened, and out stepped Mercredi and Lumiere. "Oh, hello!" Mercredi said cheerfully. "You're right on time!"
Armblast smiled at her and at Lumiere, then lightly touched the side of his briefcase. There was a brief glow, and then a large sheaf of documents appeared. "Here you are, ladies. The recommendations made by Operations for the upgrades to the network. Hopefully you won't find the work too tedious?"
"Oh, we'll be fine," Lumiere said confidently, taking the stack of papers and quickly skimming over them. "Most of this is just a rehash of the recommendations I had made to Operations a month or so ago, but it seems that the Operations Division isn't happy unless they suggest something as their own idea. And anyway, shouldn't you two be running along? I'd hardly think Éclair would want to be late on her first day, right?"
"Yeah, yeah," Éclair grumbled. "Well, let's get this over with."
Éclair stared balefully up at the large building before her. A mansion of easily 50 rooms or more, the outside was tasteful grey marble with occasional growths of ivy and carefully tended wild roses. A smooth-pebble drive curved past the front door, and immaculate flowerbeds followed the line of the house. Everything about the place practically reeked opulence and elegance... two things that usually set her teeth on edge.
And of course, having Armblast standing beside her wasn't helping her mood in the least.
"Well, here we are," he said cheerfully. "Elegant, isn't it?"
"This much elegance should be illegal," Éclair said bitterly. "But I suppose I should be grateful that this isn't a Nouvlesse school."
"Yes, I imagine wielding your lipstick here wouldn't be 'the done thing,' as it were," Armblast agreed. "Although your handling of those three Nouvlesse on Silvana was rather... innovative, to say the least."
"Pity the Chief didn't see things that way." With a loud sigh, Éclair headed up the driveway toward the front door, and reached up to knock when the door was opened suddenly.
And Éclair gulped.
The black-haired woman standing in the doorway was almost as petite as Lumiere was, and rather squat, like an irate mushroom. She squinted up at Éclair myopically, and then over at Armblast.
"So, Auditor, I take it that this is what I have to work with?" she declared in a long-suffering voice.
"A great pleasure as always, Madam Tyrian," Armblast said smoothly, bowing and kissing her hand graciously. Then he stepped back and waved one hand toward the young woman beside him. "This charming young lady is Éclair."
"Hmph... 'lightning.' I suppose it could be considered charming in a rather fatuous way," the woman said, studying Éclair in such a way that she felt as though she were under a microscope. She smiled nervously, and the woman's eyes narrowed.
"A pretty enough face."
She stood on tiptoe and abruptly reached up for a handful of Éclair's hair.
"Hey!" Éclair protested, but the woman ignored her.
"But she has no idea how to take care of that mane..."
Then she took Éclair's hand and studied it.
"... or her skin. And of course, the less said about those clothes, the better."
Éclair looked down self-consciously at her windbreaker, jeans, sandals, and t-shirt that she wore on her days off.
"Still," Madam Tyrian went on, "I've had worse... although not in recent memory. Are you certain about this, Auditor?"
"Yes, I am, as is Chief Eclipse."
By now, Éclair looked totally miserable.
Madam Tyrian let go of Éclair's hand and nodded. "I'll let you in on a little secret, young lady. Your Chief must think very highly of you."
Éclair's head came up. "Of... of me? But why? I mean, she sent me here..."
"To learn from me. Do you think your Chief Eclipse would have sent you to me, the harshest taskmaster in the society world, if she did not think you were up to the task, hmm?" She shook her finger at Éclair's midsection, the highest thing she could reach. "I gather not."
With that, she turned on her heel to lead them into the house. "Come along, you two. We have much to do... Cinderella may only have had until midnight, but you'll find that two weeks may pass even more quickly than you think!"
To be continued...