"See something you like?" Ariana blinked in surprise as a blush quickly spread itself across her usually pale cheeks, her eyes refocusing on Koschei from the other side of the table to see him smirking back at her, looking amused.
"I'm...I'm sorry?" she shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts as she struggled to work out what he was talking about. She had just spent the entire day going from class to class, collecting more and more homework as the day went, and to make matters worse, Theta had somehow managed to blow up half of his science class room during his chemistry class earlier that day, earning himself two week's worth of detention.
Thankfully, no one had been hurt, or at least very badly, and there had only been a little bit of fire damage done to the lab bench he had been working on, as well as some burnt patches on the wall and ceiling, also, the blast had destroyed most of the delicate glass wear and everyone who had been in the room had all received quite a shock. Ariana had almost tripped over her own feet when Koschei had told her the news, sounding just a little bit too amused for her liking about the whole situation, perhaps even a little joyful, but that was typical for him, really. Still, it didn't sit well with her about how pleased he could sounded about something as serious as this.
...Earlier that day...
As soon as Ariana's last class had finished, she had hurried off to track Theta down, which she finally managed to find him heading back towards the main hall, probably heading back to his room from Borusa's office. As she neared him, she had sighed in relief to see that he wasn't hurt, or at least he didn't appear to be.
His usually messy hair was sticking up on odd angles with the ends slightly burnt looking, black smudges covered his cheeks, tip of his nose, and forehead with a faint outline of were his goggles had been over his eyes, which now hung around his neck. His red and orange Prydonian robes were also covered in a couple of burnt patches, the cuff of his right arm appeared to have suffered the most damaged as Ariana guessed that that must have been close to the explosion, but despite all of this, when he had looked up to see her hurrying towards him he had broken into a broad smile.
"Ariana!" he greeted happily as she reached him, "You heard about my little...ah...," he looked down at himself as he smiled slightly awkwardly at her, "Accident, huh?"
"Koschei informed me," she sighed, looking at him, clearly concerned as she scanned his face again to make sure she hadn't missed anything, "Are you okay, Theta? And don't just say that you are because you don't want to worry me," she finished with a stern look.
Theta smiled at her, blushing faintly at her concern, "I'm fine...well..." he trailed off as he looked down, sighing as he shock his right sleeve back to revel a white bandaged wrapped around his hand, making Ariana's eyes widened as she caught sight of it, "Don't worry," he quickly said, noticing her face, "It's nothing serious, just a small burn, tiny actually".
"Has someone looked at it yet?" Ariana asked as she gently took his hand and looked at it. Not that she could see anything, not with the bandage covering it, but still.
"Yeah, Borusa sent me to the infirmary before he started lecturing me," he nodded, shaking his head before he gave her a reassuring smile, "But it's fine, the nurse said I was lucky and that there won't be any lasting damaged. I just have to keep this bandage on for a few days and it should be healed before the end of the week".
"Oh, well, I'm glad to hear that," she smiled back at him, feeling better now that she knew that he was alright and that there wasn't going to be any lasting effects, "Anyway, I expect that you'll be going to clean yourself up now, yes? You can't exactly go wondering around the school like that," she commented as she eyed his cloths before glancing at his hair, "An you'll also have to cut the tips of your hair, I'm afraid," she smiled slightly as he groaned.
"I know," he moaned sadly as he reached up with his left hand and touched his hair, cringing as he felt the burnt, crispy tops of his hair, "How bad is it?" he asked her, looking as if he was dreading the answer.
"Um..." Ariana glanced at his hair, "I don't think you really want me to answer that".
"That bad?" he sighed.
"Don't worry, it's not like you'll have to shave all of your hair off," she tried to comfort him, knowing how proud he could be about his hair at times. Koschei and Ushas did so love to tease him about it...well, that was back when they were still talking and Ushas hadn't locked herself away in one of the labs...
"That is a plus side," Theta nodded as he brightened before sighing again, "Well, there's no point putting it off," he turned and started heading towards the large staircase, leaving Ariana to watch after him before turning herself and heading towards the food hall.
...Present time...
"You were staring at me," Koschei told the dark haired girl, answering her question as she blinked in surprise again, "And have been doing so for the past five minutes".
"Oh, I hadn't realised that I had been," Ariana felt her cheeks heat up again as she rested her chin on the palm of her hand before a thought occurred to her, "Wait...if I had been staring at you for so long, why did you not say anything before now?"
"Maybe I just like having a pretty girl staring at me," he replied, shrugging as a smirk spread across his face.
Ariana rolled her eyes at him, "I would hardly call myself pretty, Koschei," she shook her head, raising her eyebrows at him, "And I don't think that you need me to stare at you as I'm sure Una would be more then please to do so..." she frowned slightly as she looked around the food hall, suddenly remembering that the young red headed girl wasn't with them as she usually was, but as she looked around she still couldn't see her, "Speaking of Una," she looked back to Koschei, "Were is she?"
"Oh, didn't I mention that she got herself a detention?" he arched an eyebrow across to her as he picked up his glass and slowly swirled the liquid around inside it.
"What?" she almost gaped at him before she could stop herself. Of all the people she had expected to receive a detention, Una would be one of the last, not that she knew the girl very well seeing as they had only known each other for two weeks, it still came as a surprise to her, "What happened?"
"Nothing," Koschei shrugged, not really looking interested in the line of conversation, "She was just being neglectful with her homework".
"And I take it that that's because of your relationship together?" Ariana guessed, having already noted a few times how much time the two had spent together.
"I suppose so".
"Don't you think that maybe the two of you should think about...spending sometime without each other's company?"
Koschei titled his head to the side as he looked at her, "And why would we do that?" he finally asked, "If I can do my homework then surly she can as well. Una needs to learn to do things faster or else she's going to be left behind and have this happen to her".
Ariana frowned at him, "Don't you think that's a little unfair to Una that you expect her to speed up on doing her homework rather than for you to simply let her have a few hours, maybe even a entire night, just to herself every now and then to herself just to do her school work?"
"Um, let me think about it..." he sat up straighter in his chair and pretended to look thoughtful before rolling his eyes at her, "No. You don't understand, Ariana".
"Then explain it to me," she sighed, still frowning at him, "Because from what I can tell, you don't seem to care very much about whether or not Una gets in trouble or if she does her school work. I may not be an expert in matters like this, but I'm pretty sure that as her boyfriend you're supposed to care, Koschei".
"Well I don't," Koschei replied simply as he leant back into his chair, crossing his arms over the back of his head.
Ariana stared at him, somehow not surprised in the slightest by his reply. Perhaps she had known from the very beginning when he had first introduced Una to her that he really didn't care for her, and hadn't Theta even made a offhand comment only a few days ago about how Koschei never seemed interested in listening to Una talk or asking her any questions about herself, but of course they had just shrugged it off as it being nothing, but now this...this just proved what she had been concerned about.
"Your using her, aren't you?" she said quietly, hoping that she was wrong, hoping that for Una's sack she had miss read everything.
Koschei was silent for a moment as he meet her eyes, a look of surprise passed over his face before he masked it over with his usual cool indifference, "Yes," he finally answered and Ariana felt her heart sink as she thought of how heartbroken Una would be if she was to know that he had simply been using her, "What gave it away?" he asked.
"Your lack of interest or care for her in anyway other than for yourself," Ariana informed him coldly, even surprising herself at how cold her voice sounded, "How can you do this?" she shook her head, trying to understand how he could possibly be so cold and cruel, "She's only fifteen years old and your twenty five years old, Koschei! This is going to break her heart, you realise? And I thought that it was bad enough that you were threatening her future prospects, but I was willing to overlook that for the sack of your and her happiness only to find out that it was all just a game to you!"
"Calm down, Ariana," Koschei sighed, looking more annoyed then anything as he shot her a look, "You'll end causing a scene and I think that two people having detentions today is enough, don't you?"
"I'll cause a scene if I so wish!" she hissed, but all the same, she did lower her voice as she started to notice that a couple of students sitting at tables around them had started to glanced over to them, be it out of announce or interest it really wouldn't do for it to become more public then it already was that Koschei and Una had been dating. The less people who knew, the better for Una, and the less likely her family would be to finding out.
"Tut, tut, tut," he wiggled his finger at her with a small smirk, somehow managing to look amused again despite what they were talking about, "Your tempers going to get the better of your if you're not careful".
"And why would you care if my temper does get the better me?"
"Because I would rather not be slapped today, thank you," he replied, still smirking at her, clearly enjoying himself.
"Trust me, it would be only a fraction of what you deserve," Ariana shot him another angry glare, "I can't believe you could do this, Koschei! I mean, I just don't understand why you would do it in the first place?"
"Simple, pay back," Koschei shrugged as if it was nothing, which, to him it was nothing.
"Payback?" she frowned at him, "Who for? And may I ask why you would feel the need to get payback in the first place?"
He sighed, rolling his eyes at her, "Isn't it obvious?" but when she continued to look confused, he sighed again and said, "Think about it, Ariana. Who is dear little Una's big cousin?"
Ariana thought about it for a moment when it suddenly all clicked into place, "Of course..." she breathed, looking back to him, "Ushas. Una's Usha's younger cousin, isn't she? And that would also explain why Ushas seems to have devoted all of her time to working on her experiments in the lab. She knows what you doing, which means that this is all about you trying to get payback on something that she did to you".
"Very good," Koschei started clapping almost mockingly, "You know, I was started to worry that spending all the time that you do around Theta was starting to have a worse effect on you then I had thought," he commented as he stopped clapping.
"I still don't understand," Ariana told him, shaking her head as she purposely ignored his last comment, "Why would you go to all this trouble? I mean, what could Ushas have possibly have done that would warrant you to do something like this, and what about Una? Where does she fit into all of this exactly?"
"Oh, Una really doesn't have anything to do with me wishing to get payback on her cousin," he replied, shaking his head, "No, I was just using her, this was all about Ushas. Ushas may be one of the most...difficult, to put it lightly, girls I have ever meet, but that doesn't mean that she doesn't love her family. She wouldn't admit it and probably would punch me if she knew I was talking about her like this, she does so love to try to act tough," he said with a touch of fondness in his voice that even surprised Ariana, but he quickly shrugged it off as he continued, "As I was saying, trying to use her family to get to her is always a effective tool to get payback when it comes to dear Ushas".
"And why would it be needed for you to seek payback in the first place?" Ariana asked, still frowning at him, "I mean, this is supposed to be one of your closet friends, and usually friends don't go this far to get payback for something".
"Perhaps my definition of friendship is different than yours," he remarked, quickly going on before she could say something else, "If you must know, she humiliated me in front of half the school".
"What? When did this happen?"
He sighed tiredly, as if he was bored, "When did it happen?" he repeated, "Well, it happened while you were off studying like a mad woman for that test that you took a few days ago, botany, I believe. Yes, it was shortly after that that we got into an argument..."
"But you two do that anyway," Ariana cut in, shaking her head as she thought of how often she and Theta had come across their two friends squabbling away at each other like an old married couple...or so the human saying went, "How is this any different than any of those other times?"
"Because I may have said something that went a little far and she slapped me," Koschei told her, annoyance written all over his face as he clearly wished that he hadn't been forced to tell her something as embarrassing as that, or at least embarrassing for him in his mind, "I won't tell you any details because knowing you, you'll end up turning bright red," he shot her a teasing look as she frowned slightly before shrugging it off, knowing that he was probably right, "But I will say that dear Ushas didn't take to kindly to my remark and hit me, and no one, no one, humiliates me, particularly in front of other people," he went on, his tone taking on a darker, more serious feeling to it than before.
Ariana eyed him carefully for a moment, a sudden jolt of something...maybe fear jolted through her, taking her by surprise for a second. Fear? Was she really afraid of Koschei? No, the whole idea of her being fearful of him was laughable, but yet she still felt as if she was sitting on the edge, waiting for something to happen, something big, whenever she was around him, and it wasn't the first time that she had felt that way when she had been around him, mostly when it was just the two of them.
Theta would have laughed at her, probably said that she was reading too much into things or jumping at her shadow, but something told her that despite Koschei outward appearance of being a bit of a show-off at times, particularly when he and Theta were together, she also knew that there was something else lurking behind his eyes that sent chills down her spine, something that always tended to make her feel the need to keep an eye on him whenever he was around, but yet, despite feeling that way, he had never once done anything to hurt her, so why in Rassilon's name would she feel so edgy with him?
"You know, I truly don't understand you at times," Ariana finally said to him, shaking her head as she tried to clear her thoughts away, hoping that he hadn't noticed the way she had been looking at him before.
Koschei smirked slowly at her, reaching over and snatching a piece of food off her plate and popping it in her mouth, "Why thank you, Ariana".
The dark haired girl frowned at him, "Are you going to do the right thing and break up with Una?" she asked him outright, crossing her arms across her chest, "And when I say that, I mean that you're going to break up with her and do it gently. You've already caused her enough trouble, the least you can do is let her off gently".
He sighed tiredly, "You're not going to let that go, are you?"
"Of course not! We're talking about a girl who is clearly head over heels in love with you when she's hardly known you for five minutes. You have to do things gently and don't you dare tell her the real reason why you were dating her, you may not care about her but I do, so please, just let her go gently," she finished, stressing the last word.
"And what if I don't want to break up with her?" he asked her, raising his eyebrows in an almost challenging way, "It's not like you can tell the teachers".
"Well, I guess I'll just have to take matter into my own hands and speak to her myself," Ariana told him, not appearing to be bothered in the slightest that he was clearly trying to challenge her to see just how far she was going to take things, "I would rather not have to. It's not my place to do so, but if you refuse to do it then I will tell her everything".
"Weren't you just telling me not to do that?" Koschei asked her, titling his head to the side as he started tapping his fingers against the table top.
"Yes, but that's just what she thinks," she sighed, not looking pleased as she spoke, "Of course I could never tell her the full story, it would break her heart, but as long as I told her enough of the truth and try to soften it. Either way she'll be broken hearted, she probably thinks the two of you will end up marrying..."
Koschei made a noise that almost sounded like an Earth cat being stepped on, or at least that's how she imagined they sounded, "She's one of the last people I would ever marry".
"But she doesn't know that," Ariana tried to tell him, sighing deeply again, "Please, Koschei, this is your mess and now you have to fix it before anything to bad happens. Just tell her that you don't think things are going to work out and leave it as that. You've got your payback on Ushas now".
Koschei didn't say anything for a long time, merely looked at her as he thought over everything she had said before sighing and nodded, looking very reluctant, "Fine," he finally said, looking bored as he leaned back in his chair, "I'll be a good little boy and do what you want me to do, Ariana," he shot her a mocking look.
"Thank you," she gave him a grateful look, choosing to ignore his last remark as she really didn't want to get into a fight with him, not when he had finally agreed, be it very reluctantly, to do as she wanted him to do, "And now, if you would excuse me, I'm going to see if Theta's finished his detention yet," she said as she stood from her chair, picking up her bag as she did so, "I'll expect that you'll be breaking the news to Una?"
"Yes, Sir," he gave her a mock salute, clearly irritated by her reminding him over and over.
Ariana shot him a look before turning and walking away, pulling her bag up her arm to sit on her shoulder as she couldn't help but wonder what it was about him that Una had fallen for. It truly was a mystery to her.
Oh, poor Una, but it's not the last time she'll be mentioned, and we may see her again later on in the story. I did think about having Ushas turn up later on in the this chapter, but I just couldn't fit her in and the more I wrote, I realised that she wasn't really needed in this chapter, but I'll try to get her to make a appearance in the next one. I hope you liked it, tell me what you thought, please review :)
