Summary: They're teachers at the same school who buy each other coffee, leave notes for each other and call. But they're not dating - no way. (This one's rated G)


The students chatter excitedly in the classroom, and for the upteenth time in her Tuesday first period class, Madge wishes she hadn't skipped coffee this morning. She'd been in too much of a rush to make it in time and didn't bother to stop by Sae's and now she completely regrets the decision. Her head is aching and her body feels so weak, lethargic almost.

She concentrates and looks up at the kids. "Alright everyone, so I'm going to use my fingertips to cover each of these holes, and when I hold and blow in different combination, they make different sounds."

"Wait, Ms. Undersee, I have a question!" a little student shouts, raising his hand as high as he can reach and shaking it vigorously.

Madge sighs and nods her head with encouragement from the front of the room, as a teacher should when she's surrounded by restless fifth graders. "Yes, Jonah?"

"I think my recorder is broken. When I blow into it, it sounds bad, like this!" Jonah blows into the recorder and lets out a loud, pitched screech that makes the rest of the class cringe.

"Okay, well I think you could blow a little more gently, like this," Madge explains, giving her own instrument a small toot. "And when you're fiddling with the holes, make sure you're covering each one completely. If you don't the notes won't sound too nice."

She goes through some basic notes and combination with the students, answering all ridiculous questions and cries for help. Sometimes Madge thinks they're doing it on purpose; distracting her and trying to veer the lesson off track. But Madge loves it, she really does, she misses being in grade school and loves that she can be part of it.

After a few more moments there's a knock on her classroom door, and Madge has a feeling about who it might be. "Class, I'm going to see who's at the door but I need all of you to practice, okay? I'm going to be listening to all your C Major scales when I come back!"

When she gets to the door and slips out, she looks up and smiles coyly, aware of how windblown she looks.

"Hi Mr. Hawthorne."

"Hey Ms. Undersee," Gale grins back, still in his coat and scarf. For a few seconds Madge just admires her view, because it's unfair how good her colleague looks in dark jeans, a dress shirt and a pair of black rimmed glasses. He holds out a cup of coffee to her, snapping her out of her trance. "I saw you running in late this morning, thought you'd want a coffee."

"Thanks so much, is it-"

"Two sugars and a splash of soy. I got you," he responds quickly, and Madge is impressed with how he remembers that. She takes the steaming cup and just smells it, loving the heavenly smell of a dark roast.

"I hope it wasn't too much of a hassle, I promise it won't become habit. I need a louder alarm…"

"It's fine, Madge. I don't mind." Gale shrugs, "Gives me a reason to bother you in the morning."

She blushes and her heart skips a beat. Madge tries to be as professional as possible at work, but sometimes Gale makes that so hard. He's always giving her looks and slipping her poorly written jokes in her office mailbox, and sometimes they're the last ones in the staff room at night grading quizzes and takes longer than they need to because she can't stop talking to him. He's distracting and he's gorgeous, and Madge needs to stop herself from falling head over heels because Gale's doing nothing to prevent it.

Gale hears the incessant ruckus coming from the class and narrows his eyes. "Recorder? Really?"

"Sure, it's a great stepping stone to more complicated woodwinds, you know?"

"Are they fifth graders in there?" he asks, and Madge nods. "I like it when you teach the sevens keyboard. Because when you demo a piece to them, I can hear you all the way from my office."

It's a compliment that Madge doesn't trust herself to respond to, so she goes back to what she's good at: polite conversation. "So, how's math these days?"

"Amazing, today we're learning about triangular numbers."

"I don't think I remember what those are," Madge admits truthfully. She'd always been indifferent to math and science, never paid too much attention in class, just enough to pass. Gale is hovering over her as she leans against the doorframe, and she curses how often they end up in situations like these.

"At all?" he chuckles.

"No. Nothing."

"Come out for dinner with me tomorrow and I can teach you," he offers confidently, and Madge just about loses her mind. Gale's asked her out before, she's always politely declines, and he's always been completely fine with it. It confuses her as to why he would keep trying with a lost cause like her.

"Gale, you know I can't…"

"Why? Because of Coin?"

He knows it's because of Principal Coin. That woman declared war on all teacher relationships, and according to the teacher contracts Madge would have to fill out all these forms and take part in these interviews, not to mention all the gossip that would spread throughout the school.

"Yeah, that. And I'm busy as hell, tomorrow is no good."

"Alright, that's okay," Gale responds, smiling sadly to himself. "I'll wait for you. I have a class to teach second period, I'm going to get going then."

"Okay," she breathes out, forever shocked at how calmly he takes the rejection. "Goodbye, Gale. Thanks for the coffee."

"Bye Madge, it's my pleasure."

He's walking away slowly to his office down the hall when she calls out one last time. "Gale! Why will you wait? You've been waiting for almost a year, I'm not worth it, I promise."

Gale shakes his head and laughs. "Of course you're worth it, Undersee."

Madge doesn't get it, but she's biting her lip and feels the need to run after him. Of course she doesn't, she has a class to teach and a job to keep. So she sighs in hopelessness, reentering the classroom and checking on her students' progress.

"Ms. Undersee, who was that?" Jonah asks as soon as she's back in.

Madge is about to make something up when another student, Ember, interrupts. "It was Mr. Hawthorne, the math teacher. He teaches me, that's how I know."

Jonah puts down his recorder and scrunches his face with confusion. "Why did Ember's math teacher come to the music room?"

"Look, Ms. Undersee has a drink now!" someone pipes up from the back of the class.

"Is it coffee, Ms. Undersee?" Ember asks knowingly. "Coffee is bad for you, that's what my dad says. It rots your brain."

Madge clears her throat and ignores the chirping from her students. "Can anyone play a scale for me now?"


At the end of another long day, Madge turns off the light in her classroom and heads towards the main office. She checks her mailbox absentmindedly, but feels around and finds a half sheet of paper. On the front is a blank set of division drills with today's date on them, and when she turns them over she tries to hold in her laughter, barely succeeding.

It's a sloppy doodle of Principal Coin, fuming with devil horns. It's left uncaptioned, except for the time he drew it scribbled in the corner. Fourth period – Gale mentioned something about his class writing a test today, and he probably had some time to kill.

Madge files the drawing into her purse, knowing that she'll put it with all the others once she gets home. She's terrible, she does nothing to stop his advances because she can't help herself.

"Heading out, Madge?" she hears icy and monotone behind her, and Madge practically jumps. She makes sure Gale's picture is tucked far inside her purse where it can't be seen and turns around to face her boss.

"Yes, just about. See you tomorrow, Alma."

"Are you interested in coordinating the Spring Concert?" she asks out of nowhere, making Madge widen her eyes and nod. She had been new last year and wasn't trusted enough to take on that kind of responsibility. "Good, we need young teachers like you doing more around the school. People like you, Ms. Cresta, Mr. Hawthorne. It's refreshing, isn't it?"

"Indeed, I think we all provide a new perspective that could be used." The three of them have formed a sort of pact to defend each other to the older staff, but seldom do they receive this kind of praise from the principal herself.

"Okay, I'll send you some of last year's planning information for the concert, I look forward to it very much."

"Me too Alma, thanks a lot," Madge responds genuinely, and she leaves the school feeling a lot better than she has in a long time.

Finally, she has something to really look forward to at work. And on top of that, all the stoplights seem to turn green as she approaches them on her drive back home, where there's a chicken pasta that she threw into the slow cooker this morning waiting for her and a new bottle of chardonnay chilling in her fridge. Some people would argue that adulthood is boring, but Madge has never had more fun with her independence than right now.

Dinner is delicious, as she suspected. The wine pairs well with the creamy noodles, and when she finishes her glass halfway through the meal she decides to be a little generous and pours herself another.

When she's just about done eating her phone starts ringing, and Madge thinks it might be Delly or Johanna checking in on her, but she isn't surprised when it's a local number, one she's too familiar with.

"Hello?"

"Hey, what are you up to?"

"Just finished dinner. I ate chicken alfredo linguine. Super yummy," Madge describes, heading over to her couch to sit down comfortably.

"Shit, don't taunt me with food right now, Undersee. It hurts my stomach to think about eating."

Gale is the type to finish all his work as soon as he gets home and forget about fixing up dinner for himself. Madge has recommended him countless meal plan ideas and ways to plan around it, but he just won't listen. She makes a mental note to get him a slow cooker next Christmas if they're doing presents, because that thing is honestly saving her life.

"What do you want to think about then?" she teases.

"Anything else, good things. Got any ideas?"

"Spring break in three and a half months," she offers.

"That's too far away. Sooner."

"I'm sorry, what are we aiming for right now? Like what are the rules of this game, we never discussed this through."

"Just name things to take our minds off of my imminent hunger and my boring job."

"Your job isn't boring."

"I barely saw you all day," is his response, and Madge finds herself biting her lip again, unable to control the rush of heat to her chest and all over her cheeks.

There's a pause in their banter, but it isn't awkward and it's more comforting. "You should go out and get some food," she whispers after a while. "I don't want you to starve."

"Okay, if you insist," Gale surrenders. Madge knows he'd stay on the phone talking to her all night if she let him. "Did you get your drill of the day?"

She laughs. "Yeah. Maybe draw something that won't get me fired next time, thank you very much."

"What can I say? My creativity was flowing today. And besides, if it weren't for Coin you'd probably be out getting dinner with me right now."

"Gale…"

"I know. Sorry, if I make you uncomfortable sometimes."

Gale knows it's not that. It was never that, Madge closes her eyes and leans her head back against the couch in frustration. She's trying to be a model employee and show all the old, stingy teachers that she's just as efficient as they are. It's impossible to balance all of that with her life outside of work, and Madge doesn't want to delve into whatever she and Gale might have, at least not right now.

And as cliché as it sounds, she also doesn't want to ruin what they have going on right now. It's easy and pure, they give and take from each other to a perfect balance. If they were to be anything more Madge knows Gale would give 110%, and she's afraid she won't be able to do the same.

"You don't make me uncomfortable."

A pause from Gale. Madge wonders which words he wanted to fill them with. "Okay, g'night Undersee."

"Good night, see you tomorrow."

He hangs up first and Madge is left with the silence of her lonely apartment, a little less cheerful and warm than it was before. The lack of noise irks her and makes her anxious, so she turns on the radio and lets the music occupy every space in her mind.

Despite their unspoken tension, Gale's still a constant in her life that she couldn't live without. So when she arrives at school the next day with twenty minutes to spare and sees a new slip of paper in her mailbox, she can't help but smile from ear to ear.

It's a picture of stick figure Madge, conducting an orchestra of solely recorders. She snorts and reads the caption: "Why did you not tell me about this? Congrats on Spring Concert, save me a ticket. GH."

She sighs. He's too good, and Madge is too foolish, but really what's new?


A/N: Just a short one that I came up with on my flight (I'm on holiday!). Will definitely be posting a part 2, because the idea of Gale pining after Madge makes me weak. Please tell me what you think, if you'd enjoy a second part!