Teaching Respect.
By C S Sinclair.
Chapter Seven.
"DINNER?" Fujin stared blankly at him.
"Yeah, what do you think?"
She thought for a moment, before deciding:
"NO."
He looked crestfallen, his shoulders slumping.
"But… why? I mean, girls like having dinner, don't they?"
She waved him further back.
"DINNER ENJOYED BY MOST."
"Y'know what I mean though: the whole candles and music thing? They like that, don't they?"
Fujin gestured impatiently to ask if he was ready. As usual, Raijin spoke to her like she wasn't in fact a woman. She'd used to be fine with this, but these days it really annoyed her.
He looked about, bent down to inspect the dirt; checked the wind speed… his usual, endearingly idiotic routine. Finally, he appeared satisfied:
"Okay then, over here! Over here, Fu! I got it this time for sure! No cheating now, no wind spells again!"
Fujin stopped mid-throw and scowled at him.
"AIR CURRENT, RANDOM PHENOMEON. PREVIOUS THROW LEGITIMATE. BLAMELESS" she shouted indignantly.
Raijin shrugged and dropped into a 'ready for anything' pose. He hopped this way… then that way… he was jogging on the spot in anticipation… he'd never catch it.
Off it went, off he went. Down it came, down he came. Off it span, there he stayed.
Fujin shook her head in despair – it seemed that a muscular physique did not help overmuch in this game. It was her kind of game – strength and grace. Xu had told her she had strength and grace. She'd never really felt very graceful before, but recently she'd begun to feel like a ballerina sometimes. She remembered her dream last night. Marble pillars and a frozen lake… a beautiful swan… her and Xu gliding across the lake… It had been silly and soppy… it had been wonderful.
"Urrghh! D…don't worry about me! I'm fine, just need a little… ahh!"
Fujin leaned back against one of the pillars, staring off into space. It was a beautiful day; she couldn't remember ever really having much time to notice these kinds of things in the past. Always so busy helping Raijin and Seifer with… things. She bumped her head lightly against the pillar to remove thoughts of those times. Don't ruin it, she thought to herself.
The sky was so clear and blue. She was hardly the first person to have such routine, fairytale thoughts, but it was still new and exciting to her. Everything seemed that way now. She wondered if Xu could see the sky where she was, in her room maybe, or perhaps the staff room…
"..OOK OUT, FU!!!"
She jolted in alarm, feeling a pressure slam into her chest. Instantly, she tensed into a ready posture, moving a hand to her chest to check for… The Frisbee rolled lazily away on its side, bumping down a step into the main quad area, before circling to a stop on the ground.
Gradually, she became aware that she couldn't take her eyes off the harmless plastic disc. She could hear them all, muttering and tittering to themselves; having a good laugh at her expense. She could feel a cold fury building up inside.
Raijin jogged into view, picking up the disc and releasing her momentarily. His trainees were a few yards behind him, speaking in whispers and pretending not to look. She straightened slowly, anger simmering away quietly. She moved to take a step, determination flowing through her… then stopped.
Had that been the PA system? She strained to hear. It was difficult to catch the internal system out here in the quadrangle. She could have sworn… Her anger subsided, and she collapsed back against the pillar, aware that she probably looked quite ridiculous. She leaned her head back, and smiled contentedly.
"Are y'okay Fu?! I thought you heard me. I'm real sorry, Fu! I…"
She looked up at him. He was sweating a cold nervous sweat, and was doing his best to hide the Frizbee behind his back. She reached out a hand for the disc, betraying no emotion. He hesitated, before reluctantly passing it to her.
"You… you got that I didn't know you weren't ready though, right Fu? I mean it wasn't on purpose I swear…"
She took the frizbee and turned it over in her hands, considering it carefully. She waved him away. He backed away nervously into the quad. Every so often he would stop and open his arms hopefully, but she kept waving him further back. She could sense everyone watching the two of them.
Cricking her neck to relax, she adopted a loose position. She brought the disc up to her shoulder… and with a small smile, gently threw it. It glided gracefully and beautifully through the air, sunlight gleaming off it. And then with an extravagant leap, Raijin somersaulted past, catching it as he went.
"HA-HAAAH!!!! GREAT THROW, FU!!!!"
The whole quad erupted into applause and genuine, warm laughter. Raijin jogged about, bowing and holding the frizbee like a trophy, pointing to Fujin and clapping his hand against the disc as he did so. Fujin shook her head in mock dismay, but couldn't help but smile.
"Pick those feet up! Hup hup hup! Hup hup hup! So, whadda y'think then?"
Fujin had been miles away again. Or at least as far as it was from here to Xu's office anyway. She wished Xu would speak on the PA out here; she wanted to hear her voice. Better still, she wanted Xu to come here. The release she'd felt there in her arms… she just couldn't make do with anything less now.
"Fu, what do you think?"
She wished she had more experience in these things. She couldn't help but be a bit confused. She was sure the connection they'd felt in her office was something special. She'd never wanted Xu to let her go… so why had she? And she hadn't even seen her in a couple of days. True, they weren't scheduled to meet up, but weren't lovers supposed to meet up more often? They were lovers, weren't they?
"FU!!!"
Irritated and pestered now, she looked over at him. Round and round they went, jogging and training away. Realizing she wouldn't get any peace until she properly torpedoed his foolish idea, she paced around the edges of the track, following them round.
"DINNER, BAD IDEA" she repeated for what seemed the hundredth time.
"But Fu, you don't understand the mind of a woman. They…"
Fujin's thoughts drifted away at this. She didn't know the mind of a woman. What if that was true? What if this whole romance thing was really just a Headmistress being very supportive to someone in need? But they'd… well they'd almost kissed. Surely that had to count for something?
"You see, we have this connection Fu. It started the other night. You know, when you had that funny turn in the Headmistress' office…"
Fujin winced inwardly at his revealing this in public. She looked over in annoyance, but he was in full flow now and wasn't paying attention:
"I took you back to your quarters, get you all undressed and put into bed – hey, keep a straight line there!" (Several of the trainees seemed to have run into each other after apparently losing their concentration, whereas Fujin was contemplating some kind of magical suffocation spell).
"And I was real worried, on account of you being like a sister and all" (She softened a bit at this.) "So I went to get you some flowers. You know, to cheer you up when you woke up in the morning, ya?"
Fujin nodded. That was rather sweet, she had to admit. Although the pain of finding out they hadn't been from Xu might have erased such thoughts, if he actually had done so...
"RECEIVED NO FLOWERS" she commented, without really wanting an answer.
"Well no, because when I bought them, I remembered, see? I thought 'Fu's not a one for flowers and nice things. She's all rough and tumble, one of the lads." (Her thoughts of murder began to resurface).
The recruits were jogging each other's elbows and whispering again. Fujin decided she'd better change the subject, before a freak tornado accident claimed the lives of these unfortunate saps.
"THIS WOMAN. WHO?"
Raijin ordered his guys to speed up, as they'd seemed to slow down, as if listening for something, before he replied:
"Oh right. Well, after I bought the flowers, I thought it'd be nice if I thanked the Headmistress for all her help, you know? So I went back up to her office…"
Fujin froze. This conversation had just taken a very nasty turn. No, it was impossible… wasn't it?
"WITH THE FLOWERS?" she asked in what she hoped was a casual tone.
"Yeah, that's right. Anyway that's when I saw her, Fu. She was coming out of the office when I arrived."
"AND?!!" Her voice had risen noticeably.
"So I gave her the flowers, and told her how grateful we were… actually no, I think I said how grateful I was. Oh well, I guess it doesn't matter…"
Doesn't matter?! thought Fujin. She was forcing herself to follow, every step a fresh torment now. Either way though, she had to know the truth…
"AND…SHE…"
"Haa, I knew you were interested Fu! Trying to pretend you didn't care! This is me you're talking to, I know you Fu! I…"
"GIRL… FLOWERS… NEXT?" ordered Fujin angrily.
"Right… keep a good pace there! Man Fu, these guys are total slackers. They keep slowing down…"
"NEXT?!!" Fujin's voice howled like a thunderclap, resounding about the courtyard.
"Er… did I say something wrong, Fu?" Raijin finally seemed to realize that something was wrong, but Fujin's stormy look forced him to continue, albeit in a rather hurried and flustered tone:
"Er… right, so I… so she says 'Thank you Rai' and that's when I said 'A-ha'"
"A-HA" repeated Fujin with no attempt to disguise her fury. She'd called him Rai?!!!
"You see what I mean? Rai, eh? And you know what happened then, Fu?"
Fujin closed her eyes, praying to anyone who happened to be listening:
"CAME TO HER SENSES; THREW YOU OUT?" she tried, hopefully.
Raijin chuckled rather nervously:
"No, she kissed me on the cheek and said 'You're really rather sweet.' Can ya believe it Fu?"
Seconds later, a deathly silence had fallen over the quad. The recruits lay in dazed piles, and alarms sounded in the distance from where various windows had been smashed. Fujin's momentum had shoved Raijin down onto one of the benches in the quad centre. He looked up in fear as she grabbed him:
"KISSED?!! KISSED?!!! YOU?! FLOWERS…SHE ALLOWED…XU KISSED?!!!"
Raijin held up his hand, as Fujin's anger threatened to explode in full force.
"Fu, wait! Did you say Xu? The Headmistress?"
Fujin looked down, considering which spell to cast first. She would become an angel of destruction, the world would…hold on… what was he saying now?"
"I'm not talking about the Headmistress, Fu! It's Miss Trepe I was on about. The Headmistress must have already gone to her quarters when I went back. That's when I bumped into Miss Trepe… I mentioned that though, didn't I… or maybe I didn't, now I think about it…?"
Fujin looked down, and then it sunk in. Her anger evaporated immediately, replaced with a sensation of rebirth and wild happiness (all of which she was careful not to show outwardly).
"OH… OH, WELL…GOOD."
And with that, she returned to the side of the track. Raijin stood uncertainly and peered over at her.
"RUN. CONTINUE" she motioned.
Raijin nodded and spent the next few minutes picking up his trainees, and assuring investigating staff members that it had all been an accident – just gotten a bit carried away whilst training.
The recruits were confused, but Raijin eventually bullied into resuming their training. He appeared to have convinced them it had been a punishment for slacking in their running – they were now tearing around the track so fast, they were like blurs of colour.
"MISUNDERSTOOD. SHOULD HAVE… VERY SORRY" she muttered after a few minutes.
"Yeah… well… it's okay. I know how you feel how you feel about Miss Xu anyway so…"
Fujin tried to appear nonchalant:
"HOW I FEEL?"
"Yeah, well she's your girlfriend isn't she?"
Fujin almost fell over in surprise. Raijin looked unfazed however:
"I think it's great personally."
"YOU DO?"
"Well yeah, she seems real lonely being at the top. So having a friend to talk to is doing her good I think. It's great how women can become so close like that – if guys do it, people think we're all gay or something (the trainees seemed to space out at this, and adopt more 'macho' running strides).
Fujin allowed herself a relieved chuckle. He didn't know. But then he'd have to soon, she reflected. Mind you, she still needed to make sure first…
"DINNER?"
"Oh yeah, well I kind of felt like I'd missed something the other night. Like… I don't know. Like I should have taken things a bit further you know?"
"YES." She couldn't agree more. Why hadn't Xu, she was sure they'd both wanted to?
"And I figured that maybe she was scared of what people might say. Teachers dating and all that, and me a war criminal and all… Or maybe I thought I'd be taking advantage because she was so sorry for whipping me so bad that time we fought. Man, I've got a complicated brain in my head haven't I, thinking like that?"
Fujin turned this over in her head. She was sure Xu wasn't worried about her reputation… but… but she might think it was unethical to use her position like that. Like she'd have been taking advantage… No, it was too ridiculous. After all, she'd wanted Xu to claim her as her own… That had been obvious… hadn't it?
"So I thought I'd ask her out to dinner, let her know that she doesn't need to be scared. I mean let 'em talk right? Love's love after all…"
Fujin could only half hear him now. Her brain was whirring with her own problems. She needed to let Xu know that she wanted to be with her, wanted to be in her arms always. But she couldn't let Xu worry about taking advantage of her so… she'd have to ask her out! She'd have to be strong for a while longer… a painful thought, but it would be worth it. She'd ask her to…
"DINNER… EXCELLENT." she thought aloud.
"I knew you'd agree, Fu! I… where are you going?"
"FLOWERS." Fujin called over her shoulder. She needed to buy some flowers quickly.
"But… I already bought her some flowers!" he called, but she was already gone.
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