ughhh I now live in America as of last week. It was also my birthday yesterday, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY to me! I'm sorry I didn't update this for a while - I've been writing bits and pieces of it for the past few weeks and being really pissy and not liking it at all, but thanks to DesperatelyObvious for writing a lovely review that made me finish this seriously! I'm super happy with how this chapter turned out, and I love where it's going to go...excellent...

Disclaimer: None of the characters are mine, just the plot and words.

"Okay, we've got the library to use for your research essays, yes?" There was a monotonous, collective groan from the students. Fang laughed. "You are to write an essay on modern day connections through Hamlet, whether it be by looking at psychology, religion, or morality - whatever topic you fancy. I expect no less than two thousand words."

"Seriously, Mr. Walker?"

"Come on."

A few pencils and papers were thrown in his direction at the top of the classroom, and most of the students took to talking, their voices creating a low hum that rang in Fang's ears. Ever since Max's incident, the four expelled students were all that they could dare to speak about, and it was exhausting and irritating to hear it incessantly each and every class period. Fang's fist crashed down on the front desk. The silence that followed was deafening.

"Listen, you lot," Fang hissed. The students were obviously surprised, as Fang rarely snapped, much less in front of his pupils. "I will not tolerate your impudent behavior and blatant distaste towards the curriculum that I have prepared for you. This is a school, not a zoo, so please stop acting like barbaric, deplorable animals."

Deplorable? Since when did you actually qualify for this job? Fang thought.

There was a shuffle as the students began to collect their assignment sheets and shamble to the library, frowns on some faces and shell-shocked expressions on others. It was actually quite amusing. Just as Fang was about to close the door to the classroom and shut off the lights, he realized that Max still hadn't gotten out of her chair.

"Max, have you lost the ability to walk?" Fang coughed slightly, ridding himself of his bitter mood, shaking his head stiffly. His mood was catching up with him, and he sighed, weaving in and out of the rows of desks, his fingers sliding off the wood as he reached to the solemn corner of the room where Max was. The metal of the chair was cool as he pressed it against her desk, sitting down to face her. "Are you alright?"

It never really occurred to Fang to treat Max differently because of the "incident" that she had experienced. He had always assumed that in order to get over it, everyone would have to move on collectively and act like nothing had happened, so that it was almost as if the incident never even permeated through the thoughts of students so they remembered that yes, something like rape still goes on.

Fang was just realizing how idiotic that thought was as he looked over at Max. Her gaze was blank, as if she hadn't even acknowledged that Fang was sitting right in front her, but it was obvious that his presence was unnerving to her - her shoulders were tense, her lip taut and entire body seemingly on edge. Fang moved back a bit, deciding to sit at the desk next to her rather than opposite, so she didn't have to look at him directly if she didn't want to.

"I'm okay, really," was the first thing she said as Fang perched into his chair. It was so horribly clear that she wasn't okay.

"It would be okay if you weren't, you know," Fang said conversationally, like they weren't discussing something important at all. Like it was the weather, and they were talking about it being somewhat warmer as the snow melted around them.

"I know."

Fang felt awkward, so unsure of how to help her, but he knew that in that moment, he couldn't do anything. He felt almost helpless, knowing that Max was the only one who could really pull herself out of her own head. "Do you want to do the assignment? Get your mind off things?" It was almost like a joke the way he said it, because even Fang knew that he wouldn't want to do the assignment he had put in place, either.

But she must have gotten that he was kidding, because a rough and inept smile pulled at the corners of her lips, her tongue poking out a bit at the corners of her mouth as she gave a small laugh. "No," she said, glancing in his direction once, just to see that Fang was covering his mouth with his hand. "What's so funny?" she said, her eyes hardening in a form of familiarity to Fang from her previous days.

"I don't want to do it either," he said.

They both laughed, Fang's hand hovering over his mouth in a self-conscious habit, and Max's tongue coming out at the tiny space between her teeth. When they died down, it was silent, a comfortable kind of silence that people have after a meaningful yet short conversation.

The two studied each other for a moment. It wasn't as if Fang was particularly interested in the way Max looked - she was beautiful, it would be a lie to deny it - but he was more fascinated by the little things about her appearance, little keyholes to her personality that showed in such inconsequential places. He looked at her hair and how it was disheveled and raw, like she hadn't taken the time to brush it that morning. He looked at her uncoordinated outfit that smelled strongly of detergent, like she put too much in by accident but couldn't be bothered to put the excess back. Fang covered his mouth again as a smile pushed onto his face.

"I think you're strong," Fang said suddenly, breaking the silence, but it was almost as if he had blurted it out unintentionally. He hadn't really been thinking that much, just simply observing - as he was inclined to observe rather than speak - but it was like Max had taken out his worries and replaced it with a warm oblivion. Now that he had said it he didn't really regret it. "I really do."

She looked the other way. "I think you're an okay teacher," she said, and grabbed her backpack with nail-bitten fingers. They curled around the strap in a somewhat mesmerizing motion. When Fang blinked, she was already halfway out the room, shuffling to the front of the classroom, her bag swung haphazardly across her angular figure. She reached the doorway just as Fang arrived at the side of his desk, grabbing a few papers and trying to rid himself of whatever trance he had been in while talking to Max. "Even if I'm a barbaric, deplorable animal," she said, holding up fingers to mock what he said.

Fang opened his mouth to say something, but she had already walked out of his room and was walking to the library, leaving Fang to wonder if he was the only one who payed attention.

The staff toilets were an interesting mix of disgusting and professional. The room itself was precariously shaped, like the walls were slanted and the sinks hanging off the edge of a hypothetical cliff. The cubicles were thin and worn down, like a cat had been scratching at them for ten years straight with unnecessarily long nails. There never seemed to be enough toilet paper, however, and there was an unsettling and out of place smell of lavender that was horrifyingly thick in the air, like a skunk drenched in perfume to rid its horrible stench. Disgustingly professional, as Fang would put it.

Fang sneaked a glance at his reflection in the murky mirror above the sink. He never understood why students were so fascinated with the way he looked. He didn't see handsome or pretty; he saw painfully average black holes where people's eyes usually were - his were such a deep brown they were almost bottomless, and he hated it; they had no character, they weren't expressive, and were horribly boring. He saw the huge crater in the side of his face and the way his hair curled ever so slightly, but not enough to be considered charming, just lazy and disheveled. He blinked back at his reflection with a stoic glare, stepping backward and flicking his fingers to rid it of water, and the door opened.

"Hey, Fang," Iggy said as he opened the door, striding with calculated steps towards him.

"How'd you know I was here?" Fang asked, noticing the stiff and robotic way that Iggy was walking.

"Because," Iggy said, forcing a sweet smile onto his face, "I've been having to 'watch' all of your little creatures do their report on Hamlet while you were enjoying yourself in the loo." Iggy clapped a large hand onto Fang's back with enough force to push him forward.

"Oh."

"Yeah," Iggy smiled, "oh."

"I'm sorry-"

"Do you know how annoying it is to listen to idiotic children babble about anything but their project, think that they can sneak out because I can't see, and have me to say 'get your bloody ass back in that chair' eighty times before they get that they're not going anywhere?"

"Very annoying, actually, I do it every class period."

"That's because they can smell the twat on you."

"Watch it," Fang said dentiloquently. He shook his head at his own statement.

"Would if I could!" But Fang knew that Iggy couldn't be mad at him for any longer than twenty minutes. "Hope you enjoyed your little break, but those monsters are on your hands now." He walked into a cubicle, leaving Fang to run back into the library while internally hitting himself in the head for being so spaced out.

When he reached the library, the students weren't doing anything pertaining to their work at all, but were talking amiably in little groups. The only one that was working was Max, her head bent into her book and a hand held lazily over the mouse, an article about philosophy on the screen.

The librarian, Ms. Hall, was sitting at her desk, filing papers with a confused expression on her face. She had hearing aids that were older than half of the students at the school, and couldn't be bothered to change it because of the cost. She never heard anything, and it was obvious that she couldn't hear the hum of mouths talking incessantly in the room, either.

Fang stood at the corner of the room for a while, simply watching the students as they thought that he wasn't there. A few of them were in deep in conversations, some clicking at their screens every so often, and others sitting on their phones, their fingers tapping furiously at the screen. He watched it all, realizing what students were like without the teacher there to direct and keep an eye on them at all times.

Lissa and Brigid, two girls with unnecessarily long, pink acrylic nails and shiny red hair walked up to Max. Fang found himself involuntarily rigid, like he would be for any student, he supposed, if he thought they were in danger. They started talking conversationally, it seemed, although he couldn't hear any of the words at the distance he was. It went on for a while until a look of hurt spread across Max's features, quickly replaced with amusement. Fang willed himself to stay in the spot he was in until he heard Max say something, loud enough so that he could hear.

"Are you sure you want to call me a whore when Mr. Walker is right there?" She said, pointing in Fang's general direction. He resisted the urge to laugh as the redheads looked over to where he was standing, immediately preening themselves to look presentable, and allowed an impassive gaze that he was very well known for encompass him as he strode to the spot.

"How's Hamlet coming along?" He asked the girls. Max was biting on her tongue while Brigid and Lissa both stuttered to find words. "That well, huh? Detention - oh, and do tell everyone who tried to leave under Griffith's watch will meet the same fate as well." The rest of the class had realized that Fang was back at that point. They whispered feverishly to each other while frantically pulling up articles and flipping to random pages in their copies of Hamlet.

"Thanks," Max said to Fang, who blinked his stupor off of his face to give her a small wink back before attending to another student. He looked back at her to see her writing something into her notebook, a smile infecting the features on her face, her eyes laughing and teeth exposed.

Fang laughed, but pushed away the unfamiliar tugging at the bottom of his stomach, like he wanted more but didn't have anything to give.

So! What do you think? R&R~

-SOCIALLYOBSCENE