AN: Thanks again for all the favs, follows, and reviews. Enjoy the chapter.
Chapter 12
Happy Accidents
The next morning Lucien woke up early, a smile plastered on his face. Getting ready for his morning training with Jaune he headed down the hall to knock on JNPR's door. After a minute he heard some shuffling and groaning. The door was answered by a sleepy Ren who had a large drool stain on his chest.
"Hey there kid, you got something on your chest." Lucien greeted.
"Huh… Nora…" Ren groaned, appraising the wet spot on his shirt.
"Nora huh? Sleeping arrangements change while I was away?" He inquired.
"A bit… What can I do for you this early?" Ren asked groggily.
"I'm here to wake up your leader. Time we got back to his training." Lucien said as he walked past Ren into the room. Looking at the beds he spotted the one that Jaune slept in. Walking over to the mass of blankets he saw that Jaune was not alone in the bed.
"Sorry Pyrrha, got to steal your boy." He said as he ripped the blankets off of Jaune, trying to not disturb Pyrrha with his rude awakening. "Time to get up Jauney boy! We have some training to do!"
"Who is being so loud. I'm gonna break their legs." Nora grumbled from across the room in Ren's bed.
"It's just Lucien, Nora go back to sleep." Ren said as he crawled back into bed next to the girl.
"Ok… I'll spare you this time Mr. Ghost." She mumbled.
"Lucien, what the hell man?" Jaune groaned as he rose from bed, trying not to disturb the sleeping girl next to him.
"Training time. Get some pants on and get down to the arena. You go twenty minutes before I start without you." Lucien said before he marched out of the room.
"Ok…" The boy grumbled as he rose and began dressing.
Ten minutes later the two were in the arena sparring at full speed. Exchanging blows as fast as they could, each using their semblance to full effect. Soon Jaune discovered that he could summon more than one shield, but keeping them maintained like that was an exercise in exhaustion. What Jaune hadn't realised was that Lucien was fighting with a massive handicap. Sitting in the back of the room was a figure dressed in blue and cream, appraising the fight with an unwavering eye for technique. The third person brought the unfamiliar feeling of butterflies to Lucien's stomach. Soon enough the feeling got to him and he made a misstep, letting his guard down long enough for Jaune to score a direct hit to his chest.
"Ha first blood!" Jaune shouted.
"And last blood. It's about time we got showered and headed to breakfast." Lucien said, pulling himself up to his full height and looking towards the back of the room. "Go on ahead. I'll see you there."
"Ok man, nice fight today. Next time don't be so distracted by eye candy." Jaune joked, following Lucien's gaze towards Glynda sitting in the back of the room.
"Don't talk about your teachers like that." Lucien chastised jokingly before he jogged to the back of the room. "Hey there professor. What are you doing here so early?"
"I figured you'd be training with Jaune again. So I decided to come and see." She explained.
"Oh really. So what do you think? He's come a long way but I think there is still room to improve. But at least now he won't get killed by a beowulf." Lucien thought aloud.
"Very true, but I think it's a waste that you are only teaching one person at a time." She commented.
"Eh teaching a large class isn't really for me." He said dismissively.
"You never have quite the resume. Over fifty completed missions in the space of three years. That's nothing to scoff at." She countered.
"True, but that was years ago. Now I doubt anyone would hire me. Especially because of my resume." He replied, somewhat serious.
"I guess not." She said, letting the conversation lapse into silence, staring off into space for a moment till she felt a small tugging at her neck.
"I remember this. It took me a whole year's worth of missions to get it made." Lucien said, thumbing the sapphire pendant she was wearing with her outfit.
"It's pretty that's for sure." She said, batting his hand away from her neck.
"It's too bad I never gave your it's companion." He said somewhat regretfully.
"It's companion? What a set of earrings?" She asked.
"No it was a ring of sapphires and diamond." He said distractedly. "That was a big dent in my income. Took me six months just to convince the jeweler to do it after that necklace. He said the necklace was such a pain that he didn't want to do something that had to match it."
"A ring? Really?" She asked, shocked by the possible implications.
"Yeah, it was too beautiful to sell, and it really only went with your necklace, I think it's sitting still in it's box in one of my safe houses." He replied, still staring off in a daydream. "I planned to give it to you on our anniversary. But that never came, so I just let it sit around."
"Really? You were going to give it to me on our… Damn you!" She nearly shouted. "You can't just tell me these things out of nowhere!"
"What? What did I say?" He asked, stupefied by her change in attitude.
"You just told me you were going to propose to me on our anniversary! But instead of doing that you ran off and wait twenty years to just shove yourself back into my life!" She shouted, fracturing the silence of the empty room.
"Yeah I guess I did." He said regretfully. "If you want the ring anyways you can have it. It's the least I can do."
"You fucking idiot. I don't want the stupid ring. I want those twenty years back. I want those twenty years back so I could spend them with you." She cried as tears began falling onto her cheeks.
What the fuck am I doing? I keep doing these stupid things because of this insane asshole? She thought.
Hate to break it to you. But you slept with that asshole, there must be a damn good reason. Her inner voice shot back.
"Shut up." Glynda whispered.
"I didn't say anything." Lucien replied worriedly
"Nothing, just talking to myself." She replied, wiping away the tears she had shed.
"That's not a good sign. Well I need to get cleaned up before breakfast. I'll see you in class." He said as he rose from his seat next to her. "And Glynda, don't cry about lost time, you get to suffer through my presence for another three years. After that I'm sure you'll never want to see me again."
"Don't pull anything today or I swear I'll pull out every feather you have!" She threatened as he walked off, ignoring his poor joke.
Showering and dressing he headed to breakfast where the rest of team JNPR were waiting for him to join them. Taking his seat he looked around to see questions waiting on their lips.
"Just go ahead and ask away. I'm in a good mood, maybe there won't be a fight this time." Lucien said to break the tension.
"So why did you disappear for two days?" Pyrrha asked.
"I had some business that needed attending too. You've probably already heard about it from the news." He said before backpedaling to correct himself. "Nevermind that last part. It wasn't anything front page worthy."
"Okay… So that's cool, but what happened with Professor Goodwitch back in the classroom?" Jaune asked.
"We talked. That's what adults do. Talk." Lucien answered. "Why do you ask?"
"Well yesterday when you came swooping into class she was more than a little surprised to see you there." Jaune explained.
"Yeah, we may have had a bit of a discussion the other day about my attendance here." He said, thinking back to that night, feeling a blush rise up on his cheeks.
"Yeah a talk. Then explain why you were so distracted this morning during our sparring?" The boy challenged.
"Jaune, shut up." Lucien said, deflecting the question. "Next question, yes you the redhead, not you! The hyper one! Yes you Nora what would you like to ask?"
"Actually I just wanted to say the way you came swooping into class yesterday like an angel of death and kneecapping was TOTALLY AWESOME!" The hyperactive girl said.
"Why thank you, though I've never been a fan of kneecapping myself." The graying man replied. "Next?"
"Actually I have another question." Pyrrha said. "Are you ever gonna tell us what you really did before coming to Beacon? After Weiss's outburst that one time we kinda had her explain to us what she was talking about and it kinda got us thinking."
"Well maybe. But today is not that day children! Today is a good day, and I refuse to spoil it with stories of my past." He replied over enthusiastically.
"Ok that's fair." Pyrrha agreed grudgingly, letting the conversation fall back to the usual topics. The rest of Lucien's day was uneventful compared to his morning, sitting through history, messing with students in combat training, sitting through the torture of Port talking about grimm, and all the other tedious things that he endured on a daily basis, yet today he took them all with a smile. Soon enough he was back in his dorm, laying down for the evening, eager to wake the next morning for more of the same.
Four months passed in this fashion, waking early with Jaune, exchanging moments of honesty with Glynda, telling some of his less gruesome stories to the teams he had made friends with, even letting Ruby cling to his chest as he flew above Beacon's towers once. Then in the first luke warm days of spring he had a change to his usual schedule. A message on his scroll one evening, from Glyna asking him to come to her classroom. Surprised by her urgency he rushed off to the now familiar room, only to find her sitting in the front row of seat, waiting for him with a smile on her face.
"You called madam?" He greeted with a laugh, relieved that she seemed to be in good spirits.
"Hello there." She greeted warmly. "Take a seat, I wanted to talk to you about something that's been turning around in my head for a while now."
"Ok, shoot. I'm waiting with bated breath." He joked as he took a seat next to her.
"I was thinking about the conversation we had some time ago. About how I think you would make a good teacher. I want you to teach class tomorrow." She explained.
"Uh… I don't really think I'm the teaching type. Mentor maybe… but teaching… I don't really think I'm a good fit for that role." He said, trying to subvert the conversation off of his teaching abilities.
"Well that's too bad, I already have it cleared with Ozpin, so you will be teaching my class tomorrow." She stated matter-of-factly.
"Damn, so there isn't any weaseling out of this one is there?" He asked morosely.
"Not a chance. You are teaching and that's really all there is to it." She said.
"Will I at least get extra credit for it?" He joked back, still somewhat apprehensive about it.
"Oh I'm sure that can be arranged." She laughed as she rose to leave. "Just don't mess it up too badly."
"I'll try not to." He said rising from his seat.
"Oh and thanks. I needed a day off." She laughed as she walked off.
"Wait what?!" He called after her, running to catch up "Day off? As in the whole day?"
"Yeap, the whole day." She said as she continued to walk away.
"Damn you little witch." He grumbled as he shuffled off back to his dorm, dreading the day of teaching that he would endure the next day.
Well, I guess I need a lesson plan. Fuck it, let's wing it and see how that goes. Hehe, Yang must be rubbing off on me. Puns… Hehe