Chapter 13

The Teacher's Pet

Fresh from a shower and breakfast, Lucien stood in front of a class of second year students. The sense of dread he felt at that moment made the tession he had felt before his first mission seem like a case of mild indigestion. His mind raced, trying to decide on a proper course of action. He was dreading the moment that bell would ring, signaling him to start talking. All too soon that time came and the class quieted and looked up to the stage, expecting to see the familiar face of Professor Goodwitch. What they got was a man who looked as if he was about to vomit onto the first row of students.

"Give me a minute and we'll get started, okay?" Lucien finally said, glancing around the room for confirmation. After a solid minute of silence he finally found the breath to speak again.

"Ok here's how this is gonna go. I'm gonna introduce myself, then you all get five minutes to ask as many questions as I can answer. Then we start training my way." He explained, once again looking for confirmation in the faces of the students. "Also, when I ask a question like that just shout or nod your heads or something."

"Oooookaaaay… So for those of you that don't know, I am Lucien La Fiere, you all can call me Mr. La Fiere." He started, before opening up the floor for questions. "Go ahead and start asking away, you got five minutes."

Soon hands shot up into the air around the classroom. Picking one at random he began answering questions. Soon enough there was only a minute left and the questions had started to get a little trickier.

"Yes you, in the third row." Lucien shouted out pointing to a girl with rabbit ears.

"Mr. La Fiere, I was wondering what makes you qualified to teach us for the day?" The faunus girl asked.

"Over fifty successful missions in my first three years of hunting. As well as a long career working in government as a consultant." He replied shortly, looking for another student to call on. Finding one he pointed to the student and called on them.

"Yeah, is the rumor that you were a contract killer true?" A boy that could only be described as rich and asinine called out.

"Yes." He said sarcastically. "Now moving on… Oh wait you all think I was serious? Damn you people are dense. Time is up. First lesson, never believe what you hear. Always question information."

He looked around the room, seeing a mixture of disappointment and relief painted on the faces of the students. He decided to let the silence hang in the air for a moment, letting his first lesson sink in. After a moment he began pairing up matches, ignoring the randomizer and simply selecting students who looked more than competent. After the first match he sent the students to clean up, by that time he had devised an actual plan and decided to put it into place.

"Ok, now I'll give you all thirty seconds to think about the match we just watched between Miss Adel and Mr. Ancor." He stated. "When that time is up I will call on you randomly, when I do, you must tell me one fact, observation, flaw in tactics, anything worth mentioning about the match. Time starts now."

After the time was up he began calling on students, asking names as he went. He noted down the ones that floundered under the questioning, as well as the ones who answered exceptionally well. Soon enough he deemed it time to start another match, warning the students that the next round of questioning would be about both matches they had seen so far.

After three more rounds of questioning the class had come to an end and he had to prepare for the first years. Deciding his best course of action would be to simply repeat the same lesson, but skipping the question and answer at the beginning. He found himself disappointed when team RWBY's leader threw a wrench in his plans.

"Hey Lucien! What are you doing up there?" Shouted out the peppy girl.

"Hello there Miss Rose. Today I will be teaching class." Lucien informed her.

"Ha! You'll be teaching class?! What kind of a joke is that?" A boy he recognized as one of the freshman bullies shouted out.

"The kind that is only funny for me." Lucien said with a wicked smile. "You are up first on the chopping block."

"What the hell does that mean old man?" The boy shot back.

"You are the first one to spar. We are practicing hand to hand combat today." Lucien explained, his smile growing wider as he made up the torture on the spot.

"What? No weapons?" The bully questioned, still disbelieving.

"Yes no weapons! Now go get your armor on, and don't even think about bringing your weapons or you will be sparring with me." Lucien threatened, winning the approval of most of the students present.

"Yes sir." The boy grumbled as he shuffled off towards the locker rooms.

"Now who wants to challenge that guy?" Lucien said cheerily. "I would enjoy it very much if you are able to best him."

"I can take him Sir." Shouted out at least a dozen students, but Lucien picked the one he knew could handle himself well without a weapon. He knew this from their dozens of sparring sessions that had focused on just that topic.

"I'm just gonna play favorites here." Lucien warned the class as he hopped down from the stage to sit in the front row of student seats. After he had gotten comfortable in his seat he called over his shoulder. "Jaune, go get ready. You're facing him."

"Yes Sir." Jaune said confidently, as he rose from his seat. When he passed him he paused for a second, whispering a question to his mentor. "Is it time to show off my semblance?"

"If you need to." The older man responded with a wink. "Make me proud boy."

"You can bet on it." Jaune replied as he strode off confidently to the locker rooms.

When both the boys had returned and taken their places on the stage Lucien rose again and hopped back up to address them.

"Ok boys. No weapons… Check." He began nonchalantly. "The only rules are no killing each other and don't break bones. Semblances are allowed. So are cheap shots. Pretty much anything but lethal force."

After he had gotten a response from each of the boys he jumped back off the stage and turned on the force field at the podium and took his seat to watch. A wicked smile came upon his face as he watched the monitors light up, displaying the names of the students and their aura levels. Jaune's aura meter had a much larger capacity than the other boys. Checking the other monitor he recognized the name "Cardin" as that of the boy that team JNPR seemed to despise. His smile grew even wider when he saw how little the boy had in the way of aura reserves.

"Watch closely class. This fight will be a good demonstration of how hard work pays off much more than a father with a large wallet." Lucien called out over his shoulder.

A smattering of small laughs could be heard coming from the collection of students. Then all was quiet when the match began. Cardin took the first steps forward, trying to bull rush Jaune and get into a grapple. Jaune had seen this tactic fail before and knew to simply side step as Lucien had done the many times they had sparred. Taking the chance to land a strike, Jaune shot his palm forward into Carin's exposed side. The force of the blow threw Cardin off balance and made him stumble, clutching the now sore spot on his side.

This simple exchange infuriated Cardin. Angered by the sudden humiliation of losing the right of first strike he threw himself at Jaune again. When he came charging in with a jab at Jaune's head his plow was caught by a solid hand that gripped his wrist tightly. Jaune took control of his opponent's arm and pulled it down at a painful angle, forcing a cry of pain from Cardin. Sweeping his foot behind Cardin's knees Jaune forced him to the ground. Jaune then placed his forearm behind Cardin's shoulder, using it to apply leverage, causing Cardin to shout out in extreme pain.

"Concede or I dislocate your shoulder. That is not pleasant. I assure you." Jaune threatened, using his best impression of Lucien's mannerisms.

"NO!" Cardin shouted back.

"Fine." Jaune said as he began to apply more pressure to the joint.

"OK! I CONCEDE!" Cardin shouted out in pain.

"That's enough boys!" Lucien shouted as he brought down the force field and jumped back onto the stage. "I said no broken bones Jaune. See me after class. Now both of you go get changed."

He got nods of agreement from both of the boys before they headed off to the locker rooms. He then turned to address the class which was sitting in stupefied silence. Looking at their faces it seemed that there was an even mixture of disappointment and shock.

"Ok class. When they get back we will, as a group, assess their match. You have till they get back to think about it and come up with answers to whatever I might ask." Lucien informed them, before he took a seat on the edge of the stage.

"It was such a simple fight there isn't really much to talk about. It was an easy match to call. Jaune has much more training in hand to hand combat, as well as better trained reflexes. But what it ultimately came down to was Cardin losing his temper practically immediately." A voice called out from the back of the class, drawing all eyes to her.

"Why thank you for spoiling all of my student's fun, Professor Goodwitch." Lucien answered with good humor.

"My pleasure, Mr. La Fiere." Glynda greeted in return.

"Well it looks like we won't be assessing their fight after all class." Lucien said to the students. "Is there anything you would like to add Professor?"

"Besides the fact that Jaune was pretty sloppy with that counter? No not really." She said, poking fun at Lucien's teaching.

"I take offense at that!" Lucien responded good naturedly. "He countered that just as I taught him to."

"I suppose that's why it was so sloppy." She joked. "But please continue teaching. Don't let my presence distract you."

"We won't. Will we class?" He called out, getting a round on 'No Sir' from the students that were still paying attention.

After the boys had returned to their seats he jumped right back into the matches, taking the time after each one to evaluate it, making sure to call on those students that seemed to be easily distracted. The rest of the class went without a hitch, but every so often his eyes would wander back to look at Glynda. Every time he looked back he saw her eyes intent on him, an approving look set on her face.

"Ok class, that's the last match of the hour, I want you to write half a page about it. And since Professor Goodwitch was here to see the match, I'm sure she would be more than happy to grade them when you give them to her tomorrow." Lucien said, a devilish smile plastered on his face. When he looked back to see her response his heart skipped a beat at the sight of the death glare that was aimed right at him.

After the bell rang Glynda came striding up to him, looking like a hunter stalking it's prey. For a moment Lucien contemplated running from her for his own safety. Before he could act she was standing in front of him, an accusing finger pointed at his chest.

"I never said you could assign homework!" She snarled. "Homework that I will have to grade!"

"You also never said I couldn't." He chuckled, trying to break the tension. "Calm down. I'll come in and grade them myself tomorrow."

"You had better." She warned, lowering her hand. "Besides that I have to hand it to you. You handled the kids well, they seemed to actually be pretty engaged."

"Thanks… If I'm being honest I was just winging it. Hehe…"

"Really… You were just pulling that out of your ass?"

"Yeah… It went pretty well first hour so I figured I would just keep it up all day…"

"What the hell…" She sighed. "Well I guess that works."

"Yeah it seems like it does." He chuckled. "Well students are about to start showing up. I need to get ready."

"To just wing it?" She asked incredulously before she realized the reason for his laughter. "Oh god that is so bad… Why would you make that joke?"

"Miss Xiao Long must be rubbing off on me." He answered as he jumped up from his seat on the edge of the stage.

As the students began to pour in he took his spot behind the podium. After the bell rang he made his introduction and went right into arranging sparring matches. After the hour had passed he took his seat again, waiting for the last round of students before lunch hour rolled around.

"You never warned me it was this painful waiting for lunch!" He called to the back of the classroom where Glynda was sitting.

"I never found it difficult." She called back. "Maybe you listen to your stomach too much if you are already hungry."

"Are you calling me fat?"

"You were out of breath this morning after your lesson with Jaune." She mocked. "Maybe you're getting a little old."

"Me? Old? Never."

"Sure… Well you only have one more hour. I hope your stomach can hold out till then." She joked back.

Soon the interim between class periods was over and Lucien had to begin teaching again. Going through the routine he had set up, introduction, sparring, assessment, etc. By the time the hour had ended Lucien was sure the first row of students could hear his stomach growling. The moment the bell rang Lucien practically bolted to the door before he was stopped by Glynda.

"You are eating with me today." She stated. "If you are gonna be a teacher for the day you are gonna eat like one. Away from students."

"I don't care, so long as I get to eat."

"Stop acting so childish." SHe muttered. "Come along then, we'll go eat."

"Finally." He sighed.

As Glynda led the way to the dining hall the two chatted like old friends, talking about trivial things like the weather and recent politics. When they arrived at the dining hall they took their places in line, letting the conversation lapse. Finally they had their food and were sitting at one of the secluded round tables that the faculty sat at during meals.

"So how are you liking your first day teaching?" Glynda asked hesitantly.

"I'm actually enjoying it quite a bit now that I've gotten the hang of it." Lucien replied. "Though I doubt my technique would work for an entire semester."

"I doubt it would."

"But I'm sure if I was forced to do this every day I could come up with some creative torture methods for second years."

"Don't get me started on second years." She sighed. "They are the most annoying bunch of students… Every year they get worse too."

"You are really doing a good job of selling the whole teaching thing to me." He replied with a chuckle.

"There are high points." She defended.

"Sure like what?"

"The reward of watching students succeed, the sadistic pleasure derived from punishing second years with testing and homework, uh…. Yeah that's about it."

"Well as fun as that sounds I think I'll find something else to do with my time after I leave." He joked.

"You're leaving?" She whispered, suddenly losing her confidence and good humor.

"Well yeah… Schooling only lasts for four years." He said quietly. "And that's if I stay that long."

"When did you plan on leaving?"

"When I first got here I was going to give it a month or two. Now I think I'll just play it by ear." He explained.

"What are you going to do after that?" She questioned as she found her confidence again.

"I was thinking I might find some protection contracts or maybe do some independant hunting." He said with a small smile. "Something that might do some good."

"Well that's sounds like a good plan."

"Who knows I might even take the time to stop by and check up on Juane every now and again." He chuckled. "Who knows what he would do without me there to whip his ass into shape when he get's lazy."

"I'm sure he would like that." Glynda said just before the bell rang, dismissing students to their next class.

"It was nice sharing a meal with you Glynda." Lucien said with an honest smile as he rose to leave the cafeteria.

"Yeah, you too."

"Maybe we should do it again?" Lucien suggested. "How about next saturday?"

"Yeah that sounds good." She replied without thinking. "Wait what?"

"Dinner? Next saturday?" He asked again.

"Um… I guess I already said yes."

"I'd let you change your mind. But I must warn you, it would wound my pride terribly."

"No that's fine. I guess it's a date then."

"Good. Now let's get back to the classroom. It wouldn't be proper to have the teacher be the last to arrive."

I think I'm going to need a suit.