Chapter nine – The Teacher's Lounge

"So class, that is how to chat someone up in German. Class dismissed!"

Mathias Køhler was settling into his position at Goverek High School nicely. He'd befriended many of the teachers – even a few of the students, and as far as he knew, everyone was enjoying their German lessons. The boys certainly seemed to enjoy the one he'd just taught, anyway.

But now was lunch break. Lunch break meant the teacher's lounge.

Everyone seemed to assume that the teacher's lounge was a lovely place to unwind – drink away your problems with coffee or tea, and lightly socialise with your colleagues. Perhaps normal teacher's lounges were like that in normal schools, but the day Goverek fell under the category 'normal' would be the day the queen of England decided that unicorns would now be the transport for the military. Goverek's teacher's lounge was probably one of the scariest, most dangerous places to be in the entire school.

Which was one of the reasons Mathias loved it so much!

Whistle tunelessly on his way down, the German teacher came very close to crashing into a certain ICT teacher who was just locking up his classroom.

"Lukas! I didn't know you'd started your job already – Tino told me you were starting next week!" Mathis clapped the Norwegian on the back, grinning as they made their way to the teacher's lounge.

"Yeah, I told him to tell you that…" Lukas glared up at Mathis, frowning.

"Aww! Now why'd you do that?" Mathis pouted.

"So I could avoid you for another week." Lukas said flatly, ignoring Mathis' dramatic act of fainting from shock.

Realising that Lukas wasn't going to come and pick him up of the floor, Mathis jumped to his feet, running to catch up with his colleague, "You're no fun, Lukas," he pouted childishly, "You look so adorable and friendly, but when you open your mouth you freeze everyone with your frosty words! If only I could warm you up a bit more…" Mathis made to hug Lukas, but Lukas very easily stepped out of his grasp, causing Mathis to fall to the floor again.

After getting himself up and running alongside Lukas again, Mathis decided to make light conversation, "So what about your brother? Has he started his job here, too?"

Lukas shrugged, "Yeah, I guess."

"What was he teaching again?"

"Geography."

Mathis frowned, "I'm trying to make conversation with you, but you're so flat! At this rate we'll have to walk in silence!"

"By all means."

And walk in painful silence the two did.

Soon, however, they reached the teacher's lounge. Stepping inside, Mathis had to dodge a tennis ball that had been thrown across the room by someone.

"Sorry, I was aiming for Braginski…" Yao Wang frowned, making to pick up the tennis ball, "I've never been too good at throwing."

"S'fine, Professor," Mathis beamed, "We all want to throw a tennis ball at him sometimes, don't we?"

"You have no idea, Mathis. And please, call me Yao," Yao smiled, and then went to make himself some tea.

"Did someone say my name?" none other than Ivan Braginski turned around, murderous smile on his face. Yao, who was mid-walking-away froze, cursing to himself in Chinese.

"You know, Yao, it's not nice to throw things at people…" Ivan pouted a little, "It would hurt my feelings to know you want to hurt me…"

It felt like the whole room was now glaring at the Coach, "Cut out the cute act, Braginski, we all know you're a psychopath behind your cute smile." Elizabeta spoke up bravely.

"Aww, you found me out~" he chuckled all too happily, "Oh well!"

Yao cursed again, and then went off to make his tea and socialise with Mei Wan, the art teacher.

Lukas frowned, leaving Mathis' side and walking over to the corner of the room to sit with a very familiar looking man.

"Emil!" Mathis called, seeing just who Lukas had been so eager to get to, "It's been too long!"

"On the contrary," Emil frowned, "It hasn't been long enough."

Mathis frowned, but before he could complain, a voice cut across him.

"Hey you guys! It's been too long!"

The whole room fell silent as Tino and Berwald made their way through the crowds. Everyone was staring intently at Berwald, frozen in motion. It wasn't as if this was the first time they'd seen Berwald – it was quite often he made his way into the teacher's lounge and demolished all conversation, but he always managed to freeze the entire room for at least a few minutes. Everyone was so scared of him.

"Hey Tino!" Mathis waved, but was blanked completely as the Finnish man attacked the brothers with a hug.

"I'm so glad you made it across okay. How was the plane journey? There wasn't too much turbulence, was there? Berwald and I flew through a thunderstorm over German – it was terrifying! Oh! I'm blabbing, aren't I? So how's your first day been so far?"

"Boring." The pair answered in unison.

Tino smiled a little awkwardly, realising that it'd be impossible to get these two to have a conversation that lasted over one line, "Ah… That's… nice, isn't it?"

"'S a lost cause, Tino," Berwald shook his head, "G've up."

"You two're a new, eh?" Elizabeta made her way over, huge grin on her face, "Why don't you introduce yourselves to your colleagues?"

"They're Emil Steilsson and Lukas Bondevik. Emil's in geography, Lukas for ICT. They're brothers, and I would appreciate it if you stopped hassling them, Miss Héderváry."

The entire population of the room turned to the door, once again freezing their conversations when they saw Mr. Belischmidt glowering at the Hungarian from the doorway.

Elizabeta frowned, "I was simply making conversation. And I've told you, Legolas, call me Elizabeta!"

"And I've told you, Miss Héderváry," Mr. Belischmidt frowned, "Call me Mr. Belischmidt."

"One day, one day, Legolas," Elizabeta sat back down next to Roderich, "I will dislodge that stick from your ass."

Mr. Belischmidt blushed a little, coughing, "I assure you, there is no need for you to 'dislodge' anything."

The room giggled a little at the innuendo statement, but with a glare from their boss everyone went back to sipping their drinks nervously.

"I just came in here to make a quick announcement," Mr. Belischmidt glared at the room, "There will be a meeting tomorrow lunchtime. That is all." And with that final statement, the Headmaster slammed the door shut, and everyone let out a sigh of relief in perfect unison.

"That stick will be mine…" Elizabeta muttered under her breath.

"Give it up, Lizzy," Mr. Vargas piped up from the coffee machine, "That stick's been up there so long there's no chance of ever getting it out."

Roderich coughed lightly, "I think this conversation is a little inappropriate, if you ask me."

"No one did ask you, though…" Mr. Vargas muttered, rolling his eyes.

Back in the 'Scandinavian Corner' as it was already being referred to, the two new members of staff were getting quite a bit of attention from other teachers. The only problem was the fact that they didn't really want the attention, so ended up just letting Tino and Mathis answer for them.

"If you're brothers, why are your surnames different?" Miss Chernenko asked, tilting her head.

"Apparently it's because they were brought up by separate families. We're not even sure ourselves. These two are a bit of a mystery.

"So were you five all friends before working here?"

"Yeah, well… Kind of," Tino smiled, "Mathis and I have a bit of a… history. We used to be pretty close in school, but when it came to university, I moved back to Finland. Berwald was pretty friendly with us both in high school, but when I flew back home to go to university… he kind of… came with me. Then Mathis met these two," Tino nodded towards Emil and Lukas, "In his university, and ever since we've been meeting up as often as we can. We're pretty close friends."

"That's so sweet!" Miss Chernenko smiled warmly, "So… you say Berwald followed you… Are you… gay, then?"

"Who said gay!?" Elizabeta jumped up, eyes gleaming.

"These two! They're a couple!" Miss Chernenko smiled, pointing to Berwald and Tino.

Elizabeta ran over, grabbing both of their hands, shaking them, "Tino, you are so very cute. Berwald," she managed to look the scary man right in the eyes, "You got a good catch. Expect to see more of me."

"N-no…! We're nothing l-like that…" Tino stuttered, blushing, "R-really…"

Berwald frowned, "How c'n you say th't? You're m'wife." He declared flatly.

Tino positively glowed, "Berwald! Be quiet!"

As Berwald kept insisting about his marriage status, Miss Chernenko and Elizabeta smiled to one another.

"I'd better get a picture of this… Ivy would love to hear about it…" Elizabeta grinned, snapping a quick picture with her mobile.

"You're still in touch with Ivy? Ivy Kirkland?" Roderich raised an eyebrow.

"What other Ivy do you know?" Elizabeta laughed, "Yeah, she's one of my best friends! Why?"

Roderich shook his head, "I was only wondering."

"She's been really supportive with the baby and everything," Elizabeta said, "She knows I'm terrible with this sort of thing…"

"Well, she would have a lot of experience," Roderich said under his breath, frowning as he went back to a paper he was marking. Before Elizabeta could ask him what on earth he was talking about, the rooms attention was caught by the raised voice of Yao from the area nearest the kettle.

"Oh yeah, how is Ivy?" Mr. Vargas said, sitting down next to Elizabeta, "What happened after the issues with Daniel?"

Elizabeta shrugged, "He was harassing her all last year, that bastard. He seems to have laid off a little now, but you never can be too sure with that man. Last I heard she's dating a new guy."

"What, another one?" Roderich narrowed his eyes, "She really needs to get her act together."

"No! It's good for her – she just needs to relax a little," Elizabeta held Roderich's arm soothingly, "I know you worry, but you can be a little mean about it at times. And for a heads up, don't tell the kids."

"Who, the Kirklands? Why not?" Mr. Vargas interrupted.

"Ivy didn't seem too keen on them finding out, y'know? It's not because she doesn't want them to find out about him, as such, but it's more that if they find out, they'll be… a little… protective… Or we can predict they'll act that way…"

"Well I could imagine Alastair especially wouldn't be too pleased…" Roderich muttered, imagining the rage of the Scot if he ever did find out. Scary thought.

"Exactly. So keep your mouths shut!" Elizabeta winked.

Before too long, the room's attention was once again pulled over to a concentrated spot. This time it was Ivan and Yao in the spotlight.

"Coach, I'd greatly appreciate it if you could stop touching me." Yao muttered through gritted teeth, trying to keep his composure.

"Aww, but you're cute, Yao. You look very breakable, but I'll be as gentle as I can…" Ivan said with a hint of creepiness in his tone.

Grabbing Ivan's hand and throwing it off his shoulder where it'd been snaking, Yao set down his tea, "Ivan! Stop feeling me up!"

Ivan's smile widened, "You called me by my first name. You never usually do that."

Yao blinked a few times. He'd tried to get the point across to Ivan that they were not on a first name basis. Annoyingly out of his own rash anger, he'd completely forgotten about calling the man 'Coach' or 'Braginski', "Ehh… That's because…" Yao tried to search for an excuse, refusing to admit defeat, "Because I want you to take me seriously! This is no laughing matter!"

"Right…" Ivan smiled up at Yao, not believing a word he said, "You can be really cute at times, you know!"

"Be quiet!" Yao insisted, trying to shove Ivan away from him as the Russian wrapped his arms around Yao's feminine figure.

"Just like a woman!" Ivan said, "You should crossdress some time…"

"I am not going to crossdress!"

"Aww, not even if I paid you?"

"I'm not a prostitute!"

"It'd be hot if you were… Then you couldn't escape me…" Ivan muttered, blowing lightly on Yao's neck, causing the man beneath him to shudder.

"Braginski! I have told you this on numerous occasions – I'm not gay." Yao insisted, "Sure – in my early years I was bi-curious… at times – but I like women!"

Ivan's smirk turned a little darker, "You didn't tell me that on the night you were drunk in that science classroom…"

Yao flushed crimson, "I told you! That was a mistake! I was drunk – you took advantage over me!"

There was a pause.

"You two've had sex!?" Elizabeta demanded, jumping to her feet, staring at the two of them.

Ivan cut across Yao's stream of denial with a simple "Yes!"

Elizabeta very nearly collapsed into a pool of her own blood, "Where? When? Why!?"

"Let's see…" Ivan muttered, casually muffling Yao's protests by clamping a huge hand over his mouth, keeping the Chinese man in his vice-like grip, "We did it twice, actually… There was once about a year and a half ago, and then the more recent time… two weeks ago. Both times were in Yao's classroom – first desk you see when you walk in… And the reason…" he pondered for a second, "Because I was horny and he was drunk." He decided with a smile.

Elizabeta grinned, "Braginski, I knew you were a bastard – but I never knew you were a gay one. Come here, man," she held her arms open for a hug, "Seriously awesome. Give me pictures next time."

Ivan hugged her, still keeping a tight hold of Yao, "I have some with me if you'd like to see them?"

"Seriously!? Gimme, gimme!" Elizabeta fretted, grinning as he routed in his pockets, and handed them to her. Very soon, Elizabeta was sitting next to Roderich, fanning herself.

Yao, who'd finally been released from Ivan's grasp, was fuming.

"You can't go around giving away pictures of me!" Yao had already attempted to grab the pictures off Elizabeta. But no one, not even Ivan, could get those pictures off her now, "And you can't take pictures of me in the first place! When the hell did I say you could take them!? And why do you keep them in your pockets! What if a student found them!?"

Ivan smiled, "One already has."

"What!?"

"Don't worry! I told him that if he ever told anyone, I'd kill him and his family."

"That's a little drastic…"

"And for your information, you did ask me to take those pictures. Actually you pretty much begged me to 'preserve your slutty face for eternity'." Ivan's smile was all-too-pleased at Yao's increasing blush.

"I was intoxicated when saying that!" Yao cursed in Chinese under his breath, "Tell no one of this!" he addressed not only Ivan, but the whole room, who he'd now realised had been listening to every word that had been said.

The room nodded, muttering 'yes'-es, but everyone knew that this news would spread.

Ivan sighed, "Aw,, I've got to go an set up for my next class… Useless children…" he muttered, sentence turning darker as it went on. He was soon back to speaking in his usual bright tone, "Bye Yao~"

Before anyone could do anything, Ivan leaned in swiftly, pinning Yao against the wall and stole a very quick kiss. Just because the kiss was quick didn't mean it was chaste. On the contrary – Yao felt like the kiss could've been classed as explicit content alone! Ivan's tongue managed to snake inside Yao's mouth and fight with his own, and the Russain gently nipped at Yao's bottom lip, before finally separating, uncaring of his taken aback colleagues or the flashes of Elizabeta's camera.

"See you after school, Yao~" Ivan sang, passing Mr. Belischmidt on his way out as the bell for afternoon lessons began.

"I'm not even going to ask…" Mr. Belischmidt muttered, picking up the book he needed from the coffee table, and running out before he got involved with the fanatics of his employees.

A/N

Short. I know. Don't kill me X'D I was gunna do a page break and continue writing, but then I realised a new chapter would be a little more suiting XD don't worry – I'm in the middle of writing the next chapter, so that should be up quite soon X'D
So! Everyone should be back in school now, I guess… I'm sorry if the delay between chapters is a little longer than usual – I've just entered Year 10 (same year as Alfie and Artie) and that's our first exam year, which means a lot of homework. Already I've had quite a bit Q_Q usually it woldn't be much of a problem – but there's subjects like art which have really time-consming homework X'D so between getting back to school, my birthday, and numerous other little problems (*coughcough* my laziness *coughcough*) It's taken me a while with this chapter X'D so I hope you liked!
See ya soon, guys! Also, Love you if you've reviewed! Please review if you enjoyed! Thank yous!