::
"Sir? Where did you live before Amity Park?" Andrew paused from where he was writing the day's lesson on the board for his last class of the day. Of course it was Danny's class, the one that always seemed to ask these sorts of questions.
"Well, I never actually lived in Amity Park, per se." Hm, perhaps he should split this lesson over two days, for this class. A few of them were a bit behind in the subject material, and taking more time to explain it would help in the long run… "Amity Park just so happens to be where the Ghost Zone connects with the portal the Fentons built."
"That Ghost Zone place, then, that's where you live? With the other ghosts?" Ah, Andrew was having flashbacks to when he first started teaching Danny about the Ghost Zone. The teen had been so confused, back then.
"Yes, although we each have our own place of residence. Mine happens to be a library that serves as my lair." He chose to believe the poorly concealed laughs actually were coughs. "I haven't had much reason to come out into the human world until, well. Until Phantom, actually." Even when the portal had opened and everyone had been flocking to the human world, Andrew had never much cared. Not until a silly little half ghost had appeared.
"But where did you live before the Ghost Zone? Like, when you were alive?" Tightening his grip on his marker for a second, Andrew did his best to not think of crows or church bells or the droning words that were always the same. Mercy was for the weak.
"An orphanage." There were a few mutters at that, Andrew doing his best to not look back at Danny. He failed rather quickly, hiding the action by turning to get a paper off his desk. The sad expression on his mate's face wasn't exactly unexpected. "When I was a little under four I was moved to… A group home, we'll say."
"With your brother, right?" Lips twitching, Andrew gave a nod as he capped his marker and where was that outline for the day… He had a few prompts he wanted to start them out on to get them used to thinking outside of their current points of view.
"Alright, final questions, since I know you all are too curious for your own good." Amity Park in a nutshell, really.
"What state did you live in?"
"France." That certainly got a reaction, multiple people sitting up and some of the girls looking a little too eager to hear more. High schoolers, honestly. "Yes, I'm from France, yes I was born there, although I did move to England shortly after I was ten. I also speak fluent French, before you ask."
"But how good do you speak French?" Had his English lessons taught them nothing, really? It was one simple little- It didn't take much to remember the right way to phrase a sentence!
"Apparently, much better than you speak English." From the front row, Danny gave a loud bark of laughter, quickly covering his mouth and blushing at the various looks from others. "I thought that was rather amusing myself, thank you." It was so delightful to see Danny blush even brighter and look down at his desk shyly. Andrew wasn't sure whether that was part of Danny's 'act', but it was delightful to watch all the same. "Now, if we could return to Creative Writing."
Gathering a stack of papers, Andrew set them down on Danny's desk with a soft smile, "Mr. Fenton, kindly pass these out?" This would certainly help fuel Danny's 'rumors'. And Andrew would admit that seeing Danny quickly gather the papers and near slip on the floor was far too amusing.
"So, wait, if you lived in France and England, how come you don't have that much of an accent?"
"Because it's been twenty years since I died and I've only been around American ghosts," Andrew waved off, returning to the board and giving Danny another smile as he returned to his seat. Poor thing near tripped over his desk. "I also lived in America for, oh, let's see… Five years or so, I believe, before I died. Now, please look at the list of prompts you've been given. The first few I'll give you ideas and examples on how to do, the rest I want you to try doing yourself."
The rest of the lesson passed by rather smoothly, the bell ringing and cutting Andrew off in the middle of his sentence. Shooting a rather rude look to the ceiling, Andrew capped his marker again, "Alright, pick one prompt from the list and do a short story based around it. Five hundred words minimum and due by the end of the week. If you have any questions or need any help, I have free time in third period. Off you go. Oh, and Mr. Fenton? If you could stay after for a moment, please?"
There were snickers and mutters from other students as they left, Danny blushing a bright red as he stared at the ground. As soon as the last student was out and the door closed, Danny was glaring up at Andrew. He was still blushing, however. "Andy."
"Désolé, désolé," Andrew laughed, wrapping his arms around Danny and kissing at his cheek. "It was far too tempting. Besides, I thought you wanted help in making everyone think you had a 'student crush' on me?"
"That doesn't mean you're supposed to flirt back," Danny whined, burying his face against Andrew's chest. "Now people are going to think you're having an affair with Phantom on me- Oh my god. I'll be a homewrecker."
"I don't think even the rumors at this school can get that out of hand, mon cher." Andrew tugged Danny closer, covering him with fluttering little kisses that eventually had the teen giving a smile. "Besides, you can't exactly be the homewrecker of your own relationship. Not in that context, at least."
"The point stands, the school already thinks you're starting to return my feelings- Holy shit. I seduced the substitute teacher." It wasn't the words that had Andrew laughing so much as how they were were spoken in a quiet, shocked tone. "Wha- Hey! If we had never met I would have seduced you still! I mean, I seduced you as my tutor-"
"Please stop using the word seduced. That is not- You did not seduce me." Scooping Danny up, Andrew gently set him down on his desk before standing between the teen's legs and pulling him into a deep kiss, making sure to thoroughly fluster him before parting just a small amount. "If anything, my love, I believe I was the one who seduced you."
"You're French, it doesn't count." Danny's blush was slowly fading, replaced by a smirk and a wicked spark in his eyes as he dragged Andrew back down for another kiss, this time taking a much more active role than before. "You know, Mr. Riter, this is rather inappropriate. Why, anyone could walk in on us right now…"
"Locked the door," Andrew mumbled, hand going to the back of Danny's head to pull him in closer again, vaguely feeling the teen's legs wrap around his waist. "Home. We should-"
"Definitely."
::
"You flirted with him in front of the entire class?" Scoffing, Andrew waved off Randy's question with a sharp jab of a pen in his direction.
"I did not flirt with one of my students. I merely…" Well… There might have been a bit of flirting involved. Randy seemed to have guessed as much, what with the grin he shot him. "Hush, you."
"What I find most amusing is that if this is how you two met, things would have gone the same way. You staying late to tutor the troubled junior. Long nights in the library after school, stolen meetings in the classroom during lunch, heated looks while-"
"Randall." Andrew's outrage was nearly drowned out from Danny's laughter in the other room, the teen sounding like he was falling off the couch he had been working on. "Honestly, you're as bad as he is!"
"Please, he wishes he was as bad as me." A sudden spoon was held in front of Andrew, the man holding out for all of a moment before opening his mouth and letting Randy test whatever his latest concoction was.
Savoring the taste for a moment, Andrew gave a nod, "Perhaps a touch more of that last spice you used?"
"And this is why you're my taste tester. You give constructive criticism instead of just inhaling everything like some people." The glare shot to the 'living room' had little effect, Andrew able to hear Danny vaguely whining about Randy's food being 'too good to even exist'. "How is your new career going, then?"
"It's…" Paperwork was scattered all around him in a mess, as well as countless teaching books and binders. He could feel the lingering edges of a headache he'd been dealing with since fourth period, he was utterly exhausted, and he was rather certain he was running on nothing but spite and bitterness. "I love it."
"You know, you could ask if you could become a full time teacher," Randy pointed out, hoisting himself up on the table, bare foot skipping against Andrew's leg for a moment. "You have all your credentials."
"I highly doubt they'll let a ghost become a full time teacher." Tugging on Randy's pant leg, the man couldn't help a chuckle at the small little poke to his stomach he got.
"We could get them on discrimination charges. I know for a fact that's against union rules. Probably." Honestly.
"It's fine, Randy. I'm enjoying myself, but I know it won't last forever." Good things never did, before Danny had come into his life and Randy had decided to finally stay. This was enough, for him. It… It was fine.