The piles of books beside my bed outgrew their highest levels to date. In my room lingered a faint musty smell, no matter how often I let some air in. Unnecessary scripts as well as writing utensils and stray fruits inhabited my room, due to Koschei's contribution.

And I got tired of asking what exactly he was planning with all these sheets and pens.
I had stopped caring.

Only my bed would be spared from his stored items; but just because Koschei preferred sleeping in my room instead of his own. I began to wonder when had been the last time he'd even been to his room.

I closed the door behind me after getting bawled out by Ms. Reprics in front of mates I had respected. Till now.

I sighed as soon as I had realized that I couldn't collapse onto my bed because Koschei was already lying there.

"She's been moving up" mumbled Koschei and ripped pages out of a thick tome.

"Moving up on what?" I asked and threw my handouts into the air, watching them slowly float to the ground. Koschei looked up.

"Isn't it my job to cause disorder and chaos?" asked Koschei

"She's been moving up what?" I repeated unnerved "The social ladder?"

Koschei smirked. "She's been moving up on my list."

I snorted and sat down on the edge of the bed.

"Koschei I'm not really in the mood for this" I replied and sighed "Don't talk in riddles. If there's something you've got to let me know just say it."

Koschei moved aside and knelt on my pillow; he tapped the sheet in front of him.
I sank into the bed, my head resting on his knees. He ran his fingers through my hair.

I folded my arms in front of my chest.

"I can't take it anymore, Koschei" I snarled "I just can't take it anymore. Ms. Reprics is driving me mad. She can't stop picking on me."

"I thought this to be my job as well" mumbled Koschei and caressed my cheeks.

I hit him on the knee with one hand.

"You don't know how serious this is" I hissed.

"Now I can imagine" replied Koschei calmly.

"Ms. Reprics never stops. She just can't stop. And she's neither nasty nor malicious. She's just..." I groaned and punched the bed beneath me with my fists a few times.

"I can't take all the blame" I hissed between my teeth, "I can't take it! She talked to me like... she talked to me right in front of the others, in the hallway, where everyone could hear it. She said she wanted only the best for me. She said she didn't do it on purpose but by conviction. And she's convinced that she's doing the right thing. And that it's the right thing for me as well."

"What did she say?" asked Koschei self-composed.

I wiped my face a few times and sighed.
"Just ask anyone who's still in the hallway. They've heard it all."

Koschei stroked me carefully.

He waited for me to continue; but I wasn't in the mood to explain it to him.

"It's just best to leave it be, I guess" I mumbled after silent minutes.

"I must apologize for punching you" I added quietly. Koschei shrugged.
"I've never hit you before, have I?" I asked uncertainly.
"I can't remember" replied Koschei "But you've always been considerate. I've treated you with respect" he smiled "and you've treated me likewise."

I shook my head. "I don't know what to do, anymore" I grumbled.

Ms. Reprics remarks concerning how I should chose my friends and what consequences I might have to deal with later on had sure taken my mind of the disturbing movements Koschei had...

I sighed. Alright. They hadn't.

Now I was stuck with feeling uneasy and had been humiliated as well.

And to say that she'd advised me to reconsider the way I chose my friends had been an euphemism, too.

Ms. Reprics had bawled me out, stating that I was the same as Koschei, that we were both the same, and what a disgrace I'd become, and how I had let her down, and that she'd set her hopes on me, and what she'd done for me, and what she had done to improve my mind, and what I did to her to repay her and that she deserved recognition and that I shouldn't dare to address myself to her ever again.

Not that I think that I'd done that ever before. Or that any of the things she had talked about had ever happened.

But I had felt the blank stares at my back.

And I had heard some of my mates chuckling.

And I had heard them talking behind my back.

I guess worst of all had been that she had dared to compare me to Koschei.
I wasn't like Koschei. And I would never be like him.

It didn't bother me how often she'd tell me that I was useless, that I'd never amount to anything or that I'd bring shame upon my family and so on. That didn't hurt me – I already knew it.

But to claim that I was the same as Koschei...

"She said I'm like you" I blurted out all of a sudden. Koschei wouldn't stop caressing me.
I waited in silence for a moment. Koschei didn't seem to care about what I had just said. It seemed as if he hadn't even been listening.

"Ms. Reprics blames me for becoming like you. She says I should stop you from coming near me. You're a bad influence."

"Can you move a bit to the right?" asked Koschei while guiding my legs to the other side of the bed and moving and turning my body around the sheet until he got comfortable and I was still within his reach; I was lying transversal abed as Koschei started massaging my back.
I sighed and moved my arm across the sheet.

"She said I'm like you..." I repeated quietly "and you're a bad influence on me."

Koschei intensified his touch; it felt as if he had tried to twist around every single one of my vertebras by hand. I held my breath and sank deeper into the bed.

Ms. Reprics had compared him to me. She had dared to compare me to him!
Koschei had always said the Ms. Reprics was probably the worst of all kind. She knew about atrocity; she knew how to torture someone; I had always imagined her library to be built open a giant torture chamber.
Punishment could be both verbally and physically, I knew. Ms. Reprics had never given anybody the strap; at least not as long as others were watching.

Although I guess, that all of us had been curious about why she used to walk with her cane. She didn't seem to be physically challenged in any way...

"And what do you think?"

I raised my head and tried to face Koschei. He pressed my forehead back against the sheets, carefully but advisedly as well.

"What do I think of what?"

"Am I a bad influence?"

I sighed sulkily and let my head sink into the sheet while mumbling "I'll never know."

Koschei chuckled behind me. His hands moved around my neck; he ran his fingers through my hair.

He touched me quick and unmindful.

Though I couldn't get rid of the feeling that he fought against some inner urges to bury his hand in my hair and pull my face upwards by my hair.

"It's nonsense, either way" explained Koschei "If you were like me than I couldn't have a bad influence on you. You'd have a bad influence on me, because we would be the same. And therefore none of us would become influenced at all."

I closed my eyes and sighed; he talked nonsense, as always; and I nodded in agreement nonetheless.

"I've never thought of myself as a bad influence on others" Koschei went on.

"I don't think that Ms. Reprics meant what she said" I mumbled into the sheets.

"I'm convinced that she meant what she said" countered Koschei.

"I know that she meant what she said, alright? I'm just trying to ignore it. I don't want to know what she thinks of me." I thought for a moment. "No I don't want to think about what she thinks of me."

Koschei turned my head slowly, I faced the other way; my eyes remained closed.

"You're tensed" mumbled Koschei; I heard the cracking of my back as he moved my body around with his hands cautiously "I can hardly feel your spine."

"I guess it's already in the right position, thank you very much."

I could hear Koschei smirking behind me.

"And it's already pointing in the right direction as well" I added hurriedly.

"I don't mean to be a bad influence" explained Koschei. "I'm just there. I don't intend to disturb things. I don't intend to disturb others. I just do."

"Most of all you're disturbing Ms. Reprics" I added and gritted my teeth.

There was a loud crack and I sank back into the bed. Koschei had removed my garment and stroked my naked back.

"You're skinny" he mentioned after a while.

"I've always been skinny" I replied without giving it much thought. I had to admit that I was thankful enough that I was still in one piece. At least it felt like this.

And Koschei wouldn't have broken my spine.

I moved my legs uncertainly.

Alright. Everything fine. I was still able to move my feet. And my toes.
He had done me no harm.

I sighed.

I knew that Koschei never intended to harm me. Sometimes it just happened.

And it wouldn't change.

"And it'll probably stay like this forever" added Koschei. I raised my head.

"What?" I asked irritated. Did he know what I had been thinking?

"You'll stay like this forever. You'll be skinny. I don't care about that. As long as you don't get skinnier..."

I placed my head in his lap. His hands touched my face fondly.
You never knew with Koschei. And you never knew what he thought. His mind was like a book I couldn't read; I remembered the characters, I knew the letters, but somehow my mind would refuse to recall the words and the meaning.
I never knew with Koschei; and I figured I shouldn't know.

"I'd go to sleep now, if you don't mind" I shifted and raised my head, "So in case you don't want to sit on my bed the whole night long you'll better move."

Koschei stood up and left my room without saying another word.

I had to admit that I hadn't been expecting this. But I would have lied if I had said that I didn't like it.

Koschei wasn't mad at me, I was sure about that. He'd always let me know if I had done anything to displease him.
Otherwise I wouldn't learn anything from it, he'd said.

And still I never would have intended to displease Koschei...