Office #5, Wednesday All Day

[apocalipped]

Well, Parents Weekend had come and gone, and next week was the autumn break. Jono wouldn't be able to believe it if it wasn't for the calendar with the week off circled in bright red. He'd been planning on heading to New York for the week, right up until he realized where it was the school was intending to send the students for the break

Comments

[pulseof_life]

Yeul did not have class today. Yeul did not even have a reason to be wandering among the offices of the teachers. Except, perhaps, the fact that she'd vaguely wanted to and so had seen no reason to not.

Which was reason enough, for her.

"Hello Professor Starsmore," she said cheerfully, stopping at the door to his office.

[pulseof_life]

"All sorts of things," Yeul said, frowning a tiny bit. "Medical items, weapons, accessories, as well as the more prosaic food, shelter, clothing..."

... Everything?

[apocalipped]

Shelter and clothing?

"... I think I need to go clothing shopping in your world sometime," Jono noted, bemused. "I'm lucky if I can carry my wallet in my trouser pockets without looking ridiculous."

[pulseof_life]

Those were totally normal for pockets to contain, okay?

"I would be happy to take you," she said brightly. "Academia has many shops now and they would have hotels, if you did not wish to sleep in a tent."

Shelter!

[apocalipped]

Right. Tent. Shelter. They.

Jono just blinked a few more times, yes.

"Perhaps I'll consider it sometime after the break," he settled on, more than vaguely aware of just how inappropriate a trip like that with a student would likely be. Maybe he'd just write Squall, send him money, and tell him to find some way to get him some of those trousers with the bottomless pockets.

The ones that he could apparently put tents into.

"So... did your weekend go well, Yeul?"

[pulseof_life]

"All right," she said easily, not at all aware that she'd suggested anything even vaguely inappropriate. For one thing, Caius would be there to guard her. "My weekend went well. Caius did not wish to wear a name tag at first but I talked him around to it."

Poor Caius.

"I wish he had not had to go but I will see him again." So it was no use in complaining or moping.

[apocalipped]

"I don't think he would have it any other way," Jono offered, smiling a little. "He stopped in here to speak with me on Saturday, genuinely concerned about how you were getting along, here on the island."

[pulseof_life]

"He did not mention that to me." And yet, she didn't sound particularly put out by that. "Are their concerns I should be aware of?"

[apocalipped]

"No real concerns," Jonothon replied, "he simply asked how you were adjusting to life on the island, and asked me to keep an eye out for your safety. The same thing any worried guardian asks of teachers when their charges are off to boarding school, really."

Well, more or less. Caius had taken it a step beyond that, had explained certain things about Yeul that had Jono feeling personally responsible for her life, as well. Not that he'd do any less for any of his students already, but Yeul seemed to be... a special case, so far as that went.

[pulseof_life]

"He always worries," Yeul shared, with a fond smile. "I do appreciate his concern, though I am unsure it is always needed."

... No, Caius was pretty right to worry.

[apocalipped]

"Well, leave him to it, hm? He cares, and care often leads to that sort of thing, after all."

Care, leading to worry. Jono figured it wasn't really a new concept for most, but so far as Yeul went, he wasn't so certain.

[pulseof_life]

Yeul tilted her head.

"Care hurts," she said simply. "I wish he did not care so much though I am selfish enough to be glad he does at the same time."

[apocalipped]

"Care hurts," Jonothon agreed, and he could relate all too well to those words. He frowned a little before pressing on. "But it's something that everybody needs, whether they wish to admit it or not. That doesn't make you selfish, I don't think. Just... human."

[pulseof_life]

"It is unfair for him to be hurt," she said, eyes steady, voice calm and composed. "When he hurts, I hurt for him, but am still glad he is there. That seems very painful to me."

Given everything.

[apocalipped]

"I don't think he'd want you to hurt for the sake of his pain," Jono murmured, wondering not for the first time how a girl so young, who understood people so little, could speak words that no child should have cause to understand. "I think what matters most to him is that you're happy and safe, luv."

[pulseof_life]

"I know that," Yeul said quietly but firmly, with an odd note of utter certainty in her voice. "I know that."

She was glad that she never had to see him cry, though, at every end.

"Every time, it's a little sadder though."