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perfectworrytitle: Lessons
verse: Jazz Remix
community:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
writerverse
prompt: Phase #5: Challenge #21: Weekly Quick Fic #7 ("leaving")
word count: 600
rating: PG13
summary: Mariel teaches Koji to read and write, but Aya schools both of them.
"That's it," said Mariel, throwing down her pen. "I'm leaving."
"Uh-uh." Aya tossed her curly hair and tutted, pushing her wayward lover back down onto the bar stool. "You promised."
Mariel narrowed her eyes in annoyance. "I'm at least smoking. Kotobuki is an awful student." She sneered at him, and he glared back.
"Yer not such a good teacher, yerself," grumbled Koji.
"Using the education he paid for to teach the hopeless and beggars," sighed Mariel. "My uncle would be so ashamed."
Aya laughed. Here Mariel sat, finely dressed but in a tailored suit now worn around the edges, in the speakeasy where she worked by night, paying off her debt with cards and sleight of hands - often at the same time.
After a look from Silas, Koji picked up his pencil again. Slowly, he scratched out his name in awkward cursive, the letters slanting at odd angles.
Thwack.
Koji's fingers were barely out of the way when Mariel's pen came cracking down hard on the table where they had rested almost a moment before.
"Watch yourself, Delacroix." Silas sat nearby, overseeing this exercise in futility. He crossed his arms and tapped his feet impatiently.
"The nuns always hit my hands," said Mariel, waving her fingers for emphasis. Mariel was a natural lefty; the nuns at her school disproved, and she had scars on her knuckles to prove it. Aya caught her hand and ran her thumb over Mariel's fingers. "Makes your cursive slant backwards," she added, with a touch of something that sounded like pride.
"An' it's the sign o' the devil," muttered Koji. Mariel smirked at him over the scrap paper. He couldn't get the hang of a cursive Z and remained dubious about when he would ever need this particular skill. He sat through his lessons with Mariel more because it clearly frustrated her than out of any real scholarly interest. Watching her grow steadily more fidgety and irritated was worth spending his time studying everything he had missed after leaving school, especially knowing she couldn't punch him again without Silas retaliating on his behalf. Silas was a big man, and Koji had to grudgingly admit that Mariel wasn't stupid.
"So if I have to put up with Mr Kotobuki," continued Mariel, gesturing with the hand not entwined with Aya's, "I should have the same privileges that the nuns at school did."
"Yer no nun," said Koji.
"She may as well be." Aya sighed dramatically and rested her chin in her free hand, gazing up at the ceiling as though praying unto God Himself to deliver her from her exceedingly chaste girlfriend.
Koji snickered as Mariel flushed scarlet and slid down in her chair. Even Silas had to quickly suppress a laugh, turning his chuckle into an uncontrollable coughing fit. By the time he had regained composure, Mariel had slumped so low in her chair that he could see only the top of her forehead over the table. She shook her hand free of Aya's and used it to cover her face as she pulled herself back up into her seat. Koji continued to laugh, and Mariel aimed a kick at him under the table.
Aya reached out and put a hand on her leg in warning. Mariel crossed her legs, but still didn't uncover her face. When Aya tugged on her arm, she shook her head; through her interlaced fingers, Silas could see that she was still burning red with embarrassment.
She looked up at him almost pleadingly, but he shook his head. "You'll get no sympathy from me, Mrs Delacroix."
verse: Jazz Remix
community:
writerverse prompt: Phase #5: Challenge #21: Weekly Quick Fic #7 ("leaving")
word count: 600
rating: PG13
summary: Mariel teaches Koji to read and write, but Aya schools both of them.
"That's it," said Mariel, throwing down her pen. "I'm leaving."
"Uh-uh." Aya tossed her curly hair and tutted, pushing her wayward lover back down onto the bar stool. "You promised."
Mariel narrowed her eyes in annoyance. "I'm at least smoking. Kotobuki is an awful student." She sneered at him, and he glared back.
"Yer not such a good teacher, yerself," grumbled Koji.
"Using the education he paid for to teach the hopeless and beggars," sighed Mariel. "My uncle would be so ashamed."
Aya laughed. Here Mariel sat, finely dressed but in a tailored suit now worn around the edges, in the speakeasy where she worked by night, paying off her debt with cards and sleight of hands - often at the same time.
After a look from Silas, Koji picked up his pencil again. Slowly, he scratched out his name in awkward cursive, the letters slanting at odd angles.
Thwack.
Koji's fingers were barely out of the way when Mariel's pen came cracking down hard on the table where they had rested almost a moment before.
"Watch yourself, Delacroix." Silas sat nearby, overseeing this exercise in futility. He crossed his arms and tapped his feet impatiently.
"The nuns always hit my hands," said Mariel, waving her fingers for emphasis. Mariel was a natural lefty; the nuns at her school disproved, and she had scars on her knuckles to prove it. Aya caught her hand and ran her thumb over Mariel's fingers. "Makes your cursive slant backwards," she added, with a touch of something that sounded like pride.
"An' it's the sign o' the devil," muttered Koji. Mariel smirked at him over the scrap paper. He couldn't get the hang of a cursive Z and remained dubious about when he would ever need this particular skill. He sat through his lessons with Mariel more because it clearly frustrated her than out of any real scholarly interest. Watching her grow steadily more fidgety and irritated was worth spending his time studying everything he had missed after leaving school, especially knowing she couldn't punch him again without Silas retaliating on his behalf. Silas was a big man, and Koji had to grudgingly admit that Mariel wasn't stupid.
"So if I have to put up with Mr Kotobuki," continued Mariel, gesturing with the hand not entwined with Aya's, "I should have the same privileges that the nuns at school did."
"Yer no nun," said Koji.
"She may as well be." Aya sighed dramatically and rested her chin in her free hand, gazing up at the ceiling as though praying unto God Himself to deliver her from her exceedingly chaste girlfriend.
Koji snickered as Mariel flushed scarlet and slid down in her chair. Even Silas had to quickly suppress a laugh, turning his chuckle into an uncontrollable coughing fit. By the time he had regained composure, Mariel had slumped so low in her chair that he could see only the top of her forehead over the table. She shook her hand free of Aya's and used it to cover her face as she pulled herself back up into her seat. Koji continued to laugh, and Mariel aimed a kick at him under the table.
Aya reached out and put a hand on her leg in warning. Mariel crossed her legs, but still didn't uncover her face. When Aya tugged on her arm, she shook her head; through her interlaced fingers, Silas could see that she was still burning red with embarrassment.
She looked up at him almost pleadingly, but he shook his head. "You'll get no sympathy from me, Mrs Delacroix."
