Kai and Cinder One-Shots

Teaching

I think our students ship us, because they locked us in the supply closet together. I can hear them giggling outside.

Prompted by: @PurplePanda22et

--

The bell rang. Cinder stood in front of her class, she held up her hand, and the students chatting quieted down. "Alright class, good morning. Get out your notebooks. Today we're discussing... mechanics! One of my personal favorites."

One of the students raised her hand. She was a pretty African American girl with blue dreads. Seems weird, but she definitely rocked it.

Cinder called on her, and she made a big show of clearing her throat. "Ms. Linh, is Mr. Commenwealth married?" The students around her, probably her friends, giggled conspicuously.

"Uhh ..." Cinder stalled. "I don't think so, no. Why?" Iko joined her friends, whispered for a moment, then she turned back.

"No reason," she chirped innocently, then sent a sly look to her buddies. They all doubled over in a silent fit of laughing.

"Ooookay," Cinder said. She turned toward the board. "Anyway, it's almost the end of the year, and for our last quarter we'll be discussing mechanics. You've learned how to plan out a simple engine, make the parts, and create it. Now, we will learn how to work and maintain it." She paused, scanning her desk. "That's funny, I misplaced the blueprints, I'll have to go to the supply closet and make some new copies ..."

She shuffled through her papers, and didn't notice that Iko was counting down on her fingers. "Five," she whispered to her friends. " Four ... three ... two ... one." There was a knock on the door.

Mr. Commenwealth, or just plain Kai as his colleagues knew him, poked his head into the room. He was a skinny guy with black, side-swept hair and warm brown eyes. He wore glasses sometimes, and sure enough, today the thick rims were perched on the end of his nose. He was an English teacher. "Helloooo," he said cheerfully.

Cinder's head whipped toward him, and she pushed a flyaway strand of hair behind her ear. Iko and her friends giggled.

"K -- I mean, Mr. Commenwealth," Cinder murmured, shuffling some papers on her desk to give her hands something to do. "What, uh, what are you doing here?"

"I needed a ream of paper, and my students told me you had an extra one." Iko and her friends kept giggling and whispering, but Cinder ignored them.

"Um, no, I don't," Cinder said, forcing herself to meet Kai's eyes. "They have some in the supply closet, I could get them for you, I have to go anyway."

Kai pondered this for a moment, then smiled, melting Cinder into a puddle. "How about I go with you. Mr. Kesley and Mrs. Thorne have free periods, they can watch the classes while we're gone. I'll radio them."

Cinder tried to protest, but Kai had already pulled out his walkie-talkie, disappearing into conversation. Mrs. Thorne, or Cress, had a misleading last name. If you saw her name on your schedule, you might imagine a hawkish old lady, greasy black hair, hunched over like a vulture. Cress was the exact opposite of that. To start off, she was absolutely adorable, with big blue eyes and dimples and freckles. She was short, and always wore a dress to work. She was the drama teacher.

To be fair, she wasn't born with the surname Thorne. She was married (hence the Mrs) to a guy named Carswell Thorne. It was actually Cinder who had brought them together.

As for Mr. Kesley, nicknamed Wolf, he was even more skewed from stereotypes. He was this gigantic guy with dark skin and scars and a fierce emerald gaze. He'd been in the military, so you'd assume that he was a PE teacher. Nope, he was the special ed teacher. Anyone who knew him on a personal level wouldn't question it. He was like a puppy stuck in a wrestler's body.

Kai finished his short chat on his walkie-talkie and smiled. "Shall we go then?"

Cinder made some unattractive blubbering sounds, but eventually gave in and walked to the open doorway. Wolf was already loping toward them. He shot them a shy smile and disappeared into Cinder's classroom.

No turning back now.

--

Cinder, of course, thought it was completely inappropriate to leave their students for just a quick trip to the supply closet, but she was at a loss to argue. Any time she tried to tell Kai that they really shouldn't be doing this, he'd smile at her and say something adorably stupid, and Cinder would say something embarrassing like, "uh." Kai just laughed, which didn't help.

Eventually, they reached the supply closet. It was called a closet, but it was bigger then that, like a walk-in closet rather than a broom one.

It was cramped, so Kai and Cinder were practically back to back as she used the copy machine and he searched for an extra ream of paper.

Finally, to Cinder's relief, they were done. It was starting to get hot in the supply closet, and it had nothing to do with temperature. Kai, who was closest to the door, grabbed the handle and pulled on it.

The door didn't budge.

Kai laughed nervously, and, looking a little panicked, jiggled the handle more. Still, the door remained stubbornly shut.

"Oh, stars," Cinder murmured. She might have, in the back of her mind, been expecting this. "I think our students ship us, and they're the ones who locked us in. I can hear them giggling outside."