The Stronghold 3: Mikachi

Don't Leave Your Class Unsupervised

I didn't do much on my angry walk, just pace around some parks (almost falling in several ponds), figure out the city layout and continuously walk into lampposts. By the time I'd calmed down it was around lunch and so I decided to go back to my job. I knew I had some good classes in the afternoon, classes whose work I enjoyed seeing. That would be one way to cheer me up. 

Waltzing back through the school office I signed in with a casual flick of my hand, getting the pen to work for me. The office was empty so I got away with it easily, wondering who was taking my place as Drama teacher for the day. As I walked into the Drama studio about five minutes before the bell went I saw who.

"Really, Gabe?" I said.

"I persuaded them," the archangel shrugged, spinning around in my chair with a grin. 

"Persuaded who?" I asked warily.

"Everyone," Gabriel said, spreading his hands wide. "The pupils love me, the teachers love me, your little Westy loves me."

"He's not 'my little Westy'," I growled, pushing the angel out of my seat and sitting down. 

"Well what is he, then?" Gabriel asked innocently.

"Irrelevant," I retorted. "Go and work your charm on someone else."

"But sugar, I love teasing you," Gabriel said with another grin. 

"Not in the mood," I said, putting my feet up on my desk and wrinkling my nose at the vast volume of candy wrappers everywhere. "Clean up, would you?"

With a click of his fingers Gabriel made everything vanish. "I thought you'd stopped caring," he said, making another chair appear out of midair.

"I'm just extremely pissed at everyone," I muttered. "So don't try me."

"Now that's a shame," Gabriel said dryly. "I was planning on actually having fun, but apparently that has to wait."

"Watch it, angel, just because you have power doesn't mean you're off the hook," I snapped just as the bell went. Gabriel raised his eyebrows in amusement but pushed his wheeled chair back so that he was sat next to me, mimicking my pose. I snapped my fingers and his chair went causing him to tumble to the floor just as the class - my form, actually - filed into the room.

"Good afternoon, sir," Rose said with a smile as she noticed me. "Are you feeling better now?"

"Yes, Rose," I said, smiling back.

"Thought you hated everyone," Gabriel whispered in my ear.

"Shut up before I rip your precious feathers out," I muttered back out of the corner of my mouth, maintaining the smile. 

"We all find it great that your boyfriend is a teacher too!" a girl called Carole enthused. I frowned for a second and then worked out what she meant. Making a mental vow to murder Gabriel later I simply laughed and motioned for everyone to sit down.

"Now, comedy," I said, standing up and clapping my hands together. "One of the forms of comedy is slapstick. Does anyone know what that means?"

One boy raised his hand. Edward. "People getting injured, or seeming to, for the purpose of comedy," he said. 

"Correct. Does anyone know why it's called slapstick comedy?"

A girl named Michelle raised her hand. "The noise used to signify someone getting slapped, or hit, is made by a slapstick," she said.

"Also correct," I said with a smile. I could sense Gabriel sneaking up behind me but pretended not to notice, continuing with what I had planned to say. "Now, as a starter- oof!" The trickster had hit me over the head with the slapstick, a sharp crack resounding around the room as the two planks of wood snapped together.

"That wasn't my skull, don't worry," I said, laughing slightly at the alarmed looks. "That was the noise a slapstick makes."

"Are you crying, sir?" a boy called Bret shouted from the back. 

"No, my eyes are just watering because I got hit over the head," I replied, twisting and tackling Gabriel to the floor. I hit him with the slapstick and then stood up, resuming my flow.

"The starter is to improvise a scenario in pairs where one of you gets hurt for the purpose of comedy," I said. "If you do that quickly we'll work with the slapstick for the rest of the lesson. Deal?"

"Deal," was chorused back at me as the class split into partners. Yet again I sensed Gabriel behind me and grabbed his wrist before he could hit me with the slapstick.

"A word, outside," I said in a low voice. He nodded and left the slapstick on the desk, wandering out of the door casually. I was focusing on not clenching my fists and even more focused on not punching the archangel.

"What was all that about?" I hissed. 

"It was a good example of slapstick," Gabriel protested. "You probably didn't hear them laughing."

"No, because my ears were ringing!" I half-shouted. "And honestly, I don't really care about that. Why did you tell the class that you're my boyfriend, you little angel shit?"

Gabriel looked taken aback at my anger. Doubt, a slight bit of fear and lots of guilt clouded his eyes. "Sorry," he said at last. "It was the first thing that came into my head when they asked about me. I shoulda changed it, sorry."

"It's too bloody late now," I growled. "Now they all think I'm with a dick like you!"

"I'm not that bad," Gabriel said in a small voice.

"Today, of all days, Gabriel, you really are," I said in a dangerously low voice. The archangel seemed to wilt and I saw his wings droop. 

"Sorry," he said. "I... I guess this is all my fault. The Winchesters, the news, spying, now this... Sorry."

"Since when have archangels apologised and meant it?" I sneered. I knew my temper was running away with me but to be quite frank, I didn't give a shit.

"When they've been jerks," Gabriel replied. "Like I said, I'm sorry."

"Liar," I spat.

"Look, maybe you should just go back-"

"Back where?" I almost yelled but stopped myself at the last second, lowering my voice to nothing more than an angry rumble. "I have no home. Staying in hotel rooms with people who barely know me, who probably hate me, or go back to a world where nobody remembers me. Or I could always, hmm, go away? To another world." I considered that thought. "Yeah, that'd be nice."

"Remember you've got a class in there," Gabriel said but I wasn't listening.

"There's gotta be other worlds out there," I murmured thoughtfully. "Aside from Mikachi. Heck, I don't even know what the other countries are like in this world!" I thought for a minute and then nodded, turning to Gabriel.

"Gabe, as soon as this school day is over we're going to another country," I said. Gabriel raised an eyebrow but nodded for me to go on.

"We've - well, I've already screwed over loads of people's lives here so I may as well just leave," I stated. "I have no idea what's in this world so take me somewhere! Anywhere in the world where we can cause trouble. Heck, I'll even let you go to the wedding and jump out of the cake!" I was beginning to get quite excited with the idea of leaving. "Is that a plan? Do you agree? Can we do it?"

Gabriel watched me bounce around with a half smile on his face. "Sure," he said eventually. "But try not to kill me, hm? I'm quite fond of this vessel. Don't die yourself, either. Your soul's an interesting one to look at."

I almost missed the comment I was so absorbed in jumping up and down in tiny leaps. Deciding to file Gabriel's words aside and ask him about them later I composed myself and re-entered the studio to be greeted by a lot of yelling and the sound of the slapstick hitting someone every three seconds. Gabriel and I split up, rushing around to try and stop the students from beating one another to death. You leave them alone for five minutes and they turn into animals!