A Moment in the Cabin

Awaken

I roll my shoulder back a few times as I wait for the class to start and I nod to Alto when he walks in and starts setting up for his class. "Are you alright?" he asks.

"Yes. Rose just hit me a little harder than usual in practice today," I reply and stretch my neck to the side to stretch the muscles in my neck. Alto shakes his head with a slight chuckle and writes the lesson plan on the board.

He turns around and faces me with a blank expression. Noticing that we are the only two in the room, he leans against the desk with his arms crossed. "How are you doing with all of this?"

I quirk my eyebrow up at him and he smirks. "I mean practically being on lockdown when it comes to Hathaway," he says, and I scoff. This is not a conversation I thought we would be having.

"I don't know what you are talking about Alto, she's my student."

Alto walks to the door and closes it before coming back to the desk he was leaning on before. "I'm not stupid, I was there at the caves. I had a black eye that Hathaway gave me because she wanted to get back in there. Alberta can tell everyone that it was just a platonic reaction, but I know it wasn't. She loves you, and if anyone knew her, they would see it."

"I don't know where you've gotten that idea, but that is a dangerous notion Alto."

Alto raises his hand in an appeasing gesture with a slight smile that is uncharacteristic for him. "I wasn't the one who filed the complaint. It was one of the temporary Guardians that was sanctioned here after the Badica attack. Let me tell you, there are many Guardians here who torn a strip off him for it," Alto says calmly, and I furrow my brows at him. Why would the others care if someone reported what they thought was an illicit relationship between a student and a mentor?

"Look. You are universally liked amongst the Guardians here, and we have all noticed the effects the two of you have on each other - for the better. Just hang in there," Alto adds a moment later when the bell rings for the next class to start.

The conversation that I had with Alto has left me distracted, distracted enough that Rose noticed it. She is standing in front of me now with her hands on her hips and her brows raised at me. She must have asked me something.

"I'm sorry, what?"

She huffs and sits down on the floor in front of me with her legs crossed and pulls her hair tie out of her locks. "I asked what we were doing today, but you have been staring at your book blankly for five minutes. What's bugging you?"

I close my book and toss it to the side and look around to see Alberta has not arrived yet. I reach out for her hand and hold it tightly in mine, grounding myself and clearing my head. "Alto knows, but he wasn't the one who filed the complaint. According to him, there are many people who know but haven't said anything. It was a temporary Guardian who went to Kirova. I just don't know how I feel about the conversation with Alto," I say quietly. Rose's face is surprisingly blank, but she looks over her shoulder quickly and throws her arms around my neck, knocking the two of us back into the mat I was sitting on.

I grunt as she lands on top of me and squeezes me tightly. She doesn't say anything, but we lay there like that for a few moments until we hear footsteps coming closer to the gym and we pull apart. Rose bolts up to her feet and I pick up my forgotten book and give the illusion that I was just closing it when Alberta walked in.

"You two ready?"

I nod and stand up and instruct Rose to go start her laps. Rose pulls her hair up and secures it will the hair tie and proceeds out of the gym for her laps. "You're not the only one that knows something about Rose and I," I state and Albert raises her brow at me.