Keys Please (Kane)

[Mallory Reynolds]

Mallory liked Spring. As if one couldn’t tell just by looking at her. The weather was warm, green was coming back, and she was happy about it. She was always bouncy and cheerful, but lately she’d been even more so.

She was currently icing cookies in flower shapes. She was alternating sunflowers and daisies, depending on the colors, and was quite happy with her handiwork. It was nice greeting her afternoon classes with fresh goodies, and it never hurt to keep her own skills in shape.

As usual, she’d forgone the idea of an apron, instead tying her hair back into a curly ponytail and being careful. Thus far, she’d had success. Not a speck of mess anywhere.

Really, she supposed she should be finishing grading, like she’d started while the cookies baked. She had a few more projects to sort through, and then she could hand them back the next day. Settling back at the desk, she sorted through the sewing projects, finished the grading sheets, and neatly stacked the projects in the back corner of the room.

The grading sheets were settled back in the drawer she kept them in, and just to be safe, she set the key in as well. The last thing she wanted was those going missing. Smiling to herself and humming along with the radio, she went back to check the cookies.

It took her about ten seconds to realize exactly what she’d just done.

“Aww hell.”

Cue a harried looking teacher trotting down the hallway in the hopes of spotting her counterpart when it came to teaching cooking skills.

Okay, no luck in the halls, and she was not going down to the main office to ask if he could be paged. This wasn’t a dire emergency.

Still, it didn’t stop her from peeking into the staff lounge hopefully. Naturally, he was in the last place she looked. Trying her best to look innocent and not guilty, she quickly made a cup of tea, gave him a little wave, and sidled over.

“Hi Kane.” She beamed up (way up) at him. “Can I ask you a big, big favor?” This couldn’t have been the first time it had happened, right? “Can I borrow your desk key? Please?”

[Kane Woonren]

Kane didn't spend an awful lot of time in the staff lounge, really he tried to stay out of it as much as possible. He didn't like taking up that much room in it, and being one of the tallest people in a hundred mile radius, he took up a lot of room. Not to mention when he had his wings and tail out he took up even more room. He'd had a long day though, and his body was beginning to stiffen from the amount of time he'd spent just standing behind the grill in the kitchen. He preferred to do a lot of jobs at once so that this didn't happen, but there had mainly just been burger orders today.

He glanced around to make sure that no one was in the staff lounge, looking longingly at the couch for a moment. But no, he didn't want to take up that much room. He spotted a rather cramped chair, for him, on the other side of the room and took a seat in it, doing his best to get comfortable and shutting his eyes. He managed to drift off for a little bit, taking a short half an hour or so nap. He woke up to the sound of a locker being slammed particularly loudly, and he jerked up. He regretted his nap nearly instantly, his neck now three times as stiff as it had been when he fell asleep.

He pushed his chin to the side for a bit, flinching when it made a particularly loud snapping noise. "Ow," he mumbled to himself as he stood up. He stretched out, his wings spread from his back to relieve some of it too. After he was done his little stretch routine, the wings folded around him, rather than folding them back into himself. He didn't have to to go back into the kitchen, and he had already had his morning class. His next wasn't until seven, which was more of him supervising the cooking club so they didn't burn down the building. He yawned when his counterpart walked into the room, giving her a small wave as she walked over to the tea pot.

He balled up his hand and rubbed his eyes a bit, being very careful while he was doing it. When his claws had come in that was something he'd had to get used to and catch himself. Stabbing himself in the eye with his own finger was not something that he particularly wanted to explain to someone. Although he imagined that the 911 call would be on the news somewhere for people to make fun of him. 'Uh yeah... I stabbed myself in the eye.' 'With what sir?' 'My finger.' He wondered how many times he'd be hung up on before someone let him explain himself.

He snapped out of his morbid little daydream when she started talking to him. "Uh... yeah, sure Miss Reynolds," he said, thinking for a moment. "They're back in the cooking classroom. Do you want me to get them for you? Or you can come with me," he said with a nod. They were in the front pocket of his apron. He did that because he kept forgetting them at home, not that he used them a whole lot. He only had one drawer and he mainly kept Tupperware in there. Most of his grading things were on the computer since most of his grades were based on participation with bonuses given for good cooking. He only marked down if someone was goofing off all class or didn't follow instructions and ended up with something wrong, or something like that.

[Mallory Reynolds]

Mallory was more often than not in the classroom, unless it was Kane’s class in there. Then she retreated to the lounge to grade, or to spent time with Chloe if they both had the same free period. She didn’t have the same inconveniences as Kane did. If anything, she took up a little more room than the average person due to a touch of extra padding, but nothing like he had to deal with. Thankfully. Though her own power, while not visible, had its’ own inconveniences. Like being annoying. Oh, and deadly, but she tried to forget about that part.

She still thought it was ridiculous. Why she of all people had ended up with something poison as her power. In the wrong hands, she supposed it would be dangerous, but in hers? Since she was a student, she’d been as careful as could be. It wasn’t something you wanted to lose control over, nor did you want to flaunt it. So many of her classmates had been all too eager to flash their powers around for their peers to see. For her, she’d opted out of such games, because she’d been afraid of hurting someone. Of making them sick, or worse.

It could have been worse, though. She could have gone to school abroad, where powers like hers were filtered into the military and honed more as a weapon. That wasn’t going to happen here. She wasn’t going to become a weapon.

This was just a little too dark for her tastes, so she tried to think of nicer things. Like bunnies, cupcakes, and babies. Yes, she would stop morbid thoughts with adorable things. Was that so wrong?

At least Kane and the keys provided a needed distraction. It was a good thing she wasn’t telepathic , or else she’d realize Kane probably needed more rescuing than she did. Even if all she’d do was pat his arm and offer cookies to cheer him out of eye poking daydreams.

“Hey!” She grinned good naturedly at him. “It’s Mallory, not Miss Reynolds. Makes me feel like my mom enough when the kids say it.” They were both staff members, formality wasn’t necessary.

“I’ll go with you, if you don’t mind. One trip that way. And I just made cookies, so you’re welcome to some for your troubles.” She looked down at her toes a moment. “Sorry to bother you on your break. I just...” Might as well get it over with. “I did something dumb, and may or may not have locked my key in the drawer.” He could think what he wanted about that, but at least she’d apologized.

[Kane Woonren]

Kane was claustrophobic, so if he had time off he could usually be found outside rather than inside. He'd chosen to come to the staff room for now because he didn't have anything to tell time with out there, so he likely would've been late for class or something like that. He didn't exactly pride himself on being on time all the time, but when you had students cooking you never really knew. He could wake up to the school a bit ball of fire because one of the students thought that putting aluminum foil wrapped chicken in the microwave was a good idea.

"No problem," he said with a nod, not thinking that sounded very stupid. He, more often then not, forgot his key. Which was why he kept it in the apron in the first place. If he didn't he wouldn't be able to get into the drawer at all. Again, he didn't go into it that often but he did like to be able to store some things in there from time to time, and it was nice to be able to get to the stored items. Fortunately he had yet to lock himself out of his apartment here. Although now that he thought that the laws of the universe meant that he would be locked out tonight.

"I'm sorry," he said with an apologetic nod to making her feel old for saying that. "I worked at a convenience store for most of my life. I wasn't allowed to call my mother anything but "Miss Woonren" when she came in." The old man had been a stickler like that. He didn't care if they were a regular, your parent, or your spouse (not that he'd ever even had a girlfriend), it was their last name or you were reprimanded. He'd been an alright boss other than that, but he'd been obsessive about a lot of things, which was one of the reason the convenience store was shut down after he died.

He walked over to the door, opening it and putting the stopper in front of it so it wouldn't shut again since there wasn't anyone in there. "Do you want to wait until you're done your tea or take it to go?" he asked, turning back around and looking down to her. The only person he'd ever looked 'up' at was someone who'd been on stilts at a parade once. He spread out his wings one last time, stretching them to their full six plus foot span before folding them around himself once again with a yawn.

[Mallory Reynolds]

Oh, good. Mallory was somewhat (read: immensely) relieved that Kane wasn’t too bothered by all this. Really, there was no way that it hadn’t happened before. Silly self locking drawers and their keys. In contract to her cohort, Mally kept a great deal in the desk. Personal items, paper grade sheets for the sewing projects. Sure, she kept all the final grades in the computer, but the paper copies gave them feedback on how well they’d done. It was easy for them to keep their evaluation sheets for the cooking portion of Home Ec, but the sewing projects? A little harder. She’d been planning to pin the grading slips onto the projects just before the class came in, which wasn’t until tomorrow. Until then, grades were being kept secret.

“Oh! That makes sense then. But really, it’s fine.” The redhead waved a hand, trying to look nonchalant about it. “I think if I had to call my mother Mrs. Reynolds, I couldn’t have done it with a straight face.” She didn’t think her mother would last long either, which made her grin. They may not have been biologically related, but she was closer with her parents than she imagined many people her age were. Maybe the next time she called her mom, she’d speak to her formally like that, just to see how she’d react. It would be fun!

“Oh, I can take it with me.” Really, it had just been an excuse to weasel into the lounge and beg Kane for help. Looking up at him, she beamed as she moved to the door. “Thanks again, Kane. I still can’t believe I did that. Total facepalm moment. ... Without the actual facepalming motion.” Did that make sense? It had in her head. “I’m making you take cookies when we get there as a thank you. Just so you know.” Much like a doting grandmother visiting grandchildren, Mally had a habit of trying to stuff people with baked goods. That included coworkers.

[Kane Woonren]

Since all Kane really taught was cooking, he didn't really have that much of a need for written grades. The only time he'd ever given a written exam was when he'd had a particularly bad class. For their midterm he made them copy down any three recipes they'd learn over the semester from memory. He'd also called in one of the more 'hawk eyed' teachers to stand in so that there wasn't any cheating. He imagined there probably still was, but that wasn't really the point of it. They were a much better class during the next semester when more than half of them failed that test. He gave them the chance to make it up later, but still, it was the principle of the thing.

You'd think most of his students would be pretty good at cooking seeing as that was just about all he taught. Nope, about 20% of his students really liked cooking. The rest of them just didn't want to do the sewing and other things that came with the Home Ec. credit. It shouldn't take three full classes to get everyone to master the art of boiling water, and it made him sad sometimes that that was how long it took some of the students to get the concept. "Yeah... it was more... awkward, than anything else. She only came in the one time, which was good enough." She'd only come in because he'd forgotten something and she'd offered to take it to him. His... he couldn't remember.

"Okay then," he said with a nod. He stepped out into the hall, waiting for her to come out before shutting the door behind them and walking down the hall. There were some students in the halls, and a couple of them gave him questioning glances. Some for the fact that his head was almost scraping against the ceiling and some for the fact that he looked like a giant bat. He was used to the looks, and they weren't half as bad as some of the ones he'd gotten over the years. It was a good day, better than most of the ones he'd been having recently.

"Uh... right," he said with a slight nod. He really didn't know what a 'facepalm' was, but he guessed from the context that it was when someone did something stupid? He wasn't really sure. The only time he'd ever really had access to computers was when he'd gone to the public library to look up recipes or when he was in class and needed to put in grades. He stopped in front of the classroom, opening up the door for her. "Uh... that's fine," he said, the image of her shoving cookies down his throat popping into his head.

[Mallory Reynolds]

Mallory wasn’t so cruel to her students. She generally got a good group, usually a mix of kids that wanted to be there, and kids that were there just for cookies and easy credits. The only tests she ever gave were right at the beginning of the semester, to introduce them to sewing and cooking symbols and terms so that they wouldn’t be lost later. It was never a good thing when the kids decided to go against the bias of a knit, only to wonder why their projects weren’t turning out properly. Yes, beginning of the semester tests were a little mean, but only a little, and it helped them in the long run. Best of all, if they’d been in the class before, it was easy marks.

“I’d imagine so,” she replied, still trying to get around the whole idea of having to address your parents formally. It would have been difficult, no matter what the situation. “I guess that’s lucky then, that she only came in once. Spared you more awkwardness.” She really was a little ray of sunshine sometimes.

The redhead trailed after him, trying to keep pace (and ending up more or less trotting to cover the same amount of ground he did in a single step). The looks in the hall didn’t bother her much, mostly because she was sure they were mostly aimed at Kane. Though they were quite the pair as far as being the two cooking instructors went. Opposite ends of the spectrum. Her being short in stature and female, him being... well, him. Not that it bothered her. She liked Kane as a co-worker, and as a person. Anyone that couldn’t see past the wings and whatnot didn’t deserve to be friends with him.

She grinned up at him when he opened the door for her, and flitted in to stop at the desk. While she was still feeling just a little bit of shame about the whole thing, at least Kane wasn’t making a big deal out of it. Everyone made mistakes, right? And she was paying him in cookies (sort of) for his troubles. Speaking of, she headed back to the counter and selected a few of the nicest cookies, placing them neatly in rows on a paper towel. She ended up with thirteen of them, because, come on, baker’s dozens were awesome. With them set up, she carefully carried them to the desk and set them close to Kane. “There. For you!”

[Kane Woonren]

Kane was usually a nice teacher to his students, and he'd had no intention of doing that with those students either. Right up until the day the front row of student got out their eggs and "opened fire." Test the new teacher to their limits, he supposed. Still, being covered in eggs didn't exactly put him in the best of moods. Seriously, who thought it was a good idea to do that to their teacher when the teacher was preparing their midterms? It was not nice. He'd gotten a teacher out of one of the other classes to watch the students while he'd gone to get changed.

He supposed they were testing the limits of a first year teacher or something like that. Well, they'd gotten better after that, so they found it. He didn't mind being respectful and such to his mother, it would've been rude if he hadn't, but having to call her "Ms. Woonren" was a little on the excessive side. Although, from what Diana had told him she'd had to call her parents 'sir' or 'ma'am' for pretty much her whole life, so he supposed that he got off fairly easily.

When they came into the classroom, Kane walked over to the cabinet, putting his hand in the pocket of the apron and looking around in it for a little bit. Bandages, Aspirin... there it was. He pulled out the key and turned around, seeing her picking out cookies. He walked over to the desk and put in the key, unlocking the drawers. "There you go. If you need it again in the future, I just keep it in my apron with a couple of other things," he said with a nod.

When she came over with the cookies he looked at them hesitantly. "Um..." He should probably turn them down, he didn't have much in the way of a sweet tooth and he was sure that the students would probably gobble them down faster than he would. "Thank you," he said with a nod. Well, so much for that. Confrontation wasn't exactly high on his list of things he was good at dealing with. This wasn't exactly confrontation, but he didn't exactly imagine that she would take no for an answer. "Is there anything else you need?" he asked, moving to the other side of the desk so that she could get to it a little easier.