No. Just....no. (Henry, Thornton)

[John Thornton]

"It wasn't a request, Ballo!" John exclaimed, unable to completely keep the shock from his face before he scowled. "And as of now, you're interrupting a training session." What the devil did they think he was going to do? Yes, he was angry, he was extremely angry but the way Katurian was looking at him made the englishman feel like he was honestly expecting Thornton to take off his belt and lay into him with it. Given that the two boys had just been laying into each other it seemed highly illogical and not a little offensive.

Just what sort of operation were they running in Russia?

Staying a few feet back, Thornton raised his hands slowly, inwardly cursing. He had no idea how to handle this. At all. "I'm not going to hurt you," he said slowly, unable to stop scowling. "That's ridiculous. You have detention, and you will have to see Doctor Neville," he glanced over at Henry, "that goes for both of you, by the way," he added, then turned back and saw Kat wince. Taking a breath, Thornton let it out explosively. The boy wasn't ready to start training, besides, John was starting to realize that he would have to clear up with his student that corporal punishment was not, nor would it ever be on the cards.

"You need to see the nurse though," he added, glancing up at Henry again. "And I don't think you understand the implications of hat you're doing," the englishman said quietly to the taller student, "But for goodness sakes think before you help support the idea that trainers are to be feared." John looked up and down and shook his head before turning his back on Henry. He'd honestly expected the 18 year old to know better then to pick a fight with someone so much shorter than him anyway, let alone encourage the recent transfer to see trainers as something to be feared.

[Henry Ballo]

Thornton was not the only one wondering what they were doing wherever this boy came from. Henry’s situation in Africa had not nearly been the standards to which Americans were accustomed, and as a result he’d had a difficult time adjusting to life in America. But he hadn’t worried about being beaten in schools, hadn’t expected students to beat him to a bloody pulp, and hadn’t looked to other students to see what he was in for. Thornton was an imperialist pain in the ass, but he knew that he wasn’t going to hit Katurian. He had more self-control than that. He wanted to make a better impression than that. So at the clear bafflement on Katurian’s face, he just shrugged and offered a thin smile, which stung like hell as he felt his lip split a little more. Oh, this was lovely. But all he wanted was to make sure the boy knew he had someone watching his back. Everyone deserved that. And for his pains, the boy admitted that Henry hadn’t started the fight. Henry’s smile turned a little more sincere—although he doubted Thornton cared at this point—and he shook his head.

“I should not have hit you back. But I did not mean to hurt you,” he told Katurian, and spat blood again before turning back to Thornton. “I know you will not, but does he? Company is good, and I do not want to see the nurse. I am not injured.” Much. Besides, he happened to like Walter, and if the man saw that he had gotten into a fight, Henry wasn’t sure he could take the disappointment on his face. There were very few people Henry wanted to impress, and Walter happened to be one of them.

Thornton didn’t count. Partially because Henry didn’t know what he could do to impress the impassive Englishman.

“You are not to be feared, yes, but let him see that, not me.” He jerked his head at Katurian, then spat again. “I have made a very poor first impression. But the trainer does speak the truth.” This was to Kat. “His bark is worse than his bite, as it is said here. Dr. Neville, on the other hand, has a bark that works as bite.” Said with a hint of bitterness. Henry had no desire to be analyzed, and had done his best to avoid the doctor. He was concerned that Dr. Neville would find something in his head he didn’t wish to know. He glanced back at Thornton. "Is this better, sir, or shall I leave now?"

[Katurian Arsov]

Kat just shrugged when Henry said that he shouldn’t have retaliated – it was what it was, and he wouldn’t have expected any less. He was grateful to the older boy for staying here to help him with Thornton, but that didn’t mean he needed any false apologies.

They were talking too fast and too low for Katurian to understand (his ears were ringing from the way his head had collided with the wall, and he shook it a little in an attempt to clear the noise), but there was one thing which leaped out at him from the conversation: ‘Dr Neville?’ he asked, wishing his voice didn’t sound so unsteady. ‘The telepath?’ His aunt Yulia had mentioned the names of all the really important people in Hammel, and Sean had been on that list for one major reason: Katurian hated telepaths. Most people at Odarennyi did. Nobody there had any scruples about people with mental powers using them on other people. In the same way that Kat had always been encouraged to sharpen his skills of pyrokinesis by scrapping with other students, telepaths were expected to do something similar. As a result, Kat feared and actively disliked telepaths – and when he had been told that one was an important member of staff, he hadn’t realised that the man’s position was such that he would automatically be referred to him for misbehaviour.

The bark/bite comment was out of Kat’s range of English, but he understood the general gist: Henry seemed to be implying that Thornton wasn’t going to hurt him after all. But Katurian still wore a frown of suspicion, and watched nervously as they spoke to each other. At least this way, he didn’t seem very required to input much to the conversation. Maybe if they kept on talking, they would forget that he was here.

No. That wouldn’t work. Kat needed to get out of going to the telepath, and if he had any hope of doing that, he was going to have to try and make Thornton think that he didn’t need to go. ‘I am sorry,’ he said to the trainer, digging his hands in his pockets and looking down at the floor. ‘I will not…do again.’ He wasn’t sorry, and it probably would happen again – but this approach had occasionally worked in Russia, so Kat didn’t see any harm in trying.

[John Thornton]

Thornton's attempts to reign in his temper were rapidly disintergrating. "I wasn't asking, Ballo!" he snapped, staring at the tall student in a mixture of disbelief and mounting fury. But it appeared he wasn't done, even now. And he was spitting on the floor. "Stop it, someone will ahve to clean up this mess. Don't make it a more unpleasent task then it already is."

They had no understanding of the seriousness of young metas not being able to control their tempers. The trainer's face was growing rapidly bloodless as his mouth pressed into a thin line of disaproval. This boy was telling him how to teach? He turned away in disgust and looked down at Kat.

It was a false apology. John had learned to pick those out with his sister and it was enough to push him over the edge. He swung around again to Henry and pointed at the door. "GEt out of my sight," he said, voice low. "Take him with you. If I find you haven't reported to the nurse, it will be detention until you graduate." His eyes just dared Henry to call his bluff. "Speak to me like that again, Mr Ballo, and we will have to have a serious talk."

Waiting, Thornton folded his arms and looked at Kat/ "No training today," he said to him directly. "Go to the nurse. Now."

He was clearly not going to leave the room until the two boys did, and his expression made it clear that this was no time to start trying to argue the point further.

[Henry Ballo]

Henry could tell that Thornton was rapidly going from fury to blood-boiling rage, and felt his own jaw clench in response. He’d never been very good at dealing with other’s anger. He tended to react before he could even think about it. He hadn’t used to be like that, but years of listening to his father’s yelling—sometimes when he couldn’t even understand it, especially in the early days—had put him on a hair-trigger when it came to that. And he disliked Thornton. He hated his proper English ways and the general sense that nothing ever made him happy, because it made Henry wonder what the point was. But in this case, he could see Thornton’s point. Although Henry was sure he’d be the one cleaning this up—and it couldn’t get any dirtier than it was—Henry was also aware that he’d pushed Thornton too far. His lips thinned, and he gave a short nod before walking out without saying a word. Detention until graduation wasn’t what he had in mind. He’d just have to deal with Walter’s disappointed look.

“In America,” he said aloud, glancing over at Kat. “We are not supposed to fight.” He was tempted to add that he wasn’t attacking him, and that this whole thing had been a mistake, but he couldn’t say that he cared anymore. He was frustrated and he was exasperated and he wanted this whole thing to be over already. And yeah, there was a bit of shame there too, but that wouldn’t be admitted until later.

“Do you need help to find the nurse?” he asked instead, tone brisk. He knew he should’ve done more, but at the moment, he wasn’t feeling inclined. He also knew he owed Thornton an apology, but that would come later when he didn’t feel like marching in and yelling at Thornton in all the languages he knew.

((I am very sorry this took so lon.g))

[Katurian Arsov]

Two short sentences from Thornton – Kat understood those well enough. He gave the older man a nod. ‘Yes, sir.’ He wasn’t as good as Henry was at reading Thornton’s mood, but even he could tell that the trainer was not in a condition to be trifled with. You didn’t piss off a trainer any more than you needed to, and at this point it looked as if their very presence was enough to make the Englishman furious. Kat glanced minutely at Henry to work out what the older boy was going to do, and when the older boy left the room, Kat followed him.

There was a moment of silence as they walked down the corridor, Kat keeping his eyes very firmly on the floor in case Henry decided to take more offence to him. looking up when the other boy spoke to him. Not supposed to fight? Katurian’s brow furrowed in a frown, and his expression clouded in puzzlement. ‘Really?’ he asked, obviously confused. If that were true, then it explained Thornton’s anger. All Kat could do was nod as he tried to digest this new item of information, struggling to keep pace with Henry on his shorter legs (and with the aches and pains from the fight now really making themselves felt). He almost asked Henry if he was sure that he’d given him the right information, but Kat had the feeling that the other boy wouldn’t appreciate being second-guessed.

‘I know where,’ Kat told Henry at the offer of guidance, and glanced up at his injuries. ‘You are not going?’ Thornton had told both of them to go and get cleaned up – but what Henry wanted to do was his business alone, and Katurian just shrugged. This was the awkward bit, the bit where he knew what he should say, but disliked actually having to do it. But while Odarennyi had done its’ best to stamp out many things in the students who attended, it had not succeeded in wiping out a basic sense of gratitude.

Kat offered Henry a somewhat awkward half-smile. He should probably offer his hand for the other boy to shake, but somehow that didn’t seem like the thing to do. Instead, he just shrugged his shoulders, hands jammed firmly in his pockets. ‘Thank you,’ he said. ‘For staying.’ It was awkward, but it was over now – Kat turned to go, facing in what he hoped was the direction of the nurse’s office.