Post by Rojo on Sept 11, 2009 10:48:15 GMT 10
Title: Aggravation
Summary: A friendship fic about Alex and Francis, before he fakes his death. ;}
Rating: G
Genre: Friendship
Series: SotL
Warnings: N/A
Author's Notes: I actually wrote this back in May, but did not get around to typing it up tonight. It is a little rough, and I apologize for that now.
The Mithran priest in charge of teaching mathematics to the pages walked up and down the rows of desks in his classroom, collecting the assignment given out the day before. He scanned the papers as he walked, occasionally point out mistakes to their respectful owners. Reaching Francis of Nond’s desk, the priest stopped.
All the pages knew Francis hated mathematics and did not understand it at all. The priest, in turn, hated Francis for hating mathematics. They had had quite a few stand-offs in the past.
Francis slumped in his seat, looking for all the world as if he wished to disappear, as the priest looked over his paper. The priest’s eyebrows, which Gary had once commented on the similarity between them and great, hairy caterpillars, slowly moved closer together while his frown deepened the farther into Francis’s assignment he looked at. From where Alex sat, he could the see the assignment. It was covered in blotches of ink and crossed-out work, no doubt annoying the stickler-for-neatness priest.
Finally, the priest laid the assignment on Francis’s desk. The pages had started to fidget in the long silence of the room, but they promptly sat still when the priest’s voice, colder than the long nights of Midwinter and showing less mercy than the Chamber of the Ordeal, cut through the air. “Turn in the correct answers tomorrow, along with today’s assignment.” Turning abruptly, the priest went to the large board in front of the classroom and started to write on it.
While the other pages scrambled for paper and pen to take notes, Alex watched Francis sit and do nothing. Not taking notes, not attempting to finish the assignment, and not even writing down the new assignment. When the bell rang at the end of the hour, Francis was out the door before most pages were out of their seat.
--
A nose was blown.
His hand having pulled a book half-way off a shelf, Alex froze. The librarians had informed him no one else was in the Lesser Library. Was his mind playing tricks on him?
A loud sniff came from the other side of the row of bookshelf he was facing. Peering around the end of the shelves, Alex became nervous. Francis—prideful, dignified, and always aware of his position Francis—was leaning against the Lesser Library’s back wall and crying softly into his hands. The shelves opposite of him contained tax records form 103 H.E, as Alex knew all too well after being forced to categorize the library’s books as punishment duty once, and was the likely cause as to why he had not been discovered earlier. Ink pens, bits of paper, and the messy assignment from the day before where scattered across the floor around Francis.
Alex knelt beside him. “Nond, what’s wrong?” he asked, keeping his voice low.
Francis blinked at him, looking very much like an owl. “I just can’t do this mathematics assignment! It doesn’t make sense!” Exasperated, he threw and ink-covered pen against the shelves, leaving stains on the bindings of a few books.
He smiled wryly at Francis. “Come on, Nond. We’ll go to my rooms and I’ll show you how to make sense of it. I received full marks on the assignment.”
Summary: A friendship fic about Alex and Francis, before he fakes his death. ;}
Rating: G
Genre: Friendship
Series: SotL
Warnings: N/A
Author's Notes: I actually wrote this back in May, but did not get around to typing it up tonight. It is a little rough, and I apologize for that now.
The Mithran priest in charge of teaching mathematics to the pages walked up and down the rows of desks in his classroom, collecting the assignment given out the day before. He scanned the papers as he walked, occasionally point out mistakes to their respectful owners. Reaching Francis of Nond’s desk, the priest stopped.
All the pages knew Francis hated mathematics and did not understand it at all. The priest, in turn, hated Francis for hating mathematics. They had had quite a few stand-offs in the past.
Francis slumped in his seat, looking for all the world as if he wished to disappear, as the priest looked over his paper. The priest’s eyebrows, which Gary had once commented on the similarity between them and great, hairy caterpillars, slowly moved closer together while his frown deepened the farther into Francis’s assignment he looked at. From where Alex sat, he could the see the assignment. It was covered in blotches of ink and crossed-out work, no doubt annoying the stickler-for-neatness priest.
Finally, the priest laid the assignment on Francis’s desk. The pages had started to fidget in the long silence of the room, but they promptly sat still when the priest’s voice, colder than the long nights of Midwinter and showing less mercy than the Chamber of the Ordeal, cut through the air. “Turn in the correct answers tomorrow, along with today’s assignment.” Turning abruptly, the priest went to the large board in front of the classroom and started to write on it.
While the other pages scrambled for paper and pen to take notes, Alex watched Francis sit and do nothing. Not taking notes, not attempting to finish the assignment, and not even writing down the new assignment. When the bell rang at the end of the hour, Francis was out the door before most pages were out of their seat.
--
A nose was blown.
His hand having pulled a book half-way off a shelf, Alex froze. The librarians had informed him no one else was in the Lesser Library. Was his mind playing tricks on him?
A loud sniff came from the other side of the row of bookshelf he was facing. Peering around the end of the shelves, Alex became nervous. Francis—prideful, dignified, and always aware of his position Francis—was leaning against the Lesser Library’s back wall and crying softly into his hands. The shelves opposite of him contained tax records form 103 H.E, as Alex knew all too well after being forced to categorize the library’s books as punishment duty once, and was the likely cause as to why he had not been discovered earlier. Ink pens, bits of paper, and the messy assignment from the day before where scattered across the floor around Francis.
Alex knelt beside him. “Nond, what’s wrong?” he asked, keeping his voice low.
Francis blinked at him, looking very much like an owl. “I just can’t do this mathematics assignment! It doesn’t make sense!” Exasperated, he threw and ink-covered pen against the shelves, leaving stains on the bindings of a few books.
He smiled wryly at Francis. “Come on, Nond. We’ll go to my rooms and I’ll show you how to make sense of it. I received full marks on the assignment.”