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[sunmon]

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[sunmon]

algebra?

[morozova]

I need to speak to you, later.
Lunch, maybe.

[sunmon]

you want me to call?
is everything ok?

[morozova]

It's nothing serious.

( well. )

I've been hired at the school.
However, there are some stipulations.
One of which involves relations with students.

[sunmon]

that sounds serious to me

[morozova]

We simply need to be more discreet in the future.

[sunmon]

what does that mean?

[ in the next table group over, two people laugh. they smile at each other. one of them is holding the other's school ID out of reach. the teacher scolds them. ]

[morozova]

I told them I was your guardian.
If they believe there's anything more to our relationship, I'll lose my job.

[sunmon]

so that's it?

[morozova]

Well, that and I missed you. 🤷🏻

[sunmon]

missed me so much that you're ending things so you can be a schoolteacher?

[morozova]

I'm not ending things.
Do you want to end things?

[sunmon]

no!
but i don't seem to get a say in this since you're telling me your job won't allow otherwise

[morozova]

Are you really saying you can't be discreet?

[sunmon]

you want to hide?

[morozova]

No.
But until I can find something better, let's not give them reason to cause trouble.

[sunmon]

[ alina doesn't reply to this because

her teacher has taken her phone :)

it's probably fine ]

[morozova]

( shit.

has he just been left on read? he squints at the screen. debates. )

I really meant it.
I have no intention of letting you go.

[sunmon]

[ alina fidgets through the rest of class. it's only fifteen minutes but it feels like a lifetime because her phone is there on the teacher's desk, screen up, and she has no way of knowing what messages are coming up on it.

when the bell ring, she darts to the desk and tries to snatch it. the teacher holds her. demands a promise that she won't use it in class again, which alina agrees to without a thought. she'd agree to anything, just then.

when it's back in her hands and she's passing to lunch, she calls him. ]

Are you here?

[morozova]

I'm in the gym.

( inspecting the facilities to better plan for future lessons. it's an impressive set-up, actually. easily on a par with the little palace — bigger, perhaps, now that he thinks about it.

there's potential, here. something he can use. )

Feel free to join me.

[sunmon]

[ she knows the gym, though every time she's there she's miserable. it doesn't bode well for this conversation. she smiles and dismisses the offers of friends to grab lunch and makes her way down there. detention, she explains, for having her phone out.

she cuts in through the side door. the space feels emptier for how big it is, and how she still has to search for aleksander in it. ]

Hello?

[morozova]

Over here.

( over by the bubble suits, actually, trying to figure out what exactly they're for. it's just as well, perhaps, that he's not accustomed enough to the technology of this place to recognize how much of what's on offer is in deep need of repair—or at least a thorough cleaning. )

I don't suppose you have any idea what these are for?

[sunmon]

Public humiliation, mostly.

[ she grimaces at them. any time the bubble suits come out, someone's gonna have a bad day. usually it's her. ]

[morozova]

They are ridiculous.

( to put it mildly. after enduring all the relevant seminars, with student safety a prominent feature, aleksander wondered just how anything was really accomplished. the answer, it seems, was barely.

still. he wasn't about to let that deter him. years spent negotiating the fickleness of lantsov kings had taught him the value of picking one's battles. )

And cumbersome. Corecloth would be more efficient. A pity there are no Materialki to hand. ( frankly, he'd settle for just david. )

[sunmon]

Isn't it a good sign that this country doesn't have to put all its gold into armor so that its children can become soldiers?

[ she grimaces a little as she says it. he's been a soldier all his life (has he? how long has his life been?), so it feels like an insult. but it's the truth. she dreams of a day that ravka has no need for a second army or a first. ]