[Sept. 9/11] Training Hall, Room 15, Afternoon

[ground_me]

Allison tapped her laminated class schedule against her cheek as she made her way down a hall she hadn't been before. Huge windows showcased an equally huge field and if she stopped and squinted through the sunny glare, she could spot areas that looked a little charred.

Well, there was a reason this area of the school wasn't for those who had no reason to be here. Allison hadn't yet decided what she thought of the fact that she was here, though anything had to be better than setting things on fire when she got upset.

She grimaced a bit while she counted doors. There were worse things than the fires, really, but they were more noticeable to others. Allison supposed that was a good thing. She stopped outside the fifteenth door and double checked her schedule to make sure it was the right one.

It was. She was stalling. That's dangerous, she scolded herself, and then tucked her schedule into her backpack. Then, before she could think better of it, she rapidly knocked on the door (to give her tutor the heads up she was here, in case they weren't one of the ones that could just tell that) and opened it.

"Morning!" she said, poking her head in.

It was one in the afternoon.

Comments

[up_in_smoke]

"Well, I'll have a bit of a time tryin' to reign that one in. But your comfort level's bloody near half the battle. Unless you've got some sort of past history with rock slides that you figure I ought to know about?"

He was only partly teasing.

[ground_me]

"No," Allison said, amused despite herself. "No rock slide traumas."

Her shoulders slumped, from a combination of exhaustion and failure induced ennui. "Sorry," she added, "for making this difficult your first time teaching."

[up_in_smoke]

"Aye right?" Dover scoffed, shaking his head a little as he reached for his bag. Instead of pulling out more candles? Those sandwiches he'd threatened to pull out earlier. He'd save the soup. It looked like she'd about had her fill of fire for one day. "Believe it or not, I came into this expecting far worse. What, we had to get you a drink? Not a single brushfire to be had."

And no first-aid necessary. He wasn't going to out and say that he'd been mostly expecting that, too.

[ground_me]

Allison would deeply appreciate that, if she thought of it.

"You're just trying to make me feel better," she said and thought that, maybe, it was working a little bit. "If this was a test, I would have failed it miserably."

Which... yes.

[up_in_smoke]

"Fortunate that I don't test on the first lesson, then, innit?" Dover smirked as he held one of the sandwiches out to her. "Rule I just made up. No tests on the first bleedin' day. We'll give you some time to learn your theory before I go and pull a stunt like that on you."

[ground_me]

She stared at the sandwich for a moment before reaching for it. She wasn't remotely hungry, which meant she probably was, under the reaction from expending so much untrained energy.

"Thanks," Allison said, trying to decide what it would taste like. "For the food." Her eyes flickered with something a little wry. "And not testing me so soon." She considered that, casting a peek at his face, and decided he'd be okay if she added. "Of course, if I bombed a test of yours on the first day, that would make you look bad too. So it's all for your benefit. I understand."

She was totally teasing him.

[up_in_smoke]

"Ah, so you've got me all figured out already? I'm a selfish bastard, but usually I'm better at hiding it," Dover laughed. "I suppose I'll have to put off any serious testing for a while longer, just so that I look better once I've got you trained up right and proper, like a real professional, then."

There was a method, see? To the madness?

[ground_me]

To some sort of madness, at least.

"If that's the case," she said, smiling slightly, "then I guess I can't keep failing."

She didn't want to fail. She really didn't. At the same time... Allison was pretty sure fire and her were going to have difficulties mixing.

[up_in_smoke]

Fair enough. Dover and his own flame didn't really hit it off well for the first little while, either.

Obviously.

"Gonna hold you to that, Cuttie. We'll get you reigning it in like a pro in no time." He nodded to the sandwich. "Now, tuck in. And if you don't care for it, that's fine, too. I'll make something with a little less tofu in it, next week."

Because tutoring meant cooking, right?

Hush, you.

[ground_me]

Allison just shrugged a little. "You don't need to make anything," she said, though it was very nice of him to do.

Sweet, even.

She was pretty sure he wouldn't appreciate that comment and so, in the interests of not saying it, she bit down on the sandwich.

[up_in_smoke]

"Eh, don't worry about it. Keeps me occupied when I'm not rotting away in lectures. Just think of it like I get going and make too much to eat all on my own, and so long as it doesn't taste like cardboard to you, you're welcome to as much as you care to eat."

Mm, tofu. With vegan mayo on it.

No, really. It tasted way better than it sounded.

"Brought some soup too, if you can get your appetite up again."

He was absolutely a mother hen.

[ground_me]

It certainly tasted different than what she was used to eating. Allison really wasn't certain how she felt about it, though, she took another bite so it wasn't dreadful or anything.

She had to admit that she wasn't certain how she felt about anything right now, not after the way this lesson had gone.

Still, he deserved some sort of answer. "Doesn't taste like cardboard," Allison said, studying her sandwich. Weird. So weird. But not cardboard. "I guess you'll have to just admit you're not awful at cooking."

As for the soup, though...

"No soup for me," she said, because she was pretty sure that was too much for her to take right now. "But you can have it."

She'd just... not watch when he warmed it up.

[up_in_smoke]

And he'd just shrug and pull the thermos from his bag, fully intent on eating it cold.

Mother hen.

"Suit yourself," he replied, shrugging a little. "Let me know if you get thirsty, then. That much is easy enough to take care of, as it is."

He poured the soup from the thermos into the lid, and looked at it thoughtfully before he glanced her way again.

"Penny for your thoughts?"

[ground_me]

"I don't know if they're worth that right now," Allison admitted, glancing back at him. "I'm sort of wallowing... in everything right now."

She shrugged.

[up_in_smoke]

"Wallowing? What, over this?" Dover gestured to the glassy ground with his soup hand, sloshing veggies over the rim of the cap. "Or over the fact that you've got it at all? If you're upset because you think you're some kind of failure for not getting it right on the first bloody try, I'm warning you now, Cuttie, I don't hesitate to shake people when they're expecting too much, too soon."

[ground_me]

"And then you'll make me cry and then where will we be?" she asked him, smiling a little despite herself. "It's not about doing it perfectly at once," though maybe it was a little, "but more about... fear. And what you said, about the sun. Things like that."

[up_in_smoke]

"The fear... I get that," he offered, after a moment's pause. He leaned forward, inspecting just how many veggies he lost, and then shrugged a little. "You'd be insane not to be intimidated by something that can do what this power can do, at least until you get a better handle on it. And the rest?"

He wet silent for a moment more, sipping idly at his cold soup.

"It's big. I'll grant you that. But it's not impossible to swallow. I've got faith you'll manage."

[ground_me]

She took another bite of her sandwich and chewed thoughtfully before answering. "Why?" Allison asked curiously. "You don't even know me. How can you have faith in me already?"

[up_in_smoke]

And in response to that, Dover just offered Allison a crooked little smile and a shrug.

"Obviously you didn't meet me back when I was in eleventh grade." Obviously, indeed. "If a gobshite like I was can figure this out all on his lonesome, anybody can. Just takes time, is all. I'm not expecting results by tomorrow, Cuttie."

[ground_me]

"Bet you wouldn't complain if you got them though."

Well, neither would she, come to think of it.

She watched him for a few seconds. "You didn't answer my question," Allison said quietly, not accusingly.

It was like how she hadn't really answered his question about faith earlier.

[up_in_smoke]

"Results are results, luv. I don't think anybody ever complains about them when they see them. But if you really want to know? There's two reasons. First, you're going to catch on because you're stuck with me until you do, and I'm not about to give up on you any time soon. And second?"

He shrugged.

"You showed up at all. I wouldn' blame you if you didn't. But here you are. And you were willin' to try a second time, even after the bloody scare the first gave you. Just puttin' yourself out there to try means a hell of a lot more than it might look."

[ground_me]

Allison pressed her lips together. "I'm not sure," she said hesitantly, "that they'd have let me go without training."

He was on her official school schedule and everything, after all.

"And I... I just want to learn so I don't... hurt anyone."

[up_in_smoke]

"Which is as good a reason as any to learn," Dover countered. "And, for the record, they let me go without training. See how I turned out?"

Just fine! After a few... things.

Yes.

"... From here on in, perhaps I should add one of those 'do as I say, not as I do' rules, for good measure."

[ground_me]

Allison frowned a little, picking at her sandwich, as she glanced away from him.

"What did you do that makes a rule like that seem like a good idea?"

She considered that question.

"You... don't have to answer that," she said apologetically and feeling guilty for even asking in the first place. "Sorry."

[up_in_smoke]

"What, sorry? You're asking questions, Cuttie. Questions are good."

See how bothered Dover wasn't? See it, Allison?

"And since you asked, you get an answer. If I mind answering, I'll tell you, luv. There's never any harm in asking, though. Worst you'll get out of me is a no." So there. "I mostly meant that until you have a better grasp on this stone of yours, I don't want you trying to get a handle on it all on your own. I know you're avoiding it for now, I know it scares the living bejeesus out of you, but I want you to, if you ever have any uncertainty about it, come to me and ask those questions before giving anything a try. Again, worst you'll get from me if you ask is an 'I don't know.'"

Straightforward enough, right?

And... Probably not a full and complete answer, but he'd nattered on enough for the moment.