A Time For Everything

[François Laffont]

Despite the fact that Felix Nicholas was not a student but a teacher now, it never stopped Franck from seeing him every now and then and to consider him a friend. It was not always easy to find time for them to meet however. One had to study, the other had to teach, one was working at the cafe, the other had work to grade or they made other arrangements already. That never stopped them but it did make seeing each other a tad more complicated. The problem was that they were both working a lot and had a rather large social circle. Luckily, said circles had a lot of common relationships in them.

But seeing with a group of friends was just not the same. You could not necessarily say all the things you wanted to say to one person in particular. Plus, it was nice to have one on one time with a friend every now and then. So Franck came up with a plan.

He hoped it would work. He thought it should. Felix too had to eat and at this time, there were normally no classes since everyone was having lunch. So he went to the cafeteria and filled a tray with enough food for the two of them. And then he casually walked the hallways with that tray in his hands, making sure not to drop anything as there was more than he’d normally take, going all the way to Felix’ classroom.

He secured the tray against his hip as one hand let go of it and knocked on the door. He opened and let his head peek through so that his friend would see it was him. “Hey, I’m not disturbing you, am I?” he asked, not getting in just yet. There was no one else but him in the room so that should be fine but he could be too busy to see him. Still, he could just drop the meal if that was the case. His friend needed to eat too. “I was wondering, did you eat already?” He made sure the tray could not be seen just yet.

[Felix Nicholas]

The days at the Academy had gotten longer; or at least, they felt that way. The recent violent events in Kalispell and triggered a student uproar, and Felix found himself contending with a number of terrified, upset and raging students. The atmosphere around the school had shifted slightly, especially with the younger students; Add in a mixture of hormones, threat and panic, and you got a volatile combination. It was a trial each day to keep some of them in check, and Felix was finding his time taken less from actual teaching and more from keeping unruly students in order.
Of course a lot of them were preaching revenge; Most of them may not have known Alexandra Lawson personally, but they were already using her as a basis to declare some sort of revolution... Although being kids, their "revolution" was usually just tagging walls and getting into arguments with teachers. Still, it was making detentions fuller, which meant more work all round.

Which was one of the reasons why Felix had to take a working lunch... With more of the work and less of the lunch. The teacher sighed, his elbows on the desk as he ran his hands through his hair, narrowing his eyes at the small pile left on his desk. He breathed out exasperatedly, the edges of the papers ruffling from his breath. He then lowered his head, placing his forehead against his desk.
"... Paperwork, paperwork, paperwork..." He mumbled under his breath. "This is not what I signed up for..." He then flinched upright when he heard a knocking at his classroom door, shooting it a look. Before he had time to call out to who it was, the door was opened, and a familiar face peered round the corner. At once, Felix's mood lifted, and a wide smile found itself on his lips. "Franck!" He called out, about to continue when his friend spoke up. Felix glanced to the remains of his paperwork; He could easily finish it up later. "No, I'm not busy," He replied brightly, before shaking his head to his friend's next question. "Nah, I didn't have the time earlier." He spread his arms over the desk, indicating the pile of paperwork. "Beyond, the joys of a teacher, my dear Franck... And the reason why I had to skip lunch." He then grinned. "Why, were you offering to join me in a late bite?"

[François Laffont]

The latest events brought to them by the AMA or whatever they liked to call themselves was hard on everyone. Franck was doing his best not to freak out because of this. He was always easy to set into panic mode when the fear was taking over. But he was also very embarrassed when that happened and he did not come here to discuss how hard it was to live in town these days. He’d rather speak of more pleasant topics. Franck wished they could all get along. It was wishful thinking and he knew it but the violence he felt coming from both side was not to please him. He always hated it that kind of atmosphere, being a pacifist at heart.

He was a little far to sense how Felix felt but his face could tell him just as much. The atmosphere around the school affected him too. It had to be expected. Franck knew better than to lose his temper over this and demand revenge but not everyone was like him. At least his friend’s worries were washed away as he noticed who was coming in and it warmed Franck’s heart to see the young man’s smile.

Franck followed his friend’s gaze to the pile of paper. He didn’t want to force him to stay longer to finish all this but it was important to feed too and he was not seeing any remains of lunch around. Felix assured he was not busy though and said he didn’t eat. He’d try to believe the first comment while being pleased at the second. “In that case...” Franck walked in, showing the tray with all the food he got for them. That answered his question too.

“I mean, what kind of friend would I be if I let my dear friend starve to death because he has to do a teacher’s work?” he said on a teasing tone as he walked closer. Even if Franck did consider the fact that Felix might be working a lot and not necessarily have to time to fetch himself some lunch, they both knew it was not the reason why he set this up. “Besides, it seems to be the only way for us to meet. Without it being the whole group gathering or just looking over Erika’s son,” he added. He hesitated though when it came to moving anything. He didn’t want to disrupt his friend’s organization and he might want to eat elsewhere. The tray was portable, it was not like they couldn’t move if he wanted to.

[Felix Nicholas]

Franck was always a comforting sight for Felix. One of his dearest friends, he couldn't ask for a better person to share any amount of time with; Time spent in Franck's company never felt wasted, and after the gathering stresses of his work recently, seeing Franck felt all the more a relief. Felix's eyes widened slightly at the reveal of the tray laden with food, his stomach churning slightly at the prospect of finally being able to eat; He was far hungrier then he'd thought he was. The teacher grinned widely, placing a hand over his chest. "A man after my own heart!" He declared, before gesturing for the Frenchman to enter his classroom. He quickly stood up from his desk, moving the various piles of papers hurriedly in order to make room for the food heavy tray. He chuckled a little as he did so, raising an eyebrow at Franck. "You know, you're right... You don't realise how fast time flies, you know? I must admit when I signed up for this I didn't realise how... Consuming it would be."

Felix had known teaching would be difficult, but despite his current grievances regarding student behavior, he was still beyond glad that he'd left working with his Father for this. It felt... so much more rewarding. Times were hard now, but he was sure they'd get better. What happened to the poor young woman who'd been attacked was so awful, truly awful... But as soon as the people involved were caught and put to justice, the Academy would calm down. Felix just hoped in the meantime that students wouldn't try to pull something stupid in some desperate attempt to protest... AMA was still denying any involvement with the attack, but Felix wouldn't put it past them to harm students.
The teacher piled up the paperwork on one side of the desk, leaving plenty of room for the tray Franck held, before heading over towards a spare chair.
"You're a life saver though, Franck!" He grinned, taking hold of the chair and bringing it over to his desk for the Frenchman. "It was going to be take out after work if you hadn't done this! My colessterol thanks you." He looked over the the plentiful supply Franck had brought, and his expression softened, before Felix shifted his warm gaze to his dear friend. "I missed you, you know."

[François Laffont]

Sometimes, it amused Franck to think that their friendship had sort of started with him actually flirting with Felix. Luckily, the man was so certain of his heterosexuality that he did not feel threaten and Franck was quick to accept his friendship if he could not have more. That kiss he gave him, although he had been a little drunk at the time, could have ruined everything. He was so glad it did not.

Now, Franck still thought that Felix was a very handsome and kind man. But the attraction was not really there anymore. He was not a masochist to the point of ruining his friendship over something that would never happen. His smiles were genuine and if someone wanted to pretend it was his way of hitting on him, clearly that person was not able to see two guys being friends without calling them gay and Franck couldn’t care less about them and their opinion.

He laughed at the reaction he got from Felix as he showed the tray. “I take it you are hungry,” he teased him. He wanted to help Felix but didn’t want to get in the way or scramble his papers so he focused on bringing a chair closer for himself. He chuckled as he listened to his friends while he took care of the rest. “But you like it. That’s what makes it all worth it.” Franck also considered he was very busy. He too had a rather active life, in many ways. This was why he would never blame a friend if he was to apologize for not being there a lot as he often felt like he didn’t have time for everyone himself.

Franck didn’t want to discuss the troubles of his friend’s work or any other kind of trouble. If Felix was to bring it up, he’d discuss it, but he would not be the one starting this conversation. With the desk now clear, Franck moved placed the tray there. It was pretty clear he brought food for the two of them, some items were even in double in there. “Well, tell your cholesterol I say you’re welcome,” he teased again as he sat down. “I wasn’t quite sure how hungry you’d be and what you’d like so I picked a bit of everything I could think of.” He had to move some of the things in there to pull out the forks, spoons and knives he put in there too and hand his to Felix. He was about to pick something when Felix said something that made him stop and look at him. “I missed you too. And I missed that. With all of you graduating, it’s a little harder to just say ‘let’s meet for lunch’.”