{MIW} I Need a Hero!

[Charity Croft]

"Oh pudding," Charity managed as she watched the student running off with the baked goods. She actually was there less in her role as homemaker and more in her role of helping hands, which meant that she was technically there more to give general aid and help with the physical moving thing. Still, she'd been sort of keeping an eye on the baked goods table and sort of wandering in that general area from time to time. Which is how she'd managed to see the student taking off.

"Stop him!" Charity called, waving her arms and chasing forward. She was actually herding the student at this point, since he was actively running away from her. "He's only supposed to have one!" Charity insisted, actually wondering a bit why anyone would be quite this desperate for muffins (and why this had to be the second or third time she'd done this, enough that she was actually managing to keep up with the student fairly well, practically nipping at his heels).

Charity started directing the student more purposefully, as she saw someone who looked very likely to help. He actually had this sort of Captain America look to him or something, like the kind of guy who just sort of stepped in the way of these things and helped damsels naturally. "Hey, HEY! GRAB HIM!" Charity insisted, waving her hands desperately trying to get "Cap's" attention, hoping that Ethan Parks would notice and step in to Do The Right Thing.

clearly obvious soundtrack choice

[Ethan Parks]

Ethan had been assigned to help out with the booth for school sports and activities but it seemed like his student partner was doing pretty alright on his own. At least that was what he said. Ethan still wanted to keep an eye on him and the booth so he stood by the sidelines and offered warm smile to anyone passing by the booths, handing out pamphlets to anybody who looked interested.

He was grabbing another stack of pamphlets when he heard someone calling to stop someone. Ethan looked up from under the booth to find a kid running from one of the teachers, Miss Granger, wasn't it? It was a strange last name that he couldn't remember. He was still trying to acclimatise himself to his new workplace. Names were pretty hard to grasp.

Stepping out just in time for the kid to slam right into him, Ethan held an arm out to stop the kid from falling to the ground. "Easy there Hamburglar." He chuckled and waited for the teacher to catch up with them. "What...is that a muffin?"

[Charity Croft]

Charity had just about caught the kid and... wham, he ran right into the other guy! Charity actually had to skitter to a stop, nearly forming a sandwich with the culprit and the hero. She had to fight a chuckle at Ethan's comment, instead puling her most serious teacher face out and sternly directing it toward the student.

"It's a lot of muffins," Charity said. The student, who at this point was looking somewhere between terrified and frantic, looked back and forth between each. "And you're only supposed to take one," Charity further insisted, holding up a finger and very nearly wagging it in the young man's direction.

Which apparently was enough for the kid to start panicking and attempting to run away again. And he decided to try and do it through Charity. she held him, as, well, he wasn't that big, and she gave Ethan a "can you explain this" sort of look.

[Ethan Parks]

Ethan looked at the brunette and then down to the kid who had muffins in his arms and he couldn't help but shake his head in amusement. When the kid tried to escape, Ethan clamped his gloved hand on the kid's shoulder and chuckled at the look the other teacher gave him. Like he was supposed to be parenting this kid.

"Kid, I know muffins are delicious clouds of heaven in a wrapper but you gotta know your limits man." Ethan tutted and patted the kid's shoulder a few times. "Now give the nice lady her muffins back. Go on."

[Charity Croft]

Charity could actually feel her ability tugging at her, particularly with regards to her personal hero guy. She knew that had to do some with her curiosity, seeing as he did look kinda dashing and all. Not that Charity needed a hero right now: she totally could've caught this muffin thief all on her own. Still, having one that had shown up was definitely a plus.

Having him talking about how awesomely delicious muffins had to be very nearly made Charity squeal like a little schoolgirl. She kept herself cool, instead nodding. "Right, muffins,' she said, extending a hand. "You can keep one or two if you're really hungry though. And don't worry," she smiled, "you're not going to--"

Before Charity could finish, she found herself literally getting a face full of muffins. Either in panic or spite, the kid had effectively flung the armful of them at her, and Charity did not have the reflexes necessary to actually grab, well, any of them. The results were not pretty, to say the least.

[Ethan Parks]

Ethan watched the exchange between the teacher and the student and suddenly she was met with a face full of the baked goods and the kid was already sprinting halfway through the corridor.

The osteokinetic didn't know whether to laugh or to help the teacher first. Of course, the one that usually won out was the helping part so he went down on his knees, shaking his head in amusement as he picked up the fallen muffins.

"I don't think you intended to have germs as a secret ingredient to these but...here." He handed her the ones that hadn't crumbled. Looking at her, Ethan gave her a sympathetic smile and scratched the side of his nose. "Do you happen to know where they keep the cleaning supplies? That is a mess."

[Charity Croft]

Charity kept completely still, not quite believing that she was now wearing muffin bits all over her clothing. She swore that the two buttons she had indicating which clubs she was working with had actually made things worse somehow. And she could almost feel muffin bits in her hair, and she wasn't even sure how the muffins had gotten up there, considering where the lobbing had been aimed and all. The teacher remained so stunned that she didn't even start moving to pick up the few muffins that were left, instead mostly watching as Ethan did that.

"No, we'll, um," Charity finally snapped to attention as he spoke, looking down and nodding. "We'll just, use those for, uh, people who know. They're probably still good. There's like a ten second rule or something, right?" Charity let out another chuckle as she picked up a few of the muffins, studying them. She paused at the next bit, looking at Ethan. "What? Oh, uh, well, we have some wet naps and such," she turned and pointed back toward the door they'd dashed into. "They're back at the stand where we have most of these. I think there's a bathroom around here?"

Charity really should know, having been here as both a student and a trainer for long enough to have picked up on such things. She was suffering from muffin-shock though, so she figured that she was allowed to sort of stare around and gawk. And then spit out a bit of muffin bit that had apparently gotten in her mouth at some point.

[Ethan Parks]

Pursing his lips so he wouldn't laugh at the sight of the bespectacled teacher with muffin crumbles all over her shirt and in her hair, Ethan tried really hard not to show amusement. Without much announcement, he reached out and started to swipe at her hair to remove the muffins bits.

"Wet naps might make these worst. It's okay. I'll go and find the broom." He turned to leave, only to turn back to her with a sympathetic frown. "Are you gonna be okay?" He asked. He then had to bite his lip again to stop himself from laughing. This was such a bad situation for him to find too much humour in.

[Charity Croft]

And now he was touching her hair. Charity flushed at that, wishing that for once she could meet someone and not get stuck in a totally embarrassing situation like this. "I'm totally going to blame you for this," she insisted, figuring that she should at least attempt to regain some of her... adultness. "I so had that kid dead to rights and you had to be all," she gestured at his chest, very nearly smacking into it, "all, chivalrous," she made it sound like a curse word.

And yes, she was quite aware that he'd just been offering to help and get a broom and talking about how she was going to be okay and-- "Oh just laugh already," Charity said, letting out one of her own. "I'm covered in muffins and blustering, this is definitely--definitely--" she let out a few laughs of her own, especially as she was replaying her little bit about calling him that "c" word just moments before.

[Ethan Parks]

He couldn't have helped noticing how she was blushing before she started scolding him for helping her. Ethan would have been offended if not for the fact that she had pointed to his chest and blamed him for being chivalrous.

He bared his teeth and let out a quick laugh. "I'm sorry I can't help it." He gestured at her and held his hands up in surrender. "I'll get the broom." He turned back around to where he thought the cleaning supply closet should be, chuckling and shaking his head in amusement. "Guard your muffins well!" He said over his shoulders.

It took a bit of difficulty actually finding the supply closet but when he finally got hold of someone who could help, he was back at the scene of the crime and ready to help clean up.

[Charity Croft]

The gesture and the surrender had her letting out another giggle, shaking her head slightly. "Yeah, broom," she managed between giggles. It took her a few more seconds to calm herself down, taking deep breaths and brushing herself off, even giving her shoulders a few rolls to start knocking bits off. The problem was that she had two handfuls of muffins, which meant that she couldn't actually brush herself off. She did try, once, and ended up smearing more crumbs right down the center of her chest.

So she was actually bending down and attempting to either blow or eat them off when Ethan returned. This meant that Charity's head was all but buried in her chest, her mouth open, teeth slightly bared, arms still filled with muffins. She held the position for several long seconds, looking up at Ethan.

"This is totally explainable, right?"

[Ethan Parks]

Ethan pressed a knuckle against his eye, grinning at the sight of the teacher, bent over and looking like she was dunking for apples in her shirt. "We gotta stop meeting like this." He joked, shaking his head. If his neck didn't sprain after this, it would be a miracle.

He started sweeping up the mess as he gestured to her. "You wanna go to the bathroom to get that cleaned up? I'll keep your muffins safe at my booth while you uh...take care of yourself." Ethan offered. "I'm Ethan by the way. Just started last week but I have had an eventful week so thank you for being the sanest experience I've had here." He nodded.

[Charity Croft]

Charity stared for a few more seconds, before letting out another laugh at his own. Well, at least she'd firmly established herself as someone who could make other people laugh. Yay, go her, wahoo.

he'd started sweeping, for which Charity was thankful, though she hadn't quite said as much just yet. "Right, though, uh, I actually wasn't manning the booth this--" Charity started to explain before just waving it off. Detail, who needed them, right? "Charity, and yeah, I'm totally, like, the mistress of sanity around here. Just call me Mistress Charity," a few laughs, then Charity paused, thought, and added, "or don't, please don't. I'm gonna go in the bathroom for a few seconds now."

Charity pointed that way before heading there herself, walking quickly and stiffly, putting one leg in front of the other in a hurry. she still had the armful of muffins, and she didn't know quite what to do with them. She ended up pulling some paper towels out and setting them in those while she went to work getting the stuff off her shirt and hopefully gathering herself while Ethan did whatever it was he was doing out there. Then she would totally go out and walk up to him like a totally confident woman who definitely had not been caught attempting to eat her own shirt and then declared herself Mistress Charity. Yeah, that was definitely how this was going down.

[Ethan Parks]

He had to stare at her for a bit, trying again, and failing quite miserably, not to laugh. Ethan felt bad about finding humour in her weird situation but it wasn't every day that he had to see a kid just bombard his teacher with muffins in her face. There was just no way that could be something he would see again in his life.

When she asked to be called Mistress Charity, Ethan wanted to voice out that that was already what he had to call his landlady but she was already trying to escape. When she was gone, he wiped his face with one hand and laughed to himself. "Mistress Charity."

He was done with the sweeping so he told his student assistant that he would be back soon, to which he was responded to with a blank stare. He did not remember being this apathetic during his youth. Granted, he spent most of that time with his head buried in his books or playing football. And training. And running track. And lifting weights.But never...sullen.

Shrugging, he went to where he had found the broom and bumped into Charity as she came out of the bathroom.

"I've done the sweeping, ma'am. Is there anything else you need me to do? Feed you grapes perhaps? Fan you with peacock feathers?" He gave her a teasing smile.

[Charity Croft]

Charity managed to get all the crumbs out of her shirt, so, that was definitely going into the win category. Tick. She couldn't quite tell if she'd gotten everything out of her hair, and you could only do a Cousin It imitation in the mirror so many times before you began to feel a bit (or a lot) ridiculous. It didn't help that Charity had brown hair and at least one of the muffins had been chocolate chocolate chip, so, yeah, good times. Still, she thought she'd gotten most of them, and then she'd gathered the remainders in her arms and headed back out.

Only to drop several as she bumped into Ethan. Charity sighed and looked toward the ceiling. "I think I'd like to do the thing with the grapes now," she said, before closing her eyes. She definitely did not want to look at the various muffins that were no doubt rolling about on the floor. There had to be at least three of them, judging from the weight in her arm. she just had to hope that they weren't about to reenact the myth of Sisyphus here or something.