This Isn't My Forte (Teacher)

Crisis went into the cafe, ordering a small piece of cake as he waited for Kyoshi. He had texted her earlier that day, asking her to meet up with him at the Chateau des Jeux, because she didn't seem to ever refuse him anyways. He thought he might as well take advantage of it. He did like her a little, after all. He carried his guitar with him, of course, and waited at a table as he got some coffee as well. He kept some money aside so that Kyoshi could eat and drink, too. He did always cover her for things like this.

As he waited, he put on his headphones and started practicing the guitar. He could make any sound he wanted but he still wanted to be able to play it without his power.

Kyoshi blinked when her phone vibrated on a Saturday. As she read it, her cheeks went red and her father walked into her room at the same moment. The frail child went wide eyed and bit her lip, quickly wiring out if she could go meet a friend for just a little bit. The man growled and immediately started yelling at her about her responsibility to this family and threatening to take her out of school. It was the first time the girl stood up to her father and shook her head, earning her a punch to the eye.

The mother had been standing in the doorway the entire time, but didn't say a word. She simply wanted to watch the interaction and even took notes. The woman then pulled her husband away to discuss the social experiment she had just cooked up in her head. She had a suspicion her daughter could still talk and wanted to see if having friends would force it out of her. The father reluctantly agreed and gave her a time limit of three hours.

Her mother then helped her get dressed in a cute outfit and took her to the cafe. Kyoshi entered and blushed, looking around for Crisis while fiddling around with the hem of her dress. They had tried to cover up the black eye with makeup but it was still obvious.

Crisis was still strumming on his guitar when he saw the light reflecting off the doors open up. He finished a few more notes before looking for her, and then smiled a little when she was there. He motioned for her to come sit down. From there he thought the bruise on her eye must have been a shadow or something, but as she got closer, he froze, and almost dropped Nevan.

He placed it down calmly, getting up and walking to her. "...Kyoshi? What happened to your eye? Who hit you? You never go anywhere...was it someone at school? But no, this is recent..." he continued on, his eyes widening a little before he grabbed her arms. "Kyoshi...did your parents...?"

Kyoshi looked around and saw Crisis waving her over. The girl bit her lip as she slowly made her way to his table, feeling more and more insecure about all this. As she looked at the establishment, it was like the place screamed cute and girly and coupley. It was definitely a date spot, but this wasn't a date. Right?

Those thoughts were only swirling in her mind for a moment before he gripped her arms and she blinked, staring up at him in mock confusion. The fragile soul quickly shook her head at the accusation and blushed. She mouthed the words "trip and fell" hoping he would buy it. Her fake, adorable, smile was her final bluffing chip.

He looked at her for a minute. She was definitely cute today. She had a good dress on and everything. But then he got back to the matter at hand. He looked at her mouth as she worded "tripped and fell" to him. He glared at her. "Oh...I get it...you tripped and fell," he said, smiling for a second as if to show her he believed her, before his face went back to even more of a scowl. "-Onto someone's fist! Tell me, Kyoshi. You're..."

He blinked a little, looking down and away from her eyes. It was honestly embarrassing to say. "You're my only friend. You should tell me if something's going on with you," he said quietly.

Kyoshi smiled softly when she thought that he had actually believed her lame trip and fall excuse. However, when he continued his statement, the fragile girl flinched and started to fiddle with the hem of her dress, avoiding eye contact with him. Then he said something that she would never forget. Her eyes went wide, continuing to look away from him as her mind took a minute to process the information she was just given. Was she really his only friend? It seemed to her that the other kids in their class would make much more suitable friends for him.

With that going on in her head though, there was nothing to stop tears from slipping down her cheeks as her arms wrapped around her waist. Suddenly, she remembered where she was and gasped, looking around at all the eyes that were now on the crying girl. The red head started to tremble from head to toe and went wide eyed, shaking her head. Backing away from him, she kept mouthing -I'm sorry- over and over again, not knowing how to handle this situation. It was too public. Too much. She was breaking down.

He watched as she started to shut down, acting nervous and hugging herself as she looked all around at the people in the cafe with them. She starting backing away, mouthing something, and he sighed, stepping forward and hugging her tightly. "...I'm sorry Kyoshi. Come on. Sit down with me." He tugged her along to the table his guitar was at, sitting with her. He looked at her. "...but I want the truth before we're done here," he said, looking to her.

Kyoshi squeaked and flinched, almost pushing him away when he initiated physical contact with her. But then she heard his words and very very slightly relaxed. She allowed him to drag her to the table and sat down, never once making eye contact with the boy sitting across from her. The only thing that was running through her head though was what her father would do to her if he found out that she had told someone.

The girl was chewing on her lip when he spoke of wanting the truth and all she could think of to do was nod extremely lightly. There was no way she was lifting her eyes to him right now. Not when she already felt about two inches tall.

He looked at her, frowning. She looked like she was a mouse about to get crushed by an elephant, and he regretted doing it to her. But when he saw her black eye it made him think back to his father. His father abused him in new and exciting ways every day while he was at home. He didn't want Kyoshi to be going through something like that. He thought a little, looking at her.

"...hey. Order something, already." He gestured a maid over, looking to her. "I just want an iced, chocolate coffee." He looked back to Kyoshi. Maybe if he told her he went through the same thing...

Kyoshi was staring down at her menu when the maid came over. The girl's eyes kept gazing over everything, thinking it all sounded delicious. However, when it came time to actually order, the frail girl got too nervous to even point to anything on the menu, so she just pointed at Crisis as if she wanted a coffee too. Even though she hated the smell of it. But it was too late now, she thought. She just laid her head on the table, trying to get enough oxygen into her lungs. Having panic attacks every couple minutes was not fun.

Kyoshi took a while to order anything but eventually just pointed at him, and he nodded. "She'll have one, too," he interpreted for the maid, just in case it was needed. He turned back to Kyoshi as he looked at her, and would put a hand on hers, frowning a bit as he watched her. How was he going to get her to open up to him about it?

"...I doubt it's much worse than my dad," he said, putting his head on his hand casually. Maybe that would help her open up.

Kyoshi blinked when she felt his hand on hers and she looked up slowly, just barely peeking from below the table. All he could see was her crimson eyes under the bangs of her fire red hair. When he mentioned his father though, she blinked again. If the girl had cat ears, they would have twitched at the sound of that word.

Curiosity started to take control and she lifted her head up a little more, just enough so that she could look down and text. It was a few minutes before she finally decided on what she wanted to let him know, or what to say, but finally, his phone would get a notification. -You don't know my father...- Immediately, she had her head back on the table... while squeezing his hand tight.

He watched her as she very slowly came out of her shell and managed to text him, before she crawled back into it again. He looked at his phone and saw her message telling him that he didn't know her father. "Okay, then tell me the worst thing your father's ever done to you. I'll tell you the worst thing my father did to me, and then we can put this entire thing to rest." The maid came with their coffee, and he sipped his from a straw, pushing hers towards her.

Kyoshi listened to his negotiation and thought about it for a few, long minutes. What should she even tell him? If he found out that she had said anything even remotely damaging to him, he'd lock her in the lab and never let her see the light of day again. But, at the same time, it would be nice to tell someone something. And she really felt like she could trust Crisis.

The coffee didn't get touched during this internal struggle, but eventually he would hear the clicking of her keyboard. -I think the worst was when he... this is hard to type so please know that... he strapped me down to a lab table for a full week with no food or water, torturing me to see how long I could last. He pricked and pinned me with needles for his experiments. He shocked me any time I would transform...- Once she started typing it was like she couldn't stop. After the text was sent though, she realized what she had done and went wide eyed, running off to the restroom. -Sorry...-

He watched her as she remained silent for a while, but then she finally began typing, and for a long while, at that. He smiled, glad she could finally put her trust in him. He started to read the text when he finally got it, but looked up too late to stop her from running to the bathroom. He frowned, soon getting a text with an apology from her. He frowned as he read the entirety of what she texted him, and soon replied, Dad beat me bloody for about three weeks straight because he thought I had stolen from him.