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ajremixSo. This happened.
Title: Freelancer Academy 1
Fandom: Red vs Blue
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1949
Characters: Director, Wash, North, York
Summary: Wash's first day on campus was... special.
David tried his best not to squint at the sun streaming directly through the window and into his eyes but it wasn't working out so well. Either he ignored the pain and sat with watering eyes, or he narrowed them to slits and saw mostly darkness. In any case, Dr. Church's features were obscured and shadowed, even his silhouette softened by the light.
Paper rustled and the Director said in that low, even tone that made David feel like he was being evaluated for an experiment, "Very well. It seems that everything is in order. I'll have the transfer finalized later today." He reached over to the intercom, "Ms. Phyllis, please send in Mr. Thorogood."
"/Yes, Director./"
The door opened and David turned, expecting to see perhaps the Counselor he'd met with earlier or maybe even another one of the instructors. Instead there was a boy not much older than him standing there with a small smile. "Good afternoon, Director."
"Afternoon, Mr. Thorogood. This is our new student, David Washington. Mr. Washington, this is the student body representative for your year, Norris Thorogood. He will show you to your dorm and give you a tour of the campus." That, it seemed, was a dismissal as the Director turned back to the file (David's) before him and ignored the two boys. A little unnerved- as he was the entire time he spent with the man -David hastily made his way out, trying to make as little noise as possible.
Once the great doors were shut, Norris gave David a welcoming smile and stuck out a hand. "Welcome to Freelancer Academy, though you've probably heard that plenty of times already." He had a mop of curly blonde hair and pale blue eyes and asides from a small scar on his chin, looked completely at home in the gray and black uniform unlike most of the other boys David had seen.
"Thanks," he replied a little awkwardly, resolutely not noticing how thin and pale his own hand was in Norris's.
"I'll take you to your room first, your stuff should already be delivered." Norris said, leading the way and nodding to the pretty secretary as they left. She smiled and waved and David flushed a little. "It's probably been a long day for you. We can do the tour later if you're feeling tired."
"Um, sure." David fidgeted with the sleeves of the Academy issued sweater. It was smaller than he was comfortable with and did nothing to hide just how skinny he was. "Later would be fine."
The Academy wasn't large- a fairly small campus made up of a handful of buildings. The sprawl would've probably taken up two city blocks if David had to guess. It had an awful lot of open areas and he'd never seen so much greenery in a place that wasn't a park before. Hell- it had more green than some of the parks he'd known.
Norris, it seemed, was a well known face (not that there were many students, really- barely a hundred) as other kids kept shouting at him as they walked:
"Hey, North! Don't forget the game on Friday!"
"Giving another tour, North?"
"North- the treasury reports will be done tomorrow."
"Did the Counselor clear the movie for this week's movie night, North?"
David hunched his shoulders a bit and asked, "Why is everyone calling you North?"
He smiled again, this time more amused than mild. "It's just a nickname."
"Okay..."
Once they arrived at the dorms (just one building and despite David's certainty that having so many barely supervised girls living in the same space as equally barely supervised boys wasn't a good idea, it didn't make sense to have two buildings considering the lack of students) someone stopped the two of them. "North, your sister got in another fight."
For the first time Norris's smile dropped and turned into a scowl. "Great. Sorry, David- I need to hear this." He dug into his pocket and pulled out a key which he then put in David's hand. "This is yours. Your room is on the third floor and your roommate is James York. He's... well, I'll tell you when I get up there. It shouldn't be more than a few minutes." Then, with that smile back on his face- a little strained to David's eyes -he turned back to the other student. David quickly retreated, not wanting to get into people's personal lives already.
Third floor and, according to the key, room 304. It took some neck craning to find it- most of the doors on this floor were open, even though some of them didn't have anyone inside. Weird. But he came across the right room eventually. That door, too, was wide open but a boy was inside. His roommate, David assumed. Who was apparently going through David's suitcase.
"What the hell!"
The other boy looked up at the outburst- a little surprised but apparently not guilty. Shirtsleeves rolled, tie loose- he looked every bit like a kid whose uniform got rumpled the moment he put it on. Even his brushed back, dark brown hair had a few unruly strands falling over his forehead above eyes that were more gray than blue. Or eye rather- David was momentarily thrown by the sight of the left one, a muddy color with the surrounding skin marred by an impressive looking scar.
"Oh, hey! You must be my new roomie! Name's York."
David just gaped at him. In all his years (admittedly not all that many) he'd never known anyone who, when caught rooting through a stranger's things, acted as if they were greeting an old friend. Helplessly he gestured to his luggage. "What are you doing?"
York looked down at the case and said- not even attempting to make it believable, "That was already open."
"No, it wasn't!"
He shrugged. "It is now."
David shouldered his way to his violated property. "Why would you go through someone's things like that? This was locked!" He briefly put a hand in his pocket, just to make sure he still had the key. He did.
York just shrugged again, moving to sit on the bottom bunkbed. "Wasn't a very good lock."
"Apparently..."
"Oh, you're already here."
They both looked up to find Norris standing in the door. The blonde boy took one look at David's disgruntled expression, the open suitcase and York's big grin. Norris's lips quirked and that smile seemed far more real than the others David had seen him put on so far. "Well, I was hoping to warn you before you met but apparently someone decided to skip out on detention."
"Aw, c'mon, North! This is the first time I ever got a roommate! I was excited!"
"I'm sure Omega will accept that excuse."
David's brow furrowed. "Omega?"
"O'malley," York said at the same time Norris said, "P.E. instructor."
"O...kay. Why 'Omega'?"
"Because the Academy is so fancy," York said, putting on some over-the-top posh accent, "that we cannot abide by numbering our class. We use Greek letters. That's how everyone knows we're extravagant and serious business."
Norris's grin widened. "You'll get the school's quirks."
"Quirks?" David shot, glaring at his roommate. "Like the thief over there?"
"Hey!" York actually had the gall to look indignant. "I'm not a thief! All I did was open your bag and look through it- I didn't take anything. You don't even have anything worth taking."
"Yeah, right." He went back to shuffling through his things, trying to match them up to his mental checklist.
"He really didn't take anything."
That time David's glare was directed at Norris. "What- you believe him? Even after he admitted to going through my personal belongings?"
Norris just shrugged. "One think you'll learn about York very quickly is that he's a bit of a compulsive lockpick. If something's locked, he opens it."
David was aghast. "What? Why?"
York shrugged, "I like challenges."
David just stared.
"Another thing," Norris continued, "is that he can't lie to save his life. He knows it, everyone in school knows it. If you ask him something he doesn't want you to know the answer to, he'll just ignore the question- which is kind of an answer in its own way. It's why he's probably the most honest person on campus."
Suspiciously, watching his roommate closely, David asked, "You really didn't take anything?"
"Nope!" York said with a satisfied smile. Still wary, David went back to sort out his things.
"Well, now that introductions are made," Norris said, "we can start the tour whenever you're ready, David."
"Oh, hey- I can do that."
A little surprised at the offer, he asked York, "You sure?"
"Yeah, man. Besides, I hear you have to go lecture your sister anyway."
"Thanks," Norris replied dryly. To David he said, "I live across the hall so if you need anything, just knock."
"Right. Sure." Can you get me out of here? David thought, I changed my mind about coming to this school. After a moment of getting his clothes organized and set to put away, he looked at the doorway to find it empty. York lounged on his bed, watching with something like curiosity. A question burned in David's mind and he asked, feeling slightly foolish, "So why does everyone call Norris 'North'?"
York grinned, "You kidding me? Calling him 'Norris' is just mean."
"Mean?"
"Yeah- I mean, I don't know anything about his parents so I'm sure they didn't name him that out of spite, but really. Norris is a terrible name to be saddled with. Like Herman, or Abner. So we just combined his first and last name: Norris. Thorogood. North. Speaking of which," York braced his elbows on his knees, "I never actually got your name. Except for David."
There was a brief pause and then, "Washington. David Washington."
York nodded for a moment. "Right. Wash."
"What?"
"Wash. Short for Washington."
"What about 'David'?"
"Nah. Wash is more interesting."
He was never going to understand his roommate.
"So," York clapped his hands together, "when do you want to do the tour? I know all the best places."
This didn't surprise Wash ne David in the least. "Right. Uh, lemme just finish putting my stuff away."
"Suit yourself. I'm gonna go check on something, be right back."
Wash wondered if that should be worrying or not. As he finished putting away his meager possessions he noticed something half-hidden by a chair: it was York's sweater. It took only a moment of contemplation before he was wriggling out of his own and slipping the larger article of clothing over his head. Hell- if York could go through his things without permission, Wash could wear his clothes (it evened out so long as no one thought about it). It didn't exactly swamp him but the sleeves rolled up against his hands and the material bunched up at the waist. Already he felt better in the baggy sweater.
He was just about to go to the door and attempt to find York when the boy came in, nearly running into Wash. "Whoops, sorry- is that my sweater?"
Self-consciously Wash folded his arms, daring York to make something of it. "No."
Eyes flickered to Wash's discarded sweater, hanging neatly off the back of the chair, and back. "Yeah, unless mine somehow shrunk in the laundry I didn't put it in, I'm pretty sure it is."
Wash's expression turned even more defiant. "And if it was?"
That finally cracked a full-on grin on York's face. "It's cool, man. I never wear that thing anyway. So!" He hooked his elbow behind Wash's neck, dragging him out through the hall. "Let's get this tour on the road!"
Title: Freelancer Academy 1
Fandom: Red vs Blue
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1949
Characters: Director, Wash, North, York
Summary: Wash's first day on campus was... special.
David tried his best not to squint at the sun streaming directly through the window and into his eyes but it wasn't working out so well. Either he ignored the pain and sat with watering eyes, or he narrowed them to slits and saw mostly darkness. In any case, Dr. Church's features were obscured and shadowed, even his silhouette softened by the light.
Paper rustled and the Director said in that low, even tone that made David feel like he was being evaluated for an experiment, "Very well. It seems that everything is in order. I'll have the transfer finalized later today." He reached over to the intercom, "Ms. Phyllis, please send in Mr. Thorogood."
"/Yes, Director./"
The door opened and David turned, expecting to see perhaps the Counselor he'd met with earlier or maybe even another one of the instructors. Instead there was a boy not much older than him standing there with a small smile. "Good afternoon, Director."
"Afternoon, Mr. Thorogood. This is our new student, David Washington. Mr. Washington, this is the student body representative for your year, Norris Thorogood. He will show you to your dorm and give you a tour of the campus." That, it seemed, was a dismissal as the Director turned back to the file (David's) before him and ignored the two boys. A little unnerved- as he was the entire time he spent with the man -David hastily made his way out, trying to make as little noise as possible.
Once the great doors were shut, Norris gave David a welcoming smile and stuck out a hand. "Welcome to Freelancer Academy, though you've probably heard that plenty of times already." He had a mop of curly blonde hair and pale blue eyes and asides from a small scar on his chin, looked completely at home in the gray and black uniform unlike most of the other boys David had seen.
"Thanks," he replied a little awkwardly, resolutely not noticing how thin and pale his own hand was in Norris's.
"I'll take you to your room first, your stuff should already be delivered." Norris said, leading the way and nodding to the pretty secretary as they left. She smiled and waved and David flushed a little. "It's probably been a long day for you. We can do the tour later if you're feeling tired."
"Um, sure." David fidgeted with the sleeves of the Academy issued sweater. It was smaller than he was comfortable with and did nothing to hide just how skinny he was. "Later would be fine."
The Academy wasn't large- a fairly small campus made up of a handful of buildings. The sprawl would've probably taken up two city blocks if David had to guess. It had an awful lot of open areas and he'd never seen so much greenery in a place that wasn't a park before. Hell- it had more green than some of the parks he'd known.
Norris, it seemed, was a well known face (not that there were many students, really- barely a hundred) as other kids kept shouting at him as they walked:
"Hey, North! Don't forget the game on Friday!"
"Giving another tour, North?"
"North- the treasury reports will be done tomorrow."
"Did the Counselor clear the movie for this week's movie night, North?"
David hunched his shoulders a bit and asked, "Why is everyone calling you North?"
He smiled again, this time more amused than mild. "It's just a nickname."
"Okay..."
Once they arrived at the dorms (just one building and despite David's certainty that having so many barely supervised girls living in the same space as equally barely supervised boys wasn't a good idea, it didn't make sense to have two buildings considering the lack of students) someone stopped the two of them. "North, your sister got in another fight."
For the first time Norris's smile dropped and turned into a scowl. "Great. Sorry, David- I need to hear this." He dug into his pocket and pulled out a key which he then put in David's hand. "This is yours. Your room is on the third floor and your roommate is James York. He's... well, I'll tell you when I get up there. It shouldn't be more than a few minutes." Then, with that smile back on his face- a little strained to David's eyes -he turned back to the other student. David quickly retreated, not wanting to get into people's personal lives already.
Third floor and, according to the key, room 304. It took some neck craning to find it- most of the doors on this floor were open, even though some of them didn't have anyone inside. Weird. But he came across the right room eventually. That door, too, was wide open but a boy was inside. His roommate, David assumed. Who was apparently going through David's suitcase.
"What the hell!"
The other boy looked up at the outburst- a little surprised but apparently not guilty. Shirtsleeves rolled, tie loose- he looked every bit like a kid whose uniform got rumpled the moment he put it on. Even his brushed back, dark brown hair had a few unruly strands falling over his forehead above eyes that were more gray than blue. Or eye rather- David was momentarily thrown by the sight of the left one, a muddy color with the surrounding skin marred by an impressive looking scar.
"Oh, hey! You must be my new roomie! Name's York."
David just gaped at him. In all his years (admittedly not all that many) he'd never known anyone who, when caught rooting through a stranger's things, acted as if they were greeting an old friend. Helplessly he gestured to his luggage. "What are you doing?"
York looked down at the case and said- not even attempting to make it believable, "That was already open."
"No, it wasn't!"
He shrugged. "It is now."
David shouldered his way to his violated property. "Why would you go through someone's things like that? This was locked!" He briefly put a hand in his pocket, just to make sure he still had the key. He did.
York just shrugged again, moving to sit on the bottom bunkbed. "Wasn't a very good lock."
"Apparently..."
"Oh, you're already here."
They both looked up to find Norris standing in the door. The blonde boy took one look at David's disgruntled expression, the open suitcase and York's big grin. Norris's lips quirked and that smile seemed far more real than the others David had seen him put on so far. "Well, I was hoping to warn you before you met but apparently someone decided to skip out on detention."
"Aw, c'mon, North! This is the first time I ever got a roommate! I was excited!"
"I'm sure Omega will accept that excuse."
David's brow furrowed. "Omega?"
"O'malley," York said at the same time Norris said, "P.E. instructor."
"O...kay. Why 'Omega'?"
"Because the Academy is so fancy," York said, putting on some over-the-top posh accent, "that we cannot abide by numbering our class. We use Greek letters. That's how everyone knows we're extravagant and serious business."
Norris's grin widened. "You'll get the school's quirks."
"Quirks?" David shot, glaring at his roommate. "Like the thief over there?"
"Hey!" York actually had the gall to look indignant. "I'm not a thief! All I did was open your bag and look through it- I didn't take anything. You don't even have anything worth taking."
"Yeah, right." He went back to shuffling through his things, trying to match them up to his mental checklist.
"He really didn't take anything."
That time David's glare was directed at Norris. "What- you believe him? Even after he admitted to going through my personal belongings?"
Norris just shrugged. "One think you'll learn about York very quickly is that he's a bit of a compulsive lockpick. If something's locked, he opens it."
David was aghast. "What? Why?"
York shrugged, "I like challenges."
David just stared.
"Another thing," Norris continued, "is that he can't lie to save his life. He knows it, everyone in school knows it. If you ask him something he doesn't want you to know the answer to, he'll just ignore the question- which is kind of an answer in its own way. It's why he's probably the most honest person on campus."
Suspiciously, watching his roommate closely, David asked, "You really didn't take anything?"
"Nope!" York said with a satisfied smile. Still wary, David went back to sort out his things.
"Well, now that introductions are made," Norris said, "we can start the tour whenever you're ready, David."
"Oh, hey- I can do that."
A little surprised at the offer, he asked York, "You sure?"
"Yeah, man. Besides, I hear you have to go lecture your sister anyway."
"Thanks," Norris replied dryly. To David he said, "I live across the hall so if you need anything, just knock."
"Right. Sure." Can you get me out of here? David thought, I changed my mind about coming to this school. After a moment of getting his clothes organized and set to put away, he looked at the doorway to find it empty. York lounged on his bed, watching with something like curiosity. A question burned in David's mind and he asked, feeling slightly foolish, "So why does everyone call Norris 'North'?"
York grinned, "You kidding me? Calling him 'Norris' is just mean."
"Mean?"
"Yeah- I mean, I don't know anything about his parents so I'm sure they didn't name him that out of spite, but really. Norris is a terrible name to be saddled with. Like Herman, or Abner. So we just combined his first and last name: Norris. Thorogood. North. Speaking of which," York braced his elbows on his knees, "I never actually got your name. Except for David."
There was a brief pause and then, "Washington. David Washington."
York nodded for a moment. "Right. Wash."
"What?"
"Wash. Short for Washington."
"What about 'David'?"
"Nah. Wash is more interesting."
He was never going to understand his roommate.
"So," York clapped his hands together, "when do you want to do the tour? I know all the best places."
This didn't surprise Wash ne David in the least. "Right. Uh, lemme just finish putting my stuff away."
"Suit yourself. I'm gonna go check on something, be right back."
Wash wondered if that should be worrying or not. As he finished putting away his meager possessions he noticed something half-hidden by a chair: it was York's sweater. It took only a moment of contemplation before he was wriggling out of his own and slipping the larger article of clothing over his head. Hell- if York could go through his things without permission, Wash could wear his clothes (it evened out so long as no one thought about it). It didn't exactly swamp him but the sleeves rolled up against his hands and the material bunched up at the waist. Already he felt better in the baggy sweater.
He was just about to go to the door and attempt to find York when the boy came in, nearly running into Wash. "Whoops, sorry- is that my sweater?"
Self-consciously Wash folded his arms, daring York to make something of it. "No."
Eyes flickered to Wash's discarded sweater, hanging neatly off the back of the chair, and back. "Yeah, unless mine somehow shrunk in the laundry I didn't put it in, I'm pretty sure it is."
Wash's expression turned even more defiant. "And if it was?"
That finally cracked a full-on grin on York's face. "It's cool, man. I never wear that thing anyway. So!" He hooked his elbow behind Wash's neck, dragging him out through the hall. "Let's get this tour on the road!"
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no subject
Date: 2012-02-01 04:35 pm (UTC)In public.
Surrounded by people I'm going to be working with for the rest of my natural life.
THIS IS SO AWESOME!!! (would I be a bad person to demand more?)
no subject
Date: 2012-02-01 05:15 pm (UTC)I actually have another chapter I'm working on and possibly another plannedYes, you are. And you should be ashamed ):no subject
Date: 2012-02-01 05:32 pm (UTC)And SQUEEEEEEEE!!!
no subject
Date: 2012-02-02 05:10 pm (UTC)ILoveThisYouHaveNoIdea
Ahjksahdkjsahda I have no words, it was just fantastic.
More of this needs to exist.
I just...I demand it
Whgeifjowjei wjrofjwa
Date: 2016-08-17 04:04 pm (UTC)