Office Hours, Monday, 3/9

[tyler_gone]

It was Monday and a slightly bruised Tyler was in his office, idly mentally replaying the spars from the day before. He still couldn't believe someone actually wrestled a wolf; that was taking the whole man-vs-nature thing a little far for his tastes.

But he supposed hitting a teenage girl for fun was up there on the craziness scale, too.

The office door was open, and he was ready for any distraction.

Comments

[shiroi_tiger]

"It's beyond that," Nathan agreed, straightening his posture some just to hide how much he wanted to deflate right about then. "Worse still, because of the situation she has back home, I'm not certain that I'd be doing her any favors by showing her that her classmates do care. And not because of plans to be made or favors she could potentially do for them. They just care for a friend."

It was kind of heartbreaking. And Nathan would never in a million years admit that.

[tyler_gone]

"Not a high life expectancy on her, I'm guessing," Tyler said, trying to figure out which student they were talking about. "Yeah. That's ... I don't think I even have the words to say how much it sucks."

[shiroi_tiger]

"Yeah. It... sucks." He made a bit of a face at using that word that way, but at least Nathan was making an effort to catch up on the lingo. "When I wound up with the teaching job, situations like this were possibly the last possibility on my mind."

Well. That and bees. And vampires.

[tyler_gone]

"You're military," Tyler said, genuinely curious. "Doesn't that make it any easier? But yeah, it's hard to ... look at them, sometimes."

[shiroi_tiger]

"My background doesn't make any of it any easier. Whiskey makes it easier." Nathan? Not so good at coping. With anything. Ever. At all. "Raising a gun and shooting a man is somehow easier than explaining to a young girl what it means to be cared about. I was surprised by the number of youths at the meeting last night. Too many of them were too good to be new to it, at that."

[tyler_gone]

"I don't know if you can teach that," Tyler said. "I can teach someone to throw a punch. I started when I was about that age. But I'm not any good at playing mommy, and I won't pretend I am."

[shiroi_tiger]

"I'm certainly not in this to be anyone's mother," Nathan agreed, sighing and seeking out a portion of wall to lean back against. "I'm here to teach, so that the people that leave this school don't make the same stupid mistakes as the ones I'm preaching about."

There was another pause, there, and Nathan almost found himself laughing. "They expect us to be the responsible ones with all of the answers. How did that happen?"

[tyler_gone]

"We got to be the grown-ups," Tyler said, a tone of 'duh' in his voice. "This was easier when I was a kid. I was so sure I had everything all figured out, and I was going to get everyone to see things my way." A beat. "I was just scared."

[shiroi_tiger]

"And then real life hit, I'm assuming?" Nathan didn't need details. He wasn't going to pry for any. "At their age, we all had it all figured out. And then, just when you're starting to see the world in the light you'd had it painted in all along, reality rears its ugly head. If that's what the kids want us to show them, I need a lot more practise."

[tyler_gone]

"I had a story I was telling myself," Tyler said. "It was a lie. Real world came at me hard."

He shrugged. "I don't know if all the practice in the world will help. You should talk to Skywalker or Deadpool. They've been teaching here forever."

[shiroi_tiger]

"Skywalker or Deadpool," Nathan repeated. And then he nodded faintly. "I might have to do just that. If I look long enough, someone might have some better insight on the situation with that one student than I'll ever come up with on my own."

A beat.

"Thank you, Tyler. For your own insights."

It was good to know that he wasn't the only one who didn't really have words for how much the situation... sucked.

[tyler_gone]

"I had insights?" Tyler asked, then considered.

"Anakin is a good guy. Deadpool is ..." There weren't really words for Deadpool. "A good guy in a special way. I don't understand him, but I like him. But I'd talk to Anakin first."

[shiroi_tiger]

"That there. That's an insight," Nathan said in an almost joking tone. "Professer Skywalker first, then. And if you're certain you didn't have insights, then thank you for the ear. It's a... difficult situation, at best."

[tyler_gone]

"Hey, ears I have two of," Tyler said. "Let me know if you figure any of this out."