"Kat…" Baz looks like he's in physical pain, "it's so nice to see you."
Kat pushes up her glasses, "I can tell you're lying."
"Really? I can't imagine why."
"I get that working with your ex–"
There's a collective gasp. Mousie and Gnocchi look like they're about to pass out from shock. Even Jessica wasn't able to stifle the surprised noise she let out. (Jessica had of course come out as soon as she heard the commotion. She wouldn't have been Jessica if she had let a piece of gossip escape her.)
Dee motions for Kit to lean down so she can whisper in his ear, "I don't get it. His ex what? Why are they so surprised?"
"His ex-girlfriend," Kit whispers back.
Dee lets out a surprised gasp of her own. "No way!" She turns to Baz, shouting in a loud voice, "You're telling me you dated th– mph!" Kit clamps a hand over her mouth before the rest of that sentence can come out. He has an idea of what she was going to say, and it would have caused an endless amount of trouble if it did.
"It was more than ten years ago!" Baz tries to defend himself.
"My point exactly!" Kat interrupts. "It was more than ten years ago, so we should just act as if it never happened. Let's maintain a positive and professional attitude in the workplace." She plasters an unnaturally bright smile on her face.
"Yeah, I can also tell when you're lying," Baz says, "Was that the script headquarters gave you? I can't imagine you were happy when they assigned you to this job, so cut the bullshit."
Kat's smile immediately drops. "Well, aren't you as charming as always?" She pushed up her glasses again, briskly turning to walk back into the office. Jessica scrambles to try and get back to her desk, but doesn't make it in time to avoid being seen by Kat.
They all hold their breaths, waiting to see what will happen, but Kat just ignores her, walking by without a word.
When they're sure Kat is out of hearing range, three pairs of eyes immediately turn to Baz. Kit sends out a small prayer for him.
"So," Gnocchi has a glint in his eyes, "who dumped who?"
"For your information, it was mutual," Baz sniffs.
"Ah, I see… So she dumped you."
"No she didn't! It was more complicated than that."
"Eh, whatever, you say," Gnocchi waves him off.
"It's true!"
They just ignore him, the topic of conversation has already moved on. It's now Kit's turn to be questioned.
"Master Kit, how come she also knew you?" Mousie asks first.
"Did you two also date?" Gnocchi blurts out.
Kit has to bite down his tongue to stop himself from killing Gnocchi right then and there. "Why the hell would you think that?!"
"I'm sorry! I didn't mean it! It was a joke!" Gnocchi tries to desperately save his skin.
"Well it wasn't a very funny one!"
"But Gnocchi's right," Mousie taps her chin, "where do you know her from?"
"Please tell me you're both joking." When neither answers, he feels himself ageing two times faster. "Take a wild guess. Try to connect the dots, hm? Ten years ago…" he tries to give them a hint.
"Um… It was ten years ago? And you were younger?" Gnocchi tries.
"Shhh!" Mousie shushes him quickly, "Don't say that! You know he's sensitive about his age!" she says in a stage whisper.
"You're right… Then what could it be…?" Gnocchi scratches his head.
"The Academy! It was when we were at the Academy!" Kit has run out of patience.
Mousie and Gnocchi snicker.
"Yeah, we figured," Mousie confesses.
"You two–!" he feels like he's about to spit out blood. The goddamn nerve they have! He's supposed to be their teacher, they should at least try to give him some face! This time he doesn't hold back, hitting both of them on top of their heads with a crutch.
Mousie and Gnocchi immediately stop sniggering. "Ow–!"
"Why?" Gnocchi cries. Kit makes as if he's going to hit him again. "Fine, I get why, but don't you think that was a little too harsh even for you?"
"No. You both deserved it. Now go back inside before I change my mind and have you scrub the toilets!"
At that, they both physically flinch and scram.
He feels a hand poking him in the side. He looks down to see Dee, her face scrunched up in confusion. "What is it, Dee?"
"All of you keep mentioning that Academy place, but what exactly is it?"
"...." He hadn't mentioned it before? He was sure he had explained this to her– Wait a minute. He shouldn't have had to explain this at all! This couldn't even be called basic knowledge! It was even more basic than that! It was just common knowledge! Where had those leeches at the Bureau kept her living? Under a rock? "...You really don't know?"
"Um. You know, back when I was at… headquarters, like you call it, they also mentioned that place a lot. Maybe they explained it, but I just zoned out during most of the lectures they gave me. I used to also just skip out a lot so I might have missed the day they taught that."
Kit feels like he's just managed to solve a very difficult puzzle, the final piece clicking into place. Maybe he had been thinking too lowly of the higher-ups.
Dee continues talking, "Before you scold me, they were all very boring lectures and they never taught anything interesting. At least you're actually teaching me magic, not like them. The only useful thing they ever did was teaching me how to shapeshift. And I already kinda knew how. I simply stopped getting stuck halfway through the transformations. Let me tell you, having a tail all the time was not fun."
His opinion of the higher-ups drops again. Maybe they weren't as terrible as he'd been thinking, but they had still decided to drop all the responsibility of teaching Dee everything about magic from scratch.
"But all of that is in the past now. My question stands: what is the Academy?"
"The Royal Academy of Magic, commonly referred to as just the Academy, is an institution dedicated to the furthering of its students magical abilities and expanding their knowledge of the magical world. It's main mission is to prepare its pupils to obtain their magician licence, and later on–"
"Hey, Baz," Dee interrupts, "why's he talking weird again? He sounds like a text-to-speech voiceover."
"Oh, that," Baz lets out a chuckle, "yeah, he just reverts to reciting textbooks when he doesn't know how to explain something properly."
Kit feels his face growing hot. "I don't!" he protests. "It's just–" he looks for an excuse, "I just thought the textbook explanation would be the most appropriate and complete one."
"Whatever you say," Baz pats him on the shoulder. "Why don't you let me explain this one, though?"
"Yeah, I think it's better if you let him explain," Dee agrees.
He feels a little bit hurt, but he tries not to let it show. "Suit yourselves." His voice comes out a bit clipped though. He starts walking back into the office; they can stay behind and talk all they want outside.
They, predictably, don't stay outside, instead following after him all the way until he reaches the common area. It's host to the one couch, and only comfortable seat, in the entire office, the reason why he decided to head here. There are also four chairs around a cheap plastic table in the room, meaning a total of six people can be seated. Additionally, there's a small kitchen counter installed in the left corner of the room, with a two burner stove. There used to be a microwave for heating up food quicker, but Gnocchi had decided to experiment sticking a metal fork in it a couple of months ago. There's still the old coffee machine that he never remembers being used (does it even work at this point) sitting forgotten in the corner of the counter.
Kit lies down, taking up the two people's space all by himself. "Why are you following me around?" he complains, "I thought Baz was going to explain everything to you."
"I need you around to put in any detail I might miss," Baz explains. "So, what do you want to know?" Baz asks as he takes a seat on one of the chairs around the table, Dee sitting opposite him.
"Hmmm," Dee ponders the question carefully. "What's the Academy like? I mean, what was it like going there?"
Baz grins. "Oh it was horrible."
"If that's the explanation you're going to give to the kid you should have let me do it," Kit grumbles.
"Let me finish," he waves at Kit to be quiet. "As I was saying, it's a bunch of lectures and work and more work plus all the etiquette… They make you wear this really stuffy uniform all the time. Dress pants, blazer, tie and all. Don't even get me started on all the rules and what happens if you break them. Believe me, you would not like going there."
"Don't listen to him, Dee," Kit interrupts, "He's just exaggerating because he would get caught all the time and punished."
Baz hums, "If I remember correctly, you were always there, getting punished right beside me."
"You too?" Dee turns to look at Kit with a look of surprise.
"Not all the time!" He has to defend himself in front of his student.
"My bad. Most of the time," Baz ammeds.
"And just whose fault was it always?" Kit accuses him.
"I admit that one was always me," he puts up a hand in a show of guilt.
"Exactly! I was a perfectly good student before I met you. It wasn't until afterwards that I started getting into trouble."
"You never said no when I approached you."
"Because- Well, it was hard saying no to you! You didn't make it easy," he recalls bitterly. "And then it was always me that had to try and talk us out of whatever mess you created."
"But it was fun, right?" he props up his chin on one hand.
"I– Yeah, it was," he admits.
"Hey, why don't you tell Dee about the time we set a greenhouse on fire?"
Dee looks between the two of them with shining eyes. "You committed arson?" she asks. There's a hint of awe behind her words.
"It wasn't technically–" he stops when he looks into Dee's eyes. Kit sighs in defeat. He's going to tell her about it, isn't he?
~~~
It had been somewhere between the end of the first term during his second year. The school year would begin in mid January, ending around the fifteenth to twentieth of December. It was divided into two terms, with the first term ending around late May to early June, and a three week vacation in between the two terms.
The summer season was already starting, and for Kit that meant that aside from the stifling heat and midterm season, he also had to deal with another, even more troublesome, thing.
Summer allergies.
He'd had them for as long as he can remember, but with the passing of the years they had gotten better. He could get by with just a moderately runny nose and irritated eyes and skin which he could contrarest by taking some medicine, as opposed to when he was younger and had to stay indoors all day and get respiratory therapy.
Except that summer, his allergies had come back especially strong. Not enough that he was incapaciteted, but he had been trying to go out as little as possible and was wearing a face mask all day.
Currently, instead of going out to the yard for lunch like most other students, he was hiding in one of the empty classrooms. The second year spirit exorcism room to be specific. He'd chosen this classroom because it was located at the top of the west tower, so it was farther away from the ground, a.k.a., the primary source of pollen producers, and as a general rule, all rooms where spirit exorcism classes took place were always kept squeaky clean. It was probably the safest place he could find in the whole campus.
He was trying to eat his chicken soup, but he had to stop every few bites to blow his nose, so he was less than halfway done with only ten minutes remaining of lunch hour.
The door to the classroom opened just as he's blowing his nose and he doesn't hear it. He didn't realise someone had walked into the room until they're standing right in front of him.
"Hey, Kit," Baz patted him on the head. "Why are you hiding here? It's such a nice day outside."
Kit stopped mid-nose blowing. He sighed. Here we go again, he thought.
His first run-in with Baz had been a few months prior, and since then, Baz had been seeking him out on an almost daily basis. At first he had put up enough resistance that Baz would give up after a few minutes of pestering. Still, he was persistent, and he kept coming back despite Kit's obvious reluctance to hang out with him. Eventually, Kit's defences had worn down enough that he had come to accept Baz's presence reluctantly. Privately, he could admit he was even starting to enjoy the company.
In a way, he was like a cat that had to be carefully approached until it grew comfortable to get its fur petted by a stranger. Put too much pressure and it would lash out and run away, but stop trying and you would never get anywhere.
He raised his head to look at Baz, his eyes were teary from the allergies, so he couldn't see Baz, only registering him as a hazy outline. "What do you want?" Kit asked miserably. His voice sounded unnaturally nasal to his ears.
"Woah, what happened to you? You look like you've been doing some heavy crying. You get rejected or something? Did your pet die?"
"No," he blew his nose loudly, "it's just allergies."
"You have allergies?" Baz raised his eyebrows. "I didn't know they could be this bad."
"Oh, this isn't even the worst they can get. They used to be a lot worse when I was a kid. Couldn't even leave the house during the summer months for fear I would die."
Baz whistled appreciatively, "Damn. That must have been bad." He pulled over a chair from a desk nearby, sitting on it backwards across from Kit. He rested his chin on the backrest. "You know, I also have allergies. They're not as bad as yours, though."
"Really?" Kit tried to let him do most of the speaking, instead focusing on drinking his soup.
"Don't you want to know what they are?"
"Mhm."
"Peanuts."
"What?"
"Peanuts."
"That's like… the most cliche allergy ever, oh my god. You can't be for real."
Baz laughed, "I know, I know. But it's true, I swear!"
"I'm not really inclined to believe you."
"It's true," he insisted, "I even have to carry an EpiPen around." He pulled it out from his back pocket. "See?"
Kit narrowed his eyes. "I still don't completely believe you."
"Do I have to eat a peanut in front of you and die just so you will believe me?"
"No need to actually die. Just come close to." He took a sip from his soup.
"Haha," he laughed sarcastically. "Very funny."
"It wasn't a joke," he deadpanned.
Baz blinked at him.
"I was being sarcastic."
"You're not very good at it, just so you know." Baz tapped his finger on the desk surface. "Anyways, the reason why I came looking for you today is because I need to ask a favour from you."
"No."
"You don't even know what I was going to ask."
"I don't want to. Is that not reason enough?"
"No," Baz rolled his eyes. "Listen to what I have to say first and only then can you refuse."
Kit gave a long suffering sigh. "Fine. So what is it you want?"
"I knew you would see reason."
"I haven't agreed to helping you yet. Just hearing you out."
Baz ignored him. "You know the gardening club?"
"Not really…"
"Don't worry, it's not necessary for you to understand."
"If you say so…"
"So the other day I overheard some people from the club talking about this plant they were growing in the greenhouse. Listen, I don't know shit about how plants work, so I don't know if this is true or if it's even possible, but apparently they're growing some new breed of apples. Which isn't all that exciting, I know. But get this, they're blue."
"Okay."
"Why are you not more surprised? At least try to act like it, sheesh," Baz clicked his tongue.
"What do you want me to say?"
"...Forget it," Baz said. "Problem is, only people from the gardening club are allowed into the greenhouse."
"So you want to join the gardening club?"
"Go through all that trouble just to see some apples? No way."
"Then what do you want to do?"
"We," he puts emphasis on the word, "are going to break into the greenhouse."
"What? Why? Can't you just ask someone from the club to let you see?"
"Eh…" Baz made a face, "I'm not exactly on good terms with the people from that club."
"But why do you need my help?"
"Because the people from that club are crazy. I don't know what else they grow in there, but the whole place is riddled with seals. Which is where you come in."
In truth, the reason why the greenhouse had so many protection layers was because most of the plants grown in there were used as ingredients for potions, meaning what was grown in there wasn't exclusive to just the gardening club. The seals hadn't been set by the members of the club, but by the teacher in charge of it. In fact, not even all the members from the gardening club were allowed into the greenhouse, only a select few who the teacher trusted were given permission.
"I'm not going to help you to break into a greenhouse."
"Think of it as a chance to improve your seals knowledge. A challenge, if you will."
"Not happening."
"Aww, you're such a bore." Baz flicked his forehead. "Give me one good reason why you don't want to do it?"
"I'm going to have to go outside. I'm going to die if I do."
"What? No you won't. I mean, you might get an electric shock at worst, but I doubt those seals are set to kill–"
"Not the seals! The pollen!" He started coughing right after his outburst. Raising his voice was not good for his already irritated airways.
"Riiiight," Baz handed him a tissue, "your allergies." He waited for Kit to regain his composure. "I'm sure you'll be fine. You just have to take some medicine, right?"
Kit stared at him in disbelief. "No."
Baz waved him off, "You'll be fine. You just need a positive attitude."
"That's not how it works."
"And if you're not fine, then at least it will be fun and your death would have been worth it."
"How many times will I have to tell you, I'm not helping you?"
Suddenly, the bell marking the end of lunch period rang.
Baz stood up, heading towards the door "Meet me behind the arts building today after class."
"I have swimming club after school."
"I'll be counting on you, alright?" Baz waved at him behind his back.
Kit stared down at his still half full bowl. He sighed.
~~~
"I knew you'd show up," Baz waved at him when he saw him approach.
Kit burrowed his face deeper into the scarf he'd wrapped around his neck. It was not much, and it was making him sweat like crazy, but at least it served as a buffer additional to the face mask. "Ugh, I can't believe I did," his words came out muffled, "I had to bend over backwards to get out of practice, so you owe me a big one." That was a lie. When he'd arrived at practice, the coach had taken just one look at him and ordered him to take the day off. This was, in fact, the only reason why he had come to meet Baz.
"Fine, but we'll address that debt when the time comes. Now," Baz led him to a narrow passage behind the arts building, "to the job at hand…"
~~~
"Are you sure this is going to work?" Kit looked around anxiously. According to Baz, Tuesdays were the only days when the gardening club didn't meet, so no one would come by the greenhouse. But Kit couldn't help but feel jittery, as if at any moment a teacher might appear from nowhere.
"Relax," Baz said, "of course it will."
"I don't know…" he jumped from foot to foot
"It's just regular metal, right? It should melt just fine."
While Kit had managed to deactivate enough seals around the greenhouse to clear a path, they hadn't counted on the fact that the door would be locked. After much careful prodding, they had determined it was just a regular lock, not a magical one, therefore, any spells they knew would not work on it. Baz had then suggested he melt it.
"I don't think it's that easy," Kit sniffled (his nose had started acting up a few minutes ago). "Metal only melts at extremely high temperatures."
"It's fine. I've done this before," Baz assured him, crouching down partially to be at eye level with the lock. He lit up a small flame on top of his index and middle finger, bringing it close to the lock. The metal started growing hot red, and started bending out of shape.
Kit moved to stand back to back with Baz. At least this way if someone were to walk by, Baz would be partially blocked from view.
"Can't you hurry up with that?" Kit could feel his nose getting stuffy and his throat starting to itch unbearably. Looked like the scarf and the face mask could only do so much if he was surrounded on all sides by plants. But what really had him on edge was the possibility of someone rounding the corner and catching them.
"Patience," Baz muttered.
He shook his shoulder, "Well, make it go faster."
"Can you please stay still?!" Baz has had enough of his fretting. "If you keep jumping around like that I'll lose my concentration and set this whole place on fire!" Still, he added a third finger to the mix, and the flame glowed white hot.
"Sorry." He took out a tissue from his pocket, trying to blow his nose discreetly. But just as soon as he finished removing the face mask, he let out a loud sneeze. He could feel Baz jump in fright behind him.
"What the hell, man?! Are you trying to advertise our location to the entire school– Shit."
Kit turned to look around. "What? What did– Oh. Shit."
When Baz had startled, he'd accidentally moved his hand with the flame, and now the actual door to the greenhouse had caught fire.
"Don't just stare at it like an idiot!" he kicked Baz in the back, "Do something!"
"Like what?!"
"I don't know?! Like putting it out?! Aren't you the fire expert?"
"Why would you assume I know how to put out a fire?" Baz retorted.
"Because you control fire?!"
"I create fire! I might be able to control it! But I don't put it out!"
During the few seconds they had been arguing, the fire had already spread across the entire door and was starting to eat at the right wall.
"I have an idea!" Baz clapped his hands together.
"It better be good, because at this point we're dead meat."
"Oh, trust me. It's brilliant."
"What is it?"
"Let's scram."