Scarlet looked between Aeryn and the two boys sitting at her desk and sighed. "I'm not going to get rid of any of you in time for my lunch break, am I? I swear to god, one of these days I will eat sitting down at a table like a civilised human being instead of stuffing a whole damned sandwich down my throat in one go on my way somewhere I'm late to."
"I would literally pay to see the second one," Aeryn interjected, "Just as an aside. You could totally monet-"
"Shut up, Aeryn."
".. 'kay."
The headmistress steepled her fingers and leaned onto her elbows. "Okay. Aeryn, the situation is that these boys turned up on our doorstep with a young girl suffering from some sort of ... magical parasite."
"That's bad." Aeryn noted with a frown.
"But, we've managed to extract the parasite," she went on.
"That's good!" Aeryn stuck his thumb up with a grin.
"However," Scarlet scowled at the silvis, "I'm left with a dilemma as to what to do with her, and them."
Aeryn let his wrist fall limp so that the thumb dangled downwards instead. "That's bad."
Scarlet took a long, deep breath, biting her lip for a moment before continuing. "They claim to be bringing her to her uncle. But I have no guarantee of that claim, since they have absolutely no legal association with her. Neither do they have any contact information for her guardian, who has apparently gone into hiding because of an evil witch who's trying to take over the city. Before you barged in I was about to-"
"Hold up!" Aeryn held up a hand, "Wait, wait, backtrack. Did you say 'evil witch who's trying to take over the city'?"
There was a long pause while Scarlet glowered at Aeryn. The silence hung in the air for several moments before the silvis went on. "Because if you did, that has my name written all over it. I am so down for beating up evil witches. So down I'm below sea level."
"That may be-" Scarlet began, only to be interrupted again.
"Down with the sickness. And the only cure is beating up evil witches." Aeryn grinned.
"For fuck's sake! How does Elante put up with you every single day?" Scarlet slumped back in her chair with a frustrated groan.
"Honestly?" Aeryn tilted his head thoughtfully, "I have no idea. I'm completely insufferable. Though, I'm good in b-" At that point, there was a brief flash as Aeryn's mouth was engulfed by a glowing light that cut him off and left him spluttering indignantly in silence.
Scarlet lowered her hand from casting the silencing spell and sighed. "I should've done that ten minutes ago." she muttered. "Right. Okay, what we're going to do is this," she turned back to Robin and Nairi, "You two seem like decent guys. So I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt that what you're saying is true. I'm not going to call the police, but what I am going to do is send this fuckwit," here she pointed at Aeryn, "along with you to make sure nothing bad happens to the kid, and to get him the fuck away from me before I do something that his husband will regret. You alright with that?"
Robin pointed a thumb ar Aeryn, one eye opened slightly wider than the other. "So you're sending... one guy? This guy?" he asked, placing one hand on Scarlet's desk.
"Trust me," Scarlet allowed herself a smirk, "For all that he's insufferable, loud, arrogant and- so help me god Aeryn if you touch that I will literally shove a mountain up your ass."
Aeryn froze with his hand half-extended towards what looked like an innocuous snow globe, then slowly retracted his arm.
"... anyway, for all of that? That one guy's probably worth more than an army."
At that, the silvis grinned.
Robin's fingers drummed on Scarlet's desk. His bottom lip poked out in a skeptical glare. "Hmph. Well, fine," he huffed with a dramatic cross of his arms. "I guess that'll be okay."
Nairi, who'd been thoughtfully glancing between the headmistress and her ... interesting associate during the discussion, simply nodded his head. "As long as we can stop wasting time here and get moving."
Scarlet rolled her eyes, "Believe me, I want you out of here as much if not more than you want to be out of here. Head down to the courtyard. I'll send word to the people who're with the girl to meet you out there." she said, waving her hand towards the door, "Now fuck off."
*****
"...and then, when it was about to bite me in half, I punched it so hard in the tonsils that I'm pretty sure I ruptured its spleen. And that's how I wrestled a giant rock-wurm!" Aeryn finished as the trio emerged out into the courtyard of the Academy. Nairi shot Robin a grimace that the other boy returned as they crossed towards a pair of mages who were standing with Nanna beside a large archway of carved stone.
When he spotted them, one of the two stepped forwards to meet them with a dubious glance between Aeryn and the others. "I'm told that you're going with them." he said. The mage was young, looking to be about the same age as Aeryn and Robin, with shortish brown hair and an incredibly fancy longcoat.
"Yup!" Aeryn grinned, "Just playing escort, y'know. Making sure they don't take the kid to a murdercave or anything like that."
The mage gave Nairi and Robin a dubious glance. "They don't look like they could murder a goose."
"To be fair to them, geese are quite scary. I remember the first time I saw a goose in your parents' pond. Bastard nearly took my arm off."
"It nipped your finger."
"It hurt, okay!"
The brown-haired young man laughed and ruffled Aeryn's hair affectionately. "Just as long as you're back for next monday. I know how you get sidetracked, but if you're not back home for then I will hunt you down and put whatever's detaining you through a portal into the most unpleasant nether realm I can think of." Here he shot a meaningful glare at Nairi and Robin, but it was somewhat diminished in effect by the corners of his mouth curling upwards in a poorly disguised smile.
Both Nanna and Robin took short, repeated peeks between Aeryn and his brunette counterpart before exchanging glances. Though the small girl was aschen, weak, and had obviously been through a lot that evening, she didn't seem particularly frightened. After all, Wing City kids had to be tough. This kind of thing happened all the time. She even managed a chuckle before turning her chin up.
"Can we go?" she asked sassily, crossing her arms. "I want Uncle Martin!"
Robin rolled his eyes. "A brat even though we saved your life!"
"I didn't ask!" she humped, sticking out her tongue. "I just want to make sure Uncle Martin is okay so he can help beat up the nasty lady."
"Feisty, isn't she?" Aeryn raised an eyebrow.
"You have no idea," the other man chuckled, "Once she was awake enough to speak, she started telling us we were doing our job wrong, and that her uncle was a much better doctor than us."
Nairi sighed, "Let's get moving." he muttered. There were far too many people here for his liking. And they talked too much. All of them.
Aeryn nodded his head, "Alright! Onwards! To... wherever we're going!" he exclaimed, stepping forwards only to slip an arm around the brown-haired mage's waist and sweep him around with a yelp of surprise, before leaning into plant a smooch on his lips.
After returning to an upright position, the mage - slightly red in the face - coughed. "The fact that still catches me off guard doesn't say wonders for my intellect. Right, well. Off you go then."
Winking, Aeryn made a mini-salute, "See ya later, 'lante." he said with a grin.
Elante folded his arms. "Take care."
"Don't I always?"
"No."
Nairi groaned. "Leaving now!" he exclaimed, before starting off on his way, whether or not anyone followed him.