fandomhigh | Detention [Saturday]

All of the students who'd earned or been given detention had been told to meet Fraser outside of the Danger Shop. And that's precisely where he was.

"Good morning," he said pleasantly. "I trust you all slept well and I thank you for being on time. Please enter the Danger Shop."

It is now seven-oh-six. You have exactly ~~eight hours and fifty-four minutes~~ four hours and fifty four minutes to think about why you're here. To ponder the error of your ways and you may not talk. You will not move from these seats and you will not sleep.

"Before you begin your detention," Fraser said, looking down at them, "I would like to hope that we never meet again in this circumstance. I once met an Inuit elder who said that, those who get into trouble once learn from their mistakes. Those who get into trouble twice obviously have hard heads and deserve whatever trouble comes at them next."

He smiled and then gathered up each person's snacks before shooing them into the Danger Shop library.

[OCD is ~~coming!~~ done!]

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"You still didn't have to react like that," she muttered, hunching her shoulders.

"Uh, yes," he said, with a tone that made it clear that he was surprised Ino would think other, "I did. It took me, like, fifteen minutes to convince you that I didn't want to dance. Anything less, and you would have hugged me before I had a chance to say no."

"You still owe me a dance," she muttered, not willing to concede that he was, probably, correct.

"I don't owe you anything," Cal said firmly. "You can wait all you want, but you're going to be waiting a hell of a long time; I told you that I just don't dance."

He thought maybe...maybe some sleep and a good handful of hours between the situations would have abated her stubbornness a bit, but, clearly, he thought wrong.

He was so far wrong in hoping that, that it wasn't even funny, seriously. Ino would so wind up nagging him about this forever.

"You do," she insisted, "for hurting my feelings." Or something. Yeah. "And that's what Michael said too, that he doesn't dance, and I got him to dance."

And he'd stepped on her feet, but whatever.

"For hurting yo-- Good God, Ino, if I could exact vendettas and demand debts out of every person who's ever hurt my feelings..." Cal frowned, shaking his head. "All I did was say no to an honest question. You're the one who can't take no for an answer, and that is in no way my fault."

Nor did he really appreciate how she had to be so persistent on something he obviously wasn't comfortable with just so she could be right. He realized, quite staggeringly, that this had nothing to do with him at all, but it was entirely all about her. There was a little stab of disappointment in his gut about that realization, but, in a way, it was also a big weight off his shoulders, too.

"You could," she pointed out, "what stopped you? And I can so take a no."

Sometimes. Maybe.

...she was just bad at it.

It had been about him and, in her head, still was, but a lot of it also came down to the fact that, yeah, okay, Ino wasn't used to not getting what she wanted.

"There aren't enough hours in the day, days in the year," Cal muttered, shaking his head before settling a dubious glance at Ino. "And, if you really can take a no, which I doubt, prove me wrong by just accepting this one and just let it go already."

Oh. Oh. Was that a challenge? It sounded like a challenge.

"...and we're okay if I drop it?"

Cal managed to stop the sigh, but only after a deep inhalation. "We were okay before," he pointed out, "but you couldn't drop it. Logic would only go to show that, yes, if it's dropped, there won't be a problem because the problem is that you won't drop it."

"I can't ever tell with you," she said, "I always wind up totally not sure about anything by the end of a conversation. Asking is easier."

That had Cal quiet for a thoughtful moment. If she wasn't ever sure by the end of a conversation...then, clearly, he wasn't doing his job well enough, and he knew why he wasn't doing it. Because the only positive conclusion she should get to was one that didn't forebode well for him, and, despite how much he tried to tell himself to just stick it out and deal with it, he couldn't bring himself to bring it to that level.

The sigh he'd been trying to hold back finally got through. Just the fact that she'd even be concerned with them being 'okay' was proof enough that he just couldn't do what he needed to. "Trust me," he said. "You'd know if it wasn't."

But would she? Would he? He could never in his life remember being upset with anyone else enough that things weren't 'okay.' Which, considering some of the things people had put him through, was saying a lot. It baffled him, why Ino would even be concerned over something this small comparatively.

Probably because Ino's issues were cut from an entirely different stripe than his, and that she wasn't used to not knowing where she stood at all.

"Oh yeah?" Ino asked, having to smile a bit.

"Yeah," Cal nodded, and then, since he knew Ino was probably looking for details, he desperately tried to search for indications of things he'd done when he did get mad, in those rare occasions when something more primal and male burst out of him.

He couldn't think of much, though. But there was a small smile, so that was good, although part of him was still worried that he shouldn't have tried so hard to get to this point. Why did she care enough that it mattered? He almost wanted to take her by the shoulders and shake some sense into her.

Primal and male? Pfffft. Was so not the only way to get angry, even if it was the way that Cal would rather.

That got a brighter smile. "Okay," she said, "I'm glad."

...and dropping it for, well, a good while. It wasn't forgotten though. Never, with her.

Detention [Saturday]

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