fandomhigh | The Art of Napping; Monday, First Period [08/17].

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The Art of Napping; Monday, First Period [08/17].

"Well, my sleepy ducklings ♥," Shunsui started class, which was meeting that day in the Room of Infinite Pillows and Blankets with a nice little archway of cushions that lead to the Garden of Slumbering Serenity with its gazebo and willows, its cherry blossoms and ambient babbling streams, "it's hard to believe it, but we have reached the final lesson in our comprehensive study of the Art of Napping ♥. I do hope you've taken something useful from this course and are able to improvve upon your napping experience in the future ♥. If you have any follow-up questions or anything else you'd like to touch upon before we are finished, I'd be happy to hear it, but, otherwise, there is but one thing left for us to do for our last meeting..."

Here, he smiled beatifically, figuring that if none of them knew what was coming, then they clearly hadn't been paying attention, but, if that were the case, then that was also fine, because if they hadn't been paying attention, then they had probably already been napping through class, which was precisely the point.

"Go forth and put to practice what you've learned here this session, and have a wonderful nap ♥."

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For the last nap!

Freya Crescent

Octavia Blake

Stark

For any final questions or points anyone would like to make to the teacher or the class as a whole!

Find a spot, settle in, and get your last excuse for actually napping in class and having it be what you were supposed to be doing in! Pillows, blankets, park benches and whatever else are fully moddable to assist you in acheiving true napping excellence!

It really didn't surprise Freya (and she felt it shouldn't really surprise anyone) that this was what their last class would be, and she was mostly just pleased to be done with it after this, since it had been one of the oddest and pointless classes she'd ever been subjected to. Still, perhaps it had affected her somewhat, because she was actually looking forward to going out in the garden, where the streams reminded her more of Burmecia's constant rain, hopping up to the top of one of the outcroppings of rock with a pillow and blanket tucked under her arm, and then getting comfortable to take a nap up there for the rest of the class.

Octavia didn't nap. No one was surprised, right?

But she found herself a nice spot to sit, by a stream. Water always soothed her, not that she needed it as much as she had last week. Or the week before, when she hadn't even made it to class.

Her thoughts wandered, but that was okay.

Stark collected a blanket to lie on and a pillow (of the correct softness) and found a spot under a particularly inviting looking willow tree. It seemed, to him, an ideal sort of napping spot.

Which is decidedly not napping, but he will still allow it.

Octavia hadn't been napping at any point during either this class or any of the other ones she'd actually shown up for, but Shunsui would probably not hold that against her, right?

Though if he was going to, this was his chance. "Konnichiwa, Shunsui."

He certainly hadn't yet, it would be a bit silly to start now, unless using it to make a case for obviously needing private lessons counted as holding it against her.

"Ah," Shunsui smiled at her, because, let's face it, he was still mostly just glad to see that she'd bothered even coming at all, especially with it being the last class, "konnichiwa, Octavia-chan ♥. How did it go this time ♥?"

"Did not nap."

Shocking, Octavia knew.

But, she shrugged. "Nice, though. The stream's pretty convincing."

Shunsui gave a small, sage-like nod in response to this information, slightly spoiled by the usual tilt of his grin. "A stream is always a good touch ♥," he said. "Did you at least get a little sleepy?"

Baby steps and small victories, and all that.

Octavia shook her head. "Not really," she said, with a touch of wryness - at least if you knew how to listen to it. "But I've been sleeping... okay, I guess, over the weekend."

All things considered. She and Duke seemed to take turns having nightmares, lately, so the quality of sleep they got was relative. Still, the weekend had seemed a little better.

"So that might be a factor."

"Mmmmm." It was one of those deep, thoughtful hums that seemed to rumble straight from his chest, with a cosnidering expression to match. "Well. Sleeping and napping are still quite different, still, but one can hardly complain for an improvement in overall restfulness ♥. The important thing is that you tried, and that, I think, calls for some sake ♥."

Was his response going to basically be framed around that no matter what she had said? Was there really any doubt? And since he knew this and he suspected she would have figured as much as well, his grin took on a certain shamelessness as he found his cups.

"Besides," he added, "it's the last class, that alone calls for a toast ♥."

Octavia snorted, softly. "Between you and Lucifer," she drawled, "I'm getting the idea pretty much anything in this time calls for a toast. Or at least a drink."

"Finally ♥," Shunsui remarked with a laugh as he carefully poured out the sake into the cup, and then offering them both out to her for her to have the first pick of them balanced expertly in his hand. "Here I was worried you might never come around to it, Octavia-chan ♥."

"I didn't say I agreed," Octavia pointed out as she reached to pick up one of the cups. "I'm just getting the impression."

"An impression," said Shunsui, grinning a bit too much with it to come off as loftily as it might seem he was trying to be, "is just another step on the journey toward realization ♥. And you may not agree, Octavia-chan," his tone was far more complimentary than anything else, "but you don't exactly object, either ♥."

Octavia looked like she wanted to roll her eyes, but didn't. Either way, it looked good-natured enough.

"I'm about to start selling alcohol," she rasped, lifting the cup. (Fingers against fingers, a soft brush.) "I don't know if that's related."

And, after fingers against fingers, Shunsui lifted his as well. "It certainly is easier to sell something if you believe in it's consumption, I should think ♥," he mused, but his grin was for something else. "And I think we may have found something better to toast to than the end of this class...are we getting an attractive female bartender at the Nest again ♥?"

If his powers of deductive reasoning were not failing him, this was exceptionally good news.

We'll call it for...sentimental reasons.

"I don't know about that, but I start there on Wednesday."

Yes. The answer to his specific question was yes, and Octavia knew it. She just knew it in a hazy, faraway kind of way that didn't really matter to her.

It was a work in progress.

And it was adorable.

"Sounds like my Wednesday schedule just got a bit fuller ♥," Shunsui remarked, because it was so, so full as it was, too. "And what a novel turn of events it will be, that I'll be getting my alcohol from you instead of the other way around ♥."

Oh, he'd still be bringing his own sake, too, but that was just extra. In more ways than one.

"And we'll see," he couldn't help adding with the sort of faraway grin of someone dreging up some rather pleasant memories, "if you develop the same allergy to pants as my last favorite bartender there ♥."

Now that was something to drink to.

"Allergy to pants?" Octavia repeated, eyebrows ever so slightly raised. "I don't think so."

With her recent official change of address, she was now kind of a pirate? That was about as close to being like Isabela she was likely to get, unfortunately.

"I guess only time will tell ♥," said Shunsui, who was not holding out hope, but it was a nice thought all the same. "Either way, although I don't particular condone extra work, congratulations on the new position, Octavia-chan; I'm sure it will suit you far more than excessive roses ♥."

Something a little sharper and tighter passed over Octavia's expression, briefly. "Yeah, I'm not going back to that," she drawled.

Amazing what the trauma of burning down a hydrofarm as it tried to bloom could do to a person's willingness to work at a flower store.

She shrugger, milder again. "It's just a means to an end. Money, and more routine."

Eventually, maybe Shunsui could have gathered enough of those distinct little hardened moments to piece together some semblance of a story, but, for the time being, he just smiled a bit dotingly at her, a bit softer, as he sipped his sake.

"And who even knows," he speculated grandly, "you might even enjoy it a little, if you can imagine that ♥."

~insert clever note/observation here~

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The Art of Napping; Monday, First Period [08/17].

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