fandomhigh | Phys Ed; Thursday, First Period [11/30].

Class would be meeting in the Danger Shop that morning, in part for its intended purpose to safely prevent injuries, perhaps, but mostly just because it was sometimes just easier to mock something up in there than to arrange a field trip. So the students would find themselves in a nice winter wonderland on the summit of a mountain, with a nice slope down one side and a lovely pine grove forest on the other, and considering that Gladio stood beside some racks of skiing equipment and snowshoes, it was probably pretty clear to anyone who recognized it what they were doing today.

"We're heading into winter here," he explained, "and so I figured we'd look at a few different snow activities before we get entirely sick of it, or to give you the chance to maybe learn more about it before trying it out in the wild. Skiing, where you use these flat, bladed apparatus to slide over snow and down slopes, and snowshoeing, where you use these flat, meshed apparatus to walk through the snow. We're going to cover both, you can try both, or you can just stick to one if that's more comfortable."

Or you could decide not to do either and just get yourself into a snowball fight or make snow angels or snowmen, but Gladio wasn't going to just suggest that to you all, you had to come up with that all your own.

"So we'll go over some of the basics for each of them, and then you can just have at it."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

And thus, the inevitable betrayal was upon her, as Gladio took that hand in his and pulled Nell in. But he didn't do it to just scoop her up and put her at his cmsnow-dumping mercy, but instead to catch her with an arm around her back to lean in and give her a kiss worthy of a true snow fight truce.

And then he pulled back only enough to grin at her. "I'll have to keep thay in mind when it actually starts snowing out there for real."

"What? That I'm tricksy?" she asked with a grin once she'd been thoroughly kissed - with full participation on her part.

"I was thinking. Did you know we have an onsen here, kind of like the one we went to on vacation?" she asked. "We should go there sometime. Especially if we spend time in the snow."

"Well, I already knew you were tricksy," Gladio said, grinning down at her. "My mistake was thinking I was safe. Must be getting rusty in my old age." Another kiss landed on her forehead. "Good thing I got you to keep me on my toes."

Just about as much as he kept her on hers for those kisses!

"And I do know there's an onsen here," he confirmed. "Love that place, I go there a lot after my workouts." Even if it didn't seem to make it on any actual posts or radio reports. "We should definitely go. You think fake snow counts?"

"Oh my poor ancient love," Nell said with a smile. "I'm glad to be of service."

She considered. "I think fake snow should count."

"Then we should go," Gladio said, decisively. "Right now. Before we get kicked out if the next class needs to use the danger shop. Unless..." He trailed off, the lift of his brow now an exaggerated skepticism, "you've got other plans, anyway."

"Well... I should go home to rearrange my sock drawer," she said teasingly, "but if you're free I suppose I could put that off and go soak decadently."

"Oh, no," said Gladio, snorting faintly as he lifted a hand as if to placate such a suggestion, "by all mean. I'd hate to get in the way of you and your sock drawer."

"No, no," Nell said. "It's waited this long, I'm sure it can wait a bit longer. And I could use a good soak. In the right company, which I think you are."

"You sure," Gladio checked, "you don't want to just go with with all your socks instead? I mean, I wouldn't blame you. Those are some pretty nice socks."

"Nah," Nell said."There's this guy? I got him to make me breakfast the other day? I bet I can get him to organize my sock drawer for me later. Leaving me free to go to the Onsen."

"Wow," Gladio's brows lifted, emphasizing how impressed he sounded. "You got him making your oatmeal? Sounds like this guy would go and do just about anything for you."

"Not sure how you know he made me oatmeal," Nell said, "but yes, I"m pretty sure organizing my sock drawer is only one of many things I could talk him into doing. I think he's pretty amazing and I plan to keep him. Just in case you were getting ideas."

"Oh, didn't I tell you?" asked Gladio, throwing Nell a wink. "I'm psychic now."

That, or someone totally meant to say breakfast, but had clearly just gotten caught up in all the cuteness and oatmeal slipped out instead, but Gladio was clearly going to just roll with it.

"Nah," he then admitted, a beat later, "I'm just messing with you. Me and Breakfast Guy are actually pretty tight, you know. He was telling me about your oatmeal, and, yeah, keeping him sounds like a pretty good idea. He's a great guy, and he's clearly nuts about you.

"Here's to hoping he doesn't get too jealous over you heading off to the onsen with a total hunk like me."

"Ohhhh..." Nell said. "Psychic, huh? Who knew?"

She smiled up at him. "Really? Well, isn't that good to know." She considered for a moment. "I think he'll be okay. He is pretty crazy about him. Maybe not quite as crazy about me as I am about him, but still pretty crazy. I think he's confident enough to handle it."

"Mmm," Gladio hummed a little thoughtfully, rubbing his chin a little for emphasis before cocking his head toward the exit and turning toward it so they could start making their way out, "well, that's good to hear. That guy's a beast. I'd hate to have to go up against a guy like that in a fight."

But he looked over at Nell with an amused curiosity. "What makes you think," he asked, "he wouldn't be as crazy for you as you are for him, though? That's a pretty high bar, you know."

Nell turned with him obligingly. "Might be fun to watch, though. The two of them fighting? Mmmm..."

The next part she took more seriously. "Well... I can't imagine anyone possibly being anywhere close to as crazy as I am for him. I never even imagined anyone could ever be as crazy about anyone as I am about him."

Gladio spared a faint grin for Nell's clear appreciation for such an epic battle royale, but it was definitely tender around the edges from her words.

"He's probably thinking just about the same about you, too, you know," he said. "I've got it on good authority that he definitely never thought he'd feel for anyone the wah he feels about you. Wasn't really his style."

Nell moved in a little closer and smiled up at him. There might have been the slightest bit of uncertainty in her smile, but only a hint. "You think? Really? Seems hard to believe, but he's not one to say things like that if he doesn't mean it."

She smiled softly. "It's nice to know."

And with Nell moving a little closer, Gladio did the same, at first just to give her a little nudge, but he decided to just sling an arm over her shoulder and pull her in the rest of the way to even closer. "I don't think so," he told her, "I know so. You're right. He wouldn't just throw something like that around."

And he send a big grin down her way, because even cloaked in their little game of separation, it always felt good to say it, too.

It was fun to talk about it that way - and nice to have the little added reassurance. "Good. Because I love him - you - an awful lot."

Phys Ed; Thursday, First Period [11/30].

Re: Talk to the Teacher - Phys Ed, 11/30.

Re: Talk to the Teacher - Phys Ed, 11/30.

Re: Talk to the Teacher - Phys Ed, 11/30.

Re: Talk to the Teacher - Phys Ed, 11/30.

Re: Talk to the Teacher - Phys Ed, 11/30.

Re: Talk to the Teacher - Phys Ed, 11/30.

Re: Talk to the Teacher - Phys Ed, 11/30.

Re: Talk to the Teacher - Phys Ed, 11/30.

Re: Talk to the Teacher - Phys Ed, 11/30.

Re: Talk to the Teacher - Phys Ed, 11/30.

Re: Talk to the Teacher - Phys Ed, 11/30.

Re: Talk to the Teacher - Phys Ed, 11/30.

Re: Talk to the Teacher - Phys Ed, 11/30.

Re: Talk to the Teacher - Phys Ed, 11/30.

Re: Talk to the Teacher - Phys Ed, 11/30.

Re: Talk to the Teacher - Phys Ed, 11/30.

Re: Talk to the Teacher - Phys Ed, 11/30.

Re: Talk to the Teacher - Phys Ed, 11/30.

Re: Talk to the Teacher - Phys Ed, 11/30.

Re: Talk to the Teacher - Phys Ed, 11/30.