Chapter Text
“and I'm done, done, done with this ordinary,
this whole thing is temporary,
done, done, done with this ordinary life.”
– simple plan.
Lan Fan doesn't necessarily like school.
It's mainly because of the uniform. She's still able to perform self-defense wearing the annoying black uniform skirt she is forced to wear everyday, but it is not as easy. Not to mention the fact that the polished black shoes are a nuisance as well. She's an assassin for the sake of the Yao clan – how did she end up in a classroom that enforces nothing but discipline, which in turn inspires these teenagers to be delinquents?
She doesn't consider the work and the homework a big deal – she has some of the best grades in the entire school. She's been taught well by her grandfather, after all. (Not only has he taught her the self-defense that makes her a great assassin, he has taught her subjects she deems unimportant, but she has him to thank for now that Lady Xue Yao has sent her to the same prestigious school that Master Ling goes to so she can easily protect him.)
Back to the present.
Lan Fan doesn't know what her History teacher – Sir Havoc – is talking about, so she lazily drums her fingers on the wooden desk. The Yao boy sits beside her, and he is busy jotting down notes, but whether they are related to what their history teacher is talking about or not, she doesn't know for sure, and frankly, she doesn't care. Leave him to worry about his own schoolwork. Her only job is to protect him, and that is the only thing she intends to do until her dying breath.
She can't deny that she seems to be concerned about him a lot more often than she should be, though. Their relationship is more than Master and Assassin. The two of them are best friends as well.
(Some in their school think that their relationship is more than best friends, but she can't say anything about that. She keeps their relationship strictly professional.)
She takes a look at his notes. She has some trouble decoding his messy handwriting, but it's familiar to her (sort of) and she eventually understands it. Certain phrases and words he's jotting down is at least related to the subject of the fall of the Roman Empire, so at least he's doing his work.
It shocks her, it really does, but she's seen him reading books about the rise and fall of the Roman Empire before.
She looks at him, but he doesn't seem to notice. She's never seen it before, but Ling is actually attractive. His long black hair is tied back into a ponytail, and his habit of breaking the dress code rules on a daily basis is something she's grown to be fond of. Today, he's wearing a yellow shirt under the white button-up long-sleeved boys' uniform shirt, which he left unbuttoned, his sleeves rolled up.
Ling eventually catches her looking at him, and she smiles upon seeing his squinty eyes, a feature he's been teased for. “Is something on my face, Lan Fan?” the Yao boy asks quietly as he clicks and unclicks his pen over and over.
(It's a habit that she's so annoyed of, but she can live. He's her best friend.)
“Nothing, Ling,” she whispers back, even quieter. “Don't worry about it.” He looks at her, a smile lingering on his lips. She pretends not to notice, then he proceeds to write more notes.
Sir Havoc is interrupted when the school bell rings, and he dismisses the class with a wave of his hand. As everyone heads out, Lan Fan waits for Ling to finish shoving his books in his backpack so she can walk him to his next class despite his insistence.
“Lan Fan, you should head out to your next class,” he says as they both walk out of the classroom. The two of them avoid getting trampled by the rest of the high school students. She ignores him and continues to walk with him to his class.
He sighs, suddenly stops walking. She raises an eyebrow, and he replies, “No … seriously, Lan Fan. I don't want you to be late again because of me.”
She shrugs. Doesn't matter, her eyes say. I have to protect you.
“Please, Lan Fan?” he pleads with puppy-dog eyes. “Please?”
She doesn't look impressed. She shakes her head. A no is a no.
He almost gets irritated, but he never does, really. Not with her. “Lan Fan,” he clears his throat, trying to sound demeaning. “That is an order and I expect you to follow it.”
She stares at him for a while, then sighs. She's always hated it when he did that. “Fine.” she answers coolly. Lan Fan knows that she can never disobey a direct order from the young lord himself. (And, in truth, he doesn't usually give her strict orders; only does when he thinks it's for her benefit. She's stubborn, and she doesn't like to admit it – she will put his safety and well-being and comfort before hers. Always.)
“Hey,” he says, his voice a little quieter this time. “I'll be fine, Lan Fan. Nothing will happen to me in an hour and a half. I can protect myself just fine, you know?”
“Yes,” she agrees. “But I'm the one who usually does the protecting around here.”
- - - - -
“Hey, Lan Fan! Wait up!”
She stops in her tracks and waits for the girl to catch up. Lan Fan has to admit, she's incredibly surprised to see Winry, the blond-haired girl who aspires to be an automail mechanic, running up to her. Lan Fan talks to her outside of class, but the two girls never hang out outside of school, and considering her busy schedule, it's like she has time.
“You haven't been texting me the past couple of days.” Winry points out, her voice indicating that she is concerned, at least to an extent. “Is there something going on?”
“No, I-I had to babysit.” Lan Fan replies, and it isn't exactly a lie, with her having to guard Ling and protect him from any threat as if her life depends on it. “Sorry about that, Winry.” the tone in her voice probably didn't make her sound apologetic at all, but it seems as if in normal conversations, she speaks in a monotone voice.
“No, no, it's okay, it's just–” Winry stops. “I feel like I'm doing something wrong. You're not talking to me and Paninya anymore and I just wonder why. You've been hanging around Ling Yao lately and we understand that you like him–”
“I do not like him.” she says simply.
“I–” the aspiring mechanic sounds as if she is taken aback by this piece of information. “You don't? But it looks like the two of you are dating considering you're together almost all the time, and people just say things and I thought…”
“Ling and I are not dating.”
The two of them walk in silence, when they stop outside of the classroom where their next class is in. “Then what's wrong?” Winry asks her, almost demands. “You just stopped talking to me and Paninya like something happened! If it's something we did, we're sorry!”
Lan Fan sighs. “Winry…”
“Ladies, something wrong?” Professor Falman – their English professor – asks. “Because we have an important class ahead of us. I hope you two didn't forget to write your book reports, because they count as twenty-five per cent of your grade!”
Defeated, Winry and Lan Fan take a seat inside the classroom, preparing themselves for the worst, because whenever Professor Falman says that they have an “important class ahead,” that usually involves him explaining the mechanics of the English language until his students' brains stop working.