Work Text:
Kira sometimes doesn’t know why she decided to follow in her dad’s footsteps and become a high school teacher. Most days, she loves it. She gets along with the majority of her students. Her student’s History grades are all passing. She’s even some of them tell her that they never were that crazy about History before, but that she changed that.
And sometimes there are days like this one. The weather is terrible. Everyone is grumpy. And one freshman burst into tears because she forgot they had a project due today. It’s been a harrowing morning and she’s glad it’s lunchtime. She’s made sushi for today’s lunch and she’s excited to fill her stomach with all that goodness.
She opens the fridge door and looks around for the container. She’s sure she put it on the top shelf. There was a post-it with her name on it. Maybe someone moved it to make room. She inspects the other shelves, but her lunch is gone. Again.
Kira throws the door closed and turns to look around the teachers’ lounge. Nearly all the teachers are here. Very few decide to eat in their office or classroom. They’re all here and they’re all happily munching on their lunches.
‘Who took my lunch?’ she asks. Nobody reacts. McCall throws her a glance but quickly turns back to smiling at Argent and Lahey. She stands up a little straighter, clears her throat. Teacher voice it is. ‘Who. Took. My. Lunch?’
This time, everyone in the room turns. She sees several shocked faces. None of her colleagues has ever seen her mad. Or even a little frustrated.
‘Uhm,’ Stilinski starts. ‘That orange container was yours, right?’
‘Yes.’
‘I think I saw Tate with it.’
Kira sighs. Of course it’s Tate. The Art teacher has been poking at her since she started last fall.
‘Thank you.’ She turns and stomps out of the room, leaving the other teachers a little stunned.
They haven’t seen her mad before. Well, now they can see her on the warpath.
Tate never eats with the other teachers. She says all those academics block her vibes.
I’m going to block her vibes with my fists, Kira thinks as she walks to the other side of the school. She doesn’t bother knocking when she arrives. She throws open the door and strides in.
Tate is sitting behind her desk pencil in her hand and absorbed in her drawing. So absorbed that she doesn’t notice the angry History teacher barging in.
‘Are you the one who’s been taking my lunch all week?’ Kira says.
Tate looks up, disgruntled at being pulled away from her drawing.
‘What?’
‘That,’ Kira says pointing at the orange container next to the teacher, ‘is my lunch.’
‘Was.’
‘Was?’
‘It was your lunch. I ate it,’ Tate shrugs.
‘Why would you do that?’
‘Because I like sushi.’
‘Bec-‘ She doesn’t know what to say to that. ‘What am I going to eat?’
‘I don’t know. We have a cafeteria.’ The woman goes back to her drawing, clearly dismissing her.
‘You really picked the wrong day for this.’
Kira moves forward. What she wants to do is rub that distracting smudge of charcoal off the other woman’s cheek, but she settles for taking the pencil from Tate’s hand.
‘You know I have others, right?’
‘I know,’ Kira grins. She moves to where she knows all the other drawing supplies are. She grabs the boxes and walks to the door.
‘Hey! What the hell are you doing?’
‘You can have them back when you get me my lunch back!’
~
The next day Kira is grading quizzes during her lunch. She’d made sandwiches for herself and kept them in her backpack for safety. Today hadn’t started much better than the day before. Principal Deaton had made her give all the drawing supplies back. Tate had grinned at her with glee until the man had turned to her, warning her to lay off her colleague’s lunches.
She hums along to the music blasting from her iPod. Grading isn’t her favourite thing, but music makes it a little better.
‘You have a nice voice.’
The sudden appearance of Tate makes her jump. She pulls the buds out of her ears and glares at the woman, who has managed to take a seat across from without her noticing.
‘Thanks. What do you want?’
‘Here.’ Tate piles a couple containers on top of her desk.
‘What are those?’ Kira half expects them to explode.
‘Your lunches.’
That really doesn’t make any sense.
‘You said you wanted your lunches back, so here they are. Yesterday was sushi. The day before was a salad. Monday was something I couldn’t identify, but tasted really good, so I made you lasagne. People say it’s heaven.’
‘You made me lasagne.’ What is going on?
‘Yes.’
‘That’s, uhm, really nice?’
‘You seemed pretty angry yesterday. I figured I should smooth things over a little, before you start stealing the paint.’ There are little lights dancing in the woman’s eyes.
‘Sorry about that,’ Kira says, blushing. Grading wasn’t the real reason she was eating lunch in her classroom. The entire school was buzzing, talking about what she’d done yesterday. She hadn’t felt up to the stares she’d be getting from the rest of the staff.
‘It’s fine. I deserved it. Besides, I finally get to have a meal with you.’ Tate opens one of the containers and hands it to Kira. She pulls out some cutlery, as well, and hands over a knife and fork. At Kira’s amazed look she says, ‘Unless you think you can manage to eat all of this by yourself?’
Kira thinks back on those earlier months. Tate had popped up at every turn, asking questions about her life and telling her about obscure artists she’d never heard of. She’d also asked if Kira had wanted to have dinner with her. And go to an art show with her. There had even been a movie invite. Kira had thought she’d been joking. But now, looking at the woman sitting on the other side of her desk, she isn’t so sure.
Tate is nervously tapping her paint stained fingers against her legs. Her eyes are trained on Kira’s shoulder. There is another charcoal smudge on her cheek.
She’s nervous. At least, Kira’s pretty sure she is.
‘I would never be able to finish this all. It would be kind of a waste if any had to be thrown away.’
Tate nods, smiling, and she tucks into the container with the sushi. The way her shoulders drop in relief is definitely not in Kira’s imagination.
‘You were serious,’ she says.
‘What?’ Tate looks up from her food in confusion.
‘Last fall, when you were asking me out. You meant it.’
‘Why wouldn’t I?’ The way her brows scrunch together really is cute. God, it’s good to finally allow herself to think those things.
‘You’re beautiful and tall and artsy and-‘ Kira takes a bit from the lasagne and moans softly, ‘a really good cook.’
‘Well, you’re beautiful and smart and funny and a great cook,’ Tate states. ‘Would you like to have dinner with me?’
‘Do you have more lasagne?’ Kira smiles.
‘No,’ Tate says, looking sorrowful. ‘And it really is the only thing I’m good at. That and eggs.’
‘So, you can make dinner and breakfast. That’s good enough. I can take care of lunch.’
‘Really?’ That toothy grin is back.
‘Yes.’
The rest of their lunch hour, they talk. It’s different from their earlier conversations, because this time Kira actually talks back. She learns they have very similar tastes in books and opposite tastes in music. They’re both passionate about food, though Malia more about eating it than making it. And despite the rollercoaster ride that is the average teenager’s mood, they both love teaching.
The bell to signal the end of lunch comes too soon.
‘So I’ll see you tonight,’ Kira says. They’re standing by the door of her classroom. The halls are already filling with students.
‘Yes. It’ll be easier if you just came right over when you’re done here.’
‘I don’t get to change?’
Malia looks her up and down. ‘Why? You look amazing.’
The sincerity of those words make Kira blush a little.
‘Thank you.’ She reaches up her hand to wipe away that smudge of charcoal. ‘I’ll see tonight.’
~
The next day everyone in school is still talking about their favourite Art and History teachers, but this time for an entirely different reason.