Work Text:
Sacrilege
The gossip at Sacred Heart Catholic School was that a new student had arrived that morning. Hissing whispers filled the corridors before the first bell rang, like tiny wildfires. Of course, the whispers were soon furiously shushed by the nuns as they chivied everyone towards their classrooms - but in the few moments which the gossip had its chance to spread, it had done its job: nearly every student knew that a new male student was among their midst, and everyone wondered what he would be like. New students were few to their little school, and always intriguing.
Filia sat down at the back of her class per her assigned seat by her last name. It was hardly surprising that everyone was curious about whoever this new student was - even Filia herself was curious, but she was also resolved not to show it. She had a reputation to uphold, after all. Her grandfather and guardian was the head of the Board of Directors for Sacred Heart, and she was expected to be on perfect behavior at all times. It was tiring, really. Her classmates either simpered up to her in hopes of rubbing elbows with the chairman's granddaughter, or else they deliberately excluded her because she never did anything out of line. The first was frustrating; the second, hurtful. And usually, the first set of students always shifted into the second set after a couple of days, when they realized that Filia had absolutely no power over her overbearing, controlling grandfather.
Whoever the new student was, he would surely fall into one of these two categories - and eventually the second, if not right away.
The classroom door opened and Sister Mary Eleanor entered, straight-backed and prim, her lips pursed together. But the young man behind her...
Filia sucked in a quick breath. He was obviously the new student…and his hair was teal-green. She couldn't believe the nuns had actually allowed him admittance without insisting he dye it some normal color! They had rules, after all! The only reasons a rule was blatantly ignored were religion or money. Likely, his parents had donated some obscene sum to the board. Because even though the school technically admitted people of all religions, Filia didn't know anyone there who wasn't a Catholic or a Protestant.
His hair aside though... he was tall and well-built, but his eyes were cutting and haughty, and there was a sneer across his lips. He looked completely disinterested in (and judgmental of) the rest of the class.
Sister Mary Eleanor stopped before the front of the room and inhaled through her nose. "This," she said in a flat voice, "Is Valgaav Agares." She turned to the new student, gave his hair a disapproving look, and added with a gesture, "You may take the empty seat at the back of the room next to Miss Filia Copt."
His eyes flickered across the classroom to find the empty seat; then he rolled his eyes, readjusted his satchel on his shoulder, and made his way through the desks to the one next to Filia. When he got to it, he barely glanced at her, his nose wrinkled as though everything about Sacred Heart was irritating the hell out of him.
As Sister Mary Eleanor turned to the board and students reached for their books, Filia leaned over and whispered, "It's nice to meet you."
Valgaav did not respond or even look at her. His jaw locked and his hands clenched on the desk.
Startled at this indifference and complete disregard of her, Filia sat up straight again, feeling stung and confused. Sister Mary Eleanor snapped for everyone to pay attention and instructed them to open their history books. Slowly, she pulled her book out, a bit hurt that he refused to even look at her.
oOo
Of course, she wasn't the only one he ignored or treated rudely. The other guys in the class tried to befriend him during morning breaks that week, and he ignored them, too. And the other girls clamored around him two days after his arrival, trying to flirt with him. He promptly informed the girls in a sadistic voice that he wasn't interested in little Catholic virgins who wouldn't know what to do if they were kissed, let alone anything else.
Nearly everyone's faces turned bright pink and the girls scurried off. Filia was torn - part of her wanted to laugh at their reactions, but a part of her wanted to blush, too. Sex education in their school consisted of the nuns informing them not to have sex, after all. She really had very little knowledge about such things.
A brief thought flashed through her mind: was Valgaav a virgin?
Probably not? No, definitely not.
She blushed bright red, ducked down, and rummaged in her bag to hide her embarrassment. She shouldn't think of things like that.
oOo
She always ate lunch alone. Her grandfather's position and his absolute command over the Board of Directors meant that no one wanted to hang out with her, not even the few students who hoped to suck up to her. She usually found herself under the same tree in the courtyard at lunch, facing away from the school and looking towards the towering brick wall that separated Sacred Heart from the streets. No one ever bothered her there and, unlike the cafeteria, she couldn't see students whispering behind their hands while glancing witheringly at her.
But a week after he arrived at the school, he stepped around the tree unexpectedly and frowned down at her.
Caught off guard, Filia looked up at him and met his intense amber gaze. His teal-green hair was tousled in the late summer breeze and to her confusion, her stomach flipped pleasurably. God, he was attractive.
He asked, with a hint of disdain, "Do you always eat alone?"
Filia flushed. "Do you always look at everyone as though you hate them even though you don't know them?"
He laughed, as though her question amused him instead of upsetting him. "Oh, but I do know everyone." Without invitation, he sat down beside her. "They're all the same, at every school I get transferred to. The popular kids, the cool kids...and at ridiculous private schools like this one, the kids who follow their religions to a damn fault and look down their noses at anyone who isn't like them."
She bristled at the implication; he clearly thought she was one of those overly-religious students who looked down on others. It was true that her grandfather made her go to church every Sunday and she was expected to be a "good girl"…but she didn't look down on others!
"I don't recall asking you to join me," she said stiffly.
"Always in church every time the doors open, aren’t you? Bet you sing in the fucking choir and everything."
His swearing nettled her. She never heard such language in her own house, that was for sure, and it was rude and uncouth and sinful...
"You aren't popular or cool, so the other kids bully you. That's why you're out here. If you weren't such a prude, they wouldn’t bully you, you know."
She sat up straighter and snapped, "That isn't it at all! My grandfather is the chairman of the school's board. I don't like it, but there's nothing I can do about it. Most of the students here... they resent me because they think I have special privileges." She almost snorted. "Which I don't. In fact, my grandfather expects me to be perfect and I hate it. You'd best go back inside. If you hang around me, you may ruin your own reputation."
He burst into laughter. "Oh, that's rich. Believe me, some pious little Sunday school girl with an asshole grandfather isn't going to ruin my reputation! I'm already shot to hell!"
"Stop swearing!" she demanded, stomping to her feet. "And don't tempt God like that!"
He snickered. "Bet you've never said a swear word in your life, have you? No wonder you aren’t popular."
Furious with him, she turned and stormed off, leaving him laughing again in the filtered sunlight, and wishing he'd never come to Sacred Heart in the first damn place.
oOo
He didn't join her every day for lunch. She wasn't sure what else he did or who (if anyone) he sat with, but usually three times a week he would show up at her tree to torment her.
Filia found it nerve-racking and a bit naughty. For one thing, he was sexy, well-built, and there was something about all of that, plus his smirk and his gorgeous eyes, that made her brain turn to mush. She couldn't think straight around him. She was attracted to him, and she felt guilty about it. If the nuns had done nothing else, it was to pound it into their brains both at school and church that physical attraction and lust were evil, and good girls and boys were to remain pure for their wedding night because that was what God wanted.
So Filia bit the inside of her lip whenever Valgaav showed up to sit with her at lunch. He teased her, swore like a sailor just to irritate her, scoffed at her pious notions and told her nearly every day that it was a "load of shit" - all the things the nuns had drilled into her. He stated baldly that they were brainwashing her. Usually at that point, Filia would get mad at him and tell him to leave him her alone - and usually, she would finally rise and storm off herself, just to get away from him and give her brain a chance to clear. She would hide in the bathroom until lunch was over, taking deep breaths and trying to remind herself that lust was a sin.
Towards the middle of autumn, as the leaves were starting to change, she ended up in the chapel, silently begging God to forgive her for her lustful thoughts, insisting she couldn't help thinking that Valgaav was attractive, and wondering if she was going to hell because she couldn't stop looking at him and daydreaming about... about...
Well, him kissing her, for one thing. She'd never been kissed, but a couple of the girls in her class had experienced their first kisses, and she was a junior! At nearly seventeen, she felt rather let-down that no one had asked her to a dance or a movie or anything - but that was because no one wanted to get on her grandfather's bad side. And her grandfather had been crystal clear that he didn’t want her to date. A small part of her wondered if Valgaav would be the sort of person who wouldn't give a damn about her grandfather’s rules. And of course, then she had to pray for forgiveness because she was thinking swear words in her mind.
She really needed to just ignore Valgaav.
oOo
As Filia swiped the chalk off the board with the eraser, she felt nervous and flustered and damn it, if he would just stop watching her while he straightened the desks. She could feel his eyes on the back of her head, like he was trying to fluster her. She hated that they were assigned to clean up the classroom together after school today. Silently, she begged God to forgive her for her internal swearing and the crazy attraction she felt.
To make it worse, Valgaav had been beastly during lunch, teasing her worse than usual. He had even reached over at one point and flicked a lock of her hair behind her neck, his fingers brushing her skin. She had practically jumped a mile, and of course, he had laughed at her reaction, maliciously informing her that she was so innocent it was ridiculous.
She swished the eraser over the last bit of board and slapped it back onto the chalk-holder. She needed to get out of here. She didn't need to be alone with him; it just felt...sinful, somehow. She needed to get home and do her homework and forget he had touched her today.
But as she dusted off her hands, she felt a breath of warm air blow against her ear.
Filia screamed softly and clamped her hand to her neck, swirling around to face him. Valgaav merely laughed at her.
"Do you always react like that? It's hysterical. Bet you've never kissed a guy, either."
He was too close to her - so close to her. She knew her face was on fire.
"If no one hangs out with me because of my grandfather," she hissed, "why would they date me or kiss me?"
"Well, let's take care of that, shall we?"
And before she could react, he reached behind her neck, cupped the back of her head, and kissed her full on the mouth.
Her first instinct was to try and push away. What was he doing? But he kept his hold on her and shifted his mouth, and before she knew it, she was kissing him back. Her hands fisted in his shirt, her mouth followed his. His lips parted and so did hers, and when his tongue brushed into her mouth, she felt something explode in the pit of her stomach. She whimpered when his mouth left hers and skimmed her jaw to her ear, as he left hot, open kisses against her neck. Her eyes fluttered as he pressed his tongue against the crook between her neck and shoulder, and suddenly Filia had a moment of blinding clarity: they were in full view of the door if anyone walked by.
Panic flooded her brain and she pushed him away with a squeak. He grinned wickedly at her as he stepped back, holding her gaze for a long moment. He deliberately took in the deep stain of pink across her cheeks before he turned and picked up his satchel. He was almost at the door when Sister Prudence walked in.
"Ah, I see you've both finished," she said briskly. "Excellent. You are free to leave for the day."
Valgaav was out of the door before she even finished. Filia managed to nod, ducked her face down and hoped her hair would hide most of the blush, and hurried to grab her satchel from her chair.
She had no idea what to make of what had just happened, but she could still taste him in her mouth.
And God in heaven, she wanted more.