Chapter Text
You never thought you´d set foot in this school again. And yet, here you are, walking through the quiet halls, your heels softly clicking against marble floors. Were they always so pristine? Large mosaic windows were painting abstract paintings of turquoise, white, and yellow on creamy walls, decorated with few paintings. You passed pillars hugged by vines, flowers and small bonsais occasionally sitting near the walls or sunbathing on the parapet.
During your student years, Alfea looked...different. Hallways devoid of any decorations, cold, lifeless, even though the school was full of students. Rosalind was a fan of minimalism, as you decided to call it. She liked practical things - she wasn’t fond of decorative waste of space and material, as she called almost everything that didn´t have anything in common with military equipment.
You gently shook your head, lightly picking up your pace – you didn´t want to leave the headmistress waiting. You were surprised when you found an envelope adorned with neat handwriting among newspapers in your post box. You didn´t expect anyone to send you a letter, even less the current headmistress of Alfea, Farah Dowling. She was offering you a job as a teacher. Given your current unemployment – a result of workplace conflict, you decided to give it a shot. You replied, and the two of you agreed on a date for a meeting.
A small smile tugged at your lips as you found yourself in front of an open door leading to the assistant´s office – you still knew your way around here. Straightening up, you made your way to her door and knocked. A simple “come in” made its way out of her office. Opening the door, a spacious room with a robust table and a woman slowly standing up were revealed to you. As you stepped inside, she met you halfway.
“Headmistress Dowling, I´m delighted to meet you again,” you said, looking into her hazel eyes.
“ (Y/n), I can say the same,” she replied with a smile, firmly but gently shaking your hand. “Tea?” she asked, as she motioned to her table, making her way towards it. You made an affirmative noise as you followed her, sitting on a chair in front of the table. She went to a small coffee table, retrieving two steaming teacups. "Do you take sugar?" she asked, while a bit of sugar disappeared in her cup with a plop.
"No, thank you," you responded, straightening your black skirt as it had hiked up a bit. Your eyes never left the headmistress as she placed the tea on the table. She looks almost the same as she did in your student years, just way happier now. The role of a headmistress suits her. She sat down and reached down to one of her drawers. A few strands of hair fell from her updo. "How was your drive?"
"A bit too long to my liking. You know I can´t sit in one place for too long, just as-" you abruptly stopped. She´s your soon-to-be superior for fucks sake. And even though you used to be friends, you shouldn´t be so informal. You need to be professional. You tensed. As if she sensed your rising uneasiness, she smiled. "There´s no need to stress. You don't have to be so formal with me, my staff calls me by my name. And since you´re hopefully going to join our ranks, you should as well, (y/n)." She finally found what she was looking for and placed a document in front of you, you presumed your contract. "You might have heard about...what happened here recently. I need more people to protect the students. And since you were one of the best during our years here, I thought you might be suitable for this job." She took a sip of her tea.
"I can´t say I know what precisely happened here. I heard some rumours, but that´s all that got to me. You know Luna´s castle is always full of rumours and not all of them truthful." You looked at her, hoping she would fill you in. She stood up and looked out of her large window. "It´s a long and complicated story. In short, Alfea was attacked by the Burned Ones, Rosalind broke free and took over the school for a while," she paused and you noticed the tension in her shoulders. "Andreas returned. We managed to kill them both and I once again returned to my post. I have no idea who worked with Rosalind, and I have no guarantee that all her accomplices are facing justice. This is why I have to raise protection, (y/n)." She looked at you. "I need to make sure this won´t happen again." You felt a foreign wave of urgency mixed with worry wash over you. Farah wasn´t someone who let her mental walls down, you thought to yourself. For you to feel her emotions...the walls must have overflown. You looked at her with compassion. "I´m so sorry, Farah," her name pleasant on your tongue. "If I had known-"
"But you hadn´t," she stopped you, "and that´s alright. I didn´t expect you to march here out of nowhere and fight supposedly locked-up lunatic and her accomplices." She chuckled, the image of you kicking ass of your former headmistress and leader vivid in her mind. "I certainly wouldn´t mind the sight though," she joked and you laughed, glad you were falling back into your old ways.
"Mind if I" you motioned towards the document in front of you. She nodded and you took your contract and leaned back into your chair. Reading through it, you sipped at your now lukewarm tea, savouring its slightly bitter taste. Farah sat down, her eyes never leaving your form as she observed you. Your (h/c) hair was falling down in subtle waves, free of the tight military braid you were forced to wear during your missions under Rosalind´s lead. She studied your keen (e/c) eyes absorbed in reading your contract. Her eyes slid down to your cheekbones, soft cheeks and faint lines forming around your mouth. So you still are the wag you were back then , she thought to herself.
When she saw you in the doorway, she knew you changed. You carried yourself with confidence and ease, eyes hard but comforting. You were still soft-spoken but your words were filled with certainty. Sitting opposite of you, she was still slightly uncertain of who you had become during those long sixteen years. However, the way you talked, the way your emotions faintly brushed her mind... she couldn´t help but feel relieved that some parts of you stayed the same. Her eyes then focused on your lips, soft and somehow enticing. She quickly averted her gaze and brought her cup to her lips.
"I don´t think there´s anything I want to change," you said, placing the contract together with your cup on the table. "I have to say I´m kinda surprised to see that you want me to teach both specialists and fairies. I like it. It´s pleasant to see that Rosalind´s style of teaching is... no longer actual." Something flashed in her eyes. "Not that I expected the opposite, don´t get me wrong," you quickly added in need to reassure her, averting your eyes.
She leaned back in her chair. "Then I presume you want the job. Or?" she asked and you looked at her again. You nodded. "Would you mind lending me one of your pens so I can sign the contract? This blouse doesn´t have any pockets, so I couldn´t bring my pen with me," you motioned to your (f/c) blouse. Her eyes dart to it. The corners of her mouth shoot up again. "Of course," she replied and handed you a blue pen. Taking it from her, your fingers briefly brushed, and you couldn´t help but look at her hands. They are softer than they used to be, even though there´s still some hardness to them, you thought to yourself as you neatly signed the document, your signature right above hers. You put down the pen and glanced up at her. She was grinning widely and a pleasant warmth spread through your chest. Oh, how you missed her.
She stood up and extended her arm. "Welcome to Alfea, professor (y/n)." You followed her suit, and shook her arm once again, your grin matching hers, excitement running through you.