Work Text:
Juliana always excelled. It didn’t matter if it was about grades or battling. She could learn any skill with ease. Problems were easy for her to solve. If they weren’t, then she could simply hit it with a six on six battle. The issue here was different. At Blueberry Academy, she has to take an athletic PE course. Why anyone would make students who live and breathe in a giant undersea nature preserve take a PE class is anyone’s guess. Director Cyrano says that trainers need to keep their physical health intact too. Juliana didn’t really buy that explanation. She felt like he had to check a box for the Unovan Department of Education.
Because of her nature as a transfer student, she was shoved into classes with open spots. Naturally, she was transferred into the worst PE class taught by the worst PE instructor.
“I hate him, too,” Carmine groaned, “I don’t know why the school keeps him around. Everyone hates him: teachers, students, and I’m sure Cyrano hates the man.”
“What is Coach’s deal anyways?” Juliana didn’t want to say that wretched man’s name.
“He’s the son or nephew, I don’t know, of Marshal. He never could hope to surpass Marshal’s prowess in battling or martial arts, so he’s taking it out on all the students. Everyone thinks he’s trying to groom a successor just to surpass Marshal.” Carmine rolled her eyes. “If you ask me, he sounds absolutely pathetic. He’s so obsessed with surpassing his father, uncle, whatever, that he needs to use a proxy.”
“So what do I do? I’m trapped with him and my grade in the class currently sucks.”
“Ask Kiki.”
“Kieran had him?”
Carmine sighed. “He was the pet student for a while during his angsty phase. Then you beat him and caused him to fall out of favor. He’s the only one between the two sessions of that idiot coach’s class that had a decent grade even though he lost that idiot’s favor.” Carmine rolled her eyes. “This man is so bad at teaching that he thinks you can learn martial arts by slideshow. Who does that? Yet Kiki was able to squeeze out a B+ with the guy.”
Juliana took a good minute to think about the implications of Kieran taking Coach Jerk’s class. “Was he planning on fist fighting me when I got here?” Carmine shrugged. “Of course.”
When Kieran heard the knocking at his door, he didn’t want to answer it. He was busy reorganizing just about everything. When Crispin first saw his room, the first words out of his mouth were “Bitch, you live like this?” Kieran was hoping nobody would ever say that again. When he heard Juliana say, “Kieran, it’s me!” Kieran opened the door and readily welcomed her into his dorm.
“You’re still living like this?” Unlike Crispin, Juliana’s voice was full of concern rather than surprise.
“It’s a work in progress.” Kieran saw that Juliana’s eyes lacked light in them. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s about Athletic PE. I –“
“Have Coach Drill Sergeant? Yeah, I know the feeling.” Kieran rolled his eyes. He was mostly back to his original self she met in Kitakami, but the light in his eyes occasionally faded whenever he got angry.
“That’s what everyone calls him?”
“Because he’s always beneath Marshal no matter what he does.” Kieran laughed weakly. “What about Coach?”
“I’m going to fail.” Kieran was taken aback by this. Juliana could crawl through Area Zero not once but twice, stopped rampaging titans, dismantled Team Star, and became Champion on two regions, but this class was what’s getting her. No, this was impossible. How could this one asshole teacher possibly fail her? His fists curled on instinct, a habit he picked up from Carmine. What was he feeling?
“Meet me in Central Plaza later tonight.”
He had no idea why he sounded so angry. In the pit of his stomach, there was a churning. Did he scare Juliana? No, it can’t be. She must have been shocked by him going from zero to a hundred. Yeah, that’s the reason.
There’s a reason why he asked her to come with him later that night. Central Plaza is normally occupied during the day. Nobody was there at night except those two. Kieran stood directly across from Juliana. “So,” she said, “What are we working on tonight? Punches, kicks, blocks.”
“Let’s start with stances and moving,” Kieran said, “Get into your fighting stance.” I have my work cut out for me. Kieran saw Juliana take a fighting stance. She did the general motions correctly: her right foot was behind her, her knees were slightly bent, and her arms were up in front of her, but the finer details were off.
“I guess I’m not doing it right,” she said.
“No no, you got the general idea right, but …” Kieran moved over to Juliana and grabbed both of her wrist to move them in the right position. “One should be in front of you like you’re talkin’ into a microphone. The other one should be next to your ear like you’re adjusting a headset.” Then it hit Kieran. He began blushing right in front of Juliana. No, not this. Please don’t notice me like this.
He was holding a girl’s hands.
He was holding this specific girl’s hands.
“Kieran, what’s wrong?” said Juliana.
“Nothing! It’s nothing,” said Kieran who retreated back to where he originally stood. “Okay, now let’s see how you move like that. Just mirror what I do.” When Kieran moved backwards, Juliana seemed to take a small leap forward. She tried to keep that entire stance as stiff as possible to the point she would only be able to move by taking small leaps. Kieran shook his head. “Your stance is a bit too perfect. We’re not posing. We’re fighting. You gotta be flexible. Watch how I move for a bit.”
When Kieran moved backwards, Juliana noticed what he was doing. “Oh, I see. You’re only sliding around.”
“R-right, so just mirror what I do.” The two essentially slid around the Central Plaza, gazes locked. This monotony of movement continued for about five minutes. “Think fast!” Kieran threw the first punch at Juliana who slid backwards to get out of Kieran’s range. “Now you’re getting it.”
“My turn,” said Juliana with a grin stretching across her face.
Kieran merely bowed. “Your move.”
She attempted to punch him directly only for Kieran to move to the side. Juliana attempted to throw a roundhouse kick, but she began to lose balance. Kieran grabbed her hand, but it was no use. Juliana fell and Kieran followed. To make matters worse, he fell on her face. He wished she had punched him out. Instead, they were locking lips, and both of them were fully aware of it.
Kieran immediately got off of Juliana. “Wowzers,” he coughed. Then he immediately covered his mouth. Good going, Kiki, now she’s gonna hate you forever.
Juliana only laughed. “You kiss by the book,” she said in the poshest voice she could muster.
“You know both of them die in that old Galarian play, right?” Kieran said with his voice muffled by his fingers.
“I’m just saying you kiss very well,” said Juliana, “You’re a natural.”
“Um, thanks,” said Kieran, “You’re not bad yourself.” He really had no idea where this conversation was going. Ideally, the dome above them collapses and the weight of the ocean smashes him into paste. He has no idea.
“Aw, Kiki’s first kiss.” Kieran’s blood ran cold. That was Carmine’s voice.
“Sis!” he squeaked. Carmine emerged from behind a wall.
“I guess practicing on those plushies back home really helped,” said Carmine.
“Carmine,” Juliana said as she covered her own face, “What are you doing here?”
“Kiki and I missed a lot of brother-sister time when he was in his edgy phase,” said Carmine, “And I intend to make it up. Grandma and Grandpa are totally going to start planning the wedding once they see this.”
“New lesson,” Kieran said, “Stop Sis from showing that to Grandma and Grandpa!”