#&&. hi yes I have a lot of feelings regarding SG IT MAKES ME WEEP

[charmerquilled]

I'm seeing SG Ezreal talk on the dash, and I gotta say. Remember that time Rakan was super close to killing Ezreal in the mall in twin stars? How his feather blade hit the blonde's gem, and it was inches away from his heart?

But Rakan was FAKING. Or kind of. One part of him would never want to kill the other guardians... even the newbies who had joined during his and Xayah's absence. He knows they aren't at fault for what happened to them. Knows they had nothing to do with their deaths. Rakan was playing this evil game until he could find the right moment to save Xayah. But the other part? Zoe didn't make things easy. She constantly fed lies and other drama to the Lhotlans. Although he was much closer to the light and quietly planned to take down Zoe, he was still susceptible to dark thoughts and actions here and there. He wasn't PERFECT, and there was a part of him that couldn't help this deep, dark fueled resentment against Ez for replacing him. For stealing his place. His friends. His home. I want to go out on a limb and say that he had to course correct his weapon at the last minute and ended up hitting Ez's gem instead, and came back at him with a witty remark.

[typical-trope]

Sample Class

Charles had spent the past week following Hank around the small academy. He had spent hours memorizing the material he would be teaching the children. He had sat in classrooms to observe his fellow teachers, as well as to be observed by them as he taught.

And now, at the end of his second week, he was to be tested.

Charles wasn’t nervous, exactly. He had already taught the material he would be presenting to his peers. However, he had been warned that his coworkers would be acting as though they were the worst in the whole academy. After dealing with a class that had two poorly behaved students, he wasn’t sure how well he would be able to control a class that consisted of hellions. Especially since they wouldn’t be actual students, but people around his own age.

“Alright, everyone, come take a seat.” Emma made sure to sit in the middle of the line of chairs. Charles grinned as Hank pointedly sat on an end chair away from her. However, that left three empty chairs.

Charles had met his other coworkers, but hadn’t interacted with them as much as he would have liked. Darwin, despite having taken him out for a night of partying on his first weekend when he had been jet lagged to hell and back, had been a fairly decent resource for teaching the older students. Logan had been a lesson in versatility. The man looked gruff and unapproachable, but Charles had watched children literally use him as a jungle gym between classes, and he hadn’t seemed to mind.

Erik, however, was still an unknown. When Charles had watched his class, Erik had been so in charge of the classroom that Charles hadn’t been sure what he could learn. Erik hadn’t needed to raise his voice, or even tell any of the students off. They had just sat and behaved the entire lesson. As impressive as it had been, the forty minute lesson had been thoroughly unhelpful, and Charles had been unsure of how to ask the man for advice.

Charles rolled his chair forward so he could interact more openly with his pseudo class.

“Hello, Mr. Charles.” The adults were all sitting properly, and had responded appropriately. Charles grinned and rolled back towards the whiteboard, grabbing his pointer up from his lap as he did so.

“Let’s go over the rules, shall we? I say, you say. Number one—“ Again, his students were well behaved, but he could already see Logan side-eyeing Emma, as though wondering what mischief he could get up to as soon as the real lesson began.  “Logan, please stand up.” The man rose from the child-sized chair with such enthusiasm that the chair flew backwards and hit the wall. Emma and Darwin giggled as Charles instructed Logan to pick his chair back up and try to stand up nicely again.

After asking a few students how they were, he really got into the lesson. And that was when the real trouble started.

“Mr. Charles, Emma punch!”

“I no punch! I step!” Emma illustrated her action by stepping on Logan’s foot a second time. Hank turned red in an attempt not to laugh outright.

“Emma.” Charles kept his voice calm, though it was much sharper. He made sure his powers were reigned in enough that there was only a slight aura of foreboding surrounding him. “What is rule number four?”

“No hurting friends.”

“That’s right. If you step on Logan’s foot again, I will squash yours.” He jokingly rolled close to her toes, and was grateful when she faked a laugh. “Now, that’s one. Please don’t do it again.”

Charles grabbed up the flashcard he had been presenting and placed it back on the ledge before bringing the large display card and easel forward. “Alright everybody, stand up.” Charles watched helplessly as Darwin stood up lazily and fell straight into Hank. “Darwin, when I say stand up, you stand up fast, alright. If you fall, that’s one. Try again.”

Darwin grinned and corrected himself. Charles went back to his lesson, playing the song and proud when they actually made it through.  “Let’s see. Who is sitting nicely?” All five of his temporary students sat primly in their tiny seats, and Charles wondered what would be the best course of action. “Erik, Logan, Hank, please stand up and walk to the carpet. Emma, Darwin, please pick your chairs up with two hands and come to the carpet. Very good. Now, I say, you say.”

That was when the trouble really began. Pronunciation was all over the board, and then Erik did the most unexpected thing, and began petting Logan. Who naturally, complained. “Erik, we don’t touch our friends.”

“Logan is puppy.”

“I no puppy. You shark." The man growled and did his best at imitating the large smile Charles had seen Erik wear a few times.

“Sharks eat puppies.”

Charles would never in a million years have foreseen what happened next.

Erik launched himself at Logan, knocking him to the ground. The men tussled and playfully smacked each other as Emma and Darwin laughed and kicked along with them. Hank, bless him, took his chair and ran to the back of the class room.

Charles gained Emma’s attention and ordered her back to the line. Darwin was next, but the two men on the floor continued to roll over one another. Charles was at his wit’s end while the other adults were out right laughing. “Enough! Erik, stand up. Logan, stand up!” He managed to press his earnestness onto them, making both men calm, though they didn’t separate. Logan had Erik in a semi-headlock, while Erik had his teeth playfully indenting Logan’s forearm. “Boys, stand up right now.” They scrambled to their feet and shoved at each other until Charles moved them apart. “Was that good or bad?”

“Bad.”

“What was bad?” he asked.

“No hurting friends.” The two men spoke on rote before livening up again with excuses for what they did.

“No. I don’t want to hear it. Both of you will go to the front desk right now and tell them what you did. I will also be making sure your parents hear about this.” He watched them file out, though not before Erik punched the lights off and slammed the door.

The room was stiflingly silent after the two men left, and Charles shook his head, re-centering his focus. “Alright, let’s try this again. Hank, Darwin, Emma, please come sit on the carpet.”

He managed one page of the story before the pair came back, apologized, and sat down. For the next few minutes, the only thing that needed correcting was pronunciation. At least until it was question time.

“What did Little Beet do to Papa Beet?”

“Kiss!” Emma yelled, laughing loud.

“That’s right, Emma. You say, he kissed him.”

“He kissed him. Mr. Charles, girlfriend?”

“Very good sentence, Emma. High five.”

“Mr. Charles, boyfriend?” Erik asked, leaning forward. His tone was far more present than it had been the entire lesson.

“Did you raise your hand, Erik? I don’t talk to students who don’t raise their hands. Everyone, return to your seats. Fast, fast, fast.” Charles fought the blush as he watched Erik slowly unfold from his chair and bring it back to the line. “Yes, Hank. Do you have a question?”

“Mrs. Charles. Logan kiss Erik.” Charles felt his eyes widen as he looked between the two men who hadn’t actually gone anywhere near each other. There was too much to address with that statement.

“Mrs. Charles? Hank, am I a girl?”

Hank smiled bashfully and shook his head. “Mr. Charles. Logan and Erik kiss.”

“Not right now, they don’t.” Charles shook his head sternly just as Logan began making kissy noises and Erik started leaning towards the burly man with outstretched arms. “No, boys. You kiss, you get detention. We don’t kiss in SGS. Okay?”

“Sounds like a sucky rule to me,” Logan muttered petulantly as he sat back in his chair.

“Wow, Logan. What a good sentence!” Charles teased, winking at the man. Darwin snorted and leaned back in his chair. “Sit nice, everyone. Now, what letter is this?”

The poem went as disastrously as he had expected it to go. Emma stole his pole and smacked him with it until he sent her out. Hank refused to find the correct sound. Erik and Logan threw their socks at each other before nailing Darwin in the head. Darwin oversold it, and fell out of his chair.

Overall, the lesson finished poorly, and Charles was just about ready to go back to his apartment and weep into a tumbler.

Despite all that, his feedback was fairly positive.

“You used your powers to an appropriate degree. Good job keeping Logan and Erik from kissing. Hank actually poured water on the two of them when they did that last time.” Emma grinned at the blushing man. Charles could only blink in surprise.

“Yeah, good job on explaining the sounds, as well." Darwin shifted in his chair. “A lot of the time, the students haven’t made these sounds in their lives. They don’t know what their tongues are supposed to do. So you need to get close and actually show them. You’re really good at exaggerating and making it silly so they don’t feel singled out.”

“Make sure you don’t wait to separate the fighters. If they get hurt, then that’s on you.” Emma rose and brushed her skirt down. “You knew the material well. How are you finding everything in regards to accessibility for you?”

“Everything is nicely laid out. I haven’t had any troubles so far. Thank you.” Charles grinned and led the way out of the class room. “Was that the final bell, then?”

“Yeah, get out of here. Have a nice weekend.” Emma waved and went to the office.

Charles gathered his bag and followed the group to the elevator. “How are you feeling, Charles?” Hank asked, grinning wide.

“Relieved? I hope I never have a class that bad.”

“I say you won’t, but they happen.” Darwin nodded in agreement as he checked his phone. “Yeah,  you’ve been pretty lucky with the students so far. They’ve been really good for you.”

Charles hummed his agreement as he led the way off the elevator. “I was going to stop by the grocery store, so I’ll message you about going into the city tomorrow, alright?” Hank was already heading away.

“Oh, hey. I’ll join you!” Darwin waved and caught up with the lanky man as everyone called their farewells.

“Did you have any fun at the sample class?” Logan asked, obviously still running high off the adrenaline rush of acting like a child.

“I think I’m actually reeling from the disbelief that you and Erik would pretend to kiss,” Charles admitted.

“Pretend? If you hadn’t cut us off so soundly, we actually would’ve.”

Erik nodded his agreement. “That’s fairly common with the six year old boys. Be careful about that. Parents get really upset.”

“Fucking homophobic country,” Logan muttered under his breath.

“Well, to be fair, I’m not sure I’d enjoy hearing about my child kissing someone in kindergarten.” Charles shrugged as they waiting for the light to change. “Although, I’m not sure what age I would ever be alright with my child kissing anyone.”

“We should really just get rid of that story. It always causes trouble for us.” Logan grunted an agreement.

And just like that, Erik was no longer unapproachable. He was relaxed, and fully of dry humor. Charles was laughing hard by the time they arrived back at their apartment building. “So, do you have a girlfriend back home?” Logan looked at Charles expectantly as they waited for the elevator.

“Oh, no. I’m rather single at the moment. No special someones keeping me from this big move.” Charles did his level best to avoid looking between the men as he admitted his status.

“Those were some rather gender neutral terms you were applying. What do you think, Erik. Should we read anything into them?”

“I’d love to go over him with you later tonight. How ‘bout it?”

Now Charles was really blushing. He hadn’t expected to meet anyone while overseas. But to meet two someones with the same ideas seemed too good to be true.

It took him three weeks of excuses before they finally wheedled him down to agree. And four more months before he was fully comfortable with the idea of secretly seeing two of his coworkers.

It took exactly 1 hour after their first time for Emma to send him a text regarding telepath rarity in the country, and that pleasure spikes were not appreciated at four in the morning.