#Hm but you know in my uni my teachers call us ‘colleagues’

[more-pokeimagines]

Fantasy teacher Au where Cheren and S/O teach two different forms of magic and are complete opposites who get into many fights. Except ALL the students ship them including a few teachers and they decide to play Matchmaker with their teachers/colleagues.

I’m so, so sorry that it took me so long to finish your request! Uni is crazy at the moment and I have so much to do, but I’m not here to complain… Anyway, this thing is a little bit longer than I expected because I enjoyed writing it so much. Let me know what you think! :) 

Warning: some swearing 

Fire and earth

Livingin a world where your magic resembled your personality wasn’talways easy. Especially not when you were the first and only one toteach fire magic at an aristocratic boarding school in Unova whereyou quickly learned that fire magic wasn’t the most popular subjectsince only a handful of students possessed the ability to create andcontrol fire. None of them was highly talented but they always didtheir best, and you expected nothing more from them. So,all in all your job wasn’t the worst but it also wasn’t the besteither. Sure, your colleagues were kinda nice and they supported youwhenever you needed help but there were also people who constantlytried to upset you, even though their magic clearly resembled a calm,peaceful and patient personality. You weren’t even sure what youhad done to deserve that kind of treatment and though you knew thatyou should try to hold yourself back, your temper always thwartedyour plans. Almost every day you got into an argument with Cheren, ateacher for earth magic – exactly the one you rated as calm,peaceful and patient. It wasn’t your fault that he didn’t likeyou, you were sure, but of course, he thought different. Itwasn’t a secret that the two of you hated each other with a burningpassion, not only because your personalities were totally differentbut also because you knew him from your own time at school. He hadbeen the class winner almost every year, no matter how hard you triedto outdo him. In your last year, you lost your temper and yelled athim in front of the whole graduation class, called him a dirtybastard and other things; and it only made you more furious that hedidn’t reply a single word. Instead, he looked at you with a calmexpression, enduring your rant without any emotion. Now,many years later, you still tried to be better than him. But Cherenwas one of the best teachers at school, absolutely in control of hispowers, and his students usually were the ones to win the unofficialcontest for most progress. It couldn’t be denied that he was reallytalented and patient, not only with his magic but also with his students, and youhated him even more for that.

Itdidn’t help either that some of your students were able to controlboth fire and earth, so the two of you had to work together almostthree times a week, and that were the moments you despised most.Cheren never missed an opportunity to state how useless fire magicwas if you weren’t able to use it in a way that didn’t endangerothers, and you would always talk back to him, telling him that hewas at fault. “Fire magic might be dangerous, yes,” you said.“But that doesn’t mean that it’s useless. It just takes sometime to master it because fire is one of the most unpredictableelements out there. Your earth element is nothing compared to fire.”“Sorrybut I beg to differ,” Cheren replied with a slightly arrogant smileand turned around to face the students as he continued to speak.“Yes, earth might be the most patient and peaceful element outthere but if you enrage it, its wrath is more devastating thananything else. You all know about the destructive force of anearthquake. The earth element is consistent and steady while fire isfleeting. It needs something to burn, to destroy or else it willdie.”“Soundslike you think that obstinacy is a better trait than will power?”you asked and raised an eyebrow. Cheren’s smile deepened. “No. Ijust strongly recommend that you try to change your point of view.Most of your opinions are short-dated, just as fire, but you need tounderstand that all elements are important – not only yours.”Thestudents stared at him with wide eyes, then they looked at you, andin the next second wild discussions flared up. Some kids agreed withCheren, others with you while still others thought that you both hadsome good arguments. Youfelt the urge to wring Cheren’s neck. Why did he always find a wayto make you look like an absolute idiot? Why couldn’t he just letyou be?Youhad no idea how you survived the rest of the lesson but as soon asthe bell rang, you stormed out of the room before you could dosomething you’d regret later. To your relief, the teachers’common room on the first floor was almost empty. Only Rosa, one ofthe teachers for water magic, sat on the sofa, her nose buried in abook about the correlations of the different elements. As you enteredthe room, she looked up. “Hi,” she said as she closed her book.“You look upset. Is everything okay?”“No,”you snapped harsher than you wanted to. “God, I hate this idiot andhis arrogant attitude so much.”Rosaraised an eyebrow. It wasn’t the first time she heard you talk likethat, and she immediately knew that your bad mood had to do withCheren. Again. “Did you two get into a fight?” “Hereprimanded me in front of the whole class,” you said and rolledyour eyes. “Can you imagine? It was so embarrassing.”“Hm,”she hummed. “Sounds exactly like him but I don’t think he meantany harm. It’s just the way he is… you know how ambitious he canbe.”“Pff,”you huffed and turned around to make yourself a cup of coffee. Then,you sat down at the table, staring into your mug while you tried tocalm down. It wouldn’t help your students when you gave your nextclass while you seethed with anger. You often told yourself that youneeded to control your temper around Cheren but somehow, he alwaysmanaged to torment you mercilessly.

Afew weeks later, you finally managed to ignore his stupid statements.Instead of starting to fight with him again, you just smiled andcontinued to show a little blonde girl what she had to do to kindle asmall flame on the palm of her hand. She was one of the more talentedstudents and while she quickly learned how to create fire, shestruggled with her earth magic – a fact that made you more thanhappy. “Seemslike I am not that bad of a teacher,” you said extra loud toprovoke Cheren. He darted an angry glance at you but instead ofstaring an argument with you, he just turned around and gave hisattention to one of the students who tried to make a flower grow.Quiteself-satisfied you got the rest of the lesson over and done with. Butbefore you could make your way out of the classroom, Cheren appearedin front of you to bar your way. His eyes were a shade darker thanusual, and the intense look he gave you, sent shivers down yourspine.“Iship it,” you heard a girl whisper but you weren’t able to sayanything. You just stared into Cheren’s eyes as if he somehowmanaged to hypnotize you. “Watch your step, (Y/N),” he said in adeep voice. “You really try my patience.”“Hey,you two should kiss,” a familiar voice called from the hallway –Hilbert, another teacher for earth magic and one of Cheren’s bestfriends. The next second, you snapped out of your trance-like state.As you realized how close Cheren was you quickly took a stepbackwards and crossed your arms. “There’s no way I’m kissing anidiot like him,” you said but Hilbert just grinned. “Yeah, we’llsee about that.”

Inthe evening, you decided to go out for a drink. Rosa decided toaccompany you and though she told you that she just needed somedistraction from work, you couldn’t escape the feeling that she wasup to something.Onyour way to the closest bar, you told her about your little encounterwith Cheren and Hilbert’s stupid suggestion. “I have no ideawhat’s going on,” you sighed. “I mean, why should I kiss him? Ihate him, and I know he hates me, too.”“Youknow how our magic resembles our personality, right?” Rosa askedwith a grin, and you shrugged. “Yeah. But what has that got to dowith Cheren?”“Peoplewho control earth magic are usually quite withdrawn, and I never sawhim flying off the handle… until you came to the school. I don’tknow what’s going on with him but somehow, you managed to breakdown his barricades.”Youstarted to laugh because it sounded so incredibly stupid. “Yeah,sure, and next you’re going to tell me that he’s in love with me,right?”“Idon’t know,” Rosa replied – relieved that you didn’t seethrough her lie. “Look, all I wanted to say is that Cheren isconfused. He doesn’t know how to behave when you’re around, andthat’s quite unusual for him. You know how self-confident he is.”“Youmean arrogant,” you corrected her. Rosa shrugged. “I’ve knownhim for more than four years now, and I never thought he wasarrogant. He’s just…”“Unbearable,”you finished her sentence and made a face. You didn’t understandwhy Rosa was trying so hard to defend Cheren – she knew how muchyou two loathed each other. There was no way you’d ever becomefriends with Cheren, number one idiot and loudmouth. It didn’tmatter that both of you obviously tried to leave each otheralone; you still felt the urge to give him a good ticking-off as soonas he opened his mouth to badmouth fire magic and their users. Itseemed as if he aimed at making you as angry as possible but youdidn’t understand why. What did it do for him to provoke you overand over again? And why the hell was Cheren always on your mind? Youdidn’t want to think about him, it was enough that you had to seehim almost every day, and you shook your head to get him out of yourmind.“Hey,do you want to have a game with me? Maybe dart?” you asked Rosa tochange the topic. She laughed and nodded. “Sure, but don’t be sadif I take you down again.”

Exactlytwo weeks later (of course you had lost the game against Rosa), youfound yourself in the library, searching for books about fire magic.Because you didn’t know anyone (except your students) who possessedthe same powers as you, you hadn’t anyone you could ask for advice.Books were the only way to find out more about your magic and thethings you could do, and since you had to know as much as possibleabout fire magic to properly teach your students, you made inquiriesquite often.Asyou were roaming the corridors your thoughts kept circling aroundCheren and his hideous behavior. Today’s class had been the horrorand you still were furious because Cheren decided to embarrass you infront of the whole class by asking you to use your magic to imitatethe sun in order to make the flowers at the windowsill grow. Ofcourse, you failed and instead of making the flower grow, you set iton fire. Cheren had looked so chuffed with himself that you wanted toslap his stupid face but when your students started to giggle youchanged your mind and just smiled at him. “You know what?” youasked, your voice sweet as sugar. “Fuck you.” And with that, youhad turned around and left the classroom. Witha sigh, you pulled a tome about all kinds of magic out of thebookshelf. You knew that you had overreacted but you also felt kindof relieved. Cheren’s face after your insult had been priceless.But still… a part of you wanted to eat your words, not only becauseyour behavior had been really immature but also because you felt badfor it. “Shit,”you murmured to yourself. A guilty conscience wasn’t really whatyou needed right now. Of course, things were never so bad that theycouldn’t get worse, and when you spotted Cheren at the librarydoor, you groaned. And as if his presence wasn’t enough, he ransquare to you as soon as he saw you. “Areyou stalking me?” you snarled. He rolled his eyes. “Of coursenot. I just wanted to talk to you about… you know, what happened inclass.”“AndI thought I made it pretty cleat that I don’t want to talk to youever again,” you said. The book in your arms seemed to be afirst-class murder weapon, and you clutched it firmer. “Besides,”you continued and narrowed your eyes to slits. “If you came here toapologize, then you’d better start right now before I run out ofpatience.”Cherenhuffed. “I’m most certainly not here to apologize. I just wantedto let you know that the headmaster decided that we aren’t allowedto give lessons together until we, and I quote, ‘get alongbetter’.”“That’snot fair,” you said and shook your head. “It’s not my faultthat you behave like an idiot.”“Excuseme?”“It’strue!” you exclaimed. “You always try to provoke me, youembarrass me in front of everyone and you constantly bitch about firemagic, especially when I’m there to hear it. So don’t try to tellme that you don’t behave like an idiot because you do! Youtreat me like I’m your worst enemy.”“Yeah,what goes around comes around, you know,” Cheren said sarcasticallyand rolled his eyes again. “You aren’t a saint either, (Y/N),although I have to admit that I have no idea why you hate me somuch.”His voice was a lot quieter now, and for a second, healmost seemed to be unsure. You gulped. “You don’t remember me?From school?”“Ofcourse I do,” he said. “You shouted at me in front of the wholeclass. Hell, you called me a dirty bastard, how could I forget that?I never understood why you were so angry at me, though.”Youbit your bottom lip. “I… I was jealous,” you admitted. “Youwere always the best in everything, and I tried so hard to be likeyou, to be better than you but… I never was. And that’s why Istill hate it when you make fun of me.”Cherendidn’t answer. Instead, he took the book from your hands and put itback on the shelf before he slowly reached for your hands. As helaced his fingers with yours, he said: “You’re one of the mostgifted fire tamers I have ever seen. Please stop selling yourselfshort.”Youlooked down at your hands. Much to your surprise you enjoyed his softtouch. “Yeah, I’ve heard that bef- wait, did you just complimentme?”“Err,yes.” Cheren’s cheeks turned red and you started to laugh. “Oh,well, that’s a first. I just don’t get why.”“Hm,maybe it’s because I like you!” Cheren blurted out, andyour jaw dropped. For a moment, you just stared at him with wideeyes, trying to understand if he really said that he liked you or ifyour mind was playing tricks on you. It couldn’t be that Rosa wasright, could it? Though she never said anything about Cheren being inlove, you always had the thought that she knew a lot more than shewanted to tell you. “You like me?” you asked confused. “Why didyou… but, how- why did you treat me like that, then?”“Idon’t know,” Cheren sighed. “Maybe because I was too scared totell you. I’m sorry.”“Ohmy god, you’re even more stupid than I thought,” you said androlled your eyes as you grabbed the collar of his shirt to pull himcloser to you. “I really can’t believe I fell in love withsomeone so dumb.”