#im not sure adults get orange slices after soccer/football practice but the wizards can have some. as a treat

[imaginariumgeographica]

"Ponder looked across and Rincewind now, and he was hopping awkwardly on one leg, trying to put a sock back on. He thought it better not to comment. It was probably the same sock."

-From Unseen Academicals

Ponder decides to comment.

~~~

Rincewind was sitting on a step, feet stuck out in front of him with one sock fallen down around his ankle. Catching sight of this, Ponder paused, remembering, and then veered over to Rincewind.

Rincewind gave Ponder a half-suspicious glance as he sat down on the step beside him, but didn't say anything, just went back to studiously eating the sliced oranges Nutt had produced from who-knows-where.

“So,” Ponder said, still looking at the one loose sock, "earlier, when the Archchancellor and the De- when the two Archchancellors were...arguing."

In the pause, Rincewind looked sideways at Ponder, then followed his gaze to his own sock. He frowned, and tugged the cuff up around his calf, where it slid, defiantly, a few centimetres back down. He bit into another orange slice.

Ponder plowed on. It was his experience that you could lead a wizard to water, but it still sometimes took a hearty shove between the shoulders to get them to drink.

"They say you defeated the Sourcerer," Ponder said, "with a half brick in a sock."

"Do they?" Rincewind said, lightly.

"They do," Ponder confirmed.

"Hmph," said Rincewind. "No-one ever thanked me for that. You know I got stuck in the dungeon dimensions after that bright idea? Have you ever been to the dungeon dimensions?"

"Um," said Ponder.

"I cannot recommend it," Rincewind went on. "Besides," he added, "he was just a kid...the Sourcerer? There was this staff..."

He trailed off, absently spinning the half-slice of orange around in his hand. Ponder watched him for a moment to see if he was going to say anything else, then returned to his line of questioning.

"So earlier," he said, "I thought I saw you with that sock -" he nodded to it, and Rincewind interrupted.

"There was a stone in it?" It was a question more than a statement.

"A stone."

"Mhm."

"Inside your sock."

"Yes."

"Not just your shoe."

"It was ah, persistent."

Ponder gave Rincewind a look. Rincewind returned it defiantly and bit into his orange slice. Juice dripped down his wrist.

"What was the plan?" Ponder pressed.

"Plan?" Rincewind looked incredulously up from licking orange juice off his hand. "You know how much time plans make? Of course you do, you're you, that was a rhetorical question. What I meant was I -" He stopped, absently wiped his wrist on the knee of his robe, "I was just reacting, alright. Something was going to happen and I was thinking of, remembering, um, before and it seemed like, oh gods, I'm going to have to do something again which yes in hindsight is stupid, the university's full of wizards except it was then too and it seems like it's always me who has to and..." Rincewind stopped again.

"I like to think I had the situation under control," said Ponder, a bit primly.

"I'm sure you do," said Rincewind, but with what Ponder thought was a microscopic smile.

"Anyway," said Ponder, "where were you going to get a half-brick?"

"When wizards start tossing around that kind of magic," Rincewind said, tiny smile wiped away, "they tend to turn up."

Ponder frowned, and finally let the matter lie.

"You, um," he said, "played well today?" He tried very hard to make it seem as though he knew what he was talking about and wasn't entirely sure he succeeded.

Especially when Rincewind raised an eyebrow and said, "Did I?"

"Um," said Ponder.

"Tell me, Ponder," Rincewind said, "how much do you understand about football?"

"Um," said Ponder again, and tried to recall some of what Nutt had said about beauty and chess...

And Rincewind was definitely laughing at him, silently, with only the crinkling of his eyes and a slight lift of the corners of his mouth.

"It's not important," said Ponder, sounding stuffy even to himself, "for me to understand everything. That's why I delegated."

"Of course," said Rincewind, seriously.

But he was still making that silent-laughter face, and Ponder found he didn't really mind.