FF : Curiouser and Curiouser!(Ch17pg104)DISCONTINED.See Pg106 - Page 60

Originally posted by: MistiAbhiya

Oh God Piya As A Teacher😲😆...Love it😆continue soon

Originally posted by: Andromeda001

Amazing update Shreya. I m completely loving this transition from what seemed like Victorian era to present one😆. Ah! Piya as Abhay's teacher, dat would be something 2 watch!!!!😉 Why Abhay has to call Piya his sister? 😆. Waiting 4 next Chemistry class(AbhIya style).

13. Heartbreak, probable death.

"No, you go ahead," Abhay muttered to Sumit when class ended. "Go on."

Sumit's eyebrows rose, and he nodded. "Oh, right, sorry, of course."

He left with the class filing out, and Abhay was just in time to catch Piya pull off her glasses and rub her eyes.

"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked her curiously. She gasped and turned. "Abhay! You- class-"

"It'll wait."

He glanced sharply at the door just in case eavesdroppers were around and lowered his voice. "Do you realise what you've done? You just made yourself ten times more vulnerable! If you'd been a student, at least you could've blended in, I could've been in all your classes- what the hell, Piya?"

Piya blinked. "I'm not a..." she groped for the word, "A parrot."

His eyes narrowed. "Meaning?"

"Meaning," said Piya sharply, putting her glasses back on and picking up her bag and the book on her desk, "That I am not a parrot, hence do not even try to cage me. I had enough of that the last six decades of my life. And why do I need so much protection, anyway! If anyone needs to avoid attention, it's you."

She turned and stalked out of the class, angry tears blurring her vision. She blinked them away as she made her way to the staff room. Damn Abhay. Damn him.

She'd thought she'd surprise him. Impress him. Maybe he'd start considering her an equal, like he did with that friend he was sitting with in her class. Sumit Kapoor, she knew.

The hell with him, she thought bitterly.

"Why the long face?" said a voice when she entered the staff room. "You look like Rosalind in Duke Frederick's court before she met Orlando."

Piya's eyes widened as she turned to Professor Radhika Kandpal, whom she had been introduced to before, along with the rest of her colleagues. Professor Radhika Kandpal was a petite woman with large black eyes, a beautiful smile, short, wavy black hair, and who dressed in a way Piya's lessons told her was not the usual norm among humans. She wore a white polka dotted shirt with a long, flowing, lime green skirt which had black around the edges. She also wore large, blue-rimmed spectacles, a pink stole and an array of assorted bangles on her left wrist.

When they'd first met, Radhika had been unreservedly friendly, perhaps because she was close to Piya's age herself. And that factor had made Piya develop an unusual, instant-liking for her. She taught English, and had a curious way of talking in literature.

Piya sat down next to her in the otherwise empty staff room. "I'm just tired." She took off the glasses and slid them in front of Radhika. "I'm not used to them, Radhika. They make my head heavy, and so does this-"

She touched the bun at the top of her head. "Do I have to do this?"

Radhika didn't look sympathetic. "My dear girl, of course you do. Didn't you students listen to your words with wide eyes? Of course they did. You, my dear, need to be taken seriously. Now I-" She pointed a finger at herself, "Need my students awake so they can at least listen to what I'm saying, you see? And I need them to think I'm an absent minded professor so they'll be shocked into silence when I decide to call them out on their mistakes in their assignments. They're always careful now, " she added with smug satisfaction. "But," she continued, "You're different. You need to make people think that you are a strict teacher who won't take any nonsense from anyone."

"I still don't see the point in all this drama," Piya complained.

Radhika cleared her throat and put on an air of declamation. "All the world's a stage, all the men and women are players, and all those who don't perform well get booed by the audience."

Piya's forehead wrinkled. "Er...was that Shakespeare?"

"Some of it," admitted Radhika. "The rest was Kandpal. Radhika Kandpal."

She was powerless to stop the smile that was curving on her lips.

****************

"So," said Misha, pulling out a chair to sit with Abhay in the canteen. "How come you didn't tell us that your cousin was going to be a teacher?"

"He says he doesn't know," said Sumit, in a tone that suggested that pigs would fly for that to happen.

"Look, we're not that close," said Abhay. "She's my cousin. She's close to Mom and Dad, that's it. They probably wanted to keep it a secret- I don't know. I'll ask."

"She's passing by," noted T, nodding to the corridors visible from their seat. Abhay lifted his head to see.

She was walking by, her hair still in that severe bun, probably on the way to a classroom, he thought idly.

"Shit," he heard Sumit say. "She's gorgeous- too bad she's a teacher, they don't take well to student-teacher relationships, I heard. Hey, listen- why don't you ask if she's open to dating? She is single, right?"

"I suppose," said Abhay shortly. "I'll ask."

Fine, he thought angrily. She wanted the limelight, she got it. She could go out with Godzilla for all he cared.

It was Physics next, and Abhay went off to his next class determined not to let her get to him.

Faye :

Siddharth stopped short as he entered the room, where he'd just heard about the head of the Mutants being punished because she'd failed to prevent Mutant 10121 from escaping with Princess Piyashree.

The room was silent, eerily so, and the only movement was the continued jerking and twitching of the Mutant under the Diablo. She made no sounds, even as he watched her face, her cat-green eyes the only giveaway of the torture she was going through.

"Pass me the Diablos, Ruth," he said to one of the Strategists wielding it. "I will now take over this Mutant's punishment...personally."

Smirks on the faces of the other Strategists as they passed him the Diablos, leaving it on his desk.

One by one, they filed out. Siddharth watched the Mutant continue to jerk as the door closed with a small snick.

And then he pressed a button on each of the five Diablos in turn, and the Mutant's body stopped jerking. She lay motionless on the chair she was chained to.

Grimly, he untied the chains. The use of so many Diablos at once had caused the Mutant physical injuries : he could feel wetness coating his hands even as he lifted the now unconscious body of Mutant 14003 into his arms. Moving in the direction of the door, he made a decision.

Putting each of the Diablos carefully on the ground, he arranged her so that she now lay bleeding on the desk, a makeshift stretcher.

Then he summoned one of the Mutants to carry her to his private quarters.

He watched the Mutant's face as he picked up the bleeding, broken body, but if he felt any pity or horror at the state of one of his own, he showed nothing. Just as well.

He moved to the Omnius then, issuing a circular that said that Mutant 14003 was now being pulled from active duty, removed as Head Mutant and would be under private observation by the Head Strategist- himself.

He also insidiously spread a rumour that Mutant 14003 would be used as a convenient outlet for his...more violent needs.

As dawn approached, he went to his quarters.

As Head Strategist, he was free of any surveillance in his quarters, so he had nothing to worry about when he went inside.

Mutant 14003 lay still unconscious on his bed, but her wounds were healing fast : there was no more bleeding now.

Closing the doors, he quickly and efficiently undressed her of the Mutants' uniform to her undergarments, wrapping her for the moment in a sheet as he pulled out several bottles of ointment and tonic from a hidden cabinet. He had purchased them anonymously from the Hospice, for emergencies.

He took a wet piece of cloth and began cleaning off the dried blood from the mutant's face and body- it was imperative he not waste any of the medicine.

He was no healer, but he did have a working knowledge of how to treat field wounds. It had been decades since he'd used them however.

The blood removed, he began applying the medicine on her body. He would not allow himself to feel anything. Anything at all.

**********************

Dehradun :

"I'm sorry I lost my temper today," said Abhay, standing in the doorway of her room. Piya was perusing a book, and she looked up, her eyes cold.

Not letting it deter him, he continued, "I'm sorry. I was just- surprised. I reacted in a bad way. You didn't deserve that- you're a talented teacher."

Some of the coldness receded. "Apology accepted."

"May I come in?" He asked.

"You may," she told him, marking a line.

He pulled a chair to sit in front of her. "I got you something."

She raised her head as he held out a tub of chocolate flavoured ice cream. "A peace offering, or a bribe?" she asked tartly, taking it.

"An apology," he said. "I know I hurt your feelings. It was thoughtless of me, and very rash."

Piya fought to keep up the stern face : she could feel her anger slipping and sliding like...melted icecream.

And the fact that he'd now got her favourite flavour of ice cream...

"Do I still need protection?" she asked. "I am useless to Ricardia now."

"No," he said. "I'm sorry, Piya, but you are still at risk. If they send someone after you-"

"But I will be going to the same places as you," she said. "Does it really matter if I am a teacher? Chand said- I mean, Uncle said that it would work as a red herring, I mean, people wouldn't be looking among the teachers, would they? And he said that I'd pass for an eccentric professor more easily than an eccentric student."

Abhay considered. "Yes, " he said at last. "That would work. He's right, of course."

"Yeah."

She went quiet, and he racked his head for something to say. "You were very confident today," he said at last. "As if you'd been teaching for years."

She brightened up, and he was rewarded with a shy smile. "Really?" she said. "I was good?"

She desperately wanted reassurance, he realised suddenly. And he realised, too, exactly how bad he'd made her feel.

"You were brilliant," he told her. "Everyone was raving about you. You know that, don't you?"

She shook her head, still smiling."No. But thanks."

*************************************************

In her cute but girly apartment, Misha was sitting on her stomach on her bed, frowning down on a chart she had made.

"Shit," she muttered, throwing the chalk down. "Shit."

A tall, willowy girl with streaks of red in her sat down next to her, holding a mug of hot chocolate. "I made you some."

"Thanks, Tanu," said Misha, taking the mug and sitting up to take a long dreg of it. "Mmm...you're a god."

"I know," said Tanushree, smugly. "What's that you're working on now?"

Glumly, Misha held out the chart to her. "Have at it."

Tanu had just taken a gulp of hot chocolate. Eyes widening, she managed to not spit it out on the paper. "Hell!"

"My thoughts," said Misha glumly.

"Have you checked for blurriness?" said Tanu, her eyes scanning it more thoroughly. "Hmm?"

"The last one," said Misha, pointing at the bottom right corner. "That's the only thing that's looking a bit blurry."

Tanu glanced at the name on the top and hissed out a breath. "Jesus, Mish. You know how to pick 'em, don't you?"

"There's nothing I can do," said Misha helplessly. "I can't risk upsetting-"

"No, and you shouldn't be considering it either," said Tanu shortly. "Not even for him."

Misha nodded, taking the paper from her, balling it up and throwing it across the room, watching it burn.

"We'll ride it out," she said to Tanu. "No point doing anything right now, anyway."

But Tanu was biting her lip. "Heartbreak and probable death. How do you ride that out, Mish?"

***********************

Chand looked at the shadowy form of the informant. "You're sure?"

"Absolutely," came a clipped voice. "Keep her safe. Something's brewing in Ricardia- keep an eye on the humans around."

"I spoke to Juliana a few hours ago," said Chand. "She said a human went missing from her town. Six feet, male, Asian descent. Black hair, blue eyes."

The informer went still. "I see. I'll get what I can the next time we meet- we may not meet for a while now."

"Understood," said Chand.

The shadow inclined its head regally, and left.

A/N : Sorry it's so short! I literally wrote the entire thing today. I hope to write a longer one next time! Please give your comments.