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Description
Oh.  The door was closed.  Well...she hadn't expected that...  Somehow she'd expected the door to be open.  That way she'd just have to poke her head in, say her piece, hear his, then leave.  Now, though...  Now she had to take initiative.  She had to knock, she had to wait, she had to disappear into that room away from prying eyes and the normal world, or that was how it seemed.

Natalie found herself fiddling with the violet hem on her shirt.  A few minutes later, she was tying her shoes.  A few minutes after that, she was reviewing her vocabulary for English in her head.  But open the door?  Oh no, that would come after much more procrastination.

After a good fifteen minutes, she finally turned to go, her nerves failing her.  She was halfway down the hall when she heard the door open.  This time the prickling scuttled up her arms, she felt sure that it was solely because of his eyes on her back.  "Natalia."  Ah, such a calm voice, so very soothing...it was haunting.  It haunted her, and it scared her, but it gave no reason for this, so she found herself turning to meet him.

Adon wore a look that was half-amused and half-exasperated.  "Honestly.  Nearly twenty minutes outside my door and then you leave.  Just how long were you intending me to wait for you, Natalia?" he asked, raising one eyebrow in question.

Natalie's mouth opened, then closed.  "How did you know that I was there?" she finally managed to answer in a voice that was much smaller than she'd expected it to be.

"Powers of the unknown and undead," he answered, his voice laced with sarcasm.  "Now are you coming in or not?" he continued, gesturing towards his now-open door.

She hesitated, the suspiciously normal classroom still inspiring some kind of fear inside her.

Adon sighed impatiently. "I was kidding.  Look, I'll leave the door open, and I'll promise not to eat you.  How's that?"

Natalie nodded slowly, very aware that she was being made fun of.  Instead of lashing out with some vicious reply like she normally would have, she simply let herself be shown in.  Once inside the door, she hovered near the doorway, her feeling of anxiousness still there.  He simply strode past her to lean upon his old oak desk at the head of the room.  "Please, come in.  Make yourself as comfortable as a student possibly can be while still in school," he said, making a random gesture towards the rows of desks.

Taking this as an invitation, or maybe an order, Natalie uncomfortably perched herself on one of the desks and looked him straight in the eye.  Trying very hard to keep her gaze steady and her voice steadier, she started.  "Who are you?  Really, I mean.  You say that your name is Adon Smith, and that you're our teacher, but that's nothing.  I get such strange vibes from you...  Almost deja vu, but not quite.  It's more intense.  It's more like that feeling you get when you first wake up and you're still grasping around for the end of your dream.  Disorienting, disconcerting, and then you realize that you just need to give up, because your memories of that moment are lost for good.  ...I don't like it.  Why?  Have we met?  Do I know you?  More importantly, do you know me?  A straight answer this time, please."

He smirked at her.  "Now that's the backbone I knew you had.  You were starting to worry me, Natalia," he said, dodging the question.  However, Natalie was no longer a child, and that would no longer work.

"A straight answer!  Don't evade the subject like you always do when you don't want to answer me!" she snapped back, without thinking.

His self-satisfied smirk faded just a little.  "Like I always do?" he asked, his voice now politely interested.  His eyes, though, told a different story.

Natalie stumbled over the next words, as confused as Adon about her last.  "I...well, you're always so roundabout!  Even after just one day I can tell that!  You dance around the question with pretty words and smiles, and you make the person forget that they ever asked it...  That's not fair.  Be straightforward with me..." she trailed off, looking down at her swinging feet with a pensive frown.

His eyes softened slightly at this, and he made a move to get up, but restrained himself at the last moment.  "Natalia...  I don't mean to hurt you, and I don't mean to confuse you.  I am only here to teach you and keep you safe...as I do all my other students.  You want to know about me?  What's there to know?  I live alone in an apartment not far from here, and I started working here.  What else do you want?" he asked with an offhanded shrug.

She looked up at him.  "You live alone?  Don't you have any friends or anything?" she asked, answering his question with more of her own.

Adon pursed his lips and looked off to the side.  "I fail to see how my social life is any of your business, but...  Hmm.  I have a few acquaintances, and I've recently found myself to be the owner of a cat due to one of the more convincing acquaintances...  Other than that, I mostly keep to myself, and I rather like it that way."

Natalie cocked her head to one side.  "That seems so odd to hear.  The girls around here practically idolize you--don't any of the women your age?" she pressed.

He glanced back at her, an incredulous look on his face.  "Don't tell me that the female population here's infatuated with me already!  Usually it takes at least a week...  For your information, it's not that I don't have suitors, it's that I turn them down.  I told you, I like being on my own," he repeated.

Natalie blinked.  "Well, no one can accuse you of having self-esteem issues.  No friends, no hot dates...god, do you at least have a family to talk to?"

Adon's eyes darkened and he looked up at the ceiling, his face closed off in a perfect passive mask.  "No, I don't.  Are there any other terribly personal questions you'll be needing to ask me before you'll be satisfied that I'm perfectly normal and feeling no compulsion to stalk you?" he asked stiffly.

Natalie winced, sensing that she'd touched a nerve.  "Um...that was obviously not a good...uh...  Do you like teaching?" she asked, avoiding the question, though not as skillfully as he typically did.

He rolled his eyes up to the heavens, as if asking for patience.  "It serves my purposes," he answered tersely.

She frowned.  "Purposes?  Somehow I don't think that you're talking about the rent..." she began, but he glanced over at the clock.

"Natalia, as much as I'm enjoying this...informative talk, isn't Naomi waiting for you?" he reminded her.

Natalie gave him a look, but it seemed to have absolutely no effect on Adon, who seemed to be quite content to ignore her discontent.  "I...guess..." she finally admitted.

Adon nodded.  "And I need to get home and feed Noir.  See?  We're both needed somewhere that isn't here," he said, straightening from the desk and bending over to collect his bag.  He glanced back at her.  "Catch my drift?"

She nodded.  "Yes, but I'm not happy with it.  So you're a loser with no friends who's teaching us kids with some ulterior motive in mind.  That doesn't help at all.  I'll definitely be back to bug you again, A--Mr. Smith," she told him firmly, slipping up only slightly.

He shrugged as he opened his door for her. "Adon is fine after school hours, Natalia.  I've never particularly felt like a Mr. Smith..." he said blandly.

She slid at the desk and was halfway out the door when he started to shut it, knocking her the rest of the way out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Adon stared at the closed door, a wry smile on his face.  "You'll be back to bug me again?  Isn't that my line, my dove?" he murmured to himself.

Once he'd gathered the rest of his things, he didn't take much time to get out of the building and on his way home.  As he only lived within a few miles of the school, it seemed to him to be much easier to just walk.  Of course, if he could use his wings...but that would be a grade-A bad plan.  Being incognito meant that he'd have to give up the little things in favor of the big.  No wings, no tail, no hair, and of course, he'd have to wear those annoying glasses.  Oh well.  It was for a good cause, though it had been a real wrench to go to the hair cutters...his hair dresser had looked about ready to cry when he'd told her to, yes, cut it all off.  But that had been years ago.  He was used to it now.  For the most part.

He entered his apartment quietly, shut the door behind him, slid off his shoes.  He settled himself comfortably on the small couch in what was passably a living room and waited.  'Five...four...three...two...'   On cue, a little black furball flew out from nowhere to attack him with her cuteness.  "Hello, Noir," he greeted with a soft smile.  The kitten merely pawed at his chest, trying to find the source of the rumbling.  It honestly hadn't mattered what he'd told that girl at his last workplace, a small cafe a few minutes from his current one.  She just hadn't listened to him, told him that it wasn't healthy for a man of his age to be living alone.  Hence, the cat.  Not that he was complaining.  He might have had the wings of a bat, but he certainly didn't fear cats like one.  In fact, they'd always been a sort of weakness for him.  He'd never forgiven himself after it became quite apparent that that girl had picked up on that weakness.  He never liked to show his real personality to the humans around him...after all, he certainly wasn't down here for them.  He was here for the girl that he'd followed, protected for ten years.  He'd seen her grow up, and right now, she was all that mattered to him.  Though, to be technical, she was the only thing left to matter to him...

He mused on this as he rubbed Noir's throat absentmindedly.  Then, abruptly leaving that unhappy subject, he leaned over to a small table and shifted around some of the books on it so he could see his answering machine.  Eight new messages.

Press start.

Listen.

'Hey Adon?  It's Cherie, that girl from the bookstore.  Maia gave me your number...'

Delete.

'Is...is this Adon?  Um, I don't know if you remember me, but Maia...'

Delete.

'This is going to sound really weird, but I saw you passing by me yesterday, and the girl with you actually winked at me and gave me your number...'

Delete all.

Good lord, one day he was going to kill that girl.  Somehow she'd mistaken 'I don't want a girlfriend, damn it, now leave me alone' for 'I desperately want a girlfriend but don't know where to look; please help me, o kindly soul', and had been doing her best to remedy the situation since that fateful day they'd bumped into each other at the park.  She'd even declared herself his 'best friend for life'.  Too bad she'd die decades before he would.  Maybe centuries if he played his cards right.  Maybe even more if she continued to insist upon playing matchmaker.

Brriiiiinnnnnggg.  And there that phone went again.  With a sigh, Adon leaned over and picked it up.  "Hello.  Yes, this is Adon.  No, I'm not interested in going out with you.  Please never call me again--"

"Adon, you idiot, it's me!"

"Ah.  Maia.  What a...pleasure.  Remind me again why I gave you my number?"

"Because I followed you home, then asked the landlord?"

"...right.  Why are you calling now?"

"I wanted to see how my beloved Adon did on his 20th-since-I-came-to-know-him first day at work!  It's a school this time, right?  Did you play nice with the other kids?"

"It was fine, other than the fact that the principal is a blithering idiot..."

"Aww, will you leave this one soon, too?  I'm sure the kids will miss you!"

Adon considered what Natalie had told him.  "Yes, I'm sure they will.  Actually, I intend to stay with this one for awhile.  It's a good opportunity."

"Good opportunity?  What?  Hey--you aren't into high school girls, are you?  Is that why you never say yes to the girls I set you up with?"

"No, Maia. I say no to them because I do not wish a girlfriend, and never have."

"...so you're telling me that you're gay?"

"No.  I do not want a girlfriend or a boyfriend, Maia.  I want to be left alone.  Seeing as you'll never let that happen, I would at least like to stay single."

"Che.  Fine.  Loser.  I'll call you tomorrow, just to make sure you're settling in well.  Ta ta, Adon deeaarrest!"

Click.

Adon looked at the phone dismally before looking down at Noir.  "Twice in one day.  I'm not a loser, am I?" he asked her, realizing that he'd really just answered his own question.  He shut his eyes and leaned his head back against the wall tiredly.  As he drifted off, he wondered what Natalie was doing at the moment.

Description
Oh.  The door was closed.  Well...she hadn't expected that...  Somehow she'd expected the door to be open.  That way she'd just have to poke her head in, say her piece, hear his, then leave.  Now, though...  Now she had to take initiative.  She had to knock, she had to wait, she had to disappear into that room away from prying eyes and the normal world, or that was how it seemed.

Natalie found herself fiddling with the violet hem on her shirt.  A few minutes later, she was tying her shoes.  A few minutes after that, she was reviewing her vocabulary for English in her head.  But open the door?  Oh no, that would come after much more procrastination.

After a good fifteen minutes, she finally turned to go, her nerves failing her.  She was halfway down the hall when she heard the door open.  This time the prickling scuttled up her arms, she felt sure that it was solely because of his eyes on her back.  "Natalia."  Ah, such a calm voice, so very soothing...it was haunting.  It haunted her, and it scared her, but it gave no reason for this, so she found herself turning to meet him.

Adon wore a look that was half-amused and half-exasperated.  "Honestly.  Nearly twenty minutes outside my door and then you leave.  Just how long were you intending me to wait for you, Natalia?" he asked, raising one eyebrow in question.

Natalie's mouth opened, then closed.  "How did you know that I was there?" she finally managed to answer in a voice that was much smaller than she'd expected it to be.

"Powers of the unknown and undead," he answered, his voice laced with sarcasm.  "Now are you coming in or not?" he continued, gesturing towards his now-open door.

She hesitated, the suspiciously normal classroom still inspiring some kind of fear inside her.

Adon sighed impatiently. "I was kidding.  Look, I'll leave the door open, and I'll promise not to eat you.  How's that?"

Natalie nodded slowly, very aware that she was being made fun of.  Instead of lashing out with some vicious reply like she normally would have, she simply let herself be shown in.  Once inside the door, she hovered near the doorway, her feeling of anxiousness still there.  He simply strode past her to lean upon his old oak desk at the head of the room.  "Please, come in.  Make yourself as comfortable as a student possibly can be while still in school," he said, making a random gesture towards the rows of desks.

Taking this as an invitation, or maybe an order, Natalie uncomfortably perched herself on one of the desks and looked him straight in the eye.  Trying very hard to keep her gaze steady and her voice steadier, she started.  "Who are you?  Really, I mean.  You say that your name is Adon Smith, and that you're our teacher, but that's nothing.  I get such strange vibes from you...  Almost deja vu, but not quite.  It's more intense.  It's more like that feeling you get when you first wake up and you're still grasping around for the end of your dream.  Disorienting, disconcerting, and then you realize that you just need to give up, because your memories of that moment are lost for good.  ...I don't like it.  Why?  Have we met?  Do I know you?  More importantly, do you know me?  A straight answer this time, please."

He smirked at her.  "Now that's the backbone I knew you had.  You were starting to worry me, Natalia," he said, dodging the question.  However, Natalie was no longer a child, and that would no longer work.

"A straight answer!  Don't evade the subject like you always do when you don't want to answer me!" she snapped back, without thinking.

His self-satisfied smirk faded just a little.  "Like I always do?" he asked, his voice now politely interested.  His eyes, though, told a different story.

Natalie stumbled over the next words, as confused as Adon about her last.  "I...well, you're always so roundabout!  Even after just one day I can tell that!  You dance around the question with pretty words and smiles, and you make the person forget that they ever asked it...  That's not fair.  Be straightforward with me..." she trailed off, looking down at her swinging feet with a pensive frown.

His eyes softened slightly at this, and he made a move to get up, but restrained himself at the last moment.  "Natalia...  I don't mean to hurt you, and I don't mean to confuse you.  I am only here to teach you and keep you safe...as I do all my other students.  You want to know about me?  What's there to know?  I live alone in an apartment not far from here, and I started working here.  What else do you want?" he asked with an offhanded shrug.

She looked up at him.  "You live alone?  Don't you have any friends or anything?" she asked, answering his question with more of her own.

Adon pursed his lips and looked off to the side.  "I fail to see how my social life is any of your business, but...  Hmm.  I have a few acquaintances, and I've recently found myself to be the owner of a cat due to one of the more convincing acquaintances...  Other than that, I mostly keep to myself, and I rather like it that way."

Natalie cocked her head to one side.  "That seems so odd to hear.  The girls around here practically idolize you--don't any of the women your age?" she pressed.

He glanced back at her, an incredulous look on his face.  "Don't tell me that the female population here's infatuated with me already!  Usually it takes at least a week...  For your information, it's not that I don't have suitors, it's that I turn them down.  I told you, I like being on my own," he repeated.

Natalie blinked.  "Well, no one can accuse you of having self-esteem issues.  No friends, no hot dates...god, do you at least have a family to talk to?"

Adon's eyes darkened and he looked up at the ceiling, his face closed off in a perfect passive mask.  "No, I don't.  Are there any other terribly personal questions you'll be needing to ask me before you'll be satisfied that I'm perfectly normal and feeling no compulsion to stalk you?" he asked stiffly.

Natalie winced, sensing that she'd touched a nerve.  "Um...that was obviously not a good...uh...  Do you like teaching?" she asked, avoiding the question, though not as skillfully as he typically did.

He rolled his eyes up to the heavens, as if asking for patience.  "It serves my purposes," he answered tersely.

She frowned.  "Purposes?  Somehow I don't think that you're talking about the rent..." she began, but he glanced over at the clock.

"Natalia, as much as I'm enjoying this...informative talk, isn't Naomi waiting for you?" he reminded her.

Natalie gave him a look, but it seemed to have absolutely no effect on Adon, who seemed to be quite content to ignore her discontent.  "I...guess..." she finally admitted.

Adon nodded.  "And I need to get home and feed Noir.  See?  We're both needed somewhere that isn't here," he said, straightening from the desk and bending over to collect his bag.  He glanced back at her.  "Catch my drift?"

She nodded.  "Yes, but I'm not happy with it.  So you're a loser with no friends who's teaching us kids with some ulterior motive in mind.  That doesn't help at all.  I'll definitely be back to bug you again, A--Mr. Smith," she told him firmly, slipping up only slightly.

He shrugged as he opened his door for her. "Adon is fine after school hours, Natalia.  I've never particularly felt like a Mr. Smith..." he said blandly.

She slid at the desk and was halfway out the door when he started to shut it, knocking her the rest of the way out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Adon stared at the closed door, a wry smile on his face.  "You'll be back to bug me again?  Isn't that my line, my dove?" he murmured to himself.

Once he'd gathered the rest of his things, he didn't take much time to get out of the building and on his way home.  As he only lived within a few miles of the school, it seemed to him to be much easier to just walk.  Of course, if he could use his wings...but that would be a grade-A bad plan.  Being incognito meant that he'd have to give up the little things in favor of the big.  No wings, no tail, no hair, and of course, he'd have to wear those annoying glasses.  Oh well.  It was for a good cause, though it had been a real wrench to go to the hair cutters...his hair dresser had looked about ready to cry when he'd told her to, yes, cut it all off.  But that had been years ago.  He was used to it now.  For the most part.

He entered his apartment quietly, shut the door behind him, slid off his shoes.  He settled himself comfortably on the small couch in what was passably a living room and waited.  'Five...four...three...two...'   On cue, a little black furball flew out from nowhere to attack him with her cuteness.  "Hello, Noir," he greeted with a soft smile.  The kitten merely pawed at his chest, trying to find the source of the rumbling.  It honestly hadn't mattered what he'd told that girl at his last workplace, a small cafe a few minutes from his current one.  She just hadn't listened to him, told him that it wasn't healthy for a man of his age to be living alone.  Hence, the cat.  Not that he was complaining.  He might have had the wings of a bat, but he certainly didn't fear cats like one.  In fact, they'd always been a sort of weakness for him.  He'd never forgiven himself after it became quite apparent that that girl had picked up on that weakness.  He never liked to show his real personality to the humans around him...after all, he certainly wasn't down here for them.  He was here for the girl that he'd followed, protected for ten years.  He'd seen her grow up, and right now, she was all that mattered to him.  Though, to be technical, she was the only thing left to matter to him...

He mused on this as he rubbed Noir's throat absentmindedly.  Then, abruptly leaving that unhappy subject, he leaned over to a small table and shifted around some of the books on it so he could see his answering machine.  Eight new messages.

Press start.

Listen.

'Hey Adon?  It's Cherie, that girl from the bookstore.  Maia gave me your number...'

Delete.

'Is...is this Adon?  Um, I don't know if you remember me, but Maia...'

Delete.

'This is going to sound really weird, but I saw you passing by me yesterday, and the girl with you actually winked at me and gave me your number...'

Delete all.

Good lord, one day he was going to kill that girl.  Somehow she'd mistaken 'I don't want a girlfriend, damn it, now leave me alone' for 'I desperately want a girlfriend but don't know where to look; please help me, o kindly soul', and had been doing her best to remedy the situation since that fateful day they'd bumped into each other at the park.  She'd even declared herself his 'best friend for life'.  Too bad she'd die decades before he would.  Maybe centuries if he played his cards right.  Maybe even more if she continued to insist upon playing matchmaker.

Brriiiiinnnnnggg.  And there that phone went again.  With a sigh, Adon leaned over and picked it up.  "Hello.  Yes, this is Adon.  No, I'm not interested in going out with you.  Please never call me again--"

"Adon, you idiot, it's me!"

"Ah.  Maia.  What a...pleasure.  Remind me again why I gave you my number?"

"Because I followed you home, then asked the landlord?"

"...right.  Why are you calling now?"

"I wanted to see how my beloved Adon did on his 20th-since-I-came-to-know-him first day at work!  It's a school this time, right?  Did you play nice with the other kids?"

"It was fine, other than the fact that the principal is a blithering idiot..."

"Aww, will you leave this one soon, too?  I'm sure the kids will miss you!"

Adon considered what Natalie had told him.  "Yes, I'm sure they will.  Actually, I intend to stay with this one for awhile.  It's a good opportunity."

"Good opportunity?  What?  Hey--you aren't into high school girls, are you?  Is that why you never say yes to the girls I set you up with?"

"No, Maia. I say no to them because I do not wish a girlfriend, and never have."

"...so you're telling me that you're gay?"

"No.  I do not want a girlfriend or a boyfriend, Maia.  I want to be left alone.  Seeing as you'll never let that happen, I would at least like to stay single."

"Che.  Fine.  Loser.  I'll call you tomorrow, just to make sure you're settling in well.  Ta ta, Adon deeaarrest!"

Click.

Adon looked at the phone dismally before looking down at Noir.  "Twice in one day.  I'm not a loser, am I?" he asked her, realizing that he'd really just answered his own question.  He shut his eyes and leaned his head back against the wall tiredly.  As he drifted off, he wondered what Natalie was doing at the moment.