Chapter 18: A Lesson in Keeping Calm
Author's Note: I'M BACK...AGAIN! I recently got back in to reading actual books and it kinda allowed my prose-writing synapses to start firing again, so while it is un-beta'd, this chapter felt really good to write. I also became acutely aware at just how long my past chapters are, holy shit 
So going forward I'm planning to keep them all under 6k. Which...has resulted in a lot of split chapters on my planning end LOL. More fun for you, and more opps for juicy cliffhangers, I guess!
As always, thanks so much for reading this stupid story 🤍 🖤
So going forward I'm planning to keep them all under 6k. Which...has resulted in a lot of split chapters on my planning end LOL. More fun for you, and more opps for juicy cliffhangers, I guess!As always, thanks so much for reading this stupid story 🤍 🖤
For a small stretch of her commute, Odette felt like she was falling into an auto-piloted fugue state.
You still there? Probably not wise to zone out when you’re operating heavy machinery, Odile said, causing Odette to jolt back to attention.
Maybe Odile would be good for something, if not just present to bust her balls.
Odette made it just as her first class was letting out. Or rather, she assumed as much based on the time. If she followed their normal schedule, she’d have her Battle Tactics course, and Dorien would arrive at the campus in time for their shared Battle Performance class, giving her approximately two more hours of Dorien-less bliss. Not nearly enough time for her tastes. And of course, she could already hear RotomPhone notifying her of texts from him, so that time would barely count.
She realized that she hadn’t seen him in about a week, which felt like a long time for couples who were supposed to be head over heels in love. Granted, she had been sick, and she was supposed to be a little mad at him. Those excuses could carry her, but she knew she’d have to watch it going forward.
However, with the over-the-top “marking territory” flowers he’d sent her, followed up with the revelation that he’d actually drugged her and Solene, she wasn’t sure how she was going to watch anything around him. How was she going to keep herself from killing him outright as soon as she saw him? The thought of his glowing green eyes, perfect skin, and perfect smile sent a stream of boiling rage through her, and she started grinding her teeth to keep her expletives down.
Check yourself before you wreck yourself, dumbass, Odile warned. You’re already making yourself nuts, and the fucker’s not even here yet.
The Wrath embodiment had a point. If she couldn’t contain herself at the thought of him, how would she fare when she saw him in the flesh?
“Right. Thanks,” she muttered under her breath, shrugging her backpack onto her shoulders.
Battle Tactics went by far too fast. She tried to get lost in Songmin’s lecture, but her mind’s eye was haunted by images of Dorien hugging, kissing, and intentionally trying to grate on her. Paired with the Wrath demon’s incessant comments on the lecture at hand or her thoughts about how Songmin’s pants looked too tight for her tastes (which she insisted on pointing out every five minutes), the clock turned faster than it normally did. Before Odette knew it, everyone was getting up to leave.
Well, that was an invigorating lecture. I certainly feel smarter, Odile said, sounding proud of herself. Odette, in the middle of zipping up her backpack, exhaled sharply.
Are you sure you just aren’t more aware of how to tell when somebody is wearing their pants too tight?
What the fuck else did you think I was talking about?
Odette wasn’t sure why she bothered engaging. Then again, it wasn’t like she could just walk away.
RotomPhone buzzed in her pocket again, and dread opened up like a sinkhole in the pit of her stomach. She knew what the message said before she opened it.
Outside waiting for you 😘
For a quick second, her grip tightened on the phone. RotomPhone made a noise that resembled television static and sent a minor shock through her fingertips, causing her to start.
“Bzzzzzzzt, hey!” RotomPhone barked. “Watch those hands!”
“I–sorry,” she said quickly. She forced a breath into her lungs, which had shriveled under her sudden anger. “I’m sorry.”
Minding how tightly she held him, she started typing her response.
Don’t bother because as soon as I see you you’re gonna fucking die because I’m gonna take a fucking bat to the back of your—
“Bzzzzzzzt…uh,” RotomPhone said, bringing his voice down to a whisper. “Are you sure that’s what you wanna send him?”
Tonguing the inside of her cheek, she quickly deleted what she was writing.
Okay, be out in a second
“Better, bzzzzzzt,” RotomPhone complimented. She offered him an apologetic yet bitter grin before setting him back in her pocket.
That was a close one, huh?
Eat a dick.
She hustled down the lecture hall bleachers and to the door. Maybe he would miss her if she went fast enough, but that wouldn’t save her from running into him in their next class. Prolonging the inevitable was hardly a good approach, but if she could milk even a few more seconds, she would try to.
It was no use, though. She barely made it a step outside the classroom before he caught her.
Dorien had situated himself against the wall directly across from the door, ensuring she could not stealth by him. It was like he’d calculated it perfectly. She met his eye immediately upon exiting, and the smile that sprung across his face almost made her throw up all over his expensive-looking sneakers.
She held it off by forcing a tight-lipped grin. “Hey,” she greeted, tasting bile. Bile turned to searing acid as he approached, wrapped his arms around her, and planted a kiss on her temple. It might as well have been a fucking bullet. She wished it was.
“Hey there, Doll!” he beamed, pulling away just enough to grin at her. “God, I missed you so much.”
As she held his deceptively tender gaze, the memory of him asking her about that thing like it was nothing echoed in her ear, far more grating than the sound of Odile’s cackle. The image of him blowing Vice Dust into her and Solene’s faces strobed in and out of her mind, causing her body to seize up with a rising urge to fight.
I want you dead. I want to shoot you and your little demon right between your big green eyes, you raging fucking asshole, she thought against her twitching fingers. Her hands ached to throw a punch, but she knew for certain that wouldn’t be enough. Her need for violence against him transcended mere physicality. She wanted to see the life drain out of his eyes and have the satisfaction of knowing he’d be too dead to bother her anymore.
The totality of her resolve to kill him frightened her just as much as knowing he’d drugged her. But the latter was far more pressing than the former.
It was Odile who kicked her back into gear. Your enthusiasm brings a tear to my eye, really. But you need to C-H-I-L-L out.
“I missed you more,” she said, feeling the muscles in her cheeks loosen up as she forced herself back into her act. “I’m sorry you didn’t get a chance to come see me while I was sick. I was honestly a little embarrassed about you seeing me like that.”
He stuck out his lower lip, canting his head with the solemnity of a preschool teacher consoling one of their crying students. The affection behind his eyes made her want to scream, and she bit her tongue just as she was pulled into another tight embrace.
“Odette, please,” he said in a sigh. “You don’t have to be embarrassed about those sorts of things around me. You can’t help health spells like that.” His arms tightened on her. “And I was so worried about you, I can’t even begin to explain it.”
Right. Of fucking course you were, she thought, feeling her lip starting to curl up over her teeth. She smoothed it out when he pulled away to look at her again, this time raising a hand to graze his thumb over her cheek.
“You look better, though. Really.”
“I feel better,” she said, nodding. Not.
He grinned again, something she guessed was supposed to be more joking. “I definitely prefer your face with some color in it,” he said.
I’d prefer your face rearranged, she thought. She tried to muffle it with a chuckle of her own.
“And…” He trailed off as he took her hands, holding them tenderly while he ran his thumbs over her knuckles. The gesture was meant to be intimate, but the urge to pull away came on like a sixth sense, and she had to fight it off while she listened to him continue.
“I wanted to apologize, in person, for how I acted in the garden. I don’t know what came over me, I-I was just–” His shoulders hiked up to his earlobes as he frantically shook his head, seemingly losing his words. “–I was distraught seeing you in that line of fire, and when that thing scampered off I just wanted to know what, if anything, you did to get it away from you. Just in case it happened again, so I wouldn’t be a sitting ducklett. You know?”
It was an Oscar-worthy performance, one that made her want to body-slam him into the bulletin board they were standing next to.
Man, he’s good. Fuck him, Odile sneered.
In what way? she asked.
With a rusty pitchfork, preferably.
They were on the same page there.
She nodded, matching his solemnity. “I know,” she said. “I think I would have been a mess myself if the roles were reversed.”
Oh, nice touch.
Dorien sighed, sounding relieved. “Can we forget it happened? Water off the ducklett’s back?”
Couldn’t you just Vice Dust me to get me to forget it happened? she wanted to say.
“I’d like that.”
He smiled again, a joyful light coming into his eyes. She couldn’t analyze it for long before he leaned down and set a kiss on her lips. It was quick, thank the gods, but it still left her aching for some steel wool to scrub her face clean. His kisses somehow felt worse than they had before, yet all she could do was smile through them and act like she wanted more, as if nothing had changed.
“Come; I would like to get a decent set in the gym today,” he said, turning and gently leading her down the hall. “Besides, I think we’ve given everyone in this hall enough of a PDA show,” he added with a chuckle.
The people in the hall? Odile asked in a wheeze. What about us?
Odette felt her brow twitching with a threatening scowl, which managed to slip through once she realized Dorien wasn’t looking directly at her. It was a quick yet much-needed break. It had only been a few minutes, and she felt winded, like she’d just sprinted a mile. Gods help her.
Finding a seat in Battle Tactics wasn’t difficult. They’d arrived early enough to where there were still plenty of spots toward the top of the bleachers, where they usually sat. By his own admission, Dorien preferred to sit at the back of the class, and that was the one thing they could agree on. What she didn’t agree with was the way he slung his arm around her when they sat. Her body wanted to lurch at the thought of settling into him, but she knew she had no choice. He usually let up once Chuquete got in, so if she could hold out until then, she’d be home free at least until the end of the class.
“So, what else were you up to this week aside from recovering from that little spell?” He’d taken to mindlessly intertwining his fingers with hers, which subsequently made her want to saw her hands off.
“Fever broke, went back to work, and the cast and I had our little line-reading get together yesterday at a cast-mate’s house,” she said. She didn’t have to put much thought into the explanation because it was all true—well, most of it. “Noel and I got rained in while we were there.”
“Ah. You and your second boyfriend, huh?”
Odette snapped her head in his direction, and a hot sensation clawed up her back and coalesced in her scalp as if something were yanking on her hair.
EASY, Odile hissed.
Blinking, she settled her face into a polite frown. “What do you mean by that? Are you implying I might be cheating on you with him?”
Dorien laughed like he knew the insinuation was preposterous, but it didn’t sound quite convincing enough for her. “Not at all. I think you’re lacking the parts for that to line up.”
“But?” she pressed, dipping her chin toward her chest.
Sucking his teeth, he shifted his sitting position in a way that indicated that he was uncomfortable. The thought lit a small flame of joy within her. “I don’t know, Odie. Don’t you think it’s a little weird that you’re hanging out with another guy so much when you’re already seeing one? Sexuality aside.”
“I’ve been friends with Noel since before I knew you existed,” she said, sounding far more terse than she intended to. He seemed to catch that because his brows jumped higher than she’d ever seen them go before. He pulled his hands away and held them up like he was anticipating her to take a swing at him. Maybe his instincts were better than she gave him credit for.
“No, I know.” His defensiveness sounded almost sincere enough for her to lower her own guard. “I’m just saying. We are dating, are we not? It feels odd that you don’t spend that time with me.”
She felt her eye twitch, and she blinked to keep it from becoming too obvious. “We’ve gone on multiple dates, just the two of us. In fact, I vaguely recall spending multiple days in a row with you. I don’t think I saw Noel once in that first week we went out.”
“Okay, fair,” he said, fanning his fingers to his sides. “But…” He trailed off into a heedful silence. The way he studied her face made it seem like he was afraid of offending her if he didn’t select his words carefully. She had to wonder where that caution was at that island restaurant.
“You’ve brought him to multiple gatherings already. And I’m not concerned about how he might fit in with the attendees; he’s a very…”
He flexed his lips, disgust glazing over his eyes for a nearly unnoticeable moment.
“...likable person. But my concern stems from how it might look for us as a couple.” He lowered his voice and leaned in so close that his forehead hovered mere centimeters above hers. “You know people in my world talk, right? Gossip is like a drug for them. And I don’t want to be the couple that fuels their habits. I also don’t want anyone to think you might be, how do I say this politely…” He tapped at his chin. “Loose.”
Odette’s toes curled inside her sneakers, and she clawed into the fabric of her joggers with such intensity that she thought she would tear through the thick polyester. Odile’s deafening silence allowed her more headspace to imagine pushing him off the bleachers in a manner that ensured he broke his neck when he hit the floor.
“Do you think I’m loose, Dorien?” she asked with the calmness of a cracking dam.
He appeared shocked by the question. “Of course not.”
She exhaled through her nose. Cool. Calculated. Calm. She knew what he was doing now, and she wouldn’t allow it to work—not again.
“Then I don’t see the problem.”
She hunted for a seed of disappointment sowing on his face, just as a small reward for her efforts. All she got was a half smile and a defeated eye roll. He settled back into the position they’d been in previously.
“No, I guess you’re right,” he said. He forced his fingers back between hers, and she channeled her desire to yank her hand back into clenching her jaw. “I’m not saying you need to stop hanging out with him. I just want to be careful going forward. You probably don’t mind the gossip, but I don’t want anybody to say anything negative about you.”
He raised her hand to kiss the back of it again. His lips felt like the stinger of a beedrill: agonizing and entirely unpleasant. Nonetheless, she smiled at him.
“I only want to hear good things about my Doll.”
Her rage fizzled out, quickly eclipsed by the chill of anxiety. Something about that statement instilled a sense of flight within her that sent her heartbeat into a frantic gallop.
She opened her mouth to respond but was cut off by a gasp.
“Oh!” he said. “Before I forget. Did you like my present? You got it, right?”
Curses pounded against the back of Odette’s clenched teeth. “I did,” she said. “You really didn’t make it easy for me to take home, huh?”
Recalling how she waited until all her castmates had left that day to lug the rose mound out back and have Ange and Freddy burn it in the dumpster was a brief moment of solace.
“Maybe a bit of an oversight on my end, I’ll admit it,” he said. “But! I only want the biggest and best gifts for my Doll.”
She wished he’d stop calling her that. It made her feel like she needed to take a shower.
“Big gifts for big apologies, I suppose,” she said, feeling some new heat building up under the words. Dorien let out a nervous laugh that sputtered out into a sigh.
“You know me just a little too well,” he said, his eyes falling to her hands, still locked with his. “It felt necessary, though. You barely spoke to me, and I felt I had to do something.”
You fucking grabbed me and screamed at me; why the fuck would I speak to you after that? She thought.
“I was just…” Now, she was the one carefully selecting her words. “I was a little put off by the way you acted.”
Dorien sighed again, his nostrils flaring. “But I told you why I did that.”
He was poking the beartic again. She might have respected his balls if she didn’t harbor such a deep, unsettling, homicidal rage toward him.
Her stomach lurched, and she could feel her blood pressure spike to a level her doctors would have likely had her admitted to the ER for. “Yes,” she said with a calculated nod. “But you still grabbed me and yelled in my face.”
“Maybe. But you might have overreacted just a little bit, no? It was a high-stress situation; icing me out for a few days was certainly a bit low.”
His reasoning not only caused her mind to stall, but her acting chops as well. For an excruciating set of seconds, she couldn’t figure out the best way to respond to that. The only thing that filled her head was the sound of her blood coming to a simmer over her suppressed anger.
Dorien held her hands up to his chin, effectively pulling her just a little closer to him.“It’s just that I care about you so much, Odie, and it hurts me that you thought my intentions were anything but good. They might not have seemed that way at the moment, but I figured you’d know me better than that by now, right?”
He smiled at her with a sickly sweetness that left her feeling like she’d ingested too much sugar. He was acting as if he didn't drug her brain a few weeks ago, and like his attempt at manipulation was supposed to be cute and sincere.
All she wanted to do was tear his fucking lips off his face.
Odile's voice filled her head again, so abruptly that she nearly jumped. Oh, you know what–fuck it. I can’t fucking take this. Do that. Tear them clean off, she said. Show this bitch how it's done.
Odette wanted to glare, but there was nothing to glare at.
Wha– What the fuck happened to not giving in to the temptation?
Odile didn't respond at first. Odette felt her brain empty out as if the eldritch terror herself was stalling on her own thoughts.
This is the part where I tell you I'm testing you, and you pass. B+.
Why a B+?
You lost your chances at an ‘A’ with that bitch ass attitude of yours.
The physical reaction came on fast but was halted by Dorien waving his hand in front of her face.
"Earth to Odie," he cooed. "Something on your mind?”
Smiling felt painful. “No. You’re right. Maybe it was a little rash.”
He looked proud of himself, making his face astronomically more maimable. “I just don’t like being apart from you for so long.”
“I know,” she said. “I’m sorry.”
As if the universe was finally set to throw her a bone, whatever Dorien had geared up to say was interrupted by the gym doors opening, and Chuquete entering with the usual group of stragglers coming from their previous classes, Odette's own teammates included among them. Odette could see the top of Solene’s head before she noticed anyone else, and the dread corroded a hole in the pit of her stomach.
It was hard to make out the expressions on any of her teammates, and she couldn’t look too eager while she tried to. But as they wandered closer, and up the bleacher steps, it was evident that nothing had changed since that morning. Although Solene had conjured up an air of composure in the time since they separated for classes, her typically bright eyes were dullened with the shadow of agitation.
Enora, on the other hand, looked as stoic as ever. She always held herself the same way regardless of how she was feeling. Odette wasn’t entirely concerned about her, the sense of betrayal she still felt lingering in the corner of her mind aside.
“Oh, wonderful timing,” Dorien chided. “And it looks like your calvary is here.”
He surely meant it as a joke, but he didn’t know just how right he was. Instead of acknowledging it, however, Odette took note of the subtle sidelong glare Solene sent him. Odette knew it wasn’t aimed at her, but she could feel the residual chill of the gothitelle’s eyes, pupils shrunk to white pinpricks of frigid contempt.
Odette felt the skin on her arms prickle with a different flavor of unease. Solene had always been a loud type of angry. When she was upset, you always knew it. This silent, tight-lipped, icy rendition was something Odette had always known was there, but she’d prayed she’d never have to see it in the flesh.
Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh… Odile started to say. Loïc scampering into Odette’s lap interrupted whatever the intended follow-up was.
Odette gasped under her breath, but when she set her palm against the rough burlap of his disguise, she felt some of the pressure release inside her chest, like the abrupt opening of a swelling wound. She exhaled from her nose, feeling her eyes start to well up under the rage she was breathing out. A new weight crashed down upon her, threatening to take her eyelids down with it.
Without a word, Loïc’s shadowy hand manifested from under his cloak, clutching a miniature plastic water bottle between its pointed claws. The second wave of relief that rushed over her nearly made her burst into tears.
She knew now more than ever that she really could not have been doing what she was doing without her partners.
Grabbing the bottle with calculated restraint, she chuckled. “How’d you know I left my water bottle at home?” she said, playing into the hypothetical situation where she truly wasn’t bothered by her situation. It helped that she really had left her water bottle at home.
She began to unscrew the cap. It wasn’t coming off fast enough. “Thank you. I appreciate your concern for my hydration.”
“Kkkknnngggggg,” Loïc said.
With an appeasing ‘CLICK,’ cap separated from plastic and Odette went in for the gulp. She tried to show some more restraint in her drinking, but momentarily lost the ability to think straight. When she regained herself, she’d sucked down half the bottle, and she no longer like she was going to collapse.
Dorien laughed to himself. “Goodness, how thirsty were you?”
“Not too much, why?” she replied without missing a beat, earning her a heartier laugh. Disgust burned her nose and she sniffled to ward it off. She didn’t want to make him laugh. He didn’t deserve her comedy.
Chuquete was mercifully quick in kicking off class once everyone was seated. 20 minutes of solo 1 on 1 cycle sparring before the day’s hands-on lesson in more effectively playing around weak power matchups. Something Odette thought was interesting enough to adequately keep her attention, instead of it sitting on fuming at Dorien. But of course, this was the one day Chuqete didn’t pick their sparring partners for them, and Dorien claimed her as his before she had a chance to protest.
The cycle sparring was at least mostly uneventful and painless to start. Being that cycle spar matches started and ended quickly–with a Pokemon switching out for another every time it was hit with an opposing move–Odette didn’t feel nearly as tense as she would have felt were they having full-fledged matches. The quick procession of sparring meant Dorien and his sacrilege crew couldn’t go on a tirade and overshoot the power of another move again; they simply wouldn’t have time. Or, at least, she hoped they wouldn’t. She hadn’t had a chance to really drill Valentin about how that worked, but she had to assume that it was something that needed to be charged.
She’d yet to see it happen again since her first battle with him, and she wanted to keep it that way.
Ange fared pretty well against Ferrothorn, but was knocked aside by a sudden intrusion from Dorien’s poliwrath partner after getting a little cocky with his movements. He was still throwing a tantrum even as Odette recalled him to his ball and sent out Solene to deal with the new matchup. It was the third time Odette had called the gothitelle out, and Odette still couldn’t get over how rigid she was with her movements. Rigid, and most of all, silent. Solene always had a bark to give, or grunt to make every time she made a move, and with each one she executed, she was as quiet as ever.
With a calculated Psychic burst, she sent Poliwrath back to its ball, leaving Dorien to send out Conkeldurr, probably in an attempt to get a jump on the day's overarching lesson. Its presence sent Odette’s heartbeat off in a sprint as she replayed the image of it running at a downed Ange with the intent to eat over and over in her head. Gluttony, no doubt, she thought, a scowl ruffling her brow.
I wonder how that would even taste? It’d be like eating a sconce, right? I’ve eaten sconces before; they’re not exactly–
Can you not? Please? That’s not exactly an image I want to entertain.
I’m just saying, if it were to happen, it would be just as unenjoyable for that fatass over–
Odette tuned Odile out in just enough time to watch Solene’s hands flare up with her signature pink glow, evidently charging up another round of Psychic, which, given Conkeldurr didn’t dodge, would easily knock it back. However, as the light built up in intensity, and Solene still made no move to let it go, Odette felt a drop of chill slide down her spine before she could register why.
“Sol, you can let it–” she started to say, but the gothitelle was one step ahead. With a flick of her hands, arms of psychic energy shot forth, some aiming for Conkeldurr, who successfully sidestepped them. The remaining beams should have finished the job, but they had strayed in another direction.
Right at Dorien.
It happened faster than Odette could react. A yelp, a loud crash, and every bit of movement in her peripheral vision ceased. All she could focus on now was the smoking hole in the protective barrier around the wall behind them, before her eyes slid slowly over to Dorien’s panting form, completely unscathed aside from clearly being a little shaken. He'd managed to dodge the beams.
A shrill whistle cut through Odette’s shock like a hot knife through butter, and she turned her head to see Chuquete sauntering toward them with her hands raised. “Whoa, whoa! Team Cinq-Mars, what’d I say about watching your aim? Come on people, I know we’re not on a huge field right now, but I expect more control from teams of your level!”
Odette could hear her shallow breaths, clawing in and out, in and out. Yet, she could not feel them. She couldn’t feel her lungs working, and she couldn’t feel the air flowing into her system. She felt like she was being suffocated under all the pairs of eyes that were now trained on her and Solene, who still stood stick-straight in place, not paying anyone else any mind. She hadn’t even turned her head to look at Odette. Her eyes remained trained on Conkeldurr and Dorien.
“R-right,” Odette said, exhaling over her word and feeling the air rush out of her head. “Sorry, Chuquete. Got a little overzealous.”
It wasn’t the first time somebody had gone out of bounds of the court and hit a wall or the bleachers. But it was the first time Odette’s team had done it.
“Yes,” Solene replied. The only movement she gave was her shoulders raising under the breath she inhaled. “My mistake.”
Chuquete appeared to accept the apologies and abruptly motioned for everyone to get back to their sparring. Dorien took that moment of downtime to cautiously make his way over, holding his hands out to his sides to underscore the dumb quizzical look on his face.
“Jeeze, if I’d have been any slower that might have taken my head off,” he said. “I guess accidents happen, but still. That would have hurt.”
Odette slid her eyes back and forth between an unmoving Solene and Dorien before they finally settled on Dorien. “I-I’m sorry, we’ve never done that before. She just overshot a little, and–”
Dorien set a hand on her shoulder. “It’s fine, Odie. I’m not mad. It was a very impressive show of Psychic, otherwise. Besides, you’re not the one who actually did it, now are you?”
A glimmer of indignation sparked in his eyes as he pinned Solene with a leer. She slowly turned her head to look at him over her shoulder, expression still mostly unreadable on Odette’s end.
“My apologies,” she said, tone as soft as it normally was when she was genuinely apologizing. “I seem to have a clumsy streak going.”
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