Between dogs and wolves.

Serenity had been having a perfectly normal sort of day, she had finished with her classes and the woman had decided to take a nice peaceful sort of stroll around the school - tapping her cane against the ground the whole time. It was while passing by the rose garden that the teacher started to hear whispers and the giggles of a male and female student. Frowning as she walked into the rose garden, to anyone else the giggles could barely be heard - but for Serenity the sounds were blaring in her ears. It only took the teacher a few minutes before she turned the corner and before her were two senior students kissing quite passionately. Making a loud coughing nose, the students didn't seem too notice the woman at first.

It wasn't until Serenity reached out and smacked the boy out of the two across the head with her cane that the couple notice her. "Hey, what the -" the teenage boy started off angrily before he noticed that Serenity was a teacher. "Go ahead, finish that sentence. Stop with the public displays of affection or you two will be dealing with the headmistress next time." The girl had stayed quiet and had quickly run off, while the boy skulked for just a moment before muttering a small curse "Yeah, sure." he replied to Serenity before walking away.

It didn't bother Serenity to be hard ass when it came to students doing anything against the school rules, she found that a lot of teachers who were to nice often came to her to discipline children they were to worried about disciplining themselves. Of course it wasn't a completely correct way to go about things, but it seemed to work for her and the other teachers so far.

Cade had to admit, the school grounds had quickly became a sight for sore eyes. Two weeks was quite a bit of time to abandon the old castle, but they were days well spent. The odd bounce in his step was a clear indicator that his mind was hardly in the dark place that it was merely half a month ago. Even in his jovial strides, a trail of cigarette smoke stalked him through the air leading back to his mouth. The succulent taste of nicotine was one that he had begun to crave recently, whether it was just a kick or it was triggered by previous events, he wasn’t so certain.

As he neared the school, he noticed his current cigarette butt wasn’t quite finished with yet. Throwing it away before finishing would be wasteful, it wasn’t like anyone was going to let him inside, so a brief wander around wouldn’t do too much harm would it?

Cade’s approach to the rose garden was signaled by some young girl running past him. Not something he was interested in getting himself into. As he continued on however, he noticed a familiar face that seemed to also be interested in wandering around the school’s yard. A face that instinctively made him touch his own, his still slightly crooked nose more specifically. He puffed out a bit of smoke before he followed up with an easy pursuit of the blind woman.

“Been a while hasn’t it? Then again, I suppose it’s been a while for everyone else around here as well” he stated out of the blue almost creeping on Serenity a few seconds earlier. “You know, this place probably looks better in… well, any season besides winter” he added, his voice slightly muffed by the placing of his stick back into his mouth. He snapped his fingers as he again came to a realization. “Right, you probably don’t come here to look at the flowers.”

Serenity had been just about to turn back to her walk around the school before hearing a familiar voice. "Did you go somewhere?" Serenity asked the man with an almost surprised tone. If the teacher had left the school, Serenity hadn't realized it. She assumed that if he had anymore problems with his nose that the man would seek her out to complain, Serenity wasn't about to go out of her way to check up on him. Lifting her head for just a few seconds, Serenity caught a scent in the air that always was another caused of surprise.

"You don't strike me as a smoker," she mentioned to the man in light passing. His comment about the flowers oddly enough made the typical hard teacher smile just a slight bit, "I find it easier to smell them than look at them." She said to Cade with an amused expression. When she was younger it was easier for the woman to feel more offended when people had slip ups in conversation when it came to her being blind. Nowadays, it was her own little game - seeing how many people she could come across in a day that felt awkward talking about her lack of vision.

Cade cackled for a bit at the woman’s inquiry. He supposed that he and his co-worker weren’t exactly on speaking terms. She was more of an independent from what he gathered, but then again so was he. If he hadn’t brought up that he had left, she would have probably thought this conversation no different from the last, which he didn’t mind all that much. “You know, it truly breaks my heart that you, of all people, didn’t notice my absence” he teased in a joking manner. The way Serenity thought was still something he had yet to quite get a grasp around. She seemed rough, but her tone always suggested a different air. It was strange.

As Serenity remarked about his smoking, Cade pinched his cigarette and pulled it out once more to allow another puff free. His eyes inspected the object for a short while before he stuffed it back into his mouth. “Funny that, I started smoking around 9 years old. It’s the people that you least expect that end up surprising you.” His gaze investigated the blind woman briefly. “Let’s take you for example, I could probably name off a list of things that I wouldn’t expect out of you and on that list there’s bound to be at least one thing you could prove me wrong about.”

“There’s one right there, I would’ve never guessed ol’gruff Ms. Hikaru had a sweet spot for smelling flowers” he continued to tease. He began to point his puff in other directions than Serenity’s now that she stated her business was to smell the flowers. Nothing ruined the sweet smell of nectar more than the sour soot of smoke.

Serenity raised her brows at Cade for a moment, moving in a manner that positioned herself just a few feet away from the other teacher. "I never knew you had such a desire for me to notice you," Serenity responded to him with her lips only slightly upturned. If the man wanted to be a smart-ass with her, she could respond just the same. The woman didn't exactly view her words as flirting, more so along the lines of witty banter. "Is that so?" Serenity then replied - taking her cane in both of her hands, shrinking the object down to the size of a pen by simply pushing both ends together.

Placing the objects in her pocket now, Serenity's demeanor changed now - becoming a bit more stiff now that she wasn't relying on any object to guide her. "I guess I like to enjoy the more feminine side of things, on occasions. Flowers are considered feminine, right? I'm never too aware of gender stereotypes these days." Serenity then said to the man, snapping her fingers and then reaching out for a rose that was just an arms length away from her. Plucking the rose, Serenity brought it closer to her now - surprisingly not bringing it up to her nose, but instead keeping it held just below her chest her fingers gently rubbing the petals.

The movements of Cade’s brow mirrored that of Serenity’s after her first comment. He kept his distance though after she wandered off to pluck her plants since he didn’t want to fog up her air, that would be rude. “Well, given you’re the only other teacher around here I can tolerate, and I’m sure you hold similar sentiments, I would hope at the least you would be off put by my lack of rudely interrupting every chance you get to escape from your students. Generally speaking of course” he answered with a suave smirk that no doubt was lost on the woman yet again.

Cade began to stroke his light chin hairs as the blind woman pulled out a rose, his hands were always so close to his mouth now that he picked up his old habit again that he tended to do little movements such as that more often. “Ah, stereotypes are always flying around these days I can never keep track. I’ve never been one to follow them strictly, the human mind is something far too complex to assume groups based on ethnicity or gender. It’d be like if a bomb squad were to assume every bomb was programed the same way, if you believe in that then you’d better be careful” he spoke in an informative manner, intriguingly so. “But I digress. I think it’s still considered a feminine thing, if marketing were to tell me anything otherwise.”

He took in a much larger gulp of smoke next time around since his speech didn’t allow for much of that. He shook his head as he released the fumes. “Christ, I do sound like my mother. I guess I know where I get that trait from now” he offhandedly commented.

Serenity plucked one of the petals of the rose that she held in her hands, letting the delicate item fall to the ground before plucking another petal. "So, that's your plan then." Serenity said quite simply, rubbing the petal in between her fingers before dropping another one to the ground. Listening to Cade talk, the woman stayed silent for a moment - the way she held herself almost seemed regal in a way. Serenity never slouched her whole person announcing her dominance. "Along with the belief that women are frail dolls, that's another thing marketing tells us right?" Serenity then asked Cade with a curious tone. "It's shameful people are so easily molded nowadays."

At his mention of his mother, Serenity paused for a moment. Why did she care about him talking about his family? They were co-workers not friends. "I take it your mother was more of a thinker than a do-er?" she then asked Cade, moving one of her hands up to her shoulder to rub it for a moment before bringing her attention back to the rose in her hands.

Cade absorbed the last bit of his cigarette and swiftly flicked it out of his mouth, stomping out the small embers on the end of it once it met with the frozen ground. He repeated his lightly chuckle as the woman continued to speak. “That’s right, if you’re not being bothered by your students then you’re being bothered by me. A person could go insane if left to dwell in their own thoughts” he spoke reassuringly as he began his approach now that he was no longer polluting the aroma of the air.

His eyes rolled as he admired the flowers for a moment or two. “Oh, don’t even get me started on marketing and generalization of people. You’ll never hear the end of it. Quite frankly, even a saint with the highest ability to pardon would drone off after the half minute mark” his tone rang of ferocious passion. “I came here to brighten your day, not put you to sleep” he jested as he patted her on the shoulder and shrunk down to the patch of roses next to her.

Cade had to think back to the previous week for a short second and attempted to pull out as much information as he could about his true mother. “Eh, from what I gathered during the week I knew her, she definitely has her own… unique opinions. A very vocal woman, more invasive than I was expecting her to be.” He yanked out a particular rose that he took a liking to, one with an interesting bloom. As he stood back up he trimmed the stem of it with nothing more than his nails.

It was only somewhat of a relief when Cade put out his cigarette, the smell had started to give her a headache - though the woman wasn't the type to complain. In fact when she had been younger she smoked for a period of time, but it wasn't like one of her co-workers needed to know this. "I like my own thoughts very much," She then said to Cade in a very sharp manner. "Oh, well I'll say it again I never knew you cared so much," her tone was sarcastic to say the least. As he started to talk about his mother, Serenity moved to place the rose she had been picking apart back on one of the hedges near them.

Deciding to change the subject before things started to range more into the personal side, Serenity adjusted her jacket before speaking. "You strike me as vocal as well, that's besides the point though. You said you were a math teacher right? What sort of power does a math teacher have?" For some reason, Serenity considered discussing power less personal than talking about family.

Cade continued to clip the flower until the stem was nothing more than a stump. He neatly placed the head of the rose in the pocket of his red vest (which didn’t really make the rose’s colour pop) and turned back to Serenity. His brightly teeth shimmered as they revealed themselves once again. “You know what they say about lone wolves, they don’t necessarily exist. Wolves, being pack animals, still require others in order to survive. As I said, you’re the only other tolerable, take that for what it’s worth” he spoke easily. His tone wasn’t suggestive by any means, he only really saw her as a friend regardless of their mishap.

His co-worker didn’t seem to comment much on the fact he said he’d only knew his mother for a week. Not exactly what he would have expected, but that seemed to be every conversation he had with her, he couldn’t quite guess what reaction or what sort of reply he would get out of her. An unpredictable person was always intriguing to him, it usually threw him off and made it a challenge to swing the conversation the way he wanted it to. Serenity probably wasn’t interested in learning about his recent family developments anyway.

“Well, I am a math teacher, so I multiply things.” He quickly snatched the flower from his vest and displayed it out in front of him. Showing his powers was the tricky part, but he was fast to find a solution. He skimmed the petals along the woman’s hand and then swiped his fist back. His gaze locked on the rose as fluid began to ooze out of his hand opposite until it eventually formed a duplicate object. He placed both of the short stems in between his knuckles and brushed them against her again. “It’s more so visually impressive, but you get the idea, no? Ah, you know showing off our abilities is like exchanging names for us, you have a go then.”

Serenity stayed quiet as Cade spoke some more, moving her hand to one of her pockets to briefly fiddle with her cane - considering whether or not she wanted too extend it and use it once more. Instead she decided against doing so and on her other hand she felt rose petals, frowning for just a moment the duplication was almost lost on her. She nodded nonetheless, at least Cade had tried a more creative way of showing her his power instead of just telling her.

"You know, when I was fixing your nose last time I considered using my power then. I'm pretty sure I might have given you a fright though." Serenity commented idly, remembering their last interaction. Looking thoughtful, Serenity hesitated before showing her power to him. After that moment's hesitation that the woman's face changed to mimic Cade's. The details in the face weren't perfect though, since Serenity had such a small time to examine how he looked the one chance she got to touch his face. "The longer you spend in my company eventually I'll know how to mimic your gestures," Serenity said in Cade's voice before changing back to her own face.

Cade couldn’t quite decide whether watching her face distorting into his own was disturbingly haunting or oddly intriguing. It was definitely eerie to meet himself eye to eye and even worse hear his own voice coming out of his mouth. There was also something very… strange about his head on a woman’s body, not something he would want to fantasize. Either way, seeing that within the events of that day wouldn’t have helped any. Well, his eyes were closed the entire time she was fixing his nose so he wouldn’t have laid his eyes on it, but admitting that would make him seem a bit cowardly so that wasn’t going to be brought out of his mouth.

“I wasn’t in the best mood that day, good call.” He continued to investigate Serenity’s morphed face with a cartoonishly contorted expression. As much as he didn’t like the idea of a possible imposter, he trusted that Serenity would do less damage to his reputation than a certain other shape shifter he knew. At least she wasn’t able to morph into him completely, well not just yet anyway. “Well, I gotta say, it’ll be a… different experience talking to myself. Although, I’ve always had a feeling I wouldn’t get along with me if I were another person, if that makes any sense.”

He finally placed his flower back into his vest, almost forgetting that it was in hand, once the blind woman’s face reverted back to normal. “Hrm, do you usually put friends through a test of looking themselves in the eye before granting them worthy?” his tone drenched in sarcasm.

"I understand what you're saying," Serenity replied simply, having received a similar response to her power several times before. Going silent, Serenity's memories went back to her days when she used to kill people for a living. Her typical way of doing so would be showing the person their face before they died as opposed to any other face, maybe she was strange in that manner but the teacher chose to think nothing of it. The past was in the past and she was in the here and now. "Depends on whether or not you like looking yourself in the face," Serenity replied - resisting the urge to add on asking him if she could touch his face.

Knowing what everyone looked like nowadays didn't matter as much as it used too, when she was younger it was important for her to be knowledgeable of the people around her. Even being in her thirties the woman found it hard to shake habits from her youth. Finally decided to use her cane again, the woman extended the object to it's full length before holding it close to the ground - tapping the stone beneath them three times before realizing that some students were walking past them.

“I guess you could say it’s a test of vanity, depending on their reaction to seeing themselves outside of a mirror” he replied as he tried to rid his mind of the images of his head on Serenity’s body. This introduction to the blind woman’s power pulled a string of curiosity in Cade’s mind. She had to have a good story or two wrapped around her power alone from past events, like maybe before she was a teacher she was a valuable detective or spy. Her ability to blend in to her surroundings made her a likely candidate for a career like that and the feeling of distance she gave off would only cement such a theory. Cade wasn’t one to wrench himself into other people’s personal lives though. Another time perhaps, maybe the next time he saw her at the tavern… or maybe if he just so happen to cross by her when she was drunk or something, an easier state to manipulate a tale out of her.

Cade watched as the students passed by him, one of them snickered at the sight of both teachers together. The student kept his mouth shut until they were further away from the two, then it looked as though he was explaining the joke to his other friend. Cade could tell that because the boy motioned a fist at his friend’s nose. The teacher groaned and rolled his eyes. Like his students needed more fodder against him.

“So, I take it your reputation as a sucker puncher has only sky rocketed while I was away. Oh, how high schoolers can mold little stories into behemoths. There weren’t that many students in the gym that day were there? Ah, wait, you wouldn’t know, right. Though, given what had happened, I’m sure there are far worse rumours going around about me. Being on the receiving end of a broken nose is probably the least of my worries.”

"Well, saying it like that I've gotten a series of different reactions from people through out my life." Serenity replied easily, not bothering to elaborate on what kind of reactions she gotten from people. "I wasn't born blind," she then said to him in a manner that seemed like a passing thought but somehow connected to her statement before it. Finally feeling that the students had now moved past them, Serenity turned her body toward Cade in a manner that suggested her attention was on him. "You assume too much about me," she said to him almost like a warning.

It seemed to her that Cade didn't realize how many details she was able to pick up around her. Whether or not the man moved from one foot the next while talking to her, if he breathed heavily or quietly, or the soft breeze that passed by them occasionally as they carried on their conversation. Serenity was a perceptive woman but it wasn't a trait that she liked to admit openly to people. "As far as I'm aware students have always considered me tough and here I think to myself I'm quite nice when someone actually has a conversation to me," the manner in which she spoke this made her seem entertained with students opinions of her.