(no subject)

[extendedmetaphor]

Since he was going to be gainfully employed, he thought that he'd better come and look around. Dakin had, of course, offered to escort him but he'd thought he'd be better feeling it out on his own. It wasn't quite the same as the Grammer school, but it had a definite charm to it, the classrooms open to the tropical breeze.

Yes, he thought. It would do nicely.
And it definitely wasn't Yorkshire.

Comments

[extendedmetaphor]

"So it is," he said, not a little bit amused and he can't help but think of Henry and his monasteries. Which lead him to Posner, oddly enough, and how bloody complicated everything was.

"I've heard," he said. "It can't be easy."

[patriotqueen]

"It isn't. There's nothing more awful. And I speak as a man betrayed by everything he stood for," Guy replied, words that came far too easy for what they truly meant to him.

[extendedmetaphor]

It seemed that there was nothing to be said to anyone in the face of that. Irwin took a drag on his cigarette and nodded.

"The boys mentioned something about it," he said. "A friend of theirs."

[patriotqueen]

"The boys?" Guy asked curiously.

[extendedmetaphor]

"Dakin and Scripps," said Irwin, taking another drag, eyebrows raised. "What?"

[patriotqueen]

"Stuart, Donald, darling David as well? You're the illustrious teacher they so often talk about. I didn't know you knew each other!" Guy said, cheerfully.

[extendedmetaphor]

"Oh, God, they don't actually talk about me, do they?" he said, rolling his eyes. "Please tell me you're taking the piss."

[patriotqueen]

"Usually I am, but not in this case," Guy assured. "You've made an impression on them."

[extendedmetaphor]

"Oh, I'm sure I did," he said, feigning interest in a bookshelf. "For the right reasons, I hope."

God only knew what Dakin had been saying.

[patriotqueen]

Guy grinned mischievously. "A bit of both."

[extendedmetaphor]

"Oh, Jesus," he said, leaning his shoulder against the bookshelf and rolling his eyes heavenward, as if hoping for some unlikely intervention.

"I have no idea what you mean."

[patriotqueen]

Guy laughed loudly at that. "Your initial reaction suggests you know exactly what I mean." He took a drag from his cigarette and regarded the other, the grin on his face not quite dying. "Boys can be cruel."

[extendedmetaphor]

"Yes," he said, they can. Figuring that wasn't too incriminating. "They can. Especially the clever ones."

[patriotqueen]

"Grab you by the balls and don't let go," Guy continued, and a little more stern, added. "You won't let that happen here, will you? I have to ask, of course."

[extendedmetaphor]

He blinked and all but choked on his cigarette.

"Won't let what happen?"

[patriotqueen]

Guy bit back a laugh and mentally patted himself on the back for his never-faltering insight. "Well, you're going to be their teacher. Can't have your students fondling your balls."

[extendedmetaphor]

"They told you?" he asked, somewhat surprised. He thought that their little boys club would have survived, even on the island. That was interesting. "And, anyway, they're nineteen. Not boys, anymore."

[patriotqueen]

Oh, but Guy couldn't possibly stay serious at that comment. "What?" He laughed loudly, nearly choking on his cigarette. The coughing continued, because every time Guy wanted to say something, only more laughter came. "No one's told me anything," came almost quietly between hoarse laughs.

[extendedmetaphor]

"This is appalling," said Irwin, stepping away from the bookshelf and all but collapsing into an available chair.

"They had one teacher who touched them up," he said. "Not me, obviously. I don't think it bothered them nearly as much as it bothered everyone else. They seemed rather determined to protect him, in the end."

[patriotqueen]

"It really isn't. It's... Thank you," Guy replied, calming himself down a bit and setting himself opposite to Tom, against a desk.

"Sign of a good teacher, if nothing else. The protecting, of course, not the fondling." A badly held-back snort.

[extendedmetaphor]

"I'm not sure I'd class Hector as a good teacher. Or...effective. Good is rather different from effective, isn't it?" He snorted. "One ought to be appalled, but having met Dakin, it doesn't seem to have left its mark."

[patriotqueen]

"Knowing Stuart he would have probably been more insulted if Hector hadn't wanted to feel him up," Guy said, somewhat fondly.

[extendedmetaphor]

"Oh, I imagine so," he said, and he can't help but think about Dakin standing in that classroom and talking about the likelihood of anyone being sucked off.

"I can't get my head around that - your calling him 'Stuart'. I've never thought of him as anything other than Dakin."

[patriotqueen]

"I haven't been on last-name terms with anyone since Eton," Guy replied. "Of course, it was quite radical at the time..." he drifted off momentarily.

"Has it changed a lot? University, I mean. Oxford, Cambridge."

[extendedmetaphor]

And here it is again, the old lie. He shrugs, affects carelessness and hopes it washes.

"I don't suppose much has changed there since they opened the doors for the first time," he says. "The boys fell for it, anyway."