Relax

[Kira & Lee Norris]

Lee sighed happily, leaning back in the sofa. This was what it was all about... relaxation... relief... They were over. The exams were finally over and wow, was he thankful. No more late night worries, no more cramming, no more thinking about the load of boll- ahem, sod the exams they had to learn. Now, for the few glorious weeks leading up to Hallowe'en, they'd be given a break. An actual break.
A moment to breathe.
Chloe sat curled up beside him, a book clutched in her hands. Something about vampires... maybe... He hadn't been paying much attention. Kira was on the floor beside him, idly plaiting her long blonde hair. He watched her fingers dip in and out of her locks will an ill-disguised jealousy. He'd never been able to master plaiting hair.
He guessed he never would. Still, it wouldn't matter... but he had to admit he'd always been curious about it.
Both girls were quiet now in the wake of the raucious behaviour of Brian and Ellie as they'd chased each other around the room, followed by a brief, but fierce mini pencil war. Lydia and Kyle had drifted off again for their own private celebration, and Matt was now over in a corner venting his feelings throught chess on a unwilling firstie opponent. Mike and Jack were watching Kira plait her hair too, and interrupted her every so often to ask her about it.
So he wasn't the only curious one.
"Takes you forever, doesn't it?" Mike laughed, crouching beside her.
"Nope," Kira replied. "I just like to take my time."
"Slow and steady wins the race," Chloe said softly from behind her book.
"Or I'm lazy," Kira smiled.
"You are," Lee couldn't resist a grin. "You, bum, you!"
Jack sighed dreamily. "Go home, you bums, go home, you bums..."
"You watch too much sports," Kira said sharply.
"Tis' a glorious thing, sports," Jack said happily. "Football... rugby... hockey... better than any wimpy chess game anyway."
"Hey," Lee said sharply. "I resent that."
"You should play sports, Lee," smiled Kira wickedly. "You'd be a great mid-fielder."
"I could you know," he replied, narrowing his eyes.
Jack snorted, and a pencil promptly was dropped on his head.
Mike's brow was furrowed in concentration now. "Ok, that's not fair- how d'you do that?"
Kira tapped her nose, ending her long plait with a smooth, sky blue ribbon. Affirming it was tight enough, she swung it over her shoulder so that it was now out of her eyes. Chloe shut the book, setting it down on the ground.
"Come to join us?" Mike asked her.
"I have," she replied. "But I'm not happy about it."
"Liar," Lee laughed. "You're over the moon!"
"Ecstatic," Kira added dreamily.
Chloe raised an eyebrow, barely concealing her smile. "Maybe."
"Madeleine," Kira said suddenly.
"No, Kira, that's Chloe," Jack said slowly, pointing.
Kira rolled her eyes. "Behind you, dear."

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

Yes! Exams were over, and she was free.
Without being cocky, she was pretty sure that she'd passed the Combat Skills. Since she didn't really have an offensive power, she was to use hers as best she could, but was also tested on fencing - and had disarmed the examiner twice.
Yeoo.
Levi had been chatting to her before she had gone in - something that was starting to to confuse her. A lot. Why was he being so nice and polite to her? Mostly, all they could manage was tolerance and cold civility. This new attitude had thrown her, and she was at a loss with how to deal with him.
She wasn't the only one to be worried, however. Olivia had watched him suspiciously, and as she had opened her mouth to interrupt and say something to her, Madeleine had been called in for her exam.
Still. Her next Air Control class wasn't until next week, and as she wasn't holding any training sessions to give everyone a break, she wouldn't see much of him for a while. Hopefully, anyway. The constant change of mood was unnerving her.
Now that she had everything finished, she was looking for Lee, hoping that she'd find him somewhere.
It didn't take long to find him. He was sitting in the common room with Kira - with her hair plaited and typed with a sky blue ribbon -and some people that she didn't know, but an attractive blonde girl was curled up beside him. Frowning slightly, she made her way over to them.
Kira stared at her. "Madeleine."
Jack pointed at the blonde girl. "No, Kira, that's Chloe," he said, slowly and deliberately.
"Behind you dear," Kira said, rolling her eyes.
They all turned to look at her, and she smiled self-conciously. She had yet to meet any of Lee's friends, and now, they were staring.
"Hey," she said, smiling self-conciously.

[Kira & Lee Norris]

Feeling a sudden rush of warmth, Lee smiled at her and stood up. Chloe followed his lead.
"You'll want to sit beside him, right?" Chloe smiled at Madeleine, and moved onto the ground between Mike and Kira.
Everyone gaped up at her as she cross the room and sat nervously down beside him. Lee beamed proudly back at them all. "As you know, this is Madeleine," he grinned.
"Lo."
"Hey."
"Howdy."
"Hi."
"Hello, Madeleine," Kira finished them off.
"Madeleine," continued Lee. "This is Jack, Mike and Chloe."

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

Madeleine smiled self-conciously as they gaped at her. "Hey," she said warmly.
She lifted her feet onto the edge of the seat, bunching her knees up in front of her.
"How'd your combat exam go?" Lee asked, putting an arm around her.
"Could have been worse," she said placidly, eying them all.
Great. Now they were all quiet. She'd totally just interrupted that conversation.
"What about you guys?" she smiled.

[Kira & Lee Norris]

"Aced everything," winked Mike.
"He didn't," Chloe sighed. "I know. I tutored him."
Lee laughed.

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

Madeleine felt a warm rush as she heard Lee's laughter. "Oh, I'm sure he's not that bad," she laughed.
As she said this, she was mentally assessing Chloe. She was attractive, with blonde hair and she made Lee laugh. And to add insult to injury - she was tall. Ugh.

[Kira & Lee Norris]

Chloe smiled and turned to Mike. "Hallo, Mike! Wie gehts?"
He gaped at her for a couple of seconds. "... Ich heiße Mike?"
"Neine," she shook her head and leant forward, saying her words slowly and clearly. "Wie... gehts?"
"Oh!" his face cleared. "Gut, merci!"
Kira giggled. "That's pretty bad, Mike."

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

Madeleine frowned slightly. German was really not her forte. She was fluent in French, but German... no, she'd never studied it. She knew Lee could speak it though.
As to what Mike was saying, well, she could guess a little. Gut had to be good...
As she looked at Chloe, she made a mental note to learn some basic German.

[Kira & Lee Norris]

Lee turned to Chloe. "German?"
"Ja," she replied. "But don't you speak it?"
"Ja," he laughed. "Kira too."
"We never thought we'd agree with the French stereotype," Kira smiled. "So I'll just bring Madeleine with me whenever I head off to Paris."
"Oh," Chloe said, turning to address Madeleine with a brief smile. "Do you speak French?"

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

Madeleine smiled, slightly frostily. "Oui, bien sur."
What was up with her today? She was starting to feel weirdly... odd about Chloe. She'd never met her before... but she kept smiling at Lee. And Lee was smiling back. And she was pretty much all that Madeleine wasn't.
She curled into Lee.
Was she being the typical possessive girlfriend? Lee wouldn't notice - hopefully Chloe would. She wasn't an obvious threat... but what with Levi's constant jibes about Lee at her, she felt like the threat was still there.

[Kira & Lee Norris]

Chloe nodded. "That'd be lovely. It'd be great if I was multi-lingual, but I've only ever studied German, Spanish and Latin."
"Because that's not multi-lingual at all," Brian rolled his eyes.
Lee felt Madeleine move slightly closer, and put his arm around her, hugging her close. It was so nice to be able to do that now, with no fear of being pushed away or embarrassing himself. With them, everything just felt so comfortable.
Kira rolled her eyes at him, but didn't say anything.
"I'm going to learn Chinese this year," Chloe continued thoughtfully. "Ooh, Madeleine, could you do some basic French with me? That'd be great!"

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

German? Spanish? Chinese? Latin?
Now, Madeleine was feeling extremely small.
"Of course," she said, smiling sweetly, and wondering how many incorrect words she could teach her without being suspicious. "Do you play chess?"
If so, she was a definite threat. She was pretty, and obviously close to Lee - and from the sounds of it, smart as hell. Chess would be too much...

[Kira & Lee Norris]

"No, I'd get too confused," Chloe sighed. "Logic is beyond me."
"I doubt that," Lee smiled. "I can teach you sometime, if you like."
"Can't get much better teaching than the chess champ..." Mike said, with a roll of his eyes.

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

Argh!
Now, that really had not been the smartest move. Dammit, dammit, dammit!
Now he was smiling at her. Okay, she was definitely a threat.
Okay, so, she was overreacting. She knew she was. But this Chloe scared her more than an enemy commander. Weirdly.
Although, maybe it wasn't so weird. In combat, she knew exactly what she was doing. In relationships... well, she was a little out of her depth with this one. She'd only had meaningless... flings, for want of a better word - this was her first real relationship, and she had no idea what she was doing. All she really knew was that it was as equally unstable as any other, and that it felt good when Lee put his arm around her.
That was it.
"You must be really smart," she said, enquiringly. "Multi-lingual.. tutor..."

[Kira & Lee Norris]

Lee answered for her. "She is," he said. Chloe was. It was just a thing. She smashed the dumb blonde stereotype into pieces- and he respected her for it. She was turning out to be a really, really good friend too.
"I'm not really," she said softly, still perfectly serious. "I've still got so far to go..."
"Perfectionist, are we?" asked Kira, raising an eyebrow.
"I just wanna' do my best."
"Whatever," Kira sighed, turning back to Mike and Jack.