white noise | {ronan/juliet} blitz

[umber vivuus 12b 🥀 [dars]]

R O N A N

open my mouth
and all that comes out
is white noise and
incomprehensible sound

He sat the last of a pile of papers onto his desk after marking it with a red A. He was proud of the things he had accomplished in his life. He was proud that he had turned something once so bleak and lost into something with promise again. This year alone, they had received at least 15 transfer requests, and before Ronan came along, they were lucky to get 15 in-district applicants.

But there was still so much more he aspired to do. More than just repairing broken things, Ronan wanted his career to mean something. He wanted to race into burning buildings and pull the jaws of death off of everyone he could. He wanted to hunt down every answer to an unsolved case that he could find. But he couldn't, at least not yet, and it killed him. So, what did he do? He poured his heart into his classes with hopes that, in the meantime, he could at least create a few decent legacies.

After noticing the time, he hopped out of his chair, snagged his coat from the rack, and locked the door behind him. He was all but out of the building when he heard a noise coming from the gym. His first guess: Calypso or Nico sneaking in again to get some extra training time in. He'd warned them both enough. This time he was going to do something. Maybe. Probably not. There were worse things they could do.

He leaned against a punching bag without looking at who was in the room.

"Couldn't wait 'til Monday?"

He looked up to find Juliet, another teacher, staring back at him, and he nearly toppled off the side of the punching bag before catching himself and steadying his center of gravity.

"Sorry," he admitted, "Thought you were a student."

[я𝑜𝓈𝑒]

j u l i e t .

As the combat teacher at the academy, she spends most of her time in the gym. Practice makes perfect — she remembers when she first began Career training, that is what her parents told her. She was eight years old and fragile-bodied; the most physical activity she had ever done at that point in her life was gardening.

Juliet is still adjusting to her new life in District Four; she has found both comfort and sadness her. She left her daughter behind to become a teacher — and although she misses her every day, she sleeps well at night knowing that she did the best thing for her. She is too young to be a mother. And here, in Four's academy, she does not have to be the girl who became pregnant at seventeen. She's just Juliet, the pretty blonde combat teacher.

It is easier to live beneath a mask than to face the truth.

She is in the middle of practicing when she hears footsteps between her punches. She assumes it's nothing, just a student at first, but then she hears a familiar voice. "Couldn't wait 'til Monday?" Ronan Clark, the law professor. She almost laughs, but instead just turns around silently and looks at the professor, who is leaning against a punching bag, with a raised eyebrow as if to say, Really?

As soon as he realizes who he is talking to, he nearly falls to the ground from his position. "Sorry. Thought you were a student." She lets out a small laugh and shakes her head.

"Professor Clark, I have an excuse, but what are you doing here so late?" she inquires, folding her arms over her chest. "You do owe me a reason; you interrupted me."

[umber vivuus 12b 🥀 [dars]]

R O N A N

open my mouth
and all that comes out
is white noise and
incomprehensible sound

Juliet was something of a mystery to Ronan. Her mysteries were left behind in District Two, and were unreachable to the likes of him, so he had been tasked with deciding whether or not she was clear or not on his own. Pretty, young, talented, and mysterious to a point that kept him guessing. His usual composure was reduced to that of a bumbling teenage boy when he was around her, and he sort of hated it.

"Professor Clark, I have an excuse, but what are you doing here so late? You do owe me a reason; you interrupted me."

He clenched his jaw, breathing through the blush that had suddenly appeared on his face. He glanced down at her gloved hands, to her blonde hair and the expectant smile she was flashing him. She was waiting for an answer.

"I was grading papers."

Good job, he thought to himself. Bravery came in many forms. Rescuing people from burning buildings was the most rewarding, the one everyone always dreamed of, the one he aspired to be. But there were other ways, too. And as he swallowed the lump that was lodged into his throat, he took a step forward.

"Now I'm going out for a drink."

Inhale. You've got this. Exhale.

"Care to join me?"

[я𝑜𝓈𝑒]

j u l i e t .

Juliet is about to glance away, but then she catches the rush of blood in Ronan Clark's face. Perhaps it is just embarrassment that he interrupted her and spoke to her as if she were a student.

"I was grading papers," he says. She almost replies back, "Grading papers in the gym?" but then she supposes that he's suffered enough embarrassment for the moment.

"Now I'm going out for a drink," Professor Clark continues. "Care to join me?" It is a casual invitation, but Juliet finds herself taken aback at the offer. It was completely unexpected, and if she was still that seventeen-year-old girl, she would have felt blindsided.

She remembers that this is how it started with Dustyn — just a few drinks. That was how their summer romance kicked off and it seemed like everything was going to be fine. And then Bette came along; and then the Reaping came along. The memory isn't bright for her anymore; it's stained with pain, now. So is her daughter — Evadine. She could never look at her without seeing Dustyn, remembering how empty his eyes were when Someith stabbed him in the heart.

But Professor Clark isn't Dustyn — and besides, he is likely asking out of politeness. They are just co-workers getting to know each other; it is as simple as that. And it would be rude not to accept, wouldn't it?

"Sure," Juliet says with a nod. "Just let me ah — change back into my work clothes." She realizes that she is wearing black workout shorts and a gray sports bra that completely exposes her midriff. Blush fills her cheeks and her heartbeat fluctuates.

She's forgotten how much she hates feeling embarrassed.