Hoping for a Slow Day

The figure sitting next to Krish had been staring directly ahead with his arms folded across his chest, completely unmoving, for quite some time now. Someone not paying too much attention might think he was just utterly enthralled with the teacher's lecture. Someone looking more closely would probably notice the crow demon's eyes were completely glazed over. A faint whistling came from the corner of his beak as he dozed obliviously through the man's entire sneezing fit. Even the wave of giggles among his classmates failed to wake him up until the person next to him snapped his fingers.

Kuwa gave a little jolt and cocked his feathered head to the side, glancing startledly over his recently-transferred desk-partner. Remedial classes at the Academy weren't all as miserable as solving equations, but this class in particular had the young tengu zoning out so hard that even his own classmates fell off his radar. He studied Krish first with one eye, then the other. He looked at the teacher, evidently with an onset of sudden allergies.

"..."

The expression on his bird-face was unreadable. "Kek?" he said-- which meant nothing-- and then looked between the two again. The connection finally dawning on him, Kuwa discreetly pointed at his desk-mate. Brightening at the chance to escape a boring class, Kuwa leaned across the aisle and scribbled a note (Hi) quickly on the corner of his neighbor's paper before leaning back. As if playing back an exact recording of the other student's voice, the parrotmouth raised his voice over his classmates' snickering and repeated "He's clearly sick, sick as can be..."

Ever-so-pleased that his deskmate had seen his note (Kuwa prided himself on his penmanship) the bird-man fluffed his feathers importantly. He bobbed his head along as Krish talked, offering nothing more than utterly mindless agreement. He was a little distracted by the continued coughing from their teacher, whose symptoms were certainly becoming alarming. Kuwa cocked his head a little bit towards the instructor, wondering what on earth was the matter with him. He had seen sick humans before, but the daitengu of his homeland never fell ill-- he had no system of rules to compare it to. However, it made sense that if you couldn't talk, you couldn't teach... right?

The possibility of magic at work never occurred to the tengu, who could normally "smell" that kind of power at work. They didn't call his kind jinx-eaters for no reason. But there was nothing about the situation that alerted Kuwa's bird-shaped senses-- just a class full of giggling remedial students, a very ill professor, and an increasingly loud voice of reason beside him. Should I do it? The thought echoed cavernously around his head, and Kuwa hesitated. Why didn't Krish just say it himself? Kuwa was nervous enough speaking as it was, and trying to talk to the teacher or going up in front of the class was...

Brightening at his new idea, the tengu snaked out with both hands and took hold of Krish's elbow. Kuwa stood, tugging insistently at his new partner in crime to force the other male to join him. "We can barely learn while the teacher is sick," he parroted helpfully. Looking around and seeing that nobody was impressed-- least of all their instructor, who was attempting to tell him to sit down through fits of coughing-- Kuwa began to feel alarmed and tugged at Krish again, changing tactics. "He is sick!" he declared, "I am sick! Somewhere sick students don't stay in class?" Kuwa began to make convincing coughing noises as if playing back a tape from a flu ward.


(ooc: No prob! Sorry for the wait on my end too!)