Dear Diary,

Sometimes when I'm teaching my class, especially those times when I'm focused on Citron and Hildegarde, I wonder how much of teaching is just trolling for fun and profit. Like, not in the profit for me sense, but in the benefits for everyone involved sense. Okay, I don't benefit from it except my ongoing amusement at the sheer amount of brain and willpower they'll put into fucking with each other, even to their own detriment, but when I can use their own worst impulses to guide them to a place where they can learn, improve, or both, it makes me feel kinda giddy.

Important point, I think there's a difference between 'learning' and 'improving'. The former is an intellectual thing. Not always entirely mental, but something where the brain is actively engaged, where the person gaining Skill sees how they're gaining skill, is hitting moments where everything just makes sense, or at least how they're failing and what they need to do to succeed makes sense. The latter is more of a muscle memory, gut instinct kind of thing. Yeah, I talk a lot about learning, but honestly I think I did a shit ton of improving before I ever started learning. Then again, maybe some of what I was doing was 'healing' more than 'improving'.

Of course, it's really just those two that I do that kind of trolling with. The rest of the Cadets I try to be a little more, I dunno, mom-like. I watch them, talk through their difficult spots, and give them what advice I can. It doesn't always work, but I have yet to see an instance where it actually hurts. So I'm gonna keep tryna do that as long as I can. I feel a little guilty treating my two thorns in my side differently than the rest, but then, they wind up causing more of my headaches than the rest of the class put together.

So yesterday by the end of the day the kids were absolutely knackered. When we got home Marie had soup for everybody. Warm, filling, easy to eat, doubling down on the whole 'sleepy kids' thing. Each of us carried a couple sleepy tots upstairs, scrubbed them down in the shower as they complained sleepily, then toweled them dry and carried them down to bed. Of course, the four of us were kinda sleepy ourselves after a day of kid wrangling. So we just snuggled into bed our own selves and went to sleep.

Dreamt of my ladies playing with crayons and glitter and paste. Yeah, sometimes dreams still get weird.

Woke up early, which still fucks with me a little bit, but mostly lets me snuggle with Marie before anybody else wakes up. After a while doing that the two of us Translocated to the Dining Hall, where she presented me with my own all I could eat breakfast. I mean that, too, because even once I Co-Located up to start teaching, she kept the food coming. Not sure why I got the special treatment today, but not gonna complain, either.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"Okay, last week I had you guys doing the waltz. Pretty basic stuff, as long as the couple dancing know who's supposed to be leading, and the person supposed to be following follows." That got a kind of pointed chuckle out of the class, even as my two problem children blushed. "This morning we're gonna do a bit more practice specifically on that leading and following. This afternoon, those of you who have managed to get that down can move on to our next dance, the Tango."

After a nice brisk hour run, I had the Cadets all stretch properly, then broken them into pairs for dancing the Waltz. Before we started, with Hildegarde and Citron glaring daggers at each other, I called on Vickerson. "C'mon over here and show me what you learned last week."

I then proceeded to let her lead. After doing that for maybe five minutes, I called out, "switch!" and took over leading. Vickerson took the change like a pro, sliding her hand up to my shoulder as I slid mine down to her hip. We danced another few minutes like that, until I called out, "switch!" again, and we switched back. After another little while, I nudged her and she stopped. We stepped apart, gave each other a little bow, and I turned to the class. "That's how you do it, ladies and gentlemen."

At that point I set them to dancing. With the exception of a couple comparatively clumsy Cadets and my pair of ne'er do wells, all of them managed to lead and follow properly. They even managed to switch with minimal clumsiness. As for Citron and Hildegarde, they kinda managed to get it right to begin with, with Citron leading and Hildegarde following, but the moment I told them to switch, they wound up tripping over each other and almost planting themselves into the pavers. I gave them another few tries, but by lunch they still hadn't managed it.

After lunch I showed all the ones who managed to get leading and following down the basics of the Tango. I demonstrated with Vickerson again, then left her 'in charge' of the bulk of the class. Which didn't so much need someone in charge as much as someone to call out when to switch lead and follow.

I spent the rest of the day working with the others. One Cadet at a time I danced with them, first following them, then leading them, then switching back again. As I danced with Hildegarde, she growled, "dunno why we have to learn this."

"Because, Cadet, not every mission you'll be sent on will be one you can complete by punching someone. Sometimes you'll have to talk to people. Friendly like. Sometimes you'll have to figure out problems and solve them peacefully. And sometimes you might even have to dance."

She frowned. "When did you have to dance?"

I shrugged. "Haven't had to, not yet, not really. Not vertically." I grinned at her with that, and she blushed and looked grumpy. "But when I found the refugees from Calverton, I had to be fast on my feet to turn what would have been a war into a small series of... well... duels. Probably saved a few thousand lives. Which at the end of the day, is what being a Hero is all about." She looked confused. "Saving lives. Not wrecking shit. Even if that is what you and I are good at."

By the end of the day, all of them managed to smoothly switch from lead to follow and back. Even Citron and Hildegarde.

Not, like, with each other. Baby steps.