A/N: Shout out to Spooths, for being our amazing beta

Chapter Warning: drinking, allusion to cutting

All weekend the sassy blonde had done nothing but sit and stew over her treatment that day. She literally just fucked you and then threw you out, can't you just accept that she doesn't care and move on? That had been her mantra of choice but there was a nagging second thought that sat in the back of her mind. She cared enough to seek you out. There has to be something more. You're not even the most attractive kid in that class. Then it hit her. No one ever said you were the only one. Was she the only one? Probably not? Miss Baine seemed so practiced about it, who knows how many there had been. She didn't bat an eye the whole time.

Endlessly bouncing these thoughts around her head was doing her no good; Elsa needed a reason to talk to her teacher. Once she put her mind to the task, it didn't take the blonde long to settle on a good reason, and then all she had to do was wait for the bell to ring and class to clear out. 2:59.

Miss Baine spent the last hour of the day grading papers from behind her desk, and keeping an eye on her students. She liked to make sure that her class spent at least a few hours a week reading. Kids were far too unread these days. The more advanced students were allowed to bring in their own material, but the rest were assigned reading from her, she was slowly taking them through her favorite classics

As the clock ticked she made note of those who insisted on daydreaming instead of reading, making a list in her head of other possible books to assign. Nothing she handed out yet seemed to interest the blonde in the back though. Dragons... yes, that would be the next thing to try. A book with dragons in it. She worked on making a list of possible choices until the bell finally rang.

Snapping back into reality Elsa gathered her stuff and straggled along, trying to make it seem like she was just moving slow as opposed to killing time. When the last student had waved goodbye and exited the class, Elsa made her way up to the elder's desk.

"Uh, h-hey, you got a minute?"

Her teacher looked up—none of the need or lust in her eyes that the Elsa had seen during their last encounter was present—merely a look of curiosity and a willingness to listen. Her demeanor was relaxed and warm, inviting like a proper teacher.

"Yes, was there something you needed?" She inquired.

Whoa talk about your 180's. She clutched the strap of her bag and fiddled with it nervously."Y-you k-know…" Will you fucking talk? "You know that extra credit I did? I..I was thinking on it...and uh...C isn't enough to raise my grade to passing...not the whole thing." She managed to get out

"Ah, I see." The brunette switched her gaze back to her papers, her pencil continuing to make marks on that morning's quizzes. "I'm sorry Miss Winters, but I just can't give an A for C level work."

Elsa let out a slew of condescending noises. "T'ch, phhht, w-well give me more work to do." She simply shrugged. "It's not my fault your standards are so high."

Miss Baine calmly stood up and put her papers away, leaving one on the table in front of the blonde.

"You come to me thinking you deserve more work?" She pointed to the letter on the quiz, it was yet another F. "You can't even get a passing grade on a three question quiz that you had an entire weekend to prepare for." She paused, letting her words sink in. "You are not entitled to extra credit Miss Winters. And at this point" She looked her student over with cold, detached eyes, "I don't think you'll be getting it any time soon."

With that, she walked to the door, leaving the young woman with nothing but her failed quiz.

So many things were running through the girl's mind, so many feelings twisted in her gut that made her feel sick as she stared down that quiz. You should have been studying instead of fixating on a stupid fucking mistake that you didn't even get a passing grade for. If it was so stupid, why did she feel like she needed more? If it was so stupid, why did she keep coming back?

The next few days were the same thing. She went out of her way to draw her teacher's eye but nothing. Finally she approached her desk rather briskly and much more informal than her other accounts.

"How do you expect me to pass if you wont fucking help me? You and I both know I -need- this or I'm stuck here for another year!" Yelling at her is obviously a great approach. Let's see if it doesn't land you detention; she's already made it obvious she's done with you, You had your chance...You weren't good enough…

"Language," was the superior's only response, once again not even bothering to look up.

Elsa rolled her eyes and snorted. "Oh so now that you're not fucking me over your desk the language is a problem. I see. That's bullshit. Total fucking bull shit."

The elder woman stood up, somehow managing to tower over the blonde despite her rather small stature. She placed her hands on her desk and leaned forward. "Have a seat, Miss Winters." Her tone brokered no argument.

Elsa didn't even bother to pull up a chair; she sat her stubborn ass down right on the edge of the desk and crossed her arms. A little reminiscent of the first day, only she was angrier. Hurt.

Miss Baine walked around to face her student, refusing to acknowledge the hurt and vulnerability she saw in the young eyes. Instead she focused on dealing with the obstinate girl in front of her. Whatever was going on behind the scenes was none of her business.

"I was merciful and gave you a chance to raise your test grade. You managed to get all the way to a C, because that's what you are, you are C level material. You had potential once upon a time, but your laziness an inability to pay attention means that all you'll ever be is a C level person. But your grades don't even reflect that, your grades are calling you a failure. I know you're not a failure, but you're definitely not an A either. Show me that you can at least fulfill my expectations of a C, just barely passing on the material form here on out, and you can graduate. Until then, I don't think we have anything further to discuss."

"I'm the smartest person in this class, cant you just cut me a break? I came here in the middle of the year and I've had nothing but bull shit on my plate the whole time, the last thing I need is more from you!"

The clearly exasperated teacher pinched the bridge of her nose, her facade dropping for a moment, leaving her looking annoyed and almost pissed off. Then she took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, pulling herself back together.

"I'm sorry Miss Winters, but you seem to be under the impression that it matters to me whether or not you graduate." She walked back around her desk to grab her things and started making her way to the door again. "Either you fulfill my expectations or you don't, because the reality of it is," She paused and turned to meet those ice blue eyes.

"I don't care."

Then she exited the room.

"I don't care." The senior snorted as she threw back the last of her beer and chucked the can.

"I don't care, pphhtt." She didn't know if she was repeating the line because it had left her crying in an empty classroom, or if she was trying to convince herself she truly didn't.

"I don't care, well I got news for you 'Miss B'" She spoke her teacher's name in a mocking tone, accompanied with drunken air quotes as she found herself getting angrier the farther she walked. "No one fucking does. You're not the fucking first."

Frustrated and angry, she shoved her hands in her hoodie pockets and stumbled along the pathway, mumbling curses and muttering about other people in her life as more unwanted memories surfaced, stirred up by most recent events. She turned to spit— having every intention of getting the awful taste of cheap beer out of her mouth— but had stopped in her tracks when something caught her eye. Holy shit is that Miss B's car? I think it is.

How far had she gone? How far had Elsa just wandered in her drunken state? With a very dark chuckle Elsa grabbed the vodka bottle from her backpack and downed a good third of it within a few seconds. She felt sick, and like her stomach and throat were on fire. What ever, she always felt that way, even on days without the liquor.

Stumbling over she slammed her fist on the door a few time. I hope she has company. Some part of her mind said it was her turn to ruin someone's day, preferably someone like her teacher, who had fucked her up and apparently didn't even care.

Belle sat up from the couch, wholly confused. She looked at the clock, it was already 11pm and she had fallen asleep in front of the TV. The pounding at her door once again roused her from her sleepy state. What even...? She made her way to her front door, her slumbering brain bored down her thought process and she didn't even look to see who it was before opening the door. When in stumbled a very drunk Elsa. ..fuck...

"Oooooooooooh well if it isn't miss I don't care" She found her own joke funny and snorted before taking another swig of the vodka. "I'm ssssssoooooooooooo sorry, is this a bad time?" Obviously she held little remorse for her actions, "You want a drink? Or do you not care for this either?"

Finding herself fully awake now she ushered the younger woman inside, her mind was running a million places at once as she ignored the slurred words escaping the blonde's mouth. Nononononono this is my home she can't just show up in my home what am I supposed to do with her?

Belle absentmindedly took the proffered bottle, part of her knowing that she needed to get this kid sobered up and fast. Working on autopilot, she led the stumbling girl to the couch and took the bottle with her to the kitchen, returning with a glass of water.

As the elder disappeared from the room, the young blonde looked around at the nicely put together house. No one could afford something like this on a teacher's salary. Someone had money; it was either her or her parents. It had to be one. Maybe a grandparent? What ever, it didn't matter either way.

"Is this mahogany?" Elsa snorted as she slapped the sturdy wood of the coffee table. Then she finally noticed she was missing something. "H-hey! Where'd my booze g-go? I said a drink not the bottle!" She hissed. Water was then shoved into the her hands.

"Drink."

Belle turned her back on her student and rubbed her forehead. She needed to get back in charge, figure out how this kid even got her address. She needed to pull herself together.

Doing what she was told she took a drink and then made a face. "Thiiis isn't vodka.." She set the glass down shakily, trying not to spill it in her inebriated state. While her superior's back was turned she managed to slide off the couch and wander down a hall lined with bookshelves. "Jesus fucking christ do you h-have ssssocial life?" She gave a quick snort and took one of the books off the shelf, flipping through the pages. However she lacked the motor skills to put it back in its place and instead just dropped it to the floor., already looking around again."Oh stairs"

Oh my god does she never just sit still? "Wait, where are you going?" her voice gave away how absolutely frazzled she was inside. Situations like this had been specifically avoided for most of her life. She was not in control and she was out of her depth. How dare this highschooler just come into her house like this?

After a rather entertaining trek up the stair case Elsa found herself in what appeared to be yet another room full of books and a lounge chair. "Hey isn't this supposed to be the g-guest room?" She chuckled. "I guess that would require you to have guests." It was a low blow, but she meant what she had said, even if it had come out of an anger driven state.

"Oh shit." She laughed as she tripped over her feet and fell back against another door. "aayyyyy what's in here?" She assumed it was the teacher's bedroom, and found herself pausing for some reason. What? What was she stopping for? Fear? Respect?

"Ok you're right, I don't actually have a guest bedroom," She spoke from the top of the stairs, arms crossed and leaning on the doorframe. Belle looked the drunk teen over and felt something soften within her, whatever the kid's reasons were for coming here in this state, it was definitely her problem to deal with now.

Without another word she took a few quick strides over to her bedroom door, opening it up behind the younger woman, leaving her to fall into the room. She didn't have to be nice about it. The teacher walked past the blonde sprawled out on the floor and started rummaging in her drawers.

"It's late, you might as well sleep here tonight," she kept her voice and demeanor brusque, "I don't know where you've been though, so you'll need to change before you completely pass out, or I'm just going to leave you there on the floor."

Elsa just laid there on the floor, staring up at the ceiling. She hadn't fallen particularly hard and she hadn't hit anything on her way down; but it still felt like she couldn't move. Change clothes. Don't know where I've been. She was silent for a second. "...Don't know where you've been..." She quoted in a soft voice, her lip almost trembling. "No you do-don't. You d-don't care."

She curled in on herself, still on the floor and clung to herself like she was clinging to her life. She was her own lifeline, mentally and physically. It had always been that way! Why should now be any different?

A hard sigh escaped the brunette's lips. What she was doing clearly wasn't working. She realized she was going to need to be softer about this. It doesn't matter. Whatever gets the kid up and moving, I just need to get her to change so I can put her to bed, do whatever it takes to get this over with as fast as possible. The teacher ignored the tug on her heartstrings at the sight of the blonde curled up as small as possible on her bedroom floor. Oh god please don't cry, I don't want to deal with that.

"Listen Mi- ah, Elsa, I need to you get up for me and change. It doesn't matter whatever else happened tonight, let's just get you in some clean clothes, ah, ok?" She knelt down and rubbed the blonde's back, trying to be comforting.

Her trembling stopped almost the instant she felt the warmth of the other woman's hand on her back. She loosened her hold on herself and nodded meekly. Sitting up she shakily got to her feet, and without thinking, started to strip herself of her dirty clothes. She had a fair amount of scars plastered to her body; each one had a story she had never told. Most of them she had gotten from sneaking out, or doing some stupid stunt. The ones on her arms? Those stories were the ones that really hurt. They were the ones whose stories were full of neglect and fear…loneliness and self-hatred.

She was stripped down to nothing but her bra and panties now as she hugged herself, more from her soul gripping insecurities that shown through even her drunken state then the temperature of the room. "N-now wh-what?" She asked, stumbling a little as her equilibrium faltered for a second.

Belle quickly moved to steady the girl, feeling her tremble, and led her to the bed to sit down. "There you go sweetheart…" Wait, what? "…Just uh, just let me grab you some pjs...I'm shorter than you, but you can wear shorts and an oversized shirt, right..?"

She averted her eyes as she rambled, this kind of vulnerability making her uncomfortable. She didn't want to be curious; she didn't want to know the stories. The small woman grabbed the said items and handed them to the shaking girl. Then grabbed her own pjs and headed toward her bathroom, "Just uh, put those on, I will be right back."

Right, ok, shorts and a big t-shirt, easy enough, right? Wrong. When you're drunk standing is a hard enough task, and she was so drunk it was amazing she made it up the stairs. There was a thud and some curses that penetrated the walls, but after that the teen managed to get dressed she just laid flat on the floor and started singing the digimon theme song. Whatever, she was drunk.

The older woman walked back into the room wearing boxers and a tank, and stopped short when she saw the singing teen on her floor. Dear god give me strength… She stepped over the drunk girl and slid into her covers, fully intending to just go to sleep. That was enough care right? She'd even closed the door behind her, confident that the blonde wouldn't be able to work a doorknob for sometime yet.

After singing the same 8 words over and over for a good ten minutes because she had forgotten the rest of the words, Elsa managed to get off the floor and clamber into the bed, where she pressed herself against her teacher's back. Who needed covers? She made more than enough heat for herself.

"Where did you get all your money?" She asked, completely out of the blue. It was quiet and she was drunk, her mind was everywhere.

"My father." Belle returned briefly, clearly unwilling to speak further on the matter.

"Knew it!" Her triumphant bark was louder than she intended. "He must own like... Triscuits or something..."

/Triscuts? what the fuck? of all things?/

The brunette exhaled hard through her nose and then sat up against the headboard, so she could face her now rather bubbly charge. "...Are you like...even tired..?"

" Ssshhhhhh you'll wake my teacher"

The sober of the two just pinched the bridge of her nose. What did I do to deserve this insanity?

"Ohhhhh you're up." She beamed and pressed herself firmly against the other's side, head laying just under her teacher's chin. " I can hear your heart beat..."

"Ok... I just..." she sighed and let her arm drape over the younger's shoulders, resigning herself to a night of this... whatever this was.

Another short silence before the teen just spouted out another thought. "I wonder if they will start teaching a class dedicated to drugs and what they do to you..."It wasn't actually random; she had been thinking of her drug addict foster brother Hans, but Belle didn't need to know that.

Oh god, what even? She'd been almost asleep and was rudely jarred awake by the way too loud girl on her chest. "I guess you can figure that out when you repeat senior year..."

This time there was a different type of silence. The silence felt cold, the air was thick and the voice that broke it was no longer innocent and curious—it was malicious and angry.

"F-fuck you." She pulled back and narrowed her eyes venom dripping from her words. "Fuck you, you think you're so big, so much better than me. Sitting up there writing letters on paper. Glad you know your fucking alphabet." She sneered.

"Couldn't have given me normal extra-credit could you?" Tears were brimming her eyes now, tears of anger and pain. " No y-you had to fuck me, d-didn't even ask y-you just took it. I ha-hadn't even ever been kissed, I was never good enough! No one ever cared to kiss me, not even you! I was good enough for you t-to shove y-your surprise dick in but you c-couldn't even k-kiss me." The levy had broken and she was a crying mess now as she just spilled everything between them.

Fuck. That was the only word her mind could think right now. There were a thousand different thoughts but the only one could focus on was fuck.

Instinctively Belle wrapped her arms around the crying girl, she had no words, what do you say to that? Her walls were fighting to come back up, but each sob from the heaving blonde broke her even further. You fucking monster... She drew the girl closer, opening her mouth a few times to speak, but nothing would come out. There were no words.

"A-all I w-wanted was your at-ttention. I j-just wanted s-something a-after. A-all you d-did was p-push me aw-way." She sobbed. "I-I'm s-sorry I was o-only a C-c-c. I-I-I d-don't k-know w-wh-what I'm d-doing.." She buried her face into the brunette's neck and cried harder.

The brunette could do nothing but hold the sobbing blonde. All of her words, anything she could think of, they all felt empty and cold. That's because you are empty and cold. You can't feel anything, you never could. You don't deserve this kid, all she wants is you. No one has ever wanted you... Deep within the recesses of her mind, she could feel something happening, feelings long ago buried and carefully locked away were starting to ran her fingers soothingly through the blonde tresses, rubbing the girls back, trying to get her to stop trembling.

After a good 20 minutes of sobbing to the point where she had no more tears to cry, Elsa passed out, face buried in the neck of the one person she craved above all else. Despite everything Belle did to prove to Elsa that she wanted nothing to do with her, she still felt safe lying beside her.

Belle sighed in relief when her charge finally tired herself out and fell asleep.

The rest of the night was spent staring into the darkness, and she let her mind wander down a thousand different paths. She held the girl in her arms, as she slowly and carefully built her walls back up again. No one was allowed inside. It was too dangerous. She'd been through this before.

But if her student wanted her... then fine. She vowed to see just how much the blonde could swallow before she realized it wasn't worth it.