King of Hearts (House of Cards Series 2) [Student/teacher]

Ace of Clubs

West was hunched over his knees, chest heaving, sweat dripping from his brow to rain down onto the floor in evidence of his exertion. His back was a line of firey pain, his fingers thick and heavy compared to their usual, supple grace.

"Oh d*** you ok West?" Alice asked, rushing to check on him.

"Yeah, just wrenched the h*** out of my back that last time." West grunted and straightened himself up, carefully stretching his back out. Alice stayed back as he bent, twisted, reached and worked the muscles of his back until the pain subsided into an angry ache. "That's going to hurt more later." West grumbled to himself.

"Just imagine how fun that's gonig to feel the next day." Alice teased warningly and patted him on the shoulder.

 "Stellar." West grunted in response. Romeo was motioning for the Cuban to come over his way, but with Alice right next to him, West knew that wasn't happening. She really had gone from potential romance interest to baby sister over the last couple of months. Which seemed to mean that he couldn't complain when she mothered him. Speaking of.... "Did you eat at lunch?" he asked her, derailing whatever comment she was about to spout out at him.

"Ah... yeah...." Alice's eyes got that look when she was trying to remember something. And with her memory, it should have been easy for her to recall. "I had the daily special." she tried to cover her lack of answer.

"Sure sure like I believe THAT." West pointed her towards his bag. Alice rolled her eyes and huffed, walking away from the Cuban and raiding his bag for goodies. All West had needed to do was tell his 'la that Alice was loosing too much weight and not eating enough and suddenly he found himself gonig to school with every tasty pastry his grandmother knew how to make. It wasn't even for him which was entirely unfair! But it seemed to be working, his grandmother's cooking helping Alice not waste away to skin and bone.

With Alice off the trail, West managed to wander over to Romeo without anyone realizing that the dup were not talking class or girls. "Seems like their cameras were more effective than we wanted." Romeo stated, not elaborating. West nodded, trusting his friend. Either he'd spotted a tail on his way in, or he'd noticed something to put him on edge.

"We just have to last out the week, then we're in Mexico. If they follow us down there, we'll handle it." West shrugged, knowing that it wasn't that simple. But he didn't want to alarm Romeo unless necessary. His friend had been intrigued with his gangland past, but hadn't ever really wanted to get involved in gang life himself. Smart move on Romeo's behalf.

The Trinidadian nodded, then had to head back over to his group. He was getting to be the illustrious Bottom, the poor b****** that had to 'sleep' with Lexi's Titania. Since neither West nor Romeo were the guys that thought she was the hottest s*** ever, the honor was wasted on the both.

West stood still for a moment and just looked over the room of his 'peers'. He spotted his Mad working with some of the less talented dancers, helping them become more remarkable just by being around them. Alice was sitting on the edge of the stage with his bag, nibbling on food while listening to her friend sing. He realized that even though these were his classmates, he felt no connection to most of them, caring only about the select few who seemed worth it. West wondered for a moment if that made him a bad person, and then he realized that he didn't care if it did. He tried not to hurt anyone, tried to be there for the people he DID care about and generally tried not to be a mondo pain in the a** all at the same time. If that wasn't enough to at least balance his karma out a little, he'd worry about the state of his soul after they got back from Mexico.

"Are you actually going to participate or are you being a supervisor?" Maddison asked him teasingly.

He cracked a smile at his girlfriend, knowing she'd understand his next statement even if no one else did. "Just catching up with myself."

"Oh, any news that you were missing out on?" she went along with it, as if the conversation made any real sense.

"Apparently I grew up a little bit. It's astonishing to realize but I just had to ask myself what I planned to do with my future." West had made it a joke but he realized that Maddison's body language was tense and agitated.

"Oh? What sort of plans?" Maddison tried to ask it casually, as if the answer wouldn't make her heart feel stabby pain. West looked at her as if he realized she cared more about the answer than she wanted to let on.

"Not sure yet. But I am realizing that I need to sort things out. Other than summer school, this is it for highschool. I don't think I even applied to any colleges while I had the chance." West shrugged, not understanding why that bothered him so much now. He didn't even know what he would try and study in university, it wasn't like he enjoyed being a student just for the h*** of it.

Maddison nodded, not letting him know what she had kicking around her head. A possible suggestion and very slight chance for him, but he wasn't ready to hear it yet. "What about less long term than that? What are your plans for this week?" she asked.

"Well, I was planning on surprising my Angel with a romantic date sometime this week as I'll be in Mexico and she and I won't be able to celebrate the way I'd like..." West trailed off, having to resist the urge to wink at her and make her blush more. But there were children watching and he didn't want to cause more problems for Maddison. She hadn't told him yet, but he knew that his outburst had cost her the dance troupe. Surprisingly enough that tonto Rafe had hunted him down and apologized to the Cuban. West had forgiven him with a shrug of the shoulders and the universal bro code for all is well, the head nod.

Maddison was still an adorable shade of pink. "Wow she sounds like a lucky girl." she breathed, a smile dancing around the edges of her lips.

West laughed, unable to resist. "She's dating me, of course she's lucky." he stated.

"So modest too." Maddison rolled her eyes skyward and tried not to flirt back. She was a teacher now d***it and she had to remember to ACT like one. Even if she was the pervert sleeping with one of her students. As often as possible.

"Actually, she's a lucky enough girl that I'm going to ask her to go on that romantic date with me tonight. Wish me luck that she says she'll go." West whispered the last bit at her and Maddison went from pink to scarlet in less than an eyeblink.

Maddison bit her lip to kill the urge to spin into his arms and kiss him. Of course she wanted to go on a romantic date! "Well it'd be silly of her not to." Maddison managed to bump him with her hip and make it not look like flirting. "Now get back to work Mr. James." she instructed, knowing that he'd hate being called that.

"You're a horrible, mean person Ms. Avery." West called over his shoulder to her.

"Yeah yea, you love me, we all know it." Maddison waved off, wishing that last statement were true. Because it had occured to her over the weekend that she had, in fact, already fallen in love with this willful, dangerous and highly addictive man.

"Awww, isn't that sweet. But what would your Angel have to say about this?" Alice teased her friend, one of hte only people in on the joke.

"She'd kick my a**." West stated proudly, hearing Maddison laugh at his words.

"And I'd hold her coat while she did it." Alice warned, though West caught the humour in her voice. She knew him well enough that he knew it was all jokes. He wasn't a cheater, it was that simple. "Maybe you should tell her how true that statement is." Alice whispered to him when he reached her side.

"What do you mean?" West played dumb, automatically stalling for time. He wasn't the kindof guy to just spill his emotions, and thankfully Alice seemed content to leave well enough alone. For now.

"We should get back to practicing before someone thinks we're just wasting time." Alice said with a sigh, stuffing the now empty container back into West's bag.

"Oh goodie." West snarked, following her back out, already forgetting the pain in his muscles from ten minutes earlier. He wouldn't admit it to anyone, not even himself yet, but he really did love to dance.

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A/N: This chapter kind of feels like filler to me, but a couple of things had to get established before I got West to Mexico :P For those of you who read Queen of Spades, you'll be pleasantly surprised by the differences from Alice's Mexico trip compared to West's, remember, they basically only spent practices together once they're there