Gotta Curb the Crazy (Private: Flair & Rackie)

Timestamp:
Sometime after "Perhaps Therapy Will Help"
14:30 PM


"Wooh! Finally! The classes are over!" Catherine said to herself as she sat at the teacher's desk in her classroom. For some reason that was a very tiring day for her. The lessons weren't going as smoothly as she'd expected, everyone seemed unfocused. It just wasn't her day. At least she did everything she could to do her job.

Months had passed since Catherine's last meeting with Allelujah. Nothing much had happened since that time. At least to Catherine. Probably the biggest change she'd made was a slight change of style. She started wearing suits during her working hours and started experimenting with hairstyles a bit. Her old lab coat landed at the very bottom of her wardrobe since it wasn't needed. What about Allelujah though? It's not like Catherine abandoned him or anything. Actually, she wanted to give him time and see whether he was able to deal with his alter ego known as Hallelujah. Also, it's not like Catherine hadn't been keeping an eye on her partner. She'd been collecting reports from other students and DWMA employees about him. Just to make sure he wasn't going down a dangerous path. Unluckily for her, everything she'd received wasn't informative enough for her to come to any serious conclusion. Perhaps it was finally time to meet with the Death Scythe again? Well, Catherine started to miss him a bit, so it seemed like a good opportunity to arrange a meeting.

The witch pulled out her phone out of a pocket of her trousers and found Allelujah's number in her contacts book. "I hope he's not busy..." Catherine said to herself as she called the number.

Allelujah was settled in the library with a book of case studies on multiple personality disorder, thoroughly engrossed in the account of a woman who claimed that she had 15 different people inside of her at any given moment. He wore a small frown as he read, blocking out everything and anything that could possibly distract him. After his therapy appointment, he'd started to do a bit more research on multiple personality disorder when he had free time between Hallelujah's takeovers and keeping himself physically fit in case he needed to engage in combat again.

In fact, the death scythe was so absorbed that he took no notice to his phone ringing in his pocket. It wasn't until the haughty looking librarian came over and snapped at him to put his phone on silent that Allelujah came back to reality. He blinked a few times, stretched, and then apologized before checking the book out and stepping outside into the school corridor.

Sliding his phone out of his pocket, Allelujah was a bit surprised to see a missed call from his partner. After all, they'd not kept in close contact since they'd formed their partnership. Shrugging to himself, he redialed Catherine's number and waited for her to pick up.

Come on... come on... come on!" Catherine muttered during her wait for her partner to pick up his phone. Unluckily for her, apparently he was too busy to notice that she was calling him. So, before the voice mail recording got triggered, Catherine clicked on the red button to end the (failed) call and let out a slightly disappointed sigh, before placing the device on the desk. "Oh well... I guess I'll call him again later." She said to herself as she started packing her laptop and books into a bag. It's not like she really wanted to meet him. It's not like she liked him for being a nice guy. Not at all! Catherine let out another quiet sigh of disappointment as she looked around the empty classroom.

That's when her phone rang suddenly, making Catherine jump in place a bit. She looked at the screen before picking the device up. Seeing that the caller was Allelujah himself, made the witch smirk a bit. The initial feeling of disappointment disappeared almost instantly. Catherine quickly answered the call and greeted the Death Scythe- "Hello Allelujah! Thanks for calling back!"

"Yeah, sorry about that. I was reading and was so focused I didn't even hear my phone," Allelujah apologized, leaning against a nearby wall as he spoke. "It's been a little while since we've talked, huh. How are things with you? Do we maybe have a mission to g-" he cut himself off halfway through the last sentence, swearing under his breath at how hopeful he had sounded. Of course Lord Death wouldn't be sending the psychopathic death scythe and his partner on a mission when they'd not spoken in forever and he had more reliable teams.
On the other hand, Allelujah and Hallelujah had started to get along a bit better after their therapy appointment with Sophia. There was a mutual understanding that Hallelujah couldn't just murder whomever he wanted, and Allelujah had to give his alter ego a bit of freedom. Naturally, it wasn't perfect. After all, both men were equally as stubborn. Hallelujah would decide to come out randomly some times, thinking that Allelujah wasn't giving him enough freedom. Other times, he would simply talk so much in Allelujah's head that it made even leaving their house impossible.
For the most part though, the duo understood that they were stuck the way they were and the best way to handle their situation was to simply compromise. Despite them not originally meeting said conclusion in the middle of the appointment, they'd thought over it and decided that Sophia had made a good point.

"A mission?" Catherine repeated after her partner. Well, it shouldn't be surprising that a Death Scythe wished to be sent on a mission. Unluckily for him, not only his mental state wasn't yet confirmed to be stable enough, but also their experience as a team was minimal. Catherine felt that she was to blame for the second thing though because it was her idea to just quietly watch Allelujah's progress on his problem with Hallelujah instead of getting too involved. She hoped that he'd managed to at least partially accomplish that goal.
"I'm afraid we won't be getting any missions anytime soon." The witch teacher said calmly and made a short pause to let out a sigh. "Well, yeah, it's been a long time since our last meeting. I'd like to meet with you... you know to talk and everything. Can you come to my classroom as soon as possible, please?" Catherine said, really hoping that Allelujah wouldn't reject her little request.

"Right. I know. Just wishful thinking, I suppose." Allelujah replied, shoulders drooping a bit as he was unable to stop himself from sighing. They'd been getting better, and he'd made the mistake of hoping that his progress would be rewarded. But he also knew that he was still a liability to the academy, and it frustrated him to no end.
When Catherine asked him to come to her classroom to catch up, the man ran a hand through his hair and thought about it before saying a word. He wasn't much in the mood for talking, but on the other hand she'd reached out to him. That meant she was genuinely interested in catching up with them, after all. "Yeah, alright. I was gonna head out to the training grounds but that's fine. I'll be there in a minute. Bye," Allelujah answered before hanging up the phone and heading towards Catherine's classroom. It was just down the hall, anyways. Not like it was an awfully long walk.
Ooh, we're gonna go see this lady again? It's been a long time. I'd sure love to have some fun with her, Hallelujah snickered in their head. Allelujah winced at the sudden feeling of Hallelujah pressing against his consciousness just as they approached the door to Catherine's classroom. He knocked, gritting his teeth before opening the door a few moments later.
"Hi," he mustered, digging his nails into his palms in an attempt to ground himself and act natural. Unfortunately, everything about Allelujah's posturing and movements screamed that he was fighting Hallelujah. However, he downright refused to give in like he would have the last time Catherine had seen them. A wetness in his palms forced Allelujah to uncurl his fists. At about the same time, the small and yet disappointed laugh of Hallelujah echoed in his head as the pressure slowly released. Letting out a small sigh of relief, Allelujah mustered a small half smile in Catherine's direction.

Catherine wanted to let out a sigh when Allelujah mentioned that he'd planned to go to the training grounds. Luckily she stopped herself from doing so and thanked the fate for making her call the Death Scythe at a good moment. She believed that if Hallelujah took control of his body at the training grounds full of students, just like during their first meeting, then they'd both end up in some serious trouble. When Allelujah hung up, Catherine stood up and started walking around the classroom. She used her magic to start playing some calm music. She did that mostly to kill time. In her mind, there was hope that her partner managed to deal, at least partially with his conflict with Hallelujah. It was a weak hope, but it was there and it was enough to make the witch teacher believe that Allelujah would one day tell her proudly that he managed to tame the violent site of him.

That hope died a bit when she saw Allelujah walk into her classroom. He looked like he was fighting a huge battle internal with his other personality. The witch bit her lip a bit at that sight. It was barely noticeable, indeed, but Catherine was watching him carefully as if she hoped that she wouldn't see him struggle so much. "Hello Allelujah... I'm sorry for calling you so suddenly and just asking you to come to see me but... well, I really wanted to catch up with you." The witch said with a friendly smile present on her face. She was trying to act as if she hadn't noticed her partner's struggle. To not stress unnecessarily. "Uhm... If you want we can go to the cafeteria, or to some cafe... or, if you're not in the mood we can just sit down at my desk and have a talk. It's up to you." Catherine told Allelujah before she pointed at the teacher's desk. The friendly smile wasn't leaving her face.

"That's alright. I was nearby and only going to go train, so it's not like I was doing anything important. We've started to train almost every day so we can get stronger," Allelujah explained. "I'm up for whatever you want to do. You were the one that called me, after all," the man brushed a stray piece of hair out of his good eye and shrugged.

"I've not been to a cafe to sit and talk for a while, so that would be nice. I usually just grab my coffee and get out." With that, a small frown twitched at the death scythe's lips. One of the disadvantages of Hallelujah's existence was that he was nearly forced to live a life of solitude, not having any idea when his violent side would manifest and cause him to black out.

"Alright, then!" Catherine said before she started quickly putting her belongings into a bag. There were quite a few cafes in Death City, so finding one wouldn't be too difficult. The witch knew about at least two good ones, so perhaps heading to one of them would be a good idea? "So, do you have any favorite cafes? If not I know two places we can pick from. Otherwise, we can just go to the first random one." Catherine said as she pushed her glasses up her nose and smiled at Allelujah warmly. Having a friendly chat at a cafe seemed like a good idea to her no matter whether Hallelujah would try to interrupt them or not.

"No, I don't know of any good cafes. I mostly just go with whatever I'm closest to, because I'm not a very picky person," Allelujah replied, slipping his hands in his pockets and patiently waiting for Catherine to gather her things from teaching that day. Once she had finished, the death scythe quickly headed towards the door and opened it for her.
"Your hands seemed full," he muttered lamely, internally cursing how awkward his attempt to be chivalrous had come off. Nice one Hallelujah snorted in his head, causing Allelujah to roll his eyes and lightly flick his own temple.

"A random cafe then." The witch said in reply to Allelujah's reply. With her bag in hand, she followed the Death Scythe towards the door. Luckily for Allelujah Catherine didn't find his "attempt" lame. On the contrary, in her eyes, it was a showcase of good manners. "Thank you!" She said with a polite smile present on her face, before she left the classroom and stood in the corridor. In her head, she started pondering about what coffee to order. After all, it was a pretty important decision, right? "Alright, let's go then." Catherine said before she turned to start walking towards the exit from the building.