Jordan followed Felix into his room, chuckling softly. 

"You actually have a girl? Damn kid, who is she? I was just trying to get you to open the door. She must be twice as stubborn as you, nearly as headstrong as-" Jordan cut himself off, his demeanour souring a bit. "As Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons." Manilow looked around the dorm, smelling faintly of teenage boy as most dorms did. It was certainly small, though not, he remarked, as small as a military-regulation bunk. He took the opportunity to pull out a chair, and sit down, massaging his shoulder and stretching languidly.

"It's not a charitable act, kid, and I'm not asking you to be my punching bag. [i]You[/i] were the one who wanted to take a teacher on, and so kindly left a note instructing me to do so. The reason I offer you a fresh change of clothes is because your fighting skill won't be at its height in those rags. How are you supposed to focus on the fight when you get undesirable drafts of air in certain... places..?"

The gym teacher shook his head and smiled. "It's good you don't take shit from anybody, but you've got to realize there's a difference between pity, and a genuine desire to help you succeed. I don't know what kinds of people you've known in your life, but as a soldier at least, you get the worst extremes of both kinds of person. Your squad, your unit-mates, they're your lifeblood, who you depend on when one of you takes a hit, the closest thing to family in the deepest circles of hell. And then there's the target, the enemy, the people we don't treat like people. We give them hell, and they give it back. Just the way things are. No sense to it all. They break you down, build you up, give you the strongest bonds you can make, those forged in combat. And then a day comes along where you make one bad shot, or the intel misses one key detail, and your whole life gets fucked. And so it starts again. All that really means, Felix, is that when it comes to people, the way you treat them is everything. It's good to be strong, to be fierce, to be proud. Don't let what's good about you keep you from acknowledging your weak points, or the fact that if your damned gym teacher wants to give you some help, it's not because he sees you as some inferior being, it's because he sees potential in you."

Jordan paused, realized how long he'd been talking, and wondered if the boy had heard any of what he'd just said. He had just tried to punch him after all. Wouldn't be the most promising candidate for a lecture, or a pep talk, but then, Manilow was surprised he'd strung so many words together into a coherent narrative. Most times he tried to do something like that, Cathy would point out all the contradictions and non-sequiturs that-

Jordan stopped that trail of thought, again, and just sat, chewing his lip. 

"So who's this girl anyway?"

[@Zelosse]