Shutting the door swiftly behind her, Delphine inhaled sharply to clear her senses, her collated syllabi copies tucked tightly against her chest and her tote bag dangling precariously from her shoulder. The hallways were a cataclysmic assault to her nostrils, a familiar amalgamation of overpowering male cologne and the heady buzz of teenaged hormones. Tucked safely behind the thick wood of her classroom's door, she ran her fingers through her hair and exhaled just as furiously as she had previously drawn her breath in, before noticing the peculiar scent permeating the space around her. Patchouli perhaps, or sandalwood? Her eyes fluttered open, scanning the room quickly and landing on a petite figure, smiling bashfully.

"Um, awkward," the woman chuckled, a self-deprecating smile tugging at her cheeks as she sent a half-wave across the distance between them. "I'm Cosima Niehaus, AP biology. I'm new here."

"Delphine Cormier, AP French literature," the blonde easily returned, taking tentative steps forward to extend her hand, starting slightly when a jolt ran up her arm from the contact. "I'm new as well, but clearly not as skilled as you are at navigating the hallways."

"Yeah well, the amount of body spray the freshman use makes me want to duck into random classrooms to escape it too, but I'm guessing you genuinely thought this was your room." Delphine could manage nothing more than a meek nod, her lips curling at the edges as a primrose flush colored her cheeks. Her eyes flickered back and forth between the bewitching grin, accentuated by almost unnoticeable freckles, and the hands swimming through the air around them, orchestrating her syllables and punctuating her thoughts. "I ran into Mrs. Bowles this morning, in the lounge. They moved a few teachers around, so you're next door now."

Cosima, admittedly, had to withhold a Cheshire grin when the principal had informed her of the changes, having spent most of the previous week's new teacher orientation blissfully ignorant of any instructions given in favor of concocting silent hypotheses and formulas to explain how the blonde's hair managed to fall so perfectly over her shoulders. Delphine, on the other hand, sent up silent thanks, more than grateful that she would not be within close proximity of Aynsley Norris, who had spent the week prior ceaselessly interrogating her about her background, her love life, and her hair product choices, despite Delphine's best efforts at warding off her conversational advances.

"There's a door that connects our rooms, so if you want to just slip through there and avoid the masses again, you totally can."

The blonde nodded, murmuring her thanks and flashing a shy smile in Cosima's direction, readjusting her tote bag as she strode across the room, slipping behind the other woman's desk and through threshold. Dropping her things unceremoniously, she twisted around to close the door, but thought better of it as she watched long, perfectly formed dreadlocks swing through the air while Cosima scrawled her name across the white board. Her stare didn't waver, though it did manage to take in several details she hadn't noticed before - the stack of bracelets complimented by several rings, the cat-eye glasses emphasizing winged eyeliner, the rust colored jeans accentuating slender hips -

Delphine groaned quietly, resting her head in her hands and trying fruitlessly to refocus her attention as the shrill bell signaled the beginning of her first class. Shaking her head in a last ditch attempt to rid her brain of its train of thought, she stood, gathering the stack of papers before her; she paused before moving to the podium, her hand quivering slightly as she reached for the doorknob, eventually finding herself unable to sever the only connection she now had to the petite brunette. She instead crossed the room to write her own name in careful cursive, unknowing that as her students filed in and appraised her, the woman next door did the very same.

Warm hazel eyes scanned the bodies in front of her, some fidgeting in their seats, others avoiding eye contact at all costs, and still others assessing her features, clearly noting that she was a far cry from the other teachers they'd had so far as they were maneuvered through the educational system. Twisting one of the many rings that adorned her fingers, she moved front and center, patiently waiting for what little chattering that existed to settle down, remembering the nerves that came with the first day of high school and unwilling to add any more trauma to her fresh faced students.

"Okay, first off, I'm Cosima Niehaus. You can call me Ms. Niehaus, Cosima, whatever you're comfortable with. I'm your teacher, so I will still ask for your respect, but I won't demand it, and what you give me, you'll get right back, got it? I'm new here and so are you, so we'll figure this whole thing out together." Her eyes flickered over the room a second time, seeing the previous anxiety petering out of her students' faces and a grin tugged at her cheeks. "Second, this is AP biology. If you're in the wrong class, I'd walk out now. Nobody knows your name yet, so you're safe." She chuckled as a boy seated in the corner nearest the door ducked his head before gathering his things and slipping back out into the hallway.

"Awesome. Anyway, now that we've got that out, we're going to do those horrible ice-breaker activities because it's pretty obvious that you guys don't want to jump straight into cell structures and mitosis, so we'll start with you." She pointed to the girl seated in the front row, her golden curls falling over her shoulders and her eyes wide with enthusiasm. It was by no means an unselfish gesture, because having her niece in her first class of the day was a godsend she hadn't been expecting. "Okay, so –" she paused, fumbling a bit and waving her hands before her as if she could will the words toward her brain with the movements, her bracelets clinking as she gesticulated. "Say your name and one interesting fact about yourself, I guess. That seems hella easy, right?" The laughter of several of her students bolstered her confidence, sending a warmth to spread through her limbs as she awaited the words of the young girl now standing before her.

"Hey, I'm Kira, and my mom has like, eight identical siblings." It took every minute tendril of strength Cosima possessed not to correct the number, giving away her identity as Kira's aunt, instead nodding and thanking her for starting off the activity.

"I'm Charlotte, and I'm basically half-robot, because all of the bones in my right leg were replaced with titanium." The dreadlocked teacher grinned, shooting a wink in the direction of the dark haired girl sitting behind Kira, purposefully ignoring the note they continually passed back and forth.

The rest of the students found the task rather easy, and the first class of her day was passing quickly, emboldening her optimism in regards to the coming year. The last boy stood up, clearing his throat awkwardly and adjusting his oversized glasses before he spoke. "I'm Ethan, and I read Scientific American in my spare time." Cosima heard a few coughed insults from the back of the room and fixed a steady glare on the group of boys in question, quirking an eyebrow and silencing them quickly.

"Thanks Ethan. Scientific American is one of my faves." Her piercing gaze shifted into one much softer as she smiled at the terrified freshman, feeling a pang filter through her chest as she noted the similarities between the young man sitting to her right and her creator, who was ripped from her life far too soon. "All right, that seems good enough for today. I'll pass out the syllabus for the semester, and you guys can just talk amongst yourselves or whatever." She moved to her left, starting with Ethan, squatting down so that they were eye level as he shrunk into himself. Pep talks and giving advice had never been her forte, but the discouraged look covering the features of the downtrodden teen pulled forward the feelings that sat on her chest until she'd been accepted to Berkeley.

"Hey, be honest with me, okay?" He lifted his eyes and nodded briefly, the action barely noticeable. "Do you think I'm cool?"

He shrugged once, but then nodded a second time. "You're probably the coolest teacher I've ever had."

"Well, I dork out over stuff like the extrapolation of murine models and epigenetic influence on clone cells, so don't ever think that liking science means that you aren't cool." The beginnings of a smile quirked up the corner of the boy's mouth, and Cosima continued, pleased that she hadn't royally fucked up just yet. "See the two girls on the other side of the room, Kira and Charlotte?" His third nod was stronger than the prior ones as his eyes flickered to the two giggling girls across from him. "I know both of them, okay, and they'll totally think you're cool too. So why don't you move to that side of the room for tomorrow's class?" She patted his shoulder gently before rising to her full height and continuing to move around the room, handing out the syllabi as she did. When she'd finally made it to the far side of the classroom, she sunk to the ground again, positioning herself between Kira and Charlotte.

"So, how'd I do?"

Both girls chuckled and Kira tugged at one of Cosima's dreads before replying. "I'm not sure Auntie Alison would approve of you saying hella, but I think you were great." Charlotte nodded her agreement, smiling gently. "I just hope the rest of my teachers are half as cool as my geek-monkey aunt."

"We've got Uncle Felix for art, Cormier for AP French –"

Cosima cut off the remainder of the brunette's sentence, a lopsided grin etching itself into her cheeks as she remembered the encounter she'd had less than an hour ago. "I met Ms. Cormier this morning. She seems pretty cool."

Kira's light eyes widened as she gasped, sharing an incredulous look with the girl next to her before smacking her aunt's shoulder. "You like her Auntie Cos." Both teenagers' faces lit up in delight as they watched Cosima flounder, waving her hands wildly in the air before resting her elbows against her knees and covering her forehead with her hands. "You totally do."

"I totally think she's like, really beautiful, but I don't even know her, Monkey." Kira arched an eyebrow, her expression one that the older woman was intimately familiar with – a look that wrote, drew, and screamed you're full of bullshit. "No, wow. No. We are not gonna talk about this, obvs. I am not discussing my possible attraction for the French teacher next door with my students, nieces or not." The bell rang, signaling the end of her first class as a high school instructor, but before Kira could dart out of her grasp, she tugged at the strap of the girl's messenger bag, pulling her back toward her. "I swear to Darwin, Kira Manning, if you tell your mother about this, I will make sure you have to dissect the grossest frog I can find."

"Whatever Aunt Cos. See you tomorrow morning!" The bright, mischievous grin that was sent her way had Cosima's hands covering her face a second time in less than as many minutes as she groaned. The school's open house was the following evening, a chance for the parents to get to know their children's teachers, and she knew, without a doubt, that she'd receive the third degree about Delphine from Sarah as soon as there was a spare moment. The only thing more anxiety inducing than that would be their family dinner on Friday, where she'd surely receive the fourth, fifth, and sixth degree from Alison, Felix, and Beth.

"Holy watershed," she grumbled. "This is going to be a shit show."

"Hey!" Dreadlocks swung around the frame of the door, accompanied by a bright smile and eyes gently crinkled at the corners. "Made it through your first day?" Delphine mirrored her neighbor's smile, instantly feeling the exhaustion float out of her limbs as she beckoned Cosima further into the room. Her grin widened when the petite woman sat backwards atop the student desk nearest her own, toned legs folding beneath the other woman's small frame.

"I survived, oui," she chuckled out, rubbing at her temples as she scanned some of the paperwork cluttering her workspace. "Your nieces are in my fourth period class, I think. Kira et Charlotte?"

The words sucked any moisture from the back of Cosima's throat and suddenly, her tongue felt three sizes too big for her mouth, so she simply nodded before swallowing down the lump building against her trachea. "Were they any trouble? Did they say anything?"

Delphine's brow furrowed before her eye line shifted upward, from the papers before her to the anxiously flickering eyes of her colleague. "Say anything about what?" she inquired, her confusion palpable.

"Oh, yeah. No, nothing. They just are pretty talkative, so I wanted to make sure they didn't like, disrupt your teaching or whatever." The hands previously folded in Cosima's lap had begun flailing dangerously as soon as her mouth opened, the movements taking on a much more staccato rhythm than they had earlier in the morning, and it did not go unnoticed.

"Cosima, are you all right?"

"Yeah, no, totes. I'm great," she lied, her hands continuing to wander through the air. "It's just like, first day jitters or something, you know? I almost feel like I'm a freshman. It's not like I'm much taller than most of them anyway." She chuckled slightly, but Delphine's eyes honed in on the hazel ones a few feet away, noticing that they lacked the light her smiling lips purported. Instead of questioning it, she nodded in agreement, tossing the last few pieces of paper into a folder before slipping it into her purse.

"I should go," she murmured around another soft smile, standing and sliding the strap of her tote bag onto her shoulder. "I need to prepare for the open house tomorrow night, and the only way to do that is with a large glass of wine, I think."

Cosima nodded, noticing that the awkwardness between them had subsided once she'd stopped jumping to conclusions, thankful that her niece had learned from an early age when, and when not, to open her mouth. "I should probably do the same," she grimaced, not at all looking forward to a barrage of questions from overprotective parents who firmly believed their child was god's gift to the educational world. "I'll just see you tomorrow then?" Her voice lilted uncertainly, because though she knew that with their classrooms connected, she needed reassurance. Reassurance of what, she wasn't sure, but the churning in her stomach needed to be settled, and with three words and a brief gesture, it was.

"Yes, you will." Delphine leaned forward, pressing a kiss to both of Cosima's cheeks before turning to exit her classroom. The brunette let out a harsh exhale, rubbing her forehead as she followed her colleague's form as the other woman walked away.

"Yep. Definitely gonna be a shit show."

AN: New story for you all! I've obviously taken some liberties as far as ages go. Kira and Charlotte are both about fourteen, as will Gemma be. Oscar will be a bit older, probably a junior in high school. Our adult characters are in their early thirties still, however.

With that said, based on where I've placed the adults within this universe, propunk and soccercop can both easily be written into the story, without detracting from the main plot. What I'd like to know is whether or not you'd like me to incorporate either ship? I write for all of you as much as I write for myself, so let me know!

Also, this will be more of a slow burn than any previous fics I've written, with minimal angst. Just as a head's up!