Speechless: Part 3 (Kankri X Reader)

You barely slept at all that night. Tossing and turning, you couldn't help but be excited about the next day and what kind of speech your friend had written, and what he'd said in it, and you were also eager to see the idiots you'd once called 'friends' get what was coming to them. It was long overdue.

Luckily, you didn't end up waiting too long for morning to dawn, even though it felt like aeons. As soon your alarm went off you practically leapt out of bed, getting ready for the day as quickly as you could, wolfing down breakfast and throwing on the first remotely nice set of clothes you could find that matched, barely remembering to grab your school satchel and (f/c) windbreaker on your way out the door. With a small smile on your face, you began the relatively short walk to school in high spirits, feeling almost ridiculously cheerful. If you were even remotely fatigued from your night of almost no sleep, you couldn't tell; your anticipation overruled any other feelings you had at the moment, even the now dulled pain of the still-recent loss of your notebook.

You'd barely gotten a block away from your house when an incredibly loud and excited-sounding voice barged in on your thoughts.

"HEY (Y/N)!"

You turned around quickly, clearly surprised, your eyes landing on a familiar figure who was coming towards you at a slightly alarming pace. You barely had time to brace yourself as you were tackle-hugged, and as it was you had your breath knocked out of you as you finally completely registered who it was who had run into you.

"Ah, hi, Meulin! What's up?" You responded, clearly still winded.

Though it might not seem like it, you were somewhat used to being greeted like this practically every day on your way to school, as you'd found out pretty early on that the two of you didn't live all that far away from each other. The two of you had made a habit of walking to school together, and even though she greeted you in this same way almost every single time she met up with you, there were some times you were still caught off-guard.

The cat-loving troll beamed at you as she answered your question, her tone a few decibels too loud for your comfort, “I'M DOING PURRTY WELL, THANKS FUR ASKING. I'M HAPPY THAT THE SCHOOL WEEK IS ALMOST OFUR TOO."

You nodded in agreement to her statement and were about to reply when she spoke again, adding, "BY THE WAY, I'VE BEEN MEANING TO ASK MEW A QUESTION. I RAN INTO KANKRI YESTERDAY, AND HE SEEMED REALLY RILED UP ABOUT SOMETHING. SOMETHING INVOLVING MEW, FROM ALL THAT I COULD GATHER FROM WHAT HE TOLD ME... DO YOU KNOW WHAT HIS ODDLY DIFURRENT BEHAVIOR WAS ALL ABOUT? DID SOMETHING HAPPEN?"

You felt slightly embarrassed and uncomfortable at the slightly sly tone Meulin asked her question in; it was clear that she was putting together yet another ship, and you weren't sure what to think of this. Meulin seemed to sense your embarrassment and immediately took it another way, letting out an excited squeal as she grinned even more widely than she had been before.

"i JUST KNEW IT!!! YOU TWO MAKE A PURRFECT SHIP! THE -"

"Meulin," you interrupted awkwardly, your face now burning with embarrassment, "That's not it..."

"IT ISN'T?" The cat-loving troll's face fell a little.

"He's just helping me deal with some rude people, it's nothing to get all that excited about."

"HE'S HELPING YOU? 333333! THAT'S SO ADORABLE! HE'S NOT ONE TO GO ABOUT JUST RANDOMLY DOING THINGS FOR OTHER PEOPLE; IT'S CLEAR HE REALLY CARES ABOUT MEW! I SHIP IT!!!!" At this point it was evident that she her 'shipping sense' was getting a bit out of hand, and you really wanted to stop this before you started believing her not clearly thought-through interpretations.

"Please, not so loud! And just because Kankri's doing something nice for me doesn't mean that he feels anything other than friendship towards me, not to mention you're forgetting some very obvious 'barriers' preventing such a ship in every quadrant," You responded quietly, growing even more flustered as the two of you were now very close to school.

"I STILL SHIP IT," your friend responded with a sly smile, but obligingly dropped the subject. For now, at least.

The two of you continued to school in a somewhat uncomfortable silence - at least, it was uncomfortable for you. And in case you'd started thinking that things couldn't get any more awkward, they did.

"Ah, good morning, (Y/N). I trust you're doing well?" Suddenly, you became aware that the red-sweatered troll had joined your company, and at that same moment you noticed that Meulin had managed to slip away silently, leaving you to talk with Kankri alone.

As you were still relatively embarrassed from your earlier conversation with Meulin, it took all of your willpower to speak clearly and not get red in the face, and even then you failed somewhat as you half-muttered, "I'm, uhm, I'm doing... well. You?"

Kankri raised an eyebrow at your answer, seemingly perplexed by your tone of voice. Clearly concerned, he disregarded your question as he responded, "Are you sure about that? You seem quite flustered about something. Did someone trigger you in some way, or - "

"No, no, really, I'm fine," you say quickly, finally regaining control of your runaway emotions as you then diverted his question, "So, how'd writing your speech go?"

Luckily, your distraction worked, as the mutant-blood's expression immediately brightened as he answered, "It went incredibly well, thank you very much for asking. I've come up with a sizeable list of problems I want to address that (s/n) has, specifically with the incomprehensibly vast amount of tolerance the administrators make for certain students who abuse their privileges, and confront the issue of our almost nonexistent 'Honor Code'. I can only hope it will have some impact, as I spent some time trying to write it in a different style than usual, and it hopefully will be more effective than my typical writing seems to be."

As he talked, you began to notice that though Kankri was clearly in a good mood, he looked utterly exhausted. There were dark circles under his eyes and his hair looked more disheveled than usual, not to mention his answer was shorter than usual - which was definitely a sign he was tired.

"I'm sure it'll be amazing. I mean, you wrote it, after all!" You exclaimed encouragingly, not noticing Kankri's slight blush at that statement as you continued, "Again, thank you so much for doing this. I honestly couldn't ask for a better friend."

During your conversation, you both had made your way into the school building and were now just a few paces away from your locker. Waving to your friend, who looked oddly uncomfortable for some reason, you parted company with, "See you later, Kankri! And by the way... Please take care of yourself. I really appreciate everything you're doing, but you shouldn't burn yourself out. Besides, I don't want to inconvenience you anymore than my problems already have."

As you turned from him to get your things from your locker, you were completely unaware of the troll's bright red face and his incomprehensible muttering as he turned away, looking uncharacteristically flustered but also somewhat conflicted.

~~~~(Short time skip)~~~~

The rest of your classes passed by relatively uneventfully, as you had your easiest classes that day, and no real drama was stirred up by anyone. However, there were two things that confused and even worried you slightly, as you hadn't seen either Kankri or Cronus your entire day at school. You found this extremely odd, especially seeing as neither of the two trolls had ever neglected to find you at least once during the school day to chat, save when they ended up not going to school for valid reasons, and even then they'd give you a heads-up.

I guess it's nothing, but it's still a bit strange... You thought to yourself as you put your things away, heading towards the auditorium for assembly, looking around for any of your friends who were headed the same way.

Luckily, you almost immediately spotted a telltale yellow jumpsuit in the crowd, and immediately made your way over to your friend with a bit of a grin on your face.

"Hey there, 'Tuna! How was your day?" You asked, waving at him in a friendly manner as he returned the gesture.

"G00D," the mustard-blooded troll replied in a pleasant tone, "4 L07 0F P30PL3 H4V3 833N AC71NG W31RD, TH0."

"Weird?" You asked, hoping he'd elaborate.

"Y34. 8U7 H3LL 1F 1 KN0W WH4T’5 W17H 7H3M. 17’5 N07 L1K3 17’5 MY 8U7H1N35TH5.” Mituna shrugged unconcernedly.

You were somewhat irritated at the vagueness of the mustardblood’s statement, but before you could ask him anything else, the crowd streaming towards the auditorium managed to separate you, and you just went with it, still feeling uncomfortable. Those two were great friends, and they were also two of your best friends, and things just weren’t making sense.

With a sigh, you plopped down in one of the navy, vinyl-upholstered auditorium chairs closer to the stage of the room than you usually would sit, hoping perhaps Kankri had just been really preoccupied with his speech all of today and there was no other cause for his lack of interaction with you. Maybe your comments earlier that day had somehow triggered him? That thought made you feel slightly sick as you realized you might have been too friendly at some point in your earlier conversation, or perhaps done something else that made him uncomfortable.

You didn’t have too much time to muse over what you might or might not have done, however, as the last of the high school trickled in and took their seats and the head of school walked up to the podium.

“Students, as we did not have any sort of programs lined up today for assembly, nor do we have any announcements from staff, we figured you’d rather listen to a student speaker than to one of us.”

The whole room almost became anxious, as most of the other students were already pretty certain they knew whom the volunteer was and they were probably hoping they were wrong. You, on the other hand, were very much looking forward to this.

“Please give your attention to this week’s speaker, Kankri Vantas,” the head of school remarked neutrally but cordially as they walked off of the stage, and your friend walked onto it.

When he walked on, you noticed he seemed like an entirely different person. He wasn’t just confident in his mannerisms, he looked determined, and there was something else in his expression you couldn’t quite pinpoint but was still there all the same. He stepped up to the podium, only about a second passing before he began, “I’ll try and keep this short. Or, rather, as short as I can keep it and still address the problem I've written about.

"Evidently, (S/N) has a strict and well-enforced honor code, and all our students follow it religiously. I believe this statement to hold absolutely no truth in it whatsoever. Several of our students don't even know what our honor code entails, or the actual consequences of violating it. Those of us who do choose to follow it are few, especially as those who choose not to follow the code of conduct go unpunished, and, on rare occasions, I've seen them even be rewarded, in a sense.

"Whose fault is this, exactly? The students are partly to blame, of course, but the faculty is just as guilty, as they never enforce the rules themselves. Most who act out and make ridiculous and uncalled-for actions have absolutely no consequences, and it always seems that faculty leans towards supporting that one particular group. Why? I have a feeling family income and status may have something to do with it. This goes against our code as well. Rule Fifteen: No favoritism shall be shown to students who have done wrong, regardless of who they are and what they have. At (S/N), everyone is equal, and should be treated as such.

"That seems to be the most disregarded rule of all of the ones here. I know that absolutely nothing is done about the group of sweet-talking delinquents who seem to have free run of the school. I believe you know who I am speaking of, all of you."

Ah, so that's where he was going with all of this, you thought to yourself as you glanced around. To your surprise and delight, practically everyone but the aforementioned group of brats was listening to the mutantblood intently, and the higher-up faculty members looked uncomfortable and almost nervous as he continued his speech.

"I think I speak for everyone when I say this needs to stop. These people are out of control, though not necessarily in physically destructive ways. They work mentally and psychologically, making others insecure and getting away with such atrocities for no punishment whatsoever. Just yesterday, a person I hold very dear to me was utterly destroyed when these degenerates demolished a personal item of hers which was of great value to its owner. Though I know that many of you find this term laughable, I find such ridiculous behavior incredibly triggering."

'A person I hold very dear to me'? The way he'd phrased that, it almost sounded like... No, that's absolutely impossible... Isn't it? You were slightly perplexed over this, wondering if, in fact, he actually had the same feelings towards you that you had for him; .

“I also know from experience how unpleasant these particular individuals are, and we’ve all been affected negatively by them. If our code of conduct actually was implemented here, they should have been suspended at least once by now, and they've possibly done enough to earn themselves expulsion. Their actions are detrimental to the atmosphere of the school body as a whole, and have contributed nothing positive to the school itself. And should they continue to be a nuisance to the rest of the student body, some form of action must be made, either by the administrators of the school, and if not them, by the students themselves. And I think we all know which group we'd prefer to do something about them.

“That’s all I have to say on the matter, as I am simply issuing a warning to the school about an issue within its student body. If this issue is not addressed, it will most likely lead to more problems, as well as a potential petition for more effective administrators who aren’t ‘all talk’.