[CW: reference to racism]

Tristan raised the glass to his lips but lowered it when the last bit made him chuckle. He could see how having a language only he understood was a wonderful power to a schoolboy when dealing with bullying teachers.

"I don't know... I feel like most beatings I received were unfair. Some teachers singled me out for the colour my skin too, I think. And then those times I was in fact impertinent or broke a rule willingly, I think some two hundred lines to copy or scrubbing the classroom would have been more humane and more of a pain at the same time."

But then, Tristan had been a gentle child, who tended to follow the rules if only he loved the person who set them. And his sensitive nature had not borne brutality well.