Star gazing

It was early, this was stupid. Professor Klein stood at the entrance to the science building, it was cool, not cold but she was bundled. There was no way this kid would show, he had to want something and now here she was ruining her sleep schedule on a Sunday.

"Hey Professor," came Marcus' voice.

"Mr. Vallen," she said with some surprise, "very punctual."

"Well you're doing this on your own time, I didn't want to be disrespectful."

She nodded, he might be the first guy in a decade who didn't want to be disrespectful to her. They walked up the stairs to the roof, she was sucking wind, he seemed unbothered. She opened the observatory and started the coffee maker. He watched her as she got the telescope focused, the shower had already started but soon they wouldn't need it to see the show.

"Anything I can do?" he asked.

"Just get comfortable," she said, "we're not doing any scientific observation to no need to make any records."

They sat down and she handed him a cup of coffee. When he'd asked to do this with her she'd looked into him, English major she'd groaned as she read it. Of course he wasn't actually into astronomy, not like she had been anyway. She needed a lab assistant though and she considered asking him.

"So," he asked as they watched the sky, "why did you get into astronomy."

"That's a long, sad story," she said, "the short of it is, it was an escape."

"And have you always wanted to teach?"

Was he her shrink? "No," she admitted.

"Sorry to pry," he said reading her discomfort.

"What got you into space?" she asked, "you're an English major."

"Is it totally lame if I say Star Trek?"

She rolled her eyes.

"I wasn't exactly a popular or athletic kid," he said, "it gave me hope."

Hope, she thought, that was a dangerous element.

"Sorry to talk so much," he said.

Truthfully she was only ever up her alone so his talking was actually welcome.

"It's ok," she said, "let me guess, Next Generation?"

"You are a trekkie," he said excitedly, "actually Deep Space Nine."

She raised an eyebrow, maybe she had misjudged him. The shower intensified and they sat in silence.

"Wow," he said softly.

She missed that kind of wonder, she looked back at the sky and the next thing she remembered he was standing over her.

"Professor," he said as he gently shook her, "you dozed off."

"Sorry," she said sitting up trying to shake the sleep off, her coffee had gone cold she must have been out for a while.

"It's ok," he said, "I really appreciate you doing this for me."

"Of course," she said.

She shut everything down as he watched and held the door for her.

"Quite the gentleman Mr. Vallen."

"Least I can do."

They got downstairs and he turned back to her, "let me walk you to your car."

It wasn't and unsafe campus, but it wasn't a completely safe campus she thought and she let him walk with her, he was tall and strong after all.

"Thank you Mr. Vallen, nice to know gentlemen aren't an extinct species."

"Just endangered," he said with a smile, "we're making a comeback."

***

It was early at the campus clinic, Yasmin sat nervously, she was having discomfort, probably from taking a massive cock she told herself. The PA had done some tests and now she was waiting for results.

"Well Ms. Benitez," said the PA a young women barely out of school, "good news is we can take care of the pain, bad news is we have to remove your IUD."

"What, why, can I get a new one?"

"No," said the PA, "it's strange, the shape of the IUD will no longer work with your body, I've never seen this before."

"You're like my age," snapped Yasmin, "how many pussies you seen?"

The PA stared at her blankly.

"Sorry," said Yasmin.

"There are other options," said the PA.

"I'm allergic to the pill," she said, "and rubbers, even the sheepskin ones."

The PA sat having run out of script to read.

"There's the pullout method," said the PA.

One short procedure later and Yasmin stormed across campus, the problem with the pullout method was that Yasmin didn't want them to pull out.

***

Marcus crossed the quad on his way back to the dorm, ahead of him some polos were harassing another freshman that Marcus had Creative Writing with. They slapped his stuff out of his hands and it went spilling across the ground. As he got closer he recognized them though the last time he'd seen them they'd been laid out.

"Had your fun?" he asked towering over the ringleader.

"Yeah," said the guy immediately stepping back.

"Good," said Marcus, "then fuck off."

They walked off murmuring to each other and he bent down to help his classmate gather his stuff.

"Thanks," said the guy, "they really backed off of you."

"They just know better," he said handing the boy some of his things.

"I'm Trace," he said offering a hand as they stood up.

"Marcus."

They walked towards the cafeteria and talked Trace was undecided, he'd come here when like Marcus he had no other options and his girlfriend had decided to dump him not wanting a long distance relationship. As they ate the topic shifted to interests, he was into Magic, and Star Trek and soon they were in full nerd mode.

"Thanks for this," said Trace as they parted ways, "nice to make a friend here."

Marcus walked back to his dorm, he was dead tired, he was so drained Daemon wasn't able to answer him, he hit the pillow and immediately blacked out.