Hello all! Sorry for being a bit inactive on here, but that's going to stop now that I'm on summer break! :)

Anyway, here's some more for the professor!AU introduced in "Helianthus Annuus," in which Ivan is a little jealous and Alfred is an adorable geek. Hope you like!

Whenever he had the time, Ivan found himself sitting in on Alfred's lectures, quietly seated in the back were he could observe the professor from afar, beyond the slumped and slouched and occasionally attentive heads of his students.

Like a good academic, Ivan always brought his notebook and red ballpoint pen to Alfred's class, with the intent of taking notes on the colorful slides and equally chromatic in order to show off to the young professor later that he was not totally inept when it came to understanding scientific concepts.

However, Ivan soon found himself paying less and less attention to whatever he was scribbling on the notebook and more attention to Alfred, how he moved, and how his body shifted under the layers of clothing—and when Ivan finally decided to look down to his notes to scan over what he had written, what he read often left his face heated and ended in the piece of paper being crumpled and stowed into his book bag.

Indeed, the biggest relief always came when Alfred clapped his hands and smiled brightly and announced the end of lecture, hopping down from the podium to shake or high five the hands of the exiting students, and answering the questions of those individuals who stayed behind. Ivan would slowly gather his things together and rise, slowly making his way down the aisle, waiting on the wayside until Alfred finished and all the students filed out.

Today, in a strange but not at all un "Alfred-like" twist, the young professor was showing a group of his students how to do so-called "gang signs" of the chemical numbers of different periodic elements. Ivan knew enough from common sense and the lingering memory of his general education to see when Alfred flashed the sign for "sodium" or "potassium" but beyond that he was lost as he watches Alfred twist his fingers into even more confusing and complicated shapes that his students imitated clumsily. Alfred would only laugh and correct than, sometimes fiddling with their fingers until they got the sign into the right position.

Ivan was content to watch until he heard the giggle of one young redhead girl as Alfred put her decorated ringfinger into the correct symbol for "iridium."

Ivan felt a possessive surge at that. Really, the hardest part about being in a relationship with Alfred was not the difficulties of their careers, or those occasion colleagues and administrators who looked down on them—no, instead of those threats that Ivan should be worried about, the older man fretted over the attention Alfred received from those pretty young students.

Ivan knew the stereotypical situation of affairs between professors and their students-and he always found himself hoping that Alfred would not fall prey to that.

His twinge of-no, he refused to call it jealousy, he was merely being careful-sped up his pace, shows clicking against the floor as he came up from behind Alfred and put a large hand onto his shoulder.

The young professor started a little, turning around and tangling his fingers around whatever element he had been trying to imitate. His blue eyes were guileless and questioning behind thick glasses.

"Oh, hey Ivan. You scared me!" Alfred chuckled, not noticing the falling expression of the girl he had been helping as he reached around and grabbed Ivan's hand, twining their fingers together.

Ivan stilled, perhaps a little shocked by Alfred's forwardness. He shuffled a little, the possessive urge failing a little as embarrassment took over. He squeezed Alfred's hand a little.

Alfred swung their entwined hands back and forth slightly turning back to his students with a wide grin on his face.

"So? You all better head off to class now. As long as there's no more questions, I mean."

There was a shaking of heads and a mumbled chorus of "no" as the students gradually dispersed. Ivan noticed that the miffed girl turned away especially face, laptop bag swinging behind her in her rush.

Once there were adequately along Ivan put his other hand on Alfred's, making the young professor turn around.

"You are—very popular, are you not?"

Alfred smirked, patting Ivan's clasped hands with his free one.

"What? That? That was just a little bit of fun, Ivan," Noticing the older professors raised eyebrow, Alfred huffed and quickly backtracked, "No, I mean, not like that kind of fun-I'm not like, the type to flirt with students or something stupid like that, you know that, Ivan."

Alfred frowned a little as Ivan shifted awkwardly on his feet.

"I-I am aware, Alfred, I just worry—"

"Hey! Y'know what?" Alfred took Ivan's hands away from his own, and held them up, "I know a way to cheer you up."

Alfred looked up at him from below the thick frames of his glasses, "Ivan, what's your favorite element?"

"What?"

Alfred snorted and rolled his eyes, taking a hold of Ivan's fingers and starting to position them, curling one joint while he straightened another.

"You're hopeless with this—here, let me help—"

Ivan watched as Alfred moved and tucked his fingers, trying to figure out exactly what element Alfred was trying to replicate.

"There! Finished!" Alfred proclaimed as he mocked dusted his hands before sticking them in his back pocket, waiting for Ivan's reaction.

The older man carefully observed his uncomfortably twined hands, trying to make heads or tails or any kind of letters that his fingers spelled out. After a few moments, he simply stared blankly back at the expectant Alfred.

The young man sighed and mumbled something about "wordy liberal education types" and put his hands on Ivan's tracing a finger over each "letter" as he explained.

"I know it's hard to see 'cause it's suppose to be arranged so other people can see it but-it's platinum, see? There's the 'p', and there's the 't'. "

Ivan cocked his head. Platinum?

Alfred noticed Ivan's confusion, and, to the older man's surprise, Alfred lowered his eyes, light blush over his cheek.

"Well, 'cause, y'know—it's, um, one of the rarest elements on earth with an average abundance of .005 milligrams per kilogram, and it's resistant to corrosion at high temperatures, making it a noble metal—"

Alfred mumbled the next statement. Ivan leaned in close, although he seemed to get what Alfred was trying to say.

"What, Alfred?"

Alfred cleared his throat, putting his hands back into his pockets, hooking his thumbs into his belt loops.

"And it—reminds me of you. When I see it I think about you-the color of your hair. And it's-it's a precious metal too. More valuable than gold. "

Ivan chuckled, soft and fond expression spreading across his face.

"That's very adorable of you, Alfred. And oddly symbolic."

Instead of being annoyed at being called "cute," Alfred smiled and laughed nervously, scratching his head.

"Hey—I've been trying out this whole literary symbolism stuff lately," Alfred wrinkled his nose, "I dunno, it all seems so cheesy when I say it."

Ivan reached out and looped his fingers in the strand of hair falling short around Alfred's face.

"No, do not worry Alfred, it is quite endearing in it's own way." Ivan stroked a piece of Alfred's hair, admiring the color.

Color…

"Ah!" Ivan quietly breathed, retracting his hand from Alfred's head. He had an idea of his own.

Ivan stared down at his hand, trying to configure his fingers in the way he saw in his head. Alfred watched with curiosity.

Finally, Ivan seemed to have completed a ham-fisted version of what he had wanted to portray. Slightly frustrated, he nevertheless held it out to Alfred.

The young professor scrunched his eyes for a moment, and Ivan worried that perhaps the message had not come across—

But then Alfred's eyes widened and he blushed, hunching his shoulders a bit, rocking back on his heels before he pulled his hands out of his pockets and leaned forward, capturing Ivan in a hug.

And Ivan hugged him back, one arm around the young professor's waist and the other cupping the back of his head and playing with his hair.

Alfred turned his head and whispered into Ivan's neck—

Gold.