ARTIST: Shiny (Today's art is available at the tumblr/livejournal for 365daysofusuk)

AUTHOR: Zeplerfer

March 14th, 2014 – Pie Day

The elementary students buzzed happily as Arthur led them down the school's long hallways. They had four rotating electives and physical education was always their favourite. To be honest, it was Arthur's favourite too, albeit for a different reason.

The children loved P.E. because it was a chance to run around and play games. They also adored their fun-loving gym teacher, who joined the games and acted like a 10-year old himself. Arthur preferred the man's more... physical attributes. The gym teacher was fresh out of teacher's college with all of the accompanying perks of youth: tan skin, toned muscles, and taut buttocks. The young teacher waved to Arthur as the children rushed into the gym; the man's smile was nearly blinding.

Arthur paused for a moment at the door, admiring the natural byplay between the teacher and the excited children. Although his eyes focused on the young teacher's fit body, he also admired the man's natural affinity for children. If Arthur ever adopted children, he hoped they would have a teacher like Alfred Jones.

"Hey, kids! I've got a surprise for you today!"

The children bounced on their feet in excitement and demanded details.

Alfred grinned. "Nope! You're going to have to wait and see until after you've done your warm-up laps!"

The students eagerly began to race around the perimeter of the gym, apparently believing that the faster they ran, the sooner they would learn the surprise. Alfred joined them in the laps, showing off his nice legs. Arthur would have stayed to stare, but once Alfred rounded the corner, he'd see Arthur still standing at the door and invite him to join the games. (He'd done so before when Arthur was slow to leave.) So Arthur reluctantly turned around and walked back to his own classroom. At least the free period would give him an opportunity to grade spelling tests.

Sitting at his large desk, Arthur worked through the lists with his usual brisk efficiency, although his pen hesitated each time he had to mark 'color' as correct. Fortunately, none of the children had written 'colour.' He wasn't sure if he had the heart to mark it as wrong. The second-floor window near Arthur's desk happened to give him a good view of the playground. His eyes naturally strayed from the tests when the children and their gym teacher rushed outside.

Although the kids normally jumped rope and played games, today the lesson seemed to be something different. Alfred used a string and piece of chalk to mark out a gigantic circle on the concrete. He handed out circular tins—pie tins?—to all of the children, who spent twenty minutes lining the outline of the circle. After they finished, it looked like the students were counting the number of tins.

Growing curious, Arthur opened his window so he could hear what the students and their teacher were saying. The sounds echoed across the concrete.

"How many for the radius?" the young teacher asked.

"Twenty-five!"

"And what was the circumference?"

"One fifty-seven!"

"Wow, perfect job! Do you know what we have to celebrate?"

The children shouted excitedly, their voices overlapping too much for Arthur to make out the answer. He watched as the children raced around the circle to collect the tins and then streamed back into the school building. Writing it off as a strange new game, Arthur returned to his spelling tests. When he finished some time later, he checked his email. The one from Alfred immediately caught his attention.

Subject: Leftover PIE in the teachers longue

Message: Come and get it! XD

Arthur winced at the spelling error, lack of apostrophe, and silly emoticon. No wonder he faced an uphill battle in teaching the children proper spelling. But he was curious enough to trot down to the teacher's lounge. Arthur slipped through the crowd of teachers who had beat him to pie. He found Alfred at the counter, standing near the few remaining slices.

"Hey, Artie!" Alfred grinned at him and gestured to the three remaining pies. "Rhubarb, apple, or shoofly?"

"Shoofly?"

"It's a molasses pie. Real tasty." Alfred lifted a large slice onto a paper plate and handed it to Arthur with a wink. "If you've never had it before, you need to give it a try."

Alfred then served himself three slices of apple pie and sat with Arthur at one of the tables vacated by teachers who had already finished eating. Alfred devoured his slices, making Arthur wonder how he kept so trim. Still, Arthur had to admit that his pie was delicious. It reminded him of treacle tart.

"What's the occasion?" Arthur asked between bites.

Alfred grinned. "Pi day. I had the kids measure pi with pie and then we celebrated with pie! Well, technically, pi with pie tins, because 182 pies would be irrational. My mom's bakery gave us the pies for eating."

Arthur blinked in confusion. Realisation finally dawned as he stirred a memory of geometry class long past and remembered how they wrote dates in the States. He groaned at the pun. "You know, most of the world writes it fourteen three," he crisply noted.

Alfred took the news in stride. "Huh. Guess you and I will have to celebrate Pi Approximation Day. That's July 22nd," he clarified, looking strangely hopeful.

"We don't have class in July."

"So it's a date then?"

Arthur's forkful of pie paused halfway to his mouth, leaving him gaping like a fish. Alfred was asking him on a date. Alfred was asking him on a date. Apparently Arthur hadn't been as circumspect in his ogling as he thought. "But that's four months away," Arthur protested, blushing to the roots of his hair.

Alfred's eyes sparkled. "Oh, well, would dinner and a movie tomorrow work for you?"

"Tomorrow would be splendid."

Arthur finished the rest of his pie with a small blush on his face. He'd never cared for mathematics in school, but he thought, perhaps, he could make an exception for pi.