It took some fast talking but in the end, Isaac managed to convince Allison that for one, he hadn't intentionally dug up her past, and two, that he was not trying to blackmail her. Neither was he trying to blackmail Professor Hale for better grades or something like that. That thought hadn't even occurred to him until Allison brought it up.

"I'm not going to tell anybody," Isaac promised.

"Except for when you're drunk," Allison grumbled.

"Not going to get plastered like that ever again," Isaac swore. "I did enough shit while I was drunk."

"You're not even a fun drunk," Allison said and now a small smile played on her lips. "I should go, Scott's waiting for me." She pushed herself up and turned to leave.

"Allison?" Isaac called after her.

"Hmm?"

"If you ever want to talk …" She probably would never take him up on his offer but Isaac wanted her to know that he was there if she needed him.

"Thanks but I'd rather just forget that I'm related to that bitch." She gave him a nod and then she left.

Class with Professor Hale the next day was not as bad as he'd feared either but there Isaac was just a student among many, he didn't have to interact with the professor directly.

Wednesday, however, was a completely different deal. Isaac was supposed to see the professor during his office hours. Isaac almost didn't go. With what he knew about him, he didn't know how to act around him. He couldn't let on that he knew about the professor's past but how was he supposed to act as if nothing had changed? And on top of that, Isaac was almost paranoid when it came to Professor Stilinski by now. How often had he seen him at Hale's office now?

In the end, Isaac did go. He was curious about what the professor wanted to show him.

Turned out that the thing Hale wanted to show Isaac was a website.

The first few minutes in Professor Hale's office had been awkward but then Isaac was engrossed in what he was seeing on the screen. The site was about astronomy, big surprise, but it wasn't just about information on the topic. It had an active community. There was a large forum where people discussed what they had observed, upcoming events worth observing, the best equipment, and good stargazing spots.

"There is a section for newbies." Professor Hale clicked on the forum in question. "They're very newcomer friendly and don't mind answering beginner questions." He nodded to the notepad that was lying forgotten on the desk. Isaac had come here with a list of his and Danny's questions but this was far more interesting.

"You can create an account so you can keep track of your observations." To demonstrate it, the professor showed him his account. He just gave Isaac a quick overview but it was enough to see that the professor had been an active user for years. Hale showed him his entries from his last excursion and asked if Isaac and his friend had been lucky with the weather on their night out. They got carried away with the topic and in the end, the professor had to kick him out, he had a class to teach.

Isaac left the office with the name of the website and Professor Hale's username in his pocket. The professor had told him that he did accept friend requests and that Isaac could PM him with any question he had. Same for Danny. And that he wouldn't mind if Isaac came by on Wednesdays if he wanted to talk in person.

Isaac got the feeling that the professor didn't have many people in his life who shared his hobby. Even among his students, Isaac was the only one who had approached him about this. It was weird given the topic of his class but Isaac guessed that since he taught the theoretical part people saw actually watching the stars as a nice addition but not necessary. Besides, they were all college students, they preferred other ways to spend the nights. Plus, the middle of New York was not a good spot to watch the stars to begin with. The park Isaac and Danny used was okay for what they were doing but if they wanted to dig deeper into this, they needed a place with an unobstructed view and way less light pollution.

Only when Isaac left the building to grab a quick lunch from the cafeteria, a granola bar and a coffee to go had to do again, he realized that he hadn't seen Professor Stilinski around. Maybe his curse was finally broken. Grinning to himself Isaac hurried to his next class.

Later he sent the link to Danny and then Isaac spent half the night, reading on the forum. He created an account, and not five minutes later he'd gotten a friend request from Danny, but so far he wasn't doing anything active. For now, he wanted to get a feeling for the site and the community but so far it looked promising. There were quite some interesting discussions and even if things got heated from time to time, mostly things stayed civil. These were people who liked to spend the night outside alone with just a telescope and the stars for company, they were not the kind to start beef on the internet. They did, however, like to show off and Isaac saw quite some awesome pictures.

The next few days Isaac spent every free minute on that website. Same for Danny, they pointed each other to interesting discussions and by now Isaac had made his first post in the newbie section just to test the waters. The community was as welcoming as Professor Hale had claimed it to be. Within hours quite a few people had said hi and most offered to give pointers if Isaac got lost. Isaac didn't want to be that guy and ask the same basic question for the millionth time so he took his time, browsing the threads and a lot of his questions had indeed been discussed in detail before.

Sadly the good weather didn't last, the sky was gray and the dark clouds were promising rain so Isaac and Danny did not spend Saturday night out in the park again. It was a bummer but that way Isaac even managed to be in bed at a reasonable time on Saturday. There was a party going on, this was college there was always a party going on, but all his friends had other plans for the weekend and after what had happened with Allison, Isaac didn't want to risk anything. Better not touch alcohol at all. He doubted that he would be able to keep that up for long but he had no intention to get drunk to a point where he didn't know what he was doing ever again.

The downside of going to bed fairly early was that on Sunday morning Isaac was awake at an ungodly hour. Scott's alarm hadn't gone off yet. Isaac stayed in bed until Scott had left for work in the faint hope that he could go back to sleep but eventually Isaac gave up and got out of bed.

If he was up this early on a Sunday morning Isaac deserved a good coffee for breakfast, he decided. And donuts since he hadn't been able to enjoy the ones he'd gotten last week. He just hoped that he would not run into Peter Hale again, that guy was scary.

There were three people in line already when Isaac entered the coffee shop. None of them was Peter Hale.

However, the person in front of Isaac was Professor Stilinski. Isaac cursed under his breath. Why couldn't he get a fucking break? At least the professor didn't pay attention to who entered the line behind him and just patiently waited for his turn to place his order. When he stepped forward, Isaac noticed how stiffly he moved, though.

Isaac tried to not read too much into it but he did remember occasions he had moved like that himself. Usually after an awesome night. There was most likely a completely different reason for why Stilinski shuffled forward like this but Isaac couldn't help it, the image of Stilinski with Peter Hale in that restroom came to mind. That damn image had seared itself into his brain.

When the professor opened his mouth to place his order, only a hoarse croak came out and he had to clear his throat before he could get out the words.

"We have sage tea with honey," the woman behind the counter offered. "It's good for sore throats."

"Coffee's fine," Stilinski declined. His voice got better with every word he spoke but it still sounded hoarse.

"You sound like you should have stayed in bed," the barista said, not convinced, but she did start with the coffee.

"It's not a cold," the professor defended himself while he shifted from one foot to the other as if he was aching and trying to find a more comfortable position. The barista looked at him as if that was proving her point but she didn't comment on it.

While she made his coffee, the professor tried to subtly clear his throat a bit more.

"Dammit, Peter," Stilinski muttered between little coughs. "When you say rough, you mean rough."

Isaac tried not to hear his low comment. It put disturbing images in his mind. Images he prayed were not true but then the professor shifted his weight from one foot to the other again and for good measure, he pulled at the seat of his pants.

Isaac hurried to look somewhere else.

The professor must have realized that adjusting his pants like that was nothing he should do in public because he had a quick look around to find out if somebody was watching him. The barista was still busy with his order and Isaac was the only other person in the shop.

They had a few too many encounters outside of class for him to not recognize Isaac. For a second they just looked at each other, the professor with a sheepish look on his face, but then they got saved by the barista who placed Stilinski's order on the counter.

The professor hurried to pay and gather his things and Isaac expected him to just leave without looking at him but when Stilinski turned around, the embarrassed look was gone and he had a smile playing on his lips.

"You thought only students know how to have fun?" He asked in a low voice when he passed Isaac but he did not wait for an answer. Before Isaac had even processed what the professor had just said, he was out of the door.

"Why me?" Isaac asked nobody in particular.

"What can I get you?" The barista asked and Isaac had the feeling that she'd tried to get his attention for a while now. Isaac shook off his stupor and stepped up to the counter, he needed coffee.

Isaac returned to his dorm with his coffee and a box of donuts. The coffee he needed but he had the feeling that he would feed most of the donuts to Scott again.

He tried to interpret what he'd just witnessed in any other way than what it looked like. But he was drawing a blank on what it could mean other than that his professor had wild sex with Peter Hale last night. That he was able to put a face to the guy who'd left Stilinski limping and with a sore throat was not helping.

Sipping his coffee, Isaac leaned back in his chair. This was ridiculous. He chuckled and reached for a donut. On some level, he might even be jealous of Professor Stilinski. The man must be over forty, maybe not quite but to a college student every professor seemed to be ancient, and he had a way more active sex life than Isaac.

He'd seen him and Peter Hale in action at the Jungle and damn, they had been in action, and today this. Isaac hadn't seen any of the action today but if he was interpreting the state Stilinski had been in this morning, his night had been way more eventful than Isaac's.

Isaac raised his cup in a silent toast to his professor.

"I just don't want to know where Professor Hale fits in," Isaac muttered and tried really hard to not think about where the professor might fit in.