Orbit
Prompt: #300, Orbit
Summary: Ian spends time off pondering his favourite subject.
Having been handed the gift - ultimatum - of taking six weeks off to spend at home, and lacking any desire to go up in the mountains for a while, Ian had decided to try occupying himself by sitting in on some of his lover's classes.
Charlie had told him to go ahead, but that he might want to sit in the back, to avoid the students' . . . enthusiasm. Ian had agreed, having already planned to sit with his back comfortably to the wall and out of the way.
It was . . . interesting, watching Professor Eppes, truly in his element, explaining his beloved numbers, and the equations and algorithms they formed, to people who were knowledgeable and passionate.
More entertaining, though, was watching Charlie when he was simply holding office hours - though he often got absorbed in his own work during those times, he rarely turned away a student, and they came to him frequently.
Ian wasn't surprised to see how patient and supportive Charlie was with them - he stifled a laugh, realising that explaining complex formulae to FBI agents must encourage that - but he was, slightly, to see how many non-mathematics majors came to Professor Eppes.
Charlie paid them just as much attention as he did his own students, obviously happy that they had bothered to be curious about the math in their own specialties.
Ian smiled a bit, watching Larry dash in as an engineering student walked out - Charlie didn't even turn from the work he had just resumed as Larry walked up to his shoulder.
Larry was the only one who'd wandered in for Charlie's help, though, that had drawn Charlie down into his work.
Ian figured if he were either of the men he was watching, he would have some sort of planetary comparison, probably involving reciprocal orbits, or something.
~Fin~
Izzy, my roommate/beta, is currently in a skilled nursing facility, so I am posting old things - well, relatively - but nothing new until she is back home and up to betaing again. I'll try not to let it be so long between updates, though. . .