"Whatcha working on?" Aria heard Ezra's familiar voice ask from the entryway of her family room. Aria was on her stomach pouring over her math textbook, a sheet of notebook paper filled with unfinished equations beside her. A smiled reached Aria's face with just knowing that Ezra was near her.

"Math homework," Aria answered, turning her body slightly so she was looking up at him. The smile on her face widened when her eyes met his. He must have stopped home and taken a shower before coming to her house because he was wearing a different set of clothes. He had changed into slim dark blue jeans that looked delicious on his body and his torso was clothed in a tight light brown t-shirt and a warm brown flannel lay unbuttoned overtop hinting at the muscles of his upper body. His hair, which was missing his usual curl, lay flat against his forehead, still wet from the shower he probably just took. Aria couldn't help but notice how gorgeous he was. When he returned her smile with a small genuine smile of his own, she felt butterflies arise in her stomach.

"You're doing math homework on a Friday?" He asked teasingly. He quickly looked around, scanning the near vicinity for any other people before he sat down near her on the edge of a coffee table. Aria's smile faltered when she saw him look around. She hated that she couldn't run over and hug him, that there had to be a constant wall between them, that unless cloaked in the safety of his apartment, only secret looks and brief desperate kisses could be exchanged.

Noticing the infinitesimal change in her mood he sighed. Aria looked up at him and he leaned down and quickly pressed his lips to her ear.

"I know it sucks, but better safe than sorry," he moved down and kissed the side of her mouth so gently she almost missed it, "doesn't mean I love you any less."

"I love you," Aria whispered as she laid her head in his lap for a moment and lightly kissed his inner thigh and felt him ruffle her hair in response.

"So homework on a Friday night? What a loser," Aria pulled away and gave him a dirty look which he laughed at in return.

"I'm trying to do all my homework tonight so my weekend is free and I can do things I wanna do like hang out with the girls or sneak out and spend time with you,"

"How's that working out for you?"

Aria let out a frustrated sigh, "I hate math. Like, I really fucking do. Do you know how to do derivatives?"

"Yeah, I haven't taken calculus in like three years, but I could probably help you,"

"Teach me?" Aria propped up on her knees hopefully and looked at him pleadingly. She was hopping that Ezra would be able to unravel some of her confusion in math. Math was by no means Ezra's strong suit, Aria knew that, but he wasn't dumb and he had ended up going as far as Calculus in college before fulfilling all his math credits. Whenever Spencer wasn't available to teach Aria whatever it was they were learning in Calc, she resorted to asking her out of college boyfriend.

"Can I see your textbook?" Ezra asked quietly. Aria quickly handed over the dreaded book and Ezra carefully took it and moved over to sit on the couch. He crossed his one leg over his knee and propped the book in his lap as he carefully reviewed text. Aria took this moment to study him again. His foot was bouncing slightly causing the textbook in his lap to move in a constant up and down rhythm. He bit his lip in concentration and Aria was hit with a strong desire to go over and suck his bottom lip into her mouth encasing it in a strong kiss. She noticed his hair had started to dry, letting the ends curl at the edges. When he leaned down to read closer in the book, a few curls fell down into his eyes, unnoticed by him. God, he needs a haircut, Aria heard herself think and wanted nothing more than to remove the hair from his eyes, running her fingers trough his scalp.

"Okay, sit over here, and bring your notebook," he ordered. He sounded like he did in the classroom; professional, scholarly, dominant. Aria did as she was told and sat on the couch next to him. She leaned in to see the textbook and her shoulder rested comfortably against his side. They both decided to ignore the physical contact, not wanting to have to pull apart. Aria felt the warmth radiating from his body and was enchanted by the smell of his cologne.

Aria watched as he quickly explained how to use chain rule with derivatives and tried to soak in as much information as possible. He really was an amazing teacher. He made it so much easier to understand and was so patient. And she only had to hit him a few times for making fun of her or making inappropriate comments. They fell into their relationship of not just teacher and student, but as best friends. It was impossible to deny the insane chemistry between that would light up whenever they would talk. They didn't have to be kissing or touching to be able to feel the love they has for each other. Ezra realized this is what he missed, and his heart hurt so much thinking about it. He loved sitting her on the couch and talking to her; joking around and making fun of her, watching the animated way that her beautiful face light up when she talked. They forgot about everything else. They forgot how Aria's mom and brother were in the other room, along with Corrie and a few other colleagues. They forgot about everything but each other.

When she finally understood how to do complete the math problem without his assistants, he looked up at her and smiled with delight, "See, I know you could do it,"

"Well, you're such a good teacher, Mr. Fitz, it's hard not to learn something," Aria said teasingly. He looked up at her and met her teasing eyes. Aria's hand trailed up to his face to push away the god damned curls that always fell into his eyes, but left her hand resting on his head. See felt Ezra's lust filled eyes on her, but she couldn't break her state away from his lips. And suddenly her lips were on his. His hands greedily gripped her sides as her fingers did what they had been aching to do for an hour and finally wrapped themselves in his curls, pressing him closer to her. She felt relieved, like all this tension she had had building up was finally being allowed to be released through this kiss. It didn't matter that merely five or six hours ago he had her coming apart on his desk, if anything that just made her want for him burn even brighter. She didn't want just a quick hook up. She wanted intimacy, she wanted the feeling of perfect synchronization of togetherness that came after. She wanted him. She felt his lips hungrily move against hers and his tongue push against her mouth, begging to be let inside. She granted him access as she laid down, pulling him on top of her. She felt the hard outline of her math textbook between their bodies. That's when she realized she had to stop. She cursed her the textbook for being so fucking poetic and representing how school and the issue of him being her teacher and those repercussions allows prevented them from being together. She gained a new respect for Ezra as she pushed against his shoulders to get him off her, being the mature one to hold on to their self control was so much more difficult than she could imagine. Especially when Ezra didn't seem to get the hint and his fingers that had trailed up to her chest were performing actions that made her want to forget her own name.

She tore her mouth from his and forcefully pushed against his shoulders once again, hissing out his name in frustration. Taking the hint, he quickly moved off of her and moved as far away as the couch would allow.

"I- I'm really sorry," he whispered guiltily. He quickly smoothed down his hair and tried to wipe away any remanence of the kiss from his mouth.

"s'fine," Aria breathed out heavily, "I kissed you, remember?"

"Maybe we should go back to the other guests... See if dinner is ready," Ezra suggested.

"Good idea,"

LINE BREAK

Dinner went a lot smoother for the couple. Not many passion filled glances were exchanged or footsies played. They treated the dinner as if the really were teacher and student and nothing more. The dinner discussions focused on the play itself and who would help aid in production crew. It was killing Aria to not know what part she got, if she got a part at all. However, she knew that with enough convincing she could get it out of Ezra if she really wanted to.

Aria spent a good amount of time watching Corrie during dinner. Her and Ezra seemed to be get along well and it kind of weirded Aria out. She had scarcely seen him with girls his age and it made her feel a little bit unsettled. She didn't like how much Ezra and Corrie had in common, or how she could make him laugh... Well that wasn't really the main issue, what she really couldn't stand was how Corrie looked at him.

Ezra had told her that there was nothing going on between the two, and she believed him; that he didn't feel anything toward his colleague, but it was really hard to believe that Corrie had strictly platonic thoughts when it came to Aria's boyfriend.

Her thoughts were confirmed when after dinner, Ezra was helping with cleaning up and was doing the dishes by the sink and Corrie moved to sit next to Aria, looking for company after most of the other teachers involved with RENT went home.

"Your callback was very good today," Corrie said, sitting down next to Aria.

"Thanks," she replied genuinely, "Rent's one of my favorite shows. I actually saw it on broadway,"

"Oh wow, I'm jealous, you know I heard Mr. Fitz saw it in broadway a few weeks ago,"

Aria held back from snapping an 'I know' back at Corrie and instead just decided to feign ignorance.

"He's great isn't he; Mr. Fitz?" Corrie began. Aria didn't dare look at her knowing that jealousy was probably written all over her own features, "I don't know how you would ever concentrate in class, I mean, look at that torso, not to mention his butt."

Mine! She felt like screaming. He's mine. Aria forced a laugh at Corrie's joke. She quickly picked up her plate and headed toward the sink to wash it, and to be able to talk to Ezra.

"I need to talk to you," Aria whispered seriously to Ezra as she began to angrily wash her plate. Ezra looked at her confused.

"About what?" He asked tensely, he could feel Aria's annoyance and it was already starting to taint Ezra's good mood.

"Corrie," Aria said the word as if it were venom, as if it were a curse word. She more felt than saw Ezra let out a frustrated sigh.

"If you're going to spend the rest of the night getting jealous over nothing, I'm going to get annoyed very fast,"

Ezra's words made Aria's anger rise; that Ezra didn't even know what she was going to say and just assumed she was being a stupid teenager and make a big deal over nothing. Aria angrily scrubbed her plate with more vigor letting the hot water burn into her skin.

"If you're gonna be an asshole for the rest of the night then-"

"Aria," Ezra sighed annoyed, cutting her off.

Aria tried counting to ten and taking deep breaths before even thinking what she wanted to say next, trying to keep the anger out of her response.

"Ezra, I would like to talk to you, like an adult, about how I feel and about our relationship," Aria finally pieced together. She was glad that the sound of the running water shielded their conversation from anyone else but them. She couldn't help the tiny bit of bitterness that still laced her words, but she hoped Ezra wouldn't mind/notice.

She felt Ezra's fingers intertwine with hers underneath the soapy water that the dishes were being washed in. She gave his hand a slight squeeze and he squeezed back confidently and gave her a small smile full of love.

"Could you try and spend the night?" Ezra whispered hopefully.

"I can definitely try," Aria replied with a smile. Neither of them unlaced their hands and the dishes took twice as long to do that night.