Chapter Text
You never expected to be one of those cliché girls who would get a crush on your teacher. Least of all your substitute teacher for solar science dr. Otto Octavius. But something in him, like the suns he was teaching you about, was gravitating you towards him. The way his voice got excited when he drew on the whiteboard, explaining his latest project to you.
How it happened what a big question but you, and some 6 other people from your class, were selected to follow this extra course given by dr. Octavius, on his newest project, because you were the top of the class, and he needed some help and fresh insights in his project. Just to see if he had missed anything in his calculations which, of course, you had no idea. Most of the calculations went straight over your head, either they were too difficult, or it was just hard to focus when your professor was so damned cute, and that red turtleneck looks very good in hi-
‘Miss l/n?’ his voice snapped you back to reality. You blinked quickly, trying to focus on the numbers on the board and trying to make sense of the numbers written on there. He probably asked a question, so you had to figure out what the question was. Now. Trying to make out from the figures and numbers on the board what he could possibly have asked. To no avail.
‘I’m sorry sir, could you repeat the question?’ you asked embarrassedly. This earned a few laughs from your classmates, but Octavius was quick to shut those down with a gesture of his hand. ‘Now, there’s nothing wrong asking for help when you missed something, no one is perfect. But next time, miss L/n, I urge you to keep your attention focussed on the task at hand.’ You looked down feeling your cheeks redden. You nodded slightly in agreement.
If you had not spaced out however, you would have noticed that he had asked you a question on purpose, knowing your mind was elsewhere. Or the way he smiled watching you scramble for an answer to a question you could not figure out. Or the way he himself had a slight blush creep up on his neck after seeing you look down and blush.
But he would never let his affection to you be known. He couldn’t. He is your teacher! He cannot have these feelings. And yet… The only reason you were even selected for this project group was because he felt something in him pull towards you. When he selected the student for this project from the back of the classroom, he looked for people who were top of the class. People who were quick to answer questions and who scored high grades on homework assignments. You had neither of those, no active participation during classes nor good grades on your homework.
Still, you just passed the bar every time. Either bluffing your way through or rambling enough in your answers to get some parts of the answer right. There was no good academical reason for you being in the project group. Except that Otto Octavius, unbeknownst to you, saw something in you and it intrigued him. He wanted to see why he felt such a strong pull towards you.
‘I asked you what problems you believe I could encounter when I activate a small star in my living room’ he repeated patiently and with a smile. When he put it like that even you could come up with countless of reasons this would be a bad idea. ‘Uhhh… Temperature could be a problem?’
‘Very good, but’ he continued as he addressed all of you again ‘as you can see, by making sure the surface temperature is low enough to not overheat it can be controlled. For a stable star the core must be hot enough to produce Helium atoms and fuse them into Hydrogen. Only higher tier stars, hotter stars, are able to produce more elements. The hottest stars can produce iron, but never higher elements than that. So, by keeping the core temperature at a low level higher elements cannot form.’
You could feel your attention slipping away again. You let it, how big was the chance he would ask you the next question too? Formation of stars was not something you were very interested in anyways. Otto kept talking about star formation temperature for a while, explaining he had a special device to help him control the star. You just smiled and nodded. Just pretend you understand something, and the knowledge will follow…. Right?
The rest of the meeting went smoothly. Dr Octavius filled you all in on the details of the time and place when and where he would test his invention. You were all invited, having helped him for a few weeks. Well, the others had, while you were too busy getting lost in those eyes…
Damnit Y/n! Focus! Teacher! …. Right
‘So, I’ll see you all next week then?’ he asked his class. Everyone responded, of course they would want to be present when this possibly ground breaking invention was first put to test and could possibly change the future of sustaining energy worldwide. You shrugged though. While it was a good excuse to see the handsome professor once more, you felt like you had not attributed enough for the project to actually take credit for it. And seeing it being put to test could have 2 outcomes: if it failed you would feel like you hadn’t done enough and if it worked you would feel like an imposter taking credit for something you hadn’t done.
You were just picking up your stuff when you heard him call your name ‘miss L/n? could you stay for a bit? I want to have a word with you’. You felt your stomach jump. Why would he need you to stay? Your mind started reeling, thinking up possible reasons why he would want you to stay. Did you do something wrong? Had you made a miscalculation, and did you fuck up his entire project? Or maybe… I mean, technically he isn’t your teacher anymore…
Stop thinking like that!
‘… miss y/n?’
Shit. You got so caught up in your thoughts you hadn’t answered him.
‘Uhm yeah sure’ you scrambled the words together. He laughed softly and nodded. The others were almost done packing up their stuff and heading out of the room anytime. You looked down at your notes. Piling them up neatly before putting them on the keyboard of your laptop and closing the device so they wouldn’t crinkle. The action distracting you from your once again warming cheeks.
You can feel his eyes on you without looking his way. You knew if you looked your brain would stop functioning. Something about him was so attractive. Maybe it was his big brown eyes? Or the way his red shirt fit tightly around his biceps showing off his toned biceps and hugged snugly around his huggable torso.
Once again distracted by your thoughts, you heard the door to the lecture room close as the last of the other students left. You packed your last things in your back before looking to the front of the room. Otto had already packed and was looking at you expectantly, waiting for you to finish up. He had a soft smile on his face.
The silence lingered for longer than you liked. It could have been just seconds but with your heart racing it felt like hours. You spoke up before more inappropriate thoughts could swarm your mind.
‘What did you want to speak to me about, Professor?’
You could’ve sworn you saw him gulp at that title. Or maybe you imagined it, it probably was just wishful thinking… right? He just looked you right in the eye as he started talking.
‘Y/n, I was wondering if I could repay you for your hard work by’ this time he did swallow hard before continuing, ‘I wanted to ask you to join the scientists dinner party the night before the demonstration?’
Your mind was racing once again. Had he really just asked that?
‘Uhm… it would be my honour…’ you stated, feeling a bit uneasy under the gaze of his big brown eyes, watching you expectantly. ‘But may I ask… why me? And not… you know…’ you gestured at the empty room behind you ‘… anyone else?’.
At that he chuckled. You averted your gaze as you tried to hide the blush growing on your cheeks once again. Emphasis on ‘tried’.
‘Well, dear girl,’ you blushed even harder at the nickname. You hear his footsteps approaching you cautiously, testing the waters… ‘believe it or not, you’ve done your fair share of work on this project, even if you didn’t get along that well with the others… but that is the downside of throwing together a random group of students, I understand that’. He trailed of a bit but at the end of the sentence he was standing right in front of where you were standing, still nailed to the spot next to your work desk with your bag in one hand, ready to bolt out of embarrassment.
Somewhere inside you, you found the courage to look up at him. His big brown eyes, enlightened with amusement, staring right back at you from a not so far distance now. ‘thanks’ is al you managed to mutter out before your voice gave out completely. Being alone with him in a room with him standing so close, you felt excited but also intimidated by his posture and also exited by the idea of seeing him again, out of the classroom this time.
‘I do still need an answer, sweetheart.’ He goes again with another nickname. You quickly avert your gaze towards a spot on the wall behind him, knowing if you didn’t you would not be able to speak up at all.
‘Then I would love to be there.’ You said as confidently as possible, not wanting to lose composure. What has gotten into you? The fantasies you had about this man were not helping in your current situation.
‘It’s a date then,’ he said, making you snap your head back quickly to look at him, just in time to see him wink and slide you a small piece of paper, on which he had written the time and date of the dinner. You looked wide eyed at his word and actions, making him chuckle softly.
‘See you then.’ He added before placing a small kiss on your cheek, laughing at your shocked expression before leaving the room.
You were nailed to the spot. Did that really just happen? It was like one of your obscure daydreams. There is no way that was real right?
‘Will you turn of the room lights when you leave, dear?’ you hear him chipper before closing the door behind him. You stood there for 10 more minutes processing what had just happened. Trying to figure out if it was real or not. Trying to wake yourself up from this dream by pinching yourself but you were still in the classroom, with a very real note in your hand as a looming invitation for a dinner party.