Chapter Text
Joel took a deep breath.
First days were never easy, and he didn't expect that today to be any easier. He was still questioning how the hell he ended up as an art teacher at his local university in the first place.
It was just an elective class, one artsy students or those that needed to fulfill a credit could take if they didn't want to do anything else, but still… he was a teacher now.
What the hell had he gotten himself into?
He should have never let Niko and Joonas talk him into this, his boyfriends worked at the school as well and had jumped at the chance to tell him there was an opening.
"Your art's amazing!" Niko had told him over dinner that night, "they would be fools to not give you the position."
"Just apply." Joonas agreed, "if it doesn't work out, oh well. But please just apply, for us?"
Joel mentally cursed Joonas' puppy eyes for getting him once again.
It was easy for them to say, Joel thought, they both had degrees to go along with their jobs and had been teaching there for a couple years, they were already settled into their routine and, as Niko liked to put it, molding young minds.
And Joel had never really thought about teaching before. What if he was no good at it? What if the students hated him and didn't learn anything and he was fired and banned from ever teaching again? Blacklisted from every university in the country?
Ok, he told himself, maybe that's a bit dramatic.
But there's no backing out now. He would have to go through with this at least for a one semester.
Someone save him, please.
At least it was a warm night, he thought with a sigh, he was grateful that his boyfriends taught night classes as well so they would all be able to go home together at the end of the night.
Of course, they both taught multiple classes so he had to come later, taking the bus or walking so he could just drive back with them, which was rather inconvenient with his art supplies, but he would get used to it.
"Joel!"
He had a moment's notice before Joonas launched himself into his unsuspecting arms, hugging him around the neck and laughing.
"Are you excited?" He asked, face lit up, "because I'm excited too. I can't believe you're going to be working with us!"
"Just one class at night," Joel reminded him, hugging him back tightly before letting him down.
"Yes yes I know," Joonas waved him off, "you still have your day job… for now."
Joel rolled his eyes, Joonas was absolutely convinced that he would end up taking on more classes after the semester and would end up a full-time teacher like them.
But he liked being a sound engineer, he wasn't leaving it.
"Let me show you around," Joonas said, hooking his arm through Joel's and pulling him to the building.
He had seen it before of course, he had brought Niko and Joonas dinner on several nights, visiting them between classes so he wouldn't just be home alone. But who is he to deny Joonas his fun?
Of course they didn't go straight to the arts department, Joonas showed off his classroom for his counseling classes, introducing him to a large, rather brooding looking gentleman that had the classroom across the hall.
"This is Tommi," Joonas told him, "he teaches first level nursing classes. Tommi, this is Joel, he'll be teaching a painting class."
Tommi held out his hand, a small smile on his face, "nice to meet you." He chuckled a little, "although if I'm honest Joonas talks about you a lot, so it feels like I already know you."
Joel felt a blush raise to his cheek at that; Joonas and Niko both talked about their coworkers rather often, but he had never stopped to really consider that they would talk about him at work.
Although, he talked about them at work as well, so he supposed that made sense; he just never expected them to do the same, except for maybe complaining about having to put up with him.
"Nice to meet you as well," Joel told him, "Joonas has told me about you too."
Tommi gave him a small chuckle and released his hand, saying he would see them around as he went into his classroom.
Next Joonas took him to the arts department, a room in the music section full of students as a black haired man went over a production technique on the projector screen.
There were rehearsal rooms that students could book for practice and tutoring sessions they could sign up for! Joel smiled a little when he noticed the sign up sheet for piano tutoring was almost full; Niko always liked to teach it, as long as it wasn't for young children.
He always found it funny how he ended up with a boyfriend that loved kids enough he had studied to be a counselor for them, and one that babied his cat but had no patience to work with children, swearing they made him lose his hair.
Joel was a little relieved when he saw a herd of students leaving Niko's classroom as they approached it, his creative writing students chattering happily as they went about their days.
"Hey babe," he said, pulling Joel into a quick hug. "Excited for your first class?"
"I guess," Joel said with a sigh, "I don't have that many students." Last time he had looked at the roster he only had a handful. But it was an evening elective class so he hadn't expected it to be full by any means.
"It'll be great," Niko promised, "you're a great artist and your students will love you."
Joel wasn't convinced about that, he was well aware of how he could come off as brooding and grumpy. But he definitely didn't want to scare away any of his students.
The two of them walked him to his classroom, even though the nice administrator had walked him around for his orientation, the long haired blonde making sure he knew exactly where everything was.
"My last tutoring session ends around 9," Niko told them, "and I know Joonas' last class ends around the same time, so we can all go home together if you don't mind waiting an hour, the studio would be considered free use time so you can just paint if you want."
Joel nodded, they had talked about this before, and he would rather spend the hour working on his own paintings and then getting to go home with them then taking the bus and spending his time alone in their apartment, most likely doing the same thing.
The time steadily moved closer to the beginning of his class and they both gave him another kiss before leaving, Joonas to his next class and Niko to the first of his tutoring sessions for the evening.
Joel set up for the first lesson once they left, taking a deep breath to calm himself. He really didn't think he was the best of teachers but his boyfriends had insisted that when it came to art he had an endless reservoir of patience.
Soon one of his few students peeked his head in the room, giving a little smile and going to set up at one of the easel tables, the blue haired man seemed to be close to his own age or maybe a year or so younger setting up his supplies and playing on his phone while waiting for the start of class.
Joe couldn't help again feeling a little nervous as he waited for the rest, hoping that all of his students hadn't decided to drop on the very first day, but a couple minutes before start time the rest trickled in, a handful of men and women taking seats and looking at him expectantly as the clock struck the top of the hour.
Joel cleared his throat, "hello everyone," he said, "welcome to Introduction to Watercolor, I'm your instructor Joel." He paused for a moment, he had had a whole lesson plan to go over and he had created a little speech he planned to give on the first day about what they would be doing over the semester, but all the sudden everything just fled from his head.
He decided to wing it.
"I will be teaching technique in this class," Joel told them, "but truly this is going to be a space for you to express yourself. Your happiness, your stress, any dark thoughts," he laughed a little, "the awkward thing you did at 12 that wakes you up in the middle of the night."
The students laughed, the blue haired man especially nodding hard like he was intimately familiar with such a thing.
"You're going to learn how to let that out on canvas," Joel told them. "This isn't art therapy or anything, I don't have any kind of psychological training, but art can help in so many ways and that's what we're going to be exploring. I might assign you a certain technique to use but what you create will be up to you."
He paused to see if they had any questions, and when no one did, took another breath and continued.
He was surprised how easily everything went from there; the class was only slated for an hour and he took attendance, pleased everyone was there, and went over the vague outline he had for lessons, telling them he would be available at least half an hour before each class if anyone had questions, and would most likely be staying after class for about an hour each day as well as he had no formal office or office hours.
As the students left Joel settled in to use the empty studio, pulling out the half finished piece he was working on from his canvas bag and putting in his airpods to listen to his music while he painted.
He contemplated the canvas, the actual direction of the painting hadn't taken shape yet, he was just letting his emotions out with so far a bleak blue background, not sure where it was really going to go.
He dipped his brush in a dark blue, adding it to the edges-
"Hi"
He jumped, cursing as his brush moved across the canvas.
"Oh my god I'm so sorry!" The young curly haired man said as he took taking a step back, "I just wanted to introduce myself really quick since some of my students were talking about taking your class and we're in the same department-"
"It's ok," Joel cut him off, "it happens." He sighed, looking at the unintentional streak, "so you're a teacher?"
"I'm Olli." He held out his hand, "I teach graphic design."
Olli, that was a familiar name, he knew Joonas had talked about an Olli a lot.
Joel shook his hand, "Joel, I teach, well you know."
Olli smiled, a warm expression on his face, "nice to meet you Joel. How was your first day?"
"Pretty good, but I feel like we didn't do much." He admitted.
Olli laughed, "oh trust me, we all feel that on the first day. Are you planning to stay here long?"
Joel looked at the clock, seeing that the hour was almost up. "No, I'll be going home soon."
"Wrong," a voice said from the doorway, "we're going out to drink to celebrate your first day."
Niko grinned at the groan Joel let out, both of his boyfriends loved to get him out to be social.
"You're invited too, Olli," Niko added, "that'll be six of us."
"I'd be happy to." Olli agreed, smiling at both of them.
Six, so only three strangers, Joel thought. He could deal with that, not wanting to be rude to his new coworker.
With a sigh he carefully packed his canvas, his bag having spacers so that nothing would touch the wet paint while it was still drying, and stood, summoning a smile at the excited look on his love's face.
"Let's go."