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“...do you want to talk about anything?” It was a vague question, one that Whit deflected with ease.
“I’m kinda tired, Ceci… can I just listen to you talk about chemistry?”
Charles nodded in understanding; they’d just returned from celebrating Whit’s birthday with a few of their classmates and were worn out from the high-energy bantering with the others.
It wasn’t as terrible as Charles had expected. Arei, Eden, Ace, and Levi weren’t the kind of people the chemist would choose to spend his time with, but Whit seemed to enjoy their company.
“What would you like to discuss?”
“I dunno…” Whit said with a yawn, leaning onto Charles. “Pick somethin’ for me.”
“Hm…” The chemist took a few moments to gather his thoughts. He wasn’t the best at being put on the spot, but he did have a few ‘fun facts’ he thought Whit would enjoy.
“If I were to take sodium hydroxide and add phenolphthalein to it, it would-”
“Pheno- what now? What is that?”
Charles gave him a deadpan stare. “If you would let me finish… it is a universal indicator, which means it would change color depending on if the base solution is acidic or alkaline.”
Whit nodded, looking off to the side as he tried to recall his high school chemistry lessons.
“Phenolphthalein added to sodium hydroxide will become pink since it’s an alkali.”
“...NaOH way, that’s neat!”
Charles sighed as if he was annoyed, but the blond could see the hint of a smile tugging at his lips. ‘At least he’s listening and trying to follow along…’ Charles thought.
“A’ight, hit me with another one!” Whit said cheerfully. Charles had hoped that starting off with his favorite color would put him in a better mood, and it seemed to be successful.
“Let’s see… you know the element cobalt, right?”
“Uh… that’s the blue one, right?”
“...close enough. It naturally appears as a shiny gray metal, and only turns into the blue pigment it’s known for when heated and combined with aluminium silicates.”
“COol, Ceci!”
Charles didn’t notice the pun Whit was trying to make, but it didn’t deter the matchmaker in the slightest.
“Cobalt is also used to manufacture magnets, batteries, and alloys-”
“Hey hey, can I interrupt ya for a sec?” Without waiting for a response, Whit carried on with a grin. “Are you made of copper and tellurium? Because you are Cu-Te and I can’t resist your magnetic charm~”
“Are you going to keep interrupting me, or…?”
“One more!” Whit cleared his throat dramatically before delivering the next pickup line in his best serious voice.
“Baby, are you a magnet? ‘Cuz I can’t wait to pin you against the fridge~”
At that one, Charles turned red. “S-shut up! And don’t call me that!”
Whit mimicked zipping his lips shut and gestured for Charles to continue.
“Where was I… cobalt, correct? There’s not much else to say, other than the fact that the blue pigment is commonly used in glass and paint.”
‘I wonder where he’s going with this? Pink and blue… those are probably the colors he associates with me, heh…’ Whit thought to himself, smiling fondly.
“The next element I wanted to discuss with you is iodine, and don’t you dare make any idiotic puns,” he said flatly, shooting the blond a knowing look. “Iodine is a purplish-gray nonmetal. It’s one of the few substances that is capable of sublimating; in layman’s terms, it passes from a solid to a gas. When sublimated into a gas, iodine turns into a vibrant purple color.”
“Iodine is also used to reveal fingerprints in forensics. Back when I was interning under my old chemistry professor, he had the class perform an experiment using iodine molecules. The students were to leave their fingerprints on a sheet of paper and place it on top of a mixture of potassium iodide and copper sulfate. Since iodine is volatile, it would leave the solution and sublimate, sticking to the fats from the fingerprints-”
Charles’ jaw snapped shut when he realized he had been speaking for longer than intended. “Are you feeling any better now?” he asked tentatively, glancing up at Whit.
“Yeah, I am! Thank you, Ceci… could ya keep goin’? It’s nice to hear your voice…” Whit trailed off, a slight blush gracing his cheeks with the admission.
“S-sure…” he pushed his glasses up on his face and continued. “Sulfur and gold are the most well-known for their yellow hue, but there are many other instances of yellow occurring naturally. Phosphorus, antimony, and arsenic all have allotropes that are yellow, and fluorine and chlorine are pale yellow gases.”
“The compound I think you’d be most interested in is 2,4-Dinitrophenol, otherwise known as DNP. It’s used in explosives manufacturing-”
“Explosives?!” Whit’s eyes lit up and he turned to face Charles excitedly, just as the chemist had predicted.
“Yes, explosives. It has 81% of the explosive strength that 2,4,6-Trinitrotoluene, commonly known as TNT, does and is also used as a pesticide and herbicide. When observed in its pure compound form, it appears as a yellow powder and may explode upon contact with air or if submitted to external factors.”
“Yellow, huh? You tryin’ to tell me something, Ceci?” Whit asked with a playful grin.
“W-what? What do you mean by that?”
Whit scooted even closer to him and placed his hand on top of the chemist’s. “Pink, blue, purple, and- aww, your face turned red.”
Charles unintentionally made a startled noise. “I-I’ll have you know that blushing is completely involuntary and automatic!”
“Hehe, of course… that reminded me of a few fun facts of my own, actually. Wanna hear ‘em?”
“Go ahead,” Charles nodded, curious about what Whit was reminded of.
“Okay, so you know how I’m super knowledgeable about body language and stuff, right? Did’ya know that blushing is theorized to be an evolutionary trait that protects us from the consequences of our slip-ups?”
Charles wanted to hide his face in his hands as he blushed once again, but he didn’t dare remove Whit’s hand from his own. He settled for staring a hole into one of his cacti on the bookcase.
“For example, if someone were to get defensive, you’d naturally think they did something wrong. If they were to blush, however, you can infer that they feel embarrassed. That trait makes them more sincere, even if the words they speak don't match how they feel.”
The chemist didn’t know how to feel about Whit discussing one of the traits he was embarrassed by. He would have expected this analysis from someone like Veronika, but he supposed it did make sense for Whit to have an in-depth understanding of body language (even though he didn’t always show it).
“Think about it: if everyone saw you get super angry at some stupid joke I made, it would be a little intimidating. You usually get flustered though, so people realize that your heart isn’t totally made of steel!”
Charles’ jaw clenched and he glared daggers at Whit. “I’m well aware, there’s no need to point it out.”
“I know, I know! I just think it’s adorable that you blush at normal friendship stuff, y’know? Being your best friend is something I really treasure,” Whit admitted with a genuine smile. His eyes softened as he watched Charles melt into a flustered puddle.
“S-shut up… you’re so unbearably cheesy at times.”
“See? Cute! Aaaanyways, what do you want to talk about now?”
“...did you know that osmium is the densest stable element known to man?”
“...dense? Are you calling me dense, Ceci?” Whit could’ve sworn he saw the faintest trace of a pout on Charles’ face, but it was gone before he could bring it up.
“I’m not answering that.”
“I’ll have you know I’m not dense, I’m… the opposite of dense! They call me double helium since I laugh at everything!”
“You idiot, helium isn’t even the lightest-”
“Shh, shh… don’t ruin my jokes, dude!”
They fell into a comfortable silence, and Whit leaned on Charles as he fidgeted with his jewelry. “Thanks for cheering me up, Charles… maybe one day I’ll tell ya why I’m always bummed out on my birthday.”
“Mhm, that would be nice…”
“I will, I swear! I just gotta get all my thoughts in order, you know how scatter-brained I am!” Whit replied with a sheepish smile.
“Yes, that’s true… what do you want to do now, Whit? We could watch those YouTubers you’re always talking about,” Charles suggested, leaning over to grab the remote from the coffee table.
“Ooh, yes! My favorite parasocial gay influencers!” Whit cheered, snatching the remote from Charles’ hands. “Let’s binge all their funny moments, c’mon! It’ll be a great way to end my birthday.”