Work Text:
Derek was bored. These lectures started feeling pointless when you already knew what they were teaching. Especially when the professor seems to hate you specifically.
Derek had no idea what Professor Hastur had against him but he was clearly able to hold a grudge. He had hated Derek since he first joined the college, and despite having him for multiple lectures each year, Professor Hastur still hated him. Derek wasn’t a bad student, he didn’t interrupt lectures and he did well in the tests, so he was confused on why the teacher seemed to stare at him with pure disdain.
The professor didn’t seem to like anyone much at all, but it seemed the only person he had a personal bias against was Derek. Well, there was one person Hastur seemed to like.
That person was Avery. Which was especially weird considering Avery didn’t have any classes with the man.
Derek stared up at the clock, speaking of Avery, his lecture finished a couple minutes ago, he was probably waiting outside the room for Derek’s lecture to finish, he was incredibly tempted to just get up and go outside to Avery, but the last time he did that Avery looked really guilty about Derek leaving his class early for him, despite his many attempts to console his friend. (If Derek is hoping for them to be something more, that’s not important to anyone but him.)
Derek zoned back in when he heard his name being used. “So let's say, for example, I wanted to frame Derek for vehicular manslaughter, It would take quite a bit of set up and a lot of knowledge on the law to place the blame. So if you were looking for suspects, you’d want to find someone who would have knowledge on how to cover up a crime, and would have a strong enough motive to go out of their way to frame him.”
..You know what, maybe he could deal with Avery feeling a little guilty if it meant he could get out of this class sooner.
Luckily, it seemed he had zoned out for longer than he originally thought, when he looked up at the clock, it was just past the time the class was supposed to end at, Hastur was stilling speaking, and usually if a professor went on longer than the class time, he’d listen until they finished, but right now he would rather die than have to sit in this lecture any longer.
He felt the tension in his shoulders lessen as he walked through the doors (They were yellow, as well as just about everything else in the professor’s room), it seemed that after dealing with professor Hastur’s bullshit for the last couple months had led to Derek hating the teacher as much as he hated Derek.
“There you are! I was worried I like, walked past you somehow or something.” Hearing Avery’s voice felt like a relief after having to listen to Hastur’s for the last two hours.
Derek huffed a laugh as he moved to walk beside Avery. “Don’t worry, I’d definitely be able to find you in a crowd, Avery.”
“How would you know? I’m just another college student.” He joked, but there was something else much deeper beneath it.
“You’re very unforgettable Avery, you’re not just ‘another college student to me.” He said it as casually as he could, oh god was that weird? He doesn’t wanna accidentally creep Avery out or something, even if Avery didn’t like him back, he didn’t want to stop being friends with him.
Avery was silent for a long moment before looking up at Derek. “Derek, I.. I need to tell you some-”. He was cut off by another voice behind him, causing Derek to jump.
“Hello, Avery. It's good to see you doing well, I don’t see you around often.” Of course. Of course it had to be Hastur. He could never see the man’s face, but he could hear the grin in his voice. (His hood somehow managed to block out his whole face no matter the situation.) And he just as quickly dropped the light tone when he looked towards Derek. “Hello Derek.”
“Oh! Um.. Hello, Professor Hastur, it’s, uh, nice to see you doing well too. ” He could hear the nervous laughter in Avery’s voice, neither of them liked the professor’s.. Fixation on Avery.
Derek immediately tried to come up with an excuse to get away. “C’mon Avery, we have to go before that new ice cream place closes.” He grabbed Avery’s hand and started dragging him away, his hands were soft and Derek was trying very hard not to think about how much he never wanted to let go of him again.
“We’re getting ice cream?” Avery asked the moment they turned the corner, his lips tilted upwards as he looked at Derek with amusement in his eyes. It was clear to both of them (And probably Hastur as well) just how much Derek wanted to get out of that conversation.
You know what, Derek thought, might as well double down. “We are now.”
Avery paused for a moment and Derek felt his heart sink, oh god. Did he have plans already or something? Should he let go of his hand? Oh god he’s going to hate him an- oh. Avery was laughing. A sweet sound , with his grip on Derek’s hand tightening as he laughed.
“Yeah, let’s go get ice cream, there’s a place that’s like a ten minute walk from here. Thanks for the excuse, no idea why that professor likes me so much. I don’t even have any classes with him! I’m in a different building half the time!”
Derek felt the nervousness disappear as he listened to Avery rant about how the professor always tried to talk to him whenever he saw him, and he felt himself smile. In his spiral, he had forgotten the reason why he liked Avery so much in the first place, it seemed that no matter how badly Derek felt he messed up, struggling to find words or misreading social cues, Avery would always be there for him. He didn’t care about what Derek did right or wrong or what he achieved, he just cared about Derek.
He can’t believe he forgot. Avery truly was the most wonderful person he knew.
And as the two of them walked together, talking about their classes and picking ice cream flavours, he forgot all about how much he hated his classes.
It seemed Avery could make anything better by simply being there.