Chapter Text
Nicky sat outside on the green, trying to enjoy the last week of quiet on campus before undergrads flooded the place, turning his favourite reading spot into a frisbee field. When the semester really started picking up, there wouldn’t be much time for this kind of reading anyway.
Each year the demand for his classes grew, though he wasn’t sure it was only for his unique takes on religion and ethics that had originally landed him the job. Nicky’s been teaching at Scythian University just long enough to have a reputation, personally and professionally. He’d been relived when Rate My Professor removed their hotness rankings, he was so tired of having students take his class just to ogle him. If he had to read one more paper where a student claimed religion had no place in the modern world, he thought he might quit.
But until the students came back, Nicky planned to enjoy the off time as much as he could. He was almost done with this book, a collection of translated poems from around the first crusade and had just enough time to finish before meeting colleagues for drinks at a bar they didn’t dare visit when it was filled with students.
“you’re late” Andy yelled across the empty bar when he finally walked in. Nicky was pretty sure he wasn’t actually late, they had just all come early.
As he walked up to the corner booth, he could hear Booker and Nile bickering in French, presumably something about their ongoing disagreement about the importance of Les Mis. Nicky was pretty sure they’d been arguing so long they’d switched sides.
His empty seat already had a drink waiting, another sign of Andy’s uncanny ability to know when someone was about to arrive. They’d all wondered many times if she had somehow planted GPS trackers on them in their sleep. As he settled into his seat Nile and Booker sighed dramatically at each other, wrapping up the fight for tonight.
“sooooo” Nile, dragged out, “how was your date last night?”. She was leaning nearly across the table, staring down Nicky like she knew he didn’t want to talk about it.
“I didn’t even make it through one drink” Nicky admitted, wilting under her stare. Better to get it over with he thought, none of them were going to let it go. “He believes free market capitalism will solve every problem. He actually used the phrase ‘pull yourself up by your bootstraps’”. Nicky laid his face on his crossed arms, sighing. Booker shoved his drink closer, stifling a laugh. “I know, I know” Nicky admitted, “I need to stop even trying to go on dates with anyone from the Business school” he said before taking a deep drink of the beer in front of him. “We’ve all been there, don’t worry Nicky” Nile admitted, reminding them all of her terrible fling with a Management professor. Nicky was pretty sure that man was too scared to come close to the humanities building since his run in with Andy after Nile had discovered he was cheating on her.
“Cheer up love” Andy said bumping her shoulder against his, “I hear a new professor is starting next week, there will be fresh blood in our hallway”. The religion department where Nicky and Andy taught was small, sandwiched between the History department and the Literature department. The empty office at the end of the hallway was usually a Literature professor, but as religion class sizes grew the school had decided to allocate another position to them.
“you hear more gossip than anyone else in the school” Booker said, squinting his eyes at Andy. She shrugged, winking at him with her classic smirk. Andy was a mystery, one they had long given up on figuring out. “I’m not going to try to sleep with a new professor the first week they get here Andy, plus you have no idea if they’re even attractive” “So after the first week you might?” She shot back at Nicky, completely ignoring the second half of his refusal. “Can we please give my terrible love lift a rest, please?” Nicky asked them all. He must have sounded tired enough that they did, changing the topic to the new exhibit Nile was putting together for the city’s art museum.
She was excited about it, having been given a lot more freedom now that her old department head had left. He was very traditional, and hadn’t appreciated Nile’s skill for examining social issues through art. She was able to teach a whole class on war and art this year and was using the museum exhibit to connect the community and her students. They spent the rest of the night talking about their syllabuses, new projects they were excited to start, and dreading the noise that would surround campus next week.
Nicky got home late, full of bar food and a little buzzed. It would be a few weeks before things settled down enough for the four of them to spend much time together, so they were enjoying it while they could. He walked through the house, tossing his bad on the couch to deal with tomorrow. He grabbed the sci-fi novel he was reading from the end table and walked to his room. He really just wanted to go to sleep, but knew he’d regret not taking a shower in the morning.
20 minutes later he crawled into his bed, ignoring his wet hair in favour of reading before he really had to sleep. He set his alarm a little later than usual, since he didn’t have to go in for any meetings in the morning. Nicky yawned, settling into the pile of pillows on his bed. He’d slept on enough hard floors to appreciate soft thing. Flicking off the lights except for his lamp, he promised himself he’d only read for a little bit.