Hank McCoy/Alex Summers
The equation was driving him nuts. He had been agonizing over it for hours, and as it rarely happened to him he wasn’t used to this frustration. He let out a small, involuntary growl when it just wouldn’t click. Alex had looked up from the puzzle he was fiddling with—he had asked for something to do with his hands—and Hank blushed at the slip.
“You okay?”
“Yeah,” he stopped before he looked at Alex and saw him staring expectantly. “It’s just this equation.”
“Let me see,” he said, pushing up from his chair and walking over. Hank wordlessly shoved the equation over even though he didn’t quite understand what Alex intended to do with it. He grabbed a pen and chewed on the end as he looked it over. After a while, he wrote something down on the paper and passed it back to Hank. “Does this help?”
Hank nearly dropped his glasses and was stammering incoherently.
“H-how?!” he couldn’t help but exclaim. “How did you solve this?” Alex was blushing and toying nervously with his puzzle.
“I’m just good at math.” He set the puzzle down, but he still wasn’t looking at Hank. “I was in my first year of my geophysics degree when I was arrested.” Hank was spluttering and he moved so he was sitting closer to the blond.
“How old were you?” It didn’t seem possible, but Alex turned even redder at the obvious excitement in Hank’s voice.
“Fifteen,” he mumbled.
“You started college at fifteen?!”
“It’s not that big a deal,” he muttered. “You graduated Harvard at fourteen.”
“That’s still amazing, Alex.” He scooted even closer. “Why didn’t you continue?” Somehow, the blond managed to look even more awkward.
“Prison.” Hank immediately felt awful. He looked around awkwardly, trying to avoid Alex’s gaze until his eyes landed on the paper of unfinished equations.
“Come help me,” he said, tugging on Alex’s hands without thinking. Alex looked down at their hands and then back at Hank, and Hank turned red but didn’t let go.
“I’m sure you can figure it out on your own.”
“Doesn’t matter.” He tugged him again. “Come on; it’ll be fun.” Alex muttered something under his breath, but there was a small smile on his face. When they were sitting at the desk where Hank left the equations, he pushed the paper over to Alex and stared expectantly. Alex sighed indulgently and started writing.