Perpetual

If I hadn’t worked so hard to clear the table, I wouldn’t have been late, Elena thought to herself. She was on the subway. She loved having Pietro and Iolanda over, but those two practically lived for sex! Last week, at two in the morning, she had left the room to tell them that she needed to sleep because she couldn’t stand their noise anymore, and when they both apologized and went back to their rooms, she thought they wouldn’t come to stay with me again, but Pietro was cheeky and made Iolanda look like him too.

She realized she had reached her stop and wrapped her scarf tightly around her neck before walking out into the cold November morning. When she arrived minutes later, out of breath, at the building where the lesson would be held, the reception told her that the lesson was on the fifth floor.

“Fuck! Do I have to climb to the top of the tallest tower? Am I in the Shrek universe?”

When the woman at the reception looked at her blankly, the girl thanked her and went on her way. There was no elevator in the historical building. She was out of breath after climbing five floors. When she ran into the classroom thinking that class must have started already, she saw him.

The girl could have sworn that time had slowed down. When her eyes found Zemo's, she felt as if she had been electrocuted. But of course, she had no idea that the one who was really affected was Zemo.

"Professor!"

"Huh?"

The man stared at Elena with wide eyes. The girl forced herself to look into his eyes, but she could feel her cheeks turning red. She cleared her throat. "Professor?"

The man finally managed to say, "Yes?" as he loosened his tie. Elena held out her hand to him. "I am one of the students in your Scientific Ethics class this semester. My name is Elena."

Zemo took the girl's outstretched hand and they shook hands. "Miss Elena. I see you are an art student. Why are you taking my class?"

The handshake was over. Elena reluctantly let go of his hand and sat down, her cheeks warming, in the middle row of the small classroom. Across from the teacher's desk. She cursed herself inwardly. It was as if she could look him in the eye without blushing, and she was sitting right across from him. "I like science," she finally said in what she hoped was a strong enough voice. She bit her lip as she noticed how Zemo's eyes matched his dark green tie. When she realized that his eyes were actually hazel, she added, "And your class was worth a lot of credit."

The man laughed heartily and Elena smiled widely.

“Thank you for your honesty, Miss Elena,” he said finally. His eyes were still on the girl as the other students started to arrive in the classroom. For the rest of the lesson, Zemo felt quite uncomfortable as he noticed how Elena was smiling at the boy who had sat next to her. But when Elena turned her gaze to him, laughing at a joke that no one else understood, his heart warmed. So he put the subject aside for a while. Like, until next class. He had to somehow stop this unpleasant brat from sitting next to Elena. He couldn’t explain it, but he didn’t like it. And since he was the ruler of the class… he could do whatever he wanted, right?

"Should ethics vary from person to person or not? I want everyone to bring an essay on this next week," he said, noticing how deeply the boy was looking at Elena, and he was ending the lesson. Reluctantly. Time was up. He didn't understand why this upset him so much. He wouldn't have to watch this teenager drooling over Elena, wasn't it good? Why ending the class was making him sad? He couldn't believe an hour and a half had gone by like this.

As the students hurriedly gathered and left the classroom, Elena was as slow as she could be. When she said goodbye to the boy who insisted on saying goodbye to her in a friendly manner, Zemo relaxed a little. The blond, blue-eyed boy was like an adorable puppy. He was worried that Elena would be affected by the boy's cuteness. But why should that worry me, he thought.

"Are you staying, Professor?"

He quickly gathered his things from the table as he turned his eyes to the girl who had asked the question. "No, Elena." The man smiled widely on his face, and he was surprised to see how often he was smiling around her.

They locked the classroom together and began to slowly descend the stairs from the fifth floor.

"Are you getting used to school?"

Elena laughed. “Everyone is really helpful, but since I’m not an American citizen, sometimes they just assume I don’t know English when they see my ID and—”

Zemo finished her sentence. “They’re shouting English. Like if they shouted you’d miraculously understand.”

The two of them looked at each other and laughed.

“Exactly!” Elena said.

“Idiots!” Zemo said. “You’ll get used to it, don’t mind them, Miss Elena. You’ll love it here.” He seemed to be saying it more to himself than to her. He had seen Elena’s student profile that she was from Sokovia. His brow furrowed as he thought about the girl’s possibility of returning there after school.

“I hope I do. I can’t go back to Sokovia if I can’t stay here anyway. I need to move somewhere else.”

They had arrived at the building's exit. Before Zemo handed the keys over to the front desk, he said, "I need to leave the keys." He had expected Elena to wait for him, but was shocked when she wished him a good day and left the building. "What am I going to do with you, Miss Elena?" he muttered as he stared after her.

At the same time, Elena was already on her phone, sending Iolanda a voice recording in their own language. "Oh my God! I want to kiss every corner of his face, Iolanda! He's so cute!"