ROUND ONE: Unfilled and Overflow

[oakenshields13]

ROUND ONE
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FILL: University AU (2/?)

[anonymous]

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Charles liked Europe and the smell of cold, old stone that housed its ancient libraries. Raven thought it was weird of him to have grown up in a mansion of cold, old stone and still the sight, smell, and feeling of it. But as much as he liked Europe and the smell of old stone, he has been offered a teaching post in a good university back home in New York. His sister is completing her master’s degree in the same university, and he will be able to do something he enjoys without living so far away from Raven.

He was teaching part-time in England-critical theory, which Raven thought was the most boring subject he could teach-and he had been feeling rather antsy about being appointed as an associate professor in the university he was teaching in. The department chairman, an American named Dr. Sebastian Shaw, was not very fond of him and had been vetoing any nomination done in his favor. Charles was resigned to just being an instructor even if he has finished his dissertation-after all, he was much younger than Dr. Shaw, and that man would not be department chairman forever.

But in the fall of last year, he played host to Dr. Emma Frost, one of Raven’s literature professors in her university. Dr. Frost was a visiting professor in Charles’ London university-but back in New York she was the head of her university’s literature department-and she invited him to become a full-time professor there. He accepted and informed her that he will fly over once the courses he was teaching were finished.

And then there is the matter of a nasty break-up. One of the reasons why Charles insisted on staying in England is because he had a boyfriend-this ruggedly handsome sod of a mechanical engineering professor who he met during one of the university’s attempt to get people from the different colleges and departments “acquainted”-and when that relationship fell apart, Charles was eager to leave both the university and the city he has called home for the last few years. To Charles’ credit, that bastard (no matter how handsome he was) should not have insisted on being more intelligent than Charles is because he can solve difficult equations, which does not matter in real life anyway.

So now, New York. The flight had been tiring, but Charles was looking forward to seeing Raven. He had not seen his sister after the Christmas they spent in Paris with James (the bloody sod who thought it was alright to insult Charles’ intelligence and bring up the issue of his cardigans). It was a disastrous holiday-Raven hated James, and James was not used to Charles paying attention to anyone else-and in hindsight, Charles thought that was the beginning of the disintegration of their relationship. Which was quite sad, really-James was Charles’ first real boyfriend, and as naïve as it sounded even at the beginning of their relationship, Charles thought it would last. He should have known the relationship was bound to go sour when James reacted quite negatively to Charles’ collection of comfortable cardigans. James’ refusal to take care of his own books were another sign, Charles realized, but real life was not a carefully structured piece of fiction. Nothing is foreshadowed and you cannot really tell which one is Chekhov’s gun. If there is something positive that resulted from that relationship (which lasted for a year, three months, two weeks, five days, and nine hours, not that Charles is counting), it was Charles’ bitter realization that life is nothing but a series of random things, random people, and random events. Another naïve belief that Charles carried well into adulthood-the belief in fate and structure and reason and possibly, happiness-debunked.

He flew home with nothing but a copy of Illuminations (Walter Benjamin, not Arthur Rimbaud) and his toothbrush. Everything else he shipped in advance to New York from England, including his collection of both books and cardigans, although he was not sure whether Raven kept the boxes in her apartment or forwarded them to Westchester. The flight was long and tiring, but as soon as he saw Raven waving enthusiastically, all plump cheeks and blond hair and toothy smile, he felt the strain on his body seeping away.

Charles is home.

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