A Star-Bound Romance (Anubis x Reader)

Hydrogen Bonding

     "The most basic process of bonding is hydrogen bonding." Oh. Simple start. "Please write on your paper an example of a hydrogen bond." I sigh, looking to the paper. I hear Anubis snicker as he writes his answer, before casually flipping it. I try to decide what to write, and settle on 'the fusion of two stars'. A bit of a larger scale answer than expected but it works. "Would anyone like to share their answers?" Anubis raises his hand. The teacher nods to him.
     "A friendship with a novakid." Everyone in the room breaks out laughing. Except for the teacher.
     "Mr. Lightseeker," Anubis Lightseeker, interesting, "please see me in my office after class." His face drops slack.
     "Oh, but Ms. Bailen, I've done nothing wrong. When two novakids form a friendship some of the hydrogen that makes up our exterior skin transfer, forming a more cultured and strong barrier. I'm actually offended by the fact that you thought I was kidding!" He honestly looks angry, but I can tell that he's kidding. Whether or not he's joking about the scientific part I can't tell. The teacher looks taken aback.
     "U-uh-um... whether or not that explanation is correct or not I apologize for offending you. Back to the lesson..." Anubis grins as he sits down. He leans over to whisper in my ear.
     "Totally bullshit my way through that. The hydrogen that makes up a novakid only ever transfers in a romantic relationship. But that's a different type of hydrogen bond." He says, winking. Am I... blushing?

     "Hopefully chemistry doesn't move that slow every day. We're in college, dammit, not middle school." Anubis retorts, guiding me through the hall. There's a door similar to the airlock.
     "Why are all the doors designed like that?" He looks at the door, and after a minute remembers this is my first year.
     "Oh. They're all airlocks, in case there's a breach out here or in there. I was in the training room for small creature combat for my first breach, and boy was that fun. A pack of Accipitridae lycosidae-- hawk-wolf spider hybrids-- broke through and we had to handle them on our own. I just exposed my core and they all burned if they got close enough to me." I look him up and down again, before posing a new question.
     "What do you mean exposing your core?" He chuckles.
     "I forget sometimes that they can't figure out the biology of novakids since we're all unique. The novakid is made of three levels; the outer skin, which is constantly exposed, the lifeblood layer, which is basically where my genes are held, and core. The core is the very base of a novakid, where we burn gas to make the outer skin in similar fashion of you getting nutrients from food or utilizing water." I nod, barely understanding but getting a general idea. He's about to continue when the door starts opening. "I'll show you an example later." We enter the class and wait for the instructor to arrive. The wall at the podium of the lecture hall blows open and a man maybe in his thirties falls through it, obviously thrown by something. Anubis puts his hand on his knife but does nothing more, obviously waiting for some sort of signal. The man coughs, before yelling out.
     "Auxilium!" He flips the knife out and jumps into the aisle, sprinting down and diving in front of him, raising the knife and stopping the advance of whatever it was.
     "Desistere! Indietro! Indietro!" The creature, resembling a humanoid with bear-like fur, steps forward. He makes a low sweep with the knife and it jumps back, growling at Anubis before backing off.
     "Thanks." The instructor says, lifting himself up.
     "Permission to return to my post?" The instructor nods, stepping to the lecture hall's podium.
     "Granted." And as if this was nothing out of the ordinary he walked back up to his seat and sat next to me. "Please rise. We'll be going straight to the training room." I turn to Anubis, shocked.
     "No lecture or anything?" I stand anyways, following him.
     "What is there to lecture on? Killing's simple. If you see blood and it stops breathing, it's dead."
     "But isn't this biology? I thought that would be combat!" He chuckles.
     "The only difference is that in one you're killing the subject for research, in the other you're killing for survival. Why waste an ideal time for practice?" Interesting.
     "How did you know to-" He cuts me off.
     "We served together on a post in the Wildlands. That's all you need to know." Another sensitive topic. Right.

     "When I say your name, please raise your hand. Anubis?" Anubis raises his hand, before lowering it to a salute. The teacher does the same. "Alrora?" An avian raises his hand and drops it as soon as he can, obviously nervous of something. "Mary?" Mary's hand rises, and I see it moving towards the last seen location of the avian. That's probably why.
     "Rest in pieces Al." Anubis says, humor in his voice despite the dark implications of what he's just said.
     "What do you mean?" He chuckles.
     "Al's the avian you asked for directions earlier. Mary's probably about to go ham on him. And not in the good way." I shudder, ignoring the innuendo added.
     "(Y/n)." I raise my hand and he glances over to me, before looking to Anubis. Something passes between them and the instructor smiles, before going back to his list.
     "What was that?" He whistles.

     "Oh, nothing of the matter." After a while he finishes reading off the list and seats us next to each other. Odd how this keeps happening. Odd how they had some sort of signal associated with my name. Odd how I'm thinking so far into this.