A Rose by Any Other Name

I'm back

Out of all the professors, Professor Merlin was by far my favorite. He taught herbalistic studies at the local university, a class I attended on a regular basis. Usually though, there are only a couple dozen of us, because a lot of students think that he's positivity mental.

I don't think he's gone completely off the rocker, but I must admit, he is a little odd. He talks to himself a lot, sometimes to the plant on the corner of his desk. He never sticks to one subject, but instead hops from topic to topic. He brings his cats - Kilgharrah and Aithusa - to lectures sometimes. When he can't answer a question he doesn't Google it, he takes 5 minutes to call someone - I think he had called him Gaius? - for the answer. Despite this, he is still my favorite teacher.

It does help that he is so incredibly beautiful. On his head is a shock of messy,  ebony locks that stick up in every direction. His eyes are the bluest blue to ever blue, deep enough to down in and breathtakingly gorgeous. His skin is almost sickly pale, making his features pop. His full pink lips are the perfectly kissable - the kind I can't help but fantasize about. His razor sharp check bones perfectly define his rosy cheeks. But when he writes on the chalk board, I content myself with starting at... other things. It was a real shame that he was taken.

Today's class was the same as any other, Professor Merlin trailing off about something that was most likely not in the curriculum - I'm pretty sure it was something about... flowers? Edible flowers.

"Many flowers that you wouldn't expect are in fact edible. For example: roses. Some roses are actually edible, but you wouldn't expect them to be because, well, the thorns!" He ranted, scribbling furiously on the board behind him. "As a matter of fact, most of you have probably eaten a bunch of roses without even knowing. Who can tell me what I mean?"

No one could.

"Strawberries." Said a voice in the back row. 

"Precisely! How did you know? Have you read ahead?" Asks Professor Merlin, still facing the chalk board.

"Not exactly. You told me once." He starts, slowly standing up from his chair, drawing all eyes to him. From my seat I noticed that he was wearing a military uniform with a name tag that was labeled 'Pendragon', a camouflaged hat sat crookedly on his sandy blond hair. Slowly, he started down the stairs, each footfall echoing of the hardwood. "You were sitting at the kitchen table, and you were absolutely covered in soil - surrounded by pots! And you were picking seeds off of the strawberries with a toothpick, so I asked you what you were doing," there was a thud as Mr. Emeris dropped the chalk. "I asked you, and you told me; 'I'm planting roses.' And you spent a good fifteen minutes telling me how strawberries are part of the rose family, and that they were for me, but they would take a couple months to grow, so I should probably stick around to watch them." As Military Man reached the bottom of the stairs, we all understood: this was Professor's secret significant other that we had heard next to nothing about. "You were trying to convince me to stay."

"That's not true." Said Mr. Merlin, his voice thick with tears. "That's not true, you're lying."

"That was 28 months, 2 weeks and 6 days ago-" he continued.

"Stop it, that's not true."

"It's been 2 years." he says coming to a stop. "God I've missed you."

With that Professor Merlin turns around and crashes into the stranger, wrapping his arms around his neck, burying his face in the crook of his shoulder as he sobs. The soldier just wraps his arms around his waist, lifting him and spinning him around before setting him down and pulling away. He wipes at his eyes before cracking a smile and asking:

"Where the hell are my strawberries?"

Mr. Merlin's wipes at his eyes, chuckling as he responds:

"They're, uh, strawberry season isn't until June."

This earns a chuckle from the class. Mr. Merlin jumps 10 feet at the sound, turning around and eyeing the small crowd with a mix of surprise and fright.

"Oh god, I'm so sorry, I completely forgot... umm class, this is my husband Arthur. My husband Arthur this is my herbalistic studies class." There was a short silence wherein the two parties awkwardly waved at each other, but thankfully it didn't last too long. "Well... class dismissed? I'm sorry, I'm not really in the greatest head space to teach anymore today, I hope you all understand."

We all did, so we made our way quickly enough to the exits leaving Professor Merlin and his husband alone in the empty classroom.

When Professor Merlin returned to the classroom a week later, he seemed happier; his steps were lighter and his smile was wider. He was still insane, he still talked to his plants and he still brought his cats to class, but he seemed more grounded and easygoing. He didn't hop from topic to topic as fast anymore, and he didn't talk at 3 million miles per hour, which was good news for me and my fellow students.

Mr. Merlin was happy, and even if it wasn't me making him feel this way, I was happy for him.