Honeybee | Wanda Maximoff {AU}

Chapter Four: Ribifloris

Music is "Never Fall In Love" by Jack Antonoff feat. MØ.

Picture is Claudia Doumit as Sarai.

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Osmia Ribifloris

Commonly referred to as blueberry bees, Osmia Ribifloris are named for their habit of pollinating wild blueberries. Osmia Ribfloris are native to western North America. They are a solitary bee, having no workers or drones like other eusocial species. The few male bees only purpose is to mate with the queens.

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Chapter Four: Ribifloris

Math is easier than I thought. Professor Fury goes through the syllabus, assigns homework, and lets us out early. This gives me just enough to get to my next class, one I've actually been looking forward to: Bees & Other Pollinating Insects.

The Professor of this class has an oddly familiar last name. Dr. Rurik Maximoff, professor of environmental science and entomology, with a concentration in melittology--that is, the study of bees. His credentials are spectacular, but it's not his work in the field of environmental science and entomology that causes me to hesitate. It's the name written on the large white board that stretches across the entire back wall of the lecture hall.

Maximoff. As in Wanda Maximoff? As in my roommate? Are they related? These are the questions that flow through my mind as environmental science students start filling the lecture hall.

This space is much larger and grander than the math classroom. While that resembled a high school, with a single whiteboard and metal desks and chairs, this is a real college space. Stadium-like seating in long, wooden rows, a mic-ed podium for Professor Maximoff to speak at, a high-tech projector that will display videos or illustrations or notes: this is a fucking lecture hall.

Most of the students that fill the many levels of seating are unfamiliar. A few I think I recognize from past classes, but none of them are my friends. I have few of those. I find my seat towards the front of the hall, nearest the podium, in the center of the row. Most lecture halls have seating arraignments already made, but I went to the registrar's office a week back to ensure I can sit at the front. Since I have a disability, they were more than happy to help. Since I'm unable to ask questions, it's better for me to understand the material the first time. To do that, I can't be distracted by the conversations going on in the back.

A few minutes before the class is set to begin, Wanda wanders in behind the crowd. Her eyes scan the hall, then she looks down at the slip of paper in her hands. When she looks up again, her eyes land on me. In her green eyes, I see something both strikingly beautiful and terrifyingly fierce. It makes me shuffle in my seat and turn my gaze back down to my empty notebook.

Now I see why Wanda Maximoff walks behind the crowd instead of with it. She carries with her an edge and a barrier. From what Carol's told me about her past, I'd say that this look is a learned behavior. It's to protect her, even if she doesn't realize it. Hell, I'd even call it magic, the fact that a woman I've never spoken to can have me anxious and blushing and all-consumed.

But then I remember back to the beginning of math class, to the way she pulled that book from her bag without touching it, and then I start to think that Wanda might be actual magic after all.

I hear her clear her throat to my left. I glance over to her shoes--they're black boots with a small heel--and then move up to her face. She offers a polite smile, one that doesn't quite reach her eyes.