Chapter Text
Kiri hated Professor Quaritch.
He'd been some hotshot in the Marines, with a career spanning over thirty-five years, and so the University thought he was a catch. He got hired with tenure. Which meant that even though he was an expert in his field, he could go on teaching outdated information if it didn't directly relate to his specialty and no one would do anything about it. He might have spent longer in Venezuela than Kiri had been alive, but that didn't make him an expert in botany or evolutionary biology.
And since Kiri was double majoring in both, she couldn't help but correct him when he got things wrong.
He might have looked intimidating, but Kiri had learned from the best (her parents), and just because someone was older and meaner, it didn't make them smarter.
"Would you like to look over my presentations beforehand, Miss te Suli?" Quaritch asked her. He'd butchered her last name the only time he'd attempted it, and she'd insisted on te Suli ever since. "Maybe you'd like to spell check them for me too?"
"If you're as inept with technology as you are with the species you discuss in your lectures, I'd be happy to show you how to run spell check," she said, leaning back in her seat.
A few muttered oohs and oh shits bounced around the classroom.
She was starting to understand how Mom could have thought Dad was so stupid and still been attracted to him.
"Can I get back to my lecture?" Quaritch asked, with a hint of a smirk.
"Sir, yes Sir," Kiri said, just to piss him off. It always worked on her dad.
If his glare was anything to go by, it worked on him just fine.
Kiri had thought about dropping the class, but it made her furious that he would go on teaching incorrect information and other students would just believe it.
Their verbal sparring had only escalated as the semester went on. Kiri was starting to think the guy liked it. Maybe most undergrads weren't much of a challenge for him with his history, but Kiri could certainly hold her own.
She was surprised he'd never kicked her out of class, today especially—but maybe he saw that as a Pyrrhic victory.
"That's all for today," Quaritch was saying, "unless Miss te Suli has anything to add."
That got a few snickers, but Kiri was unbothered by it.
"Class dismissed," Kiri said in what was actually her Uncle Tommy's imitation of her dad as a marine. Dad had told her once that even if it was an unflattering impression of him, it wasn't inaccurate.
People started filing out, as Kiri finished making notes.
Quaritch might have been ignorant of other areas of academics, but she wasn't too stubborn to admit that he was knowledgeable and even engrossing when it came to his own. She probably would have liked his class if he wasn't so dismissive of her own field.
"Hey Kiri," another guy in class came up to her, sitting on the edge of her desk. And her notes.
"Get your ass off my papers, please," Kiri said bluntly. She couldn't remember this guy's name, but he had hit on her before and she hadn't liked it then, either.
"Whoops, sorry," he said, moving her papers and sitting back down.
What a tool.
"Hey I was wondering if I could take you out to dinner tonight? There's this new restaurant—"
"I'm not interested," Kiri said, not looking up from her writing.
"C'mon," he wheedled. "It's this great spot downtown—"
"You don't have to try and sell me on the restaurant," Kiri said, looking up at him. "It's you I'm not interested in."
He looked at her with disbelief and a dumb smile.
"What, are you busy or som—"
"Son," Quaritch interrupted, walking over and standing just a bit too close to the guy. "She said she's not interested. That's your cue to skedaddle."
The guy looked intimidated, but didn't take the hint for what it was; dismissal.
"This isn't really your business, Profes—
"You made it my business when you chose to harass a young woman in front of me."
"I wasn't haras—"
"Yes, you very much were, even if this young lady was too polite to say so outright," Quaritch said calmly. "Now get out of my classroom before you're not welcome back."
The guy finally left, but not before glaring at both of them.
"You didn't have to do that," Kiri said.
Quaritch turned to look at her.
"Boy like that needs to learn there are bigger, badder people out there than him that won't just look the other way. The more people stand by and let it happen, the more that little snot will think he can get away with it."
Kiri smiled, packing her things away.
"Well you didn't have to—but thanks."
He nodded at her and went back to his desk.
"I said I'm not interested," Kiri said, to the guy who still thought no didn't apply to him. "I don't know why that's difficult for you to understand."
She'd finished her lab hours for the evening, and discovered him waiting outside the building for her. So not only was he stubborn and annoying, he was a creep.
"Why won't you give me a chance?" he whined, trying to catch up to her.
"Because wasting my time with you isn't going to make me interested," Kiri said, beyond done with this guy.
"You don't know that—"
"I'm not interested in anyone who won't take no for an answer," she said, turning around to face him and making him stop short. "You could be the last person on earth and I still wouldn't go out with you."
She turned to walk away again, hoping he'd gotten it through his thick skull this time.
But evidently he hadn't, because she felt a very unwelcome hand grabbing her arm—
She twisted out of his grip and wrenched his arm back at an unnatural angle before punching him in the face. Her knuckles stung immediately, but it was worth it for the sickening crunch she felt beneath them.
"What the fuck is wrong with you?!" he shouted.
"Keep your hands off me," she said, and noticed distantly that she sounded calm even though her heart was racing.
"You bitch! I'll have you kicked out—"
"Oh no you won't, because I saw the whole thing."
It was Quaritch.
"And I'll testify that it wasn't the first time I saw you harass her, just the only time I witnessed you grab her."
"What is with you old man?!" the guy shouted, blood streaming down his face. "She broke my nose!"
"You deserve more than a broken nose," Quaritch said, surprising Kiri. "And you just might get it when I report you to the schoolboard for sexual harassment and assault."
"That's bullshit—"
"I don't think that's how they'll see it," Quaritch said. "Now why don't you run along, I'll see you in front of the board soon enough."
The guy left, clearly fuming, and holding his (hopefully) broken nose.
"Are you all right, Miss te Suli?" Quaritch asked gently, taking a slow step toward her.
"Yeah I'm fine," Kiri said, cradling her wrist in her undamaged hand.
"Quite the move, twisting his arm like that," Quaritch said with what sounded like approval. "Not to mention that punch."
"My dad taught me. He was a marine, actually," Kiri said with a smile that didn't feel very convincing. Now that the adrenaline was wearing off, she felt awfully tired.
"Well, he taught you well," Quaritch said, nodding. "But I do wonder where you got your problem with authority, then."
"You consider yourself an authority?" Kiri asked teasingly, some of her energy coming back.
Quaritch smiled at her and she caught herself smiling back.
"You're very knowledgeable about your subject, actually," Kiri told him.
"Oh, actually?" Quaritch asked, but he was still smiling.
"If you weren't so wrong about mine, I'd probably enjoy your class," she said, staring into the darkness behind him.
"That's high praise coming from you," Quaritch said.
Kiri smiled up at him again. She'd never been near enough him to realize how close they were in height.
"I've had to do my own research to confirm that you're any good though," she said challengingly, raising an eyebrow.
They were closer together now, and her voice had subconsciously gotten softer.
"When you're wrong about something and someone knows it, they start to question what else you're wrong about. If you're not careful, you could wind up with people thinking you're not an authority on anything, even if you are."
"My offer still stands," he said slowly, "if you'd like to school me on my own lectures." He smirked at her.
"I might take you up on that," she told him.
He looked down at her still bleeding knuckles.
"May I?" he asked, holding out his hand.
She gently placed hers in his. He carefully prodded at her fingers, causing her to hiss.
"I don't think anything is broken," he told her, "but we should clean that up. I've got a first aid kit in my office." He gestured with his head back the way he'd come.
"You don't have to do that," Kiri said.
"Please?" he asked, shocking her. "I wouldn't feel right sending you home like this."
Kiri felt herself nodding.
"Okay."
He bandaged her hand so carefully it barely hurt.
And since she was already there in his office, she did look over his next slideshow presentation.
"What?" she asked, pointing at his laptop with her bandaged hand. "No, that was reclassified more than thirty years ago!"
"The locals told me it was related to—"
"I know what you're going to say," Kiri interrupted, rolling her eyes, "but the locals thought that because until thirty years ago, no one knew that migratory birds had actually carried the seeds all the way from—what?" she asked. She was standing next to him, leaning against his desk, where he sat looking at her like he'd never seen her.
"Nothing," he said, shaking his head. "You're…very knowledgeable in your field as well."
"High praise," Kiri said with a smirk.
He smiled at her before looking at the clock on his desk.
"It's late," he told her. "I should walk you back to your—car? Dormitory?"
Kiri looked at him, surprised.
"Dormitory," she answered, before she meant to. "You don't need to do that," she said.
"Your prize fighting hand is out of commission tonight," he said with a smile. "I insist."
"Are you sure you don't mind?" Kiri asked as he stood up.
"Not at all, Miss te Suli."
"Kiri," she said on a whim. "You can call me Kiri."
"Well let me see you home safe, Kiri."
"What about the rest of your presentation?" Kiri asked. "Who knows what else is wrong?" she teased.
"I can email it to you if you'd like," Quaritch said, and she thought his face was trying to look disapproving, but it was ruined by the smile he wasn't hiding well.
"Or I'll be here Thursday night," he told her.
"I'm usually finished with my lab hours same time Thursday as I was tonight," Kiri told him.
"Thursday it is then," he said, as they left his office.
He started meeting her outside the lab every Tuesday and Thursday and they would go over his presentations. To her surprise, he seemed to be learning as much from her as she was from him. He told her things that didn't make it into his lectures, and if anything she found him more interesting than before.
She found out that though he'd spent over half his time in the Marines in Venezuela, he'd lived on seven continents, and spoke five languages fluently. He could get by fairly well in a handful of others.
He told her he'd gotten the scars on his head from an Andean Condor, and while she could tell him a dozen or more facts about its evolutionary lineage and place in its ecosystem, she couldn't have imagined fighting for her life with one until he'd described it to her.
He told her he had a son that he wasn't close with, and she told him about her brothers, and Tuk. And eventually her mom.
And every Tuesday and Thursday he would insist on walking her back to her dorm.
One night they stayed at his office far too late, and when they finally went outside it was cold. Kiri hadn't anticipated the weather, and her t-shirt wasn't much protection against the cold.
"Here," Quaritch said, taking off his coat.
"You don't need to do that," Kiri said, but she knew how this went by now, and held her arms out as he helped her into it.
It smelled like him, and the subtle, earthy cologne she'd started to notice that he wore.
"I want to," he said, putting his hand on the small of her back. She swore she felt more heat from his hand than from the entire coat.
But after taking a dozen or so steps, he removed it.
She wished he hadn't.
She moved closer to him on the sidewalk, their shoulders brushing.
They were quiet tonight, where usually they weren't, and she could feel something shifting.
When they got to her building, she removed his coat, holding it out for him to put back on. He smiled at her and put his arms through, but she didn't let go of his lapels. He let himself be pulled closer to her.
She took another step toward him, which brought them close enough she could feel the heat of him.
It was late—surely after midnight—and dark enough that she wasn't especially worried about being seen.
"I…I didn't think you were interested in men," Quaritch whispered, and she could feel his breath on her face.
Kiri felt her mouth open in shock.
She laughed, more loudly than she probably should have in the quiet of the night.
"Well not exclusively," she said, both teasing and honest, "but yeah I am."
He smiled at that, but looked disappointed.
"I'm an awful lot older than you, darling," he told her.
"And my dad's a lot older than the guy he's dating, but they love each other," she said, prepared for this. "Age isn't everything. Sometimes it's just a hurdle."
"It might be a hurdle now," he agreed. "But what happens if we get involved and things go well? When I'm pushing eighty and you're still in your prime? Then it won't just be a hurdle, it'll be a mountain."
It actually made her terribly sad for Lo'ak for a moment, even though the age difference between him and Dad wasn't as extreme. She tried to picture herself in a similar situation.
"I'm good at climbing," she said, and kissed him.