#do you not know the inherent romanticism of solving a math equation? where everything fits just right?

[simplydnp]

i have my math degree and can confirm it is absolutely a language & i have my ed degree so i also appreciate you finding a way to do a prof AU that's not weird 💞

@simplydnp because you were interested in the tags on my recent rb, here is what i remember of the au i came up with in my college algebra class in 2018:

in this au phil is a math professor & has been for a couple years. he's hot about this

math is a kind of language, you know? it's not that much of a stretch.

dan and phil in this au are long distance/online best friends for YEARS, never managing to end up in the same city

one of them moving to the other has always been the plan & they've visited each other/taken trips together as often as possible so they know that living together would work well

they both know there's a mutual attraction but they never were single at the same time/never in a good place to do long distance indefinitely

it has now been a Long time since they had any conversations about it, which isn't a surprise because they're still not living in the same location

dan dropped out of university, halfway through his first semester. in this universe, he decides to go back to school for something he's actually interested in. possibly queer studies?

he gets into the school phil teaches at. EXCITING! they're going to be in the same place.

since dan's going to be a non-traditional student—phil was already teaching at dan's age—the dorms would suck. finding somewhere affordable to live also sucks

phil, of course, offers for dan to move in with him. he's got a second bedroom that's currently an office

move in day is a LONG day of travel & lugging around boxes and smaller furniture dan brought with him and they're going to get dan a mattress and bedframe tomorrow but aw hell, phil's air mattress has a leak

it's a no-brainer for them to share phil's bed for the night, they've shared smaller mattresses before on trips

"for the night"

reader, they never get dan his own bed. and they never really talk about it.

lead up to the semester. time for dan to meet with his academic advisor and build a schedule.

dan's plan is to knock out general education requirements he probably won't enjoy early on, but not to have those be the majority of his schedule.

dan doesn't realize it's PHIL'S basic math class he's been put in until he gets home (to the home they share!)

by then it feels like more trouble than it's worth to reschedule with his advisor and figure out an entirely new set of classes to take—the current ones took forever to plan in the first place

it'll be fine. honestly it'll be fun to see what phil's classes are like, & easier than struggling to pay attention with somebody else and having phil help explain things anyways—

halfway through the third week of class dan realizes he's in love with phil, it's not just attraction or a crush, it's been almost a fucking decade, oh my god

and the deadline to drop a class was last week.

phil already knows he's in love with dan. but phil has a strong commitment to ethics. there is a 0% chance he's going to do anything about it while dan's in his class

they go home to their shared home where they have a shared bed. dan almost broaches the conversation.

please can we not talk about it, asks phil. it will be easier for me if we don't talk about it until we can— it'll be easier for me if we don't talk about it yet. that'll make it more real.

roll a semester long slow burn where they're already being extremely domestic and both know they have mutual feelings. there's so much room for further tropes & exploration of existing ones here

there's room for self worth struggles surfacing on dan's part and moral anxiety/anxiety issues on phi'ls part especially with them intentionally not talking about it.

oh noo they have a bad week and dan has a breakdown & almost goes to actually buy a bed setup for himself. etc. quite honestly i didn't get this far i just like putting people in fucking predicaments

of course they fuck nasty once final grades are submitted. merry christmas

i think they go straight from best friends to engaged

dan did actually learn math well from phil but he's never taking another phil class in his life thankyou very much

this au is partially born out of me being inherently contrarian to MYSELF even. i'm generally squicked badly by teacher/student aus on account of Both My Parents Are Teachers so it was a fun exercise in figuring out one that didn't make my skin crawl. aaaand scene.

i'm never going to write this so if anybody who does write finds something they like in it. feel free to run with that just @ me if you post something. i'm freckliedan on ao3 as well