#totally did not use my ochem lab that failed as inspo for this

[justalittleficsideblog]

s'ébahir

Gojo x reader Modern, College AU!

s'ébahir - (French; to be amazed, to be astounded, dumbstruck)

2k smth words

He always strolled into lab characteristically late. You envied his nonchalance, his stance of ease in which he would stroll into the lab and set his stuff down when the professor just began their lecture on the hazards you'd be dealing with today.

annoying

You were always early. Anxiously waiting for your seat so you could prep early and leave before the rest of your classmates.

The bastard was also, unfortunately, handsome. Devilishly tall with a lean build and white hair, he was a stark contrast against some of his fellow students.

"--it is IMPERTINENT that you wear your goggles the entire time during this lab. We will be dealing with concentrated hydrochloric acid--"

you droned out your teachers voice. Unlike some of the other students, you had read the lab manual the night before and watched a video on how to do everything correctly.

This wasn't your first rodeo.

Somewhat bored, your eyes drifted back to the male that was sitting across from you. The fume hood that was connected to your countertop obscured the view a bit, but you caught a glimpse of him leaning against it, head in his hand.

He seemed as bored as you were.

"Alright, lets begin!" An enthusiastic clap sounded.

You had noticed his hesitancy with the lab goggles each time. He chronically wore sunglasses indoors during class and around campus. But when it came to lab, your prof made no exceptions.

Tugging the too tight safety goggles over your eyes, you managed a glance to find startling azure ones starting back at you.

You smiled politely and turned to grab your equipment.

"Hey."

You glanced up at Gojo, who was leaning against your bench.

"What did you need this time?"

Gojo had a knack of stealing your shit since his tended to be always (coincidentally) misplaced or lost. He blamed Geto for it.

"Do you have an extra ring clamp? Geto took mine," he shrugged nonchalantly. You nodded and handed over the item, focusing back on your work.

"Do you know how much your putting in?" he leaned in closer, tapping your graduated cylinder with his hand.

"I can read fine enough Gojo."

"Are you sure? The lab manual said 12 mls...you wrote down 21"

Shit. He was right, you must've copied it down wrong last night.

It was slightly infuriating how sharp he actually was. He had such a lazy demeanor it was easy to forget he tended to be top of the class.

"Ugh, I don't remember how much I've put in it already." you ran your hand through your hair, frustrated as you eye the clock.

The liquid in the flask turned a murky brown, fizzing slightly.

Ok yeah.. that is definitely not what happened in the video.

Gojo leaned over and swirled the flask in his hands, the murky liquid turning darker.

"Yeah, you put way too much into that," he blew out a low whistle.

Fuck. You're going to have to redo the entire thing. Biting your lip, you glance at the clock again.

I'm not going to get a chance to study before my lecture exam...

"Oh come on, just partner up with me," he smirks, nodding towards his bench. "I'll even let you do all the work."

You scowled. You hated partnering up, you ended up doing everything anyway. But you were quick about it on your own.

Looking back towards your failure and the clock, you realize you don't have much of a choice.

"Fine," you nod and walk to his bench. "But lets be as quick as we can."

He grinned.

-

"Alright, now we just have wait."

The worst part about science, you argued, is the "waiting" portion of it.

Some experiments take time. This unfortunately, was one of them.

"We work together pretty well," he leaned forward. "One could almost say we have....chemistry."

You cringed as he laughed at your response. "Hilarious, Gojo."

A shadow loomed over you. "Did he get you with some of his science lines?"

You smiled. Contrary to Gojo, Geto was more composed and studious as you were. You both talked often, considering you had a lot of the same classes as him.

"It was too good not to!" Gojo replied, spinning around in his chair.

You rolled your eyes, glancing back towards your glassware. Geto was easy to be around, he was calm and didn't try to get a rise out of you like his white-haired friend did. He made you a little more nervous, he was kind of unpredictable. Not to mention pretty.

"I think its done," you pointed to the bubbling flask.

Geto nodded to you, "good luck then."

You smiled back at him, pretending not to feel your blue-eyed partner staring at you.

-

Gojo

He doesn't know why he wants to fluster you. Or why it grates on his nerves that you can so easily smile at Geto when you seemed to struggle around him.

Technically, your experiment earlier would have been salvageable. Yeah, your yield would've been low, but he jumped at the chance to work with you without thinking.

He meant what he said earlier, you both worked surprisingly well together.

Taking the flask from you, he began to dry as you washed everything up. He didn't quite want to be done just yet, labs weren't his favorite part but he found himself looking forward to this one.

Not that it had anything to do with you.

Geto always argued that he was "just into you" but he didn't agree. He just thought your intellect was interesting, that's all.

It had nothing to do with the way you always showed up with enthusiasm, drawing him in as he watched you be engaged with your work. He couldn't wonder why--

"Gojo?" Bright eyes looked up at him as you waved the last Erlenmeyer in front of his face. "Hey, we're done."

Startled, he nearly dropped the thing he was drying. "Right, yeah. See you around, then."

He cursed himself slightly for his cowardice.

"Well, actually, did you want to finish up the lab report quick ? We have plenty of time," you looked at your phone as you said it.

Realistically, he would say no. He doesn't finish his reports until the last minute anyway.

But to get the chance to fluster you more.

Ah, hell. Why not?

"yeah, we can do that." He shrugged nonchalantly. Geto met his gaze across the lab and quirked an eyebrow at him.

He bared his teeth in response.

"Should we go to the library then?" Your voice cut through his thoughts, catching him unawares as you shoved the paper into his hands.

He nodded quickly, fishing around in his backpack for his glasses as he ripped off the goggles still glued to his face.

He motioned for you to go first, following behind and out of the lab as he let you pick where to sit down.

You picked a spot across the campus cafe, he inwardly wondered if you came to study here frequently. Th atmosphere was quiet and there was a lot of natural light that made it easy to relax and focus.

Setting down his bookbag, he tuned into your ramblings about the lab.

"What do you think about the yield? I think we could base our conclusions around it. Maybe even mention the slight color difference when we added the--"

Your drive to finish this was commendable. He was put off a bit by how you didn't seem affected by him at all. Most people saw his sunglasses as odd, and honestly the general consensus was that he was constantly nursing a hangover.

There was a lapse of silence and you both typed away on your laptops, broken up by only you saying:

"Why do you wear those sunglasses all the time?"

Eyebrows raised, "Secret." The corner of his lip turned up.

"Is it because of your eyes?"

His smirk fell. It wasn't so much that he cared about how his eyes seemed to freak people out. It was more about how sensitive they were to light and packed spaces. He used to get frequent headaches because of it, but the glasses thwart off the edge enough now.

He merely shrugged in response to your question. "The light bugs my eyes sometimes."

You nodded back in understanding, "Ugh, tell me about it. I used to get migraines from the fluorescent lights when I was younger."

He stiffened. Such a minute detail, but he couldn't help but consider the gesture as an act of empathy. Seeing past his usual charm.

You both fell back into silence, quickly finishing your report and hoping off of the chair you inhabited just moments ago.

He felt his heart pound as you smiled up at him, watching your every movement as you threw your bag over your shoulder and made to leave.

"We finished that quick! Good luck on this exam later, not that you'll need it."

His arm burned from where you patted his shoulder as you strode out of the cafe lounge and towards some other study zone. Glancing down at it, he almost expected it to catch fire.

Eyes flicking up over his glasses, he looked down the hallway you had left.

Damn.

He might just have to make your lab fail next time.