Chapter Text
Eddie had been at this job long enough to know what to look out for when it came to his students; the ones close to burn out, the ones he could score weed off of, the ones who were fucking each other, and the ones who wanted to fuck him.
No one really taught him that part – how kids getting into college suddenly think they’re adults and start to do all the ‘adult-things’ they had never been allowed to try out before; drugs, alcohol, sex. Eddie often turned his mind back to when he had first gotten into school, trying to remember when the switch had flipped, when he had stopped seeing himself as one of the kids just trying to get their shit together.
Thankfully his typical students weren’t as rough to handle as some of his colleagues’ rooms – the only outlier of students getting into Classics was a science major that needed a humanities requirement or a comic-book nerd that had read his class-title incorrectly… ‘Heroes of the Classical World’ wasn’t that hard to get right but hey, what did Eddie know?
Eddie loved his job, and he wasn’t stupid enough to lose it by fooling around with students. Not to mention the ethics were grey at best. At least that is what he had said to himself every time a student passed him their number or batted their lashes his way previously, but this semester had been different.
Even from the first day he had known it was ‘off’ somehow – riding onto campus and almost crashing his bike into the side of a building when his eye caught the bouncing of a strawberry-blonde ponytail disappearing around a corner. Eddie didn’t get distracted like that, he wasn’t a gawker and he didn’t do double-takes, so he tried to push the event out of his mind and psych himself up for his last semester of doing what he did best; performing and talking down to jocks.
He wouldn’t have even been back for this fall semester if the college had not begged him – apparently his replacement’s work visa had been denied until the new year. Eddie had agreed to run one last class as a favour and the Dean had granted him an extra six months on his sabbatical in gratitude. Truly it was the least they could do.
“Settle down, folks.” He called out when the clock struck 9am, pushing his glasses up into his hair with a smile to the room. “Welcome to Heroes of the Classical World! We don’t stand on ceremony here, so I’m Eddie and I’m going to be your captain on this wild ride .” Thankfully his classes were too big to be expected to memorize names as he made the students introduce themselves then made them laugh by saying he had forgotten them all already. “This course is an introductory level study of Greek and Roman Art, explored through the concept of the hero .” He animated with his arms spread wide, detailing what they could expect in the upcoming months. “…and to understand what the notion of hero is in Greek and Roman cultures, were they the warriors? The athletes? The political leaders–”
He was abruptly cut off when a late student entered from the door closest to his pulpit, freezing like a deer in the headlights when he had spun to look at the intruder.
Wide blue eyes had pinned him in the spot just like she was struck still, Her , the strawberry-blonde from earlier, all closed in on herself as she held his textbook to her chest with her bag slung over one hunched shoulder.
“Sorry I’m late, Professor Munson.”
Eddie had watched her lips form his last name and felt like he had just been struck by lightning – had his hair been standing on end? It felt like it.
He cleared his throat and shook himself out of staring at her and indicated for her to take one of the empty seats in the room. “Welcome to the Colosseum. Name?” he tried to sound casual, though he might have failed from how serious everyone looked. She giggled though.
“Chrissy. Chrissy Cunningham.”
Eddie nodded and looked back down at his syllabus as he tapped his rings against the podium and tried to gather his wits. Chrissy Cunningham , now that was a name he would not forget.
The clapping of his hands together, once and loud, brought the energy back up in the room, and he tried on a smile that looked a lot less-wobbly than it felt; “The exploration of mythological narratives teaches how stories are conveyed in the art of Greece and Rome, as are various theories regarding the notion of the hero…”
Having been able to get through the rest of his class without glancing at the late student Eddie had been particularly proud of himself when the buzzer rang for class change-over and he dismissed his first students of the year.
“Oh! And just so everyone is clear; my office hours are Tuesday and Thursday from four to five o’clock.”
He thought he had been alone clearing up when a voice directly behind him made him jump.
“I really do apologize for being late, Mr. Munson.” Eddie was shocked into silence that she had come so close. Instead of speaking from the lower platform, she climbed the dais and approached him outright. “I was stuck in line at the bookstore getting the textbook for this class – they only restocked it today otherwise I would have been more prepared.”
“Understandable.” Eddie responded, running a hand through his ear-length hair as he tried to calm his racing pulse, wondering idly to himself why he didn’t correct her and let her use his first name like the other students… something to unpack later, maybe.
“I promise it won’t happen again.” She had murmured, and Eddie remembered thinking to himself ‘Was she leaning forward? What did she want him to say?’ He was completely thrown by this little ball of white wool, pink skin and blue eyes.
“Let’s hope not.” He landed on with a dismissive shrug, about to return to his repacking but was suddenly caught in the depths of her gaze; her pupils had blown wide and she was chewing on her lip with sharp little teeth, to the point he wanted to pull it out and sooth it.
“Thank you.” She breathed out before turning to leave. Eddie realized his fatal mistake…she liked the callousness he used to keep horny students at bay. That was when he knew his year was well and truly fucked.
His classroom was the same as last year and only a few floors away from his office, a convenience other professors grumbled about. His good friend Robin Buckley’s office was next to his but the studio where she taught figure drawing was across campus in an old, rented warehouse. “It’s not even worth it to go back and forth.” She had told him one day when begging for him to bring a few items from her office to the studio on his break between classes.
Eddie liked his office well enough, small and cramped as it was. He could sprawl out under his desk if he needed a nap or wanted to hide from his students, and his door-window was easy to block in case he needed privacy – he only wished the window to the outside world opened a little wider so he didn’t have to hunch into the small crack it made to smoke his cigarettes.
And on the days when he had Chrissy in his class it was a safe haven to furiously stroke his cock until he didn’t have any lustful desires left. It didn’t matter that she wasn’t trying to outwardly seduce him - whether she was dressed up, or coming in looking like a wet rat on a rainy day - every time she left his class he counted down the minutes until he could get his pants open and his dick in his hand.
Truly this had been the longest semester of his life so far, even including the ones where he was the student, merely because of his unprecedented crush on a girl he Could. Not. Have.
Worse was that even though she was doing moderately well in his class, she came to every single one of his office-hour open-door timeslots, and if no one else showed up, she spent the entire time in Eddie’s cramped office with him, the smell of the fruity bubble-gum she was chewing filling the space before the cracked window could filter it out.
Today he leaned heavily on the desk, his shoulders hunching as one hand went to the back of his neck to squeeze the tension headache he could feel brewing out of his muscles as he listened to Chrissy lay out the argument Eddie had practically memorized at this point that she should be allowed some form of an extracurricular.
Truthfully he actually quite liked Chrissy as a person. She was intelligent and had a whiplash wit – she just could be such an uptight little goodie-two-shoes and it drove him mad; perfect attendance, perfect ponytail, perfect little body. Hell, she even pronounced ‘Patroclus’ perfectly on the first try.
The only thing she wasn’t perfect in was his class, and that drove her mad.
“It’s going to bring my GPA down, Professor Munson.” She had whined with tears shining in her eyes the day when she received her first test results back, “Can I have a redo?”
The answer for her and several others had been ‘no’ – that first test was how he weaned out students who wanted to drop his class before the refund deadline; administration hated him for losing them money on his courses, but he remembered being broke and sometimes having to go for days without food in order to pay for his schooling.
Chrissy had not dropped out, she had buckled down, and Eddie had expected her next test to be much better, but the look of disappointment on her face when he handed back the B+ was severe.
Eddie interrupted her well-worn speech, holding up a hand to silence her, which she obeyed, snapping her mouth shut.
“Miss Cunningham, the reason my course does not offer extracurricular grades is because there is no more ‘history’ to make up. All the Heroes are already there.”
Deflating she slumped back in her chair and he had the immediate impulse to snap at her to sit up straight and stop pouting like a child. It was something he was working on, his reactions to her; because as soon as she had started sitting at the front of his class and paying more attention to his body rather than the lessons he was giving, he knew only two things would come from this if he let his guard down;
1) That GPA was going to get worse and worse; and
2) He was going to fuck her stupid.
He shifted in his seat, glad of the thick oak between them so she wouldn’t see the growing tent in his slacks. “You aren’t failing my class, Chrissy, by any means. You just aren’t excelling in it.”
Chrissy was chewing on her thumb and didn’t answer, so Eddie heaved a sigh, looked at his watch and noted his office hours were almost over.
“Is there anything else we can do to set you up for success?”
Chrissy muttered something under her breath that sounded a lot like ‘wear looser pants’ and Eddie leaned forward, both hands on the desk; “Excuse me?”
“Nothing. Thanks for your time, Professor Munson.” She said in the tone of a chastened child and shouldered her bag, not waiting for his reply before exiting his office, leaving the door open behind her.
Eddie snorted out a laugh, what a brat.
He allowed his mind hook on that thought - of a bratty Chrissy, the way she would huff and puff if she didn’t get her way, what he would do to watch her stomp her foot and cross her arms - god, would she stick her pink little tongue out at him? Eddie stifled a groan as he imagined pulling her down across his lap and giving her something to really pout about.
His hand twitched with the desire to make the cheeks of her ass match the pink on her face when she blushes so prettily in his classes; he just knew she was angling for someone to put her in her place and he wished he was the one lucky enough to do it. Eddie would make sure to show her what punishments her constant begging and bad behaviour got her; pinches to her backside and bruises against the top of her thighs - and she would reward him with that wet, little hole between her legs, he was sure, a few spanks in and Chrissy Cunningham would be a sloppy mess for him.
With visions of a teary-eyed, pleading student, he stood to close his door, intending to pull down the blinds and take care of his dick screaming for attention, when Robin poked her head around the jamb; “Hiya!”
“ Jesus, Buckley!” Eddie snapped, a hand coming up to cover his heart where it was racing inside his chest as he subtly angled his lower half behind the door so his coworker didn’t get an eyeful of his erection.
“Sorry, you scaredy cat.” She teased leaning on the wall and crossing her arms. “Are you still good to cover my drawing class tomorrow evening?”
Eddie was thankful his courses were ‘mainstream’ enough to be slotted during the day, evening and night courses sounded like fucking hell. “Yeah of course. I’m assuming your trip is still a surprise?”
Robin was taking the last day of the week off in order to surprise her wife with a trip up state for their anniversary. Nancy had no idea and had actually texted Eddie that she thought Robin might have forgotten, which he had shown her so they could have a good giggle over it.
“It better be! If Nance looks at me with those sad puppy-dog eyes one more time in the next…” she checked her watch, “ten hours, I think I might just spill the beans.”
“Stay strong, Buck.” Eddie patted her shoulder, and noticing his little (big) problem had sufficiently diffused, asked, “Wanna grab a drink?”
“Yeah, the less time I’m at home the better the chance I won’t ruin the surprise.”
“Just your marriage.” Eddie chuckled and Robin slapped him in the arm as they parted ways in order to pack up for the day.
Only at the end of the night did Robin hiccup what she had intentionally been coming into his office to say; “The model, for tomorrow’s class, it’s their first time doing it so try not to make ‘em nervous, okay?”
Eddie rolled his eyes, how nerve-wracking could it be to sit still for a few hours? “S’fine. Say hi to Nancy for me.”