brewing trouble,

the son of wolverine chasing after the clouds.

[mostingeniusparadox]

[lvhowlett]

Lucas was, perhaps, never meant to be a teacher. More so, perhaps he was always too much of a grandpa to be an adult. His childhood, teen years added, lost to text books and the pages of chemical equations. Much like his father, he avoids crowds and people as much as he can, though they always manage a way to find him anyway.

He sits underneath a tree, leaves falling to the ground in an almost typical way, apple in hand. Eyes are turned down to the book in his lap, hoping to get in an afternoon of solace before he’s faced with days straight of teaching. 

[ojcharming]

olivier watches the professor complete the problem without a second of hesitation and gawks as it is presented to him. it seemed so difficult before. “my carbons wrong?” fifteen years of chemistry and carbon arrangements still got the best of him. “i think i might have to change over to physics because i just can’t grasp carbons, mr. howlett. like here–” quickly, he takes his book back and turns the page, “–question eleven: what does this mean?” 

[lvhowlett]

He nods up at the tall prince, words still tripping over their place, worried about what he was and wasn’t allowed to say. “Y-yeah, carbon placements are the worst...” Lucas trails off into a characteristic awkward laugh. He waits in silence, pursed lips watch the pages turn, his mind working ahead of him as he answers each one in the split second he saw them, “Question eleven? Oh... this looks like an actual experiment problem. I could set up the titration set if that’ll help?” 

[the6002-deactivated20190503]

Happy Birthday Park Perfection Yoochun ~

[minjoork]

at this he snorted, rolled his eyes; as lame as the jokes were, they were entertaining, a breath of fresh air in the rigid structures of studying that isaac had constructed for himself. but he shook his head, acted as if they weren’t genius–overused perhaps, but still golden. “you need to let go of your jokebook, teach’. i think i’ve heard that one too much.” though, even if his lips pursed, even if they curled to hide the smile that lingered, the quaint curve shone through, remained in the corner of his lips, the dip of their shape.

without the pants pooling at his shoes, the other looked normal, even more youthful; he was objectively handsome, enough to star in a film, perhaps be a singer, do anything other than be a science teacher at elias so isaac furrowed his brows, crossed his arms, weaved a path between them with fine strands of his voice. “why science?”

[lvhowlett]

Without the breeze on his legs, more so exposed thighs, Lucas can feel the confidence return to him. He even laughs at the notion of that his jokes came out of a book; a slight compliment, actually. “I know right? Over heard jokes... almost as if all the good ones Argon”

“Science” That’s a good question. He had a lot of answers, really. A need to be as different from his father as he could. An always slightly worrying interest in dangerous chemicals. Formulas and practical needs. Eventually, he shrugs. “Why not? You don’t question science the way that you do maths or english or history. There are no conspiracy theories in chemistry. Science just... is. You know?”

[bashkenobi-blog]

Why do you always have to bring me down? After everything we’ve been through! I saved your life… that one time… with the cars… that could transform… and the explosions… that has more than meets the eye… remember! 

Yes. Always. So many sparks. I know that if I wasn’t married, you’d be all over me. You’ll find someone one day, Lukie, don’t worry. 

[lvhowlett]

Someone has to keep your head down here on Earth. Bash... that’s literally the Transformer’s plot. Were you dropped on the head as a baby? Actually, don’t answer that--

It’s been over 20 years. Don’t you think if there was something there, we’d have already found it by now? What about that paradox. Smart guy. 

[frankiestorm]

another laugh meets his grudging reply as she reaches out to pinch his chin. “stop moping. we’re both in this hell together. for better and for worse. through stupid sober sebastian and stupid drunk sebastian” she’s mostly thankful for lucas. as absorbing sponge in their relationship, he was the bro that her husband would go to, allowing just the right amount of distance for the couple. “you’re right. he doesn’t actually leave IOU notes, does he? he tells me he always pays you back!”

[lvhowlett]

His face turns, a frown, one so unfamiliar on his normally blank or confused palette, “He pays me back? Okay. Alright. And I’m the Queen of the Desert” It wasn’t as if the chemist truly cared where his money went. Beakers and titration kits only cost so much that can only be compared to a good night and good friends. A truly introverted lifestyle. “Speaking of which: how’s life?” Nodding slightly at her slightly rounded stomach, Lucas is already excited.

[yummyoochun]

[bashkenobi-blog]

Two, three, maybe five. I’ve lost track. You’re one to talk Howlett! At least I’m married; at least I have another living, breathing, human being in my life other than my incredibly attractive bestfriend. Come on, don’t tell me you don’t feel the sparks. Remember? That one time? At band camp? 

[lvhowlett]

Five is a very serious underexaggeration. Pretty sure you’re running total is fifty-something. That’s kind of pathetic, Kenobi. What kind of grown man let’s his wife control him with simply withholding sex? The guys at the lab would have a field day if they ever found out.

No. Never. No sparks. No band camp. No one time. Shut up Bash, just shut up. 

[minjoork]

“you know, that joke would have been amazing. i would have been rolling on this very floor laughing; because it’s golden. the only problem is that you don’t have any pants on, well, not correctly, and that takes away the punch of your joke.”

and he has no problem staring at the problem, from his boxers to the pants that pool at his ankles. he’s rather confused as to how it happens, tries to find clues in the curves of his legs, the dip of his knees. “do you need help?“ because, if it were him, he would at least pull them up; ignoring is okay, isaac tends to ignore small problems, but this he deems too large, too obvious, too much of a sight to conceal.

[lvhowlett]

Shit. He had hoped that this student would feel the awkward completely emit itself from his being and, perhaps, just perhaps, ignore the very obvious problem sitting between them. The so-called elephant in the room. Shifting his leg slightly, in a very poor attempt to raise his pants to where they belong without actually moving, he eventually gives up, throws all that’s left of his dignity to the wind and pulls his pants up, taking his time to fix creases and his belt buckle.

“You go it, huh?” Was his first question once he collected his mind, his persona, to himself. No one ever understood his jokes. Except the guys back at the lab and said male that pants’ed him in the first place. This kid didn’t look much older than eighteen--prodigy or something worse? In this school he could never be sure. “Kind of like working with ammonia, right? Really basic stuff” Part test, part awkward joke, Lucas hopes the student understood the reference. 

[bowiescigarettes-deactivated201]

[lvhowlett]

"Well... this is awkward."

Well, no shit sherlock. Pants lie around his ankles, cheeks blaring a brighter red as the seconds tick by, the culprit of the prank running off to his forgotten physics class. What kind of friend pants you in public while speaking to a student? The son of a jedi, that’s who. 

He forces indifference as best he can. What pants, what boxers, I don’t know what you’re talking about. Shuffling towards the bench, he crosses his arms and leans against the tabletop, pants still on the floor instead of their place at his hips. “I once told his father that since you can’t helium, can’t curium that we may as well barium” 

[lvhowlett]

"Um, I know you don't know me, but I think what you did back there was very brave."

He dusts himself off, walking away from the wreckage, trying to act as nonchalant as the day he was offered, and promptly declined, the opportunity to head the chemistry department at Cambridge. Ego was not a thing that Lucas knew, nor were compliments or anything other than being aggressively humble. He did not know how to react to her words. He tried to look elsewhere but she seemed to genuinely think he was brave–really, he was just being what he likes to describe as a normal human being.

He laughs. He doesn’t know what to say. He doesn’t know how to react, to deal, to do. “I mean… if you aren’t part of the solution, you’re part of the precipitate!” 

It doesn’t register to him that not everyone has such an extensive knowledge of the periodic table as his does, not everyone spent ten or so years memorising chemicals and their properties, not everyone finds these jokes half as funny. He just knows he wants to get out of this situation as soon as possible, as painless as possible.  

[lvhowlett]

"Well... this is awkward."

What does one say when one witnesses such a painful rejection. So public was the proposal, so public was her no, so public was the destruction of his ego. Poor guy, Lucas thinks, sipping from his coffee. He’s glad he’s single, at least for that moment, glad he doesn’t have to wade through that sea of emotions. She was right, though, it was awkward, painfully so, and the every person in the immediate vicinity knew it. 

“Talk about noble gases, amirite?” 

God, he hoped she got that joke or else he, too, will feel the painful weight of rejection on his shoulders. 

[lvhowlett]

"Well... this is awkward."

Awkward. What truly was awkward? Lucas knew awkward. He lived, breathed, studied it all throughout his life. Awkward would probably be the name of his movie biography if he ever achieved anything that could garner a movie. Maybe Johnny Depp could play him. Maybe he’ll off himself before he ever let’s the world see his life played across a hundred inch screen. Maybe he should answer her. 

“Awkward? That’s not even the half of it. I once had a chemist friend. Though he is no more. He thought H2O was H2SO4.”

Living, breathing representation of awkward: Lucas Howlett. 

[lvhowlett]

"Watch out!"

As swift as the student calls out, Lucas reaches his arm behind him and grabs the vial of concentrated sulphuric acid before it can crash to the floor. Working in a lab trained him for situations as such, reflexes honed and perfected in a room full of clumsy thumbs and untrained fingers. Students never really know the level of danger that is present in a chemistry lab. Placing it delicately back into it’s place, as if it was a rose given on a first date, or returning a bottle of wine after stealing a sip or two, he smiles at Dallon. 

“The older the chemist gets, the less they react” 

Yes, remedy the situation with a chemistry joke, good job, Lucas. 

[zionqt]

Yoochun for Singles Magazine ♥