Chapter Text
Yang slipped into the seat that Weiss held for her about two minutes before the doors to the mid-sized lecture hall shut. They were about three weeks into the semester and so far the Human Sex and Sexuality class that Yang had signed up for to fill a requirement for an upper level elective was not as fun as she'd hoped. Their professor, Dr. Oobleck, a truly bizarre man taught the class like sex was an entirely alien concept to him or as if he were studying the sexual behavior of frogs.
Yang had started showing up to class later and later, getting progressively closer to being late with every period. It wasn't that she didn't care about the class, it was just that every time Oobleck began speaking about the bio-psychosocial roots of sexual identity across various cultures, Yang felt her whole brain begin buzzing until she could no longer hear the man.
Weiss jabbed her in the side as she leaned over and pulled her notebook out of her bag.
"Ow, Weiss, what the hell?"
"I'm going to start giving your seat up if you keep barely getting here on time."
"Barely on time is on time, Weiss, and I resent the implication that I should be giving up an extra fifteen minutes of valuable, crucial study time just to get here earlier."
"Were you studying?" Weiss asked, squinting at Yang.
"Absolutely not, what am I, a loser?"
"You suck."
"You wish," Yang said, winking before dodging the pen Weiss threw at her head. "What if I had worse reflexes? That could have- ow." Yang got hit in the forehead with a second, identical pen. "You know, you would have fourteen pens. Do you color-code your notes, too?"
"At least I take notes. I'm not even sure you know what's going in this course."
Yang scoffed, "I can't believe that you feel that way." She paused for a moment. "What are we doing today?"
Weiss laughed, finally giving up on their faux argument. "You have got to start checking your email. Dr. Oobleck had to go on sabbatical suddenly, something about an emergency research trip. Some of the other professors are supposed to be picking up his courses."
"Ah, fuck, who do we have?"
The doors to the lecture hall shut loudly behind the last entrant to the room, exactly on time. The sudden sound made Yang glance up absentmindedly, only to be met with the intense gaze of a frighteningly attractive woman. Yang felt time stop for a brief moment as she absorbed the presence of the woman. She wasn't the tallest, but her attire, a deep purple turtleneck tucked into high-waisted, black pants, made her legs look like they went on for days. The outfit hugged the woman's curves in all the right places, her hair was tied back and glasses rested on her head, and Yang could not fathom how she had never noticed her before. The woman's sleeves were pushed up and inky flowers grew up her forearms. She had a laptop tucked under arm and a leather messenger bag over one of her shoulders. Yang was smitten instantly. The woman smiled at her, giving her a small nod before turning towards the front of the room.
The woman began to descend the stairs of the lecture hall, and Yang's gaze followed her, eager to see where she sat down.
She did not sit down.
The woman approached the front of the hall, set her bag on the desk, and began to connect her laptop to the room's projection system.
The realization hit Yang like a truck. She hadn't seen this woman before because she was the new professor.
"Fuck."
Weiss raised an eyebrow and glanced over at her, "What?"
"I'm in love with our professor."
"Excuse me?" Weiss whisper-yelled at her. "Have you met? Is this one of those 'oh no, I had a one night stand with our professor before I knew who she was' situations?"
"No, we've never met, but I'm in love with her."
"Yang, what?"
Yang didn't respond, just stared straight ahead at their new instructor as she got set up and wrote 'Dr. Blake Belladonna' on the whiteboard. Yang mouthed the name to herself, deciding it's the perfect name for the woman before her.
Her laptop was set up and the projector now displayed a slideshow titled "Syllabus Day Again" on the retractable screen. So, she has a sense of humor, too. Yang was completely fucked.
Dr. Belladonna cleared her throat, facing the class now. Her glasses were now being worn correctly, no longer resting atop her head. "So, as I'm sure you've all been made aware, or are perhaps currently realizing, Dr. Oobleck will no longer be the instructor for this course. He is fine, don't fret. I'm Dr. Belladonna, you can call me that or Professor Belladonna. Please refrain from calling me Ms or Mrs, it makes me feel older than I already do."
A light laugh rippled throughout the room.
"As I'm taking over the course mid-semester, albeit rather early on, I will be keeping the syllabus mainly as Dr. Oobleck wrote it, with one exception that I'll get to shortly."
Dr. Belladonna leaned against the desk behind her as she continued, the slide changing behind her. "Assignments already graded will retain those grades, and anything that Dr. Oobleck was in the process of grading will be finished by him and relayed to me. Obviously, I am not him, and while I will be teaching the same material, I will likely be doing so differently."
Yang perked up at that, it hadn't even occurred to her that she was going to be listening to Dr. Belladonna discuss sex multiple times a week. If anyone could make this material interesting to Yang, it would be her.
Next slide. "We're all adults here. While there are no stupid questions, and I want this course to be one where everyone is comfortable asking whatever they're curious about, I will not tolerate discussions that are hateful or discriminatory. We are going to discuss sexual health, sexual orientation, and the connotations of sexuality. If the topics of masturbation, queerness, sexual violence, or fetishes are uncomfortable for you, this course may not be for you."
Yang blushed at the mention of masturbation. She had no idea how she was going to survive that lecture.
"As I said, I am making one fairly large change to the syllabus. Dr. Oobleck originally had the final listed as a comprehensive final exam. While we will be having exams throughout the semester, I believe it will serve you all much better to complete a research paper on a topic of your choosing that we either did not cover during the course or that we did but you want to dive further into. Aim for around fifteen to twenty pages. I recommend that you look over the syllabus or speak to me sometime soon to start finding a topic. You will not be locked into your choice, but I will be expecting a project proposal by midterms."
Groans rang out from around the room.
"I know, I know, but I'm sure you all can do it. This should be a topic you're truly interested in, so hopefully the work feels slightly less like, well, work. If you're worried, come talk to me after class."
Admittedly, Yang wasn't worried, she'd had to write longer papers with worse topics, but if being worried got her an in with the new professor, she was willing to play that part.
"Any questions?"
A few hands went up around the room.
Yang took her sweet time putting her belongings away after class, even though all she really had was a notebook and a couple broken pens.
Weiss stood nearby, fully packed up and deeply unimpressed. "I know you're going to go talk to her, but Yang, don't be stupid for once, please."
Yang feigned hurt, "I would never. I'm just deeply invested in the course material, Weiss."
"Sure. See you at home?"
Yang nodded and they split off from each other, Weiss heading out the door of the lecture hall and Yang descending the stairs towards Dr. Belladonna and the couple students waiting to speak to her as well. She stood by patiently, waiting for the others to finish asking their various questions, and caught a couple snippets of questions about whether or not certain topics are acceptable. Dr. Belladonna spoke to every student kindly and seemed genuinely supportive of any topic that someone had an interest in. Now that she wasn't projecting for the entire room, Yang was able to appreciate how quiet and warm her professor's voice was.
As the student in front of her left, Yang realized she was the last one in the room with Dr. Belladonna. She was disconnecting her laptop from the projection system as Yang approached, but looked up and smiled as she drew near.
"Uh, hey, just wanted to say thanks for today. It's probably weird taking over a class mid-semester, but you seem really great. I'm excited to see how you teach the course, sometimes I had a hard time keeping up with Oobleck."
Her professor laughed softly, and it was just as warm as her voice, "I'm glad you're excited…?" Her voice trailed off, clearly waiting for a name.
"Oh, I'm Yang! Yang Xiao Long."
"I'm glad you're excited, Yang. Do you have any ideas for your final project?"
"Maybe, I've never really taken a course like this before. I'm in the Exercise Science program, so I'm usually in anatomy courses and all that." Yang swallowed hard, "I am interested in maybe writing something about taboo sexual relationships."
The professor stood up straighter for a moment, as if genuinely surprised. "Taboo how?"
"Well, just the relationships that aren't necessarily illegal, but are unethical. Therapist and client. Doctor and patient." Yang paused before adding, "Professor and student."
Dr. Belladonna's eyes narrowed slightly. She seemed less warm suddenly. Yang felt less like she was meeting the woman for the first time and more like she was being sized up as she continued to stand there, silently.
"Professor and student, huh?"
"Just an example, Professor."
Dr. Belladonna sat on the desk again, having fully packed up. "That's really what you want to write about?"
"Well, I'm asking if it's a horrible idea, I guess."
Her professor's gaze searched her face for a few seconds, just long enough for Yang to feel like she was being studied. "No. Not a horrible idea. It's a difficult topic." She pushed her glasses back up onto her head. "Not many people are willing to discuss it. The innate tension that develops when something keeps two people from each other, the power dynamics, how to handle attraction you can't act on. It makes people uncomfortable. Especially if there's an age difference."
Yang nodded a little too quickly, "Yes, yeah, it's just so complex, you know?"
"How old are you?"
Yang nearly choked, "Huh?"
"How old are you, Miss Xiao Long?"
"Twenty-two."
"And would you carry out a relationship with someone nearly twice your age, a 'taboo relationship' as you said?"
"I don't like being told I can't have something," Yang admitted.
"Noted," Dr. Belladonna stood up and Yang inhaled sharply. "Very well. Topic approved."
"What?"
"You have my approval, I'm looking forward to reading your paper," she repeated, picking up her belongings and turning to leave. She paused, "But, Yang, try to avoid hitting on your future professors. Not all of them take it as nicely as I do."
Dr. Belladonna continued up the stairs and out of the lecture hall, leaving Yang standing in the middle of the room even as the next class began to shuffle in and take their seats.
"Fuck."