Hank's Biology Class
((Takes place on Friday Morning, 2nd period, March 30th))
She had been becoming more and more restless and her moods had been shifting more often than she ever remembered it having done before. She had also been having trouble sleeping for too long but that was related to the restlessness. Her mind had been easily distracted for the last couple of days, her thoughts leaping from place to place and it being almost impossible to hold on to any conversations.... Even those in her own language, this causing her to become a bit frustrated and making her go out on the hunt for food to avoid conflict. The last thing she wanted was to get mixed up in any kind of battle while her head was like this and her emotions flaring so wildly and randomly.
Usually when she came back from a hunt, she had at least a part of her prey with her in case of her mate wanting to take share of it... This time though, there was no prey in her hands or mouth and the look of having had a satisfying hunt was missing from her eyes. Instead, her eyes held a whole different story. One that would be involving Hank and involving him as soon as possible. The reason for her irradic behaviour had been discovered as she came into heat...
During the time she had been so restless, moody, and distracted, it had been due to the changes her body had been going through. She had been thawing. Most of her had been thawed since her awakening but it had taken her body until this very day to finish awakening the parts needed for actual reproduction. She had been able to mate before, there was no doubt about that. But now, she would be able to bear cubs, hank's cubs... Although she did not know that she had been unable to before. Zia had been unaware of her body's condition.
At this point, she did not care about the body's condition. She cared about one thing and one thing alone... Finding her mate wherever he may be at the moment and getting to him.
She ran, on all fours, as she made her way onto the territorry of the mansion. The wall was scaled, her not waiting for the gates to open and she leapt off the top of it to get to the inside. From there, she rose to her feet and slowed her run into more of a hunting stalk. It was what she was doing after all... hunting. Just not to kill....
Zia didn't need to borrow any other form to find her mate. She knew his scent well enough with her natural body that she could pick it up if he was not too far away and with how she was right then. It felt like all of her senses were peaked... which was true due to the.. sensitive situation she was in. She caught scent of him in one of the halls and followed it quickly until she got to where she heard his voice. Had she been thinking clearly, she would have made time to translate what the modern human words were saying but she cared not for that right then. Nor did she care who else was with him.
A growl came from her at seeing that the barrier with the knob.... the door .... was in the way. She had no desire to think enough to remember how to work it. Instead, she ran at it, leapt, and kicked out with both feet. The matter of it closing her out and keeping her from Hank was no longer an issue.
As she saw the one whom she had been hunting, she paid no attention to the many non-Hanks, her attention fully on him. She could tell that he had been caught off guard, defensive. And at first she wondered from what until her mind had time to catch up . She could understand now what it must have been for him. This was not something she did normally and the sudden change in pattern could have been a threat. She too would have been defensive.
Zia leapt into a pounce, tearing open the labcoat that was on her Hank as she tackled him down, straddling him and pinning him by his shoulders. Both her markings and eyes were glowing and glowing intensely but nothing was as intense as the look in her eyes as she locked gazes with him. "You... me.... mate.... now!" She stated, having trouble speaking even though she had spoken in the language she was most fluent with.
“Pheromones!” Hank wrote the word on the whiteboard and underlined it with a flourish before turning back to his class. “Otherwise entitled," he added with a smile, "'the way to a man's heart………may well be through his nose!’”
Teaching! Lord he had hardly had time for it recently, medical emergencies tearing gaping holes in his schedule that he had been hard pressed to overcome. Still here he was now, much to his students' delight he didn’t doubt, all present and correct and giving his expected Biology lesson on a subject they might even find interesting.
Not that his lectures were usually dull, far from it. The same ease of communication that made him a great doctor also made him a great teacher, one who knew all to well his students boredom threshold and strove to find ways to overcome it.
Having a passion for the subject you taught helped a lot and there Hank certainly had no cause for complaint. But then again, that was one of the benefits of being at the Xavier Institute, whether it was as a teacher or as a student. No one who taught here was simply going through the motions, eking out a living on the back of the qualifications they had earned at university without any real dedication to the career they had decided to embrace.
It just wasn’t that sort of a place. If the youngsters sitting in front of him had ended up there for any number of diverse and varied reasons, the teachers were there for only one. Because they wanted to be! Because they believed in these students and the future that awaited them! Even if they also realised how difficult that future might be!
And one way of making that future easier was through education. Whether it was teaching them how to defend themselves as Logan did or this…. trying to install in them a respect and appreciation for the subjects he loved and which had dominated his life ever since he himself had been sitting where they were now!
Biology! Genetics! Nothing in the world was more hands on. This was a means of finally understanding the how and the why of so many things that they took for granted. Those basic reactions that had been programmed into humans since the dawn of time! The infinitely small alteration in DNA that separated human and mutant! All of these things were crucial. Some perhaps more than others, when you looked at them from these particular young peoples point of view; whether they themselves were human or mutant.
"Ok, let’s get down to business. Pheromones, in case you hadn’t guessed yet, are scents laid out by animals to help them get exactly what they want or need to get at that particular moment in time." 'Wants’ and ‘needs' were also words he noted on the board as he continued. "Imagine for example … a perfume ad on the TV where just for once you do splash it on and actually get the girl! But let’s not get crazy now…… sex, believe it or not, isn’t the only driving force in most animals lives.” Sex now joined the list of words he marked up, causing the inevitable reaction in his pupils. He had sparked some interest in them now he could tell, even if only by use of the s word... Though it was one he didn’t particularly intend to make use of this time at least.
"There are also such things as marking your territory,” he told them “Any owner of an unneutered cat will already have found that out in a not too pleasant fashion! Or finding your way back home. Yes surprising as it may seem ants haven’t yet invented the GPS so they still have to make do with those good old tried and tested methods…."
Humour was a tool. Hank had known that for many years now. It could be used to engage an audience as he did now… or to shield yourself from rejection as he had so many times in the past. In any case he was glad he possessed it and knew how to make it work for him. “Animals can even use pheromones as the ultimate fire alarm .One siren you had better not ignore that says 'Hey guys I think we’d better run and run now. Before we get eaten.'”
“And that’s all well and good for them, you may say, but how does that affect me?" Hank sat easily on the edge of the desk as he answered his own question; reassured by the fact that this particular piece of furniture at least had been strengthened to take his weight.“And that, my friends, is the million dollar question. Is man, given his origins and his evolution, still governed by these laws? The truth is... we’re still finding that out. And that ultimately is what makes biology so fascinating. Because even if we know a lot there is still so much to be discovered.”
"Take Pheromones for example. The fact that they are out there isn’t in dispute! In fact the term "pheromone" was introduced by Peter Karlson and Adolf Butenandt as far back as 1959, based on the Greek words pherein (to transport) and hormon (to stimulate)." The terms were noted respectively along with the names, even if Hank knew that wasn’t the most interesting part of his lesson.
"But as to whether or not these are the things that would make you take one person to the prom dance rather than another….There is some proof that they could have their role to play. Research suggests that pheromones may have everything to do with the fact that… sorry girls but this is science……. women who live in the same house have menstrual cycles that eventually regulate themselves until they coincide.”
He was treading ground here that his students found decidedly insecure and he knew it. But then that too was part of biology! “Or the fact that homosexual males react to some perfumes in exactly the same way as females do." A teacher could have found the situation unsettling…. Even one as experienced and normally laid back as Hank was. In all honesty he had been ready, or so he thought; to answer any number of awkward questions or an equally awkward silence . What he hadn't expected was this excitement...Ok this rather unseemly excitement, within himself. Where was it coming from? Because he hadn't felt it arrive. Or had he?
Suddenly the door burst in and he was ready ! Though for what he couldn’t say. Leaping over the desk to intercept this threat even before he had time to think about it...Though in all honesty his body had already decided his course of action long before he had even been aware if it. Pheromones! Did they dictate animal reaction.? Undoubtedly. And as Zia suddenly straddled him, ripping his coat off in the process, there was little doubt in Hank's mind that it was the case.
Did they, however, constitute love……..? No! And if this was perhaps the ultimate if unexpected experiment, placing one who was so much closer to an animal in conjunction with a primal force ,then the response was still no! This wasn’t merely some uncontrollable sexual urge that stopped him from attacking her. From keeping his body from responding to her urgency. For what he felt was so much more than that
Tenderness. Understanding. All of that swept over him as she blazed above him . His heart was beating strongly but that neither humiliated him nor belittled her for this show of emotion. You... me.... mate.... now!"
God, he knew that was what they both wanted.. It stopped his breath. It betrayed him as a man, his urgency suddenly meeting hers. And yet it wasn't just some button that a vague chemical reaction had pressed. Yes. Ok! There was that. And there had always been that! Two bodies sparking off each other because of their intrinsically feline nature.
But that wasn’t all. Behind everything… behind even this crippling desire there was more. The part of him and her that biology and genetics couldn’t explain. The unknown and ultimately beloved factor that he wanted his students to realise was always there no matter how far science advanced.
“Pheromones,” Hank gasped, fighting against all his instincts for some sort of control… “can they explain love?" Zia's hands were already moving over his body, only his remaining restraint keeping them from taking steps he really wasn’t ready to take in public. “Discuss! 3000 words for this time next week.” Desperately he tried to hold himself back and failed. Grasping her to him he kissed her long and hard, surfacing only long enough to tell them “Class dismissed!”
Re: Hank's Biology Class(OOC: Can we please change this to 3rd period? That's when some chars got Bio... hope that'd be ok coz otherwise my post is kinda.. random. Of course that's what they usually tend to be, but, well, there are shades of randomness *lol*)
(Angie: Actually we have charries that have it period 2... well, at least I know Connor is 2.. as I checked, buuut it's up to Ann, as they wanted early morning, and this 3rd period is creeping away from morning and going into afternoon. Throwing up a long post is one way of twisting someones arms into your favour though XP)
Matt: Yah, exactly. Connor. That's it XD Plus it's not really twisting considering that we've discussed it beforehand and the discussion's result just got kind of lost on the way...
Friday – contrary to what tended to be the case for other people at other schools – was a rather intense day, at least for Matthias Evans. Not that he didn't enjoy the subjects – he actually liked most of them for the simple reason that he had had the possibility to pick and choose so much more than elsewhere – but there were some that demanded more energy than others. And a double of martial arts certainly was one of those tiring things of which he wasn't entirely sure why he had picked them in the first place. Being part of one of the X-teams was probably as good a reason as that general need to be able to defend themselves as mutants in a human-dominated society, and going for a variety of styles by taking both Wolverine's and Psylocke's classes didn't lack sense. It was just very close to being a little more than this not exactly sportif student could cope with.
However, before that, there were the more intellectually demanding subjects. And drama. A day with a drama class couldn't possibly be bad, so his motto, and considering the additional McCoy Special in between, Friday certainly didn't count among the least favourite school days. Just one of the fullest. And the one most likely to have each previous lesson distract him from the following. His mind busy recapitulating the role he'd be playing in his drama class's next piece, Beast's explanations swam past him like water lilies: nice to look at while doing something entirely different. Just like the cunning academic had planned, however, that changed when things turned a little more... real life oriented. Like it or not, at least when it came to subject like that, he was your typical post-puberty, pre-work life guy. ... well, almost.
While Matt's attention was caught, Kane Munroe's had never been lost. It was a little scary just how attentive he was, and yet how very uninvolved at the same time. The white-haired boy would take notes and you could count on him to have the correct answers if asked, but active participation was something rarely seen from him. The occasions when he'd inquire about things he hadn't entirely understood were so rare and far between that the contrasting mutant always felt he'd have to applaud or at the least take a breath of surprise whenever it did happen. If people could be static, this guy certainly was as close as can be. A little bit like an android, barely talking, unfamiliar with socialising as it seemed.
Kane, on the other hand, wasn't intentionally distancing himself from others. Actually he was trying very hard to somehow integrate himself into any group; trouble was just that he didn't have a clue as to the how. Worried he might do or say something wrong, the weather-controlling mutant stuck to waiting for a good moment and the sudden realisation of how to go about the whole thing, and wasted chance after chance by not taking it. The dilemma of those unfamiliar with society. It was a little different with his team, people he naturally had got to know a little better just because of the unavoidably high amount of time they spent together. It helped, and still getting out of his shell was a slow process...
The faintest hint of a smile played around the albino's lips as McCoy made his jokes. Just because he didn't talk much and had his problems interacting with people didn't mean he couldn't appreciate humour, as discreetly as that showed. The light-elemental was quite a bit more open about what amused him and what didn't, though he would never have gone as far as roaring with laughter or anything similarly symptomatic for attention-seekers. Matt openly admitted to sometimes having teacher's pet tendencies, but not because he made a particular effort to be on good terms with everyone but simply because he didn't mind showing if a subject interested him or liked a particular teacher; something he knew a special type of student tended to get the wrong way. Well, you couldn't make it up to everyone, could you?
"Or the fact that homosexual males react to some perfumes in exactly the same way as females do." It took some effort on Contrast's part not to nod along, catching himself preparing for that just in time. It wasn't as if he tried overly hard to hide his sexuality, but he wasn't a big fan of parading it either. What was the point in forcing it to everyone's attention? Things like that only led to the wrong conclusions that Matt for one wasn't willing to provoke others drawing. What Beast said was very true though. Max had that one perfume – or was it an eau de toilette? – that effectively blanked his mind if he didn't specifically focus on not letting it influence him. Chances were that was some sort of scent-induced reaction of the type their blue teacher was speaking of. The bit where humans – in many cases – had at least a remote chance of countering their primal reactions with reason, he would probably get to shortly... or would have anyway.
What followed was quite a demonstration of what Hank had spoken of before. Albeit entirely unreal. Matt could feel his jaw dropping and was only glad chances were most of the others had a rather similar form of reaction coming. It made his less embarrassing. Someone, so it seemed, had just switched from discovery channel to... well, another program on discovery channel in fact. Or blue movie, mutant version. Head tilted to the side, he couldn't help muttering a "Fascinating." just to increase the strangeness of the situation. "Class dismissed," and he got up slowly and packed his things together, a part of him groaning at the thought of a 3,000 word essay, which as well felt somewhat unreal given the context.
Tempest was the first to pass through the door, having followed the indirect command to leave like a duck takes to water. Whatever was going on there wasn't his business but gave him some additional time to train in the Danger Room before his last two lessons of that day. He didn't judge nor care, while Matt wasn't quite sure what to make of the whole thing. A part of him insisted that this wasn't proper role model behaviour. The other freely admitted that there just were situations in which you had to reconsider your priorities. And knowing his track record of doing just that in a rather similar, though not quite as public way, he couldn't really blame the Beast. "Have a nice weekend," he called out upon approaching the door himself, adding more quietly and more to himself "Guess I know at least two people who I don't need to worry about in that regard." Now how on earth was he supposed to focus on LeBeau and his French babble? LeBeau of all people! Maybe if the female feline was on drugs, she'd tell him where she had got it from. That would have made the language lessons so much more entertaining...
Re: Hank's Biology Class
As she looked down at him, she could both see and feel his mood flaring to match hers and him reacting to her. Words came from him though, not directed to her and not in a language she had the care to translate at that moment. She had half forgotten that anyone else was there, her attention wanting to only be on him and him alone. When he pulled her into his arms and kissed her, she kissed back with an intensity that would drown out all of their previous passions. The kiss was broken too soon for her tastes and as soon as he had finished uttering the next statement in modern Human tongue, she drew him back into the kiss.
There was movement from the others in the room, them filtring out of the doorway she had just come through not too long ago and leaving the two to be alone... Not that it mattere to Zia at this moment on if they were alone or not. That might have had to do with Zia's lack of knowledge on public displays of this level of affection being inappropriate... but then again, in the state of mind she was in at the moment it was doubtful if she would have followed more domesticated customs.
The energy, she could feel it flowing through the both of them, reacting to the moment and the situation that was unfolding there on the floor of the classroom. It was reacting as strongly as it had been back in the medical lab when they had had the battle. This was no battle though even if it contained the same ferocity or more of one. It was almost made visable, the energy that passed between the two of them. A near magnetic pull between the two beings. It almost startled her.
Never before that she could remember had such a powerful attraction happened or such a strong need to in a way fuze with someone. She could barely think... Actually, the more civilized part of her mind had been overwhealmed by the feral side of her to where she was more going on instincts than thinking out her actions. It hadn't been too far of a step into that part of her but it made a good deal of difference. It allowed a type of emotion that no sane or civilized person could experiance due to the many barriers they placed around themselves. Beyond carnal lust and deeper than the thing most labled as love. A pure concentrated need to please and to be pleased in return but in a way that transcended physical mental and emotional. That, and the need to create.
Re: Hank's Biology Class
The students comments as they left went largely unnoticed though they would no doubt come back to haunt Hank later, making the next biology lesson awkward to say the least. And it was also certain that there would be embarrassment on both sides, from the teacher whose behaviour had been less than appropriate and from those pupils who had witnessed his strange and unexpected transformation from a role model into a man. With all of a mans failings.
What there would not be however was shame. Never for one moment had Hank felt the need to be ashamed of any aspect of his relationship with Zia, far from it. If what flowed between them was very far from being chaste it was none the less pure in the same way as lightening was pure, or fire. And just as all consuming.
God how he wanted her. It was a need that went beyond reason, beyond even the intensity of their previous lovemaking and it left him awed and dumbstruck in its wake. Her touch spread through him, electric, kindling every molecule, every atom, filling him with a wild energy that was exhilarating and frightening at the same time, like the adrenaline rush felt as you stepped off a cliff and wondered if there was anything on gods earth that could keep you from breaking apart on the rocks below. Hank wasn’t sure that there was. But he knew he would take that step anyway. How could he not when every fibre of his being wanted to?
Looking at his mate he saw his own thoughts reflected in her eyes and felt the moment of hesitation as she too realised that this union would be different. Special! Life changing in the most literal sense of the word! Just holding her Hank could already feel the power building between them, drawing them inexorably closer, melding them together until there was no telling where one ended and the other began. *I could lose myself in this* Hank thought suddenly, one stray piece of reason surfacing in the maelstrom of emotions and sensations that overwhelmed him. *And even so it would be worth it*
It was true. That much he knew with absolute clarity. Just as he knew that once they both committed to this act there would be no turning back. The world could fall and shatter around them and they would neither know nor care. And while he longed for this as much as Zia did still something else stirred in him. An instinct as primitive and insistent as his need for her. A need to keep her safe while this all encompassing mating took place
It was so hard to pull himself away before they went too far, it tore a growl from his throat that was scarcely human and cried his frustration to the world. “Ahh Zia , not here” he told her huskily in the ancient language that had become that of their lovemaking, though his body trembled with the effort it cost him to draw back even this far. “I want…………. I need………..Desire made him stumble over the words that he knew he had to say if she was to understand that this delay came not from any reticence on his part but rather from an eagerness that matched her own.
“For this mating there should be no holding back. No part of me that is not yours. No though in my head that is not a thought of you. In that moment of coming together we will be stronger than we have ever been and more vulnerable, open as we perhaps have never been in the past. I want this Zia. I want to know and to be know like that. But I would not have it happen here.”
Could he explain this feeling ? He didn’t know. But then again if she could not understand then no one could.. “This is not the place we are making together………… this is perhaps our territory but it is not our den.” he said slowly “And somehow I know that that is where we need to be for this to work. The one place where we can abandon ourselves completely to the moment knowing we will be safe. The place where our cubs will grow. Home.”
Re: Hank's Biology Class“Ahh Zia , not here... I want…………. I need………..” She could feel him holding himself back and as a reward, she bit him out of frustration and as a way of urging him to stop speaking such nonsense. Here was fine. There were no preditors, not that the preditors would stand a chance against the both of them. Her bite had been to his collarbone, a spot that could either be invigorating or painful depending on the type fo bite and the angle the fangs were pierce. She did not intend to hurt him but it might have stung a bit.
“For this mating there should be no holding back. No part of me that is not yours. No though in my head that is not a thought of you. In that moment of coming together we will be stronger than we have ever been and more vulnerable, open as we perhaps have never been in the past. I want this Zia. I want to know and to be know like that. But I would not have it happen here. Her mate told her. She did not want to listen but the words he spoke made sense to her even if she were craving him.
“This is not the place we are making together………… this is perhaps our territory but it is not our den... And somehow I know that that is where we need to be for this to work. The one place where we can abandon ourselves completely to the moment knowing we will be safe. The place where our cubs will grow. Home.” She wanted so much for this to work. It was possible that neither on eof them knew how much she wanted it to. "Let us go then... But if that mouthless insect sized creature tries to speak in the voice of others or its own to try to pull you away.... I will slay it."
Re: Hank's Biology Class
He had feared that she would be too caught up in the passion to even listen to what he had to say. And god knows if she had touched him just one more time then he too would have been lost to all reason.
But instead, behind the fierce longing that burned through her, there was a flicker of acknowledgement, as if even now Zia could see that in asking this of her Hank was responding to instincts as basic as her own and just as valid. "Let us go then...” she whispered to his great relief. “But if that mouthless insect sized creature tries to speak in the voice of others or its own to try to pull you away.... I will slay it."
Hank couldn’t help but laugh out loud. He well knew of the hatred that his mate felt for his communicator and justifiably so, for it did always seem to ring at the most inconvenient of times taking him from her side to handle yet another emergency in med lab. “Ah Zia if it rings now I will slay it myself. “ he told her lovingly “ in fact….”
There were forces other than instinct which shaped Hank McCoy’s life. Loyalty! Dedication! Duty. All of them made it impossible for him to simply take off the device and leave it there on the schoolroom floor, though he was sorely tempted to do just that. Instead he activated it, turning it to Cyclops frequency waiting for the cool voice to answer as he said “Scott. Hank here. Just to let you know I’m off line for the rest of the day.”
He knew that Scott must have had a thousand questions waiting to be asked. After all even Hank couldn’t remember the last time he had deliberately taken himself out of the communication network.Therefore comments were in order . As were curt demands for an explanation. But in the end his friend asked only one thing. “Is everything all right? ”
Everything is… wonderful” the doctor replied looking at his mate. “and unless the world is actually coming to an end I want it to stay that way.” Scott gave a light chuckle , not the reaction most people would have expected from him, and more than even the forebearance Hank had hoped for. But then again , despite his outward calm Scott knew all there was to know about passion and how it could stop you in your tracks. And there was nothing but approval and affection in his voice as he said. “Consider it done my friend. You’re com badge is officially dead till further notice. Enjoy!”
“There” Hank told Zia with a smile. “No voices. No interruptions. Just you and me… and .. no more waiting. ” And with that he stood and swept her up into his arms not wanting even for a moment to break the contact between them.This bridge that was being built and which would inevitably lead them both to new and vaster possibilities.
Then he was running, freely and easily through the corridors, past startled students who, despite his appearance had been very far from suspecting this more animalistic side of the doctor’s nature.
Hank didn’t care what they saw or thought. If he hadn’t left his com badge behind in the classroom then he had left the last of his resistance. Finally he let himself be swept up in this exchange that was going on even now between himself and Zia, making him feel as if their bodies were already melting into each other. Making him want more.
The door to the apartment was in front of him, an obstacle between him and where he had to be. Only that imperative for privacy and security that had brought him up the stairs in the first place made him hold back from simply kicking it down, forcing him back into control long enough to open it and then lock it behind them though his body shook with the effort.
Then finally they were alone , and although he still shook it was no longer with effort . It was with a need beyond any he had ever known. And one which he had no desire to resist. That this was a turning point in his life, in their lives , was clear. And Hank embraced both it and Zia with an unbridled fervour that was worthy of the occassion
*lol*)
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