While it hadn't exactly been smooth sailing the first week or so, Maris had settled into her new position and was currently launching into a lecture she'd given hundreds of students hundreds of times before.

"Wikipedia isn't a source, Ariana."

The pretty redhead looked confused and more than a little nervous to have been summoned up to Maris' desk and kept behind after the final bell. "But a source is where you got your information from. I got my information from Wikipedia."

"Yes, but..." Maris took a deep breath, trying to regain her composure and keep her tone level. "Anyone can edit a Wikipedia page. You could go on and say... Justin Bieber is your boyfriend or something and it would stay up there until someone changed it back again."

"Ew, gross," Ariana muttered. "Nobody likes Justin Bieber anymore. Besides, he's married to Hailey Baldwin now?"

Maris choose to ignore the condescending tone Ariana adopted for her last sentence and the way it implied Justin's marital status was something that everyone already knew. "That's exactly my point, Ari! It's inaccurate." She sighed, leaning across the desk, willing to level with her. "If you must use it, at least check the footnotes attached to the fact you're writing down. Go there. Read them. Cite them instead."

"The little number things?"

Maris fought the urge to raise her eyes to the celling. "Yes. The little number things."

"But what if they don't have them?"

"Then they don't have a source which means you can't cite it as one of yours."

"So am I getting a bad grade on my paper?"

"You're getting points taken off and a chance to fix it and hand it back to me tomorrow morning. But next time? Yes, you're getting a bad grade. Verifiable sources stapled to the back of your paper, all I ask."

"Fine," the girl grumbled, snatching her paper off Maris' desk with a bit more force than necessary.

She passed Rory on her way out, not bothering to hold the door for her while Maris rose from her desk and paced the room a bit, hands in the pockets of her plain black jumpsuit as she tried to digest what had just happened.

She stared out the window for a moment. A nice, unusually sunny spring day was enough to center her somewhat, but seeing Rory when she turned around was what really soothed Maris. She smiled wryly as she nodded toward the door.

"Did you hear any of that? And they say the American education system is failing."

Rory was still getting used to her students here in the UK, and also getting used to certain things that she, an American English teacher had to get used to as a UK English teacher … namely adding the ever-annoying u into words. She’d already caught herself from circling in red a few of them on papers, thankful for the invention of erasable pens.

With her last class of the day disbursed as soon as the bell rang, Rory called out the assignment one more time, “Remember have chapters ten and eleven read for discussion tomorrow!” Knowing full well that at least three of her students wouldn’t remember or have some excuse for why they couldn’t read the twenty pages of material. That was a problem for tomorrow-Rory.

Wandering across the hall, she waved at one of her meeker students, Ella, who was scrambling to shut her locker and race out the door. “Bye Mrs. Berlanti!” She chirped as she ran by, something that made Rory smile. If she didn’t get her full last name yet, she at least appreciated her students calling her Mrs.

The wife in question, Rory took a moment to watch her as her ginger student left the classroom. She knew her wife’s body language and could guess the issue that had just transpired, even if all she’d managed to hear was verifiable sources stapled…

“Oh I heard enough.” She chuckled, stepping into the room as the door closed behind her. Rory moved closer to her wife, sliding her arm around her waist and kissing her cheek as her fingers brushed against her hip. “And aren’t you glad we’ve got some more time left of our day?” She made a wide-eyed face, but there was a smile still on her lips. She was actually very excited about the time they had left with their after-hours part of their day.

Trivia was something that was very near and dear to Rory, and had been even more so after she met Maris. Well, after trivia itself played a rather pivotal part of their relationship kicking off on a rainy night in New York. Her fondness for it grew since then, to the point where she couldn’t really do it in the years they were apart. It was their thing.

Well, now it was their thing with a group of students who ranged in their dedication to facts and answering with them quickly.

“We’ll get plenty of time to whip at least some of them into shape, huh? I’ll be pretty proud of them, if they put in the work.”

After her talk with Ariana, Maris was more than ready to go home. She'd forgotten that she and Rory had a Quizbowl meeting that afternoon.

She groaned, slumping a bit dramatically in Rory's arms before turning around in them to face her. "Why did you let me agree to this?" she grumbled. "Isn't the point of marriage to shoot down each other's idiotic ideas forever?"

Maris had brought up the idea of starting a team a few weeks before when an old college friend mentioned she was starting one up at her school.

Maris had been on a team during her junior year of high school, but the teacher running things had left before her senior and no one bothered to start things back up again. She'd had fun and figured coaching would be the next best thing to playing, especially since her team hadn't made it very far.

It was entirely possible Maris was trying to finally achieve Quizbowl glory through her students.

But time spent with Rory doing something they both loved, especially since it had kind of brought them together in the first place, was a definite bonus and her wife's presence was probably the only thing that would make more time spent at school bearable after a day like today.

"I just..." Maris wavered a bit, wondering how to best put what she she wanted to say next. "Not a lot of people bothered to take the pretest."

When they announced their intention to start the team, they required all applicants to take a pretest of sample trivia questions. There were a limited number of spots, after all and students with the highest scores got a place on the team. They had a few alternates and as competitive as Maris was even she wouldn't turn someone away if they genuinely wanted to be on the team, but she wondered if they'd gotten the best applicants possible and was kind of a little bummed that more kids hadn't seemed into the idea.

She shrugged a little. "Maybe we'll get more next time? Once they see what it's all about. Holly said she had some friends who might be into it. I told her anyone can join in and grab an alternate spot long as they get a good enough score on the pretest. For now anyway. Once we actually get matches going, I figure it's time to close ranks."

Holly was quickly becoming something of a teacher's pet. Or at least, she was trying to be, not quite sensing that Maris didn't often show a softer side even after you buttered her up. She didn't play favorites, but she did like the chubby brunette with freckles and frizzy curls that would be amazing if she just found the right product, a little more than any other of her students. She was sweet and more importantly, she was smart. She was often too shy to participate in front of her classmates but her work and observations were good. Maris had even read Holly's paper on the suffragettes aloud to Rory. She did well in Rory's class too and was just as polite and attentive but it was clear she had a knack for history.

She could very well be (an admittedly more soft spoken) a mini Maris in the making, which is why when they split their kids up into groups, Maris insisting on working with Holly specifically.

Rory loved teaching, and she was learning to love her students and like the dynamics of this particular school. All that being said, her favorite part of the day was collecting her wife and getting on the train to go home. It felt like her whole body could relax once she embraced her, and it was not lost on her just how special it was to be heading home with her wife at the end of the day.

Before, they had all of these elaborate ways of skirting around being found out, going so far as to make sure to pack clothes tucked into the bottom of her bag and carefully putting things on top as she hustled out the opposite direction from Maris, only to meet her around the block to walk the rest of the way together.

But today they had some more responsibilities to get through before they could reward themselves with actually heading home together. Rory laughed softly as Maris dropped into her arms, her lips pressing soft kisses against her temple and her cheek. "We forgot to put that in our vows, baby. Really crappy forethought on our part."

It would be fun though, they'd make sure of it. Well, Rory would remind her wife that competition could indeed be very very fun. She wanted their girls to enjoy themselves, but Rory's competitive nature would come out, as well. It really was the duality of her Gemini coming out, supportive and calm on the one hand, but triggered into competitive and shark-like on the other.

Her hands smoothed down her wife's sides and back up again, nodding a little. "I think we'll be okay. We just have to make sure that we coach them and make it fun. They'll tell their friends like you said. Plus our girls really do seem to be very smart. We'll make sure to bolster them in the subjects they're not the best at."

Rory actually loved how seriously Maris took all of this. She loved that she wanted to do well and how much effort she put into being the best. Rory hoped that she could be just as tenacious in coaching these girls.

There was one student that Rory hoped she could actually court into joining, though she definitely rang very cool and aloof to anything she might have to care about. Her name was Maura, and she was outspoken and opinionated -- and whip smart. She had an effortless way about how she would structure an argument, be it on paper or verbally. When Rory had talked to her about the Quizbowl, she'd given her a smirk like "really?" But Rory knew she'd edged into her mind a little bit when she'd given her an impassioned speech about the potential she saw in the young woman. Maura, with a purple streak in her hair, didn't seem like she was used to a teacher telling her that outright. She hoped maybe by the second or third meeting, she'd take the test.

"Are you ready for this?" She made a face, tugging her wife into her a little more as she pressed a kiss to her lips before she could answer. "Then I'm cooking you dinner."

"It better be a good dinner," Maris grumbled playfully as she pulled away. The mention of food reminded her just how hungry she was and at a little after 3, Maris kind of needed a snack if she was gonna push through the meeting. She pulled out her trusty stash of Oreos from her desk drawer. She nibbled on one, holding out the package to her wife before letting out a bit of a sigh.

"I guess we should give them a snack."

She sat the Oreos down on a cluster of desks in the middle of the room. Maris had only eaten a handful so far, so there would probably be enough to go around, but her body language said she wasn't exactly thrilled about sharing.

She disappeared into the closet behind her desk to fetch the practice buzzers she'd ordered. They'd mercifully arrived the day before. After a bit of fiddling to set them up, Maris hit the big red button in the center of one and beamed, delighted when it made a buzzing sound. "Okay, we're good!" she said, clearly proud of herself for figuring it all out. She gave them all a quick test press, making a bit of a face. "These are way better than the ones we had. Half the time they wouldn't go off no matter how hard you hit them."

Well aware she was edging into "we had to walk fifteen miles to school in the snow" territory, Maris shut up, though anyone could agree each new generation had it a little better than the last.

Holly was the first student to arrive, though Chelsea, Maris' nemesis from the first day of school followed close behind. Maris still hadn't forgotten the blonde's snarky remark, but Chelsea had scored pretty highly on the test in a variety of areas. That coupled with the fact that she'd actually bothered to sign up meant Maris was warming to her somewhat.

Slowly.

"Hey girls, we're gonna start when everyone gets here, so feel free to grab a cookie while you wait."

"Oooh, Oreos," Holly said once she'd shrugged off her heavy backpack and left it on her usual desk in Maris' class.

"Why are some already gone?" Chelsea said somewhat suspiciously.

Maris didn't answer the question.

"Oh, h-hey, Chelsea," Holly stammered.

Holly got a nod of acknowledgement, but Maris couldn't help at raise an eyebrow at how she blushed and ducked her head at even that.

Chelsea didn't seem to notice. She'd already turned her attention to the buzzers scattered around the room, but it was very clear that Holly noticed her.

Maris suddenly wondered if she and Holly had more than just history in common.

"Why don't you two sit together?" she coaxed, shooting Rory a subtle look that said are you seeing this?. "You're both in my group anyway."

"I'll make sure it's master class worthy." Rory laughed, her gaze fixed on her wife as she pulled away. She wasn't entirely sure what they had in their fridge but ... she had good feeling she could scrounge together something Maris would love. Probably pasta, because she was a very predictable Italian.

Plucking an Oreo out of the pack for herself, she made a face at Maris so graciously offering to share with their students who would be arriving any minute. Rory made a mental note to get an extra pack at the store next time they were there. She hadn't even thought before moving to London, that she was glad Oreo was here in abundance. That could have been very disastrous... or costly to have them shipped in bulk from the states.

"Ooh, these are nice." Rory smiled as she looked over the buzzers, impressed that Maris had gone all out for this. Maybe her wife liked to play up dragging her feet or wanting to just scrap the whole thing and go home, but she knew Maris enough to know that she would delve right into the fun of competition. Including the buzzers. "Of course you got the best ones." Rory remarked with a wide grin.

Chelsea, Rory knew well enough from the stories that Maris had told her. She tried not to write off students as being any which way, but there was something a little irksome mostly because she'd been smart to her wife. It still was sort of hilarious to her, that Rory could get so protective of her wife -- even just where their students were concerned.

As much as she was nearly ready to solidify her thoughts on this Chelsea with the attitude she walked into the classroom with, her attention was diverted by Holly and the telltale signs she recognized well. The kids these days called it a bit of gay panic. Rory met her wife's gaze, her brows arching in agreement. "Good luck ladies." Rory teased with a wink, turning as one of her students, Aoife walked into the room.

Rory had felt bad when she first read the name on her class list, but the girl with the shoulder-length brown hair was kind, and knew her place in the list enough to loudly call out "Ee-fah," with a patient smile. Rory decided she was going to be a favorite right then, and when her test results came back, Rory was pleasantly surprised.

"Go ahead and take a seat..." She nodded towards the desks, but her attention still wandered back towards her wife and Holly clearly smitten with the strong personality that was Chelsea.

"I called to ask what kind they use in competition," Maris said as if there had been no other option. There sort of wasn't as far as she was concerned. Maris never did anything halfway.

No one could accuse her of being a sap or even a romantic where Rory wasn't concerned, but Maris wasn't made of stone. She remembered all too well how tough navigating things with girls had been in high school.

She just hoped Holly's affections weren't misplaced. Falling for a straight girl was a teenage rite of passage, after all and a mistake even Maris, not exactly used to rejection, had made once or twice herself.

And Chelsea didn't seem the type to let anyone down easily.

Still, it couldn't hurt to give them a nudge and the idea that they had at least one baby queer in their midst reminded Maris that she really needed to get on the admins about fixing that stupid door sign. Letting their students know that they were married suddenly seemed... almost important.

It was easy to feel alone and othered when you were young and into girls. Like you were the only lesbian in the world, so of course you'd never find any to hang out with, let alone date. It was easy to believe that there was no light at the end of the tunnel and your existence would be a hard, lonely struggle. Sometimes people, especially children, needed to see that things could actually work out.

"So who else is on our team?" Chelsea asked, already studying the printout of rules Maris placed in front of her.

"We're all one team, but Ro-" Maris caught herself, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "Ms. Berlanti and I are splitting you guys up so we can work with you one on one to sort of hone in on the things we can tell you're already good at."

"So what am I good at?" Chelsea said boldly. The blonde clearly had a bit of an ego and the reason she and Maris were butting heads was increasingly clear (not that Maris had put two and two together yet).

They were an awful lot alike.

"Honestly? You scored pretty highly on everything," Maris said, forthright as ever even if she did kind of want to knock Chelsea down a few pegs. "But your marks in history and math were especially good."

"Are you good at math?"

"Yes," Maris said, managing to disguise the edge in her voice, but unable to resist the urge to finally get a bit of a dig in. "And lucky for me, numbers are exactly the same for us plebeians in America."

Holly giggled a little. She hadn't missed Maris and Chelsea's exchange a few days before.

The blonde turned her attention to her classmate for the first time, cheeks warming that Maris had gotten one over on her. "It wasn't that funny," she grumbled.

"Of course you did." Rory replied fondly, the grin on her face lingering as the girls filed into the room. It was just one of the many things that she loved about her wife, the attention to detail and particular style when it came to such things. She loved that Maris of course got the exact buzzers that they'd work with in the competition.

The difference of her last school to the one where she had met Maris, was how open about her own sexuality she was. She never tried to hide it, never even felt she had to, and even was that cliche of a teacher who had a rainbow flag on her desk. This school felt a bit like middle ground, but she wasn't hiding anything - no matter if her name plate had only one name on it for now.

She felt like she could always hone in on the sweet gay students, though at her last school, it was easier because they had an actual club many felt comfortable being involved with. She'd be paying a little closer attention to this Holly. Particularly after she snickered at her wife's joke.

Yet another thing she really loved about her wife; her ability to shut down any kind of bully, even if that was in the shape of a snotty teenager. Her wife was such a strong presence, the kind of teacher that Rory absolutely would have had an obnoxious crush on when she was younger ... and now just had a justified one as her wife.

"I'll be focusing on literature as well as religion and mythology. But we'll be having a number of other subjects we'll need to make sure you are well rounded with. Current events, we'll quiz you on, but I reckon you all have a good grasp on what's going on in the world."

Teenagers today really did seem to be so much more in the know than when she was one.

"I have printed out a few of these..." She moved past Maris, her fingers bracing against the small of her wife's back as she did, without really even thinking about it. She grabbed for a stack of papers she'd put on Maris' desk earlier before turning back to the girls. "It lays out the kind of subjects we'll be covering in order to make sure we are best prepared for competition."

Rory was nothing if not a planner, which suited them well for this kind of thing. Her hand dropped from her wife before she realized she'd really even lingered in an obvious way. She noticed Chelsea (naturally) scrutinizing her a bit as she dropped off a packet in front of her. "We'll also be brushing up on your art history."

Rory's hand didn't go unnoticed by Maris, but she also didn't give much away apart from standing up a little straighter once her wife had passed by, willing the faint electric hum that buzzed under her skin whenever they touched to subside quickly.

The girls studied their papers for a while, the room silent for the faint flicking sound of pages being turned before Nessa, a student Maris had a fairly good impression of thus far, chimed in with uncharacteristic shyness.

"But it's not just math and lit and stuff right?"

"No," Maris said softly, because she had a feeling she knew what she was worried about. Nessa hadn't scored too highly on the more academic categories, but she was a whiz when it came to pop culture and current events, the highest of anyone there. "There are plenty of questions about things like music and movies too. Current ones, even. It's not all Bach and Citizen Kane. You'll be fine, guys. There's a reason you're on a team, if you don't know the answer, hopefully someone else will. You shouldn't feel any pressure to go for something you're not familiar with okay?"

"But if you think you know?" Holly asked tentatively.

"Then buzz. You don't lose points for wrong answers. Just the team's turn so you might want to think hey, would someone else know better than me? It's a balance, really. And it also means you guys should get to know each other a little better. You know, talk about what you think you're best at."

Maris' lips twitched. "Which is why we have another packet!" she said with feigned cheerfulness. Most of the girls groaned. "I know, I know, somewhere a forest is crying because of all this paper."

She walked over to the desks, making sure a buzzer was between each pair (and making sure that Chelsea and Holly were matched up together).

"Okay, I want my alternates to read off the questions to the people with the buzzers. We'll swap in about ten minutes or so, that way you guys can get a turn with the buzzer too. I want you guys to see what the questions are like and how the buzzer works." She laughed as one went off in the far corner of the room. "Not yet! We're gonna leave you on your own."

Maris didn't want the kids feeling like they were being hovered over while they were just getting the hang of things, but she and Rory would be watching. Her little exercise wasn't just so the girls could find their bearings with the game. She also figured it could help them get to know each other without adults around. Something she suddenly really hoped would happen in Holly and Chelsea's case.

Maris snatched her Oreos back before pulling a second chair up to her desk so Rory could hide back there with her. "Okay, go ahead!" she said once she'd started a timer on her phone and shoved an Oreo in her mouth.

Even though they still had quite some time with the girls left for their afternoon, Rory was already feeling a certain kind of excited to get her wife home already. But now they had to focus, and they had their students to hone their abilities.

"There are plenty of fun categories as well, yes." She chuckled, echoing Maris' assurance that they would have categories other than math and sciences.

"It is important to know each others' strengths and weaknesses as well. If you buzz in because you think your teammate knows something and they actually don't, it will give the other team an opportunity to have more time to answer. Mar-- Mrs. Forrester is right that you don't get dinged for wrong answers, but it is something to consider."

Rory chuckled as the girls groaned and took their second packets, before she retreated behind the desk with Maris to sit with her. Her gaze went over the girls for a moment as they worked, seeing how well they were working together, or who seemed to be breezing ahead.

Taking an oreo for herself, she smiled and bumped her shoulder into her wife's, her brows raised with a smirk on her lips. "Off to a good start." She murmured under her breath, reaching over and giving her wife's hand a squeeze as the girls worked together.

Maris nodded with a faint smile. Things seemed to be off to a steady start.

By the time the girls switched so the second group could have a turn answering questions, the room got a little livelier. They were starting to talk, even laugh with each other between questions, something Maris took as a very good sign. She sometimes forgot that the school was new to their students too. It made sense that they would need some time to get to know each other.

Not wanting to wear them out too much on their first day, the meeting ended after Maris and Rory answered a few more questions. Once the last student was gone, Maris let out a breath she didn't know she was holding, wiggling a finger for Rory to come closer once she shut the door behind her.

"C'mere Ms. Berlanti," she murmured, pulling her wife closer by the hem of her shirt. Some sarcasm had dripped into her voice. Once upon a time, calling each other Ms. had been an almost game at work. Necessary, yes, but said with a sort of teasing undertone because hiding just how unprofessional they were with each other was kind of a turn on. It could still be a game now and there was something about having to be careful that did do something for Maris, but remembering to use her wife's last name was hard.

Remembering to use the wrong one was probably going to be impossible.

A team who jived well together was important, and Rory knew that. They didn't need the girls to all be best friends, but actually knowing how to work with each other was going to be key. She was likewise glad to see that the girls were getting into it as they started to answer questions, even so much as two of the girls high-fived each other when they managed to puzzle out a correct answer with each other. It was cute, and spoke well to what was to come as they gelled more as a team.

Once the girls were gone, Rory was already turning to facing her wife, a grin spreading across her features at the way Maris beckoned her over. She didn't need to be told twice.

"Ugh. Ms." She scowled, sliding into her wife's arms and feeling the rush of warmth through her body from the way Maris tugged at her shirt. "That's Missus, thank you very much." She slid her arms around Maris, dragging her knuckles down her spine.

"We need to get those fixed. Especially with the added bonus of aiding our little burgeoning gays in class." She chuckled, softly, leaning in and kissing her wife. Sure, any of their girls could come racing back in a moment later, and some staff was still around, but god dammit, Rory had gone too long behaving herself for wanting to kiss her wife like this. Her fingers curled in her shirt, pulling her just closer as her lips parted to allow her tongue to sweep over Maris' lips.

"I was just thinking the same thing," Maris said, surprised she wanted the signs fixed for someone else's sake. The possible love connection between their students had caught her off guard too.

And not just because it was hard to believe that anyone actually liked Chelsea.

Maris had a few gay students before, including one who had sheepishly come out to her when she realized Maris was a kindred spirit after telling the class a story about a civil war battlefield she had visited with an old girlfriend years before.

She hated the term partner. Something about it was so sterile. Maris never had a rainbow flag in the classroom like Rory, but she wasn't going to censor herself around her students because she'd never thought her sexuality was something to tiptoe around or hide.

She'd been something of a mentor to Penelope, the student who came out to her, thanking her and praising her courage for telling her, then smiled when the girl said she'd come out to her mom a few months later and that things had gone well, but she'd never really noticed a romance between two of her students happening in real time before.

Maris wasn't one to get involved in other people's business. She certainly wasn't a teacher who was very close to her students, but... she was kind of rooting for them and knew she'd be pairing Holly & Chelsea up from now on because a nudge couldn't hurt, right?

Maris knew they weren't in the clear yet. The admins were still in their offices, other after school activities were meeting, the cleaning staff still had to tidy up but when Rory kissed her, she couldn't help herself. She let their bodies press together and as the kiss continued, then deepened, she sat her wife up on her desk with one fluid motion. Just as she reached down to start pushing up Rory's shirt, she heard footsteps in the hall so she broke the kiss and took a few steps away just before Chelsea walked up to the door, then inside.

"I forgot my phone," she said, gaze lingering on them for a moment before walking back over to her desk.

With the little blind at the top of the classroom door drawn, Maris didn't think Chelsea had seen anything. Rory sitting on her desk also could have been easily explained by a lack of decent chairs for adults with tired backs who couldn't handle the hard metal ones on hand for students. They were apart and could have been talking but Rory was sitting right next to the engagement photo on Maris desk and though it faced the chalkboard, rather than Maris' students, Chelsea had briefly glanced at it when she went behind Maris' desk to get to hers before the bell a few days before.

She assumed the brunette standing next to Maris was a friend or sister or something. Preoccupied with getting to her seat, she hadn't gotten a good look at the other woman's face that day. Now she realized it might have been Rory.

"You're both American, right?" she said, seemingly out of nowhere as she stuffed her phone in the bottom pocket of her backpack.

"So you keep reminding me," Maris said dryly.

But it was all beginning to make sense. She didn't know that Maris and Rory were married, exactly. For all she knew, they could have been sisters like she'd initially assumed when she saw Maris' photo.

But maybe they did know each other. Two chummy American teachers showing up at the same time was weird and their few slip ups where they'd nearly called each other by their first name hadn't gone unnoticed.

It was a new school. A lot of the teachers didn't know each other's last names yet.

"Where are you from?"

"You know, for someone with such a poor opinion of Americans, you ask an awful lot about it," Maris said coolly, lips twitching as she gave up a rare nugget of personal information. "New York." There was no harm in telling, especially when she knew Rory's answer was (technically) different.

Rory had been annoyed about their name plates to begin with, but as was her nature, she got over it enough to not make a huge fuss over it as things were just beginning at the school. They’d have time to do it soon enough — but it really was seeing the younger girls who might just have a crush forming that made her realize the importance of it, too.

She’d never really had big role models growing up in the lgbtq community. Of course growing up in close to San Francisco meant that she had a community just waiting for her, but Rory was a bit more introverted than all of that when it came right down to it. She couldn’t imagine how it would have felt, growing up and having especially a lesbian teacher right there in front of her. She wondered if she would have come out sooner, or just not even felt like it was a big deal at all.

The normalcy that she and her wife could offer their students would actually mean a hell of a lot. Not just to their students even, but to be able to proudly call Maris her wife in these halls. They had earned that, the kind of path they’d walked both together and apart (in the worst years) meant that as fun as it was to sneak around again in theory (and it was), the actuality of being open about their marriage to the point of being blunt (photos on desks had largely gone unnoticed) felt like it would be even better.

It would be settled, between the two of them, but not tonight. At present, Rory was too lost in the way her wife’s body pressed against hers and how good her lips tasted. She hummed a soft sound, dragging her fingers along the back of her neck. Her heart slammed in her chest as she was sat on the desk, the insides of her thighs gripping Maris’ hips to keep her there — It was all heat and intentional kind when suddenly Maris was pulling back and it took Rory a few blinks to fully right her brain.

Her kiss swollen lips were pressed together in a polite smile as Chelsea walked in, her fingers gripping the edge of the desk as she nodded, trying to get her brain to catch up to the present.

Rory was trying not to laugh out loud, her lips instead twisting just slightly into a smirk as this felt like a tableau in a farce for the moment. Chelsea’s question had Rory offering a nod, her own smile widening a little bit at her wife’s comment.

She could see the wheels turning in Chelsea’s head, trying to figure them out, trying to see if there was something worthy of gossip or discovery. Part of Rory didn’t even want to give the girl the satisfaction of it. “I grew up in California.” Rory said pointedly. She glanced to her wife, raising her eyebrows at her as if to ask if she wanted to divulge any more. Rory had the distinct feeling that if they told Chelsea, the rest of the school would know by morning. She oddly didn’t mind it, as her thumb toyed with her wedding ring. “But Maine was home before London.” Technically leaving it open for Maris to elaborate or not.

As much as part of Maris wanted her students to know about them, she didn't want Chelsea, smug as she was, to be the first one to figure it out. Besides, there going back once the news was out and that after everyone knew they were together. Maris knew they'd have to be extra careful then and she wanted to revel in their freedom for a little while longer.

She'd waited so long to be able to kiss (okay, sometimes more than kiss) Rory between classes again.

Chelsea didn't look like she bought their answer. Her eyes were still narrowed as she slipped the second strap of her bookbag onto her shoulder.

"Have a good night!" Maris chirped as she made her way out the door. "Don't forget presentations on the Magna Carta are tomorrow!"

Her somewhat condescending feigned cheerfulness faded as soon as Chelsea shut the door behind her. "That girl is going to be trouble," she muttered.