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aibaexchangeTitle: NDC 430
Pairing: Sakurai Sho/Aiba Masaki
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: ~6500
Summary: It would be a while yet before Sho felt fully comfortable with the Librarian Live Chat.
Notes: My prompt was 43: “Aiba needs to do research at the library and asks the librarian there for assistance.” I did tweak it just a bit, and I’ve never worked in an academic library, so please excuse any inaccuracies.
Sho was old school. He preferred working with people in person or over the phone, having a conversation and getting to the bottom of things far more efficiently.
He wasn’t entirely opposed to technology. The students definitely preferred it, so the library had made more of an effort lately to reach out to them in ways they found most useful. The Ask a Librarian email address and request forms were seeing high usage, especially around midterm or final exams. But it would be a while yet before Sho felt fully comfortable with the Librarian Live Chat.
They’d rolled it out at the beginning of the term, and all members of the reference staff were required to use it. They rotated in shifts, sitting in their offices and monitoring the chat application for activity. Usually the questions were pretty simple: When does the library close tonight? Where can I find Professor Uehara’s reading list for Applied Finance? Can I reserve a study carrel? Sometimes students already in the library used it, too intimidated to ask face to face or unwilling to get up from their study table. Most of those inquiries were about troubleshooting the library Wi-Fi.
But for Sho, who found interacting with students and faculty in person to be the real highlight of his job, sitting alone waiting for someone to use the chat app was rather painful. His office was on the basement level, had no windows, and there was a rattling noise in the vents that maintenance never seemed to hear when they stopped by. But this was the future, the virtual librarian accessible as close to 24/7 as possible, so he simply accepted that he’d now spend a few hours of every work day twiddling his thumbs and waiting for someone to ask about the Wi-Fi again.
It was a Thursday evening, his last night shift for the week. Maybe in another year or so he’d have enough seniority to move to days only. After turning the reference desk over to a colleague, he trudged reluctantly down the stairs to his small office, trying to ignore the chaos that was Ninomiya’s office next door to his. Ninomiya led the Collection Management team, and as the library continued to go increasingly digital, Sho’s librarian neighbor was removing print items from the collection, deleting their records from the catalog. From the massive stacks of books that were piled up in Ninomiya’s office, including some propping the door open and nearly spilling out into the hallway, it was obvious he’d fallen behind on his current project.
Sho logged into his computer, taking off his blazer and hanging it on his chair as he cracked his neck, got ready to sit and monitor the chat. Minutes passed. He clicked a pen to the tune of his favorite Kobukuro song. He re-organized his wallet. He was halfway through paying his electric bill in another tab when he heard the cheerful little “bloop!” of the chat app.
Aiba Masaki (Faculty) / College of Arts and Sciences:
hold book
The students may have preferred the chat interface to having to converse with a human being, but at least they understood the medium. The faculty on the other hand…
This guy he didn’t recognize. He thought he knew most of the ones in Arts and Sciences by now, but he couldn’t recall an “Aiba” off hand. He started to type.
Sakurai Sho (Staff) / Main Library:
Hello Professor Aiba, thank you for using the Library’s Live Chat feature. My name is Sakurai. Would you like to place a hold on copies of a book for one of your courses?
Aiba Masaki (Faculty) / College of Arts and Sciences:
hold book
Aiba Masaki (Faculty) / College of Arts and Sciences:
hold book?
Sho stared at the screen, letting out a sigh. He opened another tab, finding the faculty directory. Aiba Masaki, PhD. College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Chemistry. Birthdate in 1982, the same as Sho.
“You should know better,” he mumbled.
Sakurai Sho (Staff) / Main Library:
Yes, I can help you place a hold on a book. Could you tell me what you’re looking for? Would you like me to call you?
Aiba Masaki (Faculty) / College of Arts and Sciences:
“hold book”
Did this guy think the chat app was Google? Sho picked up the phone, dialing the number listed in the directory. Sure, it was defeating the purpose of the chat, but he was clearly not getting anywhere. The phone rang three times before a breathy voice answered.
“Hello?”
“Hi, is this Professor Aiba?”
The response was very cheerful. “Yo! My office hours are Wednesday and Friday from 9:00-11:00 or by appointment so…”
“No, I’m sorry. This is Sakurai Sho from the campus library. You’ve been using our live chat service about holding a book?”
“Oh! How did you know it was me?”
Sho bit back a laugh. “Professor, you need to be logged in to the network to access the chat service, so your name pops up when you talk to us. Just like my name should have been popping up in reply to you. Did you see my reply?”
“Let me see…wait, that’s you?”
“I…” Sho hesitated. The chat box showed that he’d addressed the professor directly by name. What was with this guy? “Our live chat is in real time, so yes, that’s me. Anyhow, I’d love to help you place a hold on the book you like or to answer any questions you have. What were you looking for this evening?”
“Stoichiometry!”
“Stoichiometry?” Sho repeated.
“Yeah! I’ve assigned some homework questions from Takeda, it’s a pretty standard textbook, but I realized that I never put a hold on some copies for students to come in and use. Textbooks are getting so expensive. It’s a racket, right?”
Sho went straight to the catalog, searching for a book by Takeda on stoichiometry. “We’ve got the fourth edition and the fifth…was there a certain…”
“Wow, you must type fast if you found it already. It’s the fifth!” Aiba said excitedly, “The new one that just came out, I need pages 179-181 and pages 202-219 and pages 265-267. Oh! And pages 292 through…”
“Professor Aiba,” Sho interrupted gently. “Just give me one moment to get a pen so I can make a note of these, and then I can have someone mark the sections in a few of our copies as soon as possible. We’ve got three non-circulating copies we’ll set aside for students in…which class is this for?”
“For my General Chemistry II class, thanks.” The professor’s voice was still full of pep even this late in the day. “Let me know when you get that pen.”
Sho smiled. The guy struggled with the basics of chat rooms, but he seemed like a decent person. “I’m ready.”
Professor Aiba repeated his slew of page numbers, and Sho read them back to re-confirm.
“Those copies will be accessible to your students by the time I leave the library tonight. All they have to do is check the Course Hold shelves.”
“The what shelves?”
“Course. Hold. Shelves,” Sho said again. “All the books faculty request that we set aside for students to share.”
“Oh, right. I didn’t know they had a name, I always just say ‘go to the library.’ Honestly, I usually have one of my grad students do all this housekeeping stuff but I don’t like to bug them at night when they’re probably out getting drunk or laid or something. You know how it is.”
Sho blinked, unsure how to respond. It had been quite a while since Sakurai Sho had known “how it is.” Professor Aiba was certainly an interesting guy.
“Okay, you’re all set with the holds for Takeda,” Sho said instead. “Thank you for using our chat service. Is there anything else I can help you with tonight?”
“Nope, all good here! Thanks, Sho-chan.”
Sho was once again left without words for a few seconds, but he simply shook his head and pushed forward. “You’re welcome, Professor. Have a good night.”
“Bye bye.”
Sho hung up the phone, laughing. This was going to be a fun story to share at next week’s all-staff meeting.
/ / /
Sho filled his water bottle, heading back downstairs to his office. “Hey!” he called out, catching him in the act. Again.
Ninomiya chuckled, poking his head out from Sho’s own office. “Sho-san, good evening. I need some space and you’ve got space.”
Sho scowled, discovering that Ninomiya’s overflow of books had now fully creeped inside his already not-so-big office. “Why don’t you just load these up on a cart and leave them somewhere else?”
“Because it’s easier for me to come in here than go somewhere else,” Ninomiya teased. Sho’s colleague always had that knowing smile, that twinkle in his eye that was hard to resist. He’d long known how to push Sho’s buttons to get what he wanted.
“Whatever you want, Nino.”
Ninomiya patted his shoulder affectionately. “You’re the best.”
“I very much know that,” Sho teased back, stepping around the massive, out of date stack of Chinese-to-Japanese dictionaries Ninomiya had dumped in his doorway. It was probably a fire hazard, but hopefully they’d be gone in a day or two.
He sat down, logging on to the chat application. There were many things Sho would have preferred to do on his Friday night, but nope, Matsushita-san had caught whatever bug was going around campus that week and Sho had picked up her late shift. He was going to be stuck in his office until midnight tonight. Well, at least he ought to be grateful he wasn’t sick.
He helped three students with the Wi-Fi in the first hour before things tapered off significantly. He was halfway through a magazine he’d brought before Ninomiya was knocking on his door, wishing him a good night.
“They do let you get up and pee, right? Or do you just go in a bottle while you’re on a shift in here?” Ninomiya asked.
“I’m allowed to get up, yeah,” Sho replied, snorting.
“Well, be sure you do. Have a good weekend!”
“You too, good night.”
That was a good idea, Sho thought, heading to refill his water bottle and use the facilities. An inquiry was waiting for him when he got back to his desk.
“Oh no,” Sho mumbled. “It’s you again.”
Aiba Masaki (Faculty) / College of Arts and Sciences:
get article
It had been a few weeks since he’d placed a hold on that textbook, but he definitely hadn’t forgotten Professor Aiba Masaki from the Department of Chemistry. He’d had time to do a little digging. He was highly rated by students as being an “easy teacher” who “made things easy to understand” but also had a reputation for being a bit of a scatterbrain. Several results Sho discovered on the anonymous ‘Grade Your Professor’ website noted that Professor Aiba was “really bad with technology” and that “he always has trouble clicking through his lecture slides.”
It certainly explained their last interaction.
Sho had tried (and failed) to ignore some of the other student reviews on Grade Your Professor, but in the end, they outnumbered the scatterbrain comments by a landslide. Hundreds of variations on “Professor Aiba is super hot.”
A closer look in the faculty directory and then the department homepage and then on the internet (just research, Sho had convinced himself) revealed that to be one hundred percent true. Tall, slim, a bright smile that stood out among the rather reserved faculty in his department.
“Stay professional,” Sho told himself as he set his bottle down and got back to work.
Sakurai Sho (Staff) / Main Library:
Hello Professor Aiba, thank you for using the Library’s Live Chat feature. This is Sakurai. What article are you looking for tonight?
Aiba Masaki (Faculty) / College of Arts and Sciences:
get article new
Sakurai Sho (Staff) / Main Library:
Professor Aiba, I’m happy to look for this new article. What do you need? Do you have a citation?
Aiba Masaki (Faculty) / College of Arts and Sciences:
kojima chiu yamazaki
Aiba Masaki (Faculty) / College of Arts and Sciences:
no
Aiba Masaki (Faculty) / College of Arts and Sciences:
wait
Aiba Masaki (Faculty) / College of Arts and Sciences:
kojima chiu yamasato
Aiba Masaki (Faculty) / College of Arts and Sciences:
yamasato? yamaguchi?
For goodness sake, Sho thought, navigating to one of their science databases. He searched for Kojima and Chiu and chemistry to start. Get article new, huh? He narrowed down to the last year.
“Aha!” he muttered.
Sakurai Sho (Staff) / Main Library:
I’ve found a handful of articles here from a few different journals. I found authors Kojima, Chiu and Yamashiro.
Sakurai Sho (Staff) / Main Library:
Do any of these publications sound correct? Asian Journal of Organometallics? Journal of the Electrochemical Society? Journal of Organic Chemistry? Japanese Institute of Organometallic Chemistry?
Aiba Masaki (Faculty) / College of Arts and Sciences:
2
“Two?” Sho spat out, smacking the monitor. But then he realized that Professor Aiba had, in his own special way, answered the question. It was probably the second publication in the list.
Sakurai Sho (Staff) / Main Library:
Journal of the Electrochemical Society. I’ve found two articles from the last year for Kojima, Chiu and Yamashiro. Are either of these your articles?
Sakurai Sho (Staff) / Main Library:
Hydroamination and Hydroaminoalkylation of Alkenes by Group 3–5 Elements: Recent Developments and Comparison with Late Transition Metals
Sakurai Sho (Staff) / Main Library:
OR Ruthenium-Catalyzed Oxypropargylation of Alkenes
The chat came to a screeching halt. Sho was double-checking if he’d lost his internet connection before he finally received a reply a full four minutes later.
Aiba Masaki (Faculty) / College of Arts and Sciences:
You type fast Sho-chan
He shut his eyes, trying not to think of that smile. The photos of him in that crisp white lab coat. Those borderline lewd student comments. Sho was stuck on a Friday night in the library basement, struggling to get answers out of a tech-incompetent but gorgeous professor, and he couldn’t remember the last time he’d been on a date. A real date. A date where there was dinner first, at least a drink first.
“You don’t even know me,” he groaned at the screen, remembering his professional duty.
Sakurai Sho (Staff) / Main Library:
I copied and pasted from our database. Are either of those the articles you are looking for? We have them both available in full-text with the library’s subscription.
Aiba Masaki (Faculty) / College of Arts and Sciences:
send ruthenium one
Finally.
He downloaded the article, attaching it to an email. It was preferable for faculty to access databases themselves, download articles themselves. That was valuable data for library statistics, but Sho didn’t want to know how long it would take him to talk Aiba Masaki through the process of getting into DirectToYou Science, searching, and downloading through a chat app. Or even over the phone.
Sho taught entire information literacy classes to new students, had led plenty of one-on-ones with staff and faculty members. If anyone needed a class, it was Aiba Masaki, PhD. But Sho had a sneaking suspicion that his lessons wouldn’t stick for too long.
Sakurai Sho (Staff) / Main Library:
Professor Aiba, I’ve just sent the article to your faculty email address. Can you please confirm receipt?
Aiba Masaki (Faculty) / College of Arts and Sciences:
forgot password
Aiba Masaki (Faculty) / College of Arts and Sciences:
locked out
Aiba Masaki (Faculty) / College of Arts and Sciences:
print???
Sho was glad Ninomiya was no longer next door to hear him let out a wordless shout of frustration.
Sakurai Sho (Staff) / Main Library:
I can print up the article for you and have it waiting for you at our circulation desk if you like? We’re open until midnight tonight. Or we open at 9:00 AM tomorrow.
Aiba Masaki (Faculty) / College of Arts and Sciences:
busy
Aiba Masaki (Faculty) / College of Arts and Sciences:
delivery???
“Why not just have campus IT unlock your stupid email?” Sho complained to the computer screen, unable to calm down. He didn’t want to know how long Professor Aiba had been locked out of his account. He didn’t want to know how many students had tried and failed to reach him. It was a bit scary to think about.
Sakurai Sho (Staff) / Main Library:
I can print it out and send it through inter-campus mail. It will arrive in an envelope at your faculty mailbox in Sato Hall Monday morning.
Aiba Masaki (Faculty) / College of Arts and Sciences:
sorry
Aiba Masaki (Faculty) / College of Arts and Sciences:
have deadline
Aiba Masaki (Faculty) / College of Arts and Sciences:
now? plz?
Until that moment, Sho was fairly certain he’d never actually wanted to murder one of his library patrons. Circumstances had changed.
Sakurai Sho (Staff) / Main Library:
Please hold for a moment while I make a quick inquiry.
He picked up his phone, dialing the circulation desk upstairs.
“Hey Sho-san.”
“Matsumoto-san,” he said, trying to stay calm despite his irritation. “Do you have any student workers available for me right now?”
“Available for you?”
“This is going to sound odd, but Professor Aiba in the chemistry department needs an article printed out and delivered to him in his office as soon as possible. Could I send the article with one of the students so it gets to him right away?”
Matsumoto chuckled. “Why doesn’t he just print it himself?” But then Sho heard the realization in his colleague’s voice when he spoke again. “Wait, you said Aiba from the chemistry department?”
“Yup.”
“Say no more. Just print whatever you need to the printer at the desk here. I’ll send Sayuri-chan over there.”
“You’re a lifesaver.”
“No problem.”
Sakurai Sho (Staff) / Main Library:
Professor Aiba, one of the library’s student workers will bring a print-out copy of the article to your office shortly.
Aiba Masaki (Faculty) / College of Arts and Sciences:
great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sakurai Sho (Staff) / Main Library:
Thank you for using our chat service. Is there anything else I can help you with tonight?
Aiba Masaki (Faculty) / College of Arts and Sciences:
owe you a beer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Despite everything, Sho blushed at the very idea of sharing a drink with the handsome professor.
Sakurai Sho (Staff) / Main Library:
You’re welcome. Have a good night.
He was packing up just after midnight when he heard a knock on his door. Matsumoto was there, grinning.
“What is it?”
Matsumoto simply gestured “follow me” with his finger, disappearing down the hall. Sho followed him, tugging on his coat as he headed back upstairs. Matsumoto moved into the staff break room, gesturing to a piece of paper on one of the tables.
“He was very insistent that Sayuri-chan bring that back with her. ‘Give it to the head of the library,’ he told her,” Matsumoto said with a teasing note to his voice.
Sho saw that it was a sheet of university letterhead, and someone had written a message in very large, almost child-like script.
“‘Please see that Sho-chan in the library is named employee of the month. He is very great employee,’” Sho read out loud. “‘Love, Aiba Masaki.’”
“I think it’s the ‘love’ bit that I like best,” Matsumoto said, zipping his coat. “But it’s not every day I get to work with ‘very great employee’ like you, Sho-san. Or should I say, Sho-ch…”
“Good night, Matsumoto-san.” Sho folded up the piece of paper in embarrassment, shoving it in his bag. “Have a good weekend.”
Matsumoto’s laughter followed him out the break room door.
/ / /
Over the next month, Sho’s chat shifts always managed to overlap with Professor Aiba’s greatest moments of need.
More articles located, printed, delivered. Book orders for the department’s reference collection purchased. Sho had even proofread several of the professor’s letters of recommendation for a few of his students who were applying for graduate programs or grant funding. It wasn’t technically part of Sho’s job, but when things simply started appearing in his mailbox, sent in the bright green inter-campus envelopes, he’d found it difficult to say no.
Building stronger relationships with faculty was one of the library’s core goals, so he felt justified in taking on these additional requests from Professor Aiba.
It had absolutely nothing to do with how smoking hot he was.
It had absolutely nothing to do with the thank you cards Sho received from him every time.
Absolutely nothing to do with the professor’s tendency to sign everything, including said thank you cards, with “Love, Aiba Masaki.” (When editing Aiba’s recommendation letters for him, however, Sho changed it to a more appropriate and professional ‘Best regards.’)
And it really, truly, honestly had absolutely nothing to do with the elaborate bouquet of white roses that were waiting on his desk one Monday morning. Sho had reached out to the campus IT team before the weekend, letting them know Professor Aiba in the chemistry department had been having “a few issues” with his email account. Sho hadn’t expected Aiba to go and find out that he was the one responsible for getting his account unlocked. But he had.
And now there was no hiding the extent of the professor’s gratitude.
Matsumoto and Ninomiya were in the doorway, all smiles as Sho tried to find a place on his desk for the expensive-looking vase the roses had come in.
“When’s the wedding?” Ninomiya asked.
“I’m getting conflicting information here,” Matsumoto declared, looking at something on his phone. “I’m seeing a few different flower meanings for white roses. Innocence. Purity.”
Ninomiya leaned over, giggling. “Ah, Sho-san, it’s probably the last one.” His voice dropped low and sensual. “Pure love.”
“Don’t you both have better things to do?” Sho replied, a little embarrassed by how high-pitched and squeaky his protests sounded.
He waited until they finally left before he opened the small card that was nestled among the roses.
Would love to thank you in person sometime. Feel free to drop by my lab! Love, Aiba Masaki.
/ / /
It had not been Sho’s finest hour, snooping around to find out when Professor Aiba Masaki might be alone in his lab. He couldn’t trust Matsumoto or Ninomiya, who’d spent the last few weeks making fun of his obvious crush.
He’d instead turned to Ohno-san from the campus janitorial staff. If there was anyone that knew the comings and goings of the faculty around the university, it was the people who had to clean up after them. Ohno-san worked for the library, but another member of his crew, a guy named Yokoyama, worked in Sato Hall where Aiba’s office and lab were. Ohno, excited to be called upon to participate in what he deemed “library espionage,” quietly asked Yokoyama about Aiba’s usual movements.
Of course, Sho hadn’t told Ohno that his interest in Professor Aiba was less than professional. He merely implied that Professor Aiba had been looking for some help using the library’s databases, but didn’t want anyone else to know he was struggling. It was an excuse that anyone who vaguely knew him would have thought sounded logical. His tech limitations were well known, lab equipment aside.
Ohno delivered the results of his “mission” to Sho on a Wednesday evening just after one of his student information sessions wrapped up. Ohno slid up beside him, not as subtle as he probably thought he was, but at least the study room was clearing out and the students weren’t paying any attention.
“Sakurai-san.”
“Ohno-san.”
Ohno slowly slipped his hand in his pocket, setting a folded-up piece of paper on top of Sho’s closed laptop. “From Yokoyama-kun.”
Sho nervously snatched up the paper, shoving it in his pocket. “Thank you. You will find that your overdue fee for that art book has disappeared.”
Ohno grinned. “Much appreciated.”
“You do still have to return it, you know.”
Ohno merely tipped his cap, heading swiftly for the exit.
“Oi…Ohno-san…”
Sho heard the squeaky janitor’s cart roll on down the hallway.
This was a strange university.
Sho waited until he was back in his office, shutting the door before unfolding the piece of paper.
Aiba-san is frequently in his lab on Wednesday nights until 8:00 PM. He goes back and forth between the lab and his office on Thursday and Friday until about 10:00 PM.
“Bless you, Yokoyama-kun,” Sho muttered, shoving the note in his pocket and checking his watch.
7:46 PM.
“Shit!” he exclaimed, packing up his bag hurriedly and making his way to the exit. Sato Hall was at least a five minute walk, and he moved as quickly as he could down the street, crossing and heading for the entrance.
The building was home to several lecture halls, faculty offices, classrooms, and laboratories. Sho, being in the business of information, had already studied the building’s layout, taking the stairs up to the second floor in search of Lab 206, Professor Aiba Masaki’s home away from home.
The door was closed, but he was able to peek inside through the glass. There was only one person in the room, and from the shape of the long, lean body in the white lab coat with his back to the door, it could only be Aiba Masaki. Sho knocked twice, catching the professor’s attention.
He turned, looking away from his worktable and the collection of colorfully-filled beakers there. He had on a rather bulky set of goggles, lifting them as he turned around at the noise. The smile Sho had only had the privilege of viewing on the internet was now beamed directly at him.
“Yo! Come on in!”
He did as requested, immediately opening his bag and pulling out his rather pathetic excuse for visiting. “Professor Aiba, nice to finally meet you in person. I’m Sakurai Sho with the library.”
Sho held out the paper as he approached.
“I thought maybe this would be helpful for you moving forward.”
The professor set the goggles down on the table, running a hand through his lightened, fluffy hair. “Hmm? What’s this?”
Aiba took it, an even more amused smile appearing on his face.
“I hope you’ll forgive me,” Sho said nervously, “but these are the handouts I usually give to the students who come to my library training classes. It’s got a list of our most popular databases, when to use them, how to check out materials, library hours…you know…just a broad overview of everything we can do for you.”
“That’s very kind of you.”
Sho scratched an itch on his neck, feeling his face grow hot. “It’s no trouble…and after you sent me those flowers…”
Aiba’s eyes almost sparkled in happiness. “I’m glad to hear they got to you, Sho-chan. The florist was a bit annoyed when I said I didn’t know where to send them. I guess ‘Sho at the university library’ wasn’t helpful enough.”
Sho tried not to laugh. “Well, I’m at the main library. We have a few smaller branches, one for the engineering school, one for the music department, one for the art…”
“Didn’t I say we should go out for a drink sometime?”
“Uh…I think so.”
Sho didn’t just “think so.” He still had all of the messages from their various chats saved. It was hard to forget Aiba Masaki’s owe you a beer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, considering the sheer number of exclamation marks.
“Great! Let’s go now.”
“Now?” Sho squeaked.
“Yeah,” Aiba replied. “I got the reaction I wanted.”
“Huh?”
The professor gestured behind him to his collection of science-y things. “For my current study. The reaction I wanted.”
“Oh.”
It all happened very fast.
Aiba shrugged out of his lab coat, draping it over a table and leaving Sho’s silly library handout beside it. He bent down behind a different lab table, fumbling around before holding up two helmets. Then they were moving, Aiba putting one of the helmets in Sho’s hand and tugging him by the other arm. Sho was dragged out of the lab, down the stairs, and out of the building. Sho, embarrassed, eventually freed himself so they were walking normally, separately. He examined the helmet under the street lights, confused. The thing had a fading “I LOVE CHIBA” sticker adhered to it.
“Where are we going?” Sho finally managed to ask as they approached the faculty parking garage.
“I know a good place,” was the only reply.
The helmets had their purposes, Sho realized, as Professor Aiba led him not to a car but to a motorcycle parked on the garage’s lower level.
Sho’s nervousness spiked, his voice coming out a little higher than normal. “We’re riding on that thing together?”
None of Sho’s research on Grade Your Professor had revealed this startling and ridiculously sexy tidbit: Professor Aiba rode a motorcycle to and from campus. There was no little sidecar or anything. If they were going to get to whatever “good place” Aiba knew about for that impulsive drink, then it meant Sho was going to have to sit behind him. Sho was going to have to hold on to him. Hold on to the guy who had just sent him a bunch of white roses that maybe meant “pure love.”
Aiba got on, gently patting the space behind him before putting on his helmet. “Well, come on then!”
He did as he was told, situating himself on the bike behind the professor, their bodies immediately coming into close contact.
“Here, you gotta hold on tight,” Aiba ordered, tugging on Sho’s arms so they were more firmly gripping him around the middle. “Don’t be shy. Rule one of the lab and rule one of the road. Safety first, okay?”
Sho was desperate to hold himself together. “Okay,” he muttered, inhaling the professor’s vaguely chemical scent. Aiba was warm, as if his body ran hot all the time, as though his enthusiasm was on the verge of bursting out of him at any moment.
The bike turned on with a hearty roar, and they tore out of the faculty garage with alarming speed. Aiba was a bit reckless, going over the speed limit, turning corners so quickly that Sho had no choice but to hold on to him tighter. Safety first, huh? Despite such daredevil antics, Aiba was totally calm, trying to talk to him, but Sho could only shut his eyes, clinging to the professor as they zoomed through the streets.
Finally they arrived in a small shopping district, Aiba pulling off the street into an alleyway where he stopped the motorcycle, turning it off. Sho’s arms were shaking, half excited, half frightened after their wild ride.
“You can let me go now, Sho-chan,” Aiba teased him. “I mean, If you want to…”
“Sorry!”
He awkwardly got off of the motorcycle, and they carried their helmets with them as they entered a tiny bar. It seemed as though the theme was Disney, as the walls inside were plastered with Disney character artwork and movie posters.
“Kazama-pon!” Aiba shouted, waving merrily to the equally cheerful-looking man behind the bar.
“Welcome!”
Aiba dragged Sho over to the bar, arm around him. “Sho-chan, this is Kazama-pon. He’s really bad at making drinks, so I mostly come here to pity him and keep him from having to go out of business.”
“Oi!” the bartender, presumably Kazama-san, protested. But there was still affection in his face.
“Two beers and we’ll be in your VIP section. Thank you!”
Aiba brought Sho to the table in the back of the small bar. Apparently this was the “VIP section.” A framed photo of the bar’s owner and Aiba himself was hung just over the table, the pair of them in matching Mickey ears as they stood in front of the castle at Tokyo Disneyland. Clearly these two were longtime friends.
Kazama-san brought over two beers, and they clinked the glasses together.
“Cheers!” Aiba said in his noisy manner before having a long, satisfied sip. “So, Sho-chan, you wanna come home with me tonight?”
Sho spat the remaining beer in his mouth out in surprise, thankfully aiming to the side instead of right into Aiba’s face. If he wasn’t so stunned, he’d feel a bit bad about a few droplets landing on the Disneyland photo.
“I’m sorry, what?”
“Your spy was a double agent,” Aiba said, grinning from ear to ear. “Yoko-cho is also my friend.”
“Huh?”
Aiba leaned back against the wall, eyeing Sho like a piece of meat. “Yokoyama-san, from the janitorial staff. He was poking around my lab a lot the last week, and I asked him why. He told me right away that you wanted to come see me. Alone.”
As soon as Sho was back at work, he was going to put that overdue charge right back on Ohno-san’s account. “That’s…that’s not…”
“It’s okay, Sho-chan. You’ve been a big help to me. And I could feel that spark between us. Even through the computer or over the phone.”
“Professor Aiba, I don’t know what you mean…”
“I may be a little out of touch when it comes to technology, but if there’s anything I’m really smart about, it’s chemistry. I went through undergrad and my doctoral program and I don’t remember any of those librarians being so…helpful when I was in a bind.”
“Then…then you must have had some terrible librarians…”
Aiba’s hand reached out, wrapping around his wrist. “I think I’ve been pretty honest with you. So please be honest with me. You like me too, don’t you? Or you wouldn’t have gone out of your way to help me with all my non-library business.”
It usually took Sho a lot more than a few sips of beer before he was pouring out his heart and soul. But it seemed as though Professor Aiba was the impatient type, the impulsive type. The way he asked for information. The flowers. The motorcycle ride. Aiba liked to leap right in, as though everything was an experiment, no matter the result that might come.
Sho had to make a decision now, or he’d just end up back in his sad basement office alone. It wasn’t every day that an effortlessly hot professor propositioned him.
“I don’t know you very well,” Sho admitted. “But I’d like to.”
“I’m glad to hear it, really I am.” Aiba beamed, a smile that lit up the entire room. “But I gotta admit, you’re much better looking than that photo of you on the library website so all that stuff can come later.”
Aiba reached into his pocket, tossing a handful of coins on the tabletop.
“Wait, we’re leaving already?” Sho cried.
Aiba picked up his helmet, already waving goodbye to his friend behind the bar. Sho hurriedly followed him back outside to the waiting motorcycle, heart pounding.
Aiba waited to speak until Sho was seated again, arms around him. The professor’s voice was lower then, different. Alluring in a way that left Sho unable to reply, even if it was the cheesiest pick-up line he’d ever heard.
“Let’s go make a chemical reaction.”
/ / /
On the whole, Sho preferred not to rush into things. He was a thoughtful, methodical person who’d gone into a profession full of other thoughtful, methodical people. It impacted his personal life as well. He went into most first dates with low expectations, usually finding himself back at his own apartment at the end of the night by his lonesome. He’d just never been the kind of guy to hop on a motorcycle with someone and ride off into the night.
He was starting to see the error of his ways.
After stumbling into the professor’s dark apartment, they’d been kissing for a good long while, making slow but steady progress from the entryway toward what Sho presumed would be the bedroom. Aiba, a scientist through and through, seemed to be testing a hypothesis he hadn’t bothered to share with Sho.
But it had resulted in many good things so far. Kisses on the lips. Kisses along his jaw, down his neck. Vanishing jackets. Vanishing shirts. Kisses across his chest, the tickle of soft hair against his eager skin. A hand down his pants, making him gasp.
What was the experiment anyway, he wondered. Was the professor trying to catalog all the sounds his kisses and touches could get out of Sho? What was he planning to do with all this…data?
“When I needed…”
Aiba kissed him.
“…that stoichiometry book…”
Aiba kissed him.
“…and you didn’t have to…”
Aiba kissed him.
“…ask me…”
Aiba kissed him.
“…what that is or how to write it…”
Aiba kissed him for much, much, much longer. So much longer Sho wondered if he was ever going to finish his sentence. They were both breathing heavily when Aiba finally remembered to complete his thought.
He ran his long fingers across Sho’s kiss-swollen lips, trying to catch his breath. “That’s when I knew…we’d end up here.”
“For real?” Sho murmured, the professor’s praises giving him goosebumps.
Aiba let out a breathy giggle before squeezing his hand, finally leading him to his bedroom.
“Nah, I just think you’re cute. Come on.”
/ / /
Sho refilled his water bottle before heading back into his office, stepping over the new pile of books Ninomiya had left in the doorway. He cracked his neck, staring at the empty Librarian Live Chat box. He only had twenty minutes left on his shift tonight and then he was free.
He looked over, spying the newest bouquet of roses that had arrived just the other day. This time, the accompanying card had thanked Sho for “help” that hadn’t been delivered in a professional context, and he blushed at the memory. Aiba’s grad assistant had almost caught them together in the lab that night, pants around their ankles, and…
“Bloop!” went the chat app, startling him.
“Back to work,” he muttered before turning back to the screen.
Aiba Masaki (Faculty) / College of Arts and Sciences:
library hours
He rolled his eyes, smiling all the same.
Sakurai Sho (Staff) / Main Library:
Hello Professor Aiba, thank you for using the Library’s Live Chat feature. My name is Sakurai. The main campus library closes tonight at midnight, eighteen minutes from now. We’ll open tomorrow morning at 9:00. Can I help you with anything tonight?
Aiba Masaki (Faculty) / College of Arts and Sciences:
good to know thank you
Sho emerged from the library a short time later only to find a familiar motorcycle parked and waiting outside the staff exit. Aiba was holding the extra helmet, a wicked look in his eyes.
“Are you a book?” Aiba asked, looking a little too proud of whatever he was about to say. “Because I’m here to check you out.”
Despite himself, Sho laughed.
Aiba patted the space just behind him. “Ready to go?”
It still wasn’t Sho’s favorite mode of transportation, but the company was worth it. He climbed on, settling the helmet on his head and wrapping his arms around Aiba’s middle.
“I’m ready.”
Pairing: Sakurai Sho/Aiba Masaki
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: ~6500
Summary: It would be a while yet before Sho felt fully comfortable with the Librarian Live Chat.
Notes: My prompt was 43: “Aiba needs to do research at the library and asks the librarian there for assistance.” I did tweak it just a bit, and I’ve never worked in an academic library, so please excuse any inaccuracies.
Sho was old school. He preferred working with people in person or over the phone, having a conversation and getting to the bottom of things far more efficiently.
He wasn’t entirely opposed to technology. The students definitely preferred it, so the library had made more of an effort lately to reach out to them in ways they found most useful. The Ask a Librarian email address and request forms were seeing high usage, especially around midterm or final exams. But it would be a while yet before Sho felt fully comfortable with the Librarian Live Chat.
They’d rolled it out at the beginning of the term, and all members of the reference staff were required to use it. They rotated in shifts, sitting in their offices and monitoring the chat application for activity. Usually the questions were pretty simple: When does the library close tonight? Where can I find Professor Uehara’s reading list for Applied Finance? Can I reserve a study carrel? Sometimes students already in the library used it, too intimidated to ask face to face or unwilling to get up from their study table. Most of those inquiries were about troubleshooting the library Wi-Fi.
But for Sho, who found interacting with students and faculty in person to be the real highlight of his job, sitting alone waiting for someone to use the chat app was rather painful. His office was on the basement level, had no windows, and there was a rattling noise in the vents that maintenance never seemed to hear when they stopped by. But this was the future, the virtual librarian accessible as close to 24/7 as possible, so he simply accepted that he’d now spend a few hours of every work day twiddling his thumbs and waiting for someone to ask about the Wi-Fi again.
It was a Thursday evening, his last night shift for the week. Maybe in another year or so he’d have enough seniority to move to days only. After turning the reference desk over to a colleague, he trudged reluctantly down the stairs to his small office, trying to ignore the chaos that was Ninomiya’s office next door to his. Ninomiya led the Collection Management team, and as the library continued to go increasingly digital, Sho’s librarian neighbor was removing print items from the collection, deleting their records from the catalog. From the massive stacks of books that were piled up in Ninomiya’s office, including some propping the door open and nearly spilling out into the hallway, it was obvious he’d fallen behind on his current project.
Sho logged into his computer, taking off his blazer and hanging it on his chair as he cracked his neck, got ready to sit and monitor the chat. Minutes passed. He clicked a pen to the tune of his favorite Kobukuro song. He re-organized his wallet. He was halfway through paying his electric bill in another tab when he heard the cheerful little “bloop!” of the chat app.
Aiba Masaki (Faculty) / College of Arts and Sciences:
hold book
The students may have preferred the chat interface to having to converse with a human being, but at least they understood the medium. The faculty on the other hand…
This guy he didn’t recognize. He thought he knew most of the ones in Arts and Sciences by now, but he couldn’t recall an “Aiba” off hand. He started to type.
Sakurai Sho (Staff) / Main Library:
Hello Professor Aiba, thank you for using the Library’s Live Chat feature. My name is Sakurai. Would you like to place a hold on copies of a book for one of your courses?
Aiba Masaki (Faculty) / College of Arts and Sciences:
hold book
Aiba Masaki (Faculty) / College of Arts and Sciences:
hold book?
Sho stared at the screen, letting out a sigh. He opened another tab, finding the faculty directory. Aiba Masaki, PhD. College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Chemistry. Birthdate in 1982, the same as Sho.
“You should know better,” he mumbled.
Sakurai Sho (Staff) / Main Library:
Yes, I can help you place a hold on a book. Could you tell me what you’re looking for? Would you like me to call you?
Aiba Masaki (Faculty) / College of Arts and Sciences:
“hold book”
Did this guy think the chat app was Google? Sho picked up the phone, dialing the number listed in the directory. Sure, it was defeating the purpose of the chat, but he was clearly not getting anywhere. The phone rang three times before a breathy voice answered.
“Hello?”
“Hi, is this Professor Aiba?”
The response was very cheerful. “Yo! My office hours are Wednesday and Friday from 9:00-11:00 or by appointment so…”
“No, I’m sorry. This is Sakurai Sho from the campus library. You’ve been using our live chat service about holding a book?”
“Oh! How did you know it was me?”
Sho bit back a laugh. “Professor, you need to be logged in to the network to access the chat service, so your name pops up when you talk to us. Just like my name should have been popping up in reply to you. Did you see my reply?”
“Let me see…wait, that’s you?”
“I…” Sho hesitated. The chat box showed that he’d addressed the professor directly by name. What was with this guy? “Our live chat is in real time, so yes, that’s me. Anyhow, I’d love to help you place a hold on the book you like or to answer any questions you have. What were you looking for this evening?”
“Stoichiometry!”
“Stoichiometry?” Sho repeated.
“Yeah! I’ve assigned some homework questions from Takeda, it’s a pretty standard textbook, but I realized that I never put a hold on some copies for students to come in and use. Textbooks are getting so expensive. It’s a racket, right?”
Sho went straight to the catalog, searching for a book by Takeda on stoichiometry. “We’ve got the fourth edition and the fifth…was there a certain…”
“Wow, you must type fast if you found it already. It’s the fifth!” Aiba said excitedly, “The new one that just came out, I need pages 179-181 and pages 202-219 and pages 265-267. Oh! And pages 292 through…”
“Professor Aiba,” Sho interrupted gently. “Just give me one moment to get a pen so I can make a note of these, and then I can have someone mark the sections in a few of our copies as soon as possible. We’ve got three non-circulating copies we’ll set aside for students in…which class is this for?”
“For my General Chemistry II class, thanks.” The professor’s voice was still full of pep even this late in the day. “Let me know when you get that pen.”
Sho smiled. The guy struggled with the basics of chat rooms, but he seemed like a decent person. “I’m ready.”
Professor Aiba repeated his slew of page numbers, and Sho read them back to re-confirm.
“Those copies will be accessible to your students by the time I leave the library tonight. All they have to do is check the Course Hold shelves.”
“The what shelves?”
“Course. Hold. Shelves,” Sho said again. “All the books faculty request that we set aside for students to share.”
“Oh, right. I didn’t know they had a name, I always just say ‘go to the library.’ Honestly, I usually have one of my grad students do all this housekeeping stuff but I don’t like to bug them at night when they’re probably out getting drunk or laid or something. You know how it is.”
Sho blinked, unsure how to respond. It had been quite a while since Sakurai Sho had known “how it is.” Professor Aiba was certainly an interesting guy.
“Okay, you’re all set with the holds for Takeda,” Sho said instead. “Thank you for using our chat service. Is there anything else I can help you with tonight?”
“Nope, all good here! Thanks, Sho-chan.”
Sho was once again left without words for a few seconds, but he simply shook his head and pushed forward. “You’re welcome, Professor. Have a good night.”
“Bye bye.”
Sho hung up the phone, laughing. This was going to be a fun story to share at next week’s all-staff meeting.
/ / /
Sho filled his water bottle, heading back downstairs to his office. “Hey!” he called out, catching him in the act. Again.
Ninomiya chuckled, poking his head out from Sho’s own office. “Sho-san, good evening. I need some space and you’ve got space.”
Sho scowled, discovering that Ninomiya’s overflow of books had now fully creeped inside his already not-so-big office. “Why don’t you just load these up on a cart and leave them somewhere else?”
“Because it’s easier for me to come in here than go somewhere else,” Ninomiya teased. Sho’s colleague always had that knowing smile, that twinkle in his eye that was hard to resist. He’d long known how to push Sho’s buttons to get what he wanted.
“Whatever you want, Nino.”
Ninomiya patted his shoulder affectionately. “You’re the best.”
“I very much know that,” Sho teased back, stepping around the massive, out of date stack of Chinese-to-Japanese dictionaries Ninomiya had dumped in his doorway. It was probably a fire hazard, but hopefully they’d be gone in a day or two.
He sat down, logging on to the chat application. There were many things Sho would have preferred to do on his Friday night, but nope, Matsushita-san had caught whatever bug was going around campus that week and Sho had picked up her late shift. He was going to be stuck in his office until midnight tonight. Well, at least he ought to be grateful he wasn’t sick.
He helped three students with the Wi-Fi in the first hour before things tapered off significantly. He was halfway through a magazine he’d brought before Ninomiya was knocking on his door, wishing him a good night.
“They do let you get up and pee, right? Or do you just go in a bottle while you’re on a shift in here?” Ninomiya asked.
“I’m allowed to get up, yeah,” Sho replied, snorting.
“Well, be sure you do. Have a good weekend!”
“You too, good night.”
That was a good idea, Sho thought, heading to refill his water bottle and use the facilities. An inquiry was waiting for him when he got back to his desk.
“Oh no,” Sho mumbled. “It’s you again.”
Aiba Masaki (Faculty) / College of Arts and Sciences:
get article
It had been a few weeks since he’d placed a hold on that textbook, but he definitely hadn’t forgotten Professor Aiba Masaki from the Department of Chemistry. He’d had time to do a little digging. He was highly rated by students as being an “easy teacher” who “made things easy to understand” but also had a reputation for being a bit of a scatterbrain. Several results Sho discovered on the anonymous ‘Grade Your Professor’ website noted that Professor Aiba was “really bad with technology” and that “he always has trouble clicking through his lecture slides.”
It certainly explained their last interaction.
Sho had tried (and failed) to ignore some of the other student reviews on Grade Your Professor, but in the end, they outnumbered the scatterbrain comments by a landslide. Hundreds of variations on “Professor Aiba is super hot.”
A closer look in the faculty directory and then the department homepage and then on the internet (just research, Sho had convinced himself) revealed that to be one hundred percent true. Tall, slim, a bright smile that stood out among the rather reserved faculty in his department.
“Stay professional,” Sho told himself as he set his bottle down and got back to work.
Sakurai Sho (Staff) / Main Library:
Hello Professor Aiba, thank you for using the Library’s Live Chat feature. This is Sakurai. What article are you looking for tonight?
Aiba Masaki (Faculty) / College of Arts and Sciences:
get article new
Sakurai Sho (Staff) / Main Library:
Professor Aiba, I’m happy to look for this new article. What do you need? Do you have a citation?
Aiba Masaki (Faculty) / College of Arts and Sciences:
kojima chiu yamazaki
Aiba Masaki (Faculty) / College of Arts and Sciences:
no
Aiba Masaki (Faculty) / College of Arts and Sciences:
wait
Aiba Masaki (Faculty) / College of Arts and Sciences:
kojima chiu yamasato
Aiba Masaki (Faculty) / College of Arts and Sciences:
yamasato? yamaguchi?
For goodness sake, Sho thought, navigating to one of their science databases. He searched for Kojima and Chiu and chemistry to start. Get article new, huh? He narrowed down to the last year.
“Aha!” he muttered.
Sakurai Sho (Staff) / Main Library:
I’ve found a handful of articles here from a few different journals. I found authors Kojima, Chiu and Yamashiro.
Sakurai Sho (Staff) / Main Library:
Do any of these publications sound correct? Asian Journal of Organometallics? Journal of the Electrochemical Society? Journal of Organic Chemistry? Japanese Institute of Organometallic Chemistry?
Aiba Masaki (Faculty) / College of Arts and Sciences:
2
“Two?” Sho spat out, smacking the monitor. But then he realized that Professor Aiba had, in his own special way, answered the question. It was probably the second publication in the list.
Sakurai Sho (Staff) / Main Library:
Journal of the Electrochemical Society. I’ve found two articles from the last year for Kojima, Chiu and Yamashiro. Are either of these your articles?
Sakurai Sho (Staff) / Main Library:
Hydroamination and Hydroaminoalkylation of Alkenes by Group 3–5 Elements: Recent Developments and Comparison with Late Transition Metals
Sakurai Sho (Staff) / Main Library:
OR Ruthenium-Catalyzed Oxypropargylation of Alkenes
The chat came to a screeching halt. Sho was double-checking if he’d lost his internet connection before he finally received a reply a full four minutes later.
Aiba Masaki (Faculty) / College of Arts and Sciences:
You type fast Sho-chan
He shut his eyes, trying not to think of that smile. The photos of him in that crisp white lab coat. Those borderline lewd student comments. Sho was stuck on a Friday night in the library basement, struggling to get answers out of a tech-incompetent but gorgeous professor, and he couldn’t remember the last time he’d been on a date. A real date. A date where there was dinner first, at least a drink first.
“You don’t even know me,” he groaned at the screen, remembering his professional duty.
Sakurai Sho (Staff) / Main Library:
I copied and pasted from our database. Are either of those the articles you are looking for? We have them both available in full-text with the library’s subscription.
Aiba Masaki (Faculty) / College of Arts and Sciences:
send ruthenium one
Finally.
He downloaded the article, attaching it to an email. It was preferable for faculty to access databases themselves, download articles themselves. That was valuable data for library statistics, but Sho didn’t want to know how long it would take him to talk Aiba Masaki through the process of getting into DirectToYou Science, searching, and downloading through a chat app. Or even over the phone.
Sho taught entire information literacy classes to new students, had led plenty of one-on-ones with staff and faculty members. If anyone needed a class, it was Aiba Masaki, PhD. But Sho had a sneaking suspicion that his lessons wouldn’t stick for too long.
Sakurai Sho (Staff) / Main Library:
Professor Aiba, I’ve just sent the article to your faculty email address. Can you please confirm receipt?
Aiba Masaki (Faculty) / College of Arts and Sciences:
forgot password
Aiba Masaki (Faculty) / College of Arts and Sciences:
locked out
Aiba Masaki (Faculty) / College of Arts and Sciences:
print???
Sho was glad Ninomiya was no longer next door to hear him let out a wordless shout of frustration.
Sakurai Sho (Staff) / Main Library:
I can print up the article for you and have it waiting for you at our circulation desk if you like? We’re open until midnight tonight. Or we open at 9:00 AM tomorrow.
Aiba Masaki (Faculty) / College of Arts and Sciences:
busy
Aiba Masaki (Faculty) / College of Arts and Sciences:
delivery???
“Why not just have campus IT unlock your stupid email?” Sho complained to the computer screen, unable to calm down. He didn’t want to know how long Professor Aiba had been locked out of his account. He didn’t want to know how many students had tried and failed to reach him. It was a bit scary to think about.
Sakurai Sho (Staff) / Main Library:
I can print it out and send it through inter-campus mail. It will arrive in an envelope at your faculty mailbox in Sato Hall Monday morning.
Aiba Masaki (Faculty) / College of Arts and Sciences:
sorry
Aiba Masaki (Faculty) / College of Arts and Sciences:
have deadline
Aiba Masaki (Faculty) / College of Arts and Sciences:
now? plz?
Until that moment, Sho was fairly certain he’d never actually wanted to murder one of his library patrons. Circumstances had changed.
Sakurai Sho (Staff) / Main Library:
Please hold for a moment while I make a quick inquiry.
He picked up his phone, dialing the circulation desk upstairs.
“Hey Sho-san.”
“Matsumoto-san,” he said, trying to stay calm despite his irritation. “Do you have any student workers available for me right now?”
“Available for you?”
“This is going to sound odd, but Professor Aiba in the chemistry department needs an article printed out and delivered to him in his office as soon as possible. Could I send the article with one of the students so it gets to him right away?”
Matsumoto chuckled. “Why doesn’t he just print it himself?” But then Sho heard the realization in his colleague’s voice when he spoke again. “Wait, you said Aiba from the chemistry department?”
“Yup.”
“Say no more. Just print whatever you need to the printer at the desk here. I’ll send Sayuri-chan over there.”
“You’re a lifesaver.”
“No problem.”
Sakurai Sho (Staff) / Main Library:
Professor Aiba, one of the library’s student workers will bring a print-out copy of the article to your office shortly.
Aiba Masaki (Faculty) / College of Arts and Sciences:
great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sakurai Sho (Staff) / Main Library:
Thank you for using our chat service. Is there anything else I can help you with tonight?
Aiba Masaki (Faculty) / College of Arts and Sciences:
owe you a beer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Despite everything, Sho blushed at the very idea of sharing a drink with the handsome professor.
Sakurai Sho (Staff) / Main Library:
You’re welcome. Have a good night.
He was packing up just after midnight when he heard a knock on his door. Matsumoto was there, grinning.
“What is it?”
Matsumoto simply gestured “follow me” with his finger, disappearing down the hall. Sho followed him, tugging on his coat as he headed back upstairs. Matsumoto moved into the staff break room, gesturing to a piece of paper on one of the tables.
“He was very insistent that Sayuri-chan bring that back with her. ‘Give it to the head of the library,’ he told her,” Matsumoto said with a teasing note to his voice.
Sho saw that it was a sheet of university letterhead, and someone had written a message in very large, almost child-like script.
“‘Please see that Sho-chan in the library is named employee of the month. He is very great employee,’” Sho read out loud. “‘Love, Aiba Masaki.’”
“I think it’s the ‘love’ bit that I like best,” Matsumoto said, zipping his coat. “But it’s not every day I get to work with ‘very great employee’ like you, Sho-san. Or should I say, Sho-ch…”
“Good night, Matsumoto-san.” Sho folded up the piece of paper in embarrassment, shoving it in his bag. “Have a good weekend.”
Matsumoto’s laughter followed him out the break room door.
/ / /
Over the next month, Sho’s chat shifts always managed to overlap with Professor Aiba’s greatest moments of need.
More articles located, printed, delivered. Book orders for the department’s reference collection purchased. Sho had even proofread several of the professor’s letters of recommendation for a few of his students who were applying for graduate programs or grant funding. It wasn’t technically part of Sho’s job, but when things simply started appearing in his mailbox, sent in the bright green inter-campus envelopes, he’d found it difficult to say no.
Building stronger relationships with faculty was one of the library’s core goals, so he felt justified in taking on these additional requests from Professor Aiba.
It had absolutely nothing to do with how smoking hot he was.
It had absolutely nothing to do with the thank you cards Sho received from him every time.
Absolutely nothing to do with the professor’s tendency to sign everything, including said thank you cards, with “Love, Aiba Masaki.” (When editing Aiba’s recommendation letters for him, however, Sho changed it to a more appropriate and professional ‘Best regards.’)
And it really, truly, honestly had absolutely nothing to do with the elaborate bouquet of white roses that were waiting on his desk one Monday morning. Sho had reached out to the campus IT team before the weekend, letting them know Professor Aiba in the chemistry department had been having “a few issues” with his email account. Sho hadn’t expected Aiba to go and find out that he was the one responsible for getting his account unlocked. But he had.
And now there was no hiding the extent of the professor’s gratitude.
Matsumoto and Ninomiya were in the doorway, all smiles as Sho tried to find a place on his desk for the expensive-looking vase the roses had come in.
“When’s the wedding?” Ninomiya asked.
“I’m getting conflicting information here,” Matsumoto declared, looking at something on his phone. “I’m seeing a few different flower meanings for white roses. Innocence. Purity.”
Ninomiya leaned over, giggling. “Ah, Sho-san, it’s probably the last one.” His voice dropped low and sensual. “Pure love.”
“Don’t you both have better things to do?” Sho replied, a little embarrassed by how high-pitched and squeaky his protests sounded.
He waited until they finally left before he opened the small card that was nestled among the roses.
Would love to thank you in person sometime. Feel free to drop by my lab! Love, Aiba Masaki.
/ / /
It had not been Sho’s finest hour, snooping around to find out when Professor Aiba Masaki might be alone in his lab. He couldn’t trust Matsumoto or Ninomiya, who’d spent the last few weeks making fun of his obvious crush.
He’d instead turned to Ohno-san from the campus janitorial staff. If there was anyone that knew the comings and goings of the faculty around the university, it was the people who had to clean up after them. Ohno-san worked for the library, but another member of his crew, a guy named Yokoyama, worked in Sato Hall where Aiba’s office and lab were. Ohno, excited to be called upon to participate in what he deemed “library espionage,” quietly asked Yokoyama about Aiba’s usual movements.
Of course, Sho hadn’t told Ohno that his interest in Professor Aiba was less than professional. He merely implied that Professor Aiba had been looking for some help using the library’s databases, but didn’t want anyone else to know he was struggling. It was an excuse that anyone who vaguely knew him would have thought sounded logical. His tech limitations were well known, lab equipment aside.
Ohno delivered the results of his “mission” to Sho on a Wednesday evening just after one of his student information sessions wrapped up. Ohno slid up beside him, not as subtle as he probably thought he was, but at least the study room was clearing out and the students weren’t paying any attention.
“Sakurai-san.”
“Ohno-san.”
Ohno slowly slipped his hand in his pocket, setting a folded-up piece of paper on top of Sho’s closed laptop. “From Yokoyama-kun.”
Sho nervously snatched up the paper, shoving it in his pocket. “Thank you. You will find that your overdue fee for that art book has disappeared.”
Ohno grinned. “Much appreciated.”
“You do still have to return it, you know.”
Ohno merely tipped his cap, heading swiftly for the exit.
“Oi…Ohno-san…”
Sho heard the squeaky janitor’s cart roll on down the hallway.
This was a strange university.
Sho waited until he was back in his office, shutting the door before unfolding the piece of paper.
Aiba-san is frequently in his lab on Wednesday nights until 8:00 PM. He goes back and forth between the lab and his office on Thursday and Friday until about 10:00 PM.
“Bless you, Yokoyama-kun,” Sho muttered, shoving the note in his pocket and checking his watch.
7:46 PM.
“Shit!” he exclaimed, packing up his bag hurriedly and making his way to the exit. Sato Hall was at least a five minute walk, and he moved as quickly as he could down the street, crossing and heading for the entrance.
The building was home to several lecture halls, faculty offices, classrooms, and laboratories. Sho, being in the business of information, had already studied the building’s layout, taking the stairs up to the second floor in search of Lab 206, Professor Aiba Masaki’s home away from home.
The door was closed, but he was able to peek inside through the glass. There was only one person in the room, and from the shape of the long, lean body in the white lab coat with his back to the door, it could only be Aiba Masaki. Sho knocked twice, catching the professor’s attention.
He turned, looking away from his worktable and the collection of colorfully-filled beakers there. He had on a rather bulky set of goggles, lifting them as he turned around at the noise. The smile Sho had only had the privilege of viewing on the internet was now beamed directly at him.
“Yo! Come on in!”
He did as requested, immediately opening his bag and pulling out his rather pathetic excuse for visiting. “Professor Aiba, nice to finally meet you in person. I’m Sakurai Sho with the library.”
Sho held out the paper as he approached.
“I thought maybe this would be helpful for you moving forward.”
The professor set the goggles down on the table, running a hand through his lightened, fluffy hair. “Hmm? What’s this?”
Aiba took it, an even more amused smile appearing on his face.
“I hope you’ll forgive me,” Sho said nervously, “but these are the handouts I usually give to the students who come to my library training classes. It’s got a list of our most popular databases, when to use them, how to check out materials, library hours…you know…just a broad overview of everything we can do for you.”
“That’s very kind of you.”
Sho scratched an itch on his neck, feeling his face grow hot. “It’s no trouble…and after you sent me those flowers…”
Aiba’s eyes almost sparkled in happiness. “I’m glad to hear they got to you, Sho-chan. The florist was a bit annoyed when I said I didn’t know where to send them. I guess ‘Sho at the university library’ wasn’t helpful enough.”
Sho tried not to laugh. “Well, I’m at the main library. We have a few smaller branches, one for the engineering school, one for the music department, one for the art…”
“Didn’t I say we should go out for a drink sometime?”
“Uh…I think so.”
Sho didn’t just “think so.” He still had all of the messages from their various chats saved. It was hard to forget Aiba Masaki’s owe you a beer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, considering the sheer number of exclamation marks.
“Great! Let’s go now.”
“Now?” Sho squeaked.
“Yeah,” Aiba replied. “I got the reaction I wanted.”
“Huh?”
The professor gestured behind him to his collection of science-y things. “For my current study. The reaction I wanted.”
“Oh.”
It all happened very fast.
Aiba shrugged out of his lab coat, draping it over a table and leaving Sho’s silly library handout beside it. He bent down behind a different lab table, fumbling around before holding up two helmets. Then they were moving, Aiba putting one of the helmets in Sho’s hand and tugging him by the other arm. Sho was dragged out of the lab, down the stairs, and out of the building. Sho, embarrassed, eventually freed himself so they were walking normally, separately. He examined the helmet under the street lights, confused. The thing had a fading “I LOVE CHIBA” sticker adhered to it.
“Where are we going?” Sho finally managed to ask as they approached the faculty parking garage.
“I know a good place,” was the only reply.
The helmets had their purposes, Sho realized, as Professor Aiba led him not to a car but to a motorcycle parked on the garage’s lower level.
Sho’s nervousness spiked, his voice coming out a little higher than normal. “We’re riding on that thing together?”
None of Sho’s research on Grade Your Professor had revealed this startling and ridiculously sexy tidbit: Professor Aiba rode a motorcycle to and from campus. There was no little sidecar or anything. If they were going to get to whatever “good place” Aiba knew about for that impulsive drink, then it meant Sho was going to have to sit behind him. Sho was going to have to hold on to him. Hold on to the guy who had just sent him a bunch of white roses that maybe meant “pure love.”
Aiba got on, gently patting the space behind him before putting on his helmet. “Well, come on then!”
He did as he was told, situating himself on the bike behind the professor, their bodies immediately coming into close contact.
“Here, you gotta hold on tight,” Aiba ordered, tugging on Sho’s arms so they were more firmly gripping him around the middle. “Don’t be shy. Rule one of the lab and rule one of the road. Safety first, okay?”
Sho was desperate to hold himself together. “Okay,” he muttered, inhaling the professor’s vaguely chemical scent. Aiba was warm, as if his body ran hot all the time, as though his enthusiasm was on the verge of bursting out of him at any moment.
The bike turned on with a hearty roar, and they tore out of the faculty garage with alarming speed. Aiba was a bit reckless, going over the speed limit, turning corners so quickly that Sho had no choice but to hold on to him tighter. Safety first, huh? Despite such daredevil antics, Aiba was totally calm, trying to talk to him, but Sho could only shut his eyes, clinging to the professor as they zoomed through the streets.
Finally they arrived in a small shopping district, Aiba pulling off the street into an alleyway where he stopped the motorcycle, turning it off. Sho’s arms were shaking, half excited, half frightened after their wild ride.
“You can let me go now, Sho-chan,” Aiba teased him. “I mean, If you want to…”
“Sorry!”
He awkwardly got off of the motorcycle, and they carried their helmets with them as they entered a tiny bar. It seemed as though the theme was Disney, as the walls inside were plastered with Disney character artwork and movie posters.
“Kazama-pon!” Aiba shouted, waving merrily to the equally cheerful-looking man behind the bar.
“Welcome!”
Aiba dragged Sho over to the bar, arm around him. “Sho-chan, this is Kazama-pon. He’s really bad at making drinks, so I mostly come here to pity him and keep him from having to go out of business.”
“Oi!” the bartender, presumably Kazama-san, protested. But there was still affection in his face.
“Two beers and we’ll be in your VIP section. Thank you!”
Aiba brought Sho to the table in the back of the small bar. Apparently this was the “VIP section.” A framed photo of the bar’s owner and Aiba himself was hung just over the table, the pair of them in matching Mickey ears as they stood in front of the castle at Tokyo Disneyland. Clearly these two were longtime friends.
Kazama-san brought over two beers, and they clinked the glasses together.
“Cheers!” Aiba said in his noisy manner before having a long, satisfied sip. “So, Sho-chan, you wanna come home with me tonight?”
Sho spat the remaining beer in his mouth out in surprise, thankfully aiming to the side instead of right into Aiba’s face. If he wasn’t so stunned, he’d feel a bit bad about a few droplets landing on the Disneyland photo.
“I’m sorry, what?”
“Your spy was a double agent,” Aiba said, grinning from ear to ear. “Yoko-cho is also my friend.”
“Huh?”
Aiba leaned back against the wall, eyeing Sho like a piece of meat. “Yokoyama-san, from the janitorial staff. He was poking around my lab a lot the last week, and I asked him why. He told me right away that you wanted to come see me. Alone.”
As soon as Sho was back at work, he was going to put that overdue charge right back on Ohno-san’s account. “That’s…that’s not…”
“It’s okay, Sho-chan. You’ve been a big help to me. And I could feel that spark between us. Even through the computer or over the phone.”
“Professor Aiba, I don’t know what you mean…”
“I may be a little out of touch when it comes to technology, but if there’s anything I’m really smart about, it’s chemistry. I went through undergrad and my doctoral program and I don’t remember any of those librarians being so…helpful when I was in a bind.”
“Then…then you must have had some terrible librarians…”
Aiba’s hand reached out, wrapping around his wrist. “I think I’ve been pretty honest with you. So please be honest with me. You like me too, don’t you? Or you wouldn’t have gone out of your way to help me with all my non-library business.”
It usually took Sho a lot more than a few sips of beer before he was pouring out his heart and soul. But it seemed as though Professor Aiba was the impatient type, the impulsive type. The way he asked for information. The flowers. The motorcycle ride. Aiba liked to leap right in, as though everything was an experiment, no matter the result that might come.
Sho had to make a decision now, or he’d just end up back in his sad basement office alone. It wasn’t every day that an effortlessly hot professor propositioned him.
“I don’t know you very well,” Sho admitted. “But I’d like to.”
“I’m glad to hear it, really I am.” Aiba beamed, a smile that lit up the entire room. “But I gotta admit, you’re much better looking than that photo of you on the library website so all that stuff can come later.”
Aiba reached into his pocket, tossing a handful of coins on the tabletop.
“Wait, we’re leaving already?” Sho cried.
Aiba picked up his helmet, already waving goodbye to his friend behind the bar. Sho hurriedly followed him back outside to the waiting motorcycle, heart pounding.
Aiba waited to speak until Sho was seated again, arms around him. The professor’s voice was lower then, different. Alluring in a way that left Sho unable to reply, even if it was the cheesiest pick-up line he’d ever heard.
“Let’s go make a chemical reaction.”
/ / /
On the whole, Sho preferred not to rush into things. He was a thoughtful, methodical person who’d gone into a profession full of other thoughtful, methodical people. It impacted his personal life as well. He went into most first dates with low expectations, usually finding himself back at his own apartment at the end of the night by his lonesome. He’d just never been the kind of guy to hop on a motorcycle with someone and ride off into the night.
He was starting to see the error of his ways.
After stumbling into the professor’s dark apartment, they’d been kissing for a good long while, making slow but steady progress from the entryway toward what Sho presumed would be the bedroom. Aiba, a scientist through and through, seemed to be testing a hypothesis he hadn’t bothered to share with Sho.
But it had resulted in many good things so far. Kisses on the lips. Kisses along his jaw, down his neck. Vanishing jackets. Vanishing shirts. Kisses across his chest, the tickle of soft hair against his eager skin. A hand down his pants, making him gasp.
What was the experiment anyway, he wondered. Was the professor trying to catalog all the sounds his kisses and touches could get out of Sho? What was he planning to do with all this…data?
“When I needed…”
Aiba kissed him.
“…that stoichiometry book…”
Aiba kissed him.
“…and you didn’t have to…”
Aiba kissed him.
“…ask me…”
Aiba kissed him.
“…what that is or how to write it…”
Aiba kissed him for much, much, much longer. So much longer Sho wondered if he was ever going to finish his sentence. They were both breathing heavily when Aiba finally remembered to complete his thought.
He ran his long fingers across Sho’s kiss-swollen lips, trying to catch his breath. “That’s when I knew…we’d end up here.”
“For real?” Sho murmured, the professor’s praises giving him goosebumps.
Aiba let out a breathy giggle before squeezing his hand, finally leading him to his bedroom.
“Nah, I just think you’re cute. Come on.”
/ / /
Sho refilled his water bottle before heading back into his office, stepping over the new pile of books Ninomiya had left in the doorway. He cracked his neck, staring at the empty Librarian Live Chat box. He only had twenty minutes left on his shift tonight and then he was free.
He looked over, spying the newest bouquet of roses that had arrived just the other day. This time, the accompanying card had thanked Sho for “help” that hadn’t been delivered in a professional context, and he blushed at the memory. Aiba’s grad assistant had almost caught them together in the lab that night, pants around their ankles, and…
“Bloop!” went the chat app, startling him.
“Back to work,” he muttered before turning back to the screen.
Aiba Masaki (Faculty) / College of Arts and Sciences:
library hours
He rolled his eyes, smiling all the same.
Sakurai Sho (Staff) / Main Library:
Hello Professor Aiba, thank you for using the Library’s Live Chat feature. My name is Sakurai. The main campus library closes tonight at midnight, eighteen minutes from now. We’ll open tomorrow morning at 9:00. Can I help you with anything tonight?
Aiba Masaki (Faculty) / College of Arts and Sciences:
good to know thank you
Sho emerged from the library a short time later only to find a familiar motorcycle parked and waiting outside the staff exit. Aiba was holding the extra helmet, a wicked look in his eyes.
“Are you a book?” Aiba asked, looking a little too proud of whatever he was about to say. “Because I’m here to check you out.”
Despite himself, Sho laughed.
Aiba patted the space just behind him. “Ready to go?”
It still wasn’t Sho’s favorite mode of transportation, but the company was worth it. He climbed on, settling the helmet on his head and wrapping his arms around Aiba’s middle.
“I’m ready.”
