Tolly didn't have any more classes that day so he headed straight home and got to work on the few proofs he could actually manage to puzzle out. He started cooking as soon as he could without feeling like he was trying to outright avoid his homework, getting a nice fudge cake in the oven and some fancy pasta cooking on the stove. The door was unlocked in expectation of Cas—the dorms were safe enough that he didn't feel worried—and the smell of cooking sauce was wafting into the hallway.
Of course they had to include glitter. Why wouldn’t they?! Cas had made it through his last few classes mostly unscathed, save for the sparkle explosion that happened in advanced alchemy. Thankfully he wasn’t the only one that made it out the class covered in aqua colored magical sparkles. He checked the time on his phone, cursing softly when he realized he couldn’t shower and check on the shop before 8. He decided to do the latter and check in on the shop before making his way across the campus to tolly’s dorm building, the sparkles trailing behind him. He eventually found the dorm room and gently knocked, breathing deeply and marveling at how delicious the food smelled
Tolly had the meal pretty much finished by that point, set on the stove to cool while he cleaned off the counters he'd managed to cover in pasta sauce and various powders. When he answered the door it was clear that he hadn't escaped the mess either. His hair had what looked like flour on it and there were hand prints on the sides of his legs from where he'd absently wiped off his hands. Overall, things were a bit of a mess, but there was food ready to be eaten so the night was pretty much a victory already in his book. "Cas! Hey, come in everything'll be ready in a few seconds." He ushered his boyfriend inside with a bright smile. "I've just gotta get the table set and then we're good to go!"
Cas smiled softly as Tolly opened the door and invited him inside. “Take your time! I think I’m a bit early anyways.” He said sheepishly, a few more sparkles falling from his hair. He had managed to get most of them off on his walk to the dorm though some still stuck in his hair, giving it a bluish tinge. “It smells amazing in here! What’d you make?” He asked, setting his bag down in a corner so that it wasn’t out of the way.
"You're late, actually. Said you'd be in around seven, I'm just hopelessly behind." He pulled out a chair for Cas, ever the gentleman, and pressed a kiss to the top of his head before he pulled away with a grimace and a mouthful of glitter. "And what I made is a surprise, now tell me about your day. Why're you all glittered up?" He brushed the glitter off his lips. "You taste like a plastic factory."
Cas gratefully sat in the chair with a sweet smile, laughing softly when Tolly pulled away. “Yeah, sorry about that. I thought I shook it all out outside. Guess some still stuck on. Someone had an accident in magic chemistry, the whole class got cover in this. I didn’t have time to stop by my dorm and take a shower.” He explained, tilting his head up to look at Tolly, stiffling another laugh. “Love, come here. Some still is stuck.”
(Sorry, had to deal with some family junk!)
Tolly rubbed at his lips a little harder, setting down napkins and plates with his free hand. Eventually he gave in and wandered back to Cas' side, a small frown on his face as he crouched down beside his boyfriend. "You're taking a shower after dinner, I'm gonna die if I have to deal with this junk all over my house." He was pouting a little, slowly starting to let Cas support his weight. "I mean… I'm already never gonna be clean again."
(It’s totally ok! Just bopping!)
Cas smiled softly and started to wipe off the rest of the glitter. “Alright, I will.” He replied, petting his hair as he continues to get all the sparkles and glitter off of Tolly’s lips. “Mind if I shower here?” He asked, pressing a kiss to his head and then his lips. “You’ll be fine love, don’t worry.”
Tolly hummed happily as Cas started to pet him, eyes falling shut as he settled his head on his boyfriend's lap. "I don't mind, lovey. Just as long as you don't use up all my soap." He smiled into the kiss and scooted a little closer, eager for more attention. "Think you can stay the night?"
He laughed and nodded “I swear I won’t..” Cas pressed their heads together and kissed Tolly’s nose. “Sure, mind if I go back to my dorm to grab some pjs after dinner?” He asked, glancing up to make sure the food wasn’t burning. “Speaking of which, is it ready yet? I’m starving!”
Tolly grinned and returned the kiss as best he could. He popped up on his feet once Cas reminded him of dinner, gasping quietly and hurrying over to the stove. Once dinner was safely on the table, he returned with a sheepish smile and plopped down into the chair in front of Cas. "Shit, sorry! It's all good, might be a little hot but you can definitely eat it."
“Can’t wait!” Cas said happily, finding a fork to begin eating. He dug into the dish in front of him, eyes widening at how amazingly delicious it tasted.
“I think you could rival mom’s cooking, love. This is great!” He told Tolly, a happy little smile on his face as kept on eating dinner “so what’s for dessert? Or do I have to wait?”
Tolly laughed quietly, waving away the compliment with a bright smile and a soft flush. "It's really nothing special, just a couple things I tossed together since you said you'd be coming over." He was downplaying it, just a tad. "And yeah, I figured I may as well make you something sweet since you've been having such a long day. Chocolate cake's good, right?"
Cas shook his head no. “Love, don’t undermine your ability to cook. I’m sure you cook like this even if I wasn’t coming over.” He stood up and pressed a kiss to Tolly’s cheek. “Yes, chocolate cake is great.” He hugged Tolly and pressed one last kiss to his head before taking the empty plates to the sink
Tolly laughed quietly, leaning into the kiss with a bashful smile. "You flatter me, Cas. I'm sure I wouldn't whip up anything half as good is I didn't have you to motivate me." He sat back in his chair, eyes scanning appreciatively over Cas as he wandered into the kitchen. "Cake's in the oven, if you wanna grab it. Should be cool enough to touch."
“Well then it’s a good thing I came over isn’t it.” He said over his shoulder. He hovered his hand over the cake, making sure it was cool enough before finding some plates and serving up two slices. He set the plate down in front of Tolly before taking away the rest of the empty plates and bringing them to the sink. He settled back in his chair and nodded to the papers. “Want to start the corrections now or wait until we finish?”
It had more than cooled down. The cake was a pretty little thing, frosting done up in small swoops, chocolate curls set among the peaks of frosting. Tolly smiled as he started to dig into it, letting out a pleased sound. Not as good as his brother would make, but still pretty darn good. "Oh! My bag's on the couch, I'll go grab it!" He hopped up and soon he was back with the papers, some red pens, and a handful of pencils. "Here! You ready to get going?"
Cas are the cake happily, loving the mix of indulgent chocolate with the fluffy peaks of frosting. He curled up in the chair and pulled one of the pages towards him, looking over the ones Tolly had gotten wrong. He pointed to one of them, already seeing his mistake. “Look this one over love. This one’s kinda tricky with the wording.” He said, scooting closer to Tolly and shounf him Thebes equation. The proof had technically been done correctly but one of the He terms was used wrong, throwing off Tolly’s explanation
Tolly sighed quietly and looked the paper over, giving the words an unhappy squint and then turning on Cas with puppy dog eyes when he still couldn't quite manage to figure out what was wrong. "I don't know darling, that's why I asked you to help." He always had trouble with these things, separating his small mistakes from the larger proof when everything seemed to add up correctly. "Just show me how to fix it, please."
Cas shook his head and leaned forwards, setting the plate down beside him as he explained the proof to Tolly.
“You did everything perfectly. Your terminology is off. Instead of stating that the angles were parallel to each other, you said that they were perpendicular.” He said, gesturing with his arms parallel and perpendicular after pointing to the paper
Tolly groaned quietly, scribbling out his mistake with a heaving sigh. Lately correcting proofs was less a of learning opportunity and more of a frustration because he was always so close. It was these tiny little mistakes with his terminology that always tripped him up. "Oh damn, I could've sworn they were the opposite. Is there anything else I got mixed up?"
Cas leaned his head against Tolly’s arm and looked over the rear again, pointing out a few more term mistakes.
“The rest of the two are mathematically error.” He stood and found a calculator from his bag. “Show me what you did.” He instructed, leaning back against him
"Alright, um…" He read through the work he'd done with a soft sigh and then started to write it back out on a blank piece of paper, doing his best to get even the smallest pieces of work down so Cas could follow his thought process. At some point he must've diverged, because he ended up with a completely different answer than he'd gotten on the test. "… oh. I guess I did it wrong, huh?"
He glanced over and quickly read over the work Tolly had done on the separate piece of paper, checking it over with his calculator. He pointed the the separate sheet and smiled “that’s the right answer. I think on the test you calculated something wrong out and it messed your answer a bit by a few numbers. But you did right this time!” He found a red pen and circled the answer. “You do really well when relaxed. I think when you’re initially doing the test, you get nervous. Next time try relaxing or think of it as a studying time like now and not as a test. The teacher cares about the work, now how fast you finish.” He pressed Alissa to his cheek and nodded to the next question. “You got this, try redoing the next one.”
