Ezra came home to Chris pouring over some papers, a light frown on his otherwise smooth features, tapping a pen in an unconscious rhythm to the music from the stereo. Cassie was curled up in his paper box, which was rather empty at the moment. Apparently Chris had caught up with his paperwork at home.
"Hey," Ezra greeted the other vampire.
Chris looked up, smiling a welcome at him, then concentrated on his work once more. Ezra was far from offended. Their relationship had long since reached a point where normality had settled in when it came to daily – or nightly – matters. Oh, there was still lust. How couldn't there be? Just looking at Chris was answer enough to that question.
But lust no longer dictated their actions.
"Anything interesting happen?" Chris asked as he scribbled something, then tapped a few keys on his laptop.
"Same old, same old. City's quiet on the vampire front."
"Well, we had two new cases assigned to us today. Nothing spectacular. Working the overflow from the regular teams."
Ezra nodded. While Chris's team usually dealt with cases others were stumped with or claimed unsolvable, as well as the paranormal ones, they also did the day-to-day accidents, murders and suicides.
"Busy?" the older vampire asked.
"Nah. Work's done for today. I'm just having a look at some things."
Ezra raised his brows. "Care to share?"
Chris looked up, a glint in his hazel eyes. "I heard from Drew. He applied for a place at the SLCU. They accepted."
"That's wonderful news."
Andrew Larabee was Chris's son and Ezra knew he had finished school this summer. The younger Larabee wanted to go to university and had applied to many around Salt Lake, as well as the local one.
"He's starting in a few weeks. He asked if you'd mind him staying here."
He raised an eyebrow. "If I mind?"
"Well, he said it's your house. We have room to spare and he's willing to pay his share."
Standish shook his head. "I won't accept rent payments, Chris, and you know it."
"Okay, I guessed as much, but he insists on regular payments for water, power and everything else."
He sighed. "Oh well… I think I can figure something out."
Chris gave him a little smile. "So I can tell him he has a room here?"
"Sure. What does he want to study?"
"Anthropology."
Ezra blinked. "O-kay…"
The blond shrugged. "I won't talk him out of it. He really wants to go through with it." Chris shuffled some more papers. "Do you remember talking about future options once?"
"Uhm, yes," Ezra answered carefully, surprised by the change of topics.
With questions like these, it paid to be careful. They had indeed talked about their future, about how long Chris would be able to continue his old life, when it might be time to move on, do something else.
"Well, I'm dealing with one of them. I think I'm going back to university." There was a wide smile on the handsome features.
If he had been drinking, Ezra would have spit the drink clear across the room. "You what?" he echoed.
Chris grinned cheerfully. "I was thinking about getting some more education. It's never too late to learn something new."
"You want to register as a student?" Ezra tried to clarify what his partner was telling him.
"Yep."
"What brought that on?"
"You telling me that I need a hobby."
Okay, now he did need a drink.
Yes, he had told Chris he needed something outside the CSI, something to get him on a different set of mental tracks, something to unwind him – and he hadn't meant sex.
"You did," Chris insisted.
"Yes, I remember telling you, but… " He sighed. His lover. The unknown territory. He should by now have learned to tread carefully when it came to such things.
"Chris, you're a vampire," Ezra argued.
"So? It's perfect. All the time in the world to get another major."
"As a vampire."
"Yes." Chris shrugged. "It's not like they ask you 'what species are you?' when you apply."
"Chri-is! You're a vampire!"
"You keep repeating yourself, love. I'm a vampire. I'm not stupid."
Ezra rolled his eyes. "University courses are throughout the day. Vampire? Daylight? Do the equation! Not mixing."
"I can take the late afternoons. And then there's my building resistance to sunburn."
Another sigh. "Okay, what do you want to study?" Ezra changed tracks. There was time for getting into the depths of vampirism – again – later on.
"Still looking. My major subject back when I was in college was criminal science. Biology sounds interesting," Chris explained.
"Biology," Standish echoed dryly, disbelief coloring the voice.
"Well, yes, maybe it's a bit too wide as a subject. You're right."
I'm what? I didn't even say anything, Ezra thought. Well, his lover was in that quantum leap mode again. His thought processes would be all over the place, confusing the mere mortals – including one nearly immortal vampire who had a few decades on him.
"How about medicine? Can't hurt to have another doctor."
"Chris, you wouldn't last through the first internship!"
"You think I'm going to nibble at the nurses?"
"No, of course not. But maybe a doctor or two," Ezra teased.
"I'm rather monogamous when it comes to relationships," Chris told him with a frown.
"I know."
"I'm not going to steal blood bags either."
"Temptation is a strong motivator."
"Allright. Not medicine or biology. How about Entomology?"
"Come again?"
"Insects."
"Bugs? You, Chris Larabee, want to study bugs?"
"I'm not squeamish."
Green eyes met hazel and the older vampire raised an eyebrow.
"Okay, okay, so no bugs. Psychology?"
Ezra rolled his eyes.
"Mathematics?"
"Not your field. Believe me."
"I can add, subtract…!"
"Distract…"
"Shut up."
Ezra grinned. "Chris, I'm better at mathematics than you are. And I wouldn't want to study it."
"Anthropology might be something we need," Chris went on, clearly getting into the whole thing. "Studying both past cultures and current ones could help us in our cases. There are so many similarities… Then there's the fact that Drew is going for it as well. We could be study buddies." He grinned mischievously.
"You were talking about future options," Standish reminded him. "Will you still be working for the CSI in ten years?"
Chris looked thoughtful. He tapped a pen against his lips. "Okay, so not. How about Physical Therapy?"
Ezra burst out laughing and it earned him a glare from his lover. "Physical Therapy? Chris, please! Massages?" He snickered.
"You never complained."
The vampire felt a brief jolt running through him at the memories. No, he had never turned down one of Chris's erotic massages and they had ledto... a lot more. Images assaulted him and Ezra felt the sudden need to pounce his lover. He reined it in, but with some effort. Even in their long and stable relationship, he sometimes had those urges. Healthy urges, he mused. Very healthy.
"Pathology?"
Now there was a 180 degree turnabout if he had ever heard one. And it erased all erotic contemplations in a minute.
"You want to work with dead bodies?"
"I already do."
"It's not the same. Nathan cuts them up, you get the results."
"Nutritional Science sounds very intriguing, too, and with us being vampires, I might learn some things for our diet," Larabee went on, ignoring Ezra's startled expression.
"Our diet is blood."
"Well, yes."
"And blood."
"That too."
"Have I mentioned the blood?" Ezra asked.
Chris glowered.
"Okay, so in your case it's junk food, too," he amended, "but you're a hopeless case."
"Thank you so much!"
"You're welcome."
"Neuroscience or maybe Bioinformatics…?"
"Do you even know what that is?" Ezra chuckled.
"I can find out," Chris muttered defensively.
Laughter answered him.
"So… how about Law?"
"I'm honored, Your Honor." Ezra half-bowed.
"Moron. Toxicology?"
A sigh. "This is getting ridiculous."
"What is?" a new voice interrupted and Buck peeked in. "You busy?"
"Yes."  "No."
"Ah, lover's quarrel then," the chemist sang knowingly.
"Get your ass in here, Wilmington, or leave," Larabee growled.
Buck shot Ezra a questioning look. "What's up?"
"Chris wants to go back to university."
"Really?"
"Yes, really, Buck," the future student said forcefully.
"Whatcha studying?"
"That is what we're discussing," Ezra answered.
"I see. How about Chemistry? I could give you a few pointers."
"While you are at it, try Computer Sciences," Ezra teased. "JD can teach you."
"Shut up, both of you!" Chris leafed through his papers. "Ancient Languages?"
Buck grimaced. "Dust to dust."
"Modern Languages."
"You already speak English," Wilmington laughed.
"Asshole."
"See?"
"Economics is always a good basic education for anyone," Ezra chimed, finally getting ino the spirit of things. If his lover wanted to play 'choose a subject', he would participate.
"And it bores the pants off off ya!" Buck argued. "No offense, Ez."
"None taken."
"You are not helping!" Chris huffed, gathering his papers together.
He rose and stalked out of the room.
Ezra smiled, watching the black-clad man disappear in the living room. Buck looked thoughtful.
"He really wants to go back to school?"
"Apparently." Ezra shrugged. "Humor him."
"Like you do it most of the time?"
It earned Buck a grin.
The two men went back to their own work.
 

Ezra didn't hear anything about studying and going back for another bachelors or masters for a few days.
He had almost forgotten about it.
Until Chris came back from work one very early morning, looking pleased. He was carrying a large pad of paper.
Ezra's eyebrows rose fractionally as he gazed at his lover.
"I know what I'm going to study," Larabee declared.
Dear Lord, Ezra sighed. Here we go again.
"And that would be?"
"Art."
Okay. Shock would be a too mild word for what he felt. Art? As in… statues and paintings and models?
"Art?" he blurted.
Chris nodded. "Art. Talked to a professor this evening. Most courses are in the late afternoon and the few throughout sunlight I can manage, I think."
"You think."
Damn, he sounded like a bad echo.
"Chris… Art?" Ezra tried to grasp what his lover was telling him. "Uh, why?"
Chris opened the pad and leafed through it. "I liked drawing when I was younger, but I gave it up when I went to college and then to the academy. I did a few sketches in the last few days and the professor was impressed."
He held up the black and white sketch and Ezra's jaw dropped.
Geee-zus!
"That's…. you're doing nude sketches?" he managed.
The person on the paper was male, clearly naked, but elegantly placed so it wasn't pornographic. It was highly erotic, though. And there was the shadow of another person just behind the first.
"Wow, Chris, you still have it!" Buck called from the doorway where he had, as usually just in time, stuck his head in. "That's a beauty."
"Thank you."
Vin slipped in behind his partner, nodding in agreement. "Very nice on the eyes."
Ezra rubbed his forehead with his finger tips. "Chris, you can't be serious!"
"Oh, I am."
"He is," Buck agreed. "Ol' Chris was a real talented artist back in the old days. Too bad he went into Criminal Sciences and forgot all about it."
"Not all. I kept some pieces."
"Those delicious ones?"
"Yep."
"Cool."
"Do I even want to know?" Ezra asked, sounding resigned.
"Well, if you want to, I can show you," Chris offered.
Vin grinned. "Those I wanna see, too!"
"You are serious about this?" Standish repeated his earlier inquiry.
"Sure."
My lover the artist, Ezra tought in silent acceptance.
"As a second course."
"Second…?" Okay, he was losing track of things, Ezra decided. "What's the first one?"
"Applied Physics and Engineering," came the immediate answer.
That sounded more like a sensible course of study, but still… Chris was a vampire.
"Chris, you are a vampire."
"You already said so. Days ago. You keep reminding me, too."
"Well, sometimes I think you forget."
Chris smiled. "No, I don't. I might not act like it, but I know what I am, Ezra. I'm very much aware of it, actually. And because of it, I think it's vital to keep learning."
"He has a point," Buck agreed. "I've been thinking about something like it, too."
Ezra raised his brows. "Oh?"
"Yep. Actually, it was Nathan who gave me the idea. It was throughout my last exam when he mentioned that we know so little about all the different species and their habits, especially the eating habits of vampires and a way to substitute the blood with something else, that it hit me."
Oh-oh, Ezra thought, alarm flitting through him again. He knew Nathan was always looking for ways to help vampires, especially with their 'infection' that didn't allow them to stay out in the sun too long. But now Buck, too?
"I was thinking about taking some serious courses concerning Nutritional Science."
Thank god he was already sitting.
Ezra let his eyes flicker to Vin. "You, too?"
Tanner shrugged. "Why not? I've been dabbling in one thing or other that interests me. I know I'll have a longer life span as a werewolf than I had as a human, so… let's make the most of it."
Chris plopped down next to his lover. "Why don't you join us, Ezra?"
"Me? Dear Lord, no! I had enough of universities and colleges."
"You went to college?" Vin inquired, interest roused.
"Of course."
"Well, considering your date of birth…" Buck interjected, "one never knows."
The vampire smiled. "I didn't say it was back in my old life. When I came to terms with what I was, had a handle on the sunburn problems, and decided to go into business for real, I took Economics."
"Bachelor?"
"Doctorate."
Now it was Buck's turn to gape. "Whew-hoo! Dr. Standish!"
Chris shot his lover a frown. "You never told me."
"You never asked."
"Wise-ass."
Ezra smiled and leaned over, tasting the delicious lips briefly. "Doubly so," he whispered.
"Huh?"
"I went back after that and added a second one."
"A second doctorate?" Vin laughed, eyes dancing as he took in Chris's confusion.
"Yes. Psychology."
"What?!" Chris blurted.
"I have the papers to prove it."
"And here you go harassing me about going back to school," Larabee muttered, the smile in his eyes belying the words.
"I only wanted you to be aware of what the problems are or could be."
"What were yours?"
Ezra suddenly grew silent. He felt old emotions raise their ugly heads but squelched them. Chris wasn't him. Chris had friends.
"Ez?" Buck inquired softly and he felt Chris's touch on his thigh, rubbing it gently.
"Ezra?"
"Loneliness," he said softly.
Fingers entwined and he squeezed the strong hand briefly.
"You didn't know Luther back then?"
"No. I knew a lot of people, but few knew what I was." He shook himself. "It's the past."
Green eyes met hazel.
"I'm happy that you want to add another possible doctorate, Chris. All of you. Even if it's in Nude Art." He flashed a mischievous grin at the blond.
Chris snorted. "That is just for entertainment. The other I want to do for real."
"No idea if I can make a doctor out of it," Buck explained, "but I know I want to do it, too. Hell, Drew won't be the only student in this house now."
Chris chuckled at the image. He wondered what his son would think of his 'study buddies'. Larabee was aware, though, that going to the same university as Drew would probably be a problem, mainly for the younger man. He wouldn't have wanted it when he had been a student – his father in the same building he was in, even if Drew found he was 'cool' and saw him as a good friend as well as a parent. His courses would foremost be in the late afternoon and sometimes mornings, as well as on a different campus.
He settled against the smaller vampire, making himself comfortable. Ezra almost unconsciously adjusted himself to his lover's new position. Chris drew his legs up onto the couch.
"So, no more stupid arguments from you?"
"Since when were my arguments stupid?" Ezra shot back.
"Since all they contained were 'You're a vampire' most of the time."
"Ah. But you are."
Chris snorted and reached up, pulling the willing man down into a kiss.
Buck elbowed Vin and the two werewolves left unobstrusively as the kiss deepened and Ezra's hands wandered down the lean chest.
"I've nothing against your choice of education," he finally murmured against the thoroughly kissed mouth. "I couldn't and wouldn't stop you even if I had."
"Thank you," Chris replied, voice low and warm.
Ezra smiled and went back to kissing his lover, who only too willingly surrendered into the contact.