Dylan x Ellery Drabble

VERY much inspired by this post:

As the last of his students filed out of the lecture hall, Dr. Dylan Reinhart made his way over to his office, sitting down and ready to face the vast amount of papers to grade from his classes. Or so he thought. As he sat down to do so, he found his mind wandering, something it didn't typically do. And to a person, no less, Ellery Robins, to be specific.

Dylan had only met Ellery quite recently, a few weeks ago at most. And yet, he'd seen quite a bit of them in those weeks, seeing as they visited him every so often to bring coffee and chat. But it wasn't enough. Dylan found that Ellery occupied his thoughts, more often than not. And now, it was becoming an issue that was interfering with his ability to grade his student's assignments.

Soon enough, Dylan realized that the only was he was ever going to get to effectively work on said assignments was if he indulged his wandering thoughts now, and then, once satisfied, continued his work.

Now, Dylan had no need to write any of this down, what with his phonographic memory and all; everything he'd learned about Ellery's likes, dislikes, passions and more, had been verbally communicated, rather than textually so. Of course, he'd remembered all of it. But, he thought, it would be most effective at expressing these thoughts if he were to write them down.

And so, he opened up a word document and began to type. He typed everything he'd learned thus far about the object of his affection- what they liked, what they didn't like, their passions, their hopes and dreams, favorite colors, what they liked to do, what they liked to eat and drink- everything he could think of, pertaining to Ellery.

Soon enough, he had exhausted his supply of information learned so far about them and, satisfied with the result, set back to grading papers with renewed focus.

---------

It was a Friday, midday, and that meant Ellery would be arriving at his office soon.

Sure enough, at 1:35, right on time, Ellery showed up to greet Dylan in his office- coffee in hand- stepping inside, after being invited in by Dylan's delighted gesturing.

"Hey, Dylan!" they greeted him, a genuine, but still somehow shy, smile on their face, "How are you today?"

Dylan chuckled, a hint of frustration tinging the laugh and replied, "Oh, I'm better now that you're here!"

Ellery, still unable to repress their body's reflexive responses, blushed a bit in response to Dylan's comment, but smiled politely, all the same.

"Oh? Did something happen?" they asked sympathetically, ready and quite willing to listen to any troubles their friend might have on hand.

Dylan hummed in response, before replying, "Nothing in particular today. I'm just not looking forward to the mountain of paperwork and assignment grading I have to finish tonight. I honestly don't know how I'm going to get it all done..."

Ellery contemplated Dylan's lamentation a bit before half suggesting- half asking, "Maybe I could help? I mean, I've always had a lingering interest in psychology, despite going into physics, and I could do the simple stuff that wouldn't require you specifically to grade? Multiple choice test grading, maybe?" Ellery fidgeted nervously at the hem of their sweater, running their fingers over the blue ribbed material repeatedly and tacked on hurriedly, "But if not, that's totally fine!"

Dylan made a small noise of acknowledgement before answering, "Actually, that would be super helpful, Ellery, you would do that for me?" He felt horrible about piling any of his work on others, especially Ellery, but he was fairly desperate at this point.

Ellery simply nodded yes, their eyebrows raised, as if to accentuate their answer.

"Well, I'll share the files with you then, as well as the answer key, of course. Feel free to do as little or much as you have time for, I promise, just the offer means so much to me, Ellery, thank you."

Ellery smiled again, their eyes lighting up at the praise and gratitude from Dylan.

"Yea, for sure, its not a big deal, I'm glad to help you out, Dylan."

There was then a silence for a moment which could have been uncomfortable, were it not for the affectionate expressions worn by both individuals.

Suddenly, Ellery broke it by saying, just a little too loudly, "Well, I'll leave you to your work! As always, thank you for having me and uh, see you next week, I guess?"

Dylan smiled and replied, "Yes, thank you again, Ellery, I eagerly await your next visit!"

Ellery smiled shyly again before turning around and walking out the door, careful to let it close gently behind them, leaving Dylan, alone in his office once again.

---------

Sighing loudly to nobody in particular, except maybe their cat, Ellery plopped down on their couch and yanked out their computer, eager to see if they'd yet gotten the files sent by Dylan. They knew it was going to be tedious work, but the mere thought of Dylan's reaction to his grading being complete was more than enough to motivate Ellery to help.

As they opened up the files from the email sent to them, they skimmed through each document quickly to gain an idea of how much work there was to be done. But one document caught their eye, it had been innocuously titled something like testkey2.docx but when they actually opened said file, Ellery found that it was not in fact a test key but rather a set of notes and various ramblings- about themself.

Curiosity piqued, Ellery continued reading the document, only to find that it had at least 2 and half pages worth of information on them. So many notes on, well, everything about them, from their undergraduate university to their favorite ice cream flavor; everything they'd ever told Dylan, they realized, as they recalled each piece of information they'd given to the man.

Most people, upon finding such a collection of information about themselves, would probably be concerned or even frightened by it. But Ellery found themself flattered and giddy at the thought that they were important enough to Dr. Dylan Reinhart for him to take notes on them. Then came the confusion; Ellery was a little baffled at why Dylan would be taking notes on them of all people. Surely they weren't that interesting? And yet, here were two, almost three, pages worth of notes on the topic of Ellery Robins. And moreover, why would he send those notes to them?

Ellery ultimately came to two conclusions: 1. the document had been sent accidentally and 2. he probably took notes on many other people he interacted with regularly. He was a psychology expert after all, it stood to reason that he'd take a slightly abnormal interest in other people and their behavior. Yea, that was it. That's why he had almost three pages full of notes detailing Ellery, their personality and entire life. That made sense. Yea.

Luckily, Ellery had always been pretty good at compartmentalizing and so they shoved that mystery to the back of their mind while they graded various quizzes.

Finally, after all the documents sent by Dylan had been addressed and graded appropriately, Ellery laid in bed, still wide awake, and thinking about the document Dylan must have accidentally sent them. They'd never confront him about it. No, that would be mortifying for both parties. They'd just sit with it. Yea, that would work. Eventually they'd forget about it. That would definitely work.

And with that thought to comfort them, Ellery promptly fell asleep.