"If you'll all turn your textbooks to chapter eight..."
The professor at the front of the lecture hall continued to drone much like the buzzing cicada outside the windows. Positioned beside the glass at the back of the room, Mamoru could only just hear the man, and even then could only make sense of ten percent of what was being said. At least Professor Higgins was writing some of it down, and Mamoru belatedly flipped his text book open to the appropriate page.
It would be impossible (and pointless) to try to mentally translate a lecture he couldn't hear the majority of, and so he turned his attention to the book, instead, glancing up often enough to notice any change of topic. Printed English was easier to translate than the Professor's cramped script, anyway.
A glance down at his usual row near the front of the room, which had been fully occupied by the time he'd come rushing into the classroom with half a minute to spare, Mamoru picked out a familiar head of blue-black hair. He'd have to get the notes from Ami, later. That was the sole reason he was in this class, after all--when he'd found out that he needed an elective this semester, and nothing had sounded all that interesting, it had been the wisest course of action to find out which class Ami was taking and see if he could fit it into his schedule. He just wished that course hadn't been an overview of Egyptology.
He flipped another page in the text book, and paused his translation of the english text to glance over the pictures on the page. His heart stopped for a sickening moment on a pair of bright sepia eyes.
He would know those eyes anywhere, though the face was different. Even then, the differences were only minimal. She was a small, quaint looking British woman with long blonde hair and a beaming smile; beside her was a freshly uncovered collection of statues, The Goddess Bast prominent among them, and a man several years her senior. His hand was placed upon her elbow, but there was an obvious affection between them which seemed to radiate off the page.
"Doctor Adam Markowitz and wife, Ellen, at the Karanis dig; circa 1920," read the caption.
Below him, Ami's head jerked up from her book and she turned to stare, wide-eyed, at Mamoru. He caught her eyes and smirked; what could he say? He loved the girl.