Finally, my first piece with Eli and Joanne. It's rather short (and fluffy) but I definitely want to write more about them. I really like genderswitch and I would love to explore the slightly changed characters in depth in the future (I mean, gender does have an impact on the development of character, but the essential traits don't change).

And I have started yet another challenge 8D I must be mad. Oh my. The prompts inspire me for now so let's hope that that doesn't change.

Now, have fun.

"Darling?"

Eli poked his head into the study. There his girlfriend sat, leaning over the desk with her head propped on her left fist. "Joanne?" He walked closer, placed a kiss on her neck and looked over her shoulder.

"What is it?" Joanne asked, sounding slightly annoyed. She didn't even look up.

"What are doing here? Isn't it time for dinner?" Normally they would cook together on weekends, but when he had come home just a minute ago, nothing had been prepared (and Joanne would've normally already prepared something because in her opinion he was always late. Which he wasn't; she was just impatient.).

"Eli, I don't have time for dinner." Now she looked up at him; a frown of frustration adorned her face. "I'm trying to solve this equation, but nothing I try gives me the correct solution." Her gaze turned back to the chequered white and grey paper in front of her and she crossed out her last futile attempt to solve this misery.

"I see..." Eli would help her if he could. But he was bad at maths and he honestly doubted that Joanne would appreciate it anyway. She liked to solve things on her own; it triggered a kind of childish contrariness.

Eli leaned down to press another kiss on her neck; she shrugged him off. With a little sigh he left the room, closing the door quietly.

Maybe thirty minutes later he came back. He found his girlfriend still sitting at the desk but now her head was lying on the paper. She had seemingly given up. Her mood was probably worse than before.

"Joanne?" He let his hand glide over her back. "Come, stand up." Joanne groaned in response.

She lifted her head slightly and looked at him out of the corner of her eye. "Eli, I have to do this today. Leave me alone." She hid her head in her arms. Eli sighed slightly.

"Come on. I'm sure that you can work out this equation better with some food in your belly." He poked her side, trying to elicit a squeak or giggle from her. Joanne only groaned. Eli rolled his eyes and grabbed her elbow, pulling her to her feet. She complied with an annoyed sigh. He grabbed her hand, entwining his fingers with hers and led her into the living room.

Joanne´s surprise was obvious when she took everything in. There were two plates with noodles on the small couch table and the TV was on; the DVD menu of the movie she's wanted to see for weeks flickered over the screen. Two candles illuminated the little room with their flickering light. And there was even a bouquet in that ugly yellow vase. Joanne turned to Eli with a quizzical look. He just nudged her towards the couch.

They sat down and Eli offered her the plate with the bigger heap of noodles. Joanne noted that he had made her favourite dish.

"Why did you do this?" she asked while he made a grab for the TV remote and put his free arm around her. He looked at her with a gentle smile and and pressed play. He kissed her temple, hugged her closer and leaned back.

"Just enjoy the evening." Joanne looked at him with a strange expression, but finally decided to do as he said and dug in. The noodles were as delicious and heart-warming as always.

After the movie - when Eli was massaging Joanne´s uptight shoulders - she lazily looked up at him over her not-so-uptight-anymore shoulder. He looked contented with the world.

"Why are you doing this?" A slow smile crept on his face while his hands wandered downwards, tracing a particular hard muscle at her lower back. She arched away from his hand; she was sore from sitting on that hard chair and his touch hurt slightly.

"Don't you remember what day it is?" he retorted and sneaked his arms around her waist, pulling her to him. She sank back against him and leaned her head against his shoulder so that she could look up at him.

"It's the day before my calculus exam."

Eli chuckled. "Yes, that as well." He kissed her at that ticklish spot where her neck and shoulder met. She squirmed slightly. "But I mean something else. What happened last year at this time?"

She hesitated, combing through her brain for memories of special events. "I almost missed to hand in my term paper in time and panicked."

"Not that. Try again."

Joanne stared blankly into space while running her fingers through the soft hair at Eli´s neck. Eli waited patiently for a few minutes and continued to knead and poke all those hard muscles in Joanne´s lower back. He felt her relaxing under his hands.

Finally, she looked up at him with a tired and relaxed look in her eyes. "I don't know."

Eli grinned and leaned down to whisper into her ear. "Exactly one year ago we had our first date."

"What!" Joanne shot up into an upright position, missing Eli´s chin for a few millimetres. "I forgot our first anniversary? I'm so sorry. I was so caught up in university work that I completely forgot. Your question this morning should have reminded me, but it didn't. Maths was so distracting that I prepared nothing for you. And now you've done so many nice things for me..." She looked so genuinely shocked and apologetic that Eli could only grin broader.

"Don't worry." He hugged her close. "I remembered it. Besides, you have so much stress at the moment. I'm not offended." Joanne sighed lowly and sneaked her arms around his middle.

"I'm still sorry."

"I know," Eli said, amused, tilted Joanne´s head up and pressed a loving kiss on her lips. "I know. And I still love you."

Just one thing at the end. The chapters will have different ratings. Most will probably be K or T, but there will be a little minority of Ms. I will mark those chapters in the AN as such (with nice big bold letters) so that there will be no unpleasant surprise. I don't think it would be reasonable to rate the whole thing here M just because of two or three M chapters. I will also put a note in the summary so that you don't have to click and be disappointed when I upload a M-chapter.