Soooo.. Sometimes when I'm suffering from writer's block or if I'm bored I come up with little AU ideas and store them away on my computer. I have a bunch of them but I decided to share this one. This story wont be long at all (I'm suspecting no more than 10 chapters). But I hope you enjoy my writing journal/draft thing as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Fitz frowned as he received the email with his new schedule in it. He sipped his coffee then looked across the table to his friend, Jake. They had met at Starbucks that day to catch up and talk about the upcoming semester.

They had met each other during their time in Navy and had been best of friends ever since. During their time in the service, they had bonded over their mutual love of coffee, literature, and their families ties to politics. While Fitz's father had served time as both governor and senator of California, Jake's father had done the same in Florida. After they left the service, they both got their Masters degrees and now they were in their last year in their PhD program.

One of the main disadvantages of being in the Navy was that he had never gotten time to settle down. While he wasn't actively 'searching for a wife' as his father put it, he knew he wanted somebody. He had so much love to give but nobody to take it.

'Jake, did Dr. Beene send you your schedule for this semester?' Fitz asked, now placing his coffee back on the table and leaning in closer to the screen. He probably needed to invest in some reading glasses but he'd never openly admit to that.

'Let me see.' he typed away on his computer until he found the email with the document. 'Ya, why?'

'Who is O. Pope?' his eyebrows furrowed when he realized he'd be taking the instructor twice a week on two separate nights.

'I think he's the new instructor they had last semester. I heard he's tough.' he said, now frowning.

'He teaches Ancient Roman and Greek Literature and this Historical Context class from 5-8 on Mondays and Wednesdays.' they both groaned in unison.

'This semester already looks like shit and it hasn't even started.' Jake huffed. He wasn't usually the type to complain about hard work but this semester was supposed to be easy. They were both hoping to skate through to their degree.

'At least it says all text will be provided. No $500 book to lug around.' he tried to seem optimistic but Jake just shook his head.

'Just admit its going to be shit.'

'It's probably going to be shit.' Fitz admitted with a sigh.

4:55pm, Monday

Olivia walked out of her office with her best friend, Abby. While other professors in the department tended to dress in suits everyday, she had always preferred business casual. Not only was it more comfortable, she felt it looked better on her.

'Thanks for dinner, Abby. I would probably starve without you.' she admitted as she locked the door behind her and they walked out of the administrative suites to head towards the elevators.

'I know.' she light heartedly scoffed. 'I was hoping that maybe you wouldn't be so mean to your students on a full stomach.'

Olivia's eyes rolled. She never tried to be 'mean' to her students, it just happened that way. She was younger than a lot of her them and she needed to establish her position as the teacher.

'I'm not a mean teacher. I'm just stern and give a lot of work.' she nodded, reassuring herself more than her friend.

'And your grading system is from hell.' she reminded as they stepped on the elevator.

'These people want to leave our program with their PhD's. I cant, in good conscience, let them graduate if they don't have adequate knowledge of the given materials.'

'Don't try and defend yourself to me.' Abby laughed and held her hands up in a mock surrender. They hugged when they got downstairs and she left while Olivia continued on her way to the classroom.

Because her class was so late and everybody had heard about how hard it was, she only had about 20 people sitting in the large lecture hall. She suspected about half of them would drop out by the end of the semester but oddly, that never bothered her. Olivia hadn't been teaching long but she was good as what she did. She knew she was good at what she did.

After walking into the classroom she made her way to the front desk and put her purse down on top of it. Because they still had 2 minutes before class began she started pulling the syllabi out of her leather briefcase.

Fitz and Jake had been sitting in the front of the room and had watched her come in. Jake leaned over to him.

'What's that girl doing behind Dr. Pope's desk?'

'I don't know but if this guy is as bad as what they say, she should probably move.' Fitz watched her get settled into the seat at the front and found himself mesmerized. He didn't know one thing about her but he knew he wanted her.

When 5 came around, Olivia walked over to the door and shut it. Everybody in the classroom had been having side conversations, not realizing that their professor was staring right at them. She stood in front of the desk and cleared her throat. Her eyes rolled when she realized she hadn't caught anyone's attention except for the handsome man up in the front of the class. She quickly looked away from him, realizing that his little grin made her stomach flip.

'Excuse me.' she said loudly but no one turned around. She sighed and grabbed her briefcase and dropped it to the floor and it made a loud noise. Everyone looked forward and she perched herself up on her desk, crossing her legs.

'Good evening class, I am your professor, Dr. Olivia Pope.' she watched as jaws dropped around the room and Olivia gave them time to get over it. It was a fairly common response. 'Let's get some things straight. When I walk into the room and shut the door, independent discussions stop. 5-8 is my time unless you plan on dropping my class.' she gave them all a pointed look then continued.

'And just to answer the questions I know that are buzzing around your minds, yes, I am young, yes, my class is hard, and no, we will not be getting out early and I rarely cancel.' she scanned the class and caught eyes with him again. She shifted a little uncomfortably before standing with a stack of papers in her hands.

He was going to have to stop looking at her like that. She was going to melt if he didn't.

'This your syllabus. I will not be reminding you of due dates so please invest in a planner if you need one. I hear you can print off free pdfs so keep it as an option.' she walked around handed out the packets. When she got to Fitz, she held the paper out and his fingertips brushed against her hand. She internally chastised herself for the little shiver that surged through her body.

After everyone got a copy, she perched herself back on her desk and allowed them time to read over it. Somebody raised their hand soon and Olivia just shook her head.

'No, I don't give extra credit.' she answered before even hearing the question. The student just nodded nervously. 'If you're having an emergency and can't make it to class, you can email me at the address on the paper or call the office number. My calls are directly forwarded to my cell phone so please don't call at an indecent time.'

After giving them a few more moments, she pulled out a stack of papers from her brief case. She stood up again and started handing them out to the class but was careful to place Fitz's directly on the desktop and ignore his outstretched hand. He couldn't help but chuckle softly as he realized how hard she was trying to avoid any eye or physical contact with him.

When she finished, she sat back on the desk and crossed her legs, her Jimmy Choo pumps hanging lazily from her toes.

'Before we start, everybody introduce yourselves and say something about yourself. Your favorite color or something.' she grabbed her role and listened to her students. This wasn't something she normally did but she found it was easier to learn their names this way and she kind of wanted to learn more about the man that had been eyeing her.

Fitz stood up first. 'My name is Fitzgerald Thomas Grant but everybody calls me Fitz. My favorite color is green.' he gave her a crooked smile and Olivia looked away from him, determined to not let a little flirting ruin what she had worked so hard to build.

The rest of the class did their little introductions and she marked their names on the roll then began her lecture. On the occasions that she would look up from her notes, Fitz would be looking directly at her. She moved her hand to her stomach to settle the butterflies that she thought had left her years ago.

She lectured right up until it was time to go then dismissed the class. Everybody rushed out of the room, now sick of sitting in the same spot for 3 hours. Fitz walked up to the desk where she was gathering her things and smiled sweetly.

'I really enjoyed the lecture, Dr. Pope.'

Olivia didn't meet his gaze. She was dangerously close to getting lost in his eyes. 'You don't have to kiss my ass after class. Undergraduate tricks don't work here.'

'I'm not.' he said defensively. 'I genuinely did enjoy it. I especially enjoyed your opinion about part one-'

She scoffed and turned her head so she could look him in the eyes. 'My opinion? What do you mean my opinion? You don't agree with me?'

Fitz shifted his weight to one leg and rubbed the back of his neck. 'Honestly, no. I've always believed that-'

Olivia interrupted him again. She didn't mean to be rude but it was a bad habit of hers. She was so used to having to jump to defend herself it was hard to just sit back and listen. 'You're extremely bold to attempt to challenge me on the subject of my dissertation.'

'Well, why don't we get coffee and further discuss?' he smiled sweetly and Olivia's lip involuntarily turned up in a smirk.

'I believe that would be inappropriate. Why don't you find concrete evidence and bring it to class on Monday night? Although I'm sure I could throw any theory you have in the garbage.' she picked her bag up and started walking towards the door and he followed after her.

'Excellent. See you Wednesday night.' he smiled sweetly at her again then walked out of the door while Olivia headed to the parking lot. She needed to find another way to discretely avoid him.

With the help of her old mentor, Cyrus Beene, Olivia had obtained this job working at Harvard's main campus and a small loft apartment close to the school. It wasn't much but it would work until she could find something that suited her. She dropped her things at the front door then went and got ready for bed.

It was usually fairly easy for Olivia to fall asleep but not tonight. Tonight, her thoughts about him consumed her mind. His brown curly hair, the smell of his cologne, that crooked little smile that he showed off all night. It was driving her mad. She got up and made herself some tea, hoping it would help clear her mind.

It didn't but it did help her fall asleep.

Wednesday

'I have a crush on one of my students.' Olivia grunted out her admission to her best friend over Caesar salads in her office. Fitz had been the main subject on her mind since Monday night and it didn't help that he was also enrolled in her Wednesday night class, too.

'Ew.' Abby said sarcastically with smirk. She knew her friend had a tendency to over react to everything so she decided to just sit back and listen.

'I'm serious.' she huffed as she tossed her fork to the side. 'Not just a regular crush, Abby. He's been on my mind since Monday night.' she rested her forehead in her palm.

'Having a crush on a student isn't a crime, Olivia.' she rolled her eyes at her friend's dramatics.

'He asked me out for coffee.' she mumbled.

'You should go!' she said, hitting her hand down on the table.

'Abby, that would be highly unethical. He's my student.' her head shook.

'So if he wasn't your student, would you date him?'

Olivia thought for a moment then slowly nodded her head. 'Yes. Probably. I'd at least go get coffee with him.'

'Well, then maybe you should explain to him that now isn't the right time.' she reasoned. 'You need to get out there and go on a date, Liv. When was the last time you went out?'

'A long time ago.' her eyes rolled, not wanting to admit the specific amount of time. If she had to be honest, it had been 6 years since she had even found herself even attracted to a man.

'What I wouldn't give for you to get a boyfriend to tell you to relax and remind you to eat.' she sighed dreamily.

'You'd probably miss it.' she smirked and pushed the lettuce on her plate around. 'You love feeding me.'

At 5, Abby left and Olivia went down to her classroom. They had spent the whole hour playing out the pros and cons of her going out with Fitz but she resisted it at every corner. There was no way she was going to ruin her reputation over some little fling. Besides, he was probably just trying to use her to get a good grade.

As she walked in, her eyes met with his. He was sitting on the front row in the same spot as Monday night. Tonight he wore a pair of khaki pants and a white button down shirt that he had rolled up 3/4s of the way. He smiled at her but she turned her attention to her feet as she shut the door behind her.

Ignoring him while she tried to give her lecture was a harder task than she had originally thought. They spent the first 30 minutes of class simply stealing glances at each other. Olivia prayed that nobody was paying too much attention to them because she was sure they'd notice.

Fitz pulled a bottle of water from his backpack and took a few sips of it. She found herself staring at his neck as she watching his adams apple bob up and down as he drank from his container. As soon as he realized she was watching him, he put the bottle away and winked at her.

Olivia's breath hitched as she realized she had been caught staring. She turned her attention back to the board so she wouldn't have to face him again. They had over 2 hours left in class and she had no idea how she was going to survive. She was just going to have to avoid looking at him for the rest of the night.

Fitz chuckled softly as he realized what she was trying to do. He kept his gaze fixed on her as she moved around the room, discussing their topic with other students. There was no way he was going to take this lying down. If she wanted to play this little game of cat and mouse then he'd chase her until she wore herself out.

When she turned her back towards them again and started writing on the board, he cleared his throat loudly. 'Professor Pope?'

She swallowed the lump in her throat as she realized who was addressing her. They hadn't been around each other long but she knew that deep baritone anywhere. 'Yes, Mr. Grant?'

His nose crinkled at the use of his last name. It was just another way for her to try and separate herself from him but he'd let it slide. For now. 'I have a comment.' he said, trying to get her to turn around again.

She sighed and turned from the board again. She liked to encourage open discussion in her class but now she regretted it. 'What is it?'

'Well, from my studies, I have to disagree with what the footnotes on this story is saying.' he said, testing the waters out slightly. All eyes were on him as his classmates watched him challenge their teacher.

'Oh, really?' her eyebrow cocked. She crossed her arms across her chest then moved to sit on top of her desk. As much as she wanted to avoid talking to Fitz, she loved a good challenge.

'Yes.' his shoulders shrugged, enjoying the response he was getting from her. He liked seeing her get worked up. 'I don't believe the pilgrims from the Canterbury Tales were leaving to escape the plague.'

'I never said they were.' she cut her eyes at him. 'Nobody knows their exact reason for leaving England. It was either because of the plague or—'

'Or because of their distrust of their government.' he said, finishing her statement.

She cut her eyes at him again. It wasn't that he hadn't made a valid point, she just wanted him to stop being so damn smart. It was only making her want him more and she knew she couldn't have him. 'Good observation, Mr. Grant. You all take note on what he said and we'll discuss it in further lectures.'

After class ended, Fitz sat in his seat and waited for his other classmates to file out of the room. Jake shot him a suspicious look but Fitz explained he had a question for Dr. Pope and he left without further question. As soon as the door shut, he stood from his seat and walked over to the desk where she was gathering her things.

'So, have you reconsidered my offer for coffee?' he said, grabbing her attention as she put her notebook away in her bag.

'Again, Mr. Grant, that would be highly inappropriate.' she pushed her purse up on her shoulder and held her briefcase in her hands.

'Well, let's be inappropriate.' a grin crept at the corners of her mouth.

'Goodnight, Mr. Grant.' she fought the smile playing at her lips and started walking out the door but he was right on her heels.

'My friends call me Fitz.' he said, keeping up easily with her.

'Good for them.' she held a 'thumbs up' with her freehand. They were the last class that night so the building was completely empty. She chastised herself for being caught up with him alone.

'You can call me that, too.' he sped up so he could stand in front of her, halting her steps and blocking her way to the door.

'I'm your professor, not your friend.' she shook her head.

'But, we could be friends.' he smiled sweetly down at her.

'No, we can't.' she tried moving past him but he stepped in the way once more.

'I know you like me. I can tell by the way you look at me and how your body shivers whenever I get too close.' his voice was low. He took a step closer to her and she sheepishly looked down. Her shoes had all of a sudden become extremely interesting.

'That doesn't matter, Mr. Grant. Our relationship needs to stay professional.'

Fitz slowly reached over and tucked his pointer finger under her chin. Instead of taking a step back or moving away from him, she simply allowed him to tilt her head back up to him. He almost smiled as he watched almost all of her resolve wash away.

'You know if it's meant to be, its going to happen, right?'

'We're not 'meant to be'' she said, trying to convince herself more than him. She took a step back to regain her composure. 'These are just silly crushes that we need to get over.'

'I don't have 'silly crushes'.' he said, taking another step closer to her. 'Don't fight this.'

'This can't happen!' she lowly hissed. 'You're my student and I'm your teacher. They could have both of our heads on a silver platter if we're caught! This is highly unethical and—'

Before she could get the rest of her sentence out, Fitz reached out and grabbed her. Gently, he gripped the sides of her waist with his large palms and pulled her body against his. Olivia's lip quivered as she expected him to kiss her mouth but it never came.

Instead, he placed a soft kiss on her forehead, both of her cheeks, then the corner of her lips. She could feel her knees weaken below her and her eyes shut tightly. It felt like forever since a man was so gentle with her and it was highly intoxicating. He was definitely clouding her better judgement.

Olivia was abruptly brought back to reality as he took a step back and released her body. He caressed her cheek before moving out of her way so that she could leave the building. 'How much longer will you be able to avoid this? Relationships aren't always black and white. Don't fight this.'

She took a deep breath and looked away from him. She needed time to think and being with him wouldn't allow her to that that. 'I'll consider.' she mumbled as she moved past him and out the door.

So that was chapter one. I'm going to be updating Knights Ferry soon. I just needed a bit of inspiration and writing this helped. Hope you all enjoyed.