There was a time watching William read would've been a highlight of Gabe's day. He looked utterly serious, but at the same time completely relaxed. He was beautiful, and Gabe hadn't let himself actually look at William in a long time...
And he wasn't going to now, taking the chair William conjured up. He flipped open the book again, but frankly it was hardly idle reading. Instead, he pulled William's letter out of his back pocket, and set about turning it into a paper boat. A really intricate one.
He'd never, actually, been very good at origami, so when William started speaking and Gabe looked up, the paper he set down on the end of the counter was more tangle than boat-like. Whatever. Watching William's face in delivery of thesis wasn't much better, his frown deepening as he outlined the problems. "More or less. Some African traditions bind to the blood with scarification." William glanced up at him when he spoke, and Gabe looked down by reflex, but actually, William's hands weren't much less dangerous than meeting his eyes, especially when--
Hang on. Speaking of scarification. Gabe was reaching before he even thought, but the moment he touched William his brain caught up, pulling his hand back before he'd even turned William's wrist to see the marks in a better light. He wasn't sure he really needed to, given what they were talking about. What they'd been talking about. Gabe cleared his throat around the words that had got stuck there. "Never satisfied with theory, are you?"
And his NEWT Ravenclaws wondered why he was always watching them like a hawk.