I lean back in my chair, stretching my legs out in front of me. My mate is sitting at the table beside me, staring at the clock impatiently. I smirk at him, having told him before we left that he'd be bored within the first twenty minutes.

He pinches my thigh under the table, and I yelp, drawing dirty looks for disrupting people's concentration. I glare at him and he simply grins unrepentantly. I swear, he earns that bastard moniker more everyday.

I go back to taking notes on normal curves and multiple intelligences, writing furiously as the professor speeds through the lecture. A glance at Raj finds him studying the hall and eighty or so people filling it. He takes one of the handouts passing by, and I groan. The last thing I need is him turning in an assignment. The teacher's given us enough dirty looks today.

He studies the intelligence inventory intently, filling it out without hesitation. "Hmmm. It says 'I like word play, puzzles, oral argumentation, and brain teasers'. I strongly agree with that."

"No kidding," I retort.

"Tsk tsk. Sarcasm is really ugly on you, pet," he chides.

"Feck off." I pause for a moment, noting the people looking at us again. "And quit calling me 'pet' in class. People are looking at me weird."

"Well, what should I call you?"

I sigh heavily. "You could try my name like everyone else."

"Not everyone calls you by your name, luv. Some have pet names for you. Maybe it's time I think of one of those…"

"Oh geez. I swear I'm doomed to have the same conversation over and over again. There is no need to get into pet names."

"You're only saying that cause you suck at thinking of them," he points out.

Completely infuriated by his logic, I turn back to my notes with a huff. Stupid know-it-all clone. I start doodling in the margin of my paper, unable to concentrate now that he's called me on my deficiencies.

"We don't need pet names," I say petulantly. "They're silly."

He frowns, pouting slightly. "But Toga and Will have-"

"If you mention Toga, one more time, I swear to God..."
"Oh but it's just peachy that I mention Will," he snorts. Batting his eyelashes dramatically, he coos, "Oh, Will, you're so sweet and manly." He makes obnoxious kissy noises at me, and I growl. He starts singing that dratted song, which is definitely a product of his visit with Toga (she'll pay for that one, I swear it), and I fume.

I haul off and back hand him right in the smug mouth. Or at least, in my mind, I do. In reality, I give him death stares and kick him in the shin. I suppose it's comparable. For now, at least. Yet again, I wonder why on Earth I'm stupid enough to believe that anything less than mischief will come out of my clone visiting with Toga.

He grins broadly. "So what'll be, hmm? How about…sweetums? Fluffy? Honeybunch? Oh I know…Bunny. Bunny's perfect!"

I look at him, completely aghast. "You have got to be kidding. Tell me you're kidding!"

His eyes tell me he's not and I bang my head on the desk. This, of course, gets me nothing but more busybodies shushing me. Like they care about whatever the hell he's droning on about anyways. While I'm busy trying to figure out how to flip them off without causing a scene, Raj has taken my arm and is doodling a small rabbit on the inside of my wrist. I snatch my hand away quickly and he frowns.

"Oh now, that wasn't nice. I was drawing such a cute lil bunny, too."

I snort and start rubbing the ink off my arm, muttering curse words under my breath. "You're not calling me bunny. End of conversation. Unless you really like sleeping on the sofa bed in the living room."

"You know as well as I do about how long that would last," he says smugly.

"Pretty much forever. I can find plenty of others who'd love to do your job. Might even do it better," I taunt, a wicked smile crossing my face.

"Ah, not many would put up with you like I do. It takes…mountains of patience," he says, stealing my arm back and starting to draw a tribal band over the bunny smudge.

I grin, satisfied that he's given up on the stupid pet names thing and go back trying to catch up on the notes. Just as I get to the part the professor's about to erase, he pokes me in the arm.

"But T calls you Nancy."

"And I hate it, if you recall," I remind him.

"That's a lie and you know it," he counters, extending the design up my arm.

"So you think I favor T over you, is that what this is about?"
"That is exactly not what I'm saying. If that were true, I'd have issues with quite a few people, now wouldn't I?"

I study the paper in front of me quietly, deciding whether I'm going to say anything or not. "Maybe that's what I'm afraid of."

He turns and looks at me sharply, his gaze cutting through all the doubt lingering in my mind. "Don't you think if it did, I'd say something?"

"Yeah, but you know me. I'm-"

"Paranoid?" he cracks.

I roll my eyes. "Just a little."

He stops drawing and intertwines our fingers, still holding my gaze. "As long as you've known me, have I ever seemed unsure about anything?"

Shaking my head, I squeeze his hand tightly.

"Then trust me when I tell you that I'm constantly amazed by everything you do, even if it's stuff I told you about and you didn't believe me."

"You…"

He grins smugly and I return it. Once the moment is broken, he goes back to drawing on my arm, and I start trying to catch back up to the class. When the lecture's finally over, he grabs my books and I snort. "What are we in high school and going steady?"

Rolling his eyes, he shoves the books back at me. "No because if we were, I'd never go out with the easy chick," he replies, taking off.

"You jackass!" I shriek, running across the quad after him.

I find him in the car, grinning like the cat that just ate the canary. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing."

"Liar."

He flicks the radio on and the song makes me cringe. "Let's just say I found your pet name," he says mischievously.

I bang my head against the dashboard. "I'm doomed."