Curate, connect, and discover
They go on like this for MONTHS, both pining while also spending all their time together. Jason making breakfast, going to the university together, Jason working at Clive’s lab between classes, Clive or Belinda teaching Jason how the technology they use work, then going home together and eating dinner. The only alone time they get is late at night in bed. Eventually Jason even becomes Clive’s TA.
The routine continues until it’s time to start thinking about publication. Everything is a mess. They arrive home later and later, bringing more and more work home with them. Then one night they’re seated on the newly cleaned couch (Jason has set strict rules on book and paper placement) while reviewing the figures for their paper and Clive starts to nod off.
He falls asleep on top of Jason… and Jason enjoys it. Too exhausted to moralize, he stays with Clive asleep on top of him while he organizes sources for a literature review, and then he falls asleep as well.
He wakes up in the morning feeling like a piece of shit while Clive acts like it’s completely normal.
A modern day AU where Clive is a lonely researcher and Jason works part time at a dumpling soup shop and at an office supply store.
Clive only goes out for three things - food, office supplies, and basic necessities. Somehow he runs into Jason doing all three of these. And somehow, the chef/server who will let Clive rant about his research, coworkers, the university (all while looking very interested), remembers his name and says hi to him every time they see each other.