love equations -- charlie eppes x reader - numb3rs

ch ;; 18

''no, some dude's giving a talk about the... a- asym.. asymptotics???? of random matrices.'' i read out, struggling. larry looked at me, shaking his head and slowly raising his arm up to pat me on the shoulder. ''you tried. you tried, honey.''

''charlie, you've done some work in that secion haven't you?'' i asked. charlie nodded. i looked back down to the paper, '' the guest lecturer's name is, uh--''

''the hell is that son of a bitch doing here?!'' charlie exclaimed, his eyebrows furrowing and jaw dropping slightly. ''to whom are you reffering to?'' larry asked, leaning into charlie's side trying to see what, or who, he was seeing.

''marshall penfield.'' he spat, evidently annoyed before the man even spoke a word. ''that's the guy! the one who's giving the talk!'' i said, smiling and handing the paper to charlie. charlie simply looked at me, giving a look that says 'why are you so happy about him?'

''really?'' he asked, i nodding, smiling a bit more. ''uh, marshall and i, we attended princeton together. every chance he got he slandered my work. and the only keg party i ever threw? he stole the keg.'' charlie said, not taking his annoyed gaze off of marshall, who was making his way over to us.

''marshall,'' charlie greeted. ''hey, eppesy! you comin' to the talk? gonna be a good one.'' marshall said, praising himself. ''i just heard about it. ever so excited.'' he said sarcastically. ''wonder what your subject could be.''

''ah, same old same old,'' he laughed, turning to me and smiling. ''hi, how you doing?'' he asked, pushing his hand out in front of him. i stepped back a bit, surprised. i shook his hand, smiling back at him. ''hey..'' i said quietly.

''you found a new approach?'' charlie asked, stepping a bit closer to me. ''only because i recall your earlier attacks on my analysis of plancherel measures.'' marshall said, stepping back into his previous spot. i looked up at larry, rolling my eyes a bit. larry simply stepped behind me and put his elbows on my shoulder, leaning down to have his chin on top of my head. ''comfortable, larry?'' i asked, moving my hands to his elbows. ''kinda, yeah.''

''you made an ass of yourself.'' charlie blurted out. ''yeah, but unlike you,  i continued my work in the field. and i made some interesting findings.'' he taunted. ''elaborate.'' charlie offered. ''a flaw in your work. your 'big breakthrough', the eppes convergence. it's wrong. it was nice meeting you,'' he said, turning to me and suddenly smiling as if he wasn't arguing with charlie literally 2 seconds ago.

''uh, yeah.. you too. good luck with your, uh, your lecture.'' i said, slightly smiling. ''are you going to be there?'' he asked, hopeful. ''uh.. if-- if work doesn't get in the way, i'll- i'll try.'' i offered. his smile grew and he nodded. ''well, let's hope your work doesn't interfere. i'll be seein' you again, then.'' he smiled, grabbing my hand and shaking it one more time.

''dude. what the hell was that.'' i asked, staring at marshall's back, turning over to charlie. ''why is he so, like--'' i faked a gag noise, causing larry to laugh.

~~'''~~~'''~~

charlie's pov // with larry.