A/N: i saw this post on instagram

and i was like "i should write a steli drabble about that! it won't be too long, so it should only take like an hour"

anyway it's a week later and this is over 2500 words long.

---

Eli dropped his pencil on his math notebook. "Done. That was actually really easy compared to what else we've been doing in class."

Steve looked up from his work. "What?"

"Oh, we just did integrals today. Basically backwards derivatives. Super easy. You almost done?"

Steve glanced back down at his notebook. He was not almost done; he wasn't even close to being done. And this work was probably far easier than... whatever it was Eli had said they were doing in class. Steve didn't even know what a derivative was. "N-not really."

"What are you guys doing in class?" Eli leaned over to look at Steve's work.

"Oh, um—"

Eli's face lit up. "Exponents! I loved simplifying exponents! It's like a puzzle, but with math. Actually, a lot of math is kinda like puzzles, but still. The exponent chapter..." Eli's voice faded away when he saw the confused expression on Steve's face. "What?"

"You like this stuff? I don't even understand most of it!"

"I love math!"

"How?!" Steve groaned and laid his head down on the table. "I'm never gonna finish this. I know we were supposed to patrol tonight with Toby and Aaarrrgghh. You can go without me if you want."

"No way! Creepslayerz have to stick together! Let me help you with your homework."

"What?" Steve glanced up at Eli. After Steve forcing Eli to do his homework for so long, Steve had no idea why Eli would want to help him, of all people. "Why?"

"I'm not going to do it for you; I'm going to help you understand it, so you can do it yourself." Eli moved his chair so it was next to Steve's. "That's what's gonna help you on the test anyway. What problem are you on?"

---

Steve was scrolling through Instagram, most definitely not paying attention to a word the teacher was saying. Then again, the teacher was just talking about how the test had gone before he handed the graded tests back, and it wasn't going to help Steve now that the test was over.

"What's that?" Krel was leaning over towards Steve. Krel also always sat in the back of the classroom and paid attention even less than Steve. Yet somehow, Krel always got A's.

"Um. Instagram?" Steve answered hesitantly. He wasn't used to people talking to him casually like that. He scared most everyone in the school from doing anything like that, but ever since he'd become friends with Eli, Steve hardly even glanced in the direction of the students he used to taunt (excluding Eli and occasionally Toby, when he needed their help). Most everyone seemed scared he'd snap again and go back to being a bully, but Krel didn't really know bully Steve. So that explained why he was talking with him.

"Is it an application?"

It took Steve a moment to realize Krel meant app. Who called apps 'applications'? Steve still wasn't sure he actually believed app was short for that. Wasn't app pretty much it's own word at this point, in reference to phones at least?

"Oh. Uh, yeah. It's a social media app."

Krel gave Steve a confused look.

"Do you... not have social media where you come from?"

Krel shook his head.

"Then what do you do on your phone?"

"Mostly this." Krel turned his phone so it was facing Steve, and the graph on it made Steve's head spin. It looked three-dimensional, and Steve didn't even understand the basic x-axis/y-axis graph most of them time.

Wait, if Krel was creating 3D graphs for fun, why was he in Algebra and not in Calculus with Eli? Actually, Steve was fairly certain not even Eli's class was covering 3D graphing.

"Cool, isn't it?" Krel grinned and set the phone down on his desk. "Unfortunately, these devices can hardly handle three dimensions. Four dimensions is much more entertaining."

Steve had absolutely no idea how to respond to that, so he just nodded half heartedly and decided maybe listening to what his teacher had to say wasn't such a bad idea after all.

---

"This is so cool!"

"I know, right? Isn't it totally lively?!"

Steve slowly pushed open the door to Eli's math classroom. He could hear that Aja was in there, but he couldn't tell if anyone else was. Neither Aja nor Eli looked up when Steve entered the room, but the teacher sitting behind the desk did.

"Can I help you?"

"I— um..."

"Oh! Sorry, Steve, I totally lost track of time!" Eli handed what looked like a calculator back to Aja and grabbed his books from his desk. "I'm helping him with his math work," Eli explained to the teacher. "Thanks for letting Aja and I stay late, Mr. Gordon!"

"How was Calculus?" Steve forced a smile on his face as the two walked out of the math classroom. The smile was forced not because he was talking with Eli, but because he was having to attempt small talk about math.

Eli shrugged. "What was really cool was Aja showing me what you can do on a graphing calculator if you know how to work it! I had no idea they had so many cool functions! And, like, if you can convert equations to—" Eli realized Steve looked completely lost. "Right. Sorry. I'll stop rambling about my math stuff. Do you still need help with your homework?"

Steve shook his head. "We spent most of the class going over the test, so he just gave us a review worksheet. I think I know how to do everything on it. Can't promise I'll be fast, though. You can keep talking about your math stuff if you want."

"I've got something even better!" Eli stopped walking and pulled a paper out from his notebook. "They're having a fundraiser night at the museum; all proceeds go towards rebuilding Arcadia. Toby said Miss Nomura - the changeling - wants the three of us to be on guard that night, along with Aaarrrgghh!" Eli handed the paper to Steve. It was a flier for the fundraiser night at the museum. He flipped it over to see a note from Toby scrawled on the back. "Isn't that great?!" Eli grinned. "Not only do we get to help protect Arcadia, but we also get to do it at the museum!"

"You're such a nerd," Steve handed the flier back to Eli. "But we'd better make sure we're prepared to guard the museum again."

---

Eli was very carefully copying down notes in history when a crumpled up piece of paper landed on his desk. It must have been from Steve, because no one else missed when they attempted to throw paper at Eli (and Steve only missed because he wanted to).

Eli flattened out the piece of paper, careful not to rip it. He stared down at it, not sure he was seeing right. It looked like... a math equation? That didn't make any sense. He glanced over at Steve in hopes of getting at least a partial explanation, but Steve was looking at his notebook very intently.

Eli looked back down at the paper on his desk. He'd plug it into his graphing calculator after school. Steve had practice today, so Eli wouldn't see him until school tomorrow. That gave him plenty of time to figure out why Steve had throw a math equation at him, specifically a math equation that didn't fit any base formula Eli could think of, meaning it was definitely too complex for an Algebra teacher to be teaching.

As soon as Eli got home, he rushed upstairs to his room. He pulled his graphing calculator and the paper with the function written on it from his backpack before dropping his backpack on the ground and taking a seat on his bed. Carefully, he copied the equation into his calculator and hit the graph button. He held his breath as the calculator traced out...

Two tiny arcs? That couldn't be right. Eli looked at the equation, and then what he'd typed into his calculator. It was the same. So what was the equation for--

Then it hit Eli. The equation wasn't a function, so his calculator wouldn't graph it unless he switched to a polar axis and converted the equation from y= to r=, which, quite frankly, Eli didn't feel like doing at the moment. He liked math, but he was pretty sure he'd have to look at some old math notes in order to remember how to convert the equation. There was a time for math, and there was a time for figuring out why Steve had thrown an equation at him. Currently, it was the latter.

Eli set his graphing calculator to the side and moved over to his desk. He opened his laptop and quickly pulled up Desmos, a graphing calculator that hopefully didn't exclusively graph functions. After clicking around a bit, Eli figured out how to plug the equation in and have it graph the entire graph, not just the part that passed the Vertical Line Test.

Eli held his breath as he hit the final 1 and the graph took the shape of...

Eli felt his hand move up to cover his smile, even though no one was there to question why he was beaming at his computer screen. On the screen, staring back at him, was the graph of a heart. Steve had copied down the equation to graph a heart and then thrown it at Eli in the middle of class. And Eli knew it wasn't because Steve loved math and wanted to show Eli the cool new graph he'd found an equation for.

Eli was still smiling as he did a quick search for a different equation and copied it down onto a new piece of paper.

---

People didn't throw paper at Steve. That was just the general rule of thumb at Arcadia Oaks High. Yet here he was in history class with a crumpled up piece of paper on his lap. He looked around, but couldn't figure out the culprit because no one looked particularly guilty. Steve decided he might as well look at what was on the paper, in case that gave him a hint. It could have been an old worksheet with a name written at the top.

Instead of a name, Steve found a math equation written on the paper and nothing else. Steve smiled to himself. It had to be from Eli. Apparently he'd figured out what the equation he'd thrown the previous day meant. But how was Steve supposed to graph this? He didn't even own a graphing calculator; those things were about $100 he didn't have.

A thought occurred to Steve. He might not own a graphing calculator, but closet math nerd Krel probably did. At the very least, Krel would probably be able to graph the equation on that weird graphing app he had on his phone. Krel was the one who'd given him the equation to the heart graph in the first place.

So after math class ended, Steve handed the paper to Krel and asked him if he could graph it on his phone. Krel shrugged, seeming uninterested. "Sure. Seems like a pretty boring equation though. Not even a square root; just a lot of exponents."

It didn't take Krel very long to put the equation into his phone, and he and Steve waited, eyes glued to the screen as a blue line ran across the screen, forming the shape of a heart.

"What a dork," Steve muttered as he tried to hide his smile.

"I'm confused," Krel stated. "Isn't 'dork' an insult on this pl-- in this country? Why would you say an insult about someone who gave you a heart? Wait, hearts are good, right? I was told they were good and symbolic of r--"

"It's only an insult sometimes," Steve interrupted. "It has to do with context. Thanks for graphing it for me, by the way. I've, um, gotta go find Eli."

---

"That is so cute!" Aja gushed. "You are so adorable with your romantic gestures here."

"I'm not sure--" Eli tried to argue, but Aja wasn't listening.

"Just like holding hands. Holding hands is adorable. Such a simple way to let someone know you are there for them and you care about them. Humans-- I mean, people in this country have such sweet customs."

Eli bit back a laugh. "Sure."

"So," Aja sat down and leaned across the table towards Eli, "did you say anything back?"

"Not... really? I threw my own equation that would graph a heart at him." Eli shrugged. He glanced around the library to make sure no one was listening. At this point, most people weren't thrown off by Aja pacing and rambling about whatever topic had piqued her interest for the day, so no one was paying them any attention. Still, Eli lowered his voice. "So... do you think he, like, likes me? 'Cause it was a heart and all."

"I am confused. Do you mean something different than liking someone normally? Because you told me yourself you two are friends, which I believe means you like each other--" Aja stopped talking when she saw Steve approaching their table. "Hi, Steve!" she called and waved to him.

Steve rolled his eyes, but he picked up his pace and walked straight towards the table near the back of the library where Aja and Eli were seated. "There's my math nerd," he smiled at Eli. Eli responded by sticking his tongue out at Steve. Steve sat down in the seat on the other side of Eli from where Aja was sitting. "You busy tonight? 'Cause my mom said she and Coach are going out for dinner tonight, so I'll be all alone unless you wanna come hang out."

Aja looked from Steve to Eli and then back at Steve. She cleared her throat and stood up. "I've received a text message from Krel. He needs me for something. I'll see you tomorrow!" With that, she turned and left.

"Sure, I'd love to come over," Eli answered, smiling. "I'll have to let my moms know, though."

"Great! See you later, Pepperbuddy. Also, this is for you." Steve dropped a folded up piece of paper in front of Eli and stood up to leave. "Didn't have time to look up a different one, sorry."

Eli didn't get a chance to ask what that meant because Steve had turned and begun to weave his way around the people gathered at tables arranged in no specific order whatsoever. Eli frowned to himself and unfolded the paper. When he saw what was on it, Steve's words made sense. It was the same equation he'd given Eli he previous day, but written on a new piece of paper. And this one had a three shoved into the equation to shift the heart upwards. Eli made a weak attempt at hiding his smile as he folded the paper back up carefully before slipping it into his pocket.

"You can come out now, Aja."

Aja slowly peeked her head around the corner of the book shelf. Eli had known she hadn't actually left the library, but Steve seemed completely oblivious, so he hadn't mentioned anything. "Did you really know I didn't leave?"

"Yeah."

Aja shrugged. Apparently she didn't care much that she'd been caught. She plopped back down in the chair next to Eli. "So, what did the paper say?"

Eli didn't even bother trying to hide his smile this time. "It was another heart equation."

"He totally likes you," Aja said. "or he secretly loves mathematics."

"He hates math. He's told me that on several different occasions."

"Then he likes you!" Aja concluded. "Though, I have to admit, I still don't understand why you didn't know this before the hearts--"

"Different meaning, Aja," Eli explained. "It depends on the context of the situation. Sometimes 'like' means more than friends."

"Your context is weird," Aja stated. "And why would you consider certain types of relationships more important than others? But I still think he 'likes' you in this other context you speak of." Aja looked down at her phone. "Okay, I have to actually leave now. Goodbye!"

Eli sighed and laid his head on the table. Aja was no help at all when it came to human emotions. She knew the ins and outs of every calculator Eli had ever heard of (and even ones he hadn't), but she had no clue when it came to feelings. Eli supposed he would just have to navigate his way through this on his own.