Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History - Sunday

[itsananomaly]

Cutter and Connor had been talking about spending a few days on the mainland, having their first official weekend trip away and they decided that for the first day they were going to visit the National Museum of Natural History. After some searching, Cutter had found a nice hotel for them to stay at, which was courtesy of Lester’s credit card.

They had left Fandom early that morning via a portal, which Cutter was still taking some getting used to but he was getting a lot better about them and after they had dropped off their bags at the hotel, they went to the museum, which Cutter was finding that he was extremely excited about and couldn’t wait to start exploring.

Once they were inside, he looked around excitedly, “where should we start first?” he asked Connor, trying to take in everything and figuring out what direction they should go in.

[for the boyfriend, who is modded with permission and NFB due to distance!]

Comments

[anomaly_research_nerd]

Connor might have spent a couple minutes just gawking at everything when they first walked into the hotel. He could count on one hand, hell with on finger, the number of times he had been in a place that nice.... including right then. And he got to spend two days here.

But there was a lot to do and see and an entire museum waiting for them to explore. So, when they were finally inside, he looked around, eyes wide like a kid in a candy shop.

"I'd say the oceanic collection but I worry I'd not get you away from the trilobite displays right from the start" he said with a playful nudge.

[itsananomaly]

Cutter laughed at that, "well that's true, I don't think you'll get me to leave the trilobite displays once we get there," his eyes lit up at the thought of seeing the displays, he found a map of the museum to start going over it, "maybe we could leave those a little bit later then? How about we start with Bone Hall or we could look at the Butterfly Pavilion?"

[anomaly_research_nerd]

"Maybe the Bone Hall? The Fossil lab looked really interesting and I think I saw on the schedule that they actually had some fossils they were going to be working on today so that might be cool to check out?"

Connor reached out a hand with a smile. "I'm good with anything, as long as I get to gawk at cool things with you."

[itsananomaly]

Cutter smiled warmly as he reached out to take Connor's hand, "then we can do that, the fossil lab does look interesting, especially since we went on our fossil hunt the other day," his smile widened, "and that makes two of us, I'm glad that we were able to do this trip, its will be nice to be able to explore the Smithsonian with you, I'm looking forward to our trip,"

[anomaly_research_nerd]

Connor smiled and gave Cutter's hand a gentle squeeze and then gave a gentle tug as he started leading him in the direction they needed to go.

"Im not the best with maps, admittedly, but I think we can get to the Fossil Lab through the Bone Hall so we can take care of both at the same time!"

[itsananomaly]

Cutter smiled as he happily let Connor start to lead him in the direction they needed to go, “okay we can do that, I think that would probably be the best way to start, I think starting with those two sounds fantastic and we can work our way from there,” he added, "and we can fit in as many exhibits as we can,"

[anomaly_research_nerd]

"And I'll finally get to see my boyfriend in full Professor mode" Connor teased, because really, the times Cutter had actually showed up to teach a full lecture at the university were so rare it might as well have never really happened.

[itsananomaly]

It shouldn't have been possible for Cutter to turn that red but he did and he smiled warmly at Connor, "well, I'll make sure to give a very impressive lecture than, make up for all those lectures that I didn't attend at the university,"

Which was most of them Cutter, it may as well have been Stephen's class since you barely turned up at all.

[anomaly_research_nerd]

"Can I ask all the annoying and overly complicated questions?" he asked with a small wink, his grin widening as he saw the flush on Cutter's face. "I never did get the chance to do that ya know? And... I guess this will be good practice as well if I do manage to make it back to the university at some point."

[itsananomaly]

"You can ask me as many questions as you like," Cutter grinned back, his flush deepening at the wink, "and they won't be annoying and overly complicated questions, I'll be happy to answer them all for you, we can think of it as extra credit for preparing for your university return,"

[anomaly_research_nerd]

"Oh Professor!" Connor said with a mock 'student' voice. "What are the main differences between the Tyranasours Rex and the Gigananotasourus?"

Yes, he was going to be childish right now, sorry Cutter, he was having fun.

[itsananomaly]

“That is a very excellent question Mr. Temple,” Cutter tried to keep a serious expression but he was not succeeding very well and his lips kept twitching in a smile, “starting with the main differences between a Tyrannosaurus Rex and a Gigananotasourus is that they lived in different eras and millions of years apart, the Gigananotasourus was native to South America and lived in the Mesozoic Era and the Tyrannosaurus Rex was native to North America and lived in the Maastrichtian age of the upper Cretaceous Period, it also believed that the Tyrannosaurus Rex was a lot more intelligent than the Gigananotasourus despite them being of similar size - the Gigananotasourus was also a lot longer and heavier than the Tyrannosaurus Rex,” he was smiling now as he enthusiastically described the differences between the two dinosaurs, “any further questions?”

Cutter may have got slightly carried away in his answer but he was very enthusiastic in his response as he spoke.

[anomaly_research_nerd]

To most people, that all would have sounded like ramblings and words far too big to try and even keep track of.

But thankfully Connor was not most people, and there was a huge grin on his face, listening to Cutter passionately talk about fossils, dinosaurs, time periods, and everything else as they walked.

When he had finished Connor stopped and looked at Cutter with a fond smile. He pulled him closer and leaned in and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

"I'm sure I will come up with some more soon," he said with a grin.

[itsananomaly]

Cutter returned the smile and was surprised but rather pleased when Connor pulled him in closer and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, he started blushing again.

"And I look forward to answering them," he said, his smile widening.

[anomaly_research_nerd]

Connor grinned as they continued on their way. "Maybe while we are here I'll finally figure out that new major for me to work on?"

[itsananomaly]

"I can help with that, if you'd like," Cutter told him enthusiastically, "did you have any ideas already, maybe we can use some of the exhibits to narrow down the possibilities? And then when we're back in Fandom, we can start drafting the proposal for your new advisor?"

[anomaly_research_nerd]

"Still really leaning towards the evolutionary science side of things," Connor offered after a moment or two of thought. "Not really sure beyond that? I... I- Its harder now, in a way? I am not just choosing something for myself. Ya know? I... I want to get this right... for us."

[itsananomaly]

Cutter nodded and then after a moments hesitation, reached over to pull Connor into a hug, "well I think I might know a thing or two about the evolutionary science side of it, there's a whole range of subjects that you can choose from, I know how important this is to you and I want to help you as much as I can,"

[anomaly_research_nerd]

Connor smiled as he was pulled into the hug, turning a nice shade of red himself as he returned the hug. "I cant do this without you Nick," he said softly. "I want your help... I... I need our help."

[itsananomaly]

“And I’ll be here every step of the way,” Cutter assured him as he kept that embrace going, “I’ll be here to help you, you won’t have to do this alone,”

[anomaly_research_nerd]

"Thank you Nick... I... that means the world to me..." Connor held on tight for a moment longer. "I... I won't let you down!" he said as he finally reluctantly pulled back, giving him a quick kiss again as he did.

[itsananomaly]

“You’re welcome and you could never let me down Connor,” Cutter said gently as he held on to Connor, his blush going deeper as Connor gave him another quick kiss.

[anomaly_research_nerd]

"Right... ok" Connor said his face still quite red and hot as he smiled at Cutter. "We um... better get off to those fossils..." he said, as much as the idea of just standing there hugging his boyfriend was appealing, he knew PDA wasn't Cutter's thing. "Shall we?" he asked with a grin. Maybe they would be able to get through a good number of the exhibits... maybe. "I think the big cat displays are up first!"

[itsananomaly]

“Oh that will be brilliant,” Cutter smiled happily at Connor, still blushing slightly and he ducked his head a bit. He still wasn’t used to do much pda’s but he was working on it. “I wonder what big cats they’ll have?” he wondered eagerly.

[anomaly_research_nerd]

"Well, they have saber-tooths at least" Connor said with a nod as they finally arrived and the first display and gave a nod towards it and grinned broadly, watching Cutter's reaction and excitement.