Gerald Hitchings sat over his computer, typing away frantically.

His keys were so worn out that the letters and numbers were barely visible.

His screen spawned new words and equations with every click he made.

Gerald was a mathematician.

He was working on something that would stump his peers for generations.

Specifically, his old mentor.

His old mentor, Asmodeus, carried a similar level of intellect as him.

Gerald tried to defeat him intellectually through several areas of science and writing.

He once invented a new form of energy simply so that he could present it to Asmodeus, but within a week Asmodeus was able to figure out how it was done.

Gerald was stumped time and time again, never truly surpassing Asmodeus.

Of course, he didn't hate him or anything.

There was admiration and adoration for Asmodeus that radiated from Gerald.

He was his old mentor after all, and if he truly hated him, he would present anything he made or discovered to him.

Even when Gerald made something out of the need of his own hubris, he would present it to Asmodeus, just in case.

It was fun after all to send him on a wild goose chase, with the small glimmer of hope that Asmodeus wouldn't figure it out.

The longer it took for Asmodeus to solve the equation, the more fun it was to watch.

However, what Gerald was working on in his office was different.

He was writing several equations that he would present to the world this time.

Gerald wasn't particularly discovering anything new, but he wanted to try to share his knowledge in a way that forced the outside world to think like he did.

His hopes of growing the intellects of the people of the world drove him through his equations.

He was specifically writing them for his friend Emma, with whom he had recently become good friends.

Emma shared an intellect that was similar to Gerald's, but it was different in a way that Gerald found intriguing and even attractive.

Whenever they had worked together in the past, she gave off a smile that seemed to make every equation make more sense.

Her hair was always messy like she was always walking straight out of bed.

The same couldn't be said for perfume however, it wasn't anything fancy, but it was enough to make Gerald feel nostalgic.

Emma had become a bigger part of Gerald's life than he could've imagined.

And so, Gerald began to write out equations that made sense to him and only him.

The answers were supposed to be put together to make another equation, and perhaps so on and so forth.

Gerald wasn't completely sure when he would feel the need to stop writing his equations.

He believed that when he finished one, he would eventually feel he had written everything that he would need to write.

Gerald's clicking and typing on his keyboard rose in a crescendo before falling silent, another equation finished.

He sent the piece to a printer in the corner of his office and let it print, which could take a while.

Asmodeus knew of Gerald's recent equation creations, but never really looked through many of them.

Gerald thought it couldn't hurt to call him in and have him review what he had made so far.

So Gerald called Asmodeus through his land-line, and soon they were talking face to face in his office.

Asmodeus had just come back from a trip from New Orleans to study a new plant life that had begun sprouting in the area.

Gerald grabbed his newly printed papers and placed them on the desk.

He also grabbed the rest of the equations he had made so far and added them to the pile.

Asmodeus looked through slowly and in content.

After finishing one equation, he would ask about the answer, whether it was this or that.

Gerald always shook his head and urged him to keep reading.

He wasn't worried about Asmodeus getting it this time, there was no way he could.

He'd have to know Gerald's deepest secrets to understand the numbers.

Asmodeus had to know things about Gerald that only he and a select few other people would know.

After all, they were made specifically for Emma.

Gerald was sure of the chance that Emma would understand the equations easily, but there was also a chance she wouldn't get it on her first attempts.

Each equation varied in length, depth, and complexity.

One equation might ask you to formulate a sentence using a cipher that Gerald had made up on the spot.

Another would require learning binary to decode a chemical formula.

It was almost like a puzzle or game.

Gerald thought all of this as Asmodeus read.

Eventually, Asmodeus finished the last equation.

He sat for a moment, hands over his mouth as if thinking deeply about what he had just read.

He then stood up slowly and grinned at Gerald.

Not a grin of pride or joy for the man, but that of knowing.

Gerald's own smile that he had painted on his face chipped away as Asmodeus explained what the equations meant.

Asmodeus did not answer most of the equations correctly, there were some he didn't even understand fully.

Yet somehow he had put the pieces that Gerald had crafted together.

He was able to blindly and correctly understand Gerald's message to Emma.

Gerald was shocked.

His knees began to shake and he had to sit down in his sofa chair he rarely used.

Asmodeus continued to speak, he had figured it out.

Silence fell between them.

Gerald's face was flushed, had he really been doing something that would impact the minds of others?

Of Emma?

Asmodeus even knew that the equations were made for Emma, was Gerald that obvious?

Asmodeus walked toward Gerald and placed a hand on his shoulder.

Gerald's mouth stood open as he tried to think of what made it so obvious.

His mind was racing, heart thudding.

Was he panicking?

He felt like disappearing into the corner of his office, hiding between the filing cabinets.

Asmodeus laughed a little and began to reach for the land-line.

He was going to call Emma.

The equations would be explained to her and she would know.

Gerald's plan was ruined.

His craft had been figured out and thrown under the tracks of an oncoming train.

He begged Asmodeus to stop, to cease the land-line, and simply let the equations remain as they were to everyone else.

A mystery yet to be solved.

Gerald had hoped, knew even, that Emma would love his equations.

She would love the thrill of figuring out how the numbers fit together and how to use the right formula.

Gerald knew this, her joy might even cloud the answer from her and she would need to go at them all again with fresh eyes.

That's what Gerald wanted, her willing engagement.

Not Asmodeus simply telling her what the answer was, that wasn't the point of his equations.

As the phone rang, Asmodeus looked at Gerald, who was now on his knees and hands melted together as if he had been praying for years.

He sighed and hung up the phone.

He looked at Gerald in an almost sad way, like he was ashamed of him but not disappointed.

Then, without another moment of communication, he left.

Gerald sat for a second and looked at his floor.

Somehow the papers had fallen off of his desk.

He slowly picked them up, organized them, and refiled them back to where they were.

Gerald opened his computer and began to type again.

Gerald began to lose motivation in what he wrote because Asmodeus would still know the answer.

But then an image of Emma flashed in his mind.

Not an image, a memory.

They were sitting in front of a chalkboard, trying to find the geometric shape of a rare flower petal.

They had worked on it for many days at this point, but they were still going strong.

He remembered how messy her hair was, she had drunk several cups of coffee and gone without sleep, but she still looked wonderful.

Her mind was racing, and she was obviously stressed by the complication of the petal.

But she had a smile on that made her look confident in herself.

Like she knew she would soon understand its secrets.

Gerald gave himself the same smile while sitting in front of his computer.

He thought of what he should make his next equation about.

Then he started making a diagram of a certain flower petal.

Surely this would spark Emma's brain.

End.