"Well," said Damien, watching their friends disappear around the corner, off to do whatever made up theatre errand Alex could find them, "that was really subtle."
Lucas grimaced. "They're trying."
"And speaking of being subtle," Damien continued, turning his gaze to Lucas, "I'm going to take a wild guess and say you're not here for a theatre thing."
"That'd be a pretty accurate guess." Lucas said, a little abashed.
But much to his relief, Damien was still grinning down at him. "I knew it. I'm actually pretty smart, y'know. I'll be stealing your Harvard spot soon." He looked very smug about it, too.
Smug and happy and thankfully, thank whatever God there was, he looked okay. Alex had been right. Lucas did feel better.
"You'll have to fight me for it."
"That's a really bad choice, Lucas. I'd win." Damien was leaning against the wall beside the classroom door, books tucked under one arm, perfectly unscathed. "Unless you're into that, you little freak."
Lucas swallowed, hard, and frowned before the blush became too obvious. It was too close to last night for that kind of talk. "You're unbelievable."
"You're into it."
"Am I?"
"Oh, definitely. I can remind you, though." Damien leaned forward, just a fraction, but stopped himself.
He glanced up and down the school hall, where many students were still hanging around, talking and arguing and collecting the last of their things. One or two of them were looking at Lucas and Damien. Or at least they had been, because as soon as Lucas made eye contact they suddenly found the wall beside them incredibly interesting.
"Let's get out of here." Damien said, staring down one boy until he finally looked away. "Because you're here for a reason, right? There's something you want to say. I can see it." He gestured vaguely to Lucas' face, and Lucas huffed out something close to a laugh.
"I don't think that's how it works." He began to walk down the corridor, Damien at his side.
There was a foot of space between them. "Trust me, I can tell. You're like an open book." Damien said. Lucas tried to keep his face as neutral as possible, but apparently it wasn't working, because Damien was still watching him closely. "A nervous book. Or a worried one. Or one that's a little bit mad at me?"
"A worried book. As far as terms of endearment go, I think I prefer tesoro." He said, instead of acknowledging that irritatingly enough Damien was right.
Now that his panic had worn off, a shade of annoyance was starting to creep in. Would it really have killed Damien to look at his phone, even once? Knowing Damien, he'd probably been distracted with some nonsense or another (he couldn't help but think fondly of this, as annoyed as a part of his was). But he hadn't wanted to talk to Lucas about it, not at all?
Damien must've been reading him again, because as soon as they'd stepped out onto the cracked concrete of the schoolyard, he put his arm around Lucas' shoulders and pulled him to his side. It was casual enough that they could easily be mistaken for two friends, just bros being bros, but it gave Lucas the opportunity to lean into him. He was very warm, as always, the heat of his skin easily felt through his shirt. Once they were safely behind one of the buildings, a gap between the fence and the rough brick wall, where dandelions grew from the cracks in the pavement, Damien let go.
"So, tesoro," He began, leaning back against the brick, "what's up? And don't start talking about theatre."
"Alex did actually have a costuming job to do." Lucas protested, but when Damien raised an eyebrow, a small smirk twisting the corner of his mouth, he relented. "But yes, admittedly I was using that as an excuse to try and find you."
Damien hesitated a moment before he spoke, tilting his head to one side as if he was trying to read Lucas again, figure something out. "...why?"
"Why?" Lucas asked incredulously, voice rising louder than he'd meant it to. "Damien, I was worried about you. You'd just been outed, and you had to go to school and I thought you'd be alone because honestly, my experiences with some of your friends have been pretty bad, so I had no idea if they'd look after you, or even talk to you. I texted you twice, and I know you said you'd call tonight, but when you didn't respond I thought the worst, so I came here to see if maybe..." What? If he'd been hurt, or alone, or in another fight? Lucas' mind had conjured the worst possible scenarios. "...if you were okay." He was breathing hard, as if he'd just run very fast, all those long, run-on sentences taking the breath right out of him. "That's not unreasonable, is it?" There was still the slight fear that he was being a little crazy.
Damien looked a little stunned. It took him a moment to process the words, and there was a split second where Lucas wondered if he'd overwhelmed him, done too much.
"C'mere." Damien said, and pulled Lucas against his chest. Almost instantly, the last remnants of stress melted away, and Lucas let himself bury his face in the crook of Damien's neck and sigh in relief.
"Why couldn't you just check your phone?" He muttered, though there wasn't annoyance behind the words anymore.
"I did," Damien began, and laughed softly as Lucas turned his head to glare up at him, "Right at the start of the day, tesoro, so don't give me that look. And I saw like a million messages from my family, and all these missed calls, and I..." He sighed, letting his head fall to rest on top of Lucas'. "...I didn't want to deal with that. Not today, when I thought school was going to be so shit. So I turned off my phone and left it in my locker, and when I ran into Sofia before History I told her to call Ma for me. But I should've figured you'd freak out if you couldn't reach me. I'm sorry."
"Oh, God." Lucas groaned, turning into Damien's neck so he wouldn't have to meet his eyes. "Sorry. You shouldn't have to worry about me 'freaking out' on top of everything else. I knew this was an overreaction, I just-"
"What?" Damien cut in. "No, shut up." Lucas frowned. "Not shut up." He amended quickly. "Never shut up. Your voice is great."
"You used to say it was annoying." Lucas reminded him, but he hoped Damien could feel his smile against his skin.
"I used to say a lot of very stupid shit."
"You still say a lot of very stupid shit." He was teasing now, and could tell by Damien's fake exasperated sigh that he didn't really mind.
"As I was saying, before some idiot interrupted me, don't be sorry. It's not..." His arms were wrapped around Lucas' waist, so as he searched for the right word Damien drummed his fingers against Lucas' lower back, thinking. "...a burden. I like that you worry. Too much probably isn't good for you, blood pressure and all that medical stuff, but it's a part of who you are, y'know? So of course I like it." He kissed the top of Lucas' head distractedly, as if it were already second nature. "Jesus Christ, that was cheesy."
"It was. Unbelievably so." Lucas was grinning, his cheeks slightly pink.
"You like it. I've seen your Netflix, Lucas. All those rom coms, it's pretty obvious you just want someone to sweep you off your feet."
"Then why haven't you done it?" Lucas raised an eyebrow.
"I carried you into the bedroom last night, I feel like that's pretty close. But fine, because I'm such a great boyfriend, practically award-winning..." With a long-suffering sigh, Damien hoisted Lucas into the air.
Lucas kicked his legs in the air, to little effect. Maybe he should've started working out, if only because then he wouldn't be left floundering a foot off the ground, trying to push off Damien with little success. Unfortunately Damien's arms were very strong, and his chest was very solid, and Lucas didn't think he'd voluntarily done a sport in years, so the odds were stacked against him.
"Very funny, Damien. Put me down." He tried asking instead, as wriggling around like a fish on land proved fruitless.
But Damien had that smug, proud little grin on his face, and seemed perfectly content with lifting Lucas higher. "Nah."
"It's a figure of speech, Damien, I didn't mean you had to literally pick me up."
But in all honesty, Lucas was pretty content with looking down at him like this. Without thinking, he brushed a stray curl off Damien's face. And for a moment it seemed like Damien wouldn't put him down, something Lucas would probably be okay with. But in the distance Lucas heard a shout of laughter, some far-off students with some far-off joke, and even though there was no possible way it was about them, he froze. Damien tensed too, glancing in the direction of the noise. Even though they couldn't see the students, even though they were standing between a building and a fence hidden by a tall, unruly hedge, Damien put him down. Lucas made sure to take two steps back. There was a safe amount of space between them now.
"So," Lucas said, hoping to gloss over that as well as he could, "how was today? You seemed a little nervous this morning."
"Me? Nervous?" Damien scoffed, a touch too loudly. "Never."
Lucas raised an eyebrow, looking incredibly unamused.
Damien let the act drop. "Alright, maybe a little. I like my friends, but Leon sort of made me realise that I had no idea how they'd react. If I didn't know Leon was such a huge piece of shit, then I couldn't know if anyone else was, either." He sighed, reaching up to rub his eyes, and for a split second he looked exhausted. "Some of them were. Leon is still being a little bitch, but his nose looks fucked up. It matches the rest of his face now." There was a flash of vindictive pleasure in Damien's eyes. "A couple of the football guys said they didn't know about sharing a change room, because they didn't want me looking at them. And for some reason me telling them they didn't need to worry because they were all ugly as fuck didn't help."
Lucas burst out laughing at that, and was relieved to see Damien look a little proud of himself. "No, I can't imagine it did." But he still reached out to hesitantly hold Damien's hand. Damien squeezed it tight.
"It's fine. Vinnie sorted them out, and said if they really didn't like it they could leave at any time, but it'd be pathetic to throw a tantrum over something like this in the middle of our season, etc., etc. They're not happy about it, but they've shut up. Some people have been good, though. Christina's chill, and April hasn't left me alone the entire day. I think she's trying to be my bodyguard, or something. She's getting really into it, actually."
Lucas remembered the first time he'd met her, and she'd immediately leapt into finding him a boyfriend. "That makes sense."
"She wanted to organise some sort of pride...event, or something? Which is nice, and I get she's being supportive, but I had to stop her there. Most people haven't said anything, or just don't care. Sometimes they stare, but can you blame them?" Damien ran a hand through his hair, preening, and Lucas couldn't help but indulge him with a smile.
"Yes, Damien, you're very attractive," He said, and then added, "Even when you're wearing the same clothes three days in a row."
"I'd look good in a garbage bag, tesoro."
"Maybe, but you'd definitely smell better if you wore something clean." Lucas wrinkled his nose. Damien didn't smell bad, exactly, but clean clothes would've been an improvement.
"So demanding." Damien pushed himself off the wall, slipping his hands into his pockets, "But I'm going home tonight. I'll have clean clothes tomorrow at work, just for you." It was teasing, but Lucas found it sweet anyway. How ridiculous of him.
They began to walk again. Even though they'd only been there for about fifteen minutes, the schoolyard was almost deserted. Everyone else must've been eager to get home. But Damien was taking an unusually long time. Lucas, who usually had to walk a little faster to keep up with Damien's long strides, actually had to drop back a little so as not to walk ahead of him.
"Are you worried about going home?" Lucas said, then pressed his lips together.
Maybe that was too blunt. The nuance of emotional conversations were difficult waters to navigate. He didn't want to push if Damien didn't want to talk about it.
"Yeah." Damien said. "Of course. Ma is going to be furious because I didn't come home, and everything's going to be different now, because of the whole 'bisexual' thing."
"Maybe they're more used to it now? It might've just been a bit of a shock." Lucas volunteered hopefully.
"Maybe." Damien said, glancing down at the concrete underfoot.
It was a shame he had his hands in his pockets, because Lucas really would've liked to hold his hand.
But there were still a few people milling about once they walked back into the school building. No hand-holding, then, to Lucas' disappointment.
"I'll call you tonight." Damien said, retrieving his phone from his locker. "And I'll keep this on, and in my pocket, so if you're freaking out you can just text, okay?"
Lucas still felt a little embarrassed. "It's fine. I was overreacting."
"I don't care. Text me anyway." He tucked his phone into his pocket.
With all his worry, Lucas had almost entirely forgotten about the other big thing that had happened that day. Bye. Love you. Was it best to just not talk about it? It might've been a mistake, or something closer to a Freudian slip. It'd be best to bring it up, right? In the interest of good communication, and so he didn't overthink it. Damien probably hadn't meant it seriously, but Lucas had an unfortunate habit of taking everything seriously.
He cleared his throat. "And are we going to talk about the 'love you' business, or was that an accident that I should pretend never happened?"
An almost comical look of panic crossed Damien's face. He opened his mouth, and closed it again. Straightened up, adjusted his shirt, glanced into his almost-empty locker as if there was something he was looking for in there.
"Uh..." He said, very articulately. "You, ah, heard that?"
But before any more discussion could be had on the matter, April and Alex were walking down the corridor towards them, Mona and Christina in tow, and Damien made a big deal of waving them over.
"We'll talk about it tonight. Promise." He said, glancing apologetically at Lucas.
Christina was now wearing the witch's hat, perched jauntily atop her sleek, dark hair. Combined with the blade-sharp eyeliner, it looked intimidating, rather than ridiculous.
"Lucas, you've got to give me your number." April was saying, and beamed when Lucas nodded in assent. "Vinnie, my bag."
Vinnie obliged, handing April a pastel pink handbag with a gold chain, and was rewarded with a kiss on the cheek. She fished out her phone and set about typing Lucas' number in, as to his left Damien made a comment about the hat that earned him a particularly scathing stare from Christina.
All in all, Lucas thought as he, Alex and Mona exited the school, heading for their usual route home, it'd been a successful mission. He was still worried, of course. How could he not be, with Damien going home that night? But his phone was a comforting weight in his pocket and he trusted that this time, if anything went wrong, Damien would call him. And then they'd figure out what exactly 'bye, love you' was supposed to mean.
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A/N: Sorry for the delay on this one, just trying to find a schedule that works. I think I'll be updating every three days from now on!