A/N
SLASH. Rated PG/almost-PG-13 for excessive-teenage-boy-cursing. Drabbles are strictly that and will never be continued or pursued.
"The robbed that smiles, steals something from the thief." ~William Shakespeare
Vandalizing ways of Life
“Let me get this straight…you’re the one going around vandalizing school property with compliments?”
“Vandalizing,” Sean scoffed. “Hardly.”
Matthew Charles had been trolling around the campus after dark, as per his Head Master father had requested, to hopefully find out who was spray painting odd messages on school property. All over the dorms, students would wake up to find sayings like ‘today’s a new day’ or ‘smile like you mean it’ spay painted or drawn to the main buildings, causing quite a stir each morning.
It was a weird situation to deal with t was vandalizing, yes, but what were the procedures for positive vandalizing? It wasn’t profanity, the students argued, they should just let well enough alone. But Head Master Charles wouldn’t leave well enough alone ooligans with spraypaint cans n his campus? He wouldn’t stand for it. No, this boy would be taken down and it would be done quietly.
Hence, Matthew got stuck with the job.
So, here he was, three weeks into patrolling the campus and only getting two hours of sleep a night, always managing to miss the culprit, when he came across something—the sound of a can hitting the cement.
And that was it.
He was running down the hall, towards the dorm blocks H-J, cursing as his blond hair swirled in his face against the cool autumn wind. His feet protested weakly, letting him know he shouldn’t have skipped lunch. Letting him know he should probably sleep more than fourteen hours in a combined week.
When I find out who’s been doing this, I’m going to make their lives hell, he thought bitterly. See how they like lack of sleep and—
Matthew raced around the corner, finally catching the culprit as he gathered everything into his ratty backpack.
The blond froze.
“Oh,” Matthew uttered, almost frozen. “You don’t go here.”
The kid with dark, greasy hair smirked. “No shit, Sherlock, thought they at least taught you common sense at this fancy smancy of yours.”
And that pretty much brings them back to the present.
Matthew stammered a few times, looking ready to blow a blood vessel. This is the reason he’s been a walking zombie, lately? Because this—this dirty looking delinquent, thought he was being clever? Oh fucking hell almighty. “You,” He hissed. “You!”
“Whoa, Matthew, calm down, you look like you’re gonna have an aneurism...”
“What? How the fuck do you know my name, creep?”
“Well…”
“What the fuck kinda game are you trying to play? Come on campus and spray paint the walls? You stealing shit, too?”
“No, I—”
“And, what, you’re stalking me? Stalking my father, maybe? Plan on robbing us blin—”
“Whoa! You need to stop jumping to conclusions. And—and keep it down, will-ya? Don’t wanna wake the entire campus. Just…” He gestured over his shoulder, pulling his kelly green backpack off the ground. “Come with me and I’ll explain everything. Calmly.”
“Oh yes, because I’d love to come and be brutally murdered. Y’know, ending up on the nine o’clock News was totally on my list of things to do this week.”
“Hm. When I finally met you, I never imagined you’d be such a little downer.”
“Excuse me? What exactly are you prattling on about?”
“Well, if you followed me, then maybe I’d tell you.”
Matthew’s lips pursed, scowling for a moment as he thought about it. His father knew he patrolled campus at night, he had to assume the delinquent would be responsible were he to go missing, right? Besides, this kid was thin, taller than him, sure, but not exactly packing in the muscles department. “Fine, but just so you know, I know several ways to break a person’s arm.”
The boy merely smirked, quietly leading the way down the deserted—almost eerie—hallway. “I’m Sean, by the way. You probably don’t remember me, but you lent me bus fare about a year back. It really helped me out and I’ve always wanted to say…thanks.”
“…Uh…you’re welcome? But that doesn’t explain how you know my name.”
“Er…that part's a little hard to explain.”
Sean took him to a mostly restricted side of campus, full of old unused buildings that suffered a bit in the big earthquake that happend a few years back. They were all naturally stable but the outer parts looked rundown and the school didn’t have the time or money to renovate, as of yet.
Sean quietly pushed the door open to the biggest building, leading the two of them up to up a rickety stair case, stopping only to climb up a ladder and make their way onto the roof. “I have several little hide-outs on campus,” He explained. “I’m not here everyday, but it’s a great place to come when my home life gets a little hectic.”
“You…sleep here?”
“Here, the attic above the art room, wherever I can find a place. One time I slept in one of the janitor closets an, did my back hurt the next morning.”
“But…”
“How do I know you?” He ran a hand through his hair, laughing a bit nervously. “The first time I saw you was on that bus last year, and you weren’t like all these other snobby trustfund kids, you actually helped me out without a second thought. I took that bus a few more times after that, I’d always sit in the back and watch you reading or doodling in your notebook. You…fascinated me, I guess. Then…I kinda followed you one time,” Sean waved his arms defensively. “Not in a weird way, I was just curious, is all. And then, I saw this school and that night I hopped over the fence and stayed up here. After that, I’d do it periodically, whenever I didn’t have a place to stay. When I dropped outta school, I’d stay here during the day, found ways to crawl through the vents, unnoticed, and—well, don’t get mad, but there was this vent, a cubbyhole almost, that went right over your dorm...”
“You—didn't!”
“I said don’t get mad! I just—sometimes I listened to your conversations, but not in a creepy way!"
“How is that not in a creepy way?!”
Sean shrugged, smiling sheepishly. “Okay, so it sounds creepy. But I couldn’t help it! If I didn’t leave before dawn, I had to stay the entire day, other wise I’d risk getting caught. There weren’t many other choices.”
“But…then, why have you been vandalizing school property these last couple weeks? Seems like a sure fired way to get caught.”
The dark haired boy faltered for half a second, looking out into the night sky. “I’m leaving, tonight actually, and I don’t think I’ll be back any time soon. I wanted to do something good for this uptight school. There’s so much negativity around here—it’s suffocating.”
“And what are you, the Santa Clause of optimism?”
“Why yes, I…” He trailed off for a short moment, looking over at Matthew with a huge, excited grin. “Come with me.”
“Excuse me?”
“I don’t mean run away with me. I mean, come with me to do the last hurrah, the last spray painted wall. On the front entrance. The Head Master’s building. Come with me.”
“Are you clinically insane? He’s my father. I just met you. Why the hell would I risk getting caught?”
“Because—you want to. I know you do. Your father who pits you against your mother on the holidays. Your father that forced you to attend this snobby private school. Your father who made you patrol the school grounds every night. Don’t deny I’m right.”
Matthew simply stared, flabbergasted for a short moment. It would seem fate was tipping its hat in his direction. “…ine.”
A grin spread across Sean’s face as he picked up his ratty bag once more and they made their way towards the main building. Along the way Matthew kept saying over and over that he couldn't believe he was doing this, kept whispering that this was insane. But, he kept following. And he shook his head multiple times and cursed a they spray painted the walls with huge red letters, capitalized to add to the dramatics. Oh shit, what the fuck am I doing? Oh fuck.
Then, when the message was sprayed and finished, they both looked up at it in awe.
SMILE.
“I can’t believe I just vandalized the main school building with the word smile.”
“Congratulations, I guess that would make you a dirty delinquent just like me, huh?”
An eyebrow rose. “You really have been listening to my conversations. Y’know, I only said those things because I was angry about lack of sleep.”
“Yeah, I suppose that’s a comforting thought.”
The blond looked up at the building once more as an unknown sour feeling brewed at the pit of his stomach. “So, you’re leaving? Why—”
Suddenly, Sean grabbed the side of his face, jerked his towards him and covered Matthew’s lips with his own.
Said boy blinked. His thoughts went into system overload.
Sean kissed him rough and a little demanding, parting their mouths open with his tongue, one hand clutching Matthew’s shoulder, one hand sifting through his disheveled blond hair. The kiss lasted all of twenty seconds—he had actually counted—the taller of the two pulling back to kiss his forehead gently and lean down to breathe in his ear “I’ve always wanted to do that.” Then he slipped a scrap of paper in the blond's hand, slung his bag over his shoulder and ran off, waving as he disappeared off into the distance.
Matthew, still trying to reboot, looked down as the small piece of paper.
647-9874 SMILE.
– Sean
The blond ground his teeth together, blinked once, twice, trying to remember to breathe.
“Oh, shit.”
He really couldn’t help but smile.
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