TW: Mentions of abuse
It was now their last week of school, Bruce felt more stress free now that baseball season was over and soon he would be on summer vacation, he was happy that he didn't sign himself up for summer baseball knowing that he needed a break.
The first day back from the the tournament weekend, Vance was already in a fight. Bruce had heard his yells from down the hall and he couldn't help but walk near it to see who was the victim.
He joined the crowd as he watched Vance lay punch after punch on the kid that Bruce couldn't recognize with all the blood on his face. Bruce couldn't wrap his mind around the fact that just two days ago Vance was being kind and sweet and now he was here on top of some random person punching them.
Bruce didn't watch long, he couldn't stand fights still. So he walked away, as he turned the corner he saw Billy Showalter standing at his locker, Bruce picked up his speed to meet up with him.
"Hey," Bruce spoke, watching as Billy closed his bag.
"Hi. How was your tournament?" Bruce shrugged, looking over his shoulder as he heard a yell from a teacher about the behaviour going on.
"It was okay."
"Did Vance go with you?" Bruce redirected his attention to Billy who gave have a small smile as he closed his locker.
"Um... well... yeah, he did." Bruce had to look away from Billy as he raised his eyebrows amused. Billy had been giving Bruce weird looks at school and Bruce knew it had been because Billy saw them together at his house. "But it was just for the act."
"Uh huh." Billy nodded as he began to walk, Bruce following. They walked past the hallway where the fight had been which was now just the principal and Vance. Bruce looked at Vance's slump position on the wall as he barely listened to the threat the principal laid on him. Then Bruce made eye contact with him.
"Did you hear how some singer is coming here next month?" Billy asked, making Bruce look away from Vance's eyes and over to Billy.
"Yeah, Finney told me." Billy entered their first period class and Bruce followed him to their seats. "Are you planning on going?" Billy shrugged as he slung his bag on the back of his chair.
"Maybe. Tickets are expensive though and I'm saving up." Bruce wondered how much Billy got paid for doing papers, he had been doing it for years but he thought that it couldn't have been much.
"How much?"
"They're making it $10 per person, I read it in the paper this morning." Bruce widened his eyes.
"Jesus." He breathed out, watching as the teacher entered the classroom and students began to take their seats. "Robin was talking about-"
"I know what he was talking about and I told him that's probably not a good idea. But if you guys decide to sneak in, I won't say anything."
The teacher began to speak as the bell finished ringing, Bruce let their conversation die in fear of getting in trouble for talking during class.
Bruce still wanted to go to the concert but he didn't have ten dollars and he knew his parents would never give him money for it, plus he kinda was excited to sneak in.
He listened as the teacher explained that this final week was just a catch up week which made Bruce hunch over knowing he'd be bored as he had nothing to catch up on.
-
Bruce stood outside the school building, it had been almost an hour since school had ended and Vance hadn't came to meet him. He had been standing with Gwen and Finney but they had to go so Finney could do some homework, they even offered to walk home with him first but he politely declined incase Vance showed up.
He was now sat on the school steps staring into the empty courtyard, he wondered if Amy was home yet and if she wondered where he was. As he stared at his watch, seeing that it was now an hour and a half, he decided to stand up and begin his walk. He didn't question it too much that Vance didn't come, but he was a bit disappointed that he didn't tell him he wasn't coming over.
He kicked a rock down the sidewalk, the heat blasting onto his bare arms. He was grateful that he didn't live too far away from the school, even though it was only a few weeks of having Vance walking with him, he felt very lonely now, he wondered how he ever walked home alone before.
It had almost been a month of their fake relationship, in a few weeks it would hit that mark and Bruce felt that his father still wouldn't lay off him, he began to think how he could hide his relationship now that it would be summer and he'd have to excuse as to why Vance was there if his friends decided to come over.
He walked up the front stairs of his house, opening the door and hearing soft music bouncing off the walls in his direction. He slipped off his shoes and placed his backpack near them before following the soft hums.
His mother was in the kitchen, back facing him as she did the dishes, The Jackson 5 playing on the radio she placed beside her. Bruce smiled softly, he adored her. He walked into the kitchen fully, leaning on the island watching his mother's hands as she scrubbed, rinsed and placed the dishes in the drying rack.
"How was school?" She asked as if knowing his presence was there. Bruce caught himself staring at the pattern on her dress.
"It was good. I'm so glad it's almost over." He placed his chin in his palm, looking at the counter and rubbing his finger along the cool surface.
"Vance didn't come with you?" She asked, placing a plate in the drying rack. Bruce shook his head.
"No. I didn't even see him after school... he just didn't show up." He furrowed his eyebrows as he spoke.
"Maybe he just got busy." Bruce heard the draining of the sink, he watched as his mother turned around, grabbing a towel and drying her hands. "Oh, I love this song." She smiled, reaching over to turn the radio up as Lean on Me slowly started. She began moving her hips to the hums. "Come dance with me." She tossed the towel on the counter, holding her hands out toward Bruce.
He smiled at her, hesitating before moving around the counter to take her hands. She swayed them back and forth, humming along to the beat before words finally played out and she started to sing.
Bruce couldn't let his smile down as she spun him outward before pulling him back toward her. He was taller than his mother, he watched as she stood on her tip-toes to reach above him to spin him again.
Bruce laughed as she tried to make a wave with their arms before bringing them into a steady flow of swaying back and forth till the song would pick up and she would start moving them side ti side faster.
"This is my song to you." She smiled up at him and Bruce gently smiled back at her, looking at her with all the love he had in his body. Before he began this thing with Vance, he wasn't close with his mother, he would never picture this happening, he was always with his father.
He would find himself watching sports games with his father, working in the garage on some woodwork his father wanted to get done or even just talking about silly sports teams, but his mother slowly became his new favourite person in the world, the person he never really knew could make him feel happy when things felt bad.
He hugged her, not wanting to feel sappy but he just felt so much love for her. The music started to die down signalling the end of the song and Bruce wished he could just dance with her like this forever.
Maybe he had secretly always been a mommas boy.
-
Around ten pm that evening, when Bruce was sat at the kitchen table helping Amy with some work she had overdue and wanted to get done, a soft knock came from the door, the sound echoing throughout the lower level of the house. Bruce's parents had already went off to bed so it was his responsibility to go and see who was bothering them this late.
Amy sighed at the table in frustration as Bruce left her, and he felt tired, he just wanted to go to sleep. He looked out the peephole, seeing Vance outside, looking angry.
Bruce held his breath as he unlocked and opened the door.
"Vance? What are you doing here?" He asked, as the light from inside fled outward, he was able to see a dark spot surrounding Vance's left eye. Bruce narrowed his eyes before grabbing Vance's wrist and pulling him inside, closing the door behind him. He turned on the entryway light.
As long as Bruce had known Vance, he had never seen him with bruises, he was always stronger than his opponents and they never even had the chance to throw one at him and Bruce knew well enough that the person that was in the fight earlier wasn't even half conscious enough to do it.
"What happened?" Bruce whispered out, fighting the urge to bring his hand up to touch Vance's face.
"Nothing." Vance snapped, angry as he bent over to untie his shoes and place them sloppily beside Bruce's runners. "Can I stay the night?"
Bruce crossed his arms as he watched Vance just stand awkwardly.
"What happened to your face?" Bruce tried again.
"Nothing, what happened to yours?" Bruce scoffed and rolled his eyes, turning off the lights and walking into the kitchen, Vance following behind him.
Bruce took his seat beside Amy again as Vance sat at the end of the table. Amy looked up at him but didn't keep looking at him long as Bruce grabbed her paper, looking through it and she knew that she would still be down here for a while longer.
"The way you did this was right but the answer is wrong, you're supposed to use bedmas for it." He slid the paper over to her again and she groaned as she erased her work.
Bruce watched her for only a moment before looking over at Vance who's face sat tense with his arms crossed as he leaned into his chair.
All Bruce could think about was that Vance probably ditched him after school to continue his fight that he never got to finish and it kind of made Bruce a bit pissed especially with the fact that Vance just came to his house and is now being an ass.
"Will you stop looking at me like that?" Vance said, glaring at Bruce when they made eye contact.
"I just want to know what happened."
"Yeah? And I said it's nothing."
Bruce bit the inside of his cheek, looking over at Amy's paper as she hovered the pencil over her equation before looking back at Vance again.
"Where were you after school?"
"Decided I didn't want to come over."
"You could've told me. I waited an hour for you." Vance huffed at Bruce's response, hearing the annoyance in his voice.
"Well that sucks. You didn't get the hint that I wasn't coming?"
Bruce's leg was bouncing under the table, a habit he had whenever he was annoyed by a conversation and wanted to hide it, even though he doubted that Vance couldn't tell he was frustrated.
"Why are you being like this?"
"Like what?" Vance leaned onto the table, his eye narrowed as he scanned Bruce's face. "An asshole?"
"That's one way to put it." Bruce mumbled, looking over at Amy's paper.
"That's how I always am. Don't know what you think."
Amy placed her pencil on the table before looking at Bruce. "I'll just get the answers from Stacey tomorrow." She said, standing up and bringing her paper upstairs with her.
Bruce looked over at Vance once more before standing up as well, pushing his chair in. He watched as Vance followed him. He turned off the kitchen lights, bringing them up the stairs and into Bruce's room.
"If you were just going to be mean why would you even come here?" He spoke quietly as he shut the door.
"I'm not even being mean. Because I don't want to tell you what happened doesn't make me an asshole, Bruce. You're the one getting bent out of shape."
"Well sorry for being worried, how am I supposed to act when you show up here late with a black eye?"
The room grew silent, the distance between them becoming tense. Vance leaned against Bruce's desk as Bruce stood by the door. Bruce breathed in, annoyed as he went to his closet to grab pyjamas, tossing a pair in Vance's direction before he left to get changed in the washroom.
He didn't really get why he was so upset over this, he had watched Vance fight before but seeing him with a mark on his face made Bruce feel something he hadn't felt before and in a way it made him furious.
When he came back to the room, Vance was already laying in the bed, taking the side by the wall and maybe that was his way of trying to ease Bruce by taking the side he hated. Bruce didn't say anything, just turned off the light and laid beside him, turning to face away from the blonde.
Bruce kept his eyes closed as he tried to think of things that made him happy to get over that small pit of anger that grew.
"I got expelled." Vance's voice was merely a whisper but Bruce opened his eyes, staring at the door as he heard him. "I guess four fights on school property pisses people off."
Bruce rolled over, looking at Vance who laid on his back, staring at the ceiling. "So I went home. That's why I wasn't there after school and it just didn't cross my mind to tell you that I was leaving."
Bruce saw Vance look over at him, his head moving slightly. The moonlight was peeking through the blinds, giving off some light in the dark room, enough to see Vance's blue eyes, one outlined in purple.
"What about your eye..." Bruce brought up again, his voice quiet as well, hoping that maybe Vance wouldn't snap at him again. He heard Vance sigh.
"My... my dad was pissed when the principal called him..." Bruce felt his stomach drop, completing the rest of the sentence in his head. "He doesn't even really care, like he doesn't give two shits if I'm at school or not but I guess he just wanted to make me feel bad about it or something."
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah... he punches like a bitch." The room became quiet again and Bruce slowly moved his hand up, the back of his finger gently brushing the spot under the bruise. He felt Vance flinch before his body relaxed.
"Does it still hurt?" He felt Vance shake his head softly under Bruce's touch. Bruce moved his hand to play with a piece of Vance's hair. "I'm sorry."
Vance turned to look at him, Bruce brought his hand back to himself.
"What are you sorry for?"
"I'm sorry that happened to you." Vance stared at him for a moment and Bruce saw his eyes flick down before looking back into his eyes and it made Bruce's breath hitch.
Had Vance just look at his lips? Or at the blanket?
He felt Vance's hand on his waist, pulling him over to him.
"Let's go to sleep." Vance spoke, his voice soft and quiet again as he pulled Bruce onto his chest, wrapping his arms around him.