#quirefic

“There.” She says, changing her focus to Kate’s reflection. She’s wearing an uncomfortable dress, she supposed it looks nice but she can’t focus on how she looks with the way it’s rubbing against her shoulders. She tugs at the small sleeves, only to have her mother pull them back up into place.

“They’ll be here any moment.” Her mother says, referring to the Chavez family. They just moved into the estate across from them, and her mother has been dead set on setting her up with their son. Kate’s only caught a glimpse of him a few times, and only attempted to talked to him once. The one time she did manage to talk to him, he had barely said a word. Kate had gracefully walked away, resisting the urge to roll her eyes.

Kate hears a knock from the door downstairs and her mother rushes out of the room. Kate feels like she’s finally able to breathe, but then her mother pokes her head back in the door.

“Don’t come down until I call you.” She says, smiling at Kate. Kate doesn’t say anything, just nods.

She can just barely make out the chatter from downstairs, her mother’s voice is loud and bright but indistinguishable.

“Kate, our guests our here!” Her mom yells (obviously in a very lady like fashion) up the stairs.

Kate makes her way down the stairs, extremely uncomfortable with all the eyes on her. She keeps her eyes on the ground, watching her steps because she’s terrified of tripping over her shoes. Her mother had had to use makeup to cover up a bruise on her arm that she got from running into the doorway while playing with the maid’s children. She chided Kate for being so childish, and said that was not how ladies should be acting. Kate had groaned internally, but just promised her mother she would be more careful.

When Kate eventually does look up, her eyes skim right past Mr. Chavez, and straight to the girl standing behind him. She’s wearing a dark red dress, her hair pulled back with curls left to frame her face. Kate feels her cheeks heat up as their eyes meet, the girl (or as her mother would say, young woman) smiles at Kate. Her mother mistakes the reason for her blush, and gives what she thinks is a sly smile.

“Kate, have you been introduced to Mr. Chavez yet?” Her mother asks, placing a hand on her arm.

“Not formally, no.” Kate answers extending her hand towards him for her least favorite part of meeting people. He takes her gloved hand in his own bare own and places a kiss on it, Kate does her best not to cringe and instead smiles at him.

“Pleasure to finally meet you.” He says, letting go of her hand.

Kate crosses her hands behind her back, “Likewise.”

“This is my sister, America.” He says, stepping aside to introduce her.

Kate nods at her, giving a generic greeting. America replies with an equally as boring generic greeting.

They make it to the dinner table where Kate’s father joins them. If it were just Kate and Mr. Chavez there would no doubt be awkward silences. Fortunately, her mother is masterful at small talk and is able to keep a constant flow of conversation - even if it gets slightly awkward.

“Mr. Chavez I have to say, you’re quite a handsome man.” Her mother says, smiling as she looks between Kate and him.

“You’re the first woman to have said that to him.” America says dryly. Kate laughs and tries to muffle it by taking a sip from her glass of water. Her mother still gives her a look at the same time Mr. Chavez glares at America.

Kate’s father, another, slightly less skilled, master of small talk, interrupts the silence by asking Mr. Chavez about his business. Kate tunes it out, focusing on her food but still looking interested. She catches bits of his story, and decides she wouldn’t mind marrying him. He sounds like a mediocre man.

Once dinner is being cleared, Kate notices her parents share glances at each other.

“Kate, why don’t you go show America the gardens?” Her father asks her, Kate doesn’t hesitate to push away from the table. She knows what this is about, knows that after they leave her mother will offer to go help clean up in the kitchen (something she would otherwise never offer to do). Then her father will be able to have a few words with Mr. Chavez. Kate has no idea what her father talks about when he gets her suitors alone, but quite frankly she doesn’t give a shit.

She takes America outback to their gardens, leading her along the path that weaves through bushes and trellises.

“I hope you had a nice time tonight.” Kate says, fidgeting with her fingers where they’re interlocked behind her back.

“I’m not one for small talk.” America says, somehow managing to not sound rude but genuine.

“Well then what talk do you like?” Kate asks, her heart starts pounding without her permission. Although she doesn’t let herself get hopeful. The last time she tried to kiss another woman, she ended up having to bribe her into not telling anyone. But Kate’s getting something from America - or at least she thinks she is.

America stops walking, Kate stops as well and turns towards her. Kate looks her lips, then moves back up to America’s eyes; a gorgeous brown that Kate doesn’t think she’ll ever be able to look away from. America stares right back at Kate, increasing the tension between them.

“Any kind that’s not small.” America says, knowing that she’s giving a terrible answer. Kate laughs at it, agreeing with her.

“Small talk can be extremely awkward.” She says, recounting her experience with Mr. Chavez.

“It doesn’t have to be though.” America says, letting the corner of her lips curl up.

“I thought you said you didn’t like small talk?” Kate says. She feels like she flirting more now than she’s ever been able to with a man. She briefly wonders if that’s a metaphor for something.

“Not with most people.” America answers, “but I think you’re different Kate.” She says, Kate’s name rolling off her tongue in a way that sends a shiver down Kate’s spine.

Kate smiles at her, sending a quiet invitation. America reaches her hand up to cup Kate’s cheek, pressing a light kiss against Kate’s lips and then pulling away.

“I’m worried someone will see us.” America says, by way of explanation for the brevity of the kiss,

“I guess we’ll have to make plans to meet again then.” Kate says, already envisioning the different places they could meet.

Abbi sighs as she stares at her laptop. She normally wouldn’t be doing something like this, she likes to frequent Pinterest for recipes but that had been unsurprisingly lacking in pot recipes. She doesn’t even smoke that often, so she doesn’t know what the point of this is. But it helps her calm down, and gets her through cleaning the men’s bathrooms after senior classes at Soulstice.

FitStoner89 Said:

If you’re not going to take this seriously, fuck off.

Ilana laughs at her screen, taking another bite of pizza.

“Dude, this person must have confused their weed for a stick because that’s what’s up their ass right now.” Ilana says to Jaime, who’s sitting across from her with his attention tuned to some crappy reality show.

“That’s unfortunate.” He says, not turning away.

PussyWeedQueen Said:

i am totes serious

just throw some marijuana in a bowl add a nice vinaigrette and u got a great dish

my friend susan loves it

FitStoner89 Said:

Wow, thanks for the help. Just letting you know you have been reported, asshole.

PussyWeedQueen Said:

chillaaxxx my dude i was just having a little fun

wish i could help but i dont know shit about eating healthy altho i could let you borrow my membership at this food co-op. maybe they have low cal weed there

FitStoner89 Said:

I’m actually going to fight you.

PussyWeedQueen Said:

okay name a time and a place

Abbi’s hands freeze over the keyboard, she actually wants to fight this person. She doesn’t know why the shitty comments are pissing her off so much, but she thinks could take this person. She has no idea what to make of the username, and no idea how strong this person could be. But she’s cleaned the windows during a kickboxing class, she thinks she’ll be able to handle herself.

FitStoner89 Said:

I will name a time AND a place. Meet me by the Friends fountain, five pm TOMORROW. I’ll be the girl with the ass of an angel wearing a green jacket.

PussyWeedQueen Said:

you kno thats not really the friends fountain right? the theme song was filmed on a soundstage sweaty :)))

PussyWeedQueen Said:

but okay, i’ll see you there. i’ll be the girl in a crop top and sick leggings

Ilana closes her laptop, turning her attention to the TV.

“Jaime, I’m gonna fight someone tomorrow.”

“Just don’t die, you’re the only gay friend I have here right now.” Jaime replies.

“Okay, tomorrow, after my fight, we are hitting up all the gay clubs.”

Abbi makes it to the fountain at 4:59, and starts looking around for a girl in crop tops and sick leggings. She sees someone in a crop top and almost runs over to her, high on adrenaline. But then she realizes she’s wearing shorts and not sick leggings.

She glances at her phone right as the time turns to five. She looks around again, this time spotting a girl talking to a man in scrubs. She’s wearing a mesh crop top and leggings covered in cats, which Abbi assumes is her definition of sick. She fast walks over to her, pumping herself up.

“Pussy Weed Queen?” She asks, bouncing on her heels.

The girl turns towards her, matching Abbi’s excitement. “Hell yeah it is!” She says, putting up her fists and punching the air, “You ready for me to kick your ass?”

The guy in scrubs starts to talk, “Ilana I don’t think this is -”

“Hell yeah I am!” Abbi yells back, before realizing what she said. “I mean, I’m ready to kick your ass. My ass is not getting kicked today.” She says, mimicking the girl’s - Ilana’s - movements.

“Okay, then let’s go motherfucker.”

Neither of them go, they just kind of stand there punching the air. Abbi hears the guy sigh.

Abbi stops moving, “I’m really scared. I’ve never fought anyone.” She says, still keeping an eye on Ilana’s fists.

“Oh my god, me neither.” Ilana says, letting her hands fall. “I was like ‘am I seriously doing this?’ and Lincoln was all ‘Ilana no stop!’ and I was like, ‘stop trying to control me, you man!’”

“Holy shit, I thought I was gonna die today” Abbi says laughing, “I can’t fight like at all.”

They laugh with each other before Ilana says, “Do you wanna go grab dinner? I know this great place that is super healthy but like cheap at the same time.” She pauses for a second, “Not like I care, but clearly you do Mrs. Fit Stoner89.”

“Well excuse me for trying to get my life together.” Abbi says, following Ilana as she starts walking away. The guy in scrubs, who Abbi assumes is Lincoln, follows too.

They get to the restaurant and Lincoln has barely said anything, which Abbi thinks is a little awkward. But her and Ilana haven’t had a lull in conversation, so maybe that’s why. She’s not sure who Lincoln is to Ilana, but she’s really hoping he’s not the boyfriend.

“Oh my god,” Ilana says, as she holds the door for Abbi. “You really do have the ass of an angel.”

Abbi smiles appreciatively at her, “I know right?”

Their meal seems to go by really quickly, both Abbi and Ilana unable to shut up as they eat. Turns out they’re both Jewish and have an affinity for Lil’ Wayne.

After they finish eating, Ilana folds her hands under her chin, “So,” She says, giving Abbi what she thinks is a seductive smile. “Do you think you’d wanna fight another time?” She asks, raising her eyebrows ridiculously.

Abbi plays along, winking at her badly, “Oh, I think I would.”

“Fit Stoner89 you have changed my life.” Ilana says, reaching across the table to squeeze Abbi’s cheeks.

“Just to be clear we’re talking about sex, right?” Abbi asks, Ilana still holding her cheeks.

“Yup, sex with two beautiful vahinas.” Ilana answers as she puts her hands back down.

After that, Lincoln (who Abbi definitely kind of forgot was there) stands up and drops some cash on the table, “I’m just gonna leave.”

“Oh my god, dude, I’m so sorry.” Abbi says, feeling super awkward all of a sudden.

“Oh it’s totally fine,” Ilana says, waving to Lincoln as he leaves, “We’re just chill fuck buddies.”

“Oh cool, cool.” Abbi says, glancing back down at the table.

“So you wanna head back to my place right now or do I have to take you to the movies first? Cuz I would totally respect that.” Ilana says, knocking a fist against her chest.

“Nope, let's go back to your place.” Abbi answers, probably a little too quickly.

As they leave the restaurant, Ilana’s hovers her hand over Abbi’s ass, “May I?” She asks, letting the door fall closed behind them.

“Go for it.”  Abbi says laughing.

Poe walks into the coffee shop to find Rey standing behind the counter instead of Finn (not that he's learned their names). He tries not to let his disappointment show, because Rey honestly has just as great of a laugh, but she never draws smiley face on his drink. Which, okay, he's a grown man - he can probably live without that.

"Give me all the caffeine you have." He says, once he gets to the front of the line and reaches Rey.

"I'll see what I can do." She says, writing his name on a cup then tapping something into the register. Finn walks in from the back, carrying a stack of cups.

"Poe Dameron!” He says, greeting him with a smile as he sets down the cups. Poe moves away from the register, Finn leaning across the counter to talk to him.

"How have you been? I feel like it's been forever since I've seen you." Finn says, leaning away and grabbing a cup that Rey hands him.

"I was here just last week." Poe answers with a laugh,  although it does feel like a while. Rey had started to get suspicious at the amount of times his wifi stopped working, saying that if it's causing him that much trouble he should just buy a new router. Poe rolled his eyes and Finn laughed. He now has a list of excuses to come to the coffee shop that don't involve getting coffee, ranging from buying crappy jazz CDs to wanting to look at some mediocre wall art. Rey sees through all of them, and he's starting to think that Finn does too but is just too nice to say anything.

"Oh, right." Finn says, pausing as if he's trying to remember their last meeting. They stand in silence, Poe patiently waiting for Finn to finish making his order.

Once he gets his drink, Poe says goodbye to Finn and waves at Rey who waves back and continues taking a customer's order.

Just before Poe gets to the door Finn calls out, "Wait, Poe!"

For a split second, Poe thinks this is it, this is the big dramatic moment they've (namely, Poe) have all been waiting for. Finn’s going to confess his true feelings and there's probably going to be applause.

Poe walks back to the counter where Finn reaches out for his hand while Poe internally loses his shit. Everything seems to move in slow motion until Finn grabs his drink and oh. He was reaching for the cup, not his hand okay cool cool that's fine. No biggie. Who needs big declarations of feelings anyways? Definitely not Poe Dameron.

"You forgot something." Finn says, and oh wait okay it's back on, Poe probably forgot Finn's number which he is now about to write on the cup. Finn grabs the marker from behind his ear and scribbles something onto it. Something that is definitely not his number. Unless his number is ":)". But still, it's incredibly adorable and almost as good as getting his number. Almost.

It's raining really fucking hard. Like, so hard, Poe is kind of pissed he spent so much time on his hair this morning only to have all that (very expensive) product be washed out of it. But the good thing is, he now has a very good excuse to go inside some where and oh look at that the closest place just happens to be the coffee shop Finn works at.

"Lookin' sharp today, Dameron." Rey says when Poe walks in, shivering slightly because he's a fucking idiot who decided he would be fine without a jacket today. Poe doesn't dignify her with a response, and instead puts an overpriced granola bar on the counter, "Just this."

Rey glances down then back up at him, "Sure you don't want something warm, like a coffee?", she asks, smirking at him.

Poe frowns at her, "Oh my god." He says, shaking his head, "You know, don't you?"

"Know that you hate coffee and only come in here to talk to Finn? Yeah it's kind of obvious"

"Hey, I come in here to see you too." He says, and it's true, she’s got a great sense of humor and Poe kind of loves hanging out with her. (Even if hanging out means him ordering a coffee.)

Rey smiles at him then scans the granola bar, "Enjoy your meal.", she says dryly.

Finn walks out of the back again, holding a stack of cups. Always with the cups. Poe has no idea how such a small coffee shop uses so many goddamn cups.

"Oh my god, Poe," Finn says, taking in Poe's appearance. "You look freezing, hold on let me get you a jacket."

Poe doesn't have time to protest before Finn's disappeared again, and Rey's laughing silently at him.

"Shut up." He mutters, as Finn comes back out with a brown leather jacket.

"Here, you can borrow this." He says, tossing it over the counter at Poe.

Poe catches it, "Thanks, buddy." Finn smiles at him. He really does have the best smile.

Poe shows up the next day, with another good excuse (he's on a fucking roll). He decides he has to return Finn's jacket right this instant, because if not he'll definitely forget it.

Poe finds Finn cleaning off tables, "Here's your jacket back."

Finn looks up from the table, smiling at Poe. "You should keep it, it's a good look for you." He says, "Makes you look all dangerous and mysterious." Poe laughs, not sure how a jacket can make someone look dangerous. "Although would you remember to wear it? You seem to forget jackets a lot."

"That was one time." Poe replies, forcing back a smile.

"Okay, sure." He says, then continues cleaning off the table.

Poe stands there awkwardly a moment before interrupting the silence.

"Finn -"

"Poe -"

They both start at the same time, Finn laughs lightly, "You go first."

"No, you." Poe says, and Finn obliges.

"Okay," Finn pauses, rubbing the back of his head. Poe sees him glance over his shoulder, probably at Rey. "I was just wondering if, you might wanna go get coffee sometime?"

Poe can't help but let out a laugh and he hears Rey do the same.

"I mean, it's fine if you don't want to I was just you know wondering. It's chill, no big deal." Finn rambles, a blush starting to cover his cheeks.

"No it's just, I was about to tell you that I fucking hate coffee. And only come in here to - you know - see you."

Finn stops his rambling to laugh, "Are you kidding me?"

"No, sadly I'm not." Poe answers. "But we could go get like...falafels or something." he adds.

Okay, that’s fine. Still a normal morning. Just make the goddamn avocado toast, Santiago. 

It’s been a while since she’s had to give herself a pep talk to make toast. But she does it, she makes her goddamn toast and everything is fine and normal. Until Rosa walks in to her kitchen. 

“Morning.” She says, not looking directly at Amy. Amy stares at the table. 

There’s silence, Amy really needs to say something. Despite what happened last night Rosa is technically a guest, so she really needs to say something. Anything. 

“Do you want some breakfast? I have cereal, or toast or I could make something -”

Rosa interrupts her, thank god, because she doesn’t know if she would have been able to stop herself from talking. “Cereal is good.”

Amy gets up, “Okay I’ll just -”

“I can get it.” 

“Right yeah of course.” Amy sits back down, fidgeting with her hands. “It’s on top of the fridge and milk is...in the fridge” 

Amy prays for the fire alarm to go off. Or for an earthquake that splits the floor open and swallows her into the ground. She really can’t do morning afters. 

Rosa nods and Amy turns back to her toast.

“So did you wanna talk about last night or...” Rosa asks as she sits down across from Amy. Her bed head is ridiculous and disgustingly adorable. 

“Not really.” Amy answers, hopefully not too quickly. 

“Okay well, it was good.” Rosa says, her face remaining blank as it always does. 

Amy feels her face redden, “It was good.” She wants to say it was really good. It was amazing. She sticks with good.

“We should do it again, if you want to.”

Amy stares at her toast again. She’s barely eaten any of it. A shame, after all she went through for it. 

“Yeah we should.” She answers, not realizing what she’s said until it leaves her mouth. But the more she thinks about it, the more she realizes she really wants Rosa to come back. 

Rosa looks up from her cereal and gives Amy the faintest smile, “Cool.” 

“Of course.” Patroclus answers, still staring at the darkness in front of him. Achilles continues kissing his neck, Patroclus feels his heart rate speed up at his touch, but he can’t find it in himself to turn towards Achilles. “Is something wrong?” Achilles asks, propping his head up on his hand. Patroclus shakes his head, he doesn’t know if he can answer that out loud. Achilles watches Patroclus’ face, lit by the moon light that filters through the thin fabric of the tent. A few beats of silence pass, Achilles stays staring at Patroclus. “Can I kiss you?” Achilles asks. “Yes, always.” Patroclus answers, finally turning to face Achilles. He moves his hand so it’s resting against Achilles’ face, bringing him down to press his lips against Achilles’. Patroclus lets out a soft breath against Achilles’ mouth, silently thanking the gods for the warmth of his lips. He’s alive, he’s hear, Patroclus repeats to himself. He moves his hand to run through Achilles’ damp curls, bringing him closer. Achilles breaks their kiss, leaving their foreheads touching and leaning over Patroclus. Patroclus finds his hands wandering across every part of Achilles he can reach. His skin should be covered in scars, no man leaves the battlefield without them. But Patroclus has failed to find any one Achilles. “I love you.” Achilles says breathlessly, Patroclus lets his hand linger of Achilles’ chest, relishing in the feel of his heart beat. “I love you too.” Patroclus answers, as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world. They stay staring, there’s been so many tension filled silences between them lately Patroclus has begun to lose count. He loves Achilles, he knows he does. But he can’t ignore the way war has changed him. It seems as if he leaves his humanity with Patroclus, turning into someone unrecognizable when in battle. Patroclus shakes off his thoughts as he registers Achilles’ lips back on his own. He kisses him back, screwing his eyes shut. Achilles pulls away again, “Promise you’ll stay with me?”Patroclus doesn’t know where that came from. He has no where else to go. “Promise.” He answers, his voice cracking. Achilles smiles so brightly, Patroclus can see it in the dark. He presses a kiss against Patroclus’ lips, quick and chaste, then lays down again. The last thing Patroclus feels before falling asleep is Achilles; weaving his fingers through his own.

Unfortunately, they have their hood pulled up like some kind of mysterious paper sticker vigilante.  Clint carefully reaches behind himself, pulling off the paper and squinting at it. It's not a kick me sign, like he had expected. Instead it's a piece of notebook paper folded in half, he opens it to find in messy, tiny, scrawl:

call me...or text me if you're more into that sort of thing

along with a set of numbers and a small drawing of a little bird. It matches the one that's on the middle of his shirt. Clint blushes and shoves the note in his pocket, where it seems to burn through the fabric. Whoever wrote it hadn't signed it, but he can only guess it was the person he had seen scurrying away. Clint ignores the way his heart rate speeds up and his palms sweat a little bit, instead leaving the school with his head down hoping no one can see his blush. He finds he keeps pressing his fingers against the paper on his walk home.

Clint does not spend twenty minutes staring at the menacing piece of paper. It doesn't even look that menacing, it's slightly crumbled and has various creases from being folded different ways. Clint wonders how long the guy had carried it around with him.

It could be a prank, he thinks to himself. Because that would be just the kind of thing to happen to him. It's happened before, girl's giving him phony numbers or straight guys giving him their numbers because apparently that's funny now. He keeps staring at it until the letters blur together, like that will make a solution randomly appear. He doesn't even know who it's from, all he knows is that someone was wearing a gray hoodie. He tries to think who was wearing a gray hoodie today. The only person he can think of is Sam, but Clint rejects that thought as quickly as it came. Sam's the 100% straight (although in Clint's opinion, no one is 100% straight), super hot quarterback that all the cheerleaders want. So there's no way that Sam would be giving Clint his number. No fucking way.

He's not sure how long he sits there playing with his phone and debating contacting the number, but somehow it gets to six o'clock and he hasn't done any homework So he shoves the note in his nightstand drawer and tries to focus on trigonometry and push thoughts of the sender being Sam out of his mind.

The next day nothing strange happens, there's no random declarations of love or flowers falling out of his locker. So Clint figures the super mysterious note was a prank. His chest feels heavy all day, and he can't stop glancing towards Sam when they have English together. Sam catches him staring once or twice, but when he does he just looks down at his desk. Clint decides it's better to focus on To Kill a Mockingbird anyways.

Clint turns his hearing aid down as he leaves the campus, it's probably not the safest thing to do but it's better than having to hear the laughter of the students around him. He always assumes they're laughing at him. Clint's just turned off the school property and onto the sidewalk when he feels footsteps coming up behind him. They're hard and heavy, someone running. Clint puts his hearing aid back up as he turns around to find Sam running towards him. He runs into Clint, knocking into his chest and almost making the two of them fall over. Clint latches on to the closest thing he can find, which just so happens to be Sam's arm. The arm that's not circling his waist to keep him from falling backwards. Clint tries to look anywhere but Sam's eyes.

"Shit, sorry." Sam mutters as he backs up and moves his hand from Clint's waist. Clint lets the hand that was gripping his arm fall flatly to his side. They stand there staring at each other for what seems like at least five minutes, which is a long time to just he staring at someone. Even if they have the jawline that Sam has, which Clint could probably stare at for days.

"Uh, Clint?" Sam asks, waving a hand in front of his face.

Clint realizes he might have been the only one staring.

"Did you need something?" Clint grips the strap of his backpack, he shifts his feet after finding he can't stay still. He looks behind Sam to see if anyone is following him, maybe they've come to beat him up and steal his lunch money or something. Or maybe Sam was the one who...

Clint cuts off the thought before it can finish Sam wouldn't do that. Even if there was the possibility of Sam being even the tiniest bit of some type of gay, he seems more like someone who wouldn't be too shy to talk to someone. There's no way that's what he's here about.

"Yeah I was just," Sam pauses, looking off to the side and clearing his throat. "I was just wondering if I could get your help on this physics homework, you seem to be pretty good at it." Sam pulls his backpack off and fishes out today's physics homework, most of it already complete.

Clint looks over it, focusing on the problems instead of disappointment making it's way through him. He knew it wasn't Sam.

"These look fine to me," Clint mutters, handing the paper back to Sam.

"I wasn't sure about the..." Sam makes a weird motion with his hand, that Clint assumes is supposed to encompass some element of the homework "ya know." Sam finishes, and Clint hopes Sam doesn't notice the way he watches his throat as he swallows.The two stand there until Sam finally turns back towards the school, saying something about track practice. Clint turns his hearing aid back down and starts heading home again. If he glances back a few times to glance at Sam's ass, well that's no one's business but his own.

So what Clint got a black eye? He was overdue for one anyways, if he's being honest.

And it happened after school, so it's not like it caused a huge brouhaha or got anyone in trouble. So really, it wasn't a big deal. Not even really a deal at all.

And that's why he decides to just head home and figure something out when he gets there.

He's almost made it off school grounds when he hears someone running up behind him.

"Hey."

Clint turns to see Sam running up behind him. He forgets about his black eye for a second, which is why he's momentarily confused when Sam stops in his tracks and lets out an "Oh shit."

"What happened to your eye?" Sam asks as he walks closer to Clint.

Clint then remembers the throbbing pain which seems to be pulsing through half his eye.

"Oh, this old thing?" He asks, pointing to his eye and forcing a smile. He's not sure if he's flirting, and if he is he's not sure he's doing a very good job.

Sam laughs, Clint looks away to keep his too bright and gorgeous smile from blinding him. It's not like he thinks about said smile a lot, it's just a fact that Sam Wilson has a very nice smile.

Sam must guess that Clint doesn't wanna talk about what happened,

"I think you're bleeding a little too." he says, pointing towards Clint's face.

Clint reaches up and feels above his eyebrow, and yup that would explain the stinging and why he had wondered if it was raining.

Clint can't think of anything witty to say this time.

"You wanna just come back to my place and fix it up? I just live right over there."

Sam points to a group of apartments across the street. Clint nods, finding he's not able to get any words out.

Probably that stupid smile again.

Sam had lead Clint up to his third story apartment, then into the bathroom where Clint now sits on the counter patiently waiting while Sam cleans his cut.

Sam goes through the motions quickly and efficiently, singing to himself while he dabs antiseptic over Clint's face.

He turns back to the first aid kit, digging through it in search of a band-aid, "So uh, you never called me."

He turns back to Clint, keeping his eyes focused on his work. Clint almost chokes on air.

He clears his throat, "Um what?"

He asks, staring at Sam bewildered.

"I gave you that note and you never called." Sam answers, trying to come off as nonchalant as he turns back to the first aid kit to close it up.

"You never signed it." Clint answers, amazingly enough finding it in himself to not freak out and try and maybe so something that could be considered flirting.

Sam lets out a small laugh, "It was supposed to be all mysterious and romantic...or whatever."

"Yeah, wasn't really either of those. No offense." Clint does his best to pull off a sexy, flirty smirk. It might come off more like a grimace.

There's more silence.

Okay, it had definitely been a grimace.

"Doesn't really change the fact that I've had a super embarrassing crush on you since Freshman year."

Sam laughs again, truly one of the best sounds to grace this sin ridden earth, Clint thinks.

"Well, I guess I win then because I have had a super embarrassing crush on you since 8th grade."

Clint wants to lean forward and press their lips together, Sam's stomach is already brushing across Clint's knee, there's not much further to go.

"Oh so now it's a competition?"

Clint asks, looking up at Sam and really just trying not to do anything weird with his face.

"Always was, Barton."

Sam finally, finally closes the few inches between him and Clint, pressing their lips together. Sam's lips are soft and perfect and amazing and Clint kind of never wants to stop kissing him. Like ever. There's awkward fumbling as Sam moves his hands to cup Clint's face and Clint's hands move to Sam's waist.

Clint breathes out a laugh against Sam's mouth as Sam deepens the kiss, twining their tongues together and doing absolutely amazing things that should definitely be illegal.

They pull apart, both trying to catch their breath.

"One thing," Clint says, pausing to breathe, "maybe don't use my last name before you kiss me next time."