#ranebows

---

The two kissed, fighting between them for who was going to be pressed up against the wall. A gasp. A pair of hands on a belt buckle, jangling in the quiet room away from the hustle and bustle of Windsor House.

Dwight broke away, worry mixed in with his usual hint of panic, “This isn’t right, Reed will kill me.”

“He broke up with me.”

“Yeah but-”

“I said, he broke up with me. We’re not together. He doesn’t get to be mad if I get with someone else.” Shane stressed, not letting it bother him. It did. Obviously. Otherwise he and Dwight would not even be having this conversation, let alone be holed up in Shane’s room like they’d be caught any second.

Shane leaned into kiss Dwight again, but he was pushed away.

“His mom is stressing him out and got to him. Give him a week.” Dwight argued. “Just because he’s graduated and he’s not here doesn’t mean we should… fuck, what are we doing?”

“Uh, having fun?” Shane said, grinning wildly.

Dwight bit his tongue, annoyed. He knew it was wrong, even as his stomach turned and he wanted to give into the manic energy Shane was giving off, he had to at least try- even if it was just to assuage his conscious.  

It’d been two weeks since Reed had broken up with Shane; and one week since Shane had relentlessly been pursuing anything that walked into Windsor House as a kind of mourning ritual since Reed was not returning his calls. Anyone with sense could guess Hilde Van Kamp had forced his hand, but Shane wasn’t sharing what was in those emails that had him throwing his phone against the wall. Whatever it was, Shane was broken up enough to be dragging their ignoble prefect into his quest for a rebound.

Shane shrugged. “I’m bored. You’re horny, it’s a perfect match.”

“I am not-”

“Oh fuck off.” Shane said, pressing Dwight back up against the door, hands in his pants. Dwight couldn’t hide the gasp he made. “You’re into this. What was it you said last time we all had a party- ‘oh Shane, if you were a girl’- that’s a lie. I’m fine just as a boy.”

“That was Todd’s scotch talking, not me.” Dwight’s face coloured. Shane took advantage, leaning in further.

“Sure it was. And you haven’t had a giant bon-”

“You’re stupid, that’s what.” Dwight interrupted.

“Then you’re just as dumb as I am.” Shane said, He didn’t have a leg to stand on about the whining given Shane’s hands were already in his pants, but he had to somehow pretend this might not become a thing.

He didn’t let Shane insult him again. He proved Shane’s point though when he flipped them, Shane’s back to the wall; pinning him with height and weight advantage, even if Shane’s wirey dance muscles could have easily sidestepped the move. They both could avoid this obvious dancing around it if they wanted to; token protests aside, it was a bad decision on both ends, one that could only end badly.

Maybe Shane could have called his ex; gone that way. Maybe Dwight could have not stepped in earlier when Shane was hitting on Baldwin excessively. It would have required a little less impulsivity. Neither were really good at decision making.

They didn’t get any comments about Dwight emerging from Shane’s room later; hair tied back and messy. Shane was sprawled across his bed, clothing rumpled; he was more content that he had been in ages. Thin walls didn’t really matter when both had practice getting off quietly, even if it was weird they really shouldn’t be doing that together.

Dwight snuck back to his and Todd’s room; though as prefect he had been entitled to a single, it felt weird with all that empty space. He cracked the door, slipping back inside and checking the padlocks as usual.

A cough sounded from behind him.

“Did I forget something?” Dwight asked, noticing his roommate’s chair turned around with a displeased look.

“Really Dwight?”

“What?” Dwight asked, trying and failing to play it cool.

Todd rolled his eyes, “Shane? Of all people? He has a boyfriend.”

Dwight felt a wave of shame. He’d been saying that himself, but now he found himself echoing Shane’s hurt words. “They broke up.”

“They’re on a break at most until Mrs. Van Kamp gets her head out of her ass.” Todd said. Oh no. Not the disappointed tone.  

Dwight wanted to escape the room; but he couldn’t considering he’d had all the same protests Todd was bringing up. Granted, he did it anyways… did that make him a bad person.

He asked Todd, shame tinging his voice.

Todd frowned. “No. It doesn’t make you a bad person. It’s a bad decision given I thought Reed was your friend, but-”

“Well it was me or Luke Baldwin.” Dwight protested. “You should have seen Shane in the common room, I thought he was about to do some kind of sex demon ritual right there on the carpet!”

“Sure you did.” Todd wasn’t convinced. “I bet you also had to sleep with him for the good of the school or something? That’s not what you’re supposed to do as prefect. Be his friend, don’t fuck him.”

Dwight coloured. “I… It’s not going to be a thing.”

“Dwight, you’re a rebound if anything. This isn’t going to end well.” Todd pointed out. “If it was Luke, I doubt Reed would feel as betrayed. You slept with his boyfriend.”

“Ex-boyfriend. It’s been 3 weeks.”

“So, you’ve been counting?”

“No!” Dwight said. Were his arms itchy? He felt itchy. Was this guilt? Fuck. He didn’t want to go to church; the priest at St. Anthony’s in Westerville was a total creep. He didn’t want that, so he admitted, “Maybe.”

Todd considered this. “I thought you were straight.”

“Kind of.”

“Kind of?”

“I don’t know!” Dwight said, throwing himself down on his side of the room. He’d finally gotten the elaborate four-poster he’d never been allowed in previous years at Dalton to be installed; and it was great for adding to the drama of these moments. He drew the curtains and tried to hide.

Todd pulled the curtains back anyways, crawling in. Buzzkill.

“You don’t know?” Todd ignored his personal space, pushing him to the side to sit cross-legged on the bed. “So you’re trying to figure it out with your friend’s ex who is also your friend, while you’re supposed to be keeping the peace as prefect?”

“I mean, I told him we shouldn’t!”

“But you did anyways.”

Dwight groaned, hiding his face in a pillow. “I get it! I’m a shit person! But like, he’s hot! Okay! Just, all…”

Todd interpreted the wavy-arm gestures Dwight gave him as best he could. “You know, even if you have a thing for him, this isn’t the way to go about it. Do you like him?”

“I! Don’t! Know!” Dwight said into the pillow, “Fricken heck.”

“I think you can use the stronger swears.” Todd said, finding the humour in the moment.

“I already suck… I don’t want to be an even worse person.”

“Well, you gotta deal with the consequences of your actions; I don’t really care if you say fuck, but someone is gonna care if you fucked Shane.” Todd pointed out.

“Is it bad that even though I knew it was bad, I still wanted to do it?”

“Do you really need to ask?”

Dwight rolled over and sighed. “This was so much easier when I thought sex was icky.”

“To be fair, you could have made an excellent travelling monk; if the vow of celibacy had just held.” Todd said, before flipping back to seriousness. “You got to tell Reed.”

“Ugh, I guess.” Dwight sighed, propping himself up on his elbows. “Confession is going to suck next time I’m home.”

“You could just convert; I have to say Wicca is a lot less stressful.” Todd suggested. “At least Trinity’s coven is anyways.”

“Yeah but then Reed, my mom, and God will all be mad at me. That’s not worth it.” Dwight said to the fabric hanging above him.

“You’re missing out.” Todd said, rolling off the bed. “Just don’t make me have to force you to own up to this. You won’t like me forcing your hand.”

“I know, I know. You’ll post it on the front page of the paper and make sure even Grandma Houston gets a copy emailed to her.” Dwight waved him off.

“That, and I’ll get quotes from Shane saying your dick is tiny.”

"Hey!" Reed came skidding towards them. "You guys—woah!" he tripped over his own feet, for what must have been the third time that day—and landed ungracefully onto the floor.

Shane, already swept up in the confusion of the Music Fest, became even more baffled by a feeling of collision, as if he walked into an invisible wall, a mild pain momentarily striking his body. He only had a moment to feel perplexed over this experience, and to wonder whether he should get that checked out or something, before he glanced up to see that the small boy who tripped was back on his feet again. And, oh. What he saw was not just any boy but an angel, and just like that, Shane’s moment of unexplained pain was easily forgotten in favor of memorizing every detail of his face.

"Blaine!" yelled Reed, running to him. Behind him, the lights flashed. Countdown came to thirty minutes. He slipped on some of the plastic balls on the ground and flopped onto the carpet.

Shane winced, but he couldn’t discern how much of his reaction was induced by seeing Reed’s fall and how much stemmed from a sensation of sudden impact to the front of his body. He scanned his surroundings, dazed, noting that he couldn’t have run into anything, and what was the burning that he felt against his face? As he returned his attention to Reed’s less puzzling struggle, Shane noticed a red mark across his cheek where the skin was grazed by carpet when he fell - rug burn. Shane was slightly taken aback. But...no that can’t be. That’s impossible. C’mon, Shane, you must have had more to drink than you thought.

There couldn’t be any sense made of the strange incidents surrounding Reed Van Kamp, but all the same, the next time Reed stumbled that night, Shane swore he could sense it. He made sure he swooped in to catch him, and while he certainly didn’t want Reed to hurt himself anymore that evening, Shane would be lying if he said he also did it to prevent exploring his newfound theory any more for a while.

The parents were currently being alerted, but for purposes of identification, the missing teenagers were all shown onscreen. Kurt felt it when Reed, pale and shaking, sank onto the couch next to him the moment Shane's photograph—smiling with his classmates—appeared on the screen.

That morning, Reed had woken to agonizing pain in his arm and his leg. Nothing seemed to be the matter with him, and when the news came, he didn’t want to bother anyone with these strange conditions. Besides, he didn’t have time to mind it too much when he was so worried about Shane. Maybe the physical pain was his body’s response to this emergency situation, but what still confounded him was that it had began before he knew of the missing boy and persisted throughout the following days. A premonition, maybe? No, that must just be Dwight getting to your head...

Just when Reed thought he couldn’t possibly feel more wretched, the pain ceased. This was much worse. His heart would have broken anyway when he knew Blaine was summoned to join his family in identifying a body, but when his hurting arm and leg dulled to a tired ache, he was certain it was all over. He could still explain nothing, but he was certain all the same. Kurt insisted on comforting him and walking him through his potential feelings for Shane, but this only contributed to the misery he felt. He was still perplexed by his feelings for this boy he had barely known, and yet what he was feeling now could only be called bereavement. As ridiculous as it sounded, Reed figured he must be more attached to Shane, someone he had met only a few months prior. He felt awful about his grief, feeling as if he didn’t deserve to feel things like that compared to what Blaine must be going through. Perhaps he would have loved him though, or perhaps all of this was still hysterics talking. Either way, he was likely gone forever.