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Miller tries his best to be the cool mystery man in the group, even though he lost that title the second Octavia introduced them to Lincoln. That and the fact that he can’t help but go soft when he’s around them means he’s really just ‘the quiet guy in the hat’ to anyone who doesn’t know them.
It’s not like it bothers him. He’s quite happy to sit back at the LGBT group meeting, speaking once to make sure everyone is Very Clear that he is gay, and then sitting back whilst Clarke talks them through a weirdly detailed plan for the next few months. Apparently there are going to be bake sales. Clarke has not factored food poisoning into her plan, but she’s only known them for two weeks, so Miller’s sure she’ll be ready if Bellamy throws up into his beanie again.
“Anyway, that’s the basic rundown!” Clarke shuffles her notes on the desk. “We’ll figure out more details closer to the time.”
Monroe is asking a question about the proceeds as he turns his attention to Harper and Octavia who are bent over a scrap of paper and whispering. Harper catches him looking and grins. “We’re doing an experiment,” she whispers. “We’re seeing how much eye contact all the couples in the room are making.”
“Good to know you’re productive,” he deadpans. “Is this for a class or just for fun?”
“I’m doing an online course into the science of sexuality,” Octavia informs him seriously, because of course she is. “I’m using this as proof that boys are clingy. Also as proof that my relationship is better than any of yours.”
“You’ve put Bellamy and Clarke on this,” he hisses. “Guys, they’re not a thing!”
Harper taps her pen against the paper. “Well, they’re winning on the eye contact. Though it sort of depends if you count Monty and Jasper looking at each other this whole time as one eye contact or loads.”
Miller decides to leave them to it.
Instead, he focuses his attention on Murphy, who's texting and not really listening to any of what's going on around him.
"How are your classes?" he asks quietly, because he hasn't checked in since last week and he feels like a bad friend for a second.
Murphy barely looks up from his phone. "Better, thanks."
Miller assumes he's having one of his days where he Despises Contact With Human Beings, and so he shrugs and faces the front again. Clarke is asking if anyone has any suggestions.
"Can we put flags up all over the school?" Jasper asks, and Monty pokes him in the side.
"No, we cannot. Jaha would have you thrown out," he replied. Jasper pouts.
"It's not a bad idea though," Clarke says, turning to Bellamy. "Could we have a dance or something? To fundraise? We could put flags up and decorate the mess hall, it could be fun."
"There's usually an annual winter ball," Bellamy replies. "But that's not until January, so maybe. We'd have to take it to Jaha."
If there's anything Miller likes less than Jasper when he's had too much sugar, or finding Raven's experiments in the corridor, it's dancing. He scowls and sinks down further in his seat.
He misses Jackson. Not that he'd tell anyone that.
The meeting wraps up with a promise from Clarke to talk to Jaha and the decision that the first bake sale will be manned by Lincoln. Miller grins at the mental image of the guy in an apron.
He grabs Monty on his way out. "We need to work on our project for Nygel. Have you got the stuff from Raven?"
Monty nods, giving Jasper a kiss goodbye as he heads to a class. "I've got a free now, if you're happy to make a start?"
"Yeah, I'll meet you upstairs."
Ten minutes later, Miller lets himself into Monty’s room. He’s sat cross-legged on the carpet, the pieces of their project strewn around him. “Miller!” he says cheerfully, “come sit!”
Miller nods, and drops to the floor next to Monty, placing his hands on the floor behind him to lean back. Or at least that’s what he’s meaning to do. The second he puts his weight on his hand, there’s a cold sharp pain in his left one and he gasps. “Miller?” Monty frowns. “You okay?”
Miller lifts his hand to see that he had leant straight onto the cutting knife. “Shit!” he hisses, cupping it. There’s a long red cut across his right palm, and blood on Monty’s carpet. “Jesus!”
“Oh my God, Miller, I’m so sorry!” Monty’s on his feet. “I didn’t think you’d reach that far back, I’m sorry, I-”
“Monty, it’s fine,” he grunts. “I just need to go to the nurse’s office, and check it doesn’t need stitches.”
“Okay, I’ll take you.” Monty looks frazzled, pushing a bit of fringe out of his eyes. “At least you’ll get to see Jackson?”
Miller pretends to be in too much pain to notice the comment, and lets Monty guide him downstairs. He has missed Jackson over the summer, it’s just a shame that every time they see each other is because he or one of his friends has done something stupid. He figures ‘covered in blood’ is not the best look for hanging out with the cute guy that works in your school.
"Considering the amount of times that we've been to the nurse's office in the past three years, you'd really think that Nygel would stop letting you do projects in the dormitories," Miller says, gritting his teeth as Monty leads him down the stairs and into the lobby.
"Yeah, you'd think," Monty laughs as he opens the door to the medical centre. "Except she loves me and she doesn't particularly care when or where I decide to work on stuff."
Miller opens his mouth to reply, but his cutting remark dies in the back of his throat when he sees Jackson sitting at the first aid station.
"Uh, Jackson?" Monty calls out.
He turns around, and upon seeing Miller, swears under his breath.
"What happened?" he says, fumbling around for the antiseptic and bandages. "It's been a week, Monty, for god's sake."
"It's not his fault," Miller cuts in, attempting to cover for Monty. "We were in the Woodshop room and I cut my hand on one of the saws."
Jackson sighs, but takes ahold of Miller's wrist and leads him over to one of the beds. "Sit. Let me have a look at it."
"I'll leave you to it?" Monty says, beginning to slowly move towards the door, but Jackson holds a hand out.
"Don't you go anywhere, Green," he says, not looking up from Miller's hand.
Monty looks terrified, and it takes everything Miller has not to laugh at the expression on his face. It takes less than two minutes of Jackson working on his hand in silence and Monty pressing buttons on his phone for Bellamy, Murphy, Raven and Jasper to come barging in.
"What the fuck happened?" Raven's eyes are wide. She turns to Monty. "Dude. We've spoken about the tools."
Monty elects not to respond, instead hiding his face in Jasper's side, who pats him on the head fondly.
"Miller, you've gotta be more careful," Bellamy chides, as he attempts to move forward.
"Uh, no, Blake. If you're all going to be here, go and sit over there. If there's more of you, which I suspect there are, they can wait outside," Jackson says sharply. "I don't want Griffin on my case."
The gang leaves in time to keep Nurse Griffin off their case, but not quickly enough to stop her daughter. Clarke barrels in at 90 miles an hour, holding her phone up.
“Right, you idiots,” she announces. “In the future, if one of you is injured, please text someone before lessons end. No messing about!” She holds out her phone for Miller to see.
Chat: octavia blake and the criminals
jasper: HAS ANYONE SEEN MONTY OR MILLER
raven: they went back to your room to do the project???
jasper: YES i am AWARE of that does anyone know why there is BLOOD ON THE FLOOR
octavia: what???
jasper: JUST FOUND A FUCKING KNIFE WITH BLOOD ON IT
jasper: MILLER KILLED MY BOYFRIEND
murphy: how much blood??
bellamy: jasper stay calm
clarke: on my way
monty: WE’RE WITH JACKSON IT’S FINE
monty: miller cut his hand
raven: christ you two
octavia: lincoln’s gripping his chest like an old man lmao
monty: sorryyyy we are FINE
murphy: omw with bell raven and jasper
raven: monty make sure he’s talking to jackson and not just BROODING
Miller chooses to ignore Raven’s last message and winces. “Sorry,” Jackson says quietly.
“Not you,” he replies. Boom. Communication done for the day and Jackson is smiling a little bit.
Unlike most of the others, Clarke is not here to help their love blossom. She’s here to shout at him. “You have to be more careful! What if you lay down and it went into your back?”
“It wouldn’t go that deep, Clarke,” Monty says quietly. “It’s sharp, but it’s only small.” Jasper, for once the wiser of the two of them, shushes him.
Before Clarke can dramatise the situation any further, Jackson gives his hand a little pat. “You’re all good,” he says. “Very lucky you’re left handed.”
“Thank you, Jackson,” he says, then sends a death glare at his friends lurking in the doorway as a warning not to say anything that could ruin the moment.
"No problem," Jackson smiles back. "Be glad it was only me and not Clarke's mom."
"How are you, Jackson?" Clarke moves over to hug him.
"I'm good. It's nice to see you. How's your first week been?" he responds, giving her a once over. "You don't look too worn down. I'm glad these guys haven't caused you too much grief."
Bellamy lets out an indignant noise, but Clarke just laughs.
"They've been great," she says. "Honestly."
"Wait, how do you two know each other?" Bellamy says, vaguely confused. "I feel like I've missed something."
"Jackson is a family friend," Clarke explains.
"Turns out, getting a job as an nineteen year old without many proper qualifications is pretty difficult. Abby - sorry, Nurse Griffin - said that if I took a nursing course I could come and work here."
"That makes sense," Jasper says. "I think."
"That's how I know about Jackson's thing for one of the students-"
"Okay, Clarke, don't you have a lesson to get to?" Jackson says, cutting her off. He moves to the counter, looking for something in the cupboard. Miller's pretty sure he's blushing, but that could just be him hoping for too much.
Murphy snorts. "Wow. Awkward."
Bellamy, who knows just how embarrassingly infatuated Miller is with the assistant nurse, grins at Clarke. His eyes have lit up and he blatantly ignores the frantic gestures Miller is making at him.
"Guys, lets go," he says. "I don't know about you but I don't want detention from Kane for being late. Miller is gonna be fine, he'll join us when he's done."
"But I-" Jasper starts. Monty claps a hand over his mouth and drags him out, and the rest of them follow. Bellamy mouths 'good luck at him'. He draws a line across his throat in response, and Bellamy looks mildly alarmed before Murphy pushes him out the door.
Miller is glad for the quiet, but sort of wishes at least one of them could have stayed, because Clarke has just made the make or break reveal of the day. If he makes the decision to raise the topic, things are going to change, and he can’t tell yet if they’ll be better or worse.
Fuck it. “Clarke said you had a crush?” He raises it like he’s teasing Jackson, not desperately trying to find out if it’s him. “Who’s the lucky person?”
“Lucky,” Jackson shakes his head. “Not sure about that, Miller.”
“I thought I was supposed to be the quiet one.” Miller’s usually a lot less chatty than this, but right now, Jackson is holding his hand to wrap a bandage around it and it’s making his common sense fly out the window. He sounds like Bellamy when Clarke had asked him to tell her about himself on her first day. He’d laughed then, but now he just feels sympathy for the poor guy.
It’s moments like these he wishes he could be as shameless as Murphy and just come out with it, or as eccentric as Jasper so no one notices his weird behaviour with Jackson. “Did Monty give you any painkillers?” Jackson asks.
“We came straight here,” he answers.
“I’ll give you something for that,” Jackson says, and Miller nods, because he’s worried that if he opens his mouth he’ll say something dumb.
But he has to say something. “At least give me a clue!” He puts the painkillers in his mouth and accepts the cup of water from Jackson, who looks like he’d rather be somewhere else.
“It’s a guy.” Jackson says eventually, not looking at him. Miller’s not really sure how to respond to that.
“Octavia will kill you if it’s Lincoln,” he says lamely, and Jackson cracks a smile.
“It’s not Lincoln. Do you need to wait here for those painkillers to kick in or are you good to go?”
"I'm probably good to go," Miller says carefully, getting up. He tries not to let the disappointment get the better of him, reaching up to fiddle with the edges of his beanie.
Jackson nods, avoiding eye contact, and turns away.
Miller goes to leave, opens the door, but before he does, he hesitates.
"Whoever it is," he says quietly. "I think you're wrong. He is a lucky guy."
He sees Jackson freeze. His hands stop searching through the box he was looking in, and Miller lets himself hope for a second.
"You think so?" Jackson says.
"Of course," Miller says. "Why wouldn't I?"
He hears Jackson let out a breathy laugh, and he turns around. "What would you say if it was you?"
"I'd say that's a good thing," Miller says simply, and Jackson turns around and smiles at him.
Miller takes a moment to consider exactly what one is supposed to do next in this situation when someone calls from the waiting room.
“Hello? Jackson?” Atom pokes his head around the door. “Mbege got punched in the face.”
“I’ll be right out,” Jackson replies steadily. He turns to Miller with a slightly frustrated look. “Legally, I have to deal with that. Write your number down.” He shoves a pad into Miller’s lap.
“Kinda wanna punch Mbege myself now,” Miller comments, scribbling down his number.
“Plausible deniability- I didn’t hear that.” Jackson says gravely. “Go rest up. And stop getting injured, my heart can’t take it.”
Miller smiles at that and slips out the door as Mbege stumbles in. He’s gonna kill him one of these days.
Chat: octavia blake and the criminals
octavia: how’s the hot date going
miller: he just bandaged my hand what you on abt
raven: the chemistry in that room was madddd
murphy: did you bang on the bed be honest
raven: TELL ME Y’ALL NOTICED THE TENSION
monty: tbh i think i’ve done enough
jasper: this is gonna sound weird but miller you have a lot of blood in your hands
jasper: like seriously our carpet,,,,,,,
clarke: please tell me i started something
miller: all of you stfu
lincoln: Guys leave miller alone i’m sure nothing happened
miller: this is why i love you lincoln
octavia: stick to your own bf fucker
Rolling his eyes at his phone, he continues down the hall and knocks on the door of Monty and Jasper's room.
The door is opened a nervous Monty. "I'm sorry, Miller, I shouldn't have left the cutting blade there - it was stupid, I'm not going to do projects up here anymore, don't worry. We can continue ours in the actual classroom-"
"Monty!" Miller says. He laughs a little breathlessly. "It's fine. I gave him my number."
Monty's eyes widen. "Dude, seriously?!"
Jasper whoops from some hidden corner of the room. "GO Miller! You've got game, boy!"
The sound brings Bellamy down the corridor, and he grins cockily when he realises why Jasper is so happy.
"Told you," he says to Miller. "Nice going."
Miller scoffs and shoves Bellamy, who merely laughs in response.
"You happy?" he asks, and Miller nods.
"Yeah," he murmurs.
Chat: octavia blake and the criminals
jasper: MILLER'S GOT GAAAMME
octavia: HOLY SHIT YES DUDE
miller: fucks sake