Work Text:
“Do we have plans this weekend?” Hotch asked. He closed Anna Karenina and pushed it away. This would be the last book of his high school life. Trying to get through it was excruciating.
“You’ve forgotten about Stoned in Salzburg?” Anderson asked. “It’s only gonna be the best Saturday ever.”
“I guess I did.”
“Did you want to bail or something?”
“No, I just thought I would dig my feet in and really put a dent in this book.” Hotch replied. “Right now it feels never ending.”
“No one does schoolwork on the weekend unless absolutely necessary. Reading Anna Karenina isn’t necessary.”
“Tell that to Ms. Clemmons. This book is second to Jane Eyre on her be all, end all list. She's into depressing classic love stories.”
“She looked more like the 50 Shades of Grey type to me.” Anderson made a face.
“Huh,” Amanda looked up from her AP Chem book with a smirk. “Totally.”
“I’ll just read on Sunday.” Hotch said. “If the stoned portion of the evening is referring to us I'm going to have to decline.”
“You always decline.”
“I hate drugs.”
Hotch made it his business never to judge people for their casual vices. Grant smoked weed. He sometimes smoked cloves and drank cocktails. He never overindulged but also didn’t mind being stoned. The couple was very close and Hotch still struggled with how to express his feelings about that.
They were stressed out, overachieving teens. Finding ways to lessen hat stress was a must. But Hotch feared weed was a gateway drug. He had enough barbarians at the gate. If it burst open he had no idea how to keep them from pulling him completely under.
“Weed is relatively harmless.” Anderson said in a know it all tone he’d been perfecting for most of his life. “Should it be smoked in large quantities daily? That’s probably not a good idea. But having a soda or eating too much bread can be just as dangerous. They only tell us what they want us to know and give us what they want us to consume.”
“Who is they?” Hotch raised his eyebrow.
“The man.” Spencer replied. He was plowing through his last English assignment, reading The Color Purple for Ms. Mapes’ AP African-American Lit class.
“Exactly.” Anderson pointed to the teen and nodded.
They were in study hall; Anderson, Hotch, Amanda, and Spencer. They were sitting in the LBJ High Library doing various assignments and projects for classes. Study hall was probably the most cut class in the history of high school but it was raining today. No one wanted to sit out on the quad on a rainy day. Anderson would probably sneak out later with Elle to cut gym anyway. It was volleyball day; the bane of his existence.
“I've done a lot of research about marijuana and other drugs.” Anderson said. “Intermittent use of reasonable doses has no long term adverse health effects. Add to that I'm smoking the good shit, grown by some of the best farmers in the world…cigarettes are more dangerous.”
“You smoke those too.” Amanda said.
“Just so you know, I'm considering disowning you.”
“I love you too, G.” she stuck her tongue out at him.
“What exactly is Stoned in Salzburg anyway?” Hotch asked.
He didn’t want to get into an argument about the weed thing. Not that he and Anderson argued much but every couple had their share. Surprisingly, Hotch was the more emotional in the relationship. Anderson backed up his discourse with facts, or shit that sounded so good it could pass for it. Hotch would just get upset and not want to talk anymore.
“Wow, you really have been distracted this week.” Anderson said. “We’ve talked about it at least twice.”
“We have? I'm so sorry babe,” Hotch shook his head. “I really have been trying to concentrate on this book and Physics work too. It’s killing me.”
“You want to sneak out for some air?” he leaned in Hotch’s ear to whisper. “I can kiss that special spot behind your ear and rub your cock through your pants.”
“Grant!” Hotch covered his mouth, squeezing his eyes shut as some people looked at him. “Really?”
“I was just kidding about the cock thing…mostly. C’mon, we’ll just step out for a minute.” Anderson stood from the chair and held out his hand in front of Amanda. “Milady.”
“You are so smoking me out of house and home.” She pulled two cloves from the crumpled pack in her satchel purse. “I buy these from the Russians and they don’t come cheap.”
“I got you, babe. We’ll be right back.”
Anderson and Hotch walked out of the library. It wasn’t that hard to sneak out of school. They went by the honor system but you might be hard pressed to find many high school kids with honor when it came to a simple escape route. They went out the unlocked side door by the gym on the first floor. Luckily the nearby dumpsters weren’t too smelly today.
There was even an awning to protect them from the steady but relatively light rain. Hotch leaned on the brick wall and Anderson wrapped his arms around his waist. He kissed Hotch’s shoulder and then the side of his neck. When Anderson nibbled his earlobe, Hotch shivered. Public displays of affection weren’t his thing but the side of the building wasn’t exactly public.
And the truth was that he needed this break. Senior year was in the home stretch; the work was nearly overwhelming. Prom was in three weeks and Hotch looked forward to it. He looked forward to spending more time with his boyfriend since they hadn’t been doing that lately.
“I'm a bad boyfriend.” He mumbled.
“If by bad you mean wickedly awesome, than yes.”
“I haven’t been around much lately.”
“And I miss you terribly. But I also told you to buy the Anna Karenina cliff notes like two weeks ago.”
“It’s more than the book.” Hotch sighed. He took one of the cloves from Anderson, lighting it with the lighter from his boyfriend’s pocket. Smoking was so bad for you but so was stress. And he was stressed.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Anderson lit his own clove. He leaned against the wall beside Hotch and puffed away. He wasn’t holding his body anymore but he reached out for his hand. It was there.
“Every time I try I just get this lump in my throat and I pull back. I've never been good at this kind of thing. I'm trying but I'm just not good.”
“As long as you try then you're fine. I'm gonna be here whenever you want to talk. I don’t care if you call me at five in the morning. I don’t care if you ramble on and on for hours and it comes out in little pieces. I love you Aaron, and when you love someone you're there when they need you.”
“What's Stoned in Salzburg about anyway?” Hotch changed the subject. “I'm sure you told me but I completely forgot.”
“It’s similar to how we watch Murder by Death. Emily supplies the top of the line Austrian weed. We smoke, we have a few drinks, and we watch The Sound of Music. It devolves into utter chaos pretty quickly but that, of course, is the beauty of it. Can I tell you a secret?”
“Yeah.” Hotch nodded as he glanced at him.
“Girls aren't really my thing, you know romantically, but there are three women that I would gladly go to bed with in a heartbeat. Ione Skye circa 1989, Angela Bassett circa whenever the hell she felt like it, and the adorable girl who plays Liesl von Trapp. I am so in love with Liesl that it makes no sense. I say all her lines and sing her songs and want to run through the meadows of Salzburg holding her hand. It bugs me to no end that she falls for the Nazi delivery boy and he breaks her heart. Fuck Rolf.”
“Kiefer Sutherland in Phone Booth gives me a hard on.” Hotch said. “You never see his face, only hear his menacing voice. I find that hot.”
“Having weird shit is so good.” Anderson kissed his cheek. “It separates us from platypuses and primates.”
“Isn’t it platypi?” Hotch asked.
“I don’t think so.” Anderson shook his head.
“I think it might be. We should look it up.”
“If you're wrong I get to slap your ass the next time we have sex.” Anderson said.
“So you're saying this is a win-win for me?”
“Ha, Hotch made a funny!”
They both laughed, falling into a comfortable silence of clove smoke and hand holding. Listening to the rain fall was nice but they would have to go back in soon. Saturday, and spending time together, couldn’t come fast enough.
“My parents even said you could spend the night on Saturday.” Anderson said. “I told them it wasn’t a good idea for you to be driving home so late and our house is just a short drive from Penelope’s. They actually agreed. So it looks like I could be slapping that derriere sooner than you think…since I'm right and all.”
“You know what?” Hotch took one more puff of his clove. He threw it out, gently grabbed Anderson by the collar of his Bookends tee shirt, and pulled the other boy to him. Hotch kissed his nose. “I love you too. And I always know how to shut you up. C'mon we gotta go back in.”
Anderson crinkled his nose at him. Then he laughed, finished his clove, and they went back into the school hand and hand. He wasn’t sure what was bothering Hotch and how long it would take for him to spill his guts. Anderson just knew he would be there when it happened. They were both all the better for that.
***