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No matter what happened, Aaron stood by his statement that he was a good biker. He’d won a couple of the local races and he was perfectly competent when he biked to school every morning. However, Aaron was also very, very gay. He was so incredibly gay. That fact was important for one reason: it made this whole mess verifiably not his fault . Almost.
It started when Aaron had gone out biking that weekend, just for fun. It was nice to feel the wind streaming through his hair and the slight ache in his lungs that came from the exertion. It was even nicer when he didn’t have the looming threat of being late for Mr. Lemuel’s first period math class. He didn't really know where he was going, but made mental notes so he would know how to get back to his house. This had lead him to a little side street with a dead end. It was still a pretty little neighbourhood, so Aaron had continued down.
About halfway down, Aaron had spotted The Guy . He was heading out of his house, a large black dog trotting beside him. The first thing Aaron really noticed about him was holy fuck, that dog was truly enormous . The second thing was that The Guy walking said dog was possibly the cutest guy to ever walk the Earth.
He had messy black hair that looked like he’d spent a lot of time trying to make it look tidy but had given up half-way through and his shirt read “I Named My Dog Five Miles, So Now I Can Say I Walk Five Miles Every Day”. His shoes were a pair of beat-up hi-tops, just visible over his cuffed jeans. Aaron was pretty sure he was in love.
Unfortunately, Aaron’s brain tended to shut down when he was around boys who were rated a six or higher. It just sort of… happened. One moment, he was Aaron with perfectly functional people skills and higher cognitive functions. The next, he was a stuttering mess with a burning blush and a remarkable inability to make any sort of sense. It was a problem, but usually not a real hazard.
Of course, Aaron usually wasn’t riding a bike when his brain decided to abandon him.
That was a polite way of saying that he went sailing at full speed into a lamp post because he was looking at a cute guy. What even was his life, anyways? He was lying on the ground, his nose in agony, and his bike uncomfortably pinned on top of him. To add insult to injury, the sun was shining directly into his eyes.
And since his luck had apparently completely abandoned Aaron, The Guy came over to see what had happened.
“Holy shit, are you okay?” he asked, his dog sniffling at Aaron’s leg.
No, he wanted to say. You’re incredibly cute and I’ve managed to completely embarrass myself in front of you before I even knew your name. Also, I’m somewhat concerned that your dog is going to eat me.
“Um,” he said instead, because that was just how his day was going. “I think I hit my nose pretty hard.”
“Yeah, it’s starting to bleed.” The Guy crouched down and began examining his face while Aaron tried not to stare directly into his eyes. “I don’t think it’s broken, but it’s going to hurt like hell, fair warning.”
Aaron could already tell. It was starting to heat up, for some reason, and he could feel his pulse beating with every breath he took.
“Let’s get you back on your feet, okay?” The Guy- god, Aaron really needed to call him something else, preferably his name- began to ease his bike off of him. Aaron pushed himself upwards and off his back. There was an uncomfortable amount of gravel clinging to his body and biting at his skin, but he seemed to be mostly okay.
Key word: mostly.
“Oh, shit, dude. I think you’re gonna need some serious disinfectant on that,” The Guy said, carefully avoiding his skinned knee. “I think we have some in the house-” he jerked a thumb back to the one he’d emerged from a few minutes before “-if you’re okay with coming in. I swear we’re not, like, serial killers or anything.”
“I don’t know,” Aaron joked for lack of anything better to do. He managed to get clear of the bike and brushed off his jeans a little. “That sounds pretty suspicious.”
The Guy’s eyes gleamed. “Ah, yes. Welcome to the Hunt family murder shack, local den of iniquity and dead people. I’ll be your host and murderer tonight, Call.”
Aaron stood shakily to his feet, doing his best to ignore the tremors in his muscles and the sting in his knee. “Charmed. I normally wait until the third date to start with the mysterious death threats and messages in blood, fair warning.”
The Guy- Call- laughed and started to walk the bicycle towards the house, his dog following close behind. Aaron was a little farther away, but he kept up okay. “What’s your name anyways? I prefer to know my victims’ names before I brutally decapitate them.”
“It’s Aaron.”
“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Aaron, although I think it might have been better if you hadn’t smashed your face into a pole first,” Call said, propping the bicycle up against the railing of his small porch.
“What’s some good fun without a little blood thrown in? Aww, hi buddy!” The dog- although, with closer inspection, it kind of looked more like a wolf- had nudged Aaron’s hand with his nose. He made the fatal mistake of looking into those puppy eyes and decided that even if Call didn’t like him, he was coming back for the dog.
“That’s Havoc. He’s the best boy in the whole world,” Call informed him matter-of-factly. “Don’t let him lick your face, his breath and general hygiene are terrible.”
“Duly noted.” Aaron scratched just behind Havoc’s ears and then noticed that the door was open. Call stood on the other side with a fond expression on his face, his eyes trained on Havoc.
“We’ve had him since he was a baby. I found him in a box by the side of the road and snuck him into the house. My dad went kind of nuts when he found out, but it’s impossible not to love that face,” Call said cheerily, and held the door open a little wider. Aaron took the hint and stepped into the house.
Internally, Aaron was screeching. So not only was Call stupidly cute, he had a sweet dog, was funny and seemed reasonably nice. He could only thank his lucky stars that his people skills hadn’t hit the self-destruct button and that he was (hopefully) coming off as a regular human. Ten points to Aaron for that.
“Hey, Dad, where do we keep the first aid kit?” Call called into the house, ushering Aaron further inside. It was a nice little place, if a little cramped and in a state of barely organized chaos. He thought he recognized a few of the books as being on car repair.
“Well, what do you need it for?” Mr. Hunt appeared from some unseen room or hall and Aaron almost jumped. “Oh. Who’s this?”
“I’m Aaron,” he said.
“He crashed his bike in front of the house. It looked pretty nasty, so I went over to help. His knee’s not in great shape,” Call told his father, who was peering over the rims of his glasses at him.
“Alright then. It should be under the sink, since I don’t remember moving it.” The older man returned to wherever he’d come from. “And Call? Don’t do anything crazy!”
Call grinned maniacally. “He’s talking about the mummy incident. Long story short, Havoc ended up very wrapped up.”
“Oh no,” he laughed.
“Oh yes. It took forever to get all of it off him, which annoyed him even more than having the bandages on in the first place. Sucks, he would have made an excellent Halloween mummy, huh?” Call directed the last part more to Havoc than to Aaron, which he found adorable. “Alright, let’s get you patched up.”
They wandered back through the house and Aaron felt like he could get lost for years in the surprisingly twisty halls, only to find out that no time at all had past outside. That was just how the Hunts’ house was: a semi-mystical fairy realm that had simply been forgotten for awhile. There were a great deal of books lying around, along with a few misplaced tools. Aaron kind of liked it, in the way he liked the smell of musty old paper and strolling through the library just before closing time.
When they got to the kitchen, Call began to rummage through the cabinets while Aaron sat down on the plastic-y floor. His knee, already stinging, hurt even more when he moved and he was still feeling somewhat shaky from the fall. Annoyingly, his nose was also starting to swell, the throbbing Aaron had felt earlier getting worse.
“Here you go!” Call plunked the red first aid kit beside Aaron, then moved over to the freezer. “You should get out some of the stuff that you’ll need, like the gauze and hydrogen peroxide. I’ll get you some ice for your nose.”
Carefully, Aaron picked out the things he thought he might need. Call came back quickly, plastic bag of ice in hand and pressed it into Aaron’s.
“This is going to sting like hell,” he warned as he poured out the peroxide onto a cotton swab. “I’ve had to do it when I fell while skateboarding and honestly, it hurt worse than the fall sometimes.”
“Thank you for that wonderful reassurance,” Aaron said dryly, just before Call applied the soaked swab to his knee.
It hurt like all hell, almost as if his abrasion was on fire. Aaron hissed as Call rubbed the swab in little circles. Even once he had stopped, the bite lingered afterward.
“Yeah, that’s not ever any fun,” Call said sympathetically. “The good news is now that it’s done, you can wrap it up in gauze and not look at it for a while.”
“I’ll take that,” Aaron said, the pain finally starting to subside a little. Unfortunately, the lack of pain left him with little else to concentrate on but Call and his proximity to Aaron. He was crunched over Aaron’s legs, carefully taping the gauze on. Call’s hair was falling gently into his face, but he could still see that he was biting his bottom lip, carefully focused. Aaron could only hope he wasn’t blushing too badly.
“Congratulations,” Call said after a few minutes, leaning back. “You’ve survived this deadly surgery. You should be safe to bike back from whence you came, but feel free to use it as an excuse to get out of any chores.”
They were both sitting on the floor of the kitchen, the vinyl floor sticking slightly to Aaron’s leg. Call was smiling faintly, leaning back on one arm. He has beautiful eyes , Aaron thought in a daze. He felt kind of like he was the girl in a bad romcom.
“Hey, you good? Did you hit your head too hard when you fell?” Call asked, concern creeping into his tone. Aaron blinked, then blinked again.
“Hmm?” Aaron said, doing very little to reassure either of them. “Oh, I think I just zoned out for a second there. Sorry.”
He hadn’t really zoned out, unless “zoned out” was now code for “got caught up in looking at the cute stranger whose house I’m currently in and who’s very nice and have I mentioned really cute”.
“Alright,” Call said, not fully convinced but apparently unwilling to push it. “As long as you’re not going to pass out in my kitchen. I don’t want to be the one who has to call the ambulance.”
“I’m not going to faint in your house, although if I was, I’d have to demand a fainting couch.”
“What, are my manly arms not good enough for you?” Call gestured widely, as if to emphasize his non-existent muscle. His lips had begun to quirk up again.
“Oh, don’t worry,” Aaron laughed. “I’d swoon into your arms any day.”
Call laughed too, leaning in a little closer. “Well then, I suppose we’d better have a dramatic period romance so our parents don’t accuse us of impropriety.”
“W-well,” Aaron stuttered, suddenly overcome by the realization that Call’s face was only a few inches from his. He could only hope that he wasn’t blushing too badly. “I suppose we’d better.”
For a second, Aaron thought he could see a disappointed look flash across Call’s face, but it was long gone before he could identify it. He had just opened his mouth to speak again when Havoc started barking.
The moment was completely shattered, and Aaron felt like he had been jolted back into his body. He backed up a little, giving himself some more space to breathe. Glancing down at his scratched up hands, Aaron wondered what the hell he’d been thinking when he’d let himself get so close to Call. He didn’t want to come off as creepy or do anything that might make Call uncomfortable considerably more than he wanted to put his lips all over Call’s face.
“Guess we should probably go check that out, huh?” Call said languidly, gazing out the doorway. He sighed and began to rise to his feet. Aaron followed suit, trailing meekly behind him.
Havoc was found to be standing at the Hunts’ front window, staring with hunger at a squirrel outside. Call had only grumbled a little and grabbed at the leash still attached to Havoc’s collar.
“I’ll walk you out?” He offered, already turned towards the door. Aaron was more than happy to say yes.
Back outside, not much time had passed. Aaron picked up his bike again and admired the new scratch on the frame.
“Hey,” Call said, just before Aaron swung his leg over. “Are you in Master Rufus’s third period class?”
“Um, yeah?” Aaron said, tilting his head a little.
He awkwardly stepped down from his porch, Havoc close behind. “Well then, see you on Monday. I’m in the fifth row, not too far from the bookshelf.”
“Oh,” Aaron said dumbly. He mentally shook his head clear of cobwebs and grinned. “I’ll be happy to see you then, Call.”
They exchanged a brief smile and then Aaron was off, his legs pumping the pedals as he set off home.
-
They saw each other at school on Monday. Aaron hadn’t been late that day, but Call was- he’d seen him getting his late slip when he’d taken in the attendance. They’d swapped brief hellos and smiles before Aaron had gone back to Lemuel’s class.
They saw each other every day that week, and the one after that, and the one after that, making eye contact across the room in Rufus’ class and talking briefly in the halls. It was nice; Call was funny and sarcastic and Aaron felt a buzz in his chest whenever they got close.
Sometimes, when Aaron wasn’t eating with Tamara, they’d sit together in the halls for lunch, him eating his generic sandwich and Call inhaling the bizarre food combination of the day. They’d talk about what had happened that day, how badly Call was procrastinating at the moment, how Havoc was doing.
And occasionally, when Aaron was feeling bold, he’d bike down to Call’s neighbourhood and hope he’d see the boy out and about.
-
About a month and a half after he had first met Call, Aaron was out biking again. His knee was long healed and he was back in peak condition, and the day was cool, if humid. This time, he did have more of an idea where he was going; the third book of his favourite series had just come out two days ago and Aaron was determined to get his hands on it.
Regrettably, the only Barnes and Noble in the tiny town of Asheville was on the opposite side from Aaron’s house. He didn’t mind so much normally, but today the thirty minute ride seemed infinitely long. Even pushing the pedals as fast as he could, his wheels couldn’t seem to go quite fast enough.
When he felt the first raindrop, only five minutes into the ride, Aaron almost cursed out loud. The sky was getting grayer and grayer by the second. He saw the little darkened dots on the pavement growing more frequent and realized that he wasn’t going to be able to make it back to his house without being drenched, let alone to the store.
Glancing around for landmarks let him know that he was only a couple minutes from Call’s house. It wasn’t a perfect solution, but it was better than being soaked to the bone. Aaron turned his bike and floored it as the rain began to fall harder and harder.
He arrived at the Hunts’ house panting and somewhat damp. The rain wasn’t terrible yet, but it was cold and it was plentiful. Aaron trembled slightly as he knocked on the door, mostly from the cold.
The door swung open a few seconds later, and Aaron came face to face with Alastair Hunt. He was well-dressed, if slightly disheveled.
“Ah,” he said, before Aaron could even speak. “You must be here for Call. Come on in, then.”
He stepped in tentatively. This was only the second time he’d been inside the house, and it was no less fantastical than the first time. Aaron was left standing in the small mudroom, waiting for Call to come see him. He glanced around the room, trying to find something to distract himself with.
“Hey.”
Aaron turned abruptly to face the speaker, and there was Call, observing him curiously. He looked like he’d only woken up recently, his hair still mussed and his shirt not quite sitting right. “Dad said you were here for me?”
Wordlessly, Aaron jerked a thumb back at the window in the door, where the rain had gotten even worse. He was a little distracted by the sliver of collarbone exposed by his shirt. “Um, I was biking to the bookstore and it started raining.”
Call craned his neck to see outside and grimaced. “Yeah, that’s not so nice. Come on in, I’m just about to eat breakfast.”
He watched as Aaron tugged off his sneakers, then proceeded to walk into the house proper.
“So,” Call said as he got out a bowl and some cereal. “The bookstore.”
“Yeah, the new Carry On book came out a couple days ago,” Aaron said without thinking. Then, he immediately froze. Carry On was probably the best known queer book series of the decade, whereas Aaron was about as in the closet as one could be. There were a whole bunch of sirens wailing away in his head; why would you do this?!??! He’s going to figure out and it’ll ruin everything!!!!!
Instead, Call’s eyes lit up. “Oh, you read them too?”
There was a slight undertone of a second question there, one that Aaron understood very well. You’re one of us too? “Yeah, I do. They’re some of my favourite books, really.”
“Mine too,” Call said just before he shovelled more cereal into his mouth. He chewed a little, then swallowed. “I’ve been basically in love with Simon since book one came out.”
“I’m more of a Baz person myself,” Aaron admitted. He’d always had a thing for the dark and beautiful types, so sue him.
“Perfect, then I’ll take you with me when I find a wormhole into Watford. We can break up everyone’s favourite power couple.” There was still a joking air around Call’s words, but it felt less secure, like he was gauging Aaron’s reaction. They locked eyes for a second and in that moment, Aaron decided to do something a little brave and a lot stupid.
“I don’t know, Simon and Baz are pretty good the way they are. But I’m single, which is a bit of a problem, you know.”
“Are you?” Call didn’t say it as a question, leaning forwards. His spoon hung, forgotten, from the loose grasp of his left hand. “Because, um, I am too.”
Oh my god. He’s blushing. Aaron knew full-well that he probably was as well, but on Call, it looked downright adorable . It was a little hard to see, considering that Call had darker skin than him, but it was visible nonetheless.
“Well then, I guess we’d better fix that, huh?”
Across the table, Call smiled shyly. “I guess we should.”