Chapter Text
Very little time has passed since the start of the new school year. Two best friends, Puff-Puff and DeeJay, not so long ago began to hang out with a new boy from their class, Benatar, who turned out to be not such a loser as he seemed at first. Yes, they teased him for his stupid accent and for his shyness, but after all he turned out to be smart and talented, and loved music as much as these two, and they became friends.
Before that, they used to hang out with their common friend, Axel, but he was a year older, and now, because of the new schedule, he saw his friends less often.
The boys studied together and became friends, everything was just as usual, and nothing changed. Until one day.
After the history lesson, everybody left the classroom, but the teacher asked a couple of guys to help him — he needed to move some books to the other classroom. Benatar politely agreed to help, and DeeJay decided to share the job with him so that it wouldn't be so hard. Benatar liked to chat with this guy — he wasn't as frank as Puff, who first spoke and then thought. DeeJay was more calm and sane, although sometimes his ironic and witty comments hurt even more than Puff's statements. DeeJay was interesting, and they easily found a common language.
And now they were walking down the corridor and chatting, and both had their hands full with hefty stacks of books.
"Thanks for your help, DeeJay," the brit smiled naively. "Maybe teacher won't forget about it and will raise our mark on the next test?"
"I don't think so, Ben," he shook his head and smiled in response. "Although it would help me, I hate history tests."
Meanwhile, Puff-Puff and Axel were walking from the other end of the corridor. They met by chance and started chatting about all sorts of nonsense, moving towards the classrooms where they would have lessons. Usually they didn't walk together — because of the significant difference in height, they looked ridiculous, so there was always DeeJay between the two of them. Now, in order not to walk next to Puff, Axel, carried away by the conversation, carelessly turned around and walked in front of Puff backwards, not thinking that he could bump into someone.
"...of course it counts!" Axel insisted enthusiastically. "If a girl left her panties or bra at your place, it's one hundred percent proof that you slept with her!"
"That's not proof at all," Puff snorted. "Where have you seen a girl who forgets her panties? You can probably just buy them, like to show off that you're getting laid."
"Who will buy women's panties for this at all?"
"No, the question is who will sell these panties." he chuckled.
"Dude, I swear to you that the girl can leave it on purpose-"
He couldn't finish because he suddenly bumped into something with his back. There was a pop, as if something had fallen on the floor, and someone gasped from behind. Axel turned around and saw that some blond boy had dropped all his books, and now bent down with a confused look, trying to pick them up.
"Oh, sorry, dude..." Axel said and also knelt down to help and somehow make amends.
They quickly gathered up the fallen books, and both reached for the last one left on the floor, but their fingers accidentally collided. Axel raised a confused look at the blonde and suddenly froze when he saw the boy's face.
The confused look of the blue eyes opposite was strangely exciting. The skinny blond boy looked so cute and fragile that for some reason Axel couldn't take his eyes off him. He looked into those eyes and felt a strange warm shiver pass through his body from the heart to the tips of his fingers.
Benatar, in his turn, also couldn't stop looking at this awkward, but very handsome guy. He forgot how to breathe when he saw his brown eyes, clear face features and disheveled hair. It was strange... is such a reaction normal at all?
Finally, Benatar took the last book, and both stood up. Axel carefully handed the guy the rest of the stack.
"Thanks..." the brit said shyly, and his thin lips formed a charming smile.
Axel looked at it, and for some reason his cheeks turned pink. He swallowed hard.
"You're welcome..." he muttered. "Sorry about that."
He looked at the blond boy in amazement, either surprised that the boy was so handsome, or wondering to himself — why did he find him handsome? Why is he looking at him like that? And why is his heart beating so fast?
"It's all right." Benatar replied calmly. "Will you let me pass, please?"
Axel was embarrassed by his clumsiness and his abnormal reaction to this guy. He frowned, turning to rudeness, as if defending himself, although there was no one to defend himself from.
"Next time get your eyes out of your ass and watch where you're going."
Benatar blinked, raising his eyebrows in surprise.
"Excuse me?" he asked softly. "You're the one who bumped into me..."
"Whatever." the brunette snorted and remembered about a friend standing next to him. "C'mon, Puff, let's go."
With these words, he continued his way to the classrooms. Puff and DeeJay watched the whole scene with a wary and puzzled expression on their faces. They looked at each other, not knowing what to say, and Puff just shrugged, and then followed Axel. Benatar and DeeJay were left standing there, surprised. Finally, the brit looked at his friend.
"Did you understand anything?"
"I have no idea what happened, man." DeeJay assured. "Never mind, Axel behaves strangely sometimes."
The boys finally continued on their way.
"Do you know him?" Benatar asked.
"Yeah, we have been friends for a long time. He's a good guy."
"Yes, probably..." muttered the brit, confused. "His name is Axel?"
"Yeah. I think you'll meet again."
Benatar suddenly thought of Axel's pretty brown eyes and pleasant voice and smiled. He almost immediately forgot about his rudeness.
"That would be great."
Puff followed Axel in the opposite direction.
"What was that for?" he asked with a grin.
"What do you mean?"
"You know what I mean. What just happened? The way you looked at Benatar. And you needn't have been rude to him. I know, he's British and all that, but this time it was your fault."
Axel rolled his eyes.
"Fuck off, Puff. How do you even know him?"
The nerd shrugged.
"He's in our class, he's new. He plays guitar really well, and he's not such a dweeb as he seems."
The brunette didn't answer anything, only remembered this meeting from the very beginning. And he didn't understand why he was so excited about this boy's appearance. And why did he say that?.. Axel felt awkward now. All his thoughts were now occupied with Benatar. It was nice to think about him. He subconsciously understood why this was happening, but denied the true reason.
***
Benatar sometimes saw his new friends talking to this guy, Axel, but didn't interfere out of politeness and was standing aside. And Puff and DeeJay didn't want to be torn between the two of them at all, and they soon dragged Benatar into the company, not suspecting that something might go wrong. They took things simply — the four of them are more fun to hang out, right?
Benatar was kinda shackled at first, but soon relaxed a little and behaved as usual — he was silent and calm, but friendly and polite.
But Axel behaved strangely. He stared at the brit all the time, then looked away in embarrassment, and seemed not to know how to behave, although he usually felt at ease in any company and easily said everything that came to mind. Now, next to Benatar, he seemed to be thinking what to answer, and all the time he was "exposing his thorns", answering brashly to all Benatar's phrases. And sometimes he seemed to forget his own name and didn't immediately respond when friends called out to him.
The four boys sometimes walked around the city together or gathered to play video games, and some time later even played music together. They were having fun. More precisely, they would have fun... if not for the strange relationship between Axel and Benatar.
The brit was friendly, at first he tried to talk to Axel, get to know him better, make him laugh. It sometimes worked out, and the brunette wanted to get closer him, but then he seemed to stop himself and distanced again, not allowing himself to be sincere with this guy. Benatar timidly reached out to him, but ran into a wall of alienation and malicious jokes, and soon stopped trying to make friends with him. Puff and DeeJay could only watch from the sidelines and wonder: what's the matter?
And Axel himself could hardly understand what was going on in his head. More precisely... in his heart. He didn't want to admit that he had fallen in love with a guy. He's not gay, right? Every time Benatar spoke to him or smiled at him, his heart began to flutter, he wanted to smile back and say something nice, but Axel felt this unusual excitement and trembling in his chest and immediately pulled himself back. He just couldn't admit his feelings, it was wrong, so it was easier to say a taunt and pretend that Benatar wasn't interesting to him. So it was easier to deceive everyone around and himself.
And Benatar was honest with himself. He realized that he really liked this cheeky guy, from the very first meeting he felt an exciting attraction to him. Axel was beautiful, and Benatar liked to draw him. It was true that Axel's dislike upset him, but he still harbored a small hope for friendly relations between them, because Axel, despite his strange behavior, sometimes was nice: he smiles crookedly at Benatar, although immediately turnes away, and often looks at the brit, and there is no dislike in this look.
It was all strange.