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He was just looking for an empty classroom to answer a call from his mom. That’s all he was doing. Chris hates talking on the phone in public and since the boy’s restroom is never empty, he decided to find a classroom to answer her call. He didn’t ask for this. In fact, this is the last thing in the whole goddamn universe he would have ever asked for.
“Um. Hi.” Of course it’s Darren Criss. Handsome, charming, everyone-in-the-planet-loves-me Darren Criss. He’s standing at the corner of the room, scratching the back of his head while looking really flustered and kind of ashamed; Chris has never seen this look on him in all the years they’ve attended the same school. He almost thinks it’s endearing. (Almost.)
“…Hey,” Chris answers, arms protectively crossing around his chest. “I was just…”
“Aw man, you totally caught me. You’re not telling anyone, though, right?” Darren walks towards him, fingers still nervously scratching at the back of his neck.
“Um, what? I was just looking for- um-” he doesn’t want to explain why he was looking for an empty classroom because duh, it’s embarrassing, so he struggles to find an excuse. “I was just looking for an empty classroom so- so I could-”
Darren just smiles sympathetically at him. “Hey, it’s alright. You don’t need to explain me anything.”
Chris is so grateful that he finds himself smiling back.
“And what are you doing here?” He asks, unconsciously walking closer. “Um, not that you needto tell me or anything. I’m just curious.”
“Honestly?” Darren looks up at him from under those unfairly huge eyelashes. It does make sense, Chris thinks. Of course anyone would be charmed by those eyes. “I’m skipping class.”
Chris tries so hard not to judge— God knows how many times he wanted to do just the same. But, oh my God, seriously? If Chris tried something like that, he would totally be caught in less than five minutes. But of course Darren can pull it off and still be everyone’s favorite person. Including all the teachers. And the principal.
“I have- uh, class. I have to go,” he says, reaching for the door handle. When it doesn’t open, he takes a deep breath and tries really hard not to freak out. “Is it locked? How’s it locked?”
Darren walks towards the door and tries to open it himself. It still doesn’t work, so he turns to Chris and says, in a very weird tone, “shit, I think the inside lock is broken.”
“Oh, you think so?” Chris snaps, turning and sitting at an empty chair. He regrets his tone as soon as he looks at Darren’s face. “Ugh, I’m sorry. I can be kind of an asshole.”
“Don’t worry, man.” Darren’s expression turns back to normal in a second- it’s almost like goddamn magic. He sits on the chair next to him. “Chris, right?”
Chris looks up so fast it makes his head dizzy. “You know my name?”
“Uh, are you kidding me?” Darren giggles, head shaking. “I’ve read your stuff on the school’s journal. You’re really good.”
“Oh,” Chris feels himself start to blush, so he ducks his head to hide it. “Thanks.”
Darren pulls his chair closer to Chris’ and tries to meet his eyes. “Hey, don’t do that.” He all but whispers, a hand moving to rest next to Chris’ on the table. “Don’t hide. You look cute when you blush.”
Did he just…? Chris shakes his head, face getting even hotter, and sends the thought away. Of course Darren isn’t flirting. Chris just isn’t used to people being nice to him, so he confuses kindness with flirting. That’s all.
He doesn’t know how to answer, so he looks the other way to hide his face even further and tries to change the subject. “Why are you skipping class?”
“I was- well. I was going to sleep for a few minutes.”
Chris snorts. “Sleep?”
“Ugh, yeah. I was up late last night reading the latest Harry Potter book. I couldn’t stop! It was already like three in the morning when I realized I should be sleeping-”
Chris looks back at him then, a smile playing on his lips. “You like Harry Potter?”
“Of course! I’m totally addicted. Did you read them?”
And just like that, they start a conversation that seems to last for hours. They geek out about Harry Potter and a bunch of other nerdy stuff, eventually moving to the floor to get more comfortable (“these chairs are such a pain in the ass, Chris. Oh my God.”). Chris is really impressed by how much they end up having in common.
A few minutes into their conversation, Darren excitedly says, “you’re shitting me, right? You can sing?”
Chris blushes at the language, looking down at his hands. “Um, yeah. Kind of. I’m not very good, though.”
“Bullshit. I’m sure you’re great. What’s your range?”
“Countertenor,” their eyes meet then, and Chris smiles a little at how much Darren’s own seem to sparkle against the weak light.
“Holy shit,” Darren curses again (it has to be the fifth time in less than a minute, oh my God), and moves to sit closer to Chris. “Just what else are you hiding from the world, Chris?”
“You have no idea,” he finds himself whispering, immediately praying that Darren didn’t hear him. He’s not so lucky.
“I see you, you know?” Darren says slowly, carefully. “I see how lonely you are.” His voice is low, like he’s afraid he’ll scare Chris away if he speaks any louder. “Why?”
“It’s really not my fault, Darren,” he says harshly. “Do you honestly think I enjoy being lonely?”
Darren has the decency to look embarrassed. “S- Sorry,” He coughs, hands clasping on his lap. “Okay, true of false?”
“What?” Chris ducks his head, confusion written all over his face.
“I’ll ask you something and you’ll tell me if it’s true of false,” he grins. “Is that okay?”
Chris thinks it over for a minute. “Alright.”
Voice small and almost hesitant, Darren says, “you completely despise me. True or false?”
Chris tries to read Darren. His new friend is definitely trying to look nonchalant, like he doesn’t care at all about Chris’ answer, but the slight twitch at the corner of his mouth betrays him — just like the nervous look on his eye.
“False?” He says with little conviction. “I don’t despise you, no. I just- I guess I just haven’t been your biggest fan.”
“Why, though?” Darren does look sad now, eyes big and full of so much emotion it’s almost ridiculous. “You don’t even know me.”
“I guess I just…” Chris closes his eyes briefly and breathes in. “I guess I’m just jealous.”
Darren looks at Chris like he has just said the most absurd thing in the whole universe. “Jealous of what?”
“Seriously?” Chris looks at him, his expression still the same. He shakes his head. “You’re just… Darren, everyone loves you. The teachers, the theater kids, the football kids. You’re just this super nice, smart, cute guy everyone wants to be around and be friends with. It’s so easy for you.” He sighs heavily. “I just- sometimes I just wish I had it this easy.”
When their eyes meet again, Darren looks so sympathetic that Chris wishes he could dig a hole right there on the floor and hide forever. Pity is the last thing he needs, especially coming from Darren. So he shakes his head frantically, and when Darren hesitantly tries to hold his hand, he hastily moves it away from his reach.
“Don’t.” he draws his body away from Darren, trying to create as much space as possible between them. “You asked for an answer and I gave it to you. I don’t need your pity.”
“You think I pity you?” Darren seems unfazed by Chris’ discomfort and moves closer again. He shivers when Darren’s knee brush against his. “Chris, I just told you. I see you. Pity is not what I feel right now.”
“What-” Chris swallows the dryness on his throat, adam’s apple bobbing. “What does that mean?”
“I buy the school’s journal just so I can read your stuff. You’re talented and you can sing and you like Harry Potter and just sitting here with you for a few hours made me learn you’re also a very funny and very interesting person. And you think I’m cute,” Darren says the last sentence with a teasing lilt on his voice. He does touch Chris’s hand this time, although his fingers tremble and hover over his just a little before he does so. “I see you, Chris. I see you around. I wanted to talk to you so many times.”
He doesn’t really have an explanation as to why, but Chris really doubts him. He shakes his head to clear the dizziness made by Darren’s touch and quietly asks, “then why didn’t you?”
“I’m an idiot, that’s why,” Darren responds quickly, eyes are fixed on his own fingers slowly caressing the back of Chris’s hand. Chris is pretty sure he can see the hairs all over his arms stand on end. “Can I ask you something else?”
Chris blinks down at their hands and whispers back a weak, breathless “yeah,” eyes also concentrated on the movement of Darren’s fingertips against his skin.
“If I tried, you’d let me kiss you right now. True or false?”
Chris looks up at him, a surprised and slightly scared look on his eyes. “I- I’ve never-”
Darren moves even closer, hand tracing the trail from Chris’s hand to his wrist, his arm, then finally his jaw. He cups his face then, thumb carefully brushing the skin under Chris’s eye, eyes finding his lips. “That’s not what I asked you.”
Chris blinks up at him and slowly breathes in, eyelids dropping almost involuntarily.
“True,” it’s so small he doubts Darren even hears it. His heart is beating so fast he can feel it against his throat. But then they’re both leaning in, mouths meeting in the middle in a sweet, tender kiss; it’s Chris’s first kiss and he can feel the rush of blood through his whole body and he feels his face get really red and it’s perfect, it’s perfect—
He lets out a low, muffled noise, Darren’s fingers stroking his cheek and lips moving slowly against his, so sweetly and carefully. When they finally part, Darren’s eyes look wet and happy, a slight grin forming at the corner of his lips. Chris finds himself smiling back, beaming, really, ducking his head down to hide the blush he feels warming up his cheeks.
Darren cups his jaw again and makes Chris look at him. “Why do you keep trying to hide your face?” He whispers quietly, like he would break the spell if he dared to speak any louder. “I like looking at you.”
It’s all so surreal, but Darren does seem to enjoy looking at Chris. So for the first time… Chris believes it.
He still has to be sure, though.
“This- this is not some kind of joke, is it?”
At Darren’s wrecked expression, Chris almost feels bad for asking. But he has to know, he just— he has to.
“Is it really that hard to believe?” Darren traces the line of Chris’s bottom lip with his thumb, eyes looking hurt at the question but still fixed on the movement of his finger. “That someone genuinely likes you?”
“Kind of, yeah.” Chris admits softly, nearly hypnotized by Darren’s gentle touches.
“Let me take you out, then,” Darren looks him right in the eye, using the hand hand he has on Chris’s jaw to pull his face closer. He nuzzles their noses together and murmurs, lips almost touching Chris’s once more, “I’ll prove it to you.”
Chris lets out a muffled laugh. “We’re sort of doing it all backwards.”
“We sort of are,” Darren giggles back, touching their foreheads together. Chris swears that if his heart beats any faster, it’s going to jump right out of his chest. “I don’t really care though.”
Chris smiles, and after some thought, he finally works up the nerve to slowly move his hand towards Darren’s face. With a nervous look on his eyes, he cups the boy’s chin, fingers idly brushing the skin under his ear.
“Okay,” he whispers.
“Okay what?”
They both grin, eyes and hands fixed on each other. “Okay, I’ll go out with you.”
“Just to be clear,” Darren withdraws his forehead from Chris’s and hopefully looks up at him. “Like on a date, right?”
“Like on a date.” Chris confirms, eyes sparkling with happiness.
“Man, I’m so glad someone broke that lock,” Darren breathlessly admits before he leans back down for another kiss.