Work Text:
A little voice in Dražen’s head told him that he had better things to be doing than this. He could be grading papers. He could be creating tests. He could be editing the tests that he already made to make them more difficult purely because it was fun to make his students struggle, as all children deserved to be challenged more than they were. Kids nowadays were growing soft, anyway. He could also be, say, eating his lunch, which is what his free period at this time of day was meant to be for.
But he wasn’t hungry, he thought to himself as he stared at the clock on the wall above his door. He wasn’t hungry at all. And yes, if he did not eat his lunch now, he would be much snappier with his students later in the day, but that didn’t matter. He had better things to focus on. More important than grading, or making tests, or anything else that fulfilled the position of ‘teacher’ that he was hired for. What he was in need of doing was tormenting the man down the hall from him.
It was eleven minutes past the start of the new class period, which meant that the history teacher down the hall was done with his schpiel about the previous night’s homework and what the day’s lesson would focus on. This meant he was now giving his lecture, which was always accompanied by a presentation via the projector, which was connected to a rather lengthy and frankly absurd extension cord that Mr. Mišić relied so heavily on.
A grin came to Dražen’s face. If Mr. Mišić, or Vuk, was using the projector, then Dražen decidedly needed it. He stood up from his desk, pushing his rolling chair backward leading it to lightly tap against the wall. He adjusted the glasses on his face. A subconscious action. He left his classroom, making the decently long walk down the hallway, wiping the smile off his face so as to not appear too giddy to be an inconvenience.
Often his coworker asked him why he insisted on meddling with his job. It was bad for the kids, he says. If he insists on being so disruptive, they’re never going to learn a thing, he says. Pah. As if children care about learning history. Especially from ages twelve to fourteen. At that age, the only ones who are actually interested in the topic are typically social outcasts. In all honesty, Vuk himself does not look like a history teacher, however, he has the pretentious and topic-obsessed attitude of one, and Dražen supposed that was good enough to put him in the field.
Dražen liked meddling with his colleague’s work because, well, it was fun! He was always so angry, but he can barely do anything about it without causing a scene. And considering he cares so much about the opinions of young teenagers, he will not ever cause said scene. Wonderful.
Vuk’s classroom door was closed. Dražen peeked his head through the window of the door. There he was, prattling away about heaven knows what. Dražen lingered for a moment, hoping to catch his coworker’s eye so as to give him time to feel dread. And he did. Good, good.
The man’s shoulders slumped immediately, his expression souring. He quickly fixed his face and shifted his attention back to his pupils. Haha.
Without knocking or doing anything else in the realm of being polite, Dražen opened the door, waltzing in with purpose, his head held high as if he were above the people around him. Which he was, by the way.
“Oh, Krleža,” Vuk started, with very little surprise in his voice, “I’m in the middle of teaching. Did you need something?”
“Are you? I hadn’t noticed,” Dražen remarked in a bored tone. “As a matter of fact, I do need something.” He took a glance around the room, drawing out the inevitable for as long as possible. His coworker’s walls were covered in maps and posters all pertaining to his dull topic. His students did not look surprised. They were used to this charade by now. It was probably the only thing of value they’d ever learned in Vuk’s class: you will never stop having someone annoying in your life trying to ruin your day, even as an adult.
Vuk let out a quiet sigh, clearly trying not to be too loud with it. “And what could you possibly need?”
Dražen walked to the back of Vuk’s classroom, shooting him a little smirk over his shoulder. “I think you know what that is.” He then crouched down, grabbing the plug of the extension cord from the wall and taking it out. The faint light of the PowerPoint on the whiteboard immediately disappeared. He stood up, turning around and walking forward, looking more focused on the cord than any ounce of his colleague’s rage-filled expression. Don’t get him wrong, he would love to see it! But he can’t spoil himself that much. That would ruin the fun.
He could, however, soak in the groan that Vuk let escape his throat. Ever since this charade began years ago, his coworker had long since stopped trying to act professional in front of the children as soon as Dražen committed his irritating act of the day. “You can’t be serious. Can you not go one day without doing this?”
At that, Dražen let out a little laugh. He continued to follow the extension cord until he reached the plug outlet that it was stuck to, unplugging it from that, too. “I gave you two days of presentations! I think you’ve had enough. We can’t let you get lazy.” Dražen finally looked him in the face after coiling up the long cord. The other man’s brows were furrowed together in frustration, his eye twitching ever so slightly. “Best get to writing, Mr. Mišić. Show your students a prime handwriting example! Since you harp on them so much for, I think you said it was, writing like toddlers?”
Vuk crossed his arms tightly over his chest, glowering at the obnoxious other. “I didn’t need the cord the past few days. I was doing an activity. They were writing on the board.”
“Hm,” Dražen mused. “You should plan your activities more accordingly around events such as these. I need it today. Thanks. Bye-bye.”
“You—!” Vuk uncrossed his arms, a flicker of serious anger crossing his face and seeping into his voice that he quickly tried to extinguish. “How am I supposed to plan around this? My schedule can’t revolve around you. You don’t even need it.”
“Plan better,” Dražen replied in a bored tone, already turning around on his heel to walk out.
As he walked away, he could hear Vuk attempting to say something else, but he had already exited the classroom, slamming the door shut behind him. He began his walk back to his classroom. Once he was halfway, he began to giggle a little bit to himself. Gosh, that man was just so funny! He was so stuck-up about these sorts of things. He was incapable of having any fun. He reacted like he used to be a brute in a past life. It was so entertaining. Dražen tapped the cord against his other palm before tucking it into his back pocket, humming in thought about his coworker.
When he was at work, if he wasn’t thinking about his actual job or his students, he was often thinking about Mr. Mišić. And how fun he was to mess with. And all of the different ways he could screw around with him for the day. And if there was anything new he could do. And—
Dražen flinched at the feeling of a larger, heavy hand suddenly coming down on his shoulder. “What—?” He whipped around, looking for the source of the offensive appendage.
Vuk? What? The man had left his classroom and followed Dražen out into the hallway. Was he insane? He had a class to tend to! He couldn’t possibly be annoyed enough that he needed to abandon his classroom like some sort of lunatic all because of an extension cord. They’ve certainly had a few screaming matches about Dražen’s frequent thievery, but Vuk almost never left his classroom unless it was to shout something from out the door before returning to class. The man glared at him, brows knit together. He held out his hand expectantly. “Give it to me. I have a film to show them today.”
He had to quickly recollect himself. Dražen held both of his empty hands out, making a show of the fact that there was nothing in them. He plastered a smug little smile on his face. “I haven’t the faintest idea what you’re talking about. Why are you not in your classroom, Mr. Mišić? Tsk, tsk. Shame on you.”
His colleague rolled his eyes, exasperated. “Stop being a smartass. Give me my goddamn cord.”
“What a nasty mouth you have!” Dražen brought his hands to his chest, pretending to clutch his metaphorical pearls. “We’re in school!”
Again, Vuk’s eyes rolled so much that they could’ve gone into the back of his head. Without another word, his hands settled on Dražen’s shoulders. Before the slimmer man could utter a single squeak of surprise, Vuk had turned him around. He reached for the extension cord in the other’s back pocket, his hand faintly brushing against his back.
Dražen let out a little shriek of surprise, wrenching himself out of Vuk’s admittedly light grip, hands flying to his backside. “Touching my behind? What is the matter with you?” He knew what the other man’s intentions really were, but he still wanted to exaggerate as much as he possibly could. He even allowed his own face to turn a little red with the damning accusation. “I knew that there was something wrong with you, but,” Dražen forced a dramatic gasp, “Mr. Mišić!”
“For the love of God, Krleža!” Vuk ran a hand through his own hair, thoroughly vexed. “It’s only Wednesday. Can you cut me some slack? You locked me out of my classroom on Monday, you took all of my markers yesterday and I had to barter with you to get them back, and now you take my stupid fucking cord the one day of the week I need it!” He poked a finger at Dražen’s chest, hard. “What is the matter with you?”
Scoffing, Dražen pushed Vuk’s finger off of his chest before hands came to his hips. “You’re acting as if this is anything new, Mr. Mišić. And what awful manners you have!” Seeing that had done nothing to soothe Vuk’s irritation, Dražen helpfully offered, “My God, if it’s that big of a deal, you can probably find some crap in one of the supply closets. I’m sure you can act out your little film for this class period, no? Then you can go—“
“Take me there, then. Take me to a supply closet,” Vuk sternly interrupted. At Dražen’s lack of response, he continued, “If there’s nothing in there, then you give me my cord.” He paused. “Before I wrap it around your neck.”
Dražen shot him an unimpressed look. “Shiver me timbers,” he said flatly. “I don’t get anything out of that, so I’ll be going now. Bye.” He turned around, taking about one step before Vuk’s hand wrapped around his wrist. He let out an embarrassing noise. Dražen turned his head to the side, peeking over his shoulder. “You’re serious?”
When Vuk did not let go or soften his stare, Dražen’s shoulders dropped. He threw his head back, letting out a long groan of frustration. Fine, then. Fine, fine, fine. He’ll lead the big oaf around. If there isn’t anything in there, then they can have a nice argument. And if there is? Well, he’ll find a way to ‘need’ that, too.
He led him around, taking a ridiculously longer path for the sake of making Vuk more and more agitated. Well, it’s not Dražen’s fault that he abandoned his class over a simple cord! Eventually, they reached the supply closet. It was a small space.
Hm. The sight of the door gave Dražen an idea.
With a smug smirk, he opened the door, standing slightly behind it and gesturing for Vuk to step in. Slyly, he twisted the lock on the doorknob that his hand rested over. “Go on. Take a look. I’m sure you can satisfy yourself one way or another.” And if Mr. Mišić stepped all the way in, Dražen could shut the door on him and lock it until the end of the period just to be a pain in the—
“You’re coming in with me.”
Dražen sputtered. “I- I’m sorry, what?”
Vuk shot him a look from the corner of his eye. “You’re coming in with me. Two sets of eyes are better than one. It could be hiding in there. You don’t have anything to do this period, anyway.”
Incredulous, Dražen peered around the door, looking inside the closet. He rested his hand on the inner side of the door. He looked back at his colleague. “You can barely fit two people in there. And you’re bigger than the average person. We wouldn’t get anything done. Just go in yourself.”
Instead of gracing him with a response, Vuk grabbed Dražen by the arm, pulling him into the closet alongside himself. Dražen shrieked. The action caused him to accidentally pull the door with him, slamming it shut behind them.
Ah.
Ah.
Ah.
No!
Goddamnit!
Vuk, entirely unknowing, reached for the doorknob. “We don’t need this closed. That would be odd.” He twisted it. Or, well, tried to. It was locked. “Huh? What the hell?” He shook it. Then shook it again. And again. And again. And again. He blinked. He looked at the man next to him, feeling a rage bubbling inside his gut. His head felt hot.
Thankfully, Dražen’s horrified expression staring at the doorknob appeared genuine enough to make it look like it really wasn’t his fault. Because, in all seriousness, it was genuine. Just not for the reason that Vuk believed. He looked at his coworker. Their angry eyes met.
They were locked inside of the small, cramped supply closet.
Immediately, Dražen began pounding on the door, desperate for any sort of attention from an outsider to let them out. Vuk leaned back, his back hitting the random cleaning supplies tucked inside the room. He rubbed his hands on his face. He would definitely not be getting back to his class now. He was also stuck with quite possibly the worst company imaginable. Well, he wasn’t particularly the worst of the worst, as Vuk unfortunately held an iota of fondness for him and his irritable acts. It was only when he overdid it that Vuk became so irate with him. Gah. This was such a tight space, too. There were probably about two steps of space between them. For God’s sake, this was a nightmare!
Eventually, Dražen tired himself out, choosing to rest his forehead on the door, his arms dangling loose and limp in front of him. He’d given up. Great.
Sighing, Vuk tried to offer some semblance of hope. “Kids make messes all the time. I’m sure a janitor will need something in here eventually.”
Instead of gracing him with any sort of real human sentence, Dražen let out a terrible, pathetic whine of frustration. “I’ll kill you, Mišić. I swear.”
What the hell? Vuk pushed himself out from the corner, indignation written all over his face. “Are you serious? You’re the one who created this entire scenario to begin with! We wouldn’t be in here if you didn’t take what was mine.”
“We wouldn’t be in here if you didn’t pull me in with you! And we certainly wouldn’t be in here if you didn’t abandon your class over an extension cord like a madman!” Dražen finally turned around as he spoke, trying to throw his arms out but was stopped by the small space. He paused, taking in an irritated breath. He fixed his glasses on his face. He then balled his fists at his sides. “You’re awful. You’re stupid. I hate you. You make my life a living hell.”
Vuk took a step closer towards him, slowly but surely closing the little space they had apart from one another. “You make my life a living hell! You wanna talk about awful? You’re a terrible educator, and you’re a terrible person!” He didn’t mean it in entirety, but he was angry, damnit.
Dražen let out a dry little laugh. “I’m a terrible educator? You teach your children through PowerPoints and you berate them for their writing! No amount of trying to be the ‘nice teacher’ will ever get you in the good graces of teenagers if you take points off of their ridiculous history essays for their handwriting, and you are certainly not liked for not letting them type them out either!”
“I do not want them to be lazy!” Vuk replied, a fury growing more and more inside him. “These are valuable skills. They should learn to write better if they want to succeed in my class, and in life.”
“You are so uptight!” Dražen stabbed at Vuk’s chest with his finger, trying to hit him as sharply as he could. “So, so uptight!”
Unable to listen to his empty insults any further, Vuk surged forward, grabbing Dražen’s ridiculous sweater vest tightly, stretching it around and over his fists, yanking him close. He ignored the other’s shocked squeak and ignored the odd feeling that came to his chest at the short distance. “What do you have against me? What the hell do you have against me?”
Dražen stiffened, at a loss for what to say upon being manhandled. Instinctively, he grabbed Vuk’s wrists. “Unhand me!”
Instead of doing that, Vuk shook him a tad bit. “What have I ever done to you? You just singled me out one day and decided to turn my job upside down!”
“God, I just think it’s funny! That’s it! It’s teasing, Mišić! I didn’t think you gave this much of a shit about it!” As he spoke, Dražen made weak attempts to pry his poor sweater vest out of Vuk’s strong grip. He was having very little success. The man was a beast and a brute.
Vuk breathed heavily through his nose, the hot, angry air pushing against Dražen’s face. He squeezed his eyes shut, sucking in a breath and letting his head drop between his arms. He was not defeated, but rather he was exhausted from their endless charade. He released Dražen’s shirt, having thoroughly stretched it beyond redemption anyway. The slimmer man made an upset sound, deciding to work the fabric off of his body instead of walking around with a warped sweater collar.
The history teacher leaned back against the corner, not caring about the cleaning supplies digging into his back. In turn, the literature teacher slumped against the door. They were both miserable.
Dražen tilted his head upward. The closet was lit by nothing but a dingy lightbulb. How nice. It smelled rather strangely in the room. He took a glance around. There was nothing but cleaning supplies. This was a janitorial closet only. There wasn’t even an extension cord in here to begin with. Haha.
Vuk, on the other hand, was checking his watch, wondering if he had enough decent students in his class for this period that no one would complain about their teacher missing. Then again, children were always happy to not have any work to do. He was probably safe, but he didn’t want to miss the entire next period. He could do with being late considering the circumstance, but he didn’t want to lose two whole class periods.
“I find your reactions charming.”
Eh? Vuk glanced up from his watch. Did he hear that correctly? He must have been hallucinating. He looked at his coworker, expecting an odd, questioning look and nothing more from him. Because, really, he didn’t just say that, right?
No, no. He did. Dražen was looking at him, brows knit together in concentration as if it took genuine force for him to get the words out of his mouth. “Don’t look at me like that. We’re stuck in here for a while, aren’t we? And I can only assume neither of us have our phones.” Vuk patted his pockets. Correct. “That’s what I thought. I thought I’d be honest with you.”
For only a moment longer, Vuk stared at him in surprise. Then, he finally responded, grinning, “Charming. You find my reactions charming? What does that even mean?”
Dražen winced as if it physically hurt him to respond. “I think that the way you react to me is charming. Typically. This,” he gestured around the small space, “does not count for that. But everything else generally does, yes.”
“Can you give me a bit more than that?” Vuk almost felt inexplicably giddy. He didn’t know what that meant.
Nose scrunching up in aggravation, Dražen’s fists clenched. “What else do you want me to say, Mišić? I’ve already given you your compliment for the year. Go live off of that.”
Unimpressed, Vuk leaned forward slightly. “You said it yourself. We’re stuck in here for now. Elaborate while we’re here.” He crossed his arms over his chest, looking much like a curmudgeoning old man with his position despite his expression. He’d raised a brow. Vuk attempted to egg him on further, saying, “Unless you’re too scared to tell me what you’re trying to say?”
Of course, Dražen was a predictable creature. His shoulders hiked up, indignation written across his face. “I am not scared! I just don’t think it’s, ah,” he trailed off, growing quieter and quieter as he finished with, almost inaudiably, “appropriate.” His sentence was punctuated by the twinge of pink that came to his cheeks.
Oh? Vuk’s grin only widened. “What in the world could that mean, Krleža?” He stepped forward. In doing so, Dražen shrunk further into the corner. Well, he would have if he wasn’t already deep into it.
Dražen, too, crossed his arms, gripping the sleeves of his dress shirt, for once not caring about the wrinkles that the act would likely bring. “Come off it! Why don’t you tell me something nice? I told you something nice!”
Without missing a beat, Vuk replied, “I think you look charming when you’re backed into a corner. Now, give me what I want. What do you mean by ‘appropriate?’”
Instead of dignifying him with a response, Dražen made a strangled sound, tucking his chin against his chest. “You’re my coworker.”
“That I am.”
“I shouldn’t say what I mean by it.”
Vuk narrowed his eyes on him, smile growing smaller but still evidently there. He tilted his head as if he could understand his colleague’s strangeness from another angle. What could it mean? He finds his reactions charming. His reasoning is not appropriate due to their coworker status. Could he really be trying to say…?
“I can see the cogs turning in your brain,” Dražen pierced his thoughts, words spoken through gritted teeth. Without realizing, Vuk had drawn closer to him, standing over him as Dražen slowly slid downward, having dropped his sweater vest on the floor at some point. He wasn’t yet sitting on the floor, but he was crouched uncomfortably, hands gripping the wall and the door on either side of him. His face was red. His expression was a mixture of anger and humiliation. “Just forget all of this. Please. I’d rather not feel like a complete idiot.”
Vuk was not going to grant him that mercy. Not at all. “I can’t believe I’ve never even considered that. I guess you weren’t entirely malicious with it. You always gave me my things back, anyway.” He let out a little laugh. “God, you’re like a mean kid with a crush. You don’t know what to do with yourself, so you turn into an asshole.”
“I’ll have you know that that is my natural state,” Dražen grumbled. “I already told you to forget about it. I should’ve never said anything! You’re deplorable.” He slid down the wall further, his butt hitting the floor. He then hissed, “Even when you’re mocking me, you’re charming!”
He could let him go. They could forget about this and become awkward for a little while before settling back into routine. They could do about a million different things. Or, Vuk thought, they could do something about it right now. He hooked his hands underneath Dražen’s dramatically spread out arms, lifting him back upright and on his feet. Dražen let out a startled sound. Vuk released him from his grip, hands settling on his shoulders.
Dražen’s eyes darted around the room before landing on Vuk’s face. His cute little face was entirely red with color, the blush creeping down his neck. Something about the sight made something in Vuk’s gut churn. He always did find him attractive. He was handsome and pretty. It was his terrible attitude that made Vuk not even consider anything with him. He wouldn’t necessarily say that he enjoyed his meddling, but it was routine to him. Maybe he could investigate that further at a later date.
“I told you,” Dražen squeaked, “it’s not appropriate.”
“Nothing about this is,” Vuk tugged him closer by the shoulders. Chest to chest. “So why does that matter?”
The other man’s sweet green eyes were about as wide as they could possibly be. Against his wishes, his stare flickered between Vuk’s lips and Vuk’s eyes. “Fraternization.”
Vuk rolled his eyes. “Give me a break.”
“You can’t possibly like me!” Dražen choked out. “You’ve made that very clear!”
Sighing, Vuk responded, “I don’t think that this ever would’ve crossed my mind until you said something, Krleža.” He paused. “When I’m not thinking about work, I’m thinking about you.”
“Right,” Dražen replied. “Because you’re anticipating my interference.”
He supposed he had a point with that, but Vuk was still not going to relent. He inclined his head forward, nose brushing against Dražen’s. He felt the heat emanating off of his face. “I’m telling you, I think you’ve made me realize something. Now, get over yourself.”
“There is no way that you are actually fond of me! Are you trying to trick me by getting so close? You’d never really do anything like kiss m—!”
Vuk cut him off, pressing his lips against Dražen’s, earning him a delightful squeak of pure shock. The other man slapped his shoulder a few times before giving up, slowly but surely returning the affection. His eyes started to flutter shut. If he wasn’t wearing glasses, Vuk would have been able to feel his long, pretty eyelashes on his cheek.
Good, good.
Dražen’s hands eventually found their way up, snaking their way from Vuk’s midsection, to his chest, to his shoulders, to his head. He gripped the back of his head tightly, pulling him as closely to his face as he possibly could. Vuk parted the kiss once to attempt to slot their lips together more neatly, but Dražen halted his efforts, pulling him right back in. The movement caused Dražen’s glasses to come out of position, resting ridiculously and diagonally on his face. In all honesty, he was an awful kisser, but Vuk didn’t mind at all.
So much so that his hands left Dražen’s shoulders, feeling down his sides, his waist, his hips, and settling under his butt. He then lifted his slim legs up, setting them around his body but still gripping him tightly, causing Dražen to part the kiss and yelp in response. Before he could ask what he was doing, Vuk propelled himself and Dražen forward, hitting the other’s back roughly against the wall, kissing him again.
Instead of complaining about the manhandling, Dražen merely resumed what he was doing, kissing his lips over and over, gripping his head with a force as if it was something he’d been thinking of doing for ages. Vuk could only wonder how long he’d wanted this as he pulled off the other man’s face, kissing at his cheek, jaw, and neck. He attacked his neck for a little while longer, earning an odd, suspicious little sound from Dražen before he returned to his mouth, this time poking his tongue at his lips, and—
“Get the fuck out, faggots!”
Dražen shrieked. Vuk let out a rather unmanly yell. He let go of Dražen’s legs, trying to set him down to the ground again as gently yet quickly as possible. Dražen still managed to stumble as his feet touched the floor. He adjusted his glasses to fit more properly on his face. They both stared out the door.
The door, which was open. The open area contained a disgruntled and disgusted janitor.
All three stared at each other for quite some time before Dražen attempted to stammer out, “We- we were in here for, ah- we were only looking for—“
“I don’t give a shit why you were fondling each other, get the fuck out of the closet! Some kid shit on the bathroom floor, and I have to do something about it!” The janitor gestured outward, giving them the space to leave. Immediately, they followed the directions, both trying to leave at the same time before getting caught in the doorframe together. They backed up and Vuk left first, Dražen following.
They sprinted to the next hallway, mortified. They paused in the middle of the hall. Dražen panted, trying to catch his breath, leaning forward with his hands on his knees. Vuk watched him. After a moment, he spoke, “We can talk about that la—“
Dražen thrust the extension cord into Vuk’s chest, turning on his heel and running off in a random direction. He momentarily tripped on his feet in the rush. Vuk fumbled with the wire before holding it properly.
Charming. Despite their shared humiliation, Vuk felt something unusual yet familiar bubble up in his chest. At least he could identify the feeling, now.