Ashe may not have liked Halloween, but that was only because of the sudden lack of modesty. It wasn’t his favorite holiday, but he didn’t hate it. Couldn’t hate it, because his hatred was reserved for one holiday: Valentine’s Day.
He hated everything about the idiotic, ‘romantic’ holiday; the cheap store-bought candies, the flowers that would wilt in three days, the sickening loving faces that wouldn’t mean anything when the couples broke up in a month or two. But the worst part, the very worst part, was the people who acted like the holiday was invented for them. And one of those people was, unsurprisingly, Cormac King.
He was currently sitting in the middle of the cafeteria. No, not just sitting; the bastard was holding court, letting his innocent teenaged students fawn over him like he was the hot new celebrity whose posters decorated their lockers and bedroom walls. It was sickening, the way he smiled at them, and the amount of sugary sweets he’d already consumed was making Ashe nauseous. He couldn’t believe he’d actually started to warm up to the moronic drama teacher.
Huffing, Ashe turned away from the door to the cafeteria, where he’d been hovering while scrutinizing the disturbing scene before him. His lunch was in his hands; he’d brought it from home, but he’d been hoping to socialize a bit in the cafeteria like he usually did. He should have known that was a useless hope. Considering students had been delivering his chocolates all day, which he’d politely declined, he should have known he’d just get annoyed by the scenes in the cafeteria.
And so he headed back to his classroom, shutting the door behind him- quietly, so nobody would hear it and come to investigate why somebody was hiding from the festivities. Sitting at his desk, he kicked his feet up and took out his lunch. The neatly crafted sandwich and fruit salad seemed much more appetizing than all the pink food they’d been serving in the cafeteria. Mostly sweets, or dyed with an insane amount of food coloring, and all unhealthy. He hated Valentine’s Day.
The silence, though- he hated that too. Making another aggravated noise, he bent over to retrieve his bag from underneath the desk. Scuffling through it, he dug out his iPod and put his headphones on. They were the good, expensive kinds, the ones that covered his ears and kept any outside noise from intruding, a must when he took the bus to work. Flicking through until he found the song he was obsessed with at the moment, he dropped the headphones over his ears and sat back to eat his lunch well away from the nauseating displays that filled the school.
He was interrupted halfway through his sandwich by knuckles rapping hard against his forehead. Ashe jerked back, almost knocking his chair over and sending his fruit salad flying out of his lap. More importantly, he dropped his iPod, the weight dragging his headphones down so they sat around his neck, blaring a new song.
“What do you want?” he asked frostily, setting all four legs of the chair firmly back on the floor.
Cormac pouted at him, pretending to be hurt. “I thought you’d be lonely- I saw you hover around, watching us, before you decided to be a hermit.”
“I’m not being a hermit!” Ashe snapped, looking up at Cormac from where he’d crouched down on the floor to scoop up the spilled fruit, getting his hands sticky with juice.
Cormac knelt next to him, a roll of paper towels in his hands and a smirk on his face. Ashe snatched the paper towels away and swabbed at the floor, cleaning up the mess as best he could. “Only a hermit would be hiding in a classroom on Valentine’s Day when there’s a crowd of students handing over his candy to me because he wouldn’t take it,” Cormac said, a hint of reproach in his voice.
“Don’t you dare lecture me,” Ashe said, sitting up and fixing Cormac with a lethal glare. “Just because I’m not leading students on, letting them think they have a chance with somebody way outside of their age ra- what are you doing?” his angry rant turned into a shocked squeak as Cormac took his hand and held it up in front of their faces.
Cormac didn’t say anything- he just took a paper towel and painstakingly wiped the juice off of Ashe’s fingers. Ashe couldn’t say anything either, too surprised by the odd act of tenderness that reminded him of the first day of the year, when Cormac had taken him to fill him with enough grease to kill his hangover.
Ashe’s face flushed a soft red as he yanked his hand out of Cormac’s grip, scooting backward on the tile. Cormac didn’t let him get far away; even when Ashe’s back was pressed to the wall, there wasn’t much room between them. “Don’t be shy,” Cormac said softly, his eyes travelling down Ashe’s body and reminding him, again, of that day- but that time, his face was fire engine red as he remembered the sheet pooling around his ankles, the only thing covering his naked body lost.
“Just go away already. I don’t want you here,” he tried to snap, but his voice was too weak for it, not confident enough to make the words a command. Instead it sounded like he was trying to convince himself more than Cormac.
And, judging by the cocky half smile, Cormac knew it. “Are you sure that’s what you want?” he murmured, leaning closer, his fingers trailing along the line of Ashe’s jaw.
The silverette made a squeaking noise, pressing himself back harder against the wall even though he knew there was no way to get away- even though he wasn’t quite sure he wanted to as Cormac’s fingers trailed down the side of his neck, leaving a path of fire that made him tip his head to the side to give the redhead more access.
Cormac laughed softly, amused by how easy it was to sway his silverette- all it took was the slightest touch of his hand. Leaning forward, he took note of how even the brush of his hair was enough to make Ashe shiver. His lips drew a soft sound, and his teeth? That made Ashe moan, though the silverette slapped a hand over his mouth to muffle the noise before Cormac got to enjoy it.
“You don’t have to hide your voice, Ashe,” Cormac whispered, his lips moving against Ashe’s skin.
His silverette tipped his head back, hitting it hard against the wall. “Somebody will hear me. Stop!” he hissed, but the words turned into another moan when Cormac sank his teeth into the soft spot at the hollow of his neck. Ashe melted into him, his defenses smashed with that one simple move. Cormac’s pleased sound vibrated against Ashe’s skin as the redhead wrapped his arms around his silverette, drawing Ashe into his lap. He hooked his fingers under Ashe’s chin, forcing the silverette to look down at him.
Pliant, his head as fuzzy as his boundaries had become, Ashe leaned into Cormac, closing that last inch between their lips. Cormac froze for a moment, shocked that his silverette had made the first move; but he couldn’t be unresponsive for long, not when Ashe’s lips were moving against his, looking for a response.
The kiss wasn’t sweet and awkward like their first kiss had been. It was filled with Cormac’s heat and Ashe’s weakness, clashing together into a passionate kiss that had them both reeling. The sweet, shy new teacher and the experienced, flirtatious playboy were both taken aback by that kiss and how it consumed them.
Consumed them so fully they didn’t notice the knock on the door, or the door opening, until the surprised gasp cut into the strains of a sweet love song drifting from Ashe’s headphones. Ashe looked up, blinking his eyes at the woman standing in the doorway with a hand over her mouth and wide, horrified eyes.
Then he threw himself away from Cormac, as horrified as Mrs. Hoffman was. Cormac stayed where he was on the floor, only looking amused as his silverette scrambled away, trying to stutter out an apology.
“I-I didn’t mean to intrude. I… uh… I’ll go,” she stammered, her long skirt flaring around her ankles as she spun, fleeing the scene.
“Wait!” Ashe cried, holding a hand out, desperate to find some explanation that would make any sense.
Cormac grabbed Ashe’s wrist as his silverette as he tried to follow after Mrs. Hoffman- only to let it go like he’d been burned when the silverette looked down at him with something close to hatred in his eyes. “If you don’t let go of me right fucking now, you’re going to regret it,” Ashe snarled.
Shocked, Cormac nodded his head, and Ashe vanished out of the room after Mrs. Hoffman. Slumping forwards, Cormac dropped his head into his hands. Whatever had happened between Ashe falling into him and that acidic glare, it had cut deep into him. Whatever he’d done, he just wanted to take it back. Instead, he was left alone in Ashe’s classroom, wondering how he could have possibly screwed things up that badly.
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