This is Better (human!Winterwatcher)

two (february sophomore year): in which our heroes collect hydrogen gas

Winter isn't sure whether he's happy to be assigned Moon as a lab partner or not. He's felt guiltier about liking her ever since the holiday break and the return to his parents' harsh reality. School is almost like a fantasy world, a Narnia found through a plane instead of a wardrobe, where none of the rules are the same. 

He's glad that Moon, unlike Ochre, his previous lab partner, is truly excellent at chemistry. She has an impossible memory and an innate grasp of the principles of bonding.

With any luck, he won't have to worry about acetone being spilled all over his desk again. 

"Okay. Magnesium." Moon scans the table at the front of the classroom, holding a beaker full of hydrochloric acid in one hand and a pencil in the other.

"Got it," Winter says, folding the magnesium ribbon into a coil. "And I have the wire." 

Moon smiles at him, her eyes bright under the safety goggles, and Winter feels lightheaded. "If we go quickly, we'll finish in time to do the calculations before the period ends."

"That would be a first for me." He grimaces. "Ochre really shouldn't be around anything more dangerous than vinegar."

"Can you set up the cage thingy while I get the tube thingy?" 

"Yeah." 

She sets down the acid, tucking the pencil behind her ear, and weaves her way between desks to the instrument table. Moon's been a little distant since their not-date at the end of the semester, and it makes Winter wonder whether she was lying to him when she told him he was worth it. Whether she hangs out with him because she genuinely likes him or because she's friends with Qibli and he's miserable most of the time.

And, yet, he can't stop thinking about the way she looks at him, the way he feels like an entirely different person, a person who's worth something, when he's around her. It's intoxicating.

Winter wraps the wire around his folded magnesium, securing it to a rubber cork.

Moon's right- they finish well before the period ends, with more than enough time to get a good start on the calculations.

Of course, Winter ends up making a mistake and having to start over.

Moon isn't talking, focused on her paper with the kind of dedication Winter is supposed to have. He sighs, returning to the math.

Every time he looks at her, it hurts.