And you decided whether you saw beauty or destruction

We're awkward souls

(Floating hearts)

This one's for "IHaveNoClue"on ao3 

It happened accidentally, or at least, Evan wanted to believe it had been an accident and not his family friend trying to pull a prank on Evan by embarrassing him in front of his crush.

It happened because when lunch rolled around, Evan found Jared sitting on a table in front of Connor Murphy, and, upon seeing Evan, loudly called him over.

Evan had to snatch up the orange hearts that popped on top his head at the idea of sitting near Connor, while also fighting the feeling of dread of being glared at, also by Connor. Evan somehow found his feet moving him towards the table, and sooner than he anticipated, he's there, and he's sitting beside Jared, eyes fixated on his lunch bag; if he looks at Connor more hearts will pop out, and that can only end badly.

Apparently, the whole reason Jared was sitting with Connor, was that he caught Connor shoving hearts inside his locker, and now was trying to get Connor to fess up on who he liked. Evan was really regretting sitting here; he did not need to hear about Connor's crush on someone that was definitely 100 times better than Evan, but now he's trapped in his seat.

If he moves he'll bring attention to himself, if he leaves the table he'll offend Connor, if he escapes now Jared will never let him hear the end of it; so he's trapped, listening to his family friend try to coax his crush into talking about the hearts he apparently has.

^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^

Connor didn't want anyone to find out about his hearts, but out of everyone to do so, Jared Kleinman was the second to worst person possible, the first being the boy Connor was pinning after.

Kleinman wouldn't leave him alone after he saw the heart, bothering Connor nonstop, Connor is two seconds from flipping on him, when Kleinman dooms him.

"Evan! Over here!"

Connor feels his heart racing, dread settling in, because he can't have any more hearts popping out, if he does he'll give himself away. Evan walks over and drops down beside Kleinman, eyes fixated on the lunch bag he places on the table, Connor can deal with this.

The problem slowly turns from trying not to pop hearts at having his crush so close to him, to trying not to snap at Kleinman and ruin any chances he has of even talking to Evan. It's a thing because Kleinman will not stop pushing.

"-because I'm pretty sure she's terrified of you, not that I blame her"
"It's not a girl!"

Fuck, there goes that, now Kleinman knows he's gay, joy.

"Oh, well, no need to scream, Evan here is also hardcore pining for a dude"

Evan finally looks up from his lunch, bluish green eyes snapping towards Kleinman, blush rising to his cheeks.

"Jared!"

Connor isn't fast enough, Evan whirls around looking ready to say something, but the blue heart drops to the table before he can, Connor can feel his own heart, the one inside his chest, also dropping ; he locks eyes with Evan's bluish green ones, he stands up abruptly, and then he's running.

^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^

Evan is frozen in place, eyes glued to the blue heart that's still on the table, and Connor is making a quick escape.

"I wasn't expecting that"

Jared's voice breaks Evan of his stupor; Evan jumps from his seat, snatches the blue heart of the table, and runs after Connor. It's brash and not well thought out at all, but Evan needs to know, needs to confirm what he thinks this means.

He somehow, impossibly, catches up to Connor, who's headed to the school's parking lot, Evan will lose him if he gets there; he's unsure why this is a certainty, it just is.

"Connor, wait!"

Connor stops, whirling around to face him, and he looks like he's flipping through every emotion possible in this situation in a single go, Evan tries to regain his breath, offering the heart to him.

"This is... you forgot this"

Connor looks at him , then at the heart, then back at him like he doesn't know what to do with Evan, which, same.

"It's yours"
Evan feels a heart pop up above him at the confirmation, Connor glares at it.
"Why the fuck are you thinking of your crush right now?"
"I... I'm sorry? You're making it- making really hard not to"

"What's that supposed to mean?"
Evan swallows, pulling the blue heart away in his pocket, so he can grab the orange one now lying on his head, with a confidence improper of him, he shoves it into Connor's hands.
"Here, it means you're bittersweet, and spontaneous, and protective, and resourceful, and- I'll shut up now"

Connor takes a hold of it, looking at it as if it holds the answers to the universal questions.

"Oh"

He looks back at Evan, with his piercing blue eyes, the right one has a brown spot, making his heart stutter.
"You... you like me?"

Evan feels himself blushing, but manages to nod; three blue hearts pop over Connor's head. He breaches the distance between them with a single step, he gives another blue heart to Evan.
"You're soothing, and patient, and understanding and more shit, but I can't remember, I'm sorry"
Evan shakes his head, pats his pocket where the previous blue heart still remains, Connor lets the one in his hand drop.

"Right"
Evan nods, to stop himself from parroting back at him, Connor brushes a hand through the back of his head, Evan feels a few hearts popping over him, and the next thing he knows is that they're both laughing. He can't remember who started it, or why, just that it feels really nice after all that tension, and that Connor has a nice laugh, there's blue and orange hearts pilling on the floor.

"Fuck, ok, do you wanna skip with me Hansen?"
"I uh... sure"
"Cool, cool"
"We should... maybe pick these up first"

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea"

So they do, in silence, it's not awkward per se, but it is odd, like there's something stagnant in the air, but they're both ok with it staying there for the time being. They shove the hearts away into both of their backpacks, not stopping to see who was getting what, and then Connor leads Evan outside, and Evan figures this marks the start of something, but he isn't sure what just yet.