your love // stenbrough

2

Stan zoned out as his Chemistry teacher ran through attendance, and explained the lab they'd be doing that day. He didn't need to pay attention. He was confident that he would figure it out himself, just as he always did. Stan was very independent, and he was ecstatic to discover that his usual lab partner, Eddie Kaspbrak was absent. It's not that Stan didn't like the kid, but Eddie was terrified of absolutely everything, and that was a distraction that Stan really didn't need.

The teacher released them, and Stan immediately started organizing the necessary materials at his lab table, eager to begin the chromotagraphy experiment. It was actually a fairly easy lab, and all he needed to do was determine the approximate percent composition of a mixture of blue, red, and yellow food dyes. Although it bothered him that there were no exact measurements, Stan was thankful that his job was relatively simple. He was just about to begin the lab when his teacher approached him.

"Stanley, I'm going to need you to partner with William today." She said to Stan kindly, gesturing to the desks behind him, where he assumed his partner-to-be was seated.

Stan was polite when responding but internally groaned. He hated group work, especially with people like William Denbrough, or as he was better known around the school; Stuttering Bill. Stan was fairly certain that Bill was failing Chemistry, and being a year younger than Stan and the other grade eleven students in the class, Stan didn't quite understand why Bill was there in the first place.

He turned around to look for Bill, and spotted him with his head down at his desk. Stan let out an audible groan this time as he left his station and made his way over to the younger boy, tapping him on the shoulder.

Stan cleared his throat. "We're lab partners today," he said matter-of-factly. "I've already got everything set up, so you don't really have to do anything if you don't want." He crossed his fingers and hoped that Bill would agree. He didn't need anybody messing with his grades.

Bill lifted his head, brushing his auburn hair out of his shockingly blue eyes. Stan noticed that they were red-rimmed, indicating that he had either been crying, or he was high on something. Stan wouldn't be surprised by either scenario. "N-n-no, I can help." Bill said softly.

Stan gave the other boy a tight-lipped smile. Well shit.

"Sounds good. Let's start, we're wasting time." Stan said and grabbed the other boy's arm, dragging him back to his lab station. As he began cutting chromotography paper, he noticed Bill blankly staring at the bottle of dye mixture on the table. Stan sighed, figuring he'd have to explain the entire process to his new partner. "So the lab purpose is to seperate and determine the composi-"

"I kn-know." Bill interrupted.

"Then what're you doing?" Stan asked, in obvious distaste.

"Determing the color c-composition." Bill said simply, as if it were obvious what he was trying to accomplish. His eyes were still trained on the dye mixture as he picked it up and swirled it around the bottle.

"By looking at it?" Stan scoffed.

"E-exactly."

Stan laughed to himself in disbelief. This kid was completely high out of his mind. He continued to drop individul dye samples on the chromotography paper, following the very specific instructions and ignoring Bill.

"This is a guess, r-right? N-not exact?"

"That'd be correct." Stan replied, filling a beaker with water.

"It's s-sixty percent blue dye, th-th-thirty percent red dye, and ten percent
y-yellow." Bill said, placing the dye bottle down on the counter, and pulling out a piece of paper and a pencil. "O-or that's my g-guess at least."

Stan rolled his eyes. "And how did you figure that out."

Bill shrugged his shoulders as he scribbled out the numbers. "I've got a thing for
c-colors."

"Yeah okay." Stan said sarcastically. There was no way in hell that made sense. "I'm still going to complete the lab."

"Okay. Then I'll h-help." The other boy responded, rolling up his sleeves.

Stan did a double take, staring in complete awe. Bill's arms were completely covered in paint. Swirls upon swirls of different shades of blue ran up and down his forearms and onto the backs of his hands. Stan didn't know if the art was supposed to be depicting anything in particular but the brush strokes were absolutely beautiful. Despite his obvious talent, Stan was more sure than ever that Bill was completely bat-shit insane.

Bill blushed when he noticed San staring, and distracted himself with the dye samples, desperate to escape the older boy's judgemental gaze. Stan opened and closed his mouth repeatedly, trying to find something to say.

"Okay,"  He finally said, letting out a small laugh. "You've got a things for colors." Bill nodded silently as Stan repeated his words.

The two boys spent the next hour continuing their labwork. Stan was surprised at how minimally Bill got in the way, and how much he actually contributed to the experiment. The partners worked very well together, despite the lack of conversation.

By the end of the class period, Stan wrote down the percent composition of the dye, satisfied with his result. As he stood up to hand in their work, Stan couldn't help but pull out Bill's paper and glance at his numbers. He was in utter disbelief upon the discovery that Bill's estimate and their lab results were identical. Stan looked up in shock at the other boy, who was calmly packing up his things, sleeves covering his arms once again. Stan shook his head as he made his way to the front of the room and handed in his papers.

"Thanks, Stanley." His teacher smiled as she skimmed her eyes over their work. "This looks great."

"Thank you." He replied, before returning to his desk to neatly gather his papers and supplies. He also really needed to talk to his lab partner. Stan was completely taken aback by the intelligence that Bill had been hiding.

And that paint...

When the class was dismissed, Stan stood up to walk over to Bill's desk, but the younger boy was already gone.