Funny How Love Is (Maylor AU)

Chapter 84

With those final three words, the blonde turned on his heel and marched down the hallway, angrily pushing through the set of doors and breaking outside. The cold winter air hit his face, snowflakes dancing in the breeze and working their way towards the white blanket that covered the ground. Sitting on one of the benches, all by himself, was Brian—head hung low, teeth chattering, arms crossed, and legs trembling. Roger smirked at the pitiful sight and gravitated towards the professor, the crunch of his footsteps in the snow alerting his target of his presence as he slipped out of his jacket.

"Roger, what are you d-d-doing out here?" Brian stammered, "It's f-f-freezing."

"I know," the blonde answered, draping his coat over the older man's shoulders and smiling, "'Thought you could use some company and another layer."

The professor couldn't help but return the grin, watching as the blonde circled round him, jumped over the back of the bench, and took the seat beside him, hugging himself for warmth and gazing out into the darkness that surrounded them and the school. Brian bit his lip and tilted his head down, replaying the conversation he had with Chrissie over again in his head.

"I'm a royal idiot, Roger," he blurted out after a long moment of silence, earning the blonde's attention.

"We all are sometimes," he countered, hoping to lift the professor's lowered spirits.

Brian shook his head in disagreement, tears pricking his eyes. "You don't understand. I messed up, Rog. I really messed up."

The music instructor pressed his lips together, refraining from admitting that he did understand; that he knew all about Chrissie and their situation. He worried if he did, it would only complicate the professor's decision further. The two had only known each other for so long, but Roger knew this wasn't going to be an easy choice for him.

"You ever felt so af-f-fraid of something, that all you w-w-want to do is run away?" Brian wondered, glancing over at Roger who began to shiver from the cold.

The blonde nodded his head, murmuring, "More t-t-times than you'd think." A weary smile appeared on the music instructor's face, along with a redness to his cheeks that matched the professor's. The two of them stared at one another for a bit, Roger anticipating Brian to elaborate on his inquiry, but when it became clear that wasn't going to happen, the blonde hesitantly tacked on, "Why do you ask?"

Brian swallowed the nervous lump in his throat, building up the courage to admit, "Because I th-think we should do it. I think we sh-sh-should run away."

Roger's eyes widened, the curly-haired man's suggestion very unlike himself. "What?"

"We can leave, right now," the professor proposed, "And we don't ever have to look back. W-We'll find ourselves a nice little place somewhere f-f-far far away from h-h-here."

"Brian, what's g-g-gotten into you?"

"I just want to be with you, okay?" he practically screamed, his raised voice falling on deaf ears, all but Roger's, and the tears that had been wavering in his eyes now streaming down his rosy cheeks, "I have since the first day I l-l-laid eyes on you, and I...I know you want to be with me t-t-too."

Roger found himself speechless, the man sitting beside him someone he didn't recognize. He figured the man before him to be something of his imagination, doing what the man he'd come to know would never. To make sure this was really happening, he placed a hand on the man's jittery leg, and when it didn't sink to the bench, he knew. He knew it was real, but how?

"This is me doing s-s-something," the professor went on to stutter, regaining Roger's astonished gaze, "You said I needed to do something, and th-th-this is it. Please."