~ Adam ~

Adam groaned as he stepped out of the Science building into the day's full-blown chill. An arctic blast had hit town overnight, and between the weather and not getting any sleep because his neighbour had, once again, chosen to blare dubstep until four that morning, Adam felt like a walking corpse. He'd stayed up another hour again just ranting to Piper about it over text.

A stream of students were making their way down the steps, crowding close to avoid the wind. Adam shivered as he drew his hood up and hastily made his way across campus toward the cafe and out of the rain.

The cafe was busy but not crowded. Adam easily spotted Cole sitting at a table by the window, glancing at out the quad with a bored expression as he tapped one finger rhythmically on the tabletop. His signet ring looked imposing beneath the fluorescent lighting.

"Hey," Adam said as he slid into the opposite chair, bag dropping to the floor. "I hope I didn't keep you waiting long."

Cole flicked two fingers toward the counter. If he noticed Adam's wrecked state, he didn't comment. "I haven't ordered yet, if you want anything."

Adam shook his head. "I'm okay."

A silence fell between them briefly. Adam hadn't seen Cole since the weekend. Their text conversations had been short as Adam didn't want to come across as intrusive but he did ask quietly, "How's Max doing?"

Cole shrugged. "As best as any kid in that situation can be, I guess. James is watching him right now."

"He's here?" Adam asked, surprised. "In Spring Creek?"

Cole nodded. "It wasn't wise to leave him alone with Mum right now. He's staying part-time with me. James took him to some book signing across town or whatever, I don't know. At least it'll keep him out of trouble."

Adam nodded slowly. "And how are you?"

Something unreadable flashed in Cole's eyes. It was gone as quickly as it had come but Adam didn't miss it. Judging from his expression, not many people had asked Cole that in a long time.

"I'm fine." Cole said.

He reached out across the table and took one of Adam's hands in his, gently stroking the skin with his thumb. "I'm sorry that I had to cut our date short."

"Don't apologise. You were where you needed to be."

"Still," Cole leaned back in his chair, hand leaving Adam's, "I want to make it up to you."

"That's really not necessary."

"It is," Cole insisted. "I never got to do the whole romantic 'dropping you home at the end of the night' thing."

"I was driving." Adam chuckled.

"It's about the principle." Cole's eyes met his. "I want to do this right."

Adam inhaled sharply. Neither he or Cole had made any move to define this thing growing between them. Whether or not Cole felt a need to, Adam didn't know. Is that something he should've known beforehand? Would it be right to ask now?

But instead of charging head-first into that conversation, Adam said, "I don't think this is something you can get right. I think it's just something you do just."

Something twinkled in Cole's eye across the table. "Wise words."

Adam playfully rolled his eyes. "It's a gift."

"Is that so?"

"Can't be taught."

"I wouldn't think so."

A comfortable silence settled between them again. Adam hadn't realised how quickly he'd become accustomed to that feeling with Cole.

Cole said, "Are you working tonight?"

Adam shook his head. "Two of the guys are out with the flu. I'm opening for Marty in the morning instead."

"Well, then," Cole shoved his chair back and stood, glancing down at Adam. "It's a good thing I've got a free afternoon. C'mon."

Adam rose delicately to his feet, eyebrow raised. "Where are we going?"

Cole didn't answer. Instead, he walked right out of the cafe, likely assuming Adam would follow. Luckily, he did.

The sky had darkened significantly in their short time at the cafe. Thunder rumbled in the distance but Adam wasn't perturbed. He'd always liked storms.

Cole was leading him down toward the student parking lot. Adam jogged to catch up, falling in step beside him with a determined, "Cole, where are we going?"

"You just have no sense of adventure, do you?"

"I'm with you, aren't I?"

"Touchè."

Eventually, they reached Cole's Nissan. Adam asked as Cole climbed into the driver's seat, "I thought you were supposed to be getting your car back?"

Cole's hand curled into a fist around the steering wheel. "Damn body shop can't source a part they need to fix the door. They had to ship one in from the States and it's taking two weeks longer than scheduled. I've already told them they can just cancel my account after this. I'm done doing business with them."

Adam didn't have anything to add so instead he focused on the road as Cole pulled out of the parking lot. He tried to focus on where they were going but inevitably his eyes drifted over to the other boy.

For the few short months since they'd begun hanging out, Adam had always liked the way Cole drove. Not his ability, considering he tended to drive over the speed limit like it was a personal offence, but rather his style.

Cole driving looked simultaneously natural and beautiful as hell. He sat poised with one hand on the steering wheel, the other resting in his lap like he had all the time in the world to get to his destination. There was a slight furrow to his brow, though Adam knew he wasn't angry. He was focused, but not enough so that he had to intentionally zone into his surroundings when the need arised.

It was casual, and Adam thought maybe the most beautiful things in life were just that simple.

Cole didn't drive them far. Twenty minutes north of town at the most. They pulled into a gravel parking area off the side of the forest and Adam recognised it as one of the mountain trails in the area.

"Cole, it's eight degrees outside." Adam said.

"We're not here to hike." Cole pulled the key out of the ingition before frowning. "Well, not exactly. Just trust me."

And Adam did.

Which is how they found themselves thirty minutes up the trail leading into the forest. Adam wasn't wrong - it was freezing outside, but Cole seemed to have planned this given that Adam now wore one of his coats with a fur lining. It was slightly big on him but he didn't care. He nestled his face into the collar, inhaling the spicy scent of Cole's lingering cologne.

Thankfully, the rain seemed to die down as Adam and Cole reached an opening in the woodland. Water running in a small creek could be heard from nearby, the world aglow with the shimmer of fresh rainfall caressing every leaf on the flora.

Cole made his way over to where a rickety picnic table stood. He jumped up and stood upon the top, inhaling nature deep into his lungs. A few stray raindrops clung to his dark hair and Adam's stomach dropped at the sight.

Cole held out a hand towards him. "Come here."

Adam took his hand and allowed Cole to pull him up. They stood side by side, a speck of multitudes in the world of nature.

"I love rain," Adam said quietly, "it always makes the world look so beautiful."

"I guess that depends on what makes your world," Cole replied, looking directly at him.

Adam blushed but didn't falter. "What made you think to come out here?"

Cole shrugged. "I don't really get out much in nature anymore. I used to a lot as a kid. Dad harboured a passion for admiring the wildlife around our home and sometimes he'd take me along. I hadn't really thought about it until now."

Adam's own father had never once done anything to build a relationship with his son; to teach him the world and all the ways he mattered or didn't matter in it. They weren't that type of family. They never would be, and so Adam couldn't imagine a world where they were.

But he could envision another's. A young Cole, stood by his father as the man pointed out animals and taught him the pronounciation of different plants. A man raising his son to be the kind of person who takes people into the forest simply to admire the world together.

Adam hadn't always thought of Cole that way. His first impression, despite the stories, had been that this was someone with a chip on their shoulder and no desire to overcome it. To throw matches in a kerosene world just to see which one would catch. It was getting harder and harder to still imagine that person.

"Thankyou for bringing me here," Adam said honestly, "I would've just spent the afternoon..."

Studying. Stressing. Always worrying about the future and never really living for today.

It was a beat Adam had always marched to, as noted by Piper time and time again. Adam had never really seen it as a problem, but his horizons were broadening and he didn't know why or when it started.

"It just wouldn't have been like this," Adam finished.

Cole nudged his shoulder. "I'm glad you decided to come."

"Well, you did practicaly kidnap me."

A scoff. "Kidnapping would require force. I didn't force you to do anything."

"Not this time, at least."

Cole rolled his eyes as Adam laughed.

A moment of silence. Then, "You know, I've never really done this before."

Adam turned his head to look at Cole. "Done what?"

"The whole relationship thing."

And, oh, this was happening. Now, the time had come.

"We, um," Adam cleared his throat. "We don't have to do anything you're not comfortable with."

"I've never been boyfriend material." Cole said easily. "And it's not because I'm repressed or some shit. It just never really presented itself as an option."

The air had become charged between them. "And now?"

A shrug. "Maybe it has."

Adam looked toward the trees in front of them. "I've never really done this before either. Nothing serious."

"Was there a reason?"

Adam shrugged. "I didn't feel like I needed it. I still don't."

"But?"

Adam turned his head away. "I think I'm just used to not wanting anything that it feels unfamiliar."

A pause. Then, "Can I tell you what I want?"

Adam looked back to Cole. "Of course."

Cole inhaled before saying, "I'm not intentional. People, more than I care to count, have labelled me reckless, impulsive, callous, and they'd be right. I've done a lot of things in the past to entitle them to feel that way."

"I've seen you with your brother," Adam cut in softly, "and James, hell, even Piper. You're not cruel by any meaning of the word, Cole."

"I have been before," Cole gently corrected, "to people who have wanted different things to me. More than a one-night stand. A connection. I've never felt the need for any of it. But I want to try it."

"What changed your mind?"

"You."

And there it was, an answer so simple that Adam couldn't believe how easily it was said. Almost as if they'd been spoken on autopilot; a destination born from a natural trajectory.

Adam hadn't known Cole for long. A matter of months, at most. If he were a different person, he might've said it felt like felt or a gravitational pull. An invisible string tying their paths into one.

But he wasn't someone else, and Adam had learnt long ago that fate and the natural course were absolute bullshit.

So, instead he said this: "Wanting it is too easy. You have to try."

Cole stepped forward and jumped off the table, landing on the wet grass. He looked up at Adam from beneath dark lashes and asked, "Are you willing to try with me?"

Adam smiled, but he wasn't there yet. "All those things you said, I'm the same, you know. I've never really been in a serious relationship. I don't know what I'd be like."

"Being yourself is all I ask."

"Well, then. When you put it like that," Adam too stepped off the table and met Cole face-on. He jutted his chin up slightly, as if it were a challenge. "I suppose I'm willing to try. Verisimilitude, and all that."

Cole wrapped an arm around his waist and pulled him closer. "You're a little shit."

"I aim to please."

"You'd please me if you shut up."

"So I can do something else?"

"Tomorrow, I'll tell myself this was a mistake."

"You'd have to commit the mistake first."

And so, Cole kissed him to shut him up.

***

Later, when Adam got home, he arrived to find a green beetle parked in his driveway where Piper was leaning against it.

"Hey," Adam said as he unclipped his helmet and ran a hand through his hair. "What are you doing here?"

Piper stood with one leg crossed over the other, smirking as she waved her phone in one hand. "I've got the perfect plan to get revenge on your neighbour."

Adam grinned, cheeky and boyish. "Tell me."

***

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A/N: they're official! 🥳