Cullen returns to his hometown for his High School reunion and has to avoid all the questions about what happened to him during the past few years. Then he runs into his teenage crush and realises he still gets the same feeling around then that he got when he was a geeky highschooler.
No idea what a high school reunion is like, so have a British secondary school reunion instead – should be close enough, LOL
Starkhaven Courage
Word count: 1,340 Pairing: Cullen Rutherford/Sebastian Vael Rating: Teen/Mature For @cullenlovesmen and @dadrunkwriting [AO3 link]
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He had been nervous enough about his secondary school reunion, even well over a decade after he’d left the place; but now that Cullen was having to fend off all the questions about what had happened in his life since he left school at age eighteen, he was starting to regret ever coming at all.
The interest wasn’t all merely polite: Cullen had been geeky, gangly, awkward and largely ignored at school; but now that he appeared to have grown into his looks (as his sister once teasingly informed him), it was more than likely that some of the questions were due to him being a late bloomer, and therefore a Person Of Interest amongst the formerly unadmiring crowd. Or it could well be that he’d changed so much in the time between leaving school and now that his inquirers simply didn’t remember who he was, and were desperately trying to place him – trying to discern who the man he was now was in relation to the boy they thought they knew back then.
Regardless, he needed to get away from the questions – and after graciously making his excuses, Cullen managed to make his way to the makeshift bar that had been set up serving drinks at this affair. The bar-top seemed sticky already; the cheap and cheerful beers were being served up in huge transparent disposable plastic cups and sadly lacking in any satisfying heads of foam. The cups were almost impossible to hold, being so thin and wobbly that if Cullen held onto them just a little too tight he would spill beer everywhere. Still, he was probably going to need quite a few of them if he were to get through tonight. The alcohol should give him courage, if nothing else…
‘Cullen Rutherford? Is that you?’
Cullen had turned sharply at the sound of the soft, Starkhaven brogue that pronounced his name… only to come face to face with striking blue eyes on a smiling, handsome countenance, topped with smoothed-back reddish-brown hair, and he gulped.
‘Yes, I am,’ he said, trying not to let his surprise show at being spoken to, attempting a casual tone of voice. ‘Sebastian Vael, isn’t it?’
As if he didn’t know who this man was.
Sebastian Vael had been the teenager everyone had wanted to be at school: suave, good-looking, popular and cool. He’d been a wild boy back then; it was said that there’d been a number of girls who’d willingly given their virginity to him once they all came of age – and rumour had it some of the boys had, too; though nobody had ever been able to confirm that, or dared to ask.
And Cullen… Cullen had had such a crush on him, but Sebastian was always so surrounded by admirers and hangers-on and sycophants it was no wonder he’d never noticed the quiet, pale, gangly blond boy who’d burned and yearned for him in silence. Sebastian seemed to stand tall and stand out back then, like the light that pierces through the drudgery of one’s schooldays, while Cullen had been forever in shadow, never noticed.
If there had one thing Cullen had tried to reassure himself about (and, if he were honest, felt secretly rather smug about), it was that most of the people here seemed to have peaked in secondary school. Whereas Cullen himself had gained so much – gained confidence, gained skills, gained strength, gained wisdom; even turned heads, if the interested glances he’d received from some of the spouses and girlfriends of the former popular boys were anything to go by. Girls who’d ignored him at school seemed keen to know him; boys who’d ignored – even shunned – him at school seemed almost envious that he had not deteriorated with the rest of them.
Not so Sebastian Vael. If anything, the man had just got better with age, not worse. How was that even possible?
And now Sebastian was smiling at him.
‘Correct,’ he answered, fully at ease; and Cullen swore he felt his ears tingle at the soothing sound of that once-familiar Starkhaven burr. ‘How have you been all these years?’
Cullen could feel his tongue and his stomach tying themselves in knots all over again. If the man had been good-looking as a teenager, he was positively radiant now – almost glowing, in fact, and it was incredibly unfair. If Cullen had ever had to run into his teenage crush again, he had hoped it could be on a more equal footing – but now that Sebastian had actually turned up again, more handsome and confident than ever, there was absolutely no way it could happen.
‘I – I’ve been fine,’ he stuttered.
Sebastian’s easy smile broadened. ‘I hear you joined the army for a while. That surely explains your enviable physique.’
Cullen laughed nervously. ‘I – well, that’s very kind of you to say, and it’s true I have broadened myself in the intervening years. I mean, my mind as well, and not just my physique, but – anyway, Sebastian, it’s good to see you.’
‘Likewise.’
Cullen tried to smile, failed, and sipped his drink to cover it. No doubt Sebastian would probably find him as dull as he had been at school, and wander off in search of more interesting company once he had purchased his own beer from the bar; but to Cullen’s surprise, Sebastian returned to him, beer bottle in hand, looking considerably cooler than Cullen did, while Cullen stood there with this stupid flimsy plastic cup because he hadn’t realised he could have just asked for a bottle. Sebastian had always been much cooler than him, and that hadn’t even changed more than a decade later.
‘I imagine you have many adoring fans who you’re looking forward to seeing again,’ Cullen attempted to joke. ‘Like loyal subjects, waiting for the golden Prince Sebastian to address them.’
But Sebastian merely chuckled. ‘Are you trying to get rid of me, Cullen? And here I was, so pleased to see you again, and delighted for the chance to catch up.’
Cullen blushed; he attempted to bury his face in his beer cup again to hide it. ‘I cannot think why. We never spoke to each other at school. I wouldn’t have dreamed – I mean, thought – you’d be speaking to me now.’
‘You are easily the most interesting man here,’ Sebastian smiled, easy Starkhaven accent as strong and smooth as it had ever been. ‘Easily the most interesting person, in fact. Surely you are not denying that I should find you interesting?’
Cullen blushed again. ‘No,’ he croaked. ‘No, I don’t.’
‘I mean,’ Sebastian went on, ‘I could always leave if you didn’t want to talk to me, but… I hoped…’
‘No!’ Cullen had almost shouted it at him, and Sebastian looked as surprised at his awkward outburst as Cullen himself felt. ‘I mean… I would be happy for us to get to know each other. We… didn’t, back then. We have much to make up for.’
If he could ignore the fact that he got the same feeling – and more, perhaps – as he had around Sebastian as he had back then, this would probably go easier; but, Cullen being what he was, and the situation being what it was, this would have to do.
But Sebastian fixed him with such a piercing look, blue eyes vivid in his brown face, that Cullen felt simultaneously excited and terrified in a way that he hadn’t back then, when he was just being ignored. This was certainly new territory, for both of them.
‘I agree,’ came Sebastian’s burr again, but with a hint of promise that Cullen had not heard before, and he wondered if he were imagining it or if the man had always been like this. Time had aged him like a fine wine, and Cullen wanted to savour his company for tonight, if nothing else. ‘We certainly do have much to make up for.’
Cullen nodded, and drained the rest of his beer for courage and confidence. He was definitely going to need another one to handle this.
