Remus knew he was meant to be concentrating on his book. That was the whole point of a library. It was a place where you could read without distractions. Also, if Remus didn't concentrate on what he was reading, he'd get a detention and a failed lesson. So, in short, Remus really was meant to be concentrating on his book.

But the very cute boy just a table across from him was making that very difficult. This boy was completely absorbed in his book and it was so damn cute. He kept making facial expressions that probably matched those of the characters in the book and tucking a stray piece of hair behind his ear. When he wasn't doing this, he was gnawing on his thumbnail absently, focused intently on the story in his book. He was so cute and far more interesting to Remus than whatever he was meant to be reading about poetry verse or whatever.

Remus knew this boy from somewhere, he definitely did. He was just trying to work out where he'd seen this boy before when the boy in question knocked his bookmark off the desk.

"Oh shoot." He muttered to himself, scrabbling around for it.

"Janus, that's it." Remus thought. Janus Dagger, smartest nerd in History class. Very cute too... Not that Remus had ever noticed that before, of course. No, there were far more memorable people to gaze at, Remus was sure.

"Am I really going to sit here staring at a boy I've talked to maybe once?" Remus thought. "I'm a Winston, for God's sake. If Ro can get all sorts of people to fall at his feet, I can get one guy, surely."

Remus dug around in his school bag for a loose piece of paper and ended up tearing a sheet out of his Spanish book. He looked up at Janus, who was absorbed back into his book and grinning idiotically at whatever was happening. Jesus Christ, he really was cute.

'Hey, you're really cute.' Remus wrote on the piece of paper. 'Could I maybe get your number or something? - Remus (table opposite you)' He balled up the piece of paper, took careful aim and threw it at Janus.

Janus was pulled away of his story with a jolt when a ball of paper hit his head with a light thump. He looked at the balled up piece of paper on his desk. Did it say anything? Or did someone throw it at him just for fun?

"I'm going to look so stupid if this isn't a note." Janus thought as he put his bookmark in his book. He took the ball of paper and carefully started unfolding and uncrumpling it.

'Hey, you're really cute.'

Was this a joke?

'Could I maybe get your number or something?
- Remus (table opposite you)'

This was definitely a joke. There was no way Remus Winston would think he was cute or write a note to him. But Remus Winston was sitting at the table opposite to him. That didn't prove anything, though.

'Ha ha, very funny joke' Janus wrote back. 'I'm not that stupid.' He balled the paper up again and threw it at Remus.

Remus jumped and opened the piece of paper. He read what Janus had written and looked up at him in confusion.

"It's not a joke." He said. Janus raised an eyebrow at him and went back to reading, gnawing on his nail.

Next, there was the scrape of a chair and someone sat down at his table. Janus could easily guess who it was.

"Could you leave me alone?" He asked, not looking up from his book.

"Okay, okay, I will." Remus said. "I'm just going to leave this here." There was a rustle of paper. "And it's not a joke. No matter what people say, it's not."

Janus waited until Remus left the library to look at the paper.

'Hey, here's my number. If you ever want to call me ;)' And below was Remus' number. Janus laughed in disbelief and shook his head.

"Motherfucker." He muttered, gathering his stuff and leaving.

"Hey, mum!" Janus yelled as he got home. "I'm back."

"Hey, Janus." His mum said. "How was school?"

Janus shrugged. "It was good. I'm gonna go do some homework."

"Okay. Don't stay too long, though. I'm gonna need some help making tea. We're making pizzas." His mum said. Janus laughed.

"Kay, mum. I won't be too long, anyway." Janus said, running up the stairs as he spoke. He knew he didn't have to tell his mum what he was doing but it was just habit from living with his dad.

"I can't believe I'm actually going to do this." Janus thought when he got to his room. "Still, nothing to lose."

He scratched his eczema absently as he pulled Remus' note out of his blazer pocket. He made a quick contact with Remus' number and sat down on his bed, trying to think of what to write.

'Hey, this is Janus.' He typed eventually. 'This really had better not be a joke because I've stooped low enough to text you.'

He sighed and hesitated before adding the next sentence. 'Did you mean what you said? About me being cute and stuff?'

Janus sent the text and waited. Pretty quickly, he started to doubt it. "He was probably just messing with you." He thought. "He's one of the most popular guys in the school. Why would-"

A new text came through on his phone.

'Hey. Remus, as you've probably guessed. Yeah, um,'

Did he just actually type the word 'um' to make it sound like speech? That was unexpectetedly dorky and... kinda sweet.

'Yeah, um, I meant it. You really are cute'

Wait, why was Janus blushing over this?

'Thanks' Janus texted back. 'Anyway, I heard through the grapevine you're failing English'

'Yeah...' Came back almost immediately.

"You're about to be stupid, Jan." Janus thought.

"Maybe I don't care." He finished out loud.

'Maybe we could meet up sometime? For, like, a study thing'

'Um, sure'

Yeah, kinda cute.

'Great. Can you come to the library tomorrow?'

'Sure'

'Awesome. See you there and make sure you concentrate, this time' Janus giggled a little as he sent the text. Why he was so excited about this, he didn't know. Nor did he really want to find out yet.

"Uh, hi." Janus looked up from his book and smiled.

"Hey." He said. He closed his book. "So, what are you struggling at in English?" He asked as Remus sat down.

"Everything." Remus said. Janus laughed.

"Surely it can't be everything." He said.

"You'd be surprised by how much I can fail at, Jan." Remus said. "Janus." He corrected quickly.

"Jan's fine." Janus said with a small grin. "Anyway, um, okay. What are you struggling at most?"

Remus looked down at the table awkwardly. "Everything." He said. Janus sighed.

"Okay. What do you want to work on first?" He said. "And don't say everything again or I'm gone."

"Okay, okay, okay." Remus said, holding his hands up. "Um, could we work on analysing poetry first? Cause Ro writes a shit tone of poetry and wants me to help work out meanings and stuff and I can't do that."

Janus nodded. "Okay. That's something we can do. Um, how about we go find some poetry books and clean paper and we can make a start on that?"

Remus shrugged. "Sounds like a plan." He said. Janus gave him a thumbs up and went to grab a couple poetry books.

"Are you really going to have a study session with a guy who you're attracted to like this is a fucking story?" Remus asked himself.

"Remus?" Janus asked. "Are you gonna grab some poetry too or am I going to have to carry this whole session?"

"Oh, um, yeah. Sorry." Remus said, jumping up. Janus laughed quietly and rolled his eyes before walking away, several books already in hand.

"Yeah." Remus thought. "Yeah, I am."

"You see?" Janus asked, looking up at Remus. "Remus? Are you listening?"

Remus blinked. "Hm? Oh, yeah. Interesting... poetry." Janus sighed and rolled his eyes.

"You didn't hear a single thing I said, did you?"

"No. No I did not." Remus said candidly. Janus pulled his ponytail over his shoulder and twisted the end of his hair.

"Jesus Christ, I'm starting to think you're hopeless." He said.

"You and the rest of the world." Remus said, trying to laugh it off like a joke. Janus blinked.

"Okay, I'm not even going to try to begin to unpack that and instead am going to stray away from the question 'are you okay' because you're clearly not." Janus said. He checked his watch. "Oh, shoot. Um, I've got to get home. Uh, do you at least understand a little of this?"

Remus nodded. "Yeah, I think so."

Janus gave him a thumbs up as he grabbed his backpack. "Great. Um, I gotta go. Bye." He waved awkwardly before leaving the library. Remus sighed a little and rested his face in his hands.

"I'm such a lovesick idiot." He thought.

***

"Hey, Jan." Janus jumped.

"Jeese, Rem." He said, putting a hand over his chest. "How long have you been there?"

Remus shrugged and sat down, grinning. "Long enough to confirm the fact that you are adorable when you're fully concentrated on what you're reading."

Janus blushed lightly, shaking his head. "You're such an idiot, Rem. Anyway, what are you failing at today?"

Remus laughed far too loudly for a library setting. "Just the usual everything. Only this time, what adjectives to use in a piece of descriptive writing."

"Oh, well that's easy." Janus said. "I'll see if I can grab us some plain paper and we can start brainstorming. What're you describing?"

Remus shrugged. "Same old. A place."

"Great, okay." Janus grinned and stood up to go find some paper. Remus let out a breath as soon as he'd gone.

"It should be illegal for someone to be that beautiful and not know it." He thought.

"I have an idea!" Janus declared when he got back. "Why don't we come up with a word and then as many synonyms as we can for that word?"

Remus shrugged. "Sure."

"Bril. What word do you want to start with?" Janus asked, grabbing a pen out of his pencil case.

Remus bit his tongue lightly, thinking. "Beautiful." He decided. Janus nodded to the side and wrote the word in a circle in the middle of the page.

"Okay, let's go. How about I start?" Remus shrugged. "Hm... exquisite."

"Oh, good word." Remus said. Janus smiled and wrote the word down.

"Okay, your turn."

Remus scratched his head. "Charming." He said. Janus wrote the word down.

"Alluring." Janus said, as he wrote down his word.

"Wonderful."

Janus wrote the word down. "Fine."

Remus snickered. "Bit basic." Janus narrowed his eyes at him. "Pretty." Remus said. Janus laughed.

"And you call me basic. Pulchritudinous." He said. Remus' mouth dropped open.

"That can't be a word!" He protested. Janus grinned.

"It is a word. It means physically beautiful. So, for example, the step-sisters in Cinderella were pulchritudinous." He said, grinning at Remus' face.

"You're hot." Remus said. He clapped a hand over his mouth. Janus laughed, blushing, thinking it was just another of Remus' jokes.

"Seriously?" He asked. Remus looked down at the desk and didn't answer. Janus' smile dropped. "You're serious?" He asked. Remus nodded a little and Janus felt himself blush even more.

"What am I to you, Rem?" Janus asked. "Cause you keep giving me mixed signals and it's fucking with my head."

Remus said something quietly. Janus blinked. "A crush." Remus said, a little louder. Janus dropped his pen.

"You?" He asked. "Have a crush on me?" Remus nodded. "You have terrible taste." Janus said.

"Well, what about you?" Remus asked, flushing pink slowly.

"I mean, I have the most basic taste in the world." Janus said, his heart hammering in his chest. "I have a crush on the famed Remus Winston and if that isn't the most basic bad-boy crush in the world then I don't know what is."

Remus stared at Janus, open-mouthed. "Sorry, I'm gonna need for you to repeat that." He said. "Because it sounded like you said you had a crush on me and that's just-" Janus cut Remus off by leaning forward and quickly kissing him. Nothing more than a second. Nothing more than a gentle kiss. Still, when Janus pulled away they were both bright pink. "Stupid." Remus finished, all the conviction in his voice gone. "Holy shit."

Janus looked down at his hands, flushed. "I really like you, Rem." He said. "And I know you like me too so, I was kinda wondering if you wanted to maybe go on a date?"

"I, uh, definitely." Remus said. "Definitely, yeah."

This is so cute. And no, I won't be taking critisism. God, I need to write more high school Demus.
Bye,
Blaize