I Love Being Around You [Ian]

It had been all Ian could do to not audibly groan when he heard his assignment partner. He didn't really know the guy, and with fairly good reason...he was trouble, people said, reckless and headstrong. And he was also one of the edgy, pretty cool kids.

And Ian was not, Ian with his button down shirts and thick glasses and slightly nervous tendancies. Ian who didn't go to parties or dances or football games, who instead focused on his studies, science, chess club and student body duties. He was the epitome of a nerdy goody two shoes. To be honest, there was a part of him that did want to fit in the world Harley seemed to come from, but he wasn't about to fool himself that he'd ever fit there, and just hoped to get through this with as little frustration towards each other as possible.

He gathered up his things as the bell rang, looking a little bit surprised that the other was waiting for him.

"Um. So. Hey." He greeted him a little awkwardly. "So you and me on that project." He was pretty sure this was the first time they'd ever spoken to each other at all.

Harley wasn't particularly dissappointed one way or another about the partner he'd been put with, at the very least Ian wasn't a slacker, because he had no intention of slacking off, he never did, his grades always showed that. Most students tended to write him off as a punk ass with no motivation or care, and he was content to let them think what they wanted, so he never corrected anyone or made a scene about it.

He glanced over when he heard a voice and smirked, pushing off the wall and leaning in a bit closer, looming over him a bit, "looks like it. So..." He tapped his chin, "we doin' this at your house or mine, Specs?" He waved for him to walk with him, "I think mine would be better, but if you wanna do it at yours it's whatever." He shrugged, "You got any ideas?" They'd been tasked with doing a detailed report on a specific time period, "I thought maybe Europe during the bubonic plague would be cool...All the dyin' and shit...But if you have ideas..." He offered, glancing to the side at the rather nerdy boy.

He couldn't help but bristle just a little at the nickname. "Ian. My name is Ian." He already got called enough names, here, at home, he didn't need it from this guy who he was going to have to work closely with for the next couple weeks.

He then shrugged when asked where he wanted to work. "Yeah sure, your place is fine. Mine is always full of like 7000 people, so it's not like it's ever quiet or anything." They could always go upstairs, but it was still never really quiet and he was always being called on to do various things it seemed.

He mulled over what they could do for their project, resisting the urge to roll his eyes a little at Harley's suggestion of something involving 'death and shit', he wondered if he was getting in with one of those also kinda creepy goth-ish type kids who added to their edginess by talking about darkness and blood and the inevitable fate of everything. Great. This was going to be a super fun couple weeks. But the suggestion did give him an idea that fit within his interests.

"So...how about we focus on Europe during the plague. But especially on the impacts of the plague itself, on things like disease vectors, why it spread like it did, how...and how stuff like lack of proper sanitation and modern medicine added to it being more of a crisis?" He suggested.

Harley lifted his hands with a disarming smile when he became defensive at the nickname, "Alright chill man, I didn't mean any harm, Ian it is." He was a touchy guy, wasn't he? He supposed he could understand that, as many time as he'd seen Ian take the brunt of people's rude cruelty.

Harley laughed, "I have a few siblings, but they mind their own business for the most part." He shrugged and looked thoughtful as they walked, "so my house it is, sounds like we'll get more done there, eh?" He chuckled, "we can start brainstorming today? Unless you gotta be home?" He could tell Ian was less than thrilled to be his partner, even if the boy was trying not to let is show, it was amusing and unsurprising really.

His eyes lit up and he finger gunned at Ian, "Hey sounds good!" He looked thoughtful, "I think that's more interesting than the death toll anyway." He shrugged, "It killed a lot of people. We know that. Be nice to focus on the other aspects, right?" He ran a hand through his hair and frowned, "kind of wish I could get into the head of someone who lived through that. Pick their brains. Gotta be fucked right?" He looked over at him with a serious expression, "people had to quarantine their children, their wives, husbands, just shut them away...Jesus..." He shook the thought away and smiled, "So we should hit the library too, do some deep digging yeah?"

Ian shrugged. "Nah, not really. I'll just text home about it, then I'm free until whenever." Today wasn't a day he had clubs or meetings after class, and while he never did just disappear without texting back to his mother first, he had a sneaking feeling with as much that went on in their house all the time he could be gone for hours before anyone really figured out he wasn't there, as quiet and kept to himself as he was. As he spoke he pulled out his phone, already doing that as they walked and talked.

"Yeah, anyone can just list off a bunch of numbers about how many people died." He said, not looking up from his phone. "That's not as interesting as why though. Or how. Or how it could have been done better, both within the context of their own situations and understanding, as well as how such a thing might be handled in modern time." A pause. "Although that last one is probably going out of the bounds of the project a little bit, more contrast and compare and scientific speculation, less historical reporting."

He put his phone away and looked up. "And even if you were quarantined that was still no guarantee of safety, for either side. Just the entire thing...it was a disaster and a tragedy." A moment of consideration. "We could do the library, honestly can probably find even more just as easily searching online though. All sorts of high end research material you can get there that you just can't find in a local or school library." He was feeling a slight bit encouraged, Harley actually sounded interested in the subject material, maybe this wouldn't be terrible after all.

Harley nodded, giving him a moment to text his family while they headed for the exit, "sick, promise I wont keep ya too late!" He glanced over as he listened to him speak, nodding along with his words, "right! It'd be kind of cool to imagine a scenario for a modern outbreak like that, teacher never said we couldn't add a little flair!" He waved his hands dramatically as he said this, "as long as we fulfill the requirements of the project, yeah? We'll see what he got time for."

"You alright walking? My house is legit like...Five minutes from the school!" He lived in one of the large flats nearby, his father's paycheck ensured it was big enough for the family, and comfortable, "need anything from your locker?" He said this as he stopped by his own, unlocking it and pulling out his scuffy old studded jacket, which the school refused to let him wear because of the spikes along the shoulders, 'a hazard' they said.

He turned to Ian with a smile, "alright, we can just use the internet, you're right it'll probably have more information readily available!" He chuckled, "you need to stop by your locker for anything? If not I'm good to head out!"

Ian ran a mental checklist in his head. "Yeah, I need to grab a couple of things." His locker wasn't that much further over, he headed over and popped it open, pulling out a few items and books he'd need for later, carefully organizing them in his bag for later access.

Straightening up with his bag slung over his shoulders he nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine with walking. Looks like a pretty nice day out there anyway." His house was a bit further out, but he tended to walk in even that distance when the weather wasn't too terrible. It beat riding the bus in most of the time.

"I've got some logins for research sites too, stuff I've subscribed to." He said as they headed for the door. "Give us some other options of stuff to read up on." Once they stood outside he paused and glanced around before following the direction the other way. "OKay, lead the way."

Harley nodded and followed him over to his locker when he finished grabbing his own books, glancing outside through a window, "yeah! It's nice walking weather, good change from all the clouds." He mused, falling into step beside Ian as the pair walked towards the entrance, glancing to the side when Ian spoke, "Serious? Sick! That'll come in handy."

When they got outside, Harley nodded and waved for Ian to follow him as he led him down the street, looking back, "beware when we get to my place..." He smirked, "my sister might be prowling." He laughed and pulled a face, sticking his tongue out, "she's even scarier than me!" He chuckled as he pointed to his building, "we live up there, top floor!" He was quick to lead him to the elevator at take him to the top floor, pulling out the key as he did, "dad's at work I think, which is good, he's a bit...hmm...Traditional? Fights with me a lot over it." He chuckled, "he's just a grumpass."

When they got to his apartment, he unlocked the door and waved Ian in, cupping his hands over his mouth to callout, "I'm HOOOOME!" He grinned and looked to the side, "you hungry? We got snacks'n shit!"

Ian looked a little surprised when Harley reacted to Ian's extra resources with excitement, instead of poking fun or rolling his eyes at it. Of course, maybe he just liked the idea of someone else having access to things so it was less work he had to do, Ian thought, but it was also a nice thought to think maybe his partner was actually at least semi-interested in this stuff.

He followed him into the elevator and upstairs, taking in the luxury building around him. His own house was big, but this was decidedly nicer. He wanted to live in a place like this someday, sleek and modern and fancy, up on the top floor with some great views. He let out a groan of understanding when Harley talked about his dad. "Yeah...I can relate to that one." 'Grumpass' would be a good term for his own dad...just not one he'd ever say to his face. Not if he wanted to talk away from that encounter in one piece, at least.

He followed Harley inside, finding himself looking around not just at his surroundings but for his sister, unsure what he might expect from seeing her, and exactly what made up 'scary'.

"You don't have to yell, people can hear you!" a female voice called back, funnily enough, nearly as loud. She padded out of someplace further back in the apartment, barefoot but otherwise well dressed in skinny jeans, a short stylish top and a variety of largely gold accessories. Ian immediately recognized her as part of one of the groups of 'cool girls'. "Mom and dad are out late tonight, they left us money to order food for dinner."

"That's your sister?" Ian sounded surprised, he'd never thought someone as different as these two would be related.

She blinked at Ian. "Hey. Who's this?"

"Hey, I'm Ian...we're working on a history project together. We came over here to get started." Ian explained.

Harley chuckled and shrugged, "what can you do? He gets to yelling, I yell back, next morning we're cool." He knew for the most part that his dad only wanted what was best for him, and wanted him to keep to his roots, which Harley bucked hard right now, it was a constant battle between the two, but it was one Harley was determined to win.

Harley laughed when the loud voice called back, "I was just making sure you were awake!" He shrugged and looked up when she came from further back, smirking, "Her?" He squinted at her for a moment then shrugged, "nope, never met her before in my life...How'd you get into my house?" He chuckled and gestured to Ian, "yeah we got paired up for a history assignment!" He was glad that their parents were out, it meant they could get right to what they needed to do, "how long have you been home?"

He waved for them to follow him as he led Ian to his bedroom, "we're doing our project over Europe during the plague, Ian's had some killer ideas for it!" He grinned over at the boy, "s'gonna be fun!"

Anusha let out that long suffering sound from the back of her throat that all teenage girls seem to know how to make. "Anubhav, you're such a jerk." She rolled her eyes at him. "I just got home like an hour ago...might have some of the girls over later...we all have to coordinate for this party this weekend so we don't wear the same things or colors and look stupid...but I'll have them keep it down so you guys can study." She said without a hint of mocking, despite the teasing she seemed actually pretty fond of her brother.

"Plague, ewww." She called after them though as they headed to Harley's room. He seemed like he felt maybe a little out of place in someone else's house, he sat gingerly on the edge of the bed as he set down his bag and started going through it.

"So...where do you want to start on all of this?"

He smirked and stuck his tongue out at her, "but I'm your jerk, Anusha!" He tilted his head as she spoke, laughing, "god you girls worry about goofy things..." He paused, then tapped his chin, "then again...Twinning does look kinda tacky doesn't it? You should wear that new outfit you got!" He nodded and gave her a thankful smile as he led Ian down the hall to his room, which was next door to his sister's, "she keeps a lot of the other girls in line, you know the ones." He felt like he didn't need to explain what people he was talking about, "you ever have a problem with any of them, you tell her, she'll take care of it." He gave him a friendly grin.

When they got into his room he immediately tossed his bag down and booted up his computer, "make yourself at home, my room is your room!" He chuckled, "let me get this thing on and we can start poking around some websites? Just kind of fish around, I'm sure we'll fall down a rabbit hole eventually!"

==

The history project had gone off without a hitch, Harley had actually proved to be an incredibly engaged and intelligent partner, often coming up with angles and ideas that wouldn't have occurred to Ian. Not to mention that despite their differences in hobbies and social circles they still found they had a lot of common grounds in other interests, he'd gone into this project dreading it, he'd come out with an unexpected friend. There was also the added bonus that hanging around Harley and his friends...people were more likely to leave him alone now, and he was glad for the reprieve.

There was a coffee shop near school he often went to afterwards on the days he didn't have other clubs, it was a good place to regroup, get some extra work done and get some quiet before he headed home. He'd often invite Harley to hang out too, they could put their heads together on homework or just hang out and talk about whatever, either was good for him.

He squinted at the paragraph he'd just written, before frowning, deleting it all and arching back over the chair to stretch out his back. It was a rapidly chilling day outside, it was a good afternoon to sit here next to the fire and drink coffee and relax.