Fic: Where Two Lines Intersect, Part 2

[wanderingfic]

Two days later he knocked on the door of Andy's office with one hand, while the other clutched at the strap of his book bag. Andy was frowning down at a stack of papers, grading them with a green pen held in his left hand, but he looked up and smiled at Sid.

"Hey," he said and straightened up the pile of papers. He pushed them to the corner of his desk and gestured for Andy to take the other chair in the room, not across from his desk, but on the end of it. Sid started to sit down, but stepped back so Andy could move the pile of books out of the chair. "Sorry about that. When you didn't respond to the email I thought it might have gotten stuck in your spam filters. I hoped you would show up, though."

"I'm pretty sure you jumped off the swing set because I dared you to do it." Sid sat down in the chair and slung his book bag down onto the floor. "And didn't you break your arm?"

Andy's grin was blinding. "In two places. I thought that was you from week one, but I didn't want to say anything in case you were a different Sid Phillips and you thought I was crazy. I needed the class to make and I couldn't afford to have someone drop just because I looked like the creepiest of creepers."

"So how'd you figure out it really was me?" Sid asked. He watched, fascinated, as a blush spread across Andy's cheekbones and his ears began to glow. The rest of his face was covered by the beard, and Sid wanted very badly to feel the burn of it against his own skin. He shook his head to clear the thought from his mind. He had to pass this class to take a higher level math. He had to take a higher level math in order to get his degree.

Andy didn't say a word. The blush spread to his neck.

"You Facebook stalked me," Sid said. Andy bit his lip.

"It's worse than that."

"It's worse?" Sid leaned forward, elbows on his thighs, to stare at Andy. "You really are turning out to be a creeper. What could be worse?"

"My computer was at the shop for a couple of days," Andy said, staring down at his hands. Sid had a mad desire to take them into his, to run his thumbs over the knuckles until Andy felt comfortable telling him about whatever this great shame was. "So I borrowed my mother's for a couple of days so that I could enter some grades and send a few emails, and her Facebook page was minimized. I wanted to see if she was friends with anyone I knew."

"Like your own students?" Sid asked with a laugh. Andy grinned.

"Exactly. Or the daughter of one of her friends. She was a neat little kid, and I wanted to see if she was still a cool person, without looking like a perv." Andy shrugged. "Anyway, I might have looked to see if mom was friends with you, since I might be accused of showing favoritism that I "

Sid flushed. "Your mom did a lot to help me, but I didn't realize it at the time. She's a good person, so when she sent me a message asking me what I was up to these days, I sent one back. She's the one who encouraged me to try to go back to school."

"She's like that, always trying to bring the best out in people."

Sid and Andy stared at each other for another minute before Andy shook his head. "Sorry, we should probably save the catching up for another time. You're here to talk about quadratic equations."

"No, I'm here to listen to you talk about quadratic equations," Sid said, and Andy's whole face lit up. Sid tried to tell himself that he didn't find it completely charming that Andy would get this excited over teaching him math, but he realized that Diane and Annie might just have had a point.

"Well, if that's the case."

Forty-five minutes later, Sid was, if not caught up, at least a lot less confused than he'd been when Annie and Diane had tried to explain things to him.

"Listen," Andy said, and stretched back in his chair. He'd earlier encouraged Sid to scoot his chair around the desk and they'd sat shoulder to shoulder the entire time, hunched over an algebra book and a piece of notebook paper. "I know I said that I shouldn't show favoritism, and I'm not, I swear I'm not. It's just that I owe you a beer."

Sid stared at him. "You do?"

Andy nodded and glanced away. "You probably don't remember this, because we were only in high school together for like, two months or something, but when we were at County you-"

He broke off and rubbed his hands over his face. Sid watched him, unable to get Andy to meet his eye.

"I don't understand."

"You beat the shit out of Chuck Larsson after he called me a faggot and a queer in front of the whole cafeteria, and as much as Chuck was right, calling me that when I was president of the GSA, it still, god it still stung, you know? Because he kept saying it like it was some kind of horrible thing."

It was Sid's turn not to meet Andy's eye. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Sid Phillips, don't you dare lie to me. You lied to me enough when we were kids, telling me that the there was a monster that lived in the community pool. Once you said that rats would crawl out from the toilets and bite my wiener off." Andy stopped when Sid let out a small bark of laughter.

"I'd forgotten I'd told anyone that. Thank you for reminding me."

Andy shook his head in frustration. "But you were the one who beat up Chuck Larsson, weren't you? I mean, I know it was in the BiLo parking lot after he got off of work one night that week, and no one said they saw it, but Sid, I saw your hands. The knuckles were bruised and you had a cut on one of them. Believe it or not, I had been a few fights up to that point, defending myself. I knew exactly what that was."

Sid shook his head. "No one else ever even acted like they knew it was me. Chuck never said anything, mostly because I told him that he shouldn't, but I didn't think I was that scary."

Andy looked at him with wide eyes. "You were always the biggest guy in school. Of course you're intimidating. And it's not like Larsson was that big. I was taller than him, I just tried to not to fight unless I was the one being attacked. Larsson knew that, which is why he tried for embarrassment. I just, I never got to thank you for that, and now, after this class is over, I'd like to buy you a beer to express my gratitude."

Sid leaned forward on the desk, then turned his head to look at Andy. "Did it ever occur to you that I didn't do it just for you? I was a lonely, scared, gay kid, too, and I didn't have the balls to go out and join all the clubs that told me that I was okay. I beat up Chuck Larsson for me just as much as I did it for you."

"Well," Andy said, obviously embarrassed. "Whatever reasons you did it for, Larsson needed to have his ass kicked, and you deserve a beer for being the one to do it, I just didn't have the ways or means to go about getting you one back then."

Sid could not keep from grinning. "I never have said no to free beer."

"Man after my own heart," Andy said.

They both froze for a moment, then Sid leaned across the space between them and settled his lips gently against Andy's. When Andy didn't push him away Sid pressed the advantage, sliding his hand up Andy's arm to cup the side of his jaw. Andy's beard was rough against Sid's face and the palm of his hand, but his mouth was warm and giving.

Until he pulled back and turned out of Sid's grip.

"I can't."

His voice cracked on the words, and Sid felt his gut clench. He grabbed his math book and calculator off the desk and stood, scooping up his book bag and shoving his stuff into it.

"I see. I need to get to class."

"Sid, wait." Andy grabbed his wrist, his fingers warm against the ink of Sid's tattoo. "It's not that I don't want to, it's that I can't. I'm pretty sure I could get fired for this."

Sid forced himself to let out a chuckle. "I thought rules like that only applied to old pervs who tried to seduce eighteen year old girls."

"Rules like that are to keep people from abusing the power dynamic." Andy was able to let out a real laugh at Sid's face. "Not like that, though though there's a reaction I wouldn't mind exploring."

"I thought you said you couldn't."

"Not until the end of the semester."

Sid looked over to see Andy staring at him. He swallowed hard.

"By the way," he managed to say, "why were you looking so closely at my hands that you knew that I'd been the one to beat up Larsson?"

Andy leaned forward on his desk. "I'm not sure how it's escaped your notice, but I've been fascinated by you since I was five years old and we came home to find you jumping on our trampoline. That didn't ever change, just because one of us would move away every few years."

Sid grinned all the way through his history class.

On Thursday before algebra, Diane started to ask if he'd gotten help with his quadratic equations, but she stopped when she caught the look on Sid's face as Andy walked into the room, briefcase in one hand and his now familiar green coffee mug clutched in the other.

"Do us a favor," she said to Sid, her whisper loud enough to startle Andy from his thoughts to look directly at her.

"What?"

"Please stop laughing at his math jokes," she said with a long suffering sigh. "It's making him think they're funnier than they actually are."

Annie had to clap a hand over her mouth to stifle her giggles.

Thanksgiving was the next week, and with it came a week-long break from school. Sid was glad to have his evenings back, and even gladder for the full day off on Thanksgiving. He spent the day curled up on his couch, his computer in his lap and Baxter curled up on his feet, working on his final paper for his English class and for the presentation he had to give on Monday in history. Diane invited him over for dinner, where he ate the meal she provided and tried not to laugh while she tried to cajole her three sons to eat any of the vegetables she had fixed.

"I give up," she said finally and let the boys loose to eat the ice cream Sid had brought over. Diane had warned him before hand that if he wanted to eat dessert then he would be the one to bring it over, since she was on a diet. Sid had been very aware that meant he should bring something for dessert or else.

When the boys finished making a mess and ran off to play the Wii in the next room, Diane pulled out two spoons and stuck them directly into what was left of the carton of ice cream.

"How's your paper going?" she asked, then proceeded to scoop out a huge spoonful of cookies and cream.

"I thought you were off sugar?"

"It's the holidays," she said, which was the complete opposite of what she'd said when she'd invited him for dinner. "And don't ignore my question. Annie called me up last night in tears because she can't figure out how to cite it properly."

"It's harder than I was thinking," he admitted. He took a bite of the ice cream while Diane looked at him expectantly. "Since I listened to most of the books I'm finding it difficult to cite exact page numbers. I'll finish it, but I'm not sure how happy I'm going to be with it."

"I feel the same way. And it's a lot harder to seduce Dr. Lewis into giving you the right answers, isn't it?"

Sid choked on the spoonful of ice cream. "I have not seduced anyone for anything, especially not for answers. And I doubt Dr. Lewis and all of her eighty-five years would believe me if I did try and lay on the charm."

"What do you mean you haven't seduced anyone? I thought that was the point of getting extra help in math."

"The point was to get extra help in math. The bonus was that I found out that I wasn't crazy and really have known him forever."

"That's not what I'm seeing," Diane said. "The way you two make eyes at each other it looks like you've already done the deed."

"We haven't."

Diane grabbed his wrist. "That's exactly what you look like. I think it's sweet and all, but if you're getting extra knowledge, you need to share with the rest of the class. It's a little unfair otherwise, don't you think?"

Sid shook off her hand and slammed his spoon down onto the table. "Even if Andy and I had been fucking since the first week of class- which, I would like to point out, we haven'tdash; he would never give me answers."

"You sound very sure of yourself." She sat back and looked at him. "If the information was available, would you share it?"

Sid thought for a moment. "I'm not sure. I'm not as convinced of my own character as I am of Andy's."

"If he's going to mess with a student, then I'm a whole lot less convinced of his character than I was at the beginning of the semester."

"He's the one who stopped me. I kissed him."

"What?"

"In his office, last Monday before my history class. I kissed him and he stopped me. Said it was an ethics thing and that he couldn't let it go any farther as long as I was his student. He's the one who believes in following the rules. Always has been."

Diane sighed. "I'm still not convinced that this is a good thing for you, even though I know I should just let you handle it. You're not a kid and you're certainly not my kid."

"No offense, Diane, but I've known you for three and half months," Sid pointed out. "I've known Andy for most of my life."

"But what do you really know about him? What does he know about you?"

Sid shrugged. "We've known each other since we were five."

"That's the thing. You haven't known each other since you were five. You knew each other when you were five, and then you went to school together when you were sixteen, but you haven't taken the time to get to know each other now. I don't want you jumping into something because you think you know someone."

"I hate to tell you, but no one is going to be getting pregnant in this situation."

"I'm serious."

"I can see that," Sid said, "but I have to admit, I'm not sure why. I'm a big boy, and believe me, I've jumped into far worse much faster than this."

Diane chuckled at his raised eyebrow. "I don't suppose I want to know."

Sid took a spoonful of ice cream and ate it unhurriedly until she kicked his ankle under the table.

"All I will say is that you shouldn't go home with a boy you meet at Hooters." He took a long lick of his ice cream and Diane shrieked.

"You are not trying to show me how it is done with my sons in the next room. Don't you think I know how to do that?" She hissed out the last word. "And anyway, is that the best story you have? I like to think that I know better than that, and even if I didn't I'm sure that Annie would do her damnedest to talk me out of it."

"Annie is not going to work at Hooters forever," Sid said. "She'll have another job before either of us will. I'm sure she has some stories, but none of them compare to the adventures of trying to pick up a closet case."

"Gosh darn it, Sid Phillips. You're trying to charm me into asking you about how this story ends."

"Is it working?"

"No more than it would work against Dr. Lewis, but I swear to god, if you don't continue with this story..."

Sid grinned. "So here's the problem with trying to pick up gay guys at Hooters. If one, say me, were to happen to spot a gentleman at Hooters that one would like to take home, then one has to try and suss out whether or not they are actually gay. Which, generally isn't a problem, considering you know, there's plenty on display. It's pretty easy to figure out who's not there for the, well, you know."

"I like how you're attempting to not be sexist, there," Diane said, that eyebrow raised again. "Keep going."

"As I was saying." Sid made a show of clearing his throat until Diane kicked him in the ankle underneath the table. "Handsome guy, drinking a little bit but not too much, if you know what I mean. Was barely looking at the waitresses, but the problem that I found was that gentleman of my persuasion who are drinking at Hooters are usually not out to their family and friends."

"Lots of people probably aren't, especially in this area," Diane pointed out.

"Ah, but most of them at least probably know what they're doing when they get themselves back to your-" Sid cut himself off as one of Diane's sons wandered into the room. "-kitchen."

"The kitchen, huh?" Diane asked. She let her son cuddle up against her for a few minutes before he stuck her spoon back into what was left of the carton of ice cream and scooped out as big of a bite as he could manage. He went running off in a fit of giggles while his mother yelled at him, but he didn't turn around. She fussed for another minute or two before turning back to Sid. "So why were you trying to pick up men at the Hooters if it's such a bad spot for it?"

Sid shrugged. "Work shindig. I figured if I had to be there I might as well enjoy some of my evening."

"And did you?"

"Hel-" Sid gave a guilty glance in the direction of the living room where the boys were squabbling over the Wii-Motes. "Heck no. Like I said, he didn't even know his way around the kitchen. I can't understand that. You would think that since he came with a fully equipped kitchen of his own he would know what to do when he visited someone else's."

Diane put her face back into her hands and laughed until Sid thought she was going to be sick. He sat back in his chair and watched her, but after a minute he couldn't help but join in.

"I suppose," she said finally, "that you're trying to tell me all this to explain all the reasons why you think you're okay, but I can't help but worry about you."

"And I might act like I don't appreciate it, but I promise I do. I just haven't had anyone look out for me in a long time, not since I was a kid." Sid swallowed against the lump in his throat. "You know, other than Baxter."

"Speaking of the one lady in your life who really matters.," Diane said and gave him a smile, "does she eat people food? I thought I'd get together a doggie bag for the both of you, that way you can keep studying tomorrow."

Sid grinned and stood up from the table. He put the lid on what was left of the ice cream and tucked the carton into the back corner of Diane's freezer. He made sure to put a couple of bags of frozen peas in front of it so the boys wouldn't find it.

"My lovely lady hoovers up anything she can sniff out, so I'm sure she would appreciate a little snack. And I'm sure I will, tomorrow when I'm pulling my hair out trying to make that PowerPoint presentation work the way it's supposed to."

On Monday night, Andy caught up with Sid in the hallway outside of his history classroom. Andy was carrying a stack of papers that looked like they'd come fresh off the copy machine, but the the office where the copy machine was was closer to the math department, so Sid just narrowed his eyes at him.

"Mr. Phillips," Andy said, stopping like it hadn't been his intention all along. "I need to speak with you about your latest test."

When Sid stared at him blankly, Andy blushed but pressed on. "This will only take a few minutes of your time."

"This couldn't have waited?" Sid asked when they reached Andy's office. "I have a presentation to give in ten minutes."

"I know," Andy said. "You told me in that last email you sent. However, you needed to get out of that hallway for a few minutes. I've never seen you look more terrified."

Sid grimaced. "You weren't in the neighborhood anymore when the nightmares started, were you? I'd forgotten that you'd already moved away by then."

"Nightmares?"

"Oh, yeah. I used to wake up in the middle of the night thinking that all my toys- and yours, come to think of it- were going to come torture me. That little cowboy doll of yours was the leader of the pack." Sid let out a bitter chuckle.

"It's not funny."

"No," Sid agreed. "It's not."

They stood in Andy's office for another awkward minute before Sid said that he should probably go.

"I do have a presentation to give, terrified or not."

Andy smiled at him, shyer than the smile he normally gave the class, his head ducked a little like he was trying to keep a secret.

Before Sid could move to open the office door, Andy had him pressed back against it. His lips were soft on Sid's and he pulled away far too quickly after just the slightest touch of his tongue to the corner of Sid's upper lip. When Sid tried to follow with his mouth, to capture Andy's thin bottom lip in between his teeth, Andy let out a laugh and pressed him back with a firm hand against his shoulder.

"We really do need for you to go to your presentation, and you can't do that with beard burn all over your face. It might give it away that he didn't actually talk about your last exam." He slid his hand down Sid's arm and traced his finger along the inside of his wrist, right over his ink. "I want to see what else there is, but can we just wait a couple more weeks?"

"You're the one who dragged me in here," Sid said. "If I kept following your lead I'd be on my knees under your desk while you tried to tell me all of the reasons we shouldn't do this."

"Under my desk, huh?" Andy wiggled his eyebrows at Sid in what Sid could only assume was an attempt at a lecherous look. He covered a laugh with a cough. "What? I'm just saying that it sounds like you've got a bit of a student/teacher kink over there."

"You're just trying to distract me so that I won't be nervous about this presentation." It seemed to Sid that Andy was giving his best attempt at looking innocent. He was failing miserably, and Sid couldn't help but press a kiss to the corner of his mouth. "It's working."

Sid made it back to his class just in time to do his presentation. He didn't stumble over his words a single time.

His nerves were shot by the time he made it to his math final on Thursday. The union was still trying to work out the deal with management and Sid had spent half the day trying to listen in on a conference call while still trying to drive his truck. The guy he rode with rigged it so they could listen to the cab, but Sid finally told everyone if they didn't want him to wreck a thirty ton garbage truck and have it be all over the five o'clock news they were going to have to shut up and let him drive.

"Let me get through my finals tonight," he said. "Tomorrow I'm all yours."

No less than three people had something to say to Sid about the changes being made in the labor contract when he arrived back at the office, but he didn't really get pissed off until someone tried to ask him about it when he was in the locker room undressing for his shower.

"If everyone will just leave me the fuck alone for the next twenty-four hours, we can talk about it all you want," Sid said to the room at large. He slammed his locker door shut and stormed to the showers. By the time he emerged fifteen minutes later- ten minutes longer than he would normally spend naked in front of the people he worked with- the locker room had cleared. It seemed ridiculous to him that anyone would even remember that time he'd punched a locker out of frustration when he'd first joined the union board, but it appeared no one wanted a repeat performance.

He had thought about trying to look nicer for the last night of class than the long sleeve tee-shirts and hoodies that he usually wore, but he kind of figured that Andy would see right through that. If he didn't Annie and Diane certainly would and they would never ever let him live it down.

Everyone steered clear of him as he left and headed to the college. In his book bag was his final paper for English and his calculator for his math exam, and then he'd bee free for two weeks.

He'd made another appointment on Tuesday with Andy to schedule his classes for the next semester. He'd spent most of the time trying to convince Andy to make out with him while they had a legitimate excuse to be in his office with the door shut. Andy had spent most of the time trying to act like they were being legitimate. When Sid had become frustrated with the gentle way Andy would push him away each time after only a few minutes of kissing- and really, they hadn't even gotten around to tasting each other yet- Sid had pulled the registration form out of his book bag and passed it to Andy.

"After all," he had reasoned, "you can't be any worse than that other asshole."

"Gee, thanks."

Sid shrugged. "You've been here, what? Four months? You probably don't even know what classes I'm supposed to have for my degree. So, he's an asshole but knows what he's doing. You're personable but clueless."

"I'll show you clueless," Andy growled and reached for Sid. When they came up for air again he said, "how hard can it be?" and Sid very maturely did not laugh. Mostly. Andy shot him a dirty look and began to search his bookshelves for the course catalog.

"I know I have one around here somewhere. What are you majoring in again?"

Sid had only been able to groan.

He waved at Diane and Annie as he entered the classroom. The looks on their faces were not unlike what Sid imagine soldiers facing battle looked like. He sat down in the uncomfortable molded plastic chair just as Andy strolled in.

In one hand he held his briefcase, filled to nearly bursting. Under his arm was a stack of papers and instead of his usual green coffee cup he had a giant silver go-mug that looked to Andy like it could hold an entire pot of coffee.

"Are you planning to sleep again, ever?" Sid asked before he could stop himself. Several people laughed and Sid heard a thunking sound behind him that was probably Annie hitting her head on the desk at how obvious he was being. "I mean, that much caffeine can't be good for the heart. Or even the soul."

"Oh," Andy said, and there was that fine blush across the bridge of his nose that Sid was beginning to enjoy probably far too much. "I- um- no. I'm driving my mom and sister to Florida in a couple of days to see my Grandma, so I have to get my grades finished up. I figure this will get me through the next eight hours or so."

"Oh," Sid echoed. He tried to squash the disappointment he felt at that. Andy hadn't mentioned to him that he would be out of town. He guessed getting a beer would have to wait.

Andy cleared his throat. "Let's get started then, so I can add your exams to the pile."

He set his papers and gallon of coffee on the desk at the front of the room and rifled through his briefcase for the exams. He counted out enough for each row to pass back as he had with every previous exam. The guy in front of Sid took one from the bottom of the stack, then handed the leftover test back to Sid. Sid scanned the front page, picked up his pencil and wrote his name on the first page.

He went through each problem slowly, double checking each one before moving on to the next. He was glad he'd done it that way hen he reached the last page of the final to find a Post-It note stuck a couple of inches under the final question.

Let me buy you that beer once I turn these grades in?

Sid looked up at Andy in shock.

Andy's head was down, his eyes on the grading he was doing, but it was only a few seconds before he glanced up and looked straight at Sid. Andy quirked an eyebrow at him and put his head back down, a small smile on his face judging by the crinkling around his eyes.

Sid scribbled the last few answers on the page without even bothering to double check his work. He stood up and carried his test to Andy at the front of the room. Andy took the paper from him and flipped through it. "Everything looks good. I'll have your grade posted in a couple of days, Mr. Phillips."

Sid nodded, grabbed his book bag and left the classroom without looking back. He could feel Andy's eyes on him the whole way out the door.

He turned in his English paper and sat outside Dr. Lewis' office to wait for Annie and Diane to come by and do the same. Annie arrived first, turned in her paper, then sat down to wait with Sid. She rested her head on his shoulder.

"So exhausted."

He laughed and threw an arm around her shoulders. They sat like that for another five minutes until Diane came around the corner.

"Was any of that on the review?" she asked as she passed them to go speak for a few moments with Dr. Lewis. When she returned she flopped down on the bench on Sid's other side and leaned her head against that shoulder.

"It's over," she said. "Finally."

"For two weeks," Annie said. "Not forever."

"I'll take what break I can get." Diane said and groaned.

"Ladies, it's not that this isn't every man's fantasy," Sid began, but Annie interrupted him.

"It's just that you have your own fantasy waiting for you in his office, right?"

Sid shook his head and stood up, then offered a hand to each woman in turn. "He has to finish his grading. Then we'll probably go get a beer, or something, see where that goes."

Annie pulled on her coat while Diane cut her eyes at him. "Everyone standing here knows where this is going, hon. You two are the only ones who've acted like you don't."

"I'm going to pretend I don't know anything at all and just wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and enjoy the next couple of weeks." Annie gave them both a kiss on the cheek and headed out towards the parking lot. Sid and Diane followed her, though this time Sid did allow himself a moment to look back.

When he woke up to go to work the next morning, Baxter curled at his side, he automatically checked his phone. No messages from Andy. Nor were there any throughout the entire day. Sid checked his phone every time he had a break during the long day of negotiations with management, but there was never anything. By the time he left the office, no closer to an agreement than they'd been for weeks, Andy still hadn't called, hadn't texted, and while Sid wanted to assume he was still chained to his desk, grading the finals, he couldn't help but feel a little nervous.

His nerves left him when he pulled up to his apartment to see Andy outside, Baxter on her leash at his feet while he knelt down and scratched at her ears.

Sid shut off the car and threw his keys into his pocket as he climbed out. "Are you stealing my best lady's attentions?"

"She sounded pretty desperate when I got here about twenty minutes ago. I checked with your building manager and she let me in." Andy said and stood up to face Sid. Baxter growled at him for stopping, but then she noticed Sid and bounded over to meet him instead. Sid bent down to pat her head, all the while keeping his eyes on Andy.

"That's kind of frightening."

"It helped that I knew Baxter's name." He flushed. "And I might have paid her off with a six pack."

"You know my dog's name and you paid off my building manager with beer you purchased for me? You really are kind of a creeper, aren't you?"

Andy grinned at him and grabbed his hand to pull him to standing. "Maybe. If she wasn't the only thing you talk about." He leaned forward and kissed Sid briefly while Baxter pawed at their legs. When they broke apart Baxter growled again, making Andy laugh.

"She's a little overprotective," Sid said. He reached down and scooped her up. Andy laughed and scratched behind her ears.

"It's freezing out here," he said after another minute. "And I have more beer in the car. I thought maybe since you suggested staying in in your note we might go through a few."

"Liquid courage?" Sid asked as followed Andy to the car and watched him lift out a six pack of Rolling Rock and a couple of grocery bags.. "I imagined inviting you over would have been hint enough. And while we're on the subject, how did you know which test to stick that Post-It note in?"

Andy shrugged as he led the way back to Sid's apartment. "Everyone has sat in the same seats every single week. I didn't guess anyone would move for the final. And the guy in front of you has taken papers from the bottom of the stack every single week. I noticed it the first night of class. It wasn't that hard to count out which test should have been yours."

"If you're that good out counting we're taking a trip to Vegas." Sid said as he set Baxter down. She woofed and wandered away, though she did turn back to bark at Andy as if in warning. It gave Sid a chance to think about what he said and he blushed, but Andy just laughed as he began to unpack the grocery bags.

"Vegas, huh? I've never been."

Sid grabbed a bottle opener and popped the caps off two of the beers. "I figured that's what you math majors did on the weekends."

"Oh, I'm a gambler," Andy said, and pressed Sid back against the kitchen counter. "Like I'm betting you want to kiss me right now."

"Safe bet," Sid mumbled as Andy's lips came crashing down on his.

It was nice to finally be able to kiss Andy the way he wanted to, to not worry that Andy was going to push him away. Andy slid his hands up and down Sid's sides and Sid threaded his fingers through Andy's hair, pulling him closer as he licked into Andy's mouth. It wasn't long before Sid slid his hands to the buttons on Andy's shirt and began slipping them open.

"Yes, please," Andy breathed out. He rested his forehead against Sid's shoulder. "I didn't think I was going to make it through this last month, knowing that you wanted this to, that maybe you'd wanted this since we were in high school, the way I did."

And really, there was nothing for Sid to do after that but turn Andy so that he was the one leaning against the cabinets and sink to his knees. Andy hissed in a breath when Sid's fingers brushed over his erection on the way to undoing his belt.

"I was supposed be saying thank you, not the other way around." Andy took Sid's hands in his like he was trying to stop him, but couldn't stop his hips from hitching forward.

Sid smirked and pressed an open mouth kiss on Andy's stomach right above his open jeans. "I'm sure you'll get a chance later," he said and pushed down Andy's jeans and boxers in one movement.

It was over far quicker than Sid would have liked, and they clung to each other there in Sid's tiny kitchen until Baxter wandered back in and began nosing at the trousers pushed down around their ankles. Andy laughed while Sid disentangled himself and shooed her away to get them cleaned up. He buckled Andy's belt back and looked up to see Andy let out a huge yawn.

"Did you actually get any sleep last night?" he asked as the dark circles under Andy's eyes really came in to focus below his glasses. Andy shrugged.

"About five hours. I had one last final to give at eight this morning, but I slept from about two to seven. And everything else was done, so I graded those as they were turned in. Spent the rest of the morning plugging everything into my laptop. I turned my grades in about two hours ago."

Sid laughed and tugged Andy towards the couch, hooking his fingers around the necks of the beer bottles he'd left on the counter earlier as he went. "And were you waiting outside my apartment the whole time?"

"I had to go home and do some packing. My suitcase is in the car. Mom wants us to leave for Grandma's about midnight so we miss most of the traffic. Her eyesight's not that good at night anymore and she doesn't trust Molly to drive for more than about half an hour, so that means I'll be doing most of the driving."

"Shit, you need to get some sleep," Sid said. He arranged the two of them on the couch so that Andy was leaning against his chest and Sid could card his fingers through Andy's hair. "You probably shouldn't have come over."

"Maybe not." Andy yawned again then made himself more comfortable in Sid's arms. "But I couldn't wait one more week."

"I'll set an alarm, then,"Andy said and reached for his cell phone. Andy made a contented noise and didn't even seem to notice when Baxter jumped up on the couch and curled around in the empty space left by the bend of his knees and propped her head up on his thighs. Sid drank both beers while he carded his fingers through Andy's hair,. He hadn't planned on falling asleep but the next thing he knew the alarm on his phone was ringing.

Andy groaned and turned his face into Sid's chest, and Sid felt like a jerk as he helped Andy shift into a sitting position. Baxter blinked sleepily at the two of them before flopping her head back down on the couch and resuming her snoring.

"This is not how I thought tonight would go," Andy said and Sid couldn't do anything but kiss him softly on the mouth.

"When you get back, we'll try again. We've waited this long, right?"

"Sixteen weeks?" Andy asked as he headed for Sid's door. "Or sixteen years?"

"At least," Sid replied, and kissed him so that he wouldn't be likely to forget anytime soon.

"Damn you, Sid Phillips, I'm going to have to drive with my mother and sister in the car and all I'll be thinking about is this," Andy said and kissed him back.

Sid shrugged when Andy pulled away. "I've always had a little bit of a sadistic streak. I just use it much more effectively now."