Chapter Text
It was another time consuming day at Emmett Rothschild/Robot Overlord High school. Any one who didn’t go to the school always asked about the name, and anyone who did go to the high school would make up whatever ridiculous story they could. The real reason was that the original principal wanted the school to seem “robot friendly” for when the robot civil wars hit and so that the school promoted man and technology as equals. The real reason really could’ve passed for some crazy conspiracy, but it was cold hard truth, though many chose to write it off as a sack of crap.
Students were fully prepared for summer vacation, despite it still being 3 weeks away. The wads of weeks old bubble gum still infected the bottoms of cafeteria tables, failed tests still jammed some of the air vents, and the lunch ladies weren’t getting any sweeter. Today was the annual school fundraiser/festival as well. Multi colored booths lined the football field, each with one pointless way to rake in money or another. Eddie somehow had gotten sucked into helping his girlfriend, Mona, man the kissing booth. He was already on the fence about letting Mona lock lips with so many people that weren’t him, but with a little convincing, and maybe a few shots of tequila, he’d jump off a bridge for her in a heartbeat. Mona’s friends, Kate and Felicity, were helping as well, offering open mouth kisses to make some extra money for themselves. Eddie agreed, but it still made him all sorts of uncomfortable to see his girlfriend make out with any idiot with 5 dollars down their pants.
“It's getting pretty hot out, could you man the booth while me Felicity and Kate all get sodas?” Mona tossed her hair back, swaying her hips and using any physical lour she could to get Eddie to say yes.
“Well I gu-”
“Thanks baby, I’ll bring you back a soda!” Mona dashed off with Felicity and Kate, sprinting towards the snack bar, Eddie knew he’d be stuck here for a good 60 minutes. He spent the next 5 basking in what little shade the crappy booth provided, lying flaccidly on the ground, Eddie couldn’t stop sweating if his life depended on it. He closed his eyes tightly, though the sun still managed to sear through his eye lids, it helped slightly. Suddenly, the piercing sunlight no longer invaded his vision, rather an inky figure shielded his sensitive eyes.
“Hey!” Eddie squinted, lifting his head up to be met with a slightly blurry figure, god he needed to wear his glasses.
“What are you doing? Sleeping?” Eddie placed himself back in his chair, the person standing in front of him finally came into view. He had short, black hair, dark amber eyes, and wore an extremely bitter frown. This amalgam of features only meant one thing, Eddie was looking at Reese Whitlocke. This guy was all sorts of strange, he was one of the most popular guys on the soccer team and yet something seemed coarsely off about him. If there was anything to know about Reese, it was that he was bitter as shit.
“Yeah, trying to.” Eddie replied groggily, itching at his stubble.
“Where’s Mona?” He asked bluntly, clearly dead set on receiving the answer, it was kind of pissing Eddie off.
“I wish I could tell you buddy, maybe she wanted a break from sucking face with dick heads.” Eddie saw Reese’s eyebrow twitch slightly, they were both already knit unbelievably tight together, it was sort of comical in a way.
“Surprised she hasn't broken up with you then.” Eddie's hand twitched slightly at Reese's retort. Reese clenched his jaw, revealing a set of pearly teeth, the only flaw being a slight gap in between the front two. Eddie thought he sort of looked like Pippi Longstocking.
“So are you just gonna stand there or what?”
“No, I’m here for business, I’m a customer.” How stupid did he think Eddie was?
“Yeah no shit Sherlock, but as you can see there is no one here, so take your money and your little Letterman's jacket elsewhere.” Eddie watched Reese point at an awkwardly placed five dollar bill stapled to the inside of the booth.
“I gave Mona 5 bucks for a kiss, so if I’m not getting one I’m gonna need that back.” Eddie started to wonder if Reese actually was insane instead of just meaningless rumors.
“Well I hate to break it to you, but this is for charity or something and cancer patients aren’t going to care if you didn’t get to kiss Mona Hartman despite paying. Therefore all transactions are non-refundable.”
Reese looked at Eddie with the most peculiar expression, something on the lines of curiosity and anger.
"You really expect me to believe that? I know that glimmering pack of cigarettes you always have your eyes on beg to differ." The gap between Reese's two front teeth whistled slightly when he hit an especially aggressive syllable.
"No dice man"
Eddie continued to stare back at him, he could do this all day really, but having to watch assholes swarm your girlfriend was torture enough. A thick silence built up between them. Reese's stare was slightly unfocused, not as intense as it had been before. The other boy looked slightly lost in thought. Eddie began to turn away, maybe he could simply ignore Reese's bickering until the end of the fair.
“Pucker up then.” Eddie nearly choked on his own spit, it took him a few moments to regain his composure. He began to laugh, but out of the corner of his eye he saw Reese was dead serious.
“What?”
“Well you’re not going to give me my money back, and I haven’t seen Mona hanging around for a good 10 minutes, so let me refrain.” Eddie swallowed.
“Pucker up, or I will find Mona myself and plant the most passionate kiss on those luscious lips of hers.” Eddie was utterly fed up with the one and only Reese Whitlocke, and ultimately decided that the only way to get rid of this asshole was to simply go along with his heinous wishes.
“Whatever you say man, it's your money.” He kept his voice even.
Reese leaned in, pure rage was still apparent on his face, was he always this angry? He smelled like..cinnamon? It took Eddie by surprise, maybe this was one of the quirks about Reese everyone was always talking about.
“Man I bet it’ll be so exciting to tell people you paid for your first kiss.” Eddie just couldn’t help himself, these little jabs at the other were all too easy.
“Don’t flatter yourself.” Reese tilted forward and captured Eddie’s lips in a strange kiss. They fit awkwardly together, and Eddie prayed that no one was able to notice him making out with Reese Whitlocke of all people. The kiss wasn’t nearly as unpleasant as Eddie hoped it to be. Reese was a surprisingly good kisser, Eddie hated himself for agreeing to kiss this guy. He felt his eyes flutter closed, this was getting all too sweet. Reese tasted like cinnamon, Eddie assumed he himself tasted something like cigarettes and sweat, but Reese pressed on. After a very prolonged kiss, the raven haired boy pulled back, his face was still horribly close to Eddie’s. His amber eyes were blown out slightly, his cheeks seemed to redden further from when he first stood in front of the booth. This couldn’t really be doing something to him, could it? Eddie pushed away the thought.
“What?” Reese finally pulled back, wiping away a small string of saliva coating his bottom lip.
“Done, you happy now?” Eddie wiped away the lasting cinnamon taste on his lips.
“Uh...” Reese cleared his throat, straightening his back and brushing away a stray hair from his face, he hesitated. The taller slumped in his chair, itching the side of his face while simultaneously waiting for something else to say.
"Good...pleasure doing business.." Reese held his hand out awkwardly.
“It was a pleasure doing business with you.” Eddie deadpanned sarcastically. He shook Reese's hand lamely, and watched Reese stalk off towards his friends. His friends seemed to notice Reese’s dazed appearance, they shoved him left and right, musing his hair. He was a relatively tall kid so they could only mess up his bangs. The brunette wiped extra sweat particles from his forehead, today would be an article for the ages.
****
“Eddie! How was holding down the fort while I was gone?”
“Eh same old same old, I solved world hunger, invented a cure for cancer, all that good stuff.”
“Did anyone come by while we were gone?”
“Nah, just this one guy, Reese Whitlock.”
“Oh god Reese? If it weren’t for those high cheekbones I think I’d totally hate him. What did you do?”
“Y’know I put him in his place, gave him a real beat down.”
“Phew that's good.”
“He isn’t a bad kisser though.”
Eddie never got to hear the end of it.
A little extra tidbit on Reese!
“Oh fuck.” Reese grumbled, his face burned a deep pink. How could he be so stupid? Did he really have his heart set on that kiss today?
Apparently so! He liked girls, he liked girls, he liked girls, and maybe, just maybe, he liked Eddie. Eddie was a total dick, he didn’t deserve Mona, he was too lucky for his own good, too snarky, his hair was stupid, he couldn’t see shit, his poor excuse for facial hair was a total abomination, he tasted like everything that was wrong with the world. His small gold hoops made him look like a pirate, the stupid oversized collared shirts he’d wear were less then flattering and his band could barely play a note! Or so Reese had heard. His head was so far up his ass it was coming out of his ears. So why did the kiss affect Reese so much? He was still figuring that out for himself. Reese focused rigorously on getting Eddie out of his head, he just couldn’t. He didn’t understand why Mona was so enamored with that lanky knucklehead, obviously it couldn’t have been based on appearance. Eddie was 6 '2, and admittedly his jaw could cut glass, but he never took pride in his appearance. He always smelled like cigarettes, and those stupid pale blue eyes were always shooting uninterested daggers at everyone. Yet here Reese sat, chain smoking in his underwear trying to get his heart to stop beating above the normal level. He was fucked.