He had been an idiot to believe that Wes wouldn't be the one to notice.

To be fair to himself, he hadn't expected anyone to notice, least of all the Council Head. Though, looking back on it, that should have been the obvious answer. Wes picked up on everything about everyone, and no matter how hard to convince himself otherwise, he was no exception.

"Warbler Jeff? Could you hang back for a bit, please?" He was confused as to what he had done wrong, but figured Wes had a good reason for asking, so he agreed and told Nick he would meet up with him.

"What's up?" He asked once the room was empty, sitting down on one of the couch arms, hoping whatever Wes wanted to say wouldn't take too long.

Wes seemed to hesitate a moment before speaking. "Is everything alright?" Jeff was genuinely taken aback by the question. "You've been acting off lately, it just seems like there's something on your mind."

Did it? He had thought he was being inconspicuous, and to the best of his knowledge, he was succeeding. He had been keeping up in school and rehearsal, not even Nick had noticed a difference. Jeff had taken that to mean he hadn't been acting out of his norm. Then again, Wes was perceptive to the point of it being creepy. If there was something wrong in any way, shape, or form, he was the first to notice.

And that terrified Jeff, once he realized what he was facing here.

Because no one could lie to Wes.

. . . always worth a shot, right? "Yeah, everything's fine." Jeff answered, his voice displaying his confusion at the question. From his spot, he heard Wes sigh before the older boy stood from the Council Desk and moved to sit opposite Jeff, eyeing him cautiously.

Shit. Jeff knew that look. Every Warbler knew that look. That was Wes' 'get ready for an impromptu therapy session or face my wrath' look. "Jeff, you know you're a terrible liar, right?"

You know I hate when you're right, right? "Wes, really, I'm fine. Maybe a little stressed from schoolwork, but that's everyone around here."

There was an awkward moment where Wes did nothing but stare at Jeff, making the younger boy shift in discomfort. God, he hated when he was under anyone's microscope, especially with no chance at an escape. Maybe he could feign needing to see the nurse to get out of this! That'd work, but he'd said he was feeling fine. . . He could just fake an asthma attack! . . . Except Wes knew he didn't have asthma. That wouldn't work. . . "Jeff?"

"Hmm?" Shit, he hadn't been talking out loud, had he?

"You zoned out for a second. . . talk to me, what's up?"

Jeff shook his head. "Nothing, Wes, I swear." The look on Wes's face showed clear disbelief. "I just didn't sleep last night, and I think I'm getting a cold, so I'm a bit out of it. I'll be fine tomorrow, I promise." He attempted to give a reassuring smile, but it was not clear rather Wes believed it or not. "Nick knows I was up studying, he's pretty much forcing me to go to sleep early." That part, at least, was the truth. "After I wake up, I should be back to normal."

The older boy's face remained unreadable, and there were a few more seconds were Jeff knew he was being scrutinized. Eventually, Wes sighed and spoke. "Alright, just make sure to take care of yourself, alright?"

Finally, Jeff thought, letting out a breath he hadn't known he was holding. "Yeah, I know. Like I said, it'll be fine tomorrow." He smiled once more, pushing himself up and heading towards the exit. That was close. . .

"Jeff, wait." It wasn't so much the words that stopped Jeff as it was the tone of Wes's voice. There was hesitation behind it, something usually undetectable had it come from anyone else. But Wes never hesitated unless he was dreading something. Jeff looked over his shoulder in time to see Wes get up from his own position and move to stand beside him.

He was a bit apprehensive, which attributed to his inability to move when Wes pushed the door shut and made to lean against the wall. Jeff prepared himself for another few seconds of silence, and couldn't help freezing when Wes jumped straight to the point. "Jeff, show me your arms."

Any doubts Jeff had about the true meaning of this little meeting were quickly erased. He tried to fight back the fear he know felt, but he was sure it was at least partially evident, especially to someone as perceptive as Wes. "I don't. . . There's nothing wrong with my arms, why do you want to see them?"

"You know why, Jeff." If Wes were to be honest with himself, he really didn't want to be having this discussion. He wanted for Jeff to just be sick, and for him to go back to his dorm where Nick would fawn over him like a mother hen until he was feeling better, and then he would be back to normal.

"I . . . you've seen my arms, though."

Of course he had, most of the Warblers had. Fall of his freshman year, when it had been pushing 70 degrees and Dalton's air condition had decided to turn faulty in the music room. Most of the other boys had discarded their blazers and rolled their sleeves up to help with the heat. He hadn't wanted to raise suspicion, so he had simply followed their lead, only keeping his sleeves in place. He had not predicted Nick slipping, causing both of them to crash into a table, and he had most certainly not predicted that irritating the cuts enough to reopen them.

So, he had pretty much stood there with a cocktail of mixed emotions as his white shirt was stained red, and the rest of the guys came to their own conclusions as to why. Nick had been frantic, terrified that he had been the entire cause of the injury and apologizing at the speed of sound, and had unbuttoned and pushed the sleeves up before Jeff even had a chance to gather himself together. That had shut the room up.

By the time he had found his composure and covered his arms back up, most of the Warblers had been ushered out of the room, leaving the council and Nick with a now distressed Jeff. It wasn't as if Wes had forgotten that incident; on the contrary, it was that and the resulting few months that had ignited the current thoughts racing through his brain.

"I know I have. Jeff, please don't make this difficult." For the first time in a long time, Wes wanted to be wrong. But if Jeff's body language was any indicator, he had hit the nail on the head. "Just. . . show me and we can both forget this whole thing, alright?"

Jeff's heart felt like it was about to beat out of his chest, and suddenly the room seemed a lot smaller. He had no idea how to get out of this. .. he didn't know if he could get out of this. Wes was still watching him impassively. Jeff knew he was an awful liar, and for some unknown reason, no one had the ability to lie to Wes. He was trapped. "Wes, I. . . please don't make me show you."

"Jeff. . . "

He noticed the sadness in Wes' eyes, the way he seemed to slump over in defeat. "Okay, it's okay. It's not. . . like before, I promise."

"That doesn't matter, Jeff. The fact that you're doing it again means something is wrong." Wes had pushed himself off the wall and was now directly in front of Jeff. "What happened? We all thought you were doing well."

Obviously, you all thought wrong. "I was. I mean. . . I am. It's just stressful lately, so things just got a bit. . . not good."

Wes sighed deeply. "Does anyone know you've started again? Nick, or anyone?"

With a small shake of the head, Jeff answered with a tone of defeat. "No one knows. Well, no one knew."

Another sigh. "Jeff, you need to tell someone about this. You need help."

"No!" It came out much more panicked than he had intended. "Wes, no, you can't. . . tell anyone."

"Jeff, you can't expect me to keep this a secret. You're hurting yourself again, you know what happened last time." Now it was Wes' turn to display panic.

"Please." Wes was torn. They had tried to deal with this before without getting adults involved, but that had ended terribly. And the fact that Jeff had returned to hiding the cutting from everyone was proof enough that he most certainly did not have it under control. On the other hand, Jeff looked absolutely terrified at the idea of anyone finding out. And telling people could only make things worse if Jeff felt it was that much of a threat. At least if he kept it between them, he could make keep an eye on him without worrying about him taking drastic measures.

He did not want to, but Wes realized he had to concede. "Okay. . . fine, I won't tell anyone else."Jeff felt his body relax, not realizing how tense he had been. "Just. . . Jeff, you need to stop. I shouldn't need to tell you this, but. . . "

Jeff bit his lip. "It's not like last time. I won't let it get bad, I promise."

"It doesn't matter rather it gets bad or not, what matters is that you're doing it at all." Wes was trying his best to not sound like he was forcing it on him. "Jeff, man, you can't. . . If you want to do it, just come find me. Please. Or anyone, really, so long as you don't take it out on yourself. You're better than that, Jeff."

". . . alright." Not going to happen, he didn't need anyone else getting dragged into this. He could take care of himself. He wasn't better than this; people had wasted enough of their valuable time and concern (and a few tears) on him already. He wasn't worth it. He knew he wasn't, and the sooner they all realized it, the better.

Not that Wes had to know that, at least.

As soon as he was ok'd to leave, he jetted out as fast as his legs would carry him. He was grateful to be done for the day, knowing he would at least be able to sleep through the night with how exhausted the last few minutes had made him. Rounding a corner, he was even more grateful to see Nick leaning against a corridor wall, waiting for him.

"Finally! I was beginning to think Wes had killed you and was burying you under the floorboards or something." He commented, walking alongside Jeff down the hall.

"Um. . . he just saw I was sick and was asking me about it, that's all." He shrugged, hoping he was at least able to tell small white lies.

It seemed he could, as Nick shrugged in acceptance. "Mama Warbler worrying about her little chickadees again." The both laughed, and Jeff felt even more of his tension from before lessening. "So do you want to go get dinner, or do you just want to go to the room and sleep? You've looked dead on your feet all day."

"Food! God, Nick, it's like you don't know me at all."

"Of course. Silly me, ignoring Jeffy's belly." Nick smiled as soon as aforementioned belly decided to let out a growl. "Guess I should have waited ten seconds to ask."

"It's saying feed me. Obey it, Nicky."

Right. No need to worry, Wes, he had it all taken care of.

Of course he did.

I'm beginning to realize that I have this weird passion for tormenting fictional characters. It's sort of an expansion of part of my Wes one-shot, and the way my Kurtbastian fic is currently planned out, it's going to be alluded to. So, I decided to write this. This is, obviously, just the beginning, but let me know what you think nonetheless.