A/N: thanks to tacodestroyeravenger for beta'ing!

Since the incident with his brother, Jonathan had been focusing a lot more on his school work. He didn't want to admit it, given all the other awful things that had been happening at the time, but seeing his dad again really messed with his head. Even though his dad didn't know he was a sub, he still acted like a dom toward Jonathan, and everyone else he interacted with. Suffice it to say, having had time to think about everything that had happened without an impending feeling of possible death looming over him wasn't exactly making it any easier to keep his dynamic hidden in the normal ways.

It hadn't even occurred to him that he hadn't had a decent drop in a while, so no one could blame him for being a bit spacey . . . Except no one knew, and no one was really paying too much attention to him anyway. His brother had been (and should be) the center of attention in their house since he had been taken. A few friendlier people asked him if he was okay during the passing periods, but he begged off as sick. Honestly, it wasn't that big a deal. He would get through this, just like he had a dozen other times, maybe with a few more bumps, and be back to normal by the end of the week.

Steve had just sat down to eat the school's newest attempt at a "nutritional" lunch when somebody from the fringes of his friend group came over and sat down next to him.

"Steve," the kid (what was his name?) said, "you'll never believe who looks like he's gonna cry over spilled milk . . . that Byers kid. I know you like to mess with him, but you've been too busy lately. Want me to rough him up?" The kid sounded eager for Steve's approval, but luckily for that poor piece of trash, Nancy sat down on Steve's other side before Steve could respond appropriately (decking the douche). "Let me know!" the kid begged, leaving to find his regular seat.

"What was that about?" asked Nancy.

"Jonathan's been having a bad day," he responded glancing across the cafeteria to where Jonathan was sitting by himself. "We should invite him over. We haven't talked to him in a while."

Nancy hummed in agreement. "Yeah. We should be less frightening now that we have our shit together." She took a bite of her food. "Do you want to invite him over or should I?"

"You should, since it would be at your place."

Nancy came up to Jonathan in the cafeteria, startling him.

"Hey, Jonathan," she opened, sitting down across from Jonathan. He relaxed a bit into his seat. "I know we haven't hung out since everything happened, but I wanted to invite you to join Steve and me for a study session tonight. Would your mom be okay with that?"

While the invitation was worded as a request, Jonathan didn't even consider saying no. "Of course," he replied without really thinking. "Yeah, that would be great." He smiled.

Nancy returned his smile. "Okay, meet us by Steve's car after school. See you then."

Jonathan didn't even realize how much more relaxed he was after his conversation with Nancy until the last class.

His last class consisted of a dom teacher with some dom jocks who were always challenging each other. A lot of the openly sub presenting students just knelt beside their desks in order not to freak out at the posturing (honestly, you would think there'd be more control in the classroom). Jonathan didn't have that luxury. Normally by now he would have gone crazy doodling in his notebook in order to keep his mind occupied, but today he just focused on his after school study session. That class didn't go as poorly as it normally did.