Tangled Up

Draco was driving himself to distraction. He was supposed to be revising, he only had a few days left before his final exam after all, but for the last hour or so he'd barely turned a page in any of the several books laid out before him.

It was his fault, Mr Tall-Dark-And-Handsome, for strolling in and sitting practically opposite him on the library table Draco had claimed for himself. It was his table, everyone knew that, but apparently this guy had skipped the memo. This guy, with his chocolaty skin and hair that was just begging to be tamed with a hair brush or a lawn mower, whichever Draco could get his hands on first.

He was sat absorbed in a single book with a notepad by its side, taking an occasional note and smiling to himself as he periodically pushed up the glasses that kept sliding slowly down his nose. Draco wanted to snatch them off his face.

And then there were the headphones. They weren't those cheap ones, so thank god Draco couldn't hear the incessant tssn tssn tssn of the base line like some heinous prats subjected you to. But they were the kind with earbuds, with one wire longer than the other so it could be looped around the back of your head.

This guy had it dangling at the front under his chin though, and even worse there were knots in it – not just one, several! Draco dropped his head and tried in vain to concentrate once more on his notes, but the guy was too infuriating. How could he sit there and calmly flick another page, and – Christ! He licked his bottom lip slowly then held it between his teeth. That was just not fair. His eyes narrowed slightly behind his glasses and his forehead crinkled in thought. Although his skin was dark Draco realised his eyes were green, which was so unusual Draco failed to appreciate he was openly staring at the guy now.

That was, until he looked up, and smiled.

Draco blinked. Oh crap, totally busted. Should he smile back? Ignore him and hurry back to his books? But he was only a couple of seats down, and there really wasn't a quick way to escape. So Draco finally gave into his cravings and slid down two seats, reaching out for the longer earphone wire. "Can I just," he mumbled, unabashedly pulling it out of the guy's ear as he watched on with bemusement.

Draco deftly made short work of unravelling the knots, then flicked the wire over the guy's head, holding the bud out by his ear for him to take back.

"That was making me a little berserk," he said matter-of-factly, refusing to acknowledge how completely inappropriate what he'd just done was. But he did tack on an uncomfortable "Um, sorry," afterwards, because what the hell had he just done!

But the guy smiled broader at him, and pulled the second bud out too, letting them both drop over his clavicles. "I'm sorry for interrupting your studies," he said shyly but warmly. "I didn't realised I was such a distraction."

Draco swallowed, desperately trying to keep the heat from rising up from under his collar. "What can I say?" he offered. "My megalomaniacal tendencies get out of control when I'm stressed."

"Finals?" the guy asked, nodding at Draco's pile of work.

Draco nodded. "The hell will be over though in approximately-" he glanced at his watch. "Two days, three hours, twenty two minutes and…five seconds."

"Well," said the guy, and started scribbling on a fresh sheet of paper in his pad. "How about I leave you in peace, and you give me a call in two days, three hours and, hmm, let's say twenty five minutes." He ripped the paper out and handed it to Draco. "I'll give you three minutes to catch your breath."

Draco blinked in shock and looked at the name and phone number staring up at him, barely aware of the guy getting to his feet. "Head Phones Guy?" Draco read aloud, and the guy leaned over to tap and the scrawl above that.

"Or, my friends call me Harry if you'd prefer," he told him with a grin, slinging his satchel over his shoulder.

"Harry," Draco confirmed. "I invade your personal space, and you want to go on a date?"

Harry shrugged. "I like the weird ones," he said, before sweeping down and placing a chaste kiss on Draco's cheek. "For luck," he explained with a wink, then straightened out to head for the door.

"Draco," Draco suddenly blurted out as he reached the exit. "My name's Draco."

Harry smiled and bit his lip again. "Good luck Draco – see you in two days."

And with that, he disappeared from sight.

Draco gazed in bewilderment at the paper with the phone number, then hastily scrambled back over to his seat to grab his phone and save the digits before a malicious gust of wind tried to tear it from his hands. Well, he hadn't been expecting his afternoon to pan out like that. Maybe getting through this exam wasn't going to be as hard as he thought?

End