Misunderstood Happening

A/N: Some spoilers for Start Me Up and Heart Like Mine. Is my theory on the Declan/Clare scenes in the promos. Declan/KC friendship, mentions of Klare and Dolly J. Some mentions of Kenna.

Declan Coyne walked into the lightly darkened classroom and leaned against the doorframe casually. His hands were shoved in the pockets of his pants as his gaze locked on the only other person in the room. Clare Edwards was sitting on the teacher's desk, swinging her slender legs lightly as she stared down at her small hands. He raised one of his eyebrows at that, almost worriedly and stepped farther into the room. "Prop Master Clare." He said, grinning when she looked up at him with startled blue eyes and then asked, "Why aren't you out there having fun at the dance?"

Clare shrugged as tears gleamed in her eyes. "I couldn't stand to be out there. It was too hard to look at them." She didn't have to emphasize on who she was talking about. Everyone at Degrassi knew how her former boyfriend and friend broke her heart. She'd had quite a few people tell her what a loser and an idiot KC was, among them being Declan himself as well as his girlfriend, Holly J Sinclair. Speaking of....

"And what about you?" She interrogated , watching him closely. "Why aren't you out there with Holly J?"

His face fell slightly as he thought about what had happened. "Holly J and I got in a fight." He said with a sigh as he walked over and sat down rather gracefully beside Clare, resting his palms flat behind him on the solid wood.

Clare raises her eyebrow and raises her hand to rest it on Declan's arm. sympathetically. "What happened?" She asked softly, drawing soothing circles on his shoulder with her thumb.

"She told me she loved me." He stated, swallowing hard and looking up skyward. "I didn't say it back and she asked me if I even loved her, and I said that it wasn't that simple. "

Clare's mouth fell open and she couldn't stop the gasp that escaped her lips. "But I see the way you look at her. You do love her. Why didn't you tell her?"

Declan let out a self depricating laugh and the walls that he'd built around himself came tumbling down. "I messed up. About a year ago, I was dating this girl. I really cared for her. I might've even loved her. I thought that she cared about me too but apparently, that was the wrong assumption to make. Turns out all she was into was daddy's money and dating the son of a politician. After that, I started just dating girls who were with someone else. It was so much easier going into it knowing that nothing could come out of it. That it was just a casual fling. Until I fell for Holly J, of course. I guess I'm afraid of letting her in."

"Well your ex sounds like a bitch." Clare exclaimed from beside him.

There was a stunned silence that followed and two sets of blue eyes widened. Declan turns his head to look at her, a trademark smirk curling at the corner of his lips before he laughed out loud.

A relieved look passed over her pretty face as he laughed and she found herself giggling as well as she gently shook her head. "I can't believe I just said that." She said, a wide smile on her soft pink lips.

Declan smiled at her softly, bumping shoulders with her. "Hey, atleast you're honest. I like that. So since you listened to me, wanna tell me why you came to the dance alone?"

A confused look came into Clare pretty eyes and she crossed her arms over her chest. "I didn't come alone. I came with Alli, Connor, and Dave." She told him, not getting his point.

He laughed again showing off all his even, white teeth. "I meant with a date. You know. One who isn't just a friends. One who'd make that ex of your's jealous. Your pretty and you're sweet. Someone had to have atleast asked you."

Clare flushed prettily at his comment, nibbled on her lower lip and looked away from his sparkling eyes. "Two people did actually. Gabriel Ryans who is involved with the play and Reese who is in the tenth grade. I decided to go with friends though. Besides, I doubt KC would've been jealous anyway. He has his perfect, blonde cheerleader."

Declan had to stop himself from clenching his teeth as he heard the sadness in her voice. At the moment, he wanted to go find KC and go give him hell for the doubts that he'd planted into Clare's head. Which was a bad idea seeing as Declan had never been in a fight in his life. He was a lover, not a fighter after all. Not to mention, KC was known for having a quick temper that could ignite like a fuse over the smallest things. Provoking his temper would be completely idiotic and irrational unless he had a death sentence, of course. "He was an idiot."

She gives him a questioning look, gaze intent on him as she raised one eyebrow. "Huh?" Fell from her lips in a whisper as they locked eyes.

"KC. He was an idiot to break your heart and to go to someone like Jenna." He shook his head slightly, some of his hair tumbling down onto his forehead. "You deserved better."

Clare smiled at him as she jumped off of the desk. "Thanks. And by the way, you should tell Holly J what you told me. About your ex girlfriend. Make her understand why saying that you love her is hard for you. I understand that you're afraid of getting your heart broken again and I don't blame you. I just think that it would be a tragedy give up on love. You and Holly J are good together. You make eachother better. You bring out the best in eachother. Don't let that go." She reached a tiny hand out and wraps small, slender fingers around his, looking up at him.

Declan gives her hand a gentle squeeze and an appreciative smile. "Thank you Clare. I couldn't have talked about this with anyone else. You're honestly the only one who understands." He raises his hand up to tuck some of Clare's hand behind her ear and then moves forward to wrap her in a hug. She stiffens in shock for a moment but then he feels her arms encircle his his back and her face bury into his chest.

The sound of the door opening and slamming shut makes them break apart. KC stood there with undeniable rage written on his face, shoulders tense. His green eyes glitter like two daggers and his fist are clenched at his sides. Declan can see the boy's knuckles are turning a deathly pale white. "You move fast? Wonder what your girlfriend would say about this.

Hurt immediatly fills Clare's eyes at KC's insinuation but it immediatly turns into a burning fire as she glares at her ex. Her voice is shake when she speaks and is nothing more than a his but it makes Declan tremble nonetheless. "How DARE you! I was myself around you KC! I gave you everything! I was there for you! You know me! You should know that I'm not the type of person to go after someone else's boyfriend! I know what that feels like! I know what it is like to give my heart to someone and have them stomp all over it! I wouldn't wish that pain on anyone, KC!" She is shaking as she finishes her sentence and a sob tears from her throat. Declan moves to comfort her, glaring icily at KC who looks guilty about what he'd said. Clare brushes him away though and shoots out of the room like lightening, not looking at anyone as she runs out the door. Her glasses lay forgotten on the desk at which she'd taken them off.

KC moves torwards the door as if to follow Clare but he is suddenly pressed against the wall, unrelenting fingers digging into his shoulder blades. Hot breath warms his ear as Declan leans in to growl, "Don't you dare make insinuations about her like that. You have no idea how much she still cares about you or how much you broke her heart. If you think she can do something like you were suggesting then you obviously don't know her too well. I'm not sure if you even deserve her. You and your little girlfriend didn't seem to care about Clare's feelings when you two got together. You didn't seem to see how much you were breaking her heart when you and Jenna were eyefucking eachother." He shoves KC into the wall again and then heads out the door, intent on checking on Clare.

A/N: I may write another part where KC apologises. It will also have Dolly J in it and Declan telling Holly J about his ex who broke his heart.