Hours after their misguided climbing trip. Clay finds himself outside the Padilla house.
The sun had gone down as Tony drove him home. They shared distracted goodbyes when Clay hopped out. He had watched until the Mustang was out of sight, then he had quietly walked into the garage, jumped on his bike and pedaled all the way back to the older man's house.
Tony's light was still on and Clay knew the root he liked to take to sneak out at night. It had been years since he had seen the brunette use it, but he was sure that the tree would still be there.
It was an easy thing, to climb up the tree and onto the porch roof, after the events of the day. It was less easy to be quiet about it. By the time Clay reaches Tony's window the man has heard him. He'd have to be deaf not to.
The green eyed man is lying on his bed, reading a magazine, head and perfect hair tilted in his direction. A seconds inspections reveals it to be a car magazine - big surprise there.
He moves to sit up when Clay slides the window open but he motions the older man to lie back down. With a whispered "stay".
The Latino gives him one of those unreadable looks that Clay finds difficult to hold but stays exactly where he is. He's curious - confused even, but he trusts him. Which is truly unbelievable at this point, in the world of high school, no-one trusts no-one.
Clay steals himself, moving towards the bed before he can change his mind. "Is this okay?" He asks hesitantly sliding a knee onto the bed next to Tony's hip. Close enough to feel the man's body heat radiating.
The Brunettes eyes bore into Clays as he slowly – so slowly that it feels like he is barely moving- puts his hand on Tony's chest and waits to be thrown out on his ass. But instead he watches as the man dips his head in a solemn nod, never taking his green eyes away from Clays baby blue.
The taller man spreads his fingers across Tony's top, just to feel it. Looks down and follows the moment of his fingers over muscles he's never let himself notice.
"What are you doing Clay?" Tony's deep voice rumbles. Not angry or displeased like he expects just confused, unsure.
Clay looks up enough to catch the man's gaze for a moment, only to flicker back to the movement of his hand.
"I just need to know" he says with as much feeling as he can bear.
Tony blinks once, real slow and relaxes, leaning back on his elbows. He looks so cool; all smooth lean muscle and caramel skin. He always hated how cool Tony looked, it was unfair. Now all he could think about was having those thick arms around him and what that might feel like.
Even as he is doing it, Clay can't believe this is his own body and his own actions. It feels almost autonomous, a force of nature, pulling him in.
"Stay stop and I will" He says with a shaking voice.
When Tony doesn't so much as move a muscle Clay leans closer, looking straight into Tony's beautiful sea foam eyes until the last second, when he closes his eyes and ducks his lips to his friends in the briefest of kisses.
It's just a brush of skin on skin. Even so, Clay feels the tingle of static at every point they were connected. He hears someone gasp and realizes its him. The hand on Tony's chest is shaking as he leans back and Tony is searching his face for something.
Clay pushes himself off the older mans bed and out the window. Ignoring the calls of his name from behind and the furious thumping of his heart in his ears. He descends the tree in record time and forces himself not to look back at Tony's window. He doesn't want to see the expression of hurt on his friends face.
It's pitch black as he rides home. He thinks about Tony's lips the whole way.
