The Sarah Jane Adventures

I, as always, own nothing but a worn out laptop and too many dirty mugs that once held tea. I'm also not responsible for this pairing; it was blindingly obvious all by itself.

After School Special

Clyde ran his way up the steps, taking two at a time, until he reached the front door of Luke's Oxford flat. He peered through the frosted window out of pointless curiosity and then rang the doorbell. As he looked around him he decided it was all a bit posh here, but to be honest he had been expecting that.

After a few moments the door opened to reveal a tall grungy looking boy with a half eaten piece of pizza dangling from his mouth.

"You alright?" Clyde asked in way of a greeting, "I'm looking for Luke, Smith. Geeky kid – talks like he's an encyclopaedia."

The boy grunted and flung the door open, gesturing for Clyde to follow. Clyde shut the door behind him and nodded to the boys in the living area, before walking down the small corridor to be shown Luke's room.

Left alone, he knocked on the panels. The steady beat of music from inside was abruptly cut off and Clyde had begun rocking back on his heels by the time his friend opened the door.

Luke's face broke out into a grin. "What are you doing here?" He asked as Clyde helped himself into Luke's room, dumping his holdall on the bed.

"We had a long weekend off school – so I thought what the heck; I'll go visit my mate Luke." He punched the other boy affectionately on the shoulder. Luke rubbed the spot, still trying to understand how hitting someone could be a good thing, but had long since expected that a lot about humans couldn't be explained through logic.

"Nice place," Clyde added, glancing round at the walls, noting the period table up amongst the rather generic posters. Being normal was something he knew Luke tried very hard at. "So, have you missed me?"

"How could I? You've been calling or video messaging every three minutes."

"What can I say? We needed your superior brain to help save the earth." He started picking up and examining the things on Luke's desk.

"So that's what you missed, my brain?" Luke asked sarcastically as he spun Clyde round to face him.

"Have you got a problem with that?"

"And I suppose it's okay then for me to have just missed your warped sense of humour?"

"Don't forget my good looks!"

"Like I could?" He laughed, stopping as Clyde's face turned serious. "What is it?"

In one swift move Clyde grabbed each side of Luke's head and brought it down to meet his own; pressing hungrily their lips together. It was over nearly as soon as it started. Luke pulled back but Clyde kept hold of him.

"I think that was against some of societies protocols." Luke pointed out, wanting to check if he was understanding the situation correctly.

Clyde ran his tongue over his dry lips. "Yeah, quite possibly." He dropped his arms and looked about him trying to seem innocent and invisible.

"Can we forget about it?" Luke asked, not having moved.

"What, me kissing you?" Clyde tried to sound nonchalant.

"No," Luke stepped forward, "The protocol."

Before Clyde could respond Luke was back kissing him, finally hitting him just why he had missed his best friend so much. They hadn't been kidding when they said Luke was perfect he joked inwardly, and then cringed at himself.

"What?" Luke asked, petrified he had done something wrong.

"Nothing," Clyde smiled, shaking his head. He was just reaching up to reinitiate the kiss when the door was flung open and Luke's three roommates bundled in, halting in shock at the sight before them.

Clyde stepped back, "It's not what it looks like!" He said – automatically on the defence. "Er, what does it look like?"

"Two guys making out?" Suggested the blonde boy with glasses.

"It was." Luke chipped in, failing to see what the problem was. Grunge boy grinned, trying to hold back laughter.

"Stay here," Clyde gestured to Luke and then steered the boys back out into the corridor, pulling the door to after him. Luke listened carefully to their voices on the other side of the wood.

"You're not going to give him jip for this are you?" Clyde asked, trying to look formidable but mostly just managing nervous.

"'Jip'? What are you, from the 1940s?"

"You know what I mean." He was worried he was going to start attempting to crack jokes, a terrible habit he had when backed into a corner.

"Nah, it's cool." The blonde responded.

"Look, Luke's great – he's funny, he's clever and he's the bomb at pub quizzes. We're not going to get mad because he's gay."

"We're not gay!" Clyde nearly yelled, going red in the face.

"Whatever, the point is, as long as he doesn't come on to us, or have loud gay sex at 3am, it's okay."

"We were just gonna ask if you guys wanted to come down the pub, but I guess we'll leave you to erm, catch up. Let's go." They backed off down the corridor, making a racket as they collected their things and bundled out of the front door. It was a few seconds before Clyde got his blush down to the extent he could go back into the bedroom.

He wandered in, eyes to the floor, the walls, the window, muttering on about maybe grabbing a bite to eat and video games, and therefore didn't see Luke smiling from his office chair. He was thinking he had a pretty decent set of mates, all things considered.

"So what do you think?" Clyde asked, hoping the awkwardness would ebb away under the carpet beneath his feet.

"About what?" Luke stood up and wandered over to where Clyde was leaning against the closed door.

"About what we should do now? Have you heard a word I said?" He looked indignant.

"No." Luke smiled and wrapped a hand round the back of Clyde's neck, "But I'm pretty certain what I want to do now."

And as his eyelids closed, Clyde decided things were a lot less awkward when two people felt the same way. Even if they hadn't realized it until now.