Note: This is my first fanfic in a while and it is probably going to be very very cheesy, so I apologize in advance. There will be a lot of fluff and some smut starting in about a chapter or so.

I do not own Welcome to Night Vale or any characters.

Carlos took a deep breath as he looked at himself in the mirror. "You can do this," he whispered to himself, "This was your decision. The science program is totally worth it." Today was Carlos's first day of school in Night Vale. Night Vale's high school was nationally known for its distinguished science program and scholarship programs. He finished his first quarter in his school at his father's house, and made the hefty decision to go out west to be with his mother and attend a better school than the one he grew up by. So with a heavy but decided heart, he promised his friends he would keep in touch and moved out to the desert with his mother.

Carlos adjusted his shirt and took one last glance in the mirror before repeating the mantra he had formed for himself in the past few weeks, "Do it for the science." As he walked out the door he grabbed his bad and a bottle of water and got into the passenger seat of his mom's car. He took in the scenery on the drive there. He had spent most of his short time so far in Night Vale unpacking, and the layout of the town was still foreign to him. As he watched the Arby's and City Hall blur past him he was reminded that, of course, this town would have things in common his own. They even had a dog park; Carlos always took his beagle, Turing, to the dog park when he was a kid. But there seemed to be no dogs out, some figures cloaked in hoods, but no dogs. He found it a odd, but hey, to each their own.

It was the middle of October; school had already been in session for just under two months in Night Vale. Carlos followed the map and information in the packet he had been given when he registered for the school and dropped his belongings off at his locker before finding his way to his homeroom. He sat down in middle row of the classroom just in time for the bell. A few friendly students had introduced themselves and chatted with him as he was finding an empty seat, but the class simmered down at the bell.

He listened tentatively as a deep and silky voice came on to the announcements. "Today's date is: not important. Time is just a construct of our human perception and distorted beyond standard recognition. Welcome to Night Vale," the voice spoke. Carlos sat visibly puzzled in his seat. Maybe they were doing something special for Halloween? Although, October 18th seemed too early to be starting something like this.

He listened closely to the beginning of the announcements, they were normal for the most part, the date seemed like it would be the only thing with a twist. He liked it, it made things more interesting than the normal drawl of his old school's announcements. And the announcers voice. He could be a making a living out of that voice as a sports broadcaster or a commercial voice over.

Carlos found himself lost in his own thoughts by the end of the announcements. He had missed most of them. The voice over the speaker slipped his mind as his teacher began class for the day. The day was relatively normal for him, English, History, Spanish, and his Anatomy elective all passed with a relative quietness. Fifth period is what he was really looking forward too. Fifth period was Science. The reason he wanted to attend Night Vale's school. Carlos was one of the first students into the classroom.

As Cecil strolled into his fifth period science class he was scrolling away on his phone as usual. This day had been very normal, aside from a chance encounter with the school librarian, but that happens to everyone periodically. He had read the morning announcements as usual and attended his morning classes and talked with his best friend Dana through his Spanish lesson. But fifth period science, that was not normal. He noticed a boy standing at the front of the room talking to his teacher.

A boy he did not know, he had never seen him before. A boy with a warm and perfect smile, and modestly fashionable yet perfect clothes that hung on him perfectly, and a perfect and dark complexion, and perfect hair. Yes, his hair. Gorgeous, perfect locks. Everything about him was perfect and Cecil was awestruck in his beauty. He watched him sit down at a table in the front corner of the room. And then continued to watch him dazedly for the rest of class.

As the bell rang and everyone poured out of the classroom, Cecil put away his notes slowly and waited for the perfect mystery boy. "Oh, hey, you're new here aren't you?" Cecil asked as he walked up next to him.

"Oh, um, yeah. I am," he responded. He timidly smiled and looked back down at his feet. Cecil smiled to himself as the boy's soft voice rang in his ears.

"I'm Cecil," he introduced himself.

"Carlos," the boy said with a jerky nod.

Carlos. Cecil reveled in the name for a few moments before continuing, "Well, if you need any help finding your way around school, I'd be glad to help." Cecil flashed a small smile at him.

"Oh, well, I'm actually on my way to gym right now."

"That's perfect, so am I," Cecil replied cheerfully. "So where are you from?"

Cecil made small talk and asked Carlos questions about his old town as they walked to the boy's locker room together. They walked into the entrance that split into the gym on one side and the locker room on the other. "I didn't bring any gym clothes for today, so I'm just going to go wait in there," Carlos explained as he began to walk into the gym entrance.

"Oh, I have an extra pair you can use," Cecil said as he motioned Carlos to follow him into the locker room. Cecil opened his locker and handed him an old yellow tee shirt and a pair of shorts.

The locker room looked very similar to the one at Carlos's old school, he thought. These lockers were a royal blue instead of pale green but other than that rooms were nearly identical. But then again, there's not really a point in trying to make a locker room anything special. Carlos unbuttoned his shirt and quickly set it in Cecil's. He pulled the faded yellow shirt of his head and was taken aback by the scent of it. Cecil's clothes smelled heavily of lavender and sandalwood and smoke. He stole a quick glance at Cecil but quickly turned away to let him change his pants without him starring.

After they finished changing, that sat on the gym floor with the rest of the gym class. Unlike Carlos, Cecil was not afraid to stare. The blond teen intensely admired Carlos's broad shoulders and delicate but well sculpted jaw line. Maybe he's a swimmer, he thought to himself. Cecil's mind wandered, thoughts of him in suits and swimsuits and lying naked in bed-no, no, don't think of him like that, Cecil reprimanded. His thoughts snapped backed to the gym teacher's instructions on the different hits of volleyball.

They got split into their teams and played practice games most of class. As the teacher split up the teams, Carlos silently wished to himself that he would get put on Cecil's team. He did not know anyone else in the class yet. But he unfortunately got separated from his one man welcome committee. He did make friends with someone though. Tamika Flynn, who was set on winning the class tournament, was very friendly and good at making conversation.

Gym ended and the class went back into the locker room to change. Carlos removed the yellow shirt and handed it back to Cecil. He was kind of disappointed to lose the smell of lavender and smoke that lingered on it. Their schedules matched again with seventh period astronomy; they walked to the class together, discussing Tamika's impressive volleyball skills along the way.

The day passed and Carlos left for home as Cecil went to after school journalism club to write up the next day's announcements. Cecil and his closest friend Dana ran the announcements at the school along with the senior English teacher. "He's just so handsome," Cecil swooned to Dana as she typed the announcement draft out of his spiral notebook.

"As long as he's not like Mr. Hump-and-Dump-Kevin, I give you my blessing," she laughed as Cecil's face turned sour. Dana poked fun at him over last year's events and sighed to herself over Cecil's spontaneous infatuation.

"Carlos is not anything like Kevin," he retorted. "Carlos is sweet and dreamy and loves science."

"Science?"

"Yes, science."

"I didn't know you had a thing for the intellectual type," Dana smirked as she printed the announcements.

"Dana, please, I think it could really work out between us. He's just…," he trailed off.

"Dreamy? Handsome? Unconventionally charming? I vaguely remember you saying the same thing about Kevin," Dana reminded him. She grabbed the sheet from the printer and handed it to Cecil.

"Oh come on, stop bringing him up. I'll talk to you more about this tonight," he said as he put on his jacket and pulled his bag over his shoulder. He said goodbye to Dana and started his walk home.

He walked in his front door and set his bag on the couch before walking upstairs to his room. Cecil flopped onto his bed and starred at his the white ceiling as his mind drifted once again to Carlos. Drifting away in thought was Cecil's thing. His imagination was constantly running loose day and night.

He imagined all the ways they could fall in love and all the things they could do together. Maybe he would confess his love to him in an empty hallway at his locker after school, or on Halloween night at Dana's party after they wander the neighborhoods, or if he was patient he could ask him to the school's winter ball. He wandered into thoughts of kissing Carlos and running his finger through his hair and pulling him into his lap as they watched cheesy slasher horror movies. Carlos's well toned shoulders and impeccable posture and physique floated through his head and his thoughts turned to doing other things with Carlos. Like helping him pick out what swim trunks to going water skiing in or fucking him against a wall.

Cecil felt a bit guilty for the second of those things. Maybe Dana had been right when she had said Kevin would be a bad influence. It had only been five hours since he met Carlos and he was thinking of that. Not that that was anything to surprising, but Cecil always used to be the innocent naive one until last year. Sophomore year had been when he first met Kevin, a junior from the neighboring town of Desert Bluffs.

Kevin was not important anymore, Cecil reminded himself. Cecil sighed and went back downstairs to get his bag. He spent the rest of the day working on schoolwork and chatting with his mom and then talking to Dana until he went to bed.

He pulled on his old, baggy Smiths shirt and some boxers; and then went to bed, dreaming about seeing Carlos the next day.