2. The Proximity Factor

Johnny had known he was homosexual for a while now. He figured it out when he was a might younger, around twelve or thirteen, when he started developing a strange phenomenon in which his nose would bleed in certain... circumstances.

It was around the time that he started developing in a lot of different areas - as it was with puberty. Not the most fun time in any kid's life, mind, but Johnny seemed to have it harder than usual. He had not known he was different before that time, seeing as all the other little boys would talk about how girls were gross and had cooties, or that they were sometimes pretty. Johnny thought Amata was the prettiest of them all, and had no trouble relating to the other boys in that regard. Though when they started to like girls in other ways... Johnny didn't.

The first time that his nose bled was the scariest thing he could remember when he was little. He was in the later months of his twelfth year, and he had been experiencing the tell-tale signs of growing up (aka random bouts of... excitement). He had just finished his required exercise time for the day, and was in the boys' bathroom when in walked none other than Butch DeLoria.

Butch is about six months older than Johnny, and was thirteen at the time, which in Johnny's eyes made him seem so much more grown-up than himself. Johnny was standing near the door, about to leave, when Butch suddenly was stripping down.

He had a natural tan about him, and he was very into his melee and unarmed fighting, and was... toned, for a kid. Johnny was enthralled with this display, his face heating up and making him forget just where he was and what he was doing. When Butch turned around, Johnny knew he would see him and tried to run out, only to trip on his own boots. He hadn't hurt himself but a bump on the knee, but when he stood up, he felt more than saw blood dripping onto his arm.

He was terrified, and had no explanation as to why his nose was bleeding. Butch was laughing his ass off, torso still bare and flexing as he laughed, and Johnny ran, holding back embarrassed tears.

And so he became Nosebleed in the eyes of one Butch DeLoria.

It wasn't only that time, however. As I said, Johnny is unique to this recurring phenomenon. Over the years, he figured out that it happened when too much blood ran to his face - ei working out for long periods of time, sickness, embarrassing situations, arousal... But most of the time, it happened when he just so happened to catch Butch without a shirt on, unfortunately.

Johnny never really thought that Butch had caught on to the string of events leading up to his infamous nosebleeds, thankfully. There were a couple times where he acted as if he knew, but they were few and far between - and knowing Butch, if he really knew, he would have rubbed it in Johnny's face endlessly. And not the kind of rubbing that Johnny wanted.

And some of the cases were quite innocent, anyway - Such as the time when Butch had pushed him a bit too far, and he swore at him for the first time. Johnny was so embarrassed that his face lit up like a Christmas tree and he didn't even care when he lost his glasses as he stomped away. And then there was the time when Amata had recounted her first kiss to him, and he had not wanted to hear it told like that... Oh, and once when his dad gave him 'the talk'.

Others, however, in the later years, were a bit less so. Most of them included half naked Butch, or a fight that ended up a bit more physical than usual. Those were his favorites, if he had to choose. Butch threw punches at Johnny all the time, and usually they get returned quite quickly. But once in a while, they would end up in more of a wrestling match than fist fight, and rolling around on the floor with Butch pressing down on him... He couldn't be held responsible for what his nose did at that point. Or, really, any other body part that happened to respond to that. (Fortunately Butch never noticed those.)

The latest incident happened about a month after the famous first haircut.

If he ever had to mention this to anyone else, he would have to kill them afterwards, it was so bad. He was just minding his own business down in his workshop, working on a new program for one of the older pip-boy models. To be honest, he was getting a bit frazzled with it anyway, and was about to throw it in the bin in frustration. However just as he was about to throw a fit and throw it across the room, the Serpent Kind walks in.

"Don't go pissing your pants or anything, Nosebleed. It's just little ol' me." He smirked, gloating in the fact that Johnny jumped a little when he was shocked out of his rage. Butch strode over to the table Johnny was working at, leaning down. "Seriously though. My system's on the fritz." He reached into his jacket pocket and flipped out the card Johnny had given him for the haircut between two fingers. "Check it out for me?"

Though Johnny was a bit dazed, he nodded. "What's wrong with it?"

Butch sighed and pulled up a chair. Apparently he thought this would take a while. "Well, first of all, the damn wheel won't work. In the stats it says I'm dead, and it... won't come off," he grumbled, heaving his arm and the heavy device up and plopping it down on Johnny's desk with a deafening thud that echoed through the shop.

Johnny nodded and looked over the device, checking the stats screen and the scrolling wheel. Neither worked properly, as mentioned. However, there was no way he was going to be able to help with getting it off without some serious physical labor and a few engineering tricks. Pip-boys were made to only come off at the owner's explicit instruction. The only others that could were specialty-trained programmers - of which Johnny was a member, fortunately enough for Butch. "So what exactly is it doing when you try to take it off? Could be a number of problems."

Butch groaned and moved about as if restless. "Shit, I dunno. It just beeps at me. Whatever the hell that helps you for."

"It does." Johnny allowed himself a small chuckle. "Tells me it's a software problem, not a hardware one."

Butch scoffed but didn't say anything after that, and Johnny got up to get some smaller tools. When he got back, he realized what an awkward angle this would be for both of them. The access point for this specific board was on the side, facing the elbow. Johnny was going to have to basically scooch inside Butch's arms to reach it. And so, with the fate of the pip-boy in his mind and not the fact that they'd be spooning in mind, he reached in and tried to get to the board as smoothly as possible.

Unfortunately, that smoothness included Butch jumping away in surprise, and Johnny falling face-first into his groin as he stood up. He ended up sprawled out awkwardly on both their chairs, Butch looking down at him with bewildered eyes. "Fuck man, what the hell was that all about?!"

Johnny got up from the chair and was trying to settle himself down, but he could already feel the heat running to his face. "I needed another angle to reach the panel to get your blasted pip-boy off!"

Butch growled. "Yeah, well, maybe you should fucking tell a dude before you sit in their fucking lap!"

"Look I'm sorry, okay? I hadn't meant to do that! Now do you want that thing off or what?" He motioned for the chair again, pushing his luck, he knew. Here he was, ordering a pissed off, known assailant, into a chair. What could possibly go wrong?

But surprisingly, he just sat back down, albeit slowly. "Fine. Just... tell me if you're gonna pull shit like that again."

Johnny sighed in exasperation. "Will do, Butch-man."

The next fifteen minutes was torture for poor Johnny. He could feel the relentless bodyheat behind him, curving onto his back. One arm pulled around his side to keep the pip-boy in place while he worked. And Butch was being surprisingly silent, save for that irresistable puff of hot air that hit the back of Johnny's neck every few seconds. It was killing him slowly.

Johnny was almost done with the locking system when Butch decided now was the time to start a banter. "How much longer is your bony as gonna dig into my thigh, dude?" The vibration of his voice sent shivers all down Johnny's back, and he couldn't repress the shock of excitement that went through him as he felt it. "I mean, it's kinda uncomfortable."

Johnny tried to repress the squeek in his voice. "Sorry. It won't take much longer, I swear."

"What are you doing, anyway?" asked Butch curiously. His head had to be tilted up to make room for Johnny's, but he took that moment to twist his neck around to settle right next to Johnny's, his hair tickling Johnny's cheek.

The warmth along his back and his legs, the vibration from Butch's heavenly voice, the breath on his neck, and the hair tickling his face, and God - just the sheer closeness of his favorite bully - he couldn't take it anymore. Suddenly, the red rushed to his face and started dripping lightly out his nose, then more steadily. He jumped up, his hand covering it and cupping so the stream didn't flood his mouth. His face was on fire and he almost knocked Butch out of his seat with how quickly he jumped up. "I'm so sorry Butch, I-I... I gotta go."

And he ran. Again.