Disclaimer: I do not own Bones, the characters in Bones, anything relating to Bones. This is written for fun, no profit is being made. Please don't sue me.
Under normal circumstances, Zach would stay out of the cafeteria. He had too many bad memories of things that happened in cafeterias, mostly involving bullies and ending with himself either attending class covered in foodstuffs or being sent home to change into clean clothes. That, he decided, was one of the best things about a small town. The worst was Mrs. Ingerson telling his mother about his nasty habit of not returning to school after such an incident. Zach still didn't understand why he should be punished for—
The young man shook himself. Not a child anymore, he reminded himself, though it did little good. He clutched his Cup o' Soup nervously. Supposedly, Zach had a sharp learning curve. Why he had chosen not only to 'not-avoid' bullies but to willingly approach and engage one was fully beyond Zach. He found it worrying.
Necessary, though. Zach took a deep breath and forced himself forward. He continued putting one foot in front of the other until he reached the bully's table and sat down opposite him. "May I sit here?" Zach asked, belatedly, nervously, clutching his soup tighter. It was very hot and might burn him if spilled.
Seeley Booth looked up from his lunch. What now? He had been over everything on their case with Brennan. Dealing with Brennan meant not dealing with Zach. But, as much as Booth didn't like Zach, he knew it wasn't Christian to turn him away. Besides, if he did that Brennan would chew him out.
"Sure. Okay."
He didn't want to seem too inviting. Zach needed to understand that this was permissive, not welcome.
"Can we discuss our working relationship?" Zach asked. The words blurred out of his mouth, and he wished for what felt like the millionth time that he had more social graces, or at the very least the ability to hold a normal conversation.
The first thing to leap to Booth's mind was that they had no relationship, but he supposed having to put up with Zach counted as a form of relationship. "Sure. What about it?"
Zach took a deep breath. He hadn't spoken of this to anyone. "I'm beginning to become distinctly aware of latent but arising homosexual tendencies in my persona, will that affect our relationship?" he asked. He expected a fair amount of good-natured but nevertheless painful mocking from Hodgins and a period of adjustment with Angela. The only person Zach didn't fear was Brennan: he knew she would view him as a scientist and regard him as she always had. Booth was a wild card.
Booth's eyes widened. He sifted through the geek speak and finally decided he only needed to understand 'homosexual'. "…you mean you're gay?" he asked. That's what it sounded like to him.
Zach nodded. "I… I suspect I may be," he replied. He had feelings for men he had never had for women. That meant he was gay, right? It wasn't that Zach didn't like women. He had successful platonic relationships with women, like Angela.
"Do you like me?" Booth asked as the first order of business. This was sufficiently difficult to accept. He didn't think he could work with a boy who fond him sexually appealing.
Zach blinked, not comprehending. "You know I like you," he said. He and Booth had a relationship. They had their "guy thing". That meant the world to Zach.
Booth sighed. Damn squints. Why couldn't they behave like human beings? "Yeah but do you like like me?" he asked. Surely even squints were children.
"I don't understand. I enjoy our relationship," Zach replied. Apparently this wasn't the right thing to say: Booth's jaw tightened.
"Okay, listen," he said, "do you want to have a sexual relationship with me?"
Zach recoiled in shock. "No… that would be highly Oedipal and probably physically harmful to me."
For a moment Booth processed this, then decided to focus on the 'no'. He would sort through the rest of it later. He made a shooing motion.
Zach fled.
to be continued!