X. Breathe
As soon as he caught sight of Sam, Blaine ran in a flurry of arms and legs and tackled him in a hug; it didn't matter that they were in plain view of half the student body, didn't matter that Blaine had to push past a crowd, didn't matter that people turned their heads to stare at him. For once he didn't care, because Sam was back and everything was okay again.
"I missed you," he breathed into the taller boy's shoulder, clutching him tightly. "I missed you a lot." His heart pounded and his breath came fast, as if he'd just sprinted a marathon.
Sam, on the other hand, was having trouble breathing at all, and it had nothing to do with how tightly Blaine was squeezing him. He searched for the words he wanted to say; finding none, he settled for holding Blaine against him a moment longer.
It was a quiet moment of bliss, and happiness, and peace—until someone unceremoniously bashed a shoulder into Blaine, sending him stumbling from the surprised Sam's arms and almost onto the floor. Sam caught him before he could fall all the way down.
He was startled, and upset, and angry, but he guessed he also understood; boys just didn't do these kinds of things. They didn't run to each other after only a week apart, didn't clutch at each other like they were the only human beings in the world, didn't stand in silence and breathe each other in right in the middle of the school's lobby. At least, they didn't in the minds of other boys. And as much as Sam hated it, he understood.
"Are you okay?" he said softly, still holding onto Blaine's arm even though he'd stopped stumbling.
"Yeah." Blaine shrugged off the incident with his shoulders.
The two looked at each other for a minute, eyes paralyzed, locked onto each other.
Then Sam blinked and shifted his feet. "I'm, uh, I'm going to go to homeroom, I guess." He raised hand to clasp Blaine's shoulder, but immediately thought better of it—there were still people staring at them—and instead reached up to uncomfortably run his fingers through his own hair.
Blaine nodded his head in silent understanding. "Yeah, that's probably a good idea. I'll see you second period?"
Sam matched his quiet yet unconcerned grin. "Bet on it."
And he quickly walked away, pushing through the morning crowd of students, desperately wanting to both stay and get as far away as possible. He needed somewhere quiet, somewhere he could gather and sort out the mingled thoughts of happiness and anger and eyes and Blaine in his head. Somewhere he could breathe.