A/N: This is a prequel to chapter 9 of Rebel Hearts by mistyblue814. You can read this either before or after.

Zeb had woken up in a bad mood. Ezra was banging on his door and with any luck, he would be late for school.

He ran downstairs to grab some food before heading to school. Kanan, his adoptive father, was almost out the door, thermos in hand probably filled with coffee. His adoptive mother, Hera was packing her bag and yelling for his younger siblings, Ezra and Sabine. She drove them to school on her way to work. And their cat, Chopper, was meowing at something he was playing with on the living room floor.

It was a normal chaotic morning in the Jarrus-Syndulla ( and Orrellios-Wren-Bridger) household, but Zeb felt this cloud hanging over him. He shook it off as tiredness or stress and he grabbed his things.

"Hera! Kanan! I'm leaving!" He called to the kitchen, knowing it was the central hub of chaos in the morning.

"Alright, honey! Have a good day!" Hera replied.

"You too!" He said as he walked out the door.

He had a twenty-minute walk to school which wasn't too bad given the recent good weather. It had rained for a week straight at the end of the previous month, so the dry heat was almost refreshing.

Zeb made it to school right after the first bell, and the second he entered his first class, that cloud returned. All of the students were talking, which was unusual. And he was immediately taken aback when he saw his boyfriend at the back of the class. His red, puffy eyes were trained on his phone and there were drying tears on his face. Quickly he made his way there, feeling the eyes of his peers on him.

"Alex?" He asked quietly, sitting at the desk beside him.

Alex sniffed, and put down his phone, before responding.

"They're all talking about me." He said, wiping his eyes. "And probably you now too. Maybe you should sit somewhere else."

"What? Why would I do that? I sit here every day, I'm not going to change my seat because people are talking about you." Zeb replied firmly. "Alex, what happened?" He asked, his face softening in pity.

"Remember after Tuesday's match you came to congratulate me?" He whispered.

"Yeah..." Zeb smiled encouragingly.

"Matthew Thrawn saw us." He sobbed. "Well, he saw me, but not you." Alex corrected.

Zeb's mouth opened in shock.

"Did he...?" Zeb asked carefully.

"Out me?" He asked brow furrowing. "Yes, Garazeb. He did."

Alexandr broke down sobbing again. Zeb put his hand on his boyfriend's trying to comfort him without drawing too much attention. He didn't know what else to do. Thrawn had been a longtime bully of Alex and he might have finally won.

"I'm sure everyone will be talking about something new by lunch, you know how fast gossip moves."

"Garazeb, this isn't just gossip." He growled. "He took a photo." He shoved his phone in Zeb's face.

He took the phone and looked closer. In the photo, you could clearly see Alex kissing someone. Thankfully Zeb's face was covered with a branch of a nearby tree. The only other thing you could make out of the photo was that Alex was most definitely not kissing a girl.

"Alex, I'm so sorry," he handed back his boyfriend's phone. "I should have been more careful."

"No, it's not your fault. It's not either one of our faults. Thrawn is just an arsehole that should be minding his own business." Alex was rarely angry, but when he was, he got really angry. Any other time Zeb might find it cute, but now, however, it just saddened him.

Suddenly, it hit what Alex's outing could do.

"Do you know if your parents have heard?!" Zeb asked frantically.

All of the blood drained from Alex's face.

"Oh my goodness! They'll kill me!" He whispered, panicking.

Then the bell rang. The two boys glanced at each other one more time before turning to pay attention to their teacher. They would have to continue their conversation later.

The class had been agony. Every few minutes Zeb would look over at Alex and see the tears falling down his face. Of course, the teacher took no notice. He hated this place sometimes.

He didn't share his next class with Alex, though he had assured him he would be fine. He still couldn't focus. Lunch was an hour away. Then it was forty-five minutes and the clock seemed to stop. It was agonizing and he could only imagine what it was like for Alex.

Lunch eventually arrived, and Zeb didn't even bother going to his own locker before going to Alexandr's. His boyfriend arrived soon after with almost everyone's eyes on him.

"Fancy seeing you here," Alex remarked dryly, opening his locker. "I'll be fine on my own, you know. I don't need a babysitter."

"Don't push me away, please. You need someone right now." Zeb pleaded.

"I'm sorry, you're right," he conceded, fresh tears brimmed in his eyes.

"Hey, do you want to get out of here for lunch? We could walk down to that burger place you love?" He smiled softly.

"I would like that," he put the rest of his stuff in his locker before closing it. "But, you're paying," he smirked.

"There he is." He felt relieved that Alex was joking again, even if he did end up paying.

"There is no way!" Zeb shouted angrily.

"I might be able to reason with them! Plus I don't actually know what they may or may not do!" Alex shouted back.

"That's why it's not a good idea for you to go home! Your parents won't like finding out that their 'perfect little boy' is gay!" Zeb yelled, exasperated.

"I know! But they may not have even heard!" Alex explained, yelling back.

"By lunch, at least two or three hundred students knew and you don't think that even one of them, I don't know, TOLD THEIR PARENTS!?" He threw his hands in the air to further emphasize his point.

"Garazeb, please," he pleaded, no longer yelling.

"Fine," Zeb gave in, "but if anything goes wrong, you know where I live. And I'm sure Kanan and Hera won't mind you staying with us."

"Thank you, Garazeb," Alex smiled, pulling his boyfriend into a kiss.

After a few seconds they broke away, their foreheads touching.

"I love you, even if you're crazy," Zeb chuckled.

"I know, Garazeb, I know." Alex returned the smile.

"Text me later?" Zeb asked, breaking away.

"Of course," He replied.

After saying one last goodbye, he parted ways with Alex, still worried about what his boyfriend's overbearing parents might do.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed it! Go check out the inspiration (mistyblue814) if you haven't already. Have a good day!