Stuck in the Same Old Lane Going the Wrong Way Home

A/N: I want to thank all who have read, reviewed, followed and favorited this story. I'm glad you guys like it. Here's the new chapter: enjoy.

I feel like my heart is stuck
In bumper to bumper
Traffic, I'm under pressure
Cause I can't have you the way that I want

Chapter inspiration: Honeymoon Avenue by Ariana Grande

Daffy barely registered that he was home until he found himself in his foyer, standing alone with his coat still on, staring into the vast oblivion.

With heavy feet he dragged himself up the stairs to his room. Once inside he closed the door behind him and began to change his clothes mechanically; unable to allow himself to think or ponder anything that happened that night. In fact he was determined to forget the whole night completely and just go to bed, a plan that was going considerably well before he heard someone knocking on his bedroom door.

It was Carrie, of course, was it ever anyone else? "Daffy? Come on let me in."

That was funny; she usually just barged right in. Had he locked the door? He never locked it. That was strange.

"Yes?" He asked gruffly, hating the way his voice sounded as he spoke to her through the door unable to remember having locked it in the first place.

"Daffy, how did your date go? And would you let me in? It's kind of hard to talk to you like this." Carrie's cheerful tone brought him back to the present and soon he found himself letting her in . Apparently he must have looked quite a mess because the minute she saw him she threw him into a hug.

"What happened?" She cried, rubbing circles in his back, trying to soothe him.

"N-nothing." He grumbled, trying and failing to sound convincing.

Carrie pulled away slightly to give Daffy a once over. "Oh Daffy you're crying!" She exclaimed, brushing some tears off his cheek with her hand.

"Carrie, I swear I'm fine." He stated, pulling out of her grip to sit on his bed. He tried to smile despite the tears because he didn't need her worrying about him or asking any questions he didn't want to answer. But the smile faded as soon as it touched his face.

"Did he hurt you?" Carrie growled, very carefully watching Daffy's face as he fell apart. "Because if he did, I'm going to hunt him down and make him pay."

"No." Daffy protested, nodding his head furiously. "He didn't do anything. It's all my fault."

His sister clucked her tongue in disapproval. "Daffy you're as harmful as a wet blanket. What could you possibly have done to make yourself feel this shitty?"

Daffy thought briefly about not answering her, of just letting it go but common sense told him he was being childish and that failure of communication with his sister wouldn't make him feel any better, so sucking it up he admitted: "I went on a date with my student."

There was a long silence; so long in fact that Daffy had to look up at Carrie to see if she was still there. And it was a sight to see, Carrie, who was never one to be easily caught off guard, was staring at him with her mouth open but more in confusion than actual shock.

She seemed to be trying to make words come out but the few that did ended up jumbled. Eventually she settled for "how?"

Daffy shrugged feeling like a fool; if he were honest he'd say that he really didn't know the answer himself. How was he supposed to know that Bugs was his student? But he should have been more careful. He should have at least done his research before going out with the blue-eyed man. And now it was too late. He could potentially lose his job or put Bugs in an awkward position.

The relationship he always strived to have with his students was always one of pure professionalism. He never let any lines be crossed so both parties still upheld a certain amount of respect for each other. Now that he ended up telling Bugs his personal and private information, how could he make that work? Boy was he lost.

"We were eating, having a good time, when he asked me what I did. I told him I was a college professor at Poland Springs and that's when he told me he'd be a new student taking History." Daffy expelled all of the information as quickly as possible as if it burned his tongue just to speak of it.

Carrie nodded, before schooling her expression into one of seriousness. "He'll be joining the new semester?"

Daffy nodded.

"Well, then it never happened. Wipe those tears and lace up your shoes, you're going to go into that class Monday with all the calm and collectedness you usually muster up and you're going to teach that class. And whatever happens be it you get fired, which I doubt since you are really good at what you do, or he demands to know what you're problem is. Then you take it all in stride. But you can't sit here and cry about it." Carrie soothed, joining him on the bed and drawing him in for a side hug.

"But Carrie, I still feel like I took advantage of a student, a new student. He probably feels like he has someone he can count on, and I can't if he thinks that more can ever develop between us. I don't want to hurt him." Daffy all but moaned as he buried his face in his hands.

Carrie sighed. "That's just it. Life is tough but you need to do what's best. Keep it professional. He may thank you for this one day and you guys will be able to laugh about it."

That made Daffy feel better. He hugged her as tightly as he could and gave her a light kiss on the cheek. "Thank you Carrie."

His sister got up from the bed and raked a hand through her trademark, when she wasn't killing it with heat tools to get it bone straight, poofy red curls to give him a haughty look. "That's what I'm here for."

He smiled at that and Carrie seemed relieved to have the old Daffy back. They bid each other goodnight and later as Daffy lay in bed in the early hours of the morning he decided that Carrie's plan would be the best to execute.

Monday rolled around quite swiftly to Daffy's pleasure; he loved his job and today was no different. He had decided to let Saturday night's fiasco roll off him by acting like it never happened, as Carrie had suggested, and had the exciting thrill of meeting his new students to focus on-so far that plan was going beautifully.

He was so caught up in enjoying his Monday that he hadn't even noticed he was whistling until Carrie pointed it out to him at breakfast. Taking a muffin from the tray and giving her a small kiss on the cheek, he didn't reply but left her to revel in the fact that her advice apparently worked.

"So you prepared for the new freshmen?" Professor Paul Bohr greeted his friend with the question that had been itching him since he woke up this morning.

They were sitting in the staff room, idly sipping coffee and trying to prepare for the challenging day ahead. Daffy, after a long sip of his decaf, looked over the rim of his gold spectacles at his long time friend and fellow Professor and shrugged.

"I'm as ready as I can be. What about you Porky?" He asked the shorter man with the always pink cheeks that earned him his nickname, but never the less captivating smile.

"Heh, it's here nor there. Another semester is another semester. By the way," Porky began, whispering as if they weren't the only ones in the room. "Where were you Saturday night? Rex, Tina and I called your phone and there was no answer. We went bowling."

Without thinking about it, Daffy twisted his face in disgust. "Why'd Rex come?" He asked before realizing how rude it sounded. He wasn't really fond of the Professor of Biochemistry and had expressed many times to Porky and Tina how little time he wanted to spend with the other man.

Porky shrugged, taking another sip of his coffee. "He wanted to see you. And we felt sort of bad because he seems to really like you, which is really surprising because by the way you treat the guy I'd imagine he wouldn't want to come near you with a twenty foot pole."

Daffy laughed despite himself before sobering when the thought of having to see Rex today crossed his mind. "He doesn't take rejection well." Daffy explained, hoping Porky would see his point.

Porky didn't. "Yeah, he's a cocky bastard I know, just because his father's the dean of the school, but you have to give him his props when he sets his eyes on something, nothing stands in his way."

Daffy shivered because he knew he was directly in Rex's line of sight.

"So," Porky began again, narrowing his eyes at Daffy as if he could find out his secret if he looked hard enough. "You still didn't tell me where you were Saturday."

He sighed; it truly was hard to get anything past Porky, mainly because talking to him was like talking to your favorite stuffed animal; you felt comfortable but also better off somehow by telling him the truth and knowing it would be safe.

But Daffy intended to keep his little night with Bugs a secret to take to his grave. "I went out for a bite to eat and left my cell phone at home." He said casually, feeling bad for lying to Porky but knowing it was the right thing to do.

Porky raised an eyebrow. "You love bowling, how good was this restaurant that you're so relaxed even to find out that you missed a night with me and Tina?"

Daffy shook his head. "I liked the 'me' time."

Porky rolled his eyes and took another sip of his coffee. "What was the name of this restaurant? You know I love food, maybe I can take Petunia to it sometime."

Daffy panicked; why oh why did he open his big mouth? He was about to make up some cockamamie excuse to leave before the clock tower outside signaled the hour that class began.

Never had he been so glad to hear the sound. Shooting Porky a quick wave, he downed the rest of his coffee and left towards the lecture hall.

He had been in such a hurry to get there that he ended up being the first one to class; which was probably a good sign that the rest of the year would go well as he never was on time for class.

In fact, as students trickled in, their faces lined with anxiety and stress while some were just bouncing with excitement, he thought to himself that it would be a very good year. Plus it seemed like Bugs either changed his mind about coming to class or Bugs wasn't his student after all and that was strangely relieving.

He began to relax in his seat as he stared at the faces around him, most not that much or even at all younger than himself. Which was one of the main challenges of being a college professor his age; earning the respect of people who'd rather see you sitting beside them in class rather than standing at the podium or desk.

But he knew how to overcome those challenges. And seeing as he'd had to deal with tougher freshmen before, this crowd would be a piece of cake.

He was just about to turn around to write on the chalkboard when the last student of the day walked in. Daffy froze as he heard the familiar clacking of biker boots on the tiled floors. Naturally he glanced up to see who it was before his brain could supply the information and immediately he regretted it. Bugs' striking blue eyes caught his and held them in an electrically charged stare that probably lasted way longer than it should have. To anyone who noticed, Daffy's look of shock was probably by Bugs' appearance than anything else.

Bugs broke his gaze to take a seat and almost immediately sense returned to Daffy. Realizing he probably looked like a deer in headlights, he decided he had to get his shit together. It's now or never Daffy, like it never happened remember? He coached himself. Clearing his throat, he proceeded as planned.

The rest of the class went relatively well. He had managed to sum up the courage and professionalism he gained from previous years experience to discuss the curriculum and act as normal as possible. And it was a success; he could even see that he made a few fans.

But perhaps he did something to karma because just when class was beginning to wind down, a knock resounded from his door. Without waiting for an answer, Rex popped his head in.

"You have a second D?" The chocolate haired man with stormy blue eyes asked. Despite Daffy's blatant outright "no" he walked in anyways and took a seat on Daffy's desk with all the assuredness of someone who could care less what was acceptable.

"I'm kind of in the middle of something here." Daffy mentioned, only so Rex would hurry up with his most likely obvious and annoying attempt to flirt so Daffy could reject him and get it over with.

"Oh really?" Rex asked, seeming not to care about the fact that they had an audience. He gave Daffy a lazy smile, which if he were anybody else, would probably have worked. Rex was actually quite gorgeous from most people's perspectives; he had strong dark blue eyes and the kind of strapping features that starred in many young girls' fantasies. But he knew this, and never failed to flaunt his looks instead of building his personality. And this always failed to impress Daffy.

"Yes really." Daffy tried his hardest not to roll his eyes and be at least a little civil to Rex, the guy really wasn't a total jerk he was just guilty of not being Daffy's type.

"Where were you Saturday?" Rex questioned toying with a paperweight on Daffy's desk, seemingly absentminded except when he glanced up and his eyes held burning curiosity.

Daffy shrugged. "I went to dinner by myself."

Rex narrowed his eyes sort of like Porky had done previously. "You didn't bring Carrie with you?"

Daffy sighed. "She has her own life you know?"

Rex chuckled as if Daffy told a joke. "I guess. So what are you doing Friday?" But he paused to look at his watch and as if by perfect timing, the clock tower chimed again to signal the end of the hour.

Daffy excused himself to dismiss his class and let the students leave. Begrudgingly he turned his attention back to Rex. How was he going to think of an excuse now? His brain was not equipped to handle a Monday and Rex at the same time. "Let's continue this conversation on our way to the staff room shall we?" He asked to bide himself more time.

Rex, of course, jumped at the opportunity to walk with Daffy. They were almost halfway out the door, Daffy chewing his bottom lip nervously and Rex sauntering confidently beside him, before they were interrupted.

"Professor Mallard?" A voice familiar to Daffy called. He turned around quickly, happy for the interruption that is until he realized who it was.

Bugs leaned against the door frame, studying Daffy and Rex with cool blue eyes. "Can I speak to you for a second?"

Daffy would have protested but there was something in Bug's eyes that just seemed important to comply with. Plus the thought of spending another second with Rex and continue their meaningless conversation didn't quite appeal to him.

"S-sure we can talk. Excuse me Professor Plasse." Daffy uttered.

"What's the matter? Are you situating yourself well with your classes?" Daffy asked, trying to sound like the caring and attentive Professor, in case of any stray ears.

Bugs' eyes studied Daffy, in their pale blue depths flashed a hint of concern before it was gone in a blink of an eye and Bugs' expression turned unreadable. Ignoring Daffy's question, he asked "Are you okay?", once they were out of earshot.

Daffy smiled, feeling a little relaxed in Bugs' presence. "Yeah I am." Then, as he thought about it. "I guess we need to talk huh?"

Bugs took a glance over Daffy's shoulder, not answering the question, and then fixed him with his beautiful, calculating eyes. "I don't think your friend likes me much." He observed, nonplussed. "We should go somewhere a little quieter." It wasn't a question.

Before Daffy could fully register what was going on, Bugs took him by the hand and led him further down the hall. In only a few minutes he found an abandoned computer room and locked the door behind them.

Daffy was about to ask if the taller man had gone crazy when suddenly his chin was tilted up and he was forced to look into those soft cerulean orbs. "I missed you." Was all Bugs said while his eyes flared with unhidden sincerity.

"N-no." Daffy protested backing up a little to escape the other man's piercing gaze and burning touch. He didn't go far though when he felt the tell tale signs of a wall meeting his back. "Bugs we can't do this."

For a second Bugs looked hurt, before successfully schooling his face back into nonchalance. When he spoke his tone was accusing. "Is it because I'm not a teacher? That I'm not some high status, posh socialite that can't get your attention?"

Daffy was speechless. Could it be that Bugs was jealous? "I-it means none of those things. I told you I'm not shallow."

Bugs took a step closer to Daffy raking a hand through his gray hair as if to soothe the millions of thoughts going on in his head. "Then why? Why don't you want this to happen?"

"Because it's wrong!" Daffy exclaimed. "It's forbidden, it's disgusting, it's taking advantage of a student."

Bugs nodded his head, negating everything Daffy just said with the motion. "Is that what you think or what society has drilled into you?"

Daffy shook his head, trying to dispel any notion that his perfect world was crumpling around him at the question. He didn't want to question anything; he just wanted to go with the flow, fit in. Why did it have to be so hard? "I could lose my job."

"It's the twenty first century and we're both adults, even if you found someone who cared it's not like they could do much damage." Bugs comforted, inching closer to Daffy and keeping their gazes locked.

"But-" Daffy breathed. He couldn't really remember what he was going to say next, probably another excuse, before he was wrapped up in the fresh scent of Bugs as their breaths mingled and threatened to become one. He could feel every nerve in his body stand on edge like a livewire and with the other man so close and freaking tangible it was like he just knew that Bugs had to feel it too.

He didn't have any strength left in him to protest as Bugs tilted his chin up once more to gaze into his eyes, seeming to ask for permission, before capturing their lips in a slow, soft kiss.

A/N: Okay so it is currently 5:30 in the morning and I need to sleep lol. More to come soon. Hope you liked. :D