Page 37 of Stand By Me

More of a scene, that is. They all must think I'm a moron who can't take it

Damn. Mario didn't know how much longer he'd be able to not react to the way Ben talked about his brother. It was easier when Clay had been away and unattainable, but now…

Mario let that go for the time being and refocused on supporting his friend.

You can take it, as long as you're not trying to work through exhaustion. And you know it! But you're fine, right?

Yeah, just my ego bruised, Ben replied.

Oh, that's okay, then.Mario smiled as he typed.You should be used to it by now.

Fuck offcame two seconds later.

They texted back and forth for about half an hour, and, among the friendly jabs and insults, he learned that Ben's crush on Erica might not be so one-sided as Ben had feared.

It was so tempting to come out and say it, to confess about his no-longer-unattainable crush as well. Mario held back, though. That was not a conversation to have over texts.

He did, however, promise himself that he would talk to Clay about telling Ben next time they saw each other, no matter what. The sidestepping they'd been doing seriously needed to stop.

After Ben decided he was going to nap some more and hopefully sleep his headache off, Mario got up and went about making himself breakfast. As he sipped his coffee and waited for his toast to be ready, he decided to text Clay before he'd spend too long overthinking it.

Late mornings are the best mornings.

The reply came a few minutes later.

Is this the right moment to tell you that I'm a morning person?

NO WAY. A dagger to the heart would hurt less.

I go on runs early in the morning *twists the knife*

Mario laughed and almost choked on the last of his toast.

You don't drink coffee. You are a morning person. What cyborg are you?

One that hopes the human will still want to reschedule that date from yesterday.

Damn. Clay had a talent of throwing him a curve ball at the drop of a hat, which was yet another thing Mario loved about him.

His brain screeched to a halt.

Oh boy. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy.

It wasn't that it was particularly shocking or anything. Not really. He'd suspected he was falling for Clay again basically from the moment he'd seen him walking into the Smithsonian foyer that first time. But there was a difference between falling and having already fallen, and…

They'd only had a date and a half.

Talk about too much, too fast.

A glance at the phone in his hand reminded him that he left Clay without an answer, so he got himself together enough to reply.

In that case, the cyborg would be happy to know that the human definitely wants to. ASAP, in fact.

After sending that, he busied himself with cleaning after breakfast, pretending he wasn't anxiously waiting for Clay's response.

He probably should have played it cool, not jumping on it. "ASAP" was a little desperate.

Thankfully, Clay didn't seem to care about whether or not he appeared cool—or desperate.

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