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WHO: Herbert West and Tony Stark
TONE: Awkward and goofy and confusing
RATING: PG-13, probably
WHEN: 10th
WHERE: Library
WHAT: Tony's love potion dose gets him fixated on a very unlikely target.
STATUS: Ongoing

Herbert barely noticed the two boys sitting at the next table over in the library. He was too busy composing a treatise on how physical fitness positively affected mental prowess (a new revelation to him, but one only had to look at the perfection that was Odinson to know it made the most sense), sucking on the end of his quill between bursts of furious writing. Anyway, it was only Rogers and Stark, and weirdly enough, a lot of his irritation at Stark lately seemed to have disappeared once he'd gotten a good look at the husky blond boy and ... well. That was probably not an appropriate thought to have in a library.

The small boy smiled to himself as he made another note, this time concerning human pheromones and their genetic advantages.

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"No one told me, it's just obvious," Herbert says with a little sniff, though it really doesn't concern him all that much. As long as Tony doesn't fancy Thor. "The way it is with him and you. So you're saying Thor thinks you're 'friends with benefits' more literally?"

The smaller boy's shoulders relax a little, and he smiles, almost fondly. It's kind of a scary expression on the normally haughty face. "I suppose English isn't really his first language. What kinds of things does he like?"

"Why does everyone keep saying that? And yes, he just thinks it's because I fly him to New York during summer holidays."

Tony raises an eyebrow at that look. Making him very supicious, so much so he sits back down in front of the egg and helps open up the egg a little for it.

"Like? Annoying me, being loud. That one should be at the top of the list. Uh, food, Usagi. Why do you even care what he likes?"

"None of your business," Herbert says primly, then leans on the back of one of the chairs. "What kind of food?"

Ugh, girlfriends.

"The edible kind."

Tony raises his eyebrow at the snake and the egg as he starts to smell something weird.

"Okay, I'm not entirely sure it's meant to smell like that."

"Yes, but what are his favorites?" Herbert asks impatiently. "Anyway, how would you know what a hatching snake is supposed to smell like?"

"I don't sit on his table, I sit on you're, keep up. He does sneak bread rolls to his room after dinner though."

Tony puts his hand out for the snake to slowly slither onto as it works it's way up, and we wipes any residual goo off it.

"Not this.. Sweet, that's for..."

Tony turns to give Herbert a dirty look but stops when he looks at him.

"Who cares what it smells like? It's not putrid and dead, so you're fine," Herbert says, flapping his hand dismissively. "But what kind of rolls? Just whatever they have, or does he pick one sort over the others? Though I guess he probably just goes for bread because it's easy to hide ... "

The small boy trails off, smiling faintly and distracted, completely unaware of the change in the way Tony's looking at him.

Tony shifts closer to Herbert, resting his chin in his non-snakeful hand as he rests it against the table.

"You know, he's really not all that great, right? If he's not bugging the hell out of us with being loud and annoyingly optimistic about weird things. He's with his girlfriend spoiling her with candy and things."

Herbert frowns at the taller boy. "I beg your pardon, there's nothing wrong with being enthusiastic about the things you like. It's a sign of passion and intensity, and you probably just think he's weird because you don't understand him."

But Tony does ring up a good point. For some strange reason, Herbert hasn't notice Thor much up until now, except as a friend of Bruce's from an earlier year. He knows the blond has a girlfriend, but not much more than that, and that could be a problem. "Who's his girlfriend, anyway?"

"Hey enthusiasm just tiring. I've always been one for... Reserved side of things. And he's weird, because he's weird. I understand him fine."

He moves closer again.

"Usagi Tsukino. Little asian girl, hufflepuff third year. She's cute, but I'm only a year older than her and she makes me feel tired just listening to her. All energy."

"Funny, I thought that would be your type," Herbert comments dryly, but then his expression changes with a sudden thought. "Though if she's so annoying, you'd probably be doing your friend a favor by, you know, stealing her or whatever it is you do with girls."

Yeah, subtle and sly, Herbert is not, not about this sort of thing. "Then you could break them up. Do you think that would be hard?" he asks hopefully.

"Yeah, well I know what my type is. And I tend to get invested in them."

Tony raises an eyebrow that is 50% suspicious, and 50% jealous.

"Why would you even want to break them up? Thor is straighter than most spirit levels. And far better choices out there, really."

"I've read there are potions that can fix that," Herbert says .. then realizes how terrible that sounds. "But anyway, it doesn't matter. What better choices? He's perfect. And I've hardly got boys lining up on my doorstep, have I? Since when do you care, anyway? You've already got your 'type' that you've invested in, and it isn't Thor."

Tony gives him a slight grin.

"You know you're right, my type isn't Thor. Which is a good thing, and I know that I don't have to worry about changing his sexual preference. And you know, it works in my favour no one's lying up"

Tony puts his hand on Herbert's knee, and gives it a squeeze.

Edited 2013-02-14 10:05 (UTC)

Herbert narrows his eyes, looking at Tony suspiciously and then shoving his hand off. "If you're trying to cozy up to me to get some sort of in with Bruce, I'm not sure why you're bothering. It's not going to impress him, he knows you too well, and knows you don't like me at all."

He raises his eyebrow as his hand is shoved away.

"No that's not true. I do like you. A lot, I mean, what's not to like about you?"

Tony moves closer again, taking the scorned hand and slipping it around Herbert's waist with a grin.

The smaller boy scowls fiercely, jerking away from Tony.

"You're not funny," he snaps, "And I'm not in the mood for one of your stupid games. I didn't realize the thought of me possibly talking to any of your friends bothers you so much you'd act like this, but consider me warned, I guess. Now piss off."

"Hey. You talk to at least two of my friends and I don't care. Okay, we're all in the same dorm. But I don't care about that. This isn't a game, why would I even pay games like that?"

He raises his eyebrows looking annoyed and confused.

"I don't know, but the only other explanation if you suddenly started fancying me, and that's about the stupidest thing I've ever heard," Herbert says, frowning and crossing his arms over his narrow chest.

Tony hooks a finger into Herbert's belt loop, sliding up close to him.

"What, I'm not allowed to just 'fancy' you? Hmm?"

He leans in close to him with a small grin.

As Tony slides closer, Herbert's eyebrows raise in sudden alarm. This is all very sudden and very out of character for a boy who seems to go out of his way to aggravate the smaller Ravenclaw most days, and at best sort of dismissively ignores him.

"No, you're not!" he exclaims, and much to his great embarrassment, there's a bit of squeak to his voice.

Tony gives a playful chuckle.

"Is it really that much of a surprise? I mean really?"

Tony leans in even closer to kiss him.

Yes, it is! Herbert tries to answer, though a part of him is reminding him that he always hears about certain people aggravating the people they fancy as a way of getting attention, and Tony's pretty aggravating ... but why would he just flip all of a sudden? Why the big change?

Unfortunately, he has no chance to answer because the younger boy has kissed him and Herbert is so shocked that he just stands there and lets him. Several steps behind, his brain finally kicks into gear again, but the only thing it has to offer is, We're in the LIBRARY!

Tony doesn't waste a moment, realising that Herbert isn't resisting him, he takes it as encouragement and pulls him closer. Nibbling a little awkwardly at his lip to encourage him to kiss back.

Herbert makes a helpless little noise in the back of his throat, because with that nibbling - well, it feels like a real kiss, and not Tony taking the piss, and that doesn't make any sense, and while he really still doesn't like Tony very much (especially since Thor is currently his ideal man), he's still a good-looking boy kissing Herbert which is pretty damn rare.

Finally, his brain catches up with the rest of what's going on, and he clamps his hands on Tony's shoulders and pulls back, gasping, dark eyes wide behind his glasses and cheeks bright, bright red.

"What are you doing?" he hisses. "We're in the library!"