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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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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!"

Tony puts up no resistance as his shoulders are held onto as Herbert pulls away, then he smirks.

"You know, this pointing out the obvious thing. Cute."

He looks around to see if anyone's looking, if they were, they're all doing there best to look like the never were.

"Well, there's always behind the one-eyed witch?"

Tony's smirk moves into a charming smile. Because really, when and how did Herbert get so endearing and well, weirdly attractive in a hostile and awkward way?

"What's behind the one-eyed witch?" Herbert asks, flustered, before he realizes what Tony's saying. "I mean, no! I'm not going to kiss you! You're acting really weird, you know that? And you've got a hatching snake and Rogers is going to come back, and- this is ridiculous!"

He's blushing like crazy, though, and stumbling over his words - he just has no idea of what to do about this.

"Why? Didn't you like the last one?"

Tony looks back at the table and the snake still in his other hand.

"I can put it in a pouch, and leave Steve a note. It's not like he's going to be surprised."

Tony tugs on the belt loop he still has his finger curled around, as if the action was going to make Herbert suddenly agree with him.

"No, of course I didn't! It was terrible!" Herbert claims, though really he can't judge much one way or the other. The blush just won't go away which says differently, though. "This whole thing is terrible! What's wrong with you?"

"Well if it was so terrible how come it took you so long to push away?"

Tony moves in closer, a grin on his face.

"What makes you think there's something wrong with me?"

"Because you've never acted like this before! You've always been a prick to me, and now all of a sudden you're trying to kiss me? That's really odd! Have you really fancied me all this time?" Herbert demands, trying not to get distracted by Tony's proximity and that smile.

"Well maybe I only just realised how attractive and spunky you actually are. Or maybe I've always know, and it's why I used to pull your pigtails?"

His smile widens as he leans in a little more, to encourage Herbert to follow his way of thinking.

Herbert leans back, still looking dubious and alarmed.

"That's a load of maybes and no actual explanation for why you've got an interest all of a sudden. Within the last five minutes all of a sudden. Did seeing a snake just make you realize what a wonderful catch I am?" he asks, with rather bitter sarcasm for someone who's only 16.

"Uh..."

Tony looks down at the little snake, that's still in his hand, curled around his fingers, then back up at Herbert.

"Yes?"

Tony seems confused at the question. The sarcasm he gets however but just doesn't register it.

"Are you listening to yourself? That sounds like rubbish," Herbert hisses, crossing his arms over his chest again. "I'd say it was a love potion, if I didn't know you haven't been eating or drinking anything."

"Ever thing that the snake might have just made me realise? Like a catalyst? I mean really, all I've been doing since being put in your dorm is tug your pig tails. So duh, I've always had a thing for you."

As Tony says the last part, he unhooks his finger from Herbert's belt loop to reach up and play with his hair under his ear. Because when Tony thought about it, it was the only explanation he could come up with as to why he was really, really into Herbert right now.

"But now you mention it. I could really eat you up right now."

His eyebrow raises suggestively.

Herbert makes a choked sound at the innuendo, his mind racing. Yes, this was all very strange, but ... maybe it made sense? Had Tony really been bothering him all this time because he fancied him? He shivers a little at the touch to his hair, his cheeks burning.

"Well. Well ... I don't fancy you back," he says, stumbling over his words, which have a pleading edge to them. He really has no idea what to do here. "I like your friend, so you can just give up, and go back to Bruce or something."

His suggestive eyebrow becomes more curious.

"Really? You don't? Well, maybe we just need to spend more time together to fix that."

He huffs a little.

"Why would I go back to Bruce?"

"Because you have a thing for him, everyone in our dorm knows it except for Bruce," Herbert says scornfully, on a little firmer ground with this one. "I mean, I get why, he's quite good, I used to have a thing for him myself. So go talk to him, and stop bothering me. This'll probably wear off after awhile or something."

"That's a thing that's passed. Besides, it's not like he was ever into me."

He frowns for a second but soon grins again.

"Come on Herbert, this is something more than a little 'thing'. I mean really, why else would I be so persistent with you? This isn't fading."

"Yeah, it hasn't faded in the whole five minutes you've felt it," Herbert says, irritated, then seeing an out, adds, "And he is into you, I can tell. So there you go, go get him or something."

It's not that Herbert finds the whole good-looking-intelligent-boy-being-really-into-him thing so awful, it's just ... he can't see how it can possibly be real, and he's not interested in looking like an idiot when Tony comes back to his senses, or worse, when he tells the older boy he's been joking all along, and what an idiot he is for believing it.

Tony stops, his grin fading for a moment.

"He do-"

He shakes his head.

"Okay, that's not what I'm talking about here. Why are you even fighting this?"

"Because there's something wrong with you! It's not real and things like this don't ever happen to me, no one fancies me and no one is ever going to fancy me, least of all you, so this is either a spell or a joke, and I don't appreciate either!" Herbert spits out, hands clenching into fists at his side.

"I don't expect you to get it, everything falls into your bloody lap, so something like this probably wouldn't even surprise you, but I've got a very good reason to be suspicious of all this, all right?"

"Hey, this isn't a joke. I can tell you that for certain. I might make jokes and play with peoples things. But I never joke about things like this."

Tony looks shakes his head.

"I'm the heir to millions of US dollars. What makes you think I wouldn't be suspicious of anyone who just started hitting on me? Or is this because I'm 'Tony Stark' instead of just some Ravenclaw in your dorm? I can't help that, just as much as I can't help how I'm feeling about you."

"I said you wouldn't be surprised, you're making my point for me," Herbert points out. "Because there's a lot of reasons someone might want to get with you. I can't think of one legitimate reason why you might have a thing for me, and don't say it's because I'm brilliant, I know I am, but so is Sherlock, and I don't see you trying to snog him."

Herbert looks at the ground, still scowling, but he's clearly starting to get genuinely upset about this whole thing, instead of just irritated or surprised. He doesn't like saying all of these things out loud, but what else can he do? Even the very, very few people who like him as a friend would never consider him a romantic partner - it's just too strange that someone who never has would all of a sudden decide he's charming and worth chasing after.

"How about you've never once pandered to me, you've always been quick to give your opinion on anything and everything I do. And you actually look really adorable when you sleep."

He can see Herbert getting upset and really wants him to believe that he does care about him.

"Yes, and all those things could be said of Holmes, too- " Herbert starts, before he realizes all that Tony's said. It pulls him up short, and he looks up at the younger boy, startled and disarmed all over again.

"I'm not adorable," he protests faintly after a moment, color returning to his cheeks embarrassingly. "I'm not a damn kitten. Since when are you watching me when I sleep?"