rivers_bend

Title: And Follow Thee my Lord Throughout the World
Pairing: Adam/Tommy (high school AU)
Words: 1300
Rating: PG
The Obvious: I do not know any of the people whose public personas are used here, and neither believe nor mean to imply this actually happened.
A/N: This is a prequel to The World is Not Enough. part of the World Verse. (Day 17 mmom)
Summary: Usually pretty good at being invisible to teachers, Tommy's shocked when Mrs. Brio asks him to read the part of Romeo to Adam's Mercutio.



Adam Lambert has been in Tommy's English class for almost two months, but they've never spoken. It isn't a class with a lot of group work, and sitting in alphabetical order, they're two aisles and three rows apart, so there is always someone closer to ask for a pen or spare paper. Tommy's noticed him, in the way that it's hard not to notice a guy who's a head taller than anyone else in class, who always seems to have done the homework, and who never seems embarrassed when the teacher asks him to read aloud. Also, he's totally hot, but Tommy's not quite there with admitting that to himself yet, four days shy of his fifteenth birthday, a riot of barely focused hormones.

They're studying Romeo and Juliet, Mrs. Brio making a big deal about how they should be able to relate, teenage experience transcends time, blah blah blah. Tommy's seen the Leonardo Di Caprio movie, and he liked it well enough; he just isn't sure the version they're reading is quite as worth his time. Usually pretty good at being invisible to teachers, Tommy's shocked when Mrs. Brio asks him to read the part of Romeo to Adam's Mercutio. "I, um..." he tries, but she's having none of it.

"C'mon. Up here. Both of you."

Adam looks thrilled to be asked, and Tommy's heart sinks a little more. He's going to stumble over words and make a total fool of himself, and it will be so much worse if Adam's all brilliant and articulate the way he always is.

"What shall this speech," Mrs. Brio prompts. "I'll read Benvolio."

"What, shall this speech be spoke for our excuse?" Tommy reads carefully. "Or shall we on without apology?"

Adam's gazing holes in his text book, but Mrs. Brio gives Tommy a smile. She says her lines, and Tommy says his in reply, and then Adam reaches for Tommy's hand, forcing him into a twirl, and booms, "Nay, gentle Romeo, we must have you dance."

"Um," Tommy says, fumbling his book which he almost dropped in the spin. What seems an age later, he finds his place again. It's not hard to give feeling to, "Not I, believe me."

When it's his turn, Adam continues to leap around, animating his lines, and Tommy tries to rise to the occasion, but he seems glued to the floor. At least he's supposed to be all depressed and stuff that the chick he loves doesn't love him or whatever. When Adam gets to his if love be rough with you speech, Tommy remembers the innuendo obvious in this whole scene of the movie, and tries not to blush. He stumbles a little over his lines, but fortunately they're mostly short and over with quickly, so he does okay. Until he's supposed to speak again after Adam's Queen Mab speech. Instead he's staring dumbly at Adam who seems twice as large as life.

Fortunately, Mrs. Brio takes pity on him and says his lines for him so Adam's not just left totally hanging. And then they're almost done, and then Tommy's sitting down, and no one makes him talk again for the rest of class.

To say it's a shock when Adam plunks himself down next to Tommy at lunchtime is an understatement. "Hey," he says, big and friendly. "Thanks for reading with me in class today. That was fun."

"It was-- You were great," Tommy mumbles.

"You were good too. You really had that sulky, love done me wrong thing down."

Tommy laughs out loud at that, thankful he hadn't just taken a sip of his coke or anything. "That was much more a sulky, hates reading out loud thing."

"Everyone hates it," Adam says, much to Tommy's surprise. "But you just gotta have fun with it."

Tommy's not sure what to say to that, so he figures that's the end of the conversation, and now Adam's going to go find his friends to sit with, but instead, Adam changes the subject, asking Tommy questions about his other classes, about what school he came from, about what he likes to do when he's not in class. It's all a little overwhelming, but Tommy does his best to answer, because it's flattering, too. He keeps meaning to ask Adam questions in return, but before he knows it, the bell rings, and Adam's stuffing his trash in his lunch bag and standing up.

"See you later," he calls as he heads for the cafeteria door.

"Yeah," Tommy says to his retreating back. "Later." He'll see him the next day in English, at least.

Instead, he sees him leaning against Tommy's locker after last bell.

"Hi," Tommy says. He's never seen Adam near the D-hall lockers before. "Are you waiting for someone?"

Adam looks at him oddly. "This is your locker, right?"

"Right. I just-- Right." Tommy waits for him to move so he can put his books away and get his jacket.

Adam just keeps looking at him. Finally he says, "You look like Romeo, too."

"Um." What the hell is he supposed to say to that? "Okay?"

"Like Leo, not like Leonard Whiting." Finally he pushes off the lockers and makes room for Tommy to get to the door. Tommy doesn't ask who Leonard Whiting is.

"So you said you like music," Adam continues. "My dad has an awesome vinyl collection. I wondered if maybe you want to come over, if you're not doing anything, and we can like listen to something."

This seems like much safer ground. "I have to be home at 5:45 for dinner, but I'm not doing anything before that."

"Cool," Adam says. "My mom's picking me up. She can probably give you a ride home after."

Tommy tries to imagine what his mom would say if he offered her driving services without asking, but his mom is a big believer in the bus system. Maybe Adam's mom likes driving.

She's a lot like her son: instantly friendly, super chatty, more than happy to take him home in time for dinner. And when it turns out the Lamberts only live about six blocks from him, she offers to take him to school in the mornings so he doesn't have to take the bus. He's starting to wonder if there's some kind of rumor going around that he can turn things to gold, or, like, has a winning lottery ticket or something, because he's just not used to this kind of attention. But it seems that Adam's just a nice kid from a nice family. And his dad really does have an awesome record collection.

That night, lying in bed, Tommy opens his laptop to see if Romeo + Juliet is available on Netflix instant. It is. Even though it's late, he starts watching it; if his mom comes in he can always say it's homework. She knows they're studying the play.

It's just as good as the first time he saw it, but he can't help noticing that Romeo seems to have a lot more chemistry with Mercutio than he does with Juliet. And this time when he jerks off after, it's not Claire Danes in the pool he's thinking about.