[Sam260]

Erick looked up at Jace, his blue eyes glassy with tears "I'm not scared... I'm anything but scared..." Erick whispered, and... yep, he started biting on his lip again, a single tear riding down his red cheek "I've... I've..." he shook his head and cleared his throat quietly "I know you're just a guy... I don't see you any diffe-... well... I do but..." Erick shrugged and sniffled, more tears slipping from his eye lashes and tracing down one after another on his face.

[Littleittyboy]

Jace gently touched the boys cheeks wiping his eyes gently "Hey don't cry...maybe I should go...maybe this wasn't a good idea" he said looking away sadly, he was terrified of having to leave school and he actually thought Erick was a sweet boy. He grabbed his things quickly "You know where I am if you think we should do this and it won't cause you to get so scared and upset, because I don't want you to feel that" he said softly and bit his lip before leaning forward and kissing Erick's forehead softly. He left the room quickly.

[Sam260]

Erick was frozen, for a half of second, before he chased after Jace "Jace! Please... stop!" Erick called after him, practically tripping down the stairs and falling to his knees at the landing, he let out a pained cry, the tears streaming steadily down his face.

Christ, the one time his brain didn't want to overthink things - and it was actually perfect timing, but now Erick's knees were killing him, he had just embarrassed himself in the one man he has ever truly felt any sort of love-type feelings for... and Jace was worried about him, kissed his forehead -- Nope, nevermind, there went the overthinking... Christ, Jace kissed him... On the forehead, but still! It was close enough!!!

[Littleittyboy]

Jace went to him quickly "Are you okay???" He asked concerned helping the boy up gently and sat him on the stairs. He took each of Erick's legs and bent and stretched them to make sure nothing was broken first. He opened his bag pulling out a first aid kit and grabbed the disinfectant wipes gently running them over each knee before opening some large gauze pads and gently putting them on each knee gently making sure they stuck and covered all the injury.

[Sam260]

Erick whimpered and pouted as Jace patched his knees up "I am such an idiot..." he whispered, pulling his knees up to his chest, he carefully wrapped his arms around his shins, the tears still tracking down his face in waves "I'm sorry, Jace... It's just..." he took a deep breath and let it out slowly "I've had a crush on you for a very long time... and, you don't scare me, you make me nervous because I-... I've never felt this way, not really, towards another guy... I guess I am scared, but not of you... but because... if you didn't like me too, you could break me, so easily..." he whispered the last words, laying his head down against his gauze covered knees lightly.

"I understand... if you don't like me that way... and I'll leave you alone... I'm sorry." Erick said, and then pushed himself up, turning to head back up the stairs to his dorm.

[Littleittyboy]

Jace reached out grabbing Erick's hand "Hey, you're not an idiot" he said softly before letting his hand go gently "I can't say I'm surprised about the crush thing" he chuckled softly "And I'm not saying it's never going to happen because you are really cute and definitely my type apart from being like 100 times smarter than me" he smiled gently "But I can't compete with a potential fantasy that you have of me in your head, you need to be able to talk to me and find out things you will actually be attracted to. I think you have an imaginary version of me in your head that's not the real deal and I don't want to disappoint you. So, how about, you tutor me and I'll make you breakfast food every day and then after a month of you getting to actually know me then we could potentially go on a date? Does that sound fair?" He asked softly

[Sam260]

Erick nodded and wiped at the tears on his face, sniffling and smiling at the same time "Yeah... yeah, I suppose it sounds fair." Erick said quietly "but, I'm uh... Maybe we can start the tutoring session tomorrow after classes? I'm... Not exactly in the right frame of mind now, to help..." Erick said sadly, wrapping his arms around his lithe chest and looking at his skinned up knees.

[Littleittyboy]

Jace smiled gently "Of course, here, I'll help you back to your room" he said smiling gently and helped the boy up letting him lean on him if needed as they moved back up to the room. Once inside Jace smiled at him "Well, good night Erick, I will see you tomorrow for tutoring" he smiled lightly and left the room heading down to his motorcycle quickly

[Sam260]

Erick didn't stop to read, or anything that night. He crawled into bed, curled up around his painfully skinned knees and fell asleep, tears still tracking down his face and soaking into his pillow. He hated that he had been so weak in front of Jace, especially since the older man was strong, and... Just everything he kind of looked for in a guy... It would be heartbreaking, if they found that they had nothing in common - He didn't want it to be just about sex, not with Jace.

---

Erick woke that morning, groggy and in a lot of pain - he popped a few Tylenol's and headed out to shower and get ready for the school day. It took him a while to do everything but eventually he was out of the dorms. Nothing he did seemed to stop his thoughts from wandering back to Jace though, he wanted to know more about him.

And starting tonight, he would have that chance.

[Littleittyboy]

Jace walked with his friends who were all gossiping about some new girl that was apparently the hottest thing on the planet so as usual jace zoned out a bit as they walked to class, thinking about Erick and maybe he could be Jack's saviour in regards to school, he really wanted to pass classes but he just found it so hard and he couldn't get what he needed to pass them. He saw Erick and went over to him, his friends stopped talking for a moment but he would deal with them later. He opened his bag and grabbed a container out "Breakfast as promised, it's a slice of my banana bread and there's some strawberries too, I hope you like it" he said smiling before going back to his friends ignoring the glares and comments from them as he continued to class

[Sam260]

Erick blinked in surprise as he held onto the container "He really did bring me breakfast." he mused quietly - a few of his fellow science majors rushed up and started talking to him, but Erick had tuned them out in favor of just staring at the container. He would eat it, later, perhaps... Right now he didn't think his stomach could handle it, there were so many knots.

Throughout the entire day, Erick seemed to be in a trance - He hardly paid attention in any of his classes, got kicked and pushed to the floor a few times (it was a common and daily occurrence) and by the time he got back to his dorm, both his scraped knees were bleeding again and he just didn't care. He laid on his bed and curled up, sobbing into his pillow - as much as he loved being at Princeton, he hated the other students... All except for Jace, who would be arriving soon, and Erick couldn't even summon up the courage to get up - the door was unlocked, that would have to be enough.

[Littleittyboy]

Jace had a normal day apart from his friends being more subtly homophobic than normal. He had a smoke after class before he headed to Erick's room. He knocked lightly on the door "Erick? Are you there?" He called out after a minute of knocking, he didn't want to try to open the door, always taught by his mother to be polite. He looked around the hallway taking in random features like the splotch of miscoloured paint near the door where a light switch used to be and a small cob web in the corner.

[Sam260]

Jace would be able to hear the sobbing coming from inside Erick's dorm room, but still the door remained shut. The sobbing only seemed to get louder though, when Jace called Erick's name.

Erick looked toward the door with red eyes, clutching his pillow tighter to his chest and burying his face in it, trying to muffle his sobs into it.

[Littleittyboy]

Jace could hear the boy crying but wasn't sure if he wanted to be left alone or wanted Jace to come in too. Have bit his lip and knocked again "Erick...?" He called out gently "I can leave if you want...or come in...I just don't want to be rude and barge in" he said awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck "I brought some study snacks for us? Full of sugar and fat? Surely that will help you feel better?"

[Sam260]

Erick sighed and finally got up, he shuffled to the door, pillow still clutched tightly to his chest and opened it up - his eyes were bloodshot red, tears running down his cheeks faster than he could cry more and snot was clinging to his nose "I'm... I'm here..." he said weakly, turning to go back inside.

He climbed onto his bed and curled up in a tight ball, he tried to stop the tears but they seemed to just keep coming, although the sobs had lessened, which was a good sign, considering how blue-tinted Erick's face looked with the lack of oxygen he had(hadn't?) been getting.

[Littleittyboy]

Jace put his bag down and grabbed out some tissues handing them to Erick before grabbing out a bag of donuts and passing them to him. He noticed Erick's knees were bleeding through the gauze and pulled out some more from his bag replacing the old ones gently. He sat on the chair and looked at Erick "We don't have to talk about it if you want but I don't mind if we do" he said softly and pulled out a packet of candies throwing a handful in his mouth in one go

[Sam260]

Erick shrugged "I just had a bad day..." he said quietly, his voice hoarse and raw from all of the tears shed "I got kicked in the back... Some guy pushed me into the lockers..." Erick sighed and buried his head in his pillow again "I hate this school sometimes." he said, words muffled by the thick density of his pillow.

[Littleittyboy]

Jace kneeled in front of him and moved the pillow gently before wiping the younger boys face with a baby wipe to make him feel better. He held a donut up to the boys mouth until he took it and ate some. "That sounds like a bad day, does that often happen?" He asked tilting his head a little, his bright green eyes curious.

[Sam260]

Erick nodded slowly, swallowing the donut before speaking again "Unfortunately, yeah... everyday that I've been here, for the past four years..." Erick said quietly, he did sit up however, scooting himself closer to Jace - he just wanted to be held, and hoped that Jace may take the hint.

[Littleittyboy]

Jace frowned a little "Have you talked to the teachers about it? They absolutely adore you, they would do something right?" He asked getting a can of soft drink out of his bag and giving it to Erick. "I'll take you to and from classes if you want, nobody will mess with me" he smiled gently at the boy.