let them boys be

(the loner and the sun)

Summary: Fletcher was fine on his own. People were scared of him and he was scared of hurting them. He's better off on his own. So who the heck was the scrawny kid chatting up a storm next to him and why the heck won't he stop smiling?
Themes/Tags: school. polar opposites (sunny vs gloomy). phobias.  
Warnings: some violence later on. terrible title. chandler's annoying. fletcher is too. oh, and he swears. i am bad at endings.

(the loner and the sun) -

Fletcher was never one for crowds.

Not by choice, but he's so used to it by now that it doesn't seem to matter. So what if other people call him a "loner"? At least this way he doesn't have to worry about hurting people he cares about, or having to share his snacks. Yeah, being on his own suits him.

So when a pale scrawny kid with the widest shit-eating grin he'd ever seen slid into the empty seat across from him in the noisy cafeteria one cloudy afternoon, it was no surprise that Fletcher was surprised and suspicious.

"Oh, was someone sitting here?" the kid said, blinking his large green eyes at him. 

Fletcher shook his head, still staring at the kid strangely, because who in their right mind would approach the big guy dressed in black hunched over by himself in the corner and smile like he's in some Disney movie? 

"Good," the kid said, sighing, "because I didn't really want to get up and move." He looked back up at Fletcher, that goddamned grin never slipping. "I'm Chandler. I'm new here."

Fletcher didn't really want to respond, but the kid's green eyes and that brighter-than-the-freaking-sun grin wasn't going away anytime soon. "Like on Friends?" he couldn't help but comment.

The kid rolled his eyes, stabbing his fork into his salad. "Yeah, yeah, the old comedy gold that has now claimed its throne in Rerunland."

Fletcher shrugged, though to be honest, he loved the show. He even had the boxed sets and special editions.

"Where's your lunch?" the kid said, undeterred by his silence. "Don't tell me a big guy like you doesn't eat lunch. Unless you finished it already?"

Fletcher frowned. Who the hell was this kid? Was he trying to pick a fight with him?

"Do you want some of my----"

"No." Fletcher stood up, realizing too late that he could have and should have left when the kid first sat down. The kid was probably trying to fulfill a dare or act like a nice person talking to a charity case like him (how many people have tried to get him to talk and act like a freaking part of society) or hell, maybe the kid had a screw loose in his head or something. Whatever he was after, Fletcher was not going to give it to him.

He was turning to stalk away and pretend he didn't see the ugly stares of everyone around him when the kid had the nerve to go and say, "See you later, Fletcher."

He couldn't help it. He turned around.

Chandler grinned at him, nothing but brightness. "I sit behind you in socials."

Fletcher turned back around, this time not pausing in glaring at people as he all but ran away from the kid that wouldn't stop smiling----and dammit, did that kid have a nice smile.

~*~

He didn't even like metal, let alone death metal. What the hell were these people thinking?

Fletcher shook his head at the random comments people were dropping as they stepped past him cautiously, as if he had extra energy to go pouncing after brainwashed kids that didn't seem to realize that he understood english and could hear what they were saying about him. People these days. Just because he liked to wear combat boots and had a prepetual scowl on his face (it's his face, goddammit, he couldn't change it if he tried) didn't mean that he was inclined to bash someone's head in just for making eye contact with him.