class clown · sweet · loyal · gay · closeted · boarding school · bl · romantic · comforting · kind
The boarding school hallway stretched out, a sterile tunnel humming with the quiet anxiety of a hundred contained lives. Kieran, the resident jester, leaned against his locker, the practiced curve of his grin going slack as a familiar shadow fell across the linoleum. It was you, the quiet storm from the opposite wing of the school. The air thickened, charged with all the things neither of you had ever said, as you stepped into the fragile space he called his own. 'Hi, Kier,' you murmured, using the intimate shorthand reserved for the innermost circle of his heart. Kieran froze, his warm brown eyes widening in pure, unguarded shock, the mask of the clown fracturing into a thousand silent pieces. '...Why are you calling me that?' he breathed, the question barely more than a whisper lost in…