A/N: Originally posted from 11 July 2006 to 25 December 2006. I had taken them down earlier this year, but I'm putting them back up. Main difference being that nearly all the chapters have been renamed and/or have musical tag lines and some punctuation corrections. Other than that, not much was changed. (I mean, I was going to change things, but then this thing called laziness reared it's ugly head followed by school). Enjoy.

Chapter One: The Bookstore

Hello, I love you
Won't you tell me your name?

-"Hello, I Love You" by The Doors

Every year right before school starts, he goes shopping with his mom. It was early August this year when they went to the mall to get his school supplies, and not Staples or Office Depot like everyone else. This day it was the Sunday right before school started up and Adrien was going to be a senior this year.

They went into Border's Bookstore one last time before they left. To be perfectly honest, the last thing he needed was more books, but his mom wanted to buy some new romance novel or whatever.

"I'm going upstairs, okay mom?" Adrien told Ms. Mitchell more than asked.

"Okay, Hun," she said, already on her way to her beloved romantic fiction.

He went up the escalator to the second floor where his favorite types of books were kept—the beautiful photography books and the foreign language books were upstairs. Adrien carefully thumbed through a few photography books, careful not to get his fingerprints anywhere on the stills. He decided to get one where the majority of the photos where still life shot in black and white.

Grabbing that and a book about France, he made his way to the down escalator to find his mother. On the way down, someone in particular caught his eye. It felt like time had slowed the moment Adrien saw him; he was just that striking. His eyes didn't meet Adrien's until he felt the other man's gaze burning a hole through his white striped button up shirt.

He gave a slight smile showing some of his pearly whites and half a wave. Adrien thought he could tell he had hazel eyes before he blushed and turned away from the blonde haired man. He just got caught checking out some gorgeous older guy. How embarrassing.

Adrien brushed his black locks out of his grey-blue eyes to try and seem natural as he set foot on the first floor. His mother was where he left her only with quite a few books at her feet now and one in her hand. She was reading the back cover so he sighed, knowing she was going to take a little while longer, and headed for the calendar section. After all, he had to have something to adorn the inside of his locker.

They had mostly sixteen month calendars, and quite a few locker-sized ones to choose from. From kittens to Chippendales to Spongebob to Lord of The Rings; anything you wanted they were bound to have it. He quickly passed over the kittens, puppies, and flowers in favor of something of the male model variety. One calendar in particular caught his eye. It was from the Virile Modeling Agency and they were showcasing their best shots from their best models.

As Adrien reached out for the small version of it and his fingers brushed those of an obviously masculine hand that was reaching for the bigger version. And what face did he see as he turned to see who was standing behind him? None other than that angelic being he'd encountered earlier on the escalator.

"Sorry," the older man said with the slight overtones of a nervous laugh.

"It's okay," Adrien smiled at him. He must've seen how uneasy he made Adrien. If he didn't then he probably wouldn't have continued their little conversation.

"So, you like the Virile models too?" he asked trying his hardest to seem like he was looking at Adrien's eyes.

"Yeah. I can see you do too," Adrien gestured to his calendar.

He shifted his weight so he wasn't leaning so close to Adrien. "They're pretty good looking, but they ain't got nothing on you, kid," he smiled at him. And as cheesy as that pick up line was, Adrien smiled back. Adrien felt his cheeks grow warmer again and realized he was probably an ever so appealing shade of pink at the moment.

"Uh…thanks," he managed.

"Look, I know I'm coming on strong and all, so I'll just leave you to your," he paused as he looked down at the books in his hand. "Photography and French."

He tipped his nonexistent hat and almost turned to go. That's when the part of Adrien that had backbone, that was his normal façade, better known as Crazy Adrien, grabbed his arm and stopped him from leaving.

"But why go?" Crazy Adrien asked. "Especially since you don't know my name or have my phone number yet? It'd be kind of pointless to spend all that time flirting with someone and have nothing to show for it, don't you think?"

"I suppose so," he answered. "So what is your name?"

"Adrien. And you are…?"

"Sam," Sam finished for him. "Sam Anderson."

"Well, Sam, it's nice to meet you." They shook each other's hands.

"It's nice to meet you too. Do you think it'd be okay if we…if we did something sometime? Like a movie or something?" Sam asked, showing a slight hint of nervousness.

"Make it lunch and I'm your man," Adrien smiled.

"Lunch it is."

Adrien wrote down his phone number on the palm of Sam's hand. "All right, well that is my number, so call me when you get a chance. You will, won't you?" he looked at him with hopeful eyes.

"Of course, but what about that lunch you were talking about? Is Friday okay with you?"

He winced slightly. "Oh, sorry, I can't on Friday," Adrien turned to go back to where his mom probably still was as Crazy Adrien had seemed to have gotten bored and gone back to wherever it is he lives.

"But why not?"

"I've got school," he chuckled. "Call me or something, we can figure it out then," and with that Sam let him go. He looked to where his mom was, and she was long gone from there, so he went to the register, still beaming from his encounter with Sam.

"What are you smiling about?" she asked as he came to stand next to her at the end of the line.

"This hot guy just hit on me," he said in a sing-song manner.

"Oh? And where is this boy?"

"Somewhere still in the store most likely," Adrien answered, not really caring either way.

"Good, that way I can get him before he leaves, hold my place," Ms. Mitchell said, half serious.

"Mom," he said slightly alarmed. "No, he was gorgeous," Adrien sighed dreamily.

"Mhmm," she said skeptically. "Like the last guy that was just 'oh so gorgeous'?"

"Mom," he said as they moved forward. "I was desperate last time, and trust me it won't happen again."

"Hope not, that boy was uglier than a swamp and had half the manners of a dog," she scoffed at the thought of him. "But what about this new boy? How old is he?"

"I…uh, I don't actually know" Adrien offered sheepishly.

"Does he have a job?"

"I don't know."

"Is he at least a nice and decent person?"

"Well, he certainly was friendly," he laughed a little as his mom just rolled her eyes. "Look, after we go on a date or something I'll tell you about him okay?"

"Can you at least tell me his name?"

"Sam Anderson," Adrien answered getting lost in his thoughts again.

"Come on," she said, tugging his arm. "We're next."

The two got their books and left for their home that was in a nice neighborhood closer to the high end of town. Ms. Mitchell tried to start conversation with her son, but he was too absorbed in his thoughts about Sam to fully participate.

-xXx-

On the other side of town, where the apartments were, you'd find a man curled up in his bedding with a blank stare on his face. The man was obviously spaced out. He was thinking about his encounter earlier with a younger man that was just beautiful in looks all around. He had checked too.

The black haired grey-blue eyed boy named Adrien was capturing most of Sam thoughts. He could just write it off as anticipation of actually getting to know someone that beautiful, but in truth Sam didn't want to think about anything else.

In about a month or so his best buddy from college, Daniel, was coming to live with him. Neither of them liked living alone, and Daniel got a new job closer to where Sam lived so it was ideal that they moved in together. Still, he was apprehensive about his old friend moving in with him. They hadn't seen each other in a long time, even though they still kept in touch.

There was another matter that Sam was keeping out of his mind thanks to Adrien. Tomorrow was his first real day of work at his new job. He didn't want to think about it too much because it'd just make him more nervous. It was all he could do to try and continue to think about coming home tomorrow and calling Adrien to schedule their lunch date.

But alas, loneliness managed to rear its ugly head again telling him to either seem anxious by calling Adrien right then, or disturb one of his friends who undoubtedly had work in the morning and could do without him asking them for dinner, desert, and perhaps a few drinks. Knowing this didn't make it any easier not to pick up the phone. That's life, he supposed. Twenty-three and already boring himself to death with being lonesome and getting a roommate in a month wouldn't help with the here and now.

Reaching for the remote on the nightstand Sam turned on his small TV set across the room and went from channel to channel. News station upon news station to cartoons that weren't even funny. It was too early for the infomercials to start rolling so he settled on the news.

He watched some red-head blather on about absolutely nothing for about an hour. If it wasn't for the commercials he probably would've just thrown something at the set, if only to make her stuffy voice shut up for good. So he changed it to one of those doctor shows where you get to see all the blood and guts of the poor soul getting life endangering surgery. Shows like that kind of made him gag, but Sam still watched them because it was either them or the red-head.

It was nine o'clock that he grew tired of that and fell asleep with the glow of the television reflecting on his face as he slept. Dreams of the past filled Sam's brain and he woke up around three A.M. with tears threatening to stream down his cheeks at any moment. Sam fell asleep on one side of his double bed with his back towards the other and was scared to turn around. Not for what he would find, but for what he positively knew wasn't there, for what wasn't going to be there. More importantly, what was never really there at all.

He placed his hand behind him and felt for the other man's body that was long gone, and still wouldn't have been there had this been a couple of sheet sets and a mattress ago. He silently cursed himself as he curled up under the covers again and held back the tears a little bit longer knowing it was no use. In a few hours they would have already ran down his face and left the stains to prove it.

Just another little reminder that he was lonely for a reason.

In the morning, when he rose from bed for the second time, the clock read that it was three hours later than before. He rolled out of bed, literally, hitting the floor with a dull thud, and he was happy that he lived on the first floor so there were no neighbors downstairs to complain.

Sam was a history teacher and his new job was at the high school in town. He got ready pretty fast thanks to his nervousness and was out of the door and into his car in about ten minutes. He found a parking spot that was the farthest from the school building in the faculty parking lot and made it into his classroom just as the bell started to ring. Some of his students were looking at him slightly oddly when he strolled in.

"Good morning," he said and strolled to his desk, setting his bag behind it. He sat at the chair behind his desk lightly tapping his fingernails as the kids talked amongst themselves for about five minutes. A few of them tried to sneak in and Sam just raised an eyebrow to them, and went back to staring at the wall and tapping his nails on the desk's surface. The announcements came on and they all listened to some degree.

"Good morning students, and welcome back to Marshall senior high school," the principal's voice came across all the intercoms. The static in her voice showed the age of the school quite well. "Today is August ninth. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance," she said, and everyone stood up, but only a few select kids said the pledge. Most of them were the few freshmen he had in his AP class.

The rest of the announcements lasted for five more minutes, because there was no use in making them too long on the first day. That's when it was his time to get up, introduce himself, and give the clichéd speech about the policies and all of the things that everyone needed to know, but never listened to (mainly because they were just going to get it in the rest of their classes).

Did Sam get up? Of course not. He stayed behind his desk, knowing that sooner or later there would be some kid that would know he was a new teacher and point it out to everyone else.

"So, who are you?" A guy with red hair (that was obviously dyed) in one of the middle rows asked him.

"I'm the teacher," Sam answered. "Who else?" He was making eye contact the whole time.

"What's your name?" A freshman, who clearly didn't pay attention during orientation, asked him. He could tell the freshmen from his upper classmen in this class only because they were smaller, and either seemed more eager in a subtle way or had a vague underlying fear behind their eyes.

"Mr. Anderson," he said, hoping it sounded professional enough.

"Aren't you going to stand up there and speak or something?" An older student who was in the back row asked.

"If you really want me to," Sam said, grabbing a stack of student-parent handbooks and school policy handbooks. "All right then. These," he said giving every kid one of each. "Are your student-parent and school policy handbooks. Go over the student-parent handbooks with your parents when you get home, and we'll review the policies in class."

The girl who spoke up shrugged and said something under her breath, figuring that Sam wouldn't hear her. Then she whispered something in her friend's ear that was next to her about how stupid it was that he was actually going to go through with it.

"If you're going to whisper then you should try a lower volume, Miss," Sam said, still passing out the handbooks.

"Well I didn't think you'd actually start talking about the policies," she scoffed. "We've all heard them and it's Kathy, not Miss, Mr. Anderson."

"Well, Kathy, excuse me for trying to be polite, and you might want to work on your tone when you're being sarcastic."

The rest of the day was relatively calm and there weren't many moments like that one with Kathy. They were a little bit loud after he had finished going over the basics of the policies, but he didn't mind that since he was busy at his computer playing online games.

Fourth period he was kind of glad for the silence he got. It was his planning period and as proud of himself he was that he did a good job on his first real day he was just as ready to go home and relax. When the final announcements came on he powered down his computer and attempted to make it to the door, trying to beat the inevitable stampede of students that would follow the bell.

On the first floor you could find a black haired boy with grey-blue eyes talking with a secretary in the office. Adrien was getting instructions from his mom on which teachers to give certain packages and packets of papers to. His mom had gotten him out of his last class just to do the chore.

"And you can't just put these in their mailboxes because?" He asked, desperately trying to get out of doing her errands, knowing he wouldn't.

"Because," she said. "They need it as soon as possible and I told you to do it. Now go," she shooed her son in the direction of the door.

He knew it was useless to argue with his mother since he never won, and probably never would, but he still couldn't help trying. He walked up to the second floor and hoped that the art teacher he was looking for would be in her room.

-xXx-

Adrien cleverly ducked into an empty classroom when the bell rang as to avoid the sea of students that came flooding out of the other classrooms from knocking the papers for the art teacher out of his hands. He closed the door and watched them as they sped by for a few seconds before turning around to see whose classroom he had barged into.

He was met by a pair of green eyes when he turned around to see which teacher's room he had temporarily invaded. At first he was too shocked to do much of anything, except stand there wide eyed.

Sam thought that the way Adrien was just standing there was his way of saying that he was kind of horrified that he was a school teacher. Then his mind processes returned to him and he wondered what in the world Adrien was doing in his classroom.

"What are you doing here?" Sam asked.

"I was going to ask you the same thing," Adrien responded with his eyes turning a more vivid shade of blue.

"I obviously work here, now what are you doing here? Don't you have a class?" He kept most of his shock out of his voice.

"It just let out," he lamely pointed back to the door with his thumb. Sam started to laugh breathlessly as Adrien stared back at him with a gaze that was less surprised now. "Sam…" He said. "Are you okay?" He asked.

"High school," he stopped laughing little by little. "High school," he reiterated. "You're in high school," he said to Adrien this time.

"Yeah, I am," Adrien said sheepishly back.

"You didn't tell me you were in high school, Adrien," he smirked at him sitting on his desk. "Don't you think we should talk?"

"I have to give these papers to Mrs. Watson," Adrien responded.

"That's okay," Sam said, leaning back a bit. "Her room's just down the hall. I can wait," he smiled.

"All right, then be right back," Adrien said as he walked out into the now basically abandoned hallways. He hurriedly handed Mrs. Watson her papers and went back to Sam's room, hoping the man wouldn't be angry that he didn't tell him he was in high school when they met.

"Good, you're back," was Sam's greeting as Adrien closed the door behind him.

"Of course I am, besides if I didn't come you could've always looked up my schedule in the office," Adrien joked.

"I suppose so," Sam seemed so much more light-hearted about the whole thing than he was before.

"So what are we here to talk about?"

"Well, how old are you?"

"Eighteen, so I'm perfectly legal," Adrien answered dismissing any suspicions that Sam had about his age.

"So you're a senior then?"

"Yeah, I am, I'm getting my own car before I go off to college too," Adrien smiled at him.

"Thank God," Sam said.

"And why is that? Did I have you worried that you were some sort of child predator for a moment there?"

"Yeah you did," Sam laughed. "But, seriously," he said as his expression changed to a more sober tone.

"I don't much like that look on you face," Adrien said.

"I don't expect you to," Sam said. "This is my first real job, you know; my career. And…I don't want to loose it," Sam looked him straight in the eye when he said that.

"Meaning...?" Adrien asked, fully knowing what Sam meant. It was the law after all. No teacher could date anyone that was enrolled in their school, unless it was college.

"You know what I mean," Sam responded.

"Yeah, I know. So, I guess this mean that we can't go out," Adrien looked down.

"Ha!" Sam said walking over to him. "It means we can't let anyone important know about it," he said getting Adrien to look up at him again.

"Are you serious?"

"What can I say? There's just something about you, kid," Sam said. He wasn't really one for the law when it was against his favor.

"Don't call me kid," Adrien smirked. "So I guess this means I can have lunch on Friday with you now, unless you don't have B lunch for your class."

"I have B lunch," he confirmed.

"Great, I'll see you then?"

"I'll be here," Sam answered. "And sorry to keep you after school," he said.

"I don't mind at all," Adrien said. "In fact, I think you should keep me after more often in the future."

"Oh really?" Sam smiled as they exited his room.

"Definitely," Adrien answered in a way that made Sam shiver slightly.

Sam's mouth was going faster than his mind when he spoke again. "Do you want to go for dinner tonight?"

Adrien paused for a moment, and thought it over. "I'd love to, but…"

"But?"