"If I ate a girl out and she kissed me afterwards and the next day I was looking like that about her and she was looking like that about me, I'd want to have a talk with her about if we were dating."

"...huh. Okay. I guess I'll ask him."

She pats his shoulder. "One of these days we'll have you fully socialized, champ."

"That's what being a teenager is for!" he declares cheerfully.

"That's the spirit."

After that, he has gym! It's largely uneventful, apart from getting to see Matt's mesh jockstrap in motion, which is admittedly pretty impressive. Then: shower. Then: lunch!

At which point he runs into Ed and immediately asks, "Hey, are we dating?"

"- um. I... like you a lot and you seem to like me a lot and we do seem to be having sex. And I did like kissing you. And... I may have already been agonizing about whether to ask if we were dating or if it would somehow offend you? So. Um. Would you like to be dating, I guess is the question?

"I think so! I confess I don't know much about what that involves but if it's, like, talking to you and kissing you and fucking you that sounds like fun!" Pause. "—oh but not that fun if that means I have to stop fucking other people."

"I think I don't care about that. It's about - getting to say you're mine? In a way you aren't with everybody you fuck, I guess?"

"...that's hot. Let's do that."

"Mine. My James." Edmund kisses him.

They are both naked and this is not inherently nonsexual to James! This has predictable effects.

It has effects on Edmund too!

Someone whistles. Edmund remembers they're in the cafeteria, and blushes. "Um. Maybe... we should - oh I was going to introduce you to Tintin - maybe we should find him and eat?"

"What, both of us? Me in front, you behind? Oh wait you meant eat food."

Edmund flushes redder. "Yes. Lunch."

They find Tintin in pretty short order. He's wearing a binder and sneakers and nothing else, and chatting up a girl who keeps sneaking glances at his crotch.

He twists in his seat as they approach and waves at them. "Edmund, right? And a new friend!"

"Hi! I'm James, and—" ...if he says he finds Tintin really hot he's gonna sound like a trans chaser isn't he. Damnit. "—I asked him to introduce me. Tintin, right?"

"Yes! It's nice to meet you - Elaine, do you want to move over a bit -"

The girl looks mildly panicked at the thought of more people to interact with. "I - I actually need to go? And study." She gathers her things and flees.

"...well, that works too," Tintin says.

"An introvert suddenly surrounded by three extroverts," he says in a David Attenborough voice, "will immediately start searching for exit strategies and take the safest one they can find."

"Be nice. I'm an introvert. Just... not that introverted."

But he sits, and gets out his lunch. (There's a cupcake in a little box to go with it. It has pink frosting.)

"You are not," he says, laughing. Then he notices the cupcake and says, "I want to make a comment out loud about this to Tintin to embarrass you."

"It's got cherry jam inside," he sighs. "The damage is done."

"Hmm?"

"I took his V card yesterday," says James, "and his older brother found this out by just looking at his face when he got home and baked him virginity cupcakes. With, apparently, cherry jam."

"Oh no," Tintin laughs. "I am sorry, Edmund, that sounds agonizing. Congratulations, though?"