Chapter Text
The whole thing starts with drinking, as most bad decisions in Damen’s life do. More specifically, drinking with Nikandros and Makedon. And even more specifically, drinking with Nikandros and Makedon while complaining about his uptight lab partner, Laurent, who looks at Damen like he’s something nasty found on the bottom of a shoe.
“He keeps doing all the work,” Damen complains, before taking another long drink of his beer. It’s number five, or possibly six, and Damen is just starting to go from tipsy to drunk, the room beginning to spin a bit but in a pleasant way.
“Why is that a bad thing?” Nik asks.
“Because…” Damen tries to remember why it’s a bad thing. “It just is.”
“I mean,” Nik says, “that sounds like a pretty sweet deal. Just sit back and let the little know-it-all do all the work and collect the good grade.”
“But he gives me this look when he does it,” Damen tries to explain. “Like I’m the stupidest person in the world.” Which is the nicest way to describe the way the Laurent treats him. The reality is that Laurent acts like Damen isn’t even there most of the time, and when he does deign to speak with him, it’s things like ‘Can you handle turning on the flame? Do you need a demonstration? See, you turn the knob like this and then the fire starts...’ or ‘Hand me the flask. No, you idiot, the flask. This is a beaker. Honestly how did you even make it into this class.’ Then Laurent insists on doing all the homework himself because Damen would do it wrong, all while complaining about Damen not doing his fair share. It’s infuriating.
What makes it even more infuriating is that Laurent is gorgeous. He’s got long, light blonde hair that he pulls back into a messy ponytail during labs. A couple strands always escape and Laurent spends the labs trying to blow the strands out of his bright blue eyes. Eyes that would be gorgeous if they weren’t always narrowed in annoyance at Damen.
He must have actually said some that out loud, because Nik sighs loudly and mutters, “Of course he’s blonde.”
Makedon looks like a thought is dawning on him. It takes awhile for him to form it into words. “Wait, is this the guy I saw you with last week?”
Damen nods. “He was lecturing me about not getting the lab homework done.”
Makedon whistles. “He's a hot piece of ass though. You should hit that.”
“Maybe it'd make him relax,” Nik says.
“Ha,” Damen says. “He’d probably spend the entire time telling whoever it was that they were doing it wrong, and that’s if he even let them into his bed. I’m pretty sure he’s some sort of frigid virgin.”
“So, you’re not up to the challenge then?” Makedon asks.
“What?” Damen asks.
Both his friends have downright devious smiles on their face.
“I thought you liked a challenge, Damianos,” Nik says.
“I’m not fucking Laurent,” Damen says. He slams his beer down on the table to emphasize this.
Nik shrugs. “I mean, if you don’t think you can…”
“Of course I can,” Damen says.
“Prove it,” Makedon says. “Fuck him before the end of semester.”
“Why should I?”
“What, you need a reward for proving you can fuck your lab partner? Me not telling everyone that you failed should be reward enough.”
Damen just stares at him, maintaining eye contact as he takes another drink.
“Fine,” Nik says. “You can borrow my Mustang.”
This is a better offer than Damen was expecting. Nikandros drives a vintage mustang that he’d spent three summer breaks restoring. It’s a beautiful car, and the chance to drive it is tempting. “For how long?” Damen asks.
“A week.”
Damen shakes his head. “All next semester.”
Nik looks torn, but Makedon tells him to come on and Nik eventually nods. “Fine, next semester. But you better bring back some proof that you fucked him.”
“I’m not filming it,” Damen tells him.
“Like we want to watch you having sex,” Makedon says. “No, bring us back a pair of his panties.”
Nik snorts into his beer.
“Fine,” Damen says. “Just wait, that car’s gonna be mine.”
Which is how Damen winds up trying to get into Laurent de Vere’s pants. A task which turns out to be harder than he anticipated.